Movie Review – Namak Haraam

A salt less soup

It was yet another mistake by me to have watched this soupy friendship tale disguised in the form of a cult classic. Wonder how to choose a good old Bollywood movie to watch. ‘Pyaasa’ was termed as classic and so was ‘Silsila’ but they both were grounds apart. Even otherwise, it is quite difficult to get into any sort of streamlined process to watch a good Bollywood movie of the past. Every time I expect to get something like ‘Sholay’, I only end up being disappointed. Plus the fact that each of these are going to be for three hours is not helping at all.

‘Namak Haraam’ was about a couple of friends. Firstly the entire film happens in flashback mode but the way it starts with Vikram ‘Vicky’ Maharaj (Amitabh Bachchan) coming out of jail, rightly pointed out by Manisha (Simi Garewal) that he looks like some psychology professor, actually got me curious. It was like sitting in an unknown place on a dog day afternoon and feeling something mysterious, yet pleasant about it. How Amitabh comes out so fresh out of jail as if he was in some therapeutic resort is a question which we’re not supposed to act but the feel of it was nice. But the happiness doesn’t last long.

We see a young Vicky and Somnath ‘Somu’ Chander Singh (Rajesh Khanna) in the flashback mode, who were given built up first by a couple of old men in tea shop bench, about how strong is their friendship. If that was not enough, the introduction scene was made cheesier by Somu’s sister “cutely” asking for pocket money from Vicky, Vicky having sweets from Somu’s mom and what’s worse, Somu appears in the same shirt as Vicky does. Why? I mean why were male friendships of the past projected as if they were gay. Even the playful encounter between Abbas and Vineeth looks weird in “Mustafa Mustafa” song. Wonder what the directors were actually thinking.

The movie treads in the same cheesy line throughout. There were various instances of one supporting another throughout the movie. Even though we know eventually sense was gonna prevail, the time taken was too much. The whole of the first half was just fooling around and when Somu gets to know that Vicky has some trouble by the workers. He disguises himself as a worker so that he could take revenge on the union leader.

If first half was about Vicky getting cheesy, the second half was about Somu and his romance. Absolutely abysmal. Even with his charm, it was really hard to digest that part of the story. With songs and slapstick comedies, it was annoying at best.

Sense prevails finally in the climax but by the time it happens it was too late and the sequence of events happen too sudden, which doesn’t give us any time to absorb. The titular dialogue happens just for name sake towards the end and doesn’t appeal at all. We don’t get any time to sympathize with Somu and be confused for Vicky. Conveniently Vicky’s dad ends up being the villain and gets hated by all.

What could have made the film interesting was instead of Vicky’s dad being projected as an outright villain, he could have shared how his ideology was correct. Even if we couldn’t have sympathized by him, there should have been some points were we could have been put into a confusion. The same confusion could have made Vicky vulnerable and not able to choose which the right path was. Plus when it comes to an emotional war between his dad and his best friend, the situation could have been more hectic for him and interesting for us.

Instead around the end, Vicky’s dad becomes the bad guy, Somu becomes the good guy and by the time Vicky could react, everything gets over. May be filmmakers of the past just want to cash in on the opportunity of the big stars but I could see it as only plain escapism because there were movies in the past which had tried to have some emotional value in addition to just being a dramatic slam bang sort of filmmaking. Hope I don’t end up being disappointed like this for yet another yesteryear Bollywood movie.

Movie Review – Gulabo Sitabo

Where old is mistaken for antique

Wonder what’s all the fuss about. First of all, I didn’t like a heavy prosthetic clad Amitabh in a Shoojit Sircar film. Shoojit Sircar is a master storyteller who weaves magic with his screenplay. So, it was kind of weird to see a man, that too with a caliber of Amitabh, in such heavy make-up. It’s understandable for a R. Balki movie like ‘Paa’, but Shoojit Sircar, hell, no! Guess all the talks about ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ was similar to ‘Soorarai Potru’ where both were a landmark film because it released in OTT. Otherwise, it felt like just another average joe.

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‘Gulabo Sitabo’ is a boring film. Unfortunately, there is no better to put. In fact, this looks to be weakest of Shoojit Sircar films, only next to ‘Yahaan’. But ‘Yahaan’ was his debut feature and the director still didn’t have his style so he was just finding his ways so that’s pretty much forgivable. But ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ was too ambitious and it ended up being a bad painting which the maker considered to be a modern art. Guess there would be people defending this film too like how they do for any slow film but this film was outright boring.

It has some of the finest performers on screen. In fact, everyone who appeared on screen, whether their role was short or long were fabulous. Special mention to Farrukh Jaffar, what an actor she is and how underutilized. Begum was the only spot of charm in an otherwise dull movie. Even though it was a black comedy and all that, I was happy that Begum wins at last.

The bloating fact of the movie is that it’s a black comedy. But when a genre like black comedy becomes a genre movie, it has to be handled very carefully. Black comedies are something which must make us think, which must make us feel whether we should be laughing or crying for a scene. Or control our laughter and feel proud when others don’t get it. But this time, that kind of feeling was hardly there for any scenes. Maybe I was on the other side of spectrum, the clueless gang. But I don’t think so, there is even another side. It was straightforward and mundane. The opening scene where Chunnan “Mirza” Nawab (Amitabh Bachchan) steals the bulb and the climax scene where he and Baankey Rastogi (Ayushmann Khurrana) look at the haveli were some classic black comedy scenes which should’ve made us laugh a lot more.

Ayushmann Khurrana underplays his character and as usual blends in the film. So much so that, here we don’t feel he’s a lead. He hardly has any impact. It was good to see actors taking such “unimportant” characters. With the way the film took its own sweet time to establish, I thought it’s going to be a movie like ‘October’ which is my absolute favorite but ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ ended up being timid and unresponsive, especially after we get to know what’s the story about. All the walks to and fro for legal procedures were just like those mundane uninteresting walks one takes to go to office.

Look at the magic in ‘October’. It’s one of the toughest films to make. The leading lady falls off from a great height at the very start of the film and probably that’s the highest point of the film, there is no “action” as such in the entire film after that. There is no surficial high point. Everything happens inside and off screen and that transforms to us too. How tough it is to visualize such a concept and what great acting by Varun Dhawan too. That’s the film which made me take notice of him and want to complete his entire filmography.

Another classic film of his which I watched without knowing about the greatness of the director was ‘Piku’ and how wonderful was Amitabh in that. So naturally I was intrigued for Amitabh’s performance in this film too but expect for that one scene where he explains why Begum married there, there wasn’t any scene where I could enjoy the acting. Too much prosthetics to even feel that it’s Amitabh out there. Like I said before, it was okay for a fun film like ‘Paa’ but not for a heavy film like ‘Gulabo Sitabo’.

Movie Review – Anand

Tragedy done right

Anand is supposedly one of the famous films of all time, which would be there in any Bollywood/Indian list. But what I thought to be a Rajesh Khanna movie ended up to be a movie about Amitabh Bachchan. Though Rajesh Khanna was all about charm and sways through the entire movie, its Amitabh’s underplay of a character which was prolific throughout. It was one of the movies which had minimum characters but maximum impact, where each of the characters were such gems. The movie is a testimonial of how good Indian actors are because each character, small or big are prolific in this.

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The movie caught my attention right from scene one and I thought that I was going to thoroughly enjoy the movie. In the first scene, Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee a.k.a. Babu Moshai (Amitabh Bachchan) releases a book and is irritated in the felicitation ceremony and the scene cuts to going to a slum to treat someone, outside a kid is born. He’s a man of irritation. Someone who is helpless with the way the society functions. That reflects in each and every scene. A different version in the same category is Dr. Prakash Kulkarni (Ramesh Deo) who squeezes the one who has money but gives it to the one who doesn’t. May be a modern-day robin hood doctor. His opening scene too is an interesting one. In stark contrast is the character of Anand (Rajesh Khanna) who woos everyone on and off screen.

There have been many cancer movies in the past and most of it are tear jerkers. So, it’s a topic I hate. ‘Anand’ was one movie where the melancholy was restrained and there is not even a mention of cancer. It’s rather called, lymphosarcoma of the intestine. That by itself was a relief. Like Anand says, just by the name we could guess that it’s a rare dangerous disease and nothing more than that. And another cliché is the love angle in cancer films where one of them, mostly women weep their eyes out for their lover’s death. Being a 1971 film and breaking all this cliché is such a benchmark. It doesn’t even have a heroine. How great is that. I only wish that I had known the songs better. I could have enjoyed it more.

This film could have easily gone wrong with its cuteness but that’s where Rajesh Khanna scores and Amitabh Bachchan role acts as a balancing act. But beyond it, a certain bit of pathos or a little more melodrama would have made it for an emotional viewing or maybe it should have gone in a completely happy go lucky way. That’s where the movie loses a bit of sheen. But still the ending idea was good, where Anand records a conversation with Babu Moshai which gets repeated when he dies. The only disappointment is, for a man who entertained us so much through the movie deserves a more emotional death.

Movie Review – Silsila

Typical Indian Melodrama Conundrum

‘Silsila’ is yet another step of mine towards the road to Bollywood literacy. Like millions of other movies, this movie too is saved by the music. Incidentally, its not by R D Burman, but by Shiv-Hari. A name I haven’t heard of till now. So, another step towards my Bollywood literacy. But if not for the music it was a really tedious watch and tough to sit. Adding to the misery was the duration, which was a good three hours so it felt like a lifetime before the movie got over.

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Seems that the movie was flop at the time of release. But became a cult with time. Got to know that the real-life story between Amitabh resembled the film, maybe that’s why it got a fan following with time. Otherwise, it was a pretty insipid subject. Shekhar Malhotra (Shashi Kapoor) is a squadron leader with the Indian Air Force who’s in love with Shobha (Jaya Bachchan). Shekhar’s good friend Amit Malhotra (Amitabh Bachchan) meanwhile tries to woo Chandni (Rekha). During a meetup with Shekhar, Amit hits it off well with Shobha. The dialogues and the relationship between the three were nothing but cringe worthy. Especially Amit’s idea of how they love each other and the ‘nanga naach’. Seriously?

In sometime after giving a lot of hype about Amit, Shekhar dies. Shobha asks whether he’d marry her. Again, seriously? So, he does and continues to have an affair with Chandni. Whom he had encountered by a chance accident. It’s a bold move to have such a storyline with a top actor. I don’t think any other lead would do an unheroic, beta male, negative character. In fact, out of the three, Amit is the most hateable character. But in spite of that, the movie falls in the familiar terrain with Shobha shown as a woman with a heart of gold and Dr. V. K. Anand (Sanjeev Kumar), a comic relief. But Sanjeev Kumar actually does a fabulous job.

There are lot of twists, everyone they see are related somewhere and characters come out of the blue. With a film with these many twists, it should have been far more interesting but every twist looks forced and irritating. Even the characters were neither written well nor acted well. Jaya Bachchan was clueless and her role was written with such disdain that the soap operas would win in a race with her. Rekha on the other hand was a glam doll in a variety of sarees. The only saving grace was a subtle Amitabh. In spite of not being a big fan of this version of Amitabh, there was so much control in his acting. He constantly repeats that he’s after all a human, with so much tiredness. Something which only Rajni could achieve after all these years of glory. A relatively young Amitabh able to emote in such a grand manner was a pleasure to watch. Apart from that it was an extremely tedious watch which couldn’t even be a guilty pleasure like Karan Johar’s never ending saga.

Movie Review – The Great Gatsby

Greatness Overload

I read the book because of Amitabh which I ended up loving because of DiCaprio. There couldn’t have been a better Gatsby than DiCaprio. ‘The Great Gatsby’ as a book didn’t really woo me. I could understand the flair yet I couldn’t bask in its glory but as a film it made me bask in its glory. It was ideal movie for a director like Baz Luhrmann, whose earlier films were perfect precursors to get into this project. Because not everyone could envision a movie like this.

To make a film like ‘The Great Gatsby’, its not only madness which is required but certain discipline too, on the lines of Martin Scorsese or Wes Anderson. If I had not read the ‘The Great Gatsby’ I’d have thought it to be one of the books which Scorsese makes into movies which wouldn’t work for normal audience but would do wonders for him. Because all he’d be thinking is how it’d look on screen and his vision would be brilliant. This film had that vision by Baz Luhrmann with the making style like that of Wes Anderson. Like how we immediately think about symmetry when we think of Wes Anderson movies, Baz Luhrmann makes us think of great grand visions when we think about his movies. So ‘The Great Gatsby’ ends up being a perfect fodder for this style.

The movie starts, boom, into the lifestyle of Gatsby, woos you from scene one. It was a lovely idea of starting with black and white screen and getting into the color. Making us understand that it had happened in the past and also using colors to accentuate how grand an era it was. If the film had been made in black and white, it wouldn’t have fit the canvas like this. Plus, the usage of music too was eclectic. The editing in the beginning where the cuts were made invisible was kind of preposterous in the beginning but in a way, it was used as a tool to quickly take us a tour of the life of them, riches. Once we get introduced to Gatsby normalcy gets restored.

Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) is a man who admires Gatsby, the only person who knows the true story apart from us. Tobey Maguire, to my amusement, does a fabulous job in seeing him as a father figure. The other ladies in the house Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki) and Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan) are the perfect elite class women in the neighborhood and Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton), a pompous Gatsby hating neighbor. Just like how Nick gets curious, we to get really curious to see Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and there he arrives, the superstar with a smile as per Nick’s description and a glint in his eyes. What an intro for him and how he woos us like every film of his. Such a sincere actor. No wonder he’s a superstar.

It’s unfortunate that I missed the film in theatres. It should have been a great year for DiCaprio where this film came along with ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, for which he should have won the Oscar and not ‘The Revenant’. The tempo of the film never drops down post his introduction, be it the parties, drives or just the dialogues, it keeps wooing us again and again in every frame. It was a riot in the first half. We get to see his acting powers when he first meets Daisy too. It was a great scene, that. Followed by a tour in his house.

Things start to get a wee bit slow once he decides to go away with Daisy. Especially when Tom confronts him in the room, it was a heart breaker. But that’s where DiCaprio is good at. He effortlessly gets into that sad zone and makes us sad. The scenes post it, we feel miserable, especially when he’s hiding in his garden to save Daisy, his unreasonable hopefulness in expecting Daisy to make a call to him. We remain in the same situation like that of Nick, where we can’t really make him feel disappointed. It’s very much like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ climax, when his friend cheats on him. It’s an unheroic part he does heroically.

The end is kind of tragic and leaves us with heavy heart but it’s one of the films which we can’t hate after a point. Wonder why its not as celebrated as his other films. It’s a film definitely worth watching and if you’re a DiCaprio fan it’s a riot.

Movie Review – Paa

Optimism Overload

Paa has everything going for it. Big B as small kid, Abhishek as his father, Vidya Balan as charming as she could be, a great bum, I mean a great grandmother. There is absolutely no negativity, yet this film seems to be something which is hard to digest. That’s the overbearing sweetness. Giving a positive twist to the story is really fine and is something to be appreciated but making every move so, seems as if its forced.

Paa has an interesting way to open the story, an honest politician comes to give away awards to students to a school which treats its students in a dignified manner. The projects done by students were in fact, impressive. Especially the map which had India Pakistan plastered by a band aid. Then there was a white globe, through which the hero of the film Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) gets a heroic entry. When you don’t know that it’s Amitabh it’s impossible to recognize him. The makeup was brilliant. And with so much prosthetics, his acting too was terrific. Amitabh Bachchan is really a phenomenon.

We see a very optimistic mother Vidya (Vidya Balan) who takes care of Auro so well. I loved the first ever scene between the two. First of all, the whole of Auro’s character was brilliantly written, just like how an irritating teenage boy behaves. But the very first scene of him with his mother, wins of all, because of the combination of both mother and son. In their family they’re used to Auro, they don’t see him as a different person, in fact nowhere in his circle he’s seen as a different person. Even when he’s seen, he takes it matter of factly. In the very first scene, the way his mother sits around him when he’s sleeping is as brilliant as it could get to reality, the position, the way she tilts her head the way she talks to him is the closest to reality one can get. I was spellbound by that scene.

Things go awry when she sees the idiot box and sees Auro’s father in it. Things go to flashback song which is a song that you’ve already heard. Wonder why Ilayaraja is so lazy when it comes to making songs in Hindi. If the flashback was not irritating enough, He used many songs from his yesteryear albums for the film, which was even more irritating. You get to know nothing through the flashback except for an annoying cockroach pushing the clock. It’d have been better if the director Mr. R. Balki had given some time for the characters to evolve. It was all so sudden so nothing sticks to the mind. If he had wanted to cut short the length of the movie, there were a whole lot of scenes which could have been cut short. The movie could have been easily trimmed by another half an hour. It becomes jarring towards the end.

We don’t get to see Auro’s life apart from his home and school, except for the Rashtrapati Bhavan episode which again was pointless and forcefully made to show the chemistry between Auro and Amol (Abhishek Bachchan). Amol’s political sequences were totally unnecessary and again too optimistic to happen. It was just like scenes which were used to fill the dots. Not sure why that was even part of the story at first place. And Abhishek was clueless in those scenes. What Paresh Rawal could achieve in very few scenes, Abhishek couldn’t, even after getting so much screen space.

I wish the entire melodrama after Auro gets hospitalized, could have been trimmed to at least half of its length. The patch up between Amol and Vidya again didn’t work. In fact, the whole film seemed to thrive upon its positivity and oh-so-good nature. I guess the crowd would’ve got carried away by it. And also, a film like this couldn’t be hated for obvious reasons, thus it was liked by these many. R. Balki looks like concept master, wish he makes some more effort and makes stuff interesting.

Arundathi Nag was brilliant, only next to Vidya Balan.

Movie Review – Shamitabh

All quiet on the screen front

Shamitabh is another movie which was in my long impending list but I almost forgot it over a period of time. Thankfully it served its purpose for a Sunday evening movie, when there was nothing better to see.

The movie showed promise right from the title. And I somehow like R. Balki even though I haven’t watched any of his movies. I came close to watching Paa but I didn’t. I like him for his clarity of thoughts and liked the way on how he said, why it’s a must to have Amitabh in every film of his, because he’s original. Likewise the other characters too. Above all he gave an excellent interview, in then Friday Review in The Hindu where he said how his dad inspired him. That for me is the greatest quote. His dad supposedly wanted to be someone, let’s take Charted Accountant, but he got a job in Bank, but without complaining he went to Bank day in day out till sixty years, until his retirement and the very next day after his retirement he started practicing Charted Accountancy. Now that felt like my future life story. Keep on doing something even if it bears no fruit.

Shamitabh was interesting right from the word go. Let’s start with the titles. Not sure how many would have guessed it, I didn’t. So it was a pleasant surprise to see the names of Dhanush and Amitabh getting evolved as Shamitabh. But I don’t know why his name was changed from Dhanush to Danish, guess a little ego thingy as Amitabh calls the name to be silly. When Amitabh asks him why Danish (Dhanush) used only two words from his name for ‘Shamitabh’, I loved his explanation of how Danish has only a small part in becoming Shamitabh. In future when they clash, Amitabh writes ‘Sh’ in small and ‘Amitabh’ in big bold letters which Dhanush reverses it in future clash. And in all instance Dhanush is the smiling assasin and Amitabh is the raging person, wonder what’s the thought behind it but it looked nice.

The chemistry between the two too was really good, it has to be because otherwise it’s impossible to make such film. Also I don’t know whether the director could have made the movie with any other actors apart from these two because right from the name, the film looks made for them. Only the climax car scene looked over done, apart from that it was perfect. One person who stands out surprisingly is Akshara Hassan, she looked terrific, acted well and looked more at home in this film than in any Tamil film till date. Her costumes too was lovely.

Though Rajini calls Amitabh his inspiration, this is the movie which I found more and more similarities between them. Many expressions of Rajini now feels like what Amitabh have done. And if at all this movie gets remade in Tami I can’t think of any other actor other than Rajini, which of course I know that he won’t do.

The first half of the movie was kind of drag, the interview sequence with flashback was bit too lengthy and the sequence were Amitabh starts working for Dhanush was okayish. It could have been easily trimmed by half an hour. The second half became more interesting, the funny fights between Amitabh and Dhanush was a terrific bromance material but eventually we knew that it’d end up in a fight and thus it ends up. I don’t know why the scene where Dhanush hits Amitabh was shot in a way where only Dhanush was visible. It spoiled the charm. Otherwise Amitabh was a good sport.

The film could have been great if the climax which Dhanush said had happened, instead it becomes a melodrama which doesn’t work at all. This film shouldn’t be taken seriously but it takes itself seriously in the end and spoils the fun for others too.

P.S: Special mention to ‘Stereophonic Sannata’ – Terrific song that.