Certain films are made with a noble vision and a specific purpose which is courageous as well as an important one in the present world cunningly obsessed with religion in a questionable manner. And YA RAB is certainly one of those appreciable attempts which questions the Islamic link with the terrorism and then puts up many blunt arguments from both the sides, impressively quoting the HOLY QURAN in some solid, well written dialogues.
Technically speaking, yes the execution gives you the feel of a tacky film with lots of shouting, hamming and overacting by the main actors. The production values are compromising and the film also follows a highly preachy way to say all the right things. But the message is indeed an important one and it needs to reach all the youngsters out there who are sadly used as a means to propagate terrorism by influencing their immature thought process.
Director Hasnain Hyderabadwala comes to the point right from the first scene itself and clearly counters the way The Holy Scriptures are being interpreted in the wrong manner by all the Religious teachers or leaders for their own hidden interests. For instance, a valuable dialogue in the film says that, "Strangely the whole world has found only one word in The HOLY QURAN i.e. JIHAAD and is spreading its wrong meaning all over the globe to justify various things." Further it clearly reveals that this particular word & wrong interpretations of the Holy Text is not only being used by the others but by the community people too with a motive of misguiding the innocent youth and using them as their disposable tools of terrorism.
Another important sequence in the film also strongly points towards the 'Blind Donations' a person usually gives to the religious leader, taking it as his moral duty which in reality might be contributing as a fund raiser to some objectionable underground activities leading to terrorism. And I really feel this is a quite significant point to understand by every person of any age, irrespective of his religion or region.
Looking at the film from this particular perspective, YA RAB is a genuine effort made to show the right meaning of Islam and its sacred teachings. And the film also has certain worth watching elements which take this positive thought forward in a pretty decent way. Like, it has an intelligent little boy who remembers his holy scriptures by heart and understands them much better than many grownups around. An elderly religious leader, who knows, accepts and declares that everyone is wrongly interpreting the things and misleading the youth, whereas this is not the Islam I have learned and understood. And then there is a well known neurosurgeon, who is religious by heart but also a highly qualified medical practitioner who knows the importance & use of both religion and science individually.
So in the writing department, we do have some well conceived characters, powerful dialogues and few counter explanations too revealing all the actual meanings. But the film does have its own shortcomings in terms of presentation, execution and performances which convert it into a loud melodramatic project made with a focused and positive mindset. For example Akhilendra Mishra could have done it more calmly without shouting and stretching his tone dramatically. Ajaz Khan shows the sparks in few scenes but still needs to come out of his acting school sessions fast. The lead pair along with the entire supporting cast are just OK and the 2 major saviors in the performance section remain S.M. Zaheer as the learned Maulana and Manzar Sehbai from Pakistan playing the thoughtful neurosurgeon. In fact I was most interested in watching the film for Manzar Sehbai alone remembering his towering performance in the masterpiece BOL (2011). And he didn't disappoint me at all standing amid all the other loud performers, especially in the climax.
Cinematography captures the final moments of riots, ambulance and chaos competently and background score does make its presence felt, particularly in the tense sequences.
In all, YA RAB is a kind of precious effort which should be ideally watched by all simply ignoring its weaker points, performances or production values. Director Hasnain Hyderabadwala has made it in search of a better world around and his noble effort does need to be applauded by one and all, unanimously.
However I seriously wish YA RAB gets remade soon with a better vision, at a bigger scale and featuring one of the BIG KHANS. So if any one of them is listening then just go for it or any similar effort, as this would be your earnest gift both to your profession as well as to your respected religion
.in search of a better harmonious future for our coming generations.
