SAALA KHADOOS: Performances win close, over Predictability! [3/5]

Films based on sports in India are not too many. CHAK DE INDIA being the sincerest, MARY KOM & BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG being the most commercial ones and LAHORE being the most underrated in the league, you can actually have them on your fingertips. I don’t see the reason why Bollywood is so unsure about good sports films, other than the apprehension of falling into a predictable zone that has been exploited in the west till the time it gets colorless. You talk about boxing in films and the ghost of Rocky Balboa will come automatically in the picture to judge your efforts. I mean who’s not a fan?

First time writer-director Sudha Kongara’s SAALA KHADOOS can also be seen struggling to hit that fear on its face and make it bleed fresh and original. Sadly, the punches in the ring don’t usually reach their mark but the kind of fight characters and the performances produce in the film, SAALA KHADOOS manages to taste the triumph in its last round. It’s a sweet little film where a bunch of well-written characters carries the whole film on their shoulder as ably as their unwavering attitude.

Once a prospective boxer himself and now an ever-offended coach for women boxers, Adi Tomar [Madhavan] is pitched to the least fertile boxing terrain in Chennai. The politics in sports are the forces behind it. Tomar is a strict, ruthless and unsympathetic taskmaster who can also shed his own money if it gets him a greatly potential protégé. And he finds one in Madhi [Ritika Singh], a local temperamental girl with similar madness, anger and untamed frustration. The teaming-up between the two is the hardest ever mission especially when they both are already being mastered by their alter egos and the never-slowing down aggression.

Despite having good knock-out matches, callous practice sessions on field, corrupted selection processes and all the sports-gyaan; SAALA KHADOOS works less as a sports film and more as a freshly brewed love-story between Adi and Madhi. In the very first moments of realization when Madhi confesses her love to her coach, he heedlessly instructs her to continue her practice-session as he’s more of her father’s age, “So? I don’t say I love you to everyone of my father’s age.” She hits back. Sudha Kongara also deserves a pat on back for not falling for customary bollywood romance between the lead pair, though the wide-spread predictability is always there.

SAALA KHADOOS charms you with the uninhibited, wild and fresh performance by Ritika Singh, a professional boxer before making her first attempt at acting. Her free-spirited, loud-mouthed and all moody role-play is efficiently delightful. Madhavan gives SAALA KHADOOS everything it demands from him. He looks every bit of a full-grown ex-boxer with all the attitude, arrogance and aggression in him, hitting the right cord. One of his highly approving works! His mime-act in the climax is a pleasure you’d never want it to go. Mumtaz Sorcar as Madhi’s less-talented and highly ambitious sister is a confident support. Zakir Hussain playing a dominating and over-powering corrupt sports official is good. Special mention to Baljinder Kaur! As Madhi’s north-Indian mother married to a south-Indian father, she looks believable to the core.

At the end, I think SAALA KHADOOS has found two amazingly short-tempered, deliciously cranky and pleasantly foul-mouthed characters in Adi and Madhi, way too unfortunate to have their love-story ended in an unfurnished manner. Bring them back in a more violent love-story, and it will sure knock us out. Watch it even if it doesn’t give you an adrenaline rush like most of the boxing-movies offer! [3/5]   

JUGNI: Music Leads the Way! [3/5]

A simple, unpretentious and wide-eyed country boy is trying to be apologetic to the girl he’s been with all night under the same sheet. Local liquor brand can be held responsible but the girl is taken aback, “Sorry? What for?” “For everything”, the boy is in deep guilt. “Not for everything. Say sorry only for why you left me alone there.” The girl is definitely more independent, free and open, and emotionally less complicated. So is Shefali Bhushan’s JUGNI. It likes to have its own sense of rhythm with melodies that induce extreme likeness and energy in you to match up with the beats life throws at you.

Vibhavari [Sugandha Garg], a small-time music director from Mumbai lands in a small village in Punjab in search of soulful Sufi music that might give her all the recognition and respect she wants from the world. Her spell with the local talents greatly reminds you of Sneha Khanwalkar’s stint in MTV’s SOUND TRIPPIN. Old timer Bibi Saroop [Sadhana Singh] and her son Mastana [Siddhant Bahl] are her best bets. Where Bibi Saroop is more into earthy, emotional and expressive Sufi music, her son loves to be the man of masses. His songs can be as weirdly enjoyable as having rhyming words like ‘Kidney-Sidney’. The bonding over the music collaboration slowly starts overlapping on the relationships on both the sides. Mastana’s loudmouthed girlfriend Preeto [Anurrita Jha] knows for sure that no city girl can ever be trusted. The live-in partner of Vibhavari, Sid [Samir Sharma] still doesn’t understand much about her recent decisions in life.

Shefali, in her first directorial venture gives us a fresh breeze of storytelling that is highly enriched with melodic tunes, believable characters, some real good performances if not great, an eye-pleasing cinematography and a writing that never settles for being a regular. The music sessions filmed in/for the film are undoubtedly the best moments in the film. The participation of celebrated names like A R Rehman and Vishal Bhardwaj makes sure this small ‘all heart’ musical doesn’t remain small in terms of giving you a good time in theatres. Watching Sadhna Singh making a great comeback is a different pleasure all together. She is still very much skilled to enthuse life even in a dull frame. Anurrita Jha is effortless. Samir Sharma plays it as neat as it should be.

Siddhant Bahl impresses with his ease and energy. The job was to look a high-spirited, ever-excited and over the top character that wears more colors than the shade-card of any Paint manufacturing brand at any given time. And Siddhant is always at it. The other two names that make JUGNI work are Shellee and Sugandha Garg. Shellee’s dialogues range from being madly rustic to finely consequential. Sugandha on the other hand provides a solid support to the story with a character-sketch that can promptly ask for a quick financial help from her boyfriend soon after throwing at him a hint of break-up. She looks every bit of the free-spirited Vibhavari.

Overall, JUGNI comes as a pleasant surprise that leaves you wanting more of its fresh approach in storytelling, likeable characters and a celebratory session of refreshing music. Some loose ends and an uneven screenwriting can always be overlooked if you are leaving the theatre and thinking of how soon you can get these soundtracks on your phone playlist. If not for anything else, for your EARS only! [3/5]              

AIRLIFT: Feelings in. Fake Jingoism out. [4/5]

It’s August, 1990. Kuwait is hit by Iraq’s invasion helmed by Saddam Hussein. More than 1,70,000 Indians are stuck in the war-zone with no hope left to see their motherland again. Even India as their country merely has any clue or clarity on how to evacuate them all from the Iraqi-invaded Kuwait city. And then rises a Hero!

To disappoint the classic star-driven, formula-forced, clap-causing Bollywood, he is not some Sunny Deol roaring his guts out to intimidate enemies in their own den or just another muscular giant showing-off his well-marketed humanity label to set things right. In fact, Raja Krishna Menon doesn’t even consider it to go explore that territory. AIRLIFT gets lifted up in that very moment. The merit also lies in casting Akshay Kumar who deliberately decides to underplay his unapologetically self-interested image for a while and gives us a character that’s more human than just feeding off someone’s unchallenging starry ego. He’s not new to the flavor though. BABY and SPECIAL 26 have done quite well for him in the past. AIRLIFT is a greater addition to the list.

Ranjit Katyal [Akshay Kumar] is a downright capitalist of Indian-origin all the rage in Kuwait’s political circle. He doesn’t leave a chance to proclaim himself a ‘Kuwaiti’ until Iraq’s unfortunate invasion shatters his power, position and well-established prospects in Kuwait. Before he could sense it, he’s caught in a situation with as much as 1,70,000 more Indians. First to rescue his family, then his people and finally to his countrymen; Ranjit goes every extra mile beyond his caliber, control and concern. AIRLIFT in that sense, is more of a human story than a patriotic political thriller. The patriotism portrayed here is never too pushy, preached or purposefully painted. No matter how millionth of times you have seen a tricolor being hoisted up from soil to sky, you’re tend to feel the ‘get-up-and-go’ force within you but Raja Menon gives it all a reason, more unadulterated and uncontaminated.

The writing makes sure you sink your teeth into the uncontrolled situation of a ticking time bomb in as real atmospheric manner as it could be. Leave a ‘chot lagti hai toh maa hi yaad aati hai’ expression alone, and you will never find an over the top jingoistic dialogues in your way. It is a relief, trust me. Even so, AIRLIFT does bother you more than a couple of times when it falls in its own trap. Inaamulhaq, an accepted capable actor plays an Iraqi Major with a strained accent that can get in your head like most of the caricature-ish villains have succeeded with in past. It is as misfit as Akshay Kumar playing a ‘Bollywood’ hero in a song where he could play any musical instrument he just picked up and sings exactly in the same voice a professional singer has been performing in at the very start. Nimrat Kaur playing Akshay’s not-so-selfless wife takes the stage for an opponent-beating monologue and though it may have been intentional, I wish she had been more ‘less’ into it.

AIRLIFT also carries the first worthy nomination for the year’s best supporting/surprising/underrated performances in Purab Kohli. He’s unbelievably good and the orchestrator in one of the scenes that leaves you with moist eyes and a lump in the throat. Kumud Mishra’s as the sensitive, sympathetic and supportive Indian government official is a spotless performance. Prakash Belawadi as a nagging and way too alert citizen does have some funnily irksome dialogues but I fear, the shoes he’s in are an old pair. Ajay Kumar marks his presence as Akshay’s subordinate.

At the end, AIRLIFT is a nice, well-intended break from loud and fake jingoism in Hindi cinema. It works well as a fine thriller and as a human drama too. Watch out for Akshay’s growing proficiency in playing characters that have less to speak but lots to converse! A story is told in a way it should be. Well, mostly. Do not miss it! [4/5]       

THE HATEFUL EIGHT (A): When Tarantino tries to please Tarantino! [3/5]

With THE HATEFUL EIGHT, Quentin Tarantino revisits (again) the 70s era of classic spaghetti westerns where the production company logos and the title-designing go retro with those bright, bold and yellow western fonts on a panoramic, scenic and slow long-shot of a barren territory (in this case, a snowy landscape). Bracing and brisk? Absolutely, but not for long! The real trial of your serenity starts when the characters get introduced calculatingly in the most similar manner where the words are set loose to roam free and the actions hardly try to set the tone any warmer. Hang around, isn’t it the pattern Tarantino is loved all over for? Couldn’t agree more; THE HATEFUL EIGHT pays not only a homage to the yesteryear’s gratifyingly grand movie-making techniques but also to the ‘Tarantino’ style cinema. Only thing funny is that the payee here is none other than the master himself.

A bounty murderer Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is being transported to the town Red Rock, handcuffed with her hunter John Ruth (Kurt Russell) in a stagecoach. Soon they are stopped and accompanied by another bounty hunter Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson) and Chris Mannix (Walter Giggins), supposedly a ‘yet to be badged’  new sheriff of the town. After roaming around an hour or so of screen-time in a snowstorm-prone province, THE HATEFUL EIGHT settles in a small shelter where the previous four meets another four; Oswaldo (Tim Roth), Joe (Michael Madsen), Bob (Demian Bichir) and Smithers (Bruce Dern). As the conversation gets deeper and the dialogues a lot edgier revealing the darker sides of each one under the roof, the action initiates to take over the stage with bullets being fired to pierce and explode various body parts without showing any discrimination of any kind. A typical Tarantino you’ve been waiting and dying for the whole first half!

The snow-clad geographical-spread was, at any given day, a perfect canvas for Tarantino to paint it bloody red in all the panoramic wide shots likewise the Coen Brothers excelled in FARGO but the Tarantino of RESERVOIR DOGS tows away the plot to stay put in the restricted and walled barn- a quite suffocating stricture for Robert Richardson (the cinematographer) to play around. The first half though scenic and scintillating in the opening sequence impressively blessed with the soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, sucks most of your survival force with the all dead, wordy expressions. And then it tries to compensate it in a ‘been there-seen that’ scenario where the blood spatters easily manage to please the desperate genre-aficionado in you. In this very half, you will never feel for the lack of words, I guarantee you.

Samuel L Jackson being a regular in a Tarantino film looks comfortably positioned. With a coarse and wavy accent and a lot stronger character manipulative of racial intolerance in his own favor, he leads the cast. Kurt Russell with his one-liners impresses. Jennifer Jason Leigh as the smirking, gruesome and blood-licking bounty proves to be a worthy nomination for Oscars this year. If rumors are to be believed, Tim Roth has been roped in for the role meant for Christoph Waltz, another Tarantino regular. He makes it his own; no doubt on his caliber but still, you could find a glance and glimpse of Waltz easily there within the character.

Overall; despite being gifted with some exceptionally good performances, a soul-pleasing opening sequence, a few lyrical blood-shots and even more engaging and tempting soundtrack; THE HATEFUL EIGHT remains an unfulfilling, desperate and standard Tarantino film. Now, I am ready to take the shots! [3/5] 

चौरंगा (A): नाटकीयता से परे, वास्तविकता का सिनेमा! [4/5]

जातिगत विसंगतियों के दुष्प्रभाव, छूत-अछूत के लाग-लपेट और धर्म के नाम पर विकलांग मानसिकता का परिचय देते भारतीय समाज को हमने पहले भी श्याम बेनेगल और गोविन्द निहलाणी के सिनेमा में तार-तार होते देखा है. ‘चौरंगा’ भी काफी हद तक इसी दायरे में फैलती-सिमटती दिखाई देती है, इसीलिए एक मूल प्रश्न बार-बार दिमाग में कौंधता रहता है. ‘क्या कुछ भी नहीं बदला है?’ उत्तर फिल्म ख़तम होने के तुरंत बाद कुछ सरकारी तथ्यों के परदे पर उभरने के साथ ही मिलने शुरू हो जाते हैं. सच में, कुछ भी नहीं बदला है. और अगर नहीं बदला है तो सिर्फ सिनेमा में बदलाव दिखा देने भर से क्या सचमुच बदलाव आ जायेगा? ‘चौरंगा’ की पृष्ठभूमि, ‘चौरंगा’ के कथानक और ‘चौरंगा’ के पात्रों से पुराने होने की गंध भले ही आती हो, पर ‘चौरंगा’ के प्रासंगिकता की चमक पर कहीं कोई धूल जमी दिखाई नहीं देती. ‘चौरंगा’ एक सार्थक कोशिश है भारतीय समाज के उस एक वर्ग को टटोलने में, जिसे हम शहरी चकाचौंध के लिए कहीं अँधेरे में छोड़ आये हैं.

साहब (संजय सूरी) गाँव वालों के लिए हैंडपंप लगवा रहे हैं. पंचायत के पैसों से ही सही, लेकिन साहब ने आज पूरे गाँव के लिए भोज और सिनेमा का प्रबंध कराया है. साहब दलितों को लात मार सकते हैं पर दलित अगर साहब का पैर छूने जाएँ, तो साहब छिटक पड़ते हैं. रात के अँधेरे में तो साहब और भी दयालु हो उठते हैं, सूअर पालने वाली धनिया (तनिष्ठा चैटर्जी) से ऐसे लिपटते हैं जैसे चन्दन के पेड़ से सांप. धनिया भी क्या करे? मौका देख के साहब से बेटों की पढाई-लिखाई का इंतज़ाम करवा ही लेती है. बड़ा बेटा बजरंगिया (रिद्धि सेन) खप गया है. पढ़ाई के साथ साथ इस विकृत सामाजिक ढाँचे को जानने-समझने लगा है पर छोटा बेटा संतू (सोहम मैत्रा) अभी भी सवालों का टेपरिकॉर्डर लिए घूमता रहता है. साहब की बेटी से प्यार होने लगा है उसे, और उसकी मानें तो लड़की भी कभी-कभी देख लेती है उसकी ओर.

‘चौरंगा’ का संसार सिनेमा के प्रभाव में फंसने की गलती नहीं करता. वास्तविकता के चित्रण में नाटकीयता का थोड़ा भी दखल महसूस नहीं होने देता. बिकाश रंजन मिश्रा अपनी पहली ही फिल्म में इस उंचाई को बड़ी सहजता से छू जाते हैं, देख कर ख़ुशी भी होती है और हैरानी भी. बजरंगिया और संतू के बीच के दृश्य फिल्म को बांधे रखते हैं. ये वो दृश्य हैं जहां कच्ची उम्र की मासूमियत भी है, बन्धनों में जकड़े रहने की पीड़ा भी है और सब कुछ तोड़, भाग निकलने की उमंगें भी हैं. फिल्म के कुछ किरदार अँधेरे में बहुत भयावह लगने लगते हैं, जैसे यौन कुंठा से ग्रस्त अंधे पुजारी बाबा [धृतिमान चैटर्जी]. पर मिश्रा कहीं भी फिल्म को सनसनीखेज बना कर बेचने की भूल नहीं करते.

अभिनय की दृष्टि से संजय सूरी सबसे ज्यादा हैरान करते हैं. उन्हें इस तरह के ठेठ गंवई किरदार में देखने का तजुर्बा किसी को भी नहीं रहा है, और वो बखूबी जंचते हैं. ‘माय ब्रदर निखिल’ के बाद ये उनकी सबसे बेहतरीन अदाकारी है. तनिष्ठा को हम पहले भी इस तरह के किरदारों में देखते आये हैं. उन्हें तो एक तरह से महारत हासिल है. धृतिमान चैटर्जी का अभिनय किसी सपने जैसा है, आपको बार बार खुद को एहसास दिलाना पड़ता है कि आप सिनेमा ही देख रहे हैं. और अंत में दोनों बाल कलाकार, अभिनय में जिनकी सहजता और सरलता लाजवाब है.

‘चौरंगा’ उन सभी लोगों के लिए है, जिन्हें अक्सर शिकायत रहती है कि अच्छी फिल्में अब कहाँ बनती हैं? ‘आँखों देखी’, ‘मसान’, ‘अमरीका’ और ‘चौरंगा’ जैसी ‘भारतीय’ फिल्मों के साथ नए भारत का सिनेमा अब अपने मानक खुद तय करने लगा है. थोड़ी पहल आपको भी करनी होगी. जरूर देखिये! [4/5]   

WAZIR: Stylish But Not Smart Enough! [2/5]

While talking about Bejoy Nambiar’s WAZIR, let’s not talk about anything related to the game of Chess. I fear, it might sound something smart, edgy and intelligent. And I don’t want to give any wrong impressions. It does try to look like one but it is not. So, we better stick to the movie and not the game. Based on an original (?) story by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, WAZIR couldn’t have been any better directorial vehicle for Nambiar. He’s known for those over-stylized crime-thrillers (SHAITAN, DAVID) that sure are racy-pacy but also predictable at the end and too manipulative in terms of throwing some loud-mouthed ‘smart’ twists and turns at you. WAZIR is exactly that but then, where is the midas touch of Vidhu Vinod Chopra-Abhijat Joshi collaboration on the writing front? Oh, I remember there is a shred of Bachchan Mania that brings him on board in a magical make-up phenomenon [like in EKLAVYA] and a trivial bit of Kashmir too. So much for Mr. Chopra!

WAZIR sets pieces to bring two of tormented souls struggling with identical grieves together over the chess-board. Danish Ali [Farhan Akhtar] from Anti-terrorist Squad is facing his wife’s [Aditi Rao Hydri] rejection and repulsion for losing her daughter in a terrorist encounter. Enters wheelchair-ridden Pundit Omkar Nath Dhar [Amitabh Bachchan] sharing the pain of similar loss of his young daughter in a mysterious accident. A union minister [Manav Kaul] is on his radar as a prime suspect of the murder. And then, begins the game of chess where metaphors like ‘pyada’ ‘wazir’ ‘badshah’ get much of exposures in dialogues but hardly sound considerable in actual actions. In one of the scenes, Pundit ji throws a momentous line at Danish about how it’s all about timing in the game of chess but there is no timing to play the chess; and Danish hits back with a plain, simple and straight-faced reaction as ‘Bakwaas’. I wanted these kind of verbal punches more in the film than relying on a heroic shootout, a couple of ‘race against time’ chase sequences and some soulful melodies only to give the director a framework to fit some of his trademark shots i.e. capturing rainfall in slow-motion.

WAZIR’s strength, without a doubt, finds its traces in its supremely competent cast. Though making Mr. Bachchan’s character wheelchair-ridden looks mere a gimmick, he never lets you feel the same about his performance. He’s easy, effortless and a pro but again, the writing holds him back restricting it to not make it to the list of his bests. Farhan tries hard and succeeds in a couple of emotionally-charged scenes. His quick ‘spur-of-the-moment’ real reactions do grab your attention for most of the scenes. Aditi Rao Hydari looks good on her part, and makes you wanting more of her, once again. Manav Kaul does it again with his skilled acting ability to perform the part with absolute honesty. His subtly to be in a scene and in a space made exclusively for him is never overpowering or too imposing to make anyone feel unsettled, and it’s rare. My only expectation from his intellect was to have a Kashmiri dialect as his character is sketched like one and he’s too not alien to the place in actual.

Overall, WAZIR is one of those thrillers that make all the deliberate attempts to be able to overwhelm you with its calculated twists in the plot without showing any respect to your intellect. I could see this coming from a first-time filmmaker who doesn’t live in hopes to have a second chance, thus applying every trick to impress the viewers but not from someone so established. Play smartly; don’t play smart! [2/5]