Monday, December 01, 2008

Sorry Bhai

Off late I've been watching newly released Bollywood flicks pretty regularly. This Saturday I went for a film that I was awaiting for quite some time, "Sorry Bhai". The moment I got to know Chitrangada was starring in the film, I knew I had to watch it. Ever since I saw "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi", I've been a huge fan of Chitrangada Singh and Sorry Bhai marks her return to Bollywood after a brief hiatus.

Director: Onir Anirban
Cast:Chitrangada Singh, Sharman Joshi, Sanjay Suri, Boman Irani and Shabana Azmi
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
My Rating: 3.75/5

While writing about a film I intentionally don't share the plot as I feel it kinda kills the suspense and fun. "Sorry Bhai" has a very eclectic cast and this is one of the reasons it managed to attract a decent audience to the theaters without much publicity and buzz. Onir of "My Brother Nikhil" fame manages to pick yet another difficult(emotionally) plot and handle it well without loosing touch with reality.

The performances were very good all across the cast. I particularly loved the roles played by Shabana and Boman, they make a wonderfully cute couple and have excellent on screen presence/chemistry. Sharman might not fit your image of a physicist/scientist but he plays the role convinsingly and is particularly good at comic timings. Chitrangada is apt for the role of a passionate women who wants to live life to the fullest and doesn't want to be tied down by others version of right and wrong. Sanjay does his bit in the film flawlessly with ease.

Though I am sure most others in the theater and outside wouldn't have liked it but the fact that the film ended with what might not be a typical man's happy ending gave me another reason to love it. It's a cross over film in the sense that it brings out in open a certain type of relationships/affairs which most wouldn't like acknowledging leave alone accepting or approving . The way the people with whom I had gone to watch the film reacted to this confirmed my belief.

The cinematography was quite nice and the script well written but Editing is something that didn't go down well with me or for that matter people who were sitting around. When a random guy from the crowd says "film beech beech mein kaati hui hai kya", there's something wrong. The transitions from one scene to another were abrupt and rough especially during the middle half(when Chitrangada and Sharman, were out for a walk with Shabana following them).

Things that made me raise eyebrows:
1) An AIEEE physics book on the desk of a physicist/scientist
2) The film goes back 11 years and shows Sharman driving a swift.
3) I am not sure if stock market blues were that prevalent/feared of 11 years back.
4) According to me the physicist/scientist aspect of Sharman wasn't established that strongly, in fact I guess the same goes for Sanjay too.

I would have loved if the film went a bit more deep(real life like) about how the trio entangled in love felt about the surprise discovery. There are(according me) various facets of that situation which I would have loved had they been dealt with in the film. All in all its a nice film, worth watching for lots of reason comedy and a different and bold, well dealt with plot

5 comments:

Unknown said...

the film had some abrupt cuts as there was a court ruling against the film .... because of which we had to make some cuts on the print. however the film is cleared of the case and the cuts being put back....

Mayank said...

Ahh...Obviously, I didn't know that :)

Would love to know other constraints( if there were) while making & promoting the film.

I am an amateur when it comes to film making et all, would love to know if I was wrong somewhere or I missed something.

Faded Glory said...

absolutely loved d movie...another thing if u dont knw - d whole movie ws shot using a handheld camera..heard it on one of the interviews!

Alyssa said...

Stumbled across your blog, I've just started to getting into Bollywood movies. Any recommendations?

Mayank said...

lets ask @kamros about the handheld camera thing ?

@Alyssa: what genre do you prefer ?