Tag: primepost

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Paava Kadhaigal: Disturbs You But Not In The Right Way

Caste based killing is a subject that is relevant even to this day and when told in an engaging manner it gives you good results like Nagraj Manjule’s Marathi film Sairat or even Article 15, but Paava Kadhaigal (Sinful Stories) will make you lose faith in human beings particularly parents, this in spite of having formidable directors like Gautam Menon, Sudha Kongara and Vetrimaaran.  The commonality between this and Putham Pudu Kaalai apart from being an anthology are the directors Gautam Menon and Sudha Kongara. While Putham Pudu Kaalai left you with a happy feeling this anthology leaves you thoroughly depressed and also makes you wonder what was going in the minds of the directors when they decided to make this one.

The first story is about a transgender Sathaar (played by Kalidas Jayaram). Sathaar dreams of marrying his childhood friend Saravanan. But Saravanan is in love with Sathaar’s sister Sahira. Although the incidents of Sathaar being teased by village bullies are realistic, the episode feels like more of a documentary and it is also poorly structured. Kalidas Jayaram tries his level best to elevate the proceedings but it is a lost cause. This is very sad since Sudha Kongara had proved her worth as a director in Soorarai Pottru where she took on a familiar underdog story and made it work.

Vignesh Shivan’s Love Panna Uttranum is a story of two sisters both played by Anjali. We are told that one of the sisters is a lesbian who is in love with Penelope played by Kalki Kochelin. The other sister is looking for her father’s approval to marry someone outside their caste. The biggest issue here is the treatment of LGBT. This is particularly reflected in the scene where a character misreads lesbian as ESPN. It is meant to play out as a comic scene but it doesn’t bring much laughs. The LGBT thing looks more like an add on and needed more meat. The only thing which remotely works here is the character of the father who positions himself as an anti-caste leader but in reality he is not.  Anjali in a dual role is mostly there to cry while Kalki looks completely out of place as the foreigner.

Gautam Menon’s Vaanmagal sounds poetic but it is anything but that. This segment deals with sexual assault of a minor girl and how it leaves a scar on the family. The father character is played by Gautam Menon himself and the mother character is played by Simran who returns to screen after a long time. Much like the segment in Putham Pudu Kaalai Gautam Menon goes out of his comfort zone once again but this time the result is far from pleasing. The most disturbing thing about this one is the scene where we see Simran pushing her daughter from a mountain top.  Though it turns out to be not real but the thought itself is very regressive.

Vetrimaaran’s Oor Iravu stars Sai Pallavi and Prakash Raj as daughter and father. The story is in two timelines one in the present where Sai Pallavi’s character returns to the village for a supposed baby shower. The other timeline is the past where Prakash Raj’s character goes to his daughter’s house to make amends. There is no denying that the climax is gut wrenching and does jolt you but it doesn’t affect you the way that Sairat climax does. The biggest reason being too much negativity never works and since you have already had so much of negativity in the other three stories you feel like screaming at the director. Also it is tough to buy into what Prakash Raj’s character does particularly given his caring attitude in one of the timelines.

In totality Paava Kadhaigal might have started with the good intention of showing the evils of caste, LGBT prejudices and honour killings but it went totally overboard. Given the times that we live in with so much stress this film is completely avoidable.

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Not Villains; Victims Of Circumstances – Hussain Zaidi Books And Movies

This post is about three Hussain Zaidi’s books and the movies based on them. For people who are not familiar with his background it needs to be mentioned that he worked as a crime reporter in Mumbai for a very long time. These three books are: Black Friday: The true story of the Bombay blasts, Dongri to Dubai : Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia and Mafia Queens of Mumbai. Out of these two have already come as movies. The name of the first movie is same as the title of the book directed by Anurag Kashyap. Dongri to Dubai was made into Shootout at Wadala movie directed by Sanjay Gupta. It was about the first recorded police encounter in Mumbai of Manya Surve, an educated gangster. From Mafia Queens of Mumbai book the story of Gangubai  Kathiawadi has been taken for the upcoming movie titled with the same name. She was sold into prostitution by her boyfriend Ramnik Lal and later she becomes the madam of a brothel in Kamatipura. Gangubai did a lot of work for the well being of the sex workers and also orphans. Famous gangster Karim lala considered her as his rakhi sister and gave the command of Kamatipura area to her. This film is being directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and is likely to be released in the later half of 2021.

Mumbai avengers

All three movies have taken only one chapter of those books respectively. Apart from the above mentioned there is also a  fiction book called Mumbai Avengers which was made into Phantom movie directed by Kabir Khan. The story of Mumbai Avengers is set five years after 26/11 Taj attacks on Mumbai. It is about how a retired Indian army officer Gen. Sayid Ali Warris masterminds an operation to kill the conspirators of 26/11 with the help of policemen, tech experts etc. But in the movie it was portrayed as a one man mission played by Saif Ali Khan.  

1. Black Friday: The true story of the Bombay Blasts

This book mainly deals with the bomb blasts that happened in the city of Mumbai on March 12th 1993, how the blasts shocked the entire nation, its aftermath and most importantly the backstory of why they happened. Black Friday begins off with people going about their business as usual completely unaware of the calamity. Afterwards we see a detailed account of the blasts and from there we move on to the incident of Babri Masjid demolition and how it led to the blasts. There is a lot that Hussain Zaidi packs in the book from police officers who would break the law in the course of the investigation to the innocent and illiterate young Muslims who were dragged into this. Hussain Zaidi writes all these things in an engaging manner and makes you understand the root causes for these blasts. 

Anurag Kashyap did absolute justice to the book with his outstanding direction. It also helped that the film had powerhouse performers like Kay Kay Menon, Pavan Malhotra etc. 

2. Dongri to Dubai: Six decades of Mumbai Mafia  

Dongri to Dubai is an attempt to chronicle the history of the Mumbai Mafia. It is a story of many gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Chota Rajan, Varadarajan Mudaliar and above all Dawood Ibrahim, a young man who took the crime route in spite of having a father in the police force. It talks about how Dawood Ibrahim was used as a pawn by the Bombay police and eventually how he became the nemesis for them. His story is primarily about a boy from Dongri becoming a don in Dubai. As earlier said Manya Surve’s life is a brief chapter in this book and this was expanded by director Sanjay Gupta in his film Shootout at Wadala which was a sequel to Shootout at Lokandwala. An interesting thing about Manya is that he was a graduate who was looking to lead a normal life but he gets falsely implicated in a murder. He escapes from prison with the help of a muslim friend and later rises to huge prominence. He was known for his strategic planning and daredevilry. Manya Surve’s encounter was the first recorded encounter in Mumbai, as mentioned earlier. The book is divided into two eras and writer Hussain Zaidi’s narrative style is very gripping and engrosses you thoroughly. The stories of all the gangsters are very interesting and through them the writer tells you about how they operated their networks with the help of police officials themselves. 

Shootout at Wadala may not be as satisfying as Black Friday but it is still an engaging commercial entertainer which manages to successfully capture that period. John Abraham as Manya delivered a committed performance. 

3. Mafia Queens of Mumbai

Mafia Queens of Mumbai talks about a few female gangsters who made their way up in the world of male gangsters. The book was a collection of stories both from Kamatipura and Dongri. Recently there was an interview of Hussain Zaid where he said while researching for the book he found that female gangsters are more courageous, brave and manipulative than men. This feels quite true when you look at some of the stories in the book particularly Sapna Didi and Gangubai. Sapna Didi was the wife of a gangster who worked for Dawood Ibrahim. After her husband gets killed by him she decides to take revenge for his death with the help of another gangster. She takes two months of training at the place of Hussain Ustara by learning to ride bikes, using gun etc. She plans to kill Dawood at a cricket stadium but gets betrayed in the last minute and it is said that her murder was the most brutal murder in the history of gangsterism. Though she failed in killing Dawood there is no doubting of her bravery and courage.

Champion of sex workers’ rights

As far as Gangubai she actively championed for the rights of sex workers and their empowerment. There is a famous speech of her on sex workers and she even had a conversation with Jawaharlal Nehru to discuss their problems. In the book there is a conversation between her and Nehru where Nehru asks her why she ended up in this business when she could have found herself a nice husband. If true, Gangubai’s reply to this is very bold. She asked him whether he would marry her. This leaves Nehru red faced and she goes on to say it is easy to preach but tough to practice. All  the stories in the book are very unique in their own manner and you never feel any boredom. It is one of those books which can be rightly called as a page turner. 

With Sanjay Leela Bhansali helming it and a talented performer like Alia playing the title role it is expected to be a solid film.  I would end by recommending both to read Hussain Zaid’s books and see the movies based on those books. The specialty of Hussain Zaidi is he never caricatures any of the gangsters. He in fact humanises them. Portrays them as victims of circumstances rather than outright villains.

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LUDO: An Engaging Game & A Typical Anurag Basu Film

Ludo directed by Anurag Basu is a good comeback by the director after a slightly underwhelming Jagga Jasoos. The director returns to his familiar terrain of multi narrative earlier seen in Life In A Metro and delivers a film which entertains you along with exploring the different facets of society. The film has also got a philosophical touch as it deals with the perception of Karma and Dharma. 

The film begins off with two characters contemplating the purposefulness of life and death while playing a game of Ludo. One of them is played by Anurag Basu himself. They are not just narrators but they are also gods of destiny in writing the fate of the principal characters. The dice which unites the individual stories is Sattu Bhaiya played by Pankaj Tripati. Sattu wants to settle scores with his once right hand man Bittu played by Abhishek Bachchan. Bittu just comes out of jail and is dealing with scars of his past. He gets a redemptive arc when he finds a young girl Minni who is of his daughter’s age played by the charming Inyat Varma. She restores the moral balance in his life. 

Another part of the story involves Akash and his once girlfriend Shruti. These characters are played by Aditya Roy Kapoor and  Sanya Malhotra respectively. They are dealing with a problematic situation of their sex video coming out on a adult website prior to her marriage with someone else. Rajkumar Rao and Fatima Sana Sheikh form another important part of this game. Rajkumar Rao plays a quintessential hero who is in love with his childhood sweetheart Pinky but now Pinky is a wife and mother to someone else. The portion involving these two is both bizzare and entertaining. Rounding off the cast there are also Rohit Saraf, actor in Dear Zindagi and Sky is Pink  and for once  he is not playing a brother here, and Pearle Maaney. They are trying to run away with the unexpected money they got hold of.  

The most important thing for any multi starrer movie is the intersection of the subplots. This is not easy to do but Anurag Basu does a very good job in establishing a coherent narrative. You get the connections quite easily without having to scratch your brains. The film has a smooth flow and the character links have been well established. 

The best thing about the film is the circumstances in which all these characters find themselves in and the humor that Basu evokes from their helplessness. It often seesaws between a black comedy and a musical drama. 

The best example of this are the scenes involving a very animated Rajkumar Rao. We see him venting out his frustration in such a way that we can’t help but chuckle while at the same time feeling for him. The entire track of Rajkumar Rao is quite filmy and it is very clear that he had a blast playing this one. 

Just like Life in A Metro Anurag Basu explores many facets of society through different characters. The most significant one being faithlessness and empty values in both marriage and love. There is also the crime angle which is explored through Pankaj Tripati and Abhishesk’s characters. 

Out of all the tracks two tracks work better. The first one is Abhishek Bachchan and the little girl Inyat Varma’s heartwarming scenes. Their story is the soul of the film. Basu does a very good job in establishing their bond. Another track was the one between Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sanya. It is good to see Aditya in a very relaxed avatar. He is particularly good in his voice artist avatar. Here we get some sharp political comments on BJP and Republic TV. Both of them share a good chemistry and Sanya as a woman who is desperate to marry a rich man embodies the current aspirations of youth in general. 

Pritam’s music isn’t of the chartbuster type but it still works. The main songs have been used well and the climax song where we see a full blown action sequence is a fitting finale for this tragi- comedy. 

The one issue that I had with the film is the character of Pankaj Tripati. Although the actor is very good as usual his character arc could have been better, as promised in the beginning.  

In this crowded film the actors who stand out are Rajkumar Rao, Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Fatima Sana Sheikh.  In totality, Ludo keeps you thoroughly engaged and gives you the satisfaction of understanding our current value system a little more.

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Miss India: Tea Served Cold

It is not an easy task to make a good female centric film, the reason being you need a lot more than just a strong protagonist. When done well it gives good results like Keerthy Suresh’s ‘Mahanati’ which was a satisfying cinematic experience, or other films like ‘Kahaani,’ ‘Fashion,’ ‘Dear Zindagi’ and others. However when not directed well the results are like Miss India starring the national award winner Keerthy Suresh. 

Miss India narrates the story of Samyuktha who is convinced that she is born to do business and this is established very clearly early on. The problem is that her mother and brother are horrified with her decision. They tell her in no uncertain terms good girls only need education in order to get a good groom while only bad girls step out. The rest of the journey is about how Samyuktha achieves her dreams by going against her mother and brother. Nadia plays the mother and Naresh plays the father. The father is pretty inconsequential in the scheme of the things as he has Alzheimer’s. Rajendra Prasad plays the grandfather who dies very early on in the film. 

The biggest problem with Miss India is its treatment. All achiever stories have a predictable arc but as a director you can make it interesting with the treatment. But here the director squanders the opportunity in spite of having a national award winning actress and also Nadia and Naresh who were very successful together in ‘Drishyam’ and AA. The silliness of the film can be seen in every frame. For example Samakyukta gets an MBA degree from a San Francisco college without attending any class. The way she wants to spread the benefits of Indian Chai is very comical to say the least. 

It also doesn’t help that her encounters with men aren’t executed with much flair. If done well they could have been interesting but the flair and wit are completely missing. Also the male characters are too one-dimensional, whether that is Naveen Chandra in the beginning or Sumanth Shailendra in the later portions. 

A strong antagonist is a very important thing in a film like this but here again the director Narendra Nath misses the mark in spite of having Jagapati Babu who has built a strong reputation for himself with negative characters in ‘Legend’ and ‘Aravinda Sametha.’ It is a track which starts decently but soon dissolves into something which is utterly stupid. 

The schemes of Jagapati Babu are hair brained to say the least and each plan is sillier than the other. His redemption at the end is also done for the sake of it more than anything else. The movie was released on Wednesday on Netflix.

While it wouldn’t be entirely right to blame Keerthy Suresh she also doesn’t help her cause with her rather dull acting. Honestly none of the acting performances register which tells a lot given that even bad films have at least one redeeming quality. 

In totality Miss India has a decent storyline where it wants to show a strong woman but it misses the mark by miles. Best avoided even if you like Keerthy Suresh’s acting in Mahanati.