Binny and Family

September 30, 2024 Leave a comment

Genre: Drama | Year: 2024 | Duration: 139 mins | Director: Ssanjay Tripaathy | Medium: Theater (PVR-INOX) in 2024 | Trailer: HERE | Language: Hindi | My rating: 3/5

Favorite Dialogue: Zindagi ki expiry date toh hoti hai par zindagi jeene ki nahin

Binny and Family is an emotional (and often melodramatic) roller coaster family drama depicting teenage angst, the thought divide across three generations, and shifting values of a nuclear non-resident Indian family. The film is mostly set in London and partly in a small town of Bihar, depicting different lifestyles and local flavors of people, cultures, and confused desis overseas, which also gets very well portrayed through the tug of war and conflicted relationship between a teenager and her parents and grandparents.

As a non-resident Bihari hailing from a middle class family, I could relate to several scenes like the makeover of the house prior to visiting parents, temporary changes in day-to-day life, familiar conversations, the subtle difference between ‘lihaaj’ and ‘unexpressed love’ that many like me have with their parents.

For a small size family, the film seemed a bit stretched at times! Some portions could have been edited, especially the school and romance routines, which didn’t fit in with the narrative. There was no chemistry between Binny and her crush, Dhruv (played by Tai Khan). In fact, the friend-zoned BP (played so well by Naman Tripathy) and Binny had better chemistry and could have been explored further in the story. From “Ladki jaat ho. Kuch anhoni ho gaya to kisko muh dikhange hum log” to sporting hat and being a cool grandfather seemed unrealistic within a short span of time.

Pankaj Kapoor, Rajesh Kumar and confident debutantes’ Anjini Dhawan and Naman Tripathi are a delight to watch. Even with ‘all that could have been better and viewing fatigue at times’, it’s still worth watching.

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Rowdy Rathore

June 24, 2020 Leave a comment

Theatrical Release Poster

Genre: Action | Year: 2012 | Duration: 140 mins | Director: Prabhu Deva | Medium: Theater (PVR-EDM) in 2012, repeat on DVD in 2020. | Trailer: HERE | Language: Hindi | My rating: 3/5

Favorite Dialogue: “Rowdy Rathore: Don’t angry me.”

Rowdy Rathore, a remake of the Telugu film Vikramarkudu, was supposed to be a come back film for Akshay Kumar as an action hero. Even though there’s several good sequences of action throughout those 140 minutes, it somehow lacked the punch of Khiladi Kumar, especially with no story or plot whatsoever, the characters are easily forgettable. Prabhu Deva has used all the tricks that goes in making a successful Telugu hit in this Hindi remake – song, dance, crass humour, romance, thunderous action and a fearless supercop out to outsmart a bunch of fearsome goons. Comic scenes are not so comic, and what really made me laugh was the dialogues in Bihari Hindi of the villains and the way it was delivered UP-style with southy twang. After a very long time, I got to hear words like, ‘Pagalet’, ‘Baklol’, ‘labarchantis‘, etc. Prabhu Deva made Akshay Kumar wear multi-colored pants forgetting Akshay’s style and using Telugu tricks, reminded me of Raja babu of 90s.

The story is of a small time crook Shiva (Akshay Kumar), who is obliged to get in shoes of his look alike, Vikram Rathore, a fearless cop who dies with severe head injuries during a fight, to rescue a fictitious village Devgarh in Bihar, from its despotic feudal lord.  Shiva falls for a girl from Patna, Priya, played by the buxom Sonakshi Sinha, whom Shiva refers as ‘Mera Maal’ repeatedly, and who could have done better than just showing her midriff!

This low-IQ, deafeningly loud, unapologetically crass, regressive drama full of mindless action is my re-watch Movie of 2020.

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Arzee The Dwarf

April 23, 2013 Leave a comment

arzee_the_dwarfArzee The Dwarf

by Chandrahas Choudhury | 184 Pages | Genre: Fiction| Publisher: HarperCollins India| Year: 2009 | My Rating: 8/10

“I am myself in my thoughts too much,
I seek recourse to myself too soon,
My days don’t stand up without a crutch,
I sing my own song out of tune.
I stand before the mirror too long,
Stare big at the eyes that return my gaze,
My shadow seems to me more strong
Than my shrunken heart, that lonely place.
My worries hang about me like clouds,
And my creditors they come calling,
My being is riven by spooks and doubts,
The walls of my house are falling.
In mine own alleys I traipse and turn,
Dreamlike I float through nights and days,
I watch the hours slowly burn,
And do not leave on time my trace.
I myself speak and myself hear,
And myself act and myself see,
My own self extends far and near,
And so I cannot myself be.”

– Chandrahas Choudhury, Arzee The Dwarf

In his debut novel, Chandrahas Choudhury has skillfully captured the nuances of intimate life and dreams of Arzee, who’s a midget, working at an old cinema hall in Mumbai as a deputy projectionist. Even though all the thirteen chapters revolve around him and he’s the protagonist of this novel, Choudhury has not projected him as a larger-than-life hero, which makes his world as interesting as that of a common man, yet one cannot stop feeling sympathy for that man whose all troubles stem from him being a midget or a dwarf. So much so that the characters around him forget his last name Gandhi, and instead address him as ‘Arzee the dwarf’. The beauty of this books lies in its prolific prose and colloquial dialogues portraying time and space, old world charm portrayed through the dying Noor cinema and modern day problems of love, money, and self-image, the memorable characters that even ‘The Babur’ the projection machine, which is Indian mutation of its German name Bauer seems to breath life. The novel ends without a definite ending as if Choudhury was overcautious to continue, leaving the readers to decipher it themselves about the new turns Arzee’s life is to take.

This novel full of pathos and pragmatism is my Read of the Week.

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