It is not a well-made movie. I would like to point out some glaring mistakes in the film. Though Mani Ratnam is a very respected movie maker but in this film I didn't see him living up to his reputation.
For one the setting of the movie is the dry and arid Chorwad area of Gujarat. Any one who has ever set foot on Gujarati soil knows how dry it is. There is not a source of water for miles around and women often walk hours to fill their pots every day. There is not a single big river in the entire region.
But the whole movie seems to have been shot is some doaba area of Deccan. The temples, the topography, the rivers and the village tanks all seem to shout out loud that it is shot is South India and not Gujarat.
This shows that the movie makers are not ready to find beauty in the locales where their movie is based but rather would go for their old tried and tested locations that they are comfortable shooting in.
These kinds of attitudes seem to be unprofessional on the part of the movie makers. No wonder our movies fail to make a mark on international arenas. It is simply because even our best filmmakers are not prepared to venture beyond their comfort zones.
Other than that there are frequent omissions and mistakes. For example when the hearing of Gurubhai is going on and the photographers are shown shooting the proceedings in a frantic manner. On of the photographer has a camera that does not even have a Lense. Many of the photographers are handling the cameras in a way that seems to suggest that they have never done so in the past. These small things are highly visible and they tend to give a negative feeling about the levels of professionalism of the film crew in general and lower the quality of the final output.
The disclaimer issued at the start of the movie doesn't really let off the movie makers of the responsibility of making the movie as factually correct as possible. For in spite of the disclaimer almost everyone knows who is being referred to in the movie.
For one the setting of the movie is the dry and arid Chorwad area of Gujarat. Any one who has ever set foot on Gujarati soil knows how dry it is. There is not a source of water for miles around and women often walk hours to fill their pots every day. There is not a single big river in the entire region.
But the whole movie seems to have been shot is some doaba area of Deccan. The temples, the topography, the rivers and the village tanks all seem to shout out loud that it is shot is South India and not Gujarat.
This shows that the movie makers are not ready to find beauty in the locales where their movie is based but rather would go for their old tried and tested locations that they are comfortable shooting in.
These kinds of attitudes seem to be unprofessional on the part of the movie makers. No wonder our movies fail to make a mark on international arenas. It is simply because even our best filmmakers are not prepared to venture beyond their comfort zones.
Other than that there are frequent omissions and mistakes. For example when the hearing of Gurubhai is going on and the photographers are shown shooting the proceedings in a frantic manner. On of the photographer has a camera that does not even have a Lense. Many of the photographers are handling the cameras in a way that seems to suggest that they have never done so in the past. These small things are highly visible and they tend to give a negative feeling about the levels of professionalism of the film crew in general and lower the quality of the final output.
The disclaimer issued at the start of the movie doesn't really let off the movie makers of the responsibility of making the movie as factually correct as possible. For in spite of the disclaimer almost everyone knows who is being referred to in the movie.