The Blueberry Hunt

Naseeruddin Shah at his one of the bests. Due to poor critics' reviews, he might have said that he regrets doing the movie, but he had the charisma to pull it off. It's a journey of a rebel, trying to fight off unwanted trespassers from his land of sweat and blood. A story that depicts, how the circumstances, extract the other side of you. Totally different one, an unpredictable one. Watch if you like twisted serenity, in the womb of the magical nature. It just captures you, right away! Aahana Kumra does not underacts, neither does it over. She was able to convince her character. Kuttanpan, you rock..! It was worth my time, each and every frame of it. 8/10

This movie has been getting a lot of flake from the community and I must say. I don't get it. It's not a bad film by any measure. Sure, it has a unusual premise and theme. Not to mention it isn't really a narrative focused film. It's more about the relationships the characters share with each other in the film, especially in the case of Jaya and Colonel. Since it is essentially an indie film, it has some obvious cost cutting. But more on that later.

The central theme of growing Cannabis in the hilly region of Vagamon in Kerala has been accused as unrealistic. The truth is, and this is coming from a Keralite, is that Cannabis plantations are alive and well in Kerala. Especially in the high-range areas like Idukki and Wayanad. The gangs trying to steal the Cannabis? Pretty plausible as well.

I said earlier that this isn't a narrative focused film. It really isn't. The audience is expected to pay attention to the dialogues and take backstories and subplots from that. The performances in this film are good. Naseeruddin Shah is great as always. The others range from average, Jaya, to below average.

Cost cutting. There is always a saying when it comes to film-making. It is better to show than tell. Instead of telling us the story of the Colonel and his elusive lover, there is a bit of hinting and people playing North-East Indian instruments. Some of the camera movements are also very jerky.

All in all, it's an enjoyable film. I was very happy to see Nasseruddin Shah back in Kerala, last was in Ponthan Mada, and speaking Malayalam. A certain degree of disbelief is needed. But trust me, random guy you just met on the internet, it's worth it.

It's nice , open ended and had my imagination running. It is hard to see such fine movies being made in India. People need to understand that not everything should be perfect, complete, and "in India's case" Overdramatised.

Plot was focused only on the immediate situation and didn't offer any unnecessary explanations.

The film is visually appealing, given the locations and character styling.

This is not the usual larger than life bollywood movie. It is about a person colonel (Naseeruddin Shah) who owns a large land near a village in Kerala and grows a potent variety of Marijuana called blueberry shrunk. It takes about a year to grow them. As the crops are close to harvest, few people come to know about and want to steal it. The movie shows how this person ensures secrecy about what he does and single handedly protects his plantation spread across 30 acres. Will he succeed or not, you will have to see.

The most impressive thing about the movie is its narrative. It is not linear and the viewer gets the required information from the conversations between the characters. The movie pretty much revolves around Colonel, with him being in almost all the frames. And man, does he do good job at keeping your attention, with his subtle mannerisms. His acting is as natural as it can be. The supporting characters have small bits roles revolving around him, with Aahana Kumra's character getting the longest screen space as she helps develop colonel's character for the viewers.

Its sad that the movie's release got delayed and amongst all the confusion the film didn't do well commercially or critically. If it had, I would have wished for a prequel showing the back story the character Colonel played by Naseeruddin Shah.

Somewhere high up in the rolling velvety hills above Vagamon a Rastafarian man lives with his pet dog, a rifle and a three screens of security cameras that tells him whenever a trespasser crosses over into his 30 acre farm.

The striking Naseeruddin Shah plays the solitude-loving farmer who secretly grows a powerful version of marijuana that he is days away from harvesting.

This arresting cinematic persona has a love in Bombay he is nostalgic about and a past involving some tribal woman from the North East.

The fearsome Colonel Naseer plays kills at least three different assassins expressly sent to kill him and buries them in his vast land after a languorous digging exercise with beer and dog for company. These dead men are expressly placed across India. Then, a Bihari drug pusher delivers a kidnapped girl from Bombay for safe-keeping with the Marijuana growing cowboy farmer.

These are the tantalizingly established core of a story Independent director Anup Kurian writes and directs. He then packs this premise with so many tentacles that deliberately go nowhere. That is creative ambition rarely seen on film.

While the languorousness of the rolling hills, the charming landscape captured in long Bullet rides cutting past elephants strolling along, is wrought well enough, the menace of the constantly at threat from "enemies I do not have" rebel farmer slips away.

Even the elements of the Colonel's hinted-at past, both romantic and troubling, tend to fizzle away because the Colonel comes across more as a leisurely hedonist rather than troubled man. Too many intriguing leads remain unexplained, for example the series of fake identification cards he stocks. These bits glint, but usually in natural light.

Perhaps, to establish a storytelling route of hints and possibilities, the cinematography should have benefitted if it worked a little more on setting moods cinematically. Most of the times, Naseer is voicing his moods, adding more daylight to mute the glints that the film hopes to ignite.

The film's mature, muted drama works brilliantly, especially in its unhurried and subtle humour, the verdant surroundings slowly take over this film. The dashingly original character misses engagement with any of the many dramatic possibilities that trespass into his life despite a loaded gun.

And yet this is a film one should not miss. None of the mainstream papers reviewed the film. It has had only a limited release. It showcases a new strand a little away from the Wasseypur and Ishqiya type of engagement with rural chic in glitzy, gimmicky urban dress. It focuses on urbane existence far from cities that is so self-assured it does not even acknowledge the city.