The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Santoshi weaves his magic in ‘Halla Bol’

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Saturday, Jan 12, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Santoshi weaves his magic in ‘Halla Bol’

Solid act: Ajay Devgan, Pankaj Kapur in the film.

Film: Halla Bol ( Hindi)

Cast: Ajay Devgan, Pankaj Kapur, Vidya Balan

Direction: Rajkumar Santoshi

Faith is a wonderful companion. It helps Rajkumar Santoshi leap across to safety with “Halla Bol”, a film that could have easily been reduced to an art-house show meant for the multiplex audiences only. Alternately, it could have degenerated into a rabble-rouser. People would have whistled at every other dialogue, there would have been a sizzling item number thrown in for good measure too. That Santoshi embraces neither, walking the tightrope all along is a tri bute to the man who believes films are a medium for entertainment. But that entertainment has to be accompanied by a few lessons. Often there is more than a gentle nudge about a society that has its anomalies. Films like “Damini”, “Ghayal”, “Lajja” and “Pukar” come to the mind. Here he borrows handsomely from “Damini”, a film that moved many with its tale of a rape victim. Here too the protagonist is a witness to a rape and murder. And also a party to the following police and legal squabble. Yet Santoshi is not so much as opening a page from a book read in the past as he is adding a new volume to the series.

Here his hero, Ajay Devgan – efficient without being excellent – is a superstar, given to the heady ways of the blessed. With intoxicating success, the days of struggle when he used to learn at the feet of his guru – Pankaj Kapur as a theatre sage who was once a sinner – are but a faded memory. Yet it all changes as the hero’s conscience is merely asleep, not dead. As he decides to cooperate with the cops as a witness to the murder, his life changes forever. Throw in the stardom angle, the producers shying away from a man whose films won’t be easily released – shades of real life – and political outfits ready to fish in troubled waters, and you have a film that has substance to last a couple of hours.

ZIYA US SALAM

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