Jun 27, 2009 02:50 PM
3138 Views
It was a beautiful morning. Clear blue skies, the sun was shinning bright. The date – September 11, 2001. I looked out the window, breathed in deeply and thought to myself, how time flies. It had already been over a couple of months since I had moved to New York City from my home in New England. I had defended my thesis that May, and was done with school. I was single, young and ready to put in all my time and effort into building my career, building my life.
I left my apartment for work. After reaching office, I turned on my computer and as I was getting my coffee, I heard a loud sound, followed by screams. My office was on the 17th floor, just a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center. I looked out the window on the other side after a couple of minutes, and saw one of the twin towers was on fire. No one knew what exactly had happened. Initially there was discussion that a plane may have hit the tower by accident.
And then, it happened again, another plane hit the South Tower. I can’t express in words, the chaos, the mayhem and panic that followed. Our building was evacuated and as I walked toward the Brooklyn Bridge sometime later, I saw the South Tower fall, like a pack of cards, with dust and mud blowing off as if there had been a desert storm. It was like all hell had broken loose. It took me over 8 hours to get back home that day. My suit, was covered in dust, my hair was all messed up and dusty. I went for a long shower, but could not think, I was numb, and one thought just kept repeating in my mind: Who in their right mind would do such a heinous thing? Why? What would anyone gain by shattering so many innocent lives??
Its been a long time since then, but every minute of that day has been etched in my mind forever.
So when I heard that there was film being made titled “New York” and entails the after effects of 9/11, I could not wait to see it. I had seen Kabir Khan’s “Kabul Express” in the past and had high expectations from this film.
The film begins with some beautiful aerial shots of the city, finally zeroing in on the streets of New York. We are then introduced to the character of Roshan (Irfan Khan) an FBI agent, in conversation with Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh). Omar has been detained on terrorism charges and is given the option of either cooperating with the FBI or being subjected to torture and detention for life. Is Omar a terrorist? What does he decide? How does he go about his plans? These are some of the questions that would be answered when you watch the film.
My take: I feel Kabir Khan ‘the human being’made this film, to express his thoughts and views about the political situation post 9/11, particularly about the much talked about “Torture” issue in the United States, and its impacts on the world. I wish however, that he had shown both sides of the coin, instead of simply preaching his views.
Kabir Khan the director, has used the classic “flash back mode” to build a major part of the back-story of the film. The direction is fairly non-linear and makes for an interesting watch over all. The technicality and camera work is fabulous. The frequent use of steady-cam for creating jerky shots, to make the audience feel right in the middle of all the action were very well done. Under water photography, night shots capturing the beauty of the city, and the shots taken from Liberty State Park, overlooking the Manhattan skyline were superb.
What really disappointed me however was the lack of originality in his execution of many of the so-called “Torture” scenes. In particular, John Abraham’s detention scenes, water-boarding etc were a frame by frame copy from the 2007 film “RENDITION”. The initial interrogation scenes between Neil and Irfan though not as dramatic, reminded me of Irfan’s character in “Slum Dog Millionaire”. The scenes looked dé ja vu. The scene where the cop searches Katrina is straight out of “Crash”. The climax, I felt was preachy, particularly the scenes between Neil and Irfan.
One of the major flaws I felt was the scene where the characters view the fall of the twin towers on television. Upon watching this, Neil looks at the t.v., then looks at the people around him and apparently leaves town on the same day as he is dejected in love. The scene almost belittles the significance of what happened on that day. Things almost came to a stand still in NYC, there was chaos in every part of the city, no one could go anywhere, and yet it is shown that one of the main characters conveniently leaves town?? 9/11 happened in September, it is when Fall semester classes begin, and Neil is shown telling Katrina that he has been feeling sad, because “college is over”?????
John Abraham’s character is supposedly bred in New York, however his parents/family are mentioned only once and are never shown in the film at all. Not even when he gets out of detention??
This film with complex characters and charged emotions required powerhouse performances. However, John Abraham and Katrina Kaif can be considered at best average. Katrina’s dialogue delivery still needs a lot of work, though she has tried to give some decent expressions. John’s performance was below par, when compared toOmar Metwally who had done identical scenes in “Rendition” that John did. Metwally had given a stupendous performance. Neil Nitin Mukesh and Irfan have given very good performances as expected.
Music is plain average. Thankfully the characters haven’t danced around trees, and the songs play in the background. The background music and sound design however are quite pleasing. Overall, Kabir has smartly used the medium of cinema to voice his views. He’s of course voiced his views with an extreme example, that “torture” could convert a perfectly innocent citizen into a “terrorist” and is hence wrong. How I wish Kabir had paid more attention to the screenplay. The pace at times was slow, and some scenes were unnecessary. John’s character needed a lot better writing.
My Thoughts: Before 9/11 there was no Guantanamo. Security checks at airports were a breeze. There were no long lines and strip searches. Yes, after 9/11 everything changed. The basic emotion that holds humanity together “TRUST” was gone. Everyone who looked or sounded different was a suspect.
If someone comes to your home and starts shooting indiscriminately, would you not do anything and everything plausible to first and foremost protect your home and your family? Yes, I agree “Torture” is wrong, discrimination on the basis of race and religion is wrong. Going to Iraq was a colossal blunder. But is it that easy to forgive and forget? It pains me to this day that the true perpetrators of 9/11 have not yet been nabbed and may never be, while there are many who may be innocent and have been held for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
