Paanch

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 !!!

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

There is may be.. not may be but definitely wrong with me or with the censor board who did not given certification to this movie,though i just finished watching the preview copy of this movie after downloading from torrent.i don't know why i took that much time or years... to watch this movie but never the less this movie still got it freshness after 9 years.

so what went wrong why this movie did got released and question remain unanswered even after that time period or so. while watching this movie it reminds me of another exceptionally well picture which recently released called shaitan because that movie shaitan has a shadow of this paanch really i find the glimpse of that in that paanch so when shaitan can get a certification why not this one.

about paanch what can i say. Kay Kay menon rocks man! and so the other star cast really they all together pulled out the great job.and after seeing this one can really say that why anurag kashyap is been known as the one of the most talented director of recent times because he given one of the best work almost 9 or 10 years ago and still its not been appreciated or given credit for masterpiece which hes has created long ago.

as far as songs are concerned Vishal bhardwaj and abbas done once again they have know for uniqueness and freshness because still this kind of work is very rare though there are few like amit trivedi in Dev.d but again there is anurag kashyap again..

editing and cinematography are also the strong parts of the movie and which in whole this movies is truly or nearly a masterpiece......

I feel good i have seen a such kind work before it get theatrical released but on the other had i feel sorry the movie lovers for not got chance to see. and to be honest censor board is been biased to this movie.

New Defenitions of Bollywood 1)KK is God(Main Khuda)

2)Best Music Director-Vishal Bhardwaj

3)Best Director-Anurag Kashyap(Along with Vishal Bhardwaj) 4)Best Scriptwriter-Anurag Kashyap 5)Best Actor-Kay Kay Menon

6)Best Movie- Paanch

now you can well imagine how good Paanch is!! :D

Wonder if it was released back in 2003, KK would have been the most wanted singer Kay Kay the superstar Vishal Bhardwaj would have been the 1st Indian to receive an Oscar Anurag Kashyap would have left bollywood for Hollywood :D

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