समीर: उम्मीदों से खेलती एक नासमझ फिल्म! [2/5]

'कर्मा इज़ अ बिच'. याद है, मोहम्मद जीशान अय्यूब जाने कितनी बड़ी-बड़ी फिल्मों में छोटे-छोटे किरदार निभाने के बावजूद कैसे तारीफों का सारा टोकरा खुद भर ले जाते रहे हैं? उन्हें बड़े स्टार्स की हाय आखिर लग ही गयी. दक्षिण छारा की 'समीर' में मुख्य भूमिका निभाते हुए भी जीशान फिल्म में बहुत असहज और असहाय नज़र आते हैं, और ठीक उनकी पिछली फिल्मों की तरह ही, दर्शकों को इस फिल्म में भी सहायक और छोटे (इस मामले में उम्र में भी) कलाकार ही ज्यादा धीर-गंभीर और ईमानदार लगते हैं. हालाँकि यह 'कर्मा इज़ अ बिच' वाला बचकाना नजरिया मैंने सिर्फ मज़े और मज़ाक के लिए यहाँ इस्तेमाल किया है, पर यकीन जानिये फिल्म भी एक मंझे हुए कलाकार के तौर पर जीशान की ज़हानत और मेहनत का ऐसा ही मज़ाक बनाती है. एक ऐसी ज़रूरी फिल्म, जो मुद्दों पर बात करने की हिम्मत तो रखती है, जो सोते हुओं को जगाने और चौंकाने का दम भी दिखाती है, पर अक्सर किरदारों और कहानी की ईमानदारी के साथ खिलवाड़ कर बैठती है. 

एटीएस के हाथों एक बेगुनाह लगा है, उसी को मोहरा बनाकर एटीएस के लोग एक खतरनाक आतंकवादी तक पहुंचना चाहते हैं. चीफ बेगुनाह को धमका रहा है, 'मिशन पूरा करने में हम साम, दाम, दंड सब इस्तेमाल करेंगे', पिटता हुआ बेगुनाह जैसे भाषा-विज्ञान में पीएचडी करके लौटा हो, छिटक पड़ता है, "...और भेद?". स्क्रिप्ट में ऐसे सस्ते मज़ाकिया पंच ख़ास मौकों पर ही प्रयोग में लाये जाते हैं. एक तो जब पूरी की पूरी फिल्म या किरदार भी इतना ही ठेठ हो, या फिर जब फिल्म रोमांच और रहस्यों में उलझी-उलझी हो, और आप इन मज़ाकिया संवादों के सहारे दर्शकों को आगे आने वाले झटकों से पूरी तरह हैरान-परेशान होते देखना चाहते हों. फिल्म बेशक दूसरे तरीके के मनोरंजन की खोज में है. 

बंगलौर और हैदराबाद में बम धमाकों के बाद, यासीन अब अहमदाबाद में सीरियल ब्लास्ट करने वाला है. एटीएस चीफ देसाई (सुब्रत दत्ता) यासीन के साथ पढ़ने वाले स्टूडेंट समीर (जीशान) का इस्तेमाल कर, उसके ज़रिये यासीन तक पहुँचने की पूरी कोशिश में है. इस काम में रिपोर्टर आलिया (अंजलि पाटिल) भी देसाई के साथ है. अब भोले-भाले समीर को देसाई के हाथों की कठपुतली बना कर उस जंगल में छोड़ दिया गया है, जहां उसके सर पर तलवार चौबीसों घंटे लटकी है और कुछ भी एकदम से निश्चित नहीं है. झूठ का पहाड़ बढ़ता जा रहा है, और लोगों की जान का ख़तरा भी.

दक्षिण छारा अपनी फिल्म 'समीर' के जरिये दर्शकों को आतंकवाद के उस चेहरे से रूबरू कराने की कोशिश करते हैं, जो सिस्टम और राजनीति का घोर प्रपंच है, कुछ और नहीं. आम मासूम लोग बार-बार उन्हीं प्रपंचों का शिकार बनते रहते हैं और उन्हें इसका कोई अंदाजा भी नहीं होता. जहां तक फिल्म के कथानक और उसके ट्रीटमेंट की बात है, बनावट में 'समीर' काफी हद तक राजकुमार गुप्ता की बेहतरीन फिल्म 'आमिर' जैसी लगती है. दोनों में ही थ्रिलर का पुट बहुत ख़ूबसूरती से पिरोया गया है, मगर 'आमिर' में जहां आप मुख्य किरदार के लिए अपने माथे पर शिकन और पसीने की बूँदें महसूस करते हैं, 'समीर' यह अनुभव देने में नाकाम रहती है. जीशान का किरदार मनोरंजक ज्यादा लगता है, हालातों का शिकार कम. 

फिल्म के सबसे मज़बूत पक्ष में उभर कर आते हैं कुछ छोटे किरदार, जैसे एक तुतलाता-हकलाता बच्चा राकेट (मास्टर शुभम बजरंगी) जो गांधीजी को 'दादाजी' कह कर बुलाता है और मोहल्ले में नुक्कड़ नाटक चलाने वाले मंटो (आलोक गागडेकर) के साथ मिलकर बड़ी-बड़ी बातें बेहद मासूमियत से बयाँ कर गुजरता है. देसाई के किरदार में सुब्रत दत्ता अच्छे लगते हैं, पर उनकी अदाकारी में एकरसता भी बड़ी जल्दी आ जाती है. बोल-चाल में उनका बंगाली लहजा भी कई मौकों पर परेशान करता है. अंजली पाटिल को हम बेहतर भूमिकाओं में देख चुके हैं, इस किरदार के साथ उनकी अदाकारी में किसी तरह का कोई इजाफा नज़र नहीं आता. 

आखिर में; 'समीर' एक अलग, रोचक और रोमांचक फिल्म होने की उम्मीदें तो बहुत जगाती है, पर अपने बचकाने रवैये से उन्हें बहुत जल्द नाउम्मीदी में बदल कर रख देती है. काश, थोड़ी सी संजीदगी और समझदारी 'शाहिद' और 'आमिर' से उधार में ही सही नसीब हो गयी होती!! [2/5]                               

INTERSTELLAR: Out of this World! Nolan does it again!! [4.5/5]

The world is changing. And it’s changing for the worst. Crops are dying. Food-crisis is taking over the interests in technology. “People don’t really want engineers but farmers” as one powerfully states. Throwing away hefty share of funds in scientific research & space missions are no more concern of priority. So, NASA is forced to go underground.  Human race has the fear to lose its existence, sooner than we believe. One of most intelligent minds at the premise [the veteran Michael Caine] opens up, “We are not meant to save the world. We are meant to leave it”.

Decoding Christopher Nolan’s mesmeric & equally mystifying world of gigantic prospects irrespective of time & place [mostly space in this case] is the trickiest job for any common movie-watcher like me. So coming up with a proclamation like ‘I am fully done with it”, is nothing but a steep example of audaciousness! I wouldn’t dare! An Ex-NASA pilot Cooper [Played by Matthew McConaughey] is now a farmer with two of his kids & an old father to deal with. Some strange events and his exploratory eyes to see things in their scientific orientation lands him to a space-mission responsibly designed to locate possible rescue-stations in outer world to reinstate mankind in space-colonies. And then starts the tremendously amazing expedition filled with moments of fear, panicky situations, killing betrayals and affecting insights about life.

INTERSTELLAR is a 2hour 50min long canvas of a highly competent & thoroughly manipulative mind called Nolan. He cleverly makes you resting with the most vividly done human emotions in a very enigmatic way and then knocks you off with the layered plots revealing in the most outrageous manner. No wonder if in the first half, you only wait for the ‘Nolan-effect’ [earned authoritatively after the extravagant thriller ‘INCEPTION’] to come and squash & squeeze you from left, right and center, the second half does the needful in more ways than you would imagine. With an astonishing camerawork and persuasive background score by Hans Zimmer, INTERSTELLAR takes you through galaxies, planets with extreme climates, grasping black holes and radiant light patterns falling over various space-objects like some ravishing fireworks in the sky.

INTERSTELLAR fills you with a magnanimous feeling of being in a celestial world that is enticing to the core, unbelievably real and assertively sharp. Travelling through different time-zones and the race against time to save humanity creates an effervescent, tensed yet disturbingly calm mood to be felt much longer. McConaughey’s rigidly in skin characterization gives film a strong reason to watch. Watch him going through the video messages from his family on earth over the period of 23 long years or him leading the space-expedition with total conviction, he dons the hat of a skilled performer in both. Anne Hathaway as Cooper’s fellow explorer doesn’t impress much though it is not a wasted performance. Jessica Chastain in the role of Cooper’s daughter shines. Matt Damon’s is a shocking surprise best left undisclosed much.

With a much longer duration, your past gratifying tryst with Alfonso Cuaron’s masterstroke GRAVITY and the astronomical usage of science terminology, film might incite killing impatience in you but just have faith in Chris Nolan and his successive idea to shock, thrill & stun you, despite all odds! INTERSTELLAR is hugely rewarding, considerably relevant, fearlessly inventive, sensitively thrilling and the best you can do with the storytelling and technology amalgamation! Book your Tickets…now! [4.5/5]      

HOLIDAY: Think twice! Entertainment is off duty! [2/5]

It is quite hard to decide what is more exasperating in A R Murugadoss’ HOLIDAY- A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, the distasteful-impolite & offensive exposé of modern Indian women or the overenthusiastically proud praise of Indian Army? The leading lady here [Ms ‘100 Cr’ Sinha] is apparently a new-age rebellious daughter who could give serious threat to the mother and slap hard to her father if asked to do something not of her interest. Meanwhile, she’s also dumb as a doll to decide getting married instantly whoever comes in way as guys with sharp brain & good looks are vanishing fast from earth. Right!

And now the driving force; if not busy in trying to fulfill his lady’s wish to perform a kiss [???] or shaking his legs too often, the soldier never off duty [the ageing Akshay Kumar] constantly gets into a preachy mode to justify and establish how and why the Indian Army men are better & more dependable for country’s security than police and civilians. Yeah! Right!!

HOLIDAY- a remake of Murugdoss’s Tamil superhit THUPPAKKI is not a bad film at all as it has all the possible & potential ‘masalas’ for a ‘dhansu’ action entertainer. A hero who’s always a step ahead of villain’s deadly plans of mass-destruction, a heroine who’s ever ready to step in to the dancing shoes, non-stop action, solid dialoguebaazi but what it lacks is the sense of being and belonging. Though I know this is not a kind one should look out for much reasoning but the common sense not to be found even in traces is rather hurtful.

Film sustains and succeeds in introducing the concept of ‘sleeper-cells’ in India but sadly it is presented more of as a plain verbal threat and no inside out hard-hitting visuals to support the premise. I wish it could have explored the functioning of this dreadful modus oparandi of terrorism rather than just focusing on one man behind all this especially when you aren’t equipped with an impressive antagonist. Though he has the built and basics of a good baddie, Freddy Daruwala as the brainy guy behind terrific act of terrorism looks more like a sidekick to Vidyut Jamwal who had played the same role in the original. Govinda makes a short & sweet special appearance but looks completely off sync. He sure deserves better roles to justify his age and caliber. Sumeet Raghvan is some relief.

On the whole; with a nearly 3 hours of duration, this ‘trying to be smarter than the smartest’ thriller-cum-entertainer is like a dull, boring and extended holiday trip where you don’t really have much to explore and sight-see but the luxury and comfort of a premium hotel. Just fall in the bed, sleep, eat, sleep again and come back with a promise never to be back in the same territory again. Hope Akshay could hear this out! [2/5]

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS: A nail-biting thriller with lead’s towering performance as cherry on the top! [4/5]

Cinema creates drama. Drama that drives you to cry when a couple in love gets separated, to laugh at someone’s idiotic misery, to amaze with the power of imagination, to get transported in to a world full of dreams or to be in situation that is just a recreation of a real life event but carries same share of intensity and anxiety characters might have experienced it in real.

Based on a true story, CAPTAIN PHILLIPS by notable filmmaker Paul Greengrass [the man behind ‘Bourne’ movies] throws you in a ‘pressure cooker’ situation where every passing minute escalates the tension in same manner the crew of American Cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama could feel, when Somali pirates invade to hijack.

With an implicit fear of the same, the cool-calm-composed but aging Captain Rich Phillips [played by the enormously gifted Tom Hanks] starts his sailing but soon in the middle of a mock-drill session, smells the alarming possibility of getting hijacked by pirates. Sadly, he fails to stop them from getting on board but never lets go the string of hope and courage for even an iota of a second, to come out of this misery of his lifetime.

10-12 minutes in the film and you know what is going to happen next but the way Greengrass unfolds the story with an intimidating sense of ‘what is coming after’ and the smartly edited intercuts between the ship and the pirate-group, you would always find yourself on edge of the seat with nails between your teeth. The camerawork effectively roams around for shaky close-up shots to give the narration an anxious-panicky-edgy feel and does a brilliant job while capturing the hijacking event. Though in the second part, film falls into being restricted & repetitive with the location of the story getting narrowed to one small life-boat, the anxiety-angst & intensity never go for the toss.

As other but very prominent strength of the film, the casting and the performances excite you the most. Barkhad Abdi as the gruesome-ghastly leader of the pirate-group plays mostly an underdog in the first part. With his regulated look, you actually never recall his first appearance in the film but later when he arises as the spearhead of the group, he shocks you with his performance. So does Mr. Tom Hanks, his calculated act as a captain determined to save and safe his crew is remarkable. Watch him in the last act where he is rescued by the armed forces and is now dealing with the trauma he’s been in. A performance that deserves appreciation!

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS is easily the year’s one of the best thrillers coming from Hollywood. It’s a well-directed, intensely acted, smartly written inspiring tale of survival that keep you engaged and involved for the most part. A must-watch! [4/5]

PRISONERS: What ‘THE CONJURING’ did to horror, ‘PRISONERS’ does to thriller! [3.5/5]

In order to keep you glued to your seats, regular thrillers often try to bomb every trick mentioned in the rulebook on you, one after other. Exhaustively pacey narration, deliberately designed twists, in your face-jaw dropping action, over the top drama and what not…but it all looks so gimmick-so unreal-so unconvincing when you experience Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS.

PRISONERS belongs to the same genre but mainly to a minimal sub-part of it that doesn't believe in all those textbook rules and absorbs your soul in its atmospheric mood and the intensity of the actions. The complex human behavior itself plays so hard as an integral motivator that you don’t feel alienated to what is happening on the screen. It is dark, murky, intricate, violent, layered, riveting and a pure thriller to enjoy-indulge & invade!

When law enforcement agencies [Jake Gyllenhaal as an out-and-out dedicated police detective] find it hard to book a possible suspect in a child-abduction case lacking enough evidential proofs, father of one such girl [Huge Jackman, riding high on emotions rather than showing muscular strength] decides to take charge in his hands, illegally of course. But the density in the maze to track down the offender is so thick that even a far-sighted would need to think twice before guessing who’s behind all.

From the very first frame, film creates a perfect ambiance for a thriller with the suspenseful chilly-frosty-foggy woods of Pennsylvania as the base of events. Camera beautifully captures and extracts the mystical feel from those wooden houses to torch-lit shots used mostly for the dark places to explore and investigate. But as I have made it clear above, the focus is always on how human behavior gets adulterated by the heat of the situation and complexities take over. And to show it better, nothing but the performances emerge as the winner. 

Two towering infernos here are subtle at the most parts but when the break down happens, you should never miss a moment. The way Jake reproaches his supervisor for not being supportive is hilarious. The way Jackman as a helpless father shows his angst and aggravation while torturing the possible suspect in his illegal custody is disturbingly bone-chilling. His hard-to-break instinct to believe that the man in his charge is the culprit they all are looking out for is very contagious.

The name Denis Villeneuve is well-associated with the Oscar-nominated incest-thriller INCENDIES. That was a complete awe-striking movie that takes your breath away with its exceptional ending. This is not that but still a genre-defying effort. 

One or two not-so hard-to crack twists, a slow pace that might work in negative to lose your constant consideration and a little drawn out duration of the film [153 min is quite unseen-unexpected for recent Hollywood movies] could easily be avoided if you have an urge to watch good thriller with performances of first rate. This is definitely season’s best. What ‘THE CONJURING’ did to horror, ‘PRISONERS’ does to thriller! [3.5/5]

JOHN DAY: not every day is A Wednesday! Leave it for better things! [2/5]

The unsaid key rule of a good thriller demands hell of a convincing, compelling, shocking and intelligently electrifying disclosure in the culmination when all the puzzle-pieces get set together to form a concrete ground and clearer & clever picture to what exactly had happened and why? Viewers should feel delightedly cheated at the end not because they have expected more from it but because they hadn't have the tiniest clue in their weirdest dreams about it. Lacking the same, Debutante writer- director Ahoshor Solomon's promising dark-edgy noir JOHN DAY sadly doesn't meet its promised end and remains a 'Could have been much better' effort.

JOHN DAY, played by Naseeruddin Shah, a sincere bank manager with his lovely wife [Shernaz Patel] is trying to recover from the distress of losing his loving daughter in a mysterious accident. After 2 years, John finds himself in no choice left situation where his wife is at gun point and he has to co-operate with unknown lawbreakers for a planned bank robbery. To worsen his life, the wife has been hit badly by robbers to land in coma. In between, John finds a file that may have connection with his daughter's unfortunate death. In other significant parallel plot, Randeep Hooda plays an angry lawless corrupt cop who is torn between 2 land-grabbing sharks of the real estate business. Their paths never quite cross till the very end...but will it be sure, confident and powerful enough to leave a lasting impact? Find out yourself!

 
In his maiden effort, Solomon promises with his efficient direction and an engaging screenplay at some level. He creates a perfect mood for dark thrillers with tainted & toned visuals (...special mention to a chase sequence where we see shadows on the run falling over buildings, churches and roads. Innovatively conceptualised and executed. Full marks!), haunting background score and characters that aren't always defined as black/white. Cinematography by Prakash Kutty belongs to the genre. On the performances, Hooda impresses but never actually tries to reinvent and wears that same angry look throughout. Naseer Saab is good and that's bad when we have actor of such caliber in hand and can't utilize to the fullest, still he remains my sole reason to stay put in the theater.

But all of this doesn't really save your day if the narrative sails in a snail’s pace and has confusing plots & subplots more than wrinkles on Naseer saab’s forehead. Almost for 2 hours, you scratch your head to stumble on if not something big, at least smart but they don’t really care and in next 18 minutes, they let your expectations washed away with a lethargically written ending that gives you more satisfying moment than any in the film.

To sum up, not every day is A Wednesday! And let’s hope, no day ends up being a John Day. Catch it on TV if released or on home videos…or just leave it!  You have better things to do! [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]

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]