Manish Rao

Don't see any review proper in the big papers' websites.There are a few which seem like prayers that the movie should be a big hit, or like essays on #toh, like who are the characters? what's the story? The story seems to glorify a practice, which was a menace, mind you it was a practice,and not just a profession, and a band of people, if they could be called people and not savages, who were scourge to every trusting traveler in the early 19th century, and why so??? Because Aamir essays the role of the leaders of the thugs, or that there is a need to be politically/patriotically correct. That is beside the point that patriotism is a great theme, people do get bought into it, but then people get bought into sensible ones like they did in Lagaan, Dangal, and to an extent, in Gold. No, the thugs were not patriots, nor they turned into patriots, as they seem to have been projected in the movie, as understood from the trailer. The director and writer of the movie could've certainly spared the viewers that farce. Doesn't matter, if Aamir remains cunning, actually an annoying, irksome bufoon, again as evident from the trailer,for a good part of the movie. So what do we get, a Mr. Perfectionist, gallingly and exasperatingly presented ; and a historical narrative, mostly known through Sleeman chronicles," Thugs: Ramaseeana, or a Vocabulary of the peculiar language used by Thugs; Report on the Depredations Committed by the Thug Gangs of Upper and Central India; and The Thugs or Phansigars of India," (Source: Wikipedia) seriously and naively compromised. The real stories of these thugs are so fascinating, so brutal and so hair raising that had the director, not Mr. Acharya, someone else, probably Mr. Shyam Benegal, and probably his swan song, remained faithful to the supposedly true account of thuggery, Aamir would have been a serious nominee and contender, not like what he made/ projected himself/his movie to be in 2003, in the Foreign Language Film category. The reviews here,(on IMDb) seem savage, brutal, honest, and intelligent, especially the second one. People can't dislike an Aamir and Big B's, or Katrina's, if this movie is hers,very unlikely though, movie just like that. Been eagerly, more so because of Big B, waiting for this movie, but will go on the 3rd Saturday. If the movie stays in plexes that long, then it is definitely watchable, if not a show stopper. Wonder, comparisons with #POC have hurt the movie more, or it's the expectations from a YRF/Aamir's film. If the movie made on such a grand scale fails, Bollywood would be scarred for a pretty long time, not to mention the hit, YRF will take. But then, how many multimillion (mis)adventures, have Indian Cinema Goers have crowdfunded: none, guess, ok, may be "Dhoom 3." :) :)