Bollywood World

Trailer


Review

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 4th December, 2015
Time : 121 minutes
Director & Writer: Pan Nalin; Music : Cyril Morin;
Starring : Rajshri Deshpande, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sarah-Jane Dias, Pavleen Gujral, Amrit Maghera, Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul, Nia Dhime, Anuj Choudhry, Adil Hussain, Arjun Mathur



This one is as much about the journey as the end (which I didn�t quite like). A few angry, frustrated (non-sexually) women get together in Goa and vent, heal, laugh, chat, discover some answers to the challenges life throws towards females in our country before a plot twist changes things fundamentally.



The women are from wildly varied walks of life, despite most having been college mates. Pavleen, the married housewife, who has some of the funniest lines, is a mild, peaceful sort � got married in the flow of things (parents) and feels sometimes that instead of the varmala, she actually put her college gold medal around her husband�s neck, as she didn�t do anything with her talent after that. Anushka is a singer, trying for Bollywood but relegated to doing tours in hotels etc, where she doesn�t exactly encounter the cr�me de la cr�me � her music career isn�t really going anywhere and she�s more than a little depressed because of that.




Sandhya Mridul, the fiery one, runs a mining company and has balls of steel � tearing papers up in meetings, firing people left, right and centre. She�s also a single mom and is equally fierce with her young daughter, Nia. We know very little about Tannishtha, apart from the fact that she is an activist and fiercely opposes one of the mining sites that Sandhya�s company is involved with. Sarah-Jane is the one who�s got everyone together at her place in Goa � she�s a photographer who�s chasing her dream and is holding certain cards close to her chest. Amrit, her half-Indian cousin, a British national, is trying to make her career in Bollywood as an actress � sometimes with hilarious effects. And last but not the least, Rajshri is the maid, a bit of a ball crusher (literally) but also has a soft side and a bit of a past which can make her see red very quickly.



You get the usual issues � restrictions on dress, unequal split of chores, marriage, exploitation, Section 377, how the victims of sexual crimes are viewed � and a few new ones. Most of it�s interspersed with giant dollops of humour (the rain dance between the underwear clad Amrit and the sari clad Rajshri, the conservative reactions of Pavleen, including the epic �Yaar, tum karte kaise ho ?�, the reaction to the sexy neighbor (Anuj) washing his car, and the frail bai who washes their clothes), which ensures the film rarely has a dull moment, also thanks in part to a great music score.



However, ugly India does intrude into their idyllic vacation, rearing it�s ugly head in paradise � some molesters in the middle of the film and the reactions of Adil Hussain, a cop, towards the end. I don�t think the final plot twist was necessary � it left me with a sour taste. Also, some solutions (the mining debate, the parenting style, the viral video) were all too pat, too easy, a bit contrived. And the last scene in the church is more than a bit filmy, would�ve ended very differently in real life. The performances were very good overall � Amrit, Rajshri and Pavleen especially catching the eye, while Sarah-Jane is quite enchanting in an under-stated role.



It�s well-paced, neatly strung together � moments of emotion, pathos nicely balanced with fun, laughter. Instances of anger mixed up with moments of just being. Quite nice to get the woman�s point of view too � especially since it came via a man (writer, director Pan Nalin).

PS : Rant Coming Up : Here, right from the opening credits you know you�re in for censorship butchery. If it�s an A film, why do any swear words have to be beeped out ? Are all adults in India not exposed to colourful cuss words of all languages ? And what was this whole drama about blanking out the images of Indian gods, goddesses � even in the opening credits � beggars belief ? The frequent cuts really do intrude into the atmosphere created by the film. About time the Board realizes it�s there for certification and not censorship.

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 30th October, 2015
Time : 123 minutes
Director, Writer : Manish Shrivasta; Co-Writer : Amit Sial; Music : Manish Tipu;
Starring : Naseeruddin Shah, Disha Arora, Auroshikha Dey, Subrat Dutta, Nishant Lal, Siraj Mustafa, Anchal Nadrajog, Manasi Rachh, Amit Sial, Sanam Singh Talwar, Anand Tiwari



You know that old one, when to demonstrate something convoluted, the person, instead of holding his right ear with his right hand, twists his hand around the back of the head and holds the left ear instead ? Lets just say, to keep the analogy going, that in this one the person is upside down, in a bendy yoga pose, while underwater and being attacked by piranhas while attempting to hold the left ear with his left foot�that�s how complicated they make it�


The cops, led by Naseeruddin Shah, find a video recording, in some parking lot, where two men and two women end up shooting and killing each other. Along with this footage, they also find footage of some previous days, where those same characters were involved in a cocaine deal of some sort. And then they, the cops, spend the next 110 minutes trying to decipher what actually transpired�



The opening credits are quite sensuous � showing a woman (Elena Roxanna) in sexy black lingerie just lolling around. But then as soon as they end, we�re jerkily taken to this grimy parking lot and some blood, gore. Amit Sial, Nishant Lal, Manasi Rachh and Anchal are the four individuals there. Then we see the cops (Auroshikha is one of them aiding Naseeruddin Shah) trying to decipher the messy, jerky home made videos (all shot by Nishant). There is also a gangland killing, a don based out of Dubai (where else) and characters like Anand Tiwari, Subrat Dutta, Sanam Singh Talwar and Siraj Mustafa who play important roles of varying lengths.


The logical flaws with the plot are too many to recount. The video recordings are hard to watch after a while, as they are jarring, bumpy and, especially in one particular sequence, nausea-inducing. It�s also tough to believe that the characters would let themselves be filmed the way they did (even in intimate moments and conversations) by their tharki friend. What can be appreciated though, is that the actors turn in good performances and the film doesn�t stray from its rather complicated plot � it�s crisp from that POV, no unnecessary back stories or item songs.


There are shades of Usual Suspects in here, though this is not remotely a copy. It�s not a bad attempt but is made an even harder watch by too many hazy, drug snorting scenes. And I do wish there was a simpler storyline � you really have your head spinning (literally) when you leave the hall�

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 22nd August, 2014
Time : 113 minutes
Director: Pradeep Sarkar; Writer : Gopi Puthran; Music : Salim-Sulaiman
Starring : Rani Mukherjee, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Priyanka Sharma, Jishu Sengupta, Anil George



Its Taken (if you�d like to know more about that film, click here) but Indianized. Its Rani Mukherjee, instead of Liam Neeson, playing a Mumbai cop. Not the daughter but someone who is daughter jaisi (wonder why ?). Add a huge amount of melodrama, teary music to an otherwise decent portrayal and you have a film which is decent, has good performances but, thanks to the above melodrama, never really builds up any tension or tautness to make you live the experience.



I like the way they built Rani�s character. Right from the opening raid to nab a criminal, the way she worked with her unit, her planning. The way she isn�t scared of getting her hands dirty. How she doesn�t really lose her cool, staying focused on the job at hand, battling bureaucracy, seniors and apart from one preachy scene, she mostly just gets on with it. The girl who gets kidnapped, Priyanka, someone she�d �adopted�, who lives at an orphanage but meets the family, including Rani�s niece who lives with them, frequently.



Her performance is matched by Tahir�s chilling, efficient and �its only business portrayal, the chief villain. He�s very good. Suggesting a better method of killing herself to a victim who threatens to commit suicide. Having phone conversations with Rani, trying to persuade her to drop the case.


What the film does well is make us care for the characters. Build them up nicely. Even people who appear in minute roles manage to make a mark, like Tahir�s mom, or the lady who takes care of the girls, or the police unit Rani works with, or the car dealer who is the front for the syndicate in Mumbai. What doesn�t work well are the slightly gratuitous scenes of the young girls undressing (well, perhaps necessary to show how the system works), the beauty parade they go through, the attempts to wring a tear, which actually dissipate any tension that was being built up.


I may be pilloried for this but child trafficking is probably a crime worse than rape and happens a lot more often (apparently one every eight minutes in India). Without as much media noise, police prevention effort going behind it. This one does a fair job of bringing this heinous deed to the forefront, describing the modus operandi, the organized nature of the syndicates running it and also the end users, mostly rich, well-connected, sick b****rds ! Probably just for that, it deserves an audience and a decent rating.

PS : The Nth time I�m saying this, but our celebrity obsessed culture really needs to change. Why is it so difficult to get names of the entire cast, as you can do on countless websites for English / French / German films. According to the YRF website the film only stars Rani & Tahir. Quite a few �big� sites, in fact, only name Rani as the cast�which I don�t think is respectful to the other actors who sweat it out and perform in the film�