Thugs of Hindostan (2018) directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, is the film that I wanted to see for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. In fact, it’s outrageous that Thugs of Hindostan is a box office flop, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was successful in the box office, even though it’s characters and story was horrifyingly terrible.
Firstly, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that this is my first Indie Film, I kept up with the English subtitles while listening to the Indian language. When watching this film, I didn’t realise that Indie Films have an intermission and songs sung in the film, I know, I’m uneducated with culture, but I do know the history between the British and the Indians. The film is easy to understand for me it was fine to keep up with, but if you don’t like watching films in subtitles, then I’m sorry but this film isn’t for you. Now, time to get on with the film.
The narrative starts in 1795, where we see the character Zafira (Fatima Sana Shaikh) as a child and her father (Ronit Roy) preparing to strike the British before they lose their castle. Unfortunately, John Clive (Lloyd Owen) led the British to victory in claiming the castle, luckily, Zafira is rescued just in time by Khudabaksh Azaad (Amitabh Bachchan). Now it’s 1806 and the British are finding it difficult to fight the “thugs” and decide it’s time to use another thug to betray their own and capture Azaad. Firangi Mallah (Aamir Khan) is hired to bring in Azaad. What will happen? Will Zafira get her revenge and reclaim her throne? Why is Firangi’s master a donkey? Watch the film and find out what will happen…
I understand that there are a lot of names, which are challenging to pronounce, but the characters have a similar style/personality to other characters from Hollywood films, which make them easier to remember by what they wear. For example, Firangi is a Captain Jack Sparrow mix with The Mad Hatter, but Indian. He is funny and wacky, but he betrays too many people and is a bit too deceitful in my opinion, Aamir did well to act out this crazy character, and even speaking in English with a cool Indian accent with a few lines. Azaad was more of a Black Beard like character but with a grey beard, he was more serious and a grandfather figure to Zafira, Amitabh kept his character while cutting down the British with ease, despite of his age. Zafira was a bit of an ‘overkill’ in my opinion, where she had no flaw and didn’t miss at all with the bow and arrows, a bit of a ‘Marry Sue’ but then again, at the end she was a bit too trusting like Azaad, I think Fatima was alright with keeping a character interesting with the pursuit of revenge. Clive was a more sitting down and giving orders kind of guy, that stereotypical villain who wants to crush a rebellion against him, but at least he is kind enough to speak their language throughout the film, except one scene for one line. Although the use of Suraiyya Juan (Katrina Kaif) was only in the film for the singing and as a love interest for Firangi, but she did help towards the end of the film, this is disappointing that the use of the character wasn’t used that much.
The cinematics, editing and lighting are brilliant, establishing characters, settings and what’s going on in the scene. The use of extreme long shots to show the canons firing to the long and mid shots of the sword fighting presents the overall battle going on and the intentions of characters with close ups. In a few fight scenes, there’s the use of slow motion and then the action is sped up, this was incredible to me. The CGI on the other hand is a bit more noticeable, where I noticed what was the green screen and what wasn’t, however, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film as the action was very fast paced for me. I am very much a fan of metal and wood work, so the range of extreme close ups and close ups of swords along with the guns were strangely satisfying to look at as the light bounced off the metal. The lighting was perfect for me, not too dark but not too bright, we can tell when it’s night and day, but also the change in weather was considered with the lighting. In fact, the lighting, cinematics and editing is on point and as good as Pirates of the Caribbean, I believe that this is what the Dead Men Tell No Tales should have been instead, as that has been thrown down the toilet thanks to Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Disney should have hired Vijay Krishna Acharya instead.
The sound was a pleasure for me to listen to, although the gunshots should have been a tiny bit louder, as I felt that they weren’t quite as shocking to hear as gunshots are. The music was perfect for the film, composed by Ajay-Atul and John Stewart, in fact, add in the theme tune from Pirates of the Caribbean as well as Johnny Depp, then you have yourself a better film than the disappointment that is number five in Pirates of the Caribbean series. I also want to talk about Suriayya by Vishal Dadlani, the song is catchy and fitted well in the narrative, instead of oddly placing songs in the film, otherwise you might as well make it into a musical. I do like Vashmalle by Sukhwinder Singh and Manzoor-e-Khuda by Shreya Ghoshal, as they also fit in with the narrative while making me want to dance along to them.
As you can see, I am shocked by how it has done terribly in the box office. Although, this Indie Film has left me wanting Disney to fix their awful Pirates of the Caribbean series and look at Vijay Krishna Acharya’s work. I recommend watching this film, so “good bye, 1, 2, 3, quick march” to the cinema and watch your first Indie Film.
Jack's film reviews co 