Aamir

The film is an actor’s dream. The film belongs to Rajeev Khandelwal and he proves his acting skills to the fullest degree. We can understand why the man, with such romantic looks and the sweet killing smile chose to walk out of Ekta Kapoor’s hugely popular serial Kahin Toh Hoga. Obviously Rajeev was on the lookout for an outburst of the actor inside him.

Rating: 3.5/5

Aamir, as a film doesn’t fall into any category, though you can all it a thriller as there are some mysteries to be revealed and solved. There is pure existentialism shown in the film but the million dollar question is, we as an audience have grown to a certain extent and are ready to taste new dishes but are we really gone to the extent that we can appreciate a theater of the absurd.

Probably it is too early to say, it is no doubt one of the most ambitious films in terms of the art of cinema is considered. Might be this is a derived drama from Samuel Beckett’s Eleutheria placed in a modernized religious subplot. The religious war is not the real game here but the man caught in it. A man who is separated from his family may be not by wish but due to some external forces, but as a single individual, he is as separated from them as possible.

With the risk of being superfluous, the film tries to get severe inspiration from the types of Strindbergs or Sartres with a modern scenario with which the audience can relate themselves. Many of the things shown in the film have no explanation whatsoever. You never know why this guy was chosen or how the criminals chose the day of his return to India to carry out the mission as much as the reason behind the mission that has something to do with their kaum.

You wonder, do they know the man has a Hindu girlfriend, do they know he is a hardcore secular man, a modern intelligent Muslim doctor, who has nothing to do with the war of religions. The plot that is of low significance because all you see is the plight of a man caught in the tweeds of a world which he doesn’t belong.

The scenes which you see when he finds his hands interwoven in the sleeves depict his helplessness, his indifference to the cause, to which he has been targeted as a messiah.

Doctor Amir Ali (Rajeev Khandelwal) returns from London and is surprised not to find anyone waiting to garland him meaning to receive him from the airport.

He is surprised when two unknown men toss a mobile phone at him and he gets the call instantly that his family has been kidnapped and he has to carry out certain tasks in the name of fighting for his religion before he meets his family.

This may sound little farfetched but is not at all superfluous, at least when you see the actor’s perfect expressions, you do not feel so. This begins the journey of the doctor who looks at the streets with a desperate emotion of tracing his family. He has to do as the kidnappers tell and he is not sure how to get out of the situation.

In terms of distributing the credit of the film, you have three names that come to your mind. One is the director Raj Kumar Gupta, the camera by Alphonse Roy and the acting by Rajeev Khandelwal.

In the backdrop of a superb direction to his protagonist who carries it out with perfection with the help of the camera works depicting grim crowded streets of Mumbai, all work towards the similar goal. We have already seen the victimized Mumbai and nothing new about it but capturing some real shots with no tragic disaster harped upon the streets is something to pat the director and his crew for.

The film has no nonsense scenes of romantic songs in exotic locations but the romance here is with life and you move about in the film from the crowded streets to gloomy and shoddy guesthouses with an abruptness that is the work of a master of the game.

Raj Kumar Gupta makes a mark with the film. The background score by Amit Trivedi does ample justice to the bizarre sequences. The 90 minute long film creates a thrill that proves that do not go by the gloomy gift wrap paper.

Rajeev Khandelwal proves his high might in the film. He gives a restrained performance of a dark and brooding youngman who is disturbed by this uncalled for plight. The vulnerability that his expressions show is not something that is cultivated but he comes as a natural performer. He carries the film all by himself and that is why, you just wonder where this Youngman was hiding for such a long time.

The choice of the script for a debut is a smart one for this young player. There is absolutely no glamour about the film, there is no style statements or international designer cloths or heavy muscle plays.

The film is an excellent watch!

Rating: 3.5/5