Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey is an honest and sincere effort by Ashutosh Gowarikar put together with a lot of hardwork. Now, a lot of the times, such efforts may not work out on the screen but in the case of this movie, it results in a great piece of cinema.
Before going to the movie, I was discussing about the young deaths which had occurred during India's freedom struggle. Some one like Bhagat Singh was only 23. The film starts with youngsters playing football and the British taking over their play ground. All through the first half, a lot of screen time is dedicated to these youngsters.
It is important to understand the Ashutosh Gowarikar style of film making here. He is a director who likes to make the audiences feel his films and he does it by etching out a screenplay which has a pace of it's own. A lot of people find it slow but if it was faster, you wouldn't get the time to not only realise, but to absorb and understand the dreams and aspirations of the people on screen.
The story of the Chittagong uprising is one of the less popular epsiodes of the Indian freedom struggle So it is great that Gowarikar has brought this story into the mainstream. Through the movie, you feel regarding and remember not only the freedom fighters of the Chittagong uprising but all the unnamed people who took it upon themselves to fight to free India. A son tells his father that they will not sell imported clothes any more, a mother gives his son Rs. 100 to contribnute to the freedom struggle and it is about the sacrifices (small or large) of the common man who wants India free. The teenagers who fought in the Chittagong uprising were as common as they come. You see scene after scene of these young freedom fighters. It is really a homage to the many, many Indians who wanted India free and contributed towards that end.
When the film ends, photographs of the people who fought in the Chittagong uprising are shown side by side with that of the actors who depicted them. A lot of them are very similar in not just the fact that they wore spectacles but even in the hairstyles. It is testament to the amount of detail which has gone into making this film. That detail is scene every where in the film whether it be in the way the characters dress, the sets or the sceneries. In the second half landscapes of Bengal are recreated when the freedom fighters are on the run and it is really very well done. 8/10.
