Saturday, September 15, 2012
Barfi
Sunshine Boy
Ranbir Kapoor is the wonder boy of Bollywood
today—a star who manages to go against all image-building rules. If he were a conventional star, Anurag Basu
would probably never have got him to sign up for Barfi. So completely has Ranbir immersed himself
into the part, that you can’t imagine anyone else doing it.
The same would go for Priyanka Chopra, who
sheds her glamorous persona, and plays a child-like Jhilmil, without
any self-consciousness. The third side
of this unusual love triangle is the radiant Ileana D’Cruz, as a young woman
led by her heart.
Basu’s film may often trip over into treacle,
but his three characters remain endearing. The love story is told with a
back-and-forth narrative style, with a hint of crime and suspense, unfolding in
Darjeeling, Kolkata and some parts in a village— an age of innocence and
fairy-tale sparkle created with solid production design and shot beautifully.
Murphy (Kapoor) is the deaf-mute son of a
chauffeur (Akash Khurana), and called Barfi in all Darjeeling, because he
quacks his name out sounding like that—the name comes from Murphy Radio, whose
cute baby mascot was advertised heavily in the seventies when a large part of
the film is set, giving the filmmaker a chance to play around with period props
and costumes.
Barfi falls in love at first sight with the
beautiful Shruti, who is engaged to a suitable man, but is drawn to the
mischief and charm of Barfi. Her wise
mother (Rupa Ganguly) gently guides her away from what she thinks is a doomed
life with a poor and differently abled man.
(It’s only in the movies that lack of money is never a constraint, and
poor people live in pretty barsatis.)
Meanwhile, there’s the autistic (retarded
actually) Jhilmil who is unwanted by her parents, but for her wealth. Barfi happens to take her under his wing,
and then she refuses to let go. The
local cop (Saurabh Shukla) gets caught up in all this intrigue, and, chasing
Barfi up and down crowded streets and rooftops, complains that his waistline
has reduced.
It is an idealised universe of the filmmaker’s
imagination, and there is the nostalgic desire evoked even in the viewer for a
world in which love is all it takes.
Basu does tend to overdo the cute quotient, but the actors just carry it
off. In a harsh, cynical world, maybe Barfi
is a small, very welcome shower of sweetness and light.
Labels: Cinemaah
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Raaz 3
All About Eeks
The Bhatts are simply recycling titles,
hoping the success of the first film rubs off on this one. However, unlike Murder or Jannat, Raaz was quite forgettable and anyone who
remembers Raaz 2 must be a total film junkie.
Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz 3 reworks all the
clichés of the horror genre, just amplified in 3D (he has been rather taken in
by 3D, this is his third using the technology).
But the production design is shoddy, what with diaphanous flying
curtains and old-fashioned over-stuffed sofas. The netherworld – “aatmaon ki
duniya” has been designed as a decrepit slum, and spookiness attempted with
barren trees and muddy water. Really,
the Ramsays did better without today’s sophisticated tech equipment.
Raaz 3 is
scary in the sense that bloodied faces, hanging bodies, sudden sounds from a
switched off TV, random screaming and a cockroach infestation (truly yucky) can
make you wince. But a real horror film
is one that keeps you awake at least for a night after watching it, jumping at
every sound and shadow. For that, the mumbo
jumbo built into the story and narration must be believable for the duration of
the film. Here, you know when something spooky will happen, because adequate
warning is given—like a needlessly long close-up of a wash basin drain, when
the cockroach attack happens. Also, the
character being spooked seems to be alone a lot, so that she can be ‘attacked’
by hallucinatory creatures, even when she is at a film shoot or a hotel loo
during a party where there are bound to be lots of people. It’s just lazy
horror-making.
Film star Shanaya (Bipasha Basu), who looks
quite stunning, is, you are told, on her way out, because a younger Sanjana
(Esha Gupta) has ousted her from her position, not only getting the coveted
films, but also the awards. Considering
both are seen shooting ‘item’ numbers in revealing clothes and Bipasha wins
hands down in the ‘hotness’ stakes, what are they talking about!
Still, stung at the loss of a much-desired
trophy, Shanaya is willing to make a pact with a creepy, pasty-faced, kohl-eyed
spirit, Tara Dutt (Manish Choudhary) who gives her a bottle of cursed water,
which must be given to her hated rival by a “reliable” person. Shanaya coaxes her lover, film director
Aditya (Emraan Hashmi) to do the deed, and a roll in bed is all that is needed
to convince him.
If Shanaya weren’t such a dimwit, she’d know
that a damsel in distress is a definite dude-magnet; sure enough Aditya falls
for the mentally wrecked Sanjana and guilt makes him her self-appointed
saviour.
By the already low horror film standards in
Bollywood, Raaz 3 delivers the chills, but no novelty. The music is
desultory, the actors do their parts earnestly, which is all that could have
been expected from them. They are not likely to win any trophies for this one. But then again, going by the current standards of Bollywood, who knows!
Labels: Cinemaah
