Pleasant debut performances by Imran Khan and Prateik Babbar. Several competent and enjoyable cameos by senior Hindi cinema actors. But that's all. Mostly an overly long collection of many wasted opportunities for humour and pathos and an amateur feel to production values and in the supporting performances from the other young cast members. The film is not an enjoyable watch and becomes tedious, overly long and predictable. Stands out from other Hindi films because of the novelty value of the cast but clichéd and untidy screenplay and director's uninspired efforts bog it down. A.R. Rahman tracks are fun and enjoyable but if you've seen them in isolation you've seen all that's worth seeing from the film.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Eklavya: The Royal Guard
(2007)
A tragedy in storytelling
15 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Powerful ideas with great mythic resonance. A plot with the potential to pay homage to both Shakespeare and David Lynch. All of this goes up in smoke in this nouveau-Bollywood creation on exotica, the issues of royalty, and one man's adherence to his understanding of Duty (as per Indian tradition).
Not a film for fans of original narrative and strong storytelling. The film chokes on too many flashbacks, voiceovers and letters from the past that hammer home ideas about people and relationships. Plenty of stock character-types from drama and tragedy. A disgruntled Westernized nephew resents being the lesser cousin therefore plots and schemes. The prince is in love with the family chauffeur's beautiful daughter (who is also of very good character). An Ophelia-esquire sister's art brings to a light a dark truth. At one point in the film a key revelation was so poorly communicated that the whole theatre audience actually turned to one another and asked 'what just happened'? And to my great personal disappointment - a couple of opportunities to do a really skillful job with action sequences are dumbed-down Indian-film style.
It also shows how dependent Indian actors are on dubbing (ADR) to enhance their performances. Sync sound spares no one except Sanjay Dutt. and as always Mr Bachan makes a sincere effort.
On the other hand, if you blindly follow Bollywood players, or believe that purely by eliminating songs and putting in gorgeous imagery you automatically transcend all flaws of the typical Indian masala-flick and will get to watch a better film, then this one is for you.
Not a film for fans of original narrative and strong storytelling. The film chokes on too many flashbacks, voiceovers and letters from the past that hammer home ideas about people and relationships. Plenty of stock character-types from drama and tragedy. A disgruntled Westernized nephew resents being the lesser cousin therefore plots and schemes. The prince is in love with the family chauffeur's beautiful daughter (who is also of very good character). An Ophelia-esquire sister's art brings to a light a dark truth. At one point in the film a key revelation was so poorly communicated that the whole theatre audience actually turned to one another and asked 'what just happened'? And to my great personal disappointment - a couple of opportunities to do a really skillful job with action sequences are dumbed-down Indian-film style.
It also shows how dependent Indian actors are on dubbing (ADR) to enhance their performances. Sync sound spares no one except Sanjay Dutt. and as always Mr Bachan makes a sincere effort.
On the other hand, if you blindly follow Bollywood players, or believe that purely by eliminating songs and putting in gorgeous imagery you automatically transcend all flaws of the typical Indian masala-flick and will get to watch a better film, then this one is for you.
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