I Am - Movie Review

Star Cast: (in alphabetical order) –Juhi Chawla, Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, Purab Kohli, Rahul Bose and Sanjay Suri

Special Appearance: Anurag Basu, Anurag Kashyap

Apart from the star cast mentioned above – there are two more actors in the movie but I cannot recollect their names. They play the ladies in Sanjay Suri’s life – one plays his ‘mum’ and the other plays the role of his ‘friend’.

I went to watch this movie without any background about the storyline or the star cast. In fact a friend pulled me in for it at the last minute. Until I saw the credits, I was under the impression that I was going to watch an English movie! But I was pleasantly surprised to find it otherwise.‘I Am’ is a cross over movie with English and Hindi used as the medium of expression interchangeably. For the benefit of the audience, the movie has subtitles in English.

The film is an interesting attempt to show four stand alone stories around Artificial Insemination, Impact of communal riots on Kashmiri Pundits, Child Molestation and Homosexuality; spanning across Kolkata, Kashmir, Bangalore and Mumbai.
Graphically represented (occupational hazard, you see! - cannot do without graphs and charts :P), this is how the arrangement of the star cast would look vis-à-vis the plot:

The movie begins with Nandita Das dealing with her desire of having a child and raising it on her own but worries about the character traits of the borrowed sperms that have a good chance to mirror in the child. The story, then, moves on with Juhi Chawla visiting her ancestral property in Kashmir only to sell it off and run away from that place but finds it hard to keep old memories at bay. Subsequently, the focus shifts to Sanjay Suri and his preferences in life; a lot of which is to do with his scarred childhood which he shares with no one until his stepfather dies. It is funny to note how Sanjay Suri’s use of Bengaluru (instead of Bangalore) comes with an effort in the movie. Finally Rahul Bose takes away the cake with his powerful performance as he tries to entice another man and lands into trouble.

All through the movie, every emotion is portrayed very subtly; and a lot of things have been left up to the audience to decipher.

I particularly liked the flow of the film as it moves from one storyline to another, seamlessly. That was possible, perhaps, because Onir (the director) has restricted the relationship between prime characters to the bare minimum and utilized it only to introduce a new character and transition into another story.

Some interesting things to note about the movie:

The story line is focused on the characters played and not on the issues they are dealing with. That is perhaps another reason why the story moves from one storyline to another effortlessly. The movie does not indulge in any sort of preaching. It does not tell the audience what is right or what is wrong or good over evil or winning and losing. The narration is good enough to hold on to the interest of the audience till the end .  But there is no concluding note on any of the stories that says  'everyone lives happily ever after' - which leaves the audience wanting for more.Onir, I feel, strategically has put Rahul’s story in the end, who again, leaves an impressionable mark in the audience’s mind through his performance. As I was coming out of the theatre my sister asked me what would I fill in after ‘I Am..’ for each of the prime characters in the movie. I couldn’t really think of any word to define their character except for their names to fill in the blank.

I feel, the movie justifies its title.

My final take on the movie –highly recommended for a watch!!

P.S: A word of caution for the faint hearted- although most of the movie follows a pattern of subtle expressionism but the climax is quite the opposite as far as use of Hindi slang is concerned. You may want to give it a second thought before watching it with people who fall beyond the radar of your comfort zone for sharing cheesy jokes! I wouldn't watch it with my dad :P