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Indian (1996)
22 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
A must see film for all audiences, Indian and foreign, 1 July 2006
Author: forumgeneral
Indian was clearly director Shankar's magnum opum and India's entry for the Oscar. This utterly brilliant and gripping film explores the horror of bureaucracy, corruption and bribery in modern India and its effect on society. Even locals themselves will be shocked as reality reflects on their TV screens in this movie. Whats shocking is the quality of the flashback footage in sepia of the colonial times where Indian rebels fought against the British. Such superb quality, story and acting is truly not seen anywhere else in any Indian-made film. However, as an entry for the Oscars, it would need some polishing up. I highly regret not seeing this film in the theatre when it originally released. If seeing this film a decade after it released, on poor quality print, left such a positive impression, I wonder what the impression would have been back then?
19 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
The Best movie, 4 July 2004
Author: (skbssm@yahoo.com) from Phoenix, USA
The film was meticulously made and its hard to find a flaw in the movie making. Kamal was the best actor in India and Shankar the Best Director and ARR always the best when comes to music. Shankar also should have got a National award for the film. Need more movies from the 3 combination and add to that Vairamuthu, Thotta Dharani etc. The movie should be treated in the genre of "Lagaan". No doubt the film was the biggest hit. The film was more than 3 hours, but not even once the viewers will feel boredom. I have seen that movie lot of times guess more than 10 times still I would like to see the movie again. Its an all time great movie. Nedumudi Venu needs an appreciation. Also full marks to all the supporting cast. Everyone had played their part well. A complete movie that was ever produced by Kollywood.
17 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Great, 7 November 2002
Author: badriram from Normal, IL
Probably one of Kamal Hassan's best movies ever. It has a good story line to it, different from the usual Indian movies. For once there is no real bad guy in the movie. Yup that is true; the movie shows the evils in the society, which is the society itself.
The cinematography is the movie is great. The locations are too. If there would be anything I would recommend is that to drop the songs, thought they are great and part of Indian movie culture, it really takes away the seriousness from the movie.
The makeup is the movie is great, kamal really does look like someone that is that old. The fight scenes look just as cheesy as they usually do in any Indian movie.
But hey it is great entertainment for the family.
PS. Do not try the stunts in the movie at home.
13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
One of Kamalhassan's best films in his career, 30 October 1999
Author: Jeyabalan Sankaranarayanan (sjeyabalan@hotmail.com)
Firstly, I like to say I am a Kamalhassan fan. But you don't have to be Kamal fan to enjoy this film. This is one of his best performances in his career. I rate this film has one of my all time favourites. The climax was very surprising and unpredictable. The film has a great cast. Kamal dominates the film, as father and son. Sughanya also gives good supporting performance. A mixture of a great script, good cast, good songs, and good actions scenes make this a 8.5 out of 10.
11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
good movie and good performance., 9 March 2006
Author: chinuku chinuku from India
probably one of the best movies to show why kamal has an is one of the best actors.
the movie deals with the elder kamal killing all the corrupt officials who accept bribe and who a cop chases him. the elder kamal is a freedom fighter , he does not approve of bribing . his son younger kamal leaves the home as his father denies giving bribe for job , and loosing his sister as his dad did not bribe the doctor for saving her. later the younger one becomes a driving inspector accepts bribe . he becomes the main convict for a school bus accident. he tries to cover the incident by bribing and ends up killed by his own father.
the variations shown by the actor are amazing , and the best i have seen so far. he is fat as a freedom fighter, lean as an old father and a bit intermediate as a son. three variations in body in a single film, amazing. the music is good.
7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Freedom fighter goes on a stabbing spree in drive against corruption, 1 March 2006
Author: phoenixarises17 from India
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Kamal Hassan under the pseudonym Indian goes on a stabbing spree after the death of his only daughter. His aim to wipe out corruption in the Nation ends in a thrilling climax in which he has to kill his son, also played by Kamal.
The movie, most noticed for its use of prosthetic make-up, graphics and an national award winning performance from Kamal, became a huge blockbuster of 90s Tamil cinema.
Director Shankar, riding on a wave of success after his debut Gentleman and Kaadalan, cast Kamal in one of most expensive Tamil movies ever made. Song sequences filled with graphics, flamboyant costumes and stunning cinematography by Jeeva were balanced with a lengthy flashback of the Indian freedom movement against Britain, where Senapathy, played by Kamal, joins Subash Chandra Bose in a Forest Gump-like sequence.
Malayalam actor Nedumudi Venu plays a cop investigating the serial killings committed by Senapathy, who comes back from a retired life as a farmer to once again free India of corruption. His son, Chandru, meanwhile has also turned corrupt and shockingly becomes an accomplice to the death of entire bus full of children.
A couple of aspects of the movie stood out. Kamal's stunning performance, AR Rehman's music (he hit back at critics of his background score as well) and Jeeva's cinematography especially in the song sequences.
Shankar makes the message of the movie so loud and the violence graphic (though not much blood on camera) that this almost kills the movie. Dialogues by Tamil writer Sujatha while being quite superficial suited the film to a T. Almost all actors expect Kamal, who is there in almost every frame, play two dimensional, superficial characters except for Nedumuni Venu, who performs his role with effortless ease that almost looks like he is being careless.
The series of confrontations through the movie between the principled, though murderous father and the corrupt son form the crux of the movie. The characters are actually presenting the two sides of the debate on corruption, but this is cleverly written into the script. When performed by Kamal, these lines become more intense that they actually are involving the viewer in the story rather than its message. If only Shankar could learn to be a little more subtle.
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
a big ENTERTAINMENT from Kamal, 2 November 2007
Author: Sbckma07
I highly recommend to watch this movie for two type of audiences- first, those who expect a good thriller from Indian cinema (of course not only Bollywood) and second, those who have only heard Kamal Hassan's name but never watched his any single movie yet. Kamal parts here dual role, one as an old man (Senapathy) who stops the corrupted people, and the other as his son (Chandru) who works in transport department concerning licenses. Kamal did brilliant job in this movie by offering both the roles of a father and a son. Perhaps, if examined clearly this is his career reflecting movie. There are some high definition visual scenes where we can see the real freedom fighters like Subash Chandra Bose and Senapathy together. This is a remarkable work from director Shankar, or say in Indian cinema. His directorial works are highly appreciable. For action lovers also this movie is a good reference.
In romantic words, this is a love-triangle movie due to the presence of Manisha Koirala and Urmila Matondkar, both who love the same Chandru. They did their own works, and run the movie. But again, this movie falls under three categories- thriller, political (mixed with social) and patriotic as the title itself denotes. I watched countless times, but never felt bored as it is highly entertaining for the three hours continuously. It has two versions, original one in Tamil and another in dubbed Hindi version. In Hindi version there is a slight uneasiness with the uttering words of the actors in their lips as those do not match exactly, since it is a dubbed version.
8 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
It's not a great film, but very good entertainment with elements that make it something special in the flood of Indian exploitation films., 17 June 1999
Author: Asokan Nirmalarajah (asokan.nirmalarajah@t-online.de) from Cologne, Germany
Wow! I couldn't believe it! The Internet Movie Database even had Indian exploitation films like the Kamala Haasan-starring epic action-adventure-musical-crime-drama INDIAN included in their database. I was very surprised and happy to find out, that the Indian Cinema wasn't such an isolated cultural phenomenon like I once thought.
Well, I'm not an Indian, but I'm an Tamilan, and INDIAN comes from the Tamil Nadu-Area of Indian Cinema. I've seen the movie many times and I don't agree with the average rating of 9 out of 10 the movie got from those who voted for the movie. Let's stick to the facts.
The movie is an epic that covers many genres, stories and issues like many Indian entertainment films, but far more ambitious than any other movie did before. It's about the historical and very blood-shedding War of the Indians against the Whites (no Gandhi-refuses-to-eat-and-everybody-puts-his-gun-down-silliness, sadly!), the moving love of a Father to his daughter, the big issue of corruption throughout the country, the conflict between a righteous father and a corrupt son and some subplots like a sweet "triangle" romance, moments of comedy and more, all mixed up in a big crime investigation full of action and suspense.
What makes the movie pretty much above-average and extraordinary by the standards of Indian movies aren't the said-to-be-spectacular special-effects, who are mostly hilariously unbelievable (when our young hero Haasan crosses a Formula-One-race-track he lays down and the racer doesn't hit him as if a racer is as equally big as a truck) and are used to attract audiences rather than serve the plot. It's the whole spectacular mix of excellent and lavishly staged song interludes by the actual hot Indian composer Rahuman, eye-popping production design, beautiful cinematography, great on-location-shots, a complex, and sometimes fascinating and sometimes overwrought script and last but not definitely not least Kamala Haasans superior acting of the two main characters of the story (father and son). While he's doing his usually cool portrayal of the hero with great dance moments and good-looks, it's actually his awesome performance of the father what makes this movie unmissable.
Wearing a heavy make-up and looking really, really old he gives the performance of a lifetime through his eyes. Like every great actor (Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Bogart etc.) he expresses the feelings and thoughts of his character through the eyes, the - to speak like a poet - windows to our souls. And he's unbelievably cool as old man, who with his martial arts knowledge sets out to destroy corruption in India, which indirectly killed his daughter.
Another remarkable thing about the film is how it ignores the cliché of good-guy-vs.-bad-guy. By introducing two main characters who are hardly to categorise as good or bad, the movie makes it somewhat hard for the viewer, who in the spectacular and aeroplane-exploding finale is thorn between the two very good fleshed out characters. Great supporting cast, too!
In the end, INDIAN isn't a great film, but very good entertainment with elements that make it something special in the flood of Indian exploitation films. My Verdict: 7 out of 10.
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