Saturday, July 23, 2005
MPKK & Viruddh
Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya
When David Dhawan gets a decent plot and a good team of actors together, he gets inspired to come up with a high-energy comedy like Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi before this).
Obviously Salman Khan is his new ‘muse’ after Govinda, and the star all but stands on his head to ensure that he gets the laughs written into the script—liberally borrowed from the popular play and 1969 film Cactus Flower.
Salman plays Dr Samir, who has invented a fictitious wife to keep girlfriends at bay. But when he falls in love with Sonia (Katrina Kaif), a ‘suicide-prone’ airhead, and she wants to meet his wife, he asks his staid nurse Naina (Sushmita Sen, who couldn’t look frumpy if she tried!) to pretend to be the wife.
The lie spins out of control, because Sonia wants to meet the kids, then the wife’s boyfriend and finally insists on attending court for the divorce proceedings, and a whole lot of playacting is required. Then Samir’s slap-happy mother (Bina Kak) turns up and prevents the ‘divorce’, so Naina is forced to go on with the charade.
Other oddball characters who run in and out of the ‘tamasha’ are Sonia’s besotted neighbour Pyaremohan (Sohail Khan—trying to hard to be cute), Samir’s best friend (Arshad Warsi--hilarious), his girlfriend (Isha Koppikar) and a crazy soldier (Rajpal Yadav), pretending to be crippled.
The laugh-a-minute, breakneck speed of the first half slows down, with needless diversions, self-conscious parody of TV soaps (saas-bahu battles) and digs at films like Baghbaan; the Rajpal Yadav track is an irritant. But the actors’ spirit never slumps, the peppy songs (Himesh Reshammiya) come at perfect intervals, and corny though the film may be, Dhawan never gives the audience time to breathe or say ‘what the heck’!
It’s ages since such a delightfully sweet bimbo was seen in a Hindi film, and Katrina Kaif does the role with the right amount of absurdity and wide-eyed innocence, so she actually makes you believe that a girl can be so stupid and so considerate. Salman Khan gets better at comedy with every film, and here he keeps his tendency to overact firmly in check. Sushmita Sen looks sexy and does her part with a sense of abandon that is fun to watch.
What is most commendable that a veteran director, with considerable support from his writers (Rumi Jafri), Sanjay Chhel) and actors, has made such a chilled-out, youthful and lively film, with almost no vulgarity and double entendre kept to a minimum.
Viruddh
The Angry Young Man used to go around eliminating human vermin. Today, as a senior citizen, he is angry again, and eliminating the same species of vermin—only now he does it with an attitude of civility tinged with regret, and cuts out the bombast.
Mahesh Manjrekar’s Viruddh—a bit of Saaransh, a bit of In The Bedroom—seems designed for Amitabh Bachchan, and maybe, without really intending to, also counter the ‘cool’ youth culture pervading Bollywood today.
Vidyadhar Patwardhan (Bachchan) and his wife Sumi (Sharmila Tagore) are a retired couple, living a tranquil live in a suburban bungalow (a bit too extravagant for a middle class family). Their only son Amar (John Abraham) is studying in the UK.
The first half of the film (in the Baghban tradition), goes into ‘cute’ mode, as they tease each other over their ailments, he meets his buddies in the park and participates in the laughter club; they first squabble with and then befriend the rough neighbourhood mechanic (Sanjay Dutt). Amar arrives with girlfriend Jenny (Anusha Dandekar) in tow, she is quickly assimilated the family and taught Hindi.
Then in one of those mindless incidents Amar is killed in a brawl and the film plunges right into cliché territory. The killer Harshvardhan (Amitabh Dayal) happens to be the Home Minister’s son, there is the usual police insensitivity and cover-up, and allegations of “opposition” plot to defame the minister. It is proved in court that Amar was a drug peddler and murdered by his cohorts. A grief stricken Patwardhan, resigned to the fact that he will get no justice, struggles to clear his son’s name.
It needed actors of the calibre of Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore to lend serenity to their parts and constantly stop the film from degenerating into tear-jerking melodrama. Some well-written scenes and good lines (Amar’s death scene for instance) move the viewer any way, but never try to manipulate emotions.
One may feel disappointed by the predictability of the outcome, but there is still sympathy and admiration for the man who gets his revenge, without actually being cruelly vengeful. The scene between Patwardhan and Harshvardhan is directed and played out with remarkable restraint—no teeth-gnashing histrionics on either side.
Even with its flaws, Viruddh is the best film Manjrekar has made so far, and he is lucky to have got the actors he did—who could bring the film alive with warmth, pathos and complete dignity. Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore both give marvellous performances, with Sanjay Dutt livening up the proceedings whenever he appears. John Abraham and Anusha Dandekar lend the sombre, songless (mercifully!) film its swathes of colour.
When David Dhawan gets a decent plot and a good team of actors together, he gets inspired to come up with a high-energy comedy like Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya (and Mujhse Shaadi Karogi before this).
Obviously Salman Khan is his new ‘muse’ after Govinda, and the star all but stands on his head to ensure that he gets the laughs written into the script—liberally borrowed from the popular play and 1969 film Cactus Flower.
Salman plays Dr Samir, who has invented a fictitious wife to keep girlfriends at bay. But when he falls in love with Sonia (Katrina Kaif), a ‘suicide-prone’ airhead, and she wants to meet his wife, he asks his staid nurse Naina (Sushmita Sen, who couldn’t look frumpy if she tried!) to pretend to be the wife.
The lie spins out of control, because Sonia wants to meet the kids, then the wife’s boyfriend and finally insists on attending court for the divorce proceedings, and a whole lot of playacting is required. Then Samir’s slap-happy mother (Bina Kak) turns up and prevents the ‘divorce’, so Naina is forced to go on with the charade.
Other oddball characters who run in and out of the ‘tamasha’ are Sonia’s besotted neighbour Pyaremohan (Sohail Khan—trying to hard to be cute), Samir’s best friend (Arshad Warsi--hilarious), his girlfriend (Isha Koppikar) and a crazy soldier (Rajpal Yadav), pretending to be crippled.
The laugh-a-minute, breakneck speed of the first half slows down, with needless diversions, self-conscious parody of TV soaps (saas-bahu battles) and digs at films like Baghbaan; the Rajpal Yadav track is an irritant. But the actors’ spirit never slumps, the peppy songs (Himesh Reshammiya) come at perfect intervals, and corny though the film may be, Dhawan never gives the audience time to breathe or say ‘what the heck’!
It’s ages since such a delightfully sweet bimbo was seen in a Hindi film, and Katrina Kaif does the role with the right amount of absurdity and wide-eyed innocence, so she actually makes you believe that a girl can be so stupid and so considerate. Salman Khan gets better at comedy with every film, and here he keeps his tendency to overact firmly in check. Sushmita Sen looks sexy and does her part with a sense of abandon that is fun to watch.
What is most commendable that a veteran director, with considerable support from his writers (Rumi Jafri), Sanjay Chhel) and actors, has made such a chilled-out, youthful and lively film, with almost no vulgarity and double entendre kept to a minimum.
Viruddh
The Angry Young Man used to go around eliminating human vermin. Today, as a senior citizen, he is angry again, and eliminating the same species of vermin—only now he does it with an attitude of civility tinged with regret, and cuts out the bombast.
Mahesh Manjrekar’s Viruddh—a bit of Saaransh, a bit of In The Bedroom—seems designed for Amitabh Bachchan, and maybe, without really intending to, also counter the ‘cool’ youth culture pervading Bollywood today.
Vidyadhar Patwardhan (Bachchan) and his wife Sumi (Sharmila Tagore) are a retired couple, living a tranquil live in a suburban bungalow (a bit too extravagant for a middle class family). Their only son Amar (John Abraham) is studying in the UK.
The first half of the film (in the Baghban tradition), goes into ‘cute’ mode, as they tease each other over their ailments, he meets his buddies in the park and participates in the laughter club; they first squabble with and then befriend the rough neighbourhood mechanic (Sanjay Dutt). Amar arrives with girlfriend Jenny (Anusha Dandekar) in tow, she is quickly assimilated the family and taught Hindi.
Then in one of those mindless incidents Amar is killed in a brawl and the film plunges right into cliché territory. The killer Harshvardhan (Amitabh Dayal) happens to be the Home Minister’s son, there is the usual police insensitivity and cover-up, and allegations of “opposition” plot to defame the minister. It is proved in court that Amar was a drug peddler and murdered by his cohorts. A grief stricken Patwardhan, resigned to the fact that he will get no justice, struggles to clear his son’s name.
It needed actors of the calibre of Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore to lend serenity to their parts and constantly stop the film from degenerating into tear-jerking melodrama. Some well-written scenes and good lines (Amar’s death scene for instance) move the viewer any way, but never try to manipulate emotions.
One may feel disappointed by the predictability of the outcome, but there is still sympathy and admiration for the man who gets his revenge, without actually being cruelly vengeful. The scene between Patwardhan and Harshvardhan is directed and played out with remarkable restraint—no teeth-gnashing histrionics on either side.
Even with its flaws, Viruddh is the best film Manjrekar has made so far, and he is lucky to have got the actors he did—who could bring the film alive with warmth, pathos and complete dignity. Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore both give marvellous performances, with Sanjay Dutt livening up the proceedings whenever he appears. John Abraham and Anusha Dandekar lend the sombre, songless (mercifully!) film its swathes of colour.
Labels: Cinemaah
Dus Plus...
Dus:
Bollywood directors complain quite often that they can’t match Hollywood standards, because they do not have those budgets or that kind of technical support. But when they do get a generous budget and tons of gleaming gadgetry, they still make a brainless caper like Dus.
Anubhav Sinha attempts a big action thriller after two small romantic films, and goes all out with a line-up of stars, foreign locations, guns, bombs, car chases, international terrorists (suddenly after the London bombings the deju vu inducing theme becomes relevant again), the works—all going towards embellishing a feeble plot.
The anti-terrorist cell made up of a grim bunch led by Siddhant (Sanjay Dutt) get information that something big is going to happen on May 10, but they don’t know what or where? They know a mysterious Jamwal is behind the plot, but they don’t know who he is.
This could have made for a real pulse-pounding thriller, if only the guys (Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed Khan, Sunil Shetty) and gals (Shilpa Shetty in great shape, Esha Deol in a frightful wig) didn’t go about it in such a ham-handed fashion, taking diversions to sing and dance, solve marital problems, go into unnecessary flashback, all leading up to a really tame climax in a Canadian stadium.
Still, for action buffs Dus offers enough shootouts and explosions (Allan Amin having a blast), in a way delivering what it promises in promos. The performances are mostly competent — with Pankaj Kapur stealing scenes with his rustic Punjabi act. The music (Vishal-Shekhar) is catchy—though the popular Dus Bahane number is used up in the credits. Yet another film with more style than substance!
Fareb
Ok, so the guys get their fill of eye candy, what with Shilpa and Shamita Shetty showing off their gorgeous bods. And what do the gals get? The two babes fighting over Manoj Bajpai? Who, even with shirt off, is not Baywatch material by any stretch of the imagination!
And why is the viewer even noticing the colour and shape of the stars’ skins? Because there is nothing else on offer in this Deepak Tijori film—this and an unmanageable load of red herrings.
Newly widowed millionairess Ria (Shamita Shetty) falls for the creative head of the agency handling her company’s account. Aditya (Manoj Bajpai) is married to Neha (Shilpa Shetty) and has a kid, but his small voice of conscience cannot fight Ria’s predatory attacks.
When he backs out, she gets vindictive and ends up dead on the living rook floor. Who done it? By this time, the film has quite forgotten the corpse of Ria’s husband found in the first scene, and has to scramble to tie up all the loose end in a crazily inept court scene.
The cops following around a glowering boss (Kelly Dorje) are more interested in cautioning Aditya against an affair with Ria, rather than finding out who killed the husband.
Matrubhoomi
Manish Jha asks us to imagine a nation without women—a consequence of rampant female foeticide. It is a very interesting idea and would make for a great allegorical (since sci-fi doesn’t work with Indian audiences) movie, if done with humour and imagination. But the director goes for the shocking and sensational approach, which completely destroys the pro-woman message he must have intended.
In Jha’s all male world, the only thing men miss is sex and someone to cook and clean. In one such village in one such family of six, the men are getting increasingly frustrated, when a sole female is accidentally discovered by a priest. Kalki (Tulip Joshi) is married to all five brothers for a sum of five lakhs (rather measly even by today’s standards and this story is set in the future), but the father-in-law (Sudhir Pandey) wants to use her too.
She undergoes a nightly sexual assault by six men-- the only brother (Sushant Singh) who really loves her is killed by his own family. When Kalki attempts to escape, she is tried in the barn like a cow and repeatedly raped. In revenge for the killing of her sympathetic servant she is raped by the rest of the village too. Despite this, she not just survives, but gets pregnant and gives birth to a child. It’s not right to reveal the end, but it is as excessive as the rest of the film.
If Jha’s objective was to show what happens when women are wiped out from this world, the relentless brutality does just the opposite. You come out feeling that: a) women are the cause of all the violence in the world, since everybody seemed to exist in peace before Kalki came along; b) such a world does not deserve women, and the girl child is better off dead; c) a majority of men who go to see this film, will do so for the wrong reasons.
The idea is very far-fetched in a realistic scenario—even if female foetuses are aborted, what happened to the older women? Since there is a young boy seen in the film, it couldn’t have been too long since the supposed destruction of all women in the village/ country —did the men kill women of all ages at the same time? Because such a situation is not possible, the film needed to be treated in horror/fantasy style.
However, at a time, when original ideas are in such short supply, at least Jha attempted such an offbeat film, never mind if it looks like it was made to be noticed in the international film festival circuit.
Bollywood directors complain quite often that they can’t match Hollywood standards, because they do not have those budgets or that kind of technical support. But when they do get a generous budget and tons of gleaming gadgetry, they still make a brainless caper like Dus.
Anubhav Sinha attempts a big action thriller after two small romantic films, and goes all out with a line-up of stars, foreign locations, guns, bombs, car chases, international terrorists (suddenly after the London bombings the deju vu inducing theme becomes relevant again), the works—all going towards embellishing a feeble plot.
The anti-terrorist cell made up of a grim bunch led by Siddhant (Sanjay Dutt) get information that something big is going to happen on May 10, but they don’t know what or where? They know a mysterious Jamwal is behind the plot, but they don’t know who he is.
This could have made for a real pulse-pounding thriller, if only the guys (Abhishek Bachchan, Zayed Khan, Sunil Shetty) and gals (Shilpa Shetty in great shape, Esha Deol in a frightful wig) didn’t go about it in such a ham-handed fashion, taking diversions to sing and dance, solve marital problems, go into unnecessary flashback, all leading up to a really tame climax in a Canadian stadium.
Still, for action buffs Dus offers enough shootouts and explosions (Allan Amin having a blast), in a way delivering what it promises in promos. The performances are mostly competent — with Pankaj Kapur stealing scenes with his rustic Punjabi act. The music (Vishal-Shekhar) is catchy—though the popular Dus Bahane number is used up in the credits. Yet another film with more style than substance!
Fareb
Ok, so the guys get their fill of eye candy, what with Shilpa and Shamita Shetty showing off their gorgeous bods. And what do the gals get? The two babes fighting over Manoj Bajpai? Who, even with shirt off, is not Baywatch material by any stretch of the imagination!
And why is the viewer even noticing the colour and shape of the stars’ skins? Because there is nothing else on offer in this Deepak Tijori film—this and an unmanageable load of red herrings.
Newly widowed millionairess Ria (Shamita Shetty) falls for the creative head of the agency handling her company’s account. Aditya (Manoj Bajpai) is married to Neha (Shilpa Shetty) and has a kid, but his small voice of conscience cannot fight Ria’s predatory attacks.
When he backs out, she gets vindictive and ends up dead on the living rook floor. Who done it? By this time, the film has quite forgotten the corpse of Ria’s husband found in the first scene, and has to scramble to tie up all the loose end in a crazily inept court scene.
The cops following around a glowering boss (Kelly Dorje) are more interested in cautioning Aditya against an affair with Ria, rather than finding out who killed the husband.
Matrubhoomi
Manish Jha asks us to imagine a nation without women—a consequence of rampant female foeticide. It is a very interesting idea and would make for a great allegorical (since sci-fi doesn’t work with Indian audiences) movie, if done with humour and imagination. But the director goes for the shocking and sensational approach, which completely destroys the pro-woman message he must have intended.
In Jha’s all male world, the only thing men miss is sex and someone to cook and clean. In one such village in one such family of six, the men are getting increasingly frustrated, when a sole female is accidentally discovered by a priest. Kalki (Tulip Joshi) is married to all five brothers for a sum of five lakhs (rather measly even by today’s standards and this story is set in the future), but the father-in-law (Sudhir Pandey) wants to use her too.
She undergoes a nightly sexual assault by six men-- the only brother (Sushant Singh) who really loves her is killed by his own family. When Kalki attempts to escape, she is tried in the barn like a cow and repeatedly raped. In revenge for the killing of her sympathetic servant she is raped by the rest of the village too. Despite this, she not just survives, but gets pregnant and gives birth to a child. It’s not right to reveal the end, but it is as excessive as the rest of the film.
If Jha’s objective was to show what happens when women are wiped out from this world, the relentless brutality does just the opposite. You come out feeling that: a) women are the cause of all the violence in the world, since everybody seemed to exist in peace before Kalki came along; b) such a world does not deserve women, and the girl child is better off dead; c) a majority of men who go to see this film, will do so for the wrong reasons.
The idea is very far-fetched in a realistic scenario—even if female foetuses are aborted, what happened to the older women? Since there is a young boy seen in the film, it couldn’t have been too long since the supposed destruction of all women in the village/ country —did the men kill women of all ages at the same time? Because such a situation is not possible, the film needed to be treated in horror/fantasy style.
However, at a time, when original ideas are in such short supply, at least Jha attempted such an offbeat film, never mind if it looks like it was made to be noticed in the international film festival circuit.
Labels: Cinemaah
