Change Your Image
josharekare
Reviews
Teenkahon (2014)
Tries too hard
Teenkahon comes across as trying too hard to be art-house. The checklist seems to be taken care of – it is full of things you'd expect in such cinema. The cinematography, for instance, is a lovely black and white in the first story Nabalok. There are beautiful visuals of the countryside and the Rabindra sangeet is mesmerising. Likewise, the other two stories too have their bits of wonder whether in the form of acting (Sabyasachi Chakraborty is extraordinary) or the theme or some really clever screenplay (in the third part).
But all put together, you can sense that it is trying too hard. None of the stories really pull you in the way they should. It doesn't give the sense of an organically evolved script. Now, this is a complaint which isn't easy to articulate but I'll try.
I'll use comparison. Take Asha Jhawar Majhe, another art house Bengali film that made some waves recently. Nothing much happens through its runtime. Or at least, it appears like nothing much happens. But it all comes together towards the end. It feels like the film crystallises suddenly and my heart felt a firm tug as the lady sets off to work again at the end. Everything seems so right about the film. Masterfully shot, enacted, and directed.
But Teenkahon often feels forced. It feels like a bunch of nice things stuck on a inherently nice idea but they don't really work well together. Often the staging feels sub par and sometimes the acting doesn't come through. One could blame these issues on the inexperience of the director (Teenkahon is Bauddhayan Mukherjee's debut) but this is often a problem of ambition that doesn't match with vision. Mukherjee seems to be full of ambition but without the vision of the master that he seems to aim to be.
The Intern (2015)
Nice enough
*** Thematic spoilers***
Yes, Robert De Niro is terrific. And that is expected, too. Nothing new there. Also Anne Hathaway is a wonderful actress. Together they are capable of tremendous work. But 'The Intern' aims for much less.
It isn't a bad movie, it is very nice and warm in fact. It took me a while to understand the bar it set itself and once I reconciled my expectations with that bar, I was happy with it. I loved the contrivances and found the movie to be thoroughly enjoyable, too.
But I'm still cognisant of the possibilities. For one, I really really wish Ben Whittaker wasn't a flawless star. He is a seventy year old white man with years of experience running a company. To write the character to be one without any biases (not the objectionable ones at least) or foibles is taking a very simple route. Not just Ben, every one in the movie is sweet, nice, and harmless to the point of being cloying.
Like I said, The Intern doesn't aim too high but I wished there was a little more drama in the proceedings. I wish at least one of the leads would make mistakes, or a situation transpires where tough decisions need to be taken but nothing of that sort occurs.
But even without these elements, it is a great watch for the performances, and the humour, and the smooth direction. And I really liked a point or two that the movie made. Being a 25 year old male, I didn't exactly understand the feminist standpoint initially but it made sense to me later and I appreciated the fact that the movie made me think about it. I can't say much more without giving away the plot but you can try the movie yourself and appreciate what I'm talking about.