Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye)

(image source: http://i.indiafm.com/img/feature/06/aug/kank1.jpg)

KANK is an intense adult drama. It opens with snippets of scenes giving a glimpse of each of the main characters’ lives at the present time, featuring five of Bollywood’s top stars: Ambitah Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Abhishek Bachchan, and Preity Zinta.

Dev Saran (Shah Rukh Khan) has just won a major soccer match which will garner him offers with great financial opportunities, at the same time, his wife, Rhea (Preity Zinta) has landed a job at a fashion magazine. They are high-powered, ambitious people. They meet in college and married.

Shift to Rishi Talwar (Abhishek Bachchan) who is in a frantic rush to get to his wedding ceremony. Dev’s mother, Kamaljit (Kirron Kher), is the wedding’s caterer. The lives of the two couples intersect when Dev stops by to see her. The wedding ceremony has not begun because the bride is delayed. Dev wanders the house grounds and finds the bride, Maya (Rani Mukherjee), sitting on a bench. It is clear she is having doubts about getting married.

Dev tries to lighten her mood. He asks if she loves her future husband. She says they have been friends since childhood. He asks her again, “Do you love him?” “When there is friendship, there is little room for love”, is her response. Dev suggests she learn to make do with little love stories.

Maya asks him, “Do you love your wife?” He replies, “We are happy.” Maya wants to know, “Do you wait for love?” After more discussion, Dev says, “Goodbye.” Maya stops him, “Don’t say goodbye, it kills the hope of meeting again.” They part and both look back with wonder. Sadly, Dev is distracted by their conversation and fails to see a oncoming car.

The movie picks up again four years later and Dev is a changed man. His injuries from the car accident terminated his sports career. He is angry and bitter. He is rude to strangers and his family. To avoid conflict, Rhea focuses on her job with “Diva”, the fashion magazine. Dev coaches his son's, Arjun (Arjun Rampal), soccer team but he is impatient and harsh with the children. Dev feels his reduced state acutely not just because he can no longer play sports but also because his wife supports him.

















(image source: http://www.indiatarget.com/stills/slide_show/kak1.jpg)

Maya’s relationship with Rishi is more like mother and son. While Rishi is passionate about his love for Maya, she is in conflict with her feelings. Rishi’s father, Sam (Amitabh Bachchan), a widower, adds color to the story as he pops in and out of everyone’s life with a different young beauty on his arm each time.

Dev and Maya run into each other again and Maya tells him, “If I had not met you, I would not have married.” Dev replies, “If I had not meet you, my life would have been different. We are both wounded.”

Various misunderstandings complicate the story. Both couples have different expectations of each other. No one is a true villain.

In frustration, Dev and Maya become confidants hoping to help each other in their relationships. They begin to meet regularly at the train station. The train station becomes an analogy for their stalled relationships, which are always moving but going nowhere. Gradually, Dev begins to realize he feels different about himself when he was with Maya.

The intensity of Rishi’s frustration, Maya’s disappointment, Dev’s anger, and Rhea’s distraction symbolize their desire for the greatest of all relationships that of husband and wife. Each felt when you married, you married your soulmate.

Another aspect of the relationships is their mismatched ambitions. In the beginning, Dev was as ambitious as his wife but after his injury, he never recovered from the loss of his career. Maya is uncomfortable with Rishi’s fast and flashy lifestyle. Rhea is caught up in her new business venture.

At their best, couples grow as individuals and as a couple with shared interests. At their worst, couples tear each other apart. Both couples recognize their relationships need help and they make attempts to repair them. Each partner in the two relationships illustrate that there are many doors to the heart and not everyone finds the right door.

Eventually, Maya and Dev acknowledge their love for each other as their marriages deteriorate. While Maya and Dev try to sustain both their relationship and their marriages, their spouses are unaware of their partners’ actions. It makes you wonder if anyone knows what is in another’s heart.








(image source: http://i.indiafm.com/img/feature/06/aug/kank1.jpg)

Dev shows the least concern for how his actions will affect others. Maya had hoped for friendship then seemed unable to stop herself from crossing the line into romantic love. Rishi thought flowers and sweet words were all that was needed for a relationship to work. Rhea valued her business success over the success of her marriage.

Dev is often coarse and cruel. He uses his wife to make Maya insecure. Dev also becomes jealous of Rishi. Love has not encouraged Dev to grow emotionally; he becomes more brutal in his relationships.

Once Dev and Maya cross the line into intimacy, they enter the world of betrayal and lies. The pressure of their illicit relationship drives Dev to joke at a family dinner that he has fallen in love with another woman, Maya. Dev then treats Maya cruelly when he says he won’t leave his wife.

But what is also reflected in each couple is that they married young and as they changed they grew apart. They also lived in a fast-paced, money-driven society with lots of trappings and distractions. Neither relationship seemed grounded.

Dev and Maya break off their relationship believing if they tell the truth they could save their marriages. When Dev tells his wife he has strayed from the marriage but wants to give the marriage another chance, Rhea throws him out. Rishi confronts Maya and asks her to leave. Dev and Maya pretend to each other that their spouses will forgive them. Yet, each leaves for different jobs in different towns.

Observations: Do not tell me Shah Rukh Khan cannot act. SRK played the Dev character so convincingly; I forgot he was Shah Rukh Khan. Also, there are many “inside” references, humorous moments, and guest appearances.

Pleasures: Karan Johar handled the difficult scenes with taste.

Disappointments: Karan Johar has made a Bollywood film with little reference to India or the Hindu religion. The story seemed to lack an anchor or a cultural context, almost as if the setting, New York City, was a culture unto itself and sufficient for a cultural foundation. I found the culture empty, devoid of any fundamental beliefs or moral guidance. Also, while the song and dance routines offer some light moments in this intense drama, the huge disco scenes were impersonal, and lacked the crisp coordination and stylized look that make dance numbers special.

3:25 minutes, Hindi with English captions, Color
Writer and Director: Karan Johar
Producer: Anadil Hossain
Music: Shankar Madadevan, Loy Mendonsa and Ehsaan Noorani
Cinematography: Anil Mehta
Art Direction: Sharmishta Roy
Choreography: Farah Khan
(source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449999/)

Krrish

2006; Hindi with English subtitles; 154 minutes




(source: http://www.chinapress.com.my/data%5C2006-07-02%5Centertainment%5C0702pen91.jpg)


I was looking forward to Krrish because I hoped it would showcase Hrithik Roshan’s skills as a dancer and his physical prowess. Krrish does illustrate Hrithik’s admirable physique, and his grace and agility in cinematographically beautiful settings that include a variety of delightful special effects. But, except for the introduction of Hrithik’s character, Krishna, the storyline flounders and few of the secondary characters are adequately developed to elicit sympathy.

I have always defended Bollywood filmmakers when they made a story similar to a Hollywood story because I felt they kept the universals of the story and made the characters, settings, and conflicts sufficiently different. Sadly, with Krrish, it was like watching a compilation of several movies. In Tarzan-like fashion, Krishna meets in his love interest in the forest. A ghost story gimmick seems to mimic the Blair Witch Project. The bad guy, Dr. Arya, wants to invent a computer that can see into the future, much like Paycheck, and who had an enormous facility on an island like Dr. No. Then, there were the alien communications like ET and Close Encounters.

I am aware that in many Bollywood movies images, bits of dialogue, snippets of songs and more from other movies are inserted to add entertainment value and pay homage to well-loved movies but I never felt that whole sections of the referenced movies were inserted into the current movie like I did with Krrish.




(source: http://img.indiaglitz.com/hindi/wallpaper/MOVIES/krrish/krrish11_800_080506.jpg)


In Krrish, few of the usual underlying moral premises are stated clearly – familial loyalty is there and occasionally the idea that fighting for a good cause is heroic is stated but for the rest of the movie the characters seem to be sensation-seekers out for money, fame, or power.

Unfortunately, I have come to a place in my Bollywood film watching where the novelty is wearing off and I have begun to expect more. This is not always good. It is easy to criticize. Movie making is a tough business. I recognize how hard it is for a director to film a story for far-flung audiences with wide-ranging, changing expectations.

Krrish is a sequel to Koi…Mil Gaya and the previous story is woven into the present story. Krishna is the son of Rohit, a man who encountered an alien and was changed physically and mentally. But, at Krishna’s birth, disaster struck and he lost his parents. Krishna’s grandmother has taken him into the countryside to keep him from public view for fear of his safety. As the child grows, he exhibits extraordinary powers but while he enjoys using them, his grandmother continues to warn him about appearing different.

Priya, Krishna’s love interest, played by Priyanka Chopra, is portrayed as a vain, stupid girl who lacks integrity. She is not an intrepid reporter like Sridevi’s Seema Sohni in Mr. India. Nor does she have the backbone of Manisha Koirala’s Meghan in Dil Se. There is little drama in various obstacles to Krrish’s love for Pryia which I missed because Pryia’s character never developed beyond a pretty girl more worried about her clothes than any conflicting values in her life. Again, it is easy to criticize – few women can handle the stunts required for Bollywood movies, but I wanted to see something like Rani’s zest, she throws herself into her roles, while she is beautiful, she is more physically comfortable with wild and wacky stunts. I missed Madhuri’s wide range of emotional expressions. I missed Kajol’s joie de vivre. I missed Nagris’s melodrama. Chopra is more like eye candy for males. It was hard for me to maintain interest in the story when Priya kept getting Krishna into trouble with her lies.

The bright spots were when Hrithik was on screen. Hrithik appeared to enjoy doing the various stunts. He is a gorgeous human being. He has an abundance of grace and style. I will never get tired of watching him move. He is a splendid dancer and a great martial arts student. I hope Hrithik finds a character or theme where he can continue to demonstrate the beauty of his well-kept physique. On top of all that – he a good person and it comes across on screen much like Shah Rukh Khan.












(source: http://img.stopklatka.pl/wydarzenia/32000/32000/32089-01.jpg)

While the ending was sappy, it was still tearful. While the Krrish character was original, the story was not.

Regrets: Missed the full-blown emotional tug-of-war and the lack of originality in the story.

Pleasures: Watching Hrithik dance and do martial arts stunts; the countryside scenery and the scenes shot in Singapore. Also, the circus scenes were fantastic and seemed to stand out from the rest of the movie.

Credits:
(Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432637/)

Director and Producer: Rakesh Roshan

Writing credits: Screenplay -- Robin Bhatt, Sachin Bhowmick, Honey Irani, Akash Khurana, and Rakesh Roshan; Dialogue -- Sanjay Masoom

Cast: Rekha, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Sharat Saxena, Puneet Issar, Hemant Pandey, Manini De, Naseeruddin Shah, Preity Zinta, Kiran Juneja, Archana Puran Singh

Music: Salim Merchant, Suleman Merchant, Rajesh Roshan

Cinematography: Piyush Shah, Santosh Thundiiayil

Art Direction: Samir Chanda

Visual Effects: Marc Kolbe, Craig A. Mumma

Stunts: Siu-Tung Ching (choreographer and stunts), Shyam Kaushal (stunt coordinator)

Kajol is Back in Fanaa

I caught Fanaa, opening night, and it was a full house.

How does one write a movie review without giving away the plot?

In Fanaa, Kajol plays Zooni, a young blind girl on her first venture away from her home in Kashmir. In the story, Zooni’s blindness illustrates that sometimes we see things with our hearts but we are blind to dangers and deceit, and with sight sometimes we do not see the real person in front of us.

Zooni travels with a troupe of dancers to Delhi to perform in part of the Independence Day celebrations. Included in the trip are several days of tours of the historic sites in Delhi. The group has arranged for a bus and a guide. The guide is a charming rouge, Rehan, played by Aamir Khan. Khan plays Rehan with both charm and cruelty. He admits openly he only wants to satisfy his own desires and that he does not believe in love as he flirts with the girls. But he falls in love with Zooni and she falls in love with him. Rehan is every young girl’s parents’ nightmare.

(image source: http://www.ndtv.com/images/topstories/fanaa.jpg)

A Bollywood movie doesn’t cut to the chase as quickly as a Hollywood film. Various aspects of the characters and sub-plots are given time to develop before the central conflict is unfolded.

The cinematography is stunning. It is as if the cameraman is in love with India. Delhi is shown in a rainbow of colors, shining and majestic. Yet, Rehan shows Zooni the dark side of Delhi’s history, too. Kashmir is pictured like a winter wonderland with endless vistas of beautiful snow capped mountains. The camera captured the silence and wonder of snow.

Director Kunal Kohli blends many of the musical interludes with the story almost seamlessly. There is one musical number choreographed with a large number of dancers, the rest of the musical interludes lets the music simply touch the characters as the story moves forward which I think represents Indians’ love of music and poetry as part of their daily lives. Later in the movie, the fantasy love scenes are shot in wonderful blue and white settings and each love scene is done tastefully.

Interwoven into this love story is the continuing story of terrorism. This time it is the battle over Kashmir. Zooni loses Rehan to terrorism before she returns home to Kashmir.

At the interlude, the story changes from a love story to suspense. India’s counter-terrorism organization is tracking a terrorist group that has had success over the years in bombing various important cultural and political sites. Tabu is dead-on as the organization’s agent who works to build a psychological profile of the group’s mastermind even as agents within the organization seek to thwart her efforts. The organization seeks to capture this mastermind before the terrorist group’s final plan is carried out. The plan threatens to kill millions of Indians. The premise the terrorist group uses in its defense is if we are sufficiently armed and are perceived as a threat of massive proportion then we can affect the balance of power and achieve our goal – independence for Kashmir. Isn’t that the premise behind every nation that has nuclear weapons?

At the heart of many Bollywood movies are human relationships and the importance of family.

Zooni is a meaty role for Kajol and she carries it off beautifully. As a young blind girl, Zooni is gentle, loving and hopeful. Later in the film, Zooni is a single mother. She is older, wiser, and she is fiercely protective of her family. Aamir Khan’s character, Rehan, is a man torn between loyalties and desires. At first, he is seen as a self-centered charmer who preys on young women. He has cut himself off from his emotions. Then he falls in love with Zooni and he battles his emotions in a struggle over his loyalties. Is he loyal to his love for Zooni, or is he loyal to his former life? Khan’s character believes that loyalty to a belief carries more weight than loyalty to love, even familial love.


I know little about Aamir Khan’s earlier movies, but in his recent movies such as Laagan, Mangal Pandey, Rang de Basanti, and now Fanaa, it seems that Khan is selecting stories that portray a gritty realism. In these films, Khan is carving out a particular type of role for himself. He does not want to be the lover; he wants to be a man of action. Yet, when he must play the lover, he does so reluctantly. He struggles with the emotion of love, literally fighting himself to keep from falling in love. When he is a man of action, he wants to be rational, unaffected by emotion, and loyal to his vision. But loyalty can also be a strong emotion. Khan wants to play to a male audience who feels it is manlier to be pragmatic than to a female audience who feels love is central to life. Yet, when his character, Rehan, feels he must choose love or loyalty, the war between his competing desires plays across his face. (image source: http://blog.chosun.com/web_file/blog/25/25/1/Fanaa.jpg)

Whereas, as a woman, Kajol’s character’s struggle is not choosing between two strong desires. For her, love is part of life, just as is loyalty. She thought love could heal, love could change a person, love could make a prince out of a beggar. Her struggle is in loving a flawed human being and learning that love can be shattered by deceit. In a way, Zooni’s character is torn because she is forced to make a choice she never imagined she would have to make.

Pleasures: It is great to have Kajol back on the big screen. Plus, the costumes were fresh and vibrant. The shots of Delhi and the snowy mountain scenes were beautiful.

Regrets: The ending was too similar to the "Key to Rebecca" by Ken Follett.

FYI: Fanaa -- is an Urdu word which means annihilation. In Sufi tradition, it also means destroyed in love. (source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439662/trivia)

Director: Kunal Kohli
Producers: Yash and Aditya Chopra
Executive producer: Sanjay Shivalkar
Music: Jatin Pandit, Lalit Pandit
Cinematography: Ravi K. Chandran
Choreographer: Saroj Khan
Runtime: 168 minutes

Sholay: A Flash from the Past

Sholay (Flames)

1975; 204 minutes; Hindi with English subtitles

Director: Ramesh Sippy
Producer: G.P. Sippy
Writer: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
Music: Rahul Dev Burman
Cinematography: Dwarka Divecha
Playback singers: Rahul Dev Burman, basu Deo chakravarty, Babu Ghanekar; Shankar Lal; Maqbool
Dances: P.R.L. Raman
Cast: Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri, Amjad Khan, A.K. Hangal, Satyen Kappu, Leela Misra and more



Sholay is considered an Indian movie classic. I enjoyed most of this film, which starts with an eye-popping shoot-out, followed by chase scenes through the backcountry, and canyons of rural India. The cinematography is excellent. The camera work is a blend of styles including fast action, slow motion, and panoramic views. But, eventually, the relentless scenes of violence wore me down.

Many of the performances were enjoyable. I thought Dharmendra (Veeru) was smashing and Amitabh Bachchan’s (Jai) onscreen persona crackles with energy and emotion. Sanjeev Kumar plays the village chief, Thakur Singh, with dignity and Hema Malini’s character, Basanti, bounces with charm.




In essence, the village chief, Thakur Baldev Singh, a retired police officer, asks a fellow police officer to track down two criminals (Veeru and Jai) he met in the past to ask them to come to his village and help him end the tyranny of a local thug, Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) because he thinks they are brave and have the potential to be decent human beings. When the police officer questions his judgment saying, “A fake coin is a fake coin.” He replies, “a man is not a coin.”

The criminals, Jai and Veeru, have been a team for sometime and travel from con to theft to scam as they escape just ahead of capture, most of the time.

What starts out as a buddy flick becomes a civil war between Thakur Baldev Singh, Veeru and Jai, and Gabbar Singh’s gang of thugs.



Many other characters intervene in the story like S. Bhoplai, the greedy shopkeeper; the inept prison warden, a Hitler look-alike, who states he doesn’t believe in reform because “How can you change, if I can’t change?”; Hariram, the jail barber and squealer; and the chatty buggy driver, Basanti (Hema Malini).

Gabbar Singh, the thug who terrorizes the village, is a piece of work. He plays Russian roulette with his men when they run from the village under gunfire. While at first, none of the men are shot, you know what’s coming.

Thugs attack the village and the village protectors retaliate, back and forth, with one horror after another. When the thugs break up the village Holi celebration, it’s like a shoot-out at the OK Corral.

Thakur and Gabbar have a long history. Gabbar killed Thakur’s brother’s family as revenge for Thakur imprisoning him.

Scenes of normal events of life break the flow of constant conflict. Veeru has fallen in love with Basanti. Jai goes to Basanti’s Aunt to plead Veeru’s case. Instead, he paints a poor picture of his friend’s lifestyle scuttling Veeru’s chances to marry Basanti. But, that’s not the end of this substory.

Veeru wants to settle down. Jai isn’t ready though he shows a quiet interest in Thakur’s widowed daughter-in-law, Radha (Jaya Bhaduri).

In one raid, Gabbar kidnaps Basanti. Veeru follows and is captured. Gabbar forces Basanti to dance to save him. When Basanti dances, she endures many humiliations and agonies showing her strength of will much like a fight scene does for the hero.



So much horror and tragedy is perpetrated by Gabbar, I wanted to shoot him myself just to end the relentless torture.

At one point, the villagers have had enough of the violence, too, and question whether all the killings are worth the refusal to give Gabbar the protection payment. One man says, “We are farmers not soldiers.” Another replies, “To lead an honorable life, there is a price.” When an elderly and blind villager loses his son to the violence, he refuses to give in to Gabbar’s violence and threats saying, “An honorable death is better than a life of humiliation.”

The ending is a mixture of sorrow and survival.

Chocolate is not Sweet

WARNING: this movie shows scenes of gang rape, group sex, prostitution, and gratuitous violence as pleasurable and desirable activities.

Most offensive scene: a glimpse of a gang rape was subliminally slipped into one of the pornographic song and dance routines. This is mind rape not “entertainment.”

Some Bollywood critics complain their movies need to be more realistic, more “westernized” to be accepted internationally. If this film is an example of a “westernized” Bollywood film, then the soul of Bollywood has been lost.

This is a gangster movie produced by those who want to see the criminal lifestyle glamorized and to make money off portraying titillating acts of violence, murder, robbery, pornography, and prostitution geared toward a youthful male audience.

This is not a family movie.

The theme of this movie is “money is power and with power you can do anything you want.”

The story of how two members of a London musical group came to be arrested for murder and robbery is not a story about good versus evil. It is just a story of evil.

The acting is sullen and unimaginative. None of the characters are sympathetic. I never cared what happened to them. They were middle-class, self-absorbed petty criminals.

The song and dance scenes are pornographic and inconsequential. Visual pornography, in my mind, is when scenes of gang rape, group sex, or other sexually twisted behaviors are shown in their entirety as if to fill the minds of the audience because they lack an imagination. Pornography is meant to make those who feel powerless in life, to feel powerful momentarily. Pornography usually shows one or more persons in a “dominant” position, a position with the power over the life of a “submissive” person. Pornography usually shows the “submissive” person performing degrading acts of sex or violence or having degrading acts of sex or violence performed upon them. Pornography is joyless and humorless.

The person, who participates in pornographic acts of gang rape, group sex, or other sexually twisted or violent behaviors because they think it is cool, do not realize they have sold their soul in the process.

In addition, pornography, which can be visual or verbal, is made to stimulate a primitive part brain that responses, psychologically and physically, to violent or sexual stimuli, in attempt to encourage people to enjoy this type of behavior, to give them a momentary sense of power, and to numb them to the consequences of this behavior so that they begin to accept this behavior as “normal.”

Ask yourself – who controls your mind?

Regret: I am sorry Anil Kapoor lent his name to this film. He plays a London lawyer attempting to help the two arrested Indian musicians.. Anil’s character, Krish, seemed laden with accoutrements like he was drowning in an excess of material goods and self-advertisement.


(image source: http://www.bollyfm.com/chocolate_cover.jpg )

Producer: Spice Entertainment
Director: Vivek Agnihotri
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Anil Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Suniel Shetty, Emraan Hashmi, Tanushree Dutta and Sushma Reddy.
Music:Pritam
Lyrics: Mayur Puri, Praveen Bhardwaj, Dev Kohli, Ajeet Srivastava

Film Festivals and Bollywood

One way to show your enthusiasm and support for Bollywood films is to attend a film festival showing Bollywood films, especially new ones.

The link above is just one of many that lists a variety of film festivals.

In Washington, DC, near where I live there are several film festivals --

DCIFF (DC Independent Film Festival)
March 2 - March 12
There are several Indian-based films in the festival.

In Quest for the Spectacular by Aunshuman Apte
About an actor in Mumbai trying to make it in Bollywood.
Sunday, 3/12/2006 2:20pm
Avalon Theatre

Lucky by Kristen Palana
An young Indian American woman faces an arranged marriage while trying to live the American dream.
Friday, 3/10/2006 9:10pm
Jewish Community Center

Ordinary Lives by Sheetal Agarwal
Documents the struggles of a family of ten living in a 180 square feet shack in Mumbai.
Wednesday, 3/8/2006 12:00 pm
Gala Theatre -- Tivoli

Truck of Dreams by Arun Kumar
Parallel stories of Bollywood -- of a truck carrying Bollywood movies to outlying villages and the dreams of a village girl.
Friday, 3/10/2006 9:10pm
Jewish Community Center


DC Film Fest
April 19 - April 30, 2006
In last year's festival, several Indian films were shown such as Raincoat, Dil Se, and Mughal-e-Azam. Films are shown at several area theaters. The website www.filmfestdc.org does not list the 2006 film program yet, so keep watching the site for the listing.

Maryland Film Festival/Baltimore
May 11 - May 14


Silver Docs
June 13 - June 18


Will update post with information as I find it.

Rang de Basanti

Director: Rakyesh Mehra
Producer: Rakyesh Mehra, Ronnie Screwvala
Cinematography: Binod Pradhan
Music: A.R. Rahman
Lyrics: Prasoon Joshi, Nacim and Blaaze
Screenplay: Rensil Dsilva
Art Direction: Allan Amin
Cast: Aamir Khan, Alice Patten, Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarmni, Kirron Kher, Waheeda Rehman, Anupam Kher


Quick Take: Historic events of the Indian revolt against British colonialism are set against the backdrop of the lives of present-day college students. The film is beautifully shot. Scenes are fluid and realistic. Music is treated as background more like Muszak than performances. Aamir Khan’s acting is layered, subtle, and superb. He generously shares the screen with the other actri, each of whom portrays their varied characters with energy and believability. The story is a call to idealism with a terrible twist at the end that echoes with images of Tiananmen Square.

Review

The opening prison scene in sepia sets the stage for the blend of past and present as reenactments of British acts of brutal suppression of Indians seeking freedom from their colonial yoke mix with images of rowdy college students filming a documentary of Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Ashfaqulla Khan, Ram Prasad Bismil, Durga Bhabhi and Chandrashekhar Azad.

The story of a young British woman’s goal of making a documentary of the Indian revolutionaries inspired by her grandfather’s diary wraps around the present day story of the lives of young college students. Her grandfather, Major McKinley, participated in Britain’s attempts to squelch rising protests after World War I by capturing, torturing, and hanging the young revolutionaries. His diary entries foretell the fall of Britain’s rule of India.

After Sue’s (Alice Patten) production company nixes the project she has been working on for two years, she packs up her materials and goes to India to make the documentary on her own. She stays with a friend, Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) on a college campus and begins to audition students for the roles. The auditions are humorous much like “American Idol.” Frustrated she has not found anyone to play the revolutionaries, Sonia, takes Sue to a party to lift her spirits.

Bonfires, beer, music, and pranks entertain the crowd of students at the party. Sonia greets several students and laughs at their antics. DJ (Aamir Khan) is seen with a friend atop a stonewall drinking beer while bending backwards over the river below to see who can drink the most without falling in. As Sue watches, she realizes Sonia’s friends would be perfect for her documentary and enlists Sonia to help persuade them to act in her film. Sue joins in the party as the students dance and gyrate randomly on the beach to western music.

Scenes of fast cars and motorcycles, drinking, and seeking easy sexual favors from girls flash by as the students head toward DJ’s home. There, as the group eats dinner, scenes from the past blend with the present as the story of the revolutionaries continues in flashbacks. Sue implores them to help her saying, “They were heroes. They fought for their country’s freedom.” The students are unimpressed. Later DJ tries to explain to Sue why they seem aimless and why he and the others love college. Their country is over-populated, has major unemployment problems and other seemingly insurmountable problems. In college, we are masters of our destinies. After college, we are at the mercy of fate. At least on campus, I am somebody. But when I get out I will be nameless, faceless, lost in the crowd.”

Gradually, we meet each student. Karan’s father (Anupam Kher), who is rich, greets his son with questions. Has Karan decided which American college he will attend? When Karan (Sidddharth) mutters a few words, his father says in disgust, “Yours is the SMS generation, no conversation beyond four lines.” His father fails to see his son’s confusion and need for a goal beyond making money. A phone call regarding the sale of cheap airplane parts interrupts their interaction.

Laxman’s Muslim family berates him for his associations with non-Muslims saying “This country has never accepted Muslims.” To which Laxman (Atul Kulkarni) replies, “I can not fill myself with hate.”

India’s fight for independence from British Imperialism was harder for their nation than it was for the American colonies. The American colonists had vanquished the native population through murder, disease, and relocation, so they only had the British army to fight. Whereas in India, hundreds of tribes of various religious beliefs had existed for thousands of years, internal conflict among the various groups kept the population from uniting against British rule. But, the young revolutionaries were Hindi, Muslim, and Sikh. They had overcome their differences to fight for a greater cause, the freedom of their country. That Sue, a Britain, has to explain this to the students is ironic. One student remarked, “They would call you nuts today, if you said you wanted to fight for your country.”

Eventually, the students agree to do the documentary and many scenes follow of the rehearsals mixed with youthful outings and pranks. In the face of what they think their world has become, they do not feel they have anything in common with the revolutionaries they portray.

The massacre of hundreds of unarmed people in Jallianwallah Bagh on April 13, 1919, by the British, was the spark that set off the revolution. The event is reflected in horrific reenactment flashbacks. This act of violence turned a non-violent people into revolutionaries.

Music scenes are shot to blend with the story. Essentially, the students prance to a musical background of youthful songs as they carouse in the city streets.

Up until the interval, the film is replete with humorous asides such as when the students are leaving a movie theater and they explain to Sue, “That’s why India grows trees so we can dance around them.”

While roaming the countryside, Sonia’s boyfriend, Ajay, an Air Force pilot, asks her to marry him.



(Image source: http://www.hindu.com/2006/01/29/images/2006012904760201.jpg)

After the interval, the students watch the documentary they made. They are sobered by it. But quickly fall back to their previous perspective, “There’s nothing worth giving your life for. When we leave college, we will have to fight just for the basics. Corruption is in our DNA.” They believe it does not matter what you do, nothing will change.

Then, they see the news their friend Ajay (Madhavan), the Air Force pilot, has died in a plane crash. At first, there is speculation that the plane malfunctioned due to the purchase of cheap defective replacement parts. But, as public demands for an inquiry increase, government officials begin to denigrate the dead pilot’s reputation to place the blame on him.

His friends and family retaliate by holding a candlelight vigil to protest the defamation of his reputation and to support the investigation of corruption. The parts dealer, Karan’s father, reassures the Minster of Defence, “Public memory is short.”

When the vigil continues to bring pressure on the government, riot troops are called in and the crowd is beaten into submission. Ajay’s mother (Waheena Rehman) is beaten into a coma. This is how the Indian government answers its public.

When Laxman, is beaten up by his own family with his father’s consent for his acceptance of others, I knew how he felt.

The tenor of the film changed. The group of friends becomes comrade-in-arms as they plan their revenge against a corrupt and unresponsive government. One student notes, “The Defence Minster is suppose to safeguard the nation not sell it.”

Pleasures: I appreciated the modern look of the sets and cinematography. In addition, this is a great ensemble film shorn of excessive sentimentaility. Plus, I am a sucker for handsome men like Madhavan. His part may have been brief but he graced the screen with charm and electric good looks.

Regrets: I missed the full-blown song-and-dance routines but I understood what the director was trying to do with the music. My disappointment is that the solution the film offers seems as empty as the corruption it was meant to rectify.

Commentary

While I understand this film is a call to idealism, I could not see how the ending would achieve that result. This film has many scenes of violence. While they may have been “tastefully done” there were still too many for me. I have strong feelings about the use of violence. I want to believe people can find more diplomatic ways to resolve their differences.

What did the director hope the response would be to his film? Does he think young people will take to the streets and begin killing anyone they decide is corrupt?

Bluffmaster

Director: Rohan Sippy
Producer: Ramesh Sippy
Screenplay: Shridhar Raghavan
Dialogue: Rajat Arora
Music by: Arash, Vishal Dadlani, Sameeruddinand Shekhar Raviiani
Cinematography: Himman Dhamija
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Ritesh Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Nana Patekar

This film is a comedy buried in a light soul-searching drama. You could also say it’s a male-bonding version of "Bunty Aur Babli" without its charm and style. While the film was enjoyable, Abhishek looked tired. I wondered if he was juggling too many films while shooting this one.

Bluffmaster opens with an elaborate scam introducing Roy Kapoor (Abhishek Bachchan), a major con artist, proving if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But things quickly fall apart. At Roy’s engagement party, a guest, the recently scammed gentleman, informs Simmi Khanna (Priyanka Chopra), Roy's fiancee, and her parents about the source of Roy’s income. Simmi promptly dumps Roy.

As Roy ponders his future, enter Dittu, a conman in training. Dittu seeks to learn from a master, so he strikes up a friendship with Roy in an unusual way. A series of scams follow mixed with occasional encounters with Simmi where Roy attempts to win her back. While some of the scams seemed pulled from other films, the door-to-door salesman scam is a kick. But somewhere in the mix you wonder who is being scammed? Riteish Deshmukh as Dittu brightens the screen as a cheeky young man with a delightful collection of T-shirts.

Roy takes Dittu under his wing outlining the rules of the con game while at the same time trying to dissuade him from becoming a con artist. Roy tells Dittu, “I choose the wrong road.”

Then Roy begins to have fainting spells. Enter zany Dr. Bhalerao (Boman Irani) who tells Roy he only has three months to live. One piece of advice Dr. Bhalerao gives Roy is “Life tastes sweetest when death is at your door.” Then things really get mixed up.




(Image source: http://www.lexpress.mu/)

In a final scam Roy seeks to save Simmi from a predatory hotel owner (Nana Patekar) and the outcome is unexpected.

Dropped into the fast-paced dialogue are funny references to Bollywood and Hollywood films the audience enjoyed.

Another enjoyable feature was the cinematography especially the panoramic shots of various Mumbai cityscapes.

One regret is most of the music scenes were chaotic. Disco dancing lacks the ability to show off a performer’s dancing skills and I know Abhishek can dance.

I think I will begin to put a “U” label in my reviews. This was another macho flick with the requisite meeting in the bathroom at the urinals. Do women have a common meeting place in films?