Talvar

Talvar: 

A movie I didn't want to watch and thought would be hard to sit through, given the poignancy of the traumatic story; a narrative which we had seen unfold in our living rooms not so long ago; the hangmen/women masquerading as news readers, conducting a trial of their own and forcing the society to stand divided on the question of the culpability of the parents of the killed teenager! A family one could easily identify with! They were our kind of people, Doctors, for heaven's sake , not some unidentifiable Richie rich, Page 3 variety or "those types", the stereotypical slum dwellers! How would it be to once again, live through those terrible months after the killing of the beautiful young teenager?  Why should one subject oneself to a chilling experience of déjà vu? All these questions troubled me, but see the movie I did! Finally! 

 How does one make a movie about a murder, the micro details of which are present in public memory so vividly? How to retain viewer interest in a murder mystery which is not your regular whodunnit and has already been adjudicated upon and sentence pronounced by the trial court? That must have been a challenge but it certainly did not turn out to be a handicap!  

This is a tale told as it is! It is not a fictionalised version of a true story! Three different perspectives are presented with equal finesse. It is realistic story telling at its best and both the script writer and the Director succeed in presenting a perfectly balanced story, with almost equal emphasis on different versions of the truth! One can argue that Truth is Absolute and there can be no versions of it, but it is about story telling and letting each side emerge clearly! So you have the parents being declared guilty by the media, then by the UP police, and simultaneously by the society! " Boyfriends to hum sabke hote hain, but an old man and that too a servant? Disgusting!" , declared one sassy  teenager before a mike  thrust in her face by a vigilante reporter,  pronouncing the young victim guilty! And earning her own moment of fame! 

The portrayal of UP police is funny in a macabre sense! Almost comical, if it weren't tragic in its implications and consequences.The CDI tries to bring an element of scientific investigation but personalities and loyalties clash and there is further botching up of the case! The investigation  goes flip flop from Talwars Not Guilty to Not Enough Evidence to Prosecute them! Irrfan,  as this dashing, bold and independent  CDI officer makes the most basic observation: kisi bhi case me 3 stages hoti  hain 1) Khoj 2) saboot aur phir 3) saza! Par is case me sab ulta  hua, Pehle saza huyi, phir saboot......! How often have we lamented about this flawed sequencing? 

The movie also presents the servants' perspective very judiciously. It also throws sufficient light on the many incomplete lines of investigation and loose threads or over reliance on flimsy stuff in the case. As far as the craft of film making is concerned, credit must be given to the makers for carving out the core elements of the saga, cleverly leaving out the trash generated during the actual unfolding of the mystery! The sensitivities and sensibilities of intruding into the private lives of people, whose lives have anyways been torn asunder, are maintained painstakingly. So much so that watching the movie turned out to be  less traumatic than the tragedy itself and my fears lay allayed. I found myself appreciating Irrfan and the entire cast of the movie, in particular Konkana as Dr Nutan Talwar and the guys who played police officers of different ranks and cadres! Superb portrayal! 

At the end of the movie, one could conclude that the balance of argument lay in favour of the Talwars' innocence but as an intelligent movie goer you can decide which side you are on! It's all open to taking sides--unabashedly! Isn't that the basic flaw in this case and several others? We are all impressionable human beings and watching biased, prejudiced, one sided, gossip based constructs on TV might, at the subconscious level, influence our judgment!! The movie is yet another narrative constructed to demystify reality and help us draw our own conclusions! Successfully! 

Definitely worth a watch......

Kis kisko pyaar karun.... Kapil sharma debuts as a big screen hero

Finally found time to see Kis Kis ko Pyaar Karun! What can I say about this movie? I mean it's a peppy, fast moving and stupid movie, but turns out to be funny in most parts. It's Kapil Sharma's debut as a hero and his brand of humour is stamped across the movie. It is easy on the tongue, without the need to shout or scream, indulge in inane innuendoes, or cut dirty jokes or resort to toilet humour! Still There's plenty of humour, great situations eliciting whole hearted laughs from you,  and typical one liners to keep you engrossed through the movie! Like most comedies it mocks your intelligence quotient but is high on the laughter quotient.

So, the plot is quirky; this Good Samaritan guy, in the habit of rescuing damsels in distress ends up  marrying virtually all of them! He is obviously very rich as he maintains three plush apartments in amchi Mumbai, while carrying on an interesting cat and mouse game with the plethora of women in his life! As if his cup wasn't full, he also has a girl friend, who he loves and plans to marry, but whose father thinks he's the fiancé of a girl in his office! Complicated? Wait, there's a Mafia don of a brother-in-law who wants desperately to "hear" the "good news" in his sister's life, even though he is deaf as a doorknob. Mujhe hadson ne pyar diya , par pyar me hadsa na ho jaye, laments the poetic Kapil! 

In a sense it is a cleverly made Abbas Mastan movie! Realising that humour, based on multiple wives runs the risk of becoming monotonous, two new characters are introduced in the second half, who bring in their own element of comedy. Supriya Pathak is endearing as Kapil's mother but the wives have nothing to write home about. The music is good even though the lyrics are crazy, " Bacche shukrawar ko ghar  nahin ayein ' or something akin to that, and the mother in me shrieked, No Way! ! 

Actually the one big disappointment in the movie is Kapil! Well, his acting is fine, he seems confident, so much so that one forgets, it's his first movie! All that is in place; he disappoints in his appearance! He has bags under the eyes, looks tired, not at all fresh and has a flabby face, double chin or whatever ! I thought he looked really stale, not good for a first film!! Must be all the running around from the TV Studio to the film locations! 

The final verdict? Comedy nights with  Kapil or Kapil on the big screen? Give me the former any day! 

Hero-forget it

With nothing better planned for Sunday evening, I finally hit the cinemas after a hiatus of nearly 8 weeks! Thought I will check out the new kids on the block, even though they happen to be star kids and one of whom actually had a beleaguered introduction to the public not so long ago! 

The movie started well enough. The  opening scenes introduced the well sculpted body of the male protagonist- muscles, sinews and the workout regime, combined with the predictable pub crawling swish set, their escapades and brawls. Thematically, it promised to be close to the original Hero, Stockholm Syndrome intact.  But, just when you thought, mid way through the  first half, that the movie was shaping up well, it just collapsed! 

So the IG's daughter is kidnapped and taken to some absolutely fantastic, breathtakingly serene and eye catching white locations in the Himalayas. The bandits, who she foolishly believes to be armed guards for her protection, look after her so well that she falls in love with their leader-Sooraj, all muscles and V shaped body but with the vulnerable soft looks of Zarina! Why she falls for him, what are the things he does that capture her romantic imagination, is all left unexplained! But for this, Hero can't be faulted alone! It's this millennial generation! No explanations, no touching-the-heart, evolution of the love; just one fine day, you declare that you are in love! 

So they return to civilisation after a gun battle, court room drama etc, with the girl being sent off to Paris to do her dance degree, while the Boy serves out his prison sentence. He is released before time for good conduct( oh please, get original!) and goes about proving his reformed persona by starting a Gym and you heave a sigh of relief that the movie is getting over! But no there's a triangle which had been thought of and probably shot for an earlier insertion in the plot, but which the Editor failed to edit at the appropriate time! So virtually at the end, this character is brought in, The Prince of Rajasthan ( hello, Rajasthan had a 100 thikanas and all of them could individually boast of their Princes!!!) . He symbolises and epitomises VICE, in capital letters. I don't know what happens after that, for its an incoherent, fumbling, boring plot, with a sloppiness seen rarely, but after a lot of dhishum dhishum the movie ends! 

Such a relief at the end of the movie! It is a poor poor substandard attempt at cloning the original Hero! Where is the Meenakshi Shashadri or Jackie Shroff style magnetism in this pair? The boy Pancholi is good and holds promise of a better future. The music is OK but seemed really obtrusive, with songs butting in to disrupt the flow of the story, which was weak in any case. " lovely ki train ki chain pull kara de, aur uska Jab We Met kara de". Really, what amazing lyrics! 

Oh I forgot to mention The Heroine of Hero! Never mind, she is entirely forgettable! She is a fairer version of her father Sunil Shetty and I almost expected her to drawl in his baritone! Better she does ramp walking at Milan, for F TV, where wearing a dead pan expression is an essential qualification!