AAMIR-Best Debut of an Actor and Director

Saturday 6th June 2008 17.00 IST

Rony D'Costa

Just like the rains bringing in some relief from the blistering heat of summer, Aamir wipes out the drought that Hindi cinema has been suffering for the past 5 months. Lovers of good cinema rejoice. The script is the backbone of any film & this film will reinforce your belief in good scripts. It is rumored to be inspired by a Philippine film Cavite. I haven't seen it so that saves me from comparing the two. Even Bheja Fry was a remake of The Dinner Game. So what, as long as the film is good, from where & how you one derives inspiration does not matter.

Aamir is a well written film. It takes you into the middle of the story right from the beginning. As soon as Peggy Lane starts singing "It's a beautiful day" you know it's going to be quite the opposite, you also know that this film will be "different". Syd field says in his book on Script Writing that an audience decides in the first 10 mins of the film whether they like the film or not. You will like Aamir 5 mins into the film. It's a difficult film to write because the film is set on the streets. Bombay is an important character in the film. Locations are the supporting actors. All credit to writer Rajkumar Gupta for having written a film like this. But, if he really was inspired by Cavite why didn't he acknowledge it. What I didn't like about the script is that it does not explain why Rajeev was chosen to do what could have been done by anybody from the terrorist group? This is an important link which the script misses out on.

Rajkumar delivers a slap on many debutant film makers. This is the kind of debut the audience is expecting. Solid, confident, passionate. He is ably supported by the lead actor Rajeev Khadelwal. Aamir literally means Leader & Rajeev leads the film as an actor. The most powerful debut by an actor in a long long time. He makes you go through the emotional graph of the character from the beginning till the end. The supporting characters are so perfectly cast & enacted that they bring respect to the credit called "supporting cast".

Music director Amit Trivedi has composed a soundtrack aimed straight at your soul. The theme track resembles the track from Requiem for a Dream though. Amitabh Varma comes up with some fantastic lyrics after Life...In a Metro. The background score by Amit Trivedi is a lesson for the likes of Salim-Suleiman & Amar Mohile. Editing by Aarti Bajaj is seamless. Her style reminds me of Renu Saluja, who according to me was one of the most fantastic editors in the industry. The real star of the film though is ALPHONSE ROY. Without his cinematography the film wouldn't be what it is. He adds soul to the film. If the film gets gets nominated for awards, the categories should be Best actor, best director, best cinematography, best editing, best script, best music, and best lyrics. When the nomination list is announced next year if you find these 7 nominations missing, you can stop believing in awards.

Final Few Words: Put this film on your must watch list. It's by far the best film of the year 2008. Watch it. If you like it, recommend it your friends, family & enemies. And please don't watch it on pirated dvd's or vcd's. Independent cinema needs your money to make more Aamir's.