Firaaq-Noble in intention but ineffective in Portyal

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Firaaq a movie based on the aftermath of the Godhra incidents showcases characters whos life has been affected in a multitude of ways.An upper middle class mixed couple,a muslim boy,a hindu wife who lives in the pang of guilt,a muslim auto driver and a hindustani singer are portayed to demonstrate various emotions that runs through people post incidents and the way they react and recuperate from it.True to the credit of the movie,it has been successful in interlacing a range of emotions
  using these disparate characters.The helplessness muslim boy in search of his father,Deepti Naval in the role of a subjugated wife who literally burns herself on her inability to save a women and later abdicates herself by providing refuge to the muslim boy,an affluent hindu-muslim couple who is in search of a new emotional identity,a hindustani singer in the form of Nazaruddin Shah who is idealistic and trusts the power of love to heal human emotions,an enraged autodriver who's house has been burned and seeks revenge coupled with his wife who has a hindu neighbour as her aid etc seek to demonstrate the how the carnage of such a scale could affect human emotions at various levels.

Although Nandita Das though this debut of hers sketches various portaits on the screen,never once do you get drawn into it.As a viewer one feels stranded to the seat with having to see the characters masquarading through their emotions but never once able to connect truely and deeply to what they are enduring.The portyal is at a very superficial level and this precisely is where the movie looses its reality touch.An aspect which is real and painful definitely begs for a greater depth in understanding of its characters and a more effective portyal of the same.The fact the protagonists are independent entities who stand to tell their own tale with occassinal run ins to each other on an abrupt basis does not help the matters either.

I would go with a 2/5 for Nandita Das's Faraaq.Its a movie with a loafted soul but no flesh to bring life into it.