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Delhi Crime (2019)
A world-class Indian crime-drama
Even though I pride myself on (and vainly brag about) the breadth of my reading, in reality it is not that broad! I spent the better part of my PhD years devouring truckloads of junk romance novels, interspersed with research articles on neutron stars (some in Cyrillic script!). Sadly, even such limited range has shrunk further with advancing age. These days what survives on my reading list (apart from pure non-fiction) are mostly crime and detection stories. Of course, the same goes for viewing..
As far as TV is concerned, there exist a good number of internationally acclaimed series in this genre. However, till very recently none were based in India. So I was very excited when Indian crime dramas debuted on web TV. Unfortunately, the excitement lasted only for a short while. I had to quickly give up on the genre for - first, their overtly political posturing and then due to an overabundance of unnecessary sex scenes and unbelievably vulgar language. At times, it looked as if the producers were trying to peddle soft porn in the guise of crime drama. The language, in particular, grated on my senses. It looked as if nobody (in India) can speak without using swear words. We have policemen in the family. While I really do not know how they behave while in uniform, but I have never seen them randomly using swear words no matter what the situation.
It is with trepidation, therefore, I sat down to watch 'Delhi Crime' which has been based on one of the most heinous crimes in recent public memory. Soon, I had to revise my opinion. The series is seriously well made. Of course, to my great relief, the makers have not peppered the series with unnecessary sex or violence or foul language. The story is smartly and expertly told, without ever descending into melodrama. An excellently neat editing has helped shed extra flab (if it had any) and kept the things just right. To the delight of the viewer, the pace never slackened.
Also, this is first time we see an Indian crime-drama narrated completely from the perspective of the police team (something like that of "Criminal Minds", a long-time favourite). Yes, they have not strictly followed the real-life development. This, I feel, have allowed them some space to highlight issues that a police investigative team faces without getting embroiled into real-life political ramifications. The only weak point, I think, is the apparent ease with which the criminals are found and apprehended. However, I have been so impressed with the overall feel, that I am simply going to ignore this shortcomings.
Finally, a world-class Indian crime-drama!
Gulabo Sitabo (2020)
Profoundly disturbing..
It took me a while to figure out what was so disturbing and unsettling about 'Gulabo Sitabo' by Shoojit Sircar. Even though I do come from the 'first day, first show' generation (the phrase has lost its significance for multiplexes and has become totally obsolete in the Netflix era), I have very seldom opted for it. (Except for the time when, in the middle of thesis writing, I stood for hours in the midday sun to catch Mr. Bachchan's comeback movie after a hiatus. What a 'mrityudata' it was! Thereafter, I have sworn off from such ventures.) But I have been eager for this one, starring Senior Bachchan (sure to light up every frame he is in) and Ayushmann Khurana (who seems to have an uncanny knack for fitting into the most awkward of characters). So, it was a (Covid-locked) family showtime on the very first day.
The main characters for me, contrary to what has been highlighted by the makers themselves, were Mirza and his 'hardly there' Begum Fatima, with the Mahal in between. The Begum married Mirza, instead of her beloved, because Mirza agreed to become a 'ghar-jamai' so that Begum could continue to live in the Mahal. It was the Mahal for Begum. But for Mirza, it was the promise of money, hoping for a much older Begum to pass away long before him. That didn't come to pass. But Mirza found an opportunity to sell the Mahal. In the end though, the crafty Begum checkmated Mirza by throwing him out and returning to her old paramour. Because, that long-lost paramour now had enough money to save the Mahal from being sold.
The story is not entirely off-beat, but the film is. Because, this is 2020 and people do not make such films any more. But I could not really put my finger on the reason for my discomfort. Then, all of a sudden it fell into place. Whatever may have brought Mirza and Begum together, there was no relation, no bond between them even after spending a lifetime together. For me that is the most depressing aspect of the film, the bottom-line literally. One develops some attachment, a bit of am emotional bond even for a stray animal seeking shelter in the garage just for a few days. When human beings can not have even that much empathy for each other they lose that precious quality we call humanity. There was not a single moment in the film that was redeemed by the spark of humanity, not a single glimpse of light.
Yes, life could be just like that. I can't recall if the script was great or the making excellent. But I am giving this film 8 out of 10 because it has the ability to disturb us profoundly. It has reminded us that we tend to be, more often than not, inhuman.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016)
A mishmash of KHNH and other such mush..
Of late, it's the women who are carrying the Bollywood movies on their slender but strong shoulders. Dipika Padukone has been doing it for awhile, others are not far behind either. The watchability of 'ae dil hai mushkil' too is totally dependent Anushka Sharma. The initial comedy and the old hit songs also helped but certainly not Karan Johar's self-proclaimed attempt at being intellectual! :( Also, what is it with the old songs? Undoubtedly, Bollywood has enough hit music to fill a whole year's worth of new movies - if one wanted to. But that's not what movie making is about, right? In any case, ADHM appears simply to be a mishmash of 'kal ho na ho' and other mush from KJo stables despite 'appearances'.
Psst.. what was all that hoopla about Fawad Khan??
Akira (2016)
Realistic and hard-hitting..
This is a story of the relentless persecution of a woman, daring to break out of the stereotypical mold, by a failed social system which is both corrupt and broken. Hard-hitting and depressing - mainstream Bollywood seldom gets this realistic. Yet, this is such an ordinary, everyday story - being played out again and again all around us. In Indian society, a young girl who dares to question the system, a girl who dares to protest - is an anachronism. She is either disciplined and that rare spark of life is extinguished even before it is properly lit. Or she gets lucky and finds a supporter, like Akira did in her father. In reality it is more of a misfortune. Apart from that unusual mentor the unusual woman remains utterly alone all through her life. In fact, the society raises even steeper barriers in her path overcompensating for that one supportive mentor whether or not s/he continues to be around. In the end, the lone struggle of the young woman invariably runs out of options and we are once again left saddened with the depressing realisation that it is not easy to be a woman even in the twenty-first century.
Pink (2016)
Incidentally pink..
Hollywood has a tradition of exploiting the potential of its senior citizens to the fullest extent. Many of these actors have actually surpassed the achievements of their younger versions by wide margins. A case in point - Sean Connery. Notwithstanding the obsession of my father's generation with the Bond avatar of Connery, an elderly Connery in 'Name of the Rose' or 'Indiana Jones' provided a much better viewing. Thankfully, Bollywood broke out of its traditional mode of not recognising its senior citizens when Amitabh Bachchan joined the ranks of the veterans. As Mr. Bachchan continued to reinvent himself from 'Black' to 'Pink', the audience ended up being the real gainers. Anything and everything with him in it is worth the watch. 'Pink' has very successfully used Mr. Bachchan's status and tremendous screen presence to send its core message across. The number of reported and unreported cases of sexual harassment are huge in this country and they continue unchecked and unabated because society at large still insist on blaming the the victims instead of the perpetrators. Unfortunately, herein lies the inherent of this movie as well. The three young women, sharing a rented flat in an upper-middle class enclave, going about being everyday working women in the capital appear normal enough at the first glance. If you look closely though all of them happen to have somewhat unusual background. One of them comes from the North-East - considered to have 'loose morals' and a whole host of unsavoury character traits by a huge section of Indians from other parts of the country. Another is recovering from a broken relationship with an entangled financial situation. Yet another has boyfriend who happens to be the sidekick of a shady youngster from a politically powerful family. Sure, none of the protagonists are unusual but they are atypical. What about a middle-class girl from middle-India, without any shady boyfriend or a complicated past relation, sharing a rented accommodation in Delhi simply because her family live elsewhere? Are we to assume then that what happened to the trio would not happen to the standard, typical, 'good' girls? Are we, after all, passing judgement on the victims again? Perhaps A can't get away from the lure of blaming the victims - it's easy. Being rescued by Mr. Bachchan's incidental proximity and legal skills is also rather fairy-tale-ish. Very feel-good. Life, unfortunately, is never black & white or even pink - it actually is myriad depressing shades of grey!
Aligarh (2015)
A sensitive portrayal..
For an average Indian the existence of the LGBT community is beyond the range of ordinary vision, until s/he is faced with the reality of a near and dear one having a different personal preference. The reactions, caused by sudden departure from emotional and logistic comfort zones, are usually extreme and seldom unbiased. In contrast, my contact with the community has been through an academic friend who one fine day simply declared that he had a different orientation. I think, most of us took this news without much of a shock because there weren't a lot at stake for any of us, personally. Moreover in academia, we habitually get thrown into contact with people from all over India (and beyond) with all kinds of variation of preferences ranging from minor to completely outlandish. A different physiological trait was just another of those natural variations that we, budding scientists, were not going to be really bothered with. In fact, the only consequence of his declaration was to generate a sense of embarrassed awkwardness among other male students about sharing a room with him on observatory trips. However, all this good humour was a reflection of us not being affected by his preferences or actions. The situations tend to be very different in the world outside the closeted community of (apparent) scientific rationality. Moreover, academia too could get downright vengeful and violently against such personal preferences (or use it to hurt a member of the community) when personal/professional advancements were at stake.
In fact, the attitude of academia is extremely relevant in the context of this story. The possible reasons why a professor of the Aligarh Muslim University was persecuted might have had more to do with other issues than his preference for intimate companions. The movie raises these relevant questions in a very matter of fact way, without over dramatisation, without directly pointing fingers or making obvious villains out of the people really responsible for the persecution. The portrayal of the sheer apathy of the system, the ignorance and resulting fear/hatred of the common people and the sense of doom and depression that the protagonist slowly descends into is heart-rending. Manoj Bajpayee is, of course, a classic case of criminally unexploited acting potential. His sensitive portrayal of a reclusive, almost shy professor of Sanskrit, caught in the eye of a totally unexpected storm, is decidedly the backbone of this story which would likely go a very long way in changing the outlook of an ordinary Indian about people who just happen to have a different physiology.
Rustom (2016)
didn't live up to expectations..
Back in the '90s, when Akshay Kumar was belting out his 'khiladi' hits and I was busy being a dead serious and rather taciturn PhD student, if anyone told me that I would one day look forward to his releases I would surely have been concerned about the mental health of that person. While the 'khiladi' (and 'singhh is king' of late) genre continues to frighten me, Akshay Kumar, post 'OMG : Oh My God!', 'Special 26' and 'Baby', has definitely risen on my scale of cinematic sensibilities.
'Rustom' didn't live up to the expectations though. It's not Akshay Kumar essaying the lead character of Rustom Pavri, which he does a reasonably good job of, but the team. Since the film couldn't have a lot of surprises, based as it was on a real incident, far more work was required on the dramatisation. The court scenes, usually providing for scopes of great drama, were not exploited to their potential. The pace was somewhat jerky and the storytelling could have been far better.
Though I did like Pavan Malhotra as the dedicated police inspector in charge of the case. And the hint of the financial scandal involving some of the senior Navy officers. At a time when Indian armed forces are beset with shady financial deals incorporating that into the story has been really interesting.
A lot of cinematic licences have obviously been taken. That's nothing to worry about, as I am sure everyone have been researching the 'Nanavati Case' over the internet since the announcement of the movie. What disappointed me is not making it into a good cinema.
Mohenjo Daro (2016)
..village boys, five thousand years ago, out on the river to deal with a crocodile surely were in the habit of wearing designer sandals!
Absolutely disappointing - even watching it on television can't be worth giving up a Sunday afternoon nap for. Except for the beautifully made sets (that's why I am giving it two stars) there's nothing to recommend the movie for. The costume (straight out of exotic designer studios, or 'fabindia' at its worst) is simply laughable (village boys, five thousand years ago, out on the river to deal with a crocodile surely were in the habit of wearing fancy sandals!), and the less one talks about the pace and story-line the better. And it'd be completely idiotic to look for any authentic historical facts here. The film is more of a disappointment because we are really learning a lot about the 'Sindhu Civilisation' thanks to the discovery of a number of new archaeological sites in recent times. An absolutely sad case of lost opportunities. Kaput goes my first attempt at catching up with recent releases during the festival holidays! :(
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Disappointing
I think we were likely the first generation Indians to have our childhood completely immersed in the world of comics heroes. Indrajal Comics, which was like the Indian arm of King Features' Syndicate, was our steady companion keeping us surrounded by Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and their ilk. The best thing about Indrajal comics was that they used to translate the original stories in almost all major Indian languages. For small-town-studying-in-vernacular-medium-school children like us, they fit right into our childhood fantasy land. We even had cases of children hiding behind neighborhood shrubbery and desperately calling out for 'phantom's help' faced with real-life emergencies!
In comparison, DC comics which came only in their original imported format were not readily accessible to most. A few issues (typically quite expensive for Indian middle class families in the '70s) would sometimes trickle down from big cities. Given my pedestrian English there was no question of making much sense out of them. My serious affair with DC characters, in particular with Batman, began after moving to Bangalore a couple of decades later - thanks to the myriad second-hand bookshops selling all sorts of unbelievable gems. By this time, Superman with all his alien super-powers was already a loser. For a twenty-something would-be-academic he could never match the enigma and the complex humanity of the Bat.
Interestingly, my Hollywood experience followed more or less along similar lines. The original superman movies, released only in the metro cities, never really reached the children living elsewhere. I only had a chance of viewing them after Michael Keaton has already established himself as the iconic Batman for our generation. No wonder Superman movies looked somewhat childish in comparison. Another decade passed before the deadly combination of Christopher Nolan (our beloved 'Nolan-dada') and Christian Bale literally scorched the screens with the intensity of the 'Dark Knight' series. Zack Snyder's Superman (Man of Steel, 2013) never really had much of a chance even after the retirement of Nolan's 'Dark Knight'.
Cut to 2016. Snyder now brings the Superman back to face the Dark Knight. Let me admit right here that I really like Ben Affleck. My respect for him has actually gone up a notch after watching 'Batman v Superman'. I really wouldn't have believed anyone could do even a modicum of justice to the caped crusader after Christian Bale if I didn't see the role essayed by Affleck. Unfortunately, he didn't have much to work with. An actor is as good as his director, or rather the space that his director allows him to bring a particular character alive. Neither did Affleck had the space, nor did he ever look the part in that juggernaut of a costume. I don't know how one could even move a muscle in the suit, let alone pull off all sorts of gymnastic tricks. I really, I mean really cringed every-time Affleck got into the bat suite and hated the movie even more for wasting him entirely.
Disappointing. Very disappointing. Full of goofs too. Why was the cameraman in the desert scene using film cameras? Who uses those anymore? Were we supposed to be in the 70s? Then what with the cell phone and all the fancy gadgets? Very very incongruous. The only person I liked in the movie was Hesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. He has brought a touch of the 'Joker-esque' insanity to Luthor. Very apt.
As can be expected, I ended up berating myself for sitting down to watch another Zack Snyder movie after the terrible Man of Steel. The only consolation is that I didn't really make a trip to the theater but wasted a late night TV viewing slot instead. :)
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
A beautiful movie with an endless rerun value..
One of the very public obsession of our times is cooking. From multiple versions of the high-profile 'masterchef' to dubious cookery shows on local cable channels - we seem to have developed an incredible appetite for the process of food preparation, ascribing hitherto unheard of celebrity status to chefs. The effect of this craze has been rather pleasurable on cinema ('Ratatoulle' is an absolute favorite).
'The Hundred-Foot Journey' takes advantage of this culinary fashion but brings so much more to the table. It is the story of an Indian family immigrating to a completely unknown part of the world in search of a new life and new beginning. There have been many such families who built their lives up from scratch, depending simply on a set of special skills. This particular movie simply uses the art of cooking as its medium of storytelling.
Helen Mirren and Om Puri, renowned stalwarts of Holly-/Bollywood, are such pleasures to watch as they bring out the old-world essence of France and India. But it is heart-warming to see that the new generation embraces the different as well as acknowledges the roots at the same time. Above all its a beautiful movie with a high 'feel-good' (in a positive sense) quotient, with an endless rerun value at the end of a busy day or on a rainy afternoon.
The Duchess (2008)
An aristocratic woman trapped in the social mores of her time..
Britons might be sorely divided in their desire to be in or out, but there is one topic on which they are forever united - their passion, or rather their obsession with their Royalty. Here's one small indicator. When we rented an apartment in Cambridge, one of the first tasks we had to undertake was to move the huge volume of our landlady's book collection to the garage. More than half of those garage full of books dealt with the Royal family!
Of course, the most obsessed over member of that family is undoubtedly Princess Diana. A film, based on the life of her great-great...aunt the Duchess of Devonshire which had an uncanny similarity with Lady D's own life, is bound to generate a lot of interest. Apparently, the trailer of this 2008 movie even used a couple of Lady D shots to ensure that.
However, for folks outside the orbit of that royal obsession, this is basically about the life of an aristocratic woman trapped in the social mores of her time, despite all the worldly privileges that came with her rank and status. Unfortunately, the movie could not rise above its curiosity value (even while giving us an excellent glimpse into the English aristocratic life in the eighteenth century) as the events, instead of flowing smoothly, had somewhat of a jerky feel. As if we are given a lesson in history, above all.
Keira Knightly, as expected, is a natural in the role of an old-world English Duchess. But Ralph Fiennes is totally wasted in the role of the Duke of Devonshire. Watching this, I wouldn't have believed him emerging with that commanding presence of M in Spectre a few years down the line.
Te3n (2016)
The genre of serious crime thriller has arrived in Bollywood.
The genre of serious crime thriller has arrived in Bollywood. We have already had excellent films like 'kahani', 'talash' and now Ribhu Dasgupta gives us 'te3n'.
In 1997 I joined a queue under scorching midday sun to buy a ticket for 'Mrityudata' (one of Amitabh Bachchan's totally forgettable middle-age fares) and felt it was time to write him off. Twenty years down the line, he reigns supreme over the Indian film industry, going from strength to strength, reinventing and surpassing himself time and again. That itself could have been enough for 'te3n' but the director also decided to throw Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vidya Balan and Sabyasachi Chakrabarti in. A viewing pleasure.
Many have complained about the slow pace. For me that set the tone of the story. An excellent story, told by an exceptional ensemble cast - the perfect fare for a lazy Sunday afternoon. We are told that the story-line has been taken from a Korean one, but its adaptation into the slowly decaying Anglo-Indian community of Kolkata has been flawless.
My only serious grouse is about Sabyasachi Chakrabarti. A brilliant actor, a versatile presence in the Bengali (large and small) screen. However, the way he has let his appearance go in recent years has been a source of terrible disappointment to his appreciative viewers.
Wives and Daughters (1999)
A Victorian family drama..
My judgment has probably been clouded by the fact that I watched this one between series two and three of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'. The basic settings and premises of both are similar, and a comparison is but inevitable. Though the storytelling and the settings have been done to perfection it can't hold a candle to the Candleford saga because it fails to tug at the heartstrings. Moreover, for an Indian viewer, sick and tired of the never ending and clichéd 'saas-bahu' (mother-in-law & daughter-in-law) sagas, the 'Wives and Daughters' (with a selfish stepmother playing the customary role of the mother-in-law) does look like a sober and mellowed down fare from the same genre.