Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

[This is for people who have seen the movie. I am not narrating the story of the movie here - rather sharing my after-thoughts]

Is there a Raj in each Suri? This is what struck me when I was watching the movie. Is it possible that a reserved person like Suri ever, no matter how hard he tries, be like Raj? But then I thought - there is this one self that we are, there’s this another person that we want to be and there is this third person that the world wants us to be. Our whole life goes in aligning ourselves with what we are, what we want to be and what others want us to be. Suri’s character was a depiction of this state. Raj personified what he ‘felt’ Tani wanted him to be. The Suri-from-Panjab-Power was what the world wanted him to be. And in between these two somewhere there was the real Suri.

It looks almost impossible how the same person can play both the roles (in the movie). How much can a person love someone so as to change to such an extent! Or was this what Suri always wanted to be at some corner of his heart – this just gave him an outlet? When, Vinay Pathak asks SRK to be Raj forever, SRK says that Suri cannot change (I don’t remember what exactly he said – but this is the gist if it). This shows the inertia – the importance he gives to his perceived image. Suri was always seen as an erudite, nerd person. That had become part of his self. He was ready to be a different person with a different name but was not ready to change himself as Suri – I know, this probably is too confusing and may not even make sense. These are my thought strung into words. The thoughts are way too sketchy.

Now let’s take the movie at its face value. The ending was too gripping. My mailbox was spammed with the story of the movie almost a fortnight before its release. Yet, till the last moment (almost), it was not clear how the movie is going to end. I found the movie's ending similar to Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam's. The heroine gives in to the sacrifices of her husband (in both the movies).

Acting of SRK was "A1" :). When I read the story in the mail, I was wondering how can Tani not recognize her husband! But considering the fact that SRK acted brilliantly in both the roles and also that they had hardly seen each other properly, it was well digestible. Vinay Pathak did full justice to his role. Anushka Sharma was good - the aesthetically shot scenes of hers were nice :-P

The music is good. The “aaa” (alap) which comes in between the song ‘tujhme rab dikhta hai’ looks like a direct copy of “aaa” (alap) in ‘aao huzoor – lounge remix version’. ‘haule haule’ reminds of Adnan Sami- Amitabh Bachchan song – ‘maula kabhi mujhe chhodna’. The choreography was good as well. ‘Dance pe chance’ could have been better choreographed given the lyrics and the situation of the song. Kajol looked amazing – perhaps, I am a bit biased here. Looks like there is some rift between Yash Raj and Amitabh Bachchan – ‘hum haii rahi pyar ke’ didn’t have any Amitabh Bachchan sequence!

All in all – the movie was a good watch. It, however, cannot be compared to a milestone like DDLJ. The movie is a typical bolywood masala movie with a dash of grayness. BTW, I was thinking shouldn't "ban di" be one word - "banadi"?


Cheers!

Raj Thackeray - An iota of substance

[The following is my response to the Raj Thackeray episode where he throws the non-Marathi low skilled labours off - It's copied from a mail i wrote on this issue]

I am not 100% against Raj Thackarey. There is some substance in what he's saying. But his course of action and, perhaps, his intentions are disgusting. The issue, indeed, is there. Not sure if Raj Thackarey had thought of it. It's something like this:

One part of the pond is "cold" - So the fish from that part of the pond goes to other parts of the pond. In that endeavor, knowingly or unknowingly, they make the other parts of the pond colder. Raj Thackarey is trying to remove the "cold" fish from the warmer part. But the solution is two-fold - (1) make the "cold" part warmer and (2) make provisions for native fish in the warmer part so that they are not affected just because some other part of the pond is cold. But doing (2) without one would be unjust to the "cold" fish. Doing (1) and (2) would be win-win for all. Hope the analogy is clear. If it's not clear, it's none of your faults :)

A good deal is always a win-win deal


- Think...

Paradise everywhere

Though, we may all agree that 9/11 gave terrorism a new shape, we must not forget that 9/11 was the ONLY major terror attack on the US. The Americans are safe as long as they are in their homes - as the terrorists have not been able to do them much harm in their homes. So, the terrorists target a Marriott Hotel in Pakistan or a Taj Mahal Hotel in India.

Please don't get me wrong here. I am not supporting/condemning the stance US had taken on terrorism. What i am saying is, irrespective of their stance, they are able to save their ppl.

For India, it's an utter Intelligence failure. For that matter, most terrorist attacks are due to intelligence failure.We like aping US in everything we do. We copy the way they talk, dress and eat. But we have not done a tenth as much as they have done to safeguard their ppl.

Terrorist attacks have become so commonplace that we are now on the verge of being comfortabely numb about it. Looks like we should rename all the cities to Kashmir.

- Think ...

Dostana

Awfully predictable and chewing gum stretchable.

The movie is:

Okay - if you are in a bad mood (you tend to feel good about your intelligence as you correctly predict not only the next sequence but also the next dialogue) and wanna just laugh at the suckers.

Not Okay - if you really wanna watch a good movie.

Okay - if watch it at a single screen theatre or at home.

Not okay - if u watch it at a multiplex < Not worth Rs 200 >

cheers!

Fashion - What??

There are two things you take back after watching Fashion – the first is the ubiquitousness of Nokia phones. Nokia phone is generally known for its sturdiness and high battery life. It is not perceived as a high-end phone. With Fashion, Nokia seems to be trying to change its brand image. The use of the Nokia phone by the high profile ppl in the glamour industry plays a good role in that. The Nokia ringtone played makes the statement all the more explicit. I personally hadn’t seen all those models (of Nokia phones) before. So, yes, I’d say it was a good advertizing strategy by Nokia. CCD also did good advertisement by positioning itself as the meeting place for the models – testifying its catch line, a-lot-a-can-happen-over-coffee. Given the ban on the advertisement of alcohol, Smirnoff took this opportunity to display its crystal clear liquour. Also, Diet coke was seen in between. Even, Habib’s didn’t miss this opportunity to advertize itself as the salon de la models


This is all I observed in the movie. Now, if this is all I observed, then it means there was nothing else to see in the movie. The story line was not only very week abut also very predictive. This is the worst thing a filmmaker would like his film (or story, in case it has one) to be – predictive. Madhur Bhandarkar seems to resting on his laurels. After films like Page 3, which are milestones of Bollywood, a rung of the mill movie like Fashion is least expected. Looks like Madhur is following Subhas Ghai not only by appearing in his movie but also by making an ordinary movie after some extraordinary stuff. The producers, Rahul (?) Screwwala and Madhur bhandarkar, seem to have made enough money from the above brands to cover the costs. I feel , a real measure of how good a movie is, is to measure how many times the audience looks at his watch. I looked at my watch at least 10 times. This is indicates how incapable the movie was to attract its audience.


But there was one good thing in the movie. Kangana Ranaut. This is the second thing I took back, Shee proved that that she is a really good actor. The sudden change in expression when she goes from the backstage, where she is drunk and doped, to the ramp, where she in no time bring attitude to her face, was amazing. She even looked like a show stopper. I started admiring her when Priyanka chopra becomes a model and does ramp walk. Kangana was far far better. She did full justice to the role. Great acting! Other actors were just okay. No other impressive performances.


Overall, it’s a waste of time to watch this movie. This time can be better utilized by killing flies and mosquitoes. Even if the only movie to compete with Fashion were Fashion (,i.e., the same movie), the former would have still lost to the latter :)

Cheers!

Welcome to Sajjanpur

If you have read my blogs, you’d know that I analyse critically the movies I see. I highlight the bloopers in the movie, and sometimes even suggest what could have been done to make the movie better. But this time I have no criticism and no suggestions. Welcome to Sajjanpur is a welcome respite from the senseless, meaningless movies releasing like people from projects in IT companies.

Welcome to Sajjanpur uses humor (as opposed to misuse, as done by a lot of movies these days) to tell grave realities of our society. Shyam Benegal, intricately weaves - a political saga, a child-widow problem, a human organs business, harassment of girls due to superstition and aspirations of an educated average village youth - by humour. Most comic sequences in the movie not only tickle you but also pose some thought provoking questions about the society we live in. The hegemony of the illiterate, Hindu MLA candidate, the helplessness of the Muslim opponent and the pains of the eunuch who finally wins the election – all points to the problems prevalent in the political space. Another heart throbbing story was that of a child widow who got a decent suitor. Both the families were more than happy with the relation but the couple was hung alive from tree by the society who took widow remarriage as a crime. The story of a woman whose husband goes to the city for work, not only describes the emotional trauma a woman (and more so a man) separated from her (his) spouse for four years go through but also hints at the organ-sale racket when her husband writes her that he is going to sell his kidney to buy a house for them. The most humouros of the stories, the story of a girl who was not getting a suitor because she was a “mangalik”, hints at the superstition of which our society is a victim. The girl, diagnosed as mangalik was prescribed to marry a dog born on a Saturday!

The movie ends in an overall positive note. The letter writer turns into a novelist. The manglik gets married (to this writer). Munni wins the election and is influential in the parliament (though Benegal doesn’t say whether the influence was good or bad). However, the hanging of the couple sensitizes the audience about the backwardness of our society.

I have purposely avoided using the names of the character or actor which played the roles. The characters represent average villagers – not only of Sajjanpur but of any place in India. All the actors did full justice to their characters. Sreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Rajeshwari Shachdev, Illa Arun, and all the others did an amazing work.

The music of the movie is good – not outstanding. The lyrics of the songs are really meaningful and add to the overall flow of the movie. I, especially, remember one song sung by the eunuch while campaigning. The song goes something like – “Pehle raja aye, phir rani aayi – ab munni jitegi”. It means – first there was the kingdom of “kings” – probably hinting at the Mughal rulers – all male. Then came the Queen – probably hinting at the British Queen and now Munni (the eunuch) is going to win.
If I still had to find one thing in the movie which I liked comparatively less was the dripping of nose instead of eyes of Illa Arun. But, still I think, it did good job in lightening the issue at hand. See, I still cannot find one clear “flaw”. The light but realistic treatment given to such heavy, grave subjects is really amazing. I had not seen such an amazing movie with such varied shades and colors in recent times – some part of the movie being painted with bright, cheerful colors, some with grim, dark ones and some with obscured colors whose myriad shades pose serious questions to the audience. You must have guessed by now (given the number of times I used the word ‘amazing’) that I found the movie, well, amazing :)

Rocking Rock-On

A shaadi-ka-song in a rock album – this is exactly what Rock On turned out to be. The switching of the storyline between the “rocking” past and the mundane present was brilliantly done. This aroused curiousity in the audience to find out what went wrong among the friends. The characters of the film were well-designed. I could, kind of, associate myself with KD or Aditya. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t mean that I am as rich as Aditya/KD are shown – nor I was part of a rock band – nor were the characters inspired by me – I bet u didn’t see my name in acknowledgements. But, rock was an integral part of our college life - rock competitions during fests, rock performances during freshers’/farewell, rock songs played in gachhtolas and canteens. I was never and am still not into rock, but somehow, rock did get into me, though very little. And now, I am leading a corporate life where disco nights have taken over rock shows and cafeteria over canteen. Outwardly, it all appears great. But somehow, there is a yearning to go back to the good ole days. This was portrayed in both KD’s and Aditya’s character.

The movie went well , given that it was targeted for not-so-rock-savvy Indian audience who thinks that Boyzone in a rock band. It doesn’t get into the darker/harsher side of the rock genre. The music was good and went well with the story – kudos to Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The movie and the friendship did reminded me of DCH but then, any movie showing urban-contemporary friendship is bound to be compared to or associated with DCH.

But. the brain tumor thing was too much of melodrama – though not explicit. The movie could have been just about a rock band. Why does someone need to have brain tumor, of all the deseases? This was similar to the stand of the music company owner. When Magik won the Channel V contest and was offered an album , the audio company asked it to add a shaadi-ka-gaana to the rock album. C’mon, this is the limit. This is highly unrealistic. Given the era in which the movie was set, it unrealistic and irrational of the audio company owner to insist for a marriage song to a rock album. The company should have analyzed the taste of rock fans. Which rock fan would have bought that album if it had a marriage song? Also, which non-rock fan would have bought it if it had 7 rock songs? – This reminds me of the behavior of a lot of politicians! Similar to this shaadi-ka-gaana thing was the brain-tumor saga. This made the film lose it’s realistic treatment it was given before Rob’s tumor case. Also, the PJs cracked by KD do not go well with rock stars – I don’t blame the director/writer for this - as the kind of jokes rock stars crack wouldn’t have got censor certificate. Also, the “response” of the audiences shown in the rock concert was too made-up. No headbangs, no rock-on gesture by hands. Rock show is not complete without these. The director/choreographer should have visited at least one proper rock show.

Overall, I’d rate this movie 7/8 (in proportion to 7 rock songs out of 8 songs in the album and 1/8 of the film having the brain-tumor stuff. The treatment of the film is fairly realistic. The music is superb – goes well with the movie. The acting of each of the actors is brilliant. The screenplay is amazing as wel. You don’t feel guilty of wasting some 2.5 hrs. I’d say it’s worth spending not only for the ticket but also for cola and popcorn