I don't usually watch Bollywood movies and have a whole lot to say about them, but for some reason my brain can't stop thinking about this movie. To start off, let me say that I liked it. It wasn't particularly spectacular or mind-blowing but I did find the movie to be enjoyable. Then again, I haven't seen the original Amitabh version, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. ;)
If you don't want to be spoiled for the rest of the movie then I would suggest not reading forward! It's pretty long review too. Apparently I had more thoughts than I originally realized.
You could tell just by watching this movie that it was a remake of a 70s Amitabh movie, simply by virtue of the story/plot as well as Hrithik's acting method... STOIC VENGEFUL YOUNG MAN. Of course, Hrithik being Hrithik he also showed emotion as only he can: with those wonderfully wounded soulful eyes of his. Ahem. But I digress. Yes, great emotionality, especially anything concerning his family. The scene where he sits outside his mother's house wolfing down her food and confesses to Kaali that he's been waiting 15 years for his mother to love him is quite the tear-jerker. Hrithik does a great job of balancing Vijay's cold-hearted killing with the love he has for those close to him.
"I may be a stoic killer, but wait till you see me dance!"
Priyanka was enjoyable in the role of Kaali. She kept the peace and cheered Vijay up, and the audience laughed their assess off when she preened like a peacock or yapped away. I think she looked fantastic and her outfits were all pretty as well. The picturization for Gun Gun Guna was one of the best parts of the movie; I definitely wouldn't mind having it on a song DVD. And to be honest, when she suddenly died I was really sad, mostly because I thought: "she died
before consummating her marriage with the hotness of Vijay? THERE IS NO HUMANITY!" :P But after the movie I watched the picturization for "O Saiyan" (which was cut from our version of the movie) and realized that they
had consummated the relationship, so I was satisfied, hahaha.
"Pay no attention to my extremely botoxed lips!"
But without a doubt, the movie belonged to Sanjay Dutt. He was pure
nightmare fuel as Kancha, a heartless monster who used the Bhagavad Gita to explain and rationalize his lack of morals. O_o That was one of the most interesting aspects of the movie actually, just seeing how the unquestioningly evil villain could twist Krishna's words about removing desire and attachment to attain bliss and enlightenment into a rationale for unchecked profiteering, power, and cruelty. Kancha was absolutely wacked out of his gourd and I still sort of don't believe that Vijay could have killed him because DID YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT GUY?
"We wants more cocaine, preciousssss..."
This review wouldn't be complete without mention of the songs, specifically Katrina Kaif's item number "Chikni Chameli". In my opinion: a big fat meh. The dancing wasn't that great and I don't even really like the song all that much. I feel like the combination of Katrina dancing for a song sung by Shreya didn't give the song that low-down dirrrty factor they were going for. Katrina does great item numbers, but she has a certain amount of sexy
class when she does them. And Shreya's voice was just somehow too innocent sounding for a hot item number. I find it interesting that in this movie Shreya did a typical Sunidhi song and Sunidhi did a typically Shreya song (Gun Gun Guna).
"What I am doing in this movie? Even I don't know."
While we're on the topic of the songs, I just want to say that I really liked the song "Shah Ka Rutba", it's a great qawali and quite catchy. Actually, it's interesting that there's one mega-Muslim song (Shah Ka Rutba) and one mega-Hindu song (Deva Shree Ganesha) in the movie.
Some final thoughts. It was interesting to see Rishi Kapoor in such a horrible role, he played a great villain... I still haven't recovered from how he was trafficking those poor young girls, so disgusting! The movie had some great shots that I'd love to turn into desktop wallpaper too; the one that sticks out in my mind is when Lala is in the hospital and Vijay comes back to the head-quaters to sit in Lala's seat. The background is a dark green and there's a rich maroon blanket draped over the chair and the spotlight hits Hrithik just right... *_*
Alright, enough my gushing! As far as criticisms go, the one thing that I couldn't ignore is that movie has a very dated plot, but it's a remake so you can't really help that. It's a very long movie, almost three hours, and the first half seemed to drag a bit more than the second half. It was also quite a melodramatic movie, but again I sort of knew it was coming because Karan Johar directed it. ;)
Overall, I'd give this movie an
8.0/10. Solid movie with good songs and some awesome acting, just remember that you will basically be watching an overwrought 70s remake. ;)
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