Maurh

A new wave of cinema will start following this movie in Punjabi industry, impressive work by Director Jatinder Mauher & great initiative by the production house Rhythm Boys & Naad Studios. Movie is based on the true story of 19th century Rebel Jeona Maurh, who fought against the injustice, against Jagirdaars & British empire. Tells you the story of courage & pride. It was a good feeling to watch it on the big screen, Both lead actors Ammy Virk & Dev Kharoud were great in their roles, few other names impressed in their performance are Vikramjeet Virk (Dogar), Amiek Virk (Officer Hurton), Marc Randhawa (Chatra) & Kuljinder Sidhu (Jaimal) & many more. I would suggest if you haven't watched it yet, give it a go.

First of all it's an true story of the legend Jeona maurh. Everything this par excellence in this movie. Cast of the movie is super. Dialogues are realistic and in that existing lingo. And what an amazing delivery by dev and ammy. Cinematography is amazing. Sets made are super relatable to that time. Action is realistic. No dishoom like Bollywood. Acting by all is amazing and a standing ovation. A very well done and a thorough research about the legend. His samadh exists near Naina Devi Mandir. Best part of movies is the locations. Overall it's worth to watch. This movie has set standard to be matched in future.

It is almost impossible to appreciate total sincerity of the makers in Indian movies especially low budgeted punjabi movies.

Lot of liberties have always been taken in script writing, maintaining facts, ignoring realism & above all the intelli of viewers. Which hurts me most, when I see how film makers think so little of intelligence of its viewers. The most essential part of film making itself is to convince & satisfy its viewers even if they're showing total fiction. Movies like Titanic, Avatar, interstellar have lot of fiction but convincing. The recent addition to that list is "Dune".

The main reason to write this particular review is to appreciate the non protagonist's of this movie. I am so much impressed by them that it seems like a duty to be done.

Watch this movie just for the sake of talent appreciation of costume designer & art director( set designer). There are others too who done a fabulous job but none better than these 2. We've to appreciate director & assistant directors too. Because without the vision of director it may not be possible. It is his vision which has been put to picture movie form by some talented individuals. As we don't know, who was holding guns behind scenes, who had taken charge & whose narration has been followed. Assuming, he'll be the director ( the master of ship) and subordinates like costume designer & art director who made it happened.

My congratulations to them for churning out this special work.

Movie also done well in other aspects too like locations, soundtrack, camera work & screenplay, acting performances. I specially liked the look of debuted Mark Randhawa who played small role of Chatra. He got the eyes to capture the camera & his agility of movements I. Front of camera make him noticeable. Niaqra kaur looked promising in small role of love interest of Maurh, very similar to how Sonam Bajwa's character in her debut role in 1984. Vikramjeet virk looked authentic & impactful in the role of "Dogar". His voice & dialogue delivery will be assets he can cash on in coming future. Dev kharoud as Kishna fits the bill perfectly. Kind of side actor role which has lot of potential to explore & he did reasonably well. It helped that role suited his personality.

This is where is think main protagonist " Ammy virk" lacked in the portrayal of legendary character of Jeona Maurh. Lot of times he seemed out of place with his looks,voice,demeanour,body language. This is one role that asked hard questions from him to be different from whatever he had been doing till now. He is comfortable mostly to play himself if his image in previous movies but this demands lot more to lift this character. It needs improvisation like Amitabh did in Agneepath or more recently Kangana did in " Tanu weds Manu returns". Now you can already guess what a daunting task Ammy had to deal with.

Not saying he did a bad job but politely saying it was beyond his cup of tea ( currently) He tried & did more than average job. It is good that he tried, it'll only inspire him to take such challenges & going to help him to improve. He is still watchable & doesn't look too much out of place ( barring some crunch scenes) Now coming to real hero, the director "Jatinder Mauhar". They all look good because he directed them well. His navigation was good. I've not scene his previous movies but heard some decent things about "Mitti". Anyways this could be his evolution too. He is mostly spot on in most part of his job. If I have to raise one concern, it would be script. Script has its deficiencies. Though screen play is fluent & well handled but script itself lacks the depth to be great. That is irony to pick biographies which doesn't have much new to offer. And are not that old that screen writer could add convincing fiction to it. If ever I've seen it been done decently, it was in "Milkha Singh". Jatinder Mauher with this in his feathers now joined the elite list of young ( professionally) & talented punjabi directors. And believe me most of them are doing better jobs then their contemporaries in Bollywood & Tollywood Got only one song from jasmeen Sandles & it is good enough to settle the 'score'. Again the music director & singer did it extremely well to merge it well into the motion & look a part. Again👍 to director who visualised!

Sorry one character of Maurh's sister played by Richa Bhatt I forget to mention above. She is good to be tried in many more & even bigger roles. As newcomer she looked very versatile!

My overall rating 9/10🙏

Innocent poor people are exploited by the rich king and landlords with the British support as well. The story is about the brothers Kishna Maurh and Jeona Maurh, who rebel against the tyranny of the rich. While the elder brother does it to seek justice, the younger brother joins his brother's path after a personal loss and the brothers' common enemy being Dogra, who has the support of the King as well as the British officer. How does Jeona get his revenge forms rest of the story.

The problem here was not the slow narrative but the lack of elevations in establishing the characters. The first half is more focused on Kishna Maurh, being the more righteous and aggressive one while Jeona remains the subtle patient guy throughout. That is what makes Jeona's transformation post interval falls short of providing the right impact as even his love story remains half baked. The second half has him take charge of the rebellion but the elevation comes too late. There are moments that partly work and the predictable writing bogs down the film.

Overall it was great movie with great story telling. The dialogue delivery and local language were impeccable. The people who think dev kharoud shud b jeona instead of ammu virk, don't knw the cinema or the real story. Kishna was far more notorious than jeona in his life time bt jeona was simpleton and common folk kind of person who remained like that most of his life. So for me casting is correct .. jeona jus became a folk legend becoz he took revenge, not bcoz he was a notorious dacoit.. these are my views... Every body can hav their own opinion. Bt jeona as far as I knw was the kind of person depicted in movie coz I belong to the same region from where he belonged..