And I wouldn’t mind knowing, knowing That you wouldn’t mind going, going along with my plan..

Dear J,

I saw a movie today and J, I loved it. “Maine Gandhi ko nahi maara”. I believe it’s the first Hindi movie** I have seen made by a director who had just one simple reason for it, he had something to say. And that he wanted to say it out loud to anyone who wished to hear. But the point J, is that you cant always scream out what you most sincerely believe.And that is exactly what we have here J. We don’t have a movie that screams out read-by-rote history lessons, or lectures the greatness of the nation’s Father. It doesn’t have film start muttering out convoluted dialogues - that they themselves might have taken a while to figure out – pretending (or acting is it ?) its their heart’s cry. Tell me J, when you believe in something sincerely, is it not that your words flow out smoothly, and in the most rhythmic tone ever? It’s the first Indian movie that I believe the dirctor had nothing to gain from its making.Really J, the film doesn’t have a superstar (well, one maybe, but then the director never expected Indian whisteling front bench junta to come watch Urmila in her salwar-kammez clad role) neither does it have outstanding dialogues to keep a viewer rooted. The actors put in mediocre performances J, we’v seen seen them act better. But it is the sheer simplicity of the movie J and the way the scenes move from slowly from one shot to the other J that actually had me hooked to it till the end even while Urmila holding Anupam Kher’s hand takes him down the beach at sunset narratin lines from the poem “Koshish karne waalo ki haar nahi hoti”. You would say it’s a slow movie J, and I would reply it is. Hell, I thought Choclate was slow :-D (okay, that wasn’t needed. Not a bad movie though were it not for Anil Kapoor hamming…and Sushma Reddy hamming…and Irfan Khan hamming….and Tanushree Dutta hamming..and Sunil Shetty ham…… and Arshad mmm….hamm…..put the rest of the characters here….).

J, the movie takes you slowly around the daughter’s anguish at getting her father back to his senses. Anupam Kher as Uttam Chaudhry, well, what do I say, he is okaaaaaaaay ( I don’t even know any other actor who would have done justice to this character J…Naseeruddin Shah??? Naaah ..he has this way of making every movie that stars him his own..and this was solely the directors movie…Amitabh ??? no way puhleeeeeez….) so at the end J, the director himself might have realized that though Anupam isn’t the ultimate choice, there was no one who could have done it better. Urmila, well J, she’s acted better in her other movies, what do I say, am not sure sure if she’s tryin, but it wud do her goood if she tried not to restrict her expressions to wild wide-eyed-scary look that she seems to be using in every movie that she comes in. Hmmm, maybe that was one reason the director took her. The rest of the cast, they don’t deserve mention. U see J, there is nothing extraordinary about the movie, well , I was never really a Gandhian (umm maybe for a time…but that discussion shall wait ), so see, there was nothing I had to learn from the movie J. And I sincerely believe the director had no intention of preaching. He made a movie coz he had something to say. And he did, in the most sincere and simple way that can only be done when coming straight from the heart. For a movie that re-inforces my faith in ‘True to your Heart’ , Mr. Jahnu Barua, my respect to you.

Love,
D.

** (.debatable…Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Hyderabad blues’ was a sincere movie too..)

Hmmm... am tryin to get the lyrics of the poem....do let me know if anyone here has it