Rocky aur Rani kii prem kahani – A Review

Karan Johan directs Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt in Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani. Ranveer Singh plays Rocky the flamboyant Punjabi lad stereotype to the absolute hilt and Alia plays Rani the cultured Bengali lass like only she can. Both Ranveer and Alia infuse so much genuine warmth and charisma into their characters that you cannot help but grin from ear to ear!

Rocky is from the ultra rich Randhawa family led by the venerable matriarch Dhanalakshmi played by Jaya Bachchan whose husband is played by Dharmendra who is confined to a wheelchair with his memory fading. Bachchan rules the family with an iron fist and has tried to mold her son Tijori played by Aamir Bashir in her image, driven and arrogant with nary an emotional streak. A couplet read out by host at a awards function jogs Dharmendra’s memory and reignites a long-suppressed flame of lost love. The love in this case is Jamini Chatterjee played by Shabana Azmi, Rani’s grandmother, the cultured, sensitive, and convivial matriarch of the Chatterjee household. Rocky and Rani try to reunite the lovers Dharmendra and Azmi in the hopes of improving Dharmendra’s health and memory.  What transpires from there is the clash of families, values, cultures, and their very very different worlds.

The magic that Shashank Khaitan, Ishita Moitra and Sumit roy weave through their story and screenplay is where this movie turns all the usual Bollywood family drama tropes on its head.  But more than anything else this is Karan Johar’s love letter to Bollywood, to the world his father inhabited, and that Karan Johar has a very unique perspective on. He furthers the narrative with throwbacks to old classic Bollywood songs, Abhi na jaao chod kar to stop a loved one in their tracks, Aaj Mausam bada beimaan hai to romanticize the rain like only Bollywood knows how to do, Aaj fir jeene ki tamnna hai to symbolize the breaking of long suffering housewife’s shackles the list goes on and on. Not since Anupam Kher and Sridevi’s medley in Lamhe or the antakshari in Maine Pyaar Kiya has the Bollywood nostalgia been deployed with such precision. Karan Johar innately understands the language of Bollywood. He also understands culture and the zeitgeist as no one else does. He released the song Dhindhora baaje re knowing that he will face criticism of him still having a Sanjay Leela Bhansali hangover (aka Kalank), I even saw someone call the song cringey online and they mashed the video together with Dola re and said that works better but the moments that precede the song tells you that Karan Johar is in on the joke and that this movie is singularly his vision.

Ranveer and Alia are on top form. Ranveer is gaudy in Gucci, he is vain like no one’s business. His introduction is by means of the song Heartthrob ji literal minutes into the movie and you know you are in safe hands, an actor who doesn’t do anything by half measures and a director who is assured in his vision. What is usually saved for the end credits with a carousel of Bollywood actors popping in to shake a leg or two is turned on its head and becomes the opening song. Alia Bhatt brings a luminescence to screen that would brighten the darkest of forests, she scoffs at everything Rocky is but cannot help herself falling in love, with the slightest of inflections in her laughs they go from mocking Rocky to falling in love with him. Alia Bhatt gets several big moments, and it is the dichotomy of her diminutive frame and ability to assert her presence and making her voice be heard which lets her make mince meat out every one of those big moments. The tender moment between Tota Roy Chowdhury, Rani’s father and Ranveer Singh were reminiscent of tender moment between Michael Stuhlberg and Timothée Chalamet in Call me By Your Name. I was prepared to dislike Jaya Bachchan in this movie based off of the trailers, thinking how one note her performance felt instead I  came away empathetic for her character’s plight, never shown love or respect when she marries into a new family,  married to a man who seemed more interested in poetry and pinning for a lost love than in providing for a family she took it upon herself to put on the pants and be the breadwinner and in the process become so hardened that she forgot to feel anything for anyone not too dissimilar to her perceived public persona of late. When she mischievously (maybe malevolently) giggles she is still that girl from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Guddi.

There has been a lot of talk in the past week about how subversive Barbie movie was to bring forth discussion on feminism, misogyny, existentialism and capitalism, my thoughts on barbie were far from that. If there is a subversive blockbuster this summer then in my opinion it is Rocky aur Rani kii prem kahani. Karan Johar turns the sanskari family Bollywood crutch on its head, gone are his K3G “its all about loving you family” days and he ushers in a millennial India which asks for respect from family in trade for love. The Heroine is the one who is day-dreaming of the Hero dancing in the snow, runs back to her hometown, chases down the hero and stops traffic to confess her love, she is the one who goes down on bended knee. But he does all this with his typical Karan Johar touch, there is a the barren tree in the middle of snow a la Ishqwala love, monochromatic chiffon sarees fluttering in the winds a la Suraj Hua Maddham. Like the new advert of Dhanalakshmi sweets says Soch nayi, Swaad vahi. I am even willing to forgive the blasphemy that is the What Jhumka song – we’ll chalk it up to sampling rather than remixing – I mean if Beyonce does it on Renaissance who are we to stop Karan and Pritam from doing it? Especially if the results are as foot thumping!

Barbie – A Review

Greta Gerwig directs Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Barbie. The movie introduces the world to Barbie by means of a 2001: A Space odyssey monolith monkey scene inspired opener narrated by the inimitable Dame Helen Mirren. It introduces us to the perfectly pink utopia known as Barbieland where all the barbies live and wave at each other “Hi Barbie” “Hi Barbie” with a plastered smile permanently affixed on their faces very much like the iconic plastic dolls.

Margot Robbie plays stereotypical barbie, the one most resembling the original barbie with the impossible figure and perfectly chiseled cheekbones and a tumbling mane of gorgeous blonde hair – essentially Margot Robbie herself. Robbie sets in motion a series of events that threaten to disrupt the utopia when she has the existential thoughts about dying. To fix things she must go on a journey of self-discovery – of sorts. She has to find the girl who is playing with her and to make her happy and not have those thoughts of death and then the balance will be restored, and things will go back to being fantastic in plastic. Safe to say things don’t go as planned. Robbie puts her whole self into this and has the distant vacant stare perfected to near science.

Gosling is Ken to Robbie’s barbie – there’s more Kens but Gosling is Kenough! If Robbie is the physical embodiment of Barbie – Gosling is the physical embodiment of Ken and the psychological embodiment of a Ken as played on an extended SNL skit, his goofiness is just incredible, and you are waiting for him to break character break the fourth wall and look at you with a smirk and a shrug. There is a lot of other actors, some notable and others less so but they all are more a part of set decoration than anything else. Kate McKinnon being the exception – she gets to be a slightly more developed character than the rest. America Ferrara plays Gloria – the mother of the girl whose barbie is Robbie’s real-world counterpart. Ferrara more so than Robbie is the beating heart of the movie, but you wouldn’t know it going off of the extensive marketing.

The production on this is incredible, everything looks fake and shiny, like it came out of acetate lined box. The costume design is incredible with many iconic barbie looks being prominently featured. The music is poppy, the Ryan Gosling solo “I’m just ken” although a bit anti-climactic is still a fantastic song that does more to further the inner dialogue of Ken than most other material Gosling is given to play with.

I really wanted to like this one – I even went in barbiecore (well a bright pink tshirt is about as barbie core as I get) but I was massively disappointed. For a runtime of almost 2 hours nothing of significance happens in the movie. The story meanders from a portrayal of a “life in plastic, is fantastic” to patriarchy on steroids real world. The conceptual setup doesn’t make sense is there 1 barbie in the barbie world for each barbie that a real person plays with in the real world, what happens when a barbie is discarded in the real world – something akin to the toys coming alive in toy story would have atleast helped this make more sense. Also, the barbie and ken role reversals in the real world as compared to barbie world comes about a bit too suddenly and jarringly. There is a tender moment when Robbie tells an old woman she’s beautiful and she retorts “I know” a thing one barbie says to another in barbie land – this would let us believe that the old woman played with barbies in her youth. A few more moments like this would have helped ground the story a bit more. I got why barbie went to real world, I still don’t think I understood why gloria and her daughter come to barbie world. And how gloria’s daughter an angsty gen-Zer verging on goth just suddenly turns pastel-y. Ken brining patriarchy to barbieland and then losing interest in it just as quickly after forgetting to vote it into constitution seemed rushed and inconsequential other than to let Robbie deliver a monologue. Simu Liu was right there – Ryan Gosling being interested in horses and Simu Liu wanting all the other perks of patriarchy would have atleast made more sense, and then Gosling no longer wanting to participate in patriarchy would have been a better logical conclusion.  The Mattel execs led by CEO Will Farrell seem to bridge the real world and barbie world by means of acting a fool in both worlds. Much like Barbie if you scratched beneath the surface you’d find a hollow shell of an idea – Greta could really deliver a story that really spoke meaningfully about the absurdity of patriarchy, the burden the society puts on women to look a certain way, act a certain way, and if you ever stepped out of line, you’d be outcast. But instead, we get a movie that is more style over substance, more rhetorical than introspective, more choreographed dance routine than coherent story telling. I wanted to sit with this review to check what my problem with the movie was – was it the “wokeness” or the purportedly women-centric story telling? On the contrary I wanted the movie to be properly woke, I wanted them to struggle to solve patriarchy – at least in barbie world – I wanted it to actually hold a mirror to the society to show them that under the aegis of barbie that allowed little girls to dream about other things than just being mothers they haven’t solved anything. I just wanted Barbie to BE everything but its just not.

Oppenheimer – A Review

Christopher Nolan directs Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, the biopic on the rise and fall of Robert J Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer is Nolan’s lengthiest and quite possibly his most ambitious and most meditative film so far. The film also stars Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Josh Harnett, and Florence Pugh amongst a whole host of familiar faces in pivotal roles

Told in a non-linear fashion the story written by Nolan himself as an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin tells the story of Robert J Oppenheimer as a troubled physicist who travels to Cambridge and then Netherlands to “mop-up” in the second wave of quantum physics . The story tracks Oppenheimer’s dalliances with communist ideology, his setup of the quantum physics at Berkley and the move to Los alamos to lead the Manhattan project and the eventual downfall and withdrawal of his security clearance.

The movie is more than just a typical biopic, Nolan’s Oppenheimer is not the perfect demi-god like Prometheus of the Greek mythology who steals the fire from the gods and gives it to men for which he is chained to a rock and an eagle eats a part of his liver each day which regrows again, Prometheus continue to suffer for eternity. Instead in Cillian Murphy, Nolan finds a Oppenheimer who is a womanizer, easily influenced by the pull of communism, and just as easily swayed to give up the cause of unionizing so that he can join the Manhattan project, he is not perfect, he is plagued by indecision and regret. Murphy turns in a near perfect performance, the moral conundrum on his face as he takes the podium the day after America drops the nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima is a masterclass in acting. He goes from fearful for the horrors he let loose upon the world to triumphant and jingoistic when delivering a speech, he doesn’t even believe in. Murphy’s internal dialogue is never once espoused in literal words when he is sat in front of the bogus hearing for the renewal of his security clearance but with a far away stare Murphy lets the audience know exactly what is going on. His performance is simultaneously subdued, and explosive aided by Hoyte Van Hoytema’s brilliant closeup work and Ludwig Goransson’s operatic background score.

Robert Downey Jr. turns in a fantastic performance on the back of a brilliant story, his Lewis Strauss switches from being a beleaguered cabinet secretary nominee facing questioning by a senate commission to being a petulant man child who perceived slights at the hands of Oppenheimer where none were intended and quite possibly altered the course of history by not paying heed to Oppenheimer’s warnings about a nuclear arms race out of spite and political ambition. Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife and she eats up the scene she’s in and leaves no crumbs. The range she swings from is incredible- she is at once stoic, when she finds Oppenheimer curled up and grieving over the news of Jean Tatlocks’ death she tells him “ he doesn’t get to make mistakes and feel sorry about it , there are too many people who depend on him” and belligerent, when she hurls a glass at Oppenheimer who refuses to fight for himself in the sham hearing over his security clearance.  Josh Hartnett is a welcome surprise and plays the perfect foil to Oppenheimer’s wild swings of emotions. He is grounded and pragmatic. Florence Pugh fails to impress as Jean Tatlock, Oppenheimer’s tragic communist girlfriend as she comes off as nothing more than a joyless scold, I am yet to see the promise in Pugh what every critic everywhere seems to see in every single one of her outings.

The much-hyped Trinity Test sequence where Nolan reportedly did not deploy the use of CGI to replicate the mushroom cloud that results from the explosion of the first ever atomic bomb is an incredible moment of cinematic splendor not because it is explosive and impressive – it IS but it is the moments leading up to it, the breathless building of crescendo thanks to Goransson’s score and Hoytema’s incredible camera work. The back and forth pacing and dialogues have the energy of a Sorkin-like walk and talk that adds to the building momentum and then when the bomb is dropped the deafening silence with nothing more than a leftover violin note and Cillian Murphy’s labored breathing that seems to resonate with yours, heightens all your senses before you are knocked back into your seat by the delayed sound of explosion several times over. This intensity is revisited upon the audience towards the end when Rami Malek delivers devastating testimony to the senate committee that blows up Lewis Strauss’s world. Special mention to Alden Ehrenreich who is a vessel for the audience’s indignation at the injustice Strauss directs at Oppenheimer for his own gains.

There are many layers to peel back with this movie which will need many a revisit. The who’s who of the science community who Oppenheimer studies under and considers his peers, the dichotomy of Oppenheimer claiming Heisenberg “failed” and took a “wrong turn” when Heisenberg’s research is more focused on nuclear reactor for power source instead of a bomb when eventually Oppenheimer himself comes to regret making the bomb. I had an entirely different review typed up at 5 in the morning but I threw it all away simply because revisiting Goransson’s original soundtrack flooded back the memories of the night before, the many world ending existential thoughts I felt while watching the movie. This movie also felt like a personal growth for Nolan – in all his previous outings the flawed hero at the center of the story (Bale’s Bruce Wayne, DiCaprio’s Cobb) always had a moral compass and voice of reason outside of themselves, whether it was Michael Caine’s Alfred, Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon in the Batman Trilogy or Michael Caine’s Miles in Inception. With Oppenheimer the central character is not just the mythical hero himself but an entire mythology unto himself. I love Scorsese and The Aviator but Oppenheimer makes me wonder what Nolan would have done with his take on the Howard Hughes biopic he planned to make with Jim Carrey as the lead.

Nolan’s dedication to the craft of film making is second to none and it is on full display here. His vision, the visual translation onto film and the aural harmonics come together in a trifecta rarely seen. With a once in a lifetime performance from his principal cast of Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr. elevated several notches above a typical biopic by Hoyte Van Hoytema’s arresting visuals and a transcendent original score, this is a cinematic achievement that is unlikely to be dwarfed this year or even for some time to come. Make no mistakes this IS the movie event of the year.

Brahmastra – Part One : Shiva – A Review

Ayan Mukherji directs Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in Brahmastra – Part one : Shiva (B-P1:S) This is intended to be the first in the ambitious trilogy under the banner of Astraverse. Ranbir plays Shiva the orphan who falls head over heels in love with Isha played by Alia Bhatt when he first lays eyes on her at a Dusshera celebration. Shiva soon loses consciousness as the effigy of Ravan is set alight. He sees visions of terrible destruction being wrought on a person unknown to him and only referred to as Scientist. This sets in motion a series of events that will lead Shiva on a path to finding out about his own identity (a question Isha often poses to Shiva – “Shiva , who are you?”) and probably the destruction of the world as we know it.

The scope of B-P1:S is ambitious to say the very least. Ayan Mukherji who also conceived of and wrote the movie himself spends a large chunk of the movie in its world-building as one is prone to do in a king of origin story. The world Mukherji builds is imbued with many stories from Indian Mythology and Mukherji deals with them in a sensitive and respectful manner something Bollywood is often accused of (and perhaps rightly so) being rather insensitive about. The initial voice over on graphic novel like animation is impressive in how concise it is getting the message across. This urgent tone of story telling is something the movie fails to capture through its entire 2-hour 40 minute. In many places Mukherji overindulges, one song too many, one training montage too many, one damsel-in-distress moments for alia too many.  Also, what takes you out of the Astraverse is the weird dialogue choices that writer Hussain Dalal makes. Ranbir speaks in a manner that often grates and diminishes any narrative tension that might have been created in the scene leading up to him speaking. Even the sonorous Amitabh Bachchan is left to spout some ridiculous nonsense about finding the “buttons” to “ON” the power of the Astras. It almost feels like the actors were asked to improv given the basic sketch of the story and Dalal wrote down their colloquial dialogue as the final verses on to the script itself.  The songs are too cacophonous – almost too chaotic and a tune as beautiful as Kesariya is rendered neutered by trying to rhyme Kesariya with Love-storiya. More of the Deva Deva instead and the almost Enigma like chanting of the Mantras would be more effective. The sound editing and mixing also need serious thought as it veers into Hans Zimmer on steroids territory and dulls the narrative adrenaline rush with a chaotic din.

The movie succeeds each time Alia is on screen. The bit about finding the light is a self-fulfilling prophecy for Alia as she lights up the screen each time, she is on it. Ranbir embodies the physicality and the fluidity that one would expect off a superhero, he is nimble on his feet whether dancing or fighting. The Action scenes are expertly crafted and vibrant, some sequences seem overlong, stretched for so long that they end abruptly and almost anticlimactically. Mouni Roy as the lead antagonist is surprisingly effective, she never once over-vamps her Junoon. The Visual effects are top notch. The holographic representation of the Astra’s avatars is an absolute delight. Each time they show the magma-rock like embodiment of Dev it actually reminded me of how poor the animation was in Marvel’s Eternals!

There are many a thrilling moment and enough easter eggs and self-referential jokes to keep you entertained. Shah Rukh Khan saying “mein kabhi haarta nahi” is very very reminiscent of Baazigar, the Fire taking form of a serpent as Mouni approaches Alia Bhat in the climax seems like a callback to Mouni’s break out role as Naagin. There are plenty of cameos to keep pushing that dopamine hit, Dimple Kapadia in her very Gandalf like avatar elicited a proper squeal from me! Speculation was rife that Amrita – a crucial character was played by Deepika Padukone and Dev seemed to possess a physical similarity to Ranveer Singh. If Mukherji and producer Karan Johar manage to pull off these casting coups Part 2 promises to be a firecracker of a sequel with Ranbir, Ranveer, Alia and Deepika all very capable of chewing up the scenery individually, all 4 of them together might be equivalent to a nuclear explosion that the mythological Brahmastra is supposedly capable of being.

Despite lethargic editing and overindulgent world building the scope and ambition of Brahmastra overcomes any minor misgivings. Having been fed on a steady diet of LOTR, Harry Potter and the Marvel uni/multiverse it might be too convenient to look for visual similarity, but the heart of the story feels very original and therein lies the success. I do hope for Brahmastra- Part 2 : Dev Mukerji pay close attention to editing and pulls of the casting coup. I highly recommend you put your cynicism aside and give this ambitious movie a honest shot. Years from now it may very likely be looked up as a new narrative jumpstart to Bollywood story telling.

Everything Everywhere All at Once – A Review

The Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) direct Michele Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan,Stephanie Hsu and Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything Everywhere all at once. The story of an aging Chinese immigrant Evelyn Wang played by Michele Yeoh who is thrust into the impossible position of being the only one who can save the different multiple universes. That un itself sounds crazy enough but there is literally nothing that can prepare you for the absolutely insanity that unfolds on the screen.

I have tried to write and have deleted so many paragraphs to describe the experience of watching the movie, but it is nearly impossible to fully explain the absolutely bonkers plot without giving away major plotlines. The movie got a nearly unanimous applause both from the critics and casual movie goers, for a while it was the highest rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes. I had tried and failed to catch this movie earlier, but I am so glad I finally did, in a theatre, away from distractions, without the ability to pause. To consider this a sci-fi movie would do it great disservice, it merely used the sci-fi as a conduit to get to the most fundamental philosophical question at the heart of human existence, what are we doing, why are we here and where we go next. There are many “Multiverse of Madness” comparisons and jokes, so I won’t add to that cacophony – instead this movie reminded me of another Disney property – Pixar’s Inside Out. It feels like a companion piece where Riley grows up to be Stephanie Hsu’s Joy, the unhappy, unfulfilled, gay daughter of Evelyn who is struggling under the weight of expectations that immigrant parents tend to put on their offsprings.

The opening few minutes are so chaotic that you cannot help but be on the edge of your seat as the tension builds up with Evelyn going into the IRS office for her audit. Ke Huy Quan as the silently suffering husband Waymond Wang is brilliant as he verse-jumps between longing to reconnect with the wife that he fell in love with and teaching Evelyn the dynamics of what multiverses are and how to jump between them to call upon the skills she possesses in the alternate universe to fend off the mercenaries of the Jobu Tupaki! Trust me when I tell you I read the previous sentence and I agree it reads absolutely ridiculous and as Evelyn says to Waymond “you are just making up sounds now”, but it is the absolute commitment to this absurdity that makes everything make sense. I would love to “Being john Malkovich” inside the collective brain of The Daniels to understand how they came up with the story and the screenplay. The production design by Jason Kisvarday in creating so many multiverses with such exacting details and the costume design by Shirley Kurata whose maximalist styling especially for Joy are Camp personified.

Where the movie succeeds is in not taking itself too seriously, there is a very crucial element of the movie that is essentially a sesame bagel, but just the same it does not cross the line of making one too many self-referential jokes. It is not playing to the audience to get a cheap laugh – but it does elicit a chuckle or two and maybe even a guffaw. It does not play to the audience to tug at their heartstrings but it manages to imbue enough tenderness that the audience is pulled into the emotions of the characters. It does not go for the big action pieces but manages to pack a punch in the tiniest of pinkie-flicks. There is a love story at the heart of it, there is a coming-of-age, coming-out story at the very centre of it, there is a journey of self-realisation and self-actualization that is the narrative force that drives the story forward.  There are so many multitudes that the Daniels have packed into this movie that I cannot wait for repeated viewing of this absolute masterpiece of a movie, and this time I will have the luxury of being able to pause and contemplate. If it is playing at a theatre near you – please go and watch it – watch it for the first time without any distractions, go on a journey with Evelyn – maybe the meaning of life itself will come to you.

Joker – A Review

Todd Philips directs Joaquin Phoenix in Joker. Much has been written and said about how this movie is the definitive Joker performance that snatches that mantel away from Heath Ledger, who posthumously won an Oscar as supporting actor in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. There has been a lot of pre-release buzz about how this movie could trigger violence due to the incel manifesto. Is this genuinely a grim yet refreshing take on the comic-book genre or is it simply much ado about nothing?

Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck a professional clown who suffers from pseudobulbar syndrome, this causes him to laugh out loud at inappropriate moments. But that is not all that makes him feel a little bit “off”. We are introduced to him at his weekly counselling sessions with a social worker, there is mention that he spent some time in the mental institution but that is not expanded upon. He gets picked on by bullies and lives with his mother. If all of this seems cliched its because it is. Philips and writer Scott Silver deploy every known trope to suggest that Fleck is nothing more than a loser. Instead of feeling sorry for the guy you are left fielding empty provocations. There are gaping plot holes which add up to nothing. His clown-league Randall played by Glen Flesher(Billions) hands him a gun and calls him “his guy” but rats him out to the boss. Joaquin Phoenix is coming hard for that Oscar – and Philips and Cinematographer Lawrence Sher keep zooming in on an emaciated Phoenix every chance they get highlighting the weight loss. Add to that the odd waltz/jazz dancing which isn’t a character trait we have been introduced to in what is supposedly an Origin story.

Gotham is always meant to be grim and crime infested but the Gotham of Joker is simply filthy, the graffiti is meant to evoke the grim and gritty underbelly of Gotham, but it fails to do so. The sense of gloom and despair is so oppressively shoved down the audiences throat that you are left essentially unmoved by the plight of the “clowns of Gotham” a Thomas Wayne reference that echoes the “basket of deplorables” from the 2016 presidential race. The Subway scene is constructed masterfully but all it does is act as an inflection point for a mass riot – the killing of 3 young wall street guys is termed to be the start of “Kill the rich” craze. There isn’t enough build up to warrant such a giant leap in the narrative.

I also found it particularly problematic how the women of colour are used as vessels for channelling Fleck’s mental illness, first it is the social worker, then the pretty neighbour and her daughter, then at the end the lady doing the mental health assessment. Some might say that it presents an unvarnished look at the mental illness and that it is revolutionary in its depiction or a guy going through a mental breakdown. That would be superficial in my opinion, the writers, the director and the actor do not delve into the psyche and only rely on the narrative crutches of economic anxiety, political unrest and societal breakdown to the point that it becomes psychosis-porn. Robert Di Nero is criminally underutilized given that Taxi Driver is a clear inspiration. Speaking of homages and Inspirations there are several including Nolan’s The Dark Knight with the joker leaving the mask in the bin and the scene where he is being taken in the back of a police car. And the scene with Di Nero harkens back to Network

Joaquin Phoenix is an amazing actor but he is done a greater disservice here that Casey Affleck did with his mockumentary I’m Still Here. The performance has some high points but is rendered empty, reductive and derivative. By attempting to do an Origin Story for what is essentially a villain and arguably batman’s nemesis the movie would have been more successful trying to make The Joker truly scary and fearsome, unstable yet unpredictable and wholly evil. Instead you are left baffled wondering how this guy is capable of raining down chaos on Gotham. Skip this and give The Dark Knight a rewatch atleast Ledger’s Joker is delightfully frightening!

Veere Di Wedding – A Review

Shashanka Ghosh directs Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha Talsania in “not a chic-flick” Veere di Wedding. After the career ending critique from “The Aunty”, I was going in with abysmal expectation and maybe that or maybe the fact that I saw it with Kareena’s biggest fan in the world – I found the movie to be mildly entertaining and brimming with potential.

Kalindi played by Kareena is friends with Avni played by Sonam Kapoor, Sakshi played by Swara Bhaskar and Meera played by Shikha Talsania. Kalindi lives in Australia with her boyfriend Rishab played by Sumeet Vyaas who proposes to her and Kalindi accepts reluctantly. She returns to India and the 4 BFFs get together for their Veere’s wedding. Avni is a ball-busting family lawyer permanently harassed by her well-meaning mother played by the fantastic Neena Gupta to get married. Sakshi is a rich party girl who got married to a NRI in a rush and is now back to staying with her parents who do not really know what transpired for the marriage to break down. Meera married an American and lives in America raising her young child and probably the most “normal” of the bunch.  The four friends get back together and each of their respective storyline unravels.

Kareena is for most parts hilarious as she goes about the Big Fat Indian (Delhi) wedding charade nervously scratching as she is made to dress up in ridiculous outfits and paraded in front of relatives who are of no consequence. Sonam Kapoor continues her trademark vapid and vacuous portrayal of any character she lays her hands on. Her dialogue delivery couldn’t be more stunted. Swara Bhaskar – as the aunty said – is playing a rich girl for the first time and it is a poor man’s idea of what a rich person does all day. Her dishevelled look with a cigarette permanently stuck in her mouth with sunglasses that serve no purpose as she peers from above is just an abhorrent performance. Nothing about her feels believable. Meera lives in America with her Caucasian husband John after having been disowned by her family for marrying “outside” the religion. She is the most believable and the most likeable. They try to give her a flaw too – excessive drinking but it feels half-baked and an after-thought. Shikha is the best thing about this movie and I cannot wait for her to headline a project all on her own where she is unencumbered by the lesser talented actresses. She has a Ugly Betty/ Jane the Virgin vibe about her that I cannot shake and I want the nouveau brave Bollywood to take a chance with her!

The biggest problem is that director Shashanka Ghosh and writers Nidhi Mehra and Mehul Suri try to make this feature film in the vein of producer Ekta Kapoor’s multiple story arc TV-shows. There is simply too much going on and at 2 hours there is not nearly enough time to resolve even one story arc to successful completion. Take this for instance, Kalindi is reticent to get married because her parents used to fight a lot, her mother passed away and her father remarried to a socialite, she is estranged from her father, who is estranged from his gay-brother who is the only family Kalindi knows of. Then there is the whole insane plot about Kalindi’s Fiancé’s family being fraudsters. Sonam and Kareena went around town lamenting about how difficult it was to get a female-led film financed and it shows – there are awkward product placements after awkward product placements and they are not even trying to be subtle. Bikaji snacks get more screen-time than the amazing Neena Gupta and that is a crime against cinema. Also at the very end of the film some random local furniture company’s product placement literally made me lose it.

With Sonam being the driving force behind this movie getting made it was always going to be fashion centric and for most parts the fashion is exceptional and forward looking except for that one ridiculous outfit that Kareena wears for her wedding. A 25-year old vintage Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla outfit deserved to be better treated than that.

The dialogues are mostly fun but when they go for crass they really go for it and the payoff is limited. The songs are mostly forgettable except Tareefan which only really plays when the credits roll.

Lastly I am reminded of the Instagram post that Neena Gupta shared on Instagram where she simply stated “I live in Mumbai and working am a good actor looking fr good parts to play” and I couldn’t be more thrilled to finally seeing her on the big stage. She is a treasure and I do hope she gets more roles and meatier characters to play because even in the limited screen time she is allotted here she really shines through.

It might be the Kool-aid talking but I did not hate Veere di Wedding. There was incredible potential had the writers and director taken one of the girl’s tracks and resolved that story arc and made this into an anthology the result would have been a lot more successful.

 

Raazi – A Review

Meghna Gulzar directs Alia Bhatt in Raazi. Based on a book “Calling Sehemat” by Harinder Sikka the screenplay written by Meghna Gulzar and Bhavani Iyer tells the story of a 20-something Kashmiri girl who is inducted into the covert Indian spy network that was responsible for the defeat of Pakistan in the war of 1971 at the hands of the Indian armed forces.

Alia Bhatt plays Sehemat Khan – the daughter of Hidayat Khan played by Rajit Kapoor. Hidayat is friends with the Pakistan Army Brigadier Syed. Dying of cancer, Hidayat asks his friend to get his youngest son married to his only daughter. Vicky Kaushal plays Iqbal Syed, Sehemat’s betrothed. Sehemat gets married and is embedded in potentially one of the most influential households in the Pakistani army. Once there she starts passing on crucial pieces of information through many secretive channels back to Indian Intelligence Agency, and eventually saving the Indian armed forces from a deadly blow and consequentially causing Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 war.

Alia Bhatt plays Sehemat with a quiet confidence, she is not a natural spy and she doesn’t play pretend either. What she is though is a brilliant student with and eidetic memory. She learns quickly and masters the spy-craft. Once beyond enemy lines, there is a palpable sense of danger lurking every moment she goes trying to gather intelligence to pass back to India. You see her afraid and remorseful. You see her be resourceful and determined as well. And through it all you see her fall in love with her husband. Vicky Kaushal plays Iqbal with absolute honesty. He never overplays his hand in any scene. There is a surprising restraint to his performance which makes the budding romance seem even more real and even tenderer. It is therefore just as shocking when the climax comes around. The supporting cast is absolutely solid. Rajit Kapoor who plays Hidayat Sehemat’s father, Shishir Sharma who plays Brigadier Syed, Amruta Khanvilkar who plays Munira Syed, Aman Vashisht who plays Nikhil Bakshi and Jaideep Ahlawat who plays Khalid Mir are all exceptional. Soni Razdan, Alia’s real life mother plays her reel life mother Teji!

The story is based off of Harinder Sikka’s novel Calling Sehemat, a based on true events tale that Sikka came across while embedded as a journalist during the Kargil war of 1999. The story of Sehemat as recounted by Sikka is fascinating. But what makes this translation on screen such a riveting watch is Meghna Gulzar’s Screenplay and Direction. I first fell in love with Gulzar’s craft with her debut movie Filhaal. A path breaking movie for its time in Bollywood. Gulzar then disappeared until she resurfaced with Talwar a couple of years ago and with Raazi she has established herself as someone to watch out for. Her detailed and believable translation from Sikka’s book to Alia’s portrayal on screen is absolutely thrilling. The spy-thriller genre is almost unheard of in Bollywood and Gulzar faithfully recreates the period and gets the grammar of the movie right. Despite a slightly shaky start once Gulzar reigns in the narrative she doesn’t let it and the audience’s attention slip even for a moment.

The camera work isn’t the best – it comes in too close in most scenes and you lose the atmosphere a little because of it. Cinematographer Jay I Patel however shines in the more panoramic shots. The production and set design are fantastic and the selection of vintage cars a wonderful touch.  The music is classic Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, non-intrusive yet very effective. And Dilbaro is a brilliant song.

A triumph in every aspect this is a movie for the ages. Alia continues to astound with the choices she makes in the roles she picks and depicts a maturity that belies her fresh looks. I cannot wait for Meghna to continue to defy expectations and chose varied subject matter and make movies that entertain and educate its audience in equal measure.

October – A Review

Shoojit Sircar directs Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu in October. Juhi Chaturvedi, who wrote Sircar’s Vicky Donor, pens the story, screenplay and the dialogues. Vicky Donor broke new ground tackling a taboo subject but I think October might be the writer-director duo’s most ambitious project yet.

October is the story of Dan played by Varun Dhawan and his group of friends who work as the staff in a swanky hotel in Delhi as part of their hotel management course. Dan isn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, his juniors overtake him and his nonchalant behaviour has him being relegated to the menial tasks of cleaning and laundry.  Among the juniors, who have overtaken Dan, is newcomer Banita Sandhu who plays Shiuli. A tragic accident and a casual question just prior to the accident leaves Dan wondering why Shiuli was asking about him. Dan abandons every aspect of his personal life and devotes every free minute to Shiuli who is rendered incapable of responding.

Devolving any more of the story would not do the story any great harm but if the trailer is the only thing you are going by, like I did, the slow reveal will have a more lasting effect. Sircar and Chaturvedi have crafted the movie in an almost Indie-film vein, not something you see prominent commercial directors and actors be a part of in Bollywood. This could have just as easily been a Sundance film festival darling.

While the bravery of Sircar-Chaturvedi is second to none, Varun Dhawan continues to defy expectations and pulls further away from the pack of young actors. Dhawan, who first burst onto screen in Karan Johar’s frothy yet delightful high-school drama Student of the Year, has gone on to deliver incredibly nuanced performance in Badlapur and cemented his commercial appeal in Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya, Badrinath ki Dulhaniya and Judwaa2. In my book Dhawan hasn’t put a foot down wrong. Every time he is on screen, he lights its up with his honesty and unintentional humour. Here, too, you believe him every time he chimes in when not required and urges Shiuli’s mother to give her time to recover. You feel his pain when he finds out that before the accident Shiuli had asked about him. He is extremely easy to watch on screen and every emotion he embodies effortlessly.  Dhawan achieves something improbable in that he is at once part of the scenery and yet he stands out even without trying. His scenes with the hospital guard, the nurse and the scenes with his friends are all absolutely incredible. This does not feel like a star vehicle but like a debut of a staggeringly gifted actor.  He may have flexed his six-packs in almost every other movie but here he really gets to flex his acting muscle and when he does it it’s a thing of beauty.

Avik Mukhopadhyay uses his lenses to capture every scene in the most unobtrusive of ways. There is a melancholy to the way he frames each scene yet there is a beauty to it as well. His close-ups of Shiuli are splendid.  The editing by Chandrashekhar Prajapati is exquisite, the pace never once slackens nor does any moment feel rushed. The fantastic script and the very competent direction would have been rendered unintelligible in the hands of a lesser editor.

The slow burn narrative, the focus on the human interactions and the humanity of its subjects rather than the story itself, the no-rush story telling are all brilliantly tender and organic. The reason why I said that this movie feels their most ambitious is because it feels free of any commercial compulsions. Every film with a reasonably well known actor/director is only measured by one parameter these days – how quickly does it reach the 100-cr mark? This film is the furthest thing from it, but because of it, this might be the most poignant and original film of the year and dare I say almost 4 months into the year perhaps one of the best of the year.

Call Me By Your Name – A Review

Luca Guadagnino directs Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in a James Ivory screenplay based off André Aciman’s novel Call me by your name.

Set in the 1980 in northern Italy it is the story of American Oliver who comes to stay with Professor Pearlman and his Family. How he meets and creates a lasting impression on professor’s young son Elio. One half of the famed Merchant-Ivory duo, James Ivory adapts Andre Achiman’s novel into a narrative that seems to span a lifetime in the searing Tuscan heat but also is encapsulated in a fleeting moment, that ephemeral summer romance. Guadagnino translates this script so beautifully that all you want to do is move to this nondescript Italian village and sip apricot juices for breakfast and go for a swim in the afternoons.

Armie Hammer plays Oliver and Timothée Chalamet plays Elio. Michael Stuhlbarg plays the professor and Amira Casar the fabulous Annella. The story starts with Oliver arriving in Italy to stay with Elio and his family in their Tuscan villa. Elio gives up his room and immediately is resentful of this American who invades his life. How they go from Elio mocking Oliver’s “Later..” to taking a trip with him to Bergamo before Oliver returns home is where the magic unfolds. Hammer is fantastic in Oliver and this might be the first time that he has truly delivered on the potential he has always seemed to possess. The way he chides and teases Elio is indescribably intimate. Stuhlbarg delivers one of the most poignant father-son moments of perhaps all time. It is a crying shame that he has been denied a nomination in the supporting actor category.

But in Timothée Chalamet a star is born, the range he depicts far outshines his peers this year. As 17 year old Elio he lives out every teenage emotion there is and lays bare his heart for the audience in the final few minutes. You watch enthralled every time he is on screen, the infamous Peach scene is not what you must remember this movie for but it is what immediately follows. When he sobs “I’m Sick” you feel his pain, his shame, his desperation. If Chalamet doesn’t win the best actor Oscar this year then the ceremony is not merit based but an exercise in either honouring a swan song (Daniel Day-Lewis) or an attempt at righting past wrongs (Gary Oldman).

Music by Sufjan Stevens is exceptional, in particular the Traitor piece, the use of Piano music to elevate the emotional dynamics of the film is phenomenal. The cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom captures the beauty of northern Italy beautifully. Every scene feels crisp and perfectly drenched in the Tuscan sunshine. Together with Guadagnino, Mukdeeprom manages to create the never-ending heat of summer feel palpable. Guadagnino imbues the scenes with such nuances that you are in the scenes yourself. Every character serves a purpose. Mafalda, Mounir (played by Andre Aciman himself), Marzia, they all exist fully and completely within the film’s grammar. This is exceptional filmmaking.

Watch it because frankly it is perhaps one of the best coming of age movies I’ve ever seen. I saw this and Ladybird on the same day and I have to say that this is a far superior film. Timothée Chalamet is Phenomenal and I’d put my money on him piping both Daniel Day-Lewis and Gary Oldman to the podium – he is that good here.