Ever Imagined being on a horse cart which has horses
attached on all the four sides trying to pull it in different directions. Each time
a horse gets tired the other fresh ones pull the cart in a different direction.
Conclusively you end up at the place you started. Find it awkwardly ( Akwward mind you ) silly example this. Don’t
blame me if you remember this when you exit the theatre after heeding the
Zaroor pleas of Ratna. Speaking of Exit I almost exit I almost got up thrice
towards the end assuming the end was in sight. But no Siree. It was not to be.
The director had blank wall surprises in store. You know the blank wall types,
those that face you when you exit the theatre.
Twisting and turning in all directions without an end in sight. Before
it opens a mysterious door and let’s in the noise and bustle of the real world
outside.
Nasty? No I am not being more so when I think Raj Kumar Rao
is the best thing happening in recent times and for second time this week a
surprise – a new face on the Hindi landscape ( well almost new if you ignore
her disastrous intro movie) Kriti.
I think most of the movie going audience can now identify
the gallis of the key towns in UP since most of the movies in a couple of years
have been google mapping their stories in the intricate alleys. Is that Bad?
Well not actually considering there is a lot of colour to exploit, male
chauvinism still throbbing across the open surface of society but never
hindering modern cigarette smoking women who lurk beneath the scared veneer and
wait to escape like Kangana or Rani.
Rajkumar does not seem to have had a chance to leave the
locales as he reprises his small town confident full of values and some beans
character intent on hooking the love of his life. Dowry deals are done as a
matter of fact. I sat up tense and tight hoping for a movie tackling the evil that
still has Indian society in its clasp. There are no bad people here. All
victims of circumstances, who have accepted and justified to themselves the
usefulness of the wrong doing so as to keep themselves relevant on the food
chain. Grab dowry from son to fund their daughter’s marriage. Sadly the
director Ratna related to two directorial families does not even bother to justify
the hero’s ignorance of this particular deed of his family while getting all
hot and bothered about other values of love and trust in his life.
To cut the long chase short, a madly in love couple faces
challenges in repeat cycles till you get exhausted and pray they never meet
again.
I almost suspected the director at one point asked Rajkumar
to play the good deed guy. He executes it beautifully. She then goes up to him
and says oops sorry can you be the bad
guy…so he does it …Oops no you need to be the good guy. The distributor says so…So
rajkumar being the expert that he is does it with elan with great support from
a confused heroine who is happy being treated like a door mat that has for good
measure feminism written all over it as she allows everyone to trample over
her.
To be fair the director has an eye for drama and visuals and
extracts excellent work from all characters around bringing fine nuances to
even minor characters. Only she is not sure which direction the cart has to go.
I ended up thoroughly confused and angry. Angry because I just could not bare
to see the Rajkumar act and a lovely Kriti waste their efforts to finally do an
‘akkward ‘ dance at the end.
Govind Namdeo keeps going red and all hot. I almost feared
he could have a cardiac arrest on the sets. Too intense man. Confident actors
like a hiding behind her hubby Navni or a very natural Nayani dixit as Abhas
sister stand out.
Rajkumar Rao owns the familiar territory though Kriti in her
beautiful pink manages to hold her own in this twisting like a top in all
directions enterprise.
Wish the director had stuck to Dowry and acted as a
medicinal dose for the erratic society. Instead it ends up looking like it
turned a blind eye to it and supports it.
Watch it if you liked all the recent Kanpur, Lucknow outings
in the recent past and crave for home.
Try not to confused hoke wapas aana !
**1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment