Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

sunny one Qissa is an Indo-European co-production in the language of Punjabi and it seems to be a movie made for film festivals. It is reminiscent of Matrobhoomi: a nation without women, partly because it is based on a similar theme of female foeticide, except here it is presented like a folk fantasy story where the female-child is not killed, but is just undesirable. In this movie the lead protagonist played by Irfan Khan is a Punjabi man who lost everything during the partition civil war, and becomes obsessed with having a male-child to continue his generation. But his wife has already given birth to three female children, so when she gives birth to the fourth one, he wants it to be a boy; want is perhaps a weak word, he NEEDS it, and will not accept a girl-child.The viewer is left rather puzzled because when his fourth child is born, the midwife says "Congrats" and the father is elated announcing "It's a boy, a boy has been born in my house" but the mother herself says in protest "Why don't you kill me already" On what should be a jubilant occasion, the mood is very sombre. The puzzlement continues to haunt the viewer as the boy grows up, that something is a bit amiss about this boy. This boy is looks like a girl a little, he is weak and his sexuality seems to be confused. Then when the boy is now an adolescent and is getting female attention, he does not seem to reciprocate, and at the same time he seems to be struggling to try to be a typical boy who does show interest. It is only when he is married to a girl and his father makes advances on the girl because he wants a boy, does it dawn on the viewer: the fourth child was a girl too. The movie is depressingly slow from start to finish, the best way to describe it would be by the movies tag line --lonely. It maintains its depressing, melancholic mood throughout, supported by a camera that is always moving, but always moving slowly. Also everybody seems to be so serious and the actors all emote very slowly, dragging out scene after scene. The tedium grows, but as the reality dawns on the viewer why it is so, it suddenly becomes hauntingly effective. Unfortunately, when the movie goes into magic realism mode towards the end with the father who is now a wandering lonely ghost, it loses its effectiveness, because the supernatural aspect was not required in this story at all. This movie could have been a brilliant meditation on the sexuality and the identity crisis of a girl who is made to live like a boy, but they shortchange this for a rather bewildering supernatural climax.This is a rather modest production, technical values are just adequate to tell its simple tale, most of it is shot on location and camera- work is pedestrian. The best part is the acting, Irfan Khan is in his elements here and is able to bring out the obsessive quality of the father. The background score is also effective and haunting.The movie is rather lonely to sit through, but it is worth it the end. I was bored for the first hour, but by the time I had realized, though I had a nagging suspicion that the boy is a girl, I was gripped in shock and could appreciate the vision of the director Anup Singh.

yunusitboss New movie Reviews and lots more Hot news .... LIKE THIS PAGE : English Hindi TAMIL TELUGU Facebook : Movie Review by Yunus Irshad https://www.facebook.com/YunusIrshadsMovieReviewQissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost (A) Hindi -------- my Rating: ★★★ HEAD SCRATCHING CLIMAXSTRENGTHS:- * Trailer: attracts to watch. * Story Screenplay and direction: very good script for * Casting and performances especially by Irfan Khan....WEAKNESSES:- * Tisca's performance expected a lot but not much to see... * Last 20 minutes confuses the audience.....FINAL VERDICT:- * Overall.. it is a super natural flick gives a strong message for a male dominant society in India with a head scratching climax and power packed performances. I liked Rasika Dugal's acting in the second half.... So go for a one time watchUmber Singh is a Sikh who loses everything during the separation of India in 1947 and is forced to leave his homeland. He obsessively wishes for a male heir. When his fourth daughter is born, he decides to wage a fight against destiny.Director: Anup Singh Writers: Madhuja Mukherjee, Anup Singh Stars: Irrfan Khan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome | See full cast and crew »

Kaustav Ghosh Anup Singh's "Qissa" is one of those movies which are not meant for the mass but for a specific set of people who are well-aware of the theories of symbolism, sociology and above all, psychology. The plot is a direct interpretation of King Dhrupad's story from the Mahabharata blended with Freud's theory of Id, Ego and Subconscious.Speaking of acting, Irrfan Khan is just brilliant again, Tillotama Shome is flawless. Tisca Chopra is perfect and Rasika Dugal is stunning.Anup Singh and Madhuja Mukherjee's screenplay is the best gift we get from the movie.The background score by Beatrice Thiriet and Manish J Tipu goes along with the slow pace of the movie but not very apt considering the Punjabi background of the movie. But the songs are brilliant, got a flavor of Lohri and the Punjabi Tappas.I couldn't relate the landscape. Punjab hasn't got that much of hilly terrains.Cinematography by Sebastian Edschmid is simply superb.We need more movies like this even considering the fact that it's not for the commercial sector of the industry. Movies like this are essential to understand cinema and it's theories. It is a pride that Nandan, Kolkata has got a screening of this feature.

freydis-e Most of the reviews here are by Indians or people of Indian descent and, since the film was made for an Indian audience, maybe you should look to them for a more informed opinion. There aren't many reviews though, so here's one European perspective. The review is full of spoilers throughout.It's a film of two halves. The first, actually well over half the running time, is fine – the story of a father obsessed with having a male heir, a continuing problem in many parts of the world, and the difficulties that arise when he insists his fourth daughter is a boy. Others have commented more knowledgeably on this aspect. The script (in my case via subtitles) is well-written, it doesn't exactly rush along but I didn't feel it was too slow, the settings are atmospheric and the direction competent. I did have a problem with some of the acting though.It's not just an India-UK thing. I've watched a few Indian films recently with women in traditionally male roles, such as 'Mary Kom' and 'Mardaani' both of which have excellent performances from their female leads. People seem to love Irfan Khan who plays the father here, but I found his acting so restrained as to be almost metronomic – OK it's hard to express subtle emotion from behind a bushy beard and turban, but he hardly seems to try. However, Tillotama Shome, as the daughter-dressed-as-son, makes him look positively animated, sleepwalking through scene after scene with no facial expression whatever. Are we supposed to conclude that dressing a girl as a boy turns her into a zombie? Their two wives on the other hand, were both excellent.Then we get to the second part. Daughter/son kills father, starts to act a bit (she's really good at this point!) and things get even more interesting. Will she continue in disguise in order to have something like a normal life with her wife? Will she, as the wife urges and with her promised support, finally find herself as a woman? Or will it all fall apart for them? But the film-maker seems to have no interest in these fascinating characters. Instead of answering these questions, he resurrects the less-than-fascinating father as a ghost, weird things happen with no explanation, and all those interesting characters are soon gone: one wife dies in a fire, the other commits suicide and daughter/son just disappears. None of it makes the least sense and no other reviewer has even guessed at what the director is trying and failing to do here. What he succeeds brilliantly at is wrecking what to this point has been a very decent and worthwhile movie. A typical ludicrous and off-putting scene: Traditionalist vigilantes are gathering to punish the 'unnatural' woman-dressed-as-man. Ghost-father shows up, removes his shirt and says: 'I'm the son – do I look like a woman?' Maybe not, but what he does look like is a man in his 50's, definitely not a teenage boy. However, the vigilantes are all completely satisfied and just melt away into the underbrush. This is the point where you switch channels if it's on TV, or chuck the DVD in the garbage. I forced myself to watch on to the end, but there was nothing more to see, folks.