Review of the movie "Cape fear"

“Counseller!! Counseller!! Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are!!” .

The picture of Max Cady challenging a petrified and hidden Sam Bowden in the most sarcastic and sweetest of tones is still crystal clear in my mind. This portrayal by Robert DeNiro set the tone of a psychopath protagnist.

The Movie "Cape Fear" has a very conventional plot. It is a story of a normal family, which is troubled by a villain. The differences arise in the extremes that the concerned villain is ready to go to make life hell for that family. This performance by DeNiro is one of the outstanding performances and one for which he won an Oscar nomination for best actor, finally losing the award narrowly to an equally brilliant performance by Anthony Hopkins, in “The Silence of the Lambs”.

Plot:
Robert DeNiro plays the role of Max Cady, who was sent to jail for fifteen years on account of raping and thrashing a girl, rather brutally. His defence lawyer (played by Nick Nolte ) gets a clue, which could have saved Max. However, he knew that Max was guilty, and after seeing the condition of the battered girl, he purged the clue. As a result Cady got fifteen years sentence. Somehow, Cady gets to know about this fact. The psychopath in him is deeply offended and enraged by the sheer injustice of this act. But he does not shout or rant or scream. He collects that rage within himself, waiting patiently for his turn. And when he comes out, he sets about taking revenge with his lawyer. He stalks his family, makes life hell for him, and slowly but surely goes about mentally torturing him.
Does he succeed? Well see the movie to find out….

Character of Max Cady & Acting of Robert DeNiro
Max Cady stands out among the crowd of villains as one of the most determined, ruthless and evil character ever created. Unlike, the suave Dr. Hannibal Lecter (of Silence of the Lambs), Max Cady looks every inch a villain, and a psycho at that. His choice of gaudy clothes, pony tail hairstyle, extremely well toned body with tattoos throughout, make him an extremely repulsive figure. In one of the scenes the lawyer when confronted by Cady, senses that he is in trouble. He tries to ward off Cady by offering him a bribe. This is what Cady says in the sweetest of tones: “Counsellor what will be my compensation for being held down by four white guys (in prison) or by four black guys???” The sheer rage that is within Cady slowly dwells on the viewer, as the movie progresses.

DeNiro had worked extremely hard on his body to create that effect of a psychopath. A perfectionist that he is, he had his teeth damaged professionally, so as to give a disfigured look of a psycho. The numerous tattoos that he actually had carved on his skin for preparing for his role were not meaningless. Tattoos like that of the weighing scale, statements like “Vengeance is mine”, “My time has not yet come” etc. convey the feeling of vengeance stored within Max Cady create the proper environment. The viewers are able to correlate the abnormal psyche of Cady by seeing his he repulsive abnormal exterior.

Acting of other actors

Although DeNiro outshines others by his intense performance, nonetheless, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis give quite a good performance. Particularly Nolte has given an outstanding performance in certain scenes. His guilty demeanour, his unsuccessful attempts to defend himself and his depiction of unease is really remarkable.

Juliette Lewis has given a brilliant portrayal of an adolescent’s vulnerability towards sex. In one of the scenes, Cady tries to make friendship with the lawyer’s adolescent daughter and then slowly seduces her with his lewd talks. The lawyer’s daughter is in an impressionable age. The scene between the two is perhaps the most difficult one in terms of the complexities of the emotions it is portraying.

The way DeNiro rolls his eyes, smiles lasciviously and tries to punish the father through his daughter; and the way the young girl seemingly enjoys this talk, really generates a indefinable feeling of fear, repulsion and insecurity.

Direction and Screenplay
Martin Scorcese and DeNiro have done a lot of brilliant movies together (Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Casino). Scorcese underscores the point that fear primarily is associated with helplessness. How the psychological pressures of a lunatic totally ruin the sanity and reason of an established lawyer and force him to retreat form the core issue of the movie.

The taut screenplay is able to sustain the thrill created by the unconventional activities of a psychopath. An undercurrent of fear, repulsion and helplessness grips the audience throughout the movie. The movie also touches several other issues like adultery, vulnerability of children and family as a target for revenge and the ineffectiveness of law in cases of psychological harassment. The dialogues are in some places are quite crude and some scenes are downright disturbing

Review of the Film Maqbool

By now almost everybody knows that the movie was an adaptation of the Play Macbeth by Shakespeare; hence I will not try to analyze the similarities and differences in the movie vis-à-vis the original play.

The movie explores certain very Indian dimensions, while trying to retain the background of play. Also it is one of the very few movies in which a supporting actor’s role has been etched in a far greater detail than that of the protagonist. I will try to discuss these aspects in this review.

Plot

An under-world aged Don; Abbaji (played by Pankaj Kapoor) trusts his right-hand man Maqbool (played by Irrfan Khan) implicitly and has a paternal affection towards him. Maqbool also understands and reciprocates his trust. The twist in the tale is caused by Nimmi, the mistress of the aged Don, for whom Maqbool has fallen. Nimmi hates Abbaji and propels Maqbool to take over the control of the Mumbai underworld as well as of her by finishing off Abbaji. Maqbool’s lust and ambition finally overcomes the loyalty for Abbaji. Maqbool finally takes over the empire and also Nimmi. However, the feeling of guilt pushes him onto a slow path of decline.

Relationship of Abbaji, Maqbool and Nimmi

Above three relationships form the gist of the film called Maqbool. While the basic plot of Macbeth has been retained, the screenplay has been adjusted according to Indian sensibilities.

In the movie, the latent desire of Maqbool to own Nimmi is far greater than his desire to imagine himself as the head of Mumbai underworld. Here Maqbool slightly varies from Macbeth, where the utmost desire is to own the kingdom. In more than one scene, Maqbool is seen seething with rage, when Abbaji touches Nimmi. Infact Nimmi herself often taunts Maqbool about his inability to own the woman he loved openly.

Infact it is this aspect of making Nimmi as Abbaji’s mistress that the Indianization part comes in. In a subtle manner an incestuous relationship develops between Maqbool and Nimmi. In my view the screenplay writers rightly adjudged that if Maqbool had killed a father-figure only for power, the enormity of his crime would have been reduced. However for an Indian mindset killing a father-figure for lust of a woman, (and that too mistress of father-figure) is as bad a thing as can be thought of. It is this aspect that almost raises the enormity of his crime. And to remind all of us of this fact, the character has been named Abbaji (i.e Father)

As in the play, the movie explores the relationship between the mentor and his protégée. Abbaji trusts Maqbool completely. He loves him like his own son. This love and affection of his father-figure torns Maqbool with conflict. He feels ashamed of himself. Irrfan’s eyes speak volumes in these scenes.

The role of Pandit and Purohit:
These two characters bring an element of drama into the movie and are the unmistaken link to the great play in this adapted movie. Naseer and Om Puri have been simply brilliant. These two characters bring about an environment of nastiness in the movie. Their provoking predictions further propel the devil in Maqbool. Their unscrupulous attitude and clownish devilry fills the audience with hatred as well as with fearful anticipation. As one by one their horrible prediction come to be true, Maqbool starts loosing his balance.

However, I feel that this unconventional characterization would have irritated many viewers, who were not familiar with the original play.

More Focus on the role of Abbaji:
The protagnist may be Maqbool, but in this film the character of Abbaji has been etched in far more detailed manner than that of Duncan in Macbeth. In fact the film somehow is not the story of Maqbool, it is the story of Jahanagir Khan a.k.a Abbaji.

Behind all his power the Don is completely besotted by his mistress Nimmi. He knows that he has to fulfill all her whims and fancies. The way he expresses his irritation: Saari Kayanat Hamare pass hai yeh bitte bhar ki ladki nahin sambhalti hamse......... (I have all the worldly possessions in my control, but I cannot find a way to control this woman). Kapoor’s pauses, his baffled and irritated postures are just too good to miss.

The outcome of this detailed etching of Abbaji’s character reflects on the protagonist and somehow the inherent conflict of Maqbool remains could not come out to that extent as was desirable. In my view it was a folly of the director alone that an average person wants to see more of Abbaji, not so much of Maqbool.

Effect of Godfather:
There was just one scene in which I hated like hell. It was actually a meaningless scene and was an exact copy of scene of the classic Godfather, when he rejects the lucrative proposal. This left a bad taste in my mouth and somehow lessened the quality of the movie.

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This posting is an edited version of one of the reviews I wrote on the site mouthshut.com (user-id- adiagr). I plan to post those articles here along with a some new ones.

Plain Tales from the Raj- a review

Plain Tales from the Raj , a wonderful book edited by Charles Allen, (with Michael Mason) with association of BBC. The cover page of this book aptly describes it as “Images of British India in the twentieth Century”.
In the book, the experiences of the English men and women posted in India prior to 1947 have been recounted. Experiences of people from varied backgrounds, working in various capacities, have been touched, including those of the Mem-Sahibs (House wives).
This brings together varied viewpoints towards pre-independence India, its customs, traditions and its people. It also highlights certain practices of the Raj, which though already outdated in England continued to be followed in the Raj. The peculiarities of two different cultures along with their differences have been brought out without slightest snobbery.
I hasten to add that the book is far from a jingoistic narrative exalting the Raj. The aim of the book appears to present an interesting nostalgic narrative of the great, if slightly ridiculous British Raj in India. One is amused by the ridiculous practices being followed and appreciates the candid honesty in accepting certain not-so-illuminating aspects of the Raj. In the same way the book is also quite interesting about the general description of Indians from various backgrounds.
One of the touching aspects of the book is the relationship the English had with their subordinates, Ayahas, Sais, common soldiers etc. As an Indian, one needs to appreciate this aspect of English rule, while we are fed by jingoistic films made by Mumbai Film Industry criticizing the Raj.
The commendable part is that the narrative apart from being quite amusing, is also quite authentic. Various sources who actually lived during the Raj, have shared their first hand experience. As given in the book while researching and interviewing for this book, the author travelled the length and breadth of United Kingdom, taping more than 250 hours of recorded interviews. A glossary given at the end of the book describing various Hindi/Urdu language slangs commonly being used by the English pucca Sahibs & Mem-Sahibs is also quite amusing to read.
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This posting is an edited version of one of the reviews I wrote on the site mouthshut.com (user-id- adiagr). I plan to post those articles here along with a some new ones.