Films meri Jaan

For many, many years I used to watch least 1 movie a month, & that too on the large screen, in theaters! There have been many weeks when I have seen 2 & rarely even 3 films in a week!!! Fault was not mine. There were so many new releases and themes that one had to go & see. Before you de-bunk me, remember I stayed only in Hindi & English films; & shunned all regional genres, including Marathi my mother tongue. The movie bug has caught me deep & like an addict, a weekly fix was a must!!

Till Covid forced us to be at home, I had stayed away from all OTT platforms. My friends went on telling me the rich diversity & the talent showcased there. But I was afraid, if I started on Netflix and Prime, I would be continuously binge watching, just would not be able to stop. The fear came to roost in the Lockdown and compulsory home-basing & I was soon watching OTT 6/7 hours a day

Fortunately that is past now & I am now down to a “decent” 2/3 hours OTT watching per day> This also, by my wife’s reckoning, is 2 hours too much!!! ज़िन्दगी है, भूल कर ही राह मिलती है I

Last week & today, I watched a series on Prime viz Bambai meri Jaan & a movie on Netflix The Outfit, each of which want to tell you about. Both are violence based stories but with a huge difference. Bambai Meri Jaan is a Prime serial with 10 episodes Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar; while The Outfit is a 1hr 45 mins tight Hollywood crime story. Let me tell you the खासियत

Bambai meri Jaan is a period drama, telling the story of Bombay’s gangsters like Haji, Pathan, Anna of Dharavi fame & the rise of Dara Kadri ( D Company). Thinly veiled Haji Mastaan, Karim Lala, Anna Rajan Mudliar & Dawood Ibrahim. Kay Kay Menon plays a righteous cop from Ratnagiri, very value based & idealistic who wants to see all criminals behind bars. His zeal & un-corrupt policing lands him in many challenges & confrontations but also gets him into the eye of the Home Ministry, which is fed up with the nexus between crime & the local police. A Special Squad is formed & Ismail Kadri ( K K Menon) heads it. KK is shown as a loving father & family man wanting the best he can do for his children. But the meagre earnings & challenges facing a common cop come in the way, Haji & other gangsters also ensure he is trapped & suspended. Good men are not always rewarded in life or in films.

Despite multiple challenges KK tries to stay on the path of righteousness. Circumstances force him to compromise and he ends up working for the gangsters. But the real story begins there and traces the rise of his son Dara Ismail Kadri. Beginning with small thefts petty swindles, Dara becomes a गुंडा/goon to reckon with on the streets. Alarmed with Dara’s rapid strides on the road to criminality, his own father KK tries to get him arrested. But the police see an opportunity to create a challenger for Haji & his triumvirate. The series chronicles the progressive decline of morals for Dara & his emerging as the बेताज बादशाह of the Mumbai underworld.

Interleaved with events & episodes we have heard or read about (eg shooting of a prime witness inside the court, smuggling gold through taxi tyre/tubes, transporting gold by human “mules” through their stomachs and then recovering it from stools, the rise of the sister as a Don) Dara’s innovative thinking & his sheer courage is well etched through these & many events. Parallelly his family life & his unrequited love angle are shown beautifully.

For a Mumbaikar, this period drama beginning from 1946 to the late 80s is captured beautifully & raises many old memories. Being a Gangster story, it is replete with violence but does not tune off the viewer : it actually looks justified & in place. The character etched by Kay Kay Menon will haunt you for long time. His moral stance when there is lawlessness & corruption all around gets well contrasted by the simple Dara’s sharp decline into violence & corruption as his dreams and aspirations take over. Something for all of us to learn from.

All in all, a great series well produced and superbly presented. A KK Show all the way.

The 2nd story which impressed me for very very different reasons is The Outfit on Netflix. Understated, subtle & still a tour de force in terms of the theme & the acting. Again a gangster movie set in Chicago, it tells the story of a cutter who runs a bespoke tailoring firm. The whole action is his shop: tight like a play, set on a small stage. Just 5/6 main characters who present to us a story with twists & turns by the dozen. Nothing is what it seems and the story is directed by Graham Moore who is an awarded director. Tight script set in a limited space. but full of surprises galore. Though there are just 2 shootouts where blood is shown on screen, the underlying violence which is going on in the city has a strong backdrop to the action in the tailor’s shop.

A la Agatha Christie stories, no one is exactly what they are projecting & this interplay of truth and self-projection makes delightful viewing, keeping you totally on tenterhooks. The bespoke tailor has moved from Saville Row & his “propah” British mannerism are a delightful foil to the other gangsters’ and warlords’ loud behavior. The universal theme of one-upmanship & self-projection make the story very relatable & finally believable. Though the star cast had names that I at least could not recognize, they are all great professional actors who have put together a drama which you will remember for a long, long time.

After all the hurly-burly and murders in the movie, when the tailoring shop is up in flames, and the bespoke tailor is leaving the premises, his final words will serve all of us well in our lives. His words are: ” It is not perfect. You have to make peace with that. How? Well you sit at your board. You lay out your tools. And you start again” The tools may be your shears as a tailor. Or a gun as a gangster. But the message is…you must go on.

So both Bambai meri Jaan and The Outfit are violent movies But with a positive message for life.

All the best as you start again : vikas