I was a little apprehensive watching a film on Zee Cinema, since I had heard horror stories of three hour films being stretched to four and a half hours by innumerable, long, commercial breaks. But, we didn't have a choice and so my wife and I decided to see the film together. This was to be my first Hindi film on any of the new Hindi movie satellite channels.

The entire telecast was a disaster from the very beginning. The film did not start till 2.00PM and there was no apology or explanation from Zee Cinema; I guess being an Indian channel, I should have been happy that they were only half an hour late. Then they completely killed the film, by converting a 95-minutes run into a 125-minutes ordeal. Every fifteen minutes there would be a commercial break for five minutes. This is no way to watch a serious film where the lack of break in continuity is an important part of the viewing experience. This was a good lesson for me though. In future, I will stick to watching "interesting" films only in a theatre or on video, video-CD or DVD or on Star Movies.

The film is about Malli, a nineteen-year old girl, fighting a war ostensibly in Sri Lanka, though this is never mentioned. She is shown fighting and killing enemies mercilessly and is then given the honor of becoming a suicide bomber, so that the terrorist group can get rid of an important impediment to their success; an obvious referencel to Rajiv Gandhi and India, but again not obviously stated. This aspect of the script and the movie where a lot of facts are left hanging in the air is a major drawback; the viewer has to draw a lot of conclusions making it difficult sometimes to understand the characters and their motivations. Ayesha Dharker as Malli though is very good; her versatile handling of the role makes us appreciate Malli's strength as well as vulnerability.

I wish I could say the same about the plot and the film. The film is cliched; too many close-ups, too many "meaningful" shots, like the one where the camera lingers on a raindrop on a leaf and too many "out-of-focus" shots. The whole issue of Malli realizing she is pregnant is completely unrealistic and the constant flashbacks to the meeting between Malli and her paramour are off-key. There are some nice scenes though, like the entire sequence where Lotus takes Malli across the jungle to the shore, but there is a serious lack of consistency.

I know I will get flamed for this. Everyone out there thinks the film is the cat's whiskers. This is so unfortunate. Just because quality Hindi/Indian films are a rarity, anything "different" and "out-of-the-ordinary" gets hyped, especially if it starts winning a couple of awards. The film looks like a stylish documentary and it is evident that this is the director's maiden effort.

I wonder if we will see Ayesha in more films, since I don't see her landing up in commercial Hindi films and the so-called "art" or "serious" cinema is virtually dead with meager opportunities for good roles.

Santosh Sivan has been the cinematographer for movies like Dil Se, which was a visual treat. So is this film in bits and pieces. But what Sivan probably needed, was a better script and a good director.