Director: Rakesh Mehra
Cast: Abhisekh Bachan, Rishi Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor
Landing into a third world thanks to his grand mother, Roshan (Abhisek) a NRI born to hindu and muslim parents, narrates the journey within that he travels to accept a Nation for what it is, when he encounters various shades of real India and finally to give back the backward nation the lessons he learnt.
Rakesh Mehra creates a mesmerizing screenplay by treating this linear story with a non- linear narrative style which travels parallel to the vanavash phase of ramayan being played for the locals, with the former intercepting with the latter at regular intervals and then adding multiple layers to the story by showcasing communal and emotional clashes that breaks out for pointless and oddest of all causes in which the protagonist unknowingly gets involved, due to the preconceived notion or plain immaturity of the average man living in this part of the world.
Having created such a complex script, Rakesh smoothly communicates the emotions and the transition that the protagonists undergo be it visually or symbolically (dil gira dafaten sequence), but fails to communicate with effective dialogues. He also fails to use naïve situations or at least intelligent examples (seeing God through mirror) to preach the message he sets out to tell, hence ending up showing an assemblage of characters representing each aspect of old Delhi all depicted in a mockery manner who influence (rather left for the audience to assume to be influential) the protagonist to first hate the Nation and then suddenly love it.
Rakesh do succeed in comical depiction of the two ends of the nation (the news channel episode) and also the present stature of woman through the characters of Bitto (Sonam) and wife of the rich old man.
Had the screenplay been less jumpy and the message handled better, this technically brilliant movie could have been a great movie.
Rating: 2½ / 5
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Naan Kadavul
Director: Bala
Cast: Aarya, Pooja
Spell binding, captivating, haunting, exhilarating and outlandishly gory sums up Naan Kadavul; yet another master-piece by Bala. Handling a film that deals with three issues and giving equal importance to each of them while linking them to form a riveting screenplay with out the audience being bored is no less a mammoth task in which Bala succeeds but only after taking ample cinematic liberties. It takes immense strength to handle certain sequences that Bala exhibits in this documented drama; one being the introduction sequence of the physically challenged; he hits you hard on the face with the way he projects the harsh reality. Bala should also be applauded for touching many a controversial topics from who & where is God to the third eye of Shiva and finally to I am God.
All said if you analyse all Bala movies one cant but deny that the central theme remains the same in all of them: An outcast, who is made to believe he is more than human brought into civilization, where he due to unavoidable circumstances faces a local don dealing in certain unspeakable job all leading to a gory climax where the antagonist as well as a central character die. His scripts always have some scenes in which the judicial system is ridiculed, while his protagonist gives fiery expressions or wild caricatures or beats up anyone as he likes for no reasons backed by haunting re-recording of Illayaraja.
The major draw of the movie is Pooja who steals the show from Aarya reducing him to be only a well known enigma. Cinematography and editing is top notch for a film which mainly depends on the feel rather than scenes. If not for Illayaraja this movie would never be as good as it seem to be. On the whole watch it to get haunted.
Cast: Aarya, Pooja
Spell binding, captivating, haunting, exhilarating and outlandishly gory sums up Naan Kadavul; yet another master-piece by Bala. Handling a film that deals with three issues and giving equal importance to each of them while linking them to form a riveting screenplay with out the audience being bored is no less a mammoth task in which Bala succeeds but only after taking ample cinematic liberties. It takes immense strength to handle certain sequences that Bala exhibits in this documented drama; one being the introduction sequence of the physically challenged; he hits you hard on the face with the way he projects the harsh reality. Bala should also be applauded for touching many a controversial topics from who & where is God to the third eye of Shiva and finally to I am God.
All said if you analyse all Bala movies one cant but deny that the central theme remains the same in all of them: An outcast, who is made to believe he is more than human brought into civilization, where he due to unavoidable circumstances faces a local don dealing in certain unspeakable job all leading to a gory climax where the antagonist as well as a central character die. His scripts always have some scenes in which the judicial system is ridiculed, while his protagonist gives fiery expressions or wild caricatures or beats up anyone as he likes for no reasons backed by haunting re-recording of Illayaraja.
The major draw of the movie is Pooja who steals the show from Aarya reducing him to be only a well known enigma. Cinematography and editing is top notch for a film which mainly depends on the feel rather than scenes. If not for Illayaraja this movie would never be as good as it seem to be. On the whole watch it to get haunted.
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