Manorama Six Feet Under (2007).

Raymond Chandler's 'Lakhot'.

Written and Directed by: Navdeep Singh.Starring: Abhay Deol, Gul Panag, Raima Sen and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

Manorama (Sarika) in her 40's (or 30's?) walks in to Satyaveer Randhwa's (Abhay Deol) house in Lakhot, Rajasthan. Styaveer has recently debuted his first mystery novel, titled Manorama, which Manorama has read and curiously asks him to do a job for her. For a budding novelist, who doesn't keep a copy of his own novel since it reminds him of his failure, 10,000 Rs is quite a temptation. But the job turns out to be a list of scandals and illusions mysteriously unfolding into a grand finale.

Manorama Six Feet Under is THE noir cinema. Navdeep Singh, along with Devika Bhagat, has written a marvelous screenplay. Right from the need for a detective protagonist, to femme fatales, a cop who helps protagonist solve mystery, flashbacks, high contrast images, silhouettes, habitual liars, corrupt villain and secrets that are violently dark are all necessary noir elemnts seen through Hollywood film-noir and neo-noir. Although the 'sad end' is rather toned down cleverly. This movie reminds of J J Gittes and his 'Chinatown' (1974) so much that at one point the nose-cut seen featuring director Roman Planski's cameo is shown on the tv. In this Bollywood era of Hollywood copiers where plots are copied but the required environment for that plot is never even understood let alone copied. This movie stands alone for director and writer's ability to transfer exact noir elements from Raymond Chandler's Double Indemnity (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946) which of course were adapted in Chinatown as well. The muted trumpet is used aptly creating a mystery atmosphere. This is an extraordinary debut.

Abhay Deol has shown great potential as a novelist using his writing abilities to find clues in his own life. His choice of movies have been unusual, for instance Ek Chaalis ki last local (2007). Next up is Raima Sen as Sheetal. She comes quite natural here. Kulbhushan Kharbanda never fails to perform. Gul Panag as Satyaveer's disagreeable wife is rather convincing. Sarika has a short appearance. But the best performance above all was Vinay Pathak as Brij Mohan, Satyaveer's brother in law and cop. He blends in with his sentence delivery as hot as Rajasthan's desert.

Last but definitely remarkable is the cinematography. The hot sand, empty roads, dried bushes, burning sun and desert mountains are stunning and a bonus to this fast paced story that has twists after twists. Almost every event and person has a meaning and purpose. Nothing goes untouched for the second time. With an achievement like Manorama I wonder what's next for Navdeep Singh. This movie you do not want to miss.

My rating: 9.5/10.

AIDS Jago: Short films (2007).

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, for one of their project on helping humanity, have united with 4 directors Mira Nair, Farhan Akhtar, Santosh Sivan and Vishal Bharadwaj to co-produce 4 short films on issues regarding AIDS education and awareness. These short films are taking the AIDS awareness on more personal level with some beautiful and some incredible journeys involving blood relations, lovers and strangers with urges either sexual or just plain human.

1. Migration (2007).

Directed by: Mira Nair.

Written by: Zoya Akhtar.

Starring: Shiney Ahuja, Sameera Reddy, Irfan Khan and Raima Sen.

URL: MIGRATION

Migration is a set of parallel stories between a husband and his lover, husband's wife, a mason worker his wife and infants. This short is very well directed, right from the drought death visuals to marine drive tides. The cinematography is eye catching. Thanks to Shiney Ahuja's speaking eyes and Irfan Khan's emotions for his lover, one way maybe. The core message of the story is delivered by sex education street actor Vijay Raaz with Beedi song in the background. Its the unconventional migration that is thought and written by Zoya Akhtar gives a different but convincing journey. It was exciting to see marathi stage and screen actress Sulabha Deshpande as Sameera's mother-in-law, little has she changed from Choukat Raja's (1991) mother.

2. Positive (2007).

Directed by: Farhan Akhtar.

Written by: Rajesh Devraj.

Starring: Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi and Arjun Mathur.

URL: POSITIVE

Positive is the story of AIDS awareness for a family as one of the members becomes HIV positive. The effects of it in a broad picture and a very tiny extremely personal point of view is very well written by Rajesh Devraj, whose future writings are Farhan Akhtar starrer Fakir of Venice and Shashanka Ghosh project Quick Gun Murugun. Boman Irani is fantastic with his lowering speaking abilities and at the same time with the desires of a young photographer to capture something. But it needed Farhan Akhtar's trick to bring out the moment absolutely necessary for this story. The moment when Arjun's character is positioning the rose in the window. This is perhaps the same transformation moment that occured in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) when Akash (Aamir Khan) calls up Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) only to realise subconsciously he dialed Sid's (Akshaye Khanna) number. Incredible. Shabana Azmi is short but plays the character who has already past previously mentioned transformation.

3. Prarambha (2007).

Directed by: Santosh Sivan.

Starring: Prabhu Deva and Skandhas.

URL: PRARAMBHA

A truck driver (Prabhu Deva) finds an unknown boy Kittu (Skandhas) hiding in the back of his truck. Truck driver finds it unsolvable to get rid of an unknown boy riding with him. Kittu hands him a letter written by his mother with an address. Truck driver agrees to take him there. But then out of humanity he finds himself on a quest to make the people around Kittu realise what he feels for kittu. This movie is a cry out towards those strangers who might have some humanity left in them. Prabhu Deva does a great job. His apological and optimistic smiles are the driving force for the audience and kittu as well. Skandhas as Kittu is nothing short of a applauding performance. He represents the understanding son, rejected school friend and a happy boy. Though there aren't many opportunities for Mr Sivan to use his lens he still captures the moments that do not need words.

4. Blood Brothers (2007).

Directed by: Vishal Bharadwaj.

Story idea by: Matthew Robbins and Ajit Ahuja.

Starring: Siddharth, Pavan Malhotra and Ayesha Takia.

URL: Blood Brothers

This story brings in the most courageous factor in the AIDS awareness. The point of view of the main victim, the one with the disease. This is the best short among the four. An ordinary man hears his doctor say that he is HIV positive. Devastated by the news he gives up on his life to find something that out smarts him. This is an absolutely astonishing story. This movie proves the fact that you do not need 1000 cuts in a 5 min movie to make it interesting. Though non-linearity exists in the narration it never seems a cliche by the creation of scars on Siddharth's faces. This short challenges the viewer by putting in the shoes of the protagonist and ask them what if? Kudos to Mr Bharadwaj. This one is a must see.

Overall rating: 8/10.