Friday, February 13, 2004
I Proud to be an Indian
First of all, if the protagonist of Puneet Sira’s I Proud to be an Indian is so proud of his nationality, why does he go to London to work as a waiter!
The nameless Indian (Sohail Khan) and his father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) arrive in London to live with a brother (Aasif Sheikh) and his family. The Indian neighbourhood in London is in the grip of skinhead terror (the film opens with a truly scary sequence of the murder of a Sikh man and his pregnant wife) and strangely enough people get bashed and killed but keep quiet. There is a sympathetic white cop who wants to help, but the Indians just let their people be attacked all the time.
It takes ‘I’ to take on the skinhead gang, who then intensify their warfare against his family. Today, the Asian community in the UK is prosperous and powerful, the skinhead problem is not a current one; there must be issues of racism Indians face there, but Sira reduces them to the level of bare-knuckle street brawls.
The film stays with one idea and on one note, making it very monotonous. ‘I’ makes friends with a Pakistani boy (Imran Ali Khan) and falls in love with his sister (Heena Tasleem), and there was a touch of ‘Asian brotherhood’ there, but it seems the film was made for Sohail Khan to parade his muscles (toned) and acting skills (non existent).
The climax is similar to Ghayal, Ghulam and so many other films. By the time the final confrontation happens, the viewer is sick of the violence.
It’s all very well to wave the flag and feel all patriotic, but let’s not go about preaching to the whites on their soil, when there are enough racial/ regional/ communal problems to tackle in India.
The nameless Indian (Sohail Khan) and his father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) arrive in London to live with a brother (Aasif Sheikh) and his family. The Indian neighbourhood in London is in the grip of skinhead terror (the film opens with a truly scary sequence of the murder of a Sikh man and his pregnant wife) and strangely enough people get bashed and killed but keep quiet. There is a sympathetic white cop who wants to help, but the Indians just let their people be attacked all the time.
It takes ‘I’ to take on the skinhead gang, who then intensify their warfare against his family. Today, the Asian community in the UK is prosperous and powerful, the skinhead problem is not a current one; there must be issues of racism Indians face there, but Sira reduces them to the level of bare-knuckle street brawls.
The film stays with one idea and on one note, making it very monotonous. ‘I’ makes friends with a Pakistani boy (Imran Ali Khan) and falls in love with his sister (Heena Tasleem), and there was a touch of ‘Asian brotherhood’ there, but it seems the film was made for Sohail Khan to parade his muscles (toned) and acting skills (non existent).
The climax is similar to Ghayal, Ghulam and so many other films. By the time the final confrontation happens, the viewer is sick of the violence.
It’s all very well to wave the flag and feel all patriotic, but let’s not go about preaching to the whites on their soil, when there are enough racial/ regional/ communal problems to tackle in India.
Labels: Cinemaah
Rudraksh
If The Matrix movies could use Hindu mythology to create visually exciting and mentally stimulating films, an Indian filmmaker, specially one like Mani Shankar who is adept at special effects, and has a wealth of folklore at his disposal, should have been able to tell a better story –one that Indian audiences could connect with.
Instead, he churns out a boring mish-mash of half-baked science and fuzzy mythology. The evil Bhuriya (Sunil Shetty) finds Ravan’s ‘Rudraksh’ during an archaeological excavation in Sri Lanka. The ‘Rudraksh’ bestows great powers on the possessor. After all that build up, the height of Bhuriya’s wickedness is starting communal riots in Mumbai!
For some incomprehensible reason, he needs the help of Varun (Sanjay Dutt) to set up his evil empire. Varun is a faith healer, who is being ‘investigated’ by scientist Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) and her all-woman band of researchers, who run around half-dressed!
Varun and Bhuriya have to come face to face for a few high-tech action sequences-- for this, a corny apology of a script was concocted by Shankar. He probably hoped audiences would be so dazzled by the SFX, that they wouldn’t ask what is going on and why!
There was a germ of a smart entertainer in there somewhere, a contemporary sci-fi version of the Ramayan, but it is never allowed to develop.
The film must have been physically tough on the actors – all that wire work—but no acting skills were called for. Just a lot of muscle flexing and changing of contact lenses.
What a waste of money, effort and FX on a movie that will be laughed out of the theatres!
Instead, he churns out a boring mish-mash of half-baked science and fuzzy mythology. The evil Bhuriya (Sunil Shetty) finds Ravan’s ‘Rudraksh’ during an archaeological excavation in Sri Lanka. The ‘Rudraksh’ bestows great powers on the possessor. After all that build up, the height of Bhuriya’s wickedness is starting communal riots in Mumbai!
For some incomprehensible reason, he needs the help of Varun (Sanjay Dutt) to set up his evil empire. Varun is a faith healer, who is being ‘investigated’ by scientist Gayatri (Bipasha Basu) and her all-woman band of researchers, who run around half-dressed!
Varun and Bhuriya have to come face to face for a few high-tech action sequences-- for this, a corny apology of a script was concocted by Shankar. He probably hoped audiences would be so dazzled by the SFX, that they wouldn’t ask what is going on and why!
There was a germ of a smart entertainer in there somewhere, a contemporary sci-fi version of the Ramayan, but it is never allowed to develop.
The film must have been physically tough on the actors – all that wire work—but no acting skills were called for. Just a lot of muscle flexing and changing of contact lenses.
What a waste of money, effort and FX on a movie that will be laughed out of the theatres!
Labels: Cinemaah
