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‘Zero’ is a tall tale about a short man. This man is played by Bolly­wood’s evergreen romantic hero Shahrukh Khan, who digitally shrinks to become the four feet tall Bauua Singh, a self-centered and motor-mouthed 38-year-old bachelor from a small town in Meerut, India. It isn’t the first time we’ve seen Khan shed out his arms-wide-open lover boy persona. We’ve watched him play a video-game character turned superhero (Ra.One) and an obsessed fan of a Bol­lywood superstar (Fan). Here too he pushes through a physically challenging role with some help from his Red Chillies VFX team. But take away the scale of the film’s production and its visual effects, and ‘Zero’ is a very problematic film that hops from one genre to another and takes giant leaps of faith. The result? An unsta­ble film that impresses, con­fuses and frustrates in equal proportions.

Who should watch it?

If you can buy the outlandishness of the movie and get past the film’s giant logical leaps then you might find ‘Zero’ entertaining.

It isn’t the first time we’ve seen Khan shed out his arms-wide-open lover boy persona

Bauua Singh is introduced as a wayward son of a well-off father (Tigmanshu Dhulia). Bauua spends his time either annoying his belt-wielding father or throwing cash at any­one who flatters him by link­ing him with his Bollywood crush, actress Babita Kumari (Katrina Kaif). Bauua’s search for a matching life partner takes him to Aafiya (Anushka Sharma). There’s a one in a million chance that Aafiya, a scientist suffering from cere­bral palsy (whose research has helped discover water in Mars) will fall for Bauua (whose studies stopped after 10th grade).

But Bauua woos Aafiya with his street-smartness and Aafi­ya finds his antics non-judg­mental and unlike the pity she receives from everyone around. She goes head over heels for Bauua and even fights off her parents who badmouth Bauua for his height and education. And then just Bauua’s dream-girl Babita Kumari crosses his path. He’s so smitten to see her in real life that he aban­dons everything, even Aafiya, to pursue her.

‘Zero’ populates itself with quirky characters that we don’t often see in a mainstream masala film. Aside from Bauua and Aafi­ya who suffer from unique physical conditions, the oth­er major character Babita Kumari is drawn from real life. She’s a spoilt celebri­ty, drinking away her wor­ries to get over a breakup. And Katrina Kaif finds the right mojo to give us a no-holds-barred Babita Kumari. She even over­shadows Anushka Sharma’s inconsistent and overtly dra­matic portrayal of the wheel­chair-bound Aafiya.

When you watch Bauua and all the other main leads of ‘Zero’ in isolation, there is so much to like about them. But when they are pitted together by a plain plot that is not ashamed of its outlandish façade, we as audience lose connection between parts and forget what kind of movie we are watching. Is this a romantic epic? Is this a space explo­ration sci-fi flick?

Director Aanand L Rai and his frequent screenwrit­er Himanshu Sharma fail to deliver a coherent narra­tive. In ‘Zero’ they bank on Shahrukh Khan’s charm to pull off big and highly imag­inative set pieces. And Khan pulls out all stops to give us an earnest Bauua. But the plot’s silliness is too much to handle after the film’s mid­point and Bauua’s change of heart feels unearned and too hasty.

The silly ambition to patch up a rickety storyline with king size budget and high quality VFX work has dwarfed ‘Zero’ into a film that only impresses in parts and disap­points on a massive scale.

Movie: ZERO

Genre: Romantic Comedy

CAST: Shahrukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif

DIRECTION: Aanand L Rai

A recent opening on the Milap Road near Sanepa Chowk, Lalitpur, the Chimes Restaurant is already becoming famous for its luscious food and special events. From special jazz nights to live performances by the Kathmandu Strings Ensemble, and Special Seafood Sundays to Saturday/Sunday brunches, Chimes seems to have it all. Chiming with its slogan “Food for the Soul” it opens from breakfast to dinner and has a small but substantial option for desserts, including the Chef Special Cheesecake in different flavors. Upper Sanepa, known for its quiet and calm neighbor­hoods, perfectly suits the minimalist decorations and laidback ambience of Chimes.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Anti Pasti Platter

- Bealim House Chicken

- Grilled Duck

Opening hours: 9am - 10pm

Location: Sanepa, Lalitpur

Cards: Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 2,000

Reservations: 982-3717878

The collapse of a ten-year-old friendship between Mahesh, a tech entre­preneur (played by Karma) and Anil, a dentist (played by Raymon Das Shrestha), begins when the latter buys an expensive painting. Their mutual buddy Devashish, a DJ who will soon inherit his father’s pashmina busi­ness (played by Kundoon) and who usually does not care about the world, is frus­trated as he finds himself buffeted by the envy, pride and self-centric nature of his two friends.

Based on an award-win­ning play by Yasmina Reza, and directed by Sabine Lehmann, ‘Art’ highlights the destructive nature of our negative emotions and how even an age-old friendship can fray when they go untethered.

The characters, their suppressed emotions and the events leading up to the opening of the play are introduced through humor­ous monologues. One can espy mutual bitterness of the characters towards each other through their restless­ness and the allusions they make. Mahesh’s envy of Anil is so strong that at times it becomes laughable. Devash­ish’s frustrated attempts to ease the tension between Mahesh and Anil also create some hilarious moments.

The experience is further enhanced by the musicals reiterating the events and the excellent soundtrack of Aman Karna and Prince Nepali which blends tunes of sarangis, guitars and electronic music. Kun­doon introduces his char­acter Devashish through a contemporary and catchy rap. Director Sabine Leh­mann and set director Lud­milla Hungerhuber make a brief appearance in the musical and proclaim the arrival of dark moments between the friends. Despite all the negativity the musi­cal packs in, it still evokes smiles and even laughter from the audience.

Further, moments of slap­stick keep the audience pre­pared for the exhilarating or devastating moments that are about to unfold. The ele­vating anger and the silly actions of the characters are accompanied by short sarangi notes. The repetitive, energetic electronic music played when the stage is being prepared between acts makes time flow slowly, thus giving us a perception that no time passed at all. The music also serves to heighten the tension.

The set is also colorful, and flooded with bright lights. Devashish’s messy room reflects his lack of care for life while Anil’s room sug­gests his grandiose personal­ity. The dresses of the char­acters are also revelatory. Anil is decked out in a white suit while Mahesh is draped in a black one, clearly show­ing the disharmony between the two characters. Devash­ish, in his role of a mediator who seeks to lower tension between his two friends, is dressed in a black and white t-shirt, showing that he is completely neutral.

The play suggests that we better learn to keep our emo­tions in check if we are not to let them destroy our lives. And it is worth watching. The show starts at 7:15 every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (from Dec 14 to 23). The final run will be from Dec 27-29. The venue is Hotel Vajra, Bijeswari, Swayambhu, and reservations can be made by calling 01-4271545.

Most of the world’s problems arise when emotions overtake us

APEX CHAT with Sabine Lehmann, Director, Studio 7 - Naga Theater

What inspired you to direct this play?

I like the works of Yas­mina Reza because they are quite straightforward in terms of human emotions. Her works vividly portray human behaviors and how negative emotions manifest and destroy everything. But her plays are not com­pletely dark as the char­acters always reconcile in the end and the entire pro­cess is filled with humor. Apart from my love of the source material, I also like working with Karma, Kun­doon and Raymon, as they understand and cooperate with each other. I wanted to challenge them to per­form a play like this where the portrayal of the human emotions needs to be pitch-perfect.

What is your favorite part of the play?

There are many parts that I like but the favorite part is probably the reali­zation and reconciliation phase, when the characters realize how their negative emotions will gradually destroy everything if let loose. It is then that they confront the fact that it takes a lot of time to change their feelings towards each other. Since they have insulted each other mercilessly and in an evil way, reconciliation seems impossible. But something dramatic happens and set­tles the tension between the two friends. It is this moment that makes this play a rollercoaster ride.

Was there any message you wanted to convey through this play?

Most of the world’s prob­lems arise when emotions overtake us. This explains why political systems fail, why rapes continue, why the society is getting sub­missive, why countries declare war and why men get into a mess. If we know how to deal with negative emotions, we get closer to solving those issues. It is okay for people to pursue wealth, power and rec­ognition but they should not forget the essentials. The first step towards such a healthy pursuit is to recognize the negative impulses within us. Kar­ma’s character starts this in the play when he says to Raymon’s character that they were happy with each other when they were not acting independently with regards to their taste.

Considering that you do not share the cultural background of your audience how do you ensure that the underly­ing message resonates?

I did not think that was the problem as human emotions are common across all cultures. You can recognize them and relate to the actions performed under their influence. Any­body will be able to grasp instances in the play where negative emotions are slowly gripping the minds of the characters. They will have no problem recogniz­ing them and getting what happens in the play.

2002’s ‘Spider-Man’, directed by Sam Raimi, is often considered a land­mark movie for the super-he­ro genre. It tasted glory way before Hollywood struck gold in the box-office with the Avengers and the X-Men series. It was able to break the jinx on expensively-produced and CGI-heavy comic book hero flicks that had a tumultu­ous history of underperform­ing commercially and anger­ing comic book fans. Then, as the situation improved for the comic book-based mov­ies, the ‘Spider-Man’ movies ironically took a bad turn. After Raimi’s three ‘Spi­der-Man’ movies, the series was rebooted once in 2012 under the direction of Marc Webb, and then again in 2017 with Spider-Man gracing the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The idea of having yet another ‘Spider-Man’ ori­gin story can bring only one question to mind: How many more Spider-Man can we take? Enter ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’, the latest animated film, and believe it or not, the movie’s basic premise revolves around the same question. That much is evident from the film’s fun trailer but the film goes much beyond.

 Who should watch it?

The animation style and the superb visual and dialogue driven humor gives this film a repeat value. This is a thoroughly enjoyable family entertainer for both hardcore Marvel fans and general audiences who want to have a fun time at the movies with their kids. Make time for this!

The humor is complimented by an equal doses of dramatically touching moments and exhilarating action sequences

We get a new Spider-Man in teenager Miles Morales (voiced by Shameikh Moore) who has to work together with five more Spider-Men from alter­nate dimensions. These other Spider-Men are a potbellied middle-aged Peter B Parker (a terrific Jake Johnson), a sassy Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld), an anime inspired Penny Park­er (Kimiko Glenn), a noir pri­vate eye (Nicholas Cage) and a cartoon pig (John Mulaney). They are thrust together after a massive collider operated by the evil Kingpin ruptures the space and time continuum. Miles has to learn the ropes to master his newfound super­powers as well as gel with this ragtag team of Spider-Men so that everyone gets to their respective homes.

At one glance Miles is no different from the young Peter Parker, except that he is of mixed race, his cop father is African-American and his nurse mother is Latino. Miles is a geek, enjoys spraying graffiti art and is awkward when it comes to talking to girls. He also shares a close relationship with his uncle (Mahershala Ali). And just like Peter, he gets bitten by a radioactive spider. But within these stark similarities Miles embodies the spirited hero of the ghettos. He continues to take pride in where he comes from, even after his father urg­es him to take scholarship at a private school as his ticket out of the ghettos. Amid all the other Spider-Men stuff that’s going on, the story gives us plenty of reasons to feel strongly about the raw Miles as he earns his right to don his Spidey suit.

From its uniquely stylized animation design to the clev­er screenplay that incorpo­rates meta-humor and funny dialogue exchanges, ‘Into the Spider-Verse’ gives us plenty to enjoy. It coolly makes fun of itself and is self-referential to the Spider-Man franchise. Lately the super-hero genre flicks have grown a bolder sense of humor, so much so that this style is getting rath­er tiring to see. That is not the case here. The makers and the voice actors genu­inely make the ride fun and light-hearted.

The humor is compli­mented by an equal doses of dramatically touching moments and exhilarating action sequences. Even with so many characters and story threads, the film never feels bloated or hard to follow. The seamless writing and direc­tion make the story coherent and pack in plenty of surpris­es and twists, leading up to a deeply satisfying finale.

‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ is success­ful in accomplishing a rare feat. It gives an energetic and fresh spin to the deadbeat Spider-Man uni­verse and actually pumps new blood in the franchise to make us more excited about what’s next to come from Miles Morales.

Movie: SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

Genre: animation

CAST: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Hailee Steinfeld

DIRECTION: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman