Drishyam, Malayalam Movie: Tantalizingly Delightful

IN the movie "The Insider", the producer of CBS sixty minutes retorts back at his boss, "Ordinary People under Extraordinary pressure, What do you expect, Grace and Consistency !!!

Well meet George Kutty, in Drishyam and discover his brand of chess to unravel the mystery of how ordinary people can acquit themselves with grace and consistency.

As the IPS officer wilts down under frustration and is about to break down, her industrialist husband quickly leads her out the room lest she breaks down in front of her fellow officers. It is in such thoughtful writing and well articulated characterization that the movie has its foundation.

The narrative set in a sleepy village in the heavenly God's own Country(I keep wondering how keralites have the heart to live anywhere outside!!!) has a protagonist, a fourth standard pass out, a man after my own heart, , who learns, lives lessons through, movies. And when his quiet life is threatened, he gets to play his brand of chess(learned from movies !!!)

Jeetu Joseph's narrative is delightfully deceptive as it manages to keep it a consistent and gentle pace throughout except, that at a particular point, your pulse rate does not stay that way. You pulse rate initially saunters, then gallops and whooshes past the finish line and erupts into joy and translates into a spontaneous and standing ovation for George Kutty and Jeetu Joesph.(Beleive me there was a standing ovation from a Full House at Streak at Escape Cinemas in Chennai today)

Mohan Lal, the master of restraint and subtlety, executes an author backed role to perfection.

I was only saddened by the fact, while the movie was near perfect, could the background score have been better?. While Kerala has some of the best musical talent in the country, why cannot Malayalam movies, use that huge reservoir of talent.

Chenda(Kerala's own) is one of the best percussion instruments that I know of, I am not sure, if I ever heard of a single drum of chenda during the entire movie !!!

Whether you know Malayalam or not, DO NOT MISS DRISHYAM FOR the world.

Drishyam,  one of the best entertainers to come out in INdia Cinema and will be remembered for a Long, Long time.

Dedh Ishqiya: The 'Wah" !! and the "Wow" !! of Urdu

Amongst all Languages spoken in India, I find Urdu has an enhanced flavor of respect while conversing. It also is sublimely beautiful.

My introduction to Urdu has been through Bollywood and my Sardarji Tailor in Delhi who used to write down the measurements in Urdu.

I think Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza did write a lot of dialogues in the 1980s for Bolllywood mixing a fair quotient of Urdu. 

I also vaguely remember enjoying the TV serial Mirza Ghalib a long long ago.

Then it was Jodha Akbhar, the most beautiful Hindi, Urdu “Jugalbandhi” dialogues that was ever brought to the silver screen.

Dedh  Ishkiya, is an ode to Urdu. Thank you gentlemen, for the thoughtful Subtitles. 

The abundance of beauty does not permeates only through the language but suffuses with the ethereal and gorgeous Madhuri Dixit, clothed in sartorial elegance and exuberant colours. The ever expressive Naseeruddin Shah plays the perfectly bewitched lover who lavishes his lover with “Sher” and “Shayari”  leaving the audience transfixed, who stutter the narrative with their loud and approving “Wahs !!”.

Well, M.F. Hussain should have lived to see this!! And he will certainly be a happy man in the heavens !!

The only problem with the abundance is that one is not sure what should be savored. There is a certain dilemma and inability to absorb the entire proceedings in one helping.

Not be left behind is the music, the zany characters and the ever lurking Tarentino whose influence cannot be missed.

Given the spirit of the franchise, the plot is predictable. 

There are certain film makers who focus on releasing during the festivals to set 500 crore records and there are certain film makers who enjoy the process of film making(however imperfect they may be). We the audience are blessed by the latter set of film makers.

Vishal BHaradwaj, Abhishek Chaubey, Gulzar,  Hum Aapke Shukraguzaar Hain!!!!!

Sholay 3D: A trip down the memory lane

Sholay 3D

A trip down the memory lane

Sholay and Ben-Hur are two movies that I have seen the maximum I number of times in a cinema hall. Six times.

While I have never seen Sholay on any other medium, I have seen Ben-Hur innumerable number of times on DVD and may continue to see it many more times.

Sholay was one helluva of movie which had you mesmerized sometimes by Sanjeev Kumar, sometimes by Amjad Khan, sometimes by its dialogues, sometimes by its cinematography and in one of my helpings I was bowled over by M.S. Shinde's editing. After my first six trips, my firm belief was that Shinde who was the hero of the film. Of course Ramesh Sippy's along with Salim Javed architected the mother of all Masala films which still seems to have an enduring effect on the Masala flicks that are dished out in this country.

The love affair of Sholay was so much that my wife and I made sure we caught up with the first show of Ramgopal Varma's version of Sholay( I know I am making a big fool of myself by confessing this big secret!!!!)

When the 3D Format of Sholay was released, I could not resist one more time of catching up in the big screen and I just wanted to see if the magic of Sholay endured.

The homogeneity  of the film seems to have vaporized. The movie seemed to be episodic, with central standoff between Thakur and Gabbar(Action Blocks plus Drama Blocks), distracted by interspersed elements of Friendship, Comedy, Romance, Boisterous and Quiet with element of unrequited love, Sentimentality and HIndu Muslim Unity.

Instead of 3D, may be Ramesh Sippy could have released this as a TV Serial!!!

The Wolf of Wall street: When Greed becomes indigestible

In the last ten years, Martin Scorsese served us, an intense biopic Aviator, the stylish, Departed and the most sensitive Hugho. After nearly fifty years of film making one thought, Scorsese was peaking. When you witness works like “The Wolf of Wall Street” you are truly scared. When genius’s like Scorsese can falter, I shudder to think what kind of mistakes mere mortals can commit.

I introspect, on what could have been the tradeoffs, constraints and compulsions to direct a movie which drifts away time and again wondering what the director was trying to achieve.

There is no missing the raw kinetic energy, fueled by irreverence, profane language, indulgence and boundless greed. Greed ceases to be good. Scorsese may have inadvertently driven home the point that Greed is meaningless.

As much as it is the avowed objective of the Indian film directors to perpetually dish out movies based on “God Father” year of after year, year, any Hollywood director worth his salt must have his take on Wall Street.

Is there anything new that we get to hear on Wall Street? Nah!!!! Scorsese does not have to do a rehash of Boiler room sequences. What a free fall?

Jordan Belfort(It has been very difficult remembering the name),  is Scorsese’s Gekko. De Caprio’s presence may well be the redeeming factor of why we may sit through the three hour tale that gets lost time and again. However the writing for Jordan is abysmally bad. There are no shades of Gekko’s ruthlessness. Neither is there anything wolfish about him. There are no dimensions to his personality. Just a plain hedonist and retard.

Supposed to be a Drama, there are no traces of conflict.IN a drama, simple principles of storytelling  demand that there has to be characters who are as powerful as the protagonist with an opposite and equally aggressive point of view. Scorsese could have just taken a leaf out of Amercian gangster to create a character as powerful as Russell Crowe(in AmeriCan Gangster) to take on the like of Jordan Belfort(In The wolf of Wall Steet). I guess there are enough examples in Scorsese’s films himself.

Neither here or there, this middling exercise could be given a miss.

I guess geniuses like Scorsese would be self-critical of their work and redeem themselves with better work the next time around.