Ugly (2014) (Hindi)

It takes a lot of courage to portray the darkest sides of human behavior.  People are capable of much worse than we could imagine – given the right circumstances.  Most of us are aware of that but live in denial.  To the film maker who doesn’t believe in the beaten path, this aspect of homo sapiens sapiens is nothing short of a delectable treat.

Happy New Year (2014) (Hindi)

Recipe for a successful Farah Khan Movie

Bhoothnath Returns

Nitesh Tiwari enthralled us with Chillar Party a few years back – a movie that I had described as a must watch because of the message it tried to give and because it was entertaining (don’t forget the Chaddi March which was hilarious!!!).  This time around, his movie is packaged as a kids entertainer but it is actually meant for all of you out there who are above 18.  It is a must watch.

Bombay Talkies

Last Friday (26^th April 2013), I was watching The Front Row with Anupama Chopra.  It was the 1^st anniversary edition and the one that previewed Bombay Talkies with its four directors.  During the show, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee were waxing eloquent about Karan Johar.

Gangs of Wasseypur 2

Try and watch the trailer of Gangs of Wasseypur 2 (GoW2) before you actually watch the movie. It will give you a strong flavor of what you have in store of what can be easily termed as the most awaited sequel from the Bollywood stable in the recent and also the not the recent past. The lucky ones probably got to see the trailer at the end of Part 1 itself if your screen didn’t scrimp on saving power for a few minutes. For the not so lucky ones there is you tube.

GoW2 continues from exactly where it left off in GoW – with Sardar Khan’s death. But a few minutes into the movie and you will know that you are in for something that is even more gory and bloody as compared to the precursor. In about 10 minutes, there are 2 funerals and one chopped head – both of which are shown in as much graphic detail as you could probably get out from the censor board.

Sorry about the spoiler but it just left a lasting impression in my head. I can remember very few (if any) movies which are this graphic in nature and grabs hold of you with both hands and shakes you up in such a short span of time. And all of this is inspite of its really slow pace.

The onus of running the Khan family then falls squarely on the shoulders of Faizal Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who has to now try to achieve a fine balance between his fascination for the green drug, his attraction to Mohsina (Huma Qureshi) and his mother’s expectation of revenge.

GoW2 also sees the introduction of 3 new characters. Faizal’s younger brother who speaks with a lisp who is fondly called Perpendicular. At age 14 he is uses Faizal’s fear to the maximum along with his almost fair weather friend called Tangent. And the most important character being Faizal’s step brother – Definite (Zeishan Quadri). The former and the latter are strongly sketched through the movie – especially Definite.

The hallmark of GoW2 will undeniably be the blood and gore that it has shown as blatantly as the censor board could have allowed. But this can at no point take away credit for the clean character sketches of each and every role or the stunning performances from each and every one in the crew. Even if it is a small role like that of Tangent, Shamshad or Guddu, the effort put in is simply superb. Anurag Kashyap could not have come up with the goods once again without these performances. To me, the find from the series would be Richa Chadda, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Tigmanshu Dhulia.

Watch out for yet another fabulous score from Sneha Khanwalkar. I personally think she is insane. One cannot make music that is so apt for a movie and of such high quality if you are normal. Not to forget the hilarious and talented performances from Yashpal Sharma. To me, GoW 1 and 2 have been the movie of the year to date. 7.5 on 10 for this one as well.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3PZbL8JGYQ

Gangs of Wasseypur

It is very difficult to find fault with the likes of Anurag Kashyap because more often than not, he makes masterpieces. Masterpieces which are fleshed out to the level of detail that leads to most people to interpret the movie as too slow. Like I mentioned to someone a couple of days back that movie makers such as Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee put so much of emphasis on characters that the intensity often comes at the expense of pace and is not appreciated by most people. Gangs of Wasseypur is no different from any such movie that you have seen from Tipping Point productions.

GOW gets to the table the atypical commitment towards making a movie that one has come to associate with the likes of Anurag Kashyap only. The emphasis on each character and each frame is stunning. And in this case, Kashyap has gone to great levels to get the back story absolutely in place before moving on to the actual story, for which we will have to wait for a while. The back story itself has taken over 150 minutes of which the first 90 minutes itself gets to a point where you actually start to wonder – is there an interval to this movie? So on a not so serious note, ensure that you relieve yourself before the movie starts lest you are not able to hold back too long

The back story starts way back in the 1940s where the roots of Wasseypur are established. It is a small village on the outskirts of Dhanbad – primarily dominated by the Qureshis who gain their livelihood by robbing trains of the British Raj. A new smart alec Sultan Khan throws a cat amongst the pigeons and earns the wrath of the Qureshis who are actually butchers by profession.

He is banished from the village and starts to make a living in Coal Country where he is noticed by a new Thekedar (Contractor) Ramadhir Singh and taken under his wing. Sultan eventually gets eliminated by Ramadhir when inadvertently learns of Sultan’s ambitions to take over from him. Many moons later Ramadhir is a politician and Sultan’s son Saradar has grown in stature and slowly but surely starts avenging his father’s killer.

Part 1, spans 3 generations of the Khans and the Qureshis with Ramadhir being the constant feature across all of them. GOW, one may rightfully feel, is a bit stretched because after all of this, we still have another part to go. If there is a flaw, this would be it. And that in some scenese, Anurag’s human nature comes to the fore with some silly consistency errors and some even sillier factual errors. Albiet not visible to the normal human eye for certain.

One this is for certain though. The performances from every single person – lead or supporting is stunning – superb work by the Casting director – Mukesh Chhabra. The extras may not have done too well though which is very unlike Kashyap again. The screenplay is absolutely Jharkhandi and so is the music from Sneha Khanwalkar. Both keep the interest and humour alive in the movie which would otherwise have put the audiences to deep sleep. I was unable to catch the name of the editor but without the superb cuts, GOW would not have turned out to be a brilliantly finished movie.

That its an Anurag Kashyap movie in itself is enough reason to watch it. But that it is a very well made one will only make it better. But be prepared for the slow pace. 7.5 on 10 as of now. I may take the rating higher once I have watched 2. Mind you, watch 1 and you will not be able to skip 2. Enjoy!!! Oh yes, I forgot – extreme violence and super gory scenes – not for the light hearted.

Watch the trailer on http://www.youtube.com/user/Viacom18Movies?v=j-AkWDkXcMY

I Am Afia Megha Abhimanyu Omar

I Am Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu, Omar. Not the name of one movie. Not the names of the lead characters either. But 4 different stories. Each dealing with a topic that is extremely sensitive and has been portrayed quite boldly on screen. 4 short stories with a minor extent of intertwining through the appearance of one stray character somewhere in the story who is the lead character in the other. I Am is directed by Onir, who seems to have finally got his sense of direction in place. He seemed to have lost interest in film making with Bas Ek Pal and I was dead certain that he has lost his ability to direct with Sorry Bhai!!! It would seem that our man, who coincidentally was born in Bhutan, seems to have found his groove. Now, I haven’t seen My Brother… Nikhil yet and therefore am ill equipped to comment on whether he had it in the first place. But with I Am, Onir seems to have pushed back his detractors just that little bit. In a little under 100 minutes he has been ably supported with screenplay by Urmi Juvekar of “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” fame and Merle Kroeger.


The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.

Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.

Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.

Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.

The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.

In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWQZFFGdBA