Aurangzeb Hindi Movie
It's not every day that you get a cast that not only boasts of great face value but also of immense acting potential. Only big banners can pull off such a feat. But what gets disappointing is when such big banners itself end up wasting their resources over substandard scripts that fail to please anybody. Yash Raj Film's Aurangzeb is a case of such mediocrity.
Ajay and Vishal (Arjun Kapoor) are twin brothers separated by birth. While Vishal gets taken away by the mother (Tanvi Azmi) Ajay gets left behind with Yashvardhan (Jackie Shroff) who under the garb of being a real estate tycoon runs an a huge nexus of illegal activities only to turn into a depraved person. DCP Ravikant (Rishi Kapoor) uncle of ACP Arya (Prithviraj Sukumaran) are both corrupt and call themselves collecting agents come across Vishal and replace him with Ajay to bust Yashvardhan's racket. Whether the estranged son turns his father's empire to ruins or not follows through the rest of the plot.
Contrary to the popular perception, Aurangzeb turns out to be more of Amitabh Bachchan's Don than Trishul only in the shoddier manner. What looks good on papers needn't necessarily be good onscreen too. Debutant filmmaker Atul Sabharwal takes up a script of gargantuan proportions and mercilessly botches it up. The film had ample scope to turn into an engaging affair with ample twists and turns but what it turns out instead is a hackneyed 70's rip off.
The concept of twin swapping, illegitimate sons, revenge etc. appears extremely jaded and also gets a trite treatment. The basic turn of events in the story get revealed within the first few minutes of the film where the filmmaker conveniently turns his characters the way he wants. So you see a man raised under secured and cushioned upbringing agreeing to get into a risky zone only to bring back his foster father's lost pride. You also see the change of hearts of many characters from negative to positive and positive to negative purely over the filmmaker's whims and fancies which make the film hard to believe.
The twists and turns by the end of the film become so ordinary that you stop applying your brains over the pointlessly convoluted plot and let the proceedings unfurl in front of your eyes. To make the story worse you also get timely Maa ka melodrama and rona dhona.
If Aurangzeb holds any merit it's only in the acting. The filmmaker succeeds in extracting power-packed performances by veteran actors Rishi Kapoor and Jackie Shroff. South import Prithviraj Sukumaran rids himself of all the mother tongue influence and delivers his dialogues perfectly. His acting also is top notch. The main star of the film Arjun Kapoor does a double whammy. Although he doesn't get much scope to accentuate the personalities of both his characters but even in his limited part he plays it impressively.
Sikander Berry (Kirron Kher's son) gets wasted and the same is the case with all the ladies of the film. Right from Tanvi Azmi to Amrita Singh to also the debutant Sasheh Agha all get typecast in their tripe characters.
To sum it up, Aurangzeb is a cliched formulaic drama straight out of the '70s era that fails to impress the audience.
