Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 279
September 18, 2020
Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare Review
Imagine being the new girl in a big city, where you are having a good time at an amusement park with your first cousin. There are bright colors, all sorts of joyrides, fun photo-booths, your face spread in a wide smile, only to be marred by an unwanted touch; from your brother-in-law. Most Indian women would brush it off and tuck that unpleasant moment in a forgotten corner of their memories. But not Kajal AKA Kitty from Director Alankrita Shrivastava’s new film ‘Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare’.
All of this happens in the first five minutes of the film and is also part the trailer, so no spoilers here. This is a tale about two cousin sisters from Bihar, Dolly (Konkona Sen Sharma) who is married with two kids and Kajal (Bhumi Pednekar) who comes to stay with them in Noida to work. The makers explore how their loving relationship turns bitter-sweet after Kajal confesses to Dolly that her husband has been making inappropriate passes at her.
Bhumi Pednekar (who is used to playing small-town girl roles by now) aces her part as Kajal, who tries to take charge of her life and immediately moves out of her sister’s house before things can get complicated. She finds a shady call centre job that caters to horny lonely men on the phone. ‘Kitty’ is her work name. Konkona Sen Sharma won me over as the unsatisfied dreamy Noida wife with a drab job, who just wants to upgrade her life. Since I am from Bihar, I was very impressed with her accent in the film. It wasn’t over-the-top, but was subtle enough to establish her character’s roots.
The casting guys did a great job on this film, with actors managing to shine even in the smaller roles. Vikrant Massey was great as the sleazy man who woos Kitty. Kubbra Sait shines as Kitty’s new friend in town, she is confident and unapologetic about using men for her own needs. Karan Kundra as a DJ is your typical Delhi boy and serves as decent eye candy.
The cinematography in this film was interesting. I feel like they slightly overdid the interiors of Dolly’s house, which looked like a shady love motel. Her room is washed in red tones, red bed-sheets, red heart pillows, with loud pink wallpapers on the wall. Perhaps it’s supposed to be a reflection of Dolly’s garish taste or maybe a metaphor of how love only resides in the in-animate objects of the home and evades the occupants. The few outdoor scenes were very realistic and add to the whole rawness of the film.
Let me be honest, I didn’t like the trailer of this film, but was completely taken aback by how engaging it turned out to be. Despite being 2 hours long, the pace was almost perfect and the narrative keeps you hooked. It’s all about the sisters stumbling and finding their own path the hard way. The makers also deal with multiple themes, including impotence and gender fluidity, a topic that very few Bollywood films touch.
In-fact the most touching sub-plot in the film was about Dolly’s younger son, who loves playing with dolls and dressing up in girl’s clothes. Initially, the mother is confused and deals with it the way Indian moms know best – gives the boy a good thrashing. Contrary to my fears, the makers do not end this sub-plot in an insensitive and gender-conforming manner. There is a heart-breaking scene towards the second half of the film that finally helps the little boy’s mother understand him a little bit, if not completely.
This is the kind of film where there could have been a lot of drama and bawling but director Alankrita Shrivastava explores each theme with maturity. Despite being from sheltered families, the lead characters are emotionally intelligent and not exaggerated caricatures that make grand declarations of love or hate. Also, it was nice to see the leading ladies casually cuss without a care in the world when they are angry.
It’s the climax of the film that was very unexpected, while for most part, the film sailed on calm waters, towards the end, things escalate quickly, as if a storm arrives without knocking and destroys everything. The sudden twist in the end is a tragic turn of events and the lead characters are forced to seriously introspect their lifestyle choices and take tough decisions. Both Dolly and Kitty choose their own stars and leave the audience happy. At least I was mighty satisfied with the ending, even if part of it was slightly cliched, but the rest of it was refreshing. It leaves you with a smile on your face.
It’s a 4 on 5 from me.
September 17, 2020
Masculinity Digs A Grave Over My Body
Finished reading book number 59 for the year – Masculinity Digs A Grave Over My Body by Soz (pen name).
It’s been a while since I’ve read fiercely personal poetry, like the words burnt on the tongue of the poet and then set the pages on fire. Perhaps it’s the anonymity that enables the poet to bare his soul to us.
“To my mother. For I do not have the courage to read these to you”, the dedication in the first page declares. And then we enter the world of a gender fluid adult who is forced to live in the closet during the days.
“In this country,
Soz
only women have fought
for inheritance rights.
I too will fight
to inherit my mother’s saris
knowing
I am not her daughter,
knowing,
she is my mother.”
Soz the poet laments how patriarchy shackles not just women, but even men, who are forced to live up to standards of masculinity, forbidden from walking a certain way, from dressing in certain clothes and from loving those from the same gender.
“Masculinity Digs A Grave Over My Body” is an essential read for anybody who is interested in queer literature.
September 16, 2020
The Devil All The Time Review
I hadn’t seen the trailer of the new film ‘The Devil All the Time’ before I decided to watch it on its Netflix debut day, so I didn’t know what to expect. Directed by Antonio Campus, this is a dark, disturbing film that stirred a myriad of emotions in me.
Based on a novel by the same name, the film starts with a voice-over by author Donald Ray Pollock. The narrator tells us about a small town called ‘Knockemstiff’ which had a population of just 400 back in 1957. The town’s name made me giggle, since it puns on “knock them stiff’. The first ten minutes are intriguing and focus on Willard Russel (played by Bill Skarsgard) and how he meets his wife.
Things soon start to get bizarre. On display is the religious zealotry at Willard’s local church, where the reverend passionately talks about the ‘holy ghost’ and the importance of prayer. In fact, Christian fanaticism is one of the central themes of this movie. The overall plot is about how the life of Willard’s young son Arvin Russel is influenced by those around him.
Tom Holland of Spiderman fame plays Arvin, who is deeply impacted by his parent’s deaths, especially due to the disturbing nature of their last days. While a young Arvin goes to live with his grandmother and his step-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen), we see a parallel story about a serial killer couple on the loose in the same region.
The casting team has done a fantastic job, because each actor is eerily convincing in whatever little role they have. Most characters are evil and as a viewer you feel a revulsion towards them. Robert Pattinson completely disappears in his character’s skin – a sleazy, lustful, gluttonous priest who preys on young vulnerable women. You can’t see any traces of the vampire heart-throb. Holland is also authentic as the angry young man wanting nothing but to protect those close to him.
‘The Devil in the Dark’ works really well as a psychological thriller, there were several moments where I had my hands folded with anxiety about what would happen next. No horror movie in the recent past made me flinch this much. I think real evil people are always scarier than ghosts and demons. A lot of both mindless and well-intended killing that happens throughout the course of the film. The scenes are raw, unbridled and troubling.
There is a chilling flashback scene in the very first 10 minutes, which shows Arvin’s father Willard serving in the war. He shoots a fellow soldier as an act of mercy, because he was tortured and crucified by the Japanese. That scene made me shudder.
The pacing of the film is a slight problem, while I won’t say it’s slow there are some scenes that didn’t need any screen-time. There a ‘corrupt cop’ sub-plot that could’ve been shorter. Director Antonio puts in too much efforts in giving everybody a substantial back-story. However, I liked how the makers stayed true to the dark tone and didn’t put in any unnecessary jokes in the story. The flip-side to it is that the film gets a little overbearing and can get emotionally draining after a while. Maybe take a little coffee/cola break in between. I did.
Given the somber setting of the entire film, it obviously doesn’t have a traditional happy ending, but to the screenwriter’s credit – it’s not ambiguous and disappointing either. While there are some things that happen early on that make the viewer wonder “why have this scene at all?”, it all ties down neatly in the climax and makes sense.
The cinematography and all the religious songs in the playback track just add to the whole dismal mood of the tale. You will hate a lot of what’s happening and that’s just the kind of response that’s expected out of the viewer. It astutely shows just how toxic and destructive religion can be. Each character has a complicated relationship with ‘God’ and the one who is the most religiously distant is interestingly the sanest one. Not sure if there was deliberate messaging here, but this film shows us the dark side of those who believe in the power of prayer.
To anybody looking for a dark thriller, this one makes a good watch. Don’t see it when you are feeling low, because ‘The Devil All The Time’ is not intended to give you a good time.
It’s a 7/10 for me.
September 15, 2020
Pablo Neruda – Love
“I like for you to be still; it is as though you were absent,
and you hear me from far away and my voice does
not touch you.
It seems as though your eyes had flow away
and it seems kiss had sealed your mouth”
-these are the first few lines from a poem by Pablo Neruda titled “I like for you to be still”.
I had borrowed a small book of his love poems from a friend last week. Started reading it on a night when I wasn’t in a good head-space. So I curled up with this little book on the bed, reading Neruda’s poetry softly to myself. Quite frankly – I didn’t understand what the first one meant, at least not at the first reading. So I read it out two times more and then deduced my own meanings from the lines. They are probably far from what the poet meant.
“I like for you to be still” was the second poem in the book and is my favorite from all the ten. Though short, the end brought a smile to my face and of-course, I read it once again. I moved on to the next poem titled ‘Poetry’, which talks about how the poet was inspired to write his first few lines. There is no tangible muse, the poet claims it was poetry that came looking for him and he knows not from where. For me, I felt like the idea of this poem was to tell the readers that it doesn’t matter what inspires one to write, what matters more is what that writing does to the writer. In this case, Neruda talks about how poetry sets his heart free. I was content with reading just three poems that night and then fell asleep earlier than usual in a long long time. Neruda’s poetry was soothing.
The next day, I texted a friend about how his poetry comforted me when I was feeling low for no reason whatsoever. And she told me how some of her lovers had tried to impress her by reciting Pablo’s poetry.
“Tonight I can write the saddest Lines” she texted and then sent me the link to that poem.
“It’s the most cliche break-up poem but the fact that men make the effort to make you feel guilty, it’s crazy” she added.
Since I hadn’t read all the poems in the book, I didn’t know that the same poem was part of the collection too. It’s poem number nine and beautifully written, a resigned sorrow permeates all the lines. “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” Neruda laments and with that one line he resonates with everyone who has ever loved and lost.
There was just one poem that I thought was a little odd in the collection but since this collection is supposed to have works that were consequential to a film on Neruda called ‘Il Postino’, I don’t have much context. The poem is about a naked mermaid who accidentally stumbles into a bar full of drunks and is treated like dirt; men spit on her, put out their cigarette stubs on her skin. For some reason, it reminded me of a disturbing art experiment, where an artist stood still for hours and said people could do whatever they wanted to do with her. At the end of it, people had disrobed her, groped her, even made cuts on her body. It was horrifying.
The last poem in the book titled “Ode to the Sea” made me nostalgic about the beach city I grew up in, where my parents still stay and I haven’t seen them this year at all. So while Neruda’s poem comforted me in the beginning, they left me longing for home in the end.
It’s a five on five stars from me.
Cargo Review – An Overload
‘Cargo’ the 2020 sci-fi film which marks the directorial debut of Arati Kadav, is 100 minutes too long. The total runtime is 113 minutes. I finished watching the film about a minute ago and my head feels a little numb due to the boredom it experienced.
Let me start with the plot – it’s set in 2027, where the human species co-exists with demons (yes, this science-fiction flick combines mythology too) in peace. Our protagonist is Prahasta (Vikrant Massey) a demon who is responsible for the transition of mortals to the afterlife. This work is done in a very cool space-ship and the dead people undergoing the process are simply referred to as ‘cargo’.
Honestly, on paper, this might have sounded like a very interesting concept, but on the screen, it absolutely did not work, at least not for me. Within the first 10 minutes I was beginning to lose my patience, a rare occurrence. The makers attempt to do witty fictional parallels which was just mundane; for example – the first ‘cargo’ in the film is a magician, fashioned along the lines of famous Indian illusionist PC Sorcar. There is a Steve Jobs rip off who gives a TedX type talk on the work of demons and their world.
The biggest problem with ‘Cargo’ is that the makers overload the script with too many themes. There was this very forced fake shouting down Prahasta gets from a senior for requesting a male assistant. “Women are making a lot of progress, if Men have reached Mars, women have reached Jupiter,” his senior fumes at him. It looked like the writer decided “hey, we should have some feminist bit about how women can do everything men can!” and then squeezed that random scene in. Idiotic.
If one had to pick a central theme for this one, then it is perhaps loneliness. Prahasta has been doing his job of transitioning humans for 75 long years, all alone, in space. He speaks to his team via internet or what looks like an old radio with a screen equipped for live video calls.
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Things are supposed to shake-up for him when a new assistant Yuvishka (Shweta Tripathi) is sent up the spaceship. But even the new livelier entrant is not able to pick up the tempo of this depressingly dreary film. It’s like everybody needs some glucose or red-bull or some damn drug to infuse a little life in them.
After 47 minutes, I just wanted to stop watching it. It was too drab. I couldn’t understand if they wanted it to be a satire, because there was neither any wit or any humor in any of the scenes. The script writers have done such a shoddy job, that they should be given an award for ‘exceptionally bland writing’. Also there are too many loopholes, but since I don’t want to give any spoilers, I will write only about one instance. The viewers are told and shown that part of Prahasta’s job is to heal any physical damage the mortal may have suffered during death, before they can be sent to the afterlife. So his ‘cargo’ is usually damaged, with wounds, burns or whatever physical failing that led to their demise. But when a wedding party dies in a bus crash, all of them continue to play and dance when they arrive at the ‘after-life’ space station. Did they all miraculously die without any injuries in a bus crash? Give me a break. There are many other glaring mistakes like this throughout the course of the film.
As far as the actors are concerned, well, they were just very mediocre. Shweta Tripathi as Yuvishka even seemed annoying at points. Konkona Sen Sharma has an almost blink and miss cameo. The others were all forgettable in their little bits too.
The climax was unexpected, but that doesn’t mean it was any good. It wasn’t even like a sudden turn of things, like the rest of the movie, the climax was sloooooooooooow, even if unpredictable. It has an unconventional happy ending, but by then viewers like me couldn’t care. I feel like if there was a race between ‘Cargo’ and a tortoise, the tortoise will win.
“Chutiyaap” I exclaimed as the credits rolled in. There is no English equivalent for the word, so sorry, I won’t be able to explain the word. “Fuckery” might come close, but it’s not really a dictionary word yet.
September 13, 2020
The Babysitter: Killer Queen – Review
Let’s be honest, most horror enthusiasts would agree that the 2017 film ‘The Babysitter’ didn’t need a sequel. It got one anyway, with pretty much the same cast. The makers need to be applauded for their over-confidence.
The new 2020 horror comedy ‘The Babysitter: Killer Queen” picks up two years after where the last film ended. Cole (played by the Cole Sprouse lookalike Judah Lewis) is in high-school and everybody thinks he is a psycho, since he claims to have killed a bloodthirsty cult of five people. Even his parents think he is a nut-job.
Cole’s best-friend Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) convinces him to go away with her friends for a weekend by the beach and shit hits the roof. All the crazy cult folks he had killed 2 years ago are back. They want Cole’s blood and are as idiotic as ever. Here’s the thing – I saw the prequel last month, after watching the trailer to Killer Queen, since it seemed fun. The prequel was mediocre, so I had my hopes very low for this one. And that helped me enjoy it a lot more than under regular circumstance. I mean a girl’s gotta enjoy a horror comedy once in a while and put logic aside.
In fact, this sequel is definitely better than the last film and has its high points. The background score is damn good, never sounds jarring and some hip retro numbers are blended brilliantly with what’s happening onscreen. Also, the director seems to have learnt a little from his past mistakes and didn’t have characters dropping excessive pop-culture references that only a niche set of viewers would understand. Not a lot of time is wasted in setting up the conflict points either. However, just like the predecessor, ‘Killer Queen’ too is a little to long and could’ve been chopped off by a good 15 minutes. Also, they throw in some unbelievable romantic bullshit.
As far as the sets are concerned, since a lot of scenes are outdoor this time, there are some pretty cool looking shots. There is also a lot of old school exaggerated slasher scenes that are bloody gory and hilarious. Just like any horror comedy films, they don’t make sense and that’s how it’s supposed to be.
The climax was a total dud. It’s when Cole’s old babysitter and cult leader Bee (Samara Weaving) finally shows up and a BIG TWIST is revealed. I feel like the scriptwriters did not re-read what they wrote, because their gigantic surprise didn’t make any freaking sense. It’s so brainless that I cannot even begin to write the myriad questions that were bubbling in my head when the film closes. “What the fuck?!” is the only question that matters amid all of them.
The makers have an 16+ rating for this film (21+ in some countries like Korea) but they give you an ending befitting a toddler. Only a 10-year-old would be happy with how this one ends. Anyway, if you just want to see some mindless horror comedy film, this one makes a pretty good pick. Non-horror enthusiasts will not be able to sit through it.
September 12, 2020
Get ‘Love, Loss, Lockdown’
To any book enthusiast looking at this post – my debut fiction book ‘Love, Loss, Lockdown’ is FREE for just the next few hours. It’s free for all and not just kindle unlimited subscribers. So grab your copy now.
A little about the book – It falls under contemporary fiction and is a collection of 10 short stories, each dealing with a different theme. The only thread binding the tales are that they are loosely set against the Covid19 pandemic.
If you get the book, do leave a rating/review, it means a lot to new independent authors like me; especially since I do not pay for reviews and rely on organic reader feedback.
Following are some links –
If I’ve missed your country, look for it on Amazon or on your kindle store.
FYI – It’s also an Amazon Bestseller.
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#Alive – But Barely
While horror fans eagerly wait for ‘Train to Busan’ sequel to arrive on Netflix or any streaming platform, director Cho II-hyung’s South-Korean zombie film “#Alive” seemed to offer a perfect distraction.
The plot is standard zombie territory – an unknown virus sweeps through cities and turns people extremely violent and cannibalistic. The makers waste no time in setting things up and diving into chaos.
Actor Yoo Ah-in plays the protagonist Joon-Woo, a gamer, who wakes up to a message from his mother that his folks have headed out and he should buy some groceries. He chooses to play games first (obviously) and while still at the console, he finds out people are going crazy on the streets outside the building. Cut to zombies ruthlessly eating humans, while a horrified Joon-Woo watches the mayhem from his window. Television news helps him understand the situation and the rest of the film is about Joon surviving alone in his flat.
I loved how the film starts, Joon looks the part of a gamer, who might slay monsters virtually, but in real life? Not so much. This film had so much going on in its favour, but the scriptwriters put in too many glaring and unnecessary loopholes that completely spoils all the fun. For example, Joon soon runs out of water, but 5 days later, he still looks absolutely fine. How? At one point, he is surviving on alcohol, which should lead to more dehydration, but Joonie looks as lively as ever. So, logic can go to zombie hell.
The movie also gets slow and irritating towards the second half. There of-course comes a point where Joonie boy is losing his sanity while zombie hordes continue to walk the streets. But just when Joonie decides maybe he should kill himself, a girl from the opposite building flashes a laser beam on him and gives him hope.
“Where the hell was she all these days?!” I wonder out loud at the cheesy convenient new entry. But at this point, the viewer is relieved at the new character, because just ‘Joonie against the flesh-eaters’ starts to get tiring.
What makes for the biggest disappointment in the zombie film is that there is very little action. There is one sequence where the girl hacks her way with an axe through the zombie masses and I can’t even begin to tell you how underwhelming the scene was. It was very unrealistic, because there are hundreds of those monsters and this chick manages to survive it all. My deal is – if you are going to make it over-exaggerated, why not go the extra mile and give us some kick-ass action? I am talking ‘resident evil’ type, where the girl kills it. Our silly Joonie just equips himself with a stupid hockey stick. Dude you are supposed to be a pro-gamer, is that all you can think of?!
The climax was also frustratingly slow and slightly idiotic. Just like most South-Korean films, director Cho tries to give us some poignant emotional moments, but just doesn’t hit the right chords. ‘#Alive” just does not have enough heart in it and is a mediocre forgettable zombie caper. Although it had all the ingredients to be a cult classic. Or maybe I have very high standards. This film was a 5/10 for me.
September 11, 2020
21 & Over – Silly AF
Don’t know if the staying at home 24*4 due to the pandemic is dumbing me down, but my movie choices seem to be getting worse by the day. All I wanted was a comedy film, so I picked ’21 & Over’ which has two directors – Jon Lucas, Scott Moore. Guess what – two many cooks spoil the broth.
There was however another reason why I picked this film on Netflix – it stars Miles Teller in the lead, the guy who shot to fame with the 2014 film ‘Whiplash’. Teller plays college drop-out Miller, who insists on taking his friend Jeff Chang out for a wild night of partying to celebrate his 21st birthday. This is just day before Chang has a big interview for medical school.
Miller drags Chang and another friend to first get the birthday boy pissed drunk, quite literally, because our boy Chang chugs so much, that he pees on people in the bar. That scene was mildly funny and largely gross. What follows is your typical crazy college night out gone wrong, it’s like ‘American Pie’ meets ‘The Hangover’, but with some very bad script-writing. Until I began writing the review, I wasn’t even aware that the film is from the same set of writers. So they basically plagiarized their own plot, put a bunch of younger guys in it and made a stale silly dick flick.
The first half has some fun moments, but things get excruciatingly contrived and boring in the second-half. The boys sneak into a sorority house to get a girl’s number and create a mess. After that they do a lot more stupid stuff that begins to get on your nerves because it’s not hilarious at all.
As far as the cast is concerned, the choice of actors is not bad. But what can you do with a good cast if the script sucks? Justin Chon, who plays Jeff Chang, was very likable as the drunk idiot and nails his role.
Well, there is not much else to say about this film except that maybe you are better off not watching it. Unless you are pissed drunk with friends. Maybe that will make the movie seem funnier and more enjoyable.
September 10, 2020
Tales Of Beedle The Bard
‘The Casual Vacancy’ is the last JK Rowling book I consumed. That was way back in 2012. Five years prior to that, in 2007, I had finished a borrowed copy of ‘Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows’ in three days. Most of it was read in the bathroom after my parents went to sleep, because I was in an important school year and mom had banned me from reading fiction.
So reading ‘The Tales of Beedle The Bard’ by Rowling stirred a wave of nostalgia, especially because each tale has an afterword from Dumbledore, an important character from the Potter world. In fact, I enjoyed reading Dumbledore’s thoughts on the fables from the wizarding world more than the stories themselves. It was like hearing an old friend. But the stories are interesting too, even though a little shorter than expected.
The first one titled “The Wizard and The Hopping Pot” is perhaps the most quintessential children story with the age-old moral “love thy neighbor”. It’s about how a wise wizard teaches his hard-hearted son a lesson in kindness and forces him to help the muggles(non-magical humans) in their times of misery.
While this is supposed to be a children’s book, there is one tale titled “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” which is a little too dark for kids. It’s safe to peg this as a 13+ book. The twist in the end is unexpected and could give kids quite the nightmare if they read it before going to bed. I remember clutching my heart while reading the climax, just wasn’t expecting such a gory twist in a children’s story. But it is also my favorite tale of the lot.
Just when I was beginning to enjoy the book, it ended and I was quite disappointed. Wish Rowling had put in a few more tales for us to read. This reminds me – while Rowling might have us believe in the foreword that the book has strong women characters, unlike the fairy tales of the typical human world, that’s not the case. Except for the story with the three witches who are out to seek a magic fountain, the rest of the stories are all largely male-dominated, even the one about Babbity the witch. Not like I have a problem with the poor women representation, just that I don’t like how Rowling pretends that the book is more than it really is.
Well, keeping aside the author’s airs about the book, “The Tales of Beedle The Bard” is a pretty quick fun read, both for 13+ children and older adults. Especially for the Potter era kids, who wouldn’t mind a slice of the wizarding world they grew up reading. It’s basically a collector’s item for ‘Potterheads’.
