PARDES

Producer: Subhash Ghai
Director: Subhash Ghai
*ing: Shahrukh Khan, Mahima Chawdhry, Amrish Puri, Apoorva Agnihotri, Himani Shivpuri, Shobha Khote, Alok Nath
Music : Nadeem-Shravan

Contributed by: Meena Sundaram
sundaram@meena.ma.ultranet.com

Rating : (out of )

I saw Pardes in the Boston area over the past weekend. There was an air of excitement in the theater as people filled the auditorium and anticipation filled the atmosphere.The stature of Subhash Ghai in the industry and theimmense popularity of his unique directorial style was evident as the credits were emblazoned on the screen and a hush fell over the audience. Pardes is the story of the conflict between hope and reality, expectations and realizations. The premise is that Grass is always greener on the other side.

Amrish Puri ( a successful billionaire businesssman) an NRI from the west coast of the US of A visits India and his old friend, AlokNath. He is a traditional Indian at heart and quickly takes to the nubile daughter of Aloknath, Kusum Ganga (played by newcomer Mahima Chaudhary). He proposes that she become his Bahu by marrying his son Rajeev (played by another newcomer Apurva Agnihotri). His son is extremely "American" and he thinks that a good dose of Indian culture, beauty and tradition is just the thing he needs. Shahrukh plays his adopted son/confidant who is given the task of bringing the two young people together. A la Dilwale ...in reverse, the story moves across the Atlantic Ocean to LA with Ganga visiting the future NRI in-laws after a hurried engagement (after a ridiculous kabaddi swayamvar-the first weak point in the film). What happens in Pardes to the desi yet spunky Ganga is the remainder of the film.

Shahrukh is impressive in his subtlety. He pulls back and literally hands the stage to Apurva Agnihotri. He is comical in the scenes in the farmhouse where he makes arrangements for the NRI son's visit and almost tragic as the story progresses. His evolving relationship to Ganga is the highlight of the film. Mahima Chaudhary is not impressive in the looks dept but she makes up for it by her acting talents which have been teased out very effectively by Subhash Ghai. Apurva Agnihotri is not as impressive though he has a model's good looks. Amrish is good in a role which he can do in his sleep by now. The supporting characters are all good though I'm not sure who all those kids belonged to and the villian/comedians were entirely unwarranted.

Subhash Ghai's direction was excellent and his grand style evident in every frame.The cinematography was excellent and so was the background music by Vanraj Bhatia. Nadeem-Shravan's music was surprisingly good in the context of the film . Inspite of some cacophonous moments, the songs are certainly hummable though they cannot compare to DDLJ or even YESBOSS.

The film was reasonably engrossing in that one could not predict how the hero would get the girl. Subhash Ghai ( who also wrote the story and screenplay) plays his cards close to his chest very effectively. He tries to confuse us with the girl looking at pictures of both Shahrukh and Apurva without knowing which is her intended but that whole incident is a red herring. There are a only two ways of breaking up the engagement and still retain the innocence and indian-ness of Ganga and he uses one of them.I think that is the second weakest point in the film. An Americanized NRI is certainly not as Indian as the rest of the bunch but attributing vices such as excessive alcohol intake, womanizing etc is not limited to such NRI's. In short, non-typical Indianness does not equal badness. This is where streotypes about NRI's went overboard. In fact, I could feel the men and women in the audience see their sons being depicted in this way and frankly, I think it scared the living daylights out of them. Ganga's problems are not with America, her in-laws family ( though there is one aunt-in-law who pops up in many scenes like the wicked witch of the west) but with one individual who is not honest with himself or with others. Subhash Ghai should have gone with the gray rather than the black and white.

All in all, I did enjoy the film for its thought provoking and quite entertaining material. It played upon the nostalgic sweetness of India experienced by most NRI's which as recent visitors from India can tell you has been replaced by ardent materialism, pop culture and selfish ambition. The climax was a clone of DDLJ but except for the NRI theme the 2 films are quite different. One left the theater after DDLJ with tears of joy after the reunion of Simran and Raj, one left Pardes with a furrowed brow and a few questions.

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