Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se

'Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se' (henceforth KHJJS) is a movie based on Manini Chatterjee's book 'Do and Die', which in turn is based on the Chittagong Uprising - one of a series of rebellions against British rule in India led by Surjya Sen, a school teacher, that went into the annals of history as being a revolt carried out mainly by teenagers.

The critics have not been kind to the movie. From Abhishek Bachchan's acting to the mispronunciation of Bengali words, many aspects of the movie have been criticized. But I think the real let-down is Ashutosh Gowarikar's direction.

The first hour or so of the movie seems quite comical. The dialogue delivery seems forced, even funny, and there are way too many songs - they seem really out of place, even jar at times. The title song and the new version of 'Vande Mataram' would've been enough - they play in the background, at the right times, and help carry the story forward. The other songs were quite unnecessary.

As far as the acting goes, I wouldn't say AB Jr. was stellar, but he wasn't as bad as the media made it seem either. He tries to play Surjya Sen in an understated manner. Understandably so, given that Sen wasn't a warrior/soldier/political figure in real life. He was a school teacher who dreamt of an independent India and advocated non-violent rebellion for a large part, violence to be used only for self-defense. Having said that, I think Abhishek Bachchan is capable of much more as an actor ('Yuva', 'Guru') but he needs a director of the caliber of Mani Ratnam to draw a first-class performance out of him. (On an aside, I like a clean shaven AB Jr. much more than a scruffy one, so I would've liked him in the movie irrespective :P)

Deepika Padukone has a small role - in fact she has lesser screen time than the other supporting characters - but she does justice to it.

I didn't think much of Sikandar Kher earlier but I quite liked him in this movie. He's managed to bring forth the grit, determination and obstinacy (to overthrow the British) of Nirmal Sen. He also gets brownie points from me for a good-boy-next-door look in the movie :)

I would give Ashutosh Gowarikar props for the following:

1. Researching the characters and the time period well. This wasn't one of the high profile rebellions of pre-independence India, so the material would've been hard to come by. The effort that Gowarikar & his team would have put into this deserves to be appreciated.
2. Having the guts not to provide sub-titles for the Bengali dialogues. The main characters do break into Bengali every now & then, and there is a fair bit of background chatter that happens in Bengali.
3. Keeping the focus on the uprising and not getting distracted by the romance between Surjya Sen and Kalpana Dutta, as Bollywood is wont to do.
4. Performance by character actors (playing Surjya Sen's band of men) and the child artists.
5. The credits at the end of the movie. The pictures of the real freedom fighters are shown along with those of the actors playing the part. I was appalled to see the audience start to file out of the theater even while the credits were rolling. Whatever our views on the movie, it's a shame we cannot respect people who lay down their lives so we could live in freedom!

Overall, I would say KHJJS deserves a watch because it dares to bring to light an event that has, for some reason, been completely left out of our history books. The Chittagong Uprising may not have been as hyped as the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre or the Sepoy Mutiny, but as far as I am concerned, no freedom fighter was less important than a Nehru or a Mahatma Gandhi because every single one of them lay their lives on the line for India's independence. And no one's life is more/less important than another's. For this reason alone, we should watch KHJJS. And please stay for the credits.