Movie Review: Midnight’s Children (2013)

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MidnightsKids2 Stars (out of 4)

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Midnight’s Children takes the fascinating history of India since Partition and muddles it up with a bizarre personal story that’s impossible to connect with.

The events of the film — which are narrated by Salman Rushdie, who wrote the novel on which the film is based — begin well before Partition, starting with the meeting of the main character’s grandparents in Kashmir, 1917. They raise their children, including Mumtaz (Shahana Goswami), the main character’s mother. She has a brief, fruitless marriage to a man named Nadir before she marries the main character’s father, Ahmed Sinai (Ronit Roy) and changes her name to Amina. The first marriage becomes relevant later when the parentage of the main character, Salim, is called into question.

There’s good reason for this, since Salim is not the Sinais’ biological son. At the very moment the British left India and divided it into India and Pakistan — midnight, August 14, 1947 — two boys were born in the same hospital: the Sinais’ biological son, Shiva, and Salim, the son of a busker whose wife dies in childbirth. Inspired by her revolutionary boyfriend, a nurse named Mary (Seema Biswas) switches the boys, forcing the rich boy to grow up poor and making the poor boy rich.

After the boys go to their respective, incorrect homes, Mary feels guilty. Not guilty enough to confess, mind you, but Mary becomes Salim’s nanny so that she may watch over the boy. She also watches Shiva beg outside the Sinais’ mansion every day.

There are practical reasons for her to choose the path she does, but Mary’s act of penance seems cruelly inadequate. Rather than helping the boy she doomed to a life of poverty, she makes things even easier on the boy whose life was likely going to be a comparative piece of cake.

As the boys grow up, they discover that the hour of their birth gave them (and thousands of other kids born on the same night) magical powers. It’s unclear what Shiva’s powers are, but Salim can summon visions of the other “midnight’s children” by sniffing. It’s not as cool as the superpower of a girl named Parvati, who can make things disappear.

The superpowers aren’t really important to the story, until they are used as an excuse to round-up the now-adult “children” during Indira Gandhi’s rule-by-decree in the mid-1970s. Salim admits in his narration late in the film that things didn’t work out as well for “midnight’s children” as they had hoped. So, a thousand kids with freaking superpowers are no match for India’s internal conflicts and perpetual problems with Pakistan. What a depressing sentiment.

While the idea of paralleling India’s troubled progress with the lives of two of its citizens is compelling, the magical realism isn’t well-integrated into the story, and it keeps the audience at arm’s length. Also, Salim’s constant runny nose is gross. The story would’ve been more interesting without the magic.

The film boasts an impressive lineup of actors who typically perform in Indian films, but fans of traditional Bollywood fare should watch the film with caution. There’s a fair bit of sex and some nudity, plus coarse language. This is not a film for the whole family (not to mention that kids would be bored out of their mind by the movie’s plodding pace).

Another note of caution is that the performances are uneven. Seema Biswas and Shahana Goswami at terrific as always, as are Ronit Roy and Soha Ali Khan, who plays Salim’s little sister, Jamila, as an adult. But Anupam Kher and Rahul Bose are over-the-top as Salim’s great-grandfather and uncle, respectively. They’re the most obvious examples of a distracting strain of quirkiness that pervades the film.

Worst of all is British actor Satya Bhabha as adult Salim. His intense performance seems more suited to the stage than to film. With so much weirdness inherent in the story, a strong main character is needed to anchor the movie. I’m not sure if the fault lies more in Bhabha’s performance or the way Salim is written, but, either way, Salim isn’t a strong enough anchor.

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Opening May 3: Shootout at Wadala

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One new Hindi movie opens in the Chicago area on May 3, 2013. Sadly, it’s not Bombay Talkies*, but Shootout at Wadala looks like it could be a cool action flick. The trailer features Anil Kapoor using wet laundry to beat up a guy, for Pete’s sake!

Shootout at Wadala opens on Friday at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, and Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville. It has a listed runtime of 2 hrs. 25 min.

Fans of Hindi films may want to check out Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which features Bollywood vets Om Puri and Shabana Azmi in supporting roles. It opens locally on Friday at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema in Chicago.

Other Indian movies playing locally this weekend include Greeku Veerudu (Telugu) at both the Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge and the Golf Glen 5, which also carries Ethir Neechal (Tamil), Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde (Telugu), and Immanuel (Malayalam).

*Director Karan Johar tweeted that Bombay Talkies will release internationally after it premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19.

Movie Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013)

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TheReluctantFundamentalist3.5 Stars (out of 4)

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The Reluctant Fundamentalist reminds us that the traumas of our personal lives don’t stop for global catastrophes. The movie’s title alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Radical Islam is just one facet of a compelling narrative about some of the major issues of the last twelve years.

The tale of modern times is told through the experiences of Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed). Now a professor in his native Pakistan, Changez is questioned by a journalist — Bobby (Liev Schreiber) — about the kidnapping of an American professor at the same university. Changez stalls in revealing details of the kidnapping to Bobby by explaining how his experiences shaped his conflicted view of America.

Eager to improve the declining fortunes of his artist parents — played by Om Puri and Shabana Azmi — Changez moves to America in the late 1990s to study business. He gets a job at a Bain Capital-type firm that specializes in making companies more profitable, usually by laying off employees. He falls in love with Erica (Kate Hudson), the artsy niece of the head of his firm.

The attacks of 9/11 happen while Changez is on assignment in the Philippines, and he returns to the U.S to find that the rules of society have changed for him. In the film’s most disturbing scene, the rest of his team members waltz through airport security while Changez is subjected to an invasive strip search solely because of his ethnicity. His relationship with Erica deteriorates, and Changez wonders if America is really where he belongs.

After playing a villain in Trishna, Ahmed shows his versatility in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Ahmed makes Changez sympathetic and relatable as he navigates a society that isn’t the pure meritocracy he expected it to be. His best friend, Wainwright (Nelsen Ellis), is the only other member of a racial minority employed at their firm. Among whites — including his boss, played by Kiefer Sutherland, and even his girlfriend — Changez feels treated like a token and not a real person.

In addition to the presence of Bollywood veterans Puri and Azmi, fans of Hindi films will find a lot of thematically familiar material in The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Changez’s troubled romantic relationship with Erica suffers as much from an undercurrent of prejudice as it does from problems in Erica’s past. He likewise struggles with disappointing his parents, who aren’t impressed by his material ambitions, even when they benefit from them. With a runtime of 130 minutes and a leisurely approach to storytelling, the pace of the film will feel familiar to Bollywood fans as well.

Early in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez tells Bobby that understanding only comes with patience. It’s a criticism of American mistakes in the country’s rush to deal with Islamic terrorism, but it is also good advice for how to watch the movie. Those willing to embrace the personal drama within the movie’s larger story about American interference in Pakistan will be rewarded.

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In Theaters April 26, 2013

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No new Hindi movies are opening in the Chicago area this weekend, and there aren’t many older options available on the big screen either. Last weekend’s new release, Ek Thi Daayan, carries over at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles and AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, which also gives a third week to Nautanki Saala!.

Other Indian movies showing at the Golf Glen 5 this weekend include Celluloid (Malayalam), Udhayam NH4 (Tamil), and the Telugu films Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde and Shadow.

Streaming Video News: April 24, 2013

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Allow me to preach the wonders of ABCD: Any Body Can Dance once again. The teen-oriented dance flick — which released in theaters on February 8, 2013 — is now available for streaming on Netflix. This is an unabashedly fun film that I can’t wait to watch again.

Movie Review: Ek Thi Daayan (2013)

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Ek_Thi_Poster2 Stars (out of 4)

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Was the TV edit of Ek Thi Daayan (“Once There Lived a Witch”) released to theaters by mistake? There’s a lot missing from the story: important stuff like character establishment and a coherent mythology. Absent those, Ek Thi Daayan doesn’t really work.

The film jumps into the action so quickly that it neglects to properly introduce the main characters. Following a stylish animated opening credits sequence, we find our hero at work on stage. Bobo the Baffler (Emraan Hashmi) — one of India’s top illusionists, despite his ridiculous name — levitates his assistant at the top of a burning rope. The trick is monitored from a control room by Bobo’s girlfriend, Tamara (Huma Qureshi), and their young orphan friend, Zubin.

Bobo visually and aurally hallucinates a little girl, later revealed to be his long-deceased younger sister, Misha. Bobo misses his cue, and the assistant is badly burned. Backstage, Tamara complains that this is the third time Bobo has hallucinated mid-performance this month. Has no one in the media noticed that India’s top magician has literally burned through a bunch of assistants recently?

While Tamara complains to the priest at Zubin’s orphanage that she can’t get Bobo to commit to marriage — an apparent obstacle to their plans to adopt Zubin — Bobo wanders into an obviously haunted apartment building. In what turns out to be his childhood apartment, he again hallucinates that he sees Misha. Tamara arrives and points out that it’s not Misha, just the dead girl’s creepy-ass favorite doll.

They head home, a love song plays, and the couple has sex — in front of the scary doll.

Already twenty minutes into the movie, we still don’t have any reason to care about Bobo, Tamara, or Zubin, apart from the fact that they’re our only options. Are they good people? Are we supposed to aspire to be rich, famous magicians? Where the hell did they find this orphan kid anyway?

Doesn’t matter. Bobo gets professionally hypnotized, and the rest of the first half of the film is a flashback to the repressed memories of 11-year-old Bobo and the circumstances of Misha’s death. Was his dad’s second wife, Diana (Konkona Sen Sharma), really a witch, or was the boy just angry at her for replacing his mom?

There are clearly paranormal elements at work, but director Kannan Iyer and writers Vishal Bhardwaj and Mukal Sharma throw lore around willy-nilly, without a clear description of the rules of their supernatural world. Where do witches and demons come from? Can they be permanently destroyed? What does Bobo have to do with them? Are his repressed memories some kind of magical amnesia or the result of childhood fright?

There are so many unanswered questions and unclear relationships that it’s difficult to become invested in the characters. While the movie is atmospheric, the story is so straightforward that it lacks tension. The few jump-scares that exist are telegraphed.

It’s too bad, since there are some decent performances in Ek Thi Daayan. Konkona Sen Sharma is delightfully sinister, while not so overt as to eliminate the possibility that young Bobo has judged her unfairly. The young actors who portray Bobo and Misha are both talented.

Hashmi and Qureshi are solid, though their characters lack depth. Kalki Koechlin shows up in the second half as an obsessive fan of Bobo’s. Koechlin’s performance is similarly good, but it’s overshadowed by the fact that Bobo and Tamara aren’t unnerved by her character openly stalking Bobo.

With a runtime of just over two hours, Ek Thi Daayan isn’t long enough (by Bollywood standards) to become boring, but it never offers the audience much incentive to care. With more careful control of the story structure and establishing a mythology, this could have been quite good. Maybe it will make more sense if the DVD contains a director’s cut.

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Opening April 19: Ek Thi Daayan

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Even though I’m a huge chicken, I am really excited about the new Hindi horror film opening in Chicago area theaters on April 19, 2013. Ek Thi Daayan (“Once There Lived a Witch”) has an incredible cast: Emraan Hashmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin, and Huma Qureshi.

Ek Thi Daayan opens on Friday at the Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, and Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville. Its runtime is listed variously as 2 hrs. 10 min. and 2 hrs. 30 min.

Last weekend’s new release, Nautanki Saala!, gets a second week at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago and the South Barrington 30, which is also holding over Chashme Baddoor for a third week.

Other Indian movies playing at the Golf Glen 5 this weekend include the Telugu movies Chinna Cinema and Gunde Jaari Gallanthayyinde, Amen (Malayalam), and both the Tamil and Telugu versions of Udhayam NH4. The Cinemark Century Stratford Square in Bloomingdale has Sadda Haq (Punjabi), while the Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge carries over Baadshah (Telugu).

Movie Review: Nautanki Saala! (2013)

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Nautankisaalaposter2.5 Stars (out of 4)

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Nautanki Saala! is a mostly-great comedy that squanders the goodwill it builds in the first half for the sake of a melodramatic second half. All its good aspects aren’t enough to make up for an obligatory “happy ending” that feels forced and undeserved.

The story primarily takes place inside a theatrical production. RP (Ayushmann Khurrana) is the director and star of the fictitious play Ravaanleela, a re-imagining of a classic fable that repositions the story’s villain as the lead character. The theme of the play parallels RP’s own story, as his good intentions give way to felonious deeds.

On his way home from the theater one night, RP rescues a man, Mandar (Kunaal Roy Kapoor), who’s trying to hang himself. Rehabilitating sad, oafish Mandar becomes RP’s primary occupation, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend, Chitra (Gaelyn Mendonca), who’d like to be the focus of RP’s attention for a change.

Mandar makes slow but steady progress after RP casts him in the play in the role of Ram, the story’s traditional hero and the mortal enemy of RP’s character, Raavan. RP tracks down Mandar’s ex-girlfriend, Nandini (Pooja Salvi), in the hopes that she’ll finally take Mandar off his hands. He gets in over his head while breaking her out of her current relationship, accidentally becoming the object of her affections in the process.

When the story stays within the physical confines of the theater, Nautanki Saala! is hilarious. The vibrant sets and costumes add visual interest and a sense of whimsy, providing the ideal backdrop for the movie’s funniest scenes. Mandar’s audition for the role of Ram is the film’s high point. He stumbles through his lines while RP tries to convince the producer, Chandra (Sanjeev Bhatt), that hapless Mandar is really an artistic visionary, not an inept actor.

Khurrana and Kapoor are both terrific. Grim-faced Khurrana plays up RP’s growing frustration, banging his head against any flat surface when his plans repeatedly fall apart. Kapoor (who is almost unrecognizable from his role in Delhi Belly) gives Mandar just enough charm to make his bumbling endearing, rather than tedious.

The movie grinds to a halt when the action moves outside of the theater, which it does for most of the second half, as RP tries to get Nandini to consider reuniting with Mandar. RP’s scenes with Nandini aren’t particularly funny, and there’s no urgency to them once he starts falling for Nandini himself.

RP’s infatuation with Nandini is the movie’s real problem, because she’s a terrible match for him. Nandini admits that she’s desperate to be in a relationship with anyone, just so she won’t be alone. She’s gullible enough to fall for all of RP’s tricks. The fact that she was once in love with a dud like Mandar should automatically disqualify her as potential dating material.

Nandini’s only appealing qualities — such as they are — would seem to be her good looks and her eagerness to have sex with RP: something we know she’s already done with Mandar, and likely with her current boyfriend, the moronic cheater Loli (Rufy Khan).

RP is a successful, clever guy who already has a beautiful, live-in girlfriend with a hot body, so why would he confuse Nandini’s sexual overtures with true love? The fact that RP is willing to trade in Chitra for a woman who’s needy, dim, and has an established record of bad judgment regarding men diminishes him as a character. Once RP falls for Nandini, the movie becomes a tedious slog, culminating in a disappointing ending that isn’t as happy as the filmmakers think.

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Opening April 12: Nautanki Saala!

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The new Hindi film opening in Chicago area theaters on April 12, 2013, looks like it could be pretty cute. Nautanki Saala! is a comedy of errors set within a theater troupe, and it stars Vicky Donor‘s Ayushmann Khurrana.

Nautanki Saala! opens on Friday at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, and AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington. It has a listed runtime of 2 hrs. 5 min.

Last weekend’s new release, Chashme Baddoor, carries over for a second week at the Golf Glen 5 and South Barrington 30.

The Telugu movie Baadshah (showing locally without subtitles) gets a second week at the Golf Glen 5, Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge, and Cinemark Century Stratford Square in Bloomingdale. Other Indian movies playing in theaters this weekend include Settai (Tamil) at the Golf Glen 5 and Sadda Haq (Punjabi w/English subtitles) at the Century Stratford Square.

I have to thank Meera Darji for bestowing a couple of awards upon me recently, including the Best Moment Award and the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. How awesome is this? It looks like an Yngwie Malmsteen album cover!

dragonsloyaltyaward1

Meera’s movie reviews and other articles can be found at her site: http://meeradarjiyr1.wordpress.com/

Streaming Video News: April 10, 2013

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Today marks the Netflix streaming debut of Race 2, which opened in theaters on January 25, 2013. It’s a follow-up to 2008’s Race, which is also available for streaming on Netflix. A familiarity with the first film helps to explain some of the relationships in the second, but it’s not essential to understanding the plot of Race 2. I wasn’t a fan of either movie, but if you’re in the mood for mindless action, Race and Race 2 might fit the bill.

Also on April 10, the bizarre Hindi monster movie Hisss exits the Netflix streaming catalog. The film was plagued with problems throughout the production, and they are obvious in the final product. It will not be missed.

In other video news, Dabangg 2 makes its streaming debut on Eros Now on Friday, April 12 (though not in India). Dabangg 2 is available free to subscribers or as a premium rental for $1.99. 2010’s Dabangg is already available for streaming on the service.