Eklavya Movie Review Exclusive

joginder |

36 | February 14, 2007 at 2:25 am | 277 views | NaachGaana Bol| Share

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**Doesn’t quite tell more than what we all know**

Eklavya: Must watch

Arthur J Pais

Rediff Rating: ***1/2

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/feb/14ek.htm

February 14, 2007 13:25 IST

Looks like filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra has managed to keep the vow he made to himself in 1981 with Eklavya. The filmmaker had vowed to veer away from the traditional song and dance in Hindi films. Eklavya has only one, well-shot song sequence.

This dark and brooding film about a former royal family with secrets looks like it was made for film festivals. If the success of Omkara, which wrestled with the themes of betrayal, jealousy, destructive ambition and revenge, is any indication, then Eklavya too should do solid business abroad.

The film could also be another international hit for Saif Ali Khan, who does the nearly impossible by holding his won against a deeply anguished, conflicted and revengeful Amitabh Bachchan.

The film starts with Bachchan sonorously recalling the story of Eklavya, from the Mahabharata. Throughout the film, the legend is invoked obliquely as well as directly by the characters reeling off Sanskrit sayings on what is dharma.

Set in the early years of Indian Independence, the movie involves a casteist, jealous and ungrateful ruler Rana Jayawardhan, played by an over the top Boman Irani, who will not let his wife (Sharmila Tagore) die in peace because she is uttering the name of Eklavya (Bachchan).

Rana’s brother Jyotiwardhan (Jackie Shroff) and nephew Udaywardhan (Jimmy Shergill) are impatient to grab his palace and wealth. But when the estranged son (Saif Ali Khan) returns to the palace after his mother’s death, the complications increase.

The ruler’s mentally challenged daughter’s Nandini (Raima Sen) recollection of a crime is the turning point of the film. Looking after the mentally fragile child woman Nandini is Rajewsari, the daughter (Vidya Balan) of a chauffer (Parikshat Sahni).

The scheming father and son set in motion a chain of events that brings a lower caste police officer (Sunjay Dutt) into the story whereby allowing the film to take up a populist stand against evil minded rulers who mete out terrible treatment to the lower caste denizens in their princely realms.

As the scheming continues, there are murders, attempted murders, rebellion by the villagers whose lands are confiscated by the greedy ruler, and fleeting romance.

The film, which owes as much to Shakespeare (it is no surprising that the dying queen asks her favourite Shakespearean sonnet to be read to her) as to the Mahabharata, loses its momentum and focus in the last 15 minutes.

Much of the eye-catching action by lensman Natarja Subramanian takes place in the palace. Chopra has staged quite a few well-edited and hair-raising scenes, especially when a blindfolded Bachchan is testing his archery skills.

While all the male actors apart from Bachchan and Saif get good amount of attention, Raima Sen’s character becomes infrequent as the intermission approaches. One is left wondering why the director banished her off the screen when more calamitous events are unfolding. Vidya Balan looks lovely and poised, though her character is limited.

Eklavya in a nutshell: Despite the loopholes in the script, a few unbaked characters and a made-for-the-masses ending, the film definitely watchable.

Rediff Rating: ***1/2

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There Are 36 Responses So Far. »

jayshah 14 February 2007
02:39:02 am

Promising review !

jayshah 14 February 2007
02:43:47 am

Looks also like a very nice story here – very Shakespeare which I will def enjoy !

akshay shah 14 February 2007
03:10:11 am

WHOA! This sounds simply AMAZING! MADE FOR THE MASSES ENDING??? Another case of GURU where the ending will be discussed and perhaps not liked by all critics, but accepted by the masses?Man..i can’t wait!

Aditya 14 February 2007
04:21:20 am

and 2007 just keeps getting better. we already have 3 great films(‘black friday’, ‘guru’, & ‘parzania’)…now ‘eklavya’. i’m loving this year!. i really couldn’t care less about the film’s length. its apparently another winner from vvc, and that’s all that matters.

akshay shah 14 February 2007
04:31:14 am

EKLAVYA indeed seems like a winner Aditya!!!! And yes, 2007 is AWESOME quality wise, I also get the feeling Rajpal Yadavs little film UNDERTRIAL is pretty good too and a cut above the rest from what ive read!

satyam 14 February 2007
07:47:05 am

This is a superb review! Will be watching it opening night as usual!

satyam 14 February 2007
11:05:12 am

Absolutely Aditya.. and of course for a Bachchan fan like me it’s even better with both Guru and Eklavya having a Bachchan in a title role!

Also looking forward to the Saif/Bachchan combo here. As I indicated sometime back I think Saif would be a good foil to Bachchan. Abhishek cannot do this as he is too close in terms of physicality.

And on that note I have always loved watching Bachchan/dutt together from HKKN to Kaante to Deewar (though Bachhcan didn’t have good enough moments here).

satyam 14 February 2007
11:11:04 am

On another note I saw Traffic Signal. Way better than Page 3 and Corporate. Madhur is great in terms of his mise en scene though the film is bland otherwise. Still worth a watch.

satyam 14 February 2007
11:13:05 am

Not that I am a Bhandarkar fan by any means. Chandni Bar was the best though I still found it overrated. I probably prefer Traffic Signal though. Of course Madhur is still about as subtle as a sledgehammer!

goodfella 14 February 2007
12:22:16 pm

Wow, satyam – I thought this was totally dismissable by the previews. I’ll give it a go on your recc.

satyam 14 February 2007
12:53:16 pm

I also thought the same but it surprised me. This in terms of home viewing. Wouldn’t recommmend a trip to the theater! Madhur’s representation of the upper middle and upper classes always verge on caricature. There is a strong hostility on his part! And again the film isn’t politically astute or anything.

By the way just in case you don’t get it the traffic signal keeps showing up with amazing regularity!

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:08:12 pm

Satyam: I too am looking forward to seeing Amitabh Bachchan/Saif combo..and no doubt Sanju+Bachchan are going to rock together! Plus my fave Vidya and Boman are there too…..

Thanks for the views on TRAFFIC SIGNAL, I had a feeling this one might be slightly better than Bhandarkars previous efforts-the casting was awesome and the setting of the movie looked unique!

jayshah 14 February 2007
01:10:16 pm

Bachchan/Saif, Saif/Dutt, Dutt/Bachchan, Irani/Bachchan……..hmmmm lots of keenly anticipated duels !

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:11:56 pm

Don’t forget Jackie Shroff who stands a long term asociation with VVC from PARINDA< 1942 a LOVE STORY, MK and now EKLAVYA!

jayshah 14 February 2007
01:15:54 pm

Oh yea….plus Vidya. This is an awesome cast ! I kinda agree – a cast like this deserves a longer formatted film, but from this review it seems like the movie has worked !

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:22:44 pm

Yep! Im booked for Friday 8pm and Saturday 3pm. Will do my review Friday night as usual:)!

Aditya 14 February 2007
01:24:12 pm

i can’t recall the last time jackie shroff was used properly in a film!. teen deewarein? that was couple of years ago!. poor guy…a very good actor like him deserves some damn respect in this industry!. i really hope he has a good role in ‘eklavya’ after such a long time.

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:25:52 pm

Yep..must be 3 DEEWAREIN! Its really sad I know..Jaggudada is so talented….

jayshah 14 February 2007
01:27:05 pm

Jackie kinda lost his career in the mid 90’s to me. He’s never really been in the ‘game’ since. Everynow and then he gets a decent role…. a film like Yaadein was actually quite a meaty role on a big canvas.

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:28:39 pm

Agree Jayshah! He was also in a few financial problems after SANDHYA(never released) and BOOM and did some really bad B grade Mithun films with TLV Prasad etc as well! ANd since then its been downhill…even Priyan takes him in movies now but in the stupidest roles like HULCHUL and BB…and this is from the director who gave him GARDISH!

jayshah 14 February 2007
01:30:19 pm

I’ll always remember Jackie for his countless films with Anil. They rocked as duo ! I love Ram Lakhan !!!

akshay shah 14 February 2007
01:31:13 pm

Parinda, Ram Lakhan, Karma, Andar Bahaar, 1942 a LOVE STORY, TRIMURTI, ROOP KI RANI CHORON KA RAJA and a few others…

Aditya 14 February 2007
01:37:52 pm

i suddenly remember the bengali film ‘antarmahal’. i think he won an award 4 his performance so his role has 2 be substantial. has anyone seen the film by any chance?

Aditya 14 February 2007
01:42:14 pm

akshay, how was ‘roop ki rani choron ka raja’?

jayshah 14 February 2007
02:02:07 pm

Havent seen Karma and Andar Bahar. Trimurti was one crap movie ! RKRCKR was pretty poor aswell ! Ram Lakhan had some wicked baddies – loved the ‘baaaaadman’ dialogue !

satyam 14 February 2007
02:03:02 pm

Antar Mahal is an excellent film Aditya. I think it’s Ghosh’s best of the 4 I’ve seen. I did like Choker Bali quite a bit also and hope to see the complete 3 hr version some day.

akshay shah 14 February 2007
02:04:19 pm

Aditya: I will be watching ANTAR MAHAL over the next few weeks, will post a review. Jackie is meant to have a authorbacked role here and it also stars Abhishek!

RKRCKR: Old-fashioned masala tale of revenge with the Manmohan Desai lost n found formula..HUGE flop of its time..but entertaining enough…totally OTT!

akshay shah 14 February 2007
02:05:16 pm

Jayshah: KARMA rocks!!!! One VERY entertaining movie, In my lifetime I have seen it over 25 times….Dillip, Nasserudin Shah, Anil, Jackie!

satyam 14 February 2007
02:06:19 pm

Here’s a review Qalandar wrote months back on Antar Mahal:

“ANTARMAHAL (Bengali; 2005)
On the evidence of three prior films of his that I had seen, Rituparno Ghosh is a master at making films that are conceptually suggestive, but leave the viewer disappointed. Utsab, the tale of a dysfunctional family gathered in the parental home was perhaps the best, but was nevertheless marred by a flatness, and an often uncinematic sensibility on Ghosh’s part; Chokher Bali could have been the best, except Ghosh in his wisdom decided to mutilate the film by about 40 minutes in its Western and Hindi release (the three hour version released in West Bengal is unavailable on DVD), with the result that the film promises much but feels truncated, and is light on the political — unforgivable when one considers the explicit concerns of the Tagore novel on which it was based — with the result that the film seems to be “about” the widow at its core (played with assurance, but not the requisite passion, by Aishwariya Rai), not the subjugated but awakening India Tagore likened her to; Raincoat was an embarrassment, and although Ghosh’s adaptation of O. Henry’s short story The Gift contained some affecting moments, including some (odd as this sounds) compelling sentimentality, it conveyed the distinctly uncinematic sense of a stage play that had been filmed. Not even a soulful soundtrack and one of Aishwariya Rai’s most memorable performances (hard though it is to imagine her as a woman who is “past it”, Ghosh turns her Bollywood persona inside out in portraying her as a malfunctioning flesh-and-blood marionette) could save this film, and the less said about Ghosh-the-director here, the better. [Confession: I, um, own the DVD, though don't ask me why].

I thus approached his latest offering with a fair bit of trepidation. I needn’t have: Antarmahal: Views of the Inner Chamber is a strange, and strangely compelling film, unforgettable because of its evocation of the sordid impact of colonialism on even the “inner chamber” of the sacred. Jackie Shroff plays a Bengali zamindar, a Thakur obsessed with outdoing his peers when it comes to the annual Durga pooja, and the erection of the idol the festival entails; since he also earnestly wishes for a “Rai Bahadur” honorific from the Crown, he hits upon the idea of making a Durga idol with the head of Queen Victoria. Once the viceroy (who is to be invited to the festival) sees Shroff’s devotion to the Queen, the idea goes, he will certainly recommend the award of the “Rai Bahadur” title. The issue is complicated by the fact that none of the local Bengali sculptors are prepared to acquiesce in the sacrilege; no matter, as Shroff arranges for a penniless “Hindustani” artist (Abhishek Bachchan) to come and do the needful.

Shroff badly wants the “Rai Bahadur” title, but he also wants a son, which is why after over a decade of marriage he has taken a second wife, the achingly vulnerable Yashomati (Soha Ali Khan), though in the film his desperate attempts to sire an heir (through some of the most loveless sex ever filmed) have proven unsuccessful. In desperation, and in a disturbing representation of the sacred in the service of an utterly wordly project (not to mention the commandeering of female bodies for utterly instrumental purposes), Shroff agrees to the presence of a priest while he copulates with Soha, in the hope that the chanting of Scripture will outweigh the bleak fact that has been unable to sire children with either of his wives, or his mistress of five years. The irony is bitter: this, after all, is a man who defends himself against charges that his Durga bearing the Queen’s likeness is sacrilegious by smirking that the Gods lack the power to bless or curse in these times.

Yet sex, as in Chokher Bali, a destabilizing force without equal, suffuses this film, perhaps in no way more than in the figure of Brij Bhushan (Abhishek), who simply by his presence incites lust and longing in both of the Thakur’s wives. The elder wife herself uses her body to distract the priest when he is chanting Sanskrit verses while the Thakur and Yashomati copulate (the last thing she wants is for the ritual to be effective, and for Yashomati to produce an heir), and most bitingly, the English portraitist hired by the Thakur frets that the Durga idol Brij Bhushan is fashioning might end up, not as a homage to Queen Victoria, but as a scandalous work of art, given the regal nudity of the idol. And, most significantly for the plot, the Thakur’s project for the Durga idol is itself ultimately subverted by the erotic disordering that Yashomati sets off in Brij Bhushan — with catastrophic results.

A word about the performances: for those who worry that Abhishek’s singularity might be submerged amidst films like Dus, there is much to be heartened by here. His role does not require much range, but his combination of innocence and effortless carnality is potent in this film, and reminds the viewer that no one among Bollywood’s younger male actors uses silence as effectively as the post-Yuva Abhishek. Soha Ali Khan is surprisingly effective here, and her assured handling of a character who is anything but assured bodes well for her development as an actress. Jackie Shroff is forceful as the coarse Thakur, but he lacks the acting intelligence to suggest any depth to his character, and the result is a rather one-dimensional character. Rupa Ganguly is superb as the Thakur’s first wife, though in all fairness she also has the most well-rounded character to work with: one sees her in a number of lights, from the older woman simultaneously jealous of her young souten and protective of Yashomati in the face of the Thakur’s depredation, to the woman who lusts after the provocation in the form of Brij Bhushan: I found the disappointment that flits across her face when the young sculptor addresses her as “maaji” to be the most poignant momemnt in the film.

I have not read the book on which Antarmahal is based — Protima by Tarashankar Bandhopadyay — and thus cannot comment on how good an adaptation the film is. But such reservations cannot detract from the obvious fact that Antarmahal is by far the most accomplished Rituparno Ghosh film that I have seen (fittingly enough, it’s apparently his first home production), and he is well-served by Abhik Mukherjee’s camerawork here. Sadly, the fact that this film was dismissed as vulgar by sections of the Indian media, its director earning the moniker “Rituporno Ghosh”, speaks volumes about the cinematic illiteracy that characterizes most of the country’s “critics”, including the ones who thought the frighteningly obscene Kya Kool Hain Hum was harmless good fun. As far as I’m concerned, Tushar Kapoor’s latest antics can be left to these imbeciles; me? I’ll just look forward to the next Ghosh film.”

jayshah 14 February 2007
02:06:56 pm

Thats one slick cast. I am trying to remember if Jackie was in Tridev aswell. That one was a good action flick with a big cast aswell.

akshay shah 14 February 2007
02:10:22 pm

Yep..Jackie was in TRIDEV!

Aditya 14 February 2007
03:26:36 pm

thanks 4 posting the ‘antarmahal’ review, satyam. nicely written piece by qalandar, as usual. i’m more eager 2 seek out this film now.

Khalnayak 14 February 2007
03:43:35 pm

Karma and Tridev both rock!! hugely, HUGELY entertaining films of their times..

henry 14 February 2007
08:48:47 pm

Sounds terrific, but like Satyam, I too would have liked a longer running length. Don’t know how VVC will do justice to such a large and talented cast within an hour and forty-five mins.

It seems to me, especially after reading this review, that VVC is looking for a crossover hit here. That would explain why he has only one song, and the short running length. And of course, he also has the sort of exotic milieu that foreign audiences have liked in the past.