Review: Eklavya

Eklavya: (drama)
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan
Direction: Vidhu Vinod Chopra

We'd rather describe Vidhu Vinod Chopra as a poet on celluloid. Ever since Parinda , he has used the silver screen to etch some indelible sequences which could aptly be described as poetry in motion.

In fact, the filmmaker chooses to pay himself a tribute in Eklavya by replaying the classic shootout sequence at Shivaji Park in Parinda , his masterstroke in movielore.

He repeated the brush strokes in 1942 A Love Story and created some stunning montages even in Kareeb , a film which failed to ignite the box office.

Eklavya too is a throwback on renaissance art in terms of its canvas which has been carefully filled in with the dark colours of a dark world that lies hidden in a time warp.

The lost world of the dethroned Rajasthani royalty, complete with the candle-lit palace interiors and the history-sheeted nooks and corners stands out like an oddity in a world that's skidded into a different era.

And as you enter the intimidating ramparts, you know it's going to be a tryst with human tragedy, wrapped up in the silken folds of mothballed parampara and outdated dharma. But form alone can't carry a film through. In the end, it's the overriding bleakness of the tenor that works against the film.

So that, once the superb action sequences — camels, trains, bullets, shootouts, sand, pigeons, anklets, death — are over and Boman Irani's tragic Shakepearean act is curtained, the film ends up as mostly filigree.

Of course, Amitabh Bachchan pitches in a towerhouse performance as the royal guard, who's losing his eyesight but not his loyalty to the erstwhile royalty, but we've seen him deliver better — and more Rolls Royce-worthy — histrionics.

Call it a case of claustrophobia, but all that heavy headgear seems to have bogged him down with its sheer baggage of servility. Also, the incessant whispering between Vidya Balan and Saif Ali Khan almost incoherent and bordering on the lifeless makes you wonder if our fiery Parineeta is fast losing her fire.

Remember Salaam-e-Ishq? And Sharmila? Oh please, what a terrible waste of talent! Imagine what a single flashback might have done? It would have given the film the emotional core which a mere silken scarf failed to give.

In the end, Eklavya is definitely worth a dekko , specially since it brings the flavour of a Shakespearean tragedy to the Indian screen, without actually reworking a Shakespeare play.

Saif's restraint, Boman's pain, Bachchan's brimstone and Chopra's camaraderie with colour and form are what you carry out with you when the lights turn on.
SOURCE : THE TIMES OF INDIA