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| Director
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Revathy |
| Starring
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Shilpa Shetty, Abhishek Bachchan,
Nasser and Salman Khan |
| Phir
Milenge Photo gallery : |
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| Phir
Milenge Movie Review : |
It's
a strange and stirring phenomenon. Even as Indian cinema
moves away from traditional formulas and styles of storytelling
to embrace a more global format of presentation, filmmakers
seem to seek creative solace and sustenance in its most
cherished values and visions.
In one of the critical
moments of Revathy's very fine, very moving and finally
deeply satisfying film I caught a glimpse of Bimal Roy's
"Bandini" - a classic that came at a time
when AIDS was something that super-powers gave to third-world
countries.
It's the moment when
the protagonist Tamanna (Shilpa Shetty) infected by
the HIV virus finally comes face to face with the broken
and crippled man Rohit (Salman Khan) who gifted her
with the disease.
As Tamanna approaches
the inert wheel-chaired figure, her bitterness and pent-up
rage dissolves into a blinding compassion for the man
who has snatched away her life....The sequence effortlessly
echoes Nutan's legendary run towards her dying lover
Ashok Kumar in "Bandini".
It is both an acceptance
and rejection of life.... a giving and a taking that
constitute the two sides of the human condition. And
if it's bold and brave of Shilpa Shetty to walk that
thin line between action and abyss, life and death,
then it's even braver of the director to have gone into
a subject as prickly as AIDS without getting preachy,
screechy, judgemental or even unduly sentimental.
In the rather over-sentimentally
titled "Phir Milenge", a fiercely contemporary
issue like AIDS fights for space with diseases that
go deep into the soul.
Revathy takes the germ
of her idea from Jonathan Demme's "Philadelphia"
- where a cynical lawyer fights against an AIDS victim's
professional persecution and learns a few things about
a life on the brink of a blink - and opens it up to
include issues that go way beyond physical disorders.
By changing the gender
of the protagonist in "Philadelphia" Revathy
gets to address issues such as gender discrimination.
As Tamanna battles to get back her job with the help
of her lawyer Tarun (Abhishek Bachchan) her war against
AIDS becomes almost complementary to other diseases
eating away at the heart of society.
Woman's empowerment
- a theme so dear to female directors - is used here
to light up those dark enclaves in the theme of gender
equation that cannot hold a candle to disease and death.
And yet, there's a magical spiral of moral priorities
at work in this film through which we look at Tamanna
both as an isolated victim and a universal figure of
persecution and victimization without feeling sorry
for her.
This simultaneous macro and microcosmic view - or a
long shot and a close-up view - is further supported
by the great dignity that Shilpa Shetty invests in her
role. As Tamanna whose corporate ambitions come crashing
down in the face of an adversary too huge to tackle,
Shilpa surprises you by doing a 180-degree gyration
away from her oomphy image. She brings an immense sensitivity
and dignity to the emotional core of her character.
Moments such as the
one where she finds out about her disease (from a doctor
played director Revathy) or the one where she breaks
down in front of her lawyer after their defeat at the
hands of a one-armed wily lawyer (who is ironically
a woman, played with steely will by Mita Vashisht) or
those tender moments with her kid-sister (who says,
"Learn to stop persecuting yourself before you
expect the same from others") -- could have easily
lapsed into sobs.
With considerable support
from her director, Shilpa comes up with a performance
that's clearly to her what "Bandini" was to
Nutan.
Abhishek Bachchan as
her well-meaning but forever-flurried lawyer provides
unexpected strength, power and energy to the plot. For
those who thought he was a revelation in the recent
"Yuva", this performance is further antidote
to cynicism.
Going from fear and
revulsion at the disease (watch Shilpa's crumbling face
and body when he refuses to shake hands with her) to
an angry comprehension of the immense dimensions of
injustice involved in Tamanna's case... Abhishek is
the film's conscience. His finale speech on the need
to address AIDS is done in a tone and manner that his
father would recognize.
Abhishek's eyes and
smile have always been the window to his soul. It took
a woman director of Revathy's sensitivity to realize
his true potential.
And why just Abhishek?
Revathy's handling of the entire cast and the first-rate
crew (including a very fine though under-used music
score by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy and Bhavatha Raja) is proof
of Indian cinema's maturation.
One of the film's many
achievements is to bring the guru-shishya ethos into
constant play. Whether it's Abhishek's bonding with
his senior (Nasser), Salman with his guru (the late
Somayajulu in a cameo) or Shilpa with her boss... Revathy's
film never misses a chance to tell us how important
the past is to the present and future. Revathy pays
a homage to tradition without making a song-and-dance
of it.
My only quibble with
the film is Salman Khan as the viral catalyst Rohit.
After destroying the life of the woman he presumably
loves to death (pun intended) why is Rohit portrayed
so sympathetically? Only because it's Salman Khan? His
role has not only been misleading in the publicity,
it is incongruous and vague. Moreover Salman dying of
AIDS is as convincing as Mallika Sherawat dying of celibacy.
What makes "Phir
Milenge" unique, if not exceptional, is its tone
of narration. The characters speak and 'act' with an
urbane casualness that's the opposite of the ham-and-cheesy
performances typical of our melodramas. The tone may
be incomprehensible to a section of the audience. But
it doesn't mean we should never go beyond cute lisping
sounds just to cater to the elementary audience.
Peeling off the
melodrama Revathy comes with a film swarming with delicate
ideas, poised on the precipice of tragedy and yet exuding
a sense of hope.
Courtesy
: Indiafm.com
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