Best scenes of 2017: Part III

Here’s the concluding part of my ongoing list of the best scenes of 2017. This time, it’s about the Indian movies I watched on big screen.

Vikram Vedha: I thought this was the instant candidate for the most-high concept movie-of-the-year award during that climactic shot when Vijay Sethupathi (Vedha) and Madhavan (Vikram) hold a gun at each other, much like the ending of all stories in Vikram Aur Betaal. 

Fidaa: Yes, Sai Pallavi was enthralling throughout this charming Sekhar Kammula movie as the feisty Telugu-speaking girl from Telangana. But she was particularly electrifying in the “Vachinde” track. After Sridevi, Telugu cinema has finally found a heroine who can beat the heroes at their own game.

Arjun Reddy: Vijay Devarakonda might have reached the angry young man zenith of Nagarjuna in Shiva, but Sandeep Vanga’s movie is leavened with laugh-out moments, too. Like the part where Reddy and his friend take the mickey out of Shiva (Rahul Ramakrishna) for having no more medical ambitions than being just a regular doctor who treats regular fever.

Mukti Bhawan: On the banks of Varanasi, Daya (Lalit Behl), who is convinced of his imminent death, tells his son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) that it’s lamentable he took up an insurance agent’s job while suppressing his literary talents. To this, the son says he’s happy the way he turned out. Poignancy and melancholy rolled into one scene.

Pa Paandi: Who could have thought that sending emoticons over texts could be such a soul-enhancing moment until the scene where senior citizens Paandi (Rajkiran) and Poonthendral (Revathi) text each other in the middle of the night like a love-struck teenage couple?

A still from Rajkummar Rao-starrer Newton

Newton: On the bus ride home after rejecting a a proposal to marry a girl under 18, Newton (Rajkummar Rao) and his father (Bachan Pachera) have an argument.
 

The latter runs roughshod over Newton for being high and mighty. When Newton says the girl should at least be a graduate, pat comes the remark, “Kyun, ek degree kam ho gayi kya chaatne ko, jo uski bhi chahiye? (Wasn’t one degree enough to lick at that you need another one?)”

Ajji: The squirm-inducing and horrifically engaging scene where the corrupt policeman (Vikas Kumar) grills the family of Manda (Sharvani Suryavanshi), a child who has just been found raped, will be burnt on my cortex for quite some time. Jishnu Bhattacharjee’s irreverent camerawork here deserves special mention.

Angamaly Diaries: The scene preceding the interval when a death happens by accident after a frenetic chase sequence beautifully catches the movie’s vim and wondrousness.

Hello: The much-touted action sequences left me cold, but it was an utterly delectable moment when Ramya Krishnan’s adopted son Avinash (Akhil Akkineni) calls her mom for the first time under the most difficult situations. Her happiness is bottomless even though her life is on the precipice of being snuffed out.

Jaya Janaki Nayaka: Mad props to Boyapati Srinu for mounting a massive fight sequence on the choppy Krishna waters in Andhra’s Hamsala Deevi village. Bodies get dismembered but Rishi Punjabi’s camera compels us to take a deep interest in this triumph of scale and grandeur.

Mersal: I felt pangs of glutinous sentimentality in the scene where a private hospital gouges cash from an auto-driver to save his daughter. With similar cases of deaths in North India, director Atlee Kumar must be commended for his one-track focus on art imitating life.

Baahubali 2: Director S S Rajamouli is terrific at interval bangs and it doesn’t get any different here, when the populace of the Mahishmati kingdom goes berserk over Amarendra Baahubali despite he being “demoted”.

Haraamkhor: Sunita (Trimala Adhikari) fighting with her husband (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) over a suspected affair with his student (Shweta Tripathi) in the middle of the night and then instantly patching up is shocking, grimly funny and brilliant.

Aval: The whole stretch of Jenny (Anisha Angelina Victor) falling into the well and her finding a ghost in her own house when at her neighbour’s is quite audacious.

jagannath.jamma@bsmail.in