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amna1986
Reviews
A Wednesday (2008)
Undecide, mixed feelings about the movie
I see a lot of positive comments here, but I was left with mixed feelings after watching this movie. Firstly, this is the third Indian movie regarding Muslims and terrorism that I have seen in the past couple of weeks. "Aamir" came off as a little far-fetched, and not so authentic, although the depiction of Old Bombay, its slums in general and the life of numerous Muslims living there was an eye-opener. "Shaurya" was undoubtedly brilliant, in building up faith and positivity towards Indian government and India's future.
As for "A Wednesday", I did not read any synopsis for it, but had the impression that it was following the trend of "Khuda Ke Liye" (a Pakistani movie depicting Muslims' side of the story). I was quite off, perhaps because I didn't know of the movie's title when I saw its trailer on TV.
This movie came off to be more controversial, in my view, than "Khuda Ke Liye." While the second is controversial on the grounds of religious faith or facts about CIA, this movie is controversial not only because of the mere idea of vigilantism, but because it deals with the idea of Muslims as terrorists. I am not a big fan of overtly vigilante style movies, or at least movies depicting vigilantism at the brink of terrorism, such as "V for Vendetta." Movies such as "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" are acceptable, because Batman is directly after the bad guys, "striking terror" into the bad guys, etc.
Perhaps, I know little about terrorism in India, and who is mostly responsible for it, and I do not understand how much India is in need of exterminating pests, but who are the pests? What about the idea of fair trial? In that case, this movie is actually the antithesis of "Khuda Ke Liye", which shows how some innocent Muslims may be victimized in the search of a scapegoat. In the movie the four clearly admit their involvement in terrorist attacks, but that is because it is a movie, and more specifically a Bollywood movie in which all terrorists are always stereotyped Muslims.
Also, it does matter what the religion of this vigilante is. His words can be interpreted as quite Islamophobic if he is Hindu. It would be more acceptable, perhaps if he was a Muslim. We have a tendency to see him as a Muslim, not only because he poses to be so from the start, but also because a Muslim actor plays his role. The decision to pick a Muslim actor, rather than a Hindu one, perhaps Bachan or Nana Patekar, seems quite self-conscious of the fact that the movie would have been immediately and inevitably Islamophobic if the lead was a non-Muslim actor.
The use of words such as cockroaches brings me back to the idea of who they are specifically. Aren't there other criminals in those jails, perhaps even non-Muslim terrorists to be non-democratically exterminated?
Perhaps, I am sensitive to this topic because I am a Muslim, but I think that it is simply easier for the Hindu viewers (the majority of people who have written comments here) to give a nod to this movie, because what they see is patriotism at the surface of the movie. They do not immediately see the negative racial profiling and Islamophobia that this movie brushes by.
I would have liked it better if Rathod had arrested the man he called a "bastard" in the beginning, or if the anonymous man had turned himself in after his "mission" was complete.
I agree with all the other commentators that the movie exhibits incredible story-writing and directing skills. It is unpredictable up until the end, and is unprecedented except perhaps, in its sharing a similar theme with "V for Vendetta."
It is also far-fetched at times, for instance, the unrealistic devotion of married men in RAW or WAR (whatever it is called). They reply in chorus that they don't want to call their families to warn them, when Rathod asks them if they want to. Is that part of their training? If the answers are given then why are even asked, why the pretend that they have that right? Studies show that men with families are more afraid of their life (The Andromeda Strain 2008). On the other hand, I liked Jimmy Shirgill's acting for the first time.
Also, how did the Anonymous guy know about the four terrorist's signatures, and why was he in pictures with them, to the point that the cops had an impression about how he operates. And did it take only four weeks of planning for him to become an expert in handling phone systems so that the hacker kid was unable to locate him?
In any case, I do not see a positive lesson coming out of it. "Nip them in the bud"? Those four were probably not the root of the problem and only middle-men. As the movie points out itself, "systematic brain-washing" was used to put these men at their mission. Who is doing the brain-washing? Perhaps, people need to read more of Chomsky instead of jumping at passion-driven, vindicative, vigilante sort of stories.
OK, THERE IS A DIFFERENT MOVIE THAT I WANTED TO WATCH ACTUALLY AND THAT IS FIRAAQ!!!
Dil Se.. (1998)
Best Achievement by the Indian Film Industry
Dil Se.. is an amazing movie, being quite original and portraying the power of love in the purist form. The Sufi (spiritual and divine) essence of love in both the music and the movie as a whole makes it a brilliant piece. It is beautiful how innocence and love are projected in a background of misery and suffering. The song lyrics are amazing especially those of the song "Dil Se". It defines the delicacy and fragility of human nature and the passion and yearning with which the human heart calls out for .. love. Personally, I think that Shahrukh Khan has never acted better in any other movie than this one because of the demands of his role that seems like a minor character when compared to the complicated and fearless heroine. It is good to see that the hero is an ordinary man falling in love and being thrown in the face of patriotic duty rather than the typical macho heroes of Indian movies. His realistic character shows in the fight scenes where he gets beat up by the enemy repeatedly and consequently, grows to put up a fight driven by love. The heroine has more of a character than that of a Bond-girl or damsel type seductress typical of Indian movie heroines. The choreography of the songs is very touching as it combines different aspects of love i.e. innocence and spiritual fulfillment with sexual longing.