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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.

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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!

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