Film Impressions

ESSAY: Women on the Verge

STARS OF THE YEAR

In one of 2012's best conceived scenes, an old woman and her daughter-in-law (Kamlesh Gill and Dolly Ahluwalia), who bicker and drip sarcasm by day, sit together in their modest Lajpat Nagar drawing room and get drunk. It's a nightly ritual, we learn, and such a refreshing break from stereotype! In the same film, the hero sits at his girlfriend's feet and gives her a pedicure in his mother's beauty parlour. The film was Vicky Donor, a critically and commercially successful comedy written by Juhi Chaturvedi. 

Chopra couldn't escape the formula in Ishaqzaade

ESSAY: Half-Year Review 2012

THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGIN

At the end of six months if there are half-a-dozen films worth talking about in Hindi cinema, you can call it a good year. This one certainly is. Notwithstanding the fact that Rowdy Rathore has raked in over Rs 100 crore, Housefull 2 was a big draw and Ram Gopal Varma continues to enjoy the inexplicable patronage of Amitabh Bachchan (Department), overall there's been much to cheer about.

Vidya Balan in 'Kahaani'

INTERVIEW: Namrata Rao (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1

DD: When you go from working for Dibakar Banerjee to a Yashraj film like Band Baaja Baraat, is there a shift in sensibilities?

NR: Oh yes. There is a huge change. I was coming from LSD where we were about to change the world and all that. With BBB I was wondering what I would do. They had songs and I’d never edited songs before. I decided to take it all as an experience. I like to work with interesting directors because if they are as passionate about making a good film then the story or the genre doesn’t matter. I just went with my gut feeling after Maneesh Sharma narrated the script to me in a very interesting way. I had trouble adjusting only for the first few days.

Namrata Rao on the sets of one of her films

REVIEW: Kahaani (2)

AH KOLKATA!

There are reasons to rejoice: it’s not often that film can be whole-heartedly recommended. Then, it’s yet another film with a woman at the centre and like Vidya Balan’s much-feted The Dirty Picture, it is likely win both awards and acclaim. Hopefully, it will help Bollywood traditionalists to give women more respect... since in showbiz, it’s all about money.

REVIEW: Kahaani

QUITE A STORY

The beginning of Vidya Bagchi's (Vidya Balan) journey in Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani is reminiscent of the opening minutes of Rajkumar Gupta's Aamir. In both cases, outsiders enter bustling Indian cities and are nearly swallowed up by the chaos. Vidya is seven months pregnant and in Kolkata to find her missing husband. The metropolis grabs her in its stifling arms as she's accosted by eager taxi drivers, greeted with polite indifference by a senior inspector, and obliged to stay in a seedy guest house (because her husband also stayed there, although...).