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anamikaroychaudhary
Reviews
III Smoking Barrels (2017)
An ICONIC film in many ways
III Smoking Barrels is the first ever film I have seen which is set in North East India. And I am yet to see another film which is set in that region. III Smoking Barrels ( I will call it III SB) is a film which will be remembered for many reasons. It's a pioneer in many ways - I have not seen any other Indian film with so many languages & multi-cultural portrayal, I don't know any other Indian film which talks about child soldiers, I don't remember a full death metal gig in any other Indian film, I don't know an Indian film with songs in 4 languages, I haven't seen a film where the "THE END" card appears just before the intermission etc etc. III SB is a raw and wild film - very realistic yet stylish. The film has many layers. Fortunately I have visited NorthEast India in 2012 and I read couple of books on the region so I could see the subtle layers. Though its a crime drama, it deals with many other aspects of life for instance just before Donnie is going to get killed , he tells his mother that he doesn't know when he gonna come back home. In the third story, Mukhtar & Ikram are rural Moslems but they were not shown wearing a skull cap until they are in real trouble. That's a typical nature of we human, we turn towards God when we are in real trouble. But these things are shown in such a subtle way. I couldn't notice them in my first watch though. I think the script is the hero of the film. It is a very simple script but very unique. . Actors are all superb specially Subrat Dutt. I think he deserved a National Award. I quite like the sound of the film too, specially in the 3rd story - jungle becomes live with the ambience sound. One think though I didn't understand in the film is why did the director & the cinematographer decided to show the jungle not so green. Northeast is so green otherwise. I don't normally like anthology films but this film seems to strike a cord. A cult in making for sure.
A Reasonable Compromise (2011)
Wonderful short film based on the plight of a young breast cancer victim
Dr. Joshi is a retired surgeon living in a remote place outside Mumbai. He is highly disturbed by the apparition of a young girl's ghost at his lab. So he invites Dr. Sukhant, a psychologist & author of occult literature to find an insight to his problem. Dr. Sukhant waits for her at the lab. At midnight she appears & start searching for something & when she doesn't find what she is looking for, turns at him & reveals her bare chest in anger. Dr. Sukhant gets scared when he finds that the ghost has only one breast, the other one has been amputated. She then disappears angrily. Next morning, Dr. Joshi narrates him the back story. The ghost in question when alive she was a breast cancer victim & Dr. Joshi had to perform mastectomy on her although she was little reluctant. Dr. Joshi was interested in carrying research on the amputated part so he brought it to his personal lab to preserve it for his studies. Unfortunately his lab caught fire & burned everything including the the girl's amputated body part. But after the girl died, her ghost started visiting Joshi regularly. Dr. Sukhant after listening to the back story leaves immediately keeping Dr. Joshi clueless but only to return in the evening. In the night, Dr. Sukhant places a prosthetic breast in the lab & waits for the ghost to appear. At midnight the ghost appears but unfortunately she breaks the jar containing the prosthetic breast expressing her rejection & anger & disappears as usual. Both Dr. Joshi & Dr. Sukhant becomes helpless & devastated. .......It will be unfair if I reveal the rest of the story here.
What the filmmaker wanted to say perhaps through this story is the pity state of such patient as well as the doctors.
I liked the awesome pace of the movie although many may find it little slow. The preference of long long wide shots looked excellent. I personally feel there could have been more camera movements...most of the shots are static...this could be a filmmaker's style though . Lighting is excellent & background score sounds great. Make up could have been better. Overall an exciting short film keeping the budget constrains in mind. A must watch for horror genre lover although it has nothing to do with horror as such.