After four days of taking note
and listening to all potential outrage surrounding this reportedly comeback
movie of the *Ek Do Teen *diva, I gave
it a go.
First of all why
everyone is
running it down? Why all of a sudden there is a hullabaloo over a couplet that
hardly conveys anything to damage any sort of outlook of any community? Just
because the protagonist is not a male? Just because the whole damn story orbits
around the fairer sex? I can imagine the response of people had it been made
with any ‘MALE’ actor as protagonist doing the same stuff. Did not we recently
experience it with *Chak De?
Come on people call spade a spade
on
View next photoly after knowing the cards. Most of you might assume I am just trying to be
in favor of it whilst being singular and others might be thinking my anger is
justified but I refute any of those objective and dare to call spade a spade. I
am no Madhuri fan. Neither my jaws dropped seeing her *thumkas *nor was I awestruck by the script. What I loved was how
Madhuri lifted a below-average script to a presentable level and worth a *dekko. *I am not rejecting her dancing
but then the lady acts as well and here she did act, she did come out a winner
in her own standards.
This is a story of a New York
based choreographer *Dia *(Madhuri
Dixit Nene)hailing from small town Shamli. Whilst being shot at by a
visiting *Firang *and acting as a guide
shortly, she falls in love with him and flees with him to the foreign soil.
Upon getting emergency call notifying her of her dying guru (Darshan Zariwala)
who amorously called her *Chudail, *shecomes back to put life into the already dead open theatre *Ajanta *where she learnt the nuances of
dancing. She then takes on the baton in her own hands to fight the local MPs
and MLAs and more than that her own people and friends.
The movie comes out to be quite
unfashionable and conventional when it comes to script. However, what holds a
little bit interest is the presence of Madhuri. Not a single moment when she is
in the frame is forgettable and boring. Her smile is captivating; her stance is
to die for. And she is ably supported by the likes of Vinay Pathak, Divya
Dutta, Ranvir Shorey and most appreciably Konkona Sen Sharma. The small part of
Akshaye Khanna and Irrfan Khan is so-so.
Now here are some pluses and
minuses:
Pluses:
1)
Madhuri. Her introductory song *Dance with me *truly brings out the right
moves and shakes from the diva. She looks aged no doubt when camera gets closer
but then isn’t she 40? Huh!! I hear people saying she looks aged. But then she
is.
2)
All the songs. Be it high paced title song or *Show me you Jalwa, * or Rahat Fateh Ali
Khan’s soft touchy *O re pia, *all
songs are situational and do not seem forced upon.
3)
Konkona Sen Sharma and Divya Dutta
4)
The climax. The 20 minutes of musical ending is
nicely arranged and executed. I like many others were aware of the outcome as I
said it gets very predictable scene after scene, yet I enjoyed it.
Minuses:
1)
The script. It started well but then goes
utterly jaded and monotonous.
2)
Few smaller details are overlooked. Sometimes
they can be ignored but here they were too vital to be left out. Like, how come
she gets to arrange for a spectacular opening show knowing very well abhorrence
for her in hearts and minds of people of Shamli?
And why there is no audition for *Majnoo? *How come the policeman who got dragged at
the nth moment to enact *Laila’s *father
enacted the role so well? Weird!!!
Jaideep Sahni is an extraordinary
writer who knows how to hold the attention of the people and present real life
situations which are digestible that were hardly seen in Yash Raj Films
sometime back. The guy seems to have slipped a bit in this case. He tried to
give it a *Chak De *feel which was not
required. The basic theme of both the movies is same: *“I want my status back”. *However, unlike *Chak De, *you do not get connected to the protagonist’s ache and
distress and that’s where Jaideep slipped. Never mind, I won’t run him down for
this. I wish to see more of his work.
So
what if the movie is declared flop just after 3 days of release (for
few select movies, few select people keep waiting for eons to call it a
flop and some never accept that as well: ask Pradeep Sarkar about Laga Chunari...).
For me, Madhuri could do without its commercial outcome. She chose the
script that suited her, danced, acted, entertained and flew back.
