The Dirty Picture – Way Too Dirty For Its Own Good!

Cross-posted at http://madaboutmoviez.com/2011/12/03/the-dirty-picture-way-too-dirty-for-its-own-good/

Since the 1^st teaser of this movie with Vidya Balan in the red saree turned up on Youtube a while back till today when this movie hit theatres, It managed to catch the attention of everybody who’s laid eyes upon it. The movie however just doesn’t bother to do that. The promotion for this movie has been relentless (Not as much as Ra.One), but equally in your face. The past few days on Twitter have belonged to this movie. And considering how the audiences are so starved of quality entertainment that they are willing to accept even what I refer to as “Quasi-Entertainment”. And considering the crowd, there is no doubt that this one’s gonna give a happy ending to the box office this year.

So the story starts off with a glimpse of Reshma, who is not content living the life of an unknown. She has a devilish streak to her as is evident when she disturbs her neighbours in the act as they are getting too noisy for her. Her backstory which is shown over the typically 80s styled credits is equally fascinating as it shows her running away from what is revealed later to be a forced marriage. She wants to break into the movies very badly as is shown during her early attempts to get into tinseltown. Her big break in the industry comes by a stroke of absolute luck which turns her from Reshma to Silk and then on, the story goes via the typical biopic template of Rise, Plateau, Descent, Downfall and finally Redemption except of course, there’s no redemption in this story.

The story also provides us with a glimpse of the various people who enter and exit her life at different points of time. We have Suryakant (Nasseruddin Shah), The aging superstar who’s beginning to understand that he’s at the end of his reign, Ramakant (Tusshar Kapoor), Suryakant’s shy writer brother, who is not sure whether he wants to stay in his brother’s shadow or get out, Abraham (Emraan Hashmi), The maverick writer who wishes to make movies that are different from the typical slam bang fare that the movie makers of that era are dishing out.

I have a major gripe with Milan Luthria. Till date, other than Taxi 9211, none of his other movies have ever lived up to the potential of their stories. This guy has a tendency to work with the best stories, create heavy duty anticipation by the interval, and then deflate it by the time the end credits roll. This movie sadly is no exception. The 1^st half of the movie grabs your attention right from the 1^st scene and dares you to look away from the screen. The 2^nd half of the movie however loses interest and tells you “Chal, jitna dikhana tha dikha diya, ab aaraam kar thodi der keliye”.

The best moments of the movie however are mostly in the 1^st half. Scenes like her serendipitous entry into tinseltown, her absolute glee at audiences walking into cinema halls just to see her one song, her 1^st meeting with Suryakant etc etc, stand out brilliantly. But in the 2^nd half sadly it all goes for a toss as like always, the director seems clueless about how to move things towards the climax.

Sadly, other than the author backed role of Silk and Suryakant which would’ve been ruined in the hands of a lesser actor, the rest of the cast is either woefully underwritten or worse, underutilized. Emraan Hashmi’s character goes from maverick to sellout in just a few scenes with just a line of explanation that doesn’t quite explain the change in his mindset. Tusshar Kapoor’s character is not even explained clearly to us and is taken for granted by the director just like the other characters in the movie. The 2 characters who you wish featured on screen more often i.e Selvaganesh (Rajesh Sharma) and Nyla(Anju Mahendru) who incidentally is based on Devyani Chaubal, the gossip columnist of yesteryear with an extremely acerbic pen are criminally underused and ignored. In fact, some of the better scenes in the movie involve interactions between Silk and these 2 characters.

The music of the movie relies on only 2 songs, Oo La La and Nakka Mukka. These 2 songs keep your feet moving, otherwise the rest of the songs are typically pedestrian fare. The background score which in some scenes has a Hans Zimmer hangover manages to stay in your head though. Ishq Sufiyana for some reason seemed like a rehash of the chill version of Bahara to me!

Vidya Balan is the biggest reason you should watch this movie. She lives the character of the enigmatic, yet brash Silk who wishes to live life on her own terms. Her character however is like the movie. Brilliantly written in the 1^st half, Highly inconsistent and confusing in the 2^nd half.

Nasseruddin Shah too suffers from a very badly sketched character, which is meant to come off as a caricature. But the man is not considered one of our finest actors for nothing. He manages to give the character a shred of dignity and pathos. Emraan Hashmi does his usual cocky routine. However it is still quite watchable as opposed to Tusshar Kapoor’s character which only stands out in a scene where he channels the style of his father.

Overall, This is a movie that could’ve been so so so so so much more and doesn’t hesitate to remind you of that fact, but somewhere along the way, was either too scared or too disinterested to be that.

3/5! Watch for Vidya Balan. She is worth it.

Shankar Nag - A Maverick

(Originally Posted on Madaboutmoviez.com)

Funnily enough, this article was written on Shankar Nag’s birthday this year! The Nag brothers were quite a big part of me growing up in Bangalore during the early 90s. DD 9 i.e the Kannada Doordarshan was the most watched channel at home back then, considering the fact that Zee TV and Star TV etc had just about started in India then. To me, back then, movies meant either Amitabh Bachchan or the brothers Nag ;) I remember watching a LOT of Kannada movies back then, and as is the case with most childhood memories, the names of these movies are pretty much a blur. The maximum I remembered back then was maybe this one Kannada remake of Teri Meherbaniyan where Jackie’s role was played by Shankar Nag (The name eludes me, so if yáll remember, do contribute in the comments section)

Now, I’m not gonna bore you guys by copy-pasting Shankaranna’s bio from Wiki for I know that you guys can do that yourself. This article is more of a bunch of random paragraphs of musings of what the man means to me and what memories I do have of the man.

Cut to 2002-03. This was the time when I’d started to develop a semi-decent reading habit. One book that featured a lot was Swami and Friends. I must’ve read and re-read the book a lot. I remember the time as my “R.K Narayan” phase, as I pretty much read all of his works during that time(All thanks to my cousin in Bangalore and his love for books). So when Sony started airing reruns of Malgudi Days every day at around 5-5.30 pm, I was elated. Summer vacations were on and I was pretty much free. The routine every day was the same, play cricket till 5, run home and watch Malgudi Days followed by Dekh Bhai Dekh.

So there I was, watching Malgudi Days and I have to admit, was quite taken aback! I mean, there I am, a guy expecting a certain amount of closeness to the book and what I get is the visualisation and the characterization being the exact same. The talkative man WAS the talkative man. Swami WAS Swami. Rajam and Mani were EXACTLY who they were in the book. And of course the famous “Ta Na Na Ta Na Na Na Na” music that got stuck in my head and has stayed ever since! So that was that. I was hooked. Never missed a single episode of the show, and when the Swami part of the show started airing, I was bloody gobsmacked. A year or two later, when I watched Bawarchi for the first time and came across that dialogue “It is so simple to be difficult, Yet so difficult to be simple”, The only thought that came to my mind was that of Malgudi Days.

But I digress here. It would be unfair of me to pigeonhole Shankaranna to this one thing. It’s almost like telling Sting that he’d never write a song better than Roxanne (Yeah, Vir Sanghvi’s own words). The man is much much more than just a guy who created one of India’s greatest TV series ever!

The whole fascination with Shankar Nag for me started with 2 things. 1^st, A review of Accident that I read somewhere. Just the description of the accident scene that forms the whole point of the movie was enough to fascinate me. Then came along my brother-in-law who happens to be a major Kannada movie buff. Mind you, this was a time when all I knew about Kannada movies were the really shitty movies where the plot was all about “longs and macchus”(Sickles) and gangsters and Amma sentiment. So obviously, I was a little bit sceptical. Then one day, just out of curiosity, I browsed through his filmography and read the article on Ondanondu Kaladalli and was quite intrigued.

One day, Reliance Timeout opened up in town and as a guy who LOVES buying movies, this was one “yeeeeeehawwwww” occasion. While I was browsing, I chanced upon the Kannada movie collection and I’m not kidding ya when I said, this was literally like chancing upon the mother lode. Almost EVERY Kannada movie I’d wanted was there. Thanks to Diwali riches and uber-awesome discounts, suddenly, there was a huge pile of movies at home.

So there began my journey into becoming a fanboy. 1^st, Accident was watched. Lived up to what I’d read. The opening scene had me hooked! The Accident scene gave me goosebumps. Anant Nag’s evil turn as Dharmadhikari had my blood boiling. And the climax resulted in mixed emotions. Then came Minchina Ota. A crime thriller based on a true story and true characters. Again, worked for me brilliantly. Months later when I watched 3 Idiots and “All Is Well” started playing, THIS movie was what popped into my head! And I ended that evening with Ondanondu Kaladalli, and what could I say except WOW! Nobody but Shankaranna could’ve pulled off the role of Gandugali. Girish Karnad’s direction worked wonders as the movie had me just sitting back with a big grin on my face after it was done!

Many other movies of Shankar Nag were watched since then. Including the cult classic Sangliana. Now this one was one hell of a cop movie with a little difference. Now I’d love to tell you more, but I’d suggest you go find the movie and watch it yourself. The movie even had a sequel which to be frank was quite meh. His other directorial venture, Ondu Muttina Kathe, I ended up watching on TV I think. The amount of technical brilliance in the movie for that time was bloody brilliant.

Now if we could slightly change lanes from his movie career. I’d like to mention a few more things about how the man was a visionary in other fields too. Lately, Bangalore’s been rejoicing over the launching of Namma Metro after a LOT of fits and starts. But very few remember that it was Shankaranna who actually envisioned a Metro for Bangalore way back. The Country Club which we now associate with Rajeev Reddy’s outstretched thumb and random starlets was again a project left orphaned by his untimely death. Same goes for all the prefab housing schemes being launched now!

I was listening to his last radio interview earlier today, and it was quite characteristic of the man. Very casual, very relaxed and yet very sharp. A man who valued what was around him and cared for its betterment. He spoke about how he got into movies, how he was only a clerk in a bank and cared more about acting in theatre. It was this passion that comes through in his voice. And Ranga Shankara today stands testament to this very same passion.

He also spoke about the situation in Bangalore back then. How everybody had to head to Chennai(Madras then) to record and dub for their movies as the facilities were just not present in Bangalore. This paved way for Sanket Electronics, the 1^st ever recording studio in Bangalore.

His death occurred when I was 2 years old. I probably wouldn’t have even realized it then. But today, this 23 year old self proclaimed movie buff feels the lack of Shankaranna’s presence deeply. Every week when I see a random Kannada movie with a nausea inducing poster release and disappear within a week, I wish for the presence of this maverick. I wish that he would still be around coming up with new and crazy stories. I wish he’d turn up and rescue the Kannada film industry from the current cesspool that it has currently become barring a few good movies. Shankaranna, your presence is missed! It will always be missed. Every horrible Kannada movie that releases will remind us of how much you are missed.

Originally posted at http://passionforcinema.com/one-hell-of-a-wild-ride/

One Hell Of A Wild Ride!!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

That’s exactly what defined my reaction after having watched this
crazy ass flick. I mean, A movie about Bikes, Bullets and Booty.
Quentin Tarantino as the executive producer, Larry Bishop who i
remember cult classic Wild In The Streets leading the star cast here
ably supported by Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, David Carradine and
Dennis Hopper. Add all of this up and you have a sure-fire cracker of
a movie.

Larry Bishop is Pistolero(Trivia: Pistolero was originally intended to
be the title of what came to be known as Desperado),a truly bad-ass
biker who is the leader of an old school Biker Gang called The
Victors. His best friends are The Gent (Michael Madsen) and Eddie
Zero(Dennis Hopper). He along with these 2 and a new entrant to the
gang Commanche (Eric Balfour) who is a hot-headed youngster hit the
road to avenge the death of Pistolero’s love Cherokee by Deuce(David
Carradine) and Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones) who are members of a satanic
Biker gang called the 666ers. When the 666ers declare war upon The
Victors for domination, Pistolero and his band of Bad-asses are up for
a serious fight.

Larry Bishop is simply too cool as the wisecracking Pistolero. Michael
Madsen does a great job as The Gent. Dennis Hopper’s presence takes
you back to the days of Easy Rider. Eric Balfour often cracks you up
as Commanche. Vinnie Jones is menacing as the psychotic Billy Wings.
David Carradine is pretty good as The Deuce,but his screen presence is
sadly limited to a few minutes.

Overall, The movie is an 80 minute thrill ride which is well worth the
money paid for it. Its intention was to pay homage to the biker movies
of the 60s and it’s worked. What makes the movie even more fun to
watch is that just like the Ocean’s series, the actors are all having
fun on screen. It premiered at Sundance in January and had a limited
release across the USA on 8th August.While the movie has had quite a
few bad reviews, If you are into the 3 B’s- Bikes, Bullets and Booty,
you are gonna love it.

Om Shanti Om : One Life Is Just Not Enough!

Well well well folks, Diwali's finally upon us. The season of lights.
The season of delicious sweets and noisy crackers. The season of
Blockbusters and Box Office Turkeys. This Diwali was a Mexican
Standoff between 2 of India's loudest film-makers, Sanjay Leela
Bhansali and Farah Khan. Both directors with a taste for opulence and
escapism (Except SLB's Black). The former took a gamble by launching 2
rank newcomers whose illustrious family speaks for them in a grand but
offbeat love story. The latter however plays it safe by totally
catering to the masses and the classes with a hardcore commercial
masala flick with the King Khan in the lead.

Out of the 2, I decided to play it safe and watch the SRK starrer, Om
Shanti Om because it had a watchable story. And besides, I'd read the
Dostoevsky story White Nights from which Saanwariya has been adapted
and I'm not very keen on watching cinematic versions of depressing
Russian fiction. So,today morning I walked into the theatre with high
expectations for the 1st Day 1st Show of Om Shanti Om.

Om Prakash Makhija (SRK) is a junior artist living with his mother
(Kirron Kher). His best friend is Pappu Master (Shreyas Talpade) who
also works in the movies. Om is deeply enamored by Shantipriya
(Deepika Padukone) a starlet whose career graph is on the rise. After
saving her life from a fire and pretending to be a South Indian star
Omswami, he manages to get her attention and the 2 become good friend.
However Om is broken-hearted when he comes to know that she's in love
with the suave movie producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). However
Mukesh has other plans for Shanti and viciously murders her by
trapping her in a blazing set. Om tries unsuccessfully to save her,
but is beaten up badly by Mukesh's bodyguards and is then hit by a car
while wandering wounded and disoriented on the road. He is rushed to
hospital, but all attempts to revive him fail and he dies.

INTERVAL

Omprakash is reborn as Om Kapoor, the son of former superstar Rajesh
Kapoor (Javed Sheikh). He's a typical star-son with all the airs of a
superstar but equally lazy and prone to temper tantrums. A visit to
the same set where Shanti was murdered and his getting the Filmfare
award soon after triggers off a set of memories from his past life. At
the same time, Mukesh Mehra who has now become a hot shot producer in
Hollywood returns to India and Om on meeting Mukesh remembers every
detail of what happened in his past life including the murder of his
love. He immediately catches up with his mother and Pappu and devises
a plan to take revenge on Mukesh with the help of Sandy, A look-alike
of Shanti and a big fan of Om.

The movie is as commercial as it gets. Farah Khan literally indulges
the audience with a look at life in showbiz from the top as well as
the bottom. The sets are breath-taking and the cinematography is
awesome. The dialogues are catchy especially when SRK acts as Omswami.

However what i felt was that the screenplay in the 1st half needed to
be tightened in the 1st half. There were times when i felt extremely
restless watching the movie. But the pre-interval sequences (Om and
Shanti's death) changed all that. The interval leaves you pondering
about what to expect in the 2nd half. The 2nd half starts off with a
bang and refuses to subside till the climax. It manages to keep us
hooked to the screen and doesn't let us look away even once. The
climax however is simply fantastic and is well written.

SRK is basically the star of the show here. He does well in both his
roles. But he's more fun to watch as Om Kapoor with the attitude and
tantrums. The SRK fans will not at all be disappointed.

Deepika Padukone is a star in the making. She's got the looks and the
talent. In fact,she manages to steal the thunder from SRK in quite a
few scenes. Unfortunately her voice has been dubbed in the movie. But
her expressions are perfect and she dances like a dream. Graceful and
Fluid.

Arjun Rampal is simply menacing as Mukesh Mehra. He manages to carry
off the negative role without being too loud.
Shreyas Talpade manages to charm you with his sincerity. Kirron Kher
is excellent as Om's filmi mother.

The music by Vishal and Shekhar is excellent. The music perfectly sets
in with the mood of the movie. The songs which stood out for me in the
movie are Jag Soona Soona, Deewangi and the title song that's shot at
the climax. The songs have been picturised marvellously especially
Ajab Si. Deewangi is also good to watch with all the stars making an
appearance. Farah Khan also manages to incorporate the Filmfare Awards
in the movie and yet make it look real and not forced. But the song
that takes the cake is the title song at the climax whose
picturisation is simply amazing.

Overall the movie has all the makings of a sure-fire blockbuster. Also
considering the bad reviews that Saanwariya has been getting all over,
I think SRK was right when he said 'Diwali sirf meri hai' (Diwali is
mine and only mine).

Bhool Bhulaiyya : A Maze Half Complete

Originally posted on Passionforcinema.com

Link to that post is

http://passionforcinema.com/bhool-bhulaiyya-a-maze-half-complete/

Priyadarshan is back again with Bhool Bhulaiyya just a couple of weeks
after the extremely intolerable Dhol with his loyal friendly starcast
of Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav etc along with Shiney
Ahuja, Vidya Balan and Amisha Patel. The movie as i guess everybody
knows is a remake of Manichithrathazhu (1993) directed by
Priyadarshan's mentor Fazil. The original has already been remade in
Tamil as Chandramukhi and in Kannada as Aapthamitra. But while the
former was a psychological comedy/thriller, The latter 2 were more of
what I'd describe as star vehicles.

Badrinarayan Chaturvedi (Manoj Joshi) is the regent of a kingdom in
Banaras. When his nephew Siddharth returns from the USA with his newly
married wife Avni (Vidya Balan) and announces his decision to stay in
their ancestral palace, Badrinarayan is extremely disturbed as that
palace is supposedly haunted by the vengeful spirit of a beautiful
dancer from Bengal named Manjulika who committed suicide due to her
lover Shashidhar being murdered by the cruel king Vibhutinarayan Singh
the ancestor of Siddharth. After the married couple moves in with the
rest of the family, they are disturbed by strange occurences. Attempts
are made on the life of Siddharth and the blame comes on the shoulders
of Radha (Amisha Patel) the adopted daughter of the family. This is
when Siddharth's friend Dr Aditya (Akshay Kumar) steps in and tries to
solve this strange case.

The story here stays extremely faithful to the Malayalam version, but
unfortunately the screenplay is anything but taut which ended up
causing a lot of restlessness. Till the entry of Akshay Kumar, the
movie is actually pretty dull except for a few interesting sequences
here and there. After the interval, the movie gets funnier, but the
pace keeps slipping every now and then which is extremely frustrating.
It finally leads up to a very well captured climax, but more on that
later.

The good parts of the movie are that in some scenes Priyadarshan
manages to keep his comic touch intact. The palace has been portrayed
in a pretty eerie way and the director manages to create a little bit
of suspense among the audience, but is let down by the screenplay. But
then, even Priyadarshan has been losing his touch lately thanks to a
bunch of indifferently made movies which are a far cry from some
genuinely good movies made by him in the past like Virasat, Gardish,
Hera Pheri and Hungama.

However these are not enough to save the movie. The screenplay (I keep
stressing on this because in the other versions, the screenplay was
tighter and there was never a dull moment) especially. Then some of
the comic portions which are anything but funny and even the songs
which end up acting like speedbreakers.

Akshay Kumar enters the movie only at the interval point, but manages
to stand out. He's in pretty good form here and manages to provide a
few laughs. Shiney Ahuja however is not exactly up to the mark here in
spite of having more screentime. Vidya Balan is as reliable as ever,
but unfortunately her performance in spite of its sincerity pales in
comparison to Shobhana in the Malayalam version and the late Soundarya
in the Kannada version. Amisha Patel looks better in this movie
compared to the last few movies that she's done, but her acting is
still as bad as ever. Her emoting is anything but convincing and she
literally hams in some scenes. Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav are
supposedly the comic relief of the movie, but it doesn't really work
all the time except in bits. Vikram Gokhale makes a return to the big
screen after a long time, but you wish he'd returned in a more
substantial and consequential role. The rest of the starcast provide
able support.

The music of the movie is average and there are only 2 songs that stay
with you after the movie. 1 is the much hyped title song which appears
at the end of the movie though the opening riffs keep playing
throughout. The other is the soft romantic Labon Pe which is pretty
hummable. The background score of the movie however is pretty good.
It's eerie and complements the scarier sequences perfectly.

Overall the movie is a pretty decent watch if you avoid the comparison
to its more illustrious predecessors. However you wish that
Priyadarshan had worked harder and created a more fitting tribute to
his mentor.

What's On This Week!

Well,this week looks pretty good. Since it's Eid, 2 big movies are facing off against each other. Bhool Bhulaiya by Priyadarshan and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag by Pradeep Sarkar. Will be watching Bhool Bhulaiya on Friday. So, let's hope for some entertainment this week.

Dil Dosti Etc!

College Life!!! Some of the most memorable years of a person's life. A time of fun and frolic. A time of sex, drugs and rock (if so inclined). A time where you make some long lasting friendships. A time where you 1st experience true freedom. A time where you experience love in its most realistic state. All this and more is addressed in the movie Dil Dosti Etc.

I'd first heard about this flick in an issue of Filmfare and i was kinda interested. The movie sort of sounded like a more realistic version of Rang De Basanti minus all the shooting politicians and be the change fundas. Plus the starcast of Imaad Shah and Shreyas Talpade sounded pretty good and Smriti Mishra was coming back after a hiatus. So it sounded like an interesting indie campus movie. Atleast on paper it did.

Apurv (Imaad Shah) is a laid back rich kid who joins college just for the fun of it. His father is frustrated with his lazy attitude as he even turned down an offer from Yale University to stay back in India. He is pretty confused with his life and just keeps roaming here and there and everywhere, His favourite haunt being the brothel where he's deeply in love/lust with Vaishali (Smriti Mishra) a beautiful but sharp tongued prostitute with a heart of gold. But at the same time, he's trying to seduce Kintu (Isshita Sharma) a sharp but sweet 15 year old schoolgirl. He meets and befriends Sanjay (Shreyas Talpade) his senior and aspiring politician in college.

Sanjay Mishra is basically a weird cocktail of old and new values. He's from a backward area of Bihar where even today, The IAS is the only lucrative job. He however is idealistic and wants to do something for society. He is also very fearless and dynamic and doesn't back away from a fight. He falls in love with Prerna (Nikita Anand) a rich Delhi socialite. But unfortunately the clash between his old-fashioned ideals and her more modern fundas come in their way and cause a rift between them. All this happens in the backdrop of Delhi University where Sanjay is standing for elections for the post of President of the student union.

Now the story sounded exciting on paper. But Manish Tiwary unfortunately is not able to do full justice to the movie. It ends up looking more like the sexual adventures of a Delhi student. But to their credits, the actors somehow end up rising above the story and act pretty well. Especially Shreyas Talpade who manages to make his performance look realistic. Watch out for his outburst in the pre-climax. The role of Apurv seems to have been tailor-made for Imaad Shah. Smriti Mishra is as good as ever and makes you wonder where she had disappeared all these days. Isshita Sharma makes a confident debut and looks perfect in the role of the schoolgirl trying to act older. Nikita Anand makes a confident debut, but she needs to work a little on her expressions.

The dialogues of the movie are hilarious and mainly consist of Delhi lingo. The music is very light-hearted and blends well with the campus mood of the movie. Especially the raw and earthy Dum Laga which stays with you even after the movie's done.

Overall, not such a bad viewing experience after all. But doesn't exactly live up to expectations.