Barfi!: Bollywood Attempts To Go Hollywood

Barfi! is India's entry for the Oscars this year. And judging from the trailers and general buzz, I imagined it would be worth watching. Unfortunately, instead of being an excellent Bollywood movie, it is just a mediocre attempt to be a Hollywood one.

Set mostly in 1970s Darjeeling, the film follows Barfi, a deaf-mute man (played astonishingly well by Ranbir Kapoor) who is the town prankster and seems to be perpetually on the run from the police. One day he runs into Shruti Ghosh (Ileana D'Cruz), an engaged woman due to be married in three months, and falls for her. The feeling is mutual, though she won't admit it right away, and the two become fast friends. However, when push comes to shove, Shruti can't give up everything for Barfi, so she gets married and moves away to Kolkata. Meanwhile, Barfi's father is seriously ill and requires expensive treatment. Desperate to scrape up the cash, Barfi tries a variety of schemes, including robbing a bank, but finally hits upon the idea of kidnapping Jhilmil Chatterjee. Barfi's father worked for the Chatterjees as a chauffeur, so Barfi and Jhilmil are childhood friends. Also, Jhilmil is severely autistic (portrayed with a great deal of restraint and sensitivity by Priyanka Chopra), which makes kidnapping her a somewhat difficult enterprise.

That might seem like enough story to be getting on with, but there are all manner of unnecessary complications, including the decision to tell this entire story through a series of flashbacks and flashforwards that make it impossible to keep the timeline straight. I spent most of my time being extremely confused as to which flashback I was currently watching and sorting out what events had already unfolded or were about to transpire. At two and a half hours, the movie is entirely too long; it has a strong finish, but by the time you get there, you're too exasperated to care.

However, the movie does have a wonderful aesthetic. Every frame is suffused with light and color, with Darjeeling looking like something out of a fairytale. And the acting is phenomenal, with Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra playing their differently-abled characters with nuance and understanding. It seems like writer-director Anurag Basu got carried away by the look and feel of the movie and in typical Bollywood fashion decided that more is better. Ergo the convoluted plot, neverending chases sequences through the beautiful streets and fields of Darjeeling, and countless nods to the work of Chaplin or Keaton in the silent-movie era. The movie's soundtrack is delightful and essential to a movie with so little dialogue, but the fact that it is a complete rip-off of the Amelie soundtrack cannot be denied. There's enough variation to hopefully avoid a lawsuit (let's hope the Oscar committee sees it that way at least) and I was willing to let it slide until a typewriter was incorporated into the background score in such a blatant copy of "Pas Si Simple" that I had to protest.

Barfi!'s selection as an Oscar entry is a very obvious ploy to cater to Oscar tastes. Every cynic knows that an actor has a good shot at winning an Academy Award if they're playing a disabled person, a real-life figure, or a Nazi. Throw in the fact that the silent film, The Artist, won Best Picture last year, and you can see why Bollywood thought Barfi! would be a shoo-in. I can't deny the acting is Oscar-worthy, but the execution certainly isn't. So next year, I hope Bollywood decides to laud a movie that features not only great performances but also realizes that the true art of moviemaking lies in telling a great story.

Argo: Political Crises & Covert Ops

The Oscar onslaught is ramping up and Argo is the current source of awards buzz. This is Ben Affleck's third film as director (he is also the lead actor) and offers definitive proof that the man knows what he's doing behind the camera.

Argo is "based on a declassified true story" and demonstrates that a real spy story can often be wilder than fiction. The movie begins in 1979 and the opening scenes quickly educate the audience on the lead-up to the Iranian revolution, setting the stage for the storming of the American embassy in Tehran and ensuing hostage crisis. Most people know about the unfortunate Americans held hostage at the embassy for more than a year, but Argo's focus is on six Americans who escaped and took refuge at the Canadian ambassador's house. Once Washington gets word of the situation, the State Department must come up with a plan to exfiltrate these six Americans without rousing the suspicions of the Iranians.

Affleck plays Tony Mendez, the CIA's exfiltration expert, and he realizes the State Department has no clue what it's doing. Their proposals are ridiculous, so he counters with a proposal that is so crazy it just might work. Using the CIA's contacts with a makeup artist in Hollywood, Mendez creates a fake production company based around a script for a terrible sci-fi movie called Argo. This allows for a great deal of hilarious insight into showbusiness and how simple it is to bankroll a fake movie that's bound to be a flop. The movie is supposed to take place in Middle Eastern landscapes and will allow Mendez to enter Iran under the pretense of scouting filming locations. Once in Iran, he can meet the six Americans, furnish them with Canadian passports and fake identities that make them a part of his fake film crew, and get them on a plane out of Iran.

As Mendez's boss explains to the State Department, their only options are bad options, and this is "the best bad plan" the CIA can offer. So Mendez sets off for Iran, and a pulse-pounding thriller ensues. The six Americans are understandably wary, and adopting a new identity over the course of two days seems crazy for people with no CIA training. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and the stakes are too high to not give this extraordinary scheme a chance. Although the film's conclusion is inevitable, you fervently follow the action, wondering how on earth these people are going to pull off this insane mission. And the film ends with an interesting look at the diplomatic repercussions of the incident, as well as giving some much overdue acknowledgment to the people involved.

Argo is tightly-scripted, fast-paced, funny, dramatic, and edge-of-your-seat fantastic. The production design and cinematography is impeccable, steeped in a late 70's aesthetic down to the use of the old Warner Brothers logo as the film begins. The cast is a dream team of TV and film fa Overall, this is a brilliant movie, and the fact that it is based on a true story only cements its brilliance.

Parade's End: Domestic Strife & World War

There is one word that can be used to describe the HBO/BBC miniseries Parade's End: lush. Set in Edwardian England as World War I descends upon Europe, it features a bewildering parade of wealthy socialites, earnest soldiers, greedy social-climbers, and idealistic ingenues. While some are laughing in their lavish estates, others are struggling to stay alive in filthy trenches. And sociopolitical machinations abound, from the movements of soldiers and generals to the movements of husbands and wives. The incomparable playwright Tom Stoppard has whittled down a tetralogy of novels by Ford Madox Ford into this five-episode miniseries that is steeped in beauty, humor, and Englishness.

At the center of this vast story is Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch doing some of his best work to date), a remarkably intelligent statistician who holds a staunch view of what it means to be an Englishman of standing when most of his fellows have rejected such antiquated notions. The stiff upper lip, upright posture, and plummy accent tell you all you need to know about this man. He is tricked into marrying a dazzling socialite, Sylvia Satterthwaite (the amazing Rebbeca Hall), who is pregnant, but perhaps not with his child. Their marriage is intolerable, but Tietjens believes it is his duty to carry on the facade. Sylvia has no such compunction and carries on affairs with multiple men, even running away with one just to see how much grief she can cause Christopher. Their relationship is twisted and brutal, and no one quite understands it, not even the two of them.

Enter Valentine Wannop (the beguiling Adelaide Clemens), a young suffragette who crosses paths with Christopher and seems to be his soulmate. The two share an instant connection, and as Valentine later puts it, their every word to each other is like a "declaration of love." While their relationship remains purely chaste, rumors abound about the pair, and Sylvia finds herself getting jealous. Then World War I arrives, Christopher is whisked away into battle, and romantic entanglements are (very) temporarily set aside.

The war scenes are grim yet tinged with characteristic wry British humor. There are bluff generals, alcoholic colonels, tea and sandwiches in the middle of a bombing, and a competition over writing a sonnet in two minutes and then translating it into Latin hexameter in three and a half; class divides do not falter just because one is at war. However, Tietjens cannot benefit from his elite background owing to various black marks against his name courtesy of his wife's former lovers. He is a decent man, intelligent and brave, and he refuses to kowtow to societal pressures. Instead, he is fixated on doing his duty and seeing his way through this ghastly war.

What I've described is a mere sliver of what ensues in the five episodes of this miniseries. The story follows several characters whose fortunes rise and fall through the years, and the cast is made up of British stalwarts like Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, Janet McTeer, Rufus Sewell, and more. The central love triangle between Christopher, Sylvia, and Valentine is both epic and intimate and will keep you on tenterhooks until the finale. Parade's End is a very human and engaging account of this moment in history, and is nothing short of a television masterpiece.

The series concluded its run on the BBC in September and will be available on DVD later this month. It is slated to air on HBO in 2013, so you have something to look forward to if you'd rather wait. I already predict it will add multiple awards to HBO's ever-expanding collection. 

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Whimsical Villainy

It is no secret that I love Joss Whedon, writer of genius TV fare like Firefly, Buffy, and Dollhouse, or genius movies like Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers. Well, during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild Strike, Whedon concocted a weird and wonderful little project called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. And on Tuesday night, you'll have the chance to watch the whole thing (it's only 45 minutes) on the CW Network.

Dr. Horrible was a web series consisting of 3 acts or episodes that were released online for free on certain dates and later sold on iTunes (where they are still available). The hero, Dr. Horrible, is actually a villain. Played by the superb Neil Patrick Harris, he is an evil scientist who is trying to gain access into an elite group of supervillains known as the Evil League of Evil. He records all his thoughts and plans on a video blog, and these musings often take musical form. Ergo the title. His nemesis is Captain Hammer (the charming Nathan Fillion), who is a brawny braggart who always manages to foil Dr. Horrible's villainy and make him look ridiculous. However, Dr. Horrible has come up with a new plan involving a freeze-ray that will hopefully wreak havoc and get him the supervillain status he so craves.

However, a complication arises in the form of Penny (Felicia Day, from the amazing web series, The Guild), a girl that Dr. Horrible has fallen in love with. She catches Captain Hammer's eye, leading to an escalation of tensions among the two rivals. Dr. Horrible angrily sings about his dashed hopes, Captain Hammer masterfully roars about how great he is, while Penny happily warbles away about her simple life, unaware of all the trouble that is brewing.

The soundtrack is amazing, with catchy songs that will worm their way into your brain and stay there. And if that wasn't enough, the team behind the series created a behind-the-scenes commentary for the DVD release, done entirely in song. It is funny and just as catchy as anything in the actual series. But be warned, as amusing as the premise of Dr. Horrible is, it has a great deal of heart and heartbreak, in trademark Whedon fashion. And in case you forgot, this brilliant story takes place in the same amount of time as a single episode of television.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog caused quite a stir upon its release because it made more than enough money to justify this unusual business model. If the show gets a ratings boost on the CW on Tuesday night, it will be further justification that this online model can be a source of enormous creativity and high-quality television. So tune in for this piece of Whedon magic and prepare yourselves for an unusual and spectacular treat. A sequel is already in the works and you need to get on board.

I've Got Your Number: Romance Via Texting

I have already used this blog to wax rhapsodic about the novels of Sophie Kinsella. So it should come as no surprise that it's time for me to do so yet again. The NYPL kindly took me off the hold list for the e-book version of her most recent novel, I've Got Your Number, and I devoured it. Apart from the annoyance of having to click back and forth among the amusing footnotes (which is the only trouble I've had with the e-book format so far), it was a thoroughly delightful read.

The plot of any Kinsella novel can be summarized as follows: thoroughly lovable yet insecure heroine, who may or may not be involved with successful but horrible man who does not appreciate her true worth, runs into Darcy-esque dark-haired wealthy businessman and initially misjudges him for being cold and calculating misanthrope, only to discover he is in fact a romantic knight with heart of gold. The fact that this basic storyline remains unaltered among all of Kinsella's novels might suggest that they are predictable and boring fare. But you would be wrong. What makes each of her novels stand out are the worlds and circumstances that the heroine and her hero inhabit. Every novel presents a brand new wacky and inventive situation and a series of seemingly insurmountable obstacles that will, of course, be surmounted. Just because you know how this will all end, it doesn't mean you have any clue how you're going to get there.

This novel's heroine is Poppy Wyatt, a physiotherapist who is engaged to Magnus Tavish, a handsome academic who deals with symbology (this might be a dig at Robert Langdon). Poppy loves her job, loves Magnus, and is furiously planning for her wedding that is just 10 days away. For a variety of reasons, she desperately needs a phone, since her own has been stolen and replacing it would take too long. She spies a phone that someone has thrown in a trashcan, which she claims for her own since "possession is nine-tenths of the law." Turns out it belonged to the PA of a top executive, a man named Sam Roxton. Enter our hero. Sam needs the phone because it contains vital e-mails and business information but Poppy pleads with him and promises to forward every single message. Sam doesn't like it, but helpless in the face of Poppy's desperate defiance, he reluctantly agrees. And thus begins our tale.

This is a romance conducted almost exclusively via text. Poppy can't help herself from reading Sam's company emails and gradually pieces together a portrait of this mysterious man whose phone she has hijacked. While Kinsella's novels always follow a first-person narrative from the heroine's perspective, this is the first time I was aware of how much that influences my perception of the various characters. I trusted Poppy's every instinct and critique of Sam, and it was with a start that I realized (as she did) that he has a private e-mail inbox that would paint a very different portrait of him.

The novel features multiple intertwining plot lines, including corporate espionage, Sam's relationship with his fiancée and his father, Poppy's struggles with confrontation and her in-laws, and the impending wedding. It is all resolved beautifully at the end and might be the first time that a smiley face in a text is an indication of true love. I've Got Your Number is hilarious and entertaining, so whip out your phones and order a copy today. 

Call the Midwife: Brits Birthing Babies

After the resounding stateside success of Downton Abbey, PBS is hoping that Call the Midwife will be its next breakout British hit. The first of six episodes aired last Sunday, and if that pilot is any indication, I've found my new British addiction.

Set in London's East End in the 1950s, the show follows a group of midwives and nuns who work at Nunnatus House, a nursing convent. The central heroine is Jenny Lee (the fantastically likable Jessica Raine), a recently qualified midwife who has had a decent English upbringing and is overwhelmed to discover the poverty and less than ideal living conditions of East London. The first episode follows her foray into this brave new world. To begin with, she has no idea she has signed up to live and work in a convent and has to get over the initial shock of being greeted by a scattered nun. But she quickly warms up to the kind, hardworking sisters as well as her fellow midwives and sets off to be of use in the community.

One of Jenny's first patients is a Spanish woman who is pregnant with her 25th child (this is her 23rd pregnancy since she had two sets of twins, but really, that doesn't make it any less mind-boggling). Her house is teeming with children and family dinner consists of eating straight from the pot because plates are a hassle. Her eldest daughter is the only one who speaks Spanish and can communicate with her. Even the woman's English husband, who is very much in love with his wife (as evidenced by the 24 kids), has never bothered to learn any Spanish, a fact which bewilders the already overwhelmed Jenny.

There are other patients who are cantankerous and rude, others who are young and grateful, and Jenny's interactions with this broad swath of hitherto unknown humanity are wonderful to behold. There are also typically British shout-outs to the great work of the National Health Service that is trying to ensure that even the poorest women receive adequate care. And throughout Jenny Lee is learning to do her job and bring all these babies into the world. This show is not necessarily for the faint of heart - midwifery is a messy business and you might learn more than you wanted about the not-so miraculous nature of giving birth. The streets of 1950's East London appear to be teeming with babies, and Jenny and her colleagues would be delighted if they knew that the 60s would bring the pill and blessed birth control. But for now, they face an exhausting and interminable job.

The series is based on the memoirs of real-life midwife Jennifer Worth. Apparently Worth wrote them in response to a call for someone to "do for midwifery what James Herriot did for vets." Call the Midwife is certainly offering a glimpse into a less well-known profession, and I think it's essential viewing in the US, where midwives are not as prominent and respected as they are in the UK and elsewhere. It is also a wonderful period piece, taking us away from the glamour and gentility of Downton Abbey and exposing the grimy day-to-day life of the English working class. So watch the first episode on the PBS website and tune in Sunday night for the next installment. It is sure to be entertaining, heartwarming, funny, tragic, and human.

Premium Rush: Pedestrians Beware

Fifteen minutes into Premium Rush, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with this movie and its interminable bike riding. Half an hour later, I was glad I was still watching.

The always energetic and engaging Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Wilee, a daredevil bike messenger racing through the streets of Manhattan to deliver packages. He can instantly map out bike routes that minimize the damage to pedestrians and passing vehicles, which is a useful ability since he rides a bike that is stripped of gears or brakes. The action of Premium Rush takes place over the course of a single afternoon when Wilee is commissioned to deliver an envelope to Chinatown. He gets the envelope from Nima (Jamie Chung), but before he can set off on his bike, a man named Bobby Monday (the always menacing Michael Shannon) claims that the delivery is a mistake and he needs the envelope back. Luckily Wilee realizes this is a trick and races away on his bike. Cue the first spectacular car chase as Monday chases Wilee through all manner of street and foot traffic. Along the way, a NYPD bike officer tries to arrest Wilee for riding recklessly, but the hapless man can't hope to catch Wilee while he's on two wheels.

I can't tell you much more - you should really find out the rest for yourself. Suffice to say, there's a very good reason why Wilee can't expect any help from the police. He then tries to return the package to Nima, but when he finds out what the envelope contains and what that means to her, he heroically resumes the quest to deliver it. The contents of that envelope are explained gradually and make a pretty interesting plot point. And of course, there are many more chases in store, some involving Wilee's girlfriend and fellow bike messenger Dania Ramirez, who has her own reasons for wanting to help with this delivery.

The sheer athleticism on display makes Premium Rush a pulse-pounding action thriller. Michael Shannon is a superb villain, while Gordon-Levitt, Ramirez, and Wole Parks (who plays Wilee's rival, Manny) are amazing to watch. You can't tell when the stuntmen are taking over for these actors, which is a testament to how professionally they are handling these bikes. The chases have been expertly choreographed through the streets, pavements, and alleys of Manhattan for maximum cinematic impact that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Seek out Premium Rush - the movie's title fully delivers on its promise.