Film Review: Secret Superstar (2018) Bollywood Master Piece Exceeds Hollywood!
Updated: Jun 29
Aamir Khan (1965 ) is the most talented Asian actor in 21stcentury Bollywood. To prove this, you just need to see Dangal (2017) in which he played the protagonist Mahavir Singh Phogat, and this film. His acting is not so-called method acting. However, his expressions are full of emotion, and it mostly triggers emotional responses from audiences both in seriousness and humorousness.
I saw major Hong Kong theatres' vivid reactions to the screen. I have never seen it before at theatres. This film really exceeds both Hollywood and other Asian films in terms of emotional involvement. The emotional engagement of audiences is equal with Akira Kurosawa or Kenji Mizoguchi's '50s Japanese master pieces. It reminds me of these true qualitative cinema experiences.
Moreover, The Secret Super Star is also built in the rigid Three Act Structure with universal standardized genre filmmaking methods. Technically, it is equal with Hong Kong filmmaking. I could not see any defects in the art construction, cinematography and visual/sound editing throughout the movie.
The story is that Insia is a 14 year-old from Vadodara who dreams of being a singer and one day meets outlaw, talented singer, actor, producer Shakti Kumar to achieve her dream and solve the domestic conflict between her weak mother and her extremely conservative father. The main conflict is Insia, her mother and her father's domestic problem, which is typical feudalistic sexism against women. Her mother Najma was forced to marry her husband Farookh, who is a brutal tyrant in an extremely conservative family.
India was also on the verge of termination when Najma was going to be born in India due to Farookh's harsh opposition to female children. Later, it reveals Farookh required an abortion in India. Thus, their love with Farookh is nothing, it is empty. I am mostly impressed by Najma and Shakti Kumar because they are necessary people for one's social success. Najma, as her mother, had kept supporting her daughter's dream as it came true, under long domestic violence from Farookh, who opposed it. And Shakti is a really influential, established producer who holds production machines in the industry and finds Insia's artistic talent from D.I.Y. YouTube song videos made by the Secret Superstar. The two factors are typical and essential for Insia's success.
Dr.Advait Chandan and Aamir Khan successfully criticised and converted traditional family ethical values from extremely conservative sexism to the democratic modern family values in this entertainment movie. This is not an Art Film at all! It is truly realistic and a genre, a successful filmmaker with a well-written story. I was astonished by this film and realized that a true film is just like this! Any Westerners who ignore Asian filmmaking are doomed to lose the future of a new historical horizon and the center for cinematic art on the earth. More opportunities are going to be in Asia. Racial bias can't win over Asians.
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This film article is for educational purpose only.
