<h2>Movie: Berlin On: ZEE5 Dir: Atul Sabharwal Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak Singh Rating: 3/5</h2>
The Cold War is a full-blown genre in the West, with America, of course, as its epicentre.&nbsp;
Not that India was immune to it. What has been Indian cinema&rsquo;s contribution to the genre? The best one I can think of&mdash;or at least, top of mind, given recency bias&mdash;is Vikramaditya Motwane&rsquo;s Prime Video series, <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/web-series/article/aparshakti-khuran-jubilee-helped-him-land-better-scripts-23390585" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Jubilee </a>(2023).
Given how brilliantly it weaves in American-Russian spies, while fictionally retelling history of Indian cinema&mdash;with Bombay Talkies&rsquo; Himanshu Rai, Raj Kapoor, et al, pushed into a covert, global-cultural turf war.&nbsp;
Atul Sabharwal wrote Jubilee. He&rsquo;s written-directed the espionage, suspense-thriller, Berlin&mdash;actually about the end of Cold War. That essentially got sealed with the fall of the Berlin Wall (1991), isn&rsquo;t it?&nbsp;
Berlin, for the movie&rsquo;s metaphorical title, refers to a caf&eacute; in 1993, Lutyens&rsquo; Delhi.&nbsp;
Which works more like a stock-exchange, where state secrets would traditionally get traded. Only that the Cold War is over. The same rules needn&rsquo;t apply. The world has changed. Some remain,where they were.
Or as the line in the film describes the regulars of Berlin Caf&eacute;: &ldquo;Industry ka trend shift hua&mdash;jo wahan khade the, khade the. Jo predict kar paye, nikal gaye.&rdquo;&nbsp;
As in the spy-industry&rsquo;s trends changed. Those who could tell, survived; rest got left behind. For some reason, it sounded like an observation on movie-industry veterans and aspirants, to me.&nbsp;
Especially, for the line that follows, &ldquo;Caf&eacute; mein coffee peene se career nahin bante (You don&rsquo;t make careers out of hanging in cafes)!&rdquo;
Berlin, as a movie, reflects that change in the industry it emerges from. The film is a spy-thriller, sure; but so eerie, realistic and subdued, that it makes for a perfect, solo-watch on an OTT (although an art-house release would&rsquo;ve been just as great).
Imagine the lead actors&mdash;given what&rsquo;s an action-genre in the mainstream, but with almost zero stunts in it&mdash;jostling, jamming, delivering their most bombastic dialogues, in sign language. And they hit punchlines&mdash;like how!
Basically, a mysterious, deaf-mute person (Ishwak Singh) has been nabbed by the Indian, internal intelligence agency, namely Bureau, for alleged involvement in the potential assassination attempt, on a visiting Russian President (guessing, Boris Yeltsin).
The Bureau blokes&mdash;led by the suitably riled-up Rahul Bose&rsquo;s character&mdash;employ a sign-language teacher, named Pushkin (<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/aparshakti-khurana-stree-2-success-wife-daughter-arzoie-london-23376777" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Aparshakti Khurana</a>), from a Soviet-style government institute, to lead the interrogation.&nbsp;
What follows is a chamber drama, that doesn&rsquo;t obviously preach to the choir. It sticks to the suspense, alright&mdash;but draws you in more and more, foremost, with the atmospherics.&nbsp;
Or the world-building, as it were. Visually transporting you to the early &rsquo;90s&mdash;through the Contessa, Fiat cars, Atlas cycle hoarding, National Panasonic cassette-recorder&hellip;
It&rsquo;s something that director Sabharwal excelled equally, with capturing early &rsquo;80s, in the gloomy cop-drama, Class of 83 (2020).&nbsp;
But much more than that, it&rsquo;s the asphyxiating quality of this film, pretty much shot behind hard, closed doors (by Shree Namjoshi), that wakes you up to watch.&nbsp; And notice the sounds and score, in the quietness. Or observe the bureaucratic, brutalist architecture of the sparse, dry spaces all the characters inhabit, and are evidently entrapped in.&nbsp;
The film looks cold, in a John le Carr&eacute; space, like Cold War itself. It helps that you feel the same way about the two leads as well.
We know nothing about the sign-language instructor, Pushkin&mdash;there isn&rsquo;t a long run-up, for his backstory&mdash;before he gets tangled in red-tape. That&rsquo;s Aparshakti, i.e. star Ayushmann Khurrana&rsquo;s brother.&nbsp;
Now, I have a theory about siblings in the same profession. The older one inevitably does better, given the headstart. Unless it&rsquo;s sports, where the younger sibling has the privilege of practicing with the elder one, from an early age!&nbsp;
With acting, I think the younger one is somewhat screwed, with an obvious disadvantage, if the siblings look like each other&mdash;Anil-Sanjay Kapoor, Anupam-Raju Kher, etc.
Aparshakti is visibly different from Ayushmann; also, with separate style/manners. He totally stands as his own.&nbsp;
Opposite him is Ishwak (Paatal Lok, Rocket Boys), who plays Ashok Kumar, which is the real-life role that Aparshakti portrayed in Jubilee!&nbsp;
To think of it, Ashok Kumar is John Doe in Indian law. A proxy name used, when we don&rsquo;t know who the person is. What do we learn about this &lsquo;Ashok Kumar&rsquo;?
Of course, I&rsquo;m not gonna tell you that. Or anything else, for that matter, since I&rsquo;d like you to watch this film, instead. I do know how you&rsquo;re likely to respond, though, once you have watched the movie.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;re inevitably gonna call it &lsquo;moody&rsquo; (if a millennial), &lsquo;vibey&rsquo; (if GenZ), &ldquo;slow-burn&rdquo;&hellip; What it essentially means is the film&rsquo;s got the &lsquo;feels&rsquo;. Just don&rsquo;t let intricacies of the plot get in the way of the laid back, lilting experience, though.&nbsp;
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`Berlin` movie review: The film looks cold, in a John le Carré space, like Cold War itself. It helps that you feel the same way about the two leads as well

'Berlin' movie review: The film’s got the ‘feels’!

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The film looks cold, in a John le Carré space, like Cold War itself. It helps that you feel the same way about the two leads as well.

'Berlin' movie review: The film’s got the ‘feels’!

Movie: Berlin
On: ZEE5
Dir: Atul Sabharwal
Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak Singh
Rating: 3/5

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'Berlin' movie review: The film’s got the ‘feels’!

Movie: BerlinOn: ZEE5Dir: Atul SabharwalCast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak SinghRating: 3/5

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Movie: Berlin
On: ZEE5
Dir: Atul Sabharwal
Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak Singh
Rating: 3/5