New York (2009)
New York
Director: Kabir Khan
Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Irrfan
As the first major big banner release after the resolution of producer- multiplex owner dispute, New York was supposed to woo the audiences back into the theatres. But after watching it on the big screen, I am not sure that the film would manage that feat! Earlier director Kabir Khan’s Kabul Express had rather interestingly brought the war-ravaged Afghanistan and its Taliban- story in focus. In New York, he attempts to step up the ladder and portray the Post- 9-11 proliferation of Jihadism in US. Weaving any such burning sociopolitical issue into the script of commercial cinema requires a lot of finesse. Because in such a script the characters, the events and their progressive evolution are not only supposed to explain the history and the ideology but they are also supposed to connect to the audiences at a human level. Kabir Khan’s film fails big time at that human level- it just doesn’t touch you!
New York begins well. The SWAT teams, whirring helicopters, screeching tyres, dramatic arrests and interrogation sequences in pure Hollywood style whet your appetite. Omar- a young Muslim man (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is being accused of being a terrorist. His connections with his ex-college friends Sam alias Samir Shaikh (John Abraham) and Maya (Katrina Kaif) are being probed by an FBI agent Roshan (Irrfan Khan, whose name now has dropped the Khan from it!) FBI is suspecting that Sam is running a sleeper cell of a Jihadist terror network and now Roshan wants Omar to return back his friends’ lives to get more information. Will Omar betray his friends’ trust? Is there any truth in FBI’s accusations?
The film had the potential to be a taut, suspenseful thriller. But within first twenty minutes, we realize that it is not going to be so! The character- development here means a needlessly long flashback about the three friends’ lives at New York State University featuring colorful college contests, American football and a quickly resolved love-triangle. This rather flimsy part of the film practically kills off its thriller-aspirations. First of all, none of the protagonists (barring perhaps Neil) looks anything like a young college student and secondly, it all seems like a cheap trick to include some fun and some Yashraj- masala into a serious storyline! The serious parts that follow do nothing better. The torture scenes, the terrorist acts, the investigation, the ideological explanations and the climax then keep presenting themselves in a rather predictable and none-too-convincing manner.
The film lacks the pace, the suspense and the novelty. The emotional and ideological conflicts presented here are rather superficial. The performances too are nothing much to write about. Neil Nitin Mukesh brings in sincerity but lacks intensity. John and Katrina (including their famous fleeting bed-scene!) are plain dull and uninspiring. Irrfan lends some of his charm to the proceedings but largely just seems to be going through the motions. The songs are good but could well have been chopped off to quicken up the pace. The only positive thing: Yashraj production values are superb as ever and technically the film is slick.
Terrorism-related films have now become dime- a-dozen (Read Bollywood Takes On Terrorism on cinemasangeet.com) and New York hardly brings something new to table. If you have seen Road to Guantanamo, Khuda Ke Liye or Traitor, then you have probably seen everything that is there in NY!
Tags: Kabir Khan, New York, Terrorism, Yashraj
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
Hmm I had this doubt.
After Khuda Ke Liye, it’s a tough job to portray the subject in a better way.
Not seen the movie yet, but your good review sets some expectation.
Great review Sir, and its sad to see movie makers playing ducks and drakes with a sensitive topic like this. The promos did not look great either.
Bang on,
The movie fails to connect, it fails also thriller, the cinmeatography is lifted by many hollywood movies does not help the movie.
The review seems more like an effort to bash Yashraj Films, notwithstanding the fake fawning over YF’s production values, you don’t fool no one sir (and you should grow up sir, YF/Ramu/SRK/AB bashing is so juvenile). Really now, New York is not half as bad a film as it is made out. At the expense of being branded a low life, intellectually stunted ‘movie watcher’ (as opposed to a ‘cinema sampler’) I will stick my neck out and recommend this movie to everyone starved for some gripping bollywood.
PS: Name-throwing aside, I have seen all the films you mentioned towards the end of your article and fail to see the need for comparison. Just because Khuda Kay Liye was prostituted to film festivals around the world, does not make it a good film. It was a bad movie in all respects, except perhaps the subject matter was such that no one thought it could be produced in Pakistan. But thats where my admiration for the movie stops, and thats where my cynicism for the people who loved the movie begins.
@Kartik Malla; Hmm!:)Contrary to your assumption, Yashraj films and I happen to be on best of terms! If you feel that this is a ‘gripping’ Bollywood movie, then who is to argue? To each his own!
@Kartik…
I agree with the article and I too felt the same about New York. The movie isn’t bad, its just okay. Nothing great about it. And am happy that such a story is told by YRF camp. More people will atleast dare to tell a different story.
I haven’t yet seen Newyork, but I wonder what YRF should do now…earlier when they were only making romantic movies people blamed them of candy floss..now when they are trying to charter newer grounds with dhoom, kabul express, chak de, roadside romeo,newyork etc..people are still bashing them. Agreed the choice of scripts have left a lot to be desired, agreed all their “different” films still have some sort of YRF element/aura, but at least they are trying something different. If not for YRF how many would have watched Kabul Express? I guess, for simply having made films like silsila, lamhe and ddlj, they deserve the benefit of doubt
Sudip – I haven’t watched New York either, but the YRF aura that you are talking about, is exactly what is wrong with those ‘different’ films.
Tejas – Right, but may be with time that aura will also go. I can see the signs already, could anyone have imagined vinay pathak, ranvir shorey or irrfan in a YRF film 4-5 years back.
katrina being frisked reminded me of crash… movie as a whole began well, but there was no suspense later on… also i found the idea of window cleaner trying to bomb the fbi building absurd… but i liked the message that irrfan conveys at the end of the movie…
Cherish and Sudip understand what i am trying to say. No one expected a moving, insightful docu-drama on racial profiling but for YRF to mount a production on this theme bodes well. What these movies lack is good writing, however among the many misses there comes a well written Chak De (Jaideep Sahini) which is so perfect, it makes up for everything. It is important to back such movies and their (almost unachievable) effort to marry content with entertainment. Without realizing the significance and simply writing these movies off because you tend to watch more meaningful cinema is reverse narrow mindness.
Besides, expecting every movie you watch to be a cerebral masterpiece is exactly the kind of selfish attitude which will do the ‘new wave cinema’ in. Instead of going to the theaters, watching and making movies like ‘Barah Anna’ a hit, we will sit on our ass and crib about ‘New York’. Good Luck.
I’ve been detoxing on Bollywood since the last 3 months. Somewhere mid may I was twitching, lying in bed with chapped lips stroking my Urmila Matondkar- Rangeela poster with slow careful strokes. I was hungry for anything, I would have watched a Govinda movie and cheered and clapped my wrists to a bloody pulp.
But after all that wait, I got had the chance to see a Long nosed star kid jumping like a trained monkey in a Tommy hilfiger ad( Kal Kisne Dekha), a Subhash Ghai produced misfire with character actors embarrassing themselves in drag rapping nursery rhymes…( Paying Guest)( my man javed jafferey. what happened to the badass that danced on tables in Meri Jung?)…
All the while Preity Zinta was twittering that piracy is bad.
Well you know what Bollywood, you don’t treat me right!
Nothing in New York makes me want to see this movie.
Muslims aren’t treated right… what’s new about this story, go to your local paanwala and he’ll start shouting insults to any race or religion he is not part of. Do we need this rehotrique again? and especially coming from the guy that gave us drivel like Kabul Express.
John Abraham has been working for how long in this industry?
is he ever gonna make a movie where he needs to act?
Cutting of your tresses does not make you a method actor.
Katrina Kaif, I’ve seen her in the songs prance around in ankle cut jeans, which make me realise I have already seen the extent of her talent in this flick.
That Neil kid gets a pass from me. He’s been good in the things I’ve seen him in, plus I hope he’ll start singing Soogaye Manzilein from Tezaab suddenly( hey you never know…)
But the director and producer do not get a pass. actually there pass should be revoked and their picture should be hanged on the wall to all future pass applicants to look at and mock whilst pointing.
With all the money they bombard the public with in media spending and advertising, can’t they just put a link up on the web and screen through the screenplay idea’s they get from Joe Public?
That would probably be a better idea then asking Jugul Hansraj to come up with a story and still mess it up with a gajillion Disney dollars backing him .
Serisouly did they just open a door and give a shot to anybody in the vicinity of their opened door.
(That was the real reason Bill Clinton slept with Monica Lewsinkey- he opened the door and called the first person walking by in and offered his manhood)
In any case, after 3 months of drought, i can’t take mediocre movies anymore. I want something good, something to sooth me from all the American robots and French conversations around tables I have been filling my time with…
Otherwise I’ll just need to piss off Preity Zinta until that point…
PS
I am predicting Kambakt Ishq will be (s)hit
Maybe even a bigger (s)hit Welcome or the one where Akshay dresses up like a Singh( Can’t remember the name anymore… Was it Heera Atta???)
Yunus on a limb and loving it!
Kartik – May be it came out differently but I was only trying to add(support) to your earlier comment.
yes Sudip and i did acknowledge it
Daiya re daiya re chadgayon papi bichua. .
btw dr saab that was nt meant to b derogatory. . .
Yashraj sympathizers akways tak bout d mounting of d movie. . Wot d duck is mounting its mounted on a freaking white cloth like any other films. . D only stff to look frward to frm yrf is nethng frm shimit amin. . Cnt wait 4 rocket singh salesman of d year. . .btw kambakht ishq is gona bomb worse than cc2c its quite sad dat hollywood sees only akshay kumar. .WEL ders teen patti wid amitabh n ben kingsely. . And d rumord aamir khan kate winslet film toba tek singh basd on a novel by manto. . GOSH DIS POST SURE LOST D TRAIN OF THOT
I also donot agree completely with author.I only agree that it’s not that gripping movie as Khuda Ke liye.But it’s not that bad movie Mr.Author.It’s a entertaining world and it is too difficult to narrate/penn the serious issue with light moments rather than to tell seriously like art movie.1st half is so nice, 2nd half get some wat weak with lengthy shots in each situation. The performances of all(even the guy who died in movie also)artists are so good and u r saying average performances.
@Kartik…
As I said earlier, I do appreciate YRF’s effort to break ground but not convinced with their formula based story telling!
Dr.,
Excellent review. I haven’t seen the film, but that is exactly what I was afraid they would do. The promos gave it all, that this would be a juvenile, stupid half assed way of treating a serious subject.
Yunus,
Thanks for expressing it so well. These Bollywoods gods need to be called on it, especially with the money involved. What kind of cocoon do they live in? Whatever happened to that Aditya Chopra who doesn’t want to be seen in public so that he can go to theaters to watch films and see audience reaction first hand.
Kartik,
I have nothing against YRF or big budget films. I have loved DDLJ, Dhoom or Chak De. But when they come up with a Neil N Nikky or Bachna A Hasino or any number of such pretentious, ludicrous films, they need to be called upon it. I am speaking purely as an audience, not as a cine expert. When I, with my minimum knowledge of the medium can see through it, why can’t they. Stop Piracy, my foot!
@ A.Singh
But thats exactly my point, with the money they invested in New York, they could have made another Bachna Ae Hasino or RNBDJ and made tons of money, regardless of how appalled everyone at PFC would be. The fact that they choose to gravitate to some sort of meaningful cinema every now and then is encouraging for the future. While some movies like Laaga Chunari (even when helmed by Pradip Sarkar) become the horror that they are, a movie like Chak De is bound to come out, as directors exert more independence on script treatment (keeping Adi Chopra out) and taking advantage of the technical finnese of YRF (bringing Adi Chopra in).
@ Vishal: Ah, I was waiting for this, bhaiyya Vishal Chalchitra. As a YRF sympathizer it is my duty to explain what i meant by mounting a movie. Because certified cinestas as you all are, you either choose or are blissfully ignorant of the fact that movies are not made through mere mental masturbation. Refer to my simple explanation of what i meant by ‘mounting’ in my chat with A. Singh above, and pardon my brevity on the topic if it still is not clear to you.
Additionally, we are not off topic when we discuss this here. PFC is not a blog to crap on everything that comes out of YRF/Dharma and suck Anurag Kashyap’s toes until he achieves an orgasm. We debate cinema here. Contrary to what has become the attitude (and the majority of comments) on PFC, debating cinema doesn’t involve with just letting everyone know how much you hate mainstream cinema and how many Iranian/French movies you watched last week.
Kartik- Chak De is fine no doubt, but please don’t bring it up as some holy grail masterpiece. Check out Miracle (2004) about an underdog US ice hockey team which goes on to win the 1980 winter Olympics to see the similarities…lol. Even the whole ‘inspiring’ scene of hockey players realising that they now play for their country and not for their states etc. is a straight lift…
I liked the movie. It’s a very good attempt to convey a very relevant and meaningful thought in an entertaining manner. The film has a taut script and holds your attention till the very end. Only thing is we expect some big bang in the end which doesn’t happen and may find the ending rather tame but overall an excellent movie! and very good performances by Irrfan, neil, John and Katrina. Go watch it!
@Kartik
love your comments man, even though I would disagree slightly…..yes you are right..”movies are not made through mere mental masturbation”, although I know of many who think like that.
@Alysha
Yes you are right, you should not comment on a movie which you haven’t seen but you don’t have to be a genius to tell that a movie which has Katrina as the lead actress and John as the lead actor is already compromised, these two are nothing more than glam dolls on a mantle piece….
And when was the last time you saw a masterpiece from Bollywood ?…….
everyone has his/her own masterpiece, for me a masterpiece is something which has a re-watch value, I never get tired of watching masterpieces, so in that respect I would rate Swades, Lagaan, Lakshya and DCH as my masterpieces in recent times ,add Rock On to that list as well, you may differ but then that’s the thing about movies, it’s art , hence it’s subjective.
for someone else Hero No .1 may be his/her masterpiece.
Alysha, people bitch about YRF/Dharma productions because of their formula based same storylines. Dharma has been doing that since long. YRF has ventured into new story lines with Kabul Express, action packed Dhooms, and now New York, which is actually welcome, but again their song and dance sequences, hamming (esp SRK), drama is something we all dislike. We like taut movies like Dhoom 1, Khosla ka Ghosla, Black Friday, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Waisa bhi hota hai part II, etc. And what we dont like is the long pauses, drama, songs, the never ending background alaaps while extras hold thalis in the hands, hamming, etc in SRK movies in Dharma.
Kartik – your whole argument is on the premise that New York is a better subject to tall than a Laga Chunari Mein Daag. That is not the case. While Yashraj may have given some versatile stories in last few years as a production house, they probably either never paid attention to the scripts, or gave a single sentence instruction to all their hired directors to leave that indelible mark of Yashraj on these films. Not done my friend. If only ideas could become interesting, CC2C could have been one of the masterpieces, or Tashan for that matter (a node to 70’s Bollywood – give me any day).
And bringing up Anurag Kashyap’s name in every anti-YRF discussion here is way too immature my friend. Grow up, and that’s not just writing good English.
@Tejas: my good sir, the argument (as far as I am aware) is infact based on the premise that while YRF can and will profitably make bubblegum movies (Bachna Ae Hasino, Neal and Nikki, Salaam Namaste and some forthcoming Uday Chopra – Priyanka Chopra torture-fest) they are consciously choosing different themes and in the process giving work to people who would otherwise languish the in micro-budget, poorly promoted graveyard that the ‘new wave cinema’ is quickly becoming. As Sudip said earlier, who would have imagined Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Irrfan Khan, Jaideep Sahni, Shimit Amin, Pradip Sarkar and even the promising Neil Nitin to be working with YRF! However, since it is not a natural habitat, this cinema with some sense for YRF, they will undoubtedly screw up some movies with great potential like Laaga Chunari, Aaja Nachle, Dhoom 2 and Tashan. New York, on the other hand is an example of a movie which got somewhere. Note, Katrina was not prancing around in miniskirts while a barechested John went about his business planting explosives – a scene not hard to imagine for the bosses at YRF. My only concern is for us to objectively give a movie its due, especially when it has made an attempt to earn it. Acting like a bunch smug, mean, auteur-fiends will get us applause only from our cronies. If that is all we come here for then it is a sad day for PFC.
More Importantly: Anurag Kashyap mera, tumhara aur hum sab ka Bhagwaan hai. I invoke His name because of this worrying trend in movie reviews at PFC. We have started acting like those fanatic cave-dwellers of the Tora Bora mountain ranges. We have this immense intolerence for every kafir who dosen’t recognise or follow our bhagwaan. That is a mistake. For the outsider is not like us is a fact, but he is making an attempt to impress us. If we brush him aside and ask him to get lost, it’ll be our loss and no one else’s. Everyone agrees that New York is not a Palme D’Or nominee, but simply encouraging their effort and not shooting from the hip is all that I ask for.
Have not seen New York yet but Khuda kay liye was a horrible movie … technically shoddy … pathetic acting (the girls father was hilarious beyond words). the music was outstanding though and even naseeruddins last act could not save the film !!! it was bad beyond imagination !!!
Prasun,
I liked Khuda Ke liye a lot, not sure if my expectations were really low. But i was amazed at the canvas they covered and the reasonable amount of depth they went into for various issues. Acting was a mixed bag – they guy who played taliban mullah and our deral old Naser bhai were outstanding, rest were ok, some plain non-actors.
I reccomedn u to watch these movies on 9/11 UNITED93, Roadto Gunatnamo Bay (very well made true life documentary which New york seems to inspired by)and The kingdom (underrated movie specaillycheck outthe last scene)