Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Bollywood Review: Awarapan

I saw this movie the other day staring Emraan Hashmi and Shreya Saran called "Awarapan". The trailers looked good and the songs are amazing. After watching the trailers, I expected the movie to be somewhat of the generic Emraan Hashmi film where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and is all lonely with some excellent music from the upcoming Pakistani bands. After I saw the movie, I was content as this was exactly what it was about.

The storyline is nothing great. Shivam (played by Emraan Hashmi) is a gangster in India who falls in love with a simple village girl. He vows to leave behind his crooked past and follow a life of simplicity and love. All his dreams are shattered as her father finds out about their affair and attempts to kill Shivam. Shivam dodges the bullet, which kills his lover. Heartbroken and guilty, he moves to Hong Kong and becomes a feared gangster working for Malik (A big gangster in the city(Ashutosh Rana)). The setting of Hong Kong is apt for this gangster film as Hong Kong is infamous for its triads and what not. But anyway, its nice to see a Hindi movie that is not set in generic foreign settings like Switzerland, Mauritius, America or the UK. Malik assigns Shivam to spy on his mistress (and is very paranoid that she is cheating on him. When Shivam finds out that she is indeed cheating on Malik, he must kill her. Shivam, who never hesitates to kill, is reminded of his dead lover by this girl and is unable to kill her. His ideologies change as he decides to oppose his boss which leads to the climax (which I will not reveal).

The best thing I liked about this movie was the music. It seems that these songs of loneliness and "Tanhayi" sung by Pakistani bands like Jal and Strings are becoming very popular these days. They use western instruments and have a western flavour to their songs complemented by the traditional Pakistani ghazal type lyrics. It makes you wonder if more and more people are getting heartbroken and are able to relate to these songs. Well, no doubt, the South Asian countries are becoming ultra modern with the advent of the Information age, outsourcing and what not. So, I assume people are going on dates and having a lot more pre-marital affairs than they used to. When a relationship is simplified to being something "casual" or "just for fun", heartbreak is inevitable and the result is a large pool of youth listening to songs like "Tere Bina", "Aadat", etc. I will talk about my idea of relationships and the current status of society sometime in my future articles. Now, back to the movie!

There is also the added mix of spirituality in the movie. Shivam is an atheist who lacks faith in humanity. It is interesting that the lover repeatedly tries to bring faith into his life, but is unable to do so in her living state. It is only when he decides to free the mistress from his boss that he realizes that the meaning of life is freedom, and being able to live it the way one pleases. The lack of freedom becomes the main theme of the movie as it is apparent in the lovers life and the constraints placed on her by her father, the mistress and the constraints placed on her by the abusive and violent Malik, and finally Shivam, who is constrained by his own lack of spirituality and faithlessness in humanity. He is freed from his constraints in a Buddhist temple, where he realizes the importance of spirituality and freedom. It is also interesting that the monk who helps him during this transition is the same person that Shivam once freed in India after being convinced to do so by his lover. The audience realizes that life comes in a full circle as Shivam is ultimately vindicated from his crooked and immoral life by his ambition to free another.

All things said and done, this is a generic flick fit for the youth of desi background. It is a good one time watch and you get what you expect from a typical Emraan Hashmi film (minus the kissing). I give it bonus points for not following the bollywood trend of happy endings and unrealistic action sequences. The realism and the subtleties of the themes are quite appreciable. Finally, I would recommend this movie giving it 3.5/5 stars.

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