तू है मेरा सन्डे: महानगरों का मजेदार 'मिडिल क्लास'! [4/5]

एक अरसा हुए हिंदी सिनेमा में भारत के 'मिडिल क्लास' को परदे पर छोटी-छोटी खुशियों के लिए कसमसाते देखे हुए; वो भी निचले, शोषित तबके पर बनती फिल्मों की तरह गहरी सहानुभूति और प्रबल संवेदनाओं की उदास चाह में नहीं, ना ही सितारों की जगमगाहट से चुंधियाई आँखों में महंगे-महंगे सपने बेचने की झूठी कोशिश में, बल्कि मनोरंजन के उस ईमानदार ख़याल के जरिये, जहां परदे की जिंदगी से असल जिंदगी का मिलान तकरीबन-तक़रीबन एक ही स्तर पर हो. हालाँकि बासु चटर्जी और हृषिकेश मुखर्जी का 'मिडिल क्लास' अब चाहते, न चाहते हुए भी 'अपर मिडिल क्लास' में बदल चुका है, पर दिक्कतें, झिझक, चाहतें और ज़ज्बात अब भी उसी दायरे, उसी जायके के हैं. 

मिलिंद धैमड़े की 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' मुंबई जैसे महानगर में भी इस आम से दिखने वाले तबके को न सिर्फ ढूंढ पाने का कौशल दिखाती है, बल्कि उसकी जिंदगी से उन चंद लम्हों को चुराने में भी कामयाब रहती है, जिन्हें परदे पर देखने और उनसे अनायास लगाव महसूस करने में कोई दिक्कत, कोई परेशानी महसूस नहीं होती. यहाँ एक 'सन्डे' ही अपना है. हफ्ते के बाकी दिन हर कोई कहीं न कहीं अपनी हसरतों, अपनी आजादियों, अपनी चाहतों का खुद अपने ही हाथों गला घोंट रहा होता है. एक 'सन्डे' ही है, जब दोस्तों के साथ दोपहर भर फुटबॉल खेलने और शाम को चखने के साथ बियर की बोतल गटकाने का सुख वापस उस 'हफ्ते के बाकी दिनों' वाली दुनिया में जाने की हिम्मत और उम्मीद दे पाती है. और अगर वही उनसे छिन जाये तो? 

मुंबई की लोकल ट्रेनों में अगर आप रेगुलर आते-जाते रहे हों, तो 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' के किरदारों से जान-पहचान बनाना बेहद आसान हो जाता है. दोस्तों की एक ऐसी टोली, जहां 50 साल के गुजराती अंकल भी 23 साल के हीरो को 'भाई' कह के बुलाते हैं, और वो उनकी बीवी को 'भाभी'. 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' ऐसे ही पांच दोस्तों की जिंदगियों में पूरी बराबरी से और बारी-बारी से झांकती है. फिल्म अपने पहले ही दृश्य में आपको अपने होने के काफी कुछ मायने समझा जाती है. कूड़े और कबाड़ में अपने लिए कुछ मतलब का ढूंढते-तलाशते एक बूढ़े भिखारी पर एक आवारा कुत्ता भौंके जा रहा है, फुटओवर ब्रिज पर खड़े पाँचों दोस्त इसे अपनी-अपनी जिंदगियों से जोड़ कर देखने लगते हैं, और खुद पर हँसते भी हैं. कोई अपने खडूस, घटिया बॉस से तंगहाल है, तो किसी को घर-परिवार की झंझटों से 'कंटाल' आता है. सबके लिए एक 'सन्डे और फुटबॉल' का मेल ही है, जो उन्हें अपने होने का, जिंदगी जीने का सही एहसास दिलाता है. 

एक ईमानदार और मनोरंजक फिल्म के तौर पर, 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' आपको महानगरों की भागती-दौड़ती भीड़ में रिश्तों की घटती गर्माहट जैसे छू जाने वाले मुद्दों पर बहुत ख़ूबसूरती और मासूमियत से पेश आती है. शहाना गोस्वामी को छोड़ दें, तो फिल्म बड़े नामचीन सितारों से बचने की कामयाब कोशिश के चलते, पहले तो परदे पर और बाद में दर्शकों के दिल-ओ-दिमाग़ में किरदारों को ज्यादा देर तक जिंदा रख पाती है. हालाँकि इन किरदारों और उनके आसपास के माहौल में आपको 'दिल चाहता है', 'रॉक ऑन' जैसी कुछ फिल्मों की जानी-पहचानी झलक जरूर दिख जाती है, पर जिस तरह की समझदारी से फिल्म अपने मुकाम तक पहुँचती है, आप इसे एक अलग फिल्म के नजरिये से ही पसंद करने लगते हैं. 

मजेदार किरदारों और ढेर सारे अच्छे दृश्यों के साथ, 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' देखते वक़्त आपके चेहरे पर एक हलकी मुस्कान हमेशा तैरती रहती है. अल्जाइमर से जूझते किरदार की भूमिका में शिव सुब्रह्मनियम का अभिनय बेहतरीन है. बरुण सोबती टीवी का जाना-माना नाम है. फिल्म के दृश्य में शहाना की किरदार उनसे कहती है, 'आप पर मेलोड्रामा सूट नहीं करता'; बरुण सिनेमाई परदे पर ज्यादा निखर कर आते है, कुछ ऐसे कि जैसे बने ही हों बड़े परदे के लिए. उम्मीद करूंगा कि हिंदी सिनेमा उन्हें वापस टीवी के डब्बे में यूँ ही खो जाने नहीं देगा. शहाना का परदे से सालों गायब रहना खलता है और उनका परदे पर दिख जाना भर ही अदाकारी में उनके मज़बूत दखल की याद ताज़ा कर जाता है. मानवी गागरू और रसिका दुग्गल अपने अपने किरदारों में जरूरत के सारे रंग बराबर नाप-जोख कर डालती हैं, और बेशक फिल्म के सबसे खुशनुमा चेहरों में शामिल हैं.

आखिर में; 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' हिंदी सिनेमा को एक नया विस्तार देने में बड़ी फिल्म साबित होने का पूरा माद्दा रखती है. 'पैरेलल सिनेमा मूवमेंट' और 'मेनस्ट्रीम मसाला' फिल्मों के बीच, याद कीजिये, कभी साफ़-सुथरी, सरल-सहज, सुगढ़ फिल्मों का एक और दौर दिलों में अपनी जगह बनाया करता था, टीवी पर आते हुए जो आज भी  सालों-साल आपके मनोरंजन की रंगत फीकी नहीं पड़ने देता; 'तू है मेरा सन्डे' उन्हीं तमाम अपनी सी लगने वाली फिल्मों में से एक है. [4/5] 

KI & KA: KI-ling of a promising KA-ncept! [2/5]

Gender equality is the easiest thing to talk about these days, if you really want to make a deliberate statement about how ‘cool’ you are. Can you guess what is more effortless than that? Women liberation, especially if you’re a posing intellectual and a gentleman. I presume you can differentiate the two from the word go; because I don’t think the advertising guru-turned-filmmaker R Balki is very comfortable with that. His role-reversal drama KI & KA is exactly like its title; sounds unique and interesting but is confusing, forced and dramatic most of the time. Balki tries to address the relevance of the issue in his most honest & thoughtful manner but fails to make it relatable and logical. I fear the search for ‘coolness’ in everything he shows gets rammed over by his over-confident storytelling.

KIA [Kareena Kapoor] is one of those rare girls who are a complete misfit in any grand and loud Indian wedding party. Such type exists? Anyway, she sees marriages as a big and bold full-stop to the girl’s individuality, personally and professionally. Next, she meets a crying handsome co-passenger KABIR [Arjun Kapoor] in a flight. Cool? Yeah; keep counting. KABIR wants to be a house-husband. Aspirations to earn big positions in any multi-national company or to take shit-load of salary home every month don’t excite him really. He fancies being an artist who makes ‘Homes’ rather than houses like his mother was. It’s a perfect setup. The girl is focused to take control of her promising professional career in the out world and the boy has no shilly-shallying attitude in running the house like a pro. Such a smooth trip until a few fuzzy faceoff incidents takes place in the relationship involving one’s unexpected expansion from being a house-husband to a TEDX celebrity-talker and the other’s steaming ego-issues.

Balki treats his concept of role-reversal in marriage as if it is something very alien and novel idea to the society. On the contrary, it is not. But Balki makes it look so dramatic, droll and desired that it starts irritating you after a while. Soon, his role-reversal theory starts bothering you as a futile role-play. The man becomes a woman and the woman acts like a man. Meanwhile, Balki decides to keep the spotlight on all the ‘cool’ gimmicks rather than exploring the emotional storm within. You see Arjun Kapoor charming married ladies in his neighborhood while giving them a fitness session or inviting them for a kitty-party. His love for riding a Segway or for that matter, making his home a train-toy museum too is more of a ‘cool’ addition to the style than to the substance. In fact, the initiative to put female artists’ name ahead of their male co-artistes in the opening titles loses its steam when it comes to other technical credits. Why is a female assistant director not given the same respect? Because you don’t give a damn!

KI & KA also doesn’t oblige you much if you’re seeking something outstanding in the performances. Kareena Kapoor Khan hams like there is no tomorrow. All she does in the name of acting is to intimidate you with her sparkly wide-eyed expressions and all the increasing now-reducing then redness on her face. Arjun Kapoor, on the other hand, does give you some freshness even if it is exaggerated and overacted. Rajit Kapoor and Swaroop Sampat are extremely delightful faces you would always love to see on screen. Though the writing again makes them stereotyped parents who either would end up being very friendly to their kids or totally cold towards them! Amitabh Bachchan & Jaya Bachchan play themselves in the most celebrated scene as a cameo. The scene beautifully tickles the idea they tackled together on screen in Hrishikesh Mukherji’s ABHIMAAN. It is also supposedly a tour to their drawing room.

Coming from the background of advertising world, Balki makes sure everything looks perfectly placed, lit and shot but he often misses the relativity of the context and in the content. In one scene, Kareena being a marketing professional throws an idea to sell an edible oil product at 50% off if the husbands would make the buying. Her case is that no Indian husband buys grocery and this will improve the sales. In other, we are informed that the couple pays 10,000/- salary to their part-time maid in Delhi. What a promising job opportunity hidden there! Mr. Balki sure belongs to the same rarest wing Kareena targets in the film. Better watch the new ARIEL- share the load commercial, if you want something progressive and feminist in true respect! [2/5]

PIKU: A ‘Motion’ picture about ‘Emotions’! [4/5]

On a rainy Sunday, go on a long drive with lawns of lushing greenery on either side of the road and try to stick your face out of the window of the speeding car. Shoojit Sircar’s PIKU feels exactly like that moist breeze of fresh air on your face. But that would be one of the most positively, imaginatively and pleasingly fabricated statements to describe the film. Let’s keep it simple and honest! PIKU is an awesome feeling you earn after ‘satisfactorily’ disposing the waste from your digestive tract in the morning, to make sure the day ahead sees no ‘constipated’ look, mood or temper. PIKU works like an efficient and the best in business ‘Kayam Churna’ to make Bollywood flushing out all the frustration with freely-flowing entertainment all the way.

Mr. Banerjee [Big B himeslf] is nothing but a chaos in himself. More than being an ageing single father, he’s irritating father to Piku [Deepika Padukone]- an unmarried in her 30’s trying her hardest to take care the challenges Mr. Banerjee creates every now and then. Here’s a father who doesn’t want his daughter to get married as marriages in India don’t do any good to women. He also can reveal her daughter’s sexual independency to the man he’s just met surely to ensure no possibilities of wedding bells ahead. Progressively selfish you can say! These all look petty issues over the ever not- happening potty issue of Mr. Banerjee! And now, it’s not Piku alone in all this ‘shit’ discussions happening everywhere from dining table to car-ride and where not. Rana Chaudhary [Irrfan] accidently joins them on a road-trip as the responsible owner of the taxi-service, now acting as the committed driver.

Film marks the brilliance in writing [Credit goes to Juhi Chaturvedi] where humor comes generously from a place everyone feels comfortable being silent. The hot seat in the lavatory! The toilet-humor has never smelled so fresh. Picture this when all three main leads start discussing the texture, color and graphical representation of the waste-disposal act, that too on the breakfast table! But PIKU is not only about ‘motion’ but ‘emotion’. The daughter is frustrated with her unsympathetic father but couldn’t hold herself any longer from dancing when finds the old man enjoying his day after much chaos. Dialogues wisely shift its tone from argumentative Bengali to expressive Hindi and conversational English.      

Amitabh Bachchan’s outspoken, loud and blunt Bengali father Bhaskar Banerjee in PIKU is completely opposite to the sophisticated, refined and shy Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee in Hrishikesh Da’s ANAND. The resembling identify can be coincidental or a deliberate choice to make some connect between both the filmmakers’ shared style. The actor blesses the character so much in details you never doubt on the believability factor. Especially in her de-glam look, Deepika Padukone shines and surprises you to the last. The anger, annoyance and concern keep on flashing on her face with supreme ease and sheer confidence. Irrfan charms, and better than any romantic screen-Gods in Bollywood! He makes you believe in the audacity of an actor who slips into any given character’s skin smoothly and leaves you speechless. Yesteryear actress Mausumi Chatterjee does a pleasant comeback.

At the end, Shoojit Sircar’s PIKU is a beautiful film that celebrates dysfunctional Indian families in the most entertaining manner without losing the undercurrent emotions. We keep shouting on our ageing parents for being illogical and over-sensitive; PIKU gives us a priceless chance to sit and have plentiful of good laughs with them! Book your tickets…and for your whole family! It demands, it deserves! [4/5] 

HAWAIZAADA: Get some air! [1.5/5]

As defined on the ‘know-it-all’ Wikipedia online page; coffee table books are an oversized art & literature piece, positioned best in the shelf to inspire conversation. Subject matter is predominantly non-fiction and pictorial. Nothing changes if you dare to compare the same with debutante writer-director Vibhu Puri’s highly ambitious HAWAIZAADA. Both can make you mesmerized with their picture-perfect, magnanimously shot visuals in its in-detailed presentation but that’s it. There is hardly any room for content there. So, keep flipping the pages till you find the levels of your enthusiasm fading down to minimum. And then, leave it for another. These days, they have plenty in stores for you.

Despite having great possibility of being a well-intentioned period drama-cum-thrilling biopic, HAWAIZAADA offers nothing but plain air sure more than what you buy in your favorite wafer pack at the shop around the corner. Before Wright Brothers could go beyond imagination and invent an airplane, there was an enthusiastic Indian named Shivkar Bapuji Talpade who deserved all the respects for being the real pioneer. A plot fascinating enough for a motion picture, no second thoughts on that! But then you have to see what Vibhu does with that further.

Take inspirations from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s extravagant Victorian era-inspired hugely unbelievable sets; make your leading character as dynamic, animated and charming as if he’s not from a historic background but out of a fairytale and then put plenty of gloss in everything that comes in your way. It has been a confirmed Midas touch for Bhansali’s fictional outings. Vibhu, one of his worthy successors tries the same with a biopic and fails miserably. You are left in constant doubts as to appreciate the efforts of such gigantic talents of the industry or to mourn the opportunity getting wasted on such large scale.

Rajesh Khanna says in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ANAND, “Yeh duniya ek ranmanch hai, jahaanpanaah…aur hum sab iski kathputliyaan” (The world is a big stage, my lord…and we all are nothing but the puppets). I have never seen a biopic so theatrical that you just want to remove the disclaimer and enjoy it as a fictional drama. This Bombay of 1895 never looked so decked up. Shastry [Played by Mithun Chakraborty] as a cranky scientist lives in a dumped ship on the shore and it is barely any lesser than a well-established museum.

On the performances, Ayushmann Khurrana charms with his trademark flirtatious looks and killing smile. I hoped to see the compliments like ‘Awww, how cute he is!’ getting up the next level with ‘Wow, how good he acts!’ but looks like I have to wait a little more. Pallavi Sharda of BESHARAM fame is better than her last. Mithun repeats himself but doesn’t fail at all. For the rests, it’s the child actor Naman Jain and Jameel Khan who show some kind of believability to their characters.

Having said that, HAWAIZAADA does have some of the most impressive efforts on the set-designing & writing front [dialogues & lyrics never fall short of expectations] but the completely off-track romance, bumpy screenplay, lack of much-needed realistic approach and the overtly dramatic Broadway like production-style make it a droning, dull and monotonous watch. [1.5/5]             

THE SHAUKEENS: A bad day for comedy! [1.5/5]

Indian men are trained to read between the lines in a way best suited for their ambitions, especially if it has anything to do with women & sex. If a girl throws a generous smile at you, there’s a definite ‘hidden chance’ there to try your dirty luck.

So, when a free-spirited girl living at her own says she will do anything to meet her Bollywood-crush Akshay Kumar, it is more than enough ‘signal’ for 3 true Indian-at-heart, lecherously sleazy old men to run a cut-throat competition between them. Obviously, the girl was nowhere near the ‘understood’ connotation of her enthusiastic announcement and one of the contestants could only get a peck on his bald head and the worth-dying for title of ‘Rockstor’ in return. In the very next scene, he’s seen sharing the all made-up juicy stories of his false-success in the act and getting paid with what she has promised. Finding it funny? Shameful, I would say!

TERE BIN LADEN fame Abhishek Sharma returns with remaking Basu Chatterji’s cutely titillating comedy SHAUKEEN. The new version is called THE SHAUKEENS and the Utpal Dutt-Ashok Kumar-A K Hangal trio is replaced with Anupam Kher-Annu Kapoor & Piyush Mishra. Undeniably, the cuteness is killed by the crudeness and the cheap sex-humor.

Story revolves around three aging licentious, lusty and sex-starving men from Delhi hitting girls of all ages around them. Lali [Anupam Kher] has a wife at home, clearly disinterested in sex and busy ensuring her place in heaven with heavy religious duties. Pinky [Piyush Mishra] is a masala-king having no spices in his life as his wife had already passed away. KD [Annu Kapoor] is a wild-untamable bachelor by choice. Together they plan a trip to Mauritius meant to calm their guilty pleasures and to their best; it is a gipsy-sexy-carefree girl Ahana [Lisa Haydon] who welcomes them as the caretaker of their rented accommodation.

Keeping these 3 extensively indecent, strong-minded & unshakable filthy men’s intentions in mind, I felt good for other girls on the beaches of Mauritius as they looked only focused to one. Film constantly carries scenes of forcefully hugging & caressing the girl and even literally begging her to wear bikni in one particular scene. Following the current statistics of rise in eve-teasing & sexual harassment of women in India, these men tick all the boxes to be considered for serious sentence but here, they are not only calculated funny but also deliberately get blessed with stupid justification of their insufferable behavior- the loneliness and a good harmless heart within. How ridiculous!

Thank God, the producer is here to save some of his film. Akshay Kumar plays himself and intrepidly jokes on himself ranging from doing same things in every film of his, being compared with wooden furniture in terms of his acting ability [Heartless Critics, I say] and his ‘not really’ but witty wish to win national awards someday. His tracks in the film are similarly intertwined like any parallel comedy tracks in South Indian Masala entertainers. On the performances, Annu Kapoor plays it cool and the most confident about his part. Piyush Mishra shows faith on his theatrics more. Anupam Kher is hammy for the most.

At the end, THE SHAUKEENS dies a regrettable death despite having promising names like Tigmanshu Dhulia as the writer and Abhishek Sharma as the director. Things do get worse on a bad day. It is one such for many, including the viewers and the reviewers. Avoid it! [1.5/5] 

KHOOBSURAT: Maddening Beauty!! The overacting lead spoils the fun! [2/5]

Opposites attract. Just like in most of the romantic fairytales; they do meet, greet & kiss each other in Shashanka Ghosh’s candy floss love-story KHOOBSURAT too, but it’s more like ‘Irresistible meets irritating’ and ‘alluring meets annoying’. The later being Sonam Kapoor, of course! First reaction, why should a chick-flick need to be a dumb comedy of convenience? Why should the girl being portrayed as the most carefree, lively and good-natured human on earth has to be loud, noisy, illogical and a stack of overacting on the performer’s side? No wonder, there are times you want to call it off but then, multiplexes aren’t your personal home theatre system that comes with a full functional remote.

Official remake of Hrishikesh Mukherji’s classic family drama of same name, KHOOBSURAT sticks to the basic premise from the old reference. A young, fashionable and spontaneous physiotherapist [Sonam playing mostly herself] is sent to a royal palace to take care of ‘His Highness’ on wheel chair. This perfectly punctual & controlled museum of people with religiously followed discipline in veins is lead by a sophisticated yet dominating ‘Her Highness’, played by the very reliable Ratna Pathak Shah. No prizes for guessing that there is a prince charming [Pakistani poster boy Fawad Khan in a well-suited role] ready to be the last & final nail in the coffin before the house of infinite rules gets down by our sweet, silly and stylish physiotherapist.

Shashanka Ghosh creates a world of picture perfect frames with royal real locations, best of props, designer dresses, all flashy colors, vibrant and charmingly polished characters and also succeeds in giving us some extremely beautiful scenes like prince Vikram Singh Rathore trying to talk casual things with his father & the ‘His Highness’. You could actually feel the uncomfortable zone they are in. In other merits, the very experimental music by Sneha Khanwalkar of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ fame is a refreshing and notable change in Bollywood soundtracks.  

Film if falters, it is all because of piercing loudness in characters supposedly being the biggest admirers of life. So despite being a known physiotherapist to a T-20 Cricket Team, this ‘Barbie doll’ in hot pants doesn’t necessarily know the dining table etiquettes and also doesn’t bother to hesitate while asking a young girl of 17 about her boyfriend, that too in front of her mother and just a minute later their first meeting. She is also seen invading premise of historic importance to pose for her Facebook profile picture. You can giggle or laugh out loud considering this funny but I would settle this as another dose of Sajid Khan Humor.

On the performances, Sonam plays it cool but thanks to the writing, she ends up being the most annoying and overacted piece of this beautifully painted picture-frame. Fawad shows that his popularity comes not merely with the looks but the earnestness in acting skills. I wish his female fans could switch from ‘He’s so hot’ to ‘He’s damn good’. He deserves that. Theatre veteran Aamir Raza Hussain as ‘His Highness’ is the surprise package! Ratna Pathak Shah’s is an extended ‘Sarabhai’ act beautifully done. Kirron Kher as the loudmouthed Punjabi Mother to Sonam’s character is too cliché to enjoy. I could only say, “Manju, [Sonam calls her by her name in the film] ab bass kar!”

At the end, KHOOBSURAT is ‘khoobsurat’ in the looks, amusingly witty in parts and depressingly maddening for the most. Revisiting episodes of ‘Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai’ on YouTube is way better option if you’re in search of good laugh. Watch it only if you can’t say ‘NO’ to your girlfriend! Doesn’t that include all of men on earth? Poor us!! [2/5]