KUHELI (BENGALI FLIM REVIEW)

Kuheli Review

Kuheli 

Kuheli is publicized to be a vampire film, first of its kind in Bengali film industry. Vampire cult is mainly a western paradigm but in the land of Kali and tantric rituals, can vampires be left behind? Debarati Gupta, in a shoe string budget, tried to blend her art house tendencies with the subgenre of horror films and produced Kuheli with some fresh faces mainly targeted towards the younger audience who have by now completely immersed themselves into the in/famous twilight saga.

Kuheli happens in our beloved city, Kolkata where a young NRI couple comes to stay. Sayak, a travel blogger and Amrita (played by Indrasish and Pujarini Ghosh, and reasonably well) move to an apartment and along with their arrival, a series of gory killings start happening. Investigative officer ACP Mahapatra (Kaushik Sen) and his assistant Inspector Samanta (Anindya Pulak) after a tête-à-tête with retired police officer Nisith Roy (Barun Chanda) tried to crack the mystery surrounding the chain of massacres happening, with the NRI couple as suspect. Chandrayee Ghosh as Romila Debi is befitting as a tarot card reader, a friendly neighbour to this couple. 

The film somehow lacks action/twists and depends heavily on dialogues. Kuheli is actually a love story under the guise of a horror/murder mystery. Kaushik Sen had nothing much to do. His charisma is conspicuous by its absence. The three street savvy sex maniacs from the locality had nothing to contribute to the plot. They are an aberration in the film. 

Anindya Pulak acted smart. Barun Chanda is a revelation, he had the crispest dialogues in his kitty and he delivered them well. The music is not noteworthy. Joydeep Bose as a cinematographer did justice to his alma mater! Debarati has added her signature as a Director by converting the western vampire cult into a story of love, sacrifice and mutual protection which defines the very core of eastern philosophy. Even though the film is first of its kind in Bengali cinema, it fails to be timeless!

KIRITI ROY (BENGALI FLIM REVIEW)

KIRITI ROY REVIEW

KIRITI ROY 

Bengali film Industry, all of a sudden, is full of thrillers, vampire stories and sleuth sagas all over!! Sleuths never bore us, heroes do. 

Almost every other director has till date experimented with Bengali detectives. One brownie point behind this endeavour is: the Directors do not have to put much effort as these stories are based on cult literature; thereby there is not much risk involved. The newest in the brigade is Aniket Chattopadyay's "Kiriti Roy". 

Chiranjeet Chakraborty plays the famous private investigator in the film which is based on Dr. Niharanjan Roy's story "Setarer Sur" (symphony of Sitar). The story is multilayered and full of twists. Five friends, Sunil, Ranjan, Brajesh, Subrata and Suhash in late 50's, all prosperous young lads, who often go to clubs and almost all of them are besotted by the beautiful Basabi (Sayani Ghosh). Basabi lives with her uncle Biraj who has a mysterious past in Rangoon. He is handicapped but snooty and has an estranged wife named Jennifer (Swastika Mukherjee). 

The captivating part is the film has also tried to explore the period where the crime was happening. Though being a regional cinema, it does not have the budget to recreate near perfect set design of Dibakar Banerjee's Hindi take on Byomkesh, yet the recurring theme of Bengali cinema as a backdrop creates magic!! Basabi, the queen of hearts die young, she was murdered as Kiriti Roy appears in the scene. How he solves the two consecutive murders and unearth everybody's grey past and hidden present forms the crux of the film.

Most of the cast members acted considerably well. Especially Swastika Mukherjee is excelling in film after film. Ankita Chakraborty has a tremendous screen presence which is still to e used properly. Inspector Rathin played by another Director Kaushik Ganguly is hilarious. Kishnendu Dewanji as Suhash draws attention. With his strong theatre background, he did justice to his character. Sayani is ok. Nothing extraordinary. 

Who stands apart is Chiranjeet Chakraborty as Kiriti Roy. With his demeanour, he steals the show. Neel Mukhopadyay as his compatriot Subrata played low as required from him. Locket Chatterjee adds nothing.

Camera followed the characters well. Set design added to the theme. Background score by Joy Sarkar heightens the spirit of the film. Especially the background score, particularly the instrumental ones. Editing could have been sharper. 

In one word, the film is watchable, rather compared to other films happening in recent times in the Bengali Film Industry, this film seems to attract the ordinary people to bid farewell the year well.

OK JAANU (BENGALI FLIM REVIEW)

OK JAANU REVIEW

OK JAANU REVIEW

It's 2017, and Bollywood is still coy about 'live-in' relationships. They have parents wanting answers to questions like 'shaadi ka iraada hai ki nahi'. And in a city like Mumbai where no one cares whether the neighbors are alive or dead, this film seems rather anachronistic.

And why on Earth will two people who are so serious about their careers are never shown doing a day's honest work? And why does Shraddha Kapoor allow her 'Jaanu' to call someone she respects as an architect 'budhau' (old man)? And why does no one in Shraddha Kapoor's office object to her picking up her bag and walking off whenever her 'Jaanu' calls? What makes Prahlad Kakkad who's a video game company boss so lenient with Aditya Roy Kapoor's absences (his sternness is so fake, you would rather believe Tiger Shroff can really fly!) when he goes away to romance his 'Jaanu'?

They had better pay the dialog writer lots of money for the number of times he has managed to accommodate the title in the conversation. For example: He says, 'Let's make these last few days together the best!'. She answers, 'Yes, let's.' He says, 'The best, Okay?'. She says, 'Okay!' Then he says, 'Okay, Jaanu!' 

Use the same dialog to ask for ice cream. The 'okay?', 'Okay!', Okay, Jaanu!' thing still works! 

You get so tired of the dialog you wonder why the Tamil version directed by Mani Ratnam (thankfully this follows frame by frame) was not such a bore to watch. Then you realise that in staying true to the original, there are pauses and silences induced because Dulquer Salman and Nithya Menen have far better screen presence and acting chops than Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapoor. Aditya has played characters who commit suicide in most of his films, and this romance also seems to drive the audiences to it, especially in the second half.

So slow is the movie that your attention begins to wander at all the geographical liberties the film takes. How does Leela Samson (who is still as elegant in this version as she did in the original) who lives on Malabar Hill manages to get lost in Mohammed Ali Road, or how Aditya Roy Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor get off on Marine Drive and are seen eating ice cream at the Birdsong Cafe in Bandra... Naseeruddin Shah hams as always but the moment when he hears Shraddha kapoor sing and reacts, that moment shows us why he is considered to be great. But Prakash Raj working in his kitchen in the original is hard to beat.

The film, as all Dharma productions are is beautifully art directed, but we could have less of it. Don't know anyone who props dinner plates on the wall in a row like they do here. But will the younger audiences notice? They probably do not think beyond riding on motorbikes and buses and trains and taking selfies for Facebook hashtag 'Feeling Bliss With Jaanu'. Maybe they're 'okay' with an 'okay' movie. Some of us who grew up looking up to Casablanca and Roman Holiday (or for that matter DDLJ and KKHH) for romance, could give this one a miss.

KAABIL (HINDI FLIM REVIREW )

Kaabil Review

Kaabil

Blind Rohan Bhatnagar (Hrithik Roshan) meets blind Supriya (Yami Gautam) on a blind date (apologies) arranged by a well meaning auntie who knows them both. His friend (Suresh Menon) takes them to Pizza By The Bay restaurant (says: this restaurant is famous for Pav Bhaaji!). Before you can say a disbelieving, 'What?!' the blind couple have sung two songs and are in love and they get married. But not before you hear them spout dialog like: 'Two negatives don't make a positive', 'Looks like two negatives are becoming positive', 'Darkness feels light when I'm with you!', 'Never thought I would ever know the difference between aloneness and loneliness.'

It's one hour into the movie and you seek shelter in caffeine because they're speaking ever so slowly. (It gives you time to get really upset over him calling her 'Su' even before she has agreed to become his girl! Also, if she's an independent woman with a job like she insists, how come she stays at home immediately after her wedding? So much patriarchy!)

It's awful throwback to the 70's where the brothers and sons of zamindaars had nothing to do but rape village belles. Here too, there is Amit Shelar (played with 100% sleaze by Rohit Roy) and his friend Wasim who speak what is possibly the worst dialog of the year (to prove their sleaze): 'Do blind people make out with lights on?', 'How do they make love without seeing?' The two rape the blind girl and when the couple proceed to a hospital to get a medical examination, the bad guys have them kidnapped. The cops are unhelpful because they've been bribed by the local politician. Remember those movies where Amrish Puri and his builder friends with police drinking while poor folks in shanty towns run helter-skelter because the builder has sent bulldozers... 

So the blind wife hangs herself from the fan and with her death the case is closed. But the politician (Ronit Roy in a cool role but his Marathi accent is sometimes present and other times absent!) shows up to warn the blind man to shut up, and asks him: why did she wait to be raped again to kill herself?

The revenge drama begins now. You look at the watch: It's been two hours already. The last thirty minutes of the film are filled with a systematic revenge against the perpetrators, the politician and the cops are left to count bodies. They know it is the blind man who has planned it all, but they don't have any proof. The violence with which the revenge is extracted is a horrific watch. You know it is deserved, but it makes you want to look away from the screen. How the baddies die is a tad predictable, but the twist in the tale is close to brilliant. This is perhaps Hrithik Roshan's best work, but the slow pace of everything: the dialog delivery, the hesitant walking, the dull songs (even the title track is a funeral dirge, and hence slow) make it a test of your patience.

RAEES (HINDI FLIM REVIEW)

Raees Review

Raees Review

Little Raees may be myopic in the classroom, but he certainly can see opportunity when the local alcohol smuggler Jayraj (Atul Kulkarni) looks for delivery boys. Under the nose of the cops, Raees (Shah Rukh Khan) and his best friend Sadiq (the ever competent Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) smuggle alcohol, and become his confirmed employees! The enmity begins when Raees and Sadiq grow up and want to get into the same business on their own. Not only does he become king, but rules the hearts of the people... 

That Shah Rukh is hot even when he's self-flagellating at the Ashura during Moharram is something you do not wish to admit. You seek the dimpled charmer you have seen in his romantic movies. But the beard cannot hide the charm and you fall in love with the badshah of romance again as he attempts to get the ball from his girl (Mahira Khan, in a role that she just does not fit in. She's intimidated by the Khan and her acting skills are zilch, alas!). 

But thankfully, it's not the romance that makes the movie. It's the action. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays a cop Jaideep Ambalal Majmudar who is posted in Fatehpur and becomes a pain to deal with. He's upright and unbreakable. The writers of the film give him the best lines and comebacks. He makes you smile just as much as Raees' wicked ways to outsmart the ploys the cops use to stop alcohol smuggling. If you knew alcohol can be injected in tomatoes, you'd wonder how thirsty the public is for getting drunk!

Of course there is ambition and politics and guns, and even though Raees wants to just do 'dhanda' without hurting people, there is a little flashback of Raj Kapoor's Shri 420 in the dream city he wishes to build. And there is betrayal too. But does Raees manage to wiggle out of that as well? It's a great 70's style story where the baddie with a heart of gold outsmarts an upright cop. 

Shah Rukh and Nawazuddin Siddiqui are simply fun. But at 143 minutes sometimes the cat and mouse game becomes tiresome. And the lackluster music does not help despite the words that insist 'Raees is single piece' (one of a kind). Despite all this Shah Rukh pulls off an action hero role that clearly encroaches on Salman territory and manages to keep it convincing. In fact, the violence in the fight sequences make you squirm. And the anger in Shah Rukh's surma-lined eyes feels straight out of Amitabh Bachchan revenge dramas like Kala Patthar (watch out for the scene from the film beautifully juxtaposed!). Watch it because the recent spate of silly romances have not touched you at all. The bad-guy-with-a-golden-heart Shah Rukh fills that space, and really well.

Hindi Movie Finding Fanny 2014 (Hindi Flim Review)

Finding Fanny

Cast: Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia, Arjun Kapoor,

          Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah

Direction: Homi Adajania

So, Finding Fanny reveals not one but two surprising ladies - Deepika and Dimple, who run away with this lustrous film. Angie (Deepika) is the daughter-in-law of Madame Rosalyn (Dimple), two lovely widows living in the Goan village of Pokolim, a place that's gently fallen off the map. Time quietly passes Pokolim by - until its postmaster Ferdie (Naseeruddin) has his proposal to Stefanie Fernandes returned, unopened after 46 years.

Angie's determined to help devastated Ferdie find answers. She enlists the rusting Impala of Ruben-like painter Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapoor), lusting after amply endowed Rosie, the group driven by Angie's snarling, stubbly ex Savio (Arjun). Do they find Fanny - and love?

Finding Fanny sails on the fresh breeze of Deepika's smooth performance, her lonely Angie happy, yet tremblingly vulnerable, her face covered with a lace-like tension when she asks Savio, "Are you...married?" Alongside, the movie's mast is Dimple's unabashed, terrific Rosie, whose backside drives Pedro to paroxysms of painterly lust, who throatily screams, "Stupppid! I'll castrate these dogs one day!"

Naseer as bumbling, fumbling Ferdie is the perfect foil to the luminous ladies - he recalls a desi Mr. Bean, showing just enough spark to sidestep being a has-been. As sardonic Don Pedro, Pankaj Kapoor has the funniest lines, delivered with sleazy flourish - "You Casanova of the Konkan!", he goads Ferdie, while Arjun Kapoor makes a knuckle-sucking sexy Savio, who adores Angie but can't say it - till she climbs atop him on a gorgeous, phosphorescent night.

Finding Fanny is funny, dark, yet bright, a shimmering ride through a Goa far from the tight-rooted Trikal, the touristy Dil Chahta Hai. Its drama keeps surprising - but also meanders, including around an overacting Russian and an unnecessarily macabre cat. It evokes an Almodovar-Anderson-Marquez-in-Goa feel, but occasionally, its cleverness grows obvious while little details - catch the changing colours of Ferdie's petrol can - are overlooked.

However, these are small creases on an otherwise scrumptious cake. Move your fanny for this one. For the most part, it is utterly, bitterly delicious.

Bengali Movie Jijibisha 2014(Bengali Flim Review)

Jijibisha

Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Joy Sengupta, Sreelekha Mitra, Sayani Datta.
Direction: Sumit Das.

Jijibisha tells a simple story of how love can overcome all societal pressures and transcend all stereotypes. Problem arises when the film, in itself, fails to do that — transcend stereotypes, we mean.

After the death of his mother, Nilay (Joy Sengupta) returns from New Jersey to take care of his old father (Soumitra Chatterjee). When his father pushes Niloy to get married, he enters into a contractual marriage with Priyanka (Sreelekha Mitra), who is actually a call girl. But what will Rachana (Sayani Datta), his NRI girlfriend from New Jersey, have to say about this sham marriage? Will she understand his predicament? Will Niloy be able to come clean about it to her and his father?

The film, in its second half, tries hard to untangle a mess of human relationships and emotions it creates in the first half. But, it takes the easy route out and thus, fails. Otherwise, it had all the right ingredients to make for a thought-provoking cathartic experience. In fact, when the film starts off with a unique collage of seemingly unrelated scenes and dialogues playing to Swarnali Sarkar's recitation in the background, it heightens our curiosity as well as expectations. Yes, it's a good-looking film. And the cinematography apart, it's Sreelekha Mitra who takes the credit for that. She nails her character of an escort, who, instead of knowing the consequences, can't help falling for her client, while looking like a million bucks in simple cotton sarees wrapped carelessly around her slightly plump frame.
Joy Sengupta and Soumitra Chatterjee, too, are good in their respective roles. However, Sayani Datta is no match when pitched against power-house actors such as the other three, though she tries really hard.

Stereotypes, like the crass call girl, who jumps onto her client's bed during their first encounter but turns into the ideal bouma in the next six months, the father who has a heart attack at the perfect crisis point, the woman who cries when her client mentions abortion, the girlfriend who refuses to listen to her man's mistress — 'especially a call girl', and the same girlfriend heroically sacrificing her love in the end... hits you like a blow out of nowhere towards the end of the movie. And therein lies its downfall.

The music, as a whole, is disappointing too. The song-sequences look out of sync with the script and featuring Pt Debojyoti Bose in one of the songs, just for the heck of it, also bewilders.
 
All in all, it's one of those movies that leaves you feeling betrayed. If you take up a daring subject, you should have the courage to treat it right, right?