Tag: movie

Between sweet and sour — Muramba

The sweet and sour of life between Break-up and Patch-up…about relationships and everyday joys. review of the Marathi movie Muramba. a Romcom.

“Its Chinmayee’s movie,”

“Its about a husband empowering his wife”

It was Hobson’s choice and off we went to Samrat for the movie. Somehow I expected an near empty theatre, and to my surprise it was a near full house, the audience ranged from young couples to senior couples to the “united Indian family goes to movies”

A well narrated crisp movie, in the first half it deals with the mundane ridiculousness of everyday life. while the second half brings the more pertinent issue out.

Traditional story telling is either about a person, or a event, this narrative is more focused on the event, “the breakup of Aalok and Indu” the narrative uses flashback to share the events that lead to the break up.

Chinmayee Sumeet as Janaki Aalok’s mother has given a restrained elegant performance. The concerned mother who is alternatively dominating and allowing her son space. Sachin Khedekar as Aalok’s father, who very subtly brings his son to his senses. Mithila Palkar as Indu the girl in love who wants to supportive, but needs to know what she is supporting and Amey Wagh as Aalok who is trapped in his own comfort zone.

Chinmayee and Sachin bring out the bond between the much married couple very well, the easy companionship the underlying protectiveness and respect comes through. Somewhere through the movie there is a feel that there is something else happening which Aalok with his blinkers about his break up is missing, it turns out to his parents wedding anniversary.

Indu on her scooter, Aalok on his bike, the Deshmukhs(Sachin and Chinmayee) in their car,  Janaki’s hurt when her son calls her, “a 10th pass from Dharwad” with disdain, her own self-satisfied look when drives the family car through the safe roads of the housing colony, the detailing has been meticulous.

When Mr.Deshmukh calls his wife by her maiden family name “Ashtekar” it brought home some familiar family moments.

With English subtitles it made understanding the movie easy.

Muramba Well I say – ah movie for the family to see.

Sandook — a curiosity box

sandookOn Friday my husband surprised me, he asked me out for a movie of course it was a Marathi movie and it was more to take a relative out. But of course we did go. And the Movie was “Sandook”

It was first day first show….

Movie set in the British era, it opened like the Malgudi days with R.K. Narayan’s sardonic sense of humour about a statue of a British citizen in the centre of a none descript town of Sambalgad. Subtitles of course helped a person like me, who is not comfortable in Marathi, but all the same it does distract.

Like I said the movie is set in the British India, with Waman Rao Ashtaputre  ( Sumeet Raghavan) who dreams about living up to the Ashtaputre lineage  who are immortalized as photographs on the wall, interesting that  the lineage had photographs of people before tradition of photographs arrived.  He gets his much awaited chance accidentally, through a friend Banya who is a revolutionary who hands him a sandook… which is the mystery and the key throughout the movie.

Sumeet Raghavan is quite good, in this satirical thriller, that fails to get you bite your nails. Though personally I found the Rahul Mahendale as Bhatkande well essayed, the meek government employ who is a secret revolutionary was brought out well by Mehendale both through body language and voice.  Sharad Ponkshe as Shyam Rao and Brandon Hill as Scott was quite impressive. The rest of the cast do not undermine the final product but they are do not contribute enough to make the movie as powerful as it could be. Oh yes the twist was really a surprise. Firdaus Mewawala as Billimoria was boringly stereotype, who forgot his Parsi accent in between.

The finale where WamanRao Ashtaputre gets to vindicate himself somehow was not very convincing with the way his character was brought out. One particular scene that struck me was WamanRao’s son Bharat, who is all the while reluctant to memorise  his ancestors and their achievement does so  spontaneously as if to all forth their strength at a moment when he needs to be brave.

To me the way the narrative has woven historic facts into it was interesting. This could actually be a great way to learn history in its totality. The use of folk dances was again remarkably authentic thanks to whoever the dance choreographer was may his or her tribe grow.

A good one time watch, for a person who reads the subtitle a true blood Maharashtrian viewer would probably say something different.

rating ***1/2

On Being Mary Kom.

mary kom“Priyanka earned much more than Mary Kom did in her entire career” the social media seem to scream.

Well like Chinmayee Sumeet pointed each did their jobs and the disparity only mirrors our attitude towards the professions and not the competency of the professionals.

Again as Priyanka herself pointed out, the battle that Mary Kom lead, and is still fighting is so enormous that all monetary translations would be pittance in comparison.

What Sania did to Tennis, Saina to Badminton, May did to Boxing. Major Glass ceilings are broken here.

  1. All three are women
  2. Non- cricketers.
  3. Non- cow belters.

It is amazing the kind of achievement they have done. Mary Kom more so for knowingly or inadvertently we tend to forget north-east unless talking of exotic ism.

Coming to the movie I have not seen it thought I do intend to. It has brought awareness of a large section of girls who are into boxing. It has also made the “intelligentsia”, the global Indian acknowledge that there is a vast population of Indians who think beyond cricket and Television.  The Deccan Chronicle actually carried an article on a lesser known “boxing school” for girls in Telangana which has been around for about half a decade.

Mary Kom has also made the middle class supermom, who wants her child to be “princess-ballerina- astronaut” accept that the ballerina can be replaced by boxer though a little reluctant it has become acceptable.

For those of us the disparity is a problem, instead of clucking our indignation, or feeling very righteously upset we could do something proactive..

Maybe donate at least one ticket money to the Mary Kom Academy?

Bhaji Rao Singham is Back…

singham returnsBhaji Rao Singham is back,

My family wants to view it. My experience with last Singham was bad, I had migraine for the next two days. But it was to be a family outing, and at Inox, which I thoroughly dislike, the  rest rooms that stink to the lounge, and the musty smell of pop-corn and sweat inside the theatre makes the experience a nightmare.

A combination of Rohit shetty- Ajay Devgan and Kareena Kapoor….

The movie is set in Mumbai, had some interesting elements, Mr.Adhikhari (Mahesh Manjrekar) t he CM of Maharashtra, his junior BhajiRao Singham and their teacher who is currently the leader of a political party and is popularly called Guruji (Anupam Kher.)

The antagonists are condensed to two characters a fraudulent spiritual leader Baba something or the other and his partner a corrupt politician Mr.Rao.

The movie is the voice of the Mumbai Police of 47,000 who work to keep the 2 crore Mumbaikars safe.

Though movie was not as powerful as the Singham it does have great moments. Like the “three magical words”  “atha majah satakli” and ”mere paise nikhal.” It was fun to watch the audience almost whistling and delivering the dialogues, before the characters do. Like “Daya darwazan thodo” a direct spoof on CID series of Sony TV played by Dayanand Shetty who plays sub-inspector Daya in the series.

Rohit Shetty has again used the very same legal loop holes to get through the system.

The ease in which the characters mixed up Marathi and Hindi like ordinary Mumbaikars do was really interesting. Kareena Kapoor as Avni Bhaji Rao’s love life was the high light of the movie. Instead of the loud outgoing Punjaban here she is gusty Marata girl who loves her food. Please don’t ask about the love life from Singham the actress and character are forgotten by everyone be it the director, Singham, his parents or their gaonwalla.

The mandatory hindu-muslim bhai bhai by the police men “mata taek” –ing at the Mahim Darga, And the reference to a bond between the Mumbai police and the Darga. I am amazed the automobile Industry has not recommended Rohit Shetty for therapy he seems to destroy automobiles with vengeance and with as much brutality as he can.

Then there is this bit, about a daaba owner writing off Avni’s bill after watching her on TV and asking if he can click a selfie with her.

Small things like, the police department shedding their uniform and going as a mob to avenge their colleague and the chief minister very calmly telling the central minister that since the entire force cannot be dismissed the best thing to do is to let them off with a warning.

Ashwini Kaleskar as the media person is not only gorgeous but also a great performer. She makes me survive most of Rohit Shetty’s movies.

The best part of the movie was absolute absence of Punjabi.

Over all  not a bad movie for Sunday outing.

Directed by                 Rohit Shetty

Produced by               Reliance entertainment, Ajay Devgan, Rohit Shetty

Written by                   Sajjid-Farhad

Screenplay by                        Yunus Sajawal

Story by                      Rohit Shetty

Music by                     Jeet Gannguli, Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros Anjjan

Cinematography        Dudley

Starring                      Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amole Gupte, Sharat Saxena,

Mahesh Manjrekar, Anupam Kher Ashwin Kaleskar