That girl in yellow boots.. (as i see it)

I wish I could tear off a piece of the emotional high I am experiencing right now and serve it in black on white , for maybe that is the only way I could justify the magic ‘That girl in yellow boots’ is and describe atleast a fraction of the spell it casted on me ..
Now before I begin with the review , please know this is my first ever review of someone’s work and I don’t really know how do we critique someone else’s brainchild.. so what follows is my critical appreciation of the movie I just watched and loved.. (you may skip it as it’ll be long boring and well.. it’ll be the entire story so ..yes *spoiler alert* :p)

We went for ‘That girl in yellow boots’ solely because there was no other movie in the time slot and we couldn’t bear watching salman thrust his pelvic or whatever weird bodypart he has to offer this time and hence we expected a torture as we entered the movie talking about who is re-funding the money wasted..
So loaded with our ammunition consisting of two veg salads, to non-veg salds and four large cold drinks .. Here we begin

The review :
This film is not from the parallel world of cinema and contrary to what most reviewers say..this film is not for a small section of the society for in the true sense of cinema this is what each one of us is and this movie is exactly about our life ..
The movie talks about a British national, Ruth, who has come to India in search of her father who left her mother and herself following the death of her 15 year old step-sister Emily who committed suicide following a pregnancy.
Ruth ends up in mumbai’s underbelly , working as a masseuse and giving people handshakes, happy endings or whatever you call rubbing a penis for 1000 rupees a favour. The reason for a british national to come all the way across the globe and take such desperate measures is a handwritten letter addressed to her by her father ‘Arjun Patel’ , the only thing to drive her search for her long lost father. The letter in turn is an apology from her father for leaving her family and also proclaims his love for her and how he longs to meet her once again. And hence, she leaves back her mother and elopes to India in search of her father someone who she believes loves her and is waiting for her ..’without conditions’
For she has a cocaine-addicted boyfriend who carries condoms around , lying on top of her every chance he gets , and when she pushes him away .. his honest question .. ‘so why do you want to meet me..to hold hands and look into your eyes’ … (personally makes me wonder if actually love is just a fancy name given to lust..?) . the boyfriend lands up in trouble with a south Indian goon, and the ‘protective boyfriend’ calls her a whore for serving every dick in the world is more than ready to take the same money to save his sorry ass ..and yet again when he is frustrated … the lover in him says.. “fuck me.. for what difference is it between me and your other clients.. make me feel special..for who am I in your life” … he is once again seen slapping her when she goes to serve a friend at the embassy in a desperate hope of meeting her father..

The guy(about 50-ish) from the embassy … calls her ‘love’ .. he is educated and holds position. And the first time you see him talk , you are sure of how nice a man he is , the reel rolls on and you realize he indeed is just a man, with a dick …who invites her over to dinner in exchange of helping her find her father.. you meet the elite of our society when they in their Armani whisper …”tell them your age..they’ll like it… how old are you.. 20..oh wonderful”

The average babu from embassy goes on for holidays to goa.. taking bribes for the same.. and when his body starts aching.. well he wants a handshake as well.. ..

The goon we talked about when we discussed Ruth’s boyfriend breaks into her house to recover the money her boyfriend had damaged .. he takes 57,000 cash..and well the rest kind.. he too wants a handshake.. and hence we meet the gangster..an average man with a dick..
The post master is played by one of my favourites ‘Makrand Deshpande’ and even with the 60 second role he’s worth a mention..cause’ well this is my blog and he’s my fav :D ..anyway here we come across the second most lusted for thing after flesh..’money’

Then we have another personal favourite ‘Naseeruddin Shah’ portraying the little good that human is, the good that is hard to find but the good that we sure hope does exist..for our sake.. for when he says you are magic and exits after saying ‘god bless you’ ,thanking her for being the reason for him keeping well..the little compliment brought a smile to my face.. what touched me more was his disappointment when he gets to know about the ‘handshakes’ , the right he believes and the trust he had instilled in a perfect stranger was my definition of a perfect human being.. my favourite lines by him .. “yes I have a right to speak about her life.. I have a right over everybody I love..everybody I care about’ and yes the magic ‘beta’ he says.. and even though adi had said he’s the father..i was secretly wishing for him to be the good guy throughout the movie.. :)

Also we have the mother , I imagine her as a woman who chose to be a victim and hence being the average woman with a society and a chaste tag.. the mother lost her daughter to a monster and still let him go, instead of punishing the maniac responsible for such a horrible deed , she maintained ‘dignity’ by keeping quiet and erasing him out of her and her second daughter’s life .. she wants the second daughter to be a ‘good girl’ stops her from clubbing, forces the ‘ideal woman tag’ on her second daughter.. which in my opinion highlights the mindset of the society.. for she lets go of the rascal who killed her own daughter and by setting up pre-set behaviour norms for her second girl she re-inforces the fact that she held her daughter ‘Emily’ responsible for getting pregnant.. for well it was her womb anyway.. what happened does not even matter..for was it a rape..for was she forced..or was the 15 year old influenced.. naah.. that does not matter.. what matters is she wasn’t a good girl ..she wasn’t chaste anymore.. and even if she did not think so.. not punishing the man responsible and instead forcing the second daughter into society based shackles somehow hints largely at who she thought was wrong and where she wanted corrections.. or maybe she indeed was broken at the hands of fate..maybe the mistrust had shattered her ..and maybe she wanted her second daughter to be as safe as she could be..for she had lost both her own faith and her child to the ‘man’ ..and hence she kept quiet about what happened with Emily for maybe the memories were to painful or maybe she was too broken to extract any revenge and wanted respect for her dead daughter and safety for her present child.. her disapproving abortion may have religious reasons and maybe she indeed had acceptance for Emily .. or maybe Emily felt the same unacceptance Ruth felt ..but I personally liked to believe Emily’s demise for which maybe she held herself responsible made the mother a protector out of desperation.

And of course..Ruth finds her father, she finds a lead from an ashram her father was a member of..where she was told he had changed his name from “Arjun Patel” to “Benjamin Patel” and had another name ‘Ojus’in the ashram..where he is described 'weird'.. the father was one of her clients shown staring at her bra strap and was a loyal ‘regular’ customer ..he had also been stalking her all the while and her all the days she desperately rubbed random strangers private parts he knew she was his daughter and infact would visit her to get his own happy ending.. he claims ‘loving’ Emily and now Ruth as well and his idea of love is fucking.. a role executed really nicely by a guy with horrible blond-ish hair , he is a pedophile and is a mentally unstable person.. the ending is somewhat like a light stinging drizzle after a storm of emotions.. and I wanted her to kill him .. I could actually feel Ruth’s disgust each time he said .. “it was your mother’s fault..but I loved Emily..i love you..”
Ruth’s character is a brilliant portrayal of raw human emotion, played ‘brilliantly’(excuse my vocabulary..or the lack of it :p) by ‘Kalki Koechalin’ ..
[I overheard a lady say..Anurag is obsessed with his wife..And also fleetingly read that Anurag has said he wont work with Kalki again..which I believe will be a loss for the Indian cinema..as nobody could have worked better than Kalki.. for somebody atleast is making sensible cinema and their team is like none other..it is a shame that people call this obsession but in my opinion nobody in our industry could have done justice with Ruth except for Kalki and Anurag..so screw you aunty..!]
Anyway Ruth’s character in my opinion is essayed so beautifully and yet can be summarized by a simple statement when she says (to her boyfriend) … “ my mother wants me to be a saint .. you want to fuck me.. the client want their happy endings.. but what about me.. even I need somebody who loves me unconditionally ..somebody who listens to me..”
She describes her father as someone who loved her step-sister and as a five yeard old she always wanted the same love..so much so that she wished her elder sibling dead.. Innocent human mind’s desperation for love and acceptance surfaces and when she says her sister would keep Ruth’s hand on her belly and cry and eventually committed suicide , you can feel the fear in her heart ..for sex for her is more than carnal desires…it is the reason she lost her sister when she was only five..when she did not even know what lust was..
People may dismiss her as a whore for serving other people’s lust , and yet when you look her trying to talk to her boyfriend or her clients as she served them… you feel for her simple need of somebody who listens.. a scene initially shows her trying to talk to a client as she served him..when he says not trying to be rude..but can you please keep quiet..and though you dismiss the scene as just another man and his dick..you later are told the same man is her father …and you realize how much we’ve accepted on the name of ‘men will be men’ ..and how low have we stooped..
We see her meeting men from various strata’s of the society.. and yet we see them all lying naked in front of her..sometimes we see her braving the situation with wit..sometimes we her helplessly giving into the situation.. we see her serving stranger’s lust ..we see her fighting her own lover’s lust.. we see her realizing she lost her family to lust..and yet we see her fighting back.. and we see it all raw and real..
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Amazing how strong the character was..and amazing how many questions it has left in my mind.. almost like a part of me has gone numb inside… this movie is the most beautiful piece of art I’ve ever seen..maybe this movie stripped off all my fears and brought them to surface.


I cross my heart and thank god for the life he has given me.. for I am scared to think further.. too scared of the world.. and it’s honest ways..