Straight – lovably imperfect
I’m still listening to “Saanson ka rukjaana …” . I was forwarded the link for this song by a friend. Against my better judgement and undergoing priority inversion for the tasks at hand, I landed up in Fun cinemas for the 10′o clock show on Sunday night. I had a lot of important stuff at hand and if the movie let me down, it would really have been a sinking feeling. “Saanson kaa…” was like selling me the ticket. I know it was an unreasonable decision on my part but I’m not complaining.
Not all things are perfect in life. Before singing any praises for the movie, I’ll unequivocally say that this movie is far from being perfect. After watching Dev.D 8 times in the theater and Gulaal thrice, the expectation benchmarks are so high, any movie is destined to drown. The movie for its part has many flaws. Its pace is sluggish. It’s not tight. After taking a bold and beautiful stand, towards the end it degenerates to an insubstantial masala entertainer. Content isn’t handled maturely. This movie is a classic case of “What it could have been”. Yes, this could have been a great Indian movie actually and You could feel it sitting there and really feel disappointed that it lacked that ambition and finish despite closely hovering around that mark on many occasions.
But all the mistakes apart, this movie has its fair share of brilliance. And I would prefer watching it any day over a “Rab Ne ..” or a “Ghajini”. The movie has tremendous non linear repetition in narrative. On multiple occasions the non linear repetition of the narrative not only takes you by surprise, it’s just plain exhilarating.
It has some superb dialogs. Some scene conceptions are international quality. The movie doesn’t look like and feel like an Indian movie at all. Cinematography and treatment is western. For most of the time while watching the movie, it actually feels like an english movie. The movie has tremendous improvisations in narrative with animations and still frames as well.
The movie has understated humour. The humour is subtle to the point of being un-Indian. But there are some howlarious moments as well where You’d just burst into spasms of wild laughter.
At the core, the movie has a sensible story to tell and it’s backed up by brilliant performances from the entire cast. The character of Anuj Chaudhary is so well written and acted that it stands out. Vinay Pathak shines once more. This is probably his best effort so far. This is the first commercial Indian comedy I saw that takes up the gay concept in a meaningful way. It has its share of comedy and laughter associated with it. But the core idea is communicated and communicated in a way that’s non judgmental and preachy. It’s no Milk but it’s no Dharma production either.
This movie has a soul. It’s made with fundamental honesty and it feels that way.
Some portions of the movie are really well written.
All the basic premises of the movie are suitably intelligent and honest. The fact that the movie has to bend down in the end and go the Bollywood way is probably a fault that belongs to viewership in this country than any thing else.
But yes the movie could definitely have been a lot tighter and some plot points explored properly.
For people in India, watch this movie. It’s different, for the most part good and for the entire course entertaining. It’s not an AK movie and the expectations are different. But let me risk it by stating it, and I say it with totality of conviction that this is way better movie than a “Rab ne …” or “Ghajini”. Indian cinema is finally walking down the right path. Yes it’s not perfect yet. But will the viewership stand up?
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
Dude your writing has disappointed me again. Let me tell you why-
“After watching Dev.D 8 times in the theater and Gulaal thrice, the expectation benchmarks are so high, any movie is destined to drown”
- You are in over awe of AK.DevD and Gulal are both good in their own way, but are far from being benchmarks for other movies. I personally think movies should not be compared like that and should be judged on their own individual merit. This is not a right forum to suck up to AK.
“Some scene conceptions are international quality. The movie doesn’t look like and feel like an Indian movie at all”
- I guess you have a very low opinion of the Indian cinema. Are you one of those for whom “international” is synonymous with “better quality”?
“The fact that the movie has to bend down in the end and go the Bollywood way is probably a fault that belongs to viewership in this country than any thing else”
- This is demeaning the intelligence of the Indian audience and I think you owe an apology for making such irresponsible statements.
” say it with totality of conviction that this is way better movie than a “Rab ne …” or “Ghajini”
- Again stop comparing. And why are you comparing it with “Ghajini” or “Rab ne” they are different genres.Or is it fashionable here to just bash big productions and preach even undeserving small movies.
Gurudev, any subjective entity can be perceived in the way you want. You have chosen to see my article in a certain light. If You think I’m writing this article to suck up to anyone, You are free to not read it. I could have also mentioned how many times I have watched some of the recently released english films. I wanted to keep the comparison among the new wave cinema.
Yes I think Indian cinema as a whole is behind International cinema. Exceptions only prove the rule. We have our own strengths, that doesn’t absolve us from the weaknesses of our film making. Show me an equivalent product to “A Beautiful Mind”, “Cast Away”, “Forrest Gump”, “Shawshank Redemption”, “Schiendler’s list” and their ilk in Indian cinema? I am not jingoistic. I love art. That’s why I love those movies. I don’t love a product because it’s “Mere desh ki dharti”. I love “Hazaron Khwahishen..”, “Gulaal”, “Dil Se”, “Namesake” purely because of their cinematic merit.
Regarding demeaning Indian movie watcher’s intelligence? In a viewership where “Vivah” is superhit and “Ghajini” and “Rab Ne Banadi Jodi” gross more than 170 crore and films like “Dil Se”, “Asoka”, “Swades” bite the dust, I think I’m not demeaning anyone.
Coming to why I even compare with Big Products? It’s to just make the point, because they are big banner products and marketed well, people watched them. Here’s something, which is not marketed big, promoted big, made big, but it is abundantly a better work with its flaws (and the flaws in the big banner product were much more). If products with mathematical perfection are destined to fail here, I think it’s a product perfectly capable of succeeding due to its flaws.
ya I should have written in the post but I missed. The movie should have been more engaging.
Finally, I’m not writing this piece to suck up to anyone as you’ve mentioned. Nor I’m writing this to bash up big banners as it’s fashionable as you mentioned.
The whole intent behind writing this post is to help people watch the movie who might like it.
‘The humour is subtle to the point of being un-Indian.’
Weird post.
~uh~
‘The humour is subtle to the point of being un-Indian.’
Even I don’t get what this line means?
To @3 and @4, I meant it’s not the run of the mill over the top loud comedy that comes out of bollywood. The humour is understated and subtle and it’s a rarity in Commercial Indian Comedies.
I watched it today in theaters. Was a pretty “fresh” a film
About music of Straight I would like to say something.Music is nothing exceptional but the song “Saanson ka rukhna” is good..All the songs have some English lyrics sandwiched in between which is irritating..