Anwar

You watch a movie like Anwar and immediately you think to yourself: 'These are the sorts of movies India should be submitting to the Baftas and the Oscars', and Manish Jha delivers this incredible story note-perfectly. Anwar is, at heart, a love story and unfolds to reveal its subject in its broadest sense: (love of one's career, love - or lack of love - for one's country etc.) and also captures the true spectrum of love: the blissful awakenings, the pleasure, the joy and the rejections, refusals and slow breaking of hearts. Stunning visuals combine with a cast of characters so brilliantly conceived one could almost find them in the pages of a novel by Vikram Seth and along with deft performances, editing and dialogue, present one of the finest films to come out of Hindi cinema. Anwar (the film) is thought-provoking, questioning, unhappy, longing, haunting and fundamentally achieves what we need cinema (from time to time, at least) to be: the sort of medium that shakes us from our slumber with explosions and loud shouts, demanding us to listen, to have our ideas and beliefs challenged and queried. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I remember many years ago someone told me about this movie. That it was very simple and the one to watch. So I began watching it and didn't really connect to it and switched it off. However, recently I heard one of the songs again and thought let me see the reviews on here and immediately went off to re watch it. Words can't describe how amazing this movie is and I don't regret not having watched it earlier. When I first watched it I had hardly encountered any struggles in my life. I was subjected to the typical bs masala movies. After these few years it's only now that I have understood life and love. My weak mind wouldn't have understood Anwar's pain and love back then. I loved all the actors - tremendous job! Totally unbiased and it should be classed as one of the finest Indian movies ever.

This is my first movie review at IMDb. One of my friend suggested me to watch the movie. It was worth.

The story is really good one dealing with romance, reality and the absurd in it. All the characters are in love, or at least have some problems with love affairs and punished duly.

Anwar himself is punished severely since he looses his beloved, his friend and himself, life has at least no meaning to him except his love "mehru" who betrays him for real dreams while Anwar till the last moment lives in the world of his illusions.

The beggar, theatre artist Master Pasha, after loosing his Meera, awaits for another love break, Dipa who actually considers only as a beggar. The world has no time to pay for the emotions, all it want to buy is the product, what master pasha can do. Master Pasha stops begging and making designs temples for Meera/Dipa and went to perform hi final stage show.

All other characters in their own way or other are all facing the same thing.

The story can not be categorized as tragic one since it gives you a thought of considering not only your love for others, but also in the contradicting way.

I salute the story writer and the actor in the central roles. I rated 8.0 since it could have been better in other departments.

The movie starts with a lot of promise, but it fails to live up to the start. The excellent cinematography is spoiled by some loose performances and poor storyline. It seems that a 'short story' has been elongated too far. The movie still manages to remain with the viewer, even after a long time of watching it. The scenes in slow motion of the peacock feather, the blood in water, the blue earrings, the chase by Krishna are exquisite and haunting. The background music and the songs are also quite nice. What troubles the most is the poor performance of actors like Rajpal Yadav and Pankaj Jha not actually making an impact. Manisha Koirala too does a dumb Barkha Dutt parody. Manish Jha leaves a lot to be desired but also brings the hope of a different powerful 'statement oriented' cinema. I really wish if he could look at the other side of India and Indians for his next movie. (Reviewed on 14 February 2007)

This isn't your typical Indian film when a girl and a boy fall in love through a series of songs, and the parents forbid it until during a teary dramatic speech they accept the fact they belong together, no. This story ventures out of the lives of certain people, of what would really happen not only the imagination of the producers or directors. I, myself am not a Bollywood fan because of its excess of love films, but this film was different, I'm sure anyone would love it. It makes you cry, smile, laugh, and surprised about the outcomes. Some of the actresses and actors who lost their popularity in the film businesses are sure to regain it after lots view this film. The music matched perfectly with this movie, it's melody was sweet and beautiful. I recommend everyone to see this!