MOHALLA ASSI - Tango in Holy Benaras !!

This movie shows the problems that arise when two cultures mix and it challenges the popular view that immigration is an issue only in western countries like USA. 

Varanasi or Benaras is an ancient town famous among the religious in India for centuries. Now it seems to have fascinated the young pretty ladies from the west (US,France etc) and has therefore affected the economy of this poor town where 'Pandas' survive by foretelling future and performing religious services. Their God is Shiva whom they address as Babaji.  They live frugally and their houses line narrow Gullies. They find it hard to raise a family with their meager earnings but their strict Hindu religious upbringing prevents some of them to bow to temptations from the west and allow these skimpily dressed pretty girls into their old houses as renters even when they are offered high rents by these beauties. [There is a smooth talking local who markets the ladies from the west to the Pandas for a commission.]  However, as we see in some scenes, there are a few locals who have succumbed to the temptations not only of money but also of lust.

The old people gather in cafes made of wooden planks and there are long angry discussions around the topic of corruption of their religious traditions by these new immigrants who are ready to marry the poor locals so they can get visa extensions!! They would like to protect the traditions of the old city. They  also worry about their favored God Babaji being supplanted by Lord Rama of Ayodhya ;which is a reference to the religious issues that arise from time to time in India!

One such Panda is our upright hero (Sunny Deol) who used to get angry even at the suggestion of renting to these ladies but finally compromises because he cannot provide the extra clothing and fees for his children. He lets a young lady from the west into his house and teaches her Sanskrit while his harried wife caters to her other needs like food. They even drown their Babaji image in the Ganges with tears to convert their little temple into an attached bathroom for the renter. Such are the woes of the poor and simple people of Assi !! But now they are in a somewhat better financial condition.

Meanwhile, one Panda runs away to America with his American girlfriend , leaving his Indian family in Assi ! He returns back towards the end of the movie ready to reform Assi with the help of his new American wife, with new liberal views that challenge traditions!! A happy compromise ??

A FIGHT FOR JUSTICE - a 'Kidnap' movie from Bollywood

Source: Amazon Video [No Trailer]

This 'kidnap' movie has two endings - a Hollywood style and a new rebellious Bollywood style.

The Home Minister's young son is kidnapped by a poor man and the entire team of police officers and other members of the government and media are trying to track him down. Yet this is not a ransom movie. All the kidnapper wants is his son back who, we initially assume, must have been kidnapped by someone. After display of lot of anger and screaming and sophisticated gadgetry ,include Apple tablets,  the team cannot track him down because the kidnapper and his victim keep moving in Indian buses and trains.

Finally, we discover that the kidnapper's only son was killed in the collapse of bridge caused by faulty construction. It is in the scenes displaying father's shock when he first hears the news of his son's death in the hospital that Irrfan shines as an actor !! [ It is obvious that his mind is finding it difficult to believe that his son is gone when we see him looking around and calling his son's name even after hearing the news of his death while holding his son's shoes and school bag..]

The kidnapped child develops sympathy for his kidnapper, which is not the classic Stockholm syndrome but real empathy for a grieving father.

Towards the end , like in a Hollywood Denzel Washington movie, the kidnapper is shot by the police at a bus stop. But this is not a Hollywood movie and therefore there is an alternate ending :  the kidnapper asks that the home minister and the bridge construction team appear in his small residence along with a TV person or he will blow up the child and himself. They are forced to oblige. So on live TV the kidnapper makes the responsible people confess that the bridge collapsed due to the endemic corrupt practices of the contractor as well as the responsible government people. Then the kidnapper releases everyone and turns himself in. 

STRANGER THAN FICTION .....naut !!

What are lonely middle-aged fastidious people, who like to time their every step with the precision of an atomic clock, likely to experience but mental psychosis !! However, this time the voice that our hero hears is not imaginary but that of a female author who seems even sicker than our hero...that is because she kills her heroes at the end of her stories and therefore is hesitant to write anymore even when her publisher pushes and pushes her. The lady author's voice has taken the authority of God and  therefore our hero is afraid that he is going to die when the voice tells him so. 

Our hero and his friend (doctor?) accidentally discover that the voice belongs to a real person when he overhears that voice on the TV. It is indeed stranger than fiction. Then he tries to track the author down..... Does he survive by asking the author to change the ending of her forthcoming novel ?

I believe this is a movie with a nice story without too much screaming and facial contortions from Will F. who plays our hero. Even when he is playing an unpopular but humble IRS agent....