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]              

DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY: Splendid, spectacular & mesmeric! [4/5]

A man goes missing. The detective offering help doesn’t even blink or think before giving out his verdict that it is a possible case of murder. His one of many simplistic theories draws even the son in suspicion. As a viewer, you don’t need much time to realize that he is not your usual ‘unrealistically intellectual’ beast like Sherlock Holmes and is not at all a detective but a detective in making. Dibakar Banerjee’s splendid-spectacular & mesmeric murder-mystery thriller DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY! may not be able to flabbergast you with terrific twists and reckless revelations but then, it also never ceases to engage with enticing visuals, imaginatively authentic art-design to recreate the nostalgic period, acquisitive music score, brilliantly written characters and some really well-directed sequences for a cinematic treat.

It is Calcutta of 1940s. Japanese are constantly trying to snatch the control over the city from the British. Chinese drug mafia wants to make it a world drug capitol. The young ones are fighting for freedom. The ‘newborn in business’ Byomkesh Bakshy [Sushant Singh Rajput] is trying to prove his theory of missing man’s murder for his forced client Ajit [Anand Tiwari]. He is the same who joins Bakshy later as his sidekick or subordinate. The connecting threads lead him to a powerful politician, his sultry & seductive mistress [Swastika Mukherjee], an intimidating dentist-cum-Japanese tutor and a kind and obliging [Neeraj Kabi of ‘SHIP OF THESEUS’]. For the most parts, Bakshy is only seen finding links between two loose ends. For times, when we all are modified to watch razor-sharp detectives seeing it from miles and acting against it in an electric-speed; there is hardly anything in the plot you would describe as ‘extremely surprising’ but the ambiguity in the air never goes missing.

DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY! is stylishly shot gorgeous looking film where everything you see is fabricated, but how aesthetically and inventively! This is the world nowhere close to what we have seen in Doordarshan’s Byomkesh Bakshy series. The case-to-be solved here also doesn’t have limitations of being just another family affair. Dibakar Banerjee takes it on a bigger canvas to make Bakshy’s first case the biggest of what we have seen before. His Calcutta is nothing but a painting with brilliant art-design powered with nostalgic posters on wall, ‘approaching vintage status’ ambassador cars, man-pulling rickshaws on streets and Bata leather shoes for instance. In one momentous shot, we see camera following Bakshy-Bakshy bumping into a stranger-camera following stranger-stranger bumping into the man following Bakshy and then again camera getting back on track to follow the man; all this exercise through the windows of an ambassador car. See it, and you won’t miss it.

With subtle and deadpan humor, film is a delightful watch. When at a drug-making company’s office, Bakshy jokes about him providing blood-sample that it is a must for every candidate before the job-interview, we see the whole lot of young candidates disappearing like a Jeannie. In another just after the blood-bathed climax, Ajit instructs his home-servant to make some tea as the police can visit the crime-scene anytime soon. Though Sushant looks very much in skin of the character, it’s the supporting cast that excels in the performance-sheet. Anand Tiwari as Ajit is a spot-on. Neeraj Kabi makes his act a balanced yet exceedingly outshining one. One more significant contribution one can’t ignore is the outstanding music score by Sneha Khanwalkar. My first move after the movie got over was to put the album on my playlist.

At the end, Dibakar’s DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY! is like a strong and effective opium intake once taken you will sure get addicted to it, sooner or later. Expect the unexpected while watching it but don’t forget, even Bakshy is a man with many drawbacks. Don’t expect him to beat goons single-handedly. Watch it for being one of the most magnificent looking films of simple nature and nostalgic feel. [4/5]           

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]