The Judge- what a film!

The Judge- What a film!

This is that time of the year in Delhi when work, social  and personal commitments are on an upswing and one is constantly short of time. And ironically this is also the time when really interesting things are  happening  around town! I had meant to see The Judge soon after it released here but failed due to some of the reasons cited above.  But determined to catch it, I finally made it to a distant theatre in what is probably its last few showings in the city. And am I glad that I managed it!

It has been a while since one has seen a film which caters to the emotions and intellect so comprehensively. The Judge does that in a riveting way addressing a not so commonly treated subject of a contemporary father- son relationship in an authentic manner.

The film is about a difficult relationship between a father, Joseph Palmer who happens to be a judge for the past 42 years in Indiana and his middle son, Hank Palmer, a hot shot lawyer in NY who come together on the passing away of Mary Palmer, wife and mother respectively of the protagonists. Their interactions, which swing between barely warm and acrimonious,  form the fulcrum of the narrative.

The family reunion at the Palmer residence at the bereavement goes through the expected emotions. But what is striking is the father's different attitudes towards his three sons. There is an obvious paternalistic air when Joseph deals with his oldest and youngest sons, Glen and Dale.  On the other hand,  his deliberate  ignoring of his middle son, Hank strikes as being odd against this background. The fact that both Glen and Dale are beaten by life in their own different ways seems to generate the protective air of the father and his obvious animosity towards Hank  stems from a childhood incident that seriously impacted the family. Joseph Palmer has since then been the accusing and vindictive father to Hank, even dragging up Hank's failed marriage when he wants to chastise him.

Such constant snubbing by the father seems to have been a familiar emotion felt by Hank in his growing up years. The story unravels to reveal how the father  has never forgiven Hank for inadvertently ruining the bright baseball career prospects of his brother by crashing the car he was driving as a drunk 17 year-old  and injuring his brother's hand permanently in the accident. Given this background, Hank is impatient to leave the  house after the funeral.

But just as Hank is quickly making his exit from the family home, comes the shock of his father being accused of having mowed down a recently released convict  under the wheels of his car when he had gone out in the evening to buy groceries. Hank has to change his plans and help the lawyer whom his father chooses as his  defence lawyer.  The initial legal proceedings take a turn for the worse when the inept lawyer hired by Joseph Palmer ruins the case and they are now set for a murder trial.

That is when Hank steps in with his superior skills and defends his father in the trial. While the main narrative deals with the trial, the tribulations of the fraught relationship between father and son runs a rough and smooth ride in turns. Just when Hank warns his young daughter, who comes visiting, to expect a grumpy and insensitive grandfather, Joseph surprises him by being the delighted and indulgent grandfather.

It is during this time that Hank discovers that his father is suffering from two debilitating conditions- fourth stage cancer about which he, Joseph Palmer does not want anyone to know and  dementia about which he himself does not know! Hank discovers both by accident and his attitude to his father changes. There are touching moments of how the estrangement and the power equation between father and son change inversely. The fact that it is shown without any sentimentality makes it all the more creditable.

One of the most poignant scenes in the movie is at the end when both father and son are sitting on a boat in the middle of a calm lake, chatting and fishing. The son makes a wager on who will net the bigger fish. Neither of them does but it is the father who wins at the end.

This is a film which says a lot while leaving many things unsaid. Director  David Dobkin's deft hand in understatement is praiseworthy. And of course the stars of the show, Robert Downey Jr and Robert Duvall are perfect foils for each other as each one draws the best from the other. A remarkable piece of histrionics sustained throughout the film in terms of dramatic tension.

It is also good to see many TV serial stalwarts excelling in the cameos  like Vincent D'Onofrio  and David Krumholtz. The light romantic touch with Vera Farmiga is refreshing as also the humour in the doubt about who her daughter's father is.

If you like mature and realistic storytelling go for The Judge. You will not be disappointed.

Leaning In and Sheryl Sandberg

Having chanced upon Sheryl Sandberg's book, 'Lean In- Women, Work,  and the Will to Lead 'in New York in June this year, I had found it to be an interesting read. Written in an engaging manner, the book is autobiographical and anecdotal in content. It is a well told saga of a particularly determined young woman who goes after her dreams. It is easy to identify with as it invokes dilemmas  many of us working women have faced in our lives with the perennial conflict between one's roles as a home maker and a professional. Sandberg holds a mirror for all of us who in retrospect realise that we did not 'lean in' enough when the going got tough.  For example my personal example of resigning from the Civil Services to go back to teaching in a university so that I could raise my kids is a case in point. Such choices made at  critical points in our professional trajectories have been subjects of reflection and maybe regret for many of us.

Not that Sandberg did not have to agonise over personal and professional decisions along the way.  She is disarmingly honest when she talks of her doubts and fears, of the many challenges she had to face on her way up. Like finding out that her young daughter travelling with her on a corporate jet is lice-infested or shutting her office door so that she could use a breast pump to send a feed for her infant back home.

But what is striking about her story is that she seems to have had an easy ride in terms of being offered coveted jobs without the required experience. For example her  getting hired by Google and finally Facebook where she has been the COO for the last few years seem strange, considering as she reveals, that Mark Zuckerberg thought she was 'perfect' for the job based on a social meeting and subsequent discussions. Of course a Harvard MBA and a suma cum laud  award would have helped, I am sure but what else went into making her a winner is not terribly clear!

Given this background,  July 2nd saw me with a host of FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO)  members  at the The Oberoi Hotel, to hear  Sandberg in person talking about her  book and life in general.  As I walked into the Ballroom, I saw her surrounded by a gaggle of eager attendees milling around, posing with her and getting their copies of her book signed. The publishers had thoughtfully set up a stall to sell the book at the venue and it was literally flying off the shelves!

She seemed quite comfortable with all the fuss, charming and friendly with everyone.  Clad in an expensive looking  magenta dress with a short plum coloured  shrug, she looked pretty as a picture. Lovely high heeled shoes  and a beautiful matching  watch  completed the ensemble. No wonder the cameras loved her!  I was reminded of a line in her book,  'Manly suits were no longer in fashion, and I neither hid nor emphasised femininity'. It appeared that she was to the manner born!

And then it was time for her to talk to the packed hall. The audience comprised of  women largely, like accomplished ambassadors and diplomats, business women,  corporate executives, the media and a few men. Since it was a FLO event, the office bearers were also on stage with her. The FLO President, Neeta Boochra  in her opening speech, mentioned that her niece Priti Choksi of Facebook who is one of the many examples mentioned by Sandberg in her book as having 'leaned in'  at the right time and made good in life! After which the FLO members got off the stage, the furniture on it was removed and Sandberg was given the stage to walk and talk about her book as the audience waited expectantly.

Maybe, she had been on the move with back to back meetings and commitments, maybe this was not such a priority event for her and maybe she was looking to just go through the motions of  having talked for what followed was a bit of a let down. She began talking and I realised that she was using a teleprompter. She had the remote in her hand and was pretty glib with her anecdotes but she did have a bit of a moment when the teleprompter did not keep pace and she looked pointedly towards the technical side of the hall in mid sentence! What is more, most of what she said that day was straight out of her book. So for many of us who had read it earlier, there was nothing much that was new. Maybe the people who had bought their copies of the book at the event may have had a better take away.

S

Many of us left, feeling slightly short changed. We had expected an extempore straight from the heart  speech from one of the world's so called most powerful women! Maybe it was not her day after all and maybe she had just leaned out  that afternoon!

Bang Bang – an exercise in willing suspension of disbelief

Bang Bang – an exercise in willing suspension of disbelief

Just saw 'Bang Bang' and am stunned at the mindless  and exasperating balderdash dished out by the makers. If I were  the director Sidharth Anand, I would have gone into hiding by now!  How can anyone produce such drivel? And what about the lead pair? Surely personal credibility is something one never throws away.  I for one,  will be chary of any movie starring them in future. There is no saying what they will happily star in for money. There is no other explanation for such A list stars agreeing to be part of such tripe.

The convoluted story of some kingpin criminal played by Danny Dengzongpa  chasing the Kohinoor no less seems far fetched right from the start. Yet it is the once there, once not there plot of the story. It is not clear why the Indian army officer played by Jimmy Shergill visits him in the high security jail in London and why he has been kept in solitary confinement eating pizza, awaiting the death penalty. After a near impossible break in by fellow crooks led by Javed Jaffrey,  the kingpin escapes after killing the self righteous army officer. While escaping from the bombed out prison, Kingpin crook and his second in command chat about stealing the Kohinoor diamond next as though it were a trip to the dry cleaners they were talking about!

But it seems, wishes do turn into horses in Bang Bang as Rajveer aka Jai aka Vicki played by Hrithik arrives with the Kohinoor in his pocket  soon after.  He then runs into a empty headed bank receptionist Harleen played by Katrina. How and when did the Kohinoor heist happen are questions you are not supposed to ask as there are no answers.  The Kohinoor, large in size but hardly glittering, is bandied about as though it were a trinket. Once in a fancy box, next in the hero’s pocket, on the table top or the parapet of the bridge over the river, it keeps making appearances to supposedly tantalise everyone. But no one, including the crooks seem terribly enamoured of it!  Finally,  of course it transpires that it was a fake all along and the real thing is safe and sound in London. No stress.

So with the love interest angle ignited between the lead pair fairly early on, the director alternates his narrative with  the many, many chases between the crooks and the hero. We go bang, bang intermittently with a fair regularity over hill and dale, water and land, sky and under water with the hero bashing up dozens of goons, escaping volleys of bullets as he runs and runs over roof tops, through alleys and streets and even restaurants and islands. In between, he also switches vehicles with utmost ease. Cars, boats, sea planes, race cars, bikes, you name it and he is on it in some sequence or the other.

Locales change effortlessly too, from Shimla in one scene to Greece and Prague in the next. Harleen’s  zipping off to a heavily snowed out Dehradun from Shimla in a jiffy, whenever she feels like it, pretty much sums up the inane trash the movie puts out. Oh, I mustn’t forget the island sequence! There is this island  with a kitted out barbeque station, exotic vegetables being done into shashliks no less by the hero. But  sadly this is a short lived escapade as the crooks arrive to do bang bang and this time we go under water and over water in some outlandish gizmo which is fired like a torpedo as our hero shoots with guns in both hands. At one point, I did think I had strayed into some computer gaming sequence as I watched the fireworks. Or today being Dusshera I thought, a modern Ramlila of sorts with guns instead of arrows. Priceless stuff, I say!

Pretty places, a pretty lead pair, and pretty much nothing else sums up the movie. The story is best ignored as it challenges your good sense.  The stunts are laughable, the lack in continuity between scenes and lame attempts at humour are so annoying that I am sure some people did not take the movie seriously.  So much so that the end of the movie comes as  relief.

So what can I recommend about Bang Bang? Well, Hrithik’s dancing is a treat to watch. But you do not have to suffer a two and half hour long movie for that. His Greek God looks and eight-pack build would probably be geting in the crowds but I am sure they too would have been dismayed at the way the story pans out. The music too does not really measure up to anything much. Katrina’s sexy persona is showcased as  another bait for the viewers but in this case her dancing skills do not quite atone for anything. As for histrionics, they are conspicuous by their absence even though you have the likes of Danny Dengzogpa, Javed Jaffrey, Deepti Naval and Kanwaljeet in miniscule cameos.

All in all, a disappointing film as such under estimation of the audience smacks of  either presumptuousness  or  a complete lack of ability on the part of the makers. I would go with a one and half star out of five.