Click to play videoCast: Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Raaz, Arjun Mathur
Direction: Raja Menon
In Barah Aana, a slice-of-life drama of three friends in blue-collar jobs, Vijay Raaz plays a building watchman who accidentally stumbles into a crime, and then finds a clever way to profit from it. Frustrated over the futility of his empty existence and seduced by the lure of easy money, he decides to carry out such sinister operations more frequently, and convinces his friends – a driver (played by Naseeruddin Shah) and a restaurant waiter (played by Arjun Mathur) – to partner with him.
A sharp character study of people and the choices they make under challenging circumstances, Barah Aana directed by Raja Menon, spends its first half hour or so establishing each of its characters, introducing us to their worlds, and showing us what drives and motivates them.
Grounding them in the reality of their lower-class surroundings, a Mumbai slum, the film's director succeeds in creating flesh-and-blood characters out of each of his three leads. The security guard stuck in a dead-end job who can't raise a few thousands for medical treatment of his ailing child. The driver, a victim of everyday verbal abuse from his employer's impatient, intolerant wife. And the broke young waiter, swayed by the attention of a polite customer.
It's easy to empathise with these characters because their concerns are real, and because the actors in these roles deliver credible, engaging performances. But from this point on, the film falls into a slump of sorts, moving at an agonising pace as drama and action make way for lengthy talkie scenes that never seem to end. Vijay Raaz pontificates on their two-penny existence, and it's difficult to hold back your yawns during his incessant jabber-jabber-jabber.
Baraah Aana starts off as a charming tale of ordinary characters changed by extraordinary circumstances, but it loses direction mid-way. In the end, it's a promising film that delivers only part of what it promises. Which is a shame because it could have easily been so much more.
Watch it anyway for the exemplary performances of its leads. Vijay Raaz sinks his teeth into a role that finally does justice to his immense talent, and Naseeruddin Shah is pitch-perfect as the silently suffering chauffeur. But it's Arjun Mathur who leaves a lasting impression as the street-smart fellow blinded by his infatuation for a white customer.
Mathur, who you might remember from his role in Luck By Chance, has an endearing presence and manages to hold his own against seasoned performers – this boy deserves starring roles! A mention here also of Tannistha Chatterjee who grabs your attention as the phone-booth operator who has eyes for Arjun's character.
I'm going with two out of five and an average rating for director Raja Menon's Barah Aana; it's a film with many merits, but alas it fails to hold it all together. One hour and thirty five minutes have never felt longer.
Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)
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