Deewar

(Warning: This post may hurt the religious sentiment of many people. I apologise in advance)

For the lovers of movie Deewar, there was a double treat this Sunday.

SAB TV was showing the original Deewar, while Sahara Filmy was showing the dubbed version of its Tamil remake - Thee - almost simultaneously. I wouldn't have cast a second glance at the dubbed one when suddenly I noticed - Darwaja Mai Kholoonga scene. It was then that I realised it is Deewar remake. Curiously, I hung on.

Incidentally, Amitabh's character - Vijay was played by none other than Rajinikant.

It was literally a frame by frame copy of the original. The production values were poor comparitively. While former was typically a serious film, latter was comic relief primarily because director had let Rajnikant make complete hash of the character with his antiques. He would still light his match sticks with chair handle. But then it is his style.

Interestingly, Shashi Kapoor's character Ravi is played by Suman, the actor who has played villain in Sivaji - The Boss. Rajini has also worked in other remakes of Amitabh's hits - (Billa - Don, Ram Robert Rahim - Amar Akbar Antony, Panakkaran - Laawaris, Padikkathavan - Khuddar, Velaikkaran - Namak Halal, Dharmathin Thalivan - Kasme Vaade, Mr. Bharath - Trishul).

One of my Tamil friends from Chennai told me an interesting story. When I asked him the reason behind Baba Rajini's lunatic fan following, he told me it was because Rajini's has 7th sense. I asked what was that ?

The answer - Nonsense.

Lifeless Extinct Fossiled Trites

I had mentioned some while ago that if I ever have a dog as a pet, I will name it LEFT. What happens when the dog bites its master or goes mad?

Shoot it dead.

Coming to poor Ronen Sen. He was forced into a public apology after calling the lefts and opposition headless chicken. After all, he is a public servant(read MPs servant), and his job is attached to the whims and fancies of these serving idiots.

But I have no such strings. Continuing on what he said, I dare call them headless, spineless, gutless (an without going any further down) chicken, kitten, piglets, owlets, hatchlings, colts, ducklings, caterpillars, tadpoles, puppies, goslings, calves, farrows, wrigglers, spiderlings.

Now pass a privilege motion against me, and it won't serve you anything but loose motions.

Chak De India

Well, till now almost every one in the blog world has either written or read a review on Chak De. So be it. Since I have seen and liked the movie, so I will do it too.

I am no Shahrukh fan, but despite myself I went ahead to see this movie because like to Vandy, to me also it had raised hopes of Prakash Jha's Hip Hip Hurray. My only concerns were the ones which a typical Yashraj- Shahrukh combo present.

While the former was notably a realistic movie, latter was threatening to be larger than life, but as a pleasant surprise, Sharukh is excellent in this movie - even better than Swadesh - the movie is almost without a blemish, and no, this is one is not a piece of art. Its a complete masala movie till the last scene.

As a writer, not a doubt remains that Jaideep Sahini has the nerve of his characters. He knows the nuances of the lives of common Indian, first Khosla Ka Ghosla, and now Chak De has shown that. The eclectic troupe of actors (& non actors) were given the as much significance as they deserved.

The build up was realistic too. In the do or die match against men's hockey team, there were no adrenaline or heroics. The result was realistic too, and very well conceived( I won't reveal that). To show the revenge, there was no compulsory match against Pakistani women's team just because no such team exists! Sanely, India didn't create any extravagant fireworks in the follow-up matches after losing to Australia in World Cup.

The point I am trying to make is though you knew the final outcome, writer kept you from guessing the outcome of the sub plots. In fact, he consistently surprises you with the unexpected.

The best part I liked about the movie was the fact the way they repatedly dealt with State regionalism, the seniority and internal bickering. It was like a harsh-slap-in-face kind of dialogues delivered with clenched teeth and pursed lips. It was clear that writer-director duo were firm in their message, if at all there was a message.

All these examples are from live events. We very well know about the egos of our seniors like Dhanraj Pillai. How we are aware about the shameful spats between Dhanraj Pillay and Gagan Ajit Singh, where latter refused to give passes to former in the Olympics matches. Mohammad Shahid, who was such a gifted hockey player, rarely used to give a pass which eventually destroyed his career. How the players from Punjab had made a cartel against others.

At some locations, writer did took cinematic liberties like - creating a character - Abhimanyu Singh - which is not unlike Yuvraj Singh. The guy is young, dashing, on whom girls croon( including the hockey team girls) and shares the same surname. He has been recently appointed the vice captain of the one day Cricket team, again like Yuvraj who was made vice-captain though was dropped later.

One of the hockey officials who flanked Anjan Srivastava - the hockey chief who was babudome personified - bore an uncanny resemblance to Jafar Iqbal, the former hockey captain and coach. All director needed was to put a Sikh at the helm of the affairs and KPS Gill's team would have been complete.

The chauvinism of the cricket towards hockey was, though rightfully added, but to prove more than a point, especially the stuff mouthed by the character Abhimanyu Singh towards hockey. No genuine sportsman can give such remarks for another sport, much less for our national game.

Then something about breaking one-to-one marking of the Korean team. It was made like that it was some Chakravyuh like situation which could be solved only by one individual. It sounded intriguing but silly. More that one to one marking, Koreans forte is long passes. They outwit their opponents with this. But these are minor gripes, and to dwell more on these will be knit picking.

However I will reiterate that what towered above everything else was the breezy performance by Shahrukh Khan. It was like breath of fresh air. I think he should pick up a fight with Yash Chopra, and say sorry to Karan Johar so that he may not have to do their movies in future.

Last but not least I must thank Aryan that he had let us see this movie without moving our limbs, and did not wake up till we were well inside the parking.

Appeal

My sincere request to voters from West Bengal.

If you want communist goverment in West Bengal for whatsoever reason, then all of us appreciate your decision. But, please don't send any of these jokers to Parliament. They are all over the place and its very hard to ignore them.

The Blue Umbrella

None of my grannies ever told me a story. However, a few Mausis & elder cousin sisters, here and there, did oblige. I used to hear them again and again with same interest and liking. Therefore all those Anaar-Ranis, Sukkhu-Dukkhus are firmly etched in my memory.

That's the secret about the good stories. You can hear or read them again and again, and still won't get bored of them. I have lost count how many times I must have read my favourite books, despite knowing the contents all too well. Every repeat read, in fact, adds another perspective.

Rarely I have seen a children story adopted on celluloid. Vikram Vetal in the mid eighties was one in which Satish Shah played Vetal. Keeping with the trend of that era, it was an utterly hopeless movie.

However, I was eagerly waiting for this one. For once, it was good old Ruskin Bond and then it was directed by Vishal Bharadwaj. However, at the end of the move, I realized some stories are better told or read, rather than seen.

The biggest flaw of this movie is that its not a children movie at all. It can't be when it fails to brings more than a laughter or two in the crowd full of kids. It is hardly entertaining. Rather, it turns out to be quite a heavy movie.

See, we all know of what Pankaj Kapoor is capable of. There was no point in hammering that point again & again. Instead of being a soft rib tickler which Ruskin Bond stories usually are, it dwells too much on human emotions. It looks more a piece of art than a children piece.

The dialogues weren't funny on their face value. It was the pahari accent which was used as the laughter tool. Initially it worked, but soon it became repetitive.

In fact, more than these it were the ridiculous subtitles which appeared more funny. I think subtitles is big business opportunity. They remain as idiotic as they were two decades back.

Some of the side stories were without context. They were supposed to be funny, but fell hopelessly short of that. In fact, the pace of the movie was so slow that it was hard to ward off sleep.

To liven the pace, Vishal did try to use the beautiful colours and sounds of the Himachal. There was a Mela here, and song there. But I have serious objection to the way these scenes were edited. It looked so jarring to the eyes.

The only two good thing in the whole movie were - Pankaj Kapoor, the and the blue Japanese umbrella(before it became red). Kapoor worked on his diction well. The way he said "Rajaraam" and "By Chance" made it appear that he has spent his whole life in the hills of rural Himachal.

However, at a few places Vishal did show his attention to detail - especially at the point when Nand Kishore Khatri aka Pankaj Kapoor sees the Chhatri for the first using confiscated binoculars. Besotted Kapoor acts in a particular way when he re-adjusts the binoculars. It can be appreciated only when seen.

But that does not mean I am suggesting you to see the movie.

B'day Pictures

The public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam is wearing his black gown beyond the court premises these days. Either the fourteen year old running trial has tweaked his senses or he wants free publicity.

Now he wants to gag people. According to him no one can criticize the judgment. He is publicly threatening contempt of court against them.

People beware. If you are not aware of IPCs in detail, don't utter anything. Otherwise, like Sanjay Dutt, you will also land up in Yerwada. After all, you too are grown up and literate.

Law of Land

When I was kid - kid enough by the definition - but big enough to start understanding what is right and what is wrong, like all of us, I used to to do a lot of naughty stuff which I oughtta not have done.

However, if any of those activities had been listed under Indian Penal Code, I would have got a blanket punishment of some whatever years. In the age of judicial activism, especially when people are using more brains while taking the decisions, we have an incident where the judge says - "I am bound by the law."

Isn't there something like interpretation of the law ? Or is just emobssed line which can't meandered from the crooked path! In the 14 years of the trial, authority couldn't make out the intention of Gun's possesion?

And the law of the land says, you can possess a licensed revolver with a magazine of 18 bullets. If you don't have the license, will there be 6 years of imprisonment? What about the desi katta ? But yes, AK 56 will fetch you the same.

Andha Kanoon - what to say?