Impressive, yet tame — this love story against a backdrop of crime comes across as a nice blend of Indian cinema with the West, the sort of 40:60 blend, wherein it is sometimes difficult to state which is 40 and which is 60.
Elder brother Buddy (Chris Marquette) drops out of school so that younger one, Jacob, or Jakey (Anton Yelchin), can complete his education and be a violinist in an orchestra. This, after their father, a sheriff (Thomas Jane), is suddenly shot in the head just as they are leaving for Jacob’s violin recital — all this is presented in flashback, 15 years ago.
Buddy is inveigled into committing a crime by Julius Hench (Vincent D’Onofrio), who prods him toward revenge and soon makes him his professional hitman.
In current times, Jakey, who has a girlfriend (María Valverde) who he wants to marry, returns after a gap of eight years to his brother, who has constructed a “Jakey’s Ranch” for him (complete with a white stallion) as a wedding present. But there are wheels within wheels. Jakey ends up killing a man, joining Julius’s gang by a subterfuge, and even attempting a double-cross.
As matters move inexorably towards the climax, the futility of crime is stressed, and for the lovers, everything ends well, with filial love being the ultimate triumph for both brothers.
Chopra’s emotional tools seem perfect for the Hindi/Indian milieu, but we wonder how the American audience will take to it, and (far less important) what the critics might opine.
Devices such as having Jakey preserve Buddy’s first gift, and various other sentimental touches and expressions that are a hit in Indian culture, may be a culture shock for Americans. One hopes they react well to this injection of an Indian dose in such films, which used to be there as their style (in slightly controlled form) in vintage Hollywood movies.
Technically brilliant (the camerawork by Tom Stern is a dream), the film has decent background music, although we cannot really fathom the contribution of Shantanu Moitra.
The action element is tame and quite less than expected for a crime drama, and the lines spoken by characters (“dialogues” is our Indian term) and facial expressions are often with a strong Indian touch — again, something that might work both ways. Chopra’s direction is otherwise assured, but we would have preferred the film to be less “noir” — after all, the story of Jacob and his girl is not a tragedy.
Still, this is a worthwhile debut that, if it works, will pave the way for an increased and direct influence on Hollywood of Indian cinema, something that actually began in the climax of the 1978 “Star Wars” and grew slowly but substantially — even as our modern filmmaking dudes are hell-bent on copying American cinematic patterns in Indian cinema.
Vinod Chopra Films present
Broken Horses
Produced and directed by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Written by: Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Abhijat Joshi
Music: John Debney with Additional Music by: Shantanu Moitra
Starring: Vincent D’Onofrio, Anton Yelchin, Chris Marquette, María Valverde, Thomas Jane, Greg Serano, Jordi Caballero and others
Rating 3/5
(This appeared in indiawest.com on April 9, 2015)