REVIEW 740: MADE IN CHINA

Release date:	October 25, 2019
Director:	Mikhil Musale
Cast: Language:	Rajkummar Rao, Boman Irani, Mouni Roy, Sumeet Vyas, Amyra Dastur, Gajraj Rao, Manoj Joshi, Abhishek Banerjee, Paresh Rawal Hindi

For a country that is virtually a baby producing machine, we are oddly hesitant to talk about sex outside our bedrooms, and there too, very often not. 

It took Hindi filmdom several decades to evolve beyond showing flowers and birds nudging each other in parks as a stand-in for human couples. But in the past 10-plus years, there has been a gradual attitudinal shift as Bollywood has finally acknowledged that girls and boys take off their undergarments while, err, doing the deed (Pyaar Ke Side Effects, 2006), that some couples need sperm donors to help them conceive (Vicky Donor, 2012), that erectile dysfunction is a thing (Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, 2017), women menstruate (Padman, 2018), women masturbate (Veere Di Wedding, 2018), sexual dysfunction and venereal disease are a thing too (Khandaani Shafakhana, 2019). Who knew Bollywood had it in them?

The latest in the tiny trickle of Hindi films with a plot pivoted on sex and sexuality is the Rajkummar Rao-starrer Made In China, based on the book of the same name by Parinda Joshi. Rao here plays a Gujarati youngster forever on the lookout for a new business idea. Raghuveer Mehta’s entrepreneurial efforts keep flopping, but he remains undeterred. Then one day in China, he receives a proposal to market an aphrodisiac in India. The catch is that its main ingredient is illegal. 

Revise that: Raghu’s primary challenge in this matter turns out not to be that he has to sell in the grey market, but that his product occupies a grey market in the Indian mindspace where taboo subjects are stashed away. This calls for ingenuity on his part and leads to some comical and occasionally bizarre situations. 

Before the film gets to Raghu’s business experiments though, there is a death. That, in fact, is how Made In China begins: there is a death in Gujarat and the prime suspects are Raghu and his business partner, the sexologist Dr Vardhi played by Boman Irani. 

From the start, it is evident that director Mikhil Musale is aiming at being a thriller with a message and a certain whimsy. He gets his look and feel right with the aid of some atmospheric production design, cinematographer Anuj Rakesh Dhawan’s moody, low-lit frames, boisterous songs and a particularly memorable, ominous zithery background sound that brings to mind buzzing insects. 

There are places at which the narrative gets funny too. Very very funny. A scene in which Dr Vardhi gives a sex talk to a conference of adults who were expecting something else is an absolute hoot without once resorting to icky or immature double entendre. But considering that Rao and Irani are in fine fettle here, Made In China surprisingly feels at all times like a film that is about to lift off but never quite takes flight. 

A large part of this is due to the tonal and logical inconsistency in the narrative. There is, for instance, no explanation for Raghu’s cheery attitude during his interrogation by the investigating authorities, an off-kilter element that particularly impacts Made In China because it is a running thread throughout the film. 

There is no explanation either for why Raghu hides his latest business from his wife with whom we are led to believe he has a close and non-traditional relationship. As evidence of this, they have been shown swilling alcohol together, sharing a cigarette (both points are very high on Bollywood’s list of Things Liberal Women Do) and discussing her orgasms. She also supports him unflinchingly in the face of his family’s contempt for his many failures. Yet somehow he is too ashamed to tell her that he is producing and peddling an aphrodisiac, and her reaction when she learns the truth ends up justifying his fears. If this is meant to be a comment on the superficiality of contemporary liberalism, it is not convincing. 

Made In China also drags in long stretches. When Rao and Irani are not together on screen, the storytelling lacks spark, which is disappointing considering that the supporting cast is full of actors with proven talent. Even an overly-made-up, forever-dressed-to-the-nines Mouni Roy as Raghu’s wife Rukmani brings a certain panache to her performance, but how convincing can an actor be when her lavish wardrobe and perfect face distract so completely from her claims of financial struggles? 

At one point, Raghu gathers this wisdom from a character played by Paresh Rawal who ends up being his business guru: “The customer is a ch*****,” says the man. The epithet is muted but since it is heard as often as prepositions and conjunctions on the streets of north India, it is understood that viewers know the word he repeatedly mouths and Raghu dutifully echoes – that’s part of the joke, of course. It is tempting to play on their vocabulary and accuse Musale of making a ch***** of his audience, but that would be off the mark because there is an interesting concept somewhere in this film that has been lost in execution. 

Made In China fails to hit the bull’s eye because it sorely needed an evening out of pace and tone, depth of characterisation and detailing in the plotline. The best thing about it are Rao and Irani who are a pleasure to watch even in this middling affair.

Rating (out of five stars): **

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	130 minutes

A version of this review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/made-in-china-movie-review-rajkummar-rao-conjures-up-a-certain-whimsy-but-in-a-half-done-film-7553431.html

Photograph courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_In_China_(2019_film)

REVIEW 715: JUDGEMENTALL HAI KYA

Release date:	July 26, 2019
Director:	Prakash Kovelmudi
Cast: Language:	Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Amyra Dastur, Amrita Puri, Hussain Dalal, Satish Kaushik, Brijendra Kala, Jimmy Sheirgill Hindi

What if roles were reversed and instead of Raavan pursuing Sita in the Ramayan, she were to sense his intentions in advance and go after him? The question is at the core of director Prakash Kovelmudi’s Judgementall Hai Kya which places a story of domestic abuse, the effect of violence on a child’s psyche and mental illness against the backdrop of one of India’s favourite epics. 

It is an intriguing concept, and for that, here is a hat tip to Kanika Dhillon who is credited with the story, screenplay and dialogues. Comedy is a dominant element in her writing of this film, but it never crosses the Lakshman Rekha to mock those with mental health issues – Kangana Ranaut’s Bobby Batliwala Grewal is designed to evoke laughter, but never pity or contempt. Hat tip, again. Dhillon’s words are comfortably ensconced beside Kovelmudi’s trippy storytelling, and delightfully unfettered performances by Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao that make the first half at least a compelling watch.

Artistry and good intentions abound here, and when the final scenes roll around, it becomes clear that the goal of the film is to question prevailing notions of what constitutes “normal” and “abnormal”. Unfortunately, the writer’s concern is not backed by solid research, and despite everything it has going for it, Judgementall Hai Kya ends up adding to rather than reducing prevailing confusions, misconceptions and stereotypes about mental health in India. This also causes the writing to get murky and somewhat muddled in a second half that calls upon the viewer to join the dots by tossing around medical terms like “acute psychosis” and “dissociative identity disorder”.

When she was a little girl, Bobby witnessed her father repeatedly bashing up her mother. The trauma of a childhood tragedy has left deep scars that follow her into her adulthood. She is a woman with many voices in her head.

Twenty years after we met the child Bobby, the grown-up Bobby (Ranaut) is living alone, works as a dubbing artist in films, and is kinda sorta dating a guy called Varun (Hussain Dalal) when she meets Keshav (Rajkummar Rao) and Reema (Amyra Dastur). She is drawn to Keshav but simultaneously suspicious of his attitude towards his wife, and from there begins Sita’s pursuit of Raavan.

The performances all round are phenomenal, well matched to the film’s intentionally hyperbolic tone. Kovelmudi also succeeds in sustaining the air of intrigue he builds around Bobby and Keshav. It does not quite add up in the second half though, which is when matters get slightly simplistic and the screenplay does not quite tie up all its loose ends.

I spent an hour and a half after last night’s preview interviewing a clinical psychologist because Judgementall Hai Kya traps us in a web spun out of our own ignorance about “acute psychosis” and “dissociative identity disorder” (DID). First, I learnt that “acute psychosis” is used incorrectly here. Second, DID is chucked in as a red herring – who exactly has it is left to us to conclude. There are two possibilities. At the point at which DID is first mentioned, the film is clearly trying to steer us in the direction of one particular character, but it turns out that that person does not display any symptoms of DID as I now understand it from an expert. How on earth is a layperson in the audience to know that though? Are we expected to interview medical professionals after watching the film, or to have prior, in-depth knowledge of such matters? If not, then should we conclude that mental health is a mere gimmick for this team? Later, the film steers us towards another character, but in retrospect I realise that it would not have made an inch of a difference to the plot whether that person had DID or not, whether that person was mentally unwell or not – everything that happened in the story could have happened either way. A criminal does not have to be given the excuse of a mental disorder to explain away their crimes – sometimes people do evil because evil is what they are.

In fact, the constant association of crime with the mentally ill in mass entertainment, not just in India but in other countries too, contributes to the stigma and ignorance surrounding mental illness. The world is full of regular folk like you and me grappling with mental health concerns, but such people are rarely portrayed in cinema and on TV. As it happens, Indian entertainers are among the worst offendors in this arena. Judgementall Hai Kya seems to mean well, but its limited understanding of mental health does not help matters.

It is challenging to say what needs to be said here without giving away spoilers, which is why those last two paragraphs will perhaps be understood only by those who have watched Judgementall Hai Kya. If you have already seen the film, think about these issues. Ask yourself too if the post-interval portion would have been possible at all if it weren’t for those two purportedly conscientious policemen involved in a murder investigation in the first half being uncharacteristically casual towards a massive clue that placed the spotlight on one of the protagonists and would have led them to the truth if they had cared enough to probe further. If you have not yet seen the film, then know that Judgementall Hai Kya is based on an interesting concept, it is often funny and fascinating, but in the ultimate analysis, it does not make the grade.

Rating (out of five stars): **1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	121 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/judgementall-hai-kya-movie-review-kangana-rajkummars-unfettered-performances-suffer-a-confusing-plot-and-poor-research-on-mental-health-7059841.html

Visuals courtesy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgementall_Hai_Kya

REVIEW 459: KUNG FU YOGA

Release date:	February 3, 2017
Director:	Stanley Tong
Cast: Language:	Jackie Chan, Sonu Sood, Disha Patani, Aarif Rahman, Amyra Dastur English (also dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu)

Martial arts superstar Jackie Chan and India’s very own Sonu Sood headline a film about a lost treasure of the ancient Magadh empire. Chan plays Jack, an archaeologist and kung fu expert in China who teams up with a young Indian professor (Disha Patani) and her assistant (Amyra Dastur) to locate the missing hoard in Kung Fu Yoga (KFY). Their quest is interrupted by the mercenary Randall (Sood), a descendant of the original owners of the treasure.

It takes immense talent to pull off this kind of action adventure where you want to stir myth, martial arts, humour and pop philosophy into the mix without looking stupid. Director-writer Stanley Tong – who has had great success with Chan in two Policy Story films and Rumble in the Bronx (1995) – does not manage to even lift KFY off the ground.

To be fair I must point out that I watched the Hindi version of this English film, and the dubbing was just passable. While this may have partly affected the viewing experience, the messy storyline, ludicrous clichés and middling action can hardly be blamed on sub-par dubbing.

Why is it called Kung Fu Yoga? Not because there is lots of kung fu and lots of yoga in the film. No ma’am! KFY has plenty of kung fu but almost no yoga, which suggests that the name was chosen because in the filmmaker’s view, kung fu epitomises China and yoga epitomises India. Maybe he can christen his next one Panda Maharaja or Curry Noodle to indicate once again that it brings together Indian and Chinese characters? The lazy titling is irritating.

If Hollywood had stereotyped Asians in this fashion in 2017, critics would have – justifiably – told them off. What do you say to one of your own though (Tong is from Hong Kong) doing much worse than any high-profile Hollywood director has done in years?

The level of stereotyping in Kung Fu Yoga is bizarre. Since Randall is Indian, he just happens to have lions wandering around his home. Jack just happens to find a lion in an SUV he steals from in front of a modern hotel in Dubai. The introduction to the Dubai visit must of course be through a prince showing his foreign guests a camel race. (For the record, the poor beasts foaming at the mouth in that scene are a disturbing sight) A regular Indian bazaar – not a tourist resort, but a regular market – just happens to be filled with snake charmers, a rope-trick performer, a levitating mystic, fire eaters and sword eaters, which makes you wonder if this is the kind of exotica Tong actually expects to find on Janpath or in Sarojini Nagar. All this is apparently routine stuff for Asians, in the filmmaker’s book.

It is not easy to write and direct rubbish, and get an intelligent audience to laugh. As someone who refuses to brush aside David Dhawan and Rohit Shetty’s work, I can vouch for the fact Kung Fu Yoga is a pile of nothing.

It is a measure of Chan’s innate charm that he comes across as his usual warm likeable self despite being surrounded by zero content. His kung fu moves though, needed better choreography than this film offers. They are sadly unimpressive.

As for Sood, the Hindi film audience knows that he’s equally good at handling gravitas and nonsense since we have seen him in films ranging from Jodhaa Akbar to Dabangg. Try as he might though, he fails to look convinced in this silly action adventure.

Patani (who drew attention in her debut Hindi film, M.S.Dhoni: The Untold Story, last year) and Dastur are wasted on the sidelines, though we do get a glimpse of their ability to throw punches well on screen. Maybe Indian cinema should seek them out for better quality action films.

Apart from the couple of laughs Chan manages to elicit and a somewhat interesting episode in which the younger cast try to escape a pack of hungry hyenas in Randall’s abode, there is truly nothing to recommend Kung Fu Yoga.

This is the kind of film that sometimes gets funny simply because it is so poorly thought out. The mashed-up cherry on top of the half-baked cake is Tong’s shot at doing a Bollywood-style song and dance number right at the end of the film. He is clearly not in tune with the changes in Hindi cinema, or he would have known that our better directors these days – unlike in the 1990 to 2005 period – try to ease their film into the song, if they choose to end with one. No such effort here. The characters are talking and fighting before a statue of Lord Shiva that Jack is trying to save from Randall, and then… boom! … they all start dancing.

If you want to see a foreign production doing an excellent job of adapting Hindi cinema’s fondness for concluding a film with a group song and dance, watch the thoroughly enjoyable finale of Tarsem Singh’s Julia Roberts-starrer Mirror Mirror. That film’s smoothly executed climax was an intelligent homage to a tradition from another industry. Kung Fu Yoga’s effort at a bow to Bollywood is diluted by the trite notion of India that precedes it, in addition to the unmemorable tune and unimaginative moves. It does not help that Sood is terribly awkward in that number.

Still, the closing is not a complete washout. It is energetic, the cinematography is lavish, Patani is easy on the eye, and Chan truly seems to be having fun. For viewers who are nostalgic about him (I am one of them), perhaps that is something to hold on to in this otherwise clumsy, dated, impactless film.

Now excuse me while I go off to do some yoga in the company of my pet tiger, while my pet cobra watches over me in my palace courtyard. Nummusste!

Rating (out of five stars): 0.5

CBFC Rating (India):	U/A
Running time:	103 minutes

A version of this review has been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/bollywood/kung-fu-yoga-movie-review-jackie-chan-sonu-sood-are-squandered-in-this-dated-tosh-3264128.html

Photograph courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_Yoga