Manoj shoulders movie
By K N GuptaEye TV India Bureau
Cast: : Manoj Bajpai, Arjan Bajwa, Tia Bajpai, Yashpal Sharma,Yatin Karyekar and Manish Choudary.
Director: Maqbool Khan
Critic's I-view
‘Lanka’ is one of the Bollywood flicks released December 9, 2011. As the title goes, the movie refers to the Raavan’s Lanka in the Ramayana epic. The movie focuses on the two diverse characters of Lanka – Raavan and his brother Vibhishan. While the former was arrogant to the extent of calling himself all-powerful, Vibhishan was known as God-fearing. Raavan kidnapped Ram’s wife Sita in revenge and wanted to force himself on her. On the other hand, Vibhishan always prayed for wisdom for his brother, though in vain. So, the Hindi adage 'ghar ka bhedi lanka dhae' fits just too well in the epic as in the movie.
Manoj Bajpai plays Jaswant Sisodia aka Bhai Sahib who used cruel force to make Bijnor city’s woman doctor named Anju his mistress. Tia Bajpai of the ‘Haunted’ fame plays Anju, the daughter of the city’s leading Doctor Sahib played by Yatin Karyekar. Anju loses all hope of gaining her freedom until Manoj’s confidant brother Arjan Bajwa enters her life though in sympathy with her pitiable condition. Arjan as Vibhishan wanted his mentor Manoj to free Anju from his clutches. This is another matter that unlike in the story of Vibhishan, in the movie Arjan falls in love with Anju! Hence, the first part that’s similar to the one in Ramayan goes well with the audience while they find the second part too difficult to comprehend. The movie ends the suddenly with a solo confrontation scene between the men! This is perhaps due to lack of sub-plots.
On the whole, the movie moves around Manoj Bajpai. And, Manoj’s performance is superb though not unusual. His fiery eyes speak a lot more about his force to make his city’s woman doctor his mistress. Manoj is ably supported by Arjan Bajwa whose performance isn’t far behind. His dialogue delivery is brilliant even though he isn’t an old hat in the industry. Tia Bajpai as Anu performs very well. After all, she isn’t new; her performance in ‘Haunted’ was impressive too. Yatin Karyekar acts well in his difficult role as Anshu’s defenseless father. Yashpal Sharma is good too. Wonder if the moral of the movie is respect for women and the redressing of the wrongs done to them. Then, the movie will fall in the category of women’s lib.
Though it’s Maqbool Khan’s directorial debut he leaves an impact for future. In other areas, less said better, as neither music nor cinematography nor screenplay is good. Overall, the movie may be worth a watch, especially because of the cast’s performances.
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