Mangal Pandey - The Rising: Movie Review

Rating: **

When Aamir Khan acts in a film, there are expectations! When Ketan Mehta dons the mantle of the director of a film, there are expectations (remember Kabhie Haan Kabhie Na - one of Shahrukh Khan'sbest films to date)! When A.R. Rehman scores music for a period film,there are expectations (remember Lagaan, inarguably Rahman's most soulful compositions)! When some film takes four years to complete,there are even more expectations. When someone spends Rs 32 crores ona film, there are expectations. And 'Mangal Pandey - The Rising' (will refer to the film as MP-TR for sake of convenience) lets you down on almost all fronts. However unpleasant this may sound to all us Aamir Khan fans, but this time around, his choice of project has been more or less a disaster.The movie is based on a historical character of gargantuan importance in India's freedom struggle. 1857 marks a very important year in Indian history. The fact that the struggle of Mangal Pandey against the East India Company ignited the first sparks of freedom movement all over India is awe-inspiring. And when you go to watch a movie based on characters and incidents of such importance, one thing that you would most definitely want to feel is a heavy rush of patriotism and inspiration. Yes, 'inspired' is something I wanted to feel when I total disappointment. The film totally misses the target, and by a huge margin. Not even once do I empathise with any character of the film, if you leave alone Mangal Pandey (Aamir Khan) and Captain Gordon (Toby Stephens). I excluded these two principal characters for the prime reason that they do evoke some emotions 'intermittently'. The fault is not with the actors though. It is a directorial disaster forsuch a shabby handling of what could have been a truly great film. Based on what I have read, there are not many historical records or annals that document what exactly happened during the uprising byMangal Pandey against the British. Who he was, what his life was like,what kind of a person he was, his family or fiancee, or anything else.To make a three hour long movie based on such a character whose life is known to you just in form of one solitary incident (irrespective ofhow important that incident might have been) would have been a challenge for anyone. But the fact that a decision was made to do so was made automatically endowed the producers to 'weave' those remaining pieces of story around the core. And the script writers seem to have gone somewhat beserk while doing the same. They tried to patch several pieces of different jigsaw puzzles together to create one mosaic, and the effect is 'jarring'. For instance, the characters played by Rani Mukherjee (Heera) and Amisha Patel (Jwala) were completely irrelevant to the complete plot.

Cliches are aplenty in the film - gori chamdee and kali chamdee, the maang-bharo-sajna scene in jail, the horse riding and revenge seeking flashes of Heera (in a turban and punjabi dhoti), the Holi song, the dosti - trust - betrayal, the dance in the English parties, theuntouchability angle, and the list goes on.

The songs are another fiasco. Except for the 'Mangal Mangal' track, placement of the songs too. The kothe wala song (picturised on a somewhat over-exposed, yet beautiful looking Rani), the Holi song and worst of them all, the one picturised on some banjara women... The last of these songs deserve soem special mention - the two principal dancers in the song dance like an overtly gay couple with all touching and oomphing and slithering in an obnoxious manner, and one wonders how and when those women, clearly from Rajasthan, appeared in Bengal where the movie is set! Just atrocious. The 'Mangal Mangal' track alsok eeps popping up here and there without warning. The men on the elephant backs just strom into the scene without any rhyme or reason.Worst part is when they break into a seemingly happy song immediately in the scene next to Mangal Pandey's public hanging (from where hislove Heera is surprisingly missing, specially after she has \'got hermaang filled with sindoor from him in the jail). Aamir Khan does well in his role as the protagonist, but the script does no justice to his character. There is absulutely no depth in his chancaterisation - it is very sketchy and vague. You dont know Mangal Pandey better as a person more than how well you knew him before walking into the theater. A big let down. And Aamir Khan seriously hould have worked harder on getting the script into place rather than obsessing about his hair and moustache. Not sure how much value they added to the film. Aamir is a great actor, but he can deliver onlywhen there is some meat in the script. The other principal character Captain Gordon (played by Toby Stephens) is much more likeable and better written. And the actor does a very good job of it, and his dialogue delivery in Hindi is not bad at all. He comes up with a brave performance, although in some scenes he looks somewhat stilted. But Iwont blame himt oo much given that he is acting in a foreign medium." His angle with Amisha Patel was though totally uncalled for. Theinterplay of emotions between Gordon and Mangal Pandey is very poorlywritten and could have been the strongest point of the film.

Rani Mukherjee plays her part well, although she has too many prototypes to follow in playing her part. No novelty in what she did,and seriously, one could have done without that uncalled for exposure on her part. Seemed really forced and out of place, and in not very good taste either. She does look well and emotes well in her few scenes, but that does not justify her being there in the first place.

About Amisha Patel, the less said the better. She should seriously think about quitting films and making better of her talent in economics (not many know that she is a gold medalist in economy from Tufts University, USA). In one word, she was 'horrendous' - she just can not act. MP-TR does not need heavy emoting from her, yet she successfully shows that she can overact (again!). I wonder why at some point of time Aishwarya Rai had accepted such a ridiculous role in thefilm at all!

The sets are not impressive either. The 32 crores that have been spent (7 crores allegedly taken by Aaamir as his fee) are not 'visible' anywhere. It is claimed that the uniforms of all soldiers were specially stictched - a wasteful expense if the clains are true. Because it would have done equally well if they rented uniforms fromsome wedding bands. The podium where the generals stand and give orders seemed like was built yesterday - surely not something that avillage would ever have. The village, the villagers are still okay,but nothing what Lagaan could create. The authenticity does not transpire from the scenes. Special effects are not used wisely, andused very sparingly. Worst of all, the most important incident - the so called 'Rising' - is so inanely shown that I almost laughed. It looks so insignificant - really. It looks trivial, and something so uninspired that it is hard to accept that something like that inspired the whole India to struggle for independence.

Overall, as everyone would have guessed, I would not recommend this movie to people. There are a very few good things about the movie. ButI am being somewhat harsher than I usually am, given the fact that the expectations from the fil were really sky high!

You could watch it for being an Aamir Khan fan. I see no other reason to do so!