Lamhaa (2010)

Lamhaa is a sincere attempt, sadly ruined by the not-so engaging screenplay. Once we are into the movie, we see each and every 'Lamhaa' is lagging, :( Rahul Dholakia, the national award for his work 'Parzania' has doubtlessly done so much of research for the movie, he deserves appreciation for that, but the way he moulded his research and fiction has terribly gone wrong, resulting what 'Lamhaa' is now.Lamhaa, as mentioned in the tagline, is obviously the 'Untold story of Kashmir', for it doesn't go much into the natural beauty of Kashmir, which is, otherwise portrayed in every movie based on Kashmir, regardless of whether it is a terrorist story, or whatever. The dialogues are written brilliantly, some one-line dialogues make strong impact in the minds. But the movie as a whole, is a boring affair. Only grace is the climax, the last 10 minutes. The OST was excellently composed by Mithoon, but all of them are not used well in the movie. Salaam Zindagi track is picturised beautifully.The actors do their part well, all were good in their roles.On the whole, i can give Lamhaa a 6/10, out of which 4 is for the movie, and an extra 2 for Rahul Dholakia's effort to make the movie.

I don't know how many will take this review in the right spirit, since majority of prior were 1,2 or 3 starred. As i defined the title, this movie is rare, audacious and inspiring.I have been to Kashmir and can say that director has made sincere effort while writing the content and 90 % of the screenplay was authentic. Some can find this to be an exaggerated stuff but the tone of this movie is the voice of internal politics of valley.First half of the movie comes up with lots of characters and Second Half sums up all end points and hence make this as a complete circle; yet movie fails to embark any high voltage drama since many of the cine-mongers were unable to understand the climax, it was same what went wrong for Mission Kashmir.Before i can explain the climax of Lamhaa i think Mission Kashmir needs few lines, Kashmir is a very different state and it is divided in two parts, one wants to be with Pakistan and the second wants complete autonomy.By No means GOI will ever make any judgment which will please the above two categories and hence the only option left is make Kashmir as an International Issue. IN MK (Mission Kashmir)the attack on Hazzart bal (Most reputed Shrine) and the follow up on Shankracharya (Shiva Temple in Kashmir) was shown as an attempt from Terrorist to make Kashmir issue to be an International Issue, and seek UN's Intervention. So one can say that climax made some sense but yes it was not shown properly.The Current sate of Kashmir is like that non Muslim are not at all welcomed hence this makes Kashmir as a very different place. The plot of Lamhaa was to create such situation in other parts of India and hence make GOI to succumb. Sequel to MK's climax is Lamhaa.... Migrants who left Kashmir in 1989 are in Jammu and Terrorsit planed suicide attack at the rally which was supposed to be reconciliation effort from moder day Kasmiri Muslim. The High point is if any such incidents happens in Jammu, then again it will lead to multiple conclusions, probably People will left jammu to seek more safe and better place or Jammu will become Armageddon (Hindu-Sikh Vs Muslims) or something like that....Apart from climax, the 1989 holocausts was dealt as if one explains definition, some detailed interpretation would have made this docu-drama better. Editing was bad, some scenes could have trimmed very easily and hence would have made screenplay more effective. The most absurd part or the only thing i disliked about Lamhaa is that it tries too hard to explain small things and left major chuck unnoticed and finally tries to compile and give some solution, this actually questions the intellect of people who are dealing with Kasmir issue for last 20 years.Yes Lamhaa never explains the scenario in detail, and i think its quite justified because this can lead up to lots of controversies(dangerous ones) and that too which can vandalize the current peace of state in Jammu and rest of J&K minus Kashmir. In short, Its a true film about Kashmir and gives the insight of what actually happens in day to day life. A must watch affair.

It starts with a few revealing text captions about the history of Kashmir since 1947. And then comes a provoking dialogue referring to the region as "God made Heaven, Man created Hell". The opening five minutes raise the expectation levels to a great extent. But then what is offered to the viewers till the end is nothing more than a usual conspiracy crime drama made in the background of burning Kashmir.It seems that the director Rahul Dholkia, after getting his share of appreciation for "Parzania" made on Gujrat riots, simply decided to keep the flame burning by selecting his next project on Kashmir. His only motive of making LAMHAA appears to be as if he just wanted to remain in the news, sitting on another controversial topic in continuation of his previous famous venture. In a very funny way he uses a tag line for the movie saying "The Untold Story of Kashmir".Whereas in reality he has nothing new to expose or disclose about Kashmir other than what we already know. However the only fresh statement he has got to make is that Kashmir is like a company in which everyone is investing from all parts of the world and the issue has every single person involved in it right from the common man to the military and the politicians.But if we talk about the movie experience altogether, it is a big disappointment coming from the director of "Parzania". LAMHAA is undoubtedly a below average product, which falters in almost all its departments except cinematography. More precisely it has no script as such, written on the relevant subject of Kashmir. The story only talks about a big conspiracy being planned by the militants and the process of avoiding it by some good characters. It neither has any intelligent interpretation of the issue nor has any emotional feel about the innocent people suffering in the present situation.Besides this, post intermission, very unexpectedly you witness a few scenes highly inspired from the Oscar winner, "The Hurt Locker". The sequences showing a chain of land mines attached to a single wire and plantation of bombs in the stomach of small children are all taken from the famous English flick. Further the climax written around an attack on a leader making his public speech in the midst of a huge crowd also has its similarities with "Vantage Point". Frankly speaking, I wasn't expecting this kind of inspiring act from the talented director. The film which starts off as a mature take on the subject, ends up in an equally immature and amateurish style with a bizarre kind of execution of its final moments. And in the end, you just wake up from your frozen state of mind realizing that it has actually ended all of a sudden.On the performance front, except Anupam Kher every other name in the entire starcast fails to make a mark. Sanjay Dutt who plays an unknown messiah of the valley, keeps visiting every suspicious venue in Kashmir in his designer outfits and sun-glasses. His performance has only got his style and nothing else. Bipasha Basu, though tries hard but still is not able to impress. The scene of her getting beaten up by the women crowd should have been the highlight of the film. But very strangely the director decides to hide her face in this scene which restricts Bipasha to leave any kind of emotional impact on the viewers. Kunal Kapoor who enters late into the movie, just remains another character of the script and doesn't rise above that. Mahesh Manjrekar and Yashpal Sharma are both wasted in their few scenes. In short only Anupam Kher is able to leave his mark in a fine getup of a Kashmiri leader.Musically the score has some good and soothing numbers used in their shorter versions in the movie which can be enjoyable as pure love songs alone. But out of all the controversies and propaganda created, the only merit of this reality based flick remains its Cinematography. The camera movements are shaky in order to give it an authentic feel (also on the lines of "The Hurt Locker"). But after a long time the DOP shows us the breathtaking glimpses of the divine valley which were missing on the screen since many years.In a nutshell, LAMHAA is not at all about the serious issue of KASHMIR. On the contrary it's just another usual below the average Bollywood crime drama which deliberately tries to cash on with its subject revolving around KASHMIR. So you can decide for yourself if you want to see it.

Everyone, says someone important in this searing document of our times, is playing politics in the Kashmir Valley. In a milieu of all-pervasive politics, thank the Lord for a creative voice that can look into the burning Valley with dispassionate compassion.Lamhaa is one of those docu-dramas that could have easily toppled into the territory of over-statement and over-simplified politics. And boy, haven't we seen that happen in very successful political cinema in recent times?! Rahul Dholakia who earlier made the gently persuasive Parzania on the aftermath of the Gujarat riots, doesn't lose his storytelling equilibrium even when the sitiuations of crises described by the skilfully-written plot scream for attention.Restraint and honesty go hand-in-hand in Dholakia's Kashmir, which we'd like to believe, is the real Kashmir, unalloyed, non-magnified, intense and utterly devoid of artifice.The camera moves restlessly through the dangerous crowded main roads and tense bylanes of Kashmir where anything can happen.The cinematographer James Fowlds seems to know the Valley of the damned with the transparent scrupulousness of an insider who can place himself outside the explosive bustle of a portion of earth that's rapidly slipped into the stratosphere of anarchy and mayhem.The high-octane screenplay has no space or time to shed tears for the innocent and the dead. Miraculously liberated of overt sentimentality Lamhaa moves with candour and confidence through a world whose politics has become progressively impossible for the outsider to comprehend. Dholakia's narrative moves through a labyrinth of pain and violence without trying to make common sense of them.Lamhaa is not an easy film to watch. It comes to no decisive end. It takes into consideration the entire politics of Kashmir without careening towards excessive drama.This is that rare political drama where every component in the jigsaw of politics and terrorism is put on screen with a sensitivity and precision that repudiate melodramatic excesses.A word of special praise for Mithoon's songs. The lyrically lush tunes break into the deafening sound of bomb blasts and roaring guns to remind us that once the best poets of Kashmir wrote poetry on the beauty of the Valley.