Y.M.I. - Yeh Mera India

YMI.. Yeh Mera India.. The title sounds very very patriotic to any cinema goer.. And within minutes of the movie you start getting the feeling - its way farther from being patriotic! It just isn't.. The commentrator starts to criticize India and the other facts as soon as the movie starts unfolding! 

I was almost tempted to get my fiction while shoving this movie in the background.. But I sat a little longer.. Just to see where does it go.. Just to know why is an Indian director being such a critique of our country that has just started boasting of her being shining amongst the developing countries of the nation! And I am glad I did.. Its a nice movie.. Very extreme I must say.. But comes right out and slaps the anti-peace people in our country! 

Seriously, you won't get that feeling in the beginning...You start getting the message very very subtly as the movie progresses..and it comes like a bang in front of your face by the time it comes to its last 30 minutes or so.. 

There were exceptional artists in the movie.. And I mean really good ones..who knew what they were doing in every scene! Be it Seema Biswas .. Anupam Kher ..Sarika.. Rajpal Yadav...Sayaji Shinde...or Atul Kulkarni...The casting director did a very good job with this one.. Apart from the similarity they had in their real-life belongingness and characters - I felt they were apt for their roles and performed them very well! 

I had loved N. Chandra's Tezaab..As a kid - only and only for Madhuri Dixit's 1-2-3 dance.. As a teenager for hers and Anil Kapoor's intense acting..and later as a whole.. The message..the plot..the songs.. the direction..Everything. And this one undoubtedly stands par with Tezaab. Except for the songs & dance of course.. But every movie has a genre..and every director's work changes according to its audience..to the maturity of their viewing and to what is happening around! People say movies are based on real-life and vice-versa.. At times I feel its completely true ..But after watching a movie like this - You feel - It might not be entirely true - but a large portion of it is such a bitter truth - it actually stings in your face! The 2 line shayri after every powerful scene just gives that extra dose of bitterness..if I might add..

There were so many stories clubbed in this 1 story..and all of them inter-linked like a chain.. that it's difficult to rewind in your head and think about it chronologically.. But there were instances and scenes in the film that touched those patriotic emotions within me.. Out of all the characters I guess the character of Sameer Ali played by Parvin Dabbas stands out to me the most! The gentleness of his character..and his ideal thoughts..his calm & cool personality looks very very fictious ..as we hardly see any such people around us! 

But I was soo inclined towards whatever that character did and said..I just hoped that how good it will be if every person thinks the same way his character did in the movie!! Not only our country - but the whole world would be at peace and harmony and there will be no wars or Hitlers on the face of this earth.. But alas, that dream can never be true - and that's a brutal fact. 

I really appreciated the story-writer and teller's way of putting all the stories in such negative light in the beginning and gradually moving toward positive effects or lights..whatever you may call it.. As a Bollywood cine-buff it was so important that I took positive feelings from the movie..And wished that our country's janta doesn't follow anybody blindly.. Be it the politician or the media or the ever popular TV serials.. And I felt that was the core of the whole movie.. It was like an appeal without using any direct dialoge to the people of our country to use their brains ..their feelings before accusing the maid of having illicit relationship with the dhobi or before taking a sword and going after every other Muslim because somebody being a Muslim - by chance - had destroyed your home.. It is like a lesson for people who just keep criticizing the country without doing anything at all to do something for her! I know its very easy to sit in my cozy apartment hundreds of miles away from my own native land to say this. But to my justification, atleast I am not critizing! Just like the character of Jennifer Ali did. All she did in the whole story was to say ill things about the country and its poverty and its problems.. But when it came to really do 1 small thing....to eliminate that poverty by 0.001% - she chose to make fun sitting in her air-conditioned luxury sedan! And the same goes to the character of Mrs. Talreja... She had all the time to talk ill about the maid...talk ill of the serials..movies..etc etc around her ..But when it came to her own employees or even her own daughter - the character simply chose to ignore the best she could and simply walk away......... Interesting isn't it?

There was these 2 scenes in the movie that touched me the most.. And whenever I think about the movie they keep replaying in front of me in circles.. 1 was the one portraying the little girl who is lost and crying for her mother.. And this older boy looks at her and comforts her with a chocolate bar.. And the next was the neatest and sweetest thing a protective brotherly boy could have done! He ties her school bag with the arm of the bench so the kiddo doesn't drift away in the crowd while he goes out to look for her mother! It was soo very sweet...subtle and touching!
Another one was like a sequence to me where Sameer Ali is reading Geeta verses to the Babaji..(Not yet clear the relationship between both) And after a while he is talking to Mr. Talreja who refuses to give him a flat 'cos he finds out he is a Muslim.. Upon asked by him how come he reads Geeta verses being a Muslim - his answer and the expression portrayed by Mr. Talreja was worth an award!! My throat was in a knot just hearing the dialogue between 2 characters.. It was powerful and very intriguing! 

Even if 10 people..just 10 people really see what the director is trying to see with this effort of his - I think he has done his job! But my guess is that the only people who would have been interested and would have saw this movie - would be the people who believe in that already! Whatever one's religious..political..spiritual or patriotical beliefs are - I think one should see this movie atleast once.. Just 2 hours of a reality check would not really hurt us! Even though similar concepts have been around in the movie industry for years now.. I feel this one coming at this time - is like a slap to people like Thakeray who just don't understand the value of integrity & being a country as a whole! 

Must watch ...its not too late!