Tragedy

It is interesting to think that the central character of Haider (Hindi) is not Haider (Shahid Kapoor) but his mother – Ghazala – and her fickle heart. A heart that sends Haider away, lets in Khurram (her brother in law) into her life, removes Hilal (her husband) from her life, and eventually destroys the last vestiges of their family. Loosely based on Hamlet, Hilal is the victim of an army crackdown in Srinagar. As his son Haider tries to trace him down, the complicities of the relationships within the family – and that with Arshia (Shraddha Kapoor) – Haider’s girlfriend – begin to unravel. Extremely watchable, intense, and somewhat disturbing

14/20

An Unconvincing Love Triangle

The success of Ishqiya is Arshad Warsi to a great extent and Naseruddin Shah to a good extent. The failure of Ishqiya is Vidya Balan. What can you say of a movie in which pretty much everything except the central (female) protagonist came together, where I can imagine the frustration of the perfectly good scriptwriter, editors, cinematographers, etc al, when the central character appears somewhat disinterested in the goings-on. Now to the plot. Arshad Warsi and Naseruddin Shah are “freelance” crooks – needing to repay a large sum on threat of their lives, they flee to a kindred soul’s home in northern UP near Gorakhpur, finding instead his widow. The three hatch a plot to get their required money, while the two men lose no opportunity at one-upmanship in winning Vidya Balan’s attentions. A dramatic and somewhat inconclusive ending wraps up this passable fare, that could have been an Omkara if only the cast cared. For a debutant (Abhishek Chaubey) this is great directorial fare, though Vishal Bharadwaj as producer fails to take the movie to a different plane

10.5/20

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

No reviews of Bollywood movies for 2009 would be complete without a mention of Kaminey. Shahid Kapoor is in a double role (why is this so endemic to Bollywood?) as Guddu – the simple folk in love with the minister’s daughter Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) and Charlie – a man at home in a life of crime. Oh, and Guddu and Charlie are identical twins. But this movie is not about the inevitable and hackneyed faux pas that ensue between the brothers (and Bollywood has so much of that that that could emerge as a genre in itself). This is a movie about the sheer nature of people, and Vishal Bhardwaj’s (Maqbool, Omkara) triumph is about showing that people – or most – are inherently rotten out and out, and the movie leaves this message without a twinge of cynicism. Where Kaminey strikes out on its own it strikes a chord – it fails wherever it attempts a Tarantino – the kill ‘em all shootout for example does not click, by a mile

13.5/20