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.

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.

Kahaani 2- A Review

Sujoy Ghosh and Vidya Balan team up for a follow up to 2012’s thriller Kahaani in Kahaani 2. Kahaani to me is a landmark movie and possibly the best thriller to come out of Bollywood in since forever. With the trailer whetting the appetite I was suitably excited despite the lackluster title name. Does the Balan Ghosh combo work again or will the curse of Arjun Rampal strike again?

The story starts sinisterly enough, we see a desperate Vidya Sinha looking for her paraplegic, wheelchair bound daughter who has gone missing. While running to find her daughter Vidya is hit by an oncoming car and slips into coma. Inspector Inderjeet played by Arjun Rampal with his wooden acting intact shares a secret he cannot let slip but which somehow plays his driving force through the entirety of the film. Vidya Balan plays Vidya Sinha, a single mother raising a paraplegic daughter but just like Kahaani here too there might be a case of mistaken identity or perhaps something more sinister going on. A majority of the story unfolds as Inderjeet reads through Vidya’s diary which he finds taped to the back of a drawer in her house. There are so many things wrong with how each puzzle piece connects that it is unbelievable that the same team was responsible for the watertight Kahaani. Everything just seems to be taking its inspiration from Rampal’s acting “Meh! Let’s just go with this”.

My biggest problem is with how when Inderjeet reads the diary there is a voice over in Vidya’s voice and then we are taken into another storyline and even in that storyline everything that Vidya Balan is thinking is voiced out loud. It’s annoying and insulting at the same time when you expect so little from your audience. There are intriguing plot points which could have made for an explosive narrative but are dealt with in such a shambolic way that it all seems to be coming off at the seams. The second half of the film seems to drag on forever and the element of surprise is massively lacking. At this point it is essentially paint by numbers and the acting also fails to lift it beyond the mundane. I remember re-watching Kahaani a little while ago and noticing only for the first time when Vidya Balan is pushed in front of the train she reaches out for something in her hair and having seen the climax once before it all ties in so well. Here there is no such nuance. The central plot surrounding child abuse also seems to half baked, there is so much more that could be done with it and how it becomes the driving force for Vidya Balan. And while from Kahaani the character of Bob Biswas was endearing and terrorizing in equal measure here the main assassin is essentially someone doing a bad parody of a north-easterner with a weird affectation to their speech. Oh and a special mention to the actress who plays Arjun Rampal’s wife – what the actual f*#k! Why so much nagging and that voice! Uggh I would rather listen to nails on a chalkboard.

Stay at home and rewatch Kahaani instead and don’t waste your time and energy on this underdeveloped, poorly acted and a story that lacks any thrill or common sense. It is a complete contrast to what made Kahaani so special. Vidya Balan’s acting is sub-par, the supporting characters are used as mere props, the cinematography which gloriously captured the crumbling Kolkotta is underwhelming here.

Rustom – A Review

Dharmesh Suresh Desai directs Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz and Esha Gupta in the court procedural, thriller drama Rustom. The story inspired by the infamous Nanavati case that saw the end of the jury system in India.

 

The story starts with Indian Naval Commander Rustom Pavri who returns home 2 weeks earlier than expected, only to find his wife not home and letters from her lover in their cupboard. The following day when she returns he leaves and confronts notorious playboy Vikram Makhija and kills him with 3 bullet wounds. Rustom surrenders to police and the story takes off. Pitting the two prominent communities of Bombay, the Sindhis and the Parsis against one another. A tabloid gets the scoop on the case and starts to influence the national opinion in favour of Rustom – the decorated officer and a soldier who did the right thing but the wrong way. We are reminded of this once again when a screeching housemaid of Rustom asks the judge what he would do if he found his wife was sleeping with the prosecuting lawyer. The movie set in the 50s seems to have been made with the same ethos, the court room drama is nothing more than a farce with the Judge played by Anang Desai – Babuji of the popular sitcom Khichdi, more in character as the kudkud kumar. Sachin Khedekar an accomplished Marathi actor playing the prosecuting lawyer Khangani is more slapstick than slick prosecutor. Pavan Malhotra who plays investigating officer Vincent Lobo has two very peculiar ticks, he taps his pens 3-4 times each time he wants to write and his ears fan out like Dumbo each time he expresses surprise.

Ileana D’cruz is beautiful but has very little to do in the movie other than shed massive tears from those beautiful doe-y eyes. She plays the simpering fragile wife with aplomb but her lack of conflict does question the basic premise of the movie. Arjan Bajwa playing Vikram Makhija is the bond-esque villain albeit in a 60s Prem Chopra avatar.  Esha Gupta was the clear standout for me. Not for her acting abilities – I seriously doubt she has any, but for her styling and make up. She brings the glamour to the 50s era Vamp that Nadira would be proud of. The final twist where a phone recording is introduced her perfectly detached reactions and eye rolls are the highlights of the file for me so silent-movie vamp like that I was enthralled. Akshay Kumar brings a stoic presence to the film that is perfectly attuned to his upright naval officer character. The only one who doesn’t go the slapstick way with the court proceedings, underplaying each line he is given and thus achieving the desired result.

Why is it that every time a period movie is made in India they rely on oversaturated and unnatural colors of the sky. The green screen/CGI work to recreate the Bombay of a bygone era is partly successful and fails miserably in places. The music is a hindrance and gets in the way of storytelling with three songs that have no rhyme nor reason for their stake at the screen time. I can understand wanting songs to build a buzz pre-release but release them as music videos rather than forcing them into the narrative where they do not belong and you are left with an otherwise believable Akshay Kumar looking like the 90s fool that he was when he romanced the likes of Shilpa Shetty and Raveena Tandon.  The story is intriguing and the final twist, a work of fiction (as opposed to the inspiration from the Nanavati case) is interesting enough.

With uneven acting and cringe worthy courtroom scenes this is by no means a perfect movie. But with Akshay Kumar’s understated acting, an interesting story based on true events and overall production value where special care is given to recreating the era with Ileana’s Parsi embroidery sari and Esha Gupta’s gloriously vampy styling this movie entertains more than it irritates.

TE3N – A Review

Ribhu Dasgupta directs Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan in the mystery thriller Te3n. With talent like this and the executive producer stewardship of Sujoy Ghosh who in my opinion directed Bollywood’s best thriller Kahaani, this had me excited.

 

The opening sequence had me sit up and take notice. What the hell was going on, Amitabh choking on a garbage bag, Siddiqui driving past and crashing – this was going to be dark and twisted and I was going to love it. Sadly things start to fizzle out after the initial sizzle with only an occasional sputter of genuine surprise.

The story follows Amitabh’s John who is pursuing the course of justice for his dead granddaughter who was kidnapped 8 years ago. He visits the police station every day to find out of there has been any progress made on the case. With no new leads Vidya Balan sends him away compassionately each day, urging him to find closure and spend time with his beautiful wife. Cue the wife – a nag of the first order. You can understand why John would want to seek solace in the police station each day. John also reaches out to Father Martin who used to be inspector Martin played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. We don’t really get an insight into why he switches the uniform. Not unlike Irrfan Khan who is a fine actor who seems to be turning into  a victim of his own hype I am beginning to tire of Siddiqui’s overly self-assured acting. This performance is a phone-in and especially the second half when he and Vidya deliver dialogue like they are camera blocking and rehearsing scenes without any real conviction.

When it comes to mysteries and thrillers, coincidence is the crutch of the lazy and Dasgupta and screen writers Bijesh Jayrajan and Suresh Nair rely too much on coincidence. The first one when Amitabh finds a needle in a haystack shopping for fish and then when another character suddenly remembers a small but significant detail when Amitabh is fixing his scooter’s spark plug. The writing which seems to hold promise in the first half loses all steam in the second half where important plot details are discussed as afterthoughts. The total disregard to logic and law is baffling too. Amitabh breaks and enters many a houses to find answers and curiously enough after catching one of the “suspects” he takes him along for a tram ride through Kolkata and does the interrogation on it!

 

Disappointments aside what lifts the movie above being abjectly terrible is the grand old man of Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan defies the law of averages and keeps getting better with every progressing movie. You feel the burden the last 8 years have taken on him, his tired eyes, slightly confused expression, and the gape mouthed blank stare, he is brilliant. His vulnerability moves you, his resolve inspires you. Every time he is on the screen you forget the gaping plot holes and are focused on his craft. The second half suffers with a lesser screen time for Amitabh. The twist just before the interval and how the story manages to sort itself out towards a semi-logical conclusion is commendable but only because Amitabh keeps you interested.

 

The music by Clinton Cerejo and the vocals by Amitabh make it an enjoyable accompaniment to Tushar Kanti Ray’s camerawork who frames the crumbling Kolkata beautifully.

 

Adapted from Korean film Montages the choice of movie’s name is the least of its baffling choices. A half-hearted attempt at the second half and haphazard screenplay stop this one short of being a fantastic movie. Watch it for a mildly amusing story and for Amitabh and continue to marvel at how after 5 decades in the film industry he never ceases to amaze.

Fan – A Review

Maneesh Sharma directs Shah Rukh Khan in and as Fan. The story of Bollywood superstar Aryan Khanna and his doppelganger and obsessive fan Gaurav Chandna. What starts as a story of a middle class boy from Delhi’s Indra Nagar who devotes every living minute of his day to his idol Aryan Khanna quickly devolves into a cat and mouse chase through Mumbai, Dubrovnik, London and eventually Delhi. After a series of critical flops which made an absurd amount of money at the box office does SRK redeem himself? After all he is no stranger to playing double roles and he had carved out a niche for himself playing characters with grey shades in Baazigar, Darr and Anjam.

 

There is little to cheer about in this movie so let me get that out of the way first. The make-up and prosthetics on SRK when he plays Gaurav Chandna is exceptional. The use of visual effects to show the younger of the two characters works seamlessly, Gaurav Chandna is skinnier, with a smoother looking face and thinner nose and more pronounced teeth. The older, Aryan Khanna is SRK himself, beefier and with a face that has weathered over time.  In terms of acting this isn’t his best performance but it also isn’t his worst. So that is something to cheer about. When he is playing Gaurav Chandna he is at his best as he manages to strike a fine balance between the innocent obsession and a psychotic madness with the lines often blurring. When he is Aryan Khanna he phones it in, there is no nuance to his portrayal and as an audience I couldn’t connect with him. There is no vulnerability, no human frailty just the idea of him being a super hero instead of a movie star which takes away the believability element.

That is where the positives end. With a plot like this there is so much that could have been achieved but precious screen time is wasted in three elongated and entirely pointless chase sequences which yield nothing meaningful other than capturing the crumbling south Mumbai building, the picturesque Dubrovnik and the claustrophobic New Delhi.  Maneesh Sharma whose first film was the brilliant Band Baaja Barat and the second the underrated Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl has an organic way of directing and storytelling.  He was either too overwhelmed to be working with arguably the biggest superstar of Bollywood and he surrendered to the over indulgent nature of showcasing the superstar rather than the story or it was actually someone like Rohit Shetty who directed this one instead. The groundwork that was carefully laid in the first half is wrecked in the second half where two incidents destroy the public image of Aryan Khanna.  Clearly the superstar himself isn’t aware of just how much someone like him can get away with. Just cast a glance at the recent tabloid headlines and you have a wide variety of scandals to pick from, leaked pictures (either in the buff or doing lines of the wrong stuff), casting couch, or making controversial statements. It is a literal minefield out there and it would have lent more gravitas to the story and made you feel sorry as you witnessed a slow descent of Aryan Khanna.

The chase in Dubrovnik is un-believable and not in a good way. It is a straight lift from the opening sequence of Skyfall and even the music echoes those familiar Bond-esque notes. The Lawyer who accompanies Aryan Khanna to deal with immigration issues becomes a special services agent doing surveillance. In Mumbai no less than 8 police officers risk limb and life to try and capture a perp who isn’t a terrorist or murderer or even on a most wanted list. In London Gaurav takes a train for Dubrovnik from St Pancras and then St Pancras is shown to be Dubrovnik airport. It is gaping plot holes like this which question the sanity of the people behind this movie.  The climax is a long SRK monologue and a rehash of one of his more iconic movies’ final scene.

A plot with immense potential is rendered impotent by an overindulgent second half, average acting, uninspired dialogue and an overall terrible execution fails to make me a Fan. Shameless product placement for a car giant and even more absurd placement for an international remittance company who get their tag line mentioned not once, not twice but three times make this movie unbearable.  A movie that wants to be a study of the psychology of obsession but gets in its own way by trying to be a thriller is a movie best left alone.  Rewatch Swades or Chak De instead and reminisce what SRK was capable of.

 

 

Wazir – A Review

Bejoy Nambiar directs Farhan Akhtar, Amitabh Bachchan and Aditi Rao Haidari in chess inspired revenge thriller Wazir in a story written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra.

 

The story starts with an introduction into Farhan’s idyllic family life where he plays Daanish Ali a Delhi Cop, has a kathak dancer wife Ruhana played by the beautiful Aditi Rao Haidari and an adorable toothless daughter noorie. Disaster strikes when defying all logic he chases down a known terrorist with his daughter in the backseat as his wife is getting her ghunghroo repaired. And this is not the most absurd plot line in the movie.

Farhan amped up on sleeping pills goes on a rampage and kills the said terrorist while the Police are running a parallel operation trying to nab the terrorist alive to get information on the politician-terrorist nexus. Spiralling out of control Farhan tries to kill himself at his daughter’s grave and is stopped from doing that by Amitabh Bachchan. Amitabh Bachchan teaches Farhan Chess and helps him get his life on track and enlists him in his fight to nail the perpetrators behind his daughter’s death.

There is John Abraham playing a Kashmir Cop and Neil Nitin Mukesh playing the eponymous Wazir and while these actors are not exactly brimming with talent, their limited talents are also wasted with a half-baked  plot lines.For what is a short movie it feels overlong and poorly paced. The editing or the lack thereof is really what sinks the ship. For what could have been an intelligent thriller is rendered boring and insipid with its watered down plot and dumbed down narrative. The problem with Bollywood is that it has never owned a Wren and Martin or never attended figures of speech class. While going for Metaphors it ends up doing Simile. While trying to make the narrative complex and interesting using Chess moves as metaphors for calculated moves Daanish must make to help nail the culprits Amitabh ends up speaking out loud everything just in case Farhan doesn’t get it. And the final climax which you can see coming from a mile away is made even more obvious when a Child is asked to lay out the plot in sobbing bursts of storytelling while Farhan holds a gun over the head of a fearsome terrorist. Coincidence is a mark of lazy storytelling and it is on glorious display here.

While watching a director’s round table with a popular film critic one director made a very important point of how the Indian movies are made with the interval in mind and how that breaks the flow of the story – while that director was speaking of it in defence of intervals and how it helps with long stories here it couldn’t be more unnecessary. For a movie with a total running length of 80 minutes the interval is entirely unnecessary and it manages to deflate whatever little energy the movie manages to build leading up to the said interval. And the other Achilles heel of Bollywood? Pointless songs! The whole movie can be broken down into 2 parts – the one part where nothing really happens in normal speed and with no background score and the other where nothing happens in slow motion with one monotonous song playing in the background regardless of the situation at hand. I almost gasped when at the end they had a song sung by Amitabh playing as the credits rolled and not the overused “Tu Mere Pass”

What could have been slick almost psychological thriller is watered down and made so bland I can’t believe how excited I was when the trailer first released months ago. Amitabh is good as is Farhan but the story is overly simplistic and the non-existent editing and over direction is what kills this story. Want a well written, competently directed and marvellously edited thriller? You’d be better served by rewatching Kahani instead and not waste your time with this tepid mess.

Nightcrawler- A Review

Dan Gilroy directs Jake Gyllenhaal in the creepy crime drama Nightcrawler based on the life of a desperate and unemployed man who uses his resourcefulness to bring breaking news stories to crime obsessed news networks.

The story begins with Lou Bloom played by the brilliantly creepy Jake Gyllenhaal is stopped mid-heist while he is trying to make away with the wire-fence, using his strangely engaging way of talking (think Aaron Sorkin style dialogue but delivered by someone on valium in slow dulcet tones) he comes near and then overpowers the security guard and makes away with his watch.  When trying to make a sale to a building construction manager he tries to sweet talk him into a job but when he is called a thief he just smiles and walks away. This is Lou Bloom a perfectly nice guy but you get the sense that something isn’t quite right with him.

A chance encounter with a freelance videographer sets Lou on a path which drives the rest of the movie. When trying to make the sale of his first video of a gruesome gun shooting he meets Nina played ably by Rene Russo. Nina is the ratings hungry morally corrupt news producer of what Lou calls as the Vampire shift of the lowest ranking LA news channel.  But Nina soon realizes that Lou could be the ratings golden goose she has been looking for.

At under 2 hours the movie is crisply written and directed. It takes us on a journey as we learn more about Lou and his ambitions and get increasingly creeped out by the silly grin permanently plastered on his face. During the course of the movie we see Lou talking like an audiobook on management, a self-help book, A Hallmark Card (Friends are the gift we give ourselves) and a performance management cheat sheet that every manager will be familiar with.

Lou is assisted in his twisted venture by Rick played by Riz Ahmed, a homeless guy who answers an Ad by Lou and ends up being his police-code-decrypter and GPS-navigator as Lou races through downtown LA to get to the scene of the crime. Rick plays a moral compass of sorts to Lou but is easily distracted by the prospect of making more money.

As Lou gets better at his job, you start seeing that this strange push-over of a man is no pushover infact. The scene at the Mexican restaurant while laugh-inducing is also particularly creepy as you start seeing what a dangerous man he really is.

Robert Elswit does a most fantastic job of cinematography as the director of photography. He shoots the breakneck pace at which Lou drives with a steady and unwavering precision. The masterful use of the Sodium filled yellow street lights to give the entire landscape a ghoulish glow and flashing red and blue of the police cars to reflect the dancing madness in the eyes of Lou is masterful indeed. In the hands of a lesser director, cinematographer combo  this could have ended up being a hand-held camera shot, nausea inducing chase-fest. But by taking us along for the ride Elswit puts us squarely in the middle of the action and the results are exceptional. At one point I was holding both hands on my head as Lou drives along a police car chase.  The music by James Newton Howard is subtle and understated and does the job perfectly of capturing the still of the night punctured by the crime scenes, those who perpetrated the crimes and those who work tirelessly to enforce the law.

Nightcrawler is an easy entertaining thriller with excellent acting and stunning visuals. But it is also a character study into what drives the people who blur the lines of journalistic ethics to feed the public greed for sensationalized news or perhaps even the paparazzi fueled celeb-obsessed culture of ours. This is a sensational movie for all the above mentioned reasons, which makes no compromises in its characters, its story or its execution.  Do not miss this one because with a relatively weak best actor field this one could be Jake Gyllenhaal’s ticket to the big ball.

Gone Girl – A Review

David Fincher – the dark master of modern cinema directs Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl, a story about a beautiful and talented wife who goes missing on the day of her fifth anniversary.  David Fincher has one of the most impressive filmography in Hollywood today and among those are stand outs like the Oscar darlings,  The Social Network and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and also there are dark messed up masterpieces such as Zodiac and Se7en. File Gone Girl under the Dark messed up masterpieces because what Fincher has achieved in this film based on a screenplay written by the novelist Gillian Flynn, adapted from her own original novel is nothing short of mind-bending madness.

The story kicks off with a forlorn looking Ben Affleck’s Nick Dunne driving into a bar he co-owns with his sister to crib over the disintegration of his marriage when he gets a phone call from a neighbor about his cat straying outside the home. Nick drives back home to what appears to be a crime scene with his wife Amy Dunne played by the enchanting Rosamund Pike nowhere to be found.  What unfolds is a meticulous crime drama that very few are adept at dealing with as Fincher does. With the same restraint he showed with Zodiac, Fincher creates an atmosphere of eerie silence and awkward moments that has you drawn in from the minute Affleck picks up that cat and brings it home.  I wish I could discuss more of the plot of the movie but that would be a massive disservice to those who are yet to see the movie. Suffice to say you will not be prepared for this if you are only going in on Fincher’s credentials and just the trailers. Speaking of trailers, Fincher is not only the master of crafting a beautiful film he is also the master of suspense and the art of smoke and daggers. The trailers only serve to enhance the experience of the movie and the sense of unease that unfolds over the course of its entire length.

Rosamund Pike as the fragile and scared wife and more is brilliant and unnerving, Ben Affleck as the loving husband is just as convincing as he grinning awkwardly in front of his missing wife’s poster. I have always regarded Affleck as a better director than actor but with Gone Girl he proves he is one fine actor as well. Tyler Perry who claims never to have heard of David Fincher is also cast perfectly as Tanner Bolt – the patron saint of the wife killers. Carrie Coon as Affleck’s twin Margo and Neil Patrick Harris as Amy’s obsessive ex-boyfriend Dessie Collins are also brilliant in their roles. Special mention to Kim Dickens who as the southern Detective Rhonda Boney with sass provides the movie’s lighter moments.

Trent Raznor and Atticus Rose once again score Fincher’s Gone Girl after their successful collaboration on the social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. There is something special about this partnership as Raznor and Rose are somehow able to create an atmospheric sound track that perfectly complements Fincher’s quiet and meticulous story telling.  There are no booming sounds or soaring sonatas but just the subtlest of undertones of sound to draw you in even more as Fincher’s characters slowly mumble their way through the story. The experience is all encompassing.

This is a movie that will stay with you for long after you have left the cinema hall, it will still play on your mind even after you feel you have unburdened it by dropping several hundred F-bombs while marveling at what a twisted genius Fincher really is. There will be awkward laughs that will escape you but at the same time it will make you question yourself. This is a movie that will not let you be comfortable – neither while you are watching it nor after the end credits roll. From the opening scene to the scene that closes the movie with the same dialogue the journey that you will be on will be one that you are unlikely to experience again this year or for several years to come. Fincher has the unique ability to mess with his audiences’ minds and get under their skin, he draws you in and toys with your emotions and as if some cliché of a Stockholm syndrome you do not want him to stop doing it to you. This is a master class in how to do a thriller right.

Mardaani – A Review

Pradeep Sarkar directs Rani Mukherjee in Mardaani where she plays a crime branch inspector shivani shivaji roy for whom the issue of human trafficking becomes personal when a girl from a shelter who she treats as her own daughter gets kidnapped and gets sold into sex trade.

I am pleasantly surprised to say that on a day when I saw two movies about femme fatales Rani Mukherjee tops Scarlet Johansson.

Sarkar known more for his period romance Parineeta than action capers also pleasantly surprises in this edge of seat cat and mouse chase which feels fresh and devoid of clichés. Sarkar chooses his antagonist perfectly as a smooth talking, Breaking Bad loving , tech savvy, fresh faced yet ruthless “Under-19 team ka 12^th player” aka Kid ( as helpfully supplied by the subtitles) played marvelously by Tahir Raj Bhasin.

Without delving too deeply into the story of one-upmanship that ensues between Shivani and the Kid it is suffice to say that not for a minute will you be bored in this brilliantly crafted gem.

Sarkar tackles the demon of Children being abducted and sold into Sex-trade and tackles it with such deft and finesse that he achieves the impossible – getting the message across without grossing out the audience or holding up cue cards to navigate them to the moral dilemma or the much-favored hammering the point home so hard that by the end the audience doesn’t give a damn. I was physically shaken and left trembling by the final minutes as the climax unravels and to me that is a clear sign of the movie being impactful.

Rani Mukherjee delivers what I believe is her careers best performance. She is subtle and sharp witted at the same time. Her performance is nuanced to the point where she doesn’t need to mouth a single word or need to bawl to express her anguish, a single tear as she comes face to face with her brother/husband ( I am confused as to who he was supposed to be) who is made a pawn in this game against a criminal mastermind.

The ability to infuse the sense of urgency and the clear and present danger in the first few minutes as bodies begin dropping without the slightest of bangs is near perfection. Sarkar manages to create an atmosphere of intrigue with ease. Also the first phone conversation Shivani has with the Kid as she is unpacking dinner is sheer delight as Rani unperturbed continues as if catching up with an old mate rather the man responsible for having kidnapped her daughter.

I could continue heaping platitudes on the virtues of this movie and it wouldn’t do justice to just how wonderfully surprised I was to come across this days after being subjected to the torture that was Singham Returns. It is movies like these that keep the hope alive that Bollywood still can produce meaningful cinema. If ever there was a need for a sequel this is the franchise. What Sarkar and Rani have created will continue to bear fruits for year to come as long as Sarkar continues to treat each of the forthcoming (hopefully) outings with the same intelligence and freshness as this one.

Do yourself and India as a whole a favor and go watch this movie not only because it is brilliantly directed, acted and crafted, but also because this is a subject matter that has been debated to death but cinema one of the most impactful mediums was doing nothing to spread the awareness and it has finally picked up the gauntlet and with such panache.