Mausam - review

Hmm...where do I begin? Mausam moves back and forth across so many time periods that it has left one quite confused. Pankaj Kapur's directorial venture is an ambitious one.It spans across continents and across crucial points in India's modern history. It is supposed to be a grand love story that triumphs over the ravages of time. It even includes the Indian Air Force in an attempt to give its hero (and the director's son) that dash of gentlemanly machismo. In trying to be so much, it unfortunately ends up being too little.

Starting off in 1992 in the small village of Mallukot in Punjab, we are introduced to Punjabi munda Harry aka Harinder Singh (Shahid) who soon falls for the new belle in town, Kashmiri Muslim Aayat (Sonam). Before the two can quite finish accepting their love, Aayat is packed off to Mumbai due to the Babri Masjid incident. Don't ask me why. Aayat seems to do a whole lot of really unnecessary gallivanting all over the world so that the plot can move. Harry meanwhile becomes an IAF pilot. The lovers next meet after 7 years in, of all places, Edinburgh in Scotland. Here the shy, demure Aayat is learning ballet apparently and Harry is on some pilot exchange programme (!) Things go better this time and the love story progresses smoothly. But before harry can formally ask for Aayat's hand in marriage, the Kargil war begins and he has to fly out. Like, immediately. Without so much as a 'goodbye and here's my address/phone no'.

And so they pine away and try in various annoyingly vague ways to get in touch with each other. Some minor misunderstandings later, they encounter each other in Ahmedabad now just in time to get trapped in the communal riots. Thankfully for us, they get through this experience agreeing to wed and stay happily ever after. I really don't think I could have tolerated one more moronic separation.

Frankly, Mausam is a letdown. It's movie with the seed of a great idea (a love story set against the backdrop of recent history) and simply amazing cinematography. But it is far too contrived to strike a chord with the audience. The history seems forced, the lovers separation seems unnecessary, Aayat's travel seems inexplicable since they keep putting her out of Harry's reach. The direction itself feels uneven. The first part in Punjab in natural and sets a nice tone despite again, unnecessary setpieces. The visuals are consistently brilliant and there is poetry in the way the lovers interact. In the Scotland part of the tale, the poetry still remains but becomes caught up in the forced storyline. This also around the time that Shahid begins to get on your nerves. Just when I am thinking how cute he is and how competently he is acting, he goes into his OTT impersonation of how he thinks a fighter pilot should be. That's grim, unsmiling and bordering on rude.

After Scotland, in the second half, it was all mayhem, people went back and forth from India to Scotland. Switzerland and even America were there somewhere in the fray. Shahid flits between 1999 and 2001 (necessary so that the WTC disaster can be shown). The climax was the last straw. People laughed. Yes really. The hero saves the girl, a horse and a child as a riots rage around them! I mean, it was Such a 1980s potboiler finish that one could be pardoned for thinking that this was a separate movie than the one we began watching. Maybe Shahid felt he had to take this chance to show off all his acting chops. Sad.

Points mainly for beautiful visuals and some good music. Okay and also because Shahid was cute in parts. Sonam btw, was pretty and faintly ditzy - much better than one could have hoped for.

4/10

Mere Brother ki Dulhan - review

'Abandon all logic ye who enter here' - this should be put up at the multiplex gates me thinks. It's a sign of the times that I go to watch movies these days with remarkably low expectations. Its the only way that one can still hope to be pleasantly surprised and get some value for money. Mere Brother ki Dulhan (MBKD) is a mindless, somewhat hypocritical romp through Delhi, Agra in the company of some beautiful people.

The story starts with Luv (Ali Zafar) breaking up with his girlfriend in London. Somewhat to my mystification, he then proceeds to tell his brother Kush (Imran Khan) in India to find a girl for him since he plans to get married very soon. Kush soon realises this is not so simple when he meets several psychotic families with eligible daughters. Finally he chances upon Dimple (Katrina Kaif) who he recalls as a wild child he had known briefly in college. He is impressed by her free-spirited ways, she manages to convince him that she is now suitably ready for an arranged marriage with a London based, good-looking, pound rich man like his brother. While both families get ready with marriage preparations and before Luv can set foot in India, Kush and Dimple have hit it off. From thereon its a short step to finally accepting that they love each other and devising plot after plot to cut out Luv and get hitched to Kush.

The USP of the film are of course its fresh-faced actors. Katrina has made a career out of just looking super pretty. Here, to give her due credit she does give her all to a characterization quite removed from the plastic doll act she is so comfortable with. Imran Khan is cute and insipid as always. It is frankly amazing to see how even Ali Zafar or Katrina have more screen impact than him. See the "Madhubala" song and you will know what I mean. Imran is much better than his Jaane tu... days where only his eyebrows did all the acting. But he is still a long way from being a dashing leading man. Ali Zafar is promising but his acting also seemed to be on a different key - sort of felt as though he was about to spout some romantic Urdu poetry any minute.

The part that gets me irritated if I stop to think about it, is the sheer hypocrisy of the characters. Dimple, a bohemian chick who has even been arrested for holding concerts near the Taj Mahal, is deeply Westernised in her behaviour, admits unabashedly that she is okay with an arranged marriage with a 'package' deal. She interacts with her prospective husband only about once over the web before agreeing. And this way she makes her parents happy and secures her future. The respective sets of parents are from the IFS and from the Army. They are shown to be almost moronically outdated in the way they keep worrying about "badnaami" in the community. The movie is pathetic in its attempt to be modern (with a heroine who gets drunk and loves trouble for the sake of it) and at the same time struggling to depict its essential Indianness (arranged marriage, log kya kahenge syndrome). This is a fine balance not easily achieved. It is inspired by the DDLJ's and Jab we Met's of the world to which almost all movies make a passing nod. In fact I am quite tired of seeing faintly outrageous bubbly heroines in the manner of Geet - Tanu Weds Manu or MBKD, its all a takeoff on Kareena.

Which brings me to the thought of how different the movie would have felt if it had a Kareena, a Shah Rukh, even a Ranbir. Still one must accept what one gets and enjoy the pretty faces and fairly good catchy music. Ignore half-baked plots, uneven acting and mediocre direction. Timepass for the weekend.

5/10

Zindagi na Milegi Dobara - the review

Well, yes, it does sort of remind you of 'Dil Chahta Hai'. I mean a movie about 3 guys riding in a car is bound to. Especially when one of the guys directed the earlier cult film. But ZNMD is essentially a road trip movie. A great way to showcase the beauty of Spain and indulgently pay tribute to that old adage 'boys will be boys.'

ZNMD is geared towards providing you vicarious thrills. You watch this movie not for its story or plot structure but for the experience it provides. The way it takes you along on a journey through sun drenched Spain - with its vibrant countryside, its quaint villas, its energetic dances and exotic women. You fall in with Arjun (Hrithik), Kabir (Abhay) and Imran (Farhan) as they pursue one adventure after another - from deep sea diving, to sky diving, to running with the bulls - in a bid to recapture something they have lost in the routine of daily life.

Arjun is a grim hotshot financial broker who has lost sight of the simpler pleasures of life in his bid to make as much money as possible before the age of 40. Kabir the prankster is engaged to Natasha (Kalki) and unsure about whether he wants to marry her. Imran is the perennial smartass who is in search of his biological father. When the three friends reconnect over a trip to Spain they realise what is really important to them in life. Arjun learns to relax and let his hair down as he falls for the free spirited diving instructor Laila (Katrina Kaif). Kabir is forced to accept that his relationship with Natasha is stifling him and Imran realises that his biological father is his father in name only. As they travel through Spain, each thrill seeking sport proposed by one of the trio leads to epiphany for another.

ZNMD is all about Carpe Diem or Seizing the day before it is too late. A feel good philosophy if ever there was one. Thanks to its beautiful locales and beautiful people spiced up with some smart lines and good music, ZNMD is also a feel good movie. So well done Zoya Akhtar. Luck by Chance was more original and realistic but like your brother, you know how to put old wine in a new bottle.

7/10

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides

Last movie seen in theatre. Not as good as earlier movies.

Chemistry between Johnny and Penny non-existent.

Surprisingly, missed Keira and Orlando Bloom angle.

Even Jack Sparrow can get a bit tiresome if he doesn't get smart lines and moves.

Best sequence that of mermaids attacking in the night. Only part of the movie really living up to the franchise's rep.

The King's Speech - review

I saw The King’s Speech a day after I saw Black Swan. The contrast between the two was stark. While Black Swan was a twisted tale of paranoia, The King’s Speech was much more mainstream in championing the cause of the underdog. The underdog in this case was, of course, King George VI of the United Kingdom.

Essentially a ‘poor little rich boy’ kind of a story, here we have a king struggling to overcome his speech defect. His predicament is accentuated because he has to give an oration that will motivate his subjects at the beginning of World War II. Albert (Colin Firth) is a second son and thus not in direct line to the throne. He is also somewhat shy and afflicted with a stammer that frustrates and infuriates him. After his hectoring father George V dies, his elder brother Edward becomes king. Edward is in love with American socialite Wallis Simpson and wants to marry her. However she is a two time divorcee and the King being Head of the Church cannot marry her. As a consequence, Edward takes the momentous decision of abdicating the throne in order to marry her. And his younger brother Albert finds himself a reluctant monarch.

Albert has tried many treatments to get rid of his stammer – including the humiliating experience of trying to speak with marbles in his mouth – but they don’t seem to work. Eventually, with his supportive wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) by his side he reaches the doorstep of an Australian speech defect therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Logue’s somewhat unconventional and progressive methods (no smoking, getting to the root cause of the stammer) first annoy ‘Bertie’ (as Logue insists on calling Albert) and then convince him. With the title of King George VI burdening him, Albert relies even more heavily on Logue to help him address his nation convincingly upon the September 1939 declaration of war with Germany. After his radio speech, as Logue watches, the King steps onto the balcony of the palace with his family, where thousands of people assembled for the speech applaud him.

Colin Firth gives a sterling performance as the beleaguered king who struggles to articulate his thoughts. His painful struggles to pronounce even simple words manage to strike a chord and elevate what could have been a trivial issue. An Oscar well deserved. Geoffrey Rush is assured as always in his portrayal of the unorthodox Logue. Helena Bonham Carter is also good and the relation between the King and his wife is tender and touching. In contrast to this, Edward the elder brother and Wallis Simpson are quite clearly painted as villains of the piece.

An inspirational movie that shows that nobody is too big to suffer and no problem too small to be of consequence. An easy watch though maybe a little too prolonged in places because one already knows how its going to end. On a happy note of course. The struggle is always more meaningful when one emerges victorious.

8/10

Black Swan - the review

Black Swan is a mesmerizing and disturbing insight into the life and mind of an obsessive ballerina. An unlikely juxtaposition of the bright with the dark, beautiful art with a bloody underbelly.

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is the ballerina working for a ballet company that plans to stage a “visceral and real” production of ‘Swan Lake’. She eventually gets the coveted role of the Swan Queen beating off fierce competition. While the ballet director Thomas (Vincent Cassel) is confident she can portray the fragile White Swan, her performance as the seductive Black Swan is not impressive enough.

Nina is a frigid, fragile perfectionist who cannot lose control enough to be truly superb. Her manic obsession with her craft and her paranoia about losing the part lead to a gradual erosion of her ability to distinguish reality from delusion. Add to this a psychopathic mother (Barbara Hershey) who partly pushes her daughter to fulfill her unrealized ambitions and at the same time deeply resents her budding success. She treats Nina as a small child and it is scary to see Nina in her room surrounded by soft toys as her mother puts her to bed. At work she stays aloof from the other performers and is at a loss how to tackle the demanding director. She feels that she is not good enough and she cannot please him with her ballet even when he manipulates her sexually. For a while it appears she can be friends with the feisty and free-spirited new ballerina Lily (Mila Kunis) who takes her one night on a trippy nightclub ride. However soon she is seeing Lily as a competitor out to grab her prized role.

Nina’s struggle to break free of her unnatural lifestyle and her mother’s control , to perform the perfect White and Black Swan creates a dichotomy that splits her. She sees mirror images, doppelgangers everywhere. It culminates in a tumultuous and phantasmagoric opening night performance where she ‘becomes’ the Black Swan in her own mind. While her performance is a roaring success, her mind disintegrates almost completely. She feels feathers sprout out of her shoulders and sees enemies out to steal her part. In fighting her inner demons, Nina stabs herself in the process. We leave Nina as she lies in a pool of blood with the appreciation of the audience ringing in her ears.

Director Darren Aronofsky has created a movie that takes one right into the mind of the tortured protagonist, a movie that preys on you long after you have seen it. Here beauty is brittle and pain and paranoia a reality. There are gruesome scenes aplenty and ballet is a hard taskmaster that makes one bleed. Literally. There are also a few somewhat unnecessary sexcapades –perhaps to reinforce Nina’s stunted development there also. The director confines us in the same schizophrenic hell as his ballerina.

Natalie Portman, who won the Oscar for this role, throws herself into the role of the obsessed ballerina. She's fragile and harsh, strong yet weak, unsure yet confident, light and dark. Her performance is convincing and captivating.

For a movie that draws you into its dark spaces and takes you on a mind-bending ride, 7/10.

7 Khoon Maaf - review

Susanna Anna Marie Johannes has a problem - 'duniya ke saare galat aadmi uski kismat mein likhe the'. And she is a survivor who would rather kill her wayward husbands rather than leave them. So you have Priyanka Chopra giving it her all as the tormented Susanna whose hope for a lasting love withers with age. Husband after husband proves undeserving of her love and is summarily disposed of.

At a young age she marries the older Major Edwin Rodrigues (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who stifles her spirit with his insane jealousy and egotism. Next in line is rockstar Jimmy Stetson aka Jamshed Rathore (John Abraham) who woos her with his guitar but falls quickly to drug addiction. Poet Wasiullah aka Musafir (Irfan Khan) appears to be a harbour for peaceful love but turns out to be a sadomasochist.

By now Susanna is middle aged and a more than a little disillusioned but this doesn't stop the long list of men wanting to marry her. Russian spy/scientist Nicolai Vronski courts her with 'shudh' Hindi and Bollywood dialogues till she agrees to marry him. Only to realise that he is duping her and is already married. To stave off a police investigation, Susanna is forced to marry the exploitative and horny Inspector Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor). He is sent to meet his maker at the earliest opportunity. The elderly grieving black widow is now tortured enough to make a suicide attempt. In this she is thwarted by Dr. Madhusudan Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah) who is a comforting mix of allopathy, naturopathy and spirituality rolled into one. That is until he tries to kill Susanna for her money. Susanna replies with a game of Russian Roulette revealing her frustration with her own accursed life and Tarafdar joins the other husbands. By now unable to handle so much pain, Susanna burns down her house and is believed to be dead herself.
Susanna's story is told through the eyes of the young orphan boy, Arun, who she brings up in her household and who eventually becomes a Forensic scientist (Vivaan Shah) seeking to confirm her death. His love for and worshipful obsession with her leads him to Pondicherry where he finds Susanna alive and well and about to be a 'bride' for the seventh time...

Vishal Bharadwaj's latest offering is based on a short story by Ruskin Bond titled "Susanna's Seven husbands" and to give the devil his due, Vishal again tries something different with his black-widow story. There is a lot of detailing like topical references to Babri Masjid dispute, the Berlin Wall coming down, the IC 814 hijacking, shootouts at Mumbai etc. to show the passage of time. The curiosity value for the audience is in figuring out why and how the next husband will be bumped off. The devices range from panthers, to pistols, to even Viagra! Priyanka Chopra puts in a very commendable performance and is undoubtedly one of the finer actresses of her generation (just imagine Katrina trying to pull off something like this and you will know what I mean). Among the husbands, Irfan and Naseer stand out with their assured presence despite being just a part of a much larger whole. Ruskin Bond himself has a cameo in the movie. As does Konkona Sen Sharma in yet another unaffected and endearing performance. Usha Uthup however is completely wasted in her role as Susanna's macabre maid.

The movie however, is just not engrossing enough. The first half is especially tedious with long winded and unnecessary sequences like the fight between the Major and Gunga the servant and Jimmy's raucous songs. The actual killing of the husbands is also hardly shown and is more often done by her servants than by Susanna herself.
Bharadwaj's big problem here is that the transition from the pages of a book to the big screen does not happen smoothly. One is constantly left wondering how much better it would have been to read the story to experience its darkness and hidden spaces better. Watching the dimly lit sequences, the Greek chorus like characters of Susanna's servants who help her with each crime, Arun the sly kid whose love for Susanna borders on Oedipal and Susanna herself who appears to have an Elektra complex make one feel like maybe a play would have worked better than a movie. The need to justify Susanna's actions in true Hindi cinema tradition also feels forced. I wonder what the movie would have been like if she were to gleefully dispose of her husbands rather than make it seem like a painful duty.

Falling into the grey area between 'artsy' and mainstream cinema does not work so well this time. When the movie ended the confusion of the audience was almost palpable.
So am left wishing for a more tightly knit script, sharper dialogues and better makeup for Priyanka (who looks hideous in most scenes).

Rating: 5/10