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Reviews
New York (2009)
Unmitigated trash!
Honest confession: I am writing this review only because I am completely perplexed by critics' and moviegoers' reactions to this film. Accolades are being showered upon every aspect of this film, from the direction to the acting to the music. People are talking about bold moves in Indian cinema and saying how this is a step in the right direction. I have something to say to all that, and to the movie – Bah! For the sake of completeness of the review, let me quickly summarize the film: the film revolves around 3 young people of Islamic origin whose lives undergo a significant transformation in the post-9/11 world in New York City. Enough said about the story and the plot. Let's get on to how the film does.
The first thing to do before reviewing the film is to separate the sensitivity of the film's subject from the quality of the film, because those are two entirely different aspects. Let me re-state this, because this is what I have noticed in a large number of reviews of this film: the film does not automatically become entitled to a 4/5 rating just because it deals with an important topic. Films have to stand up on their own, for the quality of the film-making, irrespective of whether they deal with religion, politics, family problems, teenage angst, or just a cat-and-mouse chase over a piece of cheese. And that's where this film fails pathetically. While the film's premise is sound, and the story are the plot are good, it is in the execution that the film falls apart completely. The direction is the biggest culprit, for the film does no justice to the writer's vision at all. The film did nothing for me – it did not make me reflect on anything that has happened in the last 8 years since 9/11. There is nothing in the film that is not already well known, and the visual portrayals of all that we have heard all these years were weak at best, and won't really ruffle any feathers.
The acting was nothing short of horrible – from the main cast to the supporting crew. Katrina, with her natural accent, actually managed to fit in somewhat into her role, but what the heck were John and Mukesh doing? Even Irrfan Khan's respectable performance could not salvage the acting front. And while we are on this, what's with Indian filmmakers picking up the worst possible foreign actors for Indian films? Do they think that "white actor" = "good actor by default" for some reason? Every time Irrfan's boss opened his mouth, or actually just showed his face, I wanted to cringe and hide under the seat. And that guy who John strikes a business deal with – where did they pick him up from? This is New York Kabir Khan – half the stewards and bartenders across the city of Manhattan are wannabe stars, and very, very good actors. Walking into 10 bars in NYC would have completed the foreign acting requirements of this film, and would have taken the film's overall acting up to stratospheric levels.
And since I mentioned New York, um-mm, why exactly is this film called New York? Just because we saw the two towers fall down? New York City is made for shooting films, and the director under-utilized this city so much that he landed up making this film pretty much city-agnostic. It could have been shot anywhere – really. LA, San Francisco, even London would have worked as well. What a waste! Other aspects: the cinematography was mediocre; the production was pretty much the same; the dramatic arc non-existent – one could tell at pretty much every moment of the film what the next scene would be and hence there was nothing to look forward to. The music, to give credit where it is due, was one of the few beacons of hope in this otherwise dark film.
I rue this film in particular because it had so much potential, and because it missed a great opportunity to sensitize the Indian audiences to the darkness of the post-9/11 era. Kabir, Sandeep, the cast – please go and read a book like Mohsin Hamid's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" if you really want to feel the pain of the innocent victims of this period. And respect their trauma – please do not trivialize their problems by churning out 2 hours 15 minutes of unmitigated trash.
Shoonya (2006)
A disappointing personal rant
I got an opportunity to watch this film at a festival screening very recently, and went in expecting a lot given the high ratings given on this site and other positive comments I had heard about it, but was sorely disappointed. Let me state upfront though that my perspective is somewhat coloured by the fact that I got an opportunity to participate in the Q&A with some of the key crew and cast, and so my opinions are somewhat influenced by a few additional pieces of information which might not be readily available to viewers who haven't had this opportunity.
Firstly, to quickly summarize the story, the movie revolves around the life of a disgraced captain of the Indian cricket team, whose image as been severely tarnished by allegations of match-fixing. The film takes place at a juncture in his life when he has already been banned from cricket by the country's cricket authority, but his guilt has not yet been conclusively established by the legal authorities. The film explores the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by the captain as he debates between setting himself free through a complete confession on the one hand and protecting his family by denying all allegations on the other. Simultaneously, it also displays the reactions of a cricket-crazy nation through the background discussions and actions of four young boys who feel betrayed by the cricketer.
So what went wrong in the film? Above all, I thought the film felt like a plea for sympathy with the director's angry feelings on the subject, rather than any sort of objective assessment of the situation, or even a well-depicted tale of one set of strong emotions. At multiple points in the film the protagonist is chided by other characters for trying to constantly evoke other's sympathy for his feelings, yet the writer and the director seem to do the same throughout, making the film extremely distasteful. In terms of performances, almost the entire lead cast performed below their normally very high standards, and the acting vacillated often between being rather over-the-top and pretentiously subtle. (The only real exception was Seema Biswas, who was given a fringe role and was completely wasted in the film.) The dialogue was exasperating, being littered with completely unnecessary segments, like the multiple phone calls that the CBI Inspector (Biswas) keeps receiving while interrogating the captain and the ridiculous histrionics of the lawyer (which wasted precious time that could have been otherwise used to develop the legal discussion some more). Worse still were pretentious statements at critical junctures like "I am feeding the rain" - what is that all about, especially when it's the only line the protagonist says in his first flashback to his childhood? (Incidentally, this was confirmed by the director to have no meaning other than being just a random statement by a child.) Another severe disappointment was the background score it's just baffling to hear the supremely talented Indian Ocean compose such unremarkable music.
On the positive side, the one part of the story which worked very well was the depiction of the public reaction through the exchanges between the four boys. Their state of utter distress and feelings of anger and betrayal were very-well scripted and wonderfully portrayed by the four young actors. Another strong positive in the film was the cinematography, with Abhik Mukhopadhyay using some unusual shot angles, lighting, and movements to very good effect.
Overall, I would have no compunctions about giving a complete thumbs-down to this film. And if you really want to learn about the cricket match-fixing scandals and the deluge of emotions they brought about, "Google" will serve you much better.