One of the few movies I watched alone. Not a bad experience really. The last one was one Harry Potter movie if I remember right. But you got to do what you got to do. So I chose an 11 pm show at PVR, suffered the badly designed mall, watched the movie and came home the next day, bleary eyed.
If there's one thing about Homi Adajania, its that he makes movies at his own pace, through his own eyes. Its a bit black, slightly kinky and pokes at some hidden aspects of us which are just below the surface and which may not be all so nice. There's insecurity, perversion, pig-headedness, insensitivity. And there's also the nice things. All his characters are that way and all find a happy ending. Well, almost all. When the movie started to unfold I knew not where it was going and whether I wanted to go on the journey with them because it did seem like a rather purpose-less bunch with almost zero motive to go anywhere save the fully focussed Don Pedro. But after it ended, I was okay with that.
Angie (Deepika Padukone) is a young widow who has been widowed on her wedding day when her over-enthusiastic husband choked on a plastic figurine in the wedding cake. Her virginity and her dreams intact, she lives with her widowed mother-in-law Rosie (Dimple Kapadia) in a laid back village in Goa. Her best friend is the bachelor post master, the neurotic Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), for lack of any other options in the village it appears. One whacky, inspired artist Don Pedro also thrives in the place, seeking out his passions and muses, big women. The large mother-in-law with an unpronouncable name is big, as so is his passion for her. He wants to paint her, his madame. Completing the bunch is Savio da Gama (Arjun Kapoor) who also loved Angie but never proposed to her and left the village the day she married and got widowed. They all get together to find Fanny or Stephanie, Ferdie's crush, to whom he had written a letter, 46 years ago expressing his feelings. Unfortunately the letter comes back to him mysteriously, undelivered after all these years. Ferdie, is someone who has also been a shippie with Alberto, the mother-in-law's late husband and knows a secret that not many know. They set out to find Fanny in an old car and during the trip, find many other things including Fanny. And lose a few things.
All's well and that ends well. Goa is beautiful. I could locate a couple of roads which looked familiar. The oldies are fantastic - Naseer and his neurotic mannerisms and lost puppy looks, Dimple in her obnoxious, in-your-face manner and Pankaj Kapoor who is extravagant and full of crazy, artistic quirks and passions. Naseer is never sure until the end, Arjun is concerned when Deepika says she hopes 'it' will only get better, Pankaj Kapoor discards his muse like a rag once his painting is done, Dimple Kapadia finds her self-composure ripped open and exposed at the brutality of the artist's lust for his painting - its a tale of characters who are all pretty similar to the car, rickety, unsure and not really reliable. Its patchy, rusty, can fail at any time but somewhere deep inside it is solid and well, it moves along. It's quirky.
If there's one thing about Homi Adajania, its that he makes movies at his own pace, through his own eyes. Its a bit black, slightly kinky and pokes at some hidden aspects of us which are just below the surface and which may not be all so nice. There's insecurity, perversion, pig-headedness, insensitivity. And there's also the nice things. All his characters are that way and all find a happy ending. Well, almost all. When the movie started to unfold I knew not where it was going and whether I wanted to go on the journey with them because it did seem like a rather purpose-less bunch with almost zero motive to go anywhere save the fully focussed Don Pedro. But after it ended, I was okay with that.
Angie (Deepika Padukone) is a young widow who has been widowed on her wedding day when her over-enthusiastic husband choked on a plastic figurine in the wedding cake. Her virginity and her dreams intact, she lives with her widowed mother-in-law Rosie (Dimple Kapadia) in a laid back village in Goa. Her best friend is the bachelor post master, the neurotic Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah), for lack of any other options in the village it appears. One whacky, inspired artist Don Pedro also thrives in the place, seeking out his passions and muses, big women. The large mother-in-law with an unpronouncable name is big, as so is his passion for her. He wants to paint her, his madame. Completing the bunch is Savio da Gama (Arjun Kapoor) who also loved Angie but never proposed to her and left the village the day she married and got widowed. They all get together to find Fanny or Stephanie, Ferdie's crush, to whom he had written a letter, 46 years ago expressing his feelings. Unfortunately the letter comes back to him mysteriously, undelivered after all these years. Ferdie, is someone who has also been a shippie with Alberto, the mother-in-law's late husband and knows a secret that not many know. They set out to find Fanny in an old car and during the trip, find many other things including Fanny. And lose a few things.
All's well and that ends well. Goa is beautiful. I could locate a couple of roads which looked familiar. The oldies are fantastic - Naseer and his neurotic mannerisms and lost puppy looks, Dimple in her obnoxious, in-your-face manner and Pankaj Kapoor who is extravagant and full of crazy, artistic quirks and passions. Naseer is never sure until the end, Arjun is concerned when Deepika says she hopes 'it' will only get better, Pankaj Kapoor discards his muse like a rag once his painting is done, Dimple Kapadia finds her self-composure ripped open and exposed at the brutality of the artist's lust for his painting - its a tale of characters who are all pretty similar to the car, rickety, unsure and not really reliable. Its patchy, rusty, can fail at any time but somewhere deep inside it is solid and well, it moves along. It's quirky.
No comments:
Post a Comment