with Love & a DSLR...

I saw two amazing films on Saturday night, made with love and with absolutely no artificial lights. One was a commercial and the other, Amol Gupte's "Stanley ka Dabba". More on the former, later.

"Stanley..." is an impossible film. Not just because the synopsis would have struggled to go beyond three and a half lines, but because it was shot on a still camera, on real people, with the only equipment hired being Love and probably a tripod. At a time when films are shelved for 'lack of overseas investors' and when pre-production starts a year before shooting, 'Stanley' is a slap-in-the-face reminder of why people started making films. And also, of why we go to the movies.

The worst thing one could do to the picture is to call it a 'Children's film'. Amole Gupte, who wrote 'Taare Zameen Par' (and was at the helm of that film for the most part), does not have a brilliant idea that he had made into a film. There are no soundtracks that will soar in the charts. Hell, the climax is not even a surprise, considering you figure that part out by scene 3. But you lose yourself in the screen, right from the first scene because the world he recreates is one where you have been. And one, whose smells and sights you remember intimately.

Apparently, the film was shot only during the 'theatre workshop' periods on saturdays and everybody but the protagonist (Partho Gupte), was just sitting through a class while the film was shot. But how a film 'is made' should never decide how 'it is viewed'. The details on this one - the mafia don-ish air of the kid playing 'Aman Mehra', the searching nostrils of Amole Gupte playing the Hindi teacher (I could almost smell the pan he was chewing), the tilted sticker of 'Mother Mary' on the glass door and the 'tadka' on the dal, couldnt have been captured better on the most expensive Arriflex on earth. For once, I absolutely did not mind the noisy kids inside PVR Saket or their squeaky shoes. In fact, it was a refreshing change to see such a long queue of boys and girls lining up for popcorn!

Watch this film, not because you were a fan of 'Children of Heaven', not because you support independent film, not because you want to take your child to a film without item numbers - but because this is the purest transition of an idea from heart to celluloid, that you will see in a while.

PS: Dont miss:
1. The opening animation of 'Amole Gupte Cinema'
2. Divya Jagdale's brilliant portrayal, which is an ode to all science teachers in India!

Ode to the comic fan

I first saw 'Unbreakable' when it was released in 2000, in a theatre in Brigade Road, Bangalore. I last saw it on TV yesterday. In between, I must have seen it at least 10 more times. Thats almost once every year, but I am still excited about it. Ironically, this is exactly how I feel about my superhero comics as well. I know exactly when Batman or Phantom or Bahadur is going to deliver the punch that'll put the villain out. Yet, I crave for it and feign the surprise that lets the goosebumps appear in key, pre-decided scenes of the comic. Surreal.

It was Shyamalan's absolute best as a writer and definitely up there as a director. It was also the time when the creator was always one step ahead of his audience - be it the climactic shock of 'The Sixth Sense' or the fantastic unraveling of 'Signs'. Far cry from the present, where he is huffing and puffing to catch up with his audience by the end of the first hour. Exhibit A: The simplistic 'Lady in the water' and the bizarre 'The Happening'. 'Unbreakable' though, is completely different from the rest of his cinema. Yes, it has the trademark 'shyamalan moment' at the end which hits you hard and 'ties it all together', but it is not a deceiving script that is written backwards from there. To borrow Elijah's (Samuel Jackson) words from the film, "This is a piece of art".

Some of this film's most powerful aspects are its smallest touches.

Like how all key moments in the film begin with a frame that is upside down - like how David Dunn's (Bruce Willis) son looks at the TV news reporting the accident of his dad's train, lying upside down on his couch. A brilliant metaphor for our askew perceptions.

Like how just the frames give David's character that super-hero shadow, though he is written as a regular guy. Five minutes into the film, you see the silhouette of David, standing inside the stadium with his regular raincoat on. Except the hood is exaggerated into a cape-like look; Even the name David Dunn has the same 'syllabic' ring to it as a Peter Parker or a Clark Kent.

But the most brilliant part of this film is how the character of Elijah is etched out. The absolute anti-thesis of a 'villain', because of his own frailty. Also the reason why every single scene that involves Elijah's character is associated with 'glass' as a metaphor. The opening scene of the film where Elijah's mother gives birth to him is almost entirely shot as a relflection on a mirror; The conversation between Elijah - the boy and his mother is shot as a reflection on a TV screen and he chooses David's car windshield to leave his note. And of course the more 'in your face' metaphor of his glass walking pole. When he announces to David in the last scene of the film "The kids. They used to call me Mr. Glass", you not just go through the 'Shyamalan moment', but also momentarily get nostalgic with all your favourite villains from Lex Luthor to Evelyn to The Joker.

The film also had some fantastic lines. There is a scene when Elijah asks David if he wakes up every morning with a 'feeling of sadness' and when David says 'yes', Elijah explains how that is because 'you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing'. That was a powerful line, one that everybody watching the film - comic fan or not, would remember and replay in their minds. I did, for a long time and I still do. In a scary, sentimental way, I even get what he means.

The film did not win any major awards, except from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror. It is not even top-of-mind among Shyamalan fans. But for me, it will always remain his best and probably the only film that ever married real life to the comic fantasy of our childhood.

The Jessica Lull and the Trivedi Storm

The word french word 'Montage' is a beautiful term. In modern day film making, it refers to a combination of sound and visuals, edited together in a way that takes the narrative forward. It is the first thing that came to my mind while walking out of the theatre after watching 'No One Killed Jessica', because this film is as much Amit Trivedi's narrative, as it is Raj Kumar Gupta's - and that is high praise for any music director of a film, unless he/she is Andrew Lloyd Weber.

NOKJ is a foot tapping, adrenalin kicking, (supposedly) badass drama where the opening or climax is of little consequence to the viewer, as everybody knows what happened. Having said that, the film opens with an uber sexy credit sequence that is very original and fun. Right there, you know that this one has been 'crafted' and not just made. That feeling remains with you throughout the first half and that is thanks to some great casting, 'easy on the stomach' lines and 'easy on drama' scenes. Raj Kumar Gupta who gave us the Fabulous 'Aamir', obviously has learnt a trick or two from his 'Black Friday' days and wastes no time in getting over with the murder within the first 5 minutes. This is important because the Jessica Lal story (probably unfairly, but truly) is more about a nation's outrage, than the murder itself.

And I guess that outrage was what the second half was all meant to be. And for that, the writer's challenge was always going to be 'making the obvious, interesting'. And interesting it ends up being, but only because Amit Trivedi jams up a soundtrack that props the film up in many places in the second half in an almost 'Jacques Kallis'esque manner, even while everything else is crumbling around it. Case in point is when Rani's character confronts Vidya's in her house. Just when you are expecting the lines to crackle in arguably the most important confrontation in the script, the writer lets you down with some really ordinary stuff, completing a total KLPD. Cut to the candle light scene, but the audience is still bemused and fuming over the previous one. A few seconds later though, Amit Trivedi comes to the rescue, thundering over the candle march scene and voila - all is forgiven and the adrenalin is back.

What really works in the film is also its lighter moments - not just as relief from an otherwise emotionally draining subject, but also in bringing out the absurdity and irony of it all. There is a priceless scene in which the politician comes to Jesscia's house and after an uncomfortable silence, the dad asks 'chai?'.

Eventually in a film like this, I guess it all boils down to casting and that in my opinion is the best and worst things going for NOKJ. The guy who plays Jessica's dad and Rajesh Sharma as the cop are absolute gems. Rani looks like a million bucks in probably her best possible comeback film and I actually think she fits the bill perfectly as a renegade journalist. However, you can tell that the woman doesnt enjoy smoking or swearing and every time she is made to do it, you can almost see the gun next to her head. Vidya plays Sabrina like only she can and is great throughout. But I am not sure if her take on Sabrina works for the film entirely. Could it be because the audience is unable to contrast the never-ending restraint with any outburst of meaningful proportion?

There is a placard at the beginning of the film that says something like 'we have rolled all media into one entity'. That notwithstanding, it was still quite weird to see a Tehelka expose being called an NDTV sting. And the lack of any other journalists covering the case in the film gives it a slightly 'ghost town'ish feel. But then again, I guess it is that kind of a 'creative license' that also makes it possible to dramatize my all time favourite Sagarika-bashing episode on screen.

Disclaimer: My opinions about this film could have been completely influenced by the 'True Delhi experience' I was treated to at the theatre (PVR Saket) - complete with an unclaimed child running in the aisle with squeaky footwear, laughter at inappropriately emotional scenes and a loud couple in the row behind.

Close

2006 US Open. Round 2. It is past 10:00 PM and I am speeding in my '97 Avalon to Kiru's beautiful apartment in San Antonio. Home away from home. I have just realized that the match is still on. That means he's gotta chance. I knew that if this thing was going down to the fifth set, Andre's got it. I park, run up the stairs and settle into the most comfortable sofa in the world.

We watch the 5th set. What a set! Andre wins. He lives to fight another day. Typically Andre. That also means he is not retiring tonight. Phew!

He loses his third round match 2 days later and retires. Ironically, he loses to a kid called B. Becker.

Cut to: 1991

I am a 10th grader, living in Virugambakkam and watching the 1991 French Open final on Doordarshan. He loses to a freak called Jim Courier, who I end up hating. Being an Andre fan since childhood means that you hate his opponents - especially the ones who beat him in a Slam final. In Andre's case though, this is a long and growing list of people - Connors, Ivanisevic, Sampras, Courier, Martin and even that midget called Michael Chang. So I hated them all, growing up.

I am not sure what prompted my admiration for this guy to begin with. The Sportstar centre spreads? The rebellion? The return of serve? The double-handed backhand? or was it just the audacity of wearing denim shorts, ear rings and a pink shirt, for a French Open final??

But denim shorts go only a little far in a making an idol. What makes Andre my most favourite athlete is his ability to bounce back - not from the floor, but from deeper in the dungeons! My tennis coach at Loyola told me something on a fine summer morning in 1995, that I will never forget for the rest of my life - "Fitness is not running 1500 meters fastest. It is about how soon you recover from that 1500, to run another 400". And Andre was that guy who could run those 400s in real life (literally & figuratively) again and again and again.

That means being #1 and managing to go down to #132 and bouncing back to #1 and doing this shit all over again for over two decades. He was the most flawed perfection ever in Athletics!

When the girl friend gifted this book last year, the first thing that stuck me was - 'wow, that is a big close up on the cover!'. Why this rugged, disturbing picture? Why not the one with the 92 Wimbledon trophy? or one of those Aus Open moments? Or one from when he had hair? Or one with Stephanie?

The answer is quite clear after the very first page. This is as honest an autobiography as any you will ever read. This one is not for the gallery. This is all about the flaws, the quirks, the embarrassments and also the triumphs and the fun of it all.

If you are one of those tennis fans like me, who rooted for this guy for most of your teens and twenties, this book is a fascinating read. He takes you through all of it - right from when he won a hustling match against Jim Brown at age 7, till that marathon against Baghdatis in 2006 - His introduction to Pete as a kid with a flawed game, his Canon commercial, Nick Bollieteri, Wendi, Gil, Brad Gilbert, Brooke Shields (in very intriguing 2 chapters), Stephanie and of course the slams! The 8 he won and the million he lost.

I remember most of those slam finals. Strangely, I even remember what I was doing at the time, while watching it on TV. But now I also know what was going on the previous night, on match day, at the court, on the ground and inside his head! And that is much bigger and closer than any ball he might sign and lob at you!

Once upon a time in Mumbaai...

These days, it is a cliche to say 'I love Mumbai during the monsoon'. Who doesnt? There is something about taking the 'black and yellow' taxi and driving around Juhu and Worli, with the high tiding ocean on one side and getting drenched through the broken rear window on the other. Let me not start on the late afternoon coffee, for I will never get to what I Really wanted to write about today.

'Once upon...' is a lot of fun. A few years back, I had sworn never to watch a Emraan Hashmi film and up until last night, I would not have believed you, had you told me that I would watch a Milan Luthria film in theatre. This is not just my kinda film. But watch I did and had a reasonably good time.

It is impossible to not like a song like 'Pee loon'. Something about the lines 'Let me drink in....for it is the season for drinking in' is very intoxicating. And Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's version of 'Tum jo aaye' is blissful.

I of course did end up squirming in my seat (something about the sofa seats at PVR make you squirm generally) multiple times during the film. It is impossible not to do so, when every line in the film is a 'punch dialogue' and said for the effect. Half hour into the film, you are desperately craving for a normal conversation. FYI, it doesnt happen until the end.

I just do not buy the fact that gangsters generally drink, smoke and play cards all day. I am pretty sure they have a life and may be even do other fun stuff! It was a technique that worked quite well in the 60s and 70s in bringing out the 'bad-ass'ness. Not anymore. It is hilarious to see Milan run out of ideas in engaging his characters and constantly letting them light cigarettes and breaking bottles for the effect.

And there are other things that put you off. But at the end of the day, it is impossible not to warm up to Ajay Devgn's swagger, the racey background score, the cuts (oh the cuts!) and the charm of the 70's Mumbai. I was especially surprised (pleasantly) by how much Randeep Hooda looked the part.

Disclaimers before the film notwithstanding, your own inner voices tell you this is Haji Mastan and Dawood - gangsters you and me loath in real life, being glorified on screen. But you just cannot quell the 'sense of history' as the film unfolds. For history doesnt differentiate between the good and the bad. There are only those who changed the world we live in.

Watch it. Like I said, it is great fun. I am glad I saw it in Mumbai and took the auto back, holding its 'leather parda' with one hand and still getting drenched a little in Mumbai's monsoon.... 'Drinking it in' and wondering if the stories shape this city or does this city shape her stories.

3 idiots and 2 hoots

I read an absolutely exhaustive account on the Chetan Bhagat controversy yesterday by Sudish Kamat. Whether you are a Hirani basher or a CB hater or a fence sitter, I strongly recommend you read this. It kinda answers the million dollar question of last week - What percentage of 3i is FPS? If you care two hoots, that is.

Honestly, you needn't.

BTW, The film is absurd at multiple levels. There is a priceless moment, which goes something like this:

Rancho: you miss your mom, no?

Pia: yes, but how did you know?

Rancho: you are wearing an old watch that is completely out of place with the rest of your attire. so it must have been a gift from your dead mom

Thats got to be the best sherlock-mush moment in World cinema history. The film also has other duh moments like man leaving home without pants, almost-dead baby waking up to a word it kinda liked from inside the womb, hero getting his girl in the end, caricature professor gags, etc. It can come across as seriously hare-brained. if you care two hoots about 'analytically reasonable' cinema that is.

But honestly, you needn't.

Coz 3 idiots is not about adaptation, finer film making, performances, etc. It is a glimpse into 'The World According to Raju Hirani' and that is an extremely warm and beautiful place that we all love to spend time in. You can have a thousand discussions regarding the book vs film but ultimately, the spirit of the film is all Hirani. And you cannot credit him enough for that.

3i will probably end up being a film that will be acclaimed and loved mostly for reasons that do not have much to do with the craft of film making. However, it does have a soul that rises from the screen and gives you a tight hug. And this, it does without 3D!

There are some fantastic moments in the film. Sadly though, some of the funniest ones have been roped into the promos. For me, the most priceless one was the operatic score that Virus shaves to, which works brilliantly in the scene when Sharman contemplates his choice between rustication and betrayal and jumps out of the window. That entire scene is as simple and hard hitting as a Haiku poem.

Then there is the scene when Rancho completes the helicopter project of Joy and flies it. When the camera hops from Chatur's room (where he is seen in his funky underwear) to Joy's (where his dead body is hanging), the theatre moves from erupting laughter to dead silence, in a matter of seconds. Coming at the end of a song, the effect is dramatic. All the news that you read about real life IIT suicides come back to you at that instant, as you realize that this scene is not an exaggeration by any means.

And then there is Sharman. He reminds me of good old Michael Bevan. Hardly the centre point of the hype surrounding the movie, this actor delivers a performance that deserves the man-of-the-match award. While he shines through the entire film, the interview scene is an absolute peach.

In the early 90s, when I walked out after watching 'Apoorva Sagotharargal', the biggest question in my mind was: fine, you can look shorter. but how does one 'act' shorter? I had a similar question while watching the hospital scene in 3i. How can an actor be so aware of his facial muscles, that he can use them to deliver a youngish grin? But I forget we are talking about two thespians who have mastered the art. The latter ofcourse has also mastered his business skills, which the former continues to struggle in.

Madhavan is too good an actor for his role and Boman can sleep walk through this part. In fact, we have come to expect so much from Boman, that even his excellent subtleties have started to come across as normal. Even then, he hits hard with the 'space-pencil' scene towards the end.

At the end of it, for me 3i is a triumph of superior screen writing. Hirani and Abhijat have created something that is resonating with almost everybody who has seen the film. And only those who have put 'pen on paper' or 'finger on keyboard' can imagine how hard that is. And for that reason alone, it is ironic that this film has run into a writing controversy. Anyway, as far as I am concerned, the lasting image of the film in my mind would be this:

remember seeing this in the film?

Kerala Cafe

Dear Anwar Rasheed,

I hope you are doing great. And why wouldn't you be. You have just made a film like no other. I want to let you know that it has been more than a week now since I saw 'Bridge', and I still cannot get it out of my mind.

When I went to the theatre on that Friday night with family and a friend to watch 'Kerala Cafe', I had bargained for different cinema. I had bargained for 10 short films. For the kind of story telling that has endeared me to Malayalam cinema over the last two decades. I had bargained for 2-3 good ones out of the 10. I had even bargained for a bunch of films that would reflect the rot that has set into Malayalam cinema of today.

What I did not bargain for, was a bulldozer of a movie to hit me head on and change the way I would look at cinema forever. I had not prepped for that and I was not ready. May be thats why I dont remember much about the 3 films that were screened after 'Bridge'.

It was the second movie after intermission I think and I had just taken another big swig from my cold coffee, when I noticed a peculiar opening shot of the camera panning down from a height, closing in on a school boy in a red hood, running on a bridge, clutching a pendant. Even in those few seconds, I could tell that this was a different kind of film. And over the next ten minutes, I did not move. I just sat there, taking in frame after frame of meticulous composition, cuts that blended with my pulse, performances that brought a lump to my throat and a music score that went straight to my head.

I did not know that it was your film, Anwar. Even after the end credits, as they were in Malayalam. And when I googled the film later on and saw your name, I was shocked. Because I always associated you with a horrible film you once made called 'Rajamanikyam'. Mmm...how we judge a book by the fist few pages!

Anyway....It is difficult to review your film Anwar, as I still have not recovered from it. May be I'll be able to do it in a month or so. But suffice it to say that it was one of the finest I have ever seen on the silver screen.

Thanks for rekindling my fires. Thanks for making me fall in love with Cinema all over again.

Eeram

The thing about 'Eeram' is that for more than 3/4ths of the film, the director is continuously screaming to you from behind the screen - 'see how different I have made this frame look?', 'see how logically I have connected these scenes?'. This almost kid-like enthusiasm is very palpable at the other side of the screen. Clearly, this is a man who has put everything he has got into his first film.

I read a few reviews talking about inspiration from 'what lies beneath' and 'dark water'. I havent seen the latter and the former was forgettable anyway. Honestly, I dont think it matters because the script itself is a very trivial part of this film, in my opinion. What 'Eeram' has achieved is to create one of the sleekest films ever in this language. And that is something.

In the age of Vijay and Sundar. C (2 guys who have single (double, actually) handedly killed tasteful cinema in Tamil), the things you yearn for as a fan are: that refreshingly creative frame, or that momentarily intelligent line, or that realistic make-up.....just any semblance of proof that the creator really had a flame burning inside him and that he did not merely go through motions.

There is a pretty ordinary scene in the film, where a bunch of police officers meet in a swank conference room and discuss a suicide in an apartment (forget the fact that it is ludicrous to conceive that the entire police force in a city will sit together in a conf room to discuss a solitary death). However, the scene opens with a close-up of a glass of water with a coaster on top of it, and the cops in the background. Beauty! It is scenes like these that make 'Eeram' an important film in Tamil cinematographic history.

Of course the real protagonist of the film is water and she has never looked so good on screen before! Be it while overflowing from a tub or while splashing onto a face in slow motion or just dripping from the edge of an iron gate or just settling down a glass window as a condensing mist. The ubiquitous blue tone of the film that is occassionally broken with scenes in a full color pallete is just a master stroke!

I googled Manoj Paramahamsa - the cinematographer and he seems rather new. But boy, what a talent! Watch 'Eeram' for this man's work and also for Arivalagan's creative bursts.

Like I said, the script isnt important, though it is not bad at all. My only peeve with it is, like all ghost stories, this one is also based on revenge. Makes me think...wouldnt it be fun if someone came up with a different kind of a ghost motive? like say a ghost that wants to play cricket or one that wants to run in an election? Thats for another day, I guess...

Dog days

You know the feeling when you suppress something for an awfully long time and eventually let go? No am not talking about Ramalinga Raju, but my December and January. 4 intriguing films, an entire concert season and 3 weeks on Mumbai and Delhi roads meant there were tonnes to tell....but its amazing how awfully hard it is to get the internet, time and 'state of mind' - all in the same room, so you can write the hell out of it.  Nevertheless, its good to be back!

There is a scene in Slumdog, where the boys look through the key hole of the brothel room and see young Latika's torso twirling to a kathak movement,  illuminated by a thin light beam.  At that instant, it hit me that Boyle has crossed the rather thick line between 'a film on India' and 'an Indian film'.

Its amazing how a film with lines as cheesy as "I thought we will meet only at death", "I love you....so what?", "the slumdog barks", "is this heaven" and "my enemy's enemy is my friend" actually made it to so many festivals and awards (the red carpet has been rolled out at the kodak theatre as I write).  But when you really think about it, it is quite a smart film. 

'Subtitle' is among the worst things that ever happened to cinema (just behind George Clooney as Batman) and Danny gave it an interesting twist in Slumdog when he decided to have it beside the character and not at the bottom of the screen - its traditional home, where for decades it has been stealing viewers' eyeballs from beautiful frames. Its a small and stupid thing, but boy it worked.

'City of God', 'Amores Perros' and 'Malena' were in the native tongue. The characters did not have an accent and nobody found it odd in Latin America. They were landmarks in cinematic history, but more people would watch Slumdog Millionaire.

'Salaam Bombay' or 'City of Joy' would never make it to any list of popular films, though they are essentially the same DNA as slumdog. Only that Boyle decided to almost make it a series of music videos on arguably Rahman's most neo and experimental album till date. The opening police chase, the escape, the brilliantly shot train sequence....nice!

The rioters are on the other side of the railway platform and the kids are playing in the water. It is a shot from Jamal's POV as the boy plunges into the water and gets up. As he rises, the audio goes muffled like as though water went into the ears of the camera. Resul deserves a sound oscar just for those 15 seconds!

I saw another film on the underbelly of India last week, called 'Naan Kadavul' (That one needs a blog by itself). More morbid, more disturbing and even more honest. It had real people and not actors, but the tone was so mellowed down that it did not really get you out there. Whereas with SM, you could almost feel the heat and the dust. May be rightfully enough, they have just handed over the best cinematography oscar to it. Just that I cannot believe that an effort like Dark Knight would miss out....IMAX and all ;)

But the lasting image for me from the film, more than a month after seeing it is the frame of  Rubina Ali....dusty, sweaty and heavenly, under a sodium vapour lamp.  

          

White tiger...

you know the feeling....of running in sweltering mid-day heat, at the peak of chennai summer, listening to death metal on your walkman in full volume? (ok...before you think am demented, I would like to confess that I have not tried it post high school)

anyway...back to the run....its pain and ecstasy at the same time, with all that adrenalin pulling you through, long after your body has given up.

Reading the white tiger was pretty close - just replace the adrenalin with anger. It is a story that is so disgusting, filthy, rotten and raw that you can feel the stench emanating from the pages. The stench will no doubt disgust you at the beginning; but by page 200, you will not just get used to it, but in fact look forward to it indulgently.

If you have ever flown into Mumbai on a window seat, you would have no doubt seen the miles of blue taupaulined slums that the plane sails across, before depositing you int the marble floored, air conditioned, interior-decorated confines of the Chatrapathi Shivaji terminal. The strange thing is that the 'tarpaulined' and the 'terminal' are two mutually exclusive worlds - totally insulated from each other. While members of both these worlds meet everyday and even need each other to stay alive, they know so very little about the other's world that it could have as well been in a different planet.

Anyway, the book has nothing to do with Mumbai and so I havent spoilt anything for you ;) But it is about these two worlds and if you have ever stopped in your tracks once, angered by this rude, dualistic joke that is our nation, then you Will love the book.

A thousand elephants

So....
A title picked from Andal's 'Nachiyar Thirumozhi'. Is it gonna be erotic spirituality (as Thirumozhi's genre is) or does the literal translation of 'a thousand elephants' mean this is gonna be an action flick?
Harris's best work till date was an enigma by itself. An overwhelming 'rock' feel in couple of the numbers; A flat Sudha ragunathan crooning a disturbingly emotional melody; and a slow folk number that I was hoping will not make the final cut.
Gautham has a history of rip-offs. He has already made two films inspired by 'Seven' and one inspired by 'Derailed'. Lately, he has been talking to the media about how 'Forrest gump' inspired this one. So is this gonna be a straight rip off?
There was also the 'father & son' talk. Does Gautham Menon now becoming Gautham Vasudev Menon mean that this was going to be a 'Thavamai Thavamirunthu' redux?
And then there is also that critical factor of Sameera Reddy's shoulders and lips.
So, I had more reasons than one to look forward to Vaaranam Ayiram.



The only place I managed to get tickets was the drive in. And it was a cloudy evening.
But the weather held up mostly and the film did as well. The best part was, it surprised the hell out of me.
An honest, straight from the heart film. Now that by itself is surprising in Tamil these days. Add to it:
- an earth shattering performance by Simran.
- an intriguing background score
- a gimmick-less, narrative based editing
- minimalistic, but very effective make-up (u gotta have seen Dasavatharam atleast once to fully appreciate this)
- dialogues that actually strike a chord
- Imagination in most of the frames

you gotta winner.

Now, the other thing about this film is that Surya is in every single frame (no, am not kidding. Every frickin frame). In fact, most times, there are two Suryas in a frame. So, it takes some performance to pull this off, without pissing off the audience even once. He does it pretty well.

Its obvious that a lot of imagination and heart has gone into sketching the father character. It shows! Also, Gautham has always been amazing with relationships. There is a dignity and an intimacy that be brings to them, which makes you love the 'couple', more than you do the individual. You get into a bit of Deja vu many times.

And oh...the shoulders and lips dont disappoint you one bit. And that folk number is actually interesting.

Of course there is the length of the film, some scenes that tire you, the overtly episodic nature of the film, some monochromatic characters, Gautham's penchant with extending his films for 10 minutes after it is technically over, blah blah, which the critics will throw at you. Its all true.

But then at the end of the day, there is the heart thats been put into this. And thats in fantastic health ;)

10

It has been a wallet-bursting last few weekends at the movies:

The Happening, Dasa, Hulk, Mongol and Dasa again.

Hulk could have as well been an animated feature and Mongol is just too amazing a piece of art to write about on a Friday afternoon (I refuse to say anything about 'The Happening'). That leaves me with the one film I have waited impatiently for over half a year. Literally.

So, when I actually settled into my seat (first day, 2nd show), I had an embarrasingly wide grin on my face. And like everyone else, I too was nailed to my seat during the first 10 minutes. What followed though was a roller coaster ride of amazement and disappointment in equal measure, so much so that I left the theatre without knowing whether I actually liked the film or not. The second helping did not help either.



For what its worth, my 'Dus' things about Dasa:

1. Dasa ends with a montage of Kamal, 'before, during and after' the make up of each character (with the 'ulaga nayagane' track in the background). This is before the credits begin and so, seemed like he intended the audience to see it as part of the actual feature!!!! Its a minor detail, but it kinda gives us an insight into the thought process behind this film. This clearly is a 'come and see what all I can do' kinda gig and not the 'come, watch and get blown away' types. For some strange reason, I just assumed it would be the latter.

2. I think the folly of Dasa was the fact that much of its brilliance was too subtle to be noticed, let alone appreciated.

3. Almost no paati I have met in real life has had forearms that reminded me of Sanath Jayasuriya.

4. I have a sikh friend whose Tamil is way better than some of my Tamil friends. So I dont have a problem with Avtaar singing in Tamil. However, I do have a problem with him mouthing a phrase like 'Paarada Maanuda'

5. People say that the Tsunami sequence special effects were bad. Of course they were. This is a $25 Million film. That is half the budget of 'The Happening' (which at $60 Million is considered a teeny weeny small budget film). Even if you subject all the animation engineers in India into bonded labour, you cannot do much with $25 Million. Having said that, there is just no excuse for the scene where some police constables flee the rising ocean as if they were running away from a mouse on the loose.

6. The subtle brilliances. So many! The shot at the hospital with 4 kamals criss-crossing and the car chase with 2 kamals inside the car must have all been shot on multiple days. To have managed the same lighting and to have choreographed extras over and over again, etc must have been a continuity nightmare, pulled off brilliantly. I think the biggest indication that those scenes worked is that not many talk about it!

7. I totally loved the 'conspiracy theories' of the undying Kamal fan (http://sathyaphoenix.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/the-mapping-of-each-ten-roles-to-avatars-in-dasavatharam/). Some of them actually seem plausible.

8. Prosthetics kick ass. I think we all know that. Kamal's linguistic and voice modulations kick ass. We all know that too. These obviousnesses kinda brought down the novelty of 10 for me.

9. I think critics are having a field day butchering Kamal the writer. I dont know about that. I guess there is the script and then there is the premise. "A depiction of the 'Butterfly Effect', with a 9th century execution as the 'flutter of the wings' and a Tsunami nullyfying the effect of a biological weapon as the 'tornado'......In an industry that has been pre-occupied with 'boy meets girl' and 'good man kicks bad man's ass' for the last 75 years, I think this is pretty ground breaking.

10. Like sky diving or cardiac surgery, cinema too has no points for 'trying'. In the end it is all about the folks in the dark room with their backs to the projector, who paid to see your film. They either like what they see or they dont. It doesnt matter if you spent 100 hours to get into a plastic mask. They are still gonna come out and say "Hey that 'paati' did not look real, yaar!".

of Balaji, Baadshah and Bangalore...

Thank GOD am not a believer....

Tirupati is a freakin circus. Thousands of people, whose ages vary anywhere between 6 months to 103 years, are sandwiched together daily in 6 feet wide cages for miles together with no emergency exits or cops or cell phones in sight. Move over, trapeze artists!

It is quite a sight - that teeny weeny 'people' bridge in the middle such vast expanse of land!


So what happens if there is a stampede?....there almost was one the other day...or worse, what happens when somebody has a stroke?...Then again, thats just the Rs. 50 queue. So it aint really important. I am told the Rs. 500 "V.I.P" queues are not so long....but hold on for a sec....who the fuck are you to decide that if I dont have the dough, I cant see my God comfortably?

moving on....Saw Jodha a few weeks back, at 9:30 in the morning!! I usually prefer my cinema later in the night, well after the World has called it a day...but my buddy had scheduling problems and so I tried a post breakfast thing.....aint bad at all!

I hate films with commentaries, or a placard at the end saying what happened to the characters, later in their lives...like anybody cares! Thankfully, Jodha dint have the latter....but the former was bad enough. My take on commentaries is that if you cant say it with your screenplay, you are probably trying too hard. The first 15 minutes of the film reminded me of one of my all time fav TV shows - 'Bharat Ek Khoj'. I did not pay Rs.125 for that though.

Hrithik was awesome. He probably aint gay after all, like I had thought all these days. The man makes a fantastic Akbar. The scene with the elephant was pure panache.

Strangely, the thing I looked forward to most when I entered the theatre and the thing that put me off most during the film, were the same - Rahman. I thought the songs were brilliant and I found myself waiting impatiently for the next song, throughout the film. I almost jumped with joy when 'Khwaja' began. However, the background score was horrendous. It seemed as though Ashutosh's brief to Rahman was "dude, just spray it. I want atleast 125 musicians jamming at any point of time in my film". Not a single frame passes by in silence....and worse, the BG always gives away the mood of a scene, even before the audience enters it. Makes you yearn for a "Junoon" or "Last Emperor", mid way though the film!

Ashutosh is an old school guy and I think I love him for that....but I think that also makes him a terrible maker of songs. He (and I think Mani also shares this vice) has an unexplainable urge to lip sync every vocal in a song. This gets pretty tricky when Rahman scores the music, because he experiments with multiple vocal tracks of the same singer in a song. The result - you have 3 qawwali singers in a scene, all singing different parts of the song at the same time and sounding suspiciously like Rahman!! Thats stretching it a bit, boss!

Ashutosh is also one of the few film makers around, who still believes in 'goose pimple' scenes. In 'Swades', it was the kid selling water at the railway station. In Jodha, its Akbar getting up to dance in trance! WoW!

I loved the film, though. I think I saw endearing romance on the Hindi screen after a long time. Yeah, it was simplistic and it was very long....but I guess thats alright. I loved the fact that the director did not for the most part, move away from the love story into anything else too fancy.

That night, I saw a bunch of film makers (including Ashutosh) on NDTV, defending their right to creative liberty in interpreting history for a film. While I have absolutely no insight into how much of this film is factual, I actually think their argument is pretty ridiculous. If you dont think sticking to historical facts is important for a film maker and if you want the audience to see this only as a work of art, then why bother calling it 'Jodha Akbar'? Why not 'Usha Rahim'?

moving on....sneaked in a bangalore trip a few weeks back....and did Purple Haze after 5 years! It was nostalgia all over again....the backlit jimi hendrix, the smell of a decade of pints and cigarretes, the big screen TV playing 'comfortably numb', the gobi manchurian and good old rock n roll. I guess somethings never change....thankfully!

Kite Runner....

Both Marc Foster and I have spent most of November 07, working on the Kite Runner. Him, trying to finish the post production and me, trying to finish the book. He beat me to it! I finally finished the book last week and bought myself a ticket last night at the movies. The last time I saw a movie by myself was in the early nineties, when I watched Braveheart on the last show of the last day. None of my school friends wanted to see a depressing film about a man in a skirt (this was before it won the academy awards). Similar situation last night. Most of my friends were either not in town or not too keen to watch a film by the 'Monster's ball' director. The little or no advertising that the film got in the States dint help either.

I walked into screen 2 of the multiplex moments before the start, to spoil the privacy of a mexican couple - the only other souls in the hall. Thankfully, a newly wed Indian couple joined us minutes later. So there you go. The projector in a downtown Houston cinema, beaming the film just for the 5 of us....I mean, 3 of us.

Bad news first (spoiler alert!).

Soraya's eyebrows do not meet.

The guy playing Amir cant act to save his life.

There is no harelip.

and did I mention Soraya's eyebrows dont meet?

I loved the movie, nevertheless. I cant remember any other time when I finished a book and watched the movie so soon after, before the hangover died away. Its good and bad, I guess. Bad because you keep praying that the image on screen is exactly the same as the one you painted in your mind. So, you are extremely disappointed if it turns out otherwise.

For example, I was really looking forward to the 'half-time in the soccer match' scene. Not for the killings, but for the scene when the match resumes, after. I thought that was the essence of the scene, more than the killings themselves. Sadly, there is no 'after' in the film.

Another scene I was dying to see was the fight between Assef and Amir at the end. The way I played it out in my mind, there will be a large orchestra playing, a lot of slow motion, and a lot of close ups of Amir laughing - almost psychedelic. Almost like the scene where Bruce Willis fights the killer in 'Unbreakable'. I thought that scene was more poetic than anything else, when I read the book. Unfortunately in this film, the fight scene is just that. A fight scene.

However, it is a great film at the end of the day. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that none of the scenes were over romanticised - like the way I did in my mind. They are actually very 'matter of fact'ly and that was an interesting perspective for me. The film also looks extremely authentic. The flea market, the soccer field, the pomegranate tree...

And the boy who plays Hassan is amazing. His smile has all the innocence you would expect and then more. However, the best actor in the film is undoubtedly baba. Bravo! His transition from the imposing father to the cancer patient is so real, that you will almost miss it.

When I left the theatre in the cold of the night, I was really glad I made the trip. However, I couldnt help feel that the film was playing catch-up with the book, most of the time. It was as though some of the scenes were meant to sprint, so the next scene could be there in time. Or may be it was my book hangover acting up. I would love to hear from somebody who saw it, without reading the book.

Done and dusted!

OK. We now have a 'sports film' sports film. Take that off the 'to do' list! And if you dint know already, this one is for the stands.

Forget twice; I rarely would want to pay and see a Yash Raj film once, these days. But this is an exception. I am already looking out for the next group that is going to the theatres. Not that I slept off or dint get the plot the first time around. This just is a film that works.

My stand on Shah Rukh is a bit complex. Unlike every other homosapien I have discussed the subject with, I liked him in Devdas. I ofcourse liked him in Swades. One of my all time favorite hindi film is Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa and I think I watched DDLJ 3 times. But the list kinda tapers after that. I think he has done a fantastic job in this film. However, contrary to all the reviews you will read and promos you will see, this film is not about SRK and he has very little to do with why this film works.

I like to think that films are like a magic act. You have to hold the attention of the audience until the act is completed. You have to hold the spell. If they break away in the middle and get distracted, the act falls flat on its face. Films work that way too. The ones that can hold the spell for the most part, work. That is why we still enjoy cinema at this day and time, when everyone knows the trick and also how it is done. That is also why films have to be believable these days - to keep the spell.

Chak de had a lot of almost-spell-spoiling moments (a.k.a Yash Raj moments) for me.
For example, when Kabir tells Bindiya "only you know how to break the man-to-man strategy" (I thought he made it sound like 'Chakravyuh');

Or when the Indian men's hockey team plays against the women's team. I was deperately hoping it will be a 'dream' sequence or something;

Or when the cliched 'Shenoy'ish background score happens when Kabir was leaving his house;

Or when the 'cricketer' mouths some very cliched, chauvinistic lines.

Add to these, a not-so-rare occurence of some amateurish acting

But none of them quite break the spell, really.

Talking of Chauvinism....and Feminism....

In my life, I have come across numerous women who are fitter, stronger, more intelligent, more mature and definitely smarter than me (I am not sure about better drivers, though ;)). It was my triathlete (girl) friend who taught me the A,B and C of long distance running and swimming. My most favorite bosses have been women. So 'feminism' is a redundant concept for me. However, I do realize that the real world is very different and I know that there are glass ceilings in almost every profession. That notwithstanding, I think 'Chak De' has too many MCPs and feministic lines for my liking.

Anyway....let me get to the best part...things I loved about the film:

- The girl who plays Komal Chautala. My second ticket has more to do with her than anything else in the film.

- The girl who played Bindiya Naik. Awesome

- The production value! I think Chak De is as sleek as any other sports film I have seen. The world cup game sequences are mind boggling. I remember watching the Mexican film 'Goal' recently and not liking the game sequences, which looked digitally enhanced. Not Chak De! The cinematography is exhilarating. I did not think too much of Sudeep Chatterjee after Dor and Iqbal, but the man kicks ass here. The shot when Bindiya Naik is sitting by herself in the locker room, against the wall, is worth a million dollars. But the best shots are the dolly shots of the games. Wow!!!

- I thought the background score worked, except the scenes of Shahrukh leaving his house.

- Shimit Amin. I think he will become a very important director of our time. I loved'Ab Tak Chappan' and I think this is a great second act. The way he has paced the film is almost perfect! and I think he has got the casting spot on!! and he has made each of the girls such endearing characters, that we almost remember all the first names while leaving the theatre!

- The girls! I am told that most of them are athletes of some sort and almost none of them, actors of any sort. However, they hold their own pretty well. They play well, look gorgeous and make you smile most of the time!

- Jaideep Sahni. For someone who wrote 'Company' and 'Khosla ka Ghosla', this is definitely a different 'turf' and to be honest, I think he did half of Shimit's job even before the shooting began.

- The montages. wow!!! everybody rise and clap....there are no lip syncs to songs in this film!!!! and if that is not an achievement by itself, each of the montages kick some serious ass....perfect!

We watched the film on saturday night and half way into it, I got a call from one of the actresses on The River, who told me she wouldnt be able to make it to the shoot sunday morning, because her grand mother passed away. That was a mini disaster and meant that I had to make atleast 25 calls Immediately, to firefight. But I dint move an inch until the last of the credits went past. And I am getting myself another ticket!

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom

I have never left a theatre 12 minutes into a film, especially after paying $8 for the ticket. I did, last saturday - dumped JBJ after it barely began and sneeked up in time for Cheeni Kum. Probably the swiftest and the bestest decision I would make in my time.

If you have not watched it already, lemme give you an idea. 80s porn. The idea pretty much is that there will be a frame, two actors will walk into it and mouth their lines, a music track will be playing in the background, it need not necessarily have anything to do with the situation on screen (kenny G works best), and then there will be wild sex.

Now, replace the sex with a song and dance routine, make the frame look good (shoot abroad, use a brilliant cameraman, etc) and voila! - you have a Yash Raj Production.

The Downfall (Der Untergang, 2005)

If you are one of those people who have had enough of the monochromatic holocaustish World War II movies and are desperately looking for another angle, then "The Downfall" is the film for you. It is not anti-semitic nor is it a 'hail hitler' film...that way, it would not have reached the academy in 2005. I think it is an attempt to recount the tale of the last few days of the fuhrer and his team-the way it actually it happened. and boy, does it work!

I missed the opening credits and a good part of the beginning as I tuned in late...but read later that the film is actually an account of the last ten days in the sub-terrain headquarters. Also, it is based on books and accounts of people who were pretty much there. Like Frau Trudl Junge for example, who was Hitler's secretary (and an extremely pretty one!). I was shocked to see her interview just before the credits - recorded in 2002....she was apparently alive until 2003!!!

Bruno Ganz is extremely believable as a tired, old and a still ruthlessly focussed Hitler. What strikes you about the film is the completely different character sketch of this man and for that matter, the Nazi junta itself. Doctors, friends, drinking buddies, lovers, kids...normal people. I love the way this scene has been written:

the end is near. the alco hol is out. some choose to end it in their own terms. So people leave the drinking table on by one with a mild good bye and enter the toilet where a doctor explains to them the science of shooting yourself and the tricks to keep it painless...no violin orchestras playing in the background, no close-ups to 'enhance the emotion', nothing. The scene just rocks you by itself.

Godavari...

Finally got to see it. Had been on my mind for so long now. Actually got to see it with dad and as a original DVD...double whammy! thank god.....for a locale like this, it would have been the ultimate sin to have caught a camera print online....

very fresh and very neat....completely loved it (inspite of the plain saree rain song and 'action oriented sub plots')....Kamalini Mukherjee looks like a Million Euros! I had never thought of her as eye candy types after vettaiyadu.....but she really is.....and did i mention hot?...And I think I HAVE to marry the person who dubbed for her....

The songs are haunting....K.M.Radhakrishnan (????)...definitely radar worthy...and I had no idea Badrachalam and Rajamundri were such 'wow' places.....

will completely recommend it.....