Sunday 25 May 2014

Andar Baahar film review

A review that I had written an year ago:
There are 3 reasons why you should watch this film:
1.     Parvathi Menon!
2.     Parvathi Menon !!
2.5. Parvathi Menon !!!
3.     Shivanna has finally tried something good.

If someone were to offer me a job to select the best performance by a heroine this year, I would not take the job. It would be mind bogglingly difficult to tell. Who wants to make a tough decision? I would not take it. Unless of course, I am allowed to declare a tie. A tie between the Menons. Nithya Cute Menon in Myna and Parvathi superb Menon Andar Bahar. What a performance it was!

Well,let me come to SRK before his fans pelt me with stones picked from the busy streets of KG road. SRK deserves some praise too. Firstly, for a good performance. Secondly for deciding to come out of a blood bubblingly bad spree of films like Jogayya, Lakshmi and Shiva. This is a step in the right direction. If you were to act like a PT master in a high school and ask the audience to fall in lines as per their taste, you would get 3 different lines.

First line would have hard core fans. These are freaks who would erect cut outs, dudes who watch movies to escape from it all. They belong to the “Cinema as escapism” category. They are poularly knwon as “The mass”. They would want their heroes to do superhuman things! Things like reaching from Majestic to maratha halli in 45 minutes during peak hours! Their hero should blast the baddies the way Chris Gayle treats cricket balls. Thier hero has to come like a Tsunami and go like a hurricane.
Second line will have English speaking, college going dudes who would not know who the president of India is unless it comes in MTV roadies. They would not know that a kannada film is releasing unless some chick shares the news in facebook. They are not fan boys(not at least of kannada heroes)
In the 3rd line you will have the great Indian families. Their list of favourites would include films like Yajamana, Anna thangi, Amruta Dhaare, Milana, Myna etc etc.

A film should get at least one line from above running towards theaters to be successful. To be a Mungaru male, it has to appeal to all 3 sections. To be a Simple aag ond love story it has to look cool to the 2nd line. To be a Myna it has to touch the hearts of people standing in the 3rd line.
Any teacher from any MBA school worth his salt would tell you that you should market your product to the right set of consumers. A case study on Andar Bahar would immediately reveal that it is a product prepared for the people in 3rd line. The mistake of course is that we had people from the 1st line queued near the theaters.

All said, Andar bahar is a decent film. One part of the story is a little cliched but there still is some freshness. There is nothing mindblowing but it definitely is worth a watch. Regular audeince might feel that it is a little slow but then if you are taking a city tour you would want the tour to be slow and relaxed, a bullet train would not be an ideal choice. Yes, there is some lag but then I am not sure as to what could have been cut.

The film starts like a mass film and then slowly moves to the slow and family mode. What makes that work is the lovely Parvathi and a decent performance by SRK. Scenes of the vegetable market, the tattoo scene and the handy cam scene in the end were touching and will stay in my mind for some time. The spinning car in the fight scene looked stylish. Vijay Prakash’s music was refreshingly different from the routine Hari Krishna stuff. Title track and Maleyali Minda deserve a special mention. Picturisation is rich and soothing to the eyes.

Go for it if you are fine with a slow, soft and meant for family kind of stuff. A good one time watch.

7.75/10

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