Hi,
I have read all the five reviews about this movie. I’ll try not to overlap with them. Before writing about the movie, let me tell you that this is my first Rituparno Ghosh movie. So, I cannot compare and contrast this movie with ’Chocker Bali’ but will try to make a religious effort staying neutral and analysing it.
The movie is essentially about the feelings and emotions involved between two lovers (Mannu and Neeru) who meet after a span of 6 years. The title card says that that movie is based on a O’Henry’s novel without mentioning the name. As one of the earlier reviewer pointed out, it is the Jim and Della story of ’’The Gift of the Magi’’. If you still remember your high school English text books you can remember this.
There are totally six characters in the movie with 99.99% shot in indoors. So, Ritu must have spent very less for the movie except for the salaries of Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgan! Its definitely an art film type but with due respects to my earlier reviewers, this movie is different from ’Chameli’.
The reasons I attribute for this: In Chameli, the two characters are totally strangers so the dialogue delivery and drama was different. In Raincoat, the dialogues of lead pair (ex-lovers) are carefully crafted to avoid titillation. The movie commands decency in its entirety. As I said above, the movie is totally indoors and no mix-up in any part of the screenplay unlike Chameli. Ritu has also tried out the flashback scenes in the style of Godfather.
What surprised me more in the movie was the ready-made lies and cooked up stories available at disposal for both the characters. Atleast, Ajay was duping his friend’s profession as his, but Aishwarya was both creative and spontaneous in making her lies. At one instance, she says that she never accompanied her husband to England fearing the flight journey. She also goes to the extent saying that she might get locked inside the Aeroplane’s toilet by mistake! Though it sounds silly it was hilarious and gelled well with her character.
For Ajay, the role offered to him was a cake walk. He has done it with ease. The right applause would be - he has lived the role of Mannu. But for Aish, she has taken much pain in enacting the role of Neeru. For instance, The scene where she criticizes the sales people who come to her house selling soaps and toothpastes looked superficial. Inspite of being an ardent fan of Aishwarya myself, I personally feel that Neeru would have been better in Konkonna sen or Nandita Das.
The character of Ajay’s wife (Mouli Ganguly) was a bit different. Instead of warding off her husband’s friend who is jobless (Atleast this is what is happening in real world) she takes good care of him and renders needed help. Annu Kapoor as the landlord, the character which brings out the truth behind Aishwarya’s real life has fitted the role very well.
My review doesn’t end if I don’t comment about the title. In these ages where the hindi movie nomenclature boasts of not less than three words, this one word title - Raincoat is not only short but also apt. See the movie to know about it.
A good movie to watch. Worth bagging awards!
Regards, - Murukesh.