Shyam Singha Roy

Shyam Singha Roy (2021)

Written and Directed by: Rahul Sankrityan

Cinematography: Sanu Varghese John

Spoilers Ahead.

This film beautifully uses the technique of 'set up and pay off' all over the film. It's used in the writing and visually too. In writing, a lot of things like, the short story that Shyam gives to his brother, Rosie's last wish. Visually, it's things like the two pearls that Shyam picks up in the flashback, which he places them back in the ending. Usually a lot of Telugu films have a vague beginning 20-30 mins, where there is no relationship to the core plot. Here too it seems like that in the beginning, but the first half is full of set ups which are paid off later. Also, since we see him from his short film days, to him becoming a director, there is time flowing in the film and it feels like the plot is moving even before the arresting incident happens. The filmmaking struggle is also hilarious. I loved the entire flashback except for the part where he brutally kills the man in the temple and saves them - that one sequence felt out of tone, it was too high on drama - and it again goes back into tone when he saves Rosie and moves to Kolkata, and becomes a writer. 

I loved the visuals - of course the flashback is shot beautifully - even in the present parts, the camera is so fluid. The DOP recently shot Malik, so it makes sense. The way Rise of Shyam was edited was beautiful - with the usage of some real footage in between. The making out scene was really good and smooth, can't recall such good making out in Telugu cinema before. And the act of writing is usually boring to visually see, but I loved how they dramatized the act of writing in the flashback, with camera moves, props and music. Overall, I enjoyed the film.

83

83 (2021)

Directed by: Kabir Khan
Starring: Ranveer Singh
Spoilers Ahead (about the cameos)

I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but I was slightly underwhelmed because of my high expectations from the trailer. Ranveer Singh was fantastic - not for a moment could I see Ranveer in the frame and it felt like it was Kapil Dev throughout. It's a story of an underdog team, winning the world cup and they establish a lot of antagonism through criticism. Everyone laughs at the idea of India winning. I also liked how they showed that cricket unites us as a country and even a situation like riots could be calmed down because of cricket. But then I wasn't feeling so strongly when all this was happening. I think it's because 60-70% of the film felt like a compilation of highlights of the world cup. Watching a cricket match is fun, but watching highlights isn't. Even in a film like Jersey, the best part of the film is not the cricket matches. The way they shot and cut the games - it felt slightly exhausting for me, especially the semi-final. 

I loved Sachin's cameo - I was wondering if they should've shown Dhoni as a baby too when the world cup was happening - and then the comic in me was thinking if they should've shown Virat's dad flirting with Virat's mom when the cup was happening. No. It was a bad joke. Ignore. Coming back to the film - I enjoyed the film, it was beautifully shot and produced. Felt like I was just transported to the world back then. Just witnessing something like this is beautiful - but the trailer set an insanely high expectation for me - where I was expecting this, and also the high you get when you watch a Bajrangi Bhaijaan - which I think some people would've gotten but I didn't. Perhaps because the film focused on capturing the cricket matches more than evoking emotions. But yes, in whatever scope they had, they definitely evoked emotions - for me a really good moment was when the team walks out of the pavilion to field in the finals. I loved Jeetega Jeetega song - I just thought it could've been cut better because the way the trailer used the song was something else altogether.

Pushpa

Pushpa (2021)

Directed by: B. Sukumar

Starring: Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, Fahadh Faasil

Pushpa is basically a rags to riches gangster drama. Probably because of the "PAN India" release and the hype around, it would've set the wrong expectations. Otherwise at the core, it's a hypermasculine gangster drama set in the world of red sandalwood. A guy at the bottom, a coolie, slowly climbs the ladder by outperforming his peers and killing a few, comes to the top and then faces the villain. We see this structure in any gangster film. Here, since the film is shot in a way that the setting and the world comes through so well, the scale of the film got so huge, and hence the expectations. I loved Allu Arjun in the film. I was not enjoying the flashback, and the mother's track that much till the climax face off comes. Then, everything got justified. It's a man to man war, like that in Ayyappanum Koshiyum. We see very few of such hypermasculine dramas done well, especially after the overdose of the "embrace your vulnerabilities" movement.

I thought the entire Rashmika's track could've been taken off, it's just a subplot. It was given a lot more importance than needed. The climax face off is a very powerful setup for the next part. Anasuya's character was also setup well for the next part. I like how the film is shot, the lighting and the palette looks realistic. But the action scenes are Telugu-ish. There were a lot of mass moments in the film, some of which would've been elevated better with a different kind of score. Apart from a few things, I loved the film and I'm looking forward to Part-2.

The Peanut Butter Falcon

The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

Written and Directed by: Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Zack Gottsagen, Dakota Johnson
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

It's the most beautiful, heartwarming film I've seen in a while. It has 3 characters, a very simple setting and they explore large things in life through this simple setup. Zak, a 22-year-old man with Down syndrome escapes from a facility as he always dreamt of becoming a wrestler. He then bumps into Tyler, a macho guy. From there, it's a beautiful relationship that they both form. It's a brotherhood. It's friendship. It's a guru-shishya thing. It's also a father-child relation because Tyler teaches him simple things, he protects him. It's something that you can't put a label on. Just two characters and they keep overcoming some hurdles that they face on the way. And then, they are found out by Eleanor, Zak's caretaker in the facility. Tyler convinces Eleanor to go with them, and that he's only trying to fulfil Zak's dream. Eleanor slowly gives into it. There's some chemistry between Tyler and Eleanor. They explore Eleanor's character with very few scenes and yet they do it beautifully. 

After Tyler and Eleanor are together in the ending and Zak refers to them as his family, it's again a beautiful relationship that you can't put a label on. It's like they are siblings, they are friends and sometimes it's also like Zak is their child. This is what I love about this film. Usually, we hurry to put labels on every relationship we have. We get a little restless. But if Tyler had to do a "we need to talk" conversation with Zak, would he have done what all he did for Zak? He wouldn't. He did it out of sheer love for him. In Tyler's life, post 20 years, he would still remember this beautiful period in his life where he himself might be surprised by his ability to love. This film inspires us to love without expecting anything in return. 

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Captain Fantastic (2016)

Written and Directed by: Matt Ross

Premiered at Sundance 2016.

Streaming on Prime Video.

It's a beautiful premise. It's about a family who lives in isolation from the real world, with anti-capitalist ideologies and some idealistic ways of living. They hunt their own food, they are extremely physically active, they never lie to their children even when they ask questions about things that are usually considered inappropriate for them. This family is forced to come into the real world. It's a 'fish out of the pond' scenario, like Dictator, PK and such films where the protagonist is so out of sync with the world that everything can be a conflict. They use this very well too. They are constantly questioned about their way of life and the father proves themselves right every single time. The film is shot beautifully, the performances are good too.

My issue with the film was that the film's worldview wasn't clear. It was shifting from here and there. The film ends on a note where you have to strike a balance. But the film at the end of Act 2 goes to a zone where the father too stops to believe that his ways are correct - well this could be the writer applying the 'all is lost' moment but then this ended up in the film not having a strong worldview. It doesn't take a stance. Sure, ending the film where the characters strike a balance is alright but here the characters surrender to the ideas of capitalism, which felt a little disappointing because at least in a film you crave to see characters do things that perhaps you cannot. I didn't like the track of the mother's death too, because they conveniently kept peeling layers out of that track according to whichever side they wanted to take.

Skylab

Skylab (2021)

Written and Directed by: Vishwak Khanderao
Starring: Nithya Menen, Sathyadev, Tanikella Bharani

When I first heard of the premise of the film through a friend, I was really excited. I saw the trailer, and I saw something different than what I had expected out of the film. The trailer had a nice, slice of life tone to it but it was not quite dealing with the premise. The film does exactly the same that the trailer showed. The film uses the incident of Skylab as a setting and merely as a backdrop, it doesn't use it as a conflict or a story element. The film instead explores characters within the setting of Skylab. In spite of the tone being really warm and nice, and the amazing execution of the film - it felt like the film was introducing the characters for 70% of the film. I felt like there wasn't much happening, and they had an amazing premise right there. They could've done so much more with it. Tanikella Bharani's track was beautiful. Nithya Menen's track was also beautiful. Rahul Ramakrishna's track was also beautiful. But the way they were placed with respect to the core idea of the film 'Skylab' was what could've been done differently so that we'd have felt the stakes throughout, which would've resulted in a more emotionally satisfying experience.

The film became emotionally satisfying in the last 20 minutes of the film - because we see the characters having an arc, and we get a beautiful sense of closure. The cinematography was beautiful - it had a haze to it throughout which added a nice dreamy touch to the world, giving it a slight fantasy sense. The dialogue was so musical and wonderful to listen to. The acting of every character was really good, the way they performed is what created a unique tone to the film. The last 20 minutes of the film made the experience worthwhile.