Thursday, April 17, 2008
Shaurya & Bhram
Shaurya
Samar Khan’s Shaurya deals with an important subject of communalisation of the armed forces, but without the compassion or detailing of, say Govind Nihalani’s Dev, which was about communal prejudice in the police.
Khan and his writers shamelessly rip-off Hollywood film A Few Good Men, and Swadesh Deepak’s Hindi play Court Martial, of course, without acknowledging either source.
Captain Siddhant (Rahul Bose) is a lawyer in the army, but seems to do nothing, except bungee-jumping. When he is actually given an “open and shut case” he is bewildered (doesn’t present too good a picture of the army!).
He is posted to Srinagar, to defend Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal) who is accused of killing a fellow officer. The prosecuting lawyer Akash (Jaaved Jaffrey) is a buddy and wants Siddhant to “grow up.”
A byline chasing journalist Kavya (Minissha Lamba), gives his conscience a wake-up call and he starts to investigate the case in earnest. Though the accused does not say a word, Siddhant makes a “not guilty” plea and angers not just his friend, but also Brigadier Pratap (Kay Kay Menon), the commanding officer of the regiment to which the accused and the dead man belonged.
Since Khan has not given his borrowed material too much thought, it is not clear why Javed Khan does not protest his officer’s behavior earlier, or complain of human rights violations. One of his men chooses to desert rather than speak up for the truth. (In the original film and play, the accused men’s silence was a matter of honour.) Also giving a personal motive to the officer’s attitude towards Javed, dilutes the message.
Siddhant faces no personal animosity for what he does – the journalist faces the rap—he gets crucial evidence falling into his lap, and at no point is there a feeling that he might not be able to save his client, because he is so clueless.
Rahul Bose, with his eye-popping, twitching, shrugging ‘cute’ act almost brings the film down, it’s the other actors’ (Deepak Dobriyal and Jaaved Jaffrey excel) dignified performances that save the day. And ultimately the film hinges on Kay Kay Menon’s statement in the witness box and a finer example of perfectly pitched acting has not been seen in a long time. Unfortunately, it comes too late in the film to undo the earlier damage.
Bhram
It opens backstage at a fashion show, with bitchy models, gay designer and nosy journalists all lined up, dropping risqué lines—this is presumably how models speak!
Then, with a title like Bhram (illusion) you wait for a Madhur Bhandarkar-like expose on the fashion world.
A few scenes later, that illusion is broken-- all the four letter words, drinking, coke-snorting the main model Antara (Sheetal Menon) and her men indulge in, are just to spice up a trite murder mystery.
Many years ago, producer Nari Hira and director Pavan Kaul used to make video films on fairly bold subjects – Bhram uses that language (censors go deaf?) but not the daring that resulted in films on subjects unusual for the time (the eighties).
Antara, for no other reason but that she is and looks stoned, charms Shantanu (Dino Morea), the younger brother of financial tycoon Dev (Milind Soman). When the girl and the brother come face to face, she accuses him of having raped and killed her sister in Manali many years ago.
A troubled Shantanu takes off to Manali with his friend (Chetan Hansraj) find out if “bro” did it, and Dev’s wife (Simone Singh) utters dialogue about love and trust that seem to have come out of a very bad women’s magazine.
The story moves back and forth between “that day” when the incident happened—which nobody in Manali wants to talk about it—and the present, as Antara gets even more stoned and lands up in hospital.
Did big big brother do it? Does anyone care by the end of it?
Using all the clichés of a thriller—constant rain, obvious red herring, wrong person answering a phone—the film is stylishly shot and packed with good-looking, well-dressed people who cannot act!
Samar Khan’s Shaurya deals with an important subject of communalisation of the armed forces, but without the compassion or detailing of, say Govind Nihalani’s Dev, which was about communal prejudice in the police.
Khan and his writers shamelessly rip-off Hollywood film A Few Good Men, and Swadesh Deepak’s Hindi play Court Martial, of course, without acknowledging either source.
Captain Siddhant (Rahul Bose) is a lawyer in the army, but seems to do nothing, except bungee-jumping. When he is actually given an “open and shut case” he is bewildered (doesn’t present too good a picture of the army!).
He is posted to Srinagar, to defend Javed Khan (Deepak Dobriyal) who is accused of killing a fellow officer. The prosecuting lawyer Akash (Jaaved Jaffrey) is a buddy and wants Siddhant to “grow up.”
A byline chasing journalist Kavya (Minissha Lamba), gives his conscience a wake-up call and he starts to investigate the case in earnest. Though the accused does not say a word, Siddhant makes a “not guilty” plea and angers not just his friend, but also Brigadier Pratap (Kay Kay Menon), the commanding officer of the regiment to which the accused and the dead man belonged.
Since Khan has not given his borrowed material too much thought, it is not clear why Javed Khan does not protest his officer’s behavior earlier, or complain of human rights violations. One of his men chooses to desert rather than speak up for the truth. (In the original film and play, the accused men’s silence was a matter of honour.) Also giving a personal motive to the officer’s attitude towards Javed, dilutes the message.
Siddhant faces no personal animosity for what he does – the journalist faces the rap—he gets crucial evidence falling into his lap, and at no point is there a feeling that he might not be able to save his client, because he is so clueless.
Rahul Bose, with his eye-popping, twitching, shrugging ‘cute’ act almost brings the film down, it’s the other actors’ (Deepak Dobriyal and Jaaved Jaffrey excel) dignified performances that save the day. And ultimately the film hinges on Kay Kay Menon’s statement in the witness box and a finer example of perfectly pitched acting has not been seen in a long time. Unfortunately, it comes too late in the film to undo the earlier damage.
Bhram
It opens backstage at a fashion show, with bitchy models, gay designer and nosy journalists all lined up, dropping risqué lines—this is presumably how models speak!
Then, with a title like Bhram (illusion) you wait for a Madhur Bhandarkar-like expose on the fashion world.
A few scenes later, that illusion is broken-- all the four letter words, drinking, coke-snorting the main model Antara (Sheetal Menon) and her men indulge in, are just to spice up a trite murder mystery.
Many years ago, producer Nari Hira and director Pavan Kaul used to make video films on fairly bold subjects – Bhram uses that language (censors go deaf?) but not the daring that resulted in films on subjects unusual for the time (the eighties).
Antara, for no other reason but that she is and looks stoned, charms Shantanu (Dino Morea), the younger brother of financial tycoon Dev (Milind Soman). When the girl and the brother come face to face, she accuses him of having raped and killed her sister in Manali many years ago.
A troubled Shantanu takes off to Manali with his friend (Chetan Hansraj) find out if “bro” did it, and Dev’s wife (Simone Singh) utters dialogue about love and trust that seem to have come out of a very bad women’s magazine.
The story moves back and forth between “that day” when the incident happened—which nobody in Manali wants to talk about it—and the present, as Antara gets even more stoned and lands up in hospital.
Did big big brother do it? Does anyone care by the end of it?
Using all the clichés of a thriller—constant rain, obvious red herring, wrong person answering a phone—the film is stylishly shot and packed with good-looking, well-dressed people who cannot act!
Labels: Cinemaah
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