Change Your Image
m_arvellous
Reviews
Anwar (2007)
A lovely, broken little thing
You watch a movie like Anwar and immediately you think to yourself: 'These are the sorts of movies India should be submitting to the Baftas and the Oscars', and Manish Jha delivers this incredible story note-perfectly. Anwar is, at heart, a love story and unfolds to reveal its subject in its broadest sense: (love of one's career, love - or lack of love - for one's country etc.) and also captures the true spectrum of love: the blissful awakenings, the pleasure, the joy and the rejections, refusals and slow breaking of hearts. Stunning visuals combine with a cast of characters so brilliantly conceived one could almost find them in the pages of a novel by Vikram Seth and along with deft performances, editing and dialogue, present one of the finest films to come out of Hindi cinema. Anwar (the film) is thought-provoking, questioning, unhappy, longing, haunting and fundamentally achieves what we need cinema (from time to time, at least) to be: the sort of medium that shakes us from our slumber with explosions and loud shouts, demanding us to listen, to have our ideas and beliefs challenged and queried. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Don (2006)
Woo! It's Shahrukh Khan! And he kicks ass!!
The Amitabh Bachchan original of 1978 undeniably has that 70s cool: the cars, the clothes, the music and the Big B sporting the biggest eff-off pair of sunnies until Posh Spice got in on the act. Farhan Akhtar's remake, then, was always going to be awaited with nail-biting apprehension, but Akhtar has proved himself more than capable of handling the rejig of a film many are quick to call a classic, essentially because he appears to be a massive fan of the original himself; delivering it here in its polished, up-to-date avatar. He's no fool either, keeping in the two most memorable songs (albeit reworked) from the Bachchan version was an unquestionably smart move, as well as adding a handful of incredibly catchy new ones. The plot is smartened up and tighter too: the Jasjeet subplot serves as an essential part of the story here, not something that seems to be clumsily shoe-horned in; and hearing some of the original, snappy dialogue in this new, snappy film brings a smile to the old boat-race. It's a slick movie that is visually impressive and clearly cost millions; the production is at Hollywood level, but don't come to it expecting Hollywood-style story-telling, or the sight of your main man singing about how dangerous and cunning he is will seem like the kind of one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees spin to be found on The Simpsons. The cast doesn't disappoint either: Priyanka Chopra smoulders as Roma, the consistently brilliant Boman Irani excels as De Silva, Isha Koppikar's Anita is beautiful but icy and even Arjun Rampal, usually so wooden and monotonous, does a half-decent job as Jasjeet. Kareena Kapoor's cameo is well-handled, the actress herself looking better than ever and verging on the iconic in that tight gold dress. Ultimately, however, the film belongs to the King Khan, Shahrukh's Don/Vijay obviously have nuances of Bachchan's performances but the eminently watchable Shahrukh imbues them with a quality and charm that is all his own: his Don exudes the kind of seductive arrogance that makes him the sexiest bastard in South East Asia (at least) whereas his Vijay is sweet, unaffected and cheery. Whether it surpasses the original is a point that can be argued until the cows come home (Bachchan or Khan? 1970s or 2000s? Gritty, cultish original or super-stylised, sensation-provoking remake?) and purists will no doubt argue that Akhtar has changed too much by opening up the story to the possibility of a sequel (and usually where there is a sequel, there is a three-quel), but if it's nostalgia you want, you won't come away disappointed. A pointless remake, then? That remains to be seen, but when they're as entertaining and fun as this, where's the harm?