User Reviews

To start with, I would like to share that as reported in the news, many Indian Production Houses refused to provide financial backing to this film due to its objectionable theme revolving around sex abuse and gay characters. So, its director went public on the social networking site FACEBOOK and then went on to make the film with the friendly donations collected from all his FB friends.

Now coming to the film itself, I AM is undoubtedly a first of its kind attempt in Bollywood, bringing out some real dark truths of our society in the open, which force you to keep both your eyes and chin down feeling the shame. The director goes for the most brutal but truthful visualization of the reality faced by four different characters in their respective life stories. Interestingly, here the best part is that the film has no visual nudity or blood shown on the screen and the director uses only suggestive measures to portray his daring scenes of the script. Still, there are times when the sequences unfolding on the screen make you restless and you tend to see sideways feeling a little awkward. Content wise I AM can be called as an amalgamation of four distinct stories or may be four different short films brought together.

1 - The Story of Afia (Featuring Nandita Das) The story very thoughtfully raises many logical questions and also indicates the changing mindsets of women living in the metro cities. Each dialogue in this story is intelligently written without any hiding or holding back kind of restrictions. Nandita Das as the wannabe mother is simply a treat to watch showing her effortless mastery over the art. And she gets equally well supported by Purab Kohli as the donor and Anurag Basu (the famous director) as the doctor. And for me this was one of the best portrayals of the current changing face of our society.

2 - The Story of Megha and Rubina (Featuring Juhi Chawla and Manisha Koirala) Next comes in the story of a Kashmiri Pandit girl Megha, who is now visiting her homeland after 20 long years and is visibly not comfortable seeing the paradise in its current state. Here she meets Rubina who has been living in the valley in all those years and there is a verbal as well as silent confrontation shown between the two ladies related to their homeland. Both Manisha and Juhi Chawla together not only look gorgeous but they also deliver highly appreciable performances in their respective roles along with Rushad Rana as Manisha's brother. In short this story rightly explains the meaning of the word EMPATHY in the best possible manner ever on the silver screen.

3 - The Story of Abhimanyu (Featuring Sanjay Suri) Based on a true story, its about the haunting childhood memories of a person who was a victim of child molestation by his own step father for many years. The story is quite unpleasant, capable of making you uncomfortable in your chairs thinking about the difficult mental state of the victim. But its most difficult part comes when Sanjay Suri, the sufferer reveals the dark truth to his mother after the death of his step father.Radhika Apte as Sanjay Suri's girl friend looks sexier in her modern get-up. But Sanjay Suri as the victim, Shernaz Patel as the mother and Anurag Kashyap (the famous director) as the step father together, simply convert this part of the film into a hard powerful slap on the bright unreal face of our present society.

4 - The Story of Omar (Featuring Rahul Bose) The final part of the film deals with few Gay characters and their undisclosed nexus with the police. The story is set in those times when there was no Law in favour of Gay community and the Police used to take the utmost advantage of the confused situation by harassing and extorting money from them. Rahul Bose along with Arjun Mathur and Abhimanyu Singh, delivers one of his best performances till date which indeed shows a lot of courage and conviction in the actor.

As the fourth story finishes and the end credits role, you realize that you have just seen one of the most brilliant realistic portrayals of some hard dark truths of our present society. It is based on a well written screenplay and has been canned beautifully showing both Kashmir and the streets of Mumbai with an equal elegance. The soundtrack and the background songs are not used heavily but they do sound melodious as you hear them.

In all, I AM is a daring attempt by a thoughtful director which might be a first of its kind for many. It raises many valid and logical questions on the functioning of our present society forcing us to urgently find a solution of our own. Its films like these which can bring on some personal or social change around us and can make a difference.

Yes, in all possibilities, its not going to be a HIT anyway because the film has been released in only a few centers even in the metros. And its also not an entertaining kind of movie made for the masses. But if you really have an urge to watch some realistic meaningful cinema, moving away from the usual mediocre stuff, then just go and watch I AM as soon as possible.

Having read a lot about the movie on social networking sites and the anticipation surrounding it. One of the unique factors if the film is that I Am is the first crowd sourced mainstream Hindi film, it is co produced by over 400 people from 35 cities across the world! The no drama or the regular song and dance routine and tackling perhaps 'bold' issues handled sensitively is what one can expect from a director or Onir's repute. Well, there are a few films that stay with you and make you think one you are out of the cinema hall. One actually wonders about the stereotype perceptions that have become so engrained in our minds which this film raises questions about. Onir chooses to make a film that's very real, many would identify with it, and a fusion of stories where the protagonists share a common dream – to regain their life and move on.

4 stories with the same sutradar being life. Afia's (Nandita Das) yearning for a baby and her search for the perfect sperm donor (Purab Kohli). Next is the story of Megha (Juhi Chawla) and Rubina (Manisha Koirala) two childhood friends who wants to forget about the painful memories of exodus from Kashmir which is their 'home'.

Next we move to the touching story (true story) of Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) who has been a victim of child abuse by his stepfather. The last story is about Omar (Arjun Mathur) and Jai (Rahul Bose) which is about the plight of homosexuals and highlights the nexus between male sex workers and the police.

The film is totally engaging, the story is crisp and full marks for the editing. The many emotions – tears, smiles, desires, frustration of the characters seem so justified and so real. Also the glimpses of the locales, Kolkata, Kashmir, Bangalore and Mumbai are subtle and never over the top. The film is an answer about the subjects that the society needs to address. The movie leaves you thinking, makes you feel what actors acting out.

I Am is a film about four people from different levels of society. The film is basically divided into four stories with each individual confronting their inner fears and standing up to fight for what is right.

The first story centers around Afia (Nandita Das) who is the victim of a failed marriage that ends on a bitter note. She decides that she's not going to trust another man but is determined to get pregnant and bear a child. Afia wants to become a mother using a sperm donor. We see many taboos in this society relating to the idea of getting pregnant using a sperm donor. Luckily, she finds one in the form of a medical student (Purab Kohli). This story ends with Afia getting what she wanted. So nothing much to write about! Nandita Das performs her part with diligence. Purab Kohli holds much promise as an upcoming actor. The other characters are adequate.

The next story is about Megha (Juhi Chawla) who was an inhabitant of Srinagar but was forced to move to another city due to the turbulence of the terrorist attacks twenty years ago. After twenty years, she decides to go back to Srinagar on a business purpose. There, Megha stays at the house of her childhood friend Rubina (Manisha Koirala). Hardened by the crude realities of life in Kashmir, Megha becomes bitter and cynical. She confronts Rubina with the memories of her childhood which left a scar on her heart. We sympathize with Megha as she transcends from a sweet little girl into a bitter woman who wants to escape her past. A story that is truly moving and frighteningly realistic! Juhi Chawla and Manisha Koirala come up with proficient performances and look gorgeous too.

The third story revolves around Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) a well-to-do film director who is confused about his sexual orientation. Why? This we get to know in a while as we watch the movie. He was sexually abused by his step father when he was a child. Abhimanyu is helpless as he cannot tell his mom about his father and we sympathize with him too. The story ends with Abhimanyu telling his mom about his step father's evil secrets which is really heart touching! Sanjay Suri is excellent. This is his another mind-boggling performance after My Brother Nikhil. Radhika Apte as a modern outspoken friend of Suri's is okay. Shernaz Patel is equally competent as Suri's mother. Anurag Kashyap is first-rate.

The fourth and last story is about a homosexual guy Jai (Rahul Bose) who is brutally trapped into blackmailing and unwanted sex by a cruel and inhumane police officer (Abhimanyu Singh) while he was having sex with a male prostitute Omar (Arjun Mathur). This story is the most shocking from the rest as it deals with the dilemma of being gay and the price you have to pay for it. Rahul Bose is amazing! He's showing signs of improvement with every film he's doing. Bose's histrionics at finding out that he was cheated in the concluding reels are worth watching. Abhimanyu Singh is competent enough as he gets into the skin of his character very well. Arjun Mathur is good.

Director Onir's effort must be applauded as he decided to make an anthology film with donations from Facebook. The stories were truly moving and frighteningly realistic too.

Overall, an interesting movie but not for kids and masses.

This movie depicts the real stories into big screen that are generally not talked in open but persist everywhere in society. Good direction and dialogue (dialogue by policeman are only exception) make it watchable at least once. These short stories touches one's heart as one might had gone through such incidents or someone nearby had felt such experiences in life. Juhi and Manisha worked well and their combo (however, for a short duration in film) will be remembered for long. Rahul Bose is as usual - same sort of dialogue delivery, eagerness, excitement and confused personality (like pyaar ke side effects). It is really a good watchable movie (not with family members of sub-urban and rural India)and one much watch it once. It is worth watching. I congratulate director to work for such bold movie in Indian Scenario and wish him all the best (not to do small blunders as mentioned by other reviewers) for future.

What makes that film special?

The four stories in themselves are rather simple at world level if we look at them from the middle class bland and neutered point of view.

Afia is a woman web designer who wants to make a child from a sperm donation but cannot accept the idea that the donor has to remain unidentified otherwise it no longer is a donation. And her breaking the rules is in fact introducing suffering – and we mean the concept "dukkha" – in the donor that she rejects just as easily as she tears up his phone number. She is not a liberated woman, she is a completely self-centered and in many ways egotistic woman. She is not going to change the world.

Megha ran away when the crisis hit Kashmir some years ago and she comes back for a visit and finds out that the people who stayed behind and were her friends or her family's friends are in fact in many ways resenting her coming back with her "veil-less and sexually unreserved evolution" that is provocative to the people who stayed behind and tried to build up a compromise between themselves and the Indian authorities, even if it meant regular humiliation. To go away from a crisis is never solving the crisis and is absolutely not justified for those who stayed behind and tried to find a solution.

Abhimanyu is one story that really touches some universal problem, the case of a pedophile stepfather who takes advantage of his stepson every single time his wife, and his stepson's mother goes away for a couple of days on business (which makes that family, and that woman, upper middle class). In fact it shows the stepson comes to the idea it is in a way normal and he lives with it and tries to keep the fact to himself because somewhere he knows it is not normal and he cannot tell. One day though, his stepfather on his deathbed, or close to his death, he finds the courage to tell one woman friend of his and then to go with her to his mother's for a last visit to his stepfather whom they find dead and already incinerated. The son then has the courage to tell the mother but she no longer is HIS mother. She is THE mother, an anonymous distant and totally locked up woman who does not hear her own son and his suffering. So there is no other way but to go away and maybe think THE mother might become HIS mother again one day and accept what he has told her.

Omar, the last story, is universal for sure but it is definitely both sad and somewhere revealing. The main character is some gay film director who one day just falls in the trap of some hustler who pretends to be looking for a proposal in the film industry. The film director is thus manipulated into having some pre-sexual contact in his car when a cop comes and manages to blackmail the film director out of 100,000 rupees and since some is missing he takes Omar, the hustler into custody. But some time later the film director finds the hustler doing what he is best at doing, hustling on the street. The film director confronts him and that is all. It reveals a gay man in India has to be prudent because the hustlers are doing a job that is dangerous and that these hustlers have to have some agreement with the cops to be able to practice without too much trouble and the only way is to fool some rich customers.

What does this film show about modern India? First we only see the middle class, and even some upper middle class. Don't expect to have even one glimpse into the fate of the Dalits. Second we find out this society is evolving very fast in standards and in means and that pretty soon it may be, at least in its middle class, comparable to the West, though the poorest layers of the Indian society are hardly moving up, particularly the Dalits, though some are getting some improvement because the Christian churches and the Buddhists have done a lot to promote them in education, but that is not shown in the film. Third this Indian society is in a post-colonial situation and people are the victims of a Post Traumatic Colonial Disorder that finds its way out in various fields and domains but particularly in the ability to establish sane and balanced relations with other people. This gives a completely different approach.

Afia cannot accept to have an equal relation with a man because she inherits from a very old situation that has always put women down and she cannot conceived her freedom as a woman with a man, but only by dominating and frustrating the man she encounters along her personal and exclusive path. Megha lives exactly the same problem but this time in a Moslem context and she cannot understand and accept that religion is part of her Kashmiri friends, because she has run away from Kashmir and she has abandoned that religion and its veils and other restrictions. Abhimanyu first and his mother second cannot face the fact that there used to be a time when pedophile stepfathers were the protected or at least tolerated norm and that today things have to change. Finally Omar is a typical exploiter of such a postcolonial situation in order to be able to do what he wants, have gay sex and make a living out of it without a pimp, and yet he deals with the cops as if they were his pimps.

[. . . ]

A film to watch and try to meditate upon.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

I vote 9 out of 10, because for a Hindi movie, this is really very good.

***Now spoilers begin***

Inconsistencies:

1. Megha's family lives in Delhi, Afia is looking for a sperm donor in Calcutta and Abhimanyu works in Bangalore. Yet the latter two meet for coffee with Afia. How? Where do they meet? In Calcutta (Afia speaks in Bangla to the taxi driver)? Why would a Bangalore based filmmaker run to Calcutta to get his web designed?

2. When Abhimanyu meets Afia, one sees a photo of the first page on her laptop. He has not yet gone to Kashmir, as Megha talked about going to Kashmir to sell her house later.

(You may say that the scenes are non-linear. But that is not the case. Afia talks to both of them about sperm donation, meaning Afia meets both of them at the same/similar time).

Now, only later you see the picture/ frame through the lens when Megha in in Kashmir, and Abhi has gone there to make his documentary. If that is the case, how came the photo appear before that time?

3. Both Abhi and Mega are close friends of Afia, and yet, they have not met each other. Mind you, those two are non Bengali in Calcutta (since Afia is looking for sperm donor in Calcutta, it should be Calcutta, I would presume), both are Afia's friend, and yet do not meet each other.

4. It could be that they all work in Bangalore, and so they met in Bangalore. If so:

5. (If Afia works in Bangalore) Why would she go to Calcutta to find a sperm donor? Is it to make su re that the kid will be Bengali (just like people who oppose gay union, claim that kids growing up in a gay household will turn out to be gay)?

6. Juhi Chawla's facial expression is wooden at all time, Rahul Bose seems uncomfortable playing a gay guy, and Anurag Basu, (in my opinion) with the physique and the facial expressions of a professional executioner, was totally misfit in his role of a doctor.

***Spoilers end***

As a heterosexual male who a) supports gay rights, b) personally knows people who were sexually abused as kids, c) having a woman friend whose life-story is very similar to Afia's, as far as committed relationship and the decision to have a child goes, I think this is an important movie.

Four stories.. four characters....four facets of our society!! Afia: Nothing much in this as it just delves into the changing face of our society where an independent woman does not need someone else to alter her choices! although still it probably did not need justification in the form of a failed marriage. Nandita Das is the only one to write home about but as that is the protagonist so that is her usual stupendous work. For me the best scene is when she takes out the paper with number scribbled over, tears it and throws it away. Megha: This comes a close second if we treat the movie as the four parts director has divided them into. Juhi and Manisha are just superb!! The childhood friendship torn apart by all the events that took place in Kashmir. Its like no one is responsible for it and yet everyone is. Makes me think about one of my childhood friends who herself was the victim of the same. Her write-ups in fb still haunt me. Excellently acted and makes you ponder about all that is KASHMIR. Abhimanyu: The best of the lot and yet the most uncomfortable truth to accept. We may have lots of statistics to show it happens yet in our "MORAL" society how can we accept that. Sanjay Suri's acting is the highlight of this whole movie. The turmoil within has been excellently portrayed by him. Omar: I feel its wrongly titled. The protagonist is actually Jay. May be to make it more catchy I guess. It shows how being Gay had its "Repercussions" in our "Society" which is taken advantage of and how it affects Jay. But this one is the weakest link of them all. Rahul Bose as Jay is OK but not his usual great self. Rather the best in this one is Abhimanyu Singh as the crooked inspector. All in all a definite watch. A mirror of our ever-changing society which raises quite a lot of questions.