Lunch Box.

Im so glad that good and unusual films are being made. Not run of the mill but actually 'different'! Very out of the box and very unconventional, though with the times and thought provoking all the same. The movie in one go, focusses on as well as throws light on so many different issues, some of which are monotony of a married life, the drudgery of daily living, a typical city life, little nuances of  life, impact of 'good food', blossoming of unlikely relationships in the most uncanny ways, supportive neighbours adding spice (punn intended!) to a boring, mundane life, making tough bold decisions at the crossroads of life and many more.

What fabulous casting and brilliant performances! Irfan Khan is an actor par excellence. Give him any role and the man never disappoints. If only expressions can speak a thousand words, this man personifies it so so beautifully! The dilemna of the character at different stages, wonderfully portrayed! There is a scene where this person that he plays comes to terms with his age, gracefully and with so much wisdom. One of the most outstanding scenes in the movie for me because thats kind of a turning point in the film. His interaction with the children in his locality, so 'real' and yet so amusing, not in a 'in your face' kind of way. The journey with a co- worker which begins with avoidance and cold shouldering and eventually leads to genuine concern, covering up for and 'being there'!

Nawazzudin, one of the best actors in this generation, plays his role so effortlessly, from being a pesky, annoying colleage to someone who shows depth, persistence, practicality and to do whatever it takes to achieve that he has set out to.

Nimrat Kaur, who I have seen perform on stage often holds the film together as she is the central character and the story revolves around her. She has played the super efficient home maker plus mother plus superwoman so well. The ease with which she accepts( matter of factly!) that her husband is having an affair, shows boldness and risk taking behaviour without being bothered about what will come of it, refusing to continue in a stale marriage, challenging the notion that a woman has to take everything in her stride.

Highlights of the film for me were, for starters the "subtlety" of the scenes, where so much is projected without actually saying it. Two scenes that stood out in this area were one, where the daughter just stares at her mother without saying a word and her expression gives away how she disapproves of her mother leaving the tap on and wasting water, while yapping away with 'deshpande' aunty and the second scene, where a small girl shows her fondness or lack of it towards Irfans' character by leaving her living room window open/ closed. The other bits are, the efficiency and systems of the 'dabbawallas', the daily humdrum, the camaraderie between "deshpande" aunty( who is never shown in the film, u can only hear her voice!) and the housewife, the scene where she tells deshpande aunty to play the saajan soundtrack and why or when 'deshpande' aunty tells the housewife to put too much spice in the food and why! All these and more make the movie so endearing and memorable. A scene where a mother warns her daughter on how to go about protecting herself in the rains by very matter of factly telling her to steer clear from trees, flyovers etc because they tend to fall in the rains!!! Hilarious! Another scene where the housewife is at her wits' end trying to explain to the dabbawala that the dabba is not being delivered to the right person/place and he argues back with pride and conviction that no one can fault the dabbawalas and their systems, and this fact has been endorsed by none other than the Queen and Harvard! And last but not the least, the eternal and undying charm of simple, sweet, heartfelt exchanges on notes of paper between total strangers.

A sweet simple story which has its heart and soul in the right place and which has characters who face real, believable, day to day struggles and dilemnas. Some connections and relationships are beyond time, age, conditioning, norms and hypocrisy of society. This movie is about such a connect which forms purely because sometimes the wrong train leads you to the right destination, used metaphoriaclly here ofcourse! The climax of the movie is left to our own interpretation! And being the eternal optimist that I am, no prizes for guessing what I took as the end of the film. ( U would know once u have seen it!) A must watch for admirers of good, unconventional cinema! May there be many more such films.

Not Happening!!!

I promised myself that I will write about this. I needed to, because something about this movie disturbed me very deeply! And I will come to that very shortly. I decide to watch films on pure hunch. Sometimes just one look at a poster or at the promo and the decision is made. At other times great reviews or a boastful cast also dont encourage me to watch a film. For Aashiqui 2 I dont know what it was. The original Aashiqui was most certainly not the reason, as I neither liked the film nor the cast! And I dont remember the story either. The friend I went with kept asking me if the story of 2 was the same as the original  and I could not recall a thing. Even now I only remember Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal being most annoying in their respective parts and though the music was a rave then, I did not think too much of it! A combination of Kumar Sanu, Anuradha Paudwal and Nadeem Shravan is anything but music to MY ears!!!

Coming back to Aashiqui 2, the lead actors are very pleasant to look at. Aditya Roy Kapoor is extremely adorable (looks much better in person and comes across as very humble too!) and can ACT! Likewise Shradha Kapoor ( cannot believe she is Shakti Kappor's daughter!!!) is pretty and talented. Given that its a musical in a way, the music and songs ought to have been much much better. Two- three songs are really nice. They grew on me. The others are just about average. The story perse is good and showed much scope at the outset . As usual the latter half leaves much to be wanted. What I liked about the film was the chemistry between the lead pair, some above average 'human' moments and emotions, some exemplary dailogues, the impeccable character sketch of an alcoholic, the highs and lows of a 'star' along with the absolute despair and confusion visavis the  stardom after a point! These were the highlights of the movie and kudos to the director and the cast who depicted all of it in the most beautiful and believable manner.

Now to the part I had and have a huge problem with! A brief sketch of the film so that I can come to that. A musician who becomes a star. Does it all, sees it all. Beyond a point life seems to have no meaning, so he takes to alcohol to deal with all of it. Bumps into a girl who hails from a poor family and is trying hard to make ends meet by singing at bars. She is blessed with a fabulous voice. He takes it upon himself to promote her and make her a star as he sees great potential in her. He makes it the mission of his meaningless life. Somewhere along, love blossoms. There is a wonderful scene where he says he is unsure if he has fallen in love with the art or the artist. Often under the influence of the alcohol he utters deeply profound life gems! And the essence of it lies in the 'hindi' dialogues which if translated would most certainly lose the profanity and get completely lost in translation.

So far so good! The addiction bit is shown very well and the back and forth that happens despite all promises to give up and the utter helplessness of an addict! The pain, the anguish, the withdrawl symptoms, the hopelessness, all of which stand out! After he has achieved his goal and the girl has achieved her stardom, he realises that 'he' is the only one who stands in the way of her career and her dream, given that she drops everything and runs to him during his bouts and epsiodes, gives him all the love and the unconditional support as thats her priority and everything else is secondary. Everything is perfect in their life and in their paradise barring his drinking habit! The slightest provocation and all the promises go in vain. All realistic so far. When he realises that she will never live upto her dreams and commitments as she is unwilling to leave him or be away from him, is when he decides to commit suicide and thats the end of the film. Very realistically in her final outburst characterised by volatile emotions, she calls him a coward! Some would say its realistic but I have a huge problem with the fact that he is shown ending his life. And that probably comes more from my professional background. In a case like that the prognosis ( ability/capacity to get healed/cured) would be very good, given that all other systems are in place. The most important and the biggest being his unconditional support systems. Most addicts where the prognosis is not good, are the ones with either no/ very few strong support systems! They have nothing or no one to go back to or fall back upon. Life the way it is, promises very little to look forward to. The present and future are both doomed. But in the protagonists' case here, he has it all and has everything to look forward to in life.

My biggest issue with the movie...... At the end the message that you take home is this.... " Love loses, life loses but ALCHOHOL/ ADDICTION wins"!!! Yes, you are a story teller with cinematic liberties but you also have a responsibility towards society! In the most crappy movies or love stories you show a happy ending. Here I did not want a happy ending because I would feel sad that a love story did not have a fairy tale ending. Here it ought to have been a happy ending, by default, purely because that gives hope and hope is all there is for a person or an addict who is often hanging by his/ her last thread. You want to give out the message that it IS possible to overcome this deadly habit and come out a winner. There are enough success stories around us and AA( "alchoholics anonymous") has enough statistics to prove it. The producers of this film, the Bhatts should know better as Mahesh Bhatt came clean from his addiction years ago which was wonderfully depicted in his film "Daddy". Javed Akhtar openly talks about how he went through the deepest shit when he was an alcoholic but managed to come out of it and embrace life and continues to pen the most beautiful lyrics.  What I dont understand is the obsession and fixation of the Bhatt camp with showing protagonists dying in the end. This was not a gangster film where it would be natural or expected. Why is there an 'aura' around death and dying! Im sorry but its not glamorous to show someone end their life, especially given the issue you are trying to project.

I know people in my life, acquaintances and friends alike, who have either successfully quit or are desperately, even currently trying to kick their addiction. I would love for them to see this movie as they would realise the pain they not only put themselves through, but the sheer agony of the people who love them so dearly. But Im not so sure if I can tell them to go see a film which might tell them... 'there is no hope for you , how much ever you try'! I would never want them to feel that eventually 'however hard I try this might be my fate and my destiny'! Or 'irrespective of all the effort I put in the alcohol will get the better of me so no point trying'! Imagine a person on the brink of a breakthrough visavis his/her addiction and watching a film like this. Even though 'its only a film', for seconds, minutes or whatever length of time, what will actually go through their minds would be extreme self-doubt, fear, anxiety, all of which will rattle their self confidence! And we already know the vulnerability levels and self image of a person, when s/he is in deep throes of addiction! Can we afford to make such movies which send out such messages???? Seriously!!! For filmmakers who are blessed with a platform which can serve as an instrument of change, why not orchestrate a positive change. We have to dissociate the loser( most ridiculously shown as 'selfless' in the film!!) attitude, associated with addictions, because more often than not its not necessarily true. A self defeating personality of an addict can be transformed with the right systems in place and the right guidance/ channels, and thats what the film could have capitalised on completely given that it was all there! I wouldve still been able to relate to an ending that shows death in the form of an accident caused by impaired judgement, under the influence of alcohol. But going and ending your life just when everything else is going right, is something I cannot fathom or believe as realistic! Just not convincing! Im sure there will be enough arguement to justify an end like this and if all else fails there is always the eternal " its only a film and dont take it so seriously" bit! But serious issues deserve serious treatment and I wish someday people in a position to do justice to such issues and give hope, if nothing else, succeed in doing so!