Sunrise

The opening few minutes of Sunrise are at first compelling and overdone all at once. When scenes remain on screen for too long and are repeated often - it begs the question..."does this film maker have a grasp on the importance of his story or simply aiming for extended stylish pop-art"? For an artistic director turned feature director 'Sunrise' is Mumbai born Partho Sen-Gupta's second full length movie as writer/director.

The story is an important one, given that thousands of children go missing each year with most ending up in the repulsive child sex trade. So perhaps Sen-Gupta's movie could have been worthy of better shape and some conventional styling to add a little more accessibility to its nightmarish eye-of-the-beholder dreamscape. As it stands, it's unsure where the protagonists's guilt-ridden psychic dreams and reality merge - making it difficult work for general audiences looking to lock-into something tangible. Jean-Marc Ferriere's Cinematography is dazzling, considering the locations and he makes remarkable use of lighting and a water drenched setting. Most of the youthful cast also do well given their difficult subject matter - though perhaps more could have been done to better develop a couple of these situations.

Good but maybe could have been better with less art and more class.

Distraught over his daughter's recent abduction, a Mumbai detective struggles to not let his emotions get the better of him while investigating a string of similar kidnappings in this Indian drama. The film has several intense moments as lead actor Adil Hussain chases literal shadows down dark alleyways at night and as first person point-of-view shots render a seedy nightclub that he comes across all the more unsettling. The film is also assembled in a curious fashion with flashbacks often blended in with the action and various scenes played out two or three times, creating a blurred sense of reality that acutely reflects the protagonist's fractured state of mind. In fact, as the film progresses, it becomes more and more doubtful that what we are seeing play out is actually what is happening. An interesting counterpoint comes with Hussain's wife, who is clearly delusional, talking to herself and carrying on as if her daughter had never vanished, and yet what is to say that Hussain is not delusional too? Certainly the final twenty or so minutes of the film seem more like fantasy wish fulfillment than reality and even the nightclub with all its neon signs feels like more an embodiment of everything that Hussain dreads as opposed to an actual place in the middle of the city's slums. There are no clear answers here and the film's attempts to show the kidnapped girls being groomed often come as a distraction to Hussain's plight. Frustrating as this may occasionally make the film, one does have to wonder if it would not be equally as a frustrating to lose a child forever. Food for thought.

Liked the plot and cinematography but the director and script writer couldn't do justice with it. A bit confusing film overall. Everytime it felt that the movie is becoming interesting, unbearably slow narrative killed the excitment soon after that. Climax was unusual and disappointing. The film left me high and dry.

This is an amazingly directed film, the continuous rains, the rhythmic sound of the car vipers, long drives in search around the city and runs through the rains, it causes a thumping of the heart - reality and projection of the mind all reflected in one seamless and yet interestingly complex story telling. It evokes emotions - of fear, grief, with minimal words but through the visuals and movements. True cinema at its best.