BRAHMAN NAMAN: DAZED AND CONFUSED

Dazed refers to the perpetually intoxicated state of our protagonists. Confused refers to the pubescent state of mind. But unlike Linklater’s ode to the 80s, Q’s ode to Bangalore of the 80s is far less convincing. While that was a coming of age story, Brahman Naman leaves out the ‘of age’ bit. Yes, you read that right. This movie is supposed to be all brains, but unfortunately ends up being all cock – quite literally in this case. The plot is simple, a bunch of Brahman braniacs, masters of quizzes, are trying very hard to be masters of their domain, and failing miserably at it. But all is not bad here. The banter is progressive and intelligent, the characters, crude and rude, and the atmospherics, rightly toned. The colours, the costumes, the dialogue are all dressed rather nicely. What it’s lacking is soul. Shashank Arora is earnest, but we don’t root for Naman, neither do we loathe him, we just watch him try to impress, and just like in the movie, he falls short. In the end, this Bramhan tries to be a class apart, but doesn’t manage to get off its high horse.

LOVE PER SQUARE FOOT: GIVE ME MY SPACE

Anand Tiwary’s lovely take on apartments in Mumbai deserves the tag of an ‘Original’. But in this delightful little film, the real estate is that of relationships. The plot, no pun intended, is about two independent people who dream of having their own apartment, and the lengths they go to see that come true. In this reverse chronology of affairs, love is the last installment one needs to pay. Teaming up again with Angira Dhar (this actor-director duo previously worked on Bang Baaja Baarat) and Masaan’s Vicky Kaushal, Tiwary does a small film right. A fantastic supporting cast of Ratna Pathak, Supriya Pathak, Raghubir Yadav, Alankrita Sahai and Gajraj Rao are all in top form. In Love Per Square Foot, even the apartments play an important character. A peek into the tiny apartments, that age-old wall unit, the dark terrace lit by the city, help form a beautiful texture for the film. These homes have a lived-in feeling to them. One that many of us have lived through ourselves. While there is an overlong parallel story in the mix, there is a smell of fresh paint on this digital canvas. Sure, the fumes are irritating, but the feeling of ‘new’ overtakes everything else. Love Per Square Foot is all about the little things. And little things done right. Almost as if they decided to do up this film, like an apartment, sq. foot by sq. foot.