Titli : A gut wrenching Flight

#Titli : There exists two India. One that is suave, progressive, an India that is surrounded by malls & multiplexes, that drives Mercedes, which talks about digitization, enjoys the benefits of economic liberalization, promotes or at least pretends to endorse feminism. And then there is another India , that struggles everyday to meet two ends, that takes pride in patriarchy , where relationship tend to become dysfunctional . While we may carelessly ignore it, yet both the places co- exist. Several obnoxious slum windows in many cities open straight into the skyscrapers built just opposite to them. Beneath the superficial harmonious co-existence lies the vulnerable aspiration of many who want to escape away from a ruined present and create a better future.

Growing up in the latter India, just a bit away from an India that seems shining, Titli’s constant effort   was to break away from his family and the world of crime. His quest is for a life with dignity and his dry eyes capture his quest hauntingly. But is it just about escaping from a weird family or is it also about letting go the morbid values he has inherited from them or from the society he has been part of. Is the quest just for escaping   to a better world or to become a better human being? In his pursuit to lead a better life and accumulate money for it, he too manipulated and allowed himself to be exploited till he realized the transformation could not be complete unless the “means” to achieve it is right.

In spite of a bit over indulgence Kanu Behl’s direction is scintillating. He brings out the gut wrenching chemistry of a disjointed family that leads its life in an absolutely unapologetic way. In the struggle for survival, in the world of aspiration, remorse doesn’t have a place. While his elder brother Bawla cries, Titli listens to it indifferently and his wife sleeps peacefully. There is an emotional vacuum everywhere. Relationships are based on needs. Titli takes his wife to meet her love Prince. While they make love, Titli waits patiently in the living room- like the display furniture in the model flat he too is not part of the standard fixture!

Ranvir Shorey has given the performance of his career and Shivani Raghuvanshi as Neelu is the show stealer. Shashank Arora’s desperate eyes reflect his inner suffocation. Yet as Titli , this constant expression doesn’t do justice to his talent. Namrata Rao’s editing could have been better.

Titli is not an easy film to watch, yet it is an important film that needs to be watched. It reflects a part of society, we ignore blissfully. It is a powerful film that showcases family in a way, very few films, barring Udaan have dared to present. 

I will go out with 3 out of five for Kanu Behl’s gut wrenching Titli. Go brace yourself and fasten your seat belt. This for sure is going to be a turbulent flight! 

Talvar... Truth is stranger than Fiction !

Talvar : It s not easy to make a film on a real life case that has been under constant  public scrutiny. It is even more difficult when a book has been written and a film has already been made on it.  It becomes all the more tricky in an age when all pervading media has “cracked” the case several times over and declared the instant verdict.  Yet Vishal Bharadwaj and Meghna Gulzar decide to tread the path already traveled and yet present a compelling and unique dimension to the sordid saga. Their Talwar is as much about the double murder as it is about a system that has become dysfunctional and a society that has become voyeuristic.

The cleverly written, watertight script uses acid wit to reflect on the glaring procedural failures. It is a film with multiple layers. On one hand it presents a disturbing picture of the way media, police and judiciary functions. On the other hand it subtly forces us to think how voyeuristic and insensitive we have become. Though presented in a Rashomon style narrative, where each investigative team has a different perspective on how the crime would have been committed, Gulzar and Bharadwaj somewhere subtly lets us know where their heart lies. And that is probably the only let down in an otherwise riveting piece of work that reflects on the police procedure.

Irrfan, playing the character of Arun Kumar, the then CBI Jt. Director, is in sublime form. He plays a complex character that is going through turbulence in personal life with aplomb. To put it mildly, when he appears on screen, you can’t take your eyes off him! Gajraj Rao as the first investigating officer perfectly plays the role of an insensitive pot bellied, pan chewing cop that we come across so often. Unfortunately Neeraj Kabi & Konkona Sen Sharma, two otherwise fine actors, don’t have much to portray in Talvar.

But the standing ovation is reserved for the director – writer duo of Meghna Gulzar & Vishal Bharadwaj.They have put in quite a bit of effort in researching the subject. Gulzar comes out of a long hiatus with all guns blazing. Her direction is astute and mature. She takes up a complex and nuanced project and makes a very fine film. Bhardwaj’s writing is superb. Using black humour to drive his point he makes a scathing attack on the apathetic and incompetent police procedural, overeager media and an overworked judicial system. Watch out for the climax where the two investigating teams confront each other. While you helplessly watch the mockery and feel the pain, Gulzar- Bharadwaj’s satire also makes you laugh impromptu. And then suddenly you become aware how terrible that feeling can be; to laugh and feel guilty simultaneously.

And that is what Talvar does to you. I will go out with four out of five for this gripping documentary thriller. Yes, truth is stranger than fiction!

Calendar Girls... Really ?

#CalendarGirls: Once upon a time there was a director named Madhur Bhandarkar , who showed promise , made few genuinely good films, flattered to deceive for a while  till he  became a victim of “Ram Gopal Verma” syndrome.  Thus started the obsession of showing a mirror to society, through some absolutely shoddy pieces of work. The modus-operandi remains same, pick up few headlines, garnish them with some titillating scenes, and sprinkle it with some sermonising. Calendar Girls is an extension of that mediocrity.

The production quality is shabby, acting is intolerable, dialogues are so terrible; it makes you wonder if the dialogue writer was on extended dope, casting is messy and script is non existent. Most of the scenes are so unimaginative that they make the soaps on Indian telly look master class in comparison. In order to show that one of the selected Calendar girl is from Kolkata the director decides to show us yellow taxi & durga puja . Probably to make his film look contemporary, one of the character in the film constantly talks about twitter & takes selfies . Rest in peace Creativity.

As far as acting is concerned the debutantes could have easily been replaced by mannequins or to suit Bhandarkar’s purpose by Sunny Loene playing multiple roles! Suhel Seth , Kiran Kumar & Ronit Roy’s role could have been played by any dolt, if at all those characters were necessary to the script . Oh, but then we forgot there was no script in the first place! Probably during the filming of “Heroine” Bhandarkar developed a fascination for bare legs & pushed up cleavage. And that fascination still continues , however the audience has moved on and matured Mr. Bhandarkar.

At more than 140 minutes Calendar Girls is an excruciatingly painful watch. So let the Mallyas have fun with the Calendar Girls, the Madhurs make pretentious films on it, you spare yourself the torture and better stay indoor with the good old calendar.

I will go out with a very generous 1 out of 5 for Madhur Bhandarkar’s Calendar Girls. Sometimes after watching such movies I realise probably “BAN” after all is not such a bad word!

                                                                                                                     

Masaan

#Masaan  : Have you ever stood near a Masaan ( Crematorium),  where each single day number of people are brought in as bodies ,just plain life less bodies. As the funeral pyre lights up, comes a moment of vast emptiness followed by a sense of letting go. After all as one of the protagonist says in the film “Anyways I have heard everything gets sorted out after sometime “. It is the place where the skull gets crushed mercilessly in order to liberate the soul!  And what better city to depict this journey than Benaras – A city that celebrates life and death, with some sense of equanimity.

Neeraj Ghaywan’s directorial debut “Masaan” is about a society in flux. It celebrates love as much as it celebrates letting go, it celebrates life as much as Death. It captures the essence of a small city bursting at its seams thanks to conflicting value system. It is the “Doms” who pile up and set the bodies on fire, they are the last stop in our march to salvation, yet the society doesn’t accept them. When a higher class girl falls in love with a guy who sets the funeral fire, she knows her parents won’t accept him. Yet, there is a new shining India, full of aspiration – so the guy is competing hard to get a respectable job, the girl is ready to run away with him, if required. There is still hope, all is not lost yet. But then life’s ultimate truth, death dawns on them. Yet life must go on....

Somewhere else in the same city, Devi, a fiercely independent and aspirational girl is paying the price for   being caught while having premarital sex with her boyfriend. She denies being apologetic and bold enough to explain her escapade as an “act of curiosity”. Her boyfriend is “Killed” ,her family is blackmailed by the cops, who are supposed to provide protection to the society . While she is mourning the loss of her lover, her father is mourning the loss of family honour. This is the dichotomy India encounters every day, this is the hypocrisy we take pride in. Yet she is not cowed down. Life must go on ....

Varun Grover’s screenplay is crisp and compelling and Neeraj Ghaywan’s direction is astute and assured. It is not a flawless film, yet considering it is his directorial debut, he has done a commendable job. No one has ever breathed life into a (Sa)Msaan the way Neeraj has .  Richa Chaddha , in spite of her inconsistency ,manages to pull off the character of Devi. New comer Vicky Kaushal and Shweta Tripathy are absolutely brilliant. Shweta as Shallu gives an endearing performance. Vicky Kaushal is the find of this year.  And that man, Sanjai Mishra , what an actor he is . With each of his release he is exploring new facets of his acting prowess.

Masaan is a poignant portrayal of multi layered storytelling. It has so much to say, yet so many times the silence in the film speaks louder than the word.  It is highly metaphorical. It shows the conflicts in our society. It reflects the confusing value system we have been a part of.  It shows how a new generation driven by technology and aspiration are ready to move in to a new era. It reflects Hope. There is a bridge, there is a river, both of them bring people in and they also take them away. Yet life must go on.......

Forget awards , forget ratings , forget reviews , just go and be a part of the story !

Bajrangi Bhaijaan- where love triumphs !

#BajrangiBhaijaan : Not often you get a chance to spot “Eid Ka Chand”, not often you get to see Salman Khan not behaving like Salman Khan in a Salman Khan movie, not often you go to watch a Salman Khan movie which is not Bhai Porn , not often you enjoy a Salman Khan film where he doesn’t take off his shirt to display those beefy biceps , not often you need a review for a Salman Khan film, not often you find  a Salman Khan film which has a script. Bajrangi Bhaijaan for a change has a script, however manipulative and oversimplified it may be, and characters who are relevant and who get to play a part.

The film opens with a beautiful shot of the snow capped Himalayan Range taken leisurely and almost makes a statement on the predictable and slow pace at which the story is going to unfold.  The first half is set at a languid pace exploring the life of Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi played by Salman , his meeting with Shahida/Munni , a six year old speech impaired girl from Pakistan who has been separated from her mother during their journey to India and Pawan aka Bajrangi’s effort to ascertain the identity and root of Shahida . Salman effortlessly slips into the role of a too good to be true Hanuman Bhakta Bajrangi , who never cheats , who doesn’t lie.  Khan, known for his larger than life, on the face portrayals, plays a simple, subdued character this time around and pulls it off rather nicely. He is endearing and vulnerable.

The story picks up  pace and the drama builds up  as Bajrangi and Munni enter  Pakistan and director Kabir Khan introduces Nawazuddin Siddique as the Pakistani reporter Chand Nawab. Nawaz steals the show with his amazing acting and impeccable comic timing. The story becomes predicable yet interesting as the cat and mouse chance begins between the Pakistani authorities and a determined Bajrangi out on a mission to reunite Shahida with her parents. Harshali Malhotra as six year old Shaheeda is absolutely stunning. She doesn’t get to utter a single word till the last scene, yet her eyes communicate effortlessly through the length of the film. She seems effortless in her performance and unaffected by the presence of Salman and Nawaz.  Kareena Kapoor plays her part well.  The supporting case of Sarat Saxena , Om Puri and  Rajesh Sharma does a wonderful job.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan celebrates the triumph of humanity over religious and parochial intolerance, albeit in an over simplified and sugar coated manner. At 160 minutes it is a bit too long, with Kabir Khan’s attempt to pack it with emotion; it will require you to take your handkerchief along. Yet it is a well written film that has its soul at the right place. In a strife torn world, manipulative love provides the much needed succour than manufactured hatred.Go have your share of honey dipped goodness then.

And rating –Well, do they even matter for a Bhai Bhakt!

Asha Jaoar Majhe .. Labor of Love

In an age of instant connectivity, where love needs to be explicitely expressed several times in a day to be understood Aditya Vikram Sengupta's‪#‎AshaJaoarMajhe / ‪#‎Labouroflove celebrates ethereal love. The husband hangs the clothes to dry in the morning , the wife removes them in the evening. They eat the cake from the same bakery. The husband paddles the cycle faster so that he can meet the wife just before she leaves for work. The wife carefully keeps the food for her husband. Such mundane activities. And labour of love explores the extraordinary love, in these ordinary everyday activities , which we so carelessly ignore. Set in the backdrop of a recession hit world, Asha Jaoar Majhe is a real tribute to the essence of love.

                             

It celebrates the silence in an age where noise reigns. The cinematography is poetic & surreal; the attention to detail is almost obsessive. In one particular scene the camera pans on the cycle wheel as it keeps on moving at a break-neck speed. An allegory to the modern world where everyone is running at a pace beyond their control. The world where survival is a question & losing is not an option , sanity can rarely prevail !

With a languid pace & no dialogue it is not an easy film to watch . But if you manage to sit through , in the last scene , which has touch of Ray , you would realise the entire movie was a build up for the sublime ending. Asha Jaoar Majhe is a poetic story presented with a painter's sensibility. Watch it if you possess the patience to appreciate the quintessence of Love.

P. S. -Watched it last week & as the end credits rolled the audience stood up and clapped . In Kolkata there were 2 shows in the 1st week & the whole week it ran houseful. Reiterates the faith in the power of Good Cinema & an ever evolving audience.

2015- Bollywood So far ....

Last weekend of June and that eventually marks the end to the first six months of releases for twenty fifteen at the movies. As monsoon touches down on most part of the country, let’s look back to find out the impact the winter and summer had on bollywood. As far as content and variety is concerned this year’s releases resemble a beautiful tapestry replete with myriad hues. So we had few edge of the seat thrillers, some sensitive films that touched the heart, couple of witty rom-coms and few bold indie releases. While #Masaan brought laurels on international platform, regional language films like #Court  , #Killa (Marathi) and Labour of love/Asha Jaoar Majhe (Bengali) breached the language barrier and garnered acceptability across, reiterating the fact art has no boundary.

While all these were happening in the theater, #Drishyamfilms came up with a wonderful and welcome step of promoting and producing films with substance, giving wings to the aspiration of many directors who chose to tread on the path less traveled. And this is a significant step towards encouraging good cinema and bridging the gap between art and commerce.  Not only this, Drishyam in collaboration with the prestigious Sundace Institute will also conduct the screen Writers’ lab for India. With few exciting releases lined up, the future only looks brighter.

All right then, my pick from the bollywood releases so far this year that you should watch, in case you haven’t yet  

Piku: The sheer simplicity of this endearing story about the relationship between an aging father and his young daughter makes it my top pick.

Tanu Weds Manu Returns: In case you thought it is just a witty film with brilliant dialogues, go back and watch it again. It is a serious take on man-woman relationship and the mirage called marriage!

NH10: A powerhouse performance from Anushka , exposing a world we all know exists , yet don’t accept.

Margarita With a Straw: Dealing with Cerebral Palsy this film will win your heart with its honest portrayal of real issues.

Dum Lagake Haisa : A beautifully written , simple story about the most difficult issue with women , their weight and the most important part in an arranged marriage , settling down !

Dil Dhadakne do- No one exposes the facade associate with the rich upper class the way Zoya Akhter does it. Though it is not her best work, yet, it raises some very tough questions about the Indian Family and dares to bare it all.

Baby , Badlapur & Hunterrr also make it to the list and worth a watch .

And finally inspite of their several weaknesses, if you love cinema go and watch Bombay Velvet and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy. You will learn as much from its grandeur as you would from the makers over indulgence leading to the story falling apart. After all learning what not to do is as important as learning what to do, isn’t it?