Rang de Basanti ****

Of late, filmmakers in Bollywood have been showing a penchant for conceiving non-formula oriented flicks. With Rang De Basanti (RDB), this newly found freshness only gets better. Director Rakeysh Mehra has churned out a multi layered visual rhetoric catering to the likes of a niche audience without affecting the sensitivities of the front benchers. It is a piquant discourse, served with a dash of sugar coated repartee that aids it in acquiring a commercial flavor, without really losing its pungent smack.

RDB is a metaphorical tale of the battle between the forces that tend to dismantle the harmonious fabric of the society, and the counter forces that arise out of the social order to intercept their efforts. The narrative emphasizes on some concerns by examining a few episodes that have shaken our nation in the recent past from a very unconventional perspective, without being very preachy. Marked by a gradual, but coherent transformation of the conscientious composition of the characters, the film beautifully drives home the point that revolution comes from within.

Sue (Alice Peyton), a filmmaker, chances upon a diary of her great grandfather who served in the British Police during the anti colonial movement led by Chandrasekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh. Fascinated by the accounts of the revolutionaries mentioned in the diary, she decides to a make a documentary feature on them. Upon being refused a grant, she gives up her job and resorts to her friend Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) for help.

Enter DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor) and Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), a group of youngsters, embracing a laidback lifestyle and subscribing to the philosophy of “eat, drink and make merry”. Though these guys are shown to be oomphing with energy and having a time of their life, they carry a certain sense of quirky restlessness about them. Sue envisages that they would make a perfect fit for her cast and convinces them to act in her film.

The narrative oscillates between the allegorical images of the revolutionary movement and the filming of the documentary. Cinematographer Binod Pradhan does a wonderful job with the camera, capturing the present with a dazzling digital collage and the past with completely contrasting pale visuals. The foot tapping background score interspersed with blaring vocals hammers in every frame and blends seamlessly with the plot.

The narrative suddenly takes a sharp, startling turn in the second half and assumes a gloomy tone when the gang learns that Sonia’s fiancé Ajay (Madhavan) is killed when the MIG aircraft which he was flying, crashed due to a technical snag. The rest of the film deals with how the youngsters take it upon themselves and decide to revolt against the establishment.

The wonderful analogy between the revolutionary movement of the radical freedom fighters, and the outbreak of a crusade by current day denim clad city urchins, adds an intellectual dimension to a seemingly transparent script. The subtle allusions to hypocritical saffron clad activists, rampant bribery and the apprehensions of the minorities tend to make the narrative encompass a broader dimension.

It appears to be in the fitness of things that the actors take charge of the stage set for them. All the artists blend into the characters with consummate ease. Aamir Khan makes a strong comeback after his Mangal Pandey fiasco with a stunning performance. The incessant comic slant is carried off with a touch of cool, the more serious characters are dealt with utmost finesse and the melodrama is kept well under control.

Vivacious, and the same time, restless, Rang De Basanti is a cinematic achievement of our times. Don’t miss it.

Zinda 2/5

Sanjay Gupta seems to have been heavily influenced by the Quentin Tarantino School of filmmaking. Films characterized by a non-linear screenplay, a dialogue-centric plot, a colloquial script, explicit violence and oozes of style, that is. But he fails to comprehend that making such a movie requires a neat blend of all these components rather than treating each of them individually.

Zinda is at best an unorthodox flick. An unconventional tale of revenge. A dark and disturbing story of how far a man will go to avenge a wrong which he never forgot and never forgave. It aims to be a psychotic thriller but fails miserably because of a complete lack of “guessing component” in the plot. It leaves you completely clueless until the very end, and the weak denouement doesn’t actually leave an impression that can compel the moviegoer to correlate the climax with the sequence of events that build up the suspense. Moreover the lackadaisical narrative leaves the audience yawning halfway through the flick.

The film is more of a monologue than a dialogue. The story is narrated by Bala (Sanjay Dutt), a software engineer, who finds himself locked in a mysterious cell for no reason whatsoever. He is kept under surveillance using closed circuit cameras. He is provided with a television set which constitutes his only interface with the external world. The only clue he has is a circle etched on one of the walls, which signifies that someone who has been monitoring his movements would be meeting him someday.

Once he discovers this, he spends the rest of his time in the cell preparing himself physically and mentally for the rendezvous that is to take place. Dutt manages to portray the crazy and scarring ordeals his character has to go through when confined between the four walls, pretty neatly. The grey tint which runs throughout the film adds a surreal tone to the melancholic proceedings. A cinematographer’s delight, one can say.

However, the plot lacks a concrete foundation prior to this sequence that can have the audience gripping the edges of their seats in suspense. The best you can do in such circumstances is to wait and watch for the plot to unfold. A sign of weakness for a wannabe thriller.

One fine day, after 14 years behind closed walls, Bala is finally released and left to his own. You cannot help but notice the abductors administering him with a funky hairdo and a designer outfit before letting him off. He ends up looking more like a villian in a Jerry Bruckheimer flick than a prisoner who has just been released.

The next task he has at hand is to track down his abductor and, more importantly, find out the reason behind his kidnapping. Enter Jenny (Lara Dutta), a ‘chick’ taxi driver who does a ‘metropolitan Basanti’ for a brief moment.

Bala begins his investigation with the help of Jenny by trying to figure out the joint from where fried wantons were served to him during his fourteen year stay in prison. This happens to be the only clue he has to get closer to his enemy. The trail leads him to a Rohit Chopra (John Abraham), a wealthy businessman.

The rest of the film deals with the unraveling of one of the most elaborately imagined plans of revenge. And in the course of this process, you get to see extremely grotesque and gruesome acts of violence, using weapons like hammers, rods, knifes and drill-bits. The scene in which Dutt plucks the teeth of the middleman using a hammer is sure to send a shudder down your spine. The weak-hearted will literally end up watching the second half of the film through the gaps in their fingers.

One good thing to come out of this film is its honest treatment of the fine line between good and evil. The absence of the hero-villain concept, the non-polarization of characters and the tension concocted between Bala and Rohit (though not upto the mark) makes it a very unique movie. The viewer would think twice before taking sides with anybody. A rare concept in Bollywood cinema.

Sanjay Dutt with his broody facial expressions and effortless body language does a fine job as the emotionally disturbed Bala. However, the traditional Dutt fans who would like to see him frame the rules of the game might be a bit disappointed to see their icon at the receiving end.

Lara Dutta has nothing much to do. The love making scene between Dutt and Dutta was outrageously unnatural and it doesn’t really serve any purpose. John Abraham looks cool, suave and sophisticated as the laconic Rohit Chopra, but is pathetic in scenes that demand some amount of melodrama. The dark and grim background score by Vishal-Sekhar marked by long periods of silence carries the foreboding atmosphere with elegance.

Overall, the film, though technically brilliant, falls flat owing to its ineffective storytelling. Watch it if you are in a mood for something radical.

Deewane Huye Paagal **

Vikram Bhatt always tries hard to give his audience something extra. Meaning - He not only gives us a frame to frame copy of popular Hollywood flicks but also throws in a few songs, PJs and scenes from his earlier films. Needless to say, he lived up to our expectations in Deewane Huye Paagal (DHP). DHP happens to be an outrageously blatant copy of "There’s something about Mary (TSAM)" amalgamated with an absurd sub plot.

The film opens with an introduction to the plot by Vivek Oberoi .If Aishwarya didn’t break up with Vivek yet, she definitely will in case she watches this. The celebrity boyfriend sounded more artificial than those "multi-millionaire" Dev Chopras and Sameer Sens in an Ekta Kapoor soap. Anyways, coming back to the plot, we have Om Puri playing a scientist who has devoted his life for concocting a magic potion that can reduce ones age. This "scientific" breakthrough is leaked to his evil brother (again Om Puri) by his secretary. The scientist, in order to rescue mankind from the villain and his minions, locks the potion in a safe with the password safely concealed with a toy parrot that can speak! He hides the parrot in Tanya’s (Rimi Sen) car just before he gets killed by the goons. Tanya who happens to be the sole witness to the murder escapes to Dubai to save her skin. The novel part of the story ends here! Speak of originality and people come up with such ludicrous ideas. But thanks be to the almighty, this part of the tale remains untouched till the end. (What good is an Akshay-Sunil starrer without some dishum dishum in the end?)

The rest of the movie is a parallel story and is a straight lift from TSAM. We have Shahid Kapoor playing the sweet and innocent Karan who has a secret crush on Tanya. But alas! He hardly starts going out with her when he discovers that she has disappeared from town. Years later, when he learns that Tanya is settled in Dubai, he hires a small time street fighter Rocky (Akshay Kumar) to trace the whereabouts of Tanya. But on seeing Tanya, Rocky falls for her himself. What follows is a loud and chaotic din with a variety of characters popping up and each of them trying to impress Tanya by assuming false identities (most of them fake a physical deformity to gain her sympathy!).

Rimi Sen looks hot in some frames but she has a way to go as far as her acting skills are concerned.Akshay Kumar’s comedy timing was good but he was loud at times. He still has boatloads of those martial art techniques up his sleeve and is good at punching the hell out of the bad guys when the need arises. Paresh Rawal and Vijay Raaz were completely wasted in rather inconspicuous and insignificant roles. They should stop accepting such roles in future. Shahid Kapoor was nowhere a match for Ben Stiller. The one man who was really funny was Suresh Menon playing the role of Sonny. He managed a really cool south Indian accent and had the audience ROTFL. The music in the film was average. The music director seems to have "drawn his inspiration" from a host of not so popular records. The lyrics were pathetic. Sonia Gandhi would have been able to pen better verse. Most of the "funny" dialogues were PJs. The dance sequences mainly consisted of Akshay Kumar caressing skimpily clad lasses and Shahid Kapoor swinging away his arms and feet to glory.Shahid tried really hard to impress with his dance. It had vigour but it lacked grace.It looked as if he was given a dose of Viagra with strict orders to stay away from women. And that entire libido ended up venting in his steps.

Overall the movie has been stripped of the subtle situational humour and wonderful performances that were present in TSAM. It is said that if a movie is worth making once, it is worth making again – but not by Vikram Bhatt. If you have seen TSAM you can definitely spare the trouble of being an audience to this flick. If you haven’t, I still recommend the home video of the original.