Good News and bad news: Good News: Call or visit your video parlor. Presto.
In all likelihood, English version of SDM is available there in CD/ DVDs for purchase/ rental. Not the poor cam rip but an excellent quality print. No cuts. bad news: It is probably not legal as the film has not got released in India. I don't think it has even got censored so far. But who is complaining??? It is the bad planning of producer that he didn't release the movie so far in Home and people are craving to see it so they would grab the pirated CDs. It would harm the box office collections of the movie when it eventually gets released. -- My CD walah surprised me by giving me SDM CD and I could see the movie in Rs 10 rental. And, in spite of a few weaknesses in the film, that only got even more highlighted to me personally because I have been seen all unqualified praises for the film everywhere. If I have not seen such praises, I would have ignored the script holes and would have liked the movie even more. So, let me give the bad points probably first time on net. But before that, let me assert that it is overall an excellent movie, will keep you engrossed, you heart will cry and laugh with the boy, Dev Jamal Kumar. What a find he is. Probably the first real male talent that has come in 21st century on Indian screen. What an intensity on his face, his eyes pierce you to the core. What a confidence. What a balanced, matter-of-factly dialog delivery. A similar great performance by a kid/ youth was seen last in Zakhm by Kunal. The pent up anger in him reminded me of Amitabh of 30 years ago. Shahid Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor should take acting classes from Dev Kumar. ::SPOILERS ALERT:: His brother Salim has also done well, with a lot of pragmatism and sincerity but the portrayal of his character is sort of confused. The director could decide whether to show him basically good guy or a bad guy, so he kept switching sides and didn't leave the full impact that he could have. his acting is not at all faulty, his characterization is. In the train, Salim didn't save the kid girl and opting to save his own and his brother's life, which is not really a wrong priority, but it is definitely more telling than just selling Amitabh's autograph that his brother has got through a very impractical, creepy route. And, then, when Jamal did find the grown up girl, the elder bro elopes with her and it is alluded to that they made love also. And, then seeing the same girl becoming a slave keep of his goon boss. And then, letting her escape. And killing the bad guy and getting killed himself. If any of you could get the logic of it all, please explain to me also. The characterization of the girl Latika is also lacking. Though she was an introvert girl whose bad childhood would have killed her self respect and courage, so far it was logical, still what made her regain her that confidence didn't get highlighted in the movie. Her acting is also better than average in the sense that several newcomer girls this year (JTJYN, RNBDJ, Ghajini leading gals) have performed superbly, much better than this girl, raising the measuring bar. So, the plus of film is Dev Jamal Kumar and the minus of the film is a patchy script. To link the 20 questions with the biography of the kid/ boy/ guy, the script writer has patched up several unrelated things to put them in the shape of a story. Anyway. The writer himself is a fresh one, yet he shows a lot of promise. Anil Kapoor was a copy of KBC's Amitabh, but was tolerable. Still, his two great ditchings could match the great ditch by Aamir in 1947 Earth, and that is saying something on his great acting that he doesn't give any hint to you how he is going to change masks scene by scene. Now, it is another bad part of script that why he did so was never disclosed to us the viewers. Somewhere his remark that "this is my show" tried to open this angle but was left closed right there at that sentence. And, the Police Imran Inspector and the contable kallo mama were totally redundant in the movie, the worst part of script, as if they were packed in just to let the biography of the guy known to viewers. Jocky handing over the national sensation participant to police on charge of forgery just like that, and they beating him up, even giving electric shock were all cheap, ugly, dirty tricks to psyche the viewers to feel pain for the boy. -- All the choicest Hindi Maa Bahan Abuses are another lowest low of the movie. There should be some law that such a teen-aged kid should not be shown getting abused thusly, that too, by uniform clad government officials. -- If you guys expect a movie with so many script drawbacks to get oscar, it is obvious that your love for ARR has overruled your sense of propriety. If this film gets a nomination, it would become a classroom study case of how poor Indian scripts are written. -- And, the music. The music didn't get highlighted at all in the movie. At certain places BGMs were soothing and captivating, still the non-hindi part of music went above head and below feet. The post-climax fill-up song Jay Ho is well done in music as well as in dance and captures exactly how the viewers were feeling at that juncture, still it was obviously a patch up which added nothing to the story or script. Listening to the audio songs leaves you feeling much better, but you wouldn't even remember which of those songs are in the movie, other than ringa ringa and jay ho. The drawback of jay ho is that its lyrics are not really audible. I am a lyrics man but even i couldn't get exactly what are they speaking after jay ho, and most part in stanzas. The underlying emotion of this song also didn't become apparent to me. It could have been a "survivors' song, it could have been an assertion of the go-get-it, I-will, I-can instincts of Indian teenagers, but all that didn't become apparent and it remainned just a celebration song, san any message. Seems Gulzar has missed on an opportunity of a lifetime. Gulzar in any case is a poet of sentiments and not really a social message man, like Sahir was. I think a P K Mishra/ Mehboob lyrics would have been better suited for this song. -- If watching a film in English is not your idea of having fun, even then you can safely watch it. It is having a lot of hindi, and you would understand the English movie fully well. I would even suggest that you watch English version itself, because I guess that Hindi dubbing would kill several of the audio/ music bits. -- So guys and gals. Hope this criticism would put the film in proper perspective in your mind and after reading above, you would be better placed to like the movie even more, ready to accept these shortfalls. But do see it. It is a lovely movie to see. you can recommend it to anyone. Thanks. -- Rawat
