Oye Lucky.......

I watched Oye Lucky......3 days after the terror strikes. In fact I wanted to get away from the horrific images—I wanted to laugh, probably a release!
The theatre had around 50-60 viewers, not more.

Oye Lucky...... worked for me on two fronts.

Because of Abhay Deol. Abhay Deol is a terrific actor in the making. He and Irfan Khan will most probably anchor the middle-of-the-road Hindi cinema for the next few years. Why middle-of-the-road? Because Yash Raj and Karan Johar will never need him and he is too good to be ignored! I heard of Abhay Deol when Socha Na Tha was released. My wife had seen the movie and she kept raving about this guy. I must admit that when I watched the movie, I liked what I saw. Coming to this movie, Abhay Deol plays Lucky, a boy from a lower-middle-class Delhi Sikh family, who joins the world of petty crime to essentially keep up with the Joneses! It is almost like Leo DiCaprio in the Spielberg caper, Catch Me If You Can but Deol allows no comparison because of a splendid performance. My pick is the scene where Deol is cornered and he has to surrender finally—the emotions he displays is outstanding.

Because of Dibakar Banerjee. Dibakar Banerjee is a young film director, who I thought made a brilliant first film, Khosla Ka Ghosla. To follow up with an equally well-made second film, Oye Lucky............must be a commendable effort. There are moments in the film that belong to Dibakar. Especially, the scene when young Lucky (played brilliantly) takes his girlfriend to a restaurant and how the waiter quickly seizes up the situation that the kid has no money and cracks jokes at the kid's expense. Or the whole scene when Lucky executes a heist at the house of the TV anchor, who ironically has made a name for covering such crimes on the television! Even the attention to detail is spot on-a look at Lucky's house is a case in point. My pick is the superb casting of Paresh Rawal, who plays the roles of three father figures at different phases of Lucky's life and who end up hoodwinking him. Like Imtiaz Ali (of Socha Na Tha and Jab We Met), Dibakar captures the Delhi of the lower-middle class very well.

I saw the movie three weeks back. I still have a smile. I am pretty convinced that the hall was empty that evening not because of the film, but people were too scared to step out of their homes!

The Cook

I watched Bawarchi last night. I have watched it many a times in the past. I watched with amazement how Kaka Rajesh Khanna put up a flawless performance. For the uninitiated, it is a tale of a middle-class joint family, ridden with conflicts and daily struggles, and how a cook played by Khanna brings back the joy into the household. Khanna with his effervescence brings back the old-forgotten family values into the house. It is great stuff to watch Khanna as he resolves each conflict in the household. The line,"Apna kaam toh sabhi kar lete hain, par doosre ke kaam kane se jo anand milta hai, woh toh kuch aur hi hai," remains the signature piece of the movie. Khanna with his ta-ta-daan style is the show stealer!
Kaka was and will always be Indian cinema's only phenomenon. Superstars may come and go. But what Kaka achieved during his glory days during the years 1969-73 will be unparalleled. Today's generation would have seen some potrayals of the once-superstar! Because what you get to see is a sorry sight of a former superstar trying to resort to his gimmicks, not appealing to the newer audience. And that's the problem, and that is the enigma called Rajesh Khanna. That's another post!

Abbas can direct saala!!

I watched Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na last evening. And it was a nice experience because I had a smile on my face throughout the evening.

Few stray thoughts (in Busybee style)!

- That Imran and Genelia are here to stay. Watching them is like watching a young Aamir and Juhi twenty years back. Probably they will mistakes on the way, but boy, right now let's take a bow at their performances! To me it's Genelia, who despite her accent, lights up the screen with her subtle emotions. I hope she doesn't lose her way like Amrita Rao and Ayesha Takia (both talented actresses)! Look at her in the scene when she drops Imran and his girl friend. When Imran offers to drop his girl friend, she says,"Kitna drop karega? " Jealousy written all over the face, but still the lines are understated!

- That I was wondering where the hell was Abbas Tyrewala all these days. Few years back, when I saw Munnabhai MBBS, Maqbool, and Main Hoon Na, I felt like many others that he was a serious talent in the otherwise neglected field of screenwriting. And that he along with Jaideep Sahni, Prasun Joshi, and Anurag Kashyap, could be trusted with bringing back content to the Hindi movies. Phew! He is back with his writing (I am not discussing his direction!). Some of the scenes are so well written that you feel like getting up from your seat and applauding. Like the whole characterization of Meghna, Imran's girlfriend—boy, what details! Like the caricaturizing of the Rajput culture—the writing is so clever that it doesn't cross over to being a point of ridicule—it could have been so easily that! It's the writing that lifts the otherwise plain vanilla-style story to greater heights!

- That the movie made relive my college days. I could have easily come back saying that I don't relate to Jai and Aditi. But thanks to Abbas' vision, I didn't feel so. It tells you that a story realistically told will always touch a chord somewhere in the audience.

- That Abbas must never give up writing in his drive to make films because Hindi movies needs the writer in him!

Curtain Down on Vijay Tendulkar!

Vijay Tendulkar no more—An end of an era, said the newspapers last Tuesday.

I first heard of Tendulkar when I watched Sinhasan in school. Today's generation must note that Sinhasan was a classic Marathi movie of the seventies directed by Jabbar Patel. It is probably the finest political drama ever made on cinema. Political dramas can be boring and predictable beyond a point. But not Sinhasan—it was gripping and had a feel of realism around it.

As I grew up, I saw more of Tendulkar's works on cinema—Manthan and Nishant from the Benegal stable, Aakrosh and Ardh Satya from Govind Nihalani, Saamna and Umbartha by Jabbar Patel—each a riveting drama of human conflicts. I have all of them in my DVD collection. Having revisited them again, I dare say that he was India's finest screen writer. In the coming days, I intend to watch Aakrosh and Aakreit and celebrate! I do regret that I have not seen his celebrated plays, barring Kanyadaan, which I thought was decently done by Lilette Dubey's team. I am seriously hunting for those DVDs! Anyone?

There are few things that stand out in memory!

There was liberalism written all over him. This is pretty evident from the way he created situations and characters in his work. I am often disappointed with 'liberals'—most of them are imposters who find it ‘cool’ to be ‘liberal’—that's not the point! What is important is that you need not just listen to Pink Floyd, follow Obama vs. Clinton debates, and profess atheism to be liberal. Tendulkar showed that you could be an iconoclast without having to think in English!

He was a strong personality. Some of the subjects he dealt with in his movies were women empowerment, rural awakening, and political awareness. Remember the last scene in Nishant where the entire village rises in rebellion against their employers, the village landlords, who have nothing but brutality and avarice in their CVs. Remember the female protagonist in Umbartha, who stakes her marriage to an affluent family to work in an asylum. They tell you that his characters were strong people, much like himself!

Can there be another Tendulkar? Rather, is there quality theater happening in India? No. But that discussion is for another day. Not today. Today, we’ll take a bow to someone who rewrote traditional theater in India! Tendulkar, RIP!

Parakh

I saw Parakh last night. Released in 1960, Parakh was directed by the great Bimal Roy. For today's generation, please note that Bimal Roy was one of our greatest movie makers, and he made classics such as Do Bigha Zameen, Devdas, Parineeta (old), Biraj Bahu, Madhumati, Sujata, and Bandini—each movie a trailblazer!

Parakh is a story set in a village where the do-gooder postmaster receives a cheque of 500, 000 INR(pretty huge amount in the fifties!). Instead of keeping it for himself, he calls a meeting of the village elders to decide on the rightful recipient. The meeting ends with a call for an election where people would decide on the rightful recipient. The rest of the movie shows how each of the village elder takes the extra effort to please the villagers—it’s quite funny at times. The movie has enough interesting turns till the end. What keeps you transfixed is the setting—it’s a village in the early fifties of a young independent India, grappling with freedom, development and above all a nascent democracy. The village settings with the various characters actually provide a wonderful backdrop to metaphorize democracy.

The star of the movie is its storyline. I am not talking about Bimalda—the movie showcases his obvious craft! Watch out for an effortless performance by Motilal, and an equally refreshing one from an almost-unrecognizable Sadhana. There are some gems composed by Salil Choudhury. Worth a dekko, it transports you to an era when India was coming to terms with freedom, democracy, and development. I feel the movie is a must-see because we now tend to take these very issues for granted!

Bambai Ka Babu

I watched Bambai Ka Babu on DVD last night. For the uninitiated, this is a classic from the sixties starring the evergreen Dev Anand and the beautiful Suchitra Sen. The movie was directed by Raj Khosla and there are some wonderful songs tuned by Dada Burman. Raj Khosla started his career under Guru Dutt and went on to make movies such as CID, Kaala Paani, Woh Kaun Thi, Mera Saaya, Do Raaste, and Mera Gaon Mera Desh—an impressive body of work!

Bambai Ka Babu is a story of a thief who runs away from the city to a remote village up north where he enters a household as their long lost son, Kundan. Matters complicate when on one hand he falls in love with the daughter of the house, Maya and on the other hand has to make arrangements for 'his sister's' impending marriage.

Khosla, the mature director comes to the fore—there are scenes where Kundan, the son displays 'affection' on Maya, the daughter, which she brushes off—so maturely handled. Even when she comes to know that he is not the son and that he loves her, she realizes that she has a job in hand to inform her folks about his real motives—I thought the director could have fallen into the familiar trap of showing her reciprocating his feelings and clear the muddle—that he doesn't, shows his maturity. Even the climactic song, Chal Ri Sajani is so beautifully shot with the two looking at each other—she is in bridal finery and he is in bandage after recovering the family jewellery from his former 'employer'—both wanting to reach out to the other and communicate—in her case, it's huge regard for his job of recovering the family silver but in his case, it's the feeling of love lost!

The last exchange between the two is riveting stuff!
He: When you were part of the household, I was an outsider. And now when you are going away, I am part of the household!
She: You came to commit fraud in the house. Now, you are part of a bigger fraud. In this fraud, everyone is happy—mother, father, you and me!

Coming to the music, Dada Burman is at his versatile best—he has composed some amazing Punjabi folk-based numbers, Dekhne Mein Bhola and Pawan Chale To. Who can forget the amazing Deewana Mastana? The next time I get to the hills, I am sure to feel the song echoing in my ears. I have spoken enough about the climactic song, Chal Ri Sajani.

Why don’t we make such movies anymore?

The Tale

I watched Katha (anyone?) on the VCD last night. I'd watched it when I was a kid. A Sai Paranjape movie is always a heart-warming experience. Her characters are so true-to -life that you relate to them quite easily. You identify with the joys and sorrows, and trials and tribulations of the characters' everyday lives. Katha is no different. For the uninitiated, Katha is a simple story of a do-gooder, played by Shah and how his life changes when his smooth-talking friend, played by Shaikh, enters his life and almost snatches his neighbor, Naval—he has a crush on her. The story is very simple. What sets this movie apart is the background and setting. Viewers of today will find it difficult to visualize a chawl—for them, I must add that chawls are unique to Mumbai. The inter-personal (almost symbiotic) relationships among the residents of the chawl is well-etched out in the movie. Even small details such as a household which has the distinction being the only one with a refrigerator, and folding furniture have been well thought out. There is a scene where buckets are lined at the crack of dawn to fill water—so very true. Coming to the performances, the trio of Shah, Shaikh, and Naval are outstanding in their roles. Everybody will vouch for Shaikh—but it is Shah who steals the show with his body language and understated emotions. Watch the movie if you want to know a day in the life of a typical middle-class Mumbaikar in the sixties and the seventies—the chawls began to disppear in the eighties.

Raghuvaran

Raghuvaran passes away. I heard this news with utter disbelief. My memories went back to a Sunday afternoon some 20 years back when we watched the weepy Anjali. The whole world spoke about the precocious kid and her histrionics before the camera, what was not spoken was the understated potrayal of the patient father by Raghuvaran. That was Raghuvaran—everything was understated considering the man's potential as an actor. I watched Anjali on DVD recently and watched it intimately—this time for Raghuvaran. (I wish I had known that I was preparing myself for an obituary!) I was reading that he did only 80 movies in his lifetime—I calculated around 400 minutes of cinematic magic (he just needed a 5-minute role to weave his magic on the audience).

P.S. As I am writing this, the baritone of Raghuvaran is ringing in my ears. He tells Tabu when she approaches him for a job,"Y2Kellam mudinja pochcha."

The night ends and all that........

I watched Nishant last night. I had picked up the VCD over the weekend. What a movie! For the uninitiated, Nishant was directed by Shyam Benegal in the mid-70's. The story written by Vijay Tendulkar and set in 40’s is about four brothers who rule a village in Andhra Pradesh with an iron hand and then how a rebellion overthrows them in a super climax!

The movie has few standout points!

What an ensemble of talent! Naseeruddin Shah, Anant Nag, Mohan Agashe, Amrish Puri, Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, and Kulbushan Kharbanda light up the screen with their electric performances. None of them is wasted in the movie—that is a tribute to the maker. None of them tries to upstage the other in the movie. Even the unsung Sadhu Meher is brilliant in a cameo.

The movie takes you to that era—an era you will find it difficult to relate to if you have led sheltered lives in cities. If a book or a movie can take you to that era and through the story provide a social commentary of the times and the place, the job of the maker is done! This movie is no exception—it takes you to that era and you can relate to those characters, empathise with them and feel for them!

A case in point is a verbal exchange between Karnad, the schoolteacher whose wife has been kidnapped by the lecherous brothers and Kharbanda, the corrupt cop.
Kharbanda: Why do you want to register a complaint?
Karnad: Because she is my wife
Kharbanda: Even if she comes back, will she be your wife? Then why complaint?
(I felt like slapping the cop!)

There is another scene where the hostage, played by Azmi, begins to flex her muscles, much to the dislike of the wife, played by Patil. Shah, who is smitten by her, rushes to his elder brother, played by Puri, for a solution. The elder chieftain, with a deadpan expression, says, “Keep emotions out of a relationship. You already have a wife at home." Riveting stuff!

Taare Zameen Par

Normally I look forward to an Aamir Khan movie! I have never wondered why! Probably it’s to do with the mystique surrounding the man—you’re not sure what to expect! Maybe, his releases happen once in two years that expectancy is naturally built.

Therefore, when Taare Zameen Par hit the screens, I was one of the earliest ones to book tickets and catch up the movie. This is not a review column—I shall not dwell on the movie per se.

When I came out of the movie hall, I had the following thoughts:

That Aamir Khan is a damn good director. The movie is his vehicle as a director and he has not done a bad job!

That Prasun Joshi will go and become another Gulzar (and Javed Akhthar of better times)! Some of the lines in the songs are so true! I don’t want to pick any favorite.

That Shahrukh Khan should learn a lesson or two from Aamir on how to use his stature to move away from his safety-first brand of cinema.

That movies like Taare Zameen Par (and Chak De India) worked because of great writing! The success of these movies must excite movie makers with great scripts to take the proverbial plunge. It’s not difficult to point out similarities between the two—unconventional heroes and no heroines.

That I will definitely see the movie again!

(P.S. I am writing this piece a month after I saw the movie.)

To Adapt is to Make Fit!!

Sometime back, I saw Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara. I was seeing it again, having seen it a year back when it hit the movie halls. I remember reading some interesting reviews on the movie. Some reviewers were not comfortable with an adaptation of a Shakespearean classic—it was sacrilege!

According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, to adapt means to make fit (as for a specific or new use or situation) often by modification. Omkara was always an adaptation. Othello could never be Omkara and Desdemona was never Dolly. Besides, the movie was set in UP. Obviously, it was going to be different. To expect the movie to be true to the great play was nothing short of unfounded expectation. As an avid cinemagoer, I believe that a movie is essentially a story telling session. Let us also realize that Shakespeare was as much a storyteller as Vishal Bharadwaj is—only their modes of expression have been different. If Shakespeare set his characters in a particular era and in a particular area, Vishal has set his characters in a different era and in a different milieu. Many of us have read Othello and most of us, who have read Othello, went and saw Omkara. We did not see Othello—we only saw Omkara and that was his story!

I believe that all of us base our opinions on a particular book or a movie (or for that matter any issue in life) on some of our own prejudices. Often, this affects our objectivity. Years ago, I read Mario Puzo’s book on Godfather. Sometime later, I caught up with the televised version of Coppola’s great movie on Doordarshan. I felt that the movie is no patch on the book. It was perhaps a knee jerk reaction because subsequently when I watched the movies (the entire series) on VHS, I began to appreciate the difference between the two mediums of expression.

I happened to see The Departed, a fortnight back. I had seen the original movie Infernal Affairs on DVD. Scorsese’s movie was set in different surroundings in a different country. Obviously, the movie had to be different. If I had gone looking for Yan and Ming in The Departed, I would have disappointed. In no way, The Departed is an insipid movie. Scorsese does manage to tell me a story as enthralling as the one told by M/S Lau and Mak.

Recently, I also happened to watch the movie ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ For the uninitiated, the legendary Billy Wilder directed the movie in 1950. Wilder’s movies stood out for their outstanding screenplays and each of his movies could be adapted to other forms such as theater. This movie is no different and subsequently a decade back, Andrew Lloyd Webber staged a successful musical based on the movie. Knowing Webber and also the medium, the treatment would have been different (so I presume since I cannot afford a trip to the Broadway!). The musical was appreciated as much as the movie. In fact, Billy Wilder is reported to have been quite pleased with Webber’s effort. I am sure if Shakespeare had lived to see Omkara, he too would have been happy!

Before I wind up, I must confess that neither have I been engaged by Vishal Bharadwaj to defend his movie nor am I on the payroll of Martin Scorsese, Lau and Mak, and Andrew Lloyd Webber. I have only tried to add my two-bit on this adaptation debate! Let the adaptations roll on…

A Blast from the Past

When I set out to write this page, I was wondering, ‘Why am I writing this page?’ I have been a Hindi film buff all my life and from the very beginning was fascinated by the ability to bring stories on the big screen. With time, my belief that films are just another platform to tell stories only strengthened. How the filmmaker tells the story decides whether the film will appeal to the audience or not. My earliest memories of film viewing were the weekend film on Doordarshan, which was a family affair. After the film, the discussion at the dinner table would focus on whether Kalyani should have killed the other woman in the Bimal Roy classic, Bandini and why Raju betrayed Rosie’s trust in the Vijay Anand classic, Guide. I am sure our household was not the only ones – we had company! When I grew up my interest only deepened and saw many more films, mostly good and very rarely trash – must thank Doordarshan for not exposing impressionable minds to inane films unlike some of the film channels of today! Mr. I&B Minister, thank you!!

I have picked two films that I saw during my growing up years. They have remained etched in my memory. I could have chosen a Sholay or a Mughal-e-Azam. I love both these films and they are great films and they good enough to be tutorials on filmmaking. I am in now suggesting that the below-mentioned films are better or worse than a Sholay – I hate comparisons because each good film has its place in the sun (just as both Bradman and Laxman have their appointed places in the Cricket Hall of Greatness!!). If Alfred Hitchcock had chosen a Hindi film, closest to his genre of filmmaking, he would have chosen Teesri Manzil (1966). Teesri Manzil saw the coming together of two geniuses of the time, Vijay Anand and Nazir Hussein. They could not have collaborated on a better venture. The film also saw the emergence of R D Burman as a frontline music composer. The film had all the ingredients of a good mainstream film – good script, fine camerawork, outstanding chemistry between the lead pair (Shammi Kapoor-Asha Parekh), elaborate dance sequences, foot tapping music. Who can forget the opening scene where headlights of a car on a highway are zoomed in to show the credits? Can anyone not remember the elaborate dance number, ‘O Haseena Zulfonwali’ featuring the legendary Helen matching steps with Shammi Kapoor? How could we forget the charming Premnath who plays the mentor to the hero? Did we not relish the well-choreographed climax scene shot brilliantly in natural light? There are so many golden moments in the film but my pick is the scene in the train where Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh travel together in the same compartment along with a fat man who only laughs! That scene is so well crafted that it evokes genuine laughter!! This film is worth a dekko even after 30 years!

Hrishikesh Mukherjee has always been one of my favorite directors. His forte was in bringing to screen real-life people with real situations and weaving all the ingredients of mainstream cinema around such men and situations. I have watched most of his films but Anupama (1966) remains a personal favorite. This film is a tribute to his mentor, Bimal Roy and the film would have definitely made the master proud. Anupama is a story of a timid girl who is held responsible by her father for her mother’s untimely death. She finally finds love with a young writer, played by Dharmendra. Sharmila Tagore was probably one of the most versatile actors, Indian cinema saw and in this film, she plays the lead role with admirable ease. In an era when filmmakers discovered color, this one is made in black and white – am not sure, if it would have created the same impact in color. The film has many outstanding moments but my favorite is when Sharmila Tagore is leaving her home and she finally vents out her emotions to her father. After the scene, you feel lighter—that is the impact of the scene!! My earliest memories of the film were through some unforgettable songs. Who can forget the two Lata gems – Dheere dheere machal & Kuch dilne kaha? Can anyone forget the Hemantda solo – Ya dil ki suno? Bimalda led to Hrishida and after Hrishida, who? I can’t think of anyone else who can ever recreate those magical moments on screen!

Hrishikesh Mukherjee (1922 - 2006) Anupama (1966 – immortality)

Why do I remember some of those films? Because they share something with some old grandma’s tales – the presentation and the story-telling style! The films have remained with me because they told me the story in a manner that I could understand! In addition, the dramatic scenes and some interesting passages ensured that they stay with me! Therefore, I have not written the storyline of the two films but only highlighted some moments that have remained with me.