X: Past is Present is easily of the most beautifully photographed and lyrical Indian films that I have ever watched. A collaboration of eleven filmmakers viz Abhinav Shiv Tiwari, Anu Menon, Nalan Kumarasamy, Hemant Gaba, Pratim D. Gupta, Q, Raja Sen, Rajshree Ojha, Sandeep Mohan, Sudhish Kamath and Suparn Verma, X: Past is Present stars the endlessly charming and debonair Rajat Kapoor and some of the most talented young actresses working in the industry today including Radhika Apte, Huma Qureshi, and Swara Bhaskar.
X: Past is Present is about a filmmaker who gets overcome by a bout of nostalgia when he meets a girl half his age at a party, as he is reminded of all the women in his life. Sounds like the master Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini's Otto e Mezzo aka 8 1/2? Well, be ready for the surprise of your life as X: Past is Present is nothing like anything you would have ever watched before. It is like a breath of fresh air that contemporary Indian cinema seems to be missing.
It is really a pity that a film like this went relatively unnoticed when it should have been bestowed with all kinds of accolades. Which reminds me of Chandraprakash Dwivedi's brilliant political satire Zed Plus, a gem of a film that I reviewed on IMDb some time back. Movies like these just come and go. The loss of course is entirely ours.
Of the 11 chapters in X: Past is Present, my favorite is 'Chapter III: Knot', written & directed by Raja Sen. and featuring the beautiful Huma Qureshi in a never-seen-before tantalizing avatar. How I wished the chapter never ended. Now, I know why James Bond 007 doesn't prefer the Windsor knot. Here is a film that needs to be watched.
For more on the world of cinema, please visit my film blog "A Potpourri of Vestiges".
