Movie Review – D

Raw and rocking

Ram Gopal Varma’s films are a charm isn’t it. Even though, this was not directed by him. Vishram Sawant only looked like he mirrored RGV’s thoughts because it looked very much an RGV film with raw, unruffled emotions. Produced under his banner and considered the last of his movies among Indian Gangster Trilogy the movie was to the point. As much as the emotions looked stripped, ‘D’ was all about emotion. Lethargic, third person type of emotion. With Randeep Hooda at the fore, he brings in a natural flavor to the type of movie which Ram Gopal Varma had wanted.

Just like any out of the box movie, it takes a while for the audience to settle. The initial few minutes are clumsy and intentionally made in that way. May be that’s an attribute to RGVs style of film making. We get to see a young man, Deshu (Randeep Hooda) coming back to his hometown for his mother’s death. Deshu is not really an emotive person. He feels that it’s just his duty that he had to be there for his mother’s death. It’s more of a compulsion for him than the love towards his mother. He sees a live death within few days and then again witnesses a murder which makes him understand that it’s not a fair world outside.

The acting for these sequences were pretty much Godard like. The emotions were not spoon fed for us to understand. We don’t feel curious to see what’s his life was going to become but we get driven by his life, as if like a passerby. As he gets humiliated by Mangli’s (Raju Mavani) gang, instead of confessing or joining the gang, he joins the opposite gang and takes his revenge.

Then all we see is his rise, which was in a way interesting. There were few interesting scenes where the dialogues can’t be heard, even though they continue to talk. Generally these would be implemented at some of the suspenseful points in the film and is one of the most irritating techniques but here it feels like fast forwarding an unwanted song. It was a relief because we don’t really want to get to the details of an uninteresting man. We just want to see the highlights. The music in those junctions too were appealing and elevates the mood of the movie, giving a retro punk feel.

The only point of the film which looks forced in the conclusion. Hashim Bhai (Goga Kapoor) becoming folly of the plans of two of his sons, Mukarram (Sushant Singh) and Shabbir (Yashpal Sharma) felt too convenient. A man of his stature believing age old tricks like this was not convincing. It’d have rather been interesting if he had acted as if he was supporting his sons because if he had not he’d have been killed by his sons. If he had, he would’ve known that his sons would be eventually killed because Deshu is no normal person. That conflict would have been interesting than having a plain old ending.

The film more than anything was ambitious and that was so nice to watch. Any budding filmmaker who wants to make a gangster film would be inspired and would think that they don’t have to always have a huge budget for such movies. In fact even the gun sound coming of silencer was done so soft that there was no big fuzz over anything. It’s a world which RGV has created and would remain forever like this, no matter what he does post that.

Movie Review – Yahaan

A love story that strives hard but does not prosper well

The only reason I watched Yahaan was to complete Shoojit Sircar filmography and it was not such fruitful film otherwise. For a first film, it was decent, a love story amidst chaos. Shoojit Sircar strives hard to lend authenticity to the subject and fairly succeeds too but the performances of the leads and the unnecessary drama and songs in the middle kind of muddles the subject and ends up being neither a movie about terrorism nor a movie about the lovers. It’s subtleness actually stops the film from giving the necessary impact.

• 

Adaa (Minissha Lamba) is introduced to us with a title song, which she sings because she could wear jeans. As cheesy as it may be sound, the nature of Kashmir and the culture is shown in a gracious manner. Captain Amaan (Jimmy Sheirgill) joins the force in Kashmir in the fight against militants. Adaa whose marriage is fixed and who doesn’t look unhappy about it, falls in love with Amaan over a cup of tea. The act is quite unconvincing and with Jimmy Sherigill it is tough to understand what really is he thinking, he had kept his poker face intact throughout the movie. Minissha Lamba on the other side does a fair job for a newcomer.

Over a couple of songs and fights, they both bond, for which her granny too nods. Again, it is quite unconvincing, even though Amaan tries to help her mute adopted granddaughter. The best scene of the entire movie would be Adaa’s father angrily pleading Amaan to let her daughter out of this mess. Because that is where the film revolved in the entire first half with an army man loving a local girl. She casually cites that such woman either is raped or her house gets bombed. It is actually a gut wrenching scene but because they are so used to it, they tell it matter of factly. The whole conflict of how locals would defend themselves if an army man makes a move, was a teasing prospect. However, expect for those couple of scenes, it does not delve into that much.

The second half gets mundane like any other film in Kashmir where Amaan is caught by a terrorist who is a brother of Adaa and is let off by him finally. A conflict happens between the terrorists and between Adaa and her brother and leads to a lot of chaos. The film goes slightly off hand at this juncture. Not all the rivalry between people really works and situation is more chaotic than tense.

What is worse is the climax where Adaa tries hard to get justice but gets turned down by many individuals, organizations etc. Finally, she resorts to a TV program that gets voiced out loud when Amaan tries to rescue people who are caught by Adaa’s brother Shakeel (Yashpal Sharma). They perform an operation together where he is shot in the bulletproof jacket, kills the other terrorists, and frees all the people. The idea looks farfetched but it is not a film, which glamourized the action sequences much. Still the problem was not because the action did not work. It is because the emotions did not.