Welcome to the new age cinema. Review on Zinda

Welcome to the dark and slick world of the two Sanjay's( Gupta and Dutt), a world of style, great cinematography, violence, of protagonists mouthing expletives. But a world amiss the most important ingredint of any movie: A STORY- the soul of a movie.( Kaante and Musafir are the testimony to this fact)

With Zinda both the Sanjay's finally combine style with a bit or should I say a good bit of substance.

Zinda starts off with our Sanju Baba( playing a software engineer Balajeet Roy and not a BHAI for a change); trapped in a 10 by 10 room with only a television and fried wontons to give him company.

Neither Sanju nor the viewers have any clue about why is this happening and that's precisely what gets one hooked to the proceedings during the jail scenes.

Special mention here must be given to Sanjay Gupta's cinematography which suits the subject to the tee. The filmmaker has given a very coarse look to the visuals specially during Sanju's imprisionment. The granular effect multiplied with the hues gave the scenes and the movie the much needed rough edges for this kind of subject.

The first half is quiet pacy with the film capturing Sanju's frustration, agony and finally his determination to meet his tormentor and destroy him. Sanju finally gets released from the prison one fine day and is given clues by his persecutor to arrange for their face off. The movie is a real hard hitting one in it's portrayal of violence. The violence is so naked that it actually makes you feel the pain; particularly the scenes showing stitching of Sanju's hands, Sanju removing teeth with hammer and using a driller to knock out his opponents.

But wait, all this while where is John Abraham( Rohit Chopra- the business tycoon); yes he is apna Sanju's enemy no. 1 and the answer to why he torments Sanju forms the second half of the movie. John's introduction right at the interval takes the movie to a different high and the viewer is left eagerly awaiting for the saga to unfold.

The second half continues with Sanju's trail to catch John who actually is not running away but writing a perfect script for them to meet. The much awaited faceoff is a let down and probably the director could have handled the scenes better by packing a punch in the dialogues and by setting up undercurrents of tension in the atmosphere -- some cue here to be taken from Ramu for the highly engaging SARKAR. Nevertheless the film keeps us engaged with it's pace and style.

So far so good Zinda seems to be the meel ka patthar movie in Indian Cinema, but two or three pitfalls in the second half stop Zinda from reaching there. Sanju's attraction with Lara( the spunky cab driver Jannie) within a day of their meeting isn't digestable and is there only for the eye candy factor which drags the movie a bit.

But the biggest blunder is the climax or the reason for John's revenge. I'll not reveal the suspense but Sunjay (Gupta) should have thought of a more innovative reason behind the revenge drama.

Performance wise Sunjay dutt stands heads and shoulders above the rest. Playing a normal man after a long time he fills the required colors and shades for the role and paints a perfect picture of an agony struck person. His outburst when John Abhraham delivers his final punch is simply outstanding. John does well in a negative role though his character could have been written in a better way. But he does make a mark in the death scene of Mahesh Manjrekar, shedding his cold bloodness and delivering a high voltage performance.

But the winner in this high energy chase sequence is the person on the hot seat: Sanjay Gupta. This is a movie which reinstates the coming of age of Hindi Cinema, and put forths Sunjay's claim as a talented filmmaker. The director stamps his authority with good stylish cinema and great camera work.

The sequnce when Sanju chases down one of his enemies is one of the best in Bollywood, with the director running the camera at great speed and acute angles to capture exhilarting frames.

Statutory Warning: Zinda is a movie for those who are tired of watching sugar coated stories but strictly not for the faint hearted.

V.R. Abhishek