Steve Jobs, the 'ex' CEO of Apple Inc. once said, "It isn't consumers' job to know what they want." This mantra fits well for the new age cult filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, who has drawn a strong line between the mainstream and the parallel with all his movies as a director or a writer. Following those words, made them respected names in their arenas.
His latest offering That Girl In Yellow Boots, co-written by Kalki, is "socially" not intended for the audience we see in this country. God knows how he arrived at the concept of this movie...may be after getting intoxicated and sunken into the pervert sex stories? After scripting this idea and actually materializing it into a feature film needs gutsy balls. Said it. Indian producers are obviously not that ballsy to produce it, only if they get time and money from puke-like sugar candies and silly remakes. So valid is the irony of this filmmaking: 13 days to shoot the entire film and 2 years to release it! Coming upon the movie, Ruth Edscer (played by Kalki) in her metaphoric Yellow Boots is trapped in labyrinthine Mumbai, in search of a man who she hasn't seen since childhood and he also happens to be her father. In this quest, she comes across men of all kind- some "Men is Dog" kind at foreigner's registration office, a generous Diwakar (Naseeruddin Shah) at the massage parlor with the name "Aspaspa" where she works without a permit, his druggie boyfriend Prashant (Prashant Prakash), gang-man Chittiappa (Gulshan Devaiya) are some to mention. The numerous male characterization sets layers for the story to proceed: Makarand Deshpande as post master, Ronit Roy as a humble but unhelpful policeman, Piyush Mishra as a rickshaw-wallah and also Rajat Kapoor.
Fixed with the plot, the film runs for around 1hour 30 minutes with each frame mellowed with dark creativity of arts and lights (reason: low production this time, may be) adds a charm to the kind of the tale it is paced to tell. Rajeev Rai's camera work with some guerrilla technique shots, trademarks the Anurag Kashyap kind of filming. Editing by Shweta Venkat and the parallel storytelling carves to enter the dark psyche of the protagonist. The debut music director Naren Chandavarkar grips harder onto the film with the background score- a striking folk genre sung by Shilpa Rao to portray the lead Ruth.
Performances of almost every character, as they appear on the screen, hits hard - be it Makarand Deshpande only for seconds or Naseer Saab in all his short appearances. The other support Prakash and Chittiappa are worth watch. And to find a humor in this dark tale, there is Maya as the manger of Aspaspa, played by Puja Swaroop. Kalki is thrilling as Ruth, speaks with silence and her eyes.
Kashyap, as always, asks his audience to feel the movie rather than to enjoy it. And, once you are sunken into the concept he pictures here, you are shocked with its disturbing climax. With the Indian Censor Board passing this concept and National Film Development Corporation producing it, I see some maturity in them and expects the same from the audience. Digest this. Have Gelucil. No puking.
An urge to the Bollywooders: If a director, known for his critically acclaimed work, risks it with his future on stake and has balls enough to throw an idea beyond the scope of Bollywood that producers will never risk, isn't it your job as a part of liberal cinema lovers to see the bar rising just at the cost of a movie ticket and some time? Like. Dislike. Your say. Ideas need to be projected.
