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Mohit Suri

Awarapan : Movie Review
30th June 2007 23.53 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh

The protégés of Mahesh Bhatt have a knack for picking daring subjects that bring harsh realities of life to light.

Mohit Suri , who has by now learnt the ropes of filmmaking well with movies like Zeher , Kalyug and Woh Lamhe , comes with a fairly watchable film ‘Awarapan’. The movie is a thriller that also packs in dollops of emotions. It raises the issue of human trafficking and it also tells a moving tale of a man dealing with demons from his past. Amidst all this there are few elements of spirituality and secular love. There is awakening of a conscience and final redemption.

Awarapan tells the story of Shivam ( Emraan Hashmi ), the henchman of a Hong Kong-based gangster Mallik ( Ashutosh Rana ). Mallik gives Shivam a job of keeping an eye on his mistress Reema ( Mrinalini Sharma ), a Pakistani girl who was trafficked and sold to Mallik in the flesh trade. Reema’s only dream is freedom.

Meeting with Reema only brings back memories of Shivam’s past.

The story goes into flashback. Shivam, a criminal, meets Aaliya ( Shreya Saran ) in a chance encounter and is stirred by her beauty, simplicity and good nature. The criminal in Shivam begins to get reformed in Aaliya’s company. But then, one day, Aaliya’s father catches them. What follows devastates Shivam’s life.

Back to the present, Shivam is haunted by demons from his past. He lives an aimless existence, doing his job for his boss Mallik.

While keeping a close watch on Reema, he discovers that she has a lover. With Reema’s secret revealed, Shivam’s boss orders him to kill her. For the first time the trigger-happy assassin goes weak within to pull the gun on the innocent girl who hopes to live a free life.

The Awarapan of the protagonist ends. His conscience is woken. What follows is Shivam’s rebellion against the oppressor. That is his way of inner redemption.

If anything, ‘Awarapan’ showcases the acting talent of Emraan Hashmi. The actor steps out of his usual chocolate boy image and plays a very serious and intense role with full conviction. He may not be the deadliest looker around, but he sure does know the art of restraining and underplaying his characters. And his performance in ‘Awarapan’ proves that he is one of the under-rated talents in Bollywood.

Mrinalini Sharma overacts in certain scenes, but manages to play her part fairly well on the whole. Shreya Saran’s acting looks very natural. She looks very comfortable playing the brief role she has in the film. Ashutosh Rana is another actor who delivers a superb performance.

Mohit Suri succeeds to a great extent in translating an interesting story on celluloid. There are many scenes and sequences (like confrontation between Emraan and Aaliya’s father, or Emraan’s final sequence with Ashutosh Rana) that are intelligently conceived. The cinematography is visually appealing and the music (by Pritam) is also good.

On the whole, ‘Awarapan’ is worth watching once.

Rating: **1/2

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Mohit Suri
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Awarapan
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Ashutosh Rana
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Shreya Saran