By: Somesh Vasishth
Another Khan has arrived ! Irfaan Khan...
Unlike his counterparts, he is not brawny or perfectionist but drowsy eyed, the eyes to watch out for when he murders Abbaji (Pankaj Kapoor), his mentor and a dreaded ganglord.
Welcome to Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool ala Bard's Macbeth.
Maqbool is a gangster and a trusted lieutenant of a Mafia don, Abbaji, who rules over Mumbai with his henchmen Kaka (Piyush Mishra), his son Guddu (Ajay Gehi) and Boti.
He is ambitious but doesn't aspire to be anything more, until he falls for Nimmi (Tabu), Abbaji's mistress who hates her plight and sees Maqbool as her only ray of hope.
All hell breaks loose when, incited by Nimmi, Maqbool murders his mentor and declares himself the leader of the gang. This is when the scruples sets in and the equilibrium is broken.
Circumstances spiral out of control and with little or no help from Nimmi, who is suffering an extremely difficult pregnancy and fatally severe guilt pangs, Maqbool finds himself surrounded on all sides.
Vishal's visualisation definitely deserves an applaud when he metamorphes three witches from the original play into the corrupt cops -- Inspector Pandit (Naseeruddin Shah) and Inspector Purohit (Om Puri), who keep making correct predictions about the future course.
Maqbool excels in it's treatment. Riding high it's pacy script, it doesn't give you any lose moments to gawk around. Cinematography by (Hemant Chaturvedi) is breath taking while Vishal takes another bow for his power-packed dialogues.
Pankaj Kapur is pleasure to watch with his ice-cold expressions. The actor is gem and desreves much more opportunity on the big screen. As for the other two stalwarts, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, the role of a comical villain never looked any better.
Tabu as a gulit stricken Nimmi ably retains her thinking-actress tag. But the real revelation seems to be Masumi Makhija who plays Abbaji's daughter Sameera.
While it may be cententious that Maqbool belongs to Irfaan Khan or Pankaj Kapur but one thing is for sure, you'll be asking for more of Vishal, after you watch it.
