romeo – Movies of the Soul

Why the Bewakoofiyaan? :: Now that should be a valid question because this was not among those movies which I was looking forward to watch. If there was any Hollywood movie or a hyped Malayalam movie releasing this weekend, I would have surely skipped this with so much ease. Neither the trailer nor the much talked about bikini scene of Sonam Kapoor actually created any interest in this movie. But if we consider the talks about the Cricket World Cup T20 affecting this movie’s business, it can only be partially true in case of a failure to prove false. I am pretty sure that cricket and movies can’t be considered in the same league. Cricket is just another sport (or the least significant of them, thanks to the match-fixing, overdose of money and the retirement of all players who were role-models as IPL has been successfully crowned as the good WWE’s evil twin brother), and movie is an art (even as there have been a lot of high-grossing movies from Bollywood in 2013 itself which attempts to prove that there is a lot of trash); so in this situation when there are not many other movies releasing to challenge this one, Bewakoofiyaan will have only itself to blame.

What is it about? :: It is the love story of Mayera Sehgal (Sonam Kapoor) and Mohit Chaddha (Ayushmann Khurana) who have been in love for quite a long time. In the beginning itself, we come to know that Mohit was promoted and now has a salary above rupees sixty thousand per month. Mayera earns more, and her father VK Sehgal (Rishi Kapoor) is an IAS officer with lots of influence in the police and the government. He is a strict father who wishes to get his daughter married to a rich man so that she can get whatever she wants. But unfortunately, she is in love with an orphan who earns less than what happens to be her salary, and Sehgal can’t accept him. So he puts his future son-in-law in a probation period as he checks his records and keeps a track of his life so that he can understand if he is any good for his daughter. At the same time, he hopes that he can somehow rejects the guy who seems not good enough for his daughter. The movie is all about how the relationship between the three progresses as the situation worsens.

The defence of Bewakoofiyaan :: There are not many things that the movie can boast about. But it does hold onto its mediocrity with such power it doesn’t end up being boring despite not being on the interesting side for long. There are no particular moments which are exceptional or too bad. The movie is like a straight line and it doesn’t go above that standard which it sets in the beginning. The flaws are there, but they can be forgiven up-to an extent as this movie takes no risk, thus keeping everything under control, no bringing any fatal blow on itself. The songs are just about average. The message of love reigning over money is there, even as it works only partially, and most of the time one is left to wonder about all the relationships in the movie, may be with the exception of one very minute love story between the workers of a coffee shop. But there is still the love, and once again they say that money has no real significance in front of love, and there comes the morality tale’s tail and it wags.

The Claws of flaw :: There are always movies like Besharam which eats and breathes flaws in bulk and thrives on nothing else. But Bewakoofiyaan doesn’t go that way even when the tendency is always there. The plot’s predictability is the first thing that keeps pulling the movie back, as we have seen such stories so many times that such overdose can make Barnabas Collins lose his faith in eternal love and burn copies of Romeo and Juliet. The emotional element is indeed weak, as the so called love separates just in the name of a rock show and shoes. Then everything just comes into place after a sudden transformation from the future father-in-law out of nowhere. This lack of ideas and innovations makes brings to us the makers’ need to inflate the movie further. The funny moments doesn’t work fully and the laughter is limited. In that case, the relief is Rishi Kapoor who handles that side with care, even as we know that there could have been so many more moments created with a story like this. I would say, use that stupidity in the title to create a big advantage!

Performers of the soul :: The first impression that one might get after hearing about the movie might be that it is the movie of Sonam Kapoor, and there is the need to look out for her. We wish that there would be something special coming up, but there is nothing. She ends up being just the third important character in the story in a movie which is all about her getting married to the man she loves, and the one thing she manages is to looks awesome throughout the two hours. Ayushmann Khurrana does well though, in a character which doesn’t seem to being anything new. We can’t say that they haven’t tried to bring the title of the movie into the plot though. But the whole thing is taken over by Rishi Kapoor more than anybody else. He remains funny throughout the movie, even as the character can’t escape from being irritating at times. We have seen better father-in-laws who wish to save their daughters from making the wrong choice, but as far as this one is concerned, it is the actor who makes it more interesting. He only gets better by the time the movie gets closer to the end.

Soul exploration :: There is question of choosing money or love, and our characters seem to choose both of them at one or the other point of time. Still, love is asserted again and again, and somehow the hero and heroine manages to stick together until that one stupid fight which lands out of nowhere. The father-in-law is too much into money until he suddenly transforms. If the message is about how minute a thing money is, that is still a fine message, in a world where Gandhiji works only paper. The movie also touches the dignity of labour and the value of true friendship, and the fact that nothing is forever; they are even doubtful about the couple happily living ever after as they write so in the end. As far as reckless spending is concerned, this doesn’t work that well as the Malayalam movie Diamond Necklace or even as much as London Bridge, as that side is too much eclipsed by the romantic side. But one can’t disagree to the fact that some lessons might have been learned by the protagonists and there is a lot more in store.

How it finishes :: My birthday was this week, just a few days ago and my desire to watch a movie on the day was finally fulfilled with this one. Yes, I am giving a certain amount of birthday bonus to this movie, as there would have been no birthday movie for me if it wasn’t for this one. Yes, there are no better movies which released this weekend. The number of theatre going audience has gone down, but still the fact remains that they have failed to release movies like Prisoners, Oldboy, Ender’s Game, I Frankenstein and Non-stop here; when they don’t release such movies which can bring audience, and instead did come up with movies like After Earth and Mortal Instruments: City of Bones last year, there is no doubt that they don’t know what the viewers want. Then there is 300: Rise of an Empire with the most shows in a multiplex which will be abandoned by families; so this is your week, Bewakoofiyaan – hold on to it, and if you can stick to the screens and the opinions won’t go too bad, you can come out well; after all you are still better than movies like Chennai Express, Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3.

Release date: 14th March 2014
Running time: 118 minutes
Directed by: Nupur Asthana
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor

@ Cemetery Watch
✠The Vampire Bat.

There are few movies which the Vampire Bat would watch a few thousand times other than the horror flicks and the Malayalam movies of the 1980s. The end of this movie was that moment when the Vampire Bat actually felt the same – that moment when he was light enough to fly. It was the moment this bat felt that he was that feather which felt the wind lifting one’s self towards the starry sky. It is not exactly the feeling he had after watching Celluloid, as it is more comparable to that status where he was, after watching Pranchiyettan and the Saint. This rarely happens to the Vampire Bat, for this one has the status of being the second. With its visual beauty of nature, it is comparable to Ordinary, as this one highlights the backwaters while the Kunchako starrer had concentrated on the hills, mountains and the related greenery with fog. There is thunder, dark clouds, water bodies in its maximum body – how can one person do justice to this movie with a subjective review is a question which might remain answered; but what would an objective review do other than being too scientific and technical? This soul would keep closer to the former as possible, and in that way find himself in the process. Here, we have the story of an ancient church parish and the people, a love story and a band’s struggle for survival. The whole story can be read better from the beautiful characterization rather than as a plot.

Swati Reddy as Sosanna – such a character and so much of wonder in that performance! I can’t remember seeing such a female character on screen in any Malayalam movie. One has to wonder who she really is! The first guess would be that of a Keralite Juliet who comes out to the balcony (here, as the house is more of a traditional style, looking through the window) listening to the divine music by the artist that is Solomon (Fahadh Fazil). Well, they don’t die and so lets leave the tragic side of Romeo and Juliet behind. They can still have the title in the name of divine love, but on second thoughts, Sosanna is more of Rapunzel, imprisoned in a tower by the evil ones; her use of frying pan even bring the memory of the newer Rapunzel of Tangled (please avoid the hair details). Her character is the centre, around which the whole movie is built, even if our heroes get more screentime. Each and every second of her presence indicates something which is to happen, and the whole divinity rests on herself and the music. She, the angel in white dress, the absence of black and greyness. She is complexity in simplicity – all in one; more than one simple village damsel – lovable and admirable with all her positives and negatives.

She is no different from the Rapunzel of Tangled on most of the occasions – she pushes the kapyar into water and asks her lover if he wants to be the Father in a church or her children’s father; she pours chicken curry over a gunda and hits him with a frying pan; she eats “naranga mittayi” with that happiness which William Wordsworth might have felt after seeing Daffodils; she uses paper rockets as love letters; she reads only from Solomon’s Song of Songs when asked to read the Bible; she talks about love in a cemetery (the Vampire Bat’s recommndation for this one) – the saga continues for Sosanna is not the weaker one to be subdued; for she is the frying pan fighter striking fear in the minds of the most powerful gundas. She is the passionate lover, the advisor, the fighter, the damsel in distress and still in lesser distress than her lover who is the man in distress. She is our blessed damozel; of this world and not the other, not the one Dante Gabriel Rossetti pictured in heaven, but the one person who continues to bless this movie with her presence. How can one not consider this one as a non-animated character at any stage? The words describe less and the scenes visualize more.

Fahadh Faasil as Solomon – he has done it again, and I might end up using this same sentence for the same actor for so many occasions that I would lose count of it. This is not brilliance unexpected, and I would always keep the expectations high on one actor. Fahadh in that Christ costume for the festival was something which made divinity come down from heaven. All the jokes related to his character and Sosanna are so genuine and wonderful – or even beautiful, if jokes could be termed “beautiful” with all its aspects. Here is a character of simplicity, lack of self-confidence and unparallel love. He is the new Romeo in many aspects, and he is the Jack of his ever-sinking Titanic that is a life of poverty which can only be made to be of any hope by getting himself into the music band sponsored by the local parish church. This character’s life surely is a divine comedy as it is subtitled, as the title character travels through his own inferno, purgatorio & finally the paradiso achieved by his merit. He is our own Dante Alighieri. Hell, purgatory, and heaven – they are all in this world for Solomon, the ultimate underdog. If Sosanna is more of an unpredictable character than her lover, Solomon steals the show by being predictable and still rising to the occasion. This might be Fahadh’s best performance ever, even as I am sure that I will be forced to say that again on another occasion.

Indrajith Sukumaran as Father Vincent Vattolli – always been in my list of favourite actors, and I am short of words for talking about this one – no do not bring me the dictionary, for I have word substitutes working for me. He is the exact opposite of the Vicar Father Abraham Ottaplakal (Joy Mathew). While the former tries to save the band, unite the two lovers and keep the church as the ancient structure, the latter tries to dismantle the band, separate the two lovers and rebuild the church. Both have brought the levels to new heights as one becomes so likable and the other detestable – the two characters are played with such perfection that one can’t resist believing them as what they are. There are times when one has to wonder how close to evil and away from the neutrality of the beginning, the Vicar happens to be as the second half progresses. The big paradox here is that the revolutionary new entrant is the stronger believer and the traditional, orthodox Vicar is the lesser believer who has his own agenda. Their church at Kumaramkari is not just a simple old structure, as they say that the legend is that Saint George had made Tipu Sultan’s attempt to raze the church a failure. This belief is what runs in the veins of the parishers and this is where Father Vattolli has reached – this is also where Father Ottaplakal makes his own decisions with no divine intervention; not a desired situation for sure. But there is more to Father Vattoli than it would seem to be, as the end twist would create that dream climax.

Saint George and the church are more like characters in the movie, but more shall not be talked about that divinity. Kalabhavan Mani’s Looyi pappan is a very powerful character throughout the movie; someone who fails to accept defeat – the man who wins the war even as he loses most of the battles. He seeks redemption after the death of his best friend who was the soul of the band – a music band which has been continuously on the losing side for a long time after the tragedy. Rachana Narayanankutty as Solomon’s sister and Natasha Sahgal was Father Vattoli’s admirer, joins the cast’s beautiful performance. Makarand Deshpande’s nemesis character is immensely powerful and Sunil Sukhada’s Kapyar works in more than one way. Lijo Jose Pellissery has given the viewers an early Easter gift, and it might be the best in the theatres right now. What else could be said about such a performance? But it is surely not free from the slightest of negatives – even among the best of jokes, lie the totally unnecessary, ridiculous jokes which tends to take away some of its beauty. But they could be avoided and the movie could be continued to be watched as the divine comedy as it is, for there is more to it than just the usual stuff. No, this is not the typical new generation either – for this is typical divinity, if one could call it so.

This exuberance is magic, and that is just to give the movie its due. But the truth is much better; for exuberance is just a word and so is magic. Amen is something which has dropped from the firmament, not like the fallen angel Lucifer, but as the medium of divinity which the world of the upper level has provided us with. Can you find faults within the story? If yes, isn’t there the flurry of intelligence and brilliance to cover them all? That would be a clear yes for an answer. No, the movie still doesn’t pretend, and it never needed to. It never needed to wear a mask like Annayum Rasoolum; a mask of goodness and reality which that one dragging movie has been wearing! But this one wears its own skin as a mask – no fake faces to cover its simplicity. Everyone has been incredibly good at what they were doing with this movie, both outside and inside – even the songs and the movie posters have contributed in such a way as to make this movie one of its kind – something which can lead and not follow; bring that thunder of wonderful change. I felt the magic realism and dream visions as well as its re-assertion of faith, belief and hope with divine intervention. Oh beauty of a movie, thy name is Amen – anything else would be so inappropriate right now. If I am to die after watching a movie, this might be one of them worth dying for!

Release date: 22nd March 2013
Running time: 160 minutes (estimate)
Directed by: Lijo Jose Pellissery
Starring: Fahadh Faasil, Indrajith Sukumaran, Swati Reddy, Rachana Narayanankutty, Natasha Sahgal, Joy Mathew, Kalabhavan Mani, Makarand Deshpande, Sunil Sukhada