Viruddh... Family Comes First (2005)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Mahesh Manjrekar

Writers:

Mahesh Manjrekar (writer)
Sanjay Pawar (dialogue)

Release Date:

22 July 2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

They pushed him too far...Now bear the consequences

Plot:

An ordinary 60 plus couple - Vidhyadhar Patwardhan and his wife are forced to search for their faith in human values and society after the death of their only son Amar. In the process they undergo the most testing struggle of their lives.

Plot Keywords:

Son | Death | Justice | Truth | Grief

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Amitabh Bachchan	...	Vidhyadar Ramkrishna Patwardhan
Sharmila Tagore	...	Sumitra V. Patwardhan
John Abraham	...	Amar V. Patwardhan
Sanjay Dutt	...	Ali Asghar
Anusha Dhandekar	...	Jenny Mayer
Prem Chopra	...	Arora
Sharat Saxena	...	Vidhadhar's friend
Beena Banerjee	...	Swati Chitnis (as Beena)
Shivaji Satham	...	Bharucha
Sachin Khedekar	...	Police Inspector
Amitabh Dayal	...	Harshwardhan Kadam
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tom Alter	...	Anderson (British Consultate)
Tanvi Hegde	...	Asha
Ninad Kamat
Viju Khote	...	Politician
Naresh Suri	...	Judge
Rocky Verma	...	Hawaldar (as Rocky)

Runtime:

132 min

Country:

India

Language:

English | Hindi

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:12A | Australia:M

Company:

Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited (A.B.C.L.)

Trivia:

While shooting in Pune with Amitabh Bachchan and John Abraham, the crowd held up the shoot. John stepped in and volunteered to calm them down, so that Bachchan could shoot without disruption.

Movie Connections:

Remake of In the Bedroom (2001)

A decent effort, but promises more and doesn't deliver

Amitabh Bachchan delivers as usual with uncanny reliability.

His willingness to submit to the director at his stature is almost unbelievable and probably the main reason why he's right there at the very top.

Having said that though, the movie promises a lot but delivers very little. The establishment of the old couple is very nice but John Abraham's character never gets convincing.

With the exception of one scene where they lock eyes separated by a window - which is quite poignant- John Abraham's character seems to be a filler, nothing more.

The heaviness felt by a lonely old couple facing up to the vagaries of a less than perfect legal system just doesn't seem to register.

The advertisements dotting the screenplay over most of the movie just make it all the more unpalatable.

The justifications and validations do not seem convincing at all and one is left with a very unsatisfied feeling.

All the same, it still is a very decent effort to bring out real issues onto the commercial cinema platform. And just for that i give it 3 stars.