A must watch for every Indian . Review on Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey

I moved to Kolkata about 14 years ago for my studies and as the time and destiny carried me with their wisdom, I got my first job here, and since then I am settled in Kolkata with a permanent residence address. Here we have a street called Surya Sen Street through which I passed innumerous times without knowing who the man was and what he did so that he got one street under his name. We have hundreds of such street which sounds like someone’s name but of course except few of really known names, we, the next gen people actually don’t care who those people were.

Yesterday I decided to check the movie Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se, primarily because it is from Ashutosh Gowariker(I am a big fan of his) and secondly I am getting too bored of watching those confused youngsters making a mess between their love and friendship with opposite sex. The movie is plotted on the famous upraising of Chittagong(honestly I did not know much about it before) and keeping new generation people like me in mind(we know more about never lying hips of Shakira then the person who wrote our nation’s constitution, we are cool, aren’t we?) the director noted it as a forgotten true story of a revolution which sparks many such alike.

The movie starts with some teenagers in a village in Chittagong where the British army occupied their playing ground(now a day’s also the same thing happens when the army occupies schools and fields to set up their camps in  disturbed areas of Jharkhand, Bengal, North East, etc…). The boys losing their favorite ground, went to the local school master(Surya Sen), Masterda, (wow, Abhishek was really impressive) who was a revolutionary, and headed a group of freedom fighters who’s believes were not aligned with Bapu and National Congress, but their ideology was in the same line as Bhagat Sigh or Subhash Chanda Bose. They believed the British understands only one language, the language of bullets. Except Sikander Kher(Nirmal Sen), all the actors played as Masterda’s comrades are fresh faces but they were very good(that’s Ashutosh’s style).  Nirmal Sen’s fiancé Pritilata(Vishakha Singh) and her  friend Kalpana Datta(Deepika Padukone) also joined the revolution. Surya Sen allowed the boys to join their movement and they plan to attack five important positions of British Administration. Rest of the story was the planning, execution and the outcome of the attack where many of them gave their lives, many of them were caught by police and the way they sacrificed for just one noble cause, freedom of their motherland.

To be honest, the starting of the movie was very plain and ordinary, with surprise I started getting bored, but once the attacks started, wow the pace changed and it was like watching a high tension action drama with nail biting sequences, “hold your chair tight” actions. It was fast and takes you more and more into the movie. The scene where four friends after being surrounded, decided to commit suicide was really very moving and unknowingly few eye drops will moist your eyes. At the end, it proves how much research work the director had undergone when the actual pictures of the heroes(most of them were kids of 13-14) were shown and you really feel how true the story was and how much they sacrificed so that I and you can enjoy the cozy surrounding of Fame cinema to watch the movie.

Technically, the movie is not anything close to extraordinary; you won’t get classy camera angles, color/light coordination neither outstanding sound tracks. But once you watch the movie, you understand the main catalyst of the movie is it’s plot and the true story and it’s very natural and honest interpretation. It’s like a story happening in front of your eyes, without any artificial flavors. This movie isn’t like previous Ashutosh movies, which were really big like Lagan and Jodha Akbar. This time the technique was simple storytelling which has more impact than the big budget big productions.

I must say this is a must watch for every Indian who loves his country. We are really forgetting what price our forefather’s had to give so that we can have a better life today. Thanks Ashutosh, next time when I will pass through Surya Sen Street, my head will definitely bow a little to salute the forgotten hero. VANDE MATARAM…