User Reviews

Vidya Balan gave a superb performance and is the show-stealer. The film's setting of a fringe city is quite fascinating as it showcases traditional values and lifestyles clashing with urban concepts and development in India's booming economy. Vidya did a great job playing her complex, multi-dimensional role as a woman who is a devoted and loving wife, who at the same time cannot settle for betrayal and expects the same level of devotion in return. It is interesting to see how she begins appreciating herself, and to an extent becomes selfish, and decides she needs to live for herself and avail of opportunities presented to her. Naseerudin and Arshad are an awesome combination and are hilarious together. A very well-scripted and directed film, Ishqiya is not like any other Bollywood film I have seen. It has an interesting, indie feel to it. Alongside, it also shows the eye-opening issue of caste wars.

When Ishqiya's trailer came out in October last year, I got hooked, just in one go. It was clearly one the best trailers I'd seen in a long time! So today was the D-Day, the star studded premier of the movie, and I was lucky enough to get the passes. Well, I'll try to keep it simple and write what was my opinion. First of all, I thought it was a great ensemble of artists, from Naseeruddin Shah Sahab (Khalujaan) to Vidya Balan (Krishna Verma), Arshad Warsi (Babban Hussain) and of course, Vishal Bharadwaj, even though he wasn't the director, yet you could make out it was his writing, it had his "essence". This was Abhishek Chaubey's debut movie as a director, before this he wrote screenplay for Vishal Bharadwaj's earlier movies like Kaminey, Omakara etc. so probably that too justifies the "essence" I mentioned above. Even though it was an ensemble of one of my all time favorite artists, unfortunately the movie didn't work for me, and I'm all heartbroken writing this. I really had high expectations from it, but the whole storytelling went haywire. Half way through the movie I was looking for pieces of puzzle to put together, just so it could justify what was happening on the screen. First half was somewhat an intro, with hilarious dialogs, which is how most movies are. But, the main story and confusion began in the second half when things started to converge. Instead of converging at one point, the stories started to overlap each other. What could have been a great story, became complex for no apparent reason, plus there were some glitches in the movie, the kind of glitches I didn't expect this movie to have. After the movie, there was small session with the entire cast of the movie, where Vishal Bharadwaj mentioned that this project was being worked on for over 2 years. Well whenever that happens, either we a get Great story or a Confused story. That's probably what happened with Ishqiya, and when the movie was about to end, in my mind an episode of Entourage was running, because of the similarities. The one where Meddellin premiers at Cannes Film Festival and people walk in with big expectations post all the hype, and come out disappointed, but here people seemed to like it, or at least they said so. The freaky part: Abhishek Chaubey does resemble Billy Walsh (Character in Entourage, played director of the movie Meddellin) . Anyway, back to the story, movie has been set in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, which happens to have the perfect small town feel to it. Like Vishal Bharadwaj's previous movies this too has the raw earthy feel to it, be it the accent, locations, dialogs, everything. Other than the story, what did work perfectly, were the performances, the three in lead were undoubtedly brilliant, but special mention to Alok Kumar, the kid who played Nandu, and Rajesh Sharma, owner of the KK Steel Co. (You might remember him as Munjal from Khosla Ka Ghosla), even though small roles they did deliver perfectly. However, it was really hard to catch Salman Shahid's dialogs (Mushtaq - Brother in law of Khalujaan), because of the accent he had in the movie. -Tiny spoiler- Apart from great performances, do look out for a passionate kiss between Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan, well I'm mentioning this because I have NEVER seen such a kiss before in ANY Indian movie. I don't know how elder people watching the movie took it, but I certainly found it as a sign that Filmmakers have started showing intimate scenes like they happen in real life, but not throw in just for the sake of showing it. Also, make sure you watch the movie without any distractions, because there are some really hilarious dialogs and strong language (read curses) in the movie which you might miss out if you don't pay attention, and yeah, super songs as well. Even though the movie fails in storytelling, watch it for the performances and dialogs, sheer brilliant. I still feel sorry, had so wished for the movie to be great. But yeah, one thing is certain; director Abhishek Chaubey has great potential.

First of all, this is not a movie for everyone. Do not watch this movie with kids around, it might also be quite offensive for many elderly adults. The movie is intended for a limited demographic; those who enjoyed Omkara and Kaminey would probably enjoy most of this movie, if not, this one is probably not for you either.

Most of the movie is set in very rural setting somewhere in U.P where various sects of local Hindu communities are engaged in guerrilla warfare. Like Babban says, we only have Shias and Sunnis, they have Zamindars, Jadhavs, Pandeys, Dubeys etc. Babban and his Khalu get entangled in this mess, along with Krisna, whose house they are using as a refuge while on the run from a Don they tried to double-cross. They talk in a dialect that is somewhat hard to understand, takes some getting used to. Plus there is a heavy Urdu slant with much of the dialogs when the nephew/uncle pair arrive at Krisna's house. None of the character is noble, they are all complex and somewhat unpredictable. It is not clear why Krisna leads Khalu on if she had the hots for Babban. Did she intend for them to fight amongst themselves? It is impossible to predict what outcome that might have. Were all characters driven by their primitive impulse, with no motives or selfish intentions? It is not clear from what is shown. Seems quite random. All three have done a brilliant job, Vidya Balan is amazing as Krisna. Dil to bachaa hai lyrics by Gulzar is one of the best in quite a while. Worth a watch if you don't find this kind of movie making offensive to your sensibilities.

Vishal Bharadwaj one of the skilled directors after OMKARA comes with another great film ISHQiYA(2010) The film just like OMKARA is set in the heartland of UP, Gorakpur The film starts off well and keeps your interest alive throughout The film is a black comedy with ample thrills and funny moments, also thrown in several twists and turns and some sex laced scenes too The film is well handled by Abhishek Choubey and the film throughout it's run time of less then 2 hours keeps you involved. Several scenes are superb: The start of the film wherein there is an explosion, The bonding between Naseer/Arshad Naseer slowly falling for Vidya, Vidya-Arshad sex scene, the twist when Naseer feels betrayed, The fight between both, The climax Direction is superb Music is superb again by VB, All songs are situational and no lip sync Ibne Batuta is superb, while Der Lagi and Ab mujhe Koi by Rekha Bharadwaj are superb too, Dil to Bachcha hai ji is awesome too and marked the career growth of Rahat Fateh

Naseeruddin Shah a fabulous performer leaves yet another indelible impression, he gets into the skin of the character and seems at ease throughout Arshad Warsi takes a break from comedies and does a superb job in his role Vidya Balan fresh after PAA does a superb act in her role too, She proved her mettle This film also turned her into a sex-siren Salman Shahid seen after KABUL EXPRESS yet again leaves a mark Rajesh Sharma who startled everyone with NOKJ and TDP started off his career with Khosla Ka Ghosla(2006), and does a superb job in this film too Adil Hussain who left a mark in AGENT VINOD is superb here too Alok Kumar as Nandu is good too

ISHQYIA – 6.8/10

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Writer: Vishal Bhardwaj,Sabrina Dhawan, Abhishek Chaubey

I call this the Bhradwaj-Kashyap Syndrome (more about this later in a separate article on Kashyap). Both these directors are very well reputed and have enough of an underground fan following to generate revenues with a low-budget film without excessive marketing. Nevertheless, what is this syndrome? It is the belief & obsession these two directors have created, predominantly among the youth, that anything dealing with thugs, ruffians, underworld, druggies or basically the scum of the society, is a good film. Darker subjects are superior to others, and drama means a whole lot of murder, gore, expletives, sex or sexual innuendos.

Ishqyia was a much awaited film, especially because of the name backing it – Vishal Bhardwaj; one of my favorite Bollywood director's. Ishqyia was not a run-away box office hit, yet it received a fair degree of critical acclaim and managed to delight the 'alternate' cinema bandwagon. What was it I found so wrong with Ishqyia? This is definitely going to earn me some serious ire.

Ishqyia had a severely flawed script, not something rare in India. The film is a partial take from a Spanish film (I am still in process to find the name of the film), other than the fact that it has technical and structural errors. The film starts with two small time bandits, both legendary actors – Arshad Warsi (Babban) & Naseruddin Shah (Khalujaan). They are running from another bandit, to whom they owe money. The chase leads them to the saucy Vidhya Balan (Krishna) who is in search of her husband. So what is the issue with the script? The three plots in the film are – Vidhya Balan trying to find the truth about her missing husband; the two bandits who have to repay their debt, after they realize they cannot run away (established early on in the film); and the conflict building between the two bandits, shown to be trusted companions and relatives, over the woman. The primary plot though is how Vidhya Balan wants to use the two bandits on the run to reach her husband, the truth about whom she knows. So instead of focusing on that, the script – for a better part of the film – spends serious time & effort building conflict between the two lead actors vis-à-vis the damsel in distress. The director and script is leaving no stone unturned to show how the woman is seducing the men for her ulterior motive which is not revealed till the end.

The problem though is, if I remove the third plot, which is not primary or secondary in context of the overall story, the story is not affected at all. And this problem is glaring since more than half the film is dealing with the tertiary plot. For that matter, the entire film could have been made with exactly the same details, without having the entire nonsensical chemistry-animosity building between the three characters. The two bandits would have kidnapped and stolen in any case, with or without the lady sucking on their fingers since their lives were on the line; further, since the tertiary plot on which so much of the film is based wasn't really of consequence, the director ends it abruptly with a street fight: the scene where Warsi & Shah fight on the road post which, all of a sudden, the entire tension between the three characters the film spends almost an hour creating, is resolved in a flash without a meaningful or consequential resolution. Further, I'll point out just two cases, you can look for the rest if you think it is worth your time. The biggest goof up is the kidnap: the trio monitor and survey the entire schedule of a notoriously rich man, who they know will surely have connections, only to kidnap him in the least effective way. They know he walks from the temple to the house of his mistress, which is his biggest secret that no one knows about. So they decide to kidnap him not during the isolated walk, not when he is just about to get into the house of his mistress, or get out of the room and is about to get into the car, but instead when he has already taken possession of a vehicle, is on road, can easily run away if needed. I don't call this creative liberty. This is just the director buying time with the audience. Secondly, the last scene is a pure technical blunder. At the end of the scene, the house blows-up, the trio walks away with Salman Shahid (Mushtaq) looking through a gun. But the police simply disappear, the trio is transported to wonderland via the bridge adjacent to the house, Mushtaq drives through a posse of cops (we don't know where they are) with guns and …. what just happened? Over dramatized, preconceived attempt to make the ending grandiose resulted in an unrealistic end; hence it abruptly folds at the convenience of the director.

I am not sure what was the point of the film, and I am certain neither do the writers. Which is why there are several minor plots that are of no importance, take too much time to unfold and end abruptly without consequence or purpose, and it is precisely this reason the film had to be given artificial content with the use of verbose scenes with excessive expletives & rural twangs. Good films will always have clearly defined central plots, characters and stories that will be complemented and augmented at all times throughout the film. At no point is the viewer lost. Please note, if the viewer is lost, it is not a sign of intellect on part of the writer & director. So much for Ishqyia.

With a friends birthday coming up,I started looking for a DVD to get as a gift. Having heard him mention a few weeks ago about enjoying the second Ishqiya,I decided to get the one where it all began.

View on the film:

Expanding from not just writing films, but also directing them, co-writer/ (with Vishal Bhardwaj and Sabrina Dhawan) debut director Abhishek Chaubey makes a sizzling entrance in stylish panning shots circling the Neo-Noir beginnings of Krishna's fractured romance,and Vidyadhar's sly underhanded,underworld dealings. Lassoing them into Krishna and ,Vidyadhar's underworld lives,along with setting them off to both fall head over heels for Krishna, Chaubey & cinematographer Mohana Krishna slickly link the Neo-Noir mind-set of small time crooks Khalujan and Babban to winning comedic two-shots of the duo attempting to run away from their angry former boss Mushtaq,and rapid-fire whip-pans gliding down the duo falling for Femme Fatale Krishna, and in a loved-up state,agreeing to her kidnapping plans.

Continuing his time-long collaboration with fellow film maker Vishal Bhardwaj, the screenplay by Bhardwaj/Dhawan and Chaubey takes the moral ambiguity at the centre of Bhardwaj's works,and brilliantly sling-shots it into Neo-Noir, as Khalujan's and Babban's comedic friendship is pinned on their mutual love of petty crime,and desire to get one over on the other in getting together with Krishna, who stokes the flames of Femme Fatale seduction to twist the duo round her fingers.

Taking his own creation in a more comedic direction than Bhardwaj's (who also did the catchy score for this flick)credits, Chaubey wonderfully sows Noir with pitch-Black Comedy, lined in the frantic funny exchanges between Babban and Khalujan trying to outplay their old boss, and slyly try to slide away, on discovering that Krishna's husband former business is still active.

Appearing to witness her husband get killed in the opening, Vidya Balan gives a tantalising performance as Krishna, whose every move to create the illusion of a closeness with Khalujan and Babban is tied by Balan to Krishna calculating when to reel in the duo,and seduce them into performing a vengeful kidnapping. Leaping round trying to get the other in deeper trouble, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi give a excellent double act turn as Khalujaan and Babban,thanks to the dead-pan dryness of Shah's Khalujaan bouncing off the fearful, zany punch-lines of Warsi's Babban.