The spoiler warnings don't really apply to those who've read/heard of the bard's 'Hamlet', or its various interpretations.
Going in, I really felt this was being released at the wrong time, being sandwiched between quite a few mainstream flicks, and getting around a 5th of the screens to play on (true that). However, that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, since many don't plan their movie-watching weekend, and might not get tickets to watch the other crapfests that're screening alongside this one.
With everything I knew about this going in, I felt that the milieu chosen was quite inappropriate, since Kashmir, and it's clichés have been done to death, and VB still wanted to set his supposedly final Shakespearean tragedy here (however, to still give him some of the benefit of doubt, he only scored 'Maachis' for his mentor - Gulzar). Talk about being bereft of ideas.
Both he and his mentor Gulzar have used, as their muse, both Tabu, as well as Kashmir and its insurgents one too many times, and I guess one is incomplete without the other, even the mentor-protégé combination. Again, not that I'm complaining'. Tabu is the Meena Kumari for this generation, and that's no mean feat in these days of pandering being done by any name-artist worth their craft, where people without a shred of talent are praised for looking good, and looking good alone (c'mon, you know who I'm referring to over here) is sometimes mistaken for acting.
To the movie itself now - it looks sumptuous, and you can bet the cinematographer just laid back and let the natural vistas do their job (not to say this would've been easy to shoot by any means). Even for followers of the bard, and audiences of each of the renditions of 'Hamlet', there are a few surprises in store, and that is no mean feat. Quite a bit of credit to the team behind-the-scenes (not all though, since quite a few aspects could've been improved upon – read on).
However, the movie clocks in at least half hour too long (with a runtime of 161 minutes, that too with 3 unnecessary full-fledged Bolly-style song numbers, perhaps from some other mainstream masala flick, thrown into the mix - Kenneth Branagh he ain't). Added to that fatal flaw (since he's trying to make converts of those who've not got their weekend mainstream fix), he loses more of the audience by having characters monologue, and repeat other characters' monologues. To me, each time it happened (and yeah, it happens more than once), I had to have switched off, and quite possibly wasn't in the director's corner at all. One of those instances, a character remarks that another antagonist needs to view circumstances from a different perspective, and that gets echoed again). Corniness is also in the mix, with Irrfan Khan's character's name itself. And what was that with giving him a Rajnikanth-style character intro? Another instance where I switched off, and wanted to cheer as well (which is perhaps what VB was going' for, but once again, a fatal mis-step since it changed the tone of the movie unnecessarily). The biggest mistake of all, IMHO, was the overuse and over-reliance on multiple flashbacks (not talking about all, mind you, since doing that would've alienated almost everyone), instead of letting a few things remain unsaid, thereby effectively deepening few mysteries, while also controlling runtime. However, he goes full Bollywood on us, and gets all exposition-y, the same way a mainstream movie helmer would talk down to his/her audience. OK, One more negative, and I'll stop. In these days when TV series are doing great jobs with CGI and stunt-work, as needed, and blend them seamlessly into the narrative and are effective in their context, the final powerful climax, while overwhelming from a characterization perspective, completely underwhelms in implementation, since the effect it needed to have visually, is a whimper rather than a bang, and once again, completely took me out of the movie (which was sad, since the lead- up to it was absolutely fabulous, and I almost had my heart in my mouth). Now that, is kinda typical in most Indian flicks, and goes with the territory, but considering the expectations I place in VB (along with most of his fan-base, I'm sure), was plain sloppy film- making (how they missed it while editing is anyone's guess, and I can only write it off to excessive self-indulgence, which is also characterized by the overlong runtime).
Performance-wise, everyone does a bang-up job, including the controversial casting of the lead, who kinda steps up to the faith that VB had in him. No surprise there, since he was absolutely riveting in the superior 'Kaminey' (yeah-huh), the milieu, of which, IMHO, would have been perfect for this interpretation of the bard's tragedy as well. KK Menon, on the other hand, is not given much to do, in terms of something matching up to his caliber, but he's one of the few people who rises up in spite of that (1 sequence with him post-prayer especially) and delivers something solid and praiseworthy. Everyone else has an author-backed role, and thus have the needed support.
All in all, while this is NOT Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Omkara' or even 'Kaminey' (some say it was much, much better than his excessively self-indulgent '7 khoon maaf'), it still calls out to be watched on the large screen, hopefully with a patient audience, who're still gonna be disappointed by it all, or come out only remembering the unorthodox/atypical Oedipus shenanigans. You can bet its much better than tons of mainstream crap out there. I don't mind if he re- interprets more of the bard's works out there, heaven knows more of them need re-telling locally. However, I do hope he reads some of the feedback on this one, takes it seriously, and hopefully goes back to the drawing board for his next effort. Seriously.
Going in, I really felt this was being released at the wrong time, being sandwiched between quite a few mainstream flicks, and getting around a 5th of the screens to play on (true that). However, that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, since many don't plan their movie-watching weekend, and might not get tickets to watch the other crapfests that're screening alongside this one.
With everything I knew about this going in, I felt that the milieu chosen was quite inappropriate, since Kashmir, and it's clichés have been done to death, and VB still wanted to set his supposedly final Shakespearean tragedy here (however, to still give him some of the benefit of doubt, he only scored 'Maachis' for his mentor - Gulzar). Talk about being bereft of ideas.
Both he and his mentor Gulzar have used, as their muse, both Tabu, as well as Kashmir and its insurgents one too many times, and I guess one is incomplete without the other, even the mentor-protégé combination. Again, not that I'm complaining'. Tabu is the Meena Kumari for this generation, and that's no mean feat in these days of pandering being done by any name-artist worth their craft, where people without a shred of talent are praised for looking good, and looking good alone (c'mon, you know who I'm referring to over here) is sometimes mistaken for acting.
To the movie itself now - it looks sumptuous, and you can bet the cinematographer just laid back and let the natural vistas do their job (not to say this would've been easy to shoot by any means). Even for followers of the bard, and audiences of each of the renditions of 'Hamlet', there are a few surprises in store, and that is no mean feat. Quite a bit of credit to the team behind-the-scenes (not all though, since quite a few aspects could've been improved upon – read on).
However, the movie clocks in at least half hour too long (with a runtime of 161 minutes, that too with 3 unnecessary full-fledged Bolly-style song numbers, perhaps from some other mainstream masala flick, thrown into the mix - Kenneth Branagh he ain't). Added to that fatal flaw (since he's trying to make converts of those who've not got their weekend mainstream fix), he loses more of the audience by having characters monologue, and repeat other characters' monologues. To me, each time it happened (and yeah, it happens more than once), I had to have switched off, and quite possibly wasn't in the director's corner at all. One of those instances, a character remarks that another antagonist needs to view circumstances from a different perspective, and that gets echoed again). Corniness is also in the mix, with Irrfan Khan's character's name itself. And what was that with giving him a Rajnikanth-style character intro? Another instance where I switched off, and wanted to cheer as well (which is perhaps what VB was going' for, but once again, a fatal mis-step since it changed the tone of the movie unnecessarily). The biggest mistake of all, IMHO, was the overuse and over-reliance on multiple flashbacks (not talking about all, mind you, since doing that would've alienated almost everyone), instead of letting a few things remain unsaid, thereby effectively deepening few mysteries, while also controlling runtime. However, he goes full Bollywood on us, and gets all exposition-y, the same way a mainstream movie helmer would talk down to his/her audience. OK, One more negative, and I'll stop. In these days when TV series are doing great jobs with CGI and stunt-work, as needed, and blend them seamlessly into the narrative and are effective in their context, the final powerful climax, while overwhelming from a characterization perspective, completely underwhelms in implementation, since the effect it needed to have visually, is a whimper rather than a bang, and once again, completely took me out of the movie (which was sad, since the lead- up to it was absolutely fabulous, and I almost had my heart in my mouth). Now that, is kinda typical in most Indian flicks, and goes with the territory, but considering the expectations I place in VB (along with most of his fan-base, I'm sure), was plain sloppy film- making (how they missed it while editing is anyone's guess, and I can only write it off to excessive self-indulgence, which is also characterized by the overlong runtime).
Performance-wise, everyone does a bang-up job, including the controversial casting of the lead, who kinda steps up to the faith that VB had in him. No surprise there, since he was absolutely riveting in the superior 'Kaminey' (yeah-huh), the milieu, of which, IMHO, would have been perfect for this interpretation of the bard's tragedy as well. KK Menon, on the other hand, is not given much to do, in terms of something matching up to his caliber, but he's one of the few people who rises up in spite of that (1 sequence with him post-prayer especially) and delivers something solid and praiseworthy. Everyone else has an author-backed role, and thus have the needed support.
All in all, while this is NOT Vishal Bhardwaj's 'Omkara' or even 'Kaminey' (some say it was much, much better than his excessively self-indulgent '7 khoon maaf'), it still calls out to be watched on the large screen, hopefully with a patient audience, who're still gonna be disappointed by it all, or come out only remembering the unorthodox/atypical Oedipus shenanigans. You can bet its much better than tons of mainstream crap out there. I don't mind if he re- interprets more of the bard's works out there, heaven knows more of them need re-telling locally. However, I do hope he reads some of the feedback on this one, takes it seriously, and hopefully goes back to the drawing board for his next effort. Seriously.