The Rising!

Before I comment anything on the movie, let me first thank my employers for the ticket arrangement that they made for the employees. It was a pleasure to get the tickets without much hustles, when the world was frantically trying to get them. But at the same time, it was quite resentful to see the theater chosen. Comfortably the worst theater I have been in Bangalore.

Now, "The Rising". It would have been better had they called it "The Yawning". Boring is the only word I can think of, and this too, is with extreme respect, as I am an ardent fan of Aamir.

There was a similar Aamir movie, extremely talked about, and anxiously waited for... Mela! Remember? No! Not a problem, it wasn't really worth remembering. The Rising - if not beats it, comes close.

The hype that was created around the movie, plainly, is not worth it. We have had enough of freedom struggle movies, and have had enough of a hero trying to rise the masses.

Aamir is decent. Looks quite cool sometimes with his full grown moustache, but that is it! Even any onlooker can comfortably tell, it's not his movie. It's a movie of Captain Gordon, played beautifully by Toby Stephens. Given the stature of Aamir Khan in Indian film industry, he has appreciably outperformed him.

But this should not take the credit away from Aamir, who has worked quite hard for the performance. He has been good, but only in patches.

Coming to other "stars".. there is nothing I can comment. My belief that Rani Mukharjee is much over rated than her actual potential, finds it roots strengthened by this performance. Apart from a few sleazy cleavage exposing, provocative facial expressions scenes, there is nothing more from her part. She looks gross(ewwwwww... her fingernails are dirty, and pitiful. Yuck!)

Aamisha.. God gave her amazing beauty, but forgot to guide her choose a proper career. Acting is an unheard word in her territory. I repeat, she is gorgeous. But again, the story ends there. And I can't blame her entirely, for she has hardly 5 mins of screen presence, in which she had lots (a kiss, a make out scene, one Sati scene, and a miserable gun shot scene) to her credit. But inspite such a short presence, she is far better than Rani - looks or acting! (Ok.. I like her better than most other leading ladies - but I insist on "leading ladies" - not actresses.)

Editing at best, is crap. There is no sync what so ever in the scenes... one scene erratically follows the other, and even the small interest that the viewer forcefully generates is lost. Direction is completely wayward. Mr Ketan Mehta should take a lesson or two from his younger counterparts. Just taking care, that the lead actor gives his best( which he anyways does), it is his duty to extract the best from others too. Who in the world would believe that the peasants, and the outcast harijan, would wear starched, Ala blue dhotis, and kurtas. No one is convincing apart from Aamir and Toby.

Mangal Pandey, who as the masses believe was the first Indian hero, to me looks nothing more than an drunkard idiot. An overly fiery mind(like mine), always ends up in the mess. I seriously am considering reading the new book about Mangal Pandey, whether he was a real hero, or a zealot drunkard. The high point as it should have been - the mutiny - is at best chaos. Either Mr Mehta hasn't done any research or the sepoys were nothing but a bunch of fools. Come on, even I know much more stategy than these idiots have been shown to adopt.

The biggest let down, however is Rehman's music. He has failed miserably this time. The songs are not at all those which could be remembered for long. Coming to compare his Laagan music, this is not even a miniscule close. The background music is loud, and close to noise.

All in all, I was disappointed to see such an ordinary movie, after so much hoopla. Not that the movie is bad, but you don't expect such ordinary, common, and repeated story from such a star, who claims to be the most professional and methodical actor.
Aamir, is undoubtedly one of my favorite, but I would rate this as one of the rare ordinary movies he has done.

The humidty and heat in this pathetic theater, can also be blamed for such an outburst.

Call me a nut, but I am going to watch this crap again. This time with the hope that the conditioning in PVR cools my mind, and lets me appreciate the beauty this movie has - if at all it has any.