After cricket if there is anything that this country feverishly worships its Hindi films. We had solicited reviews from viewers and readers on last weeks release Zinda and Family. Here is what India had to say about the two films.
Zinda - But why?
Welcome to new age Hindi cinema, an age characterised by extreme vulgarity, poor stories and poorer ways of projecting these stories. Zinda can definitely be deemed as a harbinger of this age of Bollywood.
The film looks promising as long as we see its promos. But that’s the end of the story. How can we possibly believe that a man is held up in a prison for fourteen years without knowing what his fault his?
The search culminates into a series of bizarre events. Eventually, our hero finds out that the villain had locked him up as a retaliatory measure. The reason - quite possible in today's contemporary world but by heaven's sake there are better ways of portraying it.
I definitely felt ashamed seeing the school sequence and the childhood days of our actor. Surely, we live in age of MMS'es but the student's community (I being a student myself) hasn't gone down to such obscene and degrading levels, Mr Gupta.
A sincere request to Mrs Sharmila Tagore: Please do not forget the basic fabric of our Indian culture, ma'am. Surely this movie doesn't even deserve an A certificate.
The only silver lining of Zinda: the "fried wantons" that Sanjay Dutt had (looked quite delicious!!)
-Kunal Lunawat
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Zinda – a dead flick
Hi Masand, you gave the movie two stars but honestly I think you wasted an extra one on that absolutely pathetic movie.
Would have been interesting if the end would have been directly related to Sanjay Dutt. The film does not do justice to John Abraham also. A confuse script which makes John struggle between a businessman and a vindictive brother.
When Sanjay Dutt prepares for 14 years to meet his tormentor it seems like he is going to have a face-off with 'the undertaker' but what comes out is really something which makes you regret for not sitting at home, especially when your mom says its not worth it son.
-Puneet B
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Zinda: The death of reason
Okay, I confess I had gone for this movie essentially because the slick trailer had impressed me. Hence, I overlooked the obvious weak points like an extremely anorexic, jelly-bellied, squeaky-voiced Celina Jaitely (not that she was anything to look forward to anyways), a shabbily dressed (rather, undressed) Lara Dutta, Sanjay Gupta's previous wannabe debacles (Kaante and Musafir fell on their face) and the fact that Zinda was a frame-by-frame rip-off from Old Boy.
To be generous, I'd first list the few positives the movie can boast of (actually it's easier to do that, given the less effort required). The screenplay and the general feel of the movie is quite international. The black and navy blue overtones go well with the dark theme (revenge) and the background score is has a good pace, especially the Buddhist gong which has a very haunting feel to it.
The Strings number - Ye Hai Meri Kahani is hummable and well-shot. Strings have proved, yet again, that pop infiltration from across the border needs to be taken seriously.
John Abraham's collection of black tuxedos is interesting and equally genuine are the brocade coats and chunky jewellery sported by Raj Zutshi.
The storyline? The less said the better. Though, the subject is interesting, it had been shoddily dealt with. The first half is racy and manages to generate some intrigue.
However, post-interval, the film goes down the spiral and ultimately collapses.
Blood and gore have been liberally splashed on the screen and close-up shots of wounds being stitched, teeth being extracted with a hammer and limbs being chopped-off are painfully nauseating. I am sure even students studying to be dentists would squirm at the sight of Dutt using a hammer to pull out Raj Zutshi's teeth.
Wonder how the film escaped the Censor scissors. Perhaps, this explains that the Board is too busy nitpicking movies like Rang De Basanti to observe the ruthless display of gore.
The dialogues bear the typical Sanjay Gupta touch. The profanities have not been beeped upon and innuendoes are plenty. Makes for much embarrassment and is certainly not a family-film.
Sanjay Dutt impresses as the wronged man who is out to find his perpetrator. However, the romantic track between a shabbily dressed (rather, undressed as I said) Lara is absolutely unnecessary and the tasteless love-making scene is clearly a plug to attract front-benchers.
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John Abraham is good and shows the makings of Bollywood's first anti-hero, who's both dishy and convincing.
But overall, the movie leaves a bad after-taste and manages to convince me that all future endeavours by Sanjay Gupta can be easily avoided.
-Divisha Gupta
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Zinda: Torturing the audience along with the hero
The name Sanjay Gupta as a filmmaker is indicative with violence filled subjects. He started off with Kaante and then repeated the same thing in Musafir. It seems that the filmmaker is obsessed with crime and violence filled themes and cannot think of anything else.
After watching Zinda, I doubt the credentials of the Censor Board? In the very first scene, the hero of the film, Sanjay Dutt abuses the abductor in filthy language. The theme has only one simple tale of revenge. So, our film’s hero is punished in a very systematic manner for the so-called crime he commits while in school.
The victim's brother (John Abraham) tortures Dutt for 14 years and then leaves him only to see how deadly a revenge could be.
The film obviously has to have heroines, so Sanjay Gupta places Celina Jaitley as his wife only to be murdered after the hero’s abduction. Then, Lara Dutta takes over as a lady cab driver in Bangkok, who tries to help our hero, after spending some time in provoking him to make love in order to de-stress him.
Then, there is also a friend in the form of Mahesh Manjrekar, who shows his face in the beginning and only to return to be murdered. Then, there is Raj Zutshi, whose teeth are uprooted by our hero in a gruesome manner in a close up. But, before that the hero finishes off his bodyguards one by one. So, one can imagine the depth of violence in this film even as Lara Dutta is not spared, when Raj tortures her.
The film has nothing for family entertainment, as the music for the only two songs is also very poor. To talk about photography, there is hardly any scope as most of the film is shot with blue filters for reasons best known to the director. There is no scope for acting as violence takes the front seat in this film.
Zinda is certainly not for decent family filmgoers and even if it is targeted at youngsters, it will only send wrong signals of criminal attitude going in for revenge that’s not convincing.
-Kunal Lunawat
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'You have to be demented to enjoy this movie'
Zinda is pretty much an identical twin of Old Boy. Some of the dialogues carry the same punch also. Even the weapons, Dutt's hairstyle and mannerisms of Abraham's character are lifted from the Korean film.
What Gupta has changed is the motive. The original, directed by Park Chanwook, involves incest. Perhaps he thought that would make Zinda, which is already high on aggression, impossible for the orthodox moviegoer to digest.
It is usually not very easy to like a remake of an acclaimed original. But to its credit, Zinda keeps you involved. All credit goes to Sanjay Dutt. Take him out of the movie and you are left with below-average actors, uninspired dialogues and a crippled plot twist.
The butchering is severe. Heads and hands get chopped off intermittently. There is no dearth of blood, gore or lovemaking. It is not a movie for those who get rattled easily.
The truth is, you have to be angry, demented, numb, a Sanjay Dutt fan or a movie reviewer to be able to enjoy Zinda.
-Jugnu Sharma
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Son's launch pad goes kaput
As an aspiring filmmaker I have always looked upto Raj kumar Santoshi. But Family is surely Santoshi's half-hearted effort. He is master of story telling. His characters are clear and have a reason to be there in the story. But Family lacks everything.
To start with there is no story to tell. Actors seem to be confused with the reasons of existence of their character and this reflects on-screen. Family is an effort of Santoshi trying his best to launch his son Aryeman. If you can read deep into the title of the film, then it is surely about ties of blood.
-Sumit Purohit
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Big B fails to impress
I delayed my flight out of India to watch Family and it was such a disappointment. Even Amitabh could not save the movie.
-AG Danish
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