Movie Review: Dhoop

Dhoop was one of those alternative movies made in 2003. It is a social movie dealing with the corruption seemingly prevelant in every government office. At times the amount of corruption shown seems a bit difficult to digest, if it were not based on a true story. It is the story of a Captain in the Indian Army who is killed in the Kargil War. The impact of the death on his fiance and his parents form the first part of the movie. The dad is a professor of international trade and economics played by Om Puri and the mom is a librarian played by Revathy. The slain son is Sanjay Suri and the fiance is Gul Panag. The second part of the movie starts when the government want to honor the soldier for his life by allocating a Petrol Pump. (The government has strange ways of Honoring Soldiers). While the parents do not have the financial need for a Petrol Pump, they want to open it to keep their son (and all the 46 thousand odd soldiers who have died in the various wars fought by India) alive and give them a reason for existence. Then starts the innumerous permits required from the allocation of the land to achieving a No Objection Certification from the Police to getting an electricty line in place. The whole bunch of the governmental officers are completely corrupt and have no respect for the father who has just lost his young son and demand Lakhs of rupees (each ) for the process. The movie then is just the struggle of the old man(and his wife and his son's fiance) in managing to setup the Petrol Pump without giving in to the system and fighting it. While the system does try to threaten him to cough up the money or have him and his family face the consequences of fighting such a strong opponent, who only fights dirty. He does triumph in the end with a little help from the PMO. It is the Saaransh of the current times and the bribes demanded have increased multiple fold. While it is slightly grating that based on a true story nobody in any position of power (except the PM- Atal Bihari Vajpayee) encountered by the dad is a good person and everybody is completely corrupt. I would not like to believe that that in fact is the reality in India.

Om Puri excels in his role as the father. He is just an excellent actor who has an amazing diction and command over the language. Revathy is well Revathy, I guess I have been jaded watching all those Tamil movies in which she is the mom (and even that non-Tamil Indian take on You Got Mail; Mitr My Friend). She does the crying and upset mom to the pat including the sadness which the Fathers will not feel when they find out their son did not eat dinner before he went to the battlefield. Sanjay Suri in the few minutes he is their does a great job, he is always refreshing to watch after the Shahrukhs of the current times. Gul Panag, Miss India in 99 (I think), plays a small role as the fiance of Sanjay Suri. She was again very refreshing to watch, anyday prefer watching heracting over the so-Phat Kareenas. She does appear in great Salwars (almost tailored to perfection to keep up with the current trends) and at times (maybe cause of her dimples) looks a lot like Preity Zinta.

Overall the movie is slow and has a good mixture of songs sung by Hariharan, Jagjit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal. The music is pretty good and complements the emotions of the film. I prefered the voice of Hariharan & Shreya Ghoshal to that of Jagjit Singh. He does have a great Ghazal but in one of the other songs seems slightly irritating. I like Jagjit Singh a lot, many of his songs are good but not all his songs are great and likewise there is one example of each in this one.