Aamir (2008) is a fresh and stylish example of
Bollywood noir, trading the usual dark shadows for the bright and
oppressive midday sun, the typical sultry femme fatale with an
inexpensive and possibly crazy prostitute, and the usual names in the
credits with a cast and crew of mostly unknowns.
Aamir Ali (Rajeev Khandelwal) is a young Muslim doctor, returning from London to his native Mumbai. After being briefly detained at the airport (which, Aamir points out, probably wouldn’t have happened if his name were Amar) Aamir walks out to meet his family and finds . . . no one. He calls home, and no one answers. And then a stranger on a passing motorcycle tosses him a cell phone, which immediately starts ringing.
The voice (Gajraj Rao) on the phone is determined to be mysterious, but eventually reveals that he’s holding Aamir’s family; they will be released unharmed, but only if Aamir performs a series of errands for him. And so Aamir finds himself running around the poor, mostly Muslim sections of Mumbai, while arguing politics with the voice on the phone; the voice seems to be trying to awaken Aamir to the plight of his fellow Muslims, while Aamir just wants his family back.
Aamir feels very realistic. The street scenes were shot with the help of hidden cameras, so the ordinary people going about their day to day business were, in many cases, ordinary people going about their day to day business. That just adds to the tension, since there’s no way for us to know who will suddenly turn out to be part of the conspiracy, let alone Aamir. And Aamir himself is a realistic character; he’s no hero, just an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Unfortunately, that very realism highlights just how unrealistic and overly complicated the villain’s scheme is. When the you have a huge network of people happy to do his bidding, there’s no need to blackmail an outsider to take care of your business for you, especially when that outsider is as bad at skullduggery as Aamir is. And if Aamir is a disposable asset, there’s not much point in trying to win him over to your political views. Ultimately the evil scheme depends on Aamir acting heroically at one point, and then being a coward half an hour later.
If the voice on the phone were a proper filmi villain, complete with crocodile pit and gogo dancers, it would be easy to suspend disbelief, but because the rest of the movie is so realistic, the flaws in the scheme stick out like a sore thumb. In the end, Aamir is very interesting, expertly crafted, and just a bit too stylish for its own good.
Aamir Ali (Rajeev Khandelwal) is a young Muslim doctor, returning from London to his native Mumbai. After being briefly detained at the airport (which, Aamir points out, probably wouldn’t have happened if his name were Amar) Aamir walks out to meet his family and finds . . . no one. He calls home, and no one answers. And then a stranger on a passing motorcycle tosses him a cell phone, which immediately starts ringing.
The voice (Gajraj Rao) on the phone is determined to be mysterious, but eventually reveals that he’s holding Aamir’s family; they will be released unharmed, but only if Aamir performs a series of errands for him. And so Aamir finds himself running around the poor, mostly Muslim sections of Mumbai, while arguing politics with the voice on the phone; the voice seems to be trying to awaken Aamir to the plight of his fellow Muslims, while Aamir just wants his family back.
Aamir feels very realistic. The street scenes were shot with the help of hidden cameras, so the ordinary people going about their day to day business were, in many cases, ordinary people going about their day to day business. That just adds to the tension, since there’s no way for us to know who will suddenly turn out to be part of the conspiracy, let alone Aamir. And Aamir himself is a realistic character; he’s no hero, just an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances.
Unfortunately, that very realism highlights just how unrealistic and overly complicated the villain’s scheme is. When the you have a huge network of people happy to do his bidding, there’s no need to blackmail an outsider to take care of your business for you, especially when that outsider is as bad at skullduggery as Aamir is. And if Aamir is a disposable asset, there’s not much point in trying to win him over to your political views. Ultimately the evil scheme depends on Aamir acting heroically at one point, and then being a coward half an hour later.
If the voice on the phone were a proper filmi villain, complete with crocodile pit and gogo dancers, it would be easy to suspend disbelief, but because the rest of the movie is so realistic, the flaws in the scheme stick out like a sore thumb. In the end, Aamir is very interesting, expertly crafted, and just a bit too stylish for its own good.
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