Gangaajal (2003)

I quite liked the solo 'nautanki' song sequence in the movie Gangaajal. I thought it was very original, rustic and authentic.

I admit that almost all the reviews that are on the web have found the song sequence either superfluous or not up to the mark, but I think otherwise.

I much liked the choreography, the dancing (Maanyata), the singing, and the music (Wayne Sharpe, Sandesh Shandilya). Kudos to Prakash Jha and his team.

I rate it much better than many a remix videos that have become popular. Maybe some remix producer should revisit the item number. Any takers?

Fmovies: When it comes to depicting violence,Hindi Movies have an edge. The savagery is mind boggling but it is the candid depiction is what is more disturbing. Prakash Jha as a Director and Screen-writer needs to be credited for his potential talent since the rest of the Cast including Ajay Devgan have done what is expected of them. There is message-as in every Indian Movie (more so than Hollywood movies), the message is always about Corruption. What stikes me as a viewer is the branding and type Casting.This may have been taken from a real event, even though all movies carry disclaimer to the contrary but the exxageration of the event to politizise and polarise is sometimes irresponsible and it goes beyond the reams of intended message that is supposed to be deciphered. This could have been a good Movie but for the inordinate lenth and the the sidestreets it travels.Like many other Indian movies (Plan,Kal Ho Na Ho-to name a few). The few who have the courage not to fall into this trap-like Ram Gopal Varma (Company,Bhoot& Ab Tak Chappan),Abbas Mastan (Humraaz)who are very focussed as to the message they want to deliver and they deliver it in a tight and neat package. I also tend to think that the message could be delivered without the gore that is seen in this Movie, however authentic it apears to be.

I never expected to be impressed by this movie, going by the cover which had the regular in-your-face expressions from an outraged hero and a heroin with sadness written all over her face. It seemed like just another good-cop bad-guy movie.

It was pleasantly surprising for me. Ajay Devgan, who is the only interesting and important character in this movie has given a more-than-decent performance. The song are minimal and this keeps the movie riveting for most part. The role of the villain is weak and did not develop into anything significant.

However the dialogue delivery of AD and his no nonsense style of acting (or of the director) adds to the effect of the movie. The final dialogue: when AD has the villains under his feet and whole city is all set to burn them, AD says "I am not protecting them from you, but I am protecting you from them. It is my duty to make sure you don't descend to the level of these villains. Jaisi Janatha, Waisi Police. If you are corrupt, what do you expect the police to be?"

It is overall a good movie to Watch. A similar movie, Shool, was made by Ram Gopal Verma with Manoj Bajpai. It is not nearly as entertaining as this.

Gangaajal fmovies. The two mistakes: The script turns out faulty at two instances. The first one is Magni Ram's suspension and its reversal. The second instance is why Officer Amit Kumar did not attend Apoorva's wedding until the phone call was made to him.

The reason why movie outshines: The movie is how police and people of Tezpur turn violent against crime in their area, after posting of Officer Amit. In further run what is described is his journey on how He acts out to save people from becoming criminal. The speech that he gives at the end is phenomenal. One of the factors that I would like to put light on is local press described in the movie. How society runs is captured well.

Final Verdict: The movie highlights the essence of democracy. One must definitely watch if they like serious cinema.

A few years back my grandmother told me about an incident that happened when family was coming out of theatre after watching Hrishikesk Mukerjhi's 'Satyakam'.My grandmother told me that one of my cousin grandfather commented after watching the grim movie that'We watch movies to better our mood,not to spoil it'.I guess many people echo this feeling even today after watching a serious-hard hitting saga like Gangaajal.

The movie begins with the coming of SP Amit Kumar(Ajay Devgan) to an imaginary town of Tezpur.He is acoompanied by his wife(Gracy Singh).Kumar is very perturbed to see the condition of law-breakers and law-keeperes in this crime filled city.Sadhu Yadav(Mohan Joshi) and his notorious son(Yashpal Sharma) are the self-proclaimed crime kings of the city.They have reduced Tezpur to a corrupt,violent and terrible city.The police officers charcters range from honest Khan(Ayub Khan) to corrupt yet brave Bachcha Yadav(Mukesh Tiwari) to totally corrupt (Akhilendra Mishra).Even the IG(Mohan Agashe) also has close inks with Sadhu.Amit tries to pump life in the dead system and succeeds to an extent.However when angry policemen start giving criminals the punishment they deserve by blinding them in jail(a violent depiction of the Bhagalpur blindings) and pouring acid over them(Gangaajal),the condition goes out of hand.What follows is a series of events which confuse Amit as much as it confuses the viewer as to what is right and what is wrong.While Amit feels that criminals should be dealt strictly,the concept of Gangaajal(acid pouring) is a total no-no.What should be done and what should not be done is the question which keeps lingering in the mind of audience hours after the saga has ended.

To start off with the negative points, it has to be said that the concept of police fighting the criminals has been done to death.Prakash Jha's saga ranges from intense to grim to drag.infact the last half an hour is unecessarily dragged and tests the patience of viewer.Anothet negative point of the movie is that it is too violent.The scenes of policemen blinding the prisoners is chilling but at the same time too gory.The usage of swear words many times in the movie will not be accepted by the family audience.The song sequence looks forced in.

Now the positive points.Prakash Jha's script shows that he has done commendable research on Bihar.Many of the incidents shown in the movie are real and have been handled very ably.Jha's direction is first rate.He has succeeded in giving that rough look and made the movie in a very realistic way.Unlike other cop movies here the hero does not use the barrel till the end as a mean to end the menace.Ajay devgan one again shows his talent as an actor and screen presence as a star.He looks every bit the police supritendent and acts amazingly controlled.The way he uses his eyes,lights his cigaratte and dailogue delivery is absolutely first rate.Mohan Joshi also tries to underplay his character but falls flat.Yashpal Sharma hams.Akhilendra Mishra is hopeless.Mohan Agashe as usual is horrible.Ayub Khan is ok.However after Ajay Devgan if any actor makes an impact it is undoubtedly Mukesh Tiwari.In the role of a police officer Tiwari has given a sterling performance which is award-worthy.

On the whole despite having its set of flaws,Gangaaajal is Still several notches above a normal hindi movie.It is quite capable of creating a controversy for its realism and very capable of getting Jha and Devgan both awards as well as critical acclaim.

Ajay Devgan has another feather to add to his cap of quality movies. He gives an excellent performance. His character of an honest cop trying to stop corruption is quite convincing. Gracy Singh is not bad for the small time she's on screen. The first half of the movie was excellent, but the second became unrealistic. Nonetheless, the possibility of such a society turning 180 degrees is quite fascinating. The ending is abrupt, but by being so, it delivers the theme effectively.