A good cast and
a good plot / storyline doesn’t necessarily make a good movie. No other movie in recent times can come close
to this adage as much as HINDI MEDIUM. The
movie has Irrfan Khan in it and therefore it must be good. Keep in mind that
Irrfan also have non-movies such as Jazbaa, Thank You and Acid Factory amongst
others to his credit. He is human. He makes mistakes.
Showing posts with label Satire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Satire. Show all posts
Sunday, 21 May 2017
Friday, 9 May 2014
Yeh Hai Bakrapur
Janaki
Vishwanathan, in her debut movie, picks 2 statements that I have always
strongly believed in and don’t hesitate to repeat ad nauseum ad infinitum. You can sell anything in India under the garb
of Healthcare, Education and most importantly Religion. The second and more important one – India is
a country of literate but uneducated people.
Friday, 18 April 2014
Dekh Tamasha Dekh
About 2-3
minutes into Feroze Abbas Khan’s second venture into Bollywood your reaction
would be, “This doesn’t seem like a movie at all”. For those unaware, FAK is a much more well
known for his exploits in the theatre circuit.
It seems like the baggage from theatre has been carried over to Dekh
Tamasha Dekh not just in terms of narration but more obviously in terms of
cast.
Sunday, 23 March 2014
Ankhon Dekhi
Esoteric, abstruse,
obscure, arcane, recherché, rarefied, recondite, abstract, difficult, hard,
puzzling, perplexing, inscrutable, cryptic, complex, complicated, over/above
one's head, incomprehensible, opaque – just a few words that come to mind when
you watch Ankhon Dekhi. Sadly the
average audience will agree because of their mental faculties not being upto to
the levels Rajat Kapoor expects them to be.
Friday, 8 March 2013
Saare Jahaan Se Mehenga
Indian cinema
has always come up with some very interesting pieces of satire or comedy. Every once in a while, you get some low
budget comedy movies that provide wholesome family entertainment. You know, the likes of Do Dooni Chaar (Rishi
Kapoor & Neetu Singh playing a middle aged couple from Lajpat Nagar) or the
more recent Vicky Donor. You get what I
am saying right?
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Peepli Live
Is Aamir Khan the man with the Midas touch in Bollywood? His first movie through production house AKP went all the way to the Oscars. The second one was a raging hit within the country and a launch pad for his nephew. The third, it would seem is as big a hit but from a completely different genre and with absolutely no “stars” in the true sense of the word – barring of course one gentleman who goes by the name of Naseeruddin Shah. I really would not call Peepli Live a comedy, unless of course it is preceded by Dark. The correct term would probably be Satire.
Natha (Omkar Das) and Budhiya (Raghuvir Yadav) are brothers who are deep in debt. Their farmland has been mortgaged with the bank who now wants to auction the land off since our brothers have not been able to pay the money back. The brothers stay with their Mother (Farrukh Jaffer), Natha’s wife Dhania (Shalini Vatsa) and Natha’s 3 kids. On their return from the bank, their only hope rests with Bhai Thakur (Sitaram Panchal) the local politician / representative for the ruling party of the state of Mukhya Pradesh. Thakur tells them in jest to commit suicide and that the government pays upto Rs.1 lac for families of farmers who have committed suicide. The two poor illiterate souls actually take this seriously, find out details and debate on who should commit suicide between them.
Parallely, on ITV, Nandita Malik (Malaika Shenoy) is interviewing Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Salim Kidwai (Naseerudding Shah) who more or less trivializes the issue of farmer suicides by claiming that a lot of them are natural deaths. He also turns it into a point of putting down the Government of Mukhya Pradesh which is led by the opposing party. ITV’s editor in charge is not happy with his falling TRPs and the fact that Bharat TV the Hindi National Channel is raking in the big numbers thanks to some ridiculous programming. Nandita is instructed to do whatever it takes to up the ratings. As luck would have it, a local newspaper journo, Rakesh from Jan Morcha over hears Natha and Budhiya planning their suicide. The ensuing article begins to create waves but Rakesh, smitten by Nandita, informs her first. Not for too long though coz the entire country now wants to see the man who is going to commit suicide on live Television.
Peepli Live is a superb satire on 4 issues that the country faces today. The fact that the progress from being an agri economy to a service based one has left a whole host of farmers completely high and dry. The favourite victim as most people who has seen the movie perceive it, is the media; and rightfully so. Watching the news these days, is as good as watching a daily soap. The only way most news channels understand is sensationalizing how Salman Khan takes a leak and not really addressing the core and more important issues at hand. Lastly it takes a royal dig at the existing political system in the country where politicians and bureaucrats would rather point fingers at each other or join hands with rival parties for their own personal gain or provide irrelevant support to people like giving a farmer who is struggling for his survival a Television and attempting to generate mileage out of it. I say 4 issues coz somewhere I believe Peepli Live is trying to push us into a specific direction of saying no the kind of crap that we are put through these days, either by the political system or the media. It seems to be an earnest plea to all of us to not just wait for a change but to be the change. Remains to be seen how many of us actually take the message forward into action.
As regards the quality of execution, it is indeed very good. The performances of all the actors are excellent. Casting is superb. The costumes even more. Direction is only aided by the fact that the cast is really good. But one cannot take away credit from Anusha Rizvi and Mohammed Farooqui even more so since this was their first movie. Music is also very well managed between Ram Sampat, Indian Ocean and Nageen Tanvir. No questions about the story line which deals with the 4 issues in an extremely humorous manner that leaves you feeling good and not upset or depressed. The peak point in the entire movie would be when Natha’s son comes to him and asks, “Baba, aap kab maroge”? Overall a 7 on 10 surely from my side.
Natha (Omkar Das) and Budhiya (Raghuvir Yadav) are brothers who are deep in debt. Their farmland has been mortgaged with the bank who now wants to auction the land off since our brothers have not been able to pay the money back. The brothers stay with their Mother (Farrukh Jaffer), Natha’s wife Dhania (Shalini Vatsa) and Natha’s 3 kids. On their return from the bank, their only hope rests with Bhai Thakur (Sitaram Panchal) the local politician / representative for the ruling party of the state of Mukhya Pradesh. Thakur tells them in jest to commit suicide and that the government pays upto Rs.1 lac for families of farmers who have committed suicide. The two poor illiterate souls actually take this seriously, find out details and debate on who should commit suicide between them.
Parallely, on ITV, Nandita Malik (Malaika Shenoy) is interviewing Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Salim Kidwai (Naseerudding Shah) who more or less trivializes the issue of farmer suicides by claiming that a lot of them are natural deaths. He also turns it into a point of putting down the Government of Mukhya Pradesh which is led by the opposing party. ITV’s editor in charge is not happy with his falling TRPs and the fact that Bharat TV the Hindi National Channel is raking in the big numbers thanks to some ridiculous programming. Nandita is instructed to do whatever it takes to up the ratings. As luck would have it, a local newspaper journo, Rakesh from Jan Morcha over hears Natha and Budhiya planning their suicide. The ensuing article begins to create waves but Rakesh, smitten by Nandita, informs her first. Not for too long though coz the entire country now wants to see the man who is going to commit suicide on live Television.
Peepli Live is a superb satire on 4 issues that the country faces today. The fact that the progress from being an agri economy to a service based one has left a whole host of farmers completely high and dry. The favourite victim as most people who has seen the movie perceive it, is the media; and rightfully so. Watching the news these days, is as good as watching a daily soap. The only way most news channels understand is sensationalizing how Salman Khan takes a leak and not really addressing the core and more important issues at hand. Lastly it takes a royal dig at the existing political system in the country where politicians and bureaucrats would rather point fingers at each other or join hands with rival parties for their own personal gain or provide irrelevant support to people like giving a farmer who is struggling for his survival a Television and attempting to generate mileage out of it. I say 4 issues coz somewhere I believe Peepli Live is trying to push us into a specific direction of saying no the kind of crap that we are put through these days, either by the political system or the media. It seems to be an earnest plea to all of us to not just wait for a change but to be the change. Remains to be seen how many of us actually take the message forward into action.
As regards the quality of execution, it is indeed very good. The performances of all the actors are excellent. Casting is superb. The costumes even more. Direction is only aided by the fact that the cast is really good. But one cannot take away credit from Anusha Rizvi and Mohammed Farooqui even more so since this was their first movie. Music is also very well managed between Ram Sampat, Indian Ocean and Nageen Tanvir. No questions about the story line which deals with the 4 issues in an extremely humorous manner that leaves you feeling good and not upset or depressed. The peak point in the entire movie would be when Natha’s son comes to him and asks, “Baba, aap kab maroge”? Overall a 7 on 10 surely from my side.
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