Made four years after Khamosh, the well-made whodunit, Parinda is considered the movie that begun Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s foray towards ‘mainstream’ cinema. It is also considered among the earliest Hindi movies to provide a deglamourised, non-clichéd look into not just the Mumbai underworld, but underworld in general. Love and revenge are the themes of this dark and brooding gangster film, the name of which is a reference to freedom and liberty, or ‘free birds’ to be precise. The principal characters of the movie are Anna (Nana Patekar), a ruthless and sociopathic local mobster; Kishen (Jackie Shroff), Anna’s hatchet man who took had taken up the job to take care of his younger brother; Karan (Anil Kapoor), Kishen’s good-natured brother whose best friend, a cop, is killed in front of his eyes; and, Paro (Madhuri Dixit), Karan’s love interest and the slain cop’s sister. The film boasts of a string of strong performances – Patekar and Schroff provided especially memorable turns. The film isn’t flawless by any stretch of imagination – it has its share of implausible plot developments, an inane song-sequence that is completely at odds with the inherent moodiness of the storyline, a comparatively weak character development so far as Karan’s character is concerned, over-usage of its motif of pigeons, to name a few. However, that said, the movie is very well shot, with the city of Bombay managing to be a vital character, grim atmospherics, and a number of marvelously executed sequences – especially the chilling climax.
Director: Vidhu Vonod Chopra
Genre: Gangster Drama/Crime Drama/Urban Drama/Psychological Drama
Language: Hindi
Country: India
A spin-off to the terrific courtroom drama The Practice, Boston Legal was also the brainchild of David E. Kelly. Lasting a total of 5 seasons, this series too revolved around a law-firm and its member lawyers, but the similarity ended there. While the former was somber, grim and serious, the latter was humorous, irreverent and brazen in its political incorrectness. Further, where moral vis-à-vis ethical dilemma was one of the core themes of the former, here the focus was more on macro-issues like the Iraq War, politics, unemployment, racism, etc. And the unlikely mouthpiece for these issues was Alan Shore, an anti-establishmentarian, and not to mention, brilliant lawyer, who firmly believes in the Machiavellian adage ‘end justifies the means’; yet, in his own way, he has a strong moral character and a deep sense of right and wrong. Giving him company is Denny Crane, one of the founders of Crane, Poole and Schmidt, the huge law firm Shore works for. Crane was once a great trial lawyer, but owning to an early stage of Alzheimer’s, he is now no more than a bumbling and vainglorious person who is in love with his own name. One of the most unforgettable aspects of the series is the fascinating friendship between these two incredible, larger-than-life characters – every episode ends with them discussing about life, love and friendship in Crane’s office balcony, over cigars and scotch. The wacky and at times bittersweet series is filled with a number of interesting characters, but the friendship of Shore and Crane, wonderfully and passionately played by James Spader and William Shatner, respectively, along with a host of memorable out-of-the-box trials, were the facets that made this series such an enjoyable watch.
Creator: David E. Kelly
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Legal Drama/TV Series
Language: English
Country: US
Chowringhee is the name of one of the most important and iconic thoroughfares in the city of Calcutta. The movie, which was an adaptation of Bengali writer Shankar’s renowned novel of the same name, had this road as the backdrop for its storyline; more accurately, it was based in a luxurious hotel called Hotel Shahjahan – an obvious reference to the famous Grand Hotel located there. The chronicle of life, camaraderie, love and loss is told by Shankar (Subhendu Chatterjee), the film’s simple-natured protaginist. The ensemble cast comprised of such colourful characters as Satyasundar Bose aka Sata, the hotel’s gregarious and charming receptionist (played with élan by the then-reigning superstar Uttam Kumar), Karabi Guha, a lonely misunderstood housekeeper (Supriya Choudhury), Anindya Pakrashi, the buoyant son of a wealthy businessman (Biswajit Chatterjee), Marco Polo, the hotel’s alcoholic manager (Utpal Dutt), among others. Despite the inherent strength in the script and depth in the characters that the novel gifted the maker with, the final outcome didn’t amount to much. The movie does have its moments, but on the whole it suffered from lackadaisical execution. It seemed more like a series of patchworks than a satisfying whole, perhaps on account of sub-par direction and poor editing. The gargantuan talent of Utpal Dutt too was largely wasted. The decent cinematography and the charismatic presence of Uttam Kumar were the factors that made it reasonably watchable.
Director: Pinaki Mukherjee
Genre: Drama/Urban Drama/Romantic Drama/Ensemble Film
Language: Bengali
Country: India
The Last Metro was the most overtly political work of Francois Truffaut – a surprise given his apolitical stance in most of his works. Set almost completely within a theatre-house in a fast-crumbling Parisian society during German occupation during WWII, the movie managed to provide an affecting look at what it was to survive in a climate of fear and persecution. In order to avoid Nazi pogroms, renowned Jewish director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent) has taken refuge at the basement of his beloved theatre. In his physical absence, the theatre is run by his beautiful wife Marion (Catherine Deneuve). She is also an actress, and in their latest offering, she stars opposite Bernard (Gerard Depardieu), who is secretly a member of the Resistance. Tensions abound not just because surviving in such a socio-political climate was tough, what with having to keep Lucas’ presence a secret from the authority, but also in Marion’s being torn by her feelings for the two men. The movie abounds in irreverence in terms of its tone, feel and filming came at the expense of its emotional resonance, yet its theme of love at the times of war managed to add a streak of pathos to the plot. Personally though I wouldn’t place it anyway close to the Truffaut movies I’m most fond of. But that said, the performances of Deneuve and Bennant, and their terrific chemistry, did make it a movie worth watching.
Director: Francois Truffaut
Genre: Drama/War Drama/Romantic Drama
Language: French
Country: French
Adapted from Humphrey Cobb’s novel, Paths of Glory was one of three memorable anti-war movies made by Stanley Kubrick; yet tonally the three were poles apart. While Dr. Strangelove was a farcical satire of the highest order and Full Metal Jacket was part vitriolic and part sentimental, Paths of Glory was bleak, austere and minimalist. The movie, filmed in the tradition of cinéma vérité, was banned in France for nearly two decades for its purported anti-French depictions. Set during World War I, the unctuous General Broulard slyly persuades General Mireau, a self-serving egotist, to order his troops to attack the impregnable “Ant Hill”. Colonel Dax, under Mireau’s express orders, leads the attack which is doomed to be a failure. The vengeful Mireau, with Broulard at his side, orders the selection, court-martial and subsequently death sentence of three for their cowardice. The morally righteous Dax (Kirk Douglas), deeply disturbed by this, decides to defend the three men in the hastily assembled “kangaroo court”. However, neither impassioned logic nor eloquent pleas, nor even a last-ditch attempt at an under-handed means, manage to work. Brilliantly shot in stark black-and-whites, and comprising of marvelous performances by the actors, the movie managed to be a powerful indictment against the callousness of the powers that be and the utter futility of war.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Genre: Drama/War Drama
Language: English
Country: US
