Guldasta

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Stunning for the most part, Aamir is a movie you should not miss. When a director shows so much promise and yet slips in a few places, you can only wish how much further he could have gone. I give it a clear 3.5 out of 5.

The movie belongs to two people – Raj Kumar Gupta (director) and Rajeev Khandelwal (lead actor). You know what is in store even before the starting rolls are midway. The shots are real and the camera seeks to capture it all with breathtaking reality. If you love that kind of cinema, Aamir will live up to your needs.

The story revolves around a young doctor named Aamir (Rajeev Khandelwal) who returns to Mumbai from UK and finds he is sinking into an almost outlandish weird situation. And he seemingly has no control. Yet the end defies (to some extent) the idea that one has no control over one’s destiny.

How real is the movie? VERY. Take the scene where Aamir has to fetch a phone number from a lavatory. 10 more seconds and I would have gone sick from the stench which the actor is shown to be in. The streets are real, the chase is real and the hotel rooms are real. No oxymorons of poor people wearing expensive designer clothes, no fresh painted staircases or rooftops. This is Mumbai’s underbelly shown up close and personal.

There are some irritating flaws but they do not snatch the movie away from being good. The red briefcase is completely out of place. Maybe the director wanted to highlight the briefcase, but then who goes around carrying secret stuff in such a conspicuous bag? The always sullen attitude of the bad guys is another repeated to death angle in Bollywood, so no freshness there. And the end could have been tighter. The last few minutes seemed to stretch beyond need and were a little predictable.

But all said there is no denying that Aamir is top class and probably the best to come out of Bollywood in this year. No songs to dilute the edginess, no female leads swooning and exposing. Just hardcore cinema.
Rajeev makes a superb portrayal of a young suave doctor, who, till the very end is unable to comprehend what is happening to him. His delivery of anger, exasperation, exhaustion and freedom leaves little to be said. The camera spans not too close and not too far. There are quite a few refreshing new angles. There are enough of mannerisms to give you a ringside feeling.

If you enjoy movies that leave you speechless for some time after you come out of the theater, then Aamir is a must.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aamir_(2008_film)

http://www.aamirthefilm.com/

This movie could have been aptly named “Thoda Bakwaas, Thoda Aur Bakwaas”
I give it a very generous 1 out of 5. I sincerely believe it is not possible to have made a more trashy and stupid film than this. See it only if the choice is between the movie and 6 months in jail with Shakti Kapoor.

Nobody, just about nobody acts. Throughout the movie I got this strong sense that the dialogues are forced and actors are pushing them out simply because there is a director standing in front with a cheque in his hand. Rani Mukherjee (who plays an angel) needs to rethink about her acting career. A few more movies like this and she might have to take-up a career as “extras”. All her movies in the recent past seem alike and I cannot recall when she last gave a performance that moved me.
Saif is just about OK, but a shadow of his own self from recent successes like Omkara.

The kids are a complete pain in the ass. Sorry for being so harsh on the little ones. But since the director did not discount the movie ticket because he has kids in it, I see no reason why I should discount a honest feedback. Not one single scene looked natural and the poor younglings made no impact.

And please do not get me started on Rishi Kapoor and Amisha Patel. I feel like breaking some glassware just thinking about the movie.

All of this tells me that the director did not do his homework. When you have not one character whose part is memorable, not one scene which makes you sit up and not one frame that makes you go “Wow!”, there is no one to blame but the director.

Indian cinema is still very incapable of getting children to act natural. Most of the time you have over the top caricatures passing off as children. Darsheel in Tare Zameen Par being an exception. The four kids in the Thoda Pyaar go from one cooked up nonsense scene to another.

And two instances in the movie tell me the director is either a strong supporter of the Communist or an escaped madman. Not that there is any difference between the two. The way the children treat Amisha Patel is nothing but rude and devilish. They torment a woman who goes out of her way to make them comfortable. Her only crime is she is not sophisticated and loves shopping. The other instance is how the kids treat the children of this businessman in LA who is trying to negotiate a take-over by Saif. The American shouts at Saif’s kids and this triggers a very strong reaction from Saif, which in turn makes the kids realise how much he loves them. Yuck!

And then there is the mother of all problems that plagues most of Indian cinema. The director truly believes, you, the viewer, are an idiot who has no brain and thus will make the characters say EVERYTHING he wants the movie to say. No message is given subtly through acts, references, glances, etc. It is like sitting in a classroom for 5 year olds.

Neither is there the defense that this movie is for kids. I refuse to allow the director to hide behind that excuse. Children films demand no less cinematic excellence and acting. The children in this film do real damage to people around them; good people around them. They also lie a lot. They are never reprimanded for their acts. The angel makes a promise to God (to not use magic openly) and then breaks it so many times I lost count. The poolside song sequence is very very sleazy. Where is the innocence and message of goodness one would expect in a Children film? “Makdi” and “Blue Umbrella” are children’s films. This movie is not.

However, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic is surely a film for many grown up Indians. Specially the ones who cannot count beyond 10.