A well-done rant on commitment

Film: Shuddh Desi Romance

Director: Maneesh Sharma

The title, Shuddh Desi Romance; and the fact that the 27 kisses in the film have been overtly publicized might trick you into believing that this is some kind of a gooey, romantic film. However, Maneesh Sharma surprises yet again by bringing something new to the table, with a subject that has been beaten to death by our very own Hindi film industry - commitment.

Raghu (Sushant) has cold feet before his marriage to Tara (Vaani) and his doubts strengthen as he meets Gayatri (Parineeti) on the baarati bus. He runs away from the marriage and then falls in love with Gayatri. However, the two confused lovers have their own trust issues and face similar problems as they plan to get married. A series of coincidences follow which see the tables turn, and exposes the flaws in every character.

A decent screenplay, apt background score and visuals to match the mood, make Shuddh Desi Romance a great product. Contemporary dialogues that gel with the setting make the overall experience more authentic. The film instantly establishes a connect with the audience, thanks to the main characters breaking the fourth wall ,time and again, and addressing the audience directly.

The chemistry between the couples is a little iffy, but forgivable. Vaani Kapoor puts up a good performance on her debut and Sushant picks up from where he left in Kai Po Che. Parineeti's character is well within her comfort zone and she pulls it off pretty well, making her actions look seamless and habitual (even smoking).

The real hero of this film, however, is Rishi Kapoor, who plays Tauji, a local businessman who provides everything from catering, to bands to hired baraatis for weddings. Surprising the audience yet again with a different role, Tauji is the innocent bystander as the three leads bring the place down.

Addressing issues like the fleeting nature of today's young mindset, the film indirectly touches upon a lot of adjacent problems like fear of commitment, indecisiveness and a general sense of immaturity when it comes to handling relationships.

Maneesh Sharma's film is a sad commentary on today's youth and their construct of romance. However, Shuddh Desi Romance does not restrict itself to commentary, and dodges the bullet of becoming too preachy. It shows a really beautiful mirror, lined with pink confetti and bokeh, which shows what the lesser-photogenic couples do in contemporary urban India.

Nothing new in its philosophy, but the ease with which the film puts forth its point without losing its humour is noteworthy. If a Hindi film is what you want to watch this week, this is the one. 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on September 7, 2013 

Carnival of 'Rust'

Film: Zanjeer

Director: Apoorva Lakhia

Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer (which was made in a much simpler time when it was acceptable to see an angry young man take on an army of goons), charted a path for Amitabh as the angry young man, gave Pran yet another unforgettable role as Sher Khan and was laden with heavy duty dialogues and story of the hit duo Salim-Javed. Apoorva Lakhia's re-make, starring Ram Charan, is simply a loud, confused tale, oscillating between the genre of the angry young man and the new-age Dabangg sensibility.

The adapted screenplay, written by Suresh Nair and the director himself, doesn't deviate much from the plot structure of the original, save for setting the film in contemporary times (something that the re-hashers of Agneepath did not do). The protagonist, Vijay Khanna, who is tormented by the same dream of a masked murderer on a horse, kicks the chair and says “yeh police station hai, tumhare baap ka ghar nahi. Jab tak baithne ke liye kaha na jaye, chup chap khade raho” and has the swagger of a young man whose blood is boiling. However, this, and many more parallels that are subconsciously made by everyone who has seen the original, make Lakhia's film look like a cheap imitation.

Prakash Raj, who re-creates Ajit's character on screen, is reduced to a comic relief element for almost the entire first half. His opening scene, which shows him slit a man's throat after a house-servant whispers “Sir, gaddaar Shaun hai” in his ears, makes him appear more amusing than intimidating. Majority of his scenes are laden with unnecessary sexual overtones and see him reduced to a joke. Similarly, Mahie Gill, who plays Mona, is a colossal waste of a talented actor, as she moans and grunts her way through dialogues that add absolutely no substance to the film.

The only plus point of the film is Ram Charan's physique, which for the first time, allows the angry young man to take off his shirt and not look like a malnourished child from Sudan (apologies to AB of 40 years ago). Priyanka Chopra too is reduced to a good looking girl, who is just a narrative tool for a few moments of romance and intimacy.

The lesser said about Sanjay Dutt's Sher Khan, the better. Comparison with Pran is a sin we aren't willing to commit. But getting to re-live those lines itself would have been a good experience, had Dutt not spoiled it with his monotony.

Having made this film when police officer protagonists are selling like hot cakes, Zanjeer struggles to find its identity as whether it wanted to be a re-creation of the seventies' sentiment or a remix, which incorporated the story in today's age of Singham and Chulbul Pandey.

The film doesn't actively bore you, but leaves you with nothing to cherish. And if by the end of the first half, you're still not sure if this is a remake, Mahie Gill says to Prakash Raj, while watching Ajit and Bindu in the original Zanjeer, “Tumhari personality kitni milti julti hai.” Well, you decide.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on September 7, 2013

Bored!

Film: Percy Jackson - Sea of Monsters

Director: Thor Freudenthal

Having long given up on the wish to see a good cinematic adaptation of a series of books, it is now easy to enter the cinema hall expecting to be letdown. Sadly, Thor Freudenthal's Percy Jackson - Sea of Monsters is simply an addition to yet another god-awful book adaptation of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series.

On a conceptual level, which is the inheritance of the novel, it seems like such an exciting prospect that the protagonist is an offspring of an Olympian god. Like Hercules, but contemporary. But if this film and its prequel, Percy Jackson - The Lightning Thief, are to be believed, life as a demi-god in the modern setting is duller than the life of a balloon salesman on FC Road.

Picking up from where the prequel left us, the film gives a back story to the shield that protects the half-blood camp. A flashback, shows us how Talia, the daughter of Zeus, sacrificed herself to save three others. Zeus then gave her life in the form of a tree which marked the boundary of safety for the half-blood kids. But our lightning thief returns, breaches the wall and thus begins Percy's next great adventure, the search for the Golden Fleece that has the power to save lives.

A few tedious references to Greek mythology apart, the film lacks humour, compassion and a general ability to keep you engaged for 100 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, which have you convinced that nothing good can happen in the film, you conveniently disengage yourself from the screen and argue with yourself as to which character is the lamest. Unfortunately, the film isn't long enough for you to conclude that debate satisfactorily.

The one thing you deserve out of every film which makes you wear those bulky 3D glasses, is some quality visuals. Alright, make a lousy film, but atleast give the viewers half-a-dozen moments where they live the movie. But no, the imagery is largely derivative and intriguing on no level. The biggest monster of the film titled 'sea of monsters', immediately reminds you of the Kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean. At that point, you know that the makers too want you to think of other things, and not watch this unimaginativeness.

You don't see Zeus, or Poseidon or Haedes in this one. You don't even see Pierce Brosnan in this one. The only god in the film, is the one overlooking you – Boris, the Greek god of Boredom. 

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 

Published in DNA (Pune) on August 31, 2013

A revolting experience

Film: Satyagraha

Director: Prakash Jha

Satyagraha, Prakash Jha's recent endeavour to take up a socially relevant topic and make a film about it, raises the same question as his previous films Chakryavyuh and Aarakshan did. Why? An overburdening series of topical events woven haphazardly into a dramatic narrative, Satyagraha too trivializes a rather deep issue of revolution.

The charges against the film are similar to his previous films. Watering down the intensity for the masses, the film further dilutes its contexts with unnecessary item numbers and romantic scenarios. Set in a town called Ambikapur, somewhere in Central India, the film addresses the rampant corruption that exists in the system and how the people's representatives are detached from the common man himself.

Jha uses his technique of archetypal characters, each of whom stand for a section of society and takes the story forward. Amitabh Bachchan plays Dwarka Anand, an idealist, fondly referred to as Daduji. Ajay Devgan is Manav Raghavendra, an opportunist and the face of modern India. Kareena Kapoor plays Yasmin Ahmed, a tough spirited TV journalist and Arjun Rampal plays Arjun, a youth icon committed to becoming a leader. Manoj Bajpai, who plays Home Minister Balram Singh (the nemesis), is a personification of all the corrupt practices in politics.

After a half-decent build-up in the first half of the film, the film ends up being a victim of some rogue screenwriting. The satyagraha itself, falls on the backdrop of a series of political moves which turns this film into yet another Rajneeti without the obvious parallels to Mahabharat or The Godfather.

The multi-starrer film has some unintentional moments of irony. Amitabh's opening scene in the film sees him curse the officers of 'Alliance Power' a private company that provides electricity. And Ajay Devgan, who in Yuva fought the misgivings of the system by entering it, comes to that very conclusion at the end of this film, after all is lost.

With a loose narrative which doesn't engage you, the film fails on multiple levels. It fails to reflect the gravity of the situation; it fails to put forth the commandments of the philosophy of satyagraha (aside from a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the town's main circle and a fast-unto-death plot point) and it fails to create the atmosphere of urgency, by lingering on the unimportant scenes longer. Let alone the story, the setting of the film lacks cinematic singularity, which we more recently saw in Dibakar Bannerji's Shanghai.

The film has to be discarded primarily for its immature stance and secondly for it being titled Satyagraha. If someone wishes to watch this film to learn about the spirit of non-violent revolution, they'd gain more knowledge by simply looking up the word on Wikipedia. If films could change society instantly, this film would take us one step closer to being naive.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on  August 31, 2013

Consortium of corny punchlines

Film: Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara

Director: Milan Luthria

Shouldn't it have been Twice Upon A Time? Or a conventional Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai 2? Maybe a suffixed Returns or a completely different title altogether? But no, they decided to go with Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara (OUATIMD). And sadly, in this sequel to the film which was a decent re-creation of the 80s flamboyance, there are no talking points that go deeper than how the title should have been composed. In fact the entire film is as insignificant as the Y in the Ay and the A that was in the prequel's Mumbaai.

Overconfident from having sold the prequel, Luthria's film goes overboard with heavy-duty dialogues that swell up like helium balloons before bursting into nothingness. Every single line in the film, except perhaps the lyrics of the songs, is punctuated and exaggerated to sound deliberately ostentatious, which after a point makes you sick. The punches are only ironically amusing and it is hard not to judge the person sitting next to you, if he/she is genuinely falling for them.

Set roughly in the late 80s, the film picks nearly a decade after the climax of the previous film. Shoaib, played by Emraan Hashmi earlier, grows up and indigestibly turns into Akshay Kumar. And while the setting of a gangster thriller idly loiters around; OUATIMD plays itself out like a ridiculously childish, set-piece love triangle.

After Lootera, the sudden rise in expectations from Sonakshi have led to further disappointment as her character Jasmine sees her regress into the submissive, powerless role where she is at the mercy of two powerful men. One of those men, Shoaib, played by Akshay, is the villain, while Imran's Aslam is the archetypal hero.

Akshay Kumar simply recites punchlines throughout the film, with a cigarette, that has no regard for continuity, constantly lit between his fingers. Lacking the powerful aura of Ajay Devgn's Sultan Mirza and the charisma of Emraan's Shoaib, his black shades and well-kept hair hardly create a persona. While the first film gave us the memorable “Duaa mein yaad rakhna” by Sultan Mirza, Akshay's Shoaib throws one too many dialogues for us to remember any of them. And Imran Khan disappoints once again (or dobaara, if you may), with his contemporary body language and South Bombay accent. Maybe he never received the text that said the movie was set in the 80s.

Overall, OUATIMD is a null and void movie which serves no purpose other than killing time inside an air-conditioned dark-room. However, it will make truck loads of money and set precedents for more dobaaras of the same category.

At 160 minutes, the film is a fitting punishment to give to someone who has just lost a bet. With repetitive sentiments and caricatured leads, the film is a long test of endurance for anyone with a good taste in cinema. Beyond redemption, it wouldn't matter what the critics say. To put it in Shoaib's words, (read in Akshay's husky voice) -- “Agar aisi film ko rating diya, toh number bura maan jayenge.”

Rating: 1 out of 5 

Published in DNA (Pune) on August 17, 2013 

Pull the chain, stop this train!

Film: Chennai Express
Director: Rohit Shetty

“Don’t underestimate the power of a common man,” says Shah Rukh on numerous occasions in the film. The statement couldn’t be truer. With the crowd flooding films like Golmaals and Singham, the cinema of Rohit Shetty’s genre (we don’t have a name for it yet) has enough encouragement to bloom, and Chennai Express is a byproduct of the same sentiment.

A film whose fate cannot be altered even by a film critic with the abilities of Professor X, critiquing Chennai Express based on standard parameters would be an exercise in futility. Having said that, this film does not even live up to the standards of previous Rohit Shetty films. The film which starts off as an unabashed, in-your-face laugh ride derails (pun intended) into a set-piece drama from the nineties.

It tells the story of a 40-year-old single man, Rahul, who is assigned the task to immerse the remains of his dead grandfather in the sea at Rameshwaram. He boards the Chennai Express with a plan to cheat and leave for Goa with his friends. However, he has no idea that the hand he extends to help Meenama board the train in DDLJ fashion, will also bring him his life’s biggest conflict.

You see the film from Rahul’s perspective and therefore most of the humour is generated from his inability to understand Tamil and his forced attempt to stereotypically mimic the sounds. With a dearth of mind-blowingly hilarious moments, you have to make do mostly with whatever little banter Deepika and SRK share.

SRK’s effortless portrayal of Rahul relies heavily on the fact that he is playing his pet character on screen. From self-deprecating humour to puppy-face romantic looks to a beaten-to-pulp lover displaying courage, he puts his entire repertoire from DDLJ on display again.

Deepika, whose name quite fittingly appears before SRK’s in the opening credits, is the real star of this film. Her timely, accented punch-lines like “Kahaan se laiye ayisi bawkwaas dictionary?” and other cute Hindi phrases are what keep you upbeat during the endless 2.45 hours. And, the way she looks throughout the film, if enough girls watch the film, Deepika may be responsible for bringing sarees and half-sarees back into mass-fashion.

Apart from that, Chennai Express is a typical medium-distance journey in a second-class bogey. Rohit Shetty’s fetishes for cars toppling like dominos and fist fights with hefty people flying in all directions are stimulating on no level. Add to that a clichéd plot where Sathyaraj, who plays Meenama’s father Durgeshwara Azhagusundaram, finally let’s go of his daughter’s hand in the Jaa Simran Jaa sentiment, absolutely kills the mood.

Watch it for Deepika Padukone and a couple of chuckles, if you must. Most importantly, be careful common man, your attendance will make or break the film.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on August 10, 2013

Uninhibited Noir Erotica

Film: BA Pass

Director: Ajay Bahl

On a Friday with nearly a dozen so-called star-less films releasing, Ajay Bahl’s BA Pass, starring Shilpa Shukla (our beloved Bindya Naik from Chak De! India) perhaps has the most familiar face. Based on Mohan Sikka’s The Railway Aunty, the film takes us on a journey of a young boy into a dark world that he is unfamiliar to.

Following William Blake’s pattern from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, the film opens with a recently orphaned FY BA student, Mukesh, who finds himself at the mercy of his reluctant aunt, with two younger sisters to take care of. While running household errands after attending college, and playing chess at a graveyard with a coffinmaker, a dodgy employment opportunity knocks on his doors. A lonely housewife, Sarika, seduces him and thrusts him into prostitution. One thing leads to another, and slowly, Mukesh’s life begins to collapse and all he can do is watch helplessly.

While the first half of the film lingers on how Mukesh loses his innocence, the second half is an ode of how he experiences life in the vividly dark shades of deceit, doubt and misfortune. What make the entire journey engaging are the raw visuals used in taking the story forward. However, after an intense show, the film’s graph radically falls in the final act, delivering an insufficient ending.

The most disconcerting imagery of an innocent boy entering a world of wrong, is done in the most honest and brutal way possible and (permissible by the censor board). But, even though the censor regulations enforce a certain limitation on what can be shown, the film manages to dodge the barbs and maintaining the required darkness. And although Shilpa Shukla is unnaturally overdressed in most love-making scenes; it still conveys the necessary message unlike Saif Ali Khan in Race, who makes love to Bipasha Basu with his pants on.

If the story doesn’t appeal to you, if noir films aren’t your cup of tea, you can still watch this film solely for Shilpa Shukla’s powerful performance. However, after Bindiya Naik in Chak! De India and Rajuben in Anurag Kashyap’s TV series Rajuben, it would be a treat to see her play a character of a different shade. Shadab Kamal, who plays Mukesh, has put a great effort in displaying the transformation of how a boy, under hostile circumstances, becomes a man.

Set in Delhi, the film is shot mostly interiors, but the exteriors fail to explore the dubious, shadowy, neon-lit back alleys which we are familiar with, thanks to Dev D. That apart, BA Pass is a good attempt at an erotic, noir drama and does enough to touch you. Had it been produced in a country with a more lenient censor board, it could have been much more.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on August 3, 2013

Old Haunted House, New Hair-raising Horror

Film: The Conjuring

Director: James Wan

Ask any horror-film enthusiast and he will tell you to be a little cautious when a title has the word ‘Ring’ in it. And in the case of James Wan’s The Conjuring, they would be right. Based on an incident in the US in the 1970s, the film manages to, forgive the expression, scare the living s**t out of you.

Ed and Lorraine Warren are world renowned paranormal investigators, who are called to help a family terrorized by a dark presence at a secluded farm house. Forced to confront this demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the midst of the most horrifying case they would ever handle. Unlike the assembly line horror films, The Conjuring manages to create a living connection between its characters (who are more than mere sacrificial lambs in its narrative) and the audience.

By letting the camera linger on the dark portions of the frame and letting the imagination do most of the scaring, Wan assumes a high position as a storyteller and then, manages to make you jump out of your seat with the sound of a single clap. The film cashes on the fear of the unknown and only gradually reveals the imminent threat, letting the audience assume worse things than the film could have shown.

Once it reels you in, and has you wondering whether now is a right time to get your coffee refilled, it descends into playing out more conventional methods of scaring you — the creaking doors, woman in white and sudden loud noises. To some extent, as a character gets possessed by the evil spirit, the film’s narrative also gets possessed by the damned souls of almost every haunted-house film cliche.

Leading the audience to fear by cheating them always defeats the purpose of a horror film. But The Conjuring manages to steer clear of predictability in an almost Hitchcock-like suspense form. Time and again, Wan and his team manage to spring moments on the screen that make the entire cinema hall gasp for breath in unison. In addition, the most neglected element of this genre, the acting also works in its favour. Right from the five kids to the lead duo of Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson, the performances are more than adequate.

Finally, for the litmus test of a horror film: The Conjuring will affect your following night’s sleep. It will make you listen for sounds you don’t normally hear, terrify you when you see some suspicious movement, keep you away from lakes, big houses, dark rooms and mirrors for a while. And most importantly, remember not to hold hot coffee in your hand during tense moments.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on August 3, 2013 

Fraud Shakespeare

Film: Issaq

Director: Manish Tiwary

What’s in a name? That which we call Issaq, be by any other word, wouldn’t be as awful. To think that Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaptation of Othello (Omkara) was on the verge of being called Issaq, going by the sound of how Ishq is said in the larger part of North India, would make you shudder after you watch this film. However, the destiny of the word Issaq was somewhere entwined to a Shakespearean adaptation.

But in Manish Tiwary’s world, the adaptation begins and ends with a few simplistic pick-and-drops. Verona becomes Varanasi, Capulets become Kashyaps, Montagues become Mishras and the sweet smell of a tragic, yet rosy romance is lost in the pungent odour of its twisted narrative that combines more elements than are necessary in a film.

As if family rivalry and a romance in its midst wasn’t dramatic enough, Issaq adds an element of Naxalism, with Prashant Narayanan as a leader of a Naxalist faction that randomly attacks and yells “Lal Salaam!” for no reason whatsoever. This might be the Indianised adaptation of the part in Romeo and Juliet when the Crusaders marched over Verona. Oh wait, William never wrote that. The overall screen time wasted on the peripheral, fruitless sub-plot could have been used to better depict the romance.

But that would do no good either. The principle characters of the film, Prateik as Rahul and Amyra as Bachchi, leave you utterly dissatisfied. In most of their romantic encounters, you want to stop them and request a re-take. In fact, the lousy effort from Amyra who speaks with a Western accent and then goes on to pronounce words like “Sa-pecial” makes it utterly ridiculous. However, it is fitting then, that our Romeo, Prateik, compliments his Juliet with a lousy performance of his own. We have waited too long for him to live up to his potential (and genes) and this is as good a time as any to give up.

Makarand Deshpande, who plays a yogi baba (with a Naxalite back-story as well), is the herb-smoking rendition of the Apothecary. And whatever herb it is that he was puffing, make sure you do too (if you want to watch the film without wanting to stab yourself). A few other secondary characters have indeed given appreciable performances, like Rajeshwari Sachdev in a role parallel to Capulet’s wife and Ravi Kissen as (one might infer) Tybalt. But throughout his loud role, he never touches the “Peace? Peace. I hate the word.” sentiment. The film initially has its characters perform in a theatrical manner but loses the poetic dramatisation somewhere in the middle.

Relocating a five hundrend year old story into an alien setting is quite a task, but we have seen films where it has been done with ease and grace. From Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood to Bhardwaj’s Maqbool – there are numerous examples where Shakespeare’s tales have been beautifully re-enacted on screen. However, Issaq simply adds too many elements to its narrative and in maintaining all of them, presents a dismal finished product.

The film has given Shakespeare’s last words in Romeo and Juliet, “For never was a story of more woe. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo” a new meaning.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 27, 2013

A Shipment par excellence

Film: Ship Of Theseus
Director: Anand Gandhi

Cinema will become great if it receives great audience. But it is equally important that this great audience gets the opportunity to watch great films and that is why cinephiles should rejoice at the commercial release of Anand Gandhi's Ship Of Theseus. Based on a novel concept and treated with a fresh perspective, the film doesn't simply make for a good watch, but is also a motivator for more and more indie filmmakers to come forth and seize the day.

The title refers to the Theseus' paradox, wherein the Greek philosopher Plutarch questions whether a ship that has been restored by replacing all its parts, remains the same ship. The film addresses this philosophical query of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the lives of an experimental photographer, an sickly monk and a young stockbroker.

With a voice of its own, all the dialogues in the film try to prove a point using their characters' vantage points. The characters themselves portray life as is, without dramatising a situation that is at hand. Aida El-Kashef's portrayal of a blind experimental photographer is overwhelmingly believable. And if you thought Farhan Akhtar's transformation in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was commendable, wait till you see the Christian Bale-like transformation Neeraj Kabi has gone through for his role as a monk suffering from liver cirrhosis.

Gandhi's realist treatment reminds you of Kieslowskian imagery, which shows you life without any filters and creates its impact through realistic actions. Be it the dialogues, the camera movement or the sound design, the film engages you emotionally, stimulates you on an intellectual level and at times, makes you physically uncomfortable with its honest, stark visuals.

The film makes you question a lot of concepts in your life and to some extent, changes the way you think. If that is not success, what is? Ship of Theseus touches you, moves you, makes you feel and provides the whole package of a cinematic experience. It is also advisable for cinema geeks to watch this film repeatedly, so as to find the embedded philosophical values.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 20, 2013

Alternative history enters Hindi cinema

Film: D Day

Director: Nikhil Advani

Let us keep aside the coincidence that D Day released on a dry day, and focus on the coincidence of how Rishi Kapoor's character of Goldman resembles Dawood Ibrahim. But apart from playing it safe by not naming the character after the real life kingpin, Nikhil Advani gets his basics right. From using verbal and non-verbal codes that convince you who the man really is, D Day takes you on a journey no Hindi film has embarked upon.

The film opens with a R&AW team consisting of Wali Khan, Rudra Pratap, Zoya and Aslam (Irrfan, Arjun, Huma and Akash Dahiya) undertake the cohort mission (Operation Goldman) of striking at a wedding to seize India's most wanted criminal. The film then takes you backwards and counts down to how they all came to be in one place. Developing every character's back story without playing to the gallery at any given point, the film makes you root for the foursome.

Why D Day is an important film is that it introduces a genre in Hindi cinema previously unknown. Although we have had plenty of historically inaccurate films, cinema about alternative history (like Inglorious Basterds) has never really been made. In doing so, the film shows you things you had never dreamt of seeing.

Unlike Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai and Shootout At Wadala, where we are indirectly introduced to the Bhai in the past, and unlike films like D, Shootout at Lokhandwala and others, where he is simply shown as a shadow who runs the show while safe in his house in Dubai; D Day imagines Goldman as he is today - wise and frail with age. From the red aviators that never leave his face to each and every dialogue he mouths, the film tries to give an insider's perspective on the don.

The complex flow of events is simplified, but not over-simplified and keeps you interested in the proceedings. Huma Qureshi and Arjun Rampal stick to their characters and are pretty convincing. Irrfan Khan as Wali Khan would steal the show on any given day, but comes second to a phenomenal show put up by Rishi Kapoor. Adding a little royal demeanour to his Rauf Lala from Agneepath, he (with a decent contribution of the makeup) has you convinced that you are seeing the man who has terrorised this country for over two decades.

Playing to its strengths, the film is entertaining through and through. A few action sequences are very well choreographed but there are some that appear just too choreographed and leave a scratch on an otherwise job-well-done.

Now that this weekend has you spoilt for choice, this would be a safe bet to take. Because White Houses will be blown many more times and producers will introduce their sons again, but India will only strike back once in a while. Make the most of it.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 20, 2013

For the history books

Film: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

The film opens with the final race at the 1960 Rome Olympics where the Flying Sikh took that infamous backward glance and shattered an entire country’s dreams. Two things are made clear by that visual; one, we are going to take a look back at how a refugee from Pakistan went on to become one of India’s most celebrated athletes, and two, Farhan Akhtar does not exist in the film, who we see is Milkha Singh.

A three-hour epic, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag chronicles the eventful and awe-inspiring life of Milkha Singh, without patronising his character and honestly narrating what is by far the best biopic made in Hindi cinema. Right from life as a little boy in a village in Pakistan, to his days at the refugee camp, to his youthful romance in a new village, to the joining of the Army and then to the life changing career in athletics – the film checks all boxes.

Pointing out minor flaws and misgivings in its narrative would be unnecessary nitpicking and would spoil the overall experience of BMB. Because walking in the shoes of a great man, as he journeys through his life, while sitting in a cold dark room, doesn’t get better than this.

Supporting roles are done to perfection by Pawan Malhotra, who plays Gurudev Singh and Prakash Raj, who surprises you for a change. Divya Dutta as Isri Kaur, Milkha’s sister, brings a sense of composure to his life, she is the only constant in his life. Dilip Tahil’s Nehru, Sonam Kapoor’s Nirmal Kaur, Meesha Shafi’s Perizaad and Rebbeca Breeds’ Stella, all come and go with very little to talk about.

Like Milkha, who squeezes his sweat into a mug in the film, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s seamless direction, which binds the efficient screenplay by Prasoon Joshi into a cinematograph, squeezes all the juice from the story and puts it into the film. The strength of the film, like Mehra’s other films, lies in the editing. PS Bharati, seems to have spent some time inside Mehra’s head, envisioning the film in unison. Binod Pradhan’s cinematography needs no description, and save for the substandard computer graphics in places, the images are pure gold.

All these put together, BMB becomes a life experience; as you live every moment of it as it happens. The thrill of live sport (made believable by Farhan’s hardwork), the pain of partition, the melancholy of a heartbreak, the despair in defeat and the jubilation in victory – you don’t simply watch it, it’s as if it is happening to you.

This is a film that is inspired from history, and is made for the history books. The legend of Milkha Singh has always been immortal, but with Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, it has become something more.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 13, 2013

This one is for the kids

Film: Pacific Rim

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

In a pile of sci-fi movies shipped to us from Hollywood, finally a blockbuster arrives with a heart of its own, and brings along something entirely fresh to the current scheme of things. But the problem with Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim is that the heart just stops beating towards the end.

Set in the near future (2020), the film opens with legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, emerge from an inter-dimensional portal in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. To fight these demons, the human race unites to create large manned robots, Jaegers, of its own. However, while the robots take care of the initial threats, the aliens begin to adapt, evolve and grow stronger. On the verge of defeat, the governments disband the Jaeger project. But Marshall Stacker assembles what is left of the project, and creates a private resistance to get rid of the problem once and for all.

The film offers magnificent imagery of a world united by a common fear and is fairly innovative in thought and precise in its execution. The screenplay progresses in an upward manner, starting off with just a few glimpses of a threat that grows bigger and bigger with every passing sequence. But just short of its climax, the film lets go of its imagination and resorts to a tried-and-tested, derivative method to resolve the conflict.

The first duel between a Kaiju and a Jaeger takes place in the presence of a trawler with humans on it and this theme, which tries hard to establish a human connect while a giant robot is fighting an ugly monster, disappears somewhere in the second half. Between being aloof and spontaneously melodramatic, the film fails to find its tempo at times.

The graphics and action sequences overwhelm you with their size and surpasses the likes of Transformers in terms of technique and Godzilla in terms of impact. However, the fact remains, this is a film about creatures from foreign planets duelling with giant robots of equal size. If you are into that, go ahead. But make sure all the 8-10 year olds you know watch this. They deserve the magnificence and grandeur.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 13, 2013

An Artistic Journey

The theatre doyen explains the process of creating a play with examples of her renowned play Hamidabaichi Kothi. Some excerpts --

Great theatre directors are moulded by their experience as seen in the case of playwright, director and theatre doyen Vijayabai Mehta. In an interview at the programme Samhita Te Natyaprayog - Ek Kalapravaas (Script to staging - an artistic journey) on Saturday, Vijayabai revealed the art and science of the theatre. At the start, she made it clear that all her observations were her opinions formed out of experience and not universal philosophies.

She said, "The journey began when I was 21 and is still going on. This journey requires a sense of companionship and also collaboration. I was lucky to get to work with people with similar sensibilities. Pitching your art to the right audience is also important."

Vijayabai then explained the process of creation in a step by step manner.

Concept and Filters

"All art forms are like morning tea. You take tea leaves; you add water, milk, sugar and boil it. What you have now is life and once you filter it to weed out unnecessary things, what you have left is art. In art forms these filters come at several levels. The first is the director, who interprets the script. Then, the rehearsals start and every actor adds his own filter. Then the music, set, properties, light -- every department adds a filter. Finally, the audience views the play with their own filters. That is when it becomes an art form -- when the creator takes an element from society, refines it and gives it back."

Citing Hamidabaichi Kothi, Vijayabai said, "Anil Barve (the writer) came to me with the concept. He had met a girl, Shabbo, on a train. Her mother was a traditional kothi singer who had refused to teach her the dying art. Anil went to Mumbai in search of such a woman. Although he didn't find one, he came across interesting characters that became part of the play."

Vijayabai said, "I asked my mother-in-law, Durga Khote, about the era when the business of the kothis began to dwindle thanks to film music and records. She told me about a lady, Neelambai (a kothi singer), whom she knew as the person who brought Nargis' mother into the film industry. To my surprise, this Neelambai turned out to be the same lady whose daughter Anil had met on the train. Anil named the lady Hamidabai and I decided to call the play Hamidabaichi Kothi. In the lead role would be the music, second lead the kothi, third character would be Hamidabai and then all the wacky characters from Anil's journey."

Collaboration and growth

"Now I had to decide m what form the play should be presented. Every playwright had a particular style -- Vijay Tendulkar had a journalistic approach, Dalvi an involved way of expressing in his work. For me, Hamidabaichi Kothi had to be a melodrama. Melodrama means something beyond real, overwhelming, but not fake. It meant taking a particular moment and lingering over it to contain the emotions."

"For the music, I discussed with Bhaskar Chandavarkar. He procured the earliest recorded ghazals, showed them to me and told me, "The ball is in your court." DG Godse worked on the set and costumes. Ten days later, he came to me with fabric samples for every character and a plan for the set. He said, "Deviji, the walls of the kothi will be greenish and 60 years old." Yes, the place too had a character. He found one of those large thaals used in community dining, which helped me write a scene including it. Now the concept had started to shape up and the characters were set. That is where the role of the director becomes crucial."

Acting and the director

Vijayabai's direction style is suggestive: Instead of telling actors what to do, she aids them in arriving at the right place. She gives the example of Sattar's character played by Nana Patekar. "We all know how Nana is naturally. He couldn't find Sattar's morose, vulnerable, pitiful body language. So I made him improvise on a scene wherein he had to run some errands for Hamidabai while in constant fear of her finding out about his other business. While he was into that, he found Sattar's neck. Then he found Sattar's shoulders and slowly, he found Sattar's voice. What happened next, we all know," she added.

"For an actor, it is important to keep searching for the character. An actor has four identities -- one of himself, the second is the character written by the writer, the third the identity which observes how the first is adapting to the second and the fourth identity supervises the other three. The fourth identity is the art in you. And one thing every actor should remember, something Stanislavski said - "Always respect the art in you, not you in the art." Because once you are proud of yourself, that curiosity and the will to search subside."

Theatre: as it is today

"I belong to the renaissance period in theatre and today, the situation is not the same. There are theories that revolutions are a cycle and skip a generation or two. I hope there is another renaissance soon. Today, there are a lot of training institutes that teach the craft, but those can only take you so far. The trick is not in knowing what to do; but knowing when to apply a particular skill. Practice and perseverance are two virtues young artists should cherish. They should strive to bring something new to the table and try to stretch the limits," she added.

Vijayabai concluded the programme with a quote by Picasso: "All art, including theatre is the greatest lie ever. But it is this great lie which can take you closest to the eternal truth."

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 8, 2013

A Wave of Her Own

French filmmaker Claire Denis speaks about the role of cinema in culture, her own brand of cinema and the role of a filmmaker

From the country that gave us directors like Goddard, Truffaut and the French New Wave Cinema comes yet another director who has carved a niche for herself in world cinema with 11 films in the past 25 years. Claire Denis, whose latest film Bastards (a hard-hitting noir film) was the official selection for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, is in India for a 12-day workshop at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

Claire Denis

Apart from being a filmmaker, Claire has contributed to the development of formal engagements of French cinema since the 80s and is also a well-known teacher of cinema. Known for her unique approach, Claire has always seen films as something more than a medium of storytelling. "Storytelling is an important element, but cinema cannot always be used to give a psychological explanation. Our brains are full of literature and also of a dream world that consists of images and songs. And for me, making films is getting rid of explanations," she says. "Instead of providing an explanation, the audience should be allowed to realise things through the experience. The story is a basic entity and the way people speak of the narrative comes from their TV viewing habits. That cannot be applied to cinema,"she adds.

Claire's films are known to have a conscious connection of its characters to its setting, so much so that the spaces in her films also have a character. "It is an obligation for a character to exist in a particular space. And the movement of the character in time, has to be with respect to his location,"she states. She further adds that unlike photography, cinema is not static and unlike theatre, it is not live. Cinema has a movement in time that can be altered such that a 100-minute film can be a story of two days or a 1,000 years.

A still from White Material

In her opinion, of all forms of art and literature, it is cinema that can truly transcend boundaries. Having seen Pather Panchali as a child, Claire says, "This is my first visit to India and most of what I knew about the place comes from the movies I saw. No matter whether it's realistic or in the heightened logics of Bollywood, films enter people's homes and show what life is made of in a country."

Between her first film Chocolat (1988) to her latest film Bastards (2013), Claire's style has evolved over time. Having spent her childhood in Africa, the French post-colonial world is a recurring theme in some of her films like White Material (2009). "My way of making films has changed over the years. I have changed too. My body has changed and so has the way I think about life. I am less spontaneous, I day-dream lesser and I know I have less time than before," she says. "But I never really had a style in mind. I've not adhered to any way of making films. Neither mainstream, nor art-house, nor the New Wave. I am a wave of my own," she concludes.

Denis' Filmography

Chocolat (1988)

No Fear, No Die (1990)

I Can't Sleep (1994)

Nenette And Boni (1996)

Good Work (1999)

Trouble Everyday (2001)

Friday Night (2002)

The Intruder (2004)

35 Shots Of Rum (2008)

White Material (2009)

Bastards (2013)

Published in DNA (Pune) on July 9, 2013