#InTheirShoes #HindiBollywoodDocumentaryFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating:* * *

#InTheirShoes #HindiBollywoodDocumentaryFilmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating:* * *

#Picks&Piques/SnippetFilmReview13thMar2015/#JohnsonThomas

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/"></a>                       <a href="http://www.mrqe.com/"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/"><a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/"><a href="http://www.aasra.info/"><a href="http://www..com/"><a href="http://www.thepioneer.com efilmcritic.com/"><a href="http://www.talkingpix.co.uk/"><a href="http://www.newyorktimes.com/"><a href="http://www.timesofindia /"><a href="http://www.tirbuneindia.com/"><a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/"><a href="http://www.dnaindia.com/"></a></a></a></a></a></a></a></a></a></a></a></a><a href="http://www.internationaltribune.com/"><a href="http://www.efilmcritic.com/"></a></a>

#Picks&Piques/SnippetFilmReview13thMar2015/#JohnsonThomas

 

#NH10 (Hindi) Rating: * * * A darkly violent , reasonably engaging, shadowy thriller that makes violence it’s leitmotif.  The violence and cuss words are shocking alright but the narrative is not entirely plausible or engaging. There’s not much of a story to tell and the performances are at best, befitting. #DeeptiNaval is the surprise packet though! #AnushkaSharma #PhantomFilms #ErosInternational #NeilBhoopalam #DarshanKumar #CleanSlateFilms #VikramadityaMotwane
#AnuragKashyap #VikasBahl #SunilLulla
#KrishikaLulla

 

#InTheirShoes(Documentary/English) Rating: * * * A little too rudimentary and explanatory but has historical significance with it’s digging into the past of the Agra shoe trade business. Atul Sabharwal’s research and explorations into an area that has been hitherto neglected and mostly forgotten, deserves praise! #AtulSabharwal #TheSearchers #AnsarShah #MoesArt #ParmanandKumar
#AnthonyBJRuban #PramodThomas #VipinMishra #RobertLang #GeetikaTyagi

 

#Focus(English) Rating: * * Flimsy excuse for a film.It’s more of an attempt to keep Will Smith’s brand alive in public memory. The lack of chemistry and effort in scripting/plotting is hard to overcome. A few strategic scene stealing gains don’t offer much bite despite the short runtime. #WillSmith #MargotRobbie  #GlennFicarra #JohnRequa #WarnerBros #GeraldMcRaney #AdrianMartinez #RodrigoSantoro

 

#Chappie (English) Rating: * * *   Blomkamp’s ‘Chappie’ tries to hit ‘affecting’ rather than the expected cutting edge visual metric of sci-fi sagas. So what you have here is not a very sophisticated , super effects extravaganza but a much more simplistic telling of a very human tale full of emotions and affections(even if it involves a Robot).  #NeillBloomkamp #SharltoCopley #HughJackman #DevPatel #SigourneyWeaver #SonyPictures

Documentary  Film Review

Johnson Thomas

Traipsing down memory lane

Film: In their Shoes

cast: Om Prakash Sabharwal, Shoe business traders and makers

Director: Atul Sabharval

Duration: 93 mins

Language: Hindi/ English with subtitles

Rating: * * *

Atul Sabharwal was always curious about why his father dissuaded him from the long-standing traditional, family shoe material business trade. This documentary is an effort to find answers to that query that has been ringing in his ears ever since. After becoming a successful screenwriter(Darna Mana hai)/filmmaker (Aurangzeb) for the YashRaj banner, Atul Sabharwal decided to go back down memory lane, back to his own roots,and explore the origins of the shoe trade that made the by-lanes of Hing ki Mandi,Agra so famous. With his father acting as guide, he visits shoe traders, shoe shop owners, shoe factories and shoe material traders to get a hang of the history and geography of a business that got established in the Mughal era.

Om Prakash Sabharwal had a successful business , Bharat Materials Store but unlike most traditional small business families, he did not want his son to follow in his own footsteps, telling his young son that he had his own route to travel. And Atul who has found his métier in filmmaking , uses those tools to get back into the past so that the present generation would be better informed about the historicity of a trade , once a flourishing enterprise, now a routine and undervalued one.  In Their Shoes, basically attempts to trace the origins of the leather shoes market of Agra, one of the oldest markets of that nature in the country. Sabharwal, interviews many shoe material traders, including his father, in this personal quest to find answers to a question that has been plaguing him for years.  The film is investigative in nature and doesn’t attempt to ply the father-son bond, instead it focuses on the complexities of  traditional business.  

The film shot within a span of a few months explores the city of Agra (known majorly for the Taj Mahal) as a once-upon-a-time business hub which for reasons of economics formed the fulcrum of the mixed societies evident in that region. Using parallel tracks to get between the hides of a centuries old tradition, the film throws up some surprises like the accidental nature of  the origins of the trade and a few distinct others. The historical account is narrated through voices of people from the industry , both ageing and young. And Sabharwal’s father stands witness to everything that had transpired in the recent past- from the tough early years, the glory days and the subsequent fall of the iconic trade. Sabharwal also uses archival footage to juxtapose global trade events that helped spur as well as stymie the once glorious trade. Sabharwal’s bow to cinema comes when he juxtaposes a shot of Balraj Sahni’s Mirza sahab( from Garm Hawa) delivering a pair of shoes while a real life trader talks about the golden-olden days of a bygone era. This documentary is sentiment and nostalgia driven yet manages to serve it’s dual purpose of revisiting history and giving the shoe trade industry a memorable face!

johnsont307@gmail.com