Masoom - One Minute Review
2 Comments Published by Prasad Venkat on Monday, October 30, 2006 at 3:44 PM.
DJ Malhotra, an architect of repute is a paradigm husband-father. His wife Indu, though snappy and stubborn is a lovely wife who is very possessive of her family. With two daughters of no-problem type, the family boat sails along smoothly until a past misdemeanor of DJ comes to haunt and rock the boat. Indu, who makes a scene early in the movie when a dog enters the household, has to live with a young boy who is born to her husband and his acquaintance out of wedlock. Cracks appear in the family tree, and DJ's professional and personal life gets hit badly. DJ's parenthood suffers at Indu's stiff resistance to do away with the boy and the director beautifully captures the emotional separation between the couple in a deliberately slow but serene screenplay. That dog, in one of he early scenes, breaks a family photo before Indu drives it out. The boy comes close to breaking, but Indu stops him from doing so.
Masoom is as refreshing as a splash of cold water on the face of a desert walker. Nasseeruddin Shah as DJ and Shabana Azmi as Indu have carved characters in this movie based on Erich Segal's 'Man, Woman and Child'. Written by Gulzar, the story has it's weak elements but they don't sting the flow of the story, and hence can be easily glossed over. This is Shekar Kapoor's debut feature and the talent of the man is evident here - he captures the growing differences between the couple with beautiful touches: avoiding eye contacts, sharp and cutting responses, sleeping apart and emotional outbursts - all cliched story-telling techniques, but executed with a mature eye. Though the movie is two decades old, it stands tall when compared to the current spate of Hindi movies - finding a good one today is like a desert walker bumping into an oasis accidentally.
Update: More on Masoom here.
Masoom is as refreshing as a splash of cold water on the face of a desert walker. Nasseeruddin Shah as DJ and Shabana Azmi as Indu have carved characters in this movie based on Erich Segal's 'Man, Woman and Child'. Written by Gulzar, the story has it's weak elements but they don't sting the flow of the story, and hence can be easily glossed over. This is Shekar Kapoor's debut feature and the talent of the man is evident here - he captures the growing differences between the couple with beautiful touches: avoiding eye contacts, sharp and cutting responses, sleeping apart and emotional outbursts - all cliched story-telling techniques, but executed with a mature eye. Though the movie is two decades old, it stands tall when compared to the current spate of Hindi movies - finding a good one today is like a desert walker bumping into an oasis accidentally.
Update: More on Masoom here.
Yes, the slow pace of the movie lets the uneasy feeling that develops b/w the characters sink into the viewers.
You didnt comment about the child artist? About the music, how simplicity in music adds to the emotion. And about gulzar's lyrics?
I thougt it was a very powerful movie..
-srikanth.
Even I was very much surprised that you did not mention a word about the music, particularly considering the fact that you were very much impressed with it and kept playing and replaying the songs for a whole day despite not understanding a word of the lyrics.
You disappointed me with a one-minute review. I was expecting a full fledged one.