Zinda: Movie Review

"One good act of vengeance...deserves another"

Zinda means alive! So, who is alive? Sanjay Dutt (Bala). Any reason he shouldn’t be? If you were locked up for 14 years and released with an ominous statement that you have just 4 more days……well, its understood that your state of being ‘Zinda’ isn’t going to last.

1990’s. Bangkok.

Bala is a software engineer happily married to Celina Jaitley (forgot her screen-name). One fine day………… well, he simply disappears. Yeah! Just like that…voosh!!! His pretty wife watches him standing on a deck…the next scene……… he is nowhere to see!

What happened to Bala? He is kept in a cell without any explanations. Totally isolated except for a T.V. through which he comes to know that his wife had been murdered. At the end of 14 years he is blindfolded and dropped on a helipad. He finds some money and a cell-phone in his coat-pocket.

Understandably, this is not the end for him or the story. He is still ‘Zinda’. But why? Why wasn’t he killed if the whole episode was to punish him for some unknown crime? Who is the monster behind this drama? Just like us, Bala wants to solve this puzzle. He wants justice for the 14 precious years of his life.

So guys……such is the story! Sounds good? Yes. Copy? Right again! Hollywood? No, from a Korean movie called OldBoy. Anything wrong? How about the basic flaw?

It’s all about the passion of revenge, right? Then I completely missed the point in Zinda. Let me reveal something here. John Abraham plays the part of the person who locked up Sanjay Dutt for 14 years; obviously for some valid reasons. John is supposed to live on the hatred for his enemy. Forgive me John for this, but you just didn’t look the part. (I’m a big fan of John Abraham – The Model.)

Sanjay Dutt was good as a desperate man. Should I say this again….Celina can’t act. Lara Dutta and Mahesh Manjrekar (yeah, they are there): Bad characterization (not their fault). Zinda is directed by Sanjay Gupta, whose ‘Kaante’ hit the mark with some attitude and ‘Musafir’ was avoidable. I guess he misses the story while trying to stylize the look.

On the whole Zinda is a ‘different’ movie with some loopholes. It’s highly depressing with some gruesome scenes here and there (I liked this). One big plus? The song ‘Yeh hai meri kahaani’ by Strings.

Categories: Movie, Film, Review, Movie Review, Bollywood