HARISHCHANDRACHI FACTORY (MARATHI) (2009)

Last year marked the hundredth year of the Indian film industry. In these hundred years, Indian films, emerging from the Bollywood and is several sister (regional/local) "woods", have taken the masses as well as the classes on several memorable and entertaining journeys into the dreamworld. In his debut feature, writer-director, Paresh Mokashi traces the roots, nay, seeds of this thriving industry and presents the making of the very first Indian film.

Harishchandrachi Factory is the story how Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the pioneer regarded as the Father of Indian Cinema, happened to get this idea of making movies and how he toiled to realise this dream of making of the very first Indian full length, Black & White, silent, feature film - Raja Harishchandra.

The story begins in 1911 where, after the failure of his printing business, Phalke is playing a magician/jester performing in his Mumbai chawl to make ends meet. When he happens to visit a tent theatre playing a movie - The Life of Christ, his imagination and curiosity are instantly kindled and he introduces his family to this magical experience of moving images, besides making multiple trips himself to understand the science behind that magic. His curiosity grows into an obstinate obsession as he follows his dream unflinchingly despite a brief bout of failing eyesight, he sets out to London to learn and understand this new age medium such that he could present the stories of the Indian mythology through it. On his return to India after learning the requisite skills and acquiring a motion picture camera, he embarks on his pioneering mission to make India's  very first feature length silent movie - Raja Harishchandra. The rest of the movie narrates the eventful journey and the many hurdles that he faces on his ambitious mission.

Presenting a biopic as a feature film is a challenging task as the director has to strike a fine balance in presenting the facts within a matrix of an engaging drama (as in the case of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag which found critical acclaim and commercial success). A singular focus on factual content would reduce the film to a drab documentary while too much focus on the drama could result in a clouded, less-than perfect image of the individual. Debutante writer-director Paresh Mokashi rises to this daunting challenge by helming this meta-movie with a very nimble hand and suffuses it with healthy doses of delectable humour. Mokashi shuns melodrama and mines humour in the most unlikely situations - be it Phalke's problems in funding his venture resulting in his selling domestic assets or his search for a heroine among prostitutes (since no family woman was ready to work before camera).

He hits the bull's eye with his casting of his leads as well as the supporting cast. Nandhu Madhav nails the part of Phalke with oodles of charm, curiosity and a single-minded obsession to realise his dreams despite the multiple challenges of cynicism, superstitions and paucity of funds. Vibhavari Deshpande playing Saraswati Phalke shares a genial chemistry with him and is a perfect foil as the loving wife and pillar of strength enabling her husband to emerge as the pioneer.

The movie also boasts of solid technical team which includes Nitin Desai whose art design recreates the authentic feel of a bygone era while the score from Anand Modak conjures a rustic charm that permeates the entire movie, beginning with the opening credits. The cinematography by Amalendu Chaudhary is remarkable too as he has striven to capture most of the movie in the style of stationary camera position which was prevalent in the infancy of cinema. 

Overall, Harishchandrachi Factory presents a very Indian story rich with its period feel, ethnic ethos, in a simple, feel-good narrative that is engaging and universally appealing. Harishchandrachi Factory was selected as India's official entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 and has also received several National and Regional awards.

Rating - 3.5/5

P.S.  - Beginning with this post, am introducing a rating of the movie on a five-point scale as suggested by some of my friends and readers of this blog. 

THE TERROR, LIVE (aka DEO TEREO RAIBEU) (KOREAN) (2013)

Its just another normal day in Seoul as the visibly bored host of a current affairs show on radio, Yoon Young-hwa (Ha Jung-Woo) discusses some recent tax changes with his callers. He is going through a tough patch in his life after being unceremoniously shunted out of a popular TV show he had anchored for several years and also the aftermath of a recent divorce. He is annoyed when a pesky caller refuses to disconnect and insists on airing his views. When he shows his impatience towards the caller, the caller threatens that he would blow up the Mapo bridge which is near the radio station. Yoon dismisses the claim as just another hoax from a prankster seeking his few minutes of fame from being on air and tries to move over to the next caller. Alas, he is shaken when a bomb detonates on the Mapo bridge leaving the middle portion of a bridge in a precarious state by disconnecting it from both the ends. This sets Yoon's mind racing and  he desists from following the natural course of reporting the caller to the police. He feels that interviewing the caller exclusively on live TV could well be a ticket to regain his erstwhile position as a premier TV show host. Yoon strikes a deal with his former boss who readily accedes as he too sees the call as a godsend to prop up the ratings of his TV channel which could fetch him more revenue through commercials. 

The caller, still online, raises the gambit by demanding a ransom to go live on TV failing which he would switch another willing channel for a similar exclusive. When Yoon and his boss accede to this demand and transfer the money, the stakes get higher as the caller demands the public apology of the President through national television for an industrial accident that resulted in the death of his fellow construction workers while racing against time to complete some repairs on the Mapo bridge. It is also revealed that the caller has planted more bombs including one inside the headpiece of Yoon which would be detonated if he discloses the same to anyone or if he tries to remove the headpiece or if he fails to follow instructions. Meanwhile the government machinery is afoot on a frenzy to shield the President and neutralize the threat to its credibility.

What follows is an intriguing cat and mice game between the caller, Yoon, his boss and a desperate government which try to outsmart one other.  Ha Jung-Woo (earlier seen in The Berlin File) playing Yoon, shoulders the entire movie on almost single-handedly and provides an impressive performance as he seamlessly transforms from a bored radio show host to somebody who has struck upon a career rejuvenating scoop and from someone in absolute control of the situation to a helpless prisoner trapped within the unfolding events. 

Most of the movie happens within the confines of Yoon's studio and is designed to give the viewer a feel of a regular daily TV news show which aids in connecting to the viewer and gives one the feel of watching the unfolding terror in real time. The result is an intense, express paced edge-of-the-seat thriller that keeps the viewer completely hooked for its entire running time of about 100 minutes despite a finale that feels a tad contrived.  

Writer-director Kim Byung-woo has weaved in a layered narrative which transcends being a taut thriller and explores several contemporary themes such as the growing moral bankruptcy of the media which sees ratings and money as its prime driving force resulting in a situations where most of the players in the media plumbing a fiercely competitive spiral seeking ever-more sensational stories, class struggles in a society riven deep fissures of income inequality as also the rising insensitivity of a state steeped in indifference towards the masses. Given the near universal resonance of its theme and its tense narrative, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Bollywood / local language remake / inspired version soon.  

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!!

PANNAIYARUM PADMINIUM (TAMIL) (2014)

This quaint little movie is further manifest proof that there is immense beauty in the small and ordinary things/events in life which often go unnoticed in the express and over-wrought existence that we have come to understand as life these days. This movie also serves  to reinforce  what appears to be a forgotten fact that mandatory scenes in TASMAC shops (read boozing),  item numbers,  mindless violence and  Santhanam's comedy are not essential ingredients for making a Tamil movie.

This simple movie is set in the age of Shaktiman (late 90s), our very own superhero   show which was aired on national television and reigned undisputed over the imagination of the nation. The setting is a remote village of Tamil Nadu with a soft-spoken and well-meaning middle-aged landlord (Pannaiyar, as he is called by the villagers) with an equally affectionate wife. When the Pannaiyar comes across a Premier Padmini car at his relative's house, it is love at first sight. In a lucky twist of fate, the relative leaves the car with the landlord when he has to travel out of town to look after his pregnant daughter. The landlord employs Murgesan (Vijay Sethupathy) as the driver who falls in love with the car too. Soon, we see the car, which is almost the sole motorised transport available to the villagers being used by the villagers for all and sundry purposes and consequently, the entire village is enamoured by the car and they see it as  a prized possession. Even the landlord's wife who is initially annoyed at her husband's love affair with the car, is also fascinated by it and dreams of her husband driving her to temple on their upcoming anniversary. 


The landlord seeks to fulfil his wife's desire and is eager to learn driving. But, Murugesan fears that he may become dispensable if the landlord starts driving by himself and employs several dilatory tactics to fool the gullible landlord. Does the landlord get to learn driving and fulfil his wife's desire on their anniversary ? What happens to Murugesan ? What happens when the coveting daughter of the landlord sets her eye on the car for herself and her husband ? Watch the movie to find the answers. There are also sub plots involving Murugesan's love interest (an expressive Ishwarya) and a quest of a young boy who saves up to earn a ride on the front seat of the car. 

Debutante director Arun Kumar has proven his mettle in creating believable characters whom one could relate to and root for. He backs it with apt casting of the leads as well as the supporting cast. The two leads - Jayaprakash as the endearing Pannaiyar and Thulasi as his loving wife - are simply excellent as they emote well and share a warm chemistry. Their performances are accentuated by the fact that their characters were such which required them to maintain a fine balance, failing which they would have become a caricature. Yet, they manage to carry the entire movie on their able shoulders and compensate for the cliches and faults in the writing with their acting chops. I was especially impressed with Jayaprakash who is utterly convincing in his portrayal of the loving landlord. Vijay Sethupathy is convincing in a substantive cameo and Balasaravanan as Peedai brings comic relief. The director's brilliance is evidenced in his writing where he has used the car in a central, yet subtle manner to explore the various dimensions of his characters through the connections they forge with the car.

For a movie which owes its origins to a short film, it feels a tad too long and the length could have been chopped by thirty minutes which would have made it a taut watch. Nevertheless, Arun Kumar tries valiantly by injecting his narrative with healthy doses of situational humour and marshals his technical resources, be it cinematography or the art departments admirably to present an authentic rustic and period feel. Credits are also due to the debutante music director Justin Prabhakaran who has provided some lilting and melodious numbers which herald him as a talent to look forward to.

Despite its flaws, this slice of life drama is a highly entertaining effort by the writer-director Arun Kumar which tugs at your heart and deserves several plaudits. He has dared to debut a movie with two senior character artists as leads and has succeeded in his venture substantially. He deserves kudos for exploring a path that is less trodden and is the latest addition to a growing club of new wave directors in Tamil cinema like  Thiagarajan Kumararaja (Aaranya Kaandam), Karthik Subburaj (Pizza), Nalan Kumarasamy (Soodhu Kavvum), Alphonse Putheran (Neram), Balaji Tharaneetharan (Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom) and Balaji Mohan (Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi). One feels immensely heartened at these signs which portend healthy auguring for Tamil cinema. Amen !!

A HEARTWARMING RIDE !! A MUST WATCH !!

POKLOSIE (aka AFTERMATH) (POLISH) (2012)

The physical ravages of wars are massive and require long and arduous efforts and resources for reconstruction. However, wars have a far deeper dehumanising effect on the psyche of the perpetrators as well as their victims as they unleash and actively stoke the predatory animal instincts which were hitherto hidden under the cloak of culture and civilization, thereby pushing them to doing what they would otherwise consider as reprehensible. These shameful acts leave behind profound festering wounds which are hard to heal and scars that are often, indelible as in the case of guilt. Guilt has its seeds in shameful acts of the past and remains latent under an armour of unbridled aggression which masks it in a false sense of righteousness and justice. This movie chronicles the efforts of a duo whose activities threaten to uncover a long buried secret of a remote Polish community and the desperate attempts by that community to safeguard those secrets which were spawn off their collective guilt.

After about twenty years of living in the United States, Franciszek visits his brother Jozef, a farmer in a small Polish village. While Franciszek feels cold vibes from his brother who is sullen with him for deserting him and his widowed mother when they wanted him the most, he also senses a simmering antipathy in the village against Jozef who is treated as a social outcast. He discovers the reason behind the villagers' anger is that Jozef has been unearthing - digging out / buying / even stealing - tombstones of Jews. These tombstones have been used by the villagers for paving the roads and for sundry other purposes. The tombstones belong to the Jewish families who were once residents of their village and are presently non-existent.

Why does Jozef dig up these tombstones ? What connection does he have to those poor dead souls ? Is there a reconciliation between Josef and Franciszek ? What is the uncomfortable secret behind the tombstones of the Jews that Jozef unearths ? How did the entire Jewish community disappear from the village ? Were they part of the victims of the holocaust ? What is the reason behind the villagers discomfort and their hostility towards Jozef ? The movie provides answers to these questions and more in a narrative which, despite being structured like an unfolding thriller, is, essentially an evocative human drama with fine performances by the leads.

The movie is inspired by accounts of real life events which were reported during the second world war and sheds light on the simmering tensions and fault lines within the Polish society which are present till this day. Upon its release, the movie proved hugely controversial and stirred up a hornet's nest of emotional undercurrents in Poland which underlines the relevance of its themes even in the present day.

A VERY VERY GOOD WATCH !!

)

THE PATIENCE STONE (aka SYNGUE SABOUR) (PERSIAN) (2013)

Noted Afghan born writer/director Atiq Rahimi adapts his own prize-winning novel to a screen drama in The Patience Stone.

It is the story a nameless Muslim Woman (Golshifteh Farahani) caught in the cusp of a fierce war zone in an unnamed country (what could probably be Afghanistan). She is tending to her much aged husband (nameless gain), a wounded warrior who is presently in a vegetative state with no apparent sign of life or senses. Early in the movie when the onset of war is obvious, she packs off her two children to a safe haven. However, she is forced to stay on to look after her husband. A husband whom she had not met even after her marriage. She married a photograph of him as he was fighting for the cause. 

On his return, the husband turns out to be an oppressive and conservative person in stark contrast to all her dreams. Now, on finding him in a comatose deaf-mute state, she, for the first time since her marriage, feels a surge of freedom. She sees him as the titular mythological Syngue Sabour or The Patience Stone to which one can pour one's heart out without any inhibitions. She feels herself recounting to him her deepest feelings and secrets to a great cathartic and therapeutic effect.

The movie, in most part, is a monologue, by the woman played by Golshifteh Farahani, confiding her secrets to her husband. The marvellous actress delivers a stellar performance which is the keystone holding the entire movie together. In a performance that straddles a whole spectrum of emotions, she forges an immediate and  compelling connect with the viewers and keeps them emotionally invested in the story. 

Writer/Director Atiq Rahimi provides snapshots of the social and political conditions of the region. While Farahani's narrative reveals the ultra conservative male dominated society with little, if any, freedom or respect for women, her travails during the ongoing war point to the existential crisis that hounds the populace there. 

A VERY  GOOD WATCH !!

NEBRASKA (2013)

While every movie presents an opportunity to embark on a journey through a dreamscape crafted by its director, road movies, as a genre,  are all the more alluring as they bring in another metaphysical dimension to these journeys.

In Nebraska, Bruce Dern plays Woody, a senile alcoholic in Billings, Montana who, after receiving a scam mailer promising him of a lottery winning of a million dollars, decides to walk 750 odd miles to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his prize personally. He has to trek the entire distance since his alcoholism has ruled out any driving. When his journey is aborted twice in its early stages to his utter disappointment, his son, David (Will Forte) agrees, albeit reluctantly, to drive an obsessed Woody to Lincoln. This is much to the chagrin of his mother Kate (June Squibb) who chides David for being too indulgent on Woody's foolish delusions. David, on the other hand,  sees this as a break from his drab job as a stereo salesman and also, an opportunity spend some quality time with his reticent father.

Their journey to Lincoln with a stop-over at Woody's hometown of Hawthorne make the rest of this movie. David's road journey with his father also becomes one of discovery where he learns about hitherto unknown dimensions to his father and his early life. And, remaining true to the tradition of the genre of road movies, their journey itself proves more rewarding than the destination.

Bruce Dern provides a towing performance he sinks himself completely into the complex character of Woody, an alcoholic senile man who is consumed by his obsession. Woody is a character, that is hard to like and perhaps, equally hard to hate, which requires the performer to strike a fine nuanced balance. Dern absolutely nails it in a career-defining performance which has already fetched him a well-deserved award for Best Actor at the Cannes last year. Of the supporting cast, June Squibb is excellent as the fierce and forthright Kate providing a perfect foil to a taciturn Woody. Will Forte plays David with right doses of subtlety and nuance as a son who wants to connect with his father even as he is harried by his father's several streaks of unpredictability.

Captured in immaculate black and white, director Alexander Payne's Nebraska is a poetic, poignant movie of discovery laced with humour. Payne presents a deeply humanist drama populated by complicated characters with vignettes of the melancholic life in the American Midwest.

A MUST WATCH !!

 

THE PAST (aka LE PASSE) (FRENCH/PERSIAN) (2013)

In "The Past", his French language debut, noted Iranian director Asghar Farhadi presents an intense family drama set in Paris. A divorce is at the heart of this movie as in, his 2011 movie, A Separation, which won Iran's first Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Movie.

Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) is an Iranian who comes to Paris to settle his divorce with Marie, a French pharmacist. Marie (Bernice Bejo, from The Artist) and Ahmad have been separated for four years.  Soon after his arrival, Marie informs Ahmad of her plans to marry Samir (Tahir Rahim), an Arab laundromat owner and that they are also expecting a child. Marie has two daughters from an earlier marriage - Lucie, a sullen teenager and the younger Lea. Samir has a wife who is in coma after an attempted suicide and a young son, Fouad. After the hospitalisation of his wife, Samir and Fouad have moved in with Marie. While the young Lea sees a similar-aged playmate in Fouad, Lucie cold shoulders Samir and hates her mother for rushing into a marriage with him. Lucie, however, shares a warmer relationship with Ahmad, her earlier stepfather. Ahmad finds himself playing the mediator between various players and in the process, gradually unravels a secret that puts all the players on the brink.

Farhadi presents an intricately woven drama and draws the viewers ever so deep into the unfolding events. His characters - each with their deep flaws, guilt, vulnerabilities, doubts and emotional baggage from their past - are very real in their attempts to grapple with their situations. Their struggle to disentangle their present and construct a clear future is clouded by the events from their past which threaten to unravel their plans. Are they to permanently remain the prisoners of their past and mistakes committed therein ? Or, can they find a way to disentangle their present and forge new and happier ties that they seek ? Farhadi explores these questions and more in this intricately constructed narrative structured as a socio-emotional thriller. 
Farhadi shows a keen eye in his attention to details (as in the case of Marie's house where most of the drama unfolds across several rooms) and brilliance in his intelligent metaphors which serve as subtle markers to the future events including the initial meeting of Marie and Ahmad across a glass wall at the airport, their clumsy attempt to back their car from parking as well as the manner of title appearing on the windscreen of the car that is wiped away or even in Ahmad agreeing to clear up the mess of spilt paint.

The film benefits a great deal from the fact that Farhadi employs a solid cast that is strikingly beautiful and have enough acting chops for playing these complex characters and they have put in remarkable performances which makes the drama connect to the viewers. Ali Mosaffa is exceptional as the Ahmad, a man trying find some calm after finding himself unsuspectingly drawn into the middle of a raging storm of relationships of his estranged family and Tahir Rahim plays the brooding Samir with an assured subtlety. However, it is Bernice Bejo who packs in a powerful performance as the enigmatic and the fierce Marie whose present is caught between her past grievances and the future questions. Her performance has already received a well deserved Best Actress award at the Cannes last year. Farhadi also draws wonderful performances from his younger cast, especially Pauline Burlet who plays an angry, yet helpless Lucie who is disenchanted with the situation she finds herself in and Elyes Aguis  as Fouad who is torn between the comatose mother he loves and mother imposed upon him.

The Past is an engaging family drama which underscores the dynamics of dysfunctional families and their effects on the children who are often ignored in the confrontations between the adults of the family. With The Past, Asghar Farhadi has reinforced his position as a master in presenting intricately crafted human dramas populated by nuanced, real characters which have universal appeal. Kudos !!

A MUST WATCH !!