Movie Review: 'Paan Singh Tomar'

Just think of the last movie which while watching, you were wishing for it to never end. I had the same feeling while my eyes were firmly glued to the gripping story bundled in outstanding acting by all the characters I must say, with the special bow towards the versatile Irrfan Khan. The actor has singlehandedly taken the responsibility of pulling off the forgotten legend Paan Singh Tomar's life on his shoulders and done it immaculately well. Taking a nose-dive into the character, Irrfan opens the movie with being the notoriously known rebel Paan Singh Tomar allowing a journalist to take his interview. And while addressing to his questions, he unfolds the character from his early days of army through his becoming a national champion athlete to his turning to rebel.

For making his nation proud of him, Paan Singh joins the Indian army but his passion for running and love for food makes him change his profession and he eventually becomes a national champion in steeplechase run. Despite being a sharp shooter and having strong willingness to fight for a country, he has to end up being an athlete and not a soldier. In later years, his spat over property with his puffed-up cousin reaches to a level that along with his family he is threatened to be destroyed. He knocks the doors of the police but gets humiliated to a level that his medals and certificates are thrust out in rejection to help. But when this intensified to a level that his mother gets beaten, his son is bled by severe bashes and when the rivalry makes his family to leave his village, he has no choice to pick up the gun and go for it. He forms a pack of whoever willingly supported him and wanted to join the cause. He trains them hard and makes them capable of pack-deserving. He strengthens his power, fear and reach by getting funds by his rebellious activities such as kidnapping and makes himself ruthless enough to scare the people by his name. Finally he takes the pending revenge from his cousin who has by then turned Paan Singh–phobic.

It is an honest film made to give deserving tribute to the legend with desired seriousness infused by Tigmanshu Dhulia . Telling a serious and thought-provoking story such as this in an engaging way has truly been a successful attempt. The dialogues of the movie are catchy and it’s needless to say that when they are heard especially from the protagonist’s mouth, in his typical style, it’s a sheer joy of the moment. It is a movie which puts you straight in the rollercoaster of emotions in your comfy seat. The language throughout the film is though very much earthy, it excludes expletives and is pretty interesting.  Paan Singh’s love for running, his displayed voracity, his sharp shoots, his running-practice with horses are some of the major moments of fun.The relationship shown between Paan Singh and his wife is very beautiful which is shyly romantic as well as notably caring. It's a compelling tale of a rebel who doesn’t want to be tagged as ‘dacoit’ and when addressed as the same; he gets visibly upset and defines the difference with clear illustration. Irrfan has pushed the envelope so hard that it would become a tough nut to crack for others to come close. He has in a real sense given a true meaning to the word called ‘actor’ while putting most of his peers on to the other side of the broad category called ‘joker’.

I would strongly recommend you to go for this movie because at the end of it, it will leave you with a genuine pride for the legend himself, appreciation mainly for the actor and then for the director and lastly, anger-cum-pity for the system that turned the patriot into the rebel, tagged him as dacoit and ruined his life.

Movie Review: 'The Iron Lady'

There are many inspiring stories made in order to stir the inner soul to gear up for some appreciative work or to find the meaning of life, but this one is uniquely different. This is a movie which gives you a brief about Margaret Thatcher’s life and the bumpy political career of this all-confident and utterly-strong lady who is considered as the longest-serving British Prime Minister by far. The story is shown as the lady’s reminiscence of her gone-by years and missed moments due to her dedication to public service. I could say that while watching this movie, I could figure out Meryl Streep’s face in Margaret Thatcher rather than the other way round! She is so immensely sold to the character that especially in the few scenes of her old age, it actually makes you feel as if you’re watching Thatcher’s real video clips edited together and not a film on her. The age-showing soft wrinkles peeping out of the heavy makeup on her old face, the parallel veins trisecting the throat area, the right-skewed hair style, listening and sitting posture exactly replicate that of the Iron Lady’s. The toggling between young, mature and old age of the lady Prime Minister, a real ball of fire is especially nicely shown. The love, respect, affection and at times complaining arguments between the lady and her late husband Dennis are pretty charming and mostly touching. 
 

I enjoyed the movie in bits and pieces. Though I feel that given the script the movie was immaculately well done, the script itself had left the big room of showing the Iron Lady’s inspiring character in an impactful way. It could have included a few more scenes in order to blow the audience off with the ‘go-for-it’ feeling. I have to say this because the character of the movie, Margaret Thatcher is one of its kinds and other aspects are so fantastically in place that you feel something concrete is not emphasized to a degree which made the lady ‘The Iron Lady’. The movie sets an ultimate example of perfect characterization but lacks the necessary depth needed for that character to justify the title in a ‘wow’ way. Please go for this movie as it won’t urge you to shake things up like she did in her past but it will for sure leave you with respectful soft smile for the Iron Lady.

Movie Review: 'Money Ball'

Would you like a theory which tells you that scientific number crunching may lead you to successfully choose the professional players for any sport with highly likely chances of winning? Either you agree to this fully or partially, or you’re a Brad-struck fan then go for this movie which won’t disappoint you for sure. 
 

Brad Pitt as Billy Beane is a cool, moody coach cum key selector for the players for the Oklahoma Baseball club. The club is in a serious need of revamping for its consistent stereotyped failures or should I say, missed successes by thin margins. Billy comes across a rotund, smart-ass graduate guy named Peter Brand, working for some other club as Players’ Analyst. He gets impressed by him and then gets sold on his theory of buying runs while selecting players and eventually buys the Analyst himself to work for him. The key here is that the young guy has had made a mathematical matrix of numbers that help assessing the players’ consistency and judging players by their historical performances and this sounds not only pretty interesting and strangely undoubting as well. 

All the other members in the selection committee who’ve whitened their hair judging players over the decades for the Oklahoma team go against this insanely crazy Billy for his seemingly useless theory. On the other hand, Billy, a nerd when it comes to baseball, is a self-willed and who-gives-a-damn guy. He is so obsessed in his winning plans through this number-strategy that he hardly notices such opposition and whenever he does, he virtually thrashes the objectors with his cool grace. Unaffected by the grave opposition from all ranks of selection committee, Billy and Peter manage to sit together to reach their goal of buying the underdogs within the budget. They are busy analyzing the game to gauge the playing-patterns of the players and thereby deciding on the untapped potential to choose the underutilized and undervalued player at a cheaper rate. They not only successfully bring all of them on board despite the severe objections from others, but also are able to pull off the series of victory and break the record of all time.

I would like to make a special mention of Billy’s way of enjoying Baseball, which convincingly portrays his fierce passion with true love for the game and deep attachment for his team. The chemistry between Peter who is inspired by his boss’ uprightness and singleness and his boss is a good watch. Also, the bond between a staying-away daughter and Billy, a caring father even in his post-divorce time, is sweet enough not to take our eyes off them when they join the screen together. The movie doesn’t bore at all but it is certainly not riveting enough throughout its duration either.

Won prizes for 'Rascals' and 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'

Again, Many thanks to Television Eighteen India Ltd. for this appreciation for my reviews on 'Rascals' and 'Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu'.