New releases

Indian animation has finally come of age. Roadside Romeo, the first Walt Disney-Yash Raj roll-out is a barrel of fun: bole toh, ekdum jhakaas, baap.

It combines the best aspects of both studios8212;Disney8217;s expertise in creating animated figures which live and breathe, and Yash Raj8217;s forte in frothy romance: What better than getting Romeo and Laila voiced by real-life lovers Saif ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor?

Romeo is a one-time pampered pooch, now abandoned on the mean streets of Mumbai. Laila is a saucy, red-scarf-around-her-dainty-neck dancer, who only has to bat her impossibly large eyelashes for Romeo to start panting. Trouble looms in the shape of the pug-ugly Charlie Anna Jaaved Jaaferi, who rules with a ruthless paw, and a bunch of louts. He fancies Laila, and woe is any Tom, Dick, or Romeo who comes in between.

The alacrity with which the characters break into song-and-dance shows that Disney or no Disney, Bollywood rules. Whether style-bhai Romeo is kicking up his heels with his canine pals, or looking for a likely spot to pee 8220;Yahaan koi toilet nahin hai kya? Man, what a dump8221; you can actually see Saif, who does cool like no else. And when sexy Laila shakes her charming rump, breathily coming on to her besotted beau, you know that8217;s Kareena. Both sizzle up the screen.

Where debutant director Jugal Hansraj falters is with the villainous Chaaaarrrlie Anna: Jaaferi is made to growl incomprehensibly and break wind more often than getting a chance at being a riot. He does make you guffaw, but only once in a while, and for someone of Jaaferi8217;s goofy brilliance, that8217;s not enough.

But we can live with this Charlie. In his words, he8217;s our chappie, so he makes us happy. We can also handle the strong resemblance our Mumbai-curs have to Disney-style American doggie-doos, because we know that given a chance, they will open their mouths to utter a desi 8216;bhow bhow8217; rather than the westernised 8216;bow wow8217;. Roadside Romeo is Hindi cinema8217;s first stylish, slick animated feature, which pulls off the toughest feat 8211; appealing to both adults and children.

That8217;s, like, cool, dude.

Lost glory

Heroes

Two city slickers set out to deliver letters from dead servicemen to their far-flung families, and in the process, discover themselves.

The premise of Heroes is interesting. And in parts Samir Karnik8217;s film does manage to say what it set out to: That pride the Hindi garv is a better word keeps the families of the deceased soldiers going, that we civilians sleep peacefully only because someone has given up their life for us, and that we have a country only because we have a brave fauji guarding our borders. But the director falls for the easiest trick in the book: He wrings tears out of so many situations that everything-even the supreme sacrifice that the soldiers make-turns trite.

Heroes needed a radical change in treatment, but it falls half-way between keeping things low-key, and going full-tilt at melodrama. What can you do if pretty Preity Zinta is a war-widow, speaking flawless Punjabi, keeping it together for her old in-laws, and a young son? And Salman Khan, her bluff Jat heartthrob, who says: Teri liye lakh jawani, par yeh jawani desh ke naam, or words to that effect. Sunny Deol plays a rum-swilling disabled airman who loses younger brother Bobby Deol, who carried a torch for the Army. Mithun Chakraborty is an embittered father, who hasn8217;t forgiven son Dino Morea for dying. And the two boys-who-turn-into-men on their road journey, armed with a camera and alarming naivete, are Sohail Khan and Vatsal Sheth.

The subject deserved a better film.

SHUBHRA GUPTA

French correction

Days of Glory

Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite. This film examines the three pillars on which the French Republic stands through the eyes of soldiers summoned from its colonies to fight a war for liberalising a people, while enjoying few of those rights themselves.

Put into the worst of battles towards the end of World War II, with the least compensation in terms of money, promotion, leave or even rationed tomatoes, the soldiers from France8217;s colonies in North Africa8212;particularly Algeria8212;fight a cold, brutal war and die an unknown death. The government they are fighting for feels no need to even begin understanding their religion, needs or culture.

In a great scene, after one hard-fought battle, the tired African soldiers are offered a 8220;treat8221;: a ballet in a torn tent. Uncomprehending and disgusted, they walk out.

Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2007 Oscars and the Golden Palm at Cannes, Days of Glory has some exceptional performances by its lead actors, who have enlisted for the war for their own reasons. There is the scholarly and brave Corporal Abdelkadar Samy Bouajila, who clings to the belief till the last that the fight against Hitler is his fight; Said Jamel Debbouze, who finds a reason and hope in his life, led till then in utter poverty, in a place he realises has none of it; Messaoud Roschdy Zem, who discovers love in the unlikeliest of places; and Sergeant Martinez Bernard Blancan, a Frenchman in Algeria who is part African, a secret he takes to his grave, constantly torn between the men he knows are being mistreated and his bosses who couldn8217;t care less.

Defeating the Axis powers in Italy, when the Algerian infantry marches into France, it is the first time they have set foot on, what they have been told, is their 8220;motherland8221;. The message is reinforced through martial songs, on speeches, and exhortations to march to yet another battle.

From a small dusty village in Algeria, illiterate and swept up in all that8217;s happening around him, Said has figured it out for himself more clearly. Describing a battle scene, he says: 8220;I threw a bomb at Germany, I beat Germany, all of Germany8230; I free a country, it is my country. Even if I haven8217;t seen it before.8221;

At the time, he is staring into the eyes of a woman hanging on to his every word, willing to believe anything the soldier of a winning army has to say. The words, you realise, are not for her. Before he marches into certain death, it8217;s Said8217;s prayer, for himself.

SHALINI LANGER