Bollywood Banter

 BADHAAI DO - A Beautiful Film with an Important Message  Near the end of Badhaai Do, during a stirring monologue where he comes out to his family, Rajkumar  Rao explains to his family how homosexuality is natural, a voice that comes from within, and not a choice that you make. This dialogue beautifully encapsulates the nature of this film. Therein lies the beauty of Badhaai Do. The movie, directed by Harshvardhan Kulkarni, is a winner because of how real it is. The script is not written to be overly preachy or set unrealistic expectations of acceptance. The relationships are portrayed as very organic and nuanced, with layers that till now on screen have been reserved only for the portrayal of heterosexual relationships. It is a cocktail of an adequate amount of genuinely funny humour, mixed with emotional, heart-wrenching scenes, which take you on a ride with the characters. The direction and lighting are spot on, with the use of subtle camera angles at times and wide-ra...

MIMI - A soulful film that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster    Midway through the film Mimi, Bhanu Pratap Sharma, played by Pankaj Tripathi talks about a principle that taxi drivers have. He says, “Passenger ko baitha liya toh manzil pe chore bagair vapas nahi laut te” (Once we accept a passenger, we don’t leave them till they reach their destination”).  That  one quote summaries the movie beautifully. Mimi, by Laxman Utekar, is a heart-warming and wholesome film that takes the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster and leads them to the destination that the director envisioned, while teaching them a few lessons along the way.  The movie is held up by a brilliant story and plot-line. An adaptation of Marathi film, ‘Mala Aai Vhhaychy’, Mimi, is the story of an unabashed small town girl, Mimi, played by Kriti Sanon who aspires to be Bollywood’s next big thing. In order to make some quick cash that will allow her to move to Mumbai and work towards her dream, s...

Dil Bechara - An Emotional movie with an even more emotional journey  Seri. Kizie Basu, played by Sanjana Sanghi, tells Immanuel Rajkumar Junior (Manny), played by Sushant Singh Rajput, that she loves the word Seri and it’s “their word” from now. Seri, is also the perfect way to describe the film. Seri is the Tamil word for ‘Okay’ and that is what this film is - Okay. ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, the book that Dil Bechara is based on, is an incredibly saddening and touching story in itself. Add to that the recent Sushant tragedy, this is a movie that was bound to bring tears, especially as it created at some parts an eerie sense of unease as some dialogues transcended perfectly into real life. However, in order to give an accurate reflection of the movie, it is important to distance the movie from the events that preceded it. Dil Bechara tries it best to position itself as a romantic comedy with a message to focus on making sure that you’re here for a good ...

Four More Shots Please! - The beauty in the imperfections  I n the final episode of Season 2 of ‘Four More Shots Please!’ when expressing his love for Damini (Sayani Gupta), Jeh (Prateik Babbar) says “You confuse me, you exasperate me. You’ve messed my head up Damini, and I like it”. This sentence sums up pretty well the way I feel about this show. The show is not perfect. It’s frustrating at certain points, enjoyable at others. However, it is the flaws that make it more authentic and gets you hooked. ‘Four More Shots Please!’ is the story of 4 best friends who are each-other’s lifelines. The show doesn’t try to create an unrealistic façade of perfection. These are 4 flawed and imperfect women who learn to embrace their imperfections and live life to its fullest. They deal with the constant curveballs that life throws at each one of them all the while standing by each other’s side. For such a show to work, the most important thing is that the friendship of the 4...

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan: Great dialogues, Brilliant acting and Important ideas Movies play an important role in influencing society, people’s mindsets, their behaviour and societal trends. A much skirted around and  taboo topic in India is homosexuality. Bollywood has made a few efforts to involve the topic in their movies and has made concerted attempts to make it a natural part of the script but has not had too much success in the same. This is why Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan is an extremely important movie. It is the first time that one of the biggest actors in India was playing the role of a homosexual man, in a movie which showcases intimacy between the two people.   Luckily, the movie did its job to perfection. By making it a romantic comedy, the director ensured that there was a light-hearted nature to the film. It wasn’t overly preachy or intellectual. There were scenes with some important messages, however, these were support...

Love Aaj Kal - Relevant ideas, Sub-par acting and lazy writing Imtiaz Ali is often regarded as being a filmmaker who makes deep, layered films that delve into the fascinating emotion of love. He addresses insecurities, problems and the feeling as a whole. Many have therefore regarded him as an intellectual filmmaker who makes classy rather than massy films. In Love Aaj Kal, Imtiaz Ali once again makes some very relevant, realistic points, however, he is unable to make the package as a whole an attractive one.  The storytelling idea of this film, is similar to the one Imtiaz used in his 2009 film by the same name. He aims to use two parallel love stories, separated by around 30 years, to show that the essence of love doesn’t change even though the surroundings and the people might. In this film Imtiaz uses his main female character, Zoe, played by Sara Ali Khan, to portray what he believes are the confusions of today’s Gen Z girls. He portrays...