It almost felt like sitting for an extremely long history lecture, a boring one, that is. And to many it also doesn't make historical sense. Well, since I am no expert on the history, I cannot comment on that! But if it didn't make historical sense, at lease make it histrionically appealing! But what a disappointment! The movie marks coming together of two of the hottest favs of current bollywood (and somewhat Hollywood too, no wonder it released here in bay area, California in an American theater as well). But they were far from recreating even a fraction of magic of Dhoom2 (I am not trying to compare the movie with D2, mind it!).
And one of the sensible directors, Ashutosh, who gave us Swadesh (read my review of Swadesh if you are interested) and Lagaan, two classics that will go into the history of Indian cinema! Its always a huge challenge to recreate the history on celluloid, the cost to recreate the looks, sets, every minute details become prohibitively expensive! And sure AG's effort in shooting the movie in grand palaces was noteworthy. But the look of the movie didn't have depth. The shallow art direction, off color, and not so great costumes, made the 4hr history lesson even more boring. As a contrast 2 movies come to my mind in terms of art direction ++ (Khoya Khoya Chand by Sudhir Mishra, look for the recreation of 60's), and art direction -- (Umrao Jaan a royal movie made with not-so-royal budget, hence "LOOKs" awful)! A note about the background score: Awful. At times, it felt like I am watching a TV serial, where most of the bground music are not well thought of, just any canned music, and sounds out of place.
Music: Nothing noteworthy, really!
Script and Narration: Its a collage of several events, put together to make an extremely long movie. Can be cut into 3/4th may be. Some scenes do not contribute to the movie as a whole. The movie is awfully ended, almost like "oh, has it already crossed 3 hrs? let's end it!" It has almost no narration that ties you. There is no plot. The numerous characters name pops up, after a while you cannot keep track of, but still feel scared of facing a pop-quiz at the end of the show!!!
Never in recent times, I walked out of the theater so many times, and didn't feel like I am missing much. Thanks to extreme long movie, the theaters are at least making some $$ out of popcorn & soda sales!
And one of the sensible directors, Ashutosh, who gave us Swadesh (read my review of Swadesh if you are interested) and Lagaan, two classics that will go into the history of Indian cinema! Its always a huge challenge to recreate the history on celluloid, the cost to recreate the looks, sets, every minute details become prohibitively expensive! And sure AG's effort in shooting the movie in grand palaces was noteworthy. But the look of the movie didn't have depth. The shallow art direction, off color, and not so great costumes, made the 4hr history lesson even more boring. As a contrast 2 movies come to my mind in terms of art direction ++ (Khoya Khoya Chand by Sudhir Mishra, look for the recreation of 60's), and art direction -- (Umrao Jaan a royal movie made with not-so-royal budget, hence "LOOKs" awful)! A note about the background score: Awful. At times, it felt like I am watching a TV serial, where most of the bground music are not well thought of, just any canned music, and sounds out of place.
Music: Nothing noteworthy, really!
Script and Narration: Its a collage of several events, put together to make an extremely long movie. Can be cut into 3/4th may be. Some scenes do not contribute to the movie as a whole. The movie is awfully ended, almost like "oh, has it already crossed 3 hrs? let's end it!" It has almost no narration that ties you. There is no plot. The numerous characters name pops up, after a while you cannot keep track of, but still feel scared of facing a pop-quiz at the end of the show!!!
Never in recent times, I walked out of the theater so many times, and didn't feel like I am missing much. Thanks to extreme long movie, the theaters are at least making some $$ out of popcorn & soda sales!