One year back I went to watch Gangster with zero expectations. I went just to kill my time and listen to killer soundtrack. Then movie started, after few reels, I got interested and by interval I was arrested. When movie ended, I was not sure what I liked most, was it Kangna(debutant then), Shiney(impressive in Hazaron Khawahishe Aisee), Soundtrack(need I say anything) or Anurag Basu(had mixed track record then, Murder n Tumsa Nahin Dejkha)?
So this time I enter with lot of expectations as we have Impressive Starcast, Killer Soundtrack and Anurag Basu as a director. 2007 has been a year full of films with multiple stories in a single movie. Salam-e-Ishq was bad and Honeymoon Travels Ltd was just a below average movie. Here also we have three tracks…
PLOT: Complicated is the word.
Dharmendra came back to India to pass his remaining days with his love-of-life Nafisa. He choose going to US than to stay with Nafisa in India. Nafisa stays in old age home. There is still lot of fire between them and they want to stay together for rest of their life…
Irffan is 38. Konkana is 29. Both are desperately in search of partner. Shaadi.com arranges the meeting. But things didn’t work out. Konkana involved with her colleague only to find out that the guy is gay. Konkana joined Irffan’s workplace, helped him in shopping for Irffan’s bride. One thing led to another…
I have heard about love triangles and may be quadrangles. But here we have Pentagon. Five lives. Kay Kay and Shilpa make unhappily married couple with a daughter. Kangana and Sharman are KayKay’s subordinates. Kangna and Kaykay are involved in physical relationship. They use Sharman’s flat for this. Sharman likes Kangna but he doesn’t know what he is doing.Shiney is a struggler who meets Shilpa and again one thing led to another…
Plusses
As I say story is very complicated involving many characters. Our directors tend to make simple thing complicated and here we have already a complicated plot. But thanks to Mr Basu, he proves again that he can handle such subjects really well with amazing maturity and sensitivity.
Script is the hero. It is very well written, equally well executed. Dialogues are good and so is the screenplay. Though I believe movie could have been longer(yes, longer) to provide more depth to relationships(and characters), Let’s not complain.
Dharmendra and Nafisa track is very cute, kind of platonic. Both are natural and gracefull. I will say two lines of Gujarati poem for them:
Kamaal kare chhe( It is really amazing)
Ek Doshi haji Dosha ne vahaal kare chhe(An old lady still loves an old man)
Irfan and Koko track provides great relief to those who can’t stand purely serious, dark movies. In fact, there can be a different movie altogether which stars only these two characters. Irrfan’s dialogues are very humorous and carry lot of meaning. Be very alert to enjoy quick punches. And I don’t want to comment on their performances…
Now about Pentagon. This track is 10 times more sensitive than entire KANK. It’s about sacrifice(Shilpa), betrayal(Kaykay), ambition(Kangna, Sharman), Lust… Too many emotions. Performance wise all are terrific.
Superb is an understatement for soundtrack. Band Metro comes on screen during each song, carries the movie forward. I think Metro will be a huge landmark for Rock arena in India.
Minuses: I am not convinced with end of KayKay-Shilpa-Shiney track. May be Anurag will make another movie in which Shiney-Shilpa will replace Dharmendra-Nafisa.
*Overall, this is a great movie. Unlike Gangster, it has light moments(in fact, lots of them). Unlike Gangster, it has happy ending. Although it is typically filmy in the climax(what am I writing!), this movie definitely deserves a watch, a place in personal library and may be some film institutes.
Anuraga Basu is much better than Chopra, Johars n even Vermas.*
Lesson: We are living material life, running after pleasure by means of money, sex. After certain point, all these things are unable to give us peace. That time we feel that we are badly trapped in the web of desires created by us.
So, Close your eyes, Stay calm for five minutes, listen to your inner voice and go after it. (Courtesy: One Night at Call Center).
May God shows us correct path.
nayan