Quick alert to you lovers of GOOD films:PIKU, directed by Shoojit Sircar (VICKY DONOR, MADRAS CAFE), starring Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan, and Deepika Padukone is currently in theaters.
It was thrilling to watch Amitabh Bachchan, who is clearly reveling in his career resurgence as a character actor, getting to flex his acting muscles. Late-period Amitabh starrers were terrible: director after director would make him fly into a rage, kill a whole bunch of people, and then die in a barrage of bullets, but not before making a long speech while bleeding copiously - the poor man must be embarrassed by his last 20 or so films as the hero Vijay (his character was invariably named Vijay).
Now free of Leading Man responsibilities, he is finally permitted to act (CHEENI KUM, PAA (he was excellent - Vidya Balan and he rose above the sappy, manipulative script), BLACK, Baz Luhrman's THE GREAT GATSBY - his brief appearance as mobster Meyer Wolfsheim was the best thing about that awful film), and you realize how frustrating (if lucrative) it must have been for him to play in those earlier carbon-copy revenge sagas.
To his immense credit in PIKU, he makes you forget you are watching Amitabh Bachchan, the most iconic Hindi movie star of our times - what viewers see is simply curmudgeonly, pot-bellied, hypochondriac Bhashkor Banerjee--a Bengali living in Delhi--obsessed with bowel movements. But Bhashkor is no mono-dimensional old git: he is intelligent, fiercely proud of his independent daughter, truly progressive in his social views, and lover of good Scotch and old songs. You'll be infuriated by him, yet agree with him in matters that count, and you will completely sympathize with his long-suffering daughter Piku (Deepika Padukone), who struggles to juggle an architecture firm, run a household, and her full-time occupation: taking care of her father. Little wonder then that she is prickly, short-tempered and doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Irrfan Khan (THE LUNCH BOX, LIFE OF PI, etc.) plays the owner of a taxi company whose drivers quake with fear whenever there is a call for car service from the Banerjee household. So when none of his drivers will convey the father and daughter to Calcutta, it falls to Irrfan to drive the formidable twosome there. Along the way, they all learn valuable life lessons, and have an increased understanding and appreciation of each other. While this sounds like any other road movie, its treatment and approach are refreshingly different - the writing is the star here.
Deepika Padukone blows one away with her natural, endearing performance - faced with TWO brilliant actors, she gives of her best and doesn't ever falter. Irrfan has the smaller role in the film - what one might term the "love interest" part. Here one gets to see what an outstanding actor can do even when he is not the center of the action. Loved seeing Moushumi Chatterjee playing Piku's flighty aunt who is on her third husband - she has some great lines.
Treat yourself to a good film - go watch PIKU.
It was thrilling to watch Amitabh Bachchan, who is clearly reveling in his career resurgence as a character actor, getting to flex his acting muscles. Late-period Amitabh starrers were terrible: director after director would make him fly into a rage, kill a whole bunch of people, and then die in a barrage of bullets, but not before making a long speech while bleeding copiously - the poor man must be embarrassed by his last 20 or so films as the hero Vijay (his character was invariably named Vijay).
Now free of Leading Man responsibilities, he is finally permitted to act (CHEENI KUM, PAA (he was excellent - Vidya Balan and he rose above the sappy, manipulative script), BLACK, Baz Luhrman's THE GREAT GATSBY - his brief appearance as mobster Meyer Wolfsheim was the best thing about that awful film), and you realize how frustrating (if lucrative) it must have been for him to play in those earlier carbon-copy revenge sagas.
To his immense credit in PIKU, he makes you forget you are watching Amitabh Bachchan, the most iconic Hindi movie star of our times - what viewers see is simply curmudgeonly, pot-bellied, hypochondriac Bhashkor Banerjee--a Bengali living in Delhi--obsessed with bowel movements. But Bhashkor is no mono-dimensional old git: he is intelligent, fiercely proud of his independent daughter, truly progressive in his social views, and lover of good Scotch and old songs. You'll be infuriated by him, yet agree with him in matters that count, and you will completely sympathize with his long-suffering daughter Piku (Deepika Padukone), who struggles to juggle an architecture firm, run a household, and her full-time occupation: taking care of her father. Little wonder then that she is prickly, short-tempered and doesn't suffer fools gladly.
Irrfan Khan (THE LUNCH BOX, LIFE OF PI, etc.) plays the owner of a taxi company whose drivers quake with fear whenever there is a call for car service from the Banerjee household. So when none of his drivers will convey the father and daughter to Calcutta, it falls to Irrfan to drive the formidable twosome there. Along the way, they all learn valuable life lessons, and have an increased understanding and appreciation of each other. While this sounds like any other road movie, its treatment and approach are refreshingly different - the writing is the star here.
Deepika Padukone blows one away with her natural, endearing performance - faced with TWO brilliant actors, she gives of her best and doesn't ever falter. Irrfan has the smaller role in the film - what one might term the "love interest" part. Here one gets to see what an outstanding actor can do even when he is not the center of the action. Loved seeing Moushumi Chatterjee playing Piku's flighty aunt who is on her third husband - she has some great lines.
Treat yourself to a good film - go watch PIKU.