Movie Review: Mangal Pandey

I was pretty dissappointed with the film. Its a pity that Amir chose this as his come back film after a long break. I found too many things wrong with the film that I am not going to spend time talking about the actual story (you’ll find plenty of this on the web). Here are a few of my peeves…

• What was the point of Amir Khan’s long hair? There were a number of people around with short hair in film. So it was not like long hair was the trend in those days. Besides as a soldier in the British army there is no way he could have grown his hair so long. It just didn’t fit in, not to mention that Amir looked pretty odd wth his long hair!
• What was Amisha Patel’s character doing in the film? A complete waste and not needed for the film.
• Most of the songs were uneccessary and were nothing great. The producers could have saved some money by hiring someone other than AR Rehman.
• The British guys in the film kept speaking hindi. It was annoying to say the least because it wasn’t easy to follow either.

A few positives of the film: Amir Khan’s acting as Mangal Pandey was impressive. Toby Stephens, the British officer was excellent. Rani Mukherjee handled her small role perfectly. The sets and background score were very impressive as well.