anirban-iimc

Kai Po Che gets some things right. Its marketing, for one, was quite spot on. The movie, in spite of dealing with what is now a done-to-death topic of male bonding, was able to create a mass anticipation of its release. Then it put together a cast of reasonably fresh faces, but ones who can act. And, the crowning glory, the editing. The entire movie is crisp, short, to the point and, within the limitations of the script, engaging. Unfortunately, that is where the gravy train stops. The story, by itself, has nothing new to offer. 3 Guys bonding over, well, archetypal guy things - the token sneak peek at porn, the rather exaggerated shirts-off-jump-lake sequences (seriously, do all guy friends jump off into lakes from rocks as a rule?), periodic moments of heated times, quickly followed by intense brotherhood. We've really seen it all before. Add to it a cricket angle (Iqbal like without the excitement), documentary like Gujarat events , Gujarat references (ala 3 idiots) and you have a rather stale dish on offer. Even so I would go with the movie as it is definitely leagues ahead of other releases going around, but for the complete lack of humor. For a guy movie, you would expect a good chunk of laughs liberally sprinkled across the screen time. That is almost entirely lacking here. Some extremely basic attempts at humor elicit the odd chuckle but thats about it. So in the end - how does this movie stack up. Standalone, this might be worth a watch, definitely on DVD and perhaps at the theater too. But is this a work to be celebrated - well a resounding no.

I am generally not a huge fan of movies which are all over the place and require one to carefully follow plots, sub plots and innuendos to be able to appreciate the flick. Having gone through the reviews on IMDb about Burn After Reading, I was fearful of this turning out to be exactly one of those kinds. But then, this ain't anywhere near that genre. T=And that is even more surprising because even though I thoroughly enjoyed this satire on humanity, I am still unsure as to which category does this movie classify into. We have had the Ceons deliver simple-plot-gone-terribly-wrong even before, number of times. But even so, this one was a class apart. This is a direct assault at each one of us, anyone who even briefly has day dreamt of being in a spy thriller in real life. Real life people do real life things and have visions of grandiose fed by high budget flicks and fast selling novels. Burn After Reading goes all out in squashing us common masses with batons of humor and ends up squeezing laughs and revenue out of us. Simply and truly fantastic. The plot - at first simple and stupid but by the end is complex and brilliant. All the threads weave in together perfectly by the end to create what one can safely call a perfect design. Throughout the movie we anticipate any (or all) of the characters to deliver a larger-than-life moment, an act of sheer genius, a dare devilry or at least a twist of ingenuity. And that is the beauty of this flick. Normal people, do normal things. The movie, in essence, communicates one thing - "Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity".

The vision of Rahul Bose laying purposeless on that dilapidated cot, the curtains in the dark room fluttering to give a fleeting evidence of the raging heat outside, the fan on the ceiling turning with a reassuring repetitive noise, as the smoke slowly fills the screen. The rubber hits the spaced out road. I just had to light up, taken in by the movie hook-line-and-sinker. If you have liked fear and loathing in Las Vegas, if you have been riveted when Spud went Sputnik in Trainspotting, if you have split yourself during the round tables in That 70s show, then bet your bottom dollar on this one. Even if the names above sound Greek to you but you are a male who at least once in his life has felt you are somewhere you don't belong, have touched alcohol as a student and continued the virtue into adult life or if you have crossed teen and don't live with your folks - then do yourself a favor and watch this work of art. And if you dope, I am assuming you have watched this film one time too many already. Agastya brings into life the hidden snob in us, who is afraid to belong. H goes through the film meeting and rejecting people, creating an impenetrable social and cultural divide between himself and the people around him. As he resigns into his solitude, surrounded by colleagues and acquaintances, we are drawn into a trip of lethargy. The humor is silent and splitting. Contextual, self derogatory as well as condescending. One after the other characters from our everyday life enter the movie, your neighbour, the salesman, the loud guy who had sat at the table next to you at the café, the grocery store owner who wont give you credit. They are all there, and you are Agastya wading through them, one among them and yet far far away. It is a classic.