Our Shows, Their Shows

I think things might be getting slightly out of hand. I therefore, don’t want to say much. Just a small little observation.

Indian TV Shows. Not the Gujarati women oriented ones, I basically just had CID and Adaalat in mind, plus a few of the shows Yash Raj had created with SONY in between. I’m sorry, I am not really very regular with these shows, so I wouldn’t know if shows like Powder are still running, or if the entire television launch of Yash Raj has been canned. That’s not really my argument.

CID – entered year 16 in 2013

What I was trying to say falls more with style and content. First, let’s get the weakest link (for which we all have a soft corner still), CID of the way. I don’t remember, but I think it’s done something like 15 years now. I remember watching Ashutosh Gowariker in what is now Senior Inspector Abhijeet’s role. The CID jokes have all become fable now. There are numerous Facebook pages to do with fan following and jokes on the show. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t intend to be funny. But they can take the crap out of you. CID shows can all be found on YouTube, albeit sans subtitles for the non-Hindi guys – still, try to watch it. Now, the defence of the show. CID comes within a very precious territory, I guess. I guess on some level, ACP Pradyuman (played gloriously and wriggling-ly by Shivaji Satam for all of those 15-odd years) is somewhat at par with GI Joe and He-Man for us. He was/is the Uncle who always caught the bad guy. And even though we stopped playing as we grew older, Uncle Pradyuman was still doing his business with absolutely no change in style or content. Even the white Toyota Qualis finally had to be sold after countless FB memes. So we had our little over-thinking laugh, but we didn’t give up. And f*** ***, we will always support our ACP. After all, like with every other Indian of every single strata of society, he is number one on our speed dial (people who have watched more than five shows will get it).

KD Pathak (Ronit Roy) in Adaalat

So, CID is not in contention here. I am in reality, writing this immediately after watching an episode of SONY’s Adaalat. Starring Ronit Roy as the dashing, smart and flamboyant KD Pathak, the only lawyer on either side of the Suez who fights for truth above everything else. It was an interesting casting and I think I saw one episode on YouTube on a hunch. Ronit Roy’s not bad. And very honestly, I didn’t absolute flip on watching it, but I didn’t push my finger in my eye, touch my brain and turn it either. Adaalat was indeed very, very watchable. The stories were not altogether atrocious, Ronit Roy was a safe bet with his still upper-lip Hindi and Urdu, the show was fast paced – like I said, the show was very, very watchable.

And here is why it cannot be any better. First, I think even Indian studios should start a season based program, at least for a new-revised time slot; focusing on people who’d much rather wait till next morning to go online and see the current show of the current American television series they’re watching. This entire market is lying vacant. And the people who watch Castle, or How I Met Your Mother or take a biggie, say Friends, can never come down to watching an Adaalat as religiously as they waited for every new episode of Two and a Half Men.

Homeland

Think about it? What is our answer to Homeland? CID? This is frightening. I can’t understand why a huge segment of people who greedily watch Glee won’t watch something with the same style and content values made in India? Can’t there be a ten to ten-thirty slot for a more Homeland-ish series, for the corporate men maybe? I know, we’re a huge reality TV population – but we also have satellite connectivity and a plethora of channels. Instead of opening two channels that basically do the same thing (like Star Plus and Star One), can’t someone at least take an attempt with one channel? Is it that big a risk to take, particularly when compared to the risk taken for that Govinda KBC spin-off?

Now, why was I talking about a series format – quite honestly, for lesser number of shows. Perhaps that would give the writers more time to come up with more intriguing stuff. Maybe even figure out some kind of mild connecting tools through entire series’. Here is what I was thinking while watching a few episodes of Adaalat. The prosecution, Mr. Jaiswal has been trying forever to get one better over KD Pathak, and has sadly met with failure on all occasions (no, that’s not a series continuity that will meet a dramatic turn somewhere). But every time, it starts to seem that KD just comes in with his homework done properly and Jaiswal just thinks he can shout his way to a victory. Why not make the case a little stronger, show some enquiring being done by Jaiswal as well, let him meet KD half way or something – why just make your villain a comedian for no reason? And at the current rate of these shows being made, these patterns will never emerge because the writers just need to churn something workable out, and fast. Therefore, “seasons”. Let CID, nay, Adaalat run for fifteen seasons with some 30 shows each season. That way we’ll have something to cherish about spending an hour over it (and not watch these “thriller” and “suspense” genre work as maudlin humour). Moreover, if you leave someone as big as Roy enough time for his movies as well, then there can be more appearances from Bollywood in your shows. We do have the actors these days to do it. Or for that matter, even Brad Pitt made a cameo in Friends and Ashton Kutcher went back to TV. Who’s to say…

Brad Pitt on F.R.I.E.N.D.S: Season 8: The One with the Rumor

And if we look close, American television shows have their Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thhi shows, like The Days of Our Lives and The Bold and the Beautiful. They’ve worked out a time plan. And let’s not try to pretend that we invented reality shows. If Shilpa Shetty had not been racially molested on Big Brother, there would be no Big Boss. Even they did the shows with their nobodies, we do it with ours. All this is going to take is a little bit of fitting into.

No, there is most definitely hope. Not too much hope at that, for he’s involved – but yes, Anil Kapoor seems to have finally been successful in bringing 24 to India. And they’ve got the director from Delhi Belly to direct (sorry, I keep forgetting his name… Deo, I think). So overall, that’s good. But it has Anil Kapoor playing the role of Jack Bauer. Depressed, anyone?

Still, I’d like to see some more shows like these. Don’t we have anyone here who can make a Big Bang Theory? Sure we do. And if we have some hundred people to make it, I’m sure we’ll have a few crore people watching it. And we definitely have thousands of malls all around India who sell products whose brands will want to advertise to their target groups. So there won’t be any dearth of financing too, really.

Time for Adaalats of India to improve. Let’s not go all the way, but like Mr. Jaiswal, let us meet Mr. Pathak half way at least.

To better times…

[Apologies are in order for the audacity of my title. I didn’t do it to belittle Satyajit Ray, or pretend that I can fit his entire expanse on cinema, into a little space on my blog by speaking about television. No, I just felt creative enough to use the title. It fit into our little situation perfectly.]

The Silver Lining: The Silver Linings Playbook Review

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I have a little confession to make. I didn’t quite like The Fighter. As in, the movie was great, no doubt, but I strongly believed that The Fighter was an actors’ film. Without Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo and Batman (Christian Bale), the movie would have fallen flat. It was too slow, too laborious for easy viewing.

And perhaps what I am saying makes sense. In the sense, David O Russell movies always get its actors noticed, gets them elusive awards. Melissa Leo and Christian Bale both went back with Supporting Actor trophies couple of years back. There were several nomination for The Silver Linings Playbook as well — Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress (won both the Oscars and the Golden Globe for “Actor in a Musical/Comedy), Bradley Cooper for Actor, Jackie Weaver was nominated after quite some time, for Supporting Actor Female and after nearly 20 years, Robert De Niro, for Best Supporting Actor Male. So, like I was saying, David O Russell movies are in effect actors’ movies, and that might be his USP.

So, how ranks The Silver Linings Playbook as compared to the other fare that was served at the cinemas this year? Or how was it just as a movie? Well, quite honestly, I loved it. Once again, Russell makes all the right choices when it comes to his actors, his characters are all gold. Pat Jr. (Bradley Cooper) is almost air-lifted by his mother (Jackie Weaver) from a mental asylum, where he was serving his court-ordered time after assaulting his wife’s lover on catching them red-handed. The one moment sparked and fuelled his insanity and the only way for him to get off somewhat lightly, was to plead insanity. But he’s not really insane, he’s just frustrated. And to add to that, he’s treated and dealt with — by both his caretakers, as well as his friends and family — as a deranged mad man. Honestly, all he has are some anger issues. More than a shrink, I’d say he needed an anger management therapist.

However, the story then brings him back home. His father, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) is a little apprehensive. His son was released on a technicality at court, not because the doctors said he was fine to go. Things were never all that easy between father and son. And this doesn’t help.

Pat Jr. is convinced that he needs to put his past, the rage-filled incident, everything behind him and work towards making himself a better person, a better individual, a loving, doting husband to his wife. He starts taking all the basic steps required to put himself out there and get back to his blissful earlier life.

Only that his wife doesn’t want him anymore. Who would? She literally saw him beat her lover to death. While the justification of that still needs to be answered for, the fact is she no longer wants to live with a maniac. She even had a restraining order against him. But Pat Jr. refuses to listen to any logic. As far as he is concerned, all this was a major misunderstanding, and he would finally be able to make things right.

Covering himself in a large garbage bag, Pat Jr. goes out to run, to get himself in shape. He starts reading all the books that his wife teaches at school. And he is basically sick of everything being sucky in life. He therefore, even has a bone to pick with Hemmingway for “dying” at the very end. At four in the morning. His father wants him to get Hemmingway to apologize for disturbing his sleep.

See, that’s the wit I am talking about. And because, once again, this is an actor’s film, the wit is driven through the entire movie effortlessly. The movie doesn’t try to be funny. It just is. There is wit, there is humor and then there is slapstick (I’m just adding some broad stroke here), and The Silver Linings Playbook is just pure wit. It just carries through a narrative that really might not have very much to say. It’s warm, its appreciative, its affectionate, its quirky and it keeps you smiling all through. You don’t need to think too much about, neither does the movie insult your intelligence.

Movie Still

And the characters, each and every one of them. It’s an entire mad world out there, I don’t think there is even that one normal soul you need. Bradley Cooper earns his first Best Actor nomination at the Academy. Naturally, he wasn’t going to get it even if he was nominated alone, but at least now the future Hangover trailers will include, “And Academy Award Nominee, Bradley Cooper.” But jokes aside, he’s honest, he’s warm, he’s likeable and he does his part quite well, I must say. He has that rear streak in him and he really is a five in dancing! Bradley Cooper needs to find more movies like these, for he’s most suited to them. And of course, he can always continue with The Hangover franchise.

There is a problem talking about actors like Robert De Niro. He’s been there forever now, he’s done it all, even some of the most iconic movies in cinema history. You’ve always known to worship him and then you see him in a role like this. How do you feel? What do you say? Because there is nothing to say. He can walk all over a movie in characters such as Pat Sr. There isn’t even the slightest flaw. And when you see such a performance, you can’t help but think, “What’s he even doing?” If you do at all care to watch Silver Linings…, then watch carefully the performance. You will know the meaning of the word ‘effortless’.

Jackie Weaver is the Mrs. Andrews from the Archie’s. She loves them all, she’s mother to them all and she just wants what’s best for her son. She is your average, quint-essential mother, who’d rather find hope in her son’s shortfalls, than admit to professional help. Because she believes in him. Because she believes in his friends. And she believes in finding the silver lining in the clouds for him — that is her playbook. A quick word here about Anupam Kher as well, what with half of India and yours truly included publicizing Silver Linings as his movie (sorry), the man is a remarkable actor, who speaks perfect English here in India but developed an Indian accent in America — along with the name “Cliff”. You’ll now know the reason for the apology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MP7A1k8Jr0

No. I didn’t forget her. I never can. I never will. And before this starts to read like the ramblings of a psycho stalker, I’ll speak it out anyways. I love Jennifer Lawrence, and I will try not to be biased in my appreciation of her performance. Jennifer Lawrence is what holds the movie together. She’s just not a pretty face, she’s just the finest that there is. The half-crazy, half-mental, quirky mad girl in the neighbourhood, one you’d like to bump into and yet stay away from. You almost feel like keeping her on your head and dance. You know what I mean.

But the Oscars? No, too much… way too much. I think I could figure out what happened there. Zero Dark Thirty got into a lot of bad blood over torture and some human rights issues. Jessica Chastain, along with the rest of the movie nominees lost out in a flash. And Jennifer Lawrence won. But there was an oversight. Emmanuelle Riva. At the age of 86, the lady flew across the Atlantic to be at the Oscars. This would have worked as the oldest category win, and also served as a Lifetime achievement for the octogenarian artist. She deserved it. She had worked very hard for it. Jennifer Lawrence could have won it again. As a matter of fact, Silver Linings… was to have been the movie she used to get a Best Actor later. Moreover, there could surely have been other American ladies to have played Tiffany Maxwell. But Riva will never get a chance like this again. So the Academy could have bent slightly. It wouldn’t have been the worst thing to do.

The Silver Linings Playbook was a very good movie, a wonderfully warm and colorful movie. It needed to go out with a better bang. Lawrence winning the Golden Globe, even her “I beat Meryl” chant was perfect, the Academy goofed up unnecessarily. Just like mostly all the major awards this year. Well, that story is coming up later. Next, we’ll talk through Life of Pi, and it’s place at the Oscars this year.

Argo F*** Yourself!

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Hollywood movies these days are just Bollywood movies with the class and finesse. I know I’m saying nothing new here, but then what else do you call the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes franchise, and now, Argo! To put it straight before I go any further, I don’t care a hoot if Hollywood’s going Bollywood. But it still needs to be said out there, particularly when you end up with Best Picture at the Oscars, after Affleck failed to make Director nominations. Again, not that I care about that either, but what I’m trying to figure out here is that when a movie of such magnitude goes Oscar, then we better talk about it being Bollywood’s skin. Amen!

Now, Argo. This one’s taken us all quite by surprise, hasn’t it? I remember when the trailers first aired, and I was all over YouTube, watching it over and over again — with Aerosmith at the end. And it looked great. I always preferred Ben Affleck more as a director than an actor. Look at his earlier movies… Gone, Baby Gone, The Town, Argo was his biggest picture to date. And Affleck did a great job as usual. He’s a rather good director, one who knows what he’s doing. And the thing about Affleck’s movies are they keep you hooked all through. The Town was one of the finest movies I had seen in a long time. The narrative was amazing, the story was very well choreographed, amazing set of performances and superb action pieces — it was everything you needed to relax, and yet not be fooled.

Argo was a much grander film. From local to urban to international, Affleck’s movies have seen a gradual urge to explore. And he knows how to capture his magnitude within his lens as well. For instance, Argo has that entire diaspora to cover, to differentiate through levels, good and bad, modern and ancient, terror and law. It was much beyond The Town. And that is what I was getting at.

The story, a real one at that, is of course the driving force of the movie. First, it’s like we’ve always been made to associate these kinds of espionage stunts as cinematic interpretations and then when we know it’s actually happened, we tend to feel a lot more well-placed to such a fantastic moment of bravery. And second, the whole thing was cinematic. That was the best part. Using the guise of a Canadian film production unit, Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), a CIA exfill specialist, flies into Iran to rescue the six escapees from the US Embassy during the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. The movie he’s making is called “Argo”, and it’s all over the papers. It’s going to be like Star Wars and the hype is unbelievable. Of course, the Iranians have no clue about it, but the cover is maintained in case they do get suspicious. The rest of the story leads you to if they manage to pull this off or not. Amazing.

And here’s why I say this movie reeks of Bollywood. Because of the liberties that Affleck took to make his story more larger-than-life. This is a Bollywood speciality, nay a speciality even in Indian television shows. The opulence of content, if I may coin the term, but Argo is built on it.

First, we are told that the Brits and Kiwis turned away the escapees, and it was finally the Canadian Ambassador, who at great risk to himself and his family, gave them refuge. Now, we all know that’s not true. The Kiwis and the Brits tried to help, but they weren’t quite able to do as much. Ben Affleck stated that he took the liberty to show the gruesome plight of the escapees. It would have perhaps taken him five reel-minutes to show them in their true roles in the entire incident, but Affleck chose to ignore it completely. Bollywood.

Then we come to the Alan Arkin character, Lester Siegel, the producer of this bogus movie. While don’t get me wrong, Arkin’s character is absolutely essential for the movie, but it is because Affleck had the sense to cast Arkin in the role. Without Alan Arkin playing Lester Siegel, the entire character would make no sense. He’d have only a cosmetic value, and this is not a work of fiction. We are dealing with a movie that tells us of a true story. I simply do not understand the benefit of fantasizing over reality. It seems like a wasteful task.

And of course, the final escape — with the Iranians chasing the plane along the tarmac. I can even get by with Affleck’s idea of romanticizing at the expense of the Brits and Kiwis, but to take it this far was completely uncalled for. And I must also mention, this broke the entire illusion the movie was trying to create. As in, the only thing working for “Argo” was it was too good to be true. A Star Wars-like movie being shot in the Iranian desert during the hostage crisis. It was a miracle the Iranians never bothered to double check, mostly because they’d think anyone would be too crazy to try a stunt like that. And then the ending just took the fun all out of the game. Too over dramatic, and particularly when nothing happened as they showed it. I never get this stupidity. Like in the Indian war film Border, on the Battle of Longewala. The Indians lost just 2 men of a small company force and the Pakistani’s lost an armoured tank regiment in the war. In the J P Dutta movie, the Indians almost seemed to win the war by fluke and because they had their vocabularies full of Bollywood jingoisms and other ballyhoo.

But like I said before, I don’t have any problems whatsoever with the movie being Bollywood, I just wish he’d tried being Bollywood a bit more subtly. Or else we’d all be watching Kaante and saying Reservoir Dogs is crap.

What if I were to throw my hat in on the entire Best Picture win for Argo at the Oscars? I’d narrow it down to face-saving. Sure, Ben Affleck definitely did deserve to be nominated, winning or not would be another matter altogether. The Academy overlooked him completely. For no apparent reason. Not just him, even Katherine Bigelow and Quentin Tarantino. And the love for Lincoln was growing too overt. Clearly, the Academy decided to rob Steven Spielberg in the end, leading him up the garden path and finally feeding him to the wolves. The nominations and the wins, everything has been rather lacklustre this year at the Academy. We’ll get to that after the reviewing session, after we’ve covered all the movies here.

I’ll be writing about the Silver Linings Playbook next. I kind of did like the movie, and it served its way well through the award ceremonies, except at the Oscars again. We’ll get to that, next…!

Review: Argo (2012) (monsterzeronj.wordpress.com)
Film: Newswire: And now New Zealand is also mad at Ben Affleck over Argo (avclub.com)

Unchaining the Baggage: The Django Unchained Review

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It was long, long overdue. Anyone who’d be a fan of the master, neigh, a follower of the master, would agree with me on this. First he took as a style and applied it to contrasting themes with remarkable ease. Quite like, “How did we miss it already?” But then this time he could apply the style to his homogenous content. And while that does sound easier, I’m sure the stress is a lot more to emphasize clearly enough.

But first, the context. Django Unchained was a long overdue masterpiece from the re-inventor of the spaghetti western. Quentin Tarantino, since Reservoir Dogs had utilized Sergio Leone’s fashion statement to create amazing visuals and stylized moments — be it the accidental car shooting in Pulp Fiction, Robert De Niro shooting Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown, or even Diane Kruger’s death by strangulation in Inglorious Basterds. However, what Tarantino was still to do was a western, where he’d need to match the spectacle of Leone, in Leone’s own backyard.

Couple that with Tarantino’s Blaxploitation themes, almost like a white man’s internalization of his black social definition, a western based on slavery seemed only too good to be true. It was like offering the entire palette of Quentin Tarantino up for grabs. Yes, Django Unchained was bound to be a thriller.

And it did not disappoint, it did better than even my highest expectations. After a long, long time, we once again saw classic Tarantino moments, vintage Morricone, Tarantino’s own black style, characters of courage and magnificence, and of course, classic writing.

The thing about Django… is that it’s kind of inspired, almost on every level. The way the movie begins, the introduction of Dr Schultz, Django’s blue uniform, bounty hunting, killing the Brittle brothers, Mandingo fights, everything just seems to be awfully removed and yet, oddly close to home. What Tarantino has masterfully managed to glide himself through is the legacy of Quentin Tarantino and not Sergio Leone that he brings to this movie. Everything is deceitfully Tarantino in this movie, including when the director blows up!

Tarantino’s craft is evident from just the blank pages of this movie, the imagination of his mere thoughts. It is the story of Django Unchained which is the true champion here. Tarantino weaves his magic across America’s gory past, and yet allows us to find some relief in Dr Schultz, who I must say is splendidly portrayed by one of the greatest actors of our time — Christoph Waltz. The sing-song tone of his voice, his hauty mock in his every action, his diction, his erudition, everything was just magically reflected in Waltz’s stellar performance. If it is one role that the entire movie rolled on, it was this and without Christoph Waltz, this would have fallen flat completely. When the tenacity of art meets the ferocity of imagination, only then do you get a Dr King Schultz.

Dr Schultz Employs Django

But back to the story, what I was trying to point at was the way in which the tale was very well thought out at first, like the way the preamble of the movie was based, and then how Tarantino managed to craft little little scenes of marvel — that I guess is where the brilliance of this movie lies. Of course, special mention needs to be made of the humour in his work. Lines like, “Gentleman, you had my curiosity… but now you have my attention” are classic Tarantino throw punches. Humour, in a Tarantino film, is the chief ingredient most QT copy cats fail to retain in their Tarantino-inspired movies. And Django Unchained shows just how far they shoot wide of the original stuff.

As always, Tarantino lives up to his reputation of being one of the greatest creators of all time, particularly in the characters that he creates. We first met Vincent Vega (Michael Madsen) in Reservoir Dogs, and then we met Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in Pulp Fiction [Both playing completely different characters who just seem to have their name in common. Tarantino had once wanted to make a movie with Madsen and Travolta in the lead, called The Vega Brothers. Sadly, by the time he thought of it, both actors were too old to bring real value to the concept.] and then Col Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) in Inglorious Basterds. And this time, we are introduced to Dr King Schultz, a German dentist who works as a bounty hunter. An avid supporter of freedom from slavery, Dr King Schultz goes out of his way to defend and accommodate the slave he “freed” by buying him from his captors in return for some help. In a period of complete insanity, to find a resourceful man with genuine warmth was a master stroke in the movie. Christoph Waltz too, seems to reserve his best work for Tarantino. The way he breathed life into Tarantino’s miraculous character was simply spell-binding. Watching Christoph Waltz as Dr Schultz is alone worth the price of your ticket.

Then of course, there is Samuel L Jackson and his racial hate spewing rage. The old servant of the house, who’s been there forever and now takes his place along with the white folk. He can’t stand to see a black man be treated as an equal, and he is the perfect villain, the evil sinister traitor to the cause. And Jackson never fails Tarantino as well. Moreover, he’s played this in so many forms in so many movies, it hardly comes as a surprise that he could strip it off to the T. And even then you find yourself beaming every time you see him on screen. What a performance, one that has been sadly overlooked in more or less every major award function this year.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin J Candy of Candyland

Leo DiCaprio managed his career well. Even a tad bit better I’d say than his Titanic counterpart, Kate Winslet. No, I mean I love Kate as much as the next guy, and yes, she has her Academy already… but I guess, the point that I’m trying to make is this: Leo managed his way through blockbuster movies which also gave him his due credits as an actor. Moving on to Martin Scorsese helped his career infinitely, with movies like The Aviator and The Departed jazzing up his resume. And there were also films like Inception, Romeo+Juliet, The Beach that he has to boast of. There are many, many more to add to this list, but I guess this kind of does make my point. Again, I am and always will be pro-Kate Winslet all my life. And well, to return to this particular movie, seeing Leo as an evil, sadistic plantation owner was simply a revelation. Of course, he had the best lines in the film, and he delivered them with punch. Yep, a good performance, one that you’d most definitely love.

Over all, Django Unchained is a visual spectacle, a blood-splattered one at that and the general ecstasy of every scene is miraculous. It leaves you pleasantly surprised and happy and satiated, and we all know there are only a handful of films that can do that.

I know I am a bit biased about Tarantino, and therefore, I do honestly try to be more brutal with his films. But this one was special. Django Unchained made me a pleasant believer again in as to why I have the bias to begin with. Quentin Tarantino is a visionary, he is the true artist. He will blow himself up to make sure that you get the movie you deserve to see.

Rating: *****/*****

Reviewing Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar Winning ‘Django Unchained’, Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio (sashankkini.wordpress.com)
Review of ‘Django Unchained’ (hamzaamir123.wordpress.com)

Showreel: Lootera

It’s been a while since I was last here. And of course, a lot has already happened. No harm though, we can always catch up.

And for starters, I’d like to begin with Vikramaditya Motwane‘s Lootera. The trailer just released a couple of days back, and I must say, I was blown. The thing with Indian period films is the tackiness of it all. In the sense, everything looks like a set, a gaudy set at that, everything seems more fantastical than actual period time-pieces and the biggest mockery lies in the entire look of the actors, not to mention how simplistically foolish the sets and substances are.

And then when I’d look towards Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, you really can see then how different the two schools of cinema are. Or look even closer down, look towards Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. But all that seems different now. Lootera, starring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, completely bowls you over. The richness of the text, the rhythm of movements, the gentle nuances, the look of the principle actors and the ravishing background score — everything takes Lootera to a different level, far removed from the general fare of Bollywood period movies.

To be honest, I have great expectations from this movie. I like the way Motwane keeps mentioning that he wants his movie to work both at the festival circuit and at the mainstream box office. I like to hear that in a director, particularly when actors, directors and producers in Hindi cinema clearly state that the critics mean nothing and its only the box office registers that matter. And then people wonder why Bollywood still rehashes the same crap over and over again.

Here’s the trailer. Enjoy it, savour it and let me know what you think of it.

Film review: 'Zero Dark Thirty' brings obsession with elusive truth to vivid light

Reblogged from Independent Ethos:

Zero Dark Thirty hits theaters in limited release tomorrow riding a wave of critical buzz but also controversy. Having had the opportunity to attend a preview screening early last month by the invitation of Sony Pictures, I can understand why both the hype and concern would crop up. The film opens with 20 minutes of the intense and persistent torture of a prisoner by CIA operatives that had me noting the duration of these scenes when they finally ended.

2012 in Review

A big, big thank you to everyone who came and read whatever I had to say this year. You made my ego bloat and it feels nice.

Please do come back in 2013. Some very big names are going to release their movies this year and we’re going to have a lot of things to discuss.

This is Subhojit Sanyal, wishing everyone around the globe a very happy new year… ah, what the heck, just survive 2013 and we’ll be good to go!

Cheers!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 38,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen: A Fisherman’s Tale

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I wouldn’t call Salmon Fishing in the Yemen great cinema. I think I’d just call it cinema. Because something that beautiful does not need a self-justifying adjective to support its claim. Because it is just what it tries to be. Cinema.

Firstly, anything that has Ewan McGregor is worth a watch. You can’t get too wrong with him. So, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen started out as a fun watch on that premise itself, coupled with the fact that it had Emily Blunt there as well. Now, these are two actors who can really compliment each other well, and two of the few surviving actors who can define a role. It was a good casting choice, one that was also absolutely necessary to the survival of the movie.

Movie Stills

Because this is no ordinary film. The plausible romanticism of the movie leaves the entire premise, and its gauntlet holds subjected to acute arbitrariness. And you need very capable actors and methods to bridge this suspension of disbelief. That is just what I was trying to establish with McGregor and Blunt at the beginning. As the title itself is proof enough, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” does have an odd sound to it. And that is well carried into the movie, a pseudo-bizzaro world, completely rooted to reality—the true promise of a romantic comedy. The movie is gentle in its ambitions, deviant in its objectives.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a wonderful ride, stopping at all the right stops, taking you through breathtaking visuals, mesmerising music and fast-paced set pieces, that blend perfectly with the rhythmic poetry of the performances. I wish Patricia Maxwell had been given a little more space than strut around like a well-oiled-clock-giving-the-wrong-time. However, the onus of the movie was squarely on McGregor and Blunt’s shoulders, ably assisted by Egyptian actor Amr Waked, who walked the tightrope between the two lead actors.

The movie can tend to bulge over from time to time, adding too many complexities in a delightfully light-hearted, open-hearted movie. But you tend to gloss over them, because you are left with something much more wonderful, something that is warm and allows you to smile instinctively. The screenplay is effectively smooth, sweet and hopeful.

I tell you, if it weren’t for movies like Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, we’d have long lost love for the cinema. Because the cinema shows us what we love to see, because the cinema will always be magic to us, however much we might know about the processes over the internet. This movie is now on my *referral* list, to show to all who want to see.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, taking us to the cinemas.

You: ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ (japantimes.co.jp)
Actress Emily Blunt: ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ is a ‘hopeful movie’ (upi.com)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (joanneguidoccio.com)

Showreel: Man of Steel #2

The new Superman (Man of Steel) trailer is out, and very honestly, Superman never looked so good. I, very honestly, and still a huge fan of Christopher Reeves as Superman, and of course, that also has a lot to do with the man’s personal integrity and determination. Yes, he is Superman, the real kinds, but speaking of the movies, this time it looks like we’re going to be hit by something drastic.

I know, there is a huge lot of pressure on this movie with Christopher Nolan acting as Producer in it, but could Man of Steel do for Superman, what the Dark Knight franchise did for Batman? Only time will tell the story in its entirety, but form the looks of what I see now, I think we’re gonna make it this time.

Up, up and away!

70th Golden Globe Nominations

The 70th Golden Globe nominations for the year 2012 are out. And this one packs quite a punch. The usual suspects, more or less, but the names are all big weights this time. So, who knows, the fight is going to be much harder, I guess. But yes, the movies nominated this year, each one of them deserve their place in the spotlight.