Scaramouche, Fandango, Galileo, Figaro and Mamma Mia!

Ningombam Captain *

Official poster of "Bohemian Rhapsody" by 20th Century Fox

Film: Bohemian Rhapsody
Director: Bryan Singer
Release date: 2/11/2018
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Imagine a large movie theater showing a film that has just arrived, with surround sound in front of the 90-odd cushion padded seats, but having only 10 (one, zero - ten) people in attendance. What do you think the movie might be? A low-budget indie flick, maybe? But your last guess will be the highest grossing musical biopic of all time, released with much hype and promotion, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Well, this is not a hypothetical situation and in fact, you don't have to imagine it because it actually happened in this theater in Vadodara, and those 10 moviegoers include me as well. But the movie experience overall went well, for two reasons: i) Watching a film with such an uneven theatre-audience proportion in size was with less disturbance. ii) Our initial yet rational fear, of finding the film as a hindi-dubbed one, got a relief.

Bohemian Rhapsody is a two-hour long musical biopic of Freddie Mercury, the iconic 4-octave vocalist/pianist of the rock band Queen. The film follows the formation of his band up to their Live Aid performance at the Wembley Stadium in 1985.

It stars Rami Malek as Farrokh Bulsara (later changed to Freddie Mercury), Lucy Boynton (yes, the undecipherable girl from Sing Street) as Mary Austin, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon.

Rami Malek's performance is electrifying. His portrayal of the legendary vocalist is a work of finesse. His mastery and dedication for the role can be seen from his precise impression of Freddie's mannerisms and flamboyance on stage.

After watching it I realized that the early comments on expecting Rami's performance to be nominated an Academy Award for Best Actor in a leading role, were not baseless after all; since playing the lead in a biopic and earning an Oscar seems to be the formula. But he sure did bring back Freddie Mercury to life for the striking "reel-ity".

My favourite dialogue:-
Roger Taylor: You're a legend, Fred.
Freddie Mercury: We're all legends.
[pause]
Freddie Mercury: But you're right, I am a legend.

The intro of the film made us all smile with pleasant surprise when the 20th Century Fox fanfare which is originally an orchestral piece, gets a rock rendition as arranged by Brian May and ends with a guitar riff. The film is fast-paced like that of an action film (Bryan Singer's trademark) even from the start; Freddie Mercury met his future wife Mary and formed Queen on the same day, in the first 20 minutes of the film - it is no wonder that these scenes are reported for historical inaccuracies.

Besides, history shows that a rock band is not often formed that quick or spontaneous. The script is filled with brief yet brilliant quotable lines that sum up the portrayed characters really well. Freddie Mercury's ethnicity is briefly depicted through scenes of his conservative Parsi family from Zanzibar and his dramatic protests of changing his last name "Bulsara" to the fancy "Mercury", much to the disappointment of his father.

The main crux of the film or the way how their song "Bohemian Rhapsody" was recorded, involves fast-paced scene transitions with full of energy. While recording the vocals for the operatic section of the song, Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) asks, "Who even is Galileo?" getting annoyed and tired from shouting it again and again.

Queen's image on the then music critics is hinted when an EMI representative described the song as "a quasi-operatic dirge with made-up words". One energetic moment is when the band experimented in the studio, which features scenes like an amplifier swinging on a rope etc. The actual intent of the song, as originally endeavored by Freddie Mercury, was to record something that combines the scale of opera, the wit of Shakespeare, and the grandeur of musical theater. But the film of the same name does not seem to imbibe these aspects much.

Freddie's ethnicity and sexuality are depicted with brevity. Still, there are some backlashes on the fact that the biopic of Freddie Mercury, who is still one of the most prominent gay icons, and also directed by an openly bisexual director features only a few scenes depicting his sexuality, is still an outrageous thing to fathom.

Apart from this, the realization of his bisexual orientation is the turning point of the film. This is where the drama of the climax gets conceived. The flawed but charismatic personality of Freddie Mercury is embodied in Malek's cross-dressed body with the protruding teeth below the mustache. Despite its poor writing, lack of prospect, factual errors and anachronisms, the film deserves to be appreciated for the accurate portrayals of the real-life characters regarding their manners and appearances.

The scene of the Live Aid concert at the "roof-less" Wembley Stadium is also recreated with precision and more exuberance. This particular scene is on the verge to break the fourth wall and turn the theater into a stadium concert; such is the showmanship of Freddie, retold through Rami Malek.

The best thing about the film is the optimum use of the songs. The lyrics are displayed in a bold typeface as subtitles, thus giving more emphasis to music rather than sticking to uninterrupted realism. This is something Freddie would have wanted. He also dedicated his days after the AIDS diagnosis to music. Music - our "anesthesia for the human condition".

One particular scene that shows his dedication to music is when Mary told him that she missed him, to which he replied that he missed her too but he had to finish the second album. Bohemian Rhapsody can be viewed as a biopic, a family drama about identity conflict, a musical, or simply as a mild empowerment film of the LGBT community. Above all these, the song sequences will literally send shivers down your spine.