Movie Review: Om Dar-B-Dar (1988)

Tadpole | Cycle | Diamond | Typewriter | Dream | Ajmer

Brain-nailing keywords right? Yes you exactly are reading my new blog categorized as ‘Movie Review’. You are not in a humble mistake or any point at stake, this is how strange tags for a movie wonders you make. Will you allow me to add few more plot keywords? LOL Let me try to open your jaw;

Horoscope, Radio, Caste, Sleeveless Blouse, Nitrogen, Googly, Counterfeited Coins, Tourists, Promise Toothpaste, Yuri Gagarin, Potassium Cyanide and list goes on…

After the plot keywords or tags, what if I tell you that this Hindi-movie ‘Om Dar-B-Dar‘ was produced in 1988 and commercially released in 26 years!!! Yes it is very unknown to the moviegoers because majority of viewers are more familiar with popular cinema as compared to parallel and mainstream cinema.

But the movie has its critical prominence and has gained a ‘CULT’ status on the badge. This movie won ‘Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie‘ in 1989 and even reached Berlin Film Festival. I heard a lot about it and after watching it, I found it one of the most complicated movie Bollywood has ever produced. 

There are 5 characters existing in Ajmer:

1. Om (Aditya Lakhia) is a carefree kid, a daydreamer. He loves tadpoles and has ability to hold his breath for a long. He is slipped from the edge of bitterness and is mentally a normal person who do not want to accept normality.

2. Om’s father (Lakhsminarayan Shahstri) was a government servant. Now he is an astrologer.

3. Gayatri (Gopi Desai) is Om’s sister bound within her limits. She is liberal by nature who wants to ride a cycle and climb Mount Everest.

4. Jagadish (Lalit Tiwari) is from Jhumri Telaiya. Fell in love with Gayatri and teaches her and her father cycling.

5. Phoolkumari (Anita Kanwar) is dark and mitty character who joins Om’s family. She write sex stories and has no money. Looking for work, she type letters for Om’s father.

ODBD is an experimental movie where 5 characters are connected but prostrate towards the fantasies of life. The sketch-frame is so complex that you will not accept the happenings at once but will flow on you. It is rebellious towards the nature, an absolute outcry.

ODBD is a directional masterclass where the movie-making is very advance from its time, you may call it a post-modern movie. Although the background score is pretty intrusive but the usage of camera technique is remarkable. It is a unique presentation of the world where a hatchling runs over the class attendance sheet and tadpoles become terrorists. 

Another impressive aspect of the movie is very powerful and thought provoking dialogues. With all the silence speaking out loud, the scenes are well translated by the dialogues where the director opens his heart and speaks very deep emotions and illusions.

Two of the dialogues which hit hard on brain is when Om speaks his heart out “Mere pass hone ke liye zaruri hai ki mera sapna fail ho jaye” trans. “It is important to fail my dream in order to succeed”. I have to repeat the scene to understand Om’s character which defines a lot.

The other dialogue is where Om’s father is annoyed of the term ‘googly’ and tells Phoolkumari to type a letter to prime minister “please ban googly in cricket and life in general”!!!! Just vow!! Googly and life has a very deep relation if you calculate the nature of both the terms philosophically. Literally it is just a dialogue but practically, it hits very hard.

Songs are way absurd but two of the tracks are of cult nature. ‘Babloo Babylon Se’ and ‘Meri Jaan’ are isolated songs with a natural caricature. By cast, all actors have done above average job but Aditya Lakhiya as ‘Om’ is the winner.

ODBD is a nonlinear-narrative and extraordinary movie produced by National Film Development Corporation on a budget of RS. 10 lakh and directed by National-award winner Kamal Swaroop. His CV includes writing dialogues for Mira Nair’s ‘Salaam Bombay’ and assisting Richard Attenborough in ‘Gandhi’. While watching, his direction will remind you works by Satyajit Ray and Stanley Kubrick. 

This movie is recommended only to whose who are more interested in watching parallel or mainstream movies, well actually ODBD is way passive from that cinema too. Even it is hard for me to come with a better review of ODBD due to the weight of absurdity, confusion and utopian creativity. But one thing is for sure that unarguably it is Indian cinema’s one of the greatest Cult Classic ever made.

Ratings: 8.9/10

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Movie Review: Boyhood (2014)

Breathing of childhood, softening of adulthood… Attempt of torture, remedy of nurture… Breaking of bond, Road to abscond…

A haunting image of child which theoretically distracts your wonders of grippiness and merriness. As the time goes by, the pursuit of happiness goes astray. You grow up with melancholy with alcohol supposedly a perfect substitute of water which may quench your soulless thirst. Dramatic and pragmatic!!

Boyhood is an absolute drama with 12 years of shooting on merely a $4 million budget!! By production, it is one of the longest movie ever shot by during of time. Most probably the holder of this unique movie-making record is by Jim Jarmusch whose ‘Coffee and Cigarettes‘ was shot in 20 years.

Coming of age, inking of page!! Lavishly simple study of a boy’s 11-year life. Beyond your expectations and approximations. The movie covers almost every major aspect connected or indirectly connected with life e.g., religion, music, camping, parenting, domestic abuse, teenage sex, breakups, cycling, use of telephone to cellphones or Apple computer to laptops, job complications, preaching, sports, or alcohol etc.

 

Boyhood is like a diary of an innocent child or a ladder not built on basis of success but upon hope and expectations. Those tiny ears which desires to avoid shouting of parents, those eyes which all his 11 years anxiously wait for one eventual hurrah… Boyhood is a journey of a brother and a sister and their sibling-hood, who take emotional steps in coming years. It is an original screenplay to an utmost height that the tiny lil brother and sister actually grows up with the pace of movie from boyhood to adulthood.

The only surprising minus of the whole movie is is truly is ————— the PLOT. I am sorry to disappoint you but yes, the only thing which do not impress me is the story itself. There is nothing fresh in the story. It is daily life experience of almost everyone, some of the stories tragically reach to the lowest point but story has nothing new to tell. The plot sums up to ‘I Know Right’.

So with such an ordinary story, what is so special about the movie to invest your 165 precious minutes of life on it? Is the actual growing of kids in the movie the biggest ‘vow’ factor? Is the movie overrated with the nature of its now being the highest rated movie in metacritic with most no. of critic (49)? Why has Boyhood won 110 awards worldwide so far??

I asked myself such critical questions and without being Newton, I realize that it is all about magnificent balance of technicality of 11-year movie-making and wonderful depiction of natural human life and behavior. The director Richard Linklater is like a philosopher and psychologist equally altogether because with every inch of grown-up scene, he defines the age of character in naturally creative and acceptable way. The mother of siblings gains and loses weight by time, even with time her breasts are augmented *oh my eyes*. Make-up, hair-styling and selection of dresses are fantastic. Dialogues have no limits, the lines vary with the situation and sounds the fittest on character of every age. Those scenes explains you life where drunk father-in-law emotionally tortures, where real father has embarrassing sex-talks with growing daughter in front of her brother, where mother breaks in tears and admitting to her son that her life was a failure, and many many more.

By cast, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette put a heavy-muscle of acting under their belt to beautify the characters and help the movie look more palpable. Growing up kids Ellar and director’s daughter Lorelei are the soul of movie with enough credit to their acceptance of change and growth of mentality over their roles. Judging their acting skills will be naive but plotting their lifetime one-role work towards heavy pull for any nominations will equally be wrong. Background score and selection of soundtracks and their filming is journey like a walk with a whistle.

As far as direction is concerned, I guess every award function should ignore recalling the nominations for ‘Best Director’ and blindly call Linklater’s name to the stage. To me this easily is one of director’s finest work ever. You hardly will see an inch of difference in 12-year direction as the movie was shot with an incomplete plot. The script was written every year and inspired from life experiences of participating major actors. Ethan Hawke’s character was based on his real-life father and Patricia’s role was inspired from her real-life mother. 

Boyhood reaches to viewers of all ages and is unanimously acceptable to almost every viewer. Like I said above, the movie is a study of boy’s 11-year life. It is a must-watch and coming of all ages a generation-periodic movie. The movie is a wake-up call for parents and awareness-alert for the growing and grown-up kids.

Ratings: 9.3/10

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Movie Review: CityLights (2014)

What happens when a poor man from a village looks for a job in a city? What happens when he takes his family and settles down in metro-crowded-noisy city? One can never expect that anything will go absolutely right under his way. There goes a tremendous change in momentum of life and your initial steps are temporary hiccups to accept the changing circumstances over noisy and mad city. Making a movie on it may appeal some positive responses as the viewer takes the movie as something-about-to-happen experience. The movie-makers often make a comedy movie over rural-turn-urban life experience. But some become a socioeconomic subject for critical awareness to make you think how some of us taste such tragic encounters of life-changing gears. Migrated people always have that luck! 

That’s what happened couple of years ago when Sean Ellis made a British movie about a Filipino couples who had a land-migrating life-changing tragic experience from one part of Philippines to the other. The movie was ‘Metro Manila‘ that was Britain’s official entry for Best Foreign-Language Film at 86th Academy Awards last year. 

Metro Manila was an inspiration movie which reached to the doors of Indian movie industry. Citylights is produced under the banners of Vishesh Films and is official Indian remake of Metro Manila. Hansal Mehta was picked for the direction and the production of movie cost only ₹7 crore. Cast includes Rajkummar Rao (Love Sex aur Dhokha, Kai Po Che, Shahid), Manav Kaul and Rajkummar’s real-life girlfriend Patralekha. Set up is a poor young family of Rajasthan who migrates to Mumbai for money, better job and better future. Traveling all over from Rajasthan relying on one of close friend who never shows his face are all alone, homeless and self-dependent struggling to settle in crazy-life of Mumbai.

Hansal-Rajkummar collaborates as director-actor for the second time after critical acclaimed movie Shahid. Director put all faith in viewers to promise yet another splendid movie with powerful performances by Rajkummar and Manav Kaul.  

Rajkummar Rao is one amazing Haryana-born acting talent who always mesmerizes you with any role he plays. His characters are challenging. Since 2013, he is in magnificent form and picking very selective movies to bring a lot of critical attention among the movie pundits, journalists and sensible moviegoers. Citylights is his 3rd critical acclaimed performance after Kai Po Che and Shahid. As compared to KPC and Shahid, this role is more tougher. This character is more broken and shattered, and his migration with young wife and little daughter becomes a curse. Lost in the citylights, he is compromised with the naked truth that poverty is a disease and and every honest man is to be stripped. There are many high points in the movie and truly the most powerful scene is when he is drunk and return to his wife.

Citylights is an absolute portray of betrayal and gear-shift morale-collapsing tragic life-story. It is an emotional roller-coaster and depiction of fake-expectation of something called ‘Ray of Hope’ where survival is not in your fate. You are supposed to fell down from your own roof. One of best movies of 2014. Thumbs up for Hansal-Rajkummar partnership!

RATING: 8.8/10

Movie Review: Gulaab Gang (2014)

When producers decide to produce a movie on a very important subject, they should promise that they will choose an experienced director. The biggest reason why ‘Gulaab Gang’ failed to impress on box-office despite casting Bollywood’s two massive actresses, is the direction. Soumik Sen who wrote flop movies like Anthony Kaun Hai?, Ru-Ba-Ru and Meerabai Not Out, is handed responsibility to direct the movie for the first time in his career. Not only did he direct, but even compose music :S How can producers go for a debutant director when industry has some big names to make socio.political movies like Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen), Tigmanshu Dhulia (Paan Singh Tomar) or Rahul Dholakia (Parzania)?

Now before I insult this movie, let me give you brief about actual gang as opposed to what you have to expect or already have watched. The name is not Gulaab Gang but Gulabi Gang and was founded by Sampat Pal Devi when she was 20 years old. She is now a social activist from Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. This gang was founded to fight against violence against women. This gang is running for past 33 years and is composed of almost 270,000 members according to Hindustan Times and 400,000 members till 2014 according to Al-Jazeera report.

The movie begins with introductory narration by one of the best narrators in film industry. Nope not Raza Murad, not even Amitabh Bachchan nor Gulzar saab. Who are they? I am talking about Anil Kapoor. Yes Anil Kapoor!! :S The jhakaas guy has delivered his voice for couple-of-minute narration. The village is called Madhavpur which actually is in Nepal :S If I call it Madhavpur Ghed, then it is in state of Gujrat but not in U.P. 

Too much fictional work on such an important subject wastes the enthusiasm of watching it. Name of Sampat Pal Devi is Rajjo in movie. She wanted to study but her step-mother didn’t let her. In few seconds, adult Rajjo has her ashram!!! :S For God sake!! Why the origin of gang is ruthlessly ignored?? How come the director just think of making his point to dismiss the logic of ladies in pink saaris holding bamboo sticks. You have to show some piece of origins even if it take 5 minutes.All we know is that they are for protection of women against every violence but what exactly made Sampat Devi form this gang? 

Gang’s main members don’t even look that rural as the reality is. The way the gang members talk, few of them are even showing their sexy bellies put a huge doubt of Rajjo’s motto of running the gang. You won’t believe it but Rajjo’s gang is also a group of dancers, they know the song played in the air and have practiced dance steps to play together. And strong-on-paper Rajjo will all of a sudden present her latkas and jhatkas because Rajjo knows the viewers will enjoy all this. Action scenes are very terrible, some gulabi ladies hit men so hard that they even flew away :P

Madhavpur political interference is the heat which blows off when rivalry of two different faces take another stage. Two faces of coin and two big actresses of same era which is the most important marketing propaganda of the movie dumps with a jaw dropper. Madhuri Dixit and Juhi Chawla share the screen for the first time in 28 years and appeared together only 4 times in the whole movie but sadly there was no heat. Director failed to create magic.

If movie has anything to look after for that is only Madhuri Dixit. She brings the soul in Rajjo character. While Juhi Chawla just couldn’t fit in the role nor was she that tough to play the role of antagonist. We have seen corrupt minister or politician a billion times in movies played by men and this lady need no introduction for this role as it is understood that she will bring omen to Rajjo party. In assistancy, Gangor-fame Priyanka Bose and Divya Jagdale did fair job but as I said before, these individuals don’t resemble gulabi ladies. Imagine ladies like Nandita Das, Seema Biswas, Divya Dutta or even Pratima Kazmi being gulabi would bring some realism. Forget all ladies, Madhuri playing Sampat Devi!!! It was just director’s strategy to publicize the movie with Madhuri-Juhi element, the formula which didn’t work. 

Another reason of this movie failing in box-office was the international documentary ‘Gulabi Gang‘ which showed true origins and stories of the gang. Sampat Devi herself was part of the documentary. This documentary released in India a week before Gulaab Gang. With origins understood, a fictional or fake movie was discouraged by the viewers. And I will also recommend the readers to watch Gulabi Gang instead of this failed venture.

Ratings: 3.5/10

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The Green Pickety-Booo

30 days left in the beginning of cricket’s biggest fever and Pakistan’s 15-man squad is finally out. As usual Pakistan Selection Committee (PSC) is at its best in surprising cricket fans with strange announcement of squads. Major surprise is fast bowler Sohail Khan’s inclusion and Fawad Alam’s exclusion.

Ok I don’t get it!!!! Although Sohail Khan is a good selection to be honest because he is leading wicket taker in local cricket league with 64 wickets at 22 this season but but but, why his inclusion is surprising is due to the fact that he was not in 30-man preliminary squad!!!!! :S 

Please correct me if I am wrong, I might be getting hyper but Sohail wasn’t picked in 30-man probables. Was he picked in Saeed Ajmal‘s place because he withdrew himself from the CWC15? Might be possible if I didn’t hear such news. If not then why is Sohail Khan even picked? If performances in recent domestic games were considered to finalize 15-man squad then on what basis had the selectors selected 30 players?? :S Sorry to say but Pakistan Selection Committee has trolled the readers and cricket fans yet again and I am not surprised. PSC has a proud history of trolling and they always come up with strange announcements. Do anyone at this moment remember, Javed Miandad wasn’t picked in 1992 World Cup??? He joined the team later after convincing the-then PSC and Javed’s response is history.

Anyhow I am very pleased to see our kukri-man Sohail Tanvir and struggling limited-overs batsman Asad Shafiq are out of final 15. Calling Sohail Tanvir an all-rounder is the same deception what Indian cricket fans had about Ajit Agarkar. Very expensive bowling and limited resources of dead-end batting. PSC has sacrificed many promising all-round talents for his sake. In Asad’s case, he is more of a First-class cricket player than a limited-overs batsman. He was given enough chances to come up with at least one big hit but failed. So it is a good relief. Asad should concentrate on test career as that format is promising for him.

Another sigh of relief is omission of 18-months wrong comeback fatty Nasir Jamshed. Legend says captain-coach had requested the PSC to pick Nasir as their 3rd opener!!!! Would you believe this?? Having Ahmad Shahzad and Mohammad Hafeez, you have another option in attacking-minded Sarfraz Ahmad. Isn’t it strange that PSC select or ignore individual’s performance on one-series instead of considering a very very consistent player.

Take a look, Nasir Jamshed brutally failed almost the whole of 2013-14 season but one series for Pakistan A against U.A.E. with one big knock of 134 put the PSC into consideration of his possible international comeback!! Same goes with 2 solid left-hand middle order batsmen in Fawad Alam and Haris Sohail. After almost 4 years of international comeback, Fawad proved his worth in Asia Cup 2014 and justified his performances in crisis against Sri Lanka in ODI series but one bad series against Australia all of a sudden put a question mark on his performance and his possible selection for CWC15. On the other hand, Haris Sohail got one extremely good series against the Kiwis in recently concluded ODI series enough to legitimize his selection in final 15.

After dropping Fawad after one bad Australian ODI series, he kept performing on domestic circuit in almost every game and was still not considered!! Fawad is the man of crisis situation where he is an extreme situation-batsman like Abdul Razzaq was in the past. He proved that point against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Asia Cup. With 300+ ODI run in 2014, Fawad had 5th highest overall average of 69 and highest among Pakistani batsmen. From any case, Fawad’s exclusion from final 15 is one of the most shocking announcements.

Middle-order was always going to be a problem for selectors with capable names in Fawad Alam, Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal, Haris Sohail and late entry of ODI-veteran Younis Khan. With Misbah-ul-Haq an automatic choice for captain, Younis Khan’s comeback hundred against Kiwis played a wild card to plot him no.3 in final 15. Umar Akmal’s healthy ODI average and strike rate always compel the selectors to keep him in the team as he benefits you as 2nd choice wicket-keeper. It has been 6 international cricket years but still he may carry the tag of being immature batsman who gets dismissed by playing silly sluggish shots. Somehow captain and coach are also to blame as his batting order has changed many time which unease him to settle down. Sohaib Maqsood gives you important stands and play situation-cricket but he is poor in running between the wickets, but no doubt a very talented batsman.

All-rounders!!!! Although I don’t want but as the situation demands, Shoaib Malik should have been picked in Mohammad Hafeez’s place. Hafeez’s bowling is suspended by ICC, so his batting service is a liability on fast bouncy pitches. Hafeez already has been exposed by Dale Steyn in the past. Ok why Shoaib Malik? Because he is also an all-rounder, more experienced than Hafeez, who even has experience of Australian pitches due to his participation in Big Bash. When it comes to running between the wickets and specially rotating the strike, Hafeez is nowhere in front of Shoaib.

Anwar Ali is not selected and is a good decision. He has lost his charm in bowling what he had when we watched him in U-19 World Cup Final against India in 2006. Due to that particular match, viewers kept expecting from him but his response has been sluggish. Shahid Afridi remains the other oh wait a minute the only all-rounder in the squad!!! :S This shows PCB had no planning for the CWC15. They should have began preparing the team at least a year ago to fetch some good young talents and play them some games with freedom like others do. Hammad Azam could have easily hit the list of probables and could have been automatic choice in final 15. Besides Lala, they ignored every all-rounder from the probables. Amazing!!

Glad to see Kamran Akmal didn’t show up in final 15. He did not even deserve to be in the probables. Mohammad Rizwan should have been considered. Sarfaraz Ahmad is unanimous choice as he is one of the most improved wicket-keeper batsman. He can be promoted as opener as he is an attacking mind batsman who will utilize 1st powerplay better than Hafeez. 

Bowling department has some soul but a very very inexperienced side. Sohail Khan was discussed in the beginning. Other name is Ehsan Adil of which I am not that sure but yes his first-class record is extraordinary. Yasir Shah is the lone recognized spinner chosen over Zulfiqar Babar and Raza Hasan. It is a good selection because Australian pitches are favorable for leg-spinners more than off-spinners.

Major plus is return of Junaid Khan. His opening partnership with lanky Mohammad Irfan will be a threat for the batsmen. Both paces more than 140 kph easily. And on Australian fast and bouncy pitches, Junaid’s swing and Ifran’s extra bounce will play a vital role. 3rd fast bowler Wahab Riaz lacks line and length and also do not collect enough wickets to justify his selection. He his picked only for his pace which is very ideal on those pitches. All three are incidentally left-hand bowlers.

Besides Afridi and three lefty fast bowlers, the whole department of bowlers have played only 8 ODIs in aggregate. Ehsan played his last ODI back in 2013 but Sohail and Yasir played in national side 4 years ago. So these 3 bowlers with a lot of talent but no experience in international circuit have to perform in huge pressure. Hope they do justice. 

 

Out of these 15 players, 9 are touring Australia for the first time in any format that includes the whole bowling department besides Lala. 40-year-old captain Misbah will play ODIs in Australia for the first time and wicket-keeper Sarfraz has played only one ODI. Shahid Afridi stands the player with most experience who is consistently touring Australia since 1997-98 World Series. He was even part of ICC World XI which played ODI series in 2005 against Ponting’s mighty Australian side. This will also be Lala’s 5th and last World Cup. With this campaign, he will retire from ODIs.

Pakistan’s last tour to Australia was the-then worst touring record in cricket history when they badly lost by 9-0 (3 tests, 5 ODIs & T20I). Pakistan’s last victorious moment in Australia was back in 2002 when Shoaib Akhtar’s inspirational bowling made Pakistan win 2-1. Their golden moment in Australia stands 1992 World Cup glory.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) should have implemented plans for World Cup preparations a long time ago. Most of their international games have been played in Gulf region and World Cup pitches are way different than the former. Pakistan team suffer poor ODI record at temporary HOME conditions in U.A.E. with same repeated traditional mistakes like misunderstanding and wrong calls while running between the wickets, mediocre fielding and dropping catches and psychological errors like chasing the targets and increasing inning run-rates etc. 

With such team, I expect Pakistan team reach maximum to Quarterfinals stage. Reaching the semis will be an extraordinary stuff. Reaching the final would be considered an achievement and honor, and winning it would be a MIRACLE!! Should we believe in miracle??? Of course why not?? Cricket’s only thing which is unpredictable is called ‘Pakistan’. Like PSC, this team also has surprised to the viewers and fans with their performances many time. May the unpredictability has its say and may the best and deserving team win…

My Pakistan XI from this squad: 1. Ahmad Shahzad 2. Sarfraz Ahmad 3. Younis Khan 4. Misbah-ul-Haq 5. Sohaib Maqsood or Haris Sohail 6. Umar Akmal 7. Shahid Afridi 8. Sohail Khan 9. Yasir Shah 10. Junaid Khan 11. Mohammad Irfan

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Movie Review: Mary Kom (2014)

Considering the fact, the boxing movies are always a great pleasure to watch like Rocky, Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby and many more, same expectations are in other movie industries. In Bollywood, I remember Aamir Khan starrer Ghulam had some meat to offer although it was not really a boxing movie. Sohail Khan’s Aryan was Abhishek Kapoor’s first directional success before he went on to make Rock On and Kai Po Che. With a new trend in Bollywood of making biographic movies on sportsmen in India and with major box-office success in Paan Singh Tomar and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, we expect more from last year’s Priyanka Chopra starrer Mary Kom which despite a great box-office success, I found major disappointment.

Mary Kom is legendary figure in Indian sports and world of boxing. She holds breath taking CV with her being 4-times Asian Boxing Champion and 5-times World Amateur Boxing Champion!!! Phewww if that is not enough, then furthermore she is the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships and first Indian woman boxer to win Gold Medal in Asian Games history which happened in Incheon 3 months ago.  

As the human factor subjects prominence in many many legendary careers of greatest and finest names in sports, Mary Kom is no different as she can easily be labeled with the same line ‘an ordinary person with extraordinary story’. But for the sake of entertainment and gleaming box office success to ensure the producers earn a calculated turnover, a true story is minced and realism is denied. 

Being produced by big-pocket names Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Bhansali Productions, the director for such an important project is chosen a first timer!! :S Omung Kumar‘s CV is mostly of Art Direction and Production Designing. Name like legendary Mary Kom deserves a perfect bio epic movie with the most bullet details of her personal and professional life. Many chapters were ignored and many were framed into incorrect times and events. Her childhood part is ruthlessly ignored in minutes. Mary Kom as hardly 8-year-old child finds a glove in the beginning of movie and all of a sudden within a minute, 17-year-old Mary Kom is fighting in college :S How can one ignore the childhood part as she came from a very poor Manipur family whose bread and milk was by working slash-and-burn??

Despite a narrative sketch of brilliant husband-wife chemistry in the movie, one character the director failed to present was Mary Kom’s father-in-law, who was a very important figure in her biography. Her father-in-law was murdered by some gunmen back in 2006 and at that stage, Mary Kom blamed his death on herself and almost gave up her boxing career. Her husband had decided to join rebel group to take revenge of his father’s death. What an important phase of her life never screened!!!

The final fight against her old rival is even a joke. No such incident happen such as shown in the movie as the movie sustained its root to recognize from a typical Bollywood movie. Even the event of final fight is confusing whether it was 2008 World Championship or later. If I assume it was 2008, the movie shows that her rival destroys her in first 2 or 3 rounds and then all of a sudden, the character returns in larger-than-life contest to beat her and take the title, whereas in reality Mary Kom owned her 7-1 in the final :S

Despite winning 5 world titles, the proudest moment in Mary Kom’s career was participation in 2012 London Olympics as for the first time in Olympics history, Women Boxing was included and Mary Kom was one of 36 participants among which she reached 3rd and won Bronze Medal. How in the world director never filmed this biggest moment???

If the movie is planned to watch, then there are only two reasons. One is to know Mary Kom’s life which I have reviewed above how it has been screwed. And other reason which actually is the only plus point of the movie is the soul itself – Priyanka Chopra as Mary Kom. If her mental strength was enough tested in Barfi, here she presented her physical element. Extremely tough physical exercises and her body and soul segmented between a life of boxer and wife equally raises the applauds. She surely makes you think of Million Dollar Baby’s Hillary Swank (I am not comparing ok!!). She is strong and fully ready to take on and suffer many punches in life.

In her character, the only aspect where she couldn’t catch Mary Kom probably was her Manipuri Hindi accent. That was missing. She tried her level best but that is the problem when such an important role to the artist is taught by a teacher/director but here actress has over a decade experience in her profession then the number of times Omung Kumar has sat on director’s seat while shooting.

Rating: 4.5/10

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Movie Review: Finding Fanny (2014)

 

Pocolim | Virgin Widow | Dead Cat | Romantic Postman | Nude Painting | Big Butt | Fanny

Scintillating and Ravishing…..

Your favorite dish is in your plate right at time, only an ass will avoid eating on time…

Before the curtains are raised, the viewer is subjected to tell the reason of watching the movie… exactly my words!!! Finding Fanny!!! Imagine yourself in your sixties as postman by sour fate. When you were a boy, you loved someone with sheer madness and posted a chitthi to her. But 46 years later you somehow realize in your sixties that the letter was never delivered and you lived your 46 years in impression I mean depression that she read your chitthi and rejected the proposal. Oh boy!!! you definitely will cry out loud… 

Eyes of Pocolim ope, introduction of core characters begin. Postman Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah) will go on quest, his most caring friend Angie (Deepika Padukone) will accompany him. But they don’t have vehicle. Angie will ask for favor from his childhood friend, mechanic Savio (Arjun Kapoor), to borrow her a car which he fixes. But car is under ownership of artist Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapur) who is mad in love with her mother-in-law Mrs. Rosie (Dimple Kapadia). Surely a life-changing road trip is expected whether the old man finds his Fanny or not. 

First and first of all… it will take the whole duration of movie to find out if the movie really belongs to Bollywood because of its extremely rich portray of realistic sketching of realism and technicality of film making. No doubt, Homi Adajania had presented rich colors of movie-direction in his debut movie ‘Being Cyrus‘ but after watching ‘Finding Fanny‘, one must say he has mastered his directional skills.

Why ‘Finding Fanny’ is so fresh and richly entertaining to viewers?? The biggest reason is the effort of writing its screenplay. Homi spent a month in village Salvador do Mundo of Goa and researched/learnt its culture and local Goan Catholics. Then rest of draft-work plus dialogues and screenplay was done by Kersi Khambatta who came up with this FF story, lengthy enough to shape it in novel which will be released this year.

To call ‘Finding Fanny’ a comedy movie will be an error, even romantic drama won’t fit in genre. I am confound but movie is an absolute art of realism because every aspect related to movie is touchy and pure natural whether we observe emotional tragedies, rudeness of a lover boy, quest of an old man for a hungry 46-year-old lost love and much more…

Let me go to that level, Homi’s art of making ‘Finding Fanny’ will remind the viewer Wes Anderson‘s. I see auteurism and story-sketching is very narrative (more than Deepika’s narration). Movie is multi-lingual. Super-fabulous work by one of best cinematographers, Anil Mehta (Lagaan, Veer-Zara, Rockstar) and one of finest movie-editors, A. Sreekar Prasad (Dil Chahta Hai, Kannathil Muthamittal, Guru). 

With a budget of mere  15 crore, the entire shooting was done in different villages of Goa and completed in only 36 days. Costumes used in the movie matches the demand of locality, designed by Anaita Shroff, Homi’s wife. A very decent and larger than life background score by French musician Mathias Duplessy. Many hilarious scenes will rib-tickle you specially the interval scene :P Arjun-Deepika on-screen chemistry is more than natural and there is no escape when fire will rise below the tree in the shadows of intimate love. Dialogues have rich taste of sensitivity where serious anger of old lady bursts the lover boy or an artist speaks his heart out to the old lady…

Speaking of bravura performances, every core cast is exceptional. With grand acting gurus like Naseerudin Shah, Dimple and Pankaj Kapur involved, young bloods like Arjun and Deepika gave a resounding action. It is really hard to pick one out of five main characters, they might top with their prominence.

If Naseer sahab is a whined and hypnotized lover, then Pankaj ji is Shakespeare of words, above that Dimple madam is absolutely bumbastic ;) To a major surprise, real-life brother-in-laws, Naseer and Pankaj, shared the screen for the first time in 28 years (Jalwa 1987). Both never shared screen in Maqbool (2004).

‘Finding Fanny’ is a healthy entertainer and absolute blend of emotions and expressions with a poetic soul. Surely one of finest movies of 2014 and absolute cult of rich chocolate.

Ratings: 8.9/10

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Movie Review: Manjunath (2014)

Manjunath is a Hindi movie based on real-life tragic incident about a 27 year-old young man Manjunath Shanmugam, who worked in IOC (Indian Oil Corporation) as sales officer who was shot dead on duty by a petrol pump owner and goons for sealing owner’s petrol pump for selling adulterated petrol in Lakhimpur Kheri, UP in 2005.

Manjunath is one of deceased individuals in India who was murdered while serving his job honestly. Last year, we watched Hansal Mehta’s Shahid who served his country with honesty as a lawyer and paid the price.

Lows of the movie???? As compared to Shahid, sadly this movie couldn’t do that level of justice as was expected to show. Movie is off-color with flat dialogues, very average performances and never fitting background score due to reasonably being a low-budget despite being produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.

Director fails to milk an inspiring story and at many occasions, high break-pointing scenes don’t create any sensation to grow your nerves. Drunk Manjunath’s attempt of romancing his friend in her room is so cold as well as the most important scene of Manjunath’s murder goes poiseless. The debutant actor who played Manjunath do resemble Manjunath a lot but fails to inspire the viewer due to lack of acting skills or experience. I may choose Madhavan over him if I was director.

 

Plus point of the movie is that going from Manjunath’s IOC work till his murder, it will HITTT YOUUU HARDDDD!!!! Making this movie was a brave attempt keeping in mind the movie exposed corruption in state of Uttar Pradesh as some part of movie was shot in Lucknow including Indian Institute of Management (IIM) where he did his MBA.

Also what goes ahead is all Manjunath’s moments/scenes with his parents which were very realistic and touching. Casting well-known artists like Seema Biswas, Divya Dutta, Kishore Kadam and Yashpal Sharma brought more attention.

Despite being a sorry state of movie-making, Manjunath holds a strong message and raises voice to reduce if not dismantle corruption. A one-time but a must-watch movie. The film was supported by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust through which the support of IIM-Lucknow and Manjunath’s parents were enlisted.

Ratings: 5.7/10

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Movie Review: PK (2014)

Once upon a time, an unknown creature from other gola comes to a great nation with many cultures and religions on a research mission. Why did he choose India?? Probably because it is a Bollywood movie and good Aliens always come to India as compared to US.

Dropped on earth in Rajasthan full naked. Nope that is not T-800, that is an alien with no name, no language, but is going to trace the life of earthlings. He wears green remote stolen by a thief who runs away to Delhi.

His super-strength is that he can see the whole life history of a person whose hands he touch which helps him adapting the local life easy. His research mission turns to remote mission as he crosses different shades of life among humans from Rajasthan to Delhi.

With the passage of time, he is named PK. PK’s quest reaches no boundary as he confronts with different people of different faiths and beliefs and in all this trauma, the alien meets a news reporter Jaggu and details his account. No not Jackie Shroff, Jaggu is nick name from Jagat Janani. Jaggu finds PK very interesting and plans to bring him on media where he opposes local godman, Tapasvi Maharaj who actually has his remote.

PK is a comedy-drama movie produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Parinda, 1942: A Love Story) and directed by Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai series, 3 Idiots). This is their 4th collaboration as producer-director with all movies achieving huge success with sky-touching box-office collections. With brilliant promos and strong marketing, casting the brand itself Aamir Khan, well-publicized lip-enhancing story of Anushka and cameo of Raju’s ‘Munnabhai’; PK already was a smashing hit before its release and had promised to become India’s all-time highest grossing movie ever to date. By 1st of January, 2015, PK had already crossed Dhoom 3 with ₹264 crore in India and ₹492 crore worldwide in just 13 days. 

There is a tremendous depth of take-a-look over the nature of funny asylum. Filmmaker Raju and screenplay writer Abhijat Joshi once again put a load of questions in viewer’s mind like the duo did in the past. They used Gandhi’s philosophy and thesis in a country of a forgotten leader in ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai‘, then took an individual’s brain and heart to break the silence over richly disturbed educational and employment system in ‘3 Idiots’.

Now the writers plot a more common root of religious beliefs and ritualities. India is globally an economic and financial booster among many great nations with a population exceeding over a billion. With that fact, languages and religions play a prominent part in nation-building. But with all social and moral justifications, PK the alien discovers the richness of deception among the majority. That deception comes from their godmen who multiplies their so-called religious business by deceiving those who follow God but not holy books.

PK is an object by a thinker applied on one sector of earth and called ‘research mission’. The flow of script paces towards his various ideologies over a confused state of ‘Call’. In a confound world; PK is disturbed, confused and frustrated to whom shall he call for help when you need. That is the greatest depression of 21st century when a human is effed by state’s politics and law enforcement, and civil war among people of different faiths (sometimes of same faith but different sect). Sect?? yes sect – where school of thought among same people differs and that is what happened in movie as few seconds of Shiite’s Ashura were picturized.

Even India is just an example, godmen are everywhere and people are tremendously tweeting those nuts. PK/Tapasvi scenes are very thought-provoking, specially their last segment of on-air talk show is worth listening. Not only religions but mental understanding between people of two nations are superb. The Indo-Pak affair among larka-larki in Belgium is short on-screen but of prominence.

Minuses? Every movie has, so has PK. Background score has no ears to seduce, songs are way flat. In fact script never demanded songs but being a commercial Hindi movie it is a financially must. Two of the songs ‘Love is a waste of Sperm’ and ‘Chaar Kadam’ already develops heard-before feeling.

I might have less knowledge of internet as I fail to understand the continuity of a video call from house of Jaggu’s father to Tapasvi Maharaj’s center. But more massive error was the talk show which schedule to on air 6pm in Delhi but when calling Jaggu’s lover Sarfaraz in Pakistan, it is day over there.

Plusses are many. Screenplay has already been detailed above as the director has superbly executed the script. Director brilliantly manages to shot highly sensitive religious aspects of the movie in satirical way. Thank God bottle of Vines never reached masjid :P Make-up and costume designing was very creative, PK’s weird match of dressings were well-explained and the over-usage of vehicles sketch a sharp contrast of India’s huge concerns over non-stop population or HIV aids (just another small thought over writer’s flow of ink on paper).

I really don’t see Sanjay Dutt’s heavy-duty on cameo of that prominence. Anyone could have played that role. He surely was picked to bring Munnabhai back to some circuit. I am majorly surprised that this time Raju put Boman Irani in such a minor role as compared to other notable roles in previous Raju movies. Anushka gives life to her Jaggu character and Saurabh Shukla‘s Tapasvi role is just another highlight of his superb CV.

Aamir Khan as PK proves yet again why is he called the ‘Perfectionist’. He goes naked, dresses weird, adopts what he breath. Saying in short, he customise and smokes the role in very AK way. He is an absolute showstopper who will entertain you in the whole movie. His facial expressions have no full stop on limits, the Rajasthani dialogue delivery is remarkable.

PK is a must watch movie, not because it is an Amir Khan movie but also it appeals you to understand. The message has social and religious issues but vehement.

Ratings: 8.7/10

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