Sunday afternoons are generally meant for a heavy lunch, lazing around, catching up on lost sleep, and we (my friend and me) were doing just that, after having polished off lots of delicious Avial and Rice and Appalaam - the south Indian Papad- we decided to catch up this movie-Armaan- I must have agreed to go for a Bollywood pot boiler after ages! Tickets were not available, but some gentleman had 2 extra tickets and we got an entry into this movie ( May be bad luck was really BAD yesterday )!! Anyway, had I got tickets in black, I wouldn’t have forgiven myself even now !
The movie Armaan- is Honey Irani’s directorial debut.
Producer- Dinesh Gandhi.
Script writer-Javed Akhtar
Storyline
The story revolves around a Hospital situated at Chandrapur ( Don’t know where this is located-although movie seems to be shot at Mussorie), a Father (Dr.Sinha-Amitabh Bhachchan) and his adopted son –a neurosurgeon-(Dr.Akash Sinha-Anil Kapoor).
Its all about sacrifices- Dr.Sinha forgoes his love interest, and remains unmarried because of his adopted son, Dr.Akash Sinha. When Dr.Neha Mathur joins the hospital as Anaesthetist, the Surgeon-Anesthetist duo after some initial sparks, in the OT (operation theatre) are off to bird watching and nature treks and singing around trees and midnight drives, as Cupid strikes.
Enter Ms.Soniya Kapoor (Preity Zinta)- spoilt brat of a wealthy dad- who falls for Akash Sinha, fibs her way through, throws tantrums and finally - gets to marry Akash- one more of her whims- when her rich dad offers some few crores of a life-saving grant to the dying hospital ( Poor Anil Kapoor-getting sold again in a movie after Judaii )- The grant saves the life of the hospital but takes the life of the blossoming romance between the doctor duo. In the meanwhile, Dr.Sinha dies a sudden death due to cardiac arrest while trying to save a dying child. (One wonders if such a high profile doctor could be so ignorant as not to use modern technology like cell fones to call for an ambulance-instead of running with the burden of a child- during a heart attack).Neha is badly jilted in love.
Dr.Sinha keeps appearing as a ghost to guide his son at all troubled times though ! (Like Aishwarya in Mohabbatein- like daughter, like father??)
Soniya, post-marriage-is potrayed as a super-bitch, super-nag, super-manipulator, major pest (definitely could do with a spray of HIT- ghar bhar ki kit-kit ka phoran kare safaaya )- reminds one of Raj Kumar’s wife in Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi. This makes Akash’s life hell. The movie takes a turn when due to Soniya’s bitchiness, Neha’s mother loses her life, again, the saintly Dr.Akash, holds himself responsible and this time rightly so-takes the first sane decision of leaving Soniya and her tantrums alone ! Soniya immediately gets down to her final crazy act of rashly driving a car- accident- head injury-fatally injured- and the DREAM-TEAM of Dr. duo- Akash and Neha have to save her life, with the rich bratty dad-tried to break into OT with a bunch of policemen. Fortunately or unfortunately , the surgery is successful and the Neurosurgery gets some sense into her neurons and after two months of recovering at her house, she sensibly gives the signed divorce papers to Akash after which the surgeon and anesthetist OPERATE happily ever after…………..
Music- Shankar-Ehsaan- Loy. Lyrics- Javed Akhtar
One line sums it all- that the music of Armaan stands no comparison to the likes of Dil Chahta Hai and the other superb compositions of this Trio. The songs are easily forgettable, except one “Mera Dil ka tumse hai kehna “- a song with Arabic kind-of notes-rendered beautifully by Chitra, where in Preity breaks into a Helen-style cabaret. One track worth mention is an instrumental ‘jugalbandi’ A fusion of Indian and western – violin and saxophone-a innovative track for fusion lovers.
Personal thoughts and opinions
I hadn’t gone in with too much of an expectation, and Armaan failed to live upto any miniscule hopes I had-especially with stars like Preity Zinta, Anil Kapoor. Amitabh Bachchan should refrain from doing such roles that do no justice to his charisma and acting talent.
There was no scope for any display of acting / performances for good actors like Anil / Preity. Although, the break was a good one for 2nd timer-Gracy Singh, her performance was sensitive, she managed to look chirpy, sensitive and right for the role-throughout the movie- shows a lot of promise.
A point of highlight were Gracy’s clothes- excellently designed, no-nonsense wardrobe, colourful and trendy !Kudos to the designer, and exactly the opposite can be said about Preity’s wardrobe in the movie.And the Preity’s character is somewhat overly done- gets on people’s nerves !
A major disappointment in the movie was- a very inadequate research into the medical lingo-mannerisms-which was very evident from the way Anil Kapoor- loses his temper on the Anesthetist (Gracy) in the middle of a surgery, the way Amitabh, after a vague looking External Cardiac massage manages to run a marathon carrying a wounded-dying child, a movie with the whole theme revolving around a specialized profession-needs a lot of research-anyone who has watched the ER series, or Doogie Howser M.D. will realize what I am driving at !
The cinematography was very good, breathtaking locales shot to perfection.
To sum it all, MS friends can easily give this movie a MISS. Nothing in this movie is worth 3 hours of your time, and the 100 odd bucks for a ticket, not the story, not the Actors and not the music.
Catch it on your cable TV sometime and say thanks to me for saving you from torture.
Awaiting your comments !