Déesses indiennes en colère

Oh my goodness, this movie was amazing! I recently re-watched the movie via Netflix and still love it. The beginning scene of the movie where you are introduced to the characters and their personalities is perfect, diving into their backstory without having to do flashbacks throughout the movie. Within the first few minutes of the movie you get a sense of the underlying story beyond the main characters. I watched this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) back in 2015 where, I believe, it was still looking for a major film distributor. The movie was so popular that the festival added a 4th screening and it came second for People's Choice Award (almost unheard of for a foreign movie without a major distributor going into the festival). I remember the actors being introduced with the director after the movie and the group seemed to be good friends, which helped with the on screen performance. Interestingly enough, some scenes, especially at the beginning of the movie, were almost entirely improvised and the director just kept the camera rolling (cool right?). What you get is a completely realistic friendship between the actors which helps the audience relate to the story. The story has a very strong feminist plot, but I believe this is an incredibly important story to watch with its relevance in the world today.

Clearing the misconception one might have reading the tag line of the review first, this is not any heavy, off-beat, slow moving artistic film, over indulged in the self-realization of its various characters pointing towards the suppressed woman-power in our Indian society. Instead this is thankfully a pleasant fun loving film that begins on an interesting note and then keeps you engrossed for a major chunk of time till the writer-director fall short of ideas and bow down to a predictable Bollywood kind of ending spoiling the great buildup. However the exceptional USP of the film remains that the fun element here completely belongs to the ladies alone without any major male-bashing, talking more about themselves than the people (or men) around in their individual lives.

As far as story plot goes it doesn't have anything substantial to deal with revolving around a Goan girl inviting her group of old time friends for an undisclosed special occasion, with the entire focus on how they all live those few days revealing, discussing and sharing their individual stories of joy, pain, sorrows and doubts together in a spirited manner. So it begins as a fun time watch with some fine innovative introductions and then the first half turns out to be quite a fresh, light & breezy experience for the viewers, especially the women relating to the proceedings on a more personal level. But sadly as soon as the focus shifts from their individual characters to some unfortunate, shocking happening on a beach party in its second half (forcibly justifying its title with a reference of Goddess KALI), the film starts faltering and you wish they could have found a different culmination maintaining the excellence thoroughly enjoyed in its superb first half.

Having said that ANGRY Indian GODDESSES still deserves to be seen as a must, not only because of the fresh look given by a remarkable camera-work capturing the free-spirited locations of Goa but more importantly for the ladies and their entertaining performances with minimal make up and all natural expressions in their free, effortless conversations on screen (that sadly also get screwed up by the beeps added by our honourable Censor Board as usual). Nevertheless the good news is that at last here we have a film specifically celebrating the womanhood that can easily be called 'A rare female buddy film' surprisingly coming from a male director Pan Nalin, perfectly understanding the subject (talking about the opposite sex) in an amazing, worth-praising manner. No doubt the credit here also goes to the dialogue writer penning some highly relatable lines spoken in the language of our daily vocabulary. But the biggest applause surely has to be for the ladies who do contribute the most in this fun-filled ride that would instantly find a connection with the women audience in particular.

In short here we have a bunch of old time friends, remembering their nostalgic times spent in the college and then sharing the later years fighting their individual battles with the inner and outer world together dealing with the men (and women) in their lives. They complain, tease, laugh, cry and hug each other with love and affection along with mentioning the known atrocities widely practiced against women in our male oriented society. But still don't get into any major male bashing mode unnecessarily, that truly works for the film in totality.

Yes, the film does try to cater too many themes in its limited duration of two hours like career struggle, suicidal tendencies, homosexuality, childlessness, divorce, social outburst against capitalists, rape, comment upon the modern dress code of women, role of police & politicians in tackling gruesome crimes and revenge considered as the last resort by the common man or woman. Yet a pretty balanced handling of the sequences by its thoughtful director doesn't let the film become anything close to a heavily preachy or a message oriented one until its last 20 minutes to be precise. Plus a few experimental kind of tracks (and background score) keeps the fun spirit alive till it all gets down to a highly unoriginal and avoidable climax that certainly should have been given a second thought by the makers rectifying the big mistake.

Anyway, coming to the best feature of the film, i.e. its performances, here we have Sarah Jane Dias as the Goan photographer inviting them all, Rajshri Deshpande as her lonely local maid, Sandhya Mridul - the tough businesswoman having a young daughter , Anushka Manchanda - a disturbed struggling singer, Amrit Maghera - a half British actress trying her luck in Bollywood, Pavleen Gujral - a typical housewife suffering the pain of being a childless wife and Tannishtha Chatterjee - a strong minded social activist along with Adil Hussain playing the uncaring police officer making a last moment entry in the film's lackluster finale.

In all, ANGRY Indian GODDESSES needs to be seen for its collective on screen chemistry between the seven leading ladies performing superbly in their respective roles having a real good time together. Thankfully the film is not interested in making any strong social statement about the plight of an exploited Indian women (as expected by many) and remains more like a DIL CHAHTA HAI or ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA kind of attempt made from the women's perspective giving them the much deserving space and attention on the silver screen like never before. So the soul searching here is more about the individual identities alone and not as a society as a whole that might disappoint a major section of viewers expecting the same.

Hence coming out of that 'routine mode of expectancies', do watch it as a fun filled 'women oriented' film featuring some fabulous natural performances, that could have been a much more enjoyable enriching experience with a different uplifting climax unarguably.

Angry Indian Goddesses (2015) is an Indian movie co-written and directed by Pan Nalin. In my summary, I wrote "actually two movies." By that I meant that the first three-quarters of the film is a happy "buddy movie" among six intelligent, capable women. Each of them encounters misogyny and sexism in their day-to-day lives. They deal with this negative aspect of their lives in different ways, but none of them can avoid having to deal with it.

One of the women has returned to her home in Goa, the former Portuguese colony. She invites her friends to join her for her wedding. For the next hour-and-a-half the women sing together, dance together, talk together, and sometimes argue. There's a serious conflict between two of them. One is a local activist trying to stop the ecological destruction caused by a factory. The factory is being built by a company whose CEO is another one of the guests. So, it's not all love and laughter, but mostly that's what it is.

After the "first movie" has run its course, the "second movie" begins. This is a serious, terrible part of the film. In retrospect we might have seen it coming, but I didn't expect it. The film takes on a serious documentary-type aspect, and ends with an extremely dramatic scene. You may like or dislike the last half-hour of the film, but you won't forget it.

The actors in this film were all excellent. They played well in ensemble. Also, they are all extremely beautiful. It struck me as unlikely that all the friends would be so attractive. However, that's the decision director Nalin made. Nalin is male. I don't know if a female director would have made the same choice.

The movie will work best on the large screen, because you'll have a better feel for the scenic beauty of the Goan location. However, even if you have to watch it on the small screen, I'd still recommend it.

We saw the film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as part of the outstanding ImageOut LGBT Film Festival. I suggest you seek it out and see it. It's not perfect, but it's still a great movie.

Angry Indian goddesses may be good movie for world cinema but is an important movie for Indian cinema. Though there have been movies showing difficulties faced by females in Indian society none has been so comprehensive.

Almost every other dialogue quips the hypocrisy of Indian mindset. They have been allowed to fly,but, that like a kite with everybody actively controlling their limits. With such different characters, common thread joining them all is anguish against the society venerating and denigrating females at the same time.

Nalin has given another brilliant piece of cinema with strong female characters like the ones we worship. Cinematography is enchanting using the right balance of light and dark.

Only God knows what censor board has been trying to censor when everything is so true...

The story is an average one of a all girl bachelor party, that being the set up and the focus on issues that are related to Indian women. Nothing out of the box issues or the way it is handled. The ending had to have some drama, and it has, again nothing out of the box. The editing could have been crispier, will give a 6 out of 10 there.

Those were the flaws, now comes the good part.

Genuinely superb acting from 3 of the 7 leads, I know 2-3 of them and not by name or at least I didn't. I do not know whether to credit the director or the actors, but it was a superb performance from the actors.

Hilarious at times, crude at time, raunchy at times but you will enjoy it. That the director took the initiative of making these girls as crude as 'Masti', was enough for me to watch the movie. I do not see too many Hindi movies, but I never expected words like D*#do, Or#$@sm and stuff like that ad the way the scenes were handled were brilliant.

The characters were genuinely alive, you see them everyday. You feel like you know them, the problems they face in everyday life is very common to me and you and girls lusting over shirtless guys and things like that captured the free spirited modern Indian lady so well.

The script could have been tighter, but still it was very very good. The director really took the best from the actors, especially (let me check the name) Pavleen Gujral, brilliant as the ex-gold-medalist-now-housewife r,ole showing her hesitations as a typical Indian woman and Sarah Dias's superb restraint acting towards the end of the movie. Sandhya Mridul was a little over the top, still good, Anushka was good at times, never bad and the rest were also good, if not great.

Watch the movie just because of the acting, timing and mainly the way the director has beautifully set up the screenplay. I fast forwarded the Salman starrer super predictable Sultan in 1.15 hours, couldn't complete the hamming of the legendary AB in Te3n and Piku, but I was able to watch this movie in one go. If you are getting my drift, you will enjoy the movie.

It is a must watch for every urban man and woman of the age group of 20 to 50. Forget the theme, just enjoy the movie and make sure your kids are not nearby.

Hats off to the new generation of Indian women and to the director