Movie Review

Saw a movie in a theatre after a long time. Firaaq is a good movie and it was nice to see that movies on current topics are being made by the Hindi film industry. Firaaq is set after one month of the riots that happened in Gujarat and maps the stories of people belonging to different strata of the society who were affected by riots.

Also, the cast of movie is top rate but then that is expected where the names include Paresh Rawal, Naseerudin Shah, Deepti Naval. The supporting cast also was pretty good. Sahana Goswami stood out in Rock On and here, she further gives proof that she should be seen in more movies. Loved Amruta Subhash too (yeah, I know her; I did tolerate her Marathi serial for quite a long time). Sanjay Suri as a part of the upper class who gets away most of the time because of his name and Hindu wife (Tisca Chopra) was pretty good too.

The strong point in the movie was the subtlety. There was always a specter of violence looming ahead but one never actually gets to see it or experience it. The anger, frustration, helplessness experienced by the people affected by the riots has been brought out quite well on screen. The various stories have not been inter woven exactly nor taken to a conclusion like it was done in Mumbai Meri Jaan but still the movie has a lot of moments that stand out.

The scene where the store which belongs to Sanjay Suri's friend in which Suri is a silent partner is looted reminded me about a similar incident that happened in our area during the 93 riots. No one knew that the Shah Oil depot in our area belonged to a Muslim but it was torched during the riots. The fact that it was owned by a Muslim was gleaned from the ration records and the store was looted of its belongings before it was destroyed.

Nandita Das has been one of most pleasing looking heroines on screen and she does make a pleasing debut behind the screen wielding the director's baton for this movie.

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Seriously, I expected the multiplex owners to cut down the prices of the tickets. 175 bucks is still way too much and a further cut in prices will ensure that more people will come and watch movies in theatres instead of watching them on pirated DVD's.