review of aparna sen's 'iti mrinalini - an unfinished letter'

‘Iti Mrinalini – an unfinished letter’; taking my cue from the title … there is a sense of an unfinished experience, after watching the film! From the director of ’36 Chowringhee Lane’ & ‘Mr. & Mrs. Iyer’& I would like to add ’15, Park Avenue’, except for the fact that I have to confess that I managed to be fascinated by the film, without fully understanding it, this new offering, starring Sen Senior (Aparna herself!) & Sen Junior (the hugely talented Konkona Sen!), disappoints!
A run of the mill, predictable story, sketchily written, of an aging actress, contemplating suicide & slipping into flashback mode, which reveals a career strewn with broken affairs, a pregnancy that has to be hidden from the media & a daughter, whom she can’t take on as a beti & has to make do with being the favorite aunt ….. hmmmmmmm …. Here we go again! Indian cinema seems obsessed with these ghissa-pita, dukh bhari kahanis, of actresses who scale great heights of success, but of course, fail, when they attempt to lead a normal, sukhi zindagi!
Yeah, when Shyam Benegal wove a gripping movie around the same theme, with the fabulous Smita Patil, it worked & how!!!
There are so many actresses around, who have had happy careers, rock solid relationships, kids & gone on to do other stuff, like politics, or cookery shows (what a fall there was, my country men, watching the dhak dhak girl,Madhuri Dixit, wearing a garish chamak chalo sari, playing second fiddle to Sanjeev Kapoor!) or even making candles! Why don’t our directors get inspired?
Konkona Sen looks ravishing as the young actress, in her stunning Bengal cottons,silks & exquisite silver jewellery! (I actually checked the credits keenly, to see if the source of this beautiful silver had been mentioned, but sadly, it’s a raaz ki baat!) & she is a fine, competent actress, simply let down by a lousy script & sketchy direction!
The same can’t be said about mama Aparna – she is a stilted & affected actress & you realize why she had to take to direction, where thankfully she found her calling!
Props for the packaging – good looking, arty-varty dudes with accented English & Hindi, lovely houses, ethnically done up, bright cottons & silks & yep, the jewellery that I lusted after!

But sets, clothes, good looking dudes & dollops of literature don’t a good movie maketh - “Iti Mrinalini” proves my point!

review of 'rockstar'

The hero of “Rockstar” is the music, brought to life by “masakalli” Mohit Chauhan! Hearing the strong, soulful, powerful songs, Mr. & Mrs. Kaushik broke tradition, of never heading for the movies without getting any feedback – the only exception to the rule being any Aamir Khan film - the dude never lets us down! “Jab we meet” Imtiaz Silly, oh sorry, Ali, will tell him that we paid a heavy price for breaking our khandani parampara!
The heroine is the stunning locales that we get to savor across our otherwise traumatizing 3 hour journey! From the misty, winter soaked corridors of St Stephens in the capital, to the gandi galis with sleazy theatres, featuring “junglee jawani’, the canvas shifts to paradise that is Kashmir, the snow capped mountains, the cold lakes, aur phir, Prague!
Then there’s Nargis Fakhri (allow me a cheap giggle every time I hear her surname!): stunning but a tad wooden! Props for her wardrobe – I lusted after every Kashmiri stole & kurta, in the richest of hues, with the most fabulous embroidery, worn so comfortably & elegantly by Ms (giggle!) Fakhri! Not a patch on the gay abandon with which Kareena breathed life into her “Jab we met” role, but in parts, ‘lil Nargis is kaafi not bad!
Wish we could say the same about Kareena’s much talked about cousin brother, Ranbir! Surely, he knows the difference between a simpleton from humble beginnings, who dreams of becoming Jim Morrison and a half wit?! So we see two expressions on him across, shudder, shudder, a very long film – he either looks daft, or angry – why??? Khuda Jaane!!!
Some Imtiaz Ali moments – Ranbir & Nargis slumming it for a day, watching a seedy movie, drinking desi daru & dancing in cheap discos! The vibrant colors, the gorgeous costumes, the beauty of Prague & the awesome dancing in the “Haawo Haawo” song is a visual treat!
But these tiny jhalaks of joy are brought to a screeching halt, post interval, when nothing can redeem the phillum – the music & the locales cannot rise above the dismal story & shoddy director!

Ours was not to reason why –
• why Heer is so dukhi with her marriage?
• Why she gets bone marrow apalasia (keep it simple, for aam janta to comprehend, dude!) & how her blood count gets better every time the weirdly named Jordan (phuleez!) comes near her?
• Kaise she manages to get pregnant when she has that above ailment?
• Why “Jordan” dumbly dreams of becoming a rockstar, but when he does, snarls at his fans & spaces out, while the audience patiently waits!
• Why the audience didn’t pelt him with stones, or at least, rotten tomatoes?!
• Why I didn’t –because I needed the tomatoes bought from Carrefour, for the next day’s khaana!
Ours was but to watch & die … of boredom!

Or is this the ranting of a cynical, hardened soul, who is no longer charmed by the angry young rocker, could not shed a tear at poor Heer’s complicated beemari & heartlessly dismissed this romantic tale of unrequited love aaj-kal!