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

October 12, 2012

Cast: Sudeep, Naani, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Voices of Ajay Devgan & Kajol

Director: S S Rajamouli

In Makkhi, the Hindi dubbed version of the blockbuster Telugu film Eega, a man is reborn as a housefly so he can avenge his own death. Few films are as wildly imaginative and as consistently entertaining as this one from director SS Rajamouli, who takes popular reincarnation sagas like Karan Arjun and Karz, and turns them on their heads.

Makkhi begins as inventively as the rest of the film unfolds – with a blank screen accompanied by the voiceover of a father (Ajay Devgan) narrating a bedtime story to his daughter. “Once upon a time, there was a fly,” he begins, kicking off the story of our protagonist Jaani (Naani) a man ardently in love with his colleague Bindu (Samantha Ruth Prabhu). Yet it all goes horribly wrong when a lustful business tycoon Sudeep sets his eyes on Bindu. When Jaani is murdered, his soul comes reincarnated in a fly to take revenge on Sudeep, and to protect his love.

With large opaque eyes, Jaani the housefly doesn’t have the facial expressions that you would see in animated films like A Bug’s Life, but Rajamouli invests so much personality in the insect by making use of his little body and spindly limbs. Makkhi has a superhero, comic book quality; you watch half-incredulously, half-amused as this persistent fly drives Sudeep insane. The fly becomes a character you root for, and incredibly, you can see characteristics of Jaani the human in the tiny bug. The animation in Makkhi is unfussy, but this is a great example of how the idea is truly the star.

Kannada actor Sudeep plays his part of the cold-hearted villain with true comic book flair and even a cartoonish tinge. It is because he is a powerful antagonist that you relish the face-off between the fly and him. Even if the film gets a tad repetitive towards the climax, it ends up a unique cinematic experience.

I’m going with four out of five for SS Rajamouli’s Makkhi. Make sure you don’t miss it; it’s the most fun you’ll have had at the cinema in a long time!

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 05, 2012

Cast: Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou, Sujatha Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan

Director: Gauri Shinde

Returning to the screen after a hiatus of 15 years in first-time director Gauri Shinde’s charming comedy English Vinglish, Sridevi hits all the right notes.

Five minutes into the film, and she’s already found her way into your heart as Shashi, the uncomplaining Maharashtrian housewife who quietly puts up with the playful but insensitive jibes her husband and kids take at her, for her inability to speak proper English. It’s such a terrific performance in fact, that it makes you overlook the rather trite notion that a caring wife and mother, who runs a small but successful catering business from home, must speak fluent English in order to regain her sense of self-worth.

Shinde, who has revealed that the film’s premise is inspired by a slice of her own mother’s life, constructs some moving scenes that are not hard to relate to. Shashi’s school-going daughter cringes in embarrassment at a PTA meeting when her mother asks a teacher if he could speak to her in Hindi because her English is weak. When another parent engages her mother in a conversation, she nervously steers her mum away.

There’s little that’s blazingly original here; much of it feels formulaic and predictable, in fact. Yet Shinde knows there’s comfort to be found in the familiar, and she mines feel-good moments in been-there-seen-that territory.

Things come to a head when Shashi reluctantly travels alone to New York to help with preparations for her niece’s wedding. Humiliated while struggling to order a coffee and sandwich at a Manhattan café, she impulsively enrolls for a four-week English speaking course at a language school. From this point on, the film resembles an episode of the popular BBC sitcom Mind Your Language, whose laughs are derived from a motley bunch of foreigners wrestling with English. Typically, the class comprises a Mexican nanny, a Pakistani cab driver, a Chinese hairstylist, a South Indian software engineer, an angry black kid, and a dishy French chef named Laurent (Mehdi Nebbou) who’s instantly attracted to Shashi.

In these classroom scenes, Shinde uses her characters to deliver a message about Indo-Pak camaraderie, and even against homophobia. Yet these seem like mere tokenisms against the more natural, tender scenes between Shashi and Laurent. Like those moments when the two are conversing in their respective languages, and yet manage to convey what they’re feeling to each other – it’s these interludes that make English Vinglish so watchable.

This is the story of how Shashi gets her groove back, and Shinde nails it by casting Sridevi in the central role. The actress is effortlessly charming as the neglected protagonist who discovers herself when she’s allowed to fly. She infuses the part with the right portions of vulnerability, restraint, and quiet strength, delivering a performance that is nothing short of perfect.

Even if it treads a safe path, English Vinglish achieves believability through its supporting cast of mostly unfamiliar faces, including Mehdi Nebbou as Shashi’s sensitive French admirer, and Adil Hussain as her inattentive husband. Sujatha Kumar as Shashi’s older sister oozes warmth, and both kids playing Shashi’s children are spot-on. There’s also a delightful cameo by Amitabh Bachchan, who steals the scene he’s in with his impeccable comic timing.

Making an assured debut with a light, frothy film that still has something important to say, Gauri Shinde delivers one the year’s most pleasing films, and Amit Trivedi lends some of his best compositions to the soundtrack. I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for English Vinglish. It’s warm and fuzzy, and leaves you with a big smile on your face.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

October 05, 2012

Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Mallika Sherawat, Ashutosh Rana, Anshuman Jha, Neha Dhupia

Director: Sanjay Khanduri

A hapless fellow finds his life turned upside down, and all kinds of degenerates hot on his trail, when he misses the last train home one night. Writer-director Sanjay Khanduri rejigs the premise of his quirky 2007 film, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local, but with far lesser success in the appropriately titled KLPD…although that’s meant to stand for Kismet Love Paisa Dilli.

The protagonist here is Vivek Oberoi, playing smarmy but harmless Dilliwala, Lokesh Duggal, who follows after a pretty young thing (Mallika Sherawat) from a party to the nearby Metro station, hoping to score. Unknown to him, a tape has been snuck into his waistcoat pocket that is being coveted by everyone from a sinister politician and some corrupt cops, to a youth party seeking to expose the politician. Along the way Lokesh has an unfortunate run in with a restaurant’s desperate delivery guy (LSD’s Anshuman Jha), and a gang of petty thugs led by a slap-happy boss (Ashutosh Rana) looking for some excitement on his birthday.

Despite a promising start, KLPD quickly coagulates into a toxic mess, because there’s little else to the film aside from a string of never-ending chase scenes, and uncomfortable jokes on everyone from gays to sardars. Khanduri is an equal opportunity offender, who revels in making you squirm as he delivers gag after tasteless gag involving rape or urine.

There’s little to recommend here apart from the occasionally clever dialogue, and some moments – very few – that are genuinely funny. What the film sorely lacks is an element of unpredictability – that one key quality that made Khanduri’s earlier film stand out. Teasing you with at least three instances where you think the film is finally over, KLPD goes on and on and on, and climaxes in an underwhelming finale with a forced patriotic message. Even the performances are nothing to write home about, and it’s a bit of a stretch to cast Mallika Sherawat as a simple, helpless girl. Vivek Oberoi plays the horny opportunist convincingly, but the film doesn’t exploit that beyond a point.

I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five for KLPD. It’s a tiring film that tests your patience. Watch it at your own risk.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)