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Shiv
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: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA |
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On: 4/10/2006 10:39:06 PM |
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War Zone Café
- 8/28/2013 6:00:47 AM
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Attached to 'Madras Cafe' are the trailers of 'Zanjeer', 'Boss', and 'Phata Poster Nikla Hero'. Not to judge the films by their trailers, but it's uncanny how similar the three look and feel in their common styles borrowed (now appropriated) from commercial South-Indian potboilers: violent B-movies laced with in-your face humor and a sprinkling of romance. Not to mention the lot we've suffered so far: 'Himmatwala', 'Policegiri', 'Zila Ghaziabad', and their kin. 'Madras Cafe' bravely bucks the trend. A politically astute (sensitive?) mainstream film spanning the years from 1987-1991, with established actors, no songs, and uncompromised detailing; it is the fictionalized account of events leading up to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
In a predictable trend, if a film's opening titles are a classic text-on black you may assume with near certainty that it is going to be a sensible film. Not that experimenting with opening credits doesn't often make for sensible cinema, but the simplicity of the concept usually foretells complexity of the story to follow.
And Madras Cafe is a complicated film. Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya's screenplay form is impressively inspired from Hollywood political thrillers. Syriana and Green Zone come to mind, but there are fewer tracks to follow here. A barrage of information upfront outlines the tempestuous politics of Lanka, and the evolution of the Tamil separatists incarnating as the Tamil Tigers.
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