Chennai Express

I recently watched Chennai Express and throughout the entire duration of the movie I could not figure out why this movie is the biggest ever grosser in bollywood. It frustrated me so much that I felt like jumping into the well sized plot holes. I slept over this thought and in the morning I was woken up with fresh stream of ideas. Considering the movie is a blockbuster imagine many years from now if someone watches this movie he would watch it with the assumption that it is a great movie and they will try to justify the greatness. What would that person write about Chennai Express is what this post is all about. 

'Get on the train, baby!' wow! what a catchy line. This line sets up the tone of the movie and is played every time the lead couple is on the run, which they are many times in the movie. By the end of the movie I found myself saying this phrase every time it played and it is still playing in my head. Simply amazing. The movie is neither about the train Chennai Express nor it is set up in Chennai but a forced journey in Chennai Express turns out to be the turning point in the life of our hero. Also I feel that Chennai is used as a metaphor to address entire Tamil community. What thought process on account of the legendary director Rohit Shetty; which wikipedia tells me makes only blockbusters with only exception to some movie called Zameen. However wikipedia blames the failure of that movie on Abhishek Bacchan who seems to have the power of turning anything he touches into dust. I hear that in later years of his life he was forced to wear gloves all the time.

'He is so old. No... I don't want to run.'

Anyway, I digress. Shifting our focus back to Chennai Express. The hero is a 40 year old man played by Shahrukh Khan who is suffering from a medical condition that restricted his mental growth somewhere during his teens. So while he looks 40, he still behaves with the maturity level of a 16 year old. I am sure this is some rare medical condition, which director wanted to bring to our attention. I think such movies highlighting rare medical conditions were big during that time. I remember watching a movie called 'My Name is Khan'; which was a big hit; however there was another movie during that time 'Paa' that was not as big a hit but thanks to recently gained above mentioned knowledge from wikipedia, I now know the movie must have failed to make it big because of Mi-dust touch of Abhishek Bacchan. I hear he even managed to turn his wife, who used to be a global icon, into worthless after marriage. Such was the legendary Mi-dust touch of his and I think it was she who forced him into wearing gloves to save the entire family. I wonder if someone wants to make a movie on that. I would be happy to write a script on that.

I digress again. So our hero Rahul gets into the Chennai Express only to get down at next station to go to Goa but fate has some other plans for him. While getting out he sees a girl running on the platform to catch the train and somehow he gets nostalgic, probably remembering his younger days and instead of getting off he helps pull her up. Then he sees four dudes running to catch the train and again gets nostalgic, probably remembering Karan Johar and pulls them up too; only to later realize that those 4 big dudes have kidnapped Mina-something-I-cannot-pronounce and she was running from them. So she was running from her family near Chennai and she catches a train, which takes her back to same place. I am sure director wanted to show us the power of fate otherwise under her circumstances this would have been the last train anyone else would have taken. Anyway they communicate in funniest possible way and land in her village. She convinces her father that she loves Rahul and wants to marry him and entire village seems to be okay about it until a huge guy comes along and challenges Rahul for a fight in Tamil. Since Rahul does not understand Tamil and has the maturity level of a 16 year old, he nods. Then he runs away and is brought back by the Sri Lankan police, which I think is director's way of showing global collaboration and neighbor solidarity. Then they run away and are brought back again. Then they run away again and come back on their own this time. Why? Because Rahul has a mental disorder. Director has so beautifully presented this disorder by his action without actually mentioning it even once.

He...

...beats him. Such is the power of love.

Anyway, in the end due to power of love a 40 year old defeats some 20 goons who are all much fitter and bigger than him. This power of love transform all the bad guys and they live happily ever after and how. By singing and dancing to the tunes of legendary Yo Yo Honey Singh. He is so cool, as in, 'Yo'. His voice is sweet like 'Honey' and he roars like a 'Singh' when someone finds any vulgarity in his songs. Everyone is dancing in front of pictures of Tamil contemporary God Rajni. Such meaningful are the lyrics of the song and what use of 'lungi'. Lets pause for a moment to sing 'lungi' prayer to Rajni. 

This was the biggest blockbuster of its time so it must be a good movie so what if I cannot find the good part. Gems are usually hidden and difficult to find. So many people collectively cannot be wrong so there must be something lacking in my movie watching process that I may have missed these carefully hidden gems. I am sure regular 'lungi' dance in front of Rajni God will give me necessary skills to appreciate such movies. 

Attire for 'lungi' prayer.

Heroine: Not a Review

I have not seen the movie yet and I am not sure if and when I will watch it. So this post if not a review of the movie and should not be used to determine how good or bad the movie is. This post is purely basis the pre-release activities of the movie. This post is a result of my discussion about the film with my friend and the analysis the followed. 

We realised that Heroine while it appears to be is not a typical Madhur Bhandarkar movie. I do not think I have to say much about what a typical Madhur Bhandarkar movie is, yet for those who yet have any disconnects. Madhur claims to be a realistic filmmaker (whatever the hell that means). This claim helps him win National Awards, because National Awards jury are sucker for realistic cinema. Madhur typical picks up a setting like dance bars, jail, traffic signal, corporate world etc and puts together all the perceived evils about the particular settings and then tries to fit all these evils in the form of a story. Irrespective of the setting he chooses, the common factor about most of his movies is that the setting is the lead protagonist of the story and all the characters are designed to portray the evil impacts of the chosen setting on themselves. Pick any of his popular movies from Chandani Bar to Fashion and you would understand what I am trying to say here. He even creatively ;) chooses his titles to avoid any confusion in the minds of tha audience. Chandani Bar is about dance bars, Page 3 is about page 3 parties, Corporate is about corporate world, Traffic Signal is about traffic signal, Fashion is about fashion industry and Jail is about, well; jail. The reason he casts not so famous faces in his movies is because he does not want the actors to dilute the portrayal of the surrounding and in few cases where he hired known actors, I presume they were instructed to play their part in a way that highlights the surrounding and not themselves. Counting the number of National Awards he has won, that seems to have been working well for him so far.

Now lets talk about Heroine. The title itself is enough to give away the difference from other Bhandarkar's movies. The title is not Showbiz or Films or Entertainment or Bollywood that means the movie is not about the Film Industy, it is about the Heroine. The main protagonist here is not the setting, it is in this case the Character played by Kareena Kapoor. Since I have not seen the movie, I cannot say how this diversion from his usual style has shaped up. Last time he deviated from his usual style, he gave us Dil To Baccha Hai. So you can get an idea.

The poster screams "it's all about Kareena"

Now imagine how his other movies would have been if Chandani Bar was titled Bar Dancer, Page 3 was named Celebrity, Corporate was named VP-Marketing, Traffic Signal was named Homeless, Fashion was named Super Model and Jail was named Qaidi (prisoner). What that changes is that they now become stories about the impact of the lead characters on their surroundings rather than other way round. Now I am expecting the people who have seen Heroine to tell me how accurate our analysis is.

My Favourite Acting Performances so far in 2012

Almost half the year is over and we have seen some very fine movies being released. Directors like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dibakar Banerjee and Anurag Kashyap, making sure that we are not forced to watch mindless movies. There have been some very fine performances by some very fine actors and here I am listing three of my favourites. There are my best actor nominees for the first half of 2012.

Irrfan in and as Paan Singh Tomar

Irrfan is undoubtedly one of the finest actors Hindi film industry has got and in Paan Singh Tomar he plays the title role of the national record holder athlete who turns rebel to protect his family when authorities fail to take any action. He becomes an athletes because there was no limitations on amount of food he could eat. He chooses steeplechase over 5000 meters race because his coach wanted someone else to with 5000 meters race. He becomes a rebel because his cousin beats his son and his mother. He chose to be interviewed because he did not want to be considered as a brutal murderer rather he considered himself to be known as a rebel with a cause. He does not surrender because he believes in always finishing the race, no matter what. His only regret in life is that when he was an international athlete nobody cared for him and when he became a rebel everyone was talking about him.

Irrfan is so convincing that at no point you stop rooting for him whether he is running for the country in a race or chasing his evil cousin or running from the police. You always want him to win and that is the power of Irrfan's talent as an actor. He brings Paan Singh Tomar back alive and tells his story as if he himself is telling his own story. He looks the part, he speaks the language and he expresses the pain perfectly.

Emraan Hashmi in Shanghai as Jogi Parmar

It was such a surprise to see chumma man with such a dirty mouth and stained teeth that nobody would dare kiss him and what a pleasant surprise that is. Jogi Parmar's character in Shanghai is a complex one. He shoots illegal porn videos for living but risks his life to unearth the truth behind the killing of an activist for the sake of a girl he barely knows.

He works in a photo studio and earns his living by making illegal porn videos however his disinterest is evident. He knows it is dirty and stops the girl whom he considers his dreamgirl from sitting on the same bed where he shoots his dirty pictures. He has lived a life of anonymity and loves the attention whenever he thinks he has done something worth showing off like when he gets the foreigner girl to sit on the backseat of his scooter. He abandoned his family to save his life and in an attempt of correct that he endangers his life to recover the proof that could help identify the real conspirators behind the killing of the social activist. Emraan Hashmi as Jogi Parmar has clearly proved that kissing is not his only talent.

Manoj Bajpayee in Gangs of Wasseypur as Sardar Khan

Sardar Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur is personification of pure evil. There is not a single quality in him. He enjoys killing people and justifies it in the name of revenge. He cheats on his wife and justifies it by citing a convenient interpretation of religion. He is scared of his wife because he knows he is bad.

Manoj Bajpayee brings back the memories of Bhikhu Mhatre, who bowled us over. He is in top form in GoW and is having fun playing the evil protagonist. Be it casually killing someone without showing any emotion or flirting with his women or panicking when his son it hit by a bullet or showing his contempt while publicly challenging his powerful enemy or trying to spot his attackers after being hit by multiple bullets, he does everything to perfection.

I have only seen the trailers of Gang of Wasseypur 2 but I am expecting that I will have to add one more name to this list after watching that and that would be of Nawazuddin Siddique. He is one fine actor.

Story Telling: Where RA-One Went Wrong

After watching RA-One while in conversation with Sunny (my friend who accompanied for the movie) we discussed the one very basic thing that was wrong with this movie and had it been taken care of the movie could have been on a different level. I thought I must write this post so that anyone interested in creating a story benefits from it.

There is one basic rule of any sci-fi story and for that matter any story which is told in another space, time and does not follow the understood rules of the nature in the world we know. The rule is that you need to first define the rules of the environment and then follow the rules throughout the story without defying them. Any exception to any of the pre-defined rules makes the story weaker because you end up ridiculing your own rules. Pick any good science fiction and this rule applies. In Avataar Cameron goes to great length to define the Pandora and surroundings. One of the finest such movie I have seen in recent times Inception spends almost half of its run time to first define the rules and then the entire movie is woven around those rules. For that matter take Judgement Day, which loosely inspired some part of the RA-One's plot. Imagine if somewhere in the middle of the movie the robot somehow develops emotional intelligence. He is a machine throughout the movie and behaves basis his programming. I-Robot is another such example. Where rules of the environment are mentioned multiple times through the movie for the audience to keep tab of the same.

Any creative liberties you want to take must be taken while defining the rules and the environment but one the same is defined your story must stick to them without any deviation. Like in RA-One the character of RA-One in the game is a bot and does not need any third party to control it, however the character of G-One needs a player, i.e. any person wearing the suit, to control  it. In the movie sometimes G-One is following the instructions of the kid without being able to act on his own, while in some other scenes he just doesn't need the kid or anyone else to control his actions. Had they remained true to this one rule and would have shown G-One in control of the kid throughout the movie, it could have been more fun. G-One is nothing but a walking-talking computer program out of a first person fight video game and it is silly to show him sing and dance to the tunes of Chammak Chhallo.

I have already spent a lot of words writing about RA-One hence would not go into it again. You can read the other post if interested.

Curious case of Shahid Kapoor

While watching Dil Bole Hadippa; yeah, yeah; the same movie where Harbhajan Singh dresses up like Rani Mukherjee and bats like Virender Sehwag; I realized how most of the movies acted in by Shahid Kapoor are so socially relevant and address to one social cause or other.



While Dil Bole Hadippa addressed the issue of male-female equality and how unfair it is to not let women play in the same team as men; his kismat connection highlighted the relevance of corporate social responsibility and how big corporate are damaging the society and nature in their rat race to earn profits. I remember hearing the words "global warming" somewhere during that movie. Then there is masterpiece Badmash Company, where he teaches us how success achieved by unethical means is short lived and unappreciated. The movie teaches us that it is ok to be stupid rather than unethical. Then there is pathshala questioning the commercialization of education.



His movies Shikhar, Chance pe Dance, Jab We Met teach us how we should follow our heart and we will achieve happiness and success together.I wish he learned some lessons from his movies and achieve happiness and success.

Rise of Pappu Pager and Fall of Azghar Jurhad

I have grown up watching the movies of 80s and 90s like Shaan, Mr. India, Tiranga, Vishwatma, Tridev etc, where there used to be a distinct bifurcation between the good guys and the bad guys, we can call them hero and villain respectively. Hero used to too good, which effectively means, he used to be an underachieving loser, with a BA degree and ghar me and andhi maa aur vidhawa behan, oops vidhawa maa and andhi bahan to support.

Villains used to be too bad with names like Azghar Jurhad, Bakhtawar, Shakal, Dr. Dang, Gaindaswami, Mogamgo etc (imagine how ugly the boy has to look for his father to hold him into his arms at the time of birth and say, "kitna katarnaak dikhta hai, iska naam Azghar rakhte hain."), and all they could dream of was ruling India, with a very simple plan in hand i.e. firing missiles at three metros Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta (I have always wandered why they always ignored Madras now known as Chennai), some had even simpler plan, blast a missile in Delhi only and be the King of the country as big as India. Most of them had a foreign hand helping them, normally played by Bob Christo (he was Macmohan of foreigner goons, who played same role in so many movies without even changing his get up). Minimum ticket size for all the transactions for these villains would be in tunes of Crores. Nashte me sau, do sau crore idhar udhar kar dete the. They would make the state and central government fall matter of factly. A typical breakfast conversation would be something like this:

Chamcha: Wo chief minister humare liye sar dard ban gaya hai.
Super Villain: (taking a sip) ek kaam karo, sarkar gira do. Humare videshi agent X ko bolkar yahan itni tabahi machao ki mukhya mantri istifa dene pe majboor ho jaye. use is kaam ke liye 100 crore bhejwa do.

Then suddenly came Satish Kaushik playing Pappu Pager, a dumb goon with silly antics. People laughed at his stupid actions and idiotic conversations and came the era of villains like Vasuli bhai, Munna mobile, Aslam bhai. Basically now the hero is no longer a loser with no vidhawa maa and andhi behan, he doesn't even care for a job anymore. The role of the loser has been taken over by villains. I don't like these loser villains who are abused, beaten and made fun of by all and sundry. I miss Amrish Puri, I miss Azghar Jurhad.

Gulaal

Two powerhouses of acting together

The Dark Knight Trailer

Mithya: A movie I am looking forward to.

65th Annual Golden Globes: Nominations

Complete list of nominations for the 65th Annual Golden Globes:

FILM

Best Motion Picture, Drama

* American Gangster
* Atonement
* Eastern Promises
* The Great Debaters
* Michael Clayton
* No Country for Old Men
* There Will Be Blood

Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama

* George Clooney, Michael Clayton
* Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
* James McAvoy, Atonement
* Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises
* Denzel Washington, American Gangster

Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama

* Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
* Julie Christie, Away from Her
* Jodie Foster, The Brave One
* Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart
* Keira Knightley, Atonement

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

* Across the Universe
* Charlie Wilson's War
* Hairspray
* Juno
* Sweeney Todd

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy

* Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd
* Ryan Gosling, Lars and the Real Girl
* Tom Hanks, Charlie Wilson's War
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages
* John C. Reilly, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy

* Amy Adams, Enchanted
* Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray
* Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd
* Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
* Ellen Page, Juno

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

* Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
* Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson's War
* Saoirse Ronan, Atonement
* Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
* Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

* Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
* Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
* Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War
* John Travolta, Hairspray
* Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Best Director

* Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
* Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
* Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
* Ridley Scott, American Gangster
* Joe Wright, Atonement

Best Screenplay

* Diablo Cody, Juno
* Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
* Christopher Hampton, Atonement
* Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
* Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Wilson's War

Best Foreign Language Film

* 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Romania)
* The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (France/U.S.)
* The Kite Runner (U.S.)
* Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
* Perseopolis (France)

Best Animated Film

* Bee Movie
* Ratatouille
* The Simpsons Movie

Best Original Score

* Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder, Into the Wild
* Clint Eastwood, Grace Is Gone
* Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
* Dario Marianelli, Atonement
* Howard Shore, Eastern Promises

Best Original Song

* "Despedida," Love in the Time of Cholera
* "Grace Is Gone," Grace Is Gone
* "Guaranteed," Into the Wild
* "That's How You Know," Enchanted
* "Walk Hard," Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

TELEVISION

Best Series, Drama

* Big Love
* Damages
* Grey's Anatomy
* House
* Mad Men
* The Tudors

Best Actor, Drama Series

* Michael C. Hall, Dexter
* Jon Hamm, Mad Men
* Hugh Laurie, House
* Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors
* Bill Paxton, Big Love

Best Actress, Drama Series

* Patricia Arquette, Medium
* Glenn Close, Damages
* Minnie Driver, The Riches
* Edie Falco, The Sopranos
* Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
* Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
* Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Best Series, Comedy or Musical

* 30 Rock
* Californication
* Entourage
* Extras
* Pushing Daisies

Best Actress, Comedy or Musical Series

* Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
* America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
* Tina Fey, 30 Rock
* Anna Friel, Pushing Daisies
* Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Best Actor, Comedy or Musical Series

* Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
* Steve Carell, The Office
* David Duchovny, Californication
* Ricky Gervais, Extras
* Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies

Best Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or TV Movie

* Rose Byrne, Damages
* Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters
* Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
* Samantha Morton, Longford
* Anna Paquin, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
* Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl

Best Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or TV Movie

* Ted Danson, Damages
* Kevin Dillon, Entourage
* Jeremy Piven, Entourage
* Andy Serkis, Longford
* William Shatner, Boston Legal
* Donald Sutherland, Dirty Sexy Money

Best Miniseries or TV Movie

* Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
* The Company
* Five Days
* Longford
* The State Within

Best Actress, Miniseries or TV Movie

* Bryce Dallas Howard, As You Like It
* Debra Messing, The Starter Wife
* Queen Latifah, Life Support
* Sissy Spacek, Pictures of Hollis Woods
* Ruth Wilson, Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre)

Best Actor, Miniseries or TV Movie

* Adam Beach, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
* Ernest Borgnine, A Grandpa for Christmas
* Jim Broadbent, Longford
* Jason Isaacs, The State Within
* James Nesbitt, Jekyll

Talking about the less talked about.

I have been reading about movies like RGV ki Aag, LCMD, JBJ etc all over internet (I have also been participating in the discussions in some blogs) and felt bad about movies, which people either chose not to watch or not to talk about, although they are better work of art and far more entertaining than all the films mentioned above and many others being discussed around. There are movies I watched in recent past and really liked them, but when I ask my friends about those movies, they seem to either not have heard of the movie or chose not to watch it, because they were made by some not so famous people and lacked good promotions (may be because of budget restrictions). Here I am listing some of these films, which I think deserved better fate at box office.

Haasil (2003) *ing: Irfan, Jimmy Shergil, Hrishita Bhatt, Ashutosh Rana
Written and directed by first time director Tigmanshu Dhulia, this movie is one of my all time favorite, I have watched it more than 20 times already and I can watch it infinite times without getting bored of it. The movie is a love story in the background of UP college politics. You get to see great acting from Irfan and Ashutosh Rana. The dialogues are so good that we even repeat them in our day today conversations. The language is exactly the same as being used in UP and dialogue delivery by actors is top class. The story is well researched and gripping.
This is one movie I would rate 9 out of 10. I wish Tigmanshu makes many more such movies.

Sehar (2005) *ing: Arshad Warsi, Sushant Singh, Pankaj Kapoor
Written and directed by Kabeer Kaushik (has anyone heard of him ever, what is he up to these days), this movie is one of the best Hindi movies released in 2005. The movie is based on the story of Lucknow STF (Special Task Force) in pursuit of UP railway mafia. This is one of the very few movies showing the Police business in great details and the difficulties faced by them in tracking down and eliminating the criminals. You get to see great performances by Pankaj Kapoor and Sushant Singh. I still can't forget the seen where Pankaj Kapoor's gun hating professor character picks up a gun and shoots Sushant Singh. Today's actors should learn some things from this great performer.
The movie has been made with very limited budget and probably makers of the film did not have enough money to promote it well. It hurts when such movies get unnoticed. Hope someday big banner and stars start supporting such efforts.

There are many other movies in the same category like Manorama SFU, Dil Dosti etc, Johnny Gaddar, Maqbool and many more. I wish after reading this post people go and watch these movies and support these talented film makers in serving the Hindi film industry to the extent they are capable of.

signing off, with best wishes to the talented budding film makers of bollywood and hope they get the support they need from industry and audience.

No Smoking

When I went to watch this movie, I knew it will be different and yes, it was different. I was glued to the screen while watching the movie. I wanted to know what will happen in the next scene. All this while I didn't talk to my friends sitting beside me (which is very unlikely), as I was trying to understand, what the filmmaker is up to. What is in the director's mind. What is he trying to say. Frankly speaking, I did not understand the movie and that is why I am not in a position to say that it was a good or bad film. That is the reason, this post is not a review of the movie. This is just what I thought while watching the movie.

After watching the film, there were several thoughts in my mind. Like
1. Is this movie about a man's struggle to live in this bad bad world on his own terms? Smoking is used as a symbol. K wants to live his life the way he wants, but the world around him is not letting him do so. Finally he gives up and starts living his life the way others want him to.

2. The movie has been shot from two different points of view, one is how K sees himself and other is how others see him. Whatever you see in most of the movie is probably his hallucinations although to others he looks normal. Baba Bangali, his Prayogshala, the character following him all are in his mind.

3. You have to loose your soul in order to survive in this world, because there are people around you, who have expectation from you and there are people whom you care about. All these things does not let you live the way you would have wanted to. If you do something without approval of others, your loved ones might get hurt (K's brother committing suicide) or you will be forced not to do it (baba bangali and his tactics). There are always people telling you to live your life in a certain way (K's wife and friends)and somewhere down the line you give up.

4. If you do something wrong you are punished (cutting fingers, torturing your loved ones, making you deaf), but same can be undone if you repent and make up for your mistakes. (fingers coming back for recommending another client).

I am sure Anurag Kashyap also has different interpretations to this in his mind. After all it's his child and he only understands it the best.

Karan Johar's Interview on Tehelka.com

I read the following interview on tehelka.com and found it really enlightening. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=hub061007IWish.asp

This interview has enabled me to look at Karan Johar's films in new light. I now understand why his movies are like the way they are. Why people always say that his movies are for NRIs. Why there are no bhukkha Indians in his movies. Why someone disowned by his rich parents decides to settle in London. Why rich use helicopters and poor convertible BMWs in his films.

You might think, how I have got so much insight to understand Karan's movies in such great details. Well at one point in his interview Karan says, "We used to live in a really tiny flat in Malabar Hill — it was like a 1,000 square feet." that's because his father was losing money on movies and was having really tough time financially. So that's the toughest time he has seen in his entire life, living in a 1000 sq ft flat at Malabar Hills. (Bhagwan mujhe bhi aise bure din dikhaye) After reading this line first thing that came to mind was, how the interviewer must have felt who is probably living in a 500 sq ft flat and that too at Borivali. Was he trying to mock at the interviewer or he is really that innocent. (arrey koi ise asli duniya dikhao)

If KJo made Sharabi, he would have shown Amitabh Bacchan settling in NY with Munshi ji after leaving his father's house. He would not be sleeping on temple stairs. After all in tough times people can manage at least that. They might not use helicopters for traveling, but at least they can afford a nice apartment in NY.

In our movies, poor hungry street children will not turn thief stealing a piece of bread (has anyone counted the no of movies showing this scene), oh! I am sorry, there wont be any poor hungry street children in KJo's movies. People will turn thief because they would probably want an AC to be installed in their bedroom and are not able to afford that.

Hey! that's only a part of the answer to first question and I would have really loved to talk about the entire interview. God, I hope I did not have my office tomorrow.

Das Kahaniyan Trailer

Why do I like sports flicks?

Yesterday I was watching "The Greatest Game Ever Played", again. Though I had already seen the flick before, I knew what is gonna happen (that's the case with all sports flick I guess, you already know, what will be the ending). Still I was watching it with interest and was excited at every shot played by Harry or Francis (two main characters of the film). Though I don't know the rules of Golf, I never watch it on ESPN, still while watching the movie I kinda felt associated with the characters and the game. Same is the case with all the sports flick (except few).

Take example of recent release "ChakDe India", although it was based on a game I personally am not very interested in (I think that's the case with most of the people who watched the film and made it a hit). Still I rate it as the best sports flick ever made in Bollywood. I have watched this one twice already and did not loose interest while watching it for the second time. (ChakDe is one of the few movies I have seen more than once in theater)

My all time favorite Hindi film is "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar". I have seen the last race more than 100 times by now and I always watch it with equal interest. I am as excited as I was when I watched it for the first time (I think the excitement wouldn't have been more, if I was watching it live, why? Will answer this why in later part of the post). I feel like cheering for Sanju (it was Sanju, I cheer for, not Amir Khan), I feel like telling Sanju to change gear at times. I feel more excitement than the character Ratan is.

List of my all time favorite movies include "JJWS", "Cinderella Man", "Rocky", "ChakDe", "Lagaan", "Remember the Titans" and many more, which I might not have seen yet.

Why I find these sports flick more exciting than a live match? When I am watching a live match I don't associate with the players as closely as I do while watching a movie. I know the real life players from newspapers, TV etc, but while watching a movie I virtually live with the players. I know the struggle these players have gone through before playing the game. There is always a story associated with the game, which in all cases is climax of the movie and by that time, I want the hero/s to win the game. Because till the time match starts, those players are not unknown to me, they are like my friends/neighbors, who have gone through a lot of struggle/training to reach the stage they are right now. To top it all, there is always an emotion attached, like in Cinderella Man, Russel Crowe was fighting to earn bread for his family, in JJWS, Amir was racing for revenge and pride, Lagaan match was for lives of so many families and ChakDe was again for regaining lost pride. I think these emotions make the game bigger than live matches.

I hope that even more such movies are made in future and I keep on enjoying the game as well as the movie. It's kind of combo offer, watch the movie and get to watch one very exciting tournament as bonus.

Missing Shiva Gang

This weekend I wanted to watch the much hyped and publicized Ram Gopal Verma ki AAG, but thanks to the bad reviews and feedback, I could not. I could not find a company to go for this so called tribute to one of the biggest commercial success in bollywood, Sholay.

It's not that I had some great expectations from the movie. After watching the various trailers in TV, I had an idea that this is going to be one of the worst movies made by Ram Gopal Verma. All the reviews proved me right. Still I want to watch this film, just to see how bad it is. I want to see if this movie is directed by the same person, who debuted in bollywood with Shiva and directed movies like Rangeela, Satya, Company, Sarkar and produced movies like Shool, Ek Hasina Thi and Ab Tak Chhappan. I wanted to see how someone like Ram Gopal Verma can fail to deliver, even with a tried and tested script. I wanted to see how someone can make, three national award winning actors Mohanlal (4 times), Amitabh Bacchan (2 times) and Ajay Devgan (2 times) act so badly.

From the trailers, it is evident that Bacchan is over expressive in all the scenes, and Ajay isn't even bothering to show any expression. I know that the Veeru-Basanti (Heero-Ghungroo) romance would be one of the worst parts of the film. Still I want to see the film.

I can't blame my friends for not coming with me to watch this film, because I know it takes a lot of guts to see such a film, which has been bashed by reviewers so badly. That is why I am missing the Shiva gang. I would have watched this film if any of them were in Mumbai this weekend.

Vinashak-Destroyer: The most meaningful ending ever

If you have seen Vinashak starring Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Danny, you would relate to the post and if you haven't, after reading this post you would want to see it. I was amazed by the knowledge and insight of the director (Ravi Dewan) and screenplay writer (Rajkumar Santoshi) of this movie. They have definitely done a lot of thinking before writing this movie. Every scene has a message hidden in it and has a broader significance. Climax and ending of the movie are really remarkable and well thought of.

In the climax of the movie our Hero Anna Shetty kills one of the villains Azghar (Mukesh Rishi) by burning him alive. The scene goes like this, there is fight going on between Anna and Azghar and Azghar falls in the water. Anna Shetty throws petrol on the water and burns him alive. After a few minutes Danny arrives at the scene and he sees his body getting explode. (I couldn't understand, how?) After some thought, I realized the brilliance of Santoshi and Dewan. Since the body was burnt in cold water, it was cold outside and hot inside. Due to inside heat of the body which was dying to come out but was not able to because of the cold water surrounding the body, it exploded. The knowledge of science of Rajkumar Santoshi is extraordinary.

Ending of the movie carries even deeper meaning. Lankeshwar (Danny) and Arjun (Anna Shetty) are in the same jail, whose staff is controlled by Danny. Fight breaks out between jail staff and Anna Shetty. Looking at Anna Shetty fighting many to one, one of the jail staff having sympathy with Anna Shetty decides to open another front for jail staff and sets all the prisoners free. At first prisoners fight with jail staff and then they start running carrying Charkhe (Gandhi ji style). I thought probably they will use these Charkhe for breaking out from the jail, but to my astonishment sab ek circle me baith ke sut katne lage. I was wandering ki ye log sut kyon kat rahe hain. Suddenly I saw all the threads converging at one point and at the center one person was joining all the threads. Then I realised the deeper meaning of the scene. They were preparing a rope to hang Lankeshwar. Finally in the end Lankeshwar was hanged by Anna Shetty using the rope made by all those threads. After watching the scene I remembered one quote from Gandhi ji, "If I had to choose between cowardice and violence, I would choose violence." This one scene says it all. Imagine the brilliance of Rajkumar Santoshi and Raj Dewan. This scene clearly says ki agar Anna Shetty ki jagah Gandhi ji bhi hote to wo bhi yahi karte.

I really salute Santoshi and Dewan. Every aspiring script/screenplay writer should worship these talented writer/director.

Cash FAQs

Some questions are crawling in mind after watching the great movie Cash. No movie other than Gunda has left me with an itching brain. Thanks to certain community and blogs, Gunda FAQs are answered. Can someone be kind enough to answer the following questions about this masterpiece made by Anubhav Sinha:

1. What kind of engineer Ajay Devgan was (It has been told in the movie that he was an engineer, but which stream)?
2. Why so many scenes were animated?
3. What happened to the businessman's son from whom the third diamond was stolen?
4. What was Chinese mafia doing throughout the movie after stealing the third diamond?
5. How many devices Ajay Devgan actually places on the bridge where Shamita Shetty’s car breaks down? (If you see the entire seem closely the no of devices switches from 2 to 1 and then again 2 and this keeps on repeating till the seen ends)?
6. What was the use of those gadgets placed on the bridge by Ajay?
7. Why Shamita Shetty did not hear any sound, when Ajay’s cellphone fell down and then Ajay himself?
8. Why was the police following Zayed Khan after Riteish Deshmukh throws the painting to him in the water?
9. What was the IQ of Shamita Shetty’s character in the movie?
10. When Zayed Khan meets Esha Deol in Capetown for the first time, he says he’ll need her help in the assignment he is there for. What, when and where did Esha help Zayed in that particular assignment i.e. stealing the painting?
11. In last chase sequence from where Ajay and Riteish get cars, they started the chase on roller board?
12. How many times people change targets in the last chase sequence?
13. Why police is always chasing Esha Deol?
14. Why Riteish Deshmukh always says Kabaddi Kabaddi, when surrounded by Police?
15. Does marking the money means, mark some notes with big black spots?
16. What was in the painting that was stolen by Riteish from exhibition and why the same was stolen?
17. When Dia Mirza exchanged her car keys with Riteish, why didn't he say or do anything? Did he know she had a better car than his?
18. Why police following Zayed Khan started shooting at people on Uncle's boat?
19. Why one helicopter was following Anna Shetty after he shot Uncle?
20. What did the man in the helicopter do when Anna Shetty snatched his gun and threw the same in water? (he must be crying like hell. bahuhu, meri bandook fek di, ab dusari kaon dilayega.)
21. Why Anna Shetty drove the car blindfolded when he first met Dia Mirza in the movie?
22. Ajay Devgan was controlling only one toy plane from the helicopter, who was controlling the others and how?
23. When Shamita Shetty jumped on the van, carrying the money, Ajay was inside the van. How he managed to get out of it, without Shamita Shetty spotting him?
24. When Ajay Devgan smashes the manager of Princess Yacht on the cake, I thought his intentions were to remove the name from the cake, but the same was visible later also. What his real intention was behind smashing the poor guys face on the cake?
25. Does Anubhav Sinha have sleeping disorder and was sleeping during the shooting of various scenes? Why there are so many continuity flaws in the movie?

I would be really grateful to whoever clarifies these doubts. I haven’t slept properly since Friday.

Nobel Prize for Movies

Nobel Prize for Medicine: This should go to movie Diya aur Toofan, for showing the world about the behavioral changes caused by a brain transplant. Yes, you have read it correctly, in the movie when Mithun is killed by villains, his brain is transplanted into Madhu and she starts thinking like Mithun. She even gets the physical strength to fight the bad guys after the transplant. How?

Nobel Prize for Peace: This one should go to Bill Gates without a doubt. If it wasn't for Bill Gates and Microsoft, we wouldn't be alive. In movie Independence Day if Alien's mother ship was running on some operating system other than windows, how would our heroes could plant a virus in it and save the world.

Nobel Prize for Literature: This has gone to Ramsey Brothers for writing amazing scripts like Purana Mandir, Purani Haveli, Veerana, Samri and many more. They have left behind our Bhojpuri filmmakers with a close margins. Bhojpuri films were nominated in this category for thinking of the innovative names like "Panditji Batai Na Biyah Kab Hoyee", "Sasura Bada Paisewala", "Tohar Bhoujai Humar Lugai" and many more.

Nobel Prize for Economics: This would go to none other than Arindam Chaudhary for proving his super flop movie Rok Sako to Rok Lo hit on paper. I have to understand this great theory from him, using which he managed to do so. If there was a Noble prize for marketing, it would also have been grabbed by him only for the brilliant marketing done for his amazingly beautiful and inspirational movie Rok Sako To Rok Lo.

Nobel Prize for Physics: Nobel academy is grateful to award this to superstar Rajnikant for proving all the Newton's Laws wrong. There were a lot many nominations from across the world in this category including Mithunda for his various movies, Ice Cube for XXX2, but none stood a chance against Rajni-the boss.

Nobel Prize for Chemistry: goes to Evolution, for giving the idea of using a particular anti-dandruff shampoo against those large creepy creatures. They used some weird logic to get to this inference using positions of various materials in periodic table. No wonder, finally it worked and the world was saved.

So these are my choices for Nobel Prize in various categories. Please send in last year's (2006) nominations. Please send in your nominations in different categories justifying the reason for nominations.