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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
There`s ongoing sense of serenity compounded by a feeling of sincerity and
transparency in the cinema of Ashutosh Gowariker. This filmmaker never hides
life`s most essential truth in cinematic subterfuge. Rather, Gowariker goes the
other way.
He strips the emotional content of cinema of its accessories and trappings and
leaves the screen with just that right amount of drama that does complete
justice to the characters without making them a casualty of excessive creative
freedom.
Celebrate the creative freedom of a fearless and honest cinema. "Khelein
Hum Jee Jaan Sey" (KHJJS) is an inherently dramatic story about a large
group of young people who fought an unknown chapter in India`s freedom movement,
told on screen with a minimum amount of flag-waving bravura.
The source material, Manini Chatterjee`s novel, is open to an acutely pompous
and self-important treatment. But when has Gowariker`s cinema ever been a prey
to pomposity?
If he can make Akbar`s court look so cool, casual and muted in spite of its
inbuilt flamboyancy, the super-committed sepoys of self-government in KHJJS are
not capable of even a second of verbal or visual overstatement.
Going to a world that is strongly redolent of historic ramifications, Gowariker
pulls the real-life material out of the textbook and transforms it into an
eminently engaging story about anti-colonialism. This is certainly not
Gowariker`s first visit into Colonial India. Who can forget the director`s
neo-classic "Lagaan" where one villager gathered a whole team of
ragged villagers to beat the Brits at their own game.
KHJJS is not as playful, lyrical and lush as "Lagaan". This time
Gowariker tells his story with brutal straightforwardness, a quality that is a
hallmark of this exceptional director`s cinema, here more prominently on display
than in any of his earlier works.
The epic satire of "Lagaan", the grandiosity of "Jodhaa-Akbar"
and the transparent nationalism of "Swades" peep out of Gowariker`s
latest work in measured doses, though never in a way that suggests any
calculated attempt to create a pre-given ambience.
The setting, Chittagong in Bengal in the 1930s, is created with a fluency,
virility and scrupulousness that make us believe in the characters and their
mission from the word go. Watching out for those sleeping-dogs of
over-statement, the narrative moves across a an artless criss-cross of patriotic
plotting without tripping over in anxiety and nervousness.
A sense of calm camaraderie prevails even during moments of unsettling
bloodshed. This is no one-day mataram. The patriotic zeal never felt more
tranquil before. This is history without hysteria. In KHJJS, each one of 70-odd
characters seems born into his or her respective parts.
Much of supporting cast does what it is expected to. It supports the drama and
the tension with restrain and skill. Standing tall in the supporting cast is
Sikandar Kher expressing indignance and ire without going over-the-top. Deepika
Padukone sheds her pouty movie-siren`s image confidently. She gets unexpected
competition from debutante Vishakha Singh who seems to get under the skin of her
character.
But the film finally `belongs` to Abhishek Bachchan in the way that films become
the property of actors who own characters not for a display of histrionic vanity
but because they grasp instinctively the world which the character inhabits.
Abhishek`s empathy with his character is complete and unimpeachable. As Surjya
Sen, he conveys a muffled but obstinate idealism. Abhishek`s eyes become his
window to a world where pain governs the journey to a greater glory.
Just as it`s impossible to imagine Sanjay Leela Bhansali`s "Black" and
"Guzaarish" without Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan, or
Gowariker`s "Swades" without Shah Rukh Khan, what, we wonder, would
Surjya Sen be if Abhishek had not played him with such quelled anger, dignity
and grace?
Or for that matter where in our cinema today would history find a place if
Gawariker was not committed to making compelling films on the indelible
relationship between the present and the past?
On the technical front, Kiran Deohans` cinematography and Nitin Desai`s art
direction are subtle delicate but evocative. Sohail Sen`s music fits in like a
glove with the film`s theme and mood of restrained revolution.
Don`t expect the bombastic patriotism of Manoj Kumar`s "Kranti" or the
tax-exemptible desperate nobility of "Gandhi - My Father". The
effectiveness of Gowariker`s drama is drawn from the director`s determination to
keep his drama denuded of exhibitionism.
"Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey" is the kind of rare and precious cinema on
the theme of idealism, nobility and nationalism that is being progressively
pushed out of our cinema by crass boorish comedies. It must be seen not because
it retrieves a forgotten chapter from our history, but simply because it`s a
story so well told you forget it`s a true story.
The truth of the moment in the cinema of Gowariker is the only truth that
matters for the audience. The rest is history.
The screenplay of Ashutosh Gowariker's latest historical drama "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey" will soon be part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences archives. Read More
Advani praises 'Khelein...' for educating people about Chittagong uprisingWatching Ashutosh Gowariker's "Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey", based on the Chittagong Uprising of 1930, was a revelation for senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani. Read More
1930, British India: In the province of undivided Bengal lies
the sleepy, peaceful port of Chittagong. In this unassuming little town a
revolution is about to begin; a revolution which will forever wake all of
Chittagong and inspire the entire nation.
April 18. 1 night. 5 simultaneous attacks. A band of 64 - 56 innocent yet
fearless young boys, 5 defiant revolutionaries, 2 determined young women, and an
idealistic leader - Surjya Sen, a school teacher by profession.
This group of 64 represents a little-known chapter in history; a forgotten night
that reigned terror on the British through a series of calculated attacks.
KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY is a true story of these forgotten heroes and the
narrative takes us through every step of the action from the initial
trepidation, to the thrill of the attack, to the underground movement, daring
escapes and tragic captures, and most importantly, their undying legacy.