Saturday, October 31, 2015

MAMI 2015: Day 1

Here it is again! My favourite week of the year. Mumbai Film Festival time. I did not blog about the films I saw last year and I felt I was missing out on an integral aspect of watching an orgy of films in a given week of the year. The years before that, I meticulously recorded my thoughts about the films I saw and it was therapeutic. So let's give it a shot this year as well shall we?

Taxi



Two years ago at this very festival Jafar Panahi's 'Closed Curtains' impressed me immensely and introduced me to his quintessential technique of blurring the real with the fictional. Just like that movie Jafar Panahi is a character in this film as well. I can almost classify this film as "super-meta" but really it is much more than that. It's an ode to cinema and cinema lovers. One particular character steals the show when she (deliberately?) breaks the fourth wall and addresses the film goer him/herself. Yet this moment does not seem out of place but seems to effortlessly belong in the film. We're seeing events unfold from the point of view of a dashboard camera recording a day in the life of Panahi, who is play acting as a cab driver. It's also a rebellious film. On the one hand we're seeing the fabulous streets and infrastructure of Tehran while on the other hand through the conversations we learn the struggles and constraints of Irani society and especially the hassles faced by artists. Then there's that bit about Panahi's niece shooting a short film within the film. Like I said, super-meta. There's never a dull moment in Taxi. A ride well worth taking. This one exceeded my expectations.


He Named Me Malala




I went in expecting this to be your average TV documentary fare. To its credit this film is far superior than that. It is aesthetically shot with extremely well done animated sequences recounting Malala and her father's days in Swat Valley while he was establishing a school. Then there are some intimate family sequences of Malala with her brothers which serve well as comic relief and have an air of warmth and togetherness to them. Despite this a sense of repetitiveness seeps in after a while. For me the most interesting bits were the ones that told us about Malala and her father's efforts to spread awareness and education and challenging the Taliban before Malala was shot. But since all of that happened before the world's attention turned to Malala there's very limited footage of it and only a brief section of the movie deals with it. Nevertheless the true revelation of this documentary is how the filmmaker exposes Malala's father's role in her life. He truly comes across as the fearless hero responsible for the global success that Malala has turned out to be. At times there's also a self-congratulatory tone but the makers do a good job of not over doing it. It's a very well made film and I'd recommend it. Since Malala's still a teenager, if she continues on the trail of relief work and spreading education that she's on then we might see a more comprehensive documentary in say the next decade or so. 

Kothanodi




I can't give definitive thoughts about this film because I walked in 20 minutes late and left about 10 minutes before it ended. It'd be incorrect to classify this film as "horror" though. It's more in the supernatural space revolving around black magic and superstitious beliefs. The defining factor of this film according to me was the background score and sound design. It's an odd comparison given this is an Assamese film but watching these stories unfold made me feel very much like reading one of Blaft's Tamil Pulp Fiction anthologies, Despite the obnoxious premises, at no point does the film seem stupid or to be biting off more than it can chew and that is to its credit.

Aligarh



Aligarh has its moments, and a very earnest performance by Manoj Bajpai. Despite this I found it to be terribly average. It tries to be a lot of things and ends up being neither one. It takes too long to take off. Scenes between Bajpai and Rajkumar Rao have some spark but they're few and far in between. Especially the middle section dealing with court proceedings buries the story down among all that legalese. At one point it seems the film is going to be about politicization of the AU but even that idea is abandoned. Then at times the film seems to be pursuing the pathway of a procedural, but even there no clear picture comes out, The topic of the film is essential no doubt and it's a story that needs to be told but I only wish it was done with better characterization, vigour and vibrant story telling techniques.