Highly recommended to me by my friends, I decided to see Khuda Ke Liye. Luckily, almost 3 weeks after its India release, E Square had a single show still running.
Khuda Ke Liye doesnt pretend to be a fun, paisa vasool kind of movie for even a minute. There is almost no humour, just a few instances of dry wit and sarcasm. It tells us 3 parallel stories.
The first two stories are of two young, talented Pakistani musicians, Mansoor and Sarmad. Sarmad gets hypnotised by the religious sermons of a Moulana and becomes a misguided and confused fanatic, being told that jehad is his sole objective. Mansoor, more level headed, flies to USA for further formal training in music, and gets caught up and jailed in the post 9/11 Muslim racial discrimination.
The third story, that of Mary , the daughter of a Pakistani settled in London for many years; is the most poignant and touching. She is in love with Davey, a gora, but is tricked by her father into travelling to Pakistan and marying Sarmad, who even happens to be her first cousin. What follows is captivity in a small Afghani village, and a revelation for Mary that changes her ideologies and priorities in life.
KKL works as a serious film, meant for a niche audience. There was almost complete silence in the theatre hall during the running time of roughly 2 and a half hours. The performances are searing and honest. The facial expressions are just right and the dialgoues, measured and effective.
The whole look and feel of this movie is big budget. Lavish cinematography, great costumes and locales give a realistic tone to the movie. The music is good and the background score in particular stands out. The allah-allah chorus chant stays with you long after the movie is over.
But the icing on the cake is the 15 min cameo of Naserruddin Shah towards the end. This powerhouse of acting talent, absoutely demolishes everyone with his mere screen presence, confidence and dialogue delivery.
Wish he had a longer role.
A must see. Rating : 4 stars
P.S. : If this is how much a Pakistani movie on post 9/11 can touch our hearts, we are ready for "My Name Is Khan". Bring it on, Mr. Karan Johar.
No comments:
Post a Comment