Movie Review: Madras Cafe

First of all, a standing ovation for John Abraham. No, he has not matured as an actor over night. In my personal opinion, it is too much to expect from him even at this stage in his career. At this point of time, John Abraham has become a sensible producer who is willing to invest on a well written script, believing there are audience out there who will put money to see a well made movie devoid of melodrama. which makes them pause and think. Moreover, we are all aware about the strong arm techniques before the release of this movie. John, as one of the producers, didn't back down under pressure. At the end of the movie, Major Vikram Singh, the character played by John Abraham, says which is in fact a fitting reply to all the detractors. The message sums up as follows. A revolutionary for some is a terrorist for others...whatever be it, I lost my prime minister.

Then you should applaud the real heroes of the movie, the director Shoojit Sircar and the writers, Somnath Dey, Shubendu Bhattacharya and Juhi Chaturvedi. Shoojit Sircar had earlier directed the immensely likeable comedy Vicky Donor last year. From comedy, this is a giant leap. Moreover, thrillers are a genre which has never been effectively explored in Hindi movies. With this movie, Shoojit not only proves he can handle movie with varying canvases but also effortlessly switch genres. While doing so, he also give Hindi movies a thriller which all of us can be proud of. The perfect recipe for a thriller is weaving a story, inspired by newspaper articles and imagination. This is where the writers comes into play. They have focused on the Sri Lankan civil war, Indian intervention and subsequent assassination of a former prime minister. The names of people and organization are different. To that matter, even the shoes worn by the former prime minister is different. But veils are so thin that you can easily figure out who and what is being referred to.

Through an efficient use of background music, photography, editing and locations, Shoojit Sircar and his team glues us to our seats eagerly waiting for the next scene. Although the director and his team has not used real locations, they have found suitable locations elsewhere in the world. The pathos and the wastefulness of the war driven areas are poignantly captured using black and white still photography. I am not sure if there are real war photographs or not. But it is impossible for us to be detached while seeing those on the screen. The first half of the movie is the build up to the conspiracy and the second half is the conspiracy. Despite knowing the outcome, we are still hooked to the proceedings mainly because of the impotency we feel. To assassinate a political figure is no ordinary matter. This means the conspiracy takes part in different part of the world. The director, the producer and the writers do not compromise in shifting locations across different parts of the world. This is one movie which may not be shot in multiple locations but the story constantly shifts between Jaffna and other parts of Sri Lanka, New Delhi, Cochin, Chennai(or was it Madras then?) and coastal Tamil Nadu, Singapore, Bangkok and London. You better be attentive while watching the movie.

The movie unfolds as a voice over of Major Vikram Singh narrating the events from a few years before the assassination. This in fact works for John Abraham. He isn't bad in this movie as an actor. At the same time, he isn't great either. The voice over mostly helps in covering up his act. As for the performances, there are two people who stands out. Siddharth Basu surprises us with his no-nonsense portrayal of RAW chief Robin Dutt. Be it advising the superior about "the island" or inspring Vikram to forget the tragedy in his life, he is the RAW chief we would love to see and hope to have. Check out how he effortlessly cuts an apple for Vikram while discussing the political situation when the latter is recovering in the safe house. The feather in his crown is the scene when he tries hard to control his feelings while telling his wife he tried everything to save the ex-PM. That is the good guy. To balance the good guy, we need a bad guy. That is Bala played by Prakash Belawadi. Heading the operations in Sri Lanka and opposing Vikram in many ways, Prakash's Bala spits venom with his dialogue delivery and mannerisms. The way he accuses Vikram of going behind his back and also gets angry at his wife in Malayalam are the two scenes which Prakash Belawadi displays his calibre.

I am not an expert on current affairs. But I know a great deal about good cinema. This is definitely one. And you know what my recommendation is. Don't wait for the DVD. Go see it today itself on the big screen.

Language: Hindi

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ****

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Movie Review: Memories

A man is kidnapped, tortured, killed and then hung in a public place. The cops arrest an young man who confesses as the perpetrator. Before long, another murder takes place in the same manner. One of the top cop then asks Sam Alex(Prithviraj) to aid the investigation. But there is a problem. After a personal tragedy, Sam has taken to the bottle and doesn't want to come back into the police force. How Sam changes this decision, comes back to battle his personal demons and finally nail the culprit forms the rest of the story.

Scripted and directed by Jeethu Joseph, this film also marks the director's return to the genre he debuted as a director. I personally like Jeethu Joseph as he is only 4 films old and he has already experimented in 3 genres. The second reason is the pace set of his movies. He is never in a hurry to tell a story. He wants to make sure the audience is with him and do not want to confuse them, giving them enough time to catch up with him. You can see this while Sam Alex deciphers a crime scene or while Sam is arriving at a conclusion based on his deduction. When everyone finally find out the identity of the killer, the first thing Sam tries to do is match the killer's missing dates with that of the dates of the murder. The director is not ready make his characters jump into conclusion without proper reasoning. Despite a pace which is unhurried, the director successfully keeps us hooked to our seats with his style of storytelling.

You can treat the movie as a murder mystery. You can also treat the movie as a one man's attempt to take control of his life which is spiraling out of control fast. Many of the scenes have many subtexts which make the viewing more interesting and fun. One of the most evident scene is when Sam picks up the book titled "Holy Bible, the solutions to all your problems" when the investigation team is blocked by the password screen on a computer. The script is written in a rhyming fashion. The movie starts in a shootout and ends also with a shootout. In the final scene, Sam has a hostage situation in hand. Earlier in the movie, he has failed miserably in such a situation. The script writing is heavily inspired by Hollywood style of writing. But Jeethu Joseph infuses drama very intelligently especially the final confrontation with the killer.  Also, the background music has been used very effectively. When Sam is about to deduce something critical from the surroundings, the background score reaches a crescendo.

The film is not entirely devoid of drawbacks. Luckily the positives outweigh these drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is the long tracking shots implemented with the help of VFX. Sometimes the camera tracks a moving vehicle from a distance. In one shot, the camera pulls back from the conversation and goes through many places which includes buildings, forests, roads to finally end up in a roadside cart where the next scene starts. The VFX is evident thereby rendering the scene very cheesy. The other point is the interval between the murders. The murders happen between a span of many months. This does not come very evident while watching except during a conversation towards the second half of the movie.

Prithviraj excels in the role of a cop who has lost the interest to live taking refuge in the bottle. As an star, he has taken care of his physique keeping it in shape in the recent years. This also poses the biggest challenge for him. It is impossible to hide a good physique. How Prithviraj and Jeethu Joseph finally manages it is by clothing the lead actor in shirts which a size or two too big for him. This conceals the physique to a certain extent. Then Prithviraj transforms himself into a drunkard. I am not only talking about the stubble, puffed up cheeks and watery eyes. The way he crouches, the way he walks, the slow reactions. All these add up on the screen to give us a drunken cop who still has not lost his touch. Some of the scenes are played brilliantly especially the sarcasm while mentioning "common sense" as the source of deduction and also how he casually shakes the flask to mix the alcohol with the soda while interrogating the shopkeeper.

This is a good thriller. The investigation does not start immediately. There are emotional blackmails necessary to make Sam accept the case. But even with the heavy duty drama, this is an engaging thriller. If you have not seen it yet, go get a ticket as films like these needs our encouragement.

Language: Malayalam

Genre: Thriller

Rating: ****

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