Review : Apne

Note : The edited version of this review appears at Planet Bollywood, here.

Rating : Average (3/5)
Genre : Drama
Year : 2007
Running time : about 3 hours
Director : Anil sharma
Cast : Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Kirron Kher, Shilpa Shetty, Katrina Kaif, Victor Banerjee, Divya Dutta

APNE : THE TALE OF PAPA, PUTTAR & THE CHIP

Yup, that about sums it up. There’s Papa Deol as Baldev, ex-boxing champ and there’s puttarji, actually 2 of them – Sunny paaji as devoted son Angad, and rocker-musician son Karan (Bobby). And then there’s the chip (it’s not the eating kinds), and it’s the size of Mount Govardhan (don’t know about Mount Govardhan, and attempting to see a film as nauseatingly pious as this ? Tsk, tsk !), and perched neatly on Papa’s shoulder. Papa has the chip because, once when he was a boxer and wrongly accused of doping charges, he swore to avenge his honor by making his son the champ. Angad, the son in question, however in the interests of family and common-sense, chose to quit boxing beyond a point and take up business, thus saving his family from penury. So, Papaji got angry and hasn’t been on good terms with Angad ever since.

OK, so now Angad poor kid, affection starved and all, is doing well, loves his family but longs for his father’s approval. Now, when an opportunity to restore some boxing prestige arises, Baldev chooses Karan to turn boxer (musician to boxer – easy-peasy, right ?). When Karan suffers a setback, its up to Angad again to step-up, and win this thing.

This film is from the director of Gadar, and I actually thought Gadar a decent film. This one, I don’t know, it’s too sanctimonious for it’s own good. Plus I have massive problems with the concept – that of children living out parent-ordained lives (what about the poor kid ?). This movie is still better than Baghbaan, as in I could actually watch the full film without going nuts (I nodded off for a little while, but does that count ?).

Hark ! Did I hear you asking about a family film which has the 3 Deol men crying as one ? If that’s what you want then this is it. Lots of emotional drama, lot’s of tears, and with all characters in the film soooooo pious and soooo good (except Papaji of course) , and (you want more ?) lot’s of brawn. Do note that in films starring Sunny Deol, you have either brain or brawn. One or the other, see ? And mostly, it’s brawn.

There are also the women dotting the screen here – the most prominent being the mother figure – Raavi (Kher) who plays her character to the hilt with the usual aplomb. Then, in keeping with the tenets of the Punjabi patriarchy and Bollywoodian principles, there are the other 2 women, Angad’s wife (Shipa) who has nothing much to do except say “Haanji”, nod her head and offer her supporting (and very shapely) shoulders to be cried upon, and Karan’s US returned doctor girlfriend (Katrina) who very conveniently turns into his personal doctor-cum-therapist when Karan’s paralyzed hand miraculously starts working again. And you though God’s miracles didn’t exist !

OK, so the good : the direction is decent, the acting is OK and Dharmendra still has the old-world charm. The bad – the sea of emotion, the music, and Sunny Deol’s wig. During the boxing scenes, with every jab, I was just waiting to see the wig go flying off . I’ll be fair and say that my parents actually liked the film; my Mom’s the weepy sorts – she would shed tears at the Ramayana television series, as I laughed out loud at the silly arrows going whish-whish across the screen.

This film is lush and glossy – it’s like they wiped down the screen with desi ghee. Verdant green dominates as do the fields of Punjab. There’s the Papaji and the Maa and their dutiful betas, and obedient bahus, and grand-kids, so yeah, as per my Mom, the whole family-bonding thing going on here. The first half was bearable, in the second the film descended down the path to the Land-of-Overwrought-Emotions. And you know, no-one actually comes back from there. Neither did the film.