The untouchables... Review on Family - Ties of Blood

I have decided to update myself a bit on some past releases in bollywood that I have missed out on. So yesterday I reached home armed with a DVD of KAAL and FAMILY.

I watched Family yesterday and am going to watch Kaal today.<grins> I think u know what is going to come, dont you?

well..its getting redundant, I hate to say this everytime I watch bollywood movies, but family is no good. Now, dont jump into conclusions- the worst thing I hate is when people think of me to be stereotyped. I'm not.Its just that these movies are just not good. plain and simple.

Some of my friends complained about family that they have the same old story line, run and rerun to death. I didnt completely agree with them. The essence of a story might be old, but how its put across is what makes a movie a success or flop. But with the way the subject was handled in Family - it could easily make a fresh story seem like stale food.

And it was all the more disappointing for me because it had many folks I liked - Santhoshi, Big B and Akki of whom I have grown fond of, of late. Hmm..it might just be a reminder that joining the most beautiful eyes, ears, nose and lips of different people just dont create the most beautiful face, because it needs something else, from deep within to be present to make the face beautiful - just what family lacked. The movie was hollow and never once did u feel connected to any character in the movie.

Big B is a don and not just any other don - he sits on top of the mumbai underworld food chain. Akki is a middle class chap who works as a chef and lives with his younger brother and parents. They are an average family and akki is very fond of them.

They have done everything in the movie to make him look like the average guy next door except for one thing. His marriage. Hey! come to think of it, when was the last time u saw a hindi movie hero have an arranged marriage? Not the type where the parents of the guy and girl have been knowing each other since their school days or they were partners or that kind. I mean normal arranged marriage. I seriously cant remember (so pls let me know in the comments section if u remember any).

Well so Akki also doesnt go for an arranged one. He meets and falls in love with Bhumika and they marry pretty fast, which gives us a clue that love is not a major player in this movie and the chances of it moving thru a 'love' angle is pretty less. So we naturally arrive upon the conclusion that the title wasnt just refering to Akki and Bhoomika alone. We also logically conclude that the movie must then be referring to the whole family of Akki. We can also conclude that something is going to happen with Big B's family too as he keep yelling all the time 'mere family ko koyi haath nahin lageyega' (its what inspired my title)

The movie moves to and fro switching between happenings in Akki's life and B's life. We watch waiting for the families to collide. And then the show off happens. Big B opens a gun fire in a crowded theatre and Akki is caught in the middle.

Now, someones gonna take revenge. Akkis father is too old to do a road warrior. Bhoomika is the next choice, but the times of movies like Khoon Bhari maang have long been over since the time Rekha and Vijayashanti left acting mainstream movies. So Akki's younger brother enters the scene. He has so far been shown in the movie bunking college with his pals and having cybersex and fooling around all the time.

He decides to take it on himself to kidnap the family of Big B as a punishment for killing his brother and he wastes no time hatching a plan for the same - beginning by deciding not to shave himself for some days to give it a more authentic touch. His mates at school also decide to help him in this task. Such friends.

Now if I were his friend I would have given him my condolences and scooted the place. I have my own family man, come on! Whatever...but in the movie we are sure that the families of the friends are safe because they are not shown in the movie at all. If we had some scenes depicting how much they too loved their family, then we could assume that they would also be in for trouble.

Considering that college guys in other bollywood movies have easily done away with a defence minister with nothing more than a single revolver and a bike, kidnapping the family of a Don is a pretty easy task, as demonstrated in this movie. In less than 15 minutes time, we see all the family of Big B, his wife, son, daughter, daugher-in-law and grandson kidnapped and tucked away in safety.

Big B understands the err of his ways and after much beating around the bush, decides to give himself up to the law - not because his family was kidnapped, mind you, but because his daughter and wife wants so. But B junior is not much thrilled in giving up his inheritance. So he decides to finish off B senior. In the ensuing gun fire B's wife is killed and B kills his son.

Poor Aryeman - actually he didnt have to work hard doing all that he did.

The music of the movie is average and I wonder which dance director had the idea to make Bhoomika rap along with Akki for Katra Katra. The poor girl looked as uncomfortable as a black lady from New Jersey would, if she had to wear Bharatnatyam attire and dance to Carnatic music.

I seriously am not trashing movies just for the sake of writing trash reviews.

In a movie like Family which does not have any complex storyline the main way to captivate the audience’s attention is to treat the second half - where Aryeman goes around with his revenge plans - skillfully - like getting into some details of the operation, how authentic the plan is and how thrilling the exection is. Like they did in Die Hard or even Nick of Time.

But Family has none. The first half shows the buildup of the story and the second just the execution of the plan. Nothing in it where we would sit up from our chair and take notice.

All in all - I was amused with the movie :) Lets hope KAAL fares better.