Tag Archives: Fatima Sana Shaikh

Film Reviews

Film Review: Dhak Dhak (2023)

STORY

Four women from different backgrounds and generations are destined to bike-ride Khardung La. Lali, the youngest, played by Sanjana Sanghi, has low self-esteem and is recently engaged. Uzma, played by Dia Mirza, helps her husband run home by secretly working as a mechanic. Mahi, the oldest, played by Ratna Pathak Shah, has recently learned to ride the bike after winning it as a prize. And Sky, played by Fatima Sana Shaikh, the leader of the gang is a videographer. Sky was newly a victim of internet crime when her private pictures were leaked by her ex-boyfriend. And she had not informed them.

TRUE STORY?

Dhak Dhak had an interesting plot but in my observation suffered from a lot of issues. Without a doubt, all four stories were well connected but here is the penny to entwine. The film presses that this is based on a true story. What true story? I did not find the true story on the internet. If this was based on true story then why the real-life footage or pictures were not shown in the end? Was this a lie to sell popcorn? Let me know if any of you has any idea about the true story.

MISINFORMATION

Secondly, Dhak Dhak’s plot-line pressed that Khardung La is the highest motorable road in the world which is around 17,500 ft. If I am not mistaken, this is a wrong information. Forget the world, Khardung La was never the highest in India in the past. It was Dungri La that stands at 18,400 ft. And in recent years, Umling La has become the highest not in India but in the world, that stands at around 19,000 ft.

POOR WRITING

Dhak Dhak’s screenplay was disappointing because after highlighting their origins, the direction could not grow the four characters together. The film didn’t spend or was unable to invest time in developing their unusual friendship. I didn’t get the feel when the continuity pretended that they had already climbed the first ladder of knowing each other. I was surprised and found it bizarre that the bikers were punished on the street with the ear-holding sit-ups, especially Mahi.

There was a very important scene in the film that got terribly wasted due to weak direction. A video about their private conversation while being drunk went viral on social media and was blamed on Sky. Later, it was discovered that a foreigner recorded them. Next scene? They move ahead to their next destination. Did the ladies take no action against the foreigner and ride off to the next destination? Just like that? Knowing the fact that this is a female-centered film, I think the director Tarun Dudeja missed the chance to address. The story could have concluded that character by calling the police and making him record a live confession.

CHARACTERS & PERFORMANCES

I think Uzma got to join the gang very comfortably. Despite the fact that she lied to her husband, I really thought that her husband will raise questions and inquire from the contacts she was lying about meeting them. After all, she was planning to leave alone, not even her daughter was accompanying her. But he let her go. It was strange due to the fact that Uzma was living in a semi-conservative Muslim household. I was expecting a ‘Secret Superstar‘ kind of tension here.

It is not like if the writing of the film did nothing exceptional. Lali’s character had a strong individual portrayal. She represents many millions of girls who are afraid of taking a step on their own. Lali cannot even open a packet of chips. Not that if this problem is threatening but can be. You have the right and must be bold to make your own life decisions. It was a thoughtful scene when her guru asks what the soon-to-be-husband does and she is blank.

And Sanjana Sanghi played her part very well, so did Dia Mirza. In fact, Dia is unsung for her performances in recent years. Her acting has improved if anyone notices. I don’t think I need to invest my time explaining Ratna’s performance. She has been in splendid form for some time now. But Fatima Sana Shaikh has indicated that the audience needs to take her seriously. Watch her when she drops her frustration after a heavy stream destroys her work. All the hearts break when she laments over how people respond her posts and communicate when they see her. I think this was one of the best scenes of the year.

By the way, Taapsee Pannu was one of the producers of the film. She was perfect for the role of Sky. Unsure why she didn’t appear but she was missed.

CLOSING REMARKS

In overall a poor writing, Dhak Dhak was also annoying me with over-usage of songs that were highly unnecessary. The background score was a huge distraction and sometimes the music was louder than dialogues. The final 15 minutes were average and predictable.

Dhak Dhak, despite an interesting plot and good performances, is a chance missed and deserved a better writing and direction.

RATING 4/10

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TV Reviews

TV Review: Modern Love Mumbai (2022)

Modern Love Mumbai is the Indian version of the Amazon Original anthology series, ‘Modern Love‘. MLM follows the same aesthetics as the original work. Set in Mumbai, each of the six episodes present different love stories expressing freedom and questioning the boundary to reach the human desire.

Modern Love was set in New York and all the stories were based on the essays published in The New York Times under the same title. So I am not sure if MLM also followed this route. But each of the stories has its significance and has the essence of the plot’s simplicity to sensualize. These stories are very close to life and most of the audience can relate.

Three of the six stories are about married women thoroughly divided in ages. One is as young as their twenties, the second is in her forties, and the third is in her late fifties or mid-sixties. One is about homosexuals, and another is about a young woman searching for the ideal man through a dating app. And there is one particular for the Northeast Indian mother-son story who is in the conflict of getting or not getting mixed in multiculturalism. So this indicates that MLM was written and developed with care.

I liked the panel of directors who worked on their part of the stories. Shonali Bose returned to the director’s seat for Raat Rani years after ‘The Sky Is Pink‘. Raat Rani is about A girl from Dal Lake, Lali, who marries a Mumbaikar, a security guard Lutfi and arrives in Mumbai but her life is dull until Lutfi is transferred to the other station leaving his bicycle behind for her.

Hansal Mehta directed a controversial episode ‘Baai‘ about homosexuality. Hansal previously directed ‘Aligarh‘ with the same subject. This is about Manzar Ali who belongs to a conservative Muslim household but is interested in men but is not able to tell his ailing grandmother Baai.

Another veteran director Vishal Bhardwaj did the Northeastern family drama ‘Mumbai Dragon‘ where the mother faces difficulty in accepting her son with his girlfriend who doesn’t belong to her ethnicity.

Alankrita Srivastava did ‘My Beautiful Wrinkles‘ about an old widow Dilbar who takes interest in a young athlete Kunal, a plot that is similar to one of the four stories in her ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha‘. Alankritas direction is like a wave for the liberalism of womanhood where she develops bold intentions in the plot and addresses them in a peculiar way. Alankrita shows the loneliness of Dilbar that absorbs and the passion and hunger in women in general for more adequate lust melts young men to daydream and draw their nudity in their honest illustration. Sticking with the old memories may lessen your optimism. Confessing private intentions is courageous but healthy for releasing the negative energy she had in life.

Super excited to see Little Things-famed Dhruv Sehgal who directed one of the episodes ‘I Love Thane‘ about Saiba who is seeking her ideal through a dating app but gives a shot at Parth to whom she finds out through work this time.

Nupur Asthana did the last episode ‘Cutting Chai‘ about a married woman Latika in her forties thinking about her life decisions, about becoming a wife, and a mother but not a novelist, something that was her ambition.

It is the beauty of small portions in the screenplay that gives you the feel about how these things matter in life, the human connection is strong in the drama. Like in Cutting Chai, Latika begins to regret her life decisions and imagine people around her agreeing and disagreeing with her. That is indicating how careful a young man or woman was when he/she was young and had to listen to society about what he/she should have decided and what not. In Raat Rani, Lali is about to throw her husband’s old bicycle from the flyover until she thinks about utilizing it by learning to ride it and earn bread through it.

Modern Love Mumbai is the positive energy that addresses optimism and encourages us to move on or give it a chance. Although, any tv or film product can have similar elements, but the beauty of MLM stories is that the plot inclines towards a push that is needed to make the audience think. The continuity of each episode never looks pressing too hard at all.

I enjoyed when Dilbar gives a try to fantasize about young athlete Kunal in the fourth story or Manzar meets Rajveer after his fondness for the previous boy matters into heartbreak in the second episode. Same case with Saiba who gives a shot at Parth by breaking her norm to find men from the dating app. That explained a lot. Therefore, the audience gets to learn or realize a few things in life if not all by watching Modern Love Mumbai.

I don’t remember if I ever happened to see Naseeruddin Shah playing a Sikh character, that is another accomplishment in his celebrated career I reckon. Good to see Sarika after a long time, she deserves to get more recognition. Pratik Gandhi is quite an actor who has the ability to play different roles. From a rich Gujarati stockbroker to a Muslim homosexual from a conservative household, Pratik really has made a distinction in his choices. For me, from all the stories, the one actor amongst all who is the winner is Fatima Sana Shaikh in the first episode. The accent, the body language, the emotional breakdown, everything was there. She nailed her character. It was a delight to see such a quality performance.

MLM has impressive writing and direction as well as quality performances due to good choices about casting in the stories. Ram Sampath‘s music score is very touching and full of life. Modern Love’s creator John Carney was involved in financing MLM so that is also why the tone was maintained and none of the makers Bollyfied with curry aesthetics.

There is every capacity to go for more than one season. Because MLM is all about some quality essays to write about and stories to speak about. Stories will never die, and love won’t compromise. There is much human connection still to work on through different mediums. So MLM must go on.

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Film Reviews

Film Review: Dangal (2016)

Aamir Khan‘s Dangal has collected over ₹1,500 crore and is becoming the highest-grossing Indian film but when I watched the film after a six-months wait, I found the film wasn’t worth even ₹1.50 crore. 
Dangal is about a man, once a national wrestling champion, who gives up his career due to the shortage of money but sees his dream of winning Gold medal coming true in his daughters, Geeta (played by Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita (played by Sanya Malhotra). Being based on Indian wrestling family of Phogat, Dangal is a huge insult in the name of the real-life facts accuracy. In short, it is heavily fictionalized with more than 80% of the story dramatized. I have collected a few points which I found from various media sources.
 
1) According to the authorized biography of Mahavir Singh Phogat, Akhada, it was his wife Daya, who was disappointed that the first child wasn’t a boy.
 
2) The coach is depicted as villainous who is dummy enough to give wrong techniques every time he trains Geeta; whereas the real coach has claimed that only mechanism was changed, not the techniques.
 
3) Geeta losing first-round tournaments globally is completely wrong. The film shows her winning her first Gold medal in international competition in the Commonwealth game whereas she did win a gold medal a year before in Jalandhar.
 
4) Geeta didn’t cut her hair before the Commonwealth games. The video of the final game shows Geeta with long hair.
 
5) Aamir getting locked before the final fight is very incorrect. As per the biography mentioned above, Mahavir did watch the final.
 
6) The final game wasn’t that competitive; in fact, it was a one-sided two-round victory by Geeta with the score 3-0, 8-0.
 
Even besides the factual accuracies, the director Nitesh Tiwari, who is heavily praised and accoladed for his direction, has made the silliest of mistakes as few examples below:
 
1) The referee changes between the scenes in young Mahavir’s early fight. Can you believe it?
 
2) When Mahavir moves Patiala for six months, he is financially low but minutes later he owns a scooter and even books a whole theater to watch the DVD of his daughter’s fight? *claps*
 
3) Mahavir gets locked and not a single security guy bothers to watch the series of unfortunate events happening in such an international competition?
 
Performances? Yes, performances were the first rate but let me talk about Aamir Khan. He finally won a Filmfare Award in 16 years but the question is, what was so challenging about this role? Body transformation does count when the acting is judged but you will watch Aamir’s fatty character in the whole film as the young muscular phase of his role hardly is on the screen for 15 minutes.
 
If I judge his performance as a standout from two different criteria, which is 1) best performances of the year 2016, and 2) Amir’s best performances in the last 15 years, this role is still nowhere. So Filmfare yet again made a blunder in awarding it to a wrong individual.
 
Film’s technical aspects are not convincing at all. A running time of 160 minutes does not justify at all due to lengthy fight sequences and unnecessary songs.
 
Dangal is a one-timer and can be watched on a repeat mode for the sake of entertainment.
Ratings: 4/10
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