Movie Review : Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi...

[ Ok Sarat, you have forced my hand...I have been planning this for god knows how long, but been putting it off, 'cos I thought it might be drain me, mentally, to analyze this movie...but now that you have gone ahead and put up your thoughts on it, I shall relent and put up mine ! (Of course, I just took the liberty of "borrowing" the Mirza Ghalib couplet from your blog...while it is freely available online...I was just too lazy to search.)

Spoiler warning: although not much that can be a spoiler in this movie, as everyone probably goes away with a different thought, each time...I usually dislike talking about movie/book endings but somehow my thoughts on this movie would be incomplete and left wanting unless I can talk about it completely...and while I may delve into detailed story-telling at times...it usually is to make a point...maybe not immediately, but ultimately...so, have patience and read at your own risk ! ]

What can I say about Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi ("a thousand desires")? Should I shower Sudhir Mishra with laurels for making a movie that many consider one of the best movies to come out of "bollywood" in a long time ? Did he really intend to capture the angst of youth, the hypocrisy of the times, the moral, ethical and personal characterisations of his protagonists, or were they just side-effects of a brilliant script ? Of course, I am getting way ahead over here...

What is the movie about ? Hmmm....I have different answers, depending on who you are...

• If you have not seen the movie : Well, the movie is about a time in our history that some call shameful and some call historic....the emergency. It intersperses the lives of three characters from varied backgrounds, with varied concepts of life, success, ethics and most importantly ideologies. The movie makes subtle political and social statements, while all the time it keeps you gripped with the events in the lives of these three people...all in all, it could be called a political movie, a movie about personal and social convictions and a work of art...
• If you have seen the movie or have read the above paragraph : Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi is a story of three people at a certain point of time in Indian history. Simple. Nothing more can be said.
  

Siddharth Tyabji (portrated by Kay Kay Menon), is the son of a wealthy judge, who starts out in the movie as an idealist, social reformist, who thinks he can change the world we live in...


Geeta Rao (portrayed by Chitrangadha Singh) ,starts out as a middle-class, English-educated south-Indian girl, who doesn't care much for ideologies or political situations, except for the fact that she is deeply in love with Siddharth.


Vikram (portrayed by Shiney Ahuja) is in my opinion the most interesting character of all...he is the son of an impoverished Gandhian, but he turns out to be of the practical bent of mind...all that he cares about is advancement in life and making money, without as much as a bother about how it gets done...he can be called a practicalist. But what brings him into the mix, is his unrequited love for Geeta !

[ Hold on, you scream...is that what all of this comes down to ? A love-trilogy set in a political environment that goes bad ? A rehash of Haasil ? While that in itself is another interesting movie, the answer is a frank NO ! ]

Siddharth jumps right into his social reform mode by indulging in cleaning up the ills of the caste system in rural Bihar...Geeta gets into a farce of a marriage but is shown throwing social mores to the wind when she travels to the jungles for secret rendezevous with her lover...Vikram on the other hand, stays steadfast in his convictions about making money and rising in the world, all the while carrying a flame for Geeta. What I find interesting about the Vikram character, is his will to succeed at all costs...he is shown to start off by being friendly with the head honchos (Randhir Singh character) of the youth congress...then he doesn't mind using the name and family connections of Siddarth (calling himself a friend of Siddharth) to set up a meeting with the Finance minister, while in reality he detests Siddarth's card-carrying philosophies (this scene, though very important in my opinion, can almost be missed and mistaken as being out of place, if one isn't paying attention)...all the while though, he seems to be the only one who sticks by his convictions...that of personal gain. and believe it or not...sentiment...he continues to support his friend Randhir Singh, albeit secretly, even when he switches parties and loyalties.

Some of the best parts about the movie are the subtle, yet strong statements made in the background....they can almost be missed or even dismissed if one is not paying attention, or watching the movie for the first time...statements in the form of words, images, background, attire, characterisation, etc. -- statements about some of the most revered and notorious people to have graced the spectrum of Indian political history. The brilliance of the script actually lies in these details.

The ending...what can one say about the ending...let me summarise about what happens to the main three...

Siddharth : recognizes the futility and error of his ideological ways and abandons his "social" causes and decides to go to England to study medicine...

Geeta : although she had started out just tagging along with Siddarth, becomes the person with a real social conviction, and decides to stay on and help reform the rural coutryside...

Vikram : In a fit of what some of us might describe as stupid sentimentality, especially for Geeta's feelings...decides to personally take it upon himself to rescue Siddharth, and ends up being beaten to an inch of his life by some country hicks posing as cops, and becomes an invalid...unable to probably even carry a single train of thought...and Geeta ends up caring for him !

Noone of them ends up as he/she started...this probably shows us the vagaries of life...one cannot hang onto a single cause for life...especially when the cause might be a misguided one. and love and respect are perhaps fleeting, ephemeral feelings...the movie certainly has dark undertones...with reality landing on the viewers with in crushing waves...as is evident in one disturbing scene where Vikram gets some bad treatment by the cops, or the sight of the bodies of lower-caste men hanging from a tree, while the upper-caste folks who killed them sit around the tree and discuss a movie plot...

Each time I watch the movie, I seem to gather a new insight - about people, about politics, about society, about personal convictions, about life in India itself...

So you see why I decided to stick with...

"it's a story about three people at a certain point of time in Indian history. Simple. Nothing more can be said."

That's what it really is after all...perhaps I can add that it could be the story of the coming of age of the the first generation born in an independant India.

To quote Mirza Ghalib (who's couplet gives the movie its title)...

"Hazaaron khwahishein aisi
ki har khwahish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan
lekin phir bhi kam nikle"

Well...read Sarat's interpretation of it too...interesting to say the least.