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Reviews
Fanaa (2006)
"Eye of the Needle" plagiarised
The second half of this movie seems to be largely inspired by "Eye of the Needle" which I had watched twenty years back. It starred Donald Sutherland. "Eye of the Needle" has the backdrop of World War II. A German spy gets marooned on a desolate British island colony, probably Gibraltar. He falls in love with a woman who stays on the island with her crippled husband and their son. She too falls for the hero. When she learns about the hero being a spy she mercilessly shoots him. The tag-line of the movie ran like 'it is easy to love an enemy but difficult to kill a lover' (not verbatim). Replace the island by Kashmir made inaccessible in winter. Replace the German spy by lost husband terrorist. Crippled husband by alcoholic father. Presto, you get "Fanaa".
The story writer (who won a Filmfare award for this movie!) owes us an explanation.
Shakti (1982)
Deewar and Shakti - So similar yet so different
After reading Simon Booth's comment, I could not help comparing Deewar and Shakti. Deewar and Shakti have similar story lines but yet they are so different. In addition to being the story of a mother torn between two sons on the opposite side of the law, Deewar is also a comment on the prevailing socio economic conditions in India in mid 70s. It deals with unemployment, Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) unable to find a job despite having struggled so hard. It deals with the inability of people to get rich by legitimate means. Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) has to become a smuggler to fulfill his aspirations. There is also an idealist retired school teacher (A K Hangal) unable to make ends meet. Deewar brings out the failure of the system after thirty years of socialism. Shakti is story of relationships. More precisely the tense relationship of three characters - father, mother and son. Its the story of a father and son conflict with the mother unable to side with either. It is also the story of parents who miss their estranged son and cannot figure out what went wrong in bringing him up. Finally it is the story of unexpressed affection. Remember the final scene where dying Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) tells his father Ashwini (Dilip Kumar) that in spite of trying hard to not he always loved his father. And Ashwini says why did he not ever say so. Shakti is fairly consistent with the storyline. Deewar has some avoidable songs. The romance between Ravi and his girl friend distracts you from the story. Having said so much both are great movies. Every time I have found them to be equally engrossing.
Water (2005)
Good Film but Wrong Generalisation
This movie is not banned in India as said in some of the reviews. I have watched the movie on a legal DVD. It was released in movie theatres too. Like most of the other reviewers I too found it to be a great movie. I was disturbed for some days after watching this movie. But I must also add that the depiction of widows in the movie is not representative of Hindu community as of today. No one of my generation here talks of or is aware of Manu's Laws on which this movie is based. I come from a fairly conservative small town Hindu family . But I do not remember my widowed aunts, grandmothers or cousins being treated in the way depicted in this movie. None of them was banished to live in an 'ashram'. They stayed at home and led a quite but dignified life. A cousin of mine who lost her husband in an accident was remarried by her parents! I am not an ultra-rightist. I too deplore the harassment Deepa Mehta faced while shooting in Varanasi. But through this review I wanted to give a balanced picture especially to the western movie goers.