Review of Hera Pheri

Introduction

A brilliantly remake of the Tamil/Malayalam film which was also directed by Priyadarsan. This film has broke the grounds of Bollywood cinema, curently full of clichés and stereotyping, and has brought in a new script, excellent realistic characters, and fine film making work.

Yet the DVD fails to create a similar impact for its audience, which is such a shame as it really could have been something........

Video

The film itself is presented in an non-anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, cropped from it original aspect ratio of 2:40:1. It would have been better to put the picture in its original aspect ratio persevering the director`s original vision. Also placing the film in anamorphic would have been a nice addition to more picture quality. The cropping is quite evident on this DVD but most of the action does take place within the compressed frame.

The picture shows no signs of any grain nor of any artefacts. The overall images is quite sharp and clear detailing neat picture information. There are smalls signs of shimmering and wear and tear, but again these minor defects do not interrupt viewing. Skin tones and colour fidelity are always vivid and bright giving a natural feel to the film.

The contrast and the dark levels are average. But more depth could have been used as black definitions are sometimes weak in darker moments of the film.

The other sang in the picture is that elements of red hues can be seen for around 5 mins. That said this is one of the best pictures from the Video-Sound catalogue in a while.

Audio

The film comes in Dolby Digital 5.1, which was the original soundtrack of the film while on cinema, makes a welcome addition on this DVD. However the sound has nothing spectacular to offer as such as the film is quiet but during the songs and high octane sequences the surround mix creates a fine diverse soundfield that clearly impresses. Ambient sound is very clear and dialogues are easily understood.

Features

When you place the DVD into your machine it loads up the usual Video-Sound logo/information which can be skipped. However the advert that follows after (Indiaplaza.com) cannot be skipped and we are force to watch this awful commercial.

The still picture of the film, with the song `Tun Tunak Tun` playing in the background, is then loaded and we can select four choices:- play movie, select songs, subtitles, and extra features. The menus are well designed and are themed to the whole movie. It is also very easy to navigate over. But I would have liked to see a moving menu as still menus gives a feeling of laziness on the part of the DVD/film owners.

Supplement are limited to 8 t.v. spots used for the film. The television spots are really good to view and are well made matching the style of hollywood trailers. These are wrongly divided into three sections: Trailers, Tun Tunak Tun promos, and T.V.spots. They are laid out in the following order and are chaptered so you can access them all easily:-

Trailers:-

1 t.v. spot on feature film (1min)
1 t.v. spot teaser football (1min)
1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun teaser (1min)
1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun remix trailer (3min)
1 t.v. spot on Mujse Milti Hai Ek Ladki Rosana (1min)

Tun Tunak Tun Promos:-

1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun teaser (1min)
1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun remix trailer (3min)

T.V. Spots

Promo 1 `the players` (47sec)
Promo A `teaser` (30sec)
Promo `main feature` (2min)
1 t.v. spot on feature film (1min)
1 t.v. spot teaser football (1min)
1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun teaser (1min)
1 t.v. spot on Tun Tunak Tun remix trailer (3min)
1 t.v. spot on Mujse Milti Hai Ek Ladki Rosana (1min)

They could have placed a featurette of the making of the film or the original theatrical trailer with these t.v. spots making the supplements seem more worthwhile. Still they are better then no supplements.

The film has 14 Chapter marks, which seems pretty limited for a film with a running time of 140mins. Not only that but they are placed in very irregular parts of the movie making it hard for us to access our favourite scenes.

Another problem that this DVD has is that the subtitles don`t appear in the film until 5 mins, making us miss some vital information.

Also for widescreen television users the subtitles are placed irregularly between the bottom black bars and the bottom part of the picture. So when you zoom half of the subtitles are cut. In the future subtitles should be placed on the picture part, not on the black bars so that widescreen television users can see them at 100%, as well as people with regular televisions.

Conclusion

(Spolier) - You have been warned!

The film has two male actors and one female actor playing a lead role placed on the main posters of the film. From the posters one person would have made this out to be a love story triangle, that is how predictable bollywood has become. But when you actually view the film the subject of love is near non-existent. Instead the film looks the humanistic feelings of the main characters who have a negative view on life with real problems and financial debts. They don`t have time for love or strong romance, just dreams and misery, something which occupies us all.

This is why the film click with me and many others, we can understand these people. Though the film does slightly stray into escapism, with the dull songs and the wishful climax, it helps us to realize that there may be hope for us in a similar situation yet as life does seem to work in mysterious ways when help is at hand.

The climax, after the comical fight, has to be one of the best ever shot this decade in an Indian film. I was really stunned when Raju comes back, like the two characters Shyam and Babu Rao, and when they realize there mistake of phoning the police, it even shock me more. It reminded me of negative endings from various American movie. But this is an Indian film and all turns out too well. This can be a criticism too but it can also be seen as hope not just for the characters but us audience.

The film is well paced with brilliant `MTV` style editing and cinematography which matches the style of Hype William`s Music Videos. It makes welcome viewing for audience looking for something new. Although I can`t see the majority of Hindi film audiences liking this new `in your face` style.

Another thing that impressed me about this film was the excellent performances from the action stars Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar. Sunil Shetty in this film overcomes his last fine movie performance in `Border (1997)`. While Akshay Kumar is still improving on his last average venture `Jaanwar (1999)`. The two stars, whose last outing together was the blockbuster `Mohra (1994)`, reunite and give their best performance ever on-screen for this film. Along with talented actors, like Tabu, Om Puri, Murkesh Khanna, Gulshan Grover, Paresh Rawal and the rest of the cast, they never let you down and truly shine on the screen. It remind me of the Amitabh - Shashi combo which was special and created cinema magic.

The rest of the cast also are on top form and entertain you from start to finish. It was also nice to see comedian Asrani, after a while away from films, to be in this film as the bank manager, performing at his best.

The songs are the only let down, from the embarrassing `Main Ladki Pom Pom` to the awful Bally Sagoo/Lalit Sen song `Tun Tunak Tun` which is a near-copy from the brilliant A.R. Rahman song `Daud`. If the film edited these out then it would have improved the whole movie, making it compatible for world-wide audiences.

If you want an exciting film which can provide high drama/comedy and a brilliant plot that will make this film a cult classic in the future then watch this now.

The DVD is simply avarage which let me down as the film deserves a much better treatment then that.