Angsty Hot Kashmiri Malcontents: Mission Kashmir (India, 2000)

[dangermousie]

Because I've been neglecting Bollywood lately, the latest movie rec is a Bollywood film, Mission Kashmir, a movie with Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Sunjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff. It’s not really a romance movie, as it deals with terrorism in the Kashmir region. It follows Hrithik who plays Altaaf, a messed up Muslim boy whose family is innocent bystanders who become collateral damage during a terrorist-elimination mission. The inspector responsible for it (Sunjay) feels bad and brings the child home. Of course, there is hell to pay when Altaaf finds out that it was the Inspector who was responsible for the deaths of his family. He runs away and when next we see him, he is grown up and has joined a terrorist group under the leadership of Jackie Shroff. He has just completed his training and is on a mission (what it is we find out in the course of the movie) and he also wants revenge on the Inspector. Except that he is still a father figure. Talk about Oedipal!

And of course he is still messed up beyond measure and we follow him as he teeters on the edge between redemption and falling to the dark side completely. It's a good movie to watch because it does try to look at a complicated situation, has fun action and a really cool love story. It does go a bit over the top in places and the ending annoys me enough to want to spit, but overall it's quite good. And Hrithik has rarely looked better and acted better as he is very good at being angry and impassioned. This isn't as good as Fiza, another Hrithik as terrorist movie, that is, IMO, one of the best Bollywood movies made, OTOH, it's a damn sight more easy to watch this than the despair that is Fiza. Plus, the DVD is easily available (there is also a dubbed version but stay away).

Even though this isn't a romance movie, it does have a scene that is in my Top 10 most romantic Bolly scenes ever, and that is a tough competition (and yes, I am compiling a list because I am anal, and I will post it later in the week). Sufiya (Preity), a tele-journalist, has just found out that Hrithik, her childhood best friend, used her to get access to the studio. As she sits in her darkened house, there is pounding on the door. She opens the door and there is Hrithik, standing in the pouring rain, devouring her with his eyes (because of course, mission or not, he fell in love with her). She looks at him and then closes the door on him as he remains on the thereshhold. I must say, at that moment, I would have been tempted to let him in.





I am probably sick but, boy, does he look good beat-up or what?


The gorgeous and intelligent Sufiya, who just might help save Hrithik's soul:


Hrithik forgets about the mission:


Preity performing a regional dance:


Hrithik scowling because he can't get no satisfaction:


Hrithik working out his Oedipus complex:


Hrithik in one of his rare non-mental moments. Probably because Preity is nearby:


Bits from "Bumbro:"




Waaangst:


Waangst and false eyelashes:

Comments

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I really like the really torn sounding song where they are on the lake together. Something about smoke rising in the lyrics?

Other than that, the love story sadly wasn't too complex, but Preity was pretty and the songs were great of course, especially Bumbro.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I like that song too.

Yeah, the love story wasn't very complex. OTOH considering it wasn't the main attaction (or even a secondary one), I thought it was quite affecting.

*spoilers for the ending*

The ending just annoys the hell out of me. I am usually all for HEA but it this case is made no sense! He should have died in that jump. It made perfect sense and was about the most peace he could find. But for Sunjay to forgive him the exploding suitcase and take him back as his son. And for Hrithik to forgive the massacre and take him back as a father? No way.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

They should have ended it with him dying and walking into his heaven/house in the snow. That would have been HEA enough.

Sigh, but that's BW for you.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. That would have been perfect. I felt for the boy, but he really was too messed up to survive. The end was such a cop-out. And they did go for the bleak, uncompromising end in Fiza and it worked so much better (though of course, I don't rewatch Fiza much precisely because it's so heart-breaking so I guess it's a Catch-22).

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

I just recently read Maximum City (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375703403/qid=1136592163/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-1550676-8724605?n=507846&s=books&v=glance") and the author was one of the film's writers and detailed the making of this movie. Which you may be very well aware of, but if you're not, you may find what he has to say about how Bollywood works interesting.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware of that at all. And this sounds totally interesting. Now I must get my grubby hands on the book. Thank you!

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Only a small section of the book deals with the Bollywood stuff, though, so be warned. A big chunk of it deals with many other things in Bombay like communal violence and local politics ...

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

Heh! I was thinking about that too ;) And how Hrithik Roshan wasn't a star until they made that movie.

[syliasyliasylia.livejournal.com]

This was one of the first Bollywood movies I saw... and I'm quit fond of it. It has lots of elemets action, romance, angst, drama... and I quite enjoyed it. The music was lovely, Hrithik looks gorgeous in it, Preity is lovely, Sunjay is fabulous... and I'm not ashamed to say that I love the first appeareance of Hrithik in the film because it's totally cool! It might not be the best movie ever, but it got me really interested in seeing more bollywood movies after I saw it.

Oh! And I love the pic spam in this post.... guh!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

not ashamed to say that I love the first appeareance of Hrithik in the film because it's totally cool

Indeed. HOT. It's actually one of the only two Hrithik movies I don't own (shameless fangirl here) and unlike with Lakshya, I do want a copy.

[syliasyliasylia.livejournal.com]

OMG! I made the terrible mistake of buying Lakshya last time I went to London... awful, really awful... I like a couple of musical numbers and that's all, and Hrithik hair looks terrible.

I own a copy of Mission Kashmir! In fact it was realeased on dvd here, surprisingly since we don't get many Bollywood movies and I have to feed my Bollywood addition buying them off the internet!

Hrithik is so HOT during the whole movie! The movie is a serious movie with all the angst and drama but I can't help but spend the whole time thinking "OMG Hrithik you are so hot with that hat... and with that evil terrorist look..." hee!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

"OMG Hrithik you are so hot with that hat... and with that evil terrorist look..."

Especially since it seems that terrorists are forbidden to have a close shave. Yay for evil stubble. Serious movie or not, he is mighty distracting :P

Yeah, MK had a world-wide release for some reason.

Re: Lakshya. Me Aisa Kyun Hoon is the best dance number ever put on screen, period. I kept wondering "how does he do that? Does he have no bones in his legs?" But the movie itself is horrible, horrible.

[syliasyliasylia.livejournal.com]

I'm a total fan of the unshaven look for men... it makes me go totally guh! and fangirly! I can't help it.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Wah! I wanna see this movie, but I can't seem to find it on desitorrents or any of my local video stores. :(

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It might be in a local mainstream store. Our local Hollywood Video had it.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Hmm, that's not a bad idea. :)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

You never know :) Basically MK and Asoka are the two Bolly movies that consistently pop up in "regular" DVD rental places here.

[wasabi-girl1.livejournal.com]

I've seen Devdas, Lagaan and Chalte Chalte at my Blockbuster, which was cool. :)

[vierran45.livejournal.com]

Those two films were released on DVD even in Finland(!!!), which means they really had large releases.

BW hasn't really broken through here yet, and I can just imagine the look on the face of some guy who has rented Mission Kashmir as an Indian terrorist action film, and suddenly everyone starts to sing and dance :D.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

ROTFLOL. What an image :P