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Wednesday, May 8, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD LAFANGEY PARINDEY
EDITOR'S PICK
So this is a love story! says the wry cop at the end of the film while closing the case that exonerates our hero `One-Shot Nandu` of accidently blinding Pinky Palkar in a car accident.
Indeed Lafangey Parindey (LP) is a love story. And how grotesquely indecorous has been the marketing of this tender and shimmering look at an improbable love in the slums between a free-wheeling boxer and wannabe roller-skating spitfire gone blind.
Deepika Padukone gives to the tale the kind of fluent grace and eloquent spin that the audience associates with the female legends of celluloid, namely Meena Kumari and Nutan. Deepika brings the poignant lyricism of the former and the spirited delicacy of the latter into what`s unarguably one of the best-written female characters in recent times.
When Pinky goes blind all of a sudden, she doesn`t flutter her eyelashes and trip over furniture like any self-respecting blind diva in our cinema would. She quickly picks up the pieces of her shattered life, and yes, also the rollerskates and leaves home to a sniggering brother`s taunt and a concerned mother`s encouragement to renew her dreams.
The above is one of the many finely-written and worded sequences in this film suffused with a delicate charm and infinite wisdom.
Neil Nitin Mukesh has a tough thankless role. Not only is he that archetype known as the `Supportive Lover` in the script he must also move back in every other sequence to let Deepika walk away with the best expressions and dialogues. Neil never over-steps his boundaries. As the shy fighter who needs the blinded sports-girl`s clairvoyant spirit to take him on the road to love more than she needs him to cross that traffic-laden road which she can`t see, Neil gets the lower notes in the scale of the love symphony right.
While the two protagonists` journey into love via a dance contest (`Rab Ne Banadi Jodi` revisited) takes centrestage in Pradeep Sarkar`s deftly-cut material, the peripheral characters also get enough space to have their say aggressively without getting hysterical.
A film set in the ghetto is bound to remind the audience of Danny Boyle`s Slumdog Millionaire and Vishal Bhardwaj`s Kaminey. Sarkar dodges both and goes for the most unexpected reference points, namely Douglas Sirk`s The Magnificent Obssession and its desi spinoff Gulzar`s Kinara. As in Kinara, the hero is on a redemptive route taking the blinded girl through the corridors to her dream. It`s a journey undertaken with great warmth, tenderness and loving care.
The dialogues convey a streetside sauciness without getting abusive. Street wisdom need not be eeks-rated.
But hang on. LP is not soft at the edges. Pradeep Sarkar brings to the storyboard a gritty edge-of-the-street desperation that miraculously accommodates a very supple love story.
In a moment that can only be defined as tragic-comic, one of the hero`s friends walks away with one of the most expressive lines in this film. After Pinky goes blind the friend says, Ek minute mein Hema Malini se Thenga Malini ban gayi.
The reference to Hema Malini is not lost in a film that takes Gulzar`s Kinara to another shore.
The scenes are written by Gopi Puthran with utmost concern for a pitch that conveys high passion without toppling over. Deepika looking into the sky with a lovelorn look in her unseeing eyes asking Neil to describe the moon is a moment that is priceless and poignant.
Cinematographer C. Natarajan Subramanian shoots with loving
care. LP is an inspirational tale told with as little fuss and as much feeling
as cinematically possible. Not to be missed.
The title of the movie might be crisp as nachos, but Neil Nitin Mukesh and Deepika Padukone starrer edgy love story "Lafangey Parindey" was not crunchy enough to attract the audiences to theatres.Read More
'Lafangey Parindey' most challenging film of my life: DeepikaFrom falling into a ditch to getting hit by an auto -- Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone faced it all while shooting for her upcoming movie "Lafangey Parindey"Read More
A dash of style with loads of attitude and a hunger to reach the stars, `Lafangey Parindey is about a group of youngsters living in the back streets of Mumbai. It is an unusual love story of Nandu and Pinky whose path to love is paved by friendship, grit and hope.
He is wild. He is One-Shot Nandu. For the raw, champion street fighter, one-shot is literally what it takes. Absolutely wild, fierce, and hungry to win, this fighter takes boxing to a new level by knocking down his opponents -BLINDFOLDED. Needless to say, One-Shot lives life on his own terms and is a local hero amongst his friends. But all that soon changes, when he meets Pinky Palkar.
She is blind. She is born to fly. She is Pinky Palkar. A unique girl, a powerhouse of talent! On one hand she works at a regular, boring 9 to 5 job at a mall but on the other hand, she is a kickass dancer on skates! Strong headed, talented and fiercely ambitious - these traits make up Pinky Palkar`s deadly personality. Her life`s ambition is only one - to rise above all the `losers` living in her locality and carve a niche for herself. She will use her talent to show the others that she can win in life. There is only one, tiny, obstacle... She is blind.
Lafangy Parindey. Two different personalities. Two different lives. Destined to meet.
Set in the grungy streets of Mumbai, Lafangey Panrindey is an unusual, edgy love story about the never say die spirit even when your last chip is down. It is an intriguing journey of a blindfolded street fighter and a blind dancer who, along with four friends, set out to achieve the impossible.
Born wild,will one-shot Nandu never learn to love?
Born to fly, will
Pinky Palker ever learn to see?
Directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Aditya Chopra, Lafangey Parindey is scheduled for a 20th August 2010 release.
