Movie Review: 'Dangal'

There are interesting movies. There are inspiring movies. Then there is Dangal – a movie balancing both angles while striking right commercial chords and more importantly, without ever losing sight of the subject. Mahavir Singh and his mighty daughters steal the show and win the hearts along with winning matches. The story as everyone knows or at least can easily guess is a potent attempt, rather hugely successful I say, in the direction of changing people’s mindsets about our daughters in specific and girls in general. It is simple, predictable and despite that, a delightful watch.

An ambitious national-level wrester, Mahavir Singh Phogat (Aamir Khan), has to quit wrestling to earn bread for the family, but its stinging seed of winning a gold medal for India never leaves him, showing him always at unrest. Keeping with the earlier Indian tradition he doesn’t mind fathering children in the hope of having a son to whom he can pass on his wrestling baton and train him into a gold-worthy champion.  As luck would have it, he gets blessed with, not one, not two, not even three, but four daughters. Rightfully mentioned in the movie, as a drowning man clutches a straw, Mahavir Singh clutches on to the fighting spark he sees in his elder daughters, Geeta and Babita. Both the girls have to ditch their typical girlhood, grudgingly at first and painfully later, to live up to their father’s dream. Senior Phogat leaves no stone unturned, rather no boy unturned, in converting their hesitant daughters into powerful wrestlers. In the face of the mocking patriarchal society, both shine their way to championship by flipping, swinging, and pinning the opponents to the ground.  Though they bring their father and India many proud wins internationally, the movie elaborates on the Commonwealth games of 2010 to allow the audience to sit back and rejoice Geeta’s journey to getting gold.

The cast of the movie is outstanding to say the least. From the girls playing young Geeta and Babita to two lovely actresses showing their adult versions come across with forceful gusto and solid cinematic presence. Pulling off deft back-archs to fine-rolls to leg-takedowns by wearing a grim face isn’t a kid’s play. Fatima Sana Shaikh and Zaira Wasim are simply terrific as Geeta. Sakshi Tanwar is effortless in her role of a supportive wife and mother. Aamir Khan towers above his contemporaries by nailing with a “dhaakad” performance with those extreme looks – paunchy and pecky.  And Nitesh Tiwari gets a thumbs-up for direction.

I don’t want to be a nitpicker and share what I felt were easily avoidable, fringe-looking theatrical patches towards the end for it would chip off its deserving sheen. It is sure to consume you with assorted emotions and leave you with a smile.

Movie Review: 'Mohenjo Daro'

The movie has rather rotten resemblance with Bahubali from a partial plot point of view. A son of royalty (of that time!) stroked by destiny and brought up in modesty shows bravery running in his blood and is strongly drawn towards his roots. Overruling his guardians’ wish, he visits his homeland, gets a pretty girl, enjoys with her, comes back to the story, knows the history of injustice to his father, gets angry, bashes up sidekicks and goons, and resolves to bring justice. That is all about it. The only thing is – it’s done unconvincingly. Rather, boringly.

The protagonist, Sarman (Hrithik) is a bronze-coloured, brown-haired young man in the village of Amri. To show how adventure-loving he is, the first scene of the movie creates a dull hype of his heroism when he kills a crocodile with his trident, and the village goes all clapping for him. That night a one-horned animal (ek-singaa) at a river bank pops into his dream, and the next night he decides to go to Mohenjo Daro without even knowing why. He goes there to trade and predictably falls in love with the only good-looking chick named Channi (Pooja Hegde). He gets to know the evils of Maham (Kabir Bedi), challenges him, and again predictably does what a hero should do. Protect the people and destroy the devil. The movie ends with a surprisingly summarizing note. The way those Sindhu waters demolish Mohenjo Daro is quite symbolic of the movie doing the same to our hopes with similar intensity. However, there are four reasons to rejoice: Rahman’s music, a few glimpses of the debutant beauty, intermission, and the arrival of end credits.

While I admire Ashutosh Gowariker to adopt a difficult subject and put his soul into it, I can’t help share what it felt watching. Sarman looks quite kicked to see Mohenjo Daro, partly by the feeble script and therefore mostly by overacting. Hrithik’s thirst for knowing ek-singaa matches his earlier curiosity of knowing Jaadu in Koi Mil Gaya! His nimble limb movements are the only watchable thing left in his acting which too has a limited scope in this movie. Pooja Hegde is beautiful in her role that revolves around revolving around Mohenjo Daro, receiving salutes, and enjoying attention (much like that road traffic inspector in a small town). She wears a bunch of feathers on the headgear and a long fine gown stitched in a way that reveals just enough skin that, I am sure, must have worked as a generous incentive for people of Mohenjo Daro to bow down to her in guise of respect. This is because she is the daughter of a priest and at her birth some holy chap declared that she had the blessing of the mother Sindhu, the river everybody respects and swears by. Thanks to this belief, she seems to be the only girl bestowed with a designer tailor while the rest of the cast wears whatever Ashutosh could muster to give a historical touch.

Sarman emerges as the most eligible bachelor of that era. He is handsome. He knows how to control a mad horse. With his God-gifted engineering skills he designs and helps make the entire bridge of boats to save people in the midst of the horrendous flood. He is not a PMP certified but he executes the entire evacuation project with impeccable timing. With his leadership traits he delegates duties and saves himself at the very last only after ensuring the headcount. All that is fine but Channi seems to like him may be because he can dance without rehearsal and kiss without fear. Just joking. Her character barely bothers and looks lacking passion. The chemistry between the leads looks cold. Kabir Bedi’s acting involves giving his naturally crooked smile, adjusting his ridiculously funny horn-crown, and manipulating a vote of hands. Mentioning the rest would be as time-wasting as watching this movie.

Movie Review: 'Wazir'

It is rare when a movie-song possesses you more than the movie and it either keeps on playing itself inside of your mind or comes out through your humming. But there is no way stopping it. This soothing song – Tere Bin - is a delicate stream of silken, romantic lyrics voiced by sugar combo of Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. It begins as the movie begins and while ending it makes sure of taking away the smiles you had while it was on. Not because the movie is terrible, but it slips into a serious plot.

Danish Ali (Farhan Akhtar), an Anti-Terrorism Squad officer, has a happy life with his wife Ruhana (Aditi Rao Hydari) and his daughter until the daughter gets killed in an inadvertent gunfight. Danish revenges this by killing the goon responsible for his loss and gets himself suspended. Already a guilt-ridden father and a blamed and neglected husband, he gets bumped into a master chess-player, Pandit Omkarnath Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan). Danish finds an empathetic friend in Pandit who is a sharp brain with a wheelchair-bound body, appearing a wise man despite his own dilapidated life. While teaching Danish chess and life-lessons emanating from it, he lays his case of bringing justice to his daughter who he firmly thinks was murdered by a politician. Danish buys into his theory after a gentle probe. He promises to save him when Pandit gets life-threatening warnings from Wazir (Neil Nitin Mukesh), the hired toughie of a politician. Danish takes this to his heart a bit too much as a personal challenge. He wears a fanatic resolve and leaves Ruhana uninformed who has barely forgiven him under Pandit’s wisdom. May be he fears that given his track record, there is no chance in hell she would allow him to prove himself a hero. He then goes hunting for a politician for his chess-buddy’s justice and protection. The obvious gets thrown up as a surprise, elaborated liberally to ensure the audience gets it, but trust me, it is tiring, at least in some stretches towards the end.

The performances of the leads are impeccable and hold the movie together despite their characters are forced by the fragile script, especially in the second half. Farhan is fantastic as a failed father, Aditi is good in her quiet role of a heartsick mother. Bachchan is as good as his character in the game. It pains me even to think of the necessity of roping in John Abraham and Neil Nitin Mukesh. The movie seems to have been made to bring out suspense, I gather. If you ask me whether to watch this or not - my ultimate reaction will be that of the politician in the movie when he is asked about Wazir! - Don’t know what to say. But when I picture those sincere faces of Farhan and Bachchan, who put their best to make the movie really work, I would say, go watch it once, for them. 

Movie Review: 'Bahubali'

An infant is shown floated on the surface of river, backed by a royal palm of a dead queen, Sivagami, who had surreptitiously escaped from her kingdom of Mahishmati to save this child – her grand-nephew, and son of Bahubali (her nephew) and Devasena (his wife). The child is raised by a tribal family and is named Shiva. He grows up to be a cheerful, free-wheeling, mother-lover soul preferring to stay mostly bare-bodied and is shown insanely crazed about getting on top of the waterfall and the mountain causing it. Neither the village folks nor he has any clue why he was so psyched about it. Making true the universal saying Boys are boys, Shiva too is no different. After repeated attempts over the years, a girl’s face-mask becomes the strongest motivation for him to achieve his age-old goal. He does reach at the top to find the girl, and finds her surrounded by blue butterflies and loses his heart to her. His freshly sparked testosterones make him chase wherever she goes dancing which is captured by a labored song, as uncalled for as I feel Uday Chopra’s presence in all of his movies.

To extend this bad patch of the movie further, Shiva seems to have acquired a special talent for making tattoos without someone’s knowledge. Thinking that tattooing the chick free of cost would make her happy and fall for him, he draws tattoos whenever he finds a chance with her, without her knowledge, also without even knowing whether she likes such body-spoiling stuff or not. And that's what happens; she certainly isn't impressed with this cheap display of talent from a stranger. However when confronted, he manages to make her realize that he is the dude born to be her partner for life and she somehow agrees to it. Having seen the confidence and devotion in his talks and a couple of punches, she smartly passes the baton to him that was given to her – to free the former queen, Devasena, Shiva’s real mother – the fact unknown both to her and Shiva. She was chained by Bhallal Dev, the current ruler of Mahishmati, the elder brother of her late husband.

This Bhallal chap is introduced when a wild bull isn’t controlled by anyone. He takes charge and controls the bull like a manager treats an underperformer during appraisal and the bull ends up eating dust. His father was sidetracked (I am sure, politely) by his younger brother who was deserving of being a king. So he became one and ruled but he had to pass away as the destiny had decided so. After this, Bhallal's mother, Sivagami, an all powering, kickass lady with strategic insights, became a queen. She believed only a worthy would get the throne and after a decisive battle she announces that Bahubali, her orphaned nephew would be the king and offends her power-hungry son, Bhallal, and her good-for-nothing husband. It looks that both father and son had conspired to get Bahubali killed by the ready-to-kill senapati, Katappa, ruthlessly loyal to serve Mahishmati who confesses this secret by the end of the movie. And there SS Rajamouli calls it CUT for the first part of the sequel, leaving the audience hungry for the second one.

The visuals are more than amazing even though waterfall looks laughingly fake. VFX more than makes up during war scenes when the black heads are slashed through acrobatically deft weapon strokes by Bahubali and a customized sudarshan chakra, riveted onto the smart chariot of Bhallal Dev. This is one of the few movies where acting voluntarily sides to give way to charismatic spectacles in the fantasy world.

Movie Review: 'Tamasha'

Imtiaz Ali loves tempering with normal love between his lead roles. In this one, he creates a guy named Ved (Ranbir), a crackpot, dumb-in-math, who is brought up listening to stories and eyeing fictional figures. He is so damn abnormal in his behaviour that even in normalcy he acts like a joker. As God is kind and even kinder to such buffoons, his nautanki impresses a swear words-mouthing bold babe, Tara (Deepika). In being friends-without-benefits and friends-without-identity, they have a gala time with each other before Tara has to fly back to India from Corsica – a Mediterranean island.

The song Heer to badi sad hai (a good song unnecessarily throws zoomed-in ugly faces in your face) spans across many years depicting Tara pleasantly lost in the times spent in Corsica. Ved on the other hand transforms himself from a stubbled live-wire to a French-cut bore. Imagining Ved a cool chap, Tara plots an accidental meet with him in a Delhi café. Both hit it off immediately but soon our I-know-what-I-want heroine realizes that he isn’t the same guy who would do Matargashti in public being a Dev Anand. Like all sane, smart girls do, Tara breaks off with him and tells him to get his life back. He takes some time in introspection and in process funnily humiliates his boss and emotionally moves his father. Since he has found a mentor in his lover, he goes back to her and professionally begins to do what he does best - Tamasha.

Even though the end is predictable, Imtiaz Ali ensures freshness and keeps the movie majorly entertaining. Leads make a perfect pair with evolved acting. The music is a big plus and Rahman is, well, Rahman. Go, watch it to know, yet again, that following your heart has bloody no alternative.

Movie Review: 'The Walk'

Those who have heard about the movie know that there is no convoluted story. It is mainly about basking in the digital genius to see the fantastic demonstration of what an absolutely unflinching power of belief can achieve. Let me wrap up the story quickly before I jump on to what it feels like witnessing it in a theatre hall.

A death-defying young French boy Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), fascinated by the skill of walking on high wire, pursues it mainly through self-learning which is bettered and completed by his mentor Papa Rudi (Ben Kingsley). His eyes constantly hunt for a space to connect it with his rope and be a showman of the place. He makes up his mind to bridge the gap between the then tallest towers of the World Trade Center. He forms a team of accomplices to pull off this coup - his dream. He spreads a wire in the no man’s land of the New York sky and turns the wire-walk into a cakewalk.

The long, heightening shots of twin towers act as teasers for the main show as they haughtily send shivers down your spine. 3D version gives you a special access, transports you to the terrace of the World Trade Centre, and gives you a frightening privilege of walking with that crazy chap who would salute, sit, dance, and even lie down on wire. You will observe many rounds of gasps from the audience while Philippe enjoys his walk and acrophobic souls recover from dizziness. Visuals are simply out of this world; particularly the early morning sight from the tower and the scenes from the wire, between the towers, are enough to knock you off your feet. Robert Zemeckis, the director, creates as big voids between our continual breaths as the void between the towers.

As Philippe Petit, Gordon-Levitt shines through brilliantly and enjoys as many silent prayers for his safe comeback as Amitabh Bachchan might have had gathered while in hospital. The movie is truly a spectacular spectacle. What Petit pulled off is the exact opposite of petit; to say the least, it was and till date, the ballsiest act the world has ever seen. Go and be a part of the most exciting morning walk you can ever have in this lifetime.

Movie Review: 'Manjhi The Mountain Man'

Love can move mountains. Love can also break them if need be.

A strong-willed, freedom-loving Bihari, Dashrath Manjhi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) falls for a girl named Falguni, aka Phagunia, (Radhika Apte) having come home after seven years since he escaped being a slave to a landlord. When he discovers the attractive lady he is after is no one else but his childhood bride, he goes all out to pursue her and manages to run her away from her objecting family on an axe point. Both seem to be deeply in love which gives them two children. While fighting against the caste discriminations and feudal oppressions, a mountain-borne misfortune comes upon his wife during her second pregnancy. She passes away gifting her husband with a daughter he had so sweetly requested her for. Now Manjhi is all heartbroken and torn to pieces as he struggles to accept her death. Visibly stoic, he then pulls himself together and heads to tear the mountain down.

The character Manjhi is yet another lovely feather in Nawazuddin’s mutli-coloured acting cap. His diminutive frame on screen resembles a mammoth acting institute for those muscle-flexing and mirror-staring dudes wanting to be or calling themselves actors. Radhika shines through as a dusky, charming muse to Manjhi’s herculean feat. Other actors do their bits well however at times inconsequential or uncalled for. While crafting the backdrop for the story, many atrocities shown send a chill down your spine and are sure to unnerve a human being. Many aspects of that era are forced to fit together in the movie – police abuse, corruption, draught, Naxalism - which was a bit too much for the topic chosen.

In the end you might sense that the movie is given only a little better treatment by the director than what is given to Manjhi’s endeavour in the movie by his fellow villagers. Instead of allowing us to leave the theatre hall with a positive force after witnessing the indomitable willpower of a man, Ketan Mehta makes us settle with sympathy for our Mountain Man. This goes to show that a film can lose its desired punch if the subtle elements of film-making are not blended well with good story, good intention, and even with good actors. However, it is a good watch even though you are right when you feel like knowing the story having seen its trailer.

Side note:

Whenever a movie title ends with a Man, mostly it brags about its portrayal of a super hero. Manjhi The Mountain Man from India joins the global pattern – and mind you, he is not a fictional character.  The irony is – he never wanted that goddamned title of a Mountain Man while siding more than 2 decades of his life to continue to chip off the mountain piece by piece only to make lives easier for villagers. The story brings to light the pathetic state of Indian system of governance, which I doubt has changed much since then.