Nobody (2021): Bob Odenkirk On A Death Wish

The review was first published on MadAboutMoviez: Nobody review

I was channel surfing on a boring day, not sure what I wanted to watch, my eyes fell on “Nobody”. There was Bob Odenkirk, probably lying on the ground, and many fists landing on his contorted face. Images of Saul Goodman from “Better Call Saul” & “Breaking Bad”, who usually got roughed up or picked up by gang members, started popping out of my memory. I had never seen Bob in a movie before, so I felt, this was as good a time as any, to watch a full fledged movie of Bob Odenkirk.

Not knowing what to expect, I bravely selected the movie and let it play. Interestingly, within first 10 mins they show us a glimpse of Hutch’s routine life, of waking up, going on a jog, preparing breakfast, missing the garbage truck, getting to work, punching the hours, returning etc. Day in and day out, that was his mundane tale. Until one evening, an armed couple enter their home to rob them blind. Hutch’s teenage son, Blake, manages to tackle one of them, and signals his father to take down the other member. But Hutch seems reluctant, and lets them go. Somewhere, I felt vindicated that this was a  movie of a repressed soul who usually lets things go, takes it on his chin and moves on.

After the incident, Blake is of course disappointed and even other family members, his wife Becca and daughter Abby, think of him as a coward. The assailants take away petty cash and some bibelot, but very soon they discover that Abby’s kitty bracelet has gone missing. That’s when things start moving really fast. You realize, Hutch is not who he claims to be, a docile family man who cannot protect his family.

Hutch visits his dad, picks up the oldman’s FBI  badge to threaten his way through and picks up a gun to bolster himself. And in this sudden daredevilry, we get to know of his background, in bits and pieces. The bracelet retrieval job goes awry and in the process he ends up antagonizing Russian war lords. And a whole gamut of them are now behind him. This tough side of Hutch, really comes as a surprise.

The raw fist fight with limited space in a moving bus, is very well shot. Hutch takes on the goons, in what is all nerve and sinew with some adrenaline rush. Also, the manner in which the face-off happens with the drug lord, is also beautifully captured in a fine dine sequence. The action that ensues, were just fabulous. That’s when, out of curiosity I googled to check, and found that Derek Kolstad, the creator of John Wick series, was the writer of the movie. No wonder, the fights were so well choregraphed. Not just the fight, but the entire prep for the fight, family protection, cleanup, ammunition stockpile, booby traps and high decibel gun shots, were brilliantly done.

But the masterstroke was in casting Bob Odenkirk as Hutch. The way he presented the passive father and dutiful worker, and then transformed to a person with pent up frustration and channelizing his anger to mow down an army of gangsters, was stupendous. The film elevates itself from a family drama to a full blown action extravaganza, at the hands of some deft direction by Ilya Naishuller. He begins the movie with a slow poise and morning dust, and then moves into brisk pace and finally ends on a high voltage adrenalin filled with smoke and gun powder.

I would surely like to see Hutch “Nobody” Mansell becomes a series, because it surely deserves a sequel at par with John Wick. Watch this movie, while you are still waiting for John Wick 4

 

Sherni (2021) Movie Review: Man vs. Wild

First published on MadAboutMoviez: Sherni

Right in the middle of the movie, Nangia, played by Neeraj Kabi, delivers a lecture in a seminar on how development and environment does not go hand in hand. Hence, we should strive for a balance, where both can coexist, exclaims Nangia.

This coexistence of tigress T-12 with people who live around the forest area, forms the crux of the movie. While the new DFO [Divisional Forest Officer] Vidya Vincent, zoologist Hassan Noorani, few other junior forest officers and handful of villagers are trying to find a solution whereby T-12 can be guided out of the village area into the green belt wildlife sanctuary.

A villager loses his life as pugmark of a tiger is found at the scene. After much investigation, its concluded that T-12 was the attacker and she has to be stopped before she can claim more victims. The villagers are scared, and politicians like GK & PK, make the most of this fear. While GK rallies around the villagers since he wants to return to power, PK gets an ace hunter Pintu Singh to try and kill the tigress and retain his legislative power. The movie instantly reminds us of Jim Corbett and his work on maneaters of Kumaon.  

This powerplay between the warring politicians only reveals that they don’t feel for either the villagers or the tigress. T-12 means different things to different people; its just another hunting game for Pintu Singh, it’s a matter of job retention and transfer for Bansal, who is Vidya’s boss, and for Nangia, its an assignment where he has to put the issue to rest.

The helplessness of T-12 takes us back to the Avni episode in Maharashtra, which probably was the inspiration for this movie. Safe passage for T-12, becomes a mission for Vidya. She doesn’t wish to see a conflict, and definitely not a hunt down of the tigress. But will she succeed? That forms the most thrilling part of the movie.

Noorani, played by Vijay Raaz, is very diligent. He wishes to introduce scientific methods in identifying animals, and in safeguarding them. He conducts the various awareness programs, but he too has compulsions of his own, and cannot stay back forever. Nangia, who was once a fiery young forest officer, whom Vidya idolized, is now veering towards bureaucratic norms and looks for easy way out. Bansal, played by Brijendra Kala, is a slimy boss who has no real intentions of public service. He only wants to keep the local MLA happy, and his interest lies in singing at parties and generally fooling around.

And finally, there is Vidya Vincent, essayed superbly by Vidya Balan, who has come out as a symbol of women empowerment, with her choice of movies. As Vidya Vincent, she does full justice to the role of a forest officer who is passionate about her work and wants to form a bond with the villagers where they can cohabit without any clashes. At the same time, she is also seen fighting patriarchy, where, as a woman officer she isn’t taken seriously at first. In a hilarious scene, her husband is seen pleading with her to keep her govt job which is recession proof and has many benefits, while his corporate job could be at risk since they were laying off people. But along with such a husband, she also has to face her mother-in-law who constantly asks her to start a family, nags about her not wearing jewelry and not appearing like a typical Indian woman. Vidya has supportive mother, but even that support is seen to be running dry towards the end. Her job, and mission T-12 is her only respite.

At a leisurely pace with running length of 130 mins, the movie takes us through the vast forest areas of Madhya Pradesh. The director Amit Masurkar and cameraman Rakesh Haridas, spend a lot of time on the fantastic forest trails. They explain how cameras are placed to spot the animals, and how scientific DNA testing is used to identify the maneater etc. In a poignant scene, they also lament at how a green corridor expressway and a copper quarry are located in the dense of the forest, thereby dividing it into two forest areas and how that hampers movement of animals. Even in the movie Newton, Masurkar had the forest areas as his backdrop. And this shows that he is a nature lover. And in this movie, the metaphor of Sherni, has been brought out very well. Its not only T-12, but Vidya herself who is being hounded. And the movie is all about how the sherni fights back.