Maqbool

Brilliant Shakespearean adaptation of Macbeth in “Maqbool” (2004), directed by Vishal Bharadwaj and starring Pankaj Kapur, Nazeeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Tabu, Irrfan Khan among others.

Its an adaptation of Macbeth into the Mumbai underworld milieu. I have not read Macbeth so i do not know that story. But Vishal Bharadwaj must have stayed close to the original story by Shakespeare.

Maqbool (Irrfan Khan) is a underling of the don Jehangir Khan or Abbaji (Pankaj Kapur) but he is almost like his heir. He is having an affair with Nimmi (Tabu) who is the mistress of Abbaji. Its an underworld fight gone wrong with the politicians playing the double game.

Nazeeruddin Shah and Om Puri are corrupt police officers in the informal pay roll of Abbaji. Abbaji’s daughter Sameera (Masumeh Makhija) is in love with the son Guddu of his trusted lieutenant Kaka (Piyush Mishra). As Maqbool wrests control of the empire, bodies start falling and there is an all out war between the two gangs with the police waiting in the wings to pounce upon the remaining members.

Its a dream star cast for Vishal Bharadwaj with three of the greatest stars in the same movie – Om Puri, Nazeeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur, probably for the first time after “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron”. Pankaj Kapur’s character is based on Godfather Don Corleone. Even his mannerism, his talk, walk etc. are all ditto copied from Marlon Brando.

Tabu sizzles in the movie as the lusty mistress swinging for Maqbool and her distaste for her lover Abbaji. Irrfan Khan is as always magnificent in the central role of a loyal servant but at the same time unwilling to give up on his love interest and insecure about Guddu wresting control of the gang.

Deadly script with fast moving action sequences lends some authenticity to the movie. Vishal Bharadwaj has done full justice to the script and the original play of Shakespeare. IMDB 7/10

36 Chowringhee Lane

36 Chowringhee Lane is all about Jennifer Kendal, the story revolves around her, an anglo Indian lady living alone in Calcutta with her cat, after her only niece marries and moves away to Australia. She is a teacher in Shakespeare (the Shakespeare connection comes back after Shakespearewallah) in a school in Calcutta and has her elder brother (Geoffrey Kendall) to look forward to. There are a few Anglo Indians living in Calcutta but feeling out of place. Violet Stoneham (Jennifer Kendal) meets a student and her boyfriend, who is a budding poet and they manoevre into her heart and her home. Its a kind of a pleasant spot in her otherwise dull, drab, lonely, boring life out there, like an alien in a strange place. They get married and Violet takes a cake which she has baked for them for Christmas to their house, as promised by her, but she gets a shock of her life. Jennifer Kendal has performed an absolutely magnificent role of her lifetime in this movie, her quiet countenance, her bright smile, her faraway look, her anglo Indian accent – this movie is all about her – brilliant, absolutely brilliant.