Release
date:
|
August 3, 2018
|
Director:
|
Akarsh Khurana
|
Cast:
Language:
|
Irrfan, Dulquer
Salmaan, Mithila Palkar, Amala Akkineni, Kriti Kharbanda
Hindi with English
|
As mix-ups go, this
one is weird. A man loses his father in an accident but the body delivered to
him is of the mother of a woman in another state. Avinash Rajpurohit was not
fond of his Dad, but duty calls and he agrees to meet the lady to exchange
coffins somewhere between Bengaluru where he lives and her home in Kochi. A few
hundred kilometres separate the two cities but Avinash travels a lifetime on
that journey he makes with his friend Shaukat and a young woman called Tanya who
joins them along the way.
Writer-director Akarsh
Khurana’s Karwaan is a quiet film.
Apart from the tragedy that kicks off the narrative, nothing much seems to
happen here yet a lot does. It is a story of rumination and awakenings, and as
in life, here too, such things rarely happen with drum rolls and bugle calls.
Karwaan has made news for two reasons so far: because it
has been released even as Bollywood actor Irrfan battles a debilitating illness
and because it is the first Bollywood film featuring Mollywood heartthrob Dulquer Salmaan,
DQ to his fans. The news now is this: Irrfan and DQ live up to their formidable
reputations here, and are both absolute dears in
this sweetly understated road flick.
Irrfan’s Shaukat is
a garrulous fellow, exceedingly old fashioned in many respects and for the most
part, immensely funny. “For the most part” because I felt uncomfortable with the
humourisation of his racist attitude towards a white couple he encounters. I
know I know, some of you will say white people do not need the protection of an
Indian film critic, but excuse me for pointing out that othering is not okay
even when directed at powerful communities, though of course I am not equating
it with racism towards the marginalised. As for that cliched old defence, “this
is just a portrayal of reality”, the answer is: of course conservatives do
exist in the real world, but this is the only point in Karwaan where the storyteller’s own tone condones the character’s
obnoxious behaviour. This is particularly jarring because in another area of
his life, Shaukat proves to be a remarkably progressive fellow and challenger
of an appalling status quo.
That discomfiting
scene apart, Shaukat is amusing throughout. And Irrfan’s dialogue delivery is a
killer as always. His is the more striking character of the two leads, but DQ rises to the challenge of playing
the less obviously likeable Avinash, a role that on the surface also appears
less challenging.
The promotions of Karwaan have hopefully given Bollywood
viewers an idea of exactly how big a deal this young man is in Mollywood. His
matinee idol looks, excellent acting and discerning choices have catapulted him
to the top of his profession in just six years. Add to this blend his fluid
personality, and you get the perfect package for superstardom across
industries. His career path indicates that he may well get there considering
that at 32 he is already a dominant force in Mollywood, has made his mark with
a handful of films in Kollywood, and this year has forayed into both Tollywood
and Bollywood.
DQ brings to Karwaan the attributes that have made
him such a perfect fit in Mollywood, a film industry that pushes the envelope
far more than India’s Big Three, Kollywood, Tollywood and Bollywood. He is
handsome but not self-conscious, and in Karwaan
as in all his works, he conveys the impression of being unaware of his
hotness, which is such an attractive quality in a star, such an essential
quality in a true actor and so crucial to his unobtrusively gripping performance
as the self-effacing Avinash, forever held back by his internal turmoil and bitterness.
Besides, his commitment to his work is evident in his Hindi accent, which is unbelievably
good for a man who has never lived in the Hindi belt.
While the two male leads are more prominent in the story, Mithila Palkar holds
her own in the presence of these established actors, playing the feisty teenaged
Tanya. Kriti Kharbanda is luminous in a small role. Why do we not see her more
often in Bollywood? And Amala Akkineni brings dignity and warmth to her cameo
in a way only a beloved veteran can.
That said, the initial part of
the writing of her character is one of Karwaan’s
flaws. She sounds laboured while conveying grief in
telephone conversations with Avinash, and the manner in which she entrusts her child
to a complete stranger is bizarre, to say the least.
So yes, Karwaan is far from perfect. The first
half feels insubstantial. Considering that this is a road film, I sorely missed
glimpses of the cultures of the places the lead trio pass through. A Hindi film
in this setting requires a suspension of disbelief anyway because Hindi is not
the lingua franca of southern India, but the stray Malayalam dialogues and
lyrics in Karwaan give it a natural
feel. Dialogue writer Hussain Dalal also makes the wise choice of mixing Hindi
and English in equal parts in Avinash’s lines, which gives them an easy flow.
That said, it bothered me that the storyteller is so accepting of Tanya’s dismissive attitude
towards the language of her home city – I get that north Indian supremacism has
led to a situation where Hindi bhaashis travelling to other parts of India tend
not to make an effort to learn the local languages, and in that sense Tanya’s
arrogance is realistic, but the implied okaying of her arrogance by the film is troubling.
(Possible spoiler ahead) Karwaan is also casual about facts in
its reference to the Islamic practice known in common parlance as instant triple talaq, which was banned by the Supreme Court last year. The discussions
around this development have all related to men divorcing their wives by
uttering the words “talaq talaq talaq” but there is little awareness about women’s right to do likewise. This fleeting portion of Karwaan is clearly meant to be uplifting to liberal women viewers, but good intentions
notwithstanding, because the issue is complex the scene is bound to create
confusion or generate misinformation. It could easily have been snipped out
without disrupting the narrative, yet was not, which suggests a deliberate
prioritisation of populism over other concerns. (Spoiler alert ends)
In another fleeting
reference, Karwaan would have done
well not to suggest an equivalence between a man making a move to hit a woman
and that woman’s intrusive
impertinence towards him. The film could have also
done with better editing to tighten a fight scene involving a bunch of bit part
actors.
I wish these issues
had been ironed out, because Karwaan
overall is a heartwarming little film. For one, it is unusual in the way it
does not deify parents but reminds us that like all human beings, they too come
in a range of good, bad and ugly. “Logon ko haq jamaana aata hai, rishtaa nibhaana nahin (People know how to
exercise their rights, not abide by relationships),” says a character when
discussing parents who are jerks.
The film offers a
nuance not often seen in Hindi cinema or Indian cinema at large, when it speaks
of a generation gap between youngsters separated in age by perhaps a decade. It
also does not see a romance as essential in every relationship between two
attractive people of the opposite sex, though it acknowledges that such sparks
are a possibility. And
it takes a brave stand on domestic violence.
Karwaan’s effectiveness lies in the fact
that it rises above its pre-interval indolence. Critics often speak of
“the curse of the second half” afflicting so many films that start
off well and then peter out. Karwaan is
the opposite. It revs up post-interval, not merely in terms of actual physical
events and encounters, but in the character graphs. What remains consistent
from start to finish is cinematographer Avinash
Arun’s inventive, expansive frames. My favourite of them all involves a low
angle shot of DQ reading a paper framed against a backdrop of thick green trees.
As someone who has
followed Dulquer Salmaan’s career from the beginning, I confess I was
apprehensive when I realised that the Akarsh Khurana directing his first Hindi
film is the same gentleman who helmed a fizzled-out firecracker called High Jack starring Sumeet Vyas earlier
this year. Khurana is the only one who can tell us what went wrong with that
film, because my fears were misplaced and he is in fine fettle in Karwaan.
As for DQ, his
talent was evident from his Mollywood debut in 2012 but his more recent works
like Kali, Kammatipaadam and Solo – an anthology in which he played four roles in four separate stories – have elevated
him to a higher plane by offering gigantic proof of his versatility. Kammatipaadam also
indicated his willingness to risk films with sensitive themes and an
off-mainstream tone and, more important, his readiness to submit to a director
who did not allow his stardom to overshadow the project although his presence could
be counted on to raise its profile. Karwaan
is not a bone-crushing beauty of the sort that Kammatipaadam was, but here too we have a director and star
collaborating to give a script priority over all else.
As a Mollywood buff I obviously
hope that DQ remains rooted – allow me to play on the title of one of his
Malayalam films – in the neelakasham,
pachchakadal and chuvanna bhoomi (the blue sky, green sea and red earth) of his home
ground. As a Bollywood buff though, I am thrilled to welcome him to a new fold
in the company of the delightful Irrfan and the charming Ms Palkar.
“Ae mohtarma yu na sharma / main
aashiq hoon koi creep nahin / ae husn
pari, you don’t worry / meri shayaribhi zyaada deep nahin (Hey lady, I am a suitor, not a creep / Hey
beautiful, don’t you worry, my poetry is not very deep),” goes a song in Karwaan sung by Papon, with music by Anurag
Saikia and lyrics by Khurana. The words mirror the simplicity Karwaan aspires to, though it must be
said that the film’s unassuming demeanour camouflages considerable depth.
At one point, a
character in this film explains that he is not sure whether Person X was a good
guy but it is clear that he was not bad, which in itself is quite something in
this day and age. There can be no more appropriate a description of Karwaan: it is not earth shattering, but
it is not bad at all. Which is another way of saying it is an intelligent,
funny, thoughtful film and a pleasant experience.
Rating
(out of five stars): **1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
|
UA
|
Running time:
|
2 hours
|
This review has also been published on Firstpost:
Poster
courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/KarwaanMovie/
No comments:
Post a Comment