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Just perfect...

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film deals fundamentally in two areas: personal privacy and sexual orientation. This film is about the true life story of Ramchandra Siras (1948 – 7 April 2010) was an Indian linguist and author. He was a professor at the Aligarh Muslim University specializing in Marathi literature and head of the Department of Modern Indian Languages.On 8 February 2010, two men forced their way into Siras' house and caught him having consensual sex with another man. On 9 February 2010, Siras was suspended by AMU for "gross misconduct" after having been ambushed by a local TV channel's camera crew, while having sex with a rickshaw puller.[1] The AMU public relations officer, Rahat Abrar, stated: "Siras was captured on camera having sex with a rickshaw-puller. It's a scandal no institution of repute can overlook. He was, therefore, placed under suspension by the order of the vice-chancellor, professor P. K. Abdul Aziz".The film starts off with the scene where Siras is exposed by two men in the company of another man. He is soon suspended by Aligarh Muslim University(AMU). Journalist Deepu Sebastian(Rajkummar Rao), Indian Post takes interest in Siras's story and goes personally to interview him. Soon a bond is forged between Deepu and Siras. Deepu sees the real side of Siras, a humble professor who has been cruelly victimized by members of his peers. Eventually Siras goes to court to fight the AMU. He won his case against the university in Allahabad High Court on 1 April 2010, and got back his job as professor, along with his accommodation, until his retirement. The case was exacerbated by the involvement of students in the covert taping and ambush of Siras and his lover. The case was fought on the premise that Siras could not be penalised for being homosexual as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalized homosexuality, had been declared unconstitutional by the Delhi High Court in 2009.On 7 April 2010, Siras died in his apartment in Aligarh. Police suspected suicide, and preliminary results from the autopsy showed traces of poison in his body. A case of murder was later registered and six people arrested. On 19 April, the Superintendent of Police stated that three journalists and four AMU officials were named as part of the crime. The case was closed without resolution after the police failed to find sufficient evidence.Siras was due to retire officially from academia in 6 months, and the letter officially revoking his suspension arrived at his office the day after his death.Verdict: The film is beautifully directed by Hansal Mehta, who is an Indian film director, writer, actor and producer. Mehta started his career in television with his show Khana Khazana (1993–2000) and later moved on to movies like …Jayate (1999) and Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar (2000). He is best known for Shahid for which he won the 2013 National Film Award for Best Direction. He then went on to direct City Lights (2014) and Aligarh (2016). Also superb music by Karan Kulkarni and excellent cinematography by Satya Rai Nagpaul make this film really stand out. Note that this film has some soft sex scenes and might be unsuitable for younger viewers who are under eighteen.Thank you for reading my review may you live long and prosper.More films to see: Midnight Cowboy (1969), Cruising (1980), Longtime Companion(1989), And The Band Played On (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Priest (1994 film), The Price Of Love (1995), Get Real (1998), Brokeback Mountain(2005), I Love You Phillip Morris (2009).

For an average Indian the existence of the LGBT community is beyond the range of ordinary vision, until s/he is faced with the reality of a near and dear one having a different personal preference. The reactions, caused by sudden departure from emotional and logistic comfort zones, are usually extreme and seldom unbiased. In contrast, my contact with the community has been through an academic friend who one fine day simply declared that he had a different orientation. I think, most of us took this news without much of a shock because there weren't a lot at stake for any of us, personally. Moreover in academia, we habitually get thrown into contact with people from all over India (and beyond) with all kinds of variation of preferences ranging from minor to completely outlandish. A different physiological trait was just another of those natural variations that we, budding scientists, were not going to be really bothered with. In fact, the only consequence of his declaration was to generate a sense of embarrassed awkwardness among other male students about sharing a room with him on observatory trips. However, all this good humour was a reflection of us not being affected by his preferences or actions. The situations tend to be very different in the world outside the closeted community of (apparent) scientific rationality. Moreover, academia too could get downright vengeful and violently against such personal preferences (or use it to hurt a member of the community) when personal/professional advancements were at stake.In fact, the attitude of academia is extremely relevant in the context of this story. The possible reasons why a professor of the Aligarh Muslim University was persecuted might have had more to do with other issues than his preference for intimate companions. The movie raises these relevant questions in a very matter of fact way, without over dramatisation, without directly pointing fingers or making obvious villains out of the people really responsible for the persecution. The portrayal of the sheer apathy of the system, the ignorance and resulting fear/hatred of the common people and the sense of doom and depression that the protagonist slowly descends into is heart-rending. Manoj Bajpayee is, of course, a classic case of criminally unexploited acting potential. His sensitive portrayal of a reclusive, almost shy professor of Sanskrit, caught in the eye of a totally unexpected storm, is decidedly the backbone of this story which would likely go a very long way in changing the outlook of an ordinary Indian about people who just happen to have a different physiology.

Aligarh is a study of loneliness; loneliness brought on by shame and guilt; loneliness that makes you avoid eye contact; loneliness that transforms your walk into a shuffle; loneliness that makes you drink alone while listening to soulful melodies; loneliness that turns your eyes into liquid pools; loneliness that makes you startle at shadows; loneliness that makes you live behind doors with triple latches.Essaying this loneliness is Manoj Bajpayee, who delivers the performance of his lifetime as Prof Siras, a Marathi poet and teacher at Aligarh University, who has been hounded out because he is gay. The film is based on a true incident that ended in tragedy. In a totally convincing performance, Bajpayee delineates a character with which one can so readily and fully empathize. His are most melancholic pair of eyes that I have seen in a long long time.Siras's dark secret surfaces in a sting operation, allegedly instigated by his jealous rivals in the university. While the film plays itself out against the backdrop of judgments on Section 377 and the right to privacy, Siras battles the demons within him and the deep sense of embarrassment as he repeatedly finds the spotlight trained on him. It is a performance that towers above DiCaprio's in The Revenant.For a subject that is being passionately debated in the country and rest of the world, Aligarh is a gentle and muted film, with long silent pauses. Siras is totally uncomfortable about being branded as gay. The reticence of the soft-spoken professor is broken only by the pushy, yet sympathetic reporter, Deepu Sebastian, who manages to bring out the real story to light. The many conversations between the two are the most delightful morsels of the film.

Aligarh - 8/10 Is it justified to let the constitution sneak into your bed room and make rules about what you can or can not do in private ? Its always difficult to make a movie on a controversial topic in a country like India. Because our society is pretty full of hypocrisy. Once again Manoj bajpayee proved himself as an actor who has the ability to lift a movie almost single handed... No one could act better than him in the role of a 65 yrs old professor who is homosexual and also a wonderful poet. Every moment you can feel his feelings, the dialogues will touch your heart in a way that you can feel the pain within his heart. I felt the co-actors were not upto the mark... That could be because of the script or their deficiency... The reporter tried to make a mark but it fainted.. Finally the movie will leave you thinking about how our society deals with people who are little different than the usuals...