Leela

There have been quite a few films in the last couple of years that have tried to breakup certain stereotypes ad cliches: 1) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about whites. 2) The opinion South Asian immigrants have about their peers who are born and brought up in the west. 3) The opinion born-in-the-west desis have about South Asian immigrants.

Films like American Desi, Bend It Like Beckham, Bollywood/Hollywood have all succeeded to different degrees in breaking these stereotypes and striking a new balance in terms of awareness and acceptance. Leela is another film with similar aspirations and succeeds almost completely in what it sets out to achieve.

Leela is a dramatic film that not only attempts to further demolish these stereotypes but it also gives its characters unique identities, identitites that go through a process of change and understanding as the film unfolds.

There are a lot of things that impress you about Leela. Starting with the screenplay. It has been written very tightly as in never to slacken the pace of the film or loosen the grip it has on its characters. The dialogue is very intelligent and each character is developed very uniquely. The plot is essentially about a student-teacher affair and how it affects the two, but their subplots and their relationships with other people in their lives give the characters a lot of depth and empathy.

Leela has been blessed with a good soundtrack from Jagjit Singh and Gulzar and also the production values and technical credits have done extremely well. The ensemble cast of Leela which includes Dimple Kapadia, Amol Mhatre, Deepti Naval, Vinod Khanna and Gulshan Grover among others do a terrific job with performances.

Somnath Sen is a newcomer I believe (at least I am not aware of any previous work by him). But as a writer and director he does an extremely mature and comprehensive job of dealing with the merging sensibilities of two worlds. At the end of the day, Leela is good storytelling and a film about interesting people. People like you and me. 9/10.

I really won't take this flick to be mere one of the kinds which come under the category of ABCD, Flavours and other contemporaries. Take it as a story and you will appreciate as how subtly it puts across a narration which is so very engrossing and emotional. Every character has been beautifully etched out. Leela (Dimple) wants to be more than a muse to her flamboyant husband. She decides to give meaning to her living and get in connection with herself. She goes to States as lecturer in one of University. Meets Kris. He may be one of those cliché characters, but wait and you'll find him having restrained sensibilities. And then there is Chaitali (Deepti Naval) estranged from her ex, having a boy friend whom she veils from her own son Kris for she does not want to be looked down upon her own son. Then there is this tumultuous relation between Naushad and Leela where latter finds solace in Kris. Kris is devastated to find hypocrisy of her mother. Chaitali embroils finding a relation between aged Leela and her son Kris. The story works on so many layers. And the lines in the beginning encapsulate every emotion entailed "once touched by fire, nothing remains same". Look for few scenes which are so mesmerizing. When Kris confronts Naushad for ill treating Leela and trying to justifying his love for Leela. And Naushad retorts back with determination in wow that he and Leela have sacred. Look for climax where Leela tries to justify herself to be neither a creation of Naushad or muse of Kris. Chaitali and Kris coming closer and redefining relationship between them. This is rare of cases that you get to see narration with beautiful songs interspersed composed by Jagjit Singh and written by Gulzar. Every composition stands out and has a depth of its own. Renditions by Subha Mudgal and Jagjit Singh bring out emotions of characters wonderfully. Direction and narration is something to look forward to. The story has this subtle content to it. The urdu diction by Vinod Khanna is perfect. He looks flamboyant and devoted husband at same time. Dimple and Deepti have such gravity to their performances. This movie heralds a new beginning where characters are more real and plausible. I hope to see more of these kinds in year to come. But then Somnath next venture was not well received at Osean's Film Festival in Delhi 2005.

I had expected this to be another pretentious drama with stereotypical Indo-American characters and all the identity issues that they face while growing up in the US. But this turned out to be a little less preachy and clichéd, and treated the characters as individuals than caricatures of the culture they represent.

The story revolves around the familiar subject of US born Indians, their immigrant parents and all the values that they feel torn between. Movies like American Desi, Hollywood Bollywood have treaded on this path earlier, albeit on a lighter note, and have never really come across as anything more than entertaining. Mitr and ABCD were perhaps more of a serious study on the subject although poor acting and direction seemed to have doomed Mitr right from the start. ABCD on the other hand was an honest effort with believable characters that came off surprisingly well. This film may have set out on the lines of ABCD with big names thrown in for commercial viability but falls short of being convincing.

The central character is a teenager who comes from a rather unconventional family (unconventional in Indian terms) wherein his parents are both separated and have found new partners to live with and go on with their lives. They appear to be successful in terms of career, their adaptation to the native culture and pretend to be comfortable with their choices and arrangements - all in the name of freedom and individuality. But they somehow still seem to cling on to their roots of tradition and conservative thinking which manifests hideously when they realize that their boy is having an affair with his teacher, played with finesse by Dimple Kapadia. The mother (a good come-back performance by Deepti Naval) desperately tries to break this with a whole deal of emotional drama which goes to show the real insecurity behind the superficial image of modern thinking and liberate views that she portrays! But in the process the characters are made aware of their own shortcomings and insecurities that bring about a sea of change in all of them to eventually help the movie end in a pleasant note!

The actors play their parts with relative ease and do not seem too awkward. Visually the movie is charming with good cinematography and art direction that's done tastefully. The editing is also crisp and the soundtrack with lyrics by Gulzar and playbacks by Jagjit Singh and Shubha Mudgal, amongst others, seems to blend well without really sticking out as a sore thumb. It's finally the narration and the script that limits this effort from really evolving into something meaningful and serious. The film eventually comes across as a half-baked effort that loses purpose as it progresses and a script that never acquires that serious tone or pace to keep you completely engaged.

But all said this still seems a step in the right direction for serious Indian filmmakers. The Indian community is often looked upon as made up of successful individuals in fields of commerce and education but never really presented seriously beyond the boot polish smeared faces of Peter Sellers and other Hollywood actors. These films perhaps would pave the way for an entry into the mainstream foray by Indian filmmakers.

The ravishing, beautiful Dimple Kapadia (she looks absolutely gorgeous) and the equally charming Dipti Naval give commendable performances... the Ghazal by Jagjitsinghji is by far an icing on cake... on parallel lines to Namesake or Mitra and absolutely not a cliche.. coming of an age... where East meets West, a delicious cocktail ...

I do not know anything about Somnath Sen, the director of the film. If this is indeed his first film, I congratulate him for pulling together a good cast and some fine production quality that lifts up the film.

However, the script is nothing more than a reworking of "40 carats" and/or "Summer of '42". If the film is aimed at the Indian or South Asian community in Asia, the film will draw some attention. This is because the line up of the commercially accepted Indian movie actors--Dimple Kapadia, Deepti Naval and Vinod Khanna--will pull the crowds out of curiosity to see them act in an English movie. Compared to an average Indian film, the camerawork, editing, and music of this US film are all used with considerable finesse. Sen's work stands out for these factors not the screenplay, the performances or the story. Ms Kapadia and Ms Naval prop up the film as they are both beautiful and evidently quite talented. I wish they could act in films of some top-notch European director!