Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi ki aisi filmein aur banein

Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi is one of those movies that comes straight at you like a thunderbolt. It is overwhelming, strong, intelligent and is anything but run-of-the-mill. It shakes you out of your stupor and brings you face to face with an era that was lost on people of my age. The story starts in the 60s with the riots in Meerut and spans several years including the Emergency period. It is a story of a generation filled of strife, of angst, of ideals, of political upheaval and how the lives of the three main protagonists are affected by it.

The three protagonists Siddharthh (Kay Kay), Geeta (Chitrangada Singh) and Vikram (Shiny Ahuja) are classmates in Delhi. The come from different strata of society and follow different paths. Siddharth follows the Naxalite movement in Bihar despite his love for Geeta. She goes on to marry an IAS officer. In the meanwhile Vikram, the son of a Gandhian, is a small town boy with big ambitions. He has unrequited love for Geeta, and becomes a networker, a fixer and climbs up the ladder of political contacts.

Geeta breaks her wedding and goes and joins Siddharth in the villages to participate in the revolution. The political upheavals and the challenges that tests the ideals the protagonists follow make the rest of the movie. The struggles of the protagonists mirror the growing up of a generation and the loss of innocence.

The beauty of the movie lies in the script and the extremely mature handling of a topic like this. Sudhir Mishra deserves full credit for making a movie for a time lost to everyone, a movie where none of the three characters is either a hero or a villain. The characters are brilliantly portrayed by the three actors. Watch out especially for a terrific debut by Chitrangada Singh. Yes, she will remind you of Smita Patil at times with her looks. Shiny Ahuja is excellent and Kay Kay follows close by.

The use of Ghalib's shaayari at different parts of the movie in Shubha Mudgal's haunting voice is apt. I don't typically recommend a lot of movies, but I will recommend this one. It is not for the faint-hearted, but is especially for those who have a fundamental problem with the lack of original ideas in the Hindi film industry (this a bilingual fim actually). If you have seen it, please let me know what you think of it.