Half Full(a short film on Zee5)You really can’t say no to a film, no matter how short, when it features the mighty Naseeruddin Shah as one of the only two characters in a lighthearted meditation on life and death.Naseer arrives later, in a BMW, if you will.Or, so we are told since an actual BMW would be unaffordable to a short film where the costliest prop is a bowl of gajar ka halva. We are first introduced to Vikrant Massey , a man who has just finished writing his suicide note and is waiting for the stroke of midnight to say goodbye to his life.
This is where Naseer steps into the picture.Just one look at the wizened face filled with a wondrous wisdom that comes only to those who know which experiences of life to take forward, makes our day. Massey plays well against Naseer .Even though their interaction lasts for only 12 minutes, what the two actors succeed in conveying about the value of life is timeless. There is a quality of comforting familiarity in the way these two actors convey profound thoughts on mortality through a seemingly ordinary conversation.
And why does Massey’s unnamed character want to die? Because every he wakes up feeling useless. Not a valid reason to die, not in a country where thousands are rendered homeless and jobless.There is a lot to be read between the lines in Half Full. Naseer reminds us of how much his character wants to say without actually stating it. There is a suggestion at the end of this brief but vivid film that Massey could actually be portraying the younger version of Naseer. I don’t know if I’m willing to buy that.There can never another Naseeruddin Shah .Half Full reminds us of his unique ability to create real people in no time at all.And with little provocation.Vikrant Masey can’t do what Naseer can. Not yet anyway.
State Of Siege 26/11(Zee5, 8 Episodes): Films on global terror attacks walk that very slender line between exposition and exploitation . We never know how many films on 9/11,26/11, Nirbhaya , the Nazi holocaust or the Bhiwandi riots we are in for. And frankly, we don’t really hold our breath for these recreations of historic catastrophes.
I’ve seen three previous films on the 9/11/2008 terror attack on Mumbai .Ram Gopal Varma’s The Attacks Of 26/11 in 2013 was authentic but showed the director’s post-Urmila Matondkar obsession with his new muse Nana Patekar. Mumbai Hotel last year was a fine albeit fictional replay of the actual attack. But the sight of Dev Patel in a Sikh turban took the shine away from the film’s sincerity. And then there was a smaller international film called One Less God directed by Lliam Worthington which ended up showing the 26/11 siege’s end with a celebration of Holi on the streets of Mumbai.
Holi in November????
The new well-researched though a tad selfconsciously designed web series on 26/11 for Zee5 keeps us watching through the episodes through a pacy and well-executed plot plan . The 8 episodes move at a brisk no-nonsense pace leaving us with a mildly compelling view of what felt like to be at one of the places attacked by intruders from across the border on that fateful night in November.
The research based on Sandeep Unnithan’s book Black Tornado The Three Sieges of Mumbai 26/11is impressively nervewracking in telling us just how ruthless the attackers were in their game-plan of bloodied mayhem ,The counter-terrorism heroes are justifiably larger than life. The series shows Colonel Kunal Sahota (Arjan Bajwa) and Major Nikhil Manikrishnan (Arjun Bijlani) making split-second decision unheedful of whether protocol is strictly being followed or not.
The vulnerability of the police force and the army fighting the sophisticated weapons of the terrorist with obsolete artillery is also brought out in the course of what turns out to be a gripping if somewhat conventional anti-terror thriller. The two Arjuns in the lead , Bajwa and Bijlani strike suitably heroic postures.Mukul Dev with a beard as false as his accent has done much better in negative roles in the past.
The performances specially of the actors playing terrorists is suitably over-the-top.
To match the characters’ ambitions, I suppose.Oh, and the media, represented by a Arnab Goswami –styled rabble-rouser (played by Sid Makkar) is shown to be selfserving sensation-mongers giving out confidential information on television that aided the terror outfits in their mayhem plan.Some would say making a series about a traumatic incident in history is also a fairly selfserving exercise.
