Chaar Sahibzaade (2014) - Heroes from our history, we must know.

Hi There!

Harry Baweja’s Chaar Sahibzaade is a historical event based animated movie. I must appreciate the director and the scriptwriter as they have played well through the thin line margin of it being an historical movie rather than a religious one.

Movie starts with Chaar Sahibzaade, four brothers and sons of Guru Gobind Singh, living in harmony at city Anandpur. The Movie progresses through and the real altercation starts when Quila Anadgarh is attacked and cordoned off by the forces of Faujdaar of Sirhind, Nawab Wazir Khan. The movie is able to deliver the mutual affection and attachment of the siblings with an impact. Songs sung by Sukhwinder Singh blend fine with the scenes, definitely enhances the result. The movie is splendidly narrated by Om Puri, which increases the interest of viewers even more into the story.

Movie’s climax is when the younger two brothers are martyred (bricked alive) at city Sirhind. I must say it was strikingly emotional scene. And it being a real history event which happened around just 300 years back benumbed me.

The animations are done by Mumbai based iRealities. They are not at par with Hollywood (obviously), so don’t go with that expectation. But they are good enough that you won’t feel like watching a robotic show.

The languages in which it’s released are Punjabi, Hindi and English. I have seen it in Punjabi. Punjabi being a language chosen may let some believe that it as a Regional movie and may even affect the viewer base. My take on choice of Punjabi is that it had to be done to have the representation more authentic as the event being pictured happened inside Punjab.

Another fact which may decrease its viewer base is that it’s an animated movie. Some of us still feel that animations are children category. That too a historical event being captured in animation! Well the reason behind choosing Animation is quite valid. In India, when real life actors enact historical figures, either they are disesteemed, if the movie fails to bring the message out OR they are honoured beyond limits. Remember Arun Grover, who played Ram in DD Ramayan.

Chaar Sahibzaade also forces us to think on the lines that we have so many stories of bravery scattered all through India. But they are never shared across. They don’t even are part of our school curriculum. May be, that’s the reason of our impeccable sense of nationality (sarcastic) - We don’t know our Heroes! One more fine example is the ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ and I am sure there are many more.

Finally, I feel it’s a good effort on our Bollywood part. Chaar Sahibzaade is definitely a ‘Good Movie’ and even if somebody doesn't relate to it, should see it once for sake of Indian history. 

Chaar Sahibzaade at IMDB
Chaar Sahibzaade at Wikipedia

PK (2014) - Godmen God or the God, whom we are looking for!

Hi There!!

When I saw the posters for PK, I was never able to understand the depth this character would have in film. Though, I could see him standing in different suits, strapped with a transistor being one of them. My expectations from a Aamir starrer are definitely high so i was not sure of it.


After the movie, all I can say is that I am content and happy that I watched it!! 

PK is a bold movie which takes on the issue of Indian Society’s dual standards on various things including the Religion and the Godmen. Yes!! We already have ‘OH My God (2012)’ and I must say that one or two scenes of the movie are so similar to OMG that I had a sense of Deja-vu. But majorly PK’s script deals with it from totally different perspective and the message comes out even more clearly in a very simple statement – ‘Watch out if its a wrong number!!’. At depth the movie has depicted the life of a common Indian, who is out here into the world and wants to 'do away' all his problems (symbolized by PK's determination to go back home). Doing so how we use all sorts of measures and get entrapped with Godmen (symbolized by PK trying out all ways to communicate with God and eventually meet the Tapasavee.) 

PK also brushed through the issue of Indian stigma on Sex. And I would encourage the readers to NOT leave their Kids at home because of this. Take them along. It’s much much less vulgar than the Item Songs coming on your television sets.   

One subtle but very intelligent decision what I must appreciate the script writer for, is making PK speak Bhojpuri Hindi in the movie. I say that’s a very intelligent on part of the team here, as by doing that the PK’s character has come out very distinctly. And also, the movie has a broader viewer base now, as it will go along with urban as well as lower strata of the society. Hence the actual message would reach many more.  

Direction of the movie is fantastic. The script is beautiful expect some parts in second half. Acting vise it’s a treat having Aamir Khan as PK, Saurab Shukla as TapasveeJi and Anushka Sharma as Jaggu aka Jagat Jannani. Boman Irani and Sanjay Dutt have small roles and have played them fair. Anushka Sharma being the centre role after Aamir, has done full justification to her role. I would say that she is one of the Actresses in Bollywood who can drive a script alone, without a Hero.

Overall the movie has lot many laughing sequences, dancing car as one… hilarious!! Second half is quite serious and at a point it gets too heavy that few of us may start losing interest. Well thanks to the underlying message and the Acting (spl. Aamir), you are continuously kept attached.

Finally, I would say it’s a ‘Good Movie’ with a very good message, definitely a must watch for whole Family.

PK on IMDB.
PK on Wikipedia.