Ear Him Out

Film: Dumbo,Cast: Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green, Michael Keaton, Directed by: Tim Burton, Duration: 1 hr 52 mins, Rating: * * *

Directed by Tim Burton, Dumbo is one of those old fashioned feel good movies where everything happens on cue – and they live happily ever after. Based on the novel by Helen Aberson, Disney did make an animated hour long feature back in 1941, so it is only fair that it be remade as a full length film.

Tim Burton has dabbled with certain kinds of film over the years and this is something up his street, in terms of visual story telling – otherwise, the story is a bit ‘simplistic’ by his standards.

Dumbo centers around a circus soon after the WWI – Captain Holt (Colin Farrell) returns to his two kids, Milly and Joe – he lost his wife to a disease and his arm to the war and life is not looking too good as a single parent. Add to it, work wise, he is not the dashing horse rider that he used to be and has to take up odd jobs at the circus now, which is owned by Max Medici (Danny DeVito).

Dumbo, the elephant with big ears makes and entry and the kids are the first to notice him fly. This trait attracts the attention of a fancy entertainment park owner (Michael Keaton) and his muse (Eva Green) who is a trapeze artist.

As it usually happens with such films, the animals themselves or their interaction with humans makes for the best parts of the film – humans on their own are pretty predictable and not so exciting.

The screenplay plays by the book – you can feel the excitement when Dumbo rises to the challenge and some kids in the audience were even clapping when the elephant was flying. The animation is of highest quality and being a Tim Burton film, you can expect appropriate visuals to go with it. Dumbo doesn’t quite touch the sky but it soars high enough to tug the heartstrings.

 

Teacher’s Pets

Film: Notebook, Cast: Zaheer Iqbal, Pranutan Bahl, Directed by: Nitin Kakkar, Duration: 1hr 55 mins, Rating: * *  1 / 2

An official remake of the Thai film The Teacher’s Diary (2014), Notebook is set in Kashmir with some gorgeous visuals. As for the film, it takes its own sweet time in uniting a man who has fallen in love with a woman but has never seen her.

The setting primarily is a school on the Wular lake in Kashmir – there is nothing else in sight except serene settings. Kabir (Zaheer Iqbal) is a Kashmiri soldier turned teacher who takes up the job of teaching in the secluded school – there are all of seven students there from different grades. There is no proper sanitation or even drinking water there – when Kabir asks the boatman, “Yaha network nahi aata?” (Is there no network here?) “Yaha network hota hai jab mausam aur mahaul saaf ho, jo kam hi hota hai. (There is network when the weather and situation are clear and that rarely happens.)”

Kabir discovers the diary of the previous teacher, Firdaus (Pranutan Bahl). He reads the pages one by one and learns more about her which is told through a non-linear storyline in the film.

Given that the setting is in Kashmir, the politics can’t be left behind. Kabir is a Kashmiri pandit whose family is caught in the crossfire when the clamour for ‘azaadi’ was strong.

The cute as a button school kids deliver an eminently likable performance but the lead pair is just about passable. Manoj Kumar Khatoi’s cinematography takes the cake here by capturing the beauty of Kashmir in all its glory. The romance portrayed is a bit too simplistic and convenient but I guess that is how it is in movies.

 

Bald Over

Film: Gone Kesh, Cast: Shweta Tripathi, Vipin Sharma Deepika Amin, Directed by: Qasim Khallow, Duration: 1 hr 50 mins, Rating: * * 1 / 2

Gone Kesh is about a young girl who has lost her hair because of Alopecia – she then has to cope with hair loss, before turning bald. It is an interesting and realistic premise and touches a cord because it has its heart in the right place. In fact, not just the heart, even the mind, when it comes to the storytelling, is adept.

Set in a town that is hitherto unexplored, Siliguri, we have Enakshi Dasgupta (Shweta Tripathi) who starts losing hair as a teenager. Her friends tease her Gone Kesh and needless to say, it hurts her self esteem. A trip to the doctor helps but not much, medication does have its side effects after all. It helps that she has two wonderful parents Anup (Vipin Sharma) and Debashree (Deepika Amin) who are very supportive of her at every stage. For Enakshi, it gets to a point where she goes fully bald and has to wear a wig. Srijoy (Jitendra Kumar) plays her friend who has a romantic interest in her but can’t quite spell it.

The beauty of the screenplay is that it conveys certain things without breaking much of a sweat. You know how it is going to end but Enakshi’s journey and self-discovery make you feel for her. There is a certain honesty that the film manages to convey successfully – whether it is the aspiration of the lower middle-class father (he wants to travel by airplane and see the Taj Mahal) or the coming-to-terms with the issue on hand, the characterization is wonderful.

It also helps that there is an able cast to pull it off – Shwetha Tripathi is likable in every role that she plays and this one has ample scope for her to show her skills. As the parents, Vipin Sharma and Deepika Amin are both first-rate – particularly Sharma who plays daddy cool in an endearing manner.

The title of the film is a pun on gone-case, something that is beyond repair. But the film is far from it so catch it while you can- it may be here today, gone tomorrow.

 

Two of a Kind

Film: Us, Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Directed by: Jordan Peele, Duration: 1 hr 55 mins, Rating: * * * *

What would you do or how would you react if you saw a doppelganger of just about everyone who is out there to get you?

After his knockout directorial debut with Get out (2017), Jordan Peele has come up with another impressive knock-your-socks-off feature – it is one of those films that is so layered and complex that it deserves a second helping to figure out the details. And Peele has ensured that there are enough of them to fill an encyclopedia. Virtually every scene has something embedded in it which may not strike instantly but later, it might. I suspect Peele, after writing the script, decided to fill in oodles of details in the screenplay.

From Jeremiah 11:11 (the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.”) to Jaws and Kubrick’s The Shining (room 237, Grady Twins) there are references from the word go. In fact, 11:11 has several references, right from the clock to the number on an ambulance.

Us opens in the year 1986 – when the camera zooms towards the television, you can see a handful of VHS tapes on the side – C H U D, The Right Stuff, The Goonies all are influences to what is going to unfold in the film. A young girl Adelaide is scarred by an experience on the beach when she wanders off alone into one of those ‘House of mirrors’.

Years later, we see Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) with a hubby (Winston Duke, M’Baku of Black Panther) and two kids. She has recovered from that childhood incident but it comes back when her husband suggests a vacation on the same beach. All this while Peele throws a few crumbs here and there to chew on. But even the lavish main course arrives without any fuss – one night, the family sees four people in the drive, dressed in red. It turns out they are doppelgangers, leaving the audience and the characters both in a tizzy. The ordeal of the characters is far greater, as the audience, you can only sit and marvel the cleverness of where it is coming from, where it is heading. You are amused, you laugh and you at the oddity of the situation where people face a scary version of themselves – and you marvel at the writing.

Given Peele’s first film, you can expect a strong social commentary here as well. When asked who they are, the doppelgangers say “We are Americans”. But unlike Get Out, the allegories and meaning of what is unfolding are not very obvious – maybe there is no allegory during certain scenes but the manner in which Peele presents it, you can’t help but get the feeling that he is trying to say more than what you can see.  The doppelgangers are fascinating in their own right – they are all dressed in red and their expressions are rather unusual and their preferred weapon is the scissor (rock, paper, scissors anyone?). The soundtrack is peppered with relevant music – Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys pops up during one rather unusual situation. The acting is top-notch, particularly Lupita Nyong’o who is phenomenal in the dual role. I don’t care if there is a possible sequel that explains more about Us. It gave enough bang for my bucks and I am looking forward to a second and maybe third helping.

 

Ebony and Ivory

Film: Junglee, Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Pooja Sawant, Directed by: Chuck Russell, Duration: 1 hr 55 mins, Rating: * *

The story of Junglee credited to Rohan Sippy who was initially meant to direct the film, is inspired by Haathi Mere Saathi (1971). Eventually, it was taken over by the American director Chuck Russell who has The Mask (1994) and The Scorpion King (2002) to his credit.

The screenplay of the film belongs to the same era as the Rajesh Khanna film – it is never a good sign when the audience is more interested in the animals than the human beings and especially when the latter behave with a low IQ.

It stars Vidyut Jammwal whose biceps are like trim elephants legs, he is a vet who rushes to Orissa where his father is taking care of a sanctuary, like Prakash Baba Amte. A bunch of poachers (led by Atul Kulkarni in a cowboy hat) are on the prowl looking for elephant tusks. They launch an all-out attack which ensues in considerable blood shedding and a death. Our veterinary doctor then has to show off his fight and martial art skills to ensure justice is served. There are two ladies on the scene – one is a mahout (Pooja Sawant) who is a part of the sanctuary and the other is a journalist (Asha Bhat) who, for reasons unknown to her, lands up from Mumbai. The story and screenplay involves more than half a dozen people but given the pedestrian nature of it, anyone with half a brain could have written that.

 

Super Trooper

Film: Super Deluxe (Tamil with English subtitles), Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha, Fahadh Faasil, Ramya Krishnan, Directed by: Thiagarajan Kumararaja, Duration: 2 hrs 55 mins, Rating: * * * *

It was a good eight years ago that director Thiagarajan Kumararaja made a smashing debut with Aaranya Kaandam (2011), which caught everyone’s attention. It took a long time before he could make his second feature but the wait has well been worth it. Super Deluxe is one of those films that offers so much that you may not be able to soak all of it in one viewing, much like the Jordan Peele film Us, which also released this week.

Like a Tarantino or the Coen Brothers, there are few directors who can pull off style and substance and clearly, Kumararaja has it in him to do that. The influence of some of those filmmakers (a bit of Iñárritu as well) is there to see but Kumararaja and his screenplay co-writers weave the story in the local social fabric The style may be influenced, the substance is original.

The film opens in a small little room and you can hear the bed squeaking while I am a Disco Dancer plays on the soundtrack. If Aaranya Kaandam was about an impotent gangster, this one starts with a woman, Vaembu (Samantha) who is seeking pleasure with her lover. All is well but not for long, she has a dead body to dispose off and a husband Mugil (Fahadh Faasil) to deal with. But soon, her problem becomes their problem.

The film has a bunch of stories interwoven together – the talented Vijay Sethupathi plays a transgender who is married and has a son, who is waiting for his father to return. Rarely do you see a story of the marginalised which is told in such a humane way. The more quirky tale is that of four young men who want to spend some time watching an X rated DVD (called Mallu Uncut) but that leads to an unexpected turn of events – they end up racing against time to buy not one but two televisions and their encounter with a gangster is a hoot. Ramya Krishnan plays Leela, the mother of a boy who is livid with her for doing something ‘immoral’.

In real life, in many situations there are no moral boundaries, people do as they please but for the fear of being judged, not everything comes to the surface. In cinema usually certain boundaries as norms are followed but not in the case of Super Deluxe – it is forthright, it is in your face and the writing doesn’t shy from making a point the way it wants to. Think of a family drama by Rajshri production – this is at the other end of the spectrum.

Morality is one of the central themes there – the unfaithful wife and her husband encounter another situation later with a policeman where they find themselves in a quandary. That scene though is a bit stretched and while most of the film is breezy (at 175 minutes that is quite an achievement) the pace slackens just a bit towards the end. It is like a marathon runner who after winning the race handsomely, still keeps going.

Spirituality is another theme that is dealt with – Leela’s husband (Mysskin) believes that his faith and God will heal his son rather than the doctors.

The cinematography by P S Vinod and Nirav Shah is from the top draw. There is minute attention paid to the colors and more often than not, we see a lot of red – right from a blouse, t-shirts, shorts, to the light filtering in the room. The editing by Sathyaraj Natarajan plays around with the time factor very cleverly. The mood and tone of the stories are different but the shifting is seamless. The music by Yuvan Shankar Raja (son of maestro Illaiyaraja) is apt – it uses different themes for different characters, especially for the corrupt cop, it sounds like some industrial machinery but it gels well. Also, after Andhadhun, which had a piece by Beethoven when a dead body was being chucked, this one very cleverly uses a popular theme of a studio, in Carnatic style.

On the acting front, Fahadh Faasil slips into his role with such ease that it makes you admire his versatility. Vijay Sethupathi plays the transgender with great conviction while Samantha fits the bill in her role.  Super Deluxe is as good as it gets at the cinemas these days.