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Shivani Shivaji Roy (Rani Mukerji), the Senior Inspector from the Crime Branch, Mumbai in “Mardaani” (2014) is now a Superintendent of Police stationed at Kota, Rajasthan in “Mardaani 2”. But even with the promotion and additional authority, Roy’s battle to prove herself as a female IPS officer continues in the male-dominated police force. While she fought and brought an organized nexus of human traffickers to justice in the previous installment, Roy in the latest release meets more than her match in the conniving and ruthless murderer “Sunny” (Vishal Jethwa.)

A mutilated dead body of a young girl “Jessica” is found in an abandoned construction site in Kota. Police investigation finds she has been repeatedly raped and tortured. Roy’s further inquiry into the murder reveals a chain of kidnappings, rapes and killings that are somewhat interlinked—and all point to a single suspect. With some of her own officers ranged against her—just because she is a woman—and pitted against a psychologically disturbed but extremely intelligent criminal, who also enjoys an extent of political protection, the deck is stacked against Roy.

The mind games between Roy and Sunny make for the meat of the movie. While Roy is as fearless and determined as she was in Mumbai, her nemesis Sunny, who also holds a personal grudge against the police officer, is always a step ahead of her.

Produced by Yash Raj Films, Mardaani 2 is written and directed by Gopi Puthran, also the writer and assistant director of the first installment. Despite taking the director’s seat for the first time, Puthran shows amazing maturity and is brilliantly by the production team. Mardaani 2—a mainstream release in Bollywood—breaks so many conventions it gives off the vibe of a low- budget, high-spirited independent film. 

For one, a film on a sensitive topic like violence against women and inbred sexism in Indian society does nothing to glamorize the women in it. There is no objectification whatsoever, no extravagant ‘creative liberties’ taken to project a larger-than-life hero in Roy and no heroic male character on whose shoulder our protagonist has to rest her. Sans peppy item numbers and even promotional songs, as the team believed they did not fit the film’s narrative, Mardaani 2 banks more on strong writing, capable actors and diligent production. The maturity level of the filmmakers is highlighted by the fact that even in sequences which could have ended with the culprit being lynched or ‘encountered’ by a cheering mob, filmmakers resist this easy temptation.

The smart screenplay and witty dialogues befit the actors, especially Mukerji and Jethwa, both of whom give stellar performances. Even after a pregnancy-induced hiatus, Mukerji proves she is still the best pick for Roy’s character. Mukerji as Roy is bold, caring, and ferocious. And the best part of Roy is, the filmmakers have not tried to emulate the male action heroes of Bollywood. She’s a fighter all right, but her battles are won by patience, perseverance, and intellect.

Playing the most important role in the film, the youngster Jethwa is impressive. With the ability to change identity and blend into the crowd, Sunny is a dangerous villain and Jethwa perfectly captures the poisonous evil in him. Sunny in brought up in a society where a woman needs to be punished for speaking out, and raping her is the best form of punishment in his reckoning. With that mentality, a childhood trauma and asthma, Jethwa carries Sunny’s multi-layered character with aplomb.

Who should watch it?

This is a must-watch. Not only does it destroy the misconceptions about women in our patriarchal society. It also puts a woman in a position where she can make a difference, on her own. Roy’s character is nothing sort of inspirational and the many messages that the film gives are on point and well explained. We recommend you watch the first Mardaani too if you haven’t.

Rating: ****

Director: Gopi Puthran

Actors: Rani Mukerji, Vishal Jethwa

Time: 1hrs 45mins

Genre: Thriller

Written and directed by Sunil Gurung, “Macha Macha” was promoted as the “crime comedy of the year.” And with some witty writing, a talented cast, meticulous production and first-rate cinematography, the movie is actually a lot more enjoyable than the past few releases we’ve reviewed. There’s mystery, there’s suspense, and a whole lot of goof-ups to make it entertaining.

Macha Macha revolves around a series of unfortunate events that take the lead characters—“Pradip” (Saugat Malla), “Babu Ram” (Bijay Baral), and “Kishore” (Anoj Pandey)—on a rollercoaster ride. The trio of unemployed, impoverished and not-so-bright men are offered a murder contract by their mama (Praveen Khatiwoda). With nothing better to do to get themselves out of their sorry financial state, they take up the job to kidnap and murder “Ghanshyam” (Bhola Raj Sapkota) for Rs 2 million. Thus starts a comedy of errors as the three get into trouble one after another.

There’s definitely some smart writing to create plots that twist and turn and keep the audience entertained, to an extent. The cinematography and direction follow the characters around the streets of Kathmandu, capturing them from different angles, and making intricate details visible on the screen. The smartness in writing is backed by equally nifty filming to create a moderately entertaining package.

What drags the film down though is that the writers spend too much time creating subplots, some of which are unnecessary. Also, in an effort to capture more details, some individual scenes are rather extended, making it difficult to thoroughly enjoy the film. It would have been much better if Macha Macha was an all-out fast-paced comedy without emotional baggage.

Pandey steals the show even when matched against more experienced and popular actors. He embodies the character of a confused, scared yet amusing Kishore with artistic panache. Not only does Pandey impress in dialogues and gesticulations, he’s equally good in the background—one of the centerpieces of the movie’s comedy.

Baral lives up to his name and does nothing to better it. Malla is the disappointment here though. Carrying so much reputation from his iconic “Hakku Kaale” character in the Loot franchise, Malla does nothing to get into his character as Pradip in Macha Macha. He’s just changed his hairstyle and hasn’t worked at all in dialogue delivery to make his character any different from the recent films he has done. In order to stay relevant, Malla needs to work on his dialogues to stop sounding monotonous.

Among supporting actors, Kamal Mani Nepal is mildly engaging in his brief role as “Janga Bahadur”, a luckless gambler who’s feigning madness to save himself from creditors. Shanti Giri plays his double-crossing girlfriend and is one of the few actors that fit into their characters. Maotse Gurung continues his comic appearances playing “Tanke Dada”, a cricket-loving gangster. Although a bit stereotypical of the Sherpa community as it mocks their Nepali accent, his character is not offensive and provides hilarious comic relieve whenever he’s on screen. Known for more serious roles in Nepali films, Gurung’s back-to-back stints in comedy has been well appreciated. Namrata Shrestha (no, not that one) makes a debut as Rashmi but has so little screen space that she will have to find another film to actually make a serious debut.

The best part of the movie is the background score by Rajan Shrestha, which is sonorously satisfying. It is fresh for a Nepali movie and creatively surprising. Shrestha uses various genres of music to keep the pace of the film rolling despite the tardy bits of screenwriting dragging it down. Taking influence from the Western country music, Nepali folk, blues and jazz, Shrestha tries to give each character its own introductory theme. Sound-wise, the use of blues harp, slide guitars and the double bass lends the movie a Quentin Tarantino touch.

Who should watch it?

Macha Macha is a film worth watching if you love comedies. It gets sloppy at times but the background music and cinematography keep you entertained.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Run time: 2hrs 5 mins

Actors: Saugat Malla, Bijay Baral, Anoj Pandey

Director: Sunil Gurung

Genre: Comedy

The world is divided on Charles Bukowski. Some think he is a literary genius while others think he didn’t write but ranted and that made for bleak reading. There are entire articles dedicated to why you shouldn’t read Bukowski. But then reading is a very subjective affair. What appeals to one might not to another and our reading preferences, much like our tastes, evolve over time.

Which is why I recommend Bukowski to you. When a friend recommended his works to me a few years ago, I was appalled by the use of language and what seemed like a blatant dislike of womankind. But there was no denying that Bukowski was all about ‘quotable quotes’. And that was precisely why I found myself gravitating back to his works despite the initial skepticism over his books. Here I recommend three of his books to help you find out if he appeals to your reading taste or not.

Post Office (1971)

I’m recommending ‘Post Office’ because this is Bukowski’s first novel, published when the author was 50 years old. And this is where we are first introduced to Henry Chinaksi, Bukowski’s alter ego, who makes frequent appearances in many of his books thereafter. His works are considered largely autobiographical. In the novel, Chinaski drifts from woman to woman, barely able to hold down a job and thus living hand to mouth. However, in Bukowski’s randomly crafted world, Chinaski is irresistible to women, despite his crankiness, alcoholism, and misogyny. There isn’t much of a plot but the bits of introspection and the eventual redemption of sorts are what make it a compelling read.

Women (1978)

‘Women’ is Charles Bukowski’s third novel that depicts the highs and lows of Henry Chinaski’s life as a poet, alcoholic, and lover. Besides Chinaski’s drunken antics and sexual debauchery of Los Angeles in the 1960’s and 70’s, there’s not really all that much in Women. After spending many years working in the United States Postal Service, Henry quits his job to pursue a writing career. While trying to make a living selling poems and editing not-so-popular magazines, Chinaski drinks and stares at women. And so, you will read about a series of sexual adventures where each woman is “prettier than the last”. There are plenty of reasons why you could call the writing misogynistic but Bukowski gives you a glimpse of life on the verge of a breakdown, and thus a novel that makes you think.

Hot Water Music (1983)

This short story collection, that reads like a record of obsessions of drinking, gambling, women, and writing, is witty and fun. Wit was never Bukowski’s problem but conveying that in a manner that does not offend often was an issue. The stories here address what the world can do to people and also what people, in turn, can do to the world. A motel room stinking of sick, a decrepit apartment with a perpetually arguing couple, and a bar tended by a skeleton, there’s a lot of morbid and, quite frankly, sometimes downright disgusting narration in this anthology. But that’s also how Bukowski has succeeded in painting a picture of the darkest bits of human existence.

Ever seen those decorative fruits they sell at the home decor section of supermarkets? The lush looking mangoes, bananas, grapes and strawberries all ripe and fresh, ready to be eaten but can’t be relished, because they’re made of plastic. Seasoned cinematographer Hari Humagain’s directorial debut “Sarauto” is like those plastic fruits—all fresh and shiny to look at, but you can’t really enjoy them.

Sarauto is basically the same revenge story that has been perpetuated since the start of filmmaking. The only difference is, it puts a female character at the helm of things. Remember watching a movie where a family is brutally attacked at night and a couple is murdered with their child as the sole witness? The child only manages to see a piece of jewelry the culprit is wearing and years later, sets out to extract revenge from the villain only to frantically search for the person wearing the jewelry first. And convincingly, our hero does find the villain, who apparently is richer and bigger but wearing the same chain?

So while most Nepali movies of late have been facsimiles of 90’s Bollywood hits (or flops), Sarauto takes us directly into the world of Hollywood Westerns, but sadly, it pushes us back to the 60s. Watched “Death Rides a Horse” (1967) and its Indian remake “Zanzeer” (1973) yet? If not, we recommend you do.

Coming back to Sarauto, the movie is based in Simraungadh, Bara and Kathmandu and in a multitude of timelines that span around a decade. Newcomer to the industry Sumi Moktan plays the main protagonist “Vaani”, the prodigal daughter of karate coach “Kushang” (Vijay Lama) who sees her parents get slaughtered and has her tongue cut off in the same incident with a sarauto (a knifelike object used to cut betel nuts.) That’s where the film gets its name.

Repetitive as the story sounds, the audience was expecting a thriller with the largely successful cinematographer Humagain taking over the reins as the director. But the film’s cinematography becomes the only saving grace of Sarauto as it fails in all other departments. The principal photography of the film is almost at par (and heavily inspired) by some South Indian action movies and despite the frequent lapse in continuity and editing glitches, is its best part.

A strong female lead was supposed to be the film’s highlight. But with Moktan’s plasticky expressions and the inability to emote her character’s voice, the speech-impaired Vaani remains voiceless. This is not to take the credit away from her homework in learning sign language and martial arts as well as dancing; it’s just that her screen presence seems forced and unnatural. Even in scenes that could have been absolute tearjerkers, Moktan is not able to make the audience empathize. The film does nothing much to empower women either. It just replaces a traditionally male hero with a female one, without giving much thought to character development.

Character development is missing not only for Moktan. Most Nepali filmmakers are prone to complicating a simple story by lacing it with too many unresolved conflicts and unanswered questions. Sarauto is no exception. It gives way too much importance to redundant characters, making the movie stray from an otherwise simple plot.

In other important roles, we have debutant Sunny Singh (not the one from Ujdaa Chaman, mind you, but our very own Nepali model-turned-actor) as “Bishesh”, Vaani’s love interest. A forgettable debut though, as Bishesh doesn’t even get a decent backstory to explain his awkward Nepali and fluent American accent.

Then there’s this guy who’s named himself “Leo Tank” playing “Jit Jung”, Vaani’s elder brother. Dear Mr Leo Tank, if we ever conducted a public poll on the worst stage names ever, you’d probably come in Top 10.

There seems to be a delusion that over-compensating for one’s weakness will not get noticed. But that’s not how it works. Besides the supporting actors trying their best to fit into the loose screenplay, we can figure out when the filmmakers got too lazy from the repetitive montages used in flashbacks, and when the filmmakers got too greedy with recurring product placement of a cooking oil.

Who should watch it?

The film is a first for many people involved in it. So if you’re that generous person who forgives newcomers and has disposable income and time, please hurry up before the multiplexes remove it entirely.

Director: Hari Humagain
Actors: Sumi Moktan, Sunny Singh, Vijay Lama
Run time: 2hrs 17mins
Genre: Action