Ishqiya - Movie Review

DIL SA KOI KAMEENA NAHI.

ISHQIYA

*ing Naseeruddin Shan, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi

Lyrics: Gulzar

Music & Producer: Vishal Bhardwaj

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Living in Abu Dhabi one has access to a host of international cuisines and being the foodie I am I love eating out and experimenting with some of the dishes at home too. But every once in a while even faced with a choice of world cuisine, all I long for is a desi chatpata chat. Maybe some teekha puchka. Some simple but tongue-scorching jhal-muri. Or if all else fails then sometimes I take the plain ol’ daal and add that ‘tadka’. And its transformed. Just like that.

Ishqiya is like that. I don’t know what exactly Vidya means when she says “Chutiya Sulphate” but boy-o-boy do I want to be called that by someone like her.





During the earlier agitation for the separate state of Gorkhaland in Darjeeling during the late 80’s the weapon of choice used to be the ‘khaduwa’ and being the village gun that it was it was pretty unpredictable and you never knew how it would go off, when it would go off or for that matter which direction it would go off in.

And like that ‘khaduwa’ you are initially never sure where this movie is going. BUT once it gets going what a ride this movie is and what actors.

And what a performance by Vidya Balan.

You’ve seen her mostly as the demure Indian girl and while in Ishqiya too she is still as Indian as they come but as the unpredictable Krishna its probably not the India you were expecting.

Its rural, it earthy and it’s an India whose heart does not just beat but instead pulsates.


And matching her step for step is Naseerudin Shah and Arshad Warsi. As Khalu Jaan and Babban they have such crackling chemistry between the three that you will be hard put to peel your eyes away from the screen.


And why should you?



Ishqiya has humour that crackles, it has romance which is both old fashioned (watch how Khalujaan bonds with Krishna over old songs and 'lasoon') and lustful (Babban and Krishan share what is possibly one of the most realistically horny kisses filmed in Bollywood), Ishqiya has a great soundtrack (Ibn-Battuta, Dil Toh Bachcha, Ab Muhje Koi) and an even better background score (Vishal scoring it almost like a Sergio Leone western) and if you think it’s a boring ‘village’ kinda film then perish the thought.


It has twists and turns coming in at every 10-15 minutes and its so fast you’ll probably need to watch it a second time to fully get every nuance, sub-text and pun.

During the first 5 minutes you have a playful husband and wife sharing some domestic moments and when she says ‘surrender’, he being the rustic villager, says ‘cylinder’.

“Surrender baba Surrender. Not Cylinder”, she playfully corrects him.

2 odd hours later in the climax this conversation is recollected and this time you suddenly realize, its not a mispronunciation anymore. Splendid.


I haven’t been divulging any part of the story and its only because you will be best served if you go in to watch this movie with a clean slate. Just absorb everything that gets thrown at you and enjoy this desi tadka.

Desi was never so raunchy, desi was never so naughty and desi was never so much fun.

Its still early in the year but its probably one of the best movies of 2010.

Go Enjoy.

Luv

Vish

P.S. If your idea of a great director is Subash Ghai or if Zayed Khan is one of your idols or heaven forbid if you think KJo movies (as fun as they are) are masterpieces then its safe to say that you’ll probably NOT like this movie.