Director: Prakash Jha
Screenplay By: Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali
Screenplay By: Prakash Jha and Anjum Rajabali
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Prateik Babbar, Tanvi Azmi, Manoj Bajpayee, Saurabh Shukla, Darshan Jariwala
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 4/5
The eventful first half sets the mood for a worthwhile watch with a bagful of impressive situations and impactful scenes. Apparantly, director loses the threads of narrative during the second half, which is sluggish and very long marked with a roller coaster of events that look repetitive and stuffed. For instance, at one point everyone in the movie including Bachchan, Saif, Deepika and even Prateik takes on teaching students. Also, the climax will definitely gives you goose bumps but somewhere you know that it’s not real. Towards the end the movie takes a preachy turn and you wait for it to end.
Talk about characters and it won’t be exaggeration to say that Aarakshan belongs to Big B. Tanvi calls him the ‘real hero’ in the movie and so do we believe! Watch him during the resignation scene. Saif Ali Khan has done a remarkable job as a dalit – a character that is quite contrary to the suave and refined Saif in real life. But haven’t we seen him winning hearts as Langda Tyagi? Deepika Padukone shines out in the pool of refined performances. Tanvi Azmi is effective. But, Prateik Babbar disappoints with a stiff performance. One actor who deserves a special mention is Manoh Bajpayee – he is as venomous and mean as he was in Rajneeti and it’s a treat to watch him create a menace, especially towards the end. There's a nice special appearance too, we won't disclose who is it.
Anjum Rajabali has definitely pushed her pen in the right direction to give dialogues that are power-packed and leave you charged. But you’ll definitely need hindi lessons to understand the heavy duty shudh Hindi that character throw at you. Talking musically, before you think that movie like this doesn’t need music, then remember Rajneeti’s music. So, Aarakshan has nothing much to offer except for Acha lagta hai and Mauka that come in the first half. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy could have brought some more spice.
On the whole, Aarakshan might not give a solution to the evil of reservation but will definitely act as a mirror to our ailing society and makes you think. So, grab your tub of pop-corn for you’ll need energy to sit through the long movie and do an ‘Aarakshan’ for your seat for Arakshan – there’s no harm in watching it once!
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