My Praise For Dangal....

Manipulation of viewer's emotions is one of the major yardstick of success for Indian movies, particularly Bollywood films. That is also one way they escape from the clutches of logic and laws of physics. If your movie make viewers overtly emotional- make them cry, laugh, be angry or anything else other than think, you have a winner on your hand.

Aamir Khan is one movie maker (I would say movie maker because, as he involves in the production of his movies too, he definitely is a decision maker in the process) who is the master of manipulation games as evident from his movies like Lagaan and Taare Zameen Par. I am not demeaning him by this statement, I am being positive. His major achievement is that people expect something different every time his new film is announced. He delivers consistently by making movies with unique themes that also entertains because their structure doesn't vary from other standard Bollywood movies. Audience feel that they are watching something fresh, at the same time they are still in very much their familiar territory.

His latest movie Dangal is not different. I don't want to go into details about the movie itself. But it is a standard Aamir Khan fare- it's about a social issue, it entertains you a lot, it is well made in technical and artistic fronts, Aamir does a brilliant job and the same time ensures that his co-actors get meaty parts themselves, thereby backing his performance.

But my praise for the movie is for another matter. If you remember Aamir's movie Taare Zameen Par, which is about the proper upbringing of kids, you will be astonished to find that this movie portrays something extremely opposite. The easiest way out for the makers was to cover it up beautifully in emotions so that we won't identify this discrepancy.

But here their choice was to show it off by making Aamir's character a bit in grey shade and his behaviour bordering on child abuse. It adds another dimension to the movie. And that is why I feel the movie should be praised, along with several other positives. It gives an opportunity for the viewer to think.