Aamir: The City Screams Alone
‘Today there are opportunities for romance for you. You can make career moves that will bring you a much higher income. You’ll regret every word you say for some time to come. Obtaining and exchanging information takes on more emotional significance. Don’t be emotional; be practical in life.’
- Bangalore Times, Finolex Fortune for Libra, May 30, 2008
That evening, after a most regular day, the TV short circuits and burns my whole house down.
Einstein said,” God doesn’t play dice”, rejected the quantum theory and missed out on cracking the BIG question.
Destiny or fate is a very tricky matter. So there’s version A of my life lying tucked in mom’s old cupboard written by a wise old man on a palm pamphlet, seemingly by consulting the stars. Version B is what my placement counselor promises me if I fill a few forms and pass a few exams. Version C is an offer letter. Version D is righteous and will most probably disappoint everyone I know and chances are good that I might end up a bum. So on and so forth.
But I never saw the coming of the house catching fire. That always happened to someone else. A friend of a friend, a relative of a relative.
Some believe in a higher power and the working of karma- over this and past lives. Others have found self help books espousing ‘the big secret’ (if you don’t believe ‘the secret’ exists, you subconsciously will your belief to be true and therefore, it becomes. Arguments can’t get any more solid). There are others who manage to exist knowing that the world exists in utter random chaos. Most of us probably have a convenience-sake-view of life and destiny, a Forest Gump view of a little bit of this that somewhere between the ‘Dancer in the Dark’ miserablist and ‘Princess Diaries’ optimism. ‘I’m pretty rational but no way am I going to take that charmed ring off my darned finger’.
Then the house burns down. Is there a higher power to curse? Is it my karma? Is there a ‘secret’ to it all? Is it just a ‘shit happens’ moment’?
Don’t be emotional, be practical in life.
Thank you Finolex fortune and Bangalore Times and why don’t you go fuck yourself. There are times that do not lend themselves to a convenience-sakes-view. As the pitch black smoke bellows, the fires rage, the very air quivers and the house is going to ash, you have to admit to yourself that you are a helpless fool. Chaos is life’s trump card. Rest of the pack is never revealed. The game is called ‘Destiny’.
“Kaun Kehta Hain Ki Aadmi Apni Kismat Khud Likhta Hain? Sab Bakwas Hain”
Rajeev Khandelwal’s titular protagonist intones as ‘Aamir’ opens in the skies above Mumbai. He wakes up in his airplane seat and makes a casual inquiry to his neighbor only to receive a cold stare in reply. Cut to him staring at himself in a bathroom mirror. He fixes his tie, brushes his coat into order. He is clearly looking to make an impression on landing. We see his face reflected in close-up- an altogether pleasant, good-looking if average and even familiar face of a man in his mid to late twenties. As that film proceeds and before the day is done, it is this close-up that will turn oppressive and claustrophobic and the city below and a mysterious destiny will take its toll on the handsome face, creasing it with worry, tiring it, wearing it down and even spill blood.
No sooner does he land than he is held up at the customs. It is not just paranoia that makes the customs official grill him like he is a suspect but rather he is abusing his official prowess to play out a personal vendetta. Aamir however doesn’t put in too much of protest and bears with it like he has gone through the process many times before. After all, he has nothing to hide and why bother creating a scene in which he obviously doesn’t have an upper hand.
Coming out the airport, things are already amiss. His family hasn’t arrived to receive him and as he walks towards a pay phone, a couple of helmeted men in roaring motorbikes toss him a cellphone and roar away out of sight. Cellphone rings. A mysterious voice informs him to catch a certain taxi. The taxi arrives. His luggage has disappeared. The voice tells him that it has already been loaded into the trunk. Call over. As Aamir tries to figure out what just hit him, the taxi speeds away and he runs behind blindly still trying to grapple with what just happened out of the blue.
The narrative is set in motion. At this point the audience is more in the dark than Aamir himself. Aamir himself is an enigma and we have just had our first impression of him watching him spar with the customs official. As we watch him being hurtled through the seedy back alleys and ghettos of Mumbai guided only by the authoritative voice on the cellphone a bigger and much more complex picture arises both of his life and the most dangerous game that destiny has sucked him into. It is a journey that gradually turns existential adding layer upon layer of questions without any clear answers.
It begins as a revisionist-thriller about a stranger arriving on the shores of a cold and distant city only to find himself trapped in the unsavory underbelly not unlike Satya. But Satya after floundering lost for a bit gradually works his way to become the master of his destiny. Not so Aamir. He is no stranger. He had just been away for a few years to study and practice his medicine in London. More importantly he is no hero. He is the protagonist but he is no hero. He is a mere pawn. He is the McGuffin. For most part he is but a ploy to move narrative forward. He is a mere chink in the web of intrigue in which he is entrapped. Even when he tries to establish himself as a hero by asserting his triumph over destiny he is rebuked by the voice over the cellphone who reiterates the central question/philosophy,” Kaun Kehta Hain…”
Memory serves me badly on both counts but the essence of the narrative drive could perhaps be described as ‘Calcutta Mail’ crossed with ‘Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin’. The pawn of the hero was perhaps foreshadowed by Arshad Warsi’s ‘Puneet’ in ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hain Part -2’ only the meta-film aspect and cheeky chronology is replaced by a rigorous narrative and the existential burn. A fact that is underlined by the presence of everybody’s favorite dude Shashanka Ghosh in an extremely brief, silent but powerful cameo as a gangster. I haven’t seen the much touted ‘Cavite’ but was reminded of ‘Marathon Man’ with the Nazi paranoia replaced with a more urgent and topical affliction- Islamophobia. Even as the film constantly questions what constitutes one’s destiny, it works a pertinent socio-political context into the film. Starting with the scene at the custom’s officials and later as Aamir wanders through the shanties of Bhendi Bazaar and Dongri, Director Raj Kumar Gupta subtly works in the ghettoisation and phobia towards the minorities. The houses are falling apart. Children roam among streets of moral and physical decay like motifs of lost innocence among petty thieves, prostitutes, gangsters- susceptible and easily influenced. London returned Aamir pukes when he has to spend half a minute in the toilet that these people have to use everyday. Gradually, communal rhetoric is introduced. First deviously, later shedding all pretension. As the jigsaw of the movie fills in, we see a context first developed on the periphery slowly making its way in and scorching itself into the heart. There have been movies like ‘Dhoka’ which spent over two hours of dedicated jingoism to the issue without making the slightest incision.
Cinematography by Alphonse Roy and Aarti Bajaj‘s editing are procedural and there are no Pulp Fiction shots and absolutely nothing to distract your attention from the narrative and thus allows you to be overpowered by the tension and claustrophobia. The real locations and non-actors gritty the film with a real flavor of rust and decay, something the most adept set designer would be hard pressed to reproduce. The tension is broken once in a while by gallows humor and inventive montages set to terrific songs that remind one of ‘No Smoking’s ‘Kash Laga’ sequences especially the sequence at the butcher shop where the despair and anguish of Aamir is juxtaposed with the chopping of raw flesh. The recurring mis-en-scene is a close-up of Rajeev Khandelwal’s increasingly anguished face in close-up and the decadence and filth of city fill up the rest of the screen. Khandelwal essays his role with confidence and while earlier in the film, I did feel he did not invest of much physicality in the running sequences, he grows on you and you root for him. The distant familiarity of his face with him being a television regular works well with his portrayal of ‘Aamir’ as there are moments especially towards the climax when one is unsure of whether to continue rooting for him or shift base. This ambivalence would have been lost with a ‘star’. At the climax however, he is sheer revelation. Ace character actor Gajraj Rao playing the nameless authoritative voice over the phone, shot in Brando-esque shadows reminiscent of ‘Apocalypse Now’, is an absolute terror.
Passive onlookers are the recurring motifs of the film. In Director Gupta’s less-than-flattering portrait of Mumbai, gargoyles don’t just exist on CST’s gothic façade shown in the babbity-be-bop credit sequence, but the city is infested with them. Cold. Uncaring. Sniveling. Sarcastic. Feeble. Scared. Evil. Scheming. They’re coming to get you. Mumbai’s grand spirit goes for a toss and is reincarnated as impotent onlooking and a brash cold shoulder. Gothic ugly faces looking in as a poor man is tossed about helplessly in plain view of all.
As the film nears the climax another critique appears. One that every new wave film since the 60s prides in sporting like a badge- the critique of the bourgeois. In a rare affirming moment one feels that Aamir has finally taken destiny in his own hands and turned the tables. Soon it figures that both were wrong, Aamir and the audience in sensing a certain redemption. Destiny is not wrestled into submission with that much ease especially on a bad day like this. Nothing convenience-sake about that.
The city, destiny, the rhetoric of radical Islam, the critique of the bourgeois and real time paranoid tension comes together and cackles in a prolonged and loaded climax and leads to the big question- How long will destiny follow you? Maybe you were born with it, Maybe you inherited it from the stars, Maybe the newspaper guru got it right but is there an escape? Can you overcome, Can you be redeemed?
The ending is the stuff of raging debates and the film doesn’t ash out till one final ‘Taxi Driver’-like potshot at the blind ranting media. Nothing but multimedia extensions of the gargoyle onlookers.
I’m mincing no words here- Aamir is great. Absolutely.
And Destiny is a Smoking TV.
(pics By : Movietalkies, BBC, moviedost, soundtrack by radioblogclub)
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
wow…what a sexy review siddharth!!!
Siddharth: Excellent write-up. I’ll return to it after watching the film tomorrow, but…
I’m mincing no words here – This is great writing. Absolutely.
@Pnu.. taking a bow here
@Aditya.. till tomorrow then…thanx
I dont want to read any review for a movie I m going to watch.
I just read starting lines and finishing lines.Dont want even a slightest hint abt the movie. Though thanks for the review…atleast for confirming that its going to be agood watch.
@PnU.. taking a bow yo
@Aditya.. bow here too.. bow bow.. and i’ll see you tomo
@Abhishek.. nothing to fear.. see you tomorrow too
season’s greetings and a warm hug for a much needed writing.
@Pnu,Aditya, Abhishek.. thanks guys and my original comment got lost in pingworld.. and yeah, i’ll see you here after you’re done watchin it
back in form bro.. :-)
Amazing review Siddharth. Straight from the heart. Gotta watch this ASAP, the only hitch being the limited number of shows at most theatre’s.
I happened to be at Bandra station on the morning of 8th May where the unit of Aamir were canning a quick shot. Rajiv K was in a glass cage and was emoting a shot showing his helplessness at being trapped in the cage. The shoot was over in a few minutes.
awesome review of most probably an awesome movie (haven’t seen it as yet)
Stunning review! Need a job?
siddharth,
this may be your most focussed review yet, and the best review on the net among recent films, and definitely for aamir. well done.
The glass case scene was chopped off!!! It didn’t play at PVR!!! JEEEEZ!!!
Brilliant…how compelling…great job Sid…its been a long time since i have read such a rivetting review..quite fitting to the movie, i guess..
What an awesome review…superb. I hope movie is as good as your writing here. I don’t know when and where can I watch Aamir.
Sid the Kid: I’ll see it tomorrow but after this what do I write tomorrow?
Good job sid! happy you are not gagaing on the movie subject taken from cavite – as others are!
@Fatema, Arun.. anyone know what the glass cage scene was about?
@oz.. as long as its not pro-bono :-)
@dabba.. thanks man.. but this was the least fun i ever had.. i mean, i dunno what it is about rating on your earnesty.. but its the kicks
@Om, Vivek.. hope u guys will manage to catch it
@IMran.. if i don’t gag.. i haven’t seen it.. or else i’m the kind that will gag but i won’t mind it.. i’m too old for that shit..
@subrat.. you’re the wise ol’ wise ol’ in PFC. You can say something. I wasn’t upto mark on the free will and the opposite debate.. so you’ll have somethin to add
saale, ruk jaa :-)
The Glass case was shot for the promo video. I’ve seen it on TV.
Sidharth: I have watched the film now. Loved it. While some other people have questioned “why was Aamir the chosen one”, I feel that question is superfluous. You nailed it: he’s the MacGuffin.
I had two minor issues with the film. One, there was no need for an interval. This film is not structured like one that needs a break, so the interval appeared as an unnecessary adherence to convention. Secondly, when the reality dawns on Aamir in the climax, the quick flashback shots seemed to question the intelligence of the audience to ‘get’ it.
Nevertheless, a damn good film. And, I repeat, a brilliant review!
Sidharth, am just back from the show.. incredibly loved the climax and you put that ambivalence very nicely. liked ur review ;)
Sorry guys, I liked the plot but not the film. Needed a strong script like phonebooth and pacy direction. Could have been a class film but alas!
the film was ok…..and siddharth awesome review man!!!!!!!
The film was superb…..And the actor did a fabulous job !! We need more actors like this ….!The direction n screenplay were superb !
superb film!!!