Piku

Constipation is the humorous veil to showcase a very intriguing relationship between a daughter and a father and added to that is a soothing and moderate romance between two matured people. Shoojit Sircar has made a wonderful movie yet again picking up an unusual subject for his theme, to ponder on intrinsic relationships between people. And his cast has supported him outstandingly to come out with an amazing piece of cinema in the form of PIKU.

Piku (Deepika Padukone) is a young, independent and strong headed women working with her partner in Gurgaon. She takes care of her 70 year old father (Amitabh Bachhan) who is phobic with constipation and has mix emotions about his daughter. He does not want her to pass her life like her mother by just taking care of her husband and doing daily house-hold chores for him and his family. He wants her to lead her life as per her wish and her way. But, by thinking this way he has unintentionally imposed his choices to her and looks selfish at times. It is an intriguing relationship between the two and Shoojit has rightly shown that the emotions are also not permanent. He might be selfish at times, but he also thinks good for her. 

To resolve some ancestral property dispute and give his daughter a much sought after break he proposed to go to Kolkata by Road. Since, Piku has been facing problems with her permanent Cab service vendor- Rana Chaudhary (Irfaan Khan), no cab driver is ready to drive her to Kolkata hence Rana takes up the job without knowing the imposing nature of Piku’s father and their argumentative relationship.  They have fun as well as arguments throughout the way. But Piku falls for Rana on the way. 

Rana teaches Piku’s father to live life without worrying too much about constipation. He likes his suggestions and adopts them. He finally finds peace in few of them and Piku finds a good friend and partner in him eventually.

Deepika Padukone has done a tremendous work yet again. She is very convincing as Piku. Her expressions are astonishingly out of the world. She chose expressions over dialogues at many places and she was brilliant. Irfaan was really good at being nice and calm. I would say it is a good job done by him here, may be to change over his image. But the bill would have been fitted better by some more charming actor.  Amitabh has done a fantastic job. He was amazing in his Bengali accent and being an adamant father. All the other artists also did their part perfectly well. 

Piku has come out so well not just because of the acting of such powerhouse actors but also the plot – the story - the screenplay has the most significant part to play.  Juhi Chaturvedi has done an awesome work in writing this magnificent contemporary story using Bengali background and keeping Constipation as theme. The dialogues are hilarious. Cinematography is beautiful even though if one sees it minutely, can figure out that many of the stoppage scenes are shot at one place on the highway using different angles. Only Benaras is used for shoot, mostly for romantic angle of the film. Shoojit could have added some more flavour by shooting couple of scenes in Bihar with constipation as the subject. Music is soothing and costumes / makeup fits the theme.

Piku is a movie to must watch. It is hilarious and portrays very interesting parts of complicated relationships with an ease. Because of its simplicity, the movie stays with you even after theater.

Bang Bang!

 

Beautiful people, beautiful attires, beautiful locations, beautiful camera work, beautiful sets, beautiful music and beautiful dance, that is “Bang Bang!”. Just watch it to be relived from everything and get entertainment and come out with a beautiful feeling. As, producer and director have already called it out the official remake of “Knight and Day” so please do not crib if you find similarities. I am happy that Bollywood has come of age when directors used to copy Hollywood without acknowledging, thanks to the multiplex revolution, audience get to see English movies with their international release.

I am not going to write about the plot since it is very much evident and also, if you ask me I don’t watch such movies to find relevance in plot. The movie is not about the exact story, it is a genre Bollywood is experimenting with and Bang Bang comes out as a pure success. Before Bang Bang, Dhoom 3 and Ek Tha Tiger were also big success in this genre; Of course there were less likeable movies also in this genre like Krish 3, Ra One etc.

The director, Sidharth Anand has perfectly channelized his energy at right places in the movie. Correct mix of romance, action, drama and comedy is the formula for such movies. And all the others ingredients such as music, locations, sets costumes and stars (mind it, these type of movies needs star power and not “actors”.!!!) should ingratiate the experience of the viewer. Producer definitely plays very important role in this genre of movies. A small tightness in any of the section of the movie can ruin it. But Fox Star Studios has left no stone unturned and spent lavishly on all the departments of the movie. One can easily make it out by searching for real Dehradun or Shimla near to Hrithik’s and Katrina’s homes which probably were set up somewhere in Europe.

Hrithik has performed his part with exceptional zeal. His action sequences are mind boggling. Katrina looks amazingly beautiful. Her costumes are extra ordinarily beautiful. Cinematographer has done exceedingly well job. If at all any award will be given to this movie, it should atleast be for its cinematography and action choreography. Music is lovable and production design is extra ordinary.

Finding Fanny

As these lines in the climax from the voice over of Deepika Padukone suggest “we only die, love never dies, its always there, you just have to find it, you have to knock on the door even if the door is not there.” The movie is about finding love. The intrinsic message that movie gives is, love does not die and it gives you second chance, you just have to realize it.

Ferdie (Naseerudin Shah) is postmaster in a fictional sleepy village of Goa called Pocolim. One fine night he receives a 46 old letter under his door which he wrote to his then sweetheart Fanny expressing his one-sided love towards her and awaited for 46 years for her reply. He confides about this letter to Angie (Deepika Padukone) who, being a wedding day widow, has nothing else to do but to fulfill other people wishes. She takes up this task to unite this long separated couple. She manipulates her first love Savio (Arjun Kapoor) to drive an old car owned by a pugnacious crazy painter (Pankaj Kapoor) who is in love with the figure of Rosie (Dimple Kapadia) and desperately wants to draw her. These Five obnoxious people starts a road trip to find Fanny the lost love of Ferdie but they all end up finding their true love after going through many hilarious but magnificent, life changing events through the trip. Also, they come to know a lot of hidden truths buried with each of them about other, when these come out in open make the other person shocked and audience astounded.

Homi Adajania has created a marvelous piece of art. He has very subtly narrated truths of life by telling crazy stories of these five dysfunctional people and then intertwining these stories together. The ability of Homi of stitching all the stories together is extra-ordinary that we have already seen in Being Cyrus. I am not sure if I can call the story very ordinary because when converted into screenplay and see each story from other person’s perspective makes it very interesting; and revelation of all those small – small but big truths of life towards the end makes it outstanding. The dialogues are quirky and you can find few adult jokes, already shared on social media, here and there. 

Deepika looks amazingly simple but lovely in tank tops and floral midi skirts. Her character might remind you of Amilie but her portrayal of Angie is not that curious rather manipulative and selfish. In one of the scene when after fighting, Savio is sobbing in one corner she comes to him, makes love to him and after that she tells him, “I only came to you otherwise you would have been sobbing here, I thought sometime I should do what I want to do.” Also in one of the interesting dialogue when she tells him after making love, “you can be better.”  Even though claims to be a virgin before sleeping with him. 

Arjun Kapoor is convincingly good as a man helplessly in love with Angie but afraid enough not to be able to express it to her. His outburst in the climax proves him to be a talented actor. Naseerudin Shah is as always un-shockingly spectacular as Ferdie. His Body language is amazingly good as a loser, confused and diffident old wreck who is persuaded by a bored widow to find his lost love. Pankaj Kapoor has done a fabulous job of portraying a split personality and you will be amazed by him towards to end. Dimple Kapadia is outstanding in rendering a self-proclaimed Lady of village who is tired of hiding the biggest truth of her life about her husband.

Cinematography gives you a fresh look. Costume design and make-up artists have done a fantastic work. Music is soothing. Finding Fanny is a refreshingly tasteful romantic comic drama hiding a lot of truths of life. Just watch it to explore life and love around you...

Mary Kom

 

Priyanka is back. She gives a fabulous performance in the de-glamorous avatar of Mary Kom. After a long time audience is going to see Priyanka – the Actress, of the fame of Fashion, Kaminey, 7 Khoon Maaf and Barfi. The movie is inspirational Biography based on the real life story of 5 time world Boxing champion and Olympic Bronze medalist – Mary Kom. 

Mary Kom (Priyanka Chopra) is the eldest girl child of poor farmer family. Being born to a wrestler father she has wrestling in her genes and is ready to pick fights with anyone. One fine day, while on a chase of a street tramp she lands in a Boxing Gymnasium where she meets her coach (Sunil Thapa). After showing the coach her passion for boxing through persuasion and perseverance, she wins his heart and starts training with him. She goes through rigorous training, fights all odds including her father’s rejection and becomes world champion. While she was busy in pursuing her passion, Onler (Darshan Kumar), an admirer of her courage & dedication and helplessly in love with her, keeps assisting her in all her endeavors. She marries him against the will of her coach and starts her family life; she gives birth to a twins and taking care of them with a smidgen in her heart that she had to sacrifice her career for the family. Onler realizes her anguish and sways her to restart her career. She fights all the odds again from the start including the unfairness of federation and goes on to become the world champion again. And finally the audiences are asked to stand up for the national anthem in the end..!!!

The story is very humble and picked from the real life incidences of Mary Kom. The script writer has stayed away from exaggeration to make the movie pretentiously inspirational. The simple and realistic struggle of Mary Kom keeps the originality in the script without losing the stimulating touch. The screenplay is, if not extra-ordinary then not very ordinary also. It has all the ingredients required for any sports inspirational movie. Few of the dialogues have punches. 

It’s a great effort by first time director – Omung Kumar. He has done a fantastic job. All the boxing sequences are directed very attractively by Rob Miller.  The correct time to the story apart from the Boxing fights is devoted which is an advantage for the movie. The climax is prepared astonishingly well with precise amount of aggression and emotions to it. Cinematographer has done a wonderful job of capturing the beauty of Manipur at one end and belligerence of boxing ring on the other hand. Music is pleasing and kudos to editor to keep it short and sweet.

Priyanka stands out in the acting. She carries the entire movie on her shoulders. Sunil Thapa and Darshan Kumar are average or rather not given much to do. Sunil Thapa’s character, given little more thought, could have added some flares. By the end of the movie one can realize that Story writer, director and producer got involved so much into the Character of Mary Kom that they forgot to work on other aspects and characters. More work on story and other characters could have made this movie a masterpiece.

Goliyon Ki Rasleela – Ram-Leela

 

Deepika, Deepika, Deepika……God there is no way to stop her now…..!!! I will be damned if she does not get all the awards this year..!!!

Experience Bhansali’s way of living a story – larger than life canvas, strong women, vulnerably in love men, grandeur sets, very stout side characters and ostentation just pouring out off everything!!!

Bhansali never leaves any stone unturned in satisfying his own artistic self and he always does that. Once I read somewhere that during the filming of Black, Ram Gopal Verma gave him idea of taking the background of Jhuggies but Bhansali outright rejected it and allegedly said that he wants the incapability also to be projected in a grand manner so that people just not pity it but could appreciate the pride and attitude of protagonist. Similarly he made Ethan’s life also impressive  even though he was totally out of money and full of pity but audience always felt a sense of pride in the character. Man he does the same with his Ram & Leela !!! He goes one step ahead in making them even bolder than his previous characters. Though he has never been shy in portraying sexuality as one of the vital facet of life but this time he uses the sexual attraction to build the love.

The story is set in one imaginary town of Gujraat where alcohol, bullet, guns, weed, smuggling, porn…nothing is prohibited. Only thing admonished in the town is rendezvous of two prominent families of the town. Ram (Ranveer Singh) is a flamboyant Casanova who wants to resolve all the issues with love or Sex or his hairless bare chest while Leela (Deepika Padukone) is an extraordinarily audacious and vivacious girl wearing her attitude on the sleeves of her back-less, deep-neck blouses. Both fall for each other’s courage and sexuality. Since the story is ostensibly inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Communication Gap, assumptions and confusion play the significant part. The protagonists come together but separated by their own friends and family members and the distance creates animosity between them. As usual there is a villain who wants to take advantage of the situation for authority and the leads not being rational enough falls prey to the circumstances.

Deepika and Ranveer are exceptionally worthy of the characters. Deepika has given the right amount of grace, poise, boldness, cheerfulness, sensuality, pride, attitude, gloominess and vulnerability. Her eyes say it all. Similarly Ranveer has also worked hard not only on his physical appearance but also on his acting skills. He is remarkably good in one of the scene when he is drunk and is talking to his friends about Leela. The portrayal of drunkenness looks highly acceptable and not over the top like usual Hindi cinema. Special mention of Supriya Pathak, She has portrayed a very strong God motherly character with such an ease. Richa Chaddha looks extremely beautiful but she could have done much better.

The treatment of the movie is typical Bhansali Style which is bizarre. Production Design, Cinematography, costume, make up take center stage and an immaculately detailed work is being carried out by all these departments. No doubt when it comes to Bhansali he does not leave anything blindly onto anyone else and ensures his signature in every nook and corner. That is why he started wearing most of the hats by himself e.g. Music is taken care by Bhansali but no kudos to him on this. There is no variety in the music. Dialogues are earthy and catchy but screenplay seriously fumbles in the second half and director’s grip looks loose. Actors try to carry the movie on their shoulders but second half looks very cluttered and  waiting for obvious. Movie could have been a masterpiece but slight misses makes it another just Good movie. The grandeur alone could not make it memorable craft.