Mumbai Meri Jaan

Cast: K K Menon, Paresh Rawal, Soha Ali Khan, Irrfan Khan, R Madhavan
Direction: Nishikant Kamat

There is no running away from terror these days. Nor can there be any from the paranoia and prejudices it leaves in its wake. Mumbai Meri Jaan, is less about the bomb than it is about what it leaves in its aftermath - fear, loss and reinforcement of dangerous stereotyping. It’s a story about survivors.

The story follows seven days in five Mumbaikars' lives - one a TV journalist (Soha) of a sensationalist news channel, a tea vendor (Irrfan) living outside the peripheral vision of the upwardly mobile, Nikhil (R Madhavan) a corporate with a social conscience, a small-time businessman Suresh (K K Menon) biased against Muslims and a seasoned constable Tukaram Patil (Paresh Rawal) who mentors a frustrated rookie on how to survive in the police force.

The movie examines Mumbai after the bomb rips open the comforting lid of normalcy, to expose Mumbai’s good, bad and resilent.

Madhavan’s portrayal of a man, who lectures a street vendor over the use of plastic but who lies immobile in the actual hour for action, shows us how easily one’s principles can crumble in the event of reality hitting too close home.
While trading sensitivity for sensationalism is taken by some reporters as their birthright, Soha finds out what that might feel like, when the voyeuristic camera is turned on her.

However, Soha’s discovery of her fiancee’s body did not really hit home. I blame the screenplay here. There was no need to create a great visual (Soha’s face in the crack of the door) at the expense of the horror of the revelation.

Suresh (Menon), who is yet to land himself a profitable contract, spends time with his friends at a coffee shop, passing judgement on the world around him. In his obsession with stalking a particular Muslim boy, Suresh finds himself in the unenviable position of lying at the mercy of those with enough power to abuse it.
His change of heart after a conversation with Patil might seem rather fairy-tale-ish but when you think about it - it is his blind terror of police brutality and subsequent disbelief at being let off that sows the seeds of change. I doubt he was actually listening to Paresh Rawal’s monologue, perhaps thinking it as some twisted prelude to his getting beaten up.

What I enjoyed most was the morning after, when he wakes up to his father’s non-stop sermons on good-versus-evil wars - the subtle brainwashing we all have encountered in our houses. Well done!

Irrfan’s Thomas is all our collective discrimination coming back to haunt us. Yes, it is a consumerist world and so the bourgeoisie gets to enjoy several privileges it takes for granted. But its non-inclusiveness leaves Thomas stung and hate-filled.

Whether intended or otherwise, it’s in Tukaram Patil that one sees the true face of Mumbai. He has seen enough of the ‘system’ not to expect any fairness from it, but still never fails to recognise goodness when he sees it. His cynicism laces with humour belies his deep disappointment at his own choices.

His idealistic partner’s horror at how life moves on (people having a good time on the night of the bomb blast) was a superb scripting product.
The movie might have been India’s Crash if it had balance the prejudices of one community with some counter-stereotype. The director’s over-enthusiastic painting of minorities as victims of misunderstandings rings of hyperbole in the absence of that balance, not because it isn’t true.

Kudos to K K for reining in the director’s over-zealous attempts. He gives in a restrained performance without falling bait to the drama of the screenplay. That’s harder than it seems, btw.

A movie cannot be classified without judging its end. If it ends positively, especially unrealistically so, it is intended to be moralistic, preachy, with a set solution to the problem it wishes to address.

If it ends on a ‘so that's-that’ note, it is intended to be an unbiased portrayal of reality, without passing any judgement.

MMJ had me confused for it did not clearly fall into either category immediately. Sure, KK figuring out his follies is wrapping a heavy problem hastily. But that was inevitable; this is cinema after all. Which director wouldn't exploit the medium to present a ‘what-if-this-happened’ scenario?

So it was on Nikhil’s plans to leave to the US and on Soha’s TV appearance about her fiancee’s death that I had placed my money. Cinema allows you to play with situations, not reactions. That must be real. If Nihkil left to the US and Soha made the appearance as per her editor’s script, then the movie would be closer-to-reality stuff.

Else it would belong to the and-they-lived-happily-ever-after genre.

Now MMJ doesn’t explicitly show Nikhil change his mind about US, but it is implied (he figures he wouldn’t be much safer in US after 9/11). And Soha is unable to go through with the interview as she keeps breaking down. Still, her footage of trying to speak in front of the camera is used by the channel in a manner most vulgar (a la Aaj-Tak), by drumming up a deeply personal issue.

So perhaps MMJ does have a ‘positive ending’. But it is hard to hold this against Nishikant.

If I had to rate it, I’d give it 4 stars.

Good stuff.

The Dark Knight

Cast: Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhart, Heath Ledger
Direction: Christopher Nolan

It’s easy to see why most people would avoid movies based on superheros; because of that inevitable, hackneyed good over evil war. And it’s easy to see why most people would still want to watch The Dark Knight; because in a Batman movie there is just no telling how the war will end.

I haven't seen Batman Begins, but from what I read up on the net, the darkness was all there too. The Dark Knight has retained all the elements that made the first a box office hit and then added some more. Based on the DC comic series that introduced Joker and Two-Face, the movie gives Batman a new suit, the much hyped bike, Batpod, and a new set of difficult decisions to take.

What sets Batman apart from other superheros is that he in fact has no super powers! And the Nolan brothers (who penned the screenplay) exploit this to the fullest, giving us an intelligent, yet vulnerable and angst-ridden Bruce Wayne, who must sacrifice his own interests for the safety of Gotham’s denizens.

Perhaps the District Attorney’s transformation into Two-Face could do with better justification. But Aaron Eckhart is just amazing in his role. Compared to his earlier, Thank You For Smoking, in which he is an unapologetic bastard, this one was the idealist who changes when the love of his life dies. What I loved espically about his character was the coin. The coin which had both sides the same represented a Harvery Dent who was inside out the same good person. But soon after Rachel's death one side darkens. And so now when he poses questions to his coin, he genuinely has no clue what the answer will be.

Still, Nolan’s genius as director is undeniable in the racy action sequences, macabre violence minus graphic detailing and in subtly letting Batman’s character take over Bruce, until you don’t need to see a batsuit to feel like rescue is at hand. Awesome is also the play with music. There is the batman theme when piano and drums, creating the sense of impeding doom. But also there is silence. And that silence plays with you, like no music can. If you've seen the movie, you will certainly remember when Joker's 16-wheeler topples; or when Batman swoops across the skycaper skyline of Hong Kong. Thoses moments truly make the movie a legend even before its time.

But mostly the movie will be noted for an unforgettable and, paradoxically, heroic interpretation of the anti-hero Joker. Heath Ledger, with his running mascara highlighting the crevices of his painted face, plays the sinister ‘clown’ whose mocking one-liners (‘Why so serious?’) will have you cowering in your seat. In a performance, that will unfortunately come to be known as his last, Ledger keeps from portraying Joker as a caricature and instead gives us a chilling, anarchist villain, reminiscent of Alex from A Clockwork Orange; that same desire for chaos and violence accompanied by a cunning and intelligence.

Equally memorable are Michael Cain's lines about the real hero; unforgettable lines those are ('Because he can do it'). Heath Ledger's "Either you die a hero, and live long enough to become the villian' and Batman's own response to it, to willing be seen as the villian are just some of the grandest moments of cinema.

And finally a word about the graphics used: Brilliant!

It would be wrong to assume that the movie is only for comic lovers. Though, by the end of it, you might just find yourself a convert.

Thank you guys, the pleasure was all mine.