![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieRecently, I watched a very unusual movie for Bollywood. Last year’s sleeper hit Gangster, starring Kangna Raut, Shiney Ahuja and Emran Hashimi. It was filmed and set in part in South Korea, and in doing so, it seems to have adopted somewhat a tone of a Korean movie into itself.
The movie opens with a dizzying, disorienting flashback. A woman goes into a man’s apartment and shoots him, and on running out is shot herself. As she is in the hospital, being treated, the story turns as to what led to this turn of events.
The story of Gangster centers around Simran (Kangna), an isolated Indian woman living in Seoul. Eventually, she finds herself getting close with the engaging, stunningly normal and well-balanced expat Indian small time singer Akash (Emran). Fragile despite her seemingly destroyed shell, Simran is lonely but desperately wants some semblance of normalcy and family. That is something that is hard to come by. A former whore, she is now (as she confides to Akash) the girlfriend of the most wanted Indian gangster, fearsome Daya (Shiney Ahuja, in the movie’s most interesting and coolest role *swoon*), who has stashed her in Seoul for safe-keeping as he engages in never-ending mob wars. Daya might be top of India’s most wanted (and the movie never makes any bones that he is indeed responsible for all the crimes he’s supposed to have committed) but Simran is his one weakness. Ever since she’s hid him from the cops, years ago, he had put her on a pedestal, and will do anything rather than lose her. Not that it is much comfort to Simran, always on the run and alone…
So love triangles that aren’t all they appear, and plot twists, and some topsy-turvying of your expectations occur, and the end of the movie had me rather moved.
OMG, Shiney. I loved him in Metro but I adore him here. Somehow, he is both quite amoral and yet quite the romantic. My favorite scene in the movie is probably the one where he breaks down in front of Simran, after finding out she wants to be with Akash and normalcy, and goes down on his knees, weeping, and begging him to kill her if she leaves.
The movie never fleshes it out, but it’s clear that prior to meeting Simran, he had nothing in life worth living for (the mob boss says he liked him best of all his killers because he never was concerned about returning from a job). That is probably why he latches onto her so much. She rescued him for no reason and in his life even that much kindness is probably a shock (of course, her own life, as a low-class prostitute dancer, marks her as an outsider even before she becomes his gf).
And I love the contrast between Akash, the 'good' police officer, that seduces and uses Kangna, taking advantage of her desperate loneliness and longing for a home, and doesn't care at all, not even if she is pregnant, because she is like an animal to him, not a human, and Daya, who didn't lay a finger of Kangna throughout their whole time together because he views her as his Madonna on a pedestal (mixing religions here).
And ultimately, that is what Kangna is drawn to: this being needed so, and wanted. I love the scene where she betrays him but he still looks at her with love and you see her realize what she lost at that very moment, and probably ultimately and ironically, that is the moment she truly falls in love with him, as opposed to liking or longing or whatever it was before.
Some pictures:
Mind you, it’s a flawed film (ironically, I kept thinking it would make an awesome drama) but it’s certainly a very interesting and at times a moving one.
ETA: (and completely unrelated). I just realized that one of my myseriously-labelled Chinatown purchases is a copy of kmovie She's on duty. YESSSSS. Gong Yoo hotness, here I come!
The movie opens with a dizzying, disorienting flashback. A woman goes into a man’s apartment and shoots him, and on running out is shot herself. As she is in the hospital, being treated, the story turns as to what led to this turn of events.
The story of Gangster centers around Simran (Kangna), an isolated Indian woman living in Seoul. Eventually, she finds herself getting close with the engaging, stunningly normal and well-balanced expat Indian small time singer Akash (Emran). Fragile despite her seemingly destroyed shell, Simran is lonely but desperately wants some semblance of normalcy and family. That is something that is hard to come by. A former whore, she is now (as she confides to Akash) the girlfriend of the most wanted Indian gangster, fearsome Daya (Shiney Ahuja, in the movie’s most interesting and coolest role *swoon*), who has stashed her in Seoul for safe-keeping as he engages in never-ending mob wars. Daya might be top of India’s most wanted (and the movie never makes any bones that he is indeed responsible for all the crimes he’s supposed to have committed) but Simran is his one weakness. Ever since she’s hid him from the cops, years ago, he had put her on a pedestal, and will do anything rather than lose her. Not that it is much comfort to Simran, always on the run and alone…
So love triangles that aren’t all they appear, and plot twists, and some topsy-turvying of your expectations occur, and the end of the movie had me rather moved.
OMG, Shiney. I loved him in Metro but I adore him here. Somehow, he is both quite amoral and yet quite the romantic. My favorite scene in the movie is probably the one where he breaks down in front of Simran, after finding out she wants to be with Akash and normalcy, and goes down on his knees, weeping, and begging him to kill her if she leaves.
The movie never fleshes it out, but it’s clear that prior to meeting Simran, he had nothing in life worth living for (the mob boss says he liked him best of all his killers because he never was concerned about returning from a job). That is probably why he latches onto her so much. She rescued him for no reason and in his life even that much kindness is probably a shock (of course, her own life, as a low-class prostitute dancer, marks her as an outsider even before she becomes his gf).
And I love the contrast between Akash, the 'good' police officer, that seduces and uses Kangna, taking advantage of her desperate loneliness and longing for a home, and doesn't care at all, not even if she is pregnant, because she is like an animal to him, not a human, and Daya, who didn't lay a finger of Kangna throughout their whole time together because he views her as his Madonna on a pedestal (mixing religions here).
And ultimately, that is what Kangna is drawn to: this being needed so, and wanted. I love the scene where she betrays him but he still looks at her with love and you see her realize what she lost at that very moment, and probably ultimately and ironically, that is the moment she truly falls in love with him, as opposed to liking or longing or whatever it was before.
Some pictures:
Mind you, it’s a flawed film (ironically, I kept thinking it would make an awesome drama) but it’s certainly a very interesting and at times a moving one.
ETA: (and completely unrelated). I just realized that one of my myseriously-labelled Chinatown purchases is a copy of kmovie She's on duty. YESSSSS. Gong Yoo hotness, here I come!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-08-17 06:52 pm (UTC)I mean, Emraan Hashmi kissing ew. Shiney was great but his crying-scene was cringe-worthy. Kangana has definite promise, I hope she continues to do good. As for the story, as I said in my Bwhat review: "Totally unrealistic. Who in their right mind would pick Emraan over Shiney."
very spoilerous comment
Date: 2007-08-17 06:56 pm (UTC)I actually want to ship a copy of this movie to Korea now.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-18 02:22 am (UTC)Kangana Rangaut and Shiney were brilliant and the songs! I loved the songs!
It's really unpredictable as well...watch it!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 06:18 pm (UTC)Re: very spoilerous comment
Date: 2007-08-20 06:19 pm (UTC)