Directed by : Abhishek Kapoor
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2213054/
The post is full of spoilers, read at your own risk.
'3 Mistakes of my Life' was my 2nd favourite novel from Chetan Bhagat after 'Three Point Somone'. It had everything in it to be converted into a screenplay. Abhishek Kapoor very much gives the early best film of this year.
Cricket, Politics and Love.. three sub-plots intermixed with the main theme 'Friendship'. Govind (Raj Kumar Yadav), Omi (Amit Sadh) and Ishaan (Sushant Singh Rajput) starts a sports shop which also gives training to kids in cricket (other sports wasn't shown but I guess they were also part of their coaching if you recollect 1st scene of movie). Govind is the most responsible among them, except for one mistake that he secretly falls in love with Ishaan's sister Vidya (Amrita Puri) while giving her Maths tution classes. Ishaan is obsessed with a small kid Ali (Digvijay Deshmukh) who at a young age bats like a class batsman. Omi is more of that friend who doesn't have a specific goal, and goes along with others goals. He gets forced into politics by his Mama Bittoo (Manav Kaul) who invested money in the shop these three friends got for themselves.
Both the incidents, Earthquake and Godhra train/Riots is very well captured on the screen by Abhishek Kapoor. He builds the movie on suspense at beginning, unlike novel. The narrative is very much straight to the point, friendship of the three friends isnt built seperately, instead day to day events are used to highlight that aspect. And then, how their friendship overcomes the hurdles and bad moments that occur in their life.
The dialogues are refreshing, and sound very real.. 'main ambani ban jayunga, omi ko cm bana denge.. chal ab rickshaw pakarte hai'.. Also, the use of gujrati at various places in the movie in the dialogues along with the way cinematographer captures the Gujrat place, gives the feel of that place, their people.
Only two problems I had with the film, very minor ones. Vidya's character was used more of to entertain, the way most of her scenes are filmed except for probably the one where she gives advice to Ishaan. I would had liked some more of her scenes with her dad, brother or Govind. Some normal/serious conversation sequence would had been good. Then, the riots sequence.. its the one while reading novel that made me say how wonderful this would look if its filmed. But, Abhishek Kapoor never tried to make that portion dramatic when Ishaan is faced saving Ali, it took almost 5-10 pages before that scene ended in the book. But Kapoor doesn't prefer to go for building tension, instead he wants to do it quickly, probably giving the feel that Omi is going to commit a crime without getting the time to think about how wrong his motives are. I still might had preferred if some drama and tension was built over that sequence, but I don't really mind to see the way Kapoor has done it now. Its simple yet effective.
Amit Trivedi's music is once again something that simply expands the various layers of the movie. Its becoming a habit now to love his music much more with the movie as they compliment the movie in a big way (to director's credit for making best use of the songs too). Shubh Aaarambh was my fav among all, that feel of something good is about to happen now in our lives, start of something real good. With Manja I had just one problem, the singer had to be someone else. Special mention to the great use of dandiya track 'Pari hoon main'.
Hitesh Sonik's background score has to be applauded, he very much brought that extra edge in the emotional tone to the movie. The theme that runs during extreme close up sequences of Omi at start and at climax, was my very favourite.
How Omi objects at entering Ali's house when he comes to know that his Mama's oposition party leader is father of Ali, he quietly declines glass of drink at house handed by Govind. One of my fav scene when Ishaan comes to Omi's work place telling how good Ali is playing, and Omi notices the leader of his own party nearby with whom Ishaan had a fight, and he quickly changes the topic to how the work on shop is going.. Omi asks Ishaan if he would come with him for the Ayodhya yatra, and Ishaan replies 'tu jahan kahega, chal padunga'. That dialogue fits the coming climax so well. Another thing to notice is the friendship Omi and Ishaan share is much more close, then what Govind is with them.
Sushant Singh Rajput was the pick of the actors, confident debut and has a very good screen presence. Despite his own failures, how well he portrayed the father like figure he was to a young kid. Just as Govind says to him in one scene, iss baar peeche mat hattna when Ali accuses Ishaan. How Ishaan works at Ali's weakness, i.e his offside, the scene where he interrupts Govind's tution class, rubs maths equations on blackboard, to draw pitch and teach Ali what shots he should play to improve his off-side. He remains obsessed to such a extent that he stays at Ali's house knowing riots could result in a bad situation, but Ishaan is worried only about the next morning cricket match that Ali needs to play.
RajKumar Yadav was very good, the kanjoos and responsible friend in the group. His track with Vidya was super funny, in almost every scene he looked shy and uncomfortable. He decides to take money out of his quota to sponsor a sunday beer party to his 2 friends, he goes to Ali's house during riots just because Ishaan asked for him to come and he is always on the lookout to make the business of sports shop expand keeping the future market in mind. The frustration and anger he shows, when Ishaan uses his saved money without his permission. He was perfectly cast to play Govind role.
Amit Sadh was the surprise package in the movie, and somehow I felt I would like him a lot because its him who goes to a total transition from a dependable/laidback person to a responsible yet easily manipulated guy, and the crime he would be doing at the end part of story, just too lost in his own emotions not realizing what he is about to do. All his scenes post Earthquake incident made a massive impact. Love the cricket scene where India wins, he shouts and is full of joy but alone.. he decides fuck the fight with Ishaan, its time to celebrate victory, and runs over to shop, the manja song in background, and the two friends re-unite over a Indian win in cricket game. The power of cricket, one could say. During riots sequence, the way he watches his Mama killing people, handing over talvaar to him but he wont kill anyone, just looking at everyone until the rush of blood happens as his Mama dies. The guilt his eyes portrays, when he comes out of jail and looks at Govind, or when Govind introduces his own son 'Ishaan' and Omi just watches for few secs, before going towards him, hugging and crying, as if he has hugged his own friend Ishaan and said 'Sorry for what he had done'. Lastly, the break down Omi has with Vidya, feeling he took away her brother from him. For me, 1st half totally belonged to Sushant Singh Rajput, but 2nd half was more tilted in favour of Amit Sadh.
Among Supporting cast, Amrita Puri, Manav Kaul, Asif Basra and Digivijay Deshmukh were effective, specially Manav who played Omi's Mama, and in the name of helping for money of sports shop, he knew how to make him work for his party and eventually join politics. The way he exaggarated the godhra train incident to the public, referring to 'unhone trains mein nahi, hamare gharo mein aake aag lagayi hai'.
Kai Po Che is a very good movie, full of emotions, and whether you have read Chetan's novel or not, chances are you would end up liking the movie. The bonding of 3 friends has been done many a times in the past, but apart from Meethi Boliyan sequence, there's nothing that would give repititive feeling.
Verdict : MEMORABLE
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2213054/
The post is full of spoilers, read at your own risk.
'3 Mistakes of my Life' was my 2nd favourite novel from Chetan Bhagat after 'Three Point Somone'. It had everything in it to be converted into a screenplay. Abhishek Kapoor very much gives the early best film of this year.
Cricket, Politics and Love.. three sub-plots intermixed with the main theme 'Friendship'. Govind (Raj Kumar Yadav), Omi (Amit Sadh) and Ishaan (Sushant Singh Rajput) starts a sports shop which also gives training to kids in cricket (other sports wasn't shown but I guess they were also part of their coaching if you recollect 1st scene of movie). Govind is the most responsible among them, except for one mistake that he secretly falls in love with Ishaan's sister Vidya (Amrita Puri) while giving her Maths tution classes. Ishaan is obsessed with a small kid Ali (Digvijay Deshmukh) who at a young age bats like a class batsman. Omi is more of that friend who doesn't have a specific goal, and goes along with others goals. He gets forced into politics by his Mama Bittoo (Manav Kaul) who invested money in the shop these three friends got for themselves.
Both the incidents, Earthquake and Godhra train/Riots is very well captured on the screen by Abhishek Kapoor. He builds the movie on suspense at beginning, unlike novel. The narrative is very much straight to the point, friendship of the three friends isnt built seperately, instead day to day events are used to highlight that aspect. And then, how their friendship overcomes the hurdles and bad moments that occur in their life.
The dialogues are refreshing, and sound very real.. 'main ambani ban jayunga, omi ko cm bana denge.. chal ab rickshaw pakarte hai'.. Also, the use of gujrati at various places in the movie in the dialogues along with the way cinematographer captures the Gujrat place, gives the feel of that place, their people.
Only two problems I had with the film, very minor ones. Vidya's character was used more of to entertain, the way most of her scenes are filmed except for probably the one where she gives advice to Ishaan. I would had liked some more of her scenes with her dad, brother or Govind. Some normal/serious conversation sequence would had been good. Then, the riots sequence.. its the one while reading novel that made me say how wonderful this would look if its filmed. But, Abhishek Kapoor never tried to make that portion dramatic when Ishaan is faced saving Ali, it took almost 5-10 pages before that scene ended in the book. But Kapoor doesn't prefer to go for building tension, instead he wants to do it quickly, probably giving the feel that Omi is going to commit a crime without getting the time to think about how wrong his motives are. I still might had preferred if some drama and tension was built over that sequence, but I don't really mind to see the way Kapoor has done it now. Its simple yet effective.
Amit Trivedi's music is once again something that simply expands the various layers of the movie. Its becoming a habit now to love his music much more with the movie as they compliment the movie in a big way (to director's credit for making best use of the songs too). Shubh Aaarambh was my fav among all, that feel of something good is about to happen now in our lives, start of something real good. With Manja I had just one problem, the singer had to be someone else. Special mention to the great use of dandiya track 'Pari hoon main'.
Hitesh Sonik's background score has to be applauded, he very much brought that extra edge in the emotional tone to the movie. The theme that runs during extreme close up sequences of Omi at start and at climax, was my very favourite.
How Omi objects at entering Ali's house when he comes to know that his Mama's oposition party leader is father of Ali, he quietly declines glass of drink at house handed by Govind. One of my fav scene when Ishaan comes to Omi's work place telling how good Ali is playing, and Omi notices the leader of his own party nearby with whom Ishaan had a fight, and he quickly changes the topic to how the work on shop is going.. Omi asks Ishaan if he would come with him for the Ayodhya yatra, and Ishaan replies 'tu jahan kahega, chal padunga'. That dialogue fits the coming climax so well. Another thing to notice is the friendship Omi and Ishaan share is much more close, then what Govind is with them.
Sushant Singh Rajput was the pick of the actors, confident debut and has a very good screen presence. Despite his own failures, how well he portrayed the father like figure he was to a young kid. Just as Govind says to him in one scene, iss baar peeche mat hattna when Ali accuses Ishaan. How Ishaan works at Ali's weakness, i.e his offside, the scene where he interrupts Govind's tution class, rubs maths equations on blackboard, to draw pitch and teach Ali what shots he should play to improve his off-side. He remains obsessed to such a extent that he stays at Ali's house knowing riots could result in a bad situation, but Ishaan is worried only about the next morning cricket match that Ali needs to play.
RajKumar Yadav was very good, the kanjoos and responsible friend in the group. His track with Vidya was super funny, in almost every scene he looked shy and uncomfortable. He decides to take money out of his quota to sponsor a sunday beer party to his 2 friends, he goes to Ali's house during riots just because Ishaan asked for him to come and he is always on the lookout to make the business of sports shop expand keeping the future market in mind. The frustration and anger he shows, when Ishaan uses his saved money without his permission. He was perfectly cast to play Govind role.
Amit Sadh was the surprise package in the movie, and somehow I felt I would like him a lot because its him who goes to a total transition from a dependable/laidback person to a responsible yet easily manipulated guy, and the crime he would be doing at the end part of story, just too lost in his own emotions not realizing what he is about to do. All his scenes post Earthquake incident made a massive impact. Love the cricket scene where India wins, he shouts and is full of joy but alone.. he decides fuck the fight with Ishaan, its time to celebrate victory, and runs over to shop, the manja song in background, and the two friends re-unite over a Indian win in cricket game. The power of cricket, one could say. During riots sequence, the way he watches his Mama killing people, handing over talvaar to him but he wont kill anyone, just looking at everyone until the rush of blood happens as his Mama dies. The guilt his eyes portrays, when he comes out of jail and looks at Govind, or when Govind introduces his own son 'Ishaan' and Omi just watches for few secs, before going towards him, hugging and crying, as if he has hugged his own friend Ishaan and said 'Sorry for what he had done'. Lastly, the break down Omi has with Vidya, feeling he took away her brother from him. For me, 1st half totally belonged to Sushant Singh Rajput, but 2nd half was more tilted in favour of Amit Sadh.
Among Supporting cast, Amrita Puri, Manav Kaul, Asif Basra and Digivijay Deshmukh were effective, specially Manav who played Omi's Mama, and in the name of helping for money of sports shop, he knew how to make him work for his party and eventually join politics. The way he exaggarated the godhra train incident to the public, referring to 'unhone trains mein nahi, hamare gharo mein aake aag lagayi hai'.
Kai Po Che is a very good movie, full of emotions, and whether you have read Chetan's novel or not, chances are you would end up liking the movie. The bonding of 3 friends has been done many a times in the past, but apart from Meethi Boliyan sequence, there's nothing that would give repititive feeling.
Verdict : MEMORABLE
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