2008 has started and the flow of brilliant movies too!! And the first one is Halla Bol! The movie is a powerful hard-hitting drama and Rajkumar Santoshi proves that he still rules!!

The story of the movie: Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan) is an aspiring actor and lives in a small town. He joins the theatre group of Sidhu (Pankaj Kapoor), a reformed criminal. Sidhu organized street plays which dealt with problems of India’s common people and thus tried to create awareness in the masses. Ashfaque was his favourite student and soon, Ashfaque got a chance to go to Mumbai to achieve his dreams. In Mumbai, he had to suffer a lot of problems but he managed to get into the film industry and changed his name to Samir Khan. And then he started getting rapid success. His debut flick, Azaadi, became a hit. He also married his love Sneha (Vidya Balan). And slowly, he became selfish, arrogant, and corrupt. His inter-personal relationships with his loved ones including his wife got spoilt. One day at a party, an incident occurred which changed him. But as soon as he brought a positive change in him, the corrupt authorities began to trouble him. So will Samir be able to win against them?

Halla Bol is loosely based on the well-known Jessica Lall case which shocked the entire nation. The movie is successful, and the credit for this goes to the marvelous performers and also to Rajkumar Santoshi!

If given this story to any other filmmaker, he would not have able to complete justice to the movie. Mr. Santoshi perfectly created a flick, which was shocking as well as totally justifying. He did a wise job-he showed that shocking party incident in the first 20 minutes of the movie itself and then came the flashback of Samir’s struggling days.

He first half and the second half both are powerful but the second half has more hard-hitting and powerful moments. Let’s talk about the first half. Ajay’s corrupt nature was wonderfully shown. The shocking incident was quite impactful and the witness turning hostile was shocking and will surely bring memories of Jessica Lall case. The flashback also has some great moments, especially the scenes of the Ajay and Vidya. But the best scene in this half has to be the one where Ajay and Vidya enter a theatre, screening Ajay’s debut flick to find out the audience reaction. That scene was outstanding and would surely make the established actors nostalgic!

The second half was ‘dhamaakedar’! The movie moved at a rapid pace and has several scenes which would remain etched in one’s memory for a long long time! The climax was a little quick but it’s justified.

Now the performances! All the three main actors-Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan and Pankaj Kapoor have a done a extra ordinary job. But the best among them has to be Pankaj Kapoor. The scene brightens as soon as he enters the screen. He has done such a great job that you forget he is in reality a film actor! This was Pankaj Kapoor’s one of the best performance of his life! He surely deserves a Best Supporting Actor Role.

Ajay Devgan gives a powerful performance! The entire film was on his shoulders and he does full justice to it. He played three diverse roles in this film-one of a small-town aspiring actor, the 2nd of a selfish superstar and the 3rd of a real human who raises his voice to bring the change. And he played these 3 roles with utmost perfection. Excellent work, Ajay! And Best Of Luck for your directorial flick, U Me And Hum.

Vidya Balan was also brilliant though her role was smaller than that of Ajay and Pankaj Kapoor. But though she maintains a strong and steady position in the entire movie. She was excellent in her entry scene and also in the scene where she gives a spellbound reply to the media. Wonderful work, yet again!

Darshan Jariwala also as usual gives a marvelous performance. Anjan Srivastav was too good. The actor enacting the role of Darshan Jariwala’s saala was superb. Lekh Tandon gives a very sweet performance. Others also did a very good job.

The movie has lots of guest apperances, which may remind one of Om Shanti Om. These actors were Tushaar, Kareena Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Aarti Chhabaria, Sridevi, Boney Kapoor and Neeraj Vora. The ones who leave the mark are Tushaar, Jackie Shroff (in a 2 minute scene, he says ‘Bhidu’ 10 times!) and Neeraj Vora!

Sukhwinder Singh was okay as the music director but was did a great job in the background score department. S Nataraja Subramaniam’s cinematography was brilliant.

And the real winner of the movie is Rajkumar Santoshi! Firstly, his story was brilliant. He created a flawless story out of a real incident and did complete justice to it. And his dialogues were outstanding-funniest in the comic situations and impactful in the hard-hitting scenes. And his screenplay and dialogues were equally good! Great work, Mr. Santoshi!

Some of the best scenes of the movie:
1. Ajay’s entry
2. The shocking incident at the party
3. Ajay getting the ‘Youth Icon’
4. Vidya’s entry
5. Ajay checking out the audience reaction
6. The intermission point
7. Pankaj Kapoor’s re-entry in the 2nd half
8. Pankaj’s conversation with Abhay Bhargava who tried to bribe him
9. Ajay visiting Darshan Jariwala’s house twice
10.The angry mob attacking Ajay’s house (dangerous scene)
11.Ajay’s street play on Oct 2
12.Pankaj Kapoor’s angry statement to the media outside the hospital
13.The Haji Piya and the Gurudwara song
14.The final scene

On the whole, Halla Bol is powerful. It’s an eye opener as it exposes the true faces of politicians, rich corrupt, media and also the common people. It’s hard-hitting but will be enjoyed by the masses as well as by the classes. Don’t miss it!

My rating-**** out of 5!

Related posts:

1. Ajay Devgan pulls a ’shocking’ prank
2. Vidya Balan: A traumatised star wife!
3. Movie Review: Halla Bol by SmokerJoe
4. Ajay Devgan becomes a ‘Khan’?
5. Halla Bol : Movie Preview