Vengeance Is Mine

MARCO | Director: Haneef Adeni | Cast: Unni Mukundan | Malayalam

UNNI MUKUNDAN, THE chiselled protagonist of Marco, said in a recent interview that 250-300 litres of fake blood were used in the film. Well, the blood looks real, and you can count the litres. When do you suffer the greatest pain, asks the movie, almost philosophically, before answering: “When you see those close to you suffering in pain.” Suffice to say, Marco sees a lot of pain, and instead of turning the other cheek, gives it back in full measure, using all manner of weapons, from shotguns to chainsaws to knives to his mouth. The film is liberal with serrated body parts from the hand to the heart, and the accompanying music is designed to deafen. There are two ways of watching this film—with your eyes covered or after many shots of your favourite poison. Either way, Mukundan as Marco makes the recent league of extraordinarily violent men look like boys playing in the sandbox. His swagger makes the feral nature of the violence believable as his enemies stop at nothing to torture him. This is the gangster genre on speed, with nothing to redeem it. Why do men kill? To protect their loved ones? But what happens when they too are taken away?

RECORD OF THE WEEK

PUSHPA 2: THE RULE | Director: Sukumar | Cast: Allu Arjun | Telugu

Neither flower, nor fire, Pushpa is wildfire, said Allu Arjun’s character in Pushpa 2. Ask the Indian box office. Pushpa 2 has officially become the biggest hit in Indian cinema, surpassing Baahubali’s previous record of `1,800 crore worldwide. It celebrated by re-releasing the film with 20 minutes of added footage.

INSIDE INDIA’S MOST INFAMOUS PRISON

BLACK WARRANT| Director: Vikramaditya Motwane | Cast: Zahan Kapoor, Rahul Bhat, Sidhant Gupta | Hindi | Netflix

Sunil Gupta was the spokesman of Delhi’s Tihar Jail from 1981 to 2016. In the intervening years, he saw the country and city changing, and events, from the convic­tions of the cataclysmic murderers of the school­children Sanjay and Geeta Chopra, right up to the 2G scam, which led to the imprisonment of indus­trialists, politicians and bureaucrats. The coarsen­ing of the city mirrors the increasingly corrosive jail atmosphere, with Gupta (Zahan Kapoor), and his friends, Dahiya (Anurag Thakur) and Manjot (Paramvir Cheema). Styled as the story of three young MBA graduates working for a new company in the ’70s, the story punctuates the personal with the pro­fessional, tracing Gupta’s evolution from nervous newbie to consummate professional who wants to make a difference in the jail. Thrown in are the tales of some legend­ary prisoners, such as French-Vietnamese ‘bikini killer’ Charles Sobhraj and Kashmiri militant Maqbool Bhat. The series weaves personal sto­ries and public histories together, and takes care of the little details, from the blue glue bottles to the sound of a dialtone phone, to the widespread use of Mandrax to fetters used on prisoners. Shot largely in an abandoned prison in Bhopal, the series is a human story of the com­ing of age of a country and its people, when violence was still not a way of life and friendships were still non transactional. Motwane’s triumph is that he creates a cloistered world which mirrors the lights, the floors and walls of Tihar Jail, while also retaining a sliver of luminosity.

LAUNCH OF THE WEEK: Junaid Khan

Junaid Khan had a quiet debut on Netflix with Maharaj, a period film. But you can now see him giving off retro vibes in ‘Loyepa ho gaya’ the candy coloured, Barbie inspired song from his forthcoming movie Loveyapa, co-starring another bold face name, Khushi Kapoor. Khan, son of Aamir Khan, has spent a fair amount of time prepping to be an actor, studying at the Los Angeles based American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and doing a lot of theatre in Mumbai. Welcome to the world of make believe.

MADE IN INDIA LUXURY: Payal Kapadia

In a sea of sequined gowns, her handmade luxury stood out. Payal Kapadia’s movie, All We Imagine As Light, is as Indian as her soul and so is her attire. While she wore a handmade Maku Textiles jacket and dress for her Grand Prix win at Cannes, at the Golden Globes, it was a Payal Khandwala silk jumpsuit.

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