Saturday, September 13, 2014
Finding Fanny
Dial Q for Quirk
The word being used by almost everyone to describe Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny, is quirky. It is wonder that in today’s box-office obsessed times, it was possible for such a film to be made.
But then, if Adajania was going to be cocking a snook at Bollywood, he should have gone all the way, and made a truly quirky film with no compromises. No stars, no literalness, no neatly tied-up bows at the end. The search for Fanny could well have been spiritual or metaphorical, or just whimsical. Could the urban multiplex viewer, at whom this film is aimed, not been able to take a bit of disappointment, a small tragedy, or an open end? Alas, the intelligence of the film festival frequenting informed viewer will never be tested by Bollywood cinema.
It starts off charmingly enough, in a Goan village called Pocolim (lovingly shot by Anil Mehta), which as the narrator Angie (Deepika Padukone) says, is a “puppet show as large as a village.” It is so tiny that it can’t be found on the map, but the two women in it have the latest in fashion, eyewear and lingerie? Ah well!
Anyway, a yellowing, age-crumpled letter is slipped under the door of the postman Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), who in old age is still a church choir boy. The letter was his proposal to the love of his life, Stephanie “Fanny” Fernandes, that was never delivered. He lived for 46 heartbroken years, believing she had rejected him.
Now his friend Angie, decides he must go find Fanny, because “no one deserves an incomplete love story.” Angie has had a tragedy of her own; her husband (Ranveer Singh) died on his wedding day, having choked on the plastic cake figurine. Now she lives with her corpulent mother-in-law Rosie (Dimple Kapadia), whose sharp tongue and bossiness hide a sad past. A randy artist, Don Pedro (Pankaj Kapur) sees Rosie as a muse for his last masterwork. Angie’s jilted suitor Savio (Arjun Kapoor) has returned to Goa after many years in Mumbai. This odd bunch, and Rosie’s narcoleptic cat, get into a battered old jalopy in search of Fanny.
It is obvious all of them will return from the bumpy ride as different people. Just how that happens is what the film is about, and though it delivers some quirky (there, the word) humour, endearing characters, and feel of European or Latin American cinema, you don’t come out it either shaken or stirred, because the stock of whimsy runs out midway.
None of the actors get the Goan accent right, but they play their parts well—particularly Dimple Kapadia, who brings out the pathos and absurdity of Rosie, without once hitting the wrong note.
Labels: Cinemaah
Creature
Horror vs Mythology
Of late, Vikram Bhatt has made a career out of conveyor belt horror films. They faithfully follow a set formula and deliver the requisite amount of eeks and ewws to audiences. Since it’s no secret what the film is about, only fans of horror films will go to the moviehall to see it, and they will have no reason to complain, since they must know just what they are spending their money on.
Bipasha Basu plays Ahana, a gutsy single woman, who sets up a boutique hotel in the midst of a lush forest. As she gets ready for the opening of her Glendale Hotel, Bhatt gets right down to business. A truck that is to make a delivery to Glendale breaks down the in the jungle. Within a few seconds, the wheezing of the ‘Creature’ is heard, its scaly tail, reptilian eye and huge claws are seen before the truck driver is devoured. Just a limb is left for the forest ranger and local cop to see.
The doctor says it’s not the work of a regular predator, some villagers yell about the effect of a Peepal tree being cut down, but, of course, the paan-chewing idiot in charge, does not take it seriously. He will be eaten by and by; the rules of the horror game say, the most annoying character has to get killed. Also, the lovey-dovey honeymooning couple has to suffer.
Ahana stands to lose everything if terror of the monster shuts the hotel down. Coming to her aid is a hotel guest Kunal (Imran Abbas Naqvi), who is ‘dude’ enough to be her romantic interest. But he is also there for a purpose. The Creature first gets near the hotel to eat the cook, then inside to attack the guests.
Scientific explanations for this obviously won’t do, so mythology has to be dug into. The Creature that looks like it escaped from Jurassic Park, is actually a Brahm Rakshas (a demonic spirit). A grim professor type (Mukul Dev) turns up with information. It needs a particular method to destroy it. Does Ahana find it? Of course she does. Even if it’s in just a potboiler of a horror flick, at least the leading lady gets to do something more than look sexy and distraught in designer costumes.
Creature is in 3D, so it looks more terrifying, otherwise it’s a no surprises kind of thriller, made with a reasonable amount of technical expertise on a controlled budget. So no Hollywood style blast ‘em out of their seats scares to be expected.
Labels: Cinemaah
Monday, September 08, 2014
Mary Kom
Queen of Sports
It’s such a pity that an inspiring story like Mary Kom’s rise to boxing glory gets the full Bollywood treatment. Mary Kom’s life, without all this embellishment, must have been so eventful, her struggles so tough, her victories so precious, that it needed a filmmaker who could present it with the honour and awe it deserved.
Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom belongs to Manipur, but the film just ignores the conditions in the troubled North Eastern region, or tries to even cursorily examine why boxing is so popular there, with both men and women. It doesn’t even bother to go into how Mary got so passionate about boxing. There is a fleeting scene in which a little girl wandering around what looks like a bomb site, picks up a boxing glove.
Next thing you know, Mary as played by Priyanka Chopra is brawling with boys at school. Why is she so aggressive? No idea. While chasing a boy who beat her up when she attacked him, she spots a boxing institute, begs the coach Narjit Singh (Sunil Thapa) to teach her, and that’s where it starts. There’s a fully filmi scene in which Mary picks a street fight with a big, burly boxer to earn money to retrieve the family’s pet cow. Strange, that her father (Robin Das) who is vehemently against her boxing, doesn’t notice that she sneaks out every morning for training or returns with cuts and bruises on her face. But there is the melodramatic scene in which the father tosses her gloves into the stove and demands that she choose between him and boxing, and she chooses boxing!
The coach renames her MC Mary Kom, and so focussed is she that she starts her winning spree, in spite of the indifference of the Boxing Federation and poor conditions—fighting on a tea and banana diet! The Federation is represented by one villainous official, who takes an almost sadistic pleasure in humiliating Mary.
The real conflict arises when, against the advice of her coach, she decides to marry the kind Onler (Darshan Kumaar), and then gives birth to twins, thus putting an end to her glorious career. So much so that a kid who is her fan, does not recognise her on the bus. (She is so upset by her pregnancy, that one wonders why they didn’t practise birth control!)
Her husband inspires her to resume, the father and the coach come around, and Mary becomes a winner again, after going through a boot camp in picturesque Manali, pretty much like the one in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
The climax is so excessive and cringeworthy, that if it is true, then Mary Kom’s life must have been scripted by fate in a Bollywood frame of mind.
Priyanka Chopra lends Mary Kom a basic competence, and has obviously put in hard work, but the film needed a new face; because the other actors look authentic, her fakeness stands out. If the film is still somewhat watchable, it’s because of the real Mary Kom, not the counterfeit one.
Labels: Cinemaah
