Chennai Express

Krish 3 Theatrical was really awesome which came before the movie…

I don’t usually write the reviews of Tamil Movies, but I am making this exception only for Deepika Padukone here. She is fascinating in the movie, the perfect beauty for the movie, great poise and outstanding acting. Though it was a trial of Shahrukh to Comedy but she superseded him in Comedy and proved yet again that she can do any type of role. Long way to go gal….

Since Salman Khan has already started stealing the formula of south movies and making them a big hit with masses in Bollywood 3 years back, Shahrukh went one step ahead and stole their language also to increase the mass audience size and yes, he got the numbers right; He is going laughing to the Bank. 

A mithaiwala starts his journey for Goa but for no reason falls prey to the high tamil accent girl’s dusky beauty and reached one of the south Indian village. And a very old story of Girl lying to her father to avoid an arrange marriage and make the stranger act like her husband, starts. The plot is encrusted with all the sweetness of romance to suit Shahrukh’s image and not to broil his faithful audience. In the course of this fool -the -father game, the girl falls for the guy and eventually the guy falls for the girl and he fights with all the odds in the climax and comes out as a hero. Tried and tested formula with all the ingredients of typical masala movie. No surprise that it is making all the collections.

The movie is marketed as comic thriller, but I could not find comedy in the movie except for an awesome Deepika’s scene and on the name of action, it has below average “Matka tod” and roadside stall tussling fighting sequence shot at a small set of Ramoji, not even the trademark Car sequence of Rohit Shetty movie. Looks like, Rohit saved on the movie budget to allocate more money to marketing.

The direction is totally average and highly mechanical. Shahrukh’s trial on comedy was an absolute faliure. Music is totally average except for Titli Song. Only department with some good work is cinematography, capturing the beautiful landscapes of Munnar and other parts of Kerela. 

It’s the success of such movies which disheartens me and feels pity for that young lot of talented people who are working day in day out to make really good movies without much of a commercial success. Never mind!! these movies can be commercial success due to high budget of marketing but they succumb to a fast death and create way for new actually good movies which do wonders without much of Brand or marketing.

Bhag Milkha Bhag

Farhan - the Winner

Anything with India Vs Pakistan sells…!!!

This autobiographical film on Milkha Singh is a Magnus saga of almost three and a half hour, detailing all his races. The movie showcases his reasons to become a sprinter and his journey to achieve it and finally how & what he accomplished. In short if you see, out of 3.5 hours, Farhan Akhtar is running in almost 3 hour of the movie.  No wonder Farhan concentrated so much in making his body looks like a sprinter. It seems while working on Farhan’s preparation, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra forgot to prepare for the job he has taken up. The movie is overloaded with the running – bhag – bhag -bhag. The essence of the movie is lost. To make it more thrilling and climax more exhilarating Rakeysh overloaded it with India – Pakistan sentiments.

I appreciate Indian Directors for taking up autobiographical jobs but somehow I am not very convinced by their efforts. First, Pan Singh Tomar and now, this one, do not seem to create a mark and be at par with the Hollywood counterparts in same genre. One of the reason I can think of is - here in India, we are trying to portray almost the entire life of such person even though in Hollywood, they would rather take up an incident and create a craft out of it. 

The story starts from the childhood days of Milkha in Pakistan. The families had to leave their homes during the partition. He goes through a lot of emotional turmoil during that time and finally settles with his sister. He falls in love with a village girl – Sonam. Since he is just a small hooligan and does not have any job per se, he is not suitable for her. He joins Army and discovers his hidden talent in running. He starts running from then onwards and keeps running in the entire movie and leaves behind all the people he cared for. The climax is cleverly chosen as a race between India and Pakistan to glorify the ending.

The story is bit stretched and the screenplay would have been much better. Cinematography is above average but not very unique. Production Design and Costumes are also average. Most of the time seems to have been spent on making the Body of Farhan though he has acted also really outstanding. But I cannot say it is his best performance. Sonam is good in her special appearance and good decision by Director for making her part that small otherwise it would have been another blunder of the story. The music of the movie again average, it does not inspire or creates that aura of sportsmanship or the passion.

Coming to the direction, Rakesh has a style of lengthy narratives and he follows the same here. Though he has not failed as miserably as Delhi 6 here but not as good as Rang De Basanti either. Little more work on the story or screenplay and finally some additional sittings on editing would have made this one a masterpiece to remember for. But alas! It didn’t happen. But still a great piece of work and worth watching. Farhan again comes out as a winner.

Ship of Theseus

 

Saints are supposed to follow celibacy then why are you practicing so much of intellectual Masturbation….

This is a dialogue from the movie and this movie is full of such erudite and surprising - humorous dialogues. Not only the dialogues, this movie itself is a piece of intellectualism. From the title to the dialogue, to the subplots, to the story, to the acting; everything is so scholarly and has a background of its own that if you are able to get each and every piece then you really belong to that elite world of intellectuals. I will give you a few examples excluding the meaning of the title; that you should figure out by yourself, atleast! One of the character’s names is Charvaka who is supposed to have founded the first Atheist system in our Indian Philosophy and the character also portrays similar practices. The same characters also dons a T-shirt with a phrase – “Pastafarian” written on it. Pastafarian comes from the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a light hearted view of religion. Mentions of the Novel Perfume to correlate the intent of one of the Protagonist can also be traced in the movie. 

The movie is a big intellectual conversation amongst a set of people who are also playing the protagonist in the film. The director has taken help of conversation or dialogues to portray the contemplation of the protagonists and their idealism, identity, dualism, pseudo identity and Theseus’s paradox. It is one of a scholarly movie I have ever come across in Indian Cinema. This one fits into the league of Eat, Pray and Love or Darjeeling Express. The movie is highly innovative and keeps you thinking all the time and finally influences you at the end. It sends out a very clear message to donate your organs in the end - to be precise explanation of the movie, otherwise it gives you too much food for thought. 

The movie shows three stories of three very unique individuals who are highly talented in their own fields and equally obstinate about their ideologies. And all three of them are suffering from some or the other physical ailment apart from their physiological stubbornness. All three of them go through transplants and as the Theseus Paradox depicts their actual self does not exist after that. They are changed individuals though each one of them tries really hard to follow his or her own doctrine. In the climax, these three meet at an NGO meet alongwith some other people who are all saved by same person who saved these main characters. Yes, correct!!! One person’s organs saved eight people. And that’s how movie inspires each one of us to donate organs. Your organ can actually save some really impressive people!!!

The direction of Anand Gandhi is outstandingly beyond the scope of appreciation. And I become more appreciative when I came to know that he has accomplisdhed this job with the least crew and technicians. Most of the cast are filmmakers, story writers, producers or real practitioners without much experience in the field of acting. And you will be amazed when you see these people acting. Aliya kamal played by Aida Elkashef is a visually impaired, celebrated photographer. When you see her on screen you will think for once that she is really blind. What acting!!! A saint Maitreya played Neeraj Kabi, I was almost sure that the director must have taken some sadhu only to play this character because of budget constraint. But he is a theater artist and Aida Elkashef is basically a casting director. 

The story is not as such a story, it is basically a literature of thoughts which is weaving a very tiny plot. The Screenplay is overwhelming and the cinematography is totally stunning & world class. The movie is a bit languidly paced and sometimes gives a feeling of restlessness when you just listen to some overdosed philosophical – erudite dialogues but mind it those dialogues are the soul of the movie. Finally I would wish - more power to Anand Gandhi for such a master piece and a brilliant transformation from writing dialogues of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi bahu thi’ to create such a fine piece of Art. I wish that more and more people watch it and appreciate such artworks.