movie review of jhola movie

Movie Review: Jhola

by Samaanta | Apr 11, 2019 | Blog | 0 comments

Nepali movie ‘Jhola’ is a movie made on a popular book by the same name by literary figure, Krishna Dharabasi. The plot set on the Nepali society of the time about a century ago. The movie directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai features  Garima Pant , Desh Bhakta Khanal, Deepak Chhetri,  Laxmi Giri , Pralhad Khatiwada in main roles. The movie made on the banner of Media for Culture Pvt. Ltd. was made after an extensive research on the topic for about 7 years. Based on the novel, Late Deepak Alok had written the script of the movie – keeping the core of the book intact. The movie can be categorized as a historical art movie.

The movie presents the height of violence against women in ancient Nepal – Sati tradition. In ‘Jhola’ an young woman (Garima Pant) is married to a man 40 years senior to her. When her husband dies, Garima is kept to be burned alive with the dead body of her husband. She escaped the fire and hides in a cave. You can watch the movie to know what happens to Garima and how her small son helps her.

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

Although there are places for improvement, the scenes in the movie seem realistic and historical. The movie depicts the environment of East Nepal at the time of 100 years ago. The movie uses long shot to present realistic views of the time. The movie features traditional tools like dhiki, janto, madani, ranko, diyalo and so on.

The young people could get a glimpse of our past and the old people can feel the time they have went through in their childhood. So, both young and the old can enjoy the movie. In addition to Sati tradition, the movie also touches slavery (Kamara Kamari) tradition.

The cinematography is one of the best aspect of the movie. The director has also taken care to present the ancient environment. Most of the lighting during the shooting were also made by traditional lights like ranko, diyalo and fire place light. The dress used by the characters were also sewn by hand.  Background music was also composed of leaf music and traditional tunes. The director says that none of the artists have done make up. To make the characters natural, they had carried cow dung, dug in fields, carried water and the natural dirt was used to make the characters real.

Garima Pant and the child artist have done a very realistic acting. Other actors have also justified their character. In a report, Garima got sick after the shooting of the scene in which she runs away by swimming in the river. Garima told that throughout the shooting she didn’t take a bath or applied makeup.

The director Yadav Bhattarai is a well known name in directing Nepali music videos. After directing about 900 music videos Yadav decided to make the movie on the story he read some 11 years ago. He read the book in BS 2059 and got the permission to make movie on it in BS 2063 from Dharabasi. The script writer Deepak Alok had died four years prior to the release of the movie.

‘Jhola’ is a historical movie to get a glimpse of the time of our fore fathers. The movie is a mirror of violence against women in ancient time. Apart from the entertainment, the movie offers insights into history, culture and tradition. ‘Jhola’ has it’s share of shortcomings but, it is a good historical movie. If you like fight, singing and dance, and fun in movies – this might not be the one you would love to watch.

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Revisiting ‘Jhola’: Social commentary done right

Kshitiz Pratap Shah

‘Jhola’ has a special place in the history of Nepali cinema. Almost unanimously revered and even nominated as Nepal’s Oscar submission in 2014, it is seen as an outlier in its unique addressing of a dated yet complex social issue. When I first watched it as a 13-year-old (almost a decade ago), it created a stellar impression in my mind. What ‘Jhola’ did in comparison to other movies on social issues is introduce nuances to its subject matter and make us question whether we place the blame on the right entities for such social evils. Instead of leaning into melodrama and simplification, the movie, for me, was a way of questioning a linear, black-and-white way of thinking back then. Now, when I rewatched the film nearly after a decade, I still feel that a great part of that authentic, even challenging essence of the movie still remains.

‘Jhola,’ based on Krishna Dharabasi’s short story of the same name, follows a small family from the rural hilly region of Nepal in the 1940s. Our protagonist (Garima Panta) is identified not by her name but simply referred to as Kanchhi. Her husband (Deepak Chhetri) is nearly thrice her age and is on his deathbed. Kanchhi also has a young son (Sujal Nepal), who often acts as the audience’s surrogate in the movie. Between father and son, Kanchhi is shown as the all-caring mother, responsible for everyone’s well-being. In fact, we get to see this family dynamic for nearly a third of the film and focus on the love given to Kanchhi by these two. We are concerned not only for her well-being, or due to a moral obligation, but also because we realise how the ‘sati’ tradition—which mandated that a woman burn along with her dead husband—immediately and permanently breaks familial bonds apart.

Kanchhi’s husband insists on not letting Kanchhi go to ‘sati.’ He understands just how young she is and presents this wish to her and his young son personally. Yet, this idea, constantly appealed to by the son during the funeral, feed into deaf ears. The cultural links associated with the system are entrenched to the point of being detrimental. ‘Jhola’ thus showcases how even the perpetrators of the ‘sati’ tradition are merely enacting a deep-set norm in the social conscience, which reveals that the issue of ‘sati’ transcends personal morality.

One of the few moments where the movie falters is during the death of the father. While we know enough about Kanchhi and the issue at hand to feel sympathetic towards her, the funeral scene, in particular, relies more on telling rather than showing. We see the sister-in-law (Laxmi Giri) side with Kanchhi while consoling Ghanashyam, the son. Yet, her complaints about the hypocrisy of the ‘sati’ tradition feels like a modern insertion, something added in hindsight. While theoretically valid and poignant, the movie rarely visualises her ideas until the end, where we see the extent of the tradition through violence on another ‘sati’ victim.

However, ‘Jhola’ remains personal and grounded for the most part. A large part of this is due to the acting of the two leads. Panta as Kanchhi is toned down, but it works great. She seems not merely a victim but also someone capable of carrying the familial weight on her shoulders. She plays Kanchhi as someone experienced and emotionally stable beyond her years. This doesn’t mean her character doesn’t emote at all—there are scenes where she gives her all. Her crying after the death of her husband is one such moment, a rare instance where Kanchhi breaks down, dismantling the shield she has constructed so well so far.

Similarly, Sujal Nepal brings relatability to the character of Ghanashyam. His character shows compassion and loyalty to Kanchhi, but he rarely overplays his part.

The screenplay uses metaphors, flashbacks and dream sequences to its advantage. The dying father’s dream of seeing himself in fire foreshadows the burning of his wife and the sudden change it brings to his family. Yet, these additions also break the monotony of the present and justify character motivations in a refreshing way.

Most importantly, though, the movie structures itself to be constantly linked to the present, as we see the story of Kanchhi and Ghanashyam play merely as a flashback to the turmoils of suspicion, doubt and unjustified violence in the middle of the Maoist insurgency. Dharabasi, the author of the short story, also makes an appearance, largely to remind us how contextual such discriminatory social evils still are in our society.

In fact, the dowry system, chhaupadi and witch trials still happen in Nepal. The ending is bitter-sweet (and perhaps even ironic), as Dharawasi pays homage to Chandra Shumsher, who allegedly abolished the ‘sati’ tradition but led an oppressive regime that was plagued by other forms of exploitation. This juxtaposed ending ultimately does a great job of leaving the audience at an edge—forcing us to come to terms with the deep-set rot of injustices lodged into our social systems.

Language: Nepali

Released: 2013

Available on: YouTube , with English subtitles

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Director: Yadav Kumar Bhattarai

Cast: Garima Panta, Desh Bhakta Khanal, Sujal Nepal, Laxmi Giri and Deepak Chhetri

Kshitiz Pratap Shah Kshitiz Pratap Shah was a Culture and Lifestyle intern. He is an undergraduate student at Ashoka University, pursuing an English & Media Studies major.

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Movie/ Film Review: Jhola

  Movie Review on ‘Jhola’

Title of the movie: Jhola

Director: Yadav Kumar Bhattarai

Producers: Raj Timalsina, Ram Gopal Thapa and Sushil Shah

Starring: Garima Panta, Desh Bhakta Khanal, Sujal Nepal, Laxmi Giri and Deepak Chhetri

Genre: Social

Duration: 90 minutes

Language: Nepali

Release Date: 7 December 2013

‘Jhola’ is a Nepali film based on Krishna Dharawasi’s short story “Jhola”. It has depicted Nepali society about the Sati tradition that was prevalent until the 1920s. The film has beautifully presented the issues of violence against women. “Has Nepalese society really passed through such inhuman tradition?” is the question every youngster wonders about.

The plot develops with the death of Garima’s husband in which she has to immolate herself upon her husband’s death, typically on his funeral pyre. She is supposed to be burnt alive with the dead body of her husband according to the tradition. However, she escapes the fire and hides in a cave. The help of her son fascinates the audience.

Almost all the scenes seem realistic and historical. Traditional tools like dhiki , janto , madaani , etc. give a traditional look to the film. Similarly traditional lights like ranko, diyalo and fire place represent ancient environment to the spectators. In addition to Sati tradition, the movie also touches Kamara Kamari (a kind of slavery) tradition. What a beautiful cinematography it is! I think costumes of the artists and the leaf music in traditional tunes touch the heart of every one present in the cinema hall. Garima’s natural appearance, her role and her acting are spellbinding and add to the beauty of the movie.

This is a must watch movie. Don’t miss it.

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Tuesday, September 11, 2018

A Specimen of Movie Review on ‘Jhola’

Body { } center { text-align: center; } h2 { color: #333; } p { margin-bottom: 15px; } } movie / book review.

A review is a brief description of a book, film, play, album, etc. It gives the main points of the plot including the reviewer’s comments/ recommendations. While writing a review, think about the tenses you should use for each paragraph. When describing the plot, the present tense should be used. When a new topic is presented, start a new paragraph. Your recommendation and judgement should be included in the conclusion. Always be reasonable to support your comments or opinions.Useful Language

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The film is set ____. It tells the story of / is about _____; The film is directed/ produced by ____ ; It is based on a book by _____ ; The film is a comedy / thriller/ adventure / romantic comedy / tragedy etc.

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A Review of the Movie 'Jhola'

Title of the movie: Jhola

Director: Yadav Kumar Bhattarai

Producers: Raj Timalsina, Ram Gopal Thapa and Sushil Shah

Starring: Garima Panta, Desh Bhakta Khanal, Sujal Nepal, Laxmi Giri and Deepak Chhetri

Genre: Social

Duration: 90 minutes

Language: Nepali

Release Date: 7 December 2013

‘Jhola’ is a Nepali film based on Krishna Dharawasi’s short story “Jhola”. It has depicted Nepali society about the Sati tradition that was prevalent until the 1920s. The film has beautifully presented the issues of violence against women. “Has Nepalese society really passed through such inhuman tradition?” is the question every youngster wonders about.

The plot develops with the death of Garima’s husband in which she has to immolate herself upon her husband’s death, typically on his funeral pyre. She is supposed to be burnt alive with the dead body of her husband according to the tradition. However, she escapes the fire and hides in a cave. The help of her son fascinates the audience.

Almost all the scenes seem realistic and historical. Traditional tools like dhiki, janto, madaani, etc. give a traditional look to the film. Similarly, traditional lights like ranko, diyalo and fire place represent ancient environment to the spectators. In addition to Sati tradition, the movie also touches Kamara Kamari (a kind of slavery) tradition. What a beautiful cinematography it is! I think costumes of the artists and the leaf music in traditional tunes touch the heart of every one present in the cinema hall. Garima’s natural appearance, her role and her acting are spellbinding and add to the beauty of the movie.

This is a must watch movie. Don’t miss it.

21 comments:

thanks very much for provide fruitful materials for teachers and students side. thanks sir

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Nepali Times

6-12 december 2013 #684.

Based on author Krishna Dharabasi’s story of the same name, the film begins when an old man called Ghanashyam (Sujal Nepal) leaves his bag for a night at the writer’s home. Suspicious, the writer checks the contents of the bag only to find an old manuscript which contains 11 short stories. As Dharabasi starts reading, he is transported to Nepal of the 18th century. We are introduced to a young Ghanashyam who lives with his mother Kanchi (Garima Panta) and his ailing father (Desh Bhakta Khanal). After her husband passes away, Kanchi’s life becomes a nightmare.

Expected to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre, Kanchi enters almost a daze like state and goes from being a strong-willed, loving mother to a helpless widow. As she prepares herself for the ceremony and Ghanashyam comes to terms with being orphaned, the anguish of both mother and son becomes palpable on screen. While expertly depicting the pain of the protagonists, director Yadav Kumar Bhattarai also explores the tender relationship between a mother and a son, which imbibes Jhola with a soul that has been missing in most Nepali movies pre and post the success of Loot .

Although the Sati system was abolished decades ago, Jhola is still relevant to today’s Nepal where, unfortunately, cases of sexual harassment, violence against women, trafficking remain all too common. The film may not be technically sound or perfectly enacted, but it succeeds in leaving an impact and inspiring viewers to take a stance.

Sunaina Rana

www.jholanepalifilm.com

Jhola was screened by Zonta, an international organisation working to improve the status of women in Nepal, at QFX Kumari on 2 and 5 December.

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Directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai

The Sati system was abolished decades ago but Jhola is still relevant to today's Nepal where, unfortunately, cases of sexual harassment, violence against women, trafficking remain all too common.

Garima Panta Desh Bhakta Khanal Sujal Nepal Laxmi Giri Deepak Chhetri

Director Director

Yadav Kumar Bhattarai

Releases by Date

07 dec 2013, releases by country.

90 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by truett ★★★

Won’t say this was made exceptionally well but it does tell this story in a very great and emotional way. I’ve never heard of this practice before but wow quite upsetting. Also this is the first Nepali film I’ve ever seen!?!

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Stories of Sandeept

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Jhola-An Epic Movie

Introduction

Sati, the first wife of Lord Shiva had jumped into the sacrificial fire in protest of the abuse her parents had done to her husband. Commemorating it, an inhumane tradition continued for thousands of years in which a woman burnt herself alive on the pyre of her dead husband. Women who were saved from the practice were rare. Only Mandev’s mother has been mentioned in the ancient history saved from the tradition. And then there was Rajendra Laxmi, the daughter-in-law of Prithvi Narayan Shah. Thirty one Satis burnt themselves at the death of king of Patan Yog Narendra Malla. During the reign of Laxmi Narsingh Malla, Kaji Bhim Malla was persecuted for a crime he did not commit. His wife, while sacrificing herself on the pyre of her husband, cursed: May the rulers of this country lose their rationality!

Jhola (English: Bag ) is a movie based on the story of the same name by Krishna Dharavasi (Dharavasi literally translates to- one who lives in the Earth) was the most anticipated movie of 2014. Speaking on the evil practice of Sati, the story of Dharavasi had gained immense popularity- credit to the radio programme Shruti Sambeg and genuine lovers of Nepali literature. What was the custom? What were the pains? Yadav Kumar Bhattarai has shown well as the director of the movie.

As soon as the production declared the making of the movie, everyone was eager to know the development. The movie’s shooting was given utmost importance by the national level magazines and TV shows. The actress, Garima Panta rose to fame. The post-production was keenly watched over. Content, everyone knew. How would it be presented? Major curiosity lied on the presentation of nudity. Complete nudity was mentioned in the story. How it be shown in a movie that had audience of conservative mindset? This curiosity had also made up a newspaper article.

The movie opens with a song by Sumnima Singh of Night- the same band I had featured in January. Krishna Dharavasi and his family make a special appearance in the present (2058 B.S.). He discovers a paper (letter) inside a bag left by an elderly man earlier that day and reads it.

The story opens in the year 1971 B.S. at an Eastern Hilly Village of Nepal. The writer of the letter is about 9 or 10 years old while his father is more than seventy years old. Shockingly, his mother is just twenty-seven. As his father lies on deathbed, his mother undergoes many troubles to take care of her son and household.

One day, the old man dies. The boy is then under the care of his uncle and aunt (both older than his mother). His mother is declared a Sati and she is made to perform several rituals before she offers herself to the burning pyre. However, she escapes without the notice of the processors. The boy finds her and takes her away to Manipur, India.

Social Evils and their Eradication

The movie presents some other social evils along with the tradition of Sati. Unequal marriage, treatment by witch-doctors and slavery are the evils of the era movie is based on.

Sati Pratha and Slavery were abolished by the Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher in the years 1977 and 1981 B.S. respectively. But as the movie says- Evils in our society still linger. Widows were burnt once then. Now, they are burnt several times by the society. Unequal marriage, child marriage still prevail. Dowry system is growing up as another evil. Everyone should be united to fight against these evils.

Personal View The movie has been well presented. Such a presentation is rarely seen in low-budgeted movies of Nepal. Village life in the hills of Nepal has been well depicted. The story is supported by the acting. The illness of the old man seems real. The rituals after his death are well-shown (although there could have been finer details of the procession). The background music is catchy and melodious. The cinematography and the lighting is good, although there is need of improvement at some points. The only thing I felt bad about was the transition between the scenes and the scenes that occur rapidly after the death of the boy’s father. Overall, the movie is the best literary adaptation in Nepal.

Movie facts: Director: Yadav Kumar Bhattarai Story: Krishna Dharavasi Screenplay: Krishna Dharavasi / Deepak Alok Music/ Lyrics: Jason Kunwar Singer: Sumnima Singh Actors: Garima Panta Deepak Chhetri Deshbhakta Khanal Laxmi Giri Sujal Nepal (Lead Child Actor) Producers:

IMDb Rating: 8.8/10

References 1. Jhola at Internet Movie Database (IMDb) 2. variety.com/2014/film/asia/nepal-picks-jhola-for-foreign-language-oscar-race-1201290740/

You can watch the movie at: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tvSSDYsOHxw

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11 thoughts on “ jhola-an epic movie ”.

Pingback: Some women who died for love – Stories of Sandeept

Great review. I was brought up in Delhi and that somehow made me think that these things don’t happen anymore. That sati was happening as recently as the 70s is a shocking revelation. Unequal marriages unfortunately are fairly commonplace. Your posts are thought-provoking, my friend.

Thank you but I think you got confused, dear Anand. I didn’t mean 1970 A.D. but 1970 B.S. (Bikram Sambat- an official Nepali calendar). Since B.S. is 57 years ahead of A.D., the movie talks maybe of the 1920s (in A.D.) The tradition of Sati was abolished but other traditions are becoming inhuman. Dowry, for example. Child marriage and unequal marriage are still prevalent.

Like Liked by 1 person

Thanks for clarifying it Sandeep. Yes, I missed it. There are traditions I’ll be happy to see dead and gone! They mess with happiness, something that must be a fundamental right of a person.

Some of them are so rooted and are still spreading. I would love to see them being ended by learned people.

Odd how learned people are burnt at every crossing, figuratively speaking, by the very people they try to help. It happens all the time in India. A crusader against black magic is hacked to death, a man who speaks against traditions that are biased is shot dead. Martyrdom comes in various forms…one of them is philanthropic learnedness.

The world is cruel to those who are trying to help others. So helping oneself first might be the trick for survival.

I went to go watch this movie and it indeed was phenomenal! I think you left a great review of it. For me it was a unique viewing experience because I am not very familiar with Nepali culture and history! As an outsider looking at this work, it really just informs me about how things once were, on top of it being a captivating story. 🙂 I actually would recommend this movie to other people because, as (it seemed to me) cheesy as some parts are, it’s still a heart-clenching and heartwarming story that people can relate to. Thanks for bringing this into my life Ankit!

I am glad that you watched and liked the movie. Thank you so much!

I could not refrain from commenting. Very well written!

Pingback: Monthly Feature 12: Let’s take a “Breathless” Revision – Stories of Sandeept

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Jhola – movie review.

UPDATE – Full movie Watch ‘Jhola’ here.

Nepali movie ‘Jhola’ is a movie made on a popular book by the same name by literary figure, Krishna Dharabasi. The plot set on the Nepali society of the time about a century ago. The movie directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai features Garima Pant , Desh Bhakta Khanal, Deepak Chhetri, Laxmi Giri , Pralhad Khatiwada etc. in main roles. The movie made on the banner of Media for Culture Pvt. Ltd. was made after an extensive research on the topic for about 7 years. Based on the novel, late Deepak Alok had written the script of the movie – keeping the core of the book intact. The movie can be categorized as a historical art movie.

The movie presents the height of violence against women in ancient Nepal – Sati tradition. In ‘Jhola’ an young woman (Garima Pant) is married to a man 40 years senior to her. When her husband dies, Garima is burned alive with the dead body of her husband. She escaped the fire and hides in a cave. You can watch the movie to know what happens to Garima and how her underage son helps her.

The story was written by Dharabasi based on a story he found written in leaf booklet in a bag (Jhola) left at his home by an elderly man who had come from Manipur, India. Hence the name ‘Jhola’. The event shown in the movie happened in a remote village of Bhojpur district. The shooting however was done in Dhading after reviewing various other locations in Sindhuli, Bhojpur, Ilam, Therathum, Panchthar, Sindhupalanchowk, Rolpa, Taplejung, Khaptad, Doti, Achham, Bajhang, and Bajura.

Strength and Weakness

Although there are place for improving, the scenes in the movie seem realistic and historical. The movie depicts the environment of East Nepal at the time 100 years ago. The movie uses long shot to present realistic views of the time. The movie features traditional tools like dhiki, janto, madani, ranko, diyalo and so on.

The young people could get a glimpse of our past and the old people can feel the time they have went through in their childhood. So, both young and the old can enjoy the movie. In addition to Sati tradition, the movie also touches slavery (Kamara Kamari) tradition.

The cinematography is one of the best aspect of the movie. The director has also taken care to present the ancient environment. Most of the lighting during the shooting were also made by traditional lights like ranko, diyalo and fire place light. The dress used by the characters were also sewn by hand.  Background music was also composed of leaf music and traditional tunes.

The director says that none of the artists have done make up. To make the characters natural, they had carried cow dung, dug in fields, carried water and the natural dirt was used to make the characters real.

Garima Pant and the child artist have done a very realistic acting. Other actors have also justified their character. In a report, Garima got sick after the shooting of the scene in which she runs away by swimming in the river. Garima told that throughout the shooting she didn’t take a bath or applied makeup.

The director Yadav Bhattarai is a well known name in directing Nepali music videos. After directing about 900 music video Yadav decided to make the movie on the story he read some 11 years ago. He read the book in BS 2059 and got the permission to make movie on it in BS 2063 from Dharabasi. The script writer Deepak Alok had died four years prior to the release of the movie.

‘Jhola’ is a historical movie to get a glimpse of the time of our fore fathers. The movie is a mirror of violence against women in ancient time. Apart from the entertainment, the movie offers insights into history, culture and tradition. ‘Jhola’ has it’s share of shortcomings but, it is a good historical movie.

If you like fight, singing and dance, and fun in movies – this might not be the one you would love to watch.

Recommendation – a must watch movie.

Review by – Robin Manandhar

You might also want to visit ‘Jhola’ movie profile in NetofNepal.

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यहाँ छ — https://xnepali.net/movies/nepali-movie-jhola/

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maile t harako 6ena sunako6u but youtube.ma searr garako ke amsa.matra bhata full movi bhatna sakina

Me too..looking forward for this movie's link please

Chakrapani Timalsina Can I watch in internet? If possible then can anyone send me the link please

where can I get this movie plz

Necessary to watch this movi for everyone …

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This movie will be upper rank in the box office. All actors are really realistic except priest.

Already watched but ….

already watched.

hora fursadma hernu parla ,, namaskar n subh din dharma ji

Yes everybody should watch Jhola….in my view its a heart touching movie n ever in nepali movie history..

ekdam ramro chha yo film…….

i like to watch this movey plzz but how to watch can u says some thing about me for this movei plaze

It is the knowledgeable movie so everybody should watch jhola .

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The Adams Family—a group of filmmakers led by father  John Adams , mother  Toby Poser , and daughter  Lulu Adams —are some of the most fascinating horror filmmakers on the scene. Get thee to a streaming service and watch “ The Deeper You Dig ” as soon as possible—it’s one of the best horror films of the decade so far—and then chase that with their clever, twisted “ Hellbender .” These are deeply personal genre films, movies that hum with atmosphere and dread. Their latest is kind of a departure for John and Toby—Lulu gets writing credit but doesn’t appear this time—in that it’s their first filmed on location out of the country (in Serbia) and easily contains their biggest budget. Working with a bigger production company on a film that feels more like anyone could have made it than their previous works drains “Hell Hole” of some of the DIY charm of the other flicks by Adams and Poser. Comparatively, it’s kind of a disappointment, despite having some undeniable positives that should make it an easy watch for horror heads.

“Hell Hole” was obviously inspired by the master  John Carpenter , owing a great deal to his version of “The Thing”—a remote outpost overtaken by a monster that can look like an ordinary person—and movies he made about people essentially stumbling into portals to Hell in films like “ Prince of Darkness ” and “In the Mouth of Madness.” The hapless souls in this one are a team (led by Poser’s Emily) that’s fracking in a remote corner of Serbia when they drill into, well, something impossible. They find a body in a sort of cocoon of a centuries-old soldier, and he’s still alive. While they discuss what to do with this break in reality, they notice something even stranger about the Frenchman in that there appears to be something that occasionally peeks out of his nose or ear. Before you can say “burn it with fire,” the monster that was inhabiting the poor soul has jumped ship to John (Adams) and set out to wreak more havoc.

The main twist of the body possession tale here is a sort of male pregnancy narrative in that the creature is inhabiting men as a host for growth. Where’s mom? And what happens when it comes to term? The Adams Family has a lot of fun with some of their most out-there ideas, such as when the creature in a human host realizes it’s under threat and basically just flees by turning its current home into a pile of bloody goo. “Hell Hole” is a marvelously goopy movie with a whole lot of slimy red stuff and tentacles slicing through the air. It’s also a consistently funny movie, playing almost more like dark comedy than the foreboding work the family has made in the past.

On that note, I’m happy to see Adams and Poser kind of spreading their wings and trying something different here, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this one doesn’t have the same teeth as their best films. It’s more of a lark. Sure, there’s some commentary about how f-ing with Mother Nature will eventually lead to carnage, but it’s very loosely sketched, and the characters have too few traits to be actually memorable. And, yes, it’s a bit clever that Emily used to be a hippie, and there’s some decent character work by Olivera Perunicic, but the people here are naturally forced to cede interest to the enemy they face, giving the whole thing a bit of shallowness that even great body horror avoids. It’s sporadically fun enough, but just not that deep a cinematic hole.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Toby Poser as Emily
• John Adams as John
• Max Portman as Teddy
• Anders Hove as French Imperial Army Commander
• Olivera Peruničić as Sofija

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Maria review: angelina jolie anchors a thoughtful biopic, but i just couldn’t love it [venice].

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10 Best Biopic Movies Of All Time

India's record-breaking 2024 box office smash becomes global streaming hit in netflix debut, the crow 2024 box office finally passes global milestone after lackluster opening weekend.

Maria makes its intentions clear early. In September 1977, legendary opera singer Maria Callas ( Angelina Jolie ) is in her final days, and her grasp on reality is tenuous at best. She rearranges the world with herself at the center, though where once entire crowds were subject to her whims, now there remain only her loyal butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and maid (Alba Rohrwacher). They worry over her declining health. By abusing her medication, she hallucinates entire conversations. She detests doctors, who feel compelled to disrupt her with their facts.

Maria (2024)

But Jolie's Callas isn't Norma Desmond; director Pablo Larraín isn't out to make her an object of horror or pity. Callas, we learn, had much of her reality forced upon her. At this point in her life, she is taking control, and Maria practically cedes itself to her . She conjures up a filmmaker (Kodi Smit-McPhee), named for her hallucinatory drug, who interviews her about her life, and her visions take over our experience. Reality may intrude, often quite rudely, but this movie is Maria's. The story of her we see is the story she's telling about, and to, herself.

Maria Is Filled With Strong & Interesting Creative Choices

And the singing scenes are easy standouts.

The result was mixed , and in a way that poses a conundrum for me as a critic. There is so much to admire in the way that it's crafted, and intellectually, I found it full of interesting, thoughtful choices. The metanarrative device is skillfully deployed, as are Maria's hallucinations. There's no attempt to pull the rug out from under the audience. While there's some fun in seeing how and when reality is distorted, when it isn't is just as important. The way people outside Maria's inner circle choose to interact with her can be both funny and cutting.

Even if I would enjoy an evening talking through the finer points of Larraín's choices, I can't deny I am in no hurry to revisit to them.

Often, the film is in some middle-ground, as Maria slips through time whenever Jolie's protagonist is drawn away from the present moment, whether by memory, dream, or something in between. These scenes are beautifully composed with a cleverly malleable visual palette, sharpening the contrast. The effect of this is strongest when Callas sings. Her professional days are long behind her, but she wants to recover her voice and goes about testing it. As Maria sings, she is snapped back to when she sang the song before.

The biopic genre is one of the hardest to master, meaning that the greatest stand out above the rest for their detailed & skilled portrayals.

The film sets up a divide: Jolie sings as Maria, a shadow of her former self, while real recordings are used for La Callas, the soprano in her prime. We receive La Callas' full power and glamor in sudden bursts, and they drive home the truth that Maria cannot fully keep out. We can hear Maria's desperation just as well as we can see it pooling behind Jolie's eyes.

For All Its Artfulness, Maria Left Me Cold

There's plenty to admire in Maria , and in Jolie's performance , but my connection to certain scenes shouldn't be mistaken for my being emotionally engrossed. In fact, I typically felt kept at a distance . The style formed a barrier that I could only penetrate in moments. That's not always a problem – some movies play better to the head than the heart, and are no worse for it. But this film is so confident in its own artfulness that it was hard to feel content with just admiration.

Therein lies my difficulty. I have no doubt that others will have a different experience with Maria and find themselves completely swept away by it, and with everything else it has going for it, I'd be remiss not to recommend it. But I can only do so halfheartedly . Even if I would enjoy an evening talking through the finer points of Larraín's choices, I can't deny I am in no hurry to revisit them.

Maria premiered at the Venice Film Festival . The film is 124 minutes long and not yet rated.

Maria tells the tumultuous, beautiful and tragic story of the life of the world’s greatest female opera singer, relived and reimagined during her final days in 1970s Paris.

• Constantly beautiful to look at
• Makes strong use of its singing scenes
• Features a clever, interesting storytelling device
• Shrouds itself in style that emphasizes its own artfulness
• Keeps the viewer at an emotional distance

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• ‘Maria’ Review: Angelina Jolie Hits The High Notes As Doomed Diva Maria Callas In Pablo Larraín’s Curiously Bloodless Biopic – Venice Film Festival

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Maria Callas died in 1977, aged 53, and, as anyone even faintly interested in opera knows, she had a life of tumult, torment and tragedy that was itself operatic in scope. The events in Steven Knight’s finely constructed script take place over one week, but Callas ( Angelina Jolie ) spends much of that time relating or remembering fragments of the past, inviting the viewer to piece them together to form a life. We see her mother forcing her to sing for occupying Fascists during the Second World War. We catch glimpses of her longstanding affair with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), whom she willingly allowed to control and confine her. We see her make a bonfire out of her costumes after her voice has roughened.

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Jolie is an almost magical match for the real diva: achingly thin but still beautiful, loftily patrician, capriciously kind or selfish, tip-toeing dangerously close to madness. The actor’s commitment to this creation is obvious at every turn. Knowing that Callas was only happy when on stage, she learned to sing for the role; the voice we hear is a blend of Callas and Jolie’s own. Even more importantly, we can see her chest rise and veins swell as she is consumed, body and soul, by the physical and emotional effort of singing. “You have no idea the pain of pulling music through your belly out of your poor mouth,” Maria snaps at a fan who dares to recall one of her many concert cancellations. “No idea!” You can’t show that without living it.

RELATED: ‘Maria’ Clip: Angelina Jolie Suits Up As Opera Icon In Pablo Larraín’s Latest Biopic

And yet, somehow, the portrait the film draws is curiously bloodless. Callas the woman remains distant and unknowable; cunning to the end, she eludes us. Larraín is clearly interested in the mannered presentation of certain very famous women; Natalie Portman’s Jackie Kennedy and Kristen Stewart’s Diana Spencer were also works of artifice. Callas is similarly studied, but to the point of seeming stilted. Our enduring image of her is a composition of limbs and couture posed at a café table, waiting for the adulation of passers-by. We are watching a performance of a performance.

The curtain duly falls, reprising a prologue in which we see that Callas has just died. The heightened emotion that transfixed us in the excerpts from Medea or Madama Butterfly is strikingly absent here. Larraín keeps the camera at a distance; the body is hidden behind a chair. Nothing to see here, you might say, even though there has been — as always in a Pablo Larraín film — so much to see. Something is missing. Perhaps it is that there is nothing of the grit and grind of politics, which often works as the sand in his narrative oyster, not only in the Chilean films like Neruda or No , but Jackie and Spencer too. Maria tells a fascinating story, but it lacks that rasping edge.

Festival:   Venice  (Competition) Distributor:  Netflix Director:  Pablo Larraín Screenwriter:  Steven Knight Cast:  Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield, Valeria Golino Running time:  2 hrs 3 mins

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• After her husband's death, a girl is forced to die due to the Sati practice in Nepal.
• The film begins when an old man called Ghanashyam (Sujal Nepal) leaves his bag for a night at the writer's home. Suspicious, the writer checks the contents of the bag only to find an old manuscript which contains 11 short stories. As Dharabasi starts reading, he is transported to Nepal of the 18th century. We are introduced to a young Ghanashyam who lives with his mother Kanchhi (Garima Panta) and his ailing father (Deepak Chhetri). After her husband passes away, Kanchhi's life becomes a nightmare. Expected to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre, Kanchhi enters almost a daze like state and goes from being a strong-willed, loving mother to a helpless widow. As she prepares herself for the ceremony and Ghanashyam comes to terms with being orphaned, the anguish of both mother and son becomes palpable on screen. While expertly depicting the pain of the protagonists, director Yadav Kumar Bhattarai also explores the tender relationship between a mother and a son. Perhaps the best two lines in the movie are delivered by the sister-in-law who sums up the audiences' thoughts when she says: "Why is it that only a woman has to sacrifice her life when a man dies, why can't he do the same ... And why is it acceptable for a man to marry for the second time" Although the Sati system was abolished decades ago, Jhola is still relevant to today's Nepal where, unfortunately, cases of sexual harassment, violence against women, trafficking remain all too common. — Sunaina Rana, Rabins Sharma Lamichhane
• Depicts the story of a woman representing women of then(before 18th century when sati ritual was abolished) who were sacrificed on funeral pyre of husbands alive as Sati Ritual and women of now who have been attacked by social crime like sexual harassment, violence, trafficking. — Bijaya Maharjan "Litigoner"
• Based on the short story "Jhola" written by well known story writer Krishna Dharabasi. This movie depicts a horrifying tale of a custom practiced a century back in himalayan kingdom of Nepal. According to the culture a wife had to burn herself on the funeral pyre after death of husband to proove her loyalty and purity. Garima Pant as wife, Deepak Chhetri as Husband and Sujal Nepal as son have made this moving tale a must watch. It depicts the custom frame by frame on the solid foundation of reality. The movie deals with the consequences of this obnoxious custom known as "Sati Pratha". — outlaw Django
• Jhola Before Chandra Shamsher removed Sati culture from our Nation in the 1920s, women had lived a fearful life where they had to sacrifice themselves in flame when their husband had passed away. This movie shows how Ghanashyam (the main character) nearly lost his mother due to the Sati Culture. Will Ghanshyam be able to help his mom escape her fate completely? Or will his mother be sacrificed for real? — Bhojraj

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Maria Review: Angelina Jolie Evokes Classic Hollywood In This Melancholy Biopic [Venice 2024]

• Angelina Jolie puts in a career-best performance
• Moving story and gorgeous cinematography
• Over-reliance on flashbacks

With "Maria," director Pablo Larraín continues his streak of telling stories about troubled, emotionally vulnerable women in the spotlight, picking up the thread that he established with "Jackie" and "Spencer." He finds success again with this melancholy drama starring Angelina Jolie as the reclusive, mentally ill opera singer Maria Callas in the days leading up to her untimely death in 1977. The film as a whole may be too sedate and ploddingly paced for some — a piano being moved back and forth, over and over again, across an elegant but lonely Parisian apartment, both literally and figuratively. But it's impossible to deny the raw emotional power of Jolie in the lead role.

"Maria" begins with its star's death. It's presented as an inevitability, from her imagined interviews with a production crew making a film entitled "Maria Callas: The Last Days" to her doctor's ominous warnings about her health. So from the very first moments, we know her fate — and the main characters seem to as well. As Maria becomes more and more dependent on certain drugs and reluctant to take the ones that might actually help, her butler Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housemaid Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) — her only companions — can only look on and worry. She talks of writing an autobiography and seeing if she still has a singing voice, but anyone with eyes can see that she's winding down, and rather precipitously at that.

Angelia Jolie is at her very best

The greatest strength of "Maria" is that Pablo Larraín hired Angelina Jolie to play her. She's had plenty of high-profile roles that see her as a tough, imposing figure, but she's at her best when she's able to play vulnerable, mentally frail characters. As Maria, she uses her innate movie star charisma to channel the kind of old Hollywood starlet who even in quiet, relaxed interviews has the ability to make an audience hang on her every word. And what's more, she is capable of generating so much empathy from audiences, her beauty and grace fragile rather than intimidating. Her performance in "Maria" will probably go down as one of the best of the year, and for that matter, of her entire career.

Like in many of his other works, Larraín experiments in "Maria" with the line between reality and fantasy, or madness, if you like. Maria speaks confidently of a production crew coming to interview her, for example, although whether or not it actually exists is anyone's guess. The journalist (Kodi Smit-McPhee), it turns out, is called Mandrax — a manifestation of the sedative medication in the Quaalude family that Maria takes on a daily basis. But although he may not be real, he's certainly real enough to her, and his presence helps her work through some of the issues she'd been struggling with for decades. Her difficult childhood, her toxic relationship with Aristotle Onassis, and the birth and death of her singing career had been haunting her, and the conversational interview style she imagines herself to carry out with Mandrax finally gets everything off her chest. It's only through this removal of the distinction between what is real and what is not that she's able to unburden herself and be at peace with meeting death.

Both Maria and the film are trapped in the past

"Maria" seems as though it wants to be one of those biopics that focuses its lens tightly on a specific moment in time, in this case the week leading up to Maria Callas' death. This is usually a winning strategy, but Pablo Larraín also can't help himself from digging into the past. The opening montage offers a glimpse of Maria's larger-than-life career, providing all the context we need to understand this Norma Desmond-like figure. But the film also decides to include several flashbacks to different points in her life, some more effective than others. 

A few moments are effective — a young Maria being forced by her mother to sing for (and, it's implied, to sleep with) German soldiers for money in Nazi-occupied Athens is especially harrowing. But there are scenes, particularly with her long-time lover Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), that don't add much to the film or our understanding of the character, and only serve to bloat the run time. We know that Larraín finds it hard to resist throwing in some Kennedy lore (Onassis famously went on to marry JFK's widow Jackie, who was already the subject of one of his films), but there are a lot of elements of Maria's story to balance and they occasionally become a little out of whack. "Maria" is at its most interesting when Angelia Jolie is allowed to flounce around her melancholy Parisian apartment, Miss Havisham style, giving imaginary interviews in a perfectly cultivated accent and bonding with her beloved servants, who can barely conceal their deep concern for her. The flashbacks don't add quite as much to the story — although it's hard to say no to a quick Jack Kennedy cameo.

On the surface, "Maria" is a gorgeous film. Larraín is able to capture the spirit of loneliness and emotional fragility of Maria, who spent the whole of her extraordinary life being defined by one thing — her voice — only to be left formless after losing it. "Maria" evokes a tremendous amount of empathy for its subject, largely thanks to Jolie's mannered but deeply moving performance. This is the kind of role that used to be specifically engineered for the old-school grand dames of Hollywood, and Jolie proves herself once again as a true movie star of the first rate.

"Maria" premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, and will be released on Netflix at a future date.

‘Maria’ Review: Angelina Jolie Is Commanding as Maria Callas in Pablo Larraín’s Lavish but Overly Fatalistic Drama

Larraín's third inside portrait of a 20th-century female icon feels more limited than "Jackie" or "Spencer," because it's more hemmed in by fate.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“ Maria ,” Pablo Larraín ’s drama about the legendary American-born Greek soprano Maria Callas, begins on the day of her death, September 16, 1977. As thin as a wraith, clad in a white nightgown, she has collapsed on the living-room floor of her very grand Paris apartment. The film then flashes back to one week before; most of it takes place during that week (though it’s dotted with key episodes from Callas’s life). So we know exactly where this is going. But we don’t just know where it’s going because the movie is set during that fateful final week. We know it because the story “Maria” tells is that of a neurotic death spiral.

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And then there’s the matter of her voice. Maria is 53, and she hasn’t sung in public for four-and-a-half years. Yet the way the film presents her, she’s a total artist, a woman fueled and consumed by her gift, which is to sing opera with a voice so sublime, so pure in its piercing majesty, that it reaches to the heavens. “Maria” is filled with opera, notably by the 19th-century Italian composers (Verdi, Rossini, Puccini) who Callas elevated in the repertoire. Every time an aria comes on the soundtrack, we’re swept up by the power of her gift. Jolie does an extraordinary job of lip-syncing to the nuances of Callas’s vocal splendor. And we can feel how the singing haunts Maria, who can’t listen to her old records; they have a perfection that gives her pain. “Audiences expect miracles,” she says with rueful awareness. “I can no longer perform miracles.” Her voice, while far from gone, is much weaker now. As the vocal coach and accompanist (Stephen Ashfield) she visits over the course of the week tells her, after listening to her perform an aria, “That was Maria singing. I want to hear La Callas!”

The myth of La Callas — the voice that enraptured the world — is what’s now imprisoning Maria. If she can’t bring La Callas back, then what point is there in living? You might call that a story as tragic as an opera: a great artist trapped by the fading of her gift. Yet you could also say that it makes the Maria Callas of “Maria” not so much a grand heroine striving for something real as a doomed legend living on fumes, like Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.”

The central figures in “Jackie” and “Spencer,” although they were dealing with hellish circumstances, were quite different from that. “Jackie” was set during the week after JFK’s assassination, and it was about how Jackie Kennedy rallied herself, knowing how important what would happen during that week would be to history; in doing so, she became a profile in courage. “Spencer” was about how Diana faced up to the existential crisis of her arranged marriage and decided to save herself by changing the nature of the modern monarchy. Both movies were about a dark kind of triumph.

“Maria” bears many of the hallmarks of Larraín’s lavish empathy and filmmaking skill. Yet the movie, in contrast, is driven by a dramatic fatalism that does it little favor. It’s the first of these three films that’s about a great artist, yet Maria, somehow, seems a lesser figure than the heroines of “Jackie” or “Spencer.” Or, at least, it feels like there’s less at stake.

“Maria,” as shot by the great Edward Lachman, has an autumnal visual warmth that’s beautiful and seductive. The flashbacks are in black-and-white, and they color in Maria’s past, though in a way that leaves us with as many questions as answers. That’s also true of her interviews with an eager young filmmaker ( Kodi Smit-McPhee ) named — weirdly — Mandrax. Her bad relationship with her mother is captured in scenes, set during WWII, in which the young Maria is asked to sing for (and sleep with) German soldiers.

But the key flashbacks are those built around Onassis, the fabled Greek shipping tycoon she fell in love with in 1959. Haluk Bilginer plays him as a charismatic troll who calls himself “ugly” but revels so manipulatively in the power of his wealth that he makes himself somehow…irresistible. Maria gets caught up in his mystique, yet won’t give herself over to his control; that’s why the two never marry. (In fact, Onassis left Callas to marry Jackie Kennedy, something the film deals with tangentially, by introducing JFK as a character.)

There’s a feeling of fate hanging over “Maria.” It’s Larraín’s way of raising the stakes, yet in a strange way it ends up lowering them as well. Such is the nature of Maria Callas’s determination to control her destiny that even the hopes of the audience — that she’ll somehow find a way to transcend her funk — aren’t allowed to interfere with her self-fulfilling downward spiral. We get a lot of glimpses (shot on different film stocks) of Callas on stage, back in her 1950s and ’60s heyday. But none of them are extended enough to let us sink into the sensation of her artistry bringing down the house. At one point, Maria observes that singing opera the way she does is so draining it takes the life out of you. In its way, that’s an awesome thought, but by the end of “Maria” you almost feel like it’s taken the life out of the movie.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (In competition), Aug. 29, 2024. Running time: 124 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of an Apartment Pictures, Fabula, Komplizen Film production. Producers: Jonas Dornbach, Juan de Dios Larraín, Lorrenzo Mieli. Executive producers: Miki Emmrich, Helmet Hutter.
• Crew: Director: Pablo Larraín. Screenplay: Steven Knight. Camera: Ed Lachman. Editor: Sofia Subercaseaux.
• With: Angelina Jolie, Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Kodi Skmit-McPhee, Stephen Ashfield, Valeria Golino.

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