Maverick is back with his latest “That girl in yellow boots” a shocking tale of a daughter searching the whereabouts of her father who disappeared from her life all of a sudden. The discovery in the end why he left her & her mother and what made him contact her at the present may be too much for the weak hearted to take. Anuragh Kashyap has like always jolts the audience with surprises abound.
The narration is sluggish , intentionally at that , so that the viewers also get to travel along with the protagonist. Like he explored the underbellies of Delhi in “DevD” here he does of Mumbai. The shady streets & massage parlour , the visa office , police stations , the local trains of Mumbai , local dadhas of different lingual origins ....all that is stereotypical of Mumbai is shown in this movie too. Perhaps that is the negative side of the movie. There are numerous stereotypes & routine beaten to bush sequences in between new bolder scenes that mars the impact.
More than the writing it is the acting which steals the show. Kalki Koechlin is brilliant Ruth who comes to India in search of her father after receiving a letter from him stating how he misses her. She comes here on a tourist visa but later she is forced to stay longer because she is not able to trace her father in that time. Forced to join a massage parlour for her living she takes the extra mile to save enough to trace her father. The anguish , the pathos , the happiness (though few & far in between) are effortless emoted on screen. That she is a seasoned theatre artist shows evidently on screen.
Naseeruddin Shah has a brief role , more like an extended cameo . His role doesn’t have wnything to do with the main story but he is as convincing as ever in his role.
Prashanth Prakash as the drug addict boy friend of Ruth is convincing in his role.
Gulshan Devaiya as the kannada speaking goon in a role which is very cinematic & contrived. Though he manages to bring in few laughs , the character as such lacks enough depth & is a case of poor writing & thinking on the part of the director.
Rajeev ravi’s cinematography explores the dark streets of Mumbai astutely .
Anuragh has this time has thought of only “elite” audiences & tried on an abstract movie but not totally convincing with the end product. The most difficult thing in cinema is presenting something in a simple manner that everyone can understand & appreciate your work. But sadly that is not the case with “That girl in the yellow boot” . Somehow one gets a feel that whole movie is enacted rather than one is peeking into the lives of those involved which is a new for a Anuragh Kashyap movie.
Bottomline : For the “Elite”
3/5
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