 |
Banner: Sri Surya Movies
Presenter:A.M. Rathnam
Story, screenplay writer and director:Shankar
Music Director: A.R.Rahman
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Amrish Puri, Johny Lever, Paresh Rawal, Shivaji Satam, Saurav Shukla and Sushmita Sen in an special
appearance. |
Shankar is fast emerging as one of India’s leading techno-savvy directors. Lavishly mounted sets, zany camera angles and Hollywood style stunts...all these combine to give his movies a great visual appeal. Hindi film viewers are not so unfamiliar with his work as all his hit movies to date, like Kadhalan (Humse Hai Muqabla), Indian (Hindustani) and Jeans have been dubbed in Hindi. This time around though he has remade his own latest Tamil hit Mudhalvan into Hindi. The film is Shankar’s utopian fantasy. If you had absolute power for one day what would you do? Shankar provides his protagonist, Shivaji Rao (Anil Kapoor) just such a chance. Shivaji, a TV cameraman, gets promoted to a Hard Talk style show host after he effectively covers a city-riot. He grills his first guest, the chief minister, Balraj Chauhan (Amrish Puri) so thoroughly in the hot seat that the infuriated CM challenges the reporter to sit in his chair for 24 hours and then find cause to point fingers. Shivaji accepts the challenge and in just one day manages to overhaul the corrupt government machinery by suspending almost 15,000 individuals.
He doesn’t stop there but arranges for the arrest of the corrupt CM and 12 of his ministers when he finds them guilty of sheltering this corruption all along. The minister gets back at Shivaji by having him attacked and having his house pulled down, but the public opinion turns hostile at these moves and the CM’s political colleagues withdraw their support, leading to the fall of his government. In the ensuing by-elections, Shivaji’s rides an overwhelming majority to become the chief minister and immediately sets into action a conceivable plan to make his state a safe, secure haven of prosperity. The thwarted opposition forms an unholy alliance to snuff out Shivaji’s good intentions. The underworld is employed to unleash a reign of terror by planting bombs in the state’s capital, and a contract is put on the new CM’s head as well. Shivaji manages to defuse all the bombs except the one planted in his own house, which kills his parents. In the end, taking refuge in manipulation, Shivaji at last terminates the evildoers. Anil Kapoor once again proves his brilliance as an actor with this movie. Whether as the cameraman, as a social reformer, as the chief minister or as the doting son of his parents, he verily gets under the skin of his character and executes a faultless performance. His frustrations, his angst and his heart-rendering lamentations on seeing his parents blown away find answering echoes in the heart of every cinegoer. KV Anand’s camerawork adds beauty to everything it touches, whether it is the imposing heights of Laddakh or the plains of Vai. It seemingly caresses Rani’s face with a lover’s ardour, transforming her rustic belle’s character into a thing of ethereal beauty. Miss Mukerji was undoubtedly chosen just as an adornment, as she has little else to do in the film. Of the ensemble cast, Paresh Rawal excels as the CM’s outspoken secretary, regaling the audience with his worldly-wise witticisms. Amrish Puri too is competent as the evil CM, as is Saurav Shukla, his politically ambitious underling. Johny Lever, for once, has not gone over the top and as Shivaji’s bosom pal, provides adequate comic relief. All in all, Nayak is a technically polished production. Shankar has made good use of his special effects people, using 34 cameras to can a single shot and producing some spectacular stop-action effects in some sequences, especially in the ‘mudbath’ fight scenes. The only sour note in the film is its music, which is just a rehash of Rahman’s earlier score for Mudhalvan. —Devesh Sharma
dev_writer@yahoo.com |
