Life's one big party!!!

Back in Chennai

2009-07-24T23:52:00.000-07:00

Well life takes a curious turn once again & I saw myself moving out.It's now been close to 4 weeks of having moved back to Chennai.It's a new job, so new office and new people at work.But I find myself relatively at peace.After the emotional turmoil I went through in the last few months, I guess I needed this peace.It's nice to be back in a city which has always been home to me.And to top it up I've also moved back into the same building where I used to live earlier. So in a way its like a homecoming for me.Meet up with friends whenever I get time and of course watch a lot of movies especially @ my 2nd home- Sathyam Cinemas.Shradha's taking a liking to Chennai, which is quite heartening.Hopefully she'll be back to work again soon.The past one week has been a 'family' week with my parents having come over. Hoping to settle down at work at the earliest and enjoy life to the fullest.Viva Chennai!!!

Sankat City- drives away the blues caused by Bhramaram

2009-07-24T23:48:00.000-07:00

We keep using the phrase ‘as different as chalk & cheese’ in our daily life so often that sometimes it takes one by surprise when you actually experience it in a very interesting way. The weekend that went by was another filmy weekend for me, but one that was rather very special. Just like enjoying a biriyani and a pizza equally or freaking out on ghazals and rock music with the same zeal, I happened to watch 2 movies this weekend which were completely unlike each other. The movies concerned were Bhramaram and Sankat City ( SC from hereon ) and there was hardly anything in common between them. For starters Bhramaram is a Malayalam movie made by Blessy (his 5th film) and stars Superstar- Mohanlal. SC on the other hand is a Hindi movie made by Pankaj Advani ( his 1st official release ) and has no superstar in it but a very talented cast comprising of Kay Kay, Anupam Kher,Rimi Sen,Chunky Pandey, Rahul Dev,Yashpal Sharma,Dilip Prabhavalkar etc.

While Bhramaram is more of a road movie with the undertone of a thriller, SC is a mad caper and is a fun ride all the way. Bhramaram is more or less a one man show (Mohanlal) while SC belongs to a whole host of characters and it is difficult to just single out just one or two characters. Well I can go on & on but then I guess the message is loud and clear by now. But what is important to know is that I had a good time watching both these movies. In their own ways both Bhramaram and SC have the capacity to engage the viewer and there in lies the one common thread between the two.

Saturday evening saw me taking off early from office to be in time to watch Bhramaram. The initial scenes are quite ordinary and it takes a while to slowly get hooked to the narrative. Suresh Menon (whom we’ve seen for ages on T.V & in Bollywood films) is Unni, a stock broker who lives with his wife (Lakshmi Gopalswamy) and daughter in Coimbatore. One fine day a very shabby looking Jose (Mohanlal) lands up at Unni’s place and introduces himself as his old classmate from school. Unni is unable to recollect Jose but since Jose is able to describe a lot of events from the school days, he is forced to believe him. Jose who claims to be a jeep driver in the high ranges of Kerala does not initially reveal the reason for his visit.

Once the reason is revealed the movie really gets going and you see traces of vintage Mohanlal slowly unraveling. After Unni and Jose embark on their journey it then goes on to become a taut game of emotions. Blessy manages to keep the narrative interesting enough by interspersing humor in certain places which helps in maintaining a balance. The cinematography of Ajayan Vincent certainly impresses especially in the night shots captured in the hills. Music by Mohan Sithara is decent. Suresh Menon certainly impresses and hopefully this performance should help him fetch more such roles. Muralikrishnan as Alex, friend of Unni is also quite effective. Lakshmi Gopalswamy and Bhoomika (Mohanlal’s wife) have nothing much to do. On the whole the movie is certainly a far cry from the recent Mohanlal movies like Red Chillies, Sagar Alias Jackie (Reloaded), Bhagawan etc and gives you glimpses of the brilliant actor that he is. Blessy again redeems himself to some extent with Bhramaram (after Calcutta News) and hopefully should do even better the next time around. Definitely not great cinema, but certainly one of the better films in recent times.

While I kept thinking of what could have made Bhramaram even better, I couldn’t escape the fact that the movie had disturbed me. Later that night Lalettan’s Shivankutty/ Jose continued to haunt me and I realized that the character was not just lingering in my mind, it was also making me feel low (those who’ve watched the movie would understand). So on Sunday morning when I woke up slightly earlier than usual, I was unsure of how to get back into groove and that’s when I realized I didn’t even have to try hard- I was lucky to end up watching a 10.30 A.M show of SC.

By now most of us know the plot and characters of SC so I wouldn’t really get into that. But yes to give a quick insight I can say that it’s all about money and how a host of characters get interwoven into a tale that has money as the fulcrum. Right from the first frame till the end I kept smiling and at times couldn’t really control myself from laughing hard- I guess it was true for everyone else among the audience too. For the sake of people who are yet to watch the movie I wish to point out a few things about the movie-
What SC definitely has-
1.Characters who are loud and even over the top and thankfully do not pretend that they are anything else2.A sparkling cast of some superbly talented actors and some of them would even surprise you with their portrayals.3.Uniform pace of the movie- there’s hardly any dull moment and you do not have to keep looking at your watch.4.Enough and more entertaining moments to keep you glued to the screen till the end, the very end.5.Some wonderful locations in & around Mumbai that have been captured brilliantly ( like for example the garbage dump )6.The budget seems to have been completely well utilized or rather most efficiently utilized ( check out the scene in the bus when the bags get switched )

What SC definitely doesn’t have-
1.Superstars and A – list heroines2.A routine structured story ( it’s a mad caper after all )3.Emotion, tragedy, drama ( well yes it does have it, but certainly not like what you think )4.Item numbers by Rakhi Sawant etc ( well there’s a small bit where Anupam Kher and dynamite are dancing though )5.Songs shot abroad6.Gyan-baazi ( oh! There’s nothing preachy here )7.While actors like Kay Kay , Anupam Kher etc have done some serious, meaningful cinema- this is certainly not a serious off beat movie.

All I can say is that SC is one movie that not only entertains it also makes you think- as to why we don’t have more of such movies coming out of Bollywood these days. While watching the movie I also realized that Pankaj Advani & his team must have certainly had a blast while shooting the movie, it clearly shows on screen as everybody seems to be enjoying what they are portraying on screen. That to me is a very big achievement indeed and I heartily salute Pankaj and the entire cast and crew for giving us SC- a film that we can certainly enjoy time and again.
It’s my fond hope that somebody concerned would do something to enable a much better presence in theatres for the movie by increasing the shows and also by enabling prime time shows wherever possible. A sincere movie like this which has also been getting good reviews needs a much better reach than what it has presently. Till then it’s a sincere request to all those who are passionate about cinema to go on & watch SC- you won’t be disappointed for sure.

P.S- Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/sankat-city-drives-away-the-blues-caused-by-bhramaram/

Why Kamal Haasan should never watch Kambakkht Ishq

2009-07-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so Sajid Nadiadwala entrusts a debutant filmmaker Sabbir Khan to make a movie. So like all Nadiadwala productions they decide to make another lavishly mounted project with A listers Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. There are also top notch Hollywood stars like Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Routh and Denise Richards featuring and to top it all they decide to shoot the movie against the backdrop of Hollywood. And what do they do about the story – well they just decide to look down south and rip apart a Kamal Haasan’s Tamil movie.

Followers of Tamil cinema and fans of Kamal Haasan would remember a movie called Pammal K.Sambandham (referred to as PKS hereafter) which had Kamal Haasan and Simran in the lead. Directed by Mouli and with hilarious dialogues by none other than Crazy Mohan, the movie was a simple tale of a stuntman and a lady doctor, who both have distinct identities of their own. This movie was shot without too much of grandeur in Chennai except for a couple of songs which were shot abroad.

But in case of Kambakkht Ishq (referred to as KI hereon) there is nothing called originality. In fact exaggeration is too weak a word to describe the happenings in the movie as virtually everything is over the top. The plot is extremely silly and it’s all about Viraj ( Akshay) a Hollywood stuntman who doesn’t respect women & has them literally falling all over him. Viraj arrives at his brother Lucky’s (Aftab Shivdasani ) wedding to Kamini ( Amrita Arora ) to admonish Lucky for getting married. That’s where Viraj bumps into Simrita ( Kareena )who is Kamini’s best friend and who in turn admonishes Kamini for getting married to Lucky, as she doesn’t trust men.

The die is cast and there’s a virtual ego clash between Viraj and Simrita now. So after numerous silly jokes, some illogical situations and some constant love- hate banter between the two, the movie ends on predictable lines. Akshay Kumar seems to have literally sleep walked through the movie as the role is a cakewalk for him and he has no need to try hard. Kareena looks gorgeous no doubt but there’s nothing beyond it. Vindoo Singh as Akshay’s side kick is o.k. while Amrita Arora and Aftab have nothing much to do. Javed Jaffrey and Boman Irani are virtually wasted in the movie. Kiron Kher has again a very typical role.Anu Malik’s music is nothing great- you are likely to forget the songs after the movie completes its theatrical run.

While a lot of things can & should be overlooked considering that it is a movie after all, nevertheless certain things are almost tantamount to crime. I have never heard of any stuntman who is able to lead the kind of lavish lifestyle that Akshay Kumar leads in the movie. The kind of excessive indulgence shown in the movie actually starts hurting the eye after a point. None of the so called appearances of the Hollywood actors make any worthwhile impact on the movie. Kamal Haasan’s stuntman character was a Hanuman bhakt who wants to remain single. The character was largely believable unlike the fake portrayal by Akshay over here. Though Simran who played the heroine in PKS also has a fiery temper, she still endears to us by some realism in her depiction whereas Kareena tends to certainly go overboard often.

The script (Anvita Dutt Guptan,Sabbir Khan ) seems to be the big culprit here in what could have otherwise been a reasonably engaging movie similar to PKS. Considering that KI is probably made at more than 10 times the budget of PKS, Kamal Haasan would indeed be shocked to see what a relatively quickly made medium budget movie has turned out to be in its Hindi avatar. And yes it would also remind him again that while people are not willing to back his magnum opus – Marudhanayagam or Marmayogi due to budget constraints, there are people in Bollywood who have it going for them to produce an expensive tasteless film like KI ( at more than half the budget of a Marudhanayagam ).

Akshay- inspite of the setbacks of late (CC2C and 8*10), you are still right on top with the Khans.Why do a film like this in the first place? And as for your statement that you & Kareena in KI would be the new Mr. and Mrs.Smith, well I have no words to describe my feelings on the same. In spite of all the excesses your recent blockbusters like Welcome and Singh is Kingg worked because it was patronized by the family audience. But with KI you seem to have only alienated them and in case you haven’t realized it by now it’s certainly a pity.

Thanks to the Bollywood strike people have been literally starved of movies and so the terrific opening for KI is not a surprise at all. But it would be interesting to see if the movie is able to sustain the momentum and emerge profitable for all. I’m someone who loves the smaller films but once in a while would like to indulge in the regular mainstream stuff also. But if this is Bollywood’s idea of entertainment then I guess I would rather stay away from it. So what made me watch this? Well at 50 bucks for a balcony ticket at a good standalone cinema, I thought the deal couldn’t go wrong. But I was proved wrong. So go on if you are getting some good deal like this or else leave it for one of the T.V channels to air it shortly- you won’t regret it one bit.
On a parting note I would like to ask a question to Sajid Nadiadwala and co- when you had a lot of people to thank in the opening credits, was it too difficult to acknowledge anybody concerned with PKS? This is all the more surprising because due to industry sources, the remake rights have been bought officially.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/why-kamal-haasan-should-never-watch-kambakkht-ishq/

Masilamani and Sun Pictures- Changing phase of Tamil Cinema- for better or worse?

2009-07-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

I am just back from a late night show of Masilamani- a recent Tamil release. For a movie into the 4th week of its release there was more than 80 % occupancy. At a large single screen theatre like Kasi in Chennai which is regarded as a collection center, this certainly means that the movie is a safe proposition. The movie has a close connection to last year’s surprise hit- Kadalil Vizhunden (KV from hereon). Not only is the lead pair the same (Nakul and Sunaina), this one again is a Sun Pictures release. KV was the first movie to be released by Sun Pictures, the film division of Sun TV network and emboldened by its success they have gone on to buy over and release a spate of movies like Thenavattu, Dindigul Sarathy, Padikathavan, Ayan etc.
The success of KV itself could be a case study in isolation. While the anthem song – Nakka Mukka had already become popular, the movie was in the cans for a while. Starring virtually the unknown pair of Nakul and Sunaina, there wasn’t much going for the movie- i.e till Sun Pictures took over the movie and decided to make it their first venture. What was then unleashed was the marketing might of the Sun T.V network. All of a sudden the T.V audience was bombarded with promos of various kinds for KV. No, they did not stick to the earlier trailer which was floating on air for some time earlier. They unleashed a series of different promos of various time durations with sharp focus on the selling points.In fact so impressed was Sun Pictures with the response to Nakka Mukka that they even made the cast and crew shoot another version of the song which wasn’t earlier there in the movie. It also helped that there were other songs which were also quite good (like thozhiya en kadhaliya ) and Vijay Antony’s songs and the lead pair got well recognized. Whether you were watching news, a daily soap or a movie, any interruption would be greeted with a KV promo and lo and behold the people flocked to the theatres out of curiosity. Thankfully the product was reasonably entertaining and thus a successful business model was created. Buoyed by the success of KV, Sun Pictures announced that they were there in the market for keeps.
By that time the then big players- Pyramid Saimira and Ayangaran were already facing the heat and Sun Pictures was more than happy to capitalize on the situation. Things turned a complete circle later on as Shankar’s mega project- Endhiran changed hands from Ayangaran to Sun Pictures. After KV Sun Pictures literally went on a buying spree and picked up movies for release. Whether it was a small movie like Dindigul Sarathy or a mass movie like Ayan, they showed that they were adept in handling the project. They even went on to release an English movie- Outlander all over South India in both English and the regional languages.
While their efforts at releasing and marketing the movie is commendable when we look at it from the view point of a KV or a Dindigul Sarathy, it becomes extremely irritating to accept carpet bombing on air in the form of promos for movies like a Thee. Dindigul Sarathy (a remake of Sreenivasan’s Malayalam movie Vadakku Nokki Yanthram) would have definitely struggled for a release considering it had comedian Karunas in the lead but Sun Pictures ensured that not only did the movie get a good release, it was also well promoted. Thenavattu saw Jeeva attempting an action movie for the first time and while critics blasted the movie and said Jeeva should rather concentrate on doing movies like Ram and Katradhu Tamil (leaving the mass movies to Vijay and Ajith), the marketing of the movie seemed to work and the movie was a success.
The heavy duty promotion of Ayan has been a big factor in ensuring the spectacular success of the movie. So once again with Masilamani they have been doing what they’ve been reasonably successful with. Expecting just a regular masala movie (coming out very clearly from the promos) I went on to watch Masilamani for the heck of it but came out both disappointed and confused. The movie directed by RMR Manohar has nothing great in terms of a plot. Its all about Masilamani (Nakul) fondly called Masi by all and he is the typical do-gooder. The heroine Divya (Sunaina) is a dance teacher and while Masi falls in love with her at first sight somehow whenever she sees him, he comes across as a ruffian to her due to circumstances.
That’s when Masi comes up with an alter ego called Mani who is the opposite of what Masi is and the rest of the movie goes completely in predictable fashion. Music by D.Imman is of the typical variety and couple of songs have become reasonably popular. The movie has a stock comedy track (no connection to the main story) with M.S.Bhaskar and Karunas. So obviously the promos are all focusing on the songs and the comedy scenes. While the movie is not on the lines of a Villu or a Thoranai it certainly is nothing great to talk about.
This gives me a major cause of concern all of a sudden. With the kind of financial and political muscle that Sun Pictures has they are only going to be producing and releasing a lot many more movies. While I salute their efforts to release and promote a small movie like Dindigul Sarathy, I am also happy to see them push a big movie like Ayan. After all the money made from an Ayan can be used to fund many more smaller films. But what I’m not in favor of is having movies like Thenavattu, Thee and now Masilamani thrown down our throats.
As a keen follower of Tamil cinema I do welcome the advent of a big player in the industry but I’m watching them carefully and curiously to see how they are headed. Let’s see what unfolds in the days to come.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/masilamani-and-sun-pictures-changing-phase-of-tamil-cinema-for-better-or-worse/

Dreams in the cans- A Filmmaker's worst nightmare

2009-07-24T00:49:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was having a conversation over coffee with one of my friends who works in the industry and had just attended the first screenwriting workshop organized by Kamal Haasan’s Rajkmal Films in a tie-up with IIT-Madras. While my friend was sharing his insights about the workshop, he mentioned that apart from the various films screened as part of the course, they were also shown the teaser of ‘Marudhanayagam’, Kamal’s magnum opus which got stalled after the shooting started with a bang. Since I had seen the trailer myself, both of us went on an overdrive, discussing the merits and demerits of the project (as it appealed to us). I still remember the way the muhurat function was held. The chief guest for the event was none other than Queen Elizabeth who was in India at that point of time.

The trailer shows a glimpse of what the movie could have been. It in all probability could have certainly been India’s answer to movies like Braveheart as it falls in that genre and was deemed to be an extravagant affair. Unfortunately all that is left of the movie is around 30 mins of canned film and a dream that’s still not forgotten by Kamal Haasan for sure. Around the time when the shooting had to be stopped, the budget seemed to be something that Indian cinema would have found it hard to support. Now with bigger projects like Endhiran and Blue getting made, there’s still some light at the end of the tunnel in terms of getting some funding for Marudhanayagam. But the question to be asked is will that day be too late?

The reason for that is that Marudhanayagam in the present form requires extremely high levels of fitness and agility from Kamal Haasan and with every year that’s passing by, this is only going to get tougher and tougher for him. Some time last year Kamal even tried to come up with another mega project, again a period movie called Marmayogi. Pyramid Saimira who were initially picking up a lot of projects to produce and/or distribute had decided to produce Marmayogi and then had to back off after their losses suffered due to Kuselan. So now only time will tell whether Kamal Haasan would be able to fulfill his long pending dream of completing Marudhanayagam or whether it remains as just another incomplete dream in the cans.

This discussion made me realize that no matter whatever technical advancements that Cinema is witnessing, some things just don’t change. For one there’s still no safe formula for a successful film. Fortunes are still made and lost on Fridays. And yes luck is a crucial element in this business. That being the case isn’t it extremely heart wrenching for a film maker to see his/her movie getting stalled or lying in the cans unsold? Time and again we have seen so many film makers facing this predicament. This is a phenomena witnessed by both established and new filmmakers.

By now everyone (on PFC at least) knows the kind of struggle that Anurag Kashyap has had to face for Paanch ( still unreleased ) or what Pankaj Advani has had to face for Urf Professor ( again unreleased as of now ). These are just 2 popular examples that I have mentioned to explain a very common phenomena. That people like Anurag Kashyap and Pankaj Advani have a lot of conviction is evident as Anurag has gone on to make movies like Black Friday,No Smoking, Dev D, Gulaal etc and Pankaj Advani is right now gearing up for the release of his ‘ Sankat City’. But not every other filmmaker can carry within themselves so much of conviction, especially if it’s a new comer.

At the moment while I’m writing this my heart goes out to 2 other filmmakers, who share something in common with each other- their first film as a director was well recognized and fairly successful too. On one hand you have Sagar Ballary who made the popular Bheja Fry and whose second film Kachcha Limbu was completed quite some time ago. On the other hand you have Vasantha Balan who made the acclaimed Tamil movie- Veyyil and whose 2nd movie- Angadi Theru is also ready. So what else is common between these 2 directors apart from their first film being noticed? Well simple enough, both their 2nd movies are ready but still unsure of their release.

While Kachcha Limbu is a Sahara production, Angadi Theru is an Ayangaran production. Till recently both Sahara and Ayangaran were fairy serious players in production of Hindi/Tamil movies, but with the recession setting in, both these production houses have been affected to some extent. Sahara already has asked Sagar Ballary to try and find another entity to buy the movie from Sahara and then release it. While in case of Ayangaran as of now the release is still likely though a bit delayed. I just hope for the sake of Sagar and Vasanth that they manage to get their respective films released at the earliest and focus themselves on their other projects.
When my fellow PFC author Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s first film Frozen finally got released in India last month after doing the rounds of 30 odd festivals and winning 20 awards internationally, Shivajee was a much relieved man. And why not, for finally his dream was not in the cans anymore and was there for the whole world to see. And yes the wait can be sweet if it does not go beyond a point and the movie still gets the same reception that it was expected to receive. But if the waiting period goes beyond a point, then sometimes things can certainly go out of hand too.

A classic case in point is the Tamil movie- Kutrapathirikai directed by R.K.Selvamani. The movie was highly controversial for being based on former Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi’s assassination. It was banned by the censors in 1992/1993 and after a prolonged court battle, the movie finally released in early 2007. For old times sake I did go and watch the movie but was thoroughly disappointed for 2 reasons- first of all the movie did not have anything objectionable for getting banned and secondly after nearly 15 years, the movie looked so out of place in terms of technique and sensibility that it was not surprisingly a big flop.

For the sake of all filmmakers and wannabe filmmakers I would certainly hope that as far as possible celluloid dreams lying in the cans should not go on to become a cause of concern. The celluloid dreams deserve to hit the silver screen and not lie around in the cans, unseen. Let the audience then deserve the fate of the movie, at least the filmmaker would have received his/her realistic chance of seeing his/her dream come true.

P.S- Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/dreams-in-the-cans-a-filmmaker%e2%80%99s-worst-nightmare/

‘Passenger’- A tale of trains, scams and the common man

2009-07-24T00:41:00.000-07:00

Right from the days when I was a kid, I used to enjoy traveling by train. Whether it were the long distance journeys usually in the summer vacation or the suburban train traveling in a Mumbai or Chennai, I would always look forward to it. Over years I have gone on to notice how Indian Railways seems to have become a home away from home for a lot many people who travel by trains regularly to work. Whether you talk about the electric trains in the metro cities like Western/Central/Harbor lines of Mumbai or the Guindy-Tambaram route in Chennai, or the underground Metro rail in Kolkata and Delhi or even in places like Kerala where people travel from a Palakkad to Coimbatore (T.N) or from far off places like Thrissur and adjoining districts to Cochin/Ernakulam, this phenomena is witnessed on a daily basis. The exceptions must only be in case of Sundays and holidays. Of course in Kerala with strikes and hartals being quite common one must see a lot more exceptions to this aspect.

For all these people traveling to work, the journey by train becomes an extension of their life. They even know the train timings by heart and would have their own acquaintances/friends whom they meet on the train every day. Speaking of this reminds me of Naseeruddin Shah in A Wednesday, mourning the death of a young man, a fellow train traveler who dies in a bomb blast. When you get into a routine of seeing somebody so regularly on the train everyday, you tend to identify him/her as someone familiar to you & look forward to meeting him/her again and again.

Why am I rambling on and on about trains and train travelers? Well basically because this post is my reflections over a recent Malayalam movie that I saw- ‘Passenger’. It’s a movie that’s certainly better than some of the mediocre stuff that we have got used to seeing from Malayalam cinema these days and it makes me in its own ways also relive my days of having traveled by the suburban trains in Chennai and Mumbai. The movie is not just about train journey, it’s also about the common man and the role that he can play in today’s chaotic society. So in a way that reminded me of A Wednesday, but the comparison is slightly superficial because there are a lot of differences between the common man in both these films.

Ranjith Shankar (a former I.T professional) makes a debut as a writer-director with Passenger. The movie is a definitely more than a decent debut for Ranjith as it’s certainly not a run of the mill subject and that needs to be appreciated. When the opening credits start I was astonished to find a big thanks to the ‘fans of Dileep’ and I certainly expected this to be a way of just addressing star tantrums, but thankfully as the movie progressed, I realized the actual reason for the credit and couldn’t but afford to smile when I realized the same. I will come to that later.
Passenger is a movie that basically chronicles the events that take place in the lives of a few individuals whose paths cross due to nothing but quirk of fate. Sathyanathan(Sreenivasan) is the common man of the story and he works for a Pharmaceutical firm in Ernakulam and travels everyday to work (and back) from his house in a village near Chalakudy by train. On the train he usually encounters a constant set of people with whom he spends time by playing cards and chit chatting. This is how life goes on for him on a regular basis. That Sathyanathan has a social activist streak is evident as he is seen running signature campaigns for cleaner toilets on trains, asking for streamlining the halts on train routes etc.

On the other hand you have a young educated couple who are equally social minded. The husband Adv.Nandan Menon ( Dileep ) and his wife TV journalist Anuradha Menon(Mamta Mohan Das ) by way of work have locked horns with the Home Minister(Jagathy Sreekumar ) in connection with a case pertaining to sand mining in a coastal area. One fine day Sathyanathan pesters his boss to grant him leave for the next day as he being the local temple festival’s organizer wants to be there for the same. Reluctantly his boss grants the leave when Sathyanathan volunteers to work overtime for that day.

Having worked overtime Sathyanathan has to skip his regular train and take up another train at a later time. At the same time Nandan Menon is on the same train traveling to Guruvayoor (his wife Anuradha is part of a press team covering the minister’s press meet in Kottayam). A disturbing series of events unfold and the rest of the movie is all about what happens in the course of the next 24 hours or so. The lives of all the main characters in the story get intertwined. As far as the concept goes it’s not earth shaking but certainly better than the run of the mill stuff seen regularly these days.

In terms of casting again I think Ranjith Shankar has got it fairly right. Who better than Sreenivasan to play the common man? And kudos to Dileep for having accepted a role which is more of a second fiddle ( this is why I guess the thanks was mentioned for his fans- maybe for seeking their support ) and for a change it’s good to see Mamta in a non glamorous role. Though it’s become routine to see politicians as villains in Malayalam cinema, but still it’s refreshing to see the extremely talented Jagathy Sreekumar essaying the role over here.

The movie has managed to get a lot of nuances correct as seen in Kerala on a daily basis. For example in spite of attractions like T.V and cinema you still have a lot of people craving for the temple festivals, in most Malayalee homes you would find an elderly person typically watching an ‘Idea Star Singer’ or ‘Devi Mahatmyam’ on Asianet in the primetime slots on T.V leaving the others at home with no choice if you do not have a second T.V at home. The ending of the movie again is something that leaves you with a smile. And at a running time of just less than 2 hours, the length of the movie is just about right surprisingly.

But all said and done the movie still is not a path-breaker and is nowhere close to being called a great movie. There are a lot of loopholes in the script and sometimes you even question the validity of some events in the movie. But all said and done considering that it’s the first effort of Ranjith Shankar as writer-director and for having tried something different, the effort needs to be highlighted. I only hope that Ranjith and the other film makers only look to go beyond Passenger and come up with even better movies rather than stagnating over here. Malayalam cinema needs a revival, a revival that’s long overdue. Till that happens I have to keep re-visiting some of the good films of the 80’s and 90’s or keep hoping with every ‘Passenger’ that things are about to improve.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/passenger-a-tale-of-trains-scams-and-the-common-man/

My Chennai Cinema Diary

2009-07-24T00:36:00.000-07:00

Well as work beckoned, I was back in Chennai for a short visit of 3 days, incidentally my 2nd visit in less than 2 weeks time. Chennai has more than been home to me and so always has a special place in my heart. This visit was extra special because I ended up watching 3 movies on the big screen all in a span of 24 hours. It was back to my old days of glory and the feeling was accentuated since I saw the movies in Sathyam Cinemas, which is virtually my 2nd home in Chennai.

Considering that the last 2 months have been fairly drought prone in terms of movies, what with the strike in Bollywood (now finally called off) and hardly any major Hollywood release too, it was mainly regional cinema that kept me busy. So it was all the more interesting that I was watching a Hindi movie and 2 Hollywood movies one after the other after quite some time. And adding to all this was the fact that I genuinely enjoyed 2 out of those 3 movies, so without too much of a prologue, let me get into the details.

Thursday, 4th June,’09- 3.45 P.M show at Studio-5 (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie-99
No one could have asked for a better way to capitalize on getting free so early on a working day. I was there with an industry friend to watch 99 again. Another friend, also from the industry was supposed to join in, but couldn’t make it due to some work. While I had asked my friend to get the tickets booked, my friend was slightly hesitant. His contention being that the movie was about to enter the 4th week and it was an afternoon show on a week day, so tickets should be easily available. But the scenario seemed to be completely different. Yes it was the smallest of the 6 screens in the multiplex but still it was a full house and hence very creditable for a movie on the 21st day of its release.Quite a few people among the audience were watching the movie for the 2nd time & most of the people seemed to be having a great time watching the movie. I think if the Bollywood strike has benefited anyone the most; it should definitely be the team of 99 as the movie certainly seems to be getting watched by a lot of people. I would not want to review the movie now as by now most of us know quite a lot about the movie. But yes I would definitely like to mention that by and large I was impressed with the casting choices. Of course I felt Vinod Khanna’s role had no meat and it could have been done by nearly anyone else. Kunal Khemu is a good actor and I would like to see him in more such movies than a Jai Veeru .

Soha Ali Khan,Cyrus, Boman Irani were all more than adequate. But I think Mahesh Manjrekar and Amit Mistry in particular rocked. I would really like to congratulate Krishna D.K, Raj Nidimoru and the entire team of 99 for not only have they been able to make a movie that’s entertaining yet made within a reasonable budget, they have also been able to bring in a lot of authenticity as seen by the way they have captured the years 1999-2000 in the movie. And considering that they have got the nuances of Mumbai and Delhi so well it becomes an even better spectacle to watch. There are so many wonderful moments in the film, that one always stays glued to the screen. Oh! Yes I do plan to catch the movie again probably sometime later this week.

Thursday, 4th June,’09- 7.00 P.M show at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie- Angels and Demons
Based on the book of the same name by Dan Brown, this one is the filmy sequel to The Da Vinci Code (while the book is more of a prequel). While the book series and the previous movie have created enough controversy, this movie has also generated enough curiosity. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon in this movie directed by Ron Howard. Set within the Vatican, this movie is the archetype Hollywood masala movie. With its stock characters, some fair bit of intrigue, twists and turns and some rescue acts galore, this is a movie that will be lapped up by majority of the audience and the crowd at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) seemed to be no exception too. Thankfully the movie moves at a reasonable pace and is technically good (not a surprise for a film of this magnitude). All in all it was a movie I didn’t regret having watched, but not something that I’m proud of either.

After the movie was over I realized that there was a paid preview of Star Trek, later at night and being a Star Trek fan (Trekkie/Trekker), I was tempted to make it 3 movies in a row, but restrained myself as I already had taken tickets for the next day.

Friday, 5th June,’09- 10.15 P.M show at Santham (Sathyam Cinemas) – Movie- Star Trek
Ok this is a brand new installment of the franchise that I kind of grew up with. I still remember watching the T.V series on D.D as a kid and watching the movies those days. Oh! Yes I also remember reading the books/comics of the series when I was in school and so when I heard of the movie being made, I was naturally excited. When PFC had reviewed the movie after a sneak preview in the U.S sometime ago, my curiosity levels were raised and so there I was on the first day of its India release to watch it. First things first, the movie does not disappoint. For a lot of Star Trek fans, it’s like re-visiting the franchise as you are shown the origins of Kirk and Spock. And for most newcomers among the audience (majority of the people didn’t seem to be aware of the franchise) it was good that they got to understand the concept quite well. The actors have changed, some personality traits have changed but at heart the franchise remains the same.So there’s time-travel, black holes, Starfleet Academy, distant planets and more such things that the franchise had started to symbolize. And for all the original fans, one also gets to see Leonard Limoy (the original Spock) who reprises his role as the senior Spock in the movie. All in all, this is one adventure ( directed by J.J.Abrams )that’s lovely to experience. I’m now looking forward to the next movie in the series.

Finally before I left from Chennai for a short vacation to Kerala, I was almost set to watch another movie- the Malayalam hit, Passenger. But due to shortage of time, I had to cancel the plan and looked forward to watching it in Kerala instead. So coming up next is my Kerala Cinema Diary.

Note- This was written a few days ago and was to be posted over last weekend. Now at the time of posting this I have already watched 99 once more. Viva cinema!!!

P.S- Originally posted in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/my-chennai-cinema-diary/

Yaari Hai Imaan Mera, Yaar Meri Zindagi- Friendship as depicted in Bollywood Films

2009-07-24T00:30:00.000-07:00

On behalf of Ashwin I dedicate this post to Vrushali, who according to Ashwin is the best friend in the world.

Friendship is an integral part of our emotions and friends occupy an important part of our lives. In some cases friends often are given the same status as that of family members when it comes to certain crunch situations. For someone who has been brought up over a staple diet of Bollywood movies, friendship as depicted in these films has always fascinated me. This post is a simple attempt to illustrate how friendship is shown in Hindi films and mention a few movies in particular for they way they have gone about illustrating the same. And of course in my own small way I wish to thank a lot many people for, their friendship has certainly been quite valuable to me.

In the earlier days (at least in the 50’s and 60’s) life was considered to be a lot simpler than it is now. There were lesser complications that existed in those days. But even then friendship could take different dimensions as shown in 2 well known movies, both of which incidentally released in the same year- 1964. The films in question being Dosti and Sangam. Dosti was an ideal example for the fact that not all films need big stars to succeed. In fact the movie starred a couple of relatively new actors in the main lead- Sudhir Kumar and Sushil Kumar as a blind boy and a cripple respectively. It was a movie which was basically based on the friendship between these two boys who roam the streets of Bombay (as it was known then) singing songs and earning their livelihood. One of the biggest strengths of the movie apart from the very natural performances of the 2 male leads was the melodious music given by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, one of their earliest successful films.

While every song was a gem (Rahi manwa dukh ki chinta, chahoonga main tujhe shaam savere and many more) the song in particular which probably epitomizes friendship is“Koi jab raah na paaye, mere sang aaye, ke pag pag deep jalaye, meri dosti ,mera pyar”.Such is the intensity of the song that it leaves you completely at peace. Friendship as shown in Dosti is truly divine. Moving on to Raj Kapoor’s Sangam, well the movie was about 3 childhood friends played by Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar & Vyjayantimala. It won’t require any special insight to know that the story turns out to a romantic triangle. It was a movie which placed a lot of emphasis on male bonding and tried to distinguish between the thin line between friendship and love. It also showed how love could result in anguish for someone. This was again a musical with Shankar-Jaikishan in brilliant form with scores like Yeh mera prem part padh kar,Mere man ki Ganga, Main kya karun Ram mujhe budda mil gaya and many more but the anguish & pain in friendship and love is aptly described in this song-
“Dost dost na raha, pyaar pyaar naa rahaZindagi hamein tera, aitbaar na raha, aitbaar na raha”

In the year 1973 a sensation happened. Prakash Mehra came out with his Zanjeer with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead. The movie went on to become a path breaker in many ways. It was the first blockbuster in the career of AB, it paved the way for a long relationship between Prakash Mehra, AB & the writer jodi of Salim-Javed and of course the ‘angry young man’ persona which AB went on to successfully symbolize in movie after movie started off with this movie. But amidst all this the element of friendship is also something that the film focused upon. And here the friendship was special- it was the friendship between a cop and a criminal (Pran) who is influenced by the cop and gets reformed. And therein begins the deep friendship between the two. The song“Yaari hai imaan mera, yaar meri zindagi” composed by Kalyanji-Anandji summarises the friendship in the best way possible.

Well,when we are talking about friendship in Hindi cinema, would it be prudent not to talk about Sholay? Jai and Veeru today are probably the best known friends in the entire history of Hindi cinema. Yes Sholay is a classic and probably everything that matters in the movie was a highlight, but certainly one of the biggest positives of the movie was the bonding between Jai and Veeru. Be it the early scenes in the jail when the jodi tries to have a blast in taking a dig a the jailor ( Asrani ) or in the scenes when Veeru is trying to woo Basanti ( Hema Malini )- there is an inherent sense of humour that is prevailing throughout the movie. The song “yeh dosti, hum nahin todenge,Todenge dum magar, tera saath na chhodenge” symbolizes the free spiritedness of their friendship the best. The Jai-Veeru bonding went on to even be an inspiration for the similar bonding of Govinda and Sanjay Dutt seen in movies like Haseena Maan Jaayegi,Jodi No.1 and Ek Aur Ek Gyarah.

When a film’s title is Dostana what else can the movie symbolize but friendship? Both the popular movies with this title, one a 1980 release and the other a recent 2008 release had a strong undercurrent of friendship running throughout the film. Let’s look at Dostana (1980) to begin with. This was a classic tale of friendship between Vijay (who else but Amitabh Bachchan ) and Ravi ( Shatrughan Sinha ) who are best friends in spite of their work getting into the way. Even when both fall in love with the same girl, Sheetal ( Zeenat Aman ) they still manage to retain their friendship with Vijay trying to sacrifice his love. But that’s when their friendship gets fractured on the basis of a misunderstanding created by the villain,Daaga ( Prem Chopra ). The movie was a resounding success and the music by Laxmikant- Pyarelal was certainly a big boost too. My pick of the lot among the songs is definitely –“Bane chahe dushman zamana hamara, salamat rahe dostana hamara”.

Well, in the 70’s and 80’s there were hundreds of Hindi films which stressed on the friendship angle, but in most cases the movie would again go on to become a romantic triangle and the exceptions would be limited to the odd movie like Khudgarz. Just when I thought the topic had almost lost its impact, there came a movie in 1994 which ushered in a fresh wave- Andaz Apna Apna .Amar ( Aamir Khan ) and Prem ( Salman Khan ) begin as rivals fighting to marry a rich heiress and wanting to become rich overnight. Due to turn of circumstances they join hands and then begins the mad comedy of errors. For the way the two characters are shown as fun loving, bumbling characters- the movie can be seen endlessly. There is always an underlying current of one-upmanship between the two and that was certainly refreshing.

There was a movie which came a few years before AAA and which tried to explore the angle of friendship between a boy and a girl. The movie was the trendsetting Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) which along with QSQT is credited to have broken the trend of the mindless action movie of the 80’s. Here the two friends are Prem (Salman Khan) and Suman (Bhagyashree ) who try to portray that after all friendship can exist between a boy and a girl too. The innocence shows in the form of symbols like the ‘friend’ cap which went on to became a rage across the country. But of course all good things come to an end. This was after all a romantic film and yes the situations eventually lead to them falling in love with each other. Nearly a decade later (1998) the angle was explored again in Karan Johar’s directorial debut ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ as you had Kajol and SRK playing best friends.Of course friendship eventually turns to love here too.

If there was ever a movie to symbolize friendship between 2 women I would probably think of movies like ‘Dor’ and ‘Filhaal’. In case of Filhaal the story tackles the emotions running through the friendship between 2 childhood friends Rewa ( Tabu ) and Sia ( Sushmita Sen ) and brings in the element of surrogate motherhood between the 2 friends. Dor on the other hand is a sensitive portrayal of friendship between 2 women( Gul Panag and Ayesha Takia )of completely different spectrums yet who go on to share a bond- of friendship, that is extremely genuine.

The coming of age when it applies to human emotions and portrayal of friendship, can be seen in the form of Dostana (2008). Here Kunal (John Abraham ) and Sameer ( Abhishek Bachchan ) pretend to be gays to share an apartment with Neha ( Priyanka Chopra ). Though predictably both of them fall in love with Neha and try their level best to spoil her relationship with Abhimanyu (Bobby Deol ), they do end up realizing ultimately that the friendship between the three of them is what matters the most. Probably the best thing that Bobby Deol does in the entire movie is to tell Priyanka in the climax that the 2 of them (John-Abhishek) are truly her best friends.

Duniya Dilwalon Ki (1996- Kadhal Desam in Tamil) takes a slightly unconventional look at friendship again. Both Vineet and Abbas who are best friends are in love with the same girl –Tabu. When it becomes clear to her that both her friends are in love with her, she decides to give predominance to friendship over love and choses to remain friends with both of them forever rather than marrying one of them and losing a good friend in the bargain.

Well, talking about friendship and while discussing current trends how can I not talk about OLLO (Oye Lucky Lucky Oye). OLLO brings a fresh and unconventional approach to friendship. Lucky (Abhay Deol ) the protagonist and Bangali ( Manu Rishi ) are childhood friends who become partners in crime as well. Theirs is a typical tale of friendship as they do most of things in tandem, just when it looks like a regular tale of friendship there occurs a chilling betrayal and the friendship crumbles in a heap. This is a very contemporary take on friendship. As we are all aware life has got a lot more complicated in the recent past and to see such an event happening is but fairly natural.

And maybe another movie which I must mention here is Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gulaal’. I felt that the friendship portrayed between Ransa ( Abhimanyu Singh ) and Dileep Singh ( Raj Singh Chaudhary ) was impressive enough for the simple reason that it clearly shows how a bold and colorful personality can influence an otherwise mild mannered person.

This was not a comprehensive list of Hindi movies which explored friendship. Rather I have gone on to just look at a sample list of a few films all of which look at facets of friendship different from each other. I would certainly like to know which are your favorite Hindi movies depicting friendship and your take on the movies mentioned here by me.

P.S- originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/yaari-hai-imaan-mera-yaar-meri-zindagi-friendship-as-depicted-in-bollywood-films/

Chandrasekhar Yeleti undertakes a new ‘Prayanam’

2009-07-24T00:27:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago,on one fine morning, I was stranded in Bangalore’s HAL airport (or the old airport as we now describe it) for some 4-5 hours. The reason being my flight and most other flights were delayed due to fog condition and so I was caught unawares. Since the agenda was only a meeting with a retail chain towards lunch time, I was hoping to catch up on some other agenda’s and catch the evening flight and return back. You see those were the pre recession days and could easily fly short distances like Chennai-Bangalore and get back the same day too . Well I do miss those days I guess. Before you wonder if this post is going to be about my ramblings on recession, flying etc- let me clarify that it’s not what I have in mind. I just narrated this incident to tell you all how I wish I had at least known the story of Chandrasekhar Yeleti’s ( C.Y from hereon ) latest Telugu movie-‘Prayanam’ by that time.If that were so, who knows those few hours could have changed my life.
For those who have seen or heard of C.Y’s previous movies namely Aithe, Anukokunda Oku Roju (remade as Sunday in Hindi) and Okkadunnadu, it would surely come as a surprise to know that Yeleti this time has changed tracks and gone in for a lighthearted romantic film in the form of Prayanam. Before talking anything about the movie- I have a question to ask. What would any guy who has a lot of time to while away in an airport try to do? Well yes the normal responses would be reading, checking your mail/chatting, having endless cups of coffee/mugs of beer, talking with someone on the mobile etc. But would anyone among us think of falling in love and then ensuring that one tends to get successful in it?
Yeah! I’m sure most of us probably end up seeing a good looking girl and some of us probably even manage to talk to the girl and feel happy about it. But I repeat how many of us would use the few hours of time with us at the airport to fall in love with the girl and then try to woo her successfully? Not many, right? Well let me then go on to tell you what Prayanam is all about. The plot if I were to call it is all about a trio of friends – Dhruv (Manchu Manoj), Janardhan and Tamim who have just completed a sightseeing trip to Malaysia and are now at Kuala Lumpur’s International airport to fly over to Singapore. At the same time you have the female lead Harika (Payal Ghosh a.k.a Harika) along with her friend Kalpika who are also at the airport to catch a flight to Hyderabad.
Harika is about to meet a prospective bride groom in Hyderabad and that’s the reason for her travel. In truly filmy style Dhruv falls in love with Harika – a classic case of love at first sight. But our hero is somewhat different because he is not content by merely falling in love; he wants to successfully woo her too. And he has just 2 hours to go about in this task. How he goes about doing this is what the movie is all about. Now I’m sure even without seeing the movie it would be clear to almost everyone that the plot is extremely simple and does not carry any meat on its own. In such a case it becomes very important for the director to be very effective in ensuring that the proceedings on screen keep the viewer enthused throughout the duration of the film.
It is here that C.Y shows he is in complete control. By ensuring that the humour quotient is fairly high throughout the movie, he manages to keep the proceedings interesting enough till the end. In fact though it is a romantic film, I personally did not find anything extraordinary about the romance in the movie as such. But it is in the comedy scenes that C.Y completely excels and lifts the movie to a large extent. Also what is remarkable about the movie is that the movie is more or less shot in just one location (except the few scenes at the start) i.e. in the airport and there are just 5-6 characters in the movie. Also commendable is the fact that the comedy is never over the top. Brahmanandam as Satyanaryana Swamy is hilarious and the scenes that he has with Janardhan are certainly innovative.
Also interestingly the characters of Kalpika and Tamim have been well sketched and the scenes involving them are entertaining again. Manchu Manoj seems to be having a blast in this movie (after Nenu Meeku Telusa which was reasonably noticed) and he will surely be talked about with this movie. Harika/Payal Ghosh does not have much scope but is fairly decent. Music by Mahesh Shankar is fairly adequate and does not distract (just 3 songs in the movie). The animation in the opening titles and the first song (YYW) is quite interesting. All in all this is one ‘Prayanam’ which can be safely undertaken. Not outstanding cinema, but definitely entertaining enough.
P.S- By now you would have understood why I mentioned I wish I knew the story of Prayanam when I was stuck at Bangalore’s HAL airport. But on hindsight even if I had liked some girl then, with all the chaos that prevailed there on that day I doubt if I would have been successful enough like Manchu Manoj in the movie .

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/chandrasekhar-yeleti-undertakes-a-new-%e2%80%98prayanam%e2%80%99/

Sambhala Hai Maine,Bahut Apne Dil Ko- Revisiting Love Songs of the 90’s

2009-07-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

Of late I keep going into a reflective mode often and look back in time and relive a lot of interesting memories. A few days ago I was discussing with a friend about a Tamil movie –‘Guru En Aalu’ which after lying in the cans for a while finally got released a few weeks ago. What’s interesting about the movie is that it is the Tamil remake of Yes Boss. The discussion once again made me go back in time to the 90’s and think of some of the romantic songs of the 90’s.Now the 90’s are very special to me for various reasons. The 90’s were when I was a teenager and also the time when I moved out of school and into college. Also it was the 90’s again (the later part) when I became a young adult. So the memories of this decade are very precious to me & since that was the time my heart really started fluttering, a lot of memories come alive when I listen to the numerous Bollywood love songs of the 90’s.

Taking a cue from my fellow author Tushar’s write –ups ( like this one- http://passionforcinema.com/hona-hai-to-ho-hi-jayega-of-lost-songs-ii/) I am going on my journey of revisiting some of my favorite songs ( mostly romantic ) of the 90’s.If anyone is expecting me to write on the standard songs from the blockbusters like DDLJ,Aashiqui,Saajan, DTPH etc, you are thoroughly mistaken. The endeavor is to revisit those songs which have been more or less forgotten by us. Most of these songs are from movies which probably were not box office successes. And these songs are most likely not to be seen/heard anywhere these days- not even in T.V (unless the movie is being played), but back in those days of the 90’s were quite popular in their own way. Most of these songs are confined to individual memories and one has to go back to the old audio cassette/C.D or the internet to hear these songs again.

1. Sambhala Hai Maine- Naaraaz
By the early/mid 90’s Mahesh Bhatt had kind of become obsessed more with the number of projects than the quality of work and this resulted in him doing a series of movies which didn’t do much justice to his filmography (barring exceptions like Zakhm of course).One such movie was Naaraaz a movie which had Mithunda,Pooja Bhaat,Atul Agnihotri & Sonali Bhendre in the lead. Though I do vaguely remember the plot and some scenes from the movie, nothing else has remained etched permanently in my memory like the song Sambhala Hai Maine from the movie. Picturised on Atul Agnihotri and Sonali Bhendre, this was romance at its expressive best. I certainly was envious of Atul Agnihotri when I saw the song for the first time. Not only was he romancing the pretty Sonali, he also got to sing such a beautiful song on screen- probably his best ever song in his entire career as a hero J

Check out the video and relive the magic, once again.

Trivia- Tadipaar is the only other movie apart from Naaraaz where Mahesh Bhatt and Mithun Chakraborty have worked together.

2. Utra Na Dil Mein Koi- Uff!Yeh Mohabbat
The movie introduced a new hero- Abhishek Kapoor ( now popular as the director of Rock On ) and a new director- Vipin Handa (who was popular for his T.V shows on D.D) and had an upcoming heroine- Twinkle Khanna. Somehow the promos seemed to look interesting and I remember having to literally force a female friend & her sister to accompany me for the movie because no one else wanted to accompany me. I was not at all disappointed with the movie. True there wasn’t a great story to boast of but the picturesque locales of Sikkim and the songs like Utra Na Dil Mein Koi and Deewani Deewani ( music by Nikhil-Vinay )more than made up for it. While Deewani Deewani is more likely to be remembered by people now for its brilliant Sufi rendition, Utra Na Dil Mein Koi is the one which sunk into my heart and the romantic in me was floored.

For those who haven’t seen/heard the song and for those who would like to revisit it, here is the video- do have a look and fall in love once again.

Vipinji- if you ever read this let me tell you once again that it is this movie which made me fall in love with Sikkim and prompted me to make 2-3 visits. I know I have told you this before, but cannot resist the opportunity to tell this once again.

3. Sawali Saloni- Hum Sab Chor Hain
Now when a movie has Kamal Sadanah and Ritu Shivpuri in the romantic lead (for those who do not know them, just forget itJ ), what more does one have to say? So while the movie did not grab any eye balls on release and is of course completely forgotten (rightly so today), there is this song- Sawli Saloni which was extremely popular in those days. Picturised on the lead pair on a fort/palace (don’t remember which one), this one again was a Kumar Sanu hit. Lyrics by Nawab Aarzoo were perfectly in sync with the music of Bappi Lahari for the song.

For all those interested in a revisit given below is the video.

4. Hum lakh chupaya pyar magar- Jaan Tere Naam
Now this is a movie most of us are aware of. The songs were quite popular when the movie released and used to be a major draw on ‘Chitrahaar’ on D.D. Starring Rohit Roy & Farheen in the main lead, the music was by Nadeem-Shravan who were literally ruling the roost in the 90’s. Most of the other songs are also popular like Kal college bandh ho jaayega, main tumse juda ho jaunga, yeh akka India jaanta hai etc. But when it comes to love songs nothing really surpasses Hum lakh chupaye pyar magar sung by Kumar Sanu & Asha Bhonsle.

6. Resham Jaise Hain Rahein- Ek Tha Dil Ek Thi Dhadkan
I vividly remember watching the promos of this movie in T.V in 1997. The movie was supposed to be the launch vehicle of Isha Koppikar and had Inder Kumar and Arbaaz Ali Khan (seen later in Mrityudaata as Amitabh Bachchan’s younger brother). The music was by Anand Raj Anand whose first movie as composer – Masoom had just released some time before this. Abhijeet was in his element while singing this and you can feel the free spirit in the mood of the song when you listen to it. The opening lines of the song are very simple, yet makes you want to hum it to yourself (I do it often).

“Resham Jaisi Hain Rahein,Kholein Hain Bahein ,Ye Vaadiyaan Mausam Saare Hain Apne,Rangeen Sapne,Hain Maherbaan Yoon Hi Gayenge Milke ,Hum Geet Dil Ke ,Sadiyon Yahan”

I don’t know if the movie ever got released and have not yet been successful in my search for the actual video of the song. I guess I have to depend upon my old audio cassette when I want to hear this once again.

7. Aake Teri Baahon Mein- Vansh

Vansh was the Hindi remake of Manirathnam’s popular Tamil movie- Agninatchathiram. This was a movie noticed mainly due to the music of Anand-Milind. Most of the songs like Main to deewani huyi, yeh bindiya yeh kangna, etc were also quite popular. But when it comes to the turn of having a pleasant romantic track which makes you forget about the visual and just sit back and relax, one can definitely slot ‘ Aake teri baahon mein’ in this category. With veterans like S.P.Balasubramaniam and Lata Mangeshkar singing to the lyrics of Sameer ( who was having a golden run at that time as he was the busiest lyrics writer in Bollywood then ), the song is a virtual treat to the ears.

Trivia- Vansh was directed by Pappu Verma more popular as an action director. And of the main cast, Sudesh Berry and Siddharth can be still seen occasionally while the leading ladies Ekta and Priyanka have disappeared.

8. Chand se parda kijiye- Aao Pyar Karen

This was a Saif Ali Khan,Shilpa Shetty,Somy Ali starrer and was one of the early films for the main star cast. Music was composed by the then relatively new composer- Adesh Shrivastav. In combination with Shyam Raj (lyrics) Adesh composed some good songs like Haathon mein aagaya jo kal, Jab do dil milte hain, etc. But there’s something remarkable about this song –
“Chand se parda kijiye” which in spite of being a party song certainly has soul and is extremely romantic at the core.

Do check out the video once again to revive the memory once again.

Trivia- Directed by Ravindra Peepat,Aao Pyar Karein was a remake of a Tamil movie, Chemabaruthi directed by R.K.Selvamani & starring Prashant & Roja.

The list is not exhaustive and these are just some of my top of the mind recall songs in this category. Given below are a few more songs which I feel belong to this category-

Bin tere sanam- Yaara Dildaara
Man chahe sanam- Aar Ya Paar
Tu jab jab mujhko pukare- Qurbaan
Ek chanchal shokh haseena- Baaghi
Aankhon se dil mein utarke tu mere dhadkan mein hain- Fareb
Chaha to bahut na chahen tujhe- Imtihaan
Tu mile dil khile- Criminal

Feel free to add more songs which you believe fall under this category and let’s relive the 90’s once again.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/sambhala-hai-mainebahut-apne-dil-ko-revisiting-love-songs-of-the-90%e2%80%99s/

Pasanga- for the child in each one of us

2009-07-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

All of us have been kids at some point of time. We have all had our moments of glory, moments of frustration, moments of success, moments of failures etc during our childhood. And barring certain exceptions I’m sure most of us look back with great satisfaction and happiness when we reminisce over our childhood days. Now haven’t many of us wanted to be an actor, a policeman, a doctor and many other things when were kids in school? Most of us would keep changing our desired profession of interest from time to time based on the current flavour. Like if I saw a movie where the hero ( mostly Amitabh Bachchan )was a cop then I spent the next few days imagining that I’m a cop. When I saw Ravi Shastri win his Audi car & get the Champion of Champion title when India won the World Championship Series in 1985, I wanted to be a cricketer. There was even a lovely ad ( Aviva life insurance ) featuring a kid,his father and Sachin Tendulkar which highlighted this aspect creatively.

While I’m talking about childhood & associated stuff can I avoid talking about children’s films? A very common complaint that we keep hearing is that children’s films as a genre has not really taken off within the mainstream cinema of India. While we have been watching movies like the Home Alone series, Baby’s Day Out, numerous animation movies, films of Majid Majidi etc and admiring them, children’s movies as a genre within the spectrum of mainstream Indian cinema has seen just the odd Masoom,Makdee,Hanuman or a Taare Zameen Par. A wonderful effort like Santosh Sivan’s Tahaan went literally unnoticed. Amidst this backdrop here comes a Tamil film called Pasanga which clearly defies all conventions and is surely a trendsetter of sorts.

Pasanga has no stars (unlike Aamir in TZP) and is not too preachy. In recent times Tamil films have seen some wonderful natural depiction of childhood in movies like Veyyil,Autograph,Azhagi, Poo etc but the difference between these films and Pasanga lies in the fact that in these films the childhood segment is only a part of the film & the kids go on to grow up and the tempo of the movie shifts to a different gear. Here in Pasanga there is a scene when one of the 4 main kids – Anbukarasu while introducing his family members to the audience cheekily says – “you might be mistaken if you feel my uncle is the hero of the family, but no I’m the actual hero and I don’t grow up till the movie is over”.

Debutant director- Pandiraj has literally relived his childhood by shooting the movie in his native village of Virachilai ( near Pudukottai ). The story begins with cheeky introductions of ‘the brat gang’ of Jeeva ( Sriram), Pakkada ( Pandian ) and Kuttymani( Murugesh ) – class 6 students,who are the troublemakers and the feared lot in school. In comes Anbukarasu I.A.S ( Kishore ) as he calls himself. Anbu is an ideal student and adds the IAS to his name as he is a follower of Dr.A.P.J.Kalam & wants to become a collector. Anbu goes on to earn the displeasure of the brat gang as he is liked by all in school including Manonmani ( Dharani ) , the cousin of Jeeva. Rubbing salt into the wounds of Jeeva & co is the fact that their class teacher Chockalingam ( Jayaprakash ) is also fond of Anbu.

So there begins a typical tale of rivalry,jealousy,hatred and of course love too. Woven into the tale of the kids is the simple romance between Meenakshi Sundaram ( Vimal ), Anbu’s uncle and Sobhikannu ( Vega who debuted in Saroja ),sister of Jeeva which is shown in a sweet and effective way. The dialogues between Meenakshi and Sobhikannu are interesting and humorous and not once do you find the romance distracting the audience from the main plot involving the kids and here again the director Pandiraj scores. Not only has the director shown the kids in a natural manner, he is even able to infuse a lot of tongue in cheek humour. Watch out for the various references to the popular Kollywood stars and their histrionics in some of the scenes in the movie.

The rural milieu has been well captured and the performances of the entire cast are extremely natural. Music by James Vasanth is good and he has shown his tribute to Ilayaraja in the right way by using a few of his tunes in the background at the right times. Cinematography by Prem kumar also does justice to the movie. While the climax is melodramatic, the finale more than makes up for it. In a nut shell this is a movie which is not just worth watching, it certainly needs to be appreciated for being a children’s film which gives you the complete satisfaction of having watched any other entertaining film. And a big round of applause goes to the producer- Sasikumar (director of Subramaniapuram ) who has shown complete faith and confidence in the vision of Pandiraj. We need more such movies, till then let the kids of ‘Pasanga’ rock.

P.S- Originally published in PFC.Check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/pasanga-for-the-child-in-each-one-of-us/

Those were the best days of my life

2009-07-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Yeah, I’d always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life

Well yes Bryan Adams’s Summer of 69 is one of my all time favorites and it probably describes the essence of this write-up the best. No I’m not going to talk about my experiences in the Summer of ’69, heck I wasn’t even born then. But yes then whatever I probably will be writing here is maybe what I’ve experienced and felt while I was growing up and in that way it’s quite similar to what Bryan Adams felt too. The difference being that I’m not confining myself to just one year- but more or less a whole period of growing up.

Born in the late 70’s in a typical middle class family I was witness to the virtual flurry of events that were happening in the country in those days. I still remember that in my first few years of existence it was the large B&W T.V sets which stood for entertainment in our homes those days along with the evergreen transistor/radio of course. I also remember the entry of color T.V broadcast with the ’82 Asian Games that were staged in Delhi. I must have virtually been a toddler when my first vivid experience of identifying a movie star was captured carefully in my memory. The actor was none other than Amitabh Bachchan.

So it was basically the 80’s and the 90’s which constituted my days of growing up on all counts. Life in the 80’s especially was a lot simpler than it is now. I’m sure there would be others who would describe the 70’s, 60’s or 50’s in the same way depending on when they grew up. In my case most of my early memories are from the 80’s. I remember the monthly outings that we used to undertake as a family. Watching 1-2 movies in a month was a definite routine. If it was a Hindi or a regional movie it would be a complete family outing and if it was an English movie it would be mostly just me & my father.

One of the insights that my father realized early on was that his eldest son (who else but me) was fast becoming a ‘dangerous’ filmy. Sample this- typically in those days Chitrahaar on good old D.D used to be a big draw and something that everyone looked forward to. Typically the new songs being shown in it would first feature a poster of the movie followed by the song itself. Since watching T.V in those days was a community phenomenon , there would always be people at home while watching Chitrahaar or we would be at someone else’s house. And typically when the poster of a movie say ‘Pyar Jhukta Nahin’ would be shown, I would go off rattling the names of the cast and crew like Mithun Chakravorty,Padmini Kolhapure,Danny Denzongpa,Laxmikant-Pyarelal etc. My dad would certainly be furious at me and hence in order to ‘control the flow’ of information on movies that I was exposed to, film magazines were virtually banned at home.
So my reading of Filmfare and other such magazines would typically be in a saloon or in some other friend’s home. That was also the time when I began to take an active interest in quizzing and so my thirst for filmy knowledge kept increasing even more. Oh! and while I would watch movies of all languages in all spots on D.D (sat eve, sun eve, sun afternoon-regional language, fri late nights, tue afternoons etc and many more ) the other habit that I was accustomed to was listening to songs on radio especially on Vividh Bharati. Ameen Sayani’s Binaca/Cibaca Geetmala was my favorite and it certainly was the precursor to all the countdown shows which became popular on T.V much later.

Couple of other programs on radio which I was particularly fond of were Chhayageet which played the old songs especially at night and ‘Chitralok’ which played the musical trailers of the current releases and the upcoming releases. Of course those were the days when there used to be no internet, no mobile phones and no other gimmicks and gadgets that we have today. So even as a kid I became addicted to the ‘Friday Phenomena’ ( check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/the-friday-phenomena/) and so scanning the newspaper on Friday’s for knowing the latest releases was a big activity for me and would give me immense pleasure.

When I was finally allowed to watch movies with my friends on the rare occasions, life had become all the more colorful as I did not have to depend upon my parents alone for now having to watch a movie. King Kong Lives and Ram Lakhan were among the early movies that I remember having watched with my friends. And yes my father was strictly against going to watch a movie more than once in a theatre and so I had to come up with inventive ways every time I wanted to watch a movie again. The one thing I was very clear about is that I would never hide the fact to my parents that I saw a movie, of course but the name would often get changed at times So when I wanted to watch Hum again, I had to tell my folks that I was watching Honey I shrunk the kids and so on & so forth.

Of course sports especially cricket, soccer and tennis was something that I really had embraced and thanks to D.D, I would often be glued to the World Cup Soccer matches, the umpteen test & one day cricket matches and of course the Tennis Grand Slam tournaments. The center posters of Sportstar used to adorn the walls of my room and collecting them was a big passion as much as other hobbies that I was into like philately and numismatics.

As the 80’s gave way to the 90’s there was a new avenue of entertainment that opened up, namely satellite television. Unfortunately when the satellite revolution happened I had just cleared my class X board exams and moved to the Higher Secondary stream so for those 2 years, there was not much of T.V that I had time for. Not that I had any complaints, for by then I was completely into a lot of stuff both academic and non academic. While quizzing and other inter school events took care off attendance, movies and books still managed to feature in my schedule. Thankfully none of these really affected my studies and so I really did not have to get into any major struggle.

Well when I’m talking about my teenage days in school, can falling in love or teenage crushes be left out? I had my share too, many girls that I liked, many that liked me and some being quite mutual. But remember those days one never really knew how to be fashionable like in today’s terms? and so there was a lot of ‘ankhon hi ankhon mein ishara ho gaya, baite baite jeene ka sahara ho gaya’. That I was a decent singer with a wide repertoire of songs helped and often I would sing in the earshot of the girl I liked, songs of her choice. In true Bollywood style I faced a funny situation once.There was a girl in my class who used to stay in the same street as that of another friend of mine. So I would very often hang around her house in the pretext of meeting my friend when one day I was literally surrounded by most of the nukkad ke romeo’s who warned me to stay away from her. Thankfully in filmy style she watched it all and the next day was full of sympathy for me.

Another interesting event happened like this – the occasion was some function in school (probably my farewell party in school).All of a sudden I decided that I would go on stage & sing, the intention being only to impress a particular girl. While the plan was to sing some soft romantic number, tragedy struck when I opened my mouth and realized that a lot of screaming and shouting that day had given me a sore throat. So while I debated on apologizing and leaving the stage, my brain overworked & I surprised myself by singing ‘angna mein baba’ in ‘rock’ style taking everyone by shock. But the girl was impressed and she was the first to say that she liked my experiment.

So thus my school days were spent often under the repeated shelters of movies, books and music. The T.V and the radio were literally like members of my family and something indispensable. When I compare the current scenario with my school days, I feel a lot of satisfaction in what I underwent. Yes today’s kids have a lot of things at their disposal be it DTH, the internet, multiplexes and malls, mobile phones, play stations etc, but where is the innocence of the yesteryears? How many children nowadays actually read? How many children actually enjoy the outdoors? How many of them especially in the metros and other bigger cities have been exposed to the single screen theatres and cineplexes? I can just go on & on, for ‘those were certainly the best days of my life’.

P.S- originally published in PFC,check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/those-were-the-best-days-of-my-life/
V

Kick- Telugu Cinema Gets Cheeky

2009-05-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so what do we usually expect from a Telugu movie these days, especially when it stars a popular hero? That the hero will play to the gallery and work on his strengths. That the movie will contain the typical mass elements like action, around 6 songs which includes an item number, loud villains who are more or less caricatures, nearly all the well known comedians doing some kind of inane stuff in the name of comedy, one or more heroines trying to give their share of glamour quotient, some ‘punch’ dialogues powerful enough to disturb our ear drums and so on & so forth.

So it comes as a pleasant surprise to watch Kick- the latest Telugu release which has Ravi Teja and Ileana and also introduces the Tamil actor- Shaam to Telugu Cinema. So am I saying that this movie is a trendsetter and it breaks conventional traditions? Is this movie going to be looked upon as the movie to emulate in the years to come? Oh! No, not at all. Surendar Reddy the director has tried to experiment albeit a little within the limits of commercial Telugu potboilers keeping the image of Ravi Teja in mind and at the same time trying to avoid a lot of the mandatory requirements associated with such films.

So the plot is all about Kalyan (Ravi Teja ), an engineering graduate for whom getting a ‘kick’ out of anything is the sole mantra to keep him hooked to any activity. Hence he keeps moving in & out of jobs whenever he feels the job has no kick to offer him. He is supported in this by his father ( Sayaji Shinde ) who believes that he couldn’t do what his son is doing i.e unwind and take life easy. In a very entertaining encounter Kalyan comes across Naina (Ileana) and they start liking each other. One day when Naina gets to know that Kalyan has quit yet another job, she decides she’s had enough of him & decides to get out of the relationship.

And then Naina and her family move to Malaysia where one day she meets Kalyan Krishna (Shaam) a cop from Hyderabad who has come to Malaysia to meet her formally before getting engaged. After Naina tells Kalyan Krishna her story, he too opens up and says his biggest mission currently is to catch a guy who has been doing some high value robberies of late and playing a cat & mouse game with him. Apparently the thief is also now in Malaysia and that’s the main reason for Kalyan Krishna’s visit to Malaysia.

Of course the audience need not have to be smarter than a 5th grade student to know that the thief is none other than Kalyan. So how does the cat and mouse game carry on from there? Who gets Ileana in the end & what’s the reason behind Kalyan becoming a thief is what the rest of the movie is all about. The cinematography by Rasool Ellore and the music by Thaman.S have nothing special to contribute to the film. The movie has an ensemble supporting cast which includes Brahmanandam,Venu Madhav,Ali,Jayaprakash Reddy,Kota etc. And it’s certainly nice to see Jayaprakash Reddy and Kota in comic roles and not having any fiery dialogues as usual.

Brahmanandam raises a few laughs in what is a cakewalk of a role for him. Ali and Venu Madhav are o.k. Shaam is quite decent for his 1st Telugu movie and yes it’s nice to see Ileana after a long hiatus. We all know that the lady is not just pretty but can also act given a chance (remember Pokiri?). So after virtually seeing only Tamannah & Anushka this year it’s nice to see Ileana finally who does justice to her role whenever she appears on screen – of course towards the end she just disappears. Is it a matter of convenience, Surendar Reddy garu?

Coming to Ravi Teja or motor mouth as some of the media in A.P calls him, he seems to be relishing every bit of his time in the movie. He does get to do a lot of comedy which he is good at and also does well overall. But of course this is certainly not in the same league of some of his other films like Vikramarkudu or Dubai Seenu, but certainly not a bad attempt. Watch out for the scene where he does an imitation of Amitabh Bachchan- quite hilarious. All said and done it takes some time before one gets hooked to the movie, after which it’s a reasonably decent ride.

Talking about the usual stereotypes that I mentioned in the beginning of the article let me tell you all that Kick is a movie with popular stars but it has no item numbers, no loud villains ( in fact no villain at all ) , has no powerful ‘punch’ dialogues and nothing untoward in the name of glamour. Considering that the movie seems to have steered clear of these typical stereotypes associated with a big star Telugu movie and at the same time still decently entertains, the movie is to be credited. For the Telugu movie audience in A.P, with the scorching summer in full peak there is at least something to watch and cool themselves.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/kick-telugu-cinema-gets-cheeky/

My thoughts on ‘Frozen’- A brilliant celluloid dream

2009-05-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

March 13th, 2009 will remain a special day for me. That’s the day when I had a very interesting experience of watching 2 interesting movies. Before anybody asks me what’s so special about watching 2 movies in a day, after all most of have us grown up watching multiple movies in a day-let me tell you that the day was unique for me due to the films watched and the person with whom I watched the movies alongside. The movies were Gulaal and Frozen and the person I saw the movies together with was Shivajee Chandrabhushan-the director and producer of Frozen.
I had started knowing Shivajee through PFC just a short while before this day in March. When I realized that Frozen had already made the rounds of some 30 odd festivals worldwide and that in spite of having won some 18 awards it was yet to find a release, I was really shocked and surprised. Looking back I still remember telling Shivajee (before watching the movie) that for the sake of Ladakh,Danny & Shivajee I would like to watch the movie at the 1st given opportunity. Yes what also attracted me to the movie apart from the fact that it was well received in so many film festivals was that it was a black & white film shot in Ladakh & it had Danny Denzongpa as the main lead.

Having been to Ladakh myself I was more than curious to know how Shivajee has captured the harsh terrain of Ladakh on screen. Also it had been a while since I had seen Danny in a performance befitting him (his recent few roles being not so noteworthy). Interestingly I had a lot of questions even before I had seen the movie, but kept it to myself till I saw the movie. At first I had a plan of meeting Shivajee in Bangalore (prefer this over Bengaluru) and watch the movie as he had been invited to come over &showcase his movie by a reputed institution there. But thanks to the Feb screening by Enlighten Film Society in Mumbai the theatrical release finally began to look like a reality and so the Bangalore program was dropped.

So when I was wondering when I would be getting to watch the movie I had a trip to Mumbai scheduled in March and that was when Shivajee and I decided to meet up and he promised to show me his film. Since March 13th happened to be the release date of Gulaal, we decided to watch Gulaal before we saw Frozen. Shivajee was quite apprehensive of my response towards Frozen as we were going to watch it after Gulaal- which in Shivajee’s words was a very colorful film. But I asked him to relax and told him that I will still be able to watch it distinctly and give him my honest opinion after the movie is over.

So after the luxury of watching Anurag Kashyap’s Gulaal in Gold class at Fame- Malad, off we went to Shivajee’s home cum studio where to my surprise we watched the movie straight from his editing table. To my mind it looked like the next best thing to watching it on the big screen. And for the next 107 minutes or so I was glued to the film and nothing else. In between Shivajee kept disappearing so that I could watch the movie in peace. After the movie I had a fairly long discussion with Shivajee over some red wine regarding the movie. And yes the discussion was made even more meaningful by the presence of Gauri- the female lead of Frozen (who plays Lasya the daughter of Karma- Danny Denzongpa ) and Triparna- the director’s assistant who’s been on the project from the 2nd festival ( of the 30 odd ) till this date and who is the livewire of the team.

The ‘story’ is all about Karma (Danny) who lives with his daughter Lasya ( Gauri ) and son Chomo ( Angchuk ) in the high reaches of Ladakh. It’s about the day to day struggle for existence that Karma and his family goes through and how their life undergoes a series of changes due to some incidents. Now more than the story per se what struck me was the way the story unfolds and the narrative that keeps you spellbound.

As the movie got over I was in a state of shock as it looked like what I had witnessed was poetry on screen. The use of monochrome brilliantly helps in capturing the harsh landscape and one often tends to get lost in the landscape while watching the movie. So is it the beauty of Ladakh or the cinematography of Shankar Raman which deserves the credit? Well I give the credit to both. Shivajee has been able to extract brilliant performances from his cast- be it the main cast of Danny,Gauri and Angchuk or the supporting cast which includes known names like Raj Zutshi,Yashpal Sharma, Aamir Bashir,Shakeel Khan,Shilpa Shukla etc.

What is certainly praise worthy is the level of detailing that Shivajee has gone into with this film. Not one character or a situation looks out of place. Nowadays one comes across the use of metaphors in a lot of movies, but let me tell you that Shivajee uses them subtly and very effectively in this movie. In fact it was difficult to digest that this was all the work of a first time director and producer. So much so that my admiration for Shivajee and his work has only increased after I saw the movie.

The movie finally has released today, the 8th of May 2009 and it’s a great moral victory not only for Shivajee and the team of Frozen but for all who support good cinema.What is amazing about the release is that the distributors – Enlighten Film Society – run by Pranav Ashar and Jimmy Mistry are first timers themselves in terms of film distribution. I wish to certainly appreciate their efforts which have finally helped in the film’s release in India. Also Frozen might probably the first Indian movie to have a staggered release as it releases today in Mumbai first which will be followed by other cities like Delhi,Kolkata,Bangalore etc. This date- 8th May 2009 will always go in history as Frozen will be the only Hindi film to find a release in this date and that too in the multiplexes when the on going stand off between the producers/distributors combine and the multiplexes continues.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here-http://passionforcinema.com/my-thoughts-on-%e2%80%98frozen%e2%80%99-a-brilliant-celluloid-dream/

Stereotyping in Indian Films- How long will it continue?

2009-05-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

By now its common knowledge that RGV and Vivek Oberoi are re-uniting for Rakta Charitra, a biopic on Paritala Ravi, the dreaded factionalist leader of A.P who was shot down a few years ago. But what is making me look forward to the project is to see if RGV is able to carry off the transition of factional A.P politics and associated violence conveniently into a mainstream Hindi movie. After all it’s not easy to make a transition of this sort without avoiding the typical stereotypes seen in Indian cinema. And no the stereotyping is not a prerogative of Bollywood or any particular regional language cinema; it can be seen usually across Indian cinema. India is growing, developing, changing for the better as a country so why should we still allow the kind of stereotyping that has existed in Indian cinema for ages?
To drive across my point I would definitely look at some of the more common stereotypes seen in Indian cinema with some relevant examples wherever possible.

1.Most South Indian characters are just ‘Madrasis’ who keep saying ‘ayyayyo ayyayyo’- Well right from Mehmood in Padosan to Satish Kaushik in Saajan Chale Sasural or Shreyas Talpade in Golmaal Returns, South Indian characters are mainly shown as caricatures who speak pathetic Hindi and there is very poor detailing done by the director/writer. When Rohit Shetty, a South Indian himself cannot differentiate between a Tamilian & a Telugu personality, what more should I say? In case you do not understand what I say- just watch Golmaal Returns. Shreyas Talpade and Celina Jaitley play Tamilian characters in the movie, but whenever Shreyas is excited- he starts singing- ‘Aa Ante Amalapuram’ a popular song from the Telugu hit movie-Arya, now why would you show it this way, unless you don’t have an eye for detailing?
2.Most North Indian characters have to be a ‘sethji’ in a typical South Indian movie and the character is supposed to directly/indirectly elicit laughter from the audience. You can check out countless Tamil movies in particular for the same. Why can’t a North Indian be shown in a regular capacity instead of being shown as a caricature.
3.It’s ok to show the female lead as a North Indian but not the male lead in South Indian movies. Sure it’s fine to show a typical hero falling sometimes in love with the heroine who happens to be from the North, but the reverse hardly happens. I was very happy to see a recent Tamil movie- Abhiyum Naanum (Akasamantha-Telugu) where Trisha the heroine falls in love with a sardar (Ganesh Venkatraman), at least someone is trying to change things being depicted on screen.
4.Regionalism taking precedence over authenticity- In a recent Tamil movie- Arasangam, the protagonist, Vijaykanth speaks in Tamil to all & sundry in places like Assam & even Canada. Since when did everyone start speaking Tamil all over? Or take a recent Telugu movie- Shouryam- a major part of the movie is shot in Kolkata but no body is seen speaking in Bengali or even Hindi for that matter. It looks like everybody speaks in Telugu in Kolkata. Now can’t this be avoided?
5.Shooting abroad- is it necessary every time for every movie? What started off as an attempt to offer something new to the Indian audiences by shooting mainly songs abroad in exotic locations, later gave way to even the whole movie being shot abroad. But now I think the phenomenon has become a joke & in a lot of cases you actually wonder as to why was the movie shot abroad. Some recent examples of the same include- Yuvvraj and Tasveer 8*10.Did the story in these movies actually have anything compelling for the makers to shoot it overseas instead of basing it in India & shooting it here?

The above given stereotypes are just some of the more commonly seen ones. But the list is definitely not exhaustive. I feel that the issue of stereotyping is avoided as far as possible by people who believe in detailing to the best extent possible. Here I’m referring to people like a Manirathnam,Vishal Bharadwaj,Cheran,Anurag Kashyap etc.These are the people who can by way of getting into detailing take care and avoid stereotypes to the best extent possible.On a parting note let me remind you all about one of one of my favorite scenes from Indian cinema which shows how detailing can really heighten a scene and virtually avoid any type of stereotyping.

The scene is from Roja (Tamil) after Arvind Swamy has been captured by the militants and he finds himself face to face with their leader, Pankaj Kapur. When Pankaj Kapur questions Arvind in Tamil, he is very much intrigued and wants to know how Pankaj knows Tamil. To this Pankaj Kapur calmly replies that he studied (B.SC) Agriculture from Tamilnadu Agricultural University,Coimbatore and learnt Tamil during those days in college. A great scene conceived and developed by a master story teller/director.
So when do we get to see more and more of the stereotypes being given a farewell in Indian cinema?

Note- My attempt here has been to generally look at stereotyping in Indian films & comment on why we cannot bid goodbye to them. It’s not an attempt to talk about any particular movie or personality over here. Feel free to write on some of the other stereotypes that you feel exist in Indian cinema, after all the list is rather long.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/stereotyping-in-indian-films-how-long-will-it-continue/

Producers/Distributors Vs Multiplexes Standoff- the 3rd Dimension

2009-05-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

I was planning to write the 3rd part of my traditional single screen theatre experience series ( check out the 2nd part- http://passionforcinema.com/the-traditional-single-screen-experience-series-%e2%80%93-apsara-theatrecoimbatore/)this morning when something took me by surprise. I was reading the Deccan Chronicle (Hyderabad edition) and saw that the major part of Page 2 was devoted to articles on cinema. This definitely looked unnatural to me & so I spent some time reading the articles. While the major space was devoted to how the bigger stars in A.P are of late doing fewer projects and so the effect of this on business in the industry, I was more intrigued by another article. This article was all about how single screen theatres mainly screening Bollywood movies in a lot of cities in A.P are now struggling for survival due to lack of content and playing old Hindi & English movies to keep the theatres occupied.

The article goes on to describe the plight of these theatres and said that if lack of content continues, then some of these theatres are likely to close down for survival. This article made me immediately think about the on going strike in Bollywood from a totally different angle. By now its common knowledge that there is an ongoing strike in Bollywood called by the Producers/Distributors combine against the Multiplexes in order to ensure 50: 50 ratio of revenue sharing (read this -http://passionforcinema.com/next-month-at-the-movies-money-saved-joy-lost/). What was initially expected to last for a month has now entered into its 2nd month and there still doesn’t seem to be any improvement in the anvil apart from a meeting held between the 2 sides earlier this week & another such meeting planned for the next week.
In fact more or less all the Bollywood releases that were scheduled for May have already been pushed to June or later. As of now the only movies likely to release in May are – Shivajee Chandrabhushan’s Frozen,99and Vashu Bhagnani’s Kal Kissne Dekha. All of us including myself have been wondering as to how the strike will benefit either side. We feel this very strongly as we know that the strike doesn’t help the producers/distributors since prolonged delay of projects can lead to a lot of problems like interest rates of money borrowed going up , promotion not possible, confusion regarding release dates etc. Also for the multiplexes lack of content is a sure thing to happen and so this has a direct impact on footfalls and hence the collection.

In the midst of all this is a totally different phenomenon that is being witnessed in a lot of places across the country – the traditional single screen theatres and cineplexes are now struggling for survival. It’s amazing that all the industry leaders or opinion makers have completely ignored this entity altogether in situation. How many of us have heard of anybody standing up for these temples of cinema which are already dying slowly? While I know the strike would make an impact on the 2 warring sections of Bollywood, I think we should be more concerned for the single screens and the cineplexes who have been caught in the middle of the strike for no fault of theirs.

Most of the multiplexes are chains and run in various locations across the country/in one or more states. And these chain multiplexes are usually run by fairly significant corporate houses for whom though there is a loss of revenue right now, they can make it up in due course of time because they have bigger pockets and in a lot of cases they enjoy tax benefit etc. This phenomenon does not hold true in case of the single screen theatres and multiplexes except in exceptional cases. What I mean is that except some theatres run by individuals/business houses for whom this is just another business venture, most of the other theatres are run by people who have been associated with the business for a long time and who have a deep dependence on it for revenue and other reasons.

It is these people who are getting affected and hit hard the most. Already across the country more and more of these traditional theatres are closing down for various reasons. And such a situation where lack of content to play in the theatres makes it even more difficult for them to survive. If there are quite a few Hindi release theatres in A.P & Karnataka which are affected by the strike, then the situation is even more serious when you look at theatres outside South India where the dependence on Hindi cinema is much much more. For those who would want to say why cannot these theatres look towards regional cinema in the interim period- I have a few things to say.

I am sure all of us would agree that in the typical Hindi belt it would be difficult to think of regional cinema of any kind substituting Hindi cinema. Also there have not been too many typical big Hollywood movies releasing recently to make up for some of the gap. Marathi cinema has a blockbuster now (Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy)which would help the theatres screening it, but do we have more such movies in the pipeline? It would be great if the answer is a resounding yes. Going down south the situation is not too impressive either except for Kerala. Kerala is yet to embrace the multiplex culture and this summer it has 2 movies which are doing well- To Harihar Nagar and Bhagyadevatha. Ayan is the only Tamil movie which has been doing well of late and lack of competition has ensured that the Telugu version of Billa do a reasonable business.

So again there are a lot of theatres screening regional movies but not all of them are doing too well. So it’s not just that the Bollywood strike which is impacting the survival of these traditional single screens but it’s a coincidence that while the strike is meant to be a face off between two warring sections of the sector, silently a 3rd section is getting affected. So for the survival of these temples of cinema I sincerely hope the strike is called off soon and we see the flow of releases happening shortly.

Note- In no way am I talking about the quality of movies here. I am trying to cover the vital issue of survival and viability of the traditional single screen theatres/cineplexes over here.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here-http://passionforcinema.com/producersdistributors-vs-multiplexes-standoff-the-3rd-dimension/

How risky is film making in India today?

2009-04-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

At the very outset I would like to make a couple of things very clear – this is not a critique on any particular kind of movie or personality and I’m not a film maker, at least not yet. So what exactly is on my mind & what am I trying to say? Well for starters what I need to impress upon is that cinema at the end of day in spite of being an art form, still has a business consideration to look into and that is a fact that cannot be denied by anybody. Just for the sake of discussion let us forget about movies being good or bad and just look at movies on the whole. So be it a commercial movie, small middle of the road movie, a completely “offbeat” movie – let us for sometime put them all in the same bandwidth & needless to say this is irrespective of the language & the genres.
The only exception to what I’ll be writing here would be the rare movies made by people who absolutely do not care for how the audience would react to the movie. In fact they are not bothered about the audience at all since they are after all making the movie only for themselves. So if you consider Bollywood movies released in 2009 so far the success rate has been below 10 % - in the 1st Qr alone there were 3 successful movies out of a total 31 (read it here- http://passionforcinema.com/kudos-to-raaz-2-slumdog-crorepati-dev-d/) and in April the releases so far have all been complete failures.
The situation is not too different when it comes to regional cinema. Whether its Tamil,Telugu,Malayalam or Kannada the number of successful movies in the year so far would be extremely low. And believe it or not if the success ratio currently is so poor, one needs to understand that this is only considering the movies that at least managed a release. So how would the situation be if one considers the movies lying in the cans for ages?Obviously its not going to look better. It’s another story that the ongoing strike in Bollywood has seen the release of some long pending movies like Pal Pal Dil Ke Ssaath and Ek Se Bure Do (no I’m not mentioning anything about these movies here ).
What I’m trying to put across to everyone is that in today’s recession period, film making can be one of the most risky business initiatives. To understand this a little better let us first look at the different schools of thought about how to make a successful movie-
1.Have big stars; you have a winner on your hands- While I will definitely agree that stars bring a lot of early attention to the project and help in a lot of ways, then again I don’t think stars alone can pull of a movie just like that. The most recent example of this can probably be 8* 10 Tasveer and CC2C.2.The story and the story alone is important- Yeah sure the story and the screenplay is important. But then can somebody tell me why a Barah Anna, Luck By Chance or a Gulaal haven’t really succeeded the way they should have ?3.A top notch director/production banner will do the trick- Sure its nice to have a big production house backing your movie and a well known director helming your movie- but does it spell sure shot success? I don’t think so. What would you then say to Dhoondte Reh Jaoge (UTV), Ek- The Power of One ( Sangeeth Sivan- K Sera Sera ) or a Delhi-6 ( Raykesh Omprakash Mehra- UTV) ?
So what now comes across clearly is that there is no specific formula to ensure the success of a movie. Considering all this have the number of movies being released or going on the floors reduced? Have the number of people moving to Mumbai, Chennai,Hyderabad –( the 3 main locations of film making in India ) wanting to act, direct ,write or do anything else connected with movies reduced? Have the number of people wanting to shift from some other industry to the film industry reduced? The answer is a big no to all these questions. But then one needs to understand that in the current recession period what is becoming difficult are the following-
1.Get a production house to back your movie if you are still to make your mark2.Getting corporate tie-ups/ in film advertisement to help in giving some monetary support.3.Getting the right break in the industry if you are a new comerand the list goes on
All this said & done am I trying to say that film making is to be avoided? That one should not make movies till the recession period is over? Certainly not, but what I’m only saying that one needs to exercise a lot more caution when it comes to making a movie now. Be it in all respects-choice of cast & crew, choice of subject, deciding the budget etc all become quite important. There can be nothing more passionate than making movies and also writing about it like I’m doing here. Hence it’s all the more imperative that we realize the risks associated with film making and try to overcome them rather than ignore them.
On a parting note I wish to point out that I’m looking forward to the release of Frozen, a movie made with a lot of passion and with a lot of risk by everyone associated with it. After around 2 years of struggle, the movie is finally all set to release on May 8th 2009 (confirmed by Shivajee Chandrabhushan- the director & producer) and I just wish that movies like these definitely attain success and ensure that the passion and the risk behind such a venture pays off.
Note- I have only written this to point out the current situation as far as Indian cinema is concerned from my standpoint. I would definitely appreciate a wholehearted constructive discussion on the same and look forward to those in the industry sharing their thoughts on the same over here.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/how-risky-is-film-making-in-india-today/

Priyadarshan- The Run Machine of Indian Cinema

2009-04-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

So far this year we have seen the frenzy generated by SDM and the success of movies like Dev D and Raaz- the Mystery Continues. And of late we have been hearing a lot about the ongoing strike in Bollywood. But there has been a landmark that was also noticed in the 1st Qr of 2009, something which did not really get so much of attention. This landmark was achieved on 13th February ’09 when Billu got released. No this write-up is not something about either Billu or SRK. For those who are not aware I wish to inform that Billu is the 75th movie directed by Priyadarshan in his career spanning around 25 years in Indian Cinema. This is indeed a commendable achievement because there aren’t too many directors with such a big tally of completed projects and more so when it’s from someone like him who has successfully made a transition from South Indian cinema to Bollywood.

Oh! Yes we all know that a lot of his recent movies have started getting repetitive. There are valid complaints like he’s been using the same locations time & again, he’s been working with a stock set of actors, he continues to remake his own movies or those directed by others (mainly Malayalam) etc. But all said and done we just cannot ignore the fact Priyan has given us countless memorable movies in Malayalam like Chithram, Thalavattom, Kalapani etc and even some of his early Hindi movies have been quite refreshing like Gardish & Virasat. This year also has finally seen the release of his critically acclaimed Tamil movie- Kanchivaram. This year also is seeing him work on serious movies like Bum Bum Bole (with Darsheel Safary and supposedly inspired from Children of Heaven) and an untitled movie on AIDS awareness with Akshay Kumar and Mohanlal.

Hence considering all this I think this is the right time to look back in time and re-visit some of the best works of Priyan. Given below are 5 films that I feel would be top on my list and they are described below in chronological order. Considering his repertoire it has not been easy for me to choose the movies. But nevertheless here I go-

Poochakke Oru Mookuthi- This Malayalam movie released in 1984 was Priyan’s debut movie which he went on to remake later in Hindi as Hungama. The movie was a brilliant comedy of errors and had superlative performances not just from the lead cast of Shankar,Menaka and Mohanlal but also from the supporting cast like Nedumudi Venu,Sukumari, Shankaradi, Jagathy Sreekumar etc. The ‘chaotic’ style of climax which is a Priyan trademark actually originated from this movie. One of the best scenes from this movie is when Shankar an aspiring singer comes to teach music to Sukumari and Nedumudi Venu interferes. The scene does not feature in Hungama. Given below is the video link- have a look & enjoy J

Thalavattom- Released in 1986, this Malayalam movie was unsuccessfully remade by Priyan later in Hindi as Kyunki. With more than subtle shades of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, what made the movie special was Mohanal playing the character of Vinod who is mentally ill. Mohanalal’s portrayal was extremely convincing and was ably supported by others like Karthika, Nedumudi Venu, Soman,Jagathy Sreekumar etc. Inspite of the slightly serious subject Priyan retained his comic touch in the movie with some memorable comedy scenes like the one in the link below-

Music by Reghu Kumar also deserves a special mention here.

Chithram- Released in 1988, this Malayalam movie is one of the biggest hits in the history of Malayalam cinema. The movie was so successful that it went on to be remade in a lot of other languages including Tamil and Hindi but none of them were directed by Priyan, The movie was written by the prolific actor-writer Sreenivasan and once again had Mohanlal in the lead. Chithram is the story of Vishnu ( Mohanlal ) a photographer who goes to jail for accidentally killing his wife and then escapes from jail to make money for his child’s surgery. That’s when he comes in contact with Kalyani ( Renjini ) and her uncle ( Nedumudi Venu) who want him to act as Kalyani’s husband to make her father ( Poornam Vishwanathan ) happy as he is ill & on vacation. What ensues is a comic series of adventures with an extremely emotional climax. Music by Kannur Rajn was also one of the main reasons for the movie’s success. Given below is the link to the video of my favorite song from the movie – Doore kizhakkudikkum sung by M.G.Sreekumar and Sujatha.

Kilukkam- This Malayalam movie released in 1991 was also remade by him in Hindi as Muskurahat. It is certainly one of the best comedy films in Malayalam cinema – but definitely not just a routine comedy. While Mohanal as Joji the tourist guide in Ooty and Revathy as the orphan in search of her father were certainly commendable, IMO the actual star of the movie is Jagathy Sreekumar who plays the role of Mohanalal’s friend Nishchal.This movie is one of the best examples to showcase the powerhouse of talent that Jagathy Sreekumar is. Watch the scene in the video below – one of my favorites from the movie. This was one of the earlier works of Sharat Saxena in South Indian cinema.Music by S.P.Venkatesh was also in line with the mood of the film.

Kalapani- Not all movies directed by Priyan were comedies and Kalapani ( Siraichalai-Tamil, Saza-E-Kalapani-Hindi) is a fitting example to underline the statement. The movie told the poignant story of a doctor (Mohanlal) who is wrongly accused of being a naxalite and sent to the Cellular Jail in Port Blair (Andaman & Nicobar Islands). The movie brilliantly described the cruelty that the Indian freedom fighters suffered in the Cellular Jail during the British regime. Performances by the supporting cast of Amrish Puri,Prabhu,Tabu,Annu Kapoor etc were all praiseworthy. Music by Ilayaraja and cinematography by Santosh Sivan further enhanced the appeal of the story.Earlier this year when I finally got to visit the Cellular Jail, I couldn’t but help recollecting a lot of scenes from the movie.

Apart from these 5 movies certain other movies also deserve a special mention like Thenmavin Kombathu (Saat Rang Ke Sapne by Priyan inHindi), Akkare Akkare Akkare
the 3rd part in the classic Dasan-Vijayan police series , Vandanam, Mukundetta Sumithra Vilikunnu. Do let me know what you all feel about these movies and about the other movies made by Priyan. Here’s hoping that Priyan – the run machine of Indian cinema continues to entertain us with his movies and makes even better movies hereafter.

Note- I have not mentioned any Tamil or Hindi movie in my list because all his movies in Hindi and Tamil have been direct remakes of other South Indian movies (mainly Malayalam) directed by Priyan himself or others.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/priyadarshan-the-run-machine-of-indian-cinema/

Revisiting Dasavatharam

2009-04-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

At the outset let me make it clear that this write-up is not an attempt to review Kamal Haasan’s Dasavatharam.A lot of discussion has happened about the merits and the demerits of the movie on PFC as well as other forums so I’m not going to make another attempt for the same. Then why am I writing this post on the movie? Well because tomorrow- 17th April marks the release date of the Hindi version of the movie (Dashavatar) and so I thought of revisiting the movie and sharing some thoughts on the same.
The release of the movie couldn’t have been timed better. Due to the strike in Bollywood, there is a clear lack of content to feed the theatres and multiplexes and thus a release like this is welcome. So all those who have heard of the movie but couldn’t watch it in its Tamil or Telugu version can now watch it in Hindi. While I do not expect the Hindi version to be a blockbuster, I’m sure that it will definitely get noticed.
Around 10 months after its successful release in Tamil & Telugu, the Hindi version is finally releasing. While there will always be a debate on whether the butterfly effect/chaos theory angle was actually utilized well, whether the SFX work could have been better, whether some of the characters portrayed by Kamal Haasan were necessary or not, one thing that should be accepted is that the movie falls in the category of – love it or hate it but you can’t ignore it. For ages Rajnkikanth and Kamal Haasan have been the pillars of the Tamil Film Industry and both have charted their own paths to glory.
While Rajnkikanth played to the gallery and delighted the audience, Kamal Haasan went in for artistic satisfaction and in the bargain also developed his own niche audience. After Sivaji-The Boss redefined the outlook of Tamil movies in the eyes of the rest of the country, Dasavatharam only helped in re-enforcing that outlook even better. In spite of the movie being as commercial as it could be Kamal Haasan still pushed himself hard physically and mentally to portray the 10 different characters. Yes while it is easy to criticize the make-up let us realize that wearing such make-up and shooting for months together is not an easy task. Of course due credit needs to be given to the producer Aascar Ravichandran whose astute marketing brain played no less a role in ensuring the movie’s success.
Apart from Kamal Haasan and Aascar Ravichandran, a special mention must be made of K.S.Ravikumar, the director. Now all said & done – K.S.Ravikumar may probably never end up winning any National Award ( forget the Oscars ) but one needs to accept that when it comes to hard core commercial Tamil films, he’s probably among the best in the industry today. He’s made movies with nearly every big star and knows the pulse of the star and the audience quite well. Another person whose work needs a mention here is Himesh Reshamiyya who has composed the songs for the movie. I am highlighting him here for two reasons- not only did he compose songs keeping the true requirement of the movie (no trademark Himesh songs ), this may probably be the last time( atleast for now) one gets to actually hear Himesh composing for any other hero’s movie as Himesh is now only composing movies in which he acts.
Giving you below links to two of my favorite songs in the movie-

The first one is Kallai Mattum Kandal sung by Hariharan and chorus

The second one is Mukunda Mukunda sung by Sadhna Sargam and Kamal Haasan
Both the songs are quite different in approach and concept.

The Hindi release of the movie is also important for its heroine- Asin who is currently very much in the limelight after Ghajini & is being seen all over due to the Mirinda ads. Till her next release London Dreams comes along, Dashavatar is there to keep the audience reminded about her. And finally I would like to conclude by paying my homage to 2 eminent film personalities associated with the movie & who are now no more amidst us- H.Sridhar the brilliant Sound Designer and Sujatha the writer (who along with Crazy Mohan and K.S.Ravikumar had helped Kamal Haasan with the story creation).So for all those who have seen the movie and also for those who will see it now – this was a revisit to the movie from my side.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/revisiting-dasavatharam/

Ananda Thandavam- A one sided love story not well adapted

2009-04-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer- Spoiler Alert
Though Indians migrating to the U.S temporarily for education or work and then staying on permanently has been happening for ages, in the last two decades the phenomenon has been on the increase. In places like TN & AP especially the exodus has been all the more severe due to the number of engineers working especially in the software sector. And of course in the matrimonial market the U.S employed men always found a good demand back home in India. So why am I writing about all this here? Well one of the more anticipated Tamil films in recent times is Ananda Thandavam. And why wouldn’t it be anticipated- after all its based on late writer Sujatha’s well known novel- Pirivom Sandipom,produced by Aascar Ravichandran ( the producer with the Midas Touch), directed by A.R.Gandhi Krishna whose previous venture –Chellame was a reasonably good movie and stars the hot & happening Tammanah ( after Padikathavan & Ayan ).
At the very outset let me inform that I’m guilty of not having read the novel, but I know the synopsis of the same as it was very popular having been serialized in the well known Tamil magazine- Ananda Vikatan. So while the novel very well made sense at the time it was written as it gave an insight into the typical syndrome of a prospective bride’s family wanting an U.S based groom, the travails of a an Indian student in the U.S etc, the very relevance seems slightly watered down today. Going on to the movie, Ananda Thandavam begins reasonably well enough. One sees the hero ( newcomer Siddharth ) trying to commit suicide by jumping down from a waterfall somewhere close to Ambasamudram in Tenkasi and we know that it’s a case of love failure as evident from what is seen.
From then on the movie goes back into the flash back mode and you see Raghupathy an engineering graduate trying his luck at getting a job, returning to his father’s (Kitty is back after a long hiatus) place. His father is an Asst.Engineer in a beautiful reservoir and the new Chief Engineer has just moved in with his family which includes his mischievous daughter Madhumita (Tamannah). Now within no time you see Raghu falling in love with Madhu & surprisingly her family is only too glad to accept Raghu as Madhu’s groom & even get them engaged. All the while Raghu’s dad is suspicious of the whole thing, but Raghu is too much in love to bother. Trouble comes in the form of Radhakrishna ( Rishi ) a rich man from the U.S & now Madhu’s family breaks off the engagement with Raghu & instead fix her wedding with Radha.
So Raghu makes a suicide attempt but is saved instead. Now his father advices him to fight back in life & advices him to go the U.S & study further . So Raghu goes to the U.S & enrolls in NYU. One day he bumps into Madhu once again & he is now confused as to how to take things forward. There’s also Ratna (Rukmini who was appreciated in Bommalattam) who is interested in Raghu. So what happens to the 3 of them? Does Raghu’s love succeed? Or is Ratna the one to fall lucky? All this is what the rest of the film tries to tell us.
While the camera work by Jeeva Sankar is truly amazing with some brilliant visuals captured especially in the 1st half and the music by G.V.Prakash is also more than decent, the same cannot be said about the screenplay and the performances. The director seems to have made an attempt to stick as close to the novel and hence in the process slipped considerably in maintaining a tight control over the screenplay. The resultant story hardly looks contemporary and the characters especially Madhumita’s character comes across as someone very irritating- at times naïve and at times cunning. But still Tamnnah has done a decent job as Madhumita, Rukmini as Ratna is good in a brief role while Siddharth is strictly ok. Kitty is the best of the whole lot.
For any love story to succeed, one needs to connect to the on screen romance. Here in the first place –there’s actually no romance. It’s a one sided love that Raghu has for Madhumita (she never actually loves him) and similarly Ratna also feels the same for Raghu. So with no real romance that you connect to on screen, it’s really tough to appreciate the end product all the more.
While the movie had raised a lot of expectations, at the end it comes out as a half baked attempt. Probably not all literary works can make great films and this is certainly a good example for the same. In a recent interview director Gandhi Krishna had talked about how he did Chellame only to be noticed in the industry and that he wants to make realistic movies like Ananda Thandavam. My only answer to that is that it’s probably better to make a commercial movie like Chellame rather than an artistic ‘misadventure’ like Ananda Thandavam. Looks like Aascar Ravichandran has missed the bus this time.
Note- The movie has also been dubbed & released in Telugu by the same name.

Originally published in PFC-check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/ananda-thandavam-a-one-sided-love-story-not-well-adapted/

The Traditional Single Screen Experience Series- Apsara Theatre,Coimbatore

2009-04-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

The current strike being called by the Bollywood Producers and Distributors combine against the multiplexes in to ensure 50: 50 sharing of revenue has made a lot of people like me to look back at pride at the glorious days of the traditional single screen theatres and cineplexes. In the first part of the series, I had written about Priya Cinema, Kolkata(read it here- http://passionforcinema.com/the-traditional-single-screen-experience-series-%e2%80%93-priya-cinemakolkata/) and now this time I head south, all the way to Coimbatore. Well for the sake of those who aren’t familiar with Coimbatore, let me tell you that it’s one of the upcoming cities in South India and of course a fairly cosmopolitan city with a good mix of educational institutions and industries.
Well of course I’m here to talk about cinema and theatres, so let me start off by telling you all that Coimbatore generally has a tradition of good theatres and cineplexes which play the regular Tamil,English,Hindi & Malayalam movies. Apsara Theatre has been one such single screen theatre which has been popular over the years and has been a favorite haunt of mine at various periods. The theatre located at Dr.Nanjappa Road, Gandhipuram has an interesting history in terms of the movies played over there.
Operational since the late 1970’s the theatre started off primarily screening Hindi andEnglish Movies with the odd Tamil movies also getting released in between. This trend continued till the mid 80’s. Suddenly the flow of Hindi movie releases stopped and then the theatre started playing soft porn movies and the only exceptions in this period were the Jackie Chan & Jet Li movies as the theatre had started building up a good fan base for these movies. The only other theatre in town competing for the martial arts movies was Maruti in R.S.Puram. So due to the advent of soft porn and action movies the family crowds started staying away from the theatre. Many a times over the years the management tried to unsuccessfully restore the pride of the old days and the two main attempts made were in the early 90’s when you had a spate of Hindi releases like Dil,Hum,Saajan etc followed by the mid 90’s with Jeet,Yaarana etc.
But what the management lacked was patience. Since they had lost considerable family audiences, to bring them back in hordes required consistency in screening the right kind of movies (Hindi). But what happened was that usually seeing the crowd not really matching up to their expectation they would revert back to playing soft porn movies in between to make up some collection and so they could never really bring back the family crowd in its entirety. But every cloud has a silver lining and Apsara Theatre too received a shot in the arm during Diwali in 1997. Surprisingly they managed to screen Dil To Pagal Hai. With DTPH they managed to bring in initially the college crowd and eventually the family crowd. This time they realized that they needed to be patient and consistent and thus brought out a steady stream of Hindi releases. So a year down the line for Diwali in 1998, as they screened Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, they had firmly established their status as a premium Hindi movie releasing theatre. From then on they never had to look back in terms of changing the kind of movies to be released.
So why am I writing specifically about Apsara and not about any other theatre in Coimbatore? Well not only is the history mentioned earlier so interesting, I have also had a lot of interesting experiences over there over the years. The theatre in itself is an awesome structure and has one of the largest parking spaces that I have seen across theatres in India. But on the day KKHH released in 1998 there was a near stampede at night as people rushed to get in after a long wait outside the gates. On that day even the large parking space seemed to look insufficient . The theatre also boasts of one of the largest balcony areas among theatres in India both in terms of space as well as the number of seats ( 500 +) . In fact the theatre has an odd incline in such a way that if you are sitting in one of the top rows of the balcony, you actually are looking down at the screen (the screen would be below eye level).
Another odd factor about the theatre has been its pricing. On various occasions the theatre was found to be the highest priced theatre in town. In the mid 1990’s when soft porn movies were still being played there, an Indo U.S co-production called Divine Lovers released there. Now for those unaware, Divine Lovers was an English movie set in India ( directed by B.Subash of Disco Dancer fame )with reincarnation theme and did very well in India especially in the South. At that time while tickets in all the other good theatres in the city were priced at around Rs.25, in case of Apsara it was at Rs.35. One particular Friday I was shocked to see an ad in the newspaper, the ad was of Apsara theatre and it boldly said ‘on the occasion of the successful completion of 75 days of Divine Lovers, we are pleased to inform our patrons that we have now reduced our ticket prices, so now come and enjoy the movie once again.’ The ticket prices were reduced from 35 to 25
Again when the AIADMK Government in T.N in the early 2000’s introduced flexi pricing of tickets ( in the first 2 weeks of release the theatres could charge a premium for the tickets and then revert back to original rates from the 3rd week onwards), Apsara was quick to take advantage of the situation. The theatre management felt that they had a loyal audience for the movies who wouldn’t mind paying a premium and so while the rest of the theatres charged around 40-50 for a balcony, the ticket rates in Apsara were at Rs.70 in the first 2 weeks of a movie’s release. This trend continued for quite some time till the DMK came to power in 2006 & decided to remove the flexi pricing system. I remember watching a lot of Hindi movies while in school like Hum,Ghayal,Dil etc over here. While in college a lot of ‘engrossing’ movies were also seen over here. Again with Hindi movies coming back in circulation there with DTPH, it became a popular place to go on dates. On many an occasion during the night show one would normally find most of my college friends over here (most of them drunk of course ) and since my folks were elsewhere I would also be there almost every week. So be it a Kareeb, Major Saab, Gharwali Baharwali etc I would be there for almost all movies.
I then moved out of Coimbatore after college and after a long time happened to get posted there on work in 2004-05 and again relived a lot of old memories. This time around I hardly had company as most of my old friends were no more in town and I was staying alone. So visiting Apsara Theatre became a regular weekend routine. Be it a Bunty aur Babli, No Entry, Page 3, Dus etc, I would be there as a regular bhakt visiting his favourite temple. It so happened that when Iqbal released to rave reviews I happened to be in Hyderabad for the weekend and somehow could not watch the movie there. I did not worry because I expected the movie to be playing in Apsara and so when I was back in town on Monday morning I was happy to know that I was right. On the way from the airport to my residence I was then dismayed to know that the movie was running only in the noon show and the afternoon show slots.
Now with the weekend already over I was feeling bad as I wondered what to do. That’s when the passion for cinema gained control over me. I actually ended up going straight from home to Apsara and watching Iqbal in the noon show and then going to work after lunch. Such was the attraction that the theatre had for me. Well in the journey of life, I relocated again but still tried to follow up and know what’s playing there once in a while. Some time later to my shock I got to know that like a lot of other single screen theatres across the country, Apsara too closed down in 2006/07. While some people say they would be opening soon as a renovated single screen/multiplex others say that there is a family dispute still going on. Till date the theatre is closed and for the sake of old memories and for the movie lovers in Coimbatore, I hope the management decides to re-open the theatre sometime soon.
Note- Whatever I’ve written is based upon my own experiences and this is not meant to promote Apsara Theatre in any way.In the next part of the series I would be heading to Bangalore & covering some of my favourite theatres there.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/the-traditional-single-screen-experience-series-%e2%80%93-apsara-theatrecoimbatore/

The Traditional Single Screen Experience Series- Priya Cinema, Kolkata

2009-04-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

In this age of multiplexes and with everybody reminiscing about their favorite movies and music it’s very imperative for a filmy like me to think of the memorable moments I’ve spent across countless single screen theatres and cineplexes over the years across the country. In fact I would go to the extent of saying that these “temples of cinema” have played a large role in building up my passion for cinema. Hence I would like to dedicate this series to all the single screen theatres and cineplexes across India. So here I go with the first article of the series and I begin my journey with Kolkata’s Priya Cinema.
Traditionally movie watching in Kolkata has always been a special experience. Be it Menoka,Priya,Basushree or any other hall in South Kolkata to Nandan ( one of the highlights of Kolkata) or theatres in central Kolkata like Metro,Roxy,Lighthouse,Hind,Paradise etc they all stand apart for the uniqueness that they hit you with. For example where else in India do you see most of the theatres without a parking lot (parking is on the pavement outside the theatre) and this includes good theatres like Menoka,Priya,Basushree etc. Where else in India can you find theatres with a bar attached – don’t believe me? Well then go check out Roxy or New Empire and you would have to agree with what I say.
This brings me to Priya Cinema, my 2nd home in Kolkata. I had found Priya to be a very well maintained theatre with its unique blend of old world charm & modern technology. While waiting to book your tickets or before your show begins, the lobby is an interesting place to while away your time. Apart from the stills of movies currently running and the forthcoming attractions, you also get to see the display of photographs of celebrities who’ve visited the theatre and mind you, the list is endless- it’s a virtual who’s who of Bollywood and the Bengali film industry. There is also a vintage car kept in the display(forgot the make of the car but I hope it’s still there) . One of the good things about the theatre is its location. Situated right next to the well known Deshapriya Park on Rash Behari Avenue, it’s easily accessible to everyone especially in South Kolkata.
I considered myself to be extremely lucky because both my home (near Triangular Park) and my office (on Panditia Road) were less than a 5 minute drive from the theatre. Along with Menoka, Priya was the other first choice for cinegoers in South Kolkata. But what differentiated Priya from Menoka and the other theatres in that area or rather even Kolkata was that the management of Priya had a vision of making the theatre as a family destination which would rival even the multiplexes and hold its own in spite of the mall/multiplex wave. So they were quick to embrace technology- be it in the form of computerized reservation at the ticket counter or online booking. Also most important fact to be noted was that while Menoka and the other better theatres were mainly screening Bollywood movies alone, Priya tried to provide variety by screening not only Hindi but also English and the artistic Bengali movies.
So much so that it’s a remarkable for a single screen theatre, they managed to be showing 3-4 movies in different languages at the same time. The seating was also quite unique- while the rear stall (or first class as people elsewhere might understand) had the plastic “Bucket” seats with cushions on it, the balcony had really plush push back seats which were as good or better than the seats in the multiplexes.
In fact because the quality of viewing was good at Priya,in terms of pricing of tickets, it used to be at a premium over the other single screens. To give you an indicator let me tell you that while a few years back balcony seats in single screens in Kolkata used to be @ Rs.35 for a Hindi movie & Rs.25 for a Bengali movie, in case of Priya, the balcony was @ Rs.80 and the rear stall was @ Rs.40. But nobody really objected because they knew that Priya was competing with the multiplexes and also provided variety . That Priya had state of the art sound system and effective air conditioning is of course something that one would have understood by now (for those who are interested -Priya has Dolby Digital and DTS sound systems and has both Xenon projector and Qube digital projection systems). I believe that the current ticket prices have shot up to 140, 120 and 90 (classic, executive and rear class) but are still attractive when compared to the multiplexes in Kolkata.
With my home and office being so close by, naturally Priya became my 2nd home. So looking back I think I probably must have watched maybe a couple of movies every week over there. The movies were of all kinds be it Hollywood movies like The Passion of the Christ,Spiderman-2, Harry Potter etc or Bollywood movies like Masti, Yuva, Lakshya etc or even Bengali movies like Iti Srikanto, I would be there to build upon my passion for cinema. I remember having watched 3 Amitabh Bachchan’s movies in 3 successive weekends (Dev, Lakshya and Deewar) and also having watched a few Tamil movies in a Tamil film festival held over there. One of my funniest incidents in Kolkata which still makes me laugh when I think of it, happened in Priya Cinema.
It was a Sunday afternoon & I had just finished watching a noon show (do not remember the movie though) and while I was about to start my bike, the parking attendant (yeah the car’s and bikes are parked in the pavement next to the theatre but you still need to pay for parking ) came up to me and asked me for the parking charge. At that time it used to be Rs.5 for a bike. To my dismay I observed that I had only a 2 rupee coin and a 100 rupee note with me & so showed the same to the attendant. That was when he smiled at me & said- “are koi baat nahin sir, aap to regular ho yahan.agle hafte jab aayenge to 5 rupye de dena agar yaad rahega”. That’s when I realized how the theatre had gone on to become my 2nd home while I lived there.
The more I think I remember a lot of incidents- of many “interesting dates” ,of taking refuge from the rain, of watching even silly movies like Tarzan-The Wonder Car just because I had nothing better to do etc. The list is long and probably endless.I was in Kolkata recently for a day and was surprised to see that the number of multiplexes has increased and there is even an IMAX in Mani Square. I just hope that these multiplexes do not make the people forget the joy of watching movies in places like Nandan,Priya,Menoka etc where movie watching was more of a tradition and an enjoyable activity. These theatres represent not only the good old days of Kolkata but also symbolize the blend of the past with the present. I for one would surely revisit a Priya or a Nandan whenever I can.
Note- Whatever I’ve written is based upon my own experiences and this is not meant to promote Priya Cinema in any way.In the next part of the series I would be going down south – to Coimbatore & covering another of my favourite theatres.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/the-traditional-single-screen-experience-series-%e2%80%93-priya-cinemakolkata/

Kudos to Raaz-2, Slumdog Crorepati & Dev D

2009-04-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

The 1st Qr of 2009 is over and while the good news is that there was a lot of variety in the kind of Bollywood movies released, in terms of success there were only 3 movies which can be actually called successful in the true sense. The range of movies varied from mainstream biggies like CC2C, Jai Veeru, Aa dekhen Zara etc, small movies like Firaaq,Barah Aana,The Stoneman Murders etc and movies which fall in between the mainstream biggies and the small movies in terms of budget and the number of release centre’s like Dev D,Gulaal,Luck By Chance etc. In all there were some 30 odd regular releases in the quarter (taking only the straight listed films in consideration and avoiding the so called unlisted movies and the various soft porn and dubbed movies the actual count is 31) and the actual successful films are just 3-Raaz-The Mystery Continues ( Raaz-TMC hereon), Slumdog Crorepati(hereon referred to as SDC ) and Dev D.
No this post is not a review of any of these 3 movies. We have already discussed the merits and demerits of these 3 movies in length. But yes considering these movies represent the successful 10 % (of the entire lot that released in Q 1’09), we need to not only appreciate these movies for their success but also briefly look at how & why they have been successful. Lets first talk about Raaz-2. Well we all now the kind of films Vishesh Films has been making – typically small/medium budget kind of movies with good music. This movie again did not prove to be an exception in this respect. Director Mohit Suri had already shot into prominence with movies like Zeher, Kalyug, Woh Lamhe & Awarapan and the movie had the trusted Emran Hashmi along with Kangna Ranaut ( of course it also had Adhyayan Suman ). Right from the beginning the promos showed that the movie had great music ( Raju Singh,Gaurav Dasgupta, Toshi,Sharib Sabri) and the catchy title reminded people of the highly successful Raaz.
So the people went at large and had a good time watching Raaz-TMC. Of course not many people felt it was really scary and many even felt that the climax was tame. But all said and done the solid promotion worked and Vishesh Films had a hit in their hands. On the day that Raaz-TMC released, there was another movie that got released- SDC. The Hindi version of SDM which released alongside across the country did quite well initially as the movie already had got noticed due to its popularity abroad and the series of awards it had started to sweep everywhere. But the actual success of the movie got noticed only much later i.e. after SDM swept away the Oscar Awards. In fact not only did shows of the movie get increased in most centre’s, in a lot of places where the movie had completed its initial run it was re-released and made even more money.
And then we finally come to Dev D, a movie which had a lot of fan following among the youth but was not considered to be all that powerful to make a strong impact at the box office. But surprisingly the movie not only managed to attract the youth, but it also managed to gain in popularity as days passed on. The results are there to see. It’s become a multiplex hit and as I write this post, the movie has crossed 50 days and is still playing in select multiplexes across the country. Considering that these days most of the movies make the maximum money in the first week of its release and that its tough for even a mainstream blockbuster to survive more than a few weeks, the success of Dev D is all the more commendable.
So these 3 movies had their audience and were helped by the kind of promotion it had. Be it a catchy title and a hit song like ‘Mahi Mahi’ or the Oscar Awards or ‘Emotional Atyachar’, each of these movies had something in them which helped the target audience identify with the movie and enable the movie’s success at the box office. That brings to the question- were all the other 28 releases bad? Well certainly not, some of them were definitely good and even critically appreciated but where they failed was in connecting to the audience. All said and done a 10 % success ratio is very scary indeed for the industry. We must need more and more successes both in the form of big & small/medium movies. After all a big movie’s success enables the production banner to fund many more small/medium movies. With the producer’s vs multiplexes strike supposedly starting from April 4th, there aren’t too many releases scheduled in April. Let’s hope the forthcoming releases in May and June turn out to be good and most of them manage to connect to their target audience and become successful.
Note- I have considered SDC as a Hindi version of SDM & not a dubbed movie as otherwise the success % falls even below 10 %.Moreover this post is only about box office success and not about how good or bad a film is.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/kudos-to-raaz-2-slumdog-crorepati-dev-d/

Sontha Vooru- An honest tale, but not convincing enough

2009-04-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

Sometime in 2005/2006 when officially work on the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad on the outskirts of Hyderabad started, there was a sudden rise in real estate prices in that area. Not only was land being acquired by the Government for the sake of building the airport, also a lot of real estate developers came forward to buy land and develop properties. Among a lot of people who sold their lands there were quite a few from the Lambadi Tribes for whom such kind of money was unheard of till then. Initially they freaked out by buying expensive cars and other such things but soon they were struggling. The reason being they did not know how to manage such a lot of money & also now they did not possess the land that they had with them.

Ok now why am I talking about all this over here? Am I against economic development? No this is just a preamble to the review of a small but honest Telugu movie which released recently – ‘Sondha Vooru’ (Native Town/Place). Directed by Sunil Kumar Reddy based on his story and screenplay, the movie is set in a village not very far from the city (frequent glimpses of Hyderabad are shown in the movie). Rudraswamy (L.B.Sriram) is an undertaker and lives with his daughter and grandchildren. The good samaritan in the village is referred to as Devudu by everyone (Tanikella Bharani) and he is somebody everyone including Rudraswamy respects. The other main characters are Bujji (Raja) a young man with a limp and is head over heels in love with Malli (Tirtha) a prostitute.

The Government decides to set up an SEZ (Special Economic Zone) in the village and Devudu is asked to convince the villagers to sell the land for the sake of setting up the SEZ. In the process most of the villagers sell the land & migrate to the city. But Rudraswamy prefers to stay back in the village. In the meanwhile Bujji and Malli decide to get married. That is when Rudraswamy realizes that Devudu has erred in asking people to sell their land and there is a tragic twist in the tale. Though the story is honest, the way it has been handled could definitely have been better. It’s only fairly late into the movie that one actually gets to the crux of the issue- i.e about how the SEZ can actually uproot you from your own ‘vooru’ and how the villagers actually struggle as they do not know how to manage all the money they got for selling their land.

Also why on earth was the item number appearing out of nowhere in the 2nd half? The director Sunil Kumar Reddy at times comes across as quite confused as to whether to make a hard statement with the movie or to combine it with commercial elements. The real star of the movie is the dialogues (L.B.Sriram, Nagaraju Gandham & Sunil Kumar Reddy).In fact L.B.Sriram’s character walks away with some of the best dialogues and it’s a brilliant performance from the seasoned veteran. Tirtha also impresses in a difficult role to play. Raja is ok and the support cast like Tanikella Bharani,M.S.Narayana,Jayaprakash Reddy are all efficient. Music by Saketh Sriram is good and is mostly melodious. Overall the movie has a good message but is not very convincing enough.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here-http://passionforcinema.com/author/sethumadhavan/

Ek- The Power of One- Totally drives you powerless

2009-04-01T01:37:00.000-07:00

Looks like somebody has come forward to bail out K Sera Sera, the well known production company and thus one gets to suddenly see a flood of movies from their stable getting a release in the last 2 months which were otherwise lying in the cans. So after Chal Chala Chal & Kisse Pyar Karoon which released last month, this week saw the release of Ek- The Power of One. A straight remake of the Telugu blockbuster Athadu, it’s a typical masala movie, one which reminds you of the masala entertainers of the 70’s & the 80’s but then that’s also the problem with the movie. You just don’t feel connected to the movie at all.

The movie begins with Nandu (Bobby Deol) and Shekhar (Pradeep Kharab) who join Jackie Shroff’s gang at a very young age. During a particular assignment Jackie Shroff is captured by the police & so Nandu and Shekhar branch off on their own. Years later they’ve grown up to be sharp shooters. Anna Saheb Mhatre ( Sachin Khedekar) is the leader of opposition who wants to be the CM & so he hatches a plan to get himself shot at an election meeting to win public sympathy. Nandu is assigned the task. But before Nandu gets to shoot Anna, somebody else shoots & Anna dies. Now the police is behind him and thus Nandu is on the run.

On a train to Punjab, Nandu meets Pooran who is on his way home after 18 years. When the police who are following Nandu fire at him, Pooran gets killed instead accidentally. Thus Nandu ends up in a village in Hoshiarpur and takes refuge in Pooran’s large Punjabi family. Nandu is mistaken as Pooran by the family and is whole heartedly welcomed. The family consists of a grandfather (Kulbushan Kharbhanda), the eldest bua (Zarina Wahab), his childhood sweetheart (Shriya Saran) etc. The case of Anna Mhatre’s murder is entrusted to a CBI officer (Nana Patekar playing to the gallery) and he ends up landing at Hoshiarpur and meeting Nandu for the investigation.

So does Nandu manage to get away from trouble? Does the family get to know the truth? Who had shot Anna Mhatre? The rest of the film tries to answer all these questions. Athadu was a very slickly made desi version of The Assassins and was quite successful at the box office. In comparison though, Ek comes across as a very pale copy. While in Athadu Mahesh Babu as Nandu conveyed a lot through his eyes, Bobby Deol is wooden throughout. Nana Patekar in an attempt to bring in comic relief is quite irritating. The emotions hardly work and the romance is almost non existent. Shriya Saran does not get any scope. While in Athadu the climax was brilliantly shot (quite similar to The Assassins) here it is at best average. All said and done the movie is a yawn fest- watch it at your own risk.

Originally published in PFC- check it out here- http://passionforcinema.com/ek-the-power-of-one-totally-drives-you-powerless/