Real stories behind the headlines
The delayed YMI-Yeh Mera India, earlier titled Breaking News, is packed with depressing, dark contemporary realities.
Yeh Mera India
Cast: Anupam Kher, Parvin Dabas, Sarika, Vijay Raaz, Atul Kulkarni
Director: N Chandra
Rating: ***
The delayed YMI-Yeh Mera India, earlier titled Breaking News, is packed with depressing, dark contemporary realities, urban societal issues and biases rife in city life. It attempts to highlight the stories behind the headlines.
Borrowing heavily from Oscar-winning film Crash, N Chandra uses an episodic device to weave in plots and characters.
Set over the course of one day that changes the lives of about a dozen people, YMI is weighed down by pessimism. Yet Chandra manages to engage, more as you wonder how all the tracks will be resolved. There are so many issues (communalism, bigotry, rules and frustrations, intolerance, exploitation, corruption) that it becomes a little hard to keep track.
The performances (Anupam Kher, Vijay Raaz, Sarika, Rajit Kapoor, Sayaji Shinde and Parvin Dabas deserve special mention) and some dialogues help deliver pertinent and important messages. Fortunately, Chandra does not sound sanctimonious; a few scenes certainly hit a raw nerve.
Cast: Anupam Kher, Parvin Dabas, Sarika, Vijay Raaz, Atul Kulkarni
Director: N Chandra
Rating: ***
The delayed YMI-Yeh Mera India, earlier titled Breaking News, is packed with depressing, dark contemporary realities, urban societal issues and biases rife in city life. It attempts to highlight the stories behind the headlines.
Borrowing heavily from Oscar-winning film Crash, N Chandra uses an episodic device to weave in plots and characters.
Set over the course of one day that changes the lives of about a dozen people, YMI is weighed down by pessimism. Yet Chandra manages to engage, more as you wonder how all the tracks will be resolved. There are so many issues (communalism, bigotry, rules and frustrations, intolerance, exploitation, corruption) that it becomes a little hard to keep track.
The performances (Anupam Kher, Vijay Raaz, Sarika, Rajit Kapoor, Sayaji Shinde and Parvin Dabas deserve special mention) and some dialogues help deliver pertinent and important messages. Fortunately, Chandra does not sound sanctimonious; a few scenes certainly hit a raw nerve.