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Wednesday, September 11, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD KURBAAN
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ****
When a bomb explodes, mainly the innocent die, says Vivek Oberoi
towards the finale when, to put it at the most basic level, all hell breaks
loose.
In Rang De Basanti, Rensil d`Silva had taken screenwriting in Hindi
cinema to a new level of expressionism. With his directorial debut Kurbaan,
Rensil carries the spoken, unspoken, visual and metaphorical language of
mainstream cinema to an unvisited shore.
Blending the thorny theme of the political-cultural identity of the Muslim
community post 26/11 with the commercial identity of contemporary Hindi cinema
is not an easy task. The film manages to be superior to other films on global
terrorism, a theme that now threatens to turn into a full-blown commercial
formula.
In Kurbaan, the characters are not representational of Islamic
ideology. They function in the brilliantly-designed plot as people who subscribe
to the view that the Muslim community across the world is the victim of American
oil-politics that threatens to annihilate the Islamic world.
This is very thin ice for a debutant director to walk on. Rensil`s film says
that a sense of aggressive isolation grips the Muslim community. There are
either those (like the characters played by Saif, Om Puri and Kirron Kher) who
think a direct action plan of retaliation is required to save Muslims from mass
destruction. Or, more alarmingly, there are those like the characters of Vivek
Oberoi and his father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) who are tacitly in favour of
violence against their community`s collective persecution.
Either way, Rensil`s film looks at the theme of Islamic terrorism with fearless
and brutal honestly.
After a rather pale courtship in Delhi, Hindu lecturer Avantika (Kareena) flies
into New York with her ever-so-suave suitor Ehsaan (Saif).
The narrative immediately plunges Avantika into the vortex of a 26/11-styled
conspiracy being hatched in her backyard on a deceptively quiet suburban street
filled with Asian homes.
If the closet terrorists in the narrative are master plotters, director Rensil
is no less. While the master-plotters in Kurbaan finally fail,
Rensil walks past the finishing line with victorious strides. With
cinematographer Hemant Chaturvedi, Rensil moves stealthily in and out of
politically-challenged lives with the least amount of drama and ostentation.
The background score is kept at a bare minimum. Kurbaan creates its
drama from the characters` misbegotten sense of identity. From that vantage
point of disorientation, the film dexterously moves into the mode of
action-driven conflicts.
Kurbaan turns out to be one relentlessly breathless treatise on how
to create a prolonged climax without losing the theme`s bearings. The film has
been shot as an extended crime thriller.
There is room in the commodious narration for disgruntled characters from a
multitude of Islamic countries living in the US. But at the core, there are just
three characters - the terrorist, his pregnant and rebellious wife and the
expose-driven journalist, played by Saif, Kareena and Vivek respectively.
Vivek plays the progressive American Muslim with a resolute understanding of the
underlying politics that plagues his character`s soul. But Saif is a
disappointment. In a role that could have been a career-defining event, the
actor pitches a performance as a not-so-reluctant terrorist that simply swims on
the surface.
There`s no attempt by the actor to understand the workings of Ehsaan`s mind or
to revisit Ehsaan`s roots. What we see is a confused rather than a politically
and religiously conflicted soul tormented by an ideological crisis.
Where is the mean-spirited guy who exploited and cheated Urmila Matondkar in
Ek Hasina Thi?
Finally Kurbaan belongs to Kareena Kapoor. In her most
consistently-pitched performance to date, she pulls out all stops to play a
betrayed wife with splendid sensitivity. Kareena accommodates her radiant beauty
into an utterly credible character and performance.
Much of the credit for Kareena`s compelling performance must go to the written
word. Anurag Kashyap and Niranjan Iyenger enter the characters` dark and
anguished world with words that avoid rhetorical excesses. However, a key
classroom discussion on Islam and the Western world is ruined because even the
American students speak in Hindi!
Kurbaan shows a deep understanding of the bonds that bind and
separate the Islamic world from the West. It is a critically important work
because it spells out uncomfortable truths in a cinematic language that`s
riveting and resonant without resorting to extravagant flourishes and fireworks.
Not to be missed.
Karan Johar has never been hesitant about sharing his fall-out with Kajol and Shah Rukh Khan or disclosing his sexuality and in tune with the same the ace director has in his recent biography disclosed his 2002 spat with now best friend Kareena Kapoor KhanRead More
Avantika is a teacher in a university in Delhi. She has come back from New York where she teaches,because fer father has suffered a heart attack. During this period, she meets a temporary Professor called Ehsaan Khan.
Soon they begin seeing each other and love blossoms. A few months later, Avantika receives a call from her university in New York,asking her to come back for the Fall Semester. Avantika breaks the newa to Ehsaan. He in turn, tells her he doesn`t mind coming to the states with her, to find a job. But first they need to get married.Soon after the marriage, they leave to start a new life in New York. They buy a house in an Indian neighbourhood and move in. Just as they are setting up home, their conservative Muslim neighbours, Hamid and Anjum, invite them over for dinner. The next morning, Salma, one of the women Avantika met the night before at the dinner, visits her under the pretext of gifting her sweets. When Avantika invites her in, Salma tells her that she is in grave danger. Nothing is what it seems. Salma pleads with Avantika to help her. What follows next, is a series of incidents that suck Avantika into a vortex of danger and intrigue. As her life spirals out of control, Avantika realizes that she is a pawn in a huge game. And no one is to be trusted.
