Absolutely magnificent Experience – Game Changer movie -- DANGAL

DANGAL is a stroke of genius. This is an absolutely magnificent movie experience.  An excellent film that will be game-changer about how sports movie should be made and directed in this country.  A brilliant film that raises the bar of the Indian Cinema. It is a combination of drama, emotions, sportsmanship and patriotism and it is coupled with Aamir Khan’s gigantic act .!

It is Biographical sports drama on former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his two wrestler daughters' fight towards glory at the Commonwealth Games despite the challenges posed by society.

In theory, Sports movies are never just sports movies — they're tales of the human spirit triumphing over hard times, or symbols for the little guy/girls taking on the massive Goliaths and international rich kids and beating them at their own engineered game. Dangal is one of them. The movie also drives a feminist point that girls are equal to boys or even better than them..!

Few directors fail to create emotions in entire three hours and grip the audience, and here the director Nitesh Tiwari touches you in first fifteen minutes and captures your heart and maintains the grip throughout the movie. The inaugural scene of the film is just an indication of Phogat's passion for the sport – wrestling. The first half of the movie works exactly like accomplished warrior – invariably sure of its moves.

This is compelling narrative based on a true story. Full credit goes to a scriptwriter who maintained the local language and yet managed to the golden combination of emotion and humor. The characters are developed with small events and amazing details.

 If I have to call-out few scenes like when daughters are growing up, their emotions and thinking about their father has been captured very well. Later on, their transformation is captured with their discipline of waking up early and starting up their daily exercise. Such small details hold audience throughout the movie. Also in the last scene, the audience feel the frustration that Mahavir Singh Phogat feels and the audience claps after each of Geeta's bout as if we there was a live fight at display shows how engaging the film is.

Full marks to the director and way he developed his main character as well as supporting characters. Here, nephew of Phogat has been used as our anchor and briefs us about the initial story and brings humor to this epic saga. The Phogat definitely is larger than life character and yet very grounded. His ambition and his passion for winning gold for the country are immeasurable. People look beautiful and admirable when they are connected to ground reality. Here, dreams are so big, the task is so challenging, and finances are so less, and there you see one man defeating everything with his discipline, skill, and determination. Also, the scriptwriter catches the father side of the Aamir Khan as well the coach perceptive and this twin narrative make the character believable.

This is definitely the best movie of the year as per me. This is certainly inspiring, and this brings tears occasionally and humor too..! Sometimes,  you get so much involved in the film that it is tough to find a weakness for the movie. Same happens with Dangal. Even if I look for weakness, then it has to related sports movies genre. Most sports film are spoiled by clichés. Avoiding the conventional trappings known as an excess dramatization of the film genre is impossible for few directors. However, Dangal performs better in this segment as well. Dangal has its good share dramatization, but the exceptional thing is that director and scriptwriter know when and where to stop dramatization, and that's what makes it a stadium like a live experience and brings seamless Dangal experience to the audience.

Another important part is songs of the movie. The songs are relevant; they are touchy and carry the story forward. The core Dangal song has inspiring flavor. We must applaud for music director Pritam for the title song.

On acting front – everyone's performance was excellent. Aamir Khan shines in the role of Mahavir Singh Phogat.  For twenty minutes wrester scenes, he did work out of six months. That shows a dedication and his commitment. He is so exceptional in his performance that this could be considered as one of his best works ever.  All four girls depicting Geeta and Babita in both age brackets have done a marvelous job bearing in mind that wrestling is challenging stuff and this is not just one chick flick wherein just emotions would help them carry off a portrayal. This required both the mental as well as the emotional strength and stamina and very importantly determination.

Finally, I say Dangal is one of the best films of recent years, a memory of a time when you could win anything or defeat anything if only- you really wanted it badly enough.

This is best of the movie of the year, and every movie lover should see it once at least..! 

Dear Zindagi --- Refreshing, Insightful – Experimental Cinema without drama

It is one of the noblest films that I have ever seen. During the viewing of Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi, I was struck by refreshing dialogues and screenplay of family relationships and love.  Writer-director Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi comes four years after her remarkable debut with English Vinglish. In this film, there are characters and no hero and heroines.

The film revolves around a young girl Kaira (Alia Bhatt), a talented young cinematographer in Mumbai. She suffers from childhood insecurities. Her challenges in love, developing relationships are portrayed well and finally she seeks professional help. The person who plays a brilliant therapist is Shahrukh Khan. (Dr. Jehangir Khan) . In short, its story of a girl who gets help from a therapist and finally able to live life freely without fears.  

Many viewers of this film will feel that after the first half the story seems very predictable, which seems like an odd complaint, given that script has noble intent.  But if you think of “Dear Zindagi” regarding a commercial drama rather than as a mere story of a woman rebuilding her life, getting free from her fears, you might have to admit they're building something meaningful which will be liked many intellectual or philosophical audience.

The direction, the photography, the editing, the production design and most of the performances are on point. However, the movie has primary exceptions. It does not have drama, it doesn’t have a plot! It is trying to redefine the concept of hero and heroine, and there is no storyteller and story evolves with dialogues and its characters. This is unique Hindi movie, and we must applaud Gauri Shinde for an attempt she has made. However, it fail short of a masterpiece.

If you look at the story, it’s interesting, the writer’s approach to the story is broad, covering as many pieces of the story as possible, always highlighting, with mixed results and definitive emotion. Kaira’s emotion as a child and her detailed memory around her letters, her emotions when she connects her boyfriends and when her parents left her. Still, the movie is not emotional but a well-balanced screenplay with full dialogues. Someone may even label as “wordy film” as dialogues are meant to inspire the audience and not the beauty of heroine or the power of the hero.

Shahrukh Khan brings the charm and makes the character believable. This must be one of the best Alia Bhatt movies. Songs of the film are relevant. However, how many people want have two-hour counseling session about life without much of the drama? Very few like me. Hence I doubt that it will be commercial hit.

Another part, the story doesn’t make Shahrukh as larger than life person who can solve anything but remains a ground to earth therapist that we meet in our lives. He does offer humor in parts. This is the beauty of the movie as well its weakness as Indian masses are inspired by larger than life heroes and not by ordinary human beings.

On the screenplay, the story of upper-middle-class, young Indian woman trying to resolve her challenges has been painted with a lot of honesty.

About the sets of the movie, Gauri, and her colleagues cared enough to lavish as much energy on the less significant parts of the frame, and they made it realistic.

To conclude this, I will recommend this movie as it's honest and noble and realistic film. But if you love drama, emotions, larger than life set than don’t watch this one.

This is for all those who love an honest cinema, experimental cinema.

YZ - Marathi movie with Great message and Humor in patches

Movie YZ begins with an onscreen definition of its lead character “ Abb”/ Gajanan  and narrator takes you to the small-town Wai, Narrator explains entire backdrop of the main lead. Here, our journey with the movie starts. The movie is about the change as Gajanan (Main lead—Sagar Deshmukh) undergoes when he shifts to Pune for his job. A sharp contrast from Wai, the city of Pune only adds to his loneliness, as he wants to have a romantic companion. One of his students   Battis (Akshay Tanksale) who starts training him on how to become YZ, which is basically a program for changing his life and making him a more happening person.

The dialogues are witty, and humor in patches and they keeps the audience involved. However, a little more experimentation in humor could have helped the movie. While telling the story, there are two frames of references and one is of the younger generation and one is for the older generation. And, there another border that is being added over generations is confidence. When the most under the confident person in the world meets, the most confident one, a series of maddening events is bound to happen. This storyline can provide a great twist and tremendous humor. However, we are left with few easily imagined jokes.

On screenplay front, it happens around Wai  and Pune. Movie sets are up to the mark, however, songs could have been little different. Songs provide a feeling of being clichéd. Sometimes it offers a forced humor and superficial substance like in one scene when “Maushi reads her own notebook of childhood”.

The film has a great message however it suffers from its treatment. The first half director tries to be humor all the time and second half it shifts the gear and becomes thoughtful. This provides a distracted flow which becomes little challenging for the viewer. The primary challenge with films that offer message is developing characters that remain honest and yet grip the audience. Here, main lead remains remarkably honest, and a scriptwriter succeeds in establishing him and provides an excellent message to the audience.

The change in Abb’s life can be seen via his acting, and his expressions and his change have been captured well. Some of the scenes of the songs and few off-board dialogues could have been avoided. These dialogues and scenes make the film unoriginal in patches.

Sagar Deshmukh delivers a stunning performance in his first major role in a movie. The friendship he shares with Akshay Tanksale is one of the biggest positive of the movie. Another major plus is the occasional funny dialogues. The other ladies Parna Pethe and Mukta Barve don’t get a lot of screen time. However, they have done well. The director Sameer does excellent in developing the characters and building a story via some out of the box idea. 

However, the script does not provide him the more opportunities to retain grip over the audience the all the time.

Finally. I think, this is average humor movie with a great message. Kids may not enjoy a movie that much. However, it can be your one-time watch. It's a good-hearted, handsomely executed film that does provide the humor in patches.

·         StarCast: Sagar Deshmukh,  Akshay Tanksale, Parna Pethe, Sai Tamhankar, Mukta Barve

·         Writer: Kshitij Patwardhan

·         Music: Rishikesh, Saurabh & Jasraj

The Man Who knew Infinity –Touches the heart but fails to grip the mind

The man who Knew Infinity” is a biographical film based on the life of renowned Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Some stories are tough to tell, and this is the one of them.

It is a biopic about one of the most brilliant people in the history of the planet, the renowned mathematician Ramanujan– a man famous for finding patterns in mathematics in boldly innovative ways – yet his story is told in the safest and most conventional method imaginable. “The man who Knew Infinity” is a powerfully represented, handsomely created film that however feels flat and lacks the gripping events. It tumbles into the trap that so many biopics do: It hits all the crucial moments in the life of “Ramanujan” and browses the surface of a complicated reality without digging deeper, without taking chances. Each person involved does the whole thing they should, and the result is just okay. The problem with this movie is that not a lot happens. Moreover, it's very slow. The maths is too abstract for the average viewer to appreciate the groundbreaking nature of S. Ramanujan's work.

In the hindsight, Ramanujan’s story is inspiring, and details of his story certainly have the cinematic potential. He was devoted to Hindu faith and with a stingy mother. As Ramanujan loved mathematics and has innovated/ formulated many equations by himself, Ramanujan wanted the opportunity to present his work to the best in the world, and same desire drives him to Trinity Collage Cambridge where the tree that held the apple that fell on Sir Isaac Newton’s head stands in the entrance ground. “

The central plot of the story combines multiple smaller elements. It is East vs. West mind battle and few cultural clashes and estranged couple relationship and possessive mother and dominating and demanding Prof. Hardy. In the story, the love and support we see from his wife are tireless; as portrayed by a fresh-faced Devika Bhise as a woman of both grace and strength. The Pain that Ramanujan’s wife through when he was away in England must have been exhausting, and often discouraging. We see very little of that here, and probably few more interactions between them could have helped.

On the acting front, Ramanujan’s character needs a magnificent obsessional and urgency in the body language, and it was displayed number of times. A man runs hard and the even restless number of occasions. That is the hallmark of this character. Thinking mind always runs or walks fast. Apart from these behavior traits, Ramanujan had enormous self-belief, and it was captured in the way via dialogues. Dev Patel had managed to pull out a realistic Ramanujan. Ramanujan’s wife who has a limited role to play in the film does her brilliantly. A good part of the movie is each personality rises above the difference and able to bring out best in mathematics and it could Prof. Hardy, or Ramanujan or Prof. Littlewood.

In direction, excellent direction from Matt Brown with incredible sets and locations, the especially location at Trinity College. The atmosphere of around 1910 has been captured well by the art director. On the dialogues front, I loved few dialogues. Two dialogizes which I will remember for rest of my life is: “All I do is imagine” and His wife says one – “I have been told that you love numbers than human beings.” This captures the essence of the entire character of Ramanujan.

One of the most important factors of Biopic is it needs to engage the mind and capture the heart. I think, the movie wins the heart as Indian Mathematician and fails to grip the mind. It is informative movie to watch and but fails short of outstanding film category.

Directed by          Matthew Brown

screenplay by      Matthew Brown

Based on               The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel

Starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons

Magnificent acting coupled with realistic story of rural backdrop

Prasad Namjoshi’s film has the rare quality of being not only as smart as its excellent actors like Makarand and Sandeep, but also it manages to succeed in handling one of the social issues in an admirable manner.   It is a combination of the superior screenplay, impatient emotions, cold responses by Govt officials in the beginning, humorous approaches of searching Bullock by Sandeep and Makarand. To sum it all, it is instinctively told the story of poor villagers who lost his two bullocks.  

If you grew up, as I did, watching old black-and-white movies on a local television channel and in the areas close to villages then you can relate more to the Movie Named “Ranga Patanga” and it will touch your heart further.

The protagonist is Jumman (Anaspure), a farmer who has lost his bullocks, Ranga-Patanga.  Jumman’s friend Popat plays a central role which is as important as Jumman and carries the half weight of the script with his magnificent acting. Jumman and his wife (Dhuri) loved them ( Bullocks)  like the kids they never had and suffered a horrendous loss. The film is an existing sarcasm against the environment of rural Maharashtra. Media and Government and entire electronic media politicize this situation and story of Ranga-Patanga become a much more realistic experience to your eyes.

I think, these days, a generation of innovative young Marathi directors have found the freedom to make movies about, and against, fundamental aspects of their society and make it humors. I am impressed by Prasad Namjoshi’s direction and his screenplay. His selection of actors, the way he managed to the pace of the story, even though first half and second half, both connects to the audience very well and you forget how two hours have passed. This is where Prasad and his two main leads ( Makarand and Sandeep) have managed to find a place in your eyes and heart.

Most of the films based on social message sometimes become ineffective as in any event there was nothing an individual could do. However, in Ranga-Patanga, the writer manages to avoid somehow this trap by focusing more Sandeep and Makarand in the first half and creating humor out of it. The entire society comes into the picture in second half. This brilliant division of the story by writer has helped actors and director enormously as the audience enjoys the humor and director remain the grip on the movie. This trick has keeping film individual focused till first half has supported a story that contains great emotional charge.

The art director, has done equally well where sets of the movie seem to have done quite well. His sets and backdrops reflect the changing seasons and draft and poor villages quite well. Two songs of the film are emotional and bind well with the movie. Selecting a Hindi lyrics is a good choice.

On the acting front, I am more impressed with Sandeep Pathak. I saw him around 94-95 as an actor and today when I look at him, it seems this boy has gone multiple levels high on acting front and will create a great place in Hindi film industry very soon. His dialogues, his uncanny knack to crack jokes and his ability to switch gears from humor scene to emotional scene has been magnificent. Also, the way he plays support to Makarand has been an excellent part of the movie. This has been one of the best that Sandeep has delivered in recent past. Makarand is known as great actor and nothing much to say about him as he presented another superb / bankable performance. Makarand reminds you he is a hero who carries various shades and not just humor.

Only one part of the story which I thought could have been different is a quick solution in the end. Also, when Jumman and Popat are not on screen and story slips into a prognostic zone where audience knows more before you tell them anything..! This could have been bit different I think.

It is a great film not because of its stunning elegance or visual cleverness, but because it is splendidly well-made. Here, we do not have to remember the story but we get dragged along behind it as we get to laugh at frequent intervals. I saw it with an audience that seemed to be involved in the movie and they looked very, very interested. It was well made and brilliantly acted by Sandeep Pathak and Makarand Anaspure. This is something which we call a” pure cinema”.

Name of the Film: Ranga Patanga

Director: Prasad Namjoshi

Music & background Music: Kaushal Inamdar

Artistes : Makarand Anaspure, Sandeep Pathak, 

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.