The Odd Films Blog

The Girl on the Train, 2021.

The Girl on the Train is a 2015 psychological thriller novel written by British Author Paula Hawkins that gives different narratives from three different women about relationship troubles and binge drinking.

There is something really off about this film adaptation right from the start. Look at the way the film indulges to the NRI audience with the only Indian sensibility being the quintessential wedding song + heartbreak song + my life is miserable song + new day, new world song. Be it from how all the opening scenes begin in the forest to how the editor cuts to show Parineeti Chopra’s wound on her forehead establishing a physical clash between them. Mira Kapoor, the protagonists story is rushed through with the least character development almost as if they were forced to make this movie.

The film starts by showing Mira Kapoor as a successful lawyer who wins every case she sets her mind to, not caring about the consequences as she wants to ‘do good’. She meets Shekhar at a wedding and they fall in love over a mandatory wedding song and thats as cliche as it can get. They are expecting a child when Mira decides to take up a high profile case and Shekhar is against it. Mira plans on quitting her profession and wants to settle down, but after a car accident she suffers from anterograde amnesia and takes to alcohol. They split eventually.

There is absolutely no time for you to understand what’s happening and it seems like the director has had enough of background story and is in a hurry to move to the central conflict: The murder of Nusrat John, who turns out to be the woman Mira is jealous of for having the perfectly normal life.

For the most part Mira remains a mystery. The film tries to communicate Mira’s emotional state through her mascara. The darker it gets, the more of an emotional mess she is. The best part, for me personally, about Paula Hawkins’ book were the passages dedicated to understanding what the protagonist was feeling and understanding her better. At one point in the film, it felt like neither did the actors nor the director knew what was actually happening in the film, everyone seemed to have lost a track of the main plot making it unnecessarily chaotic.

The film did however complete the main goal (if this was it) of showing relationships and how they affect other people. You never know how each decision in your life would affect another person and this film does beautifully capture that. They rushed through the important things which I feel they otherwise would have made a better impact and were very slow showing some not so important scenes.

The only reason I could watch the entire film were the songs. There was not a single song that I actually minded and I do not remember when was the last time I did not mind a song in a thriller.

All said an done; this movie was just a one time watch. I would not recommend watching this, in case you would still like to know the story just watch the videos of the songs thats more than enough, you’ll end up saving time as well!

Tribhanga, 2021.

Tribhanga – Tedhi Medhi Crazy is essentially a story about a family; three generations of women, their struggles and aspirations.

The film begins with Anuradha, a Bollywood actor- dancer, rushing into the hospital after hearing a news about her mother, Nayantara who is a well known writer. Both women, Nayantara and Anuradha, are fierce and headstrong whereas Masha, Anuradha’s daughter is a bit different from rest of the family. She is a housewife who is ready to make compromises on anything as long as she leads a “normal” life that she was deprived of in her childhood.

The drama unfolds primarily through Milan’s perspective, who starts out as Nayantara’s aide in writing an autobiography. Much of the film focuses on the relationship shared by Anuradha and Nayantara; the sentimental-painful memories of her mother that Anuradha has hidden in some part of her mind. As much as they loved each other, they were not able to express it properly leading to some tension. The storyline is so beautiful that it captivates your attention and you can almost feel that you’re a part of their dysfunctional family.

One of the scenes that I personally appreciated the most was when Anuradha herself explains through the language of dance: Nayantara is Abhanga, a slightly mad genius; Mashsa is Samabhanga, completely balanced; and Anuradha is skewed and weird, she is Tribhanga.

The film incorporates multiple elements from sexual assault, domestic violence and professional ambitions however the 90- odd minutes were not enough to bring attention to everything in an organised manner. It however triggers an interesting thought in our minds that when a mother chooses something for her child, she only wants the best and sometimes forgets that the best might not be what the child would appreciate at that stage. But does that mean parents shouldn’t choose for their children?

As complex the story was shown, the ending could have been ruined easily instead it was so beautifully put together. It truly makes us wonder how even the smallest decisions of ours affect our lives as well others around us.

All in all, this Netflix original is a brilliant emotional, thought provoking film even though you might find it stretching unnecessarily in between a few scenes. As brilliant as the storyline, cast and acting was, Director Renuka Shahane could have run the film a few more minutes to achieve the full potential of her film.

Mulholland Drive, 2001.

Categorised as a psychological thriller, mulholland drive is a classic mind bending mystery movie. Directed by David Lynch. The protagonist, Betty Elms played by Naomi Watts, is a cherry, aspiring actress who arrives in Hollywood after winning a show in her hometown. Betty soon after meets a a beautiful dark haired amnesiac actress, Rita played by Laura Elena Harring, who stumbles upon Mulholland Drive after surviving a car crash. Rita has forgotten her own name and started calling herself ‘Rita’ after looking at a poster for an old Rita Hayworth film.

Both women, along with a few other mind bending stories, help each other out to uncover information about Rita’s past and help Betty to land work as an actress. I won’t elaborate on the story as it is a pleasure to see how the pieces begin to fit in the story. The film is very captivating and truly an example of what great cinema can achieve as the analysis and explanation of the story is still ongoing.

The dream like qualities give rise to many confusing and unexplained scenes in the film. It is one of the most challenging and viewer engrossing films made so far. Characters appear and disappear as interesting plot tangents are cut off abruptly. Late in the running time, after a scene that appears to show her waking from a dream, the protagonist morphs, unexplained, from the optimistic Betty to a haunted-looking, failed actress named Diane!

There is something very fascinating about the film since it prioritises questions over answers, by drawing our attention to something and cutting off the scene to another. It stretches our expectations of what cinema can achieve while also providing aa richly fulfilling experience.

This was originally created to be a television series which later on the producers decided to make it a feature film. The half-pilot, half-feature film has resulted in keeping the general meaning of the film’s events open to interpretation. Lynch has also declined to give an explanation and keep the audience speculate on what transpires. He gave the film the tagline: “A love story in the city of dreams.”

It took me so long to understand the movie with so many theories floating around the web and to be able to find the correct words to describe this masterpiece. I am going to have to watch it again once more just to make sure I’ve not missed out of a clue!

Thank you for suggesting this movie, friend. This classic shouldn’t be missed at all and if you watch it do let me know your opinions and how you think the story ended.

Arrival, 2016.

Arrival, set in a barely distant future has a central theme of unfolding deep truths about language, imagination and human relations. It is based on “Story of Your Life,” a short story written by Ted Chiang in 1998. It is a smart, gripping, logical, twisty yet serious movie that you may or may not understand completely in the first watch. Something similar to The Matrix, but very different.

Amy Adams in a scene from the movie. Image credits google.

In the beginning of the film, we find out that the protagonist, Dr. Louise Banks has suffered a very tragic loss and this functions as a prelude to the entire plot of the film.

One day, 12 2D elliptical crafts or half oval shaped UFOs land over 12 different parts of Earth, hovering just a few feet above the ground. Nobody knows why. The governments from all over the world are trying to communicate with each other with whatever little information they have found out and figure out what this means. Military intelligence visits Dr. Banks and requests her to translate whatever the unknown being was trying to communicate.

Dr. Banks trying to communicate with Aliens. Image credits google.

Working with the military and a physicist, Ian Delloner, Dr. Banks embarks on this journey seeking to find an answer to two very simple questions: Why are they here? And what do they want? She eventually finds out that visual communication is a better way for them to understand each other and a lot of what they said started making sense suddenly. As she gets closer to asking the big question, the world’s uneasiness with the government taking so much time to uncover what is happening, increases and people start riots, protests and forming cults.

I won’t talk much about the plot because it’s pure pleasure to watch the story unfold. For a movie with so many complex ideas and concepts, it shows only what’s important and you can’t make sense till the very ending when all the pieces begin to fit. Its one of the most extraordinary films directed by Denis Villeneuve and scripted by Eric Heisserer. Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner have once again showed us how flexible they are as actors and this movie has just made me like them even more.

The movie shows us how a simple thing that we take for granted such as language, actually plays a major role in our lives. It shows us that more than words, perception of the object is crucial to effective communication. For example, when we talk about colors, until we specify what particular shade we are talking about, no one would understand completely. Take Blue for instance, till the time we do not specify teal or sky blue or cobalt blue, everyone will only think of the color blue.

Alternatively, till the time we don’t have words specifying a particular emotion, we will use the same word for different emotions. For instance, a grin and a smirk are both 2 types of smiling but we have a different image of a person in our mind when use either of the words.

The film has a lot to offer to those who can think out of the box and it is definitely worth watching atleast to the bare minimum once or maybe a few hundred times… I would like to end this post with a quote from the movie;

“If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”
Dr. Louise Banks.

Meri pyaari Bindu, 2017.

Meri pyaari Bindu is a narrative that showcases the wishful thinking hopeless romantics share waiting for a worthy love. Sometimes people who are only a chapter in the book of your life, end up being the entire book and even if you tear a page out, you won’t be able to crumple it. There will always be memories and emotions attached.

Abhi and Bindu loved each other ever since they first realised what love actually was. Abhi was completely head over heels in love with Bindu. Her smile, her laughter, her craziness and everything about her. He supported her through everything, even when she wanted to be a singer and nobody encouraged her to continue. Abhi always had his heart in his sleeves for Bindu since the first time they heard a song together.

Bindu couldn’t be anymore different from him. Her love was something that couldn’t be contained in a box. She never consciously ran away from the chemistry they shared or the bond they had, she was just walking towards herself. Self absorbed, but in a good way. She had a huge list of things she had to complete and didn’t care about anything else in the world.

When the two hearts crossover again after a few years, a lot has changed. Even though Abhi and Bindu had found love at the right time and they nurtured it pretty well, but sometimes fireworks are hard to contain. This love remains in a space reserved for it. “Ab main sacch mein bhaari hogayi hu” Bindu says as she talks about the weight of her responsibilities that she can not run away from like she used to. After being a wild, free-bird who had no intentions of settling down, we see Bindu who was now a housewife and a mother. She had her own little world and she was as content as she could ever be. Contrary to popular belief, I think we grow the most during these years when we’re independent and carefree. Somewhere there we all felt and understood each word Bindu was saying.

In a world of spotify playlists, social media and physical attraction, this movie makes me feel normal for wanting to live in the nostalgia of mixtapes, letters and emotional connections. “…Kabhi koi gaana itna pasand hai ki khatam hone se darr lagta hai? Kabhi koi gaana pure din hothon se jane ka naam nahi leta aur kabhi koi gaane ki sirf dhun yaad reh jaati hai laakh gunguna lo saala lafz kabhi yaad nahi aate par jo yaad reh jaye bas vo hi umr bhar muskuraane, gungunane k liye kafi hota hai…”

What is love? A feeling? A concept? A consequence of a series of experiences you had? There’s no proper definition for this word but everyone has experienced it atleast once. Call it a phase, but I can guarantee you that you had atleast one person in your life who you were willing to sacrifice everything for, take a chance even if it doesn’t exist. And this movie is for that love.

“…Phir bhi nazarein na tum milaana, dil ka aitbaar nahi…” To all of us who love the ones we never truly lost. Just accepted and moved on. For the sake of those who care for us and most importantly our own.

A must watch movie and my personal favourite. Thank you to Mr. Ayushmaan Khurana and Ms. Parineeti Chopra to play these characters beautifully. Thank you to Mr. Suprotim Sengupta for writing such an amazing story and Mr. Akshay Roy for directing it and of course all the supporting actors and everyone else involved to make this film a classic.