Another look at life on the street

Film: AllahKeBanday

Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Sharman Joshi, Faruk Kabir, Anjana Sukhani, Atul Kulkarni

Directed by: Faruk Kabir

A feeling of foreboding and damnation builds up in the narration from the very first frame in this film. Here’s a gloriously gutsy film exploring the underbelly of Mumbai through the lives of two slum kids who grow up in identical circumstances, but with somewhat disparate values.

First-time director Faruk Kabir displays remarkable skill in creating a pastiche of mammoth crime and little punishment. The pace leaves meagre space for grace. And yet Allah Ke Banday creates a world filled with acute aggression, repression and damnation with a reasonable amount of paciness to the edgy narrative.

The world that Faruk Kabir’s characters inhabit is reminiscent of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire , Irrfan

Kamal’s underrated Thanks, Maa , Mahesh Manjrekar’s City Of Gold and Chandan Arora’s Striker. Deriving its lingering study of juvenile delinquency from these sources Allah Ke Banday moves forward and acquires a life of its own.

The gripping narrative takes us through the world of petty crime and underage lawlessness non-judgementally. Faruk Kabir’s deeply-felt concern for children who dodder dangerously on the edge of society is never overdone. The director creates a world of uncertainties with unwavering confidence.

The nervous anxiety of the characters is rather aptly replicated in the film’s rough and unvarnished look.

Kabir’s cameraman Vishal Sinha goes through the rugged merciless slums searching for only Allah-knows-what. The actors wear their unwashed demeanour casually, so much so that at times we forget the existence of the camera. At the same time, there are uneven sections in the narrative that mar what could otherwise have been a standout exposition on the genesis of social outcasts.

Sharman Joshi and Faruk Kabir play the two driving forces of the plot with a deep understanding of their characters and the milieu. Both seem to have got right their characters’ physicality, and then proceed to explore their to KKHH land. At least the old films were caricatures, exaggerations of people you would have encountered somewhere. No such luck with Break Ke Baad amount of compelling confidence.

But it is fodder for teen fantasy, seeped in the dual confusion of maturing while finding true love. It’s over two-hour ride is fun, full time-pass and paisa vasool.

The others in the cast merge into the relentless milieu. As usual, the extraordinarily brilliant Naseeruddin Shah is under-used. Whenever he shows up on screen, an extra dimension is effortlessly added to the proceedings.

Notches above the run-of-the-mill entertainer, there is genuine concern for juvenile delinquency here. Life on the streets never looked more dangerous and less glamorous. This time, crime is not glorified. Thank god for small mercies.

Film: Guzaarish

Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Monikangana Dutta, Suhel Seth

Directed by: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Breathe a sigh of relief. During a year when cacophonic crassness masquerading as comic entertainment has been sanctioned by critics and the masses, Guzaarish comes along to remind us that excellence is alive in our cinema.

Ironically this wonderful work of art, nuanced and magical in its portrayal of an unstoppable spirit’s quest to juice life to its fullest, is about dying. If the journey towards death in art can be so mystically explored, then let’s embrace mortality as a stepping stone to immortality and a film about dying as a sign of cinema not dying on us. Not yet.

Only those who suffer the numbing pain of isolation would know what it feels like. Dilip Kumar in Devdas, Guru Dutt in Pyasa, Meena Kumari in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Nutan in Bandini communicated to the audience the indescribable pain of solitude.

Ethan, as played by Hrithik Roshan in Guzaarish, is so bemused by adversity that he can actually look at his own suffering with