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[Sharmila-Sweet]

Kurbaan Film Review [SPOILERS]

First things first. Kudos to Karan Johar for shifting gears completely and entering into serious territory. Of course, we do love him for his K-class cinema: all his crunchy popcorn films beginning with K, ever since Kuch Kuch Hota Hai redefined mainstream romance. But Kurbaan doesn't need the popcorn at all. It keeps the screen on overboil for most of its screen time with its hard-hitting storyline that dares to venture into undefined territory.

Like Khuda Kay Liye, Kurbaan too looks at the other side of Islamic fundamentalism and puts the post 9/11 tumult in perspective. Who are these guys who carry anger in their hearts, revenge in their heads and bombs in their pockets? Why are they hell bent on blasting the world, irrespective of the anguish it spells to all and sundry? Can there be a purpose behind their madness? Is one man's terrorist actually another man's activist? Kurbaan, written by Karan Johar, raises these pertinent - and extremely topical - questions, without glossing over the one undeniable truth: a suicide bomber can never solve the inequities of the world, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, notwithstanding.

So we have Ehsan Khan (Saif Ali Khan), the Pakistani who lost his wife and kid to American excesses, seething with a desire to avenge his loss. He isn't the archetypal, skull-capped, bearded fundoo, mouthing soliloquies on jihad and intifada (uprising). On the contrary, he's suave, sophisticated and a charmer, tutoring the world on the misconceptions of Islam in the modern world. Small wonder then he manages to win the heart of college professor Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) and follows her to New York on her stint with NYU. But the domestic idyll is short-lived as Avantika soon discovers it isn't her neighbours (the Afghani extended family, headed by Om Puri) alone who have suspicious antecedents. Husband Ehsan too is an integral part of the plot to bomb America for its excesses against Muslims, the world over.

In a classroom sequence, the film tries to put Islamic fundamentalism in perspective by linking the rise of the Muslim terrorist to America's oil-grabbing foreign policy and its questionable attempts at destabilising oil rich countries in order to remain a superpower. Almost every member of the sleeper cell that comprises the Afghan family has a sad story of loss and horror that drove them into becoming fidayeens (suicide bombers). And before you begin to question the filmmakers for going too lenient on terrorism, you find Avantika who remains a non-convert till the very end. Articulating the voice of reason - and non-violence - she questions her husband and oscillates between love and hate for the man who has fathered her child. A prisoner in her own house, her only hope is Riyaaz (Viveik Oberoi), the undercover journalist who has his story of personal loss that pitches him on the other side in this war. He is determined to fight the terrorists and derail their plot of bombing America.

Karan Johar's story has gravitas. Renzil D'Silva's narrative keeps you on the edge of the seat, for most of the time. Salim Suleiman's music score has a melodious feel. Hemant Chaturvedi's cinematography serenades both Delhi, where the Saif-Kareena romance blossoms and New York, where it cracks up. And the performances by almost all the lead characters are gritty. If Om Puri paints a chilling picture of the terrorist who masquerades in the garb of the commoner and Kiron Kher makes the myth of a suicide bomber plausible, then Viveik Oberoi lends credibility to the voice of the progressive Muslim. But it is the chemistry between Saif and Kareena that lights up the film as the duo bring to life a picture of passion and restraint as the doomed lovers. We do however wish their relationship had a stronger emotional graph, post the startling revelation. How did the duo contend with the fear, hate and disillusion that crept in after Saif revealed his true identity: a bit more on that? And a bit less in the length of the film which could do with some taut editing in the second half. Also, there are a few inconsistencies that mar the film's realism. Why does the FBI loom large like a know-it-all, do-it-all figure? Not only do the FBI sleuths always be a step ahead of the terrorists and arrest them without actually knowing who they exactly are, they also emerge unscathed in a suicide bombing attacking where almost everybody crumbles. Super Uncle Sam, did we say!
But Kurbaan sure does strike a chord and sets you thinking on stuff that needs to be sorted out before the new world order - a more humanitarian, less violent - sets in. Don't miss it.

A word about

Performances: Saif and Kareena transport their off screen tuning to the big screen. While their passionate encounters are a class in aesthete, their delineation of Ehsan and Avantika is mature, restrained and realistic. Om Puri, Kiron Kher and Viveik Oberoi are in sync too.
Music: While Salim-Suleiman have come up with an entire audio track which fits in with the ambience of the film, it is Shukran Allah and the title track, Kurbaan Hua which have lingering notes. More importantly, the songs blend in seamlessly with the story and have not been filmed as your run-of-the-mill song-dance numbers.

Dialogue: The conversation amidst the diverse protagonists has a realistic edge and seem straight out of life. It's only when he tries to explain the theoretical basis of Islamic fundamentalism that Anurag Kashyap, dialogue writer, seems to enter the realm of text-book knowledge. The exposition seems a rattling of newspapers headlines.

Story: Karan Johar explores new depths with his insightful story on the world's most pressing problem: terrorism.

Cinematography: Hemant Chaturvedi uses his camera deftly to create stunning vignettes of Delhi and New York, without losing out on the seriousness of the plot.

Styling: Kareena looks svelte in dresses and tights and brings to life a glamorous professor who dons the hijab with equal felicity. Saif is his usual dapper self, making casual seem haute.


TOI

[Sharmila-Sweet]

http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Review.aspx?id=714

Rowdy Rathore review
(Action) Saibal Chatterjee
Friday, June 01, 2012

2/5



Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha
Director: Prabhu Deva


An air of unabashed, if generally harmless, imbecility pervades Rowdy Rathore. With very little substance to play around with, the film spreads itself dangerously thin. But even when it teeters on the brink of snapping point, it hurtles along like an armoured vehicle on four flat tyres. It makes much din but covers little ground.

Let’s hand it to director Prabhu Deva. He throws every trick that he knows in the book into this predictable remix of a Telugu hit – song, dance, crass humour, romance, thunderous action and a fearless supercop out to outsmart a bunch of murderous marauders.

It’s the good old unstoppable all-or-nothing approach. Prabhu Deva obviously has no faith in any form of subtlety. He goes the whole hog and revels in unbridled excess every step of the way.

Actually, for a film of this kind, a cross between Dabangg and Singham with stray traces of Agneepath, over-the-top methods are par for the course. Some of them do pass muster.

Rowdy Rathore is a shrill action flick designed to help Akshay Kumar return to his hit-making ways. Accept that obvious intent and you might actually end up enjoying certain parts of the film against your own better counsel. Isn’t that the effect that many a Bollywood potboiler of the 1980s would have on us?

Yes, Rowdy Rathore employs narrative elements that hark back to a bygone era of Bollywood potboilers: two men who look like each other without any apparent reason, a bunch of baddies that snarl and snap at the slightest provocation and indulge in rape and pillage with abandon, and the good old back-from-the-dead revenge seeker who goes back dispensing rough-and-ready justice.

The only surprise that the film springs is in the opening credits: SLB, maker of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas, is one of the producers of this no-holds-barred entertainer designed for easy mass consumption.

The first half of the film ambles through an hour and a bit of mostly insignificant narrative detail, including the circumstances in which the male protagonist, a small-time Mumbai conman Shiva (Akshay Kumar), meets and falls in love with Paro (Sonakshi Sinha), a pretty girl from Patna who is in town for a wedding.

It is only in the second half that Rowdy Rathore gets down to serious business as the action moves to a hamlet called Devgarh where a rural tyrant, Baapji (Tamil character actor Nasser), calls the shots. Cops shiver in front of him and his lecherous men, and a minister dances to his tune. The villagers are mere lambs to the slaughter.

Away from this hell-hole, Shiva is taken by surprise when a little girl mistakes him for her father. After with a life-threatening attack on him by a gang of goons, he decides to get to the bottom of things. He discovers that the girl’s father was actually a random doppelganger, a lookalike police officer who is eventually killed before the crook’s eyes by the rustic gang.

Shiva assumes the garb of the dead policeman, transforms into a violent rabble-rouser and goes all out to avenge the murder.

The film’s romantic track is mere window-dressing – it offers the director a pretext to stage a couple of song and dance set pieces that only serve to slow down the film’s pace.

You know what is coming next – the hero’s beloved and the dead cop’s daughter are abducted by the villains and the policeman who is masquerading as one takes the law into his own hands and sends the bad guys scurrying for cover.

The thing about a film like Rowdy Rathore is that it lets the viewer stay a step ahead of the action, which is a perfect recipe for an instant connect with the masses.

Riddled with an array of loud, lame and specious contrivances, Rowdy Rathore plays out pretty much like a comic-book fantasy rendered in the form of a live-action film. Go for it if you must, but don’t expect the earth from it.