Sunday, June 28, 2009

New York - Review of a Completely Fresh Bollywood Script

Buzz It
I have been off from Blogging for a long time now. However, seeing New York made me ponder a bit and so the way in which I can give respect to the movie is by reviewing it.

New York
Cast: John Abraham, Katrina Kaif, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Irrfan Khan

Director: Kabir Khan

Composer: Pritam

Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0 (A movie which is definitely worth a watch)

The movie New York begins with a thrilling start, where a huge bunch of cops go about raiding a cab, whose bonnet contains a huge bunch of arms and explosives. The trail leads the cops to Omar (Neil), who is the owner of the cab and on this trilling note the movie hooks the audience attention.

Pleading his innocence, Omar is led to go to a Flashback, wherein he remembers his wonderful days in his college at the New York State University with his closest buddies Samir (John) and Maya (Katrina). The story goes ahead in his fragmented memory, and the present also holds the audience in awe. Slowly the movie shifts from the pleasure-loving and breezy past to the more-turbulent present, and the FBI chief Roshan (Irrfan) forces Omar to return to his buddies (Sam and Maya), in guise of an undercover agent to stop an act of terrorism that the FBI believes Sam is hatching.

Omar on the other hand, remains loyal to his friends, who he believes, can never ever be terrorists in the first place. He wants to prove to the FBI, that they have goofed up something and his efforts remain in the direction of proving that his friends are innocent. The whole story shapes in the past and present, when the truths unfold and the mysteries are resolved, Omar tries his best to bring some re-conciliation between the tattered United States post-9/11 and the emotions of the South-East Asians, who have been detained and tortured, for months together to an extent that their dignity is completely diminished. And from that point onward, the movie only moves on with one question, Will Omar succeed in this quest?
The answer to that question is what drives the story ahead. The main thing about this movie is its difference in terms of subject and storyline as compared to normal Bollywood movies, which make it a completely new experience for the viewers. The thrill, the shooting and the background music by Pritam all combine to make the climax of the movie absolutely spine-chilling and yet, very catchy. The story is extremely well-narrated and till the interval the movie moves with a subtle pace. The interval time is a real shocker and though the second half of the movie doesn’t live up to the first half and is slightly predictable, it is still packed up with some moments where the movie has its highs.

All in all, with a post-9/11 trauma and some wily cops venting their frustration out on the poor, helpless South-east Asians, the story points to the Universal fact that no nation can bomb, bully or terrorize people just by their name or communal identity. What makes up the storyline is however, that everything is going smoothly in the life of the three friends, till one event changes their life forever. A larger than life event, the 9/11 act, which the world seems to be reading only in the newspapers, affects them personally. The line that makes the movie’s highest point is when Roshan says, “When times are bad, both people and nations make bad decisions”, which kind of explains the whole story in one line and the whole story tries to then resolve these bad decisions and making up for them.

The review would be unfair, if I fail to mention that each actor performed a role, which was considered beyond his acting caliber till now. John and Katrina probably had the meatiest roles of their acting career and they delivered with absolute perfection. Neil was the real hero of the movie with his character, who is torn between loyalty to friends and sanity to the world. Last but not the least, Irrfan’s acting puts the final wedge to making this a great movie. With absolutely witty answers in ever the most serious of the moments, he sometimes lightens the movie and at the other times, leaves thoughts for the viewers to ponder about.


Final Verdict:
All in all, New York takes up a topical theme and perfectly exposes the atrocities of the American FBI to which over hundreds of innocent Muslim people had fallen prey to post 9/11. The film is one of the best movies from Yash Raj and kudos to Kabir Khan , for handling this very sensitive topic in an astounding way. Though I am not sure if I can make this comparison, this is the “Khuda Ke Liye” equivalent from India.

As long as you want to see a good film, even if it is very serious, this is a MUST WATCH.