Bas Ek Pal

Among all movies this year, I was definitely looking forward to this one most. I wasn't let down. The movie is like a breath of fresh air. I don't think Bollywood has ever attempted to make such a movie with a dark theme and dark characters. The only other movie that is as dark is 'The Film'. Bas Ek Pal deals with with compassion, anger, love, hate, lust and jealousy. The characters are very human and you see that each of their decision has a drastic effect on what's coming next. The film also follows a steady pace and keeps you wondering what's gonna happen next. Once the movie ends, it stays in your mind!!! The movie is loosely based on Pedro Almodovar's Carne Tremula. Almodovar based his movie on Ruth Rendell's original novel 'Live Flesh'. I read the book and saw the movie and except for a few similarities, i found them both to be very different. And what makes Bas Ek Pal different is that it wasn't a carbon copy of either. It took some scenes from both the movie and the book. For example, the rape scene wasn't in the movie but it was in the book.

The movie can also be said to be a character sketch. Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Urmila Matondkar and Jimmy Shergill all play challenging roles. You've never seen them like this. You can identify with all the characters.

The cast and crew are all worthy of awards but again, Bollywood awards mostly go to the non-deserving.

This is probably Juhi's most challenging role to date and she played it completely natural. The character has several layers and only a brilliant actress like Juhi could do justice to this part.

Urmila's character was also one that required a fantastic actress and she did full justice to that role. I highly doubt whether anyone could have done better.

As for Jimmy Shergill and Sanjay Suri, they are becoming more versatile with each film. Both have done a great job and take big strides as actors maturing with every movie.

Music is definitely a double plus! They're still pleasant to hear and add to the situation in the film.

Onir's a remarkable director. He chose a bold theme and he chose the best actors (not the biggest stars) which makes this movie worth a watch. Whether you'll like it or not, I'd definitely say watching it would be worth your time.

I don't see why this movie was a flop. Well, bollywood does have difficulty recognizing good movies otherwise why would crap like Krishh and KANK be superhits? This film should win several awards, especially best director, best music and best performances!

Watched it for 'Tere Bin' song, acting is good but script is too weak.

In mid-August, many an unknowing filmi buff was psychologically impaled in the cinema halls during screenings of Karan Johar's hopelessly awful "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" which purported to be a mature examination of extra-marital affairs. It was, of course, nothing of the sort, and despite raking in the moolah, it has found little favor with fans or critics.

About a month later, a comparatively small budget film, Onir's "Bas Ek Pal" (reminiscent of experimental European cinema), released, dealing with a similar theme but without any of the reigning puerility and adolescent conventionality which made Johar's film so utterly absurd. Instead, Onir infuses his film with a complex morality and a matrix of thoroughly realistic characters where there are no heroes and no villains, no glamorized damsels and no bitchy mistresses. It is also impossible to say who is opposite whom- there are no "pairs" as one is universally accustomed to seeing in Indian films. A brief recap of the premise will explain why: The story begins with the reunion of two friends, Nikhil (Sanjay Suri) and Rahul (Jimmy Shergill). Nikhil becomes acquainted with Steve (Rehaan Engineer), a friend of Rahul's who is also an abusive alcoholic. Steve is married to Ira Malhotra, a former beauty queen turned humanitarian (Juhi Chawla) who has suffered a miscarriage, physical battery, and a failed marriage. Nikhil becomes infatuated with a young engineer named Anamika (Urmila Matondkar) who—unfortunately for him—is attached to a trust fund named Rehan. At their second meeting, Nikhil and Rehan scuffle over Anamika, and in the midst of their battle Rahul is shot, resulting in paralysis. Nikhil faces prison for three years, which actually turns out to be the least of his troubles. During those three years Anamika becomes romantically linked with Rahul, who it turns out had a long-standing affair with Ira who was tired of her pathetic husband's emotional and physical torture. Ira helps free Nikhil, whom Steve suspects of having an affair with his wife. Rahul also accuses Anamika of rekindling her "affair" with Nikhil. Ira compels Anamika toward Nikhil in her final attempt at escape. Confused? You should be, because (like real life) it's complex and disturbing, and there are no designer outfits or grandiose dance numbers to numb the pain of the tragedy which unfolds around these five lives. Betrayal turns to Obsession, Helplessness to Hopelessness, and Attraction to Rape in this brilliantly constructed and acted film.

Though the film's title purports it to be about how one incident transforms the lives of all those involved, its final implications are of much more ubiquitous themes: it is basically a filmed series of unending horrors and disappointments which shows life in its most bitter and grotesque form. There is also a shocking twist at the end which makes the film really work. It is a true "Greek" tragedy, which should give you little doubt as to how it ends, but there is more than general catastrophe: there is murder, suicide, betrayal, abuse, deceit, infidelity, jealousy, self-hatred, enmity, violence and whole host of depravities which are too many to be named here. On top of it all, there's a rape which victimizes neither Ira nor Anamika, but one of the male leads. Oh, and the film also takes time to explore the realities of forced oral sex. Suffice is to say, treacly "Hum Aapke Hain Kaun," this film ain't.

Onir's tactfully written screenplay aside, the real mainstay of the film is its performances turned in by a fine cadre of actors led by the peerless Juhi Chawla. She is simply outstanding in a role which makes one sit up and notice the currents of strength and despair in Ira which Juhi expertly etches in Ira's eyes and movements. This is not a character one expects to find in Juhi Chawla's repertoire: Ira is bold, self-loathing, and desperate for affection, which drives her into an affair with Rahul which is both emotionally and sexually satisfying. And yes, she does something truly shocking at the end. But Ira is also something of a mystery whose acquaintance with happiness proves too short. Anamika, conversely, is easy to read, though her lucidity does not translate to simplicity. Matondkar portrays her as the eternal romantic, albeit a somewhat helpless one who frequently cannot tolerate her own circumstances. Less fiery and more vulnerable than her usual characters, Matondkar plays her flawlessly as a little girl with adult ambitions. Love, Success, and Self-Actualization are her goals, but she becomes ensnared in a bizarre and almost inexplicable love for Nikhil. One expects Nikhil to be the centerpiece of the film, but he turns out to be much more of a cipher than the others. Suri is always at the center of Onir's films, but in this collaboration he gets a more supportive role which he carries effortlessly, by turns suave, angry, and desperate. Jimmy Shergill is the surprise packet of the film: one expects great performances from Juhi Chawla and Urmila Matondkar, but the Shergill proves he can match their talents with a brooding and intense portrayal of Rahul. In many ways, he is the character at the center of the film. Rehaan Engineer is somewhat of a mixed bag- his delivery teeters between odd and satisfactory, the main problem being his menace is somewhat flat and benign. In some scenes, particularly those with Juhi, his performance clashes with the finesse of the others.

Unfortunately, films which forgo formula and embrace innovation are too often ignored by the indiscriminate masses who would rather see Shah Rukh Khan in DDLJ Part VII (or whichever configuration we're on now) so don't be surprised by the many reviewers who have no idea how to react to it. It will join the league of thoughtful cinema rendered obscure by the very fact that it makes demands on its audience instead of bowing to commercial pressures. "Bas Ek Pal" holds the mirror up to Life and dares to show us that the reflection is sometimes purely shattered.

Bas Ek Pal is a film I was waiting to savor. I had heard so much about the excellence of this movie, about Onir's outstanding direction, about the wonderful cast. This was clearly a standout movie for the year 2006. Why? For so many reasons really.. Let me enumerate...

1. The movie started out really well, there was an atmosphere of impending doom throughout the film that was very well done. I felt like I was inside a Rohinton Mistry novel.

2. Some of the characters were ordinary and well etched.

3. The story twisted and turned and kept me engaged throughout.

4. The music was quite good (though the whole package not as powerful as the music in Woh Lamhe).

5. The movie boasted of some excellent performances.

A little plot outline:

Nikhil Kapoor (Sanjay Suri) goes to a night club, meets and it instantly captivated by Anamika (Urmila Matondkar). She is being elusive but is attracted to him. Nikhil's best friend Rahul (Jimmy Shergill) has a friend Steve (Rehaan Engineer) who is embroiled in marital strife with his wife Ira (Juhi Chawla). One day Rahul and Steve accompany Nikhil to the night club one day and there he meets Aanmika again, gets into a fight with her escort, and with the escort's gun accidentally shoots Rahul. That lands him up in jail where he suffers through much beating and abuse of the imaginable and unimaginable type. Eventually Ira works on his case and gets him bail. He is trying to figure out why his friends abandoned him and refuse to see him, Anamika is hooked up with the paraplegic Rahul, and Ira and Steve are still going at each other. One finds out that he was set up in the night club. That was apparent in the beginning itself, but now the details come out and the rest of the story is a fantastical resolution of the tangle everyone is embroiled in.

So what does one see on close scrutiny?

That Ira is too scared to leave her abusive husband, but not too scared to have an affair. After she finds out he knows about the affair, she is still able to rescue the man who was victimized by her husband, but is still unable to find the courage to leave the husband. He goes away for weeks on end when she has her affair but she does not leave him during these prolonged absences, instead she chooses a time when he is in town to finally muster up some courage. You learn that it is possible to plan a shooting using a gun carried by a person unknown to the planner. That a person who has an MBA from a US university and lived with his parents there, upon relocation does not have enough money to afford top notch legal representation. And so on and so forth. So yes, the plot is riddled with many such inconsistencies, and it is not about relationships at all. Ira is an abused spouse and yet lives with her abuser - that makes her an enabler but that aspect is never explored. Hers is the worst fleshed out character. Anamika is a very fickle frivolous person and do such people exist? Steve is an abuser and a real person. Rahul is a strange mix of victim, savior and avenger. Nikhil is the character that you sympathize with the most - he is not the protagonist, but a victim, the fulcrum around whom the story revolves, but he is a passive participant for the most part.

The performances:

Juhi is outstanding. What a way to re-emerge as a mature actress of note. She takes an ill drawn character and manages to infuse it with life and reality. She has the most scope for histrionics and yet never resorts to that - instead she is most understated and has maximum impact.

Urmila - well, I know I will get flak from her legion of fans but in the first part she is convincing as the peppy frivolous girl. Then the movie turns serious and Urmila loses it - she yells, sobs, screams and generally over-performs at every turn. In all fairness to Urmila - it is Juhi's underplayed acting that makes Urmila's look overdone, but there it is.

Sanjay Suri is quite good - I liked the character, and the way he performed it. He showed obsession, despair, terror and self-disgust with equal ease.

Jimmy Shergill was good. I saw a decent role competently done - nothing outstanding, nothing jarred.

Rehaan Engineer was okay - sort of easy to play bad man role.

About the direction.. I had heard so much about Onir and I think this was a very good effort. But this was by no means a flawless film. The story of ordinary characters stuck in some fantastical scenario was a problem for me. And the last 10 minutes were quite atrocious IMO. By the end I wanted the two remaining people to pick up the gun and BAM BAM! The setup was so mundane - it was all driven by jealousy? How fantastic is that! The bits in jail were extremely powerful. BTW guys just because it was a male being raped does not make it any outstanding act of bravery on the director's part. These things do happen, just as much as women getting raped and abused in custody - so what is the big deal here? Was Madhuri Dixit not shown to suffer through such and worse in Anjaam?

In the end I liked Bas Ek Pal for its unusual story, but I felt it fell short of the mark in many ways and failed to achieve greatness. Of all the performances Juhi was simply awesome - she made me give the film 8 stars.

An overwrought movie relying almost entirely upon an implausible plot. And before people go on celebrating this movie's "brave" darkness.. watch for the sequence of clichés: alcoholic, abusive husband who suspects wife of having affairs; intelligent and sincere wife who feels too bad to leave him (wtf?); love at first sight etc. etc. Nauseating.

The characters have little depth, and when they experience emotions it's either jealousy/guilt, or it's unyielding love/sheer cunning/unthinking evil.. usually in predictable sequences. What ridiculous emotional dichotomies.

Weak performances all around, and Juhi Chawla is completely wasted in this movie. So is Sanjay Suri. Both were so promising in Onir's far superior "My Brother Nikhil." Here they stumble around with weakly written characters. Urmila Matondkar is predictably annoying. Jimmy Shergill was kind of okay in his brief romance scenes with his first love interest in the movie, but quickly got much worse in the rest of the movie.