Dinesh Kamath’s column ‘New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai’ (Jai Ho and Mandela – Long Walk to Freedom) that was published in Newsband

New movie-releases in Navi Mumbai

By Dinesh Kamath

Jai Ho

Jai Ho is a Hindi-language Indian action Drama feature film directed by Sohail Khan and produced by Sohail Khan alongwith Sunil Lulla, starring Salman Khan and newcomer Daisy Shah alongwith Sana Khan and Suniel Shetty in major roles. The film has Tabu playing Salman's sister while Danny Denzongpa plays the main antagonist. The film is a remake of Telugu film Stalin starring Chiranjeevi.

Jai Ho is the story of Major Jai Agnihotri, who creates a nation-wide movement by convincing people to do a good deed for three people who must in turn each do good deeds for three other people.

Jai, an upright common man is fighting a solitary war against corruption and injustice. Honest and incorruptible, he has made it his mission to help as many people as he can. His mantra is quite simple - help somebody and then request that person to lend a helping hand to somebody else - thus forming an ever growing circle of people helping each other.

In a strange twist of fate, he finds himself pitted against a powerful politician and his vile family. Jai who is an ex army officer, will not shy away from a battle, however bloody it may get and firmly believes that you do not have to wear an uniform to serve your country. As the politician unleashes his violent goons on brave heart Jai, Geeta, Jai's sister, realizes the horrific consequences this can have on her brother and the rest of their family.

She persuades a reluctant Jai to make peace with the politician. But when this leads to humiliation being heaped on him, Jai loses his cool and declares all out war. It is an unequal war - one side stand the politician with his numerous henchmen and on one side is Jai - alone.

But unknown to him, a silent revolution is taking place. The voiceless public, he has helped in the past, is gathering force. It finally has a voice and this voice cannot and will not be silenced.

Because Jai Ho is the resounding sound of victory...Jai Ho is the warrior cry of someone determined to win at all cost...

Thus the film has Salman Khan as Major Jai Agnihotri, Tabu as Riya Agnihotri (Jai's Sister), Suniel Shetty as Officer Ranvir Kaul, Danny Denzongpa, Sana Khan, Daisy Shah, Nadira Babbar, Genelia D'Souza, Naman Jain, Mahesh Thakur, Resham Tipnis, Ashmit Patel, Yash Tonk, Haroon Qazi, Mohnish Bahl, Mahesh Manjrekar, Prerit Joshi, Aditya Pancholi, Sharad Kapoor, Pulkit Samrat, Tulip Joshi, Varun Badola, Syed Mozzam, Nauheed Cyrusi, Vikas Bhalla, Bruna Abdullah, Sudesh Lehri, Santosh Shukla as Maanik - a corrupt politician, Ankit Pandey as Chor and Vinay Prakash Yadav as Sadhu.

The soundtrack of Jai Ho is composed by Sajid-Wajid, Devi Sri Prasad and Amal Malik. The film has songs like Baaki Sab First Class Hai, Tere Naina Maar Hi Daalenge, Photocopy, Tumko To Aana Hi Tha, Love You Till The End (House Mix), Naacho Re, Jai Jai Jai Jai Ho (Title Track), Photocopy (Remix) and Baaki Sab First Class Hai (Remix).

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is a 2013 British/South African biographical film directed by Justin Chadwick from a script written by William Nicholson and stars Idris Elba and Naomie Harris. The film is based on the 1995 book Long Walk to Freedom by anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The film is based on President Nelson Mandela's early life, his coming of age, education and 27 years in prison before becoming President and working to rebuild the country’s once segregated society. Idris Elba stars as Nelson Mandela, Naomie Harris stars as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with Justin Chadwick directing.

In this film, Idris Elba plays Nelson Mandela, starting out as a young black lawyer of proud Xhosa heritage in post-war Johannesburg, sharp of both wits and dress, attempting to remedy the desperate situations of the dispossessed who ask for his help. At first, he shuns the members of the ANC who beseech him to get involved, but as the grotesqueries of the apartheid regime become closer and more intimate, his political radicalism takes root.

He grows apart from his first wife and closer to his ANC colleagues and a glamorous, outspoken 22-year-old social worker called Winnie Madikizela (Naomie Harris), who’s to become his second wife.

The movie depicts the major events of 20th-century South African history: the extension and heavy enforcement of the Pass Laws; the stark brutality of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre of black protestors; the ANC’s ensuing campaign of sabotage; and the trial at which Mandela and his fellow ANC members were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Yet, if the film is a tale of political action, it is also one of wider personal sacrifice, of which Mandela’s own 27-year imprisonment is but one element. The story dwells, rightly, on the ferocity of absence: the relentless hollowing-out of what should have been a happy family life. We glimpse the husbandless wife, the fatherless children, the space for resentments and infidelities. When Mandela is finally released from jail, he finds himself married to a nation, but estranged from his dearly loved wife.

The movie also exposes the cruel circumstances in which Winnie’s ruthlessness was forged: the state torture, solitary confinement, exile and house arrest that drain the joie de vivre from her and replace it with something more bitter. Somehow, Mandela himself manages to move in the opposite direction: there is a small, touching scene in which he gently chastises his grand-children for ridiculing his white guards.

Nearing the end, with Elba’s face partly immobilised in ageing make-up, the pace slows respectfully along with him.

Thus the film has Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela, Naomie Harris as Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Tony Kgoroge as Walter Sisulu, Riaad Moosa as Ahmed Kathrada, Zolani Mkiva as Raymond Mhlaba, Simo Mogwaza as Andrew Mlangeni, Fana Mokoena as Govan Mbeki, Thapelo Mokoena as Elias Motsoaledi, Jamie Bartlett as James Gregory, Deon Lotz as Kobie Coetzee and Terry Pheto as Evelyn Mase.