I regard this as Amir’s best effort than Lagaan. I have my reasons for this but the foremost being this movie proves that so called commercial movie need not be mediocre or a family drama!! :)
Now a days Amir Khan is in the news for all the wrong(?) reasons. Just a few days back he was making waves with Lagaan. Lagaan although a very good movie, I rate ’Sarfarosh’ higher. Sarfarosh gives the best argument against the movie maker that blame mediocrity of their movies to the ’commercial needs’. Sarfarosh though 100% commercial movie made perfect 100% sense & score on almost all the counts of a so called commercial aspects. (Humor, Songs, Hero/heroine/Love etc). Everything except ’Ye haal dilka idhar ho raha hain’ comes as a part of the story.
The opening songs..’Jindagi maut na ban jaye’ gives along with titles the complete cycle of how arms etc travel from across the border to the hands of the Veerans of this country. It follows then with the massacre & subsequent ’police case’ in the hands of ’Special crime branch Mumbai’. The complete movie comes as a only one investigation but touches & blends almost all parts of the terrorism cycle. Paki hand along with some local gaddars, the subtle ’mohajir’ angle & the double act of the so called ’cultural ties & politics & sport should not be mixed people’ with Gulfam Hsaan (Nasiruddin Shah)..highliting ’all sweet talk but other purpose’ of a Paki.
The movie handles everything very carefully. Special kudos to the writers who handled Salim & Aamir Khan’s dialogs with utmost care. Without making it cheap & typical rhetoric of other Hindi movies like Border etc. Salim’s characters brings out the issue of a ’garib’ in the country & that too a Garib who is not Hindu. This handling is worth an Oscar if there is any category for it. ’Phir kisi Salim se mat kehena ki ye ghar usaka nahi hain’..followed by Amir Khan’s simple yet effective ’Nahi Kahunga..Kabhi nahi kahunga’..TOO GOOD. All the movie makers including Quyamat (Sunil Shetty’s character) should take a lesson out of this scene.
Similar excellence & care is shown in the final exchange of Amir & Nasir ’Nuksan dono taraf ke logo ka huwa..Batawaraa ham logo ke liye bhi utanahi bura tha’..’Tum jo goliya bhejate ho usse dono taraf ke logo ki jaan jaati hain’. ’Pak se jada muslim bharat main hain’..a simple but effective fact also been used very well. A lot of restrain has been followed to make the dialogs effective & not ’taddan falatu’ by making them too patriotic or too ’hindu/muslim bhai bhai sort’. But the effect is much better than what the cheap dialogs achieve. Three cheers to the dialog writers to handle Pak angle & also the Hazi--Salim encounter with restrain & utmost efficiency.
The direction & editing of this movie is ’lajawab’. John Mathew Mathan has done a GREAT job with this movie. Every scene is handled with & lot of home work & re-work/rethink on everything. Flashback love story of Amir/Sonali is one example. The audience doesn’t know until later that ACP Rathod is Amir Khan. So in the flashback also Amir introduces himself to Sonali as being ’Ajay Singh’ & not as Ajay Singh Rathod..!!! This care requires a lot of home work.
Amir & Nasir take their scenes to ultra-height. ’Woh gazale muzhe kaha milegi?’, ’Muzhise..’ simple dialogs but both have expressed & come across as the actual characters & not Amir Khan & Nasiruddin. Even Amitabh & Dilip Kumar can’t avoid their personal touch to the characters they play. Amir & Nasir rate higher than these two GREATS in this regard. They are the characters they play & up to 100%.
Several scenes make this movie a Yaadgaar one. Aamir following the person spying him then pushing him at the end & then man-handling in typical police-style than a movie Hero (Akshay/Sunil S etc company). Amir walking to Thakur & saying ’Kya Thakur milata nahi hain tun..’, The complete song ’yeh jawaani had karade’, The final scene where Amir throws a revolver to both Aslam Beg & then Nasir is almost ’Vijayanand’s Goldie touch (Johny Mera Naam). The interrogation of the drivers of Sultan & Rajan etc (where the drivers have performed VERY WELL) ’Goli kaan ke 2 inch idhar se jaani chahiye’. Amir to Sultan’s mother ’Maaf kijiye..Kabhi kabhi sakti baratani padati hain’. Amir talking to Sonali at the bus stop & Sardar keeps staring at them all the time is GRRRRREAAAAT!! Three cheers for the sardar..100% real world characters..without a dialog he makes people LOTPOT.
Hazi asking Amir in hospital room ’To main un logo ko kya jawab dun’. Amir in turn jump/dives to Hazi catching him completely off-guard..then following him & making him run away scared!!! :) Then laughing at the end how he surprised & almost haunted Hazi!!!! Just too good to handle!
The typical police handling of Thakur’s servant at his home Samazh gaya na..tere malik se kehana abhi ACP Thakur ko salami de ya hame dikha to uda denge..’. ’Kon hain tu..hannn?? Bol..kon hain tu?’ (After Amir catches the spying guy) is just perfect. The police in this movie comes across as police & nothing else.
AAMIR ke kya kehene..! He shows that he is miles ahead of Shahrukhs, Sanjay Dutts & Salmans of this world. When these guys are refusing to ’grow up’ at any cost, Amir shows a tremendous matured & controlled & actual ’real world’ performance. Without a trace of melodrama, simple/effective use of pauses & methodical way of going about the things’, Amir proves again & again that he is different from this usual ’paati dalo’ crowd. His scenes with Nasir where he appears as shy but straightforward guy. With simplicity he interacts with Sonali & the people who are not aware of his ACP post.
His interaction with Sonali Bendre, His laugh after he attacks Haazi in hospital..realizing it was stupid yet effective answer to haazi & ’khud pehi kush’ state of his mind..marvelous..!! His scolding of Nasir in the end as not worthy of his friendship & being completely misdirection targeting innocent people etc, the performance is 10 out of 10. Couldn’t be better. This guy takes ’no-nonsense’ approach to his work whether it is Andaz Apana Apana or Sarafarosh..totally different kinds of movie.
Sonali Bendre ’Don’t mind girl’ has come off very well. We come to know the reason of she making lot of bakbak when she goes ’woh q hamara pichha kar raha hian..main usse puchhati hun..’ Bhai sahab aap hamara pichha q kar rahe hain??’ :)
The costars, everyone is picture perfect..couldn’t have been better..!! ’FATAKA’ is awesome! ’Aaasaman main taddyaav..lakho taare tadyyanv..’ :-) ’Are isso malun nahi 2 hazar rupaye ka apana mahine ha kharcha hain’! :))
The songs are also high quality ’Hosh walo ko khabar kya’ sung/shot 100/100 marks! ’Jo han dil ka’ was not needed maybe given to relax people & have a smoke maybe! :)
Three Cheers to this one of the best movies in the Hindi Cinema!!