Good but seriously flawed movie

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2006)

OK. I was all excited before I went in to see this movie. I must say I was hugely disappointed. It WAS a good movie, but by no means great or even very good. I think most Indians (like me) liked it because of the relevance of the content and that some patriotic scenes were very well done.
As a movie, and a movie experience - I don't know. I think it was bad in some parts, really good in others, but VERY uneven in pace. Some scenes were tacked on just for the heck of it. E.G. the Golden temple scene had absolutely no context. It just came and went. It was there just because the director wanted to show the golden temple. DJs family lived nowhere near it - and there was no reason to visit it.
That might be nitpicking - but screenplay was awful, for me, because of the following reasons: 1. The parallel between the freedom-fighters and this bunch was flawed. Even as depicted, the freedom fighters acted on their own will, sacrificed their lives willingly to prove a point. This bunch of yuppies died because they were really shot in cold blood for no apparent reason. Which brings me to..
2. Why were they shot? Why were they killed? Who ordered the killings? The leader of the commando force? Why? Who was pulling the strings, since the defense minister and the dad were dead. There were no other characters shown who would do this.
3. What was the point of the modern Ram-Bismil character? Totally unneeded and detracted from the main plot. If anything, he should have been the one showing these guys the path to enlightenment, and not just be a tag-along.
4. Karan's character - I think he did well - but the character - Geez! Why was he on the edge all the time? What was simmering inside him? Why was he antagonistic to his dad in the first scene? None of this was shown or developed or explained. I think a big missed opportunity here. If it was shown that he was simmering because he KNEW his dad was involved - it might have mad it more compelling and heck even sympathize with him.
5. Aslam's character - what was he doing in the movie? Just to have a token Muslim? There were too many statements being made in the movie which ultimately ended up making none.
5. Om Puri was wasted - so was Anupam Kher and Kiron Kher. Chacters are there to move a story forward not just show their acting skills.
6. Most importantly the motivation to change over from third-rate yuppies to motivated killers was non-existent. Yes, their friend was killed - but the story does not even let us empathize with the dead friend in the first place. What was Sukhi's motivation to kill? Aslam's? How could Sonia be so nonchalant as to let her friends kill? All in all..very disappointing. In some ways not much different from some of the third-rate revenge flicks which Dharmender did during his times. Although some performances were brilliant - some scenes were really well done - but the movie didn't work for me. Sorry. :o(