SAAND KI AANKH

Saand Ki Aankh, prodotto da Anurag Kashyap, è stato audacemente distribuito nelle sale indiane in occasione del Diwali 2019. SKA è una commedia a tema sportivo piacevole e leggera che ha avuto l'ardire di competere al botteghino nientemeno che con Housefull 4. La qualità è al di sopra della media dei film festivi (rispetto a H4 è un capolavoro), la novità stellare: due eroine anziane al posto di un muscoloso eroe di bell'aspetto. La storia cattura, la sceneggiatura, pur non priva di difetti, assomiglia ad una vera sceneggiatura. La narrazione tiene malgrado le ripetizioni nel secondo tempo, il ritmo è accettabile, alcune battute esilaranti. Prakashi e Chandro, le protagoniste, sono amabili anche se non troppo sfaccettate. Il cast è di buon livello, la colonna sonora pepata. 

Però, con impegno maggiore - il soggetto è strabiliante e meritava una scrittura più sottile, e un approfondimento di personaggi e contesto -, SKA poteva emergere e non limitarsi ad essere una pellicola festiva. Taapsee Pannu e Bhumi Pednekar sono brave, coraggiose e condividono una grande intesa, anche se, a mio parere, con attrici appartenenti ad una fascia d'età vicina a quella di Prakashi e Chandro il film avrebbe guadagnato. Alcuni episodi lacrimosi o un po' forzati andavano limati. Comunque apprezzo il tentativo.

TRAMA

Prakashi e Chandro sono cognate e vivono in una grande casa con una famiglia tanto numerosa da costituire un villaggio. Ormai anziane, e con alle spalle anni di lavoro duro e umiliazioni, le due donne scoprono di possedere un talento piuttosto insolito: una mira eccezionale.

ASSOLUTAMENTE DA DIMENTICARE

* L'argomento delle vasectomie obbligatorie è trattato in modo indelicato e grossolano.

RECENSIONI

Mid-Day: **

'There's something so desperately missing in the general rhythm and tone of this film that beyond a point, not just the audience, even the filmmakers seem unable to decide on whether this is a high-octane melodrama (...). Or a sweet, subtle rural story hinged on minimalist, authentic realism, packed with lighter moments (...). This isn't to suggest whatsoever that the two forms (of story-telling) are exclusive to each other. Hell, no. But melodrama, I reckon, truly works in its rationing - to rise to an occasion; to make a monument out of a moment. It loses impact with repetition. Unless, perhaps, the whole movie is consistently that - a drama version of slapstick humour, as it were. Frankly, this film lacks that sense of occasion. You want the big moments to hold. But they fly in and fly past, before you can feel anything at all. What with that cheap-ass, loud background score to start with - insecurely calling attention to every scene, driving you semi-nuts, instead of letting such compelling characters cruise you through a script that's got everything to subtly and surely pull it off, with all possible mainstream accoutrements, so to say. (...) Director Prakash Jha playing the household patriarch, of course, stands out as the unusual casting choice. (...) Saand Ki Aankh, as you're aware, is essentially centred on two extremely young female lead actors in Bollywood (Bhumi Pednekar, 30; Taapsee Pannu, 32), playing perhaps two of the oldest female lead characters on screen, ever. Both Chandro and Prakashi are way past usual retirement age, to embark on altogether fresh starts. What strikes you about both Pednekar and Pannu isn't as much the fact that they can get the old-age mannerisms right - in terms of walk/talk, posture, prosthetics, etc. - as how effortlessly they seem to slip into characters so far removed from their own. And they do it with a level of excitement and extreme conviction that it instantly spills over from the screen. Pednekar, from the sense I get, has in fact built her entire career so far (...) splendidly adapting to parts that are almost polar-opposites to her social self. She is indisputably a powerhouse of talent, with a knack to go the extra mile. So is Pannu, of course. But at no point do you find them jealously jostling for audience's appreciation. It's almost like they've signed a non-competitive clause, to complement each other on screen, rather than show off who's the real boss-lady here. Both are. Or, rather both aren't, since the film is so much about two vulnerable champions, smartly railing against the world, and slyly taking it on as well. As a subject, it is as good as it gets. (...) No doubt, you are already in love with the two delicately deadly Dadis on screen. How can you not? They exude such natural warmth, and rare sense of joy, despite having been dealt the worst cards ever. Which makes me feel worse that you don't end up loving the movie as much. But then again, that's me; you can always give it a shot'.

Mayank Shekhar, 25.10.19

Recensione integrale

Film Companion:

'I’d like to believe that the film chooses this loud language because shooting is not a subtle sport - you see a target, you aim for it, you hit it with a big bang. It’s noisy, eventful and either black or white. But the real reason isn’t half as thoughtful. The director is Tushar Hiranandani, a long-time Bollywood writer who deals in either crass comedy (the Housefull, Masti and Dhamaal franchises) or screechy melodrama (Ek Villain, Half Girlfriend). There is no middle ground. As a result, Saand Ki Aankh is made as a defiant dramedy - the drama is such that it’s derived from comedy, and the comedy is such that it’s diluted by drama. (...) We belong to a culture that thrives on embracing cheap humour when confronted with uncomfortable truths. The treatment of SKA is merely an extension of this social ailment. (...) Hiranandani and his writers don’t want us to think; they just want us to accept the novelty of the narrative, irrespective of what they do with it. (...) The makers are used to turning sex into a joke. Here they turn women into the joke - ignorant, illiterate, ‘cute’ but slumdog champions so everything is forgiven. By making such a spectacle out of gender disparity, they end up reiterating the very prejudices that the film tries to expose. (...) Young actresses Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar spiritedly play the “shooter dadis,” iffy prosthetics and all, in a casting decision that urges the viewer to focus on what they stand for rather than who they are. (...) You can sense the screenplay (by Balwinder Singh Janjhua) desperately battling the glitzy dialogue and shabby direction to make the film better than a simplistic she-v/s-he sermon. But the screenplay succeeds lesser than it fails. The problem with men making films about winsome womanhood is that everything becomes an exercise in overcompensation. They write female protagonists as characters who say things that we should hear, not as women who start hearing their own voices. The emotional outbursts play to the gallery, filled with lines designed by men who want audiences to react rather than their protagonists to act. In order to atone for their own deep-rooted masculinity, male filmmakers tend to exaggerate every aspect of these stories - feminism, sexism, bigotry, drama, comedy, life'. 

Rahul Desai, 25.10.19

Recensione integrale

Cinema Hindi: ***

Punto di forza: il soggetto, una storia vera di solidarietà femminile e di rivincita. Nel cinema indiano non se ne vedono molte.

Punto debole: nel secondo tempo la sceneggiatura diventa via via meno curata; il trucco.

SCHEDA DEL FILM

Cast:

* Taapsee Pannu - Prakashi Tomar

* Bhumi Pednekar - Chandro Tomar

* Prakash Jha - Rattan, cognato di Chandro e Prakashi (fratello dei loro mariti)

* Vineet Kumar Singh (elegantissimo) - Dr. Yashpal, allenatore

Regia: Tushar Hiranandani

Sceneggiatura: Balwinder Singh Janjua, basata sulla vita di Chandro Tomar e Prakashi Tomar

Colonna sonora: Vishal Mishra

Traduzione del titolo: bull's eye

Anno: 2019

Trailer

CURIOSITA'

* SKA si ispira alla storia vera delle tiratrici professioniste Chandro e Prakashi Tomar. Le due donne iniziano ad allenarsi nel 1999, quando Chandro ha 67 anni e Prakashi 62, e nel corso degli anni successivi vincono numerosi tornei nazionali. Chandro e Prakashi sono cognate. Seema Tomar, figlia di Prakashi, è una tiratrice professionista a livello internazionale. Chandro e Prakashi sono state ospiti di Aamir Khan nel famoso programma televisivo Satyamev Jayate (sembrerebbe nella prima stagione).

* Riferimenti a Bollywood: Akshay Kumar, Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi, Mother India, Aamir Khan.

GOSSIP & VELENI

* [Spoiler] In SKA gli uomini fumano, spettegolano come comari e non fanno una mazza da mattina a sera. Le donne - pure incinte - cucinano, si occupano delle faccende domestiche, allevano i figli, lavorano la terra e costruiscono, letteralmente mattone su mattone, nuovi vani nella grande casa. Malgrado ciò, gli uomini si atteggiano da viriloni, urlando, minacciando, appiccando incendi. Roba da stirarli col trattore.

* L'episodio alla residenza reale è realizzato in modo debole e stereotipato, le battute sono forzate. Le interazioni fra mariti e mogli durante la riunione del consiglio del villaggio sono in parte ben costruite e in parte scadenti, o meglio, mostrano poca consequenzialità logica. Ed è un errore grave perchè si tratta della scena della resa dei conti. Richiedeva maggiore cura e attenzione. Ci sono altri dettagli che andavano rafforzati nella trama o nella rappresentazione, ma mi fermo qui.