MUMBAI MERI JAAN (2008) Hindi Movie Review By Kalcha

Audience Rating For MUMBAI MERI JAAN

(1 votes, average: 1 out of 10)
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I must say, not much. I know it is from the man that made DOMBIVILI FAST… but still with the season of Bollywood being the worst in quality in recent times, I was giving up. But I was eager to watch it anyway for an altogether different reason. More than the man behind the scenes NISHIKANTH KAMATH, it is the state of trauma in the lives of a lot many people that went through the horrors of the 2006 Bombings in Mumbai that make this movie a very significant one.

If you are pressed for time, the picture below would be enough to give you the best performances in the movie…

Now, lets get in to the nitty-gritty of the details. Hmmm… when a Movie’s Cast is filled up with the best in the craft (Soha Ali Khan is not yet there… Sorry), the result would be as good as the Script and the man holding it. And Nishikanth has done a fairly commendable job though left wanting in some areas.

The story of the movie as you might already know is woven with 5 parallel tracks… interwoven occasionally. Talented cast puts anyone under pressure. I think Nishikanth handled the pressure to a certain extent. As the heart of the plot lies in the aftermath of the blasts and not the blasts themselves, the movie depended heavily on sketching the characters. The following is my assessment of the characters…

• The director’s characterisation of TUKARAM PATIL (Paresh Rawal) along with SUNIL KADAM (Vijay Maurya), as Government Servants in the Police Department, was the best of the lot. The intangible feeling of humility that Tukaram Patil experiences with his Junior Sunil kadam was brought to life by Paresh Rawal while Sunil Kadam’s melancholic stage was impeccably enacted by Vijay Maurya. The only grouse I have with this track is that the farewell lines by Tukaram Patil could have been written much better. They somehow don’t stand in memory.
  
• Kay Kay menon’s character as SURESH is a cake walk for his potential. Although the character was well written, it never challenges Kay Kay. But the character’s relatablity cannot be missed. It is the most common problem that is burning… and might continue to burn India and the World around. One of my friend’s questioned the sudden transformation in Suresh. For him and for anyone with the same question, I think I have an answer. More than any physical bout, the silent protest (some might call it a speech… though I disagree) by Tukaram Patil, as opposed to the constant aniticipation of a violent retaliation germinates a positive thought in Suresh. And then, a normal day positive gestures by fellow Muslims especially Yusuf does the trick. The main problem I have with this character is that he never tells his friends that he was in the same train that one of the blasts occured. This is a flaw as unlike Madhavan’s character, he doesn’t seem to suffer any fear psychosis (since he was aggressive).
  
• Madhavan’s character as NIKHIL AGARWAL, is not as relatable as Suresh’s or as deeply written as Tukaram Patil’s. But the character is so well enacted by Madhavan that we are forced to identify ourselves with him. Good job Madhavan.
  
• Soha Ali Khan’s character as RUPALI JOSHI could have been much better. It starts off okay and crosses the Rupali Bani Rudali stage but somehow ends inconclusively. Director chose to resolve the mental problems of Tukaram Patil, Sunil Kadam, Suresh, Nikhil Agarwal and even Thomas (Irrfan Khan). But had no clue how to end the character and hangs it loose. Soha does a neat job and this particular track questions the modus operandi of the media.
  
• Irrfan Khan as THOMAS was the least impressive. Irrfan has done nothing wrong but the character was itself reverse engineered in to the plot. Every other character is directly related to some extent to the unfateful day of the bombings. Thomas’s character was created to bring forth some of the common man’s problems in such crisis (scene in which Sunil Kadam punishes Thomas for letting Suresh and batch to hover around his stall was good). Nishikanth starts off well to show the humiliation of Thomas at the hands of the Mall management and his retaliation by giving threatening calls. But especially the shot where Thomas was shown in a slow motion for a long… long… time and then with some hideous background score, looks up joyfully for a few seconds longer is plainly stupid. And then Thomas realising his mistake starts following one of his victims (an old man) and gives the old man a flower. Those were stupidly scripted pages.
  
• The Background score in these genre of movies plays a vital role and it is patchy to say the least.
• Coming to the man of the moment NISHIKANTH KAMATH himself, I give a Thumbs Up for touching a subject rooted in reality and trying his best to do justice. He would certainly improve.
  

In the end, I am satisfied with the outcome but I could have been ecstatic with a much tighter script.