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I have always mentioned that to make a thriller film is one of the toughest jobs to do. Everything about these films its script, screenplay, performances, theories, direction, etc has to be perfectly placed. There are many sub-genres in this category and out of which political thrillers are most difficult to execute. We have witnessed some fantastic films in these category starting from 'New Delhi Times', 'Main Azad Hoon', 'Shangai', 'New Delhi', 'Satta', 'Aandhi', 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi', 'Karamyoddha' and many more. Though most of these films failed to create a buzz over the box-office, but on critical ground satisfied its niche audience. Director Shoojit Sircar debuted with a fine film 'Yahaan', which was based on Kashmir issues and after eight years of its release comes back with another political thriller 'Madras Cafe', which is based on the Sri Lankan civil war and its effects over our country. So let's find out whether this latest venture of this director who is riding high after the success of his last film 'Vicky Donor' will manage to give us another tout political thriller or might be just one of those films trying to cash in over its controversial theme.
'Madras Cafe' is story set in late 80's during the Sri Lankan civil war and India's role in sending its peace force out there. Indian intelligence officer Vikram Singh {John Abraham} is assigned to Sri Lanka on a political task. He and his team have to support the opposition party against the militant leader Anna Bhaskaran {Ajay Rathnam}. This leads to chain reactions of many political happenings in Sri Lanka and India. What happens next is what the entire film is all about.
Story might remind you few films like Santosh Sivans 'The Terrorist' and Maniratnam's 'Kannathil Muthamittal' as they too dealt with Sri Lankan civil war. But talking of Hindi films, 'Madras Cafe' is the one of the first ones to explore these historic events in full detailing. The first half of the movie takes it own sweet time trying to set its base and events based on the Sri Lankan civil war, but once set it moves towards a fantastic second half full of nail-biting events and scenes. There are some superb scenes like the whole military operation to eliminate Anna Bhaskaran followed by the final attack plan set by Indian army, John interrogating suspects, John and his team decoding the codes and following the leads, the whole Indian intelligence tracking the links before the assassination and later trying to stop it and many more scenes. All these scenes give you the feel of watching a good international film with a gripping screenplay, especially in the second half of the film.
On the flip side, the first half might look like a news story with too many things happening. The track of Nargis Fakhri could have been much better. There should have been some more depth in few scenes in the initial part of the film. The historic happenings, Tamil and English dialogs might not appeal to the masses who love only entertainers. Camera work is of top class and does full justice to the theme and feel of the film. On technical grounds the movie is perfect. Editing is bit abrupt initially but in second half, flawless.
One of the best things in this film is that there is absolutely no song in film. It only appears towards the end credits and that's when you realize that that the songs were not there and you dint even miss them, not even in the background. But the background music of this film is great and gels properly with the film.
Director Shoojit Sircar displays his fine sense of creativity by making an opposite film of his last released film 'Vicky Donor'. If he wanted he too could have made dozens of sequels or films on similar ground, but instead chose a taboo subject which combined the facts and fictions. He should have given some more detailing to the film in the initial phase of the film. He does full justice to a proper political thriller and all his hard work and research reflects in the film, making it a great watch. All his 'Vicky Donor' fans might find it bit hard to digest this film as it will make extra usage of their brain power.
John Abraham does a great job. He tries hard to do justice to his role. But I personally feel someone else would have been a better choice. Nargis Fakhri lends good support but wished her role would have been meatier. Siddharth Basu, Ajay Rathnam and Prakash Belawadi are brilliant in their parts. Rashi Khanna, Piyush Pandey, Dibang and others do their parts with grace.
Dum? Well there is lots of dum for all those who love to watch a decent political thriller. If you love such films this movie will quench your thirst as it's a fine made film with lots of hard work which reflects on the screen. After the slow and confusing start the film goes on the jet speed leading to a superb climax. 'Madras Cafe' will add on to the elite list of all those fine political thrillers from our country and will inspire lots of film makers to explore out such taboo subjects. As for the normal masala film lovers who love feasting on entertaining film or don't like to utilize the left side of their brain, this movie might not be their cup of tea.
Siddarth Srinivas feels that Madras Cafe is probably the political thriller in a long time...
Shoojit Sircar who shot to fame with his earlier projects Yahaan and Vicky Donor returns for his third outing wielding the megaphone - Madras Cafe. With John Abraham and Nargis Fakhri in the lead, Madras Cafe has music and BGM by Shantanu Moitra.
Madras Cafe is the array of events leading to the assassination of an ex-PM, and its connections with the LTTE.
Starting off in Sri Lanka, the movie explains every bit of the incident and the happenings leading to it. With John Abraham introducing himself as the brave army man Vikram, and Nargis Fakhri as a journalist, we are presented with a number of characters, notably Sidhartha Basu and Ajay Ratnam. Even though the movie traverses on a slow note, Shoojit manages to keep you pinned with some well made scenes for the brain, and well-shot ones for the brawn. The pre-climax and climax portions are smartly etched.
One of the major drawbacks of Madras Cafe would be its casting. Even though he tries hard, John Abraham cannot act! However, his performance in this film takes the upper hand over what we have seen so far. Nargis Fakhri is a misfit, one puts up the question as to why all her dialogues in the movie are in English, when her character is named Jaya Sahni. Ajay Ratnam does garner some attention as Anna, while the rest of the cast are just about fine.
Cinematography by Kamaljeet Negi is commendable; he strikes gold in the action scenes. Editing too is crisp.
Shantanu Moitra's BGM is one of the first bullets in the gun. His classy background score elevates the film to another level. The song at the end is a highlight too.
Kudos to Shoojit Sircar to come out all guns blazing, and bring out the inside story to the world. He has neatly packed in an interesting story with a real life incident which created waves. Full marks to his direction where he has pulled the switches at the right places. This is one of the most serious movies you'll see, with absolutely no room for a laugh.
Madras Cafe is surely not the Zero Dark Thirty of India, or even an Argo. But what it does offer is two hours of dedicated cinema, which is devoid of clichs, songs, over-actions and Bollywood's masala. Hindi Cinema rarely comes out with these kinds of offerings, so make sure you catch it before it runs out of reach.
Verdict : Probably the best political thriller in a long time. A superb effort, leading to a memorable end product.
4/5
http://www.cinemalead.com/moviereview-id-madras-cafe-movie-review-madras-cafe-review-review162.htm
Madras Caf is a political docu-drama. This is a euphemism for films, which have a thin story and rely more on real events and its dramatization for a certain cinematic effect. As far as the documenting is concerned, Madras Caf is solid. The drama is where the film falters and ultimately does not soar. The plot is in place, the execution is in place but the characters, especially the protagonist, are inert. The human element is completely shortchanged.
I€™m not asking for a romantic sub-plot between the leads. I€™m not asking the filmmaker to take sides nor am I asking for melodrama, songs or popcorn entertainment. In fact, these are strong reasons why I want to celebrate a film like this which does not resort to them. But I need one crucial prerequisite to do so - I€™m only asking for a connection with the film. Either an idea or a character strength/flaw. Something to hold on to and take back.
Madras Caf is a tense procedural, which first starts chronicling the Sri Lankan Civil War and then snowballs into a conspiracy involving an assassination plot of an Indian Prime Minister. They are related events, of course. The names are changed - nobody says Prabhakaran or Rajiv Gandhi, but we know who is who. The first half of the film is quite simply €" uninvolving. I was struggling to find something to connect with while watching well-executed scenes. Almost every scene has the music going €œda-dum da-dum da-dum€ threatening to reach a crescendo. If you don€™t feel you are watching something pertinent, the music definitely feels so. The second half of the film is much more engaging. You know how the events will turn out but it is riveting to watch. It is an important film about a very important phase in recent history but unfortunately, the characters in it remain uninteresting and one-dimensional. Strange that an actor with limited range is given the task to play the lead.
There are many films Madras Caf will be compared with. Films that document political procedures, conspiracies or assassinations. Like JFK (1991), The Battle of Algiers (1966) or Zero Dark Thirty (2012). Green Zone (2010) and Syriana (2005) also come to mind. While these are important films and it could be argued that they are great, I didn€™t respond enthusiastically to any of them. Or let€™s say I liked them as much as I could.
That being said, Zero Dark Thirty is emotionally uninvolving for a particular reason. The ending of that film is a punch in the gut and a chilling commentary, not just on political revenge, but on the kind of people who have such jobs. The lead character is decidedly hollow and governed by one motive and one motive only. Madras Caf, instead, has a terrible ending. Mostly due to the ghastly framing device with a priest acting like a child who needs spoon-feeding about the protagonist€™s life. At the end, we are subjected to a voice-over with Rabindranath Tagore€™s Let My Country Awake. A character lamenting the state of the nation and its future while we have learnt nothing substantial about who he is. If only it ended better, I would have been championing this film.
Shoojit Sircar arrived on the map, not because of his debut Yahaan (2005), but because of a surprisingly wonderful comedy called Vicky Donor (2012). John Abraham and him do make a good team and I wish they make more films together. Nargis Fakhri surprised me since she was less annoying here than she was in Rockstar (2011). I guess hearing the actress€™ real voice helps. Even if she is playing a London resident speaking in an American accent responding to every Hindi sentence in English.
I may have gone off in a direction where I am writing less about how good the film is. Other reviews by better film reviewers will take care of that. What I loved watching the most in this film was Siddhartha Basu giving urgent orders while being extremely serious and giving the Hollywood CIA types a run for their money.
I wouldn€™t write off the film. Not at all. (Expect the box office to do that) I would say it€™s worth a watch. Sadly, I have nothing to strongly recommend the film for. Except giving you words like tense and taut or appreciating its technical achievements and its willingness to refuse clichs. I wish I had taken something back from the film like I did when I saw D-Day a month ago. One may be real and subtle and the other completely fictitious and heavy-handed but both achieve what they set out to do. The rest depends on the viewer and what you take from it. All I took from Madras Caf was a well-presented history lesson and deft dramatization of an assassination. For me, that is not enough but yes, it is good enough.
Originally posted by: HappyMelody
It's based on the Sri Lankan civil war!! Now I'm keen to see Bollywood's angle in the tragedy we went through as a small island
I hope the movie does not mock or disrespect the misery we went through as people who lived with fear and expected bomb explosions every single day. I still remember those days when we as school kids were trained how to respond / behave during bomb explosions and terror attacks and how to stay vigilant for doubtful / strange objects and people fearing bombs :( I live in Colombo and still lived with fear of losing myself and my family every morning :(Sorry for blabbering so much and looking forward to the movie :)
| Madras Cafe Has Fair Opening At Multiplexes Friday 23rd August 2013 12.30 IST |
| Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network Madras Cafe had a fair opening at multiplexes. The opening was not strong at all multiplexes but premium multiplexes in Delhi and Mumbai had decent collections. The opening at PVR and DT screens in Delhi was much better than would be expected of this type of film. The premium multiplexes opened at around 40-50% while the general multiplex opening was 20-25%. Single screens were dull. The film has been released on over 1000 screens. These type of films tend to do better in the evening and if Madras Cafe manages to pick at multiplexes where opening is low then the film should have a pretty good first day. The opening is much better than a similar film D Day which releases a few weeks back |
MADRAS CAFE has embarked on a slow/ordinary note with 25-30% occupancy in the morning/noon shows. However, considering the fact that it does not have the regular run of the mill masala and songs to attract the footfalls, the opening trends can be termed pretty good. The two things working in favour of the movie are the positive word of mouth and terrific critical acclaim. The business, therefore, is expected to grow from evening shows onwards.
https://www.indiaforums.com/article/metro-in-dino-review-its-a-musical-love-letter-to-the-lost-the-lonely-and-the-longing_224199
https://www.indiaforums.com/article/the-hunt-rajiv-gandhi-assassination-case-review-focused-fearless-retelling-of-the-famous-political-k_224259
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