Rating ***/*****
Madras Cafe
Cast-John Abraham,Nargis Fakhri
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Madras Cafe is a 2013 Indian political espionage thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Rashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 80s and early 1990s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.Contents [hide] 1 Synopsis 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Title 3.2 Casting 3.3 Location and sets 4 Release 4.1 Critical reception 5 Soundtrack 6 Controversy 7 See also 8 References 9 External links Synopsis As per John Abraham, "Madras Cafe brings us closer to what changed the political history of India."The film, set in India and Sri Lanka, is a political spy thriller with the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war. Major Vikram Singh (John Abraham) is an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw.]As he journeys to Sri Lanka, with the intention of disrupting the LTF rebels, he becomes entangled in rebel and military politics. There he meets a British journalist (Jaya Sahni) who wants to reveal the truth about the civil war, and in the process he uncovers a conspiracy to assassinate "a former Indian prime minister". "The film is a work of fiction, but it is based on research into real events, it has a resemblance to actual political events, dealing with civil war and the ideology of a rebel group.", said director Sirkar.Cast John Abraham - Major Vikram Singh (Indian army officer appointed by the Research and Analysis Wing to carry out operations in Jaffna). Singh is fictitious, Sircar said he had “used real references, portrayed rebel groups, revolutionary freedom fighters, Indian Peace Keeping Forces and shown how India got involved and the chaos”. "I didn’t want to make glitzy thriller like Ek Tha Tiger or Agent Vinod, which seem inspired by the James Bond template. I want to show that intelligence officers are ordinary people who live amongst us. It is only that they have to solve issues where national security is at stake,” says Sircar. Sircar says he needed an actor who can easily get lost in the crowd but with John Abraham it seems next to impossible. “The role also requires a certain level of physicality and John Abraham has worked for the role. I agree this is a new territory for him but I think he has pitched it right. Let’s see how the audiences take him.” Nargis Fakhri - Jaya Sahni (a British war correspondent in Sri Lanka, inspired by many war correspondents, including Anita Pratap As for Fakhri, Sircar says her voice hasn’t been dubbed. “Nargis Fakhri is playing foreign war correspondent. I needed a girl who looks Indian journalist but has an accent so there is no chance that audience will remember her Rockstar performance while watching Madras Café. She will converse in English and she is familiar with the language,” says Sircar. Rashi Khanna - Ruby Singh]- wife of Singh Siddharth Basu - Robin Dutt (RD), a key bureaucrat in Research and Analysis Wing. Ajay Rathnam - Anna Bhaskaran - the leader of the fictional LTF rebels. The character closely resembles the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.[Prakash Belawadi - Major Singh’s superior in Jaffna Tinu Menachery- a Tamil rebel Agnello Dias- a Sri Lankan minister Piyush Pandey - Cabinet Secretary of IndiaDibang[ - a former intelligence officer Leena Maria Paul - a Tamil rebel.Production John Abraham said that director Shoojit Sircar narrated the script of Madras Cafe to him in 2006 but could not get around to beginning it. "After our last film together, we decided to get back to doing where we started off from. That's the story behind Madras Cafe," he said.Title The film was initially titled Jaffna after the northern Sri Lankan city. It was renamed as Madras Cafe, as the plot to kill Gandhi was hatched at the cafe. The original location of the cafe is not specified in the film. Casting John Abraham, the lead actor and one of the producers of the films, plays Vikram Singh, a military officer who is sent to Jaffna to heading RAW's covert operations. "I had to lose a lot of muscle because these officers look like regular people. When they are in a crowd, they are completely inconspicuous," says Abraham.Commenting on remarks likening his look in the movie to Tom Hank’s look in Cast Away,” he said: “Deciding on my look for the movie was quite challenging. It took lot of brain storming and we finalized this messy look, which apparently you think is inspired by Tom Hanks, but actually it’s not.”Pakistani-Czech model-turned-actor Nargis Fakhri was cast to play Jaya Sahni, a British journalist in Jaffna. For the role of foreign war correspondent, Nargis Fakhri was chosen because the director required "a girl who looked Indian but had an British accent." Thus this was the first film where her voice wasn't dubbed. Shoojit Sircar contacted model Sheetal Mallar for the film,[ but as things did not work out, newcomer Rashi Khanna was signed for the role, who makes her debut. Malayalam actress Leena Maria said that she plays a female Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam member in the film.Although the executive producer denied her involvement in the project after she was arrested in a cheating case,[ the director confirmed she is part of the vast cast and her arrest does not affect the film. The cast also included a number of non-professional actors, such as quiz master Siddharth Basu, film-maker Prakash Belawadi and journalist Dibang.[ Location and sets Madras Cafe was shot in Malaysia, Thailand, London and India.[38] The Sri Lankan scenes of the film were shot in India, where the city of Jaffna and large parts of inner Sri Lanka were recreated. "We knew we couldn't shoot this in Sri Lanka, so we shot most of it in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and converted it into a war zone. The second part of the film is based in India, which is the politics part.", said Sircar[ The first schedule of the film was shot extensively in south India. The second schedule was shot in Mumbai, outside India and again in few parts of south India. Several civil war scenes were shot in Bangkok as firings by light machine guns were not permitted in India. Real AK-47s, 9mm Berettas and M60s were used, for which special permission was obtained from the local authorities.] The trailer was released on July 12, 2013.The film was also dubbed in Tamil.Release The film was released on August 23 in India, United States and United Arab Emirates.However, it did not release in United Kingdom and Canada as planned owing to the protests by Tamil diaspora on poor depiction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels[45] and in Tamil Nadu where exhibitors feared the movie is not worth taking risk due to the controversy.[43] Critical reception The film-particularly the story and direction-impressed most of the Indian critics.[46] The Times of India called the film political, tense and explosive. The review written by Srijana Mitra Das praised the film's research, story and "remarkable" cinematography. "Madras Cafe dives boldly into terrain Bollywood hasn't touched before. It highlights India's ambiguous role, moving sensitively, taking no sides, except those of relationships involving respect - but no romance - between Vikram Singh and Jaya Sahni, duty, victory and loss," wrote Das."Madras Café works as an effective portrait of the futility of war. Shoojit Sircar and his writers, Shubhendu Bhattacharya and Somnath Dey, ably illustrate why there are no winners here. Ideologies are marred by corruption and brutality. Death is inevitable and victories, pyrrhic." Anupama Chopra wrote in her review in Hindustan Times."For long, Hindi films made us believe that it is only Pakistan that we have to deal with. Shoojit Sircar touches base with Sri Lanka and unravels the complex ‘Tamil problem’ as many living North of the Vindhyas call it," Anuj Kumar of The Hindu praised director Sircar. "Keeping the jingoistic flavour aside, he plays the game of shadows as it is played with all its muck and grime. His hint at a larger conspiracy of a syndicate with business interests in the region echoes what Agent Vinod also hinted at, but Sriram Raghavan got carried away with the demands of the box office. Sircar chooses to keep it closer to reality. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN also praised the director Sircar, "Unlike in the West, it's hard to make films on real-life historical events in India. Political pressures and sensitive groups invariably throw a spanner in the works. Which is why it's commendable what director Shoojit Sircar has undertaken with Madras Café."