partopd-275-978217 Reviews

Kahaani (2012)

The refreshing combination of Parambrata and Balan and the motley of emotions and the ease with which they exude them in "Kahaani" make for an outstanding watch.

[8/10 · 8 March 2012]

Setu's account of Kolkata is delightedly sincere and not superfluous cinematography - the dynamic colours and the simplicity of the artless lanes of Kolkata, admiringly, have not been lost in rhetoric black and white. The same forthrightness has mirrored to a huge extent in Suresh Nair and Sujoy Ghosh's masterful and impressive narration of Bagchi's fable of lost and deeply lost until found.

Vidya Bagchi's (Vidya Balan) hunt for her lost husband Arnab Bagchi (Indraneil Sengupta) brings her down to Kolkata from London. With a seven-month old baby magnifying her power, an infinite exploration of the byways of Kolkata with the help of a local policeman Satyoki Sinha (Parambrata Chattopadhyay) begins. Disordered links and remainders of Vidya's past conversations with Arnab are her fragile hopes. Undeterred, the firewall specialist rummages through the tightly encrypted codes of the mystery, webbed by even more securely encrusted faces.

The refreshing combination of Parambrata and Balan and the motley of emotions and the ease with which they exude them in "Kahaani" make for an outstanding watch. Balan's ability to tailor her sentiments - sympathy, anger and despair - multiplies the strength of her character. The swiftness of the movie leaves no time for the audience to mentally prepare for an upcoming situation. While Vidya accepts herself as "Bidya"in the City of Joy, gifts a chocolate to the kid in the lodge and breaks the lock of National Data Centre; the contract killer Bob Biswas (Saswata Chatterjee) playfully murders people and Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) smokes out his dedication towards his work besides a mouthful of white air.

Just when a wide array of emotions are at their peak and the frantic search is riding high, Amitabh Bachhan's rendition of Tagore's famous song "Jodi tor dak shune" transfers the mood to a completely different level. The festive mood of the city, the preceding and the succeeding of it, the red of sindoor and the expressions of the idols of Durga have been phenomenally well-utlised in the movie.

Balan is a breeze of fresh air in Bollywood, which is suffering from the curves of furniture heroines and "Kahaani", another robust step after the recent "The Dirty Picture" towards reinforcing the position of heroines in a traditionally hero-driven Bollywood. The subtlety with which the soul of the city has been interlaced in the screenplay, while not losing grasp on the flow of the story even for a moment, is a testimony of effectual storytelling.

There is not a single scene in the movie where Parambrata has been overshadowed by the presence of Balan. His acting skills are distinctly sharp and flowing. Sujoy Ghosh's choice of actors for the various characters in "Kahaani" has made an immense contribution towards the kind of impact it leaves on the viewers long after they abandon the theatre.

After all, "Shotti" sounds better as "Shotti", not "Sotti".

The climax, even though prudent and reasonably well-baked, is slightly dramatic and seems to conclude the movie before clearly justifying the actions of Vidya and Satyoki, especially the latter. The momentum of the story towards the end beats its own record and the circumstances merging with the mood of the city seems to be not so much of a coincidence.

Bagchi's "Kahaani" is one of those that would define tougher standards for the forthcoming Fridays. Why on earth would you like to miss the benchmark?

Watch it. Definitely!

Agneepath (2012)

Mind you, don't practice comparing while watching "Agneepath", even if you are an ardent fan of either of the Vijays. Life would be simpler.

[7/10 · 26 January 2012]

This Vijay Dinanath Chauhan is not interested in comparisons. All he wants is a fair chance to payback the killer Kancha (Sanjay Dutt), who remorselessly murdered his father Dinanath Chauhan, when Vijay was a kid. Gaon Mandwa, this is where Vijay was born and since the time he could remember, his father used to recite poems for him. Poems that would talk about path of fire.

To say that "Agneepath" is simply a technologically superior version of the original Vijay played by Amitabh Bachhan would be being unfair to the interesting spirals plugged into the story by Ila Dutta Bedi and Karan Malhotra. The most absorbing spiral is the drug dealer and pimp Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor), a character assayed so earnestly that in a few scenes Lala fills all the space offered by the movie. The cinematography by Kiran Deohans and Ravi K Chandra blends beautifully with the story as well as the costumes and explanation of the characters; but tries too hard to add an epic feeling to the climax, which spoils the sympathy for the rendition by overstuffing it with filmy shibboleths.

The passionate craving for penalizing Kancha separated a 12-year-old Vijay (Hrithik Roshan) from his mother Suhasini (Zarina Wahab) and his newly born sister and found a medium in Lala. Roshan's adaptation of the cult character has a calmness in his deep-rooted anger, a silence in his hatred and a fire in his eyes - all of which combine to a mighty performance. Thankfully, the burdensome task Arish Bhiwandiwala has left for Roshan with his sharp illustration of the character of the young Vijay Chauhan, has been done justice to. Hrithik's description could have been unexampled had the dialogues by Piyush Mishra been weighty enough and the editing by Akiv Ali wiser.

The screenplay and the editing, following the traditions of Bollywood, has reduced Kaali Gawde (Priyanka Chopra) to a beautiful piece of furniture, the only difference being that this one dances. Pity. While the director Karan Malhotra tries hard to make a thunderous appeal to the audience with the electrifying decibels between Vijay and Kancha, an unaware Lala steals the thunder from the two for the larger part of the movie. Sanjay Dutt as Kancha is a solid institution of wickedness in a way that hating Kancha would make someone feel better about himself/herself as a human being. Lala, with his unashamed spontaneity, is few notches higher though in my opinion.

A film crowded with powerful performers leaves little inspiration for Indian directors to focus too much on the story. With responsible editing and lesser concentration on dressing, "Agneepath" could easily have been 45 minutes shorter and more compelling. The movie reveals a certain degree of naivety in the direction. There is an immaturity in the way the clichés lifted from the 1980's and the brother-sister angle have been treated.

Vijay Chauhan's disinterest in Chikni Chameli is understandable; what is worrying is that a movie from Dharma Productions behaves so poorly in the music department. Ajay-Atul must have good reasons behind the heavy-duty background music and the pointless songs of "Agneepath". Chikni Chameli is long forgiven.

Mind you, don't practice comparing while watching "Agneepath", even if you are an ardent fan of either of the Vijays. Life would be simpler.