Manikarnika- Kangana Run-out!

Image Source - IMDb

Happy New Year folks!

Have you been sticking to your resolutions! I have: p

After a 3 month sabbatical, Bob and I are back with our reviews. We thought we’d start out with a film review. Please follow our blog and also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We have loads of recipes, product reviews, book reviews, DIYs lined up!

Kangana Ranaut had been on quite a roll and deservedly so. I loved her roles in Queen, Tanu weds Manu Returns and Simran. I hadn’t even seen the trailers of Manikarnika and I was excited to watch this film. I like historical films provided they stick to the plot and keep the film as close to real life events and that would also mean not over-romanticising situations/events. I was also curious to see how the film would turn out knowing that Kangana was one of the Directors of the film.

I was disappointed!

PLOT: The film is based on the life of Rani Laxmi Bai.

Manikarnika is a young woman, full of spunk. Jhansi is beset not only by the British forces but also by enemies from within the walls of the palace. Sadashiv Rao, a rival prince has his eyes on the throne. A minister of Jhansi spots ‘Manu’ hunting a tiger and impressed by her courage, he chooses her to wed the King of Jhansi. Unlike her husband, ‘Manu’ refuses to be cowed into submission by the British Officers. At the same time, she wins the affection of the people of Jhansi by standing up for their rights.

Post the death of her husband and son under mysterious circumstances, Laxmi Bai succeeds as the Queen of Jhansi. Taking advantage of this situation, the British ask the  Queen to leave the palace. She finds support from the locals and gathers an army to take back the palace and defend Jhansi from the clutches of the British Empire. What follows is the battle between Jhansi led by Rani Laxmi Bai and the British troops led by Hugh Rose.

I was probably expecting too much from this film and hence came out of the hall disappointed.

Let’s not take away Kangana’s acting skills. I wouldn’t call this, one of her best works, but she was good. Other actors had negligible scenes in the film. One would have expected more screen space for actors portraying pivotal roles such as those of Sadashiv Rao (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and Jhalkari Bai(Ankita Lokhande). The senior members of the cast -Suresh Oberoi as Bajirao (in whose palace Laxmi Bai has been brought up), Danny Denzongpa as Laxmi Bai’s trusted army general, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as a minister of Jhansi too have a ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ role in the film. However minor a role, apart from the actors playing the British Officers, the rest have done a good job. The Britishers’ speech sounded forced and rehearsed unlike the ones who acted in Lagaan.

 Here is what ruined the film:

1.     I am a fan of Kanagana Ranaut and I understand she’s the protagonist of the film (well, the film IS named after her character) so don’t get me wrong when I say this – she’s made the film all about herself! I really do think that scenes of other actors have been deleted from the final cut. Am I nitpicking? If you felt the same, please do leave a comment below.

2.     It’s a historical film! Why do we need the lead to be all dolled up, sporting a different hairstyle in each scene? Wasn’t it enough that all close-ups of Kangana were airbrushed!

3.  Every visual scene needn’t be vocally explained to the audience by a loud proclamation. When we see a person lying on the floor in a pool of blood, we know he’s dead. Don’t announce it. We are not watching CID!

4.    What’s with the random song and dance sequence! And we have the Queen joining in too. Let’s keep it real, people!

5.   Enough with the tight shots and sweeping shots already! We don’t need to see Kangana and her palace from all angles.

6. The dialogues felt very 1990’s. Kangana’s dialogues in the second half when she’s proclaiming her love for her country and encouraging her subjects to follow suit, while well delivered, is not moving enough. I wasn’t left teary eyed!

7.    There’s no correlation between some of the scenes. For eg: when Jhalkari Bai’s calf is taken away by the British officers from her house (which is nowhere in the vicinity of the palace), the next scene has Laxmi Bai barging into the Officers’ mess to get the calf back.

I hear the film is doing well and receiving accolades but I wouldn’t recommend watching this in the theatres. The film would have been much better with another Director/s and scriptwriter.

Clearly, Kangana’s association with the name Krish has never gone down well.  

Look what I found on the Just Cricket, Cricket Academy grounds :) 

SANJU – NAYAK/KHALNAYAK ?

As we headed to the theatre, we had “Tamma Tamma Loge” playing on the radio and then this auto cut us from behind and sped ahead of us.      

  

An RJ was reviewing this film and stated that the film didn’t send across the right message as it was glorifying a person who abused drugs and alcohol, had a self-indulgent lifestyle and had faced jail time for concealing a weapon at home. I would have to disagree with the RJ. The film is a biopic and depicts incidents from Sanjay Dutt’s life, those that we have been privy to and then goes about to rationalize (and at times even validate) his life choices. We all know that Sanjay’s life has been a roller coaster ride and wrought with bad life choices and via this film he seeks to explain why he made the choices that he made and how media failed to report these events accurately. He is not made to appear as a “larger than life” hero in this film nor are his choices glorified. As a viewer, you may choose to either empathise with him or may walk out with derision for him. I chose to enjoy the film as any other regular film and not have an opinion on the veracity of the events narrated in the movie.  

PLOT: The film begins with Sanjay Dutt (Ranbir Kapoor) trying to rope in Winnie Diaz (Anushka Sharma) a biographer in attempt to get her to write a book on him that would clear his name and erase the tag of ‘terrorist’ associated with him. Sanjay narrates his story to her, starting from the filming of Rocky. The film covers his relationship with his parents, Sunil Dutt (Paresh Rawal) and Nargis (Manisha Koirala). There are many characters introduced that structure his life-  his conniving friend, Zubin Mistry (Jim Sarbh) who introduces him to drugs, his ex girlfriend Ruby (Sonam Kapoor) and her father (Boman Irani), his close friendship with Kamlesh (Vicky Kaushal), his pillar of support, his wife Manyata (Dia Mirza).

The film spans across the period of his introduction to films, Nargis’s death, Sanjay’s downward spiral with drug abuse, his involvement with the underworld and his arrest and stint in prison for possession of illegal weapons.

Disclaimer: Never been a fan of Sanjay Dutt.

Most reviewers seem to be judging Sanjay Dutt and not reviewing the film. The film doesn’t glorify Sanjay in any way but it does seek to justify all his actions-drug abuse caused by demise of mother, being dumped by girlfriend, a controlling father; concealing weapons at home due to Sanjay’ naiveté, fear of the Underworld, blind faith in friends, desire to protect father.  Have the facts been narrated truthfully? Who knows? Who cares?

Let’s review the film for what it is. A well-known actor with a celebrated lineage has had a tumultuous life that involves drugs, sex and crime. Once proclaimed a failure, he makes a comeback and what a comeback that was! There is so much material to make a high grossing film. And that is what has been done by Raj Kumar Hirani.

When I had initially read that Ranbir would be playing Sanjay Dutt, I couldn’t visualise the resemblance. Upon watching the film, I must say that Ranbir has done a brilliant job at portraying Sanjay Dutt and has perfectly reproduced nuances of Sanjay’s behaviour. Some scenes may have been over the top but then Sanjay Dutt has at times been “over the top”.  But the scene-stealer is clearly Vicky Kaushal. He portrays the role of a nondescript, Gujarati friend with such ease and his role, though not one of a protagonist clearly showcases his versatility as an actor. The other actor that deserves a mention is Jim Sarbh as the scheming friend. Paresh Rawal is good but somehow not well suited to play Sunil Dutt. Other actors have been underutilised such as Boman Irani, Piyush Mishra and Anjan Shrivastava. The female actors have minor roles.

I only wish the film hadn’t been scripted in the typical Hirani fashion. Slapstick humor is introduced to lighten the atmosphere and most scenes that ought to have remained solemn are punctuated with silly comedy. To make up for this, a tear jerking scene is thrown in. The second half feels a bit rushed, with the Director trying to cram in as many plots within the three-hour framework.

Sky believes that Ranbir did not perform to his full potential and that Barfi still remains his best work till date. He was all praises for Vicky Kaushal. He rated the movie with a 3/5.

I would give it a 4/5. The film was entertaining, the actors were good, some laugh out loud scenes and some had the audience tearing up (not me!). The film had its moments (the Munnabhai scene) that got a few hoots from the audience. I’d say watching the film in the theatre was money well spent.

LION- ROARING SUCCESS

Image Source - IMDb

Just one stanza of a Hindi song or a two minute cameo appearance of an actor from the Hindi film industry in a Hollywood movie is enough to make me want to watch that film. When I saw the trailer of Lion at the Oscars’ in 2017, I couldn’t wait to watch it, but I missed watching it in the theatres. It aired on TV last week and I knew that I had to write a review on this one.

Many may recall the attention that Sunny Pawar, the unassuming and amiable little child that plays the protagonist in the movie, drew at the Oscars.

Lion is based on the book A Long way Home written by Saroo Brierly and is based on his life. 

The movie is about a 5 year old boy Saroo (Sunny Pawar) from Khandwa, Madhya Pradesh, India, a child of a labourer, who gets separated from his brother, Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) at a railway station and ends up in a train that takes him all the way to Kolkata. Despite his frantic attempts, he is unable to get help from anyone to take him back to his place, ‘Ganestalay’. After facing a lot of travails and escaping from the clutches of child snatchers including the syrupy faced Noor (Tannishtha Chatterjee) who feeds him and bathes him only to make him presentable to Rama (Nazwazuddin Siddiqui), Saroo finally finds himself in a children’s home which is no better than the outside world. There are shady things happening in this place and Saroj Sood (Deepti Naval) has taken it upon herself to rescue the children from this place.

Saroo gets adopted by an Australian couple Sue and John Brierly (Nicole Kidman and David Wenham) and flies to Tasmania where he begins to settle in. The Brierlys adopt another boy from India, Mantosh who unlike Saroo has some difficulty adjusting with the family.

The story moves forward in time and Saroo is now 26 years old (played by Dev Patel). He is an Australian now right down to rooting for the Australian cricket team rather than the Indian. He moves to Melbourne to study hotel management where he meets Lucy (Rooney Mara). A meal with his Indian friends brings back memories from India and with Lucy’s encouragement Saroo begins to trace his roots to India using Google Earth. Whilst Saroo is drawn to India, at the same time, he is feeling conflicted wondering if tracing his biological mother would mean betraying his adoptive mother.

Will Saroo continue in his search for his hometown in India? Will he locate “Ganestalay”? Will he be reunited with his mother and brother?

When I started watching the movie, I was wondering what all the fuss about Sunny Pawar was. I had seen better child actors. But as the movie progresses, you find that there is something so endearing about Sunny. He isn’t “acting”, acting and it would appear that film has captured a real life incident as is and that Sunny is the real Saroo, a lost and confused 5 year old who somehow still manages to have his wits around him.

Lion received 6 Oscar nominations and won two BAFTAs. It is also the highest grossing Australian film of all time.

All actors including those with minor roles (Guddu, Mantosh) have done a wonderful job. A special mention to Nawazuddin, whose screen appearance is less than 2 minutes but sends chills down your spine.

Sunny Pawar, no doubt, is the star of the show. The film shows Sunny walking barefoot, covered in filth,  rummaging through all that garbage in search of food and gets you wondering how does one film such a scene so realistically!  His face looks unwashed, his eyes crusty and there’s dried mucous around his nose!

The film beautifully captures emotions of the actors. The mother’s anguish over her lost child, the blind hope of being finally traced by his mother, the joy of laying eyes on their adopted child who has travelled from across the world, the guilt of having led a comfortable life while your family may still be unaware of your survival, the conflict of having to choose biological over adopted...

The film doesn’t have many dialogues but manages to tell the story beautifully. The ending is bittersweet but then all’s well that ends well.

Throughout the entire movie, you wonder why the film is called Lion. I even thought it was because Dev Patel’s hair hangs loose from his head like a mane (!!!). The title of the movie is explained towards the end and I may have shed a tear or two.

PADMAN-CHADDI KA CHAMATKAR

Image Courtesy - IMDb

I had watched the trailer of PadMan, found it hilarious and was eagerly waiting to watch this movie. The wait was lengthened by a delayed release in a show of solidarity by Akshay Kumar to make way for Padmaavat. The movie is based on the book written by Twinkle Khanna titled “The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad” which in turn was inspired by the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham who invented sanitary napkin machines that manufactured cost-efficient pads making it affordable to rural Indian women.  

I generally look forward to Akshay Kumar starrers and I went to the theatre with high expectations. Moreover, I went with my crazy bunch of friends who, like me, do not believe in muffled laughter!

The movie begins with a song that shows Lakshmikant Chauhan (Akshay Kumar) making minor inventions to save his wife Gayatri (Radhika Apte) from the inconvenience of stinging eyes while chopping onions and bumpy rides, sitting on the cycle’s cross bar (A reminder that the film showcases life in the 1990s when people didn’t have the convenience of viewing easy life-hacks on YouTube) The film was shot in a village near Indore and records the journey of Lakshmi who initially starts off with wanting his wife to have better menstrual hygiene by using sanitary napkins rather than continue using the cloth. When she refuses to use the pad on account of the steep price, he takes it upon himself to make affordable pads not only for her but also for other women in his village. However, all attempts at getting his wife and other women to use the pads he made, fail. Lakhsmi is now labelled a pervert in his village who despite many a warning continues to meddle in “ladies’ affairs” and speak openly about “that, which should not be named”.  Gayatri returns to her brother’s house claiming that she’d rather die of unhygienic conditions than of shame that has befallen her.  Lakshmi leaves his village and sets out on a quest that leads him to invent the sanitary napkin manufacturing machine and this is where Pari (Sonam Kapoor) makes her entry. Pari encourages Lakshmi on his journey of manufacturing affordable pads and distribute it amongst the rural women and also ends up with the pad being named after her. Though the length of time is not divulged, Lakshmi makes the headlines by winning an award at IIT and later on, the Padma Shri and is now looked up to by the people in his village.

I had a sense of déjà vu whilst sitting through the whole film. It reminded me of ‘Toilet’, another Akshay Kumar starrer that had a similar story-line. The Husband in an attempt to improve the wife’s state of living, brings to light a much larger albeit a taboo issue, the whole process which has him shunned by not only the society but also proved tumultuous to his marriage.

The movie, although has its funny bits, is a bit slow. The second half had us yawning and constantly checking our phones with the word “pad, pad, pad” ringing in the background. The actors have portrayed their characters well, the dialogues (especially the speech given by Lakshmi at the end of the movie) are entertaining, the movie succeeds in delivering the social message and yet the movie lacked the wow-factor. I suppose I was expecting too much from the Balki-Akshay duo.

Also, in an attempt to conform to the Bollywood-scene, the introduction of the love triangle and the superfluous “kissing scene” had us all shake our heads in disappointment.

Had the movie not borne a stark similarity to Toilet-Ek Prem Katha, we would have probably enjoyed it a bit more.

Period.

P.S: the tagline in the title of this post is from one of the posters shown in the film welcoming Lakshmi back into his village