Filmi Geek

Makdee (2002)

मकड़ी

Vishal Bharadwaj's oustanding Makdee  ("spider's web") is a children's film that doesn't talk down to children.  Free from preachy moralizing and artificial cheeriness, Makdee is scary and gripping from beginning to end.  Its heroes are children who are mischievous and naughty,  yet good at heart and lovable.  Its witchy villain is creepy and cruel.   Mixed together in VIshal Bharadwaj's cauldron, these ingredients bubble over into a fun and thrilling adventure. 

Chunni and Munni (Shweta Prasad) are identical twins - they are distinguishable only by a mole on Munni's upper lip - but they couldn't be more different.  Timid, straight-laced Munni is a polite demure child and an ace student.  Her brash, troublemaking sister Chunni shoots her mouth off, steals food, cheats in school, and causes mayhem as naturally as breathing.  Chunni's friend and playmate, a boy named Mughal-e-azam (Alaap Mazgaonkar), is regularly ordered to do lengthy, unpleasant chores by his adoptive father, the village butcher Kallu (Makrand Deshpande), who feeds him next to nothing in exchange for his hard work.  Mughal-e-azam's treatment is an outrage to Chunni's sense of justice, and she engineers a massive prank to exact revenge on Kallu.  The prank goes awry, though, and leads to a chain of events that lands Chunni's sister Munni in the clutches of the terrifying local witch (Shabana Azmi).  So frightening is the witch that no one in the village - not even sensible adults - will enter the gates of the sprawling property in which her castle looms.   Determined to save her sister, Chunni screws up her courage and marches in, only to learn - to her horror - that the witch has turned Munni into a chicken.  The witch strikes a bargain with Chunni - bring me a chicken to eat every day, she says, and after you have brought me a hundred chickens you can have your sister.  In the meantime, to avoid bringing the witch's wrath upon her, Chunni must tell no one of the bargain, and so must pretend to be both Chunni and Munni so that the witch's nasty deed is not detected.  Chunni, scared and miserable, must face the terrible witch alone. 

Makdee's dark tone is set magnificently from the opening scenes, in which a boy who has stolen a few coins wanders through the witch's gates and is turned into a goat.  This is not a sanitized, Disney-fied witch, but a mean, scary, filthy monster.  Even the film's moments of levity have a dark edge, like the cheerful song the butcher sings about the pleasures of decapitating chickens, or Chunni and Mughal-e-azam's musical paean to mischief-making.

The performances, across the board, were outstanding, eliciting through tremendous empathy an emotional response in the viewer parallel to that of the characters.  In one scene, Chunni watches the witch drink down a bowl full of blood, and gags in revulsion; I found myself gagging too, connecting with Chunni's disgust.  Chunni's deep remorse when she fears that her troublemaking has cost her sister's life is moving, and her triumphs are uplifting.  At the moment where Chunni and Mughal-e-azam together make the realization that sets up the film's climax, I actually cheered.  This kind of empathy for the children comes readily because they are lovable despite their naughtiness.  Even though some of Chunni's antics have selfish motives, others are driven by her strong sense of justice and her desire to protect Mughal-e-azam. 

Shabana Azmi's performance is a treat as well.  She plays the witch with absolute relish, throwing herself into it with a broad physicality that is utterly delightful.  From her creepy gyrations as she performs the magic to turn children into animals, to the growly snarl with which she delivers every line, to her punching-and-kicking fight scene at the film's climax, she transforms into the villain, completely.  There is no dignity in this performance - just out-and-out entertainment.

All told, Makdee is a delightful ride, full of charming and repugnant characters, which reminds viewers - without conking them over the head with a weighty message - that things aren't always as they seem, not at all a bad lesson for kids to take home.  And even though Chunni's pranks get her and her friends into some hot water, Makdee even allows that a little mischief has its place.  This terrific little film is a quick and unexpected new favorite.

Shabana has never looked better!  More screencaps will be posted at Sounds Like Power in the near future. 

Metapost: Filmi Geek ko janam din mubarak!

I apologize for two metaposts in a row - you don't deserve that.  But real life has been busy lately and I haven't had a chance to watch any movies.  Still, I had to subject you to another metapost because I'm delighted to celebrate Filmi Geek's first birthday and I didn't want to do it alone!

I founded Filmi Geek a year ago to keep what was then my only blog, Geek of All Trades, from becoming too unbalanced with posts about Hindi films.  At that time I had been watching Indian movies for about 16 months and had seen a little over 50 of them.  I had on GOAT a short blurb about each film I'd seen, plus a handful of longer reviews.  I created Filmi Geek and started migrating the reviews over and expanding the shorter ones.  Filmi Geek opened its doors on October 6, 2006, with fewer than twenty movies, and over the following couple of months I got all caught up on the films I'd already seen and begun posting more reviews as fast as I could watch movies. 

I didn't know what Filmi Geek would be; I didn't know if I would enjoy doing that much writing about movies, and I didn't know if anyone would care what I had to say.  What's happened in the past year has been more fun and rewarding and interesting than I could ever have imagined.  I've made new friends all over the world.  I  got a little side job writing about movies.  I lost my head and launched Sounds Like Power, And I've learned a tremendous amount about Indian movies. 

Today, one year after its launch, Filmi Geek includes reviews of 129 movies (and one play).  It averages more than 550 page views a day, by nearly 300 visitors a day, from all over the world.  In fact, in just a few days, Filmi Geek will receive its 100,000th page view.  Ek lakh page views - not bad for a year's work.  Filmi Geek's success  has been beyond my wildest dreams.  I have to bow down and thank you for this, the people who come and read Filmi Geek.  And, special heartfelt thanks to those of you who leave comments.  Your thoughts, insights, recommendations, and commendations are deeply appreciated.  Interacting with all of you is far and away the best thing about writing Filmi Geek.

So stay tuned for another year of Filmi Geek.  I've still only just scratched the surface of Hindi movies; there's so much more to see.  Thanks so much for coming along for the ride with me.