Sins

Who's watching Mexican cinema now? First Yuva paid "homage " to Amores Perros now it looks like El Crimen de Padre Amaro (with Bernal) has been "reimagined" as Sins. Not that Mexican cinema is the only source for even critically acclaimed films - Bhansali's Black and Khamoshi were both influenced by foreign films. And there are countless other movies that do not register but may well be copied. India may make the highest number of movies every year but its also film-making at its laziest and shoddiest. But Shiny Ahuja is definitely an actor to watch for. He was wonderful in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and one hopes he doesn't get sucked into the Bollywood assembly line.

Imagine a priest preaching about leading a virtuous life and then having a parallel existence defying all the preaching. Its no surprise that all the Christian organizations made so much noise over it!! But it is, by far, the most boldly made movie I have seen from an Indian director/producer. The story line was amazing. Its sad that people would give any amount of money to see SRK say 'K-K-K-Kiran' but no one wants to see a movie where they are portraying a priest and his conflicts between his wants and vows.

Shiny Ahuja does a brilliant performance as the priest. I could not believe that it was actually his first movie! He portrayed all the shades of the character so beautifully. The actress (did not catch her name) was not really that impressive. Nice body... but acting needs to improve a lot. The background score was good too...

I am amused as to why so much noise was made over this movie. Come on, a priest is also a human being. It is just human to slip up and make mistakes. Why do people have to generalize it and protest?? No one said that all priests are like this. It is just the story of one man who obviously was not ready for a life of celibacy. As far as the direction goes, I think Vinod Pande did a terrific job in keeping the movie from becoming just a skin flick. He concentrates on the story line and follows it to completion with amazing grace.

Sins is a good candidate to become a cult movie - something along the lines of Plan Nine From Outer Space. It's so awful that it's actually hilarious. Bad acting made even worse by a dreadful script. I don't understand why the director felt the need to make the movie in English. Why not have Hindi dialogues or maybe Malayalam itself with English subtitles, since the story takes place in Kerala? The base story is not all that bad...it had the potential to be at least a mediocre movie. But somehow it has turned out to be a really terrible one. I would still recommend this to anyone who's looking for a good laugh as long as you don't expect anything more than that. Well, maybe couple of titillating scenes too.

"Sins" presents the darker side of a catholic priest and is bold enough to expose a truth. Perhaps for the reason, the film also got banned. The film shows the evilness of a priest who becomes romantically involved with a lady, gets her pregnant, uses her for his sexual lust, and even commits a murder. Vinod Pande, who in '80s has given off stream movies in the '80s like "Ek Baar Phir" and "Yeh Nazdeekiyan" which both had the extra marital affairs in the centre, narrates the story with the same clarity and tautness. The dialogues are done in a simple English and feels like reading a story, without songs or dance number. Ignoring the controversy or the plagiarism the film got criticized for, the film appears a good effort in terms of its story telling which is clear, colloquial, and scorches the screen with an ugly truth, for which the film can be recommended for the mature viewers, due to its explicit content. There are also flaws in the film, like its slow pace and Shiny Ahuja's performance.

Rating: 2 stars out of 4

If you have seen the Latin American film "The Crime of Father Amaro" you will surely going to get the similarities. The original Argentinian film is much better than this one. Shiny Ahuja is a good actor but the film was not successful. I feel you should watch the Carlos Carrera film "The Crime of Father Amaro"(2002). It is more interesting and has a more complex structure. In both the films there is a young and handsome priest. Who falls in love with a sensual girl in the parish. The girl got pregnant. The priest got confused. He wanted to get rid of it by abortion. In that process the girl got died by excessive bleeding. After watching these two films, I can only say that in this world there is no fixed set of morality. Life is painful.