Border 2 Mein Hai Jurrat!!

Gist: If you grew up watching Border, you’ll like this one for sure!..

Long take: Border 2 carries the same plot structure.. first half builds the individual storylines and the second half is the war and its aftermath..

Diljeet is very nice and solid.. Ahaan has a good presence and voice but his is the only backstory that’s unevenly baked.. Varun Dhawan is a revelation.. all the guys who khilli udaod him for his goofy smile, better buy the ticket as an apology now..

Amongst the women, Mona Singh and Sonam Bajwa are the only ones who register and they make their presence felt.. Mona is gifted, agar woh roye to sabko leke roti hai..

And finally we come to Sunny Deol (introduced as Dharam ji’s son) in the intro title.. what a man! Whattey presence… At 68, he’s still got the looks and the body to carry it all off.. a voice that can send shivers and inspiration down the spines depending on which side of the border you stand.. and eyes that can show anger and softness with equal elan.. Marvellous..

I really missed the support cast of the original Border.. especially Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Puneet Issar.. the support this time is good but only time will tell if they manage to make an impression..

On a side note.. I’m extremely relieved to report that Border 2 is a purely defense and war movie.. It proudly wears its patriotism without confusing it with popular rhetoric.. yes, the Pakistan top brass is shown as broad stroked nincompoops but the film still humanises the soldiers on both sides of the border.. an excellent scene between Diljeet and his mother comes to mind.. very refreshing to see it these days..

Production is decent.. the war on land is shown very well but the air and the sea sequences are marred by tacky VFX.. should have handled it better..

Whoever thought of retaining the brilliant songs from the original, good job!! Sandese aate hain and Toh chalun can at best only be recreated, never bettered.. But the last song — Mitti ke bete by Sonu Nigam is going to wreck you emotionally.. If that song and his voice doesn’t bring a lump to your throat, I really don’t know what will..

Go watch!
Jai Hind!!

Iruvar

Iruvar is a stunning testament to the art of cinema, where the finest in the industry come together not just to tell a story, but to elevate the medium itself. It’s astonishing that it took me 25 years to discover this masterpiece.

Mohanlal and Prakash Raj as Iruvar

To witness Mohanlal in his full-fledged Tamil debut, embodying a beloved actor and revered politician with such nuance and grace, is nothing short of remarkable. Prakash Raj, then a relatively lesser-known talent, assumes the formidable role of ‘Tamil Selvan’ with an intensity that hints at the greatness to come. Aishwarya Rai, captured in her most ethereal form, radiates a beauty that is both timeless and haunting—a vision rarely seen before or after.

The soundtrack by A.R. Rahman is a triumph, lending weight to every emotion while infusing the vintage ‘filmy’ numbers with a sense of nostalgia and purpose.

Mani Ratnam’s direction, paired with Santosh Sivan’s cinematography, is a masterclass in visual storytelling. The use of mirrors, the incredible crowd shots, the deliberate long takes where the camera circles its subjects, while keeping their expressions in sharp focus—each choice serves to deepen our engagement with the narrative.

Suhasini’s dialogues are poetry, balancing the introspective musings of a poet with the powerful oratory of a stage actor, making the words resonate with a wider audience.

While “Iruvar” explores the lives of politicians, it is arguably one of Mani Ratnam’s least overtly political films. It is a must-watch for anyone who grasps the nuances of Dravidian politics, and equally for those who may not, but can still appreciate the craftsmanship of exceptional cinema.

Available on Amazon Prime | In Tamil with subtitles

Laapataa Ladies finds its audience

Laapataa Ladies is beautiful cinema!.. A simple story told using simple lived-in characters, it weaves strong and important messages in off-the-cuff, humorous remarks.. Thereby delivering undiluted, bitter truths with a spoon of entertainment honey.

Written by Biplab Goswami, with dialogue and screenplay by Sneha Desai and Divyanidhi Sharma, the movie is directed by Kiran Rao.. She takes the same route taken by Vidhu Vinod Chopra in 12th Fail – unobtrusive direction with great flourishes and fewer flashes.. and letting the characters tell the story. The result is fabulous.. Takes me back to the good old days of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and basu Chatterjee.

The whole movie is extremely well cast by Romil Modi. All major characters are almost fresh faces, except Inspector Manohar (a chameleon-esque Ravi Kishan) and Dubeyji (by Durgesh ‘Panchayat ka Bankaras’ Kumar). I must definitely mention Phool (Nitanshi Goel), Deepak (Sparsh Srivastav), Jaya or Pushpa Rani or Sreya (Pratibha Ranta) and Manju Maai (Chhaya Kadam) – Extremely well done!

Movies like Laapataa Ladies and 12th Fail rekindle my hope in cinema – of its powers and ability to make a difference. It is also very refreshing to see stories and characters stemming from rural India. After all, India still lives in its villages. More of these, please!

Samबहादुर

This is a late appreciation post for #SamBahadur and #VickyKaushal.

Vicky Kaushal is Field Marshall Manekshaw

Saw the movie on Saturday and here are some of my thoughts:

1. I stopped seeing Vicky Kaushal after the first few minutes. He becomes Field Marshall Manekshaw. I understand actors were always supposed to become their characters, but these days it has become such a rarity that seeing it happen is a pleasure in itself.
2. I can’t generalize but I felt that I was historically ill-equipped to grasp the movie. I realised that I know so little about the history of post-independent India that I frequently had to google things like “Who was the Defence minister of India in the 1950s?”
3. Parsing 40 illustrious years of a great soldier is too much for a movie with a runtime of less than 2.5 hrs. Perhaps it would have been better to just focus on a few character traits, how it developed and how it came to play at crucial times.
4. I hate saying this about an album that features SEL and Gulzar saab but I found it underwhelming. The anthem during the 1971 war brings together the war cries of multiple regiments beautifully.. but it’s not memorably executed. We have such a lovely canon of war movies with exquisite soundtracks – Haqeeqat and Border come to mind. But SamBahadur doesn’t even look like it’s trying. Sab ka banda hai yeh is the only exception as it was the only song i remembered after coming out of the auditorium. “Vardi pe vatan see gaya” is such a classic Gulzar line!.. needed more of these!..
5. Fatima Sana Shaikh as Indira Gandhi is a major casting debacle in an otherwise well-cast movie. Mrs. Gandhi was just 3 years younger than Field Marshall Manekshaw. In the movie, that gap looks a lot bigger. Gave me Queen Elizabeth meets Winston Churchill kinda vibes.

I understand that 4 out of the 5 points mentioned above read more like grouses rather than appreciation. But I have these complaints only because the movie comes so close to perfection and greatness. It just touches and harks back – a frustrating tease.

This is a story that needed to be told – about being a gentleman in the midst of war, staying true to one’s principles against all odds, and telling the truth to power when needed. And hence, it is a film that needs to be watched. I’m glad that Meghana Gulzar has made this movie, and that too in the age of Vicky Kaushal. “रब का बंदा है ये, सब का बंदा है ये!” Indeed!

Ponniyin Selvan – 1

Mani Ratnam builds a glorious world with #PonniyinSelvan !! It’s a magnificent effort at visualising a much loved Tamil novel.. Of course I knew nothing about PS or author Kalki before watching the movie… In fact, thanks to our education system that pretty much ignores the southern kings who aren’t Tipu Sultan, I knew very little about the Chola and Pandya dynasties. But I still loved the plot twists and the author-backed characters.. I was concerned that as PS-1 uses Classical Tamil I’ll be lost in subtitles but I soon got the hang of what was happening. While not knowing the novel wasn’t a detriment, knowing the actors playing the galaxy of characters surely helped. I can’t even pronounce some of the names, let alone remember them! 🙂

Speaking of actors and characters, Karthi pretty much steals the limelight. Second comes Jayam Ravi with some presence post interval.. amongst the actresses, Aishwarya Rai is stellar and looks ethereal! While Trisha has a strong role that will probably flourish more in part 2.

Sure, the gratuitous war sequences have pretty shoddy VFX, but the sets designed by Thota Tharani more than make up for it! Every scene is beautifully framed by Ravi Varman and set to tune by maestro AR Rahman. I just wish that the songs had some more screen time in the movie.. would have loved to experience Devaralam Aatam and Chola Chola with Dolby 7.1.

All in all, Ponniyin Selvan is a worthy addition to the canon of Mani Ratnam.