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graveyard of DOOM index < | > The best thing about combining the light-comedy college film with the grim and gritty military action-thriller is that the film you end up making has both the end-of-year dance scene and the the final explosive gun battle. With such a premise working for you, how can you go wrong? Main Hoon Na, which translates as "I'm here now", is a story of reunions and the ties that bind families together. Oh yeah. Lots of love and sentimentality side-by-side with full-throttle action here. The plot is complicated, convoluted and contrived as we see Major Ram Sharma lose his father in a gun battle with the evil terrorist Ragavan, then learn about his long-lost half-brother, Laxman (get it? Ram and Laxman? Brothers in the Ramayana?). Ragavan is threatening to kill Major Ram's commanding officer's daughter, Sanju, if the Indian Government doesn't put a stop to their current plans to release 50 Pakistani prisoners of war in a gesture of peace. Obviously the best thing to do is send Ram to the college where Sanju is studying under the pretense of completing his degree, so that he can protect the General's daughter from harm. Coincidentally, the school where Sanju is studying is also the school where Laxman is studying, and even more coincidentally, Sanju and Laxman are best friends. Now that the premise is settled, it's time to sit back and enjoy a colourful mix of fish-out-of-water comedy, college shenanigans slapstick, dramatic rescues and escapes, more dance sequences than you can poke a stick at, spit jokes, tearful family reunions, fist fights, chase scenes and two troubled-but-destined-to-succeed romances.
There's a lovely tongue-in-cheek device used throughout the film where Ram falls in love with the new Chemistry teacher (necessitating a six-costume-change dream sequence complete with Ram and Miss Chandni both dressed in flimsy pale blue outfits standing close together underneath a waterfall) whose hair, as a result, is continually blowing gently and seductively in an invisible wind, even when she's inside and even when she's standing right next to other people whose hair is not moving at all. In a nice tongue-in-cheek metatextual touch, Ram gets struck with a kind of Bollywood love-sickness and every time he sees Miss Chandni and tries to talk to her, six guys in white tuxedos playing violins appear out of nowhere and he can only sing sweet, syrupy love songs while his eyes roll back in his head like a love-struck cartoon character. The action sequences are also great, drawing quite deliberately on The Matrix, with slow-motion bullets rippling through the air and heroes and villains alike leaping inexorably towards each other as the camera pans three hundred and sixty degrees around them. The best of the bunch would have to be the chase between the villains in their sinister black car and Ram on a bicycle rickshaw that catches fire halfway through the chase. Of course he catches them. As if. Another nice thing about Main Hoon Na is its argument for reconciliation between Pakistan and India - the bad guy is the one who wants the tension between the two countries to excalate into war; the good guys are the ones who want peace. The film also takes a stance (albeit slight) against objectification of women - after Sanju has a makeover to get Laxman to notice that she's not just his tomboy best mate (the whole thing done as a glamourous cast-of-hundreds hip-gyrating gold-trim dance sequence), she tells him off for only being interested in what she looks like, not what she is like. Of course they still end up together at the end of the movie. As if. Main Hoon Na rocks the Bollywood casbah. It's the perfect masala movie to show to someone as their introduction to the genre - proof that, despite the adage, there are times when you can please everyone. This one's going to get four and a half dosas out of five from me. Related links: |
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