SATYAGRAHA: Formulaic Exploitation of Freedom of speech! Corruption hits cinema! [2/5]

Corruption in our system has been in practice for so long now that you can easily find its traces in our day-to-day life. It is so rehearsed-so exercised that we might not even consider it now a threat to our society but when the same strikes in art like cinema, it still hurts, badly. Prakash Jha’s so-called social drama SATYAGRAHA is a victim of corruption in cinema. Formulaic approach of Jha’s own league contaminates the power of story-telling. Forced Star-value pollutes the intensity and effort.

Taking a prominent lead from Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement and a few other sensational news headlines in the past, SATYAGRAHA roams around an idealistic retired principal [played passionately by Amitabh Bachchan] who is so much confined into his ideas that he can be very blatant with anyone against his concept of morality. Trust me, in few scenes you would be thanking God that your father in real is not like him. After losing his extremely talented engineer son in a road-accident [referring to the Satyendra Dubey murder case, if you remember], in frustration to not know how to deal with corruption in the system, Daduji slaps the district magistrate and is now behind the bars.

To set him free, joins hands an ambitious businessman of promising future [Ajay Devgn in his usual], a local crowd-pulling youth leader [Arjun Rampal wasted in his ‘Rajneeti’ look] and a dedicated journalist [Kareena Kapoor Khan-the most irritating of all] who merely believes in just one rule of journalism that you should look presentable. So, you never find her without heavily done make-up in any of the frames she’s in. Manoj Bajpai slips into a caricature-ish comical politician who’s naively uncomfortable with the concept of lawmakers taking instructions & suggestions to improve from public as a part of democratic system. So, the conflict to bring inevitable change in the system turns into a final showdown between the government and team Satyagraha.

Problem with the film lies in its too idealistic characters to make connect and events happenings in the most suitable manner. Film struggles to speak loud and clear on the issue and ends up in an exploited version of the ‘freedom of speech’ that can also be referred as the ‘freedom to preach’. In its 2 hour 32 min of excruciating duration, it goes on and on and on till an equally infertile dramatic climax.

All I can request/warn/suggest Mr. Jha that please rediscover his own self beyond this fixed parameters of star-driven half-cooked hopeless social dramas just for the sake of making it or the day is not very far when we would have another ‘Ram Gopal Verma’ in Bollywood. If not in the right manner, some statements should not be made at all as you are killing the opportunity for someone else. [2/5]

MADRAS CAFÉ: Flawed but undoubtedly the finest political thriller Bollywood has come up with [3.5/5]

Imagine a war thriller where you already can sense what is going to happen but still it manages to make you question your understandings that either it might not happen this way or if it must, how the proceedings will fit into place. Shoojit Sircar’s MADRAS CAFÉ is one such intriguingly intense, aptly intelligent, flawed but finest political thriller in recent.

Positioned in the time-zone of mid 80’s & early 90’s, when our neighboring country Sri Lanka was going through its toughest episode of heavily brutal & deeply inhuman civil war, MADRAS CAFÉ digs into the past to expose an untold political conspiracy behind our prime-minister’s assassination. Now the best part is, it is a fictional documentation but wrapped cleverly in a series of historic facts that it looks more promising than any other war-dramas based on real life events. West has been doing it since ages, thanks to their liberal environment of freedom to create but in a country like India where extremist-groups are much more in numbers than the unwanted mushrooms in your backyard in monsoons, coming with such a debatable product needs sheer amount of guts.

In his first ‘YAHAAN’, Shoojit Sircar has impressed most of us with a textured romance in the backdrop of militancy and army rule in Kashmir. Here the backdrop is set in Jaffna- the point of action for LTF headed by Anna [reference to LTTE chief Prabhakaran] and Indian force working for peace. John Abraham plays Vikram- an R&AW agent on a secret mission to knock down the open-ended territory of Anna. Meanwhile, the traces of treason take the organization and the mission for granted and in order to repair it, with the help of a committed British journalist [played by Nargis Fakhri], Vikram intercepts the covert plot to assassin our prime minister [reference to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi].

Film’s strongest point is the ‘real people on real locations’ feel, at least for the most of it. Sircar sets a perfect atmospheric war-scene with chilling visuals captured beautifully by Kamaljeet Negi. Also, be ready to witness the most surprising casting in Bollywood ever. Siddhrath Basu as the R&AW chief is the most impressive. There is not a single moment where you doubt his ability to act. Then, there is the ad-man Piyush Pandey as the effortlessly straightforward cabinet secretary and Dibang- the most consistent news anchor on NDTV in the most delightful cameo I have seen in Bollywood.

Having said that, I won’t deny the fact that MADRAS CAFÉ is far from a flawless effort. Story is impeccably fascinating. Dialogues are as colloquial as it could be. But the narrative and the screenplay have more than one loose end. First part is filled with voice-overs and runs like a bullet train to capture and clear the political picture before setting the premise for the finale ‘pressure cooker situation’ where assassination supposes to end it all. Scenes come with a fade-in/fade-out manner only to give it a disengaged lengthy montage kind of feel. Some of the vital information [the madras café conversation between LTF representative, Indian bureaucrat and foreign beneficiary] is being thrown to you repeatedly without much addition until the very last.

Despite all this, the 2 hour 10 min of MADRAS CAFÉ is worth all your money spent on tickets and popcorn. This is a flawed but undoubtedly the finest political thriller Bollywood has come up with. The war-scenes and the bone-chilling explosion scene of Indian prime-minister’s assassination in the climax alone will leave you contented. [3.5/5]

ONCE UPON Ay TIME IN MUMBAAI DOBAARA: Stay away from this ‘all talk-no action’ bogus entertainer! [1.5/5]

Glamorizing evil and bad is not a new recipe to success in Bollywood. It has done wonders in past for superstars like Shah Rukh Khan & Sanjay Dutt but gambling totally on the same doesn’t solve the purpose unless you have a solid story line, fool-proof fail-safe screenplay and if not mightier than the bad, sure equally influential character of good merits who can rise from the downhill and surprise you in the final combat of good & bad […the best example I could remember is Aamir & Sharat Saxena’s final face-off in Ghulam], sadly and in the most disappointing way, Milan Lutharia’s ONCE UPON Ay TIME IN MUMBAAI DOBAARA lacks all except the style quotient.

First and foremost, where the prequel to same […Ajay Devgn-Emran Hashmi starrer OUATIM] was partly based on true incidents, taking cues from life & times of Haji Mustan and the momentous rise of Dawood on the map of Mumbai underworld, this sequel slips off conveniently into a fictional love-triangle. Akshaye Kumar gets into the shoes of Shoaib [played earlier by Emraan Hashmi] to create the most-stylish, charming yet menace bad guy that manages to take away all the claps & whistles with his presence on screen. He is the uncrowned man behind all the illegal businesses including cricket match-fixing. He gets what he wants by all means, be it the lady sitting on his next in the stadium. He literally can buy you an award that you aren’t even nominated for. Sonakshi Sinha plays a starlet […on the similar lines of yesteryear’s sex-siren Mandakini] who dreams to achieve big but not at the cost of everything. Imran Khan is a side-kick to Shoaib who unlike his mentor-cum-idol-cum-boss, thinks from heart rather than going with decisions that mind suggests. Rest you can guess, as it is a Bollywood love-triangle!

Of the crew, Rajat Aroraa- the man who penned the success-story of OUATIM and THE DIRTY PICTURE carries forward his trademark writing with punches possibly in every line. So, this 2 hour 40 min long power play of the good, the bad and the beauty is filled with cheesy one liners like ‘naam bata diya toh meri pehchaan bura maan jaayegi’ ‘itne saalon mein Mumbai badal gayi thi, kumkum se kimi kaatkar ho gayi thi’ ‘doodh mein jisne pehle nimbu nichoda, paneer uska’. Honestly, some really work. Most don’t. But that is not the one flaw that makes it an unbearable watch. Storyline that takes off with a power packed establishment of Shoaib’s character in the first half, looses its grip soon after introducing the love-angle and later when melodrama takes over the charge. Boredom is guaranteed in those precious minutes. Imran is sure a misfit as a tapori- mumbaiya. Sonakshi looks great in most but I would like to keep my lips sealed if asked about her performance.

There’s a scene where Imran teaches Sonakshi how to speak English and mistakenly he translates her intermediate [10+2] education as ‘Intercourse’, now if you find it a reason to chuckle or laugh, I suggest you go see some psychiatrist as soon as you finish it reading…and shockingly that sad joke goes on and one for like 3-4 scenes. To add up, I don’t why everyone including Sonali Bendre who makes an appearance in an insignificant- half baked subplot pronounces ‘Shoaib’ as ‘shoheb’. Sounds disgusting…really!

& for the makers and the director, I would like to suggest that, “agar aap aisi hi betuki bakwaas filmein banaate rahenge, audience ek na ek din jaroor bura maan jaayegi”! Overall, this sequel of high expectations sweats out to encash the success of the prequel but just finishes as an ‘all talk-no action’ bogus entertainer! Stay away!! [1.5/5]

CHENNAI EXPRESS: DDLJ visits south India! But the trip is tacky, long & with no surprises! [2/5]

What could be the most painful experience with Indian railways? Crowded platforms, endless wait for trains delayed by hours […in some extreme cases by days also] or the unhygienic interiors? No, the bigger test of your patience comes in when your journey starts but before reaching its destination, stops like the pulse-rate of a dead man for literally no logical reasons. It’s unbearable. Frequent travelers can vouch for that. Same goes with Rohit Shetty’s CHENNAI EXPRESS. It’s long-predictable-never been there but certainly seen that before action entertainer!

 

After slaughtering classics like Basu Chatterji’s KHATTA MEETHA in GOLMAAL 3 and Hrishikesh da’s GOLMAAL in BOL BACHCHAN…this time, Rohit shamelessly chooses to get hugely inspired by 18-year old still young & fresh trendsetter DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAAYENGE. The only relief is that he keeps the texture and the surface of a love-story intact with shifting the base from North India to South India. Simple it is but ‘no brains allowed inside’ is the tag that comes with his style of film-making. Let’s accept it!

A story that is more of a hit Bollywood formula, of a runaway bride meeting with the charming guy on their journey of a lifetime is no booster at all. To save her life, girl projects him as her love interest. Father challenges him to prove his compatibility. In all these, eventually girl falls for the guy and a little later even the guy starts realizing his feelings for the girl. Happy ending…but not before the final showdown and a ‘ja ja simran ja’ kind of moment to finish it off.

The humour being heavily reliant on wordplays like ‘tu don ki nahin donkey ki beti hai’ ‘main Bhansali nahin hoon, I mean balshaali nahin hoon’, it’s difficult to have laugh out loud moments but some jokes are sure here to stay like shahrukh’s attending nature’s call or in a scene straight from DDLJ where Shah Rukh lends his hand to help Deepika board the train but couldn't stop himself to help another set of 4 people in similar manner who happened to be Deepika’s kidnappers. Another letdown is the language characters speak. It precisely shares more than 60% of dialogues in Tamil.

Areas where CHENNAI EXPRESS scores better than previous Rohit Shetty massy entertainers are the picture postcard south-Indian scenic locations captured awesomely by Dudley and lovable performance of Shah Rukh Khan […a treat for his hard-core fans] especially in comic scenes. He’s back with his charismatic romantic image. But the show stealer is without a doubt Deepika Padukone who never misses her cues as a Tamilian girl with perfect accented Hindi language and characteristic.

At the end, I am not sure how many records are being targeted to smash at the box-office but this trip is a tacky one. At the most, it is just a good day in a regular local train…not a great memorable long route train-trip with friends and family. [2/5]

B. A. PASS: erotic but sensitive! a film of merits but not for masses!! [3/5]

Victimized and exploited by the neon-lit dreamy world of pleasure & passion, middle-class aspirations & expectations for a better life often find a road going nowhere but to a convinced end near the dark dell of death.

Ajay Bahl’s erotic but sensitive adult-thriller B.A.PASS dares to replicate-recreate a modern-day ‘quite harsh & dark in reality’ real world set in the Pahargunj area of Delhi, celebrated or rather infamous for banned provisions of ideas to get high on life. Prostitution and sex-rackets is just one of them and also the premise of the film that hasn’t been touched before on such brutal level.

Adopted from a short story ‘The railway Aunty’ by Mohan Sikka, it is a saddening story of a young man who, after losing his parents in an accident, is now bound to live with his ‘not so-kind’ aunt. To make things worst, purposely he becomes a sex-slave to a sensuously attractive lady of seduction. The game of passion & pleasure that too with so much of easy money involved in it, soon lands him in the darker and deeper world of male prostitution. The more colorful it looks in night, the more drained & hollowed it sounds in daylight.

Beautifully shot, smartly conceived, nicely written and confidently performed by first-timer Shadab Kamal & the immensely impressive and bold Shilpa Shukla make it an honest effort that touches you with its bravura but brutal portrayal of sex, seduction, depression, desperation, dejection, oppression and betrayal.  Divyendu Bhattcharya & Rajesh Sharma provides a good supporting cast. Deepti Naval in her 2-scene guest appearance leaves a mark.

But at the last, it is Ajay Bahl who impresses you with his confident take on the story to create a sensitive thriller out of it, rather than lurching on making it a sleazy sex-drama. Though the aesthetically shot love-making scenes are an essential part but sometimes they look just a distraction from the gritty story-line.

Subject may sound as a pleasurable watch but I would not misguide you as the sensuously bold posters of the film suggest you. It is a film of merits but not for masses who fancy tickling in the lower part of body more than sensing ‘staying for long’ bleak human emotions. [3/5]

THE CONJURING: picturesque horror that smells real & fresh [3/5]

The most impressive horror films are that don’t strive to trick you by gimmicks and visual stunts but the ones that make you succumbed to the indecisive ambiance of the happenings and the unsure serenity of the site....and, to your good luck, if it comes with the ‘based on true story’ tag, chances are on positive side that you are going to have a lethally overwhelming movie-viewing experience of a good horror film, just as I had with James Wan’s THE CONJURING!

Film wipes off the layers of dust from a super-natural case, successfully buried in the history by Ed and Lorraine Warren- famous professional paranormal researchers of 1970’s. It was the time when supernatural practices like exorcism were authorized by churches. In such circumstances, the Warrens are called off to investigate paranormal activities in the sweet home of a family having 5 young innocent daughters.

The fact that the incidents are as real as it could be and the riveting direction with all the earnestness and integrity to keep it equally simple & subtle, makes it much more than regular horror flicks. So, you might have to wait in length for your first encounter with the unknown as the film in first half intelligently does take its own time to set things up for you. But trust me, once you’re in, you will never find a way out without noticing drastic ups & downs in your pulse-rate and some awe-struck moments where heart comes in mouth. 

Watch out for the scene where one of the girls finds out some paranormal thing looking at her from the dark behind the door, you never see a thing but still you feel as scared as she is. In another, Lorraine the investigator bumps into a sheet of cloth in the air, taking shape of a human body and then disappearing into a woman in the window-glass.

The list is quite long with such acts but despite being a horror film, I don’t consider them the only biggest merits of the film. Others two are the picture-perfect cinematography and the performances. I don’t remember a horror film having such good pleasantly fascinating camera-work, especially in the day-light where narrative focuses on the emotional quotient of the story. Vera Farmiga as an intrepid investigator and an emotionally sensitive mother, switches on & off to both the parts very well. Patrick Wilson as a dedicated ghost-hunter plays it just right.

Overall, THE CONJURING is not a regular but well made-nicely cinematographed exhilarating ride that keeps you caught into your seats with a good number of scary moments. Do not miss it if you love to see yourself scared like anything.  [3/5]