Movie Review – Highway

 

 

Highway of liberation and redemption.

When you want to know someone, travel with that person. When you want to know yourself, travel. When you don’t know, what to do with your life, travel. Travel has been a recurring motif in all of Imtiaz Ali’s films. An avid traveler himself, he infuses his personal travel experiences in his films. In this film too, at many instances very subtly you will find the joys of travel. This time, he brings travel into focus, to tell the story of two fractured souls who come together under unnatural circumstances to heal themselves and each other of their past traumas.

Veera(Alia Bhatt) is about to get married but gets abducted by Mahabir (Randeep Hooda) just days before her marriage. Thus, begins their inner journey of healing, through different terrains of India, leading to liberation for Veera and Redemption for Mahabir.

If looked purely as a character driven film, Highway works to most extent because of the performances by Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda. Only if you start looking for a story in it, will it disappoint you, because it is not about the regular beginning middle and end but about the inner journey of these two troubled individual. If you stay with the characters, it is a highly moving and cathartic experience. Imtiaz Ali uses the device of working without a screenplay, and improvising as he goes along from one location to another. The experiment works because of the two characters he creates, who make sure that you stay invested in their lives.

It also deals with a very important issue, and since I know at least two people personally who have gone through such a traumatic childhood, the viewing became more personal for me. In Veera’s liberation, I hoped and prayed that millions of girls and boys like her find a way to get rid of this baggage, and start living the life they are meant to live.

Alia Bhatt in just her second film has set an impressive benchmark. She brings out the pain, confusion and trauma of Veera in just the right doses to make you care and emphatize with her character. Randeep Hooda’s mostly silent performance conveys a lot through his expressions. Add Anil Mehta’s awe inducing cinematography and A R Rahman providing the soul through his music and you get a rich cinematic experience.

After Socha Na Tha and Jab We Met, this is the third Imtiaz Ali film that worked for me in its entirety even with the flaws. This is probably his most personal and introspective work.

Word of mouth: Two fractured souls come together to heal themselves of their past traumas on this journey called life.

Rating : *** ½ (Solid)

Ticket meter : worth a theatre visit

first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com

 

 

 

Fandry – Movie Review – In search, of an elusive black sparrow.

 

In search, of an elusive black sparrow.

 

I love pork dishes. They transport me to my place of bliss, Goa. That has been my only shallow association with pigs until I saw Fandry, in which pigs are used symbolically to make a strong comment on the society and its caste system.  While watching the film, two old and faded memories came back to me. One is of watching a few men trying to catch a pig. I don’t remember how old I was then but, to see these men chasing one single pig left me spellbound with the realization of the time

it takes for this activity.

 

Another memory that flashed in my mind was that of how my neighbors belonging to a lower caste used that as a trump card for his daughter’s admission in the medical college. I don’t know what these two flashes of memory have to do with the film. I am still trying to join the dots.

 

Fandry (meaning ‘wild pig’) is about Jabya( Somnath Awghade – Hypnotic) who belongs to a lower caste community of pig catchers. He finds every opportunity to stay away from his family business. He is in search of an elusive black sparrow because according to a legend it will get him what his heart desires. His heart desires Shalu (Rajeshwari Kharat) who studies in his class but belongs to an upper caste.

 

Though, on the surface Fandry is Jabya’s love story it is just an elaborate setup that leads to an extended climax sequence that is the core theme of the film. A climax that will bring out the rage in you that the lead Jabya feels towards the end of it. It also has one of the best last shot I have seen in a film in a long time.

 

Director Nagraj Manjule makes a breathtaking and solid debut and deserves all the applause just for that long gut-wrenching climax sequence. If you take that last sequence apart, and watch it on its own, it will work as an effective short film.

 

He also acts as Chanakya who sees a part of himself in Jabya. Someone who has resigned to his fate and lives a life filled with booze and carrom. He reminded me of the early Nana Patekar.

 

Like many Marathi films that are exploring stories that need to be told, Fandry is another welcome addition to the club and deserves to be seen at any cost.

 

 

 

 

Lone Survivor – Movie Review

Survival of the fittest

After ‘Battleship’ Peter Berg returns to ‘The Kingdom’ territory with ‘Lone Survivor’.  If not the based on a true story tag, this film would have sounded like a true blue masala bollywood film.

The story is about Marcus Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) and his astonishing survival in a battle between his team and the Taliban’s, during the Afghanistan war. Marcus and his team’s task was to kill Taliban leader Ahmed Shah but, one incident in which they do an act of kindness changes the entire operation, putting their life in danger, in which it is nearly impossible to survive.

If you are willing to overlook the fact that this is another film, that looks like an American propaganda film, about how good they are and how kind they are, then this is an unstoppable thriller once the action sets in.

Right from the opening montage, director Peter Berg prepares us on how the American soldiers are trained to survive in any situation. The films message is that even in the darkest hour and the steepest fall, one must fight back and not give up.

Some of the action sequences are bone crunching and the use of background score and sound design is first rate. The actors go through intense physical performance, to make you believe in the reality of it all.

Word of mouth – Thrilling and breathtaking with nonstop action, Lone Survivor might not be a good war film but, a good watch for lovers of action films.

Rating – *** (One time watch)

Ticket meter – worth 200 bucks

 first appeared on http://www.desimartini.com