A Wednesday!

Why was there not much noise about this movie? Its one of the well made thrillers (if not the best ) in bollywood..very hollywoodish but with lotsa relevance to desi scene..
How ever well made the Hollywood flicks are, I feel am a bit displaced bcos I don’t gel with NYPD or LAPD or their infights and many such trivias that are purely yankee..But that doesn’t mean they shud make movies relevant to all & sundry in the world but my wish always was why not people here make movies of such caliber but very India relevant..
A Wednesday is an attempt at that and a highly successful one!
Remember the telephone booth- a gripping thriller with just one telephone booth as a set prop! What brains to make movies like that..This is nearly such an effort, monumental in our context.
Who better to take those roles that Anupam Kher and Nasrudeen Shah. What a performance..fantastic portrayal! I read somewhere that “ bring Kher as Mumbai Commissioner, he may do a good job, seeing the way he conducts in this role!”..as for Nasrudeen Shah, this shud be right up there among his scores of great jobs he has done.
I don’t think any review of this movie can attempt to say anything about the story or any incident in the movie. Its so intelligent that any extra word can result as a clue to the movie’s suspense! So go see the movie, its really worth it. A very powerful movie with the message just sliding across to you with panache.

Dasavatharam dareview

First things first: if u know anyone with some cancer or such like, just take a gun and shoot right at that anatomy and the chances are the bullet shall take away the cancer with it and the patient shall be ok to live long! Ohmeegawd, how did the civilization miss this for so long? But if u think that’s just one absurd thingy in the movie, sorry u shall be heavily disappointed!

Ok, now lets move to caveats. Regulars here know my admiration for kamal here as expressed at various times. So this is not just any hate blog..I did express my doubts about this movie seeing the amount of hype created while blogging on the audio release..( remember aalavandhan, hey ram)
But heart of hearts I was expecting him to belie that and give me a surprise like his devarmagan or anbesivam or gunaa…but my wishes were only wishes, after all..
Btw folks, go ahead and read..there are NO SPOILERS..no one can do that as there is no story or suspense what so ever.
This prolly is just to massage his ego! A narcist’s delight! He just wanted to showcase his make up skills (ignoring story telling, scrip writing, acting, thinking, all else) and gets carried away to take up any and every role..the only interesting part is, if u go without prior knowledge of the 10 roles, u keep guess which could be kamal..but a few minutes down u guess any role that has some show up time is him! So he ends up doing everything from the villain(fletcher) to old woman to some tall vagueo character to all n sundry..
Its not that there is no positive. Ofcourse the telugu naidu RAW officer role and the Boovaragan – dalit leader roles are exemplary. Body language, accent and the way he carries them is fantastic. But to no avail! There are some very intelligent jokes (like “sir can talk 5 languages, in telugu” “u shall be a new avtar, rather old avtar” etc) and some great hollywoodish movie making. But those are just a few instances.
But again, of the diff roles, Bush etc do not carry the same impressive make up he creates normally. The Tall kalifullah, old woman, villain fletcher etc really show up bad. Make up is really awful and too much and easily shows up. No denial that the Bush’s mannerism and bodylang is fine, ‘but for what’ remains in our minds.
Kamal can take solace in one thing or is it we? Since he prolly realised (or due to lack of time) they have another person sporting the heroine role! That’s Asin and thankfully for kamal she shares the ire for all the time she occupies the screen. Infact when the villain character slaps her in the movie almost all viewers felt delighted and asked for once more!
Iam sure none including the whole crew know why that nambi role, chola kings’ anti-vaishnavism etc are there. Just no relevance. Am sure all those vaishnavite cocks who filed a case are looking silly..they shud be so let down if ever they saw the movie..Somebody please tell me if there is something for that episode to be there in this movie, even at the cost of ridiculing my intelligence/common sense..that was the costliest crap I have seen for sometime (ok, b4 sivaji) now. while u r there also tell me why it took so many years to complete too.
The cost reminds me- oh! This is the most expensive movie from India..man, unless all of the crew was bought some prime property there is no way the cost shud be what they are talking. Or kamal cheated them by saying 10 diff guys acted and took some 10 heroes worth salary.
No story, no pace, no apt screenplay, no music (yeah that really was a bummer! It really fails me why one need himesh of all the people- deva or some Xerox brothers wud have done a gr8 job in comparision), no presentation- no nothing!
A BIG LET DOWN! Inspite of kamal’s execution of some of the roles exemplarily. There is just no relevance or interest.
Sorry kamal, u let me down real bad.
Don’t waste time..it shud come in TV soon.. see it then.

Dasavatharam

I happened to see the Dasavatharam audio release program on TV! It was a winding looong program with mostly boring speeches. The highlight was Jackie Chan being the chief guest. He was so sweet and charming with a perennial smile and his world famous mischievous gestures. But it was pathetic to find that no one was posted near him to translate, atleast in pieces, as to what was being spoken (esp when ever his name was mentioned).That was a shame..When kamal did mention in English about his desire to act with him (rather kamal said, I shall remember ur promise of acting with me!) he gestured back which went like “I shall do the romancing and u do the action”..The CM MK actually did a biiig drab biography of Chan and all that Chan and Amitabh(the other biggie on stage) were doing was looking blank in that direction. Why shud these guys have such tall figures who don’t understand tamil as guests but go on grinding in tamil, che..illmannered stuff that was!

The highlight IMHO was when Chan was presented the first CD by the CM. He was presented in a big wrapped up cover with some fancy lace which was opened on the stage and as usual foto ops followed. Just as people on the stage were getting back Jackie Chan coolly walked up and picked all those plastic wrappers, lace etc and walked to the corner searching for a bin:-)
What a gesture! Did people watch it? Did those on the stage really notice and did they learn?? Or will they, ever?

Note: While am a big fan of his great works, I feel queasy about such hyped up pre-release stunts of Kamal and many a times seen them go dud. Aalavanthan comes to mind:-(
(as for the songs themselves, I heard once and none fell in to the tamil song variety..some were very hey ram-like! very noisy and westernish)

Taare zameen par!

Its fantastic and mind boggling and this fella really beats our expectations each time.. The selection of subject, treatment, confidence, homework, perspiration all speak of his passion and the way the final product comes out, its all amazing! He is the rightful kamalahassan of the north!
They both really make the best Taare on our Zameen!

Now to the movie itself..it really needs guts to take such a strong subject and to bring himself (a super star) just at the stroke of intermission..that reeks of confidence, I can only think of Mohanlal having done that!
The portrayal of the kid and his enacting is amazing..They shud make an entry for this Kid - Darsheel Safary in the National awards best actor category rather than in kids category..and am sure none of the heroes wud come anywhere near him..a brilliant piece of acting..there are emotions that this kid has shown which is beyond years and am afraid no adult wud have done that!
The story, direction, music all are excellent and each one is very much a reason to see this movie..Am not going to prompt the story here nor many scenes..but one scene that stands out needs to be told…the imagination that the kid set outs on a question 3X 9 and that knocking of Pluto is incredible..
The previous time there was review of an Amir’s movie here, we did not even mention the name of the movie..Man! he really comes up with fantastic movies..the confidence and subject, only likes of kamal and maniratnam can come up with..Hindi movies these days are really moving fast and forward..Shah Rukh freaked out in a movie like Chak de where there was no sooper star hero or heroin, but a strong off beat story..here we have amir where he is not the hero even and so no duet/heroine but a strong, moving story..
That image of the by-now-popular-poster where that boy is in the forefront and amir watches fom behind is actually true and happening in most part of the movie..That kid is the protagonist carrying the movie on his shoulder with ease and amir is just left watching..but it’s a great movie to debut direct and amir had to announce that..again a la kamal where the stamp of the person is so strong in each of their movie whether they direct or not!

Hey, If you don’t have anything very urgent like dying or delivering a baby, GO.. rush there and see this movie..its worth every penny and minute..

Note: I watched it in a “B” center - nagpur, giving me nostalgic feeling of the small town theatres and my good old days!

Time pass..

In the lotsa time that I lazed arnd in Blore recently and in last weeks in mas, I did achieve a few milestones..finished reading some books I had been pushing or reading parallely and saw some movies..The book of mention shall be ‘The story of B’ by Daniel Quinn, the famous author of Ishmael! Fantastic book..mind boggling views thrown in amazing style..conveying a great idea(l) without even mentioning it..the crux of the whole story (the speech by the main character) is infact presented at the end as an addendum! Very novel presentation. Rest were all the non-regular books pending for some time.
Short insight in to the movies:
Cheeni Kum: This was a fantastic movie..not for the storyline or movie making but intelligence packed dialogs. I have never seen an Indian movie with such astute script. Very wisely made..ofcourse Amitabh has freaked out (IMHO he has been freaking out in the recent past when he started selecting roles matching his age and he is really acting only in the last deacde). The old melodious songs of Ilayaraja are fun to hear in hindi with shreya’s lilting voice..the English subtitles at satyam cinemas made my day as it helped me catch a hindi movie in toto! PC Sreeram’s photography adds so much value. All in all a very enjoyable movie..very intelligent one! A debut for the director- Balki, an ad films maker.

Last King of Scotland: That guy Whitaker definitely deserves the Oscar..he freaks out..swinging his moods and showing his mood changes so very well..phenomenal act..a great blend of fiction and real life events with Idi Amin as the main character. Nice knot and well made..not very professional or without holes but keeps us gripping..am happy I saw it, esp for Whitaker’s performance.

The lost city: some of these guys at the Hollywood really amaze me..what all they do..I was astonished by Tom Cruise’s indulgence in The last Samurai! If iam right he infact was incharge of story and script! Here Andy Garcia, that cute guy, is the director and incharge of music for this movie. Yes music!! Though the movie reminds a bit of that old classic Casablanca and a bit of Godfather, it’s a well made neat movie. The music is fantastic. Its about an american family living in Cuba in the hey days and how they pass thru the turmoil days of communist take over – Castro replacing Batista and how Andy Garcia is pushed to move out to US inspite of his reluctance. Very nice movie..worth watching a couple of times..a near classic.oh, forgot to mention! Dustin Hoffman comes as a don, a small role and its really funny to see him like that - bizarre, with no impact! But Garcia has done a neat job as a director, as a music director and as the hero. Hats off!