If there is one director who knows how to make a hard hitting commercial yet watchable movie out of social issues no one does it better than Rajkumar Santoshi. A person of great vision and calibre, Rajkumar Santoshi is undoubtedly one of the best directors ever in Indian cinema history.
I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A POINT THAT ON MOUTHSHUT.COM THERE IS NO CATEGORY FOR RAJKUMAR SANTOSHI. IT IS SHAMEFUL IF THERE IS NO CATEGORY FOR SUCH A GREAT SHOWMAN. IF YOU ARE READING THIS REVIEW COULD YOU GIVE ME INFORMATION ON HOW TO TRY AND CREATE A CATEGORY FOR RAJKUMAR SANTOSHI. Back to the movie....
Lajja is power packed movie focusing on the value of women in the Indian society. The subject has been handled with utomost care and sensitivity. Whereas it would have been easy to ruin the impact and focus of the movie, Rajkumar Sanntoshi remains clear about his message and execution.
Lajja is the journey of Vaidahi (Manisha Koirala), as she travels the multicultural roads of India, witnessing the atrocities women have to face. Originally, living in New York with her husband Raghu (Jackie Shroff), Vaidahi fled USA in order to escape her unhappy marriage. She then realised she was pregnant and after an accident Raghu became impotent. Therefore, it becomes important for Raghu to try and take the unborn child from Vaidahi...even if she refuses to give it to Raghu. Raghu decides that he wants to have the baby even if it means killing Vaidahi afterwards. Vaidahi escapes to India, where her parents refuse to keep her in their house because they feel that according to the Indian values and traditions, the real house of a daughter after marriage is that of her husband’s.
Vaidahi’s journey leads to her meeting Anil Kapoor, a good hearted theif, Maithali (Mahima Chaudary) whose marriage is on the verge of ending before its even started. Janaki (Madhuri Dixit), a theatre actress whose downfall leads to modern views in a hypocrite male dominated society, Ram Dulari (Rekha) a village counsellor and Bulba (Ajay Devgan) one of the few good hearted males, who is fighting against atrocity enforced by the village head Danny Denzongpa.
The length of the movie may appear to be slightly stretched. The way Lajja has been presented is excellent. A massive star cast is hard to handle in terms of screen time. However, Lajja has avoided that problem.
The protagonist (Vaidahi) from the very beginning of the movie has earned our affection and trust. She in a sense becomes the eyes in which we see the places she visits. The Mahima Chaudary wedding episode although well handled seems slightly stretched.
The hypocricy shown in the movie is well depicted. The malice shown in characters like Tinnu Anand, Jackie Shroff (in the beginning), the father of Jackie Shroff, and Danny is cruel but realistic. Numerous scenes have been excellently executed. A scene deserving special mention is when Madhuri Dixit, who is performing the role of Sita in a theatre play, refuses to give her test by sitting on the fire. She gives a hard hitting explanation as to why only she has to prove herself pure and not just Ram.
What follows is an uproar in the audience and the beating of Madhuri by the whole audience. A brilliantly executed scene, which questions the very ethics and some of the hypocricy presented in religion and culture. It is a shame when scenes like these go unnoticed! This is one reason why Bollywood is not progressing at the rate it should.
Music is not really of importance although it is average. Cinematography is very good capturing the dramatic scenes brilliantly. Any Rajkumar Santoshi movie has dialogues of international standard.
As a director, Rajkumar Santoshi has produced a product worth showing internationally. The control which Rajkumar Santoshi has over his execution is remarkable. Although he should have consulted with the editor in making the movie shorter. However, the characterisation of each character, except maybe Jackie Shroff’s, is brilliantly penned.
Now to the performances.
1) Rekha - she gives the best performance of the movie. The way in which her tongue adopts the Madhya Pradesh language is a stamp of her versatility. Her expressions, dialogue delivery is brilliant.
2) Ajay Devgan - playing a rebel, Ajay Devgan easily gives the best peformanc by a male in this movie. His impact is excellent and truly enacts his role with elan. A fantastic performance. No point wasting adjectives for this person as they would prove meaningless. Two national awards already says it all. WHY IS THERE NO SEPARATE CATEGORY FOR AJAY DEVGAN ALSO? PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME INFORMATION ON HOW TO REQUEST OR CREATE A CATEOGRY!!!
3) Madhuri - Given a slightly short role, she manages to steal every scene she has. She probably has the best scene in the movie, the ramayan scene which she acts marvellously.
Danny Denzongpa is also exceptional in his evil role. Others also performed very good. Manisha Koirala was very good as well as Mahima Chaudary and Anil Kapoor.
A movie like Lajja deserves special mention in Hindi cinema because crafted by a master artist, Rajkumar Santoshi, Lajja is one of the few movies which is good in commercialism and realism.