Skip to main content

Movie review - London Paris NewYork

There is no movie in recent times that has so casually presented love without really undermining or simplifying the complexity that comes with it.
I may go so far as calling it Woody Allen-ish, because one parallel that comes to mind is ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’. Although VCB is far more intellectually stimulating with undertones and subtleties that LPNY cannot match but there is an overall similarity in the approach i.e. a simple breezy presentation without being melodramatic or didactic about anything.
The movie is made by a débutante women director 'Anuradha Menon’     (more popularly known as 'Lola Kutty’ of MTV) and and as they say for authors I guess its true for first time directors too-who also happen to be first time scriptwriters-that it has shades of their own self. At many points in the film the characters and conversations become so earthy that you wonder if its autobiographical.
The theme is quite simple and the format pretty much NOT overused.The movie is set in three cities London Paris and NewYork and is entirely based on conversations between the two protagonists-boy and girl- and how they meet and part and then meet again to finally unite. The USP of the movie is its refreshing lightness without being crappy, a reminder of Hrishikesh Mukherjee style of cinema.
The movie presents a very contemporary idea of love-how geographies sometimes determine your love life;how easily people move on, the cycle of break ups and patch ups and of course the confusion that comes with the freedom when YOU choose your partner.
The movie belongs largely to the script with the actors neither adding much value nor destroying it, however there are flashes where Ali Zafar stands out, especially the scene where he vents out against Aditi Roy Hyderi. The humour in the movie is intelligent and well placed and it keeps the conversations crisp.
The highpoint of the movie is of course its climax, where the movie suddenly veers from sweet conversations to sharp accusations, and Ali Zafar with his endearing 'not so Indian yet Punjabi accent’ carries it off well.
The climax despite being the most dramatic has a subtle profundity in it,that how easily love can hurt and heal. Love is the only emotion which comes with an incredible volatility and range, in a moment you can swerve from most romantic to most spiteful and then be totally forgiving about it; you cannot imagine being friends again with someone if you say something even half as harsh; this is the beauty of love and the movie very casually makes this point.
The music composed by Ali Zafar has an amateurish freshness.It is totally in sync with the tone of the movie.There is an earthiness in the songs, it seems as if you are singing impromptu. My favourite is ’ woh dekhne me seedhi saadi ladki…’
Note: My sincere apologies for one and a half year delay in reviewing this movie; I was busy producing babies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fatigue Trumps Love- A Ghazal Revisited

‘Patta patta boota boota’ is a very beautiful ghazal by Mir, an 18th century Urdu poet from Delhi. It is sung by various ghazal singers but my favorite version is in the voice of Vinod Sehgal from Gulzar’s serial Mirza Ghalib. Here is a bit of an excerpt from the ghazal: Patta patta boota boota haal hamara jaane hai Jane na jane gul hi na jane baagh to sara jane hai Every leaf and twig in the garden knows my state, It is only the flower that is unaware of my feelings. Chaara gari beemari-e-dil ki rasm-e-shahr-e-husn nahi Warna dilabar-e-naadan bhi is dard ka chaara jane hai To cure an ailing heart is not the tradition of society of beauty, Even though they’re (the innocent beloved) aware of its remedy. We read differently at different stages of life. When young we tend to interpret it in the context of the beloved and find it all very moving, but I believe once you have kids in your life that you can really feel the misery, pain and irony hidden in these lines...
3 comments
Read more

Movie Review - PINK

When you watch pink you wonder why hasn’t anyone made a movie on this before. It is so fundamental to a women’s existence- especially the middle class urban women, that you wonder what took it so long. There is no theme left that Bollywood has not touched- however obscure, but for a reality that is so in our face, so ubiquitous and so omnipresent, it took so long to portray. May be the answer lies in this very paradox. The issues raised and the all the subtleties and all the obvious-es are so much a part of our existence that we have become inured to it. It is like a pain that we have become so used to that we hardly think about it while going about with our lives. When I watched Pink it was like a storm of emotions-a blast from the past, all the angst that I had forgotten about was raked up. I wonder if there is any woman in India who watched this movie, and had nothing that resonated with her. From a woman’s friendliness that is interpreted as a sign of her love interest, to ...
1 comment
Read more

My Eureka Moment

I had a sudden eureka moment today. I have realized that as you grow old in life your Eureka moments become rarer and therefore if you have one at this age and stage it calls for some sort of celebration- and my writing of this post is manifestation of one such celebration which for any other time and event would have succumbed to my laziness and procrastination. I have always believed in strength of character and admired it in people whenever I witnessed it, but several experiences in life and several seasons of ‘house of cards’ makes you a skeptic ☺ You begin to think that to be successful in life you need to be a little mean and manipulative and may be loosen up a bit on all those noble traits that Plato and Socrates vouched for. Paul Tough in his book ‘How children succeed’ argues that to be successful in life you need, not just cognitive skills like IQ but a lot of non-cognitive skills too like grit, determination, resilience and strength of character. His philosophy is not ...
1 comment
Read more