Anurag Kashyap – Ramana's Musings

Akira.

I had never seen Sonakshi Sinha in a film despite having read a great deal about her and also having seen some youtube clips of her song and dance routine. So, when I saw the trailer for Akira with her starring in it, I had made up my mind to see it. I am glad I did so yesterday.

The film is like a Hollywood film made by Quentin Tarantino. It has everything in it to keep the viewer tied to his seat. The tension builds up till the climax and has enough violence and corrupt cops to react with excitement or loathing depending on the scene before the viewer.

It was while getting some background information for this post that I came to know that this story is based on a hit Tamil film called Mauna Guru with the difference that while the Tamil version had a hero as the protagonist, in this film it is the heroine. Despite the difference, the story unfolds well and with some very good direction, camerawork and editing, a slick movie is offered to the viewers. A great marriage of skills from two centers of movie making, Chennai and Mumbai.

The surprise feature of the film is the superlative performance by Anurag Kashyap as a venal and vile police officer. I did not know that he would be acting in the film and it was a bonus to see him in such a negative role doing a splendid job.

I would give it a four out of five star rating the one short being for the sound being too loud.

Raman Raghav II

Due to all kinds of problems, I was unable to see this film when it was released in our theaters. I was however told by very discerning filmgoers that I must see it and so procured a DVD and saw it yesterday.

First thing that struck me was that here was another film completely out of the ordinary Indian film that was also a commercial success. A psychological study of an ordinary slum dwelling person and a senior police official both psycho cases. That it was a success says something about the average movie goer of India who seems to have developed a taste for the esoteric instead of only the dramatic, song and dance routines movies.

Both the protagonists, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal come up trumps in their roles and some superb direction from Anurag Kashyap has produced a first class movie which I was able to enjoy to the full in the comfort of my home where I could adjust the volume of sound to my liking!

If you have not seen it, I strongly recommend your doing so. You will not be disappointed.

NH 10.

My date who preferred her siesta to going to a movie with me yesterday, decided exactly the opposite to day, treated me to a movie and even drove one way! We had a relaxed outing but the movie was anything but relaxing to watch. India has now got its own wanna-be Quentin Tarantinos and rural India provides enough opportunity and story lines to oblige them. This particular one is based entirely in Haryana and the story revolves around the practice of honor killing for same gotra marriage. It gets your adrenalin pumping about a quarter way through and it does not stop except during the intermission.

Gurgaon is where the story begins and moves on to NH 10, National Highway number 10, for the uninitiated. A young urban couple off for a motoring holiday take a country road off the highway and witness a brutal attack on another couple for breaking the gotra code. One thing leads to another and the story ends with a massive bloodletting by the heroine.

The beauty about the film is its simplicity, dark portrayal of a live social problem in that part of the country, and the caste/gotra equations there.

Anushka Sharma comes up with an amazing performance. Apart from playing the lead role, she has also co produced the film and the presence of Anurag Kashyap as another co producer ensures that there is never a dull moment. All the other actors, unfamiliar to me, deliver very credible performances, but it is Anushka who carries the story on her shoulders, and how!

I have just added another actress, Anushka Sharma to my list of favourites! And almost like icing on the cake, one of my old favourites from the 1980s Deepti Naval, delivers a powerful and unexpectedly vicious performance with panache and aplomb. Hard to compare her role here to her unforgettable Miss Chamko role.

I have mentioned in a few of my reviews of Hindi films that I am increasingly getting impressed with what the current crop of producers, directors and actors are coming up with and this is yet another instance of such a conclusion.

It is a film worth seeing for people interested in seeing a heroine oriented story told in a highly professional manner, who can put up with a lot of violence. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have no hesitation in giving it a [rating=6] rating.

Ugly.

Sometimes fate seems to ensure that I do not miss out on good things of life. For the past ten days or so my partner in crime as he is affectionately called by our mutual friends, Ramesh has been wanting to see this movie Ugly and for some reason I was not very keen. Ramesh is a very persistent fellow however and finally persuaded me to go to it with him earlier this afternoon.

I was not very keen primarily because, I had not read any review of it anywhere, though many friends said that it has received very good reviews and moreover, the only name that I could recognise in the entire lot in the film was the director Anurag Kashyap. Since the names were unfamiliar, I was not keen to see the film as I thought that it must have been a low budget art film or something like that.

Was I in for a surprise or what! It opened my eyes to the guiles of Anurag Kashyap who has produced a masterpiece. It is a suspense thriller picture depicting quite a bit of reality of Mumbai’s life in relation to its police force and many scenes are what I have seen in some police stations in real life. Its depiction of some seedy characters associated with Bollywood too comes out beautifully and the icing on the cake is the sheer twists and turns that the storyline takes till the very end when one realises what cunning characters have been portrayed without our realising it. I was totally zapped for the sheer brilliance of direction and editing to keep the viewer on edge. I am so happy to see such a film being produced in India!

I have no hesitation at all in giving the film a [rating=6] rating. Don’t miss it.