Deshdrohi is a phenomenon: A movie un-review

Every now and then there comes a movie that is so much more than moving images on a sheet of fabric - it’s a phenomenon. It’s a work of art that breaks all barriers and sets new standards of filmmaking. Its dialogs adorn the lexicons of the language of its times. It’s plot, characters jump out of the screen and reside in the memories of its audience like real incidents, real people. It can bring about change - in people’s beliefs, lifestyle, ambitions, imaginations, and in fact shape culture. It becomes a relic of our times.

When I look back at the 20 odd years of my life, The Matrix comes across as the foremost contender for such a phenomenon. Closer to home, it’s definitely DDLJ (before you throw bricks at me for saying this, try to see how DDLJ, more than any other film of our generation, has affected us).

Two days back, I came face to face with another such phenomenon - DESHDROHI. A magnum opus par excellence by Kamaal R Khan (KRK).

The bias media has done its best to ensure that the film is ridiculed by our people because the media makes its money from the SRKs and Aamirs and Kareenas. I’m sure that most of you, influenced by the bias media, decided to give the film a miss and are probably laughing at me for calling this film a phenomenon. But I have my reasons to call it so:

It’s a work of art that breaks all barriers and sets new standards of filmmaking

• Deshdrohi, first of all, is an environment friendly film. It accomplishes its green mission by recycling 30 year old, largely defunct cameras to shoot the film, instead of using new ones. This is a first of its kind initiative and a lesson for all other filmmakers who ignore the environment. Tech garbage is fast becoming an environmental hazard.
• Deshdrohi was made with complete safety of the crew in mind, something that has been often compromised in our industry. If any of you have seen any behind the scenes shoots, you must have seen those tracks and cranes for panning and zooming shots. Now they are extremely dangerous - the camera trolley may derail, or the cameraman may fall off the crane. To ensure the crew’s safety, the Deshdrohi team decided to forgo these risky setups, as evident from a scene where it’s clear from the shaking picture that the cameraman is on foot.
• Deshdrohi cared about grooming our country’s future rather than relying on experts for everything. The random split second shots appearing out of nowhere and broken, incomplete scenes indicate that editing was done by a 5 year old playing with scissors for the first time. This is a welcome change for an industry that believes in just hiring the best people to make films. Hats off.
• Deshdrohi dares to show reality. This reality is most glaring in the choreography. Instead of having unrealistic dance-steps no common man would ever do, the choreographers have chosen real life dance-steps straight out of the books of the lads who dance in front of a Hindu baraat. To his credit, KRK dances to these steps exceedingly well, a complete natural. Watch out Roshan boy!
• Deshdrohi sets new benchmarks in acting and appropriate casting. KRK, not only looks the part of a 20 something college boy, he delivers a consistent performance throughout. His performance is consistent in that he handles a gamut of emotions - love, anger, friendship, disgust, guilt with the same expressionless face and monotonic delivery. Such a consistency is rare in today’s hype driven actors. He is more than ably supported by a stellar cast that includes Gracy Singh, Zulfikar Sayed, Hrishita Bhatt (marry me), and the Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari. Gracy Singh as the bike driving local goon; Zulfi as the hard-as-concrete, no-nonsense cop; Hrishita as the girl falling head over heals for KRK; and Manoj Tiwari as the city’s most feared sharpshooter fit their parts to the T and deliver a knock-out performance.
• Deshdrohi takes action to a whole new level. I am sure it’ll do what The Matrix did for action in Hollywood. Manoj Tiwari’s athleticism deserves special mention. Watch him in that scene where he jumps in that pool to beat up a goon. The amount of water that splashes out of the pool is a testimony to the guy’s action skills. Even Gracy Singh surprises with some never-seen-before action sequences. Take her entry scene for example. Baddies are tormenting a pan-wala. Gracy Singh enters riding a motorbike, stops about 100 feat from the baddies, and throws her helmet at the baddy leader, pushing him about 10 feet back. Whoa! Real star, however, is KRK. Imagine this - KRK is hounded by baddies and one such baddy is at a distance, holding a gun. What does KRK do? Slide up to the baddy on his knees and puch him in the crotch. Breathtaking stuff!!
• Deshdrohi, lastly, is a milestone in VFX technology. Two scenes deserve special mention. One is where Hrishita Bhatt confesses to KRK that she is truly madly deeply in love with him. Another one is where Gracy Singh’s aunt tells KRK that he is exactly like the prince charming she had been imagining for her dear niece. These scenes were, beyond doubt, filmed with Hrishita and the aunt in front of a green screen with KRK added in through VFX. It’s impossible to enact such a scene with seriousness otherwise.

Its dialogs would adorn the lexicons of the language of our time

If you’ve watched the trailers of Deshdrohi, you would have seen a glimpse of the pen magic at work in the film. Here are some dialogs from the film that are sure to make you stand up and applaud the wordsmiths responsible:

• KRK, to a politician he is about to shoot - “Nathu Ram Godse ki kya majboori thi ki usne Gandhi ko maara? Koi nahin.. lekin main majboor hoon. Mujhe aapko maarna padega!”
• KRK, introducing Gracy to a politician - “Yeh meri premika hai!”
• Zulfi, insulting KRK upon the later’s request to free Gracy - “Tu Raja se bikhari ban gaya?” (KRK’s character’s name is Raja)
• KRK, in response to the above - “Hey inspector, mera naam Raj Kumar Yadav hai, aur Yadav hamesha Raja hota hai, kabhi bikhari nahin hota!” (with all the reservation going on, the man has a point)
• KRK, regretting killing a goon in self defence - “Main use maarne se pehle mar kyon nahin gaya?” (Erm, well you did have the choice!)
• KRK returns home late after spending the night with friends at an item song. His grand-dad, Avtar Gill is wide awake. When KRK asks him why he hadn’t slept yet, Gill says - “Neend to aankhon ko aati hai beta. Jis ghar ka jawaan ladka raat raat bhar ghar na aaye, wahan aankhen to ghar ke bahar raah dekhti hain. Unme need kaise aayegi?”
• Mukesh Tiwari has held Gracy hostage and has promised to release her if KRK kills the food minister. When KRK suspects that Tiwari may not keep his side of the promise, Tiwari assures KRK - “Main use jis kamre mein band karoonga, uski chaabi tumhare paas rahegi!” (Erm.. ok!)

Now these are just some of the gems that I remember. Trust me, there are many more. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself using them in real life.

It’s plot, characters jump out of the screen and reside in the memories of its audience like real incidents, real people

• Deshdrohi is about a man Raja (played by KRK) from UP/Bihar who comes to Bombay accidently and is a subject of much humiliation at the hands of the Mumbaiites. He decides to take them on and later becomes a pawn at the hands of the corrupt politicians and the underworld, who are essentially the same thing. Eventually though, he cleans them up better than Lizol floor cleaner. He changes clothes at whim, even though he arrived in Mumbai sans luggage, money. He can walk into the food minister’s office with a gun under his plastered hand and he can breach high level security of the Vice Chief Minister of the state with a gun held in hand. He can get a whole police force to put their guns down and make a politician confess his crimes on national TV by threatening to blow everyone up by detonating a plastic bomb he is wearing on his belt. Now, how can these characters and situations not be real? How can Raja be fictitious?

It can bring about change - in people’s beliefs, lifestyle, ambitions, imaginations, and in fact shape culture

I don’t know about others but the film definitely changed me

• KRK as the lead actor showed me that no dream is too small. If he can be a lead hero in a bollywood film, then I can become the captain of the Indian cricket team too - someday, someday. I had totally given up on this ambition of mine, but now I feel I can do it.
• Hrishita Bhatt (again, I repeat, marry me) falling head over heals for KRK changed my belief that I cannot get a good looking, sane girl to ever love me. It also strengthened my belief that most good looking girls are retarded.
• A couple of scenes in the film changed my belief that the brother-sister relationship is forever. I no longer see my sisters in the same light as before. Consider this - early in the film Gracy Singh’s brother gets shot in the chest. She leaves him for dead after some sob comments about sacrifice and runs away with KRK. Later in the film KRK gets shot, twice in the chest. Gracy somehow manages to find a pull-cart and carries KRK to the hospital. There he is saved by the doctors. Whoa.. sisters..!! My eves have been opened. This Rakhi wow for protection is a strictly one way affair.
• Lastly, the film changed me at a philosophical level. For the last few days, I had been wasting a lot of time, spending away precious moments that I am going to regret on my deathbed. But I wasn’t realizing my mistake. After sitting through this film for two and a half hours, I realized that I was wasting time on absolutely trashy things. I now want to spend my time wisely. I can’t say exactly which part of the film gave me this realization. It was more like an epiphany after the film as I was riding back home.

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So well, my friends, I hope I need no more arguments to prove that Deshdrohi is indeed a phenomenon. It has every characteristic that makes films phenomena. If you have not seen the film just because you are influenced by others, or because it is banned in your place, do the world a favor - go watch the film and be a part of this phenomenon. Years later, your children, grandchildren would envy us for having lived in a time this film was released, just like we envy those who lived when Elvis was alive or when Star Wars was made. You don’t want to be regretting then. You don’t want to tell them you did not see this film!! They’ll laugh at you, just like you were laughing at me earlier.

(Courtesy of this review : http://www.citehr.com/135595-deshdrohi-phenomenon-movie-un-review.html)