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From usual to unusual, much on offer this week…. Cinema
While Sangeeth Sivan’s “Ek — The power of one” brings Bobby Deol back on familiar turf with lot of action, Deepa Mehta’s “Videsh — Heaven on Earth” is an experimental take on an abusive relationship between a man and his Indian wife in a foreign land.
While Sangeeth Sivan’s “Ek — The power of one” brings Bobby Deol back on familiar turf with lot of action, Deepa Mehta’s “Videsh — Heaven on Earth” is an experimental take on an abusive relationship between a man and his Indian wife in a foreign land.
The subject of domestic abuse is not new to cinema, but it is seldom that film-makers take it beyond the realm of objectivity. It largely remains the story of a subdued wife who ultimately turns the tables on her cruel husband.
Staying clear of the revenge angle, seasoned film-maker Deepa Mehta here has opted to look at the issue in a new light. She brings out the duality in the nature of such husbands that keeps the abused confused. She couldn’t say enough is enough, as apparently she is not living with the same person day in and day out. At times he is caring, at times he is brutal. Deepa has taken a metaphorical approach to drive home the point, mixing Girish Karnad’s much acclaimed play Nagamandalam to an otherwise linear script. The mythical Sheshnaag and its moulting are symbolic of the husband’s dual behaviour. However, the chances of a lay cinemagoer comprehending this experimental blend are bleak.
Things don’t remain cogent as the storyline moves between the mythical and the real. Deepa, as we know, is strong in economy of expression and her camera remains a neutral observer. But here her strengths conspire to make Videsh a convoluted art piece with very little mass appeal but something that deserves interpretation.
It is the story of Chand (Preity Zinta) from Punjab who flies to Canada to get married to Rocky (Vansh Bharadwaj) who is making the two ends meet for his family. With dreams in her eyes and mother’s folk tales in her mind, she takes the first steps in domesticity. However, Videsh for her turns out to be hell.
There are no villains. Yes, there is a mother-in-law feeling insecure with the entry of the bahu, but largely it is the circumstances which play the villain and pretty well. Deepa hints at the joblessness and immigration issues puncturing the general notion that the grass is green on the other side of the fence.
Preity plays the Punjabi bride with a rare mix of dignity and vulnerability. Giving one of her best performances, Preity curbs her star appeal to bring out the obscurity such women live in. Debutant Vansh Bhardwaj is convincing as the husband who uses the wife as a punching bag when life hits him hard.
AA DEKHEN ZARA (Delite, Delhi, and other theatres)A camera that can click the future! Director Jehangir Surti here has got a compelling plot to build a castle. In Neil Nitin Mukesh he has an actor who thrives in the boundaries of a character and in Bipasha Basu he has a flame that can keep the moths busy. Unfortunately, Surti doesn’t believe in economy of time and sharpness of editor’s scissors. What could have been an edgy thriller drags itself into a mundane hit-and-run exercise only to recover in the final lap.
Young Neil plays a struggling wildlife photographer whose gifted grandfather has left an incredible camera for him. It can click the picture of tomorrow — same time, same place!
The device wins our hero a girlfriend (Bipasha) and lots of money as lottery and horse races no longer remain games of luck for him. Surti gives away the USP of the script in the first few minutes, and after a few surprises the film takes the trodden path. The girl is missing the boy she loved because he has drenched himself in the colour of money. But can it buy him mood, happiness, true love..…?
Even as the guy is struggling to find answers, he finds himself in a bigger mess. A picture of his comes out as black. Is it the positive of the negative…..?
Again the director settles for a leisurely pace. Some dull dialogue and a wooden support cast do not help either. But he recovers in the nick of time to give us a stinging climax and making Aa Dekhen Zara a decent time-pass for the weekend.
EK — THE POWER OF ONE (Delite Diamond and other theatres in Delhi and elsewhere)After trying out some offbeat stuff in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and Dostana, Bobby Deol is back on familiar turf. When he was launched some years ago, he was described as the romantic face of the Deols. Some two decades later now he is striving all over again to occupy the “action” berth vacated by his father and brother. Alas! He is no match.
In a script tailor-made for him with all the requisites — a punch that can make a hole in the wall, a jump that can put Spiderman to shame and a plot which makes his inability to express multiple emotions a strength — that make the front-benchers whistle in gay abandon, Bobby stands out like a sore thumb. His make-up man hasn’t helped his cause either by giving him a caveman’s wig!
Reprising his acts of Badal and Bichchu and more recently Chamku, Bobby here plays Nandu, a hired assassin, who gets wrongly implicated in the murder of a senior politician. While running away from the cops, he meets Puran, who is returning to his village after a very long time. Puran bites the bullet meant for Nandu and Bobby gets an opportunity to land in Punjab, his family’s favourite territory. Soon Nandu becomes Puran and gets all the perks associated with the new identity. In comes a smart cop (Nana Patekar), who is out to catch the real culprit. Predictably a cat-and-mouse game ensues. Nana enlivens the atmosphere with his trademark queer humour waging a lone battle to salvage a sinking ship.
A remake of the Telugu film Athadu, it has director Sangeeth Sivan trying hard to rekindle the formula. He has got the ingredients right, but somehow the equation is not balanced. Only for hard-core fans of Deols!
ANYWHERE BUT HOME (Wave, Noida, and other theatres)When was the last time you were free for your beloved during the vacations? Did your family eat up your time during holidays? Is there a way where both can be satisfied? Seth Gordon’s film here responds to these familiar questions in a heart-warming fashion.
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon play a couple who want to sneak in Christmas holidays to Fiji when their peers are going back to family. They don’t want to do the boring stuff but fate has something else in store for them. Bad weather forces them to spend the holidays visiting their respective families and things are no longer the same.
First they change for the worse as they come across embarrassing parents, humiliating stories about childhood, crying babies, wrestling action with brothers and other festive traditions. They can’t come to terms with the loud ways of expressing affection but along the way they learn a thing or two about love and loved ones. They discover they are not as perfect as they think to be.
Vince and Reese are in form and their chemistry keeps you engrossed even when the jokes get banal and the script takes a uni-dimensional path. Pretty average fare that can be tested if the home is proving to be boring.
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