Madras Cafe Review

What is it all about

After tickling our fertility (read funny) bones with a remarkably mirthful and respectfully entertaining Vicky Donor, Shoojit Sircar and John Abraham along with Ronnie Lahiri in association with Viacom 18 cross the border of b-town political thrillers, war films, anti war films to give us a stark, gripping and haunting requiem to those chapters in Indian Army and politics during the Sri Lankan civil war struggle.

We may have our opinions on the death of our former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) dilemma in Jaffna during those days.. the civil war in the island of Sri Lanka and the loss of innocent life's..

Soojit Sircar doesn't go entirely into this and adopts the settings and the scenario while taking a less real and more fictional route to tell this saga in a taut and realistic manner with a strict discipline that prevents the movie from taking any sides and divulging from its duty (read subject). Remarkable.

The Story

The writers Shubhendu Bhattacharya,Somnath Dey and Dusan Tolmac turn heroes by writing a terrifically gripping portray of Major Vikram Singh (Abraham) who lands in Sri Lanka, heading RAW's covert operations during the Sri Lnakan civil war struggle.. He is on an assignment to make Anna Bhaskaran (Rathnam), head of the rebel LTF group to accept India's peaceful resolution for a fair election n the island.. in the due course Vikram faces many challenges and is forced to bare with wanted and unwanted losses..

What to look out for

Certainly dares to be different in bollywood thriller zones and while shaking you from your comfort zone respectfully stands proudly amongst its international colleagues in its genre.. Madras Cafe takes pride in its technical brilliance. Kamaljeet Negi camerawork is outstanding.. travelling through the seas, the shots around the jungles, aerial shots are all mind-blowing.. Soojit remarkably keeps the texture, tone of this film undisturbed till the end..no songs, romance and unwanted stuffs.. the characters look, location, art work is bang on target.. Soojit transforms the viewer to Srilanka, India, Bangkok with such ease.. its volatile and yet with controlled bloodshed on screen.. while successfully managing to increase your heart beat and keeping the chill factor intact.. Excellent.

Shantanu Moitra background is awesome.. Chandrashekhar Prajapati editing is sharp, casting guy Jogi deserves special mention same for Veera Kapur for her costume designing in the film.

Juhi Chaturvedi's dialogues are to the point.

John Abraham gives his most dramatic performances ever in this film as Major Vikram Singh anchoring the movie with simplicity and strength... its forceful and admirably heartfelt performance..

Nargis Fakhri gets to the skin of her character with such ease.

Quiz man Siddhartha Basu is quite good. Prakash Belawadi as Bala is simply brilliant. Ajay Ratnam as Anna is good. Raashi Khanna leaves her mark as John's wife. Piyush Pandey is fine.

Finally those human bombers during the climax are just terrific.

What not

Its more fiction and less reality but still it should have debated the Indian scenario and the reason for sending the force which in reality wasn't a very welcome decision.. the movie just gives a hint of the dilemma of Indian army and the problem they faced in the island it could have been elaborated a little..

Conclusion: Madras Cafe is certainly in a league of its own.. a new chapter in b-town thriller zone that is stark, realistic, and remarkably haunting powered by some excellent performance and great movie making techniques.. worth a ticket.

Ratings ****