02 Jul 09

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Review - Baabul: You will need an over-sized handkerchief

An editor with a bigger scissor and a screenplay with a better sense of which part of the story deserves how much screen time, would have made this movie one of the better movies of the year. It is obvious that the makers ran out of time using all the possible cinematic liberties and had to rush the content in the last half-hour. This one clearly has the same target audience as Baghban, but might appeal to a wider range of viewers because this time, people in the 30-40 age group will also identify with the characters.

This is one of those rare movies where the second half is of a much higher standard than the first. It just might have to do with who has more dialogues. The first half has Salman, Salman and more Salman grunting out lines. But, the second half you are left mesmerized by the real boss, Amitabh Bachchan. Rani Mukherjee shows the audience what acting is all about and looks gorgeous, especially with less make-up. It’s sad when elaborate lines are used to sketch out characters rather than facial expressions and body language, when you have the top actors at your disposal. Hema Malini looks great but has given a very dry performance.

To Salman Khan’s credit though, there is this very specific thing that he can do - get a grin out of you with no acting whatsoever. He can deliver comic lines really well. That’s how the movie starts - light, romantic moments. Some executed well and some absolute rubbish. But post-intermission, even though the pace slackens, the emotional scenes are portrayed with a lot of sensitivity. The movie is worth a watch just to see how different characters handle their grief. These sequences will surely bring more than a tear to your eye.

The title song, composed and sung by Amitabh Bachchan simply leaves you speechless. Once you get over the fact that the songs don’t have any reason to be there, you can begin enjoying them. There are a couple really good songs ‘baawri piya’, ‘har manzar’, and ‘bebasi dard ka aalam’. “Chalo chalo” is a foot-tapping, sweetly picturised number. The lyrics are a very small notch above the usual unimaginative Sameer fare.

What really went wrong then? The dialogues. There are some really good dialogues, but when you find out that they were actually implanted there to be repeated later for senseless melodramatic effect, all you can say is, “Oh God!!”. Not once, not twice… oh well, I lost count after five. Then there are the inane sermonizing dialogues that are repeated in passive and active voice, like a teacher would to drill a point into the students’ brains.

The tedious length and lack-luster dialogues fail to retain attention despite a good choice of subject.

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