Ishqiya, Unapologetically Bold

Ishqiya, a weird word which does not exists in dictionary. One can only wonder why Vishal chose such a word for naming his film, but then Vishal, as we know him never spoon feeds his audience. So it is bit natural he would like his audience to think through the name and come up with their own interpretation of it. It could be Ishq kiya squeezed into one word, but on watching the film, the meaning of Ishqiya takes totally different significance.

The movie starts with someone singing “ab mujhe koi intejar kahan, Wo jo behte the aabshaar kahan”. A soft light slowly lit the voluminous contours of Krishna (Vidhya Balan) in a dark room. The image and lyrics beautifully depicted the agony and happiness of a wife who waits for her husband and now that her husband is back, her life is lighted and tears are gone (Aabshaar means waterfalls. Here it means the tears falling from her eyes). Such is the power of lyrics by Gulzar. Needless to say similar beauty in the lyrics has been bestowed over the entire film. The best one would be the romantic ballad Dil toh bachha hai ji which beautifully shows the emotion of an aged man going through the juvenile emotions of love.

Aisi ulji nazar unse hatt ti nahi
Daant se reshmi dor katt ti nahi
Umar kab ki baras ke safaid ho gayi
Kaari badari jawani ki chatt ti nahi
Walla ye dhadkan bhadne lagi hai
Chehre ki rangat udne lagi hai
Darr lagta hai tanha sone mein ji
Dil to bachcha hai ji
Dil to bachcha hai ji
Thoda kaccha hai ji
Haan dil to baccha hai ji

Krishna is widow of a Verma ji, a local gangster who died in an accident in explosion of gas cylinder. Khalu Jaan (Naseeruddin Sah) and Babban (Arshad Warsi) are two thieves who double cross their boss and are on the run. They landed in the house of Krishna in Gorakhpur to take  shelter and cross the border to Nepal. But what starts here is a tale of love, deceit and revenge.

A great of deal of attention has been paid to the names of the character. Vidhya balan is called Krishna. The Sanskrit word Krishna means “black”, “dark” or “dark-blue” or some one with dark blue skin. Here the meaning goes skin deep. The character is dark and her feelings blue. Also if one thinks of Krishna as in Krishna bhagwan it seems apt for her character with multiple love interest. Naseerudin Sah is called Khalu Jaan which means uncle suiting his age and the portrayal of old age love. Arshad warsi is Babban which brings into mind Babban Sher, which means a wild and crude creature. Babban is similar in terms of wildness and crudeness of his sexuality.

The high point of direction by Abhishek Choubey is the location and the dialogues. Shot in real locations, it brings out the life in UP very well. Whether it is the dilapidated house on the shore of a river or the lanes of gorkhpur, locations are stark real.  The dialogues by Vishal are pitch perfect with creating the right atmosphere without any dilution. Take the scene when Krishna tells Khalujaan that he can not lie properly. Khalujaan replies “Agar aurat hota toh pata nahin chalta ki pari hoon ya tabayaf” telling her that he knows about her and babban’s relation. Or the dialogue by Babban “Ye sahi hai Khalu, tumara Ishq Ishq aur hamara Ishq sex”, showing the attitude towards love between two generations. The dialogues have a crisp feel with none of the person talking more than 2 – 3 lines at a single stretch. With melodramatic dialogue coupled with a normal one liner to give a comic touch. Like when Krishna says “Ishq mein sab bewajah hota hai”, Babban replies “bag phata hua hai, koi aur bag hai?”

Ishqiya is actually Sholay revisited in western spaghetti . The impression of Emir Kusturika style is evident in many scenes. The dance sequence between Khalujaan and Babban in the starting, the brass brand background score while they follow Kakkar to the beauty parlour. Infact the look of the character khalujaan seemed similar to the ones of Miki” Manojlovic in Underground. The starting of the song Dil toh bachha hai also seemed very much European.

If it could be said, Ishqiya is a film on the vagaries of love. Innocent love by an aged man, blossomed over small flirtations and old songs. An adult love which starts when the carnal desires are fulfilled. Obsessive love that leads to revenge or love as cards in the card game. Only here the game is much bigger and dangerous. The only redemption in this complicated tale of love is that none of the love that has been shown is amateurish. This is the love between adults with meaning much deeper than what normal love stories attributes Love to be. This is a bold take on love where Love means different for different person.

Even though the film is on different varieties of love, the backdrop of the story provided enough scope of social commentary without actually getting deep into it. It gave us a peek on how kids play with guns in the hinterlands of UP. In the words of Nandu “Chuttar dhone se pahle tamancha chalana sikhate hai”.  The kidnapping spree in the cities like Gorakhpur and north UP and Caste wars that is going on for years in that region were also touched upon without moving away from the actual story line.

Coming to acting department, nothing needs to be said for Naseer. Arshad has also proven himself. Both work as charm in a chacha bhatija role. But the stealer this time is Vidhya Balan. She proves that to look sensuous you need not shed clothes, nor to look the part you have to try hard. She was just their perfect as Krishna with her eyes doing what she lost on the accent front.

All in all a great film from the stable of Vishal Bharadwaj and kudos to first time director Abhishek Chaubey for coming up with a film which entertains yet do not undermine the intelligence of the audience.

Jaane Tu….Ya Jaane Na (Review)

Abbas Tyrewala, the acclaimed writer of movies like Maqbool and Munnabhai MBBS has chosen a rather simple and no frill story for his directorial debut. The story of Jane Tu…has nothing much to offer in terms of its content but the way story has been told made all the difference. Jane tu…by no parameter can be considered a path breaking teen film like we have seen Ishq vishq or dil chahta hai. You will find traces of films like Chalte Chalte, Ishq Vishq, Dil Chahta Hai or even Hum Paanch (Ratna Pathak speaking to Naseerudhin Shah in photo frame) along with airport climax which has been tried nth time in bollywood. Basically it seemed that director tried to spoof old scenes of tried and tested love stories of past something that he already tried although as a writer in “Main Hoon Na”. But except few occasions it worked fine.

 

It’s this kind of candid, relatable freshness that characterises Abbas Tyrewala’s directorial debut, a deftly made film about friendship. There’s a pretty distinctive line between films trying to be innocent, and films that actually come across as charmingly naive as this one. The best thing of Jane Tu…is even though it’s a teen flick; it does not indulge itself in bath room jokes to tickle the funny bones of the audience which is very easy temptation post American Pie days. Its take on the friendship and relations is as innocent and naïve like small town school kids.

 

Another fact that makes Jaane Tu a little special — as is the case with most films about friendship — is a rock-solid ensemble cast that is mouthwateringly perfect. Take a bow, casting director Pakhi, this is a helluva nice set of good actors, with refreshingly unfamiliar faces.

The story revolves around a set of friends, there life in general and focuses on one couple that’s in love. They mistook their feelings as mere friendship and needed a series of events, match making etc to make them understand and acknowledge their feeling towards each other. Khan plays the peace-loving Jai Singh Rathore, more for the promise he had made to his activist mom Ratna Pathak rather than his real traits. He himself is oblivious of his actual self and keeps watching weird dreams of a masked man in horse with a sword. The story involves his friendship with effervescent Aditi and in process of finding love for himself; he ends up finding his own self.

 

We have seen similar stories time and again in bollywood but Jane Tu….stands out just because of the way subject has been handled and the performances of each one of the actor.

 

 

Here are few things in the movie that worked

 

1. The characterisation of each actor has been perfect and no way has any character been left without a proper boundary within which they have to perform. Even a small role of Rajat Kapur stands out and has been properly etched.

 

2. The acting is top-notch all through the film. Ratna Pathak is magnificent, Prateik Babbar bestows the film with angst and maturity, Jayant Kripalani and Anuradha Patel make a great affable couple, Rajat Kapur’s is awesome in such a small role, Naseeruddhin Shah is hilarious and paresh rawal as usual a delight to watch. But the onus of the entire film was on the group of six friends who carry the film on their shoulder. Each one does justification to there role whether its Karan Makhija as the pessimistic yet lovable Rotlu, Alishka Varde as Bombs, Nirav Mehta as highly accented gujju Jignesh, the one persistent yet affectionately etched caricature in the film and then there’s Sugandha Garg as the spirited, nickname-giving Shaleen, full of spunk.

 

3. But the actor to watch out was Genelia. It is really Genelia who steals the show. The actress is a real livewire on screen and conveys those annoying feelings of jealousy, confusion, irritability and fake happiness without any problem. Although her Hindi diction in many scenes was not proper but needless to say that added to her cuteness. I loved her in Boys many years ago but watching her in a Hindi flick is a treat.

 

4. The cinematography is good and the urbane feel has been captured properly which is very essential for a film like this.

 

5. Another thing that needs special mention is the back ground score. It is the back ground score that makes many scenes special. It hits you right at the time and never goes over bound or making it loud.

 

 

Things that did not work in the movie

1. This is the launching pad for Imran Khan and thus should have been the showcasing film for him. He might be cute but surely he did not have the charisma like his mamu jaan, at least not in this movie. His body language was quite restricted in initial scenes and facial expression stiff. Although in few scenes he was good like when he saved Manjari in the disc but that’s not all. He need to work more on his screen presence and body language as he might not be as lucky next time with such a great supporting star cast and great execution.

2. The film is painfully long. By the time film ends, it seems like an eternity. Editing was badly required for a lot of scenes. After some time, few sequences seem to be repeated.

3. The characters of love interests of Jay and Aditi was given more screen time than required.

4. Character of Amit (Aditi’s brother) as a physically or mentally challenged fellow was not properly etched. There was no explanation provided for his behaviors as well.

5. There is no variation in the pace of the film; hence it feels all the more slow and draggy sometimes.

6.  Screenplay could have been more taught and grappling and that would have made the movie all the more effective.

 

All in all, this is what is called popcorn entertainment with lots of popcorn and soda in Sunday afternoon with friends.