KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY: MOVIE REVIEW
Background
India’s independence struggle has always been a hot favourite among film-makers since beginning. Time and again, we’ve seen lot of films based on the lives of our freedom fighters starting from Shaheed (1965), Gandhi(1982) to Mangal Pandey, the Rising (2005). This time master story teller Ashutosh Gowariker choses his pick as the ‘Chittagong uprising’, an impactful series of events, unheard of. Inspired by Manini Chaterjee’s Do and Die, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is about a school teacher Surjya Sen in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who along with some of his colleagues, couple of ladies, and a bunch of highly motivated teenagers, design a master-plan to drive away the British from Chittagong (Chotogram) at one stroke. The crux of the story lies in the pre and post implementation phase of the plot.
Highlights
The story sticks to facts and figures of the events that occurred, based on the novel, instead of too much focus on the characters’ personal lives, thereby maintaining the viewer’s interest throughout the film.
The romantic track is maturely handled and cinematic liberty is avoided.
The songs appear as part of the events, which restrict the length of the film to 2hrs 48 mins.
Loud patriotic verbose is avoided to a great extent
Hitches
Some portions in the second half do seemed a little dragged
The expected hype created by a AGPPL film is missing, leaving it to word of mouth publicity, which definitely
should work.
Performances
Every actor contributes equally to carry the film, which is unusual. Abhishek Bachchan(as Surjya Sen) and Deepika Padukone (Kalpana Dutta) come up with sincere and honest performances, well supported by Sikander Kher (Nirmal Sen), Vishakha Singh(Pritilata), Samrat Mukherjee(Ganesh Ghosh), Mahinder Singh(Ananta Singh), Sheryas Pandit(Ambika Chakraborty), Feroz Wahid Khan(Loknath Bal). Abhishek’s ‘bangla’ roots provide competitive advantage. But, the ‘teenagers’ stand above the rest. The typical ‘adolescent’ traits of immaturity, aggression, playfulness, innocence are portrayed naturally and with conviction by these young guns. One could spot Chiku and Tipu from Ashutosh’s earlier films Swades and Lagaan respectively, both do well.
Technical
Cinematography by Kiran Deohans is good especially the aerial shots and portions of the jungle. Nitin Desai succeeds in re-creating the ambience of ancient East Bengal. The British cantonment is the best among the lot. Most of the coastal portions are shot in Goa. The entire setup gives a MALGUDI DAYS kind of feel. Editing by Dilip Deo is sharp and to the point. Costumes by Neeta Lulla suit the backdrop. After the romantic and heart warming compositions in Whats Your Raashee, Sohail Sen comes up with a fast-paced, yet soothing musicals and background score this time. The teenagers’ whistle is the spirit the film and keeps playing in your head even after you come out of the cinema hall. Ye Des Hai Mera and the title track leave an impact. Javed Sahab as usual comes up with some soothing lyrics. However, one misses the magical combo of Rahman, Ashutosh Gowariker, Javed Akhtar and UTV.
Summary
Overall, a patriotic but simple, trademark Ashutosh Gowariker film. It may not convey any direct message, but one could infer that no master-plan is complete without a plan B.
We The People 