Melted by Frozen
Vipin Handa, film critic and filmmaker, is back to reviewing films, as he reviews ‘Frozen’ exclusively for PFC.
Sometimes you are numb, sometimes you are robbed of words, and sometimes you are baffled. All three emotions struck me in a row, when after 25 years of reviewing films, nonsensical films, powerful films, beautiful films, and ‘run of the mill’ films, I saw a film made by a newbie, which emoted so much, which evoked so much, which absorbed so much, and which layered so much of emotions, thoughts and more importantly planted a seed in my brain.
When I review a film, especially by a debutante, I always compellingly keep in mind, that I am critiquing not only the work of the director, but the world, and the persona.
Shivajee Chandrabhushan deserves a standing ovation for capturing the many nuances of Ladakhi terrain, Himalayan landscape and mountaneious lifestyle, so vividly and vivaciously. A painting on celluloid and one should not garner the much coveted and intended awards and accolades for it’s riveting plot, embellished with soul stirring performances.This young director’s attempt to compile this heartrending story has something or the other to do with his being an outsider and an a first timer in Bollywood. This film will do much more for the Bollywood idiom than any homefound movie in the amidst of Indian Cinema.
The feisty hundred minute movie boasts of a slew of outstanding performances and the emotional tempo of the film remains intact because of Danny Dengzonpa’s earnest performance, undoubtedly his best till date, which he plays with utmost dexterity aplomb and charm, and the na’¯ve and beautiful daughter is baffled with her own existential dilemma, and not to be left out would be the important cameos played by Yashpal Sharma and Raj Zutshi. The crackling chemistry between Danny and his children is something to look out for. The small kid Chomo reminds me of Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, he excels, and carries the ardous task to carry a film all by his shoulders.
The first half of the film is blessed with an underlying simple and subtle subplots which show the life and times of a jam maker, his adoloscent daughter and his mischevious young son. The film celebrates life through the jam maker’s efforts for his daughter and son, and the collage of heartwarming emotions amongst them.
The second half, whereas is his search for lost respect, with the juxtaposition of frenzied chaos, that ruins in the shape of the over assertive army, brutal money lenders, and the falling of old age.
Frozen would undoubtedly be the most colourful black and white film I have experienced in recent times. Frozen is extensively, imaginatively, and amazingly shot on the roof of the world, literally, and Shivajee being a still photographer, we see the splendid images of Himalayas, showing many expressions, playing with many moods and moments, and also how he robs the exotic song and dance routine, and beautifully transforms it into an unusual harshness.
With sharp knifed editing, eye stirring cinematography, and an avante garde background score, the film scores extra brownie points, which make the picture all more evocative, all more beautiful, all more memorable. The first Indian film after a very long time that has had the capacity to conjure up Satyajit Ray’s nuances, as well as slight visibility with Italian Neorealist cinema. The images showcased in Frozen takes the viewer, the spectator deep into the hearts and minds of the characters, you feel the pain, you can feel the radiance, and you can certainly feel the harsh conflict all through the monochromatic visuals.
Frozen should be lauded, watched, encouraged and watched again. In an invisible way, it mocks the stereotype that exists in us. On reel, there is no sunset, otherwise, in real life, I wish Shivajee had Nik Kershaw’s sublime lyrics, ‘I wont let the sun go down on me’. Frozen is a film that has melted in my mind and will remain blindly etched, and it’s charming vignettes will be in my psyche for the years to come, and it will certainly go down as the most engaging, refreshing and as well as universal films to enter cinema, globally.
****
*****- Perfect
****-Outstanding
***-Very Good
**-Average
*-Poor
Tags: danny, dengzongpa, Exclusive, frozen, handa, Review, shivajee, vipin, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Woah Dad. Loved the review, will surely the love the film too!
Excited!
Great review, looking forward to watching the movie.
Vipinji- Its a brilliant movie & a great choice for you to get back to film reviewing.Saw it myself & completely fell in love.yes I’d watch it again & would write on it closer to the movie’s release date.
“Frozen would undoubtedly be the most colourful black and white film I have experienced in recent times”
Wah! What a thing to say! Splendid, sir.
Thank You Jehan and Vanshaya!
Thank You Sethu and Kenny
Yes Sethu, on my last post, somebody told me I have never given a movie more than 3.5 stars, I wanted to show them, there you have it
Sirji you proved there what kind of mettle you have.Whosoever has said that deserves a punch from Sunny Deol’s “Dhai kilo ka haath”
“With sharp knifed editing, eye stirring cinematography, and an avante garde background score, the film scores extra brownie points, which make the picture all more evocative, all more beautiful, all more memorable. The first Indian film after a very long time that has had the capacity to conjure up Satyajit Ray's nuances, as well as slight visibility with Italian Neorealist cinema.”
Man, you’ve said a lot there and I know you are not exaggerating.It’s been ages that I’ve read such a great review, I owe you a party.
Kudos for such a great review.
Vipinji Excellent review for starters keep……..expecting more reviews!!!!!!!
Thank you so much Negi for your kind words
Thank You HS !
Is that a review or an “aatishbaazi” of adjectives? No, make that ‘extreme adjectives’. Uhhmmm…make that ‘extreme and vague adjectives’. Some randomly selected words from the review are: ‘vivacious’, ‘amazingly’, ‘eye stirring’….
Where are the words about visual style, cinematic contexts, social or technological impacts of telling a story set in ladakh, and that too in black and white?
I do sound a bit agitated, and that’s more so because of the ’standing applause’ this review has got…giving a feeling that this is the best review ever written on PFC. Haven’t seen the film yet, and going by Kenny’s (excellent) review, am sure it’s a great experience, and that’s why, seeing such a badly, even rash, review curdled my blood. No personal feelings Vipin ji…but yes, this is a review straight out of 80’s.
Maybe Varun, I did use adjectives to support my review, and maybe do still live in the 80s, and am dumb enough not to know the social impacts. Thank You
Varun,
Do you by any chance appreciate reviews only by certain Mr. TaRun AdarSH?
Varun
If u havn’t seen than what are you complaining about?…this is really strange…
I am in Bangalore.How can I watch the movie ??
somebody help..
Bharat Bhushan-It will soon be released everywhere, hopefully. So watch it on the big screen.
i have seen it… a stunning film indeed
‘The first Indian film after a very long time that has had the capacity to conjure up Satyajit Ray’s nuances’….
That’s some praise.
I am excited. Hope it releases here in India soon.
Cheers!
~uh~
We all love this view .. We always appreciated this look
Frozen is finally releasing on the 1st of May in Mumbai. It will slowly tour your respective states, and we will inform you very soon. This is what Frozen deserved!
when talking of these movies, can we talk about the year it’s released/releasing ? I netflix-ed frozen and it shows a 1997 movie by a Chinese director. :(
Amrita- Read comment # 18 ( the one just above yours).The movie is slated to release in Mumbai on 1st May 2009.Its going to have a stagerred release across the country.
this is a dumb review. the film is all gloss. no emotions. i agree with Varun that the review is “aatishbaazi” of adjectives out of the `80s? or even the `50s. PFC Has lowered its standards.