Review of Bhonsle . . .

Review of Bhonsle . . .

I think two years ago i watched one dark and very disturbing film named Ajji which was directed by Devashish Makhija. It was amazing and unusual. Loved it. I became fan of his direction with that film. He made another dark and unusual story based film Bhonsle with one of my most favorite actor and most versatile actor Mr. Manoj Bajpayee. He won best actor award in film festival last year and now finally they released film for Indian audiences on OTT platform SonyLiv.

Story of retired constable Bhonsle a lead role played by Manoj Bajpayee set in Mumbai. We have seen many films of cops which are Mumbai based but this isn't a cop or crime kinda regular film. It's core subject is how migrants live and being treated in Mumbai city. The battle between Marathis and any other migrants (here specifically Biharis) who migrated in Mumbai and living in chawl.

In the beginning of the film we see one retired constable living alone in his house at chawl of Mumbai. Making meal for himself, washing clothes also doing all the work at home what a single person does when he has no family. Film is in slow pace so we have to keep patience to get involved with each detailing. In first half there are rarely dialogues or i can say less use of dialogues in screenplay. To be engaged with the screenplay there are two major reasons one is camera work and another is performance of lead.

From beginning to climax each and every shot was taken so masterfully. I was so amazed to see this level of top notch cinematography. I'm lying down and touching feet of Mr.Jigmet Wangchuk for excellent work as cinematographer. He also did cinematography in Devashish Makhija's Ajji film. That film too had superb camera work and with this one once again he proved his excellency.

For this kind of slow pace films what works is screenplay and what makes screenplay more live and pleasurable is shots taken. Here direction of photography works as an additional screenplay. Several brilliant takes i would like write down are Manoj Bajpayee's house scenes, Chawl scenes, Ganpathi Statue scenes, Tea, Pav, Lights, Cabs, Crowd specially when Bhonsle Kaka is in the crowd and slowly his character getting mixed up with the crowd and focus going away from him is the best shot taken and lastly most challenging scene would be climax for them I'm not going to reveal more about climax but yes there too camera work is superb.

Director Devashish Makhija did another splendid job. After Ajji which was dark and disturbing this one too is hard hitting for sure. Some scenes are breathtakingly awesome. Somewhere such inhuman activities by human they showed and made me so upset with the society. It's kind a contradiction to that so called United Nation. We have been witnessing since years that people in India still discriminate each other on the basis caste, region and most shameful thing is on the basis of religion too. Here it's regional battle between Marathis and Biharis.

Screenplay is very engaging but it's not everyone's cup of tea who expect some entertaining stuff. It's for those who prefer off beat cinema.

Those who aspire to become an actor, director, writer, cinematographer this is best gift for them. Devashish Makhija gives the best cinematic experience of this year. It was made and showed at films festivals in 2018 but they worldwide released in 2020.

Some fantastic performances such as Santosh Juvekar, Abhishek Banerjee, Virat Vaibhav and i loved the most is character of Sita played by Ipshita Chakraborty Singh who stole the show with her charming role and lovely brave performance.

Lastly I'm writing about the man this film belongs to yes he's none other than Mr. Manoj Bajpayee Sir. One of the finest actor of Indian cinema and specially I'm so so so lucky that he's in our generation so in future we can say our next generation that we belong to those era when we were watching immensely talented actors like Manoj Sir.

Mumbai ka King Bhikhu Mhatre to Shool ke honest cop, From Veer-Zara ke villain to Aligarh ke Gay Professor to Dacoit of Sonchiriya and recently won hearts as Family Man and so many many many unforgettable roles played by this versatile actor. To be honest i don't think anyone else could have played this role this much naturally. Perfect choice for Ganpath Bhonsle Kaka. He made me so emotional in some scenes where he's ill and there is no one besides him to take care of him. Here i broke so much while watching it. In juts 2 hours duration i lost myself in the world of Bhonsle Kaka. I felt like I wish i was there in the Chawl to help him and stand by him. Very emotionally written and played role. His facials expressions, he's coughing while delivering dialogues is mind blowing act.

Overall i enjoyed this film which left me to think more about it's core subject. 

Emotionally finest piece of cinema.

For awesome cinematography and versatile lead performance I think i should go with the ratings

4/5.

--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . . 

Review of Gulabo Sitabo . . .

Review of Gulabo Sitabo . . .

One of the finest director of nowadays Shooji Sircar who delivered some remarkable hits like Vikcy Donor, Madras Cafe, Piku & October i loved most of his work previously and was very excited for Gulabo Sitabo.
Unfortunately due to this pandemic of COVID-19 theatres are closed temporarily and film makers aren't able to release films. Gulabo Sitabo couldn't released in theatres that's why makers decided to directly stream it on OTT platform. It's new revolution of cinema that films are directly releasing on such platforms which can be subscribed by audiences and can watch films anytime anywhere from their cellphones or laptops.
In India there are several OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar, Zee5 Premium etc and some more which are having good numbers of subscription.
Film makers can directly sell their films to them to broadcast on their channel and this is how films are reaching directly to the audiences.
From my point of view this is not the fair deal to release films on OTT directly without theatrical release. I agree that right now cinema halls aren't running but I'm talking about post pandemic scenario. I understand that not all film makers can hold the ready film and can wait for theatres to reopen therefore they have to face such financial problems so they released on OTT that's ok thing for small budget films but later no such big films should be directly released on OTT platform. First all big films must release in the theatres then only they should broadcast.
Because this revolution can harm theatre/cinema hall culture very badly and also that's sad truth that single screen cinemas are facing so much problems nowadays because of distribution channel issues or less mass films arriving.
After all Indian cinema is all about watching a film on 70mm screen size with your family and friends. Clapping and whistling is our culture. Going out for a film and dining out with family or friends is our culture and it must be retained forever in India.
OTT should be limited to web series and only for those films which aren't getting theatrical release. & I would like to mention that it's my thought some people might oppose it but to be clear it's my personal view.
Now talking about Gulabo Sitabo, Shooji Sircar is back with his simple yet sweet story telling.
A unique story of landlord and tenant set in Lucknow. Fatma Mahal one heritage house located in Lucknow which is owned by Begum (Farrukh Jaffar) a wife of Mirza (Amitabh Bachchan) and their tenant Bankey (Ayushmann Khurrana) and his family and some other families too staying in that "Haveli" since longer time and as per such Indian judiciary acts no landlord can ask them to leave the house or increase the rent. Simple yet unique story I don't remember any full film on this subject have ever came in Bollywood earlier.
This is not everyone's cup of tea if it was released in theatres then it wouldn't have done much business because it's not appealing to all. Definitely Big B fans would have loved it but still to run in the theatres a film need to have much engagement than this.
Juhi Chaturvedi who also wrote earlier for Shoojit Sircar has penned down the screenplay and dialogues of Gulabo Sitabo and it's lovely job. Humourous dialogues specially comic timing is very nice. Screenplay is slow pace but i liked it. It could have been little more engaging but yet satisfactory for me. Shooji-Juhi pair as Director-Writer is priceless. This time shined too but not much like previously.
Once Shoojit Sircar made Vicky Donor was unique subject later he directed Madras Cafe which is one of the best thriller of recent times with informative details. Piku is another different and unique subject based film and October too showed finest acting side of Varun Dhawan with lovely emotional screenplay.
When heard about Gulabo Sitabo only lead cast and director's name was enough for me to look forward for it. When trailer came I didn't like it much but still i trusted Shoojit Sircar that film is definitely going to be worth watch and yes it's definitely a good one watch and happy to see films are releasing during this pandemic. Last week Anurag Kashyap released his Choked on Netflix, also Chintu Ka Birthday released which was another sweet film and happy to see this one too after such long time. Yes for a filmy buff like me 2.5 months is really big time when no new releases.
In film beautiful city of Nawabs Lucknow captured marvelously by cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay. It's a historical city of our nation and capturing real beauty is challenging task for DOP but he did it superbly. The streets, Haveli, Doors, Windows, Government Offices each rawness on the screen makes it much artistic.
One track fits in the screenplay but still music could have been better.
Shoojit Sircar's direction is very engaging going with the flow and according to story more he invested on characters rather than masalas like actions or songs or melodrama.
It's satire set in present time but not like other web series or films of nowadays forcefully trying to put political references or dialogues that's i liked about it. From the beginning to end it's more focused on characters and every character of the film is selfish and having too much greed. So in simple words i can say that Gulabo Sitabo is about human greed.
I think the film has several reasons to keep you hooked on your bed (yes can't write on your seat here because in home no one is watching film by sitting straight like theatre everyone prefer lying on bed).
Besides excellent cinematography, direction and writing there's something above everything is performance of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. He's been in the industry from more than 50 years and at this age too he came up with a role like this is proof of his versatility. To be honest there was a time when he had to play roles like Police Inspector or Criminal that speaking dialogues which were appealing to mass audiences but in this inning of his career he preferred to play characters in films like Paa, Piku, Gulabo Sitabo etc where he's done challenging role play.
Here too as Mirza Nawab he shines and makes us so proud that we have hard working actor at this age in our film industry. Here his dialogue delivery in Lucknow accent is mind blowing, his walking style, his behavior as greedy person etc make his role so powerful and treat for us to watch.
Amit Ji has done once again extraordinary performance.
Ayushmann Khurrana is quite good and to he honest I didn't like his previous work like Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan kinda roles where he was doing over acting and here too his dialogue delivery is similar to those roles but still quite better than previous. He lends good support in the flow of story as tenant and his character too is greedy as he always tricks to avoid rent payment.
Besides leads there are some fantastic supporting characters too which are masterfully written by Juhi Chaturvedi.
One of the sisters of Ayushmann Khurrana is played by Srishti Srivastava as Guddo is terrific performance. Her dialogue delivery and acting both top notch. Would love to see her doing more work in future. Fresh performance and lends solid support to her scenes.
Farrukh Jafar as Begum is the most entertaining role here. She steals the show undoubtedly. Happy to watch her doing this role so perfectly.
Vijay Raaz is archeologist who's eyes are on the Haveli and he's also greedy & delivering another solid performance. We all love his comic timing.
Another character Christopher a lawyer played by very talented actor Brijendra Kala is one more powerful performance.
On the whole it has excellent performances, sharp dialogues writing, marvellous cinematography and direction and that's going with the flow of screenplay.
One needs to have patience to enjoying it. Somewhere it's bit slow pace but still for me it worked.
For unique story and top notch performance by Amit Ji I think it's good watch for cinephile people.
My Ratings
3.6/5.
--- by Harsh Desai Filmy . . .