Film: Pink
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tarian, Piyush Mishra, Dhritiman Chatterjee
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury
I was eager to watch Pink ever since the official trailer was out. I was drawn mostly because of the sensitive subject. And I loved Shoojit Sircar's all films be it his directions or productions. There will always be a content in his films.
Plot: Three women, Minal Arora (Taapsee Pannu), Falak Ali (Kirti Kulhari), and Andrea Tariang) are roommates staying in South Delhi. They meet three men at a rock concert of which one is Minal's schoolmate. They go out for dinner at a resort in Surajkund. A guy starts molesting Minal and she smashes a bottle on his head. The girls ran off and injured man is admitted to the hospital by others. The girls refrain from complaining to the authority thinking they will just move on. However, the boys start harassing them and threatening them. They even kidnap Minal for a brief period and molests her in the car, which was witnessed by Deepak Sehgal (Amitabh Bachchan). When the girls are contemplating about the future course of action, an FIR is registered against Minal of attempt to murder and soliciting money for prostitution. And others are co-acused.
Deepak Sehal, a neighbor and retired criminal lawyer comes to the rescue of the girls. His formidable opponent is Prashant Mehra (Piyush Mishra) whose single point agenda is to prove the girls as prostitutes. Hence starts the gritty courtroom drama. All personal and intimate questions are asked to build and assassinate the character of each girl. We will all know how it ends because our beloved Bachchan cannot lose and we don't want him to. The onward journey is thrilling, bold, and insatiable.
Performance by each and everyone is outstanding. It is nice to see Taapsee in a commendable role for a change. After seeing her in many Southern movies playing almost similar roles, I wrote her off as just another pretty face. I'm wrong. The girl can act, brilliantly in fact. No one could have done justice to the role of opposition lawyer as Piyush Mishra. He is menacing, formidable, and evokes instant dislike effortlessly.
There is absolutely no words to describe Bacchan's performance. If "PINK" is going to be a social movement, no one I say 'NO ONE" could have conveyed the message beautifully. He is a powerhouse of acting.
The whole movies boils down to one single point "Consent".
When a girl says no, she could be your girlfriend, friend, date, sex worker, or even your wife, it means "NO" in bold. I don't know how many people are aware of the word consent in this country. If they are ignorant of this fact, let this movie enlighten them. And for feudal mindset nothing going to change them because they are prisoners of misguided tradition and I can only pray for their painful death.
This movie is a tight slap on the patriarchal society who condemn, judge, and degrade women on the basis of length of their skirt, time to return home, living alone in a big city, her habits, her lifestyle. Pink is an exceptional movie with a strong social message; however; it never is preachy with its solid screenplay.
Do yourself a favour and go watch PINK. Don't wait for the weekend. Break the weekday routine and make time for it. It is not every day you get to watch something like Pink.
PS: What actually transpired between the men and women is shown as end credit roles. So if you are a person to rush out immediately after the movie, be patient until the end.
“I loved a man who had opened up a world to me but hadn’t loved me enough to stay in it.”
I picked up this book without realizing there was a prequel to it. It is only halfway through the book I felt something is missing and I was right. "After You" indeed had a well-known prequel named "Me Before You" and a film adaptation too starring Khaleesi of GOT fame Emilia Clark. Now there are two options in front of me; one to order the first book, finish it off, and continue reading the second; another, just continue with the current book as a stand alone. And I chose the second option.
The story of Louisa Clark begins after 18 months of Will Trantor's death. Now she lives in a flat in east London, which she purchased from Will's money. She is stuck in a meaningless job at the city airport's pub. She keeps cold distance from her family. But an unfortunate accidents forces her to move in with her parents for recuperation. Her father is worried about her mental health coerces her to attend a therapy group, aptly named "Moving On". The falling off the roof incident introduces two new people in Louisa's life; one ambulance Sam with whom she romantically gets involved eventually; another, Lily, a 16-year-old teenager.
The other supporting characters are Lou's parents, her sister, nephew; Will's parents; and Lily's mother. The angle where Lou's mother's new found feminism and her father's difficulty in coping with it is quite amusing. Who is Lily? Will she be able to help Louisa to move on in life?
Louisa greatly suffers from grief of losing Will and guilt of helping him end his life. This is where I thought I should have read the first book because I'm unable to feel the love and loss in Lou's life. Maybe I would have felt different if I had read the prequel. Nonetheless as a stand alone it is pretty decent read. And this is the book that introduced me to the author Jojo Moyes.
Film: Raman Raghav 2.0
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Movie begins with the disclaimer "It is not about the 1960's serial killer Raman Raghav". Raman (Nawazuddin) is a serial killer who hacks his victims to death with an iron rod. He thinks himself as a messenger of God to eliminate people. He loiters aimlessly in slums, rundown apartments, markets, and busy roads. There is no purpose or intent for his killing.
Raghav (Vicky Kaushal), Assistant Commissioner of police is the investigating officer in this case. He does not believe Raman's confession to crimes when he surrenders himself. However, Raman escapes the police custody. He goes in for a few more kill including his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.
Raman firmly believes Raghav to be his soulmate, another messenger from God to kill people. Raghav is a misogynist cop who snorts drugs, treats his girlfriend like shit is as deadly as Raman. Only difference is he is on the other side of law.
One day Raghav brings another girl to his girlfriend's house. In an altercation he accidentally kills his girlfriend. Now everyone knows Raman is stalking Raghav. What happens next? What happens to the other girl who witnessed the murder?
A psychological thriller that is definitely not for the faint hearts. It is grim, gruesome, and totally dark. The movie is split in chapters in Quentin Tarantino style.
We have seen a lot of psychos onscreen and they all looked similar so far. But Nawaz has set the bars high now. His transformation from poor homeless man to maniac beast to eccentric monster is spell bounding. Seeing pure pleasure in his twinkling eyes after each kill sends shiver down your spine. The scene where Raman meets Raghav is comical, sublime, and so natural.
I loved Vicky Kaushal in Masaan. He has done total justice to the role of Raghav, brooding, menacing, and ruthless.
Every minute detail is taken care of. A lot of research has gone into the making. The location varies from dark dingy rooms to slums to high rise apartments. Most of the violence happens off the screen, so all the gory details are left to our imagination. Out and out Anurag Kashyap movie. I could see my young cousins squirming in their seat and for them it is not an easy watch. However, I loved it as it is psychological thriller, which is my favoured genre.
The month started with anticipation of a small holiday on Independence day weekend. The original plan was something else, but we could not get the hotel booking. So, Bijapur was our plan B. It was in our to-do list for a very long time. We were waiting for 5 days of leaves to club it with Badami-Aihole-Pattadakal. The distance was 500 odd kilometers. And we realized during the research that Bijapur is much more than Gol Gumbaz. The place was finalized so was the booking. The drive was wonderful to say the least. I suggest everyone to travel the length and breadth of Karnataka in Monsoon to soak in the beauty bested upon by nature. The best pat about traveling is to forget everything about the routine.
The movies we watched this month is deduced to only four. They are Sarabjeet, Raman Raghav, Hyderabad Blues, and Sardar Gabbar Singh. As our weekdays are exclusive for "Breaking Bad and weekends devoted to socializing with family and friends, it is a phenomenon that we were able catch up with few films.
The books I read are limited as well. They are Bostan Girl, After your, and Landline. In this pace will I ever be able to reach my goal of 50 books this year? Life has been blisfully busy.
This is the month I decided to let go off few people from my life. No, I'm not cutting them off my life. It is just that I'm done with being the one to keep in touch always. Nobody is that busy to keep in touch unless of course they are running multibillion conglometer or powerful world leaders. And sadly I don't know anyone personally of these categories. Each and every relationship needs relentless effort to work out. I have witnessed kinship dying a slow, painful death personally and my heart is not ready to revive it yet or anytime sooner.
Now tell me how was your August?
