There are two kinds of cinema viewers. One of them is popularly known as cynics who at the end come out of the theatre screaming only about the faults in the movie. These people take pride in pointing out the flaws (most of the time logic, realism blah blah) in those movies, which most others call as great cinema. They take release of such movies and the praise of normal viewers on the movie as an opportunity to prove their IQ. Though they may have actually enjoyed the movie, their cynic mind will never allow them to. Actually, I am not against those who mention the flaws but I am against those who mention just the flaws. One should encourage such unique efforts but with criticism that will alert the creator about his mistakes and not that hurts him for doing something different.
The other kind of viewers will watch movie just as an entertainment, they don’t take it as a serious material for writing a thesis or to do a case study on it. They don’t even bother to notice the flaws. For them, the entertainment is only important factor. If it provides that they have no complaints. They will either like the movie or hate the movie and hence come out with a silence at the end.
But there is always a third kind of viewers who will know the flaws of the movie but yet they will overlook it for the emotional content of the movie. They feel happy about the positive aspects of the movie, which overshadows its own flaws, and hence they leave the theatres with a smile on their face at the end pointing only the positive aspects of the movie. I think I fall in the third group of viewers. I do know the movie has got its flaws but I not am going to point it out as the movie emotionally moves and shakes my soul. It makes me think.
Ultimately, how emotionally a movie can impact its viewer is what is important. For that its creator has to make the audience empathize with the illusionary characters. The clichés are not clichés by birth, the visual techniques used repeatedly becomes a cliché after a point. I understand what you are thinking. I am randomly rambling about everything else except the movie, right? I know this is going somewhere. But 1000’s of reviews that I read before made to write this. I just want to say don’t arrive at any conclusions and don’t have any biases in your mind after reading many reviews (including this one). Just go and watch the movie and decide for yourself. I would like to stop at this point and write something about the movie.
I like the movie for
1) Performance of all actors. Everyone has done a great job in his or her role that carries equal importance. To me, next to script and screenplay, Siddarth is the hero of the movie.
2) The screenplay, interweaving of documentary, linking and correlating the condition of India before and after independence. The theme of the movie is told in just one scene when the defense minister replaces the image of General Dyre in the jallianwallah bagh scene. It is one of the most effective scenes in the movie.
3) Music is great. In recent past no Rahman songs has been used so perfectly as it is in this movie. The visuals and the songs complement each other so well that you don’t mind songs coming in quick succession in the second half. Also the background score is quite innovative with heavy usage of electric guitars even for the scenes set in the pre independence era.
4) Technically the movie is at par. Especially the shift from documentary to the present are done well. Binon Pradan has used different techniques to capture different moods and emotions all through the movie.
5) The lot of emotionally moving scenes. I don’t want to reveal too much about these scenes. Watch it for yourself.
6) Even though the theme is too serious, it is highly entertaining. The first half is full of lighthearted moments and the second half is completely different to the mood set by the first half. Within the commercial format, they have the done the best to give us a whole new experience of watching a commercial bollywood cinema and they have successfully done it.
There is nothing else to say, just go for it. You don’t get such movies often in Indian cinema. Kudos to all the cast and crew involved in this project. For more detailed analysis on the movie, well you have many other reviews written by viewers who fall in the first category.