Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey

Continuing with his craft of making movies on the literary works of renowned writers, Ashutosh returns to the Historical genre with his "KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE" which surprisingly gets released without any great publicity in the media.

As a Historical movie on a lesser known, Independence movement of Chittagong witnessed in 1930. Looking at the movie from this angle, it is indeed a highly authentic depiction of the historical event of 1930 made with utmost honesty and sincerity. The story is about a team of few young Freedom Fighters allowing the help of more than 50 teenager boys in their violent freedom movement. Ashutosh has no doubt taken care of every little detail of that time and the people involved in it with a superb vision of his own. And along with that, we should be highly thankful to him, to enlighten us all about this hidden chapter of our Indian Independence movement which was not known to most of its viewers living in the Northern Region.

As an artistic project, the film is perfect with great art direction and cinematography, bringing the period of 1930 alive on the screen with near perfection. But I really wish the same perfection had been there in its writing department too which is too slow paced, lengthy and even uninteresting at regular intervals. The costume designing also is just limited to white kurtas being worn by almost everyone in the team and doesn't come up with a great show as required. The film starts at a very lazy note and never picks up in its entire first half, due to which the viewer loses his every hope to see anything great or exceptional from the director with a great line-up in the past. Post intermission too, though the narration picks up with all the action sequences unfolding on the screen, but still its execution is certainly not anything close to Ashutosh's own set standards in his previous films.

The most annoying part of the movie is the portrayal of all the British Officials, who quite shockingly act and look like characters of some school or university stage play. Even the casting of all the actors posing as Britishers is way below the mark and overlooked.

Along with this, the other biggest failure of the film is that it is not able to generate the much needed patriotic feeling in the viewer, which should be a must in a film made on a real-life independence movement. Honestly, the only time I felt patriotic with blood running faster in my veins was when I saw the real pictures of the actual teenager freedom fighters lying dead on the ground (shown in the end credits).

Reviewing KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE on the basis of a movie experience alone is a hurting job as the film has got nothing to offer as far as entertainment is concerned to the audience. In clear words, for most of the viewers it may be quite painful to watch it right till the end.

Putting it differently, actually What a common viewer wishes to feel when he is going to watch a film made on a historical event of Indian Independence? He undoubtedly wants to feel the action, smell the gun powder and would like to give a standing ovation clapping loud at the end of the movie feeling proud to be a citizen of the current world power, India. That was the reason which converted both GADAR & LAGAAN into such big hits. Or on the other side, a film made on the Indian patriotic movement should be so sensitive and emotional that it should make every viewer in the theater go numb with wet eyes in the end as in SHAHEED & GARAM HAWA. Unfortunately, KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SE can neither be called as a powerful uplifting movie nor as an emotional enriching experience.

Musically its again a weak soundtrack chosen by the director for his film which ideally should have been a song less movie as per the requirement of its theme. The Background music too is not so engrossing which can take a particular sequence to a different level. Amusingly the "Vande Matram" song running with the end credits made me remember the decades old song from ANANDMATH 1952)which still remains the most inspiring melody composed with the patriotic words of VANDE MATRAM.

Performance wise, KHJJS has some appreciable performances coming from its entire supporting cast other than the lead pair. The whole supporting team of Abhishek along with all the young teenager actors, surely deserves praises for their effortless acts in the film. However I couldn't applaud the casting choices made by Ashutosh in his current project for his lead pair, since both Abhishek and Deepika were not looking great in their out of the routine roles. With quite few scenes in the movie, Deepika is not able to take away the glamour off her face. Still I found her much better than all her previous movies since her debut film. On the other hand, there is a vast difference in the charactersation of Abhishek in pre and post interval of the movie. And for this the blame should actually go to his director.

So as a conclusion, KHJJS cannot be rated as one of the best works of anyone in its entire team including the actors, writers and the director. However, only the ART DIRECTOR can proudly use this movie in his repertoire at the top and it can also be applauded as a pure ORIGINAL in the present Hindi Films scenerio dealing with Inspirations from the West.

Ending on an entertaining note, I still rate the use of "DOGS AND INDIANS NOT ALLOWED" by Manmohan Desai in his Amitabh Bachchan starrer MARD as the best way of addressing the issue on the wide screen.

It may be not a good movie or i would say justice was not done with the production but somehow it made me to write few words for this. Why? The question is simple as well as the answer. I am always a fan of all these freedom fighters who always kept the spark. Many people consider Ghandi and Jinnah for the Indo-pak freedom but i whole heartedly believe it were the people like Surey sen, whom ideas were the main cause of todays free India and Pakistan. The list is full of heroes, whom we are proud today. Being a Pakistani i always have a great respect for all those great freedom fighters because of whom we are enjoying the independence today. Bhagat Singh, Surya sen, Bakht Khan, Mangal panday are all portrayed beautifully in the movies.

Yet an unsung hero is still to show up on a big screen, The brave Pathan freedom fighter Sher Ali Afridi who killed the Indian viceroy, Lord Miyo. This was the only unique case of killing a viceroy on Indian soil. I wish if his life story is taken in a movie depiction.

Over all the movie gives you a good feel of that times freedom struggle. I still recommend the movie as its watchable and touchy.

While watching 'Khelein hum jee jaan sey' I felt Gowariker has not gonebeyond that book and neither done further research or took extra efforts to explore central characters like Surjit Sen and Kauolpana* Dutta at their personal level. Director had a lot of scope for that, for example, Surjya Sen was married and he is suffering from guilt that he is responsible for his wife's death or he was in jail before the revolution. Raoul Randolf and Gowariker could explore the character on these facts so that it could made primary conflict more strong. There are too many characters in the film; these characters are not properly defined .Madhur Bhandarkar who always manages to build many characters in his films like Page3, Corporate, Traffic signal and Fashion. I haven't read the book and I believed that one should never compare a book and cinema which is based on the book, both are very different experiences.

Gowariker had a chance to capitalise innocence of teenager against brutal fight for freedom, he succeed in one or two scenes but that was not enough.scenes where teenagers didn't know meaning of 'Vande Materam' and interview sessions between freedom fighters and teenagers.Narration is done by two different persons if one of the teenager could used for it then it would make an impact.

I remembered in 'Rang De basanti' where Binod Pradhan used Sepia tone to recreate old time, they wanted to distinguish two different time periods which is also possible in 'Khelein...." because 'Khelein....' happened within substantial time period. They could use non linear way of storytelling and built two different time period. One time period could be about how they execute the plan and other time period could be about how they sacrifice their lives and made major influence on freedom movement. David fincher has done this in 'The Social Network'.

Second half of the film is all about British hunts down all freedom fighters where it lacks drama element, British wanted to capture them dead or alive but later in the film suddenly British wanted to capture them alive and this question remained unanswered.

The film could ends with scenes like how Chittagong's revolution made positive impact on freedom movement, they concluded whole story in single note.

Ashutosh Gowariker retells the astounding true story of the Chittagong uprising of 1930. Led by a fiery school teacher, a band of 64 revolutionaries, most of them school-going teenagers, launched five simultaneous attacks on British strongholds in Chittagong including the cantonment area and the telegraph office Ashutosh recreates this largely forgotten event with sincerity and sweat but unfortunately Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey comes off a high school history lesson: plodding, stilted and in long stretches.

The film's entire first half is the set-up to the event the nuts and bolts of planning a revolt, getting enough investment, planning and co-ordinating each step. Ashutosh introduces us to half a dozen characters but the screenplay doesn't adequately flesh out even one.

The second half has more urgency and momentum and climaxes in the inevitably tragic but rousing finale.The dialogue is always lofty and theatrical and the actors are insistently noble. Abhishek Bachchan, who plays the leader Surjya Sen, is in sober, benevolently smiling mode. We get little hint of the fire in his belly.

This is a great effort to bring such hidden subject in front of us but if you like fast paced cinema then its not your type of movie.

If you love good cinema,watch it. My vote 7 out of 10.

Ashutosh Gowariker is a talented Storyteller. His Oscar-Nominated Epic-Hit 'Lagaan' was amongst the best films of it's time, 'Swades' was a touching film, that has now become a cult-classic. 'Jodhaa Akbar' was another milestone he churned out. 'What's Your Raashee?', however was a letdown.

'Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey', also isn't Gowariker, at his best. This period piece/patriotic has a strong first hour, but a long & weak second hour, spoil it's impact.

Based on the Chittagong Uprising of 1930, 'Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey' tells the story of Surjya Sen, a prominent Bengali freedom fighter, an Indian independence activist and the chief architect of anti-British freedom movement in Chittagong, Bengal, who, with his people created a revolution, that eventually let India get independence.

As mentioned, the first hour is absolutely terrific. The entire build-up to the revolution keeps you at the grip. But, the second hour plays a spoilsport. Also, the excessive running-time of over 3 hours, needed some trimming. Even the climax for that matter, doesn't leave the desired impact.

Ashutosh Gowariker knows his job, and he has proved his caliber as a filmmaker time and again. He directs each frame with the accurate detail, but the weak writing in the second hour, pulls him down. Cinematography is outstanding! Editing needed to be sharper. Music by Sohail Sen is passable.

Performance-Wise: Abhishek is efficient as Surjya Sen. Deepika Padukone does an okay job. Sikander Kher is fair, while Vishakha Singh is sincere. Mahinder Singh is good. Shreyas Pandit is flawless. Others lend good support.

On the whole, A One-Time Watch, that could've been much more, if it had a better second hour.