Manorama-Six feet under

My rating: 4 stars Starring: Abhay Deol, Raima Sen, Gul Panag, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sarika Satyaveer Singh Randhawa (Abhay Deol) is a simpleton, down-on-his-luck government employee and a wanna-be writer. His one and only creation is a book titled Manorama which is a thriller and barely sold any copies. He is visited by Sarika (Manorama) in the middle of one night, who claims to be the wife of politician (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and suspects him of cheating her. She had read the book, thus thinks that he can spy, offers Satyaveer money to spy on her husband. In need of cash, Satyaveer accepts the offer. Here begins a tortuous path, which leads him to Manorama's roommate Sheetal (Raima Sen) and Minister P.P. Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) where nothing is what he believed. The movie had me spell-bound for the entirety of 138min of its run. It had subtle hints all along which all made sense by the end of it and one can only marvel at the expertise with which it was all spun together. The dialogues are exceptional and fit well with the characters, which in turn were very realistic and appropriately made less glamorous. It is off-beat and thankfully unconventional. What I loved most about this movie is the way the characters are: so very in touch with reality, the way people actually are. A very welcome respite for everyone who is tired of watching the same old over and over. I will in fact go far enough to say that it is must watch for each and everyone who enjoys a good cinema

The Japanese Wife

My Rating: 4 stars.

Starring: Rahul Bose, Raima Sen, Chigusa Takaku, Moushumi Chatterjee

The tale is about a school teacher named Snehamoy (Rahul Bose), in a village of West Bengal earning $100 per month. He is an orphan and has been brought up by his aunt (Moushumi). During his college, he makes a pen-pal from Japan (Chigusa Takaku) whom he later marries over post only. Both are of meagre means and hence unable to meet each other though they try a lot. As the story progressed, a young widow (Raima Sen) and her son come to live with Snehamoy and his aunt who eventually starts to have some feelings towards the man. Also, after sometime, the Japanese wife falls really sick and is diagnosed with cancer. Snehamoy does everything that a husband would do in a situation like this (making allowance for the fact that they were an ocean apart).
The movie was very focussed and depicted exactly what the director wanted to. It has no sad stories about a poor family hardly able to make it through the day, or how difficult the life of a widow is. It showed a pure love and respect that a couple (should) have for each other. It is a timeless movie which as far as could gather needed no background score to make a person sit through it. It didn’t even require too much of a long story and thus wrapping it in 100 minutes. It being a bit of a drag at few points was one of its shortcomings. The movie was essentially in Bengali so subtitles are required for those who dont know it. The bond shown between two women in love with the same man can only be describes as beautiful.
The performances of all the actors were up to the hilt. They had the dialect down spat and not for even once were it faulty. It was a tremendously good effort by Aparna Sen.