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 602: HIGH JACK

Release date:	May 18, 2018
Director:	Akarsh Khurana
Cast: Language:	Sumeet Vyas, Kumud Mishra, Natasha Rastogi, Taaruk Raina, Sonnalli Seygall, Sarthak Kakar, Mantra Mugdh, Sarang Sathaye, Muzammil Qureshi Hindi

A DJ whose career is in the doldrums agrees to carry a package on a flight without knowing what it is. He is travelling by an airline that is about to shut down, and as it happens, he chooses to fly on a day when the plane is hijacked by a bunch of disgruntled employees. The ensuing chaos spirals further when drugged passengers enter the mix. The title of course is a play on “hijack” and a drug-induced “high”.

An accomplished director of comedy could have turned Adhir Bhat’s story for High Jack into a rib-tickling affair. Sadly for this film and some of its gifted cast members, Akarsh Khurana seems not to be that person. Khurana, who was a co-writer on the screenplays of Krrish and Krrish 3, has written this screenplay too in addition to helming the project. Despite brimming with potentially hilarious situations and boasting of some razor-sharp actors, High Jack crash-lands not long after it takes off.

Sumeet Vyas plays DJ Rakesh / Rockesh who is desperate for money and a career. Vyas was impeccable last year as the joint lead with Kalki Koechlin in director Rakhee Sandilya’s incredibly realistic Ribbon. In High Jack he displays a flair for comedy that will hopefully in future be tapped in a better-directed film. His natural affinity for the camera and spot-on dialogue delivery along with the presence of the always dependable Kumud Mishra and Natasha Rastogi as fellow passengers Mr and Mrs Taneja, are not enough though to salvage this half-cooked enterprise.

The fact is, there are several laugh-out-loud moments in High Jack. The opening scenes on the plane with Rakesh, the intrusive young fellow seated across the aisle and the squabbling Tanejas are rip-roaringly funny. A joke that could have been deemed Islamophobic is turned on its head, and Mr Taneja’s wisecracks about a possibly transsexual flight attendant are repeatedly called out for their prejudice. Yet the film faces turbulence from multiple quarters.

Foremost among them is the indifferent casting and writing of the supporting characters other than these four. They mostly sit around unenthused even by gun-toting men taking over the plane, as if their entire beings are too botoxed to react. Sonnalli Seygall, who played one of the evil girlfriends in Pyaar Ka Punchnama and its sequel, is cast as a pilot of whom zero acting is required. 

A sense of urgency is sorely missing from the atmosphere of that aircraft from the instant that it is hijacked. Scenes involving air traffic control officials and the airline office completely lack energy. But the death knell is rung halfway through the film when the humour starts getting repetitive. Soon the narrative is so haphazard that it appears as though no one knows quite what to do with it.

The slapdash editing – visual and audio – gives High Jack a flaccid feel, with too many shots, scenes and silences in between over-staying their welcome. In the end, the film remains a stringing together of good concepts that are not carried to their fruition. Such as that rap number titled Aapaatkaaleen (Emergency) playing in Rakesh’s drug-addled brain, muddling up lines from standard in-flight announcements by pilots and cabin crew: “Iss vimaan mein chheh aapaatkaaleen dwaar hai / Do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar / Do-do-do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar / Do-do saamne / Do-do wings ke oopar / Do do do / Do do / Do do do / Do do.”

“This aircraft has six emergency exits / Two in front / Two each above the wings / Two-two-two in front / Two each above the wings / Two each in front / Two each above the wings / Two two two / Two two / Two two two / two two.” It is a clever idea, funny and zippy at first, then it gets tedious, and then it unravels too soon. Just like the film.

It is hard to believe that High Jack passed muster with Phantom Films, same producers that have given us the high-quality Lootera, Queen, Masaan, NH10, and Anurag Kashyap’s best directorial works of the decade, Raman Raghav 2.0 and this year’s Mukkabaaz. High Jack? Really guys?

Rating (out of five stars): *

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	102 minutes 27 seconds

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

https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/high-jack-movie-review-sumeet-vyass-comic-timing-is-the-best-thing-about-this-doomed-hijack-drama-4474615.html

Poster courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Jack_(film)

REVIEW 542: RIBBON

Release date:	November 3, 2017
Director:	Rakhee Sandilya
Cast: Language:	Kalki Koechlin, Sumeet Vyas Hindi

                                                                                                                   

Ribbon is not a neatly structured drama with an introduction and a conclusion. It is presented as an in-between. Sahana and Karan were around prior to our acquaintance with them, and no clumsy attempt is made to give us a crunched-down backstory. They existed before we knew them, and they will continue to exist afterwards – that is all the information available to us.

Director Rakhee Sandilya’s Ribbon feels like a home video of around half a decade of their lives: unpolished and achingly real. It has five names in the writing credits – story by Eklavya, screenplay by Rajeev Upadhyay and Sandilya herself, dialogues by Raghav Dutt and Manjiri Pupala – yet its brilliance lies in the fact that it comes across as being barely pre-written, and mostly an improv piece.

Sahana and Karan are 24x7 professionals with a plan that threatens to go awry when she discovers that she is pregnant. Ribbon takes off from this moment in their lives and takes us along with them through the dilemma of whether or not to have that baby, and thereafter.

On the face of it, it is a portrait of an urban marriage in 21^st century India. That though is a literal interpretation. At a deeper level, Sandilya’s film is about what it means to share your life with another human being over a number of years. Sure, Sahana and Karan are heterosexual, married and based in contemporary Mumbai, but they could well have been unmarried, they could have been parents or without children, they could have been homosexual and of any gender, or friends with no romantic interest in each other (or friends with benefits) who have decided to stay in the same house on a long-term basis for whatever reasons and defying social norms, or siblings living together. The beauty of Ribbon is that in any of these specific scenarios, in a city, village or town, the external pulls and pushes would obviously change, but the underlying theme would remain and manifest itself in the internal wranglings in the relationship in question – the silly misunderstandings, the serious disagreements, the ammunition fished out of past experiences during fights, the laughter, the coping, the leaning on each other, the getting along.

At the end of it all, Ribbon reminds us, because such reminders are constantly needed, that there is no such thing as absolute normalcy or calm in any home, and that while many of us may be happy together, none of us has it easy.

(Possible spoilers ahead)

In their first encounter captured on camera, Sahana appears somewhat unfairly aggressive and unreasonable in her anger towards Karan. Later though, as we witness her fears – expressed in that scene – coming true, we see too that Sandilya is not taking sides in Ribbon, she is merely showing us what is and how it is between these two.

For such a film to stay true to itself, it was essential for it not to become fixated on one or two issues – because that is not how reality plays out – and Sandilya does not waver in her intent for a single second. That said, Ribbon does provide us with a bird’s eye view of several social concerns, without meting out superficial treatment to any. Gender discrimination at work, for one – notwithstanding favourable maternity-related laws on paper, anyone who cares to survey women in such situations will tell you that what Sahana comes up against is exactly what goes on in Indian offices. Then there is the stress of dealing with household help, and other blows and hurdles. 

(Spoiler alert ends)

The stars of this enterprise seem to have left Kalki Koechlin and Sumeet Vyas somewhere outside their shoot locations. All we see are Sahana and Karan. Both artistes are so convincing that it becomes hard to believe this is not who they are off screen too. Ribbon is a demanding film, with the camera staying doggedly focused on them, and they do not wilt under the challenge for even an instant. We are offered glimpses of interesting satellite characters, but the gaze never shifts from Koechlin’s Sahana and Vyas’ Karan.

The most significant supporting player is a very young lady who is so well chosen and so incredibly spot on in her performance – if it can be called that – that casting director Neha Singh deserves special kudos, while Sandilya should get an award if nothing else then for directing her.

Crucial to the effectiveness of the cast is the deliberately unrefined camerawork. For the first 8-10 minutes, for instance, we do not get a clear frontal view of Vyas’ face. It is the kind of exasperating thing your cousin might do with a video of a family gathering, and with that the mood of the film is set. Subsequently too, there are no lingering close-ups or other sophisticated shots. The rawness of DoP Vikram Amladi’s frames turns us into unintrusive companions to our protagonists. It is as if we are hanging out with them and they trust us enough to let us stay.

Rakhee Sandilya’s conviction on debut is astonishing. Ribbon could be what Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Bhattacharya, Basu Chatterjee or Sai Paranjpye might have done if they had been asked to turn a reality TV show on Sahana and Karan into a feature film. It reminded me, too, of Krishan Chopra’s 1961 film Char Diwari (co-edited, by the way, by Mukherjee) which, in synopsis, can only be described as: what happens when Lakshmi (Nanda) marries Sunil (Shashi Kapoor).

As I write this review, a quote from Alfred Hitchcock is flashing on TV in an ad: “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” Ribbon contradicts the legend. It tells us that all life is inherently dramatic and what strikes the observer as mundane could well be transformative, traumatic and/or exhilarating for those going through it. Ribbon is a deceptively simple, remarkable film with a risky concept that has paid off. It is without question one of India’s best of 2017 so far.

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

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	106 minutes

Poster courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/RibbonTheFilm/