For all of us who are used to brain-dead entertainment that has been proliferating in Bollywood of late ; viz, All The Best , De Dana Dhan etc, this movie is rather heavy fare.
The saga is of Beera ( Ravan aka Abishek ) , a local don of Lalmati. After the rape of Beera’s sister by cops ( cutting nose of Shrupnakha ..?), the narrative follows his flight into the jungle after kidnapping the super cops wife( Aish ) as revenge, and his chase by the cops, and life in the jungle ( 14 years telescoped to days ). Along the way it seems the superior Aish is enamored by Beera. The cop ( Ram ) takes along Govinda ( Hanuman ) to assist him in finding his wife kidnapped by Ravan.
The locales are outstanding; dark, monochromatic and foreboding, as if to capture the mood of the saga being narrated. The movie is shot mostly in South India, Ooty among others ( my favorite spot on earth), with mesmerizing, fog laden, rainy, precipitous waterfalls and blue tinged cliffs. The setting is dark and clammy, much like the characters populating the narrative. The jungle scenes are realistic, without the romance that surrounds many a tale told by people who have had nothing to do with real jungles.
The dialect is Bhojpuri- much in contrast with the locales, and the motley crew that comprises the ragtag band of Beera’s supporters is of mixed vintage and breed; resembling pigmies, cavemen , tribals, bhils, naxals and of course; Biharis and Bengalis from Satya, Yuva etc. I wish they had thrown in Santa and Banta too, to complete the diversity of flavors. ( No offence meant to anyone..please ).
The main material used here is canvas , jute and straw- to bring out the raw savagery of jungle life. The dialogues are mostly calculated to create drama, rather than rational conversation – more like theatre than movie.
The music is ordinary – and the narrative halts to accommodate the songs, out of respect I think , to their Oscar winning director. The movie is boring in parts , and it’s difficult to empathize with the goings on. It’s the cinematography and landscape that rescues the movie from a sleepy hall.
The characters are etched too precisely, and are developed mechanically , rather than naturally. It is impressed upon the audience through eye witness accounts that Beera has 10 facets to his personality, like Ravan, rather than letting the story evolve his persona by natural progression. Ragini is an egoistic, forever screaming, superiority complexed tomcat; forever flashing her claws at Beera, refusing to be mentally subjugated in her physical captivity.. Her hubby, the cop Dev, is egotistic, vengeful and single minded of purpose, who takes everything too personally and achieves his aim in the end by guile. He seems to have pressed the entire corps of search dogs and commandos at the disposal of police forces in service to track the elusive Beera. Govinda, as the Hanumanistic version of an agile, confused and ubiquitous contortionist, moves from branch to branch appropriately suspended on wires. Everyone is dropping from cliffs , bridges and waterfalls here, safely suspended from wires, which is so obvious – apparently they didn’t finish the stunts and editing too well. The director is more interested in creating a visual spectacle , rather than telling an engrossing tale, which I think was his job. Due respect to Mr Mani Ratnam- I’m told he has produced some nice work ( that I haven’t seen )- but here I find nothing impressive. The jungle army is atrociously war painted, and I kept wishing someone would give them a bath. No two women ever disagree that Abhishek is ugly, and no two men ever disagree that Aishwarya is pretty- so that’s that. Abhishek , despite his god gifted mediocre looks, strives hard to look unbearable , and rubs every paste he can lay his hands on , on his face, with some strange fetish that it makes him look dangerous. His character requires him to act crazed, demonic and menacing; and he doesn’t seem to manage any of that- he looks like a prankster on sets having a good time. I think this act was beyond him.
To the mind comes the pained and tortured act of Aamir in Gajini; and one shudders to think how Abhishek could have messed up that movie if he had acted in it. If Aishwariya was supposed to be falling in love with Abhishek in this movie – I for one never really noticed it. I found the ending very abrupt, obvious and unremarkable. I wouldn’t seriously recommend this movie as an entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon to my pals, ( in spite of the tremendous reputation of the creative team associated with this movie ). I would advise them to let it come on Tata Sky Showcase or on TV.
I sorely missed the ads in this movie as they would have provided some welcome relief !