Movie Review

HEERJA REVIEW : 3 Star

The Accidental Prime Minister movie review: Anupam Kher starrer The Accidental Prime Minister is an out-an-out propaganda film, created for the specific purpose of making the former prime minister look like a weak, spineless man, a puppet whose strings were controlled by The Family.

The Accidental Prime Minister review: There is a complete absence of any art or craft in its making.

The Accidental Prime Minister movie cast: Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna, Vipin Sharma, Suzanne Bernert, Munish Bhardwaj, Arjun Mathur, Aahana Kumra
The Accidental Prime Minister movie director: Vijay Ratnakar Gutte
The Accidental Prime Minister movie rating: 3 Star/5 Star

Going in, you are aware that The Accidental Prime Minister has been crafted from the point-of-view of the author of the book (of the same name) that the film is based on. You are ready for a very personal slice-of-life, not an all-encompassing macro look at the UPA years during which Manmohan Singh was the PM, and Sanjaya Baru his media adviser.

But any faint notion that this will be a balanced view goes out of the window as soon as it opens.

The Accidental Prime Minister is an out-an-out propaganda film, created for the specific purpose of making the former prime minister look like a weak, spineless man, a puppet whose strings were controlled by The Family (the word is blipped out, but there is no hiding the movement of the lips). Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Priyanka and the cunning caucus around them are shown as the real power behind the throne. The film is careful to underline that Singh was honorable, upright and personally incorruptible, but that he overlooked the corruption of his party colleagues, and was paralysed because of the far-reaching influence of The Family. READ IN TAMIL

Watch: In conversation with The Accidental Prime Minister star Anupam Kher

Even political newbies are aware of this narrative, and The Accidental Prime Minister doesn’t have any breaking headlines for those who were following the developments during that time.

What comes as a surprise is just how shockingly bad and shoddy the film is. There is a complete absence of any art or craft in its making. Almost all the characters, including the two main leads, Singh (Kher) and Baru (Khanna), come off as caricatures. Kher minces through the film, his voice reedy, thin, shaky, his body language nervous and unconfident: at no point does Kher’s Singh look like a man who inhabited the PM ki kursi for two full Lok Sabha terms with any conviction.

Breaking the fourth wall is a convention used sparingly in theatre and film to score a point. Khanna’s smug, smirking Baru keeps turning around and addressing us, breaking the illusion of the ‘reel’, claiming first person vantage of telling us the ‘real’ story. Khanna is always togged out in techni-coloured sharply tailored suits, and is shown to have the kind of enviable access in the corridors of power, literally, that very few senior ministers can ever hope to dream of. In fact, this film is so much more about Baru that it could just as easily have been dubbed ‘The Omnipresent Media Adviser’.

There doesn’t seem to have been a script in place, just a series of scenes meant to damn Singh, and studded with some unintentionally hilarious passages (the PM smiling to the tune of Que sera sera, with his wife, played by Divya Seth, sitting alongside). The sets are lurid: are those South Block rooms really painted in all those yellows and magentas?

Apart from the actors playing the real people (the startlingly-similar looking Bernert stands in for Sonia, Mathur for Rahul, Kumra for Priyanka, Sharma for Ahmad Patel, as well as actors playing Vajpayee, Advani, Lalu Yadav, Mulayam Singh, and other political heavy-weights), there are also actual newsreel flashes with the actual faces: why?

Singh may well have been an ‘accidental’ PM, in Baru’s succinct words, and history may or may not judge him differently. But it is no accident that the film is out now. The release is completely intentional: the polls are around the corner.

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SIMMBA REVIEW

HEERJA : **** (4 Star)

Simmba movie review and release live updates: Here's what critics, celebrities and fans are saying about Rohit Shetty directional Simmba, starring Ranveer Singh and Sara Ali Khan.

Starring Ranveer Singh in and as Simmba, the film directed by Rohit Shetty has hit the theaters. Sara Ali Khan plays Ranveer’s love interest in the film and from the trailer, it looks like Ajay Devgn’s Singham will also play a significant role in the film.

Rohit Shetty’s films are known for being masala entertainers and so far, the audience has enjoyed the way he presents big action sequences with high drama. Shetty’s style of comedy is also loved by the viewers.

With Simmba being the last big release of the year, the audience will surely be looking forward to ending their year with a bang.

This will be Ranveer Singh’s second release of the year after Padmaavat. He is being seen as a front-runner for all the awards after his performance as Khilji in Bhansali’s film.

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Aquaman movie review

Heerja Rating:

Aquaman
Director - James Wan
Cast - Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Willem Dafoe
Rating - 3/5

The opening few minutes of Aquaman are quite possibly its best, because that’s how long it takes director James Wan to set the tone for his film, and to differentiate his version from others.

Two souls meet, like two ships stranded at sea, destined to find each other. There is a warm afternoon glow in the sky, a light breeze in the air and the ocean is calm. A love story unfolds, a child is born and difficult decisions are made. A lifetime passes. All in the time it would take for you to lap an Olympic-sized pool. The soothing sounds of Sigur Ros hang in the air; a Jules Verne quote is invoked.

It’s safe to say that these opening few minutes, which bear more resemblance to Pixar’s Up than Zack Snyder’s heavy metal take on the character, are unlike anything we’ve seen in a DC film before.

There is barely any reference made to the Aquaman we’d seen in Justice League, save for Jason Momoa’s on-the-nose James Hetfield impression, and the faint guitar riff that accompanies his arrival on the scene. To call James Wan’s version a calculated distancing from the Snyderverse would be slightly cynical - and that is not what this film is about. Wan’s Aquaman is perhaps the most earnest superhero movie in many months, probably since DC’s own Wonder Woman.

It most certainly isn’t as polished as that movie - what Patty Jenkins achieved went beyond having made a good film - but neither is it as putrid as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. It floats somewhere in the middle; like a life vest for a rapidly sinking DC Extended Universe.

Watch the extended Aquaman trailer here

Its themes of identity and belonging, of being caught between two worlds are remarkably similar to the ideas that Andy Serkis explored in his recent Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Arthur Curry is born of Atlantean royalty, but also has in his veins the blood of a common human man. He is raised on the surface, a stone’s throw from the ocean - two homes that he has never truly belonged to, or felt accepted by. Crippled by abandonment issues - his mother left him when he was a child, with the promise that she’d return one day - and only just now discovering a purpose in his life (Aquaman is set about a year after the events of Justice League) Arthur is summoned to the deep by Mera, played by Amber Heard.

Mera is also Atlantean royalty, and sensing a brewing civil war, she decides to seek Arthur’s help in defeating the man behind this upheaval - his half-brother, Orm, played by Wan’s regular collaborator and star of his Conjuring movies, Patrick Wilson. As the son of Queen Atlanna (played by Nicole Kidman), Arthur has a stake in the crown; he only needs to find the strength to claim it.

Thus begins a story that is equal parts Game of Thrones and Indiana Jones - like Black Panther told from Killmonger’s perspective. Wan cleverly touches upon these Shakespearean concepts - feuding brothers, despotic rulers, social revolt - without ever fully diving into them. He’s a smart enough filmmaker to realise that this is neither the time nor the place for navel-gazing storytelling. The DCEU cannot afford another BvS - now is the time for spectacle; for heroes that we can actually look up to. Now is the time for dumb fun.

This might be an uncommon opinion, but I believe that Wan is more talented at making films such as this, and his equally emotional Fast & Furious 7, than the scary movies he is better known for. He is a master of tone, a skill that is all the more evident when even a slight miscalculation is enough to sink the ship. All it would have taken for Aquaman - a film that wears its heart proudly on its sleeve - to get on your nerves is for one more protracted musical cue, or an extra second of Nicole Kidman gazing longingly at her son, or another money shot of the film’s wonderfully designed underwater world. But Wan knows which buttons to push, and more importantly, when to take his foot off the pedal.

He isn’t afraid to get nutty either - Aquaman poses for selfies, an Octopus plays the drums and a scene in which Arthur and Mera jump onto the Sahara Desert opens with a rap version of Toto’s Africa.

Gradually, a visual style seems to be taking shape. Just as he made the tracking shot a signature move of the Conjuring films, Wan’s swirling camera and single-take showdowns are becoming synonymous with his action filmmaking. The underwater effects aren’t always up to snuff - there’s a slight rubberiness to the movements of certain creatures, and Atlantis looks a lot like Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, as if it were submerged under a flood - but it doesn’t really matter when every narrative decision is so clearly made in the interest of story. Even the secondary villain - Black Manta, played by Yahya Abdul Mateen II - is given a patiently developed plot. In a lesser film he would have been reduced to one of those Bond henchmen types.

His performance, like the rest of the cast’s, is grounded in real emotion. And now that he has the opportunity, Momoa adds more layers to Arthur, and plays him as a man of surprising emotional intelligence - nothing at all like the headbanging ogre that he was in Justice League, expressing himself in monosyllabic grunts. Heard’s Mera is the perfect foil to his brash bravado, an equal who can show him his place. Her character could very easily have been bound by the same shackles that trap Disney princesses - Mera even dresses up like one in a key scene - but neither Heard nor Mera are having any of it. It is Kidman’s warm performance as the conflicted Queen Atlanna, however, and Temuera Morrison as Arthur’s dad, who resonate fiercely.

Quietly, without drawing much attention to itself, Aquaman makes long strides for diversity in cinema - both in the way that it is cast and through the story it tells. Like Momoa, who himself is a child of two worlds - his father is of Hawaiian descent while his mother is of European ancestry - Aquaman represents oneness. It’s about acceptance and inclusivity, about shunning differences and learning to embrace those who aren’t like us. It washes up on the shores of the same sort of annoying CGI slugfest that these DC movies routinely default to, but it deserves to be seen big and loud.

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Kedarnath Review: A Star Is Born

Heerja Rating:

'Truth be told, Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan's daughter has tons of filmi blood and it is what powers Kedarnath from start to finish,' says Sukanya Verma.

In a bid to spite her disapproving father, a defiant Madhuri Dixit stabs a broken wine bottle into her arm and vows to meet her beau come what may. Hysteria abounds, but Madhuri's impetuous intensity in Dil makes it work.

When Sara Ali Khan slits her finger to prove a point to her bigot daddy in Kedarnath, she exhibits the same degree of ridiculous, romanticised rebellion that turns young ladies of Bollywood love stories into enthusiastic endorsers of self-inflicted violence. Except the newcomer's 'yeah so?' spirit is utterly disarming and injects fresh blood into an old body.

The first time we see Sara -- the camera captures her from an odd, distant angle. She is squabbling with a porter about her ruined footwear. It's as though director Abhishek Kapoor wants us to sniff her charisma even when she is almost out of the frame. When she is at its centre though, Sara is the heart of Kedarnath.

Much honesty and impishness colour her portrayal of a headstrong romantic wolfing down Maggi and making eyes at the handsome pithoo who just won't sip chai from her glass. The smug smile that lights her face when he finally relents is telling of the performer she is meant to be.

HEERJA

Sara plays Mukku, short for Mandakini, daughter of the local respected Brahmin (Nitish Bharadwaj) whose hypocrisy is thinly veiled under his skin-deep liberalism. Cuttingly addressing him as Pandit not Pitaji, she openly resents the limited agency allowed to the women of her household.

Her stylish wardrobe makes that a tad hard to believe. Known for their sartorial flamboyance, designer duo Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla's playful if hardly realistic wardrobe for Sara resists grandiosity, as they know it. But their love for couture eventually catches up by the time it is the turn of the big bridal lehenga.

Mukku loathes her mother's (Sonali Sachdev) compromised existence and is angered by her sister's (a lovely Pooja Gor) humiliation at the hands of a fiancé (Nishant Dahiya, full of rakish arrogance) they have had the misfortune to share.

At times sparring, often silently communicating, Kapoor captures the sibling ups and down with impressive tenderness.

When circumstances prompt Mukku to grow close to a Muslim porter Mansoor (Sushant Singh Rajput), she grabs it as an opportunity to break the norms. For all her first moves though, the courtship and conflicts it gives rise to are awfully hackneyed.

It's 2013 and people in love are still collecting handkerchiefs and jhoomkas or giving dharna outside the sweetheart's house in pouring rain until change of heart happens.

Add to this, the now tired trope of an old classic song for emotional effect. It must be said, Bollywood's Lag Ja Gale obsession has gotten out of hand now. The sooner it finds another vintage ditty to ruin in overkill, the better.

The heft and conviction of a sparkling Sara and subdued Sushant as well as its solid supporting cast make Kedarnath's stereotypes and contrivances a whole lot agreeable.

Scenes like Mukku's father punishing her by dipping her in frozen water like a tea bag or arguments between the pandits and pithoos taking a communal turn are woefully over the top, but the cast's composed energy strains out some of the excessive melodrama.

Like instead of making the usual hue and cry on watching her man getting beaten up, Sara coolly states, 'Itne main hi mar gaya toh aage kaise jhelega? Truth be told, Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan's daughter has tons of filmi blood and it is what powers Kedarnath from start to finish.

Dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives in the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, Kedarnath delays its disaster theme up until the third act to build on its Hindu-Muslim romance against a majestic mountainous range enveloping the pilgrimage town.

There are allusions to infrastructural mismanagement evoking the wrath of nature, but Kedarnath doesn't meditate on the politics of religion or commercialisation as much as employ it for short-lived obstacle.

Dubbed as the Himalayan tsunami, the devastating loss of life and property is best understood in the footage that shows up at end. The VFX recreating the actual tragedy, across wishy-washy images of an enormous deluge and solitary choppers, is horribly synthetic and cannot convey the magnitude, danger or chaos.

None of the hurried tears, sacrifices or theatrics leading to its loopholed developments and unsurprising losses achieves the Titanic scale Kapoor is aiming for.

But a S(it)ara is well and truly born. And in a launchpad, isn't that all that matters?