REALITY SUCKS !!!!!!!!!!
Someone asked an artist,which is your best painting,and he replied,the next ! This realy applies to Amir Khan.............he never stops surprising you,with a movie better than his last best! and he has done it again in Dhobhi Ghat.Though the movie is the directorial debut of his wife,Kiran Rao,and even though he has been raving about it being the first movie where a wife,directed her husband,one can clearly see impressions of Amir's direction,besides his mega prescence,all over the movie.
Dhobhi Ghat flopped miserably at the box office,and wasnt liked much by most, mainly because it was unlike the routine,Bollywood movies,simple.stark,hiting right in the face and sans all masala................even documentaries are more glamorous these days.It was extremely bland with no glamour or melodrama with verything being underplayed,Just a few routine days,potrayed besutifully with innovative methods,with no begining,climax or end...................probably not even a message.It was just a peep in the life of Mumbai dwellers,and their romance with struggle and survival.Hence aptly called,Dhobhi Ghat,Bombay Diaries.
The movie revolved around four charecters,Amir,a divorced painter,the dhobhi boy-the local hunk,a lady photographer and the previous inmate of Amirs house.Amir,a loner ,is a pinter and keeps moving to variou localities in suberbs of Mumbai,to get into a new mood and environement ,and ideas for his paintings.He meets this lady photographer at his art exhibiyion,and she accompanies him home,to spend th night with him.Prateek Babbar has played Munna,the young Dhobi,who came as a child from Bihar and stayed back forever .Besides being the local dhobi boy,he aspires to make it to the big screen some day and is also the popular young stud of the local area,who is used by middle aged housewives,to fulfill their sexual fantacies.The lady photographer moves in the same locality for her photoshoots and befriends Munna to use him as the local guide.She even shoots a portfolio for him,and treats him as a friend to the extent that he falls madly in love with her,but never collects the courage to express it,and in fact even helps her to find Amir, who doesnt seem very interested in her
The fourth and the most important charecter,the previous inmate of Amirs house,is a young village girl,who makes her appearance in the movie only in flashback.Amir finds three vidio cassetes in the house,which are of the previou inmates,nad it turns out that they were letters in form of vedeo recorded narrations,from tht girl to her brother.Its a very innovative method,used in the movie,to highlight the life and fate of innumerable girls who marry and reach Mumbai,to discover that they have been cheated,and have no option but to either live in misery or to commit suicide.The story unfolds as Amir watches the video cassetes,and reveals that this young girl from Malihabad,a village near Lucknow in UP,gets married to a loacl guy,settled in Mumbai,and reaches Bombay,to discover that she is the second wife of this man,who has no time for her and rarely visits her ,pushing her in a state of depressing solitude taht drives her to commit suicide by hnaging from the cieling fan
In a short span of 90 minutes,the movie,ruthlessly bares the underbelley of Mumbai,highlightinf every aspect of the city,from aspiring younsters to shattered dreams,love,romance,marriage, divorse ,sex and one night stands,the mafia,drug pedling,gang wars and murders which always turn into accidants.The life of suberburbs and of slum dwellers,explotation,unexpressed love and fraudulant marriages.Above all this,the movie ,very succesfully depicts the individualistic existance of a bombayite with a each one to his or her own life and sab chalta hai attitude.And all the dark shades of the city,are beutifully expressed in a very subtle,matter of fact manner,with the cries of anguish potrayed as helpless silence.The speechless silence is often so tactfully exhibited,that it is more deafening than the shrillest of cries.
The movie appears as an english movie,not only with the fair amount of english conversation pushed in to bring authenticity,but also by underplaying the complete narration,no sets,natural settings,ordinary clothes,no songs and superb editing and cinematography.Back ground score befits the storyline and direction is good,Amir as always is at his all time best and Prateek Babbar,Has not only done justice to his role,but even to his mother,Smita Patils name.He is probably the next star kid to hit the big screen and has all potentials,in looks,physique and histrionics to do well.The other acters have done thier bits well too and overall ,inspite of being slow and dull at places,the movie succeeds in its mission of highlighting the ethos of life of a common man in Bombay
Dhobhi ghat is a sad story of realities of Bomaby life,where there is endless darkness under all the glamour of the city and the constant struggle for survival and sucess.A city,where life goes on at its own pace and form,at its own terms and price.A must see for all Amir fans and lovers of realistic cinema
Dr Sanjay Kapoor
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, May 30, 2010
KITES
Kites that did not fly !!
Kites was a great disappointment and an utter disaster.My sincere apologies to all related to the film,but cant resist this remark,as this was probably the only movies,in which I slipped off to sleep !
There was too much talk and pre release drama for the movie.Unique story,Blend of Hollywood & Bollywood,return of Hrithik.stunning Barbara and the works.But all this was actually missing and probably it was the extra pre release hype that added to the discontentment
The story was like a modern day Laila Majnu tale,poorly presented.It revolved around an Indian guy,Hrithik,settled with a green card in Las Vegas.He did odd jobs to earn his living including using his green card to marry girls,temporarily,to help them get an entry in the country.He had great dreams of becoming rich one day,for which he feigned love for a rich girl,Kangna Ranawat ,daughter of the owner of the biggest casino of the city,Kabir Bedi.There he realizes that he is madly in love with the spanish fiancé of the girl's brother.He had met this girl ,played by Barbara for some time once,when he had married her to help her get entry in the city.Their love comes to light,and they are chased and the girl commits suicide.Later ,when he comes to know about it,Hrithik ends his life too.
Hrithik with his six pack abs,rugged looks,macho body,hazel eyes and impressive stubble,has actually looked like a cowboy.In spite of his great looks,brilliant acting and superb dancing,he has failed to bring the movie out of its monotony.Barbara ,has failed to all expectations and to create any oomph or chemistry on screen and any of the Bollywood heroines like,Bipasha,Priyanka or even Kangana would have done better in her place,Kangna has done justice to her short role.The cinematography and locales were excellent but the pace of the movie intolerably slow,making the movie unbearable in the second half.The screenplay was weak and the spanish of Barbara,even though dubbed ,was irritating.The story was unrealistic and unconvincing and one fails to understand how someone can suddenly realize that he is madly in love with a girl,whom he had met only once.
Luckily,in spite of all the bad reviews from the word go,most cine lovers did see the movie,just to see how bad,such a hyped movie can be and how can a Kite become Kati Patang !
Sanjay Kapoor
Kites was a great disappointment and an utter disaster.My sincere apologies to all related to the film,but cant resist this remark,as this was probably the only movies,in which I slipped off to sleep !
There was too much talk and pre release drama for the movie.Unique story,Blend of Hollywood & Bollywood,return of Hrithik.stunning Barbara and the works.But all this was actually missing and probably it was the extra pre release hype that added to the discontentment
The story was like a modern day Laila Majnu tale,poorly presented.It revolved around an Indian guy,Hrithik,settled with a green card in Las Vegas.He did odd jobs to earn his living including using his green card to marry girls,temporarily,to help them get an entry in the country.He had great dreams of becoming rich one day,for which he feigned love for a rich girl,Kangna Ranawat ,daughter of the owner of the biggest casino of the city,Kabir Bedi.There he realizes that he is madly in love with the spanish fiancé of the girl's brother.He had met this girl ,played by Barbara for some time once,when he had married her to help her get entry in the city.Their love comes to light,and they are chased and the girl commits suicide.Later ,when he comes to know about it,Hrithik ends his life too.
Hrithik with his six pack abs,rugged looks,macho body,hazel eyes and impressive stubble,has actually looked like a cowboy.In spite of his great looks,brilliant acting and superb dancing,he has failed to bring the movie out of its monotony.Barbara ,has failed to all expectations and to create any oomph or chemistry on screen and any of the Bollywood heroines like,Bipasha,Priyanka or even Kangana would have done better in her place,Kangna has done justice to her short role.The cinematography and locales were excellent but the pace of the movie intolerably slow,making the movie unbearable in the second half.The screenplay was weak and the spanish of Barbara,even though dubbed ,was irritating.The story was unrealistic and unconvincing and one fails to understand how someone can suddenly realize that he is madly in love with a girl,whom he had met only once.
Luckily,in spite of all the bad reviews from the word go,most cine lovers did see the movie,just to see how bad,such a hyped movie can be and how can a Kite become Kati Patang !
Sanjay Kapoor
Sunday, October 4, 2009
MORNING WALK
A SLOW WALK !
Was waiting very anxiously to watch Morning Walk,since It was bringing my all time favorite Sharmila ,on screen after long.
Though the reviews spoke of it being different,it came and went,almost unsung.I too was a wee bit disappointed
The plot revolves around a retired Professor,played by Anupam Kher,who lived alone,after his wife's death,as he was not very welcome at his daughter-in laws house.He however,after a heart attack,has to move with them,where he tries to adjust with default,and with great support from his loving grand daughter.He is made to pay a price for shifting in,with the son coaxing him to agree to sell his ancestral property to help the son buy a bigger house.
During his Morning walks, he meets Sharmila,who was his old student,and they shared a silent love.Flashback reveals,that after the two are respectively married to different spouses,he meets Sharmila once,at a hill station,during an official tour,and comes to know that she has been the victim of domestic violence,from an in human husband.In trying to console her,he spends some time with her and rest is left to imagination
He now comes to know,that Sharmila's husband died early in life,and she has a daughter ,through their rendezvous,on that fateful night.His surpreesed love for Sharmila and an urge to accept the girl as his daughter,gives him the courage to break the social norms,and declare to both the families about their clandestine affair.While Sharmila's kids take it very sportingly and rather welcomingly,as they wanted to see their mother smile and happy in life,Anupam's son and specially the daughter in law, object very vehemently.
Things become worse,when he decides to use the money from selling his house,not for supporting his legal son to buy a house,but for the education abroad ,of his newly found daughter.The son and bahu,get agitated,as their dream of shifting to a bungalow crumples and is sabotaged by their dads extramarital affair,and the illegitimate daughter.In spite of all scenes created by he drunken bahu and the emotionally blackmailing son,Anupam Kher sticks to his decision,and finally shifts to live with Sharmila,sending off their daughter abroad.
Though a little bold story,it wasn't handled well.The main issue of not only having an affair with a student,and then a daughter through bedlock,but also accepting it publicly in the seventh decade of life,was lost and shifted to the money,for which an amicable solution and mid path attitude could have been used,to equally distribute the money between the two families.The son may have been earning,but as the legal heir,he too had some right on his fathers property and money.The pace was slow,the events unfolded abruptly and the movie lacked spontaneity.The occasional melodrama,added to depriving it from the status of a meaningful cinema.Sharmila was good as always,but Anupam lacked,the metal he displayed in his acting in movies like Saraansh. Other actors were just tolerable .Music and songs were average,and direction and dialogues could be better.
Overall it was a little disappointing,as the movie failed to impress on a very pertinent issue of need of love at old age! But ,no regrets,as it is always a pleasure watching Sharmils,whose few wrinkles,still fail to hide her magical dimples !!
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow
Was waiting very anxiously to watch Morning Walk,since It was bringing my all time favorite Sharmila ,on screen after long.
Though the reviews spoke of it being different,it came and went,almost unsung.I too was a wee bit disappointed
The plot revolves around a retired Professor,played by Anupam Kher,who lived alone,after his wife's death,as he was not very welcome at his daughter-in laws house.He however,after a heart attack,has to move with them,where he tries to adjust with default,and with great support from his loving grand daughter.He is made to pay a price for shifting in,with the son coaxing him to agree to sell his ancestral property to help the son buy a bigger house.
During his Morning walks, he meets Sharmila,who was his old student,and they shared a silent love.Flashback reveals,that after the two are respectively married to different spouses,he meets Sharmila once,at a hill station,during an official tour,and comes to know that she has been the victim of domestic violence,from an in human husband.In trying to console her,he spends some time with her and rest is left to imagination
He now comes to know,that Sharmila's husband died early in life,and she has a daughter ,through their rendezvous,on that fateful night.His surpreesed love for Sharmila and an urge to accept the girl as his daughter,gives him the courage to break the social norms,and declare to both the families about their clandestine affair.While Sharmila's kids take it very sportingly and rather welcomingly,as they wanted to see their mother smile and happy in life,Anupam's son and specially the daughter in law, object very vehemently.
Things become worse,when he decides to use the money from selling his house,not for supporting his legal son to buy a house,but for the education abroad ,of his newly found daughter.The son and bahu,get agitated,as their dream of shifting to a bungalow crumples and is sabotaged by their dads extramarital affair,and the illegitimate daughter.In spite of all scenes created by he drunken bahu and the emotionally blackmailing son,Anupam Kher sticks to his decision,and finally shifts to live with Sharmila,sending off their daughter abroad.
Though a little bold story,it wasn't handled well.The main issue of not only having an affair with a student,and then a daughter through bedlock,but also accepting it publicly in the seventh decade of life,was lost and shifted to the money,for which an amicable solution and mid path attitude could have been used,to equally distribute the money between the two families.The son may have been earning,but as the legal heir,he too had some right on his fathers property and money.The pace was slow,the events unfolded abruptly and the movie lacked spontaneity.The occasional melodrama,added to depriving it from the status of a meaningful cinema.Sharmila was good as always,but Anupam lacked,the metal he displayed in his acting in movies like Saraansh. Other actors were just tolerable .Music and songs were average,and direction and dialogues could be better.
Overall it was a little disappointing,as the movie failed to impress on a very pertinent issue of need of love at old age! But ,no regrets,as it is always a pleasure watching Sharmils,whose few wrinkles,still fail to hide her magical dimples !!
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow
Sunday, August 23, 2009
LOVE AAJ KAL
TWO - IN - ONE !!
Luv Aaj Kal,was a double treat,and that too, a real welcome one.After a large number of off beat movies in the near past,on terrorism,abstract themes and Bollywood,it was good for a refreshing change,to see a good old poppy love story.The best part of the movie,in fact was that it had two love stories ,one of present times,and one of yester years running simultaneously.portraying the love is eternal !
The story revolves around an Indian boy,played beautifully by Saif,and a girl,acted by Deepika,who are settled abroad,and are just thick friends. Both are ambitious and want to peruse their careers,but while the boy wants to stay put there,the girl wants to return to India and peruse her passion of rerestoring heritage buildings.Confused as they are,about their feeling for each other,they jointly decide to break-up,and formally do so,before the girl returns to India on her dream project.After the split,they realize that they were missing each other,but were either too dumb to understand it,or too stubborn to accept.The girl falls in love with her boss,and is engaged to him.The restless boy,meets a garage owner,superbly portrayed by Rishi Kapoor,who narrates his three decade old love story,and the problems in delaying acceptance of love and making proposals.the narration,is presented as flash back,with Saif playing the young Rishi,the naive gabru jawan sikh in love with a visitor to his village,from Kalkatta.The role of the heroine of this second love story of the past has been played by a Belgian actress ,Gazella.
The two love stories run parallel and are in sync beautifully.It takes not only Rishi Kapoor,but even a counselor to make the two realize that they are in love,and finally Saif returns to India,and proposes to his lady love just in time,exactly as the hero of the older love story ,had developed courage enough to go to Kalkatta ,and express his love,and when denied approval by the girls parents,eloped with his lady love on the day of her marriage.The plot and story were good and so was the screenplay,in spite of giving a feeling of de-ja-vu ,due to the similarity with,Kuch kuch Hota Hai and Jane tu ya jane na ,where in it takes friends,relatives,family and even psychologists,to convince two youngsters,that they are in love and prove that a platonic relationship is just the period between the introduction and the first kiss !
Saif has acted really well,and has brought the contrast in the two characters he played,superbly and in fact has looked real cute as the young surd of yester years.Rishi and Deepika have done justice to their roles and Gazella looks fresh and petite.Deepika has looked charmingly hot in her sexy dresses . The background score is enchanting and the songs heart touching,specially duriyaan,being the top favorite of all ,these days.The direction and picturisation were of great quality and the best was the tact of perfect synchronization and excellent editing,which enabled the two stories to run ,parrallely,with utmost ease.Besides this newness the movie can boost of an uniqueness,where the hero plays another role,of the past of another character from the same movie.
Overall.the movie was real entertainer,with good story,wonderful acting and above all,soul soothing songs and music.
Dr Sanjay Kapok Lucknoq
Luv Aaj Kal,was a double treat,and that too, a real welcome one.After a large number of off beat movies in the near past,on terrorism,abstract themes and Bollywood,it was good for a refreshing change,to see a good old poppy love story.The best part of the movie,in fact was that it had two love stories ,one of present times,and one of yester years running simultaneously.portraying the love is eternal !
The story revolves around an Indian boy,played beautifully by Saif,and a girl,acted by Deepika,who are settled abroad,and are just thick friends. Both are ambitious and want to peruse their careers,but while the boy wants to stay put there,the girl wants to return to India and peruse her passion of rerestoring heritage buildings.Confused as they are,about their feeling for each other,they jointly decide to break-up,and formally do so,before the girl returns to India on her dream project.After the split,they realize that they were missing each other,but were either too dumb to understand it,or too stubborn to accept.The girl falls in love with her boss,and is engaged to him.The restless boy,meets a garage owner,superbly portrayed by Rishi Kapoor,who narrates his three decade old love story,and the problems in delaying acceptance of love and making proposals.the narration,is presented as flash back,with Saif playing the young Rishi,the naive gabru jawan sikh in love with a visitor to his village,from Kalkatta.The role of the heroine of this second love story of the past has been played by a Belgian actress ,Gazella.
The two love stories run parallel and are in sync beautifully.It takes not only Rishi Kapoor,but even a counselor to make the two realize that they are in love,and finally Saif returns to India,and proposes to his lady love just in time,exactly as the hero of the older love story ,had developed courage enough to go to Kalkatta ,and express his love,and when denied approval by the girls parents,eloped with his lady love on the day of her marriage.The plot and story were good and so was the screenplay,in spite of giving a feeling of de-ja-vu ,due to the similarity with,Kuch kuch Hota Hai and Jane tu ya jane na ,where in it takes friends,relatives,family and even psychologists,to convince two youngsters,that they are in love and prove that a platonic relationship is just the period between the introduction and the first kiss !
Saif has acted really well,and has brought the contrast in the two characters he played,superbly and in fact has looked real cute as the young surd of yester years.Rishi and Deepika have done justice to their roles and Gazella looks fresh and petite.Deepika has looked charmingly hot in her sexy dresses . The background score is enchanting and the songs heart touching,specially duriyaan,being the top favorite of all ,these days.The direction and picturisation were of great quality and the best was the tact of perfect synchronization and excellent editing,which enabled the two stories to run ,parrallely,with utmost ease.Besides this newness the movie can boost of an uniqueness,where the hero plays another role,of the past of another character from the same movie.
Overall.the movie was real entertainer,with good story,wonderful acting and above all,soul soothing songs and music.
Dr Sanjay Kapok Lucknoq
Thursday, March 19, 2009
DEV D
WAS DEV D REALLY DEVDAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saw Dev D,and have been confused ever since,as to how to react to it.!But am sure of one thing,that except for the Hero named,Dev,who had two woman named Paro and Chanda(Chandramukhi) in his life ,there is nothing really like the original story or the earlier movies,Devdas.
Dev D is definitely an innovative film,very cleverly twined around the backdrop of the original story of Devdas.It has used two recent scandals,the MMS Scandal,of a public school of Delhi and the famous(or rather infamous)BMW hit and run case,to present the lifestyle of the youngsters today.The depiction of the dark side of today's life of youngsters and teenagers is authentic,highlighting,the freedom,disrespect to elders,indiscipline,extravagance,drinking,smoking,drugs,teenage experimental sex,exploitation,flesh trade ,sexual perversions,the liberated woman and the works!What has been shown is probably true,but may represent the lifestyle of limited few,and does seem a bit exaggerated . In trying to do justice,the movie seems to have gone over board,and is obnoxiously intorable at places,specially the explicit unparliamentarily language replete with abuses and even the scenes and acts,to the extent of becoming repulsively truthful and realistically scary!
The story,revolves around Dev,a spoilt brat,who has a neighborhood girl friend called Paro.Dev is sent to study abroad,as a punishment for being indiscipline and disrespectful and returns as a young rich panju eligible bachelor,full of all the prevalent vices,including drugs,drinking and womanizing.Simultaneously there is,a girl called Chanda,(the name is really a misfit for her,in the movie)whose boyfriend,records some intimate La Monica moments with her, while in school and circulates the MMS.She is put under house arrest in her ancestral village home,from where she elopes to grow up and become a high class escort! Dev is stunned and shocked by Paro,after she has a real hot encounter with him in the fields,exhibiting her boldness and the Kamsutra skills,and refuses to marry her,presuming that she would be sleeping around with others too.Dev bangs into Chanda,in the dark alleys of pubs and brothels,amidst drug peddlers,pimps and sex perverts,and they fall in love!Dev buys a red BMW,from the money he gets from his dying father,and under the effect of drugs and alcohol kills few people on the footpath and runs away!Chanda extends her loving support and stands by him,when the world leaves him and convinces him to surrender to the police!
The story is good,and the screenplay very contemporary.Dialogues are strong .but crude and filthy.Direction,editing and cinematography are of a very high standard but what outshines all is the music and the songs.The background score is original and
the songs intriguingingly different,entertaining and befitting!Abhay Deol had acted very well,and so have the two girls in their debuts.
The movie can be seen once,but I wish,it was made as it is,without being related to Devdas.Somewhere,it seems that,we have belittled the sublime soft love between Devdas and Paro,and the selfless support of Chandramukhi.Even though I am not a supporter of Devdas as a lover,but am an ardent fan of the story of Devdas,and wish that the eternal triangle of love between Devdas,Paro and Chandramukhi was not belittled and humiliated by presenting it in this dirty distorted manner,just to fit today's context,
Dr Sanjay Kaps Lucknow
Saw Dev D,and have been confused ever since,as to how to react to it.!But am sure of one thing,that except for the Hero named,Dev,who had two woman named Paro and Chanda(Chandramukhi) in his life ,there is nothing really like the original story or the earlier movies,Devdas.
Dev D is definitely an innovative film,very cleverly twined around the backdrop of the original story of Devdas.It has used two recent scandals,the MMS Scandal,of a public school of Delhi and the famous(or rather infamous)BMW hit and run case,to present the lifestyle of the youngsters today.The depiction of the dark side of today's life of youngsters and teenagers is authentic,highlighting,the freedom,disrespect to elders,indiscipline,extravagance,drinking,smoking,drugs,teenage experimental sex,exploitation,flesh trade ,sexual perversions,the liberated woman and the works!What has been shown is probably true,but may represent the lifestyle of limited few,and does seem a bit exaggerated . In trying to do justice,the movie seems to have gone over board,and is obnoxiously intorable at places,specially the explicit unparliamentarily language replete with abuses and even the scenes and acts,to the extent of becoming repulsively truthful and realistically scary!
The story,revolves around Dev,a spoilt brat,who has a neighborhood girl friend called Paro.Dev is sent to study abroad,as a punishment for being indiscipline and disrespectful and returns as a young rich panju eligible bachelor,full of all the prevalent vices,including drugs,drinking and womanizing.Simultaneously there is,a girl called Chanda,(the name is really a misfit for her,in the movie)whose boyfriend,records some intimate La Monica moments with her, while in school and circulates the MMS.She is put under house arrest in her ancestral village home,from where she elopes to grow up and become a high class escort! Dev is stunned and shocked by Paro,after she has a real hot encounter with him in the fields,exhibiting her boldness and the Kamsutra skills,and refuses to marry her,presuming that she would be sleeping around with others too.Dev bangs into Chanda,in the dark alleys of pubs and brothels,amidst drug peddlers,pimps and sex perverts,and they fall in love!Dev buys a red BMW,from the money he gets from his dying father,and under the effect of drugs and alcohol kills few people on the footpath and runs away!Chanda extends her loving support and stands by him,when the world leaves him and convinces him to surrender to the police!
The story is good,and the screenplay very contemporary.Dialogues are strong .but crude and filthy.Direction,editing and cinematography are of a very high standard but what outshines all is the music and the songs.The background score is original and
the songs intriguingingly different,entertaining and befitting!Abhay Deol had acted very well,and so have the two girls in their debuts.
The movie can be seen once,but I wish,it was made as it is,without being related to Devdas.Somewhere,it seems that,we have belittled the sublime soft love between Devdas and Paro,and the selfless support of Chandramukhi.Even though I am not a supporter of Devdas as a lover,but am an ardent fan of the story of Devdas,and wish that the eternal triangle of love between Devdas,Paro and Chandramukhi was not belittled and humiliated by presenting it in this dirty distorted manner,just to fit today's context,
Dr Sanjay Kaps Lucknow
Saturday, March 14, 2009
SLUM DOG MILLIONAIRE!
DESI MAAL-VIDESHI PACKING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally saw SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and really liked the movie!
There has been much talk about the movie,but in spite of (or rather because of) all the controversies,the movie got an unimaginably welcome international recognition,including eight Oscars,as no movie ,from Hollywood or Bollywood has ever got before!
Adapted from the novel.Q&A,the movie primarily focuses round the slums and poverty of India,twined beautifully around a love story,and how the young hero,a slum dweller,working as a tea-delivery-boy at a call centre,wins twenty million rupees at a TV show,representing the popular Kaun Banega Crorepati,without any formal education or training,and the key to his success being his experiences in life,staying in the slum and working at the call centre.Intermingled in the story,as an inseparable part,is the portrayal of the evils of slums and the underworld,and the miserable exploitation of the underprivileged.
The story is realistic,screenplay authentic and touchy and the pace intriguing! The movie keeps one gripped in its mood,and waiting for the next step.Background score is awesome,cinematography superb and editing par excellence.What stands out most,is the superb direction and the immense effort in maintaining realism and simplicity.A R Rehman's music is mind blowing,melodious and enchanting!!!!!Acting of the slum kids and the young stars is fantastic,but Anil Kapoor and Irfaan were surprisingly ,not up to the mark.
All the noise about the portrayal of the negative side of India is baseless and unwarranted.Poverty of India is an integral part of the country,and if we are keen on our success story to be taken all over the world,we cannot stop the dark side of our existence from being projected too.If the government and those who are objecting to this,really mean concern,then they should have or at least should now take appropriate steps to decrease poverty and eliminate the evils related to it,and the exploitation and the miseries of the poor and the slumdwellers.Danny Bowle deserves a bigger award,for being a social activist by bringing the anguish of these underprivileged,children of the lesser God,to focus.The only objectionable part,which i felt hurt about,was,when the cops bash up the child hero,working as a guide to foriegners and he says,you wanted to see real India,This is real iNDIA! On this the english tourist dools out dollars and tells him,dont worry my child,I will show you,what real America is!This was unwanted and outright racist!
The representation of Indian poverty has been done most realistically,without any exaggeration,and in no derogatory manner,rather in a more acceptable matter of fact fashion,and it is definitely not the first time that it has been done.Traffic Signal,recently portrayed all this and even more! Slums of Mumbai,poverty,exploitation of poor,underworld,organized begging gangs,child labour,child abuse,flesh trade,all were very nicely portrayed in Traffic Signal,but went unnoticed without any reaction,since it lacked,big stars ,big banner and a Hollywood director to break our slumber !One cannot stop feeling happy and proud for A R Rehman and Gulzar for bringing home the much coveted Oscars,but its definitely not for their best.Even Rehman has given innumerable memorable music before,specially in Bombay,Roza,Lagaan,Taal,Rangeela and many more,which were as good as this,if not more.Without undermining the success of SDM,I cannot resist but say,that it required am imported packing for the story of slumdwellers of India and A R Rehmans music,to be catapulted to international fame.
My heartiest congratulations to the complete team of SDM,for their grand success,but the real success will actually come,when this movie shakes the powers to be,and the chants of Jai ho shatter their deafness to the cries of underprivileged and something concrete is done to decrease and end the miseries of these poor people,rather just create a ho-hulla,on a movie based on them.
Sanjay,Delhi
Monday, February 9, 2009
DEVDAS REVISITED
Whose Devdas is it ?
Devdas has been discussed and mentioned in discussions on Bollywood,and in connection with jilted lovers,or failed love affairs,for over five decades now.Besides reading about him in Sharatchand Chatterjees novel,we saw him in four films, two of which went ahead to become almost immortal, the one of Dilip Kumars and the extravaganza of Leela Bhansali,and now we have another adaptation of Devdas,the DEV D. At this juncture, it becomes relevant to introspect and see as to what made Devdas, so important and famous, atleast in Indian folk lure, like Romeo and Majnu! Few pertinent questions that come to my mind are, who is Devdas, whom does he represent or infact, what is Devdas?
Devdas is no longer a character from a novel or just a hero in a movie.He has come out of these and has broken the boundaries of social classes and the norms of society.He may be a jobless slumdweller smitten by the love of the dark,sharp-featured,thinly-clad girl of the neighbouring hutment or a rich megastar in love with an universal beauty.Devdas is an emotion,a phenomenon,-may be a loser or a winner,but is love personified. Time has immortalized Devdas as an expression of silent, unexpressed love
All remakes are compared with the previous ones .and hence this is also an appropriate time ,to re-visit Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas which did well at the box-office. The megastarrer cost over 50 crore rupees., Did the silent love of Devdas,really needed such a loud and extravagant expression ?Did he actually need to heap Paro with tones of gold to highlight her helpless,or dress Chandramukhi in outfits costing 15lakhs each to bring out the sensuality or support of a nauchgirl for a jilted suffering lover ? Could the dazzling sets correctly portray the sadness in the eyes of Devdas or the darkness in his life ?The viewer probably got lost in the sets,costumes,choreography and the cinematography and missed Devdas totally. Devdas went unnoticed and unrecognized like we miss the forest for the trees . Bhansali succeeded in making a grand entertainer but failed in portraying the complexity of his simple love or the strength of his weakness
For those who have seen both the previous DevDas, the one with Dilip is remembered more, and now its time to judge, what the latest version-Dev D has in store for us
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow
Devdas has been discussed and mentioned in discussions on Bollywood,and in connection with jilted lovers,or failed love affairs,for over five decades now.Besides reading about him in Sharatchand Chatterjees novel,we saw him in four films, two of which went ahead to become almost immortal, the one of Dilip Kumars and the extravaganza of Leela Bhansali,and now we have another adaptation of Devdas,the DEV D. At this juncture, it becomes relevant to introspect and see as to what made Devdas, so important and famous, atleast in Indian folk lure, like Romeo and Majnu! Few pertinent questions that come to my mind are, who is Devdas, whom does he represent or infact, what is Devdas?
Devdas is no longer a character from a novel or just a hero in a movie.He has come out of these and has broken the boundaries of social classes and the norms of society.He may be a jobless slumdweller smitten by the love of the dark,sharp-featured,thinly-clad girl of the neighbouring hutment or a rich megastar in love with an universal beauty.Devdas is an emotion,a phenomenon,-may be a loser or a winner,but is love personified. Time has immortalized Devdas as an expression of silent, unexpressed love
All remakes are compared with the previous ones .and hence this is also an appropriate time ,to re-visit Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas which did well at the box-office. The megastarrer cost over 50 crore rupees., Did the silent love of Devdas,really needed such a loud and extravagant expression ?Did he actually need to heap Paro with tones of gold to highlight her helpless,or dress Chandramukhi in outfits costing 15lakhs each to bring out the sensuality or support of a nauchgirl for a jilted suffering lover ? Could the dazzling sets correctly portray the sadness in the eyes of Devdas or the darkness in his life ?The viewer probably got lost in the sets,costumes,choreography and the cinematography and missed Devdas totally. Devdas went unnoticed and unrecognized like we miss the forest for the trees . Bhansali succeeded in making a grand entertainer but failed in portraying the complexity of his simple love or the strength of his weakness
For those who have seen both the previous DevDas, the one with Dilip is remembered more, and now its time to judge, what the latest version-Dev D has in store for us
Dr Sanjay Kapoor Lucknow
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