International UnWomen’s Day here I come!Thappad is a two and a half torturous tale of humiliation and the misdemeanor of the misogynist and patriachiacal society of a nation that runs on desi ghee. The censor board turns in its grave as the world starts slowly moving towards the first financial year of the twenty-first century.Move on Bollywood your makeshift, gimmicky, sponsored movies are as good as rat poison, that makes me wonder Hum Aapke Hain Kaun? Crazy Kiya Re! Whatever!!!Here’s my detailed review of “THAPPAD”:
THAPPAD(“The Slap”): The first thing I perceived about this painstakingly put movie is the “horror movie” like ensemble casting that is set up to make the female protagonist look bad and ghoulish. The former beauty queen Dia Mirza shows up as a bored housewife who does not take pangs with her upwordly mobile husband. Taapsee Pannu is a wonderful socialite who dances up a storm at her husband’s office party but is suddenly “slapped” by her husband but the course of events do not make her happy or sad but only alleviates her pain and indignity. The audience loses its patience and even the whistle-blowing members of the male audience start getting upset over a no song-no dance-no music pregnant pause of a movie and seeks out for food and water at a much needed loo-break. Died in the wool theatre maverick Ratna Pathak Shah and another Pune Institute scholar Tanvi Azmi whispers sweet-nothings to the “victim” and move on with their daily chores while the angelic domestic help holds it together for Taapsee Pannu who continue to amaze with a restrained performance and being the director’s actor. The ültra-educated yet socially challenged and illiterate father can only hand her a broken harmonium as she washes out into thin oblivion as the movie ends in negativity, depression and burial of a society that is steeped in disharmony and unfairness and injustice.Shot primarily in Lucknow, Benaras and New Delhi, with a minimally invasive script and minimum investment(low on makeup, lighting, the works) this movie has marched onto March 2020 with only box-office success as its target for the regressive society that’s Bharat. Manav Kaul shows up in a brief cameo but fails to make an impact. Good old Ram Kapoor shows up as the disgruntled lawyer worried over a “financial settlement”. Strangely there is no married bachelor friend around to keep “she” alive.
ME TOO!Yawn!Change the game!TWhile I reach out for a cardiac monitor!To be Continued……
AninditaRoyMusings 