Movie Review: Satyagraha..is a hurriedly assembled movement

If there was ever a prize for good intentions, Prakash Jha would walk away with all the awards. Painfully, he has proven this time and again by picking sensitive and debate worthy topics but giving them a hurried treatment that seems too superficial and contrived for its own good. He did it with Aarakshan. He’s done it again with Satyagraha

What Satyagraha needed desperately was a lot more thinking through – a solidly established context; simmering under-currents leading up to the main spark that triggered a mass movement. However, Jha seems to have little time for trivial things like context establishment and character development. So you’ll just have to go along with the yarn he spins, unconvincingly so, amidst more than a mention of various retail products conveniently placed for advertisement. The wafer thin premise is so flimsy that, while it focuses on real issues and problems, it seems highly unrealistic and unrelatable

Off late, Jha also seems to have developed a penchant for black and white characters. If you were telling a fairy tale, sure – no problems with that. However, when you claim to be telling a realistic story such idealism is oft hard to believe. In fact, such is the level of idealism that down the line, when the movie tries to take a more neutral stand and give an important message, about the dangers of any form of extremism, it is almost too late. The unnecessary songs don’t help matters and even a jazzed up version of Raghupati Raghav..can’t save the day

Satyagraha is packed with a solid cast of characters and at the end of it all, they are really the ones that save the day and make this still an average watch, despite all its faults. Manoj Bajpai is in his element as the slimy yet wily politician as is Ajay Devgn in his yet another, intense avatar. Amitabh Bachan of course, delivers yet another solid performance, though considering his standards, it seems a little tired this time. On the downside, Kareena looks as if she has come straight from the sets of Heroine and her character is unconvincing to say the least. A heroine of her calibre deserved a much more complex character. The same cannot be said of Amrita Rao who still struggles with the fairly simple role she has. Arjun Rampal does a decent job for his fairly one dimensional character

To sum up then, Satyagraha was a good idea especially in today’s day and age. Some elements are woven quite well, especially the use and impact of social media. However, given the way the rest of the plot is woven, Satyagraha becomes unconvincing and unrelatable fare. If you wanna go, go for the solid performances and not much else.

Movie Review: Madras Café..serves realistic gritty fare

Madras Café, a one of a kind film from Bollywood, is a gritty, realistic, crime thriller – that isn’t looking at charming its audience. It wants the story told – the way it deserved to be told, without any departures from reality to make it more palatable. So there are no sudden induced plot twists. The drama unfolds right before your eyes and if you are able to spot it, you would know exactly who the mole is much ahead in the story, if not why. It tells the story from the eyes of its main sufferer and protagonist, Major Vikram (John Abraham) and never once, does the plot stretch reality to make us, the audience, fall in love with or connect with its hero.

Madras Café is not for thrill seekers or aficionados of traditional high octane action. There isn’t a single comic line across the roughly 2 and a half hours that it runs for. The drama is brutal, bloody and graphic. The narration is done in a dull, lifeless manner – a voice that has already lost hope and is merely going through the motions from a formality perspective. Yet, given the context, this is exactly the way such a movie ought to be made

Making such a movie is about walking a tightrope – how much to stick to the main plot and whether to maintain any sway for those thrilling moments that would make it a commercial success. Madras Café’s tightrope walker, Shoojit Sircar, is a seasoned professional. He walks the rope, dead in the center and gives us a realistic, crime drama without any frills whatsoever. Does it work? Let’s just say it won’t for all and sundry.  There are some of us who might get bored or irritated with the bland nature of plot development, where things just happen without all the hoopla we are, by now, accustomed to. But that’s the way it is, with Madras Café

What it does do right and that too, to a large extent, is offer a glimpse of exactly what could have gone down before the assassination that shocked the country and the world. How events could have unfolded, in parallel and how unglamorously some people would have struggled to make sense of the snippets of messages coming through, getting caught up in a whorl of politics, power games and frame-ups. John Abraham does a good job of portraying his character, though, if he emoted a touch better, it could have added some life to the story telling. Nargis Fakhri’s role is short and functional – again a huge departure from traditional Bollywood fare

I tried to figure out what kind of movie I had seen once I exited the hall. Without much success, I settled for a pot pourri of Blood Diamond, Black Friday and Zero Dark Thirty minus the thrills in all three. Madras Café serves anything but ordinary fare. Yet its gonna be an acquired taste; may not feel great at the first bite. Still, I’d suggest you give it a shot as such cinema is a rare event in Bollywood.

Movie Review: The Conjuring..manages to summon quite a few spooks

What spooks one about horror is not the sudden bangs and loud noises but the slower stuff – the focusing on a single frame, the camera slowly moving in, the slow build-up, that heart-in-the-mouth feeling over the unexpected that is about to unfold next and then the sudden..well, you get the point. With The Conjuring you get treated to exactly that..that is, at least for a while

Chances are that you would have seen this rare decent horror flick by now. If you still haven’t – a word of advice. Don’t see any trailers. While the trailer itself is sufficient to spook you it definitely spoils the fun for you in the hall. If, however, you would like to meet with as little surprises in the dreary emptiness of a dark hall with a large screen – then, by all means, see the trailers first. Bear in mind though, that if you do, then the first half of this movie would become a rather less eventful affair

The start of the movie is just apt with everything happy and hunky dory. There is a sense of gradation to the horror and as the family on screen becomes apprehensive, cautious, tentative and completely terrified in stages, so do you as the audience. Couldn’t have been better

However, as the movie builds, particularly in what would be the second half, it seems to teeter dangerously on the brink of relapsing into the stereotype till it simply falls in – giving an over-dramatized finale all screams and ghouls intact. Thankfully this part is a pretty short end to an otherwise well-presented and sufficiently horrifying horror flick. The fact that it is supposed to be actually based on a true story only adds to the terror. There is an underlying sense of dread to every scene and you are worried about what might just unfold next. All the credit to the director for accomplishing that

The acting is also solid as each one including the five kids put in a good show. Lili Taylor as Carolyn Perron (am pretty sure you’d be googling that name once you’ve seen this flick) and Vera Farmiga as Lorraine Warren have the most meaty roles and are particularly effective

In summary then, there is every reason I’d say you give The Conjuring a visit and see what it manages to summon off you