TS Eliot was right. April is indeed the cruellest month. The OTT platform was remarkably dry in April, devoid of anything going that extra mile for. Apart from one outstanding adaptation of The Godfather (yes, one more!) and perhaps two series one on Amazon Prime and the other on Netflix which had us somewhat perked up, the rest was all blah and ugh, with the gore fest Abhay 3 hitting rockbottom.
And now for the best of the month:
Bheeshma Parvam (Disney+Hotstar)
This is probably the best adaptation of The Godfather in recent years. Unlike that other, overrated Godfather adaptation in Malayalam Malik which contorts the original into unrecognizable shapes, Amal Neerad in this film doesn’t let us forget that this is his take on Francis Coppola’s The Godfather. And what a take it is! Sweeping in its melodrama, arching in its velocity and untameable in its epic ambitions Bheema Parvam hurls us into the world of Michael (no coincidence this Michael name-calling) Anjootty, kicking dragging and screaming.
The narrative is custom-built to accommodate all the characters from The Godfather into the Malayali household. And it’s all done with a chaotic perspective on the moral and ethical dynamics of extra-constitutional violence. Even if one is familiar with the original material this ravishing remake takes you by surprise with its distending temperament and a choleric enormity whereby the violence comes in revealing welters rather than as rule.
Like The Godfather, Bheeshma Parvan opens at a family function in the Anjootty household where the Patriarch is patiently listening to an aggrieved woman’s plea for justice. It immediately recalls the prelude of the original without loitering on the fringes. Many of the crisscrossing relationships are hard to pin down. The worst disservice that this crackling adaptation does to itself is to spin explanatory dialogues where characters ‘casually’ try to explain who they are vis-Ã -vis the others in the over-populated plot.
This masterly Malayali mafia movie is self-explanatory. Its muted violence is stifling. It creates a world so tightly wound around its own heritage of successive violence that the family unit threatens to fall apart. The two villains in the Anjootti family out to destroy Michael’s patriarchal ascendancy, are his brother-in-law and his nephew played with vicious guilt by Harish Uthaman and Shine Tom Chako. They gang up with a gangster from Mumbai (Sudev Nair) to finish Michael by slaying one of his two right-hand supports, Ami (Srinath Bhasi) who is Michael's dead brother’s wife’s son from her second marriage approved of my Michael.
Srinath is the soul of the saga, hotheaded sentimental and romantic. His song and dance is so beautifully choreographed I forgave its interpolatory nature. Ami’s elder brother played by Soubin Sahir eventually gets a grip on the hurtling plot bringing it to a screeching protesting halt at a point where a blood-dimmed tide is loosed and the centre cannot hold any longer(to borrow Yeats’ vision of anarchy).
The last half-hour where Mammootty ceases to be the frail ageing Michael and takes on adversaries man-to-man is far too faithful a definition of textbook heroism to be eligible as an organic part of a film that tells us violence begets violence, but dammit, is nonetheless unavoidable under certain conditions. Even with its Mammootty-glorifying climax Bheeshma Parvan has a terrific momentum propelled by characters who are at once Mario Puzo and Kerala. There is a looming nativity in this homage to Sicilian codes of honour. Not all of it is equally compelling. But even the compromised portions somehow become indicative of the human flaws that finally destroy the power structure of an extended family where violence is the key.
Guilty Minds (Amazon Prime Video)
Okay this one is India’s own Boston Legal, spiced up, tadka maar ke. Guilty Minds sets out to score points for being able to hijack our attention for ten episodes, each has a different story to tell. Not all of it is equally engrossing. But the storytelling even when faltering and fumbling to cram in too many social issues never ceases to be compelling. Guilty Minds works because it doesn’t try to penetrate too far into the minds of the perpetrators. It is all done on the surface level, but with immense care and concentration, so that an impression of focused narration and uninterrupted tension is created even when the plot meanders into the characters’ personal lives which we are not really interested in.
Gullak Season 3 (SonyLIV)
Okay, so not every season 3 is Abhay. Once in a blue moon a series is actually able to sustain itself to its third season without losing steam, and esteem. Gullak Season 3 was marvellously written (by Durgesh Singh). The exchanges in the Mishra family were sharp (barb re barb!). But it wasn’t as if everyone was throwing rhetorics around like bricks at a passing procession. The dialogue-baazi seemed so apt ; the family looked so real, thanks to the immersive performances by that wonderful couple Jameel Khan and Geetanjali Kulkarni. The one to watch is Vaibhav Raj Gupta as the elder son. That’s a major talent.
Mai (Netflix)
Vaibhav Raj Gupta plays a powerful criminal’s henchman’s sidekick. Though way down in the evil hierarchy his relationship with his gay companion-in-crime (played by another talented actor Anant Vidhaat Sharma) was an interesting subplot. I would like to see a series about them. Mai, sadly, is not that series. With its stretched-out story of a mother’s revenge on her daughter’s assassins (Sridevi and Raveena Tandon got there first in Mom and Matr) Mai just ended up being a messy melodrama about an angry mother. If it wasn’t for Sakshi Tanwar’s ‘Mum honge kamyaab’ performance, Mai wouldn’t be worth mentioning. Here is my advice to Netflix: cut out all the extra meat from the plot. Whittle it down to 5 episodes. Let the basic plot remain. And see where it goes.
Dasvi (Netflix)
Abhishek Bachchan’s earnest turn in a career-defining performance, plays Gangaram Choudhary, the Chief Minister who goes to jail and educates himself. Though Abhishek is delightful as a corrupt yet redeemable politician who uses jail time to educate himself, the two women protagonists Yami Gautam and Nimrat Kaur in the preponderant plot get the lioness’ share of the meat. Nimrat is in terrific form as Bimla Devi, a mix-n-match variation of a certain female politician from Bihar who after her husband’s imprisonment takes over the chief ministerial reigns. Dasvi is a well-intended tale of absolute power corrupting absolutely and the ultimate redemption.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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