‘Do your duty that is your beauty’ is an old quote but its beauty still remains. In Iahqiya, director Abhishek Chaubey narrates the story of a society which forgot duty and run after their personal ishqs. The result of forgetting duty is chaos, failure and inevitable disaster. We witness some of them around and how dutiful are we in this Ishq period??
Khalujaan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban (Arshad Warsi) escape to their friend Veeru with stolen money only to meet his widow (Vidya Balan). One falls in love Ishq with her where the other falls in love sex with her. The dutiful widow had a mission and she is waiting for the victim with a trap. Watch the fire on screen.
The movie is dark at times but get simpler by the second half. The movie has reference to the Mumbai terror attacks and the drama revolved around it. The movie throws a lot of fun on the dutiful citizens, policeman, business people and individuals. How a vigil by a helpless individual can save the day for us is told in simple manner. The ignorance of business community to the security of the nation is highlighted.
Naseeruddin Shah did another good performance as expected from him where the film didn’t have a ‘great’ role for him. Still, the veteran actor’s presence alone added great value to the film. Arshad Warsi’s did a good job in the film as well, of course with the role assigned to him. (Here, the writers failed to give emotional moments for the characters for powerful execution by actors.) Vidya Balan on the other hand had an author backed role and she did it in style. (Kissing scene between Vidya Balan and Arshad Warsi is the most intense one I have seen in bollywood)
Music of the film just mixed well with the plot and the soil. Good.
Cinematography was excellent to sponge up the moments with its emotions.
On the negative side, the movie is less intense in content and when the film ends it fails to give the impact which a thoughtful cinema always succeeds in providing. As such, the movie leaves an average feel good movie kind feeling, though at heart I know the movie meant much more. The movie on the other hand, succeeds in creating some intense moments which in no way compensate a thin plot. Another problem for the movie was that over repetition of events, as if the writers didn’t have anything else to say.
Another negative for the film is its crude dialogues. By not offering any cuts in the dialogues, the censor board either forget their duty probably they too fall with some Ishq offered by the makers or the censor board wanted to pass a message to the makers, when you preach and advise the society you must first show some social responsibility. Don’t put your basic responsibility to the shoulder of the censor board and save your face in the public. The sad side is that the audience is in fact likes these ‘crude’ dialogues on screen as they never expect this. Thumps down!
Overall, the movie is ok for watching once for very good performance, some intense moments, some messages etc. It may however miss the high standards people expect from a class cinema.
My rating: 3.5 stars.