Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Shah Rukh Khan | ... | Amarkanth Varma | |
Manisha Koirala | ... | Meghna | |
Preity Zinta | ... | Preeti Nair | |
Raghuvir Yadav | ... | Shukla (as Raghuvir Yadhav) | |
Sabyasachi Chakrabarty | |||
Piyush Mishra | |||
Krishnakant | ... | (as Krisnkant) | |
Aditya Srivastav | |||
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Ken Philip | ... | (as Ken Phillip) |
Sanjay Mishra | |||
Mita Vashisht | ... | Mita (female terrorist) | |
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Arundhati Rao | ... | (as Arundathi Rao) |
Malaika Arora | ... | Dancer on train | |
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Gautam Bora | ||
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Manjit Bawa | ... | (as Manjith Bawa) |
Amar Varma, a producer for Indian news radio, meets an enigmatic woman at a railroad station and then again at a hill station. He falls in love with her, but the woman, who calls herself Meghna, rejects and leaves him although she seems to be interested. Later, Varma agrees to marry his family's choice, Preeti. But suddenly Meghna is back, and what is the secret that she holds? Written by <sunilm@nwu.edu>
The problem with Hindi cinema is its very strong formalistic framework where it has to fit in. It must pass the censors, must be made for a billion of mostly analphabets and must contain a great number of song and dance scenes. Mani Ratnam is one (and only?) director who constantly extents this genre to embrace the producers, the popular audience and the critical and political aware intellectuals with his strong political claims ("Roja", "Bombay"). This one now beats it all and everybody (in India) talked about it. Such an end was not seen before in Hindi cinema, and all fits perfectly well (despite to what some other critics said). And it works even if you know the end before (which most do).
It's my current favorite. Technically superb, very sophisticated content, big fun and emotions. An american version would have been a typical political thriller about an unlucky love to a female terrorist, but Mani Ratnam gives us 300%. Not just the Indian Spielberg or Tsui Hark, this is more. Go for it.