Gustaakh Ishq & Single Salma Bring Civility Back On Screen
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These films revive a forgotten grammar of politeness, where language, restraint and consent quietly stand against the coarseness of the present, writes Ishita Sengupta.
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VIBHU PURI'S Gustaakh Ishq has a timeline, but it is impossible to discern. The dreamy aesthetics, complete with translucent curtains, blinkered pining, resistive romance and a swooning reunion signal a timelessness that betrays the straightforward 1998 setting. The old-world quality to the narrative only suits the simmering love story at the centre. A wayward man, Nawabuddin Saifuddin Rahman (Vijay Varma), meets a resolved woman, Minni (Fatima Sana Shaikh) and loses his heart sooner than he expects. Vishal Bhardwaj’s music, coupled with Gulzar’s words, scores their stolen glances as Gustaakh Ishq brings to mind an era where love was pursued and consent offered. The extent of softness suffused in every frame makes it anachronistic in the hyperaggressive time we have come to inhabit. But there is something else that makes Gustaakh Ishq rare, antique almost – its insistence on manners. In Puri’s film, mischief is bearable, but misconduct is not. Characters refer to each other with a bashful “ aap”, fingers graze but do not intertwine, and gaze throb with longing. The insistence on manners is so intense that a man is reprimanded when he mentions himself as “apun”. In the peace-building of this world, politeness is sacrosanct, even when it comes to oneself. Watch Love Aaj Kal, Shiddat now with OTTplay Premium. Get JioHotstar, Zee5, Discovery+, Sony LIV, Fancode and 25+ OTTs for only Rs 149 per month! |
Take, for instance, the central pursuit of Gustaakh Ishq. Nawabuddin is a man who lives in Daryaganj, and all that he has received as inheritance from his father is a printing press. Like a derelict media house that refused to resort to suggestive blind items and thereby risked irrelevance, Nawabuddin resists selling out. Cheap literature is easy to stomach, but he waits it out till he hears about a poet, Aziz Baig (Naseeruddin Shah), his father’s old friend, who famously never printed his work. Reading some of Aziz’s old couplets convinces him that the only way to save the press is by printing Aziz’s poems as his younger brother breathes down his neck to take the easier way out. Nawabuddin arrives in Maler Kotla, Punjab, to convince the recluse but introduces himself as a disciple. CONTINUE READING... |
Kunal Kemmu’s Single Papa Tries Hard To Be Funny But Forgets To Have Fun
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Single Papa comes down under its own weight with its unending subplots. The humour is familiar, repetitive, leaning as it is almost always on puncturing orthodoxy by making wokeness the punchline.
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SINGLE PAPA, the six-episode series on Netflix, is a good example of a people-pleaser that ends up pleasing no one. It takes a single-line, off-kilter premise — a man desperately wanting to have a child — and runs with it in all possible directions. In the process, it not only misses the goal post but also loses the plot. This is a travesty because helming Single Papa is Kumal Kemmu , an actor with assured comic timing. Directed by Shashank Khaitan, Hitesh Kewalya and Neeraj Udhwani, the show centres on Gaurav Gehlot (Kemmu), a man-child who really wants to have kids. His resolve tears his marriage apart, but Gaurav remains undeterred. Things come to a head when a small baby is found in his car, seemingly abandoned. The sight evokes pent-up parental feelings in him, and his decision to adopt wreaks havoc in his conservative family. Stream the latest films and shows with OTTplay's Power Play monthly pack, for only Rs 149. |
Notwithstanding the heavy-handed treatment later, it is a sweet entry point for the series, not least because, apart from Kemmu Single Papa is studded with a cast who can make even the most absurd lines work. Manoj Pahwa is hilarious as Jatin, Gaurav’s father, who runs an alcohol store in Gurugram; his feelings are tied in such a knot that the only way he expresses them is through updating sentimental posts on social media. There is also Ayesha Raza playing Gaurav’s mother, Poonam, a God-fearing woman who really wants their daughter, Namrata (Prajakta Koli), to get married. Both Pahwa and Raza take their time with their lines, delivering them with a finesse of veterans and elevating silliness to an artform. CONTINUE READING... — I.S. |
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