As they say, save the best for the last. It certainly does apply to the year gone by.
In the wee hours of the morning of the 31st, main to phir se maama ban gaya! Minal (my sister) and Yogesh (a dear dear friend) were blessed with a baby girl.
Swar, the right note- what an apt name!
What a fantabulous way to end 2008 and start 2009. Happy New Year to all of you out there. May peace and prosperity prevail in the times to come.
Cheers.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Ghajini was killed
Find him. Kill him.
Revenge! Mr. Murgadoss, I want revenge! You've murdered Ghajini. Brutally.
Now I know why the usually reclusive Aamir went crazy with the publicity campaign of this movie. It simply wouldn't have survived otherwise. As it is, there always is a keen anticipation for the annual (now a carefully worked out pattern) Aamir Khan movie. Add to that a super-duper hyped massive publicity campaign. Get Aamir on the airwaves to talk about anything and everything, even if it is something as stupid & banal as look-look-I-pumped-iron-for-18-months-every-single-day.
I mean, come on. You expect some more class from Aamir. Over the years, for good reason, Aamir has become synonymous with quality cinema - right from QSQT to TZP, his resume sparkles with some absolute gems. Agreed, there were duds too, but the sincerity of the effort was always there. The reason why a particular movie was being made was genuine, 9 times out of 10. Mangal Pandey was a disaster, but Aamir gave 4 years of his absolute prime to the movie. Such was the effort.
Ghajini, am afraid, is a big, big blot on an otherwise impressive resume.
The intention here clearly seems to be to only pure commercial success. While that's a fair deal in its own place and the movie has clearly managed to achieve that goal, seeing Aamir jump on the bandwagon is a little hard to digest. And kinda sad too.
The movie has no consistent graph, the characters are massively poorly sketched, the loopholes are of the glaring-in-your-face variety (lets not even get talking about these) and overall, the movie just fails to grip you as a viewer. You don't even feeling like rooting for the protagonist or don't care if the villain gets bumped off in the end - both these qualities darned essential for the so called 'masala action' movie genre Ghajini claims to be a part of.
The romance is wafer-thin. Absolute zero chemistry between Aamir and Asin, who for some reason is a tone or two louder than the scene demands. Maybe the director asked her to continue in the same vein, as she did in the Tamil version of the movie. Mr Murgadoss, when you remake a movie in Hindi, it isn't just about changing the dialogues to a different language, the characters also need to be reworked to adapt to the new audience you are trying to cater to. Lessons learnt the hard way, I guess.
And then there's Ghajini - the baddie. For a movie that places so much importance on the titular bad guy, the choice of the actor had to be absolutely spot on. And they choose Pradeep Rawat? He's the same guy who played Sultan in the brilliant Sarfarosh and the Teja, the sardar fast-bowler in Lagaan - while he is a fine actor in such bit and piece roles, to say that he is simply miscast in and as Ghajini would be an understatement.
For a role that is supposed to justify Aamir beefing up to eight pack abs and transforming into a man possessed, the movie demanded a villain who could induce the kind aura and wrath that Ghajini is supposed to. If I were to think of casting this one, a few names that come to mind - the first name that springs up is Irrfan Khan, perhaps a KK Menon could work too, Nana Patekar too would be a decent choice I guess. Or how about choosing another mainstream A-list actor - say an Ajay Devgan? Or bring back a forgotten actor - Ashish Vidyarthi, where art thou?
Or if you really wanted this to be a good v/s bad quintessential Hindi movie, just go back to the old tried, tested and spectacular 'bad man' himself, Gulshan Grover?
But not Pradeep Rawat man. No way. And also, like Asin's character, I think Ghajini's character should also have been plotted differently. The loud, gold-chain-hanging-around-his-neck, white trousers-and-shoes-to-match look just doesn't work. Ends up looking more like a caricature than a goon. And what's with the totally out of place UP-Bihar accent? Sheesh.
And how can I forget the perfectionist himself? Mr. Khan, as much as your dedication to the craft is tremendously commendable, do you really think this role demanded sculpting a body like you have? Alas, the movie just doesn't end up doing justice to the blood and sweat you've dripped by the bucketfuls in the gym.
While Aamir's acting is pretty decent, we've been accustomed to expect much more. Stories of his total involvement in all departments of the movie are legendary and perhaps that's why, Ghajini's failure on the character, script and screenplay level hit me real hard.
After watching this movie, I couldn't help you-tubing for the Tamil counterpart. And while I just watched about 10-12 minutes of the same, that movie appeared so much more gripping. I guess mainly because the Surya-Asin jodi seemed so much real. This role clearly needed a younger actor - Hrithik, perhaps? John, well, maybe not? May be a brooding Abhishek? Or a toned-up Imran Khan for all you know! Who knows, the movie could have just worked.
Another thing that stood out was how well lit the Tamil shots were as compared to Ravi Chandran's work for the Hindi version. The cinematography is perhaps over-done, with too much emphasis on dark, grey and dull shots to convey the movie's tone. The background score too appeared more in-sync with the visuals in the Tamil version.
Reasons aside, Ghajini, as a complete package, just didn't work for me. At the end the movie, I had to really pinch myself to believe that this was supposed to be the most awaited movie of the year! What a letdown man, what a let down..
I guess I will have to watch a Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Sarfarosh or an Andaz Apna Apna (all so-called masala flicks in their own right, mind you) to cleanse my system & reinstate my belief in Aamir Khan, the actor. Ghajini has dented that with the blow of an iron-rod.
Sameer's Stars - 1 on 5.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
D. It is written
It is written - it certainly is. Bloody-well brilliantly written, at that.
The screenplay of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is certainly deserving of the above accolade. And much more than that - an Academy honor, perhaps?
Well, Oscar mania aside, Slumdog is a superb motion picture. Right from its riveting screenplay, to wonderfully cast non-actors, a terrific soundtrack (that man Rehman, at it again), exquisite camerawork and above all, a throbbing, passionate soul that bares itself to you so splendidly, that as a viewer, you sometimes find a lump go down your throat. Really, you couldn't ask for more. This is as wholesome a cinematic experience as it gets.
I haven't read Vikas Swarup's QnA to decide how much of it has been translated onto the screen, but I know for a fact that the movie has perhaps taken the written text to an altogether different level. But to give credit to Vikas, the basic premise of the story is a sure shot winner. Clearly inspired by hours of being glued to the telly watching AB and SRK dole out KBC magic, Vikas seems to have struck gold with the story idea - what if, each and every question posed to you on that hot-seat was interlinked with your life in some manner, the answers to which are a slice of your own freaking life. As if every moment of your living life has been a prep for these very set of questions. It is all written, as they say.
More than the story, the beauty lies in the execution. The editing pattern, though predictable after a point of time - cutting to the flashback story for every question that Anil Kapoor, the quiz show host (the actor clearly enjoying himself), or Irrfan Khan, the police inspector (almost sleepwalking through his part as if he were a veteran of such cinema) poses - still does work very well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire duration of the movie - a rare feat these days.
Some of the scenes just grab you by the scruff of your collar and shake you up so bad with the starkness and realism, that you cringe in your seat. I can't remember the last time when I had to close my eyes and look down in the darkness of the theatre to let a scene pass by. Slumdog did that to me. Shook me out of my confines. One of my friends was in tears. I thought there was a real danger of her running out of the theatre, sobbing inconsolably, but thankfully, she pulled through. God bless butter popcorn.
And then there are scenes, that please you to such an extent that you find yourself smiling loudly (not that ha ha ha kinda laugh) and clapping your hands, cheering for the onscreen protagonist. Like the kids playing a game of cricket on the outskirts of the airport's runway being chased by two portly policemen, Or Jamaal dropping a towering catch distracted by the roar of plane taking off, Or when a young Jamaal starts narrating a fictional story of how the Taj was built, Or when in the middle of the most brutal scene in the movie, the lil Jamaal suddenly stops after starting "darshan do ghanshyam" and with almost apologetic sincerity on his face demands his remuneration - "sorry sir, professional no?"
The acting, by almost everyone, is top grade. But I think the clear winners were the three kids who played Jamaal, Latika and Salim. Such endearing emotions & screen presence, that it leaves you no option but to really feel & root for their story as if you were watching a documentary based on their real life stories. Dev Patel is another actor who stands out. Fantastic portrayal of such complex emotions. Has that amazing air of determined underdog confidence about him. You can almost feel the air emanating from his nostrils, one deep breath after another, as his life asks him questions that no game show could ever match. He certainly is an actor to look out for in the future. Hopefully he won't fall into that cliched genre of playing ABCD characters, caught between the eternal battle of lifestyle v/s values, living in the US of A. He seems much more capable than that.
And then there's AR Rehman. From the opening strains of "o saaya" accompanying the title credits to the bouyancy of Sukhwinder's "jai ho" at the finale, ARR is in top form. Make way for the Golden Globe and perhaps the Grammy too. Also credited for the magical background score, Rahman the whizkid, directly transports you from your seat to the middle of the nail-biting, sweat and blood dripping action. Utter genius.
On the technical front, Slumdog is an amalgamation of some fine work - the cinematography has that almost hand-held feel to it, perfectly playing the fly-on-the-wall, never trying to overpower the story. The editing is razor sharp, with 1-2 second closeup cuts that just let you peep into the emotion and leave you gasping for more. The production designer would have had a nightmare of a job on this one, with almost over 50-60% of the movie shot on almost-impossible-to-shoot-without-a-mishap outdoors locations across the country. But whoever has done the job, has done it fantastically - you should really be proud of this one.
Danny Boyle, the director, has managed to capture the underbelly of Bombay as if he was born and brought up in this city. He masterfully captures the core lessons the city of Bombay teaches its inhabitants - street smartness, survival of the fittest, that money - like or it not - does make the world go around, the man with the gun has the final word & adaptability, without losing that solitary ray of eternal hope, in the most adverse of circumstances. Slumdog Millionaire is a fine tribute to Bombay - the most magical city on this planet!
I was supposed to go home this December and couldn't due to some logisitcal reasons, but Slumdog ensured that for those 2 hours, I was magic-carpeted from Portland to Bombay. In the middle of it all - the chaos, the crowds, the cacophony. Kudos to that magical quality of well crafted cinema :)
And finally, as the folks at MasterCard have been framing it over the years -
A large tub of butter popcorn - $6
Cocktails for three - $30
Watching fantastic cinema with friends on a beautiful snowy Friday evening, for free, courtesy gift tickets from inane dentist referrals - literally, priceless!
The screenplay of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire is certainly deserving of the above accolade. And much more than that - an Academy honor, perhaps?
Well, Oscar mania aside, Slumdog is a superb motion picture. Right from its riveting screenplay, to wonderfully cast non-actors, a terrific soundtrack (that man Rehman, at it again), exquisite camerawork and above all, a throbbing, passionate soul that bares itself to you so splendidly, that as a viewer, you sometimes find a lump go down your throat. Really, you couldn't ask for more. This is as wholesome a cinematic experience as it gets.
I haven't read Vikas Swarup's QnA to decide how much of it has been translated onto the screen, but I know for a fact that the movie has perhaps taken the written text to an altogether different level. But to give credit to Vikas, the basic premise of the story is a sure shot winner. Clearly inspired by hours of being glued to the telly watching AB and SRK dole out KBC magic, Vikas seems to have struck gold with the story idea - what if, each and every question posed to you on that hot-seat was interlinked with your life in some manner, the answers to which are a slice of your own freaking life. As if every moment of your living life has been a prep for these very set of questions. It is all written, as they say.
More than the story, the beauty lies in the execution. The editing pattern, though predictable after a point of time - cutting to the flashback story for every question that Anil Kapoor, the quiz show host (the actor clearly enjoying himself), or Irrfan Khan, the police inspector (almost sleepwalking through his part as if he were a veteran of such cinema) poses - still does work very well. It keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire duration of the movie - a rare feat these days.
Some of the scenes just grab you by the scruff of your collar and shake you up so bad with the starkness and realism, that you cringe in your seat. I can't remember the last time when I had to close my eyes and look down in the darkness of the theatre to let a scene pass by. Slumdog did that to me. Shook me out of my confines. One of my friends was in tears. I thought there was a real danger of her running out of the theatre, sobbing inconsolably, but thankfully, she pulled through. God bless butter popcorn.
And then there are scenes, that please you to such an extent that you find yourself smiling loudly (not that ha ha ha kinda laugh) and clapping your hands, cheering for the onscreen protagonist. Like the kids playing a game of cricket on the outskirts of the airport's runway being chased by two portly policemen, Or Jamaal dropping a towering catch distracted by the roar of plane taking off, Or when a young Jamaal starts narrating a fictional story of how the Taj was built, Or when in the middle of the most brutal scene in the movie, the lil Jamaal suddenly stops after starting "darshan do ghanshyam" and with almost apologetic sincerity on his face demands his remuneration - "sorry sir, professional no?"
The acting, by almost everyone, is top grade. But I think the clear winners were the three kids who played Jamaal, Latika and Salim. Such endearing emotions & screen presence, that it leaves you no option but to really feel & root for their story as if you were watching a documentary based on their real life stories. Dev Patel is another actor who stands out. Fantastic portrayal of such complex emotions. Has that amazing air of determined underdog confidence about him. You can almost feel the air emanating from his nostrils, one deep breath after another, as his life asks him questions that no game show could ever match. He certainly is an actor to look out for in the future. Hopefully he won't fall into that cliched genre of playing ABCD characters, caught between the eternal battle of lifestyle v/s values, living in the US of A. He seems much more capable than that.
And then there's AR Rehman. From the opening strains of "o saaya" accompanying the title credits to the bouyancy of Sukhwinder's "jai ho" at the finale, ARR is in top form. Make way for the Golden Globe and perhaps the Grammy too. Also credited for the magical background score, Rahman the whizkid, directly transports you from your seat to the middle of the nail-biting, sweat and blood dripping action. Utter genius.
On the technical front, Slumdog is an amalgamation of some fine work - the cinematography has that almost hand-held feel to it, perfectly playing the fly-on-the-wall, never trying to overpower the story. The editing is razor sharp, with 1-2 second closeup cuts that just let you peep into the emotion and leave you gasping for more. The production designer would have had a nightmare of a job on this one, with almost over 50-60% of the movie shot on almost-impossible-to-shoot-without-a-mishap outdoors locations across the country. But whoever has done the job, has done it fantastically - you should really be proud of this one.
Danny Boyle, the director, has managed to capture the underbelly of Bombay as if he was born and brought up in this city. He masterfully captures the core lessons the city of Bombay teaches its inhabitants - street smartness, survival of the fittest, that money - like or it not - does make the world go around, the man with the gun has the final word & adaptability, without losing that solitary ray of eternal hope, in the most adverse of circumstances. Slumdog Millionaire is a fine tribute to Bombay - the most magical city on this planet!
I was supposed to go home this December and couldn't due to some logisitcal reasons, but Slumdog ensured that for those 2 hours, I was magic-carpeted from Portland to Bombay. In the middle of it all - the chaos, the crowds, the cacophony. Kudos to that magical quality of well crafted cinema :)
And finally, as the folks at MasterCard have been framing it over the years -
A large tub of butter popcorn - $6
Cocktails for three - $30
Watching fantastic cinema with friends on a beautiful snowy Friday evening, for free, courtesy gift tickets from inane dentist referrals - literally, priceless!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
main dardi, rab rab kardi...
I feel sorry for you YashRaj, I really really do.
The harder you try, the harder you fall. The more you try to be "with it", the further behind you trail.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is living proof of that. What did you guys set out to make? And did you folks actually keep awake through all the trails before release? Or didn't you guys actually see this one before unleashing it on us all?
The movie has no grammar, no consistent pitch. Nothing. Heck, it is not even remotely entertaining. Just a badly put together idea, which I guess Aditya came up with while watching Nach Baliye reruns in his plush office.
Truth be told, it is a very average movie, at best. Just about average. And for that too, you should thank SRK, the character. Or as he's known in this movie, Surinder Sahni. He's the only one your heart reaches out to in some scenes. That's about it - the rest of the movie is pretty banal.
Especially, the lead female character, Taani. I mean, what is she upto? What does she really want? Does she even understand what marriage means? Two days after her eventful wedding to Sahni, she tells Sahni, that she will never be able to love him. But she will try to be a good wife. Whatever that means! I guess making egg toast in the morning and packing lunch in a yellow tiffin pretty much seals the deal for her. I mean, hello!! What age is she living in?
And when the Raj (Arrrrggghhh!) character tries to get close to her during their dance practice sessions, she very coolly lets him. Romps around the city on his motorbike in pouring rain, shares golgappas, chides him for flirting with her - all of this, without even mentioning to him even once that she is married. She maybe doesn't consider it a big enough part of her life anyways.
The characterization is pathetic. Not once do I as an audience feel for her. Or for what she feels. Anushka does a decent job, looks nice in salwar suits, dances well too. But it ends there. With such an ill-written role, there isn't much she could have done.
And coming to good ol' Raj - why, I mean guys, why? Why does your definition of cool always have to be Raj? Or Rahul? Or watever! But sorry to disappoint you, this dude isn't cool by any stretch of imagination. What was this character supposed to be - a suave cool dude or an irritating jerk? Even if you guys didn't think through, he turns out to be pretty much the latter. Annoying has a new name - Raj.
And Suri, though a nice warm character, isn't far in the stupidity game either. I mean, a guy doesn't understand what "macho" means, but keeps ranting sexy all the time in his other pseudo-trying-to-be-cool-actually-a-pain-in-the-butt avtaar, Raj. Have some consistency guys, please?? Else, don't make cinema.
To give credit where its due, some scenes, mostly all featuring the Suri character do bring a smile on you face. That's coz SRK packs in loads of earnest emotions and a wee bit of helplessness into the character. Your hurt does go out to him. But such moments are few and far in between.
And Aditya, oh my dear Aditya! What is wrong with you son? People might say that you are still in your DDLJ hangover, but if that truly were the case, you'd have made a decent movie at least. Not this excuse-of-a-movie. What happened to your sense of story, screenplay, characterization and most of all - music? DDLJ's music is still a must have on any iPod, but the less said about your song selection in RNBDJ, the better. Not one song stands out. Sad, very sad. Even technically, the movie is plain average. The sets, dances, nothing is worthy of a mention.
And what about those in-house references? In one or two movies, a lil bit of in-house humor looks cheeky. But that's it. Why stretch it like this? Everything from DDLJ, DTPH and even Dhoom (holy mother of God!) is referenced.
This marriages are made in heaven idea (or by the rab, as they would've liked to call it), if handled maturely and sensitively could have yielded some touching cinema, but you guys have squandered the chance big time. And how. Forget Sahni's love story, they would have done better with the Almighty penning down the story of the movie for starters.
So the most dependable trick in the bag - the Aditya-SRK combo has fallen flat has well. Now what YashRaj, now what? I suggest going back to the drawing board, getting a new fresh crew, in all departments, and really really taking a closer look at the kinda cinema you guys chose to put your emblem on. There's enough talent out there, waiting for that once chance. You folks can now reinvent yourselves, coz honestly, the time has come. It really really has.
DDLJ was 14 years back. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. Grow up, Aditya, grow up. Coz you know what, the audience has.
We would have loved to remember you as the man who gave us DDLJ. But with Mohabbatein and now this one, you're making the task extremely difficult for us.
Oye rab, Aditya nu samajh de thodi!
The harder you try, the harder you fall. The more you try to be "with it", the further behind you trail.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is living proof of that. What did you guys set out to make? And did you folks actually keep awake through all the trails before release? Or didn't you guys actually see this one before unleashing it on us all?
The movie has no grammar, no consistent pitch. Nothing. Heck, it is not even remotely entertaining. Just a badly put together idea, which I guess Aditya came up with while watching Nach Baliye reruns in his plush office.
Truth be told, it is a very average movie, at best. Just about average. And for that too, you should thank SRK, the character. Or as he's known in this movie, Surinder Sahni. He's the only one your heart reaches out to in some scenes. That's about it - the rest of the movie is pretty banal.
Especially, the lead female character, Taani. I mean, what is she upto? What does she really want? Does she even understand what marriage means? Two days after her eventful wedding to Sahni, she tells Sahni, that she will never be able to love him. But she will try to be a good wife. Whatever that means! I guess making egg toast in the morning and packing lunch in a yellow tiffin pretty much seals the deal for her. I mean, hello!! What age is she living in?
And when the Raj (Arrrrggghhh!) character tries to get close to her during their dance practice sessions, she very coolly lets him. Romps around the city on his motorbike in pouring rain, shares golgappas, chides him for flirting with her - all of this, without even mentioning to him even once that she is married. She maybe doesn't consider it a big enough part of her life anyways.
The characterization is pathetic. Not once do I as an audience feel for her. Or for what she feels. Anushka does a decent job, looks nice in salwar suits, dances well too. But it ends there. With such an ill-written role, there isn't much she could have done.
And coming to good ol' Raj - why, I mean guys, why? Why does your definition of cool always have to be Raj? Or Rahul? Or watever! But sorry to disappoint you, this dude isn't cool by any stretch of imagination. What was this character supposed to be - a suave cool dude or an irritating jerk? Even if you guys didn't think through, he turns out to be pretty much the latter. Annoying has a new name - Raj.
And Suri, though a nice warm character, isn't far in the stupidity game either. I mean, a guy doesn't understand what "macho" means, but keeps ranting sexy all the time in his other pseudo-trying-to-be-cool-actually-a-pain-in-the-butt avtaar, Raj. Have some consistency guys, please?? Else, don't make cinema.
To give credit where its due, some scenes, mostly all featuring the Suri character do bring a smile on you face. That's coz SRK packs in loads of earnest emotions and a wee bit of helplessness into the character. Your hurt does go out to him. But such moments are few and far in between.
And Aditya, oh my dear Aditya! What is wrong with you son? People might say that you are still in your DDLJ hangover, but if that truly were the case, you'd have made a decent movie at least. Not this excuse-of-a-movie. What happened to your sense of story, screenplay, characterization and most of all - music? DDLJ's music is still a must have on any iPod, but the less said about your song selection in RNBDJ, the better. Not one song stands out. Sad, very sad. Even technically, the movie is plain average. The sets, dances, nothing is worthy of a mention.
And what about those in-house references? In one or two movies, a lil bit of in-house humor looks cheeky. But that's it. Why stretch it like this? Everything from DDLJ, DTPH and even Dhoom (holy mother of God!) is referenced.
This marriages are made in heaven idea (or by the rab, as they would've liked to call it), if handled maturely and sensitively could have yielded some touching cinema, but you guys have squandered the chance big time. And how. Forget Sahni's love story, they would have done better with the Almighty penning down the story of the movie for starters.
So the most dependable trick in the bag - the Aditya-SRK combo has fallen flat has well. Now what YashRaj, now what? I suggest going back to the drawing board, getting a new fresh crew, in all departments, and really really taking a closer look at the kinda cinema you guys chose to put your emblem on. There's enough talent out there, waiting for that once chance. You folks can now reinvent yourselves, coz honestly, the time has come. It really really has.
DDLJ was 14 years back. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. Grow up, Aditya, grow up. Coz you know what, the audience has.
We would have loved to remember you as the man who gave us DDLJ. But with Mohabbatein and now this one, you're making the task extremely difficult for us.
Oye rab, Aditya nu samajh de thodi!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
johnny walker, walking walking, old monk is talking talking...
Damn you, Raja Sen. Damn you. You beat me to it.
Though I was disappointed to have not seen your take on as yet on rediff, I have to admit I was glad as well - I finally had a chance to write my piece before reading yours and send you a link to my blog.
Then, this morning at my breakfast table, your review changed everything! At the end of a tired day at work, it has compelled me to finish through the review that I started writing a coupla days back, but one that keeps brewing inside my head, every time I watch even a single scene from this movie. Or hear a song. Which is like, everyday!!
But this isn't about you or me. It is about a masterfully executed piece of cinema, I cannot seem to get enough of.
Ladies and gentlemen, without an iota or shred of doubt, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye is my movie of the year 2008.
OLLO released at possibly the worst time it could have ever chosen for itself, but then that's just the way it is. After spending about 48 non-stop hours in front of IBN Live's webcast of the Bombay carnage, I headed out for some midnight Thanksgiving shopping. But not before I had started downloading OLLO from a torrent site.
Yeah, yeah, call me names, but I don't care. If you don't release Hindi movies in Portland (in spite of such a large Indian population), don't expect me to drive 200 miles to Seattle in the cold and rain to catch a movie. Or to wait till the official DVD is available. If OLLO had released in my vicinity, I would have watched it on the big screen at least half a dozen times by now. Trust me - I have watched Johnny Gaddar in San Francisco with only FOUR other people present in the theater during an afternoon show and then again a week later :P
Anyways, by the time I was back after shopping through the entire night, the download was complete and I was licking my lips in anticipation. After all, this was Dibakar Banerjee's second offing after the magnificent Khosla ka Ghosla. But more importantly, this time without Jaideep Sahani, who is busy raking in the moolah with Yashraj. To each their own, I guess.
So as I started the movie, rejuvenated by an espresso, I didn't really know whether my humongous expectations would be fulfilled. Second acts are always tricky. Always. The expectations were tremendous, but then how many people have delivered after a super-promising rocking debut movie. But thankfully, Dibakar has made his place in that elite list.
What a fine movie OLLO has turned out to be. Amazing amount of detailing, brilliant characterizations, sexily layered and understated, an effortlessly simple cinematic translation of man's deepest, darkest and most basic desires - acceptance. I mean, what more does one want from life, really?
The technique is innocuous to the point of being a stroke of good luck (pun unintended) - just see the way the camera falls on Lucky's air fighting sardar kid brother - it almost looks like it was a mistake. But no, certainly not. Every frame has been carefully created to create a unique grammar for the movie, something that's rarely seen these days in Hindi cinema - the last such effort I remember was Omkara.
Unknown actors, perhaps performing the best roles of their lives. Be it the phenomenal Manu Rishi, playing Bangali - lucky's faithful sidekick (koni mein lagi hai yaar, mummy promise!!), the coy greeting card girl (free fund mein paise kharch ho gaye tumhaare), Lucky's aunty mom (maine to mother ki feeling full full di hai), Dolly - the best of the lot (teri valuation kya hai??), inspector Devendar Singh (khabar tere paas hai, to de de, na hai, to laa de) or even Sonal & Dolly's mother - one karaare, karaare sequence and she steals the whole Goddamn show. Ensemble casting at its very very best. Today's JBDY, eh? :)
Abhay Deol shines brilliantly too. He totally sinks his teeth into the role and imparts such relatable flesh and blood into Lucky's character - its hard to imagine anyone else do this one. Abhay drips coolth and charm throughout the movie - its almost as if he mocking the entire star Bollywood brigade with his "kyon, main nahin kar sakta? ;) Kar sakta hai bhai, bilkul kar sakta hai !!!
Neetu Chandra nicely holds her own too, in every sequence that she is in. And then there's Paresh Rawal. Three of them, actually. As Lucky's angry Sardar dad, Gogi Bhai and Mr. Haanda - he excels in all three of them. It is interesting to see the shots edit back to back from Haanda, to Gogi to Lucky's Dad - all three played by Paresh himself. For once, a movie has an actor playing multiple roles and the identical looking characters not sharing screen space in a single frame. Goes to show that it wasn't a triple-role gimmick for gimmick's sake after all. I wouldn't expect anything otherwise.
The dialogues are massively special too -
"lucky yaar, syllabus mat change kar",
"ye log peete angrezi hain, karte desi hain",
"tata bano, taate ka beta nahin bano",
"sansanikhez!",
"usne maar diya, humne kha liya, aise hi to relation bante hain bhai",
"ek kaam kar, pehle calendar leke aaja"
...I will perhaps end up writing down the entire movie.
After shortlisting about 5 different titles for this blog post, I just couldn't help but use the line I eventually have. There's just something about this line and the rest of the entire OLLO soundtrack that brings a smile on my face everytime I hear it. Sneha Khanwalkar, where the hell have you been all this while !! Each and every track is dripping with a super effort and a fantastic understanding of the overall script and grammar of the movie. After quite a while, I have seen such tandem between the director and the music director.
Be it the vocals of tu raja ki raaj dulaari, the woof-woof opening lines & brilliance of the punjabi rap in superchor, the foot-tapping beats of the title track - each song is immensely special. But perhaps my song of the album is the magnificently rendered and orchestrated jugni. And what lyrics man, what lyrics -
na jeen tu mainu dendi hai,
na maran tu mainu dendi hai,
jugni, tap, tap, tap, tap khoon bahondi hai...
How the hell does one come up with such lines? This OST & the background soundtrack too, are full of sheer manical brilliance.
Do yourselves a favor & listen to the songs - here
Super-duper choice of the metaphorical chahiye thoda pyaar, thoda pyaar chahiye - isn't that what Lucky is looking for through the entire movie? And a few haunting strains from Surinder Kaur's beautiful & soulful akhniyan wich tu vasda - check out the entire song here on YouTube. Worth a hear. And more.
More than anything else, OLLO is a milestone in Dibakar Banerjee's career. This is his labor of love, all the freaking way. I can only imagine the fun he would have had making this movie. Every single step of the way. Pretty much like how Robal, Handa Saab's son, runs around like mad through the room with a helmet and a videogame joystick in Lucky's new full-full marble floored house. Unabashed joy.
Am eagerly awaiting the DVD release, hopefully with a directors commentary track - please, Dibakar, PLEASE. Make the DVD a collector's delight, like it rightfully deserves to be. Such cinema, rarely comes by.
And now, I have an addition to make to the list directors, whose crew I would love to be part of in any capacity - Vishal Bhardwaj, Farhan Akhtar, Sriram Raghavan & now, Dibakar Banerjee - oye brilliant, brilliant oye!!
Are you guys listening?? When will I get lucky? :)
Though I was disappointed to have not seen your take on as yet on rediff, I have to admit I was glad as well - I finally had a chance to write my piece before reading yours and send you a link to my blog.
Then, this morning at my breakfast table, your review changed everything! At the end of a tired day at work, it has compelled me to finish through the review that I started writing a coupla days back, but one that keeps brewing inside my head, every time I watch even a single scene from this movie. Or hear a song. Which is like, everyday!!
But this isn't about you or me. It is about a masterfully executed piece of cinema, I cannot seem to get enough of.
Ladies and gentlemen, without an iota or shred of doubt, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye is my movie of the year 2008.
OLLO released at possibly the worst time it could have ever chosen for itself, but then that's just the way it is. After spending about 48 non-stop hours in front of IBN Live's webcast of the Bombay carnage, I headed out for some midnight Thanksgiving shopping. But not before I had started downloading OLLO from a torrent site.
Yeah, yeah, call me names, but I don't care. If you don't release Hindi movies in Portland (in spite of such a large Indian population), don't expect me to drive 200 miles to Seattle in the cold and rain to catch a movie. Or to wait till the official DVD is available. If OLLO had released in my vicinity, I would have watched it on the big screen at least half a dozen times by now. Trust me - I have watched Johnny Gaddar in San Francisco with only FOUR other people present in the theater during an afternoon show and then again a week later :P
Anyways, by the time I was back after shopping through the entire night, the download was complete and I was licking my lips in anticipation. After all, this was Dibakar Banerjee's second offing after the magnificent Khosla ka Ghosla. But more importantly, this time without Jaideep Sahani, who is busy raking in the moolah with Yashraj. To each their own, I guess.
So as I started the movie, rejuvenated by an espresso, I didn't really know whether my humongous expectations would be fulfilled. Second acts are always tricky. Always. The expectations were tremendous, but then how many people have delivered after a super-promising rocking debut movie. But thankfully, Dibakar has made his place in that elite list.
What a fine movie OLLO has turned out to be. Amazing amount of detailing, brilliant characterizations, sexily layered and understated, an effortlessly simple cinematic translation of man's deepest, darkest and most basic desires - acceptance. I mean, what more does one want from life, really?
The technique is innocuous to the point of being a stroke of good luck (pun unintended) - just see the way the camera falls on Lucky's air fighting sardar kid brother - it almost looks like it was a mistake. But no, certainly not. Every frame has been carefully created to create a unique grammar for the movie, something that's rarely seen these days in Hindi cinema - the last such effort I remember was Omkara.
Unknown actors, perhaps performing the best roles of their lives. Be it the phenomenal Manu Rishi, playing Bangali - lucky's faithful sidekick (koni mein lagi hai yaar, mummy promise!!), the coy greeting card girl (free fund mein paise kharch ho gaye tumhaare), Lucky's aunty mom (maine to mother ki feeling full full di hai), Dolly - the best of the lot (teri valuation kya hai??), inspector Devendar Singh (khabar tere paas hai, to de de, na hai, to laa de) or even Sonal & Dolly's mother - one karaare, karaare sequence and she steals the whole Goddamn show. Ensemble casting at its very very best. Today's JBDY, eh? :)
Abhay Deol shines brilliantly too. He totally sinks his teeth into the role and imparts such relatable flesh and blood into Lucky's character - its hard to imagine anyone else do this one. Abhay drips coolth and charm throughout the movie - its almost as if he mocking the entire star Bollywood brigade with his "kyon, main nahin kar sakta? ;) Kar sakta hai bhai, bilkul kar sakta hai !!!
Neetu Chandra nicely holds her own too, in every sequence that she is in. And then there's Paresh Rawal. Three of them, actually. As Lucky's angry Sardar dad, Gogi Bhai and Mr. Haanda - he excels in all three of them. It is interesting to see the shots edit back to back from Haanda, to Gogi to Lucky's Dad - all three played by Paresh himself. For once, a movie has an actor playing multiple roles and the identical looking characters not sharing screen space in a single frame. Goes to show that it wasn't a triple-role gimmick for gimmick's sake after all. I wouldn't expect anything otherwise.
The dialogues are massively special too -
"lucky yaar, syllabus mat change kar",
"ye log peete angrezi hain, karte desi hain",
"tata bano, taate ka beta nahin bano",
"sansanikhez!",
"usne maar diya, humne kha liya, aise hi to relation bante hain bhai",
"ek kaam kar, pehle calendar leke aaja"
...I will perhaps end up writing down the entire movie.
After shortlisting about 5 different titles for this blog post, I just couldn't help but use the line I eventually have. There's just something about this line and the rest of the entire OLLO soundtrack that brings a smile on my face everytime I hear it. Sneha Khanwalkar, where the hell have you been all this while !! Each and every track is dripping with a super effort and a fantastic understanding of the overall script and grammar of the movie. After quite a while, I have seen such tandem between the director and the music director.
Be it the vocals of tu raja ki raaj dulaari, the woof-woof opening lines & brilliance of the punjabi rap in superchor, the foot-tapping beats of the title track - each song is immensely special. But perhaps my song of the album is the magnificently rendered and orchestrated jugni. And what lyrics man, what lyrics -
na jeen tu mainu dendi hai,
na maran tu mainu dendi hai,
jugni, tap, tap, tap, tap khoon bahondi hai...
How the hell does one come up with such lines? This OST & the background soundtrack too, are full of sheer manical brilliance.
Do yourselves a favor & listen to the songs - here
Super-duper choice of the metaphorical chahiye thoda pyaar, thoda pyaar chahiye - isn't that what Lucky is looking for through the entire movie? And a few haunting strains from Surinder Kaur's beautiful & soulful akhniyan wich tu vasda - check out the entire song here on YouTube. Worth a hear. And more.
More than anything else, OLLO is a milestone in Dibakar Banerjee's career. This is his labor of love, all the freaking way. I can only imagine the fun he would have had making this movie. Every single step of the way. Pretty much like how Robal, Handa Saab's son, runs around like mad through the room with a helmet and a videogame joystick in Lucky's new full-full marble floored house. Unabashed joy.
Am eagerly awaiting the DVD release, hopefully with a directors commentary track - please, Dibakar, PLEASE. Make the DVD a collector's delight, like it rightfully deserves to be. Such cinema, rarely comes by.
And now, I have an addition to make to the list directors, whose crew I would love to be part of in any capacity - Vishal Bhardwaj, Farhan Akhtar, Sriram Raghavan & now, Dibakar Banerjee - oye brilliant, brilliant oye!!
Are you guys listening?? When will I get lucky? :)
wahan kaun hai tera, musaafir, jaayega kahan...
Rediff has been pretty kind to me since more than 5 years and has let me publish my writings on Sam's World - thank you guys. Thank you very much.
That blog, with its title picture, et al. forms a part of my nostalgic memories, which I cherish very dearly. Always will.
But I guess, as with everything else, its time to move on. Or evolve. I think that's a better way to put it.
Folks, welcome to my new abode. For all it's worth.
And then some more...
That blog, with its title picture, et al. forms a part of my nostalgic memories, which I cherish very dearly. Always will.
But I guess, as with everything else, its time to move on. Or evolve. I think that's a better way to put it.
Folks, welcome to my new abode. For all it's worth.
And then some more...
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