Scene Stealers

JORAM| Director: Devashish Makhija| Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, Smita Tambe | Hindi

Our proof isn’t on paper; it’s on our skin and on our palms. As the vil­lagers protest at their land being taken away from them and given to a min­ing company, ironically named Pragati (Progress), Devashish Makhija casts his uncompromising eye on the price of devel­opment. With an agonisingly authentic performance by Manoj Bajpayee, playing a former Maoist rebel who runs away from his Jharkhand village to Mumbai to escape the cycle of violence, the film asks a sear­ing question: who decides which uniform is just and which unjust. A fearsome tribal leader, played by Smita Tambe, hunts down every Maoist rebel in her village, and has her eyes set on Bajpayee. He was part of the Maoist group that killed her son, and she will spare no one in Operation Green Hunt. Like the villagers caught between the rebels and the police, the land too is a prisoner of progress, its trees stripped down to their barks, the river bed dry, and the farms destroyed. The red earth tells the story of the blood and sweat of the tribals who once nourished it, worshipped it, and lived off it. It’s a devastating movie of our apocalyptic times as a man and his baby fight for survival.

JAWAN| Director: Atlee Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Deepika Padukone | Hindi

Two Shah Rukh Khans, people-first politics, and two beautiful women who pack a power­ful punch. In Atlee’s Jawan, the unethical CEO graduates from a crooked arms dealer ready to sell his nation’s security to a corporate titan offering India’s cities for unhindered manufacturing, never mind its rivers, its air, or its forests. Naturally, our hero (the cigar-chomping father and the metrosexual son) will have none of it. So he launches a counter-attack with his army of women, all survivors of some horrific case of poor governance. There is much kowtowing to Bharat Mata, including a tattoo on Shah Rukh Khan’s head which says, ‘Maa Jagat Janani’ (Mother of the World). There are satisfying action scenes, a diabolical villain played with relish by Vijay Sethupathi, and Nayanthara and Deepika Padukone in great form. A blockbuster with a big heart.

2018| Director: Jude Anthany Joseph| Cast: Tovino Thomas, Kunchacko Boban, Asif Ali, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Narain and Lal| Malayalam

Of the 49 days Tovino Thomas shot for the film, 35 were under­water in a two-acre tank created on a 12- acre set in Vaikom. Based on the real-life floods that overtook Kerala in 2018, the film recap­tures some of the passion and compassion that brought people together even as they battled the fury of nature, its incessant rain and its unending floods. “We thought the whole of Kerala would drown,” Tovino says. It didn’t and you see why as ordinary people stepped up to the crisis and held each other’s hand. The film is as much of a social document as it is a cry for help. If we assault nature, won’t it unleash its aggression on us?

12TH FAIL| Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra| Cast: Vikrant Massey, Medha Shankar, Anantvijay Joshi, Anshuman Pushkar| Hindi

A chance encounter with an upstanding police officer changes young Manoj’s life, as he promises himself that he will become an IPS officer. The dream takes him from his no-name village in Chambal to the heart of IAS Coaching Central in Delhi. Four attempts and several heartbreaks later, he finally makes it, but not before Vidhu Vinod Chopra imparts many life lessons along the way, mostly plucked from his own personal philosophy of fol­lowing excellence, not money. A vulnerable Vikrant Massey gives the role everything he has, and it pays him back generous­ly. It’s an uplifting Capraesque film, the perfect antidote to our cynical age.

WHILE WE WATCHED| Director: Vinay Shukla Cast: Ravish Kumar, Sushil Bahuguna, Deepak Chaubey Hindi

With every cake that is cut, and every farewell, said, the sense of impending doom grows stronger. The people who sustain the news channel are leaving, and news is dying. Based on the last days of journalist Ravish Kumar at NDTV Hindi, the documentary shows the decline of truth, the rise of virulence, and the absence of account­ability. As he does his piece to the camera, a crowd jostles Kumar, calling him anti-national, among other less polite things. Kumar salutes everyone, smiles and continues his piece to the camera, seemingly unaffected by the heckling. It is Ravish’s journalism taking its last breaths and one can only watch in utter despair.

SERIES

SCOOP| Director: Hansal Mehta and Mrunmayee Lagoo| Cast: Karishma Tanna Bangera, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Harman Baweja| Netflix

When does a reporter cross a line with a source? When does the source become an imposition? How does a woman negotiate the backslapping boys-only world of police officers? Scoop takes journalist Jigna Vora’s memoir about life in prison and makes a cautionary tale out of it. Venal police­men, jealous journalists, mafia dons who love being in the news, Mumbai of a particular vintage. All these come together in Lagoo’s screenplay and make a compelling story of a Becky Sharpe character who wants to make it big. But success comes at a cost, and Jagruti Pathak (based on Vora) has to pay every last paisa.

JUBILEE| Director: Vikramaditya Motwane and Soumik Sen Cast: Prosenjit Chatterjee, Aparshakti Khurana, Sidhant Gupta, Aditi Rao Hydari | Prime Video

If there was one series that made you fall in love with cinema, it was Jubilee. The story closely mirrors the rise and fall of Bombay Talkies and the tempestuous relationship between Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. A simulacrum of early Bollywood, it brought with it the joy of identifying the real stars, from Dev Anand to Ashok Kumar. This Vikramaditya Mot­wane series rose above the temptations of beautiful production design and cinemato­graphic brilliance to tell a fascinating story of the guts and gumption of early Indian filmmakers who staked everything they had to tell the stories they wanted to and to create the stars they needed to.

KOHRRA| Director: Sudip Sharma Cast: Suvinder Vicky, Barun Sobti, Harleen Sethi | Netflix

Suvinder Vicky’s face is etched in pain, with no glimmer of any relief, carrying on it a lifetime of loss. He couldn’t have been better suited to the role of a policeman in Kohrra, in rural Punjab, battling an indiffer­ent senior and a domestic life full of strife. He has a junior who is as much his assistant as his soulmate and the two investigate a murder that unlocks a series of secrets and lies. A closeted gay relationship, the murder of a friend, an accidental death, and the waste of many lives. Like the mist of the title, there is a pall of gloom over the series that is compelling and confounding.

THE RAILWAY MEN| Director: Shiv Rawail Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Divyenndu, Babil Khan, R Madhavan | Netflix

An extraordinary tale that has not been told even four decades on, the four-part series packed with fine actors, tells the story of the extraordinary work Indian Rail­ways did on the day of the toxic gas leak in Bhopal. Recreating a train station with its bogeys and platforms, the series chron­icles the efforts of a station master, his new recruit, a train robber and a general manager with a penchant for getting into trouble. The suffocation, the airlessness, the panic, and the eventual rescue (at least for some) are all captured faithfully.

TRIAL BY FIRE| Director: Prashant Nair, Kevin Luperchio Cast: Abhay Deol, Rajshri Deshpande | Netflix

One of the first series of the year, it found its villain in corporate greed. A scar on the soul of Delhi, it captures the fire in Uphaar cinema in 1997 where so many innocent filmgoers saw their last movie ever. The series recalls the trauma of those left behind, especially the Krishnamoorthys who lost their teenage children to the fire. They didn’t give up, especially Neelam Krishnamoorthy, choosing instead to make cinema halls safer for generations. It is the kind of series that makes it difficult to look away, with Rajshri Deshpande and Abhay Deol embodying the dignified grieving of a couple who know the terrible truth—that they have outlived their children.

PERFORMANCES

VICKY KAUSHAL Sam Bahadur (In theatres)

The loping gait, the slight hunch, the galloping speech. Vicky Kaushal gets all the mannerisms of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw right, as he should, given that he prepared for it for months. But his Sam Bahadur is more than a physical approximation. Kaushal captures the soldier’s courage and the gentleman’s lightness of spirit. Those are infinitesimally more difficult to embody. Kaushal does it with a twinkle in his eyes and the hint of a smile. Whether he is bickering with his old friend from the British Army, Yahya Khan, sparring with a young Indira Gandhi or en­couraging his men, he is every inch a great soldier fighting a human war.

KAREENA KAPOOR KHAN Jaane Jaan (Netflix)

Kareena Kapoor Khan could sleepwalk her way through a movie and still make it look good. There is a star quality to her that is undeniable. So when she makes an effort, it shows. In Jaane Jaan, a moody, atmospheric thriller set in Kalimpong, she is a single mother running a cafe frequented by the local school maths professor who clearly has a crush on her (or her egg fried rice). There is an abusive husband from the past, a former career as a pole dancer, and a possible romance with the new policeman in town investigating the death of a stranger in town. Alternately protective of her daughter and anxious for their safety, flirtatious with the new man in town, and forever stoic, she is captivating. As a bonus, there is a terrific dance with Vijay Varma, which is a study in courtship.

MOHIT RAINA Mumbai Diaries Season 2 (Disney+Hotstar)

He’s had a good year, playing the muscular vanquisher of ISIS sympathisers in The Freelancer but it is as the anguished, tormented doctor of Mumbai Diaries Season 2, that his talent expands to fill the screen. We saw him as the action man, superhero doctor in the first season, taking on one emergency case after another during the recre­ation of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. In this season, he is battling floods in Mumbai, recalling the 2005 downpour. He is also fighting his own demons, a case of negligence from a high powered victim’s survivor, and a vicious media campaign against him. There is some relief in the impend­ing arrival of his baby but even that seems to be shrouded in misery. It is a powerful perfor­mance, mining grief, mental illness and self doubt.

SOBHITA DHULIPALA Made in Heaven Season 2 (Prime Video)

Sobitha Dhulipala has never been afraid to play the gold digger, but her Tara Khanna is more than that. Whether she is cradling a luxury bag as if it were a baby, or pulling at the torn seat cover of an Uber, she brings a particular self-loathing to her role as a rich wife who is on the verge of losing all her hard-won privileges. Her character rarely does what is expected of her. As she walks into a party in a revenge dress, full of people who were once ready to welcome her as a glamourous plus one, you can see the hurt, the anger, the rejection, but also the determination to get back what she has lost.

VIJAY VARMA Dahaad (Prime Video)

Sometimes snivelling, at other times sexy, Vijay Varma makes villainy look good in Dahaad. A serial killer is on the loose in this remote town, preying on the loneliness of women and their sense of alienation from their rustic families. A seemingly harm­less school teacher married to a hotelier with a sensitive son, he has another life full of bitterness and angst—his father’s lack of love, his need to prey and his mother’s mysterious death. Nature or nurture: good and evil. Predator and victim. As a series of women succumb to his charm, the question is are they wilfully blinding them­selves to his faults, or are they genuinely in love with the idea of love? Varma has had a banner year with Kaalkoot, Lust Stories and Jaane Jaan, but this remains his finest performance this year.

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