The Last Morning Show

Cinema Marte Dum Tak | Cast: Filmmakers Dilip Gulati, Kishan Shah, J Neelam, and Vinod Talwar | Director: Vasan Bala | Hindi | Prime Video

There are two kinds of cinema-going experiences in India, which are impossible to find elsewhere in the world. The morning show of an adult movie with its lurid posters, all-male audience, and heavy-bosomed women doing unmentionable things to heavy-set men. The other kind is the first-day-first-show of a Rajinikanth movie in a single screen theatre in Tamil Nadu. The first kind of cinema is the subject of a documentary series directed by B-grade film connoisseur Vasan Bala. He approaches the genre and its star directors, Dilip Gulati, Kishan Shah, J Neelam and Vinod Talwar, with the rigour of a researcher and the empathy of a fan. The series covers the four directors getting one last shot at fame, with proposals that they make one film each within their genre. We see these proud filmmakers pick themselves up from a heap of memories, shake themselves down, and get into the groove of making their kind of cinema. The world has changed, most single screens have shut down, the audiences that came to them for the thrills and spills (literally), and the “extra portions” of sex and sleaze, have long since moved to smart phones to be watched in private spaces. You can see the pain of being left behind in the eyes of the filmmakers, some like Shah even break down in tears. On display is the entire ecosystem of low budget adult cinema—the women with stars in their eyes who ended up “exposing”, the men who had to mishandle them on screen, the art designers who doubled as dress designers who were also production controllers, and the studios where all the action happened. Movies made for upto `10 lakh would fetch a profit of over `50 lakh. It was ugly, exploitative, misogynistic but nostalgia has a tendency to turn cinematic carnage into cool.

Why watch it ?For a slice of cinematic history, and its iconic theme song, ‘Pseudo Saiyaan

The Heroes Among Us

Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke| Cast: Regina Cassandra, Barun Sobti, Mita Vashisht, Sumeet VyasDirector: Srijit Mukherji | Hindi | Zee5

There’s just a thread of difference between courage and foolhardiness, says the senior to his risk-taking junior, a steely eyed Regina Cassandra playing SP Kavya Iyer, counter terrorism expert. “It’s the thread with which we weave our uniform,” she replies smartly. “You’ve come to Dhaka, you must eat the fish here,” says an ISIS suspect to Mita Vashisht’s NIA official Mahira Rizvi. “We don’t eat fish, we catch them,” she replies looking squarely into his eyes. Our inner patriot wants to stand up and wave a flag. There are several such moments in Jaanbaaz Hindustan Ke, which is wisely releasing on Republic Day when the state unrolls its weapons of mass destruction for the world to applaud. There is a lot of cheerleading from the media with Kavya Iyer being called ‘Bullet Girl’ and ‘Shillong ki Sherni’. There are many juniors saying Madam Sir, as Iyer and Rizvi save the world one case at a time. And enough tension to keep everyone on a paranoid edge.

Why watch it? For Cassandra and Vashisht, who give orders, whip out guns, rush into danger, with utter ease

In Case You Missed It

Kaapa | Cast: Prithviraj, Aparna Balamurali, Anna Ben, Asif Ali Director: Shaji Kailas | Malayalam | Netflix

Few actors can do brooding darkness, hinting at hidden depths, better than Prithviraj. Here he plays a tortured gangster in Thiruvananthapuram, who loves his family, including Aparna Balamurali, playing his wife, Premeela. His eventual confrontation with a rival gang reveals the real ringmaster behind the gang wars, in what eventually seems to be heading towards a sequel of the war of the women. There is hand-to-hand combat, bombings and lots of threats are issued.

Why watch it? For Prithviraj, who elevates every film he is in

About The Author

Kaveree Bamzai

Kaveree Bamzai is an author and a contributing writer with Open

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