Rann

RGV is back in all his glory. Weird camera angles. Loud background music. Intense dialogue. Extreme close-ups. Jerky edit patterns. The full treatment. But hey - that's his style and he does that best. So no complaints on that front. I love RGV movies for precisely these reasons and criticising him for doing what he does best is like saying that Picasso should learn to draw with the correct perspective.

He hasn't changed his style from Raat, Shiva, Kaun?, Satya, Company, Sarkar and sequel, and now with Rann. In fact his style is the same even in Aag, Bhoot, Phoonk, etc. which have been considerably less enjoyable to watch. The difference between his good movies and bad is that the good ones have a script, a story, characters and a statement. And these are sorely lacking in his bad ones.

So where does Rann fall? After a lot of thought, I would tend to tip it over in the good basket.

The film definitely has a message. True courage of conviction involves paying a price. So what if it means destroying your loved ones and even yourself for the sake of the truth? And this becomes even more poignant if you have to do it in front of millions of viewers on live national television, coupled with the fact that being the owner of that channel, you could have easily chosen to cover it up.

What struck me most about the movie was that in terms of screentime, the good guys get about a fourth of that of the bad guys. Even in terms of dialogue, the bad guys out-speak, out-shout and out-ham the good ones by a factor of 4. However, you don't need too much time and lines to establish the strength of a character. Inherent strength does shine through and wins over all. And Vijay Malik, the owner of a national news channel along with Purab Shastri, the rookie journalist of the same channel bring this out brilliantly.

Mr Bachchan is absolutely fabulous. He plays Vijay Malik, the owner. Principled to the core to the point of being a bad businessman. Ritiesh Deshmukh is Purab Shastri, the rookie journalist. Starry-eyed about his idol and extremely idealistic and prinicipled too. Both work towards keeping up the strong ethic of their channel. But as Vijay Malik gets trapped into a web of deceit spun by the closest people in his family that ends up overthrowing the government itself, Purab is left standing by the sidelines feeling confused and disgusted.

Both have delivered brilliantly on their characters. Understated and credible.

Now about the bad guys. They disappoint hugely. Sudeep, playing Jay Malik, the young, US-MBA qualified, chain-smoking son of Vijay mostly hams and speaks Hindi with a funny accent. If he is not snorting in extreme close-ups, then he's ranting his guts out in sweeping low angle shots. Got a little tiresome.

Paresh Rawal as Mohan Pandey, the ruthless opposition leader is a caricature of the same evil politician that we see even in B-grade Hindi movies. He had done a better job in Shiva for sure.

Everyone else is adequate. But Mohnish Bahl was pretty good in the role of Kakkar, the owner of a rival news channel. The women are totally inconsequential. Gul Panag was completely wasted, which was a pity. Rajpal Yadav is irritating, which is to be expected.

Rann could've easily fallen into the bad basket for me, if it wouldn't have been for Mr Bachchan. His speech in the climax is simply brilliant to the extent of being flawless. And that is what gave meaning to the film and left you feeling that it was time well spent.

One point to nitpick - the politics is portrayed as if it is a simple two-party democracy like in the US rather than the complex mess that it actually is in India. But I guess it was to avoid unnecessary complexities in the storyline.

End of it all, watch Rann if you're an RGV fan and you'll love it. Otherwise it would be a 50-50 chance. I felt it wasn't one of his best but I liked it anyway.

Ishqiya

Begins on a dark screen with the opening of a song hummed by Krishna, the sexy UP village wife. As the lights slowly come on, we see her silhoutte filling the screen stretched on a bed. Soon we understand more of her surroundings and the other elements of the scene.

That sets the tone for Ishqiya, the new Vishal Bharadwaj production, directed by Abhishek Chaubey. The story of Ishqiya unfolds lovingly, at an unhurried pace. It slowly gets deeper and deeper into the plot and the character motivations like peeling off an onion.

Vidya Balan plays Krishna, a young woman widowed by the death of her criminal husband. At first we think of her as a vulnerable victim of society and circumstance, till the time that fate sends her two small-time thieves. As the movie unfolds, we find that there is a lot more to her than a mere victim. She effectively seduces both men - alternating between sweetness for the old romantic and raw sexuality for the young lech - to use them as pawns for her own nefarious purposes. She has done a fabulous job handling the various different facets of her character.

Naseeruddin Shah plays Khalujaan, the older thief. He is a romantic at heart who still carries the picture of his first love in his wallet. He easily falls for Krishna's guiles and starts fancying himself as the protector that she so badly needs in her life. Arshad Warsi plays Babban, the young, hot-blooded skirt-chaser. He too falls prey to Krishna's seductions and finds himself falling in love with her.

The characters are extremely well developed. But more importantly, the chemistries between all three of them are very well etched out. We feel as convinced about Krishna's innocence portrayed to Khalujaan as we feel the seduction that she doles out to Babban. At the same time, we are left wondering about the real Krishna. Is she a desperate victim, or a manipulative bitch?

Khalujaan and Babban too are best of friends who find a rift developing between them over the newfound loves of their life. Their teamwork and chemistry comes out beautifully throughout the movie. The best part is that all of this has been achieved through realistic dialogue and acting without any monologues or drama.

There is absolutely nothing to comment about the performances, except to say that they are near flawless. So is the direction. I personally felt, the climax was a little too overtly dramatic for the rest of the movie, but one can pass that.

The other characters have also done a superb job as the packing in the film. But the main merchandise comprises the three principal characters and they don't disappoint in the least.

The music is brilliant too. And just like the movie, grows slowly on you. A perfect blend of lyrics, music and vocals. With Gulzar, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rekha Bhardwaj, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Sukhwinder Singh and Mika, you cannot go wrong anyway.

All in all, Ishqiya is a must-watch. There's a lot more that can be said but that would end up spoiling the movie for those who haven't yet watched it.

The year has begun well. Let's hope we get to see more of such intelligent cinema in 2010.