I was more than surprised to see Rahul Bose create an artistically moving and very indigenous piece of cinema in his clever directorial debut Everybody Says I'm Fine! that I was completely hooked to the screen the entire 100 minutes even as lead actor Rehan Engineer puts up a wooden face whenever he is supposed to act. For a film released in 2001, watching it in 2018 feels like a run down the memory lane, especially if you have been in Mumbai, as director Bose checks all the boxes in his product - Apple computers, upscale salon, trendy socialites, typical socialite talk with that vanity, young romance - and I sat there looking at them like a kid drooling at an ice-cream van's menu. Engineer plays a beauty salon owner who is also the head stylist/barber in the heart of the city and which is frequented by the socialites of the upper class Mumbai. Under his clean-shaven look and balding mane is the absurd power of hearing another person's thoughts whenever he cuts their hair, giving him a wholly different picture of the person than what they have concocted for the outside world. I don't think I have ever seen that concept out in the wild and it is absolutely fascinating to be a spectator with Xen, the character, as opens his shop, listens to a dozen inner thoughts, and goes back to sleep. Everybody Says I'm Fine! is made linearly and has bold scenes at every juncture, which I think must have contributed to how it was received close to two decades earlier. It even has Bose in a starring role (an eccentric), Boman Irani at his fine air of a businessman, and Pooja Bhatt - all of whom are so fun to watch regardless of their characters. I was blown away by the entire parade of proceedings that Everybody Says I'm Fine! churns out with so much substance and energy that I was a bit disappointed by how it ends. Looked like Bose was unable to bid adieu to his creative flow as the comedy drama ends like a bag full of water and one tiny leaking hole. Everyone interested in Bollywood should check it out though. TN.
9 Reviews
Please cast away any prejudgements before u watch this one
tinygoblin21 January 2006
A fantastically dramatic directorial debut by Rahul Bose.What can I say? I loved the movie an its characters! quite extreme? of course, and quite rightly so .Bose's depiction of the wonderfully complicated lives of today's Mumbaiites who are brought together in the central theme of the movie.With a touch of Marquez's magical realism, the movie revolves around the need for self preservation through a pretence of normality.The characters want their chaotic lives buried away from the public eye as they continue to pretend that everything IS fine. Perversely enough, curiosity always gets the better of the public eye as they poke and prod and dig beneath the ground for treasures of guarded secrets. But do we really want to know the truth? For this flick the Indian audience need to fasten their seat-belts, for truth is bizarre, complex and utterly saddening. All in all a brave attempt and thoroughly enjoyable! An appeal to the Indian audience:
Terrible film
tamasin10511 November 2004
I saw this film, the director's first attempt, when it debuted at the Philly Film Festival in 2002. I found it to be VERY disappointing. Without giving too much away, the director takes a clichéd Bollywoodian approach to very strong themes of sexual abuse, revenge and violence.
In the Q& A period following the film, the director admitted that some of the events were based on his true experiences, he explained as well that he had wanted to avenge a close friend through the story he portrayed. It is quite clear that he was much too emotionally close to resolving his own demons when he made this film. As a result, the film is extremely naive. Being passionate about cinema and world cinema in particular, I walked away incredibly frustrated.
In the Q& A period following the film, the director admitted that some of the events were based on his true experiences, he explained as well that he had wanted to avenge a close friend through the story he portrayed. It is quite clear that he was much too emotionally close to resolving his own demons when he made this film. As a result, the film is extremely naive. Being passionate about cinema and world cinema in particular, I walked away incredibly frustrated.
On a Whole New Philosophical Level
chintan-213 July 2004
Warning: Spoilers
This movie might be a little hard to grasp for some people, but one thing is for certain - This movie is on a whole new philosophical level. It, more than effectively, presents how much of the life the upper class urban India lives is a make up, a farce. Behind the huge cars and the high spending life-styles of the few haves in rich urban India lies a story untold - a story of many problems, unique to this strata of the Indian Society.
The movie's backdrop shows a young Xen witnessing his parents death in absolute silence to a freak accident in a recording studio. Since that day, Xen's life plunges into silence. He watches the TV muted and his windows are always shut. But he has a substantial gift - He can read the minds of people. OK most people. He just cannot get thru to the mind of one girl whom he eventually falls in love with. He helps out everyone who he determines to be in serious problems (Most of whom are his clients).
Xen is completely taken by Nikita because she is the only one who seems to not have a farcical make up to her personality. In an interesting twist, he discovers that she has an incestuous father played by Boman Irani and murders him.
This movie forces you to think, and to me that's what a really hard hitting movie should do. Kudos to the whole gang and to Rahul Bose for churning out a truly hard-hitting movie.
The movie's backdrop shows a young Xen witnessing his parents death in absolute silence to a freak accident in a recording studio. Since that day, Xen's life plunges into silence. He watches the TV muted and his windows are always shut. But he has a substantial gift - He can read the minds of people. OK most people. He just cannot get thru to the mind of one girl whom he eventually falls in love with. He helps out everyone who he determines to be in serious problems (Most of whom are his clients).
Xen is completely taken by Nikita because she is the only one who seems to not have a farcical make up to her personality. In an interesting twist, he discovers that she has an incestuous father played by Boman Irani and murders him.
This movie forces you to think, and to me that's what a really hard hitting movie should do. Kudos to the whole gang and to Rahul Bose for churning out a truly hard-hitting movie.
Everyone is right
neptunespice6 June 2003
A really interesting way to present what could have been an incredibly cheesy plot. It had its non-sequitor moments, but it was otherwise very well done.
Recommended if you're looking for something other than the traditional Hollywood Summer blockbuster.
Recommended if you're looking for something other than the traditional Hollywood Summer blockbuster.
More than I anticipated
maciek-in-LA24 May 2003
An excellent film...funny, charming, wry, yet also gritty and compelling. Nikita (Koel Purie) has a cathartic scene reminiscent of Liv Ullman in Bergman's "Face to Face." She submerges herself in a fugue state unflinchingly. The climactic turn of events lift the film to a more profound conclusion than the first half augured.
About a barber who hears others' thoughts.
imageon30 July 2002
About a barber who can hear the flow of thinking of the person to whom he is giving a haircut. He helps them(his customers) courteously but somehow directly by the information unknowingly given by themselves. He meets a girl and gets intimate with her, only to find that she has been abused by her successful father whom himself is also the barber's customer.
Could have made good points but gets muddled and seems to say things that are foolish
bob the moo3 August 2002
Hairdresser Xen had a traumatic childhood. He was in a recording booth when a short killed his parents at the mixing desk. He watched in silence as they died. Since then he has been able to read people's thoughts and hence see past their fronts. He generally is able to help those he sees but one girl, Nikita doesn't seem to be readable.
This film starts in a mix. The death scene and the way Xen reads minds are strange and feel ill at ease in the hairdressing saloon. However once you get the grip of the setup it becomes a lot better. The film seems to be saying be real rather than front up, and for the most part it says it. However when Xen begins to `help' his customers he does it by encouraging their fronts rather than helping them to be real. With both of his first two customers he helps he builds on their fake lives and helps them to believe their lies. Is the film saying that it's better to have a front than deal with reality?
The title suggests that it is looking at the culture of people just saying `fine' when asked `how are you' rather than saying `actually I'm a mess'. But the film never says this and supports the fake opposite. The only interesting thing it does do well is to show that the quiet ones, the successful ones and the loud outgoing ones all have issues and problems we all do. However this is lost in the final half an hour when we have the fake lives supported and a strange plot about abuse that doesn't seem to have a point to make.
For the most part this is entertaining and interesting, it's only the last 30 minutes or so where it badly loses it's way. The gentle pace of the film makes it enjoyable even when the meaning is muddled. The cast are generally good even if some have little to do or play Asian stereotypes. Rehuan Engineer (yes, really) is very good as Xen and likeable but Koel Purie is confused and misused as Nikita.
I must say it was passable, but I'd expected more it set itself up nicely and avoided being daft but really it didn't make a good point and just ended up confusing itself and getting all twisted up.
This film starts in a mix. The death scene and the way Xen reads minds are strange and feel ill at ease in the hairdressing saloon. However once you get the grip of the setup it becomes a lot better. The film seems to be saying be real rather than front up, and for the most part it says it. However when Xen begins to `help' his customers he does it by encouraging their fronts rather than helping them to be real. With both of his first two customers he helps he builds on their fake lives and helps them to believe their lies. Is the film saying that it's better to have a front than deal with reality?
The title suggests that it is looking at the culture of people just saying `fine' when asked `how are you' rather than saying `actually I'm a mess'. But the film never says this and supports the fake opposite. The only interesting thing it does do well is to show that the quiet ones, the successful ones and the loud outgoing ones all have issues and problems we all do. However this is lost in the final half an hour when we have the fake lives supported and a strange plot about abuse that doesn't seem to have a point to make.
For the most part this is entertaining and interesting, it's only the last 30 minutes or so where it badly loses it's way. The gentle pace of the film makes it enjoyable even when the meaning is muddled. The cast are generally good even if some have little to do or play Asian stereotypes. Rehuan Engineer (yes, really) is very good as Xen and likeable but Koel Purie is confused and misused as Nikita.
I must say it was passable, but I'd expected more it set itself up nicely and avoided being daft but really it didn't make a good point and just ended up confusing itself and getting all twisted up.
Trash, complete trash
spartacus19745 September 2004
I hate the inaneness of the run of the mill Bollywood formula flick in general, so I decided to give this film the benefit of the doubt, especially since the writer/director Bose has a few good oeuvres under his belt, albeit as an actor ("English August", a laugh out loud portrayal of a young civil servant's career in rural India, and "Mr and Mrs Iyer", a serious look at the communal divide between Hindus and Muslims woven into a warm and vibrant cross-country bus trip), this film being his foray behind the camera.
The plot revolves around Xen, a young hairdresser who has the bizarre ability to read people's minds while he is cutting their hair. This leads to a series of revelations most of them loosely connected with the story, although some scenes go off on tangents and you're left wondering why they are there.
The film fails on many levels. Real people do not act this way. Yes, the uppermost strata of Indian society are known for their mercedes-driving, club-going, gossipy and fake lifestyles, but several characters in the story are hopelessly overdone. Rahul Boses, Rage, character could have been less melodramatic and less wordy. So could Koel Purie's Nikita. This kind of acting fits nicely into a three-act play, playing these characters on film however is a completely different ball game altogether.
The script tries to be something it is not - intelligent. In a couple of scenes involving Rage and Nikita's interactions with Xen the hairdresser, the scriptwriter sounds like he wants to get as many words into one sentence as he can, leaving the actor gasping for breath after the delivery. Why the verbosity ? There is a benefit to keeping it simple - it won't not look fake!
And finally, does the writer really want us to empathize with a murderer ? And live happily ever after ?
Keep it real, Rahul, keep it real.
The plot revolves around Xen, a young hairdresser who has the bizarre ability to read people's minds while he is cutting their hair. This leads to a series of revelations most of them loosely connected with the story, although some scenes go off on tangents and you're left wondering why they are there.
The film fails on many levels. Real people do not act this way. Yes, the uppermost strata of Indian society are known for their mercedes-driving, club-going, gossipy and fake lifestyles, but several characters in the story are hopelessly overdone. Rahul Boses, Rage, character could have been less melodramatic and less wordy. So could Koel Purie's Nikita. This kind of acting fits nicely into a three-act play, playing these characters on film however is a completely different ball game altogether.
The script tries to be something it is not - intelligent. In a couple of scenes involving Rage and Nikita's interactions with Xen the hairdresser, the scriptwriter sounds like he wants to get as many words into one sentence as he can, leaving the actor gasping for breath after the delivery. Why the verbosity ? There is a benefit to keeping it simple - it won't not look fake!
And finally, does the writer really want us to empathize with a murderer ? And live happily ever after ?
Keep it real, Rahul, keep it real.
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