While watching this movie, I asked myself: "From what exactly does the magic come?", and after it ended, I asked myself: "What exactly did kill the very magic?!".
Manmohan Desai's (Roti) was a fine hit, but surely not a fine movie. Yes, part of me is so angry, since I found myself in love with many bits of it, but sorry, nothing can deny the bad points in it.
It's a story about the pathetic criminal who lives his purgation yet he dies, along with his innocent girl too!, as nothing can forgive his sins, and his fate must be dark as long as his world is basically ruthless. It's a tragic end, but to underline the message right I suppose.
Despite how the story looked smart, touching, and attractive, it suffered from endless faults that almost wore down its beauty. The tip of the iceberg is in the easy way this script dealt with its material. Look carefully to the intro, it's too forced to be taken seriously; the lead as a child lives poorness which pushes him, through an evil man, to crime. Then as a young man, he wants to get legit after a gold heist, however kills absurdly some guy for one roti (the Indian word for loaf of bread)?!! I thought that the right thing could've been: the child lives poorness which pushes him to crime, so he goes to jail, then he goes out as a young man, and the evil man meets him and takes him to his business, then the lead wants to get legit, but his last heist goes wrong, so he escapes from the police with all the gold. Because this way we had some logical reason, or a reason anyway, for the evil boss to hunt down the lead powerfully afterwards, with no idiot murder taking place over a loaf of bread where the lead does it for the fun of it, not because he's really needy, moreover this way lessens the body count that the lead causes in the first 5 minutes.
Of course I'm sorry to poke my nose in it like this, but I loved it, and I was sad how it got worse along the way with events that gave irritating questions like: if the fool inspector is no one but a crazy man who thinks himself as an inspector, how did the police constable hand over the case of (Mangal) to him in the first place?! Moreover, how, from all the houses in the world, (Mangal) chooses after many excursions the one of the person that he pushed out of the train accidentally? Or how, from all the houses in the world again, this is the same house which's wanted from the same evil boss that (Mangal) knows before? Or how the 2 blind parents' son forgave the lead so easily at the end?.. and so on.
Let alone the largest number of goofs I've ever seen in an Indian movie. It's shameful for a director in his eleventh movie! For a few instances, the prison's officer got shot in the right shoulder, then we saw him all the time later with his left shoulder bandaged?!, the blacksmith's boy has a white hat that appears and hides during one scene!, and, regrettably, so on too!
Unlike many Indian movies, the dialogue was super poor. Look how the lead character repeats his line from the court's speech while answering the question about the evil boss at the end. Plus how bad the special effects in the avalanche scene were. Hence, with a lot of artless stuff like that, maybe you'll find that the idea of 2 blind parents is ridiculous, so when the village's prostitute becomes the usurer's long lost daughter too. As when the movie's makers belittle parts of their work, you'll find yourself treat it the same way.
On the other hand, it has magic. Khanna is so adorable in every second he's on the screen. Mumtaz, who her name means "excellent" in Arabic, was no less excellent herself, being so great in the role of the noisily spontaneous café's owner. Nirupa Roy, the mother, besides being the unforgettable talented star, she's one of the director's famous trademarks as the handicapped kind mother, who undergoes the time's misfortunes. Observe that in Roti (as blind), Amar Akbar Anthony (as blind again), Mard (as mute this time), and in the director's final movie, Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi, he freed her at last to be a kind mom only! Generally, I believe with more accurate script, the whole performance from the big stars could've been more impassioning.
The direction is catchy. In fact, Desai made such a light movie with yummy colors. From the wide landscapes, to Khanna's clothes, the image was amazingly vivid. The camera is moving nearly all the time like the whole movie is a long dance. The action was solid. The editing plays the things fast and enjoyable. The songs were all marvelous; especially (Yaar Hamari Baat Suno) in which the lead mimics the Christ while defending the prostitute. The harmonica's music was expressing and a mark of originality somehow. I was about to cry more than once; for the nostalgic feel which's profoundly charming?, for the loveliness of the above? I think both and here where its magic exists.
There is a true appeal all over it, but with a spirit of belittlement also where the things happen too plainly without much motives or efforts. Though, for a glow it had, a case it showed, a status it owned by the years, it became a classic in defiance of its own problems. So, there is magic, and there is what may kill it. But anyway.. there is magic.
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