Continuing with his craft of making movies on the literary works of renowned writers, Ashutosh returns to the Historical genre with his “KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE” which surprisingly gets released without any great publicity in the media. Frankly speaking I was highly confused seeing the not so impressive posters and promos of the movie before its release and now after watching it, I am still more or less in the similar state of confusion with mixed reactions. Therefore to state my two distinctive viewpoints about this latest project from the reputed director, I would like to review the movie in two different sections:
As a Historical movie on a lesser known, Independence movement of Chittagong witnessed in 1930.
Looking at the movie from this angle, it is indeed a highly authentic depiction of the historical event of 1930 made with upmost honesty and sincerity. The story is about a team of few young Freedom Fighters allowing the help of more than 50 teenager boys in their violent freedom movement. Ashutosh has no doubt taken care of every little detail of that time and the people involved in it with a superb vision of his own. And along with that, we should be highly thankful to him, to enlighten us all about this hidden chapter of our Indian Independence movement which was not known to most of its viewers living in the Northern Region.
As an artistic project, the film is perfect with great art direction and cinematography, bringing the period of 1930 alive on the screen with near perfection. But I really wish the same perfection had been there in its writing department too which is too slow paced, lengthy and even uninteresting at regular intervals. The costume designing also is just limited to white kurtas being worn by almost everyone in the team and doesn’t come up with a great show as required. The film starts at a very lazy note and never picks up in its entire first half, due to which the viewer loses his every hope to see anything great or exceptional from the director with a great line-up in the past. Post intermission too, though the narration picks up with all the action sequences unfolding on the screen, but still its execution is certainly not anything close to Ashutosh’s own set standards in his previous films.
The most annoying part of the movie is the portrayal of all the British Officials, who quite shockingly act and look like characters of some school or university stage play. Even the casting of all the actors posing as Britishers is way below the mark and overlooked. In other words, this doesn’t seem to be the vision of the same person who directed some brilliant sequences in LAGAAN dealing with British Officials.
Along with this, the other biggest failure of the film is that it is not able to generate the much needed patriotic feeling in the viewer, which should be a must in a film made on a real-life independence movement. Honestly, the only time I felt patriotic with blood running faster in my veins was when I saw the real pictures of the actual teenager freedom fighters lying dead on the ground (shown in the end credits). So, as a historical film, the completely fails to make an impact and Ashutosh has only one merit on his side that he has got a very unheard tale to tell which is not known to many.
As a Movie experience alone of a new Bollywood venture.
Reviewing KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE on the basis of a movie experience alone is a hurting job as the film has got nothing to offer as far as entertainment is concerned to the audience. In clear words, for most of the viewers it may be quite painful to watch it right till the end. And this was evidently proved as I myself witnessed a few couples leaving the theater just before its intermission.
It’s fine that the film is made on a respectable and honorable real life incident which deserves to be saluted by every citizen of the country. But still to make it both as an enlightening and entertaining cinematic experience, it surely needs to be dramatized in a more punching way. Sadly, Ashutosh doesn’t seem to be thinking that way and that’s the reason, he has not included any blood pumping arousing sequences or clap worthy dialogues in his movie, which in turn has resulted in a very calm and relaxed kind of patriotic venture. Moreover, as always, the length remains an issue in his movie this time too, as KHJJS is just few minutes short to 3 hours and could have been easily edited out with 10-15 minutes.
Putting it differently, actually What a common viewer wishes to feel when he is going to watch a film made on a historical event of Indian Independence? He undoubtedly wants to feel the action, smell the gun powder and would like to give a standing ovation clapping loud at the end of the movie feeling proud to be a citizen of the current world power, INDIA. That was the reason which converted both GADAR & LAGAAN into such big hits. Or on the other side, a film made on the Indian patriotic movement should be so sensitive and emotional that it should make every viewer in the theater go numb with wet eyes in the end as in SHAHEED & GARAM HAWA. Unfortunately, KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE can neither be called as a powerful uplifting movie nor as an emotional enriching experience. The only good thing about the movie is that it thankfully makes us aware of an actual independence movement which somehow got lost in the other over famous incidents and sacrifices of the Indian Freedom Fighters and that’s all.
Musically its again a weak soundtrack chosen by the director for his film which ideally should have been a song less movie as per the requirement of its theme. The Background music too is not so engrossing which can take a particular sequence to a different level. A strong upbeat, patriotic song with great lyrics and composition is missing in the movie which was a must. Amusingly the “Vande Matram” song running with the end credits made me remember the decades old song from ANAND MATH (1952) which still remains the most inspiring melody composed with the patriotic words of VANDE MATRAM.
Performance wise, KHJJS has some appreciable performances coming from its entire supporting cast other than the lead pair. The whole supporting team of Abhishek along with all the young teenager actors, surely deserves praises for their effortless acts in the film. However I couldn’t applaud the casting choices made by Ashutosh in his current project for his lead pair, since both Abhishek and Deepika were not looking great in their out of the routine roles. With quite few scenes in the movie, Deepika is not able to take away the glamour off her face. Still I found her much better than all her previous movies since her debut film. On the other hand, there is a vast difference in the charactersation of Abhishek in pre and post interval of the movie. And for this the blame should actually go to his director. In the first half he is shown to be very calm and composed, having a solution to every little problem in their works. But post intermission his complete mannerisms undergo a drastic change in the tough conditions of their plans going wrong. So as a conclusion, KHJJS cannot be rated as one of the best works of anyone in its entire team including the actors, writers and the director. However, only the ART DIRECTOR can proudly use this movie in his repertoire at the top and it can also be applauded as a pure ORIGINAL in the present Hindi Films scenerio dealing with Inspirations from the West. So you may watch it to know more about a hidden yet important chapter of our Indian Independence Movement, but don’t go for it expecting anything near to LAGAAN or SWADES.
Ending on an entertaining note, I still rate the use of “DOGS AND INDIANS NOT ALLOWED” by Manmohan Desai in his Amitabh Bachhan starrer MARD as the best way of addressing the issue on the wide screen.
Rating : 2 / 5
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