Movie Review Aligarh

Movie Review - Aligarh

Last night when I watched the latest Hansal Mehta Biopic on Prof. Siras – Aligarh, I was compelled to write about it. Aligarh is a movie which needs not only to be seen, and written about but also talked about a lot – esp. in the current times of political and social upheaval.

Three things stand out in Aligarh – one about the social issue of equality, liberty and justice, the essential tenets of our constitution; Two the movie itself, esp. its direction, cinematography, editing and acting; And the third being about homosexuality – in that order.

In one dialogue form the movie, the editor calls the main incident of the movie, a sex scandal to which the young journalist responds that it is not a sex scandal but about human rights. This dialogue kind of sums the message of the movie.

While the theme of the movie and the real life incident has been has been characterized as being about homosexuality, but in reality this is more about how much of freedom exists for an individual to live as per his or her choices and how much over-arching is the social fabric and morality of the society on the personal spaces of an individual.

The preamble of our constitutions speaks about guaranteeing to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; Article 21 of the Indian constitution also gives to its citizen a fundamental right to privacy.

Can then, the collective morality of the society override this guarantee? That is the question which the movie raises. Aligarh, in its very subtle narrative brings out this point and how an individual actually is nothing in front of the mob mentality and the mob justice that seems to largely prevail in this country, esp. in the domains of religion, sexual preferences and more recently nationalism.

Aligarh is a movie to be seen with patience, to understand its layered messages and to understand the conflict that exists in the current times between simplicity and politics; between poetry and quick conclusions; between the essence and the word; between the various shades of gray the life is and the boxed black & white view of the world that the society wants to have. The society wants to label you either as a hero or as a villain. The human seems to get lost in between.

In terms of the movie, Aligarh is simply a masterpiece. A work of beauty created by Hansal Mehta, It can easily fall in the category of text book movies to learn about subtle direction, cinematography and editing.

The direction is so subtle that if you are not fully into the movie, you could miss a lot. The facial expressions of the artists, the way they are dressed in a particular scene, the camera angles used etc are very suggestive of the underlying narrative that is being told.

It is hard to write about these nuances, the best way would be for Hansal Mehta to release a “Making of Aligarh” as a potential tutorial for many aspiring movie makers and for movie buffs.

In terms of acting, this by far is the finest role done by Manoj Bajpayee. He so beautifully depicts the sense of isolation and alienation of Dr. Siras and what he goes through in a hostile society, where even his so called friends also refuse to help. Manoj give us a window to peep into the life of a person, who braves to be different at the same time who is also human, with his own needs of acceptance, inclusion, recognition and pride.

In a way, one gets to know Dr. Siras as a person and about his entire life, way beyond the events depicted in the movie.

Finally the last piece about – Homosexuality; Hansal Mehta and his team have done a brilliant job of not making a caricature of it and not boxing the protagonist in a small box.

The question that the movie raises is that while for a “normal” human being his or her sexuality is just one piece of his or her being, how come when it comes to homosexuals, their sexuality seems to be the only lens through which the society sees them. The movie, while exploring the sexuality of Dr. Siras does a complete justice to present the complete human that he was or anyone else could be. And how narrow the society gets, when it judges people only by one aspect of their life; not just judges, but admonishes them.

Kudos to Hansal and his team for such great cinematic achievement and a piece of art that they have created!

- Ameet Mattoo 4th March 2016

Movie Review: Queen through the prism of Gender Dynamics.

Queen is a story of a young girl Rani, who finds her independence after going through struggles, when her UK based fiancé refuses to marry her and to overcome the shock, she decides to go alone on her honeymoon to Europe. The movie depicts very subtle gender biases and the gender dynamics that exist in our society.

Plot:

Rani is from a very conservative family in Delhi. Two days before her marriage, her fiancé (Vijay) meets with her in a cafe and tells her that he no longer wants to marry her, claiming he has changed because of living in the UK, and she would not match his lifestyle anymore.
Shocked by this and the impact it would have on her and her family Rani shuts herself in her room for two days.
However, encouraged and supported by her family, she decides to take control of her life and plans to go alone on her pre-booked honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam.

During her Europe trip, she meets and befriends different kinds of people and in the process learns a lot about life and herself. In Paris, she meets an independent girl of Indian origin, Vijaylakshmi, who makes her feel confident about herself and helps her find courage. In Amsterdam she meets 3 men from different nationalities, with whom she shares a room.

With Oleksander, one of her room mates, she seemed to connect at a deeper level. Conversations with him makes her reflect on her life back home. She relives the memories of her fiancé patronizing her and forbidding her from doing things. These conversations and reflections and questions helps her discovers her own self.

She meets an Italian restaurateur, about whom she feels free to express her femininity and to some extent her sexuality, without getting caught in the morals of her back home reality.

Once by mistake, she accidentally sends a picture of hers in a modern outfit (what she considers as revealing) to her fiancé. Seeing the picture, the mind of her fiancé changes and he comes searching for her to Europe and wants her to get back to his life. Rani, however has moved on. She refuses to go back and prefers to live an independent life of her own.

 

Gender Dynamics:

Unaware of dependence / Never questioning the status quo:

While Rani may have found independence and also happiness in this independence, what is interesting is that she was unaware of her state of dependence and dis-empowerment in her life till she discovers herself. Her worldview was limited to getting impressed (pataov) by the guy, getting married, wanting the ceremony to go well, excitement about the 1^st night, what to do in honeymoonetc.

She seeks her fiancé’s and parental approval for most decisions of her life and she would never question this dynamics.This is one big issue in women in India; that they themselves are not fully aware of their own dis-empowerment and dependence and they would never question this social system.It is interesting that mostly the family does not have ill intentions for the girl. They think that they are doing good to the girl. They are unaware that in the name of safety, security, morality and tradition, they are actually disabling and disempowering the girl and making her incapable of managing her own life. As a result, there is always the need of a male support and approval that the women needs, be it in the form of father, brother or husband.
This in-turn limits the relationships she is able to have with men, beyond these pre-defined relationships.

More so, many girls simply introject the expectations unquestioningly and hence actually do look forward to such a life of dependence, since that is what they have been conditioned to think, as the route to happiness. In a way, they somehow enjoy this disguised slavery.

Only when Rani goes to Europe, she is able to discover the person she always was, but could never be. And she might have continued to never be, if her fiancé would not have left her.

This happened, since this was probably the 1st time Rani experienced life, without the burden of expectations that her family / social setup had on her. Finding herself free to do what she wanted to, emerged the possibility of finding herself.

 

Freedom to be:

Once after the party at a night club in Paris, Rani and her Indian origin friend Vijaylakshmi are in a taxi going back to their hotel and Vijaylakshmi burps. Rani is quite amused, how someone, esp. a girl can burp so unabashedly in open. She says “we are not allowed to do so”.

While in the movie, they had fun talking about it, what touched me the most was the innocence with which Rani speaks about what all the girls are not supposed to do India. I really felt sad at the moment.

It depicts how girls in India do not have freedom to be themselves; to just be. And how they have to comply and stifle themselves in order to follow the biased societal norms.

Freedom to decide:

In one scene, Rani asks her father that she would like to do a Job.
Rani’s father is seen getting nervous with her question. He tells her that she needs to ask Vijay (her fiancé) and let him decide.  Next she is seen having this conversation with Vijay. Obviously Vijay gets uncomfortable and tries to dissuade her from doing so. He tells her, what is the need for her to work, when he is earning; does she not have trust in him! Hence no need for her to work.
Rani agrees without too much of resistance.

This scene is contrasted in Rani’s conversation with Oleksander, when she tells him that she wants to do things that she would like to. Oleksander ask her, why does she not? Who is stopping her?
This makes Rani reflect about her freedom in life, to decide for herself.

An interesting dynamics of decision making in our society is shown, where girls don’t necessarily have the freedom to make decisions for themselves and how they seem to be subservient and dependent  on the men in their lives to decide for them and how they happily seem to accept this as their fate.

Support and Encouragement:

In one scene, Rani and her friends were out partying and all three of her friends are drunk by the time they leave. And then there is a cop, who asks all of them to leave immediately. Suddenly Rani finds herself on the driving wheel of the car, with the other friends not in a state to drive. Suddenly she is left with no option but to drive. She safely drives the friends back to the hotel.

This scene is contrasted with another scene, where Rani is seen learning to drive while her fiancé is sitting next to her. The fiancé is shown obviously getting irritated with Rani’s driving and is seen as discouraging her.

Even while the girls might be wanting to get freedom in some aspects of their life, do the men in their lives really encourage them to achieve it. Or are men busy discouraging and dousing any desire of independence and self-reliance that might be there.

Acceptance of Femininity sans morality:

When Rani lands in Amsterdam, she is shocked to learn that her friend vijaylaxmi has booked her in a hostel, where she would need to share the room with three unknown men. She is too scared of the thought; first she decides to leave the hostel, however not finding an alternate option, she sleeps in the lobby of the hostel.
She finds the idea of a young girl to share the room with three men completely shocking and going by the culture she comes from, completely immoral.

From getting to terms with eventually sharing the room with three men, Rani explores another aspect of her personality; that of her own femininity and romance. She is shown as having a crush on an Italian Restaurateur with whom she works in a cooking festival. She consummates this crush with nothing more than a kiss, her first one ever! She is able to do so without getting trapped in morality.

 

Reflection:
A very funny reflective moment for Rani happens when she is narrating a story to vijaylaxmi.
She tells vijaylaxmi how she has become like Gupta Uncle. “Gupta uncle has got Cancer. He never drank alcohol in his life; he never smoked; still he got cancer; wouldn’t it have been better if he had done so”.
She seems to be repenting on her state, that she did all that was supposed to be done by a “nice girl” in her family (and not do things she was not supposed to do) and still she got dumped. Might as well have done all that was not allowed to be done.

Male chauvinism:

Towards the end, Vijay comes to Europe, searching for her to bring her back to his life. However The attitude demonstrated is that of, “I can come back when I want and repossess you”; the guilt is minimal; He is very un-apologetic and wants her to come back immediately with him back to India.
And not wanting to know how she is feeling; what she must have gone through post the break-up; and what does it mean to be on a honeymoon, alone.

He behaves as if all this does not matter and now that he wants her back in his life she should just come back, as if nothing had happened.
Far from being apologetic, he is on the contrary seen as questioning Rani is a very deplorable manner as to how could she share a room with three men. He even scares her by asking “What if his mom comes to know, what she will think of her”. He also patronizes her by telling her, that she does not know how these foreigners are, what all they could do to her. Eventually the conversation gets worse and he tries to physically grab her and command her to come with him.

This was the low point (high point of male chauvinism) that was depicted in the movie, where the guy feels like he owns the girl. He is completely possessive of her and all that matters is how he thinks and feels and there is no space or sensitivity towards how the girl would be feeling.

Such a malecentric attitude of our society, where what the man wants and desires is of prime importance and the woman is just an object, which the man has to possess, when he desires to, for me is the root of all the gender bias that exists in our society.

Let Go:

The let go from the past finally happens on the last day, when Rani and her friends leave the hostel room. We get to realize that in the entire trip, Rani was carrying her wedding card in her purse.

When the friends leave the hostel room, tourists, as a custom, drop a piece of themselves in the room.
Rani, as a part of herself, pins-up her wedding card on the wall of the room.

This was very symbolic, of her moving away from her past life of dependence.

From Dependence to Independence

The character of Rani moves from a state of dependence to independence, (with a small stint of counter-dependence) (and of course not yet moving into the space of interdependence).
In the beginning, Rani is shown as completely dependent on her family for anything she does. Even when she has to go out, her Kid brother is there all the time. Anywhere she needs to go, her parents send her brother with him; including her first date with Vijay.

This phenomenon, which exists mostly everywhere in our society, reeks of huge amounts of gender bias; that a girl cannot manage herself alone; she needs a man’s presence to take care of her; even if the man is a small kid brother.

 After Vijay dumps Rani just before the wedding, Rani goes into a complete shock. She locks herself in the room and does not listen to her mother or father. She does reverse of what they say. These were her brief moments of counter-dependency.

When Rani goes to Paris, her friend vijaylaxmi helps her develop self-confidence which makes Rani get comfortable to be alone. Initially she had been contemplating of going back to India from Paris, since she was too scared to manage herself, she later get confidence to got to Amsterdam and continue her journey.

However this encounter with vijaylaxmi and Paris does not make her independent yet. At the railway station, to catch the train to Amsterdam, she is seen persuading vijaylaxmi to join her. She is seen very upset by the prospects of leaving vijaylaxmi behind.

While explicitly it comes across as an emotional loss of leaving a friend behind, it still demonstrates her dependence only that the dependence has shifted from her family to the new found friend.

Only after more experiences in Amsterdam, which include participating in a cooking competition along with the Italian cook; confronting Vijay and not going back with him to India and instead joining her friends in the rock show; does independence seep in and she starts to assert herself.
In her last evening in Amsterdam, while dancing in the rock show along with her three friend, her friends take her leave as they need to go someplace else.

In the next scene, Rani is not seen as gloomy, missing her friends. Instead she, after completing the farewell formalities, is back in the rock show and very happy and confident dancing alone.

According to me, this completed her cycle from dependence to Independence.

This independence gets demonstrated further, when back in India, she visits Vijay’s home. She chooses to leave him and returns the engagement ring. But now she is not stricken with remorse; she even goes as far as thanking him and having Gratitude for him, for giving her the opportunity to discover herself.
Had he not dumped her, she may never have found herself !

Ameet Mattoo
Aug 2014

Published in ISABS Newsletter "Here and Now" - Aug 2014
http://www.isabs.org/newsletter/aug2014/Here_n_Now_vol27__Aug2014.html   Page 8.

 

Golden Era of Indian Music

I know there is a strong risk of sounding blasphemous when I say this,
but I have come to believe that we going through the golden era of Indian Music.
You may not have noticed it that way; since the golden era is supposed to be
the 50s and the 60s and some part of 70s, when the Kishores and the Rafis
and the Burmans and the Latas and the Ashas were ruling the roosts;
Neither did I.

Last night, driving back home, my music system happened to pick-up
the Album D-DAY from a mix-song Hindi CD and my instant reaction was –
oh what crap, how can I listen to something like a D-day.

Probably I was too tired to change the track or it was just plain serendipity,
I let the song play. And the rest of the drive back home was sheer magic.
I listen to the track (Alvida), repeatedly over and over again.
And started telling myself, wow, how come I missed this music.
And the answer was simple, there are jewels hidden all around and that
happens only when you are living in a Golden Era.

There is so much good music available all around, that we are spoilt for choices.
And to keep track of all the music that is good seems tough!

I remember the 90s and the early 00s, we use to wait for some good Hindi music
to be released and feel blessed else had to be content with the Ghazals and the Sufis and the Classicals.

Today on the contrary, Bollywood is churning one amazing music album after another:
and most of them are soulful.

In 2014 alone, we have movies like Queen, Highway, Lootera which are great musicals in themselves.
Not just one song, but all the songs. While what attracts one, is the peppy ones of the album
(London Thumukda in Queen and Sawarn Loon in Lootera),
but what one gets pleasantly surprised is that the other numbers of the album are
one better than the other. (Manmarziya, Monta re etc of Lootera).
Even a cheap sounding movie like Hasi Tau Phasi, not only turned out to be a good movie,
but has had some good music too.


And to add to that, there is immense talent all around –
thanks to the popular media, the “rule of the few” (as was the case in the past) has ended.
When there is a Rehman – the God, churning out a beauty like Highway,
there is also Amit Trivedi with Queen and it is difficult to compare which is better.
Imagine there is challenge even for God himself.
So we are no longer dependent on a few to give us good music.
While Rehman and Shankar-Eshaan-Loy stand at the pedestal, at equal height is Amit Trivedi,
Hitesh Sonik, Clinton Crejo.

Same is true for singers. The days of dependency on a few singers are over.
This was proven true a few years ago, when Rahman decided to choose new comers
over Sonu Nigham in Rang De Basanti. I was left wondering for a long time,
what made Rehman to do so. How good would have the songs of Rang De sounded,
if Sonu had sung them!

Today, while Sonu is where he is, we also have singers like Amitabh Bhattacharya,
Benny Dayal, Arijit Singh et al, who are equally soulful.

And some part of the credit for this change definitely goes to MTV.
They changed the music scene in India when they introduced Coke Studio
and Unplugged for India. While these programs were already classics in the west
(and also pakistan), would they thrive in India was yet to seen.

And considering that the season 1 of coke studio did not create so much appreciation;
partially for the unfair comparison with already established coke studio Pakistan
and partially because of too much experimentation by Lisle Levis.
Still season 1 gave us classics like Aa Mil Yaar by Wadali brothers, Allah he Ream
by Sankar Mahadeven, Chittehya by Sunudhi and Oh Maaji re by Shaan,
which ensured that coke studio came back.
And season 2 onwards, it unleashed the potential of new age music composers
like Amit Trivedi, Hitesh Sonik and Clinton Crejo.

And suddenly we had kid singers like Devendra
Singh singing a classical like Nirmohiya along with Harshdeep Kaur and Vishal
Dadlani coming to his own along with Sonu Kakkar singing Madari Madari.

And by season 3, an epitome was reached with Rehman composed a mesmerizing
fusion of Karnatic music, Hindustani classical music, Sufi music and Western jazz
in the song Soz o Salaam sung by Padmabhushan Ghulam Mustafa Khan and family.

Today, there is no dearth of good music directors, lyrics writers or singers,
both in bollywood music and in independent music albums.
Many kids in India today are growing up aspiring to have a career in music;
a social trend which around a decade ago would have been looked down upon,
but parents today are fully supporting these kids. Wow!

Indeed this is a Golden decade and a Golden Era of Indian Music. Long live Music!

"Music is like Meditation. Listing to good music, listening to pure music, is like sitting in a temple and worshipping God”


Alvida, D-Day http://youtu.be/mnsznLWSYJs

May 29, 2014 at 11:25am

MOVIE REVIEW FIRAAQ

FIRAAQ - Communal Pornography
(This review got published in Filmfare and won the award for the Best Review).

I have been contemplating to write the review of FIRAAQ since quite some time now, but then I did want to promote the move, even by writing about it. However after reading a news article today in the Economic Times, I was motivated to write.

In its promotion, Firaaq claims to be “A work of fiction based on thousand true stories”. However today, the SIT (Special Investigation Team) of the Supreme Court of India has dismissed many of the cases as false stories. SIT says witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents, which have been doctored by activists like Teesta Setalvad. (Ref Economic Times, Delhi Edition 14th April 2009 “Setalvad in dock for ‘cooking up killings’”),

I am not a Narendra Modi supporter nor am I here to dispute the so called facts depicted in Firaaq. I was personally deeply hurt by what happened in Gujarat during Godra and post-Godra riots. Not because Hindus were killed or Muslims were killed. My pain was more, if i quote Nassarudin Shan from Firaaq itself, “Mujhay gham is baat ka hai, ki Insaan Insaan kau maar raha hai” (I am pained by the fact that a Human is killing another Human).

Nandita Das is a fine actor and even a very nice director. Firaaq is actually a very well directed movie. However the activist in her overshadows the director.

Firaaq is a completely biased version of the Godhra riots, painting almost all Hindus and all the Police force with the same brush. It projects all Muslims as victims and conveys the message the being a Muslim in Gujarat (and probably anywhere in India) is a crime.

I am not contesting what Firaaq had depicted is true or false. And that is not what hurt me. Even if it was true, what one has to consider is the motive behind such a movie and the display of gory details.

When a movie is made, it leaves a message for the people to assimilate in their consciousness. What message does Firaaq leave? In the current times of hostile environment in our country, far from leaving a message of possibility of peace, mutual respect and amicable future, Firaaq leaves all wounds open. It leaves Muslims with the feeling that they have been discriminated, challenged, killed, raped and are unwelcome anywhere. At the same time, it leaves Hindus with the feeling that it is not over yet. Muslims will get back to them, the revenge is pending and don’t ever trust them.

What kind of a message is this!

While some critics had called the much acclaimed “Slumdog Millionaire” as “poverty pornography”, I think FIRAAQ is social and communal pornography.

Ms Das, has tried to make a Schindler’s list about Gujarat.
But we are not taking about the German Holocaust of 1940es in 1990es, when once can afford to make a Schindler’s list, show gross and gory images and leave a message for people to think and contemplate - how savage men can get and we all need to be vary of this.
Firaaq has come in 2009 about a riot which happened in 2002, which is still very fresh in people’s minds. It does not evoke consciousness amongst masses - it evokes fear and revenge. It evokes vulnerability. Can we afford to evoke these feelings?

Firaaq is very well acted and very well directed movie. It has some of the finest performances by Deepti Naval as the helpless women who can not come to terms with the brutality around. Naseer is great as usual, as an eternal believer in love and peace. Sanjay Suri has played the role of a confused urban Muslim with finesse. Shahana Goswami continues to inspire with her acting. After Rock-On, this is one more brilliant performance from her.

All in all, Firaaq is a great movie in terms of acting and direction. However when a movie is made on such a serious subject, the director needs to keep in view the message he or she wants to portray and be sensitive to various point of views people would have about the subject.
Nandita has to lean that she would need to separate the activist in her from the director in her. Else she would not be able to do justice to either.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

Movie Review DEV D

A dark, bold, revolutionary love story.

There are three main aspects about Dev D that come out very strongly. -1, its path breaking screenplay, characterization and picturisation -2, its depiction of human character and -3, its direction.

Path Breaking Movie: Every once in a while comes a movie, which redefines the benchmark of various aspects of movie making.
Sholay in the 70’s redefined the Hero of Hindi movies, who wears Denim jeans, drives motorcycles and has a casual attitude and a casual lingo. All this in the magnificent 75mm frame. “Janbaaz” in 80’s redefined the boldness in the movies and the limits of love making between the hero and the heroine, that could be shown on-screen. It also had some mindblowing music and introduced the concept of foreign artists and English songs. Year 2002 saw “Kaante” redefining the language used in the movies. It introduced the concept of Item Numbers and stretched the acceptable limits of vulgarity, in the Hindi mainstream movies.

DEV D brings in a new limit of the language used by the characters, and the depiction of human behavior, sexual or other wise, which can be shown on screen. Most importantly it redefines the feminism in Hindi movies. The boldness of its two women protagonists, the acceptance and depiction of their sexuality and their assertion and clarity about what they want and how they think. DEV D is by far the most advanced "women’s lib" movies made by Hindi cinema. DEV D scores not just because of the shock value of the stuff that it shows, but because of a lot of substance that is there in every frame of the movie.

DEV D also introduces the concept of OST (Original Sound track) in a completely new avatar. The music is a cocktail of different genres. It is difficult to even call it a music album. It is romantic at times, at times folk, at times trashy and at time just noise – an amazing concoction.

Depiction of human character: DEV D is a movie that explores all possible shades of human character. It hammers in the point that there are no good people or bad people. People have a very grey shade to their character. In fact it depicts not one, but hundreds of shades of grey.
Our hero, Devdas – is he a hero? – is so much into self destruction, full of ego, male chauvinism, alcohol, drugs, womanizing … self centered – even after crushing innocent people to death under his car or the death of his father does not move him. He seems to be completely remorse less. At the same time he loves Paro so passionately, that you can feel his grief of getting separated from her. He romances with Chanda that you enjoy and smile with him.
Then there is Chanda, who moves from being an innocent 16 year old teenager to a suave commercial sex worker, who know how to manipulate her clients. And when you start thinking that is her, she displays her youthfulness, shows the pain she has inside and falls in love completely all over again.
At the end, one can not pick up who is the good and who is bad. They are all just so human.

Direction : DEV D is Anurag Kashyap’s canvas. He has shown his genius as a movie director. The hallmark of DEV D is its subtlety.
Unlike many Hindi movies, which keep on explaining every situation till even the dumbest of the dumb gets it, a lots of complex situations in DEV D have been depicted so subtly that you sometimes need to be an ardent movie watcher to have observed all the nuances.
The editing of DEV D is really jazzy giving it an international / new-world feel.
Anurag Kashyap also scores is his ability to extract performances from people, who don’t have a proven track record in acting.
By far this is Abhay Deol’s best performance so far. Even better than the great job he did in “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye”. However, the performances by new actresses Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin are completely mind blowing. They stand out. Both of them have done an amazing justice to their characters. They are the new bold, sexy, brainy brigade in Hindi cinema.

All in all, even though DEV D can not be called an entertainer, it keeps the audience engrossed – actually shocked. Though it tends to drag in between, overall it is gripping and will be remembered for a long time as a path breaking movie in Hindi cinema.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

Movie Review Ghajini

I am keeping this review very small, since my friend Sameer has already written a very nice review of it. (http://sameertikoo.blogspot.com).

As my friend has written Ghajini is a convoluted love story.
However i dont think the screenplay or the narrative of the movie is weak. It is the story itself which has altogether NO substance.

For me Ghajini is a very ordinary movie and its success is mainly due to the following three reasons :

-1. Aamir Khan's very suave performance.
He looks really cool as Sanjay Singhania. He dances like a young boy and romances like a charmer! He even shows a lot of penchant, while he kills.

-2. A very well paced script which does not let the movie drag.
Even though it is reminicent of skull breaking movies like Shiva and other Chiranjeevi movies, it never drags and keeps the audiances awake.

-3. And most importantly, since it is an Aamir Khan movie, people are sacred to openly call it an ordinary, since they don't want to sound stupid because "how can Aamir Khan movie be ordinary!"
Plus an amazing amount of publicity done for crores of rupees it has collected in record time, is ing enough for people to believe that it might actually be a good movie.

All in all, Ghajini, is a very ordinary paisa wasool, no brainer movie, far far below the standards, Aamir Khan has set for himself.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

MOVIE REVIEW : Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi : A well managed simple Love story.

The much awaited Shahrukh Khan starrer “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi” is here. It has come after a while since his last movie, OSO came last year. And it confirms why Shahrukh is considered the Super Star of Bollywood, with hardly any lows in his career.
RNBDJ also marks the comeback of Aditaya Chopra as a director. And what a comeback it has been. With an array of Yash Raj Films doing badly (Tashan, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, etc). I guess Aditya must have decided to say “Action” on his own, than to rely on the directors from outside.

RNBDJ has a very simple story line which unveils the unnoticed charisma of a very simple common man, mainly driven by his deep love. Though the story line has clichéd overtones of “marriage winning over love-affair” and “I cant cheat on my husband” stuff, but the way it has been managed prevents it from getting overly melodramatic.
The story line has been supported by one person playing two characters. SRK as a simple common man and SRK as the over the top macho flirt. The high point of RNBDJ is how Aditya Chopra has handled this dual characterization with ease, which is the central to the success of the movie.
We have seen in the past, many directors faulting in managing the dual character in the movie. Case in point, Rakesh Roshan’s, “Koi Mil Gaya”, where Hrithik plays a dual character of a born special child and then as a (cured) smart man. This went well only partially, that too mainly driven by Hrithik’s performance, however towards the end Rakesh couldn't manage it very well and there were instances where it was difficult to make out if Hrithik was playing the special child or a normal adult.
This is where Aditya gets the complete credit for the success of the movie. More so with the climax of the movie, where it looked not so simple to end it any other way than a clichéd bollywood ending. Aditya manages it very well and keeps the flow of the movie in control, making us really appreciate the whole stuff..

However one can not forget the contribution of Shahrukh’s acting. He continues to prove his versatility as an actor. His portrayal of Sanjay Sahani, a common man, working in Punjab Power as a clerk is simply flawless. Full marks to the costume designer Aki Narula who, with the kind of clothes provided to Shahrukh, (which includes the loose off-white shirt tucked inside pleated pants), makes him look like a real clerk form Punjab Power.
Till now, the zenith of a "common man" portrayal in Hindi movies could have easily been that of Anil Kapoor's in Eshwar, which though was aided by the mental abnormalities the character had. Shahrukh on the other hand, has no such abnormalities in his character, but he still manages a towering performance. I think after Swades and Chak De, this will be considered as his top performance.

The female lead Anushka Sharma has done a descent job. But a bit more glamorous lady won’t have done any harm to the movie. Or was it kept that way, to keep the focus only on Shahrukh? The only other main character in the movie is Vinay Pathak as Shahrukh’s friend. It is very nice to see him play a different role than his “Beja Fry”, “Dasvidaniya” character. It will help him a lot, not to get stereotyped.

The music of RNBDJ by Salim-Sulaiman is just OK and won’t be remembered for long. However RNBDJ has some very good choreography done by Shiamak Davar and Vaibhavi Merchant. Vaibhavi in particular has done an amazing job in the Hole Hole song with the camera following Shahrukh to various awkard places.

RNBDJ is a very different movie as compared to the other stuff that comes out of Yash-Raj Banner, having simplistic locations, mostly shifting between Shahrukh’s home, office and the Dance school.

All in all, RNBDJ is a very nice, well handled, well acted and a very well directed movie. Kuddos to Shahrukh Khan and Aditaya Chopra, it is completely there movie.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

PS : Please don't forget to post your comments.

MOVIE REVIEW : DASVIDANIYA

DASVIDANIYA : Go, Live your Life !

The first step in the spiritual process is to understand death, look at it as a fact of life and the only certainty in life. With this understanding, you then look at life in a completely different paradigm. It can completely change your perspective of how you are living and how insignificant things are making you miserable. And at the same time, how seemingly simple things can bring joy in your life and make you actually live your life.

Dasvidaniya takes this concept as the basic premise of its theme. Amar Koul (Vinay Pathak) is the main protagonist of the movie, who is an eternal looser personified. His life is completely dry, colorless, uninspiring and without anything actually happening. He is 37 and still single, since he could never confess his love to the girl with whom he grew up. He is a looser at work being constantly harassed by his boss. He doesn’t have any friend and family. The only family he has is his mother, who seemingly is more interested in Saas Bahu TV Serials than anything else in life. He has a brother, with whom he has not spoken since last seven years. The only exciting thing for him to do, is to make his daily “Things to do” list, which contains the daily mundane chores, like repairing the geyser, paying insurance bills etc etc.

In the middle of this unexciting life, he discovers that he is in the terminal stage of his stomach cancer and the doctor gives him only three months more to live. Once this revelation sinks in him, he starts making an insight into his life or the lack of it and does some self talk to reflect how he actually has stopped living many years ago. That is when he makes his final things to do list. “The things to do before I die.” At this point, we all can actually relate to this “things to do list”, as most of us will have the similar list and similar desires … to get the things that we want, car/house etc, to have a job we love, to be popular, to get the love of our life, to have family and friends around us. He makes a list of ten such things. The things which normally would have been impossible for him to do or achieve, had he continued to live the way he was living. However in the face of death, he manages to achieve all of this in just three months.

Dasvidaniya, carries this seemingly simple story line with honesty and sincerity.
The story by Arshad Sayed and screenplay is breezy and does not let the movie to lag or slow down at all. The characterization is authentic and look like coming directly from the real life.

The performances from the team of Dasvidaniya, which is now a popular gang after movies like “Beja Fry” and “Mithya” is simply too good. Vinay Pathak continues his simpleton character from Beja Fry and adds a pinch of sensitivity to it, making it lovable. Rajat Kapor as Vinay’s friend and Gaurav Gera as Vinay’s brother, both have played this role with finesse and ease. Neha Dupiya seems to have a new parallel cinema career going on, giving one more realistic performance after Mithya. Saurabh Shukla, playing Vinay’s boss, plays the typical, “we hate you boss” personified!
However Sarita Joshi, as Vinya’s mother stands out in her performance. Sarita is a very renowned actor from marathi theater. Her performance demonstrates the acting capability of theater artists. She has played her role with great authenticity and ease.
Not to be left out of the gang, Ranvir Shorey has also a small cameo in the movie. However I don’t think the role did justice to Ranvir’s capabilities.

The music and the background scores of Dasvidaniya is also one of its high points. We see Kailash Kher playing the role of a lyricist and music director along with the lead singer. He has written very simple but pleasing lyrics and given some soothing music, which is very atypical of kailash, whom we normally associate with high pitched Sufi style music. The “mumma” song is reminiscent of Prasoon Joshi’s “Ma” song from “Tare Zameen Par”.

On a whole, Dasvidaniya is a very honest movie, which will make you emote with it. A very rare thing from a normal bollywood movie. Full marks to debutant director Shashant Shah and the producers Azam Khan and Vinya (who is the co-producer) for choosing such a script, which gives you a simple but most essential message of life.

The message from Dasvidaniya is - we do not consider that even though our death may not be three months from now, but it is going to be there, in three years or thirty years or maybe more, but it is going to be there. So what are we waiting for to actually live our life the way we want to. Let us get stated and live our life!

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

MOVIE REVIEW : DOSTANA

Hot Bodies, No Brains – Missed Opportunity.

For debutant director Tarun Mansukhani, it is a clear case of missed opportunity!
Dostana, even before it’s release, got instant popularity because of it’s banner and the name of Karan Johar, who is synonymous to - real emotional new age hindi cinema, with movies like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna and Kuch Kuch Hota hai. Dostana can also claim to be first hindi movie which showcases the best bodies in the industry. Priyanka Chopra is looking awesome and stunning and John Abraham is looking like a Greek God – a true embodiment of Adonis, look stunning and hot. To top it, there are some real cool locations of Miami, where these people, in their short clothes, completely jell in the settings. Dostana has got a lot of visual appeal as well as cool music to go with it, which would make anyone, who has seen the promos, to go for the movie.

However that is where the good part ends. The script is very vague and the story telling immature. Tarun should know that good visual appeal and good music is good to make a nice promo for the movie; however for the entire movie to sustain you need something more …. a meaningful script and some good direction. Both are missing in Dostana. A great opportunity to make a real nice pleasant movie has been lost by Tarun. I just wonder, if Karan Johar was not involved in the making of this movie?

Dostana seemingly has a simple story line of two tricky but lovable guys eyeing the same thing. In this case, it is the pretty lass Priyanka. Similar situation has been depicted many times in hindi movies and there are two major ways of handling such story … one through humor and other through the classical emotional way. We have had great movies in the past, like the 70s classic “Dau aur dau paanch” who handled such a story in a very humorous way. And there have been umpteen movies, who have handled such a story the emotional way.

Tarun is not sure which one to use and that is the biggest problem with Dostana. Tarun juggles to handle the story using both humor and emotions and fails miserably in both. He starts in a humorous way, but there are hardly any pranks the two guys play on each other to get the girl. In fact there is just one prank which John plays on Abhishek where he gets him “woman”-handled by a bunch of Aunties. When Abhishek is back from the “assault”, it looks funny, however that is not how Abhishek actually feels. He seems to be actually hurt and sentimental and even slaps John for the same and the movie seems to take an emotional turn here … but then Abhishek suddenly seems to forget all his pain and he is shown jolly, soon again. Quite an emotional yo-yo! Taurn tries very hard to juggle to make Dostana full of fun, emotion and happy go lucky feel and somehow gets lost in between.

Dostana can also claim to effectively use vulgar expressions and dialogues and disguise it as humor. Looks like it got un-noticed by censor board and probably they believed that being a Karan Johar movie, it could not be vulgar. There is no reason the movie should not get an “A” Certificate. It is quite astonishing that Madhur Bhandarkar had to really struggle even to get an “A” certificate and Dostana managed a “U/A” certificate. Dostana will be taking our acceptable social fabric to next level, making Gay jokes popular, even with kids.

In terms of acting, Priyanka is really cool and has given an effervescent performance even better than her recent Fashion, where she seemed to be burdened by the seriousness and reality of the movie. Here she looks, cool charming and confident of her self and her body. We all know how sexy John looks in his mischievous smile. However he can not carry the entire movie with this single look of his. He needs to emote and act aswell, which we know he can, however looks like he forgot to do it. Abhishek seems to be completely lost in the movie. He is not sure if he has to act and look funny or emotional or sad or what? He definitely needs to hire an acting consultant to manage his looks and emotions, especially when the director does not know how to manage it. (case in point Goldie Bahl in Drona and now Tarun). One actually ends up having pity on Abhishek, who is such a potential as an actor and is getting wasted in movies like Dostana, Drona, Mission Istanbul, etc. Kiron Kher is repeating her Punjabi mother act, which seems to be getting overused - since we saw her in Singh is King, Om Shanti Om, Rang de Basanti, etc. It is no more funny and she actually ends up hamming. Boman Irani has done justice to his very small role. Lastly it was good to see Bobby Deol trying to act. He however is not able to hide his aging and seems quite unfit in the company of Abhishek, John and Priyanka – maybe it was intended that way !

Music of Dostana is quite catchy. Some of the tunes are quite hum-able especially Jane Kyon song. Vishal and Shekhar, who are having a good run since a couple of years, have done a pretty good job. Though some of the songs, like Ma da Ladla, are too much in your face and screechy.

On a whole, Dostana had all the right ingredients v.i.z - actors, bodies, locales, music, cinematography and budget to make a fine movie and for Taurn to make a strong debutant impact, but Alas, like many other such high potential movies, Dostana also falls flat and leaves the audience with emptiness and bitterness on how such potential was wasted. The saving grace though is that the young audience might have a good time enjoying the crass humor.


Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi

MOVIE REVIEW : FASHION

FASHION : Reality sans Drama !

Madhur Bhandarkar's name has become synonymous with realistic cinema. Cinema which is far from melodrama, cinema which touches the reality around us, cinema which explores the under-belly of situations in real life around us. There is no doubt about the quality of cinema which Madhur makes. However, one big challenge for such kind of realistic cinema, which is similar to the "Art Movies" of the past decades, is to connect to the audience at large.

Madhur, with much acclaimed cinema like Chandani Bar and Satta, could only impact the niche audience, gather acclaim in the Festival circuits and also win Laurels in the form of National Awards. These movies however could not have much commercial success, neither could they fit the bill to be called an entertaining cinema. This however was very well understood by Madhur and the this connect was made with movies like Page3 and Corporate, which were not just realistic movies but entertaining aswell and garnered commercial success, seamlessly bridging the gap of "Art Cinema" and "Mainstream" one.

Madhur however seems to forget this very important aspect over and over again. He did the same in Traffic Signal and now he repeats the act in Fashion.

Fashion is no doubt a nice movie showing the realistic aspect of the Fashion World. It reveals the not so hidden underbelly of an industry which is low on moral, low ethics and full of opportunism and short terms successes.
However it lacks any kind of Drama, which is essential to make the movie entertaining. One is not even able to relate to the main protagonist, Meghna Mathur(Priyanka Chopra). Even though the scripts nicely traces the rise and fall of the small town girl from Chandigarh, who is high on ambition and gives up all her middle class values to attain success, and in the process leaves behind a trail of sour relationships and lost friends. And finally is not able to handle success and ends up as a soul less girl completely engulfed in depression.
But at no point you are with her. Neither as a naïve girl, in her struggle in Mumbai, which ends up looking too simplistic and easy. Nor in her success where she develops arrogance and get completely engulfed and intoxicated with it. And not even in her depression, where she looses everything.
The quality of good cinema is not just to show the changing and grey shaded of human behavior but also the ability to make audience empathize with the characters, where people are able to relate to the characters and find a little bit of themselves in the character. And this is where Madhur completely falters.
He takes his realistic cinema image too seriously and takes all other aspect of movie making for-granted. His indulgence with realism is extreme. The ramp scenes are inordinately long. The low on moral models, the opportunistic men, the gay designers, the wardrobe malfunctions, drugs ... it all seems like, been there done that and is reminiscent of things we have already seen in movies like Page3 and all the ubiquitous News channels.
In all the "realism" that Fashion tries to discover, there seems to be no new-ness and everything is so predictable. And to make the matters worse, there is nothing else to hold the attention of the Audience. What starts as a quite encouraging movie, ends up as a very long lifeless documentary. Probably editing the movie to cut the flab by 30 to 45mins might have added some life in it.

On a whole, Fashion is one more realistic attempt by Madhur Bandarkar, which does not discover anything new and ends up as a long, lifeless, tiring movie. Watch it for, interesting though clichéd performance by Kangana Ranaut, debutant but confident Mugdha Godse and the effervescent performance by Arbaaz Khan.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

MOVIE REVIEW : KARZZ

KARZZ : Misplaced blame.

Where ever you will read about the latest re-make movie Karzz, they all will be echoing the same voice in the same baritone, echoing Himesh bashing. “Himesh does not know how to act, why does he act, why can’t he dress well ……”, so on.

However are we not missing a point here?
Whenever any movie does well, irrespective of the actors it has, it is said that the director has done a commendable job and if a movie does poorly, the blame again goes to the director. So why on earth is everyone bashing the actor Himesh for the poor movie Karzz is. Why is no one talking about Satish Kaushik. Why this misplaced blame ??

No doubt, Himesh does not have any acting talent. However that is not the real low point for Karzz. I think it is a much more badly made movie that a badly acted movie. Satish Kaushik has attempted to do a humongous task of remaking Subash Ghai’s Karz and it is not an easy task to do. We know what happened to Ram Gopal Verma, when he tried to do the same with Sholay, that too when Ramu has a great track record as a director. Satish on the contrary has a handicap that he does not have any good movie to his name. 9 out of the 10 movies made by him were Flops, with the exception of “Teray Naam” which was a hit, but I am not sure can be categorized as a good movie.

So what actually is wrong with Karzz. First of all, Satish Kaushik is not sure whether we wants to treat the movie differently than the original one or wants to make a scene by scene copy. He starts with making a different movie, and remains like that for two thirds of the time and that is the biggest problem of Karzz. One cannot avoid making comparison with the original, however even if one does not do that, Karzz is a below average movie. There seems to be no flow between scenes. The dialogs are clichéd and come from the era of 80s. And like many 80s movie there seems to be no effort done in making a good script. There is no effort to build characters and you can hardly relate to any of them. Himesh as Ravi Verma seems to be so comfortable with his reincarnated self, you never see any emotions which depict his anxiety. His female lead Shweta Kumar is also so cool about it. She remains so expression less, when she gets to know about the reincarnation. Raj Babbar playing the character of Pinchoo Kapu and Danny playing the character of Pran from the original are reduced to nothing but comic caricatures. The only saving grace of all the actors is Urmilla, who has given a nice performance and carried her character with a lot of grace.

Somewhere in the middle of the second half, Satish kaushik seems to realize that he could no longer handle the “different” treatment of the movie and starts the scene by scene copy of the original. And this actually comes as a big relief since one starts relating and remembering the original classic where Rishi kapoor had done a great job of delivering those powerful dialogues in the climax. Satish Kaushik however loses the track of his own script and fails to make a link between the “different” part and the “copied” part of the movie. For example, in the final climax scene between Himesh and Urmilla (after the Ek Hasina Thi song), Urmilla’s dialogs are the same as in the original but they are not coherent with the flow of re-make, where she already knows the reincarnation story.

And in between all this bad acting and bad direction, comes the ear piercing nasal renditions. Himesh is a very good music director. However we has been butchering his music by singing and now he is further butchering it by acting in them.

One thing is clear, Satisk Kaushik cannot make a good movie. He has no control on the flow of the movie. He does not understand the need of a good and a meaningful script and has no idea of what it means to build characters.

All in all, Karzz is a very "rich" poor movie, since the production quality is world class and the locales are exotic but in terms of contents, it has literally nothing.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

MOVIE REVIEW : Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap

REVIEW OF "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" : ( * * * 1/2*)

This one got published in FilmFare Aug Issue, as the 2nd best entry !

I am really not able to figure out what do the Rajeev Masands and the Nikhit Kazmis expect out of movies.
After listening/reading to their reviews about "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", i decided not to watch it. However next weekend, not really knowing what to do, i decided to make the plunge and watch "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap", and to my sheer disbelief, i could not help appreciating the movie.

As a summary, "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is very smooth, refreshing movie. The humor is subtle and not in your face kind of humor we are exposed to these days. Very nice characterization of most of the people, including that of Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and also Akshay Khanna. A very breezy script and no where close to being melodramatic even when some drama is introduced in the movie towards the 2nd half, showing the emotive sides of the father-son relationship.

The biggest treat from "Meray Baap, Pehlay Aap" is Genelia D'Souza. She bring a lot of energy and positive feel to the movie. Her happy go lucky picturization of the character really leaves you with a warm heart. She looks so natural and her character of friend-girl friend of Akshay looks very real.

At the end, a nice movie, which keep you engrossed most of the time, make you smile and makes you feel happy and warm. Kudos to Priyadarshan for returning to the kind of cinemas we were used to attaching him to and reminds you of his 1992 movie Muskurahat (Revthi and Amrish Puri).

What more do our critics expect from movies. I agree, it is not a mind blowing flick which deserves 5 stars ..... but at the same time, it is not a dead movie as these critics would want you to believe. It is nice, clean movie, which one should watch to have some good time.

Ameet Mattoo.
NEW DELHI

MOVIE REVIEW : ROCK ON

ROCK ON ..... ROCKS !

This one also got published in FilmFare (Oct Issue), as the 2nd best entry !


What makes ROCK-ON stand out is not just the original story line chosen by Abhishek Kapoor, but also the sensitivity with which Abhishek has handled the movie and the efforts that have been put in to build the characters. Closeness to reality, no melodrama, real situations and real relations, leaves the audience touched and feeling for the theme of the movie "Live Your Dreams" !

Farhan has done a mind blowing job in his debut as an Actor. Arjun Rampal, who earned rave reviews for his role in Om-Shanti-Om, has done a much better job as the sensitive lead guitarist. His subtle portrayal of a listening-husband of a nagging wife is truly remarkable. Purab and Luke have also essayed their roles very well. Prachi has a very fine debut playing the sweet wife of Farhan and has done justice to her role. Shabana Goswami after her performance in Naseerudin Shah's Yoon Hota tau kya hota, also leaves her mark playing the happy young designer girl aswell as a sad nagging fish-selling wife.
For a very small role as Farhan's girlfriend, Nicholette Bird has also done a good job.

The music of the movie is mind blowing, with Shankar Ehsaan and Loy giving us the first ROCK music from a bollywood film. Even Farhan, with his not too pleasing voice, does justice to the music. Surely the music of this film will be played in college concerts for many years to come. (Especially the "Saanp" song). After Dil Chahata Hai, knowing that these Lyrics come from Javeh Sahab, don't surprise us any more as he seems to have well understood what kind of lyrics such kind of music needs.

The scenes of the Rock Concerts are shot so well that they look like a real concert. The scene where Arjun joins the band in the last song and Farhan introduces him as the lead guitarist, leaves you with goose bumps. There are many such scenes in the movie which are subtle and leave you touched. For instance the scene when Prachi invites Purab and Luke to Farhan's birthday party, the uneasiness of Farhan is so well handled. Right after that Farhan is shown washing his hands in the wash basin, and his hand is shown trembling. It is a very small shot but tells Farhan'ss emotions so beautifully.

On a whole, Rock-On is a move which will act as a benchmark for all those new directors, who want to experiment with off-beat topics and how to treat them sensitively and with honesty.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi