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Sunday, May 28, 2023
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BOLLYWOOD GAME
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: *** 1/2
What a story! Abhishek Bachchan, playing a cross between a fugitive
and a guardian-angel, says wrily at the end of this elegantly crafted whodunit.
What a story, indeed. And full marks to writer Althea Delmas Kaushal for
crafting a jigsaw that would have made Agatha Christie smile. It wouldn`t be
incorrect to say, they don`t make movies like this anymore. Stylishly crafted,
cunning in plot and deft in its narrative thrust, Game is one of the
most aesthetically-mounted Hindi films in recent times. Huge efforts and
resources have gone into shooting the murder mystery in places where intrigue
seems infinite, escape seems undesirable and redemption appears as distant as
the sound of the waves splashing against rocks that have centuries of stories to
tell.
Welcome to the Greek island of Samos. Anupam Kher, looking pricey in his
tycoon`s avatar invites four of the most distinguished elitist-outlaws on this
side of Charles Sobhraj. Each has a past tense and a future imperfect. Everyone
has a history and a back-projection. This is a world defined by a wealth of
unexpressed resentment and smothered anger waiting to erupt.
Debutant director Abhinay Deo displays a remarkable grip over the proceedings.
Though the narrative moves through a number of continents and exotic cities
(Istanbul jumps out at us from the James Bond movies) propelling his tortured
characters forward into motions of restless salvation, there is a quietude and
grace at the heart of the narration that we`ve scarcely ever seen in desi
whodunits.
The crime and its denouement are worked in graphic details. But the narrative is
never bogged down by over-punctuation. For a crime thriller that pays a homage
to the best traditions of the genre represented by Sherlock Holmes, Agatha
Christie and James Hadley Chase, there is a tightly-wound feel to the
storytelling, as though the director were moving contrary to the dictates of the
genre, without slipping up with the details. If god lies in the details then why
does the devil seem to have taken over Game?
At heart Game is a love story about a high-profile gambler and his
doomed lady-love…a kind of Bonnie and Clyde with the inherent desperation of
the duo`s togetherness reined-in and qualified by ripples of elegant
punctuation.
No hiccups, then, in Abhinay Deo`s directorial debut. Like all cinema by
filmmakers who come from the ad-world Game is a visual feast.
Contrary to films by other ad-turned-feature director Deo doesn`t unnecessarily
abbreviate the shots in the fear of losing audiences` attention. The characters,
specially Abhishek Bachchan`s, get sufficient breathing space in a script that
favours flirting with fate.
There is a delicacy in the textures and colours used to bring forward the
tensions in the plot. Shashank Tere`s art direction and Kartik Vijay`s
cinematography imbue a gritty cold edge to the spill of blood and the smell of
greed. The portions shot on the Greek island are particularly hypnotic, the
splashing waves creating a ripple of anxieties in the turbulence of the
characters` lives without toppling the storytelling boat over into the sphere of
the stormy.
Whether it is Anupam Kher as tycoon-host on the mesmeric island or Gauhar Khan
as his seductive secretary, the characters never cease to appear glamorous on
screen. The performers are eminently watchable. Anupam Kher, Kangna Ranaut,
Boman Irani, Shahana Goswami and the underrated Jimmy Sheirgil get the tenor of
tantalizing terror right. Sarah Jane Dias is quite a find, though she needs to
work on her dancing skills. Her fabulously choreographed dance number suffers
from the Two Left Feet Syndrome (hint hint!).
Abhishek Bachchan proves once again a master of silences, his eyes conveying the
pain of lost love, his lips curling up to convey the cynicism of a man who has
seen it all and couldn`t care anymore. His two key action sequences are
heart-stopping in their credibility.
Waltzing wickedly between the incredible and the inevitable Game
succeeds in sustaining our interest right till the devilish denouement at the
end.
Game is a film that never lets us forget that the whodunit attains
an enticing aura only when the characters assume framed postures. Abhinay Deo`s
narrative walks a fine thin bloodied balance between dread and delight.
Model-turned-actress Pooja Batra, who will soon be seen psychological thriller "Mirror Game: Ab Khel Shuru" and has acted in an international film, says audiences abroad feel a little jilted to know that in Bollywood, actors do not sing in real but there is a playback singer.Read More
Was never desperate to get success in cinema: Parvin DabasActor Parvin Dabas, who will soon be seen in a psychological thriller "Mirror Game: Ab Khel Shuru", says though he has worked with different directors and explored various genres of film, he is not aggressive about chasing success in mainstream cinema as he is quite content with his work.Read More
Game is a story of 4 strangers ( Neil Menon, OP Ramsay, Tisha Khanna and Vikram Kapoor) who have been invited by the reclusive Kabir Malhotra, to his private island of Samos, Greece.
They don`t know each other and they don`t know him... and by the next morning they wish they had never come.
Game is a whodunit tale spanning 5international cities; a slick edge-of-the-seat crime thriller with twists and turns involving love, revenge, retribution and good old-fashioned murder.
Everyone is a Suspect, and Every Suspect has a motive.
It`s not over till its over.
