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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

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

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]

What a surprise packet. I hadn’t caught any promotional clips nor had observed the poster carefully and man, I was overwhelmed. Anyone who saw, kept saying, go watch yourself. I will concur that.

Hope you watched. When I had lost all hope on a sequel, after the debacle of the year Phir Hera Pheri, this resurrects the hope. In fact, this is as original as the first part.

Munna bhai is madly in love with a Radio Jockey and just like the first part, to impress her, he lies that he knows about Gandhiji and he follows Gandhi’s principles - which gets a new phrase from this movie - Gandhigiri. “How” he follows the principles and “how” he succeeds is what the movie tells us. There is a message and there is loads of laughter.

Random thoughts and minor spoilers ahead.

Of course at one point of time, I doubted how the story can win. There is no way by sending roses you can change one’s heart. Thats where the sub plot enters and I was convinced that, it works.

I expected in the beginning, Munna’s role, in realizing everybody’s dreams of those in Second innings house.

Jokes were not sms jokes, as is the usually case these days and they were very original, unheard of before.. But, it will take no time before Munna Bhai jokes going around in sms.

Full marks to most underrated performer of the decade - Arshad Warsi - what an impeccable comic timing this guy has. Everytime he said, “hey uthna, sorry bolneka hai”, I cracked up in laughter. His dialogue in jail explaining that he never went to jail after doing many crimes but went when he said sorry once , is my another favorite scene. And his facial expressions while searching for Bapu is great.

Vidya Balan chips in with cute looks and reasonable performance. Sanju babu is at his best. His listening to Bapu’s story of theft is my fav scene. And of course, “chemical locha” scene. See how he cries when he apologizes to circuit. Such innocent looks adds great value to the character. “Put me back in jail” near the wedding scene is a touchy one. Similarly, his shout about the corrupt bureaucracy. His all earlier work might be forgotten, but Munna will remain in every one’s hearts for ever. If Vaastav had given him second birth, Munna bhai has made him immortal. Munna and circuit together will go down as iconic characters from Hindi cinema on the lines of Gabbar Singh.

Bapu’s acting was touching.

Two things could have been kept from the first part - Lucky Singh should have been laughing/grinning whenever he gets angry. That used to crack me up in 1st part with Dean’s character. Second, there should have been a “jadu ki jappi” somewhere

After laughing for nearly 3 hours continuously, things look so good. Hopes on Bollywood resurrected. Am looking forward for sequels, remakes and what ever. Don, Ghayal - bring them on…

Nenapirali is a debut effort from Engg graduates Ratnaja (director) and Ajay Gouda (Producer). It has flashes of brilliance - both at technical level and at artistic level. More about that later.

Story Overview: Ekanth and Indu are seeing each other for sometime. But practically Ekanth is too busy to see Indu on a regular basis. This forces Indu to lie Ekanth that her parents might oppose their marriage. Her plan backfires when Ekanth devises a plan - according to which Prakash, his friend should go around Indu, which should unease Indu’s parents and they should be readily accepting Ekanth!
Due to this, Prakash spends more time with Indu and she starts liking him for he is naturally likeable. Prakash clarifies that he lacks any such feelings for her. And Ekanth marries Indu.
You guessed an end ? Its just the interval. That is one of the highlights - this packs so many events in just 2 and half hour that bollywood revolving around the same confusion for over 3 and half hours is pitiable. Lets go back to the story. Now Bindu, Indu’s sister heads off to assist Prakash in Mangalore where they slowly fall in love with each other.
Till now everything was fine, but movies can’t just be fine. So there is a twist and then some more crisis. To be fair to the story-writer, after some thoughts myself, it is really difficult at that point not to introduce a turn and make it proceed and finish on a note. Also to the team’s credit, the developments are in sync to prove the subtitle/tagline - its about hearts.

Now to other points. Technically it is a fine product. Crisp editing, fast pace, clear characters, an unbelievable cinematography, attractive costume designing, experimental choreography, meaningful-but-not-heavy dialogues and tight direction.
The one department that disappoints* is the lyrics that are like dialogues. Hamsalekha, the lyricist fails but the music is refreshing. Repeated listening has softened my stand on this but still….

Due to the youth behind, there is a infectious freshness feel to the whole of the film.
Prem is faithful to the character. He shows lot of promise. Except during his dancing, I liked him otherwise.(If this is remade to Tamil, Sidharth is ideal fit) Both the girls (Vidya and Varsha) have good potential. Indu’s oppurtunistic role didn’t have much to offer to Vidya but she has done well. Ananth Nag, as a cool father, lights up the screen. With some more flesh to the character, this could have been the perfect supporting role that is both meaningful and required to the plot. It looked little hurried at the end, as the family members were left out of the context.

But, almost till the end, the movie is like a peom recited dearly from the very poet. Narration is what stands out, drama has been dumbed down to nothing and punctuated with songs, flow is super. If there is one thing that is worth applauding than the poetic narration, it is the locales. Picturesque. The scenic beauty, music and performances make it a beautiful movie.

* Disappoints “me” - because I heard/read it to be great. I know the reason for that feeling though- given the Kanglish lyrics these days, given the fast food lyrics by the likes who churn out bin ladenu, maza maadu, etc…But I accept that it was Hamsalekha who was the pioneer of that generation)

On books:
Not reading much these days. But here is a small update.
After a long long time, I finished reading A Man who knew infinity, a biography on Ramanujan. A well researched book and a nice narrative - some explanations like the eating on a banana leaf etc (I now forgot, there were many such descriptive narrations) were examples of visualizations brought by language. Some buildups are too nicely done. I was shocked to know that Ramanujan had attempted suicide. Among many factors that drove him, like - English weather, lonliness, lack of good food, one surprising and major contributor was “family tension”. Damn, even a genius could not escape from the wrath of pitiable human quarrles of saas-bahu, I just felt “yuck”.

Toofan Mail by Jayant Kaykini:
A good collection of short stories. Some very abstract, some very abrupt. Could not understand the intent of some stories.
Abachurina Post office by K P Poornachandra Tejaswi
Another collection of stories in almost above lines. Was curious to know how the “story” was of Tabarana Kathe that was adapted to big screen and got awards. That time, kid I was then, for me, Tabarana Kathe had formed a benchmark for art cinema and to win National Awards and to be telecast on DD. And it was the synonym for boring films. I dont remember the details of it now, but story was also not any descriptive/ narrative compared to few other stories in the book. I wonder if Tabarana Kathe had got that treatment, many ohter stories from this book can get much better ! It is a collection of stories written over many eyears and the last story is very very difficult to comprehend.(Just like the foreword).

But both the books were rich/lucid in language, descriptive, and opened up (for me) a new world of alternate way of stories. Now I feel, why do we still come across run of the mill story telling when such alternate paths have already been treaded long ago!

Krrish
There was no real temptation to watch this one but for the 3 hour A/C relief we (I & Sriram) wanted to get. There is nothing much to write apart from that it was a TP film. Targeted at children, let such films come and save the kids from disgusting things happening in other movies. I have pretty much forgotten about the movie but for this - Does gas cylinder “deflect” bullets ?

Cyanide
As many have already said, narration and cinematography were highlights of this movie. So were the performances. Tara was excellent; it was such a delicate role that it was too easy to have gone overboard with it. Overacted. But Tara. She bordered on exaggaration but carefully maintained it within the line. Malavika had very few scences to her credit but does well. An added advantage is her expressive eyes. As Shivarasan, Ravi Kale leaves impression.

As soon as I had heard about the movie, I was reminded of “Harakeya Kuri”. In an age when I used to dislike anything remotely “art cinema”, I had found this one likeable.

The advantage to Cyanide is that the story is real but it also had enough dramatic moments. Though it did drag somewhere in second half, the editing and flow was good enough.

Trivia:
After watching, it was surprising to note that director is real life friend of Ranganath and scenes of Onake Obavva and Shivrasan’s confession that crime was wrong, were real happenings. Also came to know that Mridula is now separated from her husband (who is now a hard-core activist) and that she reacieved 25 lakhs from govt for giving information about culprits.

Omkara
I attempting to write about this should be a joke - for thanks to an unfinished theater’s bad sound effects and thanks to UP dialect I hardly understood the dialogues. And only after reading reviews did I realize that my concentration was also amiss. However 2 points about it. Loved the editing and pace. Saif has furthered his own limits (pls don’t go back to metrosexual salaam namaste roles, pls, leave them to our lux model - SRK) in one scene he is unbelievable(his change in facial expression when Kesu was named Bahubali). Liked the vareity of songs. And listening the slow songs over and again.
If you haven’t but interested, I suggest you go through these two brilliant reviews/analysis. By Rangan and by Falstaff One day, I aspire to dissect a movie with such depth, understanding, conviction, command and knowledge.

Something, Something, Unakkum Enakkum: Well, the story is as old as wine.It seems highly “influenced” by Maine Pyar Kiya types. Yeah, so old. But it is still watchable for these reasons : honest performances, the happenings keep the audience engaged, the colourful costumes and controlled humour entertain. At one point, that kiss-slap sequence in a wedding, reminded me of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam so much that I thought, it would most certainly take that path. Was it a slap on HDDCS thought flow about how such small things can be corrected and life can go on ?
Btw, it has dropped the something from the title after TN govt announced goodies for films with only Tamil in title. Heh!

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu: Frankly did not like the movie much. New york is shot beautifully.Music is very good. Songs are being continuously in my system.The performance from lead pair is great. Even though it moved fast, had surprises, finally bogs down to stereotype. Mindless voilence plus the loudness is just not my taste.
I felt sad not to have been able to follow the conversation between Kamal and Jyothika. Somehow I felt, there was potential for a beautiful complete love story, like Gajini also had, which in present form is somehow lost in the voilence, again like Gajini.

Warning: FULL OF SPOILERS.
Due to time constraints, I will not attempt full length “review”. Just will jot down first few thoughts.

1) No surprises from KJ front. Typical KJ. Typical full houses.

2) As you might know, Devgun was initially in Karan’s mind for Rishi’s role. Thank heavens that didn’t happen. Abishek fits the role like a T. More about him/his role later. (But Devgun would have brooded and gave the role an altogether different look and intensity!!) Also as you might know, Kads was to do Maya’s role. She was busy with Fanah and didnt have dates. After the nonsense Fanah, was wondering if she missed much by missing KANK. Again, no worries as such. For a minute, though, I felt, the chemistry (so called chemistry) and the indecisiveness in Maya’s character would have been taken to an altogether different dimension, had it been Kajol, but overall Zooni was a better character than Maya (for Kads and her fans - would not have liked to see her weep so much anyways as Rani does in KANK!! But one thing she might have missed is to wear the choiciest of beautiful costumes that Rani gets to wear in Kank ). Did not like her pinkkkkkkkkkkkkkk saree in special appearance though - was Manish Malhotra drunk ?

3) Liked the way Priety’s and Abhishek’s characters are etched. Complete level headedness, feelings not surreal etc. And the way both did it (even though you feel it was easy) was just right. Abishek & Rani acted/emoted/looked just right. Full brownie points from me for them. And of course to BigB’s charisma and screen presence. Even though Rishi’s and Rhea’s characters were so perfect wonder why director’s soft-corner or compassion was always towards others - oh, thats how you can make a 3 hr movie!

4) Loved the shot when both the gorgeous ladies walk in one frame. Just lovely. Just super.

5) During one scene I ROFLing…when Maya comes home in a bizzare dress.

6) Had wished the movie ended after they separate. But then, that can not be bollywood/KJ’s movie. On another thought, it would have been cool if Rishi and Rhea got together -uff that should surprise even KJ !!

7) Liked some of the dialogues. Some of them actually surprised me.

And then, there are typical junk stuff in the story. Like the first scene b/n Dev and Maya was as if the characters knew how the rest of the 3 hours would be. Through out all readiness without base/build up. Confused characters. Stretched plot. Filmy stuff. Co-incidences. Irritating scenes. Unconvincing-ness. Logicless Etc etc.

Definitely is not the best movie of the year and no hopes for award nominations too. And also not the best of KJ too. But a good choice of plot though. And again, it could have been handled in much mature way as well. But then, given it was KJ, overboard, artificial, filmy, lack of reason, unconvincing will be it.

Chalo…now time for some review hopping.

Let me know your views/comments.

Update:
Addendum: Just loved the way Rishi and Rhea get on with their lives after the break up. Even when they come to know they were cheated, they handle it in the best way possible - Rhea one slap and asks him to get out. Rishi, poor fellow who loves his wife so much, does not even hurt her. Just breaks few furniture and asks her to leave. Perfect ! Heck they are not even angry on the third person who broke their marriage. Have rarely seen such clear thoughts. And even after the breakup, they move on just fine. No rona dhona, no fuss and again clear with what they want (Rhea needs time, Rishi finds another mate).
And by the way, I found out how the movie could have been made logical and saved: Rishi and Rhea were to have extra marital affair! They had good reasons - Rishi had an incompatible wife in Maya, Rhea had a cripled, unsuccessful husband! And Rhea and Rishi’s outlook towards life and wavelength matched well and could have easily got attracted !!
Ok, no more time will be wasted on this, just few links of reviews:
Arun peels the movie layer by layer, just as he does to his onion ! He is doing quite fine writing, consistently at that ! Keep it up, pal.
Update:This review (edited version) now appears in Rediff . Arun Ganesh is one of the 10 winners of readers review contest on rediff. And henceforth he will be a part of Rediff Movie Critics’ group. Hurray!

Rediff Exhausting film.
TOI(Nikhat Kazmi) did a better job too.

I watched this play written by Girish Karnad, staged by the team Benaka, directed by B V Karantha. Though this is a popular play, luckily I had no clue about the story.

Story (Warning: Only spoilers!)
Before the main story, the “Bhagavataru” (Bhagavataru is usually present in Yakshagana and the one who sings in background, the one who narrates some part of story. This play too had some shades of Yakshagana.) explains the unusualities in Ganesha’s body - elephant’s head, broken ivory etc. Then enters a horse faced person(”hayavadana”) who has a different story behind that abnormality. But since this character is present as a humorous side-kick lets go to the main story.

Two friends Devadutta and Kapila are distinctly different from each other - in terms of knowledge (Devadutta is a knowledged poet and other has knowledge only due to his association Devadutta, Kapila is energetic, active, has a well-toned body and full of life. The story starts when Devadutta is mesmerized by the beauty of Padmini and he confesses that to his pal. Fixation-struck Devadutta even takes an oath that he would even give his hands to Goddess Kali and his head to “Lord Rudra”. Passion of this degree drives his friend Kapila to find out this girl for Devadutta. Kapila meets her and gives the identity of his friend and conveys his friend’s wish to be married to her and she agrees. After meeting her, Kapila too is floored and impressed by her beauty and child-like behaviour, and for a fraction of second thinks that he is better suited to her than Devadutta. Nevertheless Devadutta and Padmini marry but as the time grows, Devadutta observes that Padmini is more fond of the qualities of Kapila than his and this causes discomfort to him. He is not actually jealous of Kapila but starts disliking himself. But Kapila is a honest person and has no hidden intentions. On one journey to Ujjayini, Devadutta gets too jealous and uncomfortable with the behaviour of Padmini with Kapila, and gets himself away from them and visits nearby Kali temple.

Now he is reminded of his oath and decides to behead himself. Kapila goes to find his missing friend and on finding the dead body in the temple is too shocked at the incident and blames himself for this and decides to behead himself. Pregnant Padmini goes in search of her companions and is unable to hold back the grief at the sight of two dead bodies. Driven into the valley of emotions, she too tries to kill herself, but Goddess Kali appears at this point. On hearing the woes, she decides to grant life to these two people. Padmini joins the heads back to their bodies and Kali incarnates life in them.

And here is the twist. In a hurry, Padmini has mismatched the heads to thier bodies. Though they dance happily on getting a re-birth and on changed body-heads, the problem arises when they have to decide who is Devadutta now, or importantly who is now Padmini’s husband. Head vs body debate happens and both claim themselves to be her rightful husband. When debate goes out of their hands, they approach a scholar, who rules in favour of the one who has now Devadutta’s head (Kapila’s body) citing the reason that head is the greatest organ. This disappoints Kapila(with Kapila’s head) and he escapes into forest. Padmini and Devadutta now lead a life with their kid. Body sometimes wins over the mind for example when Devadutta’s body makes him fight in a game of wrestling(mallayuddha!). Also we are told later that Kapila too wrote some poems. Slowly, as Devadutta has other scholarly things to do than to tone his body (which was Kapila’s), he finds it deteriorate and he can not sustain like earlier. Meanwhile, Kapila has now conditioned his body through rigorous activities and work. Also as the time passes, Padmini again starts remembering Kapila and even visits him with her kid.

Devadutta is angry and comes to Kapila and they remember their past lives. They recall the effect of exchange of head and body.

And then they decide to fight and kill each other.(This time I can’t make a mention of the bigamy option as I said in my previous post! Because that option was thought for a second but they dismiss it!) Irony is that the same hands cut the same heads again. Too much to handle, Padmini decides to go Sati (burns herself with both their dead bodies).

As usual, knowing the story and watching a drama is very different. The beauty of drama lies in its performance and stageplay. The use of dolls for narration and as fillers, singing and music by the group, the comedy in the role of Goddess Kali, sidekick in hayavadana and light humour thrown at many places, musically and linguistically rich songs and dialogues were the highlights. T S Nagabharana as Bhagavataru was good. He along with singing, played harmonium and beat some tabala too! Mico Manju as Kapila and Vidya Venkataram as Padmini were good. Poornachandra Tejaswi as Devadutta was very good.

If my mother got to speak to actress Tara, my brother enquired a German who had come to watch. I am curious if he really understood and was thinking how I could have explained him the nuances and nicety of the drama. Which is why I tried detailing the story above, to see how much can I convey via words.

Q: Why do you think almost all the people, even more people than required, are made to wear white almost all the time. Even during celebration ?
A: Tide is one of the sponsors.

Huh…Next time before watching, I must take care to see who are its sponsors apart from who is director/actor etc. And my choice of sponsors is Asian Paints.

What was it all about anyways…it was three stories clubbed into one. First one is about comedy. So called comedy which even though tries in all honesty just can not repeat the magic. Hera pheri I am talking about. Second one…uff I forgot. Well I guess it was romance. Third half (thats wrong..there can’t be 3 halves..but who cares..this half was uninteresting than first two halves) was about football. Football ? Yes, owing to world cup fever, Kareena and oher white damsel-widow (?!!?), and their respective team members and 2 refrees (Rajpal yadav and Paresh Rawal) involve in a game that involves snatching the football (another naturally white Kapoor) from the other team first and then kicking at the other team. In several other angle sagas, such character will wake up and give a lecture about its conscience, its wishes etc. Here nothing like that happens, because footballs dont have emotions. So he is plain confused. It was such a heart wrenching moment for the audience to take anyone’s part, that I firmly believe such cases can be easily solved by bigamy, there by chopping off the third half convincingly.(Infact if bigamy logic was used liberally, Bollywood’s film count will be reduced by half!) Why should anyone complain ? And then it is movie afterall which has some ludicrous logic anyways.

Whats my verdict about the movie…I shall refrain from giving verdicts. It is not a bad movie for I heard there is Phir Hera Pheri taking away the title for the bad movie of the week (or even year). Chup chup ke is a timepass one, closely to what it promised. Will not make you float in happiness and fun but will not make you regret about it. ( Regret comes if there was a better choice.)

So to compensate, 3rd impossible mission was accomplished. Before you remind me about the announced break, I must remind you that Da Vinci has not been seen yet. So there.

Can you guess my first spontaneous thought after looking at poster/promo of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna ? And that is even before I read trivia in IMDB ! But on second thoughts, I also see the name of Shibani Bhatija who wrote Fanaa too, and I am quite relieved. But there will be a cameo appearance and do I need more excuse to watch FDFS ?

By the way, the promo is here.

Before I end, read Phir’s review here.

Few hours away …
Update: First day first show is something special…no matter how the movie is..
Photography is too good. Background score & costume design closely follows. The new kid is cute. And, of course, there is Kads above all
But the final product is anything one can expect a Bollywood-YashRaj to churn out. Can’t believe Kajol believed the script was so out of the world to make it the choice to break the sabbatical…anyways, no one is complaining.
These are the first impressions…now back to work…will be back if time permits…. Subanallah…..

Update: Review

After mulling over it again and after getting over the initial reactions, my views about the film are still unchanged. It is not a superlative film and does not do any better than an average bollywood one.

After the success of the debut directorial effort, Kunal Kohli, falls flat on his face on the second one. His dialogues too were uncanny and he better save it for some experts in his next attempt.

Flaws in script are plenty and are unconvincing. Be it all-prepared-parents for a Shehzada (as if they had already seen the movie), immediatlely falling in love, a tiring second half[just after the screen flashes after 7 years I had guessed the rest of the film], a nagging “trigger”[have begun to hate the word...such a pitiable excuse?...could he not think of a stronger mission/ ideal ?], old book stylish drama, inconsistent flow, not at all impressive dialogues including bad taste supposed-to-be jokes (student biting ?? of teacher, kid choosing to make Rahul Dravid his father), meaningless characters(like wasted Tabu), the length etc etc. [There is advt of LG-Tataindicom phone but that can be noticed only by a clear observer!]

But there are few good things as well. Cinematography by Ravi K Chandran is one. Background score another. Child actor Ali Hajji is fine. I felt the pair of Aamir-Kajol was quite good(I mean to say, not much damage done as SRK fans will claim to…but yes, in one song I almost saw SRK instead of Aamir!). Aamir Khan does well in few parts (but is overshadowed by Kajol in others!). But there are two good reasons to watch the film - Kajol and Kajol.

She, in a role that was easy to make a mess of, breathes life, makes it natural and convincing. Her screen presence is to be seen to belive and easily overshadows Aamir. From a bubbly-jovial-all-happy-blind-girl to a mother-widow and unforgiving wife she carries it off with aplomb and ease. Add to that, her picture-perfect looks, colourful dresses - what more a fan can ask for.[I had just hoped she does not need to cry a lot and Kunal Kohli has oblized! First half is a treat anyways!]

After watching every recent movie of hers, I feel more and more convinced that even if I had entered the hall being a non-fan, there is no way to come out of the hall in the same state. If you dont believe me, check out every other reviews in the town! Her charm, screen presence, beauty and of course acting is mind boggling and it is a pity that she self-imposed a hiatus and that there is no news about her next movie.

After having turned down offers from her close buddies (like Karan Johar), if she had finally accepted the offer, it had to be a good and “different” script. Or so it was told. I entered with curiousity as to see what has made the script so special. But exited with disappointment.

It is getting undue attention due to controversies(1, 2 sorrounding it. It is watchable once. Or twice, if you are like me, a Kajol’s fan

[For all I know, this can become a boxoffice super grosser...for I did not have high views of KKHH or K3G either.]

Khaled reviews here and you can see that my views more and more subscribe to his rather than the sugar coated one at Rediff. But this one is quite ok!

Now let me address few media raised questions. “Can Kajol match Rani”..Of course this was keeping in mind that Rani played blind. Our Kajol’s character gets intelligent and “opens her eyes” (pun unintended) and does away with blindness just before the interval with a surgery! Competition over, ha!! Fun apart, it is highly unfair to compare two different roles. One can compare only if there is a remake. And to compare any contemporary actress with Kajol is unfair…Kajol was/is miles ahead of her closest competitor! And there has not been any role that has managed to do justice to her talent. Rani got lucky.(And that too, she would not have, if Kajol had not quit the arena…SLB had a soft corner for Kajol from beginning and he had apparantely offered Khamoshi to her and for HDDCS as he himself accepted, Kajol was his first choice.)

Another one asked “Can Kajol recreate the magic she created with DDLJ”. Huh! Where is the need to “recreate” it when we havent come out of her magic itself !! Fun apart, to recreate the magic you need a strong script, my friend. And apart from BigB who gets role written “for” him, nobody has been able to “recreate” the magic. But that too after a dark patch during which he appeared “lost”.

But Kajol is as flawless and as easy as if her previous movie was done just yesterday and not 5 years ago. Breathing life into a character that, to be fair, had not much to challenge an actress but was enough to be flawed if left unattended to.

How I wish she gets a completely author backed role written “for” her. SLB, are you listening ?

PS: Looking at previous posts, there has been mostly movie talk…which is not a good sign…I feel I should take a break from watching. Post Da Vinci, I plan to take a sabbatical

Update (Final!):
More thoughts
When I think of the title Fanaa as destroyed in love, I am immediately reminded of Gangster which was better suitable for the title.

On screen Chemistry:
Lot has been talked about SRK-Kads on screen chemistry. So I had naturally expected SRK fans to complain about no-chemistry of Aamir Khan and Kajol in Fanaa.

I personally believe that on screen chemistry is a hyped subjective concept. The great proof is totally contradicting opinions about Aamir-Kads chemistry. Yeah, certain level of comfort between the actors always show on the screen but then the best actors’ job is to make things look natural on screen. In that respect, Kads and Aamir gel completely well and co-operate finely on screen. All those who are whining about no-chemistry between this pair are either SRK fans (who are plain jealous!) or had decided that this pair lacks chemistry even before entering the hall. People see what they want to see!

Traces of other movies:
Dil se / Fiza
And sadly even this did not completely utilise the buildup!

Songs:
Though initially I was not very impressed with the songs, after seeing the movie (greatly due to picturisation) and after repeated hearing of the songs, I liked quite a few songs. Also when I realize that this is going to be the last movie for the “Jatin-Lalit” pair (though they will continue to compose separately), I feel bad to be missing them. One more trivia is that the “whistle” (in Subahnalla song) is from Nagesh Surve – can you believe that he is the only whistler for Bollywood from almost 35 years ? Including Soudagar (Ilu Ilu) to DDLJ,KKHH and what not, he has lent his sound (whistling!) to almost 1400 films!

My favorite songs in Fanaa are (except last, all on same rank) :
Destroyed in Love (Lounge Mix): This is a beautiful musical blend of Dekho Na and Mere Haath Mein. I feel this symbolizes “Jatin-Lalit” blend.
Chand Sifarish (For picturisation, whistle and Kailash Kher’s Subahnalla…)
Des Rangila (Had not liked this before watching movie ;-). Colourful and patriotic !
Mere Haath Mein : Super romantic; Mohabbatein flowers and Kads in red saree!
Chanda Chamke: Playing in snow! By the way, did anyone notice that this is a repeat song from Hum Tum - Yaara yaara (Don’t remember if it was shot in movie or not).

Scenes I liked : (In no particular order)
Antakshari – I felt this singing of Kajol and Aamir are better than they have sung in songs (which was news!)
Rose petal – Oh so sweet… feel like doing to someone
Rehan carrying her … damn sweet… ditto
When Zooni says, “now you are afraid”, the look on Aamir’s face was the best scene from Aamir and is enough evidence of his insuperable talent.
Opening scene – saluting to wrong direction
Opening scene between the lead pair –“Andhi hai kya” “Haan dikta nahin hai kya?”
One tight slap to Rehan from Zooni.
Another lovely scene from Aamir is the look on his face and the way he falls when he knocks on her door years after.

And I liked it everytime when a meaningful old song was played in the background. They were infact better than few filmy shayiris.

Box office collections:
As I predicted earlier (above) (My predictions about box office collections and award winnings have been right most of the times! though I don’t understand the logic behind both of them), it has made quite a good collection on the opening week. And it might as well become biggest grosser of the year (Not to forget the competition from “Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna”). This is the Box Office stats for first week:

Yash Raj Films’ latest offering ‘FANAA’ creates history at the box office. ‘Fanaa’ is the highest grossing film on the first weekend, in the history of Indian films. Fanaa’s magic has spread all around the world. All India collections (4 days): Rs. 22.79 crore - highest ever first 4 days collections (These figures are without the film having released in the entire state of Gujarat) First 4 days Worldwide figures:
USA: US$ 900,000
UK: £ 414,835 (US $ 788,187)
Australia: US$ 94,713 (2nd highest opening ever for an Indian film)
Total OVERSEAS Gross (4 days): US$ 2007688 (INR 9.33 crore approx.)
Total INDIA Gross (4 days): Rs. 22.79 crores

Some reviews

Collection of Media reviews - Sarah - the owner of this site is the one whom I can give away the title as No.1 Kajol fan. Her energy and her time spent is unbelievable.
NaachGaana, A very neutral and somewhat excellent review there

Khaled Mohammed
Subash Jha
Rashmi Bhansal
Megha Murthy
Sudhish Kamath
Great Bong

I read loads of reviews on internet and in the group, when I got free time last week and I must say I had observed most of the points. So I am finally somewhat convinced that I do not write bad reviews .I till now hesitated that there is special qualification required to write good reviews. May be I need to put little time and effort on presentation.

But then, some of the reviews just made me look at it in a totally different view. Wonder how something ticks someone but fails to do that on others and realize that, that is why reviews are what they are – highly subjective

Final Verdict

All said and done, as I said in comments, movie is average except for Kajol and partly Aamir, if you ask me.I repeat, Fanaa is not a bad movie (we already had Veer Zaara) but is not a great movie either. A good chance wasted. But then, as someone said, it has its moments and it might even trigger a financial and awarding success to those involved.

And to end the post and to celebrate, here are the shayiris:

Bul karke bhi humse koi bhul hui ho to,
Bhul samjkar use bhla dena,
Lekin bhulana sirf Bhul ko,
Galti se bhi Hume na Bhulana.

Humse dur jao ge kaise,
Dilse hume bhulaoge kaise,
Hum to khushbu hai jo sanso me baste hai,
khud ki sanso ko rok paonge kaise.

Baithe hai hotho ko si kar,
pachtayengi aap,
Ishq jag uthta hai akshar,
Aisi khamosi ke bad

Dard se aankhe char kar lenge,
Hum odti me imtiha de denge,
Teri dosti ke khatir Ae DOST,
Hum bhi dushman se pyar kar lenge.

Insan ki khwaish ki koi imtiha nahi,
Do guj jamin chahi ye Do guj Kafan ke baad.

Tumhari Khubsurti ne Khuda se eik khata kara di,
kahi khud se nazar na lag jaye, is liye tumhe Nazar na Di.

Tere Dil Me Meri Sanso Ko PANAH Mil Jaye,
Tere Ishq Me Meri Ja FANNA Ho Jaye.

E Khuda Aaj Ye Faisla Karde,
Use Mera ya Mujhe Uska Karde.
Bahut Dukh Sahe He Maine,
Koi Khusi Ab Toh Muqadar Karde.
Bahot Muskil Lagta Hai Usse Duur Rehna,
Judai Ke Safar Ko Kum Karde.
Jitna Duur Chale Gaye Woh Mujhse,
Use Utna Kareeb Karde.
Nahi Likha Agar Nasib Me Uska Naam,
To Khatam Kar Ye Zindagi aur Mujhe FANAA Karde.

Tere Dile mein meri saanson ko panah mil jaaye Tere Ishq mein meri Jaan Fanaa Ho jaayea.

Ankhen to pyar me dilki zuban hoti hai,
sachi chahat to sada bezuban hoti hai,
pyar mai dard bhi mile to kya gabrana,
suna hai dard se chahat aur jawan hoti hai….

Phool hun Gulaab kaa
Chameli ka mat samjhnaa
Aashiq hun aapkaa
Apni Saheli ka mat samjhnaa

Dur Humse Jaa Paoge Kaise,
Humko Bhool Paoge Kaise.
Hum Who Khushbu Jo Saanson Mein Utar Jaye, Khud Apni Saanxon Ko Rok Paoge Kaise..

Bekhudi Ki Zindagi Hum Jiya Nahi Karte,
Yun kisika ka Jaam Hum Piya Nahi Karte.
Unse Kehdo Mohabbat Ka Izhaar Aakar Khud Karein,
Yun Kisika Peecha Hum Nahin Karte

Rone de tu aaj hamako tu aankhe sujane de
Baho me lele aur khud ko bheeg jane de
Hai jo seene me quaid dariya wo chut jayega
Hai itana dard ki tera daman bheeg jayega.

tere dil mein meri saanson ko jagah mil jaaye
tere ishq mein meri jaan fanaa ho jaaye
adhoori saans thi dhadkan adhoori thi adhooren ham
magar ab chaand poora hain falak pe aur ab pooren hain ham

Well…its been much time since I finished reading Shantaram and this is just an effort to organise the thoughts I had written that time. There will be lot of discontinuity (proper bulleting should be imagined) and lack of flow (which has become common with any thing I do these days). Lot of spoilers and also might not make sense if you have not read the novel.

When I read Shantaram, I had thought it was all real-story (word to word) as the cover page claims, but it was much later did I come to know that it was a dramatisation of the real events. It means that the characters were real, the events were more real but there was lot of decoration as well. Nothing wrong with it, infact is very necessary and is completely given as “creative freedom” of a writer but my not knowing it meant that I did not consider the things “with a pinch of salt”.

So here goes sequentially the thoughts as I procedeed reading. Arranging this formally was a monstrous task and which explains the delay. Even if you don’t read first 2 parts, do read the third one. That is the one written after the finishing of the novel and makes more sense than the others and is kind of total summary.
****************************************************************************
Continue reading ‘Shantaram’ »

Wont say much about the movie, but let me bet Kangana Ranaut(19 yrs) is gonna win all the debutant awards this year. It was very much author backed role alright, but she is the one who makes it look the character real. She looks/dresses pretty, acts easily, screams till you go crazy and her voice is somewhat drunken, somewhat sleepy, somewhat painful and contributes very well to the character.

Camerawork is fine in many parts - the colorful nature background, the breathtaking terrace, the scene in the rain etc. Gripping and refreshing.
And of course there is one more plus point in the movie and that is super music from Pritam. Am hooked to two songs and was enjoying all the songs(except the weeping song-was that a pun??) during the movie. The songs not all necessary,but what the heck, we forget movies but songs will have more life. For that reason, no complaints about the songs. Shiney did not have much breadth but had good intensity. Emran does underplay his character well. Both have done a wonderful job. Very little was shown to justify the ‘gangster’ status. Just love the way Daya goes and beats up Akash.

I do not think I can straight away praise this one as rediff does. I felt the story was very much predictable. And relate to what Khaled (oh yes, found him back !) says here, but I shall not write it off as he does. People often confuse story with story-telling and this again is an example where the former is weak but the latter is very refreshing and strong(so what, if it was slow). The sheer complexities to characters and especially that of Simran is what makes it different.

Rating too - not a great one but worth a dekho once.
Or twice - for Kangana and her voice and her mannerisms.

After a short hiatus, its time to update. There has been no dearth of topic to write all this while, but just could not manage to update. Infact it has almost become a habit to keep piling the toblog list for a while and then either summarise or to just leave it.

My Autograph:

After a shaky start, the narration just gets poetic. With its slow but relevant proceedings it keeps getting better.

It rocks. For 2 hard hitting reasons. One a story could not have got more real. Second the authentic performances (it may not be an overstatement to say I could feel the characters breathe).

Having heard about the Tamil version, I had confidence to take the family with me to watch this in Kannada directed by the actor himself, Sudeep. This is his second direction and sadly both are remakes. And he joins the group of other director-heroes in Kannada Cinema, which has no shortage for them - Ravichandran, Ramesh, Upendra(though he is a director turned actor unlike others). Anyways considering there are enough chances to spoil a remake too[Telugu remake didn't do well at boxoffice], he has done a good job.

But the strong point about the film is the solid script which when just narrated is enough to captivate you. The movie has come out as a visual poem with almost no rough edges[except perhaps the shaky start]. And a strong intuition tells me that this story is real, if not director’s someone else’s

It starts with an intention of the guy to invite all his old friends for his marriage. The nostalgic memories of high school is the first phase ended when he invites his school friend-hearthrob, now a poor jaded lady.

Second phase is set in the scenic Kerala, where he had to relocate. A crush in college and it turns intimate, but before it could turn into a relation, he has to move away.
And this has deteriorating effects on his mind, body and his relations with his family.
Third phase is a mature friendship with a lady who supports him, encourages him to find his identity and much more (like shows right direction to him when he is confused).

And all of them , along with other pals, teacher attend his marriage - which is, with sufficient hints let me conclude that it is, an arranged one !

And if that is not real, what is ?

This is just a skeleton and main story. But cinema adds flesh, blood and soul. And colour, pain and joy. The acting, picturisation and songs blend well.
One sentiment keeps making its presence at regular intervals and thats what makes it special - and NO, its not Love. It is empathy. You empathise with hero, his parents, his heroines and almost everyone. And if you are me, you will empathise with Madhava’s character too!(both initially and later).

The choice of actors for the characters is very apt. I liked those juniour artistes - the boy had just perfect amount of mischief and curiousity in his eyes. Performances were also touchy with Sudeep handling the double mantle(director-actor) easily. His acting has matured a lot now and he does not go overboard in the performance which had so many such oppurtunities, instead he made it look very natural. Three cheers to three girls ;-)[Meena,Sridevika,Deepu]. The supporting cast [Srinivas Murthy, Rashmi Kulkarni, Yathiraj, Hirish, Laxminarayan, Vishwanath] too looked fine.

Some cribs: 1. There should be a better (Kannada) title possible.
2. Audience were taken granted to follow Malayalam. Though it sounded like Kannada, it was logical and though important part was later translated, either a subtitle or a background narration should not have been difficult or caused problem.

Half a dozen or more stories running parallely, though looks puzzling in the beginning, converge during the later stages. It is all about the absense of compassion, fear, oppression, exploition, corruption, the vulnerabilities, color descrimination and prejudices. It took some time before I could clearly understand or before it sink in me. In approx 90 minutes, the audience is taken over a ride of emotions varying from - pity, anger, shock, fun. At the end one leaves the hall feeling for everyone but not taking the side of anyone - that is exactly what script writer/director too has done - in a neutral view a slice of life is shown of people who are under fire one moment and holding the trigger, another moment.

My three favorite scenes are - a mother scolding her good and correct son while taking the side of an evil son. This emphasizes there is a different world in everyone’s eyes. Another scene, that of a angry-bored lady who says “I am not feeling well today and it is NOT because of car being stolen, I wake up like this everyday” (not very accurate…reproducing from memory). This shows how important is it to compose ourself and that our own mindset is very critical in what we percieve about others. Third one is where a father inculcates strength in his daughter by tieing an invisible thread.

This movie is again a writer’s favorite for there can be written pages about the behaviour, about why, what, how of it , and more - like the politics, the situation forced action vs reaction against action, the history, the facts so on and so forth.

I really wished I could write further but, since I browsed through the internet, I fear my thoughts now are not very original. I conclude by saying , this slow-poison-movie deserved the Oscar honours.

Being Cyrus:

An art film that has tried to be commercial with the help of starcast and promotion, this one does not disappoint. A different one, as everyone would opine, has its highlight in good performances and yeah, a different plot.

Paramasiva:
Whenever I see a bad one, I keep consoling myself to remind me that, bad ones make us realise the goodness in average ones. Along with that this also gave me a good insight on why Tamil filmdom produces so successful films - because audience will be happy for anything. This movie, if made in Kannada would not run 2 shows in B grade halls in Karnataka, in Tamil runs almost full house after 25 days and receives whistles and claps !

Zathura:
A kiddish adventure-turned-comedy movie. Oh! the comedy was due to an inquisitive and curious backseat kid’s never ending continuous questions. But alas, the post interval was not so fun because the kid changed his seat and moved away.

Another popcorn offering. Why popcorn ?
Here is gyan:
Popcorn is
1) Light weight
2) Not very nutrious
3) Taste is temporary
4) Over priced
5) Well marketed and has a clear target audience in mind.
6) Good profit margin

Film:
1) There is no underlying strong story or theme.
2) There is no requirement of a technically rich content. - songs/lyrics/cinematography nothing.
3) Not many things from the film linger in the mind once we are out of hall
4) Definitely not worth the money to see in a hall.
5) Rap song or otherwise good marketing and well targeted to so called multiplex crowd.
6) Easily make profit with only intial run.

Previous recent such films very Bunty-bubli and Bluffmaster (yeah..Sippy there too).
These are also trying to fill the void left by David Dhawan’s weekly releases. But a good point is that they are not trying to be overtly hilarious but succeed to tickle the funny bone here or there. Main characteristic is the simple connecting events not carrying much intensity themselves.
When you sit down to review such a film or even to tell a neighbour about the film you are struggling for words. There is no particular story to tell, nothing to highlight. On one spectrum is a film like Yuva or RDB and on the other side of spectrum are these, which just come and go and add to the number. But for the 3 hours it might just be able to relax someone. Be able to make someone try to laugh. On asked your opinion about it, you are still thinking - liking such a film depends higly on personal taste [I don't like popcorn either]. I neither dismiss them nor recommend them, but just add that going to a theater is not worth the time money and effort.

Before signing off, one sentence about Nana. Nana is back in the skin of a semi-mental good hearted, helpless etc etc character. How I wish he does more of Apaharan stuff.