Johnny Gaddaar: Are you game?
Genre: Thriller
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Dharmendra, Vinay Pathak, Rimii Sen
Storyline: A con betrays his gang during a two-and-a-half crore deal.
Bottomline: A slick, riveting, intelligent game of cards.
Finally, someone’s demonstrated the difference between tribute and plagiarism.
Johnny Gaddaar though derivative of many schools of filmmaking across genres and sensibilities (right from James Hadley Chase to the Coen Brothers to Vijay Anand to Steven Soderberg), still comes out trumps in a delightfully original rollercoaster of a mind game that keeps you guessing till the last minute.
If you just read it, it would seem like a Hadley Chase novel. Once you meet the realistically fleshed out characters double-crossed by the absurdities of fate, they would seem straight out of a Coen Brothers film. If you just listened to the music, it would sound like a free-flowing fusion between R.D.Burman and the jazzy sophisticated score from Danny Oceans franchise. If you paid attention to the way it is shot and edited, you will spot half a dozen influences ranging from Guy Ritchie to Tarantino to Vijay Anand.
And yet, all these inspired parts fall perfectly in place for an gripping game of cards, with Raghavan winning every round except maybe one (almost everyone in the audience can spot a dream-sequence when they see it), the master stroke being the not-so-Blood Simple finale.
Not that this film completely belongs to the crafty technician.
It’s been a really long time since we’ve seen a film where actors have completely surrendered to the characters they are playing. Dharmendra breathes some heavy-duty drama into the proceedings with his restrained body language and the angst-filled voice modulation (the usual ‘Kuttey Kamine’ updated to ‘son of a beach’). Your heart goes out to this fine actor. And there’s the ever-reliable Vinay Pathak playing an endearing gambler with his cheeky punch-lines and flawless timing. Watch out for the scene where he convinces his wife to mortgage her beauty parlour as she watches Amitabh Bachchan in ‘Parwana’ (one of the biggest sources of inspiration for the film’s plot and protagonist). From the story-telling point of view, this scene is an ace.
Zakir Hussain is a revelation. Be it displaying frustration or anger or just lecherously leering at women, the man’s a natural employing his flair for comedy to lighten up proceedings.
The Gaddaar, Neil Nitin Mukesh is the find of the year as he walks through his graph from the innocent, helpless, remorseful con to pure cold-blooded evil.
No, this is not a suspense film in the classical sense. Right from the first act, you know he’s the traitor but it’s not about the ‘what’ or ‘who’. Johnny Gaddaar is all about the how things unfold and that’s the mind-game the director plays with the audience.
Putting you into the shoes of the traitor, Sriram takes you through a reckless, dangerous dark path full of surprises at every corner. There are a few speed-breakers, like the mandatory build-up song before the finale (a staple of the Hindi cinema of the seventies) but as long as it all stays true to the spirit of the homage intended, it’s all good.
This fanboy celebration of films is pure delight for movie buffs.
Take a bow, Raghavan. Double Thumbs Up. Five on five stars.
A must-watch for the likes of Sanjay Gupta and Priyadarshan. A crash course on the huge difference between tribute and plagiarism.
That Four Letter Word : Free!
That four letter word premieres tonight in Bombay at Fun Cinemas, Andheri. If you happen to live in Bombay, feel free to drop in tonight at 10:45. (Free being the operative word)
The movie is releasing tomorrow at the same multiplex and will be playing at the 6:20 slot. Those who can’t make it tonight or want to watch it again, do buy tickets and support Independent Cinema! 
Dhoka: Posters could betray
Genre: Drama
Director: Pooja Bhatt
Cast: Tulip Joshi, Muzzamil Ibrahim, Gulshan Grover, Ashutosh Rana, Aushima Sawhney, Anupam Kher
Storyline: A Muslim cop tries to understand why his wife turned a terrorist and diffuse a terrorist plot.
Bottomline: Don’t say the title didn’t warn you
Please don’t step into the cinemas to watch Tulip Joshi just because she’s in the posters of Dhoka. If MTV produced this film, they would’ve called it ‘Bakra’.
This movie is largely about Pooja Bhatt’s experiments with dead wood – an inanimate, inarticulate object called Muzzamil Ibrahim. How do you make a wooden puppet believable?
She tries all the tricks in the book.
1. Underplay: Muzzamil says all the lines like he’s reading them off a teleprompter during a script reading session.
2. Lights On: This is a tactic Pooja employs within 15 minutes of the film knowing underplaying alone will not help. She puts him in an police interrogation room and throws harsh light on him to make him squint and say his lines from a teleprompter.
3. Silhouette: This is a smart one probably offered by the cinematographer Anshuman Mahaley. Shoot his scenes in silhouettes so that nobody knows what on the planet his face is trying to tell us.
4. Distraction: Get a co-star with a squint (Aushima Sawhney) so that it intrigues the audience on who is she talking to. Always make sure she has a new excuse to show her shoulders in every single scene in the film because her stock expression – the stare – does give them a scare.
5. Wood-cutting: This is a technique the editor came up with. The best way to deal with a wooden actor is to cut him off so often and focus on the better actor in the scene – Gulshan Grover, Tulip Joshi, Manish Makhija and the fat guy/girl with the lipstick and long hair to keep the audience guessing about his gender identity.
6. Music Cues: The overdone orchestral background score suggests the mood of the scene lest you can’t decipher it from Muzzamil’s look. This is a serious film even if the lead actor looks like a joke.
But it’s not just bad acting that’s the bane of this film, it is extremely slow-paced with an obvious lack of conflict until the cop finally meets the man who brainwashed his wife into becoming a terrorist at the end of the second act. The crucial revelation earlier (the backstory on why she became a terrorist) is predictable and been done to death many times before, with the only twist in the tale apart from the mandatory rape is that the bad cop Ashutosh Rana also took an MMS clip.
The only thing intriguing about the film is that shot in the poster of Tulip Joshi emerging out of a dip in water. It appears as a split-second wet-dream sequence that Muzzamil has before waking up in fright. Or was it was happiness? Or excitement?
Apna Aasman: Super-natural and intelligent
Director Kaushik Roy’s intentions are noble, characters believable and this thought-provoking plot can’t be more relevant in a plastic world on the brink of technological breakthroughs.
The multi-layered narrative replete with references from mythology and literature begins slowly and steadily… The story of a family that’s become dysfunctional after the father Ravi (Irrfan breathes so much life into his role as a plastic salesman) drops his son Buddhi (Dhruv is the find of the year) as a child, causing brain damage.
After dwelling into the resulting angst in the lives of the parents (Shobana slips under the skin of the mother with unbelievable conviction), Kaushik sets it up as a psychological thriller of a mythical quality when the father comes across a miracle drug – a ‘brain booster’ that could help Buddhi overcome autism and transform him into a genius.
Since such things happen only in fables, Roy employs cinematic techniques to connect us with the surreal and the larger than life – psychedelic dreams, metaphorical montages and heightened exaggeration from the sensational TV camera point of view – while keeping the emotional core credible, rooted in the realism of the fast food and quick-fix solutions.
The only stumbling blocks are product placements and an overdose of blatant referencing – Like the moment when Rajat Kapoor, the voice of the conscience in the film, quoting Kahlil Gibran, hands over a copy of the book to the parents to find their peace.
Yes, we understand the director’s predicament of ensuring a politically correct resolution for the film to drive home his message to other parents with differently-abled children but the quick fairy tale ending here is simplistic. It comes across as too convenient and seems forced on to an otherwise intelligent film.
Here’s to the arrival of a promising, sensitive filmmaker.
Dhamaal: It’s a mad mad mad remake!
Genre: Comedy
Director: Indra Kumar
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffery, Sanjay Dutt
Storyline: Four friends and a cop in a Rat Race of a Road Trip to find money buried under the big W.
Bottomline: It’s a mad mad mad mad retake
Dhamaal is one of those movies you so want to hate, right from the minute you hear of the plot of the big W – stolen from ‘It’s a mad mad mad mad world’ with a formulaic line-up of Hindi Cinema’s funny men and plenty of recycled PJs (Phaltu Jokes) and sequences lifted straight out of Road Trip and Rat Race.
Yet, somehow, it all strangely works – at least in the first half of the film. And that’s a good enough reason to watch the film. Ninety minutes of entertainment.
Put off completely by Adnan’s Sami’s dated ‘slipping-on-a-banana-peel’ score – a set of stock comic instrumental cues from the low budget comedies of the seventies, I braced myself for a torturous two and a half hours.
Instead, I found myself laughing at the stupidest of jokes, the lamest and the oldest of them, in spite of the silly score and the stereotyped characterisation of four jobless losers unable to afford rent.
That’s what good actors can do. Arshad, Riteish, Javed, Aashish, Sanjay Dutt, Asrani, Tiku Talsania have probably done these roles many times before but with brilliant comic timing and delivery, they make the stalest of jokes refreshing.
There’s this bit in the early portions when a dying criminal (a hilarious Prem Chopra) kicks the bucket, quite literally. That’s the point you completely surrender to the madness, put your brain on pause mode and decide to smile, forgiving the unapologetic, irreverent lack of originality. The means justify the ends. Entertainment.
The second half tumbles downhill as the friends split up providing you a few laughs along the way, nevertheless.
But by then, your brain’s gone numb to the insanity and you just decide to recover cost of tickets by way of jokes that come your way.
‘Dhamaal’s a mast-watch, goes perfectly well with pop-corn and cheese balls.
Darling: Another grave mistake!
Genre: Thriller
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, Isha Koppikar
Storyline: When married man Fardeen accidentally kills his pregnant secretary after an affair, she comes back to haunt him
Bottomline: Blink. It’ll be gone.
When Darling wants to seduce her boss, he warns her “Log Dekh Rahe Hai.” And she asks him to close his eyes so that he can’t see them.
Ram Gopal Varma doesn’t need to worry about the first part. People aren’t watching. Darling is certainly not a word they would want to associate with him. Not after ‘Aag.’
Take a cue from the film and close your eyes. It’ll go away in no time.
The good bit first.
Darling is way better than ‘Aag’ because it does not have decent raw material to begin with. The horror show includes a fat chap hero with a butt-shaped chin, one heroine who looks like a man trapped inside a female’s body and another that looks like woman in a man’s.
No prizes for guessing who’s who. And hey, none of them can act to save their life or Varma’s. Which is what adds a spark of comedy to this grave spooky tale.
In spite of this flush-worthy line-up, Ram Gopal Varma does manage to keep things engaging, thanks to some seriously haunting cinematography in the first half. The bits before the ghost arrives, when all you see are the bhooth’s point of view remind you of the director’s class in setting up the stage for the film to take off.
Smartly crafted because that segment focuses on the psychological after-effects of a man guilty of causing his secretary’s death. This would’ve worked with a better actor. But Fardeen can’t manage close-ups for he does not understand underplaying. He’s Bollywood’s fat answer to Keanu Reeves.
Once the ghost makes an entry, even the cinematography can’t save the film. So what does he do for pay off? Realising he can only do so much with bad actors, he turns the second half into a comedy packing it with laughs. Some you laugh with, many you laugh at.
Like his recent films, Darling at least in a couple of scenes, flickers with the promise of a debutant director with potential.
What’s scary is that Varma has become the ghost of a filmmaker he once was. Sometimes there in the film, sometimes gone.
Review: Ram Gopal VarMaa Ki…
Sorry about the delay in posting the review. Was a little busy all week. You can read my uncut review of Aag or How to burn in hell here.
Aag: Bh-aag!
Genre: Horror
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Mohanlal, Ajay Devgan, Prashant Raj
Storyline: A cop hires two buddies to capture the dreaded gangster Babban Singh.
Bottomline: Miracle cure for insomnia.
When Asif Ali, a music director and the eldest son of the Prince of Arcot, bought a new handycam, he got together his family and friends and remade about 20 minutes of Sholay – as a home video. All they did was re-enact the scenes just the way they had been shot, with the same frames that had been used in the classic, with even the same original audio track. So we had Ramgarh transported to Amir Mahal. He hired horses, extras, costumes, quite a bit of detailing for someone who just wanted to learn how his handycam worked. He had never shot anything before.
We’re talking about Asif Ali’s Sholay because it’s worth more space than Ram Gopal Varma Ki… [Insert appropriate cussword, if you are a fan of the original]. Also, because its only fair to compare one remake with another.
What Asif Ali did was a tribute, even if it was just to test out his new toy.
David Dhawan made ‘Jodi No.1,’ as a cheeky tribute to Sholay.
Though irreverent, that was true homage. Unpretentious, it interpreted the classic effortlessly, confident in its own skin and consistent with the director’s style.
Ram Gopal Varmaa Ki… [Insert appropriate Hindi ‘gaali’, if you are a fan of the original] is an insufferable eighties potboiler about a bad ass bandit called Gabbar.
The kind of film that makes turkeys like ‘Daag – The Fire’ look infinitely slicker.
There’s no stopping Varma’s ‘Aag,’ especially, after he cuts off his editor’s arms (in the original, Gabbar cuts off Thakur’s). The film agonisingly runs for over two and a half hours, unleashing its sadistic streak with bursts of Babban (Bachchan playing out his childhood fantasy, just like a child possessed) and we find ourselves at the butt of all cruel jokes: Nisha Kothari’s “performance”.
It’s difficult to review ‘Aag’ because I kept nodding off to sleep, waking up to be occasionally frightened by the name mothers will drop in the coming weeks to scare kids crying in the cinemas: “Soja, nahi to Nisha Kothari aa jaayegi.” She makes ‘Su-side’ sound like a good idea.
Hema Malini should be granted anticipatory bail and Presidential pardon for it will be no crime if she shoots Nisha in the face on grounds of self-defense/pain-relief.
Sholay was way ahead of its times with elaborate set-piece action sequences of an epic scale – remember the painstakingly shot and orchestrated train-being-chased-by-dacoits sequence in the original? ‘Here, when Ramu on a Lazboy, rents out run down ruins of a fort and let’s his Steadicam operator run amok.
Deserted ruins instead of a speeding train crashing into timber for an impact? The metaphors can’t be more definitive of the respective narratives or the audience response.
Watching stuntmen who’re shot fall down animatedly, you let it pass thinking maybe he’s just recreating the seventies feel all over. You may have forgiven him for that too, if it were consistent.
‘Aag’ is a confused product with conflicting sensibilities for an identity crisis.
Just as you think it’s recreation of a bad eighties (come on, the seventies were way too classy and stylish) film, it opts for the slickness and subtlety of Company. One moment, you have the remix of ‘Yeh Dosti’ and the next moment, Ramu remixes ‘Ek Pal Ki Zindagi’ (from D) as ‘Do Pal Ki Zindagi.’ He wants to marry his realistic sensibility to the stuff legends are made of. Mythology. One moment, you see a healthier Mohanlal reprise his role from ‘Company,’ and another, you see him prance around doing the ‘koothu’ with unflattering wide-angle extreme close-ups.
Sholay came across as a seamless narrative, in spite of the motley crew of unforgettable characters. Here, in spite of its attempt to trivialise, simplify and omit key moments and lines, the screenplay is terribly disjointed, at times even making you forget characters who exist in the film that it is impossible to connect with the caricatures.
There are all of three scenes to write home about. Veerendra Saxena as A.K.Hangal is heartrendingly good. Two, Bachchan as Babban when he saws off the Inspector’s fingers is psychotically effective and the third, I forget but that Prashant Raj chap isn’t half-bad.
There’s so much to bitchslap Ramu for but this film isn’t even worth talking about.
The first annual indie film festival – i!
in association withIndian Independent Filmmakers Foundation
presents
i
September 3-7, 2007
September 3, 2007
0900: Premiere of Apna Aasman directed by Kaushik Roy
1045: Interactive session with Irrfan Khan and Dhruv
1115: Session: Freedom from formula
Panelists: Filmmakers Balu Mahendra, Cheran, Kaushik Roy & Rajat Kapoor
Moderator: K.Hariharan
Scope of discussion: What is Indie Cinema?
Is it defined as the work of an auteur or a result of an economic distinction or medium?
September 4, 2007
0900: Framed directed by Chetan Shah
1100: Session: Cinema as multi-media
Panelists: Chetan Shah, Girish Ramdas (CEO, Galatta.com), Senthil Kumar (Director, Real Image Media Technologies), Suresh (Ananda Pictures), Thyagarajan (Sathyajothi Films), Nag Ravi (CEO, Insight Media).
Moderator: Tan Ngaronga, CEO, Sathyam Cinemas
Scope of discussion: Channels of distribution, exhibition and need for Data Banks
September 5, 2007
0900: Package of student films from L.V.Prasad Film and TV Academy
1100: Session: Script Clinics and Film Clubs
Panelists: K.Hariharan, ‘Crazy’ Mohan, Amritraj Gnanam (Dean, SRM Institute of Communication), Priya V.
Moderator: Madhan (Vijay TV Host/Critic)
Scope of discussion: Nurturing fresh talent, whetting scripts and grooming our young filmmakers
September 6, 2007
0900: Chennai 600028 directed by Venkat Prabhu/ premiere of an unreleased acclaimed film (to-be-confirmed soon)
1130: Session: Financing and Global Perspectives
Panelists: D. Ramakrishnan (NFDC), Madhav Das (G.V. Films), Sriram (Aalayam), Venkat Prabhu, Kamali Ramachandran (Reliance Entertainment).
Moderator: Anita Udeep (CEO, N-Viz Entertainment)
Scope of discussion: Corporatisation of film business, sources of funding.
September 7, 2007
0900: Hari Om directed by Bharatbala
1100: Session: IIFF: The Long Road Ahead
Panelists: Bharatbala (Bharatbala Productions), Kiran Reddy (Sathyam Cinemas), G.Dhananjayan (Moser Baer), Revathy, Rohini and Dharani.
Moderator: Baradwaj Rangan (Features Editor, New Sunday Express)
Scope of discussion: Need for networking, how to keep the movement going, monthly activities, scope and role of film festivals.
Seating for the film festival is free and on a first come first served basis. There are a few seats available for reservation.
Mail iiffchennai@gmail.com to confirm your seat.
And yes, do spread the word.
September 8, 2007
1900: RTFF Edition 3 – The Heist and Neo-Noir Edition
Venue: To be confirmed soon. A friend of mine who has an ad agency has volunteered his roof, it has a little construction debris which is likely to be cleared by the weekend. So will keep you guys updated on that. You can register for RTFF on the wiki.
The Host: GobbledlyGook Monster
The Host makes you miss Johnny Sokko
Cast: Kang-Ho Song, Hie-Bong Byeon, Hae-il Park, Du-Na Bae, Ah-Sung Ko
Director: Joon Ho Bong
Genre: Thriller
Storyline: Gobbledygook monster plays hide and seek in the sea before gobbling down the gooks.
Bottomline: Dubbed a disaster. Subtitles, please.
How you wish they hadn’t messed with the original and not dubbed this Korean visual effects masterpiece into English!
It is rather difficult to take this monster film seriously with the flippant, often distracting, dubbing. It’s almost like the dubbing artistes decided to have their bit of fun, taking digs at the film, the dialogue delivery sounding rather tongue-in-cheek.
Had it been subtitled and retained in Korean, ‘The Host’ (‘Gwoemul’ in Korean) would’ve been immensely watchable. In English, it sounds like a sequel to the Hong Kong-made madcap entertainer Kung Fu Hustle.
The story isn’t new to us Asians, especially to those of us who grew up watching Godzilla on the big screen or Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot on the small. We’ve seen creatures of all shapes and sizes on a rampage; assorted monsters on a munch-fest umpteen number of times. So why should we warm to ‘The Host’ today when it sounds like a spoof on the Grindhouse cinema of the seventies?
One, it works as a throwback to a bygone era, a homage made richer by state-of-the-art visual effects. Two, there seems to be some sort of poetry to the visuals with director opting for silence and quietness to add drama to the horror usually represented by characters shrieking loudly and running away. Here, they stand rooted in fear, terrified to even scream. Sometimes, the narrative distances itself from the thick of action and strives for objectivity and realism, even at the risk of making the sequences appear ridiculous. Sample a bunch of tourists on a bus who are briefed by their guide about the Han River look out only to witness a giant reptile chase scores of people all around the bank. Within moments, we are back in the middle of the bloody chase where a helpless father clutches the hands of his daughter and flees, only to turn back and look he has got hold of the wrong girl. The music goes quiet again and we feel for the character in the middle of all that comedy.
That’s the kind of movie ‘The Host’ is. Funny, unpredictable, moody, spectacular, cheesy and poignant.
Rush Hour 3: Same old traffic, different road
Cast: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Noémie Lenoir
Director: Brett Ratner
Genre: Action
Storyline: Inspector Lee and Detective Carter go to Paris to take on the dangerous Chinese Triad.
Bottomline: Rush Hour is Rush Hour in any part of the world – only the ambience changes, the action is just the same.
The funniest part of Rush Hour 3 was the slide at the beginning that showed the local distributor’s corny title card that read more like an obituary ad, with the mug shot and all. If only the rest of the movie was as hilarious and not as cheesy.
What we get instead is another dose of the race stereotypes, borrowed jokes and stale situations, which you will only enjoy if you go with an open mind and an empty head.
It is surprising that Rush Hour 3, in spite of being helmed by Brett ‘Prison Break’ Ratner, who directed the first part, is in no hurry to get to the plot. This is assembly line cinema at its laziest.
The script for Rush Hour and its sequels were probably made up during a quick drive down an empty street: Two cops, an East-meets-West version of Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys, kick it (like the poster says) yet again, crack some jokes about each other’s race before showing off their respective talents – Chan with his gravity defying stunts with other Asian stuntmen/women and Tucker with his loud-mouthed black American stand-up act.
Hence, the only plot point that differentiates the third part from the first two is the location: Paris. The location dictates that the duo has to check out women at the cabaret, make friends with at least one French guy and hang out at the Eiffel Tower, literally, for the stunts.
Pretty predictable.
If you’ve seen Dude Where’s My Car and Austin Powers, you would’ve already got bored of the Mi/Me and Yu/You jokes. Else, you have something to laugh about.
So why would you want to watch this?
For Jackie Chan, of course. We love Jackie for the guy he is, for his never-say-die spirit and love for action.
Who wants a plot when you can see Jackie still kicking it, right?
ECR: Chennai-Pondicherry
Click the pic to read stories behind those moments.
One day in the life of East Coast Road
I had been meaning to do this ever since I bought a cruiser after watching ‘Motorcycle Diaries.’ To hit the road and ride far away from the everyday mechanics of urban life.
So when a chance came by for this story, I jumped right on to the bike.
Just the previous week, I had postponed a road trip with a friend because my bike was due was service. I still hadn’t fixed the chain noise that was bothering me. But hey! What’s a road trip without any real adventure?
The fact that I had never done 300 kilometres by bike in a day (to Pondicherry and back) only added to the excitement.
The East Coast Road had earned the reputation of being one of the deadliest roads in the State with high accident rates year after year, after being developed as a more scenic alternative route to Mahabalipuram in the late-nineties.
On December 22, 2000, the Tamil Nadu Government and Tamil Nadu Road Development Company (TNRDC) signed up for the improvement of 113.2 km of ECR from Kudimiyandithoppu near Chennai to Koonimedu on the outskirts of Pondicherry, entrusting the task to TNRDC on a long-term basis.
Thanks to a friend who had once worked with TNRDC, I knew a little about the challenges faced by the authorities in maintaining that stretch.
I set out from Anna Nagar at five a.m., picked up Darshan, a friend who’s always game for adventure, from T.Nagar. By 5.45 a.m., we were already cruising down the I.T. corridor, the quickest access route to Thiruvanmiyur – where ECR begins.
The good thing about taking a bike down that road is that you don’t need to shell out the toll fee at the plaza (the ECR scenic beachway route begins a kilometer before the toll gate) that monitors (with surveillance cameras) every car that passes that way.
The East Coast Road, last year, recorded an average traffic of about 10,830 passenger car units every day. According to my insider friend, the volume of traffic has been growing by about 20 per cent every year.
The scenic part of the ride actually begins only a few kilometres after Mayajaal, a little before Muttukadu as casuarina groves hide the sea from the road, showing us occasional glimpses of virgin beaches – only that there is no visible access route to the stretch but through the paper-plate infested groves with boards that warn you of thieves in the area.
The backwaters at Muttukadu reflecting the early morning hues in the sky made for a perfect canvas. We had plenty of photo opportunities every few kilometres thereon.
The bevy of dancers at a local temple festival en route to Mahabs were only too happy to pose for Darshan, as the drummer got into a head-banging trance, encouraged by the presence of the camera.
After a quick meal at Mamalla Bhavan at seven a.m., we clicked a few more pictures at the rock carvings at Mahabalipuram, lured by the sight of goats lending the sculptures a touch of modern art as they scattered themselves strategically all around the caves, striking poses for the camera.
Intrigued by the sight of the number of saffron-clad travellers we had noticed in the course of the last 20 kilometres, we stopped to enquire. Sathish Kumar, part of the faculty at Jeppiar Engineering College, said that he along with his mates Vadivel and Karthikeyan were on their pilgrimage by foot to Velankanni. “We started on Sunday evening. We will reach only on the 27th,” said Sathish.
The traffic had increased since Mahabalipuram and we realised that the best time to hit the road was early morning. There were many buses and share autos hogging road space during the day. Besides, riding in the night is dangerous given that it is near impossible to spot a restless animal darting across the road. Besides, what if the bike broke down?
The only time the bike made that annoying chain noise was when I slowed down and changed to first gear. Maybe I shouldn’t stop too often, I decided, to ensure we weren’t stranded in the middle of nowhere – especially now, that we were halfway between Mahabalipuram and Marakkanam, the town closest to Pondicherry.
That’s when Darshan pointed out to the TNRDC Helpline posts that we had seen every few kilometres all along. He got down to study how they worked, just in case we needed help. The instructions were pretty simple. All you had to do was press the button three times and speak into box.
With just another 50 kilometres to go before Pondicherry and not all that tired, we decided to find out more about the ruins of the Alambarai Fort and backwaters, about five kilometres off ECR.
It was only on those bumpy roads that we realised what a smooth journey it had been till then.
A brief stopover later, we were back on ECR. The Highway Patrol cars shuttle between the toll-gates outside Chennai and Pondicherry throughout the day and it is rather safe road to drive. Closer to sunset, the traffic peaks with people trying to get home before dark. ECR is a beautiful sight in the night indeed with the glowing neon road markings with thermoplastic reflective paints and cats eye delineators. But it’s the stray animals that could kill with their surprise entry.
Once we got to Pondicherry incident-free, we decided to spend the day there and head back early in the morning. With the rains unleashing their fury on the roads late in the evening, we were glad we were indoors.
But as luck would have it, it rained all night. The roads were wet, a light drizzle accompanied us till Mahabalipuram in the morning. But then, we had asked for adventure, right?
Post Script:
The same night I got back, I hit the road again to head to my office. Ten metres later, the bike chain slipped. Took me a while to fix it and 100 metres later, it slipped again. It was close to midnight and I had no option but to ride at 10 km per hour to get to work and sign in before 1 a.m. I asked for this, didn’t I? I’m glad I got away riding at that speed for 10 kms when it could’ve been worse.
Review: Chak De
Jaideep Sahni is surely one of the finest screenwriters of our times, probably the best mainstream Hindi cinema has seen – Company, Bunty aur Babli, Khosla Ka Ghosla and now, Chak De!
It’s high time a screenwriter got his due and that’s why I begin with the writer.
What better way to hang your balls out there than by writing an SRK film minus romance, conventional song breaks, melodrama or any of the stereotypes associated with the Yashraj Films banner (and one of the most expensive films at that) for a one-film old Shimit Amin.
Chak De: Ballsy!
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Malvade, Sagarika Ghatge, Shilpa Shukla, Chitrashi Rawat, Tanya Abrol, Anaitha Nair
Director: Shimit Amin
Genre: Sports/Drama
Storyline: A fallen hockey hero must redeem himself by coaching the reluctant Indian women’s team for the World Cup.
Bottomline: Hindi cinema finally gets what teamwork is all about.
Hindi films have always been about a few ‘star’ players, like every other sport in the country. When did we last make a solid ensemble film about sports – one that’s not about a few players saving the day but about the triumph of teamwork?
Come on, even Lagaan needed the star of the film, Aamir as Bhuvan hitting a six of the last ball. Iqbal was about a whiz kid’s spirit and talent winning it for the team. Jo Jeeta was a tale of personal triumph.
Chak De is that rare film where the hero watches from the stands and lets a bunch of ‘what’s-her-name-again’ girls do all the winning.
Jaideep Sahni is surely one of the finest screenwriters of our times, probably the best mainstream Hindi cinema has seen – Company, Bunty aur Babli, Khosla Ka Ghosla and now, Chak De!
It’s high time screenwriters got their due.
Just getting Yash Raj Films excited about a non-formulaic script like this is a goal by itself. A winner! Especially, considering that making a sports film is one of the most physically and logistically challenging tasks for Hindi cinema that thrives on a staple of melodrama and star theatrics.
Sahni’s other masterstroke is to pitch it to a nuanced director who likes to work with the subtlety needed to make the story on the triumph of the underdogs realistic, especially since this is based on a real life hero – Mir Ranjan Negi.
The sporting action is riveting, like any good game of ball. As the film begins, we are right in the middle of the climax of an India-Pakistan Hockey World Cup final. Khan takes the penalty corner. In a typical Johar/Chopra film, the slow-mo that follows the dramatic tension-building shots would’ve introduced us to the triumphant demi-God hero.
But here, what we see is a hero fall and fail. Without the opposition’s cheating or foul play. And then, a few moments later, embodying the true spirit of sport, our Muslim protagonist rises to shakes hand with the opponent: The Pakistanis.
This is India and that is blasphemy, right?
Chak De is not just a commentary on the way sport is run in the country, it also gets deep into the psyche of the typical Indian player, divided from his/her team by race, religion or language, playing for the self, doing what it takes to survive, biding time at training camps and complaining about the coach.
There are plenty of digs at cricket and the attitude of our celebrated cricketers. Be it the flashy Indian Cricket Vice Captain who believes that success is about making sure that none of your team-mates get anywhere close to where you are or when SRK stops a goonda about to attack his girls with a cricket bat from behind saying: “Hamare Hockey main Chakkey Nahin Hai”.
At another level, Chak De is about women’s liberation. It is one of the best feminist films of our times. That scene at McDonalds when the gang of girls get together to beat the burgers out of boys teasing them is not just a political statement about gender supremacy, it is symbolic of national integration, team spirit and also, a beautiful, cathartic release of their collective angst combined with the guilt of chucking their coach out of the team, triggered by what is otherwise a routine incident of everyday sexual abuse. This is truly one of the finest, layered, understated, game-changers in screenwriting in Hindi cinema of all times, ably handled with mature, clever direction.
Next, the girls themselves are the closest we’ve seen to a representation of India in any sports movie we’ve seen. They aren’t 16 pretty young things. The casting is first-rate; even for the smaller parts, the choice of actors makes up for the lack of detailing. The rawness in the performances actually makes you forget these are actresses. Within moments after meeting them, you surrender to the types.
Though we begin by warming up to the ethnic/race differences among the players, soon enough, Amin skirts their inter-racial conflicts behind the uniform – the great leveler.
After all, sport isn’t about celebrating diversit, it is about the unifying spirit of playing with passion for the country and the team.
It is as authentic as it gets in a sports film: Multiple-camera set-ups, long-continuous shots of the field and action (which requires that the actors know to play hockey and play it at least reasonably good – which the girls do), racy narration, crisp training montage sequences, motivational speeches and a plausible road map for the underdogs to emerge victorious. It’s a fairy-tale told with utmost conviction, realism and logic.
Shah Rukh Khan, the star, is a delight to watch. As a performer here, he’s even better. After Sunil in Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Mohan Bhargav in Swades, here comes Kabir Khan, who once again lets his eyes speak volumes. Watch him savour his moment of triumph quietly, standing alone and watching his team from far away. That’s the kind of stuff legends are made of. He can choke your heart without saying a single word.
There’s just one thing that stops this film-of-the-year from becoming a classic – the music. Salim Sulaiman’s music is functional and it works at a very ho-hum level. The title song is hummable too.
Now, if only… If only this had A.R.Rahman doing the score… it would’ve been quite a match and an award-winning team!
CNN-IBN: Second innings!
This episode of Minus 30 appeared a while ago on CNN-IBN. Thanks to Darshan for recording it for me. It’s about That Four Letter Word. Here’s the whole episode. There’s also a segment on Kiruba talking about the best blogs.
That4Letterword.com
Since the blog has been the ancestral home of the film, we just decided to direct the That4LetterWord domain to the movie blog.
Check into the brand new That4LetterWord.Com for regular updates, news clips and announcements of upcoming screenings.
We’re just getting started. Releasing in Mumbai on September 28 at the Fun Cinemas multiplex in Andheri. Tell all your friends in Bombay to start spreading the word.
From September 28 in Mumbai
Thanks to Bhumika at Fun Cinemas, we’re all set to release in Mumbai from September 28. Watch out for the promos on TV.
On CNN-IBN: Minus 30 with Paras Tomar
You can find the full episode here. Don’t miss Kiruba talking about blogs in it.
Partner: David Dhawan’s ‘Hitch’-hike!
Cast: Salman Khan, Govinda, Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta
Director: David Dhawan
Genre: Comedy
Storyline: Hitch
Bottomline: Knot exactly Hitch, tied up David Dhawan style
The thing about David Dhawan movies is that you know that the knot is just an excuse to unleash some unpretentious insanity on screen, as the lead pair improvises with great flourish, backed with the cheesiest of lines.
Sample this: When Prem (Salman Khan of course) thinks the bumbling Bhaskar (Govinda) died in a bus accident, he sits beside the corpse, and in all sincerity says: “Pata hai pyaar karna sab ke BUS ki baat nahin nahin, Par kya pata tha ki tu BUS pakadkar, hum sabko beBUS karke chala jayega.” (It’s impossible to translate these dialogues Sanjay Chhel and make them sound funny in English)
Instantly, you know here’s a film that does not take itself too seriously. Earlier, there’s a scene where a kid launches a baby missile that responds to the verbal cue: ‘Go baby go’ and hunts down the person mentioned after those words. So when the kid helplessly cries for help saying ‘Maama,’ the missile chases Jet-Skiing Salman Khan giving him ample scope to showcase his stunts. Wait a minute, didn’t we say it was about Hitch?
Yes, that’s because stupid Bhaskar (chubby klutzy Govinda) wants to woo Marie Claire model Katrina Kaif and seeks Love Guru’s help.
With that storyline as an excuse, David Dhawan gives the common man plenty to laugh at with digs at everyone including Shah Rukh Khan (Rajpal Yadav plays Chotta Don in a cheeky sub-plot that never quite takes off), Aamir Khan (there’s this hilarious Aamir duplicate on screen when Salman takes the mischievious kid for a movie) and the lead players Govinda (as the man breaks into Sarkailo Khatiya to showcase his dance skills before Love Guru tells him that times have changed and he has to make his moves more stylish and ‘Just Chill’ – one of the finest moments in the film, almost autobiographical) and Salman himself (at a security check, Salman takes his shirt off and says: “Main Toh Mauke main rehta hoon yeh sab karne ke liye” (I just wait for opportunities to do things like this)
David Dhawan has been criticised for being inconsistent about delivering his films and sometimes scenes within the film – some work, others fail. That’s because he helms a genre called improvisational comedy that solely depends on the mood of the unit (mainly the actors and his writers) during that particular day.
If you think about it, there is simply no other way David Dhawan films can be made. Because most of the jokes surely wouldn’t sound funny the second time you read it in a bound script.
The scenes work purely because of the improvisation and comic timing by the actors. Here, Govinda returns to form and cracks you up as Salman sits back and lets the under-rated actor take centre-stage.
In fact, that scene in the theatre where Prem babysits the kid and cheers ‘Go Aamir, Go’ is testimony to Salman’s attitude of sitting back and having a good time watching his contemporaries try hard to entertain. In a recent interview, Salman said: “Shah Rukh puts in 100 per cent, Aamir puts in 200 per cent… and me, I put in two percent.”
And when you see Partner, you tend to believe the man. His performance is effortless indeed.
If Hitch was a date movie, this one’s for buddies.
Die Hard: John McLane kicks ass!
Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Maggie Q, Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith
Director: Len Wiseman
Genre: Action
Storyline: A bunch of hackers unleashing virtual terrorism need their backsides kicked and John McLane obliges.
Bottomline: Yippi Ka Yay! Mo-friggin’ good.
For most Die Hard fans, it’s paisa vasool just to watch John McLane say: ‘Yippi Ka Yay Mother…’ This breed could die of a happiness overdose watching Die Hard 4.0.
John McLane is back doing what he does best – kick as soon as he gets a chance to, the good old-fashioned way.
Like always, he is the man at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s not Christmas but it’s the fourth of July this time.
Pretty much like Rocky Balboa in his last installment, John McLane too now spends a lonely life. No wife, a daughter who’s bitter with him. “Know what you get for being a hero? Nothin’. You get shot at… Your wife doesn’t remember your last name…”
He’s not exactly dying to be a hero and yet always near-dying when he becomes one, out of no choice. Like he says, “If someone else would do it, I would gladly let them.” Speaking for the rest of us, the hacker kid he’s protecting (Justin Long) tells him: “That’s what makes you the man.”
It’s that emotional core of Die Hard 4.0 that raises the film above the mindless-action-based sequels, even bettering the original.
Not that the sequels were all bad. The original Die Hard (1988) was a classic action flick that made profanity sound cool. Die Hard 2 (1990) was really pushing the scope of possibilities to plausibility-defying proportions and yet managing to land smoothly as McLane gives the bad guys a ‘Yippi Ka Yay’ send off with his cigarette lighter. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) started off on a promising note with the ‘Simon Says’ game but the key revelation happens too early in the film and we’re left with nearly an hour of an explosive steeple-chase which after a point becomes really redundant.
Thanks to Wiseman, with the emotional core intact, Die Hard 4 explodes into a recklessly racy video game – a cat-and-mice (come on, the bad guys are always mice compared to John McLane, our cool cat) game too like the previous films.
We always knew McLane hated technology, so here they pit him against something he has no clue about and that is what makes him vulnerable. The villain is technology, not the guys specifically. Like the bad guy Thomas Gabriel (Timothy Olyphant) says, “You are a Timex watch in a digital age.”
Even when it’s about combat, McLane is dealing with sophisticated fighters. Maggie Q plays a martial arts specialist. “Mai? Asian chick, likes to kick people? Yeah, last time I saw her she was at the bottom of an elevator shaft with an SUV rammed up her ass…” goes McLane after taking her on: “Enough of this kung fu shit.”
McLane sticks to basics. He knows someone is responsible for wrecking chaos and he knows he has to find them and kick their assembly. In the process, he sends cars flying, takes on an F-35 jet sitting in a truck and yeah, like the John McLane Guyz Nite tribute song tells us, “the greatest car-explosions by far.”
Justin Long (Accepted, Herbie Fully Loaded) plays the perfect foil to McLane, speaking for us most of the time, like when he observes: “You just killed a helicopter with a car.” “I was outta bullets,” reasons McLane with his trademark cool.
Bruce Willis just seems to get better at this with age and it would be a pity if he signs off the franchise with this one. The man carries the film with his profanity and timing, getting beaten, battered and bathes in blood before he finally gets to say: “Yippi Ka Yay Motherfucker!” (Jerkoffs wouldn’t like that on print, would they?)
Interview on MiD-Day Bangalore
Thank you, Sunayana, for this half-page write-up… Awesome! Considering you had to jot it all down over phone… You’re a rock star!!
For the record, a couple of small corrections/clarifications:
1. The article says 72 per cent of TFLW was shot in 3 weeks.
About 85 per cent of the film was actually shot in 12 days. The 72 per cent stat is about the occupancy during the 3 weeks we played at Sathyam Cinemas.
2. The problem in finding child actors who can speak English without any accent was to make sure that regional flavours don’t restrict the market for a universal story. Generally, Bombay audiences have their strict bias against anything even remotely South Indian.
Beerfest: Drink before you think
Cast: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Cloris Leachman, Paul Soter
Director: Jay Chandrasekhar
Genre: Comedy
Storyline: A bunch of friends challenge the Germans to a beer-drinking competition.
Bottomline: *Laugh out loud* What was it again? Hic! Never mind, pour me another one!
Half-naked women (Full, if you grab a DVD). Gross jokes about throwing up. Absolutely ribald. Juvenile to the core. Inane. Crude. Crass. But come on, it’s a night out with the boys.
After all, the irreverence is among the many other casual, fun things that the spirit of beer stands for.
Now, I don’t drink Beer. Mostly, because I don’t like the taste of it.
But strangely, I liked the bad taste in this one.
Beerfest made me love everything that Beer stands for. It’s the kind of movie that makes ‘Dude, Where’s My Car’ look sober.
Which means that you just should not, must not and cannot look for a story or a plot in here. Because, like good beer, it’s all about the froth and the foam, the strong flavour and a light kick. Beer is not the food for thought or a plot. It’s an excuse to lose your mind.
Hence, the film itself is constructed like one of those all-guys frat-house parties where you arrive knowing what to expect, meet the weirdest assortment of drunks and before you know it, the games begin and guys get-together bonding over beer and, well… More beer.
There’s non-stop nonsense, junk food, Baywatch on TV and a bunch of guys rolling on the floor laughing about something they don’t remember anymore.
Relate to that? Then, Jay Chandrasekhar’s movie is your pitcher of beer.
Jay himself can’t act for nuts but he’s fun to watch.
And Hey! If he was adequately drunk when he wrote and directed this ultimate Beer Movie ever, it’s only fair he got himself sloshed before the make-up man messed with his face.
Want to really enjoy the Beerfest experience?
Get together with the boys, get plenty of booze and rent it out. If the movie doesn’t make you laugh, the beer surely will.
Coming Soon to Singapore!
I had got an email from Anant Shiva, a friend of Sagaro’s, inviting me to send in That Four Letter Word for the Screenplayer Film Festival. Apparently, the festival is only for short films and they have made an exception to showcase TFLW because of its ‘making’ story, I hear.
All a filmmaker wants is for more people to see his film. (Sagaro: Don’t take that to mean that you can put up a copy online if you have one). I’m glad that some of you in Singapore will be able to see the movie.
One of my school buddies and old dumb charades mate Amal Kiran is planning to organise a screening for his students. Amal knows the guys we’ve based the film on. So it would be interesting to see how he reacts to the film because he hasn’t seen it himself yet.
TFLW goes to South Asian Film Festival, Bangladesh
I just got an email informing me that the film has been selected in the non-competitive section of the South Asian Film Festival, Bangladesh.
I had submitted my film after one of the festival programmers from India had asked me to send in the film.
The festival is between August 1 and 10 in Dhaka and Chittagong. The screening schedule should be put up on July 25 on the official site.
I’m yet to decide if I should go or not mainly because of the political turmoil in Dhaka. Besides, flying there is too expensive and the only other option is to fly to Kolkata and take a bus or train to Dhaka.
I’m tempted to go there because this is only the second International film festival that the film has been selected for after the Premiere in Chennai.
Now, I don’t feel too bad spending money couriering films around the world. Each time I send through DHL, it costs me Rs.2400.
I remember filling up the entry form of the Milano Film Festival, Italy in the middle of the night and it took me nearly two hours because they had word limits for everything. Once I hit Submit, I got a message saying that the film DVD should reach them within the next 48 hours. It was 2 in the morning. I rushed out to take my bike and rode to the DHL centre near the airport after packing a DVD with the cleanest inlay cards that were available at home. I got there and found out it was going to cost me that much. I wasn’t even carrying that kind of money and since I didn’t have much of a bank balance either, I paid partly by cash and partly by card. They said it would take 3 days to reach Milan, Italy and that was a chance I was willing to take.
And then, I got home to do a little more reading on the festival and I found this link that took me to submission statistics. Some 2400 plus films had been submitted last year. This year, they have 2550 entries.
I read that they would select about 12 feature films in all.
I don’t think I need to do the math to figure out that I just lost 2400 bucks in one night.
Post Script:
The results for the Milano Film Festival will be out on August 1. If you believe in miracles, please pray.
