Subhash K Jha speaks about Maazii

 

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align="right"/> The disconcerting prelude of this probing piercing pulsating study of crime and Subhash K Jha speaks about Maazii

 

atonement is among the best opening sequences I have seen in recent times.

 

It shows that extraordinarily talented actor Pankaj Tripathi( a regular in Anurag Kashyap's

 

films) narrating to a dumbfounded cop in a 'mofussil thana' his adventures at a home that the

 

chronic criminal has just robbed.

 

In a very matter-of-fact tone Tripathi tells the khaki-uniformed gent how he raped the wife and

 

killed the matriarch of the family. And then before we can ingest the infinite immorality of the

 

goon's proclamations, Tripathi kills all the cops and flees.

 

This is the kind of introduction Quentin Tarantino would have thought of - Or maybe Vishal

 

Bharadawaj on a good-hair day, or maybe Ram Gopal Varma in his Satya season!

 

Maazii revels in a kind of implosive violence that is hard to sustain without toppling

 

into mayhem. First-time director Jaideep Chopra manages to keep the bloodshed and bullets on an

 

even footing. Even when characters stumble and collapse under the weight of their immorality the

 

narrative is never caught hobbling on one foot. Though the happy finale seems a bit of 'a

 

go-home-happy' concession, till the very end the sharply wound-up tightly-structured

 

screenplay(written by Shirish Sharma and Sumeet Nijhawan, the latter also plays the film's lead)

 

keeps many steps ahead of us, leading us open-mouthed through a labyrinth of crime and

 

retribution.

 

Uniquely the film first introduces the bad guys. Then we meet the hero, a monk-like florist

 

Tarun(Sumeet Nijhawan) with a vivacious wife(television actress Mona Vasu, adequately cast) and

 

a cute daughter. Even though we know this idyllic family would soon see rough days there is

 

surprising skill evident in the way the screenplay creates a collage of crises in this nuclear

 

family.

 

 

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align="right"/>The narration is fitful and filled with events and incidents right till the end.

 

But the wheels of the narration never get jammed with over-activity. The director Chopra makes

 

vivid use of various locations. The hill station at the start with its postcard-perfect

 

topography almost mocks the lies, uncertainties and the violent past behind the protagonist's

 

seemingly tranquil life. And the backwater crime towns are captured in their bare essentials -

 

Naked and exposed!

 

The scenes are written deftly. In the sequences suggesting gut-wrenching violence the director

 

allows the characters space to build the intrinsic tension without having to worry about where

 

the next 'cut' would truncate the momentum of their emotional graph. The in-sync sound is

 

remarkably sturdy and unwavering in its determination to catch characters' inner-voice as they

 

grapple with the complex morality of their existence.

 

It surely helps the characters, 'cause that their dialogues are impressively ironic and catchy

 

without getting showily bombastic. In fact the writing in Maazii could teach a trick or

 

two to the veterans and stalwarts of Bollywood who dabble in the world of crime only to make

 

heroes out of scumbags.

 

There are no larger-than-strife heroes in Maazii. The one hero that we take away with us

 

is Tarun, who is grappling with the demons of his past by dodging the violence that hits him on

 

the present. It's a complex role which newcomer Sumit Nijhawan plays with stoicism and smothered

 

anger. Just how much of this dispassionate implosiveness is attributable to the actor's

 

inexperience we do not know. It works fine for the character as he moves from a life of blissful

 

stress free idyllism to a stunning finale that takes him through the cluttered bylanes of Meerut

 

in search of a missing loved one.

 

The protagonist's journey is undertaken in the spirit of a reversed pilgrimage. The sins that we

 

presumed were washed away in a past phase revisit Tarun and scoff his genteel existence. He must

 

move without genteel grace from his working-class sobriety to street-wise violence.

 

 

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align="right"/>It's a cleverly designed role played with under-expressed intensity. Nijhawan

 

gets some unflinching support from actors of impeccable ability, notably Pankaj Tripathi, Mohd

 

Zeeshan Ayub. Last seen as Dhanush's best friend in Raanjhanaa, Zeeshan makes an

 

arresting appearance as a sharp-shooter in the second-half . And Manish Choudhary's cop-act is

 

again, supported by credible dialogues.

 

Everyone gets clever and sensible lines to speak in this crime-tale. I'd call Maazii the

 

shocking surprise of the season. Maazii, which means the past takes us back to the

 

stylish thrillers of B.R. Chopra like Dhund and Ittefaq. The sound design and the

 

fluent and virile cinematography (Surjodeep Ghosh) bolster the ballsy script, whipping up a kind

 

of excitement that is raw and earthy and yet very stylish.

 

Though set partly in the crime-land of Meerut, no one abuses anyone's mother or sister. There is

 

no attempt to generate earthy violence through verbal or visual aggression. Though this is

 

Jaideep Chopra's first film he doesn't try to impress with a fusillade of flamboyant

 

gutturalism.

 

Because you are not force-fed the violence, you cannot take your eyes off the going-ons in

 

Maazii. It is one of the most watchable films of the year which comes to us without the

 

loud recommendation of stars promoting their products like detergent soaps.

 

The lather here is legitimate. You cannot miss this one.hout the loud recommendation of stars

 

promoting their products like detergent soaps.

 

The lather here is legitimate. You cannot miss this one.

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