Madgaon Express review

Goa is by far the most glamourous destination in Bollywood, its beaches replacing any other seen on the celluloid. Add to that the Goan music, the techno beats and visuals of beach shacks and Indian actors in beachwear, Goa seems more attainable than the beaches one sees in US or South East Asian movies. The visuals of drugs, hippies in dreadlocks and Russian mobsters gives it some edge too; Goa is not just  beach paradise, theres some danger too, it says. So to present a Goa that turns most of these tropes on their heads, or at least sideways would seem like a bold move.

Madgaon Express, directed by Kunal Khemu, takes the Goa that viewers often see on the big screen and turns over its head. Sure there are the beaches and shacks and cocaine and Russian/firangi folks, but there is also homegrown mafia, narrow bylanes, three-star lodges, unreserved train coaches.

By no stretch is Madgaon Express a perfect film. On the contrary, it suffers from pacing issues, disjointed narrative, and minimal to zero chemistry between the main characters. The movie starts with the chawls of Mumbai and then proceeds to wander in the by-lanes of Goa. The Goa seen in this movie is not the glamourous place we have become accustomed to.

Starting at the beginning, the storyline of Madgaon Express seems disjointed, with may concurrent storylines, each with their own potentials. Kunal Khemu set out to make a caper buddy film, and he nearly succeeds; I say nearly because he falters in a key film-making aspect - actors. Kunal Khemu did go for fine actors, but there is little to none interplay between them. Each seems to have prepared their roles in solitude and not bothered to do together. As a result we get each actor doing their part but their energy levels rarely match. Divyendu as Dodo, Pratik Gandhi as Pinku, Avinash as Ayush playing childhood friend don't get that well to be convincing as chaddi buddies . Amaong the supporting characters, Upendra Limaye as Mendonza bhai, Chhaya Kadam as Komal Komdi as the antagonists don't come across as menacing or funny..

As I said earlier, Kunal Khemu eschews the regular celluloid haunts for less glamourous location, not just for Goa but also for Mumbai. This gives this film a more grungier, grounded look. Even the Goa beaches look desolate and polluted. In place of glitzy hotels, we have a three-star lodge with window ac. The part about the actors talking of the beauty of the Konkan region, only for the viewers to discover that the train travels at night is both funny and relatable at the same time!

On the plus side, Kunal Khemu's love for Goa shines on the screen. He has been visiting Goa on and off, and knows its nooks and crannies. There is little to no glamour in the Goa that we see, but a lot reality vibes, which is possible if one has been visiting a place for a long time.

Kunal Khemu makes a few appearances and each of his appearances are a delight.

To surmise, Madgaon Express, though not a well crafted movie, still has  some charma. It is well suited for an afternoon watch with friends.

Sultan of Delhi, a book review

I finally got around to reading Arnab Ray's Sultan of Delhi, and found it more entertaining than the other books of his that I have read. The reason for the same is simply the accessibility of the material. While The Mine is a horror novel which aimed at suffocating its readers and Mahabharat Murders is a thriller that is heavily inspired from an epic, Sultan of Delhi is more relatable on account of it having a lot of Bollywood references. The book is a testament of the author's maturing as a storyteller.

The book is ambitious in its scope, starting off with the Partition and stopping at the economic liberalization of 1990, with a detour through the Emergency. These events, in addition to being historically important, serve as important placeholders in the story as it is during these times that the titular Sultan of Delhi Arjun Bhatia faces his own nadirs. The Partition is when a 10 tear old Arjun is forced to grow up in a night. During the Emergency he is down on his luck and borrowing money, but after Emergency his rises up from ashes. The 90s Liberalization is when he is looking forward to growing further, but is also aware that a storm is coming his way.

While these three events are the poles on which the storyline hangs comfortably, the role of Bollywood to take the narrative forward is a good choice. Arjun himself is not too much into movies, but people around him are, and the changing tastes in music serve as an aid in moving the story forward. From the debate between Rafi and Kishore in the beginning to the talk about remixes at the end, Bollywood songs serve as a creative way to note the passage of time.

The character of Arjun is sketchy, leaving the reader to imagine him accordingly. Bangali is even sketchier. As far as character sketches go, all of them are defined loosely. This serves the story well, as the reader can visualize each character as they wish.

Arnab has set his ambitions high with Sultan of Delhi, but the book shows some inconsistency. Descriptions of the Partition, Lahore, Delhi and UP are bare bones. But he excels when writing about Kolkatta. In fact, the Kolkata parts seem to be written the most earnestly, moving as they do at a leisurely pace. The hurried pace of the non-Kolkata parts make for the novel to be a frenetic read, but they could do with some more descriptions of the place.

I must give kudos to Arnab to talk about caste in one of the novel's pivotal moments, and not in a perfunctory manner. The mention of caste underlines the lawlessness of UP, ostensibly in the 60s or 70s, but seems timeless. It also serves to show the cleverness of Arjun, how he navigates the north Indian mafia. Not just in one point, it is the caste, though not said explicitly, that earns Arjun a place in the smuggling gang. I have not read many Indian pulp authors, but from what little I have, this mention of caste is used cleverly by Arnab. Caste is mentioned openly in the 60s and 70s, but after the Liberalization, it is only spoken in a coded manner, showing how things still haven't changed, even though the language has.

To sum up, Sultan of Delhi has a lot of ambition in its scope but is let down by the hurried pace it takes to achieve it. The story telling is fast paced but does become inconsistent at time while some passage pull the reader in with their words. Arnab has said that he will probably not do the sequel to the novel as he had intended, which seems fine as the story ends at a place where things still hang in a thread but the story still seems to have reached a nice conclusion. Arjun is till the Sultan of Delhi, having fought adversities that destroyed his family in childhood, saw him at his nadir and then rise again to a position where he has the pulse of all that happens in Delhi. The reader closes the book that Arjun is still the Sultan, which may be construed as a happy ending.

The book is not a page turner, but keep at it and the reader will be pleased when it ends.

Some Thought on Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya...

 Bollywood doesn't have a good sci-fi tradition. In fact, all the memorable and successful sci-fi movies that have come out of Bollywood can be counted on ones finger. Off the top of my head there's Mr X in Bombay (invisibility formula), Mr India (invisibility device), Kkrish (superhero and alien technology) and maybe more. Rajnikant's Robot was not actually Bollywood so it doesn't count.

So, after a long time when a new sci-fi movie from Bollywood was set to hit the screens, I was intrigued. The premise also seemed topical, as it looked like it dealt with robotics and artificial intelligence.

The paucity of sci-fi as a genre in Bollywood has meant that there are no tropes to fall back on. The genre is ripe for setting tropes which future Bollywood movies can follow. Mr India did it brilliantly by explaining away the science behind it in a few dialogues by Ashok Kumar and later setting up what could be done by such a premise in the ensuing hijinks. Kkrish too set up the template for Indian superheroes. While Shenshah had done it earlier, the movies managed to update it. Which brings me to the move in question: Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya (TBMAUJ).

Going into the movie, I was aware what to expect, what with the trailers not bothering to build any expectations. The movies is based on a flimsy premise and an even flimsier story.

Shahid Kapoor as the brilliant robotics engineer with no time for love seem to be chanelling his Kabir Singh persona to portray an unconventional and free male. His family consisting of many forgettable characters (including, surprisingly, Dharamendra!) want him to get married, but Shahid just wants to be free and do whatever he is doing, which is not much.

Kriti Sanon as Sifra the robot is required to be expressionless, which she does admirably. Her Sifra is emotionless but that does not mean she is inept. But she is let down be ho her character is written. The super-intelligent robot that can master everything fast can is a simpleton most of the times, not able to grasp the nuances of language. 

Since sci-fi does not have established tropes in Bollywood, TBMAUJ chooses not to establish  new ones itself. Instead it chooses to walk the path of 90s comedies movies and family dramas. Watching all the hijinks on screen I had a feeling of deja vu as most jokes seemed to be a variation of earlier jokes. That and the supporting characters having been 90s and early 2000 staples nearly convinced me that I was watching an old film instead of a new release. In fact, the movie's title track was also an indi-pop hit in early 90s!

The premise of a human, that too the brightest robotics engineer, falling for a robot is fantastic as it is. But the movie does not explore this premise. Instead it moves on to an even more fantastic premise, where the bright robotics engineer attempts to con the extended family into marrying the robot, the family being none the wiser. I can say with confidence that a person that is fooled into falling for a robot is not bright, whether a robotics engineer or not. Period.

All in all, TBMAUJ tries to entertain by basing itself on an unbelievable premise. But the film's reliance on 90s and early 2000s entertainment tropes makes it seem like a nostalgic trip instead.