He has been a part of some of the most successful, albeit diverse films coming out of Bollywood in recent times. Taare Zameen Par, Jannat, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster, all three films have only one thing in common, actor, Vipin Sharma’s electrifying presence. Here we talk to the classically trained actor, who promises to give us many more such performances.

What got you into acting, in the first place?

As a kid growing up in Delhi I always wanted to be in the movies. I used to hear stories of kids running away from homes and landing up in Bombay but I never thought of doing it as I knew it would hurt my parents badly.  I decided to first join theatre and then do films. That took me to one of the most prestigious acting schools in India-the National School of Drama (“NSD”) in New Delhi. After graduating from there I worked in theatre for a bit and then assisted Ketan Mehta and worked with Naseeruddin Shah very closely on two films. During that time I got fascinated with cinema and wanted to study it. My quest took me to Europe for a while and then I shifted to Toronto where I have been living since over a decade and a half. I think I became sort of disillusioned with acting and Bollywood of late 80’s and wanted to do something different. In Toronto I tried different hats and finally became an editor after having attended another very popular Norman Jewison film school, Canadian Film Centre. But during all that time acting stayed in my mind and I always thought may be one day I will go back to it. And I AM back now.
All this happened because of a chance meeting with one of the most amazing acting teachers I have come across, Jacqueline McClintock from Montreal who teaches Meisner. It changed my life. I studied with her for a bit and decided to pack my bags and head to Bollywood.

On the influence of NSD, in your development as an actor?   

NSD influenced me greatly. I am not sure that it made me an actor but it surely put me on the right path. That is where I came in touch with some of the most important filmmakers and actors of our times like Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Prakash Jha, Naseerudding Shah, Om Puri, B.V. Karanth, Barry John to name a few. After NSD I didn’t even think of doing anything else but to stay in theatre and cinema. It had a very deep impact on me.

You appear to be the man with the golden touch, whichever project you touch, however different, appears to have a successful run at the box office, from TZP, Jannat, Saheb Biwi. On your experience in working with these three distinct filmmakers?

Yes all three of them are very different films. Taare was a windfall. I had no idea that it was going to happen when I first arrived in India. I remember my first day on the shoot. There were these huge lights and I was standing with Aamir and Amole who was then directing the film. It felt surreal. By the time I did Jannat it was still a bit strange. I had refused it but I am glad I did it. I remember soon after Jannat released I was driving in Bombay and stopped at a cross light. A group of street kids who cell umbrellas, books and many other things on these junctions came running towards me. I first thought they wanted to cell me their merchandise but soon they told me that they had loved my Hamam soap dialog in it. I was quite amazed by how much Bollywood movies have actually become part of the life in India. I mean these kids are not educated and are poor but they see every film. By Saheb I was quite comfortable. This is again a role which I loved playing. I completely felt at ease. This is and of course Yeh Saali ZIndagi as well.

4.Talk a little about your upcoming projects?

I am mostly working with Indie filmmakers in Bollywood now and that is where I am finding my like-mindedness. I don’t hate mainstream cinema but it very rarely offers films that are greatly entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Just aiming to entertain through an art form is shallow and doesn’t contribute much to any society. In a country like India where there are so many issues that need to be looked into there is a great need of cinema which reflects that. I am attempting to be part of this New Age Cinema that is fast emerging here. I am also slowly going back to performing on stage and soon will be directing my first film as well.

On your days in Canada and the creative scene over there?

Toronto is a fantastic city. I miss it. When I first arrived in India I used to go on the net and read the Canadian news papers but I had to stop it because I started to get very emotional and nostalgic. Whatever I am today it is because of Canada, Toronto has taught me a lot. I owe a lot to my city. I wish I could go back quite often and return some of it to the city I love the most in the world. It is my home now and I am away from home. May be soon I will start making films in both the cities Toronto and Bombay.

PRODUCER – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Baltasar Kormákur, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg
DIRECTOR – Baltasar Kormákur
WRITER – Aaron Guzikowski (screenplay), Arnaldur Indriðason and Óskar Jónasson for ‘Reykjavik-Rotterdam’
CAST – Mark WahlBerg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Ben Foster
MUSIC – Clinton Shorter

Heist films are generally quickies, focused and to-the-point. Contraband keeps to its brief and serves up a delightfully tight, somewhat manipulative, a little complicated but intelligent crime caper that stays to the point.

It begins similarly as well. Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-smuggler who now works installing security alarms. He has a lovely wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale), two kids and a happy home. All of this comes under danger when Kate’s brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) drops a cocaine cargo he was running on a ship for fear of being caught. Now his boss Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) is baying for his blood, demanding the cargo’s worth of money while threatening to harm Kate and her children. Chris is forced to work out a short-cut to getting instant millions and he does but not before putting his wife and children in his friend, Sebastian’s (Ben Foster) guardianship. What follows not only involves fake notes, armoured car heists, drug-running on cargo ships but betrayal and murder.

The director, Baltasar Kormákur remakes the film from an Icelandic film titled ‘Reykjavík-Rotterdam’ (2008) starring himself. It is a race-to-the-finish sort of film that leaves little time to absorb any details more than necessary for the plot to move on. In a tightly narrated fashion it lays out the plan, the progression and growing stakes in equal measure and creates a fair amount of tension while doing it. The odds stalked against Chris are huge yet he, the eponymous, templat-ish, fearless heist-hero will pull through anything however bizarre for that stoic and unassailable love for his family. He is the all-protector of his vulnerable wife, children and here, brother-in-law too. There is little we get to know about him apart from this unnatural heroism except that he loves pulling off such jobs. That, again does little for the plot.

What does is the sharp cutting and edgy narrative, just about balancing the showing and telling of the plan and unfolding of the next development, keeping us summarily hooked to what happens next. For a crime thriller this is enough runs gained for winning the match. Obviously then, the film becomes a plot-based caper where characters do little than serve up the next thrill or curve and Wahlberg and Beckinsale play their roles strictly within these limits. The grainy, grungy visuals chalk up a gritty landscape that helps the film do what it sets out to do with determination – to keep having you ask, so what’s next?!

Does that make it good film? Well, it makes it a good well-spent two hours following the twisted terrains of crime at the movies.

PRODUCER – Gregory Jacobs
DIRECTOR – Steven Soderbergh
WRITER – Lem Dobbs
CAST – Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas
MUSIC – David Holmes

After last year’s contemplative and analytic Contagion Steven Soderbergh comes back with a vigorous spy thriller. In a neat and tight little plot he makes his lady protagonist Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) combat, shoot, run, jump and defeat the most intrepid of opponents.

A covert operations spy, Mallory gets into a trap laid to betray her and turns the story on her opponents’ head by becoming their nemesis. Working for a private organization she is hired by a government agent Coblez (Michael Douglas) and his contact Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) to rescue a man captured in Barcelona. Little does Mallory know, as she embarks upon the trail that she is being set-up and her own ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) is part of the plan. She soon gets wiser and in one swoop turns hunted from the hunter. But Mallory wants her revenge and she will have it. She begins her hunt for every person responsible for betraying her.

In a frenzy of building-scaling acrobatics and dynamic hand-to-hand combat Soderbergh tells a tale of action and fury that has little story. But he masks this with the aces of sharp twists and turns he throws at his audience without warning. He has his petite lady protagonist do the toughest acts and she pulls them off with a rare confidence, shining of smart manouveres and totally lacking in false bravado. Perhaps, after Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, Gina Carano fits well into the fantasy of the invincible, fearless Superwoman.

It is a sparse tale that unfolds in front of us, largely keeping to Mallory’s chase. She is the focus of the film and remains its only take-away. In a film that veers corners faster than F1, the remaining stellar cast become mere plot points with little to do but merely provide her the motive to zip-zam-zoom us into well-deserved awe. Gina Carano, on her part plays the death-defying spy with a steely confidence and a slight brazen-ness that becomes her young spy. It makes us root for her when she dressed in a little black dress takes on a man in hand to hand combat and fights a bone-cracking, muscle-numbing fight to the finish. And wins.

Soderbergh also handles the camera and gives us visuals as sparse as is the terrain of the film. He keeps colours muted and captures action as vigorously as it explodes between the people, never letting the camera get in the way.

As an action thriller the film works like a little charm. Especially the tongue-in-cheek climax Soderbergh leaves us to figure out. And the manner in which he treats his heroine it is but a befitting end, because by now we know what she is capable of and leave the film chuckling at the smart under-telling. Delectable.

PRODUCER – Karan Johar
DIRECTOR – Karan Malhotra
WRITER – Karan Malhotra (Screenplay), Piyush Mishra (Dialogues)
CAST – Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor
MUSIC –Ajay Gogavale, Atul Gogavale

In a small village off the Western coast of India a young teacher and his family live an upright and simple life. Until it is mercilessly uprooted by an evil drug-lord Kancha Cheena. The teacher is defamed and hanged publicly and the family is made to flee their village. Behind them, over time, the village becomes Kancha’s kingdom of hell and a festering wound within Vijay, the teacher’s young son. A wound that is poisonous enough to infect Vijay’s entire life with a singular motive, revenge.

Karan Johar reprises his father Yash Johar’s best work (Agneepath 1990) with Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra in the leads. It is a film that borrows the framework of the original story and presents it with its own suitable tweaks. The grey Mandwa and middle-class milieu are the same but the sensibility is different. Within this new sensibility the film becomes a melodramatic and over-wrought piece that leaves no stone unturned in telling and literalising every emotion, action and motive.

Right from the start, the film takes a relaxed pace of unravelling the story. Hence, Kancha and Vijay’s childhood’s track, his joining hands with Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor), the local ganglord and his romantic track plodge haltingly towards what the film is really about – Vijay’s revenge and emotional release. This meandering story-telling points to a masala sensibility that is compelled to include every other element of cinema at the cost of its story. Despite Hrithik’s immense frowning and suitable huffing-puffing this dilutes the intensity of Vijay’s story.

For a film doused in tears, ash, blood it is an extremely loud and melodramatic affair that we watch unfolding. Hrithik keeps the explosive angst of Vijay seething beneath the surface and brings alive the pain of his traumatic past by his mere demeanour. However, the film has him lose subtlety to over-expression and he gives into the temptation of blustering the anger that has long become stony-edged. This, in combination with Sanjay Dutt’s surreally evil Kancha who spouts spiritual theisms without a care for diction or variation in articulation makes for a mis-matched war leaving us confused on whose side we are on. Piyush Mishra’s dialogues swings furiously from the terribly pedestrian to the most mis-fit philosophy.

In the war between Vijay and Kancha all else seem but of tertiary importance. Yet, a self-possessed but badly performed Rauf Lala takes up a lot of screen time. And so do a uselessly chirpy Priyanka Chopra and her colony of compulsively colourfully dressed up women. She fills her space with decent value but matters little in the larger scheme of things. Zarina Wahab’s weepy mother constantly fluctuates between two emotions never letting us get close to the taut complexity of her and Vijay’s relationship. Om Puri, in his upright and determined police officer role is simply a miscast and does not command the power his role is meant to.

A very tepid musical score and lyrics mark the entire narrative. An over-wrought back ground score underlines every emotion and turning point as though the dialogues weren’t (over) doing it enough. Besides being loud the film is also naïve while showing the interactions between the police and Home Ministry. A distinct lack of touch with rawness, angst and compelling evil in the directorial vision lends this film to become an insistently bloody saga of little impact than the one on the eardrums.

PRODUCER – Ralph Fiennes, Gabrielle Tana, Julia Taylor-Stanley, Colin Vaines
DIRECTOR – Ralph Fiennes
WRITER – John Logan based on William Shakespeare’s play ‘Coriolanus’.
CAST – Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain
MUSIC – Ilan Eshkeri

When the film opens we see a tattooed hand sharpening a somewhat historic-looking knife. Soon, this visual gives way to footage of modern-day warfare and bloodshed. We know then, that Shakespeare’s tragic saga of the Roman leader Coriolanus is to be viewed in the 21st century setting.

Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes), the protagonist is at war and fights his arch-enemy Tullus Aufidius (Gerard Butler) in a valiant hand-to-hand combat. In minutes we know this is a ferocious General with an unbridled temperament. But it is when he gets back home that the real drama begins. His superiors and his mother Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave) persuade him to take up political office as a mark of recognition for his military accolades. He wins the support of the Roman Senate but a mutiny stirred up by Brutus and Sicinius turns the public against him. Egged by his passionate, irreverent and volatile disposition Coriolanus completely alienates them attracting an exile for himself. He leaves Rome in anger and joins forces with Aufidius to besiege Rome for revenge. Like a true Shakespearean tragic hero, he begins paving way for his own fall.

The film remains completely loyal to Shakespeare’s plot which in turn is based on historic turn of events. In adapting it to contemporary times Ralph Fiennes plays with setting but retains the dialogue and politics of yore. He also retains Shakespeare’s original vision of his characters and redraws them with a sparkling honesty. He shows Coriolanus for the impulsive and explosive valiant leader he is and Ralph Fiennes plays it with vigour and passion. However, he plays it uni-dimensional, unable to go deeper into the skin of the tragic hero and bring into play the various shades of good and bad that mark all of Shakespeare’s tragedy kings. Fiennes captures the mother-son relationship of Volumnia and Coriolanus with the same insight as Shakespeare, defining with discernment the almost possessive sense of ownership she displays, also alienating and disconcerting Coriolanus’ wife. Vanessa Redgrave owns the matriarch with a towering presence and conviction dwarfing Fiennes’ Coriolanus both by her stature and strength of character. But then that is exactly the sub-text of their relationship. Jessica Chastain as the fragile wife makes the perfect foil for the over-bearing mother and aggressive son with her intuitive performance.

Among the secondary characters Gerard Butler and Brian Cox put in dependable performances but it is Paul Jesson as Brutus and James Nesbitt as Sicinius who draw eyeballs by bringing out the vile corruption and squirming under-handed evil with ease.

The entire cast transforms the bombastic Shakespearean verse and prose into dramatic conversation. It is the ‘feeling’ more than usual eloquence with which his lines are generally enacted that contributes to the drama coming alive. However, it makes the film inaccessible but powerful nonetheless.

FATEMA KAGALWALA

PRODUCER – Sudhish Kamat
DIRECTOR – Sudhish Kamat
WRITER – Sudhish Kamat, Shilpa Rathnam
CAST – Manu Narayan, Seema Rehmani, Vasanth Santosham, Raja Sen, Abhishek D Shah

As sages, legends and wisdom have always said love is random to find and easy to lose. Yet the more number of times we lose it the less capable we remain to nourish it. Goodnight Good Morning, in its own gentle manner, soul-bares two fragile people, Turiya (Manu Narayan) and Moira (Seema Rehmani) who accidentally meet in a bar and then spend an entire night on phone talking. This chat, innocuous flirting at first, leads them through the eight stages of relationships – The Icebreaker. The Honeymoon. The Reality Check. The Break-up. The Patch-up. The Confiding. The Great Friendship & The Killing Confusion.

Experimental in approach, the film is black and white and presented as a split-screen conversation between the two. All along jazz music plays in the background never letting us forget the film is about love, the finding, losing, keeping, gaining and searching of it.

The film is cosy even though a tad claustrophobic. It is assured of its characters and peels them layer by layer through the conversation they have. It’s with a piquant observation of urban, contemporary ideas and experiences of love in men and women that the film explores its characters. There may be little insight about relationships but the tightness of characterisation help us go along Turiya and Moira’s journey effortlessly. It however, leaves a gap in exploring the said stages with depth making the explanation of the same seem forced.There is also the spoofs in between that become inconsistent with the mood of the entire film, not helping it go anywhere. Similarly, the gang of friends become a less-than-useful baggage as well.

Although it is a singularly dialogue-oriented film, it cries out to be more visually imaginative. It pulls us into engaging with the smart-n-sexy Moira and soft-n-sugary Turiya from the start. They are opposites and they attract. There is sharp and easy camaraderie in their ice-breaker phase that effortlessly leads into us eagerly asking the ever-important question – what next? Their conversation is verbose and unfortunately limited by a visual style that makes the viewing auditory than the actual sensual experience to is. The singular split-screen with only close-ups and mid-shots, especially profiles to help do not let us explore the characters in our minds visually, which the narrative badly makes us want to do.

The film rallies on, on the steam of some sharp writing and absorbing performances of the lead pair. Manu Narayan’s guy-next-door Turiya, the consummate believer in true and everlasting love makes a solid contrast for the exquisite Seema Rehmani as Moira.Together, the pair pull the somewhat difficult film off-the-ground into a satisfying experience. It may not be brilliant but if you have known love closely, the film has the power to make you love or hate love, depending on your experience with it.

FATEMA KAGALWALA

DON 2, had more bad guys than good guys, after all it was based on bad against bad. In all of those characters, one was new for Don 2….Jabbar,played to perfection by Nawwab Shah. Interestingly, Nawwab has traversed many creative grounds which includes Television, Regional Films and other interesting Hindi cinema roles. Let us find out more about this towering personality.

An Afghan who has made it in Bollywood, how did that come about?

Well it is not completely true. While my parents came from Afghanistan many years ago, I was born and have lived in India all my life. My father’s side is from Afghanistan but even they came here about fifty years ago, so I am Indian in all respects. Therefore, I am not a complete outsider who has made it in Bollywood. I did my schooling in acting with Roshan Taneja, in 1993, in Mumbai. I got my first break shortly thereafter with a Sanjay Khan show, called AKBAR THE GREAT,  for Doordarshan. I was fortunate enough to be signed for the title role, given that I was very green. That to me was the biggest training ground since it covered all facets, action, dialogue delivery, music, the whole learning process for me and I could not have asked for a better launch.

So now that you are the big and amazing screen presence of DON 2, is it goodbye TV?

Not really. Truth be told I would not perhaps like to see myself in daily soaps and I have not done much of TV, but I did take on small episodic stories that came my way. They were not lengthy and were also interesting in the way they were filmed. This lead to the series called SARTHI, which was on Star Plus and I did that for three years. If I look at the major chunk of my work on TV, it is SAARTHI and AKHBAR THE GREAT which took like five years of mine. So it is not about movies or television, I mean I have done about 29 movies in the South in Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and Malayalam, I’ve done an English film, a short tele-film,  so I would not restrict myself to anything, especially since today TV and films are of the same breadth and expanse. So it is more a combination of what strikes my fancy and what sounds interesting at the time, is what I will take on.

In DON 2, I think your look was the most international, so that brings me to the question would you also be open to projects in places like the UK or the US?

Yes of course. Doing projects in Mumbai and this is true for all artists, after a while gets repetitive, be it in the genre of action, or whatever, so I would look to work anywhere outside. An example is a friend of mine from New Zealand, is making a medium budget film, so for me to be a part of a different crew, distinct Geography, language, the whole process was very exciting. So be it British, UK, regional, to the extent that I fit in well with the character, would be fun to do.

Given that you have done so many films in the South, how do you overcome the language barrier?

It varies from film to film. Like I did a Malayalam film with Mohanlal, actually got an award for that film. We obviously know the meaning of every word that we are saying, as it is told to us, so ideally you memorize your lines and speak them, because your pronunciation is not totally correct, they do tend to get local speakers to dub it. But by the same token I had done another Malyalam film where they wanted the character to speak with not the typical accent, almost like an outsider, so that worked very well. I have also done and spoken Tamil, Telegu and Kannada that way. Sometimes an assistant will be prompting, while I am performing and I tend to catch the words, so there are various ways but eventually they do dub it because they need a certain fluency of language.

Your favorite moment of DON 2 and what it was like to work with Farhan and Shah Rukh?

Every moment from the time I signed it. I signed DON 2 in Feb 2011 and the shooting was in October, from that moment on I did not do any other work, since I wanted to devote my time to this. I was under going training for about five to six months before the movie started. Then landed up for a two month shoot in Berlin. I have worked before with Farhan in Lakshya. I’ve known Farhan and Ritesh for the past twenty years, so the comfort level was always there. This was an unique opportunity since the character was a principal character and a very interesting one, also a new one, as he was not part of the original Don and the remake. So in all honesty enjoyed every bit of it.

Finally what is upcoming?

Am doing a film for Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, with whom I have always wanted to work, called Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. I play an athletic coach to the main character, essayed by Farhan. The filming  starts in March. I am leaving in a couple of days for some very serious training to get into the skin of the character. I anticipate approximately a 2-3 month shoot, so am not rushing into things but giving this one all of my time.

PRODUCER – Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Robert Lorenz
DIRECTOR – Clint Eastwood
WRITER – Dustin Lance Black
CAST – Clint Eastwood, Naomi Watts, Armie Hammer
MUSIC – Clint Eastwood

American history remembers J. Edgar Hoover as a man with a checkered life. Almost single-handedly responsible for building the Federal Bureau of Investigation, America’s premier intelligence institution of world-wide repute, Hoover largely remains a man who used his power illegally and beyond the jurisdiction of the organisation.

Clint Eastwood’s biopic chooses to portray a tender picture of the man, underplaying the ethical questions that surrounded his tenure of service with the US Government but not necessarily underscoring his achievements either. While, this may be doing a disservice to the records of history, it also personalizes the account of a man as important as he was seen as notorious. Within this personal and tinted framework Eastwood and his writer Dustin Lance Black tell a story of a determined man focused towards vindicating justice but not too unwilling to tweak rules for personal glory. The same man is also a mamma’s boy fighting a sexual dilemma, he loves toting guns, being the all-American hero and is in love with his deputy but unable to face it. Hoover’s homosexuality and his relationship with Clyde Tolson, his deputy, is a suggestion rather than proven in history but in making it a concrete aspect of his personality Eastwood sketches an endearing portrayal of male bonding and companionship.

The film focuses entirely on Hoover’s FBI career taking us through the various chapters of his professional life in a back and forth weave strung together by Hoover’s voice over dictating his memoirs. This technique reserved for thrillers works equally well in drama while we decode Hoover’s life layer by layer and sink into engaging with what unfolds.

While there is an inconsistency in dealing with America’s pre and post-war politics, the film, like any other Eastwood film, draws out the man behind the drama and lays him out, human and vulnerable for our consumption. It is the sterling performances of the main leads that hold the film together. Leonardo Dicaprio shuttles between a young and tense Hoover to an old Hoover, almost at the end of his time, with a superb ease and control. The devastatingly handsome Armie Hammer, last seen in The Social Network, supports Dicaprio’s performance with a solidarity as sincere as Tolson’s must have been to Hoover. Naomi Watts as Miss Gandy, the loyal and trusted secretary of Hoover for fifty-four years, is relegated to the background after an exciting start. Yet the actress manages to hold her place in the triumvirate with a silent conviction and dependability that has almost become a hallmark of her performances.

Like all his films earlier, Clint Eastwood turns this biopic into an engaging human drama about morals, values, relationships and human vulnerabilities. He does not judge nor is he cynical and in this lack of cynicism he manages to portray a man of a dubitable past we can view with equanimity. Eastwood also provides music to his biopic and what we get is a subtle and simple score helping the movie along gently, never over-powering, never underscoring, never diminishing.

The film is no legendary saga or a celebration of triumph. But it is a recognition of contribution to the creation of history and an effort full of empathy and understanding to unravel an almost mythic man. It is engaging, solid, with a lot of heart and a perspicacity so rare in the way we tell our stories these days.

SHOR IN THE CITY, ended on Pitobash’s face. But it began a love affair with the audience for this wonderfully talented actor. Pitobash was also part of the award winning I AM KALAM and there too his skill as a trained and seasoned performer, came to the forefront. Here we talk to this Oriya Engineer, about what lies ahead and what got him into Bollywood. Over to Pitobash:

On your journey from Orissa to the Mumbai film industry?

I am an Engineer from Orissa, I always wanted to be an actor from childhood but growing up in Orissa I realized there was a lack of infrastructure to make a profession out of this. So I shifted to Kolkata after my high school to pursue Engineering more because I was good academically so I figured that I might as well get my graduation done.  This also gave me an opportunity to do theater in that city, since Kolkata provides a lot of opportunity to grow culturally. On wrapping up my Engineering I applied to the Film and Television Institute (FTII) in Pune, after that I shifted to Mumbai. I have been in Mumbai for the last four years.

So lets talk about your two breakout performances last year, I AM KALAM and SHOR IN THE CITY?
Raj and DK had made the short film by the same name. I had just passed out of the FTII and they auditioned me and cast me in the short film. Based on that they offered a small cameo in their film 99, an interesting role nevertheless and then SHOR happened. Since I had then known the makers for 3.5 years, the concept and the character was very clear in my mind and that helped immensely in the portrayal. Madhab Panda, the maker of I AM KALAM, is also from Orissa and we have interacted even prior to working on the film, on a social basis, in Mumbai, although did not know each other in Orissa. I got a call from him when he was in Delhi, informing me that he is doing a very small film with no budget, but it is for a good cause and is for a NGO. The NGO, The Smile Foundation, had done a lot of documentaries on the issue of children education/ child labor, but this time they had wanted to make a feature to try and get a bigger reach for their message. So the subject had an underlying message, albeit wrapped in an entertaining film. On reading the script I agreed to come on board. I did realize that it is not every time I will do a no budget film, but for an actor to be a part of something useful to society that opportunity also comes quite rarely, especially when it is linked to doing your work and showing up to work. I did not charge a single rupee for the film, while it was being filmed in Bikaner and I do know that a lot of other people also have worked for free on this film. Iam glad that the film has got the recognition it deserved. It will be a memorable film for my life.

Future and upcoming projects?
There is Alaap by debutante director, Manish Manikpuri. It is a musical based in Chhattisgarh, about four engineering students who did not want to be engineers in the first place and how they are making music as a rock band and attempting to win over the naxals via their music.
Then there is Joker by Shirish Kuder with Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi, Shreya and Minisha Lamba.
Am also doing Dibanker Bannerjee’s next film, Shanghai,  with Emraan, Kalki and Abhay. I want to take it slow, post SHOR I declined approximately ten films as they were offering the same Mumbai tapori role. I need to be push myself as an actor to do different roles.  I guess that is the challenge for most actors, to not get stereotyped, yet what is expected is a recreation of an earlier successful role.

Likelihood of seeing you on television or stage?
Theater, I continue to do along with film acting. Right now I am not looking actively towards television, but you never know what the future holds since I always follow my heart.

Using your grey cells, since you are an Engineer, of playing other parts in the creative industry?
Writing is something I did even before getting the acting breaks and I continue to do so. I have lots of concepts that I keep penning. At this point I don’t have plans to direct or write since I am not in a hurry to do anything in life without proper training and work going into it. Just as in acting where I paid my dues via theater and FTII, so I gave time to that faculty. Likewise I want to give my dues to other aspects, before I say I am ready to indulge in it. Polish my craft and upgrade my skills. So when the confidence comes that I can make a good film, as opposed to making something for the sake of making, I will be inclined to do so.

PRODUCER – ANUYA MHAISKAR, SACHIN AWASTHEE AND UDAY SHETTY
DIRECTOR – HRIDAY SHETTY
WRITER – YASH-VINAY
CAST – NASEERUDDIN SHAH, ATUL KULKARNI, KAY KAY MENON, RAVI KISSEN, SHWETA BHARDWAJ, RAJESH SHARMA, ZAKIR HUSSAIN
MUSIC – LALIT PANDIT AND VISHAL RAJAN

Many a times a film becomes its characters. Or rather actors in the case of Chaalis Chaurasi. Then it stoops to the presence and prowess of stage-burners and unless the vision of the film or its story stands above all, rarely does a film like this is able to bear the weight of a weightily talented star-cast.

Probably, the onus of the film’s failure lies there. Failure, yes we’ve already said it. In a casting coup of sorts the film gets together Naseeruddin Shah as Pankaj Suri or Sir, Kay Kay Menon as Albert Pinto, a car thief, Atul Kulkarni as Bobby, a bar singer and Ravi Kisshen as Shakti , a drug dealer. They are small-time crooks with dreams in their eyes and corny plans to make it big which involves raiding a deserted house to catch hold of 20 crores. Even as they dress up as cops and begin their act they are confronted with an actual encounter cop (Rajesh Sharma) who enlists them to catch a real-time gangster Bisleri (Zakir Hussain). The four suddenly meet the real world. Will their bravado last and will their dreams outrun the harshness of the reality?

The film is a caper film which keeps the narrative run-time as short as a night’s dilemma but includes reels of flashback that doesn’t give the impression of tightness. It tackles the characters with depth, revealing to us the story of each in great detail but in doing so side-steps their present. It tries to infuse as much quirk as possible in the entire proceedings but a rather short-sighted approach to comedy and narrative leaves the actors and story short of lasting pegs reducing the entire film to flashes of wit and some inconsistently sparkling chemistry. A listless and sometimes uninspiring plot twists leave the actors with little material to infuse in the proceedings. So Naseeruddin Shah looks like a misfit, Ravi Kishen becomes OTT, Kay Kay Menon swaggers from feel good convincing to ineffective and Atul Kulkarni is refreshing at best, but only because the zest with which he seems to be enjoying himself is so.

The film seems to be paying tribute to the film industry with the way it chooses to name its protagonists and thereby indulgingly professing a huge love for its own. It makes us dig into our past as well with a refreshing inclusion of the 80’s Pakistani hit song ‘Hawa Hawa’. It then trips over its feet by introducing pointless item numbers and slapstick comedy that makes for slightly embarrassing watch.

The film takes too long to come to the point. It meanders needlessly over laugh-out-loud moments at the cost of story-telling. Even though we love knowing about Sir’s erstwhile crush and Pinto’s almost child-like car craze at the end of it all the journey becomes exhausting enough for us to ultimately ask – ”And the point was?” Not a good thing for a film to evoke, you will agree.