Ajbee dastaan review|movies watch and download free
MOVIE INFO
Name: Ajeeb Daastaans (2021)
![Ajeeb Daastaans (2021) Dual Audio [Hindi + English] HDRip ESub on IMDB](https://ia.media-imdb.com/images/G/01/imdb/plugins/rating/images/imdb_37x18.png)
2,509 votesGenre: Drama, Romance
Duration: 2 hour 22 minutes
Release Date: 16 April 2021
Language: Hindi + English
Subtitle: English
Starcast: Fatima Sana Shaikh, Jaideep Ahlawat, Armaan Ralhan
Ajbee dastaan review | movies watch and download free
Anthology films are currently in fashion. The best thing about the format is that in mostanthologies, there is at least one stand-out film. Like Zoya Akhtar’s short in Lust Stories or Dibakar Banerjee’sin Ghost Stories or Avinash Arun’s in Unpaused. In Ajeeb Daastaans, that film is Neeraj Ghaywan’s Geeli Pucchi.Even though the short doesn’t match the searing brilliance of those earlier ones, it is the clear winner in this patchy four-film collection.Geeli Pucchi means wet kiss. The term signifies the tenuous connection that two womenin a small town in North India make with each other. Bharti Mandal, played by a terrific Konkona Sen Sharma,is the sole woman working on a factory floor. She’s smart, ambitious, tough.
When a co-worker insults her,Bharti retaliates. But not with a slap. She punches him in the face,like a boxer in a ring. We're told that she gets into fightsevery two or three months. We're also told that the factoryhas no toilets for women. But Bharti doesn’t complain –either about that or her toxic co-worker. Her rage simmers just beneath the surface. Bharti is female, Dalit and gay. Which means that she's marginalized three times over. Her talent and ability alone willnever be enough to get her ahead. Priya Sharma is the opposite. Neeraj emphasizes Aditi Rao Hydari’s porcelain beautyand Aditi expertly nails Priya’s naivete, her constant patter and her child-like eagernessto be friends with Bharti. As the upper-caste ‘Sharma ji ki bahu,’ Priya is allowedto work but she's not allowed to walk to the factory. Priya has privilege, which she is blissfully unaware ofbut she is in fact, more trapped than Bharti. Briefly, the two women find warmth and a hesitant intimacy – there’s a lovely scene in whichBharti cooks chicken for Priya who's not allowed to eat non-vegetarian foodin her husband’s home. But ultimately, Bharti comes to realize,the chasm between them cannot be bridged.
Caste and gender have always playeda starring role in Neeraj’s cinema but here he also throws in sexuality. He and writer Sumit Saxena create a layered story which keeps twisting with exquisite subtlety. Watch out for the details – like howthe word 'chudail' binds the two women or the way Bharti’s face hardens whenshe realises she will always be the outsider or the superb use of a steel mug. The background score by Alokananda Dasgupta enhancesthe complex emotions embedded in the story – loneliness, desire, resentment, revenge. And the end will leave you both conflicted and satisfied. Debutant director Kayoze Irani also tellsa story about a tenuous connection. Ankahi is about a housewife, Natasha, struggling to keepher life on track as her daughter loses her hearing. Her husband, who seems to be in denial,claims that he is too busy to learn sign language. As their bond is reduced toscreaming matches and silences, Natasha finds refuge in friendship with Rohan,a hearing-impaired photographer. Their relationship plays out in pretty gardens, cafes,comedy clubs and his beautifully furnished apartment. The jagged edges here are only in the emotionsbut Kayoze sustains a lovely warmth and Shefali Shah and Manav Kaul are wonderful. These two are such seasoned players that with minute expressions, they speak volumes. The ending reminded me ofJason Reitman’s 2009 film Up in the Air.
I hope after watching this, more directorsthink of Manav as a romantic lead. Oodles of charm are waiting to be tapped. The other two stories in this collection – Majnu by Shashank Khaitan and Khilona by Raj Mehta – seem to have been conjured upin a parallel universe from Neeraj and Kayoze’s. The first is a purposefully pulpy taleabout a thuggish political leader who is forced, as he says,into a ‘gatbandhan ki shaadi.’ He abandons his wife on their wedding night, so she proceedsto flirt outrageously with every man who crosses her path. At one point, she squeezes a bicepand says suggestively, ‘gym jaate ho?’ There aren’t many actors who canmake writing like this look good. Fatima Sana Shaikh fails as doesthe usually wonderful Jaideep Ahlawat. This is the rare instance when heseems to have dialed in his performance. In Khilona, Nushrratt Bharuccha gives her best shot at playing an alluring housemaid who's trying to sustain herself and her daughter.
The story, also by Sumit Saxena,attempts to comment on class divisions or as someone puts it – Kothi wale aur katiya wale – but the plot is too amateurish to land. The dastaan in Ajeeb Daastaans is plural, which took me back to Abbas Tyrewala’s film Jhootha Hi Sahiin which characters kept describing things as ajeebs. There are plenty of ajeebs here too. But you know, what stayed with me was the expressionin Bharti’s eyes in the last shot of Geeli Pucchi. Watch Ajeeb Daastaans for that. It’s available on Netflix.