Analysing films

Mira Nair's 2001 odyssey can best be summed up in her own lines when the film premiered; a movie which is a reality check on Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (a 1994 release from the Hindi film industry); Monsoon Wedding is not an easy film to make and with an ensemble cast with such heavyweights like Nasseruddin Shah, Shefali Shah, Vijay Raaz, Tillotama Shome, Lushin Dubey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapoor, Neha Dubey, Roshan Seth to name a few it really is indeed complex a film to make. Almost 80-85% of the scenes in the movie is showcased in context of marriage as a setting and that is where the scenes will always be populated. And Monsoon Wedding is gem to watch from hereon.  And the keen eye of Mira Nair is therefore to see. One can't help and comment on the fact that Mira's love for film is so pronounced and it shows frame after frame in Monsoon Wedding.  For starters as I said earlier Monsoon Wedding has an extremely strong set of actors from Hindi cinema and pitching them all

This week we delve into Fellini's classic La Dolce Vita. Lo Dolce Vita is not your routine film but an episodic one where each of the incidents happen in silos bounded by three main characters of Mastroianni as the Journalist (Marcello Rubini), his live in partner (Emma) played by Yvonne Furneaux and his intermittent relationship with Maddelena, the character played by Anouk Aimee. And capturing all of these episodic features is the guy we know as Paparazzo from whom the name Paparazzi is what we know "them" as famously today.  The 7 episodes over 7 days in the life of the journalist Marcello captures him while at work and at his personal moments. Often the line separating the personal and professional parts gets so intertwined that one is unable to distinguish. Take for instance the episode which seems to be the least connected with the central plot on the magical power of the tree and the two kids and their chance viewing of Madonna. And our protagonist, Marcello is wor

Today we visit the near silent movie 2011, Drive. The definitive part of Drive is the brilliant Ryan Gosling and his chemistry with Carrey Mullighan, second the minimal lines that the two leads get to speak which means that most of the conversations happens through eye contact and body language which transcends the moment they often spend together and last of the cog in the wheel to me is the constant ramblings of my perennial favourite Bryan Cranston (he was fresh of the success of Breaking Bad).  The movie which was inspired from the 2005 novel of James Sallis was always in the danger of falling in the trap, but it took the vision of the Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn and a brilliant screenplay from Hossein Amini to take the movie to the level of being a genre unto itself. Often the film has striking resemblance in moments to the cult classic Taxi Driver, yet it steers clear of that and carves a niche for itself. Drive takes you on see-saw. It showcases the lows of a see-saw t

This week we delve into the Neeraj Ghaywan, gem, Masaan. The beauty of Masaan lies in its casting and there are no two words about it. The four main characters are perfect in their roles and none of them miss the cue. But, its Vicky Kaushal who in his debut avatar as the boy from the Dom community (the lowest of the Hindu caste who are resigned to burning dead bodies) shines head and shoulder above the rest. Perhaps, Sanjay Mishra with the subtleties in his acting repertoire comes close.  The brilliance of Vicky's acting is often discussed in the scene where he says those tragic lines at the end; Ye dukh khatam kyu nahi hota! But to me, his brilliance actually starts with the opening scene where he is sitting with his friends at the cyber café and tries to decipher the medium of Social Media. His expressions of naivete, innocence, the smile of trying to feel up to the moment and the coy in his behaviour is an absolute class unto itself. He reminds me of Soumitra in Apur Sansar wher

This week we review the classic Eric Rohmer; Pauline at the beach ( Pauline à la plage ). The lockdown was a catalyst to subscribe to the streaming platform Mubi and it has opened up a completely different world to me. There is a problem of plenty on Mubi and there is so much quality content to view that it at times becomes difficult to choose.  However, I decided to choose Eric Rohmer and his cinema which was featured as a series of films and I decided to soak in with the classic Pauline at the beach. Rohmer along with Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol and Rivette are known as icons of New Wave French cinema. Rohmer's work has three distinct phases to his repertoire and Pauline at the beach is from his Comedies and Proverbs phase. It will be interesting to note that Rohmer and several of his contemporary were themselves film critics and were extremely well read and educated directors. Hence, the kind of work they produced between the 50's and the 60's were distinct and carried a l

I think that cinema in India has been produced by dime a dozen and there are a handful that needs to be looked as a definitive movie that sums up a large number of sub-contextual elements. The other day I happened to read a piece of news about Amit Sadh and his experience with Kai Po Che. The workshops they did before the movie went on floors and the time Abhishek Kapoor (the director) spent on thrashing out the characters and how they all miss Sushant now. This got me thinking that why not start a new series on my blogpost about revisiting a definitive movie from any era and then review it from my own perspective. Kai Po Che made perfect sense.  At the onset the movie clearly stands out for being an honest effort from a lot of people, and since it happened to be a debut for several of the leads, the honesty in the performance showed. There have been reams written on how Sushant's (Ishaan) character virtually steals the show. Yes, there are no two words about it. In his debut avata

What can one say about a doyen and a Kimbadonti (meaning legend in Bengali) of Bengali film industry. His death is perhaps another reason for people like us to look back at the simplicity and the greatness attached to a legacy of Soumitra and his work.  Regional cinema in India have had their share of legends often defined by the fan base and the legacy of work. In the south most often legacy is defined by the fan base who often have taken the memories and the trivia associated with the star to an all new level. MGR was one such legacy. The living legend now, Rajnikant is another who continues to inspire a generation. In Bengal, one had Uttam Kumar whose sudden and untimely death had brought the whole state to a halt. Uttam Kumar had the charisma, spontaneity and the screen presence which till today remains unparalleled.  And that is where the contrast of Soumitra Chatterjee lay. He was often compared to the legacy of Uttam Kumar and the media/fans and everybody tried to bring in a sen

Chaalaang is the classic feel good movie to be watched on a Sunday evening with the family around. Clean and largely expletive free, it works for an extremely strong cast to boot and a storyline though wobbly in some places makes up with the right screen time and good editing. A little over 2 hours the run time is just enough to keep you glued to the seat. Anything more than this it would have been like the other recent release; Ludo; where the extra 20-30 minutes from the middle drags the film down.  Chaalang has an array of talent to boot. There is Saurabh Shukla, Satish Kaushik, Illa Arun, Jatin Sarna and of course Zeeshan Ayub Quadri (who cowrites the film too). Then there is a running chemistry of Hansal Mehta and Rajkumar Rao who have had an history of Omerta, Aligarh, Citylights... together. The weight of these actors and their chemistry wears down heavily on the frames of Nushrat Bharucha for whom after a time carrying it gets difficult and she seems to pale out. Chaalang has a

  At the start while reviewing Ludo; mandatory disclosure; Catch and Snatch kind of movies usually have a max viewing time of 90 minutes and anything above that it starts to get a tad iffy and "lost" even. And that is where the problem of Ludo run time is and  they could have done away with the middle 30-40  minutes of the film. Those were times when the film actually lost the plot and meandered into finding answers to every plot lines it had introduced. A film that starts well with a modern day Chitragupt and Yama (Anurag Basu looking impressive) looking for answers to life and gradually builds the plot of four different tracks (A la blue, red, yellow and green ludo dots) and each one with a back story that typically collides at different times of life and moments. There is an Abhishek Bachchan plot, a Rajkumar Rao plot, an Aditya Roy Kapur plot and finally the impressive Rahul Saraf plot. The plots all converge to Sattu Bhaiyya (Pankaj Tripathi) in some way or the other mea

Today we delve into the mind of Richard Linklater and his classic movie; School of Rock. School of Rock is one of Linklater's underrated films and he is known more for the iconic film, Boyhood. But School of Rock holds an important place of its own. The film started on a premise of a failed Rock Band singer trying to fit himself into the mainstream (make some money to earn a living) and in the process fakes as Temp teacher to get into a premier and elite Private School (as a proxy to his friend) and thereby gathering the momentum amongst a deadbeat set of students already loaded with the parochial and archaic pedagogy of modern education (a kind of ridicule on the modern education which is incentivized at every step). School of Rock is not a regular music based film but goes beyond the realm of it to showcase how passion is important in things that you want to do. An iconic Jack Black (Dewey Finn) was just the right guy to play the failed musician and his energy, passion and love f