Kapoor & Sons Overview

                      When I Met KAPOOR & SONS

Director: Shakun Batra 

Writers: Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre

Starring: Sidharth Malhotra, Fawad Khan, Rishi Kapoor

“So, how was Kapoor & Sons?”It was …. [Wait] I mean..

This was my friend asking me about the movie I had watched on a Sunday afternoon. With the aim of slaying the time, I entered the dark hall expecting a typical Dharma Production’s product to which I would have to glue my eyes upon. But after vacating the hall, I was emotional. Emotional, as I was after watching Whiplash or Gran Torino.  

I’ll be straight up honest. I’ve seen a lot of Dramas, Romantic Comedies of Bollywood. Some of them have been exceptional. But this is what I dislike. The word ‘some’ should have been replaced by ‘most’. Kapoor & Sons made it to the ‘some’ category which exist in my mind. The most intriguing happy-yet-sad ending was enticing enough for aspiring writers like me and the ‘big-shot’ Bollywood writers, to learn from. I had been noticing Siddharth Malhotra as another still faced John Abraham in his previous movies. But in Kapoor & Sons, I see this Sidharth Malhotra (Arjun) who is present with his friends and family, devoid of a production unit. Cheerful, sad, honest; justifying the character of the story. Fawad Khan, is a symbol of dapper with no glimpse of exaggeration in his display of Rahul Kapoor: a mature, empathetic and a successful writer. Alia Bhatt (Tia Malik) played a good part, but sincerely, she has a lot to learn to ace the skills of acting. The entire cast brought forward a family, which the writers of the movie, Shakun Batra and Ayesha Devitre Dhillon, had thought of each day while preparing the script.

Here lies a grandfather, with smoke curling up his face. His two grandsons rejoicing in time, time which will take their father away on a long voyage. Father takes away the bliss of mom’s marital life and mom revolts against the father’s existing and provoking lies. Younger son broods upon his prejudiced fate and the elder one seeks for solution to ‘em all. Younger one rages against the elder one where the elder one is already raged by the immoral choices of his father and his mother’s temper over his own lifestyle choices. Meanwhile, the father is economically troubled and so is the mother due to the decisions of the former and the aftermath which impacts her aspirations. And yes, all of this is accompanied by the Grandfather’s last wish, that is, a family photograph captioned as 'Kapoor & Sons, since 1921.'

The sublime juxtaposition of sub-plots to enhance the plot and hence, the delivery of the story is what I suppose, composes the proper construction of a movie. Sub-plots are complex in this movie in contrast to the ease of their assembly. The scenario of the plumber fixing the damaged pipe, with Sunita  (Ratna Pathak Shah) mulling over the indecisiveness of her hubby - Harsh (Rajat Kapoor), leading on to a  heated  debate accompanied by comical references by the plumber and another act of deliriousness by the brothers, Rahul (Sidharth) and Arjun (Fawad), made me marvel at the beauty with which the furor was put up on the screen. A scene, which I wish to watch over and over again.

Remarkable is the hardwork of director, Shakun Batra, who narrates the complex plots and sub-plots visually like a maestro. After cruising the movie, one is left with a question mark inside the head: a contemplating mood over life and happy ending versus reality. The fact which philosophers and bards have been promoting in their works is what Kapoor & Sons comprises of.

To sin is human, they say. But this movie stands for: To sin and yet forgive the sinner, is human; for love is a weak tragedy uplifted by the higher dimensions of death.

This movie is a Johar-ish effect made right, after all it’s a Dharma for the movie makers.

NEERJA Overview

NEERJA (the akin within the unakin.)

Directed by : Ram Madhvani

Written by: Saiwyn Quadras, Sanyuktha Chawla Shaikh (dialogues)

Starring : Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Jim Sarbh

“Babumoshai, Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi.” When all the people who watched NEERJA, related this statement to Neerja Bhanot’s (Sonam Kapoor) gut-wrenching scenario turned ‘I’m-gonna-save-‘em-all’ temperament; I saw director Ram Madhvani apply this aphorism to his movie-making process for the film. Yes, it is a two-hour long movie. Long, but Great in spirit.

The film starts with a melody in Neerja’s lips and a twist in her mom’s, (Shabana Azmi) soothing laugh. Taking a dig at Neerja’s childhood. Oh wait, but do I have to? She mimicks Rajesh Khanna’s moves and with a child-like humour, dimisses away her brother’s jest over her appearance, with a teasing touch. She is just twenty two. What we expect is a similar innocent future for a model-cum-airhostess. But time possess a mocking deception, and even space contorts against the evil of it. Let alone a human, seeking for, as the people say, ‘a bright career’.

Now there is a challenge. A marked destiny for me. I will sweat the blood out. I will make it better. There is a soulful blessing disguised as love which I will reciprocate. Why, I feel my heart pounding faster. There are bodies with smiles on their faces and my beaus are busy treating them fair. Things seem to go as planned. But now I see these men, with violence on their brows and smoked calibres on their palms. Gun on my temple, the visitors feel violated. Have I landed on the wrong land or is it the fate with a smirk? I must protect my kindred or die trying.

This is just the mind of Neerja which I try, although vaguely, to uncover following her good-bye with the family. There are elements noticeable in NEERJA which distinguishes it from other much hyped about bollywood entries in the cinema halls in 2016. From displaying a playful and zesty emotion to what I already mentioned, a ‘gut-wrenching scenario,’ the mood of the audience is influenced cordially with what director Ram Madhavani attempts to portray. More attention on the sound effects could have uplifted the building angst of the viewers, but keeping in mind the visual craft, this flaw is easily neglected. Another very crucial factor adding to the pros of this movie is the liberties which the actors took to make Neerja as real as possible. There is no irritating Aisha’s Sonam Kapoor. This Sonam Kapoor is as brilliant as her sense in fashion. The game changer is the antagonist: Khalil (Jim Sarbh). I could never judge his (a foreign terrorist’s) linguistic problem to be faux. His desperation and fatigue, only an effort  of acting! If I were a hatter, I would gladly call for a hats-off performance. What leaves a long lasting impact on the viewers is the last message which Neerja leaves for her mother. You must witness this impact by yourself. Teary-eyed, Shabana Azmi is all but a diamond in the dark mine of Bollywood. 

Twenty people lost their lives in this (Pain Amplified) Pan Am Flight 73 airplane in Karachi. A boy pisses in his pants and a granny swells her eyes, credits to the fear faced by the former and the misery of the deceased heir shot in front of the latter. Grenades and AKs with willpower and a lasting numb cries of hundreds, this movie does not gives you chills but an ache for safety of the passengers over whom mankind does not lift its heavy hand. Some cinematographic details are brutal while other strange turns  in the nature of the rogues makes you wonder if someday you can make millions watch an episode of beauty turned “Papa ka bahadur bachcha” (Daddy’s brave girl).

P.S. If Airlift is a V8 powered Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z06 then Neerja is Bugatti Chiron with a behemoth W16.