Abhay
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Director: Suresh Krissna
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy; Lyrics:Javed Akhtar
Year: 2001
Running Time: 2 hours 57 minutes
One thing I don't often get from Bollywood
films is surprises, but Abhay is certainly an exception - it's got quite a
few of them. It's mostly unlike any Indian film I've seen - though it
does inhabit similar territory to the same year's AKS. Abhay and Vijay are
twins, but end up in very different circumstances when they get older. Vijay
is a decorated army commando with a beautiful fiancé (Raveena Tandon),
whilst Abhay has been in an asylum since he killed his stepmother as a teenager.
When Vijay announces his plans to wed his fiance (a decision forced by circumstances
that were another surprise), Abhay becomes convinced she has nefarious plans
for his brother, and vows to come and save him from "the witch". Given that
Abhay is a hulk of a man with a sharp intellect and tendencies towards violence,
Vijay doesn't take this promise lightly.
Vijay is a model citizen, Abhay is a model psycho - the two couldn't be more
different ... which is one reason it came as a complete shock when I checked
IMDB part way through and found that both characters were played by the same
actor (Kamal Haasan, who also wrote the script). This is one of the
areas in which Abhay surprised me greatly - apart from anything else, Abhay
is totally bald whilst Vijay has a natural and fairly full head of
hair and moustache, implying that the scenes in which both characters appear
must have been filmed weeks if not months apart. Scenes where they
actually share the screen are relatively few, but are very well executed.
This was obviously a pet project for Kamal Haasan (his 201st starring role
by the way!), and he gives two very different but equally good performances
in his dual roles. It's clear that of the two characters Abhay is his
favourite though, and he really gets into character. Abhay is a far
better developed character than crazed killers tend to be - The big USP for
Abhay is the way digital effects and cel animation are utilised to treat
the viewer to a journey inside his mind, into the world as he sees it through
mental illness and various drugs. These scenes are the source of the
film's most intriguing and visually impressive moments, and are very well
realised. Similar techniques have been used in other films (e.g. Pink
Floyd's THE WALL), but as far as I know they've never been used in an Indian
film, and probably never quite like they are in Abhay.
The script for Abhay contains quite a few other surprises, which I will leave
you to discover for the most part. It's well written and fairly intelligent,
suggesting again that Kamal Haasan put a lot of work and love into the film.
Unfortunately but not unexpectedly things take a downturn in the last half
hour, as the story and point are slaughtered in order to end with a couple
of big action scenes which are seriously over the top and rather impressive,
but quite destroy the vibe the film had managed to build in the previous
140 minutes. Although I enjoyed these scenes, I did wish Abhay had
surprised me again and come up with a more cerebral conclusion.
Technically, Abhay is accomplished. There is some beautiful art direction
and camerawork, leading to great visuals - especially the more hallucinatory
and digitally manipulated ones. The songs are very good, and the choreography
is great. The song about Laughter is funny and catchy, and the bizarre
cameo song/dance from Manisha Koirala features some fantastic acrobatics
from the backing dancers.
Conclusion: a well made, unique and
very enjoyable film. Recommended! 8/10.
The DEI DVD for Abhay is well presented
- a good anamorphic image and an ok surround sound track, with excellent
English subtitles. No extras, but it did only cost me about $4 (www.nehaflix.com),
and provided me with more entertainment than an average US dvd costing five
times that much :)
There is also a Tamil dvd of the film
- the movie was filmed simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi - the Tamil name
is "Alavandaan".
