Saturday, October 18, 2008
Zzzz and others
Karzzzz
The credit titles say Karzzz is 'A Film By Satish Kaushik' – but it isn't... it is a film by Subhash Ghai. The director was at his peak in 1980, had picked The Reincarnation of Peter Proud and given it the total Bollywood masala treatment, a fabulous Laxmikant-Pyarelal score and amazing song picturisations—think of the huge rotating record of the Om Shanti Om number, or the innocent magic of Darde-dil and the full-blown drama of Ek hasna thi, before the thunderous climax.
Apart from the change of cast and new songs, all Kaushik has contributed is South African locations, an airplane, some half-dressed multi-racial back-up dancers and the weird 'zzzz' in the title. Why bother to remake a film if a director cannot put his own stamp on it? Ghai did, and Karz hardly resembled the Hollywood film.
Never mind what the box-office reports say—success is no yardstick of quality-- this Karzzzz is made bearable only by the memory of the original. If it weren't so frowningly serious, it might have been taken as a parody of late 70s-80s filmmaking; as it is it provides plenty of unintentional laughs.
Those who don't know anything about the old Karz, it had a reincarnation and revenge theme. Himesh Reshammiya plays Monty (Rishi Kapoor in the original), who is a Hindi rock star in South Africa. Plagued by visions of places and incidents he has no clue about, he goes to Kenya to recuperate and meet up with Tina (Shweta Kumar—doing the Tina Munim role), the girl he has just fallen in love with. She is the ward of a Princess (?) Kamini (Urmila Matondkar as Simi Garewal), the vamp who had killed her husband (Dino Morea as Raj Kiran) and usurped his wealth for her employer Sir Judah (in the Premnath role, Gushan Grover, with an electronic speaking arm—hilarious!).
Monty remembers the past birth, and plots with the help of Tina's uncle Kabira (Danny Denzongpa in the Pran role) to make Kamini pay for her sins, by pretending to be in love with her, and then pulling the rug from under her feet. While at it, he is reunited with his mother (Rohini Hattangady as Durga Khote) and sister (Smita Bansal as Abha Dhulia).
Karzzzz is a downmarket version of Karz-- though a lot more money has been spent on it—with the emotions flattened out, and Kamini's cool, reptilian sophistication replaced by a badly dressed woman with garish make-up and permanent pout. Himesh Reshammiya is this generation's Jeetendra, can't act, wears bizarre clothes, but somehow appeals to the tapori class, as well as to the inverse snobbery of people who normally ought to have better sense. His success cannot be analysed or explained, he possibly has such a following of young men, because he is their wish-fulfillment fantasy-- an outsider without a star father, without Hrithik Roshan's deadly looks, Shah Rukh Khan's talent, Aamir Khan's intelligence or Salman Khan's body—if he can make it, anyone can.
As the cash registers ring, that guitar Monty plays, probably gently weeps…
Shoot On Sight
The tagline of Jag Mundhra's Shoot On Sight asks 'Is it a crime to be a Muslim?' It is a hypothetical question and sort of gives away the filmmaker's intentions—of raising issues but taking no real stand.
After the London bombings, the mood was so jittery, that the cops mistakenly shot a Brazilian youth as a suspected terrorist. Mundhra makes the victim into an innocent Muslim boy, and to defuse the scandal, a Pakistan-born cop Tariq Ali (Naseeuddin Shah) is assigned the investigation, with the promise of a promotion. Tariq is married to a White woman Susan (Greta Scacchi), has two kids, a smooth personal life (except for slightly rebellious daughter), till Zaheer, his nephew from Pakistan (Mikaal Zulfikar) lands up. There are little hints of racism, mainly in the condescending way his boss (Brian Cox) behaves with Tariq, and the hostility of fellow officers who are being investigated.
Zaheer falls under the spell of rabid hate-spewing Iman Junaid (Om Puri) and causes a bit of an upheaval in Tariq's life. He is photographed shaking hands with the Imam and splashed on the front pages of a tabloid. Meanwhile there is a raid at a terrorist hangout, one of them escapes and Susan suspects it is Zaheer. Instead of staying with the investigation and Tariq's battle with racism and communalism, Mundhra goes all over the place. There are needless scenes of the daughter's romance with a White boy, for instance, or one of Tariq meeting with relatives, which don't really convey anything.
He tries to balance Tariq's anguish with the White officer's point of view, that shooting the boy was a split second decision and he could have been shot too. Lest he is seen as racist ("all terrorists are Muslims," he says), Mundhra adds a small scene of him at home with a brown-skinned wife. If the villain is the Iman, then he is given speeches that convey a valid point of view. There is Tariq's friend (Gulshan Grover), who is pained at the change of attitude towards Muslims after the bombings, but refuses to be drawn into the politics of violence. Mundhra tries to balance so many points in a effort to be fair to all sides, that he ends up dropping all the balls.
And, without dropping a spoiler, what can be said about the predictable climax, but that it is clichéd with a capital C. In the end, the impression the film leaves is that a perfectly honest, assimilated British citizen, can also have a terrorist relative whose mind cannot be changed by love and liberalism, which, sort of, defeats the purpose of the film's avowed secularism.
Naseeruddin Shah brings to his role the skill and dignity that can be expected of him, and Om Puri is really toxic as the instigator of violence, most other characters seem a bit cardboard . Shoot On Sight remains at a flat telefilm level, never reaching any heights of provocation-- inviting thought or debate, a fresh look at the problem, or even controversy.
Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang
Finally, an animation film that does not go down the Ramyana-Mahabharat-mythology route, which is a relief. Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang, ostensibly based on a Bengali story is about two warring kingdoms of red and black ants, is nothing like Hollywood animation films like Antz or A Bug's Life, but this RD Mallik film at least tries hard to be different from recent animation duds.
However, if these films are aimed at children, then the stories and language should be contemporary and the pace much quicker. Kids might enjoy some of the any characters, but the effort lacks fizz and excitement. Our animation studios are reportedly doing backend work for international films, but indigenous films are still lagging miles behind in quality.
In CCBB (clever title, derived from old kiddie hit Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), an evil termite Ghunn crosses from one side to the other, instigating the rulers of both kingdoms to go to war, conniving to take over the insect world when both sides annihilate each other. In the oldest tradition of Bollywood films, the prince of red ants falls in love with the black ant princess. With the 'help' of Ghunn, both sides, line up creatures like a chameleon (that never gets to change its colour), frog, snake, mongoose, a magician moth, a gaggle of birds, a bunch of 'tribal' insects in the forest and a giant spider.
The drawings are well done, and one can imagine it must be tough to give so many insects different faces, and distinguishing characteristics; there are enough situations for songs too, but what is missing amidst all this labour is a sense of fun that would make the proceedings more watchable. So no matter how much you are inclined to appreciate the work that went into the film, in the end, the stodginess gets it down
The credit titles say Karzzz is 'A Film By Satish Kaushik' – but it isn't... it is a film by Subhash Ghai. The director was at his peak in 1980, had picked The Reincarnation of Peter Proud and given it the total Bollywood masala treatment, a fabulous Laxmikant-Pyarelal score and amazing song picturisations—think of the huge rotating record of the Om Shanti Om number, or the innocent magic of Darde-dil and the full-blown drama of Ek hasna thi, before the thunderous climax.
Apart from the change of cast and new songs, all Kaushik has contributed is South African locations, an airplane, some half-dressed multi-racial back-up dancers and the weird 'zzzz' in the title. Why bother to remake a film if a director cannot put his own stamp on it? Ghai did, and Karz hardly resembled the Hollywood film.
Never mind what the box-office reports say—success is no yardstick of quality-- this Karzzzz is made bearable only by the memory of the original. If it weren't so frowningly serious, it might have been taken as a parody of late 70s-80s filmmaking; as it is it provides plenty of unintentional laughs.
Those who don't know anything about the old Karz, it had a reincarnation and revenge theme. Himesh Reshammiya plays Monty (Rishi Kapoor in the original), who is a Hindi rock star in South Africa. Plagued by visions of places and incidents he has no clue about, he goes to Kenya to recuperate and meet up with Tina (Shweta Kumar—doing the Tina Munim role), the girl he has just fallen in love with. She is the ward of a Princess (?) Kamini (Urmila Matondkar as Simi Garewal), the vamp who had killed her husband (Dino Morea as Raj Kiran) and usurped his wealth for her employer Sir Judah (in the Premnath role, Gushan Grover, with an electronic speaking arm—hilarious!).
Monty remembers the past birth, and plots with the help of Tina's uncle Kabira (Danny Denzongpa in the Pran role) to make Kamini pay for her sins, by pretending to be in love with her, and then pulling the rug from under her feet. While at it, he is reunited with his mother (Rohini Hattangady as Durga Khote) and sister (Smita Bansal as Abha Dhulia).
Karzzzz is a downmarket version of Karz-- though a lot more money has been spent on it—with the emotions flattened out, and Kamini's cool, reptilian sophistication replaced by a badly dressed woman with garish make-up and permanent pout. Himesh Reshammiya is this generation's Jeetendra, can't act, wears bizarre clothes, but somehow appeals to the tapori class, as well as to the inverse snobbery of people who normally ought to have better sense. His success cannot be analysed or explained, he possibly has such a following of young men, because he is their wish-fulfillment fantasy-- an outsider without a star father, without Hrithik Roshan's deadly looks, Shah Rukh Khan's talent, Aamir Khan's intelligence or Salman Khan's body—if he can make it, anyone can.
As the cash registers ring, that guitar Monty plays, probably gently weeps…
Shoot On Sight
The tagline of Jag Mundhra's Shoot On Sight asks 'Is it a crime to be a Muslim?' It is a hypothetical question and sort of gives away the filmmaker's intentions—of raising issues but taking no real stand.
After the London bombings, the mood was so jittery, that the cops mistakenly shot a Brazilian youth as a suspected terrorist. Mundhra makes the victim into an innocent Muslim boy, and to defuse the scandal, a Pakistan-born cop Tariq Ali (Naseeuddin Shah) is assigned the investigation, with the promise of a promotion. Tariq is married to a White woman Susan (Greta Scacchi), has two kids, a smooth personal life (except for slightly rebellious daughter), till Zaheer, his nephew from Pakistan (Mikaal Zulfikar) lands up. There are little hints of racism, mainly in the condescending way his boss (Brian Cox) behaves with Tariq, and the hostility of fellow officers who are being investigated.
Zaheer falls under the spell of rabid hate-spewing Iman Junaid (Om Puri) and causes a bit of an upheaval in Tariq's life. He is photographed shaking hands with the Imam and splashed on the front pages of a tabloid. Meanwhile there is a raid at a terrorist hangout, one of them escapes and Susan suspects it is Zaheer. Instead of staying with the investigation and Tariq's battle with racism and communalism, Mundhra goes all over the place. There are needless scenes of the daughter's romance with a White boy, for instance, or one of Tariq meeting with relatives, which don't really convey anything.
He tries to balance Tariq's anguish with the White officer's point of view, that shooting the boy was a split second decision and he could have been shot too. Lest he is seen as racist ("all terrorists are Muslims," he says), Mundhra adds a small scene of him at home with a brown-skinned wife. If the villain is the Iman, then he is given speeches that convey a valid point of view. There is Tariq's friend (Gulshan Grover), who is pained at the change of attitude towards Muslims after the bombings, but refuses to be drawn into the politics of violence. Mundhra tries to balance so many points in a effort to be fair to all sides, that he ends up dropping all the balls.
And, without dropping a spoiler, what can be said about the predictable climax, but that it is clichéd with a capital C. In the end, the impression the film leaves is that a perfectly honest, assimilated British citizen, can also have a terrorist relative whose mind cannot be changed by love and liberalism, which, sort of, defeats the purpose of the film's avowed secularism.
Naseeruddin Shah brings to his role the skill and dignity that can be expected of him, and Om Puri is really toxic as the instigator of violence, most other characters seem a bit cardboard . Shoot On Sight remains at a flat telefilm level, never reaching any heights of provocation-- inviting thought or debate, a fresh look at the problem, or even controversy.
Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang
Finally, an animation film that does not go down the Ramyana-Mahabharat-mythology route, which is a relief. Cheenti Cheenti Bang Bang, ostensibly based on a Bengali story is about two warring kingdoms of red and black ants, is nothing like Hollywood animation films like Antz or A Bug's Life, but this RD Mallik film at least tries hard to be different from recent animation duds.
However, if these films are aimed at children, then the stories and language should be contemporary and the pace much quicker. Kids might enjoy some of the any characters, but the effort lacks fizz and excitement. Our animation studios are reportedly doing backend work for international films, but indigenous films are still lagging miles behind in quality.
In CCBB (clever title, derived from old kiddie hit Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), an evil termite Ghunn crosses from one side to the other, instigating the rulers of both kingdoms to go to war, conniving to take over the insect world when both sides annihilate each other. In the oldest tradition of Bollywood films, the prince of red ants falls in love with the black ant princess. With the 'help' of Ghunn, both sides, line up creatures like a chameleon (that never gets to change its colour), frog, snake, mongoose, a magician moth, a gaggle of birds, a bunch of 'tribal' insects in the forest and a giant spider.
The drawings are well done, and one can imagine it must be tough to give so many insects different faces, and distinguishing characteristics; there are enough situations for songs too, but what is missing amidst all this labour is a sense of fun that would make the proceedings more watchable. So no matter how much you are inclined to appreciate the work that went into the film, in the end, the stodginess gets it down
Labels: Cinemaah
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