Pages

Friday, 19 September 2014

Khoobsurat, A Fairy tale and Yesteryear Film Nostalgia

Khoobsurat (2014) Poster

      Pic Source: IMDb

The movie sets your expectations just right when it begins- the prelude and the tittle of the movie say it all.  It is a Disney fairy tale mixed with an overriding theme from the yesteryears popular movie Khoobsurat, “break all rules”.  The story-line was intended to be predictable I guess, with greater focus on perhaps the unique look and feel of the movie and the ensemble of actors-  Fawad Khan, (a Pakistani actor & singer),  Ratna Pathak and Aamir Raza Husain and Kirron Kher ( all of whom are eminent theatre personalities as well) playing prominent parts alongside Sonam Kapoor


Sonam Kapoor plays Dr. Mili Chakrabatty, a physiotherapist, who is appointed by Nirmala Devi Rathore (Ratna Pathak) to treat obstinate husband who is bound to a wheelchair. Mili lands at the princely mansion, but to her dismay she encounters the household being governed by unreasonable discipline and rules. She gets on a mission to ensure to change the atmosphere around to be able to treat her patient and cure him. In process, she falls in love with his son , Vikram Rathore (Fawad Khan), who is engaged to Kiara (Aditi Hydari). What surprised me a bit here was that the love triangle here is not a matter of fuss. Kiara (Aditi Hydari- apparently a special appearance(S) in the credits) seems to be so understanding that it could be difficult to digest, but then I remind myself that this is a fairy tale. The audience sure understands there is no point marrying someone who has fallen out of love/ found someone else but lack of contempt is just a shocker. So what is the fuss about?-  the fuss is more about incompatibility in the backgrounds and the inability of the male protagonist to admit his love. Finally, the fairy tale ends the way it should, we are all happy now.

The visual look & feel of this movie is excellent and kudos to the production designer and the art director (Shruti Gupte and Prajakta Ghag) for bringing the fairy tale alive . I loved the colors used in the backgrounds and the absolute classy richness of the sets, every inch of the screen you can feel royalty oozing out. The other highlight of the movie is Kirron Khers’ acting, you can have her play the boisterous Punjabi mother in a million movies but she will sure give you a different character feel each time with her commendable variety and nuances in peformances. I wish the movie was just a bit longer for I would have absolutely have loved to see more of Ratna Pathak scenes, who I deeply admire.

I personally liked the movie Aisha (coming from the same production) a lot more- watched in 4 times, and I can’t help but compare. It had a more balanced characterization, irrespective of the innumerable actors and great music. However, this one is not bad at all, you can definitely watch it once for its strengths 


No comments:

Post a Comment