Yes, that's correct! Even I was dumbstruck at this choice.
The other choices for the committee were Mangal Pandey, Veer-Zaara, Iqbal, Swades, Parineeta, Page 3, Black, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sachein (Tamil), Anniyan (Telugu), Uttarayan (Marathi), Achuvante Anna (Malayalam), Graham (Telugu), and Kadal (Tamil). To be fair to the regional movies, I cannot comment on them since I have neither seen nor read about them. But I am very very surprised that Paheli actually managed to win over Swades and Black!
Let me give Amol Palekar the credit--Paheli was quite an entertaining movie, with a damper of a climax. The attempt was very bold, and as the committee remarked, the film is refreshingly colourful. The film will be a treat to foreign audiences who are looking for a good film visually depicting the ancient Indian society. But beyond that, does the movie really have cinematographic value? Does the movie tell a compelling story? I think not.
Swades was clearly better than Paheli, with its stirring story and honest acting. True, not many non-Indian audiences may get the message, but then how many Americans truly appreciated Devdas for its legendary story rather than the sets and the two beauties?
I had almost bet my money that Black would be nominated though, and I genuinely think I am not alone! Did the committee just arbitrarily decide it cannot nominate films by the same director two years in a row? The movie was superlative in every sense--very moving story, which I may add, has a global audience, amazing performances and full of cinematographic value. SLB had truly sketched a masterpiece and with Amitabh Bachchan's riveting performance, there weren't many ways that the movie couldn't impress someone. The movie did have its brief audience-winning melodramatic moments, but overall it was miles ahead of any other movie made this year! As I said before, the biggest plus of Black was that it was very easy for a non-Indian audience member to appreciate its story. Superior in story, exemplary direction, and the potential to get through to a global audience--what else did Black have to do to get to the Oscars?
Keeping in mind the amusement I experienced while seeing Paheli, I cannot help but feel disappointed by the choice of Paheli to represent us at the Oscars. Black was the clear choice here, and a movie is again being punished for its non-glamorous look. I hope that does not discourage SLB from making such masterpieces in future. SLB, I am truly a great fan of your artistic work in Khamoshi and Black, please continue treating us with your brand of non-glamorous, stirring story-telling.
Monday, September 26, 2005
My Wife's Murder: the review
If you haven't already seen this movie, I recommend it.
My Wife's Murder has the familiar characteristics of a RGV factory product. It is short, it is songless, it is different. Only this time, it is different in a good
sense.
The biggest plus of the movie is its utter believability. Anil Kapoor's character is really the man next door, making human errors only a genuinely honest person who is unable to come up with evil plans would make. There are no unnecessary thrills, no right-upto-the-second coincidences, no luck, no unnecessary complications and twists to the story. Whatever could go wrong does. Whatever that can seem as an attempt to infuse melodramatic ill-luck or quirks of fate doesn't happen. One is left wondering why his character keeps doing what he does, as the right thing is very obvious to the audience. But given the circumstances, what an ordinary well-wishing person would do is depicted quite naturally and accurately in the movie. The emotional side of the character always dominates his decision-making, not logical practicality that is often required.
Performances are very good, but I would give more credit to the script-writer for writing an honest and "different" script, and more importantly to the director for an effective execution without inserting melodrama and artificially constructed nailbiters that are often a hallmark of most thrillers. It is interesting how Anil Kapoor's character starts with making a consistent, apparently watertight story, and how his gradual panic and guilt leads him to lying more and more obviously. The movie is different because the director focusses on keeping the characters believable rather than making the movie a joy ride for thriller-enjoying moviegoers. This is one reason why thriller-loving audiences may be a little disappointed with this movie. But it is always encouraging to see a believable Hindi movie.
Anil Kapoor--what can I say? An honest performer who performs honestly once again :-). You cannot help feel bad for the guy inspite of all his errors and
wrong decisions, and the credit for that goes to Anil Kapoor. As the peace-loving confrontation-avoiding husband, the honest man who tries his best to hide but ends up bungling all come through nicely through his acting. Even in the last scene where he panics and keeps making stupid mistakes, his total focus on his children and their well-being can be seen. Boman Irani is the typical detective one would see in
a TV detective serial--calm, unassuming, focussed but human. His job is to appear as the normal, unaggressive cop who nudges his suspects to blurt out the truth. I liked the subtle way the director showed his human side by showing his family problems, which make him the understanding cop that he turns out to be. Again, an unspiced portrayal by the director, instead of going for the suspecting, oversmart and robotic cop in many other movies.
Overall, a good movie certainly worth a watch. Of all the movies that are claimed to have given an "alag" treatment, this one genuinely has been.
My Wife's Murder has the familiar characteristics of a RGV factory product. It is short, it is songless, it is different. Only this time, it is different in a good
sense.
The biggest plus of the movie is its utter believability. Anil Kapoor's character is really the man next door, making human errors only a genuinely honest person who is unable to come up with evil plans would make. There are no unnecessary thrills, no right-upto-the-second coincidences, no luck, no unnecessary complications and twists to the story. Whatever could go wrong does. Whatever that can seem as an attempt to infuse melodramatic ill-luck or quirks of fate doesn't happen. One is left wondering why his character keeps doing what he does, as the right thing is very obvious to the audience. But given the circumstances, what an ordinary well-wishing person would do is depicted quite naturally and accurately in the movie. The emotional side of the character always dominates his decision-making, not logical practicality that is often required.
Performances are very good, but I would give more credit to the script-writer for writing an honest and "different" script, and more importantly to the director for an effective execution without inserting melodrama and artificially constructed nailbiters that are often a hallmark of most thrillers. It is interesting how Anil Kapoor's character starts with making a consistent, apparently watertight story, and how his gradual panic and guilt leads him to lying more and more obviously. The movie is different because the director focusses on keeping the characters believable rather than making the movie a joy ride for thriller-enjoying moviegoers. This is one reason why thriller-loving audiences may be a little disappointed with this movie. But it is always encouraging to see a believable Hindi movie.
Anil Kapoor--what can I say? An honest performer who performs honestly once again :-). You cannot help feel bad for the guy inspite of all his errors and
wrong decisions, and the credit for that goes to Anil Kapoor. As the peace-loving confrontation-avoiding husband, the honest man who tries his best to hide but ends up bungling all come through nicely through his acting. Even in the last scene where he panics and keeps making stupid mistakes, his total focus on his children and their well-being can be seen. Boman Irani is the typical detective one would see in
a TV detective serial--calm, unassuming, focussed but human. His job is to appear as the normal, unaggressive cop who nudges his suspects to blurt out the truth. I liked the subtle way the director showed his human side by showing his family problems, which make him the understanding cop that he turns out to be. Again, an unspiced portrayal by the director, instead of going for the suspecting, oversmart and robotic cop in many other movies.
Overall, a good movie certainly worth a watch. Of all the movies that are claimed to have given an "alag" treatment, this one genuinely has been.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
salaam namaste: the review
I went to this movie not knowing anything about it,
except that the director was the assistant director of
Hum Tum.
Salaam Namaste follows the contemporary movie
format--it is very breezy, quite innovative and
original in the first half. The second half is when
the director loses anchor and chooses to be "inspired"
from a Hollywood movie. This movie suffers from this
too, unfortunately.
The first half is very interesting and quite
innovative. A subject like living together doesn't
get much space in a Hindi movie since it is an
emerging trend even in urban and suburban India. This
movie presents quite a unique outlook towards it, when
two youngsters who are scary of any commitments
actually decide to try out living together so that
they can know each other before starting a
relationship. The first half is peppered with nice
comedy from Arshad Warsi and Javed Jafferi. Finally
Arshad Warsi has a role that extends beyond the two
appearances and three jokes. Javed Jafferi in his
shorter role has both his acting prowess and excellent
dialogue writing to thank for.
The second half is not bad, but the movie loses its
originality. I don't mind adaptations of Hollywood
movies, provided they are adaptations and not copies,
and they are nicely Indianized. While this movie
doesn't exactly copy from Nine Months, its second half
is heavily inspired from it enough to spot the
similarities easily. A really inappropriate song
featuring a pregnant lady dancing and running apart,
the second half too is quite digestable.
The movie is a perfect example of the writer, the director or the producer or all of them losing grip over a nice story. It is difficult to understand what compels them to do such things. This movie's first half is so new and fresh, and then the movie chooses to go the Nine Months way. Why? While I don't have another ending for it, the writers could've done better and continued their good work through the second half.
Overall a movie definitely worth one watch. Songs are
few in number (4) and quite hummable. Saif performs
well as usual in a role tailormade for him. DCH, Hum
Tum and now SN, Saif is the perfect cassanova goof.
Preity has suited her role well too. The Australian
setting goes a long way in justifying the skimpy
clothes and the too-modern-for-some approach that the
two main characters have towards life.
except that the director was the assistant director of
Hum Tum.
Salaam Namaste follows the contemporary movie
format--it is very breezy, quite innovative and
original in the first half. The second half is when
the director loses anchor and chooses to be "inspired"
from a Hollywood movie. This movie suffers from this
too, unfortunately.
The first half is very interesting and quite
innovative. A subject like living together doesn't
get much space in a Hindi movie since it is an
emerging trend even in urban and suburban India. This
movie presents quite a unique outlook towards it, when
two youngsters who are scary of any commitments
actually decide to try out living together so that
they can know each other before starting a
relationship. The first half is peppered with nice
comedy from Arshad Warsi and Javed Jafferi. Finally
Arshad Warsi has a role that extends beyond the two
appearances and three jokes. Javed Jafferi in his
shorter role has both his acting prowess and excellent
dialogue writing to thank for.
The second half is not bad, but the movie loses its
originality. I don't mind adaptations of Hollywood
movies, provided they are adaptations and not copies,
and they are nicely Indianized. While this movie
doesn't exactly copy from Nine Months, its second half
is heavily inspired from it enough to spot the
similarities easily. A really inappropriate song
featuring a pregnant lady dancing and running apart,
the second half too is quite digestable.
The movie is a perfect example of the writer, the director or the producer or all of them losing grip over a nice story. It is difficult to understand what compels them to do such things. This movie's first half is so new and fresh, and then the movie chooses to go the Nine Months way. Why? While I don't have another ending for it, the writers could've done better and continued their good work through the second half.
Overall a movie definitely worth one watch. Songs are
few in number (4) and quite hummable. Saif performs
well as usual in a role tailormade for him. DCH, Hum
Tum and now SN, Saif is the perfect cassanova goof.
Preity has suited her role well too. The Australian
setting goes a long way in justifying the skimpy
clothes and the too-modern-for-some approach that the
two main characters have towards life.
Friday, September 09, 2005
TOI--Trash of India
The standard of Times of India is deteriorating day by day, especially their website. The highly respected newspaper is slowly turning into the biggest "Page 3" newspaper.
Firstly they are very very lazy in updating their website. Rediff is much better at doing this. Then, they don't proofread their website at all. The website is strewn with spelling errors.
Coming up with witty attractive headlines has been a hallmark of TOI. Now they use it either to sensationalize issues or to make something sound more sleazy than it is.
I have to give the title of "worst journalists" to the sports journalists of TOI. It is as if they write only to instigate and provoke criticism! TOI is totally biased against Greg Chappell for one. From day one they have been publishing articles saying how haughty and vain Chappell is and how despite all the hype (which by the way they have contributed in creating) of him coaching the team he doesn't really have any insight into how the Indian team plays and how the Indian audience reacts. The problem with our sports media is that while the team needs to take it slow and take small steps at a time, the media wants instant results and Indian team fortunes to just magically brighten overnight and stay that way! When Greg Chappell voiced his dismay at the media's negativeness when he was repeatedly asked the same questions about "lack of killer instinct" and "does india have the edge" and "world cup 2007", TOI promptly wrote an article about how Chappell is unaware of the psyche of the India media and the audience, claiming that as the media makes superstars out of these players they have every right to expect a lot from them every time and criticize every failure. Its time TOI brought more neutral sports journalists to their team. What is even more appalling is that the same paper manages to publish articles providing orthogonal views on the same subject 2-3 days apart! There is an article bashing Ganguly, then 2 days later there is one singing laurels about how he has brought the team up and how he's right for the job. Sehwag, TOI's poster boy till late, has suddenly been admonished for his whacky ways and irresponsible batting at the top of the order. Kaif and Yuvraj who have always been criticized by TOI as players who have been given too many chances and are only brilliant on paper and not in the middle, have suddenly been placed on the pedestal saying Kaif is captaincy material and Yuvraj has found his niche and how the two "have contributed critically to so many victories"! Either sports journalists of TOI have the habit of changing loyalties everyday (they shouldn't have any loyalties in the first place), or they just simply ignore articles written by their colleagues. Its time they exchanged notes before publishing such drivel!
I don't even want to comment on the sleaze fest on the bottom half of the TOI main page online. I fail to understand how Indians being kinky in the bedroom and Britney Spears's exploits are worthy of the front page. TOI is once again falling into that urban trap, where it thinks it can cater only to the metros and not care about what the rest of the country is doing. Writing about Hollywood gossip and European models is going to satisfy only a miniscule portion of their readers, but TOI simply does not get it. What's with the various features on babes from different corners of the world? They may be there, and they may be doing what TOI claims they are, but why is this front page news?? If TOI wants to cater to an adult and mature audience, they should maintain a separate website and advertise it the way that it is supposed to be advertised. Putting "June babes" and "Why India cannot have a Jolie" is just a cheap way of increasing their hits, being totally insensitive to how accessible their website is online. Since TOI is so hell bent on proving that we're in the 21st century and considers itself the harbinger of modern society, it should realize that with modernism has also come unwanted access to information. Nothing is preventing a 13 year old trying to develop a news-reading habit from coming to TOI website in honest search of news and getting hooked on to the page 3 drivel they proudly display. User discretion is an easy excuse to give, but not even the chief editor of TOI can look over his children's shoulders all day to monitor what they're seeing online. The press should realize its own responsibility and at least not aim at distracting the unknowing or unexpecting reader. If the content is meant for adults, I'm sure a person who wants to access such information will not mind clicking on one more link and creating a login and password for accessing it. While such things may still not prevent children from accessing these pages, at least they won't be in-your-face and not divert readers who do not read TOI for such stuff. Try putting the same sleaze in the main issue of TOI (not in Bombay times) and see how readers react!
Firstly they are very very lazy in updating their website. Rediff is much better at doing this. Then, they don't proofread their website at all. The website is strewn with spelling errors.
Coming up with witty attractive headlines has been a hallmark of TOI. Now they use it either to sensationalize issues or to make something sound more sleazy than it is.
I have to give the title of "worst journalists" to the sports journalists of TOI. It is as if they write only to instigate and provoke criticism! TOI is totally biased against Greg Chappell for one. From day one they have been publishing articles saying how haughty and vain Chappell is and how despite all the hype (which by the way they have contributed in creating) of him coaching the team he doesn't really have any insight into how the Indian team plays and how the Indian audience reacts. The problem with our sports media is that while the team needs to take it slow and take small steps at a time, the media wants instant results and Indian team fortunes to just magically brighten overnight and stay that way! When Greg Chappell voiced his dismay at the media's negativeness when he was repeatedly asked the same questions about "lack of killer instinct" and "does india have the edge" and "world cup 2007", TOI promptly wrote an article about how Chappell is unaware of the psyche of the India media and the audience, claiming that as the media makes superstars out of these players they have every right to expect a lot from them every time and criticize every failure. Its time TOI brought more neutral sports journalists to their team. What is even more appalling is that the same paper manages to publish articles providing orthogonal views on the same subject 2-3 days apart! There is an article bashing Ganguly, then 2 days later there is one singing laurels about how he has brought the team up and how he's right for the job. Sehwag, TOI's poster boy till late, has suddenly been admonished for his whacky ways and irresponsible batting at the top of the order. Kaif and Yuvraj who have always been criticized by TOI as players who have been given too many chances and are only brilliant on paper and not in the middle, have suddenly been placed on the pedestal saying Kaif is captaincy material and Yuvraj has found his niche and how the two "have contributed critically to so many victories"! Either sports journalists of TOI have the habit of changing loyalties everyday (they shouldn't have any loyalties in the first place), or they just simply ignore articles written by their colleagues. Its time they exchanged notes before publishing such drivel!
I don't even want to comment on the sleaze fest on the bottom half of the TOI main page online. I fail to understand how Indians being kinky in the bedroom and Britney Spears's exploits are worthy of the front page. TOI is once again falling into that urban trap, where it thinks it can cater only to the metros and not care about what the rest of the country is doing. Writing about Hollywood gossip and European models is going to satisfy only a miniscule portion of their readers, but TOI simply does not get it. What's with the various features on babes from different corners of the world? They may be there, and they may be doing what TOI claims they are, but why is this front page news?? If TOI wants to cater to an adult and mature audience, they should maintain a separate website and advertise it the way that it is supposed to be advertised. Putting "June babes" and "Why India cannot have a Jolie" is just a cheap way of increasing their hits, being totally insensitive to how accessible their website is online. Since TOI is so hell bent on proving that we're in the 21st century and considers itself the harbinger of modern society, it should realize that with modernism has also come unwanted access to information. Nothing is preventing a 13 year old trying to develop a news-reading habit from coming to TOI website in honest search of news and getting hooked on to the page 3 drivel they proudly display. User discretion is an easy excuse to give, but not even the chief editor of TOI can look over his children's shoulders all day to monitor what they're seeing online. The press should realize its own responsibility and at least not aim at distracting the unknowing or unexpecting reader. If the content is meant for adults, I'm sure a person who wants to access such information will not mind clicking on one more link and creating a login and password for accessing it. While such things may still not prevent children from accessing these pages, at least they won't be in-your-face and not divert readers who do not read TOI for such stuff. Try putting the same sleaze in the main issue of TOI (not in Bombay times) and see how readers react!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Salute to the victims and emergency responders
I saw the 4-hour documentary "Inside 9/11" on National Geographic this weekend, and it leaves me stunned and numb.
I remember being the first one among my nearest neighbours in Mumbai to accidentally catch the attack on news in India. We saw, with others around the world, the second plane hit the South Tower live on TV. I must admit at that time my awe of how the terrorists could actually execute such a big attack on American soil overrode our sadness for the victims. Arguably I wasn't alone; many people who were outside the US at that time must've reacted with awe rather than horror.
This documentary changed my perspective forever. Not that I needed it to feel the sadness, but seeing it so closely and in such detail completely numbed my senses. The biggest amazement was the sheer will of firefighters going into the towers at a time when everybody else was scrambling out. Not once did they run out fearing for their own lives, knowing well what was waiting for them 80 floors above the ground. I admit my first reaction, had that happened in my country, would've been to criticize the government and the law enforcement agencies.
Another amazing story was that of the fightback of passengers aboard the last aircraft that foiled the terrorists' plan to destroy another building. The passengers actually waited for the plane to fly over rural area to minimize damage in case the plane crashed during the fight. To me that is amazing patriotism and foresight under such a tense situation, not to mention immense valour and integrity. Those terrorists and their will to break the backbone of a nation truly failed...
I salute the brave and ordinary men and women who had the courage to stand up, be defiant and fight back the evil spirits. It is incidents like these which unite us beyond borders, ethnicities and religions, and awaken our inherent human spirit and conscience that is the true voice of God.
I remember being the first one among my nearest neighbours in Mumbai to accidentally catch the attack on news in India. We saw, with others around the world, the second plane hit the South Tower live on TV. I must admit at that time my awe of how the terrorists could actually execute such a big attack on American soil overrode our sadness for the victims. Arguably I wasn't alone; many people who were outside the US at that time must've reacted with awe rather than horror.
This documentary changed my perspective forever. Not that I needed it to feel the sadness, but seeing it so closely and in such detail completely numbed my senses. The biggest amazement was the sheer will of firefighters going into the towers at a time when everybody else was scrambling out. Not once did they run out fearing for their own lives, knowing well what was waiting for them 80 floors above the ground. I admit my first reaction, had that happened in my country, would've been to criticize the government and the law enforcement agencies.
Another amazing story was that of the fightback of passengers aboard the last aircraft that foiled the terrorists' plan to destroy another building. The passengers actually waited for the plane to fly over rural area to minimize damage in case the plane crashed during the fight. To me that is amazing patriotism and foresight under such a tense situation, not to mention immense valour and integrity. Those terrorists and their will to break the backbone of a nation truly failed...
I salute the brave and ordinary men and women who had the courage to stand up, be defiant and fight back the evil spirits. It is incidents like these which unite us beyond borders, ethnicities and religions, and awaken our inherent human spirit and conscience that is the true voice of God.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
mangal pandey: aamir's eyes vs. ketan's blindness
Mangal Pandey is a case of a pretty building with a weak foundation. The star cast has performed very well, but the direction and the script is just about average.
The movie wastes too much time in the first half trying to depict the life then (which it does in quite a mediocre fashion) and set up the scenario for what would converge to the first War of Independence in the second half. Unfortunately, the movie never really converges.
Aamir Khan is back, and so are his eyes. His performance can be really summed up as "the eyes have spoken". Being moustached and long tressed, his eyes are the most visible part of his face and he lets them do all the talking. Aamir has always expressed power with his eyes, and they are fiery in this movie. He could carry off the title of the angry short man.
Toby Stephens is the surprise package however. The actor has done an exceptional job with his character William Gordon. In some shots where his voice precedes his screen appearance, it is difficult to tell whether an Indian is talking or a Britisher! The first half may as well be called "Mangal and William" since both share equal screen time. He's given quite a controlled performance, but his Hindi dialogues, diction and delivery are most impressive, even better than his British colleague in Lagaan.
The character of Rani is largely unnecessary in the movie and is just there for the sake of completeness. Rani doesn't have much to do in the movie. The shorter but more important character belongs to Amisha Patel and Amisha and Ketan Mehta have collaborated in destroying it. What starts out as a rejected Sati saved by William Gordon ends up in a sleeping together scene in a song--they would've been much better off keeping the love symbolic and pure given the circumstances the two met in. Amisha tries to act like the rejected afraid Sati, but ends up looking like a wet shivering puppy in distress.
Unfortunately the director lets the fans down big time. The first half is quite incoherent, and irritating songs keep the movie from building up. An almost item number in the first half is absolutely ridiculous and does a wonderful job at...spoiling the mood of the movie. Ketan Mehta has lent his cheap titillating directorial ways to the wrong story in the wrong era. The movie never builds up and even in the all-important climax, a well-shot mutiny is followed by a run-of-the-mill unnecessary melodrama. The patriotic feeling created in the movie is too shortlived.
The music is the next big turn-off. None of the songs were good, and only 1-2 were hummable on the audio track. However their irrelevance to the story and the most ridiculous moments when the director chooses to insert them in the movie makes them worse. The movie should've been songless.
The script is mostly sound, but gets a little too creative at times. The transition of Mangal from the devout superstitious Brahmin to the revolting soldier who sees through caste and religion is sketchy at best (also encapsulated in a song that has nothing to do with this self-revelation).
The best scenes of the movie are the one when Mangal Pandey confronts William Gordon about the cartridges and the actual mutiny, done quite emphatically.
If you are an Aamir fan like I am, "Aamir's eyes" will give you the satisfaction of his comeback, but as far as the whole movie is considered, Ketan Mehta is the wrong director; Ashutosh Gowarikar would've done much better justice to a 19th century patriotic movie like this.
The movie wastes too much time in the first half trying to depict the life then (which it does in quite a mediocre fashion) and set up the scenario for what would converge to the first War of Independence in the second half. Unfortunately, the movie never really converges.
Aamir Khan is back, and so are his eyes. His performance can be really summed up as "the eyes have spoken". Being moustached and long tressed, his eyes are the most visible part of his face and he lets them do all the talking. Aamir has always expressed power with his eyes, and they are fiery in this movie. He could carry off the title of the angry short man.
Toby Stephens is the surprise package however. The actor has done an exceptional job with his character William Gordon. In some shots where his voice precedes his screen appearance, it is difficult to tell whether an Indian is talking or a Britisher! The first half may as well be called "Mangal and William" since both share equal screen time. He's given quite a controlled performance, but his Hindi dialogues, diction and delivery are most impressive, even better than his British colleague in Lagaan.
The character of Rani is largely unnecessary in the movie and is just there for the sake of completeness. Rani doesn't have much to do in the movie. The shorter but more important character belongs to Amisha Patel and Amisha and Ketan Mehta have collaborated in destroying it. What starts out as a rejected Sati saved by William Gordon ends up in a sleeping together scene in a song--they would've been much better off keeping the love symbolic and pure given the circumstances the two met in. Amisha tries to act like the rejected afraid Sati, but ends up looking like a wet shivering puppy in distress.
Unfortunately the director lets the fans down big time. The first half is quite incoherent, and irritating songs keep the movie from building up. An almost item number in the first half is absolutely ridiculous and does a wonderful job at...spoiling the mood of the movie. Ketan Mehta has lent his cheap titillating directorial ways to the wrong story in the wrong era. The movie never builds up and even in the all-important climax, a well-shot mutiny is followed by a run-of-the-mill unnecessary melodrama. The patriotic feeling created in the movie is too shortlived.
The music is the next big turn-off. None of the songs were good, and only 1-2 were hummable on the audio track. However their irrelevance to the story and the most ridiculous moments when the director chooses to insert them in the movie makes them worse. The movie should've been songless.
The script is mostly sound, but gets a little too creative at times. The transition of Mangal from the devout superstitious Brahmin to the revolting soldier who sees through caste and religion is sketchy at best (also encapsulated in a song that has nothing to do with this self-revelation).
The best scenes of the movie are the one when Mangal Pandey confronts William Gordon about the cartridges and the actual mutiny, done quite emphatically.
If you are an Aamir fan like I am, "Aamir's eyes" will give you the satisfaction of his comeback, but as far as the whole movie is considered, Ketan Mehta is the wrong director; Ashutosh Gowarikar would've done much better justice to a 19th century patriotic movie like this.
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