They can't all be masterpieces

I don't want to dwell too much on the hot mess that is MF Husain's Gaja Gamini.  I have not spared the movie in my new review on Filmi Geek, and you can go read it over there.

Here at Sounds Like Power, the focus is on Shabana Azmi.  I can only guess that it is respect for MF Husain that led her (and other actors of similar stature) to sign on to this project.  I wonder if she had seen the script or understood Husain's so-called vision.  The movie is regressive, objectifying claptrap masquerading unconvincingly as feminist empowerment.  It's utter nonsense. 

However, it is only two hours long, is full of Madhuri Dixit looking gorgeous, has some very nice music, and is probably worth sitting through for the Shabana Azmi completist (if there happens to be another such in the world, besides myself).  After all, Shabana ca. 2000 may be the most gorgeous Shabana there is.

 

Sigh.  Shabana ji gets to carry a lantern and look fierce with Farida Jalal.

And, she gets to display some delightfully WTFish costuming while delivering the film's torturous final speech.

So, all right.  It's not as painful as Son of the Pink Panther, which this devoted fan also sat through in the name of Shabana-pyaar.  But it comes with stern, graphic warnings:  This film may induce the flinging of items at the screen accompanied by plaintive wails of "Why, Shabana ji, why?"