MAMI: Days and nights
Audiences at Chandan Cinema in Juhu didn’t give a warm welcome to actor Imran Khan, who was rather unfairly blamed for the 15-minute delay in the screening of Two Days, One Night. Vocal in their calls for the film to start, one member seated in the balcony bluntly asked Khan, “What made you choose the film?” [sic] to introduce.
Khan was honest and said that he was asked to come and present and is just doing his job. With the audience uninterested in hearing him speak and further delaying the film’s start, Khan decided to join the junta and chanted, “Start the film, Start the film”, which nobody really took up. It was a desperate move from an actor who is struggling to keep up with his peers and has only a film in hand, Nikhil Advani’s next with Kangana Ranaut. He didn’t stay back and watch the film.
Varun Dhawan’s time at MAMI it appears was better. While we decided to skip Dhawan’s introduction of Boyhood at Cinemax Versova, going by the way he was mobbed by fans, mostly female, after he walked out of the hall, it seems Dhawan was happy to soak in all the attention. Getting the stars on board to present a film may get eyeballs but for the rather discerning festival audience it is seen as an attention-seeking stunt and odd when compared to the actor’s work. For your information, Dhawan didn’t sit and see Richard Linklater’s best film to-date.
The much-anticipated Two Days, One Night, starring Marion Cotillard and directed by the two-time Palme d’Or winners, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne aka The Dardenne Brothers (Rosetta, The Child), was a film which didn’t live up to the lofty standards. A good and not necessarily great drama is one way to summarise it.
While Cotillard is in command as a depressed, pill-popping mother of two who has to convince her co-workers (15 of them), to let her keep her job and in process say goodbye to a bonus of 1,000 euros, the film feels too laboured. As Cotillard’s Sandra goes about knocking on her colleagues’ doors requesting they vote for her to stay, the audience starts calculating on who’s for and against her. Will it be achche din or bure din after the vote for Sandra and her family?
Across two days, one night in Sandra’s life, we learn how only a few letters separate greed and need. The Dardenne Brothers successfully manage to show the different human reactions to her predicament. Through the face-to-face meetings and occasional audio conversations we make out desperation, embarrassment, pity, anger, happiness, regret, straightforwardness and indifference. Almost all the meetings are concise with a couple leading to a fight and an argument respectively. The Dardenne touch of finding humour in a grave situation is present and integrated seamlessly into the movie. With unkempt hair, sans make up and looking frail, Cotillard fits the part as a glove, demonstrating the emotional vulnerability of her character. One of the highlights of the film is when Sandra has an emotional breakdown and says, “I don’t exist. I’m nothing.” One is not entirely able to be emotionally invested in Sandra’ fate as the film reaches its predictable end.
A film which manages to completely draw the viewers to its characters is Marathi film, Killa. Winner of the Crystal Bear and Grand Prix awards in the Generation Kplus categories at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the film is surely going to draw tourists to the picturesque Guhagar, a village in Ratnagiri district, which has been captured gorgeously on lens by director-cinematographer Avinash Arun. In an assured debut, Arun presents an endearing story which shows the joys and challenges of childhood.
Killa centres on 11-year-old Chinmay (Archit Devadhar), who is gloomy after his move from the big city (Pune) to a small Konkan town. His mother has been transferred here and Chinmay is not too thrilled with the situation. But soon the company of the naughty and lively gang of Bandya (Parth Bhalerao), Yuvraj, Omkar and Umesh slowly uplifts his mood. Writer Tushar Paranjpe nails the idiosyncrasies of growing up in the village such as the boy's fondness for learning new swear words and fascination for pursuits such as a fancy compass box, watch and cycle. Some of the most memorable scenes are when they are out and about freely exploring the stunning surroundings.
It’s a trip to one such sight - the Killa - which spoils the equation between Chinmay and his friends. As Chinmay sulks and whines without his friends, the film temporarily does lose pace.
But Arun and Paranjpe bring it back on track quickly. The heart of Killa is Chinmay, who despite throwing a few tantrums is wise beyond his age. Deodhar’s smile, eyes and walk show Chinmay’s internal struggle. Amruta Subhash is great as the single parent raising Chinmay and silently dealing with her own professional crisis. Bhalerao is a natural, lighting up the screen with his energy and carefree ways. Killa is sweet, visually alluring and primarily a poignant coming of age story which draws plenty of smiles and an odd tear.
A festival put together in a rush – in four weeks to be precise – will have its consequences. On first glimpse, the line-up wasn’t particularly impressive. Day one already resulted in a big disappointment - Siddhant, which is produced by the makers of the acclaimed Shaala and Fandry. Already seeing a low turnout (the show time clashed with Boyhood), the film saw many walkouts as the audience lost patience with the story of a revered mathematics teacher, Appa, (Vikram Gokhale), who is unable to cope with the news that his grandson, Vakratund (Archit Deodhar) unlike him isn’t a genius in the subject. Already given a hard time for being poor with numbers and then blamed for his grandfather’s deteriorating health and destroying the family’s numerical supremacy, the kid attempts suicide. The entry of Madhav is supposed to turn things around in the broken and depressing household but by then we had had enough.
One of the main problems with Siddhant is that Gokhale’s Appa is not likeable, given his tendency to always lecture on the importance of maths. The film’s intentions are earnest but director Vivek Wagh’s approach is lackadaisical. With an exaggerated soundtrack and a poor screenplay heavy on needless melodrama, Siddhant was a tiring watch.