Angry Young Men REVIEW: Another Salim-Javed BLOCKBUSTER To Witness

Another Salim-Javed blockbuster titled Angry Young Men is out and it tells the tale of fil industry's most successful duo of Salim KHan and Javed Akhtar

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Angry Young Men REVIEW: Another Salim-Javed BLOCKBUSTER To Witness
Amazon Prime Video’s  Angry Young  Men , directed deftly by Namrata  Rao , is  the 25th  star-studded Salim-Javed  blockbuster .It is not a screenplay written  by the duo, but  it could well be.  It stars….take  a deep breath…Salman Khan,Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan(pontificating as  though reading lines at a  acting workshop), Kareena Kapoor(love her  exuberance  but clueless as  to how she is qualified to speak on the greatest writers of Indian cinema except that she danced  to Helen’s Yeh Mera Dil  in the Don remake), Mahesh Bhatt, Helen, Amitabh Bachchan , Jaya Bachchan…phew!...and above all Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, so freed  from the rigors of etiquettes, so  liberating in their honesty, it is  a pleasure  getting to know them through this docu-series even for someone  like yours truly who knows  them from before.

 I would  have been happy to just see them talking on their  titanic togetherness that spawned 24  jubilee  hits including of course Sholay and Deewaar, the two finest screenplays of  Indian cinema.But we also  get talented young writer  telling us why Salim-Javed matter, with our without the hyphen. Director Namrata  Rao captures the writing mavericks  in their natural habitat. Both Salim and Javed, together and  apart , are  a goldmine  of anecdotes. To see these two fine raconteurs  letting their hair down,  putting their  feet up, telling their  story like it is, constitutes a   treat worth wading through slush for. Happily we don’t have  to go anywhere  .


   Angry Young Men  comes to our homes with a story that is inspiring,  astounding life-changing.My favourite moment is  when Javed Saab  while talking of  hunger and sleep deprivation in his  days of struggle , breaks  down.It is  that moment which tells you that glory comes at a price. Mind you,  it is not all hagiographic. The  third part of  this three-tiered treat  goes into how Salim and Javed brought down their own  empire through  arrogance and  over-confidence. But we still don’t know why Salim and Javed separated.  We do  know that Javed Saab initiated   the split.  But why? The  answers would go to their graves.

Angry Young Men is a feast of rare footage  and rarer revelations  about two men who rewrote  almost every rule  of Hindi  filmmaking and   audiences’  preferences. Salim-Javed’s films were angry. The docu-series is not.  On  the  contrary, it is mellow, reflective, forgiving and accepting. There are tears  and chuckles, and hard knocks  on the knuckles. Our greatest takeaway  from the  experience is that genius  comes with its inbuilt defects. It  is okay to be  Salim-Javed and  arrogant.

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