Friday, March 31, 2017

Naam Shabana : Really ,Who Cares !

Did you watch Kuldeep Yadav plotting the wicket of Peter Handscomb in the last Test against Australia. The wrist spinner fooled the batsman into believing that he is going to bowl a wrong’un whereas he actually bowled a chinaman that went through the gates of Handscomb dislodging the stumps. Writer director duo of Neeraj Pandey and Shivam Nair does the same to the audience. Bowled them through the gate! NaamShabana promoted as the story of the making of a spy can at best be called a predictable revenge drama where an undercooked espionage angle is force fitted. The film, a spin off from 2015 sleeper hit Baby, tracing the life of the female agent Shabana Khan, goes so much into the details that after a point it becomes too predictable and boring.

The film opens with two hard to believe pot bellied intelligent agents cornering their target, a dreaded arms dealer whom intelligence agencies of multiple countries are chasing for a decade, in a busy street. As the film progresses the agency decides to send a green horn to neutralize the target that even the experts couldn’t get hold of. So much for sensible writing.  The first half that traces the back story is extremely slow.  The story lacks conviction and the screen play is incoherent. Even the casting is uninspiring. If taut screen play and well choreographed chases were high point of Baby, Naam Shabana suffers from lazy writing and unimaginative editing. After a point even the background score becomes irritating.



Taapsee Pannu’s laboured acting is too evident in a film where she has almost 120 minutes of screen time. She is solid in scenes where she is kicking ass, but insipid in scenes where she needs to emote. As far as Manoj Bajpayee is concerned it seems the producer had paid him only for his voice or the director probably forgot what a fine actor he is. It is such a pity that his scope in the film is reduced to just delivering few badly written dialogues.  The rest of the cast from Baby including Akshay, Anupam and Danny are used just as  dressing in the salad to lure the audience. In espionage movies a lot depends on editing and pace. Sadly in Naam Shabana the editing is sloppy and at 150 minutes it tests your patience.

It is unfortunate that a film which had so much promise at conceptualization stage just ends up taking the audience for a ride. With some solid effort and intention it could have ended up being such an interesting story. I will go out with 2 out of 5 for this confused and badly written film. Patience is a good virtue to possess. So save some money and wait till it gets a Television premier.


Saturday, March 18, 2017

Trapped - Are You ?

#Trapped: There are high-rises around. There are millions of people around. Yet no one can hear your voice or may be no one wants to. Have you ever experienced that loneliness, the feeling of being left out, the helplessness of not being able to reach out? Have you ever spoken to the mirror in front or with the lizard on the wall at some moment of wretched loneliness?  Have you seen life slip by, as you set out on our journey to fulfil those big aspirations, get trapped in a vicious cycle and realized at the end of the day how you have missed celebrating the small things in life. Have the realization of being blessed with the basics to live a comfortable life ever dawned on you?

While Vikramaditya Motwane’s ingenious film Trapped belongs to the survivor genre, his only protagonist Shourya’s struggle is allegorical. It is as much a struggle within as it is to break out of the claustrophobic set up. Motwane and his writers Amit Joshi and Hardik Mehta intelligently use symbolism to drive home their point. The apartment Shourya gets trapped in is metaphorically named “Swarg”. The city where his voice struggles to reach out to a single person is actually the maximum city Mumbai where millions live. And the main protagonist himself, who gets scared of rat, is named as Shourya . But when put against the wall, Shourya’s survival instincts come to the fore and he fights all odds.



Trapped is neither an easy film to make, nor an easy film to digest. Motwane shows enough courage to take up the project and Rajkumar Rao puts his heart and soul into the character. In just about seven years from playing Adarsh in  Love Sex & Dhokha to Shahid Azmi in Shahid to Deepu Sebastian in Aligarh to, Deepak in City lights to  Shourya in Trapped , this man has metamorphosed into one of the most flexible young actors we have today. Watch out for scene where he comes back to the flat after being trapped in it.  The eyes say it all, the feeling of conquering his inner fears . Sidhhartha Dwivedi’s cinematography is top notch. He masterfully uses natural light and shoots from close angles to create the tension.

However unlike other survivor films like Cast Away, Trapped fails to give enough edge of the seat moments. While you understand Shourya’s plight after a point you don’t feel his pain. Shourya’s attempts become repetitive. And that is where Trapped loses some steam. However personally for me it was not just a film about survival, it was a film with a much deeper metaphysical subtext.


Trapped is a gutsy attempt at making good cinema and deserves a watch. Go, acquire the courage to fight and get out of the vicious cycle or remain lonely and trapped. The fight is as much within as it is with outside world. Your choices can liberate you or leave you scared for life!