Powerful

I saw Aamir yesterday, and was blown away by the movie. It is gripping, hard-hitting and powerful. One needs a strong stomach to watch the thing. Although it evoked very mixed reactions from the people around me, without giving anything away, a few things that really stood out for me in the movie:

• The humanity of the protagonist - the guy is an everyday joe, doing what anyone would in his situation. What he does at the end, when he takes charge of his own destiny, is something that requires great courage. The alternative was quite easy to do, and putting myself into his shoes, I probably would have taken the easy way out - I could not have done what he did
• The depiction of Bombay - very real (brutally so!)
• The taut script - no needless subplots, no (melo)dramatic dialogue, good background score, good acting. The name itself - Aamir - which means a leader of men - is very apt
• The thoughts it provoked in me - the essence of the movie is that everyone is responsible for their own destiny, and that there comes a time when (to express it most beautifully) a guy's got to do what a guy's got to do. An individual is a trifle, insignificant and immaterial. There comes an opportunity to transcend oneself, to become greater than the sum of your existence and the society around you. The one who grabs that opportunity is Aamir