Saturday, June 25, 2005
Paheli
Amol Palekar’s Paheli is likeable for what’s it’s not—it’s not a Hollywood rip-off, it’s not a run-of-the-mill romance, it’s not arty (like Duvidha based on the same story). However, if you think of how little of the story’s potential the film has touched, you still come out dissatisfied.
In the attempt to give Vijaydan Detha’s folk tale, a more commercial appeal, Palekar has overdone the exotica—Ravi K Chandran’s camera makes the film look gorgeous, but also much too colourful—like a ‘Come to Rajasthan’ tourist bait—with camel race thrown in as bonus!
The excessively glitzy look, takes away from the simplicity of a folk tale, the playfulness of fable, as well as the mystical quality of the romance. Paheli may have a lot going for in terms production values and performances, but the stolid narration lacks that ineffable magic that would have taken the story to a higher plane.
Lachchi (Rani Mukherji) is married to Kishan (Shah Rukh Khan) who leaves her the next day to go out of town on business for five years. On the way to her husband’s home, a ghost sees Lachchi’s face and falls in love with her. When the ghost sees the husband leaving, he takes on the guise of Kishan and lands up at his haveli. Kishan’s greedy father (Anupam Kher) is easily placated with gold.
The ghost tells Lachchi the truth, and she chooses to accept the man who loves her, over the one who callously abandoned her. They two are happy together till the real husband returns.
In the changing and updating of the story, a feminist touch is aimed at, but never reached, simply because when Lachchi’s strength is needed—when the real Kishan is to be identified—she is out of the picture. So except for letting the ghost impersonate her absent husband, Lachchi is not really a ‘doer’—things just happen to her. In this case, even the forced happy ending palls. Not to mention Amitabh Bachchan’s futile cameo.
Still, Palekar (and writer Sandhya Gokhale) have given the film a few innovative touches – like the puppet ‘sutradhars’ (voices of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah), the charming scene of the ghost’s first encounter with Lachchi, and the touching but under-explored subplot of Kishan’s lonely sister-in-law (Juhi Chawla), whose dignified silence says more about the subservient condition of women in feudal Rajasthan, than all of Lachchi’s grimaces and tears.
If there was to be point made about the repression of women’s desires in a conservative ‘purdah’ society, it is lost in all the singing and dancing. So Paheli, teeters on the edge for a while, and falls right into the decorative and simplistic idiom of mainstream cinema.
Shah Rukh Khan, awkward in ethnicwear and moustache, doesn’t perform with his customary ease—he looks like he doesn’t know quite what to make of the character (which is actually DDLJ or Kal Ho Naa Ho in period costume). Rani Mukherji makes good use of her expressive eyes, and has the simple charm the character requires, but in her tiny part, Juhi Chawla leaves an indelible impact.
Audiences today are looking for something ‘different’ and that condition Paheli fulfills, though the slow pace and not quite catchy music may prove to be deterrents.
In the attempt to give Vijaydan Detha’s folk tale, a more commercial appeal, Palekar has overdone the exotica—Ravi K Chandran’s camera makes the film look gorgeous, but also much too colourful—like a ‘Come to Rajasthan’ tourist bait—with camel race thrown in as bonus!
The excessively glitzy look, takes away from the simplicity of a folk tale, the playfulness of fable, as well as the mystical quality of the romance. Paheli may have a lot going for in terms production values and performances, but the stolid narration lacks that ineffable magic that would have taken the story to a higher plane.
Lachchi (Rani Mukherji) is married to Kishan (Shah Rukh Khan) who leaves her the next day to go out of town on business for five years. On the way to her husband’s home, a ghost sees Lachchi’s face and falls in love with her. When the ghost sees the husband leaving, he takes on the guise of Kishan and lands up at his haveli. Kishan’s greedy father (Anupam Kher) is easily placated with gold.
The ghost tells Lachchi the truth, and she chooses to accept the man who loves her, over the one who callously abandoned her. They two are happy together till the real husband returns.
In the changing and updating of the story, a feminist touch is aimed at, but never reached, simply because when Lachchi’s strength is needed—when the real Kishan is to be identified—she is out of the picture. So except for letting the ghost impersonate her absent husband, Lachchi is not really a ‘doer’—things just happen to her. In this case, even the forced happy ending palls. Not to mention Amitabh Bachchan’s futile cameo.
Still, Palekar (and writer Sandhya Gokhale) have given the film a few innovative touches – like the puppet ‘sutradhars’ (voices of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah), the charming scene of the ghost’s first encounter with Lachchi, and the touching but under-explored subplot of Kishan’s lonely sister-in-law (Juhi Chawla), whose dignified silence says more about the subservient condition of women in feudal Rajasthan, than all of Lachchi’s grimaces and tears.
If there was to be point made about the repression of women’s desires in a conservative ‘purdah’ society, it is lost in all the singing and dancing. So Paheli, teeters on the edge for a while, and falls right into the decorative and simplistic idiom of mainstream cinema.
Shah Rukh Khan, awkward in ethnicwear and moustache, doesn’t perform with his customary ease—he looks like he doesn’t know quite what to make of the character (which is actually DDLJ or Kal Ho Naa Ho in period costume). Rani Mukherji makes good use of her expressive eyes, and has the simple charm the character requires, but in her tiny part, Juhi Chawla leaves an indelible impact.
Audiences today are looking for something ‘different’ and that condition Paheli fulfills, though the slow pace and not quite catchy music may prove to be deterrents.
Labels: Cinemaah
Sunday, June 19, 2005
3 This Week
Bachke Rehna Re Baba
Of all the movies offered to her, Rekha had to end up doing this pathetic comedy!
Bachke Rehna Re Baba, a downmarket remake of Hollywood comedy Heartbreakers, is truly a heart breaker for Rekha fans, and as for Mallika Sherawat—this should teach her to stop shooting her mouth off and try to learn some acting!
In the original, a mother-daughter team of con women wrest hefty divorce settlements from men by flashing their ample charms to seduce them and then dump them. Now, a Hindi film can try to be ribald, maybe even get a wiling leading lady to kiss the leading men, but they can’t show Rekha actually in bed with Paresh Rawal. So with Govind Menon’s uninspired direction, the film isn’t witty enough to get even one teensy laugh, and not daring enough to be a really bawdy sex comedy. Just Mallika Sherawat walking around in skimpy dresses and push-up bras doesn’t mean anything, she does that off screen as well.
Rukmini (Rekha) and Padmini (Mallika) play an aunt-niece pair, who between them manage to attract two very easy suckers, over-the-hill Punjabi bachelor Monty (Paresh Rawal), and bronchial ‘gutka’ baron Mansukhani (Satish Shah). Padmini’s true romance with a young pub owner (Karan Khanna), and Monty’s dogged pursuit of Rukmini, finally puts an end to the duo’s cheating spree.
There is zero chemistry between Mallika and Rekha (dressed in heavily frilled and layered matronly outfits), no humour in their encounters with their suitors (one of the gags involves a naked male statue with an easily detachable body part!) and nothing, but nothing to induce anyone to sit through this insufferable movie.
Silsiilay
In his third—and again woman centric—film Silsiilay, Khalid Mohamed, tells the stories of three women in love, facing crises in their relationships and emerging stronger after their ordeals. The stories are connected only by the loose thread a common theme, and Shah Rukh Khan’s expert (but unnecessary) narration.
In the first, Zia (Bhumika Chawla) an actress, is outwardly calm after her lover (Rahul Bose) ditches her for an heiress (Priya Badlani). Not only does she extract a delicious revenge from the cad, she also gets what she wants from him. A noticeable flaw in this story is that despite being a popular actress, she leads and amazingly serene and solitary life, when the constant glare of the media on a star’s personal life can be crushing.
The second story is about a small town girl (Riya Sen) working in Mumbai, living with a sexually uninhibited roommate (Natasha) and caught in the classic bad-guy-good-guy dilemma—she is in love with a rich philanderer (Ashmit Patel), while her gentlemanly office colleague (Jimmy Shergill) is in love with her. How she “finds” herself is the crux of this story.
In the third, a housewife (Tabu) is forced by her adoring stepson (Karan Panthaky) to face up to her husband’s (Kay Kay) affair with an air hostess (Celina Jaitley), something she was trying to ignore like his other infidelities.
All the three stories are real, with high erotic quotient and their resolutions are believable – except for the very contrived climax. The situations are dramatic, but treated with gentle understatement.
Mohamed gets really good performances from Bhumika Chawla and Tabu; while Riya Sen and Celina Jaitley rise much above their hitherto displayed potential; the women (all looking fabulous with Santosh Sivan’s camerawork) easily whip the males in the cast, who are all (with the exception of the Jimmy character) thoroughly despicable specimens.
A few of the songs (Himesh Reshammiya) are hummable and placed at proper intervals, though the choreography of the two dance numbers leaves a lot to be desired.
99.9 FM
Sanjay Bhatia’s first film 99.9 FM, is an interesting, jigsaw puzzle of a film, intricately structured and studded with a selection of fabulous songs.
Gautam (Shawar Ali) is a radio jockey, caught in an intense triangle, with girlfriend Sonali (Dipannita Sharma) pressuring him for commitment, and wife Kim (Raima Sen) refusing to divorce him. The only way out is to kill his wife, and he plans a perfect murder.
The film does not have a straightforward, linear narrative, but goes back and forth in time, a device that must have been killing for the editor, and it is a bit tough for audiences to follow the story, if attention wavers from the screen even for a few minutes.
Unfortunately, today’s audiences are getting used to easy to digest entertainment, and 99.9 FM is a bravely experimental piece of work. Bhatia is let down by his lead actor Shawar Ali, on whom the film rests, but both the actresses lend to the film its beauty and grace.
The OST with a great numbers by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shubha Mudgal, Shaan, Zila Khan and others is a treat for the ears.
Of all the movies offered to her, Rekha had to end up doing this pathetic comedy!
Bachke Rehna Re Baba, a downmarket remake of Hollywood comedy Heartbreakers, is truly a heart breaker for Rekha fans, and as for Mallika Sherawat—this should teach her to stop shooting her mouth off and try to learn some acting!
In the original, a mother-daughter team of con women wrest hefty divorce settlements from men by flashing their ample charms to seduce them and then dump them. Now, a Hindi film can try to be ribald, maybe even get a wiling leading lady to kiss the leading men, but they can’t show Rekha actually in bed with Paresh Rawal. So with Govind Menon’s uninspired direction, the film isn’t witty enough to get even one teensy laugh, and not daring enough to be a really bawdy sex comedy. Just Mallika Sherawat walking around in skimpy dresses and push-up bras doesn’t mean anything, she does that off screen as well.
Rukmini (Rekha) and Padmini (Mallika) play an aunt-niece pair, who between them manage to attract two very easy suckers, over-the-hill Punjabi bachelor Monty (Paresh Rawal), and bronchial ‘gutka’ baron Mansukhani (Satish Shah). Padmini’s true romance with a young pub owner (Karan Khanna), and Monty’s dogged pursuit of Rukmini, finally puts an end to the duo’s cheating spree.
There is zero chemistry between Mallika and Rekha (dressed in heavily frilled and layered matronly outfits), no humour in their encounters with their suitors (one of the gags involves a naked male statue with an easily detachable body part!) and nothing, but nothing to induce anyone to sit through this insufferable movie.
Silsiilay
In his third—and again woman centric—film Silsiilay, Khalid Mohamed, tells the stories of three women in love, facing crises in their relationships and emerging stronger after their ordeals. The stories are connected only by the loose thread a common theme, and Shah Rukh Khan’s expert (but unnecessary) narration.
In the first, Zia (Bhumika Chawla) an actress, is outwardly calm after her lover (Rahul Bose) ditches her for an heiress (Priya Badlani). Not only does she extract a delicious revenge from the cad, she also gets what she wants from him. A noticeable flaw in this story is that despite being a popular actress, she leads and amazingly serene and solitary life, when the constant glare of the media on a star’s personal life can be crushing.
The second story is about a small town girl (Riya Sen) working in Mumbai, living with a sexually uninhibited roommate (Natasha) and caught in the classic bad-guy-good-guy dilemma—she is in love with a rich philanderer (Ashmit Patel), while her gentlemanly office colleague (Jimmy Shergill) is in love with her. How she “finds” herself is the crux of this story.
In the third, a housewife (Tabu) is forced by her adoring stepson (Karan Panthaky) to face up to her husband’s (Kay Kay) affair with an air hostess (Celina Jaitley), something she was trying to ignore like his other infidelities.
All the three stories are real, with high erotic quotient and their resolutions are believable – except for the very contrived climax. The situations are dramatic, but treated with gentle understatement.
Mohamed gets really good performances from Bhumika Chawla and Tabu; while Riya Sen and Celina Jaitley rise much above their hitherto displayed potential; the women (all looking fabulous with Santosh Sivan’s camerawork) easily whip the males in the cast, who are all (with the exception of the Jimmy character) thoroughly despicable specimens.
A few of the songs (Himesh Reshammiya) are hummable and placed at proper intervals, though the choreography of the two dance numbers leaves a lot to be desired.
99.9 FM
Sanjay Bhatia’s first film 99.9 FM, is an interesting, jigsaw puzzle of a film, intricately structured and studded with a selection of fabulous songs.
Gautam (Shawar Ali) is a radio jockey, caught in an intense triangle, with girlfriend Sonali (Dipannita Sharma) pressuring him for commitment, and wife Kim (Raima Sen) refusing to divorce him. The only way out is to kill his wife, and he plans a perfect murder.
The film does not have a straightforward, linear narrative, but goes back and forth in time, a device that must have been killing for the editor, and it is a bit tough for audiences to follow the story, if attention wavers from the screen even for a few minutes.
Unfortunately, today’s audiences are getting used to easy to digest entertainment, and 99.9 FM is a bravely experimental piece of work. Bhatia is let down by his lead actor Shawar Ali, on whom the film rests, but both the actresses lend to the film its beauty and grace.
The OST with a great numbers by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shubha Mudgal, Shaan, Zila Khan and others is a treat for the ears.
Labels: Cinemaah
