TIGERS of Danis Tanovic & Emraan Hashmi: Review
The reason film TIGERS staring Emraan Hashmi needed public attention is many folds. It’s rare opportunity for the world cinema loving audience living in south Asian countries to learn and appreciate their local story being told by Oscar winning Danis Tanovic from Bosnia (2001 in international film category for his film No Man’s Land).
The film TIGERS has released on ZEE5 digital platform and available for public viewing at 99 INR for one-month subscription (plan I opted for). On further investigating into the validity of the truth presented in the TIGERS, the Internet threw a slew of evidence that pervades in the public health sector throughout the south Asia sub-continent. Hence, in public interest everyone who watches this film should learn more on it through a personal search engine on your mobile phones and laptops.
For myself, I shall try to restrict the discussion to a reviewer viewpoint and attempt to appreciate the cinema offered in the shifting gears content driven Indian market. The review will also not reveal any information as far as plot concerned. So let’s begin…..
The size of each scene taken in the film is beautiful and uncompromising in its length when compared to average length of a scene in the south Asia sub-continent cinema. And, this makes the film best fit in the world cinema category. Using multiple languages throughout the narrative is natural to the performances poured on the table by one of the revering ensembles of finest actors. The prudence of the director of today’s age is to tell a compelling story, which is proportionate to the length of the film. And here, the total length of the film is less than 90 minutes, and the powerful narrative and editing kept you hook to your seat without a blink of an eyelid. The film keeps it film-ness, although there has been an excessive use of docu-drama technique deployed from the start of the narration. The drama part in the film doesn’t overshadow the documentary but preserve it like a memoir making the story more compelling.
Talking of a few performances: Emraan Hashmi and Adil Hussain carry their rivalry throughout the film. Both the actors complement each other’s performance and being aware of the sensitivity in the plot subsumes their personal ambitions of individual stardoms into the shoes of best-suited actors for these roles. So is the case with actors like Geetanjali Thapa, Vinod Nagapal and Supriya Pathak adding up to protagonist’s family just not in looks but also in action. Foreign actors’ ensemble is no less interesting comprising of Sam Reid (Australian), Khalid Abdalla (British-Egyptian), Danny Huston (Italian-American), Heino Ferch (German) and Maryam d’Abo (English). One Indian actor who is less seen in Hindi films and deserves more work in future is Satyadeep Mishra, who stands out with his roles is because he is supporting catalyst of change in the film, who pushes the protagonist to shove.
Using popular musical rendition Dasth — e — tanhai –mein by Iqbal Bano is a delight for its utility in the climax. Listing it again in the film only enriches the song. Overall, the film is a complete package of what we understand to be a world cinema but at no cost it is not a local and regional cinema of Pakistan’s health story played by Indian actors, now available for one out of seven Hindustani speaking audience in the world. As the film struggles to send a clear message about the know-how of the company dealt in the film is adjustable and understandable complication. However, yet this messy message makes the film cinematic. TIGERS might not make any empirical difference to the ground reality of health check-up in the south Asia sub-continent countries but will create a collective vigil in the masses for a prudent health order. We can trace public mass movement back to the 90s and early 2000 USA cinema. When the filmmakers indulgence into the health related subject of a country with a hope to highlight the plight of the issue and seek justice for its own and African citizens.
In the current time of nationalism and hyper-nationalism, the film revisits the question raised in the 30s and 40s by American films. Is nation-state theory tangible or farce at the hands of global corporations of the world? Is there a nation-state that can afford to ignore such all-encompassing corporation? Perhaps, you may answer this question for yourself after watching the film.
Till next time… Sayonara.
