I AMMORE PICS  | Critic's Rating: Cast: Juhi Chawla, Nandita Das, Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Suri, Rahul Bose, Anurag Kashyap, Purab Kohli, Abhimanyu Singh, Radhika Apte Direction: Onir Genre: Drama Duration: 2 hours Readers Rating: |
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Gripping social comment
Story: The film is a compendium of four stories which have a common theme: the search and assertion of individual identity. Nandita Das is a single woman who wants to experience the joys of motherhood by artificial insemination. Juhi Chawla is a displaced Kashmiri pundit who returns to her homeland to confront the ghosts of the past. Sanjay Suri has yet to bury the shadows of child abuse from his seemingly normal life. Rahul Bose doesn't know if the changing laws in India allow him to come out of closet and declare his alternate sexuality, loud and clear.
Movie Review: When you take up different stories and juggle with sundry characters, there has to be a string that binds them together and a leitmotif that holds the film. Director Onir doesn't err here. I Am is essentially an affirmative assertion of identity and an appropriation of private spaces in a society that has a tendency to use tradition as the most convenient whiplash to beat any and everyone into disturbing conformity. The film serenades the art of saying `No'.
Of course, everyone is bound to have his/her favourite story in the film, specially since all four aren't evenly crafted. But that's easy to understand why. The women have the softer tales which would necessarily lack the punch. But kudos to Nandita Das and Juhi Chawla for creating two spunky women of substance who know what they want and do not hesitate to acquire it. Again, they too encounter a lot of learning and re-configuring on the path to self-discovery.
Sanjay Suri's tryst with a pedophilic step father (Anurag Kashyap in a great cameo) is sensitive, subtle and truly disturbing, even as Rahul Bose and his encounter with traditional -- and brutal -- Indian scorn for alternate sexuality is chilling and stomach-churning. Put Abhimanyu Singh to play the brute (the typical Indian cop) and you know he'll do a fine job.
Watch I Am for talking unapologetically about real issues in real India. And also, for the performances.
Story: The film is a compendium of four stories which have a common theme: the search and assertion of individual identity. Nandita Das is a single woman who wants to experience the joys of motherhood by artificial insemination. Juhi Chawla is a displaced Kashmiri pundit who returns to her homeland to confront the ghosts of the past. Sanjay Suri has yet to bury the shadows of child abuse from his seemingly normal life. Rahul Bose doesn't know if the changing laws in India allow him to come out of closet and declare his alternate sexuality, loud and clear.
Movie Review: When you take up different stories and juggle with sundry characters, there has to be a string that binds them together and a leitmotif that holds the film. Director Onir doesn't err here. I Am is essentially an affirmative assertion of identity and an appropriation of private spaces in a society that has a tendency to use tradition as the most convenient whiplash to beat any and everyone into disturbing conformity. The film serenades the art of saying `No'.
Of course, everyone is bound to have his/her favourite story in the film, specially since all four aren't evenly crafted. But that's easy to understand why. The women have the softer tales which would necessarily lack the punch. But kudos to Nandita Das and Juhi Chawla for creating two spunky women of substance who know what they want and do not hesitate to acquire it. Again, they too encounter a lot of learning and re-configuring on the path to self-discovery.
Sanjay Suri's tryst with a pedophilic step father (Anurag Kashyap in a great cameo) is sensitive, subtle and truly disturbing, even as Rahul Bose and his encounter with traditional -- and brutal -- Indian scorn for alternate sexuality is chilling and stomach-churning. Put Abhimanyu Singh to play the brute (the typical Indian cop) and you know he'll do a fine job.
Watch I Am for talking unapologetically about real issues in real India. And also, for the performances.
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