Apne- Worthy of a Bagpiper Toast
It had every sign of the lugubrious epic bore- the weep- as – though- there’s- no- tomorrow sentimentality of Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Ghum, Veer-Zaara’a annoyingly wholesome Punjabi fixation, the ear-splitting jingoism of Gadar, a terrible Himesh Reshamiya soundtrack lacking even that primitive jhankaar, an aging icon long faded and last seen being awkwardly amorous with Nafisa Ali and his two sons- one with obtuse hips, prosthetic hair and an obnoxious autorickshaw horn for a voicebox and other- blonde and more or less inconsequential- a shameless casting gimmick and add to that- Kirron ‘I’m-the-face-of-post-menopausal-Punjabi-kuddis’ Kher and Shilpa Shetty still plastic since her reality TV sojourns and Katrina Kaif with the screen presence of upholstery and then there’s Victor Banerjee, last seen in ‘Tara Rum Pum Pum Pumzzzzzzzzzzz’. What horror could Anil Sharma and his firm belief in loud vocal pyrotechnics possibly concoct out of this tasteless smorgasbord? Would the Deols conspire to invade our neighboring countries and once and for all deliver our country of all evil? Would they save the izzat of our mas and behens with wild screams and random applications of sindhoor?? All of them seemed to be possiblities.
and all that is before I saw the film.
But what Anil Sharma has done is inject the great Indian family drama with a retrograde bollywood macho and delivers a mean left hook to the likes of K3G and Baghban. For all its plodding sentimentality and requirement of a decent sense of suspension of disbelief, ‘Apne’ triumphs in the end as a classic story of the victory of the underdog and the credit goes in part to Anil Sharma who surprisingly shows flashes of maturity and some subtlety and to the gimmicky Deol trio with Dharmendra in what is indisputably the performance of his career, digging deep inside himself and achieving emotional resonance. Sharma’s greatest credit is the discovery of Dharamji’s performance that traces all his career highs from Veeru’s goofball to his warm turn in ‘Guddi’ to his seething ‘mera gaon mera desh’ intensity in so many films and then some more. He also gets a classic Bagpiper moment. Sharma actually employ’s both Dharamji seeming senile doddering and Sunny’s aging action star persona into the story and performances and as a result, the picture soars where it could have easily fallen into blase cliches. That is not to say, ‘Apne’ is free from cliches. In fact, Sharma employs every cliche in the book including the classic ‘overcoming a handicap in a moment of emotional outburst’ but the genre mechanics of the sports movie keep them buoyant, provided as i mentioned earlier one is willing to suspend a little disbelief.
The movie begins with the painfully sappy rendition of the title track (which will be played ad nauseum at different pitches accompanying slow-mos all through the movie’s length at every occasion of joy, sadness and in between) and Baldev Singh Chaudhary (Dharmendra) cycling through the khets of Punjab. Chaudhary was a former Olympian whose career high came with winning the silver medal at the Olympics and low when doping charges ended his career just as he was on threshold of becoming ‘World Heavy Weight Championship’. At his ousting, he makes a promise to coach his son Angad (Sunny Deol) into a champion but the dream goes unfulfilled when Angad after becoming National Champion retires from the sport disillusioned and ends up, as per routine, successful businessman. His younger son Karan has a maimed arm something which always plays on the conscience of Angad. Karan is also hinted to be a musician of sorts if only to stuff some ‘faux pass’ dance sequences in. Then comes the opportunity of Baldev’s life in the form of a reality show and the rest is all family and Rocky 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 all the way to the ‘Apne to Apne Hote hain…’ ending.
The best aspect of the movie is that Sharma invests interest in character development and the dynamics between them. Baldev Singh is no ‘Baghban’ style saint nor is he a mollycoddling senior citizen who acts cute like a child star the likes of ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’. He’s a conflicted individual, striving for respect and redemption. He is nostalgic for his successes, he is worn out by failure and obscurity. He is selfish, he can be mean and opinionated, he can relish a good drink and go berserk. Even Sunny Deol until he gets to unleash he ‘dedh kilo ke haath’ is restrained and suffers from guilt pangs about his decision to quit the sport which has alienated him from his father and his brother’s accident. Bobby Deol’s Angad is comparatively underwritten and subject to the worst cliches but he has his moments. Even Kirron Kher, the patented face of Punjabi behanji makes you forget the cliche of her casting as does Victor Banerjee who rises above his token Muslim character.
Another factor about the film that is novel is it is the first time I’m seeing the angst of the non-cricketer sportsman being etched on-screen. Sure there are better treatments that can be employed, but there are cutting moments in ‘Apne’ that employ that dilemma. And post-world cup the timing is apt. Also to my great relief, there is no over State of Punjab sycophancy but one episode picturing Amar Singh, yes that politician guy, turning up to deliver a performance carved from ply left a bad taste in my mouth. Being an Anil Sharma film there is patriotic jingo banter but surprisingly restrained and in another trademark, there is a cringe-worthy scene about sindhoor that can rival the iconic ‘Gadar’ sequence.
Sure there are other discrepancies, including absolutely unwanted scenes featuring participants from the Great Indian Laughter Challenge (this is becoming a disturbing bollywood routine) and Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif and the award for the most deserving of all to land up on the editing table goes to Divya Dutta.
‘Apne’ is far from perfect- unevenly paced, overstuffed even preposterous. But Anil Sharma imbues it in his very naive fashion, a beating heart. That and Dharamji give it a core that is all goodness of the earth and very genuine.
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
Why is no one talking about Awarapan? After reading whatever reviews on the web, I find it to be a bad copy of Ghajini.
Same, Hero’s girl friend dies in flash back, another girl comes and now the hero has to save her. Purportedly one of the most expensive movie from the bhatt stable, one thing that defies logic is why can’t these guys get out of Murder-Gangster hangover? I am sure there are thousand other brilliant stories waiting to be told?
According to Taran Adarsh’s review Awarapan is inspired from the Korean film “A Bittersweet life”.
Apne has got 3 posts on PFC in 1 day. Three big budget movie released “Awarapan” “Apne” and “Aap ka Surroor”. All start with the letter A. According to Indiafm.com “Aap Ka Surroor” got the best opening.
Wow, in my wet dreams I never could dare muster up a Apne review that I would read, save the film. I like Bollywood for such surprises. I like it when jhoom barabar jhoom gets panned by everyone from jamnagar to juhu, and i am comfortably handed another life in a metro weekend ticket for a night out at the muvyss. love that feeling when i need to gulp my reaction, “but Jhoom Barabar…”, and say “OK, ya I heard it was nasty!”. its such times when you talk to the rear view mirror and feel good about yourself, the man at the muvyss.
nevermind, I will watch Apne.
The emperor strikes back. THE DEOLS-RULZ. loved Dharamji and SUNNY . FEEL GOOD MOVIE.