Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola:An audience point of view

I must say Vishal Bharadwaj has an huge knowledge base. He knows what it takes to make a fertile land barren. He knows what medical sufferings a drunker has to under gone once he quits drinking all of  a sudden. He also has touched upon Maoist, Split personality and many more. He too has composed some beautiful numbers for the film, made sure all his technical craftsman and actors delivered more than a decent job and some even excellent. In short VB as a director is nothing less than a genius. But sometimes being over ambitious and getting carried away results to be spoiler and that's exactly is the irony with MKBKM.
A brilliant first half is marred due to an un-filthy second half.

To start with "Matru Ki..." central idea is to highlight the exploitation that the poor in India are exposed to in the name of modernization which in truth is actually the propaganda created by some rich and powerful to fulfill their dreams. It has also some sub plots like an youth graduated from JNU wants to bring revolution at ground level, maoist theory, family and human relation being part of business deal etc..
Vishal Bhradwaj aestheticism and skill to catch the right nerve makes this onetime look like a dark boring concept much enjoyable with the humorous touch. VB didn't waste time and establishes the plot from the word GO. With some fine performances, nicely written and executed scenes funny dialogues its a joyride through the entire first half. Though I find it was slightly disconnected from the main story but as long as I am enjoying I don't mind.

Then comes the second half and I find the director is on the same page with my thought. He also realizes he's missing the track and all of a sudden shifted his focus to tell his story in the stipulated time frame of second half. He has to deal with how the baddies are up and run for their devil wish and the good one to to save their ass,the lovers realizing feelings for each other, father goes through a mind shift and all these happening in a rocketing speed and that to with a theatrical/nukkad style way of story telling. There are some comic relief in between but that didn't save the day.

Its not like VB has not focused on this part but its just the way he deals with it. He might find it right in his own way but I am sure once he sees the final print he'll realize where exactly he missed the train. Had it been more intelligent and supervised this film would sure be the first gem of the year. But it surely is not and VB is the one to blame for it.

Coming to the performances full marks for Imran Khan's look and the way he carries it with his body language. But his dialogue delivery and lack of sincerity in-order to have a feel of  the Hariayanvi character makes his performance half backed but its not bad at all, even some may find it good. Anushka is decent but she hasn't dome anything that we haven't seen in past. She seems like getting type-casted. Prateek Babbar is a good revelation and the director has managed to pull a restrained performance from him. Shabana Azmi though as usual has done her home work well but its the director who some times missed to give her the right notes.

A big applause for this supremely talented actor "Pankaj Kapoor". There is not a single moment where he has not sign. Give him just one line and he makes sure that he'll out-sign evryone. Thats the spark this actor has  and its Mr Kapoor who steals the show with a marvic performance. The more I say the more it becomes stereotypes as I am falling sort for vocabs. Hence watch this one for Pankaj Kapoor.

As a music director Vishal has probved his meatle again. He knows how to blend his style to the Hariyanvi rustic setup. As said the writer duo Vishal along with Ishqia director Abhishek Choubey has manged to indulge some inspired writing but in the later part they just failed to do so. Cinematography and editing has nothing to complain about.

Overall It was an highly imaginative plot which suffered due to an equally un-imaginative writing in the later part. But surely its an one time watch.

English Vinglish, the year's best movie

All the year i was wondering, no film for which i could say it was just awesome. And finally I saw English Vinglish. Last year it was Zindagi Na Milegi Doobara. Don't exactly remember which was the best in the year before it and so on.. This year rather was supposed to be showering of good cinemas as people like Anurag Kashyap,Dibakar Banerjee,Reema Kagti with Aamir Khan ,Yash Chopra, Kabir Khan had booked the theaters with their directorial venture. Some were decent but most were disappointing. But it was the new faces who took the audience surprise by their unique story telling and some unconventional plot. Like Sujoy Ghosh in Kahani,Sujit Sorcar in Vicky Doner, Umesh Shukla for OMG and Gauri Shinde for English Vinglish. But the most stand out performer was English Vinglish. It was cinema at its best so far and I happened to be fortunate enough to see it before the year ends.

There are three 's' which stands tall for this film and cemented its position among films those were both critically and commercially appreciated with relying much upon the critics baisness or star power.
These are "Script", "Sridevi" and "Shinde'.

The Sciprt establishes each of the character such that any one can relate to it be it the spanish student in the English class "Ebba" the chubby woman who has the urge to fall a sleep any where any time and start snoring.It wasnt monotonous catering only to the Sashi's (name of the character played by Sridevi)adventure to raise her dignity amomg her loved ones. Though this was the plot but it was wooven in such a way that every middle class woman not so fluent in English, trying to raise her kids so that they can get best in society will identify he trauma Sashi goes through.

Film starts with an upper middle class family in Mumbai, the Goodboley family. Sashi Goodboley(Sridevi) is a the middle aged wife of Satish who is a corporate employee with two kids and a mother in law. Sashi apart for this family has also has a passion for cooking and she is well known for her laddoo. She is an enterpreanuer and her laddo business is well patronised among other mumbai families. though being appreciated for her cooking she is equally or more looked down upon by her family memebers, espesially her husaband and daughter. There are scenes where she is teased by both for pronouncing Jazz as Jhass, for not beng able to talk in English to the English teacher and many other instances. Now comes a point where she has to fly to US for her niece (sister's daughter) wedding; She has to fly before hand to help her daughter as her family would be doing so after few weeks of her take off. After landing in US she was well received by her sister and family. She was amazed to see how her sister has versed her shelf in the situation and how fluent she is in English. She was having a good time away from her home but again the ghost of English chased her and she found her self in an embarrasing situation when she was baffled with her English while placing an order in an resturant. this particular scene is written and executed in such a  way that it will evoke evoke laughter for a few sec and right after force you to shed some tear from your eyes. Such is the powerful the script and the genious of Sridevi to enact the scene and not to forget the director in having a complete control over everything. than Sashi decide to take English speaking course and what follows after that is a perfect blend of humour, emotion and sense of achievement for Sashi.

First time director Gauri Shinde shows no signs of being a debutant and rather outshine so many established faces/ i have heard her saying in one of the interview that she is a better director than her hubby Balki ( the man behind Paa, Chini kum and producer of English Vinglish). I totally agree with her. In none of the scene she seems to be carried away by the flow and ends up injecting un-necessery drama. Rather she makes sure that its a fight of an woomen and and like sashi the film never gives up. it'll hold your attentiion and make you gled to your seat which explain Shinde's brilliance as a story tellr. Shinde also has extracted some fine work from all her technical department. "Lakshman Uttakar" the man dealing with camera captures the beauty of both mumbai as well as US with elegance. Amit trivedi has composed some fine tunes. i would like to mention here that Gauri Shinde seems to have a better ear for music as compared to Balki.

Coming to performance Sridevi steals the show with a thunderous act. Her being in the film explains her sensibility in choosing the right script for a come back and the sharpness she still has in her acting. Adil Hussain as the typical husband with an inferiority look for his wife, the girl playing the daughter and the list goes on. a special mention for "Mehdi Nebbou" a french chief who has a soft corner for married Sashi. mebbou knows his limitation that he's not the hero but never le you think that he's just another actor.

To sum it up full marks to Gauri Shinde for writing such a script which addresses the day to day issue our mother,aunty or sisters are facing for not being able to have a fluent English though they are the backbone of every Indian family. English Vinglish is a perfect film which answers question of getting an unique script with out referring south or for that matter hollywood. Dont miss this