Hmmph

...Yahaan, a movie by Shoojit Sircar, for once is handled better in the second half of the film and ended conclusively without maudlin through other issues.

Directed by a first time director with superb cinematography, this blue tinted film makes Kashmir quite lilting. This Kashmir is different from Mani Ratnam's Roja or even Chopra's Mission Kashmir. Not too many colours are used and the blue tint throughout is reminiscent of something dark and cold and wet.

The music by Shantanu Moitra, close on the heels of Parineeta, show tremendous scope for great stuff in his next works.

The love story is based in insurgency laden Kashmir and starts off innoucously enough to make you smile. A love that grows on the back on responsibility and cups of kahwah and musical giggles, makes little sense, especially with infernal college boys sitting behind you who giggle more than you could have imagined! Uff

Till the intermission the story fails to capture the viewer and I was mostly enjoying the phtography, music and other glimpses of Kashmir. Post intermission, the story becomes taut. Weaves together all the earlier loopholes with some good performances and sadly Jimmy Shergill is not of them.

Practically every problem that has arisen in Kashmir and that has made to the papers, was included in the film. Atrocities of the army (which was requistitely painted like a villain instead of blanketing the entire army), taking over a place of worship, using the media to solve problem (Ha!), killings in ceremonies, killing kids....

This was perhaps one film on the Kashmir issue where there was not (too much) any name calling..Good actors like Yashpal Sharma made the cause and its fight believable. The whole film on the whole dealt very maturely. The only huge gaping flaw would be the love story.

A guy falling in love is believable but the whole backdrop was not justified enough. That to me, rankled. Most people I know from the forces background and who have heard of this film, find it a huge disrepancy from how things actually are. But then there is something to be said for artistic licenses right?

This could have been Jimmy Shergill's make or break role. Unfortunately he has not managed to do justice to it. He looks severe, austere and fierce in parts but his dialogue was middlin to poor so well he as a peace maker, needs more work. The new girl is good in parts and melodramatic in others but that could have been as a result of the role. The supporting cast is quite strong and it shows.

Its worth watching for the music, photography and a sometime hot looking Shergill.