Prisoners (2013)

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay: Aaron Guzikowski

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano

Music: Jóhann Jóhannsson

Time: 153 minutes

Bottom-line: Gripping, chilling and wonderfully acted

Along with Ron Howard’s Rush, Villeneuve’s Prisoners also joins the list of the underrated films of 2013. The film features an ensemble cast, led by Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano, Melissa Lewis, and supported by Viola Davis, Terrence Howard and Maria Bello. The story is set in Penn state, where Keller Dover (Jackman), his wife, Grace (Bello), and daughter, Anna, and his teenage son, Ralph, go to their friend, Franklin’s (Howard) house, where his wife, Nancy (Davis), daughters Joy and Eliza live. As the four children go out, they see an RV with someone inside. After dinner, Joy and Anna disappear.

 

Gyllenhaal as Loki (left) and
Jackman as Dover 

Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) is assigned the case, and he arrests the driver of the RV: Alex Jones (Dano), a man with the IQ of a ten-year-old, who lives with his aunt, Holly (Leo). Following various leads, Loki also links a priest – who has a corpse in his basement – and another man with an obsession for mazes, to this case, while Keller, having fixed his mind that Alex is responsible, secretly kidnaps and tortures him in his father’s old house. Who is the real criminal?

Like Villeneuve’s other films, Sicario and Incendies, Prisoners also contains a lot of graphic violence (in fact, it had an NC-17 rating during its initial release because of this). Roger Deakins’ cinematography, however, is brilliant (and received an Oscar nod). The emotions, the violence, the action and the ghost-like atmosphere have been captured superbly. Prisoners draws its strength mainly from the acting: Jackman and Gyllenhaal have both given Oscar-worthy performances here.

 

Leo as Holly, and Dano as Alex

Never before would you have witnessed such an angry and monstrous Jackman or such an energetic Gyllenhaal. I love their exchanges and their mind games, each man with his own idea of right and wrong. The role of Keller Dover, a father desperate enough to turn into a criminal, is certainly one of Jackman’s best works. Paul Dano has barely ten lines or so to talk, and his character spends most of the film getting tortured by Dover. He is that character for whom you, as a viewer, feel pity, even more than you do for the father who has lost his daughter.

Prisoners does not spend too much time on the build-up; it cuts to the chase as early as fifteen minutes into the film. From then on it is a roller-coaster ride, where each new character introduced makes you think he is the main suspect. Keep track of every character; the ending ties up everything in one neat bundle. A close inspection of the background of Alex and “maze man” might make you root out a few plot holes but otherwise, the story is clean, with the plot twists giving regular jolts. I’m surprised that Prisoners received very few award nominations/wins, because I, for one, consider it one of the best pictures of 2013, apart from being Villeneuve’s best work.

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 81%

American Beauty (1999)

Director: Sam Mendes

Story: Alan Ball

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch

Music: Thomas Newman

Time: 121 minutes

Bottom-line: A new perspective of life, love and beauty

In less than a year, I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I'm dead already.

Narrated by the lead character, Lester Burnham, Sam Mendes’ debut film, American Beauty is the tale of the lives of two middle-class families in a neighbourhood. The cast consists of Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari and Peter Gallagher. The simplistic story explores several themes like love, sexuality, redemption and beauty.

It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.

Lester Burnham (Spacey) is an advertisement executive, who hates his job and equally despises his marriage to Carolyn (Bening), his neurotic, ambitious wife. Their teenage daughter, Jane (Birch), hates both of them. She hangs around with her friend, Angela (Suvari), who always boasts about how other men lust for her. After watching Angela perform as a cheerleader, Lester also starts fantasising about her, and even starts working out to impress her. Fed up with her marriage to Lester, Carolyn starts to have an affair with her business competitor, Buddy Kane (Gallagher). Meanwhile, the new neighbours include a homophobic father, his catatonic wife, and their teenage son, Ricky Fitts (Bentley), who sells marijuana as a business, and videotapes his surroundings constantly. Various events over the following weeks bring about a change in members of both families.

 

Spacey as Lester (the rose petals are a recurring image
every time Lester fantasises about Angela) 

This isn't life, it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living.   

The film’s underlying theme is to discover life. Lester is fed up with his white-collar job, and decides to work out to explore his new-found feelings of sexuality towards Angela, hoping it would rejuvenate his life. He takes steps to live life as he pleases: by smoking pot, taking up a job “with the least amount of responsibility”, and suddenly becoming the dominant one in the family. In the end, he realises that he has been having a good life all along, but he has failed to realise it. Carolyn also hopes for a change in her life, resulting in her affair with Buddy. Jane, initially having no self-esteem, starts seeing herself anew once she hangs out with Ricky. Angela, from being self-centred and egotistic, by the end of the film, comes to terms with reality that she is “ordinary”. Rick’s character is a static one, but through him, the other theme is introduced: that beauty can be seen in everything. It can be in a dead bird, it can be in a plastic bag floating in the wind, or it can be in the eyes of a dead man; he films everything to remember all the beauty in the world surrounding him. It’s surprising in retrospect, when you realise that Ricky’s character remains as is throughout the film, but he changes the nature of everyone around him.

 

Bening as Carolyn

These fetishes and fantasies ultimately lead to the destruction of both the Burnham family and the Fitts family. By the end of the movie, when everyone gets a sense of realisation, it is already too late. As Lester says (to the viewers), “I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday.” I liked the humour elements used throughout the film, mainly because of Lester’s change in character; the scene where the Burnhams sit for dinner is darkly hilarious. The cinematography is also a highlight, especially the shots used to show Lester’s fantasies: with the rose petals, the slow-motion camerawork, and the hypnotic music. I also like the way scenes are sometimes shown to us through Ricky’s camera, sometimes directly, and at times, both.

 

Suvari as Angela (left) and Birch as Jane

The acting, by every cast member, is outstanding. Kevin Spacey, with his deadpan demeanour and the sudden bursts of violence and anger, is splendid, and this could well be his finest work till date; he won the Oscar for Best Actor too. Annette Bening, with her hysterics and emotional outbursts, has also done brilliantly. With top-class acting and a thought-provoking story (with a debatable climax), American Beauty must certainly be on your to-watch list.  

Bentley as Ricky 

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 88%

Incendies (2010)

English translation: Fires

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay: Denis Villeneuve, Valérie Beaugrand-Champagne (based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad)

Cast: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette

Music: Grégoire Hetzel

Time: 130 minutes

Bottom-line: A powerful story, with plot twists right from frame one

Denis Villeneuve’s French film puts together many themes: religion, civil war, survival... all of which provide the base for the story of how two siblings fulfil their mother’s death wish. Starring Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette and Rémy Girard, this is a story loosely based on the Lebanese Civil War and the life of prisoner Souha Bechara. Incendies was nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film.

 

Azabal as Nawal

Jeanne (Poulin) and Simon (Gaudette) are twins living in Canada, where their mother, Nawal Marwan (Azabal), a Canadian immigrant, has just passed away. Her friend and a notary, Jean (Girard), reads out her will, where she asks Jeanne to deliver a letter to her father – who the twins presumed to be long dead – and Simon to deliver another letter to their brother – whose existence they were never aware of. On doing so, they would be given another letter, and only then would they be instructed to bury her. Following few leads, Jeanne goes to an unnamed Middle-Eastern country, where, through flashbacks, Jeanne (and the viewer) learns Nawal’s heinous past – with tales of murder, rape, torture and religious conflicts. Who was Nawal? And who is the mysterious brother and who is the “dead” father?

 

Poulin as Jeanne and Gaudette as Simon

Lubna Azabal, the Belgian actress who played Nawal, is at her very best. From the person who is almost murdered for eloping with a refugee, to the victim of the Civil War, to the assassin, to being the rape victim in prison, she plays each role with such commitment… that is a major driving factor for the success of the film. I like the usage of the camera here: the long shots are designed to focus on the faces of the characters, for just enough time to capture the change in emotion. In particular, look out for the scene where the twins meet the nurse – watch how the happiness slowly turns to shock – and the scene where Nawal is in the swimming pool (towards the end). I remember the same technique being employed in the film 45 Years.

The story gets crooked at times. This film gives a good example of a MacGuffin, which is a device that triggers a story but doesn’t appear in the movie except once or twice (other examples could be the gold watch in Pulp Fiction or the “Heart of the Ocean” necklace in Titanic). The two letters given to the twins do precisely that; you can come up with a dozen “what ifs” with the plot, apart from “Why even give the letters?” but that’s how the story goes. The plot twist at the end is not entirely satisfying; as a notable critic said, “You might end up doing math in your head rather than being shocked at the twist,” and that’s what I ended up doing (I wouldn’t be surprised if you cringe, too)! The other twists are effective though. I liked the narrative structure as well: every time we see the flashback of Nawal, the story of Jeanne picks up from the same location, but from the current timeline, to sort of give an illusion of how Jeanne’s search has progressed.

There is a lot of violence and drama in Incendies. The theme of religion is emphasised a lot. There is one scene where Christians attack a bus full of Muslims – undoubtedly the most gruelling scene of Incendies – which shows the height of violence because of religious conflict. While the ending may not live up to my expectations, the acting and the visuals deserve a lot of praise. It is not a great story, but surely is a powerful one.

My Rating: 3/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%

Broken Flowers (2005)

Director: Jim Jarmusch

Story: Jim Jarmusch

Cast: Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright

Music: Mulatu Astatke

Time: 102 minutes

Bottom-line: Thought-provoking, very open-ended

The winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Jim Jarmusch’s romantic drama, Broken Flowers, is a film exploring one man’s past relationships. The film stars Bill Murray and Jeffrey Wright in the lead roles, with Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Julie Delpy in the supporting roles.

"The past is gone. The future isn't here yet. So all there is, is the present."
Don Johnston (Murray), a former Don Juan, has made his fortune in computers, and now lives in isolation, passing time by just watching movies and listening to music. His current girlfriend, Sherry (Delpy) leaves him when she sees a pink letter delivered to him by an old girlfriend. Don shares the letter with his neighbour – a mystery novelist, Winston (Wright) – who becomes intrigued by the content: the unsigned letter says that Don has a son who’s 19 years old, and who has gone in search of his father. Winston persuades Don to give information about all his past girlfriends and even plans a trip for Don, who reluctantly agrees. He visits Laura (Stone), Dora (Conroy), Carmen (Lange) and Penny (Swinton), with each one being progressively more standoffish towards him. Does Don solve his mystery? Or is it all a hoax?

 

Murray as Don

Broken Flowers is deceptively simple in its presentation and narrative. The whole film is about Don looking for clues about the “mystery mother”, and he gets different answers: Laura’s pink nightgown, Dora’s pink business card, Carmen’s dog being named Winston and Penny’s pink typewriter. The facial expressions and dialogues provide ever so subtle hints to the viewers that we can come up with our own explanation for each of the women being the mother. That’s why the climax is so open-ended: neither Don nor the viewers get to know the answer to the mystery, but it is the journey that is memorable. On one hand, we may think it’s a stupid story because, in the end, Don ends up exactly where he started; on the other hand, we can share Don’s crazy journey and learn a lesson or two from it.

Wright as Winston 

Bill Murray’s deadpan expression somehow has a charm of its own; you can never call it bad acting because that’s what makes Bill Murray who he is. The chemistry between Wright and Murray is amazing, with plenty of dry humour. I liked the way the four women have been portrayed, each one damaged in some way, and each one increasingly unfriendly to Don: Laura ends up sleeping with Don again, whose issues with men have passed on to her daughter as well; Dora, a hippie earlier, is now uptight; Carmen is an “animal communicator” with an odd relationship with her secretary, and Penny still holds a grudge against Don. All four actresses have done really well.

I also like how through brief dialogues and no unnecessary flashback, we get a glimpse of Don’s life with each of the four women. On the other hand, from the opening sequence, the elaborate process of a letter going from the letterbox to Don’s house is shown, and the camera often focusses on the scenery and Don’s journey from place to place. So even though Don’s mystery isn’t solved in the 102 minutes, the film is still a thought-provoking ride down Don’s memory lane, and it is a good experience to share with him.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 87%

Super Deluxe (2019)

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Story: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni, Ramya Krishnan

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Time: 176 minutes

Bottom-line: Grips you in the first half, loses all control in the second

Being heavily awed by Kumararaja’s Aaranya Kaandam, I just had to watch his next film (after an eight-year gap!), Super Deluxe. Featuring an ensemble cast with Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, Samantha Akkineni and Ramya Krishnan in the lead roles, and Mysskin, Gayathrie and Bagavathi Perumal in the supporting roles, this anthology tale is ­the best example of “What if Quentin Tarantino directed a Tamil film?”

 

Sethupathi as Shilpa (recognise him?)

The first story is about a strained marriage between Mugil (Faasil) and Vaembu (Samantha). When her ex-boyfriend comes home, they have sex, during which her ex dies. The other problem: someone has seen the corpse. How do the couple dispose of the body while confronting their own differences and conflicts? The second tale is about Jyothi (Gayathrie) and her son, Rasakutty, who have been waiting several years for Jyothi's husband to return. When he finally does arrive, he has transformed himself into a transwoman, Shilpa (Sethupathi). How do his wife and son, and more importantly, society, respond to his change? The third track revolves around five teens, who decide to watch a porno, only to find out that the actress is one boy's (Soori) mother, Leela (Ramya). An enraged Soori goes to kill his mother, but he stabs himself by accident. How does Leela try to save her son, while also convincing her overly-devotional husband, Arputham (Mysskin), to help?

 

Samantha as Vaembu and Faasil as Mugil

The film has all the strengths and weaknesses of a Tarantino film: dark humour, quirky characters, sharp dialogue, homages, surprising (and often funny) plot twists, and at the same time, excessive dialogue, swear words, noise and way too much screen time. The film is given an adult rating for its content, and rightly so. Even though nothing is explicitly shown, a lot of topics discussed in the film are considered taboo, the most striking one being the character of Shilpa. Sethupathi has done a simply outstanding job in portraying a transgender in the most honest way possible. Some of his lines are worth reflecting on: “Just like how we sometimes wear the slippers on the wrong foot, God made me a man by mistake,” and also, “We cut nails and our hair, so why I can’t I change my body like this?” Ramya Krishnan’s role as Leela is arguably her boldest and most emotional role till date. The Samantha-Faasil couple has also done really well, but I felt a good bit of crying could have been reduced for the former's character. 

 

Ramya Krishnan as Leela

All the subplots move at a rapid pace and the intermission is placed at the right time. However, the second half of the film digresses too much into philosophy, too suddenly. The Samantha-Faasil track has all its ends tied up but the other tracks become too weird. Almost all the humour is brilliantly written, and the subtle homages are nicely incorporated into the script. There are many similarities between this film and Aaranya Kaandam too, in terms of story, characters and many of Kumararaja’s elements. Both have a lover couple, a father-son duo, and a gang (gangsters in AK, teenagers in SD); while the main theme of AK was various depictions of male impotence, the stories in SD all revolve around sex. There are references to other films too, some more obvious than the rest. I also liked how Kumararaja sets his scenes such that there is some music playing which cleverly depicts the scenario (or "situation song" as it is called). 

 

The gang of boys

I guess Super Deluxe is one such film where things are so quirky that it appeals. I feel a lot of scenes are there just for the sake of humour and don't add to the main story, and several sequences have very lengthy build-ups. Nevertheless, the acting performances of almost all actors are commendable, and of course, for a Tamil film, this is indeed a bold attempt to create a different kind of movie.

My Rating: 3/5

Aaranya Kaandam (2011)

English translation: Jungle Chapter

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Story: Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj, Yasmin Ponnappa

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Violent, avant-garde and immensely entertaining

Edhu dharumam?
Edhu thavayo, adhuve dharumam.  
Newcomer Thiagarajan Kumararaja stuns the Tamil film-going crowd with his gangster flick, Aaranya Kaandam. Starring Jackie Shroff, Sampath Raj and Yasmin Ponnappa in the lead roles, with Ravi Krishna, Master Vasanth and Guru Somasundaram in the supporting roles, this is a story of how the lives of six people change within a day. Far more violent than most Tamil films, Aaranya Kaandam had a tough time with the censor board, ultimately getting an A certificate after 52 cuts.

 

Krishna as Sappai (left) and Shroff as Singaperumal

Singaperumal (Shroff) is an ageing gangster in Chennai. He has kept a young girl, Subbu (Ponnappa) as a prisoner in his house, hoping to have sex with her, but he finds himself impotent. Having had enough of Singaperumal’s abuse, one of his men, Sappai (Krishna) and Subbu, plan to rob him and escape. Another of Singaperumal’s henchmen is Pasupathi (Sampath), who proposes that they take on a risky deal involving cocaine worth 2 crores. When Singaperumal refuses, Pasupathi mocks his old age and offers to handle the deal himself. The stash actually belongs to Singaperumal’s arch-rival, Gajendran, another gangster. En route to the pickup spot, Singaperumal orders his men to kill Pasupathi, but the latter escapes. Meanwhile, the person actually delivering the drugs drinks too much and dies, and the cocaine comes into the possession of a poor father-son duo, Kalaya (Guru) and Kodukapuli (Vasanth). As the tales of Singaperumal, Gajendran, Sappai, Subbu, Pasupathi, Kalaya and Kodukapuli get intertwined, the result is a bloody fight for survival.

 

Sampath as Pasupathi

The title is the name of one of the chapters of the epic, Ramayana. Here, the reference is that everyone involved in the movie "turns into an animal", in the sense that they forget all emotions and only focus on survival. Also, notice how the characters have the names of animals – Singam is "lion", Pasu is "cow", and Gajendran is "elephant." The script moves at a breakneck pace, with every scene and dialogue fitting into the story, smoothly leading from one act to the next (in particular, the whole speaker phone scene is so well-written that it's impossible to expect what's coming). The shift from one track to another and the way Kumararaja ties everything together in the end again is superb. In Subbu’s tale, I felt the ending wasn’t “karma”-tic enough, but that would be the only fault I find in the story.

 

Vasanth as Kodukapuli (left) and Guru as Kalaya (right)

With plenty of violence, there are a number of scenes which are blurred out, as well as a lot of swear words that are bleeped out. Kumararaja expressed his dissatisfaction over the censoring, saying that it would make the film “less natural”. Nevertheless, hats off to him for making a film this bold, breaking several taboos of Tamil cinema. The use of slow-motion and other cinematographic techniques is also new. The film went on to win the National Awards for Best Editing and Best Debut. The performances of most actors are top notch. Yasmin Ponnappa’s acting is really good but I feel the voice artist could have done better. At times it seems too childish (not sure if that was the intention, though).  

 

Yasmin Ponnappa as Subbu

Overall, Aaranya Kaandam is a thorough entertainer, albeit not a family movie. If you are looking for an unconventional film, this should definitely be on your list.

My Rating: 4/5

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Director: Wes Anderson

Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (based on the book by Roald Dahl)

Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Time: 86 minutes

Bottom-line: Non-stop fun; Anderson does it again!

While Wes Anderson’s films usually involve comical characters, Fantastic Mr. Fox is his first (and only) actual animated film thus far. The film employs a technique called “stop-motion animation”, and has George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Anderson, Wallace Wolodarsky and Michael Gambon in the voice roles.

Boggis, Bunce, and Bean

One fat, one short, one lean.

Those horrible crooks so different in looks

Are nonetheless equally mean.

Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep) are raiding a squab farm, when they get trapped. Mrs. Fox reveals that she is pregnant and makes Mr. Fox promise that he would find a safer job if they get out, and he (reluctantly) agrees. Two years later, the family – now including a son, Ash (Schwartzman) – are settled in a new life. Mr. Fox buys a house in the base of a tree, which his lawyer warns is not safe for foxes. The tree is near the factories and farms of three farmers: Boggie, Bunce and Bean. Ash’s cousin Kristofferson (E. Anderson) comes to live with them, and the two of them don’t get along at all. Soon, Mr. Fox goes back to his thieving ways, and robs all three farmers. The enraged trio set up a plan to kill the fox. The encounters soon turn into deadly games, with the whole fox family exposed to danger.

 

(From left) Kristofferson, Kylie the opussum, Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox, and
Ash

The film’s production spanned nearly five years, and the result is amazing. Stop-motion animation is painful and requires enormous patience (the famous British franchise Wallace and Gromit took 15 months to make a 30-minute short-film using this technique), but Anderson used a lot of CGI effects too. The details of the animation – from the action sequences to the tears in their face – are immaculate. The team behind the animation work really deserves praise. Fantastic Mr. Fox also showcases Anderson’s quintessential use of colour, and locations, and even the cinematography techniques. Desplat’s score and the songs included in the background blend in superbly with the content.   

 

The three farmers

The characters in the film are quite interesting. The way various families are brought into the picture – the story is written in such a way that each animal can bring out its characteristic features - an aspect I also loved in Zootopia – the values of being a family, and of course, the overall humorous tone of the film make it exciting for all ages. The dialogues are crisp and funny, and all the vocal artists have done a fine job. Some of the best scenes of the film are the ones where Mr. Fox robs the three farmers, the one where they go to rescue Kristofferson, and the climax (the last scene giving a comic twist before the closing credits).

The film tells us a lot about family: on one side, we have a son who is disappointed that his parents admire his cousin more, and on the other, we have a husband obsessed with thievery, who suddenly feels the overwhelming responsibility of being the family man. There are friends and foes, the hunters and the hunted, everyone… and Dahl’s story beautifully brings them all together. As Mr. Fox puts his family ahead of his selfish obsessions, and as all animals put their differences apart and team up against the hunters, we get a nice heart-warming story.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 92%

Taxi Driver (1976)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Story: Paul Schrader

Cast: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster

Music: Bernard Herrmann

Time: 113 minutes

Bottom-line: Highly intense and hard-hitting

On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.

Winner of the 1976 Palme d’Or, here is the film considered to be one of the greatest dramas of all time: Taxi Driver. Martin Scorsese’s second collaboration with De Niro is a film that explores one man’s perspective of the city: his intentions, his loneliness, his willingness to bring about a change, his love life, and eventually, his destruction. Jodie Foster also plays a lead role, with Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle and Cybill Shepherd playing the supporting roles.

You talking to me? Well, I'm the only one here.

Travis Bickle (De Niro) is an honourably discharged US Marine, now working as a taxi driver in New York. He suffers from depression, and is disgusted by the crime, sleaze and prostitution he witnesses on the streets, and keeps talking about bringing about a change (as he enters his feelings into a diary). He falls in love with Betsy (Shepherd), a campaign volunteer for presidential candidate Senator Palantine, but the romance doesn’t work out. Travis later becomes obsessed with a child prostitute, Iris (Foster), who entered his cab once to escape from her pimp, Matthew (Keitel). As he reaches his breaking point, he decides to undergo an intense physical training program, and purchases and uses a range of guns with a plan to assassinate the Senator. At the same time, he also tries to convince Iris to quit prostitution and go back home.

 

De Niro as Travis

All animals come out at night.

One such “animal” is the character of Travis. The film is a case study of his life and his mind; he is sickened by the society he is in, but he has no choice but to deal with it. He hates the prostitution, but he spends time at adult movie theatres at night. Throughout the film, he tries to make contact with those around him: first, it is Betsy, who leaves him after he takes her to a porn movie; then the Senator, then later his bodyguard, and lastly, Iris. When everything fails, he decides to do the “cleaning up” himself. In his own words, “Now I see it clearly. My whole life is pointed in one direction. There never has been any choice for me.”

Here is a man who would not take it anymore. Here is someone who stood up.

When Travis does decide to take charge, what he does results in a violent climax. The last few scenes can be thought of as a dream, or reality. Does he achieve what he wanted, or is that only in his head? Both scenarios are equally likely. The background score by Herrmann is his last piece of work before his death (which, sadly, was before the release of the film); critics say that his score reflected the sleaze and filth that Travis witnessed, but for me, the music just got on my nerves. It wasn’t exactly a chilling piece, like that of Psycho, but there was something about it that gave an uneasy feeling. The cinematography, particularly the use of lighting – considering that most of the film takes place at night time – and the subtle slow-motion shots, is also something to look out for. Scorsese also had to desaturate the colour in the shootout scene, for such an amount of on-screen violence led to controversy.

 

Travis, with Betsy (played by Shepherd)

Loneliness has followed me my whole life. Everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere.

Robert De Niro is simply riveting in his role. From the everyday taxi driver to the gun-wielding killer, he is in top form every inch of the way. Bickle’s character is often cited as a villain, but that is again something to ponder over. Are his intentions truly evil, or does the society portray him as a villain? The other star, of course, is Jodie Foster. 14 years old when she acted in the film, she pulls off such a difficult role to play. Foster had to be tested by psychiatrists to ensure that the role would not affect her mind, given the content (and the violence). She later won the BAFTA award for her role.

 

Foster as Iris

So, except for the occasional slow pace of the film, the acting, character development and Scorsese’s direction make this a Hollywood classic that will leave a strong impression on you.

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 99% 

Ugly (2014)

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Story: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure

Music: G. V. Prakash Kumar

Time: 126 minutes

Bottom-line: Dark and depressing; Kashyap fans will like it

When the film came out, a bunch of critics rightly said that the film would cater only to a niche audience. With a relatively new cast, including Rahul Bhat, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vineet Kumar Singh, Girish Kulkarni and Surveen Chawla, Ugly is the feel-bad film of 2014.

 

Bhat as Rahul (left) and Singh as Chaitanya  

Shalini (Kolhapure) is a depressed housewife, whose second husband is Police Chief Shoumik Bose (Roy). The relationship is strained, as he hardly cares for her. She has a ten-year-old daughter – Kali (Anshika Shrivastava) – with her first husband, Rahul Kapoor (Bhat), who is a struggling actor, and also Bose’s rival in college. When Rahul goes to meet a casting director and friend, Chaitanya (Singh), he leaves Kali in the car. He later finds her missing, and the potential suspect gets killed in a chase. The local police inspector, Jadhav (Kulkarni) investigates the case. Chaitanya makes a ransom call to Rahul, even though he knows that the latter is broke. Later, Shalini’s friend, a B-grade actress, Rakhee (Chawla) also asks for money pretending to be the kidnapper. With everyone heartlessly using this chance to collect their own share of money, who has actually kidnapped Kali? And where is she now?

 

Roy as Bose

Kashyap made the actors undergo rigorous practice to prepare them for the roles and scenes. Shot extensively on real locations, and allowing the actors to improvise in several scenes, Kashyap calls Ugly his most “brutally honest” film. Both Rahul and Tejaswini consumed alcohol regularly to prepare for their roles, and the former even deliberately avoided sleep to get dark circles under his eyes. Singh was actually slapped nearly 50 times throughout the shooting, and he was handcuffed to the ceiling because Kashyap wanted to realistically show the police torture techniques. The result? Many scenes of intense violence and anti-social content, but also, some of the best performances you will ever see. The three actors, as well as Roy and Kulkarni, have done an outstanding job. Anshika has hardly 10 minutes of screen time, but thanks to the visual imagery, you won’t forget her character for a while. The actress herself did not see the film until much later because of the strong content.

 

Kolhapure as Shalini

Kali is the only “clean” character in an otherwise ugly world filled with people who cheat, betray and who are overwhelmed by greed and lust. That is the main focus of the film – how, in a time of crisis, everyone brings out their ugly side by going for the money. It makes you wonder who actually cares about the girl, and who knows the number of such kidnappings and rapes taking place across the country! The “victory dance” that Shalini’s brother does is the best portrayal of greed you can see. The violence and dark characters are typical of Kashyap’s films, but Ugly takes it to a whole new level. Call it a wake-up siren to the issues of domestic violence and child-abduction in India, or “just another Hindi film”, this is far from a comfortable watch.

With brilliant, “real” performances, a tight plot, and typical Kashyap direction, Ugly may not be your type of film, but if you are a fan of Kashyap, you will like it, and if not, this is probably the best film to get acquainted with his style.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Andhadhun (2018)

English translation: Blind Tune

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Story: Sriram Raghavan, Arijit Biswas, Pooja Ladha Surti, Yogesh Chandekar and Hemanth Rao

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte

Music: Amit Trivedi, Raftaar, Girish Nakod

Time: 138 minutes

Bottom-line: Unfurls at a breakneck pace; one of the best films of 2018

Ayushmann Khurrana has become one of the most sought-after actors in Bollywood after a series of successful films in 2018, as has Radhika Apte with her Netflix hits. Both of them star together along with veteran actress Tabu in this crime drama, Andhadhun. Co-written and directed by Sriram Raghavan, this is the tale of an innocent man caught in a murder case.

 

Khurrana as Akash and Apte as Sophie

Akash (Khurrana) is a skilled pianist who pretends to be blind during the day, his theory being that this “experiment” will help him improve his art. He later begins a romantic relationship with Sophie (Apte) - who believes that he is actually blind - when he starts playing at her father’s diner. Former actor Pramod Sinha (Anil Dhawan) requests him to render a private concert for him and his wife, Simi (Tabu) on their anniversary. When Akash does go there, Simi lets him in thinking he is blind, but Akash notices the dead body of Pramod in the house. Simi’s suspicious neighbour seems to cause problems for her, and Akash is forced to remain mum to preserve his identity. Does Simi suspect Akash? Does he find a way to testify against Simi?

 

Tabu as Simi

While the story of Andhadhun was inspired by L'Accordeur (The Piano Tuner), a 2010 French short film about a blind pianist, I was reminded of a 2000 Tamil film called Sabhash, also about a man pretending to be blind, involved in the murder/suicide case of his wife. At the crux of this film is Akash’s act of faking blindness, which lands him in all sorts of trouble, and that’s what makes the story what it is. The film moves at an exhilarating pace, with brilliantly crafted plot twists. The suspense, the dark humour, the mind games, and of course, the cliff-hanger climax make this thriller stand apart.

Khurrana may have become far more popular following this film’s success, but as far as Andhadhun goes, Tabu is the star. Portraying the devious Simi, who will stop at nothing – not even a second murder – to protect herself, this character is easily one of the most sadistic and manipulative villains portrayed in Indian cinema. Khurrana’s acting is superb too. From a man leading a fairly comfortable life, to a man who is pushed to his limits of endurance, Akash’s character starts out clean and touches a variety of grey shades throughout the film. Radhika Apte, surprisingly, has a small role to play in the film. Fate and karma influence the story to a considerable extent, which give rise to various other minor but significant characters in the film – an auto driver, a person selling lottery tickets, a doctor running an illicit organ donor service, and of course, Simi’s neighbour.

With catchy songs to lighten the mood to start with, and regular plot twists to shock you subsequently, Andhadhun brings together a skilled cast and crew who gives us a taut thriller, which is definitely worth watching. Of course, by the end of it, you will probably have a lot of unanswered questions, but that’s part of the fun.

My Rating: 4/5