My thoughts on MUMBAI MERI JAAN (Hindi, 2008)

My thoughts on MUMBAI MERI JAAN (Hindi, 2008)

http://masterpraz.wordpress.com/2009/02/28/my-thoughts-on-mumbai-meri-jaan-hindi-2008/

On one hand viewers worldwide marvel over Danny Boyle’s enthralling (albeit a tad overrated) SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE while on the other hand Mumbai cinema churns out what is possibly the years finest film and a stunning kaleidoscope portrait of Mumbai city.

11 July 2006, Mumbai was shattered by seven bomb blasts on the Western Railway stations: Matunga, Mahim, Khar, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Borivali, and Bhayandar.

Director Nishikant Kamat (who made his debut with the small budget masterpiece DOMBIVILI FAST deserves a big pat on his back for scripting and directing this feature with a lot of heart and a lot of vigour. The film can best be described as India’s answer to the Oscar-winning CRASH, this one features a multithreaded storyline consisting of common Mumbai citizens limping back to normalcy after the 7/11 serial bomb blasts two years ago. The film touches upon a vast range of controversial and topical subjects from Hindu-Muslim tensions, the corruption of the media, the common man’s survival with industrial growth and capitalism.

The film is slow and cautious to start with but the graph keeps on rising steadily throughout the duration of the film. MUMBAI MERI JAAN chronicles the few days before and after the Mumbai serial blasts of 2006 in the lives of 5 characters played by Kay Kay Menon, Soha Ali Khan, Irfan Khan (more recently seem in Hollywood films like A MIGHTY HEART and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE), Paresh Rawal and Madhavan and in essence each character portrays a different part of Mumbai. The cast comprises of some of Hindi cinema’s finest talents and assuredly none of them disappoint. Every one of them has got into the skin of their character, and as expected these are no simple characters. Right from Kay Kay Menon’s Suresh, an out-of-work computer salesman who is mistrustful of the Muslim community to R. Madhavan’s Nikhil Aggarwal, an idealistic corporate yuppie, who shuns “the better life” abroad to stay in his own country and improve it. On the other hand we have Roopali Joshi (Soha Ali Khan), a maverick journalist for a leading TV news channel, for whom the tragedy becomes personal when she finds out her fiancé also died in the blasts, and who, once perpetrator, finds herself an exploited victim of the merciless fourth estate.

Paresh Rawal, in one of his greatest performances ever (or this side of the millennium anyway) plays Tukaram Patil, an aging cop due for retirement, prone to spouting out philosophy and humour in the same breath. Under his wing is rookie cop Sunil Kadam (Vijay Maurya), seething with self-righteous, idealistic rage at corruption and dishonesty, and also because his honeymoon got cancelled thanks to the bomb blasts. And last, we have Irrfan Khan as a Madrasi coffee vendor struggling to make ends meet and to attain status and respect in a city where money talks. He learns about how fear and panic can be generated instantly – and all it costs is a rupee.

The ensemble here is perfectly in sync much like Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra’s RANG DE BASANTI and the film belongs to each and every character rather than one individual actor.

Often a film of this nature hold the risk and tendency to become preachy, loud, and in the process hurts the sentiments of certain viewers (specially the Kay Kay Menon track) however Kamat avoids playing around too much with the done-to-death Hindu-Muslim rivalry and communal and political overtones. What is shown instead is a more realistic slice-of-life where the day after the blasts, the only thing Mumbaikars were worried about was how to travel in the train and beating the early morning rush. We see Suresh struggling to resolve fundamental conflicts – he needs money but refuses to take a lucrative order for a company owned by a Muslim. Roopali, a ruthless journo, is exploited by her own news channel for a story dealing with her personal loss. It’s a sharp critique (borderline satire) of the media and their obvious abandonment of ethics as they cash in on the tragedy.

In summary, this is quiet easily one of the best movies I have seen in “Bollywood” in 2008-a must watch for anyone who like to use their minds and emotions when watching a film as opposed to the “leave your brains at home” brand of entertainment.

Overall Rating: 9.5/10.0

Praz

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