Whoever has seen "Dombivli Fast" will agree with me that Nishikant Kamat is a very promising director. And consequently, we all were looking forward to his next venture, "Mumbai Meri Jaan". As expected, he again elected a Mumbai leaning subject with, obviously, pragmatism in it... The milieu of the film is the dreadful local train blasts in 11/07... Every single Mumbaikar has some story or the other to tell after the blasts so has Nishikant Kamat.
Film deals with concerns and that's where exactly lies the problem!!! Film has enormous amount of issues and hence no one gets the even share of attention, not from the writer, neither from director and indubitably nor from the audience...Terrorism, status discrimination, bomb blasts, brain-drain, regionalism, Hindu-Muslim conflict, over animated media and its role in the society, corruption in Police department and few honest & goaded policemen in the system, conflicted personal dogma etc.etc...huh? How much audience can take in three hours (2 hours 21 minutes to be more precise)? Every single subject (except sensational-news-crazy media) has been done to death by some of our best directors in the past...Your heart doesn't go out for the characters because of this hodge-podge...
All said and done, film has some really astonishing & heart wrenching jiffies...there're moments in the film where you don't regret your decision to come and watch this film with HIGH expectations...
Few scenes in the film make you think, few make you pay attention, few make you laugh and few make you cry as well...
But THIS is the most miserable ingredient!!! Just few scenes & moments and that's about it...It doesn't stay with you and to worsen the case, film has those trite incidents and characters...
I'm NOT saying it's a bad film, but it certainly not live up to your anticipations...
And as far as acting is concern, every one is dazzling in the film, right from Soha Ali Khan to Irrfan Khan to Madhavan to Kay Kay to Paresh Rawal...In fact if you've such an array of alluring actors, you expect nothing but extraordinary performances...
The first half of the film is decent enough to hold your attention but later, it just fizzles like a bubble...In the second half, there are loooooooooong monologues of Paresh Rawal giving words about his entire life in a polluted department like Police and then to irritate you more, he goes onto "society", "corruption", "honest people in corrupted deptt." so on & so forth...Sometimes you gets the illusion of sitting in a really dreary conference where everyone has A LOT to say!!! And if you think these are the trite topics which we're watching on big screen for last 40 years then wait!!! There is much more to come!!! There is an old man giving Geeta-Gyan to kids and trying to make them better human beings... Oh c'mon... The Gen-Next kids generally loose their innocence when they're 6-7 yrs old!!! They don't have the time to listen to a random old man giving Geeta-Gyan...And to top it all, climax is way too melodramatic & idealistic... I can't remember a single day when I've seen people standing up or just stopped in the middle of the road to pay homage to the blast victims on the anniversary of Bomb Blasts!!! Bur I really wish I could've seen it...
Anyways, coming back to Mumbai Meri Jaan, since the film talks about the spirit of Mumbai and it's undying attitude towards challenges, you just want to bond with the film...Also the film has few really salient moments which makes it single-watch and if I need to rate the films as most of our critics do, I'll definitely give it two-and-a-half stars for the performances and half star for the unadulterated attempt by Nishikant Kamat...
Thumbs up to him and please keep making films on such subject with much more efforts & involvement...
Film deals with concerns and that's where exactly lies the problem!!! Film has enormous amount of issues and hence no one gets the even share of attention, not from the writer, neither from director and indubitably nor from the audience...Terrorism, status discrimination, bomb blasts, brain-drain, regionalism, Hindu-Muslim conflict, over animated media and its role in the society, corruption in Police department and few honest & goaded policemen in the system, conflicted personal dogma etc.etc...huh? How much audience can take in three hours (2 hours 21 minutes to be more precise)? Every single subject (except sensational-news-crazy media) has been done to death by some of our best directors in the past...Your heart doesn't go out for the characters because of this hodge-podge...
All said and done, film has some really astonishing & heart wrenching jiffies...there're moments in the film where you don't regret your decision to come and watch this film with HIGH expectations...
Few scenes in the film make you think, few make you pay attention, few make you laugh and few make you cry as well...
But THIS is the most miserable ingredient!!! Just few scenes & moments and that's about it...It doesn't stay with you and to worsen the case, film has those trite incidents and characters...
I'm NOT saying it's a bad film, but it certainly not live up to your anticipations...
And as far as acting is concern, every one is dazzling in the film, right from Soha Ali Khan to Irrfan Khan to Madhavan to Kay Kay to Paresh Rawal...In fact if you've such an array of alluring actors, you expect nothing but extraordinary performances...
The first half of the film is decent enough to hold your attention but later, it just fizzles like a bubble...In the second half, there are loooooooooong monologues of Paresh Rawal giving words about his entire life in a polluted department like Police and then to irritate you more, he goes onto "society", "corruption", "honest people in corrupted deptt." so on & so forth...Sometimes you gets the illusion of sitting in a really dreary conference where everyone has A LOT to say!!! And if you think these are the trite topics which we're watching on big screen for last 40 years then wait!!! There is much more to come!!! There is an old man giving Geeta-Gyan to kids and trying to make them better human beings... Oh c'mon... The Gen-Next kids generally loose their innocence when they're 6-7 yrs old!!! They don't have the time to listen to a random old man giving Geeta-Gyan...And to top it all, climax is way too melodramatic & idealistic... I can't remember a single day when I've seen people standing up or just stopped in the middle of the road to pay homage to the blast victims on the anniversary of Bomb Blasts!!! Bur I really wish I could've seen it...
Anyways, coming back to Mumbai Meri Jaan, since the film talks about the spirit of Mumbai and it's undying attitude towards challenges, you just want to bond with the film...Also the film has few really salient moments which makes it single-watch and if I need to rate the films as most of our critics do, I'll definitely give it two-and-a-half stars for the performances and half star for the unadulterated attempt by Nishikant Kamat...
Thumbs up to him and please keep making films on such subject with much more efforts & involvement...
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