Feeling left out ..

‘What’s up’ my wife asked, looking at me through the corner of her eye while she remained fixated on the TV screen with some character staring frozen and wide eyed at her. I did not answer immediately. I too was fixated by the person on the TV who seemed to have popping eyeballs , nostrils flaring and eyebrows arching to touch the hairline. There was volcanic music in the background so I knew the person on the TV set was not frozen. And not giving up too easily either. It was like a game of who blinks first. But here it seemed that this character was a hands down winner. I looked at the whites and wondered if they used some good eye cleanser which also compressed arteries to make the blood capillaries appear less vivid and less red. But then I am digressing. I allow the character on the TV to bleed his eyes out and turn back to the wife.

“What’s up?” she repeated arching her eyebrows now.

Worried that I was just about to get into a ‘who blinks first session” in real life I answered

‘Well nothing really, you fasting?’

‘What?? ‘She asked, her eyebrows really arching now and those two question marks there to emphasize the height of the arch.

‘You know like fasting the whole day, the moon etc.?’ I asked weakly not sure if I was paraphrasing well

‘What are you talking about?’ She now reached out for the remote and put the guy on the telly on real freeze. Perhaps she did not want to miss out on any of the artistry on display.

‘You know some guys at the office were chatting at the coffee machine about having to leave early for the day due to some moon and fast issues’

‘Hey wait, you tell me you never have time to go to the coffee machine?’ She asks her eyebrows still doing their mountain act

‘Look you are digressing’, I said, ’I passed the coffee machine and there was this group of four guys who were animatedly comparing notes on how to get back home so that they wives could see them and then have their first meal of the day. And you know what they looked like a cult by themselves and I was feeling left out’

‘What?’ She asked her face puzzled looking completely flummoxed apparently either with my expectation or with the fact that I had spent time at the coffee machine when I had been earlier claiming I never spent time there or perhaps the fact that I was looking like a wimp sharing girly stories with her

‘From when have you started believing in festivities anyway? That is a festivity in another part of our country and in the south we never celebrate and we never did in our so many years of marriage. Why today? The other day I had to drag you to do some basic Ganesh puja and you had this urgent telecon to attend to“ Her voice went vacillating from extreme annoyance to the vulnerable

“Well Uh, I, uh, surely you care about me don’t you? I mean like pray for my life, my welfare etc. “I asked weakly

She sprung up from the sofa now looking worried reaching out for my forehead

“You are ok dear? Are you experiencing fever of any kind? Sit down will you. Let me get you some water”

“No, I am fine just wanted to know you care for my welfare and are praying for my longevity?” I said recovering the strength in my voice and pushing her hand away, offended

“Dear, tell me the truth.Have you been sneaking behind my back and watching my TV soaps?” She asked genuinely concerned

“ Of Course not ,‘ I replied horrified that she could even think that, ‘ and I am sure these guys at the office preening of the festivity and feeling part of a core group, do not either. But their wives seem to really have cracked the code for displaying their affection to them”

Her expression changed from disappointment to flummox to now a bit angry. Her eyebrows were doing their arch act again but this time the combination with flared nostrils was a bit disturbing and unsettling.

‘Remember how in Khabhi Khushi Khabhi Ghum Kajol did that for SRK? “

She was now looking worried sure that she had lost her husband’s sanity

‘You know my friend Veena Gupta she also has never celebrated these days but thanks to the soaps and the depiction in the movies her husband too has been asking her that .Look here dear, everyone has a different way of celebrating their joys of life and in the south we have a different way. If you want we can go and look at the moon even now if that helps. But with the haze even that is not possible!! “

“Hey it’s not just about the moon” I said angrily

“Then? “

“It’s about the feeling that you care for my longevity that you care for my welfare, even Subu’s, Ganya's and Hegde’s wives were doing it and they are also from the south. So then? “I challenged back

She let out a sigh!

“Come on dear out with it, what is bothering you? Surely it cannot be this festivity. We never spoke about this in years of marriage and now this? What is it? What is bothering you?”

“ Ahem well you see I have been getting all these updates on What’s App and FB with pictures posted by my friends and their wives with so many glorious statuses and just look at the likes and gasps they are eliciting. Don’t you think I also aspire for that?”

She could not believe her ears apparently as she went silent for a minute and then she silently gets up walks over gets her phone and proceeds to take a selfie with us together.

“Smile “She orders angrily

I grin as hard as I can. She grins as hard as she can.

She posts it on our common groups

“Thrilled to be spending a lovely evening with the darling of my life. Waited all day for him. Prayed for his long life. Looking forward to a rocking evening”

“Ok? “ She asked like asking a small child who had just been handed over his candy

“ You did not pout”, I say weakly again but sense this is too risky,”Yeah it’s fine”

I started to look appeased. Strong enough to be able to stand among my peers on the groups with sufficient evidence that we had a rocking life full of festivities and endorsed by the world. The Love You all’s and mwahs started pouring in

My heart also seemed to be beating better.

Emotional Clouds - Leave an impact on me . Movie ..Well..UH !

The stupendous impact of a surreal movie with an outstanding script, direction and cast is still wear off from the previous week. The razor sharp Talvar and its chief protagonist Irfan Khan leave such a mesmerizing effect on you that you do not dither one minute before heading back to the cinemas at the mere mention of his name on the movie bill boards of Jazbaa. Yes we know it’s a comeback vehicle of Aishwarya Rai and that the megaphone is being wielded by the snazzy director of Shootout at Lokhandwala.  We know that it is the story of a female lawyer forced to pick up the case of a clear convict on death penalty if she wants to save her child’s life. No that is not revealing the story. That is the premise being bandied about in the teasers and the various press releases. You do know it is heavily inspired by a Korean movie.

You settle in to some fast moving clouds, artificially filtered skyline of Mumbai. You tell yourself they are setting the mood. The camera then tries to find its own sweet spot in various degrees at curious angles all across the landscape and cannot decide where to settle in. The scene opens to the hotshot lawyer doing her Anil Ambani run across the shoreline of Mumbai with some impressive stretches thrown in. Though why she has a smirking Bond like facial expression is not clear as nothing thrilling to annoy her has yet happened. You tell yourself she is back from a hiatus, must be nervous of how she is presented and is perhaps over exerting herself to look determined and natural, too look her part of the annoyed mother, the portion which is yet to come of course.

The snazzy director is in love with the horizon and those clouds moving at a speed that could put Sandy Hurricane clouds to shame. There is still something wrong with the colors though. The sky seems to follow an artificial pattern of its own in contrast to the repeated shots of the city landscape. It almost feels like the signature shots of a Manhattan TV series. Considering the pace at which the movie moves it could well have been one.

The cop played by Irfan Khan is a rogue cop but good man and has some of the movies best lines penciled in for him in obvious respect to his international wry humor status and also because he was cheered for his one liners in PIKU. Irfan thumps his chest and puts in his best. Every time he steps in on the silver screen it lights up. He can make an ordinary good morning sound so interesting. But even he too is not convinced that his potential love interest is Aishwarya and keeps a safe distance from her and mumbles all his hidden feelings for her in whispers lest she hear him. He is there to support her as she screams her lungs out when her daughter is kidnapped. That is Aishwarya in her most unbelievable avatar. You cannot just believe that this is the same Aishwarya of Dhoom or Guru. She is just trying too hard.

Irfan bridging two movies as a law keeper is having a ball when he is on his own mouthing badass monologues and a shocked audience gets up to giggle. He is very tentative and extremely conscious when he is around Aishwarya. Watch him as he cautiously holds her every time, almost careful not to annoy her. Their chemistry just does not work. The sad part is that Aishwarya has some excellent work with Mani Ratnam and Sanjay Lela Bansali though she does go overboard at the drop of a hat. She should have chosen to produce a smarter work with a more appropriate director who could have used her sensitivity, than make her scream the rooftops with bulging red eyes. Just does not work.

There are lots of drab court scenes with an uninspired Atul Kulkarni and a surprising cameo by Shabana Azmi who walks through her part with confidence but not with great interest. Maybe a more intricate plot with characters built up, fleshed out and not too much focused on the producer could have helped. Maybe it was just a comeback trigger with better things to come yet. Aishwarya should quit trying too hard. She is a fine actress with good directors and just needs to find her sweet spot. And one prays that Irfan does not get too caught up with trying to over use himself in trying to make some well-deserved moolah in commercial films.

It was tough to sit through the two hours plus pulsating camera trying to keep pace with flying emotional clouds which is the most I remember of the movie. The ½ star in the 1.5 is purely for Irfan. Sanjay could do better to go back to his mobster realism genre.

1.5

Fishing for the real truth and justice – Talvar

A searing screenplay threatens to burn up all commonly held theories of the real life case. Crackling writing, well researched script that treads the dangerous edge of almost delivering a judgement on the biggest botched case of Indian civilian crime history

Distanced incidents generally have a cursory impact on our minds. The remoteness from the incidents and the subjects, creates a chilling indifference and a casual judgement in our minds about the people involved. The double murder case in Delhi was one such. Most of us including me  have been personally guilty of casually absorbing details served to us by the investigating agencies and the courts resolute in our belief then that the agencies involved truly come up with irrefutable conclusions to the cases they handle. Again a view propounded by heroic stories of these agencies in our movies. Distance does create a blurred vision. As you get on with the hurly burly of life  you also give into accepting graphic details of lurid behavior in ordinary people perhaps because it caters to your need to be surprised. And perhaps also because it is easy to devour gossip. Helps to give you a closure on an uncomfortable theory of parents potentially murdering their children. You do not want to believe that happened. And if it indeed happened then perhaps it was because the people had dirty stories in their closet. Convenient to use that appendage to prop up our own sense of relief that it was not a natural order of things.

Meghna and Vishal with Talvar use that rusted sword of justice as a clever proxy to prod you wide awake and whisper, without any clear intention to conclude, that, perhaps there is more to it that needs your attention. That perhaps this has happened to ordinary people, like you, who went about their daily life as joyously as you did without any dark deeds till fate struck them a tragic blow and then things went downhill. And that is when it hits you, that we live in a humoungsly imperfect society especially in our country. You want to pray that you never ever have to deal with a dangerous system should anything unfortunate happen that requires intervention from the governance. Everything about the system seems to be flawed. Is it a wrong people or the wrong system? Is it a perfect system with dangerous people or is it a flawed system with good people trying to make their best of it. The answer seems to lie somewhere in between

We had sunk into our sofas content in sniggering at the upper middle class professional families and their lurid and lusty lifestyles. It was fed to us by the media who in turn were fed by the system. You cringed as you dined watching the seemingly impassionate couple not display enough sorrow as perhaps you would have wanted to. That one lacuna in empathetic behavior seemed to confirm to the vast majority of us that there was more to it than they revealed. She did not cry. How debased is our feeling?

Thanks to creative stalwarts like Meghna and Vishal who worked for three years researching to an extent with impartial integrity all sides of the story leading up to the double murder case of the daughter Delhi family of dentists and their resident servant. Every cast member in this brilliantly and honestly scripted movie is outstanding. Commencing from the bumbling police officer eager to help his superior close the case with a convenient theory of honor killing after the 13 year old girl is found murdered in her home by her own parents. Not really classic behavior for potential killers really. The first suspect the servant himself is found dead a day later on the locked terrace. It seems astounding today that no one thought of investigating the terrace just a floor above.

It is good fortune to an extent that an honest officer brought in by the investigating agency flips the police theory on its head and ascribes the guilt to the servant’s friends who are since free.  Thanks to sick politics and a case of one upmanship the case is sought to be debunked by their own people and a second team investigates and tries to dump the original theory.

I have not seen a more critical analysis of a real life murder and its aftermath on the screen before. It is morbid but makes you feel comfortable that all hope is not lost yet. That there are people in the industry for who the art is still to be used to furthering fairness and  goodness in society and not just serve as mindless entertainment. To use art as a medium to make critical commentary and softly challenge judgements without treading on fault lines and risking contempt of court.

Konkana Sen and  Neeraj Kabi as the parents, Prakash Belawade as the retiring agency head, Atul Kumar , Sohum Shah, the actors playing the suspected murderers , every member of the cast playing bit roles impressively excel in their realistic portrayal. The credit for that goes perhaps to the director and the producer- writer for taking the pains to extricate those performances. Everything seems so real. It reinforces the theory that I hold about great movies being those where not only the leading cast performs but each and every character that fills in the creative space on the screen making it a wholesome experience.

And when you leave the theatre you are left with a ceaseless applause for that marvel of an actor Irfan. Displaying simple nuances. Watch him make wry remarks, playing with his glasses, smirking on video games as he interrogates a potential suspect. The terrific ensemble lead by the inimitable Irfan exhibits what artistry in cinema is about. And then that unforgettable climax scene where agencies debate various theories. A rocking scene which I can safely say is one of the best I have ever seen in a Hindi film. So well written so well enacted. One may want to watch the movie again just for that one scene. Brilliant scripting.

The movie may not only serve as an ingredient for heated debates on the weekends but perhaps instigate a relook at the whole case from a new angle with pressure building up from the masses and not just relegated to good mood days of a few investigating or judging authorities. 

The movie does equal justice to all the angles trying to play an impartial role as a medium just bringing the theories to you but the nudge wink effort towards one angle is not lost on the audience and we know where our sympathies will lie till proven otherwise. If this movie manages to change the course of events I think a round of applause to the people behind this creative work led by Vishal Bharadwaj and Meghna Gulzar is in order

Watch it to know that justice denied should be a cross to carry for a nation with conscience.

*****