English Vinglish

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 5th October, 2012
Time : 135 minutes
Director & Writer : Gauri Shinde; Music : Amit Trivedi
Starring : Sridevi, Priya Anand, Mehdi Nebbou, Adil Hussain, Cory Hibbs, Sumeet Vyas, Ruth Aguilar, Maria Romano, Damian Thomson, Neelu Sodhi, Sulabha Deshpande, Shivansh Kotia, Navika Kotia

For someone who has been born and brought up on English medium schools, and I don’t say this proudly, but for whom English is his first language of thought, it is very hard to put self in Sridevi’s shoes. Someone, who doesn’t know English, but in all other ways is very competent. Someone, who is constantly the butt of family jokes and jibes, especially by the husband and the rapidly growing daughter.

That the film succeeds in making us feel her angst, and her ways of coping with it, showing the kind of situations she encounters, especially when she goes to New York, is a tribute to the story and the performances, especially the virtuoso acting masterclass by Sridevi, who shows, in more ways than one, that she’s still got it !

The debilitating effect of not knowing the language is brought alive by her mispronounciation of ‘Jazz’, a visit to her daughter’s PTA, her solo trip to New York, handling immigration, her ordeal there buying coffee and various snide ones by both her husband (‘She is born to make laddoo’s’) and her daughter (‘Why did you take my book if you cant read ?’). Redemption arrives when she decides to take English lessons, while in New York, visiting her sister to help with her niece’s wedding. She finds unlikely allies in the sister’s house and a gallant, romantic French fellow student. And suddenly, life is not so bleak anymore.

The film tries hard not to get too sentimental, balancing every tear with a chuckle or a smile. Amitabh Bachchan’s delightful cameo, the other madcap students in the English class, none as zany as Salman Khan, the Pakistani, the cheerful nature of her son, her own special, sari-clad Michael Jackson impersonation, all serve to smoothen out the various trials and tribulations thrown her way.

Sridevi makes you root for her, getting her every expression, every frown, every smile spot on. Most of the other characters are stereotypes – the busy, indifferent husband, the cute son, the gallant Gaul, the bombastic Pakistani etc. But she has shades to her character, moments of weakness followed by instances of strength. Waffling indecision followed by gutsy action.

Isn’t life about communication, rather than the language ? About the message, rather than the medium ? When / How did we get so snobbish about how different people speak, their accents. As the film rightly asks, why have we become so judgemental merely based on the persons attire, language ? Surely there is more to life than that ?

Killing Them Softly

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 5th October, 2012
Time : 140 minutes
Director & Writer : Andrew Dominik based on the novel, ‘Cogan’s Trade’ by George V Higgins; Music : Rachel Fox
Starring : Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini

There is a message in here somewhere. A message perhaps best articulated in the last few sentences of the film. But to my mind it gets lost in the bleak portrayal of American economic depression, the violence, the bloodshed, the psychotic characters and the slow, uneven pace of the film

Some young turks, at the behest of a petty criminal, rob a poker game run by the mafia, knowing fully well that someone else will get blamed for it. The mafia now has to decide what to do about it, hiring Brad Pitt as the enforcer, and apparently the decision-making even amongst the top bosses is as bureaucratic and slow, done by committees, as the worst of the government departments.

Brad Pitt is old school. Likes to kill people softly. Is against beatings, they serve no purpose, are messy. And if he knows one his targets personally, he would prefer if someone else is hired.

The movie meanders, with many clips of the politicians, Obama and GW Bush, makes a few subtle points but overall struggles to leave a mark large enough for you to carry it forward in your memory for any substantial length of time

OMG Oh My God !

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 28th September, 2012
Time : 140 minutes
Director : Umesh Shukla; Writer :Umesh Shukla, Bhavesh Mandalia based on the latter’s Gujarati play ‘Kanji Viruddh Kanji’; Music : Himesh Reshammiya
Starring : Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Govind Namdeo, Mithun Chakraborty, Poonam Jhawer, Mahesh Manjrekar, Om Puri, Murli Sharma

The story is very simple. Paresh Rawal, a shopkeeper, loses his shop in an earthquake, and when the insurance company refuses to pay quoting it as an ’Act of God’, given his delicate financial situation, Paresh is left with no option but to file a legal case against God. And then pandemonium erupts…

Paresh is shown as a typical Gujarati businessman, who owns a shop that sells idols of various Gods. He is the type who will happily prey on the insecurities of others, selling tap water as Gangajal. Or pretending a certain statue is a rare, one of a kind piece from Vrindavan to get a higher price etc. Or spreading a rumour about Krishan just to keep his son from doing the Handi. He is an atheist, in a family or society, which is full of very openly devout people, the kind who ‘show-off’ their devotion by participating in all sorts of religious rituals, teerth yatra’s etc. He is a smart, savvy, logical fellow with a sense of humour. When he argues in court or appears on TV, he comes across as a very simple person, who converts his audience to his intuitive points. His responses, his logic when questioned by the opposing lawyer or the media, strike home and make an impact.

There are several moments, big and small through the film, which are very funny. Paresh’s answer, quoting Reliance electricity, while replying to why he doesn’t directly talk to God is brilliant. The various rituals, the knowledge of the Gita, the different scams run by Godmen, even hunger strikes, none of these are spared.

The cameos by various accomplished artistes – Gobind Namdeo (an angry Sadhu), Mithun (a delightful role as a slightly effeminate Godman), Om Puri (a lawyer), all add to the fun. Akshay’s appearance, as God, Krishan Bhagwan, is also extremely well handled, quite good fun. I found the film thought-provoking and in a country like ours, full of blind faith, a necessary mirror of how we behave, choosing to find God in stones, temples and Sadhu’s instead of in our fellow human beings.

I’m being a bit generous with the rating simply because I applaud the objective behind the film, the courage of its producers and also the way they’ve executed it. Crisp editing, very little preachiness and generous dollops of humour ensure that an otherwise heavy topic, passes by very easily with the message getting through.

Dredd 3D

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 21st September, 2012
Time : 95 minutes
Director : Pete Travis; Writer : Alex Garland, based on characters by Carlos Ezquerra and John Wagner; Music : Pritam
Starring : Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris

This is a totally different take on Dredd, the earlier character played by Stallone. It has violence, gore, blood, bullets, explosives, all captured in beautiful, slow motion, filmed in extraordinary, three-dimensional, exquisite detail. There is nothing here that is going to blow your mind, pun intended, but its one of the action films that can make for entertaining repeat viewing if you’re a Boys with Toys kind of a guy.

We have a parched, irradiated earth, a wall created to keep nature away, a teeming megacity which holds 800 million people in Central United States of America. We have complete and utter lawlessness in most parts. We have the judges who try and maintain order. We have Judge Dredd, one of the most feared, kick-ass members. We have a rookie judge, who is only borderline fit to become one, and is assigned to Dredd to assess. We have a triple homicide in one the megablocks (200 storeys high, really massive). We have a new drug, Slo-Mo, that slows the brain, makes things seem to happen at 1% of their normal speed. And we have a really bad-ass mafia boss, known by the alias of Ma-ma. When bad-ass meets kick-ass, sparks fly, and well, you can figure out the rest

I enjoyed the psychic angle given to one of the characters. I enjoyed the stunning camera work as you watched human muscle, water, blood, froth, glass and even smoke waft, ripple, shatter, spread or even smear through air or on concrete. I enjoyed the background music and the setting, the central premise. I enjoyed the action.

However, there is no emotion evoked inside you as you leave the hall, no central thought to carry home. Even the characters are not humanized enough, not given the shades of complexity most of us have. The mind is numb at the end, seeking solace in some silence, even, in some parts, trying to forget what it has just seen. Its extremely violent, but stylishly so. Go for it, if that interests you.

Heroine

Rating : 2/10
Release Date : 21st September, 2012
Time : 148 minutes
Director, Co-Writer : Madhur Bhandarkar; Co-writers : Anuradha Tiwari, Manoj Tyagi; Music : Salim-Sulaiman
Starring : Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, Divya Dutta, Gobind Namdeo, Sanjay Suri, Lillete Dubey, Ranvir Shorey, Shahana Goswami

“What a stupid movie”, my wife exploded, as we left the theatre, “in the first half, we were at least watching her dresses, her jewellery, her looks. Second half didn’t even have that”, she fumed.

Allow me to elaborate further. This is one bad-ass, regressive, depressive, narcissistic, over-indulgent, formulaic and overall, pathetic film. There are at least three occasions when you feel its ended, your spirits soar, only to have them cruelly dashed as it finds another useless story thread to explore. You feel absolutely nothing for any character, least of all the central character, who is shown to be rude, ill-mannered, insecure, manipulative, vacillating constantly between career and love, needy, dependent, unprofessional and about emotionally as stable as a suicide bomber at a security checkpost.

Am not quite sure what the film was about. Kareena, obviously, plays the title role, constantly seeks what she doesn’t have and disregards what she does. Her central motive or motives remain unknown through the film as she runs through commercial films, edgier topics and off-beat films as part of her career. She runs through different men, Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda, being the primary. She changes staff and endorsement deals with rapid regularity. Her known temperamentalness obviously causes producers and even her heroes to shy away from her. Her end-goal, right till the end, remains as mysterious as her rise to stardom.

If we are supposed to feel sad at all this, any sympathy for her, then the loud music, constant shrieking, rivers of tears and some extremely hammy acting by some of the character actors (especially the gay designer, journalist) help nip that in the bud admirably.

Normally, the central character performance is what usually redeems such a film, but despite being a huge fan of Kareena’s acting abilities and looks, she is saddled with such a hopeless, flawed character that nothing can be salvaged from it. The only saving grace, if at all, is her constantly careening cleavage, which provided a few moments of solace.

There are so many beautiful things in the industry to explore. I’ve known artistes to work amazing hours, to be ready on time for shots, work round the clock on triple shifts, to be patient, firm, never lose their cool. Like Kareena in real life, they explore different roles, experiment with different looks. But unfortunately, in the eyes of the writer-director, this wouldn’t have made an interesting enough film and so he gives us a caricature of a human being instead, who is deeply troubled psychologically and inflicts mental agony upon the hapless audience as well.

Barfi!

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 14th September, 2012
Time : 151 minutes
Director, Writer : Anurag Basu; Music : Pritam
Starring : Ranbir Kapoor, Ileana D’ Cruz, Priyanka Chopra, Saurabh Shukla, Jishu Sengupta

This is a fable, a beautifully shot, light, airy, bubbly fable. It will make you laugh. A lot. And cry, or mist up, a little. If you’re still not a fan of Ranbir, you will walk away as one. And the background songs just don’t stop playing in your head.

There are some deeper layers, as well. Why is it in India that we cannot take care of our disabled children ? Why do we get threatened by them, so scared of social approbation that we are willing to abandon our own flesh and blood, despite having the means to look after them ? Why is it that playing safe seems to be ingrained in our blood ? In love, 9 times out of 10, we will choose the guy who is rich and doesn’t make us cry, to the guy who is poor but makes us laugh ?

Ranbir, a deaf, mute, has never let his disability inhibit him. He is always happy and always upto something, not all if it legal, much to the chagrin of the local cop, Saurabh Shukla, who blames him singlehandedly for reducing his waist size from a respectable 52 to a mundane 42. Ranbir falls in love with the elite, gorgeous girl, visiting Darjeeling, Ileana. She is engaged to be married to Jishu, a prize catch, the dream of every girl in college. But she has never encountered anyone as free spirited as Ranbir.

Ranbir, though, is the son of a lowly driver. Who works for another elite, powerful family. Who have an autistic daughter, Priyanka. Who has been left in an old age home, Muskaan, run by the gentle, ageing, Haradhan Bandhopadhyay. When Priyanka’s nana, the man who runs the house with an iron fist, but has a soft corner for his grand daughter, decides to bring her back due to his ill health, the lives of all the characters get affected and change…

The photography and the music is so good that I’m out of superlatives here. Am sure tourist traffic to Darjeeling is going to increase and the music of this film will be played many years from now, a rarity in todays world, where songs struggle for a shelf life beyond three months. Am not so sure about the editing. The flashbacks, the talking heads. Not sure they were needed in a story which was reasonably fast paced and as entertaining as this. Its almost become a fad now, to not tell a story linearly…

Ranbir is amazing. Gets every expression just right. Whether his happy face, the ridiculous expressions he uses to make others laugh, his angry ‘speech’, or his bewildered look when things go wrong, as they have a tendency to do with him. Ileana is stunning in western dresses, early on in the film. She is nice as the adarsh Bengali nari later on, but didn’t think much of her older avatar. Undeniably a great actress. Priyanka proves her acting chops once again, conveying her battles with her inner demons appropriately

Special praise for Saurabh Shukla. The film would’ve been flat without his Hardy to Ranbir’s Laurel. Or Bhola Raja Sapkota, Ranbir’s comrade in arms and translator in chief. Or Rupa Ganguly, Ilena’s mother, who understands her daughter’s predicament and does what she thinks is best for her. (MAJOR RANT : Why in Hindi films cant we list all the character actors, and especially, as in this film, if they have central roles, have at least a couple of stills for each of them. Why does all publicity material have to be only of the big stars ? Defy you to find a photo of Haradhan, Saurabh, Bhola. RANT OVER)

Amongst the moments of the film are the opening credits (set to the song ‘Film shuru), the comic chase sequences between Saurabh and Ranbir. The Darjeeling scenes between Ranbir and Ileana – on the train, or cycle or even the horse. And the scene when Haradhan bawls his eyes out, when the apple of his eye, Priyanka leaves the ashram, is just touching beyond belief.

After a long time, a film which doesn’t just show perfect, rich, urban people. But people who, despite their imperfections, seem determined to be happy. There is a lesson in there for all of us.