National Awards Meri Jaan, You Bet!
iView Author: Sulakshana Biswas
(Kolkata, India)
Email : pottermaniac143 [at] gmail [dot] com
National Awards Meri Jaan—You Bet!
A local train advancing with unhindered acceleration-the only thing unusual about it is that, only a few seconds back one of its compartments got blasted off, moves out of focus, as the camera converges on a 7/11 sign marked on a post in the vicinity, connoting the poignancy of the masterful moment created by Nishikant Kamat in his debut Bollywood venture, Mumbai Meri Jaan. Based on the Mumbai serial train blasts in 11th July, 2006, that triggered terror among the Mumbai inhabitants, MMJ is a brilliant portrayal of how things are, instead of how things ought to be, at the time of crisis.
A computer vendor whose corporation is in the doldrums (Kay Kay Menon’s Suresh), a posh executive who dislikes glossy comfort (R. Madhavan’s Nikhil Agarwal), a madrasi coffeewaala who is tired of being ridiculed, by and large in his desperate bid to catch up with the effing pace of progress and prosperity (Irrfan Khan), a quintessential representative of the malevolent media (Soha Ali Khan’s Rupali Joshi) and an aging constable on the verge of retirement, who regrets that in his 36 year long service he did not do anything worthwhile (Paresh Rawal’s Tukaram Patil) are the pivotal characters on which the narrative builds up. Their life, before and after the tragedy, that usurped one’s moment’s solace forms the thematic thread of the phenomenal MMJ.
A script strings five stories running parallel, with justified pace which is most essential in narratives of this kind, go too fast and the emotions get blurred, go too slow, and the films slugs . One just cannot abandon the feeling that it is a very sound script and the dialogues so very identifiable what with Kay Kay’s dry sarcasm or Paresh Rawal’s witty punches. Ditto with cinematography, it’s bloody brilliant to say the least. The background score appears clich'©d at some parts, but still it does justice to the flawless script.
Probably the stellar performances by the ensemble cast, is the USP of MMJ and guys, just watch out for Soha. Soha surprises you with her mature emoting which was completely missing in RDB. Soha as the pain-in-the-@#$ journo and Soha as the woman who has just lost her fianc'© had been portrayed with equal '©lan. See the look on her face when she receives the delivery of her marriage card which was never to take place, or when asked by her colleagues to make appear in a feature about her personal loss which would be used as a shameless primetime show element in the very news channel where she would cook up sympathy from similar incidents of apathy is highly commendable to say the least. At this context I would also like to mention about a gem of a sequence where we can see her face reflected on the floor and people walk over it, signifying what…that I leave it to you to derive at your own conclusion.
Kay Kay Menon as the prejudiced Muslim-phobic Mumbaikar on the threshold of bankruptcy, Madhavan as the terrorized daily commuter and Vijay Maurya as the constable torn between ideology and duty, are amazing. But Paresh Rawal and Irrfan Khan scores way above the rest. Probably for the first time in my eighteen year old life am I getting to see Paresh Rawal do comedy without becoming a caricature. And Irrfan….oh! Intense Irrfan….. he hardly speaks in the movie but his impeccable body language does the talking….and oh his eyes….. look out for his expression when he is kicked out of a mall and humiliated before everyone else including his daughter, because he dared to dream of a life where he can buy “kaafi (coffee) flavour ka scent”… just like that. When he realizes the way to derive sadistic pleasure by harassing his tormentors at the mall is just by pressing three buttons, his sudden change in body language is amazing.
The “Bombay Meri Jaan” track does wonders which begins in the denouement and continues till the end-credits roll. The end-credits are accompanied by photographs of the Mumbai blast victims….highly reminiscent of Black Friday.
MMJ is hard hitting, MMJ is beautiful, maybe because of the simple reason that an explosion which culminates into a ring of fire, here culminated into a wreath of red roses.
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
Agree with you with almost all points. Just that Irfaan says “kaafi” where he actually wanted to say “kaapy” or “copy” – “Original” was too strong for him and “copy” would have done. Brilliant scene !!
This should ensure that I have to watch this flick, atleast once if not more than that!
definitely a must watch … perhaps one of the best in the past few years … nice review, the movies next on my play list …
I haven’t seen this film yet and don’t intend seening it sometime soon. There is so much being written about this film that its like if I watch it now my head will be filled with only what I’ve read about the film and this is definitely going to act as big block for me.
It happened for The Dark Night – I came out of the theatre not knowing what to feel; and whether what was going on in my head was because of what I’d read read and read more or the film itself? It was a terrible experience…
@ kcp –
i think he meant coffee (kaafi) flavored perfume since he’s a coffee vendor, and that’s the first thing that pops in his mind.
My favourite was—
KK’s lines when his friend says – kya gaaana hai(Kar chale hum fida …) and then KK says – “Ye saale Rafi hi sunenge, Kishore kabhi nahi sunenge …”
Beautifully sums up his disgust for the minority community …
then there was Madhavan sitting beside his colleague in the hospital … He was on the verge of crying but never really cried … Beautiful portrayel of emotions …
I really liked the movie and the way minor details of the lives of ppl after blasts,have been captured …
At some places the movie lost its pace but overall it had the capability of making u sit upright in ur seats …
A must watch …
dabba – nopes. He clearly says “kaafi (copy) hai to chalega…ye bahot shtrong (strong) hai”
@kcp
copy hai toh chalega doesnt really make much sense here….or does it?
i think it sounded like copy because of his accent..
@ Sulakshana
You forgot to mention about Vijay Maurya’s performace. His performance was better than Irfan, Kay kay and Soha because they were never there in one frame with some one like Paresh.
Ofcourse Rick. Copy for villagers seem to be a milder version of the original perfumes. I have experienced it since I have quite a few friends in the village to whom I have taken copies from phoreign ( on their insistance ) :-)
@Rajeev
sorry about that :P
actually you’ve written too little about this 2 and a quarter hour kamath brilliance.. throughout those minutes you are gonna shudder, smile, weep, rant and at last, be still because that is what really happens everytime… memories fade into oblivion and what remains is silence… blood is shed and lives are lost in millions and what remains is silence… lives get shattered and humanism falls apart and what shrieks on and on…. is silence… that’s what mmj is all about… the silence in the end…
Written from the heart Sulakshana… Just like the film, which has been made from the heart…
My review in The Telegraph
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080823/jsp/entertainment/story_9730489.jsp
Hvn’t watched the movie..seems like a good film from the review…..
Good film….very good performances. Irrfan Khan, Paresh Rawal, Vijay. But for me this film was about Madhavan’s performance. I have seen him giving good performances in Tamil, but when it comes to hindi…I could not see something special in him. He is blessed with a pleasant face – so its very hard for someone to not like him, but his biggest challenge has been (in hindi cinema) for people to take him seriously, too look into his eyes and see the character….and he cracks the sheild in this one. Madhavan lived the role man…and I could easily connect to him.
The climax…the realization in his eyes…that there is no city like Mumbai….and hint of patriotism…the hint of relief …and the final let go…brilliant performance….
@Abhilash…atlast someone is talking about Maddy…for me, he was fantastic…his reactions were gorgeous…esp when the blasts occur and he is sitting on the tracks…also wen he meets his friend and also the climax..when he questions why the train was stopped…
Also, when his wife asks him to get her some water..and he in his ow world of thoughts..goes and starts boiling the milk…
A mark of a good actor, for me, is the surprise element. Kay Kay Menon & Madhavan, no doubt acted brilliantly….but then, they always do! The 2 performance that surprised me came from Paresh Rawal & Irfan.
Sulakshana very rightly said that its a pleasure to watch Paresh doing comedy without making himself a caricature.
But I think behind all the praises for acting and direction, we are forgetting Yogesh Vinayak Joshi, whose story, script & dialogues are the backbone of the film.
And boy, the best last-two minutes of the film are the best I’ve seen in the recent while…
Thank you Yogesh & Nishikant for such a thought-provoking drama!
@Ritzzz
totally agree with you, mmj wouldn’t have been what it is without Yogesh Vinayak Joshi’s crisp script
Good film but if they had included a main muslim character and her or his perspective, it would have been much better.
Nice review.Great film.But in my opinion certain shots of the blast taking place seemed a bit amateurish.Also,I feel certain scenes were added deliberately to add to the drama,especially the one where Soha hesitates unendigly & then finally starts crying in front of the rolling camera.The hypocrisy in the world of media has been well shown.I liked the film as a package.some very beautiful performances.Kudos to Nishikant!
@J
I felt the same too but forgot to add it in my last comment.While watching the movie I felt it was only natural to have a prominent Muslim character as well.
A nice review written for a equally nice movie!Truly MMJ is one of the really nice movie in modern timeline!Good acting, good direction and good spirits!!!Cheers MMJ!!