Yesterday
evening I went for a Bollywood movie, but unlike how I usually do, this time I did
not proclaim it through an FB status message. Maybe, because this time I was
supposed to write something more about the movie, a review perhaps?
The
promos told me that this was a movie about mixed martial arts, vengeance and estranged
brothers fighting to win prize money. However, as I found out, it was not so.
The
movie I watched was, the Akshay starrer ‘Brothers’. No, you cannot call it just
an Akshay starrer; there are lots more to this movie than just Akshay. Although,
he played the role of elder bro ‘David’ and rocked as usual, Siddharth Malhotra
playing the younger bro ‘Monty’, who is shown entering into the fighting cage
to grab his respect and make name for himself, rocked harder.
It is
a men's movie, and both brothers are shown struggling with a mixed array of
emotions ranging from anger to sadness to despair to vengeance and that is evident
from the first shot you see of them. A mix of emotions, that reminds you of the
lead character in Agneepath, although not to that extent, but somewhere
around there and no doubt, enough to remind you that the director is the same
guy, Karan Malhotra. The only time you see them happy and playful is when they
are shown as kids.
If the lads managed to set the screen afire with their anger
and brute force, there is our good old Jackie Shroff who plays the role of their
father, a strongman whom time has broken down and someone who manages to leave
the screen moist and melancholy with his sadness and guilt. Then there is
Pasha, played by Ashutosh Rana, who brings in the much need romance into the fighting
cage with his couplets and poetic one-liners.
Albeit
there are a few women in the movie, but they do not really grab your attention that
much. Kareena comes in for an item number, throws a few thumkas and jhatkas,
but does not manage to even give you a goose bump. Jacqueline plays the role of
‘Jenny’, that is, David’s wife and unlike the item girl; she does manage to get
a few scenes to her credit. Somewhere midway the movie, there is a long
flashback scene where Karan shows us how David and Jenny fell in love. It is
boring. This is the time you guys must target to go for your middle-of-the-movie
washroom visit. Then, there is a cute six year old girl who plays the role of
David’s daughter and who herself is a fighting a war of sorts, and the main
reason why he is forced to get back into street fighting.
Men from Mumbai’s coastline are strong, they love violent
sports/activities, they have a bad temperament, they drink, and they cheat, they
make babies outside the home, they destroy their families and drown themselves into
a cesspool of guilt.
A younger brother, however strong he is, he cannot beat his elder bro. He could
use the vengeance he has towards his elder bro and channelize it to beat the
pulp out of guys much stronger than his brother, but he never will be able to beat
his elder bro.
Cute girls dig serious angry young men.
Mothers are strong people. Irrespective of all odds, they tie the whole
family with an invisible chord and keep them bundled as one, and when the
leave, they leave the whole world in total disarray, and all relationships fall
apart.
No Indian man would ever enter a cage and fight his brother merely for
money. Either he should have a genuine want, like money to treat someone ailing
in the family or he should be a real villain, a real bad man.
Now, Monty is not a bad man, and so he had to have a reason
that is stronger than you can imagine, having this extent of vengeance for this
elder brother. If you were a Bollywood movie freak, you would get the inkling well
as the movie proceeds, and that is where Shefali Shah comes in. She plays the
role of their mother, and what a wonderful job she has done at it.
So, unlike
what the promos tell you, this movie is not about mixed martial arts, vengeance
or estranged brothers fighting to win prize money. This is about a mother and
her two sons. This is about family. This is about sticking together even when
everything seems falling apart. This is about how callous men can be. This is
about making mistakes, mistakes that are fatal. This is about making amendments
for those mistakes. This is about forgiving and being forgiven for those
mistakes. This is about reclaiming your family. This is about wiping your tears
from the past and smiling at the future with moisty eyes.
Watch
it, because, never ever has it happened that you have been moved to tears
watching two men fight in a cage in a professional event.
Watch
it, because as the punches are thrown and as you hear the bones crack you will
feel an adrenalin rush but eventually when the hearts meet, your tears will
flow, and you will start melting from the inside.
You reach your office well in time, and just as you park your car,
this wonderful Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan qawwali starts playing on your car stereo.
The couplets ring a chord in your heart, you decide to wait until this one is
over, and as you do, you slowly melt in his mesmerizing music oblivious of the
pangs of your work life. As it is always, this singing Buddha takes his own
time, yodeling, chanting throwing you into a psychedelic spell from where you just
don’t want to return.
But alas, like all good things, this one also has to end. It ends,
and you are forced to shut down the engine and alight.
At the office entrance, as you swipe your attendance card, you
realize that you are late to work, again! The watchman looks at you, nods his
head in dismay, and leaves a sorry sigh. You smile back at him and walk away.
You climb the stairs and lazily walk down to your desk, and as you
do, you are confronted with the sights of a typical middle of the week workplace.
People dressed in crisp formal wear.
People scurrying around, running helter-skelter with sheaves of freshly printed
paper in their hands, taking and giving orders. Not everyone is tense; some are
content too, having breakfast at their desks, chatting on their mobile phones, ogling
at pictures of their friend’s spouses on Facebook, leaving the loo after a
satisfying dump.
Happy faces do posit a smile on your face, but alas, the sight at
the end of the corridor vanishes it off. At the end of the corridor, right next
to your cubicle, you see your boss standing with a grumpy smile on his face. Upset
at your late coming, he throws a straight simple question “Have you sent me
that file?” in a stern voice.You immediately transform from this
smart office worker into this lost kid with innocent face and ask back “W…Which
file, Ssss… Sir?”
His face turns red; his hands turn into fists and his
feet moves front and back, as the body gets in position for a boxing match. That move is enough to teleport your lost
spirit back into your body, and you blurt out “Ah, that report that you
asked for yesterday? I have done it. Just give me half an hour. I will email it
to you” At this point, there is utter silence in the office; just like
someone has pressed the pause button, and everyone is staring at you both, waiting
for the next move.
Eventually, the boss speaks. “Okay, I will wait” he says with
a look that’s two degrees more sterner than the previous one and leaves,
leaving you with a slight shiver and almost wet pants, because only you know
that there is no such file like that!
You crawl down to your desk and a smartass wishes you “Good
Afternoon” at 7:45 in the morning. You dump your bag, slouch into your
ergonomic German office chair, and switch on your computer, open YouTube,
search for ‘maza aa gaya by nusrat fateh ali khan full’, put on your
headphones, close your eyes, dissolve and teleport your soul to some dargah
across the border. Bliss!
