Beware of the man who cares not for his life ..... Review on Man on Fire Movie

The first thing that gets you when you watch the movie ''Man on Fire'' is a sense of foreboding ..... There is something sinister even in the way Christpher Walken smiles ... and the movie hasn't even started ! The characters appear listless and toss and turn ..... like animals in anticipation of an imminent storm. The ambience of the movie itself is dark and the characters move about in shadows.

The movie starts with Creasy (Denzel Washington) being invited to Mexico by his former colleague Rayburn (Christopher Walken). Rayburn, aware of the demons that Creasy is battling, offers him a job just to take Creasy's mind off of his troubles. The assignment is deadbeat. Creasy has to act as a bodyguard to a little girl, Pita (Dakota Fanning), a project he is not too excited about (''In this state, I cannot guard a corpse'', he remarks.) Creasy is battling his own inner demons and searching desperately for redemption. He is a man dangerously close to the edge and we see that in his shaky hands, his cold demeanour towards anybody who offers him friendship and his savage drinking habits. When the nun at Pita's school remarks that she regrets his profession exists, Creasy says nothing . The nun is stunned when he completes a Bible adage that she starts off ... she realizes that Creasy has already tried to find redemption in the good book. Thus, the portrait of a man who values little of life, least of all his own, is complete.

But slowly, Creasy is brought out of his shell by Pita, who almost forces him to be her friend. They get off to a rocky start. There is a great scene when , after a heated argument with Creasy, Pita gets out of the car in the middle of the street and deliberately sits in the the back. Creasy is forced to connect with Pita and he allows himself the small pleasure of a human relationship. The scene where he teaches her to not to be afraid of the starting gun and his suggestion to start burping so that Pita's piano teacher will dismiss her earlier bring out the fact that Creasy sees a hint of normalcy in his life after a long time .....

Their lives are then torn apart when Pita is snatched by ruthless kidnappers. The kidnapping scene is awe-inspiring (attempted pathetically by Apoorva lakhia in his limp copy). One is brought to the edge of one's seat when the scene pans out. His failure to protect Pita brings out the demon in Creasy. He is shaken out of his torpor, and reverts back to his terrible, unfeeling self. He wrecks terrible revenge on the kidnappers .... matching their ruthlessness with a chilling disregard for any life whatsoever. All the while, reminding them that this was what they deserved. He detonates a bomb inside a corrupt officials' rear after calmly explaining what he has shoved inside of him .... he shows a picture of Pita to a kidnapper asks him to say goodbye to her and kills them in cold blood .... As the film hurtles towards an uncertain end, Creasy appears an uncontrolled trainwreck.

The ending is both stunning and unflinching in its cruelty. It is nothing like the ''Bacchan boot-licking'' climax of ''Ek Ajnabee'', so go watch it !!

Denzel Washington rules, nothing short of brilliant. Brief snapshots show him in his earlier career as an unrepentent torturer and mercenary. A sorry portrait is offered when he pleads with his friend Rayburn to give him a gun with a weak trigger so he can shoot himself ..... Rayburn is unfliching even to his friend . When Creasy asks him whether God will forgive them for what they have done, Rayburn unhesitatingly says ''No !''. The movie ranks among the rare few which makes one empathize with its characters.

Comparison with ''Ek Ajnabee''

Ah .... screw Apoorva Lakhia. As the saying goes, vermin thrive on the crap left by elephants. People like Apoorva Lakhiya thrives on crap thrown by Hollywood giants like ''Man on Fire''. The Bacchans have, of course, degenerated themselves into a cash machine. Nothing matters for them except to go through the motions of acting ..... not an original script, not the challenges of independent cinema, not the challenge of original cinema ... so long as the moolah rolls in, who cares,right ?