Bilal: A New Breed of Hero (2015) [Movie Review]


Dir: Khurram Alavi and Ayman Jarnal
Dur: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Animated-Drama
Rating: 4/10

As I was browsing for new films based on real life stories to see I stumbled across this. At first, I was a bit surprised because it was the first time I had come across a real story told in the form of animation. I figured from the trailer that it had something to do with a legend in Islam but the trailer gives a different idea of the film altogether.


This is basically the story of Bilal, a servant boy who embraced Islam in its initial stages and enjoyed the benefits of its belief. The film outlines the struggles he underwent but sticks to a rather mundane view of his life. There are no flourishes and definitely no ‘hero’ moments. It is more or less a story of an ordinary boy who did something extraordinary with his life and even managed to revolutionize his region. The animation was not up to the mark and the story could have been told in a better way but nevertheless the film gets its message across. It subtly exposes the greatness of the Islamic faith and even partly reveals its early growth.  

The film has one a couple of awards for its overall presentation. There are a few things that one can learn. Some powerful messages are repeated over and over. What I liked best about the film is the idea of a hero that it portrayed. Unlike common imagination, a hero here, is one who is willing to take control of his/her own life and bravely face the consequences of his/her convictions. This is a strong message for all times and something that children had better learn young.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent...
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young pries...
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhort...
Read more