Lola rennt (German)-Run Lola Run (UK) (USA)

It was like Sas Bahu serials’s concsecutive three times “KYA” moment for me when my  dear friend for last three years ditched me . I am talking about mininova, who  has been serving the people like me who prefer torrenting the  movies than watching them on DVD or at theatre , specialy if its English, German, Italian,French and Spanish.     When i was away from mininova for the last 45 days, little did i know there are other friends like thepiratebay which i never knew existed.  

So on saturday i got this movie downloaded (thanks to thepiratesbay which is far better than e-bay as you dont pay ) and watched it as first thing on Sunday morning.  I have penchant for world cinema and being german i was expecting this also to be more of drama which i am big sucker of, but poor me  i was wrong as the next 80 mins proved to be maggy sauce  - its different . 

This movie is a bolt from the blue !!!  Trust me , i have watched all kinds of wired movies (which are nicely called cult movies) and any new genre, concept doesn’t  surprise me easily, but  this movie totally swept me off my feet and german cinema has become more dearer to me.  The last i luved was – Das Leben der Anderen (the lives of others).

I won’t go reviewing it , just an honest confession  that  i have never come across such wierd concept or i would rather say experimentation with human minds earlier and which i have liked each and every bit of.  The concept is , there runs a story about a girl and a boy where girl needs to accomplish “Something” in 20 mins to save her boyfriend’s life and the run-length also is near to 20 mins.  After 20 mins ,  the story ends with some “ending” to it and you throughly enjoy what she does in those 20 mins and what all happens to her.  So what after 20 mins… wait, wait ….here it comes… the  damn thing starts all over again, yes it starts all over again …  with same girl, same boyfriend, same situation… with only change in the situations in those 20 mins and those different situations culminating into a differnt ending.  The second ending is totally different like again maggie sauce with diffetent flavour. If you are intelligent like me and remember that i told you its  80 mins  flick so there got  to be some more to it …. right .  Yes there is, there is the same situation again  - ” The Third Time”   where everything remains same but the diffferent situations and ending.   So it came across to me like a video game where i am given more than one chance to play the game.  I thanked  that minute when i chucked the idea of  doing  abit of research on the movie before watching it , like genre, star cast and  two line summary. Had i done that, i woulnn’t have mustered enough courage to dedicate 80 mins of my sweet sunday morning to such crazy concepts. 

Trust me all those who like something “different” in cinema will luv it.  It has got three endings for same story , you can pick whatever you like and feel good about that but someone like me would like it more for the reason of  thinking  - how on earth can someone even think about these concepts which are more astonishing than the concept casrs shown in Auto Expo (sorry.. bad one).

Its Different!!!

There’ s a lil bit of “SID” in everybody’s life …

Can you tell me the story in three sentences?  This is my question to all those who saw “Wake up Sid” ?

I sat through the whole  two and half hours of movie , totally captivated and to my surprise , when I was speaking to my friend on the story part,  I took not more than a minute to finish it.

This is what we call a minimalist plot which is the beauty of this flick.

I heard people comparing WUS with Lakshya, but for me it has very less resemblance with Lakshya. The only resemblance is  the aimless life of both the characters. If the essence of the movie is to be compared, then both the movies are pole apart and the only commonality is the  fresh direction.

If I were asked to draw parallels, then frankly it reminds me of Richard Linklater’s  1995 drama film “Before Sunrise” (and  “Before Sunset” –  sequel). It’s  a minimalist plot where two strangers meet , they travel in train, disembark in Vienna , , discuss on love , life, history , architecture, try to  know each other and then they depart at the end of the movie to meet again (in the sequel ).  It has no twist, no climax and no out of the blue ending. It takes the us  on a journey called “your life” wherein we get  immersed in the movie , identify with the character, live through the whole movie where each dialogue resonates with the conversation we have everyday and it ends just like any other day in our life.

WUS does significantly well in treading the same path. So I am clear its not  another Lakshya , hope you are too …

Also , I read somewhere that it’s a story of a spoiled brat who finally wakes up and realizes what he wants to do in his life and shoulders the responsibilities.  Frankly, this part of the story was over much before the intermission and this is something which won’t appeal much –not to me at least.

The beauty of WUS is in Sid’s and Ayesha’s realization of their love for each other which is a culmination of staying together as friends , confronting on many occasions but not accepting , fighting on trivial issues and many  occasions of compromising for each other.  This part of the story has a fresh as well as mature look.  Fresh is because it was never tried before as most of our bollywood  movies  show us something which we call un-natural just to entertain us and mature because  every part of the movie tells an untold story  - even  if it was a just a scene of hugging.

This is the movie to get immersed in, to feel and live through and yes not to write about as words can’t describe everything.

I salute these new age directors – Ayaan and Farhaan who are trying to give a new meaning to cinema in our country.   I have woken up, have you ?

Whatt a FWEET KAMINEY……

Its been long since i posted  last..  seems like universe was conspiring against it, first there were not great movies which needed your and my time, then our distributors wanted more share of the pie and blocked all the aspiring blockbusters from getting screened with the help  of Khan Brothers (Aamir and SRK) . No sooner it got resolved than there was a rally of “I dare you watch this movie” kind of movies raking in attention because of the  long lull and after that somewhere the pigs flew, reached India and occupied our seats in Multiplexes . I hope u got the last one….

But… every cloud has a silver lining , so good movies are hitting back  so would my posts now. I saw Love Aajkal a week back.. seriously I just want to keep it as an update from my end to you and nip it in the bud. There is something special to be discussed here which I saw last night … what a fweet KAMINEY.

Again , I won’t be reviewing it  but revisiting the subtleties of the direction, choreography, performance and music.  Thinking of performance first , I must  salute Vishal Bhardwaj on his choice. I can’t think of  anyone else but Shahid to justify the role . He is as innocent as Guddu as he is macho as Charlie.  Aamir  is too old to do Guddu, Imran is too young to do Charlie ( hope u didn’t forget KIDNAP) , Ranbir doesn’t fit in either of the roles and BLANK, there is no one .. the role makes Shahid as the first and last choice for the movie. After watching movie, I second Vishal  on his comment that the role was never offered to Saif which he claims.  Not sure about you guys , but certainly i would roll over the floor watching Saif Lipsying and stammering with his unique voice J.

Priyanka was as super as always , it’s a no brainer …  if you really want to  see how deeply she was involved in  her acts .. go and watch her jaw dropping marathi dance in “raat ke dhai baje”  with multiple pauses and observe her facial expressions when she is about to do the V-Shape dance .  The intellectuals would get what I meant by V-Shape dance  J . Not for a nano second , she appears like acting..what more could someone could have asked for. I did the same thing for “Jalwa Song” from “Fashion” which has historical ramp walk of Kangana Ranaut which must have given Priyanka , the lead actress many sleepless nights. She was just fantastic and passed my test with flying colors J

Now coming to music, I think after Panchamda , its only Vishal Bhardwaj who can compose that kind of music  which complements to the movie and acts not as a filler but a story teller.  Each song tells its part of the story with music indicating the mood.  If you want to judge a fine music, you should have a script of the movie in your mind after listening to the songs in a chronicle order. I guess only a director can compose such music or only a music director can do such a fine direction.

It is purely an entertainment movie packed with good action and drama. UTV has done it again and I could see a time very soon when UTV brand will become a crowd puller.. so wake up Sid….

Saw 13B & Gulaal too…

March  – 09  nearing to an end and i couldn’t have a single good movie this month.  so to have  at least one post for march , here i go on 13B and Gulaal.  Don’t worry.. i understand if you have watched these movies and spent extra money on those pain killers too, i won’t be punishing you with reviews too on them, i am gonna cut it really very short…

lets not talk about 13 B   but i think Gulaal would have been well accepted and appreciated by critics as well as masses, if  it was released atleast an year or two  back . The freshness  in direction, screenplay and script was conspicuous by its absence.  Its just those seven years which Anurag took to finish it are to be blamed. Guess, if it was finished within normal time and released around 2k3, it wd’ve been another Dev  – D, well ahead of its time.

As promised, i’m finishing it… planing to watch Firaaq, it may end up as one worth -2- watch movie of march…

Delhi 6: a straight overhead six

Let me start this one with something I do for my living – my job. As part of my job, I have to train our sales force and the channel partners about the services under my vertical. Initially I would flood them with info on all the services in one go and pity I couldn’t read their helpless, restless faces. Sooner I realized it’s better to pick one service and eat , drink and sleep with that one only for that session.

Now you would appreciate why I started off with something “Official”. I have learned from my mistakes, but Mr. ROM is one step ahead, he started off flawlessly with RDB and I really don’t understand what exactly was in his mind for the2^nd inning. In one recent interview, I remember telling him to the interviewer that with RDB he cleared his high school and with Delhi – 6, he has completed his graduation. Well, I have never seen a high school guy with so much maturity. I just hope it to be a curious case of Mr. ROM.

Let’s come to the movie, we all know we still have issues related to backwardness, superstition, non-secularism in our country with mother of all – Terrorism also acquiring a face. Bollywood has been taking up these issues with stories moving around the issues and issues just part of the story. Delhi – 6, is also one attempt in that direction. The screenplay, the subtlety of the music and the ensemble cast is just incredible and any art lover will fall for these. The only thing missing in the whole movie was – CLARITY.

Clarity doesn’t mean ROM was not aware what he was up to, but clarity in dealing with one issue and not multiple issues in 150 mins. I felt as if it was the last movie of ROM and as a patriot he wanted us to know all the issues ruining our country.

The movie has been made with right intentions and ROM might have experimented with the theme of taking up multiple issues, but it really has not clicked. I just hope ROM realizes it as all of us expect lot more from him.

Raaz : The Mediocrity Continues

Let me use some stats here, about two third of the total movie goers belong to Tier 2, 3 , semi urban and semi rural areas and comprise of the individuals who just want to be entertained by drop dead looks of the actor, fighting scenes, dance item or anything which teased him/her to come to cinema hall.

They have been and are the prime target for the producers of the typical masala films and RAAZ: The mystery continues… happens to be one of those!

I am not against any producers to rake in money this way as it’s us who decide the fate of the movie, but again as I have said in my very first post also, bollywood needs to act as a doctor and prescribe what we need and not what we want. If each industry had stuck to the same product, processes and modus operandi, we would still be paying for the incoming calls with a handset which weights at least 2.5 Kg.

People who watch movies just for masala have been fed with masala for ages by bollywood only and it’s not in our genes to have an affinity towards masala movies. It’s just like we haven’t been shown different shades to appreciate a movie and make it a commercial hit. It reminds me of Matrix, where we all have been pre-programmed and there is no red pill.

Bollywood needs to come out of this mediocrity and we have a history of accepting and appreciating the change. When I say change, it doesn’t mean each movie should carry a message, should be made with Oscar/Golden globe in mind and should have an aesthetic touch, what I want is good script and all the elements of movie justifying the theme of the movie, e.g. for a horror flick we need to have more than just horrifying faces (which actually are very comical), scary sounds and maggi tomato sauce (supposedly blood).

Mediocrity is winning as very few come forward, experiment and set a bench mark.

No surprise if RAAZ – II becomes a hit or hit’s cousin (like terrifying hit (phoonk), zabardastt hit (hello)), but surely this is not the way we will be another Hollywood … Bollywood really needs a red pill.

Ghajini – Ghajento or Mementini

Do you get what I am trying to convey with these two words……. NO….. think again…. YES… cool.. it is the “distortedness”. When i say distorted , it means the new form neither has its own identity and nor it has good features of the original form.

Something like this happened when I saw Ghajini and readers please don’t get me wrong as I am not here for a review, it’s just Ghajini was thought provocative enough to have a place here.

I have seen nearly all the movies listed in “IMDB top 250” and there comes Christopher Nolan’s 2000’s unforgettable movie “Memento” ranked 27 with all-time rating of 8.6/10. Unfortunately or fortunately I have seen this movie thrice, not because of any cult like phenomena but because of my “not so sharp” grasping power. I had to watch this flick twice in succession to understand it first time and third time I watched it to have even the faint memory of Ghajini completely erased out of my memory. It will take some time though …..

Aamir Khan has argued that Ghajini is not a remake of Memento and its just the concept of short term memory loss which is similar in Memento and Ghajini. I second Aamir on that as Christopher couldn’t have afforded to spice his movie up with Guy Pearce being a corporate guy being turned into an Iron Man who can make the enemies fly with his 2.5*2 = 5 kilos ka Haath and where the Top Management of a reputed telecom company have personal involvement in deciding the location of hoarding for the brand publicity.

C’mon bollywood, Ghajini is a classic example of our failure of even wrapping a masterpiece with some sensible story. I am not against of any movie remake as far as the final outcome is worth watching.  bollywood thought it is the concept which makes the movie sellable in any form but it forgot that it is not the concept of short term memory loss which made Memento a classy but the way it is narrated , the way director confuses you every 20 min, the way you got logical reasons for every act only after 20 mins, the way two stories running backward and forward finally converge.

Ghajini replicated the  concept ( as it was easy to copy ) , but failed pathetically in the script to suppprt the concept. The story woven around the concept was so weak that if you remove the memory loss concept from the movie, any Mithun Starrer masala film in 80’s would score higher than Ghajini and I still fail to understand why on earth the movie was named Ghajini as if it was all about the villain.

I hope bollywood gets its own DC (Dilip Chhabria) who can make a new car out of a car which has the goodness of the original and a fresh look to have its own identity. Ghajini for me is just like an ambassador painted chilly red, spanked with a spoiler at back, fitted with an air cooled compressor for extra torque, sporting alloy wheels and all the features to give it a sporty look….with the design of the car UNCHANGED… do you wanna ride that ….

Signs of Maturity in Bollywood

If you ask our youths about their all time favourite movies, it will not be surprising that you get most of the names from Godfather Trilogy, LOTR and Harry Potter series, some flicks from Brazil soil and very few flicks from Bollywood. And when you are being curious to know the reason, you get standard answer that the movie had a long lasting impact because of its powerful script ,excellent direction and it was not just an entertainment movie. This is what our bollywood directors boast in the promos of every coming movie and add the super performance of the actors and great music also. So why there are not enough bollywood movies in the top favourites of our own Indians.

The reason is clear but hidden in those standard answers which we fail to see. Its not only the powerful script and superb direction which makes a movie GOD MOVIE, but the intentions behind making the movie, the subtleness with which a movie touches the hearts of millions, the easiness with which a movie takes you to the peak and leave to first wander then think and finally debate endlessly.

Most of us go to watch a movie for few hours of entertainment and the movies which top our fav list are those which were not just entertaining but beyond it. It is kind of contradictory but this is where most of our producers, directors and script writers do fail to catch the unheard voice of audience. Bollywood gives us what we want, not what we need. Bollywood not acting as a doctor who does a check up first then prescribe the medicine accordingly.

This was my take on why we lag when it comes to quality movies, but something happened this weekend which shook me totally and made me rethink about the maturity of the bollywood.

Thanks to UTV motion pictures which supported the powerful script of “Mumbai Meri Jaan” and “ A Wednesday” .

There are things common in these two movies and shares differences too. The commonalities are both are from UTV motion pictures, released in the same month, bring out the ill effects of terrorism, take Mumbai at the centre of the story and towards the end made people think think and think.

Lets talk about the differences, MMJ is about how the people from different strata of society are affected by the Bombay Blast and how little adjustments in thinking and responsibilities of the same people can remove the stigma of terrorism. In first half ,there is a natural flow of all the consequences which all Mumbaikars went through after the blast and In second half it does a great job of conveying the acts of a responsible citizen. It also brings up how media and anti-social elements kill the already dying spirit of city. Not going into each role & character, I would say Director Nishikant Kamat has successfully conveyed a message to the audience that it just take a change in the attitude of people to get rid of this stigma and we need to act responsible at the time of crisis as Government can’t clean up mess everywhere.

Take a note when I say Government, specifically our Police system can’t clean the mess everywhere and we need not be totally dependent on them. This is where “A Wednesday” starts from and brings up the issue of a common man living through the fear of blast everyday and tolerating this flaw of the system. It goes one step beyond MMJ and asks our system boldly that how long a common man has to make the little adjustments in his attitude and life, not depend on the system, clean up the mess daily when whole country is ruining due to flaws in the system. It shows what a common man expects from the system and what he can do if system fails to provide safety to his life. Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah have given one of the best performances of their life and Director Neeraj Pandey has kind of dropped a bomb in the bollywood making this kind of movie. The straight 100 minutes of sheer thrill poses a lot of questions to the system which MMJ did to the common man.

We know what Holistic Approach means, if you really want to understand this approach not minding shelling few bucks, I recommend watching these two movies in succession- MMJ and then A Wednesday, it tells you how message is conveyed holistically.

With these kinds of movies, the folks from bollywood have shown signs of maturity and I abode well for the new era of bollywood movies.