"Mission Mangal" (Hindi Film Review)

ISRO's evolution of the last fifty years since inception couldn't have been better celebrated than the successful Mission Mangalyaan circa 2014. The film "Mission Mangal" captures that exciting milestone in 133 minutes of unbridled entertainment laced with energetic screenplay, peppy starcast and loads of cinematic Pax Indiana that will get animal spirits of "Made in India" back roaring. And who better to drive the narrative than Akshay Kumar, our hero for films with patriotic fervor releasing on national holidays - a metrosexual version of Manoj Kumar!

Director R.Balki, the creative brain behind the film helps director Jagan Shakti pace a well-written script which has a good prologue, middle story and an epic finish which though predictable gives some tense moments before the Mission becomes a success lauded by the world including NASA. But if you were to chronicle the saga of how a resource-starved ISRO built this mission like a bootstrapping startup entrepreneur, you need more cinematic ammunition than just being a minutuaeing National Geographic docu-maker. That is provided by a killer cast of two men and four women (played by the likes of Tapsee Pannu, Nithya Menen, Sonakshi Sinha, Sharmaan Joshi) and the worlds they inhabit (at home and in their minds) - they create a panorama of world views which first limit the mission and later unbottle their true potential for Mission Mars. But Akshay Kumar as Mission Director needs a shepherd to rein in these micro-Indians who run amok with their own agendas - one wants to migrate to NASA, one believes in astrology and was told to avoid Mangal planet if he has to get married, one just wants to pass time to vest superannuation benefits, one just underwent infertility treatment to become a mom, one wants to re-unite with her Army husband and so on. That shepherding is done brilliantly by Vidya Balan, let's call her the master of the project who steers the team to meet the deadlines and the deliverables. With her mercurial and multi-nuanced acting, Vidya Balan steals the show one more time acing up each scene with her own inimitable style - sparkling eyes, face as a pointer and modulation worth its weight in gold. She fights the many battles shown in the film that Indians, argumentative Indians fight every day in life with their biases, fears, doubts, naysaying beliefs, debilitating concepts at home and office - whether it's her son turning to Islam out of blind love of aping AR Rahman or a retiree who sees Mission Mangal as just as a job not as a mission.

Director Jagan Shakti and writer R.Balki must be complimented for creating a multi-layered script that shows India as an improbable bundle of flaws and contradictions to be overcome before anything great can ever be achieved - it is a cinematic feat that makes Space Mission theme seem more colorful and exciting to watch than a tik tok documentary reel. In between there are excursions into astrology (thought not well-explored because Astrologers in India predicted everything from World Wars to World Cup defeat in Semi Finals to Kumaragowda government collapse in Karnataka and are a happy punching bag in the quest for "scientific temper"), parenting (let the new gen be themselves!), call of duty (why any job than serving in army is no less!), bootstrapping (how long ISRO pulls off financial miracles without going public or crowd-funding!)and so on. The film is  nothing short of achieving a miracle in convincing pundits and masses about the odds that ISRO goes through before you see a tense countdown of -15 on live TV. Akshay Kumar has given another fine performance of being a Director who takes all the brickbats on failures and then pats the team when met with success - those one-liner songs of Dev Anand hummed at critical points in the film tell a lot through hidden subtexts, do not miss them! Music by Amit Trivedi gives the exhilarating fuel needed to punctuate the right emotions throughout - one hardly feels a lag moment ever and the subtitles for Hindi is a welcome initiative to ensure nothing lost in translation. Cinematography by Ravi Varma and the VFX are also quite pleasing. A few more outer world shots would have made the film more immersive in experience.

Without explaining the complexity of fuel tanks and orbiters and what goes on in rocket science, the directorial team uses simpler narratives of how the final execution of Mission Mars looks like in the initial scenes to make the audience tether to a surcharge of emotions later and then make them go through the drama and believe some outlandish logic too (like using wolverine clothing for the outer covering and using non-recyclable plastic as light-weight fuel and so on!).

On the whole, the film is immensely watchable and achieves multiple goals of appreciating what ISRO does without sounding theoretical or boring. Hollywood has paid more tributes to NASA  and made space shuttle travel a routine affair! Instead of making looney comic stories about life on moon (like some Telugu films did), this is a good attempt to bridge the gap between Astronomy and Public. A film like this will do more education than a hundred trips to Birla Planetorium.   

Rating: 3.75/5

#MissionMangal #RBalki #JaganShakti #AkshayKumar #AmitTrivedi #VidyaBalan #RaviVarman #ISRO #SpaceMovies #MissionMars #NASA #IndianSpaceMission #Chandrayaan2

"Bobby Jasoos" (Hindi) Movie Review

You are Vidya Balan, lovingly called Bobby. You live in Moghalpura, Hyderabad, a pincode that has a density of over 100 people per sq.meter. Narrow lanes, dingy corners, claustrophic separator roads and noisy people. You have a doting mother and two younger sisters but your dad has an eerie coldness to you and doesn't treat you like the eldest child in the family - that regrettable male fixation thing. Still you pick a reputation as a quick-fix spy - someone who noses in on neighbourhood girls with "excusable" traits to help out reluctant bridegrooms or help aunties with "reliable" information. One thing leads to another and you soon become a sleuth to reckon with your own "adda" and assistants. One of them, played by the charming Ali Fazal becomes your unwilling lover and eventual supporter of all risky undertakings. One such undertaking, the riskiest one, comes calling in metastazing instalments from one Anees Khan, played with uneasy grit and intensity by Kiran Kapoor who comes in limousines and oozes out royalty unlimited. What does Anees Khan want? He comes and goes in a jiffy everytime but leaves Bobby with two brown envelopes, one gives cryptic details of the girls he wants Bobby to track down and the other envelope gives a hefty advance sum. The pattern repeats, Bobby succeeds in getting to the "X" or "Y" and the stakes get bigger. Then, at interval time, Bobby gets a doubt. What is happening to the girls she is ferreting out for Anees Khan? What if there is a twist in the tail, for the girls? What follows is a different drama with hugely unintended consequences and a cool ending.

Made by a debutant director Samar Shaikh, "Bobby Jasoos" is not a regular spy-thriller fare. It is a quirky, raw attempt at blending the genres of thriller with emotional drama and desi humour from the street corners of the bustling old city of Hyderabad. If you want to savor the charms of Charminar with a candid camera  that peeks into what a half of Hyderabad are all about - stuck in simple ways, hard living and countless paradigms of male stereotypes and "chalta hai" attitudes while eking out a honest day's labor, "Bobby Jasoos" serves you right. Vidya Balan is one woman too many in the film as she straddles many roles and costumes to come up trumps on her assignments - using innovative and sometimes bizarre ways of ensnaring her "target". There are emotional angles - the father-daughter angle between Rajendra Gupta and Vidya Balan and the romantic angle between Ali Fazal and Vidya Balan which make the film evocative amidst the distractions of a boisterous i-spy game played by Vidya throughout. The film's weaknesses lie in its treatment by Samar Shaikh. Director takes a flippant route to the protagonist's job description and makes mockery of how many folks get fooled by the maverick methods of Bobby Jasoos in getting to her targets - even as she covers humongous ground in uncovering them. She covers her constituency of Moghalpura better than what the local MLA does - covering the range of her target universe with her own sampling techniques - doing a census of an audition for a serial her aunts watch for smoking out the girls of the desired age-group or making elbow room in Spoken English tutorial classrooms to figure out the right birth marks of the girl. All that gets sometimes trite and outrageously irritating - because not a voice is raised in the neighbourhood against such antics.

Be that as it may, the redemption of the film lies in its many strengths - its starcast that is too perfect from Supriya Pathak, Tanvie Azmi, Kiran Kapoor, Vinay Varma (what a cameo by Suthradhar Agency's Vinay!) and the lovely pairing of Ali Fazal with Vidya Balan. Music, especially the BGM and the two cute songs uplift the film's dull moments. One of the songs, composed like a ghazal duet with an unusual rhythm stands out. Dialogues liberally sprinkle the notorious "Hurdu" slang of Hyderabadis with killer effect - "Hau", "Nakkho" abound enough to tickle you. Undoubtedly, Vidya Balan is the greatest strength of "Bobby Jasoos" as she effortlessly delivers a range of emotions with her spontaneity and charm. Neither obesity, marriage nor recent flops deters her confidence as she exudes perfection in her roles of a focused spy or as a misunderstood daughter or as a paradoxical lover. This may be an imperfect spy thriller by Samar Shaikh but "Bobby Jasoos" wins your hearts with positivity and sincerity to the plot. At 121 minutes, "Bobby Jasoos" is a family entertainer that deserves cosmopolitan adulation.
My rating: 3.25/5

"Anamika" (Telugu Film Review) /"Nee Enge En Anbe" (Tamil Film Review)

In times of male-chauvinist cinema plots in Telugu and Tamil film industries with kinky moustaches and thigh-slapping bravado, "Anamika" is Viacom's (Network 18) proud entry into the South bastions with a rivetting story based on "Kahaani" that shows Vidya Balan in totally different light after "The Dirty Picture". They picked Sekhar Kammula who has evolved cinematic sensibilities to direct the film and a bankable female star Nayanataara to play the title role of "Anamika". Despite the story's original contours being intact, some axis-shifting changes have been made to nativise the original story.

The original story is of a woman, in her late-pregnancy visiting Kolkata in search of her missing husband. The plot thickens with a stunning, unthinkable climax. It was too sophisticated but the film did phenomenally well bringing laurels to both Vidya, Viacom and Sujoy Ghosh; it particularly did well in markets like China and Hong Kong as these markets welcome unconventional subjects. Given this background, Viacom's choice of Nayanataara in a normal role sucks out the sympathetic chord that enhanced the emotional quotient of the original for reasons best known to the director, the producer and the star heroine. It seems Sekhar wanted bigger challenges for the film. So, the story is straightened a bit, dumbed down for the South audiences with impressive twists and a unique ending that is still unconventional for a vernacular film. Don't want to break the suspense over this thriller of 139 minutes - a unique feat for Sekhar Kammula with a starcast that did a consistently good job throughout except Naresh.

It is Sekhar's luck that such an immaculate team of technicians and crew got roped in for this bi-lingual project and he does a reasonably good job of turning in a watchable thriller with a finish that breaks the female stereotypes. His choice of the Old city of Hyderabad in a cute setting of the microcosm of life amidst rhythmic pandemonium is evocative. Despite a tight script that leaves little room for indulging in Sekhar's famously subtle potshots on current paradigms about life through common people's portrayal, Sekhar registers one or two signature scenes - especially the one in the police station where she is at the receiving end of a callous constable along with others who are used to it. And then, at the kitchen of the hotel where she is staying - where the people are out to help her unlike government servants who are paid to help but won't. Sekhar's strength lies in telling a good story without a rush to impress or embellish - to that extent this is a fine film even if you have or haven't seen the original film. He is also terrific at characterisation, each role is essayed with a precision and nuanced acting that makes the duration of the character's screentime irrelevant. This is Sekhar's greatest under-stated strength which few directors can match.

Vaibhav Reddy, son of director A.Kodandarami Reddy gets a meaty role as the helper policeman who escorts Anamkia in her search for truth. The irreverent hotel manager, the callous constable, and the curious minister Naresh  - all of them are utilised well except that the role of Naresh lacked killer instinct and the justification it needed in the end. Too many questions about his role in the plot were left unanswered. Among the roles that stand out in the film  - the role of renowned theatre actor Vinay Varma as the lusting SI who makes an indecent proposal to find Anamika's husband is intense but short-lived. It is difficult to finess a stage actor to the nuanced performance  packed in by Vinay buyt Sekhar pulls it off. Vinay gives the film's most dramatic "villain" moment and makes an oh-so-soon exit before interval. After him, Pasupathi as Mr Khan gives a standout performance with a variation that may be a few notches below what Nawazuddin Siddiqi achieved in the original. You cannot compare Pasupathi's role with Nawazuddin but he carried the role with all seriousness and intensity that captures the essence of a righteous officer with shades of grey that finally deliver justice. Nayanataara as the silent sufferer who takes on a system steeped in disempowering  the womenfolk is the perfect character played by her in a long time since "SriRama Rajyam". By choosing a role that shows her  deglamourised yet unapologetic for smoking out what she wants in her quest for her husband, she proved her talent goes beyond cherubic smiles and curvaceous dressing.

A word about the technical talents in the film before a word or two about Sekhar. Good to see MM Keeravani haunt you with one helluva song "Kshana Kshanam" that grooves in and out throughout the film's narration. He also composed an arresting BGM for the film with a contemporary appeal that is uncharcteristic of him. This is one of the rare films where his musical arrangements in RR kept pace with his inimitable talent for song-and-dance melodies. Having composed for quite a few films in Bollywood in the past like "Criminal", "Sur" and "Jism",  MM Keeravani  is one of the most under-rated composers in the country, who sadly announced his retirement after "Bahubali" in December 2015. The film's other hero is Marthand K Venkatesh, the editor who shortened the film in Sekhar's format to fit the bill in 138 minutes or so. If the film has defects despite Marthand Venkatesh's editing, they must sit on Sekhar's report card. And these are: Why Sekhar left a few gaps in the plot? Like, who was the guy with a devilish smile and a shooting revolver and why was he killed? What was Naresh's role in the killings? Who was Milan Damji really? Why is Anamika made to look like Bengali houswife in the backdrop of a Dussehra pandal erected by Bangalee Samithi rather than our own "Ammoru"? Questions that were better answered in the original. But if you pass these up as minor flaws in a genre that Sekhar Kammula is not used to handling regularly, then "Anamika" is quite an engrossing thriller to watch. It takes Tollywood to a new high in standards of film-making and investment by studios of repute. "Anamika" deserves to be more widely watched for the effort and class it exudes.
My rating: 3.5/5

"Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Dobaara" (Hindi Film Review)

Milan Luthria is a stylish film-maker who must have been fed on the crazy films of the 70s and 80s when film scripts were revolving around only three or four things - hero, heroine, villain and the xtra factor  - which is either an item girl, the sadist rapist, or the occasional vamp. He has been lucky so far with stars who love a throwback to that era - the era where villainy was glorified, heroism was hedonistic and heroinism was objectified beyond today's off-limits of feminism. Milan revels in creating motifs that Bollywood has painfully outgrown in the last two decades after the last Superstar moved on to better scripts - chain-smoking heroes in James Bond suits, uber-rich metrosexual villains masquerading as well-oiled and swashbuckling heroes, heroines with heavy bosoms and heavy-metal costumes and heavier makeups.  "OUTMD" is every foot carrying the signature style of Milan Luthria but this time despite the props and a fresh-looking starcast that combines youth and experience, the film fails to deliver fully. It starts off with the usual promise of Milan - the swagger, oomph and spice that almost pulls off till the first half but later peters out, infact meanders pointlessly in the second half ending with a sick feeling in the end.

Story is loosely resembling the plot of "Muqaddar Ka Sikander". Shoab (Akshay Kumar) is a Don who commands Mumbai (first rushes mirror the personality of Dawood Ibrahim). He employs Aslam (Imran Khan) and Salim in teens and helps them grow under his shadow. Enter Jasmine  (Sonakshi Sinha) who is friendly with both Shoab and Aslam who think they are in love with the girl without realising that it is the same "x" until the last reel. Meanwhile, Mahesh Manjrekar is the villain who is out to finish Shoab (Akshay). Shoab plots to eliminate Mahesh by setting up a drama where Aslam has to be the lover of Jasmine and her guardian angel. In truth, Shoab has unfolded a sequence that makes a fiction truth. In the drama that unfolds, Shoab finds out the real truth, trains his guns on the real culprit Aslam but instead gets killed by the Mumbai police in the climactic chase. 

What makes the film tick in the first half is the stamina of dialogue writer and lyricist Rajat Aroraa which makes Milan Luthria films a resounding watch. Akshay and Imran keep getting their amazing one-liners which are each worth a million bucks. A dialogue on love: "Aajkal Pyaar Naukrani ki taraf hoti hai...Aati, Bell Bajati, Apna Kaam Karti aur phir chup chaap chale jaati." There's one on mosquitos: "Macchar jis aadmi ka khoon peeta hai usike haath maara jati." One on men and women. "Ladki jab roti hai kaaran kahi hai par ladka jab rota hai, uska kaaran sirf ladki hi hai." One on the common man: "Aam Aadmi Aam ki taraf hai. Koyi Aam ki juice choosleta hai, to koyi use kaat leta hai ya phir koyi use poora khaa leta hai." One more on Love: "Pyaar googly jaisi hai - mile tho badam nahin tho moonphali." One last on Mumbai: " Mumbai sirf do cheeso se chalta hai - luck aur local - ek gayi tho doosra aayi." One-liners like this sizzle almost every four minutes in the 160-odd minute long film. Probably, a few less than what you heard in "The Dirty Picture" but make it count for the entertainment quotient with adult appeal. Normally, Milan's idiom for film-making is the original flavor of entertainment that films like those made by Manmohan Shetty, Prakash Mehra and Ramesh Sippy used to stand  for. (No wonder I noticed the head of distribution is Ramesh Sippy).                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Akshay Kumar as the swashbuckling Don looks fabulous in the film with neat performances by both Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha. Sonakshi has looked better in other movies than this one, either she hasn't stopped putting on weight or she needs a new makeup-man. 

Music by Pritham is a highlight - both the BGM which reminds of the flamboyance of yesteryears and the songs splendidly picturised. Milan Luthria has hit jackpots with a hundred-crore film with "The Dirty Picture" but in this film, he has taken a flimsy story with a cliched ending and failed to fire up the last-mile hurrahs that makes a stylish film. He has failed in characterisation - all three leading stars' portrayal leaves something incomplete in the end; Sonakshi is friendly to both but warms up to Aslam almost in an instant, Imran is faithful to his master but turns his back in the last, Akshay is consistent throughout as a mercenary who eliminates competition but fails to relent when his sounding board Sonali Bendre convinces him to let go of Sonakshi. On the whole, despite flashes of brilliance, class and entertainment appeal, the film doesn't sustain the interest for long after the interval. You could walk out at interval because that had the best lines, best songs and the best entertainment. Milan will have to think hard how long he will cast the spell of nostalgia to breath fire into frames that still hold enormous talent and promise as a film-maker. He continues to get the patronage of Balaji Films but is he barking up the wrong tree or can he commission stories that are current? His making lacks improvisation and variety in screenplay, pace and melodrama. 2.5/5 for a film that fails to engage till the last.

The Dirty Picture

"The Dirty Picture" is not such a dirty picture to watch except for the adult content. I haven't seen Milan Luthria's "Once Upon a Time..." before so I went to the movie expecting to see a raunchy take of the movies of the 80s because the subject of the film played by Vidya Balan is "Silk". We recognised soon after the titles that it had astonishing prettiness, fluidity and a musical line. It sho...ws all the trappings of a nubile young thing becoming a starlet only to get into the lowlife that accompanies celluloid magic - the baggage of success that gets unwanted people, ego-clashes, financial woes and finally, souring of good luck. In the 160 minutes of the movie, you get a peek into the surreptious world of heroines who get drawn like moths to fires of stardom and adulation that utlimately deserts them. Vidya Balan portrays the character of "Silk" with utmost honesty and boldness rarely seen in the "Parineeta" girl and had she not played this character as a woman aware of her sensuality with guts and emotional chutzpah, the movie could have dangerously slipped into a C-grade film. Vidya gives this film its greatest reason to watch and its redemption and its dignity - you quickly move into a gear of emotional journey with the character in all the highs and the lows. Of all the men in her life -Naseerudin Shah stands out with Emran and Tussar not so effective. Writer Rajat Arora must be complimented for penning some outstanding lines seldom seen in Bollywood except in Art Films. He gives Vidya Balan the lines that even angry young men and stammering superstars don't get whistled for. Milan gets extra-ordinary support from Vishal Shekar in BGM and the song "Oo Lala Oo Lala". His shot selection, stylish picturisation and non-judgemental characterisation makes him watchable in commercial films. He has explained well why the 80s films of vamps and sirens have given away to the heroines themselves becoming and dressing like vamps. Vidya could well sweep all the awards this year. Watchable once but beware of some bold content.

"Paa" Movie Review

"Paa" is a delectably sensitive portrayal of an overaging kid by Sr.Bacchan with controlled performances by Vidya Balan and Abhishek Bacchan. You will but shed copious tears as climax nears. Ad-maker Director Balki keeps the narrative slick, enlivened with filial emotions. Ilayaraja scores well without a sign of fatigue.
11.12.2009