Queen: Hindi Film, Not "Roman" Enough

I went to watch “Queen” with the Queen’s  of our Home, my aunt visiting us from Bengaluru and my mother. While I quite enjoyed watching “Queen”, at the end of the film, I asked my aunt and  mom, whether they liked it. My Mom retorted back that she had a feeling of having seen several parts of the film in several films. And then she made one singular point, which transformed the happiness to feeling a bit cheated.  

While I did immediately see the point, I went back to check if the other reviewers had ever noticed this observation in their reviews, none had even a passing reference to it.

Strangely it did not strike me either that “Queen” was a clever adaptation of ‘Roman Holiday”.  On the hindsight, Audrey Hepburn is the Princess in The Roman Holiday, Kanagana is the Queen, in The” French and Dutch Holiday”. With Audrey in the background,  Kangana’s casting seems to be a no brainer, by far the only choice, who else in Bollywood could be petite, charming, an old world charm and oodles of innocence(Alia could have been, more experience would have been needed to carry the role)

Once, you were convinced that “Queen” was an adaptation, then you could feel the various modules that have been put in place. The mandatory love story track must have been developed as an important commercial element leading to the holiday. The exceptionally well crafted opening segment is an illustration of  capability, but to fall back on adaptation of earlier works is reflection of the lack of imagination and self belief in one’s ability.

I feel all the more saddened since Anurag Kashyap is the producer and he is one genuine guy who experiments, loves the craft and enjoys the film making process.

An inspiration of a sequence is different. Aparna Sen in Mrs. And Mr. Iyer borrows the last sequence of Roman Holiday, when Rahul Bose distances himself from Konkana Sen Sharma and hands her over to her husband. That is a poetic license that can be admired.

Not an entire chunk of the movie, and then convert it to an adult comedy, and get UA certification and while the heroine is all innocence, not understanding her visits to the Red Light District in Amsterdam, or sex shops, we can introduce the kids into the a voyage of self discovery, get them introduced to smoking, drinking, safe sex….Wonder why drugs were not included in the voyage of self discovery.

Well, instead of Red Light District in Netherlands and non-descript areas in and around Netherlands, wonder why it did not occur to include  visits to Vincent Van Gogh’s musem, Keukonoff garden, the Ryke’s museum or the canals in Netherlands !!!! And Paris, except for Eiffel tower, nothing seems to have caught the imagination of the team.

Capability and Craft needs to backed by fertile imagination. For the man who created a gem like Dev D, to produce Queen, may be clever Commerce, but this is certainly is a big disappointment for fans of Anurag Kashyap like me. Anurag has to think like “Lunch Box” and nothing less.

For readers of the post, if you have not seen Roman Holiday, do catch up. You will be doing your soul’s a great justice. And if you have watched it, go gain and watch it again.

Cuckoo, Tamil Film: The Clutter, Confusion and Cacophony of Raju Murugan

The trailer of Cuckoo was poetry, immersed in a riot of colours and served with humour and intoxicating music setting a very high bar. The marketing blitzkrieg and the ensuing hype ensured very high expectation.

And when the credits did roll past and while  you were introduced to the protagonists, you were almost spellbound and the expectation went a notch up further.

And as Raju Murugan himself true to Citizen Kane ethos hurried in search of the protagonist, well the clutter set in. The focus shifted from the protagonists to the ordinary people who adorn our daily lives. They just got introduced in hordes, and the narrative ambled along without any convergence.

And when the boy did fall in love with the girl, almost half the film was over. And the poetry, in the trailer, seem to have vanished, and the supposed poetic intent was submerged in drama and sentimentality.

I am not sure if a screenplay was ever written.

My anger thus far is being felt cheated by an exceptionally well crafted trailer which set the expectation high and also a beautiful premise, and a  lot of hard work seems to have gone wasted.

I believe there is great deal of sincerety in Raju Murgan's work, but thanks to either confusion or may be even ambition, the work disappoints and infuriates.

At 2 hours and 42 minutes it makes for tedious viewing.

If you are still able to sit through the film, Hats off to Santosh Narayanan for extremely great music. Malavika with her innocence and a blemish less face, uses each and every muscle on her face and her eyes to deliver an extraordinary performance. Dinesh is equally impressive. With an imposed squint, the range of expression gets constrained by the degree of squint. Kudos to all facets of the Technical department.

#NimirnthuNil, Tamil Film: A muffled appeal

Being a hardcore Samutharakani.(the director of Nimirnthu Nil) fan, I was restless from yesterday morning to catch up with the review of Nimirnthu Nil. I just could not resist when I saw there were a few shows in Sathyam cinemas, today and I was promptly present to catch up with the first show in the evening.

The intent of the movie is for a clarion call for fight against corruption. While there is nobility in the intent and screenplay in the first half is racy, despite similarities with several other Tamil films,  the mandatory love story, Duet Songs, Gana Songs  and group songs does their bit in adding up to the incoherence and discreteness of the narrative. The narrative gets diluted and is propelled to a cinematic mess.

The intent of movie released during election time is to spark a debate. The State seems to be concerned and there were at least four policemen who were conspicuous by their presence in the front rows. I do not think the film has elements that may spark a debate that may result in a movement.

When you want to instill a change at a cultural level & when you do not want people to compromise on core values, the intensity has to be triggered by the basic honesty of the thought process of the work.

Jayam Ravi’s extraordinary  hard work alone stands out.

Cinema as a powerful medium must be exploited. The courage to express thoughts must result in healthy debate of ideas. Change can be enabled externally and internally. It can only be enabled by provoking thought.

Some of the honest movies (that come to my mind)which address issues pertaining to the fabric of the State, Current Affairs and matter that concern the public at large are Costa gavras, “Z”, Govind Nihalani’s Aakrosh, Ardh Sathya, Tamas. Santosh Sivan’s Terrorist, the Arabic Film Paradise Now. These films encourage thinking and more importantly enable change within.

If Change is what Samutharakani really wants to happen through his movies, then he must seriously rethink and reinvent himself

#Thegidi, A Tamil Film: "The Verger" and his franchises

For those who are not familiar with Somerset Maugham's short Story of Verger. Verger is a functionary in a church. The verger in Maugham's short story has been with a church for several decades until a new priest(for want of a better word. Cannot recollect the exact word) is assigned to the church. The new boss decides to axe the verger.  On his dismissal the verger sets out of the church into the street. The verger seeks his fix of smoke to neutralize his anxiety. Lo and Behold!!! he does not find any shop that sells tobacco in any form!!!. What does the Verger do? He sets up a shop that sells Tobacco. The shop is successful. He then goes on to locate streets in London which does not have Tobacco shops and goes on to become a millionaire.

C.V.Kumar, has been quietly going about with a "verger" like approach to create franchises out of rarely visited Genres in Tamil and Indian Cinema. The admiration quotient increases since he has the guts to invest with debutant’s in all spheres of film making. A definite efficiency in cost, quick turnaround times, smart marketing and definite feel for the audience sensibilities.

Pizza has been unmistakably a successful franchise with second portion better than the first.

Rarely do we have Perry Mason or a Sherlock Holmes straddling Indian Cinema. Kumar expands his forays into the other genres. And the game is certainly afoot!!! There are clear indications of the second helping in the offing.

Much as your admire the Kumar's approach to the market, the film itself leaves you with mixed feelings.

Characters like Sherlock, Perry Mason or Sujatha's Ganesh, were very well defined and had tremendous experience to dabble in what they went to do.

I am not sure if it was a great idea to consider a protagonist, fresh out of college. Readers of Sherlock Holmes, must be familiar with some stories where Sherlock could distinguish the flavour of excess of 100 different types of tobacco. While you require flair, detection, also requires knowledge and it takes experience to convert flair into skill.

I think there was also confusion in the writing, with the lack of clarity if it wanted to treated like a detective story or narrate it like a thriller. Kumar now has the added pressure of articulating this genre.

I had hoped the suspense in the film had not been be so obvious and was kind of disappointed that the fourth constraint of the story was eliminated rather quickly.

There is no mistaking the potential of the crew. As Ashok Selvan gazes the vast expanse of the river, waiting to communicate with the man performing the obsequies, and as his gaze anxiously wanders to catch the action happening around, and as the man gets into the water to complete his obsequies, you certainly have few minutes of unadulterated film viewing ecstasy.

About a few years back there was a film called Vande mataram, it was not a badly made thriller, the movie suffered I thought due to a very bad background score. Imman had scored the music. Imman has redeemed himself several times over since Mynaa.

Maybe the music in Thegidi(Some of the songs were good)is not as bad as Vande Matram, but the background score was gross and insensitive. You had half a mind to jump up and scream, To shut the…..!!!