Ankhon Dekhi : Watch it to believe it !

#Ankhon Dekhi : Often the simplest of the stories turn out to produce the most riveting screen plays . Rajat Kapoor’s delightful “Ankhon Dekhi” primarily runs on three premises, questioning convention while living life on your own terms without falling prey to predefined notions, learning through experience and the intricacies of relationship. The beauty of Ankhon Dekhi lies in its humorous narrative and its ensemble cast that perfectly fits into the role.

Bauji , played by a brilliant Sanjay Misra, after a moment of epiphany , decides to believe only what he will see with his own eyes. The film starts on this premise and follows bauji’s journey of self discovery. Though, may seem eccentric on surface, bauji’s quest to only accept the facts that he himself experiences, presents some deeply philosophical questions. And this is where the deft touch of director Kapoor comes into play. He keeps his narrative extremely simple, with a generous dose of humor. While bauji’s action brings much embarrassment to his family, he also manages to find a bunch of followers who follow every word of his. Their interaction in the cramped house in Old Delhi is a delight to watch.  Through these interactions you smell the fragrance of an old India where joint families used to be a norm and not aberration.  

The way the relationship between bauji and his younger brother, played by a fantastic Rajat Kapoor is portrayed is really heart touching.  Kapoor takes care of the finer nuances to explore the equation of lower middle class family. He even brilliantly showcases the father – daughter relationship.  Ankhon Dekhi has its moments when the screen play falters, like the scene where Bauji decides not to speak and only to listen. However moments like these are few and far between. Seema Pahwa is outstanding as a hyper wife, while often under rated Sanjay Mishra gives his finest performance till date. Rafey Mehmood’s cinematography beautifully captures the lanes & by lanes of Delhi and Sagar Desai’s music is in sync with the screen play.

Ankhon Dekhi is just not a film; it is storytelling at its best. I will go out with 3.5 out of 5 for this unconventional venture from Rajat Kapoor. 

Don’t miss this fine experience and don’t take my word for that. As Bauji says go and find the truth.

Between Hopelessness & Blind Faith Falls the Shadow

With the General Election just round the corner, political parties are leaving no stone unturned to project how, if voted to power they will bring a colossal change to the way the system functions in India. So on one hand you have a Narendra Modi, whom Time magazine describes as “America’s other India problem”, boasting tirelessly about how single handedly he turned around Gujrat’s economy , completely ignoring the question of social inclusiveness and the fundamental concept of secularism. On the other hand you have a 43 year old, still eating out of Mumma’s hand “young” man, who is almost shamelessly reaping the benefit of dynasty politics. This gentle man has standard answer for all questions; shows mock anger in political rallies & possess the sense to tolerate all the “nonsense” happening around him. And then we have a recent addition to this bunch of jokers. A mufflered messiah, who calls himself AAM but behaves and probably believes that he is of the Alphonso variety, spends his time demonstrating against everyone, (hold your breath , including against his own govt) instead of putting focus on administration that could have helped the democracy succeed or at least survive.

Entangled in this milieu of Machiavellian Politics, common man has lost his faith in system. That India still continues to survive is a miracle. Take this example. A basic facility like health care is in doldrums. Forget the Govt apathy; even the private players have learned the tricks of the trade. They know whom to warm up to. Hence they are least bothered to serve the general paying public.

                                           

A health Insurance company like #ApolloMunich , which promises 24*7 customer care , doesn’t even respond to calls post 6 PM. Imagine calling them in case of a medical emergency. The only time they show prompt service is while acquiring new customer or when renewal of policy is due. The govt on its part has constituted #IRDA, to deal with such erratic service providers. On its website they have a list that provides the contact details of Grievance Redressal Officers for each Insurance company. Unfortunately that list was last updated probably during Chacha Nehru’s regime, since the contact details provided in that list are invalid. And yes they too have a toll free call centre. Hoping against hope, you call the number. No surprises here as well, the call centre employee is not even aware of the list put on their own IRDA website, fails to differentiate between a general and a health insurance and promptly puts down the phone.

Now let’s analyze a case of India’s oldest private airline #JetAirways. They believe they can cancel any flight (no weather/technical issue) as per their whims and fancies. And yes they have the audacity of cancelling a two hour flight and booking an individual for a 10 hour Bharat Darshan Journey as well. Miffed when you contact their so called customer care, the response you get is a polite “go to Hell”. Devoid of any other way and as a law abiding citizen you decide to exercise your right. Logically you might be thinking of lodging a complain with #DGCA . Ah, don’t even try that. DGCA has as recently as Jan’14 created a dedicated email id sugam@dgca.nic.in for complains to be registered. They have published about it in most of leading dailies .Any email to this id is responded with a mail delivery failure. This customer complain cell is headed by a Joint Director General Ranked babu Mr. Lalit Gupta, who never replies to emails.

Now I have another amazing story to share, just to showcase how beautifully our system works. A provident fund transfer could not happen over a period of 22 months and 46 emails. It is only after an intervention from the Prime Minister’s office, I was able to get the money I, all the while was thinking mine ! EPFO too have a grievance redressal system, which has been trained extensively to give only standardized replies! As a consumer, without any fault of mine, the EPFO expected me to travel between their Kolkata and Mumbai office, meet them again and again, and probably give some kickback to get the issue sorted. And the beauty of the system is neither the Chief Provident Fund Commissioner, a very senior ranked IAS, nor his office bother to reply to umpteen letters /mails. About the Ministry of Labour, under which EPF comes, the lesser said the better.

That politicians are self centered idiots is a foregone conclusion. But what about our bureaucrats, who have the best of the mind in the country and are, treated as a special class across the socio – economic strata. Did the system failed them or they failed the system is a debate for some other day, but today India runs on faith. Unfortunately this faith doesn’t stem from the deep rooted conviction but rather is a byproduct of sheer hopelessness. How long a nation can run like this , how long people will tolerate this will be interesting to watch. At the moment to Modiji, Rahulji , AAM ADMI ji and all your sycophant supporter , the country is aware of your capability and hence it doesn’t need you, rather you need the nation to either amass wealth or to satiate your shameless hunger for power.

Highway takes you to unusual “High” before losing bit of a “way"!!

Though little late in the day, couldn’t resist the temptation of writing this piece after watching the movie last evening. To set the record straight, must admit, I’m not a Imtiaz Ali fan and the only movie of Imtiaz I loved was his directorial debut “Socha Na Tha”.

Imtiaz’s ambitious & unconventional journey on the Highway is a trip of self discovery for Veera, the rich girl who was kidnapped just days before her big, fat Indian wedding. Even though the trip looks scary in company of four foul mouthed, brute kidnappers, for Veera it turns out to be a liberating trip. She doesn’t know the destination, she doesn’t care about the outcome, but she enjoys the moment, the freedom, she wants to prolong it. Her trip is a metaphor. From a world of chaotic cosmopolitan cacophony, she traverses to a world of serenity and simplicity.  Her kidnapper becomes her co-passenger. Their connect is a result of the deep rooted pain that they had endeared since long, which they could share. If Mahabir had a difficult childhood, Veera had been sexually abused as a kid.  They bare their souls to each other and this provides the emotional catharsis. To his credit Imtiaz steers clear of the typical bollywood romance and projects the unconventional bonding between Veera and Mahabir as it is, without coating it with typical romantic paint. They travel through the heartland of north India and Anil Mehta’s  captures the breathtaking beauty with his amazing camera work.  His cinematography is drop dead gorgeous. Through his camera Mehta transforms the snow capped mountains, the rippling rivers, the unending highways and the exotic greenery into living and breathing characters.

Highway’s brilliance lies in the casting of two opposite characters, an effervescent Veera, who finds the freedom of expression in the company of her abductor and a reticent and rough Mahabir. While Veera is uninhibited, Mahavir speaks through his silent, forlorn stares. Though Veera’s inclination towards Mahavir hints at Stockholm syndrome, it can well be a result of her new found liberty to express herself un-inundated and live an instinctive life.

Irrespective of  whatever she does from here on, Alia Bhatt’s Veera announces her courage to take on roles sans make up and ability to flawlessly deliver them. The scene where breaks into tears even while laughing stamps her skill as an actress. She flawlessly portrays   the vulnerability of a difficult character whose emotion veers between a dark past, exciting present and an unknown future. Randeep Hooda gets into the skin of Mahavir.There are moments when it seems he was born to play this role. His brooding eyes speak more than words. Rehman’s music , though not his best , is in sync with the theme of the movie.

However it is the climax that suddenly turns preachy and lets the movie down. A movie that celebrated the essence of freedom, the exhilarated feeling of liberation for 120 minutes, suddenly tries to justify Veera’s trip away from the cocooned world. For heaven’s sake Highway was not meant to be film on child sexual abuse. Why then suddenly it turns into a movie with a social massage. Ali , who till now was showing the guts to stay away from the world of convention , abruptly turns to the familiar world to build an emotional connect with his Indian Audience. No Imtiaz, Veera’s liberated soul doesn’t require the pretext of sexual abuse to escape into the world of liberation from a life of pretension. The climax stretches a bit too much to provide a justification to Veera’s escapade, but then does freedom require any reason!

Highway takes you to unusual “High” before losing bit of a “way” in the end. However I will go out with 3.5 out of 5 for a movie that shows enough conviction to drive on a path less traveled.