Paanch

I saw Anurag Kashyap's Paanch at the Cinefan Film Festival, 2002. It was clearly one of the best movies of the festival, on par with movies like Hero and Osama.

The story depicts what ambition, immorality, greed and angst, unmistakably the products of urban life, can do to an ordinary person. A little mischief for the sake of success leads a group of 5 wannabe rock stars to get entangled in a gory web of murder and betrayal.

What follows is a shocking thriller of a story, supported aptly by some great performances, the best coming from Kay Kay Menon and Tejaswini Kolhapure. The movie has a great musical score by Vishal Bhardwaj. The songs, most of which Kashyap interestingly uses up in the first 15 minutes, are brilliant. So is the background music. Another high point of the movie is the cinematography, which impresses upon the viewer an aura of fast-paced urbanity juxtaposed with dark, ruthless bloodshed. If there's a low point in the movie, it is the few minutes after the interval where which seem ineffective and dragged. However, they are easily outweighed by the compelling tension and gloom that permeate the movie.

Clever, brilliant, yet utterly pessimistic, Paanch is strongly recommended.

7.5/10

Saw it finally, after a long long wait. It is an engaging piece but not a path breaking, shattering one as I found in some other reviews before the Internet preview release.

My points, Cinematography and Art direction right from credits to last frame (i would combine these as they gave the whole feeling) are splendid capturing the entire feel of youth's agony, their ambitions, their fear and the entire feeling of being locked up in a room or a garage or in a police station (claustrophobic feeling). The outdoors are though minimal and not extravagant, they are done with finesse. No green scenery's here and no sunset sunrise scenes. Yet they are captivating enough to endear, enthrall and to transform into the world of these characters.

Editing, nope that's one thing I felt is not up to the mark, the reason may be that its the director's and editor's first movie and a sharper scissor was needed. The scenes I would like to cut are 1) The end song in which the girl sings same one as she has sung earlier 2) The scene in which Luke strangles Nikhil's father (this was later communicated in dialogue) 3) The scene where Pondy and Joy are shown as being taken to Jail (this was later communicated in dialogue). Thus felt like these were like spoon feeding. Acting of Kay Kay as Luke Morrison is just awesome and equally appreciable is that of Vijay Maurya as Pondy. I did not like the acting of Tejaswini, I felt she just sleep walked. Background music is apt 3 songs are great. Main Khuda, Baith Jaa, Akhiyan. Vishal Bharadwaj gave an awesome sound track and thanks to him.

Now, the thing to writing, the dialogues are wonderful "Aye Pondy Chaai Piyega, Chal Mere Liye Ek Banaa" reveals the domineering attitude of Luke and so is each dialogue relevant to the characterization.

The script has made me ask some questions to myself and some questions to the writer director Anurag, 1) If the entire confession in police station was about money then police at any point did not seem to be interested in where the money that was stolen was kept and all they were interested is why were the murder's that took place happen. 2) Was it necessary for Joy to have the other guys waiting outside Nikhil's house after they stole the money they wanted? He was just eating and these guys went in and when they found that Nikhil's father was there, they just strangled him. Without this also it would have been done as how the police came to know about murder of Nikhil's father and kidnap of Nikhil was not shown anyways and that was not the point of movie also. 3) The most disappointing thing was that Luke who was shown as if he was drowned just comes alive. This seemed to be a twist and this made the movie predictable as to who shall have the final laugh. And there in lay the antagonist of a wonderful script.

Direction no doubt is superb. But what started as a very very interesting and psychological thing with each shade of a character being revealed poignantly. What started as a very interesting and psychological movie turned out to be a thriller kind where the ending was predictable and so called commercial. Yet its one thing that should be watched out to know what a angry young man does (for KAY KAY).

Watch it for KAY KAY 3/5

Saw Paanch at Osian's at Siri Fort Audi no 4 in 2003..hop and skip distance from my erstwhile home.I,along with others in the Audi witnessed something that could and should have changed the landscape of Indian cinema had it released in its stipulated period.Period!

As the opening credits rolled I started to feel overwhelmed by the visuals..expectation began to rise.It had been a long time that so much of effort had gone into the start of a movie.It sets the tone for what is to come.This movie is real and still not in your face.The characters,dialogues and scheme of things are so spontaneous that you start to think yourself being a part of the film/scheme/plot as a mute character/spectator.

Lets talk about the characters/actors:

Luke(K.K. Menon): I have no words to describe him.One actually can see the Devil/Lucifer/Belial in him in certain scenes (Esp Bus and Conductor).He manages to do it so much panache.That fleeting madness in Luke makes you gawk at him with sheer disbelief.Murgi(Aditya Shrivastav):Brilliant silent performance.He talks away the cake at times from KK and Vijay Maurya(Pondi).Such restrained performance is hard to find.What talent!!Pondi(Vijay MAurya): Amazing timing.I am actually tired of eulogizing every actor and character but cannot help but they are so frigggin good.Joy(Joy Augustine) has his own style and does bring a different dimension to the movie with his presence.I like Shiuli's role (Tejaswini)..very strong character portrayal.

This movie deserves to be seen by all.It should see light of the day!! Had the movie been made at this day and age,we could have witnessed mayhem,carnage,silence,evil,ideology,mania,spontaneity,reality...in best ever celluloid form till date.

Must Watch(8.5/10)

Almost all films stale out if the release is delayed by few months... forget years. Anurag Kashyup's Paanch is one of the strongest exceptions on the list. This film delayed by almost a decade is still so effective, most importantly because its narrative is timeless and was also ahead of its times making it relevant and entertaining even today.

Much before Bollywood had seen any Kaminey, Paanch was one of the first 'dark' and intense films from India and absolutely effective. Drugs, smoke, alcohol, abuse, expletives, kidnap, murder, body butchering, heavy metal rock music, dark lightening in scenes, sexual undertones in dialogues, crime thriller genre, noir treatment, erratic lyrics and much more - and none of this simply forced to make the film look pretentiously dark.

The narrative is unambiguous yet not predictable for a moment. 5 people (4 guys and 1 girl) get involved in a kidnap which leads to murder and the more they try to get out of it, the more they get trapped in it. The 5 people setting reminded of Mahabharat's Draupadi and the Paanch Pandavs (through here there was 1 guy less). There is also a subtle reference to Draupadi in a scene where Kay Kay asks Tejaswini to wear a longer sari - 'Sadi lambi pehna kar Draupadi' (the word Draupadi was muted by censor in the preview copy) - Interestingly in this scene there are 5 guys with the additional one being the one to be subsequently kidnapped (Pankaj Saraswat).

All the characters are negative and Kashyup develops each of them so distinctly. Even his approach to writing and directing every scene is absolutely innovative with the characters behaving unpredictably and the situations changing spontaneously. The characters are so unusual to Bollywood screen but so true to real life. You might have surely encountered one or the other character prototypes in real life in your college, workplace or home. One is a coward (Vijay Maurya), one is silent spectator (Aditya Srivastava), one is partner in crime (Joy Fernandes).

The performances are BRILLIANT. Without a doubt this is Kay Kay Menon's career best performance till date. He is so much into the character of a hot-headed perpetrator who vents out his frustration on anybody and everybody in the team that at times you literally feel a part of the cast who are bogged down by his constant bossing and bullying on the gang. Even when he sings a rock song, he is so much into the act that you feel he's performing for a live audience. Another gem of a discovery of this film was Vijay Maurya (who by now has become popular for his roles in Black Friday (as Dawood) and Mumbai Meri Jaan). Maurya plays his part so perfectly that you actually feel pity for his character's cowardice. Aditya Narayan and Joy Fernandes are good. It's sad that an actress as amazing as Tejaswini Kolhapure got lost never to come back in a proper role in Hindi films.

It's surprising that Censors kept the film on hold considering some of today's Hindi films have more expletives than Paanch. Actually the censor wasn't as evolved then as it is today. That's what makes the film ahead of its times. Now the film is seemingly approved by the Censors but is perhaps stuck due to producer problems. However there is not even a single smooch or even kissing scene in the film forget any sexual intimacy.

Music is one factor that Anurag Kashyap never ever gets wrong with. While we always talk of filmmakers like Subhash Ghai, Yash Chopra or Sanjay Leela Bhansali to have a good music sense that reflects in their films, Anurag Kashyap has always had superlative and path-breaking musical score in all his films (though he is grossly underrated for it) and has a 100% perfect track record. Whether its Indian Ocean in Black Friday, Amit Trivedi in Dev.D or Piyush Mishra in Gulaal, all his films had refreshingly NEW and very good music. Paanch is no exception with Vishal Bhardwaj (in his early days as a composer) who composed some tunes which were traditionally not Bollywood but very interesting.

Some of the most effective scenes from the films are when - Kay Kay and Maurya get into a fight over switching off the stereo, - when Kay Kay scares Joy for a moment saying 'Kya main Joker dikhta hoon' (supposedly a tribute to Martin Scorcese's Goodfellas), - when Kay Kay faces Inspector Deshpande (Sharat Saxena) for the first time and almost every other scene.

The film brought into light the rock culture (much before the ROCK ON happened), had a subtle reference to a human body butchering scene (which has now become a cliché in crime dramas), had a noir treatment when the genre was still in its nascent stage in Bollywood. Again, ahead of its times... or would you call trend-setting!

However the film is not flawless. The epilogue added to the crime drama in the last 15 minutes is clearly stretched and perhaps the only predictable portion of the plot. The twist in the tale that it intends to create almost falls flat. Also an item number was the worst way to end an otherwise original and entertaining film. Plus the footnote added at the end of the film as a moral-of-the-story (perhaps forced by the Censors) which reads 'Crime Never Pays' absolutely kills the noir effect of the film.

Nevertheless the film is so gripping barring this slack ending that you easily excuse that blemish and enjoy Paanch as one of India's cult-classic crime dramas.

I had heard so much about this movie for the last 5-6 years that I thought this would be a letdown. Usually over-hyped movies are such that you feel that you were letdown by it. I finally got hold of it and I can say that Paanch is arguably one of the best crime thrillers the Hindi film industry has produced.

I cannot fathom the reason why the government would ban this, (probably because this movie would attain cult status and dissuade the youth of today to smoke and drink and waste their time....) but in this movie we have one of the greatest acting performance by an actor, one of the best soundtracks ever made in the history of Bollywood, and one helluva movie. The movie theme will remind you of Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting, only Paanch has a thriller plot apart from based on the systematic destruction of human morals.

The plot is fairly simple. Its about 5 people who are struggling musicians. They play at nightclubs and concerts for cheap cash, but most of it is spent on marijuana, drugs and booze. They are all college dropouts and have almost no connections with their relatives. They live under one roof, practice in a vacant garage of one of their friends(their only friend!!).

The movie continues at leisurely pace until they have an idea to kidnap their friend and ask for a fat ransom from his rich dad. But all goes haywire when one of them in a fit of rage kills their friend. Things turn for the worse when to cover up one murder they go on a killing spree. In the end, all five of them are behind bars, and in a gradual degradation of all morals.

This movie, if and when it comes out will primarily be remembered for the immensely powerful acting performance of one Kay Kay Menon. His performance is bound to remind you of Brad Pitt in Fight Club as the legendary Tyler Dyrden. K.K's music will make you take a jacket and go out to the nearest music store and buy the Original Soundtrack of this movie ASAP!! Paanch is the movie where one can say Bollywood came of age and we had proper rock music.

There are only three songs in the movie, one a bluesy track "Kya din kya raat" one that will remind you of the classic jazz of the 40's, the psychedelic themed "Tu Jaa Maat" meant to remind you Cobain and the rock track "Khuda ke Liye" which will remind you of "Rock On!!" only it was 5 years earlier.. Even The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" was an awesome addition!!!

The acting performances have been superb. Kay Kay Menon was brilliant as "Luke" as I mentioned earlier, and he has been brilliantly supported by the very impressive Aditya Srivastava as "Murgi", Joy Fernandes as "Joy" and Vijay Maurya as the hilarious "Pondy" Even Tejaswini Kolhapure as "Shiuli" the only chick in the movie does a decent job. Sharat Saxena is also impressive in his short role as the Police Inspector.

Lastly, Mr.Anurag Kashyap!!! This was his very first attempt behind the camera. It was his brainchild. He being the producer and writer as well. But kudos to the man, for giving us yet another cinematic pleasure. Thank you sir, and I hope you make more of similar movies and keep us people who are fans of non-mainstream movies satisfied.

A truly well deserved 10/10 !!!