The best of World Cinema

Over the last few years I have been watching quite a few international films. After a close friend of mine introduced me to the world of world cinema around 4 years back, I have been hooked. Now having watched quite a few of the world's best movies I can say this much - a movie aficionado's collection can never be complete if he has not watched movies from different corners of the globe. Although Hollywood has been the mainstay of the movie industry for long, after a while (a while could last well around a decade) of watching Hollywood movies, things can become boring and monotonous. With the amount of movies made every year in Hollywood, its natural that a lot of the focus is on making money at the Box Office than producing quality. Plus Hollywood's love for cliched themes like - aliens, zombies, superheroes, vietnam war... there's only so much of that one can digest. But variety is not the only thing that world cinema offers. Its biggest offering is a different cultural perspective on life. I know how most of my knowledge of America its history and culture is through the american movies I have watched over the years. Same is true for world cinema. Cinema provides a lens to view the whole world. Also over the years there have been great non-american directors who have redefined cinema with their style.

Without wasting any more time, I will list here some of the best world movies that I have seen. Feel free to comment and suggest more titles. The list is in no particular order, I have made no effort to rank the movies.

• Cinema Paradiso - This was one of the first foreign language movies I had seen and it is undoubtedly one of the best. No movie depicts the magic of cinema better than this movie. Its the story of a small boy who grows up watching cinema in a theater called Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in a small Italian town and his relationship with the projectionist of the theater. This is one of the more conventional movies with a linear plot told mostly in flashback. The film evokes a feeling of nostalgia in the viewer's mind, of the days before the advent of digital cinema and surround sound. One of the most memorable scenes of this film is where - the local priest watches every movie in the theater before it is opened to general public, to check for objectionable clips in the movie. So every time he sees a kiss or a lady in a swimsuit he rings a bell that he holds in his hand and the projectionist marks the reel, to cut it out later. The music by Ennio Morricone is just sublime. Here is the IMDB link.

• Memories of Murder - I am a big fan of thriller movies and this one tops the list. Its a South Korean movie based on true events. 2 detectives looking for a serial killer. Doesn't sound too original does it. Well from a plot perspective it probably isn't. What sets this movie apart from other hollywood movies of the same genre is as I had earlier mentioned, the cultural aspect. A series of rapes & murders are committed in a small obscure town. The investigating detectives are not trained with the most up to date techniques to handle this kind of situation, their day to day work involves catching petty thieves and beating a confession out of them. And here they don't have the luxury of calling FBI to their rescue. This movie captures this gap beautifully, at times the detectives seem utterly helpless in their quest to catch the criminal, but never do they look short of passion or intent. This is a must watch for all thriller movie fans. Here is the IMDB link. 

• The Return - I can't remember a more emotional and moving story told in such minimalistic fashion elsewhere. The Return is a Russian movie by debutante director Andrei Zviagintsev. The story is about 2 young boys (brothers) and their father who returns to them one day suddenly after 12 years. All they remember of him is an old photograph. The whole movie is the story of a trip the 3 of them take to an island and how that trip changes their lives forever. The movie deliberates on the complexities of human relationships - how difficult it is for an estranged father to ever have a normal relationship with his children. The movie is beautifully shot and very leisurely made, at times slow but never boring. The Return is one of my all time personal favorites. Here is the IMDB link.

• Oldboy - If ever evil could be presented with style and panache, it would come close to Park Chan-wook's depiction in Oldboy. The evil here is not Satan or Antichrist or any such variant. Oldboy deals with the evil inside the human mind. This film was the second in a revenge trilogy by the South Korean filmmaker. The story shows how revenge consumes a man and turns him into a monster. The denouement makes you sick to the gut. But what stands out for me is the style with which even the most violent scenes of the movie were shot. One scene that comes to mind is a the corridor fight scene  which took seventeen takes and 3 days to perfect. I quite like Choi Min-sik's portayal of the lead character in the film. Over the years Oldboy has acquired a cult following. It set a new benchmark in extreme cinema which filmmakers have ever since tried to accomplish. Here is the imdb link.

• Children of Heaven - Children of heaven is an Iranian film by Majid Majidi. It is one of the sweetest films you will ever watch. The story revolves around 2 children (brother & sister) from a poor Iranian family and a pair of pink shoes. Saying anything more about the story would spoil the fun. The movie reminds us of the innocence of childhood. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998 but was beaten by the Italian world war 2 film Life is beautiful. Here is the IMDB link.

• All about my mother - This is one of the more complex films in this list and of all the movies I have watched. The movie deals with subjects like gender confusion, prostitution, drugs. This movie had quite a few passing references and undertones, all of which I confess I didn't understand completely myself - like references to A Streetcar named Desire and All about Eve. But the central theme of the movie is the woman, of all the roles she has to play in her life, how she is tormented and betrayed and hurt by men at different times but she deals with all that and fights throughout her life to establish her identity. The film's central character is a middle aged woman, a nurse who is a single mother of a teenage boy. The boy wants to become a writer when he grows up and is working on a project called - "All about my mother" for which he wants to learn about the father he never met and about whom he knows nothing. The son gets killed in a road accident on the eve of his seventeenth birthday, his mother then decides to embark on a journey to search for the boy's father with whom she had long lost contact. In a way the movie tells us the story of the mother through her search for her son's father. Pedro Almodovar received a Palme d'Or at Cannes for this movie and it also won an Oscar for the Best Foreign language Film. A brilliant movie and a must watch for any film buff. Here is the IMDB link.

• Cache (Hidden) - Michael Haneke's Cache gives a new definition to the mystery genre. Like Haneke's other films this one doesn't provide any concrete answers to the questions it raises.  The main plot goes like this - someone makes video recordings of a french family's house entrance from the corner of one of the streets, and leaves the tapes everyday on their footsteps. Creepy isn't it. The family gets scared and makes a complaint to the police, but they can't do anything since no apparent threat has been made. Then with the videotapes comes drawings which remind the main protagonist of an unpleasant event from his childhood. The rest of the film is about the hero trying to recall these events and trying to find out who his tormentor might be, but if he will find an answer or not ... well you will have to watch the movie for that. The movie deals with the subject of fear, the fear which is not palpable but buried deep beneath one's hearts. True to the title, the subject of this fear doesn't become very clear without a bit of a background. The movie indirectly relates to France's repressed memory of an unfortunate event in its modern history, la nuit noire, the night of October 17 1961, when hundreds of Algerian demonstrators in Paris were beaten and killed by the police. How even after so many years the guilt and residual fear from that event still haunts its citizens. Cache belongs to the genre of thoughtful cinema, its a mystery without its usual characteristics, scary background music, unexpected climaxes etc. Again a must watch for any film connoisseur. Here is the IMDB link.

• The Bicycle Thieves & Rashomon - No list of world cinema can be complete without these 2 classics. So much has been said already about these 2 movies that I am not going to comment any more. Both movies are absolute classics and have inspired great filmmakers throughout the world. IMDB link for Bicycle Thieves and Rashomon.

The remaining movies will be covered in part 2 of this blog post.

Abohoman Review

What is a film all about? Rituporno Ghosh's 2010 film Abohoman starts off with this line. Is a film about representing the facts as it were, or is it a filmmaker's own opinion about the facts and the characters that are part of his film. Or is a film about capturing moments and arranging them together to weave a meaningful story, a story that sounds believable, a story which the viewer can identify himself/herself with. Maybe it is all of the above, but a film can never come close to capturing all the complexities of a person's life, especially the complexities of human relations.

Abohoman, means Eternal; something that has been there for ages. The film is about the life of a renowned Bengali film director and his relationship with his son, his wife and an actress with whom he supposedly had a love affair. The film shows three different timelines (chain of events) simultaneously -

1. The Present - Renowned bengali director Aniket (played by Dipankar De) has recently passed away. People have gathered at his house to pay their respects. At the house are present - Aniket's wife Dipti (played by Mamata Shankar), their son Apratim (played by Jishu Sengupta) , his wife played by Riya Sen and a lot of other guests. Also present is Srimati Sarkar (played by Ananya Chatterjee) a renowned actress who was given her first big break in the movies by Aniket as Binodini, and with whom he was rumored to have a love affair.
2. The movie Amar Katha - Interspersed throughout the movie are scenes from the movie Amar Katha which was about Nati Binodini who was a renowned theatre actress of Bengal in early 1900s. The movie was directed by Aniket and starred Srimati Sarkar or Shikha, her original name.
3. The past - This timeline tells the story of Shikha's purported affair with Aniket, during the making of the film Amar Katha, and the effect this scandal has on his family and his son's life.

Binodini was Aniket's dream project and he once wanted his wife Dipti to play that role but that did not happen. But when he decides to take up the project once again he selects Shikha (Shrimati Sarkar), on Dipti's insistence, for the role. Aniket's first impression of Shikha was that of an unsophisticated girl but Dipti felt she had the chutzpah that Binodini's character required. Dipti prepares her for the role, gives her the name Srimati (another name for Radha) and also helps her learn to deal with a difficult director like Aniket. Eventually Aniket starts to grow a liking for Shikha, her coquetry, her uninhibited spontaneity. Aniket starts staying back at Shikha's place after shooting as the news of the scandal quickly spreads through the film circles and reaches Dipti and her son's ears. Apratim (Aniket's son) then a young man tries to console his mother in this time of difficulty. The affair is never openly discussed in the family, Aniket never admits that he is in love with Shikha, at best he was infatuated by her, but Dipti was convinced of their affair maybe because she thought that she lacked the youthful charm that Shikha possessed and was jealous of her. She resents Aniket for this and her resentment influences Apratim's feelings for his father. He writes an article in a popular magazine about his father's affair criticizing him severely; interestingly it was Dipti who had sent him to the magazine's editor to write something in the magazine and embellish his bengali writing skills. Years later, after Aniket's death Apratim tells his mother that he wants to make a film on his father's personal life. When Dipti opposes this idea saying it would be scandalous, Apratim then attributes the article he wrote about his father  to his mother's desire to avenge herself through him. Aniket himself was never disappointed or hurt with his son's article, although the editor of the magazine had called him up to inform him about it before the article went to print. Aniket had asked the publisher to print the article saying -"A son has written what he thinks of his father. why should we censor it". Aniket was aware what his son thought of him, but he never tried to explain himself to him, maybe because he was a complicated person, maybe because he was ashamed of himself or maybe because he didn't know what to tell him, but nevertheless he always wanted his son to scale greater heights than him and he thought the article was the beginning of a bright career. Caught up in all this was the outsider, Shikha, much like her on screen character Binodini (who was a prostitute but later became a theatre sensation mentored by Girish Ghosh), she felt lonely and a victim of unrequited love. Although she loved Aniket, he never quite returned the same affection towards her. Years later while talking to Apratim, she admits that Dipti (Aniket's wife) probably cared more for her than Aniket himself.

Rituporno Ghosh masterfully deals with the delicate nuances of human relations, without passing any judgement. The film contains some of the best dialogues I have ever heard and the director juggles with the three timelines quite skillfully. The torment in Shikha's personal life is juxtaposed beautifully with the problems in Binodini's life through scenes from the film. Binodini's relationship with her mentor Girish Ghosh in a way reflected her relationship with Aniket. The complex relationship of Apratim with his father is depicted superbly by Rituporno Ghosh. There is a scene where Apratim while caring for his father during his last days, tells him about the movie he wants to make on his life. Apratim says that he is afraid that the film could become too personal, he wonders if anyone would be able to identify with the film. Aniket replies by saying - "Do you think you are the only son who feels he has been betrayed by his father?". Aniket then asks him - "Can I make this movie with you?". Apratim replies - "Then mom should also be a part of it.". At that Aniket says - "yes why not, your mom should also be part of it, so should be Shikha, We all will make the movie together, bit by bit." That in essence is the theme of the movie. A person's life is shaped by so many characters that he meets through out his journey of life, but it's impossible for a film to embrace all the aspects, all the complexities of a person's life. 

All the 4 lead characters have delivered stellar performances. I was quite moved by Mamata Shankar's performance of a strong willed woman who takes care of her family despite all her mental trauma.I was disappointed that she did not receive a National Award. Ananya Chatterjee did receive a national Award for Best supporting actress, and so did Rituporno Ghosh for best director.

Abohoman is one of the best bengali movies I have seen, although I haven't seen many but I have seen most of Satyajit Ray's work. I don't think any other director of the present era could have dealt with such a delicate subject so skilfully than Rituporno Ghosh. The movie's biggest asset was it's powerful script, the writer  made sure that he didn't go overboard with emotions as is the case more often with Indian cinema. The dialogues were cleverly written - so that the words that were not spoken were as important as those that were.

It's a must watch for lovers of Cinema, bengalis and non-bengalis alike.

Shanghai review

I have been delaying this for some time now, mainly because I was in some dilemma about the movie. But I decided to watch the movie again to see if I missed some subtle points in my first viewing. Indeed the second viewing helped me make up my mind. So here is the review.

Dibakar Bannerjee's Shanghai is a look at the dirty and corrupt world of politics and bureaucracy in our country. It has been adapted from a novel Z by a greek diplomat, but the story has been molded to suit our environment. Dibakar Bannerjee has always had a knack for subtlety and satire, which he was able to put to the best use in Shanghai. Although Oye Lucky Lucky Oye in my opinion was also a pretty satirical movie, but political satire is something that people grasp more easily than other forms of satire, in that respect Shanghai hits the right note. The beauty of Shanghai's plot is that its very simple and clear, even if one is half awake during the first 15 minutes, during which a murder/accident takes place, one wouldn't find it difficult to guess who the perpetrators are. So plot wise there are almost no twists, in spite of this, the movie can become difficult to understand if one doesn't concentrate. That is because of its shrewd screenplay - the story is told in such a way as to try to confuse the viewer, hide some minute yet important details from plain sight, to keep the viewer guessing. Here's an example - while relieving my self during the interval I found quite a few people discussing/pondering over some very basic facts in the story line like -

• what is IBP
• who is Deshnayak
• what exactly does Abhay Deol do

Undoubtedly Shanghai is not for the leisurely movie-goer. If you want to chill out this is not the movie for you, you may well get annoyed after some time and leave. Moving on ... a quality of Dibakar Bannerjee that I quite like is his ability to transform an easy going, mostly uneventful or even happily treading along story, to a suddenly grave or almost shocking conclusion. He did this with the 1st story in Love, sex aur dhokha, I remember when I had gone to watch the movie in the theatre, I heard quite a few shrieks, sighs mostly from girls during the last scene where the boy and girl were brutally murdered. Shanghai doesn't have any shocking revelation or conclusion only a more satirical one, but the movie grows progressively gloomier with the passage of time, in tone as well as color.
Shanghai is high on symbolism like Dibakar's other movies, like Oye Lucky ... and keeping with the general style of the movie the symbolism is quite subtle sometimes accompanied by slight humor which looks almost unintentional and spontaneous. Here are some things that I noticed -

• There were quite a few scenes where a sweeper is seen cleaning something or the other. The guest house where Abhay Deol stays, it's dry swimming pool was being cleaned by a sweeper in the background in atleast 2 scenes. And on both occasions the swimming pool looked pretty dirty. Then the school which is made the inquiry commission's make shift office is also cleaned again and again. I felt it was an allegory of the dirty political and bureaucratic system which needs constant cleaning.
• Also there is the scene where Kalki and Abhay Deol both slip while walking out of the classroom. It looked funny but could also be symbolic.
• Then there is the scene where we see Farooq Sheikh working out in the gym and some guy, standing there holding a towel and a water bottle. Then there is this police inspector to whom the SSP gives his shades, his cap and mobile to hold as he takes them off one by one. It is a reminder of the bootlicking and sycophancy that is so characteristic of public service.
• The members of the Mukti Morcha are seen dancing and celebrating on the road almost everyday for no apparent reason, causing inconvenience to general public, blocking traffic. This is not so much symbolic as it is a true portrayal of the "Dabangaai" that a lot of political parties in our country thrive on.

Coming to acting. My pick was Kalki. She has cut a niche for herself in these kind of girl-troubled-within roles. The surprise package was Emraan Hashmi. He did justice to the small part that he was given. Abhay Deol was good as usual although I found his south-indian accent unconvincing and inconsistent. Pitobash plays a cameo, and proves that he was the right choice for the eccentric character of Bhaggu. Farooqe Sheikh played his role with consummate ease. Cinematography was good, not over the top. 

Shanghai at times looked like an experiment in resource optimization. There was hardly any self-indulgence from the director or the actors, and the editing was at times too precise. I say this because I tried hard to find faults in the movie, but I couldn't find anything significant. I doubt if Shanghai would resonate much in people's minds, but technically it was quite perfect. The lack of an out & out hero in the movie, who brings justice to the oppressed, is synchronous with the tone of the movie, but often that is the difference between a movie being good and a movie being memorable. And that is my major complaint with the movie - the lack of a strong character, one with whom the audience could empathize with. I felt both Kalki's and Abhay Deol's characters were under portrayed, their characters should have been developed more. Like it wouldn't have hurt to know what was actually Kalki's father accussed of, and what effect it had on her development and her decision to become a social activist. Abhay Deol throughout seems striving for a transfer to stockholm, maybe the story could have dealt more with his reasons to go to stockholm and what all compromises he made for that. All in all Shanghai is a landmark in Hindi cinema, we have had quite a few in the last few years, I would rate it 3.5/5. Keep looking for more gems from Dibakar Bannerjee.

P.S - I thought I would clear a few doubts which I guess some people who have already seen the movie may have. If you haven't seen the movie you could skip this part.

IBP stands for International Business Park, it's not the name of the CM's political party, it was a development project undertaken by the State Govt and a pvt company called Genron. Although her party's name is not taken explicitly anywhere, but on keen observation on a poster I found it was Bharatiya Rashtra Dal. There were in coalition with the Mukti Morcha or Morcha in the state whose leader was Deshnayak.
After the 1st viewing of the movie I was annoyed with the fact that the name Shanghai was not referred to anywhere in the movie, making the name of the movie kind of out of context. Although people shout slogans - "sheher nahi Shanghai hai" but the context is not apparent. Shanghai obviously stands as a symbol of a developed city, but in the absence of a direct reference it could well be Tokyo or New York or London. Why shanghai? On second viewing I found that in the penultimate scene when Abhay Deol and Farooque Sheikh are talking, Farooq Sheikh says this - "ye CM PM ban sakti thi. Hum China se bhi age ja sakte the". To me that's good enough.

Book Review - The sense of an Ending

This goes right to the top of my favorites list. 150 pages of pure genius. This is the 2nd Booker award winner I've attempted to read, the1st being The White Tiger which I put down after a 100 pages, this one was a total contrast, unputdownable !!
Having been in the habit of reading mostly American Literature, contemporary British literature came as a welcome change. With no offence to the Americans, there is a beauty in the British writing that can only be felt, can't really be explained. The slightly long and convoluted sentence formation, the use of certain words which you rarely find in books by the Americans, and a cheeky humor of the kind of the famous BBC TV series Yes Prime Minister. I just enjoyed this book thoroughly.
Coming to the subject of the book, largely it dwelt upon the volatile and mutable nature of memory, and what effect it has on our lives. A man in his sixties, married and divorced, a proud father and a grandfather, recounts his past, his friends in school - 1 friend in particular whom he liked most, his 1st love and breakup; when something happens which forces him to question his memories from the past, and recount everything again in order to know the truth.
Julian Barnes has shown how a simple and largely uneventful storyline can be woven into a gripping tale. The book is full of philosophical deliberations which I enjoyed rereading and thinking myself, the author carries all this hand in hand with a steadily progressing story with consummate ease. Actually the book would have been nothing without the questions that the author manages to raise with his interpretations of simple facts and happenings.
A must read.

Vicky Donor Review

This is going to be tough. It's been more than 2 weeks I have seen this movie, but while watching it for the 3rd time tonight I decided I should write something about it. I say it's tough, because I find it easier to criticize something that I dislike than to appreciate something that I liked. Maybe that is due to my limited vocabulary, I just fall short of words, or maybe because sometimes its difficult to express happiness in words.

Happy, yes that is what I felt after watching Vicky Donor, and that's the primary reason I am watching it for a 3rd time. Vicky Donor is a happy movie, but not in a superficial or cosmetic way. I feel the subject or the theme of the movie was such that it needed to be handled in a light-hearted and cheerful manner. As everyone knows already this movie deals with the subject of sperm donation. When I first heard of this, I thought this must be yet another slapstick comedy movie, maybe a bad hindi imitation of some hollywood sex comedy. Well, it's anything but that.

The story is simple - there's a doctor who runs a sperm bank, he is in need of good quality sperm, he finds a guy convinces him to donate sperm with some difficulty. His sperm turns out to be of very good quality, the doctor's business starts to boom. Vicky (the sperm donor) gets rich without doing anything, everything's hunky dory until people come to know of this. Most importantly Vicky's wife and his mom. His world breaks down as people start seeing him in bad light, thinking of sperm donation being equivalent to prostitution. But ultimately the doctor helps Vicky regain everybody's love and respect by showing them how Vicky had helped numerous couples who would have gone childless if not for him. The end.

Vicky Donor's central message is this - broaden your perspective. If you open the windows of your mind, there's nothing you can't understand or adjust too (of course within the realms of reason). The movie passes on this message very deftly in  very minute details that could get easily overlooked. The obvious instrument for this task was the subject of sperm donation - there is so little awareness and knowledge of it in our country that for no reason a simple act of philanthropy is seen as taboo. No wonder, when there are still people who condemn adoption, sperm donation would seem like a totally new level of heresy altogether for them. But apart from this central instrument there are various other passing references that echo this idea -

• Inter-caste marriage - accepting each other's culture and habits. No matter how different Punjabis maybe from Bengalis at the end its the heart that matters.
• Re-marriage (of a divorcee girl) 
• Drinking - in the movie Vicky's mom and grandmother both like to have a drink every evening and forget their worries. In the movie this has been portrayed in a comic manner, but the intention was to extract more than a few laughs from the audience. It may seem unconventional and unorthodox, even obscene to some that the ladies of the house drink, but what's the big deal. Vicky explains to his wife that after his father's death his mom felt very lonely, and from there her drinking started. But its okay since it keeps her happy. 
• Doctor Chadhha packs "chhole-kulchhe" every now then for someone at home and quarrels with her on the phone. Anybody's first guess would be that the person on the other side of the phone is his wife, but she turns out to be his maid for 30 years, who has started living/behaving like his wife. That again is unconventional, definitely not something people would declare openly, but that is what the movie is asking you to do - shed you prejudices, why judge a person badly just because he lives with his maid.
• And last but not the least - for a woman who cannot become a mother herself, coming to terms with and accepting the fact that her husband can reproduce and has in fact been a surrogate father to some children. Oops !! I gave away some of the story for you there :)

Vicky Donor has superb acting by all the leads. Ayushman Khurana looked very much at ease with the role, debutant Yami Gautam looked sublime, and did complete justice to her character. I was amply impressed by the fact that being a punjabi in real life, she portrayed the character of a bengali girl so convincingly. Some of her pronunciations of english words especially of the alphabet "R" I found very impressive (generally there is a marked difference in the way punjabis and bengalis would speak english, and Yami Gautam seemed to mimic the bengali style very well). But the star of the show was the veteran Annu Kapoor. He was just amazing, always funny but never frivolous. Some of his dialogues were very well written - especially his strange categorization of people into types of sperm - greedy sperm, confused sperm, complicated sperm etc. Vicky's mother and Beeji were again very good in their roles, there characters were also very well written - the practical and concerned mother and the contrasting jolly and modern grandmother.

All in all Vicky Donor is one movie that will remain in your memory for some time, a beautifully written script with perfect actors. Director Shoojit Sircar has done a good job, choosing a sensitive issue and making it look effortlessly simple, is a remarkable feat. If you haven't seen it yet please do watch it.

P.S - The movie had some nice songs and a beautiful piece of music by Niladri Kumar as the background score. Check out - Pani da rang, Mar Jaiyaan and Beyond Time from the album Sitar gaze by Niladri Kumar.

Why Ishaqzaade denigrates women and why can't bollywood give us a Beatrix Kiddo

Caution 1 - The following review is highly opinionated and contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie and are planning to watch it, then you may not want to read it. 

Caution 2 - As the movie itself was raw & crude, its only natural that my review should follow in the same foot steps. Hence there is use of foul language here & there which you may or may not find offensive.

Part 1 - Why Ishaqzaade denigrates women 

The movie Ishaqzaade has done to its female lead, what our country has been doing for ages to its women - disparage and belittle them, It doesn't do this with scenes of brutal torture or atrocities committed by men towards women, the disparagement is more subtle here. Do I sound like a feminist at this moment? Well for the sake of this review I will become one although in real life I do not think I am. Ishaqzaade claims to be a different take on the good old Romeo & Juliet's love story a more raw and brutal take, also upholding a social issue that plagues our country. I will come to the social issue later, first let me tell you a bit about the love story.

The movie is set in a small town, (fictitious probably) Almore which is the stage for 2 families' age old rivalry - The Chauhans & the Qureshis. Our hero, a complete misnomer in this case, Mr Son-of-Boney-Kapoor named Parma is a 3rd generation Chauhan and his grandfather is contesting the assembly elections. The heroine, Zoya played by Parineeti Chopra is daughter of Mr Qureshi who is the acting MLA from the constitunecy. In the first 20 mins of the movie it becomes clear to the audience that there is only one character worth liking, worth looking forward to, and that is Zoya. A bubbly cheerful girl with a bit of a temper and unflinching courage. Or in other words the only one with the balls despite the abundance of men all around. Parma on the other hand is a fucking degenerate, who drinks beer all day and pisses on the posters of his grandfather's rival. There is nothing in this character to inspire love or even hatred. Basically if Parma would have been the villain of the movie, it wouldn't have made much difference to anyone, because he simply lacked the chutzpah. Zoya and Parma start off fighting with each other, like their cousins from respective families, over various petty things, hurling abuses and firing bullets, until suddenly for no apparent reason Zoya falls in love with this guy. It took me some time to realize that this was actually happening - I was distracted by the beautiful Mai Pareshaan song, by the end of the song both of them had decided to get married. If scientists had invented a machine to read the collective thoughts of people gathered in a closed space, like the movie theatre and say it out loud, at this point the machine would have a yelled a loud WTF !!. Frankly if these 2 could fall in love, then the world could end in Dec 2012, beware !!  

Leading to the intermission the 2 got married, which was actually just an excuse to fuck, which they did, soon after the marriage, and after the groom was done with his business, he declared that this was all staged. He had exploited the girl for political gains, he would now circulate the photos of their marriage (which was a hindu-muslim marrg, big bawaal), he never actually loved her, and ohh by the way, I forgot, he was also avenging the slap she had once put on his face for pissing on her dad's campaign poster. At this point the audience goes for a break. Wonder what was going on in people's minds then, some might surely have been dissappointed to see the fake love story reveal itself, most people would have felt bad for the girl, I felt - this is what happens when one suddenly loses one's wits. But more than that I hoped that the movie would somehow redeem her actress in the second half, maybe she will seek revenge on everyone, she will go on a killing spree however unrealistic that might look, simply because till then there was only one hero in the movie - Zoya.

Sadly the second half turns out nothing like that - sure Zoya tries to kill Parma but it was nothing like a well planned cold blooded revenge. One would expect, atleast I did, that after suffering such a fierce blow she would regain some sense, instead she goes about the revenge business in the same hot-headed and casual manner which had led to the situation in the first place. Naturally she is unsuccessful, she is stopped by Parma's mother (who by the way is the only woman in Chauhan family which is otherwise a "mardo ki haveli"), coaxed and cajoled into not killing her son, in a return for a promise that her son would keep his marital vows and right the wrong he had done. Parma's mother was pretty diplomatic & convincing, she actually convinces Zoya that she is screwed, not just in reality but metaphorically, she couldn't return home, her family would kill her for dishonouring them, and she couldn't live there (at the mardo-ki-haveli) as they would also kill her. So the only wise thing to do is to run away with her son. What a neat solution !! In the meanwhile there is some raucous in the haveli and Parma's mother gets killed for no reason by Parma's grandfather. Before dying Mommy asks son to take care of her bahu (filmi ishtyle) and right the wrong. A lot of shit happens after this which I dont want to narrate, but the noteworthy change that happens is that the director abruptly changes his leading man from a scumbag to a HERO, a sudden change of heart for good, and in the process makes a chicken out of her leading lady. At this point I felt like pissing ... no not on the movie poster, in the loo ... I had drunk a large Pepsi !!  

Director Habib Faisal reduced the one strong character in his story to the role of a "pativrata nari". In a world where no misdeed was forgiven he made the monumental sin of asking an exploited girl to forget and forgive, to fall in love again with the same man who had wronged her, because he had had a sudden transformation from evil to good, and because this was her only option - fall in love or get lynched by the chauvinstic male world. What a shame !! Nothing much happens in the movie after this except for the goons chasing the leads, and an outrageous and non sensical ending.

Part 2 - Why can't bollywood give us a Beatrix Kiddo 

The world depicted in the movie Ishaqzaade is one where women are treated at best as housekeepers and worst as bed warmers. A world where a girl's father and brothers love her adore her, resolve to protect her from all evils as long as she adheres to their wishes, and upholds what they consider their family name. If she fails to do so, her own kin will turn against her, and if needed join hands with their arch enemies to eliminate her. A world where love and rationality have no meaning. This is not a utopian world, a world like this exists. Even close to home, there are places in India that make the news headlines just for their honour killing cases. The filmmakers weren't shy of grabbing this opportunity to highlight this social cause with a message at the end of the movie. 

But here's my question to them, what relevance does your movie have in this context. This was not a documentary, nor was it made in any way to mirror real events, to raise awareness. It was a badly scripted love story, which just happened to end in a way that made it convenient to advertise a social message. And even then I couldn't find a HERO in the movie, an essential ingredient of the movie-going experience, and inspiring character, a character you could root for, feel bad for or feel happy for. Nor did I see any hope or any solution in the end. I can think of 2 movies made on social issues which were low budget ventures and hardly managed to catch the attention of mainstream movie goers - Matribhoomi and Antardwand. Both movies were deliberately made in a way to highlight a social problem. But interestingly each movie ended with a hope for a better tomorrow. Sadly Ishaqzaade didn't.

Then what else could the filmmakers have done? Well they could have a given us a Beatrix Kiddo? Realistic or unrealistic, they could have given us a hero in the character of Zoya. A girl fights the world for her rightful place, she may have lost the battle but she would have remained in our hearts after we left the theatre. I tried recollecting bollywood movies where the female leads have sought revenge, I could come up with only 2 - Rekha's Khoon bhari maang or something like that, and Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen, the latter being more factual in nature. It seems bollywood is still giving its actresses secondary treatment. Its time we had a Beatrix Kiddo of our own, and this movie would have been a good opportunity to create one, but sadly the makers of the movie missed it. But I hope, Anurag Kashyap or Dibakar Bannerjee will do the honors sometime in the near future. I am looking forward to it.

The Dirty Picture review

When you are flying high, don't look down ... lest you start thinking how you got there !!

This was kind of the essence of the biopic released this weekend which was (not) based on any real person, especially if that person is a certain Silk Smitha. The resemblance is just coincidental.

Now to the movie. Nice attempt, with a few concessions and allowances made for the director considering the production house (Ekta Kapoor's) and the fact that he had to fit the producer's imbecile brother (or face castration) in an ordinary role which he could make look less than ordinary, it was worth a watch. And the USP of the movie is unquestionably Vidya Balan. It feels good to see a bollywood actress, actually take up a role where she is expected to look uncouth, in fact ugly (from a traditional north indian mindset, with no offence towards the south indian mindset). Bollywood in the past 5 years or so has broken a lot of boundaries, this is one.

I won't tell much of the story, it is the same old "rise and fall of a star" kind of story. All those means she thought will be justified when she reaches the end, slowly and surely bring her down, to her end, not the metaphorical end, the real one !! The movie kept a good pace for the most part, except towards the end, when there was a hint of a love affair brewing between Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan, which I felt was a touch unncessary, especially when they were creating a truly original screenplay not based on anyone's life (pun intended). I guess the producer or hashmi wanted a sufiyana love song to be done on him - hence they stitched up a handkerchief of a love story, as there was not enough time to stitch a whole dhoti. Emraan Hashmi's character, I think, would have looked more sober had he stayed a secret admirer, a person who turns from critic to admirer, and stays there ... not fall head over heels.

Another thing that I did not like about the movie, was that it had a 1 too many punches, and a lot of dialogues in general. I guess commercial mainstream cinema still does not value the importance of the absence of dialogues. Bollywood directors fill their movie with punches when they don't have confidence on their script and actors, because its easier for the public to remember a few peppy lines rather than whole characters. But here I felt Milan Luthria didn't do justice to her extremely talented actress' abilities, and the script which was decent enough. With all those punches, my fear is people would remember those more than the character Silk herself, or Vidya Balan's fine portrayal of her.

Naseerudin Shah did well within the constraints of his role, didn't exactly light up the screen, Emraan Hashmi was bearable, in fact he is getting better, and the less said about Tushar Kapoor the better ...

All in all I think this movie is a good watch, better than the director's last venture.