Madras Cafe Stop looking at your phone. Better switch it off. Because Shoojit Sircar has ensured you don’t move or get distracted through the entire duration of this highly gripping politico-civil war drama – Madras Cafe. Everyone is aware of the LTTE’s rise and fall in those 27 years of gruelling civil war where it waged a violent secessionist and nationalist campaign to create an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka for the Tamil people. They were the experts in guerrilla warfare and the first outfit to explore suicide bombing and ethnic cleansing. The period witnessed the brutal killings of thousands of civilians, defence forces but also got the political leadership of two countries and economic power centres of the world to gain control of this beautiful island nation. A term ‘Economic Hitmen’ used in the movie underlined the economic perspective to this entire civil war. The movie has captured the complete sequence of events vividly and in all its details. The beauty lies in the intense research which Sircar and team has done to get all the micro-details bang on. I can’t think of any other movie which has shown facts as facts and not shied away from it. Munich does come close though. Some key highlights of the film include slick editing, superb art direction (the colours were brilliant), locations and interactions between the actors were top class. No time wasted in getting to the point, building the suspense gradually but effectively. The movie also brought to light the crazy and tough world of intelligence through RAW. The construction and decoding of terror intercepts was well showcased. The speed and the accuracy of their operation is simply amazing. So was the depiction of the presence of moles in the system who turn out to be traitors in exchange for millions of dollars. Coming to the actors, John Abraham dominates and kills it. No more display of those monstrous biceps/triceps and buttock. A sincere defence personnel who has been sent on a mission and is single-mindedly focussed to succeed at that. He was really excited and was looking forward to this movie in his earlier interviews. You will see the reason why. Nargis Fakhri is passable, nothing great. But our legendary quiz master Siddhartha Basu is the real find as the secret agent head. Our ad legends Piyush and Aggy have brief cameos. The plot is really deep, intense, factual...All in all a must watch film...
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:26:47 +0000