Film Impressions

REVIEW: Dedh Ishqiya

LOVE IN THE TIMES OF MUSHAIRAS

In Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine Cate Blanchett plays a down-and-out former heiress surviving on a staple diet of vodka, Xanax, rage and self-pity. She talks to herself and is rude to everyone in sight. But the character's vulnerability cuts deep and as you loathe her selfishness you also feel terribly sorry for her. In Abhishek Chaubey's Dedh Ishqiya, Madhuri Dixit-Nene is Begum Para (the name has such a delicious old-world ring!) the widowed queen of Mehmudabad (somewhere in UP) presiding over a decrepit haveli, whom we see in a private moment of revulsion as she consumes a sedative to calm her nerves and furiously scratches herself out of a photo album. I was waiting for the actress to draw me into the character's pain with the same fragility that Blanchett does.

Sadly, it wasn't to be.

REVIEW: The Coffin Maker

THE PHOENIX RISES

If you’ve watched Naseeruddin Shah extensively on stage and screen it may be hard to fathom why this exceptional talent (honestly, I don’t have the vocabulary to qualify it beyond clichés) is squandering his reputation on embarrassing fare like Chaalis Chauraasi, Maximum, Sona Spa, etc. Of late even in middling films (The Dirty Picture, 7 Khoon Maaf and That Girl In Yellow Boots) his presence has been unremarkable, mechanical. What happened to that maverick who’d incarnate equally evocatively the inflexible blind principal in Sparsh, the eccentric Parsi of Pestonjee, or the desperate fugitive of Paar, a film I watched in childhood and still can’t erase the memory of his emaciated body herding pigs across a treacherous river? Shah could be passionate, angry, subdued, witty, and dominate scenes without affectation, routinely stealing a march on everyone around. Like he did in Zoya Akhtar’s posh fantasy Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara in a five-minute cameo that injected that soulless wonder of excess with a dash of genuine emotion.

Naseeruddin and Ratna Pathak-Shah in the film

BOOK: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—Seriously Funny Since 1983

As the cult film by Kundan Shah prepares for a Nov 2nd re-release, we take a look at the book on the film by Jai Arjun Singh.

SMALL FILM, GIANT FOOTPRINT

Anyone who has ever watched Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—and frankly, one doesn't know a soul who hasn't—has their favourite moment from the film. The easiest to recall are the 'thoda khao thoda phenko' scene at Commissioner D'Mello's Madh Island bungalow, the loony telephone episode at Tarneja's house, a drunk Ahuja mistaking DeMello's coffin for a car and 'towing' it away, and the Mahabharata climax where the entire cast gatecrashes a live performance with Dhritarashtra periodically intoning in sheer frustration, 'ye kya ho raha hai?' as emperor Akbar makes an inexplicable guest appearance.

Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Baswani in a scene from the iconic film

Now there are two happy coincidences for Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro fans. NFDC, which is reviving its classics on DVD has recently brought out a new edition complete with an add-on disc about the making of the film and an interactive game, and Delhi-based journalist Jai Arjun Singh has written a witty, entertaining book in the film's 30th year, chronicling its fascinating journey from a nutty idea in Kundan Shah's head to an insane black comedy that has now achieved cult status as a nihilist classic or simply great social satire.

REVIEW: Maximum

LOW IMPACT

Understated treatment and tolerable length notwithstanding, Kabeer Kaushik's Maximum is an excruciating watch. Because, really, it's impossible to sit through another film about encounter specialists, their rivalries and the unholy nexus of the power-hungry. The only way such films can continue to be relevant is through deft characterisation which compels the audience to make an emotional investment in the protagonist.

Sonu Sood in 'Maximum'

BOOK REVIEW: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—Seriously Funny Since 1983

SMALL FILM, GIANT FOOTPRINT

Anyone who has ever watched Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro—and frankly, one doesn't know a soul who hasn't—has their favourite moment from the film. The easiest to recall are the "thoda khao thoda phenko" scene at Commissioner DeMello's Madh Island bungalow, the loony telephone episode at Tarneja's house, a drunk Ahuja mistaking DeMello's coffin for a car and 'towing' it away, and the Mahabharata climax where the entire cast gatecrashes a live performance with Dhritarashtra periodically intoning in sheer frustration—"ye kya ho raha hai?"—as emperor Akbar making an inexplicable guest appearance.

REVIEW: Chaalis Chauraasi

TAKE A BREAK SIR!

Who'd have thought a day would come when serious actors of the highest calibre would be seen doing the slow-mo walk in crisp police attire stylishly putting one foot before the next, evoking a chuckle of approval? A motif straight out of a hardcore commercial film becomes a rare rousing moment in a confused comic caper, barely rescued by the sheer weight of the talent on display. There isn't a better bunch of actors in contemporary Hindi cinema than seen in Hriday Shetty's Chaalis Chauraasi. So much the worse, because Shetty and his script writers can do no justice to the ammunition at hand.

One hadn't much hope to begin with, given that Shetty (whose brother Rohit is now a famous if patchy director of potboilers chiefly starring Ajay Devgan) once got Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia together in a film with a delectable premise and predictably lacklustre treatment called Pyaar Mein Twist. There too, it was up to the star chemistry to elevate the drama above its inherent mediocrity.

SPOTLIGHT: India at the Toronto Film Fest

At any film festival, it is always interesting to find out what the films that deal with Indian themes, whether diasporic or local, have to say about us as a culture. Usually the mainstream cinema we are accustomed to, supplants our cultural identity with a manufactured one that is woefully one-dimensional (all that spice-loving singing and dancing). Luckily, that kind of cinema is under-represented at most prestigious international festivals. That's when a different kind of picture emerges—something more rich and diverse—that for a second the miscellany almost fleetingly represents a kind of 'national' cinema that a country of such immense contradictions surely deserves. Here are ten films that form the 'unofficial Indian selection' at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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PEOPLE WE LIKE: Naseeruddin Shah

THE CONSUMMATE ACTOR

As a journalist, you aren’t afforded the freedom to get over-awed by the people you write about. Being human, every once in a while, you slip and make a fool of yourself. Like the time I had to interview Naseeruddin Shah about a new play he was acting in. This was in the late-1990s and anticipating the possibility of a fiasco, I’d taken a friend along to boost my courage. As expected, I stood speechless before the man, while my friend poked me to get going with the interview. I recall asking a few routine questions self-consciously, both in awe and for fear of invoking his infamous temper, and ultimately doing a very ordinary piece about the play (which was, of course, thoroughly enjoyable).