...and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
Rabindranath Tagore’s Geetanjali
First things first
This is Not a movie for:
a) Cynics : You will find fault with every other scene in this movie . You might get a feeling of exaggerated self-importance , but you wont enjoy the movie .
b) Overly Zealous Anti-Pseudo-Intellectual Police : A lot of things will come across as Faux-Art , besides how can a mainstream movie ever be considered Meaningful or Thought Provoking ?Smirk
What’s is about?
An idealistic English filmmaker, Sue( Alice Patteson), arrives in India to make a film on Bhagat Singh, and his contemporaries . Owing to a lack of funds, she recruits students from Delhi University to act in her docu-drama. She finds DJ (Aamir Khan), a university pass-out who still wants to be a part of the University because he doesn’t think there’s too much out there in the real world to look forward to. Karan (Siddharth), son of an Industrialist , who has an uncomfortable relationship with his father, but continues to live off him, albeit grudgingly. Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), is a middle class Muslim boy, poet, philosopher and guide to his friends. Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), the group joker with a weakness for girls. Theres Laxman Pandey (Atul Kulkarni), a member of an unnamed afrron-hued party who truly believes in it and finally Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) engaged to Ajay (Madhavan).
Except for Ajay and Laxam , none of the have much hope for India. Sue is disappointed to find a lack of Patiotism in the group . The only thing in life they look forward to is the next party . To them patriotism, self-sacrifice , national pride is the stuff of history text books and not to be taken too seriously . They don’t take Sue’s attempts to get them more involved in the docu-drama too seriously .
But after a series of unfortunate events the 5 friends begin to find similarities in their present situation and the India of the 1930’s and decide to take things thing into their hands...
This is not a political movie .
This is Not a movie about a single person trying to change the system
This is not a coming-of-age movie .
This is a movie about believing in something and having the guts to stand up for what you believe in ...
But....Is This Movie Worth Watching ?
Yes it is .
The first half moves along with a brisk pace and has numerous comic moments. In the Second Half , it takes on a more serious tone , but does tend to slow down and I have to admit the last 20 or so minutes do look rushed and a bit jumbled .
I liked the way that the various incidents in the movie are compared to various happenings in Baghat Singh’s life. By the end of the movie it becomes a case of Life imitating Art .Editing is really crisp with the documentary bits being shown in sepia tone
The casting is excellent and each of the actors suit their roles perfectly . Aamir excelles in what is basically a rehash of his role in DCH . The others also give a great performance , especially Siddarth as the rich kid with a melancholic outlook on life. If it weren’t for Amir, he would surely have been the star of this movie
Alice Patterson as Sue is also really good . Her character speaks passable Hindi ( as expected) but is surprisingly adept at abusive slang .
Sharman Joshi and Kunal Kapoor have smaller roles but they also stand out .
Atul Kulkarni has a great role as a member of a saffron-hued party whose faith is shattered when he finds out that the local head is more concerned about being in power than actually working for the country .
The Music and background scores are also good . I liked the fact the songs are also presented as background music and not out of the blue
dream sequences . I particularly liked Roobaroo and be a rebel .
On the downside , I thought that the second half dragged in some parts . The making of the documentary is almost completely ignored except for the casting bits ... but then this is not a movie about making a documentary .
The character development is also haphazard, especially Atul Kulkarnis and his sudden decision to take part in the documentary .
Overall , this is not a film without it’s flaws .But it manages to get away with it through the sheer power of it’s concept and stylized execution . The director does not dumb-down the movie (Nayak anyone ?) and leaves enough gaps and questions to keep you occupied long after the movie has ended .
=SPOILERS BELOW=Abandon hope all ye who enter====
Pointless Commentary and Opinion :
Most people who disliked this say that it presented India in a vary bad light . Well what do you want the director to portray ? High rise buildings? Multiplexes ? Expensive foreign cars ? So that everyone can appreciate how nice and developed India has become over the years ? Isn’t it such a great place to live in ?
Come on , give me a break ! I do admit that India has come a long , long way since independence , but can you turn a blind eye to say , the present state of Bihar , the rampant corruption and nepotism , crumbling infrastructure , etc ?
People say that the ending was highly unrealistic . That the Indian police are not so brutal . That Politicians don’t have such control over the police that they can do any damn thing that they want . I don’t have a reply for that , but just take a look at a little anthology of recent scandals:
Satyendra Dubey Murdered after he exposed high-level corruption and connections between politicians and the mafia during the construction of the National Highway in UP.
Chattisinghpora Massacre : Those accused of fudging the DNA samples of the victims of this allegedly fake massacre have still not been brought to Justice
Jessica Lal Murder case: All the witnesses turned hostile...could it be because the accused is the son of a prominent politician??
Tehelka.com’s ’’Operation West End ’’ where they actually managed to get Defense contracts for a product and company that didn’t even exist .
Kargil Coffin Scam Gave your life for the country ? Good for us , we get to make a profit . The check’s in the mail .
Honda Factory in Haryana Brutal force used on the striking workers at the factory.
Orissa Killing of tribals by police during protests against setting up of a factory
Arrest warrant for A.P.J Abdul Kalam An undercover reporter managed to get a signed arrest warrant for the President of India after paying around 40 000 Rupees in bribes .
After reading the list do you still think that the director went overboard through his portrayal of the character and incidents in this movie ?? Think about it.
CONTINUES IN COMMENTS .....