Eklavya – A Review!
Hi Folks,
Just completed a viewing of the supposedly magnum opus from Vidhu Vinod Chorpra, this time not in my territory, but the NAZ8 at Artesia, south of LA, since am here for the Sharmishta Event.
I was actually looking forward to this since there was an ensemble cast. The first half actually did have me impressed. Non melodramatic acting, sub plots that were gradually building up, a who dunnit, which seemed like a true who dunnit, since the more obvious did not seem to be the apparent. Good photography and locals and none of the actors doing over the top stuff. In effect quality stuff that we have come to expect from Vidhu Vinod.
And then came the fall
Now I realize why thos Rolls Royce gimmicks had to be resorted too. Fact is the film had been lying completed for a while and one wonders why is it, that just before the release, VVC decides it is the best performance by AB ever and gifts him a RR car.This film needs all the hype, since by itself, it falls.
In the first half AB is non melodramatic, in the second half, he becomes larger than life. When he is banished, it was the ideal film to show his gradual decline and not able to adjust to the “changed world.” Instead VVC got so lost in the camera angles and the shots and lights, that the director totally took over the scriptwriter. Cause the script became very cliched post interval and all the build up and all the plot points that had been put in place pre interval, get lost and become irrelevant, post the break. The film tries to salvage itself by some solid performances by Jackie, Boman and Vidya and a surprisingly good performance by R. Sen, but despite that the sprint to the finish line is just that…a sprint.
While it is essential to have a film which does not take too much time to get the point across, the other end of the spectrum is getting point after point across with no reasoning behind it. As in the characters are built up in a solid way and then inexplicably and without adequate cause, become someone they are not to start with.
Overall a moderate film, despite great early promise
Sincerely,
Vivek”Jackie is one shining star in this, else too many rough edges”Kumar
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
Vivek
I think we all are going against, IndiaFM, rediff review this time. Nothing great about Eklavya. Final verdict
-Punds
Dude,
I dunno y, but i hate it when anyone derides a film, irrespective of how good or bad it is. i am gonna watch eklavya anyways. I wish u aint right.
magik , how come u never felt this way when people trash dhoom 2 and KANK and VIVAH every now and then …atleast they were huge hits which means the audiences at large lappped them up .this one wont even go there. they were no claiming ot be great cinema anyway. this one does and majorly disappoints. after the initial hype this will sink for sure.
i chekcked out the movie today ..i agree with this review more than any other .
“Jackie is one shining star in this, else too many rough edges”
Spot on. Hopefully Jackie gets some good offers. The man can give good performance even now.
VVC in his IBN interview said that he might direct another movie by this year end before he ventures into his Hollywood movie- 5th move.
Also, in the same interview he mentioned he offered SRK a movie just today morning. So, will we be seeing SRK in VVC’s next? VVC has this SRK fixation from like almost 10 years. Its high time they work. AB squeezed himself into VVC next by giving statements on ‘Jeena Isi ka Naam hai’ that he is ready to work with VVC for FREE and is dream. VVC obliged and gave him Eklavya.
Folks,
If you need a pointer to how and why VVC makes his films post parinda, ur best bet is the bollywood chapter from Maximum City.
Suketu Mehta ends it with something similar to this – VVC keeps making films which aspires to be the best plots while getting bogged down by trying to dilute it to ‘da public’s taste and the movies sure reflect the neither here nor there predicament very well.
Having said that, Eklavya is worth a dekho, though albeit of the DVD variety :-)
I remember reading in an interview that VVC said he would slap Suketu Mehta if he met him anywhere after Maximum City came out. But personally I think the book is brutally honest and shows that Mehta does ultimately respect VVC.
VVC had offered Munnabhai to Shahrukh first. Thank God! he could not do it for whatever reasons. I hope VVC is not repeating his mistake again and if do, hopefully luck will favour him by some or other way.
Eklayva has some great performances and was shot very beautifully. But, there are too many holes in the story which keep you from enjoying the experience. Overall, I was disappointed. I didn’t like the way the story was narrated. The style gave away what was to come next and that was anti-climatic. The last 15-20 minutes were just unbearable and unacceptable from this banner.
hi
I really disappointed to read the review above. I agree the film has some negative points especially the compromise vvc made in the end. I m sure there has been a long discussion to make it tragedy which it deserved to be or made it happy ending. I dont know inspite of being producer himself why vvc compromised to give it happy ending a false or brought in due to fear of failure at box office. This made a well but a superb written movie less admirable. By the way still movie is great a must watch. Its not wrong to say that its far better written than lage raho munna bhai. it makes me remember a tragedy like written by shakespeare. I congratulate vvc for giving a masterpiece.
i agree with vivek…this movie cud hv been better
I rather liked the movie, bar the ending. More so, I enjoyed the story telling process, the way that they focused on such small things like a tear drop, droplets of blood and even a scarf blowing in the wind. It