10 films worth waiting for 2011
TRANSCRIPT
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8/7/2019 10 Films Worth Waiting For 2011
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Film: Dhobi Ghaat
Stars: 6/10: Technically chic, but jarred storytelling muddies the canvas
Kiran Rao may have got her technicals brilliantly right with her cinematography
and editing but Dhobi Ghaat falters for the same reason that many such slice ofbig city life intertwined character stories fail the stories dont quite neatly
weave into each other. Aamir Khan is Arun, the painter who has a chance
meeting with Shie (Monica Dogra)an NRI investment banker on a sabbatical.
Incidentally they happen to share a one night stand and also the dhobi (Pratiek
Babbar as Munna, the washerman is easily the brightest spot among otherwise
staid performances). After a fallout with SHie the morning after. Arun finds his
latest muse in the abandoned home video tapes of the housewife who used to
live in the house where hes just moved in while Munna develops feelings for
Shie. All along you are treated to some exquisite photography in highlighting the
less known facets of Mumbai as a city. Munnas odd jobs as a dhobi and even a
rat killer while harbouring dreams of making it big in the movies captures the
zeitgeist of Mumbai well and credit should go to Pratiek for that. However Aamir
stands out as the films biggest and most unfortunate liability, his English pretty
awkward and his acting well below the benchmarks he himself has set. The story
ends without a feeling of closure, something you suspected from the beginning
when the film opens with the shaky handycam shots of Ruksanas diaries. The
whole effort mirrors the incoherence of the opening scene and you are saved
from enduring extreme drudgery by the stunning visuals. The scene where
Munna runs in between traffic chasing Shies car is brilliantly crafted as is the
sequence of photographs taken by Shie across Mumbai. But any filmmaker
deciding to throw themselves at the canvas called Mumbai always bear the risk
of losing the plot in myriad mysteries of the city. A similar fate befalls Dhobi Ghat
primarily because Kiran Raos ambition only shines through in the visuals and
the technical department but the story telling has nothing new nor noteworthy to
offer.
Disney for a brief while seemed to have lost its magic touch of breathing new life
into classic tales but with Tangled it looks like they are back at doing what they
do best make you laugh, smile and even cry without missing a beat. So, you
have the story of long haired Rapunzel locked in her tower by Gothel, the woman
she believes is her mother. But little does the princess know that her hair hasextraordinary powers and the woman has kept her in the tower after kidnapping
her as kid. Rapunzel longs to be out there in the world and when her chance
arrives via Flynn, a thief who seeks refuge in her tower she embraces it bracing
herself for adventure. The rest of journey is trademark Disney fun filled stuff but
with a new found spunk that is brought out well by Mandy Moore (Rapunzel) and
Zachary Levi (Flynn). The humor is spot on drawing in children and adults alike,
and the supporting cast of Maximus (the horse) and Pascal (the chameleon). The
animation work is superb (the 3D version is totally worth it) as seen in the acting
just the facial expressions of Maximus and Pascal do (the two characters have no
lines in the film). Tangled is a triumph of good old Disney family storytellingwith a bit of fun and adventure for everyone.