HEROINE : My three impressions
One of the highly talked about
films these days; Madhur Bhandarkar’s HEROINE.
Another one in his ‘realist’ series. Madhur has produced several box-office
hits as well as a hard hitting stories and the same was anticipated from HEROINE. However after watching the film
I had three distinct impressions.
First: The film is itself a confused mass. While there
are some excellent scenes, dialogues the film as a whole misses a consistency in
story as well as its depiction. Even after considering the instable and
inconsistent nature of the lead character Mahi,
one cant deny the fact that the story simply fails to catch that inconsistency
properly and ultimately what comes on the screen is a haphazard attempt..
Second: Unlike many other so called ‘realist’ films,
which, if we observe carefully have a similar pattern, content and most
importantly a typical ‘positive’ ending, HEROINE
goes down a different path. Obviously it cant be radically different given the
topic which it addresses Madhur has been careful enough to avoid the familiar ‘realist
film’ identity. HEROINE’s uniqueness
lies in its inconsistency to which I refered above. It simply disassociates
itself from a realist image which is ‘acceptable’ to the audience and hence
disloyal to its motif.
Third : Resembling to a character in this film named Tapanda- a bengali Director. A National
award winner, skilled in making off-beat realist films Madhur got caught
betweenn making a truly realist film staying loyal to his creativity and the
pressures of making a sellable commercial craft. Balancing the two is an probably
impossible and hence the film remains a hotchpotch.
The music of the film is average. Many
tracks and fillers remind of Madhur’s earlier blockbuster Fashion and compell the audience to compare the two films. The comparison
undoubtedly tilts in the favor of the Latter.
As far as portrayal of characters
by the artists is considered, Kareena does a creditable job but still falls
short of the mark she herself has set for her. Arjun Rampal has done a fairly
good job but at places appears monotonus. Shahana Goswami, Ranvir Shorey make a
remarkable impresison even in their cameos. While characters like Mugdha Godse,
Ranjeet Hooda have done a average job. Their characters reflect the same
inconsistency as the film. Some characters are simply annoying and leave the
audience wondering about the justifications of them getting the parts.
All and all, HEROINE is
good film falling much shorter than what it could have been.