Sep 12, 2008 10:27 PM
3052 Views
Director – Rituparno Ghosh
Screenplay – Utpal Dutt, Amitabh Bachchan and Rituparno Ghosh
Plot
Harish Mishra(Amitabh Bachchan) is an eccentric retired stage actor who has specialized in Shakespearean plays. He is obsessed with the works of the world’s most renowned writers, William Shakespeare and his works. A journalist, Gautam(Jishu Sengupta) introduces young film director, Siddharth(Arjun Rampal) to Harish and Siddharth convinces Harish to make his acting debut in his movie.
The lead actress of the movie, Shabnam(Preity Zinta) is having her own problems with an over possessive boyfriend and Harish helps her release the frustration by making her enact Shakespearean dialogues. However once incident changes the entire course of the film.
Critic’s Comments
This is one of the rare thinking movies made by an Indian Director. Amitabh Bachchan is perfectly casted as the retired stage actor and Arjun Rampal as the young director. Preity Zinta and Shefali Shah as Amitabh’s wife have an equally strong role. The script is adapted from a stage play written by the late actor Utpal Dutt called Ajker Shahjahan. The script, although has some unexplained scenes, is still much better and thankfully Indian Cinema has come of an age where there are no unsolicited Song and Dance sequences. However, this film, is not meant for someone who is expecting anything typical Bollywood or for that matter, a typical Indian film. The movie, thankfully, is made in English and makes sense as well. For those of you who are not passionate or have not studied William Shakespeare(Your’s truly included), some of the dialogues will be extremely hard to comprehend. However, the film, as a whole is a must watch for serious cinema lovers.
Psst –
*1) Director Trademarks – Scenes with rain, shooting in a dim lighted house in Kolkatta, Heavy Dialogues, an abusive partner who is never shown.
2) The movie was shot and released as early as 2007 but didn’t get released till 12th September 2008.*
3) A week before the movie released, it was about to be banned in the state of Maharashtra due to certain statements that Amitabh’s wife Jaya Bachchan had made which, supposedly, had derogatory remarks against maharashtrians. The local political party, MNS, decided to ban all movies starring anyone from the Bachchan family till she publicly apologized. Although a public apology was never done, Jaya Bachchan apoligised to the print media and MNS called off the Ban on the day of the release.
4) Esha Deol was slated to play the role which went to Divya Dutta.
5) Ghosh was keen to make the film only in English because he didn’t feel that any other language would have done justice to the script.
6) First full fledged English movie for all the lead actors.
7) Amitabh also co-wrote some of the dialogues of the movie.
8) Movie was made on a relatively low budget of Rs 50 million. This would, ideally, be the acting fees of Amitabh Bachchan for a routine Hindi Film.
Quotes
1) “Robin and Oberon; Robin and umm Oberoi.”
2) “What was my fault if I didn’t know Midsummer Night’s dream ?”
3) “Do you know who is he ?”
Oops-
*1) The climax, although debatable, seemed to have 1 error(possibly deliberate by the director). How come there was a stunt that was to be shot but no safety devices ?
