Indian

I went into the theatre thinking this was a 4k remastered re-release and not just simply releasing before the sequel. If there was any remastering done on this, it seems terrible. Even without my experience as a QC tech for films, I could've noticed a lot of digital conversion errors in it, just wouldn't know what those things were. There were also a lot of places where the picture quality dropped drastically. Did they lose all the good film prints or something? There were some scenes where the vfx was clearly the reason why the picture quality was dropping too.

Coming to the movie itself, even though I've never watched the movie itself, I've always kind of known the story and have seen some scenes here and there. So it was a surprise that most of the good parts of the movie were actually everything I already knew and the rest was pretty shallow and cringe. So, the movie was actually even more outdated than I thought it would be. The comedy scenes don't work. The music is out of place and not exactly for my taste. But even after saying all this, I can't say I didn't enjoy the movie. A lot of it was like watching Annyan before Annyan, so got to give credit for that. Kamal Hassan has an effect that just makes everything better. It is a proper masala film of the time that is beautiful to look at. Even though the songs didn't have a place, it was really nice to watch on the big screen.

The best portion of the movie has got to be the pre-independence flashback scenes. Even though those scenes were also over the top, they still felt more genuine than the younger Kamal Haasan scenes in the movie. It was also good at showing things daringly within limits and even though the dialogues said some things, the visuals communicated it to be more which worked great. The character motivations for both the Kamal Haasan characters were pretty well written even though all the other characters are paper thin, with a dialogue here or there to make them work enough. There may be a bit of my convincing myself that this is a good film to a certain point that it worked for me so much, despite all of its problems.

I don't really have much expectations for the sequel, but I want at least the politics part to be properly updated to the current situations.

I highly recommend to watch this movie for two type of audiences- first, those who expect a good thriller from Indian cinema (of course not only Bollywood) and second, those who have only heard Kamal Hassan's name but never watched his any single movie yet. Kamal parts here dual role, one as an old man (Senapathy) who stops the corrupted people, and the other as his son (Chandru) who works in transport department concerning licenses. Kamal did brilliant job in this movie by offering both the roles of a father and a son. Perhaps, if examined clearly this is his career reflecting movie. There are some high definition visual scenes where we can see the real freedom fighters like Subash Chandra Bose and Senapathy together. This is a remarkable work from director Shankar, or say in Indian cinema. His directorial works are highly appreciable. For action lovers also this movie is a good reference.

In romantic words, this is a love-triangle movie due to the presence of Manisha Koirala and Urmila Matondkar, both who love the same Chandru. They did their own works, and run the movie. But again, this movie falls under three categories- thriller, political (mixed with social) and patriotic as the title itself denotes. I watched countless times, but never felt bored as it is highly entertaining for the three hours continuously. It has two versions, original one in Tamil and another in dubbed Hindi version. In Hindi version there is a slight uneasiness with the uttering words of the actors in their lips as those do not match exactly, since it is a dubbed version.

Indian was clearly director Shankar's magnum opum and India's entry for the Oscar. This utterly brilliant and gripping film explores the horror of bureaucracy, corruption and bribery in modern India and its effect on society. Even locals themselves will be shocked as reality reflects on their TV screens in this movie. Whats shocking is the quality of the flashback footage in sepia of the colonial times where Indian rebels fought against the British. Such superb quality, story and acting is truly not seen anywhere else in any Indian-made film. However, as an entry for the Oscars, it would need some polishing up. I highly regret not seeing this film in the theatre when it originally released. If seeing this film a decade after it released, on poor quality print, left such a positive impression, I wonder what the impression would have been back then?

"Hindustani" is a Hindi Version of a Tamil Movie and was also an official entry to Oscars in 1996. The story of the movie involves the increasing corruption in government offices and how corruption has engulfed the public and country. For cleaning the corruption, a veteran freedom fighter, who had fought for the country against the British ruler, sharpens his weapons and kills every corrupt official he encounters, including his own son.

The story which the film tells is pretty questionable. Is killing every corrupt official a right solution. Despite a very improbable story, the film remains just compulsively watchable and you just feel like clapping when every corrupt official is killed; which explains how important it has been to wipe the roots of corruption. Kamal Hassan in double role is the biggest strength of the film. Especially in the role of an old fighter against corruption, Kamal Hassan excels and you just become compelled to clap for him.

The film is pretty overlong though and many scenes and sequences seem to have no connection with the main theme. Only one-third of the film comes to the main theme and is the flawless segment of the film. The film uses superb special effects in the choreography and in the flashbacks showing the historic war against the British Rulers. Urmila Matondkar and Manisha Koirala have very small roles in the film which they have done well and added glamour to the movie. Overall, despite overlong and flawed, the film shall be remembered for a relevant issue the film raises and an excellent performance from Kamal Hassan.

Rating: 3 stars out of 4

Hindustani is a movie about a man who loses his daughter to the condition that is aroused as a result of corrupt officials. He wants to get things done the right way, but he realizes is that the officials could have prevented only if they cared for a person's life. The result of this he becomes a serial killer of corrupt officials. The movie also contains story of his wife and son and women who he likes. She is a blue cross society member, thus an animal lover. Sadly his son chose's wrong means for his development just like those corrupt officials. This results in ending which shows son killed by his own father.

It is very much true that some people will get better only if nourished with fear. I liked the way how character of Hindustani is constructed. He used to be a freedom fighter who was expert in a fighting art from ancient India, thus capable of killing a person easily. I did not like the masala part which included his son much. I wanted to see more of Hindustani. I liked the way how his justice prevailed even against his family members. He punished his own son for being corrupt, thus setting a new level of fear which was on par despite of any government policy. A film recommended highly.

Rating: 8.0/10