Movie Review: Madras Cafe

Shoojit Sircar who had guts to give us 'Vicky Donor' and made the film sweep a national award deserves a pat on his back with Madras Cafe as well. This is one of the most appropriate and not at all in a derogatory tone, smaller than life film. Nothing in the film is romanticized and things are shown as they are. Be it the good, the bad or the ugly. 

Madras Cafe does have a documentary style mood to it. It is not dramatized and is as real as real can get. Kudos, to the team for the research and for keeping everything real. Sircar has made a political expose with an eye of an artist that it blends perfectly. John Abraham who was considered just a good looking face a while back has given it back to every tongue that was wagging and has performed very well. He is intense and edgy when required.

Back in the days of the Sri Lankan and Tamilians war, this story takes birth. Thousands and thousands of Tamilians had died in the war of separation. The writers of the film Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya have gone in depth and have written a good narrative. 

John Abraham (Vikram Singh) is a RAW agent and goes on a mission to Sri Lanka. Nargis Fakhri (Jaya) who plays an international war journalist has done a pretty decent job with this one. The one thing that I found quite funny with Vikram and Jaya is that Jaya only talks in english while Vikram replies to her in hindi? Why?

Barring this language barrier aside, the film is a flashback where Vikram who has lost almost everything in life is narrating the deadly, dangerous story of the Sri Lankan war and how the plan of the assassination of the prime minister was mailed. Vikram is broken because he is unable to save the Prime Minister and his wife (Raashi Khanna) and feels shattered. His disheveled turnout, floppy long hair, unkept beard tells us he has no reason to live a happy life.

From the very start we know that the protagonist of the film, Vikram would not be able to save the Prime Minister who has not been named in the film, but from what we see it is quite obvious that this is somewhere the story of the tragic assassination of Rajiv Gandhi who was killed with a human bomb. 

The first part of the film is gritty and tight but somewhere after the interval the screenplay falls lose at times but soon regains its momentum as we progress towards the climax. The build up right before the climax is something to wait for and it does give you the chills in the end. 

Madras Cafe is an intelligently made film in a documentary mood narrative without songs and works absolutely well. For everyone who enjoy a political expose, this one is an interweavement of fact and fiction for you.