Frankly asking, how many times have you seen a female holding guns and ammunition and taking merciless revenge on the brutal criminals? You may answer “Many a times.” But if asked within the context of Bangladesh only, you might find yourself bewildered in searching for a name in the history! Mahiya Mahi, as the female protagonist of Agnee, with apt skills in modern day fighting and seeking out her arch-rivals dazzles in the history and takes Bangladeshi film industry a step forward. In the role of a trained Killer Mahi, as Tanisha in the film, has definitely proved that she can pull off such roles as easily as she can change between her getups without raising a single eyebrow from people nearby!
To give our readers a glimpse of this newest action thriller, let us tell a bit of the story without any spoiler. Tanisha is out on the loose and is killing off members of a criminal gang (Gulzar – Ali Raj, Haider – Misha Shawdagar and others). The targeted men are notorious criminals of the Bangladeshi underworld, currently residing in the safe havens of Thailand. Nobody knows her true identity, or her motive. To keep safe, the mob hires Dragon (Arifin Shuvoo), a boxer who has won the Thai Boxing Championship, and orders him to kill her straightaway. But cruel fate plays its card and the deft Dragon falls in love with her instead. In course of time, they find themselves in a world where nobody can be trusted. The movie is a Jazz Multimedia production and is directed by Iftakhar Chowdhury.
The cinematography is noteworthy. Scenic depiction of Thailand and the smooth colour tone is very soothing to the eyes, a rare quality seen in our mainstream movies. Thanks to Digital Media, we can now see some Bengali movies where the screen would not dance and go nuts, but rather give us the scope to really concentrate on the story.
The costumes were a delight with both Mahi and Shuvoo sporting youthful and fashionable attires, with modern makeup which accentuated their positive features. The music of the movie has the ability to bring in cash but the ambience audio is still lagging behind. Tanisha screaming every time she sees her hero was hell of an experience for the audience too. People in the theatre have been having their share of enjoyment by screaming and whistling loudly whenever they saw Mahi or her moves, but her screams were so loud that even a hall of audience had to go silent to adjust their hearing. But the blame does not rest with the ambience only, the director has failed to live up to the expectation elsewhere - somewhere gross.
The script is a bummer. Yes it’s a commercial flick, but it could have been made into an interesting story with the sharp bends, the unanticipated twist, or the heart-wrenching story of any character can really make the audience wait and be pleased. The script of Agnee is lacklustre, the characters, with the exception of Tanisha, do not have any depth, the dialogues are cliché, the humour is primitive and continuity falls apart to accommodate some unnecessary songs. The biggest turnoff was the lack of thoughts in building the character of Dragon. During the length of the movie, he seemed to be good for nothing except for some overstretched romantic gestures, like in some romantic songs. While scopes were enough to present a new Mr Smith, alongside a kung-fu Ms Smith.
Mahi had everything: the break, the lead and the scope. But she needs to learn to put on some expressions on her face and study some moves to rock the dance floor and use all those opportunities. She also needs to work on her acting skills and scream a little less the next time she needs to act terrified. People love skills in flicks. The production unit should have thought about it too.
Having said it all, here is a serious note to consider. Being critical is easy, doing right is not. But Iftakar Chowdhury has tried things right. The team of Agnee have ambitions to be on the top and they will eventually learn what to do in order to bring that about. Nonetheless, Bangladesh is seeing smarter moves in its film industry these days. Hope the “bad old days” will be gone very soon. If you want to be a part of a revolution in the most critical and creative art sector of this country, and we believe which you should be, then you must book a seat to feel the heat of Agnee.