Taare zameen par

What I wrote yesterday immediately after watching Aamir Khan’s Taare zameen par was emotionally garbled. After several attempts at writing myself into a semblance of balance I gave up in disgust. I hoped I would be more lucid and less churned up after an entire normal day and night. But it seems that the hangover will not abate so easily.

Salaam Nikhil

Watched Salaam-e-ishq today.

At last a film Bollywood can be proud of. Isn’t it amazing that Nikhil Advani has emerged from the shadow of his mentor to emerge, as … well Himself! But one must admit that the subtle tribute to him was touching. Also, it was only one of the many creative touches in the film.

From start to finish, this film is a statement in style. Six love stories - each amazing different in content, each told at a different pitch. Each narrative is put forth with the broad brush strokes of an artist sure of his craft. Not for Nikhil the expected atmospheric detail and depth of characterisation. The characters and storylines are so everything we have been used to, that the director wisely leaves us with only a hint, and invites the discerning audience to fill up the rest! This is perhaps what they mean by spaces in art.

I always like an artist to respect and engage with his audience.

It’s amazing how he manages to hold together all the different threads of the narratives without once getting involved. Clever editing techniques, with constant description of time and space in legible lettering so that the viewer is with the film at all times.

The stories are moved forward in unison quite like a master charioteer moves his team. And at every crucial turn we are shown how the protagonists are faring (there are twelve of them, a commendable feat) in a cunning mosaic of images.

The alternately funny and poignant climax brings together all the characters and the various storylines.

I cannot but mention the team. The editor who would never have been given such a job in his life- this clever man must surely thank his stars that he was born into an era with technological possibilities and word processing. The art director- it’s the case of who needs a character when you have an art director. For instance, we are never told anything about Akshaye Khanna’s character, but the set created for him leaves us with such astounding possibilities that indeed we are glad to be kept in the dark, or rather the blue. The palatial prussian blue koti (with a 20 foot elephant mural and acrylic crystal door knobs) speaks of unspeakable aesthetic versatility and is by itself worth the prize of your ticket.

I did not notice the music too much, it was alright I suppose, I was trying to grasp every intricacy of the narrative.

I’ve gushed enough, what can I say?

Go watch!

Omkara

Watched Omkara yesterday. Found it shatteringly beautiful. I usually decide about a film by the quality and intensity of the hangover it leaves me with. I feel like I’ve been at a rave all night.

Can a good music director turn into such an extraordinary filmmaker just by wanting to? Seems he can. Must be that thing they call talent.

Gushing on

Ya ali yaar pe hain loota dun mita dun mein apni khudi
Aha why does it all seem so much more, just more when Shiny’s face fills the screen? That song on that Man, the Bhatt gang knows what it is doing sometimes.
I and (a thousand others I daresay) would have said that Shiny is a very silly name for a grown man. Not anymore. Now you can say Shiny to me in the manner of BOO, and see my face light up. I tell you, that man lends dignity to a name. Oh! Shiny, Shiny Shiny.

BTW Gangster’s oookay, Shiny’s fabulous. I desperately hope he does not develop his tendency to overact. He is just perfect when he just is. Thought he was good in Kal, waiting to see Hazaaron khwaishein aisi. Spitty it has to be on small screen now.

Colour me true

It’s been more than a week since I watched Rang de Basanti. I would have thought the disappointment would have worn out by now. However, since I still find myself gnashing my teeth at odd moments, I thought it was healthier to vent.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING!!
Having said that, what were they thinking? Were they so much in love with the title that they had to sacrifice the script to justify it? Did they have a real, solid coming of age story that the first half promised and was this subverted by a cynical financer who wanted this irresponsible sensationalism? Because beyond anything else the film was irresponsible. Is this how a generation awakens? Not through sustained idealism in the face and in the midst of corruption. Not through self-belief and untiring efforts. Not through applied Karma Yoga. Oh no none of those Gandhian clichés for our Jawan. Give them instead an attention seeking blood bath of wasted youth and dubious potential.
Ok in the spirit of analysis – were they making a realistic, tell it as they are, arthouse type film? In which an ageing adolescent, a rich-with-all-its-problems young man with patricidal tendencies and unrequited love, a closet homosexual, and others with equally unsubstantial problems all in some deluded mass hysteria decide that a sensational death is the best use of their lives. Well no, it was not such a film. This film presumed to be about heroes. It was about leading the way. Which is why I find it hard to forgive. Who wants to be lead by a bunch of homicidal-suicidal maniacs? What do they think distinguishes these puppets from your average terrorist suicide bomber? Participate in the making of one film about a subject about which they formerly know woefully little, and our heroes react like they have been possessed by the ghosts of characters they play or at least high on some hypnotic drug.
It was a let down, this film. In retrospect I feel no charity with the first half either. If they knew this is what they were leading upto (and presumably they did, because at least three of the actors have vowed that it was the brilliant script that lured them) then they went about laying the track all wrong. We got not passionate young men with burning angst in whom we might have forgiven an extreme step; we got instead fun and frolic for our ticket’s worth. It wouldn’t do for the film to be accused of being too serious, now would it?
It might just be bitterness speaking - but what kind of a film do you expect then from a couple of ‘pitch for the shrillest’ Admen?

To go or not to go...

I was delighted to pop open page two of HT and see that they had decided to show Star Wars Episode III here. I spent all of yesterday wiggling in anticipation. Slightly dampened by the fact that there was absolutely nobody here to even dignify it with informed indifference – Star Wars? hmmm is it like that Independence Day film?. Nevertheless resolutely cheery.
This morning a chilling idea crept up my spine. I put it down to paranoia and put it down. Didn’t stay that way - Reared its ugly head again. Called Vishwanath keeper of books, papers and sundry information, with cold fingers and brave heart.
They can’t possibly be showing STARWARS in hindi, Can they? CAN THEY?

What do you think?

Now I tell myself with a sickly grin that maybe this is the way it was meant to be, he! See Obi Wan spouting Hindi will probably add a dimension to the surrealism, huh?
I tell myself I am not even one of those diehard types that signs off with messages about the force, or can’t twiddle with an aging tube light without slipping into an elaborate fantasy.
For chrissake! I am not even that big a fan.
But the last ever to be made Star Wars film in Hindi?
One of those silly purists in me is putting up a squeaky shrieky protest.