FILM: What The Fish
CAST: Dimple Kapadia, Vishal Sharma, Sumit Suri, Mithun Rodwittiya, Deepti Pujari, Manjot Singh and Manu Rishi
DIRECTOR: Gurmmeet Singh
So okay. Comedies are hard to sustain for more than an hour…and yes, this one does over-run its playing time by 20 minutes, although it’s just about a 100 minutes in length. And that’s a 100 conveying sustained satirical strength. The quality of the humour and the context of the characters’ comic tangles is, on the ha-ha-ho-ho whole, adroitly maintained, sustained and executed.
So here goes. A cantankerous old woman in Delhi, Sudha Mishra (Dimple Kapadia, delightfully over-the-top) leaves her home and its two specific properties namely the pet fish and the money-plant, in the care of her couldn’t-care-less niece, who promptly hands over the responsibility to her ever accommodating boyfriend.
The rest of this wackily wound-up comedy records the relay race styled exchange of the old woman’s home’s care from one set of noisy eccentric characters to another.
Besides its immensely warm underbelly, what captures your attention is the originality of the material. Here is a comedy that seeks no reference points from foreign sources, does not lean towards Hollywood for its humour quotient.
No, this is not a take on Chris Columbus’ Home Alone.
Set in Delhi, though not compulsively taken up with taking us on a tour of the capital, the narrative gets its energy from the robust telling of a reasonably sturdy comic situation. The wit is never derivative but constantly probing suburban eccentricities.
The character of the Haryanvi lout Hooda (Mithun Rodwittiya), who plays patron-lover to a Mary Kom lookalike boxer from Manipur, would be a laughing stock were he not so desperately pathetic.
The performances add to the narrative’s flavourful texture.
The actors, young and old, are cleverly cast. While Dimple’s cranky act is expectedly winsome (when has this actress not been a winner?), Manu Rishi as the neighbourhood lech who seduces his young friend’s naive fiancee (Deepti Pujari) when she is home alone puts in the other outstanding performance.
Manu is an actor who knows his character’s sleazy underbelly and nails it unabashedly.
There are other interesting characters, like the young vain Haryanvi boxer Rajpal(Vishal Sharma) who likes to crossdress in the night and performs a kathak mujra in the isolation of Dimple’s mauled and misused abode.
And Manjot Singh as a pet shop owner, whose sales of a particular variety of pet fish escalate, is also in-sync with the satire.
Come to think of it, the actors are all delightful, careening from the comic to the crazy without losing a beat or succumbing to the pressures of the heated humour.
I found portions of the comedy to be undernourished and over baked. The climactic scream ended up as a shuddering whimper. But that didn’t take away from the swing and the sting of the frenetic chuckle-worthy happenings.
Quirky, capricious and cute, What The Fish is a warm little concoction with pockets of endearing eccentricity and feyness. The midriff of the narrative sags. But there are ample measures of giggle-inducing characters hiding their own ridiculousness in the garb of urbane casualness.
Gurmmeet Singh keeps the proceedings frothy and even paced.
You may not come away with much of a message to take home. But by jove, you will never ever leave your home in the care of any relative after this. (IANS)
FILM: Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2
Voiceovers by: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Kristen Schaal, Terry Crews, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt
DIRECTOR: Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn
With its appealing spread of animated “foodimals”, animals made entirely of food, in an array of contrasting colours, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 is an entertaining tale of recognition, adventure and commitment that would appeal to kids.
The film takes off from where its first edition, released in 2009, left. Nevertheless, it is not a must to view the earlier edition, since the trail of events are explained and the film is clear on its own.
The narration trails an inspired and ambitious inventor, Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who is in awe of a celebrated scientist, Chester V (Will Forte).
Flint is keen to join Chester V’s company Live Corp as a ‘Think-o-nought’ scientist. But the scheming scientist has other ideas. He plans to steal Flint’s previous invention, a machine that converts water into food, which was thought to be destroyed but is now actually creating havoc in the ecosystem by churning out, “living food” creatures.
Chester V does this by poisoning Flint’s mind about his father (James Caan) and friends – the brave meteorologist sort-of girlfriend Sam Sparkwood (Anna Faris); the gruff, by-the-book town cop (Terry Crews); and the comical Steve (Neil Patrick Harris), the talking monkey.
He tells Flint: “Your friends are distracting you from the mission. Be focused to be a hero.” And Flint ponders.
Directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn’s “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” delivers a crazy adventure with some interesting “foodimals” or food monsters like Tacodile, a crocodile resembling creature made from tacos, Watermelophants, Shrimpanzees, Apple-pie-thon, Flamangoes, Cheese Spiders, Spring Onions, Cucumbers and other interesting dessert creatures.
These animations are unique and extraordinarily dramatic, making it a visual delight. Unfortunately, the 3D effects really do not elevate the viewing experience.
The aptly matched voices rendered by the cast add a bounce to the characters. The speech is cleverly written. Pun-filled dialogues like, “My word is a hologram”, and “There is a leek (leak) in the boat” cheekily caters to kids.
Though the film is based on an interesting concept of “foodimals”, the storyline with its twist and turns is devoid of intelligence and emotion. The scheme of events is very familiar and there is hardly any incident that can be quoted as the most original.
The narration meanders from a clever sophisticatedly created sci-fi setting to a frivolously inconsequential “Jurassic Park” caricature which further converges into an exciting “Avatar” style nature versus machines battle.
Overall, with a generic villain and robot henchmen and world domination goals, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” is a children-centric film that lacks the punch. (IANS)