Between blazing guns and roaring romance

By M. Shamim

MISSION KASHMIR (Delite and other Delhi theatres): Pakistan calls it the unfinished business of Partition. The Americans call it disputed territory. We call it part of India. But for Vidhu Vinod Chopra it is what the Moghuls called a piece of Paradise -- now, of course, lost to many of those driven away by the gun.

Director Mani Ratnam visited Kashmir in ``Roja'' to deliver his poem on patriotism. Chopra now goes there, chasing his own childhood memories of the Paradise lost, to present to us an emotional analysis of a tragic, all-pervasive social conflict. It is now destroying that rare heavenly blend of human tolerance that gives the landscape its mesmerising spiritual quality. He calls it Kashmiriyat. In an inspired moment, he also tells us that it is better to live for it than die for it.

If you are thinking in terms of Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Isaee, it will leave you grumbling. It is meant to do so. If you are that cautious, scared-of-your-own-shadow but well-meaning member of the apparatus that zealously guards the interests of the State, it should leave you in utter despair. The film is not your apologist. Kashmiriyat is no part of the constitutional mandate that you carry up your sleeves. And Chopra does not even pause to wonder at your limitations. But if you are a quintessential Indian, ready to expel the ghosts of the past and eager to receive about-to-be-born future, it will gladden your heart. Kashmiriyat resides there.

A poet film-maker said it in ``Maachis''. Now Vidhu Vinod Chopra tells us again: a blind king can lead us only to another Kurukshetra. Are we not there already? Chopra's thinly disguised characters are drawn from real life. That is why we sink in our seats in the theatre with a silent prayer: ``O! Lord! Give L. K. Advani no bifocals. Give him just a pair of eyes that can see!'' The real merit of the film is that it has been made. It tells us of light at the end of the tunnel.

In the fratricidal war Hrithik Roshan -- now deservedly called the new heart-throb -- plays the Kashmiri youth guided by hatred for his adopted father and misguided by religious hot-heads from across the border. No need to say he is the soul of the film, for Sanjay Dutt is an old trouper. He plays the tough police boss with his usual elan and finesse. Jackie Shroff hisses like a sniper in the grass, sending shivers down your spine. Hrithik and the pretty Preity Zinta share the right chemistry. But the surprise of the pack is Sonali Kulkarni who plays Hrithik's young adopted mother and touches a chord in our heart.

The music by Shankar, Ehsan and Loy has a pleasant Kashmiri flavour. Choreographer Saroj Khan does not go overboard, keeping Kashmir's conservative traditions fully in her mind. Chopra keeps the complicated and contrived storyline well under control. His ending may not be easily acceptable to many but it is in tune with his message. In a week that belongs to Chopras -- ``Mohabbatein'' being the other Chopra clan's offering -- Vidhu Vinod has a definite edge.

See and enjoy ``Mission Kashmir''.

MOHABBATEIN (Plaza and other theatres): God created love. Yash Chopra reinvented it. Son Aditya Chopra was not too far behind. ``Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'' and ``Dil To Paagal Hai'' both had a kind of freshness. Both had Yash's effervescence which only increased as he advanced in years. Aditya gave it a younger generation's verve. Yash Chopra's affair with love turned into a neat family business.

So when Aditya announced ``Mohabbatein'', no one was surprised. After all, he was only one-film-old. And if he was taking almost five years to make his second one, surely it was because the idea was passing through its cycles of creativity. It will come garnered, as one thought, with new dressings and tantalising flavours. As it now turns out, Aditya perhaps needed more time.

Once upon a time in the good old Blighty they ran prisoner camps for the young which they called schools, where a sergeant-major's counterpart in educational field, known as Head Master, trained young ones to man the cantonments in the far-flung frontiers of an empire where the sun did not set. They were supposed to be a strong breed of men who were supposed to rule natives with an iron hand. The Empire disappeared with time but these head masters did not know -- that is, until they were knocked down by the winds of change. Their story attracted novelists and film- makers.

One such person was Aditya, fascinated by the theme though rather belatedly, who transplanted it in Indian tradition and called it ``Gurukul''. The relationship between the head master and his charges forms the core of drama in the film. The final confrontation between the two -- which has Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan at their competitive best -- comes too late, after the intensity of the visual narrative has been frittered away in inane dancing and exploring relationships that do not rise to any meaningful level.

The four-hour marathon needed new characters, new music, new choreography, new treatment and a touch of genius in every frame to hold the audience. But here everything seems to have been cannibalised from the last two hits the Chopras gave us. Three young pairs vie for your attention. Yet the film comes to life only when Aishwarya Rai is in the frame. And, Adityaji, what happened to that ear for music the Chopras are famous for?

Hopefully the film will attract a younger audience who might relate themselves with the characters in the film played by the young cast -- Jugal Hansraj, Kim Sharma, Uday Chopra, Shamita Shetty, Jimmy Shergill and Preeti Jhangiani -- and with no new release due next week this one will have better box office records. After all Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan do manage to invest it with dramatic power. And when good old Helen takes on Shah Rukh Khan on the dancing floor, it is pure nostalgic delight worthy of any hit film.

All said and done, it is a film made by a young director for the young.

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