Trying a little too hard
Bipin Karki is a good actor, no doubt. The roles he picks remind this reviewer of Nawazuddin Siddique, that versatile Bollywood actor who nails nearly everything he does. Yet there is also a definite difference between the two. Siddique is so good because everything he does feels effortless, as if there is no difference between the actor and the persona he portrays. But rather than relying on his natural talent to impress the audience, Karki sometimes pushes it too far. This is amply manifest in ‘Jatrai Jatra’, the sequel to the highly-successful 2016 heist comedy ‘Jatra’. For some reason, in the second edition, Director Pradeep Bhattarai saw it fit to make Karki’s character of Phadindra Timilsina repeatedly cry. Not just cry. He cries and drools and spits and speaks, all at the same time. The spittle-flecked scenes are obnoxious, made worse because you can barely make out what Timilsina, with his weird accent, is saying. It is sad that when you come out of the theater this is what you remember, rather than Timilsina’s otherwise great acting, amply supported by his two partners-in-crime —Jayas (Rabindra Singh Baniya) and Munna (Rabindra Jha)—in what is a twisted gold heist.
The movie starts with the release of these three ‘criminals’ jailed for stealing Rs 3 million. They have no intent of going back to a life of crime after their release. But as luck would have it, Timilsina, a taxi driver, in another freak incidence, finds himself in possession of 10kg of gold. The plot revolves around how the three try to safeguard their chance wealth and how the real owners of the gold, a gang of hardened criminals, is intent on getting it back. Oh, and in this gang is Don (Dayahang Rai), who belts out another low-key but masterful performance.
Barsha Raut in her role as Timilsina’s estranged wife is effective too, even if she can be a little hard to understand: at one point she is a moralizing wife trying to convince her husband not to take the ‘wrong path’ again, in the other she is an active partner in the gold heist.
Packed with such good actors, some situational comedy scenes are hilarious. But overall, the film disappoints: it is too loud, and trite, and emotional in all the wrong places. Someone who has recently watched Hari Bansha Acharya-starrer ‘Dal Bhat Tarkari’ and was put off by Acharya’s puerile acting and Niruta Singh’s constant shouting will find similar jarring echoes in ‘Jatrai Jatra’. And there is far too much grime and shit and dirty toilets on display, which, again, are a big put-off for the audiences savoring their popcorn and nachos.
Not that it is a bad movie. There is suspense, drama, comedy, some nice dance numbers too. Yet given the anticipation it had generated, Jatrai Jatra disappoints. If you have nothing better to do in the weekend, you may still want to watch it. But keep your expectations low.
Who should watch it?
Die-hard Bipin Adhikari and Dayahang Rai fans should have enough to keep them hooked for 2h17m of runtime. If you have the stomach to ignore all the (literal) filth on display, the other bits of the package are—how do we put it?—digestible.
Movie: Jatrai jatra
Genre: Heist Comedy
Cast: Bipin Karki, Dayahang Rai, Rabindra Singh Baniya, Rabindra Jha, Barsha Rau, Rajaram Poudel
Direction: Pradeep Bhattarai
Rating: 3.5/5
Need more of ‘Less’
“The crazy quilt of a writer’s life: warm enough, though it never quite covers the toes,” writes Andrew Sean Greer in his latest novel ‘Less’ that won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018. And it is a writer’s fascinating and often filled-with-self-doubt life that Greer shows us in ‘Less’ through Arthur Less. We are told that Pulitzer is pronounced “Pull-it-sir” not “Pew-lit-sir” and that the protagonist, Arthur Less, will never win a Pull-it-sir Prize. For Arthur, who is about to turn 50 and thinks he is possibly the “only gay man to have ever grown old,” this makes him consider himself “mediocre”. His first book was a moderate success but publishers have rejected his latest work. To make matters worse, Freddy, his younger ex-boyfriend, is getting married and Less doesn’t have an excuse not to attend the wedding. So he runs away, hopping from one literary event to another; events to which he had been invited to, but once had no plans of attending.
As Arthur travels the world, from New York, Paris and Berlin to Morocco, India and Kyoto, in a style reminiscent of Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, you see him deal with a lot of emotional baggage and he is also forever getting pulled into his past as random events force Arthur to reminisce on life. Apart from the memories, there are also a lot of mishaps and misunderstandings that make Arthur’s life far less “mediocre” than he believes it to be.
With ‘Less’, you go on a journey around the world while rediscovering what it means to love and be loved
The travelogue bit of the narrative that runs parallel to Less’s reflections on love and relationships make for compelling storytelling. During the various stages of Arthur’s soul-searching journey we also get to meet fascinating new characters. It’s all neatly tied together by a narrator who we know is someone in Arthur’s life but whose identity Greer has you guessing until the very end. With ‘Less’, you go on a journey around the world while rediscovering what it means to love and be loved.
‘Less’ isn’t laugh-out-loud funny but it’s one of the wittiest and smartest novels you will ever read. That we guarantee. Arthur, in his self-deprecating and insecure ways, is a charming character. Greer is a fine writer, a master of words, who is able to keep it fun and poignant at the same time. In an interview, Greer said he had written a book he wanted to, and by doing so has given us a book we have always wanted to read.
Book: Less
Genre: Fiction
Author: Andrew Sean Greer
Published: 2018
Publisher: Le Boudreaux Books
Language: English
Pages: 261, Paperback
Bigger not always better
Ever watched a movie and felt like you’ve figured out the whole story from the very first scene? That’s ‘Student of the Year 2’. A repetitive formula of the ‘rich vs poor’, ‘good vs evil’ drama that has been frequently used in Bollywood for almost a century now. So SOTY2 is a teenage drama with an attempted coming of age story, puppyish love angles, little comic relief, and a few so-so action sequences. A typical Bollywood masala, but without the main ingredients of a moving story: captivating screenplay and convincing acting.
Tiger does all the things a Bollywood director would want him to: flex 8-pack abs, dance, fight, play kabaddi and even parkour
The movie revolves around the ‘prestigious’ Dignity Cup and the Student of the Year title which is hosted by St Teresa’s College, one of the biggest and poshest colleges in Dehradun. Now our lower-middle class hero Rohan (Tiger Shroff) dreams of leaving his lower-middle class Pishorilal Chamandas College, Mussoorie to… not win the cup actually, but be together with his sweetheart Mridula aka Mia (Tara Sutaria). He does manage to get into the college on a sports scholarship for his kabaddi prowess, but all is not well for our poor hero. He has to face two formidable foes in the form of spoilt, rich brats Shreya (Ananya Pandey) and Manav (Aditya Seal) who’re basically the most powerful siblings in the college because their dad is a trustee there. Sigh!
The original Student of the Year (2012) launched the careers of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddartha Malhotra. All the starlets from the highly successful movie managed to impress both the audience and the critics, and get more work as a result. Alas, the same cannot be said for this time’s debutants Tara and starlet Ananya (Chunky Pandey’s daughter). They falter in dialogue delivery and expressing emotions. Their dancing is just heavily choreographed mechanical movements. Not their fault. They’re made to dance next to the hunky Tiger, who shines, for the sheer lack of competition. The girls have a very forgettable debut in SOTY2 and they should definitely work on honing their skills while they’re young if they do not want to end up playing second (or third or fourth) fiddle in B-grade rom-com ensembles.
Tiger, on the other hand, does all the things a Bollywood director, Punit Malhotra in this case, would want him to do. He flexes his 8-pack abs, dances, fights, plays kabaddi like a kung fu master and even parkours. But the one thing he, despite of his talents, fails in is romance. Not entirely his fault again. Looks like Bollywood has forgotten to make young people romantic since Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Low-key actor Aditya Seal, playing the stereotypical college jock Manav, almost outshines Tiger at some points. He does justice to his character of a wealthy and arrogant but skilled college idol with his stony countenance and resolute acting.
Rohan’s friends from Pishorilal also manage to add humor and the best thing about the movie is that it maintains a healthy pace throughout, not slowing down to boring sequences.
Who should watch it?
It may lack originality but the movie is not altogether boring for a Bollywood masala fan. You can at least watch it for the overgenerous production. Even poor people cut three-layer cakes in Dharma movies, so you can definitely watch SOTY2 for the larger-than-life characterizations and enjoy it as one big fashion show.
Movie: Student of the Year 2
Genre: Drama
Cast: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal
Direction: Punit Malhotra
Rating: 2/5
This dal bhat is stale as fish
Dal bhat tarkari is the staple food for Nepalis. A Nepali home, wherever it is, can and will serve you a meal of dal bhat tarkari and whoever prepares it, will seldom get it wrong. Naming their movie “Dal Bhat Tarkari”, the filmmakers of this supposed comedy do appeal to the ‘Nepalipan’ of the audience. But like a lone highway eatery in the middle of nowhere, their dal bhat tarkari is stale. Imagine being invited to a dinner with the promise of the best tasting meal ever and then being served hastily prepared, undercooked, unhygienic and tasteless food. That’s what the makers of this movie do: invite you to the cinema halls for a hilarious Nepali comedy movie and then fail to make you laugh, at all.
The plot (if we can call it that) revolves around the family of Ram Hari (Hari Bamsha Acharya), Urmila (Niruta Singh), Rahul (Pushpa Khadka), and Rahul’s love interest, Pinky (Aanchal Sharma)—all of whom desperately want to go to the US, like many other Nepalis who think settling abroad is an end to all of their problems. They are then duped by the stereotypical anti-hero in Swami Gaayak (Shishir Bangdel), a singer turned saint who now is in the business of sending people abroad as ‘performing artists’. Clichéd right? Just expect to see a hundred more in the 125 minutes of this ‘dark comedy’ disaster.
The relation between Ram Hari and Urmila is too tricky to comprehend. One moment they’re fighting like cats and dogs (they mention that in the movie too), and the next they’re a perfect happy couple, as soon as they see a slight possibility of getting a US visa. Their “love-hate” relation and banters are repetitive and tacky and soon wears you out. Singh’s over-the-top dramatization of every scene and overpitched dialogue delivery is especially pathetic. At times, it feels like she is literally trying to scream to the audience that she is making a comeback to the Nepali film industry. (But she’s not the lone culprit. The whole cast is extremely loud—like really, really, painfully loud.) Shocking how the graceful beauty that impressed everyone as Smriti in the blockbuster Darpan Chaya (2001) is not even 10 percent of her former self.
Director Sudan KC (son of veteran actor Kiran KC who also stars in the film and is a producer too) fails to mold the storyline into a believable plot and miserably fails to establish any kind of credible relation between any of the characters. A star cast of some of the most significant names in Kollywood, along with rising newcomers, are all running around the loose screenplay in a chaotic frenzy. What adds to the woes is the under-average cinematography, severe jerks in editing and a nonchalant approach to moving the film forward.
Who should watch it?
If you’re a big MaHa fan and can bear loud slapstick comedy sequences, you can definitely risk your eardrums. Also go if you’re inspired by the preachy Nepali filmmakers who urge you to watch and support Nepali films, even though what they produce is absolute crap.
Movie: Dal Bhaat Tarkari
Genre: Comedy
Cast: Hari Bamsha Acharya, Niruta Singh, Aanchal Sharma
Direction: Sudan KC
Rating: 1/5
