New York

After reading/hearing decidedly mixed reviews about New York, my curiosity got the better of me and I watched it last night. (The other option was the preview show of Kambakkht Ishq – thank god didn’t go for that. Looks like its an unmitigated disaster)

Going by our post-movie discussion (me and wife’s), this is surely not the final word on New York. Our usually convergent views were decidedly not so – wifey insisting it wasn’t a bad movie and I couldn’t find a more pithy description than ‘crap movie’. And now that you know my views about the movie, I will try to explain why I think the movie is not worth your time.

Let me list out the positive points of the movie first – it has three really good looking actors. Although Neil Nitin Mukesh comes across as rather pansy-looking compared to John Abraham in his rippling muscles, overall they make a very pretty trio. Much better looking than .. Dostana for example (Neil Nitin vs. Abhishek Bachhan is not even a contest and Katrina can more than match Priyanka Chopra)
The other positive is the depiction of the torture scenes – the sequence is very well shot and seems extremely realistic. It really involves you as a viewer, showing the claustrophobic dimensions of the cell – the crouching position that you are forced into …

And … well … er … that’s all the positives I can count for this movie. To be fair, the leading actors John and Neil exceeded my expectations in the acting department, but then my expectations were set a little low because some people had already criticized their performance in the movie. On absolute terms, none of the acting was stellar.

If you are wondering if I forgot Irfan Khan, I havent – I just don’t think his performance was laudable. The stoic police inspector role has become routine from him. While the Slumdog Millionaire role might be fresh in memory, if you think back a little, there was A Mighty Heart and then there was Rog. I am sure there were a couple of other movies where he plays a similar role too. Simply put, it was a humdrum performance. And it was made worse by his character, a typical Asian cop who is sent in to play the good cop while the firang officer plays the bad cop. His views about America’s high handedness on its Muslim citizens were also something that I couldn’t digest ..

Since we are on the topic of negatives, lets list some more. The plot had huge holes in it – if the FBI knows so-and-so is running a terrorist sleeper cell and is about to commit some terrorist activity, why not arrest him ?? Not detain, just legally arrest him !! They didn’t exactly hesitate to throw so many people illegally into Guantanamo, did they ? And if you are a terrorist who sole reason of existence is vengeance, why not explode the bomb when you are surrounded by the cops ?? Then there is Maya angle of keeping quiet even after knowing everything … things just wouldn’t make any sense to any logical person !!

The movie begins in New York State University in 1999, when a fresh faced Omar (Neil Nitin) has just arrived from Delhi after winning a scholarship. His first contact and then deep friendship begins with Maya (Katrina Kaif) and then Sam (John Abraham). Omar is the shy-silent type who has a major crush on Maya, unaware that she likes Sam. His heartbreak coincides with 9/11 and Omar withdraws from their life. Only to be rudely pushed back into Sam and Maya’s life 7 years later, because the FBI suspects that Sam might be a terrorist.

The entire sequence of Omar agreeing to be FBI’s undercover agent was unconvincing at best. The college sequence is the okay part of the movie – but then the second half just doesn’t cut it. There are just too many plot holes and allowances to be made. If you remember Kabir Khan’s first effort Kabul Express, it had a good idea at the core, but the implementation wasn’t tight. The movie was about a relevant topic, shot in authentic locations, but wasn’t gritty enough to be the real thing – it was too much of ‘bollywood film’. Similar is the failing with New York. It tries a serious contemporary topic, but cant manage to keep it realistic.

Throughout the movie, I kept on waiting for something in the movie, some sequence which would redeem it. After all, some people had liked the movie and there must be something that’s good about. But I kept on watching and the movie ended … and if anything, the end was more infuriating. In his bid to make a political statement about Islam and America in the end, director Kabir Khan strikes a unconvincing peace between Omar & Roshan (Irfan Khan). But if you take a minute to think about the relations between Omar, Sam and Maya after watching the movie, the idea of peace with Roshan seems downright ridiculous to me !! And can someone please explain why John Abraham and Katrina Kaif’s kid is a 100% firang ?

I guess this has become more of a rant than a review – but then all movies do not agitate me so. Not worth your money at the theatre. Wait for it to come on TV