YOUNGISTAAN: …where promises are meant to be left unfulfilled! [2.5/5]

Indian politics has become an easy target lately, to extract unforced jokes acting as nice silvery wrapper to our hopeless angst being buried down under. So, the consequences of sharing same ‘already travelled before’ path do come handy with debutante filmmaker Syed Ahmad Afzal’s political-romantic drama YOUNGISTAAN. It shows deep promises of being a potential political drama at the very start but sooner or later ends up as a progressive love-story trapped in the devious, dirty and demeaning political scenario in country at present.

Carrying strong references from real life politicians, scams and political episodes in the past, YOUNGISTAAN is a tale of transition of a young game-developer properly planned & positioned in Japan with his live-in partner, from his carefree life well-spend in night clubs to the inopportune flat & insipid luxury of roaming around in the guarded corridors of India’s most influential PM house.

Abhimanyu [Jacky Bhagnani plays it cool] is forced to sworn in as the prime-minister of India after his father [Boman Irani in a brief appearance] loses his battle against cancer. With all blurred and vague visions, where Abhimanyu is struggling his hard to make him look more sensible than being just a ‘28 years old good boy’ in the eyes of his haters, his often nagging live-in partner Anwita [Neha Sharma] is only concerned about countless protocols that come between the love-birds’ quality time together. Thank god, Akbar [Late Farooq Sheikh saab] the guardian-cum-friend-cum-philosopher-cum-guide is there with him as his PA. And more thanks and respect to Farooq Saab for making each frame a heartfelt memorial with his presence felt like this uncomplicated idol of minimalism is still with us captured in those moving reels. Alvida, Farooq Saab!

YOUNGISTAAN scores well in its nature and intent. It talks progressively about live-in culture in Indian society, it talks about necessities to bring vital changes in Indian politics, it also promises potential prospects for youth to join politics but a scattered and unfocussed screenplay minimizes its magnitude to a not-so-sharp and less-smart drama that spends most of its quality time in managing between his personal problems [paparazzi and pre-marital pregnancy for instance] and the cumulative expectations of viewers and the plot of emerging as the unquestionably confident winner all the way. After all, who doesn’t want to see an underdog playing superhero?? Sadly, YOUNGISTAAN lacks that orgasmic moment and like very much our politics, remains a self-centered average Bollywood film where promises are meant to be left unfulfilled!

As stated in a comment on Abhimanyu’s live-in relationship by a common man in a TV interview, “28 saal ke ladke se aap aur kya expect karoge? (What else would you expect from a 28-year old?), I would say something on the same lines, “Ek Bollywood film se aap aur kya expect karoge?” So, don’t expect and go for an easy watch. Politics in India doesn’t give you much to cherish but entertains in bits and parts, so does this film! [2.5/5]

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]