Movie Review: The Ghazi Attack

The Ghazi Attack
Inspired by True Events
Director: Sankalp Reddy
Producer: Anvesh Reddy, Venkatramana Reddy, Prasad V Potluri,, NM Pasha, Jagan Mohan Vancha
Music: Krishna Kumar, better known by his stage name K
Writer: Azad Alam (Hindi dialogues)
Editing: A. Sreekar Prasad
Star Cast: Rana Daggubati, Atul Kulkarni, Kay Kay Menon, Taapsee Pannu, Rahul Singh, Satyadev Kancharana
Language: Hindi

Review By Ila Garg

The Ghazi Attack has been on my must-watch list since the day its trailers started pouring in. It is inspired by true events from the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. I was amazed when I first heard about this war. This attack was classified and it happened before I was even born, but the valour shown by the navy moved me to the core.

Male Gaze in Indian Cinema

It is to be observed that the male gaze has always been predominating the films. From the time when cinema began, it was the male who held the camera in his hand and viewed things with his perspective. He directed and he decided the way he wanted viewers to see a particular scene. It was his world that was showcased in the films starting from short silent films to talkies to the long narrative films. Females had no freedom to voice out their opinions and they were totally ignored as spectators for a long time. In fact, they were not even allowed to act in the beginning days. Then, gradually women did come to be associated with the industry but they were not considered good and their character was always taken to be shallow.

Thus, when men operated the camera, they depicted women either in stereotypical roles of a good daughter and a dedicated traditional wife, or they objectified them through exposing certain parts of their body to excite the male audience. No wonder, the pioneer actresses were seen as whores and were considered outcasts. As a consequence, the women on screen were treated as the women of public. After all, prostitutes are referred as women of bazaar and bazaar (or the market place) implies outside space that was not meant for good cultured women.

“Tawaif ke aangan ki mitti mila kar hi Durga ki murti ubharti hai…” (In the soil at the courtesan’s doorstep is moulded the idol of the Goddess Durga). This dialogue by Chandramukhi (a character played by Madhuri Dixit in the film Devdas, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in 2002) is quite significant. On one hand, especially in Bengali culture, it is believed that the idol of Goddess Durga requires a handful of soil from the prostitute’s courtyard and on the other hand, they are exploited and treated badly. Even the lower caste women were not given equal platform. What was even more astonishing was that the upper caste women often threw remarks at the lower caste women. Even marriages were not possible in case of caste differences. In Devdas, when Sumitra Chakraborty (Paro’s mother) proposes the nuptials of Devdas and Paro in front of Kaushalya Mukherjee (Devdas’s mother), she had to bear insult for her societal status despite not being a courtesan. “Arey jab kuye ka paani hi kharab ho toh ghade ki jaat kya dekhni Sumitra. Bas tumhari ada mei reyaas nhi lekin khoon toh wohi hai… nautanki wala. Hum zamindar hai, machi khate hai lekin kaatein ko halak mei phasne nhi dete kabhi. Ek toh padosi ka ghar, upar se neech kul… Chalo bhul jao ki tum neech kul ki ho, thodi der ke liye bhul jao ki tum neech kul ki ho. Lekin apni aukaat ka toh khayal rakhti. Apne khote sikke ko yahan chalane ki koshish mat krna, Sumitra.” (Why to draw water from poisoned wells, Sumitra? You may not practice the traits, but your blood remains the same as the dancing girls... We are landlords, we may eat fish but we won’t let bones stick in the gullet. For one, you are a neighbour and on top of it, as a family, you are disgraced... Even if we momentarily forget your disgraced state, but what about your standing? Don’t you try to palm off your bad coin here, Sumitra!)

The legendary love story of Devdas and Paro could not be fulfilled because of this societal dogma that clutched the mind-sets. Women were thus, confined within the boundaries of the home and thus there was a stark contrast with which the women at home and women on screen were looked at. At both places, women were not treated with respect though and led an undignified life.

Movie Review: Sultan

Sultan
Genre: Action & Drama
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Music: Vishal – Shekhar
Editing: Rameshwaram S. Bhagat
Studio: Yash Raj Films
Language: Hindi
Review By Ila Garg

Salman Khan's Eid release Sultan has been much talked about. So at last, I too decided to catch the flick and see for myself that what is so special about it. The 2016 Hindi Movie, Sultan is directed by an experienced director Ali Abbas Zafar and produced by Aditya Chopra. The Yash Raj Film banner has always managed to come up with extremely heart touching subjects and create magic on the big screen. I watched the movie at Big Cinemas, GIP, Noida - 7 PM show!

I won't get into the details of how the hall was or how the people there were! I will instead move on to tell you all how the movie was.

Right from the opening scene, the movie was a delight to watch. I am not a Salman fan, yet his overpowering presence did send ripples across the theater as I could hear people shouting and getting involved with the character of Sultan Ali Khan (played by Salman Khan). Anushka Sharma did an excellent job as Aarfa Hussain, however, her character could not create much impact. I had expected her to be equal to Sultan. But, Aarfa like a typical Indian girl gave up her career for Sultan once she is married to him and gets pregnant. Aarfa then finds her happiness in Sultan who was never a wrestler before meeting her. He even says he is Sultan - the wrestler because of Aarfa. Eventually he does become quite successful in his career, only to turn out to be highly arrogant and messing up his family life with Aarfa, who requested him to stay back and not go for a match as she would be needing him while delivering their child.

Amit Sadh (as Aakash Oberoi) and Randeep Hooda (as Fateh Singh) have played their parts well and made their mark in the movie. In the first half, Govind (played by Anant Sharma) who is a close friend of Sultan narrates the famous love story of Sultan and Aarfa and what led to Sultan giving up his career and go on a quest of opening a blood bank in the remote village of Haryana so that no other Aman (his unborn child) ever dies. Aakash did the great job of convincing Sultan to restart his career at the age of 40-45 when almost everyone had given up hopes on him. He roped in Fateh Singh to train him and come back to his form.

As a die-hard SRK lover, I loved the moment when Salman as Sultan said, "Shahrukh ka mazaak mat udhao ... manne bahut pasand hai ... jab woh ladki ke aankh mein aankh daalke dekhe hai na toh andhi ladki bhi patt jaave hai." Salman's dialogue delivery is awesome and will leave you laughing throughout.

The music was the USP as right from the first score to the last, I enjoyed it flowing through my ears. Irshad Kamil has done a good job with the lyrics. The song Jag Ghumiya is extremely addictive. The background score of khoon mei tere mitti, mitti mei tera khoon, was overpowering the scenes and blended well with the scenes.

Overall, I would recommend this movie to one and all.

Ratings: 4/5

Also read review by Kanika on TGC.