I finally watched Aurangzeb!  Which I have been nagged about from all sides.  “All sides” meaning Arjun Kapoor and Prithviraj fans, and Jackie Shroff/Amrita Singh ‘shippers.  And all of those people were correct, it’s a great movie for Arjun and Prithviraj, and Jackie-Amrita (Jackrita?).  But some other things weren’t quite as strong as they could be.  Anyway, I wanted to put up a post in honor of A Flying Jatt, for the Amrita-Shroff connection.

At it’s heart, this is a movie about choosing between family and the greater good.  Which is fascinating, considering the cast members have such complicated familial relationships to each other!  Which I guess is inevitable, since the Indian film industry is so incestous, especially when you have a big cast with half of the people on the way up and half of the people on the way down.

Let’s count this down, shall we?  Arjun Kapoor plays the hero.  His mother is played by Tanvi Azmi, sister-in-law of Shabana Azmi, who has some unclear connection to the Kapoor family (I’ve never been able to pin it down, but she shows up at all their funerals and weddings and book launches).  Arjun’s “stepmother” is played by Amrita Singh, who’s ex-husband Saif Ali Khan is now married to Kareena Kapoor who’s cousin Ranbir used to date Arjun’s cousin Sonam.  Arjun’s enemy in this is Rishi Kapoor, father of Ranbir Kapoor who used to date Sonam Kapoor who is Arjun’s cousin.  Oh, and Rishi Kapoor’s son is played by Sikander Kher, who in real life is Anupam Kher’s son, while Anupam Kher in this plays Arjun’s stepfather.  Phew!  SO CONFUSING!!!!  So glad they threw in Prithviraj to be the southern ringer who isn’t related to anyone in Hindi film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0jgKr-GeGI

(Speaking of, this a very uncomfortable film to watch now that Saif is married to Karisma’s little sister)

It’s the Anupam/Sikander connection that I find most interesting.  Anupam is technically Sikander’s stepfather, Kirron was married before to a businessman, but she fell in love with Anupam when they started running into each other at auditions, and ended her first marriage when Sikander was young, and Anupam is the one who raised him and refers to him as his son, 100%, not his stepson.  Which is the same attitude that Anupam’s character has in this to his “stepson” Arjun.

I don’t think this is a connection we are meant to make, I don’t remember it being played up in the promotions for this film or anything.  I mostly find it interesting because, if you were to argue that this is an unrealistic view of relationships, that a man would fall in love with a married woman and raise her son with her, and that son would never even think of anyone else as his father, well, there is a real life proof that it is possible right here in the film!  Heck, I am sure Anupam only took this tiny role as a thank you for them casting his son in a fairly juicy part!

The whole film is struggling with this idea of what makes a family, and when you choose family over all.  Anupam’s character has a speech early on about how family is most important.  But I think the end lesson of the film is that family is important, but we also get to choose who we include in our family.  The whole “identical twins taking each other’s place” plot is just to hide that question.

This is where the “parent trap” part of it comes into play.  If you remember The Parent Trap movies, both the original Haylay Mills version and the Lindsay Lohan remake, half of the plan was to bring their parents back together, but the other half was simply to get to spend time with the parent they didn’t know.  The whole “infiltrate the gang and bring them down from the inside!” part of the plot was just to get Arjun1 in place with his father, and Arjun2 in place with his mother.  What the film is really interested in exploring, is how both Arjuns are able to build new relationships with these new relatives, just as Prithviraj is struggling with his relationship to his newly discovered brother and stepmother.

(Tragicaly, the two Arjuns do not have a song number together)

The plot is a little needlessly complex, it feels like there is a lot of this set-up to reach the right kind of conflict, where one person has to choose between multiple duties and responsibilities.  And they throw in the romance, which is basically a completely needless distraction.  Also, Amrita Singh’s character, while a total kick and a nice little variation on the “what makes a family” theme, could probably have been done away with in rewrites, or at least had her role substantially reduced.

But the performances carry us gloriously through!  Like I said, Amrita is a total kick.  Jackie is effortlessly suave and confident, as only Jackie can be.  Supriya Pathak is her usual excellence. Sikander Kher does a nice job with a sort of bluff egotistical too sure of himself kind of attitude.  Even Sashaa Agha is fine.  Swara Bhaskar is fantastic!  Just like in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, she has such a strong presence, she kind of steals the movie.

But the real centerpiece performances are Rishi, Arjun, and Prithviraj.  Rishi’s performance could have so easily been just the same as in Agneepath.  Another psychopath hiding it all with charm, a little unhinged on the inside.  But Rishi is so good, he came up with a completely different kind of performance and character.  In this film, he is a sane man who is reaching beyond his grasp, who has risen so high he can’t admit that he has achieved the limits of what he can do.  Someone who is only dangerous because he is out of his depth and is floundering just to survive.

Arjun has the show piece role, playing two distinctly different characters, both of them on emotional journeys.  He’s fine, does manage to make you believe they are two different people, but he suffers a little because his characters aren’t actually the ones with the most focus on them.  He has to go through some pretty ridiculous emotional twists and turns and changes of motivation without a lot of script to back him.

That’s because the real focus of the film, the one character that everything is structured to bring him through an emotional journey, is Prithviraj.  If the film had just accepted that and stuck with it, that this was a Prithviraj piece and he should be the main consideration, than a lot of the structural issues would have been solved.  But instead, they kept layering on more scenes for the other actors, especially Arjun, until it all became kind of confused and messy.  But the Prithviraj line was a firm golden thread heading through it.  And, needless to say, Prithviraj was more than capable of handling it.

Oh!  And Deepti Naval!  That tells you how stacked the cast is, that Deepti Naval is relegated to just “well, she was nice too.”

Okay, now I want to get into the nitty-gritty of the plot a little, and the plot is super twisty and complicated, so it is SPOILER time!  SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

 

 

 

 

I want to start by just walking you through the plot as it is for Prithviraj.  Because, like I said, that’s the only way it really makes sense.  It starts with his voice over, explaining his family.  His father and uncle were both cops.  But his father’s career ended in scandal and he disappeared, leaving Prithviraj to be raised by his uncle, Rishi Kapoor, and his aunt, Deepti Naval, along with his cousin-brother Sikander and cousin-sister, who is now also married to a police officer.  We open on Raksha-Bandhan, the family has gathered, including Prithviraj and his wife Swara Bhaskar, at Rishi and Deepti’s house.  This opening is handled very nicely, we immediately get the sense of a warm close family, returning to the home they have all shared.

And outside of all this warmth is Anupam Kher, who Prithviraj goes to visit that night, in his cold lonely modern apartment.  Anupam tells Prithviraj that he is dying, and he has to tell Prithviraj the truth.  Prithviraj plays this scene very cold, we can see just in his body posture how uncomfortable he is with this man who is his father, versus how he was with his uncle, the man who raised him.

And he gets more and more cold and remote and Anupam explains that he fell in love with someone, after Prithviraj’s mother died.  And that Prithviraj has another mother, and a brother, and Anupam has been sending them money every month.  And after Anupam goes, Prithviraj will have to take over this responsibility.

Now, this is a fascinating concept!  Prithviraj, the younger son of the house, coming after big blustery Sikander and confident Rishi Kapoor, suddenly shifted into the position of the only son of a widowed mother and the responsible older brother, with one word from his father.  And it’s a conflict that carries through out the film, Prithviraj struggling to hand his new responsibilities to Rishi and Sikander, as he is used to doing with all the decisions in his life, or to accept his responsibilities which means he has to make decisions on his own, as the head of a family, and not rely on his uncle and cousin.

(Kind of the same conflict that Nivin is going through in Jacobinte Swargarajyam)

Prithviraj starts out strong, going to find his brother and mother after his father’s death, seeming reluctant, but at least making an attempt to confront this problem on his own.  But as soon as he meets Arjun and Supriya, and realizes that Supriya is Jackie Shroff’s “dead” wife and Arjun is Jackie’s “dead” son, everything changes.  And he immediately brings in Rishi to take charge, abdicating his responsibilities in favor of his uncle.

So, the initial idea is great, Prithviraj having been raised in one household, then thrust in as the head of another at his father’s death, but the backstory to bring this about is soooooooooooo complicated!!!  See, Anupam and Supriya fell in love with Supriya was acting as an informer against Jackie.  Their case fell apart, but Supriya needed to leave, so she arranged with Anupam to fake her death and the death of one of her sons, and then Anupam squirreled them away for 20 years while Arjun grew up.  And now Arjun is an adult and looks exactly like his twin brother, Evil Arjun, who still lives with Jackie.

Just, what the heck?!?!  Why not take both boys?  Why run from Jackie if, as we see in the rest of the film, Jackie isn’t all that bad?  How exactly did Anupam raise Arjun, but his other son, Prithviraj, never knew about it?  Where did Prithviraj think Anupam was most of the time?  Also, what were all these people living on?  Did Anupam have a police pension, despite being thrown off the force in disgrace for “killing” Supriya and Arjun?

But, like I said, if you focus strictly on Prithviraj, this all works.  Ignore the set-up, just look at the idea of discovering that your father had a secret family only after his death and trying to navigate your relationship with your new brother and mother.  And immediately retreating into dealing with it as simply a police case, not a personal one.

Although Prithviraj can’t help a little resentment towards his brother come up, when they send in Good Arjun to replace Evil Arjun (following the plan Rishi Kapoor talks them into), Prithviraj gives him a vicious bang on the head, supposedly as part of their “I just got mugged, that’s why I am confused” plan, but the way Prithviraj plays it and the look on his face, makes it look a little more like some latent resentment.

Blah Blah, Good Arjun is undercover, Bad Arjun is taken into hiding with his mother, who is put in place to try to talk him around, none of this really makes any sense.  I mean, some good emotional scenes, both sons getting to know the parent they lost.  But what makes much more sense, and is developed much more naturally, is Prithviraj’s growing disillusionment with Rishi Kapoor.

Rishi’s track in this film also makes a lot of sense, by the way.  He starts out as a top cop, and head of the bribe system for the local force.  His son and his nephew-son are his top lieutenants.  His daughter is married to an honest officer, keeping her safe from their corruption.  Life is perfect, he can be casual and happy and confident.

But the discovery that his screw-up brother actually managed a fantastic feat in hiding away Supriya and Arjun, and the idea of finally bringing down Jackie Shroff, throw him off.  Plus, there are the comments about retirement, he is about to lose the job he has devoted his life to.  He starts reaching further, going after something that will make him feel like a hero again.

 

There is a wonderful scene with Deepti, when she finds him sitting in the kitchen late at night, trying to decide what to do.  You think it is going to be something about how women don’t understand men’s struggle, or she is going to do the usual wet-blanket wife thing of saying “don’t do anything too dangerous!”  But instead, she sees that he is feeling like less of a man, like he doesn’t belong in the world any more, and she tells him that, whatever he is trying to decide, he should do it.  He has made the right decisions for their family for years, and given them all a wonderful life, and she trusts him to do the right thing again.  Rishi could so easily come across as a one-dimensional villain, but scenes like this let us see why he might believe he is doing the right thing, why he might think he has no other choice but to keep going.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws34EAZ_Xjs

(I knew it couldn’t be the first time they co-starred!  And now I am kind of curious about this movie)

Rishi and Prithviraj are the real opposing forces in the film.  Ultimately, just like with the historical Aurangzeb, it comes down to an inheritance dispute.  Who is the true head of the family, Prithviraj, son of the oldest son, or Rishi, the only one of the older generation?  Prithviraj starts by following his uncle blindly.  But he can’t help starting to think for himself, and he can’t keep strangling his sense of responsibility forever.  Only one can truly take control, and there will be blood before it is over.

Arjun’s plot is supposed to be the big gimmick of the movie, but it’s really what happens in Prithviraj’s “other” family that drives him to make a change.  Rishi starts trying to use Arjun’s undercover position to blackmail Amrita Singh into working with him to take over Jackie’s empire, this is the plan that Rishi has come up with for his post-police career, the goal that is a little outside of his comfort zone.  And as part of this, Sikander is sent off to set up a false protest, involving shooting and framing a protester.  Rishi’s honest son-in-law sees this, and Rishi is forced to kill him to cover it up.

It is this death that really shakes Prithviraj.  Partly for the sake of the honest officer who was killed.  But mostly because his cousin-sister is now a widow.  This is why the film started on Raksha-Bandhan, Prithviraj has sworn to protect his cousin-sister, and now she is broken hearted and alone because of Rishi’s actions.

The second thing to shake Prithviraj is Swara Bhaskar.  It feels like in an earlier version of the script there must have been more details to their relationship.  We are left with just 3 scenes, but they are both such fantastic actors that they manage to sketch in a whole relationship in just 3 scenes.

First, in the middle of all the craziness, Swara tells him she is pregnant.  And she also picks at him a little, trying to make him reveal his emotions about his father’s death, and more importantly, his feelings about her.  She points out that he has never said “I love you.”  In another actress, this could feel weak and whiny.  But with Swara, it feels like she really just wants to know.  She is about to have his child, she needs to know where she stands in his life, and where he stands on fatherhood.  And sketching in the background of their relationship based on this scene, I think we can assume that this was an arranged or semi-arranged marriage, not a passionate love affair.  That they have mostly related as partners in building a life together, not as individuals who care for each other.  That she has always been a little shut out of his life and unappreciated, because he has been so consumed with his closeness with his uncle and cousin.  And that a big part of Prithviraj’s resistance to opening up to marriage was because of his messed up relationship with Anupam, and it has all gotten worse since Anupam’s death and the discovery that Anupam was able to be the warm and present father Prithviraj craved to another son.

The second scene comes right before the final confrontation.  Prithviraj has figured it all out now, that Rishi is setting Arjun up, that he killed his own son-in-law to cover it up, that Rishi and Sikander have thrown the city into an uproar for their own selfish ends.  He has to rush off and put a plan in action to fix things, but before he leaves, he takes a moment to say goodbye to Swara.  He starts to tell her where the money is kept, finally letting her in on his secret life, revealing the bribes and cash he has gathered over the years, and she cuts him off.  Not because she doesn’t want to know about his life, but because “I don’t want you thinking you can’t come home, because I know where the money is.  You will come home, and you will take care of the money.”  It’s kind of related to Rishi’s scene with Deepti.  Prithviraj is letting her in on his insecurities, and she is responding with confidence.  But while Deepti sent Rishi off to take care of the whole family and conquer the world, Swara just wants Prithviraj to come home to her and their unborn child.  And Prithviraj is taking farewell of just her, not even his innocent aunt and cousin-sister, just his wife.  His family has narrowed down to one person and their unborn child, all other relationships had to be cut out.

And that’s what the final scene between them, almost the final scene of the movie, is about.  Prithviraj, having achieved his goals, killed his uncle, arranged the death of his cousin, and saved both Arjuns and Supriya, somehow manages to drive home and stumble out of the car, bloody and broken to walk over to Swara.  The only thing he cares about, the only thing that is keeping him going, is this one person and their home.  That warm crowded household from the opening, where he rushed off to spend time with his cousin-sister and fellow officers, forgetting his wife was even there, that is gone forever.  It’s a new world now, just the two of them.  And in this new world, he is taking control of the city, and the police force, driving out bribery and trying to keep the city clean.  He has taken Rishi’s place, as head of his own small family at home, and as the larger police family at work.

(thinking about Jacobinte Swargarajyam again!)

See, now, that’s a movie!  Family against family, what is the line you won’t cross, slowly dealing with deep psychological damage, etc. etc.  The Arjun story, that’s just kind of a mess.  I mean, lots of nice moments and good performances, but it makes NO SENSE!!!

Evil Arjun is kind of a screw-up, drug addict, abusive boyfriend to Sasha Agha, and no good at helping with his father’s business.  We learn that part of this isn’t his fault, Amrita Singh, his father’s girlfriend, has been turning them against each other.  And she set Sasha on him, telling her to drive him to drink, drugs, and abuse.  Plus, you know, lost the love of a mother at a young age.

Good Arjun is kind of a blank slate.  Decent momma’s boy is really his only character trait.  He meets Jackie, immediately feels the love of a father from him, and falls in love with Sasha at first sight.  He also immediately understands that Amrita is conning Jackie and bad for business.  There isn’t really a big build to him being in love with Sasha, and taking over Jackie’s business and weeding out the bad apples (sorry for the mixed metaphor, but weeding out the weeds just sounds stupid).  All the pieces have to be in place at the end, for him to have gotten so involved with Jackie, and so angry at his enemies, that he is willing to turn “bad” and attack them.  But the route there is a bit roundabout.

Same with Bad Arjun, but more so.  There is this interesting idea, that at the very end he has to learn that Good Arjun is about to turn bad, and offer to take his place since, as the “Bad” son, he can be sacrificed and no one will care, plus he is already a lost cause.  It’s a very Tale of Two Cities sort of “It is a far greater thing I do than I have ever done” kind of nobility.  But again, makes no sense!  We’ve only seen him in very brief glimpses, constantly yelling at his mother and refusing to forgive her for abandoning him, and resenting his brother, and now all of a sudden he is offering to sacrifice himself for them all?  I’m not saying either character is unbelievable, but I wish we had a few more scenes explaining and exploring their journey.

But once all the pieces are in place, the last 20 minutes is just perfection!  Bad Arjun knocking out Good Arjun so he can take his place, using his insanity to take over and confuse the meeting that Amrita is running, Good Arjun going to rescue Jackie and finally reveal himself, the two brothers confronting each other, united in trying to save Jackie, and finally both Jackie and Bad Arjun ordering Good Arjun to run for it, finally justifying the decision Supriya made decades earlier, that Good Arjun is the best of them and deserves a chance in life.  All of that is just golden.

And the end-end of the film is just perfect, Good Arjun and Bad Arjun and their mother, reunited in the hideaway house where Anupam stuck them, by Prithviraj, who has delivered Bad Arjun directly to them after he has completed his jail term.  Bad Arjun is still “bad”, still leaning and casual and extra confident to hide his insecurities, but he is now back with his right family, the ones that support him and build him up, not tear him down.  It’s the same message that resonates in Prithviraj’s story, only it makes a heck of a lot more sense with Prithviraj!

By the way, I have to say again that Arjun really does a phenomenal job with this part.  Defining two identical characters as two different people just through mannerisms, even while they are pretending to be the other one, is quite the challenge for a young actor in only his second movie!  It’s just kind of a thankless part, because the motivation and so on is so different scene by scene.