Film Review - Ab Tak Chhappan

Underworld Woes

Film: Ab Tak Chhappan 2

Cast: Nana Patekar, Gul Panag, Vikram Gokhale

Directed by: Aejaz Gulab

Duration: 1 hr 45 mins

Rating: * 1 / 2

More than a decade after Shimit Amin made one of the more memorable gangster films, a deathly dull sequel to it is here. Ab Tak Chhappan 2 merely wants to cash on its predecessor, the underworld had almost taken a backseat then in 2004, but the memories of it still remained fresh due to the havoc it unleashed earlier.

This sequel tries to connect the dots to the previous film but it has no real story to speak of. Inspector Sadhu (Nana Patekar) is spending a quiet life in Goa because of the pending departmental enquiry and the death of his wife.

The home minister (Vikram Gokhale) coaxes him out of retirement to hunt down and eliminate some gangsters. He forms team that includes a policeman (Ashutosh Rana) who doesn’t particularly like him. They go around shooting gangsters after receiving random phone calls and there is no conviction at all as to how they go about their business. Gul Panag plays a journalist who is completing an unfinished book on the underworld written by her father.

The film has no plot to speak of, just so that the audience doesn’t feel completely cheated, a few predictable twists are thrown in towards the end.

It has the hangover of a Ram Gopal Varma film, from his latter career that is. The dialogues, the camerawork all have shades of an RGV influence. You feel sorry for Nana Patekar, he gives it his best but there is nothing anyone can do to save this Ab Tak whatever. 

Published in The Navhind Times, Goa on 1st March 2015

www.twitter.com/sachinchatte

Film Review - Dusari Goshta

Apolitical Blues

Film: Dusari Goshta (Marathi with English subtitles)

Cast: Vikram Gokhale, Sandeep Mehta,Neha Pendse
Directed by: Chandrakant Kulkarni
Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: * * 

Biopics are very uncommon in India and films based on people who are still living are even rare. And if the person happens to be a well known politician, that something virtually unheard of. 

What happened to Gulzar’s Aandhi when the authorities played safe because they thought t the lead character had some semblance to Indira Gandhi, is well know. We have come a long way since but not far enough to real life people by their names. So, for example in this film, Bofors is called Tofors, Indira is Indumati, Chandrashekhar is Rajshekar Pawar is Parab, Kasab is Nawab, Sonia is Sania and she even speaks with a unusual accent.  It is almost as if the film makers are giving you clues (depending how politically savvy you are) to connect the dots.

I walked into Dusari Goshta not knowing it is based on the life of Sushil Kumar Shinde, the well known politician from Maharashtra and the current Minister of Home Affairs. Growing up in a small town in Solapur the early part of his life is interesting. Coming from the lower caste, he faced a lot of social issues but went on to become a self made man, first as a bailiff in a court, then as a police officer. At that stage he took a plunge in politics under the wings of Parab (Anand Ingle) who was his mentor with whom he split later.

Barring him working his way to the top, the screenplay is not engaging enough at times. Narrated in flashback during the present time, Shinde (played by Vikram Gokhale) reminisces about his past, right from his childhood. As for the politics of it, it is significance to those who have academic interest in such matters but then again, there is nothing that is not already in the public domain.

As a viewer, you start losing interest in the second half because of the uneven pace, as if the writers and the director were unsure of what to leave out and what tempo to maintain.  

Unlike other Marathi films lately, this is not a compelling watch, it has some merits but very few.

Published in The Navhind Times on 4th May 2014

www.twitter.com/sachinchatte