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Cast:
Jaya Bachchan, Om Puri, Mallika Sarabhai, |
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Rajit Kapoor, Shahana Chatterjee,
Neil Bhoopalam, |
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June Maliah, Madhuchanda Ghosh, Armaan
Ahmed, |
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Madhuchanda Ghosh, Prithviraj Choudhury |
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Music:
Usha Uthup
Year:
2008 |
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Lyrics: Jayabrato Chatterjee, Momin
Khan Momim, |
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Mir Taqi Mir |
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Story: Jayabrato Chatterjee |
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Banner:
Adlabs Films, Handmade Films |
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Producer:
Sunil Doshi |
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Direction:
Jayabrato Chatterjee |
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Love songs - Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow had seemed like a
blessing, a welcome alternative to watching what is clearly
not the last torturously inane Hindi 'comedy' (this week's
other release is One Two Three) and then express your
obvious frustration, trying hard to inject a little humor
into it. What can one say cruel are the way of fate and film
reviewing? |
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Love songs is a tedious, labored attempt by director
Jayabrato Chatterjee that feels like it has long
overstayed its welcome, even though it is in fact
just less than two hours in length. It is also a
tragic waste of the tremendous acting skills of
veterans Jaya Bachchan and Om Puri. Told through a
series of monotonous and unevenly spread flashbacks,
Love songs is essentially the story of Mridula
Chatterjee (Jaya Bachchan), who has had a tumultuous
past involving a doomed love affair and later, a
turbulent,
disturbed relationship with her |
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impulsive daughter (Shahana Chatterjee). A film can
definitely be languorous in pace, but certainly there should
be some fluidity in the narrative? The slack, meandering
screenplay of the film is replete with repetitiveness and
utter predictability, and after all the beating around the
bush the final 'revelation' is so obvious, it's hard not to
snigger that is if you are not snoring by then. Then again,
falling asleep during the film would admittedly prove quite
a task, with Shahana Chatterjee (who, despite decent screen
presence fails to capitalize on a potentially interesting
character) and Mallika Sarabhai's unbearably loud and
theatrical performances that make you wish they sold
earmuffs outside the theatre. The other actors including Om
Puri in a short, thankless role leave little impact, most of
them coming off as rather amateurish. |
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It is expectedly Jaya Bachchan who tries to hold the
baggy film together with a graceful and controlled
performance, and almost succeeds, even as the film
doesn't quite know how to exploit her acting caliber
and potential. Love songs is a film about complex
relationships, and it's that a pity all it can do is
just scratching the surface of the characters'
emotional depths, as well as its lead actor's
talent, both of which remain woefully latent. |
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