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I had first heard of IAM long ago on Facebook when someone send me the fan page and I was totally amused and happy to see the movie being produced by the help of social media. The movie has about 500 producers like you and me and I think the lowest contribution being as low as Rs 1000/-. Its amazing how social media comes together to support something they like. But after I read about it, it was just another movie for me whose update I used to keep getting on mt FB page till CSA started because someone put us in touch with Onir the director of the movie. He and Sanjay Suri who has acted in the movie did a twitter chat for us on the issue of Child Sexual Abuse. I also came to know that the CSA story in the movie is actually based on the story of Harish Iyer who is a CSA survivor and gender activist, a person from whom it is difficult not to be inspired by
So when the movie released I was very sure I wanted to see it. The movie is essentially a collection of 4 stories stringed together, I AM AFIA story of a woman (played by Nandita Das) who wants to be a single mother but not by adopting but by carrying the child, I AM MEGHA (played by Juhi Chawla) story of a Kashmiri Pandit who lost her house and roots in the restless Kashmir and the emotions that she herself refuses to acknowledge, I AM ABHIMANYU (played by Sanjay Suri) thats the child sexual abuse story, story of a boy abused by his step father and I AM OMAR (played by Rahul Bose) which is about GAY rights and deception
The movie is sensitive and raw, it doesn’t go overboard trying to sensationalise the issues. Treats them with right amount of exposure of the issue. Personally for me I think the one that touched me most was I AM Abhimanyu, it could be because I have just gone through the whole CSA month and come to know Harish but I think thats an issue very rarely dealt in Hindi Cinema forget about dealing well. I AM Afia touched on an issue which is coming up fast in the modern day society and deals with it pretty well, Nandita Das was as usual good in the role and BTW I loved her styling just represented her the T. Rahul Bose I think I have no words left for him, the man is brilliant, he can bring any just about any character life with his acting and I AM Omar moved me a lot, it was the favorite segment of N. The part that least impressed me was I AM Megha the plot was good but some Juhi didnt seem to add the punch in the role.
All in All I would say I AM is a great watch, a rare movie that truly tries to deal with the issues it takes up, whether it does make a difference of not only time will tell…
