Movie Review: Sulemani Keeda

Slacker Comedy at its Best

The central paradox of filmmaking in Mumbai is that the audience, more often than not, punishes the producer for making a good' film. What's worse, nobody knows which bad' film will work! The beauty of an idea on the other hand is that everybody can have one. You don't need professional writers for it. Unlike most film industries in the world, cinema in India is rarely, if ever, funded by state sops or scholarship grants. It works on the basic algebra of revenues"from theatres, television broadcast and DVD rights"minus costs equalling profits.

A constant tussle then between the creative guy' (who perhaps has a great story to tell) and the money bag' (who has no money to lose on someone else's dream) is natural. Both of them have very separate ideas of what a film should be. This produces the most Bollywood humour offscreen. You only have to hang out with filmies' in Versova and its vicinity to realise that the conversation inevitably centres on this crazy meeting' with a producer/financier/ casting agent/son of an actor. After a while, it stops sounding funny. The world is what it is. Show-world is no different. Sulemani Keeda (releasing 5 December) in that sense is a strikingly witty and a phenomenally funny film on the periphery of Mumbai's entertainment district, where nearly everyone, I guess, is from Delhi! At any rate, most are from outside Mumbai, from middle-class homes, living alone or in shared apartments, paying massive rents for seriously small rooms. Their location indicates whether they've found some luck yet. They could be graded further by the coffee shops they frequent"Versova, Oshiwara or JW Marriott; bars they go to"Shankari or W*F in Andheri. Writer, musician types can be found at open mic nights in Bandra. The house after-party' scene is more democratic. Everybody's welcome so long as you bring your own booze. It's a city where love is easy to find. The night is usually young. So are its inhabitants.

The two screenwriters in Sulemani Keeda lead similar lives. It takes a certain kind of keeda to also churn out scripts, not knowing whether any of them will become films. They go door- to-door attempting to land a suitable producer. The script for them is a bit like washing powder Chamko'. I say this because the film also fondly reminds me of Sai Paranjpye's Chashme Buddoor (1981), which was about happy-go-lucky, unemployed blokes struggling' on the campus of Delhi University. Struggling to make it in cinema, I suppose, may not be too different, except the exams to pass aren't standardised and some of them are patently ludicrous. They make for better stories still. Those who've tried their luck usually have a book or script waiting to be written"on their own life in Mumbai and the oddballs they met. God knows, scores of films with varying budgets have been made on the Mumbai film industry. Almost all of them have been spoofs of what's already a spoof. Few bothered to watch those films. A common perception in Bollywood is that movies on the movie industry don't work. I suspect this has something to do with our associating movies with magic. Nobody wants to see what's really inside that hat. It kills the fun.

Sulemani Keeda is what you might call a Versova indie' (as oxymoronic as that term sounds). It is a super low budget film. Producers have put their own money in it. The debutant director, Amit Masurkar, has spent enough time in Mumbai and movies to know what he's filming. The lead actors are Naveen Kasturia (a popular face in TV commercials), Aditi Vasudev (who's grown into a fine talent since her debut in Do Dooni Chaar), and Mayank Tewari (who's a screenwriter himself). The film is partly a mockumentary', although it also aspires to be mumble-core'"a genre of flicks shot outdoors with secret cameras where only the leads are actors; reaction shots of the public are real (MTV in the US makes some fine mumble-cores; otherwise, think Sacha Baron Cohen). But more than anything else, Sulemani Keeda is a slacker comedy' about two slackers, rather than artistes, who take themselves too seriously. Naseeruddin Shah once told me if there was a genuine film made on the life of people in the film industry, the powers-that-be wouldn't let it see the light of day. If they did, nobody would believe those stories. That's probably an insider's account. An outsider's take, like Sulemani Keeda, requires only putting a camera before two strugglers and everything just becomes so naturally funny!

Sulemani Keeda is a delightful, unpretentious indie film, says Paloma Sharma.

There are two kinds of people in Mumbai -- there are the filmi ones and the rest.

Within this dubious section of the filmi ones, there are two further subdivisions -- the ones who live in the limelight and the rest who hover around it like flies buzzing over ripe fruit, trying to push their portfolio/mix tape/script to anyone who cares.

Mainak (Mayank Tewari) and Dulal (Naveen Kasturia) are two such flies.

Childhood friends from Delhi who came to Mumbai to become film writers, the debt-ridden duo divide their days between trying to get a foot in the doors of production houses and star homes, and hitting on women.

For a while, despite their lack of success or inability to pay rent, Dulal and Mainak are happy with the decisions they make (or avoid making) until they meet Ruma (Aditi Vasudev).

While Mainak's attempt to hit on her ends in disaster, Ruma and Dulal grow close quickly. However, Ruma, a corporate lawyer, is leaving the country in three days to get a Master's degree in photography.

Ruma's decision to follow her dreams makes Dulal question his own life's goals and just when they are about to stumble on their big break, cracks begin to appear between Dulal and Mainak.

Sulemani Keeda -- which is slang for pain in the rear (as one of Mainak's crude writings explain in the film) -- is slacker comedy at its best.

It fearlessly parodies the film industry that has repeatedly rejected films like it for more commercially viable projects.

That it got some of the established names in Bollywood, such as Mahesh Bhatt and Anil Sharma, to play themselves was the cherry on the cake.

Sulemani Keeda's greatest strength is its realistic characters and believable situations.

For any film lover who has spent more than a week in Mumbai, the caricatures of the different kinds of people you run into become instantly relatable and hilarious.

The film resists the temptation of providing either judgement or a safety net to its protagonists' bad decisions, instead letting things take their natural course.

That it was actually shot in Mumbai (the Mumbai which is not in Hong Kong or Singapore or Melbourne or Danny Boyle's imagination) only makes it more believable.

Sulemani Keeda could just as easily have been a story that involves the friend of a friend, as these things usually go, and it is that simplicity which makes it all the more endearing.

Mayank Tewari and Naveen Kasturia play the adorable on-screen losers so well that at the back of your mind you know that if you actually knew these people, you'd stay an arm's length away from them.

The duo's prowess as actors becomes obvious in a brilliant scene that depicts one of their writing sessions in black and white, without any words.

Every other actor in the film has clearly given it their 100% too -- from Krishna Singh Bisht's manchild Pokhriyal, Karan Mirchandani's cocaine-snorting, cat-loving Gonzo and the lovely Aditi Vasudev as Ruma.

Surjodeep Ghosh's effortlessly shot uncluttered frames perfectly complement debutant director Amit Masurkar's delightfully unorthodox screenplay and single-minded focus with which he guides the story.

Yet, despite its many merits, Sulemani Keeda is not perfect.

Although it has some soulful songs, the background score goes off key at times and the scenes don't always connect as well as they ideally should.

The film will obviously find a loyal audience in the urban youth who, upon finding no respite in television, have turned to the internet for some Hinglish entertainment they can connect with.

Finally an unpretentious indie, Sulemani Keeda, simply put, is by the filmis, of the filmis, and for everyone.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars (Three and Half stars)

Star Cast: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev, Karan Mirchandani, Krishna Bisht, Rukshana Tabassum

Director: Amit Masurkar

What's Good: The humor, the dialogues, the film's spirit and the brightly beaming narrative that draws you in instantly.

What's Bad: The story does lose steam in the middle, it's plot meandering for a nano-bit in the film but the climax's build up and culmination will make you forgive these tiny flaws.

Loo break: None

Watch or Not?: Sulemani Keeda will strike your attention for being this fulgent watch which will seem like an Indie-version of Dil Chahta Hai, but Amit Masurkar's love for cinema and films comes through in this film which takes observational comedy to another level. Young film journalists often mix around in these circles where commonplace oddball film writers with that quirk spunk aren't uncommon. Such people and their traits are inextricably imbibed in our system and that's precisely what makes the nuanced jokes in Sulemani Keeda funnier without being dim witted. And afterall, needless to say it's this perceptive take on what Vikram Chandra would call Love and Longing in Bombay', that draws us and its characters towards a better understanding of life! Who would mind such a perky, cheeky and fun film afterall?

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