A Few Good Men and Shaurya | Mega Review | Critique

Everywhere, across borders, in the name discipline some brutal crimes are committed. Sometimes common man is a victim and sometime a person who decides to take a stand suffers. Many people are party to such crime. Some do it because they want it to happen that way and some simply surrender to higher authorities. Honor of the insignia doesn't lie with them. It stands tall with those who decide to take a position against the wrong. Two movies in this discussion: A Few Good Men and Shaurya highlight the same.

Shaurya is highly inspired by A Few Good Men and can be considered to be one of the better rip-offs of our time. There is a sincere effort apparent from the execution of movie and work on script. A defence official (two officials in case of AFGM) is arrested and his case is going to be heard. A lawyer is going to represent him who is not much interested in proving him innocent. He wants minimum punishment. The accused is silent and maintains that what he did, he did for his country. In Shaurya, the officer takes stand against a communal senior and in AFGM, two marines accidently kills a fellow on order by a senior. Things fall into right slots and the lawyer realises what he should do.

Tom Cruise's character and Rahul Bose's character are very similar but a few dissimilar complexities. The same can be said about Jack Nicholsan's character and that of KK. Demi Moore's Role was reduced to a minuscule on played by Minissha Lamba. All six did justice to their roles, though the senior ones i.e. Nicholsan and KK stole the show. The last scenes in both the movies are almost identical and the way it finishes keeps you mesmerized. You cannot say that Shaurya is an original movie but you won't say that it is made badly.

Watch both the movies with an open mind. In my opinion, watch AFGM first and then follow it up with Shaurya. Watch Shaurya not for the story but for few brilliant dialogs. If you like the dialog between Jack, Demi and Tom in Guatemala then you will appreciate the dialogues between KK and Rahul. And don’t miss the climax of AFGM. Its considered to be one of the greatest courtroom dramas.

ritten By: Sujoy Ghosh

The Critique: Hazaaron Khwahishain Aisi

Hazaaron khwahishain aisi ke har khwahish pe dam nikle
bohot nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle…

This couplet pretty much sums up what charaters of “hazaron khwaishein” are going through.
Set in the times of political turmoil of Emergency and period just before it. The story basically tracks the paths of three characters, Geetha Rao (played by supremely beautiful and talented Chitragandha Singh), Siddharth Tayabji (played by acclaimed KK Menon) and Vikram Malhotra (played by Shiney Ahuja in his best performance till date, also his second movie). Vikram likes Geetha, who in turn is in love with Siddharth, a revolutionary.
Siddharth leaves to join the revolution. Geetha moves on for higher studies, where she marries an IAS officer. A failed marriage draws her back to Siddharth, (IAS played by Ram Kapoor, who is brilliant in the scene where as a not-in-cotrol husband he confronts Geetha about Siddharth, beats her up and eventually begs her to stay back.) Later Geetha moves to join revolution, where she helps Siddharth in all ways, even once gets abused to save him. Siddharth lands in lock up. Vikram meanwhile is now a successful Business man, who gets involved in emergency turmoil as his Gandhian Father is arrested and Geetha approaches him to rescue Siddharth and what follows is a chilling climax.

By acclaimed director Sudhir Mishra who understands every shade of his characters. Mishra a leftist himself and who has seen through horrific emergency days of 70’s, presents a chilling account. Performances are top notch; even bit roles are played to perfection.

A mature love story with characters meeting over a span of six years,relations explicit but not sensational, even adulterous to portray intimacy, intimate scenes are shot starkly (as was required).It is about difference in ideology as Siddharth, an idealist in contrast with Vikram who remains in system to use it for himself. It is also what choices people make finally. Notice how role reversal takes place in the end, with Siddharth and Vikram *swapping choices they made. It works on so many levels at the same time, and that is what makes it a great watch.

Interesting to watch, more for those of us who were born after emergency. This is a MUST watch if serious movies is your thing, and if you like it spread the word, make your friends watch it too, as it has lesser audiences than it deserves. Some might see it as a less-on-entertainment package, if they are not into serious movies. But if you are trying to start watching serious issue based movies this will be a good start.

Written By: Ali (Rosebud)