Dharam Sankat Mein

These types of movies which are mostly shot outside then inside amazes me, plus the story is very good. Simple and good. Sometimes movies like this are real gifts. Everybody acted great. Watch it!

Director Mr Fuwad Khan work is technically OK. He prefers lots of unnecessary movement in takes but I heartily appreciate him for keeping his vision very clear about this sensational issue. So, he kept writers group very focused about his wants. The Urdu fonts used in credit and title are creatively overboard. I got it while watching the film otherwise I was unable to get it. You can easily get the feel that it is written by more than one writer, actually there are four here. Due to this movie is not seamless. You enjoy the movie in bits and pieces. Over all writers Sanjay Sharma, Alpesh Dixit, Vijay Desai and Vedish Jhaveri work is good. They are excellent in dialogues but average in screenplay. Parallel cut of protagonist learning religious rituals is realistic, funny and intelligent but snatching file in orphanage office is typical filmy. There is one great shot used as metaphor, which is riding motorcycle by protagonist in three different looks, which reflects that common person is being sandwiched between religion. I loved this one. Then visualization of protagonist that he is approached by another religion is irritating. The main drawback of this film is less emotional quotient. The family bond is not established well, even the love track is bad. Both these notes are the soul of movie but due to not established well, you feel that why is he doing all this? Movie takes a slow start then grabs pace, again slows down after interval then picks up. Pre climax is slow, climax is average. The excuses made by protagonist time to time by covering his lie is cute and fresh i.e coming in Father gate up, excuse of wearing a particular cap. Over all you enjoy the movie. Performance wise Naseerudin Shah as Neelanand Baba is excellent in his brief role. He takes every word to a different level. Annu Kapoor as Nawab Mehmood..... is very impressive. He touches your heart by putting the right amount of emotions in words. Paresh Raval as Dharmpal is great. Murli Sharma as Imam is very good. One song "Allah Hoo.." is good and have great lyrics.

The film is about a person raised as Hindu, who discovers he was born Muslim. Its always difficult to present a film, which deals with sensitive topic such as religion. Its remarkable that the film appears, very much justified in its approach. The story of main character swings as a pendulum to find a balance between both religion's, his family and quest to discover his biological father.

The film has a very good approach to the conclusion it wants to convey to audience. There are humorous factors to which a person can relate to, if not all of them. Various element's such as friendship and family values are presented well.

I would recommend this film to every fellow human.

rating: 7.5/10

Really Good story and good message from movie to understand where is heaven ? ..its your home.

Good acting by Paresh Rawal and Anu Kapoor.

Must watch.

Hindi film industry is known to follow the running trend blindly, so here is another of those noble attempts in the newly found genre of 'religious-political satire' rediscovered post the big success of OH MY GOD! and PK. The word 'rediscovered' is being used here as the genre was always there in our cinema with films such as DHARAMPUTRA(1961), YAHI HAI ZINDAGI (1977) and more but rarely used till it was re-presented in an entertaining as well as enlightening form again in the recent years.

Coming to the latest release DHARAM SANKAT MEIN focusing on an important and burning debate that whether religion depends upon the birth or the family bringing up the child since his early childhood, the film is no doubt a brave and thought provoking attempt by its debutant director Fuwad Khan in all respects. But if only he could have stayed with the basic subject without going into the already exhausted plot of fake babas and their influence on innocent people, the film could have been another eye-opener for all those fanatic practitioners of various religions unarguably.

Revolving around a middle aged Hindu person who shockingly finds out that he was actually an adopted boy and a born Muslim, the film is an official remake of British comedy THE INFIDEL (2010) wherein the Muslim protagonist happened to be a born Jew. Now though the idea seems to be quite fresh and novel in the first look, it interestingly remains an innovative extension of many lost and found formula Hindi films only, wherein the heroes after getting lost in the childhood, get adopted and then brought up by different families practicing distinctive religions like in Manmohan Desai's AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY.

Putting it more specifically, it can also be said that DHARAM SANKAT MEIN in fact begins from where films like DHARAMPUTRA (1961) end when the lead character gets to know his real identity and religion belonging to a different family. But then the major difference here lies in the treatment which in the present times tends to become all comical instead of getting serious or deeply introspective. DHARAM SANKAT MEIN begins superbly with a scene straight away mixing Hindu, Muslim and Punjabi communities together in just 2 minutes and then its truly a treat to watch the exceptional actors Paresh Rawal and Anu Kapoor together on the screen for its next hour. The director along with his dialogue writer and actors very bravely and carefully executes many sensitive scenes related to the different traditions or religious prayers and for that they certainly need to be praised whole heartedly. For instance, as Anu asks Paresh to come into the car, Paresh questions "Kyon Musalmaan Hun Isliye?" To which Anu replies, "Nahin Tum Pareshaan Ho Isliye....."

In short it's a completely enjoyable film till the intermission with an interesting story progression and many socially relevant scenes. But as always the same cannot be said for its second half since the team is not able to maintain the quality of content and pace moving into all weird and avoidable directions in its concluding hour. Post intermission, focusing more on the fake baba (poorly played by Naseeruddin Shah) and forcibly added social-political games once again leading to a court room, the film falls apart badly and offers nothing new to the audience strongly reminding them of both OH MY GOD as well as PK in exact terms. Though few well written scenes do keep coming in at gaps in its final hour, but overall DSM completely turns into a lousy sequel of the two films mentioned above towards the end and the viewer doesn't leave the theater thoroughly impressed or entertained ruining the fine buildup made by its initial hour. Particularly when a (sanskrit) song erupts all of sudden sung by Naseer and later an utterly silly connection revealed between a Punjabi pop singer (Gippy Grewal) and the fake Baba (Naseeruddin Shah), also making a clear indication towards another Punjabi music industry icon who was allegedly caught for "Kabootarbaazi" (illegal immigration) a few years back.

In the technical department, DSM has a decent soundtrack with two catchy Punjabi based songs and one well written-composed track, "Main Kis Mitti Ka Jaaya Ve" inserted perfectly where required. Both the background score and cinematography help the film a lot to get into that pensive mood, editing makes it move at a good pace only to get disturbed by an amateurish climax, whereas the dialogue writers keep coming up with great one liners constantly till the end.

In the performances, Paresh Rawal seems to have achieved mastery in such similar roles and thus he is right there at the top with a flawless portrayal. But the one who leaves you asking for more is Anu Kapoor, once again reminding the industry about his unexplored talent not given enough chances to deliver many possible path breaking performances. Their scenes together simply become the backbone of the film along with praiseworthy supporting acts coming from Murli Sharma, Alka Kaushal and more. However the major spoilsport among these all remains the hamming act of Naseeruddin Shah, probably due to an over the top performance demanded by the director. In fact had his character not been given so much footage in the second half, the film could have reached much higher status in terms of satire as well as the message stored for the society.

Overall, DHARAM SANKAT MEIN can be seen once for its subject and all 'Anu-Paresh' sequences alone, crediting the makers for their courage shown in taking up a satirical comedy project based on such a sensitive subject in the present scenario involving 'The Original Religion'.