GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

indianature Nandita Das has done a brilliant job with Firaaq.The film is set during the Gujarat riots and everything about it is as real as it gets. This is about people and relationships in the circumstances, rather than just another non documentary depiction of that abominable period.The sets, the people, the attitudes, the mannerisms, the well chosen cast, everything held the interest.Deepti Naval's scene where she puts a drop of hot oil on her forearm to atone for not saving a riot victim who came to her doorstep. Likewise when she befriends and tries to nurture the little boy who ran away from the camps to look for his missing father.Dilip Joshi as the unrepentant rapist - rioter was most believable. It was a bit of a shock seeing Jethalal of Taarak Mehta in this serious and horrifying role.Paresh Rawal was the superb actor that he always is. The smirk on his face after managing to extract money from the car owner even when he was in the wrong, and other scenes are excellent.Naseeruddin Shah, Nawazuddin, Tisca, all of them were excellent.This is a film well worth watching though perhaps not just before bedtime as it is grim viewing.Children should also be allowed to watch so that they may hopefully ensure that pogroms such as the Gujarat riots do not occur again.

The_Cool_Critic Wow. That is all I could say after sitting through this film. Das makes a scintillating debut as a director, and if 'Firaaq' is the type of cinema she will continue to make, then she has already won one devoted fan. Every shot of this film, every line of its dialogue screams of the directors' humane, socially conscious philosophy. She takes a very brave step in projecting the pain of the 'other' -- which in Firaaq's case is the socially backward Muslim population in India, which was the target of the 2002 Gujrat pogroms.The film is basically a set of vignettes from a 24 hour period in the lives of the characters in the post-carnage period in Gujrat. There are the slum dwellers, an aging music teacher residing in a rundown locality, an orphaned child and to balance this set, an upper class businessman -- all from the Islamic faith. The episodes in the characters' lives are loosely interconnected and revolve around a slum dwelling couple going back to their burnt-down Muslim ghetto to reclaim their lives, the teacher coming to terms with the madness surrounding him, and the orphan finding, and eventually losing, a refuge.This is not typical bollywood/escapist fare at all. For one, there are no songs and certainly no dancing, and no overt melodrama. Also, the film at many instances gets painfully real and makes for overall rather disturbing viewing. The fact the film elicits that kind of a response from its audience is no small feet.Das has very correctly underscored how women have a more humane streak towards people -- regardless of whatever faith/creed they are from. However, the more positive face of the Hindu-Muslim interaction shown in the film at times does start bordering on the unreal.All in all, mandatory viewing for all who appreciate serious, no-nonsense cinema.

egress63 The first attempt of veteran indie actress Nandita Das in directing is a spellbinding film which takes the Gujurat Riots of 2002 as its backdrop. We are introduced to four main plots - a Gujarati family complicit in the riots, one mixed marriage (Muslim male, Hindu female), one Muslim classical singer and one couple who return home after the riots have ended. And caught up in these people is an orphan who has lost his parents and is roaming around the city.The individual stories of the film are excellently done, themes of inter-religious marriages, abusive husbands, guilt of not helping Muslims, victims turning to violence, police brutality, middle class hypocrisy (One scene was excellent: A wedding is taking place. The bride is being decorated by a Muslim who has had her house burnt. And the bride is cussing how these "bloody Muslims" have ruined her marriage) are very poignantly dealt with.But the movie feels lacking a thematic closure. It was as if Nandita Das got tired and said "Ok, thats it! 101 minutes, thats all the runtime I can give. I just don't want to connect all these themes!" and left the film. Which is what just what I wanted - a sort of closure. Right now, Firaaq is movie which just gives us a glimpse of these people lives without letting us know what will happen to them in the future. That is something which IMO, should have been shown.None the less, this is a fine piece of Indian cinema - a far cry from the banal Bollywood dance numbers, masala filled movies. Thumbs up for the effort!

bisprad I admit that I was quite interested about Firaaq, mainly because of the international felicitation that it has received. Yet I was a little hesitant in going for the movie – especially after a long week at work - I didn't want to watch a heavy movie about the Gujarat riots! I instead chose what I thought would be a light movie – Straight (and regretted it). But I couldn't be more wrong about Firaaq ...Yes its set amidst the Gujarat riots – a month after it, to be precise. But it doesn't have any of the violence or bloodshed of the riots. It instead follows a set of people who are struggling to come to terms with life in the aftermath of the riots. Nandita Das has taken some ordinary people and showed us how they react when faced with something extraordinary – it brings out the worst in some like Paresh Rawal while some like Sanjay Suri look to escape.It is a rare movie that can stir up a whirlpool of emotions inside the viewer – feelings as diverse as loathing, despair, hope and happiness and everything that is in between – all in a runtime of just 100 minutes. Nandita Das exceeds expectations in her directorial debut in Firaaq, taking on the Gujarat riots issue with a wonderful sensitivity. Sure, she has the advantage of having a stalwarts like Naseeruddin Shah & Paresh Rawal in Firaaq - but the finesse with which the screenplay seamlessly weaves all the story together is completely to her creditFrom a slightly disturbing opening scene, we are introduced to the different characters and their dilemmas - the Hindu-Muslim urban couple who are leaving town, a Muslim couple who come back to their home to find it burnt down, the gujarati housewife struggling to come to terms with her guilt, a orphaned child looking for his family and an ageing singer oblivious to reality … Each of the actors' performance has been stellar – you cannot help but loath Paresh Rawal and equally you share Deepti Naval's agony and her wish for atonement. Naseeruddin Shah is in a league of his own, playing a musician from a forgotten generation who is disconnected from today's world.As if the multitude of stories were not enough, each of the stories tug at your heart in different directions. From the despair at finding her entire household in ashes to the suspecting her best friend, from the fear of the police to the anger at the bride's silly remarks about the riots, Muneera (Shahana Goswami) bares her thoughts to us. The sharing of the bindi between friends and the intermixing of the names Mohan and Mohsin – the movie is replete with such subtle subtexts.With its limited runtime, Firaaq doesn't conform to the traditional norms of giving a background to each story or taking each of them to a logical conclusion. So maybe it might feel a little abrupt at the start to some. But such trifling irritants are completely forgotten by the time you finish watching Firaaq as you would find yourself overwhelmed with conflicting emotions.I regularly review movies at http://bisprad.blogspot.com