Aamir Review

Aamir; meaning a prince, a ruler or a commander. That’s the name the protagonist as well. It is the story of an Indian doctor returning after the completion of his studies in London. The moment he gets out of his airport, he is handed a cell phone by a couple of strangers. The phone rings and a mysterious voice asks him to get in a taxi and do what is told if he ever wants to see his family alive. Thereon starts a race against time for this innocent soul through the streets of Mumbai.

Aamir is gritty in its tone; a simple story told effectively by the way of it’s pacing and the way it has been shot. We see Aamir traversing through the busy and shady streets of Mumbai and encountering the shoddy and uneducated characters that are his own Muslim Qaum (tribe). All this is a part of a psychological game his family’s abductors want to exploit upon. The film according to me is more than just a thriller. It is about a man being pushed into a corner and willing to do anything to crawl away from it. Agreed, when you watch the film there may be plot holes here and there. Consider it as a film taking place in an open world and let’s move on.

Indian films, and also the people, are known for their emotional quotient. Usually you have a character who has failed or fate has brought great amounts of dismay upon him. Then you introduce another character that has pity and both join forces to weave a twisting thread of songs, dances, redemption and an ending that any audience can accept as closure. Aamir breaks all this mold and much more. It will gradually be termed as an experiment for a studio to judge the changing mindsets of the average Indian moviegoer. There have been films like these but those have not gone past the typical masala realm. I am basing this theory only from the cinematic dome of the 90’s and onwards. What I conceive about the whole stature of so-called Bollywood is that it is still stuck in the 1970’s and no amount of technology can get it out from that way of thinking. This is a natural ascension the industry will take when the time is right and the changes are being seen right now.

What has all this to do with Aamir, you may ask? I am saying this because the film really left me with something to look forward to later on. Director Rajkumar Gupta along with his mentor Anurag Kashyap bring an amazing feel to the world of Aamir and the realities that exist within a country like India where Muslims are still considered a minority and second class citizens. The social commentary that seeps through the entire film showing that a democratic nation still reeks of that age old caste system that the imperialists exploited upon. The disappointing thing is that the filmmakers still have not gotten to terms in walking the fine line with religion and political commentary.

Performance wise the film is a one man show we’re dealing with. Aamir is played by television star Rajeev Khandelwal. Some studio executive had the guts to not bank on a huge Indian superstar. Wow! Gotta love it. While Rajeev’s acting prowess is nothing to brag about, his expressions do make a huge impact. The rest of the cast hardly needs a mention here. But they have done a decent job. The encompassing soundtrack is a treat to listen to. My fav would be the one song that plays during a brutal fight scene. It felt so poetic. Lookwise, there is nothing to say except that the film has been shot brilliantly. Mind you, it is an amazingly difficult task of filming in the crowded streets of Mumbai, especially in the old city areas. I just had one issue with the color palette. It seemed too dusty, browny whatever you call it for some apparent reason. That may be a metaphorical issue there.  By the end, the film may leave a lot to be desired and the audience may be a bit miffed by not getting closure and the attitude of the filmmakers towards this kind of subject. But as a thinking man’s film, its better than all that stupidity that is playing on right now.

Now here’s the bludgeon that I left in the end. This film is apparently an unofficial remake of a 2005 film called Cavite, from the Phillipines. I was torn to pieces when I read about this and I checked it up also. The plot of the two films is exactly the same [insert infinte cursing here]. Apparently, Anurag Kashyap, the creative producer says that the script was written way back before Cavite was even made. He also states that just to be on the safe side he bought the rights for the film. What the heck? Why would you do that if you had an original piece of work? Hypocritical as it sounds, lovers of Indian cinema have to live with the fact that Hindi films work only as crappy entertainers and decent original films cannot be conjured by the majority of Indian filmmakers working today (barring a few exceptions). What an utter disappointment. Someday…someday India will make a great one. Till then I’ll keep on hoping

Review by Saadna