I, Me aur Meh!

A film whose basic premise is primarily a mother saying “I should have slapped you long ago” to her son; Kapil Sharma's I, Me aur Main is a moral in search of a story. Starring John Abraham, Chitrangda Singh and Prachi Desai; the film is all gloss and hardly any substance.

The film opens with a scene where a small boy gets undue support from his mother in a petty play-time quarrel with his sister over the possession of a paper-plane. With that one instance, the director assumes that he has drawn a perfect character sketch as the film jumps 25 years to show what has become of this spoilt little child. Now in a committed relationship, Ishaan Sabharwal (John) is still childish in his approach to life, yet manages being conceited and selfish. Fed up of putting up with such a guy, his girlfriend, Anushka (Chitrangda), puts her foot down and ends the relationship. Ishaan moves to a different apartment, where he meets Gauri (Prachi), a designer and a chirpy young girl, who he gradually falls in love with. But just as he feels he has moved on, his past catches up with unfulfilled commitments. The film explores whether or not Ishaan lives up to his dilemma and whether or not he does the right thing.

With an undulating story which feels like haphazard chunks of events pasted together; the film, from start to finish, has an air of inconsistency about it. A poorly written screenplay which does not aid the mediocre story at all, quite visibly falters with a lot of important details either left to imagination or simply revealed in a verbose manner, through the ordinary and seemingly choreographed dialogues. The characters are extremely shallow and you feel no connect to them; especially because you feel no connect between the characters themselves. At times, scenes go by and you wonder whether the characters are playing that game where every other person has to say something entirely unrelated to what the first person said.

The one word that best describes this film is confusion. Confusion of dialogues, confusion of the relationship dynamics of the characters and confusion from a directorial point of view in knowing what the motives of his characters are. This, coupled with casual performances from the cast have severely dented this film. Zarina Wahab and Chitrangda Singh are fairly ordinary, owing to the lack of depth of their characters. Prachi Desai's character of Gauri seems to have received a one word brief – hyperactive. And John Abraham has done his job by bringing his face and abs on the poster to sell tickets.

Overall, the film is so loose in its structure; that you don't feel like you've just watched one single film. A few cute scenes in isolated parts of the film aside, the missing link in the narrative, that binds the film together is quite evident. And after four good Fridays at the box office, this, coupled with RGV's The Attacks of 26/11, means a gloomy weekend at the theatres.

Rating - 1.5 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on March 2, 2013

Refusals Of An Escapist

Unlike the promotional material suggests, Sudhir Mishra’s Inkaar isn’t as confusing with its premise. No, it’s not about sexual harassment at work; it’s not about the dark practices inside an advertising agency; and it is definitely not about giving a message. Inkaar boldly tells a tale of love that is hurdled only by strong ambition. It sees the return of Mishra’s muse Chitrangda Singh along with a surprising male lead in Arjun Rampal.

Through a non-linear narrative that oscillates between a sexual harassment court hearing in the present and several instances from the past that are referred to by those involved. Yes, reminds you instantly of what you saw in Social Network, a couple of years ago. But the flow of the screenplay keeps you glued to it without focusing on the inspiration. The treatment fits the plot very well, especially the element where the audience isn’t exterior to the film, but a part of it. Deepti Naval, who plays a social worker who is presiding over the case, becomes the representative of the audience. Her roles and responsibilities where she has to process all the facts before passing a judgment makes you do the same and her dilemma is your dilemma. Inkaar forces you to think and judge the characters’ actions and makes you take sides before ultimately ridding you off all those responsibilities by dumping a conclusion upon you.

Arjun Rampal plays Rahul Varma, a CEO of an advertising agency and recruits Maya Luthra (Chitrangda) who is a prodigy. He trains her, makes her able and while their professional relationship grows, romance also grows under its skin. But Maya’s ambitions exceed all other priorities and the couple fall out of favour with one another. Then begins a saga of bitterness where both parties get hurt and just when the situation reaches boiling point, the film turns off the stove. Mishra builds a strong plot, strong characters and takes the story to a high point, but ends it like an escapist. An ending that might not appeal to a lot of people, Inkaar leaves you wanting a different conclusion to a problem that demands more than a passive submission. The battle between love and ambition, at least in the context of the film, should not have ended in a ceasefire.

Chitrangda Singh shows glimpses of her potential in certain scenes. Her character of Maya, whose journey through seven years is shown in the film, ages well and portrays a 22-year-old girl with equal conviction as a 30-year-old-woman, who is a national creative director of an ad agency. Sadly for Arjun Rampal, the aging through years happens only on paper. He fails to bring the necessary changes in his body language in an otherwise satisfactory performance. With Vipin Sharma and Deepti Naval in important supporting roles, the overall cast ensemble does a good job.

With a terrific first half, Inkaar takes you into the interval on a high, it raises your hopes and makes you wait for an equally intense second half. Unfortunately, the second half only begins where it left and ends up like a completely different film. The typical Sudhir Mishra twist does provide a satisfactory solution which is a grammatically correct full stop for a film. However, as a viewer, one might feel that Inkaar is a sentence that is correct, but just doesn’t sound right.

Rating - 2.5 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on January 20, 2013