Dangal - Review

The Phogat Sisters, against all odds, created history for Indian Sports in the year 2010. Though we read about them in the headlines, we hurriedly moved on to other 'more interesting' news. They went on, fighting their battles alone, to bring more than thirty international medals for our country. We saw their names in the news, raised our eyebrows, and refocused back on our game of cricket. They again came, this time with their father, and gave an inspiring small interview on the TV show Satyamev Jayate. This time we sat up a bit, and 'spent' on them, a little 'encouragement clap'.


It finally took a two hours forty nine minutes of full fledged Bollywood feature film to make us at last, give them the applause they have been deserving since long. At last, the magic of cinema and storytelling works and the same we, now open new tabs and start to google about Geeta, Babita and their hero, Mahavir Singh Phogat.


Written by four Ad-professionals including the director Nitish Tiwari, Dangal, hooks you from the very first go. The humorous narrative of the 'sacrificial goat-ish' brother becomes almost addictive till the last scene.


Here's the story of a middle-aged man with unfulfilled dreams who has given in to his defeated life as his ill fate. Until one day when he realizes that all this while the road to all his dreams had lain just in front of him, but it was only his own superfluous beliefs, which had closed his eyes. He quickly corrects himself and now aims for the Sun and no less. So what if it is his sparky girls not 'society-accepted' boys who will achieve this feat for him. So the endearing struggle starts of two unwilling girlish girls ( a brilliant young Geeta played by Zaira Wasim) who are turned into tomboys by their 'haanikaarak' father. It is only at a friend's wedding, that they realise their good luck of having such a man as their father who considers them human enough to love and care about their future. A single dialogue of the little bride voices all those vices to which so many Indian households are still entangled. This struggling phase is very thoughtfully shot in a muddy shade of color by Cinematographer Sethu Sriram.


Adult Geeta and Babita Phogat are flawlessly played by Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra. Sanya, though, surprisingly has got much lesser vocal and fighting scenes in comparison to Fatima. But it is she who shines brighter with her sincere portrayal of silent understandings of the war of emotions happening between her sister and father.


Unfortunately she is reduced to being like a cheer girl to her sister who solely claims the limelight in the later half of the film. One wonders why, considering Babita Phogat's equal if not more, achievements in her own matches.


Amir Khan is so good as Mahavir Singh Phogat that after a point, he makes you forget that he is Amir Khan himself. You only see the character. That calls for an applause. Sakshi Tanwar as the Daya Kaur, the silent support system of her family is wonderful. Hey eyes are so expressive that she doesn't need to speak at all.


Dangal is about wrestling. Wrestling on the on mats. Wrestling inside minds. The wrestle between a visionary father and the 'blind' society he lives in. A blind society 'we' still live in.


Celebrating woman power, bringing hope and rekindling patriotism, is Dangal, a perfect end to a Bollywood year full of strong female protagonists.


Hopefully now, the Haryana Government will consider keeping the promise they made to the Phogat Sisters four years ago and finally pay them the much needed, awaited and deserved, 50 lakhs rupees award.

They captured a feeling, a sky with no ceiling and a sunset inside a frame. ~~~La La Land-Review

Some dreams are foolishly unreal. Some,just extensions of our dull real world thoughts.




This dream, is different. It's a painting in motion, with vibrant colors waltzing around in every 'frame of mind'. It's a song where the notes finds their echo in your own heartbeat. La La Land, true to its name, is truer to its essence ,to the core. So once we are happily, musically transported to Los Angeles in the first scene cum song, there, with our hearts and minds soaring higher with every beautiful frame, we enter a dream.




The 'sweet n sour' journey of two struggling artists to reach their individual dreams. And when they reach those 'destinations' , you realize, that the real dream was the journey itself.




Mia (Emma Stone) a wannabe actress,tries her luck in every possible audition and works in a Café to keep the ball rolling. Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a Jazz enthusiast, a gifted pianist, and a self-proclaimed romantic, has to play jingles in restaurants to pay his 'real life' bills. It is music and his soulful playing in the restaurant which first brings Mia to him. The sequence as breathtaking, as it is to Mia.




Interestingly, they crisscross each other's paths quite a number of times after this, till they finally find each other's hearts and feet tap dancing to a single perfect tune in a beautifully lit night. The season has changed and you can feel it in your heart. The much awaited love story begins.




Here's a film where the camera is one of the main leads, on screen. Shot in the dramatic CinemaScope, Linus Sandgren, the Cinematographer , has given us some unbelievably long one shots, without once hindering the 'rhythm' of the excellent storytelling by the Director Damien Chazelle. The camera moves almost constantly and captures frames as beautiful as artwork. Moods have been portrayed with brilliant usage of light; emotions have been underlined, by creating meaningful darkness. Who needs spoken words when the visuals are so expressive; music is enough then, to guide you through the lyrical journey.




People fluidly break into poetic songs and we start almost waiting for the next. Mia and Sebastian's story moves forward with an admirable ease. The scenes are as picturesque as in a fairy tale and we are gently glided into the classic era…where girls in pretty dresses and men in bow ties dance away into a starry night…but rrrring goes the signature Apple tune on Mia's iPhone, and we fall back on our seats with a jerk , suddenly awake , to our 21st century 'modern' present.What a brilliant way to break the reverie and show the present time.




Love and ambition, hearts and minds, egos and expectations, do they ever understand each other?




It's like a soothing duet when Mia and Seb's love is in its bloom and it's a silence, when they have their first heartbreaking fight. Just a little glint of tears in the eyes, just a flicker of light on her face and you know,there's a tempest going on, inside both of them.




Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, are brilliant actors. They make Mia and Sebastian look, made for each other. From the moment when Sebastian brushes past her in rage, to the special moment they share in silence in the last scene, you can almost feel the electrifying camaraderie between them. Their eyes speak, their smiles talk, their ease in each other's company answers all that we need to know.




But they are 'made' and not 'mad' for each other. They show an admirable grace in handling their relationship. There's always a mutual respect in their conversations, a humaneness in their disagreements, and profound dignity in their regrets.




So you don't need "Hows and Whys and Whens", when they meet again, years later, after compromised wishes and much-achieved dreams.




They choose to sing 'their song' instead, he with his fingers, she with her eyes. And through the music, for the first time ever, they see a new dream, together. Of a life of could have been's and would have been's. Of a life which looked just so perfect, only because, it was, in the end, just a dream.




La La Land, is the land of dreams, dreamers and all those people who believe. It's a toast to them and their resilience, to go on and love and live and dare to think beyond. And so,




"Here's to the ones who dream ...

Foolish, as they may seem...

Here's to the hearts that ache...

Here's to the mess we make..."

KAHAANI 2-DURGA RANI SINGH-Review

No, Kahaani 2 is not a sequel. The face is the same, but the person is different. So, very, different.

The film opens to a playful mood with an old Bollywood song playing in the background and a happy and calm ‘Vidya Sinha’ writing her journal, about a day well spent with her invalid daughter. They go to sleep together later, peacefully. Quite expectedly, it is the last peaceful moment of the film.

Because from the next morning, Vidya’s perspiring marathon begins. There is a building up of a subtle tension in the background as Vidya runs about looking super busy and tensed till the kidnap.

 Kidnap, cranky phone calls and a shocking accident later, Vidya lands up in a creaky hospital, comatose. Enter the scene, Inderjeet Singh, a sub-inspector, her ex, and the hero of the film. Vidya Sinha, finally becomes Durga Rani Singh.

A diary saves the time as it narrates her story to Inderjeet. But unfortunately the diary was really serving just Inderjeet and not the audience. Because Inderjeet being her ex, knew about who Durga was, we didn’t.

So we dutifully imagine and try to fill up the blanks in her story as she drops hints of a disturbed childhood, experiences of a sexual abuse and an ex-husband who hated her.

But what reason is working behind, when she forgets herself and almost obsessively starts following a little girl who she feels is going through an abuse. What happened in her own life that she is living a fugitives’ life in Kalimpong in a depressing ‘’tin-house’’. Why did her ex, Inderjeet hate her? These reasons, we never come to know.

What we do come to know is that Jugal Hansraj , to our shock, is not ‘Masoom’ anymore. With a moustache for support, he threats, he abuses and then very casually makes paper toys.

 Joining his team, is his maniacal mother, who looks like a zombified version of the Bollywood Grandma. This grandma arranges female goons to murder people, this grandma lets her own little grandchild get abused by her son and threatens her into secrecy, and this grandma doesn’t even flinch while matter-of-factly deciding to kill her! Hello? Is she mad?

This fanatic mother-son duo although manages to irritate you with their madcap activities you somehow almost miss the professional and mysterious ‘Milind Damji” of Kahaani 1 who had had this dangerous ‘Voldemort-ish’ air throughout the film, ‘’the one who cannot be named’’.

 This pair of ‘cunning mom-pervert son Asurs’ is certainly not strong enough to awaken our ‘Durga’.

And so, this harried Vidya Sinha aka Durga Rani Singh, remains till the end, just a stressed out helpless mother. She does NOT become the ‘Durga’ we expected.

People come and go in the hospital poking needles into her as and when they like. People get murdered in front of her an all she does with her ketchup-ed face, is beg for mercy. Her ex comes to her after reading about her ‘’dard-bhari kahaani’” and takes pity. She almost begs for help. Unlike the brilliant ‘Vidya Bagchi’, this one does not have any plan or agenda or confidence of her own. This ‘Vidya’ needs help.

There is a scene where Jugal Hansraj reincarnates, looking like a vintage era trader. It is supposed to be a serious scene,where Durga is confronting the vllain. But people in the theatre are laughing. Durga has come huffing and puffing with a bag-full of 1000 rupees notes,she shows it and tries to entice the accomplice. One is almost expecting the accomplice to say, “Yeh note ab nahi chalte Madam!’”

Kahaani 2 is a dark film. Literally and visually. You hardly see Chandannagar in the daylight and you never get to see 'the stand'. In the daytime, people remain indoors and you go out only when it's foggy enough in Kalimpong. Quite meaningfully, the light indeed comes at the end of the dark tunnel, and it is only in the last scene that one gets to see a clear sunny sky.

Tota Roy Chowdhury is a blink and miss. Manini Chadha as Inderjeet's wife has a nagging voice and her dialogues suit her tone. Kharaj Mukherjee is perfect as Haldar and provides the much needed comic relief. The errant grandma and her ‘dark chocolaty’’ son have acted well enough for the audience to hate them. An achievement for Jugal Hansraj. His accomplice in the kidnapping, the lady goon flutters like a disturbing mosquito in each of her scene. She is aptly quashed by a saucepan by Vidya (the first and last ‘violent act’ by her). 

I am a fan of Vidya Balan, the actress. I love that her characters always ooze out a calm and intelligent confidence. So this ‘Vidya’ disappoints. Balan plays it with perfection but the character itself, is unworthy of such  acting prowess.

Kahaani 2, very clearly, belongs to Inderjeet Singh aka Arjun Rampal.

And this time,  ‘He’, is the ‘Durga’ of the film.

TUM BIN II Review

A young woman is all set to marry her beau. An accident occurs and her boyfriend dies. She breaks down and becomes a bundle of tears. But soon enough, she composes herself strongly and decides to work hard, to save her beau’s name and business. She takes decisions and sticks to them. She owns up mistakes, and proposes first, if required. She does not wait, for a ‘sahara’.

Fifteen years later, another young woman in a similar situation, becomes a bundle of tears too. But this woman chooses to remain that way,till the end, until a man comes to give her ‘sahara’.

Almost as soon as the film starts, we find Taran (Neha Sharma), little Miss Sweet n Innocent, dressed in an off-shoulder evening gown, standing on an ice-capped mountain-top, doing something like a Surya-Namaskar which then transforms into a dance with her soon-to-be-husband, Amar ( Ashim Gulati). Thankfully, the song, is distractingly good and so are the locales.

Calamity doesn’t waste time, and strikes at the expected point. Thus starts the unending saga of tears, confused emotions and more tears. With the central character of Taran being a girl who is easily ‘brainwashed’ into varying ideas of love, duty and happiness, one cannot expect much else either.

 It must be mentioned that Tum Bin II is better than the original in two aspects. First, is the cinematography. The brilliant frames of mountain-reflections capturing Taran’s face during the casting credits, calls for a standing ovation. What a visual beginning. If only the film was worth it.

 And second, Kanwaljeet Singh. Brilliant performer. I heave a sigh of relief, that unlike in the first Tum Bin, where the intense Vikram Gokhale had been reduced to a silent viewer, here ‘Papa Ji’ talks, walks and decides to live. In fact he is the first one who tells our teary eyed heroine to get up and move on.

And ‘move on’ she does, within minutes.

As soon as Mr. Sweet Guy Shekhar (Seal) ‘bakes’ his entry into Taran and her family’s lives, she is whiffed off to a long drive, where our sweet guy becomes the fusion of Shekhar and Abhigyan of the original film. Shekhar here is meeting Taran for the first time alone, but cheekily , like a curious Bua, starts asking her personal questions. She answers promptly with poetic lines dripping with melancholy. It’s so instant that it seems she has rehearsed the lines earlier that morning  and was just waiting to be asked.  I can’t but help missing the original Pia, who had the guts to draw the lines with her business partner and be vocal about her dislikes in a similar car drive.

 The ‘business meet’ here turns out to be a pleasure reunion with two of Shekhar’s giggling gay friends, and later it is more of a meeting of stolen glances. The cinematographer again masters at catching reflections.

Shekhar takes the chance and now becomes a ‘Brahmakumari’ and starts giving lessons on simplicity and happiness. He tells her, happiness can be a cup of coffee. She gets motivated and grabs a champagne. ‘Mr. Brahmakumari’ instantly becomes ‘Saint Kabir’ as his ‘disciple’ starts on a ‘drunk dance’. Many of us in the theatre are laughing, when later Shekhar , returns home carrying a sleeping Taran in his arms and informs her sister with an earnest face, “Who Khush thi.” Oh!

Their outings get ‘legalized’ with the gay friends gaily agreeing to help Taran build her Patisserie.  On one such ‘outing’, Shekhar aka ‘Mr.Brahmakumari’ now becomes Akshay Kumar of Khatron ke Khiladi, and almost drags Taran from the car to the end of a dangerous looking cliff, and imagine imagine! They jump off it into the water! And no, they are not hurt, in fact, in the chilling water, they get aroused, and in true Hindi film style Aditya Seal, seals the deal, with a kiss. 

Almost instantly,as if through telepathy, in some never known place,  Amar( who , just in a  towel, seems to have gone for a spa session) opens his eyes, comes out of his coma and sings ‘Country roads, take me home’.

Amar is no less than a celebrity. Strangers at the airport celebrate with dholaks when he arrives. He is the typical ‘take it easy’ guy. 

He takes it easy, when he meets his teary eyed father after eight months of disappearance and casually throws him a flat “How are you Papa”. He takes it easy, in later days, even when his girlfriend starts behaving more like his elder sister.

But Taran, the helpless kitten, on the other hand , is again lost. People lose their hearts in love. Taran, has lost her brains too.

What to do. So between holding hands with Shekhar and 'boohoo' ing with her sisters , she memorizes Amar’s medical prescriptions.

Papaji notices, takes charge again and gives her a brain-booster dialogue.

It shows instant result. The very next morning, a brainwashed Taran, dresses for ‘the occasion’, drags Amar all the way to a Gurudwara , only to dump him there and declare love for Mr.Brahmakumari.

Amar of course, ‘takes it easy’, says ‘No issues at all’ and quickly becomes her ‘best friend forever’. He is so cool about it, that he starts loving his rival Shekhar too. So much so that, now the three of them go for outings! Ouch!

Such easy acceptance shatters Mr.Brahmakumari’s dreams of a bollywood fight, and he decides to break mirrors instead to utilize his muscles. 

Soon, bored of mirrors, he thinks of breaking Taran’s heart instead and goes on to play the bad guy. But his acting is poor, and he gets caught. His ‘secret’ is out too with Papa Ji ditching him big time.

One is again reminded of the mature confession scene of the original film, where brilliant acting hadn’t needed words.

This Shekhar, seems like a confused con as he attempts to make a ‘hasty’ exit and escape. We wonder why?

But finally ‘take-it-easy’ Amar has woken up. He now sees the opportunity of a lifetime for some good dialogue-baazi. So when ‘helpless kitten’ Taran, wishes to speak to Shekhar ‘one last time’, Amar grabs the chance and rash-drives her to the airport.

Flashback to Pia, who handled a similar situation alone. Singlehanded, driving through snow, persuading officials, reaching Shekhar to saying I love you, she did it all with gusto and power. 

Fifteen years later, our female protagonist is frustratingly dependent, and is just a shadow of her man.She just blinks her glycerinated eyes and waits for assurances.  As the two men try to give her up to each other like a trophy in the end, she chooses to just stand in the background and squeeze out more tears. Not a flinch when Amar addresses her as a ‘Bechari’.

More ‘quotable quotes’ follow and by the end of the climax scene, you realise, that you have already picked up your bags and are ready to leave. You are not even interested in knowing who got the girl. 

Because after all this brainwashing melodrama, cool guy Amar too is a changed man, and has become Mr. Brahmakumari II.

Tum Bin II, if not anything else, will surely do one thing for the audience. It will persuade you that you still love only Sandali Sinha as Pia and only Priyangshu Chatterjee as Shekhar. And that you still love the original film much more than ever.