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Reviews
Chak De! India (2007)
I Heart Hockeybees
With Chak De India, director Shimit Amin has made a paint-by-numbers sports film, hitting every predictable checkpoint as it races along. And that's a compliment to what is easily the best Hindi film of the year so far, because we go to sports-flicks for predictability, to see Bhuvan's XI kick Brit ass, to see The Replacements come from behind. This time out, it's Shah Rukh Khan's Gordon Bombay trying to coach a bunch of ragtag Mighty Desi Ducks to self-belief, glory, and a cabinet full of silver. Seven years after a blunder stopped his career cold in its tracks, hockey hero-gone-zero Kabir Khan is raring to get back onto the hockey field. He'll do whatever it takes, even if it means taking a gig coaching the Indian Women's Hockey team. He's up against history and a hockey association whose step-motherly apathy towards the team makes Cinderella's folks look like Norman Rockwell creations. And then there's the actual team, the sort of bunch polite people would call a "work in progress" and most people in the movie call a "Rakshas Sena." They come from all over India (of course), and they come carrying some stereotypical cultural baggage. The North-Eastern girls, for example, are hooted at everywhere they go because, you know, they're *supposed* to be easy. Take a bow writer Jaideep Sahni because the beauty of it is, of course, the fact that this automatically gives each character an arc, a responsibility even, to take cheerful digs at these stereotypes and hypocrisy (watch for a rousing bar-brawl brought on as a result of some serious stereotyping). But none of these characters would have mattered without the women playing them; they're a casting marvel, a dirty dozen with more spark, sass and oomph than a truckload of Spice Girls on crack. They're an absolute joy to watch, carrying this movie effortlessly. As is the case with any team movie, you warm up to some of the ensemble, and others leave you cold. Vidya Malvade holds her own as goalie/captain/home-maker Vidya and Segarika Ghatge (playing arrogant striker Preeti Sabharwal) seems to have the male vote (mine includedÂ… maybe). Shah Rukh Khan is excellent here, surprisingly restrained and resisting the urge to SRK it up even when the opportunity presents itself. He's good, but even he can only stand around and watch as Chitrashi Rawat, playing Jersey #1, Komal Chautala steals the ball out from under him, shoots and sccccoorrrrressssss. She's pint-sized dynamite, the sort of person I wouldn't want to be on the bad side of, on the field or off it. Speaking of the field, hats off to director Amin for sticking with the game throughout the film, and doing it well. He and his cinematography team find coherence in the chaos, their camera gliding through the mess of feet and sticks to give us a sports film that looks like a sports film instead of looking like, well, Awwal Number. This is his second film (his first was slow-burn cop thriller Ab Tak Chappan), and as far as I'm concerned, he's one of the best Bollywood's got. Chak De India is masala-pop patriotism done right, and I'm twice as glad that it focuses on hockey and not cricket. Hockey is something Indian men used to be good at. Pity then that today, the only ones who can get it right in this country are a bunch of fictitious, cinematic women.
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)
More misses than hits in Karan Johar's overlong, overwrought third outing...
The problem with reviewing a Bollywood movie, more so a Karan Johar movie, is that you never know whether you should review it on your terms or it's own terms.
Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna ("KANK", of course), is a film that doesn't do much, but does what it does pretty well for the most part. I say "for the most part" because by the final third, it becomes an endurance test.
This is a Karan Johar film that begins where most Karan Johar films end. Dev Saran (Shah Rukh Khan)is married to Rhea (Priety Zinta). One morning he meets Maya (Rani Mukherjee), sitting at a bench, hesitant to go into her own wedding with Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan). Dev talks her into taking the plunge and they go their separate ways. A few years later, Rhea is successful, Dev isn't. Rishi's in love with Maya, Maya loves Rishi but isn't *in* love with him. When Maya and Dev reconnect, infidelity ensues.
So is this a film about marriage, love, following your heart, the difference between love and being in love? Well, yes and no. Johar flirts tantilizingly with all those issues, but never really gets a grip on any of them. You could argue that I'm being a bit lofty in my ambition for a Karan Johar movie, but I'm only disappointed because the opportunities for dealing with these issues all present themselves repeatedly during the film's mammoth three and a half hour runtime, but Johar never does them justice. This is definitely his most mature film yet, but the maturity feels token and isn't enough.
Is this a bad film? Nope, not in the least. Johar is still very much melodrama's Michael Bay; KANK is loud, lush, gorgeous and Johar knows how to get his actors to crank the emo factor up all the way to 11. The chemistry between Rani Mukherji and SRK (hamming it up) is palpable, their little gestures saying more than the loud ones (a pity, because little gestures are in short supply here). Abhishek Bachchan is here to stay but lets not forget Amitabh Bachchan. I can't figure out if its a testament to the Big B's ability or an indictment of the other actors (and indeed the script) that in spite of dealing with two complex marriages, the emotional center of the film is the relationship between Amitabh and Kiron Kher. (he plays Abhishek's father, her, Shah Rukh's mother).
The most sorely under-written character is Priety Zinta's. The script does her the disservice of painting her as cold and so focused on her career that her marriage has fallen by the wayside. Why does this bother me? Because it just feels like Johar's trying to force our sympathies towards SRK and Rani's relationship. She's got a thankless job to do, even though her character fleshes itself out a bit more towards the end.
This is a Karan Johar film and so of course the beautiful people are dressed in beautiful brands courtesy Manish Malhotra. The film is dressed in great (if slightly forgettable) music by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy. But somewhere along the way, somebody was asleep at two important tables; at the writers' table, both Johar and screenplay writer Shibani Bhatija clearly thought they had an obligation to drag the film across a 200 minute finish line, so the script is flabby and padded. At the one table we could have had a liposuction, the editing table, editor Sanjay Sankla went to sleep.
As a result, in spite of it's ability to make you think in bits, in spite of it's beauty, in spite of some searing performances, the film loses its ability to ever truly touch you, instead leaving you checking your watch, wondering if you're going to make that dinner appointment.
I almost missed mine.
Rang De Basanti (2006)
Simplistic but strong.
I've been trying to compose this review in my head ever since I left the movie theater. This is a hard review to write because the words and thoughts don't come, and those that do are disjointed and often at odds with each other.
Rang De Basanti is the sort of movie that does that though. In viewing and judging this film, we cannot help but take a good hard look at ourselves. Here are the emotions coursing through my system right now; guilt, shame, anger, elation, warmth, happiness. These emotions are conflicting and are at odds with each other.
But this is the sort of movie that will put you at odds with yourself. This is because there is a little bit of all of us in its characters. Thus, we sense that the things they do (or don't), we may well do (or not do). There is a moment, early in the film, where Aamir Khan's character DJ, explains to us that he should have finished college years ago, but he remains there because on campus people know him, he has a name, he has the warmth and affection of his peers. If I leave this place, he says, I'll disappear into the hordes that have gone before me, and I will be and feel as insignificant as them.
At that moment, I sank low into my seat because he reminded me of someone I know... me. If I were (god forbid) to be plucked from the face of this earth right now, I would have to leave with the knowledge that I have done nothing of note and have had no real effect on the lives of anyone around me. More importantly, in 48 hours, I will forget this soul searching and find myself sitting with my friends, laughing about something that makes no difference to anyone's life.
Rang De Basanti is about a group of characters, all in college, who want nothing out of life. They're adrift in a sea of hedonism and ennui. captured brilliantly by director Rakeysh Mehra. These kids aren't callous; they're only happy-go-lucky and cynical about the state of the nation because according to them "nothing ever changes". This cycle of theirs works just fine until they are presented with a situation whose tragedy is all too real, all too grave and all too personal. They find themselves in a position where "nothing ever changes" is not a good enough excuse anymore. At first, we sense that they do not understand the gravity of what is happening to them. "Humme ki ho raha hai?" says one of the characters in a moment of despair.
This isn't a perfect film. In fact, its far from it. There are some deep flaws but the film is strong enough to work around and in spite of them. The film's politics are simplistic and it paints in broad strokes, but it's still real enough to hit you where it hurts. There are moments of such intense melodrama that they threaten to undo the film, but it is to Mehra's credit that he manages to reel it all in and keep the motor running. This is in no small measure due to the cast, one of the best ensembles I've ever seen in a movie. Their chemistry is perfect. You can't help but feel that if you sat down with this group one evening, you'd hear stories of their experiences as a unit. Atul Kulkarni is brilliant as always, Kunal Kapoor is understated, Sharman Joshi is by turn hilarious and heart-breaking, Soha Ali Khan reminds us whose daughter she is, and Aamir Khan reminds us that yes he may grow his hair and yes he may have a new found media-hunger, but he is still one of the finest actors in the world today. But the film belongs to Siddharth Narayan, in a performance that is always on slow burn, always close to exploding, but never getting there.
Yes, I could easily accuse this film of being dramatic, and its third act of being almost outlandish, and yet I won't. I can forgive the drama because it is all a means to an end, to a strong point that the film-makers are trying to make. They're asking us to take a good, long, look at ourselves. And then they're asking us to do something about what we see when we do.
Rang De Basanti is that it isn't trying to teach us anything new. It merely reminds us of old things we should never have forgotten in the first place.