Gulabo Sitabo

Movie Review (Hindi)

I have grown to enjoy all the movies that Amitabh Bachchan has acted in lately, meaning as an older man rather than the angry action hero. I am also a huge follower of Ayushmann Khurrana's movies. And when both are present in the same movie, of course I do not give it a miss!

So I had to watch Gulabo Sitabo and as expected it was an amazingly well made engrossing movie. 

The protagonists, Mirza and Baanke, played by Amitabh Bachchan and Ayushmann respectively, have a lot of competition for screen space. Not only with the other characters but with the huge Haveli, known as Fatima Haveli, located in the old part of Lucknow, the sprawling palatial home of his wife, which  Mirza wants to own more than anything else.

With Juhi Chaturvedi as the screenplay writer and Soojit Sarkar directing, there were bound to be some takeaways. So lawyers, builders and archeologists (this was a first!) descended on the haveli owner (by proxy) and the tenants, and it was holy mayhem! 

What also stood out for me was the woman power. Be it Begum, the owner of Fatima Mahal, played by Farrukh Jaffar, or Guddo, Baanke's sister, played by Srishti Srivastava.
The cinematography beautifully brought the crumbling Fatima Mahal to life with the lives of the tenants and landlord intertwining and playing out in different ways.

102 Not Out

Movie Review (Hindi)

Though the movie has been touted as a comedy, it is much more than that. It tells the tale of neglected parents waiting for any kind of communication from their children who live on the other side of the globe and find it easy to cut off familial ties and hope the parents understand their problems. It also tells the tale of the elderly taking their age too seriously. 

The comedy lies in the witty repartee between father- played by Amitabh Bachchan who is 102 years old and his son - played by Rishi Kapoor who is 75 years old.  Both these actors show their mettle and the way the years in the film industry have matured them.

I do wish the wig used for Amitabh was given more thought. A matted white wig does not necessarily translate into a realistic one. Also a person who is 102 years old, would show it in his physicality too. Father and son seemed to be from the same age group. Would seem better had they been brothers with different personalities.

Like a good entertaining movie and as the name suggests - an interesting T20 Cricket match, there were several upheavals and the best saved for which brought out handkerchiefs.

I certainly hope that both the actors shine on and entertain cine-goers for years to come. Thanks to Umesh Shukla for competent directing even though he must have been in awe of the stalwarts!!

PINK

Movie Review (Hindi)

I could not understand why the movie had to be called pink. Isn’t it creating those very same biases that the film sets out to break down? I think the movie should have been called Blue. It is after all an essential movie for men. The movie is based on a simple notion really – No means No. When will our immature men learn this?

Loved the manual for safety of girls that the lawyer (Bachchan) spells out. No laughing when you are with boys, no drinking either, no going to rock shows and no wearing western attire. It is also dangerous to be living away from parents on your own. You cannot be independent. So if a woman follows these rules she is safe in India, right? 

Wrong!!! 

The very fact that she is a female qualifies her as a prey. She can be any age, from just born till 90 years (or more), she need not wear western clothes and need not drink or laugh. She will be preyed upon, nonetheless. We all see various survivors mentioned everyday in the media. What we don’t know is the number of survivors not covered by the media. We also do not know how they get on with their lives, knowing our society.

But the movie was well directed by Soojit Sircar and the actors did well. We need many many more of such movies. I hope these stories make the men cringe a little when they see themselves or a friend in these characters.

Piku

Movie Review (Hindi)

I enjoy movies directed by Shoojit Sircar. Especially because he teams up with an excellent scriptwriter, Juhi Chaturvedi, and voila! an excellent movie is created.

Piku has an interesting story and well defined characters. I have always appreciated Irrfan Khan's acting abilities. I find Amitabh Bachchan getting better with age. But the surprise package is Deepika Padukone. She was so much at ease, getting into the skin of Piku, that I really felt sorry for her and annoyed with her dad.

The humour built around the digestive tract was beyond compare and the toilet seat sitting on top of the car is something I am not likely to forget in a hurry. The last shot of Mr Bachchan touring Kolkata was a delight as was the huge ancestral house where the last scenes were shot.

But the movie is all about the journey from Delhi to Kolkata, Bhaskar Banerjee's (Amitabh) perception of life as it changes and Rana's (Irrfan) exasperation and growing fondness for Piku.

Looking forward to more such quirky though true to life stories...