Mr Church
Starring Eddie Murphy, Britt Robertson
Directed by Bruce Beresford
Having spent a lifetime and an evening together,at the end of this enormously heartwarming and fulfilling cinematic experience Eddie Murphy who plays the title role with spectacularly subtle skill,is told by the film’s young protagonist that she will now give him his privacy for the evening.
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“I don’t want my privacy,” replies Murphy,repudiating a lack of company in his final hour, his eyes pleading with the fear of impending mortality.
It’s moment that defines the relationship between cinema and the audience, the dread we feel when a masterpiece nears its completion.
Death plays a very important part in Bruce Beresford latest grossly underrated film about friendship between unlikely people in a culturally dynamic society.When Henry Church (Eddie Murphy)enters Charlie’s home,she is a small inquisitive girl whose mother is dying of cancer. Charlie doesn’t know it, though. The sudden appearance of a tall black stranger in the house triggers off waves of hostility suspicion and aggression in little Charlie who at first refuses to experience Mr Church’s culinary skills and then refuses to let him know she loves the food.
From the start this deeply moving film pulls you gently into the tender dynamics of domesticity and how an extraneous presence brings in its wake a lifetime of changes, all for the better, Beresford’s elegiac film based on Susan McMartin’s first-person account, is the cinematic equivalent of pale yellow leaves dropping off a huge magnificent tree during autumn.
Sometimes in life, death is a beginning and a renewal . Mr Church reinforces the exquisite truisms of life without getting preachy, shrill or self righteous in tone.It is melancholic and meditative but never cumbersome or depressing for the audience.Though it is an extremely virtuous film, almost to the point of blanking out all negativity, this is a film that never allows us to forget how close lives are to catastrophe even as it offers the comfort of a warm cosy family life where a mysterious and multi-faceted black man shares a cosy roof with a white American girl and her little daughter.
Idyllic scenes of shared meals in the kitchen and laughter in the living room mingles with the disturbing ring-tone of tragic forebodings that are never far away from the films’s gleaming spotless surface.Director Bruce Beresford is no stranger to cross-cultural dynamics. In his most well-known work Driving Miss Daisy a black chauffeur(Morgan Freeman) taught lessons of life to his upper-class white employee(Jessica Tandy).
In Mr Church the colour of Eddie Murphy’s skin is never brought up.Remarks on race are remarkably dodged and dismissed. It is as though the world inhabited by the film’s arcadian characters does not accept the preponderance of discrimination and segregation. Seldom in today’s cinema do we see a world so denuded of darkness.
The surprise is not that Besreford’s film paints the remotest corner of his canvas with sunshine. The real surprise is how skillfully and fluently Eddie Murphy has gone from his roguish cheesy roles in his youth to playing a man who is erudite, literate,wise sensitive and humane, all of this without losing that twinkle in the eye.
Britt Robertson and little Natalie Coughlin who play Charlie are also dazzling in their deep kinship to the mission of walking on sunshine. And Natascha McElhone as Charelie’s dying mother reminded of Meryl Streep’s tragic grandeur in Sophie’s Choice.
There are moment of sublimity and splendor dotting the shimmering skyline of this miniature masterpiece. During a year when big-screen spectacles have invaded the cinematic space Mr Church shows us how Billy Wilder’s style of humanistic cinema can still overpower Quentin Tarantino’s violent cynicism.

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Jamuna Had A Love-Hate Relationship With Bollywood

Veteran Telugu actress Jamuna who passed away on Friday, shared an uneasy relationship with the Hindi film industry.She did eleven Hindi films including the iconic Milan in 1967 where Jamuna agreed to play the second lead, or the supporting role if you will, to Nutan.
Jamuna as Gauri was the Other Woman who craved for the hero Sunil Dutt’s attention whereas he had eyes and devotion only for Nutan. In later years Aruna Irani played a similar role in Caravan.
In Milan Jamuna was not keen to do a supporting role. Producer L V Prasad tempted her with three chartbusting songs. Besides, Jamuna had played the same role in Mooga Manasulu, the Telugu original of Milan. But it was the songs composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal which convinced Jamuna to take up the second lead in Milan.
While Nutan had no solo songs in Milan, she did have the chartbuster duet Sawan ka mahina . Jamuna on the other hand, had two splendid Lata Mangeshkar solos: Tohey saawariya naahin khabariya and the magnificent Ghazal Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin.Not only these, Jamuna also had a hit duet with Mukesh based on her character Gauri: Bol Gauri bol tera kaun piya.
But then, fate intervened. After the film released one of Jamuna’s solos, the poignant and memorable Aaj dil pe koi zor chalta nahin was snipped out of the film.
Here is what happened: the Ghazal , one of Lataji’s all-time greats, was very much a part of Milan when it released on 17 March 1967. But then it was seen to hamper the flow of the film and edited out. The beautiful song occurred right after intermission. Producer Prasad, a shrewd filmmaker, got to know that audiences prolonged their loo breaks as there was a song after the break. Hence the sacrifice of a seriously sonorous melody.
Jamuna hardly did Hindi films after Milan. Her last Bollywood appearance was in Raj Kumar Kohli’s Raj Tilak where she was lost in a multistarrer as the royal queen.
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Karan Johar Moves Alia Song From Switzerland To Kashmir

The romantic duet in Karan Johar’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani which was to be shot in Switzerland and which was delayed due to the film’s leading lady Alia Bhatt’s motherhood, is now being relocated to Kashmir.
Purely out of the love for new mom Alia.
Says a source in the know, “Karan loves Alia like his own daughter. He would do anything for her. He postponed the release of Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani as the love duet could not be shot before Alia’s maternity leave. Karan had decided to shoot the song in Switzerland after Alia’s maternity love. But now he has relocated the song to Kashmir as Alia doesn’t want to leave her baby girl behind for long stretches.”
And as Karan Johar argued, snow is snow. How does it matter whether it is Switzerland or Kashmir?
This song would be Karan Johar’s tribute to his idol Yash Chopra. Alia would be dressed in chiffon sarees while Ranveer, for a change, would be seen in formals.
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Bobby Deol’s Switchover To Villainous Roles

After Prakash Jha’s webseries Ashram where Bobby played a sleazy godman, and Love Hostel where he was a ruthless assassin, he is playing the villain to Ranbir Kapoor in Sandeep Vanga’s Animal.
Bobby says it is not conscious career decision to play negative characters but a conscious decision to play interesting characters. “ I don’t look at characters as positive or negative.When I watch films there is always one character that stays with you. I want to play that character.”
Prakash Jha’s Ashram proved a gamechanger for Bobby. He admits finding challenging roles is tough. “I am trying. I am doing Sandeep Vanga’s Animal with Ranbir Kapoor , Parineeti Chopra. Then I am doing the family film Apne 2 which I am very excited about.”
In an earlier interview with this writer Bobby spoke about his long absence from screen before Prakash Jha’s Ashram. “My fans would ask why I wasn’t being seen on the screen.And I couldn’t tell them it was because I wasn’t getting good roles. But my fans stood by me. They gave me the strength to keep looking for the right roles. Thankfully I found the roles I liked. My new films have given me some new fans. I am thankful I am still here. Yeah , I am in a good space right now.”
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Undekhi A Dark Compelling Thriller Set In The Heartland

Undekhi the forthcoming webseries from Applause Entertainment and Sony LIV which starts streaming from July 10, looks like the kind of thriller that won’t let us rest easy until we see the last episode. It is mounted with a stress on growing pressure.
One promo shows a rotund cop investigating a gruesome murder in a dense tribal area.The other promo shows a politician gunning down a dancer on stage in front of the public and the press.
Wild West comes to the North. Undekhi is a thriller set in Manali, Himachal created for Applause by Siddharth Sengupta. It’s a gripping story that sees Harsh Chhaya making an impressive comeback as a drunk Papaji in a super-rich amoral Punjabi family. And Surya Sharma (Prince from Hostages) really shines as Rinku , the main bad guy and Papaji’s nephew. It’s got a terrific cast of other characters, many of whom we all recognize as names .
The talented Harsh Chhaya makes a debut of sorts on the digital medium with Undekhi.
Says Harsh, “I have never played anything so wild and mad. I am looking forward to Undekhi, hope it works for the audience too.This is a debut in a sense that this is the first one I shot for the OTT platform.But the other two I shot for after this was streamed before this one Out Of Love and Rangbaaz, Phir Se.
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