In these days of only finding rehashed Hollywood films with mega star cast the formula for a Bollywood success story, my admiration seems to be the talent of this small time south Indian director (so to say I am proud of it also as I also happen to b from Tamil Nadu by ethnicity). This man who answers to the call of Nagesh Kukunoor or Nagya (on screen)...
After Rockford this is his second straight beauty which easily attains a classic status in my list of all time greats.... This film rocks from side to side and leaves you stunned at the end of it just admiring the fact and talent of Nagya at how he stitched every scene to the film....
As far as the cast is concerned the director manages to rope in some real great on-screen actors to his effort... Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla, Gulshan Grover (for once he is not a conman), Naseerudin Shah (one of my all-time favs and the biggest reason for me to accept seeing’ this film on persistence of my friend... and guess what It remained on my hard-disk for a long long time... Considering that I often delete movies to recover space for my first passion .... music... it was quite great). I saw this movie more than 3 times in a single 24 hour period (mind you not exactly a day if you go by the calendar.. our days here start at 6 in the evening).
Gulshan Grover in his short and sweet role as the prison warden is brilliant in his roles and for once does not play a negative role... The best part is that the director keenly exploits this state of mind of the viewer infusing shades of grey... and the crowds hoping that he will suddenly black out and appear in his true self..... as we seem to know him.
Nagesh Kukunoor himself forms one of the walls (Nagya) convicted of pushing his wife into a busy street only to see her being run over by a car... His is a character full of hope that he will be free one day and the truth will be upheld.... This is clear in the way he keeps repeating ’’Satyameva Jayate. Sada Sada Jayate’’...
In jail he befriends one Jaggu (Jackie Shroff as the second wall) who is also convicted of murdering his wife... The difference in this case is that he totally accepts his crime and has resigned to his fate - death. His passions include cooking and writing poetry... He is accused of incessantly stabbing his sleeping wife who was about to elope with her lover...
Ishaan (Naseerudin Shah) acts as a third wall... Hey wait a minute this guy is not a wall... He towers above the rest... He lands himself in jail (for landing his stuff in the wrong place) for killing a pregnant bank clerk who rings the alarm when he is about to hop off with the cash... He believes that the killing was an accident and never intended to kill her... But the fact that he tripped was the reason that he was here... His character is one that is full of freedom... He knows that he will not be punished but will be a free bird one day.
Juhi Chawla (as Chandrika) is a press reporter wanting to do a documentary on prison life... With much coaxing Gulshan allows her to get close to three prisoners awaiting death sentences...
What more do I say? jus go and see 3 Deewarein for yourself? and remember the tagline of the film through the period you are seeing it?
Three Men, One Woman, One Truth