Review: Filmistaan: It's more than India-Pakistan enmity! ****/5

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FILMISTAAN: ****/5

          I was quite confused about what to watch first. I decided to go with Filmistaan while I kept Holiday on a hold for few more hours. The kind of wonders Filmistaan is doing with the help of word-of-mouth is amazing. Film has already been appreciated by many in last 2 years. Let me introduce the movie to you before beginning with the review:- 

     

     Filmistaan is a 2013 Indian film written & directed by Nitin Kakkar. The film was screened at the Busan International Film Festival, the Mumbai Film Festival, and the International Film Festival of Kerala,where it won the The Silver Crow Pheasant Award for Best Debut Film in International Film Festival of Kerala. The film bagged the Best Feature Film in Hindi in the 60th National Film Awards 2012. The film was also screened at 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival, California. 23rd TROMSO International Film Festival, Norway. 36th Goteborg International Film Festival, Sweden. And 5th Jaipur International Film Festival. 

PLOT:- In Mumbai, affable Bollywood buff and wanna-be-actor Sunny, who works as an assistant director, fantasizes on becoming a heart-throb star. However, at every audition he is summarily thrown out. Undeterred, he goes with an American crew to remote areas in Rajasthan to work on a documentary. One day an Islamic terrorist group kidnaps him for the American crew-member. Sunny finds himself on enemy border amidst guns and pathani-clad guards, who decide to keep him hostage until they locate their original target. The house in which he is confined belongs to a Pakistani, whose trade stems from pirated Hindi films, which he brings back every time he crosses the border. Soon, the two factions realize that they share a human and cultural bond. The film shows how cinema can be the universal panacea for co-existence.

       

   Nitin Kakkar has created magic with his pen and direction. Right from the first scene to the end, the film will engage you completely. Sharib Hashmi makes you roll out with laughter every time he is on the screen. Every dialogue ensures that it will add up something to the movie. Sharib Hashmi, the lead actor, is also the one who have written dialogues. He is the "jaan" of the movie. Every time he mimics a Bollywood actor, you will find that it's not an imitation of being a stand-up comedian but more than that. The facial expressions of Sharib Hashmi speaks more than his words in the movie. Background music of the movie is well synchronized with the screenplay. Few songs that comes at the right time are also kept short which keeps the substance of the movie alive. 

           A movie that shows the lead actor being kept hostage by the Pakistan-based terrorists, what would you expect out of it? Politics. Blood. Shootouts. Murder etc. But the unpredictable fun that this movie delivers after Sunny, the protagonist, is been kidnapped is what makes Filmistaan not just an ordinary movie. It shows how cinema connects Indians and Pakistanis together in spite of all the hatred they have for each other. A scene where India-Pakistan finale match's commentary is been heard shows the kind of emotions people have whenever such sports are been played between these two countries. Another powerful scene happens just after that when Sunny holds the camera when Mehmood is about to throw it. It shows the passion that the artist has for his creation and the instruments that helps him achieve the sanctity in the passion. In the end, I would also like to mention all the other actors- Inaamulhaq as Altaaf, Kumud Mishra as Mehmood and Gopal Dutt as Jawwad. All of them played their parts equally well. Please watch this movie before it is out of the cinema hall. It deserves to be seen. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!