Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai

Albert Pinto(Naseeruddin Shah) is a man with anger issues. He gets angry on almost every other issue. Reason for albert's anger is not shown exactly but we can easily guess why he is so angry at every other issue. It's because of the social issue, hardship from which a middle class man's family has to go through. The economic inequalities, the fight for survival, the difference between privileged and underprivileged. The film is basically a portyal of a man who is just angry from everything happening around him.

This movie does not aim for the reason or the solution or raises any question with its narrative, its rather the sketch of a person named Albert Pinto and his family which seems so real and you really get an sketch of middle class life in Mumbai around the 80's.

This movie is like showcase of talents. You see Nasseruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Dilip Dhawan, Smita Patil, Satish Shah, all the actors in their early days and its so good to see how natural were they even back then.

Naseruddin Shah was no where in the movie, all we can see was Albert Pinto. He was so much convincing. Other than him, I really liked Dilip Dhawan, altough in a limited role. His earlier movies were so much promising and he delivered strong performances in almost every movie.

The movie points out many social, economic and moral issues in the story line up. Somewhere it will make you think.

You can list this movie as one of the important movie in Indian cinema. A rare gem.

If you watch this movie with the hope that it will unravel some secret aspect of Albert's life to you which will explain all his anger, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment. This movie is not about the person Albert Pinto, but rather its a socio-political statement on middle-class life in Mumbai during the 70s. In some ways, there is no plot. Its a sketch of family ups and downs, mostly downs. But its a very honest and terse sketch. Lots of good actors and realistic acting in the movie give it a very non-filmy feel. I specially liked the characterization of the women - played by Shabana and Smita. Very strong and opinionated and hardy. I suppose that the broad message of the movie is that the average man in those days was generally speaking angry because society holed him into only that slot.

'Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai' revolves around the Pintos and the people connected to them. There's Albert who's pretty much angry at everybody. His brother Dominic who thinks it's better to be jobless than to work an underpaid job, his patient sister Joan who works at a sarishop, his independent girlfriend Stella who feels under-appreciated by her boyfriend, his father and his colleagues, client and Stella's family. The film is very much a social commentary about Middle-class life in Bombay during the late 70s and the conflicts arising in the labour force because workers were getting severely underpaid. Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kundan Shah don't follow a story with a distinct resolution. It's more of a collage with the Pinto family at the center and how the conflict in labour force affects them and the people around them. The writers give it a touch of comedy satire but they're also serious about making a relevant point. Akhtar Mirza succeeds in his approach to bringing the story to screen. Naserrudin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Arvind Deshpande, Sulabha Deshpande and Om Puri deliver outstanding performances. I particularly liked Smita's straight to the point Joan who has to live with a physical handicap and yet she manages to keep her head high and go to work. While everyone around her is either worried or in chaos, she remains calm and patient and has the answer to all questions.

This is a slow movie depicting life style of average christian in commercial Indian society of early 80s. The time set of the movie is that of the great strike in the city of Bombay. Apart from an insight into the life style and the nature of the city itself, there is very little for a viewer to find out of the exact life of the christians in India.

Probably, the biggest contribution of this movie is the name "Albert Pinto". You would find references of this name in many other occasions, most of the times mockingly, often targeted towards a short-tempered man.

In my venture of discovering the gems of yesteryear and also, in this particular case, to find the legend behind the legacy, I watched this movie with great anticipation. And as one of the other reviewers has said in this forum, I was disappointed because of my wrong expectations. The movie is more of a mockumentary on the socio-economy situation of 70s/80s Bombay especially the life and strives of working class people, than a full-fledged movie with a plot exploring the idiosyncrasies of the hotheaded Abert Pinto. It's not that the movie didn't have any characters. Rather, it had many parts enacted by the legends of parallel cinema in India, the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Om Puri, et al. But, most of the characters are underdeveloped, solely because the intent of the movie has never been to tell a story, rather to depict life in its rawest form, in the slums, in the garages, in the mills of Bombay. Be it economic exploitation of the under-privileged by the capitalists, or the sexual abuse faced by the working women by the unscrupulous bosses, or the rise of mafia and paid-goondas in order to curb the rising rebellions, or the constant striving of the young men chasing dollar dreams, or amidst all these chaos how existence holds on to equanimity – the movie chooses carefully not portray any biased picture, but to present to the spectators the true sense of life and struggle. The movie doesn't show anything that we don't see in our everyday life – and that's simultaneously the plus and the minus of the movie.

Unfortunately, the movie doesn't fulfill the huge expectations I had. If you really love it, probably you belong to the intellectual class who appreciate movies on various other aspects than mere story or performances. If you are looking for only entertainment, stay away.