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A gorgeous, sexy take on Macbeth set in the Mumbai criminal underworld.
I had an extremely hard time figuring out what was going on for about the first 15 minutes of this movie (familiarity with Macbeth helped less than one might expect) but I'm glad I stuck it out because this was a really atmospheric, intense, beautiful film.
Abbaji/Duncan (Pankaj Kapur) is a crime lord with cloudy eyes, a gravelly voice, and immense gravitas and menace reminiscent of Don Corleone. The exquisitely beautiful Nimmi/Lady Macbeth (Tabu) is Abbaji's mistress, which puts an interesting spin on the relationship she has with his right hand man Miyan Maqbool/Macbeth (Irrfan Khan).
I always think Macbeth and Lady Macbeth need to have outstanding sexual chemistry and WOW do they have it here. Their relationship is often very sweet and tender before everything goes completely to hell. The witches are a pair of corrupt cops who keep playing a fortune-telling game that involves making a design with different things; this has a series of gasp-worthy payoffs.
I wish I could have seen this on the big screen because it was very lovely to look at, but even on my laptop, it was a great experience. It does very clever things with the original play and has fantastic atmosphere.
Maqbool
NOTE: Today (and maybe tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow), I will periodically put up posts that have nothing to do with the election. Come on in and vote in polls, discuss ridiculous books, etc, if and when you need a break. You will be able to find them all by clicking the "election respite" tag.
I had an extremely hard time figuring out what was going on for about the first 15 minutes of this movie (familiarity with Macbeth helped less than one might expect) but I'm glad I stuck it out because this was a really atmospheric, intense, beautiful film.
Abbaji/Duncan (Pankaj Kapur) is a crime lord with cloudy eyes, a gravelly voice, and immense gravitas and menace reminiscent of Don Corleone. The exquisitely beautiful Nimmi/Lady Macbeth (Tabu) is Abbaji's mistress, which puts an interesting spin on the relationship she has with his right hand man Miyan Maqbool/Macbeth (Irrfan Khan).
I always think Macbeth and Lady Macbeth need to have outstanding sexual chemistry and WOW do they have it here. Their relationship is often very sweet and tender before everything goes completely to hell. The witches are a pair of corrupt cops who keep playing a fortune-telling game that involves making a design with different things; this has a series of gasp-worthy payoffs.
I wish I could have seen this on the big screen because it was very lovely to look at, but even on my laptop, it was a great experience. It does very clever things with the original play and has fantastic atmosphere.
Maqbool
NOTE: Today (and maybe tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow), I will periodically put up posts that have nothing to do with the election. Come on in and vote in polls, discuss ridiculous books, etc, if and when you need a break. You will be able to find them all by clicking the "election respite" tag.
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