The Greatest Showman (2017)

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Directed by: Michael Gracey
Streaming on Disney+Hotstar. 

The film has a very enticing premise - the trailer talks about how there's this man who has to make a living for himself and what he decides to do is to give unusual people a voice, by making them part of a circus. There are two underdogs who are being given a shot at life here - one is the man who runs the show, two is the people who are part of it. So suddenly the film because a world full of underdogs who we are rooting for. So it's a sober cocktail of inspiration, motivation and positivity. All of this done in a musical format - I'm not a big fan of this genre but this film mesmerizes you a lot with those songs and the set pieces. There were so many moments in the film which blew my mind with how the choreography, the set pieces, the acting, the camera moves and the music - all of it came together in sync. So I was very involved in the story. The film quickly takes a weird turn, where PT Barnum starts losing himself. He gets sucked into the fame, the money and the glamour of the field. He then shuts the same people who he gave a voice to. They never believed in themselves, but one man came and changed their lives and again did the same which everyone else did to them their whole lives.To me, this was the lowest point of PT Barnum's life. 

Whereas the film has more tangible loses after this, like him losing his marriage and his theatre burning down. One thing I never quite understood was - Jenny was born out of a wedlock - she has been traumatized because of it her whole life - after this, why would she be okay with being the other woman? And also, I didn't like the troop accepting PT Barnum back after him shunning them that badly. I understand that they forgave him, but he just went back to them after he lost everything else. To me, he didn't deserve their love back again. I get it, since it's based on real life, they'd have taken some beats and wouldn't have had the space to explore every layer of these characters. Apart from these few flaws,  Zendaya's track was beautiful, I absolutely loved the songs and I couldn't believe that this is somebody's first film. The film is an amazing, wonderful source of inspiration, motivation and sheer joy.