Michael (2011 Indian film)

Last updated

Michael
Directed by Ribhu Dasgupta
Written byRibhu Dasgupta
Debaloy Bhattacharya
Produced by Anurag Kashyap
Guneet Monga
Ramesh Sharma
Shaiju Nambiadath
Suni Bohra
Starring Naseeruddin Shah
Mahie Gill
Sabyasachi Chakrabarty
CinematographySomak Mukherjee
Edited by Lionel Fernandes
Release date
  • 15 September 2011 (2011-09-15)(TIFF)
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi

Michael is a 2011 Indian psychological thriller film directed by Ribhu Dasgupta and produced by Anurag Kashyap. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

The film opens some years ago with Kolkata police inspector Michael at a political rally. It is a large rally, several hundred people packed into a square, the largest protest against the current government, yet it is wholly peaceful. Michael receives a radio order to open fire and disperse the crowd. He protests, it is a peaceful rally, but his supervisor, acting on political pressure from above, repeats the order to fire. Michael fires a single shot that accidentally hits a 12-year-old boy.

Michael is diagnosed with "progressive myopia" and subsequently fired from his position without severance or pension benefits. He begins receiving angry phone calls from the father of the dead boy. The father threatens to kill Michael's 8-year-old son Roy on his 12th birthday.

Several years later, Michael is living in a small apartment with his son. He makes a miserable living as a projectionist in a movie theater and ekes out some additional income pirating movies for a gang of local thugs. Michael is always harangued by his landlord, the drunk and bitter Mr. DCosta, for overdue rent and continues to receive progressively threatening calls from the dead boy's father. His only goal is to get Roy out of the city and into a boarding school, saving money that he moves about his apartment so DCosta cannot find it. Rwitika, Michael's only friend, occasionally looks after Roy and urges him to pick up and move on. Amid this turmoil, he finds a quiet comfort in Mrs DCosta, who generally sympathizes with him and occasionally warns him about her husband.

A few days before Roy's 12th birthday, Michael gets intensely threatening phone calls. He stumbles out of his movie theater (and forgets an important movie copying job for which he has received an advance). His midget assistant Makkhan copies the movie and tries to sell it to a rival gang. Michael returns later and picks up a DVD (empty, since Makkhan took the movie DVD) and delivers it. When Michael returns home, he finds the gang members outside who beat him up until he figures out what happened. His assistant Makkhan shows up, badly beaten up, and discloses that the rival gang members took the DVD and beat him up and gave him no money. If Michael had paid him more money, he would not have gone to the other gang. They argue about the money until Michael discovers that his saved money is gone! Michael, slowly unspooling into insanity, moves Roy to Rwitika's place and subsequently beseeches her to send him away. He barges into DCosta's flat across the hall to see them celebrating something. In a maddened (and drunk) stupor, Michael threatens DCosta with a pistol and later begs him to return the money. DCosta, himself drunk, curses and berates Michael whereupon Michael, crazed with anger, shoots him dead. His wife reveals that it was she who took the money for her fertility treatment. Michael is shocked and hurt that she betrayed his trust. He runs out of the flat and, knowing that the police will hunt him down for murder, goes to get Roy out of the city.

Michael hurries to Rwitika's place to get Roy. At midnight, Roy's birthday, he runs across a crossroad. A public phone rings and Michael stops to pick it up. It is the dead boy's father, who vows to shoot Roy. Michael begs him to stop until Rwitika comes on the line next. Shocked, Michael hangs up the phone and steps into the road where a passing taxicab runs him over and kills him. It is revealed that Michael had been hearing voices all along (there was no father of the dead boy) since his guilt over the rally slowly drove him insane. The film ends as a police jeep finds his body and calls for an ambulance.

Cast

Related Research Articles

<i>Detroit Rock City</i> (film) 1999 film by Adam Rifkin

Detroit Rock City is a 1999 American teen comedy film directed by Adam Rifkin and written by Carl V. Dupré. It tells of four teenage boys in a Kiss tribute band who try to see their idols in a concert in Detroit in 1978. It took its title from the Kiss song of the same name.

<i>Big Jake</i> 1971 film

Big Jake is a 1971 American Technicolor Western film starring John Wayne, Richard Boone and Maureen O'Hara. The picture was the final film for George Sherman in a directing career of more than 30 years, and Maureen O'Hara's last film with John Wayne and her last before her twenty-year retirement. The supporting cast features Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Glenn Corbett, Jim Davis, John Agar, Harry Carey Jr. and Hank Worden.

<i>The Ice Harvest</i> 2005 American film

The Ice Harvest is a 2005 American neo-noir black comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, written by Richard Russo and Robert Benton, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Scott Phillips and starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, and Connie Nielsen, with Randy Quaid and Oliver Platt in supporting roles. It was distributed by Focus Features, and it was released on VHS and DVD on February 28, 2006, making it the last Focus Features film released on VHS format. The Ice Harvest grossed $10.2 million worldwide.

<i>Urban Justice</i> 2007 film directed by Don E. Fauntleroy

Urban Justice is a 2007 American vigilante action film directed and shot by Don E. FauntLeRoy. The film stars Steven Seagal, who also produced, with a supporting cast of Eddie Griffin, Carmen Serano and Danny Trejo. It was released direct-to-DVD in the United States on November 13, 2007.

<i>Enemy Territory</i> (film) 1987 film

Enemy Territory is a 1987 American action film directed by Peter Manoogian from a screenplay by Stuart M. Kaminsky and Bobby Liddell. The film stars Gary Frank, Ray Parker Jr., and Jan-Michael Vincent. The film is about an insurance salesman who inadvertently gets trapped in a New York City public housing apartment building that is controlled and terrorized by a local street gang. The film was released by Empire Pictures on May 22, 1987.

<i>A Place to Go</i> 1963 British film by Basil Dearden

A Place to Go is a 1963 British crime drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Bernard Lee, Rita Tushingham and Michael Sarne. It was based on the 1961 novel Bethnal Green by Michael Fisher.

<i>Falling Down</i> 1993 American film by Joel Schumacher

Falling Down is a 1993 American psychological thriller film directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Ebbe Roe Smith and released by Warner Bros. in the United States on February 26, 1993.

<i>Needful Things</i> (film) 1993 film by Fraser Clarke Heston

Needful Things is a 1993 American horror film based on Stephen King's 1991 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Fraser C. Heston, and stars Ed Harris, Max von Sydow, Bonnie Bedelia, and J. T. Walsh. The film received mixed reviews, critics praised the performances and ending, but criticized its portrayal of its story and felt it inferior to its source material.

<i>Ride Beyond Vengeance</i> 1966 film by Bernard McEveety

Ride Beyond Vengeance is a 1966 American Western film starring Chuck Connors.

<i>Song of Arizona</i> 1946 film by Frank McDonald

Song of Arizona is a 1946 American Western film directed by Frank McDonald and starring Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and George "Gabby" Hayes. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures.

<i>Twelve</i> (2010 film) 2010 film

Twelve is a 2010 teen crime drama film directed by Joel Schumacher from a screenplay by Jordan Melamed, based on Nick McDonell's 2002 novel of the same name. The film follows a young drug dealer whose luxurious lifestyle falls apart after his cousin is murdered and his best friend is arrested for the crime. It stars Chace Crawford, Rory Culkin, Curtis Jackson, Emily Meade, and Emma Roberts.

<i>Boy</i> (2010 film) 2010 film by Taika Waititi

Boy is a 2010 New Zealand comedy-drama film, written and directed by Taika Waititi. The film stars James Rolleston, Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whitu, and Waititi. It is produced by Cliff Curtis, Ainsley Gardiner and Emanuel Michael and financed by the New Zealand Film Commission. In New Zealand, the film eclipsed previous records for a first week's box office takings for local production. Boy went on to become the highest-grossing New Zealand film at the local box office. The soundtrack to Boy features New Zealand artists such as The Phoenix Foundation, who previously provided music for Waititi's film Eagle vs Shark.

<i>The Night Holds Terror</i> 1955 American suspense motion picture

The Night Holds Terror is a 1955 American crime film noir based on a true incident, written and directed by Andrew L. Stone and starring Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes and Jack Kelly.

<i>Dream Boy</i> (film) 2008 American film

Dream Boy is a 2008 gay-themed Southern Gothic drama film written and directed by James Bolton, and based on Jim Grimsley's 1995 novel of the same name. It follows two gay teenagers falling in love in the rural South in the late 1970s.

<i>12 Rounds 2: Reloaded</i> 2013 American film

12 Rounds 2: Reloaded is a 2013 American action film directed by Roel Reiné. The film stars Randy Orton, Tom Stevens, Brian Markinson and Cindy Busby. It is a sequel to 2009's 12 Rounds starring John Cena. Unlike the original which saw a theatrical release, the film was released on direct-to-DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on June 4, 2013.

<i>Mongkok Story</i> Hong Kong film

Mongkok Story is a 1996 Hong Kong film directed by Wilson Yip.

<i>Here I Am a Stranger</i> 1939 film by Roy Del Ruth

Here I Am a Stranger is a 1939 American drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and written by Sam Hellman and Milton Sperling. The film stars Richard Greene and Richard Dix as son and father. It was based on the short story of the same name by Gordon Malherbe Hillman. The film was released on September 28, 1939 by 20th Century-Fox.

<i>Supercollider</i> (film) 2013 film

Supercollider is a 2013 science fiction drama film produced by Jeffery Scott Lando and starring Robin Dunne. The film was poorly received.

<i>Joyee</i> Indian Bengali television series

Joyee is a Bengali television soap opera that premiered on 9 October 2017. It aired on Zee Bangla. It was produced by Tent Cinema and it starred Debadrita Basu and Dibyojyoti Dutta. It also presents Sanchari Mondal, Mimi Dutta, Tanuka Chatterjee, and Dwaipayan Das in supporting roles. The show replaced Raadha. Arun Bandyopadhyay is the main antagonist. The show went off air on 1 September 2019 and it was replaced by another show titled Alo Chhaya.

<i>Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind</i> 1980 Hong Kong film

Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind is a 1980 Hong Kong crime film directed by Tsui Hark. The initial cut of the film was banned for its violence, generating public interest in the film that caused its edited version to become a box office success in Hong Kong.

References

  1. ↑ Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 141. ISBN   978-1908215017.
  2. ↑ "Interview: Film-Maker Ribhu Dasgupta on Michael (Hindi, 2011) - Directorial Debut Premiering in TIFF 2011". washingtonbanglaradio. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  3. ↑ "Michael movie trailer: Naseeruddin Shah looks dark and grungy". 28 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.