Review: The Last Lear
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Arjun Rampal, Preity ZintaDirector: Rituparno Ghosh
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"I shall be good simply because I cannot be bad." This is Harry, an aging, eccentric, Shakespearean actor in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear. The line works equally well for the actor playing Harry: Amitabh Bachchan.
Here he delivers soliloquies, breathes fire, hams and generally chews up the scenery but even when he's way over the top, Mr B commands attention. He holds your gaze, even as the rest of the film wilts away.
Working from Utpal Dutt's play Aajker Shahjahan, Ghosh creates a character study of a theatre actor who lives largely on vodka and memories of past glories. Harry had spent precisely 30 years and 9 months on stage but then he suddenly quit and never came back.
A movie director convinces Harry to act in film. Harry takes on the role of a circus clown but this adventure ends in tragedy.
Ghosh's affection for Harry is palpable. The film works best when Ghosh is setting up his character - a man who has tins hanging on a rope instead of a door-bell. Harry insists this should work just as well - all it needs, he says, is that visitors have a little imagination. Harry's relationship with the director Sid is also nicely established - there is a wonderful scene of Sid and Harry trying to catch passers-by as they pee on the walls of Harry's house.
However, these sparkling moments are bogged down by a ponderous pace and a meandering script.
Ghosh spends too much time setting up his film within a film framework. There is also a tedious sub-plot that involves an actress, nicely played by Priety Zinta, and her abusive lover.
Post-interval, the script becomes even more incoherent and the climax is totally unconvincing. We are never persuaded by the events that take place so it's hard to conjure up ache for the tragedy. Ghosh veers between underlining too much-there is annoying voice-over telling us what we already know-and not telling enough - we don't find out why Harry left the stage until the last reel.
As a filmmaker, he also sends out a decidedly mixed signal telling us that theatre is a much higher artistic calling than cinema.
The Last Lear is a poignant story that doesn't realise its potential. It's frustrating because the material and performances are rich. Go to the theatre prepared to be patient.
Review: Ru Ba Ru
Cast: Randeep Hooda, Shahana GoswamiDirector: Arjun Chandramohan Bali
Anupama Chopra, Consulting Editor, Films
Ru Ba Ru is a copy of the Jennifer Love Hewitt starrer If Only. That film about live-in lovers whose relationship changes after a serious automobile accident, went straight to DVD in the US. Which makes me wonder, if you are going to rip-off a film, why not at least find one that worked in the first place.
But debutant director Arjun Chandramohan Bali reworks this limp love story, setting it in Bangkok where Nikhil and Tara, a busy ad executive and a budding singer-actress, fight, cuddle, annoy each other, kiss, argue, cry and then, thankfully, one of them gets bumped off in a car accident.
While their non-stop banter might sound like many marriages you know, watching them do it is as much fun as watching paint dry. It's pure and absolute tedium.
Death brings some traction into the plot but then we are forced to relive the same day again, this time, with the protagonists making the right choices. In case you still haven't got the message, Nikhil spells it out for you: Hum log future mein kushi doondte hain but life is now.
The actors Randeep Hooda and Shahana Goswami are under a lot of pressure because this film wholly rides upon their talent and charm. Unfortunately both buckle under.
She's an attractive presence and manages to hold your attention for some time at least. Randeep's impassive face worked well in D but here he comes off as strained and stiff.
Ru Ba Ru isn't much fun. Steer clear.
Review: 1920
Cast: Rajneesh Duggal, Adah SharmaDirector: Vikram BhattMusic: Music
Anupama Chopra, Consulting Editor, Films
Director Vikram Bhatt has an uncanny knack for blending divinity and cheap-thrill horror. So in Raaz, he tacked on the legend of Satyavaan and Savitri to the serviceable Hollywood flick What Lies Beneath and created a blockbuster.
Viewers applauded loudly at the notion that the Bhartiya Nari can go to any lengths to save her husband, including warring with an evil spirit. In 1920, we have a role reversal on the same concept. Here the husband finds his faith and saves his wife from an evil spirit.
There is a lot in 1920 that is downright silly. To begin with, we have a mansion in Yorkshire posing as a haveli in Palanpur. So the geography varies from scene to scene - we switch from wet, misty green fields with Gypsy horses to mud houses with peasants in colorful Gujarati dress-without explanation or pause.
The backstory about why this haveli is inhabited by the ghost who stalks is laugh-out loud funny - unintentionally of course. I cannot reveal the twist but it involves a very unique personal sacrifice for the Indian independence movement. Then of course there's the usual foolishness of horror films - even when his wife is stuffing her face with the flesh of a cat, the husband believes the medical doctor's advice that its merely a personality disorder.
But if you're willing to seriously suspend disbelief, 1920 provides mildly diverting entertainment.
Unlike Phoonk, this one has some genuinely scary moments. I jumped when a phonograph and later a mosquito net came to life. Bhatt uses the tropes of horror - creaking doors, eerie background music, long, lonely corridors - effectively.
His leading lady, debutant Adah Sharma, is a vapid presence until she becomes possessed. Then she lets loose her inner Linda Blair from Exorcist and becomes pretty terrifying, climbing walls and killing people.
The hero, Rajneesh Duggal tries hard to match her histrionics but stays largely stiff. Even in moments of high melodrama, in which he rages against his fate without blinking once, he remains oddly wooden.
Actually, the real hero of this film is the house. It's vast, gloomy and superbly creepy. 1920 is, as we say in Mumbai, time-pass. See it if you're in the mood for both laughs and chills.
Review: Tahaan
Cast: Purav Bhandare, Rahul Bose, Anupam Kher, SarikaDirector: Santosh Sivan
Anupama Chopra, Consulting Editor, Films, NDTV
There is a small but telling moment in Tahaan when a little boy, frantically searching for his donkey, interrupts a bunch of kids playing chor-police.
Since we are in Kashmir, half the boys are playing militants and the other half the army. At the end of the game, they all fall down. This brief scene beautifully captures the irony, horror and unending tragedy that is Kashmir.
Director-writer-cinematographer Santosh Sivan gives us a fable about a childhood fractured by loss and grief.
Tahaan?s father was picked up for questioning three years ago and never returned. His mother weeps, prays, searches and endures.
When the money runs out, she sells her son?s best friend, a donkey named Birbal.
Tahaan?s struggle to get Birbal back leads him to a dark, dangerous space. Eventually, he's standing in a street, bewildered and afraid, holding a grenade in his hand.
The children in Tahaan, Purav Bhandre and Dheirya Sonecha, are natural born actors and their innocence adds to the ache in this story.
The adults?Sarika, Anupam Kher, Victor Banerjee, Rahul Bose?are also very good but the performances cannot mask the meandering and sometimes na
