Its hard to make a movie on real life historical events in india; as there is always a threat of instigating the sentiments of people associated with that event and entangling the movie into unnecessary controversy which leads to delay in release of the movie. To avoid this Sujit Sircar has done a commendable job of mixing facts and fiction to show the civil war in Sri Lanka and the conspiracy of assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
In the first half there is extensive flow of facts to make you familiar with the ethnic conflict in Lanka during 1980-90. However if one is unfamiliar with the recent political history of the subcontinent the first half will make no sense to you despite the bombardment of information. It also digress audience from the central theme of the movie; which is Rajiv Gandhi's decision to send Indian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) to Sri LAnka and its effect on India's politics.
The Second half is the life of the film. The unfolding of assassination plot, decoding of intelligence inputs and the explosion scene in the climax are brilliantly shot.
Sircar has done interesting casting of all the characters. John Abraham, after Shoot Out At Wadala, has once again proved that he can act. Siddharth Basu has done justice to the role of RAW chief. Nargis Fakri looks good in the role of British journalist. All the LTTE (in the movie LTE) members have been chosen wisely.
On the whole it is a good movie if one is interested to know the conspiracy of Rajiv Gandhi's assaination. It would have been more interesting if there is no fear of controversy and censorship for film-makers making films on real life events.
And there is no event in the film which shows Tamilians in poor light or in any way show them sympathetic to LTTE.
I will give the movie 3.5/5.
Enough travelling in 'Chennai Express'. Relax for some time in MADRAS CAFE.
In the first half there is extensive flow of facts to make you familiar with the ethnic conflict in Lanka during 1980-90. However if one is unfamiliar with the recent political history of the subcontinent the first half will make no sense to you despite the bombardment of information. It also digress audience from the central theme of the movie; which is Rajiv Gandhi's decision to send Indian Peace Keeping Force(IPKF) to Sri LAnka and its effect on India's politics.
The Second half is the life of the film. The unfolding of assassination plot, decoding of intelligence inputs and the explosion scene in the climax are brilliantly shot.
Sircar has done interesting casting of all the characters. John Abraham, after Shoot Out At Wadala, has once again proved that he can act. Siddharth Basu has done justice to the role of RAW chief. Nargis Fakri looks good in the role of British journalist. All the LTTE (in the movie LTE) members have been chosen wisely.
On the whole it is a good movie if one is interested to know the conspiracy of Rajiv Gandhi's assaination. It would have been more interesting if there is no fear of controversy and censorship for film-makers making films on real life events.
And there is no event in the film which shows Tamilians in poor light or in any way show them sympathetic to LTTE.
I will give the movie 3.5/5.
Enough travelling in 'Chennai Express'. Relax for some time in MADRAS CAFE.