People of Allah

Watching the first few minutes of ALLAH KE BANDE made me remember three different films from three different regions. One was the English film "Sleepers" (1996) which was about few child characters who are made to choose the wrong path of crime after their brutal exploitation in the tender age. Second was the world classic "City of God" or "Cilade de Deus" (2002) from Brazil which is considered among the world's best movies made on the subject of child crime. And the third was our own recent flick "City of Gold" (2010) which was also based on the same subject in the background of Bombay Mill workers of the 80s.

The reason of recalling these three films was the same old one, as I found ALLAH KE BANDE a mixture of all the above mentioned movies with only one worth remembering scene and several forgettable ones. Directed by the debutant Faruk Kabir, who also has enacted one of its key role, the film can only be rated as a fine effort from the newcomer but nothing more than that. If only he had chosen either a different kind of subject or a different kind of treatment, it could have been a different case. But in the current scenario, the film is based on the same old content of children from the slums getting into the world of crime due to their own greed and sexual exploitation by some ruthless men leading to the ages old plot of gangsters and their internal clashes.

Starting from the childhood days of two energetic kids, the director, Faruk Kabir, surprisingly spends almost more than one hour of its first half only on their childhood sequences. And after that too right till its intermission he is still busy in only introducing his various characters on the screen in a pretty over-confident manner. In fact every frame of the director clearly indicates his forceful attempt of deliberately making a path breaking film on the subject of child crime. But unfortunately he never gives you anything fresh to enjoy and his narration too remains identical to what we have already seen in many previous movies made around the same theme. Throughout the movie, Kabir only seems to be interested in showing everything with some extraordinary passion, energy and power. And maybe that is the reason why every actor looks like doing it little over the top in the entire film including both the child actors in its first half.

Actually as I see it, no one can make a classic or a path braking film intentionally or willfully. Classics get made on their own unknowingly without any deliberate efforts of the team and even the people who make them, are themselves not aware of how they were able to do it so perfectly. Therefore, it was a huge mistake of Faruk Kabir to even think that he was making a great film, which will be setting new trends in the Industry. Dreaming on the same lines he makes every actor on the screen do some overacting and go over the top where they are shouting, laughing and walking in a style which is a bit more than what was actually needed.

The second mistake he has made is to cast himself in the role of Yakub who is one of the two lead characters in the story. Frankly speaking he himself comes out to be the most unfit and over the top actors on the screen in that role and he surely should have chosen someone else to do it for him. On the other hand, Sharman Joshi as his only childhood friend turned gangster delivers a very well controlled and polished performance playing the role of Vijay, which even goes one step ahead of his effortless performance in 3 IDIOTS.

Apart from these two key characters, there is Naseeruddin Shah as their cunning Jail Warden, who excels in his transformed character of a beggar in the second half. Atul Kulkarni as the truthful teacher and Zakhir Hussain as their gangster aid play their roles perfectly. But Anjana Sukhani and Rukhsaar are not given enough scenes to prove themselves. Suhasini Mulay as the mother of kids is impactful, whereas the kids have done it a bit louder as I mentioned before. Cinematography using the actual slum locations makes the film watchable getting good support from its background music department. But at the same time, the second half also makes you yawn at several moments since you already know what's going to happen next.

Post intermission, there are two sequences worth mentioning here which are quite opposite to each other in terms of merit. The first sequence featuring Sharman Joshi (as a gangster) and Naseeruddin Shah (as a beggar), defining forgiveness, puts the director in the top bracket for conceiving it with such brilliance. But the second sequence of setting fire to the body of a teenager boy (lying on a four wheeler vegetable seller's cart) by his own teacher, in front of a group of children of 5- 15 years of age, raises many questions on the sensibility, morality and thought process of the director's mind. Truly speaking, I was just thinking of walking out of the theater after watching this unbelievable kind of scene shot in the name of creativity.

So, in all ALLAH KE BANDE can just be appreciated for its decent kind of effort made by its first time director. But talking about everything else, it goes well over the top, exploiting the same old theme of slums, child-crime, gangsters and gang wars for the nth time along with some erratic writing. Hence it would be better to watch the ongoing popular serials on the small screen having a good time in your homes and don't even think of watching it with your entire family in the theaters.

Indians are going at war by releasing this movie, They are showing the Muslims as the children terrorists in this movie, They are not eligible of this. This is not fair. They should have thought hundred times before producing this movie, Also it contains too much violence, that anyone doesn't want to see. This movie should be banned before it's release. Indians are gone too much against the Muslims. Why is it happening. Muslims don't want any war with them. Why are they doing this? This movie is totally explicit material. It should be banned. It's our responsibility that we should stand against this movie to release, because there is no law in the world which says that one should insult other religion

The movie started with a promise with some eye-catching act by younger versions of Yakub and Vijay (Played by Faruk and Sharam) but after few reals it changed the track to a routine Gangster movie. Second half of the movie mostly I feel, wasted in bloodshed and gun fights. Some of the "May be" strong characters were not sketched strongly enough and left the movie loosely made. Character of the Teacher by Atul Kulkarni could not make a mark because of too late entry and lesser part to play. Naseer Sahab too had nothing much to do in the movie. Anjana Sukhani was a showpiece in the movie like her previous movies. Movie would have the same impact even without her as she has nothing much in the movie and her frames can be counted on fingers. Though the music and background score of the movie certainly kept the movie going and maintained the overall decorum, it alone can not save the sinking ship. Sharman Joshi acted pretty maturely and Faruk also did well in his debut flick.

The unliked part of the movie was its strongly shown wrong, morally incorrect messages which overpowers the lesson from the movie, which kind of wrapped in a hurry in the last moment.

I give 6 points for its commendable background score, nice act by Sharman, Faruk and obviously their younger versions.

The movie is about 2 children, need of money to fulfill their dreams and works illegally, but anyhow they get arrested for a crime and then moved to a jail.the time they spend in jail and the treatment they get, makes them hard and tough for the outer world, and with feeling of revenge and conquering they come out f the jail and live their dreams.Allah ke banday is a great movie to watch, it never lets you lose the interest in the movie at any part. The acting part is done awesome, Both by the child actors as well as the lead actors.New comer farooq(yaqub in the movie)was impressive.It's a movie about Revenge, living your dreams, getting what you want, and gives a message too.Some parts are real slow, but you can pass them on as you are always excited in the movie with the curiosity, what's next.the movie shows some different thinking's of today's youth and the fire of revenge which may lead to do any crime.You almost don't get the expected climax, but every movie have something different. overall, you can watch this one, and you will not get bored!Enjoy.

Many things in the film resembles and reminds you of legendary 'City of God'.May be director must have watched city of god during his learning period.Although a nice one time watch movie. Amateurism is quite visible for young man both as a director and an actor.Naseer was brilliant in his given space.Sharman tried to broke shackles from his image of commoner boy but was partly successful.Atul actually stole the show for me he was brilliant as an teacher.Could have been better but good effort from a young Faruk Kabir.Not much space for Anjana but chemistry between Sharman and her was good.Quite a regular bollywood gangster movie with an unusual style.