Amal (2007)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

There are three films called Amal. I am talking about the 2007 version. The 2004 version has the same plot and some of the same actors, but is much shorter. The 2005 version is completely unrelated, about Morocco.The movie catches you over and over. You think you see yet another Hollywood cliché coming, but like a bullfighter the film changes at the last second to surprise you. Even the end leaves you sitting on the ground going what the? What just happened? It is quite a bit more subtle that you would expect from the almost fairy-tale way the story unfolds.Amal himself is insipid and not very interesting. I had far more compassion for the villains and the desperate plights they had got themselves into.The scene where mama prays a vehicle to life with the help of Ganesh was not funny, just insulting. The moral of the movie is God decides if you have good or bad fortune, so it is pointless to try to influence it. I did not enjoy having this idiotic religious philosophy pushed in my face repeatedly as highest virtue and wisdom. I not just the characters thought this way, the director was trying to sell it to the audience as well.Amal does nothing but drive his motorised rickshaw and sleep. (You don't even see him eat, shop, bathe, change ...) He is scrupulously honest (refusing tips). He might as well be a robot for all the life and sophistication he has in him. Even though a number of terrible things happen to him, I was not particularly moved. You are supposed to be extremely impressed by his virtue. I just saw a guy with ADD.

A MUST SEE! This is one of the best all-time movies out there! There is a great song that is about a person with genuine feelings who has been misled and ended up in pointed in a direction he didn't want be in life. The movie goes into the philosophy of living and being happy without regard to monetary wealth. The ending truly solidifies the philosophy and brings forth the predicament of millions.This movie makes you think. The more I think about it, the rich person showed himself as poor to keep his rotten family and friends away so they wouldn't ask him for money. He does regret his sons are that way from the way he raised them and the circumstance they were born in.

As the film opened I could not help being reminded of the Indian film Manasarovar (2004) about which I commented on this site. One link was the auto rickshaw. Stronger still was the character of Amal and the two male characters of Manasarovar, George and Ravi. These three young men, to my mind, represent the world of the Indian young adults. While Ravi and George were on a search for meaning, in this film, Amal had already reached, largely through the influence of his father, an experiential knowledge of what is meaningful in life. As a result he was happy, although he had a moment of sadness when the little beggar girl he is trying to help dies. But he is not crushed. Like George and Ravi of Manasarovar, Amal delights in helping kids. And all that he does is for others. So, no wonder, if in the end he casually gives the letter that names him as a heir of a millionaire, to a beggar girl who needs a scrap of paper to write. The film says there is joy in life, and joy does not depend on what you own or the superficial pleasures you may indulge in.

Just got back from a cruise out of New York to Bermuda and was fortunate to have landed in Bermuda the same time as the BIFF (Bermuda International Film Festival) Amal was the only film my husband and I saw, and it was amazing. I felt like I was in India experiencing a life changing experience through the actors and the story. This was meaningful, heartfelt and fulfilling. The director took questions at the end and you could feel the love he had for the work and the film. So many in the audience that had actually been to New Delhi, said it was true to their experience on the streets. I loved this film and found it to be a life lesson to any who see it. Bless all those involved in this great piece of work. The only sadness that I have is that because of the few scenes of foul language, it will get an R rating in the states....I wish it would be a PG-13 so that more youth could see it.