Movie Review – Mughal-e-Azam

More for nostalgia than for art

This was one movie in my long-term wish list. Finally, I’m happy that I could tick it. It’s one of the movies which is very tough to watch it because of the length, the period of release and the content. Being not much a fan of mythological film, it was a hindrance in that way too. This film would mostly be liked by people who had already watched and would go for a repeated watch but for someone who’s not much aware of the Hindi film industry and the stars in it, it wasn’t very inspiring.

‘Mughal-e-azam’ falls on the same league of ‘Karnan’ and the impact it both had on me too was similar. As much as I could appreciate how ‘Karnan’ would have been an awesome movie around that time, it didn’t really work now, except for Sivaji’s acting, the film lacked coherence. ‘Mughal -e-azam’ in that way was better. The film was coherent with proper screenplay but the story wasn’t really an exciting prospect. After knowing a little bit about Akbar and his achievements we directly dive in to what happens to his son and get to know his story.

Having not much knowledge of history, I’m not sure of the film’s historical accuracy. But its not a film which looks like something where we could knit pick. Come on, when an Indian cardboard map pops up and talks to you, you’re not meant to take the film seriously. Its understandable that the film is made in sixties, but take it as a good joke, will ya? But I loved the scene where Anarkali (Madhubala) gets introduced by an arrow sped by Salim (Dilip Kumar), it was quite unexpected and true to how its being projected in the film. Madhubala is a beauty to behold.

The movies title should have on the lines of ‘Sivagamiyin Sapatham’ because it talks about Anarkali more than Salim. She is the worst sufferer out of the lot. In fact, I pity Anarkali because even though she loved Salim she doesn’t come forward and say it. Her irritating sister Suraiya (Sheela Delaya) makes her commit for it and Salim heads to it. And because of that, Anarkali gets to be in dungeon, incurs the wrath of both Akbar as well as Salim.

Even though the script says that Salim equally loves Anarkali and ready to do anything for him, Dilip Kumar looked so poker faced to execute his emotion. Whereas Madhubala was brilliant in playing damsel in distress. Only she could look so lovely even in dungeon clothes. It’s quite unclear as to why Bahar (Nigar Sultana) gets jealous on to Anarkali. Of course, on papers it’s because she’s of higher virtue than her but it doesn’t quite translate to screen.

The drama between father and son could have been much much better. It goes just by the face value without any passion whatsoever. Jodha (Durga Khote) doesn’t help too. Her character too in inconsistent. Another main problem was, after watching Jodhaa Akbar, its impossible to believe anyone other than Aishwarya Rai as Jodha.

For someone who has not seen any Hindi films of that area, not aware of the actor’s other movies, the songs still worked like charm. In fact, the best part of the film was the songs. Also, the set pieces were cute and charming even though it was old and the graphics was very evident. That’s the charm of watching old films. Like I mentioned above it would have worked better if you had grown up to Hindi films and watched it along with your grandmother who would have told you about various backstories when the film released.

The climax was something totally out of the blue. Out of nowhere Akbar gets projected as a good man for saving Anarkali. It was quite surprising because it didn’t really look as a film which tried to show the greatness of virtue. The sequence looked more like escapism than a proper conclusion.

Movie Review – Birbal Trilogy Case 1: Finding Vajramuni

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Touted as one of the big releases in Kannada, “Birbal Trilogy Case 1: Finding Vajramuni” is another film by one of the coming of age directors of Kannada film industry, who here doubles as an actor too. It’s good to see so many fresh faces in the Kannada film industry who’s changing the face of cinema and make people notice it. ‘Birbal’ is one such film which couldn’t be ignored. Thanks to the freshness of the script and the vision of new gen director who keeps the style of the movie slick. It’s one of the films which was almost awesome.

Too many events happen at the start of the movie. This phrase, this “too many” remains the problem throughout the movie. Whatever happens initially happens too fast that you could hardly notice it, before you could even settle, those events get over and only then, after the “8 years latter” tag does the film have proper narration. We get hero introduction through an interesting process but the hero, MG Srinivas tries too hard to be charming and, in the process, appears amateurish. His role feels very much like how Simbu would have acted in his early years. In fact, it would have been a dream film for someone like Simbu who wants to be charming as well as intelligent.

Shastry (Sujay Shastry) is an annoying side kick for Mahesh Das (MG Srinivas) whose jokes fail for most time but appears as a loyal friend to Mahesh. Jahnvi (Rukmini Vasanth), Mahesh’s girlfriend doesn’t have anything to do apart from one little twist. But without reason she’s so easily forgiven, I’m not sure whether to attribute it to the director’s amateurishness or brilliance because scenes like those would not be generally written in a star film where one little mistake of a close aid would be projected as a big blunder. Vishnu (Vineeth Kumar) gets into worst of situations by being silly, which in turn irritates us. But he had done a decent job as someone who’s in distress.

In spite of mostly bad acting by almost everyone, the film works as a terrific whodunit to a large extent. Even though we get to see each twist in a different manner, the way it gets unraveled keeps us in hooks. So, till first half, it’s a terrific film. The film is much on the lines of ‘Agent Sai Srinivasa Athreya’ but the difference between ‘Birbal’ and that would be the way the second half was dealt. There were so many heroic moments where we feel that we’d draw a conclusion but that just extends to the next surprise sequence. It works for once but not every single time. Also, the slow mos and the heroic music doesn’t help. Rather that one song initially was good, the idea was fun. Otherwise the humor too is not natural. Most of what was written in paper doesn’t get transformed to screen. The impact is definitely missing.

It was still a good film to watch, even though consistent, but the climax was too wayward and far-fetched to accept. Even though the burqa scene was good, the next scene was something, as a Tamil audience, would have seen in ‘Soodhu Kavvum’ but the next scene to it is actually a nice one but the director M G Srinivas goes a notch above and gets ready for a photoshoot shot for that sequence. We can appreciate a novice only to certain extent. Again, this is a scene which would work as a fun sequence when you’re watching, but not when you’re writing about it.

The climax is not something to discuss because it doesn’t stick to mind. Too many things happen and that too through voice over, there is only so much as an audience we could grasp. It’s not a classroom. I thought, as the movie had three parts, the director wouldn’t be revealing the climax but thankfully he did. Otherwise I’d have been super irritated after watching for more than one hundred and fifty minutes.

Don’t get misguided by the review, the movie is not as bad as it looks in the review. It’s a film which would work for the majority. Personally, I could appreciate a film like this as it was made by a young and upcoming director but couldn’t really like it as a standalone film.

Movie Review – Looper

A not so rigid thriller

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is kind of a minimum guarantee actor. You can’t watch a film so bad that you’ll feel like a waste of time. So ‘Looper’ was a safe bet even before watching. But when it had Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt to support it was more than just a safe film. ‘Looper’ feels Nolanisque for some reason, mainly inception, may be because of its opening dialogue I guess, “Time travel has not yet been invented but 30 years from now, it will have been. I am one of many specialized assassins in our present called loopers. So, when criminal organizations in the future need gone, they zap them back to me and I eliminate the target from the future. Loopers are well paid. We live the good life and the only rule is never let your target escape, even if your target is you.”

That opening dialogue pretty much summarizes the film, it is a great dialogue to start with, which comes in an important juncture in the middle and could be used for trailer as well. That’s some good writing skills. After the opening dialogue we get into a pretty dark setting where people kill with just no remorse. Actually, this is a film where you don’t feel a thing. It’s as if you’re living in future and getting used to the idea of how people get killed. In fact, Bruce Willis plays his part better than that of Gordon-Levitt. Thanks to the ‘Die Hard’ attitude, it works tremendously well.

The story is felt in a different way than it is written. When reading its even more harsh than what you see in the film, especially the ending of contract. So, there is no real motivation for being good in that society because eventually you’d know till when you’re going to live and how you’re going to die. The status difference is outright and no one cares. When the poor gets killed no one questions. The director conveniently had made both the look and feel of the film dark so that you don’t get to see much of what is happening.

Even though it’s a sci-fi film, except for the brief action sequences we don’t get a feel of sci fi. It’s very much a human film but a human who has retired to the happenings around him. There is no sense of remorse when anything happens. It’s only about survival. When Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) explains to kid about what has happened or when Sara (Emily Blunt) and Joe have sex, it’s just bland, there is no passion in it, it’s only temporary longing. Again, with no remorse. They don’t even explain what ignited the sudden act of passion.

I don’t know how ‘Looper’ works for sci-fi fan boys but for someone who’s not much into sci-fi it doesn’t want yourself to blow your brains and solve complex equations. In fact, there is a nice little dig when old Joe (Bruce Willis) remarks, “I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws”. Because that’s how film makers make films, the thrill of the film would revolve around solving the scientific mystery rather than human one. So, when a sci-fi film kind of demystifies that one, it was a good feel.

Movie Review – Kshana Kshanam

A masala film with the right spice

It’s funny to know what all RGV has done in cinema. So many languages, jumping genres, style etc. Truly a maverick director, whose one movie could be called pinnacle of cinema and other, a gross incompetence. I guess Kshana Kshanam falls somewhere in the middle or just above the middle where things have gone right to him, where his way of filmmaking had worked for most part.

The movie starts with an extended heist scene done reasonably well. Throughout it, there wasn’t any dialogue, yet it was still interesting. It gets a lot of twist within those dialogues less scenes where a group first robs the bank, police finds it out (by looking at the fallen chair in front of the bank), robbers escaping by hurting few policemen and then one man taking it all. It’s very much a film climax but that’s how the film starts.

Post that the film starts and we see a beautiful Sridevi where the camera pans from her childhood photo to her, she gets going about her job and goes to a photographer to collect photos in which the address of the loot is kept. It’s at a time where villains would be there. Before the guy who loots gets killed, he tells the secret to his brother. So, they are all now in search of Satya (Sridevi), who gets trapped between them and gets out on a run.

Parallelly the hero introduction scene too feels like a heroic scene to start with but we get to know that too is a fun scene. That was a great use of the name Venkat, making us believe that we’d see Venkatesh as Venkat in the film. Finally, they get together by chance in a restaurant and run for life when police chase them. So, till that point the screenplay was terrific, how the events connect to one another. And that’s when the first song comes…

After the first song, don’t know what got to him, a string of songs happens. Especially the second song where Chandu (Venkatesh) mentions it would be better to have beat in it. Was it even serious or is it just a dig of commercial cinema? It is hard to understand because in the next segment we get to see almost all sort of songs popular in Telugu cinema. The brilliance with which the movie started gets tampered slowly and steadily.

In spite of that, still the thrill gets maintained throughout the film. But without songs, or some carefully placed songs, the movie would have looked a lot better. The tempo gets tampered a lot because of it. For an early 90s film, the stunts and stunt choreography were terrific. I guess most of it was done by actors themselves. Once both the leads get comfortable the tone of the movie changes to comic one but thanks to an actress like Sridevi, it doesn’t go overboard. In fact, that’s the best thing about Sridevi, she could effortlessly do the commercial heroine, like no other.

It would have been a great film to watch back then in the midst of highly glamourized masala films but if you can’t watch the film in that angle now, it doesn’t work as much as it should have.

Movie Review – Firaaq

Hard hitting drama

There is no time wasted in this film. The drama starts right away, with a pile of dead bodies ready to be buried, the next set of dead bodies arrive in another lorry and a man who buries it checks for someone in the pile of bodies. Seeing a Hindu lady in the pile, the elderly Muslim man (Nasser) tries to shove her, only to be stopped by another young man. That’s how hard hitting an opening for a film can get.

Nandita Das is an eclectic filmmaker when it comes to making issue-based films. ‘Firaaq’ is no exception. It comes straight to the point and doesn’t lose its tempo even for a while. Interestingly enough, the film happens in the aftermath of 2002 Gujarat riots. So, we don’t actually see the violence but only the aftermath of it. In a way, it’s a good move financially too as those scenes which would cause huge budget needn’t be taken. And from the film’s perspective, showing the violence would change the genre to action film, the impact would be limited.

But here when we get to know about what had happened to people, we travel along with Hanif (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and Muneera (Shahana Goswami) in their auto to their house. So, the suspense is kept intact. When we see their depleted house, the shock affects us too. Needless to say, being such excellent actors, they raise the scene to different level. It’s not only them who’re great actors but everyone in the movie.

In a parallel story we also get to see about Aarti (Deepti Naval), her husband Sanjay (Paresh Rawal), and his brother, Deven (Dilip Joshi) trying to bribe police officers to prevent Deven’s arrest for gang-rape. Paresh Rawal stands out of the lot and plays the most villainous character out of all. Aarti, having trauma because of not helping a Muslim woman burns her hand repeatedly, the scene where the young kid asks, “aap ko bi jalaya?” (did they burn you too?), seeing the wounds would melt any heart.

The third story involving a Muslim man, Sameer Shaikh (Sanjay Suri) and Anuradha Desai (Tisca Chopra) is about how he feels threatened being in the society. Out of all, this part looks the blandest. A blissfully optimistic classical violinist Khan Saheb (Naseeruddin Shah) is the last one, which didn’t work for me because of Naseeruddin Shah’s typical overacting. I’m not a fan of his style of acting, who overdoes everything. This could have been a great part if it had been mellowed down. His servant Karim Mian (Raghubir Yadav) whereas was brilliant.

The funny thing is, even in the crisis situation, see how it affects people from different walks of life. The high-class people Sameer (who fortunately doesn’t have an outright Muslim forename) is worried about the shop, losing money but doesn’t have an immediate threat to life, even though he and his family are scared. The middle-class musician Khan (even though optimistic) has at least certain friends to wade off time and not under immediate threat. But the third and the poorest of all, Hanif and Munnera are under constant threat by everyone alike, who can’t even go out of their house. They are the ones who are most affected because of the incident and after it. The funny thing is in one of the Hindu weddings, how they would talk ill about Muslim people whose rickshaws must be avoided but then rave about Shahrukh (Khan), the biggest irony of all. So, it’s not only the religion, money plays an important role too.

The connection between all the stories, the kid, is the most affected of all. The way he nonchalantly describes the event which happens in his home, how he gets teased by a group of boys and in the climax when he again sees a live killing and feels its better to be back in camp are the images one couldn’t forget easily.

Movie Review – Helen

A sincere thriller

The trailers and promos of ‘Helen’ didn’t really interest me. I’m not much a fan of survival films, because it’ll all be the same. But as it was recommended by a lot of people, I thought I could keep it as a night time watch. But it was much better than a just another night time watch. Thanks to the oozing sincerity of the director and the charming presence of the actress, who seem to be the next answer for Nazriya.

Thanks to the messed-up subtitles in Prime I had to watch the film without subs but it’s not something I regretted; I could fairly understand what was happening in the film. And this is not a film which requires one to understand dialogue by dialogue too. The movie title card happens when one of the ants go around the place and end up falling in ice and being frozen. It was yucky feel to think that someone would be using the ice cube. It’s a good play by the director as we’d think only in that angle. But in the end, we know why the scene was made. Because in the mean time we totally forget about the title cards. That was one of the nice touches by the director.

The film starts with Helen (Anna Ben) being every so charming with everyone around her. The charm is infectious and it makes us quite happy. But its not without a string of negative characters around her, whom she safely omits. For people who had either seen the trailer or not, these characters would give a feel like they’d do some harm to her in future. First is the auto driver, whom I thought would be the main culprit. Second is the manager Jayashankar (Rony David) who seemed to be least suspicious but still one of those characters whom you’d hate. In spite of being a role typecast in million films, Rony David does a fair job in such little screen space. Finally, SI Ratheesh Kumar (Aju Varghese), by far the most irritating character who does a really good job too. But again, it’s one of the rules you’ll find in any thriller movies. But the jail scene where a convict gets beaten by him so that he could give the constable some time was a fabulous scene.

Apart from them and very little scene its all Anna Ben’s show. The way she feels happy when a customer congratulates for her English was one of the few scenes, she shows her charming presence. The same lady when she sits in police station doesn’t over do, yet remains sad. That’s great writing and terrific acting, something which our filmmakers should learn. How the way the character reacts in such a crisis situation. So, she being with her boyfriend, her managers angers, fathers’ anger all culminates to the major event of the film where she gets trapped in the freezer room.

Her survival scenes inside the freezer room was decently engaging, I didn’t like the way she gets injured and usage of fire material but the analogy of rat was beautiful. Because it’d always be a cute animal which would inspire us and not an annoying creature like rat. In a way it was a welcome change. The way she cares about rat too was really sweet. Not something you see easily in films.

In the end, there wasn’t a blasting climax but it was a practical one. The film gets into a zone where it can’t be hated, much before that. So, the way it uses the horror film template and makes a thriller film out of it was done decently.

Movie Review – Herbert

India’s answer to Forrest Gump

Not only is it India’s answer to ‘Forrest Gump’ but its India’s answer to Alejandro Jodorowsky too. I don’t know when was the last time I saw a truly Avant grade film like this from Indian cinema. Maybe I can say ‘Ship of Theseus’ but ‘Ship of Theseus’ too had certain plot, some interconnection and philosophical layer covering all of it. But here in ‘Herbert’ it blows you away by its filmmaking. I watched it quite coincidentally without knowing anything about the movie but it blew my brains away.

The film opens like a typical Jodorowsky film. Got me reminded of one of his opening scenes where a lone man would be sitting in a closed room in an extended shot. The opening scene of ‘Hebert’ was like that. There were so many events happening but everything was eccentric and so unconventional. It’s so easy for a film like this to lose plot but ‘Herbert’ holds fort so effortlessly.

What I thought would be a film which wouldn’t have any meaning at all gets slowly unraveled through the flashbacks. But it doesn’t mean that it loses its style and mystery. It is still stylish but with substance. That’s why I told that it doesn’t lose plot. The film happens majorly in three parts with three Herberts.

The flashbacks happen through a set of police investigations, somewhat like the style of ‘Midnight’s Children’ but more grounded. One by one the mystery gets out. First, we get to know about his parents, his father who gets killed by an accident when he goes with one of his affairs, his mother while drying clothes. Together they form a lovely combo. The movie is so much fun till his childhood. Just like a kid, the film too is carefree.

Then comes the adolescent stage which had every chance to falter but works amazing too. Actually, every part of the film could have been made as a separate film because that’s how much content they had. The easy thing about adolescent stage is romance and sex. So, with that in the offing and the communist thought fed in him, the movie effortlessly traverses through it. Herberts (Joyraj Bhattacharjee) crush Buki (Anindita Mallick) plays the perfect femme fatale of a non noir film. Imagine the same had happened in a film made out of R K Narayan, how lovely the melancholy would have been but as its by Suman Mukhopadhyay the film transcends to different realm.

The third part is the most serious of the lot. Something I thought I wouldn’t like because there is a compulsion to better the previous two versions. But the director has enough stuff to make even the third part a good one. In fact, it’s a pretty strong ending which connects everything but not compulsively. Herbert (Subhasish Mukherjee) now grown in stature gets involved with his cousin Binu (Neel Mukherjee) for left extremism. It is one of the emotional scenes, may be the only cinematic emotional scene in the movie, when he hugs him for extra few seconds. But the motive of both of them is truly different. We get to know that in climax.

After his cousin episode, he truly gets delusional and forms a “Dialogues with the Dead” with the help of his other not so sane but unjudgmental friends. That’s when things turn messy for him without his knowledge. Those were the sequences which could have easily gone bad by overacting but it works in a quirky yet serious film like this. By the climax we get to know exactly what all had happened except for Herberts thought process. Wish the ending had been more open but it couldn’t be open with something as big a bomb defusal. The way the last scene and the hugging scene gets compared was lovely but wish it would had happened at some other juncture. Because it is too great a film to be literal.

Movie Review – Her

Sci-fi with a strain

‘Her’ is a dream for any actor. The concept is such that you’re going to get one hundred percent screen space and that too on top of it if an actor like Joaquin Phoenix is going to get the chance, he’s going to grab it with both hands. But the highlight of the film is that the character is not meant to be eccentric. So, everything that has to be done should be human, even if it’s a futuristic world. That’s the element which makes ‘Her’ a film which we can relate to.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) does a job which is not really easy to define. I mean, that alone would take a separate short film. He writes letter for someone who can’t write letters, seriously?. I mean, what sort of job is that. That’s tougher than being a writer. But it’s one of the jobs, which many works. So, it’s not really considered an artistic skill but a regular office work. Do you get it. Yea that’s how screwed up the environment is, in the film. It’s not dystopian or anything but it’s an emotionally dystopian world.

When Theodre gets into relationship with an OS Samantha (Voice of Scarlett) it’s not as difficult as what it seems to look. He gets much more acceptance from people than what we would think, except for his wife may be. Spike Jonze has done really well to not make us feel judgmental for such a thing. He has tried his best to show the romance between Theodre and Samantha even though she doesn’t have a physical self. Especially the beach scenes and the scenes where Theodre laughs were really well made. It works beautifully for a movie watcher. But personally, I still felt distant, I couldn’t entirely connect with that idea of falling for an AI woman. It’s difficult to treat it human and not be judgmental on it. It works for small time pleasure but being in a relationship, not at all.

‘Her’ treads in this fine line throughout, the science is artistic, but not full-blown meditative art like a ‘Solaris’ or ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. That’s why it’s a film I loved for the experiment, because it happened in a way I liked, but didn’t like it as a full-blown project. The transition to that world wasn’t complete. We still tread in the line like, may be this might happen but not entirely a different world.

I wanted to watch this for so long because of Scarlett Johnson, what a disappointment it was to not see her in the film at all. But she does enough even with her voice. This is where people being familiar with her or fan of her, would be able to understand as to why. Because we can imagine everything by the way she would have reacted. Otherwise it’d have felt just like an animation. As for Joaquin phoenix too, its generally different from his much stronger roles in other films. So that too was something I was skeptical about but he showed what a master actor he is.

Spike Jonze is a maverick director. I’m not sure how people who had watched ‘Adaptation’ or ‘Being John Malkovich’ would have reacted to this movie because it doesn’t explode with ideas like that but rather melts through it. Guess this might be a personal project for him, something that he’d write in diary and not share. The film gave that feel. As a film ‘Her’ was definitely interesting but as a Spike Jonze film it’s definitely not to the level of an ‘Adaptation’ or ‘Being John Malkovich’.

Movie Review – Hey Jude

Cast and direction make the film an affectionate one.

Tagged as a different love story, ‘Hey Jude’ is a script which could have been easily spoilt by overacting but Nivin Pauly and Trisha collectively take it to safe shores and the film too doesn’t beg for your attention. Instead, casually breezes through it. First of all, not sure whether it can even be tagged as a love story because it talks of affection of a couple of not so common people.

Even though, off late I was able to catch up with a lot of Malayalam films, there were hardly anything which had Nivin Pauly in it. As a non-Malayali film viewer, most of the film which we stumble upon would have his counterpart, Dulquer in it. Yet, Nivin Paul has such a fan base here. Through this film he proves it why. Even though Premam is full and full his film, his cuteness in ‘Bangalore Days’ didn’t really work for me. Felt his character to be too gimmicky. But here in ‘Hey Jude’ he acts just enough to show himself as a person with some abnormality but doesn’t look insane.

Seems the director is a huge fan of Beatles. The title is taken from a Beatles song, one of my favorites, the record of which gets displayed by Nivin Pauly, in case you missed. There is a Beatles café run by Trisha. When she wants Nivin Pauly to play in their band she keeps on insisting “Let it go”, another terrific song by them. But doesn’t go overboard with the references. He in fact keeps the most famous songs out of reach. So, in a way it feels good.

The films instant liking is because of the cast and chemistry. Nivin Pauly played Jude, kind of Indian version of ‘A Beautiful Mind’ which has more fun than the geekiness but the geekiness is something we could get to, not a Sherlock kind of geekiness and when it comes to humor, he’s a genuinely funny actor. Trisha looks ravishing as Crystal, only the voice over being a problem, as its not her regular voice over, but we quickly get adjusted to it too. Her looks work more than her acting. But it’s a good casting idea to include her, she looks like someone senior to Jude and we get that protective feel from her.

Remaining cast is brilliant too but the show stealer easily would be Dominic (Siddique). Siddique does a better job even than Nivin Pauly. He effortlessly carries on the tension of the film and makes us like the other characters.

During first half when we mostly think that it’s a film about Jude and only him, we get to see Crystal’s problem too in the second half. Even though not entirely believable, it was different for a change. Their friendship makes an interesting story just for that reason. Thankfully there weren’t over dramatic moments or one of them gets miraculously cured like a Rajkumar Hirani film.

‘Hey Jude’ ends up being a nice breezy film without any complexity. Hope the film had ended at least few minutes earlier without Trisha arriving back to Kerala. It would have been even nicer. That last scene was not at all necessary. The film achieves what it wants by then.

Movie Review – Sindhooram

A sincere hard-hitting film which could have still been done away with clichés

‘Sindhooram’ just like the title suggests is a film on the growing terrorism, police atrocities and conflict between government and people. Having got national award for the year 1997, luckily, I got the film with subs. I guess only because it got the national award, I was able to see subs for the film. Anyways good for me. Nowadays few old films are coming up in internet, hope more such things come up. There are few in my list where I couldn’t get subtitles at all anywhere.

The film opens with a Naxal group setting up a bomb for police vehicle, we get to see a sneak peek into the lives of policemen, when one of them narrate about their family. So, the first instance of sympathy goes to the policemen but with the title it’s not tough to gauge whom we’re going to root to, in the film. We then see, one of the Naxals ready to die after he expresses disappointment of what just happened. So, this is how the film starts, telling how what a vicious circle it is.

We see an honest short-tempered man Bulliraju (Brahmaji) training to become a police officer. Chanti (Ravi Teja) on the other hand is a wayward youth in the same village. A kind of love triangle happens between Baby (Sanghavi) and them both. For a serious film, that could have been avoided or any other interesting method had been employed to develop a story, if the director didn’t want to directly jump into the serious part of film i.e. Most of the things which happen in the first half between them doesn’t work. Add to it there were a lot of songs to spoil the flow.

Things start getting better when Bulliraju joins the Naxal group. The immediate conflicts post that form the best part. His mentor (Bhanu Chander) gets appointed as the officer to hunt him down. If given a chance they both could have talked it out and made peace but the circumstances force them to be apart. I especially loved the juncture where Bulliraju comes to talk to the mentor and the police fires without taking order from Bhanu Chander, which makes the Naxal fire back and save him. Icing on the cake was the scene where they both try to save the kid. So, the emotion is same, they both want to save the people but get torn by the people around them.

Post that Chanti joining Bulliraju and Lakshmi (Soundarya) getting raped and eventually joining them were all inevitable. It’s something we know from the first. It’d have been better if a proper lead had been given to why Chanti always looked up to Bulliraja. Bulliraja then gets to lead the gang and play Naxal with the heart of gold but things don’t last long as one of them gets caught by police which makes them to kidnap a politician.

The inevitable again happens where Bulliraja gets shot even though Bhanu Chander warns them not to. But instead of a lengthy monologue in the end and trying to forcefully draw a conclusion, the film ends with the remaining Naxals trying to escape with the captive. I loved the ‘End, really?’ caption. It was ideal for the situation. The dialogue between Bairagi (Paruchuri Venkateswara Rao) and Bhanu Chander, got me reminded of the epic scene between Kamal and Nasser in ‘Kuruthipunal’. Even though both came in 90s, the level of maturity which ‘Kuruthipunal’ had was much more than ‘Sindhooram’ and on top of it, the way the same subject was deftly handled with style and punch was excellent. Wish ‘Sindhooram’ too had been made sans the usual glamour of masala films which would have elevated it even higher.