This week’s release ‘Madras Café’ (co-produced by John Abraham after the success of ‘Vicky Donor’) is a political thriller which blends fact with fiction and presents to us the story about the conspiracy behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Director Shoojit Sircar (‘Yahaan’, ‘Vicky Donor’) attempts to bring to our notice a historical event and creates a plot revolving it. To begin with, bravo! Very rarely do directors in India make such movies fearing controversies. Sircar could have made another comedy along the lines of his commercially successful and critically acclaimed ‘Vicky Donor’ but he takes an altogether different path and experiments.
Year – 1994: A wrinkled and ungroomed bearded man enters a church in Kasauli and makes a confession to the priest there. We are told the man has been living all alone in the hill-station for a few years now. He is Major Vikram Singh (John Abraham), an ex-Indian Intelligence Agent. Five years back, he was sent to Sri Lanka on a mission to help their government fight Tamil militants who were destroying the peace in the country. What starts off as a dangerous assignment turns more deadly when Vikram begins unearthing a conspiracy to kill the then ex-Prime Minister.
Director Shoojit Sircar is so good at his craft that you are bound to acclaim him for his effort. The movie, designed as a spy thriller moves at a very fast pace. You are introduced to innumerable characters all so soon that it becomes a little confusing to grasp the plot in the first thirty odd minutes. The first half doesn’t really leave you too glad and you expect it to remain average post-interval too. But ‘Madras Café’ begins to soar only then and continues to keep you glued till the predictable yet nail-biting climax. The plot is superb and Sircar does full justice in presenting it in just the right way. Names have been changed but it is well-indicated that the story is based on real-life incidents. What is also commendable is that it is a songless film and there isn’t any romantic track between the Agent (John) and the British Asian journalist (Nargis Fakhri).
Any flaws? Yes. Vikram (John) narrating the entire story to the priest comes across as filmy in a movie which otherwise looks so real. Nargis speaks in English and Vikram (John) replying in Hindi all the time makes for awkward-sounding conversations. Also, the first half is strictly average.
John Abraham looks the part really well and does act this time. He is expressive for a change and surrenders completely to the director. It is among his best performances so far. Nargis Fakhri is quite good as the English-speaking journalist and it is definitely better than her debut performance. Siddhartha Basu is fantastic as RAW Chief Robin Dutt. The supporting cast is lesser known but all very well-chosen and acted.
Watch it or not: Yes! Connoisseurs of good cinema will like it much more.
At the Box-Office: It will start slow, pick up due to good word-of-mouth but I doubt it will meet with much commercial success. It should recover its costs though it wasn’t made on a very modest budget.
My Verdict
My Rating
You wouldn’t mind visiting ‘Madras Café’… the coffee tastes a little bland at first but it gets stronger with every sip.
