So, what were the year’s highlights?
Two outstanding pieces of the thriller genre set in the two big and busy cities
located on two ends of the country…..A master-filmmaker’s penultimate film,
concluding the end of a legendary career and coinciding with his tragic
demise…..Films that took us into the reality of rural hinterland while giving
us solid stories of romance and revenge…..A light-hearted take at a
controversial issue told as a breezy romance…..and finally a film that took us
into the hills and gave us people who spoke with emotions than words…..
Each one of them deserves a mention,
as well as others who did not quite click but nevertheless made their mark in
some ways…..
The Consolation Prizes
Ek Tha Tiger- Kabir Khan’s savvy and
slickly packaged actioner-cum-romance boasted of spectacular locations and
break-neck action never seen before. That said, the film is brought down by its
predictable romance that slows things terribly down…….
Student Of The Year- Karan Johar’s
glossy and luxurious youth movie sparkles with solid chemistry between its
characters and gives us two promising leading men but suffers from a bland
heroine and an excess of, well, everything unconvincing…….
Agent Vinod- Sriram Raghavan’s slick
spy movie had memorable baddies and enough twists and turns but a really,
really sloppy ending ruins almost everything….
And now we move on the big winners
of the year…..
10- Jab Tak Hai Jaan
The master filmmaker pulled off his
last act at the grand age of 80 and weeks before, the film was unveiled, Yash
Chopra passed away, leaving us a legacy of romance and drama that make us go
weak at the knees. As a solitary tribute to all that he has done, his
penultimate film stands out as a romance that blends the old with the new- a
wonderfully twisted journey of romance packed to the gills with stunning
imagery, melodious music and the kind of magic that only Chopra could have
achieved.
It is all very fine but the plot-by
Aditya Chopra- often wrecks the film’s superb potential-that and a
good-looking-but-unable-to-act Katrina Kaif often ruin the film’s crowning
moments. Still, a cool and capable Shahrukh, buoyant Anushka Sharma and
glittering locations and songs take your breath away…….
9- Ekk Main Aur Ekk Tu
Our films usually make a big, bonny
mess of romances set in foreign lands that anything, almost anything, that feels
even slightly Woody Allen-smart or vibrant, comes as a welcome surprise. Shakun
Batra’s well-intentioned debut, a sparky romance set to a scintillating score
and much warmth, is a job fairly well done, something at which even Allen could
have smiled.
The first hour or so feels redundant
with its brashly stereotype jokes but as the friendship between the introvert
Rahul and vivacious Riana develops with enough nuance and insight, the film
shifts, fortunately, to Mumbai to make for a nicely touching and heartfelt
second half which shows us Batra’s amazing skills at building characters and
relationships between them…. And the lead pair- a confident Imran Khan and an
oh-so-wonderful Kareena Kapoor- works wonders.
8- Vicky Donor
Talk about sheer cheek. A story
about a sperm donor, essentially a good-for-nothing slacker, is the stuff of
controversy and also comedy. Shoojit Sircar’s delightful and excellently
observed character comedy rides hot on the heels of the likes of Hrishikesh
Mukherjee and the more recent Dibakar Banerjee to carve a particularly wise and
witty portrait of middle-class Delhi and at heart a spunky romance between its
grungy hero and an urban lass that packs enough sincerity.
As the eponymous fertile slacker,
Ayushmann Khurana comes up with a self-assured debut in the role of a guy too
sure about himself to see the consequences of his ways. But it is the film’s
cast of solid supporting characters that really make Sircar’s film a cut above
comedies- from Dolly Ahluwalia’s gaudy and garrulous mother to Annu Kapoor’s
eccentric doctor hunting for donors, and yes, the wizened yet wise grandmother
who gulps in whiskey with her daughter-in-law, classic!
7- Shanghai
You can always trust the reliable Dibakar Banerjee to come up with an intelligent product that satisfies you creatively as well. In this incisive remake of Costa Gavras’ classic ‘Z’, Banerjee tells us a lean, harrowing story of big bucks, politics and progress and the film, liberally loaded with sarcasm and cynicism, is a brilliant satire making us confront the question, ‘What is the price of progress?’
With a verve of an action film,
‘Shanghai’ unravels- Banerjee smartly and adroitly navigates the decadent
alleys of political hierarchy and etches memorable characters- so real that you
can almost smell the sweat on them. Even as this becomes predictable towards
the end, Banerjee extricates terrific performances from his leads- Emraan
Hashmi’s reluctant witness-cum-pornographer is a showcase of pain and fear,
while Abhay Deol’s tight-lipped yet belligerent bureaucrat is one of the
performances of the year…….
6-Ishaqzaade
The name itself suggests brash, bold
defiance, independence, setting the stage for a love story that oozes with fire
and passion and boy, Habib Faisal, in his second gung-ho outing, slams it hard-
an unfilchingly raw and visceral update of the old-as-hills Romeo-Juliet saga
and with a lead pair that steals our heart.
The chemistry between the uncouth
Parma (an impressively edgy Arjun Kapoor) and the hot-blooded yet vivacious
Zoya (a hands-down spontaneous and superb Parineeti Chopra) crackles and Faisal
gets the earthy, soiled, bloody flavor just right with visuals and music that
race, rumble and yet settles down for enough intimacy and warmth. The political
rivalry feels real than ever- the film teaching us a thing of two about
tolerance without being preachy- and the climax, while essentially a flawed
one, could be justifiably called as the most rousing one in recent times……
5-Kahaani
We have been to Delhi. We have been
to the big and busy Mumbai. And Sujoy Ghosh already deserved a pre-mature
applause for showcasing what Dominique Lappiere called the ‘City Of Joy’ in all
its bright lights and grim shadows, inhabited instead of cultural stereotypes, a
chock full of real people, some of whom are smartly, ingeniously, a part of the
mystery itself….
In no other film have we been given
an assassin who works as a mild-mannered, overweight-Clark Kent- like insurance
salesman, an angry cop who has little patience for rules and protocol and above
all a pregnant woman searching for her husband in this big city, where
everything has a dual name and identity.
Whoa!
‘Kahaani’ is a film of incredible
smarts. It races along with its characters in its sweltering, terse and
alternately darkly comic quest for the truth, while the constantly
spell-binding visuals bring to life a city of yellow cabs, lethargic trams and
dark alleys that lead somewhere else…. And yet this has enough emotion and
humanity to make for a profoundly moving and rousing experience…..
4- Gangs Of Wasseypur Part 1
Francis Ford Coppola, please pay
attention, or ‘Mein Teri Keh Ke Loonga’
Revenge, they say, is a dish best
served cold but it could only be Anurag Kashyap who makes it sizzle with a
sensory overload of sheer bravado, knife-sharp humor, drama pumped with blood
and adrenaline and such mesmerizing nuance and observation that it is a revenge
story with enough morals. And while the pacing is a bit of a misfiring pistol,
the build-up is nonetheless the stuff of mastery.
Spanning decades of rivalry stemming
from one cold-blooded murder and ending in one, the fantastic prelude is packed
with overwhelmingly compelling characters- the sleazy Sardar Khan played by an
impressively nasty Manoj Bajpayee to his arch-nemesis- the principled and
vicious Ramadhir Singh played to perfection by Tigmanshu Dhulia., while
Nawazzudin Siddiqui and Huma Qureshi set the stage for more fire in the sequel….
Resurrecting potboiler elements of
the likes of Yash Chopra and Salim-Javed and blending the quirk of Tarantino
with the elegance of Coppola and Scorsese, Kashyap’s film is nevertheless an
individual triumph, for the way how a filmmaker, at the top of his form, wills
us to take in powerful filmmaking at its most gut-wrenching yet eliciting
enough guffaws to make our jaws drop…..
It is perhaps rare that we have been
given a heroine whom we can cheer for, not merely pity or sympathize with.
Debutant director Gauri Shinde’s superbly breezy, witty and warm comedy
celebrates the simplicity and courage of one of the most plain and unassuming
heroines in recent memory- a simple, faltering yet determined housewife who can’t speak good English and takes her family’s
jeers spiritedly but after a humiliation at a New York café, she decides to
have no more of it.
It is simple, delivered with classic filmmaking grace, the narrative predictable but the biggest surprises lie in how Shinde nails even the little victories of life as extraordinary and poignant while basking her heroine in the sunlight of confidence and discovery- Sridevi is unforgettable as a truly simple woman who chooses to dance in joy when called simply an entrepreneur and she is ably supported by a solid cast of characters- funny, perfectly observed and downright delightful, even malicious, like the realistically sly and yet tender husband played to perfection by the talented Adil Hussain.
The laughs come easy and it is hard
not to be wooed with the smooth nuance and detail that Shinde invests in this
film and yet the real triumph is how Shinde’s warmth touches you without even
shedding a tear.
2- Talaash
Really, Reema Kagti, we have got to
hand it to you.
By mixing the right sense of Alfred
Hitchcock and neo-noir with elements of M. Night Shyamalan and Christopher
Nolan, Reema Kagti deserves a bravery award and then full marks for the mastery
that she showcases in her second film itself. Every element is perfectly
placed- be it the characters, Mohanan’s gorgeous and atmospheric visuals, the
moody background score, the languid pace that lends the film more chills than
thrills and above all a master hand at handling a talented cast of actors….
The gist- of a mysterious car
accident occurring on a lonely night on Worli Seaface- is quite pulpy, as is
the film’s actual revelation-but what is to admired is how Kagti has endowed
the film with such fantastic casting, character development and such a solid
grip on the emotions that much of it convinces us. Each character is perfectly
developed- be it the tough and alternately tender cop who investigates the
labyrinth (a near-flawless Aamir Khan), a mysterious hooker who raises more
questions than answers (a stunning and perfectly cast Kareena Kapoor) and my
favorite- a limping oft-kicked-around sidekick who plans something big (played
with scene-stealing effect by the supremely talented Nawazzuding Siddqui).
It is a somber film unfolding in
grey shades, shadows and illusions as the characters navigate the darkness that
lies beneath all the pomp and show-remarkably like Roman Polanski’s
‘Chinatown’- and nothing could have worked better than casting the bustling
city of Mumbai at the background- the film showcases its uglier sides and the
island metropolis ends up being a compelling character itself……..
1- Gangs Of Wasseypur-Part 2
Call it rightly ‘The Dark Knight’ of
Bollywood gangster movies…..
We often make a serious mess of
sequels to popular films and often the chosen path for the makers is
predictability. And one of the achievements of this turbo-charged sequel to an
already incendiary film is how it changes the mood completely. Gone is the tense
build-up that also shifted to comedy and intimate romance and family drama-
Anurag Kashyap’s sequel cuts straight to the action from the first frame- like
a really smart action film, it is the people who hold guns that make for most
of the fun.
And My God, what people they are!
A dope-addicted wastrel of a son
transforms overnight into a fast-talking, ruthless don and yet is one who is
equally vulnerable and even romantic (Nawazzudin Siddiqui, of course, the man
leads the pack). His competitor and admirer- a street goon who styles himself
as Salman Khan; a kid brother who tosses razor blades in his mouth and lisps
before performing stunts and robbing stores- and his sidekick- both of whom are
named after mathematical terms instead of real names.
They are people instantly likeable-
in their heroics, their villainy, their follies, their taste of movies and
gaudy hairstyles and clothing and Kashyap makes sure to blend the craziness
with such a masterful style of filmmaking that it all feels real-downright real
and earthy.
Which is why we admire the nuances-
a singer is hired to croon to sad songs in funerals, a pager is a radical
invention, harkening to the days of the 90s when it was first introduced and
the film’s hyperviolence gets your nerves racing and the Martin Scorsese-like
chaotic climax is something that makes you shout with sheer joy.
I can’t rave and rant enough about
this masterpiece. But I can sign off by just describing you the moment that
defines this landmark classic.
The lisping toothy thief, the one
called Perpendicular, walks out joyously out of a theatre with his buddy,
singing a song from Munnabhai MBBS and they together ride their way back home,
discussing about Munna and Circuit. We laugh. Then, minutes later, when he is gunned
down in cold blood, we can’t help but feel for the character who was this
unforgettable….
And any movie that can make us filch
between laughter and genuine concern has to be a masterpiece…
That too for a goon!
