Follow Us
Join Us
Business rating: 1/5 star
Star cast: Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Devaiya, Prashant Prakash.
What’s Good: Kalki Koechlin’s performance; the cinematography.
What’s Bad: The scattered screenplay; the unanswered questions which crop up in the audience’s mind; the shocking story of the film that will keep many away.
Verdict: That Girl In Yellow Boots is for the die-hard fans of Anurag Kashyap films and anybody else who fancies a shocker. However, it will do poor business at the box-office.
Loo break: None really.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for Kalki’s performance. But beware of the X-rated content!
User rating:
Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd. and NFDC’s That Girl In Yellow Boots (A) is a shocking tale of a British girl who works at a massage parlour in Bombay, giving customers hand jobs. At the same time, she is looking for her long-lost father, who had abandoned her many years ago.
Ruth (Kalki Koechlin) makes a living in Bombay by giving hand jobs to wrinkled, old customers who come to the shady massage parlour in which she works. It is run by Maya (Puja Sarup), a talkative and carefree woman. She is good at her job and even gets many repeat customers, one of whom is an old man (Naseeruddin Shah). Ruth has a drug-addicted boyfriend, Prashant (Prashant Prakash), who gets into trouble all the time. He demands sex from Ruth but she refuses. She regularly pays bribes to the Indian officials to renew her tourist visa, which doesn’t allow her to work in India.
On the sidelines, Ruth is looking for her father, who had abandoned her family in England many years ago when Ruth was still very young. Ruth’s elder sister, all of 15, had committed suicide as she (the sister) was pregnant with an illegitimate child. All Ruth knows about her father is his name; she doesn’t even know how he looks.
As she gets closer to finding her father, Ruth’s boyfriend gets her into trouble over an attempted robbery where he had tried to steal drugs from Chittiappa (Gulshan Devaiya), a local gang lord. When he cannot find Prashant, Chittiappa takes money from Ruth and asks her to compensate for the remaining amount due to him by giving him hand jobs.
A few days later, Prashant comes to his senses and chains himself to a window in Ruth’s house in order to cure himself of his drug-addiction. Ruth, in the meantime, starts getting desperate, using her occupation to pave the way to find her father. Does she manage to complete her mission? Who is her father? The rest of the film answers these questions.
That Girl In Yellow Boots Review – Script Analysis
That Girl In Yellow Boots is familiar territory for Anurag Kashyap fans, and they get all that they expect – the shock value, the gritty camerawork and hounding background score. But the story (by Kalki Koechlin and Anurag Kashyap) lacks the punch in spite of the supremely shocking ending. The screenplay (also by Kalki and Anurag) takes too much time to get to the point and the audience is left to piece the story together. Although this must excite a few in the discerning audience, most will be put off by the weird and scattered narrative. Even the scenes where Ruth is giving hand jobs to her customers lose their shock value after some time. A majority of the audience, who will be shocked by the vulgar scenes, will not associate with Ruth’s quest to find her father as they will not agree with the means she utilises to get there. The thinking audience, on the other hand, will wonder about many things that simply go unexplained in the film – why does Ruth work at a massage parlour in Bombay when she can make money by doing any other trade, especially given the fact that she is sickened by what she does? Also, why is she tolerating a boyfriend when she clearly doesn’t love him and confesses as much to him? The simplistic assumption that the audience is supposed to make – that someone’s life can be as messed up as Ruth’s – is simply not enough. The dialogues are good at most places and add to the shock value.
That Girl In Yellow Boots Review – Star Performances
Kalki Koechlin delivers a nuanced performance as the tumultuous Ruth. She uses her eyes and body language to the hilt to express varying emotions. Naseeruddin Shah is alright in a bit role. Prashant Prakash is okay in a few scenes but he irritates otherwise. Gulshan Devaiya does a fabulous job as the foul-mouthed gang lord. He is a delight to watch. Puja Sarup leaves a mark. Shiv Subramaniyam and others offer good support.
That Girl In Yellow Boots Review – Direction & Music
Anurag Kashyap’s direction is appropriate for the script. Naren Chandavarkar’s music (there is one song in the film) forwards the director’s vision. The background score is very good. Rajeev Ravi’s cinematography is edgy. Editing, by Shweta Venkat Mathew, is crisp. Production design, by Wasiq Khan, is realistic.
That Girl In Yellow Boots Review – Verdict
On the whole, That Girl In Yellow Boots will win critical acclaim and the love of a section of the audience but will be shunned by the majority of the paying public.
