Small season

My life, My way: Sanjay Mishra in a still from Ankhon Dekhi

With IPL (April 16th) and Lok Sabha elections around the corner, the Season of Small films has flagged off. Of course, times have been a changing; April-May is no longer the sole, secure preserve of small film-makers-big films, short of clutter-free weekends since the last couple of years have made a foray in these months as well. Be that as it may, indie film-makers with small budget offerings usually opt for the summer prime time.
Luckily for compulsive movie watchers, this year the season has got off to a good start with actor-director Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi, with a standout performance by actor Sanjay Mishra in a unique, lead role. Bauji, the character he plays, is the quintessential aam aadmi, invoked ever so often these days. Bauji is so regular that he could be any of the countless faces that one encounters and forgets. His life is a study in ordinariness and yet this tale of humdrum family drama and existential angst, at some point becomes riveting. The rift between two brothers and their wives (Seema Pahwa is excellent), a young girl’s romance that withstands familial disapproval or for that matter, Bauji’s attempt at leading life on his own terms are all startlingly fascinating.
Seeing is believing, he decides, and simply refuses to settle for anything else and the ensuing chase, to experience everything before he believes it, lands this most unassuming of ordinary mortals, a following! A band of loyalists, neighbourhood boys and men both aghast and impressed at his audacity follow him around much to the family’s annoyance and chagrin. Shorn of any pretense or deviousness, somewhere down the line he even acquires a halo when a neighbour’s son is cured of incessant soliloquy. The film with its unique magic realism of the mundane, both moves and engages. Is such profound complexity— usually reserved for literary works — even possible within Hindi films? For those of who have watched and liked Ankhon Dekhi, it evidently, is. And when you watch films such as these, this short break from the big-budget starry fare, is surely a welcome one. To borrow from Mishra’s Bauji, seeing indeed, is believing.

Sunny side up

And, no conversation about summer would be complete without talk of Sunny Leone who has reportedly set the temperatures soaring with her outing in Ragini MMS 2. The first edition started off with the tale of a young couple that ends up in a haunted house for a dirty weekend. The boyfriend (played by Rajkummar Rao) records the merry-making with his unsuspecting girlfriend (Kainaz Motivala) but all the fun comes to a halt when a vengeful spirit kills Uday, as also two friends who had dropped in. Ragini survives but has to undergo psychiatric treatment.
All this obviously was the foundation for part 2, which by the sheer virtue of Sunny’s presence in the film and a few pixellated steamy scenes has reportedly notched up Rs.24 crore, reaffirming that famous and oft-used cliche— “Sex sells.” The success of Grand Masti, a sex comedy last year hinted the same but the million dollar question now on everyone’s mind is whether Sunny Leone, a former adult entertainment star is going to be Bollywood’s most exciting new find. She may not have made her mark as an actor yet, but her oomph quotient and the increasing acceptance of sexual content in our films could totally swing matters in her favour.
Bollywood beauties had better watch out-there’s some steaming hot competition right at their doorsteps!