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Sometimes you never know what hits you. Himesh Reshamiya (HR), yesterday in Saregamapa show, when asked what he feels about the feedback for his movie Aap Ka Suroor (AKS) which has got the biggest opening collection of this year, he said he is thankful for the audience and God for encouraging him. He also said, as usual the 1% of critics is unhappy about my product and has trashed it and ridiculed it heavily - but I will work harder and win them over next time. It could convey many things - is it his honesty or a doubt if this is just a masked sentence in the place of actual anger and arrogance, or is it just a sincere self-feedback that he has to work hard and he is ready to work hard, or is it a plain treat that the sequel is in the making ? But it hits - the honesty and hard work part hits.

It hits even further when the movie is watched because he makes fun at himself - the nasal singing becomes a part of the joke, the cap thing is a part of another. It is known that he has accepted that he is a nasal singer but to make it a part of joke and throw at himself takes some courage.

This movie was expected to open a can of worms, to answer few curious questions one has ever since the day we have seen him on TV - why does he not laugh, why is he in pain in all songs, why are his most songs about lost-love or something like that, why does he wear that bloody cap all the time, where was he before he started coming out of every channel and every speaker in the autos, what was he before and so on and so forth. The promos and speculations touted that the movie would answer everything.

Unfortunately the movie begins with him in the cap and instead of being a semi-biographical is instantly in a commercial story telling framework. That he is an already established singer - India’s rockstar at that - and the best performer in the world (whatever that means). That he is a very good man at heart. For the first time in his life he falls for a girl who also falls for him. Her father opposes their marriage strictly, as he is from a different lifestyle. HR is determined to win over him. Throw in between a denial of a singing contract , a third-angle Mallika who wants to seduce HR. And throw in a murder accusation and classic proving oneself innocent.

Performance wise, it would not have hurt if HR had shed his weepy image and looked somewhat cheerful. Giving any point to his acting would be major insult to him - he is acting himself ie he is HR in the movie and there is no way he should be any different than he is in his actual life - a painful face which he has mistaken to be the face filled with emotions. The teenager Hansika Motwani is not bad - her previous experience in movies makes it easy for her. But she does not have much to do in this HR worshipping movie, sorry movieee. Mallika chips in and does her part. The much publicized Mehbooba song is not a part of the movie, but it is just shown at the end, totally out of context, for which my explanation is this - producer had signed on Mallika for an amount for the movie but they also wanted a video song done by her. By making it a part of the movie, they saved on the extra expense on her! And I feel equal pity for the person who takes 3.5 pheres with Hansika but his face is not even shown!

It moves at Ok pace and sometimes it picks up more than enough - like one second he is bashing up villian, second his herione started her marriage third he gets the confession from villian, fourth the saath-pehre is stopped after 4 pehre in between after the heroine sees the live telecast of the confession. Wah, thanks to technology!

When one is not seeing Hansika Motwani or Mallika Sherawat but does not want to see HR, there is enough scenery to look at in the background which has beautiful locales of Germany.

There are no dearth for some cheesy dialogues. Like the one where his friend suggests “if i cut your nose …. how can you sing”, or Mallika suggests “if you want something, feel free to call me..any time in the day ….or night”

Given that it is a music artist’s film, there had to be enough number of songs, yet it just saved itself from being a story hastily thrown in between the video songs. It does better than that, for there is, however cliched and not-done, a story unlike many others that succeed despite the absence of any logic.

But I really wouldn’t have minded if the movie contained his old hit songs. They keep humming in the background music though.

Not sure what happened to the girl with heart problem. It was the most bizzare stuff that looks like a scene fallen from some other movie on to the editing table of this one. Don’t know what happened to Rajbabbar.

Though I drew for myself some parallel between Sivaji and AKS ( small things like both the stories start with the hero in jail and in the flashback and they escape after an attempt to kill them inside jail, so on and so forth, small things) I do not compare between the two. But let me just say, if you liked Sivaji and dislike AKS - there is some bias&difference in taste in your viewing, for both follow the traditional film making to the core.

And how can the talk about HR be complete without a mention of his caps. He wore around 13 different caps, yes I counted - but lost the count because even though he changed cap for every next scene, but he repeated his caps.

Since this is more of a personal interview than a movieee, there were few answers provided like why does he always keep a weeping face “why do you never laugh, HR?” - his dearest elder brother isn’t been around (I heard that right, no?) and he lost all interest towards life. ( But he sings even romantic songs with a weepy face which was why I always thought he was a singing Devdas ). Even in the movie he keeps his face as sorrowful and drunk as possible during all the times without any reason.

All said and done, this movieee is more about HR and his caps than anything else. Probably in the history of movies or history of anything for that matter, nothing has given as much importance to the cap as this does.

But the biggest question remains unanswered - why does he wear cap. And to know that, wait for the sequel.

Ps: As for myself, had ample amount of fun and laughter in the theater, no regrets at all ! We were more often laughing at it and not because of it. Low stakes and good company helps too !

First this:

‘The all-India cycle, scooter and car parking collections at theatres screening Sivaji have exceeded the box office collections of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’.

Then this:

Himesh Reshammiya’s Aap Kaa Surroor has got the biggest opening of the year at the box office.

The critics had panned the film and wrote it off, but the moviegoers had something else in mind. AKS beat down Awarapan and Apne at the box office by getting a bumper opening in the first 3 days.

Earth shattering opening. Box office will sing glorious tune in the final tally. Distributors will laugh all the way to the bank. Critics be damned. This one’s for the masses

The opening response is mindblowing. It has surpassed Dhoom-2 & Krrish! It is like the response to Rajnikant starrer Sivaji-The Boss, with the big difference that Rajnikant is the superstar of the South & Himesh is only a debutant actor
Vikas Mohan, Supercinema

And from a very insightful article that I liked instantly: Why we should pray for Himesh’s movieeeeeeeeeeeee, the article wants AKS to succeed, for the reasons to which I completely agree.

YR Films believe packaging is what our educated metropolitan youth and Indian Diaspora demand. So they shove the repetitive silliness down our throats, packing enough first-weekend shows to ensure some sort of profit

Dig dig dig!!

Because…

Because it’s been a mad year, awful for the box office. Two high-profile Yash Raj Films have bombed. Amitabh Bachchan’s [Images] had three of his career’s best performances — Eklavya, Nishabd and Cheeni Kum — and only one of the three (CK) has managed to salvage its budget. The biggest hit of the year so far is Bheja Fry, a film costing Rs 55 lakhs going on to make about 7 crores.

Imagine then, a film coming out from a new banner, starring a new actor — and trumping the industry.

There will be complete chaos. The star-system will be rattled, the producers will be shaken, distributors won’t know what hit them and there will be complete unpredictability in the industry, giving independent cinema a tremendous boost — for if no one knows what’ll work, anything could!

Himesh has the opportunity to upset the Bollywood apple-cart. And that’s a delicious thought.

And finally why Himesh has it to become Bollywood’s Rajini ( I know I am exaggerating to Mars ) :

It’s a film aiming at the auto-rickshawwallahs — with a whole promo going blissfully over the top declaring that intention — and at the janta theatres that burst into mad applause the minute the nasal voice screeches over the speakers. If you’ve never been there, it’s a riot. Forget the Amitabhs and Akshays and those ubiquitous Khans, the crowds respond insanely as soon as a Himesh promo comes on.

This is a musical play using quite heavily the poems of “prema kavi” B R Lakshmana Rao to the music of C R Ashwath.

One part of the story is oft-repeated love story - the birth of the story, a third angle which was actually a misunderstanding, happy ending - in marriage. If there was any freshness it should be attributed to the natural performance of the lead pair. The story is intercepted with songs and dances - typical of a feature film - probably a reason story stretched with not much happening otherwise.

Second part is about the love leaving the couple after marriage and the minor fights that happen - probably due to lack of co-operation and the need to adjust. The fights lead to the point of separation but they realize and make up.

In between there are lots of digs about many social issues and many were cliched or already-heard-of.

C R Simha was quite jovial considering his age. He mimics a famous swamiji and his blessings is reserved for lovers Except for the lead pair - who gave natural good performance and a loud Ritwik Simha, others were passable. The other girls looked very happy and seemed to enjoy their role thoroughly. Sometimes it was little over-acting but better than average lazy acts by the boys. They looked out of place at times and looked inflexible.

Of course it is not possible to get Ashwath to sing for every show, but this recorded music was a huge put-off for me, given that I have enjoyed the plays for their direct interaction which includes the music playing at the side stage. Recorded music’s quality was also not good.

Overall, though touted as comical drama, did not make the audience laugh many times (unlike the ones where I really laughed till it ached). Probably also because it all looked either repetitive or cliched. But it did manage to make us smile few times - few dialogues and mannerisms by lead pair - and several messages were put across quite fine.

Its rare that I find myself agreeing to each and every point of a review by others. The review of Life in a Metro by B Rangan had me nod in agreement for almost everything (excluding perhaps Dharmendra part, which I did not think much about).
Excerpts to which I strongly agree:

[...] Go Bollywood!

There’s a lot about Metro that makes you want to get up and cheer. The story is a loose lattice of crisscrossing episodes about finding (and also losing) love – the film really should have been called Love in a Metro.

As with Shivani, there’s a refreshingly physical component to the love stories.

Shikha (Shilpa Shetty; [...] this is at least as good a performance, if not better – plus, she looks fantastic)

Kangana Ranaut, once again portraying a damaged-goods soul; she may be hitting the same notes in all her movies, but she does hit those notes extremely well

So you have adultery and betrayal and a lot of admittedly banal (in the sense that there’s not much you can’t predict) relationship drama, and it’s inevitable that Metro ends up resembling nothing more than a rather sophisticated soap – but no soap you’ve seen has had this kind of cast, these kinds of performances.

This is high-end ensemble acting, and I’d hate to single anyone out – but with a gun to my head, I’d probably admit to liking the story arc with Konkona Sen Sharma and Irrfan Khan the most. By now, it goes without saying that these two actors are terrific in whatever they do, but here they play that most heartwarming of rom-com staples: opposites who end up discovering that they may be destined for one another – and they’re just so good together. They’re funny and sad and confused and philosophical and they almost make you wish for an entire movie about their characters alone.

(There’s lot of rain in Metro, an indicator, perhaps, of the bad weather the relationships keep running into.)

Her umbrella is ruined in a gust of wind, and Akash uses a safety pin to fix it temporarily. And that’s the point, really. It – the fix with the safety pin, and the subsequent relationship with Akash – is only a temporary solution. The real issues still need to be tackled head-on. They won’t go away because you put a band-aid on them, and that’s as true of life in a metro as anywhere else.

Some my additional points :
1.The sad ending of Shika’s story is sad. Infact, I was disagreeing when she apologises itself. If in KANK, the adultery is justified by any weird logic, for Shilpa’s character it should have been a “right”, not even justification ! It was so easy to change the end, just make Kaykay enter the house after she has left (along with the child), because his return is the only “event” shown as a reason for her to stay back – apart from perhaps the child hugging her father – and not any other moral reasoning, which is why I feel that event could have been avoided. Even logistically, that climax would have made 2 people happy vs 1. But it looks like “compromise” is the theme – even Konkana’s character, Sharman Joshi’s character compromise.
2.The songs were finely blended in the movie and the lyrics too complimented so well that, dialogues and lyrics felt like extensions of each other. And with musicians appearing in the same frame as actors and through out the movie, songs were never this well a part of the movie !
3.Sharman Joshi looked/acted quite mature.
4.Dialogues sounded new. I was taken by surprise and clueless when Shiney Ahuja, on asking whether he left her or she left him, quite normally quips “Love left us”.

This was, again, a collection of three short stories by Vaidehi. Given the inclination/theme her stories has, the play too was an attempt to dive into woman’s mind.

There were three protagonists, the first one was most interesting for me. She was Shakuntala, the famous character of Kalidasa’s play. The director/playwright here takes few wonderful deviations (was reminded of the deviations by Farhan Akthar in Don) from the original. The play suggests that temporary memory loss was infact a lie told to the world and that the king just did not keep up his word. This challenges the self-respect of Shakuntala and she takes revenge - if she had wanted she could have shown the ring as proof, but she instead lies that it was lost in the river. And finally, when king tries to apologise, she doesn’t give in.

I liked the deviations because they were convincing and more practical than the original. And of course they are so consistent with the theme - self-respect and independence of woman is at the core.

Second story was of a lady who longs for love and marriage. I would not go into details but I felt it was treated a little over the top. Or may be because, I could not accept those reactions/feelings coming from a girl - we are very much used to see that from a boy just like many dialogues that she mouthed.

Two credits to this second story - one it had varied dimensions and density in the character. And while the former story invoked heavy dose emotions and was serious by nature - despite a romantic backdrop - this one evoked few smiles, so what if it combined pity with it.

Third story was a complex one. That, coming from me is saying a lot ! This character is a wife of a rich man, a poet herself but suffering by some complex. Probably an inferiority complex, or an identity crisis –somewhat similar in theme to other two- or even lack-of-attention syndrome. She indirectly questions the patriarchal society and walks out of her marriage and settles with someone who she thinks would love her.

While one lady performed other two ladies played supporting and it was interesting to watch a supporting cast don the main role in the next part, well & differently. Music support was quite simple - by the same person traditional harmonium for Shakuntala and modern keyboard for other two.

The play overall was quite low on entertainment value, but I appreciate the effort that went into it. However I guess it was quite interesting to art lovers like Dr.URA whom I spotted in the audience.

Salaam-e-ishq:
Whole lot of parallel plots..was quite interesting as an experiment. I did not like the Priyanka-Salman story which was done in an artificial manner. John-Vidya story was on an extreme of senti-scale. The small comedy plot was also not very worth mentioning. I seemed to like the rest three. Perhaps a little more attention could have been given to that of AnilKapoor-Juhi. It was good to see Govinda after a long time! The way the different characters criss-cross reminded me of Crash.
Overall, this movie got lot of +ve and extremely –ve reviews. Those who identify with the emotion seemed to like it and those who didn’t, didn’t. But from a cinematic point of view, with stricter editing and more attention would have made it better.

Black Friday: Had heard about this film years ago. Finally got a chance to watch it. Its bold, to the point.

In pursuit of Happyness: Was very satisfied about this one. The fact that its based on a real person (Chris Gardner) motivates all the more. The real-life details were displayed on the screen after the show. Will Smith breathes life into character – notable scenes are – when he attends interview in soiled/painted clothes, father and son (Smith’s son – cute n firm) hallucinate in railway station and many more.
I returned with only one thought in my mind – just keep doing it. Persistence is sometimes more important than the hard work. And I give up too easily.

Ekalavya I liked this. The settings, the colour, a play like plot - poetry on screen.

Nishabd: It was too long. I disliked it for many reasons. Had a rant in draft, if I feel like editing it, it would be posted here.

I have always enjoyed watching movies alone. Does not mean that I do not enjoy in groups, of course I enjoy in groups too. But when I say I went to watch it alone, people look at me as

• I am a big loser,
• I am a big anti-social guy
• I am a maniac/crazy about movies
• I have too much spare time on my hand.

I feel only one of the above is marginally true. I watch because I want to watch. Period.

Here is a post that thinks on the same lines as I do

Everytime I tell a friend that I watched a movie the previous day in one of the 21,000 malls beside my house in Gurgaon, the first question eventually is, “with whom?” If I manage to utter the unmentionable, that I watched it by myself, he looks at me like I watched the a rakhi sawant anchored “great indian laugher show” in loop six times.

I have always failed to understand our obsession with the society. The society must approve. The society must accompany. The society must not think you are crazy. I think this spirit has made us miss one of the greatest joys of the 21st century: watching a movie by yourself

He then analyses both the situations.

You want to watch a movie. You walk down to the nearest mall. You catch the movie. You appreciate it thoroughly, because the movie is now an experience between you and the movie-maker. You can connect with the soul of the movie, without popcorn or coke to ruin the experience. You finish in time for dinner. You get back home, eat and sleep peacefully. Its work the next day. 3 hours. Thats all it took.

You must try it sometime: A lot of fun

Posts of other few events I attended would follow.

Heegadre hege - A play.:
This is a funny play formed after putting together 3 different stories of T. Sunandamma. One talks about the Kannada vs English, one dream about winning the lottery, another about the life of writers, life after retirement. All make us look at the situation in light fashion. Lakshmi Chandrashekar and Sundar performed.
Since the play was sponsored by Kannada station on WorldSpace “Sparsha” , there was half an hour long introduction about the shows being aired in that station. It sounded pretty impressive.
A good review is found here.

Classic ! Vinay Pathak gives a lifetime performance in the role of –Bharat Bushan. He is a budding singer- who loves himself and his talents . Thadani(Rajat kapoor) is a music industry guy whose Friday night dinners are like Indian idol first round – making fun of people – but in this he along with his friends have fun without letting know the victim – that much decency they have. His wife one day walks out of him the day he had called Vinay Pathak for dinner. The same day, he has got his back terribly hurt. With his good intentions and superb body language, Vinay steals the show. He has right intentions but what ever he does or says results in more damage for Nandani. He turns the table around and the whole world laughs (the audience) at the nandani. Vinay, though very irritating is very amicable – one enjoys his actions. Even his wife has walked out on him. But how he has handled is different from how nandani is handling the issues. Meanwhile Milind soman, who was ex-friend of Nandani’s wife enters the scene. Another IT officer (Ranvir) also enters the scene. Together they manage to create a laugh riot.

This movie could have been set up as a play and I think that could have been better for it could have continued to reach people much after – not like these movies which get pulled out of theaters once the big ones arrive. Secondly the movie entirely relies on the dialogues and body language so much that, anything else is of little importance.

If tried it is possible to point out minor things which could have been corrected (like the pun on Bappi Da was unnecessary) but there is quite a lot to be enjoyed – even small actions from Vinay like closing the briefcase, or folding the cover in which he carries his “kahani suron ki zubani” or “its ringing” are quite fun to watch – that other things could be forgotten.

There is one important reason why this movie is terrific – all the characters around us have been made into characters in movies but the Bharat Bushans that roam around us were never shown on screen. A small attempt was made in DCH in the character of Timetable but this is the first one where complete attention is given. These Bheja-fry-bharat-bhushan characters are absolute fun in their absence and total headache in their presence. I have had many such acquaintances. The movie ends when the audience is still thinking there is more to it, that’s the best way to end rather than elongate

And guess what ..I could come away with a quote too -

Paap se door raho lekin paapiyon se nahin - Bharat Bhushan

“Kelo rasika” is a non-profit team of volunteers interested in making good art reach the people. They have several programmes like “poetry reading”, “screening movies” etc. Suchitra Film Academy is partnering with them for some events. One such event of screening of Alfred Hitchcock movies, I attended to see ‘Vertigo’. I have heard about the director but have not seen any of his movies.
The programme started with Sridhar Murthy (editor of Mallige) giving a small speech about “Tradition of Suspence-thrillers in Kannada Movie industry” (”kannadadalli pattedari cinemagala parampare”). He begun with the meanings of words like “pattedari” “parampare” and how they fit the Kannada cinema context. He explained the difference between what we consider as “suspence” or rather “bond films” and that of the idea of Hollywood cinemakers. He narrated the advent of such movies in Kannada and chronologically took us through what he called 3 stages/generations of such movies. I dont even remember the names of first generation movies but second generation movies had those bond movies by Rajkumar/Kalyankumar and third by SunilKumarDesai. He aslo put an analysis of suspence novels/novelists in Kannada and how some of them were made into movies. He explained the reasons why some suspence movies failed and how SunilKDesai tried to emulate/give tribute to Hitchcock. There were lot of details (and many names of movies that I have totally forgotten) in the interesting speech and what I liked about it was how he “stuck” to the topic (except for a small deviation when he talked about the suspense novelists whose novels were “not” made into movies).

This was followed by the movie. Since this is an old movie, I don’t mind talking about the entire story. Its about a famous detective who is adviced retirement as he gets scared of heights following an incident that happens during the job. While relaxing himself, he meets up with his old friend who had just come to the town. His friend’s wife, he explains, is acting very strange these days and he thinks, some dead person’s soul has possessed her. He explains things like she staring into something, going somewhere etc and asks his friend just to follow her and find out what it is after which he could take her to the hospital.
At first detective dismisses the idea of soul etc, but decides to give it a try. He follows her. She visits a museum and stares at a painting, goes to a hotel whose owner was once the lady in the painting, goes near a tree, goes to a cemetery and stares at the same lady’s tomb, goes to a forest and stares at a tree. This happens for few days and the detective collects enough details for him to confirm that that dead lady has possessed this girl. He meets his friend and explains him these findings and his friend tells - he had a doubt. Because that lady is none other than great grand mother of his wife, but he says they both had not communicated and also that his wife has started using her jewels - further proof to the wandering spirit. Next day the lady visits some water spot and jumps into it, our detective saves her and after that they become quite good friends. Detective tries to know things from her but she claims she does not remember anything. Over the time, the detective starts liking her and promises to cure her. Once suddenly she explains a dream and the details of the spot resembles to an actual location.They both go there and she starts running towards the top of the church where the bell is hung. He due to fear of heights fails to follow her and in between sees her body falling along with her scream. She falls down and dies.
After investigation, police/judge decide that she had tendencies of suicide and due to the valid fear of heights, even the detective could not save her. Judges do not believe about the spirit story but does not punish anyone and the case is closed. Detective is very distrubed again and he sees that girl in every other girl he encounters. He visits the places, hotels etc they had visited together. He can not come out of her memories. One day he finds a girl almost similar looking one and follows her. She gives all proof that she is a newcomer to the town. He convinces/forces her to spend more time with him. At this point the audience is told the truth that both the ladies are same. When she climbs up, the culprit - detective’s friend - was ready with his wife’s dead body and he throws that instead of the actual girl. The fact that they looked remotely similar was made use to fool everyone and the fact that detective was afraid of heights was exploited by his friend and he wanted respected detective to be the witness to the suicide scam to be safe.
Now our detective tries to change everything the lady does - from her dresses to the hair coulr and style - and it gets little dragged. He finally wants to take her to the same spot so that he can get over the fear and to confirm that he has lost her, so he asks her to get ready - at which point he sees her necklace - this is the same necklace he had earlier seen on the statue in the museum! Now he is clear of everything and now forces her to go to the same spot almost in anger that she is now afraid that he might kill her and she confesses the truth while climbing up. But she also tells him that she loves him and thats why she did not run away when he has found her the second time. However she is at the same spot from where she had supposedly fallen down and suddenly a sister comes from nowhere and says something. In the fear, shock and confusion the girl slips, falls and dies.

Once the screening was over, people were asked to talk about it. Many people shied away from talking and those who did (except for one - a prajavani cine-journalist) didn’t articulate their thoughts well - they spent most of the time thanking the organisers for giving us a chance to see the movie or they talked how great Hitchcock was - not why - and about Hitchcock making an appearance in his movies. Those were all right, but inconsequential. Only one interesting trivia was mentioned that “zoom” was first introduced in this movie.

There were two important points that got discussed after the movie but I am sure not many had understood it. First, everyone thought the ship-builder pushed down the doll of his wife, while I think it was “the wife” herself was pushed. Since the investigators went and saw the body soon after, throwing a doll would have got ship-builder under the scanner immediately. Second, not all were clear why the lady jumps off(it wasnt clear whether she jumped off herself or if she was pushed) - actually she does not jump off - she falls by accident. Why ? Because she saw a lady coming from the dark and speaking which was unexpected. In sudden shock she lost the balance and falls. Another way of explaining this (this was told by another person in the audience) is that sinners need to be punished so in the story she is made to fall off.
Also, if only the audience were not told the secret so early in the story it would have been even more better. After knowing the suspense, it kind of got slower and we just waited for the inevitable to happen - that of detective finding out the truth. Another point is if the detective did not know that girl is the same one till he sees her necklace, why does he forces her to do everything - to dress etc. Also, there is no detective intelligence - he does not try to find out some leads, does not put effort to find out if something went wrong, just forces her to look like earlier again, it just so accidentally happens that he sees her necklace. I felt these two points could have been improved upon.

However it was a good watch, the audience’s interest is kept till the end, audience is kept guessing what would happen next. There is another Hitchcock show on May 27th, planning to go for that.

This was an awesome play, one of the best ones I have seen. This is a Hindi play translated to Kannada and directed by S.Surendranath - director of “Nodi swami navirode heege” movie. The play also marks the return (or debut ??) of Girija Lokesh to stage after many years.

Its quite easy to see why I like this very much because it was so easy for me to identify with it. The stage setting is white everywhere¹ - one white painted stool, a white painted chair and table, one white cloth on the floor. There is a table fan sitting idle at the corner of the stool and there is only one time it is ever used - and what a stunning impact it leaves. There is a light bulb hung and just like the fan, this is lit up only once.

My intepretation about the usage of white so prominently - other than to depict widow’s saree for a cultural reason or to show simplicity in the father’s character - is that, it suggests how only one sided their views are. No black and white - no two possibilities, no two explanations - just one -and one’s own - belief.

There are three characters in the stage - but they never come on stage at once (except for a second, mother and son come together) and I can easily call it a collection of three mono-acts and monologues. But the acts are tightly coupled.

The intent is actually to show how one’s actions are in this family, why according to him his actions are like the way they are and how another person in the family views it differently. Some views and counter-views like that, slightly highlighting generation gap.

The first scene is that of a widow, cleaning the cotton, describes how her husband has been admitted to hospital, how he died. In next few scenes with the mother, she recalls how her husband had reacted at his retirement and going a little back how he had dreamt and built his house and few other smaller details. She also narrates how her son behaved earlier and how he reacted in hospital.

In between her many appearances are present one stellar performance by SihiKahiChandru in the role of the father. It was the longest monologue - almost an hour and one should see to believe it. There were plenty of opportunities to go out of sequence, or to use our own lines as long as it made sense (but I doubt he did that !), but still it was one superb show.

Then comes that of son’s, acted by Manjunath Hegde, another class act. During his part is the success of the play, for the very same audience who had accepted and clapped to every action of father as right, claps and agrees again to that of son’s. At this point director had clearly succeded in making the audience realize how different the viewpoint is and how both can be right.

Both father and son, though rant and talk seriously, have audience in split, or rather in crack. Yes, even the issue is not fun, it is shown in the lighter vein giving the audience great comic relief.

Mother’s is not very strong character for the drama. She appears few times but with shorter durations compared to other two. Also I failed to understand why her part is set in the present while the son’s and father’s are actually set in the past. Though the mother’s role adds sorrow, sympathy and also it shows her as a strong person. She keeps calm when her husband dies and she was calm earlier too - somehow managing both polarities in son and husband. This is so very typical.

Many incidents like the collection-repair of locks, lazy-irresponsible son, wearing pant only after reaching college, house repair issues and various various other things are so very common in normal household - which is the reason audience too enjoyed it! Keeping the door open, not switching off the lights, lock , returning home early etc were some of the very very real life scenarios. Nicely captured and presented. One of the superb funny lines is when son is questioning his father’s direction to return home because of the increasing crimes in the city. Son ponders “If I return home earlier, will the crime outside reduce? “ So tongue-in-cheek !

Even though the son’s views are totally opposite to that of father’s, once his father expires he follows his father’s actions in a hyper-active or maniac fashion. There is the irony, there is the highest point for the play and there is so much untold meaning in those small actions and thats where the play ends. (Audience expected more but it made perfect sense to end!)

No music (except water dropping sound in the background), no lighting effects, no changes in the sets, it is the most simplest arrangement for a play I have seen!

Overall it is a combination of vyangya, tarka, vidambane and haasya.

After having told all this, I still haven’t told you anything. This play is a must watch according to me and you can watch it at Rangashankara on 26th May 7:30.

27th May 7:30

27th May 3:30

Misc:
1. One old couple talking was loud enough to hear to entire audi and of course to observation of artists too. Even continued stares from the neighbours did not discourage them from talking loud. Another lady, yawned making audible sound, which was too another irritant.
2. In another play too, there were two ladies who laughed almost hysterically and sometimes when not needed. RS people take enough care to silence/switch off the mobile phones, what could be done to these throats ?

1. Tide could utilize the oppurtunity (just like they did to few movies) and sponsor the play so that more people could watch it! [back]

Warning - Spoilers: Story and Ending revealed.
Story:
The story, in a broad sense, is like any other gangster movie which has this protagonist who is forced into the underworld due to poverty/helplessness etc. Like Jogi, this movie also has two threads running in parallel – or even more than Jogi here the emotional line is quite strong. What is impressing is that both the parts are given equal footage and both run without hurting the flow of the other. What stands out in this movie is the honest performance by Vijay. His dialog rendering is so simple and natural that it feels we are actually watching a live act rather than a show in the hall. I would not say Vijay has amazing acting skills as this movie did not require him to experiment or to depict something different – it just required him to be honest. It would be interesting to see how he would suit in a comedy or some other kind of roles. Talking of comedy, his many dialogues do invoke laughter – though unintended from the character. To that extent he seems to have good timing to click in a comedy role. Rashmi manages well to look innocent, look confused and cries well. And a special mention to the newly found supporting role – he reminds me of someone, but not able to remember.

Coming back the story, Vijay is an innocent village guy, due to some circumstances happens to come to city and comes in touch with underworld guys. He does not know them /their illegal work but joins theand beats . The story is quite complicated to narrate. How Vijay gets into the gang, how he gets beaten to get money, how – there are so many characters ! Someone is waiting to is waiting to fix up /take revenge on the other and how Vijay fits in the scene. Quite complex things and interwoven events to narrate.

In between this, he saves the girl from kidnappers, she has no place to go, so both of them start living in a s bus-turned-house. He tries to earn money for himself and help her study. Bothe develop a liking for each other but meanwhile the sword is ready above Vijay’s head.

Ending revealed ahead:
Caught between the gangsters and between police, both for the acts he didn’t do, Vijay faces danger of getting killed. Rashmi decides to end both their lives.

The supporting cast of friend is good. Also inspector in his tough cop act sends shivers down the spine. Some open ends remain – Inspector had first agreed to save him but later suggests to shoot him down as soon as he is seen. Inconsistent. But again at the end he says he would not have taken action – there clearly was a way director could have saved the protagonist from killing himself when he had done no crime. But for cinematic effects and to evoke sympathy, he is made to die and then later inspector too shows signs of mercy. Another open end is about her preparation to write exams but that is not completed.

Minus points include – same old story framework – innocent man with a machchu¹. The highlights of the movie include fast pace, songs, picturisation, lyrics², sharp dialogues and performances. Clever usage of additional characters to the plot. And of course good acting and direction - quite a few things like romance, actions are packed well but yet nothing is over done.

1. success of this has resulted in a parade of other such ones like masti by upendra, shivraj kumar again, sudip and who not. The posters tell half the story – man with a machchu. [back]
2. I am not impressed by what these VJs, RJs say about the song “Kariya I love you” that it has given confidence to people in town with dark complexion. It is one of the nonsenses I have heard – how do they know the confidence has increased, why if in a song of a movie a girl’s role says I love you, the confidence should rise for other dark people – that says nothing – first of all did she love him because he “was” dark etc arguments suddenly show how silly the claim is. I am not saying movies/songs shouldn’t mean something to people, for eg what can inspire people or increase confidence is like a song in My Autograph – araluva hoovugale neev alukadiri or say a song like – aagadu yendu kailagadu yendu kai katti kulitare sagadu kelasavu munde. This kariya song lacks any intent and is just created for rhyming.
   When I come to lyrics, first when heard this song I cringed – usage of English words , use of words simply to help rhyming – who have you seen swearing on Karunadu when he is expressing his love or worst since when did people start swearing on “bili moda” – Gods will really get angry for having forgotten them in this swearing game. But this song’s music – especially the flute – is quite catchy and later lyrics mean something when seen from the context of the movie – like he says he is an illiterate and she is like mother to him – after losing his mother he treats this girl as a companion just like his mother was and lyrics catches it quite well. And when I saw the movie, I was totally awestruck with some of the lyrics – especially the simple, rhyming and meaningful songs like nodayya kwaate lingave sung amazingly well by MD Pallavi. The other songs like “preeti maaye husharu” or even “ee paapi duniya” or “saala madiyadru tuppa tinnu” – a new proverb coined by our lyricist ?! score surprisingly well on lyrics scale. They are set to good music too but what is more important is that these songs perfectly fit in the story like hand-in-glove.
   [back]

Yes, its more than 100 days since the release and almost everything that had to be said about the movie must have been said. But should that be a reason to stop me from writing on my blog ? ( After all its my blog and there are few regular readers, who too will skip through this, so why bother ? ).

First of all the movie is near to me for it invoked DDLJ feelings. I can not clearly mention what it was, but that DDLJ magic was the prime reason that I kept going back to the movie. (Even though the movie was already a hit by the time I had watched it, for me it did not matter - one I was far away in Chennai not being aware of various talks about the movie second I kept myself from reading anything related to it, so it was still fine. Also I am very clear of not taking any prejudices with me to watch a movie). By DDLJ, I do not remark about the striking similarity - almost a love at first sight, girl being wary of the boy initially, girl starting liking the boy, boy showing his good-boy image to girl’s parents while preparations for girl’s wedding is going on, boy re-affirming girl that he would carry her away, entry of the bride-groom and that scene where hero takes heroine’s father on a walk - I could almost see a SRK-Amrish Puri in white dhotis trying to feed nuts to kabootars. The similarities might not be striking for others but it was for me. And due to all this, I had thought I know how this is going to end. At one point I thought the rabbit was there to do some sort of magic like the dog in HAHK. Hero’s father is left out after first few scenes (I had expected him to return like Anupam Kher in DDLJ). ¹ I kept waiting for the hero to impress the girl’s parents and to take her away. And at first I was disappointed it did not happen. I do not know whether it was a conscious deviation and I do not see anything against that climax too (I mean I believe even that would have worked out in the box office but since now people have seen this version they claim this is the biggest factor for the success). On the second thoughts, I like this climax too though the cine-freak in me was expecting yet another climax - that of him jumping off the cliff. One is a decisive happy ending, other a decisive sad ending and one more indecisive one where people are free to attach their own philosophical meaning - and that is the one which has worked !

Before I get into my commentary² let me say movie works for me.

Flow:
At the first look, nothing (nothing dramatic, actually) actually happens in the movie for the most part. Just like DDLJ. We see them romancing but nothing looks like progressing on that front. No other event like the “turning point in cricket” happens so that we can expect this is how it is going to proceed. There is no drama. Contrast this with eg Nenapirali and you probably get what I mean. Yet, this movie works. Just like DDLJ did. Only one reason can be attributed to it is the consistent flow and the narration.

Songs and lyrics : I had listened to songs many times before I saw the movie. The lyrics as everyone knows by now are just excellent. I was in awe after listening to the words but once I knew it was from a poet - Kaykini - my surprise ceased. He has affirmed one of my beliefs that “rhyme” is not “the most” or “the only” thing that makes songs good. I have seen some go out to create rhyme but somehow trading the simplicity of the meaning in the process. In this case, the meaning and simplicity was given the most importance and how! Set to brilliant music by Mano Murthy, the songs of this movie have been the propulsion for the success. I say, propulsion, because however good they were, they only got the people into theaters and later made them relive the movie by listening to songs but that should not take away any credit from what happened in between. Some observations - in one of the songs, there is “saavinallu naguvuda balla” which made me assume that hero would die andit would turn to be a tragedy. I was prepared to see the hero die and in part this spoiled a little of my experience - the actual tragedy is on a different level to his death, second since I was expecting that to happen every other time and anytime. The lyrics should have actually read “novinallu naguvuda balla”. And “anisutide yeko indu neenene nannavalendu..mayada lokadinda nanagage bandavalendu” immediately reminded me of “kabhie kabhie mere dil mein khayal aata hai ..ki aise tujhko banaya gaya hai mere liye..sitaron mein bas rahi thi kahi..zamein pe aye ho mere liye”. I am not saying its copied or even inspired but I strongly feel this might be an intentional tribute to that song which is anyone’s favourite ! Two more ingredients to songs that get a kudos are picturisation and choreography. Talking of choreography I didn’t quite expect “punjabi” set-up for “suvvi suvvali” song.

Picturisation:
When it comes to picturisation, there is no two ways about it. Its just as excellent as it could get. With the backdrop of rain, scenic beauty looks almost competing with the colourful costumes people have worn.
Performances and dialogues :
‘Comedy time Ganesh’, the household name it is by now, is one single element without whom it is difficult to think about the movie. True, all departments have shown results but its on Ganesh’s shoulders the screen magic had lied entirely. And how he manages ! With his next-door-boy looks, with his honest acting, that ever present smile which alone must have won him all female fans and most importantly, for me - dialogue delivery skills with good timing. He has the qualities that make a good hero though it would be interesting to see him in a real sorrow role. Heroine Sanjana Gandhi was effective in few scenes and complimented well in others. Though, an extra-ordinary performance was not expected by that role anyways. The supporting cast were not bad too -Anant Nag donning an important role - gave a natural performance. The dialogues were quite refreshing - they were bereft of cliches or used analogies. In fact that drunken dialogue -”tale na kerdu, gaya aagi cancer etc” was very unexpected!!³ But some jokes - like the one he uses to lighten her mood - did not work for me.

And for the sake of completion

Preetham is a kiddo with no near future goal. He falls in love with Nandini at the first sight. He decides to search for her. Accidentally they keep coming across each other. When he finds her he shares his feelings for her. But she refuses. He warns her if he finds her next time then he will marry her. He feels disturbed when he comes to know she is getting married. He decides to go away from her. If that was the case the movie would have said to end, but it doesn’t! Must watch movie.

That was an extract from my bro - who has been too happy for the number of comments and hits his posts on this movie are attracting.

This post is already so long and I haven’t even started to talk about how the climax does make sense and how I realized it even better after I saw almost a replica of these events unfold in front of my eyes. I haven’t even talked about the romance/love part of the story – after all it was “hani hani prem kahani” - how their “falling in love” , expressions were different and different feelings/attitudes of hero, the villain, the girl and I haven’t also commented how sudden & illogical for the girl to get carried away at the end – she should have tried to know the truth and how better it would have been if she was made a conscious partner in the decision rather than making her a scapegoat and making her take the result not understanding the whole picture/point. I just made a mention to say that I do see “the movie” not just the “its ingredients, making and execution”.

And finally kudos to the director who has managed to put together good pieces of work into one great piece of work.

1. You need not tell me I am too much into DDLJ, I know it [back]
2. yes thats what I would call my reviews from now on, as “commentary” makes more sense than “reviews”. [back]
3. Though this talking matters of heart only after getting drunk has been used quite a lot of times in movies like HDDCS, DTPH. I can’t help thinking - Help of liquor is taken even to start telling and when one doesn’t get the girl, he again drinks - Whats with lovers and drinks ?! [back]

Image from WarnerBros
Immediately after watching United93, went into Happy feet. It was quite some time that I watched back2back ! Happy feat is, well, a cute movie about Penguins. The hero, Mambo or Mamble, is born with a bad throat and can not sing.This is unusual among his species, who sing for almost every other reason. And thus he finds himself odd-manpenguin-out. But our Mambo is gifted with dancing. He is also a person penguin who is brave enough to go after his difficult mission and he has a bigger mission than to cry over his shortcoming. He considers his mission to be even more than the love of his life. Thus he goes out to find why there are no fishes, who is taking them and to ask them not to do it. He manages to find that aliens (humans) were taking away the fish ! During his quest and during other times, there are many sequences with adventure, fear, sorrow, happiness. It is serious movie you see, and unlike the cartoon series which put me to sleep !
I liked many scenes, in no particular order:
1. Mambo fights for the fish, for Gloria. And then later says “Eat the damn fish”.
2. The big sharks play volleyball with penguins.
3. Mambo finds itself in zoo/acquarium and tries to talk to his parents who were not there and whose impression melts out.
4. The dialogue - You have done everything penguinly possible (Now I keep saying to console myself “I have done everything ravikiranly possible” ).
5. The dialogue “Size may be daunting, but I love you”. I am sure I will use this sometime
6. The scene when Mambo fights Gloria and sends her back, the fight is so cute (like hum-tum fight). I did not expect Gloria to return! Then the next scene with the lillyputs trying to defend Mambo’s actions (Forgot the dialogues).
7. There were many other dialogues that were so good that I want to watch it again and note them down! Some of them are found here and here.
8. The dance choreography was first class !
9. The scene where mambo asks “why are you taking our fish”.
Happy ending was not foreseen but anything but that would have been a tragedy. A hurried climax shows that fishing is stopped by humans,thus helping penguins. Comedy, adventure, music-n-dance and all other ingredients, its a complete entertainment package. Wholly recommended.
The film is dedicated to Steve Irwin.
If there is a choice, which there was always, I always avoided to see the animated movies, for some reason, and used to go for real movies. But with this, I have changed and I watched Iceage1(for second time) and Cars yesterday. Other normal people graduate from seeing cartoon series to natural movies, I am graduating in the reverse direction I guess
Link to Official site, trivia,2

Finally I decided to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was another huge novel after Shantaram. I took nearly 2 months to finish reading. I was tempted to skip sentences/paragraphs many a time but resisted it. Every possible analysis about the book might have been said and written by now. A single novel to include different aspects - like philosophy, suspence, romance, emotion, fiction, politics - itself was pretty exciting.
I kept hearing “Who is John Galt ?” during my other activities too. I read speech on Money and John Galt’s speech few more times after I finished the novel.
This is John Galt Speaking :

Money:

If I had made notes while reading the book itself, there were many points I would have liked to make. There were dialogues and instances which I saw coming (like guy talking to Eddie was J) and others which I did not, which surprised me( Taggart’s speech on radio, her barging into John’s world, Rearden’s reaction after hearing radio speech, the suicide of james’ wife), which I liked(when Taggart is in trouble she tries to do one thing at once and next the other, to keep working and not having time to feel - I like this approach and I am following it these days) and which I disliked ( I did not like it when Taggart falls for Rearden and later when she falls for Galt again I was feeling strange!, felt bad for Eddie, Fris, Rearden ) . There were so many other points I would have liked to make a note and ramble about it. But actually, all that can ever be said/written must have been done already!
I may not face red-tapism but there is something that hits strongly, something that can be applied to my/our life.
My favorite chapters are The Sanction of the Victim,Atlantis,The John Galt Line
Would like to read other novels by the same author.

Ha..if the movie is made, Jolie would play Dagny!! I kept thinking of Kate Winslet while reading.

**
When I am reading a book, I do it passionately¹. I mean, there were times I went late to office only because I kept reading, I came early from office whenever possible, I used to sleep late and I keep talking about the book with whom ever I meet. The story absorbs me. Even to stop to post a blog seems waste of time and a delay causing element. Same with browsing, doing something else on computer, watching movies or watching TV. And when it ends I laze away time like anything. Havent picked up another book seriously so far. I oversleep, I browse a lot etc. This book travelled with me many times to and fro Blore-Chennai, it also travelled to Goa.

1. I think I do almost everything passionately - I dont know if the word is right. I chat with complete interest, I talk with complete interest, I listen with complete interest, I work with complete interest, I write mails with vigour, I plan with zeal, I perform many activities as if there is nothing else to do but for that. Few exceptions are perhaps talking on phone - while I am seeing something on computer,”eating”, reading for exams [back]

I watched United 93, because I had somewhere read that it is based on WTC related hijack. The movie was very gripping and very realistic. The sense of horror and unbelievability was evident on faces of many in the interval (or may be it was my state of mind). Was feeling sorry on one hand and was wondering how real this movie was. Later found out from net that it is based on real data except for may be few cinematic additions.

The movie is about that hijacked plane on the 9/11 which did not hit its target. Other 3 planes did. This plane was saved by the brave passengers on the board. The tensions/ confusions on the board, in the cock-pit, among those who were tracking the flights etc was filmed effectively. Without the interval, when I sighed, it could have been even worse.

More details about the movie here

As you might have observed, this blog has a soft corner towards Kads. So, here is a quick update about her that is in the news :
1. By now the every serious movie watcher might have come to know about the “second season” of Koffee with Karan starting off with SRK, Kajol and Rani. The fuss about a TV show has gone to dizzying heights already now (what with big brother, big boss, kbc2) and “the news” channels have become official advertisers of the TV shows of their respective entertainment channels. Yet, “you haven’t seen them together” for 9 years is so crazy. On the other hand, of late, I can’t like Kad’s interviews..the last one I saw with Aamir Khan during Fanaa was so irritatingly artificial and fabricated (but I saw it again with mute).
Yet I will watch,if possible, the Koffee with Karan to see it for myself about the “uncomfortability” between the cousins and of course to get more details between the comfortable relationship of “SRK -Karan Johar”, the most famous Indian celebrity couple ! (As if his mush towards SRK expressed in three romantic movies is not sufficient, he is rumoured to name his next movie ‘Khan’. So much fun will be coming.
2. Prakash Rai (its Rai as in Aishwarya Rai originally when he acted in Kannada TV serials…) is going to play Ravana in RajKumar Santoshi’s Ramayana.

Rajinikanth turned down the offer to play the powerful character of Ravana in the epic film Ramayan, director Raj Kumar Santhoshi has cast actor Prakash Raj in the role. While Ajay Devgan and Kajol have been selected for the role of Rama and Sita, Rekha will play the key role of Kaikeyi. A visibly thrilled Prakash says that Santhoshi has offered him the role of a lifetime. It is reported that the director will be taking the key members of the cast, which includes Prakash to Australia next month for a special training programme

I so much wished, Santoshi took some of our suggestions. Sigh.
3. And in another news regarding Kajol, Ajay is planning to direct a movie with themselves in the lead cast.

Ajay Devgan is ready to make his directorial debut. According to sources, a film titled Main Tum Aur Hum, that will be Ajay’s home production is coming up. This film will be a moving story of a man-woman relationship that moves from infatuation to love and finally develops into a lifelong bond. Quite aptly, Ajay and wife Kajol will play the lead roles in the movie. The story of Main Tum Aur Hum has reportedly been written by Ajay himself. The actor also seems confident that he will be able to handle direction and acting simultaneously. He plans to begin shooting the movie in April 2007

Hope at least this is “fun” !

Update : Video of Koffee (First one (Kajol SRK))

And the latest one Koffee with Karan(Kajol SRK Rani)

My scattered views as expressed over a chat (with cousin) is here :
Did I like it??
Not entirely…felt something is missing… but an excellent movie overall.
There was no punch in climax…there was no punch in anything he did…the intensity is there in terms of the dialogues than acts… there are only hints..not the exact actions.
What happened to “saala”
What happened to his another friend
What happened to madhavan/mithun
Why is guru “great” ?
Why is guru “bad” ?
Does the end justify means ?
The dialogue baazi in courtroom was not strong enough….ppl expected to see Ambani story etc
And the songs…were hindering the flow
once again the same feel….”it could have been better”
Madhavan had told he never has or never will kiss onscreen…was shocked to see that scene,
it was not definitely needed..
Vidya just accepted for the sake of Mani Ratnam I guess…and Ash probably to spend time with Abhi (and bcoz of Mani factor) but has done well and looks good.
**
Yeah, thats pretty much my views. I liked the making of the movie (even dont mind a second watching), the impressive acting, picturisation, songs etc (Especially after realizing how much effort goes into the art, after reading this informative interview of Rajiv Menon). But somehow the story did not hit me. Only one point I would like to take away is, just keep working at it. Do not get distracted, keep working, keep dreaming.
Also, here is Arun’s review of Guru.
Here is another interesting review of Mani’s movies.

Metamorphosis is a story about a person who is overnight transformed into an huge insect. How he copes with that, how it affects his family members is the crux of the book. The story is a light read. The book I read had many other essays discussing the story and its inner meaning. It seems some feelings of the protagonist are close to real life of the author. The analysis section also pointed out the few fallacies and justifications, meanings to various sentences in the story. The essays occupied more space than the story itself in the book and thus I have possibly read every opinion possible and some of them resembled to what I had in mind.
Again I feel I should have made some notes during reading. One thing I liked in the real life of Kafka is that he was possessed by writing. He often felt “his life” itself was a distraction to his writing. He used to write almost whole of his night (its 3 am as I write this) and used to work in the day. Someday I would like to do something as possessively as that, if there was a reason for my birth, my existence, it should be for me to perform that. I dont know what it is and I do not know if that will happen, till then I will keep talking big things like this

I attended Chennai International Film Fest, mainly to watch TFLW and I saw few others too. It is very late to review but few sentences about them :
1) Sringaram : This is a movie based on Devadasi practice. With that and revolt against it as backdrop, this movie is actually about dancing and beauty - beauty of dialogues, of leading lady, of picturisation, of the colours. Coming from a first timer director, the making certainly is very good. The choreography apparently has won National Award.
2) Time for women : This is a funny movie. It keeps hinting through out but ends in an expected anti-climax.
3) Familia: Good picturisation and the way the complexities are shown/woven into the plot give a good outlook about the movie. The story may be very bollywoodish, but the presentation is different.

4) CRAZY Frankly did not understand about the intention of this movie until I read about it later. However some catchy dialogues and humour.
5) TFLW : The movie, as many have noted, sheds its movie feel very soon and audience becomes a part of the happenings on the screen. The humour, the drama, the events, the dialogues, the emotions are very real and is obvious given the fact that this is a leaf out of real life. More than the movie itself, the praise is for the effort that went into its making. Third attempt, for 7 years never-say-die attitude, finance probs, cast probs, few of the things are known thru his blog, tell us much about it. Before the show, it is told that, its based on real people, but how real is told at the end after which the admiration goes a notch higher ! The screen is dark at many places and it is getting corrected it seems. My favorite scenes - the beach scene with 4 guys, another beach -lets dance - scene and the proposal scene. The Evam guy lights up the scene and without him the screen would have been less brighter. But the rest of the casting is also very perfect for the characters. If this had happened before DCH, (it was conceptualized 7 yrs before, meaning before DCH), it would have lead the pack of come-of-age feel-good and identify-ourself classics containing DCH, Hyderabad Blues etc.
6) Milarepa - Good with intentions but put me to sleep. Short on building-up and detailing and stricter editing. Incidentally it seems this is based on actual story, and the work is in progress for 2nd part.

Something I wrote some time ago to the yahoo group to which I used to write my rants and reviews before I learned/started about blogging. The pat I received there was the only reason to fuel my continuation of writing the rants!

Today I would like to share a little happiness with you all. Because in a way, remotely, this group has a connection with it. Read on to know more.

Back in the days, in my early days at Mumbai, not only my Hindi was as bad as it could be but my knowledge about movies was also zero. I had heard of Hum Aapke Hain Koun but did not know what HAHK meant. Nor did I know the cast of it. And it was already running for 2 years or more in Liberty talkies in Mumbai. As an additional note, I did not even know the spelling of Kajol (who later became my one-n-only craze - in movies) and did not know the cast of DDLJ - which too I watched after 1 year of release !!

In the college, as usual with my life - the first friend I get at a new place will become good friend and will remain one at least till I remain there, I got acquainted with a Mallu guy -Arun Ganesh- who was a movie freak. Sometime later I realized that he was very close to being a walking encyclopedia of movies. Being a Mallu if you expected him to know less Hindi, you are wrong there. He came from Ahmedabad and knew better Hindi than the mixed Hindi some people speak in Mumbai. To me, speaking Hindi was not difficult but did not want to utter foolish stuff, he was my guru for my Hindi. Being in the Bollywood capital Mumbai, it is too rare to see someone not talking about movies or music. I clearly remember asking him what was the meaing of “pahad” and when he asked for context I quoted the song from Raja Hindustani “aaye ho zindagi mein tum pahad banke”. :))

Slowly I too started to watching movies more frequently. Bunked classes and watched movie. Skipped eating out and watched movies. Watched movies for the sake of watching. Sometimes with a group from college, sometimes with another group, sometimes with some other, sometimes alone. Good, bad, hit, flop I saw it all.

In parallel we started discussing movies. We had our own tastes but most of the times we shared the same opinion. In fact, I started viewing movies critically after taking first cues from him. He used to point out the mistakes (like the missing power chord from an electric guitar or the “readers dont digest” kind of stuff ). We used to analyse many scenes, how better things could have been or why something did make sense. The forthcoming movies, music (Arun is a big Rehman fan), the past hits - our discussion covered it all. To top it we had a French tuition teacher who was a film freak. She religiously read Filmfare and followed all gossips in filmdom. We used to fight for the filmfare when we used to go there for the class and we even dedicated additional 15 min for reading filmfare (not compensating for 1 hr class for which we were paying her!). She somedays used to get irritated that we read it and discuss it in the beginning itself, so she used to hide it till the end of the class!

Talking of analysis, we almost at the same time, hit upon Khalid Mohammed who used to write for Times of India. His language, his sharp merciless remarks as well as his knowledge about movie making as well as references to various other movies impressed us no end. Monday morning talking most compulsorily started with our take on his reviews that used to appear on Sunday Times. Even though initially we worshipped him and made his every opinion ours (shamelessly), slowly we started noticing our difference of opinions from him. Be it what it is, I still regard him the one to look upto.

Then I moved to Bangalore and Arun to Sangamner for studies. Occasionally when we mailed each other, it was mostly about movies. The movie watching also reduced somewhat when we were in Engg. The communication too reduced/stopped, due to various other reasons. It was DCH, the cult classic of our age, that moved me so much that I wrote about it to him and few of our close buddies. Though it was not written as a review at all but just as a salute to the times we had spent and to Farhan Akthar, I received good (unexpected) encouraging words and thus begun my experimentation with writing reviews. DCH, still one of the closest movies to my heart, had each of us (we were 3, like in the movie, in gang other than girls) in ample amount. As a tribute, I visited Mumbai and watched the movie with the group

Impressed by that feedback, I started noting down my thoughts after most of the movies I watched. I used to share with that select group of friends (and with the group I mentioned). After joining job our communication improved (thanks to always-on office email) and we started exchanging mails regularly. This was the time this group was also most important part of my life. My so called reviews got very good feedback and appreciation that I can never forget in my life. And hence review writing became a must for me after every movie.

Now reviews too became a part of mails with Arun. Partly motivated/encouraged by my acts, he too started responding by reviews. There was even few times, we fought who would review the movie. Or skip reviewing a movie so that other can do. Sometimes we decided not to read each other’s reviews but wrote one each (Lakshya, Black were such). And during somewhat that time I feel now that I had peaked (bcoz these days I am not happy with my writing). But he kept on improving.

Those were days before blogging and blogging opened a new world for us. I created a blog and soon followed it up with our combined site on movie reviews.He was so glad. In fact I started the review blog only to make sure he gets some recognition and fame, and by which I knew he would keep doing it! As far as me, I was losing the grip and as well was getting not too affected by the feedback. The hits came coming and I left no opportunity to publicize our site. The hits came, the comments came and we were feeling good. He sent his black review to filmfare and it got published in readers review section.

Things did not remain all good all the time. The work started eating our time. Weeks used to go by and the reviews did not happen. In fact we did not get time to watch movies. Sometimes I used to get busy that time he used to fill up. And sometimes otherwise. But sometimes both of us got so busy and felt bad for our pet - our site. Yet we kept hung to it. We approached few friends to fill in during our absence. Some of them agreed and filled up (fill up even now) and we are glad to be a part of creative circle. And we knew that many times, we watched movies only to write reviews, we wrote reviews only to keep our site updated!!

While about reviews let me capture another funny event. There was a guy (lets say X) in Arun’s organisation who was observing the fame Arun was getting for writing reviews. So X too started sending his reviews to a girl (Y) whom he was trying to impress. Y was in Aruns list of pals receiving movie review updates and X was a TL to Y. Y sent X’s reviews to Arun asking us to have a look and publish it on our site. X’s reviews were very difficult to understand and we withheld before posting. It so happened that, Arun investigated on the reviews and found they were all from a rottentomatoes. X had intelligently(?) clubbed many reviews and hence there was no continuity nor any sense and it was all too tough to follow. A clear copy paste. Arun exposed this and sent out a mail to all his buddies including Y. Not to mention they broke up soon and everyone was staring at him funnily after that incident!!

If you ever have a pet, you understand my feeling towards my site. Its a cute thing to own and to show to the world. But the rare updates is always a problem.

Thankfully he has moved to a different organisation where supposedly the work load is less and has moved out of city. So like me, all he has to pass time, is to watch movies.

Then recently icing on the cake happened. Much anticipated fame arrived. It started with KANK. He had his ticket booked for first day. He had read up Taran Adarsh’s review. I also had planned for a second day show. I could not do much due to work load and jotted down few thoughts on KANK but Arun, declining to read my views before he jotted down his (like the earlier days!) detailed review. Incidentally rediff announced a contest asking for reviews from readers. Arun sent his entry (and asked me to do, but I let it go. I felt my review was incomplete and was also pressed for time. Also had no belief in my effort). Now KANK is every movie reviewer’s delight and many responses must have come. Nevertheless his review was one of the best 10 reviews and he got to be a part of rediff reviewers group. What an achievement ! I hadn’t been many times as happy as this recognition. I know its his review but I shall take some claim and happiness for that fame His achievement is mine and his fame is mine :))

His organisation had an all employee movie watching event and they saw KANK. (No this has nothing to do with his review…his review appeared on rediff much later). Then he sent his reviews and its being published on rediff to his colleagues. Not to mention appreciation and wishes followed. It took few days before he got back to normal self If plagiarism is flattery, he got that too - someone even plagiarized his review!

Being in rediff critic group, Arun got to review Don for rediff. And when it appeared on rediff main page, not to mention that Arun was on cloud nine for few days :))

It is an interesting parallel we have shared with Farhan Akthar - that first movie of Farhan Akthar (DCH) had started me on writing reviews and for the second we both competed to write and each one wrote one and for the third one Arun’s review got published in a leading online news site.

And thus ends my intention of sharing my happiness with you all. Without your encouragement and feedback I would not have attempted to write and without me he would not have continued to write. So in a sense, this happiness finds its root in you, in this group (and the blog readers/commenters ). Thank you friends.

All the above talked about reviews could be found at 70mm

Jote joteyali :

The hero of Nenapirali was the only reason that I planned to see this. There was a flurry of opinions as soon as I exited the hall. Bulleting the ones I remember now :
1) It closely resembled Sathiya. I had thought Sathiya was already remade to Kannada but bro disagrees. Anyways, the resemblance is superficial and though there are similarities, things are different here.
2) Wrt to above or otherwise, I felt something crucial missing out in the story and this is becoming very normal these days , both here and in bollywood. The audience is just expected to believe the missing flesh in a relationship. For eg, the hero sees heroine and starts dancing and we are to assume he is in love. Perhaps it was love at first sight, but it continues with heroine too - she falls after reading his “sentimental” love letter where he is supposed to have poured out his love but audience is not told what was written in there.
3) Predictability is a major thing that makes me not appreciate the story. I could almost guess every other scene.
4) Using an established star to get an ad contract was intuitive and thumbs up for that. Very satisfied with the use of guest appearance of Darshan.
5) I absolutely hate the climax - a villian who was nowhere till then, pops out and becomes a reason for “unifying” the couple who was just waiting for divorce. Totally meaningless. I agree that it was to appease some section who want a fight in the climax but isn’t there any way out than to fall back on the age-old trick ?
6) Had not seen any Ramya’s film, looks like she can easily do roles with greater flexibility.

Khosla ka ghosla:
Enjoyed it right from the word go and for the most of the movie. More movies like this should be made. It is different, it is simple and it makes you smile. Some scenes were somewhat out of place - like Anupam Kher offering drinks to his son - it looked as though he had just then adopted his son. But other things like involving drama teacher (Navin Nischol) as a person to act as business man was wonderful. His performance is first rate as is Anupam Kher’s or Boman Irani’s and then everybody else’s. And the confused son played by Ranvir Shorey looked like he did not act at all - he must be so puzzled in his life too Liked those songs too. Feel good, totally timepass and worthy movie.

Don:
I had read many many reviews before watching the movie but thankfully none of them contained spoilers (like my reviews do). So there was still something left to be watched and boy, I was as clueless as any. By reading the reviews I made few observations. Every movie has likers and dislikers but this being the remake theoritically had four combinations : those who liked both versions, those who disliked one but liked the other and those who disliked both. Above that there were people who either like me had forgotten the original version or hadn’t seen the earlier one and these could like/dislike the movie on its own merit. So that increases the variety of reviews one can get

Going a little back, when I saw the poster of Don being directed by Farhan, I surely disliked it. I mean, Farhan gave a refreshing look to the whole thing and gave a cult classic which is the No 1 favorite of most people of my generation, falling back to do a remake. That too a remake of old successful film ? I decided not to forgive Farhan. If he really wanted to remake he could have done any comedy or romantic movie or even something that was there in some other language. But instead he takes on to remake an old movie which is a thriller.If he wanted a suspence thriller he could have gone out and designed something on his own - am sure he could have scripted a potboiler, hair raising stuff. How thrilling could a ‘remake’ get ?

But then, after seeing the movie I realised it did make sense (not much though). I might sound like lying, but back when I saw Don few 10 years ago, I was not convinced about Don’s death. How could a “hero” die? How could the one who mouthed the dialogue like “Don ko pakadna mushkil hi nahi, namumkin hai”. And I was hoping that his death turned out false somehow. It did not happen. I had the same feeling even while watching KNPH, I was all the time thinking Hrithik was not dead afterall and he is the one in Swiss too, till I was told it was not so by my neighbour. Coming back to the topic, I can perfectly understand the Farhan’s mentality - similar to many of us who after watching a movie or after reading a novel , wish we could make some change to the story , we wish if someone was not dead, we wish if someone was dead sooner and things like that. But the advantage with Farhan is that, he could actually go ahead and make the change and release a movie.

Having said all this, I sincerly had no clue what change Farhan was upto untill I had watched the last scene. Those suspence plot changes mentioned in all reviews made me all the more curious. And hence like other purists, I too did not like the changes made, in an immediate reaction. I mean how could the cop himself be the gangster - isn’t this the old stuff again. And how could the Don-look alike could be Don itself ? Nah. But, ok, what else could you have expected the remake to do to make it interesting ? And givent that it was what is wanted, there are no implausible things(considering that this is a movie where a top cop could be a gangster in not implausible).

So how does it fare compared to the original ? Or how SRK fares with respect to BigB ? To both the questions, the answer is similar. This DON is stylish - in making, in looks, in costumes - and is appealing to SRK fans, SRK himself needing to remain loyal to his image and chained by his limitations. Yet, he does a neat job of it.¹ His stamp is always there , be it ready-to-romance-Kamini or in the indifferent portrayals of //village-man and Don// (Now do not go and claim, that was intentional given the story’s twist) or even in the Paan song.² Priyanka handles the necessary babe-factor well.

Without a boring moment, this movie deserves pat, despite being a remake.

PS: 1. There were few other things I wanted to say, blame it to procastrination, have forgottem them.
2. Arun wrote review of this movie for rediff and due to that or otherwise, we had many discussion over Don and I read many reviews/readers comments. The supporters and bashers are both at extremes - half luuuuvv it and other half hates it.

Umrao Jaan
Bulleting::
1) I had not seen the original, so there was some suspence left. I did hope Abhishek ends up at the end. To my surprise, he did not.
2) Had heard that over 1 year of research was done to select the costumes and that over 70 topis were discussed before zeroing on one which is on screen for barely 5 minutes. Which is, just a ok thing. I am never an admirer of over perfection (isn’t there something like that ?) because it somehow misses the point.
3) Somehow could not connect/get involved to/in the movie. Don’t know what worked against it.
4) Was hoping for the song “In ankhon ki masti..” Disppointed that it never came. If Paan song could be remade, why not this ?
5) Hope someone stops RGV and the rest of the men to ‘remake’. Do at least sequels, no ?

Footnotes:

1. Lets face it, any ‘boy’ is eager to find mistakes in SRK and hates SRK for similar reasons that a girl hates Sherawat. The girl next to my seat uttered “sexy” at least twice the number of minutes SRK was on screen [back]
2. The other day, I was asked who would I suggest to replace Amitabh, if I had a chance. The first name that comes to mind is, well SRK, but on second thoughts, Abishek or Dev-brooder-gan. [back]

Rediff on Woh Lamhe

If there is one reason you need to watch Woh Lamhe, it is Kangana Ranaut. She is a brilliant, outstanding actress

Rangan on Woh Lamhe :

Kangana inhabits Sana wonderfully. At first, this seemed to be a reprise of the boozy moll she played in Gangster, and all I could think was that she’d better find herself a rom-com fast, or all this lacerating, baring-of-soul acting – the slurred shrieking, the eyes glistening with unshed tears, the drinking straight from a bottle while perched precariously at the edge of her first-floor verandah – is going to end up affecting her in real life. But I can’t imagine another heroine today who could have pulled this off and made Sana so compulsively watchable.

I too wish she gets out of this stuff otherwise she would be stereotyped and forgotten soon. There is not much I wanted to say about the movie apart from that - it is intense and full of pain and it drains emotionally. So much that the heart goes out for the characters and for their helplessness. Movie has some unwanted awful moments as well as some untied ends. It has soulful music and editing that cuts slack as well as allows for slow moments keep the movie going. And another point, that lady (Masumi Makhija) did scare me too much. 19 yr old actress, 25 yr old director and such movie - man, good times ahead for cinema.

After all these days, I finally went to Innovative Multiplex. And btw, impressed by this service too : iTicket.in

Coming to the movie, it is as tender and as powerful it can get. Shot beautifully in Himachal Pradesh and most of it in Rajastan, this movie is how a meaningful cinema should be - it is not void of entertainment, but it is in small touches by a character created for only that purpose - tells a story, gives a message - in very small details again - and most important of all, it works.

Zeenat is played by Gul Panag and Meera is played by Ayesha Takia. Both the ladies look like apt choices for the role, with Gul carrying off it with such ease that I wonder where was she all these days. She looks like an ideal replacement for Tabu ¹ having both beauty and talent to match. Ayesha’s acting is also just right.
And there is Shreyas Talpade, whose is the character I mentioned above, who ensures that we dont get all that weepy and lumpy-in-the-throat. His role is responsible for the few refreshing laughs but yet in some ways stays with us. Probably for that just one scene - “ek mahtva poorn baat kehni thi”. Not to say that other scenes were any bad.

The dialogues were all intense like when Meera says “Keh doongi bhajan sun rahi thi, ab naatak shuru hoga” and puts on her veil. When Zeenat says something on the lines -”Who laughs and dances with her friends when she knows her husband is on the doorstep of death”. One more I can remember is something on the lines of “society is as merciless as heat of Sun”. There are moments as well, like when Meera dances in the lane, very cautiously fearing if the society observes that act of a widow. When all of them dance to their hearts content in the midst of the desert. Two scenes, my most favorite, are
1) the ritual when Meera is de-bangled.
2) “Ek mehtva poorna bhaat kehni thi” Given the background, this was supposed to be just funny. But it wasn’t, and that we come know only later.
Messages thrown here and there about liberation of women or even about girl infanticide is so below the surface, but it hits the target.

Such dialogues and moments, not completely breaking away from our melodramatic style, yet not exaggarating it or not highlighting it, are at the heart of the movie which also succeeds in its primary motive - that of telling a story and that too in grand colour and picturisation.

Nagesh Kukunoor, more power to you. If I recall Hyderabad Blues and such like, I can not imagine this is the same Kukunoor.

1. only an other person who could have done this role and btw where is Tabu [back]

My first reaction was “Damn, I can almost imagine Kads weeping through out “.¹
Could not resist mailing few pals once I saw this on rediff. Arun replied and what followed was immense fun. Take a look.

1. Reminds me of Sitayana animation, take a look [back]