"Is death really so bad"

The Film:

The film starts off with Praj's accident, which leads to her death. She then awaits her meeting with her Creator. Her shock on realizing God's gender quickly changes into anger at being 'taken away' so early. She questions God on this. In the simplest of words, God tells her that life and death are pre-ordained. Praj seems mature enough to understand this. She then wants to know how she did in her life. Again, God makes her see that it really is what you think about yourself that truly matters, rather than what someone else thinks of you. Soon, you realize that just being in God's presence is so comforting, that Praj even goes on to take a few liberties with Her, hinting about the general notion people have about the masculinity of the Almighty. But then, God being God, knows about this, and jokes about it as well. And just when you think that the sun has set on Praj's life, you get to know that it is actually only the beginning of a long wait for Praj...

The Review:

I have always prided myself on being able to look at myself objectively, and it seems only logical to me that I review my own film the way I would any other. I hope to be completely objective, but I guess since I am the only person who knows what went into the making of this film, that might not be completely possible. So here goes…

We have all watched and criticized self-indulgent pieces of cinema like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’, and more recently Anurag Kashyap’s ‘No Smoking’. However, very rarely will you come across 2 minutes of utter nonsense, packed with more self-indulgence and self-styled ‘tributes’ than Pradeep Menon’s “Is death really so bad?”

The first thought that passed through my mind after watched this was, “What the f@#$ was the director thinking? And who does he think he is anyway?”

While it must be said that the concept and more specifically, the idea that God is a Woman are quite original, one can’t help but wonder if there isn’t an easier, less abstract way of conveying simple ideas like the fact that we ought to bow before destiny or that God is a woman. Apart from the fact that the narrative is highly complex, with the viewer expected to understand philosophies of life from some seven-and-a-half words said by God, Pradeep has gone about trying to pay tributes to film-makers ranging from Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock to Akira Kurosawa and even Satyajit Ray. Somebody ought to explain to Pradeep that liking these masters of cinema does not mean one can make movies like them. Even attempting to explain how he has tried would be an insult to these great names. Pradeep seems to have a particular liking for Tarantino, with no fewer than three different so-called tributes to him. One small example would be the subtext ‘9 minutes and 37 seconds later…’ which appears during this film. This has been picked straight out of Tarantino’s cult classic ‘Pulp Fiction’.

The screenplay of this movie seems to have been written with the right intent, but the execution is way below the mark. The performances by the lead actors are perfunctory. The blame for this lies, again, with the director. Deepti Patki as Praj expresses well, but one can spot her beginning to smile at a point where she should actually be livid, depressed and shocked, all at the same time. This is not a failure of the actor, but of the director. Something like this should never have even made it to the final cut of the film. Meghna Menon as God barely gets a few seconds of screen time, and so doesn’t get much scope. The cinematography is passable in general, and is actually good in a few places, considering that it is all hand-held. A few shots are unsteady though, and when you combine that with the terrible picture quality, the overall viewing experience that you get is pretty bad. The voice-over is terrible, and when you come to know later that that has also been done by Pradeep, you are pretty much ready to murder him.

There are some saving graces though. The editing of this movie is above average, and when you take this in context with the footage that was actually available to edit, you realize that Pradeep does seem to have a sound grasp of the aspects of editing a motion picture. The background music of the film is decent, with Pradeep coming up with a couple of original and hummable tunes. Harshil Adesara has played the tunes well.

So that is half out of 7 for Pradeep Menon’s first directorial offering, “Is death really so bad?” It is a film that may have been made with the right intent, but fails to make an impact on anyone viewing the film, simply because you barely understand the film in the first place. Add to that the poor direction, terrible picture quality and mind-numbing voice-over, and what you get may actually qualify as a medical marvel. Start playing this in front of someone who is sitting on the pot, battling constipation, and tell him that the film is going to play in an endless loop. The poor fellow will be out of the toilet in no time!

It turned out to be little more scathing than I thought it would be. I guess, for me, a bad film is a bad film, irrespective of any other factors. My head agrees with the review, but my heart doesn’t. 20 years down the line, a remake of this film is in the offing. And then, it will be shot at Marine Drive, Mumbai…