Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Govind Nihalani's Party (1984) is now showing in the series A Journey into Indian Cinema.“Oh, Mrs. Dalloway. Always giving parties to cover the silence.” —Michael Cunningham, The HoursVirginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway begins with the line, “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.” In Govind Nihalani’s Party (1984), Mrs. Damayanti Rane (Vijaya Mehta) does not buy the flowers herself; she is a minister’s daughter living in a mansion in Mumbai, so she asks her servants to do it instead. She does, however, lay them out in vases. Like Woolf’s Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway, Mrs. Rane is throwing a party to celebrate a friend, in this case, Diwakar Barwe (Manohar Singh), a playwright who has just won a national award for his work. Even before the party begins, she has had a sedative, a shot of...
- 3/30/2020
- MUBI
A still from Quarter no 4/11
What:
Fd Zone Mumbai screening of Charles Correa’s “City On The Water” & Ranu Ghosh’s “Quarter Number 4/11”
Curatorial Note:
On 23rd August we will build a discussion around two narratives both dealing with urban planning and development. First, a macro vision where India’s leading architect and urban planner Charles Correa proposes a solution to the problems of a huge metropolis literally falling apart under population pressure. He searches for inspiration by tracing the path of the conception of the city itself.
The second story presents the micro picture – the lived reality of a common man, trying to survive in a city bent upon throwing him out. While one film proposes an organic and holistic approach, the other documents the fallout of market-oriented urban ‘development’. Separated by four decades, set in two different cities, these films present an interesting study of urban development throwing up important questions of housing,...
What:
Fd Zone Mumbai screening of Charles Correa’s “City On The Water” & Ranu Ghosh’s “Quarter Number 4/11”
Curatorial Note:
On 23rd August we will build a discussion around two narratives both dealing with urban planning and development. First, a macro vision where India’s leading architect and urban planner Charles Correa proposes a solution to the problems of a huge metropolis literally falling apart under population pressure. He searches for inspiration by tracing the path of the conception of the city itself.
The second story presents the micro picture – the lived reality of a common man, trying to survive in a city bent upon throwing him out. While one film proposes an organic and holistic approach, the other documents the fallout of market-oriented urban ‘development’. Separated by four decades, set in two different cities, these films present an interesting study of urban development throwing up important questions of housing,...
- 8/20/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Film review: 'Such a Long Journey'
"Such a Long Journey" presents a slice of life in 1971 Bombay on the eve of yet another Indian war with Pakistan, this time over East Pakistan, later to become the independent state of Bangladesh.
Though vividly directed by Canadian helmer Sturla Gunnarsson and featuring a cast of excellent veteran actors from the Indian cinema, the film never gains its narrative footing. Devolved from Rohinton Mistry's 1991 best-selling Dickensian novel, Sooni Taraporevala's screenplay suffers from too many loose plot threads, none of which feels satisfying or fully developed.
The third movie in the Shooting Gallery's traveling film series, "Journey" will play only to an art house audience, and to be fully understood, that audience needs some grounding in Indian history and Parsi culture.
The central figure is Gustad Noble (Roshan Seth from "Gandhi" and "My Beautiful Laundrette"), a Parsi bank clerk whose easygoing routine gets disrupted during the course of the movie. Troubles come all at once: His son (Vrajesh Hirjee) refuses to go to a top Indian college; a mysterious friend asks a "favor" that has Noble depositing large sums of dubious money at his own bank; his young daughter becomes ill, possibly with malaria; and his wife (Soni Razdan) falls under the influence of an aging witch (Pearl Padamsee) living in the upstairs apartment.
The film is populated with a number of comical eccentrics, which include Noble's daffy pal at the bank (Sam Dastor) and a mental misfit (Kurush Deboo) whose death causes Noble's emotional breakdown. Then there's major Indian star Om Puri in the small but pivotal role of a shady political operative and Ranjit Chowdhry as a street artist who transforms the wall outside Noble's flat from a public urinal to a shrine dedicated to various gods.
But the script never succeeds in bringing all of these characters and colorful plot lines into a unified whole. Instead, it jumps here and there with only the stoic though increasingly agitated Noble holding it together.
The comic byplay among the actors is often quite funny and opens a window into life on the subcontinent and especially in Bombay during that era. The film is well produced with cinematographer Jan Kiesser and production designer Nitin Desai performing miracles in tough location shooting in one of the world's noisiest and most polluted cities.
SUCH A LONG JOURNEY
The Shooting Gallery
British Screen, BSkyB, Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund and CBC
Producer:Paul Stephens, Simon MacCorkindale
Director:Sturla Gunnarsson
Writer:Sooni Taraporevala
Based on the novel by:Rohinton Mistry
Executive producer:Victor Solnicki
Director of photography:Jan Kiesser
Production designer:Nitin Desai
Music:Jonathan Goldsmith
Costume designer:Lovleen Bains
Editor:Jeff Warren
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gustad Noble:Roshan Seth
Dilnavaz Noble:Soni Razdan
Ghulam:Om Puri
Sohrab Noble:Vrajesh Hirjee
Pavement Artist:Ranjit Chowdhry
Dinshawji:Sam Dastor
Jimmy Bilimoria:Naseeruddin Shah
Mrs. Kutpitia:Pearl Padamsee
Running time -- 113 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Though vividly directed by Canadian helmer Sturla Gunnarsson and featuring a cast of excellent veteran actors from the Indian cinema, the film never gains its narrative footing. Devolved from Rohinton Mistry's 1991 best-selling Dickensian novel, Sooni Taraporevala's screenplay suffers from too many loose plot threads, none of which feels satisfying or fully developed.
The third movie in the Shooting Gallery's traveling film series, "Journey" will play only to an art house audience, and to be fully understood, that audience needs some grounding in Indian history and Parsi culture.
The central figure is Gustad Noble (Roshan Seth from "Gandhi" and "My Beautiful Laundrette"), a Parsi bank clerk whose easygoing routine gets disrupted during the course of the movie. Troubles come all at once: His son (Vrajesh Hirjee) refuses to go to a top Indian college; a mysterious friend asks a "favor" that has Noble depositing large sums of dubious money at his own bank; his young daughter becomes ill, possibly with malaria; and his wife (Soni Razdan) falls under the influence of an aging witch (Pearl Padamsee) living in the upstairs apartment.
The film is populated with a number of comical eccentrics, which include Noble's daffy pal at the bank (Sam Dastor) and a mental misfit (Kurush Deboo) whose death causes Noble's emotional breakdown. Then there's major Indian star Om Puri in the small but pivotal role of a shady political operative and Ranjit Chowdhry as a street artist who transforms the wall outside Noble's flat from a public urinal to a shrine dedicated to various gods.
But the script never succeeds in bringing all of these characters and colorful plot lines into a unified whole. Instead, it jumps here and there with only the stoic though increasingly agitated Noble holding it together.
The comic byplay among the actors is often quite funny and opens a window into life on the subcontinent and especially in Bombay during that era. The film is well produced with cinematographer Jan Kiesser and production designer Nitin Desai performing miracles in tough location shooting in one of the world's noisiest and most polluted cities.
SUCH A LONG JOURNEY
The Shooting Gallery
British Screen, BSkyB, Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund and CBC
Producer:Paul Stephens, Simon MacCorkindale
Director:Sturla Gunnarsson
Writer:Sooni Taraporevala
Based on the novel by:Rohinton Mistry
Executive producer:Victor Solnicki
Director of photography:Jan Kiesser
Production designer:Nitin Desai
Music:Jonathan Goldsmith
Costume designer:Lovleen Bains
Editor:Jeff Warren
Color/stereo
Cast:
Gustad Noble:Roshan Seth
Dilnavaz Noble:Soni Razdan
Ghulam:Om Puri
Sohrab Noble:Vrajesh Hirjee
Pavement Artist:Ranjit Chowdhry
Dinshawji:Sam Dastor
Jimmy Bilimoria:Naseeruddin Shah
Mrs. Kutpitia:Pearl Padamsee
Running time -- 113 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 3/27/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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