The movie business is evolving with every
passing day and the rules of the games are changing. Lately, there seems to be a
talk of only how much a movie earns (Rs100 cr….Rs200 cr…..), of the ensemble of
stars or some trivial fact that is not worth remembering. The subject and story
of the movie is that missing bit, something like fruit pulp in an aerated
drink. And at a time when going to a theatre means removing your grey matter or
smelling some nitrous oxide just to remain sane, Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Cafe
is a welcome relief. At the outset let me make it clear that this movie is not
going to the film archives for being a ‘path breaking cinema’. And yet this is
a movie worth watching, if not for anything, for the simple fact that the
makers of this movie have stayed true to their job. Rather than going over the
top with jingoistic dialogues or cacophonic screams of patriotism, Sircar keeps
the whole tenor at a mellow, on-the-ground pace giving the whole experience
more credibility.
John Abraham is the main protagonist, but
as you would have read by now, the script is the hero of the movie. Madras Cafe,
by far, is the most rewarding performance by John Abraham. For an actor, whom I
have always thought, was getting typecast as a macho-man of Bollywood, John
pushes the bar high. He, probably, had the freedom of doing such an intense
film because he is a part producer of the film. That however does not take
anything from his performance in the movie.
Credit should be given to Shoojit Sircar. After Vicky Donor, not many would have betted on him to pull through a good
movie in an entirely different genre. Casting in the film has also been
commendable. Sircar seems to have got the right actors to do even small bits,
be it Siddharth Basu as the R&AW head or Prakash Belawadi as the Jaffna
Indian official.
Contrary to what has been seen with movies
of this genre in India Sircar does not include a song in the movie. An item
number (that petty excuse to get people talking about a movie) could have
easily been put to show how the Tamil rebel leader enjoys his evenings, of
course with a bonfire!
Rather than using John for his muscles and Nargis
Fakhri for her looks, Sircar gives the characters they portray respectability
and credibility, which is very essential for a movie that, though is claimed to
be fictitious, has an uncanny resemblance to an event in history that is still
a political hot potato for India and Sri Lanka.
Digressing from the movie, the timing of
the release of Madras Cafe and its importance is interesting. It is
quite understandable that the politicians in Tamil Nadu have seen red over the film.
For the Congress this is a sure morale booster and I’m wondering why they have
not gone about distributing free copies of the film. After all, it revisits the
assassination of our former PM who was stressing for peace in the
neighbourhood. What better message to give in an election year. I still can’t understand
why the BJP is opposing the film.
All said, Madras Cafe is a movie
worth watching and you will not have to keep your brains back home. In fact do brush
you history and Tamil a bit.
This latte tastes better than an Express
blend.
The Sunday results are perhaps the worst electoral defeat for Mr Rajapaksa after his government came to power in 2005. Last month Ms Pillay visited Sri Lanka and did not mince her words in expressing her disappointment at the progress the Rajapaksa government had made in integrating the Lankan Tamils in the north of the country even four years after the bloody civil war came to an end. The election results underline her observations.
