Well Done Abba - Movie Review

Right from Mandi to Welcome to Sajjanpur , Shyam Benegal has always used satire and simplicity as the strength of his comedies. For audiences fed (up) with an overdose of slapsticks, this is as refreshing change as having healthy homemade food when consumption of regular roadside junk leads to constipation.

Adapted from a short story Narsaiyyan Ki Bavdi by Urdu writer Jeelani Bano which was also translated into a tele-film in Doordarshan days, the anecdote has since become part of Indian folklore. Well Done Abba also credits Hindi author Sanjeev’s ‘Phulwa Ka Pul’ and a screenplay treatment by Jayant Kriplani ‘Still Waters’ as its source materials.

The story opens with Armaan Ali (Boman Irani), a car driver in Mumbai, returning to work after months of leave. Almost on the verge of losing his job, Armaan seizes the opportunity of explaining his boss the reason for his extended holiday en route a long drive to Pune.

The casual visit to his village gets long-drawn-out when he comes across the water shortage there and decides to get a well dug in his barren fields. As he literally runs around bribing everyone from officer, collector, engineer, village-head to even a photographer, you can visualize him playing Pankaj Kapur’s part from an episode of the popular sitcom Office Office . And like the sitcom, Benegal bestows an upbeat mood to the film over making it look like a depressing drama of distress and difficulty.

And just when you wonder if the film is a neorealist take on Armaan Ali’s well-wish in the vein of classics like The Bicycle Thief or Do Bigha Zameen , the second half goes in complete reverse gear where Armaan Ali gives the perpetrators a taste of their own medicine. The well that never existed is reported as stolen in police files and everyone involved in its ‘well-being’ is questioned. That makes way for a perfect political satire which is clever and caustic and the black comedy that emerges from the series of events is credibly crafted.

The film primarily points out the prevalent bureaucratic corruption that hijacks several schemes initiated by the government for the poor thereby hindering development of the society and hence the country. It also intelligently brings out the irony of how staying below the poverty line has rich outputs.

The multilayered screenplay by Ashok Mishra is adorned with a horde of varied amusing characters. Armaan’s support system is his daughter Muskaan (Minissha Lamba) who makes way for the mandatory love track (with Sameer Dattani) which slackens the pace in start but soon their romance progresses simultaneously with the narrative and is refreshingly restrained.

Armaan also has a twin brother and a sister-in-law (Ila Arun) who, though don’t contribute much to the central plot, are interesting characters in their own right. Another ‘potent’ial character is a virile engineer (Ravi Kishan) who forever has his wife (Sonali Kulkarni) on his mind. However the track of an inspector (Rajit Kapoor) and his bickering wife seems half-baked and peripheral to the plot.

Despite being a trail and tribulation journey, Benegal’s direction has a feel-good charm to it. His storytelling is so straightforward that even when the film extends beyond its climax into a celebratory song, you don’t mind much. Ashok Mishra’s hilarious dialogues have a countryside authenticity to it and Benegal ensures that the peculiar traits and accents of each character are well captured.

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Shaapit Movie Review

Vikram Bhatt begins with a bang and ends with a whimper. After a resounding first 20 minutes, he labours for the next two hours setting up screeches and screams and pulse-pounding music.

The story just goes on and on, moving twice to 350 years ago and one flashback sequence even looking like 21st century we are living in! SHAAPIT is about a curse handed down to a royal family by the father of a daughter who worked in the royal family.

The girl committed suicide as the King's younger son tried to rape her. The family was cursed; no girl in that family would ever get married and even if they tried, they would be killed. Kaaya (Shweta Agarwal) is one such unfortunate girl. But she does not know her fate and is told too late. Aman (Aditya Narayan) gifts her an engagement ring on her birthday and that's when things go horribly wrong.

They meet with an accident, but fortunately escape unhurt. Not to complicate things further, Kaaya's mother tells her of the curse. But Aman is too deeply in love with Kaaya and wants to help break the curse. He seeks the help of professor Pashupathi (Rahul Dev) who deals with the spirit world. His best friend and Kaaya help him in this mission.

While the first 20 minutes engages you, the same cannot be said of the remainder of the movie. Yes, it scares you at times but also gets too tedious. In between, they (Aman & Co) unearth another spirit, which is troubling the royal family. Confusing, as both have no connection. Does Bhatt forget his plot?

Aditya Narayan is surprisingly super confident. He has style, diction and a good screen presence. An ideal launch vehicle for the young lad who is in every frame of the movie. Shweta gets no scope as she slips into a coma in the second half. It's a relief actually, when the movie ends.

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Movie review - The Princess and the Frog

Before you even start this review, you probably already know if you are going to see “The Princess and the Frog” or not. Either you’re a grumpy, angst-ridden college kid who is too old for such a stupid children’s movie, or you’re a person who still fondly remembers classic movies like “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” with memories of simpler days.

If you scoff at the idea of watching a movie comparable to “Mulan,” then you can safely avoid this movie. If you feel nostalgic when people mention Disney films and wish they would make more, then you are in luck.

Disney’s recent animated tale truly matches up to the standards of past films, but never surpasses them. If you can stomach this idea, then you will enjoy the film from start to finish.

“The Princess and the Frog” follows the Disney archetype very closely. Misunderstood Disney princess (or soon to be princess) struggles to prove that she is something more than meets the eye, meets her prince

But can’t be with him immediately, has villains chasing her (with no real motivation besides that the villains are just plain evil), and sings throughout the film about her dreams and woes.

While “The Princess and the Frog” might seem like one cliché after the other, it does manage to mix up the formula.

The film is most notable for featuring the first black princess, which initially caused some controversy.

The main character, Tiana, is different from previous entries into Disney royalty besides just race, though. She’s not some helpless damsel in distress hoping to find her one true love.

Tiana is a girl who was raised in the poor part of New Orleans. Her only dream is to become financially independent and start her own business, which is almost unheard of in Disney fairy tales.

The setting also sets this animated adventure apart from past ones.

When I heard that New Orleans was going to be the setting for this movie, I was skeptical, but Disney managed to make the city look beautiful, like it could have been the capital of some fictional kingdom. At the same time they make New Orleans recognizable with steamboats, swamps and huge manors, giving the city character.

The film also continues the Disney tradition of music. “The Princess and the Frog” is scored by Randy Newman, best known for providing the music for most Pixar movies.
While the music is enjoyable, it isn’t quite as catchy or as memorable as classics found in “The Little Mermaid” or “The Lion King.”

Once you eject the DVD you probably won’t have any of the songs stuck in your head, but will probably have the urge to download soundtracks of Disney’s past.

Overall “The Princess and the Frog” won’t be going down in the history books for being an instant classic.

It will probably best be remembered for featuring a black princess and being Disney’s relaunch of animated musicals. If you find yourself aching for just one more animated movie from your childhood, go ahead and rent it. You won’t be disappointed. The film is extremely visually appealing and has plenty of laughs.

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Right Yaaa Wrong Movie Review

Sunny Deol is back with a bang. This time, in a powerful thriller, with a generous dose of Deol action. It's a game of Hide and Seek; a plot, which pairs two thoroughbred cops.

Who are best of friends, in a volatile courtroom drama that threatens to tear the fabric of their friendship. One is out to prove that the other has committed a premeditated, cold-blooded murder, the other maintains his innocence.

There is one very powerful line mouthed by Irrfan Khan when he tells his fellow police officers, 'We joined the force to wipe out criminals, not write eulogies on a friend.' Sunny Deol and Irrfan Khan come out with such powerful performances that this film is worth going miles to see.

Both duty-bound cops caught in a situation none would like to be in. Close friends who know where to draw the line where friendship ends and duty begins. One, out to save the law from making an ass of itself; the other using the loopholes in the law. Irrfan gives another terrific performance. Sunny, after the action-packed first half, speaks in a deafening silence from his wheelchair.

Director Neeraj Pathak has strung together a set-piece, which he executes with precision. Right from the action in the first frame to the introduction of Konkona Sen Sharma's character post interval, he has stitched together a fabulous script. To me, it's a script without loopholes. Watertight.

Vinay Patnaik (Irrfan Khan) and Ajay Sridhar (Sunny Deol) hunt in pairs. They operate on dangerous missions and on one such outing, Ajay is maimed. He takes a bullet to his spine and is bound to a wheelchair. Frustrated, he wants to end his life. He involves his wife (Isha Koppikar) and stepbrother to help him set up his death as an accident. He also has an insurance policy amounting to Rs 5 crore that will benefit his family.
Ajay draws up the plan with the two, who are hesitant at first, and establishes a perfect alibi for them. The plans seem to be moving perfectly but... I want spoil the sequence for you!

The courtroom scenes are intense. Konkona being a tough professional, taking on her brother in court, and then being the sister at home is a class act. Two diverse emotions within one frame.

Isha Koppikar comes out with a fine performance. Deepal Shaw in her limited role, as the only woman officer, makes a solid impact with her first scene switching from a bai to a gun-totting cop. Is it right for a friend to set up an investigation for murder, or wrong? Is it right for a sister to defend her brother's best friend in court against her own brother, or wrong? Is it right to tell the truth at the right time, or wrong?

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Movie Review - 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'

Having seen this slooooow pot boiler a few months ago, I’m hugely surprised to see the plethora of five-star reviews adorning its stylish poster campaign.

Approaching this as someone unfamiliar with the hugely successful Swedish source novel by late author Stieg Larsson (important to note in offering.

A critique of a book-to-screen adaptation), it turned out to be a mildly diverting, sporadically intriguing, ambitiously sprawling thriller, that’s in the end a tad bit dull. That’s not a poster quote you’d want to see.

Forty years ago, a member of an affluent family vanished from the estate, and her disappearance remains unsolved. Convinced that it was murder, her uncle hires a controversial journalist (Mikael Nyqvist) and the tattooed titular hacker (Noomi Rapace) to unearth the family secrets. Upturning stones and linking her whereabouts to numerous gruesome murders spanning four decades brings much unwanted attention that tests our detective duo’s willingness to push the case even further.

Strangely enough, the film that this draws immediate comparisons with is Ron Howard’s lamentable adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, a film so literal and exposition heavy in translation from the page that you’d expect Tom Hanks to be reading his lines directly from the book. I’m not suggesting for a minute that this is anywhere near as bad as that, indeed it’s refreshing how “un-Hollywood” it is with its approach, but it does suffer from that same episodic structure that affects any film intent on cramming too much story into an already bloated running time.

This results in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo feeling like three movies in one. Part one is an hour of intense, and at times explicitly gruelling, character development; part two is the internet search engine assisted investigation; and then the final, and strongest act, is The Silence of the Lambs (to which this owes a huge debt) game of cat and mouse. Hopefully this approach will pay dividends when the upcoming sequels, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, are released later this year.

The benefit of the prolonged set-up is that it helps to establish, along with intermittent flashbacks, a really interesting anti-hero in Rapace’s Lisbeth. Think Clarisse Starling in a leather jacket; a tortured (literally) soul that conveys strength her small frame belies. Her motivations are guarded and her actions very unpredictable, it’s the occasional dropping of her veil that maintains the narrative intrigue much more than the Murder She Wrote whodunit.

Pulse raising moments are a rarity; investigations are of the Zodiac variety, lots of photograph purveying and chin scratching while spouting theories. You have to wait until the finale for anything that isn’t pedestrian in execution. This is not a scathing criticism, just a warning to be prepared to pay attention.

An admirable fusion of arthouse sensibilities and an extremely dark exploration of the macabre, this is by no means a classic, often feeling like it could have benefited from being a Red Riding style mini-series, but it features a strong debut performance that just about saves it from being a disappointment.

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Thanks Maa - Movie Review

A street kid is answering the nature’s call in the open when two more join him for a common laxation act and strike an impromptu interrogation on the spot. But rather than repelling, the smutty scene keeps you riveted. This isn’t the usual crap that Bollywood serves you almost every week.

Thanks Maa is no shitty business. Never since Salaam Bombay or Slumdog Millionaire have the street kids from Mumbai slums been portrayed more realistically and rivetingly in a feature film. All thanks to this maa of meaningful cinema.

Five street kids team up in pickpocketing unsuspecting passengers on platforms. Soda (Salman) leads the team with Municipality (Shams) while the kiddos including Dhed-Shana (Jaffer), Cutting (Faayaz) and Sursuri (Almas) follow suit.

Municipality lands up in reformatory and while escaping, comes across a two-day old abandoned baby. When the apathetic society turns a blind eye towards the infant, he becomes his caretaker and decides to reunite the child with his mother. With the help of his group, he runs relentlessly across the city in this quest while keeping hopes of chancing upon his own mother who abandoned him years ago.

The film works largely for the amount of authenticity that director Irfan Kamal imparts to every frame of the film. Right from casting actual slum kids to training them through extensive workshops, the film boasts of undisputed credibility throughout its treatment. True to the street-smart city lingo, almost every line in the film is marked with expletives galore that are spoken with as much nonchalance by the kids as the city does through the day. One could argue on the extent and intensity of the abusive language but the director seems to be in no mood to compromise on the essence.

The writing by Irfan Kamal and Vishal Vijay Kumar is original, hard-hitting, layered and enters territories untouched so far on the screen. The protagonist’s selfless journey to unite the child with mother is interestingly structured through his encounters with unique characters like a druggie cabbie (Sanjay Mishra), a philanderer (Ranvir Shorey), a prostitute (Mukta Barve), a eunuch (Jalees Sherwani), a priest (Barry John) and more muddled mortals like these. While having an array of grey characters, the film never gets judgmental, suggestive of treatment characteristic of Madhur Bhandarkar movies.

The screenplay is skillfully sketched with scenes that show a new perspective of the city which every time adds to the protagonist’s struggle. At its core, the film is essentially about abandoned infants that frequently make newspaper headlines and hope for a better life (rather life) for them that they are deprived of. And the beauty of the narrative is in its irony that when the protagonist is actually successful in finding the infant’s mother, he loses the hope and inclination to find his own mother.

Despite its dignified concerns and destitute setting, there is a silver lining of sarcastic humour arousing from strange situations and the chemistry between the children. Atypical of artistic arena, the pacing is thankfully swift and the treatment doesn’t get abstract. The length does seem long towards the latter reels and trimming it a bit would have helped. The climax seems somewhat hurried and some more clarity in storytelling here could have made things easier. Also the coincidental appearance of the protagonist’s (Municipality) mother towards the end looks formulaic and was absolutely avoidable.

The modest film doesn’t trade off on technicalities. Essentially the focus is not on highlighting the beauty of the city and cinematographer Ajayan Vincent captures the unclean and uncouth backstreets of Bombay with excellence. Ranjit Barot’s background score adds value to the scenes whenever required and doesn’t force itself on the film. The sound designing and editing are efficient.

The film predominately works for its natural performances from the bachcha company. None of them are sugary sweet or blatantly boisterous like typical kiddo acts in films. Master Shams as the lead player is compelling, confident and the right choice for the National Award (Best Child Actor) that he won. He is brilliant in the pre-interval outburst. Fayyaz as the smallest in the group gets the best one-liners and complements Jaffer at every step. Almas is likeable despite her perpetually running nose. The eldest in the group, Salman puts in a perfect street-smart act as required from his character.

From the supporting cast, Mukta Barve is effective in a short role. Barry John struggles to speak Hindi and seems absolutely uncomfortable in his character. Writer-lyricist Jalees Sherwani is efficient in the single scene where he plays a eunuch. From his patented fatherly figure, it’s a divergent and dulcet change to see Alok Nath play a pedophile. Sanjay Mishra, Raghuvir Yadav and Ranvir Shorey add good support. Thanks to heartening films like these, one never loses faith and hope from Hindi cinema. For a new perspective on the mean city and meaningful cinema, Thanks Maa is strongly recommended!

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