That Girl In Yellow Boots [ALL REVIEWS HERE]

Masand: 'Yellow Boots' leaves you wanting more

Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Devaiya, Divya Jagdale

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Appearances can be misleading, as you see in the case of Ruth, played by Kalki Koechlin in 'That Girl in Yellow Boots'. On the outside, Ruth seems like just another foreigner navigating herself through the usual red tape you witness at the immigration office. Yet, peel the layers, and you discover a half-British, half-Indian girl who has come to Mumbai on a mission - amongst the millions of anonymous faces in the city, she is searching for her father.

Beneath that calm exterior, Ruth is in turns vulnerable and resolute. She makes her money by giving out happy endings in a seedy massage parlor, but finds herself often used by her parasitic druggie boyfriend. As Ruth fights for survival in a dark corner of this urban landscape, 'That Girl in Yellow Boots' attempts to put the audience through an emotional wringer too. But while director Anurag Kashyap gives you a bunch of riveting scenes, realistically flawed character sketches, and even light, comical quirks in this bleak drama, it's tough to stay with Ruth through her journey because That Girl in Yellow Boots becomes predictable subsequently, and loses its initial momentum.

One of the stumbling blocks is the protagonist's relationship with her boyfriend (played by Prashant Prakash). You find yourself losing interest through a prolonged sequence where Ruth tries to break his drug addiction by handcuffing him in her tiny apartment. Yet, there are touches that are quintessentially Kashyap. The cinematography and sound design help build the world in which she lives, so you feel like a spectator looking in. The audience is thrown a bunch of red herrings as you wonder who Ruth's father really is; and even when the director presents some morally reprehensible characters, he leaves you to do the judging.

The best bits in the film come from smaller roles. Puja Sarup is wonderful as the massage parlor receptionist who constantly chats inanities into her mobile phone. Watch how she gabs on at one point about star signs, even while Ruth is trying to come to grips with her life. Gulshan Devaiah also offers a fantastic portrayal of a small-time Kannada gangster Chitiappa who knows very well how to issue threats and steal Ruth's entire savings, but fumbles about with a television remote. Naseeruddin Shah brings warmth through his role as Ruth's only considerate customer, and Kalki Koechlin holds her own in the central part. She's often touching as the conflicted Ruth, trying to keep afloat despite the emotional upheaval.

Kashyap, who co-wrote the film with Koechlin, closes with a bold climax that uncovers the disturbing issue that the film addresses, but he doesn't go for an easy resolution. I'm going with three out of five for That Girl in Yellow Boots. Even if the story itself leaves you wanting more, the storytelling makes you go the distance.

Rating: 3 / 5

Anurag Kashyap's That Girl in Yellow Boots is a movie which seeks to reveal the intricacies of everyday life in its natural colour. The movie is about Ruth (Kalki Koechlin), a British citizen, who comes to India with the sole motive of finding her father. Ruth eventually finds herself living in a dilapidated apartment with a drug dealer boyfriend who lives off her. She makes a living by working in a shady massage parlour, offering 'happy endings' to sleazy old men. Her every effort towards finding her father, whom she vaguely remembers, culminates in discovering darkest and terrible secrets. Still from That Girl In Yellow Boots An alien to the city, Ruth's stay here is fraught with unending problems and misery. The story looks promising in the beginning, but slowly loses its essence as the movie unfolds. It loses all and any sense of reality somewhere in the middle, with Ruth struggling to make ends meet at one place and dishing out thousands of rupees to find her father and protect her lover at the same time. The movie is not very believable in this regard. Also the characters in the movie are played with a certain amount of intensity but do not develop as the story progresses. The title of the film is quite fun. The bright yellow boots stand out in a mundane environment just as Ruth stands out in the city of Mumbai putting across the whole concept of being out of place. Veteran actor, Nasseerudin Shah has outdone himself once again. He's a father figure to Ruth who visits her at the parlour for treatment to a painful leg ailment. Chittiapa (Gulshan Devaiah), a gangster who threatens Ruth when her boyfriend (Prashant Prakash) runs away with his money, and Maya (Puja Swarup), the receptionist at Ruth's parlour provide comic relief to the otherwise heavy script. Anurag Kashyup's cinematography is admirable. Most of the scenes are shot in natural light and on the city's roads. As for the background score, composer Naren Chandavarkar has made sure it supports and adds life to the script. The film rather ends on an abrupt note and the climax isn't a surprise but it is disturbing. Watch only if you're in the mood for something not run-of-the-mill. Rating: 2.5/5

By Taran Adarsh, September 1, 2011 - 08:02 IST

On the whole, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS is yet another outstanding example of independent cinema. This Anurag Kashyap film caters to a more evolved, cinema literate audience. The film may not boast of big stars or may not be very huge on hype and hoopla, but it is a gem of a movie that should be watched for its powerful plot and terrific execution of the written material. Watch this film if you want to see cinema from India beyond the routine Bollywoodish stuff.
Indian cinema is truly evolving. More and more film-makers in Mumbai specifically are realizing the importance of narrating a new story every time they make an effort. Anurag Kashyap, the maverick, had been doing so from his first film. His new film, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS, is by far his boldest film and if I may say so, his best effort so far. Powerful and captivating, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS has a shocker of a conclusion that leaves you disturbed and troubled.

For the conventional spectators of Hindi cinema, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS will come across as a never-seen-before experience. On the surface, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS may give the impression of being a thriller, but as you delve deeper and deeper, you apprehend that controversial themes like child abuse and drug addiction have been pragmatically depicted by the ace raconteur. In fact, the culmination to the story -- an expose on the psychopathic behavior -- is truly jaw dropping and continues to haunt you even after the movie has concluded. That's the kind of impact it makes!

THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS traces Ruth's [Kalki Koechlin] search for her father -- a man she hardly knew, but cannot forget. Desperation drives her to work, without a permit, at a massage parlor. Torn between several schisms, Mumbai becomes the alien but yet strangely familiar backdrop for Ruth's quest. She struggles to find her independence and space even as she is sucked deeper into the labyrinthine politics of the city's underbelly. A city that feeds on her misery, a love that eludes her and above all, a devastating truth that she encounters. First things first, THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS is not your emblematic desi flick. It speaks a new language and has the unflinching approach of individualist director Anurag Kashyap. The screenplay is such that it keeps you estimating as to what's going to happen subsequently, till the finale hits you like a ton of bricks. Truly, this is not your characteristic desi flick.

Shot in undersized places, like tiny dwellings, seedy massage parlors and shrunk spaces, the visuals add to the feeling of anxiety, claustrophobia and uneasiness throughout, which, frankly, gels very well with the character and plot of the film. That's not all, the sundry characters that you are introduced to in Ruth's journey -- shady people, drug dealers, ruthless criminals, sex fanatics and of course, the crooked officers at the government offices [note the treatment meted out to white women at these places] -- leaves you flabbergasted.

The narrative moves at its own pace, but let me add, there's never a dull moment in the enterprise. Kashyap successfully probes into the disturbed mind of his central character as she encounters her dilemmas and the scandalous conclusion to the story is something, I am sure, you'd never forget. I'd like to add here that this is Kashyap's most powerful film to date, his best work so far in terms of narrative and storytelling. Together with co-writer Kalki Koechlin, Kashyap narrates a tale that's extremely compelling and equally complicated.

THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS is embellished with top notch performances, with Kalki scoring brownie points for her super performance in the film. Playing a stylish, sensible, sharp-witted British girl supporting herself by working illegally in a massage parlor, Kalki has the right look for her part, but it does take a lot of guts to portray this intricate role. She has an inimitable talent and onscreen presence by means of which she single-handedly carries the film with her gut wrenching raw performance.

One of the finest actors of India, Naseeruddin Shah brings value and reverence to the character he depicts. In addition, there's a wonderful performance by Prashant Prakash, who plays Kalki's oversexed coke-sniffing lover boy. Gulshan Devaiya is an incredible talent, no two opinions on that, and he carries off his part brilliantly. The actress portraying the role of a vivacious chatterbox in charge of the massage parlor is excellent. Kumud Mishra, Shiv Subramaniam, Makrand Deshpande, Ronit Roy, Piyush Mishra, Rajat Kapoor and Divya Jagdale are perfect in their parts.

Story: Ruth ( Kalki Koechlin), an illegal immigrant in Mumbai, refuses to return to England unless she finds her father, an Indian who abandoned the family when she was a kid. She works in a massage parlour for her upkeep and tries her best to fend off the local goons who want to take advantage of her situation. With a drug addict as a boyfriend, life doesn't seem too much of comfort, except for the presence of the avuncular Naseeruddin Shah, one of her regular customers. Does Ruth manage to find her father? More importantly, does he turn out to be the ideal dad she had always dreamed of...

Movie Review: Always the unexpected, Anurag? Never, never go looking for the predictable in this maverick filmmaker's films and you'll rarely be disappointed. For, Anurag truly likes to push the frontiers of contemporary Indian cinema and genuinely believes in saying something new, something different, something meaningful. And yes, he always loves to shock and awe...

Kalki's quest for her missing father is a sad, quixotic, twisted tale of love and longing with a climax that rattles you. Also, it's a sordid and tragic tale of incest and sexual abuse that are such an intrinsic part of a society that still doesn't know how to treat its women.

More importantly, it is the cinematic idiom of the film which impresses you. Kalki's world -- the seedy apartment, the sleazy massage parlour, the passionless romance, the cramped immigration office -- is a closed, suffocating world with almost no ray of light. The only hope being the young girl's dogged determination to find her truant dad. Kashyap pays as much attention to frame and technique as to story and character development, which is what make his films an artistic and wholesome experience. A word about Kalki's performance: she literally slips into the shoes of the protagonist and essays the anguish of a lonely, lost soul effortlessly.

Go for the different experience.

Tip Off: Not meant for those who like run-of-the-mill stuff, That Girl in Yellow Boots is quintessential independent cinema.

Review: That Girl In Yellow Boots is edgy

Sukanya Verma in Mumbai

Review: That Girl In Yellow Boots
(Social/Thriller)

Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah and Shiv Subramaniyam Director: Anurag Kashyap Producer: Anurag Kashyap

That Girl in Yellow Boots is obviously the story of Ruth, a girl caught in a ruthless world, and Koechlin captures the landscape of the protagonist's bruised heart and mind to absolute perfection. But the film benefits no less from the finely etched cameos of the supporting cast.

Especially impressive are Puja Sarup as the loquacious massage parlour receptionist who is constantly on her mobile phone making small talk even as an emotional storm swirls around Ruth and Gulshan Devaiah as the fumbling gangster whose bravado borders on the comical.

If we do not see more of Sarup and Devaiah in Mumbai movies in the years to come, the loss would be entirely Hindi cinema's.

One might quibble about the director holding his punches in portraying the 'physical' dimensions of the moral quagmire that Ruth is trapped in, but That Girl in Yellow Boots is a significant step forward for Kashyap.

It is well-nigh his most controlled film to date: the style, fluid and unobtrusive, complements the theme rather than overshadow it.

That Girl In Yellow Boots

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Gulshan Devaiya, Prashant Prakash, Naseerudin Shah, Pooja Saroop

Indian Express rating: **

Just the fact of having a real girl with real motivations at the heart of a film makes you want to celebrate. Place Ruth (Koechlin) alongside the airheads that are created for most mainstream cinema, and you get a person, not a mannequin. This is a girl in search of her lost father. And of herself. Not by slaloming in Spanish skies and exotic beaches, but by working seedy Mumbai outposts which shoot for respectability by calling themselves spas, because that is all she can do. Where the frustrated, or the plain vanilla pervs, or the lonely show up for massages and 'happy endings', which Ruth is willing to provide in return for some much-needed lolly. So far, so good. Where 'The Girl In Yellow Boots' stopped being satisfactory is when I started wanting more, and didn't get it.

Anurag Kashyap's ability to create this kind of grunge, and characters who live on the margins, is matchless. But by now we've got used to it, as well as his skill in laying it out for our delectation. By now we want the next level. There are flashes of it here, in some of the sure-footed cameos Kashyap sketches. The uncouth guy with a permanent burp on his breath who undresses Ruth with his eyes, and drawls : massage, eh? The plump manager (Saroop) of the massage parlour who is constantly on the phone murmuring animatedly to an unseen caller. The elderly man (Shah) who is a regular because he regards Ruth as a daughter, not because he wants a 'handshake'. The momentary glimpse of an autorickshaw-driver who gets his jollies by getting the gori mem to say a cuss word.

Kashyap sweats the small stuff well, but is not as successful with the bigger parts. Chitappa the goon played by Devaiya loses steam after a while; Ruth's cokehead boyfriend (Prakash) with a thing for handcuffs never gathers any. And even Koechlin, who plays the fractured, damaged half-Indian, half-British girl with a perfect pitch (she sounds and looks just right), doesn't reveal as much of the darkness in her soul as the part needs her to. She stops, when her director does.

What's under all this nicely-shot gunk? I come up with a few sharp specks. No more.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com

Movie Review : That Girl In Yellow Boots

Director : Music : Starring : Anurag Kashyap Naren Chandavarkar Kalki Koechlin, Naseruddin Shah, Shiv Subramaniyam, Divya Jagdale, Kumud Mishra, Prashant Prakash, Gulshan Devaiya, Kartik Krishnan, Mushtaq Khan, Ronit Roy, Makrand Deshpande and Rajat Kapoor That Girl In Yellow Boots Movie Review September 2, 2011 11:32:25 AM IST By Martin D'Souza, Glamsham Editorial THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS Dark.Disturbing.Distressing.Kudos to Anurag Kashyap for handling such a volatile subject with deadpan honesty. Kalki Koechlin hits the high note with this daring performance handling the emotions that come her way with immense maturity. Your heart goes out to her as Ruth who comes to India from the UK in search of her father. All she wants is to be loved and love in return. She misses that stability of a father's presence in her life and though she hardly remembers her father, she knows she now needs him in her life. She was five when her father left the family and her 15-year-old step sister was involved in a 'sexual mishap'. That incident scarred her for life and she is in search of answers, which brings her in search of her father. What Anurag Kashyap tried to experiment with in NO SMOKING, he has succeeded with THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS. Kashyap is known for experimenting with alternate cinema throwing in that shock value. With this film, he shocks. BIG TIME. And the shock absorbed by the central character Ruth, played by Kalki and the way she handles it is stupefying to say the least. Kashyap has taken care of the little things that form the larger picture on the screen that adds value to an emotion. Kalki's Ruth is actually an extension of DEV D, another Anurag Kashyap film. In DEV D, Kalki as Chanda works as a prostitute by night to fund her studies after being disowned by her family after being trapped in an MMS scandal. Here, she lands a job in a massage parlour without a work permit. She has all sorts of customers coming for her 'services'. Movie Review : That Girl In Yellow Boots Director : Music : Starring : Anurag Kashyap Naren Chandavarkar Kalki Koechlin, Naseruddin Shah, Shiv Subramaniyam, Divya Jagdale, Kumud Mishra, Prashant Prakash, Gulshan Devaiya, Kartik Krishnan, Mushtaq Khan, Ronit Roy, Makrand Deshpande and Rajat Kapoor That Girl In Yellow Boots Movie Review September 2, 2011 11:32:25 AM IST By Martin D'Souza, Glamsham Editorial THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS Dark.Disturbing.Distressing.Kudos to Anurag Kashyap for handling such a volatile subject with deadpan honesty. Kalki Koechlin hits the high note with this daring performance handling the emotions that come her way with immense maturity. Your heart goes out to her as Ruth who comes to India from the UK in search of her father. All she wants is to be loved and love in return. She misses that stability of a father's presence in her life and though she hardly remembers her father, she knows she now needs him in her life. She was five when her father left the family and her 15-year-old step sister was involved in a 'sexual mishap'. That incident scarred her for life and she is in search of answers, which brings her in search of her father. What Anurag Kashyap tried to experiment with in NO SMOKING, he has succeeded with THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS. Kashyap is known for experimenting with alternate cinema throwing in that shock value. With this film, he shocks. BIG TIME. And the shock absorbed by the central character Ruth, played by Kalki and the way she handles it is stupefying to say the least. Kashyap has taken care of the little things that form the larger picture on the screen that adds value to an emotion. Kalki's Ruth is actually an extension of DEV D, another Anurag Kashyap film. In DEV D, Kalki as Chanda works as a prostitute by night to fund her studies after being disowned by her family after being trapped in an MMS scandal. Here, she lands a job in a massage parlour without a work permit. She has all sorts of customers coming for her 'services'. Apart from Kalki, watch out for Gulshan Devaiya, the don with a difference. An applause worthy performance for his portrayal of Chittiappa. You may not be able to enjoy the movie, but you will definitely take home a lesson. A lesson Anurag has clinically passed on with an underlying, chilling message: Children from broken families are always broken from the inside. No matter how tough they appear from the outside. Rating - 4/5

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Devaiya and Prashant Prakash
Release Date: 2011-08-31 20:00:00
Quick Take: No happy ending

When a major part of the story contains a girl giving handjobs to strangers, you know the film is going to be unsettling and disturbing. That Girl In Yellow Boots is an addition to Anurag Kashyap's brand of different cinema. It's bold and confrontational but it leaves you wistful.

Co-written by Kalki Koechlin (also the main protagonist) and Anurag, TGIYB narrates the tale of a half British-half Indian girl fighting the odds in Mumbai as she searches for her father. From working in a massage parlour to dealing with a drug abused boyfriend, her life is filled with complexities. But the film is more about exploring the psyche of the lead protagonist than showcasing her struggle to find her father. She is tormented by her surroundings; mother wants her to be a saint, boyfriend wants her to f**k and the rest of the world wants a 'happy ending' from her. Her only ray of hope is a letter sent by her father, reassuring that there's someone who loves her.

Sadly, the film doesn't manage to create a solid impact. It lacks the drama a film with this subject could have had. There are some hard-hitting moments and some shocking twists but they are not exploited satisfactorily. This might come as a dampener for an insatiable audience.

Technically, the film is first rate. Rajeev Ravi's cinematography elevates the movie to higher levels and manages to create varied moods throughout. Kalki is competent as usual and sinks into the character. Sadness, anger, happiness and angst, she manages to portray every emotion with excellence. Watch out for the altercation scene with her boyfriend in which she breaks down and expresses her true feelings. Naseeruddin Shah and Prashant Prakash shine in pivotal roles as well. Gulshan Devaiya's role is half baked and fails to take off. But his quirkiness makes him stand out. Special mention needs to be given to Maya who plays the spunky receptionist at the massage parlour. She's feisty and gets to mouth the funniest lines of the film.

TGIYB is a decent film and manages to engross you in bits and parts. The story provides the necessary shock and awe that would creep you out of your skin. Unfortunately, it doesn't come through well. In one press conference, Anurag said that even he doesn't know why he is making this film. I'm afraid the general audience might ask the same question.

Rahul Gangwani