What a movie! Direction (by debutant Raj Kumar Gupta who assisted Anurag Kashyap in No Smoking), Cinematography (by debutant Alphons Roy), Performance (by debutant Rajeev Khandelwal), Music (by debutant Amit Trivedi), Editing (by Aarti Bajaj) - all are top notch.
This post in not a review. (There are many good reviews available online.) It contains my personal interpretations about the message that the movie tries to convey. There are spoilers, so if you haven't watched the movie yet, don't read this post.
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There's a lovely song by Eddi Reader "It's Not What You've Been Given, It's What You Do With What You've Got". (Listen to it here, it's really beautiful.)
And that is precisely what, I think, the central theme of the movie Aamir is.
"Kaun Kehta Hai Ki Aadmi Apni Kismat Khud Likhta Hai?" is the tag-line of the movie. The answer lies in the movie, in the final scene, to be more precise.
When the kidnapper tries to preach Aamir and tells him about the difficulties that Muslims face in India, Aamir shots back at him and asks who's stopping them to break the social and economic barriers and make a decent living? After all, as his argument goes, he himself is one of them (i.e. a muslim) and became a doctor in spite of living in the same discriminating society! Although Aamir loses that verbal debate, he, in the end, wins the ideological debate. Aamir could have left that bomb in the bus as he was asked to do, but he chose not to. In that sense, however limited his options were, he finally chose his destiny. He chose not to become a terrorist and kill innocent people. (That's the only thing he does willingly in the entire movie.)
This message could be easily extrapolated into the realms of our society. There are many poor, oppressed, discriminated against, subjugated people, but not everyone chooses to take the wrong, negative or destructive path (of robbery, violence, terrorism etc.). However, some do opt for baleful ways to either take revenge or in order to end their misery. But (as I've pondered over before here) that can cause a vicious cycle of hate and retributions that can eventually have cataclysmic results for the society.
The circumstances might limit the number of options that are available to you. But it's YOU who finally makes a choice.
The main character is aptly named as Aamir (which means leader). In the entire movie, he had to do what he was forced to do by the kidnapper, but in the end, by doing what he could do (and wanted to do in the given circumstance), he became a true leader. Leader of his own fate, who led his life to a respectable, noble and courageous end.
