The Lunchbox: Ritesh Batra’s much appreciated film which was almost selected for country’s entry for Academy Awards – Foreign Language was more about relationships and abstract connection between rather unrelated dots. Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur – rather unusual lead pair – was dubbed as the most romantic couple on screen in a couple of year or so. on the other hand, in a quintessential role, Nawazuddin held his guns against the last king of his kind – Irrfan Khan.
Lucia: Nolan is definitely not the only man who can sell dreams so convincingly. Crowd funding, low budget and word of mouth, Kannada film Lucia appeared to have checked all the boxes correctly. Pawan Kumar moved from his acclaimed debut Lifeu Ishtene to a new model of funding and worked it out well. However, the USP was not crowd funding. It could have been made anyways and still would have got the acclaim for being an interesting psychological thriller. Critics rated it the best film concept wise in rather a long duration.
Qissa: An Indo-German collaboration, Anup Singh’s Irrfan Khan and Tillotama Shome starrer Qissa can boast of accolades it has got across the globe. Irrfan plays patriarch of a sikh family with four daughter. In the turbulent times of ’47 partition he raises his fourth daughter as a boy. The idea and the performance backed with capable technicians makes Qissa more than just an interesting watch.
Tasher Desh: More than often Q will appear in this section. His adaptation of Tagore’s work by the same name has broken the conventions, even the ones set by Q himself. The selling point of the film is Q’s interpretation of Tagore’s work and its presentation. If at times performances don’t matter much, this is one such occasion. However, Q has been lucky to get a good team both behind and in front of camera.
B.A. Pass: Noir rarely work in India. Low budget noir die premature death. Ajay Bahl however managed to get the business right. Word of mouth and saucy promotions ensured enough footage to get the audience. Shilpa Shukla was the star of the film from the moment her name came across. She justified it with her performance. Though there were moments which seemed to be overdone, the movie successfully passed the message across the board. Well, a good precedent.
