Story: Ruth ( Kalki Koechlin), an illegal immigrant in Mumbai, refuses to return to England unless she finds her father, an Indian who abandoned the family when she was a kid. She works in a massage parlour for her upkeep and tries her best to fend off the local goons who want to take advantage of her situation. With a drug addict as a boyfriend, life doesn't seem too much of comfort, except for the presence of the avuncular Naseeruddin Shah, one of her regular customers. Does Ruth manage to find her father? More importantly, does he turn out to be the ideal dad she had always dreamed of....
Movie Review: Always the unexpected, Anurag? Never, never go looking for the predictable in this maverick filmmaker's films and you'll rarely be disappointed. For, Anurag truly likes to push the frontiers of contemporary Indian cinema and genuinely believes in saying something new, something different, something meaningful. And yes, he always loves to shock and awe....
Kalki's quest for her missing father is a sad, quixotic, twisted tale of love and longing with a climax that rattles you. Also, it's a sordid and tragic tale of incest and sexual abuse that are such an intrinsic part of a society that still doesn't know how to treat its women.
More importantly, it is the cinematic idiom of the film which impresses you. Kalki's world -- the seedy apartment, the sleazy massage parlour, the passionless romance, the cramped immigration office -- is a closed, suffocating world with almost no ray of light. The only hope being the young girl's dogged determination to find her truant dad. Kashyap pays as much attention to frame and technique as to story and character development, which is what make his films an artistic and wholesome experience. A word about Kalki's performance: she literally slips into the shoes of the protagonist and essays the anguish of a lonely, lost soul effortlessly.
Tip Off: Not meant for those who like run-of-the-mill stuff, That Girl in Yellow Boots is quintessential independent cinema. |
