That Girl in Yellow Boots (2010)

A British woman faces challenges while attempting to locate her father in India.

Director:

Anurag Kashyap

Writers:

Anurag Kashyap, Kalki Koechlin

Stars:

Kalki Koechlin, Prashant Prakash, Naseeruddin Shah

Cast

Credited cast:
Kalki Koechlin	...	Ruth Edscer
Prashant Prakash	...	Prashant
Naseeruddin Shah	...	Divakar
Gulshan Devaiah	...	Chittiappa Gowda
Pooja Swaroop	...	Maya (as Puja Sarup)
Kumud Mishra	...	Lynn
Shivkumar Subramaniam	...	(as Shiv Subramanyam)
Divya Jagdale	...	Divya
Thani	...	Henchman
Kartik Krishnan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Makrand Deshpande	...	Post Master
Rajat Kapoor	...	Man Who Steps Out of Elevator
Anurag Kashyap	...	Director
Mushtaq Khan	...	Visa Officer
Murari Kumar	...	Passport Office Clerk (as Murari)

Storyline

After the passing of her mother and the suicide of her 15-year old sister, Britain-based Ruth Edscer travels to Mumbai, India, to try and locate her father, Arjun Patel. She manages to find employment with a massage parlor where she not only earns a wage but charges Rs.1000/- for a illicit services from her affluent male clients. She has been made aware that she cannot be hired unless and until she is granted a official work permit, so regularly attends the Foreigners Registration Office to extend her stay, while making herself familiar with the culture and 'donations'. Challenges follows after a confrontation with a gangster, Chittiappa Gowda, who not only assaults her but also takes away her savings, as her boyfriend, Prashant, owes him money. While getting even with Prashant, she finds out that her father had changed his name, is now known as Benjamin, and maybe residing in Versova. She does locate the building - but nothing will prepare for the shock when she finds out who he ...

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Plot Keywords:

father | india | gangster | massage parlor | massage | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Group

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi English Kannada Marathi

Release Date:

2 September 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

A sárga csizmás lány

Filming Locations:

Aryanivas, Kalvadevi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anurag Kashyap Films, National Film Development Corporation, Sikhya Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Ruth Edscer: Do you want a happy ending?

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Connections

References Ashoka the Great (2001)

User Reviews

Ballsy attempt! Must watch!

Steve Jobs, the 'ex' CEO of Apple Inc. once said, "It isn't consumers' job to know what they want." This mantra fits well for the new age cult filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has drawn a strong line between the mainstream and the parallel with all his movies as a director or a writer. Following those words, made them respected names in their arenas.

His latest offering That Girl In Yellow Boots, co-written by Kalki, is "socially" not intended for the audience we see in this country. God knows how he arrived at the concept of this movie...may be after getting intoxicated and sunken into the pervert sex stories? After scripting this idea and actually materializing it into a feature film needs gutsy balls. Said it. Indian producers are obviously not that ballsy to produce it, only if they get time and money from puke-like sugar candies and silly remakes. So valid is the irony of this filmmaking: 13 days to shoot the entire film and 2 years to release it! Coming upon the movie, Ruth Edscer (played by Kalki) in her metaphoric Yellow Boots is trapped in labyrinthine Mumbai, in search of a man who she hasn't seen since childhood and he also happens to be her father. In this quest, she comes across men of all kind- some "Men is Dog" kind at foreigner's registration office, a generous Diwakar (Naseeruddin Shah) at the massage parlor with the name "Aspaspa" where she works without a permit, his druggie boyfriend Prashant (Prashant Prakash), gang-man Chittiappa (Gulshan Devaiya) are some to mention. The numerous male characterization sets layers for the story to proceed: Makarand Deshpande as post master, Ronit Roy as a humble but unhelpful policeman, Piyush Mishra as a rickshaw-wallah and also Rajat Kapoor.

Fixed with the plot, the film runs for around 1hour 30 minutes with each frame mellowed with dark creativity of arts and lights (reason: low production this time, may be) adds a charm to the kind of the tale it is paced to tell. Rajeev Rai's camera work with some guerrilla technique shots, trademarks the Anurag Kashyap kind of filming. Editing by Shweta Venkat and the parallel storytelling carves to enter the dark psyche of the protagonist. The debut music director Naren Chandavarkar grips harder onto the film with the background score- a striking folk genre sung by Shilpa Rao to portray the lead Ruth.

Performances of almost every character, as they appear on the screen, hits hard - be it Makarand Deshpande only for seconds or Naseer Saab in all his short appearances. The other support Prakash and Chittiappa are worth watch. And to find a humor in this dark tale, there is Maya as the manger of Aspaspa, played by Puja Swaroop. Kalki is thrilling as Ruth, speaks with silence and her eyes.

Kashyap, as always, asks his audience to feel the movie rather than to enjoy it. And, once you are sunken into the concept he pictures here, you are shocked with its disturbing climax. With the Indian Censor Board passing this concept and National Film Development Corporation producing it, I see some maturity in them and expects the same from the audience. Digest this. Have Gelucil. No puking.

An urge to the Bollywooders: If a director, known for his critically acclaimed work, risks it with his future on stake and has balls enough to throw an idea beyond the scope of Bollywood that producers will never risk, isn't it your job as a part of liberal cinema lovers to see the bar rising just at the cost of a movie ticket and some time? Like. Dislike. Your say. Ideas need to be projected.