Chrysanthepop I was under the impression that 'Ishqiya' was a Vishal Bharadwaj film. It was only after watching the film that I discovered Abhishek Chaubey to be the director. The movie does have a Bharadwaj feel to it. Though Bharadwaj still has a strong ties to it (as producer, music director and co-writer just to name a few), Chaubey has done a competent job and he's proved to learn a lot from his mentor.Set in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh, this black comedy follows the story of two thieves and a hot but not-to-be-messed-with widow. Surrounding them are gangsters and arms dealers. The story is full of twists and layers. I like that Chaubey has kept much of it raw. For example, the use of language isn't toned down (or tamed). The dialogues are witty and full of dark humour. 'Ishqiya' moves at a steady pace.Next to the solid editing, 'Ishqiya' is beautifully shot. The stunning landscape is captured beautifully but it never distracts from the story. The energetic soundtrack is excellent. It works great as a standalone and fits the film fine.In addition, 'Ishqiya' benefits from three superb performances. It is no new news what a crafted actor Naseeruddin Shah is and here's another solid proof. Arshad Warsi is proving to be a versatile comic actor but even in the more intense sequences he succeeds. Vidya Balan is spellbinding and perhaps she delivers her best performance to date. She conveys a lot through her silence and her chemistry with Shah and Warsi is sizzling.'Ishqiya' reminds me of those exciting spaghetti western movies that deal with themes of greed, betrayal, love and revenge. It's got plenty of energy to engage the viewer and enough for us to come back and revisit.

sayakboral-1 "In our village, kids learn how to operate a firearm much before they could how to wipe their butts", a matter-of-the-fact verbal bullet from a 15-year old boy, with thrice the maturity for his age. Ishqiya's essence is captured in its telling it like it is portrayal of some lawless badland in Eastern Uttar Pradesh where you really have to project outward toughness to avert an untimely death. This ruthlessness is reinforced by several shady characters, mentions of caste warfare, a local warlord who wrote the script of his own accidental death to get rid of a clingy wife, a steel businessman who also smuggles firearms in the covers, and two small-time city crooks who enter this paradise of aberrant, untrustworthy people and blend in quite easily with their slightly urbanized brand of deceitfulness. There's also plenty of symbolism here with depiction of gas cylinders and the absence of any real protagonist in the entire story. Each individual character has shades of grey and has been given adequate space to develop in sync with the plot. To say that the film's screenplay is brilliant would be an understatement, in fact it's after so many days I recall having seen a screenplay that actually outdoes the script. Ifthiqar and Babban Hussain are two petty thieves who're hiding for cover after running foul with Mushtaq-a big gangster. With some quick thinking, the two manage to contrive an escape and enter this village where they seek refuge with the widow of an old friend, called Krishna. Sparks fly and both men (an uncle and his nephew) take turns to seduce the woman. The younger one, Babban wins this affair much to the anger of the older suitor who hasn't lost his touch with gentle romance. Krishna, however, turns out to be the one who can play both of them for her own interest. Together, they plot a kidnapping sequence which goes awry and leads the plot to a climax. There's plenty of raw sexual chemistry in the film - Vidya Balan as the widow Krishna does quite well in this department. I was a bit surprised to find an element of sado-masochism in quite a few scenes, this has rarely been explored by Indian cinema in the past. The love-making scene between Krishna and her husband was on the theme of slave concubine (bandi) with her Emperor (Jahanpanah). In another scene, you have an adulterer male character in the blindfolds, tied to the bedpost with a cat-eyed dominatrix whipping him gently.Overall, Ishqiya is a must-watch thanks to its huge amount of unpredictability. Even though you don't really feel sympathy for any of the characters because of their antagonizing ways, you'd love the eventual outcome.

the_weirdo Undoubtedly, Ishqiya is a delightful watch.And, why shouldn't it be? After all it has backing of probably the most intelligent people of the contemporary Hindi movie fraternity - Vishal Bharadwaj (arguably the best among contemporary movie makers) as the writer and music director, Gulzar (undoubtedly, the best living poet who writes for movies) as the lyricist, Naseeruddin Shah (one of the finest actors), Vidya Balan(too good, isn't she?) and Arshad Warsi (quite a surprise, to outshine his other two co-stars). Finally, Abhishek Choubey, even if a débutant director, but not new to movies as he was the writer of most of Vishal's great movies. No sooner the movie has been released, people have started comparing, "If Vishal is India's Tarantino, Abhishek Choubey definitely is Robert Rodriguez."The movie is set in a remote UP village where you see it all that you have already been aware of from news or views - the caste war, the black marketeering, the corruption, the kidnapping, the flesh business, the adultery, the illegal immigration, et al. But all these are shown with a tinge of humour - black and grey. All the actors give lively and engaging performances. The love triangle is pretty interesting and one dialogue that summarizes all that, which brings lots of giggle of course, is "Tumhara ishq ishq, humara ishq s*x?"Having said all that, I think the movie is 20 minutes too long. So many twists really don't add nicely towards the end of the movie.I won't call this fresh or different. If not many, you have seen this kind of presentations before. Nevertheless, this is a movie that shouldn't be missed for its raw black humour.(Originally posted @ weirdo-on-movies.blogspot.com)

qartik I had big expectations.. from this movie. A couple of my friends also compared the style of the movie to a Bollywood equivalent of a Tarantino film. I DON'T THINK SO.The movie has some good songs i'll give you that. The story was fast - slow- draggingly slow- hurried again and it all ended with much to be delivered by the end. Naserudin has definitely been wasted here.. he could have done a much better job if the story/screenplay was executed properly. Arshad does good and Vidya Balan.. well what can I say she was OK.I'd have loved to see a better execution of this storyline with more emphasis on character building and a steady engrossing screenplay.6/10.