![]() ![]() Talking about Bollywood, the most un-mainstream ventures in the anthology are the deliciously zany Nano So Phobia and Swaaha, both laced with a wicked sense of humour. Despite the superb acting though, one may find Sleeping Partner a tad too melodramatic and Bollywoodised, especially in the end. His gait, and the twitch is his eyebrow is as far from a quintessential antagonist can get - which makes Kapoor so chilling. Even in her rebellion, it is Neena's dignified quietude that makes the ending so powerful and effective.ĭutta imbues her character with utmost vulnerability, and Kapoor nails his portrayal of an abusive husband, by making him a spectacularly ordinary man. But Kashyap's masterstroke to make Neena quiet and shy helps the film from slipping into intense melodrama. Neena's only human interaction is with the help, who does not spare a moment to roll her eyes at Neena's dedication towards her family or belt out a saucy remark at her naivety. ![]() There is also a cheeky observer - the domestic help (played by the effervescent Srishti Shrivastava). ![]() ![]() Silently, she seeks refuge into the bountiful, bustling kitchen with its clanking dishes, whistling kettles, and boiling pots. Her husband (Shishir Sharma) is never malicious but often fails to regard his wife as a thinking entity. The anthology begins with Tahira Kashyap Khurrana's short Pinni, which she has crafted with utmost delicateness. This is a story about a neglected woman ( Neena Gupta), whose daughter and relatives call her only when they need her to courier them her special handcrafted pinnis (a type of sweet popular in Punjab). Perhaps ending the anthology with Thappad and its tiny hero might have truly emphasized the spirit of zindagi's shortness.'I just got one second and it created history': Naatu Naatu lyricist Chandrabose on his Oscar moment Guneet Monga poses with Kartiki Gonsalves, AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty internet says 'Gang of Oscars' It's been a while since a child-starring film has inspired its makers to think like a kid rather than adult approximations of kids. It is also shot from the "half-ticket" perspective: We only see broad chests, waists and legs that the scrawny boy sees, sometimes a face towering above, a point of view that enables the graphic-novel-ish use of action and body language. The film, part spoof and part childhood ode, has the best use of ultra slow-motion I've seen in recent times. He wants his sister to defy the bullies, and so comes up with a plan that, in his impressionable eyes, would make his illustrated heroes proud. As a hardcore comicbook fanatic, a little boy (an excellent Shafin Patel) – beset by highschool bullies who use him as a messenger to woo his older sister (Vedika Nawani) – visualizes the dry world around him in high frame rates and wild-wild-west music (the Ennio Morricone-esque theme is a earworm). Vinay Chhawal's Thappad, my favourite of the lot, does the same in context of a child's imagination. Rakesh Sain's Nano So Phobia, about an old Parsi lady (Swaroop Sampat) whose growing dementia elevates her odd phobia of dwarfism, is too satisfied with its light-hearted gaze and theatrical punchline instead of aiming to examine the cultural epidemic of lonely pensioners through the lens of full-blown black comedy. It's never easy to earn a moment of release, less so in a 20-minute sequence that can at best condense the buildup into a highway of binary feelings. There's not much wrong with the film, but it's the degree of rightness that matters: I didn't feel the coming-of-age rhythm of its protagonist as much as I should have. This reverse-engineering – where the filmmaker seems to be struggling to flesh out the body leading to the solid punchline – is also visible in Vijeyeta Kumar's Sunny Side Upar, a short about a workaholic doctor (Rima Kallingal) who experiences a life-is-too-short epiphany in the hospital halls. Much of it is designed to highlight Gupta's uncanny body language, but the quirky background score and the repetitive framing of domestic routine point to an arc that simply bides its time to reach a striking final shot. Based on a middle-class homemaker who decides to protest against her taken-for-granted status, Pinni is visibly in awe of its lead actor. The most high-profile of the anthology is arguably Pinni, starring Neena Gupta and directed by Tahira Kashyap Khurrana (the better half of Ayushmann Khurrana). For instance, let me start with the shorts that, despite some sweet performances, overstate their social environment at the cost of narrative potential. ![]()
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