Halla Bol

Halla Bol (drama)
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Vidya Balan, Pankaj Kapoor
Direction: Raj Kumar Santoshi


LONG before Rang De Basanti , Raj Kumar Santoshi made films like Ghayal and Damini , focusing on the common man as activist. And like RDB , these films too met with both critical and mass acclaim.

Of course, RDB had an unrivalled chutzpah and a newness that would be hard to match. Nevertheless, with Halla Bol , Santoshi returns to his quintessential theme, but this time there is a flavour of topicality.

The film seems to be inspired by three major incidents in the recent and not-so-recent past: the Jessica Lal murder case followed by the Justice for Jessica movement, the activism of Aamir Khan in the Narmada issue and the murder of noted street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi during a performance.

For those who had witnessed the vibrant street theatre movement almost a decade ago, Halla Bol was the rallying call of Safdar and his troupe, as it invoked popular support for its crusade against social and political ills. Today, Santoshi remixes the revolutionary naara in a kabhi powerful- kabhi pulpy account of superstar Sameer Khan's (Ajay Devgan) tryst with his conscience.

Sameer Khan's story is familiar. He is actually Ashfaqe-ullah, a small town theatre activist who dreams of making it big in Bollywood, even as he idolises his dacoit-turned-theatre guru, Pankaj Kapoor. Once in Bollywood, he sheds his middle-class bearings and changes everything -- values, ethics, attitude -- along with his name.

Of course, his family refuses to change with him, including his girl friend-turned wife (Vidya Balan) who watches his moral degradation from a distance. It takes the murder of a young girl in a party to provoke his conscience and ferret out the old activist, Ashfaqe-ullah. Soon, Sameer is the one-man army against the battery of evil politicians, businessmen and cops who are hellbent on covering up the crime. And the only shoulder he can lean on in these trying times is that of his old Guruji's: a firm, powerful and mesmerising Pankaj Kapoor.

Halla Bol is a rambling film that tries to take on too many things: the underbelly of Bollywood, politics, police, page 3, media...So much so, it loses grip, ever so often. But what holds it together are some power-packed performances, a sensible, topical theme and a handful of riveting scenes.

Watch Pankaj Kapoor tackle the bribe offered to him by the power brokers, Ajay Devgan stand up to the wily politician in his palatial house or Vidya Balan publicly applaud her husband for his valour and you'll get your paisa vasool moments.