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Friday, April 26, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD MY FRIEND PINTO
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***1/2
Zindagi khwab hai khwab mein sach hai kya aur bhala jhooth hai kya?
Remember Motilal`s staggering existentialism in 1956`s Jagte Raho?
Some such philosophy underlines the key goings-on in My Friend Pinto
-- a wispy, nostalgic comedy about a Goan simpleton`s one night of zany
adventures in the mad mad bustle of Mumbai during New Year`s eve.
This isn`t the first film that explores Mumbai by night. From Khwaja Ahmed
Abbas`s Bambai Raat Ki Bahon Mein to Sudhir Mishra`s Iss Raat
Ki Subah Nahin, the dark comic side of the city`s underbelly has
ceaselessly fascinated Bollywood since long before the term `Bollywood` was
invented.
Debutant director Raghav Dar switches on the innovative mode full-blast. The
first and most conspicuous component in his comic romp is the director`s sense
of fun.
He is fearless about the fun quotient that he has while going with one sumptuous
swoop into lives as different from one another as any two homes, families that
live in Mumbai can be.
A semi-retired gangster (Makarand Deshpande) and his never-been star-actress
mistress(Divya Dutta), his twin assassin-goons Ajay and Vijay (played by real
life Amin and Karim Hajee who were last seen together on screen dancing in a
Sufi trance to A.R. Rahman`s devotional number in Jodhaa-Akbar), an old
taxidriver and his gambler-son(theatre actor Shakeel Khan making a stellar
screen appearance), a lost girl Maggie(Kalki Koechlin) abandoned by her
small-time crook boyfriend on the railway station, the competitive couple (Arjun
Mathur and Shruti Seth) coping with the sudden appearance of an unwanted guest
from Goa, even as they try to cope with the fissures in their own marriage...
These, then, are some of the characters who show up one night in Dar`s `Mumbai
raat ki bahon mein` (Mumbai at night).
There are many others. Oh yes, characters pop out of every nook and cranny like
rabbits from a hat. Bringing them all together is the Goan Mama`s boy, the
simpleton Michael Pinto who we`re informed, with tongue firmly in the
scriprwriter`s cheek, is the nephew of Albert `jissko bahut gussa aata tha` (who
gets very angry).
The reference to Saeed Mirza`s 1980 cult classic Albert Pinto Ko Gussa
Kyon Aata Hai is not lost in the film`s melee of bustling adventures. The
film is knowledgeably laden with references to cinema and cinematic devices from
the past including a very pointed allusion to a corpse`s journey across Mumbai
from Kundan Shah`s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.
My Friend Pinto is a very complex script to write and an even more
complex act to pull off on screen. Dar manages the chaos created by Michael
Pinto`s misadventures across the celebratory streets of Mumbai with fluency and
grace.
The awkwardness that we encounter in the storytelling is purely by design. Pinto
is put into all kinds of bizarre and embarrassing situations. Like Charlie
Chaplin in the silent films, he walks out of the chaos unscathed.
He is a Goan angel in disguise. He`s Chaplin, Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt from
City Lights, Jagte Raho and Pyasa. He is all
of those and none of them.
Prateik with his waif-like quality truly finds himself as an actor when he plays
a lost character. My Friend Pinto needed his vulnerability and
uncertainties.
The supporting cast is impressive, with Divya Dutta and Makrand Deshpande having
a ball with their guns and games. They are like two bulls in a sex shop. Arjun
Mathur as Pinto`s desensitised Mumbai friend creates quite a graph for his
character within the limited space provided by the restless script.
Quirky, capricious, whimsical and at times magical (watch those Broadway-styled
musical performances), My Friend Pinto conveys the key comic
patterns of Kundan Shah`s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.
Prateik echoes the innocent adventures of Raj Kapoor in Jagte Raho.
Dar`s directorial debut is endearing in its eccentricity.
When you leave the crazy comic cosmos of Pinto`s world behind, you take away
with you a film that is fiercely original in concept and designed to deliver
tongue-in-cheek swipes at all those scared cows of Bollywood that we grew up
watching and loving without knowing why we loved them in the first place.
There is something about My Friend Pinto. But you don`t really know
what.
Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin, who is known for speaking her mind, says one of the drawbacks of being a popular face is that people expect you to take a stand on various social and political issues. She says people should realise that celebrities can't be expected to be role models and should only be appreciated for their craft.Read More
Twenty-something Michael Pinto has grown up in a small Goan village, believing everyone in the world to be simple, kind and honest, just like him. His world revolves around a doting mother, a passion for music and the memories of a childhood friend, Sameer, who left Goa for Mumbai many years ago and hasn�t replied to his frequent letters ever since. Pinto�s talent for music is only matched by his knack for finding trouble in the unlikeliest of places often resulting in the most outlandish and hilarious situations. When Pinto`s idyllic world is shattered by the sudden demise of his mother he decides to head to Mumbai in search of the only friend he knows. Will Pinto find Sameer or will trouble find him first? Will Pinto and his crazy antics survive the big bad city or more importantly, will Mumbai survive a phenomenon called Pinto?
