You Might Need Moksha (Salvation) From This Film (Film only review) (Moksha (DVD))

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Product:	Moksha (DVD)
Date:	30/09/06 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good looking guy on my screen, can't complain too much

Disadvantages: Way too long a film for my liking

Moksha (meaning freedom or salvation) stars Arjun Rampal and Manisha Koirala, with strong support from Danny Danzongpa, Paresh Rawal, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Grover, Kiran Kumar, Farida Jalal and Saurabh Shukla.

The film was produced and directed by Ashok Mehta who is more known for being an ad-maker. It was released in November 2001 and lasts for about 2¾ hours (which is probably 1¾ hours too long in my humble opinion)!! It’s a certificate PG but I doubt children would find this entertaining enough to sit through quietly without getting bored quickly.

The screenplay for Moksha was by Raj Marbros and the clever visual effects were b Taranjeet Singh.


PLOT OUTLINE

The story is about seemingly intelligent law graduate Vikram (Rampal) who is not happy with his lot at all. He is very idealistic and wants to battle corruption and society and change the world. A young girl, Ritika (Koirala) takes a fancy to him and goes all out to woo him, at first he rejects her advances and eventually he gives in after she presents him with an expensive painting and they become a couple. His idealism includes him wanting to set up a “free for the poor” law service, but he finds it impossible to find any other like-minded lawyers (no surprise there eh?). His boss and his father think he's too young and naïve to fully understand the implications of giving free legal services and he becomes more and more disillusioned and plans how to rob a bank to get money to set up his free legal institute. One thing leads to another and somehow Ritika dies and he's accused and stands trial for her murder.

Why did she die? Did he do it? If not, who did? Does the audience even care?


ANALYSIS

I found it very amusing that this so called idealistic and upstanding guy (Rampal) initially resists the urges of a beautiful woman coming onto him very heavily and only gives in when she buys him an expensive painting? Koirala's character comes across as rather frivolous and whimsical with no real depth, although this seems to be what the screenplay required of her, whereas Rampal's character is almost always overly intense and moody from start to finish. He just doesn’t seem to be really happy at any stage during the film. I would add, though, that he does seem to have a real flair for displaying various intense expressions.

The supporting cast performed ably and none of them particularly stood out for me. Suresh Oberoi as Vikram’s father impressed suitably - he’s well versed in playing this type of role. Danny Danzongpa didn’t get a lot of screen time, which is a shame as he has a lot to offer usually, Paresh Rawal was quite amusing as the eccentric uncle offering to sell all his property to finance Vikram’s dream when everyone else was turning him down, although I’m quite used to seeing him play the villain in general.

The film has some very visually eye-catching cinematography, difficult to explain but almost eerie throughout without meaning to be; the entire film was shot very cleverly. I thought the ending scenes were almost cartoon-ish, but again, very cleverly shot.

To me, the film mostly seemed to be a vehicle to show off Rampal's good looks (he's an ex model) and well-toned body at every possible opportunity. The film jumps backwards and forwards (with the present mostly shown in black and white monotones) with the present day scenes showing Rampal sitting around looking desolate and sexy! His character seemed more interested in driving around in his jeep, playing with his dog and day-dreaming rather than earning a living as a lawyer or doling out the free law advice he seemed so desperate to give earlier on.


MUSIC

A few pleasant songs along the way broke up the intensity of the film somewhat. There's a very pleasant song near the start of the film where Koirala is riding a bicycle but strangely enough the song only lasted a minute or so - I was actually quite disappointed that it was so short!

The music for the film was mostly composed by Rajesh Roshan and the lyrics were by Javed Akhtar although brothers Salim and Suleman Merchant were involved in the music composition too. There was a song called Naani Maa (which means grandmother) which was sung by Mahalaxmi and Dominque which was a sort of lullaby which sounded a lot like an English song the name of which I couldn’t quite put my finger on; it was quite a sweet melody but it bugged me that I couldn’t remember the original song! Other playback singers for the film include: Sukhwinder Singh, Shaan and Kavita Krishnamurthy


WHERE TO GET IT

If you’re interested enough from my review to have a watch of this film you can get it from play.com for £11.99 or from sendit.com for £10.99 and Amazon are currently selling it for £7.97. You could also try renting it from your usual DVD rental source.


SO OVERALL...?

Overall I'd rate Moksha a generous 6 out of 10 partly because of the somewhat different storyline it tried to tackle and partly because Arjun Rampal is so good to look at, and believe you me, you get to see a LOT of him in this film. Even though the film or the idea it was trying to get across was a bit too bizarre for my feeble intellect, and although it was a long film, I didn't really mind sitting through it till the end too much - as I said Rampal is very nice to look at!!!


SOME TRIVIA

Moksha was released on the same day as Monsoon Wedding, which didn't do much for its box office success as Monsoon Wedding was quite a hit! Rampal won Most Promising Male Newcomer at the Screen Weekly Awards in 2002 for his role in this film.

Summary: Another unusual offering from Bollywood