Once in awhile, Bollywood manages to surprise me with an uncompromising film full of genuine emotion and enough to make you really think.On many levels, Alag works. The film questions the limits of the human mind and body while also displaying their capacity for cruelty, and the hope that one day humanity will advance beyond technology.
The film begins with death of Rastogi [Yateen Karyekar].He has a son Teja[Akshay Kapoor] .He was raised and educated in their small house -- no friends and no schools. Teja is an albino, with the characteristic white skin and white eyes, but that’s not all that’s unusual about him -- his body has no hair . He also posses strong reststance for electricity.
When his father die, he is taken care by an orphan institution .There, the strangeness of his appearance creates an almost-universal sense of ill-will and unease.What happens next?
Alag is well-paced and effective at getting the audience to care about the principal personality. It’s likely that anyone who has ever felt like an outsider will see an element of himself or herself, as essayed by Akshay Kapoor.
Director Ashu Trikha tells the story with measured assurance, grabbing the audience early and then painting a picture of Tejas and his world in a series of fascinating incidents. Teja’s capacity to act as a conductor for human feeling -- by laying hands on two people, he can make one feel what the other feels --results in some moving and gut- wrenching moments .
Akshay Kapoor’s performance was so powerful that one could actually feel the unconditional love within the heart and soul of the character that he played. The concepts that he brought forward, the passion that came with every dramatic scen were noteworthy.Diya Mirza is terrific.
The special effects are groundbreaking, the camerawork is excellent, and the supporting cast is solid.
But on flipside, with so much going for it, Alag never really goes anywhere. Once Teja methodically lays out the situation, the picture stops moving forward, repeating the same kinds of scenes over and over. The script, which backs away from real dramatic conflict, lacks courage, preferring Bollywood cliches like songs- to something grittier. In this entire film, Teja is the only multi-dimensional personality. Everyone else, good or bad, is merely filling a stock role.
All up Alag isn’t a film for the brain-dead hordes of moviegoers looking for mindless eye candy. It requires a little commitment on the viewer’s part, but it’s well worth it. In the end, Alag is a stirring example of what to do right, not only in filmmaking, but in living one’s life as well.