B.A.PASS (The Movie)

“THE GRADUATE” has arrived in India, however since the setting is a third world country, Mrs. Robinson doesn’t only milk the guy but leases him out to Mrs. Parkinson, Mrs. Hutchison and so on and so forth.

The setting is DEV-D, so are some of the actors (DIBYENDU BHATTACHARYA is a riot), which further adds to the fact that there is an Anuraag Kashyap school of filming out there. The lanes of Paharganj, the palatial house at Barakhamba Road (Special 26 and Dev-D) and the by lanes of old Delhi provide a very authentic/clichéd setting which has become hep these days. A shot of Jama Masjid has become an omnipresent frame in any art-house /mainstream movie shot in Delhi these days.

Cinematography and editing is brilliant, great work by AJAY BAHL. The story has a melancholic flavour to it as if the graph of the character is already etched in the mind of the audience and it will be one way traffic from there.

However SHILPA SHUKLA has a wooden face even in the lovemaking scenes and that is a clear flaw, it looks like a half-hearted half-baked attempt at something that you agreed to do initially and then were not able to deliver in entirety, a woman shedding clothes and emoting like one are two different parts and both need to be executed together.

Overall different cinema, a great first half, a fantastic attempt by first timer AJAY BAHL.