Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar

-

 


Dibakar Banerjee with his first outing, Khosla ka Ghosla was fantastic, with his second, Oye Lucky he was good in parts and with the experimental Love Sex aur Dhokha (LSD) he was at his best. And after that he lost it. In between he did produce the amazing little gem, Titli. But after, LSD he has not reached the scale, which he did with his first three outings. Interestingly, if you chance to see a few other directors who came to the scene along with Dibakar, also have similar filmography. Shoojit Sarcar, Onir, Tigmanshu, Nadvdeep Singh etc. The first 3-4 films remain their bete noir and then lose plot in the later tales. 

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (SAPF) falls in the same category of Dibakar. It starts with a great plot and context but loses out eventually to some bad casting (especially the two leads) and in the later half with lack of plot. One had expectations with Varun Grover as the co-writer on board. Or maybe the Director did not find a better way to close the plot. Set in the backdrop of a bank scam by the owners and one of them being made the scapegoat, the film opens well. The leads who are suddenly unwanted in their respective ecosystem and the planners or baiters do not bait an eyelid to bump them off. SAPF for one, the opening sequence is heady and creates enough room for the viewers to expect something will HAPPEN. The casting credits are  amazingly shot with a single take on a set of people in the car and by the end when the credit title is over, the three characters in the car are bumped off. And, as viewers you sit tight for some riveting experience. Alas!

SAPF, after the first 30 minutes loses the plot, when the two leads decided to head for Nepal via Pithoragarh to escape the cops hot on their heels. Arjun Kapoor remains himself. Wooden, plump and misfit. The guy, simply cannot act and that's a given. What could have been a tailor made role for someone more talented and brilliant, it simply got passed onto a less deserving. Unfortunately, the guy does not even have a screen presence to boot (something Salman Khan has lived with for a very long time and his only claim to fame). Parineeti tries hard but is good in parts. Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav after their chemistry in Panchayat (the web series) take off further from where they let off. The film somewhere gets lifted through the feeble shoulders and excellent support cast of Devendra Chouhan, Rahul Kumar (of 3 Idiots fame) and Sukant Goel. The three with little screen time do justice to their roles and especially, Devendra Chouhan and Rahul Kumar as father and son characters (they actually look father and son) stand out. 

SAPF has some amazing sound and especially the use of Santoor is experimentalized and brings a sense of melancholy to the moment (background music is by Dibakar himself and he doesn't disappoint us). The Pithoragarh backdrop adds to the twists in the plot and the marriage sequences in traditional attire and rituals being followed are wonderfully shot. There is a moment in the film where the two leads are tucked in a forest and hiding in a scenic looking yet dilapidated house. I think that perhaps shows the detailing in the location hunting the crew and the director have done. Apparently, Dibakar hailing from the region does help in showcasing the eye for detail around the locations. The climax at the bridge which is the India-Nepal border is a mesmerizing locale and it is so sad to have watched the film on the OTT. Somethings are best reserved for the cinema halls when the darkness descends and the loudest sounds are the popcorn chugging and the screen lights up to life. That's the sheer joy and scale to experience. OTT can never take that away from a big screen release.  

SAPF is a one time watch for the plot, for the excellent locale of Pithoragarh and an extremely whacky number of Anu Malik and even whackier dance number, shot on Arjun Kapoor (I guess that was something which remained his silver lining moment in the film). The song titled Faraar has some very basic lyrics and is classic mash-up of the 80's and 90's kind of hash(y) stuff and classic Anu Malik voice (part basal part nasal) to pair it up. 

It barged onto Amazon Prime. Go watch!   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dhoom 3: Overrated, Over-hyped, and an over the top Aamir Khan

-
Image
Coming back to writing a piece after a very long time. I think about 3 months. Unfortunately, there was not a single film worth mention that released between now and September that is worth a shot. For that matter there is nothing in 2013 that is actually worth a mention. There were so MANY films and so much of hype and so much of marketing built around these films, but each one was a disappointment and perhaps a bigger one preceding the other. We come to that in a recap of 2013, probably as a next piece. But for now, it is Dhoom 3. What to write? What to say? Frame after frame it is Aamir Khan and not one but two, did I give out the suspense? Well nothing much in giving it away, as there is nothing at stake in the movie to give it away. YRF, Vijay Krishna Acharya, and everybody involved in the process of making the movie seems more enamored than anything else with the lead star. Makes you feel bad for Jai Dikshit and Ali. And as luck would have it, the only parts of the movie wh
Read more

Ramu Kaka, the family Physician, Kheer, Silk Gown et al...

-
Image
  Cinema is a medium to convey a message; message which are verbal or visual based. It has the power to alter narrative or perhaps the discourse too. In the 50's 60's and even more pronounced in the 70's and 80's film stars commanded a huge influence on the audience. Hair style, clothes and accessories were copied by audience blindly. The Sadhana Cut became a famous hairstyle or the bouffant of Asha Parekh or the Sharmila Tagore style eye liners; even the men folk were not left behind. The ear hiding hairstyle of Amitabh Bachchan or the bell bottom or the unbuttoned shirt (only the first 2-3 buttons) went on to be cult classics. But, this rage was/is actually a global phenomena. It happened across the world and it still continues to create a sense of dystopian world which audience are more than happy to lap up.  In more recent times, two Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai and later Zindagi Na Mile Dobara went on to change the way how youth looked at lifestyle and travel. Infac
Read more

Buno Haansh: If you have read the story, don't go

-
Image
Like I said in the title, if you have the read the original, which I think came out in the last or last to last year, Sharodiya Shonkha, do not watch the film as it is a complete let down. But if you have not read the original by Samaresh Majumdar, the movie is worth a dekko. The way different characters starting from the protagonist Amal to the characters, Shohag, Rijula and even all sundry characters develop are no where close to the original. What further adds to the agony, the climax scene which has been altered keeping Dev's image into account, which is unfortunate. The film to put it simply lacks the desired drama and the suspense, which if one has read the book will understand. It looks like a narration currently and there are moments where the film falls in a trap of trying to do justice to the book and the creative license it wants to use. Perhaps, this trap always remain when one tries to adapt a story or a classic novel into a cinema format. Some of the classic n
Read more