I am Legend : Movie Review

"My name is Robert Neville. I am a survivor living in New York City.
I am broadcasting on all AM frequencies.

I will be at the South Street Seaport everyday at mid-day, when the sun is highest in the sky.
If you are out there... if anyone is out there... I can provide food, I can provide shelter, I can provide security. If there's anybody out there... anybody... please. You are not alone. "

-Robert Neville

But, he knew he was. And he knew all others were infected by the deadly virus. He was at ground zero, at his place, and he took stand to change it all. To bring the world out of this horror of darkness, he dedicated all his efforts. It is the story of a scientist, a human, a planet and a nightmare.

The Inspiration

The movie I am Legend has been inspired by the sci-fi horror novel "I am Legend" by Richard Matherson. Though it deviates a lot from the original story, in parts it tells the director's interpretation of the spirit of the novel. The original novel was set in times between 1976 and 1979, while the movie is set in times between 2009-2012 and hence it has some obvious changes in the story.

The movie

The story starts with a telivision interview of Dr. Krippin (Emma Thompson), the founder of Krippin Virus (KV), mutant of measeles virus, that can cure cancer.

And then the story cuts to an empty new york city, 3 years later in 2012, with no one in sight, as a ford mustang is the only tiny dot seen as moving from the sky.

It is driven by the only man who has survived an apocalypse, scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) , along with his dog, Samantha "Sam". As they drive past the empty new york city, you see deers and lions who have occupied the place with no trace of any human existence. He lives in a city of dead. The empty city in the bright light looks as scary as the darkness of night on the city.

The KV struck a terror by infecting all the humans and mutating them in to mutants, that are hyper agressive and have killing insticts. They feed on others, as they develop vampirish symptoms. The whole background to this empty city could be summarized in a dialogue where the frustrated protagonist says :

" Six billion people on Earth when the infection hit.
KV had a ninety-percent kill rate, that's five point four billion people dead.
Crashed and bled out. Dead. Less than one-percent immunity.
That left twelve million healthy people, like you, me, and Ethan.
The other five hundred and eighty-eight million turned into your dark seekers,
and then they got hungry and they killed and fed on everybody.
Everybody! Every *single* person that you or I has ever known is dead! Dead."

As the movie moves on you see Neville and samantha moving across the city everyday, hunting, finding darkseekers whom they can treat by the cure that Neville is trying to search. The movie traces their daily life, in day they live their normal life and nights they shut themselves in their building to survive. It is the story of survival.

Empty city leaves a very strong impression on your mind as you feel that all is lost. Neville goes to the South street seaport every noon, wishing someone would come to him, someone who is alive and has heard his message. A recorded news channel going day after day, Movies on DVD every day with no one to talk to, making food getting the vegetables that has now grown in the city, hunting, music, talks with Samantha, evening, shielding, surviving is his routine. Its the monotony of this empty life that catches the viewer and makes him believe in it. He saves samantha and himself from dark seekers every day. Samantha is the only friend he has, the only friend who he has had after death of his wife and daughter during evacuation. It is the story of friendship.

Meanwhile Neville keeps on experimenting with the darkseekers in his laboratary to find medicine to the cure. The rats, the dark seekers all keep on dying as he fails again and again.

One day as Neville sees a person on road- is it a manequinn, like the ones he keeps on seeing in DVD stores or is he real, he gets scared and finds that it was not real. Will smith is extraordinary in this scene, and so is the dog. Disbelief is all you see in their eyes.But that gets him in a trap as he is caught, and loses consciousness. By the time of dusk, when the mutated dogs can move out but not the mutated humans, he regains conciousness, and fids himself and sam facing the mutated dogs, whom he has to kill, they bite him, they bite sam. (by now through various posters in the movie you realize that dogs can move out at dusk and canine are not immune to virus through contact while humans are). Both of them are badly injured.

Next i think comes another moving scene of the movie, where he finds that Sam has got infacted with the virus, and he has no option but to kill her. The eyes are moist, the hands tighten around the creature's neck and the body, out of a determination to survive kills, kills the only friend it ever had, all this time. He goes to the mannequins in the DVD stores and begs them to wish him hello, he has lost his friend. It is the story of loss.

He then tries to kill himself by running his SUV out in the night, and hoping to run it over some infected. But the plan fails and number of "infected" runs his vehicle down. Suddenly its all dark.

Next day he is on his bed, lying with his wounds stiched and with a noise from the kitchen. Someone saved him. That someone is a human. A female and a child. Appearance of Anna and Ethan on screen comes with equal disbelief to bothe Neville and the viewer. Looking at humans after all those years for Neville, was so unhuman. "Everyone is dead". Will Smith acts fabulously as disbelief grips him again. Anna and Ethan bring him back the memory of his family, memory of his breed, memory of human beings. He later tries to save the two from the Infected .

Anna and Neville's discussion are the gist of movie where you realize that all this has made him an atheist. He doesnot believe in god anymore. Anna does. This was a very thoughtful scene. I feel if Neville had believed in god he might not have been as strong as he had been. He believed in himself and knew that there will be no one else who can save him.

The Final Attack ..

Infected finds out his abode and attacks in full force to kill the three. While saving Anna and Ethan, Neville discovers that he has found the cure of the disease, which he wants to sent back through the vial of blood given to Anna and Ethan.

The last scene i feel, was the best part of the movie. Here was a scientist who strived against all odds, to discover a cure to a disease that lead the mankind to extinction. A discovery too late, but too important. He stands there as hundreds of Infected humans attack him, to kill him, he knows they are sick, he knows he can cure them all, but they, they dont think they are not humans. He has the medicine to cure them but he cannot do that with such a lot of people around, and he has to kill them along with himself. Beautiful ending to the story. Epilogue shows Anna finding the human colony, bringing the cure to them. "Robert Neville strived all his life to save mankind. This is his legend."

Deviations from the actual plot of the novel- a criticism

The movie is very different from the novel it is inspired from. This has both good and bad effect on the movie :

Good ones are the empty scenes of New York, original movie there were people who were not infected, this did not show any of it. This contributed to the emptiness, scariness and impactful loneliness of the first half. The end too was not as per the novel, but was good in some ways. Moreover the novel having been written in 1954 was outdated and needed a new look.

But the bad ones are :

• Not detailing how the relationship between sam and Neville developed which was a big part of the original novel
  
• Making vampires out of the infected humans. The book talks of human-like infected peopele, whom you cannot differentiate in the day time from sleeping people. This has made this beautiful story look like
  
• Bringing a child Ethan into the story did not add any substantial impact to the story.
  
• The whole view of the infected humans, who considers Neville to be a monster for obvious reasons and the way they react to it was eliminated from the movie. This I think was the biggest disappointment in the movie. Its the dawn of new society, a process of evolution / devolution that has shaped new societies over ages, and this angle is completely eliminated to keep the human colony alive.


• You can check Richard Matheson's views on adaptation of his story in to movies at http://www.iamlegendarchive.com/matheson.html. He too had mentioned that the movie is no more his story
  

Acting

Its a Will Smith movie, and he delivers, one of his best performances till date where he uses silence, emotions, eyes, body language everything look so very befitting. Its out and out his movie. As far as other actors are concerned... umm... where there any? :)

Abbey, the German Shepherd Dog, shines for her acting abilities in the movie.

Everyone else, Alice Braga (Anna), Charlie Tahan (Ethan), Robert's wife Zoe (Sali Richardson), Marley (Willow smith, will smith's daughter debuts with this movie) are all stictly ok, but they dont have much to do in the movie, so strictly ok is ok.

Direction and the Technical team

Well I think the kind of delay and issues that this film has faced befoe being made, was something that could have disheartened any director by giving his 100%. I think Francis Lawrence did a wonderful job in this context. He has added a lot to the film. Its had been a long journey for him from shooting music video with JLO to Constantine to I am legend

But I have one complain, the movie's first part had to be empty, it had to show the silence and emptiness of the city that has turned in to a jungle. The novel too dwells more in looking at the city from eyes of Neville, but the film does not. If there would have been shots where the camera shows us what the eyes of Neville did, in place of showing him in person, the emptiness would have been far stronger.

I think guys who actually messed things up where the one who started the movie without a completed script and the one who wrote the screenplay (Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman), at times in the movie they have made a good plot look like a horror flick. This could have been done a lot better.

A bigger mistake I feel by both directors and writers were the things that they did not do. The movie did not have multiple planes on which it could work. It was made rather simplistically. There could have been layers, philosophical, pschological, about formation of a society, about psychology of solitary confinements, about philosophy of god and his purpose, about being human, which they have missed by a mile.

The production design, especially the posters that you keep seeing all across New York in the movie, were a work of art. Great eye for detail.

A special mention needs to be given to the special effects of the movie. At times they were bad, not because they were badly created but because the idea was to saw the dark seekers like vampires, which was a mistake in my view. But they did wonderful work in the first half. Creating an empty city where lions and deers roam around out of the bustling New York city must have been a daunting task.

Music by James Howard, who has many other hits like King kong and blood diamond to his names has given a good score. Editing has been very good, barring some scenes that were very dark.

On the whole a well made film based on a loopholed writing, which is acted fabulously ends up getting just a 2.5*. This could have been far far better. Infact I think we missed a Matrix here.

Music and Gujaratis

Firstly, let me make it clear right at the beginning that please dont classify my blog as one that is favouring regionalism. Views presented here are just my Biased views towards Gujaratis. They are a realization that is coming from well within me, denying a general view of people from my state.

Through out my college days I have been envious of my Bengali friends, for a simple fact, that all of them had a good taste of music and a natural flair of understanding it easily. I had always struggled to be so. I have tried to work hard on understanding music more but atleast till date I have not even achieved 1% of what I ever wanted to. Looking at my self and fellow Gujaratis around me, just the way everyone likes to blame situations for their limitations, I too felt that its just that I belong to place where Money is more important to people than art (this might be an absolutely rubbish hypothesis that I had, but I managed to convince this to my self for a long time :) ). Moreover, lack of good Gujarati singers both in the Classical format of music as well as the popular format had endorsed my views.

Having said this now when I look back at the great musicians that Gujarat has given to the Indian Industry, I feel that Gujarati's contribution towards music, let me not say music here, to Bollywood music, has been very important one. Tracing Gujarat's contribution to all the form of music, we can see that even with small number of good musicisans Gujaratis have left substantial impact on the Indian Music space.

Hence, I would as my tribute to these Gujaratis who had come from the same land which I always felt was not very appreciative, write a small note of appreciation for these great music personalities that has shaped today's Indian Music.

Earliest Form of Music from Gujarat : Bhajans

Gujarati music has contributed through many compositions of Bhajans that were created by Narsinh Mehta in Junagadh and Mirabai after she travelled to Dwarka from Rajasthan.

Narsinh Mehta (Click here to know more about him)

One of the most famous bhajans that has touched and changed millions of Indians Pre and post independence is "Vaishnavjan to ene re kahiye je...", this was composed by Narsinh Mehta in the fifteenth century. And the compositions have been passed on generations after generation orally.

Other works of Narsinh Mehta that have been acclaimed over the years include, Putra Vivah, Mameru, Hundi, Har Same No Pado, Jhari Na Pado,Chaturis, Sudama Charit, Dana Leela, and episodes based on Srimad Bhagwatam. Apart from this he has also created many compositions that touched the social issues of accepting Harijans as a part of the society.

Mirabai (click here to know more about her)

The era of Bhajans just after Narsinh Mehta's death was of Mirabai. She travelled to Dwarka all the way from Rajasthan, contributing to merging of the music of two regions. Her devotional songs for Lord Krishna has songs in rajasthani dilect of hindi and Guajarati.

The best of these Bhajans can be found on the following link:

http://www.swargarohan.org/Bhajan/Index.htm

Music for Indian mainstream Hindi Cinema

Theatre arts ...

Well let me start with the very begining and roots of music in Hindi cinema. Well before movies were officially introduced to Indians, the only form of entertainment which still is a great source of talent for bollywood was Parsi-Gujarti Theatre artists. They made musical plays which laid, 150 years back, the tradition of music getting involved with the art of story telling in India.

Mumbai Gujarati Natak Mandali (Source archiveofmusic.com)

Infact the earliest form of musical theatre had some of its roots in Gujarat. The drama form, including song and dance stories, called Bhavai (Nautanki is its equivalent), which led to Indian musicals had been one of the most popular form of story telling in early 1900s. Artistic use of this form of music can be seen in movies like Bhavni Bhavai and Hum dil de chuke sanam.

After the initial contribution of Guajarati musicians to the hindi film industry it seems that the time post independence, Gujarat disappeared from the Music scene in Hindi Film Industry. This carried on till the time when came the duo of two kutchi brothers composing some mesmerising music in 70s.

Kalyanji Anandji (Their wikipedia profile)

The two were sons of hard core business family who migrated from kutch to mumbai to open up a grocery store. Initially they did not get good teachers to teach them music but they persisted.

I wish to have been born in that time staying in those interiors of Girgaun, going to that kirana store, and listening to the tunes of the best musical scores to come in coming years. They gave some absolutely mesmerzing romantic songs like "Bekhudi mein sanam,..." and "Chandan sa badan.." to amazing fun songs like "Khaike paan banaraswala..." and "Laila oh laila...". While with the former they touched the classical music based songs, with later they explored the lanes of commercial cinema and touched the arena of beats. They made patriotic songs like "Mere desh ki dharti..." which made manoj kumar an Icon of his times.

Later years, they came up with blockbuster music of songs like "Tirchi topiwale..." which introduced Indian movies with a slight touch of pop. Their songs have been mixed by modern day DJs and still rocks the dance floors of the nightclubs where Indians party.

After Kalyanji and Anandji duo, there has not been many noticable music directors from Gujarat who made their mark in hindi film Industry. But In 1990s came a musician who along with a very controversial partner of his, and along with a company that changed the way comman man was exposed to music completely, made ripples in the world of hindi cinema.

Shravan (Wikipedia profile)

Year after year, for the entire 1990s, Nadeem sharavan, came up with hit albums. This duo is the one that can easily identified with the music of 1990s. Just look at the list of movies for which they have made musical scores and you realize that the entire 90s was an era of these two prolific musicians. Though later they have split with controversies marring their image in the Indian industry.

1990 they entered the industry, along with an impactful T-series combination and new singers like Kumar sanu and Alka yagnik to give, hits, year after year like Aashiqui (Till date one of the biggest Musical hits from indian cinema), Saajan, Sadak, Deewana, Raja Hindustani, Pardes and many more.

Will wait for their music of upcoming Raaz2.

Present day...

2005 and onwards, we have seen quite a few gujaratis leading the music of Hindi cinema today.

Ismail Darbar (wikipedia profile)

With the present day showman, director par excellence, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, was introduced the son of a marriage band owner from Gujarat. His name merges the two religions in a musical harmony, the later part of which has come from the name of the band his father owned. He has made musical scores for a few films and his panache in creating the true tunes merging classical with commercial can be seen in movies like, Devdas, Hum dil de chuke sanam, and kisna. He has travelled a long way from being a violinist in the Jatin Lalit troop to coming on the same stage as Jatin Lalit.

Himesh Reshammiya (wikipedia profile)

Love him, hate him, but you cant ignore him. Though I prefer the latter option in his case, I feel that if anyone in bollywood music industry represents the present day face of the industry, he is none other than HR. The first music director to win the best singer award, he has played it big in the very little time. Look at the biggest hits from hindi cinema in last 3 years and more than 50% of it are his compositions.

Son of a gujarati music director, he took to music after his brother's death, to fulfil his parents' wishes. One thing that I admire the most about him his, whatever his style of music is, it is original. He has not copied western music and yet has a western touch to his music. His start as music director for TV serials on DD and Zee was remarkable given it was at an age of 16.

I would wait to get one more Tere Naam or Pyar kiya to darna kya from him.

Shekhar Ravijani

Started as a singer through talent hunt shows, he turned to music direction after meeting his musical alter ego Vishal Dadlani, and two have been one of the best musical duo that the industry has recieved.

I feel their movie Jhankar Beats, had given the real meaning to what we call "inspired music". It was not lifting musical scores of RDB and still it had his touch of music. Recently they have given big hits like Om Shanti Om, Golmaal, Zinda and BluffMaster.

Classical Music... : Notable Gujaratis in classical hindustani music are Ustad Faiyaz khan, Mualabux, and Pandit Omkarnath.

Ustad Faiyaz khan (His Profile) had for long served as the court musician in Baroda for the kings.By the time he died in 1950, he had earned the name of being one of the most influential vocalists of that century. Pandit Jasraj has commented that Faiyaz Khan and Ustad Amir khan would remain the most important vocalists of the 20th century.

Maulabux has been a notable dhrupad singer from Baroda, in whose memory stands the music schoold in faculty of performing arts, Baroda.

Pandit Omkarnath Thakur till date remains one of the most prominent educationalist and composer of Hindustani classial music of yester years.

Vasant Rai has also been a notable gujarati name in the world of music internationally. Born in france to Gujarati parents, he was the teacher to likes of Ravishankar. HIs students has for years ruled the different aspects of music industry.

This is no comprehensive list of people who has contributed to music from Gujarat. The tradition of Haveli music, the raas-garba and other folk forms of music, Gujarati music directors like Avinash Vyas, Mahesh Kanodia and likes, Contribution of Manhar Udhas to Gujarati gazals and many more things still needs more discussion.

A lot has been done and a lot is to be done. Hoping to get a lot more from the state of trade and business to work in the music industry of India.

Dus Kahaniyaan : Bas Kahaniyaan...

Javed Akhtar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Gulzar, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Nana Patekar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Sudhir Mishra, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai...

The list was good enough to take me to the theatre. This is what the front page on the site says.

10 stories, 6 directors, tens of actors, packed in a little less than 2 hours, definitely it had to be a Novel experience. But not all novel experiences are great.

First things first, please don't compare the movie with Darna Mana Hai or with Salaam-e-Ishq as this movie did not even try to be in that category. This movie reminded me of those good TV shows that I have seen over years Rishtey (on Zee), Star Best sellers(on Star One) and many more of it that used to come on DD1 earlier. Yes, some of the shorts in this collage are definitely good.

At times, you see that the content of a 3 hour feature film can be explained in just a few lines. I think this movie has said that in few lines, and hence has saved many of us from torture of seeing these stories in a 3 hour long feature film making a short out of each.

Say what you need to say and dont say anything more is what I liked about the film. So good overall feel about the film with some bad patches in between.

But before commenting on this as one single movie, lets just quickly see what the directors have put in.

Sanjay Gupta

I think the most impressive parts of this movie had a distinct Sanjay Gupta touch in its styling. He gives us a mixed bag, with a few very good and a few very bad movies. This is one thing that I like about him, he is never mediocre. He has directed 5 out of the 10 shorties and has done well in almost all of them barring the Sanjay dutt, Suniel Shetty starrer "Rise and Fall"

Matrimony

Dus Kahaniyaan starts with his story Matrimony. With a cast (Arbaaz Khan and Mandira Bedi) whom you don't expect to do wonders he has directed a nice short piece. Its a story of betrayal and unfaithful relationship. A nice story with a definite Roald Dahl kind of ending.

A wife cheating on her husband, trying to get a gift that her boyfriend gave her in to the house, a sweet husband and Trust, that should never have been there.

Would rate this short film at 3* for a good opening to an unusual format of story telling, though neither acting nor the story leaves a strong impression on your mind.

Strangers In a Night

A couple who talks about "THE moments of their life which they can never forget" on their anniversary every year. Last year it was the Husband who told about her sex escapade to his wife and this year its wife's turn. And she starts with a story that looks more like her making out with a stranger in a railway waiting room. But is it a story of sex and betrayal too? No it is not.

It tries to make a big impact with a twist in the end. Movie I thought was very good though the end was a little too abrupt and over the top. Good acting as expected by Mahesh Manjrekar and suprisingly by Neha Dhupia.

A 3.5* for sure.

Zahir

A struggling writer (Manoj Bajpai) taking time out of life to make his career after being dumped by his girlfriend, a new neighbour (Diya Mirza) and the times they don't want to let go. They meet, they like each other, He makes the move, she denies. He unravels a truth about her and does an act that would leave not just her but him devastated for the rest of their life. A good story, good acting, nice direction needs to get a 3.5* in this lot.



Gubbare



Well this is kind of a mini masterpiece from the producer-director's SG's stable. Nana Patekar as a loving husband comes out fabulously with an act that you would remember out of all these stories. The newly wed couple of Rohit Roy and Anita looks beautiful as they fight on small matters which our old Nana watches. A good expected ending is made memorable by Nana's performance. Definitely one of my favourite stories of the all told.



4* for Gubbare.

Sanjay Gupta and Hansal Mehta

2 many directors spoil a movie. The same thing happens when these two comes together to direct a film. One that is full of style and devoid of any shred of substance.

Rise and Fall

This has a definite Kaante like touch with some great techniques catching your eyes in a true blue SG style. But ... Techniques don't make a movie. Two parallel stories of fall of 2 gangsters (Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty) as the two youngsters rise would be a good read if it were written but unfortunately conveying it through pictures was a failed idea.

Bad acting by both the lead actors, bad direction, bad story telling. Deserves nothing more than 0.5*. Sanjay Gupta starts it well and ends it Bad.

Hansal Mehta

He has directed two stories out of the lot of ten, and I would advise him to strictly stick to full length feature film and give us movies like his earlier "Chhal" and "Dil pe mat le yaar", offbeat and likeable.

High on the higway

It must be a bad movie when a 12 min short makes you feel that it is stretched and boring. Story about a college going couple, who loves getting high and walking on highway in front of trucks, starts with a very promising dialogue and you might feel that this will be a good movie. But as it gets dragged further it hurts.


Acting by both Jimmy Shergill and Masumi is strictly ok and is the best part of the movie. 1* at max is what it deserves.

Rohit Roy

He is the surprise package of this movie. Apart from acting in Gubbare he makes his directorial debut with Rice plate. And what a way to start, I would love to wait for more movies from this multi talented future star.

Rice Plate

Rohit could not have expected anything more than this. Two of the best actors (Shabana Azmi and Naseerudin shah) giving the most touching performances of the film.

Shabana Azmi as an old south Indian hindu woman truly took the character to a different level and so did Naseerudin shah as a Muslim gentleman. As she fights over with every Muslim she meets and feels that touching them too can be a bad omen, she comes across this kind hearted man who changes her view towards life.

No great twists in the film but still this will be the one that leaves an impression on your mind for a long time. 4* and nothing less.

Meghna Gulzar

Gulzar has written some of the best short stories ever to be written in Hindi. His works like Ravi Paar (Do read this book if you haven't) has impressed me over years. And here comes a short from her daughter. Though no where close to Gulzar Meghna Gulzar does a decent job.

Pooranmasi

Pooranmasi is story of a mother-daughter duo beautifully played by Amrita singh and Minisha Lamba.

Daughter is going to get married. Mother has been living a life of complete devotion to her husband and daughter. Her husband treats her bad, her lover keeps waiting for him. One single move and all the lives will get devastated.

Good story told nicely with very good acting by Amrita singh. Parmeet sethi is just OK. 3* for this film

Now, we come to two of the most forgettable works out of the ten, in lines of Rise and fall, falls lovedale and sex on the beach.

Apoorva Lakhia

His full length feature films have been good in past, but he just is all messed up when it comes to this short.

Sex on the beach

What more, you have a pathetic duo Dino Moria and Tareena Patel acting absolutely yukks in this sexy horror flick.

On a beach, people stumble upon a book that asks them to write their name on it, it moves on to a hope of making out for these people, ending in a dreadful end.

The story was ok, movie could have been far far better, and actors, anyone else would have done a better work. Tareena Patel and her acting skills gives a competition to Nisha Kothari .

Sorry for being bad, 0* for this movie.

Jasmeet Dodhi

I don't know her, and I would not like to know her unless she washes out what she did with Lovedale by some better movie in future.

Lovedale

A girl going somewhere, meeting someone, incidences taking her on to a different story, a whole lot of coincidences, all leading to a predictable end.

This is the worst piece of all which has made a bad story look worse.

Anupam Kher gets wasted in this forgettable piece as Aftab Shivdasani, Neha Uberoi and Anuradha Patel hams with the worst acting of the lot.

0* and no more.

Overall, I think there were both good and bad reactions from me on this format of movie making. It was good to see only as much as they want to say, no dragging, no making many points.

But what let it all down was

• that before you could come out of a story another one starts.


• And secondly, the time to develop characters was not there in many of the shorts.


• Moreover the sequence of the movies was something that they could have never got right.

But I liked the way the stories were told. Would like to watch another inspired O'Henry collection like this in the same format. Give me more that is good is what I want to say.

Story writing was definitely good and all the credits for the same goes to Gulzar, Javed Akhtar, Kamlesh Pandey and Vishal Bhardwaj.

Background music did not have anything special to offer and was mediocre at best. Bunty Nagi has done some fabulous work in editing. Chopping 10 movies to fit in less than 2 hours must have been very difficult for him. Publicity design for this movie was done by Epigram, I think that the publicity was very well designed but could not stand out in the crowd. A more focussed marketing for the movie would have helped.

A special mention needs to be given to Sanjay Gupta who conceived this movie and produced this. I feel if he gets his hold on emotional scenes correct, he is going to be one of the best directors of our time.

Overall a little less than 3* is what I feel the movie is worth.

2 Romantic Poems ...

A painting by Ben Avram

મારુ કવન

કુરબાન ઉમર ના કેટલાયે યુગો ઍ પલ ઉપર,
જે પલ મા તમારી હામી, મારૂ જીવન બની ગયુ.

છે કેટલાયે નવા હવે સપના આ રાહ પર,
જે રાહ પર મારો સાથ, તરુ ચયન બની ગયુ.

ગુલાબ અન મોગરા ને પણ આવી ઈર્ષ્યા ઍ ની,
કે બસ ઍક ફૂલ થી મારૂ ચમન બની ગયુ.

સુખ હોય કે દુખ, હવે જીવન ભર નો સાથ ચ્હે,
ઈચ્છા ઘડપણ ના સાથ ની, મારૂ યોવન બની ગયુ.

કેહવાની દરેક વાત ને, શબ્દો નો છે અભાવ,
મારી ચાહત, મારા આંસૂ, મારૂ કવન બની ગયુ.

Translation : My Poetry

That one moment of my life was worth ages of lives,

The moment in which your affirmation became my life

There are many dreams on that path,

The path where my companionship became your choice

Roses and Jasmine also got jealous of the one,

The only one Flower that became my garden

We will be together whether it be happiness or sorrows,

The wish of you being a companion of mine for the old age, became my Youth

Not all that i want to say could be expressed in words,

My love, my tears have become my poetry

ક્યારેક જો આવે યાદ મારી

ક્યારેક જો આવે યાદ મારી,

અને ના આવુ હુ ક્યાયે નજર,

તો જરા આઁખોં ઢાળી જોજે મને,

બની સ્મિત, હૂ મળિશ તારા હોઠોં પર.

ક્યારેક જો સાથ આવે યાદ મારો,

અન કાંટાડી લાગે જીવન ની ડગર,

તો જરા આઁખોં ઢાળી જોજે મને,

બૅની ફૂલ હૂ મળિશ તારા પથ પર.

ક્યારેક જો વાતો યાદ આવે મારી,

અને ઍકલ્તા નો તને લાગે ડર,

તો જરા આઁખોં ઢાળી જોજે મને,

બની રેખા હૂ મળિશ તારા કર પર.

ક્યારેક જો આવે યાદ મારી,

અને આઁખોં મા આંસૂ આવે પલ ભર,

તો જરા આઁખોં ઢાળી જોજે મને,

બની છબી હૂ મળિશ તારા મન પર.

Translation : If ever you remember me..

If ever you remember me,

And I you could not see me anywhere,

Just lower your eyes and look at me,
I will be the smile on your lips.

If ever you remember my company,
And your path seems to be full of thorns,

Just lower your eyes and look at me,

I will be the flower on your road.

If ever you remember my talks,

And you feel afraid of being lonely,

Just lower your eyes and look at me,

I will be the lines on your hands (your future).

If ever you remember me,

And you feel tears in your eyes,

Just lower your eyes and look at me,

I will be the impression on your heart.