THE GREY IN LIFE !
While we were all too busy, enjoying the four letter words of Delhi Belly and admiring the return of the angry old ( oops........young)man in Budha Hoga Tera Baap,a lovely art movie from parallel cinema, I Am came and went, unsung, unheard and may be unseen ,like so many other good art films. Like Seven Feathers, I Am too is a collection of four independent stories where the director has touched four burning socio-legal issues which really don’t have a right or wrong answer and are far beyond the Black and White shades of life, but their cause, effects, implications and solutions ,all are grey. The movie has beautifully touched the various aspects of four very pertinent contemporary issues ,Single mother, Jammu and Kashmir issue, Paedophilia and homosexuality.
The first story is of a young Bengali couple, where the wife, played superbly by Nandita Das, is very keen for a child while the husband keeps avoiding the issue till one day the wife discovers that he not only has an extra marital affair but was also going to have a baby out of bedlock. She walks out of the marriage and decides to have a baby ,out of artificial insemination and be a single mother. But she is keen to meet the donor. In medical practice it is ethically not permitted to disclose the identity of the sperm donor but she forces the doctor, as she rightfully felt ,that she should meet the biological father of her child. She even extends the offer to the boy, a medical student who is a regular sperm donor, to feel free later to come and meet the child. Momentarily she reconsiders her decision of being a single mother, but decides to go ahead but she drops the address and number of the donor, so that she may not be able to contact him in future.
The second story is of a Kashmiri pandit girl, played by Juhi Chawla who has been forced to leave her home along with her family and settle in Delhi. After her father’s death and the death of her uncle in Srinagar ,by terrorists, she is going back to sell her ancestral property to an old muslim family, who have been the caretakers. Trying to forget her past, she insists on talking in English or hindi and refusing even to understand Kashmiri .She meets the daughter of the muslim family ,played by Manisha Koirala who is her childhood close friend. Their son ,who is a reformed terrorist, is also there, leading a life of a paralytic and still under close vigil of the security forces. She meets their old grocery shopkeeper, to buy dry-fruits and while comfortably talking to him, suddenly realizes that his son had killed her uncle. She visits her old house with her friend, and walks down memory lane alone, her childhood, the attacks and then the escape in the middle of the night. She is stunned to see the restrictions and loss of privacy of the locals in Srinagar and ends with an emotional heated argument with her friend on the their decisions and those of the two families in life, in the prevailing circumstances.
The third story is of a gay Film director of Bollywood who is accused by his so called girlfriends for using his position to seduce the struggling boys on the casting couch He opens up to one of the girls and tells his story where he was regularly sexually abused from childhood by his step father and how he soon learnt to emotionally(or sexually) blackmail the paedophile, to fulfil all his desires and soon started liking the whole thing. His plight is touchingly summed in one line, when he says, I was a slut at thirteen ! He grows to become a gay and the day he felt he could be on his own he left home and came to Mumbai. He never went home again till he got frantic messages from his mother that the step father wanted to meet him before dying. He reaches after his death and tells the truth to his mother leaving her inconsolable, even though she refused to accept it as truth. I personally feel that if he had kept quiet all these years, he should have kept quiet now too, but probably he felt that his mother knew it all the time and was behaving blind. He was so hurt and considered the mother equally to be blamed, hence he did this, so that she too could feel the pain in the last years of her life.
The fourth is the story of homosexuals in metros .A well placed highly qualified gay, played by Rahul Bose, visits his old haunts and is seduced by a youngster. They go for a ride from the pick up joint, after dinner, and since they didn’t have a place to go they decide to park the car in a shady area and make it in the car. The director has been bold enough not only to depict gay sex vividly but added a hot long smooch too. A Policeman catches them and treats them as the hijras and gays are treated by them in the beaches n streets at night. The policeman not only abuses, beats and threatens them, he extracts all their belongings and money(almost all coming from Rahul Bose) and demands for more cash to hush up the issue. While the boy goes to withdraw money from Rahul’s ATM ,the policeman forces Rahul to oblige him with sexual favours. The boy tries to help Rahul, to prevent his status and agrees to surrender, while Rahul is let free. Quite sometime later, Rahul sees that boy again, seducing a man, and he confronts him ,telling him how bad he had done cheating him that night. On the earlier fateful night, Rahul, after being let free ,didn’t go home, but used his contacts to get a good lawyer and went to the police station to get that boy released, to find ,to his utter dismay that both the boy and the policeman were missing and then it dawns to him that they were in connivance. Rahul admonishes the boy for what he is doing, with any doubtful impact.
In a short duration, the movie has dealt with four major issues ,all of which have a great social and legal consequences but above all play a major role in the development of a person’s psyche. The storyline is strong and the screenplay realistic. The director has artfully used hinglish and the authentic language and dialect, including Bengali ,Marathi and Kashmiri and the dialogues are impactful. There is liberal use of four letter words, especially in the last story which is replete with hindi and Marathi abuses and vulgar language. The background music is soothing and the two songs have very meaningful lyrics. Not only the seasoned actors like Juhi Chawla ,Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, Rahul Bose and Suri, did wonderful acting ,but even the other actors in minor roles did justice. The flow of the movie was spontaneous and deplete of any monotony and though it had four entirely different stories, they were beautifully merged with no abruptness at any moment. The editing was good and direction, flawless.
Besides subtly touching the increasing prevalence of extra marital affairs and infidelity, the first story highlights the trend of single mothers. In these times of woman lib and empowerment will men be redundant and unwanted soon? Shouldn’t a lady have the right to meet the person who is the donor for her insemination?? This may have an emotional connotation but has great legal implications. What if the gynaecologist does a poor job in matching the physical characteristics of the donor??? Isn’t it advisable never to be able to contact the donor and vice versa, to avoid any chances of attachments ????
The second story has nothing to do with the political aspect of the over two decades old J&K issue. It touches it emotionally. Who is to be blamed for keeping the issue alive at the grass root level ? who has suffered more, the Pundits or the Muslims??Who is better off, those who stayed back or whose who fled???Was it the correct decision to leave your home and business back and become refugees in a new city???? Shouldn’t a reformed terrorist and his family be left alone????? What is being done for the rehabilitation of those who fled and for the terrorists or those who lost their family members ?????? What is being done or rather why something is not being done to bring normalcy to the lives of those who are living in J&K??????
The issues raised and highlighted in the third story are the most important. Isn’t sexual child abuse usually by family members? How to protect children from paedophiles?? Can no one in and around the house be above suspicion other than biological parents(though at times fathers have been culprits)??? How to choose the right man for a second marriage to safeguard kids and property???? When and whom should a child reach out for help and what should he or she should do to prove the truth????? How can they be helped, specially counselling?????? How to prevent the child from developing emotional instability and altered sexuality ???????
The last story has once again expressed the plight of the gay community and their fears and dangers and how they are exploited by society, guardians of law and even by gays themselves. Are the gays to be blamed for what they are? Can they be rehabilitated, or rather do they need it?? Can making laws help them ??? Where should they find their partners ???? Can their sexual urge be curbed by treatment or counselling ?????
Should gays be so indiscriminate in choosing partner, time and place for sex?????? Is it justified to exploit and blackmail them ??????? what can be done to encourage them from coming out from their closet and to provide them social acceptance, which may solve most of the issues ????????
I Am is a superb movie which highlights the helplessness of individuals and society in various circumstances where one cannot really decide how to act or react and weather to accept the decisions of destiny or to fight them. The movie has depicted life as it is and its strongest point was the fact that it was non judgemental, it presented the stories in a matter of fact manner, expressing the inability to judge the characters for right or wrong ,as it is the case in life ,where things are often neither white nor black, but just the various hues of grey !As the very name implies, the bottom-line of the movie is that everyone should accept him or herself as they are and carry on with life !!
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Delhi
Friday, July 29, 2011
ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA
Males Bond !!
After a row of nonsensical movies, it was a real respites and a great delight watching ZNMD !
Hindi cinema has come a long way from the time when a simple love story or a love triangle was presented in four hours ending with marriage or death of the second hero, to a time where the stress is not on the story, but on life, emotion and above all inter and intrapersonal relationships. The stories today in good movies are real, which raise questions in one’s mind and give answers to many queries of one’s life. ZNMD is another such movie revolving around the lives of three friends .Based on similar lines of that of Dil chahta hai & Three idiots, somewhere this, seemed to touch the heart more.
The movie is about three friends, Imran, Arjun & Kabir played superbly by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan & Abhay Deol respectively. The three, as it often happens in real life are entirely different in nature and outlook to life, but are bound with a friendship band. Imran is a simple man from a middle class family, with a carefree attitude towards life, which masks the pathos within him, after he came to know that he was a child out of bedlock ,and the man with whom he grew up, was not his biological father. Imran has a great desire to meet his real father once, even against the wishes of his mother, enacted by Deepti Nawal. Scared of heights, his style was his simple casualness and lively wittiness laced with outrageous pranks. Hrithik is an upwardly mobile, over ambitious man, a money broker, whose only aim in life is to become rich and is in great hurry to become rich at forty, when he can pack up and take retirement and enjoy life. He is well dressed man, prim and proper, with a good taste and a enviable wardrobe and good collections of accessories. Scared of water and considering fun as waste of life, he has a serious attitude towards life and rarely lets his hair down. He thinks, talks, sleeps and lives work and money, to the extent that he has had a chain of breakups due to his obsession for work and indifference to his personal or love life. Kabir is a rich builders son and a simple man with his head on his shoulders. No style ,is his style and his simplicity in spite of being rich is his plus point. He is compassionate and loves travelling and considerate about feelings of all around him.
The story revolves around a vacation on which the three go, as part of the bachelors party of Kabir who is recently engaged under confusion to his father’s business partners daughter. He brings a ring for his mother on her birthday, and during the party when the two families were together, he shows it to the girl who mistakes it as a proposal and their engagement is declared in the party. Though he was really not willing for the relationship, the gentleman that he was, he couldn’t say no and went ahead preparing for the marriage. He wants the three friends to be together before they enter their married lives ,and hence plans a holiday and with a great difficulty convinces the other two to join and to be together after four years .Kabir was not only busy but wanted to avoid meeting Imran, because of a misunderstanding created by Kabirs ex girlfriend, who was double timing the two of them. They spend some wonderful time, reliving the days when they were young and experimented all, from deep sea diving, gliding, pubs,geting drunk, rides, site seeing, playing pranks and enjoying life to the fullest. They spent these days as if kal ho na ho, freaking out in the crazy tomato festival and daring the bull game of Spain
The holiday proved more than just a break and changed the lives of all three. Imran, tracks and meets his biological father ,played by Nasiruddin Shah, and was crestfallen to know that he ,had no remorse and repentance of what happened, and he had not only had no guilt leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend to fend for herself just because he wanted to be free and to pursue his passions of life, but had never had the desire to met his son, though he knew about his existence. Arjun meets Laila, played by Katrina, who is their diving instructor. He is mesmerised by her beauty, charm and warmth and finds his ladylove in her. Kabirs fiancé behaves like a typical woman, suspicious of what the three were doing alone and actually lands up there to confirm that he is not flirting with Laila. Her plans for the future scare kabir who realizes that neither he is ready for losing his independence in marriage and nor does he love her, and finally breaks his engagement.
All have acted to their best with great exhibition of histrionics. Farhan Akhtar appears a veteran and depicts the complex contrast of casualness and seriousness of his character realistically. His spontaneity is admirable and effortless and the expression of emotions heart touching. Javeds poetry narrated by him moves the soul and forms the essence of the movie. Hrithik is par excellence as always as a meticulously and tastefully dressed live sculpture. Not only the beautifully choreographed dance movements but every action of his body was better than the best of ballets. His husky voice, depth in the eyes and expressions on the face beautifully portray the loneliness within him and the need for love. Abhay Deol is the moderator in the gang and has exhibited the maturity naturally and acted well, as in all his movies. This was probably the best role for Kathrina, ever and tailor-made just for her. She has not only done great justice to the character but has brought glamour to the man dominated story. Kalika, as Kabirs fiancé has suited well, and proved that the Indian audience is willing to accept unconventional faces on screen. Deepti Naval and Nassirudin Shah ,even in their small roles have left great impact.
The movie was a virtual trip to Spain, the virgin locale that has been unexplored by Bollywood till now. The outdoor locations are beautiful and picturesque and the culture of Spain inviting. The pubs, tap dance, tomato festival and the Bull game are all entertaining. The gliding and the deep sea diving adds to the glamour. The underwater scenes are pleasantly colourful but let out the secret of being artificial studio creations, evident due to the uneven distribution of the fish on the screen. The storyline is strong, the dialogues natural and the screenplay smooth, The pace, though a little slow at places, maintained the intensity of the creation. The lyrics were poetic and music melodious and the background score enchanting. Cinematography was best possible and editing fabulous. Zoya Akhtars direction added the professional touch to the movie and proved that talent runs in genes. The movie belongs to the three Akhtars, Javed, Joya and Farhaan!
Outside the wonderful story, the movie leaves a message from each one’s life. Imran learns that many truths in life are better not known, Arjun realizes that life cannot be run by the clock and in immaculate discipline and there is more to life than, work, career and money and it is not possible to survive without love while Kabir experiences that decisions regarding matters of love and marriage cannot be taken in an impulse or under pressure. But the most important message of ZNMD is the glorification of male bonding, which is not only everlasting, but is above all pretensions of life and beyond petty or even major differences. The movie has elevated friendship to its well deserved supreme status in all relationships, where it has no restrictions and limitations and is at times even beyond those with parents, girlfriends and spouses .The movie should actually have been released, two weeks later on Friendship day as it has immortalised friendship on celluloid !
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Lucknow
After a row of nonsensical movies, it was a real respites and a great delight watching ZNMD !
Hindi cinema has come a long way from the time when a simple love story or a love triangle was presented in four hours ending with marriage or death of the second hero, to a time where the stress is not on the story, but on life, emotion and above all inter and intrapersonal relationships. The stories today in good movies are real, which raise questions in one’s mind and give answers to many queries of one’s life. ZNMD is another such movie revolving around the lives of three friends .Based on similar lines of that of Dil chahta hai & Three idiots, somewhere this, seemed to touch the heart more.
The movie is about three friends, Imran, Arjun & Kabir played superbly by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan & Abhay Deol respectively. The three, as it often happens in real life are entirely different in nature and outlook to life, but are bound with a friendship band. Imran is a simple man from a middle class family, with a carefree attitude towards life, which masks the pathos within him, after he came to know that he was a child out of bedlock ,and the man with whom he grew up, was not his biological father. Imran has a great desire to meet his real father once, even against the wishes of his mother, enacted by Deepti Nawal. Scared of heights, his style was his simple casualness and lively wittiness laced with outrageous pranks. Hrithik is an upwardly mobile, over ambitious man, a money broker, whose only aim in life is to become rich and is in great hurry to become rich at forty, when he can pack up and take retirement and enjoy life. He is well dressed man, prim and proper, with a good taste and a enviable wardrobe and good collections of accessories. Scared of water and considering fun as waste of life, he has a serious attitude towards life and rarely lets his hair down. He thinks, talks, sleeps and lives work and money, to the extent that he has had a chain of breakups due to his obsession for work and indifference to his personal or love life. Kabir is a rich builders son and a simple man with his head on his shoulders. No style ,is his style and his simplicity in spite of being rich is his plus point. He is compassionate and loves travelling and considerate about feelings of all around him.
The story revolves around a vacation on which the three go, as part of the bachelors party of Kabir who is recently engaged under confusion to his father’s business partners daughter. He brings a ring for his mother on her birthday, and during the party when the two families were together, he shows it to the girl who mistakes it as a proposal and their engagement is declared in the party. Though he was really not willing for the relationship, the gentleman that he was, he couldn’t say no and went ahead preparing for the marriage. He wants the three friends to be together before they enter their married lives ,and hence plans a holiday and with a great difficulty convinces the other two to join and to be together after four years .Kabir was not only busy but wanted to avoid meeting Imran, because of a misunderstanding created by Kabirs ex girlfriend, who was double timing the two of them. They spend some wonderful time, reliving the days when they were young and experimented all, from deep sea diving, gliding, pubs,geting drunk, rides, site seeing, playing pranks and enjoying life to the fullest. They spent these days as if kal ho na ho, freaking out in the crazy tomato festival and daring the bull game of Spain
The holiday proved more than just a break and changed the lives of all three. Imran, tracks and meets his biological father ,played by Nasiruddin Shah, and was crestfallen to know that he ,had no remorse and repentance of what happened, and he had not only had no guilt leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend to fend for herself just because he wanted to be free and to pursue his passions of life, but had never had the desire to met his son, though he knew about his existence. Arjun meets Laila, played by Katrina, who is their diving instructor. He is mesmerised by her beauty, charm and warmth and finds his ladylove in her. Kabirs fiancé behaves like a typical woman, suspicious of what the three were doing alone and actually lands up there to confirm that he is not flirting with Laila. Her plans for the future scare kabir who realizes that neither he is ready for losing his independence in marriage and nor does he love her, and finally breaks his engagement.
All have acted to their best with great exhibition of histrionics. Farhan Akhtar appears a veteran and depicts the complex contrast of casualness and seriousness of his character realistically. His spontaneity is admirable and effortless and the expression of emotions heart touching. Javeds poetry narrated by him moves the soul and forms the essence of the movie. Hrithik is par excellence as always as a meticulously and tastefully dressed live sculpture. Not only the beautifully choreographed dance movements but every action of his body was better than the best of ballets. His husky voice, depth in the eyes and expressions on the face beautifully portray the loneliness within him and the need for love. Abhay Deol is the moderator in the gang and has exhibited the maturity naturally and acted well, as in all his movies. This was probably the best role for Kathrina, ever and tailor-made just for her. She has not only done great justice to the character but has brought glamour to the man dominated story. Kalika, as Kabirs fiancé has suited well, and proved that the Indian audience is willing to accept unconventional faces on screen. Deepti Naval and Nassirudin Shah ,even in their small roles have left great impact.
The movie was a virtual trip to Spain, the virgin locale that has been unexplored by Bollywood till now. The outdoor locations are beautiful and picturesque and the culture of Spain inviting. The pubs, tap dance, tomato festival and the Bull game are all entertaining. The gliding and the deep sea diving adds to the glamour. The underwater scenes are pleasantly colourful but let out the secret of being artificial studio creations, evident due to the uneven distribution of the fish on the screen. The storyline is strong, the dialogues natural and the screenplay smooth, The pace, though a little slow at places, maintained the intensity of the creation. The lyrics were poetic and music melodious and the background score enchanting. Cinematography was best possible and editing fabulous. Zoya Akhtars direction added the professional touch to the movie and proved that talent runs in genes. The movie belongs to the three Akhtars, Javed, Joya and Farhaan!
Outside the wonderful story, the movie leaves a message from each one’s life. Imran learns that many truths in life are better not known, Arjun realizes that life cannot be run by the clock and in immaculate discipline and there is more to life than, work, career and money and it is not possible to survive without love while Kabir experiences that decisions regarding matters of love and marriage cannot be taken in an impulse or under pressure. But the most important message of ZNMD is the glorification of male bonding, which is not only everlasting, but is above all pretensions of life and beyond petty or even major differences. The movie has elevated friendship to its well deserved supreme status in all relationships, where it has no restrictions and limitations and is at times even beyond those with parents, girlfriends and spouses .The movie should actually have been released, two weeks later on Friendship day as it has immortalised friendship on celluloid !
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Lucknow
ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA
Males Bond !!
After a row of nonsensical movies, it was a real respites and a great delight watching ZNMD !
Hindi cinema has come a long way from the time when a simple love story or a love triangle was presented in four hours ending with marriage or death of the second hero, to a time where the stress is not on the story, but on life, emotion and above all inter and intrapersonal relationships. The stories today in good movies are real, which raise questions in one’s mind and give answers to many queries of one’s life. ZNMD is another such movie revolving around the lives of three friends .Based on similar lines of that of Dil chahta hai & Three idiots, somewhere this, seemed to touch the heart more.
The movie is about three friends, Imran, Arjun & Kabir played superbly by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan & Abhay Deol respectively. The three, as it often happens in real life are entirely different in nature and outlook to life, but are bound with a friendship band. Imran is a simple man from a middle class family, with a carefree attitude towards life, which masks the pathos within him, after he came to know that he was a child out of bedlock ,and the man with whom he grew up, was not his biological father. Imran has a great desire to meet his real father once, even against the wishes of his mother, enacted by Deepti Nawal. Scared of heights, his style was his simple casualness and lively wittiness laced with outrageous pranks. Hrithik is an upwardly mobile, over ambitious man, a money broker, whose only aim in life is to become rich and is in great hurry to become rich at forty, when he can pack up and take retirement and enjoy life. He is well dressed man, prim and proper, with a good taste and a enviable wardrobe and good collections of accessories. Scared of water and considering fun as waste of life, he has a serious attitude towards life and rarely lets his hair down. He thinks, talks, sleeps and lives work and money, to the extent that he has had a chain of breakups due to his obsession for work and indifference to his personal or love life. Kabir is a rich builders son and a simple man with his head on his shoulders. No style ,is his style and his simplicity in spite of being rich is his plus point. He is compassionate and loves travelling and considerate about feelings of all around him.
The story revolves around a vacation on which the three go, as part of the bachelors party of Kabir who is recently engaged under confusion to his father’s business partners daughter. He brings a ring for his mother on her birthday, and during the party when the two families were together, he shows it to the girl who mistakes it as a proposal and their engagement is declared in the party. Though he was really not willing for the relationship, the gentleman that he was, he couldn’t say no and went ahead preparing for the marriage. He wants the three friends to be together before they enter their married lives ,and hence plans a holiday and with a great difficulty convinces the other two to join and to be together after four years .Kabir was not only busy but wanted to avoid meeting Imran, because of a misunderstanding created by Kabirs ex girlfriend, who was double timing the two of them. They spend some wonderful time, reliving the days when they were young and experimented all, from deep sea diving, gliding, pubs,geting drunk, rides, site seeing, playing pranks and enjoying life to the fullest. They spent these days as if kal ho na ho, freaking out in the crazy tomato festival and daring the bull game of Spain
The holiday proved more than just a break and changed the lives of all three. Imran, tracks and meets his biological father ,played by Nasiruddin Shah, and was crestfallen to know that he ,had no remorse and repentance of what happened, and he had not only had no guilt leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend to fend for herself just because he wanted to be free and to pursue his passions of life, but had never had the desire to met his son, though he knew about his existence. Arjun meets Laila, played by Katrina, who is their diving instructor. He is mesmerised by her beauty, charm and warmth and finds his ladylove in her. Kabirs fiancé behaves like a typical woman, suspicious of what the three were doing alone and actually lands up there to confirm that he is not flirting with Laila. Her plans for the future scare kabir who realizes that neither he is ready for losing his independence in marriage and nor does he love her, and finally breaks his engagement.
All have acted to their best with great exhibition of histrionics. Farhan Akhtar appears a veteran and depicts the complex contrast of casualness and seriousness of his character realistically. His spontaneity is admirable and effortless and the expression of emotions heart touching. Javeds poetry narrated by him moves the soul and forms the essence of the movie. Hrithik is par excellence as always as a meticulously and tastefully dressed live sculpture. Not only the beautifully choreographed dance movements but every action of his body was better than the best of ballets. His husky voice, depth in the eyes and expressions on the face beautifully portray the loneliness within him and the need for love. Abhay Deol is the moderator in the gang and has exhibited the maturity naturally and acted well, as in all his movies. This was probably the best role for Kathrina, ever and tailor-made just for her. She has not only done great justice to the character but has brought glamour to the man dominated story. Kalika, as Kabirs fiancé has suited well, and proved that the Indian audience is willing to accept unconventional faces on screen. Deepti Naval and Nassirudin Shah ,even in their small roles have left great impact.
The movie was a virtual trip to Spain, the virgin locale that has been unexplored by Bollywood till now. The outdoor locations are beautiful and picturesque and the culture of Spain inviting. The pubs, tap dance, tomato festival and the Bull game are all entertaining. The gliding and the deep sea diving adds to the glamour. The underwater scenes are pleasantly colourful but let out the secret of being artificial studio creations, evident due to the uneven distribution of the fish on the screen. The storyline is strong, the dialogues natural and the screenplay smooth, The pace, though a little slow at places, maintained the intensity of the creation. The lyrics were poetic and music melodious and the background score enchanting. Cinematography was best possible and editing fabulous. Zoya Akhtars direction added the professional touch to the movie and proved that talent runs in genes. The movie belongs to the three Akhtars, Javed, Joya and Farhaan!
Outside the wonderful story, the movie leaves a message from each one’s life. Imran learns that many truths in life are better not known, Arjun realizes that life cannot be run by the clock and in immaculate discipline and there is more to life than, work, career and money and it is not possible to survive without love while Kabir experiences that decisions regarding matters of love and marriage cannot be taken in an impulse or under pressure. But the most important message of ZNMD is the glorification of male bonding, which is not only everlasting, but is above all pretensions of life and beyond petty or even major differences. The movie has elevated friendship to its well deserved supreme status in all relationships, where it has no restrictions and limitations and is at times even beyond those with parents, girlfriends and spouses .The movie should actually have been released, two weeks later on Friendship day as it has immortalised friendship on celluloid !
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Lucknow
After a row of nonsensical movies, it was a real respites and a great delight watching ZNMD !
Hindi cinema has come a long way from the time when a simple love story or a love triangle was presented in four hours ending with marriage or death of the second hero, to a time where the stress is not on the story, but on life, emotion and above all inter and intrapersonal relationships. The stories today in good movies are real, which raise questions in one’s mind and give answers to many queries of one’s life. ZNMD is another such movie revolving around the lives of three friends .Based on similar lines of that of Dil chahta hai & Three idiots, somewhere this, seemed to touch the heart more.
The movie is about three friends, Imran, Arjun & Kabir played superbly by Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan & Abhay Deol respectively. The three, as it often happens in real life are entirely different in nature and outlook to life, but are bound with a friendship band. Imran is a simple man from a middle class family, with a carefree attitude towards life, which masks the pathos within him, after he came to know that he was a child out of bedlock ,and the man with whom he grew up, was not his biological father. Imran has a great desire to meet his real father once, even against the wishes of his mother, enacted by Deepti Nawal. Scared of heights, his style was his simple casualness and lively wittiness laced with outrageous pranks. Hrithik is an upwardly mobile, over ambitious man, a money broker, whose only aim in life is to become rich and is in great hurry to become rich at forty, when he can pack up and take retirement and enjoy life. He is well dressed man, prim and proper, with a good taste and a enviable wardrobe and good collections of accessories. Scared of water and considering fun as waste of life, he has a serious attitude towards life and rarely lets his hair down. He thinks, talks, sleeps and lives work and money, to the extent that he has had a chain of breakups due to his obsession for work and indifference to his personal or love life. Kabir is a rich builders son and a simple man with his head on his shoulders. No style ,is his style and his simplicity in spite of being rich is his plus point. He is compassionate and loves travelling and considerate about feelings of all around him.
The story revolves around a vacation on which the three go, as part of the bachelors party of Kabir who is recently engaged under confusion to his father’s business partners daughter. He brings a ring for his mother on her birthday, and during the party when the two families were together, he shows it to the girl who mistakes it as a proposal and their engagement is declared in the party. Though he was really not willing for the relationship, the gentleman that he was, he couldn’t say no and went ahead preparing for the marriage. He wants the three friends to be together before they enter their married lives ,and hence plans a holiday and with a great difficulty convinces the other two to join and to be together after four years .Kabir was not only busy but wanted to avoid meeting Imran, because of a misunderstanding created by Kabirs ex girlfriend, who was double timing the two of them. They spend some wonderful time, reliving the days when they were young and experimented all, from deep sea diving, gliding, pubs,geting drunk, rides, site seeing, playing pranks and enjoying life to the fullest. They spent these days as if kal ho na ho, freaking out in the crazy tomato festival and daring the bull game of Spain
The holiday proved more than just a break and changed the lives of all three. Imran, tracks and meets his biological father ,played by Nasiruddin Shah, and was crestfallen to know that he ,had no remorse and repentance of what happened, and he had not only had no guilt leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend to fend for herself just because he wanted to be free and to pursue his passions of life, but had never had the desire to met his son, though he knew about his existence. Arjun meets Laila, played by Katrina, who is their diving instructor. He is mesmerised by her beauty, charm and warmth and finds his ladylove in her. Kabirs fiancé behaves like a typical woman, suspicious of what the three were doing alone and actually lands up there to confirm that he is not flirting with Laila. Her plans for the future scare kabir who realizes that neither he is ready for losing his independence in marriage and nor does he love her, and finally breaks his engagement.
All have acted to their best with great exhibition of histrionics. Farhan Akhtar appears a veteran and depicts the complex contrast of casualness and seriousness of his character realistically. His spontaneity is admirable and effortless and the expression of emotions heart touching. Javeds poetry narrated by him moves the soul and forms the essence of the movie. Hrithik is par excellence as always as a meticulously and tastefully dressed live sculpture. Not only the beautifully choreographed dance movements but every action of his body was better than the best of ballets. His husky voice, depth in the eyes and expressions on the face beautifully portray the loneliness within him and the need for love. Abhay Deol is the moderator in the gang and has exhibited the maturity naturally and acted well, as in all his movies. This was probably the best role for Kathrina, ever and tailor-made just for her. She has not only done great justice to the character but has brought glamour to the man dominated story. Kalika, as Kabirs fiancé has suited well, and proved that the Indian audience is willing to accept unconventional faces on screen. Deepti Naval and Nassirudin Shah ,even in their small roles have left great impact.
The movie was a virtual trip to Spain, the virgin locale that has been unexplored by Bollywood till now. The outdoor locations are beautiful and picturesque and the culture of Spain inviting. The pubs, tap dance, tomato festival and the Bull game are all entertaining. The gliding and the deep sea diving adds to the glamour. The underwater scenes are pleasantly colourful but let out the secret of being artificial studio creations, evident due to the uneven distribution of the fish on the screen. The storyline is strong, the dialogues natural and the screenplay smooth, The pace, though a little slow at places, maintained the intensity of the creation. The lyrics were poetic and music melodious and the background score enchanting. Cinematography was best possible and editing fabulous. Zoya Akhtars direction added the professional touch to the movie and proved that talent runs in genes. The movie belongs to the three Akhtars, Javed, Joya and Farhaan!
Outside the wonderful story, the movie leaves a message from each one’s life. Imran learns that many truths in life are better not known, Arjun realizes that life cannot be run by the clock and in immaculate discipline and there is more to life than, work, career and money and it is not possible to survive without love while Kabir experiences that decisions regarding matters of love and marriage cannot be taken in an impulse or under pressure. But the most important message of ZNMD is the glorification of male bonding, which is not only everlasting, but is above all pretensions of life and beyond petty or even major differences. The movie has elevated friendship to its well deserved supreme status in all relationships, where it has no restrictions and limitations and is at times even beyond those with parents, girlfriends and spouses .The movie should actually have been released, two weeks later on Friendship day as it has immortalised friendship on celluloid !
Dr Sanjay Kapoor, Lucknow
Saturday, July 2, 2011
PYAAR KA PANCHNAMA
Realisticaly Humerous !
Thanks to my wife Nidhi ,I saw Pyar Ka Panchnama last night and it was a wonderful experience. Don’t remember laughing so much in any movie lately, and that too on blatant realities of life .A blend of Dil chahta Hai & Pyaar ke Funde, this movie is better than both combined. Experimenting with new comers the producer and director have very successfully presented Male Bonding, Love affairs & Life in a chummery
The story revolves around three friends, Choudhary, Nishant alais Liquid, and Rajat alais Rajjo. They seem to be management graduates or software engineers working in the corporate world and living together in a common flat. All of them are desperate to have a girlfriend, and at the very first opportunity each manages to get one and this completely changes their lives. They are used, misused, insulted, and exploited by them in the name of Love using all the methods in the armamentarium of the ladies ,teasing, flirting, tantrums, howling and even seduction. Rajat moves out for a live in relationship with his girlfriend, due to lack of space and privacy, and his girlfriend keeps raving all time about her ex boyfriend. Nishant falls for a colleague who has a boyfriend tucked in, at secundrabad. Choudhary couples up with a girl who had just had the fifteenth breakup in her five years of relationship. As it usually happens in all affairs, where affairs are made for the sake of having a girlfriend, these three too, actually drove the men up the wall. While they plan a stag trip to Goa to distress, the ladies seduce, threat and force their ways too and accompany them making their holiday hell.
The movie very realistically highlighted the desperation of the young men to have a girl friend which gives the girls ample opportunity to have a personal assistant who can be actually treated as a dog ,well highlighted by the title song,patta daal galey mein khud,mein ban gaya kutta.Using the good old attitude of dropping men like a used condome, the three girls use great words and phrases to suit them as, space, individuality, privacy, relationship, we are just friends, don’t take advantage of my sweetness, a kiss is no indicator of love, if i slept with you doesn’t mean you owe me, you don’t care for me ,you don’t love me anymore, I mean nothing to you, what do you know about a relationship, its not easy to walk out of a past relationship, you cant understand women, what do you know about Love when you have never been in a relationship, I am still friends with my Ex, mere parents theek kehtey thhey. Rajats girlfriend behaves as any women in a live-in-relationship ,where she wants the rights of a wife and even more, with no commitment. She even tries to interfere with his financial matters and his relationships with his parents and family.
Nishant spends a whole day, leaving his job, waiting outside a parlour, while his so called girlfriend, gets made up, to go for a date to her ex boyfriend, for a patch-up and to plan the future, and if this was not enough he also shops for her, foots the parlour bill and keeps awake whole night doing her share of work while she cuddled up with her boyfriend. Choudhary’s girlfriends Ex, threatens him of dire consequences if he didn’t stop meeting her and Rajats girlfriend enacts a mock rendezvous with her ex boyfriend, to bring Rajat on his knees. Amidst all this chaos created by the desperation and gullibility of the boys, and the use and throw exploiting attitude of the girls,the boys are turned into puppets in bonded labourers on the verge of nervous breakdown.
In spite of this being their debut films all the six characters, specially the boys did a great job. The story was contemporary and realistic and the screenplay intensive. The pace of the movie was fast and never lost momentum and left no scope for monotony to set in. The depiction of life of three bachelors ,including the clothes, life style and language was a true depiction of a chummery and male bonding. The language is foul, but is exactly what the youngsters use today. Screenplay is authentic and the dialogues impactful. Direction is superb with a very high standard of editing. Songs and music are good and humorous, and fitted the milieu of the film well. The most positive aspect of the movie was its spontaneity, flow, simplicity, naturility and the ability of making every man, who has dealt with a lady, to relate to it. The ten minutes of monologue of Rajat towards the end ,highlighting the nature of the woman, their tantrums, fads and explosions was true to every world and extremely hilarious and beautifully highlighted that men and women are from different planets
The movie, however ends on a very happy note, with all the three men, walking out of the relationships to be back to their blissful state of singleness and free lives of bachelorhood. Every viewer will find him or herself or experiences of their lives in this explicit movie and the movie is a must for all to watch, specially the youngsters.
Sanjay Kapoor ,Delhi
Thanks to my wife Nidhi ,I saw Pyar Ka Panchnama last night and it was a wonderful experience. Don’t remember laughing so much in any movie lately, and that too on blatant realities of life .A blend of Dil chahta Hai & Pyaar ke Funde, this movie is better than both combined. Experimenting with new comers the producer and director have very successfully presented Male Bonding, Love affairs & Life in a chummery
The story revolves around three friends, Choudhary, Nishant alais Liquid, and Rajat alais Rajjo. They seem to be management graduates or software engineers working in the corporate world and living together in a common flat. All of them are desperate to have a girlfriend, and at the very first opportunity each manages to get one and this completely changes their lives. They are used, misused, insulted, and exploited by them in the name of Love using all the methods in the armamentarium of the ladies ,teasing, flirting, tantrums, howling and even seduction. Rajat moves out for a live in relationship with his girlfriend, due to lack of space and privacy, and his girlfriend keeps raving all time about her ex boyfriend. Nishant falls for a colleague who has a boyfriend tucked in, at secundrabad. Choudhary couples up with a girl who had just had the fifteenth breakup in her five years of relationship. As it usually happens in all affairs, where affairs are made for the sake of having a girlfriend, these three too, actually drove the men up the wall. While they plan a stag trip to Goa to distress, the ladies seduce, threat and force their ways too and accompany them making their holiday hell.
The movie very realistically highlighted the desperation of the young men to have a girl friend which gives the girls ample opportunity to have a personal assistant who can be actually treated as a dog ,well highlighted by the title song,patta daal galey mein khud,mein ban gaya kutta.Using the good old attitude of dropping men like a used condome, the three girls use great words and phrases to suit them as, space, individuality, privacy, relationship, we are just friends, don’t take advantage of my sweetness, a kiss is no indicator of love, if i slept with you doesn’t mean you owe me, you don’t care for me ,you don’t love me anymore, I mean nothing to you, what do you know about a relationship, its not easy to walk out of a past relationship, you cant understand women, what do you know about Love when you have never been in a relationship, I am still friends with my Ex, mere parents theek kehtey thhey. Rajats girlfriend behaves as any women in a live-in-relationship ,where she wants the rights of a wife and even more, with no commitment. She even tries to interfere with his financial matters and his relationships with his parents and family.
Nishant spends a whole day, leaving his job, waiting outside a parlour, while his so called girlfriend, gets made up, to go for a date to her ex boyfriend, for a patch-up and to plan the future, and if this was not enough he also shops for her, foots the parlour bill and keeps awake whole night doing her share of work while she cuddled up with her boyfriend. Choudhary’s girlfriends Ex, threatens him of dire consequences if he didn’t stop meeting her and Rajats girlfriend enacts a mock rendezvous with her ex boyfriend, to bring Rajat on his knees. Amidst all this chaos created by the desperation and gullibility of the boys, and the use and throw exploiting attitude of the girls,the boys are turned into puppets in bonded labourers on the verge of nervous breakdown.
In spite of this being their debut films all the six characters, specially the boys did a great job. The story was contemporary and realistic and the screenplay intensive. The pace of the movie was fast and never lost momentum and left no scope for monotony to set in. The depiction of life of three bachelors ,including the clothes, life style and language was a true depiction of a chummery and male bonding. The language is foul, but is exactly what the youngsters use today. Screenplay is authentic and the dialogues impactful. Direction is superb with a very high standard of editing. Songs and music are good and humorous, and fitted the milieu of the film well. The most positive aspect of the movie was its spontaneity, flow, simplicity, naturility and the ability of making every man, who has dealt with a lady, to relate to it. The ten minutes of monologue of Rajat towards the end ,highlighting the nature of the woman, their tantrums, fads and explosions was true to every world and extremely hilarious and beautifully highlighted that men and women are from different planets
The movie, however ends on a very happy note, with all the three men, walking out of the relationships to be back to their blissful state of singleness and free lives of bachelorhood. Every viewer will find him or herself or experiences of their lives in this explicit movie and the movie is a must for all to watch, specially the youngsters.
Sanjay Kapoor ,Delhi
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)