Aarakshan (2011)PART I
Direction – Prakash Jha
Story – Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali
Starring (in order of acting talent as exhibited in the movie)– Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpai, Deepika Padukone, Tanvi Azmi, Saif Ali Khan and Prateik.
I saw this film last night as it was telecast on Sony Television and this was my first viewing of the film and quite safe to say my last viewing too. I did not see this movie in the theatres because I seem to have decided, quite subconsciously, to strictly avoid paying for those movies which did not appeal to me at the first glance and waiting for them to hit the TV channels…and this seems to have worked quite fine for me till now with me having avoided wasting money on treasures like Kambhaqt Ishq, Chandni Chowk to China, Mere Brother ki Dulhann, Bodyguard to name a few.
Anyway, I heard a lot of divergent opinions on Arakshan but being the self assured in the sense of not really bothering too much about other people’s opinion person that I am i.e. I am assured only by myself, I decided to wait until I myself watched the film to form any sort of opinion on it. Hence I sat down last night and watched it with all the good intentions that I mustered up as an impartial viewer.
And the following are my observations. As I always say these are my opinions and you are most welcome to make your own.
I found the film to be extremely ill paced. The first 15 minutes are a whirlwind with absolutely EVERYTHING happening from the establishment of the godly nature of Prabhakar Anand (played by Amitabh Bachchan) to the (potential – in most cases proven) kameena-ness of everyone else to the establishment of side track of Prabhakar helping out a friend’s family to the establishment Saif’s character (Deepak Kumar) and his love relations with Deepika (Poorvi, Prabhakar’s daughter) to the establishment of Prateik (Sushant) as the ever so slightly bigrail bachcha but a good friend of Poorvi and rival but friend of Deepak to the establishment of ALL side characters …so yeah, there is a LOT of establishment, all crammed within the first 12 minutes and the remaining three minutes are donated to a forgettable romantic duet.
Anyhow, this extremely fast pace then gives way to a slow forgettable journey which is the movie. There is hardly any continuity in story. Manoj Bajpai’s character of Mithilesh Singh is quickly introduced as the worst kind of teachers who although seem to know their craft are more interested in minting money out of it by way of expensive tuition centers (KK coaching classes in this case) which cater more to learning by heart (or rattafication) then imparting knowledge for real. He is the one who seeks to commercialize education and is hence in direct contrast to Prabhakar Anand to whom education is a way to a brighter future for all and hence believes in free (as much as possible) and fair education to all. The crux of the story is this. The title is hence misleading because the concept of ‘reservation’ is used only as a vehicle for this basic plot, which would not have been a problem had it been sold like that.
Why I say this? Well, the film sets no basis or foundation to the advent of the policy of reservation. It comes like a torrid wind and…that’s about it. It comes, it changes stuff…and it disappears. The director wastes no footage on actually debating out the issue. The three main points regarding reservation are put forward, no beginning or conclusion provided – a. Reservation is the birth right of lower castes in view of the years of humiliation and abuse they have faced; b. Merit should be given importance and not reservation of any sort and c. The personal point of view “why should I support those who are taking away my son’s/daughter’s seat because as it is they come first for me”. There is absolutely not even a try to make sense of the issue. It is just presented as in textbooks (worse than that actually) and left there. No debate, no discussion and absolutely no conclusion.
But yes, it changes everything. How? I doubt anyone knows the answer to that. Mithilesh Singh, along with the evil trustees of the college (STM) where Prabhakar is the principal, decide to get rid of him in lieu of his absolute disregard of any sort of recommendation. Here lies another major problem of the movie. There is no sense, not even a semblance of it, of the concept of ‘duniya daari’ or the ways of the world. Everyone does EVERYTHING in full public view with all their emotions and feelings displayed right out. For instance, Prabhakar openly dismisses all recommendations, even if they are by a minister. I am not saying that there is a problem with that but there is a deep sense of unreality in the fact that such dealings are engaged in the presence of others. It seems like no one in this screenplay has heard of the concept of ‘behind closed doors’, not even the otherwise master schemer ministers and trustees and police officials. This is brilliantly unsettling to any viewer if this is meant to be ‘realistic’ cinema. Second issue is how everyone changes in a matter of few seconds and for no visible reasons which should have been pretty darn visible for such massive change of hearts. Example, Deepak Kumar who till now had been vouching for Prabhakar Anand’s sincerity and true nature and owes basically everything to him, and not to mention is courting his daughter, accuses the same man of being a casteist following a brief, again unexplored and brilliantly abrupt, scuffle with Sushant. Or how old students of Prabhakar who basically treated him like a God just a few scenes back (or in the police officer’s case literally a few seconds back) turn their back on him (or in the police officer’s case turn truly ‘evil’) following his one statement in a newspaper in support of the idea behind the policy of reservation (or in the police officer’s case for no reason at all)…no care about the context or his situation.
Such situations and errs make this film an irritating watch and if it had not been for Amitabh Bachchan’s strong performance (in another wise weak role) and Manoj Bajpai’s good performance (in an otherwise unexplored all black role), I would have abused the film for two minutes (for wasting my time till this moment) and switched off the TV but they gave good performances which managed to calm my nerves and keep my itching hands off the ‘off’ button. A small note here – Manoj Bajpai is by no denial a great actor but it is sad that he seems to have been typecast as the kameena ghatiya villain. Hopefully, sense shall prevail and he shall get a chance to expand his horizons.
And as we move on, we realize that to make Prabhakar Anand’s godlike status and principles more and more visible, the creative team goes all out to make everyone else flawed with no explanations given for any sort of change of heart (for the worse or for the better). This is a fundamental flaw I have been having with certain films – why do we need to make a character ‘God’? Why isn’t it enough that he is a good guy? For instance, if we take the example of My Name is Khan (which to add is a terrible movie and had entirely missed the editing table and would have been intolerable had it not been for Shahrukh Khan’s brilliant performance), why does Karan Johar (and team) need to make Rizwan a God by making him save an entire village from a hurricane etc etc etc. Why isn’t it enough that Rizwan is a great guy, end of story. Sigh.
Read Part II for the rest (the post just above this...if this link has opened in isolation, then just click on 'cine me' at the top) :)
(Thanks to Asmita for this suggestion)
- Rae
Direction – Prakash Jha
Story – Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali
Starring (in order of acting talent as exhibited in the movie)– Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Bajpai, Deepika Padukone, Tanvi Azmi, Saif Ali Khan and Prateik.
I saw this film last night as it was telecast on Sony Television and this was my first viewing of the film and quite safe to say my last viewing too. I did not see this movie in the theatres because I seem to have decided, quite subconsciously, to strictly avoid paying for those movies which did not appeal to me at the first glance and waiting for them to hit the TV channels…and this seems to have worked quite fine for me till now with me having avoided wasting money on treasures like Kambhaqt Ishq, Chandni Chowk to China, Mere Brother ki Dulhann, Bodyguard to name a few.
Anyway, I heard a lot of divergent opinions on Arakshan but being the self assured in the sense of not really bothering too much about other people’s opinion person that I am i.e. I am assured only by myself, I decided to wait until I myself watched the film to form any sort of opinion on it. Hence I sat down last night and watched it with all the good intentions that I mustered up as an impartial viewer.
And the following are my observations. As I always say these are my opinions and you are most welcome to make your own.
I found the film to be extremely ill paced. The first 15 minutes are a whirlwind with absolutely EVERYTHING happening from the establishment of the godly nature of Prabhakar Anand (played by Amitabh Bachchan) to the (potential – in most cases proven) kameena-ness of everyone else to the establishment of side track of Prabhakar helping out a friend’s family to the establishment Saif’s character (Deepak Kumar) and his love relations with Deepika (Poorvi, Prabhakar’s daughter) to the establishment of Prateik (Sushant) as the ever so slightly bigrail bachcha but a good friend of Poorvi and rival but friend of Deepak to the establishment of ALL side characters …so yeah, there is a LOT of establishment, all crammed within the first 12 minutes and the remaining three minutes are donated to a forgettable romantic duet.
Anyhow, this extremely fast pace then gives way to a slow forgettable journey which is the movie. There is hardly any continuity in story. Manoj Bajpai’s character of Mithilesh Singh is quickly introduced as the worst kind of teachers who although seem to know their craft are more interested in minting money out of it by way of expensive tuition centers (KK coaching classes in this case) which cater more to learning by heart (or rattafication) then imparting knowledge for real. He is the one who seeks to commercialize education and is hence in direct contrast to Prabhakar Anand to whom education is a way to a brighter future for all and hence believes in free (as much as possible) and fair education to all. The crux of the story is this. The title is hence misleading because the concept of ‘reservation’ is used only as a vehicle for this basic plot, which would not have been a problem had it been sold like that.
Why I say this? Well, the film sets no basis or foundation to the advent of the policy of reservation. It comes like a torrid wind and…that’s about it. It comes, it changes stuff…and it disappears. The director wastes no footage on actually debating out the issue. The three main points regarding reservation are put forward, no beginning or conclusion provided – a. Reservation is the birth right of lower castes in view of the years of humiliation and abuse they have faced; b. Merit should be given importance and not reservation of any sort and c. The personal point of view “why should I support those who are taking away my son’s/daughter’s seat because as it is they come first for me”. There is absolutely not even a try to make sense of the issue. It is just presented as in textbooks (worse than that actually) and left there. No debate, no discussion and absolutely no conclusion.
But yes, it changes everything. How? I doubt anyone knows the answer to that. Mithilesh Singh, along with the evil trustees of the college (STM) where Prabhakar is the principal, decide to get rid of him in lieu of his absolute disregard of any sort of recommendation. Here lies another major problem of the movie. There is no sense, not even a semblance of it, of the concept of ‘duniya daari’ or the ways of the world. Everyone does EVERYTHING in full public view with all their emotions and feelings displayed right out. For instance, Prabhakar openly dismisses all recommendations, even if they are by a minister. I am not saying that there is a problem with that but there is a deep sense of unreality in the fact that such dealings are engaged in the presence of others. It seems like no one in this screenplay has heard of the concept of ‘behind closed doors’, not even the otherwise master schemer ministers and trustees and police officials. This is brilliantly unsettling to any viewer if this is meant to be ‘realistic’ cinema. Second issue is how everyone changes in a matter of few seconds and for no visible reasons which should have been pretty darn visible for such massive change of hearts. Example, Deepak Kumar who till now had been vouching for Prabhakar Anand’s sincerity and true nature and owes basically everything to him, and not to mention is courting his daughter, accuses the same man of being a casteist following a brief, again unexplored and brilliantly abrupt, scuffle with Sushant. Or how old students of Prabhakar who basically treated him like a God just a few scenes back (or in the police officer’s case literally a few seconds back) turn their back on him (or in the police officer’s case turn truly ‘evil’) following his one statement in a newspaper in support of the idea behind the policy of reservation (or in the police officer’s case for no reason at all)…no care about the context or his situation.
Such situations and errs make this film an irritating watch and if it had not been for Amitabh Bachchan’s strong performance (in another wise weak role) and Manoj Bajpai’s good performance (in an otherwise unexplored all black role), I would have abused the film for two minutes (for wasting my time till this moment) and switched off the TV but they gave good performances which managed to calm my nerves and keep my itching hands off the ‘off’ button. A small note here – Manoj Bajpai is by no denial a great actor but it is sad that he seems to have been typecast as the kameena ghatiya villain. Hopefully, sense shall prevail and he shall get a chance to expand his horizons.
And as we move on, we realize that to make Prabhakar Anand’s godlike status and principles more and more visible, the creative team goes all out to make everyone else flawed with no explanations given for any sort of change of heart (for the worse or for the better). This is a fundamental flaw I have been having with certain films – why do we need to make a character ‘God’? Why isn’t it enough that he is a good guy? For instance, if we take the example of My Name is Khan (which to add is a terrible movie and had entirely missed the editing table and would have been intolerable had it not been for Shahrukh Khan’s brilliant performance), why does Karan Johar (and team) need to make Rizwan a God by making him save an entire village from a hurricane etc etc etc. Why isn’t it enough that Rizwan is a great guy, end of story. Sigh.
Read Part II for the rest (the post just above this...if this link has opened in isolation, then just click on 'cine me' at the top) :)
(Thanks to Asmita for this suggestion)
- Rae
This is indeed a brilliant piece, demonstrating the grasp of subject as well as that of critical yet poetic language. Congrates.
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