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Apaharan
Riveting viewing |
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 JAN
08:
It was a different evening on a Friday December 4 for Bihar Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar who, after 20 years, spent full two-and-a-half
hours at a leading cinema hall in Patna with Prakash Jha to watch
his newly released movie, “Apaharan”.
By the time Chief Minister had left the hall around 9 pm, he
apparently appeared determined to end abductions and extortion cases
which have been defaming the state across the country for long.
Mr Kumar agreed that the film portrayed the social situation with a
blend of reality and fiction.
After Gangajal, the National award winning film director
Prakash Jha has come up with Apaharan, - the lead actors
being Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu and Nana Patekar.
Apaharan is an above-average fare, graphically portraying the
utter lawlessness in Bihar where ministers and MLAs indulge in
kidnappings and criminals operate from jails. But its screening
affected its Chief Minister enough to cough up a promise to do
something about Bihar's number one malaise, which according to him,
may prompt Jha to make a "reverse film" during his tenure. So much
for that.
By the way, sizzling item numbers have become so essential for the
success of Hindi movies that even a serious filmmaker like Prakash
Jha can’t resist them. Even his “Apaharan” has an item number
“Aao babuji kuchh baatein karenge”.
 Item songs are not only indispensable, they have become acceptable
too. A few years ago, songs like “Choli ke peeche” and
“Lotan kabutar” had created a furor. Despite all the criticism,
the songs were not chopped off from the movies. After that the trend
just took off. Every filmmaker started to slice in an item number
and it became a sort of fad in the filmdom. So how can we hold Jha's
hands to the fire then?
Ajay Devgan plays Ajay Shastri, and does -- for the most part --
pretty okay. He is an underachiever, and no one the world looks up
to. His girlfriend Megha (Bipasha Basu) is content to pooh-pooh his
pain away, and his father, Mohan Agashe, is perennially
condescending. The father is an idealistic crusader -- one of those
old men who believe in absolute honesty --and refuses to give in to
notions of corruption even to get his son a job.
Nana Patekar is the best thing in the film. Ruthless, intelligent,
articulate and powerful enough to show a few chinks of emotion
through his hyde, Tabrez Khan is a great villain. This is Sarkar as
he ought to have been played. While Nana has built a career on these
roles, and can believably phone in performances like this one, he is
so into the character that he dominates the screen. His physical
fitness allows for a terrific moment when he walks into Ajay's
skip-rope, and the two jump in perfectly timed unison.
 Ajay Devgar claims he did not agree to work in this Prakash Jha merely to
win awards. “I don’t believe in any of these so-called popular
wards,” he emphasizes, “you work in a film only to do justice to
your work. You see everything in totality. Script comes first. Also,
the character that you play must excite you”.
He also does not agree that the character he essays in this film is
negative. There are several shades to it, he points out. Nor does he
feel that “Apaharan” glorifies the evil of kidnapping.
It's good to see Devgan finally doing a good film, after a terrible
year so far. The actor is believable for the most part, but there
are moments of high emotion where he overdoes it tremendously. The
end of the film sees him hamming a lot, but maybe at that point he's
just trying to follow the footsteps of his faltering director.
That Jha is a talented filmmaker is no revelation, and his film
begins with great intensity. It's a taut film, and while there are
segments in it that are simplified and dumbed-down, you overlook it.
But that's the first half. Just after the interval, when Ajay meets
Tabrez (Nana Patekar), is where the story gets meaty, as Ajay
embarks on his Goodfellas-like rise to infamy.
Unfortunately, not long after that, it gets too much to handle, and
suddenly we get mouthfuls of cliché and much melodrama. The film's
climax seems a hurriedly written one, a tame resolution not in
keeping with the characters.
 The truly brilliant part of the film is the dialogue. With a crisp
and clever use of metaphor and idioms, the lines pack a terrific,
applause-worthy punch, especially in the hands of a very talented
cast.
A few of the sequences are sure to make you smile though. For
instance, you enjoy the sheer amateurishness with which Devgan first
attempts at kidnapping.
Devgan proves once again that he knows his job. Bipasha Basu has
little to do and she does it well.
Jha has been trying to make a film that would balance both
commercial and art aspects of filmmaking, but the effort ends up
taking the audience for a ride, and a good film turns into yet
another Bollywood nugget.
All said and done, Prakash Jha's Apaharan is a harsh and
brutal political commentary on the state of anarchy called Bihar. It
makes for riveting viewing though. The director culls facts from
real life which is why you cannot but shudder at the sheer
disintegration of moral values. Jha portrays a strange world where
characters discuss kidnap victims as 'damaged goods' and 'intact
piece'.
The crowd back home may not find the movie mirchi enough, a
paisa vasool, but desis in pardes, specially Biharis all over the
world, may
want to watch it....with nostalgia....even pain in their hearts and groins,
at the state of Bihar's affairs.
Note: The Film Festival of India in Israel (FFII) opened to
capacity crowds in Tel Aviv on January 6, 2006 with the screening of
Apaharan.
Note: The Uttar Pradesh government has granted entertainment tax
exemption to Apaharan for the next ten years.
The decision in this regard was taken by its Chief Minister Mulayam
Singh Yadav.
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Rating: ***
Director: Prakash Jha
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Bipasha Basu, Nana Patekar
Mohan Agashe, Yashpal Sharma and Mukesh Tiwari |
Rating
Index:
* * * * * Just brilliant
* * * * A cut above
* * * Enjoyable
* * Average
* Bomb |
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Top
10 Desi Movies |
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10 Don
As of Jan 28,
2007 |
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