Tatsam Mukherjee

My first reading of Agnes (played by Eva Victor) was that of a buoyant 30-something person struggling to hold on to her twenties, shirking responsibility of a long-term relationship (or anything that we consider ‘grown-up’), sleep-walking through a listless mid-career, and probably too afraid to leave the comfort of her surroundings. Living in a small home in New England, she’s visited by her best friend and former house-mate, Lydie (Naomie Ackie), a writer in New York, working on her next book. It appears some time has passed since they last met. As they catch up, Lydie talks about her book, and Agnes deflects any conversation about herself. I braced myself for a film that ends with Agnes acting like a responsible adult, exiting her dream world.

A child’s voiceover at the beginning of a horror/mystery film might not be the most novel choice, but there’s a way director Zach Creggers uses it in his second film, Weapons, in a matter-of-fact way, making it that much more eerie. Voiced by Scarlett Sher, the voiceover starts telling a story about a town where something strange happened, and the townsfolk were so embarrassed by the incident that they buried it within themselves. It’s a startling detail for a horror movie, where an untoward ‘supernatural’ incident becomes the cause of terror, haunted mansions and urban legends. But Cregger appears more interested in our human reaction – of shame, sadness and denial – to the said incident, refusing to articulate it to the rest of the world. It’s most apparent in the way Cregger uses George Harrison’s Beware of Darkness – probably too literal a choice for a horror film. However, it’s only when the mournful ballad plays as 17 school kids running with their arms spread out, disappear into darkness, is when we register the grief. As the opening voiceover warns us – this incident will never be solved.

Nothing underlines the wild, rebellious heart of Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal (2018) quite like Santosh Narayanan’s music. For example: during a stretch, when the hero (Kathir) and heroine (Anandhi) are spending time apart, after he’s warned by her father since they belong to different castes, the hip-hop song Naan Yaar starts playing to some dynamic visuals. As much as it’s about heartbreak, the sequence is also about the protagonist’s inner tussle with his own beliefs. Shazia Iqbal’s Dhadak 2, a Hindi adaptation of the 2018 Tamil film, uses a more conventional ballad (sung by Vishal Mishra) during this stretch, muting the male protagonist’s reckoning with his identity, replacing it with a more palatable subplot of aching, star-crossed lovers. The choice dilutes the source material’s counter-cultural intent, making it a more yielding piece of work.

Yes, I’m as surprised as any of you. Marvel’s lacklustre run since Avengers: Endgame (2019) has meant that Kevin Feige has been looking to consolidate for a while. He’s been badgered with constant firefighting that’s been needed since the sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 (Black Panther), the abuse allegations against Jonathan Majors, who was playing Kang – supposed to be built up as the next big Marvel villain after Thanos – and the reality-check that Feige got for the female-led films like Black Widow (2020), The Marvels (2023), and a black Captain America (played by Anthony Mackie) – all of which turned out to be disappointments. Coupled with Marvel’s strained relations with director Ryan Coogler, actors Scarlet Johansson, Brie Larson, and the two main draws – Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr sitting out (till RDJ was announced to return as Doctor Doom) – it all looked like the cinematic universe was too scattered. But that seemed to take a new turn with Thunderbolts*, which teased reinvention of the Marvel movies with almost a M Night Shyamalan-esque take on a superhero movie.

Director Kayoze Irani, son of actor Boman Irani, might be a fan of the Hollywood action-thrillers set in the middle-east. It might be the reason why I was reminded of films like Zero Dark Thirty (2012), Body of Lies (2008) and TV series Homeland (2011-2020) while watching Irani’s feature debut, Sarzameen. These films/shows valourise and sympathise with American national security agencies like the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the US armed forces. They have been criticised for (sometimes unintentionally) legitimising the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and characterising the locals in simplistic hues as barbarians and/or victims. It’s clear that Irani hasn’t grappled with the curdling reputation of such films/shows that inspired his debut, because he showcases similarly problematic politics in his own venture. It fits like a glove, of course. Divided by international borders, united by our effort to prioritise sleek, sexy thrills over nuanced, empathetic narratives.

As a follow-up to the 2022 blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick – it only seemed sensible for director Joseph Kosinski to inch towards a racing film. After all, the Tom Cruise-starrer had all the dazzle of a sports or a heist film, more than a war film. The enemy is not named or seen, and the film is shouldered on a breathless sequence of planes flying low through a ravine (to avoid the enemy’s radar) with a stopwatch counting down. It’s such a jaw-droppingly idiot proofed mission, it borders on a parody of a war film – if it wasn’t so technically proficient and slick to look at. It conveys something Kosinski echoes with F1: if you’re looking for meaningful critique of existing power structures – he’s probably not your guy. Kosinski only wants to show you a good time.

One tends to forget how formal and dull a majority of mainstream filmmaking has become until a true-blue swashbuckling director comes along and destroys our notions of what films should look like. It happened to me during the opening stretch of Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which begins with a strange corner-angle shot (by Boyle’s regular, Anthony Dod Mantle) showing a bunch of children, cramped into one room, watching an episode of Teletubbies. The handy cam aesthetic paints dread into the visual – as does the commotion outside as we hear elders scream at each other. And suddenly the door breaks, and in classic Boyle fashion, we’re racing through narrow hallways, to open fields with the “infected” chasing a young boy called Jimmy. It’s a sublime opening sequence filled with paranoia, thrill and weighty subtext, as Jimmy’s father – a priest praying inside the local church – awaits these undead (zombies), calling it his judgement day.

In R.S. Prasanna’s Sitaare Zameen Par, pegged as a spiritual sequel to Taare Zameen Par (2008), Aamir Khan doesn’t want to leave anything to chance. So, in a slapstick scene, Khan’s character Gulshan Arora – a perpetually irate, foul-tempered, confrontational basketball coach – is barking instructions to his player. It’s the final few seconds of the game, and the scorecard shows the teams neck and neck, this one penalty shot might seal the game for Arora’s team. He screams – Be mindful! This is our only chance! You’re our Arjun, so keep your eyes on the prize! This whole game rests on you making the shot! After a point even the player, Satbir (Aroush Datta), gets tired and tells Khan’s character to shut up. As the gag ends with people giggling around him, Khan in his own exaggerated manner gulps down the humiliation – without the slightest hint that his latest film is similarly verbose and patronising towards its audience.