India Masala

That Girl in Yellow Boots: Stark, unsettling cinema

Anurag Kashyap’s “That Girl in Yellow Boots” is an unsettling tale of a girl in search of the father who walked out on her as a child. Kashyap holds back very little in his narration of this tale, portraying Mumbai as a ruthless city that makes her search even more difficult than it should have been.

Kalki Koechlin plays Ruth, a British girl who comes to India hoping to find her father. She struggles in Mumbai, living as an illegal immigrant, working in a shady massage parlour, living in squalid conditions, driven only by her quest for a parent she yearns for.

While she searches, she also has a fling with a drug addict, makes tentative friendships at work and finds herself, more often than not, exploited for what she is — a young immigrant trying to make a living in an alien, chaotic city. She finds herself bribing passport agents and postmasters along the way — and the bribe is not always in cash.

Gulshan Devaiah plays Chittiappa, a small- time crook, who uses Ruth because her boyfriend owes him money. Naseeruddin Shah plays Diwakar, an amiable old man who genuinely looks out for Ruth while Pooja Swarup plays Maya, Ruth’s acid-tongued but kind-hearted colleague at the spa.

Kashyap builds up his characters in minimal time, giving us time to get to know them intimately as the film progresses. This is a no-holds barred film, and if you squirm in your seat a couple of times, think of it as a triumph for the film-maker.

Kalki Koechlin is excellent as Ruth, bringing the right amount of anguish and angst to her character, but it was Gulshan Devaiah who stole the show for me. He brought to life his character of a hardened criminal who still has a small-town boy living inside him.

This is not your regular Bollywood fare – and thank God for that. It is a film that is disturbing on many levels, but if you can handle some discomfort, I would recommend that you give this one a go.

Shor in the City: Smart writing makes a smart movie

It’s OK not to have too many expectations from “Shor in the City” — I know I didn’t. After all, it doesn’t have a great star cast, there hasn’t been too much buzz around it and except for the music (the lilting ‘Saibo’ number especially), the promos didn’t really stick in your mind.

The movie, however, is a whole other story. This is a smart film — one that hooks you from the get-go and doesn’t let up. Co-directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D K are sure of their craft and confident in their script and it shows.

The film follows several characters through the course of eleven days in Mumbai during the Ganesh festival. Tilak (Tusshar Kapoor), a small time printer who deals in pirated books, Sawan, a cricketer, whose ticket to the future depends on bribing a selector and Abhay, (Sendhil Ramamurthy) who returns to India from the United States, hoping to set up a business in Mumbai, are all part of the canvas of the film.

To reveal any more would be to spoil the fun of this snappy film. The pace is fast, and the dialogues are everyday lingo, but they have a spark to them. Also, full marks for the stellar ensemble performance the directors extract from their actors.

Of special note are performances by Pitobash and Radhika Apte (who also makes an appearance in another of this week’s releases “I Am”), who play Tilak’s friend and wife respectively.

Also, in spite of the fact that the characters seem so unrelated to each other at first, the directors tie up the threads beautifully at the end, intertwining their lives with just the right amount of coincidence, so that it doesn’t jar.

I recommend you watch this film, it is unlikely you will leave the theatre disappointed.

Dhobi Ghat: A whole new hue

There’s a charming scene in Kiran Rao’s “Dhobi Ghat”, where Yasmin (Kriti Malhotra) is filming her maid-servant and her daughter for a video tape she’s making for her family back home. While the maid is suitably coy about being on film, she’s also equally anxious to finish off with the niceties, and do what she’s there to do — work, earn her living and move on to the next house.

That scene for me epitomises Mumbai in so many ways. It’s a city always in a rush as Yasmin says — there’s no time to waste on getting to know your neighbours or sharing gossip with them — not when there’s money to be earned and a living to be made.

Rao captures this and so many other myriad hues of the city marvellously in her directorial debut, a deeply insightful portrait of four individuals who find and lose love and deal with loneliness in Mumbai.

Aamir Khan plays Arun, a reclusive, commitment-phobic artist who is fascinated with a set of tapes he comes across, chronicling the life of a new bride in Mumbai city. Kriti Malhotra plays that bride, coy and full of hope, reporting daily events like what she’s made for dinner and her neighbour’s problems on tapes that she hopes to send to her brother back home.

Monica Dogra plays Shai, an investment banker on sabbatical who after a one-night stand with Arun is slighted by him, and uses their common laundry man or dhobi Munna (played by Prateik) to keep tabs on Arun. Slowly, she forms a bond with Munna, a migrant from Bihar, who harbours dreams of making it big as an actor.

Rao takes her time establishing her characters, but they are so well fleshed-out, you don’t mind discovering their quirks slowly. The film moves at a slow pace but is beautifully shot in real locations, mostly in South Mumbai. Performances are top-notch, but Malhotra and Prateik stand out – both conveying so much through just one glance that you empathise with their characters straight away.

Films like “Dhobi Ghat” are like exploring a new cuisine — your palate may take time to get used to, given the “masala” and action it has been used to — but stick with it, and you will discover flavours you have never tasted before.

from Photographers Blog:

Come, fall in love

I first encountered the 52-year-old Maratha Mandir movie theater while I was on one of my walks to explore Mumbai. Being new to the city, I do this often. It was just a casual walk down the lanes of the city when I saw a huge billboard promoting a film outside the cinema. The billboard proudly advertised it as the longest-playing film in Indian history.

The film "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (The Big Hearted Will Take the Bride), starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, is a simple romantic film shot in Europe and India, where a boy meets a girl and falls in love with her - girl is about to get married in India - boy takes the journey from Europe to India to win her over.

I still remember when the film was released in 1995, it became an instant hit amongst the youth. Fifteen years down the line it’s unthinkable that people still love to watch it and in a cinema to boot!

At Maratha Mandir, it was the watchman who first told me that DDLJ, as the film is popularly known, still runs to a full house in the 1000-plus-seats cinema. I, of course, didn’t believe him until I met Manoj Desai, the cinema’s executive director. He invited me to watch the film, promising it would answer all my questions. He asked his manager to reserve a seat for me, as on Sundays the film is usually sold out. He said it was the first time in the history of Maratha Mandir he was allowing someone to shoot inside the ‘heart’ of the theater --- the projection room.

On the day of my shoot, I arrived an hour before the ticket window was to open…and there was already a long line waiting to get inside. There were young men, old men, women, children...all equally keen to catch a glimpse of the iconic Bollywood film.

Striker: Sporadically good

Chandan Arora‘s “Striker” is one of those sleeper films — the ones which don’t have big stars or a big marketing budget, so that you don’t find hoardings at every street corner or its stars on every reality TV show.

But perhaps it is because of this that you go in without too many expectations and allow the director to pleasantly surprise you — at least in some parts.

Siddharth, whose last Hindi film was “Rang De Basanti” stars as Surya Sarang, a young man trying to make it big in Mumbai who lives in the far-flung suburb of Malvani, an area which forms a an ideal backdrop for the film.

He is also a champion carrom player and even impresses local don Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi), who asks him to play in one of his many gambling dens.

Surya initially resists but egged on by his best friend Zaid (played very well by Ankur Vikal) and in desperate need of money, he gives in.

Once he does enter the dark world of gambling, it is difficult to find a way out, and Surya finds Zaid and himself increasingly pulled into the murky politics of the trade.

Arora does manage to insert great moments and enough drama to keep you engaged throughout the first half.

Fashion overdose: Do we need so many expensive clothes?

Whenever I have attended the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai, it has always struck me as an event that is a little out of my league, but something that always gets the eyeballs.

After all, isn’t fashion, at least some form of it, an increasingly essential part of urban living?

Sometimes a random occurrence is the best way to get things in perspective.

On my way to the venue this week, I overheard two college girls in the local train, planning a shopping expedition to Linking Road in Bandra, a Mumbai shopping street known for funky accessories and clothes sold on the footpath.

From their conversation, it seemed like they were on a tight budget (like most college students) but couldn’t stop talking about the kind of shoes they hoped to buy.

I looked at their excited faces and thought about our destinations. Both were about fashion but so far removed from each other.

Where I was going, fashion was about high-end clothes (some of which were even hard to like), air kisses, Louis Vuitton bags and haute couture.

A House for Mr Hashmi

When you are a Bollywood actor in Mumbai, doors open automatically — or at least so you would think. But as Shabana Azmi, Aamir Ali and now Emraan Hashmi have discovered, there are some doors which remain shut.

Hashmi has complained to the Minorities Commission of Maharashtra that he and members of his family were not allowed to buy a flat in the posh locality of Bandra — because of his religion.

In his complaint, the actor said he was stopped from completing a purchase of a flat in Bandra’s Pali Hill because the society did not want to allow Muslims.

On the face of it, it seems ridiculous. What’s more, it is illegal.

Abraham Mathai, Vice-Chairman of the state minorities’ commission, told Reuters it would recommend legal action against the building secretary and chairperson if what Hashmi said did happen.

This is not the first time Bollywood is talking about discrimination. Someone as senior and well-respected as Shabana Azmi has spoken about it in the past. Television actor Aamir Ali has also said he found it hard to get a flat in Mumbai.

Unfortunately, this is the first time any one has done anything about this kind of discrimination and Mathai vouches for that.

Kal Kissne Dekha: Not really future perfect

The last Hindi film I watched in a theatre was Nagesh Kukunoor’s “Tasveer”, an improbable tale about a man who has ‘photographic visions’ and can revisit the past. Then Bollywood took a break and I hoped it would serve the industry well.

After all, isn’t that what a break is supposed to do? Refresh and enliven, so that you can come back feeling fresher.

Unfortunately, Bollywood seems to have gone from bad to worse in that time — if you go by the first release since the film producers’ strike — Vivek Sharma’s “Kal Kissne Dekha”, starring debutante Jackky Bhagnani and Vaishali Desai. A jaded, disjointed and totally mediocre film about a boy who can see into the future.

Bhagnani plays Nihal Singh, who comes from Chandigarh to Mumbai for higher studies. It is another story that his college, hostel and surroundings look nothing like Mumbai. There he meets Misha (Desai), the arrogant, rich girl who hates him at first sight.

We are also introduced to Professor Varma, played by Rishi Kapoor in an ugly wig, and told that protagonist Nihal has the power to foretell the future.

Eventually, after misunderstandings, fights and a lot of meaningless song sequences, Nihal and Misha fall in love.

With that settled, director Sharma moves on to the action part of the film, introducing the “terrorist” element — a plot to plant bombs all over Mumbai.

Slumdog’s Danny Boyle wants to make another film in Mumbai

“Slumdog Millionaire” was proof enough of British filmmaker Danny Boyle’s love for India and Mumbai. But the filmmaker hasn’t had enough of the city or this country.

Boyle told reporters on Wednesday he would love to make more films in India and was in fact in talks with filmmakers Anurag Kashyap and Shekhar Kapur. He didn’t give any details but he did mention how much he loved working in Mumbai.

“Slumdog” producer Christian Colson was a little more forthcoming, saying a couple of projects were being discussed and Boyle was keen to direct them.

This is not the first time the British filmmaker has talked about making a film in India. In January, Boyle told a press conference in Mumbai he was keen to make a thriller in the city, because he felt its geography would lend itself very well to the subject.

How to walk the ramp? Ask Shah Rukh Khan

Ever looked at those picture perfect fashion models walking on the runway and wondered how they do it? Well, actor Shah Rukh Khan has the answer.

“I was told the secret was to suck your cheeks in, pout your lips and look really angry, when you walk the ramp,” Khan told a wildly cheering audience after he walked the ramp for Manish Malhotra at Mumbai’s Lakme Fashion Week.

Looking dapper in a black-and-gold jacket and cheered on by celebrities Arjun Rampal, Preity Zinta, Kajol and Karan Johar, Khan was clearly the show-stopper on Monday night.

Khan’s tongue-in-cheek humour was also in full form, because he thanked Malhotra for being the first fashion designer ever “to design a sling” — referring to the matching gold-and-black sling he wore for the show.

Doctors have advised the 43-year-old actor to keep his arm in a sling for at least six weeks after he underwent shoulder surgery last month.

Of course, Khan wasn’t the only Bollywood attraction at the fashion week.

Earlier on Monday, Akshay Kumar walked the ramp for designer Tarun Tahiliani and asked wife Twinkle, seated in the front row, to unbutton the fly of his jeans.