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Reviews
Talaash (2012)
Talaash is the search of a man coming in terms with the inexplicable
In the midst of a particular sequence, Aamir khan asks Kareena, " kya tum khush ho ( are you happy?), kareena replies, "kuch pal hai" (there are moments).
Talaash is an amalgamation of various such moments. The movie beautifully depicts several layers of emotions, takes care of deep characterizations and their human fallacies.
Something as tenuous as the loss of a child and the deep borne anguish as its consequence is dealt with equal sensitivity and pathos, accompanied by remarkable performances by both Rani and Aamir.
The director takes us (with mesmerizing camera shots) through various locales, diversified views of the city's underbelly and the dark and yet vivid human erroneous beliefs.
Director Reema Kagti tells her story pretty well and leaves it to the audience to decipher the inexplicable. There are subplots that churn out emotions equally. Nawazuddin as the guy in the brothel plays his part brilliantly. His undying love for a prostitute almost double his age is chaste and watching him subsequently rescuing her at the cost of his own life is an elevating experience. How often does one get to see such love relationships?
There are strong performances by each and every character and the plot too keeps the audience gaping for more till the end. However, the movie dramatically ends in an anti climax and leaves the audience blank with more questions than answers.
How can a girl come over the pain of not being loved? How can a couple forget the hurt of losing their child? Talaash is the search of a man coming in terms with the incomprehensible and consequently getting over the demons (living, non-living, undecipherable, etc.,) that rule our lives.
Talaash speaks through its characters more than its plot. The lady who practices planchet, Kareena who is supposed to be dead yet appears intermittently and gives Aamir one hint after the other and Rani, who is away from all of this, trying to find solace in communicating with her dead son- the movie speaks through them and weaves several moments of love, hate, intrigue, ache, pain and outrage.
Beautiful collage of emotions and images, Talaash will be remembered for impeccable performances by all its characters. Kareena Kapoor as the prostitute is outstanding. She is a real mystery in the film both literally and figuratively. Rani Mukerji looks very real and plays her part as the grieving mother with utmost perfection. Aamir Khan's performance is neat and doesn't go over the top anywhere. Except for the over usage of the word "talaash" in some dialogues, the movie is completely bereft of clichés. To make the picture perfect, there are also some soul stirring numbers.
For all those who have still not watched the movie, go for it, it definitely deserves a watch.
P.S- I have watched it twice :-)
Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012)
Weak script, redundant dialogues Yash Chopra's last was a very average YRF product. Jab Tak Hain Jaan - a Film review
The movie starts with a poem being delivered by the man himself- Yash chopra. A tone of reverence for the filmmaker, whose last film as a director was going to be screened a few moments from then, was set.
Yash Chopra has created many 'Romances' in his long career. Often good scripts and mostly great songs have been integral part of his films. With so much done and achieved, his last film was, alas, far away from being called his 'best work'.
Jab Tak Hain Jaan is just another potboiler featuring YRF's favorite hero since the 90's and their formula female actors (i.e. the actors who are 'stars of the moment'). With great promotions (steeped with sentimentality's evoked around Mr. Chopra's sudden demise), large posters all around the metropolitan cities, SRK flanked by the two most hot actresses of the time and of course umpteen number of public appearances made prior to the release, this film just did not make it to the audiences' expectation.
What Mr. Chopra wanted to convey, perhaps never permeated through his film and instead too many questions arise. How does a person who does odd jobs (cleaning snow in front of a church in England, selling fish in a market, so on and so forth) after 10 years become the Major in the Indian army? How does a girl (Anushka) who loiters around all the time with all her antics and hysterics, end up with a documentary that goes on to become the main cover story in none other than Discovery Channel?
As if these anomalies were not enough, there is a long list of them. To start with, the film had a very weak script and an inept Shahrukh Khan as the 28 year old in the 1st half, fidgeting around without doing much (one of the most unconvincing performances ever by him). There was Katrina Kaif who just delivered her dialogues on time without taking much pain into emoting and an Anushka Sharma whose presence almost had a screeching effect due to the boisterous rendition of her character in almost all the scenes.
However, the 38-year-old Shahrukh in the second half came as a relief, as here he played his part quite convincingly. YRF movies are known for their mesmerizing songs, here too there was a big disappointment. Barring one 'saans mein teri saans mili to', all others were slack and does not leave any mark.
The movie ends with shots and scenes featuring Mr. Chopra directing the cast in various locations. It was a real pleasure to see Mr. Chopra behind the scenes instructing his actors. The mental effort that went into figuring out who is doing what in the 3-hour long drama, mellowed down with the solemnity embedded in the last few minutes. The tone set in the beginning found its connection in the end.
Jab Tak Hain Jaan is a watchable film that will be remembered more for being the last directed movie by the great crafter of Bollywood, than for anything else.
P.S- After watching the film, I realize the best part of it was used in the promotions thereby creating an illusion of poetic extravagance – its amazing poetry.
Aiyyaa (2012)
From 'aaiyaa' to 'aaiyo', Rani pulls it off!!
There was a time in the early '2k era' when an actress was slowly making a mark in Indian cinema. She was small, impish, vigorously spontaneous and ever charming. Her crackling voice appeared unpleasant initially leading filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt to dub someone else for her. However, like a true talent would, she turned every scar to star. Rani Mukherjee, the actress with all her effervescence was missing all this while from the silver screen, she made her fans wait and grumble. However, the wait was worth!! With "Aiyaa", Rani is rightfully "back with a bang". She rants, she banters, she raves and she rules!!!
Meenakshi Deshpande (Rani Mukherjee) loves to dream herself as Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi and Juhi Chawla (the ladies who ruled Indian cinema in the 90's). She idolizes them...but wait, she is not a wannabe actress, she simply loves to dream! A typical 'teenage Bollywood freak' at heart, Meenakshi's dreams are pompous, opulent and larger-than-life, no matter how diminutive her real life existence is. While her parents almost hound for a suitable match for her, she secretly nourishes the idea of eloping with her boyfriend by taking away all her grand ma's assorted jewellery. A secret wish to fall in love and get rid of the 'ever-so-mundane' ways of life is all that she wants. The movie begins by elucidating upon the innuendos of this freaky, simple yet vivacious Marathi mulgi. Meenakshi's dream is perhaps every (middle class) girl's dream and this is where an instant connection takes place between the audience and the gripping narrative of this girl.
Rani Mukherjee with all her gusto gives a live wire performance as Meenakshi on-screen.
Before one could settle down with the vibrancy of this girl, another aspect about her comes to surface. Meenakshi is hyper-sensitive to 'smell' in general. The municipality dustbin is just a stone's throw from her house. She is agitated, screams and rants about it all the day. Feels stifled almost every time she passes by it and gets nauseated by its foulness. However, the fragrance of dreams never ceases to grasp her. The bin here works as a complete metaphor to showcase the innate quality of this girl to live life just the way she wants to!
The story develops further. Meenakshi eventually manages a job as a librarian in an art college and consequently feels a magnetic pull towards an art student there for the "heavenly" smell that he emanates. Is it the perennial stingy smell that she has to bear with back home which makes her so drawn towards this "out-of the world" smell of this man? We ponder! Prithviraj, I was told is a South superstar. He absolutely lives up to the expectations in the film. Super dashing as he looks on screen, his contemplative face as an artist is a "countenance to reckon with", so much so that Meenakshi eventually falls head-over-heels in love with him and so does most of the girls in the audience! (I included)
Like her dreams Meenakshi follows him almost everywhere. She goes all out of her way to learn Tamil. She barges into the men's toilet, gatecrashes into his house as a sales woman and secretly steals his shirt only to wear it in the night and feel closer to his 'existence'. The longing to be with the beloved can also be satiated by wearing his clothes, his belongings and their remnants. A beautiful expression indeed!!
Gyrating dance moves and raunchy make-ups are nothing but an expression of her fantasies that plummets the moment real life strikes.
Meenakshi's marriage gets apparently fixed up with the 'Farooque Sheikh' admirer Madhav which she couldn't impede even after a forceful horrendous rendition of a Tamil song.
She continually follows her dream man who is continually oblivious about her. Meenakshi pulls out all the stops to follow him for an entire day and escapes from her pending engagement. She finally meets him eventually discovers the reason for the heavenly smell that pulls her....
Almost a fairytale story told in a fairytale fashion, 'Aiyaa' wins your heart with its softness, unique expression of love and ever so pure "smell" factor attached to it. What is it, other than the looks, which make a person different from the others externally? Smell right?
No two individual can smell the same technically. The director harps on this fact and colors it with all the possible shades of romance. The intensity of a person's body, the feeling of getting attached with him by inhaling that fragrance
..emotions become almost palpable at the very realization of it all!!
'Aiyaa' other than being a fun to watch movie is also very profound in the message it inadvertently conveys. With some comic relief in the form of the 'golden tooth of the grand ma' and Meenakshi's pro-PETA brother (which I honestly feel the script did not need at all), the film fulfills all the quotients of entertainment. After Sridevi's powerful performance in English Vinglish, its Rani's exuberance that comes our way this time round. What a treat for movie buffs! Much like Sridevi's Shashi, who ends up completely transforming herself as an expert in English, Rani's Meenakshi too coverts from speaking "aiyaa" to "aaiyo". She meets her dream man finally and becomes "Meenakshi Deshpande Iyer".
P.S- Extra ordinary dance prowess showcased by Rani (especially the belly dance). Beautiful movie, must watch!!
English Vinglish (2012)
Genuine plot that instantly connects....
For every other Sridevi fan, this film must have been that much awaited cinematic confrontation with their dream actress and the superstar of her times (or should I say megastar?). Let me admit that I was never a Sridevi fan in my life (even after watching all her fantastic performances in various characters), however, the temptation to see the actress come back in the celluloid after some 15 years was enough for me go for English Vinglish.
The movie of course speaks about a woman who does know how to speak the language of English- a very unambiguous and common subject considering the backgrounds of middle class Indian family housewives and their extremely "anti-western" exposure. Yet, right at the onset, the film makes mark in the minds of the audience (at least mine) as the lines "for my mother" appears on the screen. Sridevi- the actress who went up to the dizzying heights of fame and popularity across the Indian subcontinent in the early 80s is introduced.
It is perhaps the commonality of the subject that makes this movie so appealing and beautiful.
Hats off to Gauri Shinde for minutely putting up all of these nuances on screen. The superb performances of all the characters (her fellow class mates) in the English class adds up to the entertainment factor of the film and also speaks of the "other" world that we are so ignorant of. Why should an Indian woman be smirked at when a royal French man can say something like "my English is not clean
.it is dirty"?
we learn.
The movie begins by portraying the mundane chore of a woman- morning tea, tiffin for children, blah, blah
common scenarios of every middle class household. In the midst of all this, the revelation of the protagonist gradually takes place.
Sridevi plays that common mother of an ICSE/ international board student who does not know how to speak English and hence fails to strike a chord with her children. (In recent times, this has been the subject matter of some films including Supriya Pathak's character in Wake up Sid).
Her children make fun of her English as she pronounces "jazz" as 'jhaas'. Her husband is no different; he too goes all the way in trampling her spirit and laughing aloud with the kids. With this, the theme of the movie is established.
The rest is only predictable. The woman seething within at every joke cracked at her for her wrong English, develops a resolve to make amends.
Having been to an ICSE board school myself, I could vividly remember the displeasure I felt at times at having to translate a lot of my school activities ( for eg. something that the teacher said ) to my mother and how she used to shy away for turning up at every PTA's.
"For my mother" by the director hence made a tremendous mark in my mind and I am sure it did so for several other girls like me.
In this film, Shashi (Sridevi) is that woman who is completely consumed in the upbringing of her children and attending to the needs of her husband. However, she is a little different from the rest in the line
She solemnly pursues something that she loves - making laddoos. Yes, she makes laddoos and sells them and saves the money earned.
Shashi is yet not that woman who earns for herself and is independent. In fact, she cannot share her delights of selling laddoos with her husband who thinks it's a relegated job. She is laughed at almost always for her poor English and feels ignored and deprived of both love and respect by her family.
However, by some cinematic turn of events, Shashi leaves for America to attend her niece's wedding much before her family comes along and much against her wishes. She finds an advertisement that promises to teach English in 4 weeks. So there it goes- Shashi enrolls for the class.
Shashi triumphs in every way, even when it comes to winning the heart of her fellow mates, especially the French man. It was spectacular to watch Shashi and the French man (played by French actor Mehdi Nebbou) speak in Hindi and French respectively to each other while venting out their personal emotions
cinematic excellence indeed!
'When someone tells us how beautiful we are, we feel like living that old, jaded and forlorn life again with renewed freshness'- Shashi confesses this to the man who is almost the Yeatsian "face amid a crowd of stars" who "loved the pilgrim soul in her and the sorrows of her changing face".
Shashi teaches us the biggest lesson
that we may not be as "judgmental" as others are towards us.
A beautiful film, wonderful performances and a complete heartwarming experience it was.
The humble appeal of English Vinglish and the detailed description of the innuendos of a woman faced with the inability to speak English connect all the dots and make it a complete must watch for all.
P.S- Turned into a Sridevi fan
Basked in the glory of Bachchan retreat for some minutes. What else can I ask for?
Puja
Cheers!!