Aquela Garota de Botas Amarelas

One of the key protagonists of New Age Indian Cinema,Anurag Kashyap returns with his another unusual film with a strange title THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS, which has already won critical acclaim in many film festivals abroad. As per his reputation of a daringly different film- maker, Anurag gives you exactly what was expected from him, a path breaking, bold and disturbing, realistic film which mainly calls for a strictly adult viewing.

With his own stylish shot taking techniques and sequences, this time Anurag goes into the filthy world of a local massage parlor of Mumbai, where you are offered pleasure services, a little more than just a massage. In clear words, here is something which you have never seen before in an Indian mainstream movie ever. And to be precise you can easily call it 'A Soft Porn' too served in the name of New Age Indian Cinema to the audience, minus the visual depiction of the term.

Here I really don't mean that it's a bad film. THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS is undoubtedly, a perfect example of a powerful controversial cinema which takes into the dark real world of oral sex, drug addiction and child abuse. It is a journey of a girl who is in search of both her own self and her lost father, who she thinks, is the only person in the world still loving her.

The film starts off sarcastically, revealing the silly work ethics of a government office dealing with foreigners in a real stupid manner and then it moves into a different world of drugs, sex and love all of a sudden. The director even takes you into Pune's OSHO Commune with the girl enquiring about her father, who has written a letter to her recently from there and he also shows a glimpse of OSHO's discourse running on a TVin one of the film's sequences. However the director's purpose of using this reference remains unclear and confusing. Keeping in mind the funny remarks made by his characters over the copyright issue of the commune, it looks like Anurag wanted to highlight the deteriorating state of the movement, fast heading towards an un-required commercialization.

Anyway, returning to the film, overall it just remains a fine out of the box attempt for me, which sadly never makes a rock solid impact on the viewer even with its shockingly disgusting climax. In fact if you are an avid lover of the world cinema, then the chances are that you might guess the climax much before it comes in front of you on the screen.

Moreover, it becomes repetitive in the mid and also doesn't give you the main story idea of the writer very clearly. The script basically starts emphasizing on the girl's search for her father after almost one hour and until then the director keeps on showing the related sequences about her good clients, her drug addict boy friend, a south gangster and the girl sitting at the massage parlor's reception talking endlessly on her phone. And the sad part is that most of these characters remain half baked on the screen, unlike a Anurag Kashyap film.

Besides there are many known friends of Anurag doing their very short cameos in the film just as a courtesy, such as Piyush Mishra, Rajat Kapoor, Makrand Deshpande and Ronit Roy, which doesn't really serve any purpose.

In terms of technical production, it is a superb project and in terms of performances its a winning stroke from Kalki Koechlin as the confused girl. But I didn't find the film connecting with the audience at an emotional level. At the most, it simply can be called a never before kind of Indian Film with some highly sexual gestures, taking away the actual limelight from the film itself and its main theme. It no doubt stuns you in its final moments but you don't walk out of the hall highly impressed. The film actually lacks the conflicting drama, which the subject really demanded and therefore in the end it remains a rather bold but less satisfying project from Anurag Kashyap….unexpectedly. Further, co-written by Kalki and Anurag together, TGIYB seems to be more a Kalki's film than a Anurag Kashyap's brainchild. She is wonderful as The Girl in Yellow Boots, but how many times she will go on repeating herself in such psycho kind of roles, that's my question to the girl? Prashant Prakash as her boy-friend is naturally impressive and Gulshan Devaiya shows off his inner talent, even in an under-written role of a disturbed don.

On the whole, with TGIYB, Anurag certainly takes the wave of New Age Indian Cinema a few steps ahead, but still I cannot rate the film as one of his best efforts till date in any case. However, if you only consider the boldness in its open sexual content, then it surely is a path- breaking attempt by the off-beat director in Indian Cinema, unarguably.

Summing up, I want to end this review raising a few questions in front of all film-makers following this trend of experimental, new age cinema, which came to my mind while watching THAT GIRL IN YELLOW BOOTS…….. "Does a new age movie or an experimental film, always supposed to be written around Sex and Perverts? "Do we always need to make such movies around Unusual Sex, Child Abuse, Lesbians, Eunuchs and Gay characters?" and "Is New Age Cinema only dependent and concerned about such repeated subjects only?"

Just give it a thought?

I consider myself a big fan of Anurag Kashyap and think Gulaal to be one of the best movies made in Bollywood. In that perspective, I think this movie doesn't live up to expectations and is quite avoidable.

The movie does well in taking you through the Mumbai underbelly from the eyes of an illegal foreign immigrant and inspires images from Shantaram. However, the story is too loose. If it was intended to be a mystery/ thriller, it doesn't have enough pace and coherence. It just keeps jumping back and forth b/w Kalki giving customers hand shakes and randomly following leads to locate her father.

The best sequence in the movie is Kalki narrating her father's death to the gangster when he comes for a massage. The revelation at the end of the movie is shocking and disgusting but there is no build up to it which would make it sort of an inevitable end. It comes as if it's there in order to shock you rather than being the purpose of the story all along. The extremely unconvincing and weak performance of Kalki's father is the weakest link in the movie.

The subject and the first 40-50 minutes are promising and this movie could have been much more. The last 20-25 minutes are a dampener, if you don't give too much thought to the shock/ disgust aspect of the end.

To conclude - Just about an average, "art" movie that might appeal to you because of its "boldness" and being out of line with "societal norms". But very average story line, acting and direction.

I started watching this movie just to pass my time. I hadn't read any review or had any expectations.

The film brings out the true state of the existing conditions in India. Of many of which I myself have seen in real life. Though many people claim that it is not so bad.

The storyline is very genuine and believable and you soon get caught up in the twists.

The main character Ruth is very convincing. It is very difficult to predict what will happen next in the story.

I loved the female who manned the massage desk. Her telephone conversations were so entertaining and true to life.

The ending was totally unexpected. I had tears in my eyes.

It really is a tough movie to watch. And not just because it switches languages, but because of the theme of the movie. You have a daughter searching for the father. So be prepared for a story that does drag and is not really filled with much excitement. No pun intended, especially considering on how she makes money and tries to get information out of people (again no pun intended with this either of course).

So while on a mission we can see certain things in society, how she is being treated, how she behaves, what she has to do and to what lengths she is willing to go for the truth. You can say that there is feminism in there, but the important thing is, an individual trying to get to the bottom of things ...

Emily, a troubled British girl, embarks on a dark journey in the slums of Mumbai to find her long lost father. She'll learn a lesson that could be useful for us too: sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Ignorance about people, places, ideas. The world isn't our playground.

Brilliant script, good acting but definitely not for everyone.