Madras Cafe: Brewed Well, but wasn't enough to refresh
Where does Madras Cafe score, the plot overall, definitely was spot on, the characters, particularly that of Prakash Belwadi and John (John I always thought was good in dark, gritty, brooding, action oriented roles, remember Force and Karam, it is comedy where he fumbles and badly) looked good, the locations and the detailing overall was very very authentic. The climax and the bombing of the election rally was extremely well crafted. The overall dark, brooding and the lighting of the film lent an overall tension and a trifle banality to the film. However, there were parts were the boat rocked and Shoojit's control seemed for whatever reasons stretched.
For one, Jaya's role (Nargis Fakhri), I thought had a lot of potential and could never really get delivered. It was a delivery done, and that is about it. The role should have been built and a little more of time invested towards it would have made it a captivating ritual. When John chases down a link (surprise! Dibang from Aaj Tak in a nice little cameo) in Bangkok do we know the depth of information that a journalist (like Jaya) might have (hide) and that depth never really came out in Jaya's character. In short war correspondent's are usually an important link, which failed to get created here (remember Robert Young Pelton). Second, the seriousness of looking serious at the cabinet secretariat meetings or routine RAW briefings etc. etc. shown in adequate measure in the movie. Perhaps, the gravity of the moment never gets translated for reasons of improper casting or for failure to have looked at such real life situations from close reality (perhaps a recee was needed). Look back at any Hollywood movie (even their masala flicks like Executive Decision, Air Force One...) and such scenes of closed door intelligentsia, defense and government meeting look grim, very grim and very very grim at all times. Using characters like Piyush Pandey or Sidharth Basu or repeating some of the casts from Vicky Donor, actually trivialized the moments and I thought they were very important moments, especially in the second half where the scene shifts to New Delhi from Jaffna. The third part is about John's drunk state in the opening sequence. Looked unusual and out of place and his confession at the church, his drinking and everything in general was quite insipid and tame. Fourth, the spirit of Madras Cafe; the plan being hatched in the cafe and the spill over of the same was to me a little lame and the desired dramatization seemed missing (remember French Connection and the store owned by Sal and Angie).
The music was a let down and seemed to boom in rather than sync in. Shoojit's lessons from Platoon and Apocalypse Now would show use of music in such genre of movies are a different league. Shantanu never did justice.
Overall, I will like people to watch this movie for it's honesty and effort in portraying a very dark chapter of Indian history and that of Sri Lanka too, best summed up in the last few ending lines of the movie. We lost a large number of very senior defense officers in IPKF during the war and a lot of lessons from the history is critical for us. The youth of today not born in that era and perhaps not being able to relate to a lot of it must see too. The movie though fictionalized does make it amply clear at the end of it's source in history.
Last word: For whatever is there in it's critic of the movie, movies of this kind are very essential to Indian cinema and a special mention of John Abraham here for reciprocating it by deciding to produce it. Kudos to the man.
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