Such a disturbing movie.  Like, not sure if I can go to sleep tonight kind of disturbing.  Very disturbing.  But also very high quality.

I don’t even know where to begin with this.  I guess with how the film begins?  The “Chitta Ve”, which I have been listening to over and over again at work, turns out to be all about drugs!  Who knew!  We open with Shahid playing a very clear Yo Yo Honey Singh analogue and singing “Chitta Ve” at a massive concert.  And then we see him and his entourage snorting cocaine (I think?  I really don’t know anything about drugs).  And from there we see the whole cycle, how the cops look the other way and publicize the token busts they make, how politicians talk a lot but do nothing, how the activists try but are fighting a losing battle, and how the little helpless workers in the fields continue their small lives on the outskirts.

We are seeing the whole pattern of society and how drugs connect it all.  Fine, okay, not terribly original but all right.  But what I started to notice as the film continued is that the message wasn’t just anti-drugs, it was anti-society.  It’s not that drugs made the politicians corrupt, or elevated shallow empty musicians to positions heros, or forced cops to ignore the laws, or made poor little girls from Bihar travel to the Punjab for soul deadening manual labor.  That was already happening.  All drugs did was make those problems worse.

Put it another way, sometimes drugs and other illegal options can seem like a way to turn the power on its head.  It can let minorities became business owners, make them powerful, help their communities.  It can spread wealth in unexpected and unusual paths, it can effect change, it can be a part of the revolution.  Heck, I just saw that in Iyobinte Pusthakam, when they run illegal liquor to help pay for guns.

But what this film is saying is that the drugs serve to enforce the existing power dynamics in the region.  The most powerless people in society remain the most powerless people in society, just even more abused.  Even the characters who, at first, appear to be profiting from drugs, to be moving up in the world, are just heading for a much much worse fall.  The only ones who succeed are those who are already on top.  Which isn’t a spoiler, because those who appear to be on top at the beginning and those who appear to be on the bottom, may not actually be at the top and bottom, as we see as time goes on.

Hmm, what else can I say without spoiling things?  Oh!  Acting!  Phenomenal, all around!  Alia is on a whole other plain, I do not understand how she is this good, this young.  It’s like the second coming of Nutan.  Or Kajol.  Just this raw, open emotion.  She is the heart and soul of the film, and she carries the whole thing on her back.

Shahid is a kick!  He’s basically the comic relief, and he is great at it!  I looked up the director, and he previously worked on Kaminey, and wrote the script for it, which is my all time favorite Shahid performance.  This is kind of the same, plays into that same craziness and energy.  But without any of the depth or sorrow from Kaminey.  Well, maybe just a tinge of it.  But mostly just comedy and energy and fun.

Kareena is really well-caste.  It’s kind of a small role, really.  Well, smallest of the leads.  But she has to project confidence and calm and control.  She has to be the one who is five steps ahead of everyone else.  Who can see the big picture better than them.  So having her be the biggest name in the cast, and the most experienced actor, works very well.  Although, I kind of think 5 years ago she could have knocked the Alia role out of the park.  Not now, with all her old lady married feel to her, but back then she could have done it.

Dilji Dosanjh was dreamy!  Why did no one tell me?  He had these big sensitive eyes and a sweet smile and all that.  And he also had a great presence.  I cared, immediately, about his character.  And also respected and enjoyed watching him.  I believed he was smart, I believed he was brave, I believed he was the head of his household, all of that, right away.

But like I said, it’s Alia’s movie.  Alia and the director.  It’s an extremely complicated plot, and he balances it perfectly, hopping between character and character just right to keep us interested in them all, switching from despair to comedy just right to keep us from being depressed.  It’s also, of course, a really controversial plot.  He really pulls no punches in blaming the politicians and the cops and everyone else who just looks the other way and chooses not to care.

And, like I said, the real lesson is that nothing changes and nothing is new.  The ones who were abused before are still abused now, the ones who were abusers before are still abusers now, it’s just that drugs are part of it now, instead of water, or taxes, or the army, or any of the other things that have been fought over in that country before.