Minions follows a simple plot where Kevin accompanied by Bob and Stuart decide to venture out of the icy sanctuary of their tribe and promise to return with their boss. Their journey takes them to the shores of New York in 1968 and on the stage of Villain Con at Orlando. Next they are entangled in the ambitious ploy of Scarlet Overkill who has her eyes set on the crown of England. Overcoming all obstacles, the minions are finally successful in their mission to find their despicable boss and thereby ending the movie with the promise of yet another sequel.

What is ingenius about Minions is that while the central story is cascading forward, something very true and real about human lives and mind is communicated. For instance, tracing the history of the minions’ search for their boss, the film succinctly showcases the evolution of human quest for power and progress. Setting the Villain Con against the incumbent Nixon rein in America subverts not only the Comic Con tradition but also overturns the good-evil balance. This is very pertinent since the American superheroes were created to reinstate the faith in the triumph of the good and the righteous. 

The several revolutions, freedom movements and protests during the 60s are subtly captured through the street protestors and banners. Using The Doors music as background score is yet another subtle but powerful statement. At this time around, America was politically and ideologically leaning towards “the other side”. As the remainder of the plot shifts to England, one is returned to the dynamics and politics of monarchial power. 1968 was the year of Nixon’s re-election and with the Vietnam War, oil crisis and space warfare, America was ready than ever to title the power of global politics in its favor. The threat to the English crown therefore strikes as realistic. 

What makes the success of Minions as magical is it constant capacity to make you smile. In the middle of a dangerous chase when Kevin, Bob and Stuart are escaping from Scarlet’s dungeon, Bob finds the time to pet the rabbit in the dreary drainage pipes. While oblivious to their future master, they practice the cheerleading dance with faith and fervor, replete with  the customary poms poms. Having broken the brand new gifted guitar, Stuart cuddles the ridiculous snow globe. Even while exiting the crown drama, Bob decides to donate his teddy bear’s golden crown to the power-hungry Scarlet Overkill. There are moments like these and many more that introduce the audience to the unpredictable and the amusing. The characters are therefore established as unique and refreshing. 

With all its adorable attributes there is one drawback- the impact and effectiveness of the 3D technology. If one is aware of the viewing experience of the audience while making the movie, then the direction and production design should collaborate to ensure that scenes and visuals pertain to it. Watched in 2D, Minions would accord no different an entertaining package and that is a gross waste of resources and the viewers’ hopes. 

Their looks and language may be alien but their emotions and actions are incredibly real representations of human life. To smile and to laugh, to reflect and to realize…Minions is a must watch.

Director Avinash Arun has created a formidable and faithful film; Killa ventures to tell its story truthfully, and promises to render its craft respectfully. Selected for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, this Crystal Bear winner deftly blends realism with surrealistic strokes. Dealing with his father’s recent demise and his mother’s transfer to a small town, this coming-of-age story of an 11 year old boy Chinmay (Archit Deodhar) shows a keen understanding of human nature and an authentic portrayal of the Konkan setting.

Killa showcases once again that the heart of any film lies in its script. It is the word on the page that gives flight to the cinematic vision. The story has the perfect arc of a film script with its defined moments of conflict, climax and resolution. Chinmay goes through the trajectory of anxiety, hope, disillusionment and realization. However, Arun uses this primal story to tell another story- of the rustic lives on the Konkan coast. The screenplay therefore focuses on capturing realistic glimpses of daily life. For instance, writing postcards, using the landline at the neighbour’s house, the corrupt bureaucracy at the local government office and the euphoria of possessing a bicycle are physical and psychological experiences true to its space and characters. 

The dialogues too are non-intrusive and have a very uncontrived, spontaneous quality about them. Even an emotionally charged moment between the mother and son atop the lighthouse when they are reminiscing about the father; the dialogues are kept to a matter-of- fact obvious ground. At the same time, there is simple but powerful symbolism created when Chinmay recites the Marathi poem about a sailor’s struggle at sea; the camera focuses on the mother’s face and the parallel communicates the essence of her being. 

The cinematography and editing forms the two cornerstones of this aesthetically evolved cinematic narrative. The film is introduced to the audience through the camera zooming in i.e. literally entering into the leafy path headed towards the sea. It is symbolic of entering the tale of Chinmay and therefore, when the story comes to an end, the camera gradually pulls out of different frames and out of every character’s life. It is films like these that will make the audience attuned to film vocabulary. By giving them anything less, we do them gross injustice. This camera movement is extremely reminiscent of Satyajit Ray’s Charulata and perhaps not surprising of an FTII alumnus.

The camera takes the lead in highlighting the significant shift in the character of Chinmay from boyhood into adulthood. For instance, the scene where Chinmay walks past the beach, the camera pans from his playful classmates to the fishermen preparing for their fishing expedition and this succinctly captures Chinmay’s maturity and growth. He chooses to take the ride with the fisherman, sail far into the sea rather than stay safe on the shore. Instead of witnessing his friends catch crabs from under the rocks, Chinmay now catches fish from the sea and has the first bite of life’s endeavor. Towards the end, when Chinmay takes the plunge into the bath to swim with his friends, the treatment once again renders it extremely symbolic. 

The film is filled with such metaphors and turn into motifs through its recurrent references. The fort literally the killa, is the most powerful of it all. It represents the labyrinth of experiences, memories and relationships that Chinmay has and marks a clear emotional shift in his life. It acts as a metaphorical tunnel of revelation for him. The subtlety with which these metaphors have been used enhances its beauty. The simple instance of Chinmay protecting the dog from his mischievous friend Bandya (Parth Bhalerao) effectively communicates the detailing of each character that has gone into making them stand out as unique. Similarly, the tilak and Superman/Spiderman t-shirts that Yuvraj (Gaurish Gawade) wears or the black cloth bag that Bandya uses as a makeshift schoolbag are consciously chosen to represent the class differences and its dynamics between young school boys. 

Sound too has been employed strategically to elicit emotional connect from the audience. For instance, the sound of the motor in the fisherman’s boat, which is juxtaposed with the complete silence and stillness in the middle of the sea works wonderfully in portraying Chinmay’s internal introspection. His return to his mother that night creates a universally identifiable moment of solace and security of the home. These technical and directorial choices have been well supported by the sincere and powerful acting essayed by the actors specially the young school boys. Even the gait and small gestures of the actors have been minutely worked upon.  

Just as the intentional designing of a fort done to fulfill strategic functions, Killa has a well-scripted layout to create competent cinema.

Broken Norms

He directed blockbuster entertainers like Parinda (1989) and 1942: A Love Story (1993). He experimented with ideas as the writer of Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) and Munnabhai MBBS (2003). With Broken Horses, Vidhu Vinod Chopra has broken norms along with the boundaries of language, location and actors. Unfortunately, while within the mainstream, his fresh perspectives were well received; breaking norms on Hollywood turf will not break box office records or even knock at the critics’ doors. 

Shot against the Western locale of Mexico, Chopra’s Broken Horses is a story about two brothers Buddy Heckum (Chris Marquette) and Jacob Heckum (Anton Yelchin) tracing their lives after the death of their father. While the elder brother Buddy dons the role of responsibility by sacrificing his own education and adopting the job of Julius Hench’s henchman; the younger brother Jacob pursues the violin. The two worlds of the brothers clash and crash with Jacob’s return to their Mexican hometown and the plot spirals into some nasty twists and turns.

Yes, the plot is shared with the Jackie Shroff- Anil Kapoor starrer Parinda. However, the English version does not share the impact of its Hindi predecessor.

To the regular Bollywood audience, Chopra’s Broken Horses surely serves some deviations from the norm thereby making the narrative unique and different. The slow pan camera movements and smooth editing pattern creates a slow, stagnated pace throughout the film. This helps to establish the truncated state of Mexico where progress and prosperity have not mitigated the harshness of the landscape and the cruelty of the gangsters. The heavy dose of interior setting of the ranch house, the dilapidated theater and Hotel Esparano with dim lighting and wooden furnish creates a dark, claustrophobic mood of entrapment that the central characters find themselves in. It forces the audience to focus and think about the interior, psychological reality of the characters. The long shots and wide angle shots captures the deserted and menacing Mexican locale.

So why don’t these broken norms not beckon the audience? Slow pace and dark atmospheres characteristic of renowned directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese create dramatic effect for they are accompanied by slow but subtle camera movements, phenomenal acting and a natural pace of dialogue delivery. Chopra makes his frame too static for the scene to come alive and create an emotional ripple in the minds of the audience. The dialogues seem too contrite and forced because most of the lines are symbolic. Dialogues like “He is a bad man”, “I will go bananas”, “Yeah I understand”, “There is a rat in his old theatre” are also too simplistic; and therefore low on dramatic impact. Also, Mr. Hench who is supposed to be the villain and exude terror and fear fails to do so because the director has constantly given him dialogues to make him sound like a vicious villain. Mr. Hench’s character is reminiscent of Marlon Brando in Coppola’s The Godfather but lacks scenes of silence where the character is built through mere screen presence. Also, given the fact that Jacob is constructed as a gentle and sensitive musician, music has been underutilized to narrate the story and mood independently and powerfully.

In addition, the medium of the metaphors is also strongly and consistently applied. The title itself is a reference to the domestication of a horse and is supposed to represent the taming of Buddy at the hands of Mr. Hench. However, what ruins a metaphor, especially for an intelligent audience is when the meaning of the metaphor is spelt out through explicit dialogues. The model of the ranch on the lake that becomes the setting of the climax of the film is too predictable. The opening scene with the shooting range, guns and murder aimed to establish the setting, theme and plot too proves ineffective because the plot is not intriguing enough to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Even the “pool” story of their childhood and the wedding speech seems rather pale and inauthentic. The English script therefore seems lacking in imagination, depth and subtlety. This weak scripting fails to hold the extravagant ambition of the director to translate his words from the page to the screen. All the technical innovations attempted seem to shout and scream for attention and thereby come across as textbook theory gone wrong in practice. 

The moral of the story reads thus: Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Broken Horses breaks the audience’s entertainment pattern only to leave them fragmented and frustrated.