Counting Down to 90 - Week 1544 - One Actor Army

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

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Man and woman are married. Man thinks the world of his wife. Wife goes to London for a conference and is killed by terrorists in a hostage situation. Man works as a defense analyst with the CIA and identifies all four of them and decides to go after them. Man figures out elaborate ways to get to them, even though he is unable to kill them upfront. Man is helped/obstructed by different people along the way, including one character who is absolutely of no relevance. Time and space have no meaning and in a jiffy, man is able to get from Istanbul to Madrid and back, or find his way to other parts of the world.

Man and woman are recently married and come home to a small slum in the Bandra/Khar area. They do not consummate the marriage. Woman is foul-mouthed and frustrated trying to figure her life out. Man has some job in a printing press…the woman goes to Churchgate in a local train on her own and finds a job in a travel agency, mopping floors. Woman walks most of the times back and forth from home to work, and sometimes randomly finds herself in Walkeshwar or at Nariman Point or in other forest-like areas. She always travels ticket-less in trains. Man gets drunk most days. Everyone vomits all the time. Woman gets paler and paler and then finds a solution to bringing some color back into herself and her life and finally a version of her true self emerges. 

Both these are plots of two movies I watched yesterday. The first is The Amateur with Rami Malek in the lead role and the second is Sister Midnight with Radhika Apte in the lead. Both these movies have one common thread…the leads are pretty much in every scene and even though the stories and the plots are scatterbrained, they manage to make the threads work with their performances, which in turn makes the films worth watching.

Rami Malek is an intense actor. His mournful eyes and tragic persona pervade the film initially, but with each encounter with his wife’s killers, his confidence and body language keep changing. Despite the plot holes and some random characters who pop in and out, The Amateur is engaging and keeps you glued to the screen. 

Radhika Apte does the same with Sister Midnight, which is a crazy film by Kapil Kandhari. Though set in Mumbai’s gritty underbelly, it is a British production, with background Western songs and has been made to pander to a Western audience that feeds on poor/garbage/vomit porn…the number of times she lies down or falls into garbage is equal to the number of times everyone vomits. But the movie is so crazy and so off-the-rails including the zombie goats and the humor so unusual for a Hindi film that it is a fun-watch. 

Sometimes, it just needs that one actor/actress to make it worth your while. Both movies have plot holes, and many parts make no sense, but they don’t always have to. More importantly, both are under 2-hour movies…more and more it’s becoming difficult to sit through longer movies. Interesting films like these are also the perfect antidote to meandering shows with 8-10 episodes, most of which could have been easily condensed into under 2-hour films.