Posted:
By Karan Anshuman
Film: Madras Cafe
Cast: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, Prakash Belawade, Siddhartha Basu, Ajay Rathnam, Raashi Khanna Director: Shoojit Sircar Certification: U/A Rating: ***
Attached to Madras Cafe are the trailers ofZanjeer, Boss, and Phata Poster Nikla Hero. Not to judge the films by their trailers, but it's uncanny how similar the three look and feel in their common styles borrowed (now appropriated) from commercial South-Indian potboilers: violent B-movies laced with in-your-face humor and a sprinkling of romance. Not to mention the lot we've suffered so far: Himmatwala, Policegiri, Zila Ghaziabad, and their kin. Madras Cafe bravely bucks the trend. A politically astute (sensitive?) mainstream film spanning the years from 1987-1991, with established actors, no songs, and uncompromised detailing; it is the fictionalized account of events leading up to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
In a predictable trend, if a film's opening titles are a classic text-on-black you may assume with near certainty that it is going to be a sensible film. Not that experimenting with opening credits doesn't often make for sensible cinema, but the simplicity of the concept usually foretells complexity of the story to follow.
And Madras Cafe is a complicated film. Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya's screenplay's form is impressively inspired from Hollywood political thrillers. Syriana and Green Zone come to mind, but there are fewer tracks to follow here. A barrage of information upfront outlines the tempestuous politics of Lanka, and the evolution of the Tamil separatists incarnating as the Tamil Tigers. The writers stick to the winding handrail of larger, known facts deftly inserting the stairs in the form of a fictional account of an army officer who is R&AW's go-to man in Jaffna. Occasionally, however, they glean over what could've construed a critical appraisal of the workings and decisions of the Indian government at the time. It would've been clever to make more direct connections with the flip-flop the Indian authorities were playing with the LTTE. Never indicated in the film for example, is that Gandhi's assassin Thenmozhi Rajaratnam was allegedly a product of official training provided by R&AW!
But this is a minor quibble, the problem with the writing is that it seems the script would've read like a docudrama. More docu, less drama. The writers often struggle to balance explaining the scene, rather than staging it. The makers get caught up in documentary footage, B&W photos, supers, and sporadic subtitles to keep the viewer well armed like a Wiki page, but somewhere miss the opportunity to create more memorable scenes where the action and characters are all that matter.
To be fair, though Vikram Singh's (John Abraham) moment of personal loss is exceptionally well handled by Shoojit Sircar as is the third act of the film, when the drama builds up nicely, hurtling towards the inevitability of the assassination. To go the distance in a pre-determined finale with no silver lining is a brave, applause-worthy move on its own. It almost makes the context and preceding two-thirds irrelevant. Sircar's strength as a director shines in the excellent detailing: the edging in of Western culture in the jungles of Jaffna in the form of Coca Cola, the corridors of R&AW, period-specific trivialities, and perfect synchronization of the technical departments. Keep a tab on this director. Bigger, better things are yet to come from him yet, I suspect.
One of John Abraham's more nuanced performances (remember, we last saw him inShootout at Wadala), he is perfectly convincing as the man in charge of ops in Jaffna. His exchanges with the UK-based reporter played by Nargis Fakhri are less plausible. She speaks in English. He replies in Hindi. After a very shaky opening scene, she gets more comfortable in her role doling out her sources to the officer. Siddartha Basu in his first movie role is more than in control. Other actors that deserve mention include Prakash Belawadi and the superbly cast Rashi Khanna as the pining army wife.
Even though the film ever-so-slightly under-delivers, we should be blessed that it got made at all. There is outrage from the strangest nooks of the country over flimsiest of issues in our films, and Abraham and Sircar would've been well aware of what they're embarking on. But this charged political thriller, despite its flaws, is a leap in the right direction - away from that other "Madras"-titled film and its ilk - that deserves our support. If nothing else, it'll give you an acute insight and a timely reminder of the turmoil our neighbors went through and our country's confounding contribution to the matter.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/entertainment/bollywood/Film-review-Madras-Cafe/articleshow/22003606.cms
Film: Madras Cafe
Cast: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri, Prakash Belawade, Siddhartha Basu, Ajay Rathnam, Raashi Khanna Director: Shoojit Sircar Certification: U/A Rating: ***
Attached to Madras Cafe are the trailers ofZanjeer, Boss, and Phata Poster Nikla Hero. Not to judge the films by their trailers, but it's uncanny how similar the three look and feel in their common styles borrowed (now appropriated) from commercial South-Indian potboilers: violent B-movies laced with in-your-face humor and a sprinkling of romance. Not to mention the lot we've suffered so far: Himmatwala, Policegiri, Zila Ghaziabad, and their kin. Madras Cafe bravely bucks the trend. A politically astute (sensitive?) mainstream film spanning the years from 1987-1991, with established actors, no songs, and uncompromised detailing; it is the fictionalized account of events leading up to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
In a predictable trend, if a film's opening titles are a classic text-on-black you may assume with near certainty that it is going to be a sensible film. Not that experimenting with opening credits doesn't often make for sensible cinema, but the simplicity of the concept usually foretells complexity of the story to follow.
And Madras Cafe is a complicated film. Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya's screenplay's form is impressively inspired from Hollywood political thrillers. Syriana and Green Zone come to mind, but there are fewer tracks to follow here. A barrage of information upfront outlines the tempestuous politics of Lanka, and the evolution of the Tamil separatists incarnating as the Tamil Tigers. The writers stick to the winding handrail of larger, known facts deftly inserting the stairs in the form of a fictional account of an army officer who is R&AW's go-to man in Jaffna. Occasionally, however, they glean over what could've construed a critical appraisal of the workings and decisions of the Indian government at the time. It would've been clever to make more direct connections with the flip-flop the Indian authorities were playing with the LTTE. Never indicated in the film for example, is that Gandhi's assassin Thenmozhi Rajaratnam was allegedly a product of official training provided by R&AW!
But this is a minor quibble, the problem with the writing is that it seems the script would've read like a docudrama. More docu, less drama. The writers often struggle to balance explaining the scene, rather than staging it. The makers get caught up in documentary footage, B&W photos, supers, and sporadic subtitles to keep the viewer well armed like a Wiki page, but somewhere miss the opportunity to create more memorable scenes where the action and characters are all that matter.
To be fair, though Vikram Singh's (John Abraham) moment of personal loss is exceptionally well handled by Shoojit Sircar as is the third act of the film, when the drama builds up nicely, hurtling towards the inevitability of the assassination. To go the distance in a pre-determined finale with no silver lining is a brave, applause-worthy move on its own. It almost makes the context and preceding two-thirds irrelevant. Sircar's strength as a director shines in the excellent detailing: the edging in of Western culture in the jungles of Jaffna in the form of Coca Cola, the corridors of R&AW, period-specific trivialities, and perfect synchronization of the technical departments. Keep a tab on this director. Bigger, better things are yet to come from him yet, I suspect.
One of John Abraham's more nuanced performances (remember, we last saw him inShootout at Wadala), he is perfectly convincing as the man in charge of ops in Jaffna. His exchanges with the UK-based reporter played by Nargis Fakhri are less plausible. She speaks in English. He replies in Hindi. After a very shaky opening scene, she gets more comfortable in her role doling out her sources to the officer. Siddartha Basu in his first movie role is more than in control. Other actors that deserve mention include Prakash Belawadi and the superbly cast Rashi Khanna as the pining army wife.
Even though the film ever-so-slightly under-delivers, we should be blessed that it got made at all. There is outrage from the strangest nooks of the country over flimsiest of issues in our films, and Abraham and Sircar would've been well aware of what they're embarking on. But this charged political thriller, despite its flaws, is a leap in the right direction - away from that other "Madras"-titled film and its ilk - that deserves our support. If nothing else, it'll give you an acute insight and a timely reminder of the turmoil our neighbors went through and our country's confounding contribution to the matter.
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/entertainment/bollywood/Film-review-Madras-Cafe/articleshow/22003606.cms
18