Month: October 2015

– A teenage girl is found dead in her bed, slain and bloodied. The cops arrive, agree that the servant has done it, and declare it an open-and-shut case.   The next day, the servant’s dead body is discovered in another part of the building.  The film is based on a 2008 murder case in Noida, in which 14-year-old aarushi talwar was murdered in her home.  In the film, Aarushi is Shruti, Hemraj is Khempal, the Talwars are the Tandon’s, and the CBI is the CDI.  The film begins with Nutan Tandon (Konkona) opening the door for the maid in the morning and a while later discovering her daughter’s dead body and shrieking for her husband.

Details are key in a film of this nature, and Bhardwaj’s script is the real hero here, based on great research. Soon after the murder, the local cops of Noida, led by the stereotypical pan chewing, insensitive Dhairam (Gajraj Rao) start investigating and surely enough ,they go crushing over crucial shreds of evidence with their haphazard handling of the situation and also the hurry to come to a conclusion, because of the growing media attention.  Ashwin Kumar ( played by Irrfan Khan channeling CBI officer Arun Kumar), who takes the case reluctantly, but methodically sets out searching for evidence and other possible culprits.  
The film presents us with different versions of how Tandon’s daughter’s murder took place. In one, the parents are the culprits. In another, the servants are the culprits. In the third version, a critical detail is added and this proves to be a big twist in the tale. The film clearly takes aside and one of the major criticisms this film will face that it is biased towards parents. However, that shouldn’t be the criteria to judge the quality of the film.  The crime is told entirely from the point of view of the investigators and we never get a sense of what Nutan and Ramesh are feeling or going through. Talvar mainly deals with the flaws in India’s criminal justice system and how it is often controlled by the prejudices and limitations of the people running it.  
As for the performances, Konkona and Neeraj are as detached as their characters demand. Sohum Shah’s Vedant and Gajraj Rao’s inspector Dhaniram deserve a special mention, as does Prakash Belawadi. Irfaan khan is an actor whom I don’t like much. He has immense caliber but what he lacks is control and perfect timing. However, when he times it perfectly he is superb to watch like in Lunchbox and here in Talvar.  This is surely one of his better works. However, one actor who impressed me most is Atul Kumar as the last investigative officer. I liked the subplot involving Tabu. It doesn’t have any connection with the main plot of the film.  However, cinema-like life doesn’t need to be meaningful always. Talvar is an extremely well-made thriller and will surely rank among one of the topmost films of Indian Cinema.

An old couple Mohan Joshi (Bhisham Sahni) and his wife (Dina Pathak) decides to sue their landlord, Kundan Kapadia (Amjad Khan) , for not maintaining their “collapsing” chawl.  They hire two lawyers (Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah) for this case. The court case drags on for years and the lawyers milk the old couple dry , while they become rich.

Bhisham Sahni was brother of Balraj sahni and this was his screen debut at 69. However he doesn’t have charisma like his brother had. Naseeruddin Shah did ok ,nothing extraordinary. Even Amjad khan fails to impress. However this film belongs to Pankaj Kapoor(always dependable ) and Deepti Naval (always leaves a mark). The film is good but it could have been much better .  The film is a take off on the housing problems faced by lower middle-class chawl living tenants in Bombay during 80’s era , while at the same time taking a dig at the Indian judicial system where cases drag on and on.  There are some songs in the film which seemed unnecessary. However the ending was perfect . It isn’t as powerful as Saeed mirza’s other films like Salim Langde Pe Mat ro or Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastan.

The film deals with an individual’s trauma in the face of an indifferent establishment. A farmer (Om puri) and his wife (Deepti Naval) living in rural India face enormous miseries just because the elctricity bill has not been paid on time and the water supply from the pump in their rice fields has been cut off.  When the power is severed ,he and his wife are devastated .The farmer repeatedly tries to go to the city to pay the bill but something or the other keeps him from doing so. Some of their friends and well-wishers can only offer suggesitions for restoration of power.

Om puri was good especially the scenes where he did let his face talk more. Deepti naval was as usual consistently good and Sreeram Lagoo was brilliant in a short but interesting role. Lastly the help comes from an unexpected person who is looked down upon by the villagers.  The film shows how desperate situation at Govt level in India make things impossible for an ordinary man to live life.

It is basically a story of guy’s journey from boy to man , and how he conquers his doubts and apprehensions to emerge victorious in life. Vijeta tells the story of young Angad Singh (Kunal Kapoor, real-life son of Shashi Kapoor) . As his mother Neelima (Rekha) describes him ,Angad is an angry young man. Angad comes home leaving his studies half-way behind. Angad is a disturbed boy who has a grudge against his father Nihal (Shashi Kapoor)  because of an extra-marital affair he had during his marriage to Neelima. He is a confused guy with many problems ,the biggest being he doesn’t know what to do with his life and has been leaning towards his suicidal thoughts. Neelima’s young brother , a Naval officer (Om Puri), takes Angad to stay with him for a few days . Staying  with his Uncle, Angad finds life in the armed forces highly disciplined, challenging, and adventurous, and decides to enter the National Defense Academy. 

Then the story develops to show how Angadh gets accustomed to the atmosphere at the Air Force ,his friends and how he changes into a self confident person. The relationship between Nihal and Angad is one of the film’s big points. The second most important character is Verghese (Amrish Puri). Angad falls in love with Varghese’s daughter Anna (Supriya Pathak). Everyone admires Varghese -Anna ,Angad and the other fighter pilots.
I don’t rate Shashi Kapoor high as an actor but here he played his part really well especially when he grew older. Rekha was plain mediocre. Kunal Kapoor was strictly ok. However the supporting casts like Amrish Puri and Supriya Pathak were brilliant to say the least. The good thing about the film is that it doesn’t glorify militaries as great patriots ,it treats them as mere humans. Usually this kind of film is full of patriotic slogans  but Nihalani being an intelligent director avoids those parts.