Thoughts on Anurag Kashyap's 'Bombay Velvet'

The frame opens with a few historical facts and anecdotes in post independent India and Bombay in particular. You see a kid (Johnny Balraj) and his mom just landed in the port of Bombay and struggling to m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶start a living and ready to take any odd jobs. Johnny scales his way up by committing crimes, loves a girl, fights the city, makes loads of enemies, loses everything and breaks totally bad in the end. For cinephiles this wouldn’t be something new but a dejavu of Sergio Leone’s 4.5 hour epic ‘Once upon a time in America’ or AL Pacino’s Scarface or Brando’s The Godfather or Scorsese’s Casino or Goodfellas or Gangs of New York or EVERY FUCKIN GANGSTER MOVIE PLOT.

With so many plot elements taken up, awaiting in the movie table for a well-balanced, perfect alchemy, they all ended up getting aimlessly sprinkled in a broken furnace boiling at a lukewarm temperature. There’s nothing more special, twisted, non-linear or highly cerebral in Bombay Velvet. Everything in the plot is set plain, laid out straight and happens so smooth and linear.

As a Kashyap’s fan, I would love to see the madness in the characters, their untouched and unexplored villainous gray matter, their hilarious black matter, the translucence in their shyness, steamy awkwardness in their sexual arousal, not punch dialogues, but day-to-day use powerful lines of the characters that you can quote and remember on top of your head. Do you remember the countless, memorable scenes from Gangs of Wasseypur with Sardar Khan and Faizal or the pain, remorse and redemption seeking part of Dev D or every single character in Ugly or the investigation room sequences from Black Friday…. Even now, the stabs in the Pehalwan killing scene, and the Dubstep to which the characters in UGLY move and groove, gives me a shiver.  That Kashyap’s magic touch is totally missing in this movie just like a totally lost, non-cohesive, non-impactful plot in the film. Largely, it seemed like a wannabe film made by an amateur who was so obsessed with making a period, rise and fall gangster film and brand/ affix his version of ‘Bombay’ in it.

I feel that Kashyap was too passionate and obsessed with this film project that seeing its final outcome itself was way too overwhelming for him and that had engrossed and overshadowed in witnessing all the pits and shortcomings in the project. Like, how I got so absorbed with the disappointment of this movie experience that I keep on writing its flaws here rather a wee bit mention of the best performances and the movie’s brilliance in its making process.  

As I write this, I try to remember how drenched my ears were to the sweetness of Hindi Jazz and the glitz, glamour and glory of Noir-esque, 60s Newyork-esque Bombay, which has been spectacularly recreated and captured in the frames that audaciously trumpeted Kashyap’s passion and creativity in the making of Bombay Velvet, but I standup lost at some point. The experience that I wanted to take away from Kashyap’s film has been totally robbed, I feel, in spite of all this grandeur in the film.  Emotional chord hasn’t been stricken, to say the least.

Most of us largely loved Kashyap’s earlier works, as a whole, and appreciated them by observing the small nuances and moments that stole our hearts. In case of Bombay Velvet, one should try to forget the pitfalls and shortcomings, which is way too hard, and somehow cope up with it. Hey, after all, this young lad, Anurag Kashyap, had reached Bombay years back, struggled to make a living, stood up against the traditional movie business, broke or at least shook and questioned the monopoly and quality of Bollywood films and blazed us all with so many  brilliant movies like a powerhouse Tommy gun on a leash. This boy had stridden against high tides so many times and this one time he deeply bruised an ice rock but didn’t hit a rock bottom. Let’s give him a hand, put this behind us and wait to see what else he has in store for us. I’m sure he will be back with a bang, once again. After all, he is our Johnny who loves to take a beating, every now and then, but doesn’t wait long to give back one.

P.S. As a hardcore Pudupettai fan, most of the time, I couldn’t stop myself thinking and comparing few scenes and dialogues of Bombay Velvet with Pudupettai. Kokki Kumaru character and Pudupettai will never fail to amaze and amuse me. 

Lootera – Totally loots the hearts.

Lootera comes from a guy who did his schooling at Sanjay Leela Bhansali public school and graduated from Anurag Kashyap University. Vikramaditya Motwane’s debut Udaan is based on Anurag Kashyap’s life story.  Udaan’s plot deals with a expelled teenage guy who has no choice in life than to stick with his tyrant father until he takes a giant leap in his life. Each and every one of us could relate to this movie, in some frame, especially the ones stayed in boarding schools and stayed away from home during their teen phase. It was selected to compete in Cannes under Un certain regard category and won a cult status globally. Udaan will leave you spellbound with a triumphant smile and simultaneously with an ecstatic tear and a heavy heart. His Lootera, a poignant period drama, does almost the same but on a different emotional note.

The film opens with a subtle, untold note which one could hum themselves as ‘Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a beautiful princess called Pakhi Roy Chaudhuri’. The story and premise of Lootera can be stripped down in two lines. After hearing a story about a prince whose life has been locked up inside a parrot, a diseased Zamindari girl believes that she will die on a day when a last leaf falls from a tree. Motwane juxtaposed a good old Indian mythological short story with O’Henry classic ‘The Last leaf’ and baked a whole delicious, saccharine flavored love story under the Bollywood mainstream grammar. He has proven that one can make a successful, sensible and a soulful story without the mainstream clichés and compromise.

Amit Trivedi has composed, sorry, crowd sourced some of the best tones, orchestra & OST from Hollywood and world music. We definitely owe this guy big for bringing in the best world sounds, Indianize few and sync it perfectly. The main theme of Lootera has  been ripped from One day’s theme by Rachel Portman and you can also hear Hans Zimmer’s Time from Inception in a long run before the Intermission. But apart from few rip-offs he has composed few original scores too. Music will make you to linger around the spectacular aura on-screen, captured flawlessly by Mahendra shetty. It will be a treat, for all those who drool and jaw drop for dim lighting yellow, groovy gray and blusih black frames with gorgeous lightings.

All the characters have justified their roles perfectly. Even the ones with limited screen space won’t make you to forget them. It was a great transformation to see Sonakshi Sinha on-screen after all the brainless, sultry skin show roles that she had done right from Dabangg. She sizzles and sets the screen on fire not with her flesh but with her elegant grace and looks dashingly beautiful in a traditional Bengali Saree. From sex siren, item number dancer to an artistic performer, she made quite a great leap and Ranveer Singh is equally good, matching her charisma, paring up with her and rendering an adorable and heartwarming on-screen romance and chemistry.

Lootera is well crafted, passionately sculptured, aesthetically cam-captured, soulfully acted. Like a fairy tale romance, one can witness the magic of pure love story on-screen after ages. I don’t remember the last time I've seen an Indian romance, period drama which is as genuine and as good as Lootera. Not in the recent years at least.

Motwane elevates and transcends you into a whole different era in the first half, immerses you in an ocean of heart wrenching, melancholic emotions in the second half and finally sweeps you off completely in the climax. Amongst the big family tree domination in Bollywood industry, Motwane stands tall, stiff, solo and firm as a masterpiece ‘Last leaf’ amongst Kashyap’s kitties.  

Opening the frame with a small, glowing, hot fire flame and closing it with sad, sorrowful snow at the end, Motwane casted his magic spell throughout the film. Lootera is an original piece art and Motwane, you’re a magician.

This post of mine has been written for movie movieroundup website. You can find it here. 

Thanks to Haricharan for publishing it.

'Kshay' Movie Review - Classy, bold and brilliant

Kshay (Corrode) – directed by Karan Gour

Obsession – When you don’t know why you like it and want it, but still you madly need it.

Kshay is the typical portrayal of middle class people in our modern society. By looking at the high class people's lifestyle, the way the middle class people dreams about the money, wealth and fame is far beyond comparison. What Karan Gour has done with Kshay is classy, bold and brilliant.

If ‘Avatar’ plot can be compared or related to the fight of nations for natural resources, concepts of Hinduisms, Neyitri's character as mother nature etc., Kshay’s  plot can be compared with the struggling Indian middle class, their obsession towards wealth in their day-to-day lives. Arvind, a hard working family guy, struggles for the completion of an unfinished construction. He fights with his contractor who loots a portion of his monthly wage consistently. Chhaya, a typical middle class house wife gets obsessed with Hindu Goddess Laxmi's statue, which is far beyond her need and scope of owing it.

Hit by a stone on her cheek, Chhaya walks with a scar the whole movie, which she ironically carries as the bandwagon status that the society imprints on the face of middle class. When goddess Laxmi’s statue flashes in front of her face, she gets the glimpse of wealth, a hope and a leap of faith. With lot of factors drawing and captivating her to own the Laxmi statue, she attempts desperately to buy the statue at any cost- yes, AT ANY COST. What will be the heights of extremity that she will reach to get it, lies the plot which is so obsessive in depicting the levels of craziness and insanity.

In Kshay, black and white texture has been well chosen and used at its best, along with the natural lighting. To picturize obsession, not necessarily one needs glorious colors to portray it. Colors are not needed in detail for a subject, to get obsessed with. Entire film lies in Chhaya's obsession in acquiring the Laxmi statue. The texture of black and white draws us well to feel her obsessiveness. The haunting background score blends well with traumatizing cuts, composed and edited by Karan Gour himself.

It’s unfair to compare our very own Indie filmmakers with others. But, If Q, the director of the Indie movie Gandu (2010 SAIFF winner) was termed as the ‘Gaspar Noé of India’, then Karan Gour has every right to be called as the ‘Lars von Trier of India’. What Darren Aronofsky and Danny Boyle did with addiction in ‘Requiem for a Dream’ and ‘Trainspotting’, Karan Gour does the same with obsession in Kshay.

I felt some sorts of Lars von trier’s ‘Antichrist’ moments while watching Kshay. The scene where Chhaya worries to Arvind about her miscarriage (the stunning, slow, steady, b&w prologue scene from Antichrist where the baby falls and the couple worries later), the tree art in the boy’s T-shirt at the statue shop (the same tree under which Antichrist duo make love, with satanic images around them in delusive sots), the way Chhaya hears and feels certain strangeness in and around her home (when Antichrist heroine hearing voices and whispers around the woods).

Kudos to Karan Gour & team for making Kshay possible amongst all odds. Kshay is a pure work of passion and a genuine piece of art. Art, at its highest level of obsessiveness swinging to-and-fro the eyes of the ultimate observer. The best psychological thriller I have seen in this year so far.

Go and grab a copy of Kshay DVD right away to immerse in the world of obsession.

You can watch the full movie online from youtube, Officially. Click Here

If you love to watch black and white films drooling all the way, check out my list of ‘Top 20 favorite B&W films’ so far. Few films in the below list has its plot dealing with certain type of psychological condition, not Intentional though. To my surprise I found this only after making this list.

1.       Breathless by Jean-Luc-Godard,

2.       The General  by Buster Keaton,

3.       High noon by Fred Zinnemann,

4.       It’s a wonderful Life by Frank Capra,

5.       The bicycle Thieves by Vittorio De Sica,

6.       All about eve by Joseph L. Mankiewicz,

7.       Apu Trilogy by Satyajit Ray,

8.       Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa,

9.       Mr. Hulot’s Holiday by Jacques Tati

10.   Persona  by Ingmar Bergman

11.   12 Angry Men by Sidney Lumet,

12.   Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder,

13.   Following by Christopher Nolan,

14.   Polytechnique by Denis Villeneuve,

15.   Pi by Darren Aronofsky,

16.   Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin,

17.   The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius,

18.   Manhattan by Woody Allen ,

19.   Le Trou (The Hole) by Jacques Becker,

20. Brief Encounter by David Lean.