I’m in a kind of soup as to how should rate this movie. Should I give away my self-generated tag of being a critic and say that this is a good movie for the sake of being an ardent Pankaj Kapur fan or should I say that this a bad piece of cinema for I didn’t liked some portions. I guess I should take tha mid-way. And hence I would say that this is a moderate success for Pankaj Kapur. Well, no one would ever dare to rate Pankaj Kapur’s acting talent because actors like him are one in trillions. As a script-writer and screenplay writer, he has succeeded too but when it came to handling few vital portions of the film, he has failed miserably. Otherwise “Mausam” is a master-piece. Where he has left the work half-done, that’s the only place where it takes a dip. In this age of film-making where one fears of the length of the movie if it touches 120 minutes, Pankaj Kapur and Team has dared to make a movie of closed to three hours. It may work as the negative for this film.
The tag line of the film is ‘a love story beyond romance’. And it’s true. It’s a love story wrapped up in multiple emotions. Major one is tragedy, if it’s the term which is well-suited. Film takes on various tragedies that have taken place in our country since the last 25 years. It starts with the after-math of Operation Blue Star and creation of Ayodhya. From this we get the resultant ill-famous collapse of Babri Masjid and then serial blasts of 1993 in Bombay [now Mumbai]. Following-up is the Kargil-war of 1999. Then there is an affect of 9/11 attack in this story. Then there is this MNIK kind of interrogation of a Muslim. Finally the climax clashes with 2003 Gujarat riots. One may feel that woving a story around so many incidents is a big deal. Of course it’s a big deal. And the story is well inter-woven too. But the thing, is after a point, the intake of other tragedy gets into the skin of the audience.
Binod Pradhan must be lauded equally alongwith Pankaj Kapur for capturing the feelings of former. The feel of Mallukot [rather a village] is very much evident. I’m from Rajasthan. And believe me, there is not of a difference between a village of Rajasthan and that of Punjab. It was the best feel-good factor of the film that the soul of an Indian Village was very well captured. Shahid Kapoor gave a performance of his lifetime, probably. Sonam A Kapoor [ya! She is still under the chhatra-chhaayaa of Papa Anil !!] looked b’ful but lacked that acting skill to match-up Shahid. Shahid performed cutely when he was a village-boy, Harry. Shahid performed maturely when he became Sqn. Ldr. Harinder Singh. Shahid performed a true lover when he gave a love scene with Sonam. All in all, it’s Shahid Kapoor’s brilliant acting and Pankaj Kapur’s honest attempt to try something new is what makes Mausam stand apart from the category of Chal-Taau romantic movies.
Pankaj sir has put up lots of hard-work into this project and it is very much visible in every frame. Alongwith story, direction and screenplay, Pankaj sir has also written the dialogues of this film. And let me take this opportunity to say that he has penned down some awesome dialogues for his darling project Mausam. Also, I was really amazed by his music sense. One would find a song for each situation by listening to this album. The only thing that irks me lack of inclusion of the Track ‘Zara Si Mehandi Laga Do’ in the album. It is sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal [Do google for the accuracy of female singer as I’ve some doubt]. The scenes of Pammo’s [Shahid’s sister in the film] Mehandi Rasm and when Harry [Shahid] and Aayat [Sonam] meets in Scotland having heart to heart chat are probably one of the best romantic confrontation scene in the history of Indian Cinema. I personally haven’t seen such a b’ful portrayal of love on screen before. Also, I spoke of Shahid’s acting. Let me tell you that it’s not just about facing the camera with proper expression and confidence. One more thing that goes into making of an awesome actor is getting the diction and accent of character as per the requirements. And Shahid excelled at this. Probably he might have taken lessons from his dad when it came to having proper Punjabi Boy image in the first mausam [summer] of the film. And suddenly howed maturity in the next frame of second mausam. He portrayed the reqd. attitude of an SQN. LDR. Couple of scenes may remind of his earlier cult Kaminey [2009].
The film gets going in the slow fashion from the second mausam [monsoon]. Don’t know why but every scene shot at Scotland is b’ful but still lacks that grip. But each and every angle of the story is well inter-woven. Use of Aditi Sharma for putting that ting of tri-angular love story could have been extended but seeming the already over-stretched length, the team would have dropped this idea. It’s more of every other love story blossoming during the tenure of Hindu-Muslim riot but it has got some significant treatment. The music [both songs and background score] is one of the main pillar of this movie. At one point one feels that he is watching a music-album in which a sort of story is involved to join two tracks with one another. This is, in no way, a slap on face of anyone. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement of handsome work put-up by the Music Composer Pritam. He did the same task successfully for Life...In A Metro [2007] as well. The use of ‘abhi na jao chhhod kar’ at two instances are really heart-melting. The use of ‘search’ instruments when the chasing scene appears speaks volume with regards to the music sensibilities of Pankaj ji. This shows how young he is young at heart. He made well utilisation of his wife Supriya Pathak Kapur. We all know her as Hansa of popular TV comedy show Khichdi. Here, she puts a serious act. I got to visualise Pankaj Kapur in Shahid in various scenes. Don’t know how to tag it? Whether it was a win of Shahid as actor or of Pankaj ji as director? Guess, both!
Why to watch it- Overall, it’s a colossal failure. If you’ve lots of time and you can tolerate a slow movie go for it. It has quite a good number of instances that is awesome, but weak application of major portions during the climax is what blows away the the handsome effort of scripting too. Out and out, go at your risk. Go for watching some really exotic locations.
CBFC rating- U [without any cuts]
My rating- 2.5*/5*
P.S. I’m leaving you with few of my most favourite dialogues from the movie.
1. "Is zameen aur is aasmaan se pare… jahaan na waqt, na tumhare mere siwa koi aur, bas ek jazba ho…ki tum mujhmein ho aur main tum mein.."
2. Sonam- Tumhare haath ko kya hua hai Harry? [pointing towards his paralyzed hand]
Shahid- Kuch nahin, tumhara takiya banne laayak toh ab bhi hai hi...
3. Sonam- ye kaun hain Harry? [pointing towards the rioters]
Shahid- Koi nahin, bas kuch bhayaanak saaye hain jinke na naam hain aur na hi koi chehre.
4. Mujhe zindagi ka suroor hai. Ye baahri nasha jab utarta hai toh bahut dukhta hai [was something of this sort where ‘baahri nasha’ was referred to Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco].
5. Kisi apne ko vardi mein dekh ke himmat badh jaati hai.
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