Kusum Ka Biyaah: A bridge that divides

Kusum Ka Biyaah: A bridge that divides

Jharkhand was carved out of the state of Bihar many years ago. Perhaps some people in either state and the governments have not yet reconciled to the partition. There appear to be irreconcilable differences between them. With this background comes a small indie film, Kusum Ka Biyaah (Kusum’s Marriage), that is set in the border areas of the two states and involves the marriage of a graduate girl called Kusum, from Bihar, to a colliery worker from Jharkhand, called Sunil. Neither the title nor this brief synopsis prepare you for what you are about to see. It is based on a true story, which gives it a natural authenticity, but the makers must be complimented on sticking to the basics and delivering an eminently watchable film.

Dashrath Soren and his wife are retired, and live together, having lost their son at a young age. They have a daughter, Kusum, who is educated till a graduation level. Keen to get her married soon, they take the help of a Pandit, who suggests the date of 21^st March. A Munda family is found, which does not demand any dowry. Both parties are happy with the liaison, though Dashrath’s wife is concerned that the time is too short to make all arrangements. But it is 2020, and Covid has reached India. The Prime Minister makes an announcement that there will be a “people’s curfew” on 21^st March. This throws a spanner in the works of the marriage plans. Dashrath and his wife suggest to the grooms family that they should advance the date by a couple of days, and have a no frills wedding, since the decoration and rituals will not be possible on the 21^st. The family disagrees.

So, the wedding is held on 21^st March, in the bride’s home, and the next morning, the groom and the wedding troupe (baaraatee) leave for Jharkhand. But they are not allowed to proceed beyond the border, into Bihar, by the police, because all cross-state movement has been restricted on account of Covid 19. All of them have head back to Dashrath’s home. But how long can this go on? The curfew will be in force for at least 21 days. Dashrath approaches the Sarpanch (Head Man/Mukhiya) of the village, and after much persuasion, he agrees to approach the District Magistrate (DM)’s office, to grant this baaraat permission to cross the border. The DM obliges. Elated, they all rush to the bamboo bridge on the river Damodar that separates the two states. To their great relief, the police lets them pass, thanks to the DM’s permission, but their misfortune has just begun. Police on the Jharkhand side stop them, because they have no papers that would allow them entry into their home state. They cannot go back to Dashrath’s home either, because the permit they have allows exit, but not entry. They will now have to stay on the bridge indefinitely, with neither food nor water nor toilets in sight.

A round of applause for the writers, Vikash Dubey and Sandip Dubey. Transposing a true story on to the big screen is never an easy task, and they have done it with aplomb. Dialogue is rooted in the soil and never used in excess. No attempt is made to insert clap-trap situations or make any character a hero or a martyr. Almost everybody gets equal exposure, and even the cameos seem complete in themselves. The inherent goodness in humans, a quality that is getting rarer by the second, surfaces as if it is in-built in the good men and women, who carry it in their hearts. One scene, just one, has some humour in it: when a customer wants to deposit a huge sum of money in his bank because he fears that when the PM addresses the nation later that day, he might announce another demonetisation of certain currencies, as he had done some years earlier. There are only three scenes that strike discord. Firstly, the beginning and the whole author, award and audience is a leaf out of Anamika (1973), in which this writer acted. Secondly, the Manager/owner’s visit to the colliery seems unnaturally enacted, in comparison with the rest of the film. And lastly, the scene(s) between the colliery supervisor and his wife, at their home. Here is where the director should come in.

Shooting with great economy of time and space, Suvendu Raj Ghosh has done a very good job. Of course, he could have done better while shooting the above three scenes. All characters look their parts, and melodrama is avoided. Often, important information is conveyed in just one line or one word. Like when Kusum tells her husband-to-be that she wants to study further, after the marriage, and when another woman asks her, on the bridge, how far she has studied, she replies, “Graduate”. The TV crews are awkwardly portrayed, but who knows, TV crews in that region might really be like that. It is clear that the story of Kusum Ka Biyaah is symbolic, and while we empathise with the characters stranded on the bridge, we must also mull over booby traps of bureaucracy and petty politics. Curiously, one Police Officer, after declaring that he cannot do anything within the system, but agrees to help the hapless bridge-dwellers from outside the system. But I did not see him doing anything to further his stand.

Old-timer Mushtaq Khan plays the writer who is being honoured, in March 2024, for his book on the March 2020 incident. He underplays it, and is a good piece of casting. But I felt his voice was dubbed. Wonder why. Pradeep Chopra as Dashrath Soren has a good role, except that sometimes he sounds a bit younger than his looks. The film introduces two new faces: Lovekansh Garg as Sunil and Sujana Darjee as Kusum. Both come across as slice of life characters. I could not identify Tanmoy Bhattacharjee, Ayush Mukherjee, Moumita Paul and Arnab Santikary, who are among the main cast. But whatever roles they might have played, they jell together with the rest of the cast. Two other characters have names to them: Raja Sarkar as Prashant Munda and Suhani Biswas as Rewati Munda. It will be difficult to find fault with any of them.

Kudos also to Saurav Banerjee, the DOP, Bhanu Pratap Singh, the Music Director and Raj Singh Sidhu, the Editor. The title of the film could have been better, because Kusum’s marriage is not the focus of the film. It is used as a launching pad to highlight social evils and the triumph of the humane over the inhuman. Bridges are meant to bring people closer, not to divide and pitch one side against the other. Kusum Ka Biyaah is neatly packaged 100 minutes of good cinema. It is not entertaining, but then so many classics are anything but entertaining.

This review has come very late because I missed the preview screening and had to see it on Vimeo. I’m glad I did. See it. Wherever you can.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://youtu.be/rxjFxGp16iw

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Yodha, Review: You are on the wrong plane

Yodha, Review: You are on the wrong plane

First they got the spelling wrong, using Yodha instead of Yoddha. Secondly, they got the meaning wrong. Yodhha means a warrior, whereas the Yoddha, who is the protagonist of the film, is an ultra-modern special missions operative, who is disgraced and demoted to the duty of an air security officer, as a result of being over-ambitious during a dangerous mission. At the core of the film is a long second segment inside an aircraft, which is also the most interesting part of the film. But the liberal use of jargon and flying technology diminishes the impact of the high octane action. Yodha also takes liberal liberties with credibility and goes completely overboard in the third segment, which leads to the climax. Not quite as preposterous as 9-11, but if they could do it to the twin towers, why can’t these guys target twin powers?

A brave army officer, Surender Katyal, sets-up an elite task force within the ranks, and calls it Yodha. His young son, Arun, is enamoured with his Dad’s uniform, and hears of his exploits with great interest. Little does he know that his father will soon be martyred, and he will be groomed to lead Yodha himself. On a mission, he is ordered not to go solo, but he ignores the order, slides down an electric wire, trolley-like, and eliminates the enemy. His bosses do not take kindly to his bravado, and clamp down on not only him but on the Yodha unit itself. It is disgraced, and shut, for good. Arun holds on for the longest time, while his colleagues tender apologies and accept other positions in the security domain. But the inevitable can only be delayed, not avoided. Jobless, Arun Katyar becomes an air security officer, the kind that travel on every flight, in order to prevent any untoward happening.

One day, he is checking in to board a flight when somebody bangs into him and moves on. He notices that the person who bumped into him dropped his boarding pass. He picks it up and hands it over to the check-in counter girl. The girl looks at the card and makes an announcement that passenger Arun Katyar should come to her counter, since he has dropped his boarding pass there. Arun is puzzled. He is on the way to boarding a different flight, and his boarding pass is very much with him. So who is this other Arun Katyar? He then gets an SMS on his phone and decides to change his flight, taking the one indicated on the dropped boarding pass. Soon after boarding the aircraft, he sees strange things happening. A burly passenger tries to sneak into the toilet. After he comes out, Arun goes in and finds a metallic object in the toilet bowl. He gets very suspicious and confronts the passenger, and they get into a fight, which results in the passenger’s death. Arun tells the crew that he is an air security officer, and they help him hide the body in the hold. He discovers that one of the passengers on board is top nuclear scientist Anuj Nair, and that the man he accidentally killed was in charge of his security. Two other persons of the plane’s crew turn out be not what they are, a sinister plot unfolds and a fist-fest begins.

Obviously inspired by the 9-11 attacks, and the films that Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha assisted on, Yodha serves us some of those ingredients, then takes off on a different plane. Moving on from Script Supervisor at YashRaj Films, in 2021, to become writer and co-director of Dharma Productions’ Yodha, Sagar Ambre shows great attention to detail in touting aeronautical terminology, though whether, in engineering and physics terms, they would make sense to the lay audience is for the academics to decide. My own answer is “No.” Pushkar Ojha, the co-director, comes from Kick, War and Pathaan, where he was an Assistant Director/Second Unit director. Sagar, for his part, had contributed to Uri, Pathaan and Mardaani 2. So, both these helmsmen have had a fairly good grounding in the action genre. But once the action in the air ends, they go haywire in resorting to twists after twists, and constantly upscaling the stakes, from what appeared to be a hijack, to the elimination of two heads of states, or, at least one. This works fine if you suspend, or, rather, deep-freeze, disbelief, and get carried away on the turbulent path of the plane that is fast losing altitude. It is a giveaway when one female passenger reveals that she has 200 hours of flying experience behind her and is joining this airline, Air Bharat (we do have an Air-India, so the change in nomenclature may be excused), very soon. She will soon take her position in the cockpit. But you do not expect two other crew members to be Pakistani terrorists in disguise, and therein lie two game-turners. I will refrain from going into the climax, which is extravagant if anything, yet poorly imagined. Also, on an international flight, being originally meant to head to London, the presence of only two air-hostesses as flight crew is highly abnormal.

Arun’s domestic life and the impending divorce are totally dispensable. Writers, please be a little more creative in such matters. His bonding with fellow Yodhas is not what you would expect among such a closely knit task-force. His credo, “I never negotiate,” sounds more bombastic boast than a statement of a personality trait. On-ground activity in the control room, with Arun’s wife Priya being a key player, does not have the palpable throbbing that was needed. A fine bit of writing is evidenced in the first hijack (yes, there are two, to be sure, though the second is not really a hijacking, in the technical sense), when we discover that the fuel tanker asked for by the hijackers is holding no fuel, but a group of commandos hiding in it. Arun’s knowledge of avionics is both amazing and unbelievable, though he must have been trained in the basics of the science, as part of his appointment. But surely, he is not expected to be a Ph.D. in the subject. The directors have crammed in too many very long fisticuffs, with neither party taking any serious injuries in the hand to hand and leg to leg fights. What is more, they have a hard-nosed woman in the fray too, fighting as hard as her male adversary. Whatever happened to sophisticated weapons? The ease with which the baddies take control of the aircraft does not convince one bit.

Showing great agility and rippling muscles, Sidharth Malhotra is a good choice for Arun. He still needs to work a bit on his diction, though. The romantic scenes don’t come as easily to him, and are awkwardly enacted. But the fight scenes are something he obviously enjoys, though the blurring pace at which they are projected make you wonder how many of them were done by duplicates, or generated as VFX.

Rashii Khanna (only her second outing in Hindustani cinema, after Madras Café, 11 years ago) as his docile wife, Priya, in a high profile Ministry job, looks perplexed and agitated, both when needed to look so, and where it is unnecessary to be so. She has the more domesticated look of the two ‘heroines’, with Disha Patani taking on the conspiratorial and combative role of Laila. It’s a downright negative role that Disha (M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Baaghi 2, Malang, Ek Villain Returns) executes with flair, perhaps inspired by her real-life Police Officer father.

The first credit title is one of thanks to Ronit Roy, who plays the part of Surender Katyar. Obviously, this is in recognition of his agreeing to put in a cameo. He is his usual, confident self, with characteristic dialogue delivery. S.M. Zaheer, now in his dusk of his life (77), is wasted as the scientist Anuj Nair, with little to do. As Arun’s mother, Farida Patel Venkat is passable. As the Indian ‘Head of State’ (I am sure I heard him being addressed as Foreign Minister too, once), Sanjay Gurbaxani is as type-cast as can be and as unimpressive. Tanuj Virwani is good as Sameer Khan, one of Arun’s trusted lieutenants in Yodha. In support are Sunny Hinduja as Rafiq, Kritika Bhardwaj as Tanya Sharma (the stand-in pilot? good job), Chittranjan Tripathy as S.N. Dhingra, Mikhail Yawalkar as Ahmed Khalid and Kumpal Patel as an air-hostess (there were only two, and one was played by Disha, so she must be the other). It is a pity that the villains are not listed on the web and the names flashed past on the screen so fast that one could not note them, as usual. Even if you do a search, the pictures that appear are not with the make-up and get-up they had in the film, so it is extremely difficult to recognise them. Having said that, they all did a decent job, showing variations from the standard, clichéd depictions of Pakistani terrorists. For once, long man-to-man combats, ending with the hero on the falling side, are a welcome change.

Interestingly, in this slug-fest, music plays an important role, but the names of music contributors are not mentioned because the credits vary on different sites. Crammed for space on an aeroplane set, and desperate for lighting, Jishnu Bhattacharjee does a good job behind the camera. Breakneck fights need breakneck editing, which is provided by Shivkumar V. Panicker and Aarif Sheikh, the latter is probably an assistant to Panicker. At 130 minutes, there is already some repetitiveness in the confrontation scenes, so keeping it at this length makes sense.

Moral of the story: The next time somebody drops a boarding pass at a check-in counter, with your name on it, don’t change your flight. And unless you happen to be a Yodha, you might find yourself on a different plane (level) altogether.         

Rating: ** ½

Trailer: https://youtu.be/evs67wC3tOQ

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A film with the same title, also spelt Yodha, was made in 1991, by Rahul Rawail, pairing Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt for the second time, after the failure of Kroadh. Yodha was a hit.

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10 Quality Indian films based on works of literature © Mr. Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) dated 29.02.2024

10 Quality Indian films based on works of literature © Mr. Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) dated 29.02.2024

1) Abhaas (1997) directed by Bijaya Jena. This is an interesting ‘‘auteur’’ film by Ms. Bijaya Jena who has won India’s national award twice. It is based on a 3 pages long short story by famous Odia writer Rabi Das. This is a classic film that is set in 1951 and talks about deprivation, marginalization, sexual exploitation and neglect of a weak woman. It talks about the Zamindari system in which a landlord exercises complete control over a village. Apart from directing this film, Ms. Bijaya Jena also plays an important role in it. Abhaas was shown at La Rochelle Film Festival.

2) Tamas (1988) directed by Govind Nihalani. Tamas means ‘darkness’. It is based on the eponymous novel by acclaimed Hindi writer Bhisham Sahni. He was the younger brother of famous Hindi cinema actor Balraj Sahni. Tamas talks about the partition of India in 1947 when Hindus and Sikhs emigrated to India from Pakistan. Initially, Tamas was shown as a TV series. Later, it was shown as a 4 hours long feature film. Om Puri and Deepa Sahi play the lead roles in ‘‘Tamas’’. 

  

3) Angoor (1982) directed by Gulzar. In the realm of Hindi cinema, Gulzar occupies a special place as a famous lyricist and an occasional director. ‘Angoor’ (Grapes) is one of his most modest films. It is based on the famous play ‘‘The Comedy of Errors’’ by Shakespeare. The film was released in 1982 which was the perfect time for Indian auteur cinema. Sanjeev Kumar, Moushumi Chatterji and Deven Verma play the lead roles of this adorable film. Angoor is still remembered by cinephiles as not only it Indianised 'The Comedy of Errors' to a very large extent but also rendered ''family viewing'' possible.     

4) Kasba (1991) directed by Kumar Shahani. Kasba is based on the novella ‘‘In the Ravine’’ written by the acclaimed Russian writer Anton Chekov. It is based in a small town where corruption seems to have an effect on all its inhabitants. Shatrughan Sinha, an important star of Hindi cinema acts in this film along with actors from theater background. Director Kumar Shahani assisted the great French auteur Robert Bresson for ‘‘Une Femme Douce’’ in 1969. The pace of the film is both slow and melodramatic. However, Kasba is an unpretentious film.   

5) Train to Pakistan (1998) directed by Pamela Rooks. It is based on the novel of the same name written in 1956 by the famous writer Khushwant Singh. Train to Pakistan talks about the partition of India of 1947 through a love story involving a sikh man and a muslim girl. Train to Pakistan is relevant for its depiction of the complex nature of communal violence and its devstating consequences.The highlight of the film is the impact of partition on ordinary people who are caught in a complex web of politics, prejudice and violence.     

6) The Guide (1965) directed by Vijay Anand. Guide has been hailed as one of the classics of Hindi cinema. Even after close to 60 years of its release, ''The Guide'' continues to remain popular among the audiences who are madly in love with its songs. Hindi cinema's leading actors Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman play the leading roles of a tourist guide and a dancer in this film that was written by the noted Indian writer RK Narayan. Guide was made in Hindi as well as in English. However, most viewers know it for its Hindi version as the English version is believed to have flopped on the box office. Guide was a bold film as in 1965 it dared to depict what could now be called ''a Live-in relationship''. In 2023, Guide ran to packed houses all over India when it was shown as part of the birth centenary event of Mr.Dev Anand.      

7) Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) directed by Satyajit Ray. It is based on the short story written by the greatest of all Hindi writers Munshi Premchand. It portrays the boring lives of two noblemen from Lucknow who are so obsessed with the game of Chess that they neglect their families and remain unconcerned to the monumental political changes that take place around them. In ''Shatranj Ke Khiladi'', there are fine performances by the ensemble cast of some of the finest actors of Indian cinema such as Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan, Shabana Azmi, Saeed Jaffery and Farook Shaikh. It is an important film that shows how India looked life before 1857 when it was ruled by the British. The narration of this film was done in the voice of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. 

    

8) Dweepa (2002) directed by Girish Kasaravalli. It is one of the most popular films directed by Kannada cinema auteur Girish Kasaravalli who has won national film awards on 14 occasions. Dweepa (Island) is about the sad plight of villagers who have no choice but to live quietly in the midst of hostile climatic conditions. This film is based on the novel written by the Kannada writer Na D'Souza. Dweepa is a film where the power of monsoon has been used in full force. Dweepa was produced by Ms. Soundarya a popular star of Kannada cinema.  

9) Anhe Ghore Ka Daan (2011) directed by Gurvinder Singh. As far as art cinema in India is concerned, Punjab doesn’t normally register a strong presence. However, this has changed with ‘‘Alms for a blind horse’’ directed by Gurvinder Singh. It is based on the Punjabi language novel written in 1976 by the writer Gurdial Singh. This film tells the story of untouchable Sikhs who live at the margins of society. Director Gurvinder Singh shows the plight and problems of farmers,landlords and rural working class. ''Anhe Ghore Ka Daan'' has been produced by French producer Catherine Dussart.  

10) Chomana Dudi (1975) directed by B.V. Karanth. The title of the film refers to the drum that the protagonist Chomana plays. It is based on the novel by famous Kannada writer Shivaram Karanth. Chomana Dudi is about the tough life of Chomana, an untouchable bonded laborer who tries hard to be able to till the land. The plight of the untouchable people and the influence of religion has been nicely depicted in this film. It was released in 1975 and won the Swarna Kamal, India’s national award for the best film.

 

 

 

 

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"The play's the thing"

There have been at least 50 film versions of what is probably William Shakespeare's most famous  tragedy Hamlet. There were a goodly number of silent screen shorts, and many celebrated features, most of which more or less trimmed its  customary four hours' traffic of the stage. There have been classical, award-winning versions such as the 1948 production, starring and directed by Sir Laurence Olivier, foreign-language translations- notably in Russian, or as a Finnish farce (Aki Kaurismaki's re-invention), in period garb, or updated and modernised.Only Sir Kenneth Branagah starred and directed in an emtirely  uncut production, with all the 'words, words, words' caught on 70mm, and voiced by a spectacularly starry cast. Now we have been treated to a quite brilliant, inventive, engaging and genial film, directed with flair and finesse by Sean Mathias (a noted stage director but who also made a commendable film based on the hit play Bent,set in a Nazi concentration camp, which I seem to recall had been a project of Rainer Werner Fassbinder).It is rather more than a recording of his sold-out, mid-pandemic production at the famous Theatre Royal, Windsor,aptly in the shadow of another historic castle.

To say it boasts gender-neutral casting barely gets the measure of this highly original venture.Age-insouciant might be a more accurate term, for the central casting coup has a Hamlet who is clearly,en chair et en os, somewhat older than the actress playing his mother ! No less a stage and screen legend than Sir Ian McKellen tackles the title role of the young, troubled prince. There is no attempt at disguising his years either by make-up or costume(it is a semi-contemporary look, perhaps with something of the late 1950s to the cut and colour of some of the costumes), but it works surprisingly well as McKellen not only speaks the familiar lines beautifully, crisply, clearly, as if he has lived their content and philosophy, but also as if he is thinking of their import as he articulates them. Jenny Seagrove makes a splendid Gertrude, the only member of the cast who sounds to be attempting a Danish accent, while as her newly-married husband Jonathan Hyde has authority as the wicked murderer and usurper of the throne, channelling Prince Philip in a naval blazer.Another icon of our stage and cinema screens is Steven Berkoff as an excellent Polonius, fussing and bustling in faded medals, while Frances Barber tackles the Player King with gusto, and an eye-patch.Let us draw a veil over the casting of Laertes, but the sharp-eyed will spot another legendary performer, Francesca Annis, (who began her screen career as Elizabeth Taylor' hand-maiden in  Cleopatra) lurking in the wings and in another unusual role.

The entire film was shot in and and around the Windsor Theatre Royal, on the stage, up in the circle, in the dressing rooms, and by the COVID-cursed stage door.It is simply enthralling, and enjoyed a one day only screening in cinemas across the United Kingdom on Tuesday 27th February 2024, but so original and intriguing is this new production that  I am sure it will be found in some format or other for years to come.

HAMLET  UK 2024  Directed by Sean Mathias. 117 minutes

 

 

Phillip Bergson

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