Main aur Mr. Riight : A romantic comedy wannabe but debutant Barun Sobti shines!

Movie - Main aur Mr. Riight

Director - Adeeb Rais
Starring : Shehnaz Tresurywala, Barun Sobti (debut), Kavi Shastri, Varun Khandelwal, Maia Sethna, Anagha Mane among others

MAMR tells the story of an independent casting director Aliya Raj (Shehnaz Tresurywala) who is a perfectionist in her personal life as much as she is in her professional life. She is on the lookout or rather is forced to be on the lookout for her perfect Mr. Right. She is also the narrator of the film and it is through her voice and feelings that the audience paves its way through the movie, the characters and their interpersonal relationships.

Tired of her friends’ constant jibes at her inability to find any man good enough for her, Aliya decides to cook up her Mr. Right and casts the wannabe actor ‘born in Punjab, brought up in Delhi’ Sukhwinder Singh aka Sukhi (Barun Sobti) in the 'role'. And thus begins the charade - written, casted and directed by Aliya Raj but does this charade work out - for Aliya and for the movie in itself?

The answer to the latter is uncertain but bordering heavily on a 'No'.

This is Adeeb Rais’ debut movie and unfortunately, if one be blunt, it shows. There is hardly any coherence in the way the story moves forward from the preliminary setting up of the plot. The same plagues his characters who all seem to be confused and more than that confusing, cursed with mistaken rage or just plain lethargy in their conceptualisation and development. All of Aliya’s friends have the irritating habit of dissecting their lives and relationships in full public view and even more annoying is the fact that these outbursts make little connection to what was going on in the story previously. They are all disconnected and hence unenjoyable. What makes it even worse is the terrible performances by the ensemble cast except Kavi Shastri who in his small and meaningless role still manages to infuse some spirit.

The film lacks a proper storyline, seems hackneyed which can still be defended by saying that it is a rom-com on an oft repeated subject so certain plots would be predictable but even then the movie could have had an energetic spirit which is sorely missing. And the worst part, is that the whole movie seems like little scenes which have been put together with little concern for them to make sense in a broader meaning of the term or for them to even be of a slightly high standard. There are many romantic comedies of this kind out there but one roots for those where the treatment is novel and well done if not the story and the plot itself.

However what works for the movie (and the producers seem to have realised it as well if one considers the marketing of this film) is the fantastic work by debutant Barun Sobti who is known for his strong and varied performances on the small screen. Barun’s character is full of energy as would be typically expected of a role of a wannabe actor with Punjabi roots and a not fancy background. And this is where the earlier point resonates. Barun’s character is hackneyed and done to death but he still manages to infuse it with a lovable, energetic, soulful spirit which propels you to sit through 2 hours of the movie and root for the guy! Barun did great work on his part and one could only hope that he had chosen a better launch vehicle for himself. In any case, a little attention on voice modulation and strength and conviction in dialogue delivery should do the trick for him because he already has all the other things down - talent, charisma, presence and looks and of course the fan base. And all of this is underlined when in the second half of the film, one begins to miss Mr. Sobti's energetic and soulful rendition of Sukhi due to the less screen time given to him.

Coming to Shehnaz, she looks confident like her character should and is beautiful but one wishes that a little less attention had been given to her assets and a little more to honing her performance because she could have done this role with a lot more elàn than she does. The surprise package of the film is the guy who plays Aliya’s assistant. I could not catch his name but he was a breath of fresh air, specially in a film where the rest of the ensemble cast seemed to have a competition going on about who could be the most deadbeat performer of them all. Adeeb’s casting for Aliya’s friends (with the lone exception of Kavi Shastri) brings down the film a few notches than what it could have been with actors who actually knew how to act.

The music is a definite plus and I am still humming the soulful ‘Bhool Na Jaana’ and the remix version of Bappi Lahiri's 'Yaar Bina', so that is a job well done.

In conclusion, ‘Main aur Mr. Riight’ looks like an amateur film project with a good budget (as is evident in the overall 'look' of the film) and good marketing (the first look, trailers, posters were all extremely promising) and with one strong performance and a couple of decent ones but with no novel treatment of a hackneyed storyline. However as this is Adeeb’s debut film, one must not lose hope and I wish that he learns from his mistakes and comes back with a better film - story, treatment and casting wise.

Verdict : Watch it if you are a Barun Sobti fan, definitely watch it if you are a Barun Sobti fan because the man shines. Others, watch it if you have a little money, very less expectation and two hours to spare and/or if you want to judge Barun Sobti as an upcoming actor.

Bobby Jasoos - Lacklustre.

Bobby Jasoos is the debut film of director Samar Shaikh and unfortunately it leaves much to be desired.

Set in Hyderabad, Bobby Jasoos tells the story of Bilqis, a woman from a humble background who has no interest in marriage or being a girl as defined by the society but instead dreams of becoming the best darn detective around. However the only cases Bilqis scores are about uncles wanting her to spy on their wife making eyes at the electrician or aunties wanting to know if their daughters are being the good girls they were raised to be. She also has the case of a crime show anchor, Tasawur (Ali Fazal) where her job is to get the dirt on prospective brides so that he can reject them with well found reason. Things change when Bilqis alias Bobby has a mysterious visitor who leaves her huge sums of money to find individuals, giving as details just their name, age and any sort of birthmark. Bilqis soon figures out that there might be something shady going on and tries to uncover the truth about these well paying cases.

Now that a synopsis of the film is done, one can get on to reflections which do not favour the film much. The film is unable to click till at least 20-30 minutes have passed and in that time you also have to bear overacting by Vidya Balan (a suprise there!) who speaks in a Hyderabadi accent so strong that it is almost a caricature. Ali Fazal is charming but only till the moment he starts dancing. There he is way too enthusiastic to pull off the SRK looks, poses and dance moves that he has been entrusted with and you can only feel sorry for the poor guy because he just cannot ape SRK and also he shouldnt. He has the capability of impressing the audiences by just being himself. Bilqis' family is the most impressive of the lot (with restrained acting and thankfully restrained accents) followed closely by Aakash Dahiya as Munna. He doesnt have much of a role but as Vidya's aide he does the job perfectly.

The film is lacklustre in every department. No great cinematography to do the bustling lanes of Hyderabad any sort of justice, no brilliant music score (cannot remember one tune and I saw the film yesterday and it was Shantanu Moitra who has done great work in films like Parineeta and Antaheen!), no brilliant acting [changing garbs is great, especially if you are an Indian actress who come up with gems like not wanting to play a mother on screen because they are in their 'primes' - side question here, if you are an actor should you not be open to EVERY type of role and try to make it convincing? - but just changing your look does not ensure acting, it means that the make-up department did a great work and you carried the look well but you still need to act once you get out of that look...] and the biggest flaw of all - NO story.

The story is such that it has no highs, no lows, no ‘clutch at the seat in worry and then pry away your fingers from the sponge in relief’ - no nothing. It is boring and anti climactic and all of this means that director Samar Shaikh needs to work very hard and choose better stories to work with and also draw out performances from every department because as of now he has a film which has nothing to offer in any department...except the make up - they did a good job.

However one thing must be commended and encouraged. It is a film with a woman leading the pack and for that the producers (Dia Mirza, Sahil Sanga and Reliance Entertainment) must be congratulated. Just hope the next time they get a better story and script and not reply solely on an actor's willingness to don different garbs. It may grab eyeballs but it does not make for good viable cinema.

Verdict - Can totally pass it. 

Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaai - Aapas mein sab bhai-bhai

Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isaai - Aapas mein sab bhai-bhai

Hello folks! 

So I was going through my facebook, minding my own business - liking a photo here, commenting there, raising my eyebrows at one status, laughing my ass off on another when I saw one post -

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/tamil/news-interviews/Christian-group-protest-against-Kadal/articleshow/18345887.cms

And it was a Mentos - Dimaag ki batti jali moment for me! 

I was hit by an epiphany!

And I was left amazed and excited and thrilled and was just patting my back at being so very smart when I realized that I was also -

Ashamed.

But lets brush that aside because I doubt most people in my GREAT country know the meaning of the word anymore...specially the GREATER ones who are supposedly leading us (into stupidity but thats just my view).

Anyhow, let us come back to my amazingness!

I just realized I now have the perfect example of India's secularism and secular unity!

Remember that nice sounding rhyme we used to learn like parrots -

Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Issaai Aapas mein sab bhai-bhai! 

Yeah, that one!

Turns out we are bhai-bhai in idiocy also! YAY!

Idiocy - "Bhaiya/Bhaijaan/Brother this is hurting my religious and cultural sensibilities! Please remove it! Please or else...Police wale uncle/Government dude/Media wali Bhabhiji, dekho na!"

Examples -

Muslim - We wont let 'Vishwaroopam' release because it hurts Muslim religious sensibilities! [And we are antaryamis because film officially release hone se pehle hi humein pata hai ki uss mein kya aapatijanak hai! (Antaryaamis or pirated film watchers, you decide...)]

Result - Vishwaroopam banned in Tamil Nadu with an emotional Kamal Haasan talking about possibly leaving the country. Currently, however, he is in the process of removing certain scenes from the film for its 'safe' release. 

Muslim - We will release a fatwa against teenage girls singing and having a rock band because it hurts our religious sensibilities! How dare they?!
Result - Amidst much blah blah by the CM, the girls decided to close down their rock band. 

Hindu - A young painter forced to take down three of his paintings from an exhibition at Bangalore because they hurt the religious sensibilities of some BJP workers.
Result - Paintings taken down from exhibition. Artist crying hoarse over his 'babies' but mennu ki?!

Hindu - Yeh toh aaj ki baat hai but who can forget that they also chased away India's Da Vinci MF Husain from his country, forcing him to breathe his last on foreign soil.
Result -  MF Husain's dead. Aur kya kahoon?

Christians - Christian groups starting to protest against Mani Ratnam's 'Kandal' even before the film has released stating that it has scenes disturbing their religious sensibilities! Please welcome, ladies and gentlemen, one more set of antaryaamis!

Result - Awaited

Christians - Da Vinci Code's release was possible only after it had been approved by Church Representatives after a special screening organized by none other than the I&B Minister of that time - Priyaranjandas Munshi.
Result - Tennu ki?! 

Toh hue ne asal mein hum sab Bhai-Bhai! Chalo ab issi baat pe ek naya gaana/film/kitaab dhoonde iss unity ko badhaane ke liye!

PS - Sab ke do-do example diye hain...please yeh matt bolna ki I am not secular! 

Girls, just dont exist

A young girl of 23 years old was gang raped and brutalized in a moving bus in the capital of the country we today label, very proudly, as the upcoming superpower and with much gusto tell each other and others how we are finally leaving behind the ‘developing’ and the ‘third world country’ tags.

Are we?

A country where there is no fear of law, there is no purview of our own perversions, where victims are punished instead of the perpetrators of crime – are we a developed or even a developing country? In fact can we even be called a society?

I don’t think so.

As a woman, as a human, as an identity I don’t think so.

The woman who is fighting for her life in Safdurjung Hospital today has sustained injuries the doctors don’t even want to share, injuries which they have just described as horrific even by what all they see, that woman was not out alone. She was with a male companion and yet…

Which makes me rethink all the guidelines the good people of this society we ‘live’ in mete out to woman for their own safety or so they magnanimously declare –

        A. Don’t go out alone at night, or day time for that matter.

      B. Don’t wear revealing clothes.

      C. Don’t take public transport when alone.

      D. Don’t use private transport when alone late at night.

      E. Don’t stand up for yourself when treated with perversion as it may escalate the anger of the perverts.

      F. Don’t get angry.

      G. Etc etc etc

I have a suggestion…lets add “Don’t live” in the list and solve the problem for once and for all.

Because that’s what we are suggesting through all these amazing helpful words.

Today I would like to ask why are the victims being asked to keep a check on their INNOCENT actions?! Why are they being treated with iron gloves?! Why are they being asked to change their INNOCENT ways because it may INVITE the wrath of the sick assholes this society cant do shit about?!

Why shouldn’t the guidelines be for men? Why shouldn’t they be asked to stay at home? Why shouldn’t they be asked to clean their thoughts? Why shouldn’t they be asked to discard public transport? Why shouldn’t they be made to vacate roads at night? Why shouldn’t they be asked to feel ashamed when they do perverted actions and use perverted words?

The day we are able to answer this question, the day we are able to punish the criminals instead of the victims, maybe then we can call ourselves humans.

The day the “intellectuals”, the “beacons of hopes and leadership”, "the fighters for 'equality'", of this country decide to ask and entertain these questions, maybe we will actually have a light of hope because right now they are too busy either monitoring girls and their behavior (the good old restriction on timings of girls hostel for their own safety of course while the boys who hamper this safety can participate in the night life of this city for all its worth as there wont be any breasts or vaginas to tempt them) or being “politically correct” (“Arrey isko isliye pakda aur usko nahin kyonki yeh toh iss jaat ka hai aur woh uss jaat ka!” or “He is getting punished because he is poor! What about those rich perpetrators of such heinous crimes who live in mansions?!”).

For ONCE, think as humans and not as statues of screwed up righteousness and skewed morality. Just once. Or just add “Girls shouldn’t exist” to the good list you give us and put an end to the charade.

A disturbed 21 year old girl who cannot travel from her University to her house alone without being extremely aware of the fact that she is alone.

Were you stunned today?

There are umpteen times I am stunned in a day.

For instance when I realize I slept with my headphones in my ears.

Or when I am told that my brother ate all the chicken leftover from the night before.

Or when I see a chipkalli sitting on my desk.

Or when I watch on news the complete shameful disgrace of our democracy by the people who are supposed to guard it.

Here I was today, merrily having my dinner of karela (I happen to like it – you may have your stunned moment of the day) when I watched on the news how our parliamentarians made a complete mockery of the words (seem to be just words to them) – Freedom of Speech and Expression.

They were ‘incensed’ (like I was at their sheer thick-headedness) at a particular cartoon (by Shankar) in the NCERT Political Science text book of Class XII which depicts Babasaheb Ambedkar (Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee) and the Prime Minister (Jawaharlal Nehru) both brandishing a whip at the snail pace at which the constitution is being written.

Now, the caption beneath this reads and I quote – “Cartoonist’s impression of the ‘snail’space’ with which the Constitution was made. Making of the Constitution took almost three years. Is the cartoonist commenting on this fact? Why do you think, did the Constituent Assembly take so long to make the Constitution?”

Now the answer to this as far as I can remember was that it was taking them so long because of the intricacies of India’s cultural character and the history with which he had emerged and the will to make a comprehensive constitution with an in depth study of those of other countries like France and the United States…but of course who cares that the answer was in support of the constitution drafting committee…the most important thing there is the whip.


Now here BOTH are brandishing whips and asking the 'snail pace' to hurry up, there is NO question of Nehru being a slave driver or Ambedkar being one. If either is portrayed as that, the other automatically falls in the same ambit.

The point made out here is as Miss. Mayawati (who at the time of writing this seems to be getting embroiled in an ‘Elephant scam’ where she seems to have done massive funds blundering in the task of decorating UP with elephant statues) eloquently puts – “Reacting to the controversy, Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) chief Mayawati said, "Dr Ambedkar is a towering personality, who framed the Constitution of India and the Parliament is running on it. This is an insult on Indian democracy. The government should intervene and take strong action against those, who are involved in this. If it failed to do so, we will wait for two to three days or else our party will not allow the House to run."

The point behind such strong words, you ask?


Err...I don’t know. I doubt anyone does. It is the case of the missing point it seems because whatever point could have been about Nehru threatening Ambedkar seems to have vanished into thin air because Ambedkar too holds a whip, and both are using their respective whips at the snail...

Except of course creating misunderstandings and stupidities galore and not to mention move attention away from other pressing matters like her ‘Elephant scam’ to talk of one...

Anyway, my point with this blog post is to basically praise these books and so here I go –

These two books (Contemporary World Politics and Politics in India since Independence) were the best books in my 14 years in school and certainly in high school where text books matter a lot more than they did before. I remember reading them with so much relish that my mother got suspicious because none of my other books ever got that attention from me. I still have them with me and they are filled with notes I took down during class and otherwise, cartoons filled with little tidbits of analysis as we debated them out in class and basically the sign of a student actually engaging in class...but I guess thats just not required or maybe even frowned down upon – what good could it be for anyone if God forbid, someone engaged in a debate and did not just stage a walk out?

Maybe instead of designing a book which encourages free flow of thoughts and creativity and a will to study and know more and which increases our curiosity level, Prof Yogendra Yadav, Suhas Palshikar and the team behind this book, should have designed a book which directs our behaviour and thoughts and teaches us to choose the way of escape any chance of debate and building a character.

For the way they have been treated with attacks at Suhas Palshikar’s office by a bunch of illiterate goons to them resigning from the post of being advisors to NCERT to the sheer shame of Kapil Sibal, HRD minister, apologizing for the cartoon and vowing to withdraw the book from next year, I just feel terribly sad and scared for the India we seem to be fast creating – always incensed with no sense of intelligent debates and a will to allow dissenting opinions and to talk them over and one which is fearful of standing up against such blatant ignorance and violation of the constitution they seem to think they are defending. A book shouldnt by no means be one which the student likes studying or a teacher (in my case a brilliant one - Mrs. Charu Kalra Singhal) like teaching...no not at all! We will vehemently oppose all such aggressive dangerous acts, wont we?


This is unfortunately not a lone incident, freedom of speech and expression and the idea of creative freedom has been run down again and again and again over the recent times – the removal of AK Ramanujan’s essay on Ramayana from the Delhi University syllabus, arrest of a professor in West Bengal for making a cartoon of the residing CM and Trinamool Chief – Mamata Banerjee to not allowing Salman Rushdie to attend the Jaipur Literary Festival 2012 to ones in the past such as driving out MF Husain, fondly referred to as India’s Picasso – because no one here had the will to stand up for him even as he took his last breaths away from the country he loved so much, not even a citizen of it as he died.

And sorry too to all those who fought for this country to be free and create its own thoughts.

At the time of writing this, I went on the NCERT website and opened the web version of the book, only to find it printed across the pages – NOT TO BE REPUBLISHED.

I was stunned again.

Its a sad day indeed.

A picture of a typical page in my copy of Contemporary World Politics (I cannot find my copy of the other book...if unable to find it, I will surely buy a copy before it gets lost in selfish politics) –

Aarakshan - Quite Easily Dismissed (Q.E.D) PART II

Aarakshan (2011) PART II

(Part I - the post below)

Moving forward, the ‘evil’ people succeed in their little (evil) plot to get Prabhakar to resign and take over the college and turn it into a money making, ass licking institution. But they don’t stop there (since when did they have a personal vendetta against Prabhakar Anand? Sad to say, I don’t have an answer to this either…side note – this film is making me feel stupid), Mithilesh Singh has managed to get the family that Prabhakar helped (rack your brains back to those whirlwind of the first 15 minutes) to turn on him. He has opened his coaching centre in the house Prabhakar loaned to them and because of the bank guarantee being involved is legally allowed to have that place for two years. No explanation has been provided for this turn of events.

Cut to the Anand family moving into a hotel where Prabhakar refuses any kind of help from friends and is admonished by an emotionally charged Poorvi who accuses him of being too holy for his own sake, the only sensible moment in the film. And it is done pretty great by Amitabh and Deepika (with Amitabh hardly having any dialogues…the eyes and the body do all the talking). And it is here that you realize two things – a. Deepika is finally showing some form of talent which is pretty great. She looks great and if she can get herself to act…whats better than that? and b. Tanvi Azmi as Anand’s wife gives a disappointing performance. She is like a ruler. No bending, no emotions.

Now, finally we are taken back to Saif (Deepak) who had left for America (having been accepted into some university in what respect…I have forgotten or perhaps it wasn’t mentioned) following the furious exchange of words with Prabhakar and consequent break up with Deepika (Poorvi). It is perhaps the most hilarious moment in the film (it isn’t meant to be so) when Deepak is sitting with this white guy in some university of USA and discussing his work and relating how great Prabhakar is (ummm…what? Didn’t you just accuse him of being a casteist?) does he get to know what has happened (thanks to Yahoo! India…don’t ask me how that opened as the yahoo mail page for an American in America…or maybe it was the US version only which would still be strange because what was the news of a principal being sacked in a private Indian university, something which the chief minister of the particular state will confess ignorance of later on, doing on front page Yahoo! USA?).Deepak surprises Poorvi by returning home and pledging support…Once again inexplicable change of character feelings happens with Sushant suddenly turning over a new leaf (that is reverting back to his original, but improved, self and burying the hatchets, the origin of which are still largely unexplained, with both Poorvi and Deepak) and the director realizes that he should work towards some sort of conclusion.

Hence, what seems like a scene being lifted from Viruddh, Amitabh Bachchan decides to enact out a scheme which is basically starting a free and fair rival institute just opposite his house (which has been taken over by KK coaching classes) with his students being the poor children living in the tabela (stable) owned by a faithful servant (Yashpal Sharma as Shambhu gives a charming performance). Lo and behold, the numbers grow and people join in to help him out – Deepak, Sushant, Poorvi etc and finally he has succeeded in creating a major nuisance for KK coaching classes and his detractors (why they are STILL his detractors after getting him out of STM and running it as they see fit, I know not).

The film in its ending tries to ape the revolution feel and treatment as say in Lagaan, the Munnabhai series, Chak de India, Rang de Basanti but fails miserable because of its nonsensical storytelling and basic lack of plot, not to mention contrived situations and sequences. Therefore, as the good doers stand in a huge crowd and stare obstinately in the face of evil, you feel irritated and frustrated and basically tired out of your mind and not energized, adrenaline rushed, bright eyed as you should.

The situation by the climax scene has gone absolutely haywire. Mithilesh Singh has actually lost his mind and can be seen dancing around in fury in full public view, screaming out orders at the police force to demolish the tabela classes (that’s what it is called and no, I am not joking. Sadly) who by now has lost every semblance of credibility. This is not it though because Mithilesh Singh snaps out his blackberry and calls up the State education minister (a typecast Saurabh Shukla) and they both start yakking out all of their ill intentions in full public view.

In walks, out of nowhere, Hema Malini – the woman who owns STM who until now had retired into the forests to live the life of an ascetic – and calls up the chief minister (who confesses ignorance of the entire thing…seriously?! It was in the news as shown extensively in the movie!) and basically puts everything right…which we know because in the next scene everything appears to be alright with Prabhakar being appointed principle for life of a remedial institute for poor and weak students.
There is absolutely no, and I mean NO, indication of whatever may have happened to Mithilesh Singh, the tainted ministers, the evil trustees, the strange policeman etc etc. They are simply forgotten.

Where is reservation in this?

Exactly.

Coming to the finer points of film making…nothing good to report here either. The dialogues are contrived, uninspired and forced and so is the dialogue delivery. The dialogues seem to have been written with the sole purpose of being punch lines and that never helps and are further ruined completely drab dialogue delivery (for instance the much publicized exchange of words between Deepak and Mithilesh…in a canteen full of students, I might add).

The acting, as said before, is done only by Amitabh Bahchan (whose eyes seem to have mastered every emotion) and Manoj Bajpai. Deepika Padukone springs a surprise, a sweet one. Tanvi Azmi is disappointing and Saif is well just there. But the most surprising is the performance given by Prateik…and not in a good way. I had high expectations from him which tanked beyond trace. He is uncomfortable and does nothing to hide it. You can see the workings of his mind in each scene…like when he walks, you can see his mind going “One two. One two. One two” or when he talks, you can feel his mind going “Start. Pause. Next. Stop.” and that’s never a good thing. His character is bad, but so is everyone else’s, and he does nothing to save it which can probably be attributed to the him being extremely new and the fact that he has done good work in other films like Jaane tu ya jaane na and Dhobhi Ghat makes me think that the fault lies with the director. There seems to be nothing happening between them – no chemistry between a director and his actor with the result being an awful performance.

The camera work is once again drab, even by the standards of today which largely holds no poetry but still believes in exhibiting some form of skill. Here nothing happens. Its like a box shooting…you give a steady and generally aware of what its doing hand a camera and ask him to shoot in a circle and use no sort of creativity at all. At least that’s what I felt as a viewer who has no particular training into this stuff but is speaking from what appeals to the eyes and to the brain and to the heart. Here it is general and not really worth talking. Same goes with the musical score, which save for one song (‘Saans albeli’ sung by Pandit Channulal Mishra) is forgettable to say in the very least.

What is the most disappointing in this kind of cinema is the pretention it comes with – of being an intellectually charged film with a proper issue at its helm. Pure bull crap. This film is not it, AT ALL. I watched 40 minutes of Bodyguard in the afternoon of the same day and honestly I felt much better at the end of that then this! Why? Because it came with no pretentions. It was supposed to be a brainless brawny Salman Khan senseless movie and it delivered just that unlike this ‘intellectual issue based’ film. I have seen two movies of Prakash Jha – Rajneeti and Arakshan – and I cant say that I am too happy…I mean how is it possible to turn a mix of Mahabharata and Godfather into a drab, annoying experience? There is obviously something very wrong but because I haven’t seen his other work, I shall reserve my judgment here.

Coming back to Aarakshan, it can be described in three words (the short form taken from the movie itself, one of the favourite expressions of Prabhakar Anand as a teacher, but with the long form being tweaked to suit my view of the film) : QED – Quite Easily Dismissed.

Cheers
Ritambhara aka Rae aka RitambharaA

Aarakshan - Quite Easily Dismissed (Q.E.D) PART I

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