This movie is about a guy called Mohan who works in USA (of course) in NASA. The movie starts by showing him talking to his friend and colleague about his parents death and how he was raised by a "Dai"* called Kaveriamma. He feels emotional and wonders how she must be doing. This prompts him to take a trip to India in the hope that he will get her to USA and take care of her. So off he goes to find his beloved Kaveriamma, but the journey changes the young man’s mind and his heart and he ends up finding himself !
- A "Dai" is like a nanny, she usually stays in the house to help raise and look after children.
It is after a long time that I saw an SRK movie that I liked immensely. Not only for the content, but also for the acting. to me, this movie is like a 4 layered Onion - Lets dissect this onion layer by layer !
On the outer layer, the movie deals mainly with the issue of brain drain. For the uninitiated, brain drain is when a person studies in his home country, but goes to work for some other country, thus depriving the homeland of any developmental gains that could have been had if the person worked in the same country.
On the 2nd layer, the movie deals with the issues still stemming in our country at the grassroot levels - Issues like caste, child marriage, untouchability, lack of basic facilities and resources that are taken for granted elsewhere and in cities#, the poverty faced by farmers
# (with the current water and power cuts rampant in many top-grade cities like Bombay and Delhi, have to say this with a pinch of salt)
On the 3rd layer, the movie deals with the Indian attitude ! Of always saying that when things are not done, it is someone elses fault. Of infighting and crab-mentality. The movie teaches the viewer to be self reliant - Without actually using the words, it says - Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask yourself what you can do for yourself - Slightly different from the famous dialogue by an American president. It teaches the viewer that charity begins at home and the first step of improvement is to admit that there is a problem. Thru this recognition, we remove denial and it opens our minds to think out of the box. It teaches us that self-help is the best help ! It teaches us to break barriers and to unite. I love movies with a message !
On the 4th and innermost layer, the movie deals with human emotions. Portrayed by Shah Rukh Khan, the journey of this young man in finding himself has been shown very delicately on the screen. The director has got into the minds of an NRI and has portrayed their emotional psyche very well on the screen.
Acting
The movie has recaptured the vintage SRK from DDLJ days. There is some hamming still noticeable, but it is tolerable as the content of the movie is good and also because it is not a Karan Johar movie. I have to admit that I liked his acting and that too after a long time. Good job ! However, I did feel that Aamir Khan could have done a better job, especially in the village scenes.
Kaveri amma is played by Kishori Balal. She did a wonderful job to make the audience connect with her. She was likeable from the very first shot !
The female lead is played by Gayatri Joshi. She plays a teacher in the movie who wants to impart education to the village children and help improve her country at the grassroot level. She is very cute and has done a wonderful job even though she was a débutante. She exuded grace and beauty on the screen and shows that a heroine need not wear skimpy clothes to look good.
There were many memorable characters in the movie. The sadhu who shows directions to SRK (Makrand Deshpande), the muslim panch (Farrukh Jaffar), the comic relief Mela Ram who dreams of going to USA to open a dhaba along the freeway (Daya Shankar Pandey), Nivaranji (Rajesh Vivek) who is the postman and also a wrestler by hobby, the fat panch and the skeptical thin panch (saw his expression when the bulb lights up? hilarious and so real !)
The characters in the movie have been given enough depth and it is easy for the audience to connect to each one of them. This is very important for the movie and is its strongest selling point. Extra points should be given to the director, Ashutosh Gowariker, for making the characters so memorable I remember them even after I switched off the telly.
Be it a scene in NASA, or in a small village, the movie shifts gears seamlessly without losing momentum throughout. This was very important as the movie does not lean on any typical "masala" stuff to keep the audience engaged and entertained.
It was refreshing to see India portrayed as a clean and green country ! Although there were scenes of poor people and children working, these scenes portrayed reality and were not added merely for cosmetic value.
On the negatives, I felt that the scene where SRK jumps in the tank to save the day, was unnecessary. That additional drama could have been avoided. He had played hero enough by doing good for the village. The child selected was alright.
Music is by A R reheman and is hummable. I liked the following 3
Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera
Yeh Tara woh Tara
Yunhi Chala Chal
Other songs were ok. Background score was apt, though at times I felt it was used a touch too much just to increase the emotional quotient of the scene.
Final Verdict
It has received a rating of 8.3 / 10 on IMDB.
The movie has also won 10 awards and had been nominated for 16. For a list of all awards, please see
https://us.imdb.com/title/tt0367110/awards
I liked the movie immensely as it came with a message. Will buy the DVD and keep it in my collection. Do watch it if you have not ! You’ll know what you are missing only if you see it and feel it ... I wonder how many NRIs came back after watching the movie, but I can say that many would have at least thought of visiting home and a few would have also taken either an early or even an extra vacation !! Hopefully they all showed enough job commitment to go back, complete their projects before settling in a village and bring about changes ;-)
My rating - 9/10
!! Spike !!