Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else

February 24, 2017

Cast: Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Priyanka Bose, Sunny Pawar, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Director: Garth Davis

There is a portion in Lion, the Oscar-nominated drama starring Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, that stands out more than others. It’s a scene in which Saroo, a five-year-old boy separated from his family, finds himself at Calcutta Railway Terminus, nearly a thousand miles away from his home. Shunted by strangers who have no patience to hear him out, he climbs a pole hoping to spot a familiar face in the crowd. The sight that awaits him – and us – is chilling. For as far as the eye can reach, there is a swarm of busy commuters, a jungle of unknown adults. The cinematic depiction of that knee-high child lost in the big world is overwhelming to say the least. It is in that moment that the reality of his situation truly sinks in.

Lion, as you probably know, is based on the true story of Saroo Brierley, who was adopted by a loving couple in Australia after he lost his way and became estranged from his mother and his home in a small village in Madhya Pradesh.

Dev Patel plays the grown up Saroo, and it’s a genuinely affecting performance. In fact, it’s Dev Patel’s most mature performance. In his late twenties, Saroo became obsessed with finding his real family, and those portions that show us the internal conflict he is wrestling with are very effectively conveyed by the actor.

But to be fair, Dev Patel and everyone else in the film – which includes Nicole Kidman as Saroo’s adoptive mother and Rooney Mara as his supportive girlfriend – are completely overshadowed by Sunny Pawar, the child actor who plays the young Saroo. He’s a real find, and it completely breaks your heart to see him go through those harrowing experiences when he’s first lost on the mean streets of Calcutta.

The middle portion of the film certainly feels a little bit flabby and repetitive, especially Saroo’s obsessive search – using Google Earth – to find the one train station out of thousands in India that will match with a childhood memory. It’s a fascinating process, although not as visually or emotionally compelling as everything that comes before…and after.

As an Indian, watching Lion there are bound to be a few things that will rankle you. Uncomfortable truths that cut close to the bone – the depiction of a general apathy towards the poor, the ugly reality of child abuse, and that ‘white saviour’ element to the story. But it is to director Garth Davis’ credit that even in its bleakest moments the film seldom feels exploitative or gratuitous. Unlike so many Hollywood films or foreign films set in India, it is attentive to poverty and destitution without fetishising it.

What it doesn’t hold back on is wringing every available drop of emotion from the big pay-off in the end. Because it’s a true story you know where things are heading, but in no way does that lessen the impact of this film that so effectively addresses themes of loss, love, and our understanding of family.

I was sobbing by the end, and I think you will be too. I’m going with three and a half out of five for Lion.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

February 17, 2017

Cast: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Janelle Monáe, Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, André Holland, Alex R Hibbert,

Director: Barry Jenkins

Anyone who’s felt even a little bit like an outsider should have no trouble connecting with Moonlight. This is an intimate and profound coming-of-age story of an introverted African-American boy growing up in a poor neighbourhood in Miami, as he struggles with his sexuality and what it means to be a man. It’s about a sensitive boy trying to find his place in a hostile world, and in that it feels both deeply personal and universal.

Our protagonist is Chiron, and the film is broken into three chapters that together span roughly 20 years in his life. We first meet him as a ten-year-old with frightened eyes, living with his crack addict mother (an excellent Naomie Harris). Bullied at school and taunted as a “faggot”, a word he doesn’t even understand, he’s taken in by a man, a local drug dealer ironically (Mahershala Ali), who becomes something of a surrogate father to him.

When we catch up with Chiron again, he’s a skinny teenager, but little else has changed. His mother is still drugged out permanently, and he still attracts bullies. He’s also grappling with desires that he doesn’t quite know how to act on.

Years later, virtually unrecognisable under all the muscle and the gold grill in his mouth, he’s now a hardened drug dealer himself, working the same streets he once seemed destined to escape.

Director Barry Jenkins casts a different actor to play Chiron at each respective stage, and it’s remarkable how seamlessly their performances seem to create a unified portrait of a man desperately seeking happiness and trying to find his place and identity in the world. A special mention here for Trevante Rhodes as the adult Chiron, who seems to speak volumes by staying mostly silent.

The film touches upon themes of race, sexuality, and isolation, but in ways rarely depicted on screen. This is a deeply moving character study of a young man who doesn’t quite know who he is, a man struggling to comprehend his first sexual experience, a man who ultimately fails in building a wall around his heart.

Frankly Moonlight is the kind of film one is drawn to ‘feel’ rather than merely ‘watch’. It is experiential as much as it is engaging, complemented by an evocative music score and exquisite photography. By the end, you’ll be holding back tears.

I’m going with four out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)

February 03, 2017

Cast: Jackie Chan, Sonu Sood, Disha Patani, Amyra Dastur, Aarif Rahim

Director: Stanley Tong

There’s no word better than lazy to accurately describe Jackie Chan’s new film Kung Fu Yoga, in which the Hong Kong action star plays an Indiana Jones-like figure on a quest to unearth long-buried treasure of an ancient Indian kingdom.

From fire-eaters and exotic magicians who perform rope tricks, to multiple cameos by snakes and modern-day princesses in Maganlal Dresswala costumes, the film shamelessly panders to all manner of stereotypes. Yet none of that hurts as bad as the realization that the now-62-year-old martial arts legend may no longer be up to the giddy, death-defying stunts that were the hallmark of his earlier films.

Barring a few scenarios that rely on his trademark slapstick humor and nifty acrobatics, Chan leaves most of the physical exertion to his younger co-stars, a motley mix of Asian and Indian actors who, sadly, have none of his charisma.

Memorable – but only for its sheer silliness – is a scene in which he speeds his way through the crowded streets of Dubai while attempting to pacify an angry lion in the backseat. Sonu Sood, who sports a multitude of gaudy jackets but only one expression, is the villain of the piece, while Disha Patani and Amyra Dastur are the film’s pretty but entirely vapid leading ladies. There’s some pleasure to be had when the gang lets their fancy fight moves do the talking, particularly a sequence in which they’re trapped with a pack of hungry hyenas.

Directed by Stanley Tong, who helmed some of Chan’s most popular hits, including Supercop and Rumble in the Bronx, this film has an unmistakably calculated feel to it, as if scripted and designed specifically to expand the star’s Indian fan base. From throwing in much mythological mumbo jumbo to blatant Hinduism references, the makers of Kung Fu Yoga can be accused of many things but subtlety isn’t one of them.

Sadly for us Jackie Chan himself, whose winning cocktail of go-for-broke physical comedy and life-risking stunt work turned him from a local Chinese star into a beloved Hollywood action hero, appears to be in autopilot mode here. His once impeccable timing is no longer split-second, and gone is that scrappy underdog charm that endeared him to the fans.

The only time I had a good laugh was watching his expressions fly as he sportingly shook a leg in the film’s big Bollywood-style dance number. Kung Fu Yoga is a disappointment for Jackie Chan fans. The actor deserves better, and so do we. I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five.

(This review first aired on CNN News18)