Peepli Live

The story of farmers suicides can be the base for some really potent dark humor. That is what Peepli Live is. The film that has the audience across the theaters in splits with its brand of humor, shocked with the liberal use of expletives and thinking about how they need to start thinking about farmers suicides. Anusha Rizvi, a journalist with NDTV news channel has written a script that is endearing and thought provoking without being preachy. Read more

Udaan

Four school mates scale the walls of the Boys Hostel to watch a seedy B Grade film Kanti Singh Ke Angoor. To their horror they discover that the middle aged man getting cozy with a woman in the row behind them is the Hostel warden. This chance encounter turns a harmless teenage adventure into the beginning of a life changing experience. Forced to come back to Jamshedpur to live with his authoritarian father who Rohan – the protagonist (Rajat Barmecha) has not met for eight years. Udaan is the story that is beautifully layered. There is the relationship among four friends that is brief but endearing. Rohan is coming back home to a father (brilliant performance by Ronit Roy) who scoffs at his poems and does not hesitate to wallop him mercilessly when drunk. Rohan is forced to sign up to study Engineering and work in his father’s small run down foundry. It is grim existence for a dreamer. Rohan still manages to sit on the banks of Subarnarekha river and write some really sensitive poetry. The other layer in the story is the brilliantly handled relationship between the teenager and his 6 year old step brother (played by Aayan Boradia).
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Rajneeti

Prakash Jha the director of Rajneeti, is a multi faceted person. From his first documentary made in 1974, his body of work spans more than 25 documentaries, nine feature films, two television features and three television series.  My favorite would have to be Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne, a popular Hindi TV comedy serial based on James Thurber’s novel The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In 1989, he took a sabbatical from films, and moved to Bihar for four years, during period he formed two organizations, Anubhooti, which trains young people from region, in film making, and Samvedan, in Champaran, to promote small and micro industries. The National Award winning film Gangaajal (trans: Water of the Ganges) made in 2003 based on the infamous incident in 1980 in Bhagalpur, Bihar when 31 undertrials were blinded by cops pouring acid in their eyes. Prakash Jha is no stranger to storytelling.  Rajneeti (Trans: Politics) is a blend of the great Indian epic Mahabharat, some elements of dynastic politics of India’s ruling party and generous “tributes” to The Godfather. Read more

The Hurt Locker

Here is a plotline: Husband and wife are film directors and they both get nominated for Academy Awards. Husband’s film has already grossed up big bucks and big awards. The bets are on. No woman has become the President of US and no woman director has ever won the Oscar for direction. When the husband is James Cameron who has made movies like Titanic and the runaway success called Avatar it is crazy to even give her a chance.  She tends to make these action movies. A woman making a war flick in Hollywood may get appreciation but not the big award. The big night is here and the Oscar for the best director goes to …   Katherine Bigelow. In what can be a great plot for a movie by itself, Katherine creates history by being the first woman to get that honor. That gives us hope. Maybe one day a woman will yet become the President of US.  Read more

Ishqiya

Director Abhishek Choubey first assisted Vishal Bhardwaj when Vishal was shooting for the children’s film Makdee in 2002 and then was the Asstt Director for him in The Blue Umbrella, Maqbool and Omkara. Ishqiya is Abhishek Choubey’s debut film as Director. The much acclaimed Kaminey last film by Vishal Bhardwaj (Kaminey) also had Abhishek doing the screenplay. ISHQIYA sees Vishal and Abhishek teaming up with Sabrina Dhawan to write a crackling screenplay that makes for a film that is will remind you of Omkara and Maqbool in terms of its stylised story telling and powerful music. Great visuals and twists and turns that make for a brilliant film. The dialect is authentic and does not falter anywhere – not in the Bhopali Hindi nor in the Hindi that you hear in Gorakhpur where bulk of the story is set.  If you were offended by the unfiltered language of Omkara then beware there is a lot more of that in Ishqiya. Why? ‘coz that is the way the characters communicate in the film. It is way the two crooks Khalujaan (played by Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban Hussein (Arshad Warsi) communicate.  Read more

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