Atul Sabharwal 2013 India
Starring: Arjun Kapoor, Prithviraj Sukumaran, Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor, Amrita Singh, Sasha Agha, Sumeet Vyas, Sikander Kher, Tanvi Azmi, Anupam Kher
In purely cinematic terms Bollywood has several recurring themes but perhaps the three biggest are policemen, brothers (frequently opposing one another) and a surprisingly forward-thinking compassion for topical issues and those on the wrong side of the accepted law for an area and a country often seen as powerfully traditional. The 1957 classic Mother India for example turned its single-parent protagonist into a moral heroine and the very epitome of a strong, independent woman while 2012's Chakravyuh took as one of its targets the rape of a woman in custody by a policeman and largely sided with the Naxalite guerrillas battling the constabulary. Atul Sabharwal's Aurangzeb makes use of all three with its story of the interlinking fates of two families, the criminal empire headed by veteran actor Jackie Shroff and the police unit trying to take them down. The twist however is that Shroff is treated as a sympathetic, misunderstood, slightly tragic figure, visibly stinging with the loss of his past, and his spoilt, pointlessly violent son is shown to be an ultimately redeemable victim of his limitless upbringing and his father's grasping paramour. On the flipside Rishi Kapoor's head of the 'good' household is rotten to the core and the first description of him reveals him to be a "collection agent", basically running a protection racket, something his nephew admits he himself has been doing unquestioningly since he was a schoolboy. Really the only wholly good character within the latter is uniform officer Vishnu and he is easily fooled, struck down and disposed of for daring to be principled. Brothers too are well represented with three different sets, twins (although at the beginning of the film neither is aware of the other's existence) Ajay and Vishal, a collection of brothers-in-law and, in a imaginative variation, a pair linked by the man who sired one and raised the other. Playing the identical siblings is Arjun Kapoor, an actor whose work has been of vastly differing quality in recent times. In the mostly banal 2 States he was categorically bland and as bad as the film whereas in Gunday he gave one of my favourite performances of this year despite being let down by wildly racist material so this is sort of a decisive portrayal for me. Happily he's cracking, sometimes as the thoughtful Vishal, sometimes as the rash, brash and brattish Ajay, in some scenes he's Vishal in the guise of Ajay, in others he faces off with himself in a confrontation between the two. Shroff meanwhile is understated and compelling, his depth of emotion balancing out Sikander Kher's most excessive and, in truth, mildly ridiculous moments so they never feel mismatched alongside more sedate others. Able support comes from Malayalam star Prithviraj Sukumaran as conflicted cop Arya, industry stalwarts Rishi Kapoor, Amrita Singh and Anupam Kher (the latter of whom Western audiences may recognise from his role in David O. Russell's tiring miscalculation Silver Linings Playbook) and the debuting Sasha Agha, whose brilliant work here bodes very well for her future career and the viewer's future happiness. As it happens director Atul Sabharwal is also relatively inexperienced, having been a minor writer for several years before taking the helm on a TV series but he too shows great promise, not only working well in genre but also having the intelligence and courage to defy the norm when necessary by keeping the histrionics to a minimum and allowing the dramatic abilities of his actors to dominate. If he has a failing though it lays in his cramming a million details into his couple of hours like an excited child desperate not to forget anything. I never thought I'd complain about a Bollywood film being too short but Sabharwal could really do with an extra half-hour to allow his plot developments to settle and sink in before he moves on. Still it's a stonking first attempt and only makes me want more. He's finished a great gangster picture, now I want to see his romantic epic, his grand melodrama, his riotous comedy, his Western. I want to see his work improve, grow and continue for years to come.
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