Desicritics Category: Media: Film - Directors

Movie Review: Dharm - Unfairly Snubbed

Aditi Nadkarni — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:39:00 EST

Dharm, a Sanskrit word that for some means duty and for yet others signifies religion. We often hear this word used by religious preachers and at other times by leaders of political parties looking to pander to the majority Hindus in India. This term was heard when a mob needed some sort of a philosophy to bind them as they went about adhering to no scripture, driven by fury alone.

This film tells the story of Pandit Chaturvedi (Pankaj Kapur), a well-respected and stringent Hindu priest who adheres strictly to the writ words of Hindu scriptures. The pandit provides key religious advice to the families residing in the holy city of Benaras, at the banks of river Ganga. The touch of a low caste prompts him to bathe in the holy waters and his wife (Supriya Pathak) has to cleanse herself before she prepares his meals. Then one day an orphan left at their doorstep makes his way into their lives and warms the heart of the otherwise stoic and unyielding priest. Little Kartikeya grows up, his adoptive father's pet, performing religious rites, reciting verses alongside his beloved "babuji". His innocence remains untouched by the mounting communal discontent that occasionally disrupts into religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in the city. Amidst these tensions, Kartikeya's birth mother shows up to claim her son. As she walks into the pandit's door clad in a burkha, neighbors and patrons gather to watch, aghast. The boy is sent away with his Muslim birth mother in a heart wrenching scene, his cries are drowned in the enormity of the religious calamity that has fallen upon the priest's family for having adopted a Muslim child. The pandit's home is promptly cleansed, severe religious penances are performed and yet the priest's inner struggle continues, eating him up inside. He is torn between the love he feels for the child he sent away in a heartbeat and his duty towards the religion he represents. As the self-proclaimed protectors of Hinduism crazed with vendetta unleash violence through the city, this Hindu priest defies all that he has valued and reaches a revelation that changes not only his own life but of those that surround him and revere him.

When watching the film, the sensitivity with which each scene had been conducted immediately suggested the touch of a female director. Bhavana Talwar's handling of the characters is remarkable. She seems to have identified real people rather than characters for her film. Whether it be the staunch Pandit, his obedient wife or the child that tugs at your heartstrings, Talwar takes her time with each persona. Pankaj Kapur's performance is a testimony to the neglected and yet prodigious talent our film industry houses. An actor who has given us films like Ek Doctor Ki Maut and Ek Ruka Hua Faisla continues to loyally work in the shadow of a giant, the all consuming commercial film industry that allows little to no platform for performers like him. Hrishita Bhatt, stands out in the role of a young girl who falls in love with a foreigner seeking spiritual guidance under the tutelage of Pandit Chaturvedi.

This film is excruciatingly moving. It forces one to empathize with characters who in our every day lives we could never relate to. The religious discontent juxtaposed with the innocence of a child offers a stark contrast that leaves one emotionally and spiritually exhausted. The blood shed and the inciters of these harrowing incidents that swallow our cities are all revealed, their intentions, insecurities and motives scrutinized. The upholders of religion are exposed and so is the true character of those whose spiritual awakening finally leads us out of darkness. This film is not about the chaos that hatred leads us into but of the humanity that pulls us out of it, unscathed.

I found this film on Netflix after I searched for films starring Pankaj Kapur, one of my favorite actors who I have not seen since the Blue Umbrella. Having watched this film, I was so overcome with curiosity at never having heard about it before, that I did some quick online searches for it and found out what sounded like a joke, an April Fool's prank. How I was not aware of this blunder committed almost three years ago is beyond me. Apparently, this spectacular film about religious relations in India that is especially relevant in today's times was passed over as India's Oscar submission in favor of, get this, a mediocre film called Eklavya starring Amitabh Bachhan and Saif Ali Khan.

Eklavya had all the makings of a commercial film and a story with as many holes in it as Swiss cheese. It was a glossy entertainer with great cinematic visuals and the beautiful backdrop of Rajasthan and yet was most certainly not a moving film with a global appeal. All it had was an established and commercially viable star cast. Yet it beat out a film like Dharm which won our National Award and the Nargis Dutt Award for a film promoting national integration. It is even more shocking that our media and our audience does not create adequate hue and cry over such blatant unfairness by the subcommittee that decides the film that is submitted for an Oscar. In a film fraternity that goes weak in the knees at the mention of the name Bachhan, local awards are hard to come by for such films as well. In the year that Eklavya was sent in as India's official entry to the Oscars, brilliant films such as Dharm, Vanaja and Black Friday stood as major contenders and were duly ignored. I wonder how these filmmakers must feel when their masterpieces are dismissed in this manner by their peers in the arts and performance industry which should ideally define a haven for nurturing talent and relatively devoid of political corruptness. Who are these people on the committee that send out films on behalf of an entire nation? Year after year they send out stories, that to a foreign audience represents us Indians. I do not know enough about the process that goes into nominating a film for Oscar submission but the selection of films such as Heena, Jeans, Devdas and Eklavya would suggest that these members are not qualified to be making decisions about what kind of a film would be appreciated by a universal audience and that at times their decisions seem to be motivated by inexplicable political derivatives. Have of them watched an Oscar winning foreign film?

An Oscar may not define our successes in cinema, but the submission process and the errors, political gaffes or unscrupulous actions committed during the submission process sheds light on why the largest film industry in the world has still failed to make it's mark as far as world cinema is concerned. In Ek Doctor Ki Maut, Pankaj Kapur plays the role of a doctor who through years of hard work comes upon a major medical breakthrough. His elation at having made this groundbreaking discovery however is short lived when he realizes that his jealous and less talented peers have decided to snub him and are making every effort to ensure that he does not receive credit for his work, much like the committee that decided to ignore Talwar's superb effort.

Movie Review: Nishikanth Kamath's Dombivali Fast

Aditi Nadkarni — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:20:37 EST

Nishikanth Kamath rose to fame with Mumbai Meri Jaan, a film that depicted the struggle of the middle class caught in the complex mesh of terrorism. The terror unleashed by a bomb lives on, deep in the most vulnerable sections of society. One by one his characters introduced us to the people in these pockets of our city, the ones who carry both, the fear and the hope that drives Mumbai.

But his debut film, Dombivali Fast, a critically acclaimed Marathi piece of genius escaped notice. The language I am sure was a limiting factor for viewers outside Mumbai but few realize how relevant the subject matter of this film is for every person frustrated with this mysterious, monster like entity that we refer to as the "system", that bulldozes our lives and puts our ethics and morals to test every single day. Madhav Apte (played by Sandeep Kulkarni), the protagonist of Dombivali Fast is a bank official responsible for ensuring that all documents are accounted for in the passing of a loan. He is a father of two, a husband and a citizen of Mumbai, caught in the daily rut that this city spins around one's life. He is a regular good guy, a man who battles and survives the harrowing commute in Mumbai locals and then emerges at the other end willing to put up with water and electricity shortages. But he has a major limitation, a challenge that in India does not bode well for a middle class man. His principles are forever in his way, be it getting his daughter into a good school or a hospital admission for a beggar boy he is trying to help. And one day something in him breaks. His anger finds expression. He moves through the city like wildfire, sending panic waves through law enforcement and starting a debate among the general public about whether he is a Robin Hood, a psychotic, a victim or a criminal who should be put behind bars.

Dombivali Fast is not just an engrossing film, it holds a mirror to the lives most of us have led in India. Nishikanth Kamath, the debutante director speaks through his film, through each of his characters. As Kamath's own anxieties, experiences and revelations about the city and the system come flooding through the screen, you recognize them as your own. Through a simple story of a perfectly ordinary man, this young director forms an extraordinary kinship with his audience. Our commercial film industry seeks relentlessly to form this very bond with us but through a drug like addiction of escapism. Kamath frees us of this addiction in the most versatile of ways. He seems to have decided that when he shows us our own stories, we want to know what happens next. How will we end up in this tale, he makes us wonder. Will we be the survivors, the victims or the fallen, forgotten vigilantes? And that sentiment is what keeps us glued until the very end of Dombivali Fast.

I have been on that very local train. Dombivali Fast was my daily ride to college and back. I have been cramped inside a small, ladies compartment, trinket sellers on one side and the burkha clad women of Mumbra station with their many children on the other. I have hung outside the door, the breeze freeing my nose of the stench of fish and replacing it with a medley of some other unwanted smells. It was less than a twenty minute ride. But right from getting aboard this train to successfully disembarking at my station of choice became an experience, an education in itself. I learned something new every day, about myself and about those who shared that journey with me, until one day I somehow became one with that train, its rhythm matching that of my heartbeat. Watching Dombivali Fast reminded me of both, the melody and the cacophony of that rhythm.

Movie Review: Ishqiya - Sex and Sensibilities

PH — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:13:44 EST

Abhishek Chaubey's Ishqiya opens with a shot that will rank among the most sensuous ones in Hindi cinema. The camera zooms in on a half asleep Krishna (Vidya Balan), as Rekha Bharadwaj's husky voice breaks into a couplet on the end of longing. The aesthetic here, as in much of Vishal Bharadwaj's work, is that of the finest Urdu poetry and literature. Indeed, the two male perspectives on love, personified by Babban (Arshad Warsi) and his Khaalujaan (Naseeruddin Shah), respectively mirror the majaazii (figurative/sensual) and haqiiqii (real/spiritual) layers of meaning in Urdu poetry, the name Krishna underscoring the bhakti element.

Babban's sexuality, then, is overtly carnal - he reads Hindi soft-porn, likes catchy numbers, frequents whorehouses, and plays peeping Tom on Krishna (though she knows this, and is simply seducing him). A line in the fly-by-night playfulness of word-czar Gulzar's penned to perfection Ibn-e-Batuta could well be a description of Babban: "uR uR aawe, daane chuge, uR jaawe chiRiyaa phurr" (the sparrow flies in, pecks at the grain, and flies off). It takes an actor of Arshad Warsi's cool and acumen to endear such a character to the audience.

Babban's Khalujaan, by contrast, is a man of refined sensibilities, an old-school romantic who cherishes the Hindi film melodies of Jaidev and Hemant Kumar. The closest he comes to voyeurism is listening in on Krishna's riyaaz. Krishna is something of a goddess to Khaalujaan; he even refers to her as "Krishnajii". His song is "dil to bacchaa hai jii", excellent in its composition (Bharadwaj's use of the accordion gives it that old world charm), its poetry ("saaree jawaanii qatraa ke kaaTii, peerii meN Takraa gaye haiN") and its filming (Chaubey's camera seeks out the beauty in simplicity, the girl on a bus, the cook chopping almonds in a dhaabaa - just the sort of imagery that proves that the Hindi film song can be a thing of beauty when it's done right). So when Khalujaan sees Krishna boogie woogie with Babban to a Mika Singh number, in Babban's clothes at that, it isn't just jealousy he feels; it's also the inevitable disillusionment of a romantic who has seen his ideals in tatters - Krishna's sacrilegious fall from grace. Naseeruddin Shah's finesse as an actor comes through in the expression of this disillusionment and loss on his face. How fitting that the very same tragedy of a hopeless romantic was writ large on the very same face, two mentor-generations ago, in the climax of Gulzar's Ijaazat!

This tug-of-war of sexualities, and its result, are reminiscent of a Manto short, wherein a civil servant's bourgeois double standards on sex prevent him from meeting the advances of a village belle, who is eventually whisked away for a roll in the hay by a truck driver with no such qualms. Like Manto, Chaubey, Bharadwaj and co-writer Sabrina Dhawan subvert Khalujaan's romanticism to expose his attraction to Krishna. "So your love is love, while mine is lust?" asks a justifiably indignant Babban - the haqiiqii is the majaazii, and attraction is attraction even when it's dressed up as poetry. Neither are the writer-trio content with fitting Krishna into one of the male moulds of Eros or Agape - she's a woman with a bit of both and some. When Khalujaan complains, "You can never tell if a woman is a houri or a whore", Krishna shoots back, "Who are you to call me names?"; and later quips to Babban, "(Khaalujaan) can't swallow the truth; it's stuck in his throat". From an iron-willed urban mother in Balki's Paa to an earthy seductress here, Vidya Balan emerges as the most intelligent actress in present day Hindi cinema.

The sexual politics play out in the UP hinterland where politics of another kind is prevalent. In a clever shift of perspective, we're shown how the city world must appear to those outside its privileges. "In the city, you pelt a mongrel with a stone, and hits a billionaire", we're told. Here, too, there is the Mantoesque use of sex (the S&M kind, no less) to expose the seamier side of respectable society. I've said this before but it bears repeating. Bharadwaj's cinema, and Chaubey's in his footsteps, is centered on characters who don't usually figure in the urban viewer's main stream of consciousness. That the proceedings are peppered with top notch humour is simply a result of the meticulous craftsmanship of Chaubey's team of writers. They're well aware of the serious business that comedy is. Sure, the idiomatic wit and the foul language get our laughs, but they also evoke empathy. Thus, unlike most Hindi films, here we're laughing with the characters not at them. In Ishqiya, Bhopalis with kohl-lined eyes aren't comic garnish (who can forget Jagdeep as Soormaa Bhopali ?); they're the dish itself.

In his production house, Vishal Bharadwaj has created an ecosystem where the stories of the dusty landscapes of villages and small towns tend to flourish. To tell such stories is, in itself, a political act. But to do so in a manner that the viewer also gets her money's worth of entertainment takes genius. The Hindi film viewer has for too long been held captive to the mindset that films are either meaningful or entertaining. Ishqiya reminds her that they can be both.

Movie Review: Harischandrachi Factory

Gauri Warudi — Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:38:33 EST

Almost a century ago, one man showed dreams on the silver screen to the Indian people. It wasn't easy at all for Dhundiraj G Phalke aka Dadasaheb Phalke. An uphill journey, ordeals and challenges to be met. Yet he surmounted them all-with perseverance and passion- and against all odds, realized his silver dreams and progressed further, thus laying the important foundation for today's Indian film industry.

Trying to capture just a small slice (around 2 years or so) of the life and struggles of this great patriarch of the industry, is debutant director Paresh Mokashi's Marathi film, Harishchandrachi Factory. Although it's a delightful film, with Mokashi portraying Phalke in a different light, it tends to ridiculously border on the frivolous with Mokashi's Phalke virtually clowning around, most often than not. One would like to think that a man of that depth and restless curiosity would be portrayed with a little more reverence while being shown on the very medium he brought to this country..

Mokashi's intentions may not have been to do so, but the Chaplinesque portrayal and light-hearted narrative tends to undermine the gravity of the struggle that Phalke had to go through to realize this impossible( in that era) dream.

Nandu Madhav has obviously interpreted Phalke's persona ( as a rather bumbling, restless character??) as scripted by Mokashi and to that extent he is good; Vibhawari Deshpande as Saraswati, Phalke's exuberant, enthusiastic wife is like a breath of fresh air and so are the child artists(all of them)-Phalke and Saraswati-the chemistry is amazing; we get to see an occasional poignant moment between them, but by and large the film is too frothy and light, which is what I had a problem with. Besides this, of course are the sets. They remain just that-SETS--often falling short in lending authenticity to the period.

To top it all, (and I wasn't alone) the end had us stumped. There was an odd moment when the audience waited for something more to happen only to see the end credits rolling! It was then that they began shuffling in their seats.

However to give the devil his due, the earlier half of the film is enjoyable...with Anand Modak's music lending a touch of nostalgia to the whole experience.

Movie Review: Avatar - A Movie for the Theater Audience

Aditi Nadkarni — Sun, 7 Feb 2010 04:40:11 EST

Finally watched Avatar. Sat in a chilly theater with a pair of terribly ugly 3D glasses awkwardly balanced on my nose. I did not know what to expect from the film so my mind was blank, consumed by the most bourgeois of things. I was worried if the diet Coke would make me want to pee during the film, and if the whole 3D thing would get me motion sick. Then all too suddenly, within minutes of the film having started, I was transported into a world where all these petty concerns of mine, sheepishly shrunk and right before my eyes turned into luminescent little seeds of the Eywa tree.

I was in Pandora and I did not want to leave. One minute it was scary and dangerous, coming at you, teeth bared and the next moment it was lit up, fragile and beautiful, just like Neytiri, the brave and lovely heroine of the film. It is easy to see why Zoe Saldana is the star here. She brings emotion and authenticity to a character which otherwise might have seemed cartoonish. The magical world that James Cameron delivers does not have a Disney or Pixar like unbelievable quality. Not at all. He creates a world that you truly want to believe exists. The creatures and the flora are all wildly colorful but still very much alive. Pandora is the planet of our imaginations, the one where we hope scientists will finally discover life one day.

Lets face it, Cameron films have never been known for their plots and his direction is not subtle. The plot is usually predictable and the story is peppered with romance. Nothing wrong with that. It's just that this tale of a white man transforming into the much awaited hero for a race and saving them from other terrible white people is a bit old and borrowed from the many films about the fate of Native Americans. Anti-imperialism is the political favorite of the masses and of award committees as well. Everyone wants to be that one white guy, the hero who stepped in and saved people from tyranny. Unfortunately, in the context of history it is too late because Native Americans, Indians and Africans all fought their own wars against forced colonialism without a white Toruk Makto.

The tough military guy as the penultimate villain and the bulldozing of the Navi homes in the quest of "unobtanium" are familiar themes which have appeared in other less spectacular films. For a film with such a revolutionary style used in its making, Cameron could have employed a more memorable and unique plot just so that his remarkable effort did not seem like a gimmick or become outdated years from now. But the film left an impression on me. It gave my imagination a wild ride and then some. I will likely dream of Pandora tonight or wake up with a jolt as I fall off my Ikran. And ultimately I think Cameron's film making strategy might just be about delivering a memorable experience for the audience at the movie theater.

As I walked out of the theater, I thought to myself, James Cameron could easily be the crowned king of Bollywood for he excels at the one philosphy that scaffolds our commercial film industry in India: escapism.

Movie Review: Tingya - A Little Boy and his Bullock

Aditi Nadkarni — Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:33:45 EST

Cold winter weekends have led me into the arms of Netflix. Here I can order films from all over the world and watch stories with universal appeal. Over time, having seen cinema from Israel, France, China and even Iraq, I have begun to appreciate a world outside of Bollywood escapism. This weekend I watched Tingya, a small budget Marathi film, director Mangesh Hadavale's debutant effort. I watched it with an American friend who does not really understand Marathi and yet she was able to empathize with and appreciate every aspect of this remarkable story.

The story is of a little boy, Tingya, who loves his bullock. This bullock, for the rest of the family is a means of survival; for them he is livestock, he ploughs their fields and the little money that they earn from the yearly crop keeps them going. They live a humble, hand-to-mouth existence in rural Maharashtra where poor farmers are known to commit suicide in desperation when the rains refuse to grace them and their fields dry up. One day when the bull falls into a leopard trap and breaks his leg, overnight, he becomes useless to this family of poor farmers. But not to Tingya. To Tingya the bull is a beloved pet. When his parents contemplate selling the injured bull to the butcher, the little boy begins a battle to save his pet's life. In this endeavor he has the sole support of his little friend Rashida. When the film was over, we still had in the room, the characters living with us, their smiles and their tears and their struggles hanging heavy over our shoulders. I have been starved of Indian films that make me feel this way. The performances by the children and the attention to detail in this film are a testimony of the director's intuitive skills. Not very many debutante directors can draw such moving performances from a child who is not a trained actor. In spite of how beautifully this film has been crafted I only found it because I heard about it from a friend and went looking for it. Not because it was promoted with in-my-face advertising like say 3 Idiots or Paa.

Currently, a look at the big releases reveals that most commercial Hindi films are made by rich film families, the big banners, as they are popularly referred to. Every second commercially viable blockbuster has a Kapoor or a Bachhan associated with it. Our Indian populace, used to deity worship, promotes films like these and in their zeal to uphold their existing heroes ignores new talent that does not have the money to market their creativity. In the current scheme of things, films made by a small-time, struggling director get shoved into a corner, neglected because our masses are so taken with the idea of escapism that they do not want to see the depth and meaning in the stories of our reality. If such a film is a Marathi or non-Hindi film, it has even lesser chances of being a big hit back in India.

I tried looking up Tingya online and could not find any major articles about this film in any Indian news dailies. Only bloggers seemed to have covered this film extensively in 2007 when it was released. While the film has a short Wikipedia page, it does not have a website, using instead a blog to promote themselves. It seems that this film has received only local film festival awards and I doubt they were taken to bigger overseas festivals for sheer lack of funds. And yet big budget films like Devdas and Jodha Akbar receive unwarranted attention at international festivals because they have money and big names driving their efforts. This movie lost out to Taare Zameen Par for an Oscar submission. I am certain that if it were chosen it would have definitely been nominated. The western world may have seen a child's struggle with dyslexia but I can guarantee you the story of Tingya would have struck them as unique. But Tingya didn't stand a chance against Aamir Khan's directorial debut.

I want my readers to watch this film and talk about it, spread the word. I know some of you may not be Marathi speaking but this film and its story is driven by powerful scenes and not just dialog. Some of you are animal lovers and I can tell you that this story will move you to the core. Help this little piece of genius along and in some little way encourage such talent instead of fueling the blatant nepotism and cronyism that is plaguing our film industry back home. Mind you I do not mean to put down our commercial film industry. They have earned a place in people's psyche and that industry too supports a million careers. But there is more to India than the glossy, commercially viable, rich lives portrayed by the regular Bollywood fare. In a world plagued by superfluous, fleeting and material content, there are stories have the power to move us and introduce us to the joys that lie beyond what's on the surface. These stories might not highlight our affluence but they tell people of how much happiness there can be without it.

Movie Review : Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes

Anuradha Prasad — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:23:57 EST

Guy Ritchie delivers another impressive movie by transforming Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The movie was nowhere close to Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or even Snatch but it is an enjoyable movie experience.

Far from the sophisticated, stuffy, and propah detective and doctor duo that Doyle gave us, Ritchie's Holmes (Robert Downing Jr) is eccentric, shoots off one liners wearing a poker face and is a goofy slob. His brilliance was retained as was the pipe. The deerstalker cap and cape were passé.

Watson (Jude Law), on the other hand, far from being mild, is always cross with Holmes and in love with Marie (Kelly Reilly).

The movie starts with a bang. Hooves and shadows and cobbled streets. The sorcerer Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) is about to claim another victim in a ritual when Holmes intervenes. After handing him over to the police, Holmes takes to holing up in his room inventing worthless inventions and depressed about Watson's impending marriage. Blackwood's resurrection and Irene Adler's (Rachel McAdams) re-appearance in his life gets him back on his feet. Adler looks luscious and is still one step ahead of Holmes.

It is Holmes' logic versus Blackwood's taunts of the supernatural. A potent weapon is about to let Blackwood rein supreme. Holmes' powers of deduction win but not before a few deaths and clashes with fists, axe, and grey cells.

England of centuries ago looks perfect and many scenes are shot on the Tower Bridge still under construction. It is shot in a twilight quality creating a subdued, eerie effect for the supernatural angle in the script.

The dialogue delivery was smooth but at times incoherent. Hans Zimmer's background score was haunting and exciting in turns, and the performances were good enough to score a few fans. The exchanges between Holmes and Watson gave the movie its light moments while Holmes' future with Adler remains a mystery.

Unlike Ritchie's previous movies, this one was structured for the most part, frames going back and forth occasionally giving it that edgy feel. The story, however, led to a hackneyed climax.

If you are a hardcore Sherlock Holmes fan, the revamped version of the sleuths comes across as absurd and will take a little getting used to. If you forget the book and stop exclaiming "But this is nothing like what I imagined them to be", you may even enjoy the movie.

As the movie ends, you get the feeling you've not seen the last of Ritchie's tango with the detective. Why? Elementary, my dear!

Movie Review: Natarang -The Choices And The Passion

Gauri Warudi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:41:55 EST

It's all about choices one makes and the passion in one's heart. The stronger the passion and conviction, the stronger is an individual to stand up for one's choices and live by them in the face of all adversities.

This is the gist of the new Marathi film Natarang starring Atul Kulkarni and others. Directed by debutant director Ravi Jadhav, Natarang is the story of a young farm laborer Guna Kagalkar, whose passion for the performing art pushes him beyond his family, village and all societal norms to realize his dream. Guna's dream is to portray the role of a king- and we see him being referred to as 'Raja'. Circumstances force him to assay the role of a 'Nachya' ( an effeminate character, also referred to as 'maushi') and this choice brings him up against several odds. Yet having made his choice, he stands by it. Guna decides to take his destiny in his own hands, when the going gets tough on the farms, to set up a tamasha troupe.

The film has a simple, yet effective narrative. You cannot help empathizing with Guna. Atul Kulkarni's portrayal of Guna is effortless and simply remarkable. If he is a perfect 'pehelwan' complete with huge biceps ( not six-pack though) and the rustic look, then he is equally comfortable as the nimble nachya. Full marks to him for that portrayal. He brings out the angst and trauma of the tortured nachya convincingly. Guna has a never-say-die attitude and that's what makes him a winner, despite losing all he has while pursuing his dream.

The supporting cast (all the members of the tamasha troupe set up by Guna) do justice to their roles as does Kishore Kadam as the wily yet loving troupe manager Pandoba. Sonali Kulkarni ( the new one) as the tamasha dancer Nayana Kolapurkar, is impressive.

Mahesh Limaye's camera, while capturing the picturesque country side, adds to the pathos of the troubled Guna when he is left with no choices at a certain point in his journey.

Music by Ajay-Atul is catchy; In the lavani "Wajle ki bara" Bela Shende surprises with her rendition. "Khel Maandila" is a touching composition which takes us through Guna's journey.

Natarang has been produced by Zee Talkies, which perhaps saw its potential well in advance.

This one's a winner, no doubt. A must see.

Movie Review: 3 Idiots

Lomi — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:41:52 EST

I was very lucky to get hold of a movie ticket to this movie for almost the first day first show (actually it was second day). The reasons were obviously Aamir and Hirani. Both of them haven’t delivered a flop or a dud at box office for a very long time. I knew the perfectionist that Aamir and the entertainer that Hirani is, this movie is sure to be engrossing if not fulfilling. I have to say that I was more than happy with the outcome of the movie. It was natural, soft and last but not least touching.

The Movie started in all too familiar way of a search for a person. It is not uncommon in Hindi cinema to search for a person. But the difference here in was not the search component but the person they were searching was quite different from any normal person. Well the name itself was very different Ranchoddas Shaymaldas Chajaad. This guy was not either the typical Hindi romantic hero or even the typical action Hero that we come across in each and every Hindi cinema. He was sensible, charismatic, entertaining and also very joyful character. Well I have to say that Aamir fitted in perfectly into this role and it didn’t seem odd at all that a forty plus person was playing a college student.

The other characters in this movie also contribute equally and make a difference to the overall feel of the movie. The work of Sharman Joshi and Madhavan from RDB fame was expected to be good but what caught everyone the most attention and also the real surprise component in this movie was Chatur character. He was well suited to his character and made everyone in the theater to laugh his heart out. His Balatkar scene and his atypical Hindi accent were all the more good moments of the movie. The scene where Chatur impresses the most is when he reminds Madhavan and Sharman of the oath that he took of revenge and here he is delivering a perfect kickback. It sounded too childish and laughable but to think of it that is how a normal elite student of a premium institutes pit against each other nowadays. It is childish for us but that is the dirty world out there in those premium institutes.

The theme of the movie is very much coherent with Taare Zameen Par and the script of the Movie also had the feel of Munnabhai. The difference was the delivery of the whole package by different character with different story, screenplay and direction. The Movie is sure to be loved at first shot by everyone and may be people will not mind spending some more on the repeat viewing too. It is already breaking Sholay records and looks like becoming the all time favorite of Hindi cinema. Even then this Movie had certain shortcomings which needed to be addressed like for example not everyone will be as successful as Madhavan’s character if he goes away from the prescribed path. One example could be the US where every person has the maximum freedom that one can actually wish to have and you now have US president requesting his people to concentrate on Science and Maths. Well in a country like India it becomes doubly difficult to cross the paths.

Kareena Kappor did not have much to do in this Movie and it seemed more of a small role for her and Boman Irani’s character was again like his Munnabhai role where he was the same strict principal albeit in a engineering school. The NASA pencil scene and Balatkar scene is something we have heard of in our emails and school jokes yet it seemed different when it was put in as a movie scene. Javed Jaffrey’s brief stint was a nice gripping moment before interval but unexpectedly he just withers away after the interval.

The music didn’t seem all that great on TV and CD players but when seen in the context of the story and script, it seemed to make the cut. “Give me some sunshine” song had a nice feelings attached to it and seemed to cut across many people’s college days. Aamir’s courage in dealing with sensitive issues like student suicides, Indian education system, youth power, crossing new bridges are positive moments of the Movie. Overall this Movie felt like a complete package of message, music, masala (pregnant scene), sentiment and some non hand fights (between Aamir and Irani).

Movie Review: Avatar

Anjana Menon — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:56:41 EST

Patience pays. Having waited nearly 10 long years to bring out Avatar, James Cameron has clearly set a precedent in movie making history.

Sometime in the future, Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine, is one of the many joining a human camp on Pandora following the death of his twin brother. The human camp sends out expeditions of 'avatars' (beings created as a mix of human and native humanoid Na'bi DNA) of personnel from the camp, who explore life on the planet. Classified as 'jarhead', the scientists, military and the corporates find absolutely no use for Jake, and so he simply tags along on sample-collecting missions, experiencing a new world through his Avatar that can walk. On one such mission, he happens to lose his way in the jungle. He is saved by a native girl, Neytiri, who recognizes divine signs and decides to spare his life. He then embarks on a process of being inducted into the tribe, which allows him to provide inside information to the human camp. But things take an ugly turn when he begins to question his loyalties to either camp.

I don't want to say too much about the movie. Mostly because it's a simple story, with characters indicative of the nameless stereotypes we carve out of society every day. The extrapolations from the present into a possible situation in the future are rather straightforward; this allows the story to be told in such a way that it is completely understood. Complexity is only brought in on the details. That way, Pandora leaps up in front of our eyes as a very, very real world.

While on the matter of extrapolations, the world of Pandora is visualized in a similar way. Here you find the native Na'Bi, human-like, except they're blue and twice our size. Well, they also have tails and an intelligent appendage protected within the braids of their hair, through which they form 'bonds', be it with some other beings of Pandora, or their God, Eywa. But apart from that, their culture and clothing cues appear to be taken from the Masa'i tribe of Africa. It probably isn't a coincidence either that armored and charging beings resemble rhinos, and surely, the black monster that chases Jake through the jungles is nothing but creative liberties taken on a tiger (or lion, it's hard to tell, but is undoubtedly a big cat). You find dramatic twists to Pandora's horses, hyenas, touch-me-nots, fireflies, butterflies, etc. Actually, that's not fair. Everything about Pandora is dramatic. Nightfall on Pandora is the most dramatic, where leaves, vines, creepers and the floor of the jungle lights up like LED lights when walked upon. In spite of all the surrealism surrounding it, Pandora is still a beautiful place, and almost reminds you of all that Earth is not, but probably was millions of years ago. It's no surprise to see the humans doing to Pandora, what they're doing to Earth right now.

Avatar is unpretentious in its futuristic portrayals of a world like our own, which is rather modest for a movie that has taken so many years and resources to see the light of day. And, as a movie projected to be the trend setter of CGI henceforth, this one is a must-watch.