Lahore

Last Friday, I went for a movie (nothing path breaking, I know). The best part was that I normally avoid watching unconventional movies at cineplex, as there is so much of risk in loosing 200 bucks, just to watch some one’s cinematic liberty. Never mind this time I took the risk and booked the tickets for a low-budget LAHORE. Normally I would love to watch these kind of movies on laptop, but some how the very fact that the movie is based on kick-boxing dragged me to movie hall (no, no I am not a kick boxer ). It was a late night show, with usual crowd of 30-40 odd people.

Movie starts of with a scene where one of the actor is preparing for an upcoming tournament (which initially looks confusing). Coming straight to the point. There is one guy who is a professional kick boxer (a nice role portrayed by Sushant Singh), who defeats one of the national champion in the tournament. In the match itself the coach gets a glimpse of his emerging champion and is quick to identify the skills of the winner.

Meanwhile a parallel track runs as well. Younger brother of the kickboxer is a top-level cricketer (who is always in best of the forms ). Things take an ugly turn when the Asian championship takes place and the Indian kick boxer gets killed by his Pakistani counterpart (yes that’s one of the shock of the movie ) and rest is history. Younger brother of the dead guy leaves cricket, becomes a kick boxer and blah blah. Now again the tournament happens but this time in Pakistan. So the younger bhai goes all the way to Paki to have a match with his rival. Now you must be expecting that he will kill the Paki, or India will defeat Paki team and stuff  like that, but hold your judgements, none of these happens.

it’s a 5 match series in which the last match is the decider and when the time comes to win the chota bhai of dead kick boxer leaves the killer kick boxer of his bada bhai and gives concedes defeat to Paki team. It was actually a bit unusual for me but some how I liked it.

Now the million dollar question, that why the hell I am writing about this movie. Actually I just wanted to tell that, this movie is one of the finest sports movies ever churned out by apna bollywood. The action sequences during the match are top-notch (so much so that entire crowd broke to clapping on so many occasions). The fight sequence some how makes sure that you are sitting on the edge. Star cast is bland, no latkas and jhatkas nothing. Few sequences between the movie do tend to create a bit of boredom, but then it’s acceptable.

If you are looking for something fresh, and different then go for this movie. Or your kid is a boxer then do take him for this movie. Over all a nice movie. Finally Indian film makers are coming off the age and churning out something worth watching. Kudos! 

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Keep The Cameras Rolling {LSD: Love Sex aur Dhokha}

I had read an interview recently of the actor Peter Greenaway in The Guardian, where he states that every religion is concerned with death, while art is concerned with life – which is essentially all about sex. How far you agree with him, need not matter here….but Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD (2010) does have sex at its central theme. And some other truths about life.

When I use the word truth, I use it in the sense, that the director or storywriter, would like to present his/her observations of the world around us through their story. It brings to my mind the ever present debate of cinema being an escape from reality or as Slavoj Zizek says, being even more real than reality itself and representing the ultimate truth about life. Think of the most unreal Bollywood film, or television soap..and it will still show you the truth…culturally and socially relevant themes, positive or regressive, made intentionally or unintentionally by the filmmakers.

But is truth stranger than fiction? And how far is the ‘reality’ shown on television really real? That is the underlying message for me in LSD. Cameras are rolling all the time, be it for a student filmmaker (his institute has a very sardonic name that I can’t recall right now), a Hindi TV news sting journalist or a CCTV camera follower in a supermarket. And we in the audience watch their camera footage, through the director’s camera.

True to his style, each one of Banerjee’s characters are so very well etched and rooted. His actors anonymity lends even more credibility to the story. Equally, it is socially relevant to our times, our vouyeristic age of technology coupled with mass media outlets, and their eventual corruption and lies. It is relevant to our social setup, wherein, a father is ready to let his daughter act in a film where she runs away to marry whom she chooses to….but his role as the patriach doesn’t budge outside in the reality away from the film sets. The women are strong, but are duped by their male counterparts be it in a family, a supermarket or a casting couch. The only woman who calls the shots here is the one at the head of a television news channel! It is gritty, funny, sardonic and sad….

For the only two people in this story who apparently love each other, face the worst of what reality can do.

I think LSD is a very important film for Hindi cinema…not just because it is termed as radical (that it talks about sex and is graphic, or uses digital techniques, does away with famous actors etc.) but because it is clever in sending across a message through humour, that what you see is not what you always get. The third eye here or the camera – reveals reality…which can be hyperreal as in the case of reality TV….or it can be an escape from a reality which is essentially cruel to its characters….or there is the reality….of Dibakar Banerjee’s camera itself.

I digress but I can’t help but end with a quote from Michael Haneke: “Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth.”

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3 idiots

Sebelumnya, tidak pernah saya benar – benar tertarik dengan film India. 90% dari film India yang pernah kutonton, selalu penuh dengan cerita yang berlebihan, derai air mata dan tarian.

Lalu kesan itu mulai berubah, setelah Slumdog Millionaire. Tapi… itu kan produksi Hollywood juga ya. Jadi adakah… film produk India asli yang benar – benar bagus kualitasnya? Yap. Judulnya, 3 idiots.

Sebuah judul dan poster yang membuatku mengangkat sebelah alis. Karena penasaran, ini tentang apa y. Sekilas seperti beberapa film Indonesia, dengan judul yang kurang pintar ( dan ternyata isinya juga demikian).

3 idiots berbeda. Inilah film India terbaik yang pernah kutonton sampai sekarang. Sebenarnya temanya cukup umum, yaitu tentang dunia pendidikan dan sistemnya. Tapi juga mencakup kehidupan sosial, budaya, dan ekonomi yang secara tidak langsung mempunyai hubungan erat.

3 mahasiswa, Rancho, Raju Rastogi, dan Farhan Qureshi, kuliah di universitas terbaik di India, dengan mimpi mereka masing – masing. Seperti universitas  lainnya, mahasiswa di tempat ini pun harus menghadapi seorang rektor “killer” Viru Sahastrabudhee yang dijuluki VIRUS, juga mahasiswa menyebalkan aka kia su ( takut kalah) sekaligus penjilat, Chatur Ramalingam alias Silencer.

Chatur Silencer, yang sempat beberapa kali dipermalukan oleh Rancho menantang 3 orang tersebut, bahwa dalam 10 tahun kemudian, dia akan lebih sukses dibanding ketiganya. Sebuah tantangan yang sebenarnya tidak pernah diiyakan oleh 3 orang tersebut, tapi sepertinya Chatur sangat menganggap serius hal ini.

Ya memang, 10 tahun kemudian Chatur sepertinya lebih sukses dibanding dengan Raju dan Farhan ( paling tidak, itulah menurutnya). Bagaimana dengan Rancho? Kemana dia menghilang setelah hari wisudanya?

Sang sutradara, Rajkumar Hirani, berhasil membuat sebuah cerita sederhana menjadi sangat sangat menarik, lucu, sekaligus mengharukan. Apakah memang seorang murid sudah pintar jika dia bisa menghapal semua yang ada dalam buku pelajarannya? Apakah sistem pendidikan yang keras, benar – benar akan membuat mahasiswa tersebut menjadi lebih giat… atau putus asa? Benarkah sukses hanya bisa dinilai dengan kekayaan, istri yang cantik, dan jabatan tinggi? Kita pun jadi berpikir lagi.

Satu hal yang cukup mengagetkan saya, Aamir Khan ( Rancho) sudah berumur 44 tahun. Dan hal ini sama sekali tidak terlihat dalam film. Aktingnya sangat memukau dan terlihat alami. Begitu juga akting dari pemain lain pun sangat mendukung film ini menjadi lebih berkesan.

Seperti film India lainnya, dalam 3 idiots pun terdapat adegan nyanyi dan menari -nari. Tapi dalam porsi yang cukup dan tidak terasa mengganggu.

8.9/10

(MVP Pictures)

Pemain:

Aamir Khan as Rancho

Kareena Kapoor as Pia Sahastrabudhhe

R. Madhavan as Farhan Qureshi

Sharman Joshi as Raju Rastogi

Boman Irani as Viru Sahastrabudhhe (ViruS)

Omi Vaidya as Chatur Ramalingam (Silencer)

Javed Jaffrey as Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad

Rahul Kumar as Millemetre (MM)

Cerita dan Skenario: Rajkumar Hirani/ Chetan Bhagat

Sutradara: Rajkumar Hirani

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Junglee Starts, Tame Endings!!

Three recent movie viewings have left me frustrated and I thought of sharing my opinions with all of you.  There could be a few spoilers ahead regarding the plots of these films…so please read on at your own risk.   The first one was the highly-awaited (at least by me…) “Quick Gun Murugun“.  Shashanka Ghosh’s follow-up to the brilliant “Waisa Bhi Hota Hai – Part II” had all the ingredients that a quirky spoof needed.  And it started with a bang.  Witty dialogues, good soundtrack, bad acting, poor dubbing…I was smiling and nodding my head.  But then, in the second-half..I Say….the movie ran out of steam.  Especially towards the end, when Ghosh didn’t quite know how to end the mayhem.  I was disappointed.  I still liked the movie overall, but as they say…”the ending could have been much better”.   Next in line is “Karthik Calling Karthik“, Farhan Akhtar’s so-called “romantic thriller”.  It started as a thriller, all right.  Director Vijay Lalwani seemed to be playing his cards well…slowly but steadily.  I am one of the few people who actually enjoys slow-paced movies, simply because I hope that the directors are capable enough to tie it all together in the end…and besides…I like it slow.   KCK had Farhan Akhtar once again giving a good performance.  And that background score by Midival Punditz and Karsh Kale!!  Wow!!  I was smiling again….only to watch my smile disappear…slowly….and turn into a heavy sigh.  This ain’t no thriller!!  It turned out to be an average movie about a patient who needed help.  That’s not what thrillers are.  Thrillers are supposed to keep you at the edge of your seats….or have you guessing.  What a letdown, I must say.  There is so much more that Vijay and Farhan could have done with the concept and didn’t.  Tyler Durden anyone??   Last but not the least, comes that latest beauty called “Ishqiya” from the House of Vishal.  Yup, I still call it a beauty because it’s a well-crafted crime caper with all the good intentions.  Intoxicating music, great locales, good dialogues, splendid acting (with the not-so-well-known actors once again towering over the veterans, aka “Kaminey“…) and a strong storyline.  A storyline that starts meandering a bit towards the end, taking the high film to its low finale.  Again, an example of missed opportunities.  I felt that the director held himself back with his climax, instead of letting his imagination go wild.  He ended up with an abrupt, totally filmy and a somewhat compromised finish to something that had an exhilarating start.   The year is still young though.  Dibakar Banerjee’s LSD comes out this coming Friday.  So my hopes are still high.  You see I yearn for and “Wondrous Starts and Qaatil Endings”…Not “Junglee Starts and Tame Endings”.   Mind It!

[Via http://vikd.wordpress.com]

The Usual Suspects:Review

RATING:4.5/5

IMDB RANKING: TOP #21

Not seen ‘The Usual Suspects’ yet? Then don’t waste any time reading this! Rent it, buy it, borrow it, I don’t mind, but watch it before you bother reading any further.

One of the main reasons that ‘The Usual Suspects’ leaves such a long-lasting impression on the viewer is that it takes advantage of the gullibility of the audience. For the first 100 minutes we are delivered an intriguing and complex story to which there seems no easy answer. When the final piece of the puzzle seems to be in place the entire film is turned on its head. This final revelation initially leaves you speechless and then shortly after the audience realises that they have fallen for a brilliantly inspired trick. The second great trick that this film plays on its audience is making us think that by watching it again we’ll be able to understand slightly better what was really going on. The truth is that the more you try to make sense of it, the more confusing it becomes. It’s probably best not to try to look for any concrete answers and just accept that we fell for the filmmaker’s tricks. The success of the film is mainly thanks to the sense of satisfaction the audience is left with at the end of the film. I think that people love the idea of a story when you’re not sure who you can really trust, along with the realisation that the film’s most shady characters are the filmmakers themselves.

The Usual Suspects is more than just a film with a clever ending. It revealed an awful lot about film audiences and showed us that their expectations can be used against them. It is also a film about story telling and the importance of myth. While most mysteries try to shock you too often with twists and even more twists, it turns out to be overkill.

‘The Usual Suspects’ is one of the most innovative and memorable crime thrillers of the nineties

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Music Monday: Loving Asha Parekh's Songs

I was recently reminded that I love quite a few of the songs that Asha Parekh can be seen in. So here are some of them.

I love this movie (like I do most suspense ones). That said, until recently, I didn’t even know this song existed. Now I love the song.

Never seen this movie. But I think this might be my favorite-est Asha Parekh song ever.

Again, never seen the movie. Again, I don’t care.

From the same movie as above. The thing that always caught me was the Shahsi Kapoor like never moves in the song.

Going way back now, to the day of black-and-white. Again, never seen the movie. But I love the song nonetheless.

That’s obviously not it. There are a couple other great songs in Teesri Manzil (the first song). And a couple good ones in Caravan (not found above). And many more that I’m probably missing. Maybe I’ll need a part 2?

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