MOVIE REVIEW

SHABDO

Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Writer: Kaushik Ganguly
Stars: Victor Banerjee, Ritwick Chakraborty, Churni Ganguly
Length: 104 min
Strength: Story, editing
Weakness: Ending
Star Showbiz Rating: 4/5
Plot: The film is about the life of Tarak, a foley artist of Bengali film. Tarak's job is to create ambient sounds for films, but, he gradually gets trapped in his own world, a world full of sound.
Review: Shabdo reminded me of a few other movies: Perfume, Memento and Lisbon Story. All that suspicion of a copycat movie spoofed away as the movie took a very different path. The movie succeeds to grab viewers' attention right away by showing us how sound makes a huge difference in the world of cinema. Soon, we are introduced to the lead character, Tarak Dutta (played by Ritwick Chakraborty), who's facial expression makes up feel sympathetic to him from the get-go. He along with brilliant acting by Victor Banerjee and Churni Ganguly takes us on a ride of a world that we are familiar with. How many among us know about a profession called 'foley'? Tarak's obsession towards sound; not words, gives us the insight of intricate business of film making. Victor Banerjee and Churni Ganguly try their best to psychologically analyse Tarak and get to his mind. The camerawork is simple – no special trickery was used; it wasn't needed at all. The story itself is so intriguing that we do not care to look for camerawork. Ambience is with such precision that we don't for music.

Reviewed by Zia Nazmul Islam

***

SHAHID 

Director: Hansal Mehta
Writer: Apurva Asrani, Sameer Gautam Singh
Cast: Raj Kumar Yadav, Prabhleen Sandhu, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub
Length: 105 min
Strength: Story, script and dialogue
Weakness: Camerawork
Showbiz Rating: 4 out of 5
Plot: A true story of assassinated human rights activist and lawyer Shahid Azmi. From becoming a terrorist to being wrongly imprisoned; later turning into a criminal lawyer Shahid, traces the inspiringjourney of aboy who became an unlikely savior for human rights. The reasons and the becoming of Shahid Azmi.
Review: Hansal Mehta had a very delicate and confrontational story to narrate;he had to be true to the real character of Azmi all the while keeping the audience entertained. A bio-pic is a tough matter to handle but Mehta did justice to the story and in all registered is mark in the industry. After a string of disappointing movies one could not expect such an outcome from Shahid. The director was thoughtful, sensitive and brutal in his depiction of Shahid and garners all the accolade he his receiving.
Mehta's knight in the chess board was Raj kumar Yadav; the actor has already proven his salt with performance in 'Kai Po Che'! And 'Gangs of Wasseypur','Shahid'was no different. Yadav is an actor in the mould of Irfan Khan; able to portray emotion of high magnitude with very subtle facial twitches. Yadav was brilliant in his portrayal of Shahid Azmi, the role dictated a performer who would be able to immerse himself completely in the milieu and let go off his own personalities and Yadav did exactly that.
Another stand out performers were the writers; Sameer Gautem Singh and co-writer Apurva Asrani. Though they are not actor and we never see them on-screentheir script had the potent power to keep the audience engaged and never did they glamorise any scene with loud dialogues. The script, the pace of the narration and the dialogues were the key to make it an epic bio-pic. The strength of the script cerebrated through the performance of the actors.
'Shahid' in all proves that Indian cinema still has space for honest low budget work. Not only are the audience fooled by the glitzy and the glamorous but they admire and appreciate a true genuine movie.

Reviewed by: Adnan Ahmed

***

STOKER

Director: Chan-Wook Park
Writer: Wentworth Miller
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Dermot Mulroney
Length: 99 minutes
Strength: Good cast, brilliant acting and composition
Weakness: Similar story plot compared to the director's previous movies
Star Showbiz Rating: 3/5

PLOT: Ideal father and husband, Richard Stoker (Dermot Mulroney) had the perfect life with wife and daughter – India (Mia Wasikowska) and Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) till India's 18th birthday when a car crash robs him of his life. On the same day, Charles Stoker (Matthew Goode) shows up – an uncle India never knew she had. He offers to stay with his brother's family and take care of them. Whimsical and promiscuous Evelyn is easily seduced by Charles and India becomes increasingly infatuated with the uncle as well. He comes off as the perfect gentleman, looking after the girls but there's more to him than meets the eye.

REVIEW: Although the plot is too creepy for my taste, with disturbing scenes such as the shower sequence where a woman masturbates while flashing back to a murder, others might find it compelling. The dark desires hidden beneath the veil of innocence are well portrayed by the characters as the mysterious string of the spooky events unfolds. However the plot did not exactly give me the chills that I had expected. Kidman was brilliant and so were Goode and Wasikowaska. Both India and Charles have ulterior motives, but if you have watched a movie or two directed by Chan-Wook Park, you will be soon familiarised with the nature of such unbearable tension. If you're looking to get mild goose bumps on a lazy afternoon, this is the movie for you.

Reviewed by Khan Nahida Moushumi