Movies is but life with the dull parts cut out - Alfred Hitchcock

The first month of 2012 has me happy with the number of movies watched. I think I have to write it down to make myself believe it.

Jan 1st - The Adventures of Tintin - When I asked my 9 year old nephew if he had watched this movie, he replied in the affirmative adding 'It is a mix of multiple books'. My memory is hazy on this.Having read the books about 20 years back, it is already a mix of books in my head . It is a well-made entertainer capturing  the spirit of Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock very well.It was a bigger edge-of-the-seat thriller than 'Sherlock Holmes II'. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the sequels. 

Jan 2nd - The Asphalt Jungle - I would not do justice to this movie in a short two sentence review since it deserves a blog post by itself. I would like to call this movie less of a film-noir and more of a heist especially with no 'femme-fatale'. Like 'All short stories come out of Gogol's Overcoat', any heist movie is a by-product of this original. Marilyn Monroe has a small role in it as a mistress of the villain and she looks and sounds the same like she did when she was at the height of her fame.

Jan 3rd - All about Eve (re-watch)  - This film made me fall in love with Betty Davis and watch her other movie 'Jezebel'. I watched the bonus materials which had interviews of the leading ladies taken at that time and was surprised to see how closely their real lives resembled their screen characters. More on that in a separate post.

Jan 4th - Arsenic and Old Lace (re-watch) : Good old Cary Grant - sometimes funny, sometimes over the top in this macabre comedy.

Jan 5th -  LA Confidential - The less said about it the better :) 

Jan 6th - The Artist - I was at a bar the other night and when the conversation turned to movies, I mentioned a silent Black and White movie and immediately my friend said 'she of course watches old movies'. I had to interuppt and say ' But this was made in 2011'.The movie reminded me of this song .
I'm glad that the French actor, Jean Dujardin, got his Oscar nomination for this.
How can one not think of Pushpak while watching this?

Jan 8th - Black Dahlia - Nothing worth writing about except maybe that it kept me company on a bored evening.

Jan 12th - Queen Bee - Joan Crawford was Disappointing! with a capital D with her over the top acting. Who tolerates an arrogant, old, married-woman-going-after-younger-men wife? Nobody. But the movie tries to make you believe otherwise and it fails. They all loathe the Queen Bee but I don't know why they put up with her!

Jan 14th - Straw Dogs - A remake of the 1971 film of the same name, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. It shows how anyone can provoke a peace-loving, eclectic, intellectual and turn him into a violent killer to protect the lives of him and others.A question that bugged me to no end - Why did the woman strip herself and stand at the window? Beats me!

Jan 15th - The Help - I think if I leave out the re-watches, Tintin and The Asphalt Jungle, this would be my pick for my favorite movie out of this list for January. The Help, in many ways, reminded me of the maids we have in India. There are some commonalities and some not. I hope Octavia Spencer wins the Oscar for Best supporting actress. She totally rocked it - as a maid with a mind of her own. Without her, it would have become another dark Afro-American story. The women publishing a story of their lives without being recognized  made for a fun viewing.

Jan 28th - The Rope (re-watch) : My love of this movie has already been documented - here.

Jan 29th -  Intolerable Cruelty : Not my favorite Cohen brothers movie, but is a fun watch, nevertheless.
I can never get over the disappointment of a Cohen brothers' movies that has a happy ending.

Honorary mention of abandoned movies : Chasing Amy, The 39 Steps for different reasons. I thought I narrowly missed watching Chasing Amy by a decade and was impatient now. The 39 steps along with The Jamaican Inn are the only two Hitchcock's I've been unable to watch  1. because of the old print and 2. they had some spy story or the other that did not interest me.

'The chair is not gay, obviously' - Hal in 'Beginners'

There is a moment in ‘Beginners’ when I felt like shaking Oliver (Ewan McGregor) to pull him out of his reverie of depression but then death is a life-altering experience and I think everyone goes through this phase while in mourning. ‘Beginners’ is a story of life, death, childhood, irreverent love, vintage moments and gay relationships. But at the core of it is a story of a father and son. If you are over thirty then you would have experienced this already, if you are not yet thirty, you are yet to experience this –change in your relationship with your parents. Fathers who haven’t had time for you when you were a kid suddenly have all the time in the world to spend with you.

Oliver’s dad is no different. He is conspicuously absent when Oliver reminiscences over his childhood while during his final days of battling with cancer, it is Oliver who takes complete care of him. Gay relationships is no surprise these days but the father coming out of his closet after his mother’s death and dating someone the same age as his son, is indeed astonishing.

It is 2003 and Oliver is trying to get over his father’s death. His father (Christopher Plummer, as brilliant as ever) deals cancer with fun and fervor. Having come out of the closet, he visits clubs, has parties with his gay friends and like any other self-respecting gay person, he wears it on his sleeve. Cut to the present and Oliver has a new and mysterious girlfriend Anna. Anna is the perfect mystery woman lover that any man can ask for and that is my biggest grouse with her character. She is wooden caricature of a mysterious French lover.

The scenes of Oliver’s childhood with his mom are both nostalgic and sad. He seems to have only his mother as company and his mom him to accompany her to art galleries. Her whimsical behavior there is left unexplained. As with Anna, the mother is left an under-developed character.

The movie works as a good montage of Oliver’s relationship with his father and the past but fails in establishing the women’s characters. Nevertheless it is a good indie movie to watch on a lazy Saturday evening.

(500) Days of Summer

In this age of information overload of face book, twitter, cell phones et al, the beauty of this movie lies in the fact that it has a retro feel to it. Los Angles minus Beverly Hills, old buildings, simple dresses, peppy pop numbers and beautiful cinematography is what (500) days of Summer presents you.

Summer, the surreal love of Tom’s life does not want to be anyone’s girlfriend. She wants a tag-free relationship, which, according to her, is only friendship. But to put it in perspective, let me borrow the words of Tom, ‘one doesn’t have shower-sex with their friends!’

A kaleidoscope of memories of Tom’s 500 days of his life with Summer. So we shift from day 353 to Day 11 and back to maybe Day 282. But when did chronological order make sense with nostalgic moments?

Tom believes in love and that she is THE ONE, but Summer just lives the moment. Tom is a greeting card writer, a profession many of us would envy but his heart lies in architecture.
Tom
‘I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that last forever, like a greeting card.’

Tom’s quirky friends and precocious little sister are guffaw-inducing and if that is not all, there is Tom’s love for architecture and his talent for sketching. No Auto-Cad there for you but good old pencil sketches of buildings and greeting cards.

There is one specific scene heavily inspired by Annie Hall - the split screen between Expectation and Reality which reminds me of something similar to where Woody Allen shows what he says and what he means in a horizontal split screen.

But 500 days does have a distinct flavor of its own – whether it is the music of The Smiths or arguments about Ringo Starr or having fun shopping at Ikea, watching ‘The Graduate’, this movie reminds us that in this era of action packed flicks, there is still beauty left in a simple love story.

Agreed it is not a classic like ‘Before Sunrise/Sunset’ or Annie Hall but it certainly has its fine moments with its wit and leaves an after-taste of the bitter sweet memories of a relationship gone awry.

I thought Cinema Paradiso is the saviour of the good-movies-starved people of Hyderabad until I discovered that there isn’t a single DVD of any of those Oscar nominations and is this not reason enough that they should stop robbing people in the blazing daylights of Hyderabad?

But I’m glad I caught some of those my-kinda movies on the KLM flight –
and I know you must be saying ‘come to the point ,lady’ so I proceed with my note on Notes on a Scandal.

Someone (don’t ask me who!) rightly said ‘I enjoy Solitude most of the time but I need someone to tell them that I enjoy it’ .
There is a subtle difference between solitude and loneliness and high school teacher Barbara only knows it too well.

Unlike Miss.Violet (of 36 Chowringhee Lane), Barbara Covett (Judi Dench) is not a kind troglodyte, she is a malicious woman who resorts to blackmail just to get some company in her shriveled and lonely life.

Barbara’s diary informs us of the new teacher Sheba (Cate Blanchett) who enters into the school of unruly 15 year olds and captures Barbara’s attention.
Barbara becomes watchful of her and capitalizes on the opportunity when Sheba has an affair with one of her young students, justifying the tagline of ‘One Woman's Mistake Is Another's Opportunity...’
Barbara is willing not to disrupt Sheba’s burgeoning family life - a teen daughter, an older husband and a son with Down’s syndrome, on the condition of undying friendship from Sheba. But Sheba is unable to give the kind of attention that Barbara forcefully tries to extract and that is when the scandal is out of the bag. I wouldn’t want to delve more details but rest assured that it isn’t about the affair between the school teacher and the 15 year old student but about how Barbara totally manipulates Sheba for some ulterior motives of her own.

The oscar-nomination-worthy performance by Dame Dench is one which would leave you with the dark bitter taste for the woman who is Barbara and Cate Blanchett is not far behind in matching the senior with her own acting prowess.

I know most people might want to give this movie a miss but I would recommend it for it’s taut script without actually making it an edge-of-the-seat thriller and of course it totally showcases the actor who is Judi Dench.

(btw, I had always wanted to blog from an airport and here I’m doing exactly that from my favorite Schiphol airport)

Flying through Schiphol Airport

Flying to US from India is no doubt a painful affair, but the entertainment provided by Mumbai airport officials, lack of bawling kids and the ladies loo in Schiphol Airport made it quite entertaining for me.

Arriving at the Mumbai airport, I was relieved to see that Jet Airways had a tie up with KLM and my luggage was checked-in through from Hyderabad to Minneapolis. I heaved a sigh of relief –no struggle to haul my luggage off the belt, instead I had to deal with one of those aforementioned airport officials who went through the routine ‘Do you have any liquids or gels in your bags?’ and when I answered in the negative I noticed that he was busy looking elsewhere pointing to someone named Kim Sharma –now, I wonder why do men who don’t want to watch her on screen are interested at gawking at her at airports while on duty ?

The flight from Mumbai to Amsterdam wasn’t very good – it was boring – there were no bawling babies or fights for the restroom, only horrendous service and of course no guy reading 'Death in Venice’ or any such in the entire flight! **sigh*** And guys complain about not sitting next to any interesting girl - it is an unfair world I tell you!

As I was cursing my luck after landing in Schiphol airport, I suddenly heard a voice from within (in the strictest grandmotherly voice it could muster) ‘Count your blessings’ and count I did, the number of women from different countries who formed a serpentine queue in the airport ladies restroom and the time taken for the makeup application of each of them. An Ethiopian mother of two who was flying to Florence was braiding the kid’s hair, a French business woman was just in her second coat of mascara and a Canadian housewife was busy brushing her teeth – it could have easily been a United Colors of Benetton advertisement. What is it about restrooms in the West which have only a portion of the door –Is it to observe the latest trends in women’s shoes? Or is it a means of forest conservation? Whatever it is, it makes one so uncomfortable after having the comfort of an entire room for oneself in India.

And then there was this McDonalds waiter who talks Tamil to anyone remotely resembling an Indian and a very handsome dutch airport official who was interested in knowing who Pamuk was – pointing to the book I was reading.

So that being the case I can say that the last leg of my journey from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was what I would call mildly interesting - co-passengers who talked incessantly in an alien tongue , and a Swedish father and son who were struggling to find out what ‘US citizen’ meant and I try to help them using sign language.
Of course the most interesting of them all was getting to watch ‘Half Nelson’ and ‘Notes on a Scandal’ on the flight (the DVDs of which haven’t yet arrived at my local Cinema Paradiso)
So now you get an idea of what my next post is going to be about…

Dor and In Pursuit of Happyness

The Hyderabadi in me is always curious about any movie by Nagesh Kukkunoor, hence 2 hours of last weekend was spent in watching Dor.

Two women - Meera and Zeenat –diverse in all aspects come together for a cause.
Zeenat’s husband Aamir is accused of murdering Shankar, Meera’s husband, in the Middle East. Aamir could be saved from the death sentence only if the wife of the deceased gives a letter forgiving him.
Determined to save Aamir, Zeenat travels from Himachal to Jodhpur in search of Meera and to extract a signature on the letter from her.
One would wonder what Shreyas Talpade is doing in the movie? But he seems so essential to bring those light-hearted moments to the otherwise heavy movie.

It is a rarity that heroines are shown having a head above their shoulders , the only heroine that I can recall in recent times is the character of Antara Mali in ‘Naach’ – totally individualistic, fearless and strong-willed – an anti-thesis of the usual cry-babies of Bollywood. So I found myself drawn to the character of Zeenat, excellently portrayed by Gul Panag. This movie isn’t as much about the husband’s death as it is about the emancipation of women and the power of saying ‘No’ to something that they do not want to do. Many reviews have praises for Ayeasha Takia but my vote goes to Gul Panag for her subtle yet powerful performance.

Having said that, I would also ask Why do film-makers feel that they can’t do away with the clichés?. – especially the last scene in the railway station? (haven’t we seen enough with this ending?) and also Shreyas appearing out of nowhere to save Zeenat from the goons and last of all Shreyas declaring his love for Zeenat – totally uncalled for.
Though they might be overlooked in the greater view of the movie in totality, they do mar the effect of the otherwise well-made movie.


On Sunday I found myself heading towards Prasads multiplex to catch In Pursuit of Happyness -the biography of Chris Gardner which seemed a little over the top of the drama genre. We see Will Smith, with the junior Smith struggling to make ends meet by selling high-density bone-scanners; one might ask what is a high-density bone scanner?, to which, I would like to quote these lines from the movie , ‘that which provides a denser image than the x-ray at double the cost’, which would give you an estimate of how difficult it is to make one's living selling these gizmos. So realization dawns upon Chris that the way to happiness is to be rich and the way to becoming rich is by becoming a stock broker.

We are then hit with different visual images of how much Chris suffers along with his kid, after his wife abandons him. How he gets thrown out of his house for not paying rent, how he stays at a State run home for the homeless, how he spends a night in the jail .

Inspite of all this he manages to obtain a seat at the stockbroker internship programme.
How he loses one of his shoes in recess of his Internship and walks back with a single shoe and how his kid loses his favorite toy while they climb into the bus.

And if all these haven’t succeeded in inducing tears to your eyes – believe me, you are not going to enjoy this movie – my only regret is that I was not warned.

Ok, perhaps it is not such a bad movie like I make it to be, but yes it is definitely worth watching at home – in one of those re-runs of Star Movies.

A Mosiac of memories

“If this fall into thy hand, revolve.

In my stars I am above thee, but be not afraid of greatness.

Some are born great,some achieve greatness,

and some have greatness thrustupon them”

It is not often that you find lines from Shakespeare mouthed in Indian movies and 36 Chowringhee lane revels in it, complete with a cat named Sir Toby.
The scene where Nandita, who was a student of Miss.Stoneham tries to recollect these lines of Shakespeare, brings back fond memories of my school days where we used to frequent the houses of our schoolteachers.

36 Chowringhee lane is the story of Miss. Violet whose loneliness might leave you depressed but also appreciative of the fact that she does not wallow in self-pity (inspite of her niece’s repeated invites to join her in Australia).Color enters her humdrum life in the form of her former student Nandita and her boyfriend,Somresh. Miss.Violet lets the young couple use her home as a writer’s abode (‘A James Joyce in the making’, as Someresh puts across) but who actually (mis)use it as a love-nest. This change in scene refreshes Miss.Stoneham’s boring life as she looks forward to the carefree joy that Nandita and Somresh share with her – whether it is a movie or their evening tea (didn’t someone say that when in love the entire world presents a rosy picture…)But their marriage ends it all leaving a disappointed old lady alone with her Shakespearean thoughts.

If not for Aparna Sen, this could be termed as a family film of Shashi Kapoor . Jennifer Kendall as Miss. Violet is the heart of the movie with a superb performance while her father Geoffrey Kendall plays her diabetic brother. Sanjana and Karan Kapoor play cameos in a dream sequence.

Aparna Sen in 1981 shows such talent in her debut movie which the supposed stalwarts of Bollywood haven’t done in decades. Make no mistakes, this movie is not only about old age it is also about the Anglo Indians fear of interaction with the local Bengalis, the local school politics where old teachers are favored for the new ones with scholarly degrees and most essentially the spirit of an old woman who refuses to succumb to self-pity but lives her own life in dignity inspite of her failing age.
There is a dream sequence which is wonderfully shot (and reminds me of a similar one in ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind’) which shows a younger Violet in search of her beau only to discover him dead.
But I thought the ending was too contrived and that was where Mr. and Mrs. Iyer scores way above this movie.

Having said that, this is arguably one of the finest movies of Indian cinema.
So be prepared to watch a well-made, sensitive and intelligent movie which might leave you a tad bit depressed especially since it ends with these lines:

“Pray, do not mock me;

I am a very foolish fond old man,

Fourscore and upward, not an hour more or less,

And, to deal plainly,I fear I am not in my perfect mind,”

ayese bhee baate hotee hain....

'dil kee tasalli ke liye, zoothhee chamak zoothhaa nikhaar
jeewan to sunaa hee rahaa, sab samaze aayee hain bahaar
kaliyon se koee poochhe to, hasatee hain yaa ke rotee hain
ayese bhee baate hotee hain.. ..'

lines from my favorite song from Anupama (one of my all time favorite movies).I don't know why I had carried this DVD with me and whether it was a strange coincidence that I was watching it last night and today's news announces that Hrishida is no more with us.

I suddenly travel back in time when we used to sing 'Humko man ki Sakhti dena' in school. I never realized that it was from the movie Guddi until I watched it one Saturday evening on Doordarshan. I immensely liked it - not because I was also a school girl that time and was nursing a crush on some film hero (no,no I had completely skipped that phase in life) but because I used to love Kusum's babhi who seemed to mouth the same dialogues as my mom and other neighborhood aunties. At 12, I never really bothered about who the director was. It was while watching ‘Bawarchi’ that mom mentioned to me that this was directed by Hrishikesh Mukerjee. Many more Saturday movie watching followed - sitting in our old sofa with Mom and sis in tow – where I savored the initial dose of Hrishida’s movies –Anand, Mili, Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Golmaal and Khoobsurat .

While 'Chupke Chupke' and 'Golmaal' take the cake for the best comedies ever portrayed on the Indian cinema, the wonderful portrayal of the fine nuances of the human emotions like in 'Anupama' and 'Mili' are definite examples of this great filmmaker.
It is amazing that one man could portray a gamut of different emotions without including any sort of fights or the then popular Helen numbers.

Couple of years back I made a conscious effort to watch them all once again and this time I noticed those finer details which I had missed earlier. The character of Amitab in 'Mili' is more complex than the Sekhar of ‘Abhimaan’ , the demure Renuji of ‘Anand’ was the same actress who played babhi in ‘Guddi’ , the Sharmila Tagore of ‘Anupama’ was so different from the one in ‘Aradhana’ and so on…

Ah, and don’t get me started on those wonderful songs -
‘Na ji ya lage na’ from 'Anand', ‘badi sooni sooni hai’ from 'Mili' and ofcourse ‘Kuch Dil Ne Kaha’ from 'Anupama' , which seemed such an integral part of his movies.

Agreed that liberalization/globalization in India has brought designer labels and the 'Inside-Outside' type of houses but still there a million houses similar to the ones portrayed in Hrishida’s movies and of course a lot of babhis out there waiting to be portrayed – why don’t movie directors of today take the hint ??

Suspicion-a mental picture thro' an imaginary keyhole

This weekend was a unique one in the story of my life (ok, that was for dramatic effect..)
- This is the first time I ever watched two movies in the first week of their release.

‘Omkara’ and ‘Lady in the Water’ and without further ado I proceed to type my thoughts about the first one.

Vishal Bhardwaj seems to be Bollywood’s answer to the growing public angst of badly-plagiarized-Hollywood movies.
All my fears of Shakespeare turning in his grave were put to rest once I got swept away by this apt adaptation of one of most famous of the Bard’s tragedies.
If you know your Shakespeare, the story wouldn’t be a major surprise. But the setting is.

Replace Venice and Cyprus with rural UP – now this is what interests the eye.
Not to mention the shock element - the profanities in everyday speech by men and women alike.

Saif Ali Khan shines as the Indianised version of Iago –“Langda Tyagi’ , who is definetly going to the join the bandwagon of Bollywood baddies like Gabbar Singh and Mugambo.
Ajay Devgan had nothing much to do except being himself (I am yet to see him change even the way he blinks his eyes)- he has this stereo-typical look of his plastered all over his face. Kareena Kapoor, for a change, tried her best to act; can’t blame her if Vishal thought she would suit as Desdemona .Vivek Oberoi as Cassio was okie-dokie and Bipasha sizzled as Billo. I really hate taking the name of Konkana Sen in the same breath as the aforementioned actors but yes, she made a wonderful Emelia (Indu) and made her presence felt in the few scenes that she had.

But I think the success of this flick lies totally with Mr.Bhardwaj - he knows how to tell a fascinating tale. Now what is to be seen is how the Indian masses accept this one (and here I’m not speaking of all those savvy people who discuss Shakespeare over their Coffee in Café Coffee Day!)

(While I start rephrasing my sentences on Shyamalan’s ‘Lady in the Water’, do tell me how you liked Omkara.)

Human life don't mean as much to them as it does to us!

Though 'Fanaa' was too tempting to write 'bout(I would’ve gladly ripped it to pieces),better sense prevailed and here comes a rant on some amazing movies I happened to watch last month.

12 Angry Men:

It is not only Indians who have misunderstood the Western culture but it seems to be a case of vice-versa as observed by me during my last visit to Europe.
Some of my collegues (Italians, Dutch and French) had only great things to tell about India - how spiritual Indians are, how we are never materialistic and how our movies always depict moral values.
I am not saying that we are not all of that but we are also not an epitome of the aforementioned list of values. We are, I think, not any more or any less materialistic than those in the West (the booming Multiplexes, the new shopping Malls and the number of cars on our roads are evidence enough for this fact)
If you are wondering about the relevance of the above thoughts in regard with this movie, I would say that this movie I think is testimony of the fact that not all movies in Hollywood are devoid of any moral values.
Without any special effects, without any modern gadgets, without the use of any out door locations and finally without a single lady in it, this movie manages to get appreciation from all quarters.

12 men are part of the jury which is to declare a young boy in question whether he is guilty or not guilty of murdering his father. What starts off with 11 to 1 for Guilty against Not Guilty ultimately ends in the 12 voting as Not Guilty. The forceful dialogues and the way the quirkiness of each individual is brought to surface make it a movie that one should add in their Must-Watch-in-your-lifetime lists.
See a wonderful review of it here.
(the title of the rant is based on a statement made in this movie)

The Hours:

I don’t know if statistics exist but if it does, it would surely state that the largest number of suicides, of famous people from all walks of life, would be by writers (Hemingway, Plath and Poe (??) spring to my mind).
Based on Pulitzer Winning book of Michael Cunningham, this deals with women in three different time periods enmeshed in a single common thread - Virginia Woolf and suicide. Since I haven’t read the book, I could appreciate the movie which seemed to oscillate between three women all of them associated with some form of depression.
While Virginia Woolf writes the book 'Mrs. Dalloway' in 1925, another woman Lara Brown reads it in 1950 and yet another woman who is lovingly nicknamed Mrs. Dalloway, by her poet friend, is preparing to throw a party for him.
I am sure the book would have been brilliant because the essence of thoughts wouldn’t have been rendered on the screen so effectively. But it still is a wonderful movie to watch - all the three actors -Nicole Kidman, Mery Streep and Julianne Moore couldn’t have done more justice to their characters. Those of you who do not like the type of slow movies should keep off this one because it has a very unconventional movie which wouldn’t seem to make much sense and would be particularly make you feel low if you are in that existing state of mind, but yes folks who love Woolf’s books would definitely not give this movie a miss.
Memorable lines : “To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face and to know it for what it is. At last to know it, to love it for what it is, and then, to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years. Always the love. Always the hours”

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Mara :

the movie opens with the wonderful lines 'Himmat karne walon ki haar nahi hoti' (Courageous people never get defeated).
A retired Hindi Professor who suffers from dementia who believes that he was the one who killed Gandhi and how his daughter with the help of a psychiatrist deals with the situation forms the plot of the story.
The nuances of a father-daughter relationship as well as the sibling rivalry while trying to deal with their mentally-ill father are captured quite sensitively.
Thankfully the cliché of the doctor romancing the daughter is avoided and a sensible ending makes this a very lovable movie.
The Gandhian philosophy that is advocated in the last scene of the movie and the inspiring poem which is repeated thoughout the movie as the professor's favorite poem are very socially relevant in today’s India.
And of course the memorable lines are :

Kucch Kiye Bina Hi.. Jay Jay Kar Nahin Hoti
Himmat Karne Walon Ki.. Haar Nahin Hoti

Lehroon Se Darr Kar.. Naauka Paar Nahin Hoti
Himmat Karne Walon Ki.. Haar Nahin Hoti


One must be wondering what a weird selection - an age old vintage classic(12 Angry Men), a vague interpretation of Cunningham’s book (The Hours) and now a flop Hindi movie (Maine Gandhi …) ?? But these are my very own recommendations and you can watch them or give them a miss depending on your take on movies.

For all those interested in books, I have started a parallel blog 'bout books which you can check here.

Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.

Volumes must've been written about Satyajit Ray's school of filmmaking; since I'm ignorant about the actual nuances of filmmaking I wouldn't delve into such details.
But that wudnt stop me from going gaga over Charulata - which I had watched recently.The only other Ray movie I had watched was Nayak - while in school and all that I can recollect are the odd bits and pieces of it.

Without further delay, lemme proceed to 'Charulata' -which seemed to me like poetry on celluloid. Since the greatness of this film perhaps lies in the emotions spoken through silence I wasn’t in the least concerned about my not knowing Bengali.(but yaa the English sub-titles helped)

What is amazing is the way u can actually feel Charu's loneliness, whether it a simple glance at her husband or the way she looks at Amol.
The story actually is like a breeze and u feel sad for Charu - not the melancholy type of sadness (if u know what I mean) because u must remember she has a loving husband who has no time for her whatsoever and realizing this he asks Amol to look after her.

My favorite scene is the one in the garden where Charu is on the swing and looks at Amol through her opera glasses -it is then u start realizing that she is in love with Amol -heard that this was a 8 minute long sequence but with no dialogues spoken at all!

'nother scene worth mentioning is when Amol's work gets published and Charu locks herself and is suddenly teary-eyed -I think any woman can relate to this feeling -tears because of jealousy.
But one thing I pondered 'bout was what exactly did Amol feel for her? Perhaps I must read Tagore's original story to find it because in the movie u get so engrossed in Charu's feeling that u dun seem to care 'bout anyone else but her.

Never before have I seen love depicted so beautifully -there is no mention of it whatsoever but the small acts of everyday life bring out the feeling so beautifully.
Charulata is a must-watch for anyone who enjoys watching a beautiful and well-made movie.

I think this is just the beginning of my foray into Satyajit Ray's works, I’m now eager to watch all his major works, all the while ensuring that I bug u people ‘bout it….

I've alwayz depended on the kindness of Strangers

Been wanting to write ‘bout a couple of movies I’ve watched over last few weekends and the moment has finally arrived –(in the order that they have been viewed)  

• Rear Window


• The Apartment


• A Clockwork Orange and


• A Streetcar Named Desire

Rear Window is a very different Hitchcock movie – there is no denouement whatsoever but the dialogues were quite entertaining esp. those of Lisa and Jeff… like this one :
        Jeff: When am I going to see you again?
        Lisa: [angry] Not for a long time...
              [softening]
        Lisa: at least not until tomorrow night.

The Apartment was a witty movie and quite entertaining but I somehow did not like the happy ending of the movie – my morbid self would have enjoyed it better had it been sad.

And what do I say ‘bout the Clockwork Orange – scandalous stuff but definitely food for thought. Here I must mention that I did not feel even an ounce of remorse for Alex –I thought he deserved every bit of the punishment meted out to him.

Aha! So I come to the best at the last –A Streetcar Named Desire – having read the play long back I was so eager to watch this movie and I loved every bit of it.
It has found a special niche in my list of favorite movies (not to forget mentioning the special place in my heart reserved for Marlon Brando). Vivien Leigh looked every bit of Blanche Dubois (I believe she had that paranoia even in her real life).
And what amazing dialogues, boy! Each of them ought to be soldered onto your head:

Stanley Kowalski: (refusing to acknowledge Blance’s beauty) I never met a dame yet that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and there's some of them that give themselves credit for more than they've got.

Blanche DuBois: I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.

Blanche DuBois: Straight? What's 'straight'? A line can be straight, or a street. But the heart of a human being?

Stanley Kowalski: You know what luck is? Luck is believing you're lucky, that's all... To hold a front position in this rat race, you've got to believe you are lucky

And the most touching one of them all

Blanche DuBois: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers…..

Ships that pass in the night

the ambience was set....I sat huddled up on the carpet with those fabIndia cushions for comfort n leaned against the sofa, a cuppa ginger tea in one hand and the remote in another, I pressed 'Play'.

only then I realized that Charlotte also sits huddled up except that she is in a luxurious suite of the Hyaat n I'm at home.(question to self :Is sitting huddled up a sign of loneliness???)
for the next hour and a half I was totally Lost in 'Lost In Translation' - awesome! is the apt word for this movie but all u happy-n-in-love ppl might find it an absolute drab piece of work because it is set at the same pace as any Shabana Azmi/Smita Patil movies of the 80s.

Loneliness is something so difficult to capture on screen and I think Sophia Coopola has done a wonderful job of it.
While I laughed (I think a lille more than necessary) at the jokes of Bob Harris (esp, the ones in the bar), I really sympathized with Charlotte's confusion as to where her life is leading to.

jus when the screen came alive with those 2-3 second scenes of the Strip Club, in walks my maid! the timing wouldn’t have been better -that she had to enter in the only scene of the otherwise clean movie shows how right Murphy is (Bless his Laws) and I have to put up with her looks of 'I know what type of movies u watch' throughout the week.

back to the movie - I think I actually liked the way they maintain their friendship without spoiling it with unnecessary romance - two ppl who relate to each other because of their desolation in an alien land,
like (in the words of H.W.Longfellow )
"Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence."

My personal favorite is the one where they meet for lunch (after Bob's night with the singer) and Charlotte says 'perhaps because u can relate to her better' and
Bob says 'Doesn’t anyone ever give u the attention u want? '
(and immediately I say mentally 'but not from the one we seek’)
Of course the last shots were brilliant, Murray really wins hands down by conveying his desperation, to bid goodbye to her, thro’ his eyes which follows Charlott who takes the elevator in a nonchalant way without another glance.
another of those lines which I luved
Charlotte: Let's never come here again because it will never be as much fun.

all in all i wud give this movie a 5/5 because of the brilliant acting and direction.
But one thing which has left me wondering is ,in the last scene
“what does Bob whisper into Charlotte's ears which makes her smile ?” Any guesses?

Pah-hey-lee

(Disclaimer - for all those who thought Paheli was a chick-flick or worse it's just 'nother of those stupid fantasy movies -puleeeze get back to your work/studies/college/browsing or to whatever u were doing before.)

I'm not a major TeeVee buff but the minute I hear the sound of an Amol Palekar movie then I stop whatever I'm doing (some of the aforementioned things) and stay glued to the idiot box. I mean i dont mind watching a re-run of GolMaal, Gharonda, Choti Si Baat or Baaton Baaton Mein instead of some stupid movie called "Kuch Kuch something something.."

Who else but Amol Palekar could make me courageous enough to endure SRK's histrionics and also appreciate Rani's non-existent beauty! BUT No Regrets ...

The story for a change is - ghost meets girl, ghost falls in love, ghost gets the girl and they live happily ever after!
Laachi (Rani Mukerjee) is the newly wed bride of Kishan(SRK #1).
She is just like any woman -with a million (nope, make it a zillion) dreams in her eyes when she enters her marital world. Alas! All Kishan seems to be interested is Money and sets off to some faraway land for 5 looooooong years.
Enter the frendly ghost (SRK #2, yes Casper does have a competitor) who takes the form of Kishan and enjoys marital bliss with Laachi, until the real one (confused??i mean SRK #1) returns n claims that he is the real Kishan.

Well the point here is not the story (ok, at least not for me) but a woman's eternal search for her perfect man.
Also I like the way the audience is manipulated -they actually starts believing that the ghost is the ideal partner for Laachi.
Imagine instead of a ghost had Laachi had an affair with another man, just because her husband does not live upto her expectations, then the moral police would have brought up their cudgels; but camouflage it with a hubby-look-alike and we have people enjoying the romantic antics of the ghost and wishing fervently that the ghost gets the woman in the end.

Kudos to Mr.Palekar for bringing the beauty of Rajasthan to celluloid -
Colorful Rajasthani dresses, ethnic folk music, amazing choreography and lovely colors of the desert it is indeed a visual treat for the eye.
I only wished that he could have done away with horrors like Sunil Shetty (he seems to grow uglier with each movie-wonder whatz the secret!)

Seems the good ghosts have entered Bollywood finally or shall I say the ideal/romantic guy is nothing but an illusion and is well represented by a ghost.

the mind of an unmarried woman

Finally I gave up resisting the urge of writing ‘bout Parineeta.
A gud lesson I learnt is never to watch a movie after reading like a zillion revus on it, but cant help it, usually I’m one of those who just manages to take a peek before the movie leaves the theatres. Going by those standards, it is still ok.

Itz an okey dokey, once watchable type of movie but what I missed most was the total lack of romance in it (please don’t mention the scenes of passionate love making)
Wat I mean is watever happened to woh nazare churanaa, sharmana , nakhre karna, musukurana type of romance? Devdas scores high on those points.

Sanjay Dutt n Dia Mirza were big turn offs of the movie. Sanjay Dutt looked old enough to be Vidya Balan’s father.
Hope VidyaB is not a one movie wonder n we get to see more of her.
Also this flick got me thinking ‘bout overhauling my wardrobe –include more of salwaar suits esp. those with low-cut backs hanging on for their dear life onto some kinda “dooris”(strings).

These lines of Galib from this movie refuse to leave the bylanes of my memory

hum saans lethe hai to charcha ho jaata hai
woh katal bhi karte hai to kabhar nahi hoti