MONSOON SHOOTOUT at the 12th Indian FIlm Festival of Los Angeles LAIFF Reviewed by Alex Deleon-Sinha, April 29, 2014. --- Monsoon Shootout", a brilliant multi-layered debut feature by Amit Kumar is, among other things, a dazzling noir thriller drenched in rain starring Nawaz Siddiqui as a serial hatchet killer (!). It was really the main event of the 2014 IFFLA, but was inexplicably programmed as a throwaway on the last day and not given much attention while a dumb movie in the main hall pulled in the biggest crowd of the week.
Director Amit Kumar of Monsoon Shootout did show up on the very last night, in and out ~ to accompany his film and hold a Q & A. after which, over a drink in the lobby, he revealed to me that he was very impressed by the Polish film "Blind Chance" (Przypadek) a 1981 masterpiece by Krzysztof Kieslowski -- and that the basic idea for Monsoon Shootoot came from the Kieslowski picture. In both pictures -- both classic mindbenders -- the same story is told three times over with different outcomes each time. In this one you see normally lovable Nawaz Siddiqi as a psychotic ax-killer in two versions, but the last one makes you question which one was reality, and which ones were fantasy. Did the rookie cop who was stalking him all the time really have to shoot him as he was clambering over a wall? -- and Maybe he wasn't really the killer after all ....Huh?
This was a revelation to me because I too was greatly impressed by "Blind Chance" when I saw it in Poland years ago, and subliminally caught the parallels between the two films as I watched the current "Monsoon Shootout", but the Indian details as worked out by Kumar are totally different. It would make a remarkable evening of film watching to pair these two films up -- among other things to see the contrasting cultures and the contrasting acting styles of two fantastic actors-- Nawazzudin Sadiqi and Polish actor Boguslaw Linda who, in 1981, was the most popular film star in Poland. The film title is itself multi-resonant, suggesting an imploded version of "Monsoon Wedding" engaged to a Watery vision of "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" -- with the latter of which it has far more in common. A terrific movie that needs to be seen several time to pick up on all the nuances and counter- themes -- but do Bring an umbrella!
Director Amit Kumar of Monsoon Shootout did show up on the very last night, in and out ~ to accompany his film and hold a Q & A. after which, over a drink in the lobby, he revealed to me that he was very impressed by the Polish film "Blind Chance" (Przypadek) a 1981 masterpiece by Krzysztof Kieslowski -- and that the basic idea for Monsoon Shootoot came from the Kieslowski picture. In both pictures -- both classic mindbenders -- the same story is told three times over with different outcomes each time. In this one you see normally lovable Nawaz Siddiqi as a psychotic ax-killer in two versions, but the last one makes you question which one was reality, and which ones were fantasy. Did the rookie cop who was stalking him all the time really have to shoot him as he was clambering over a wall? -- and Maybe he wasn't really the killer after all ....Huh?
This was a revelation to me because I too was greatly impressed by "Blind Chance" when I saw it in Poland years ago, and subliminally caught the parallels between the two films as I watched the current "Monsoon Shootout", but the Indian details as worked out by Kumar are totally different. It would make a remarkable evening of film watching to pair these two films up -- among other things to see the contrasting cultures and the contrasting acting styles of two fantastic actors-- Nawazzudin Sadiqi and Polish actor Boguslaw Linda who, in 1981, was the most popular film star in Poland. The film title is itself multi-resonant, suggesting an imploded version of "Monsoon Wedding" engaged to a Watery vision of "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" -- with the latter of which it has far more in common. A terrific movie that needs to be seen several time to pick up on all the nuances and counter- themes -- but do Bring an umbrella!