Beauty and the Beast - Part Two

The last time I had written an article titled "Beauty and the Beast" it was a movie review of King Kong. While the premise is the same, the movie this time is very varied in its style and substance. The movie in question this time around is, hold your breaths, Gangster.

I know, some people are probably sniggering. Yeah right, you are saying. How can you even compare the two movies? Well, I am not comparing the movies. I am saying that the underlying principle of these two is the same and that is exactly the title of this article.

Gangster is the story of Daya : a simple guy from a small village in Kashmir, who grows up to become a key cog in the underworld. He is constantly on the run from the police and it is during one such escapade that he runs into Simran, the femme fatale. He is flabbergasted by her beauty and therein starts the love between them. She is taken aback by certain chivalrous stunts he performs and we have the premise for a love story in the protagonists' life. Certain incidents force them to "adopt" a child and during an encounter, the child loses its life. This leads to the estrangement of the hero and his love.

Separated, they begin to lead their lives in the hope of someday being able to see each other. Simran becomes an alcoholic and seeks the company of Akaash, a singer at a local restaurant. Love blossoms again as Akaash inveigles Simran to accepting his proposal with visions of grandeur and a "settled" life. Daya chooses this exact moment to drop in, thereby sending Simran's plans haywire. He concedes that Simran would be better off with Akaash, but asks her to give him a last chance to prove that he has turned over a new leaf. To this she agrees.

Daya's past however refuses to lie down. He gets chased by police wherever he goes, much like fans chasing Amitabh Bacchan all around Mumbai, with the exception being that fans probably seek an autograph, whereas the police seek Daya's finger-prints i.e. the DEAD Daya's fingerprints! In this pandemonium, Simran realizes (surprise, surprise) that she is pregnant with Akaash's child. Akaash, the goodie two shoes, asks her to hand over Daya to the cops and lead a "happily ever after" life with him. Simran's dreams are dashed when she realizes that the guy she has duped had changed his life for the better and the guy she hoped to "settle" down with her that duped her. This aptly sums up the slogan line of the movie : She fell in love with him the day she betrayed him.

The scene in which the cops separate Daya from Simran is particularly touching. We see a hysterical Daya, bewildered at the thought of being separated from his love and feeling a tad depressed because of the fact that she let him down. This is why, I once again repeat the famous words of Carl Denham (Jack Black) from the movie King Kong : "It wasn't the air-planes that killed him. It was beauty that killed the beast." The femme fatale in this case leads our protagonist to the gallows and ends up joining him up there / down there according to your preference. In the meanwhile, she also manages to finish off Akaash.

All in all, a slightly depressing movie, what with the theatricals the actor who plays Simran's role goes through in an effort to make her role seem natural. I think someone else should have been handed that role. Someone who would be less willing to let her clothes off on screen and a bit more willing to act the part of the character that she is supposed to be. Shiney Ahuja is a revelation and he should refrain from scenes which require him to cry. As for Emraan Hashmi, well, he pulls off his role to a perfection. One has to admit that he can do the job of the bad-guy really well. Gulshan Grover does well in a cameo appearance. The sound track is good and although I have heard from sources that the music has been ripped from all over the world, the songs make for good listening, anyway. And the most attractive part about them is that they are unobtrusive in the movie. The movie moves along at a good pace and finishes within two hours. All in all, good value for money. To be avoided if you are the "core" hindi movie fan.