Django Unchained (movie review)

A spaghetti western with a black cowboy - Who else you reckon would venture into a territory like that? Another hint - a ruthlessly violent, gore and cold blooded revenge saga - sounds familiar? Good Guess - Quentin Tarantino it is. The man's back with his large red font title credits, variegated background score and of-course a cast to die for as he adds another feather to his cap - Django Unchained.

Django Unchained (poster)

Before I begin my review, let me remind you that there are some flicks that owe its ingenuity to a great story (The reader, if I may), some to it's crisp screenplay (let's say The Social Network, or Tarantino's much acclaimed Pulp Fiction), some for direction (for instance The Hurt Locker); and some stand out based on sheer brilliance of performance. Django Unchained is one such movie. So if you are expecting an evenly paced, action packed western, I'd say cancel your movie tickets and shut down that torrent window right now.

Set in the antebellum era (the era in the Southern United States preceding the Civil War), Django Unchained is a stylish account of Django's (a black slave) pursuit to free his wife from a cruel and charismatic plantation owner Calvin Candie. His is aided in this quest by his mentor - Dr. King Schultz, a German Dentist/Bounty Hunter who trains him in bounty hunting and mastering a sidearm.

Django is a caterpiller, so to say. His character does not attain resplendence until the second half of the film and initially appears like a side kick to Schultz. Skilfully portrayed by Jamie Fox, the transition of Django from a hot headed slave to a shrewd, revenge seeking cowboy is gradual and credible. Christopher Waltz's portrayal of Dr. King Schultz is mildly enigmatic. It is difficult to fathom why a bounty hunter, who kills outlaws in cold blood, would take a black slave under his wing and helps him save his wife? Or why would he be so disturbed at Calvin Candie's orders to have of his Mandingo fighters be torn apart by attack dogs. (Yes. The film's not for the weak-hearted). Speaking of Calvin Candie, Leonardo Di Caprio's performance is one of his very best. His condescending conversations with Schultz were almost like a metaphor of revenge on Christopher Waltz for playing Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds AND winning a Oscar for it. Yes, Leonardo Di Caprio was that good. It's a shame he wasn't even nominated for the Oscars. The rest of the cast doesn't have much scope to be remembered, honestly. Samuel Jackson's as the conniving house slave Stephen does leave his mark though.

Jamie Foxx and Christopher Waltz (Django Unchained)

Unlike other Tarantino Flicks, Django Unchained has a linear narrative, excluding a few flashback scenes. (Visually the flash backs scenes were the best of the lot). Despite being set in the antebellum era and focussed on major social issues like slave trade, the film's historical verisimilitude can’t be said to be one of its highlights. It is brazenly and relentlessly about style, and action. Amidst the bloody mayhem, Tarantino does create some lighter moments with clever dialogues and smart comic timing - one of the funniest scenes being a group of Ku Klux Klan members gunning for Dr King Schultz (Christopher Waltz) and Django (Jamie Foxx) argue over the peepholes in their white hoods. Django's unfamiliarity with high brow English too triggers some laugh out loud moments.

Django Unchained is a bumpy ride - violent gun fights juxtaposed against intense conversations, some may even call the screenplay patchy. Being an epic story in nature, the narration slows down at certain junctures, at the cost of making you restless and wondering ‘where exactly is it going?’ But the climax, in pure Tarantino style completely makes up for those pitfalls, screaming 'and that's how it's done!'.

- by Parmita Borah

Life of Pi - a fascinating story | movie review

I cannot emphasize enough on the word 'beautiful' when I begin to describe Life of Pi. The fascinating story of juvenile Piscine Molitor, the lone survivor of a shipwreck as he travels across the Pacific ocean on a life boat, a makeshift raft and a ferocious Bengal tiger 'Richard Parker' for a companion. The big question - will he make it?

Life Of Pi - a film by Ang Lee

Irfan Khan as an adult Pi does justice to his role. Tabu, Adil Hussain, Vibish Sivakumar as Pi's mother, father and brother too have delivered brief but memorable performances. (Being an Assamese it was a proud moment to watch Adil Hussain be part of something so coveted and well crafted). But, it's the teen actor Suraj Sharma who shoulders the mighty task of carrying the story forward, and does so skilfully by infusing the necessary maturity and innocence to Pi's character.

The most impressive part about the narrative is that although it's an adult Pi telling his story to a reporter (which means Pi actually lives), not once does the plot feels predictable. There are surprises, pleasant and shocking throughout the 127 minutes of exhilarating cinematic experience. Yann Martel's book leaves readers pondering at the end whether Pi's story is an allegory of another set of parallel events or vice versa, and questions the need for rationalizing faith. This was well achieved with Irfan Khan's narration juxtaposed with that of Suraj Sharma's.

Suraj Sharma, Tabu and Ang Lee

Ang Lee avoids the common Indian stereotypes and paints a pretty picture of Pondicherry, especially during the initial few minutes of name casting. With the 3D glasses on, everything appears at an arm's length. The background score is subtle and soothing but you wouldn't find yourself paying much attention to it. The visual effects transcends reality and merges the surreal. There is this one scene in particular where the entire ocean is covered with jelly fishes which makes you feel like 'this is what heaven must look like'.

Director Ang Lee's fascination towards picturesque, visually appealing cinema is no news to anyone, but with Life of Pi he achieved what James Cameron paved way for when he directed Avatar. 

- by Parmita Borah

The Kahaani of Vidya Bagchi

The kahaani of Kahaani was no mystery to me as I made my way to the theater on a Sunday evening, thanks to a thoughtless moron at work who divulged the climax a day before. Having said that, I’d be lying if I said ‘Kahaani’ didn’t have any surprises to offer.  

Vidya Bagchi, a visibly pregnant woman lands in Kolkata all the way from London in search of her missing spouse. While the pursuit of her missing husband continues, she uncovers a much larger political plot with the help of a junior cop Satyuki Sinha a.k.a Rana.

In the late 80s and early 90s there existed a trend of female characters in Bollywood – these women either took a stand against bitter and wicked in-laws or bashed up pervert crooks and extras on a revenge driven mode. That trend although filmy, liberated the women from the mundane roles society and the film industry offered and drove them to discover and unleash their potency. In the years that followed with the ascending popularity of cholis, lehengas, Munnis and Sheilas, that fervor to project women as symbol of strength diminished. The aspiration of mainstream actress incarcerated to being eye candies and arm candies. Vidya Bagchi in its outlandish way is a reprisal of that fortitude from the 80s and 90s, fortunately in a perceptibly subtle and credible avatar.

Vidya Balan
in The Dirty Picture

Vidya Balan scores a hat trick of tour de’ force performance after No One Killed Jessica and The Dirty Picture. From restlessness and helplessness to a composed demeanor, her body language emotes every bit of it effectively; and for a mainstream actress to appear onscreen with sweaty armpits, boy that sure takes guts! Parambrata Chattopadhyay is appealing as Vidya’s aid in investigation and at times adorable for his vulnerability in her presence. A strong supporting cast adds to the spontaneity of the movie.

The multihued Kolkata in the festive season of Durga Puja is well captured through the lens, while a strong script and slick editing raises the curiosity levels from the very first frame. Crisp and conversational dialogues with well-timed humor keep onlookers from snoozing which often happens in movie theaters. Although the movie has an impressive sound track, director Sujoy Ghosh fortunately uses to a minimum during the narrative. It would have been still better had he been tightfisted with the background score as well. For instance, when hundreds of people including kids and infants die inside a metro - you need a moment to let that sink in, you really don't want a heavy rock number like Aami Shatti Bolchi in the next instant.

Finally, like any well scripted movie, bread crumbs are left for the audience to connect the dots and while they are at it, the climax renders them speechless with one hell of a shocker twist.

- by Parmita Borah

"The Three Musketeers" - a Review

Alexander Dumas's classic novel ‘The Three Musketeers’, for all those who didn’t know already, is sort of an epic tale about a young peasant eager to join the Kings' three musketeers Athos, Porthos and Aramis. He falls foul of the scheming Cardinal Richelieu and his men while attempting to save the Queen from public scandal, which could lead to an impending battle between France and England.

Hollywood had always had a tendency to alter plots and characters from adventure stories to fit them into adrenaline driven, action packed screenplays, sometimes not so successfully. The 2011 incarnation of The Three Musketeers created by Paul W.S. Anderson is no exception to that propensity.

To begin with, the three musketeers Athos, Aramis and especially Porthos have undergone massive transformations, from being legends to being superheroes. The most inedible transformation however is seen in Milady de Winter, from a villain to ahem, a Ninja, particularly when she pulls of Mission Impossible -like bungee stunts, but of course, if it’s Mila Jovovich portraying Milady, she’d simply do what she’s good at, kicking ass. It would have certainly helped if her stunts were toned down to suit the nature of a woman of that era. Nevertheless, her pretty face and sexy thighs are always a treat to watch.

Another totally pointless alteration was putting a pirate inspired patch on Rochefort, when according to the book he had a scar in his cheek. Christopher Waltz and Orlando Bloom try to salvage their underwritten parts, but it was Luke Evans as Athos who should be credited with adding some substance to the film.

On the brighter side, The Three Musketeers comes as a pleasant surprise after the epic fiasco of the much hyped Resident Evil-Afterlife. Instead of pop outs (like we’ve seen in Transformers), the movie has an Avatar like effect where the onlooker becomes a part of the scene. The fight sequences are decent; the violence is casual and humorous, although some sequences accompanied by the background music appear like a cocktail of Bollywood/Matrix/Sherlock Holmes rip offs. The flying airships forced into the script seem to serve no purpose except the obvious increase of 3D usage.

The plot and the twists are predictable from the very beginning while the accent of the cast dangles somewhere between British and French. The costumes and the sets, well, go unnoticed. Precisely a costume drama meets tried and tested Hollywood action, The Three Musketeers suffer from the familiar malady of being all glitz and no soul. It’s certainly possible to sit through one watch, but feel free to give it a miss, if you will.

-by Parmita Borah

Contagion - A Contagious Flick

The 1995 Dustin Hoffman starrer ‘Outbreak’ probably set a landmark for all epidemic/pandemic movies made thereafter. Contagion as a movie of that genre may or may have not surpassed the calibre of ‘Outbreak’, but certainly has succeeded in creating an identity of its own. 

A lethal communicable virus spreads across the globe, causing scores of death, while the health departments try to contain it; pharmaceutical companies try to leverage it and the affected try to come to terms with it. That’s precisely the story of Contagion. The appeal of the movie though lays not much in the story as it does in the story telling.

A Global Operations Manager of an American Company Beth (Gwyneth Paltrow), the unwitting host of a fatal airborne virus is seen chewing peanuts at a Hong Kong airport, waiting for a flight. Beth is unaware that like a Midas effect, everything she touches gets infected with the virus she is carrying. Soon in an ill-fated turn of events, people from all over the world begin to suffer from coughs, nose bleeds, collapse and immediately die. It is later shown in the movie through security tapes that the first recorded deaths were of the people who came in direct or indirect contact with Beth.

The quiet yet alarming infection slowly creeps its way into human nerves through door knobs, busses, papers and cups, unnoticed by the characters in the film. All they can notice is an escalating death toll with every passing day.

Marion Cotillard

There are several human sub plots – a man who discovers his wife’s infidelity while he is mourning over her death (played by Matt Damon), a pharmaceutical company hoping to mint money out of the crisis, an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer who has to convince local bureaucrats to commit resources while herself becoming infected, a scientist who identifies a potential vaccine and inoculates herself for a human subject test, World Health Organization epidemiologist who is held hostage for a batch of the vaccines. 

All of the characters have been treated with balanced empathy and make for the drama that a story like this requires to make it human. The film's usage of concepts like "R0" and "fomites," and genuine challenges like not having a state-of-the-art technology to mass produce vaccines depicts how well-illustrated the script is.

There’s also the conspiratorially-minded freelance journalist Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) who creates uproar and public mayhem by releasing startling information on his blog; and Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who is torn between the right and the wrong. These two characters in particular bring out the multiple dynamics of an epidemic situation - the sufferers and the profiteers, the survivors and the favored, the powerful and the powerless. Both the characters in their own way bring a few surprises to the story by slowly exposing their intents and instincts.

The most intelligent aspect of the movie is probably its beginning - it starts from 'Day 2' rather than 'Day 1'. This may strike as confusing to many, because of the initial lack of information; but as the story progresses, the plot gets clearer, saving a few surprises till the end.

The background score really adds to the grim tale that Contagion is. Despite a multi star cast, the film remains plot centric and not a star centric high intensity drama, kudos to casting for roping in such a great cast and to Soderbergh for utilizing them so well. Kate Winlset, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle stand out with their subtle yet potent presence. Cinematography can’t be claimed to be extraordinary but certainly sets the paranoid mood. Certain scenes like Beth’s autopsy are visually disturbing and may not be suitable for children. Frequent close-ups of people touching objects like glasses, cell phones, credit cards, door knobs and elevator buttons manage to instil that arcane paranoia that film makers strive to create. The scenes leave one with the horrific feeling that you could be the next victim.

Overall, Contagion is a brilliant screenplay (by Scott Z. Burns), well-executed by Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh, known for his distinct story telling, makes the audience realise yet another time, why his movies enjoy both commercial and critical triumph. The treatment of the movie however, screamed out “TV movie” rather than a theatrical release. What was the purpose of a multi-star cast still beats me when Contagion could have catapulted many Television actors to BAAFTA and EMMY. 

-by Parmita Borah

"That Girl In Yellow Boots" - a Review

I went to watch ‘That Girl in Yellow Boots’ as a part of a creative writing workshop. Honestly, I was expecting it to be ‘Kalki in yellow boots’, mainly because the movie was directed by Kalki Koechlin’s (also the female lead) spouse Anurag Kashyap and she had a tad bit too much screen space in ‘Shaitan’. Much to by mortified delight, I stood absolutely corrected.

The story is simple-Ruth is a half-Indian, half-British girl, who visits India to find her Indian father, with whom she hasn’t had contact since she was five. She goes through countless challenges in her pursuit as she has no lead except for a letter that her father had sent to her. Ruth precisely is a damsel in distress, but not the stereotypical melodramatic “Bechari” type damsel. She is independent, street smart and knows to manipulate her ways in and out of trouble.

While the story is about Ruth’s tragic journey, all the other characters are well sketched out and stand out with balanced performances. Ruth’s house in its own term stands out as a character, with its scrappy walls and narrow rooms, probably symbolizing the filth that’s laden in the girl’s life. Naseeruddin Shah’s performance is as always seasoned, but it’s hard to say if there was any real purpose of his character in the plot, except to create a distraction or for that matter a suspect. For a lesser known actor, Prashant Prakash has done a laudable job as Ruth’s abusive (substance and his girlfriend) boyfriend. Actors Pooja Swaroop and Gulshan Devaiya with their twisted dialogues and idiosyncrasies provided some much needed comic relief to the plot.

Anurag Kashyap and Kalki Koechlin

Kalki Koechlin carries ‘That Girl in Yellow Boots’ on her shoulders and does so with great panache and élan. However, she certainly runs the risk of being stereotyped into these gray and distraught characters in Hindi Movies, if she plays another 'Dev D' styled role in her next movie.

The screenplay, a drama in its first impression, also has a jagged pattern of whodunit/crime thrillers which balances the movie on that thin line that differentiates interesting from boring. The buildup is intriguing and towards the end, although one kind of figures out how the film will end, there is a real element of surprise that can leave people baffled. 'That Girl in the Yellow Boots' allows the audience to connect with the characters without laying it thick on the tragedy or forcibly including tearjerker scenes; and it certainly has some genuine laugh out loud moments.

The yellow boots perhaps stand for the filth and misery in Ruth’s life and we see her taking them off for good, minutes before the final credits roll, under the most unusual circumstances, possibly symbolizing her eventual detachment from all of that.

The movie may strike as disturbing or gross for viewers who are not used to world cinema. Although the content is aimed at an adult audience, visually the movie does not have any kinky kicks to offer and demonstrates cinematic expertise in handling taboo topics. So anyone looking for some cheap 'A rated masala', ‘That Girl in the Yellow Boots’ is not the ideal multiplex ticket to purchase.

-by Parmita Borah

That Girl in Yellow Boots - Trailer

“Nagaland - Journey through the choir of clouds” – a short documentary

Nagaland, a state in the remote north eastern part of India, continues to remain an alluring mystery to all those who ever saw, heard or even remotely experienced a whiff of it. In spite of the growing rate of tourists and travellers flocking to this region, there are certain aspects of the people and life here that continue to be shrouded in an age old enigma. The grandeur of this enchanting land mixed with its breathtaking natural beauty, vibrant culture and enthralling history is precisely what Jim Ankan Deka brilliantly showcases in his documentary “Nagaland-Journey through the choir of clouds”.

“Nagaland - A place where swirling clouds gently kiss the mighty hills, where nature preserves in its bosom the primeval traditions of the land, where picturesque sights await at every blink, where ethnic notes conflate with temporary melodies....” As these words make their way to the heart of the viewer, an overwhelming sense of wonder and reverence permeates the soul, and one cannot help but agree that an enlightening and profound impression is what comes across through the documentary, as it highlights the tribal life, culture, myths and folklore of Nagaland. Imbued with the pristine sounds and moods of nature; beliefs, customs and social behaviour of the Naga people, “Nagaland-journey through the choir of clouds”, with its freshness and simplicity has a fragrance of the primeval and ethnic combined with the contemporary about it. A deep sense of sensitivity can be deciphered in the way it depicts the life and history of Nagaland and its people, the hospitality and warmth of the people that comes so naturally to them, the age old myths and folklore passed on from generation to generation, and an amalgamation of the past and the present harmoniously co existing.

A sense of travelling back in time engulfs one, as the documentary takes us on a journey through the districts of Nagaland encompassing the serene life of the people and filling one with a sense of detachment from the chaos and humdrum of modern civilization. The documentary comes across as a landmark in itself as it explores an all embracing picture of a region, its people and their story. The director manages to have several scenes that give a glimpse into the core of Naga society with its myriad tribes and the remnants of the early animist culture and ancient traditions existing parallel to the contemporary life of the new generation. The entire team, including the script writer duo Parmita Borah and Schuyler Ellers (also the narrator) and the Eastern Fare Production team, come together to create a brilliant film that not only presents a unique view of the state of Nagaland, but also leaves a burning desire within the viewer to have a taste of this intoxicating land.

The film is produced by Eastern Fare Music Foundation and Jim Ankan. The video is edited in ‘Sargam Audiocraft’ by SK Biswa and the sound is mixed at ‘Studio Eastern Fare’ and ‘Sargam Audiocraft’ by Pinku and Jim. The internet version of the short documentary is released on 22nd July, 2011, and can be viewed on different portals including Dailymotion and North-East India page on Facebook.

-by Samriddhi Tanti