Tag: Kalki Koechlin

The Job ★

A French girl is under pressure to retain her job in India, while suffering from psychological disorders.

Synopsis

The protagonist is a French national. She is working as an expat in India. She has troubles differentiating between reality and illusion, leading her to wash her hands repeatedly and other non-normal activities. The Job is titled so to reflect her pressure to continue working and somehow manage to keep her current employment.

What works

The name of Kalki Koechin. If she was not there in the movie, I might not have even opened the link, and would have closed it in 2 minutes tops.

What doesn’t work

Nothing works in this short film. Quite likely, the viewer would be in suspense what the film wanted to say even after completing the film. On the positive side, though, I wonder that the emotion would be shared with the production team…

One of the you tube commenters (possibly one from the movie production team itself) has tried to provide of the short-film has tried answering the query but that still leaves a lot of loop-holes open.

Many a time super-hit Bollywood blockbusters also have such issues of failures and unbelievable plots. For example, Shahkrukh’s character in Chennai Express was a rich businessman’s grandson and had never been to Goa. Later, he decides to risk his grandpa’s ashes for a Goa trip with friends! Seriously, Goa trip for a Mumbaikar? Just to put the character in train?

However, Chnnai Express was at least enjoyable and entertaining. On the other hand,The Job is neither.

Even at acting level, it is a straight face Kalki maintains in the whole short. May be a little here and there, but the above featured image on this review is what you will see from Kali in the whole movie. That is her working face, her talking to boss face, her murdering face, her hand-washing face – everything. It is there!

I can take flights of fantasy and can still justify the story, but I still won’t be able to turn it entertaining for any of the audiences or readers, hence…

Verdict

Please avoid and save 13-14 minutes of your life!

AglaPlay Verdict: AVOID
AglaPlay Rating: 1.0/5
Language: English/French
Duration: ~13 minutes
Writer: Siddharth Sinha
Director:  Siddharth Sinha
Cast: Kalki Koechin
The Job: Avoid and save 13 minutes of your lives

Click here to check our short- films recommendations!

Hamlet – The Clown Prince

This is another play in the series of clown plays written and directed by Rajat Kapoor. The play involves clowns who are planning to perform the play Hamlet. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of his most renowned works, which is intricate, long and tragic. Our cute, lovely clowns fight over the casting, and end up misinterpreting the original Hamlet. The dialogues are funny, filled with contemporary references.

The play is must watch and wholly entertaining. The character of Clown Claudius in particular gets the best moments and was portrayed very well. The setup, and the flow of the play is impeccable as expected from Rajat Kapoor.

Two words of caution though – 1) please read a summary or the story of the original play. While the original’s key themes of murder, procrastination and revenge are retained, parts of this play may not be fully enjoyed if you do not know the original. 2) Many dialogues, particularly the start is in pure Gibberish. They are NOT meant to be understood. So don’t worry if you don’t catch a few sentences here and there.

On these two fronts, the play also deviates from others of Rajat’s plays where the story is either summarized at one point or the other, or is not much relevant to the understanding of the play. Also, Gibberish is contained in very brief portions of the other presentations unlike in this one.

AglaPlay Verdict: Must Watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4/5
Language: English, Gibberish
Duration: 1 Hour 30 minutes (Approx.)
Writer:  Rajat Kapoor 
Inspired from: Shakespeare / Hamlet
Director: Rajat Kapoor
Cast: Vinay Pathak,
Kalki Kochelin & Others

Below are few relevant links. 

Behind the scenes
A collation of the Reviews
Complete Play [Original]
Original play summary

Macbeth – What is Done is Done

This is the third imaginative, comical ‘clown’ theme adaptions of Shakespeare plays. The original tragedy is a story of power, greed, betrayal and consequences. Whether you know about the original play or not, is immaterial, as the tragedy of Macbeth is narrated in the first scene itself. What follows is a dark, involving comedy with the clowns as characters. The themes move across the evils that haunt humanity today, as Macbeth was about the evils that haunted the royal class then. Women-safety, racism, greed – even today’s political situation – are jibed at.

Rajat’s witches talk not only of the macabre or the future. They also scorn at our mobile phone uses. Macbeth is changed to Macky B, with a painted face, has a courtroom full of jokers. But mistake not, this Macky B is still haunted by the ghost of Banquo and still paints with the blood of innocents.

Rajat Kapoor does a marvelous job yet again as director. Picking up the underlying themes from the original and creates a whole new experience for audience. The creative freedom is used judiciously where the play borders on the right amount of comedy and darkness. Vinay Pathak as Spanish clown Pedro does an amazing job. Then there is Kalki and Tillotama Shome who put up a great show. Jim Sarbh as Julio is comical, sharp and is fun to watch.

A must watch, this play is easily among the most enjoyable plays around. The play has its shortcomings and may not be liked by certain audience due to the aberrations from the original. With them I will agree, but then, it was never supposed to be! Ranvir Shorey’s portrayal of Macbeth (sorry, Macky B) could have been better, but here again, I cannot judge him as I have not read/watched the original.

AglaPlay Verdict: Must Watch
AglaPlay Rating: 4.5/5
Language: English, Gibberish
Duration: 1 Hour 30 minutes (Approx.)
Writer:  Rajat Kapoor 
Inspired from: Shakespeare / Macbeth  
Director: Rajat Kapoor
Cast: Vinay Pathak (Pedro), 
Ranvir Shorey (Macky B),
Kalki  Koechlin (Witch & more),
Jim Sarbh (Julio), 
Tilotama Shome 
& Others

Below are few relevant links. 

Play trailer 
Review on IndiaWest.com
Macbeth Complete Play [Original, contemporary English]