One day in the life of a Mumbai slum yard. It seems to me that it was a comedy, I would even say tragicomedy. This Independence Day, the residents of the yard will be remembered forever.
Would you like to watch a day in the lives of middle-class Indians? After all, the genre is signed by drama, but according to the results of watching I can safely say that we are actually a comedy. No, not even a comedy, but a phantasmagorical tragicomedy! Why? Yes, because all this looks too unconvincing, and so if you do not pay attention to it, it looks relatively easy.
The main emphasis is on funny moments, and all episodes are reduced to a common denominator called jokes. And the level of originality in each scene and phrase will be almost the same, and I do not know where to laugh and where to cry. Just in real life it does not happen, and I want to see the real India without banknotes.
All this is romantic in many ways, but not all viewers will like the movie. It is aimed only at the female half of the target audience, and the events taking place on the screen do not impress anyone who expected to see rotting slums, domestic black people, starving citizens, the complete absence of public toilets and other cruelty of this country. None of that. But all the characters are happy, smile, dream and just live not yesterday, but the present and optimistic about the future.
"August 15" was on my watch list for South Indian cinema. In one of the courtyards of a small Indian town bustle: everyone is preparing for the Independence Day of India - the same August 15. Neighbors from different apartments are busy with something: someone with a thematic poster, someone is rehearsing, someone is waiting for the arrival of an American groom with his parents to his daughter, and little boys are up to their ears in the dust just playing balls. The girl whose parents want to marry does not want to marry. More precisely, he does not want it at all for that, but for an artist from the same yard. The artist is naked like a falcon, although he loves a girl without memory and even bought a ring. In fact, the incident with this ring will be the plot of the entire film. The territory of the plot, as you know, is small - almost everything will take place in the yard and small apartments of local residents.
The film is completely stupid, but at the same time simple and sarcastic - from a series of films that do not burden the brain at all. I watched, wasted time, marveled at the naive stupidity of the creators and immediately forgot.
This Indian comedy is not for everyone. It has a large cast, and I do not know any of the actors at all, I have never seen them (there was a feeling that they were ordinary residents of this courtyard, and not actors at all), many characters, jokes that only Indian viewers will understand. The story of know-it-all neighbors, arguing parents, mischievous children and old men whining about how everything was before. When the boy’s hand gets stuck in the hole, with a faint heart you realize that the whole film will be occupied with a mini-drama about how to get this hand out.
Neighbors, of course, they are so different and seem to line up comic situations, but not very funny. Not funny at all, but a few times and no more. If comedy, then very so-so, more everyday sketch with a human anthill. It doesn’t smell like drama at all.
There is not much more to write. The film "August 15" is quite long, more than 2 hours. There are songs, but due to the theme of the plot patriotic. There are no traditional Indian dances at all, except for the cutting of circles by all the neighbors around the boy stuck in the middle of the yard. Well, a happy ending, because where, but India without it - everyone must be happy.
I will not recommend the film and will not give a high rating. There is no semantic load in such a movie at all, the storyline is weak, I would even say primitive. There is a lot of absurdity and inadequacy on the part of adults, but the moment about the deceased grandfather, whom everyone thought was sleeping with his eyes open and no one even noticed that the poor lad died, I refuse to comment at all.
This is a failure with a new Indian cinema, and I have a few more in line - I hope not the same. This film to watch or not to watch - decide for yourself, between household chores can and can be one eye, and especially on it you can spend the evening, if there is nowhere to go free time. But the South Indian cinema, though modern, but, as they say, "and on the old woman there is a rut" and southern modern cinema, it is quite unsuccessful.
7 out of 10