A Rainy Weekend to Review on Raincoat

The weekend was a damper; me recovering from a whirlwind KL trip last Friday by getting lost with three bags of books in the KL trains across Sri Petaling to Jalan Pahang. PLUS, all of those without that much sleep. However, I had put much thought into a movie I just saw recently; in fact the Saturday before last on the tele.

It's called Raincoat and it's not English; Hindi to be exact but honestly you don't need much of language to understand, provided good subtitles are there. I even read subtitles for English or other known-languages movies. It's just the irritating habit that develops if you like to read too much up to the extent to the failure to understand legible speech.

Let my worries sleep aside.

This movie is in fact an epitome of how much Bollywood has evolved to suit the themes of a global audience from its jingling, bulb-screwing and dog-patting song days. This movie has no songs! It is not just that, excellent direction, beautiful cinematography and surreal acting is what that makes this movie really a class of its own. Not straying from the simple formula of failed-love by economic compulsions, the story deals with the meeting of estranged lovers. Ajay Devgan, (who plays Manoj@Manu) seeks Aishwarya Rai (who plays Neeru) for financial assistance thinking that the other who married a rich guy was really rich. The harsh truth being both in similar financial destitute.

Both Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan (left: thanks to www.bollywoodpremiere.com) have done a splendid performance acting as impoverished individuals in limited sets (actually only a rainy day, a rainwashed road and three houses if I am not mistaken). Both try their level best to conceal the truth by spinning lies woven with the truth hidden subtly and when the truth comes out unexpectedly through other means, both continue the drama more eloquently and try to help the other in unexpected manners. How and why the Raincoat is in the movie? That's a question too beautiful to be answered.

The beauty of this sad tale is its dialogues of fake cheeriness, the hidden meanings of the false boasts of their "wonderful lives" and how all that on-screen happiness both try to convey to each other leaves such sadness in the hearts of the audience. Therefore, it is truly a movie for the intelligent who are willing to dissect beyond the acting during commercial breaks to discover the true pain of loss and the human spirit in such bare terms.

In short, Raincoat deserves an applause for being another example of how Bollywood films have moved to a different league of their own compared to their other Indian counterparts.

So, what do you think?
Leave your uncensored comments along with messages of grammatical errors your sharp eye spots (I was chopping onions before this post; so I am quite teary, blurry and irritated; in the eye only!).