Review: Chocolat

Given the recent scarcity of stories rich in narrative and metaphor, alike, one turns to the closet of decades past, searching for a gem hidden between the planks.

Chocolat is that story sublime.

Vianne Rocher (possibly a relative of Ferrero?) is a single mother who moves with the gusty North winds and takes her daughter along, from village to village, until she reaches Lansquenet-sous-Tannes, an orthodox French town led by the local Mayor-Count de Raynaud. Vianne is an atheist, unwed mother and Comte Raynaud a deeply religious traditionalist who seeks to maintain the sway of religious tradition. A stand-off is inevitable and forms the core of this story, albeit dipped liberally in chocolat.
You could think of Vianne as the chocolat whisperer. 

This isn't a murder mystery and the result of the stand-off has an agreeable conclusion, but what pleases the soul is the manner in which the climax is reached with believable grace.

While, on the surface, the movie is an ode to the almost-sinful attraction of chocolat, it speaks in metaphors at many levels. Of restraint-celebrating religiosity against free-willed joy-worship. Of inclusiveness against exclusiveness. Of anchors against drifting. Of passion. Of companionship. And, yet, the movie works as a story well-told. It doesn't overtly pontificate though it's clear which side it favors.

Judi Dench as Armande, the eccentric old landlady, Juliette Binoche as Vianne and Al Molina as Comte Raynaud dazzle and make this movie worth watching. 

My favorite scene was Al Molina that early Easter morning. Piece de resistance!

Mildly Spiced verdict: 4/5. Must watch. Three thumbs up.

Review: Trapped (Hindi/Bollywood)

I've waited for a good movie like I've waited for the rains, and just as the petrichor has perfumed the city, thus has this movie lit up my weekend.

The central theme of the story is extremely simple. A man in love leaves his shared digs in a hurry and takes up a low rent situation on the 35th floor of an otherwise completely uninhabited skyrise. A series of events unfold and the man finds himself physically trapped in his own apartment with all vital resources running low.

As morning turns to night and to the next morn, Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao) turns from obvious methods of escape to some rather innovative ones and as the days go on, innovation gives way to desperation.

A plausible and gripping script, competent acting and tight editing is what it takes for a one-person drama to work, and Trapped works. It slowly picks up in tempo as Shaurya's desperation begins to rise. The confidence of the Director (Vikramaditya Motwane) shows in that there are no spoken dialogues to convey what Shaurya feels or plans to do. 'Show, not tell' is how he goes about it.

Also, for a movie of this nature to work, there has to be reasonable plausibility, and the theme is an obvious trigger of a sense of implausibility, but the script and the Director deal with that aspect with a deft touch. I dealt with my 'This doesn't make sense' pretty quickly and was pulled into Shaurya's world on that 35th floor, feeling for him, grimacing, wincing and even smiling at every small victory.

In terms of emotions evoked, Trapped is a Castaway meets Hurt Locker.

MS Verdict: Must watch. Three thumbs up. Major kudos to Messrs. Rao n Motwane

Review: Muramba (Marathi)

"Muramba...cha.khay.chi ghaai nako. Muru de na jara"

The lyrics from the title song provide some solid advice but fail to implement it for the home effort. As my Ajji would have said 'Raja, jikde pikta tikde wikat nahi'

The movie starts with a break-up and ends with one of the two possible outcomes (#NoSpoilerAlert). Everything in between is a serio-comic effort by the boy's parent set to engineer a patch-up. Dialogues, artificial and eager-to-tickle, fail more often than they work. On the fair-balance side, there are at least a few easy chuckles with the Puneri marathi dialogues.

The male lead, Alok (Amey Wagh), is supremely irritating. Whether it is Amey doing a bangin' good job of coming across as irritating per demands of the role or if that's how acts is a judgment that I have no desire to make, but he makes me want to tell the girl 'Good job! Run! Don't turn back! His parents birthed him. They're stuck with him. You? You have an option!'

The gravest injustice is dealt to Mithila Palkar, an adorable child-woman, who can do so so much more but is made to grimace and sigh through most of the movie.

The parent-set of Sachin Khedekar and Chinmayee Sumeet put in an ernest effort and do something the spawn seems unable to, perform and entertain.

Overall, the movie is handicapped by lack of depth, poor development of characters, and a basic inability to make 'me' care for the lead character.


Note: YG's Ma and Dad are likely to find this movie reasonably entertaining.