A few days ago, Chrys and I watched a talk show about 'Moderate Muslims' on NDTV. The discussion panel included bigwigs like SRK, Karan Johar and Kabir Khan. Kabir Khan made a valid point that even today the main lead in a Hindi movie is never depicted a Muslim unless his religious identity is somehow central to the theme of the movie. Other than that this section is depicted as the benevolent Rahim chacha or the terrorist.
'Well done Abba' is however different in the sense that although almost all characters are Muslims, religion is no where central to the theme of the movie. These are normal people with everyday problems like water scarcity. Shyam Benegal brings the little village called Chikatpally in Andhra Pradesh alive with it's Rehman Chacha and Salma chachi, village sarpanch Balamma with her dominating husband, an ever harassed inspector and his two odd-ball constables, an engineer who is only interested in exploring the workings of his wife's anatomy and several others.
Boman Irani who performs the role of both Armaan Ali and his brother Rehman Ali, has yet again given an endearing performance as the oppressed common man. Ila Arun as the chachi is as loud and brazen as her 'Ramsakhi Pannawali' in 'Welcome to Sajjanpur', yet different in some traits. Sameer Dattani and Minnisha Lamba are two extremely talented people who are sadly unexploited in mainstream Hindi movies. Every little character adds to the charm of the movie and just like in 'Welcome to Sajjanpur', this movie has no heroes or villains, just some regular people who can be sweet or mean depending on the situation at hand.
A must watch for everyone.
2 comments:
Oh that's the problem with Kjo/SRK and likes, who can't go beyond their nose and their current obsession with 'Muslim identity' post 9/11, esp for NRI's there...
But fact is - there were several and more movies which had central character Muslim and no one batted an eyelid. In fact, there was an entire genre @ one point called 'Muslim social' and they all had just fabulous music too - remember, Mere Mehboob or Mere Huzoor or Mehboob Ki Mehndi or Bazaar
And then there was Pakeezah and Umrao Jaan.
Amar Akbar Anthony gave imp to all 3 religions.
In Dhoom2, Ali (Uday Chopra) is Muslim, and religion was hardly there in the film.
@DJ- you are right. I suppose there are a lot more 9/11 movies coming our way, but as long as there are Shyam Benegals of the world out there, I will keep my faith in good cinema.
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