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AGNIVARSHA
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(Reviewed By Komal Nahta)
Director:
Arjun Sajnani
Music: Sandesh Shandilya
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Producer: iDream Productions
Starring: Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Miland
Soman, Sonali Kulkarni & Nagarjuna
RATING:
0.5/10
iDream
Productions’ Agni Varsha (UA) is an adaptation
of Girish Karnad’s stageplay, ‘The
Fire And The Rain’, which itself is derived
from the great Indian epic, Mahabharat.
 Paravasu,
the elder son of the great sage Raibhya, is
the chief priest who is watching over the holy
fire sacrifice for seven years, forsaking his
wife, Vishakha, family and earthly pleasures.
The holy fire is being conducted to appease
Lord Indra for rains in the drought-stricken
land. Paravasu’s younger brother, Arvasu,
is in love with a tribal girl and prepares to
marry outside his Brahmin caste. Meanwhile,
Paravasu’s cousin and rival, Yavakri, returns
to the village and resents the former’s
position of chief priest. He seduces Paravasu’s
abandoned wife. Raibhya wreaks his own vengeance
on Yavakri by unleashing a demon upon him.
 The
story is a chapter from mythology and is not
at all fit for a commercial film. How many,
in today’s time, would be interested in
knowing about what happened thousands of years
ago and more so, if it is presented in the dry
manner as in Agni Varsha.
 The
screenplay (written by Arjun Sajnani, T. Jayshree
and Anil Mehta) is as boring as the subject.
Except for new characters being introduced every
now and then, there’s nothing which interests
the viewer. Yes, there’s a passionate love-making
scene between Yavakri and Vishkha, which is
beautifully shot, but it would be foolish to
imagine that the audience would sit through
two-and-a-half hours of boredom for that two-and-a-half
minute scene! The drama simply doesn’t
involve the audience one bit. Consequently,
scenes and incidents come one after another
without creating any impact whatsoever.
 Jackie
Shroff does a fair job as Paravasu. Raveena
Tandon is wonderful as his wife, Vishakha. Nagarjuna
looks handsome and impresses in the role of
Yavakri. Milind Soman is fair. Sonali Kulkarni
does a natural job. Prabhu Devaa is reasonably
effective. Mohan Agashe performs excellently.
Raghuvir Yadav is good. Zul Vellani is alright.
Amitabh Bachchan simply adds face value in a
minuscule special appearance as Lord Indra.
 Arjun
Sajnani’s direction does nothing whatsoever
to make the drab subject interesting. The drama
director and playwright seems to be under the
mistaken impression that the cinema medium is
no different from theatre. Sandesh Shandilya’s
music is in keeping with the mood of the film.
Camerawork (Anil Mehta) is excellent. Dialogues
(Atul Tiwari) are quite effective. Background
music (Taufiq Qureshi) is appropriate.
On
the whole, Agni Varsha is meant for the festival
circuit only. An elite-appealing fare, this
period film will find no takers among commercial
film-going audience in the 21st century. The
distributors will burn their fingers in the
agni, what with there being no varsha of audience.
Disaster.
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