Not so much a film review - Airlift

Courtesy: Wikipedia 

Background:

After the end of the Iran-Iraq war, between Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran and Saddam Hussain in Iran, a battle that went on for 8 long years, Iraq was saddled with debt of $30 billion to Kuwait, which Saddam requested to be forgiven.  Kuwait refused. Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back production but again Kuwait refused. In addition to refusing the request, Kuwait spearheaded the opposition in OPEC to the cuts that Saddam had requested. Kuwait, literally back by US, was pumping large amounts of oil, thus keeping prices low, when Iraq needed to sell high-priced oil from its wells to pay off a huge debt. The Gulf War may have started 8 years ago, with Iran-Iraq, but it gained force, as USSR used the situation to pump arms and ammunition to Iraqi forces.

August 2, 1990

“At about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The Amir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf. “(See LINK )

Saddam had always argued that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of British imperialism See LINK) this echoed a belief that Iraqi nationalists had voiced for the past 50 years. This belief was one of the few articles of faith uniting the political scene in a nation rife with sharp social, ethnic, religious, and ideological divides.

In the background of this, the film Airlift is made.

Ranjit Katiyal (Akshay Kumar), is a successful businessman in Kuwait, who likes to call himself a Kuwaiti. He is ruthless and politically well connected. But in the face of the Amir of Iraq fleeing away with his family, Akshay Kumar is left with his family and 170,000 Indian workforce in Kuwait. Suddenly, the ruthless man is unable to go run away with his family, leaving the entire people behind him.

In perhaps one of his most controlled roles, Akshay, plays negotiator and prime mover taking with him, all the people, who are now refugees in Kuwait, occupied by Iraq.

The film brings out the lameness of the Indian government, in crisis situation abroad, but does not fail to cheer the greatness of our national carrier, Air India, which supplied the planes and the pilots, previously unwilling to fly over war zones.

“The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out from 13 August to 11 October 1990 after the Invasion of Kuwait. Air India holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people evacuated by a civil airliner as a result of this effort. The operation was carried out during the Persian Gulf War in 1990 to evacuate Indian expatriates from Kuwait and Iraq. It is believed to be the largest civilian evacuation in history. The Indians based in Kuwait also helped in the evacuation efforts.” (See LINK) 

The film ends as the Indians salute Katiyal as they board the planes that will take them home.

Some effort that!

Why must you see the movie? Click Here’s Why

AIRLIFT MUSIC Download Now

Directed by:

Raja Krishna Menon

Cast

Akshay Kumar as Ranjit Katyal

Nimrat Kaur as Amrita Katyal

Feryna Wazheir as Tasneem

Inaamulhaq as Major Khalaf bin Zayd

Lena as Deepti Jayarajan

Purab Kohli as Ibrahim Durrani

Prakash Belawadi as George Kutty

Arun Bali as Bauji

Ninad Kamat as Kurien

Kaizaad Kotwal as Poonawalla

Surendra Pal as External Affairs minister

Kumud Mishra as Sanjeev Kohli

Abida Hussain as Simran(Simu)[11]

Click for Reference: 

MoEA GoI expresses strong reservation against Airlift story line HERE 

Film Review - Piku, a film of Bengali eccentricities

You have to give it to Deepika Padukone! Sandwiched between two stalwarts, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan, she struck out and carved for herself to be acknowledged as a remarkable actress with an unforgettable role as Piku, in the film by the same name, directed by Soojit Sarkar.

Depicted as they come, a serious Bengali girl who is an Architect in Delhi, Piku is single, unmarried yet and a care giver to her 70 year old father, Bhaskor Banerjee, played by Amitabh Bachchan. Bhaskor is inflicted with a condition often a problem with aging people called constipation. Had it remained at that, it would have been fine but it has the Bengali twist to it, that being, constipation has become an obsession with the senior. From morning to night, breakfast to dinner, all conversations are around constipation!

Poor Piku! Needless to say, she is in the thick of having to listen to it and handle her father’s bowel condition, day in and day out. Being a dutiful daughter, she does not show resentment although a war of words ensues every now and then between the two.

Syed Afroz  played by Jisshu Sengupta is a good friend, although her Boss too at work and Piku and he could have made a good partnership, had Bhaskor not played dirty, like most Bengali single, to be read, widowed/widower father was not so selfish. He wanted Piku only to himself.

In the meantime, it is decided that the family house in Kolkata must be sold and Piku and Bhaskor, set off on a long journey to Kolkata by car! Bhaskor is mortally afraid of both Plane and Train, because, he is paranoid that his bowels which are already so reluctant will now create havoc for him.

Come Rana Chaudhary played by Irrfan Khan, the man who is a Civil Engineer but has had to settle to his father’s business of running a taxi service, after being cheated in the Gulf, by taking a job there, but made to do something else. He returned as soon as he could and then, took up his father’s business.

Through the long and quintessential journey from Delhi to Kolkata, Bhaskor and Piku get fond of him and find that even after arriving at Kolkata, they are averse to leaving him. But Rana must return soon to be followed by Piku  - alone.

Having given up the idea of selling the Kolkata house, Bhaskor overdoes his fun moments in Kolkata and leaves all of a sudden for his swargloka, happy as a lark, having had his full measure of fun and also having then forgotten all about his constipation.

Deepika returns to Delhi and its business as usual, with a difference! A game of badminton between Piku and Irrfan is indicative of things to come, in future, perhaps!

This review will remain incomplete with the mention of Chaubi Mashi, played by Moushumi Chatterjee, who is Piku’s maternal aunt, always visiting the family and never stopping to deride Bhaskor Bannerjee, Amitabh Bachchan, her brother-in-law in the film for causing the early death of her sister, by his constant idiosyncrasies.

I give 4 STAR to the film if you are to look at it from the Bengali point of view. It does a wonderful job! But if you are to look at the larger mass, I would give it only 2 STAR, because, unless you knew Bangla and their absolute eccentricities, it would be a film that could not have been watched at all!

Having said that, the director missed out on another Bengali idiosyncrasy, that being gorom joler kulkucchi – a warm water gargle.  But then that may be in the making of Piku II.

OMG!

Cast

Amitabh Bachchan as Bhashkor Banerjee

Deepika Padukone as Piku Banerjee[5]

Irrfan Khan as Rana Chaudhary

Moushumi Chatterjee as Chaubi Mashi

Balendra Singh as Budhan

Raghuvir Yadav as Dr. Srivastava

Jisshu Sengupta as Syed Afroz

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury as Nabendu

Akshay Oberoi in a cameo

Maushumi Chatterjee boasts of her role in Piku: Click Here

NH10 - When Crime is Not Crime

                                                          Film review NH 10 

Let me start from the end. My favourite actress Deepti Naval does what a #khap matriarch will do.

When Meera (Anushka Sharma), finds the sarpanch’s (Deepti Naval) home in the dark night, she collapses into her arms. After all, she has been running through the night trying to find someone to report the murder of two people, a girl and a boy, she has seen only a few hours ago. Her husband, (Neil Bhoopalam), who is lying almost dead, needs help, but the police station will not have Meera’s Report. Totally exhausted, she faints in Deepti Naval’s arms and is kindly carried to the bed and is taken care of, only until she discloses that she has seen this grown up girl with her husband being beaten and killed and buried in the dark, by four men and she needs to report this in order to find help.

Within seconds the sarpanch turns foe and to Meera’s great surprise dashes out of the room and locks her in. Meera has intervened in something that is private and personal to the sarpanch and the people of that village. Meera is now a criminal in their eyes.

“She was our daughter; what we did is what we had to do.” The sarpanch, the khap matriarch’s judgment is final.

In a gruesome tale of violence that literally begins at the very start of the film, honour killing, a tradition followed by the khaps in India a couple is murdered because the boy and the girl had the guts to fall in love and marry outside the community, by none else but her brother, uncle and people from the family, with full consent of the women in the house, the oldest being, Deepti Naval.

Meera and Arjun are Corporate honchos who decide to go on a weekend visit outside Delhi where they are employed. Not that Meera does not face discrimination and sexist remarks on the corridors and conference halls of corporate houses, who see her success as something that has come to her easily because she is a woman, but when she is out with her husband she can see that her body is the target of many abuses like randi, written on the wall of the ladies rest room at the local dhaba, which means in slang language ‘prostitute’.

It is at this dhaba, that she and her husband encounter the four men dragging the screaming woman and her boyfriend/husband into a SUV and driving off. Arjun is anxious to follow, although Meera is not, but as fate would have it, they were destined to see, like the audience, the gruesome death of the couple, in the hands of her family.

The darkness of the night and the foggy weather in northern India, where the film was shot, makes for a difficult run, but finally, Arjun and Meera face as gruesome an end, or almost!

Meera, comes through as a powerful woman figure, fighting patriarchy, or maybe just fighting for her life and Arjun’s in the midst of moments of deep helplessness. Yet, will she be able to save Arjun’s life, who is now flirting with death himself, or if not, then will she join the criminals too, by doing unto them, what they have done to her own husband and the couple they killed beside the highway, NH 10?

If you can stomach violence, blood and gut wrenching screams without throwing up, then watch the movie.

If you can’t then, do so, because you must know what crime, which is not thought of as crime really means to the khaps. You will know, why there is no remorse for taking life, because, given individual(s) fails to follow the rules set by a highly patriarchal society, where norms must be followed and taboo is taboo which results in death if not followed, there is NO Crime bigger than disobedience to the rules.

And law is in the hands of the community not the state.

Does Meera, follow the same norms then, to kill without remorse or to kill for revenge.

Director Navdeep Singh, a masterpiece this! Three Cheers to you!

Cast

Anushka Sharma as Meera

Neil Bhoopalam as Arjun

Darshan Kumaar as Satbir

Deepti Naval

Tanya Purohit Dobhal as Satbir's wife

More Here

Film review: Blue Is The Warmest Color

I swung on either side of doubt – the side that tell you, all is good and the side that said that I was watching a porn film, made well with a story.

Blue Is The Warmest Color, is a film about discovering one’s sexuality.

The main protagonist, Adele, is in high school and is discovering her sexuality and her leaning. She is with a boyfriend but finds sex with him, missing in something; she can’t really place her finger on. But, quite by chance she meets Emma, the girl with the blue hair and between them a relationship takes birth. An older Emma is a painter and has had her share of girlfriends, is experienced and is able to handle and take our Adele through a road that makes the latter very sure that she is lesbian. Yet, when she is insecure or lonely, she finds herself in the arms and bed of a boyfriend. Naturally Emma is not happy about it. A fight ensures between the two and even as Emma is warming up to her ex-girlfriend, whom she will finally find a home with again, she throws Adele out of her life in an angry burst. Adele may have discovered her preference, by now, but she is unable to move on in her life with another woman. The two lovers meet again and although, Emma is not happy with her sex life with her present girlfriend and professes to have enjoyed the life with Adele, she too is stuck and does not break the relationship she is already in.

The film is graphic and visuals of love-making are real as real can be. So maybe children who need their own time to understand their leanings, need to be kept from seeing it.

The story focuses more on the sexual life of Adele and in that sense, I did feel at the end of the film a bit cheated, because, as a woman, my feelings were quite this: the Director, Abdellatif Kechiche had used Adele’s body a bit too much over the film. Also, he had made a film for men who are curious to know what goes on between lesbians, in intimate sexual relationship.

It would have been better to know that, perhaps discovering one’s sexual orientation is not only about sex. I did not see some tell tale signs like falling in love with a woman teacher, older aunt or some signs that are indicative of what is to come.

The story too, was sad. It did not end on a positive note. It did not bring Adele and Emma together; indeed, it helped the viewer reiterate the fact that Adele was used as an in-between, Emma’s ex and her return to her, after Adele was thrown out. So, it sent out a strong message of use-abuse scenario between the two, although it may be argued that Adele used Emma to discover her own sexuality. Well, the argument could go anyways, but the fact remains the same – the film made out in French with English subtitles, is worth seeing and talking about and both Adele and Emma were certainly in love. Their eyes said so, then what happened? Why did the Director not make a happy ending?

You will have to see the film to answer that question, but for now, let’s hear what Adele has to say about her role.

Download Film here:

http://www.movie4k.to/Blue-Is-the-Warmest-Color-watch-movie-4923378.html

Or watch online:

http://putlocker.bz/watch-blue-is-the-warmest-color-online-free-putlocker.html

Film review - Highway

Rorschach Test

Highway is not a film about being taken hostage. It is not about living with so called hardened criminals. It is about scars that never go away, with time. It is about being safe in unsafe places and being unsafe in safe places. It is about bonding of people with deep scars in their minds.

Director Imtiaz Ali has done a smart job of dramatizing a plot that is often not spoken about or dusted under the carpet.

Starring Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt, the movie begins when Alia Bhatt escapes for a breath of fresh air from her own wedding ceremony and is kidnapped by gangsters who go on the run with their captive in place. Alia begins to like her journey on the highways as they travel from place to place trying to escape the law. It is at some place in this journey that Alia, reveals the real story line of her life. Indeed, it is here among the so called unsafe people, that she recalls her abused childhood in the so called safety of her home.

As the story moves, Alia and Randeep get closer to each other. The love angle does develop, but there are no song and dance around the trees nor mushy whispers and passion play. There is only a very strong bonding which hovers around psychology where Alia develops love towards her captors. As they settle in a wooden cabin, in the midst of nature, Alia, does not want to return to her home. Indeed, she wants to make a home with Randeep. But the agitated parents have set the law to hound them and even before they have time to settle down, Randeep is killed in Police shoot out and Alia dragged back to her home. Here, she meets her uncle, the villain in the home and in wide public accuses him of the sexual abuse he had performed on her, when she was a child. The crowd is shocked but Alia has had her time to acuse and bring to the forefront a pain she has been guarding in her mind.

But will this revelation, save her? Will it ease the scar left behind in childhood? If Rarschach Test is correct, then the scar in the personality has made Alia a lover of the unknown, for the known is dangerous, like her uncle.

Imtaiz Ali is smart. He has packed in a more meaningful message into an otherwise, colourful but much overused theme of abduction of rich people’s children.

There is a solid message here, delivered in a way that is ingenuous. And brave.

Cast

Randeep Hooda as Mahabir Bhati

Alia Bhatt as Veera Tripathi

Saharsh Kumar Shukla as Goru

Pradeep Nagar as Tonk

Durgesh Kumar as Aadoo

Arjun Malhotra as Vinay

Hemant Mahaur as Kasana

Film review: HER – so painfully real!

From net India Today ePage, Film review. See below

Man’s sense of loneliness can be defined by not what he feels inside, but the environment in which he lives.

Born a social animal, the world he has inherited, is one where the term social has evolved to give new meanings. Be it machinery, technology or human beings, social interaction and communication has withstood time to make itself available to engage in new ways, one never thought one could.

‘Her’ is a story that lends itself to what urban human life has become, as the years go by. It builds on what has been happening in the last two or more decades, as the internet has grown to occupy our lives in more than hundred ways. Although the film, is a Science Fiction, and is set in 2025, the reel realities are real today.

Theodore Twombly, recently divorced from his long term relationship with his wife is coming to terms slowly with his life as a single man. For company he is naturally engaged with his handy, through which he is able to meet women, who are able to keep him entertained emotionally and sexually, as a pastime, until a very brilliant OS system takes over his life. The Smart Operating System is voice and emotion sensitive and responds to Theodore as Samantha. An inanimate OS, now speaking, talking, laughing, loving, indeed, even making love, to Theodore, slowly drives away the blues with constant company, sensitive care and being there all the time – only thing is, it is an Operating System and not a real girl of flesh and bone.

Theodore is rather adjusted now, but can happiness last for life? Sadly, the OS is soon outdated and is getting junked and hence, his companion, Samantha, too, will have to go.

Delivered a double whammy, Theodore turns to his real life friend, who has herself just been dumped by her boyfriend. The two rejected souls, both human, are now going to get together, thank god, in flesh and blood, with challenging emotions and real relationships.

On the one hand, ‘Her’, brings to reality, the condition of the human being. When family and friends have been replaced by virtual ones, the world of friends and acquaintances have truly grown large and yet, not one, is here to touch and feel; it is you and you alone, who has a relation with these virtual community and whatever emotions have to be exchanged, it is you and your imagination only that makes it possible.

Here lies a great barrenness of being – the loneliness of being one, you, yourself and your truth only. Nobody can challenge that; it is yours as long as you sustain it, it is gone when you don’t. No one will cajole you to stay, be there. No one will miss you; nor anyone think of you, except you, yourself.

But on the flip side, there is a story that fits our times, when human relationships have become like instant coffee. Once drained out, and the coffee finished, so is the relationship. The virtual world provides the only escape from the frequent gains and losses, the landscape of a life so hurried that even love, or love making at long languid afternoons, or through the night, is just not a luxury the fast moving, multi-tasking modern, masses in urban cities can afford any more.

So, is virtual, telephonic sex, the way forward? Like it or not, when time and space are not available, and the leisure of a slowly simmering love, warming up the heart and flesh is hard to come by, the sultry voice that guides you to your climax at the same time, filling your ears with the hard breathing of the sound of an orgasm, is far better than wallowing in a life all by yourself.

Director Spike Jones, has made a good attempt to bring out the acute loneliness of our times, at the same time, placing the possibilities before the viewer, but finishing with the triumph of the human spirit that bond in flesh and blood.

You are left with a choice; take what best suits you, naturally.

See it; feel it; do it!

Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly
Amy Adams as Amy
Rooney Mara as Catherine
Olivia Wilde as Amelia
Scarlett Johansson as Samantha (voice)
Chris Pratt as Paul
Matt Letscher as Charles
Sam Jaeger as Dr. Johnson
Luka Jones as Mark Lewman
Kristen Wiig as Sexy Kitten (voice)
Bill Hader as Chat Room Friend #2 (voice)
Spike Jonze as Alien Child (voice, credited as Adam Spiegel)
Portia Doubleday as Surrogate Date Isabella
Soko as Isabella (voice)
Brian Cox as Alan Watts (voice)

Read another review written by Aekta Kapoor:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/queen-music-earthy-yet-peppy/1/344213.html

Film Dedh Ishqiya, a review of what it is not

Romantic humour, starring Madhuri Dixit - Nene, Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Huma Qureshi, fulfills its purpose in making the viewer sit up and have a good laugh at the story line.

Two crooks, having stolen a precious necklace are caught and jailed. After coming out of the jail, Khalu, (Naseeruddin Shah) discovers another opportunity that has opened up for him. Began Para ( Madhuri Dixit), the unrequited in love and marriage wife of the Nawab of a princely state Mahmudabad, who has died, leaving all his wealth to her, has called for ‘application’ of all eligible men in the state to come compete to win her hand in marriage. The Nawab had made one condition though – the Begum, who was a dance girl, winning many hearts, must marry only someone who is a poet. Hence, a motley crowd of so called poets gather to show their poetic prowess.

In the meantime, it is revealed that the Begum, much disillusioned with her shohar, the now dead Nawab, whose only passion was for young males dressed in coiffure delicate suits, had indeed, developed an intimate relationship with her hand maid, Huma Qureshi. While a show of pretense is held for the choice of the right candidate, there are two things at play – one, Naseeruddin Shah discovers that in the motley crowd, his old friend and fellow thief Arshad Warsi, is there as well. Second, and more importantly, Huma along with the Begum have hatched their own plan to fool the entire lot of hopeful men, but they require a close ally who would help them execute their plan, without knowing what was going on behind his back.

Arshad, is that ally, the emotional target in the ploy, who is befriended by Huma and fooled into believing that she is in love with him. Indeed, their desire has culminated into a one-night-stand. Huma, manages to use him, to steal the wealth from the palace and then makes off with the Begam, to start a life with each other, starting a classical dancing school for young girls. The men are left high and dry and must meet their own fate in the hands of law once again.

While the mainline of the film is a comedy of errors, the film has borrowed marginally from the story Lihaaf by Ismat Chugtai.

In the original story, a similar situation is at play – the disillusioned Begum develops itches all over the body and needs the help of the maid to constantly scratch her, while her Nawab, a lover of art and young men, entertains himself with the choicest men, leaving his wife as if she were an artifact. In the original story, the Begum and her maid are depicted to be in a close intimate relationship, when their erotic kiss is displayed on the wall as a shadow. Indeed, the narrator of the story, the young child, is a spectator to the goings on, between the two, as she sees the ‘elephant’ in movement under the quilt – Lihaaf, thus telling the reader of physical, sexual activity going on.  

The Madhuri Dixit – Nene starrer is not so bold and even though the kissing scene is imitated between her and Huma, as it appears in the original story, Dedh Ishqiya can hardly be considered a take-off from Lihaaf, although it tries to imitate it.

It is hardly a story of two women coming together, because of love. It is reflective of an escape route for the Begam, in the face of having a shohar, who is not interested in her body or emotions at all. Indeed, the storyline is comic with a twist.

Madhuri Dixit – Nene, has played a good come back role, using a dash of sensationalism but yet has not moved from the bedrock of what she stands for, the dhuk-dhuk girl of men. And there lies the Dedh Ishqiya – who is the Dedh, one and a half measure? Is he the Nawab first and the Begum half? Is it, Huma, the maid first, and the Nawab, half? Is it the loves of the Nawab, first and the Begam, half? While we think on, we can’t forget that Nasiruddin Shah and Begam Para had also gone past the first stage of love, in their past association, but had only been half fulfilled.

Dedh Ishqiya, makes a good attempt to break the cast of a story of two women, taking off with each other, in the backdrop of unrequited love from men thus remaining loyal to the hetero-normative patterns of social partnerships.

Ms Madhuri Dixit – Nene, knows which side her bread is buttered and where the money lies. Finally, it is in the hearts of men, and women, who might want to imitate/fall in love with her screen name, fame and beauty. She has already bagged one crore from Uttar Pradesh state government as a token of appreciation.  

The same appreciation was not shown to even an actress of much deeper significance, Shabana Azmi. Or for that matter Nandita Das.

Got the message, now? Deal with it.

Please note: If you don’t know Urdu, which is the language you will hear most the dialogue in the movie, don’t fear. The desi-English subtitles help you through, somehow.

You may also like to read another review:

http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/dedh-ishqiya-what-they-didnt-see-in-the-film-what-you-must-read/

Or read Ismat Chugtai’s Lihaaf as presented in Manushi magazine

http://www.manushi-india.org/pdfs_issues/PDF%20file%20110/9.%20Short%20Story%20-%20Lihaaf%20%5BThe%20Quilt%5D.pdf

Film Bariwali: Boundaries around women's body and mind

Set in rural/semi urban Bengal, just away from Kolkata, Bariwali is a film that showcases life of women in a traditional Bengali family.

This write attempts to draw the attention of the reader to the choice of characters, in the background of the main story. It tries to understand, how sensitively and carefully, Rituparno Ghosh, the director of the film, chose his characters to speak of a deeper reality that lies beneath the upper layer of the story board itself.

The protagonist is nameless, just known as bariwali, the land lady. She lives alone in a massive house, on the outskirts of Kolkata, with two other human beings, Proshonno da and Maloti. Proshonno da, is single, rather elderly, with features that can be called feminine. He is the perfect aid that a woman needs for all the work which generally is managed by men. He is older than bariwali and is her paid help, and lives in the house. Maloti, is on the other hand is young, sprightly and active, both at home and romantically, since she has a boyfriend. She is also a paid help in the house.

Juxtapose, these two against the land lady, and what you will find is a woman, holding power over two workers in her house, but as the film develops, you see that actually, they are the people who have more power than her.

Carefully chosen by Rituparno Ghosh to put a point across, neither Proshonno da, nor Maloti will have any sexual, romantic intrusion into her life, because, Proshonno da, although well past his youth, is not a virile man, masculine and sex motivated. Indeed, in his quiet way, with his slight body, thin and exuding feminine gestures, the bariwali, is fuller and far stronger in appearance than him. Nor will Maloti, too young, playful and happy go lucky, be a challenge to preserving the bariwali’s sexuality, because, she may have to grow older to understand the deeper implications of this trajectory, and in any case she is engaged to her masculine, possessive boyfriend, with whom she is exploring her sexuality in the hide.

The barrenness of the life of bariwali, only comes to light though, when a film company hires the lower portion of her house to shoot their film. Dipankar, the director of the film, seems to come closest to her desires, when, interacting with him, on a daily basis; she is hounded by her own desires that have been asleep in her mind too long. It is revealed that she was at one time, about to be married, when a death in the family, caused her marriage to be cancelled, leaving her, unfulfilled. But is Dipankar going to fulfill her emotional, romantic needs? Hitched between, being desired by two women, one, the land lady herself, whose expression of her interest in him shows in subtle ways, the heroin of his the film, Rupa Ganguly is more blatant, the director is more concerned with his, film that the emotions of either women.

Bariwali is not going to benefit from the overture she has made. She will remain the nameless land lady, addressed only as Didi, elder sister. Indeed, she will have to remain in the cage of non-expression, silenced, because there is neither outlet, nor a shore where she can anchor her emotions on.

The wonderful choice of characters, in her personal life, Proshonno da and Maloti, while aiding her daily needs, accentuate the boundaries within which she lives, on the top floor of a massive house, where the light falls, only if she sits out in the verandah. Bariwali is living in the cage of her own making, as she lives the traditional life, not having seen or been with any other. Her sexuality will not be challenged by either of these, for one, is too gentle and too benign, the other, too young and exploring elsewhere.

Women’s sexuality are guarded, preserved, even if they are not productive in the normative sense, of the term, that being able to bear child. The shackles of tradition along with how they are placed in the environment in which they live, only strengthens the reality further.

Rituparno Ghosh, is known to bring out the layers of hypocrisy ailing the middle-class in the most refined and sometimes blatant way.

For those with finer taste, and a weak heart, Bariwali, will settle best in the stomach, the burps coming up gently to shake them up, for there is no getting away from the fact of the human chain of boundary, not only created by men, but preserved by women as well.

Cast: Chironjeet, Kiron Kher, Rupa Ganguly

Film Review: The Lunch Box

Irfan Khan in The Lunch Box

Debutant film maker, Ritesh Batra, has made a fantastic start, with his first. Pegging the film on two elements – the Bombay Dabbawalas, who have become an international case study at management schools, and the evergreen recipe called love, he has made a profoundly meaningful, touching film, with only one very well-known actor, that being Irfan Khan, as cast and other lesser known names like, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui. A story so beautifully woven, with so much sensitivity, really did not need a super engaging cast, to carry the film to a box office hit.

Saajan (Irfan Khan), is about to retire in a month after 35 years of work life. He is a lonely widower, with nothing else except his job as crutch.

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is a housewife with a daughter and a husband she suspects is having an affair outside their marriage.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is the young man all set to take over the job from Irfan, after he retires in a month or two. He is eager to learn from Irfan, but the latter is a reluctant teacher for his insecurity of a life of retirement, is only too close and looking him in the face.

At that moment, by a turn of fate, there is an interchange of dabbas (Lunchbox) and the one he receives is not the one, meant for him. But the food is home cooked, and ever since the death of his wife, Irfan has been eating from the canteen, which only provided, potatoes on a daily basis. Irfan takes the liberty to send a chit in the box complaining, complimenting, telling stories, inside the box. Ila, who receives these letters, is a bit baffled at the beginning, but begins to enjoy and anticipate the letters. Her drab life, with a cheating husband, which she tells Irfan about, finds a patient listener. The letters fill the emptiness of each of their lives. They plan to meet.

However, at the appointed time, at the restaurant decided before, Ila, is waiting anxiously, while Irfan, a much older man, comes to the restaurant but does not meet her. He sits and watches her, hesitating to move forward. Naturally Ila is unhappy at this let down, but receives a letter of explanation from Irfan the next day, in the dabba, of course. Along with her daughter, she visits his Office, only to find, he has retired and left. She herself decides to leave for Bhutan, leaving her husband behind.

What is the actual message of the film? At no point do the two protagonists, Ila and Irfan, ever meet and yet, the audience is left with this feeling that they will meet, sometime. Perhaps in Bhutan where they plan to go together, but each has gone his own way!

The whole movie is a brilliant depiction of our need as humans to communicate. The key message is -  given any situation where two people are alone and have no one to talk to, they will create a bridge of communication, between them, even if they do not know, or have not seen or met each other. For Irfan, Ila filled the vacancy of this life, just by reading/listening to what he was writing; for Ila, Irfan was that person, she did not know, but could share her deepest fears or insecurities. Yet, when challenged to meet, personally came, Irfan prefers to maintain status quo. Indeed, he is aware that this bubble would burst if they were to meet personally, face to face.

At another level, even the aunty, living above Ila, whose voice the audience hears but whose face it never sees, is another example of communication between two humans living close to each other.  There is exchange thoughts and queries, and there is a basket hanging on ropes which again becomes a loop to hang another form of communication, where, tid-bits shared between two kitchen, one on top and the other below, becomes a tool that gives a loud and clear message – There is a voice that binds the two and there is a connection too, between the two. Again, they are communicating, whatever be the objects shared between the two.

Brilliant as it were, the film talks about a very basic need – the need to be heard and the need to communicate in any form, because, as someone said, no man is an island. We are all part of the milieu, we call life. We are complete, only when there is the other, in whatever form it may choose to be there for us.

The film is clean of all other quick fix modern day communications that shake the hall with belly dancers, romantic run-around trees or making out at sea bed. Also, there are no Smartphones, Facebook, Twitter or gmail even.

Such a break from the mundane! Such a beautiful film!

Read also why The Lunchbox should have been the film for the Oscar nomination.

http://www.tehelka.com/the-community-of-independent-filmmakers-in-india-is-essentially-crabs-in-a-basket/