Aug 25, 2013 08:58 AM
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Madras Cafe is a non-glitzy spy thriller from John Abraham's home production. The film basically starts and ends with the assassination plot of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi despite the director’s denial to the media, saying it as "an espionage thriller" drawn from real-life events. At the least it can be seen as another perspective to the whole assassination episode. It depicts the backdrop of the Sril Lankan Civil War of the 1990s and shows in the form of a reference(read countdown) to the assassination.
Director Shoojit Sircar has managed to maintain his “Vicky Donor” image of a genuine creative director. The movie originally named as JAFFNA is a nice directorial venture for him and is not just another desi bond movie.
John Abraham(Major Vikram Singh) is the Army Officer specially bought to intelligence wing(RAW) to conduct secret operations in Sri Lanka. The yesteryears model has finally flourished as an actor slightly away from the just macho characters. Story of the movie is based on his duty, emotional family moments and his moments with LTF(read LTTE), a journalist, a conspirator and a war like situation. John Abraham justifies the character.
Nargis Fakhri(as Jaya) is a London based Indian journalist who is there to reveal the truth about the civil war and in the process uncovers a conspiracy. It is said that this is her first movie where her voice isn't dubbed. She helps shaping the flow of the movie and this underrated actress has impressed me a lot for the first time too. I however found her American accent bit illusory as an UK reporter
Rashi Khanna(Domino's New Cheesy Boloroni Pizza ad) as Ruby is impressive in her debut. Her character brings emotional wings to the movie. Few feel, it was an unconnected element in the storyline but it certainly adds the right influence. Siddharth Basu comes out as a winner with the strong character(as Robin Dutt of RAW) and makes an impact in the whole film.
Prakash Belawadi suceeded in portraying the negative character(Bala) in very powerful way. This talented Bangalore guy is certainly going to return quickly in Bolly-flicks. There is an acute shortage of antiheroes these days.
Excepting the Ex-PM reference everywhere and few(only few) scenes the movie does not have much depiction of late Rajiv Gandhi. The storyline comes out very appealing without it albeit. The Ex-PM character is a Rajiv Gandhi lookalike (at least I felt so). The cleric Chandraswami’s involvement(as suspected) was depicted as Guruji while referring financing of the assassination plot. Jaya(the foreign journalist) says once to the RAW man Major Vikram “They know your first move before you even implement it” to show the deep conspiracy.
The movie sensibly avoids any specific names including Rajiv Gandhi(always referred as Ex PM), Sriperumbudur, LTTE or Prabhakaran while putting all look alike. I will give the story and screen play a big thumbs up. Cinematography too deserves cheers also for the choice of locations. Indian Army attacking the rebel forces sequences was shot in Thailand. Real AK-47s, 9mm Berettas and M60s were used, for which Indian government does not give permission. Army personnel were hired to demonstrate an actual war sequence prior to the shoot.
Shantonu Moitra’s score(instrumentals) are of top quality. Please listen to them at night before bed or with a good headphone. Melody and meaningful lyrics appear to have made to blend perfectly. Without any loud songs(actually there is an easily missed very nice song: Khud se) the music score is perfect.
Yet, few things stop me from rating the movie as 5 star or even 4.5 star is the inclusion of an unnecessary sex scene to frame Bala in an otherwise clean family movie when there are many ways to paint that. The weak depiction of foreign conspiracy also did not catch fire. Similarly the movie failed to indicate the role of Sri Lankan Army or politicians, giving an imprint as if Jaffna is a part of India. One fails to understand the ultimate reason of depression for Major Vikram while he was a tough combatant even after the killing of his beloved.
Well, I am not aware of the alleged funding by Rajapakse or Italian Mafia. In spite of these microscopic critic gaps the movie flows without creating any disinterest at any moment for 130 minutes. You will not be yawning at your seat at any point, for sure.
