Real-life air evacuation Story – Worth Watching !

Airlift is a noteworthy different kind of patriotic movie. It is, therefore, is a remarkable achievement by the director and actors. It contains hard-hitting combat footage, relentless and efficient. There is a story behind the film that is no less engrossing. It is about an event when Iraqi army attacked Kuwait and was attacking civilian lives.

Much of the movie is based on real-life story, punctuated by brief dialogue with a lot of sensitivity in the second half. We do not get to know the characters as individuals, they do not have personality traits, they have no back stories, they do not speak in colorful dialogue, and after the movie, you'd find yourself describing events but not people.

The Central plot of the story is about challenges faced by Indians after Saddam attacked the Kuwait.

The entire story itself has an enormous potential and scriptwriter was able to get most out of it by creating characters that are symbolic of the story. The Akshay Kumar’s character is the one who somehow finds the strength to keep going till the end, and he emerges as the savior of that 1 lac. 70 thousand people. Supporting characters manage to impress and touch your heart like the small roles done by external Affairs  joint secretary. Occasionally, you do feel Akshay Kumar driving the story, and other characters are provided the less weight however protagonist has to emerge stronger. Though, I definitely applaud the use of fewer songs in the movie with no masala.

The beauty of the story is that it is about “living life in extreme circumstances, about the dehumanizing effects of war, about human bonding, about human emotions when you see death in front of you. It is about any of those things that you choose and if you actually decide one direction, then you have to fight till the end in that direction, and you cannot leave the battle in between as death is the only option otherwise. Here, people have only one option, come back to India and nothing else.

It can also be said that the film contains significantly moving performances and that it is the most impressive blending of "commercial cinema” and “Real-life story.” Best scene in the movie when director succeeds to touch everyone’s heart when Indian flag goes up and civilians get ready to go to India. In the acting performances, Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur are above the mark and director manages to impress you in the second half. Cinematographer does well however he still could have done a lot better in war scenes.

The negative point which I could see certainly was a lack of intensity in the first half. Few scenes with soldieries could have been more effective and lack of appealing dialogues in the overall script.

What this movie means to Indian Cinema? Well, this success of Airlift Movie means a lot to Indian Cinema’s future. It clearly shows that if you direct well, then a patriotic cinema will find its audience and do excellent at the box office. More patriotic stories can be tried out in future with a right blend of sensitivity and with better technology and amazing star-cast. Indian freedom struggle has not been captured well to date apart from a movie named “Gandhi”, So huge space and great patriotic stories are yet to arrive.

You may have old all experiences of patriotic film experiences like “Kranti or Bhagat Singh movies or “Mangal Pandey “and all of those experiences are different from this one.  This is the entirely different type of patriotic film something which you may not have seen before. This movie gathers you up; it takes you along, and it does not let up.

In my view, it is one of the most genuinely made a different kind of patriotic film that any Indian has ever made.

Wazir – Average thriller with disappointing second half

In reality, it is an interesting exercise for a scriptwriter to express his vision in a story. However, it is very tough for him to implement the same in the film using dialogues. This movie is a prime example where scriptwriter fails in the second half and delivers a fragmented script. He also builds too many expectations of the audience at the end of first half and provides poor performance in second half.  The audience leaves the theater with the feeling that it could have been much better if these guys ( Director/Scriptwriter) could think little better about the handling the revenge drama.

This movie opens with wedding scene where boy looks at the beautiful girl. Beautiful romantic environment, blue sky above, the couple gets married, and camera moves slowly capturing everything in slow-motion much similar to that of contemporary cinema. Actually, it is excellent idea to run the initial part of the story via song and complete it in five minutes.  Story moves ahead with a couple growing in love and this and one day the tragedy hits the couple.  The main Protagonist meets an old man who is suffering from similar pain. And later, two wounded men coming together and taking on a powerful enemy.

What’s most striking about “Wazir”  is the first  half. In the first half,  “there are neither extraneous characters nor situations, and we’re not given much information outside of that which drives the story”. Our anchor who narrates the story to us is the “Chessboard”. We must applaud the writer for the use of the chessboard to build script. This is potential revenue drama which lacks the essentials of the great fight between the enemies. To develop the script further, writer uses dialogues like “Chess provides you second chance however life doesn't “. This dialogue was not much impressive to me but look like the one of the conceptual blocks of the script.

Also, this is one of the movies where the Law of Economy of Characters began to apply. The  law that says no actor is in a film unless his character is necessary and should not give any dialogues to any character unless it is absolutely essential. In this movie, the female character named “ Ruhana” has so fewer dialogues and her presence without dialogues has been used multiple times. This could have been treated otherwise.

There was a point in the movie when suddenly everything clicked in the second half;  Audience realizes the entire plot all of sudden which is big frustration in the second half. The reason I am disappointed with second half  is that scriptwriter has wasted a fantastic opportunity to create excellent thriller on top of a solid foundation of the first half. The movie becomes so predictable in the second half and ends with one fight which seems like the audience has been treated as less intelligent overall. This could have been far better where protagonist and antagonists are playing moves against each other and build the final fight.

Both lead actors ( Amitabh and Farhan ) are strong and determined, and the only flaw in their performance is that they don’t have great script supporting them in the second half.  Amitabh entertains with few of his lines, and  Farhan delivers reliable performances are the positive -points of the movie. Director does well overall but doesn’t demonstrate any use of advanced technology. The sets of the film appropriate with the story but nothing extraordinary in that segment as well.

Vidu Vinod Chopra often makes excellent movies. However, this time, he takes a day off, and his subordinates let him down in parts. There’s also a fine line between entertainment and being a bit too on-the-nose  kind of movie. This film is a mixture of two. Watch it on your own risk. 

Natsamart - Intense Emotional Drama

“Natsamart” is V. V. Shirwadkar’s most complex and, to my mind, the greatest Marathi Natak (drama) of all time. There are extreme feeling and meaning in it, and hence, it is tough to create a movie out of such intense drama. Moreover, to overcome difficulties of staging, director (Mahesh Manjerekar) has substituted his own cinematic decorations that have worked extremely well. I think, producing this movie was a very courageous idea, and producer-director must be applauded for that.

This is not a film but an emotional experience and a brave and impressive effort in its own right. Natsamart is a play about the total futility of things after the days of glory are gone. The old man stumbles ungracefully during his old age because, simply put; that is the way it goes for most of us. To search for meaning or philosophical consolation is to kid yourself when you do not have fame along with you and neither the money. “Natsamart” is a journey of an old legend who gets humiliated by his trusted family members and trying to cope with challenging reality.

One of the challenges that any director would face while adopting “Natsamart” drama are the big self-talks or monologues that are called “Swagat” in Marathi. Mahesh Manjekar had brilliantly distributed the swagat throughout the movie the established the right balance across the film. Overall, the script is emotional and with some laughter points in the first half.

The hero of “Natsamrat” is an impulsive old man, likable, easy to read. He is fluent, clear in his dialogue delivery and wins audience hearts with his flawless acting.  His wife loves him and believes in him. The script provides multiple opportunities to Nana to display various emotions, and he used all such opportunities and created some great emotional scene for the movie. This is definitely one of the best of the “Nana Patekar” performances.

This movie “Natsamrat” also grabs you with the charismatic presence of its two stars, Nana, and Vikram Gokhale.  Vikram Gokhale plays as Nana’s friend who is the mortal man walking beside him, worrying about him, lecturing him, wanting him to be better, telling him his weakness but a real friend at the heart. Vikram Gokhale has delivered a most flawless and impressive performance regardless of the length of the role. The audience will remember few of his scenes for long-time to come.

The opening scenes of “Nana” in the movie give a clear idea about the story of the film and audience gets ready for his post-retirement life. One of the best parts of the script is the use of negative words in the most entertaining fashion. All negative words bring the laughter and make the script more efficient.

I think this movie version of “Natsamrat” certainly more realistic and acceptable. There is” Sarkar (Medha Majrekar), the most touchingly sincere wife of Natasmart. Her love defines her Integrity as she unconditionally supports her man till the end. One of beautiful aspect of the script is that it gifts the hope at every stage of the movie. Here, the wife, in the worst of the situations, keeps telling her husband that they will go to their village home, and everything will be okay. Love looks more pure and beautiful at the old age as well when such a strong characters are shown.  Even though, everyone knows that it is just human mind’s ability to hope and doesn’t mean anything else in reality.

Mahesh Manjekar does brilliantly as a director as he mainly focuses on story and his charters and never does something foolish anywhere. For me, the script-writer is the main hero of the movie and then director –actor combinations has provided much needed competent performances.  Manjekar choice of actors has been remarkably well as even actors with small roles like Sunil Barve, and Sandeep Pathak has done extremely well.

 “Natsamrat” is a powerful experience. I am sure that some scenes will bring tears to many. This movie symbolizes new ideas for the adoption of Marathi drama and the hence movie should be a landmark in Marathi movie history.