Bollywood was given a much needed lease of life courtesy of Siddharth Anand's "Pathaan" which has grossed over 1000 C. In the meantime, there has been quite a few releases which had female leads take center stage & it was interesting to see as to how they would fare. A couple of them had a stellar crew both in front & behind the camera; however I felt that they didn't quite maximize their potential. So is the audience to blame or did the makers lose a trick???
Gulmohar
As opposed to the other flicks, this had a direct release on the Disney+ Hotstar platform & was helmed by Rahul V Chittella who had also penned the script along with Arpita Mukherjee. Since I haven't watched his earlier directorial ventures, I didn't quite have any idea as to what to expect though the presence of Manoj Bajpayee in the cast instilled hope. The Batras was an affluent family who owned a palatial residence named 'Gulmohar' in the city. However, the matriarch Kusum Batra (Sharmila Tagore), decide to sell the house & have a family get together organized to celebrate the time they had spent there. At the party, she expresses her desire to celebrate Holi which was four days away in their house for one last time. Though her son, Arun (Manoj Bajpayee) was reluctant initially, he eventually gives in to her wishes. What happens in the family over the course of that period forms the content of the movie.
Rahul has touched a host of different topics through the various characters that he had assembled & showcased as to how dysfunctional the family actually was. Each & every character had some issue but they were reluctant to share it with their loved ones in the impression that they wouldn't be able to understand or it would hurt them. These issues varied from independence, inferiority complex, sexuality, adoption, blood ties etc. At first glance, it kind of reminded me of Mira Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" but it still had an identity of its own. The technical aspects were handled aptly & in sync with the mood be it Eeshit Narain's visuals, Tanupriya Sharma's editing & Siddhartha Khosla's music.
As always, Manoj Bajpayee was brilliant & his body language when his character goes into an emotional meltdown was a treat to watch. Simran's appearances on the big screen has been far & few but whenever she is on it, her performances will be spot on just like what she has done here. I have always found Sharmila Tagore to be a tad over dramatic at times (& felt maybe Nafisa Ali or Waheeda Rehman would be a better choice as Kusum). However, the veteran was both charismatic & convincing in her performance. It would be fair to say that each & every artist have done justice to their roles and it was imperative that they did it as well since Rahul had crafted his characters in such a manner that each one had something to contribute to it.
Verdict: A reasonably well crafted movie that spoke about the turmoil that each person carried irrespective of how close-knit the family looked like on the surface. In short, do check it out!!!
Rating: 3.25/5
Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway
Did any one even know that such a movie was being released? Well if you did, then like me the most likely reason for that must be the Norwegian Ambassador to India, Mr. Hans Jacob Frydenlund. Apparently I came across a news article whereby he had slammed Ashima Chibber's "Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway" for portraying his nation in poor light. Obviously my curiosity was aroused & it turned out that the movie was based on the real life ordeal of an Indian couple who had their children taken from them by Velfred, the Norwegian child welfare organization.
Debika (Rani Mukherjee) & Anirudh (Anirban Bhattacharya) were an immigrant Indian couple with two small kids who had made Norway their home for the past few years. Life moved on peacefully until the Norwegian authorities deemed them unfit to be parents & put the kids in foster care. The movie is about the exhaustive efforts that Debika puts in & the struggles and lengths that she was willing to go through to get back her children.
Since I have neither been to Norway nor have any idea about their rules, I would have to admit that I was slightly taken aback by what unfolded on the screen. I presume they might have taken cinematic liberties & even otherwise as well, it is quite understandable as to why the Ambassador behaved in that manner. The script was penned by Sameer Satija & Rahul Handa with Ashima also being involved and the trio has set the stage pretty well. It is obviously an emotional tear jerker & remains faithful to the subject on hand. However, at the same time I felt that some sub-plots like the in-laws angle, domestic violence etc. could have been afforded better clarity.
This is undoubtedly one of Rani's best performances in recent times as she was absolutely convincing as the protagonist. I would be surprised if she doesn't get featured as one of the prime favourites on the award nights. Another performance that I really enjoyed was that of Balaji Gauri as Adv Ms Pratap & wished she had more of screen time. As for the rest, Anirban has done his part well as he manages to make us dislike him, Jim Sarbh was fine along with Neena Gupta in a cameo. All of the technical aspects were handled reasonably well.
Verdict: It's not a type of movie that is likely to create much noise at the box office. However, I expect there might be some discussions about the performances when it releases on the OTT platform. In short, you may give it a try if you don't mind emotional drama!!!
Rating: 2.75/5
Kuttey
A couple of weeks back, Aasmaan Bhardwaj's "Kuttey" was released on Netflix after having failed to get expected footfalls into the theatres. I was a tad surprised especially since the trailer looked pretty damn interesting & most importantly, it was from the Vishal Bhardwaj production house. Even the cast that Aasmaan had assembled was impressive with names like Naseeruddin Shah, Tabu & Kumud Mishra adorning the list. Anyway i was more than keen to check it out & would admit that it didn't quite pan out as expected.
Along with the help of his father, Aasmaan had also worked on the script which can be classified as belonging to the gritty crime thriller genre that former specializes in. The movie is classified into four sections with the focus primarily on how different group of people (corrupt cops, drug lords & lovers) irrespective of what side of the law that they stand are hell bent on getting their hands on money by hook or by crook. To add to that, we also have Naxalites that strive for independence from the system. Who comes on top & at what cost is what is told over the course of 108 minutes.
The movie begins on a high with an engaging epilogue where Naxalites take centre stage. But from there, it starts to slip & though it is showcased as a character study, it fails to do that as well. Eventually it culminates in a shoddy climax where bullets are fired at will with no real purpose. None of the sequences manage to surprise us except evoke a couple of genuine chuckles. Vishal's music was ok with the tracks of "Kaminey" also featuring at times in the background while Farhad Ahmed's visuals had hat raw and gritty feel to it.
On the performance front, Tabu reveled in the role of the cop named Pammi & got to mouth some of the best lines which she does it in style. Kumud Mishra was impressive while Arjun surprisingly performed well indicating that if used properly, he does possess the abilities to pull off a role convincingly. Naseeruddin Shah was wasted while Konkona Sen was just average as the Naxal Laxmi. As for the rest of the cast, they were ok.
Verdict: Apart from the initial spark, it doesn't possess anything that manages to excite the audience in terms of the novelty or execution.
Rating: 1.5/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment