I had been really apprehensive with all the hype suroounding this flick. I have seen mixed to great reviews and was wondering how it will balance so many actors in 3 hour 5 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised. Every actor had their shining moment. Regardless of the length of their individual roles, every character was well defined and performed well. The movie is definitely flawed especially the climax. What the hell was RKS thinking with ladies throwing chappal sequence at Danny at the end -absolutely cliche and a crap idea. "Back to NewYork" at the end was a terrible idea as well. But I did like Santoshi's handling throughout of drama and comedy blend. He has said the movie he made should entertain - if he hadn't approached the subject as such he would have made a very depressing high budget art movie specially with Ramdulaari portions. I had heard reviews that the first part was slow but I had no problems whatsoever with it. I think the audience in the theatre felt the same. The second half was excellent up until the last 5-7 minutes which I already mentioned. Performances: My pick of the lot: Ajay Devgan was absolutely fantastic. I have never liked this guy and his recent flicks (YRHPK, RC, HKiK, DKK) have made me detest his acting and selection even more. But he reminded me so much of Amitabh in his youger angry young man roles. Not to compare him with Amitabh but to emphasize Devgan's dialogue delivery, his screen presence, his anger, the action - he had the audience memerized. I think he should do more hard hitting roles.Madhuri Dixit looked divine and acted brilliantly. She has come a full circle and stepped into veteran position in my books. This lady is a world-class performer and desrves full marks for her work here. I think she surpassed Mrityudand 10 times in this film because what she has done in Lajja has put her into the all time great actresses list. After the high marks that Madhuri receives for her performance you would think there would be no room to go beyond perfection? right? Well this place is what Rekha has achieved with Lajja. This, in my opinion, is Rekha's glory to cinematic immortality along with Umrao Jaan. Her work in Lajja is as good as the finest performances of legendary female artistes in bollywood or Hollywood. Her breakdown on finding out about her son's relationship and her pleading sequence before being raped and burnt is in one word - eh there is no word to describe it - Superlative, Perfect, Excellent do not do justice. This must be seen to understand. Manisha and Mahima? They are pretty good and have sequences where they both show their talents. They will get more chances in the future to demonstrate their greatness - they definitely are very talented. Anil Kapoor was very funny and very good but any actor will lose in praise in front of high drama. Unfortunately, this is what happens to Anil in Lajja. Anil Kapoor is such a great actor he is taken for granted. He is very cool and performs comedy sequences with aplomb - audiences loved him but he'll not be the first to be remembered in this film. Lagaan is still the perfect movie this year.
