Review of Pukar (1999)

Introduction

I have always like every film made by Rajkumar Santoshi, from his debut film Ghayal (1990) to his recent Lajja (2001). All have made an impact with critics and mass audiences alike making Rajkumar Santoshi one of the best directors of Hindi cinema.

When I heard that he would make a high tech action drama, with music by A.R. Rahman I couldn`t wait for the movie to release, as I am big fan of both of their works. Rajkumar Santoshi always has had a weakness in his movies, which were the song scores. Nearly all of his films, with exception to Barsaat and Chinagate, the songs were poor. This could be seen as a chance to make an excellent film with a great score.

When the soundtrack released in 1999 I was not disappointed at all. Every song makes its mark. `Que Sera Sera` a Spanish/Latin like track is excellently redone from Rahman`s earlier track `Niagara` from the Tamil film, En Swasa Kaatrea. The excellent duet song `Kismat Se Humko` which pays a fitting tribute and homage to the soundtrack Indian cinema of the 1940`-50`s fused with modern music at the same time. The song `Ek Tu Hi` has the nightingale Lata Mangeshkar singing at her best to a subtle tune that can never be forgotten.

Other tracks like `Sunta Hai Mera Khuda`, `Hum Rahi Jab Ho Mastana`, and `Hai Janna` further compliment the works of Rahman and reassures me that his next work will even be spectacular, as he is now collaborating with the likes of Madonna, J-Lo, Michael Jackson, and even London`s West-End/New York`s Broadway hit composer Andrew Lloyd Webber who has become an admirer of Rahman`s work. All I could wait now is wait for the film itself.

The film, as expected, had excellent technical values, which reaches Hollywood standards. The background score is also brilliant giving the DTS system at my local cinema a good work out. The main plot itself was a bit of a let down as it was rather predictable and at times rather cliché, while the love story angle was very good. The performances from the cast enhanced this film by ten fold shining out performances that are both humanistic and impressive to the viewers. Madhuri`s role was the best handled one.

Actor Danny Denzongpa was in the film for a brief amount of time but makes an impact on screen with his shrewd character of Abrush. The only major let down was the climax that the film is brought to. The fight sequence here, wasn`t that good and blew off a major let down to the overall film, as it was the last scene. Apart from that all other action sequences including the parachute jump was shot brilliantly. It puts a shame to movies like Hindustan Ki Kasam and International Khiladi, which used poor blue screen technology, while Pukar shot the real thing. Screenplay from Arjun R. was also innovative by tying the main plot with the love story nicely and overall crew production brought the film`s script to life.

It makes an interesting action-love story movie to view.

Video

The DVD begins with about 5mins of FBI warnings and B4U infomercials that cannot be stopped, paused, or skipped. Even pressing the menu button on my DVD remote could not stop this. However once you reach the Eros adverts then you can skip to the main menu of the film.

When I first saw the menu I was surprised that even Eros could design an excellent moving menu that is easy to command. The only thing negative about it is that is it a bit short, and it gets too repetitive when you leave the menu on without accessing anything. But still it is very impressive; I especially like the sound of the gunshots and the time display. Looking back at it two years later the menus are still good when compared to other Indian DVDs.

The picture is framed at an aspect ratio of 2.10:1, which contains a compressed picture of 2.20:1 within it. As a result of this the actors look a lot thinner then usual on a regular T.V. If you have a widescreen T.V then set the picture on 14:9 mode, also known as cinema wide. This will make the actors will look normal. As the film has an aspect ratio of 2.20:1 it is near the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with about 5-10% missing. This is not bad as it is much better then a pan and scan or a 1.85:1 aspect transfer which results in more cropping of the picture. It would have improved a lot further if the DVD were transferred in Anamorphic and in its original aspect ratio but it was done at a time when anamorphic didn`t even exist on Indian DVDs.

The picture has average colour fidelity with no signs of major distortion, but during some strong colour scenes bleeding is evident. Also compression artefacts are seen and while picture break up is noticed it isn`t as distracting.

Dark details are at times weak while contrast details are higher then usual, making the whites blinding. Moiré effects, shimmering and edge enhancements also makes it marks on this disc and further effects what could have been an excellent DVD. The last snag this DVD has is that the picture balances between being a little too sharp and too soft. Picture information can be seen during some places but its not enough.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 Hindi soundtrack is surprising considering the picture is just of average quality. The DVD manages to capture the excellent surround effect that I heard on cinema. The score is one of the benefits of the 5.1 channels, along with the active LFE channel that displays great bass moments from explosions to fight sounds.

The surround is also very impressive with gun shots zinging left to right around the set-up. The effects are in all simply superb displaying high levels of clear sound details in surround format. But during some sequences the front channels did have light hissing in the background, which diverts this from becoming a perfect DVD soundtrack.

Features

The supplement that you get on this DVD is a 20mins making of feature. Normally they seem like a long advert. It is just as expected here; the cast and crew talk about their views on the film, share a little with us about the happenings on set, their favourite songs and scene, and views on each others performances. The content is done with some detail, gives plenty of information and entertains well. There are no trailers of the film as stated on the package of the DVD, which is a shame.

Conclusion

Not a great disc as it spoils the high production values of the film, instead of enhancing it.