Kaminey firft look...

Lookf like Vifhal Bharadwaj if back with another adaption -thif time itf Fhakefpeare'f Comedy of Errorf...

Check out the theatrical trailer....fundoo :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Z61ue5G4Q

Will he do an encore after converting vintage literature into mafterpiecef twice already with Omkara and Maqbool? Letf hope fo :)
DhanTaDaaaaaan....TaDaDaDaaaaan :)

The Wonderdog! ... and the others...

For all those wondering what all the brouhaha abt Slumdog Millionaire is, here's a revelation....Slumdog may not be a gr8 movie in the 'Oscar' sense of the word but fact is its won 8 of the 10 categories it was nominated in including Best Picture and Best Director.... ya ya...i know....everybody knows tht! wats so new abt it?!! every damn news channel worth its rock-salt is shouting frm the rooftops abt surmounting Mt. Oscar ever since the news broke....

Well...the news is...some "biggies" hvnt been taking it the rit way! What surprised me most whn Slumdog released abt a month ago in India was the way some ppl reacted to it, as can be read here...while i cudnt digest wt Bachchan said thn, i still decided to leave his opinion to him....until....this happened!
Right at the bottom of the post, BigB goes
"SlumDog is ok and Delhi 6 not ??"

Whats wrong Mr. Bachchan?? y do u want to compare every damn movie to Slumdog? and y do u hv to defend every damn movie ur son decides to portray his thespian skills in??
I must admit here tht i hvnt yet hd the chance to watch Delhi6...and i am very much looking fwd to it...ROM is probably one of the most responsible directors around and he makes socially relevant cinema which is the hallmark of an aware and awake citizen! but wt i do not undstnd is y the "so-called" superstar of Hindi cinema is unable to digest the success of Slumdog!! and y cant he take commercial failure of his son's movies in his stride?
Now, i did read the entire post, and tht guy surely seems to be having problms with critics...but at hs age an experience in ths field, u wud thnk he wud hv outgrown all ths stuff, wudnt u? he on the othr hand hs begun to tk everythng very personally and startd reacting to all and sundry....some maturity tht!!
Mr. Bachchan sir, thr r millions around the globe who still believe ur a good actor, urs truly being one of them.....but ths barrage of uninteresting roles, crappy adverts, constant nepotism (yeah thts wt it is!) and venomous immature statements tht u hv unleashed on the 'big,bad world' is totally uncalled for...whn u say 'Slumdog represents India as a third-world nation to the globe, is tht wt we r?', do u realise wt 'Boom', 'Bunty Aur Babli' or for tht matter even 'Amar Akbar Anthony' made out of us Indians? thank God, not many watched those movies globally, or mayb we wud never hv got the chance to showcase a rare Monsoon Wedding or Namesake or Slumdog to the world! With all due respect, I think its time to get back into action sir...Let ur 'bat' do the talking....shut down tht prejudiced blog for a few months and let the creative juices flow whr they ought to!
Amen!

Meanwhile, a certain Mr.Priyadarshan hd also taken potshots at Slumdog calling it cheap, trashy and mediocre....really sir? mediocre?? tht coming frm the director of gems such as Mere Baap Pehle Aap, KyonKi, Dhol and Bhool Bhulaiyya!! (yes, i am pointing out ur trashy, cheap and mediocre films only...bcz isnt tht wt u hv done!) ....for some1 who thrives on remakes of acclaimed malayalam movies, a story based on a novel is cheap only bcz of reasons as mundane as these: (in his own words)
"Why has Danny Boyle not taken one shot of Marine Drive? Do his slumdwellers exist only within their slums? And look at the absurdities…A boy becomes a national hero on a game show. One cop takes him under arrest and interrogates him relentlessly. Where is everyone else? Is this kind of confinement possible in this day and age when television cameras enter your bedroom?"
Ya right Mr...if i tried to apply so much logic to one of ur Bhagam Bhags or Billu Barbers, i wud b insane before i said B! look at ur own torn pajamas b4 pointing at someones trendy shorts and calling him naked! i kno, u hv made some good movies...and virasat is one of the best hindi films i hv seen till date...but tht doesnt giv u the right to judge any1 else's work so viciously...ur entitled to ur opinion and u cn keep it...dont say it out loud simply bcz ur in the same business and the day ur next movie releases, ur gonna hv a taste of ur own bitter medicine!!

Mumbai Meri Jaan...

First of all, i deserve a kick for not watching this movie much earlier, while at the same time ensuring i watched mindless crap lik Rab Ne, Race, Tashan within hours of release...Now, lets get to the point...

Mumbai Meri Jaan is sensible, sensitive, thought-provoking, subtle and responsible cinema... (Note how frequently the word 'subtle' has been used recently! hindi cinema IS changing after all!!)...the story is good, the characterizations are brilliant, the portrayals are almost-perfect, and most importantly, the direction is extremely apt and competent...thr r several moments in the story which touch u, move u, choke u, blast u away with thr simplicity and impact! i for one, cudnt hold back my tears at multiple points in this journey, notably KK's realization, Madhavan's visit to the hospital, Paresh Rawal's last scene and Irrfan Khan's redemption...Technically brilliant, the movie has its heart in the right place...and manages to put our hearts in the right places too...

Each and every actor deserves a standing applause for not just doing this film, but doing more thn full justice to it...one of the best ensemble casts ever! The end is so fitting and moving, tears refused to stop rolling down my cheeks whn Rafi's timeless rendition of 'Aye Dil Hai Mushkil Jeena Yahan...Zara Hatke Zara Bachke...Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan' began...

Truly the city rocks...and Mumbaikars rock the most! A fitting tribute to thr spirit! (and by spirit, i dont mean the gutless indifference tht the media keeps blabbering abt...i mean the real 'spirit'...watch the movie and u'll kno wt i mean :) )

P.S. : You can check out the official movie site here...creative!!

P.S. : If u read this post before sunday noon and if u hvnt seen the movie, u hv a golden chance to watch it on zee cinema sunday 12 noon....enjoy :)

Free??

I have begun to wonder whether.....
=> morality is overrated?
=> the ppl who make the most fuss abt morality are the ones who care the least abt it?
=> the pinkchaddicampaign was an appropriate answer to morons like mutalik and the ram sene?
=> expressing love in public is the same as toting a machine gun?
=> had some1 assaulted a girl on V Day, wud the RamSene/MNS/Bajrang Dal hv been as swift in kicking the shit out of the attacker?
=> ppl lik Pramod Muthalik and his disciples are the future(?) of the nation?
=> we are going backwards rather than forward?
=> India will make it thru this social crisis even tho it'll sail thru the economic one?
=> women r still considered 'objects'?
=> i hit a guy real hard for troubling my friend, will i be locked up bcz i am the one who assaulted?
=> i still live in a free country?

A day later...

Its almost 24 hrs since i watched Dev D and the movie hs been sinking inside all this while...I am sure there r gonna b hundreds of opinions abt this one and i know mine is just one in the whirlpool....but if ur an ardent lover of cinema as an art rather than just a mode of passing some time, only then will u undstnd wt m abt to say...Dev D is to hindi cinema what penicillin ws to medicine...or Galileo to astronomy...or Niels Bohr to chemistry...or T20 to cricket...its radical, its eccentric, its psychedelic, its subtle (rathr baap of subtle!), its technically astounding, and most importantly, its a crazy, crazy ride into the psyche of humanity! Thank God for mavericks and non-conformists!!!
Anurag Kashyap hs put an amazing spin on the age old Devdas story and the result is just spell-binding...his vision as a director is evident in more scenes than one...thrs so many memorable moments in ths movie, it'll b a huge spoiler to say anyone out aloud...and yet i cant stop myself frm talking abt one particular scene in which Chanda passes a stricture on morality in today's society "Half the country downloaded the video and derived self-gratification out of it...and they call me a slut!"...the takes on morality, ego, love and self-destruction are honest and raw...and path-breaking for hindi cinema...
Abhay Deol plays his part perfectly, but more than him, its the writer who writes his part to the T...the character is written so well, tht u begin to loathe Dev for the self-conceited egotist tht he is...and his self destruction is so tangible, u cn actually see it happening b4 ur own eyes! Mahi Gill as Paro is startling and forthright...the care she hs for Dev inspite of him being a scumbag, is genuine....and whenevr, some1 tries to make a doormat out of her, she doesnt hesitate one bit before showing the othr person his place! Darn good! But probably the most emotionally-relatable character of the ensemble is Chanda.....its brilliantly written with all the finer nuances crafted expertly and painstakingly...and wonderfully underplayed by Kalki...she lives the role like its her own...and in the process, provides the movie with the much needed emotional depth tht it othrwise lacks...
Inspite of being a trippy trip, this ones essentially a musical in the truest sense possible, bcz the songs carry the story forward instead of being huge boulders between scenes....its a case study in how songs cn serve as worthy substitutes to dialogues in narration...a word here for Amit Trivedi, who hs created the most freakin', tru-to-the-movie soundtrack ever!the songs r so appropriate and so well-used, tht they end up towering over everythng else, even the intelligently written lines and the technical finesse....and THT is sure a monumental task! not to take away anythng frm the technical crew, who hs done a fantabulous job, rit frm the camerawork to the art direction to the choreography (esp the break-dancing dudes in Pardesi!) to the background score to the editing....ths probably is one of the few movies, where almost nothing goes wrong in any of ths depts...
Of course, thr r bound to b a few glitches...lik the second half drags a wee-bit... and the end, altho radically diffrnt, is kinda abrupt and doesnt hit u lik a ton of bricks (and mayb thts y it does eventually manage to hit u hard, no matter what!)...the return of the break-dancing dudes for Saali Khushi seems like stretching the rubber-band too hard...and thrs self-indulgence on part of the director in a couple of instances, whr he gets carried away by his craft and tends to lose control....but ths r just minor abberations in an othrwis flawless piece of cinema (and for once, i wudnt hv the slightest hesitation in calling it ART, altho i used to hate tht word bcz of wht was erstwhile referred to as art in cinema!)...
The scenes and lines stay with u loooooooong aftr the movie's over...and the Einstein-ian 'A-Ha!' moments keep happening as each layer keeps unfolding with time...the multi-layered, multi-dimensional nature of the movie sure makes u take a trip inside ur own psyche....and thts saying a lot...bcz not many thngs, let alone movies, cn manage tht!
Everyone associated....take a bow!! Hats off!

Dev.D

INTELLIGENT.CAPTIVATING.INTELLIGENT.MESMERIZING.

INTELLIGENT.OVERWHELMING.INTELLIGENT.AWE-INSPIRING.

INTELLIGENT.BRILLIANT.

Anurag, Amit Trivedi, Abhay, Mahi, Kalki and everyone else...Take A Bow!