Monday, May 14, 2018
Raazi
Many Shades Of Patriotism
If Lt. Commander Harinder S. Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat was not supposed to be based on a true story, it would have been unbelievable. Never mind how patriotic he may have been, which Indian father would send his young daughter across the border to spy for India?
In Meghna Gulzar’s elegantly mounted and skillfully paced, Raazi, a Kashmiri girl, Sehmat (Alia Bhatt) is thrown into a tough situation. On her dying father’s (Rajit Kapur’s) request, she agrees to marry Iqbal (Vicky Kaushal), the soldier son of a Pakistani brigadier, Parvez Syed (Shishir Sharma). The time is 1971, and war clouds are hovering, so she would be in the lion’s den, so to say, and privy to classified information. But there is danger, both of being caught, and of the resolve weakening because her husband and in-laws are so kind.
Before the wedding, she is trained in espionage, self-defence and, if it comes to it, murder. Her stone-faced handler, Khalid Mir (Jaideep Ahlawat) asks the gentle, naive girl why she agreed to do it, and she gives him a small sermon on patriotism. The girl who ran in front of a car to save a squirrel and felt dizzy at the sight of blood, fearlessly risks her life for her country.
It does stretch credulity a bit, when Sehmat easily sets up a transmitter in a bathroom and finds ways of meeting others in the network, with none except the loyal retainer Mehmood (Arif Zakaria) suspecting her. She steps beyond the line of duty several times, taking undue risks, but what she uncovers—Pakistan’s plans to attack India via the sea—tilts the outcome of the Indo-Pak War for the liberation of Bangladesh, into India’s favour.
In spite of the film’s premise being jingoistic, Meghna Gulzar portrays the patriotism of both sides—if Sehmat and her network put their lives in danger, so does the other side; she does not demonise the Pakistanis, on the contrary, she portrays them as affectionate and trusting. Iqbal actually apologises to her when dinner-table conversation is anti-India.
One knows how the story will end, but there are several moments of tension that make the viewers hold their breaths. And Alia Bhatt, steely, vulnerable, brave but humane keeps the eyes glued to her face with her quicksilver changes of expression and demeanour. It’s a convincing performance, and she is surrounded by actors like Kaushal, Ahlawat, Sharma, Ashwath Bhatt (as Sehmat’s brother-in-law), who have entered the skins of their characters.
Raazi is a the story of one brave woman, but also brief history of time in terms of altered Indo-Pak relations and the position of Kashmir then and now.
Hope Aur Hum
Slice Of Life
Sometimes, a film just springs up without warning and manages to surprise by not being a total washout.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay's Hope Aur Hum is a character- driven comedy drama about three generations of the Shrivastav family, living in an old-style bungalow in Mumbai.
The grizzled old patriarch Nagesh (Naseerudin Shah) is obsessed with an old German-made copier, he calls Mr Soennecken, and talks to like a human being. Even though customers grumble of blurred copies, he thinks his work is artistic. Without underlining it, the director makes a point about the insecurity of old age and the fear of redundancy.
The middle generation Nagesh’s older son Neeraj (Aamir Bashir) and daughter-in-law Aditi (Sonali Kulkarni—wasted in a bland role) are more caught up with running the house and looking their two kids, Tanu (Virti Vaghani) and the cricket-obsessed Anu (Kabir Sajid). There is no friction with the father, except over the space being occupied by the non-functional machine. While Neeraj and Anu are visiting Aditi’s mother (Beena) in her Rajpipla palace she wants to convert into a hotel, the younger son Nitin (Naveen Kasuria) arrives from Dubai with gifts for all, including a swanky new Japanese copier for his father. But he loses his cell phone, and much is made of him using a phone with a defective battery and cracked screen. Why he does not simply buy a new phone is never explained.
Something happens at the palace that disturbs Anu and he withdraws into a shell; again this problem was easily solvable by him talking to an adult. These two flaws are more like script conveniences, to drive home a point about destiny.
Hope Aur Hum has some nice moments between the family, and a fine performance by Shah, which is only to be expected, but also from young Kabir Sajid, who chatters away in cricket-ese, and stays endearing. It’s a pleasant enough slice of life film, that stays on a even keel, without tipping into melodrama. It may not be unmissable, but it is worth a look.
