Kandahar Movie Review: A Wasted Opportunity

Warning- Spoiler Alert

Writer-Director Major Ravi shot into prominence with his very first feature filmKeertichakra which came out in 2006. With an Army background and having worked with people likePriyadarshan, Kamal Haasan, Rajkumar Santoshi and Maniratnam, Major Ravi made his intentions clear that he preferred to make films with an Army background, a milieu that he was very familiar with. Keertichakra was a bilingual (the Tamil version Aran was partly dubbed and partly re-shot) and the Malayalam version did fairly well and was noticed. Major Ravi then went on to make a docu-drama styled film- Mission 90 Days based on the Rajiv Gandhi murder investigation. After the setback of his 2nd film Major Ravi revived the character of Major Mahadevan (Mohanalal) from Keertichakra and made his 3rd film – Kurukshetra.

Ever since Kurukshetra came out Major Ravi has been in the news with various stories doing the rounds about his next film- Kandahar, based on the 1999 plane hijacking. Starting with talks of Major Ravi bringing out the magical jodi of Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal, something that Kamal Haasan then subsequently denied ( they eventually acted together in Unnaipol Oruvan ). Later on the film again came into the news when Amitabh Bachchan was mentioned as having signed the film, a fact which then got confirmed. After this there was a mention of Surya having also been brought on board but this then didn’t work out. Finally then the film took off with the major cast comprising of Mohanlal, Amitabh Bachchan and Ganesh Venkatraman.

Produced by Suresh C. Nair (under Zoe Estebe Moviez) and Mohanlal himself (under Pranavam Arts International), there seemed to be a deliberate attempt to showcase grandness about the film. With the trailer of the film getting unveiled, I started having an uneasy feeling about the film. The trailer even bought back the memories of RGV Ki Aag, a movie where AB Sr and Lal ettan had worked together previously, with a disastrous result of course. Nevertheless since I genuinely admire and respect both the actors I still decided to look up to the film. Thanks to the star cast (especially Amitabh Bachchan- Mohanlal combination) the film managed to get a wide distribution. With the release date (16th Dec, 2010) being timed ideally at the start of the Christmas holidays, the film managed an impressive release both inside Kerala and outside the state.

Ok I realize that I am yet to talk about the plot of the film and the reason is that there is hardly much to say in terms of the film’s plot. But still going ahead I’d say that Kandahar is all about Suryanath Sharma (Ganesh Venkatraman), a firebrand youth who lives in Ooty with his father, Lokanath Sharma ( Amitabh Bachchan ) a retired teacher. Surya’s mother (Sumalatha) is no more. Surya is a typical careless youngster and his father is worried about Surya’s future. Major Mahadevan ( Mohanlal )comes across Surya in an unlikely situation and decides to help him join the army. A parallel track shows a Muslim youth (a friend of Surya) who is misled and made to join a terrorist outfit in Afghanistan. Both the tracks converge when the terrorist outfit decides to hijack a plane from India and bring it to Kandahar to demand the release of their leader, who is in prison in India. No prizes for guessing that Major Mahadevan and his team including Surya decide to go on a rescue mission on board the flight.

If I were to analyze the film and look at what worked and what didn’t work then it becomes an extremely difficult task for me. For, I seriously don’t know what actually works in favor of the film. First of all I’d like to mention that Major Ravi has taken the audience (and probably some of the cast and crew also) for a long ride. For a film titled Kandahar and supposed to be based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814, you realize that its hardly the last 20 odd minutes or so of the film that is actually dealing with the actual hijacking. And even the way the rescue mission has been narrated will make you either cry with pain or laugh unnecessarily (depending on how you perceive it). The way Major Mahadevan & his team of NSG commandos easily enter the flight and tackle the situation has to be seen to be believed. It makes me wonder how Major Ravi, an army veteran can be so casual about the whole thing.

As for the writing, it’s clearly evident that there was no proper script written in the first place (making me wonder how Amitabh Bachchan and Mohanlal agreed to do this film). Situations take place with a lot of convenience, but nothing comes out of it. For example when you see the parallel tale of Surya going to the Army and his friend joining a terrorist outfit, you think of films like Anjathey by Mysskin where there is a lot of conflict between the friends when their paths cross each other. Here nothing like it happens. In fact Surya’s friend gets killed in an encounter with the NSG Commando’s and all that Surya tells Major Mahadevan is that “I know him, he was my friend”. Surya is shown to be a brash, careless youth and is made to join the Army. This reminds you of Lakshya, but then while the audience could connect to Hrithik Roshan’s character, Surya’s character portrayed by Ganesh Venkatraman comes across as dull and uninspiring.

A lot of characters are present in the film but you seriously wonder why some of them are in the film in the first place. The only character who really comes across as natural and effective is that of the Muslim youth’s widowed mother portrayed effectively by KPAC Lalitha. Regarding Amitabh Bachchan’s presence in the film and the hype about his Malayalam debut, well most of his dialogues are in Hindi and English. The length of his role wasn’t a problem for me since it was known that he has a cameo in the film. But his role is nothing special enough that calls for his requirement. Mohanlal also looks visibly uncomfortable in a lot of scenes and it’s a surprise considering he’s portraying the character of Major Mahadevan for the 3rd time. The much touted scenes between Mohanlal and Amitabh also lack the intensity that could have easily been there if there was an earnest attempt made, again a failure on part of Major Ravi.

Ganesh Venkatraman who actually is the so called hero of the film looks a complete misfit in the role. When his character is that of a cool youth who is supposed to be well versed in Hindi,Malayalam, English and Tamil, why would you dub his voice with someone who speaks Hindi and English with such a bad accent? It comes across as very glaring especially when Ganesh is talking to AB Sr who of course speaks impeccable Hindi and English. The film has 3-4 songs (music by Shamir Tandon), all of them in Hindi but was there a need to have an item number in a discotheque? Which then makes me ask a question to Mohanalal- sir why would you want to produce this film and revive your home banner- Pranavam Arts International with this dud of a film? Pranavam Arts has been noted in the past for making many acclaimed films like His Highness Abdullah, Bharatham, Kamaladalam, Kaalapani, Vanaprastham etc and to come back with a film like this is baffling to say the least.

All in all with stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Mohanlal and a subject like Kandahar hijacking Major Ravi could have gone ahead and delivered a far better movie than what has actually been made. So it’s a terrible loss of opportunity indeed, something that Major Ravi can never undo. For those wanting to see a film on the Kandahar hijacking, films like Zameen by Rohit Shetty ( Ajay Devgn and Abhishek Bachchan ) or even Yeh Dil Aashiqana by Kuku Kohli are far better to watch than this pain of a film. As for Mohanlal and his Pranavam Arts International, its better to re-watch some of their old films than watching this one. A few hours after watching Kandahar I watched His Highness Abdullah once again by co-incidence and slightly felt better

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/kandahar-movie-review-a-wasted-opportunity/

What's up this friday?

Coming up this week is Gautam Menon's much awaited Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya in Tamil and its Telugu version- Ye Maaye Chesaavo.While the Tamil version stars Simbu and Trisha in the lead, the Telugu version stars Naga Chaitanya and Samantha.It's supposed to be based on Gautam's own life story to an extent.The music by ARR is the main highlight of this movie and the songs like 'Hosanna', ' Omana Penne', ' Aaromale' etc are all chartbusters.

In Hindi we have the clash between Leena Yadav's second movie- Teen Patti and Vijay Lalwani's Karthik Calling Karthik.Teen Patti is being looked upto mainly for the pairing of Amitabh Bachchan and Sir Ben Kingsley.It also has R.Madhavan, Vaibhav Talwar etc.Karthik Calling Karthik has Faran Akhtar and Deepika Padukone and has an interesting premise.
Lets see how these movies turn out.

In the meanwhile in Tamil only Tamizh Padam is doing well while Leader in Telugu seems to have done decently so far.MNIK is doing well in the weekends and thanks to the bumper opening it should be a safe movie overall.

What's Up This Friday? ( 4th Dec'09 )

Well Bollywood this week sees the release of Amitabh Bachchan's Paa & Himesh Reshammiya's Radio.While Paa has been in the news ever since it was known that Amitabh plays the 13 year old son of Abhishek who is suffering from Progeria, Radio has also been in the news for Himesh's music, his " new " voice and the fact that the producer has already recovered his money.

My take- Paa is carrying good reports,should find acceptance with the multiplex junta,but may not be a mass hit.Nevertheless at a budget of around 15 crores,it should make money. Radio may prove to be a surprise and just about do well- keep watching this space.

Tamil cinema might see Renigunta and Edhuvum Nadakkum releasing along with Vettatam.Edhuvum Nadakkum is an experimental thriller with Karthik Kumar and Aparna Pillai, Renigunta a hard hitting realistic tale on child criminals and Vettatam a rural tale.Cant say much about these films, except that Renigunta has some buzz as it was earlier refused a censor certificate due to some objectionable portions.

Malayalam cinema- Mammootty's Paleri Manikyam directed by Renjith was to release today ( 3rd Dec ) but its release seems to have been put on hold due to a stay order by a court due to some payment issues.Probably Gulumaal may release tomorrow.With Jayasurya and Kunchako Boban in it,the movie is supposed to be a fun outing.Lets see if the audience finds it entertaining enough.Telugu cinema- Amaravathi - a thriller with Bhumika & Sneha released today and lined up for tomorrow is Sarrai Veerraju and Pravarakhydu.

Nothing interesting on the English movie scene though.The movies releasing are New In Town and Ghost of Girlfriend's Past.No expectations from both of them.

Among the earlier releases- 2012 continues to do well across the country and entering its 2nd week is Ninja Assassin.Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is still hanging on- a big hit indeed and De Dana Dan has done better than expected.Pazhassi Raja is still holding on in Kerala and a few other places like Chennai.Arya 2 ( Telugu ) had a very good opening week as expected- lets see if the negative feedback affects the 2nd week majorly as is expected.

Will be back soon with whats up for the next week, keep watching this space.

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

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/

Pasanga- for the child in each one of us

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

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

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/