#dimplekapadia

Disney+ Hotstar is all set to introduce a brand new family drama to Indian households with its latest offering, ‘Saas, Bahu aur Flamingo’. The teaser trailer for the show was released on April 12, 2023. This new show takes a different approach to the classic ‘Saas-Bahu’ genre of Indian television by featuring an all-female cast who are anything but ‘Sanskari bahu’.

Renting Tenet at home, with subtitles, and the ability to pause/and rewind helped me wrap my mind around its complicated mechanisms. In the theater, I’m not sure what the experience would’ve been. This is a visually arresting picture but so much of the characters’ motivations are shrouded in mystery and its "gimmick" is so mind-bending it’ll make your head spin. I’m still not 100% sure if everything I saw adds up, or if simply got swept up in the whole thing. Either way, those 150 minutes just flew by.

A CIA agent ("The Protagonist", John David Washington) is recruited into Tenet. The members of this secret organization are investigating a technology from the future that reverses the entropy of items or people, allowing them to move backward through time. Aided by his handler Neil (Robert Pattinson), he follows a trail that could spell the end of our past and present, as he encounters an Indian arms dealer (Denzil Smith) and his wife (Dimple Kapadia), state-of-the-art security measures, Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh), and Sator's vengeful wife, Kat (Elizabeth Debicki).

Tenet probably didn’t need the whole reverse entropy thing. Would it have been better as a "normal" spy film? I don’t think so. Shorter, easier to understand, more straightforward but not better. The mechanic of those bullets that fly back into the barrels of the guns that “fire” them, of cars on different temporal tracks racing against each other, and a potential apocalypse from the future is the reason for this movie. It's a joy to step back and realize all of the characters who move in reverse are only doing so from the others' viewpoint. When they fire a gun, we see it as the end of a conflict. To them, it’s the beginning. We've seen time travel before but never like this.

Setting the chronal manipulation angle aside, this is an entertaining spy film that demands your attention. If your mind wanders, you’ll be lost. If you get lost, you’ll probably lose interest. Little is spelled out for you. The Protagonist has a specific objective and is determined to succeed. In most films, this would mean killing innocents just to cover up tracks. This technique sets the mood and amps up the action but also risks alienating viewers from a character. Writer/director Christopher Nolan instead ops to have the hero save or spare bad people for reasons that suit him. It keeps you wondering. You like the hero. He’s charismatic and determined, brave, and capable. Beyond his abilities in the field, you basically know nothing about him – not even his name – but he earns your admiration. You have faith in his choices. Overall, not much information about anyone – save Kat and Sator – is divulged. It’s more that you get an impression of them but that’s enough thanks to the actors' performances.

The whole thing is a puzzle to figure out. No. That's not quite the right analogy. When people put a puzzle together, it’s to see what picture will be formed by pieces that seemingly add up to nothing. Tenet is more like a string of dominos. You marvel at the setup and want to see where everything falls. You’re there to see the techniques that went into this movement. There is a lot of manipulation and subterfuge throughout and surprisingly engaging action scenes. It seems Nolan listened to the criticisms he received during the Dark Knight trilogy and honed his craft. Well done.

Tenet is ambitious. It’s unapologetically complicated, which I found rewarding. The visuals are memorable, as is the "gimmick". The special effects are flawless, the plot that right mix of familiar and so out there you’ve never seen anything like it. I can see some people losing patience with it, saying “I don’t get it” and turning the whole thing off. Go in with patience and I predict you'll be as enraptured as I was. (January 6, 2021)