Aamir (2008)

Movie: Aamir
Genre: Drama
Language: Hindi
Director: Raj Kumar Gupta
Starring: Rajeev Khandelwal, Gajraj Rao
IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
Runtime: 95 mins

Aamir, story of a musilm doctor settled in London, who decides to come back to India post the uncertain situations there after the bomb blasts. He finds himself in a tricky situation when he doesn't find his family at the airport and then stranger things follow...

Bollywood has seen a lot of fresh cinema in last couple of years, and Aamir is one more addition to the list. Initially the movie reminds you partially of Colin Farrell starred Phone Booth, but as the movie unfolds itself it comes out to be even more thrilling and of more magnetic intensity. It is undeniable that this was one of the most captivating hindi movie I have seen, the plot is absolutely linear and there are no highs and lows, its unbent.

Aamir is Raj Kumar Gupta's first film as a director, before this he worked as an assistant director to AK for Black Friday, and there is a visible inheritence of terror inducing mentality. Other than that, the desperation of a new director was clear, the timely thrill and the non-repetitiveness. He has created the overall environment the way it should have been. He himself being the storywriter tells that the story is written the way it was to be shown. The scenes at the cafe, at the gulistan building, in the streets are well described and nicely placed. Though the climax could have been a little more organised than this, though it's a certain bold ending to the movie.


The protagonist Aamir is played by television star Rajiv Khandelwal and he does a decent job with this film. It was an easy static role, terrified and perturbed throughout the reel, and he does it well. Apart from a couple of excessive emotions, it was a job well done. The other guy in this movie is a person who is always on phone, very subtle role he plays, very monotonous, stringent kind of character. But his lines are pretty well written and suits him. 'Mughal yahi leke jaate the jang par'. There is one specific scene where he plays with a toy monkey and makes it work, he hits it once, twice, again and again, and eventually it falls. Pretty amazing metaphor used to imply Aamir's situation in the movie.

Another notable aspect of the movie is the background score. As soon as the movie finished, I had to look for this music director which sounded so familiar and it was. Amit Trivedi, he did an impressive work for dev.d and aamir was again a success for him. The music of the movie has a consistent smooth rythm with the flow of them movie and is not extravagant at any point of time. As per the songs, the song 'ek lau' that plays at the credit roll is amazing. One of the song that stays on your list at repeat for quite some time.

Overall, a beautiful and impressive movie. Specially with the kind of fresh people associated with it. Other than the beauty and thrill and the cinematic experience the movie says a few more things, the relegious extremism and unfortunate spacegoats. The movie starts with Aamir asking the officer at airport 'What if I was Amar?'. Aamir portrays an unavoidable dispute over religious tolerance and shows how extremism is absolutely blind and meaningless in today's context. A seeable and deep meaning attached. Peace.