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Rustom
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz, Arjan Bajwa, Esha Gupta
Director: Tinu Suresh Desai

A naval officer kills his wife’s boyfriend and pleads not guilty. The jury weighs its options and declares it an accidental death. The decorated navy commander walks scot-free.

But there’s more to the case than what meets the eyes. The only person who knows what exactly is the missing link is Rustom Pavri, the accused standing in the witness box.

And that is the clincher in the film that spins off on the sensational KM Nanavati case that caught national attention in 1959.
Rustom (Akshay Kumar) can’t keep his hands off his wife Cynthia (Ileana D’Cruz), but work commitments send him on a six month trip. The tour finishes before time, and Rustom returns to find Cynthia in the arms of a hot-headed millionaire, Vikram Makhija (Arjan Bajwa).

Rustom’s raging anger knows no bounds, and Vikram is killed. The officer decides to fight his own case, and cleverly places his pawns. The local media shows tremendous interest in his personality. But there’s still a long way before he can present the case as a crime of passion instead of cold-blooded murder.

This case is to be judged by a jury that comprises of local dignitaries. The society’s idea of infidelity and consenting adults are likely to impact the final outcome.

It’s early 1960s and the Indian navy is making its presence felt in the Arabian Sea. Men in uniform command respect, and envy. Added to that, Rustom is from an affluent class in an economically struggling country.

Though part of the story is based on fact, it’s the relationship drama that actually makes this a thriller. It’s a juicy retro story given more panache with a voiceover by Manoj Bajpayee, who introduces us to Mumbai’s Queen’s Necklace in sepia.

The premise is fairly simple. Director Tinu Desai’s characters reveal themselves rather obviously: A heartbroken naval officer, his cheating wife, the Casanova lover, his evil sister, sympathetic cops, an ambitious reporter and an overtly confused jury. But, slowly and surely, the movie grips you.

Now, Akshay Kumar is playing to the gallery here. But, he gives a fine touch to Rustom Pavri. More on the lines of Special 26 than Airlift or Baby, Kumar tones it down to suit the character. Sharp, deceptive and likeable. Most of the scenes are planned around him at the helm, and it’s a wise move, for he knows how to keep the tempo.

What also works is the courtroom drama. Desai takes her time with it — almost the entire second half of the movie. The cross examination is teased into the script, and actors Kumud Mishra, Sachin Khedekar, Pawan Malhotra and Anang Desai keep you hooked through it.

But not everything in Rustom is proportioned right. Lousy special effects and the language of certain characters are a few things that warp the authentic feel of the movie. Yet, somehow Rustom doesn’t falter, except when you realise the movie two and a half hours long.

Akshay Kumar ensures that you root for Rustom Pavri. After Holiday, Baby and Airlift, it’s one more step for his brand of patriotism. It’s an intriguing film for sure.

Rating:

Movie Review : Rustom

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Mohenjo Daro
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pooja Hegde
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker

It breaks my heart to say this because so much talent and sweat is involved, but Mohenjo Daro is a mess. It has ambition and scale. It also has the industrial-strength sincerity of Hrithik Roshan, who pours his soul into every scene. But the burden of carrying this leaden, cartoon-like narrative proves too much even for his Herculean shoulders. At best, the film works as unintentional comedy.

I’m sure that director Ashutosh Gowariker started with a grand vision – a historical film set in 2016 BC, essentially Amar Chitra Katha meets 300 meets Baahubali. The film doesn’t claim to be an accurate representation of the ancient Indian civilisation. In essence, Ashutosh, who has also written the story, was creating his own world. The vision deserves applause, but the director has been utterly let down by his own writing. The story is so simplistic and feeble that the film starts wobbling in the first few minutes. And you have approximately 150 more to go.

We are introduced to the noble and handsome Sarman, who can kill a crocodile. Sarman seems like a regular village hero, with a sidekick named Hojo – perhaps inspired by Hodor of Game of Thrones. Except that he dreams of a one-horned animal and is desperate to see the big city – Mohenjo Daro. Soon he makes his way there.

Before you know it, Sarman and Chaani, the priest’s daughter, are making eyes at each other. He saves her from horses – they are rushing at her; he jumps in between and shouts ‘Shaanth’. And they listen! But Chaani is already booked – she has to marry Moonja, the glowering son of Mohenjo Daro’s pradhan, Maham. Between them, the murderous Moonja and Maham keep all the citizens of this town terrorised and subservient. Obviously Sarman isn’t going to stand around while injustice is meted out every day.

This battle of good versus evil is interrupted by traditions like Milan Raat – basically a mass dating night during which men have to declare their love for the women they desire. Sarman has already been identified as a troublemaker, so he participates in disguise – he puts two white lines on his cheeks and red paint around his eyes. And guess what – no one recognises him. I think the weight of all the headgear these people wear had probably addled their brains.

In another scene, Chaani disguises herself just by taking off the ridiculous feathered headdress she wears! And guess what, no one recognises her either. I was bemused to discover that the ‘palat’ rule was operational in prehistoric India too. You know, palat from DDLJ – when Raj decides that if Simran loves him, she will turn for another look. Sarman uses the same line and, of course, Chaani looks back.

When Sarman gets too problematic, Maham throws him into an arena with oversized, dreadlocked warriors called Bakar-Zokar. Their fight sequence is the highlight of the film. As is AR Rahman’s fantastic music. The rest of it veers between bewildering and bad. Ashutosh tries to bolster the story by tacking on larger lessons on greed, the price of progress and revenge, but it just doesn’t hold together.

Debutant Pooja Hegde looks lovely but I hope she gets to do more in her next film.

In an interview, Ashutosh had requested viewers to suspend disbelief when they see the film. I really tried. But, eventually, Maham’s horned headdress defeated me.

Rating:

Movie Review : Mohenjo Daro

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A Flying Jatt
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nathan Jones
Director: Remo D’Souza

His father was the first Sikh to train at the Shaolin school of martial arts and his mother is a fireball personified. His city is under threat and millions of lives are at stake. But, he won’t do his superhero act unless a small child screams: A Flying Jatt.

Somehow the pattern of superhero films seeps into the structure, but what matters is the treatment and how the ‘local’ touch has been added. A Flying Jatt borrows heavily from Hollywood superhero clichés and mixes them with popular Bollywood formula.

In a Kung Fu Hustle-inspired set-up, Mrs Dhillon (Amrita Singh) runs a colony where nobody pays her the rent. She loves her drink and has no filter on her mouth. Her happy-go-unlucky son Aman (Tiger Shroff) is a martial arts teacher and is in love with Kirti (Jacqueline Fernandez).

Their colony is a thorn in the eyes of Malhotra (Kay Kay Menon), an unethical businessman, for he wants to build a bridge through it.

Our hero is yet to discover his powers because this is what superheroes do. They find their actual self much later in life. Just like most Hollywood superheroes.

Raka (Nathan Jones), a terrible growler, is hired to wipe off Mrs Dhillon’s colony but he transforms into an even worse growler after realising that he feeds on pollution. There’s an indigenous angle. Chacha Choudhary’s Raka, not pollution.

Traits added to this Indian superhero by Remo D’Souza work sometimes. Acrophobia restricts Aman from flying high, and dogs don’t let him land. He obeys traffic signals even during his flight and keeps trying funny costumes on his mother’s insistence.

But, he goes back to Spiderman for a cue on his love life: The hidden identity and the first kiss. A bit of Wolverine doesn’t harm him either. An action sequence shows him change into Quicksilver (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) where everything is slow compared to his speed.

Sin City also comes into play when Jones and Shroff face-off in mud, dark and rain. There are other ‘inspirations’ as well. And, mind you, these are the popular ones and easy to recognise.

Being in-your-face preachy about pollution, however, doesn’t help. It keeps dragging as if the director isn’t sure about the viewer’s grasping power.

It’s not that Remo doesn’t know his characters. From a friendzoned teacher to a flashy tycoon to a giggling beauty, his typical people are there, but he needed much more to hold the audience’s attention in this film with a long second half.

Shroff is agile and earnest too. His love for acrobatics serves the purpose but a religious overdose dampens the spirit.

Superheroes need to rise on their own after a while. His comic skills are at work and this may go down well with kids who’re in search of someone to replace Krrish as their favourite Indian superhero. Or, is it still Shaktiman?

Amrita Singh is loud yet funny. Gaurav Pandey as her second son adds substantially to the family drama.
What’s a Remo film without groovy numbers and trendy dancing! There, ‘Beat pe booty’ and the title track may interest you.

A Flying Jatt begins on a good note, picks up the pace, throws some light-hearted moments, and then faces the curse of the second half. It drags its feet from becoming the smart film just when it’s needed and goes for the all-explaining commentary.
Without the spoon-feeding, it would have become a much more entertaining film.

Rating:

Movie Review : A Flying Jatt

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Akira
Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Anurag Kashyap, Konkona Sensharma
Director: AR Murugadoss

Director AR Murugadoss’ third film after Ghajini and Holiday is an attempt to establish Akira as the new Shiva, the excellent student protagonist in Ram Gopal Varma’s 1989 film. But a lousy script, tedious length and over the top acting restrict it from becoming even a patch on it.

Akira Sharma (Sonakshi Sinha), explained as gracefully strong, chooses martial arts over dancing when she is 11 years old after realising the value of physical power. A local hero in Jodhpur, Akira decides to come to the big bad world of Mumbai for higher education.

Thanks to her habit of standing up to the authorities, she becomes one of the most talked about students in her college.
On the other side of the fence, a group of weed smoking cops are taking the law for a ride.

They cross paths and Akira unwittingly lands up in a vicious net of deceit, crime and betrayal.
Will she punch her way out of this trap?

When a wide-eyed ACP Govind Rane (Anurag Kashyap) informs us about his weed, ‘South ka maal hai, achcha hoga’ (This stuff is from South, must be good), we take it as a compliment about Murugadoss’ filmography. He scares a college professor, subordinates, pavement dwellers, students, a dubious woman, two of her allies – basically anyone who comes within his sight.

He is up against a woman of substance, but the weak build-up cools off the heat. Maintaining the tradition of popular South Indian action films, Murugadoss relies on one-liners and the populist behaviour of its characters. Lacking any novelty in the story, he ends up putting Sonakshi Sinha in the situations faced by her male counterparts in countless number of films.

Projected as a woman’s fight against injustice, Akira has many loose threads. Characters keep appearing and disappearing without any justification, and that’s probably not a good thing to happen in a 138-minute film.

The scenes keep changing without establishing anything. The audience is taken from the college dungeons to the headmaster’s house to mental asylums in search of a clue, but they don’t get any.

Akira isn’t an out and out action film. In fact, the makers are too concerned about making it look like a family drama. Lacklustre supporting cast and depthless writing make it even duller.

Despite some shots of acid attack survivors and specially-abled children, Akira fails to evoke any solid emotion.

Rating:

Movie Review: Akira

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Freaky Ali
Director: Sohail Khan
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Amy Jackson, Arbaaz Khan, Seema Biswas, Jas Arora, Nikitan Dheer

In the game of golf, albatross is a score where the player sinks his ball into the cup ‘three strokes below the par’ (meaning three strokes less than the par score of the hole). But have you ever seen crowds go crazy with dhol and dance on a golf course? No. That only happens on a cricket ground.

Before making the final strike in Freaky Ali, Nawazuddin Siddiqui says he will make the final strike with a sixer and that is exactly what he does – both in and for the film. Sohail Khan’s latest directorial venture brings out an unseen side of the actor we would love to see more.

*Claps and whistles*.

Freaky Ali is the story of Ali (Siddiqui) who is a salesman at a small undergarments shop and is kicked out of his job just 10 minutes into the film. He takes to extortion before his talent as a golfer is discovered. The journey from a small ‘basti’ to playing in a golf championship is what Khan narrates through his film. It marks several firsts for Siddiqui – playing the main lead in a ‘commercial’ film, his first dance number and his first comedy.

With an actor as versatile as Siddiqui headlining the film, expectations are certainly high. How well does the movie match them?

In Freaky Ali, Nawaz is the ‘gali ka’ cricket-star who can hit four six in four balls to ensure his team wins!

Freaky Ali opens with Siddiqui’s now legendary ‘chaddi-chaddi’ as we see him trying his best to sell underwears on the street. For the next 30 minutes, we kept wondering what made Siddiqui sign the film. From a very Amitabh-Bachchan-from-the 70’s-style introduction (a short monologue in front of God. *Yawn*) to being the neighbourhood cricket star and claiming to be the fighter against destiny – the film moves in a cliched, rushed manner that gets on the nerves and fails to establish the numerous characters that keep entering the frame.

Thankfully, Siddiqui, the actor, soon overcomes the banal storyline and right from the moment he starts his training to become a golfer, we start enjoying his presence. Co-writers Khan and Raj Shaandilya have come up with a modern, fun-filled screenplay that makes the cliched plot not just bearable but enjoyable.

Sample some of the gems:

This is how Arbaaz describes the game of golf when Siddiqui asks him: “‘Gulf’? Ye ameer ka kanche jaisa khel hai. Isme ek ball ko gaddhe me daalte hain.” (Golf is like the rich man’s game of marbles. You need to sink a ball in a hole.)

When an attendant asks Siddiqui what would he like, he retorts: “Bandra me do sau gaj ka plot chahiye, dilaega? Nahi na? To puchh na khane me kya lenge?(I would like a 100 yards plot in Bandra, will you get it for me? No, so why don’t you just ask what would I like to eat?)”

And every time someone asks Siddiqui to ‘shut up’, he just retorts ‘pantss down’.

As for the performance, Siddiqui proves once again that he is the star when it comes to acting. Seema Biswas, who plays his foster mom, is good but only in parts because she has her own share of over-the-top melodrama.

But there is this competition of over-acting between Nikitan Dheer and Jas Arora. While Dheer plays a goon, Arora is the reigning golf champion. So much so that even our hero keeps telling them, “Aajkal aise kaun baat karta hai – amer-gareeb ..ye, wo?” and “Tujhe cricket me hona chahiye, bahut over karta hai”.

Despite the cliches and melodrama, we found Freaky Ali worth the time and money. From the ‘talented actor’ for the intelligentsia to the common man’s entertainer, Siddiqui is one star we love.

Rating: 

Movie Review : Freaky Ali

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Baar Baar Dekho
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Katrina Kaif
Director: Nitya Mehra

You wake up and realise that it’s going be the last day of your life. You look back at it and regret the moments you missed in search of a dream. But, this isn’t over yet. You can still alter the situation. The catch is you can change just one thing, but will you be able to spot that one tiny thing.

Jai (Sidharth Malhotra) is a genius who wants to make it big in the world of mathematics. His research papers are accepted at various schools throughout the world and he is patiently waiting for a call from the Cambridge University, his dream destination. But before that he has to get married to Diya (Katrina Kaif), a girl fond of her family and India.

It’s a clash of different thought processes. While Jai is concerned about his own career, Diya is all for the community and how our happiness depends on people around us.

There is no time machine, but time travel has been used as the narrative technique. Our professor keeps going back and forth in time and that doesn’t stop him from shaking a leg or enjoying exotic locales. In short, Nitya Mehra makes sure you don’t miss any of the typical Bollywood ingredients.

Baar Baar Dekho is not Run Lola Run or Back To The Future or even Vantage Point. It’s nowhere close to The Butterfly Effect either. It’s a typical ‘masala’ entertainer that wants to re-establish the emotions that Karan Johar and his team have done in many films. Johar is one of the producers of Baar Baar Dekho.

Time travelling begins to lose its sheen after a while. Predictability and reluctance to break out of the comfort zone on the director’s part make it repetitive.

What works for Baar Baar Dekho is its high emotional quotient. Malhotra has restricted himself from going overboard, and that works tremendously in favour of the film. He is relatable, likeable and confident.

His chemistry with Kaif, however, doesn’t take off as the latter drastically fails to do the emotional bits. She looks ravishing in the songs, but that’s probably not enough.

Rajit Kapoor as Pandit Ji tries his bit but the other secondary characters lack depth restricting Baar Baar Dekho from rising above the average. A little work on Kapoor’s role could have done wonders for this story.

Confused writing adds up to the film’s woes. The arguments given in favour or against of familial values don’t sound concrete and makes the characters flippant. It takes them really long to utter that ‘no equation is perfect without balance’.

Baar Baar Dekho is hardly even a bird’s eye view of the new generation’s choices and desires. Its philosophy lacks strength and gloss takes the centre stage right from the beginning.

But, if you stop taking it seriously then it may provide you some happy moments in exchange. After all, who doesn’t like a big, fat Punjabi wedding!

Rating:

Movie Review : Baar Baar Dekho review

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Pink
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Amitabh Bachchan, Angad Bedi
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury

Two cars are moving in two different directions. Each has three passengers – the first one has girls and the second is being driven by boys. Parallel cutting suggests a connection. One of the boys is bleeding and the girls look tense. A dark and sinister night has engulfed the Delhi-NCR region and everyone’s waiting for the morning light.

This is your story. Our story.

Meenal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari) and Andrea Tariang (Andrea Tariang) are working women living in a posh south Delhi locality. Their daily struggle with neighbours’ questioning eyes has made them brave and ready for tougher challenges. They meet Raajveer Singh (Angad Bedi) and his friends at a rock concert which ends when Raajveer gets hit by a bottle and starts bleeding.

Raajveer is rich, highly educated and well connected. He decides to seek vengeance on the girls. A war between the genders starts and the police, society, parents, judiciary and everyone else become a party.

After delivering acclaimed Bengali dramas like Anuranan, Antahin and Aparajita Tumi, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury forays into Hindi with Pink, and what a debut it is. There aren’t any of the usual jazzy Bollywood criminals here yet you feel terrified. No dramatic sounds to enhance the mood, still you want to hear it. No dim lights, but you want to look away.
The reason is simple: You know this world and its inhabitants.

If Kanu Behl’s Titli brought out the harsh truths of east Delhi’s lower middle class vicinity, Pink sketches a similar picture of a tony south Delhi. Unfortunately, the attitude of people inhabiting these districts is common across the country and could even be universal.

Pretension, ego, sense of male superiority and skewed ideas of perfect womanhood make it complicated, intriguing, disgusting and disturbing. But, we have seen this happening around us in real life.

So, it doesn’t come as a surprise when the police arrest Meenal under Section 307 IPC, attempt to murder. Who cares if she did it in self-defence. Nobody knows what happened that fateful night. Everyone’s assuming. Because the girls went with the boys and they ate and drank together, moral yardsticks have to be set. A woman investigative officer doesn’t help either. After all, she too is a part of this society.

But, a well-intentioned man is yet to enter the game and could change it for the girls. Once a successful lawyer, Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan) had to hang his boots because of a deteriorating mental condition. Sehgal returns to the courtroom for one last time.

This can be surprising for people who want a woman to fight on behalf of others, but then is there really a match for that devastating baritone and intimidating eyes? Bachchan gives it all and drives his points home with such force that you fall in love with him all over again. The master’s complete dominance silences the courtroom and the audience. Don’t be amazed if you start feeling uncomfortable and break into tears and claps.

Every single actor has upped the ante in this 136-minute riveting drama. If Taapsee excels in initial courtroom scenes, Kirti takes it to a whole new level in the finale. The girls have shown a tremendous range and Pink belongs to them. Nobody has overshadowed them, not even Bachchan or a shrewd lawyer Prashant, played by a super intense Piyush Mishra.

Vijay Verma, who plays Angad Bedi’s friend Ankit in the film, also leaves his mark. He has shown a lot of promise in a cameo.

Attention to details is visible in the screenplay. Scenes keep changing at a rapid pace without being preachy. Also, it’s a case which is very ordinary in nature. Hundreds of such cases are filed every day. What’s the big deal about this one?
Well, that’s exactly the big deal. It can be your story. It’s about every woman living in this egoistically twisted man’s world. It’s about parents, brothers and husbands worried about their loved ones’ safety.

Pink keeps us gripped from all sides even as a strictly entertainment package. The intricacies of the case unfold like a thriller. You won’t miss the usual Bollywood courtroom theatrics either. Still you will get to know a thing or two about the contemporary feminist debates.

But, this isn’t the real success of Pink.

It comes during end credits when we see what exactly happened that night. But, by then most of us have already taken a decision and know whose side we need to take for a better future.

Pink shows what meticulous planning can do to a film. And, of course, Amitabh Bachchan’s enigmatic persona will guide you through the darkness. Not to be missed at all.

Rating:

Movie Review : Pink

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Raaz Reboot
Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Kriti Kharbanda, Gaurav Arora
Director: Vikram Bhatt

You think only human beings face morality crisis? Well, ghosts too have emotions and respect the unsaid social mores. At least, the non-judgmental one in director Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz Reboot does. He doesn’t kiss women with a ‘mangalsutra’ (The necklace married Hindu women wear). But he does hope that she takes it off herself. Of course, there is no stopping him after that.

The story unfolds in Dracula’s own country, Romania. But it is no big deal as our protagonists, Rehaan (Gaurav Arora) and Shaina (Kirti Kharbanda), know that the Count’s castle is miles away from their house. Also, they have been there in the past and their love had blossomed in Romania. But it is different this time.

The married couple is going through a tough time. Their relationship is strained and what could be a better timing than this for Aditya’s (Emraan Hashmi) entry. After all, he has made a career out of luring committed women into his love trap. Remember Murder, Aashiq Banaya Aapne, Gangster and many other films.

So, the game is poised now. You will witness a first of its kind spirit this time. Did I say that Raaz Reboot is a ghost story from the beginning? No? Ok, Shaina gets possessed ten minutes down the film.

The local priest can’t do much about it. The ghost knows the priest’s past. It literally blackmails the cleric to leave the scene with a torrent of reminders about his tainted past with kids. You know what I mean.

We need our own guy in command of the situation now. So, a blind Indian student studying Psychometry in Romania enters the game. That’s an actual term which means object reading. Indians are anyway possessive about their belongings.

The drama escalates and the ghost says, f*** y**. Yes, this spirit swears. Modernity or bad manners, you can take your pick.

Meanwhile, you will keep spotting Hotel Transylvania, a Gypsy woman and other clichés, so that you don’t feel out of sync. Don’t forget it’s a Vikram Bhatt film.

The cleric’s failed exorcism bid means God’s reputation is at stake and that calls for some extreme measures. The rest is a permutation and combination of words – ‘spirit’, ‘possessed’, ‘danger’, ‘haunted’ and ‘Jesus’.

Soulful music will soothe your ears and Emraan Hashmi is also there. Some initial scenes of arguments between Rehaan and Shaina are well written, but that’s about it.

Raaz Reboot is a tough watch for close to 140 minutes. Great songs, but not enough to pull it out of the spirit’s grip.

Rating:

Movie Review : Raaz Reboot

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Wah Taj
Director: Ajit Sinha
Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Manjari Phadnis

A social worker will spot a huge bindi and wear well-pleated sarees, politicians are all about giving fire to chaos till they can use it to their own benefit, cops don’t care for crimes and media houses are all about getting TRPs. Sounds like a stereotypical story for a Bollywood satire. Alas, Ajit Sinha’s Wah Taj does not come across as the satire-comedy it aims to be.

The film starts with Shreyas Talpade and Manjari Phadnis trying to enter Taj Mahal on a tractor with the plan to shift base. Yes, they have their entire household luggage with them, including a Krishna idol and a khat (country-made cot). The antics of a Marathi couple claiming its ownership on Taj Mahal, the media frenzy built around the claim and politicians and social workers jumping in the arena for some amusement and profit could have made for a fun watch had the filmmaker established his characters well.

The film does not pause a bit to build up its characters, leaving the audience totally uninterested. We don’t empathise with the poor farmer couple struggling for the land and we don’t laugh at their smart one-liners because they are too cliched.

If we try to find good things about the movie, the intentions definitely come first on the small list. The courtroom scene too, can be there. The judge’s reactions and the lawyers’ arguments are fun to watch.

As for performances, Shreyas and Manjari are good in parts, but the melodrama keeps them from being convincing. The other actors are mostly overacting, completely killing the film.

At scripting stage, Wah Taj could have been a good watch, but what we see onscreen is totally avoidable.

Rating: 

Movie Review : Wah Taj

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Parched
Direction: Leena Yadav
Actors: Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Adil Hussain, Surveen Chawla

The best thing about Parched is that it dispels any notions you might have about rural Indian women being prudes. Rani, Lajjo and Bijli are raunchier than most women you meet at your local Starbucks. They love talking about sex. In fact Bijli is a sex worker, and her sales pitch is that a night with her will bring an earthquake to your bed.

The story is set in a fictional village in Gujarat. These women are bound by centuries of rigid tradition. Here, girls are married at 14. One married into the neighbouring village is routinely raped by her father-in-law and brother-in-law. She returns home but is forced by the elders to go back to her sasuraal.

Lajjo’s husband beats her mercilessly because she can’t bear children. Rani is a 32-year-old widow steeped in debt and unable to handle her headstrong, arrogant son. Each day brings fresh misery but these feisty women manage to steal moments of happiness. They find slivers of joy and cheer with each other.

Director Leena Yadav, who has also written the story, has etched these women with great affection and compassion. Their sisterhood has a depth and strength that doesn’t crack, not even when Rani’s son approaches Bijli with a bundle of notes.

The actresses playing the parts — Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte and Surveen Chawla — deliver heartfelt performances. They are defiantly strong and desperately sad.

And yet their pain didn’t pierce me in the way that Pink did last week. There are moments of genuine intimacy between the women. Their bond and love is authentic. But the larger narrative is inert and clunky.

Parched feels like a film written to make larger points. The events don’t flow organically and a few threads are just left hanging. Leena hints at a sexual intimacy between Rani and Lajjo but then it’s never addressed again. And none of the male characters is even remotely interesting. Most of them are abusive, alcoholic, sexual predators.

Adil Hussain pops in to do a Brad Pitt from Thelma and Louise — basically provide one night of great sex — but this bit of the narrative is utterly unconvincing.

Parched gets bogged down by its good intentions. But these spirited female characters will stay with you. So will the luscious cinematography by Oscar winner Russell Carpenter.

Parched lives have never looked better.

Rating:

Movie Review : Parched

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Banjo
Direction: Ravi Jadhav
Actors: Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis Fakhri, Aditya Kumar, Dharmesh Yelande, Ram Menon

Somewhere inside Banjo is a sweet, spirited film about a band of slumdog musicians. You can see it in the innovative way in which director Ravi Jadhav sets up the band members. There’s Paper. He’s called that because he delivers newspapers (but he also spends several hours a day fetching water for his family, so Paper’s grandest dream is a water tanker parked outside his shanty). Grease spends all day covered in car oil and dirt — he fantasises about a white home, white clothes and even a white watch. And then there’s Vajaya, who only wants to get on an airplane so he can push a button and have an airhostess ask, ‘How can I help you?’.

These guys put a smile on your face. I was hooked instantly.

But Jadhav’s unique voice gets flattened out quickly. The culprits are a convoluted, over-stuffed storyline, excessive visual razzmatazz, and an uneven soundtrack.

Jadhav is a celebrated, National Award-winning Marathi film director. He’s making his Hindi film debut here, but much is lost in translation. The flashes of freshness are drowned by the illogical melodrama. After all, how seriously can you take any film in which a permanently pouty Nargis Fakhri roams around Mumbai slums in tiny shorts looking for a Banjo band?

Her character, Chris, is a New Yorker who comes to Mumbai without any leads — she doesn’t have a name or even a photograph. But she’s mesmerised by the music.

Banjo isn’t just about Chris’s search. Jadhav also wants to comment on class wars, what makes a true artist, the transformative power of music and of India. These people might lead hardscrabble lives but they have big hearts. There is a sub-plot about a rival banjo band, land-grabbing and even an attempted murder.

At the centre of it all is Taraat, played by Riteish Deshmukh. Taraat means bewda or drunkard. Taraat is described as ‘Banjo ki duniya ka Bachchan’. He’s a gritty, banjo-playing goon-musician. Taraat feels like he has stepped out of a 1980s film.

The movie labours to showcase him as a rockstar, using slow-motion entries and one-liners. All the attempts at creating a credible romance between him and Chris are sabotaged by Nargis’s absolute lack of expression. She’s both beautiful and unintentionally comical.

So Riteish valiantly struggles to hold it together. I enjoyed the small moments, like Taraat describing a coughing old man as ‘hamara cough parade’. I also enjoyed Vishal-Shekhar’s energetic Bappa song, and the band members, played by Aditya Kumar, Dharmesh Yelande and Ram Menon.

But mostly Banjo is an over-cooked mess.

Rating:

Movie Review : Banjo

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MS Dhoni The Untold Story
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Disha Patani, Kiara Advani
Director: Neeraj Pandey

When India is reeling at 114 for 3 against Sri Lanka in the cricket world cup final of 2011, a man decides to take charge of the situation. It helps that he is also the captain of the team. He silently walks past the crowd, enters the ground and creates history.

The cricketer’s image of rotating the bat as if he is wielding the sword is etched in our memory.

On April 2, 2011, India reaffirms its faith in the hero who was selected into the team through BCCI’s tier-two city programme.

Here, director Neeraj Pandey takes us 15 years earlier when Pan Singh Dhoni (Anupam Kher) is a pump operator in Ranchi. The local stadium needs water and that requires him to wake up at eleven in the night. He waters the stadium in a hazy winter night. Pan’s little son watches him from the balcony of his government quarter, and probably this is the moment when the kid decides to make it big in life.

It’s the story of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Sushant Singh Rajput), the current India captain and one of the game’s most popular exponents ever.

One may argue about the struggles of a player who gets into the national team at 23. There are many who keep waiting for a call till their bodies stop responding. But, ducking bouncers in search of a half volley is also a mammoth struggle.

When coach Banerjee (Rajesh Sharma) picks a football-loving kid for the school team’s wicketkeeper job, he only wanted a new boy to play well. The lad turns out to be a brute force, whose mother candidly declares, “Ye itne se me khush hone waalon mein se nahi hai” (Sky is the limit for him).

A teenage Dhoni might be a local cricketing hero, but that doesn’t mean much for his father, who wants the security of a government job for him. This forces the boy to play for small stipend money, but his friends are his strength. They show faith in Mahi, even more than his family does.

However, love doesn’t replace necessities, and the ticket collector’s job brings him to Kharagpur. Not getting enough chances, he looks impatient, but it’s just another perfectly-pitched out-swinger he needs to leave.

There excels Sushant, who is every ounce Dhoni in this ‘box-office oriented’ biopic. His body language, walk, helicopter shot, everything matches the India captain. And where even that can’t do the trick, real footage has been used.

The first half of this nearly 180-minute film goes into the riveting details of a middle-class boy’s life in the hilly town of Ranchi. People are concerned about each other, and there is a genuine love for talented kids. Nobody is a villain here, not even the cricket officials. Optimism and hard work are expected to take people to new destinations.

However, the dream can be smaller. Like, Dhoni’s sister Jayanti (Bhumika Chawla) says, “Mehnat karega toh ek din railway me RM bhi ban sakta hai” (If you’ll keep doing hard work then you can also become the RM in railways). Dhoni smiles, we too.

We knew the man, and now we have seen the journey too. So, what’s still untold?

Maybe the backroom politics of the cricket governing bodies? The pressure on the captain? The sponsors’ role?

This is the point where it begins to falter. Sushant keeps going though, like one true commander on the screen.

A love song here, an overtly dramatic scene there, slowly it becomes a typical Bollywood product. It still entertains though.

Just don’t expect any take on controversies. The film tries to establish Dhoni above all the petty issues.

A tribute to MSD’s success, this works due to the extensive research. They have also touched Dhoni’s tender sides also and the treatment is likely to suit the protagonist. In short, he may become a cleaner and bigger hero after the film.

Our heroes are generally virtuous, but a biopic also needs objectivity. The director has silver-wrapped the facts that are mostly known.

But, you have to give to Pandey to keep it intriguing enough for you to get hooked throughout the three hours. Unquestionably entertaining. Also, it’s the role of a lifetime for Sushant, and he has aced it.

Rating: 

Movie Review : MS Dhoni The Untold Story

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Mirzya
Cast: Harshvardhan Kapoor, Saiyami Kher, Anuj Choudhary
Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

“Et tu, Brute! (You too, Brutus),” says a would-be-bride’s drunk father. But the woman is far from reconciling and a silent war brews between them. Neither is the winner and the person pulling the strings is hidden in the background.

Two school kids in Jodhpur are inseparable. The rich girl isn’t concerned about the boy’s humble roots and both are happy until a tragedy tears them apart. They meet again in Udaipur after some years – now as princess Suchitra (Saiyami Kher) and horse trainer Aadil (Harshvardhan Kapoor).

Suchi’s marriage with Prince Karan (Anuj Choudhary) is impending, and it’s going to be a saga to remember, filled with rage, grief and romance.

With Mirzya, Gulzar is back to screenplay writing after 17 years. He chooses to depend on a ‘sutradhar’ (the narrator). Sometimes, it’s a voiceover, sometimes it’s a group of tribal women.

The women wear colourful clothes and dance to songs reflecting the protagonists’ mental states. Add to it Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s music that reflects the ecstatic pain of love and takes the narration forward.

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra creates a surreal world. He experiments with time warp and appears confident about the technique – having used it effectively in Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

And he is willing to add more drama. Like a stage play. Amidst colour blasts and oiled bodies, where super-slow motion shots frequently feature.

You don’t mind if Gulzar’s couplets cover almost the entire film. They are beautifully written and fantastically captured by the cinematographer Pawel Dyllus.
Also, a predictable story requires such gimmicks. We know Mirza-Sahibaan’s saga, one of Punjab’s most famous folklores. The interest was around how Mehra presents it, and he nails it, but what about intercuts to the real-time story?

In this part, he doesn’t have the luxury of Zack Snyder’s 300 like graphics, or saturated colours, or booming background score. The lead actors’ performances are his prime saviour, so giving them less dialogues appears like a wise decision. It helps in escalating the tension too.

However, the undercurrents of passion never touch the surface. Despite gloss and technical wizardry, the audience fails to feel the pain. It becomes tough for them to root for anybody. They keep watching everything from a distance.

From placement of props to every character’s marking, Mirzya shows some technical finesse. It’s shot with poetic sensibilities, but that’s probably not enough to stir the audience’s soul.

Harshvardhan Kapoor has decided to debut with an unconventional film, and he gets noticed. He underplays it, still leaves his impression in shots where he is alone on the frame. Saiyami Kher looks mysterious as Sahibaan, but somehow the other sides of her personality don’t come out.

You feel for Anuj Choudhary. His character doesn’t get time to switch gears. His transitions are too fast, but he does it with complete submission. A prince’s carefully worn humility to dejected anger, he displays a range of emotions, leaving us wanting for more.

This 135-minute Shakespearean drama is visually impressive, but lacks the essence of a heart wrenching love-story. It’s a period drama trying hard to be a musical. And music? Probably the best in last couple of years.

Rating:

Movie Review : Mirzya

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Rock On 2
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor
Director: Shujaat Saudagar

Eight years after Rock On went on to win hearts and awards, its sequel, Rock On 2, which is a far better film than what its trailers suggest, could follow suit.

Rock On ended with Rob’s (Luke Kenny) death and the reuniting of the all-boy band Magik. Things have changed since then. Aditya Shroff (Farhan Akhtar) is again delusional. He has left music and does cooperative farming somewhere in the Northeast.
Joe (Arjun Rampal) is a reality show judge and a club owner. He appears to be the most successful of the lot.

KD (Purab Kohli) thinks the band should come together again to infuse some purpose in their lives, but that doesn’t seem possible.

Life’s harsh realities are squeezing them into a corner. Making music is the only skill they have, but they aren’t able to create anything new. It’s a perfect juncture to introduce new characters who can carry forward the legacy of Magik.

And here come Jiah (Shraddha Kapoor) and Uday (Shashank Arora), promising but untapped talents.

Shujaat Saudagar, the director, keeps connecting the threads without delving much into the past. Characters keep referring to their older days without getting into a flashback. This evades a direct comparison between Saudagar and Abhishek Kapoor, who had directed the original. Even when there is a flashback, it’s a song.

The prime focus is on creating an environment where the characters can introspect. Jiah is mostly seen in dimly lit rooms and Aditya keeps struggling in the dark. They meet, light candles, sing and look cheerful, only to return to an atmosphere of uncertainty.

The side stories work and where there is nothing to supplement the character, the actor rises. After Titli and Brahman Naman, Shashank Arora shines again. Arjun Rampal’s top form and Farhan Akhtar’s understanding of the narrative add a lot to this musical.

The use of the Northeastern milieu pays back towards the end when the emotions explode out of the claustrophobic spaces. The expressions on Arjun Rampal’s face during the finale say it all as he transforms into a guitar wizard.

Like Rock On, this one is also about the male bonding, on and off the stage. Shraddha Kapoor’s presence adds a different dimension to it.

Rock On 2 might not have a strong conflict in the storyline, but it definitely works as the narrative of a unique camaraderie among the boys.

They have grown older, but haven’t lost their charm.

Rating:

Movie Review: Rock On 2

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Cast: Salman Khan, Sohail Khan, Zhu Zhu, Matin Rey Tangu, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Om Puri
Director: Kabir Khan
Rating: 1 star (out of 5)

First things first, it’s great to see Om Puri one last time. Puri was one of the very finest actors our country ever produced, and Kabir Khan’s Tubelight marks his last filmed performance. Sure, he looks like he’s walked straight off the logo for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and is given trite platitudes to mouth instead of actual dialogue, but it’s still wonderful to watch him chew on watermelon and tell us how faith can move mountains. In fact, say I, we should all be grateful to Khan and Tubelight for illustrating to us just how true it is that dear Mr Puri is, indeed, now in a better place.

In Hindi movies, every Khan has his day. Kabir’s came two years ago with the emotionally impactful and highly effective Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which I enjoyed thoroughly. This time, it’s Sohail Khan’s turn, and he gets to outshine his celebrated brother simply by keeping a straight face. Tubelight is a Salman Khan film that kept me longing to have Sohail back on screen, and those are words I’d never thought I’d type.

As with war, any escape is valid, you see. Tubelight is a remake of a 2015 American release called Little Boy, a film which sounds obnoxiously manipulative to begin with, and – going by synopses – the Hindi rendition seems slavishly faithful. Well, as faithful as it can be considering it stars a man 40 years too old to play the lead.

Little Boy is about an eight year old child coming to grips with the futility of war, indulged by townsfolk to believe in his own magic. A child who lives on mollycoddling and affirmation? It’s not hard to see why Kabir would cast this particular actor, though it is intensely problematic that the Salman Khan public relations initiative is plumbing such shameless depths. The message being sent out with this film is: poor little superstar who doesn’t know better.

There might be something to that. Salman hasn’t had to actually act for a while now, though he has been making more of an effort in Kabir’s films. With this one, alas, he goes “full retard” as Robert Downey Jr dismissively scoffed in Tropic Thunder. While Khan could hardly be expected to pull off a Forrest Gump, what we get here is even worse than Koi Mil Gaya: Tubelight is the story of a developmentally disabled man whose superpower is making constipated sounds.

Set in September 1962, the film is about Laxman Singh Bisht (Salman) whose brother Bharat (Sohail) has gone across the border to fight in the Indo-Chinese war. Here, period authenticity and detailing basically equals to everyone wearing sweater-vests. The film is set in a small, fictional hamlet, where Laxman is loved and laughed at in equal measure, until one day a travelling magician (who also appears to moonlight as a motivational speaker) uses him in a trick and shows him he can move a bottle with his mind.

This leads to Salman trying to move mountains and stop wars by sticking his arms out and grunting earnestly, over and over. These are supposed to be emotionally hardcore scenes depicting naive wholesomeness and a good heart. They come across unbearably farcical, crippled by what is possibly the worst performance of Salman’s chequered career. Tubelight means well, an anti-war movie that illustrates the pointlessness of battle and the importance of not actively hating those you are at war with, and while its simplistic message is timely and admirable, the film is rendered unwatchable because of the leading man.

Kabir has always been good with war sequences, but while the ones in this film are mounted on an impressive scale and efficiently shot, the choreography is baffling. A row of soldiers stands in position, and when enemies open fire, they all fall to the ground, shot in the right shoulder at the exact same time.

Everyone besides Salman is good here, which is again a new thing to write about a star whose screen-presence and spontaneous charisma has carried him through many a horrid film. We get fine performances from bright Chinese actress Zhu Zhu and, most memorably, moon-faced child Matin Rey Tangu, who should have swiftly replaced the lead. These two play Indians of Chinese origin, facing hostility and prejudice during the Sino-Indian conflict, and it must be emphasised how unforgivable it is to cast a Chinese actress alongside a kid from Arunachal Pradesh here, as if to say it’s all the same.

Alongside the Khan brothers who look to have been inflated with tyre-pumps, there is a strong cast, the norm at a time Indian casting directors have come good. We have the infallible Brijendra Kala smiling, possibly at the thought of his cheque, while Yashpal Sharma hams uncharacteristically hard, chewing on and repeating each line a couple of times as if to make it more palatable. Meanwhile, supporters of arthouse cinema may find it therapeutic to watch a strong thespian like Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub wallop the megastar a few times.

Zeeshan, in fact, is particularly good as a knock-kneed meanie, but there’s only that much he is allowed to do, as this film – and everyone in it – constantly makes way. It’s the Salman Khan show, and here he is bobbing his head and widening his eyes, with all the expressiveness of a hurriedly drawn thumb-puppet.

Faith may indeed move mountains. It’s a taller ask to make the mountain act.

Movie Review : Tubelight

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Mom
Cast: Sridevi, Nawazudin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna
Director: Ravi Udyawar

A black car speeds its way through a deserted Delhi road on a pitch dark night. An aerial shot shows it halting at a lonely crossroad. Two doors open, and the driver swaps his seat with a person in the rear. The car starts moving again, and sometime before daybreak, its occupants throw a teenage girl into a roadside drain.

We haven’t been shown the inside of the car, but we all know what could have happened there. Hundreds of media reports scream of such crimes against women every year, but people simply pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. This movie is not about them. It is about a mother who decides to avenge the rape of her daughter because the law couldn’t get her the justice she deserves.

A likeable-yet-strict biology teacher Devaki (Sridevi) is your average parent who wants to keep tabs on the social life and friends of an adolescent Arya (Sajal Ali). She is Arya’s stepmother, and is probably why Arya doesn’t seem to trust her. The child’s rape threatens to further tear them apart, but Devaki is determined to not let that happen.

Now, all this may sound like the recently released Maatr, where Raveena Tandon played a mother who moves mountains to punish her daughter’s rapists. Though Mom is similar in tone, the previous film didn’t have actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna and Adnan Siddiqui.

The supporting cast turns out to be a great asset for director Ravi Udyawar’s film, which brings out the mental trauma experienced by the rape victim just as much as it celebrates Sridevi’s valour.

Dayashankar Kapoor aka DK (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the real charmer in Mom. He knows exactly when to switch gears and how to look timid despite being in the spotlight. The actor’s understanding of his reel-life character comes to the fore in an interrogation scene with crime branch cop Mathew Francis (Akshaye Khanna). DK is scared like any other law-fearing citizen, but he still summons the courage to retain his composure in the circumstances.

And, of course, there are his one-liners. When told that a certain piece of modern art costs Rs 50 lakh, he murmurs: “Isse toh achcha main paan thuk ke bana deta (I could have made a better painting by spitting betel juice on canvas).”

Overlook Akshaye Khanna’s twitched eyebrows for a few seconds and you’ll start appreciating his sarcastic tone. He remains underutilised, though, probably to give Sridevi more screen time. The movie seems to be headed in the right direction, complete with an excellent emotional outburst by Devaki inside a hospital in the first half, but the story soon begins to waver.

What stops Mom from becoming more like Pink is its inability to enter the minds of the criminals. Abhimanyu Singh is definitely menacing, but his accent is nowhere close to what his character should have. Other typically Bollywood liberties have also been taken to reduce the stature of the movie from a gut-wrenching film to a slightly above-average revenge drama.

Verbal duals between Sridevi and Akshaye Khanna appear staged, as if subtlety was the last thing on the filmmaker’s mind. They fail to achieve what Nawazuddin Siddiqui does with a single glance. Just one look at his own daughter, and you know whose side he is on. No words are needed.

To give credit where it’s due, Mom does fan the audience’s anger against people who indulge in anti-women crimes. However, it never intends to create a full-blown fire that would change the attitude of potential criminals in such situations. Instead, Sridevi takes it upon herself to deliver justice – thereby undermining the authority of law and related machinery. This is where Pink excelled.

The good thing is, Mom does what it intends to: Become a film that can hold the audience’s attention for 148 minutes. There are no intricacies that unfold step by step (it’s mostly predictable, really), but Girish Kohli’s screenplay ensures an entertaining drama.

It’s been five years since we saw Sridevi nailing it in English Vinglish (2012). Though she has made a stunning comeback with Mom, I still believe it’s Nawazuddin Siddiqui who scores here.

Rating:

Movie Review: Mom

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

Cast : Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Saswata Chatterjee, Saurabh Shukla,Sayani Gupta, Adah Sharma and Nawazzudin Sidiqqui
Produced By – Sidhartha Roy Kapoor, Anurag Basu, Ranbir Kapoor
Music – Pritam
Length Of Movie – Two Hours +

At one point in the movie, Katrina, playing journo called Shruti, asks ” bore ho gaye kya??”

Most of the audience would reply: ” haanji! please stop with all the slap stick and get on with the story if you have one!”

That is the main problem with Jagga Jasoos. Lots of song and dance and action, without any plot what so ever! Further, it borrows literally from foreign comic figures like Tin Tin, but the semblance is lost on most Indians who have NOT been comic readers.

Second problem is, Sidharth Basu, the Director of J.J. seems to continue straight from where he left Ranbir in Barfi. ( Which actually was a much better movie). In Barfi, Ranbir couldn’t speak, in this he is speech impaired! In Barfi, he had only one parent who dies soon, in J.J. he is an orphan who lives his early days under the stair case of a Maternity home. Go figure the rest!

But the main problem with the movie is that Ranbir, who is no doubt a very talented actor and has put his heart and soul in the role, just does not pass off as a school boy! He is at least 20 years too old for it. We have watched him as a young man, finding his professional moorings in some excellent movies when he was new and very young. To watch him decades later as a school boy is really stretching our credulity too much!

One feels like telling him very earnestly ” Yeh umar nahi hai…mat kar galti pe galti!” (Just watch him as Ranbir Kapoor, his normal self, giving an interview about this movie, and then watch him making funny faces in J.J. pretending to be a school boy in shorts, and you are filled with remorse. ‘Why couldn’t the Director present him as the sauve, sophisticated, handsome young man he is, rather than this cartoon creature?)

If Ranbir himself does not jell in his role and convince, how would his (ex) lady love Katrina?! If he is a teenager, she as his romantic side kick shouldn’t be much over 20, right? You can see the trouble they have gone to, to make her look very young – putting specs on her, her attire etc. and you think back to the Kat who acted in her first movie with Ranbir – Ajab prem ki gazab kahani, which was made a good 9 years ago!!!

With these two implausible characters the thin story line is made up of a spy-adventure from a comic book, where the propagandist is looking for his lost father and inadvertently stumbles upon an illegal arms trade. An allusion to the Purulia arms drop that happened in Bengal long, long ago and rest of India has quite forgotten.

Sorry, much as we would like to, we cannot like this movie because it fails to engage us. Simple as that. When in the first 15 minutes you start getting this feeling, the rest is a torture and this movie is tortuously long. Please carry a strip of a good pain killer with you!

Rating: 

Jagga Jasoos: don’t really need a detective to tell you why the movie is boring!

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Indu Sarkar
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast: Kriti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Anupam Kher, Tota Roy Chowdhury, Sheeba Chaddha, Ankur Vikal and Zakir Hussain

With the kind of publicity and controversies it attracted, almost everyone knows the basic premise of Madhur Bhandarkar’s film. Indu Sarkar, that hits theatres on Friday, is a political drama set against the backdrop of the Emergency.

Indu Sarkar opens with the announcement of the Emergency blaring from radio sets and glaring on front pages of newspapers. It then takes us to a fictitious village in Delhi-Haryana border area, Mubipura, where people are gearing up for a wedding. Suddenly, cops reach the place looking for men to be sterilized. When the men try to hide, the cops hunt them down and drag them even as a 70-year-old and a 13-year-old male ask policemen to consider the futility of including them in the government-ordered drive.

Indu Sarkar soon moves to the central character, Indu (Kriti) – an orphan who wants to become a poet but is told she must only dream to become a good wife and make a family. Following the advice, she marries Navin Sarkar (Tota Roy Chowdhury) who dreams of money, power and fame, while Indu’s dream is only to be a good wife. For almost half of the fiIm, Indu Sarkar remains the story of a docile, humble and meek orphan who surrenders to every whims and fancies of her husband even as she fights her own stammering and a lack of confidence.

How this rather “homely” woman stumbles upon victims of a police raid in a slum, decides to fight for them and eventually becomes one of the most powerful voices of dissent during the Emergency, form the rest of the narrative.

While the film was publicised as a film “on Emergency”, it actually oscillates between a political drama and a typical Bollywood film about a couple. Unfortunately, the transition between the two narratives is neither smooth nor convincing.

One of the saddest moments in the movie comes when Indu, after she has left her husband’s house for the sake of a couple of lost orphan kids, decides to sign the divorce papers Navin sends. When asked why she agreed for the divorce, she says, “Saath reh kar acchi biwi nahi ban payi, ho sakta hai alag ho kar sukh de paun. (I could not be a good wife, maybe I can give him some comfort by staying away).” As if, all the protest and fight for freedom from a dictatorial government was nothing but a tool to pacify the husband.

The background score of Indu Sarkar is too loud and misplaced. At times when a rather emotional moment is approaching, what you hear is the loud melodramatic sound usually used in Bollywood suspense dramas.

Despite having gathered a group of critically appreciated actors, Madhur Bhandarkar fails to make the best use of them. Neil Nitin Mukesh is one of the most wasted talents in the movie. He has given some of his best performances as a mean, high-on-power person but his act as “chief” in Indu Sarkar appears too superficial. Anupam Kher and Kriti Kulhari take the lead in acting department and stay true to their characters for most of the part. The supporting casts including Sheeba Chaddha, Ankur Vikal and Zakir Hussain, among others appear genuine in their roles.

However, the over-dramatic tone of the film kills their performances and leaves us with dialogues like “Ek goli ne mere jawan, 6 foot ke bete ko 6 inch ki tasveer bana diya.”

Trying to find logic in Indu Sarkar often becomes a task. For example, why does Indu keep roaming around in a rickshaw/auto in the Turkman Gate area every time she needs to witness an eye-opener about the Emergency when she is otherwise driven around in her husband’s car? Or, for that matter, why do the protesters (led by Anupam Kher as ‘Nanaji’) keep naming each other when they meet inside a cinema hall to avoid getting caught by the cops? Isn’t the entire purpose of disguise defeated if they use the real names? What is the reason, do you ask? Well, Bollywood is the only word that comes to our mind.

For those interested in the politics of films, there are two ways to look at Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar.

One is to look it as a propaganda film against the Congress party, aims at showcasing the atrocities inflicted upon various communities during the Emergency. There is a subtle, yet, extremely clear attempt to highlight Muslims forming a major portion of the victims. We have Neil Nitin Mukesh channelling Sanjay Gandhi as the prime minister’s son who is only referred to as the “chief” while the PM is referred to as “mummyji”. The unofficial ban on Kishore Kumar from radio and television after he refused to sing for Sanjay Gandhi also gets a mention in the film.

On the other hand, you can see Indu Sarkar as a double-edged sword. While it depicts the Emergency and the Gandhi family as the perpetrators of cruelty and injustice inflicted upon the masses, the film actually shows the misuse of power. If Madhur Bhandarkar wanted to patronise the ruling party, the irony of his own film is lost on him. The irony of Indu Sarkar is that it is so indulgent in highlighting the importance of free speech and democracy that you could change a few names, few other situations and it could well have been a film about the crisis India is facing today: People with allegiances to the ruling party exploiting the masses and even politicians at their own will.

So, in the sheer hope that Madhur actually aimed for the latter political purpose, two stars for Indu Sarkar.

Rating:

Movie Review: Indu Sarkar

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Jab Harry Met Sejal
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma
Director: Imtiaz Ali

Jab Harry Met Sejal has the stars, the songs, the scenery and everything you’d imagine in a love story.

But in the absence of soul, none of it really matters, feels Sukanya Verma.

Characters are always talking, traveling, letting go and discovering themselves in Imtiaz Ali’s romances.

What may seem like a trademark is really a breakthrough — discovery is the key to evolution that makes most headway in a fluid surrounding.

In figuring out another, we figure ourselves.

Imtiaz Ali hasn’t gotten to the bottom of it yet, but his story’s journey within a film and outside it is about just that.

It’s my favourite characteristic of his filmmaking and nowhere to be found in Imtiaz’s latest confection, Jab Harry Met Sejal wherein the journey neither delivers the zest of an adventure nor the wisdom of an exploration.

It’s like its two leads are merely ticking off an itinerary that’s beautiful to witness but in the absence of soul bears little magic.

Jab Harry Met Sejal has the stars, the songs, the scenery and all the trimmings for a riveting romance.

Alas, the writing is staggeringly sloppy, unoriginal and deviates from its premise involving a starry-eyed nitwit and skirt-chasing cynic to entangle itself in superficial complexities that made me judge instead of root for its oddball protagonists.

Harinder Singh Nehra aka Harry (Shah Rukh Khan) is a Punjabi tour guide in Europe reluctantly assisting Sejal Zaveri (a Gujarati traveller from a group tour he recently conducted) to search for her missing engagement ring.

Come to think of it, Jab JMD (Jai Mata Di) Met JSK (Jai Shree Krishna) would be an apt title for it.

The film opens on a sublime note with Safar, the sweetest melody from Pritam’s mellifluous soundtrack highlighting Harry’s humdrum, empty life until we meet Sejal.

We never get to see the extent of Harry and Sejal’s interaction before she charges back into his life and nearly blackmails him to help.

Her family isn’t allowed much of a presence either, typical of an Imtiaz creation, where potential lovers are seldom interrupted by familial obligations.

If Love Aaj Kal harped about the concept of ‘pile on,’ Sejal demonstrates it in all her grating glory.

Clearly the brief was ‘annoying Gujju’ and Anushka puts her heart into it. It’s not necessarily a criticism. I know people who sound just like her, so her accent is almost authentic if also inconsistent.

The best thing about cinema is its power of plausibility.

It’s what makes good look great and even the unlikable alluring, but in JHMS, Anushka’s spectacular energy and whims are spent playing a doltish damsel-in-distress obsessed with making bizarre inquiries about her sex appeal.

Sejal’s bouts of low self-esteem targeted at Harry, a guy she barely knows and already trusts implicitly, are perplexing. All her yak yak candour and not-so-jolly LLB-ness proves too much even for Harry, Europe’s resident lothario, who at one point protests, ‘Yeh bahut silly ho raha hai.’

Paying no heed to Harry’s growing exasperation, she continues her antics as though possessed by Johnny Lever and proposes to behave like his girlfriend till the end of their trip.

It’s not long before homesick Harry, dreaming of Punjab and phulkari, settles to sing early morning duets about Radha against a bird’s eye view of Prague.

Amsterdam, Budapest, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Frankfurt are some other European towns they paint red. I don’t mind the revelry; I just wasn’t invested in it.

Not once, not ever.

Imtiaz’s derivative imagery draws influences from Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge most unabashedly AND unimpressively to orchestrate what happens when role playing gets real, a street-smart guy rescues a dewy-eyed girl from NRI wolves and where a man and a woman will snuggle in sleep but won’t cross the line because once a Raj Malhotra always a Raj Malhotra.

There’s a scene where Sejal asks Harry if he’ll attend her wedding in Mumbai.

‘You don’t know me,’ he tells her with a hint of sarcasm that I read as ‘you wouldn’t ask such silly questions if you had seen DDLJ.’

Occasionally though, I chuckled at Sejal’s selfie seriousness and inept spontaneity. ‘Zyada shopping nahi kari kyunki Prague mein bhi jaake karoongi na thoda,’ she rattles to a concerned relative on the phone.

Or when Harry brings out his forceful Punju voice in the middle of nightclub row like a daddy losing his head at a rebellious teen — ‘Kutta bhauk raha hai?’

These are times when JHMS’s wit is at its unaffected best. But such moments of ingenuity are few and far between.

In essence, Jab Harry Met Sejal’s titular characters wander aimlessly from one place to another from inside a bubble, holding on to a dream that’s playful yet unreal, surprising but hollow.

Had Imtiaz treated it like one and not surrendered to predictable fantasy, I’d still admire his audacity.

What’s commendable though is how even after so many years SRK makes falling in love with a woman about to marry someone else look like it’s happening to him for the first time.

Truth is he’s no longer practising romance. He has become it.

And so it’s only befitting when Sejal begs him in her best fangirl face to train her fiancé in the art of affection — ‘Meri life ban jayegi.’

Rating:

Movie Review: Jab Harry Met Sejal

Nagpur Today : Nagpur News

As weird as the name of the movie sounds, it packs a real punch of a message.

The ‘medium’ of the message for the average village in UP where the story unfolds, may be its non-existent loos, but by the end of the movie the toilet is but a symbol of the masculine tyranny that Indian women are subjected to, that too on a daily basis.

Bhumi Pednekar as Jaya, finally loses all her composure and patience and bursts out at some women on a ‘lota parade’ :
“your lives are trapped in the constricted space of that ‘lota’ and you don’t even realize what you are missing out on! Throw away the lotas and free yourselves; and if you have the courage use that same lota to give your husband water to drink.”

Unlike what we went in the theatre believing, this movie was not a propoganda vehicle at all.

The scenes were very real, very every- day and not over the top at all. If the Director Narayan Singh would have been so inclined he could have added loud and very dramatic elements like assault and rape of girls going out to ‘relieve’ themselves but he sticks to some village men purposely focusing their tractor lights on women sitting ( shitting?) in neat row, their heads still demurely covered with ghunghats, with which they can hide their faces if suddenly exposed to such light or deliberate gaze.

Instead, we have the very awkward scene where Jaya finally relents to ‘going into the field’ to do it, escorted by her hubby, and her father in law, the village Punditji, returning home on the motorbike suddenly sees and recognizes his new bahu. He is more shocked by the encounter than she and looses control of his bike and falls into a hay pit. She is enraged and later at home does not hesitate to shout at him for what she has been reduced to enduring, while he mutters, still petulant ” no one is bothered that I fell on that dirty grass!”

With such comic-tragic incidents the story of Jaya and Kesheo is woven. It may be a film about women’s empowerment, but it is also about the awakening and enlightenment of Akshay Kumar as Kesheo who in the beginning also faults his wife for making such a fuss about a simple thing as ‘shauch’.

“Don’t all the village women do it, and have been doing it for ages?” He questions her.

When he realizes she is serious about not ‘adjusting’ to the situation any more, he thinks of other clever ‘jugads’ like taking her to the village railway station where she can use the train toilet during the train’s 7 minutes halt.

Till one day she cannot alight from the train in time and continues the journey to the next town where her parents live: in a house that has always had a toilet.

“I want no more ‘jugad’ solutions of yours” she tells her husband, “do what is proper and do it openly.”

Jugad is all this village lad has known, from getting married to ‘Malaika’, their buffalo, because he is a Manglik, to getting an artificial second thumb for Jaya, so his father will accept her as the ‘ideal bahu’ to overcome his kundali doshas. Standing up for a cause comes gradually to him till he is fully committed.

This journey of Kesheo’s is what the film is actually about and it is interspersed with many regaling dialogues and banter between characters like Kesheo and his younger brother, Bhoomi’s father and uncle ( the unbeatable Anupam Kher in the role of a lecherous-for-Sunny Leone single old man) and also between the village women.

Every character, fits his/ her role to a T and do a commendable job including the lead pair.

During the year of failure of lack lustre and paper- thin- plot movies like When Harry met Sejal, Jagga Jasoos and Tubelight, albeit shot in many exotic foreign locales, Toilet ek Prem Katha is definitely a winner and will break the commercial jinx of Bollywood too.

Shot on real locations in UP, this movie partly produced by Akshay Kumar himself has been made on a shoe string budget of Rs. 40 crores and is expected to more than cover its investment in the first weekend itself.

If in a metro like Banglore, where I am sure the audience could not identify with most of the rural characters, if the audience could give it a standing ovation, imagine how well it will go down with the rest of the country?

As my techie son in law Kiran who was most reluctant to go for this movie with us ( “I would rather watch a Hollywood movie” he opined) said afterwards “I thought the lack of toilets was a financial constraint, I had never realized it was socio-religious.”

How can one have a toilet in the same courtyard where one worships the Tulsi plant? Asks Punditji.

Go see, how even he is convinced by the end of the 2 and half hours…

We would say seeing this movie is as essential for everyone as going to the toilet!

CAST:Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Divyendu, Sudhir Pandey, Anupam Kher
Direction: Shree Narayan Singh
Our Stars : 4

Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, lovingly told story of a husband’s enligtenment for his wife’s cause