I am surprised to be the only dissenter among an overwhelming majority of positive reviews for "Aamir". I do not fancy myself as a non-lover of serious cinema and I am all for experimentation with the craft-- be it theater, cinema or comics! "Aamir" failed to make the cut in my book, in terms of being *good* cinema.
***Probable Spoilers***
The best way to enjoy this movie is to not know ANYTHING about it at all. The slightest hints can be a spoiler because the best things about this movie are the beautiful location shots (how lovely they make Mumbai look on screen nowadays, starting with the adorable "Taxi No.9211" montage) and the starkly non-bollywood treatment. Very gritty, very real and extremely under-played. Not an iota of gratuitous action or superfluous plot-points. For these two alone, it could score a 10/10.
On the other hand, I give it a 2/10. There are three main reasons: 1. The film progresses like a thriller, throwing surprises and giving hints. One usually expects such cinema to culminate in some sort of "revelation". Such thrillers also beg a "motive" and a secret someone who was leading the hero all along. In "Aamir", the first 5 minutes give a feel of what the sinister shadow wants. The plot ("Using amateurs to carry out terrorist/assassination jobs and then eliminating them to leave a cold trail") has been done to death in Sanjay Dutt's movies. Money or threat to family are about the only two means of inducting these recruits. Given that, I was surprised that RK Gupta expected *THIS* revelation to be the "Aha!" moment in the climax. Worse, there was no other "Aha" moment, this was it.
2. For a thriller, the pace was excruciatingly slow. I guess RKG wanted us to feel the characters frustration and helplessness as time moved slowly but surely towards his family's doom. Even then, I would expect a man in a hurry to not pause and ponder before delivering every dialog, before making every gesture. Again, the slow build-up did not lead to a satisfying closure.
3. My final grouse is I failed to see the point of the writer. Did no one notice the number of people in diverse professions that seemed to be aware and implicit accessories in the act? To me, the story reinforced rather than negated the suspicion that many seemingly everyday Muslims are secret sympathizers to the terrorist cause. If everyone was in on it, how difficult would it be to entrap another innocent man to commit yet another bombing another day? For all the right intentions, "Aamir" fails both in its exposure of society's prejudice in judging a whole community for the isolated acts of a few-- as well in becoming a taut, entertaining cinema. A single man's sacrifice in a story that envelops many thousands, in my opinion, has a hollow ring to it.
While the "it takes ONE to start a MOVEMENT" theme is pretty cool, it stays rather diluted in "Aamir". This belongs to the genre that believes serious cinema equals obscure but all worked-up cinema.
***Probable Spoilers***
The best way to enjoy this movie is to not know ANYTHING about it at all. The slightest hints can be a spoiler because the best things about this movie are the beautiful location shots (how lovely they make Mumbai look on screen nowadays, starting with the adorable "Taxi No.9211" montage) and the starkly non-bollywood treatment. Very gritty, very real and extremely under-played. Not an iota of gratuitous action or superfluous plot-points. For these two alone, it could score a 10/10.
On the other hand, I give it a 2/10. There are three main reasons: 1. The film progresses like a thriller, throwing surprises and giving hints. One usually expects such cinema to culminate in some sort of "revelation". Such thrillers also beg a "motive" and a secret someone who was leading the hero all along. In "Aamir", the first 5 minutes give a feel of what the sinister shadow wants. The plot ("Using amateurs to carry out terrorist/assassination jobs and then eliminating them to leave a cold trail") has been done to death in Sanjay Dutt's movies. Money or threat to family are about the only two means of inducting these recruits. Given that, I was surprised that RK Gupta expected *THIS* revelation to be the "Aha!" moment in the climax. Worse, there was no other "Aha" moment, this was it.
2. For a thriller, the pace was excruciatingly slow. I guess RKG wanted us to feel the characters frustration and helplessness as time moved slowly but surely towards his family's doom. Even then, I would expect a man in a hurry to not pause and ponder before delivering every dialog, before making every gesture. Again, the slow build-up did not lead to a satisfying closure.
3. My final grouse is I failed to see the point of the writer. Did no one notice the number of people in diverse professions that seemed to be aware and implicit accessories in the act? To me, the story reinforced rather than negated the suspicion that many seemingly everyday Muslims are secret sympathizers to the terrorist cause. If everyone was in on it, how difficult would it be to entrap another innocent man to commit yet another bombing another day? For all the right intentions, "Aamir" fails both in its exposure of society's prejudice in judging a whole community for the isolated acts of a few-- as well in becoming a taut, entertaining cinema. A single man's sacrifice in a story that envelops many thousands, in my opinion, has a hollow ring to it.
While the "it takes ONE to start a MOVEMENT" theme is pretty cool, it stays rather diluted in "Aamir". This belongs to the genre that believes serious cinema equals obscure but all worked-up cinema.