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Qissa Movie Review

Qissa move review

Qissa thy name of Stellar performances and Rich Content 

Literally Qissa is nothing but a story or tale, however, this term has the feeling of a yarn in which a rambling story is being told by the storyteller amidst the fireside having loose threads to separate and twine. The international fame movie Qissa hit the theatres in India starring Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Duggal, Sonia Bindra, Tisca Chopra. The movie is directed by Anup Singh, and is an one hour and 50 minutes film falling under the genre of drama. The movie deals with the misogynist nature of one man and the consequence of running the lives of people close to the same. The movie can be a classic piece for issues like female oppression, which ironically our nation has been plagued with since ages.

Let’s check the story of the film, Umber Singh played by Irrfan Khan, who is a Sikh and is seen dragged out from his homeland during the atrocious time of partition. Amidst his fights for his home in the town, his wife Meher played by Tisca Chopra is seen giving birth to his third daughter. Irrfan Khan who is keen this time to have a male heir in his family is disappointed to see another female member in her family. In order to shield his family from the scarring partition riots, he moves out with his family and settles down in Indian acquired Punjab. After they settle down and Umber find a decent living in the new place, Meher is seen again pregnant, which once again ends up with similar note getting their fourth daughter. Umber is simply blind by his desperation and thus declares his fourth child as his son and even compels his wife to do the same. So, their fourth child is growing up turning a young Kawar played by Tillotama Shome and treated as a male is taught all the possible masculine things by her haughty father. How this young lady who is brought up male deals with such a situation with a twist is an interesting thing to explore especially when she is planned to be married to a girl is an interesting thing to explore.

Talking about the script, you can start the analysis with some amount of confusion in the story; however, the way it is presented in the film is really though provoking one. If the filmmaker can struck to tell this story, with his conflicting mind of upbringing a girl in a form of boy and showing the sexual tension between her and her wife, this script could have gone flawless. On the contrary, the inclusion of the magical realism with some elements like ghost certainly make the script very much surreal and loses the grip, which it beings with. Now, if we talk about performances, Irrfan Khan once again has proved that he is truly majestic in his performance. In a role of a misogynist, he has given one of the best performances.

Apart from his dialogues, you can find his silences too speaking volumes about his performance in Qissa. He is born to taste and perform the character by indulging deep in every character he is assigned and the role of Umber Singh was certainly no exception for him. On the contrary Tisca Chopra while playing the character of Meher failed to make the cheese of the role. She has disappointed this time playing a character of a mother unlike the way we have seen in Taare Zameen Par. In other words, she failed making up get the real feeling of a mother in pain. However, Tillotama Shome is incredible in the character of Kawar. She is truly incredible with her expressions, which showcases the conflict within. In the second half, she has simply outshined when she finally decides to defend her father and make him accept that she is a girl.

Rasika Duggal while playing the character of Neeli (one who gets married to Kawar) is competent enough in her performance, which can attract your attention playing the sparky gypsy girl. She is seen playing her character with all her potential and at times, she was even seen overshadowing Shome. The character of Neeli will really make you feel pity on this poor girl, thanks to her incredible performance. The other factors like direction, editing and screenplay too remained good particularly the former, which reflects the diligence of Anup Sing, though the other factors seemed a bit dill-doll yet can be managed to certain extent.

Qissa – Last Word

Essentially, the movie Qissa is a aching story of a girl failing to accept that she is a boy and ailing mother who can’t see her daughter passing through such a torturous life while leading a forced masculine life. This therefore makes the film strictly for those who are waiting to catch such movies, which are rich in terms of content and do not hardly care about its entertaining quotient. Since it is not like any conventional film, hence in many ways you call the movie a depressing one, which is made on a subject, which ironically our rural India is still suffering from. For stellar performances of veteran actors like Irrfan Khan and rich content, a rating of 3 is a fair deal.

Rating – 3

Manoj L

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