Movie Review - Mohandas - 2009

Mohandas:

Movie starts with a quote on silver screen which most of us have forgotten by now. The Quote was the Talisman given by father of Indian nation i.e. Mohandas K. Gandhi. He said “I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

This movie revolved around the believers and non-believers of this talisman. After seeing this movie, you will feel that now-a-days this talisman is just a cluster of words once uttered by an immortal soul in 1940’s.

Time for reviews now:

Story, Plot or Script:
Will give 10 on 10 as here Mazhar Kamran, Director of Movie, has shown that he is also one of those who can think out of box. Story was good one showing that how a poor boy “Mohandas” from lower caste studies hard to be successful in future. He later becomes the topper in studies at college and tries hard for a job. One day he finally gets selected for a job of Depot Manager in a coal mine. But, thanks to whole system and bureaucrats who are corrupt from top to bottom, they easily make a fool of him and take away his identity, his all credentials and certificates in lieu of a job in a coal mines. After his continuous tracking in Sarkari Daftars and listening from Babus, one day after almost 3 years he come to know that somebody else is working in coal mine using his name and credentials. Then, he tries for justice but nobody listen to him. But, Few Good Men are there who helps Mohandas in his fight. But, as I said ONLY FEW GOOD MEN are there thus this shrewd world sidelined those Good ones in this battle of truth. At last the real Mohandas realizes that “He Is Not Mohandas” as he will be never able to proof his own identity. One issue with the movie was the pace which some time got very slow as if same scene is there for long time. This may create boredom for public in general and may lead to disappointment to viewer.

Acting:
Rating 9 out of 10. Kudos for Mazhar for trying to get best out of every actor. In terms of star faces, movie really lacked behind but actors in movie never gave an impression that they needed any star face at all. Coming down to main characters:
• Nakul Vaid, the On Screen Mohandas, brilliantly showed his emotions while he was dealing the trauma to proof his own identity. Shrabani Mukherjee (Kasturi, Mohandas’s Wife) has very little to do in terms of dialogue and did somewhat justice with it. She was better then her role in Border movie (Sunil Shetty’s wife) where she hardly had a single dialogue.
• One of the FEW GOOD MEN role was played by Sonali Kulkarni as Journalist and she did a good job. But, Good men's who acted really well were Aditya Shrivastava as a lawyer (Impressive performance) and Govind Namdeo as a honest Judge.
• Sushant Singh (Vishwanath alias Fake Mohandas) looked perfect in his role as he never showed a sign that he has done anything wrong. He was very well complemented by akhilendra mishra as his father.
• Other characters who also complemented the movie very well were Parents of Mohandas, Police friend of Sushant Singh or cameos played as Babus and bureaucrats. Only disappointment in acting was person who tried to over act from first scene itself i.e. Anil Yadav (assistant journalist to Sonali Kulkarni), .

Music:
Music by Vivek Priyadarshan is light, soothing and totally complementing the situation as well as lyrics of VK Sonakia. There is a romantic song “Nadi mein ye chanda” on occasion of love between Mohandas and his wife. Then, a song full of sarcasm “Bol tu Kaun hai be” was like theme of movie as it was played whenever Mohandas find himself caught in a trauma to prove his own identity. One brilliant song sung by Kailash Kher i.e. “Apni Khoyo Hui Pehchan” is one of the USP's of music. Overall music and lyrics are good and will recommend this for all those sensible souls who have a heart to think for a person going thru such kind of trauma. I will rate the album as 7 out of 10.

Cinematography:
More than 60 percent of scenes are hand shoot as one can easily feel the panning of camera in most of the scenes. This panning generally degrades the quality of scene but here it was going well. This was so because movie has a background of Media and Journalism and a journalist always uses a Hand Camera to grab such incidences or news. Thus, I think that here Hand shooting was an additional advantage. If Mazhar has done this deliberately then hat’s off to his thinking. But, if was done due to low budgeting of movie then I will say that luck was on his side in this point. As, most of the characters were shot from very near that might be also a reason for hand shoot. So, whatever may be the reason the gamble played off in this case. Rating for this point is 9 out of 10.

Location:
Research on this aspect really made a perfect base to complement the movie. The decision to choose Anuppur village, using names of Utkal Train in conversation, shopping at Shipra mall Ghaziabad these were one of those things which really gave a notion that what is going on is happening somewhere near you and known to you. It helps audience to indulge in the movie.

Overall movie is very good and I will rate it 7 out of 10. I may give 8 but one problem was the pace of film which may create resistance in its commercial success. But I will sincerely recommend this movie to only those who have a heart for some serious issues and evils prevailing in our nation. The dhoom-dhadaka gang will surely don’t like it.

Best Part of Movie: A dialogue in despair by Mohandas “Ek haad maas ka aadmi inke saamne baitha hai aur kya sabot dun mein is cheez ka ki mein hi Mohandas hun. Woh kagaz kahan se laun jo yeh sabit kar paye ki mein hi mein hun”.

So, end of one more review. BBye and enjoi till next review.

Movie Review - Kaminey

Dhan Te Dhannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…....Review of this movie should start from this line itself. This was not only a sound track but also the soul of movie. Starting the movie with a taste of this track gave a notion of innovation used in movie which was continued brilliantly thru out the movie till end. Now, time to move on reviews on various aspects of movie.

Firstly, the music!!!! Gulzar + Vishal Bhardwaj deadly combo. No need to comment on capability of this duo. Now, coming down to tracks, Dhan Te Dhan is awesome track which have the aura of grey shade. Pehli Baar is a very gud and light romantic song by Mohit Chauhan seems like these kinds of songs are part of his genre. Another version of Pehli Baar (faster version) and Fatak Bhavara (Gud AIDS campaign song) were also gud songs. Don’t miss the song sung by talented director Saab himself i.e. Kaminey Mere Arzoo is a gud song but will come into your favs list after continual listening. I will give 9 out 10 for tracks and additional 1 mark for sukhvinder who has again created anthem for year 2009.

Secondly, Presentation of Movie for which 10 out 10 from my side. Kudos to Tassadaq Hussain the cinematographer of the movie for such precisely and well shot scenes. He has done justice with each shot whether it is filming of flash back scenes in grey background or shooting rainy and dark nights or shooting old abandoned Signal room as Charlie’s house or walk through of camera in Mumbai city real life. The work of Hussain was very well complemented by editor Meghna Manchanda Sen which enhanced the presentation of every scene.

Thirdly, plot was gud but for script I will give 7 out of 10 only (above average). This is so because Vishal has used so many characters and all have a separate story running side by side. This really made first part very complex and same led to a hotch-potch at end of movie. As per my view, there was no need of Bengali Bros and story related to Tashi. And, this masala movie plot had enough scope for director like Vishal to accommodate Mikhail’s character in spite of removing these two parts from movie. I feel Mikhail character was impressive one so it should be there. If plot would have been that way, it would have surely made movie easy for viewers without impacting the tone of movie.

Fourthly and lastly is the acting which again deserves 10 out 10 because Vishal never gives chance to any actor to under perform when he is behind the camera. Coming to performances..Ooooh…Shahid what to say about ur performance...this is surely your best performance till date. You have done full justice with ur role either in grey shade as Charlie or like a guy next door as Guddu. Priyanka Chopra (Sweety) was fabulous in every shot she was there either it was tension (at time of pregnancy), anger (at mandap with fast speaking marathi), blushes (in local train) or romance (in tent which led guddu to change his career plan of marriage in 2014). Amole Gupte (Bhope Bhau) portrayed a perfect maratha gangster wishing for power at any cost. He really surprised with his acting skills as he earlier shown his direction skills in Taare Zameen Par. Chandan Roy (Mikhail, Charlie’s best friend) perfectly played the cameo offered to him. He was impressive in that duration itself. Other then these lead characters, rest of cast also complemented the lead cast every where either it is Lobo (subramanium) or Lele as corrupt cops or guys in gang of Bhope bhau.

Overall it is a gud masala movie which can be watched at least once and may be more based on your own choice.

Overall Rating of Movie: 8 out of 10 (Just below to very Gud). If plan to see this movie, then see it on big screen else u will miss the aura of grey Mumbai.

Best part of Movie: mein Fa ko Fa bolta hun….

That’f why I will say to watch this paifa vafool movie but never try fortcuts told in movie.

Enjoi Popcorn, Enjoi Movie…Bbye till next movie review.