JUL 04 -
For years and years, epic romances rated high on the Indian film industry’s slate of biggest sellers. Based around the idea of love of an all-consuming, earth-shattering, and song-inspiring nature, these stories comprised liberal doses of the usual Bollywood plot-points—family complexities, drawn-out deaths, lecherous evildoers and henchmen, and the feeble mothers and sisters who were always susceptible to the cruelty of said evildoers and henchmen, naturally pushing the hero out on an inevitable rampage for vengeance that would take up two-thirds of running time until the happy, happy ending. Such films still do exist, of course, and probably always will, but more and more in current years, Bollywood has been trying to
distance itself from The Formula, looking into darker, quirkier corners, and pressing for experimentation in both style and content. First-time director Rajesh Mapuska’s Ferrari Ki Sawaari is among these newer projects designed as antitheses to the monotony of big-star romances, and while it does suffer a few shortcomings and isn’t exactly the sort of the thing to make you jump out of your seat, the film is certainly watchable, a warm, sincere story that encompasses cross-generational conflict, love of cricket and the always-enjoyable triumph of an underdog.
Sharman Joshi plays Rusy Deboo, a young widower from Mumbai. A clerk at the transport office, Rusy makes just enough to keep his family—father Behram (Boman Irani in uber-grouchy mode) and school-aged son Kayo (Ritwik Sahore)—fed. He is, however, one of those painfully optimistic few insistent on looking at the ‘bright side’, and so morally upstanding that on running a red light with his scooter, seeks out the traffic officer to ask for a ticket because he wants Kayo to learn never to skirt the rules. Now, Kayo is something of a cricket prodigy, and being a devoted father, Rusy routinely scrounges all the money he can to get him equipment, much to the chagrin of the sulky Behram, who believes it all a waste of effort. Things heat up particularly when Kayo is selected for a camp at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in the UK, which, unfortunately, involves a hefty fee.
Determined to support Kayo, Rusy goes out to get a loan, but is repeatedly rejected. That is, until he meets the rotund Baboo didi (Seema Bhargava), a wedding planner who is trying to find a red Ferrari for her newest gig—the wedding of the son of a local politician. She makes a deal with Rusy: if he can get her Sachin Tendulkar’s red Ferrari—the only one in the city—for a few hours, she’ll give him the money. By some ridiculous turn of fate, he not only accepts, but has the keys handed to him accidentally—one of the many implausibilities in the film. A first time law-breaker, Rusy is naturally clumsy at the task, cueing in an elaborate comedy of errors, a madcap adventure through Mumbai’s streets wherein we are introduced to a line of kooky characters, including a cameo by Paresh Rawal. We watch as Rusy decides whether it is really worth it to compromise his ideals if it means giving his son what he wants, and learn what role Behram ’s fuzzy past plays in all this.
While Bollywood sports dramas generally tend to lay on the patriotism and high-handed philosophy a bit too thick, Ferrari Ki Sawaari wisely takes a different, more subtle approach to the subject, pulling the focus away from the field and into the households where children grow up emulating their favourite cricket stars. The film, comfortably straddling the line between drama and comedy, portrays particularly well the burdens of the lower middle class in India, a demographic that is, on the one hand, tempted by the glittery fruits of consumerism that beckon them, and on the other, weighed down by their actual circumstances.
A large part of why Ferrari Ki Sawaari works is thanks to the cast—little needs to be said, for instance, about Irani, who is his usual versatile self, practically unrecognisable each time he takes on a different role, and Sahore is competent enough as the third generation Deboo, as are other bit actors. But as far as Joshi in the lead is concerned, I found the performance a bit too manic, where he often plays up the naivete and innocence of his character to physical extremes, which, given his large share of screen time, can get irksome.
His is a strained, almost uncomfortable presence.
What is a real shame is that although the film starts off on an unconventional track, by the second half, it falls deep into conventional melodrama, complete with public breakdowns, speeches and too-easy solutions. The film could’ve also done with some clipping; while the attention to character detail is admirable initially, it drags the time out, as do the songs, most (if not all) of which were unnecessary. And although Mapuska, who worked as assistant director on 3 Idiots and the Munna Bhai series, has joined hands here with the same team behind those films—Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra—the script just isn’t as sharp or as memorable. I probably wouldn’t go see it again, but for a first watch, Ferrari Ki Sawaari is pleasant enough.
Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/07/04/entertainment/a-ride-in-the-red-beast/356577/
0 comments:
Post a Comment