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Reviews
Laapataa Ladies (2023)
Laapataa Ladies deserves to find its audience
Laapataa Ladies is beautiful cinema!.. A simple story told using simple lived-in characters, it weaves strong and important messages in off-the-cuff, humorous remarks.. Thereby delivering undiluted, bitter truths with a spoon of entertainment honey.
Written by Biplab Goswami, with dialogue and screenplay by Sneha Desai and Divyanidhi Sharma, the movie is directed by Kiran Rao.. She takes the same route taken by Vidhu Vinod Chopra in 12th Fail - unobtrusive direction and letting the characters tell the story. And the result is fabulous.. Takes me back to the good old days of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and basu Chatterjee.
The whole movie is extremely well cast by Romil Modi. All major characters are almost fresh faces, except Inspector Manohar (a chameleon-esque Ravi Kishan) and Dubeyji (by Durgesh 'Panchayat ka Bankaras' Kumar). I must definitely mention Phool (Nitanshi Goel), Deepak (Sparsh Srivastav), Jaya or Pushpa Rani or Sreya (Pratibha Ranta) and Manju Maai (Chhaya Kadam) - Extremely well done!
Movies like Laapataa Ladies and 12th Fail rekindle my hope in cinema - of its powers and ability to make a difference. It is also very refreshing to see stories and characters stemming from rural India. After all, India still lives in its villages. More of these, please!
Bawarchi (1972)
Bawarchi: Philosophies of life, Presented on a platter
Bawarchi is a gem of a movie that conveys a lot without actually saying much. Hrishikesh Mukherjee is the real Bawarchi (Chef) here. He selects the right recipe (the story), brings the right ingredients (actors and technicians), adds the right spices (music, drama and a O'Henry-esqe twist) and just lets all of them simmer under his watchful eye.
I cant think of a better casting for such a beautiful story. The correct mix of star power of Rajesh Khanna, Jaya Bhaduri (Bachchan) and Amitabh Bachchan (as the sutradhaar or the narrator) and highly under-rated character actors like A.K. Hangal, Asrani and even Paintal.
The story by Tapan Sinha is a timeless classic. It is true even today where the joint-family system may have disintegrated but the sibling fights, day-to-day strife and dependence on domestic help still continue. Gulzar, the master word-smith, weaves his magic in the dialogs (Special mention- 'It's so simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple').
Today, more than ever, we realize and miss such simple movies.