Amazon Prime Video’s Angry Young Men , directed deftly by Namrata Rao, is the 25th star-studded Salim-Javed blockbuster. It is not a screenplay written by the duo, but it could well be. It stars….take a deep breath…Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan (pontificating as though reading lines at an acting workshop), Kareena Kapoor (love her exuberance but clueless as to how she is qualified to speak on the greatest writers of Indian cinema except that she danced to Helen’s Yeh Mera Dil in the Don remake), Mahesh Bhatt, Helen, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan…phew!…and above all Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, so freed from the rigors of etiquettes, so liberating in their honesty, it is a pleasure getting to know them through this docu-series even for someone like yours truly who knows them from before.
I would have been happy to just see them talking on their titanic togetherness that spawned 24 jubilee hits including of course Sholay and Deewaar, the two finest screenplays of Indian cinema. But, we also get talented young writer telling us why Salim-Javed matter, with our without the hyphen.
Director Namrata Rao captures the writing mavericks in their natural habitat. Both Salim and Javed, together and apart, are a goldmine of anecdotes. To see these two fine raconteurs letting their hair down, putting their feet up, telling their story like it is, constitutes a treat worth wading through slush for. Happily we don’t have to go anywhere.
Angry Young Men comes to our homes with a story that is inspiring, astounding life-changing. My favourite moment is when Javed Saab while talking of hunger and sleep deprivation in his days of struggle , breaks down. It is that moment which tells you that glory comes at a price.
Mind you, it is not all hagiographic. The third part of this three-tiered treat goes into how Salim and Javed brought down their own empire through arrogance and over-confidence.
But we still don’t know why Salim and Javed separated. We do know that Javed Saab initiated the split. But why? The answers would go to their graves.
Angry Young Men is a feast of rare footage and rarer revelations about two men who rewrote almost every rule of Hindi filmmaking and audiences’ preferences. Salim-Javed’s films were angry. The docu-series is not. On the contrary, it is mellow, reflective, forgiving and accepting. There are tears and chuckles, and hard knocks on the knuckles. Our greatest takeaway from the experience is that genius comes with its in-built defects. It is okay to be Salim-Javed and arrogant.
