Sarfarosh (Rebel)
Director: John Matthew Matthan
Music: Jatin Lalit; Lyrics: Sameer, Nida Fazli,
Indeewar, Israr Ansari
Year: 1999
Running Time: 155 minutes
With concerns of terrorism an everyday consideration
in India it is no surprise that many of their films have reflected this.
From a film like Dil Se that has a passionate love story in a head on collision
with suicidal bombers to Mission Kashmir that shows a family torn apart
by the specter of terrorism, the issue has received many treatments and
been seen from various perspectives. Sarfarosh takes the rather intriguing
tact of almost treating terrorism as a criminal act and it becomes a compelling
police procedural as a task force of Criminal Investigators track down
and eliminate a Muslim terrorist cell. Until the final few minutes, the
film for the most part avoids any nationalistic fervor that so many films
from this genre bombastically embrace.
Guns are being smuggled from Pakistan across the
border into India and being disbursed to various discontented groups
- the aim of the Pakistani authorities is to create chaos and numerous
mini-wars. A busload of civilians are stopped on a lonely rural highway
and led off the bus and machine-gunned down. This creates such an outrage
that the Crime Branch back in Mumbai is assigned the case and Assistant
Police Chief Rathod (Aamir Khan) is placed in charge. With his small group
of men – one a hulking Muslim (Mukesh Rishi) – they use all means necessary
to slowly track the gun smuggling and terrorist activities back to the
source.
With basic police procedural cinematic methodology
they start with a few small fish and work their way up the food chain –
often resorting to brutal interrogations, lowlife informers, deadly shootouts
and some good hunches. As they traverse the seedy bars and dangerous streets
of Bombay, the film takes on an air of gritty authenticity and death feels
only a close-up gunshot away. This noirish mood is offset by a love story
of course – this is Bollywood – but it never really intrudes on the story
and thankfully the filmmakers aren’t tempted to stoop to the cliché
plot device of having her put in harms way.
The love interest comes in the lovely slim and
shapely form of Sonali Bendre who has a lower lip that resembles a piece
of overhanging fruit waiting to be nibbled on. Her role here is not large
but it brings a much-needed break in the action and she gives the near
ferocious Aamir a more human and lighter side. And since it’s not really
a lot of fun watching a bunch of cops dance around, her presence allows
for some visually enjoyable musical interludes! Rathod had known Sonali’s
character in college but he was always too shy to approach her, but he
comes across her once again when she introduces a ghazal singer played
by Naseeruddin Shah at a concert that Rathod is attending. Now a cop, Aamir
seems to have clearly overcome his shyness! Beating up suspects must have
that effect.
The strongest point of the film is Aamir’s dead
serious approach. He leaves his boyish charm at the doorstep and allows
us into his dark hate and at times his brutal investigatory methods make
him less than a sympathetic character. He has his own inner demons tugging
at his sleeve and he often allows these to guide his actions as he uses
his badge and gun to trample aside any concepts of civil rights. Whether
the viewer is supposed to thoughtfully weigh his actions against the deeds
of the terrorists or simply accept him as the hero doing his job isn’t
quite clear. One can only assume that U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft lies
awake at night dreaming that law enforcement here could do the same and
clearly in these times it is a question many Americans are asking themselves
– where do you draw the line between civil rights and civil safety.
The film has six songs and though in a tense fast
moving narrative such as this it might seem that the musical numbers would
only disrupt the flow, the director does a nice job of squeezing them in
without really doing so. One lovely ballad (Zindagi maut na ban jaye) plays
over the opening credits, another is a soft ghazal sung during a flashback
of Aamir and Sonali meeting for the first time, two are daydreams by Sonali
as she falls in love, one is a sexy cabaret song as the cops look for suspects
in the bars of Bombay and the final song is a tribal dance ceremony of
some kind. The choreography is only average at best with Jo Hal Dil ka
being the best primarily due to Sonali looking absolutely yummy in the
rain!
My rating for this film: 7.5
Song
1
Song
2
Song
3