Barfi: Brilliant. In Parts

The problem with Barfi is that despite all its brilliant subtlety and poignant humor, this is a film that is too good and sweet to be true and can leave you with a feeling that this can only happen in a cinema. As a cinema, however this is a superior effort from everyone involved.  Anurag Basu shares some of the bitterness towards arranged marriage with Imtiaz Ali and drives home the point that husbands after all are poor suckers. We find the scenario where a daughter asks her mother whether she loved her husband at all on more than one occasion. Now that was a uncomfortable question for any mother to face that can only be answered by a tight slap and that again is only because it is neither a yes or a no.

Barfi boasts of superlative performances from its entire cast with Ranbir Kapoor walking away with huge accolades and Illeana following close by. The Chaplinesque humour works well with his infectious smile and his work was as earnest as it was confident. Priyanka’s act as an autistic girl can put you off if you do not have the kind of sensibility for it but to her credit she does not ham much. Illeana plays the normal girl in the triangle and her role was shot and etched so beautifully that no one can blame the poor guy falling for her, marriages and engagements be damned. She largely has to work with silences with big eyes and a bigger sticker on her forehead, and she puts in a confident debut. The romance between Illeana and Ranbir was dangerously close to what we saw earlier in Rock Star but Barfi was nowhere as passionate as Jordan was.  Saurabh Shulka gets a meaty role as the cat and mouse game between him and Barfi runs on for the entire length of the film and he is competent and good to have around.

For someone looking for quirks and nuances this is a brilliant film made with a lot of conviction and the scenic beauty of Darjeeling largely helps in garnering a laidback attitude. Basu’s script refrains from being highhanded despite dealing with specially abled protagonists and comes up with a winner till in the first half of the film, but could not continue the good work in the later half and the ending was predictable. The moment where Jhilmil calls after Ranbir who was a deaf-mute guy, after he choses to leave disappointed with not finding her and the dilemma in Shruthi whether she wants both of them to be together or if she wants Barfi for herself speaks a lot about the thought and skill that went into writing and making this film. 

Barfi is a film with a lot of heart and is easy on all your senses. It has enough endearing moments for two films and for a while it can even make you believe that love can be special and worth living for. At Times.

To Rome With Love: A Charming Tribute

Disclaimer: This write-up in no way can put into words the amount of pleasure the film has given me. It is my first Woody Allen film in a theatre and I’m glad I finally caught one.

Through the eyes and words of a Traffic Police in Roma Woody Allen choses to give us four stories that took place in the European city which becomes his latest muse. For all we know he might have had several others to tell us but for what he gave us we should be immensely thankful to the master.

To Rome With Love is a charming little film that talks about greater things like infidelity, lust, jealousy, fame and the ridiculousness of them all. These are the themes Allen has been talking about since ages but we still want to listen to him all the same courtesy his characteristic wit. Despite the darker themes and grey shades in the characters, they all are so endearing and believable. In a way he shows us how our behaviors are humanely vulnerable. The possibilities and the actions in correspondence can be frightening to a skeptic eye but thankfully he goes easy on his nihilism and does not cram the film with such lines. Cinematographer Darius Khondji uses this to his advantage and gives us some of the most spectacular and breathtaking shots of Rome.

Roberto Benigni’s act as the person troubled by the instant fame without a reason and his frustration at the equally unreasonable abandonment by the fame is the stuff of legends. The lesson that you learn out of this episode is so meaningful and fulfilling and this track alone is reason enough for watching this film. Alec Badwin as the architect who looks back at his youth through the life of another architect is so warm with a lot of interesting insights into other peoples’ lives. Penelope Cruz as ever is sexy while Judy Davis playing Woody Allen’s wife walks away with the best lines of them all. And I have not finished them all yet.

The risk with a film having four tracks is that you cannot connect to some and this has been the case with this film too. Personally, I did not like the story of Woody Allen, an irony considering the brilliant stories the man had for the others. But he makes it up with his death fearing act. His scene at the dining table with the Michelangelo family where he tries to coax a bathroom singer to something meaningful and great is hilarious and trademark Woody Allen.  

If at 76, the master can create this, I pray he lives for another 76. However knowing the man through his films, I’m not sure he would cherish the idea, but we might as well make hay when the sun is still shining.

Raaz 3: Back to the Ramsays

Raaz 3 could as well have been done by the Ramsays and bought for a meager amount by the Bhatts. The story for sure must be theirs, otherwise there isn’t a sane explanation to think of why it turned out to be the way it did. After RGV did some good work with the horror genre those people who were relieved that they no longer have to be subjected to plastic masks with skin dripping in gruesome drops are sure to make faces again since those horrible masks and awful CGI are back again big time.

What is the best way to pacify a woman who is shit scared watching all those zombies trying to frighten her. You should have sex with her. Don’t believe me? Well you only have to watch Raaz 3 and Emraan would tell you as much. If you have some other ideas, you can go ahead and use them but I’m sure they wont be much fun either. This is the kind of film that wants you to believe in Doctors relying on black magic to cure patients, film directors having beach houses serving continental breakfast to unsuspecting heroines, and people entering Aatmaon Ki Duniya with little or no efforts. They tie a thread to do the last act of course but that comes under little effort I guess.

The funny thing about the film is that all the actors chose the wrong film together to put in decent performances. You can’t find fault with them but the situations they find themselves in throughout are so farcical that even their best efforts could not save the film. They weren’t even helped by the lines, these in retrospect are the result of some of the flattest writing you would ever find in a film. The music, which comes to rescue most Bhatt films plays a different spoilsport altogether with insipid songs popping in with no reason at all.

A few red herrings might work if you are yawning and are unprepared but don’t worry, they are very few and far in between and do not disturb your slumber.

Siridi Sai: Of the devotees, For the devotees, By the devotees

For the believer even G Seetharamaraju is a God.

Successful devotionals in Telugu Cinema follow the standard pattern of a wastrel or a disbelieving protagonist facing difficulties in life and transforming himself into the way of trust in God during the process of overcoming them. This usually works because regardless of the end result, they are stories of men raising against the odds and getting what they wanted to achieve or what they are destined to become. A drama, to say all the above in a word. Sai Baba films so far have considerably lesser impact than the others for me because of this very reason that Sai Baba is a devotional belonging to God and God by the definition of these films has little or no conflict in his life.

Knowing KRR and his earlier devotionals, I expected a “Life and Times of Sai Baba” out of Shiridi Sai but unfortunately it is not the case with his latest. Indeed the film is a series of vignettes accentuating the clairvoyance of Sai Baba with forgettable propaganda. Brownie points however to the makers for having the sensibility of crediting “Kadha Sankalanam” instead of the regular story and screenplay. The transformation of the characters was so quick and easy that you wonder whether he was really a God or if the people themselves were real. KRR’s penchant for unfunny comedy, caricaturist characters and tacky visuals make this a tedious watch. It is a good thing that he has shifted into this genre off late because his old school direction suits this genre.

The only redeeming feature of this film is the brilliant portrayal of Sai Baba by Nagarjuna. His performance is restrained and matured and is in compliance with the genre expectations. Apart from him no character stays with you and they are all written like extended cameos. To their defense, they are given rather flat and monotonous lines. How I wish they wrote better roles for the others. Keeravani, who was a trump card in devotionals for KRR does his job again but the relative unfamiliarity of the tunes mean that they cannot take the film a notch higher as they did with Ramadasu and Annamayya.

As we noted earlier, this film might not be a bad one for the believers but it means little for the skeptic observer and does even little to whet his curiosity.

I would rather be accused of blasphemy. Thank You Very Much.