Thursday, June 16, 2005

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi(Thousand Desires such as this) -part2











I still dont understand this pic.Geetha character never uses the gun in the movie.why in the poster??

Read part 1 here

HKA is the Lal salaam of sudhir mishra to a generation that grew up in an era where india's destiny could have been changed. A generation that dreamed to change the world, they fought with their parents, left what they had good education,money etc and went to remote villages to fight for an ideology.Sudhir mishra tells the story about that generation and there thousand desires to a new generation, which is is ideologically empty and enjoying the benifits of the sacrifices made by the older generation without even thinking about them.But sudhir is not taking blatant sides in the movie, he does show his displeasure towards indira gandhi and the janatha party,but he is not rooting for the romantic idea of armed resistance.Things are told in a subtle way.Unlike Govind nihlani's "Hazar chaurasi ki Maa" which presents the idea raw, sudhir presents it wraped in a beautiful love story.

The movie starts with the dream of pandit nehru.His independence speech "Tryst with destiny".

"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom..."
As soon as the speech ends.Sudhir mishra brings you down from that lofty dream of nehru by quoting that
"Nehru was holographically wrong. Infact the time at New York was 2.30 in the afternoon"
That was a dream and a reality.The dream speech of nehru is again brought down.This time through images of a mob violence.The scene starts with the banner of indira gandhi and the violence happening right under the banner.The dream of the father and the reality during his daughter's regime.

The movie goes on to explore the unattained dream of nehru through the lives of 3 college friends.Siddarth Tayebji(Kay Kay Menon),Vikram Malhotra(Shiny Ahuja) & Geetha Rao(Chitrangada Singh).Siddarth, son of an ex judge desires to change the political system through armed resistance, vikram hailing from a middle class family wants to make it big in terms of money and power, however he can.Geetha is in love with siddharth and wants to be with him. But for siddtharth his first love is his ideology.

After college they all move in different directions.When they meet again there life had changed.The movie from then on brilliantly weaves the political situation of that time period with the story.To a certain extent all the 3 characters attain what they want.But a twist in the tale, turns theirs lifes topsy turvy.What happened to their desires is what the movie is about.At the end of the movie the fate of the generation represented by the three people are different,their desires changed.one escapes reality,one becomes totally powerless and one carries the hope.

The movie was great.But i felt something was missing in the movie.I didn't feel good, or i didn't feel overwhelmed with emotions at the end of the movie.But i felt that what happened to the characters where wrong.I felt as if only 96% of the movie was there and another 4% of the movie was missing.What was it, the lovers walking into the sunset??.The hero killing the bad peoples and going to jail??.Hero dying??.I was confused and wanting an answer.

Then i realized that this is what sudhir mishra wanted to do.By making us involve in the 3 peoples desire and leaving us in the middle,he forces us to feel for their desires.The desires are left to you to be mentally fulfilled.With, kind of an open ended climax, sudhir mishra has successfully made everyone to question themselves on what is right and what is wrong.How things went wrong in the life of those three people(that lost generation) and the political system of india?.what is everyones stance now and how could those desires be fulfilled?.I think sudhir mishra's masters in pshycology must have helped him a lot in constructing such a story.

Another good thing about the movie is, nothing is in black and white.You cannot pin point one person as good and other person as bad.The characters are not plain, they are complex.They all show greatness & weeknesses.Like arun, geetha's ex husband who after hearing about geetha, releases her from jail, but he says NO to releasing sids.vikram rushes to bojpur to save sids, but when he himself is in the hospital he hates and shouts at sid.

Indira

Similarly the movie does not manipulate your emotions or it does not explicitly say things.It just suggests things in a very subtle way.It is emergency, sterlization camps are taking place, police brutality is shown and in the next scene Sid's father talks with a politician about getting sids relesed from the jail.Indira visits that politicians house and there are chants "How should a nation's leader be, should be like indira gandhi".

A Sanjay gandhi look alike

Among all the corrupt characters there are only 2 peoples who stick to there ideologies during those turbulent times.One is sidtharth(to a large extent) and the other is vikram's father, both representing the different ideologies of charu mazumdhar and JP.The movie depicts the false nature of the change that was about to be brought by the Janata party,by showing randhir yadav joining the Janatha party and his political talks.When the political chamelon's like randhir yadav are scared to death because of emergency, vikram visits his father in jail and he is proud to see his father, a tireless soldier of gandhi spinning cotton.



The performance by everyone who acted in the movie was good.Every small character becomes memorable.vikram is the most colorful character in the movie.He portaits the middle class mentality of trying to make it big.He depicts the bourgeois youth who doesn't care about the society and is focussed only on making money.His only weekness is geetha.Even though geetha fails to see his love, he forgives and accepts her everytime.

Vikram

He has this small slimer of hope when geetha leaves her husband arun.But when he goes to her apartment with a wine and she says that she is going to the village to be with sids.He accepts his defeat and changes his decision in a minute.He takes the tag out of the wine and starts dancing and tells that he is getting married to someone else.

Geetha

Kay kay(this movie is supposedly his first but it got released later) has also given a good performance.chitragandha singh fits the role of geetha beautifully.She is the less developed character of the three.At the end you are left with a confusion whether she loved sidtharth or the romantic idea that he was carrying.

I liked the way the letters were used in the movie.The letters had perfect wordings, summing up everything beautifully.You come to know about the characters first by two letters to geetha, one by sid and other by vikram.siddharth's talks about his intrests in naxal movements and nothing personal.on the other hand vikram starts with the line "first thing first, i love you" and tells about the riot in his home town meerut and that ONLY 38 people where killed in the riots and gives a funny account of two people killed by lions in the riot and how he wished his gandhian father stoped worring about the communal riots and concentrated more on generating money for the family.You get the gist of the characters from the letters and what they want.sidharth writes 3 letters he comes and goes out of the movie through a letter and in between he gives an account of his experiences in bhojpur, bihar through letters.sidharth first letter is brimming with dreamy youthfulness("we have to change the world and change it fundamentally").second letter is the reality on the grounds in the village in bihar bhojpur("Bhojpur and delhi are not only seperated by a 1000 miles but also by 5000 years").He beautifully bids adieu in the third letter by saying "you have to get away from your first love to be completely free",the third letter is the death of the dreams.pretty much the summary of any dreamers big unacheived dream.

passionate Big dream -> face reality -> disillusioned, compromise,accept defeat or rarely succeed.

Music by shantanu moitrai is good.You find music only where it is needed.Man yeh bawra was awsomee.Hearing 'He sajni' i had to recheck whether it was done my "Indian ocean".

Hats off to sudhir mishra for not compromising with the story and for giving such a good movie.For a second imagine what and all could have been done with this movie.It could have easily been made into a big commercial movie.Imagine maniratnam making this movie.It has 3 college students,love & a political backdrop.

Let's welcome another quality movie maker that is sudhir mishra.Iam hoping to see more great works from him.

Links
A good review of Hazaaron here
madrid film festival

official web site


Comments:
Good Review !
I will see this movie ,in case i get a DVD of this film here .

Ji also has a similar concept ,but down the track they lost their soul .Ji cld have been a good movie ,had they not compromised for ajith :(

I saw Gods must be crazy this week end - I wondered how come with a small budget ,they cld produce a superb movie - It was brilliant -COnsistency in teh characters ,decent humor ,great camera angles ,no jerk in editing ,clean defintion of characters ......
 
Senthil, I think it was Shiny Ahuja's first film and not KK's..KK has been acting for a while now..
2 of Sudhir Mishra's previous works, 'Dharavi' and 'Is raat Ki Subah Nahin' were also very good
 
Enna Brother??Sowkiyama??
 
Nice second part as well!!

As already pointed, you might be talking about Shiney Ahuja. Kay Kay has been here for years.
And, whats with this?
Let's welcome another quality movie maker that is sudhir mishra
Sudhir Mishra is a veteran, buddy!
 
vijay,zero
i read somewhere that HKA was Kay kay's first movie.even though other's got released before.HKa was taken in 2003 itself.but iam not sure about the info.

vijay his first movie was "Yeh woh manzil tho nahi hai".similar like HKA.i saw dharavi it was good.zero i meant welcome him as one of the top directors of india.
 
HKA was sure made around 2003 and I guess its me who kinda mentioned it in my blog.. But Kay Kay has been around here even before 2000.
I pointed that Mishra was a veteran coz you sure were doing some kinda intro thing for him.

Cheers!

P.S.: I remember you book-tag; but I am an a**hole; but, again, a decent one at that; ll do it soon.
 
zero
yeah maybe that news was wrong.I remember bhopal express came very long time before.dont worry abt the book tag.take ur time.
 
haa hee,
First of all we are in a state where we have to learn the history of our country through movies.And secondly only pointers can be given.If he starts explaing in the whole environment then it will become a documentary.It is a multilayered movie, even if you leave the political backdrop the story itself was good.
 
Senthil:
I loved the movie too. I do not know why Chitrangada was made to hold a gun. Maybe for effect.

I live in the DC area but am in Mumbai these days. Saw a film called Kal-Yesterday in which both Shiny and Chitrangada have played the main characters. It is a murder mystery and very different. But good nevertheless. Catch it. Ciao
 
thanxs, i will check out kal.when are u coming back to dc?.we are having a bloggers meet on the 9th.if possible join us.
 
Senthil:
I will be back on August 8th so if you mean July 9th I will not be able to meet you all. In the meantime I am enjoying Mumbai. Saw Paheli yesterday and I thought it was a sweet simple story. The original-Duwidha was better though.I also saw Yakeen which was awful!
 
Anon,
who are you? ramki??.
 
My name is Suneeta and I live in Gaithersburg, Md. I am a great fan of good Indian cinema. So if you have information on some good Indian film societies in our area, do pass it on.
 
suneeta,
I know some groups which are basically bollywood groups, they talk about shah rukh khan etc, nothing for good indian cinema.Keep watching the smithsonian museum events.They screen lot of good indian movies.
 
Wooooow!!!
Again Woooooow!!!
What a labour of love your review is. Fantastic - aapki mehanat ne lajawaab kar diyaa hai.
I have seen this movie twice, enjoyed it immensely, but did not fully enjoy it until I read your review. You really fleshed the movie out for me. Especially your links, the tribute to LNJP and the memoirs of a student revolutionary. Thoroughly engaging and very enlightening. You have spent very little time on the movie itself, but have done the best job ever, prepping a potential viewer. I wish I could see the movie one more time. Or that I had yet to see the movie. I would have enjoyed it so much more after your review. Infact the first time I saw it, all my attention was rivetted to the luminous Ms. Chitrangada Singh (Geetha), the second time round Shiney Ahuja stole the show, both times the handicapped lover at the end spoilt it for me, but now I get it. I liked KK Menon in the movie and I liked his revolutionary zeal, but now I can better appreciate his character and the political flavor it contributes to the movie.
Thanks a lot, the movies you have reviewed are all good and well-critiqued, but out of the scores of reviews that I have read for Hazaaron Khwaaishein Aisee, nothing, NOTHING, comes close to this. Fantastic.
This movie has been troubling me for many months, like a very evocative dream, it refused to go away, but now I think the issue has sorted itself out. I understand now - Thanks.
 
By the way, my take on the Gun. Chitrangada holds the Gun, because despite the dissappointments and troubles she faces, during the course of the movie she discovers herself.
As the movie winds up, the revolutionary is a broken man, the "fixer" is a vegetable, the only character that still has a mission in life, still has hope, still has drive, is the Lady.
The men are left emasculated, circumstances and fortune have dealt them blows, that have withered them. The Lady on the other hand has grown, has found peace and that empowers her.In the end she is virile, while the men have lost their fecundity. Thus she holds the Gun (the Freudian phallus in this case). Plus women with guns look sexy!
Thanks again for the review.
 
Paresh,
thanxs ,i intentionally didn't divulge much about the story.Your take on the gun makes lot of sense, including the fact that 'women with guns look sexy' :).
 
paresh,
if u r intrested in alternate movies, check out my other blog.
http://parallelcinema.blogspot.com/
 
Hi Senthil,
have already checked out your blog on parallel cinema. I was surprised that I had not seen many of the movies you had listed, because I have spent a large amount of the past decade watching movies and I am rather fond of flicks from the Indian art-house.
It is a fantastic site and I think I'll be frequenting your site very often to keep myslef abreast with the latest in quality movies,
Thanks and Best Wishes.
 
Sen: Okay, let me start by saying that its a terrific review. You hard work speaks for itself and all those pointers you gave were invaluable. But coming to the movie, I believe Sudhir Misra is an ambitious guy who always improves with time. But at the same time, he pushes his mark a little further and always fails to achieve it.

HKA was everything but a great movie. It was one of the worst examples of screwing a brilliant plot, script and dialogues. Most of the merit you attribute to the movie in your own review goes to these departments, not to the director. HKA was very badly directed, I believe. That someone could do so badly with such a mind-blowing script makes me shudder. Misra maybe a great psychologist, but he is a poor director.

First thing, I think Shiny Ahuja was pathetic. He is highly unconvincing. He knows neither how to say his dialogues nor can do much otherwise. He tries to smile his way through everything or sometimes, uses his eyes a little but very stupidly. He sucked bigtime.

Another thing is that the pace of the movie is very bad. There is no problem with the pace of events, but it should never look like you want to rush through the script. Nothing leaves an impact. The viewer is only chasing the camera and all the information Misra throws at you like Crazy as if saying, "See I know this ...and I know that too!" Its just too bad. See how RGV does it in Satya or Company. He doesn't rush through a single frame. All the layers of his narraitve exist simulataneously. There is friction and conflict between them, there is everything. But he doesn;t rush through.

Secondly, I am seriosly pissed off with Misra's use of English language. That was outrageously disgusting. It was such a nonsense distraction that you cannot concentrate on anything. Such jerky narrative is a crime in Cinema. Had I written the script, I'd have shot Misra dead rightaway. If I were his professor at say FTII and the script were his assignment, I'd give him a zero. He needs to learn and re-learn and un-learn a lot. You can see how much he has troubled me with his movie.

If he has to be credited for the script, let him have all the accolades for that, but not for the direction!

-- Akshaya
 
I blundered onto this spot after almost a year. Is there a South Asian movie club (for good cinema)in the DC area?
 
Professionals in New York have a great chance to take advantage of remote work opportunities, which eliminates the inconvenience of having to make a long journey every day.
remote Job New York

 
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