Aurangzeb starts on the premise that every man has his father's character embedded deep into him and that will surface when it's crunch time. It thus posits that nature wins over nurture and spends most of the film trying to prove this point, only to turn on its heel and tell you that maybe sometimes 'parvarish' also matters. And that to me is the problem.
If you take a proposition (however contentious) and stick to proving it, it makes for an interesting story. But if you waffle then the point is lost.
That is one problem with this movie. The other is that the main motivations of all the main characters are murky and confused. I never quite followed why they all embarked on the (very complicated and a bit foolish) plan they made. For which, coming up, story in (not so)short.
Arya, his uncle and cousin brother are all corrupt cops who live on collections. Arya's dad was also a cop who had to leave the force for an encounter gone wrong where the wife and child of a big gangster were mistakenly killed. On his deathbed he tells Arya that the woman and child were in fact saved by him and he had married her. He asks Arya to take care of that family after him. Now, it all gets murky. Turns out that the boy Vishal has an identical twin Ajajy who was left behind with the gangster dad as he was the weaker one. The corrupt uncle and Arya tell Vishal that by impersonating Ajay whom they will kidnap a they can help the gangster to get arrested and then Arya's fathers name would be cleared of the killing. Now why would a corrupt cop duo who live on collections want to kill a cash cow instead of killing it is beyond me. So Vishal agrees and goes to live with the gangster dad who turns out to be not so bad after all and he starts to like him. Then all sorts of stuff happens that I can't bore you with. Myriad conflicts happen before its all solved.
The point is, when the key motivation is weak the rest becomes unconvincing. The serious drama and angst all become questionable.
This is Arjun Kapoor's first movie after Ishaqzaade and he shows his acting skills admirably. He manages to make the twins not only act different but even look different by using different expressions in his eyes - a softer look for Vishal and a manic one for Ajay. Excellent stuff. Prithviraj who was just eye candy in Aiyya gives Arya a troubled, controlled personality. Again, a very good performance. And my favourite Rishi Kapoor as the corrupt chacha seems to relish his new avatar as a baddie though I got one romantic look in the karwa chauth scene which was enough to make me happy. Jackie Shroff's gangster starts out well but fizzles out later. However, it was great to see Jackie again in a strong role again. Amrita Singh as his manipulative girlfriend is quite wicked.
This movie could have done much more by staying on the narrow road. With such strong performances it could have been a taut conflict drama but all that seriousness and heavy dialogues are wasted because of the stuff I wrote earlier. Go for the acting if you must. Otherwise, wait for a TV viewing.
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