Tag Archives: Aamir Khan

Biopic, Drama, Genre, Hindi Movies, Must Watch, Rating, Reviews

Dangal Review

Dangal Review – Dangal is a Hindi sports biopic released in 2016. The movie is based on the real-life story of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat on how he had coached his daughters to compete and win in the international arena.

In the past few years, there has been some successful sports biopic released in India.  Dangal not only joins the list but sets a new benchmark. Aamir Khan steals the show by playing the role of the wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat. He breaks all the stereotypes and peer pressure of making a movie that idolizes a hero with mass elements. As the real life hero he plays, he puts his daughters in front in the movie. There is also a scene in which he loses a wrestling match with his daughter. A scene that many superstars would dread to do in the current scenario. Also, his younger self with a fit avatar just appears for a couple of minutes in the entire movie.

The first half of the movie has been created with absolute creativity. Every frame has been crafted beautifully and has a great cinematic value. The opening sequence itself will hook you on to the lead protagonist. The screenplay has been made interesting with a careful mixture of emotions and humor. The use of Aamir’s nephew to move the screenplay through narration adds an interesting dimension to the movie and helps in introducing the main protagonist and his daughters very well.

The second half is like any other sports biopic with more focus on wrestling matches and has been executed very well.

High Points: Aamir’s performance, The opening sequence,  the first half of the movie where the girls get trained, their ways to avoid training going futile, the transformation they go through to fight male wrestlers. Interesting screenplay. Songs and the way they have been picturised. Direction by Nitesh Tiwari. Among everything is how the stereotype of a male-oriented subject has been broken.

Low Points: There are no much low points in the movie, the emotional melodrama in the climax could have been kept low. 

I was bit let down after watching Sultan for the way it had typecasted women to sacrifice life for her man’s dreams. Dangal has completely removed it by breaking the stereotypes. Kudos to Nitesh Tiwari and team for belief in the script and executing with perfection. Probably the best sign off from Disney pictures in India.

Overall Dangal is a movie that will inspire you and nail the importance of sports and women empowerment. Go and watch it in the theaters with your family.

Must Watch

Comedy, Drama, Genre, Hindi Movies, Rating, Reviews, Worth a Watch

PK Review

PK Review – PK is a Hindi satire movie released in 2014 . An alien lands on earth to learns the ways of the humans, however he looses his remote transmitter to get back to the ship. He is now forced live with human race, learn their ways to life to find his remote back.

Aamir and Rajkumar Hirani coming together has raised the expectations sore high for the movie. After their blockbuster 3 Idiots, PK had become the most awaited movie of the year. Well the movie does have all the necessary elements to woo you and you would definitely feel good that you have watched PK.

PK’s plot would sound similar to OMG however the treatment here is subtle and has much more fun fare to entice the holiday crowd. The impact liners is a highlight of Rajkumar Hirani’s script like Jadu ki Jhappi in Munna Bhai MBBS, Get well soon in Lage Raho Munna Bhai and All is well in 3 Idiots. PK also has an impact liner which is “Wrong Number”. Although the concept of Wrong Number is interesting and very powerful if you think of it, still it may not connect instantly with the audience as Get well soon or All is well.

The sensitivity of the plot might have imposed many restrictions in building up the screenplay. I believe Rajkumar Hirani has done a good job despite of the challenges. However in few areas the struggle to walk the fine line is visible. The way the character of Aamir Khan transition from an alien landing on the earth to study the humans to a situation where he has to question the ways of the Godmen is done very well. This would be the highlight of the movie.

High Points: Characterization of PK, Positive outlook of Rajkumar Hirani movies, Intelligent screenplay, the whole wrong number episode.

Low Points: Climax sequence not as impact full as the build-up, Similarities in plot with OMG, No change in costume for Sushant Singh Rajput 🙂

Overall if you do not go with a checklist to compare it with 3 Idiots or OMG then you would love watching PK. The movie has a satirist take on Godmen. If you do not connect to it, then you would find the movie kiddish and boring. If you like satires then you would love PK every bit. So go for PK with an open mind and enjoy it on the big screen.

Watchable

Friday Fundas

Creative Geography – How Aamir Khan went from Chicago to Switzerland within minutes

This week’s Friday Fundas covers yet another interesting editing technique in movies popularly known as Creative Geography.

Creative Geography is an artificial landscape that is created in movies. This technique was invented by Russian film maker Lev Kuleshov. You might also remember few weeks back I had covered another popular experiment called as Kuleshov’s effect in movies which was done by Lev Kuleshov. Creative Geography involves a subset of the montage in which various segments are shot at different locations. But in the way it gets assembled during editing, all these appear to be one continuous location.

Consider a shot involving a person walking into a big bungalow and then the next shot shows him walking into a large hall. These two locations could be entirely different and in fact miles apart. But in the way the editing is done it appears to be a continuous space for the viewers. The shot of the person entering the bungalow is shot first and then the next shot is shot entirely in a different location in a hall where the person is walking in. The costume of the artist is maintained the same for the sake of continuity.

Let us now look at some examples of this in Indian movies

Dhoom 3
Dhoom 3

In the recent Bollywood movie Dhoom 3 starring Aamir Khan, the entire story is based out of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. However the climax portion of the movie where Aamir Khan rides on the top of a bridge is shot in Contra Dam, Ticino, Switzerland. Actually he starts his bike in Chicago and within few minutes he is in Switzerland. In the movie the dam is shown as a location in the outskirts of Chicago. This is achieved through editing and thus it forms the creative geography for the movie.

Nayagan
Nayagan

Similarly in the Tamil Blockbuster Nayagan the entire movie is based out of Mumbai and follows the life of a Mumbai don. The climax portion of the movie is shot in College of Engineering, Guindy. The college in Guindy becomes part of the creative geography of Mumbai for the movie.

This is again an elementary technique used in movies and it is used by the film makers to achieve the desired outcome of the image they had while writing the script. Next time when you watch movies look out for its creative geography. You will start appreciating the amount of efforts the film makers undergo to give a visually compelling product.