Anwar (2007)

The movie starts with a lot of promise, but it fails to live up to the start. The excellent cinematography is spoiled by some loose performances and poor storyline. It seems that a 'short story' has been elongated too far. The movie still manages to remain with the viewer, even after a long time of watching it. The scenes in slow motion of the peacock feather, the blood in water, the blue earrings, the chase by Krishna are exquisite and haunting. The background music and the songs are also quite nice. What troubles the most is the poor performance of actors like Rajpal Yadav and Pankaj Jha not actually making an impact. Manisha Koirala too does a dumb Barkha Dutt parody. Manish Jha leaves a lot to be desired but also brings the hope of a different powerful 'statement oriented' cinema. I really wish if he could look at the other side of India and Indians for his next movie. (Reviewed on 14 February 2007)

I was speechless after seeing this movie. No one can express beauty and depth of this movie in words. This movie is a feel of heart. I will try to express my feeling in below points: heart touching music and lyrics, story is touching social issues and superbly directed, I have seen this movie more that 20 times. don't even remember may be 50 times, superb acting by Vijay Raaj. he is the best expressive actor, leaves impression on heart, if you listen songs they have depth of music and lyrics. best part of film is touching social issues very beautifully. movie climax was heart touching. I cant got over of this movie as I see it today as well when get chance. i give 10 out of 10.

I bought its DVD because some of my friends told me that this is a good movie. Frankly speaking I was not agree with them because this movie was never marketed. I bought the DVD and saw the movie. What ? Guys, it is really a movies which keeps strength to make you so emotional even if you are not. Movie is a little slow but that does not affect its story and entertainment. It is slow because it was necessary to understand the feelings of every character. I would recommend everyone to watch it. One more thing, I loved the background music of the movie so much. Its a story about a young Muslim guy fell in love with a girl. Somehow the guy not being so lucky and do not get his love because the girl loved someone else ( A Hindu guy). In his temper unknowingly he just make the things messed up and both the girl and the guy(Hindu) were murdered. Anwar feels so guilty and starts walking to an unknown destination. In his way, he finds a temple and thinks to spent the night in there. In the morning whole scene was changed. Now I am not going to tell you the whole story. Just watch it and feel the movie.

I rejoiced for Manish Jha's bravado and intelligent approach to movie making and stepping away from Bollywood style tripe. Vijay Raaz's acting as the eternally sad Master Pasha was incredible-kudos-I admire your work and its authenticity and glad you haven't sold out to Bollywood. The scenes and allegories were beautifully and tastefully shot, the imagery unforgettable. Great camera work and I love the minimalist yet to the point approach- good editing. I was a little lost on Gopinath's role and confused by his end (I've always been a fan of Rajpal Yadav's acting) . Siddharth Koirala was very expressive, beautiful eyes (looks like the great malayalee actor mohanlal)he could be more emotive but performed rather well in his over obsessed with Mehru role. Thank you to all the cast and Manish Jha for producing such a profoundly intense story on the screen. I'm happy to see such intelligent work and gives me hope that not all Indian actors and directors are slaves to the Bollywood industry tripe that flows out in copious amounts. The music was incredible especially the theme song or at least Moula mere-Thank you! and congratulations on this nearly impeccable work.