Saturday, August 30, 2008
Rock On+3
Rock On
Almost every urban, English-speaking, middle to upper middle class person will identity with Rock On completely—at least those who have turned into corporate stuffed shirts, and do the ‘air guitar’ in a bar, when they are too drunk to care about keeping up appearances.
The rock band in Abhishek Kapoor’s film is just a metaphor for lives and dreams sacrificed for winning the rat race. The four young men who form the band and almost make it big, could be anyone who had non-conformist ambitions he or she could not fulfill.
The story goes back and forth in time as it covers a decade in the lives of the four members of the band Magik and their women. The long-haired funky dudes have turned into hotshot investment banker Aditya Shroff (Farhan Akhtar), KD (Purab Kohli) who works in his father’s jewellery store, Joe (Arjun Rampal) who sits around brooding as his increasingly angry a wife Debbie (Shahana Goswami) runs the family’s fish business, and Rob (Luke Kenney), who works with Bollywood music composers (Anu Malik plays himself).
They have not met since their band broke up and the bitterness of the experience never left them. Then Aditya’s wife Sakshi (Prachi Desai), unhappy with his unsmiling aloofness, comes across old photos of the band, and discovers a side of her husband she never knew--the days of the band winning a competition, getting an album contract and chucking the opportunity away. She brings the former band members together to relive that moment of glory once more.
Beautifully structured, revealing a layer at a time and no more than the viewer needs to know at a given point, with a promise of more, Rock On tells a gripping tale of male-bonding – a more mature Dil Chahta Hai—that doesn’t ignore the women.
Okay, so it is a bit predictable, there are silly coincidences (a rival turning up as boss), and a maudlin touch about Rob’s terminal illness the film could have done without, not enough change in the characters’ appearances to suggest a decade gone by and it doesn’t even touch the ugly drugs-and booze side of the music business; maybe the film would have been more realistic if it was at least partly in English (Goan Joe and Debbie would hardly speak Hindi at home), but what really works is the spot-on characterization, humour gently slipped in (the dandiya scene, the meeting with the music executive) and an impartial empathy for all the characters with their strengths and failings.
It is Farhan Akhtar’s first film as an actor (and singer), he is a competent actor, though his voice needs working on; but the film belongs to Arjun Rampal, who had so suddenly come into his own, that the transformation and the performance is startling. Purab Kohli and Luke Kenney are marvellous too, and the actresses Prachi Desai and Shahana Goswami do well in their small parts.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music captures the spirit of the film (even with odd lyrics about laundry bills) and the energy of the still small but growing band of desi rock enthusiasts. The purists would scoff at Hindi rock songs, but Rock On is a film that is about people (and for people) who are a blend of Indian and Western cultural influences.
Chamku
Kabeer Kausik’s first film was the underrated Sehar that looked at the workings of the police force in UP. His Chamku, also starts with a well-executed action sequence in a train, and then to a flashback in a village.
At least the director looks at life beyond Mumbai, but the high does not remain for long. Chandrama Singh’s family is killed by the village zamindar (Akhilendra Mishra) he is rescued by a Naxalite group and nicknamed Chamku by his mentor (Danny Denzongpa).
Chamku (Bobby Deol) joins the Naxals and with them wages war against their feudal oppressors. A police raid wipes all of them out, except Chamku who is offered the chance to become part of a secret mission by a RAW officer (Irrfan Khan).
They train killers to carry out planned assassinations of criminals and anti-social leaders—this part inspired by La Femme Nikita. Once he is in, he realizes that he cannot leave, the authorities on the side of the law are equally ruthless. When he falls in love with a teacher (Priyanka Chopra), he has to find a way out. He also runs into the killer of his childhood, and wants his own revenge, which the boss does not approve of.
There is a sense of disbelief – if the government really endorsed such rogue operations, crime in the country would have been controlled long ago. Still, up to a point Kaushik keeps up the interest—the action sequences are excitingly shot. But the film does not really go beyond that one idea or even get into the ethics of officially-sanctioned murder—not quite the same as police encounters.
Bobby Deol is supposed to wear a deadpan expression, which he manages, but this film is not likely to give him an image makeover. Irrfan Khan, usually polished has strange, fidgety performance style here, as if he were instructed to keep busy, so he is either fiddling with a cap or sharpening a pencil. Priyanka Chopra has very little to do (she invites giggles with the pregnancy announcement!); in small guest appearances, Danny Denzongpa and Ritesh Deshmukh are impressive.
What goes against the film—which is not unwatchable-- is its misleading title. Chamku makes it sound like a comedy and there’s not a shred of humour in it.
Mukhbiir
About most films, the complaint is that they do not bother about details, about Mani Shankar’s Mukhbiir, just the opposite is true—it is detailed to the point of tedium.
It’s a fascinating story of how informers are chosen, trained and deployed by the cops, but loses a lot in the telling. Shankar takes up the issue of identity and loss of the self, throwing up several interesting points, yet losing grip on the narrative.
Kailash (Sammir Dattani) was picked up by a cop (Om Puri) and trained to become an informer. Young men like him are given different identities and sent undercover into criminal gangs. It is a risky, thankless job, with no recognition or reward. Mukhbiir is more detailed account of Intelligence operations than Contract or Drohkaal;, while the earlier films concentrated on one operation, Mukhbiir delves deeply into three—a Naxal gang, an organ smuggling gang in Hyderabad and a bunch of terrorists in Mumbai.
In each case, Kailash’s training and preparation for a new identity are shown with meticulous detail, as a result of which the film loses pace and momentum. It’s fatal for a thriller if the viewer’s attention wanders, and in this film it happens a lot—Kailash’s romance (with Raima Sen) is half-baked, the songs are excruciating, and the interlude in Hyderabad full of needless characters and episodes.
Still, some scenes are really powerful—his last minute rescue from the Naxal massacre, his coming face to face with his mentor being tortured by his gang, and the nail-biting (though not quite believable) climax.
The story would actually make for a very good TV series, but the film required drastic editing to make it work. Sammir Dattani has worked hard and given it all he’s got, pity he does not have the charisma to carry off a film where he’s in every frame.
However, if as the filmmaker claims, every bit of his story is true, it is frightening to contemplate what our law enforcers are up to!
C Kkompany
Never mind the kinky spelling, with a bit more effort, C Kkompany could have been another Lage Raho Munnabhai.
Sachin Yardi’s film is about three friends in need of money who pretend to be a gang and extort money, but the consequences are beyond their control. Akshay (Tusshar), Joshi (Anupam Kher) and Lamodar (Rajpal Yadav) live in the same building and are friends despite the age differences. They are all in need of money—one to be able to marry his girlfriend, the second to stop his son from ill-treating him and the third to escape a humiliating job.
They decide to make an extortion call to Joshi’s nasty son, naming themselves C Company. But a fake video makes national news and the non-existent gang becomes big. The cops, as well as TV-soap addict Don Dattubhai (Mithun Chakraborty) expend all efforts to trace this mysterious new gang.
But when the three realize that just a phone can scare off greedy builders from taking over a chawl, they become urban Robin Hoods, using the power of threatening phone call to do good.
C Kkompany could have been a satire on the media’s glamorization of gangsters, but it turns out to be a self-conscious tribute to the producers Balaji instead, with head honcho Ekta Kapoor making an appearance as herself. This kind of ego massage has not been seen in any other film, except perhaps Bachna Ae Haseeno and its many references to Yash Raj Films.
Besides, after establishing the idea of a ghost gang, Yardi runs out of ideas, songs are forced in, the gags gets progressively sillier, as the film ends up in a messy heap in a chaotic climax set at a fairground.
Except for Mithun Chakraborty hamming like crazy, the actors are all okay.. the film, despite its clever idea does not amount to a satisfying watch.
Almost every urban, English-speaking, middle to upper middle class person will identity with Rock On completely—at least those who have turned into corporate stuffed shirts, and do the ‘air guitar’ in a bar, when they are too drunk to care about keeping up appearances.
The rock band in Abhishek Kapoor’s film is just a metaphor for lives and dreams sacrificed for winning the rat race. The four young men who form the band and almost make it big, could be anyone who had non-conformist ambitions he or she could not fulfill.
The story goes back and forth in time as it covers a decade in the lives of the four members of the band Magik and their women. The long-haired funky dudes have turned into hotshot investment banker Aditya Shroff (Farhan Akhtar), KD (Purab Kohli) who works in his father’s jewellery store, Joe (Arjun Rampal) who sits around brooding as his increasingly angry a wife Debbie (Shahana Goswami) runs the family’s fish business, and Rob (Luke Kenney), who works with Bollywood music composers (Anu Malik plays himself).
They have not met since their band broke up and the bitterness of the experience never left them. Then Aditya’s wife Sakshi (Prachi Desai), unhappy with his unsmiling aloofness, comes across old photos of the band, and discovers a side of her husband she never knew--the days of the band winning a competition, getting an album contract and chucking the opportunity away. She brings the former band members together to relive that moment of glory once more.
Beautifully structured, revealing a layer at a time and no more than the viewer needs to know at a given point, with a promise of more, Rock On tells a gripping tale of male-bonding – a more mature Dil Chahta Hai—that doesn’t ignore the women.
Okay, so it is a bit predictable, there are silly coincidences (a rival turning up as boss), and a maudlin touch about Rob’s terminal illness the film could have done without, not enough change in the characters’ appearances to suggest a decade gone by and it doesn’t even touch the ugly drugs-and booze side of the music business; maybe the film would have been more realistic if it was at least partly in English (Goan Joe and Debbie would hardly speak Hindi at home), but what really works is the spot-on characterization, humour gently slipped in (the dandiya scene, the meeting with the music executive) and an impartial empathy for all the characters with their strengths and failings.
It is Farhan Akhtar’s first film as an actor (and singer), he is a competent actor, though his voice needs working on; but the film belongs to Arjun Rampal, who had so suddenly come into his own, that the transformation and the performance is startling. Purab Kohli and Luke Kenney are marvellous too, and the actresses Prachi Desai and Shahana Goswami do well in their small parts.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music captures the spirit of the film (even with odd lyrics about laundry bills) and the energy of the still small but growing band of desi rock enthusiasts. The purists would scoff at Hindi rock songs, but Rock On is a film that is about people (and for people) who are a blend of Indian and Western cultural influences.
Chamku
Kabeer Kausik’s first film was the underrated Sehar that looked at the workings of the police force in UP. His Chamku, also starts with a well-executed action sequence in a train, and then to a flashback in a village.
At least the director looks at life beyond Mumbai, but the high does not remain for long. Chandrama Singh’s family is killed by the village zamindar (Akhilendra Mishra) he is rescued by a Naxalite group and nicknamed Chamku by his mentor (Danny Denzongpa).
Chamku (Bobby Deol) joins the Naxals and with them wages war against their feudal oppressors. A police raid wipes all of them out, except Chamku who is offered the chance to become part of a secret mission by a RAW officer (Irrfan Khan).
They train killers to carry out planned assassinations of criminals and anti-social leaders—this part inspired by La Femme Nikita. Once he is in, he realizes that he cannot leave, the authorities on the side of the law are equally ruthless. When he falls in love with a teacher (Priyanka Chopra), he has to find a way out. He also runs into the killer of his childhood, and wants his own revenge, which the boss does not approve of.
There is a sense of disbelief – if the government really endorsed such rogue operations, crime in the country would have been controlled long ago. Still, up to a point Kaushik keeps up the interest—the action sequences are excitingly shot. But the film does not really go beyond that one idea or even get into the ethics of officially-sanctioned murder—not quite the same as police encounters.
Bobby Deol is supposed to wear a deadpan expression, which he manages, but this film is not likely to give him an image makeover. Irrfan Khan, usually polished has strange, fidgety performance style here, as if he were instructed to keep busy, so he is either fiddling with a cap or sharpening a pencil. Priyanka Chopra has very little to do (she invites giggles with the pregnancy announcement!); in small guest appearances, Danny Denzongpa and Ritesh Deshmukh are impressive.
What goes against the film—which is not unwatchable-- is its misleading title. Chamku makes it sound like a comedy and there’s not a shred of humour in it.
Mukhbiir
About most films, the complaint is that they do not bother about details, about Mani Shankar’s Mukhbiir, just the opposite is true—it is detailed to the point of tedium.
It’s a fascinating story of how informers are chosen, trained and deployed by the cops, but loses a lot in the telling. Shankar takes up the issue of identity and loss of the self, throwing up several interesting points, yet losing grip on the narrative.
Kailash (Sammir Dattani) was picked up by a cop (Om Puri) and trained to become an informer. Young men like him are given different identities and sent undercover into criminal gangs. It is a risky, thankless job, with no recognition or reward. Mukhbiir is more detailed account of Intelligence operations than Contract or Drohkaal;, while the earlier films concentrated on one operation, Mukhbiir delves deeply into three—a Naxal gang, an organ smuggling gang in Hyderabad and a bunch of terrorists in Mumbai.
In each case, Kailash’s training and preparation for a new identity are shown with meticulous detail, as a result of which the film loses pace and momentum. It’s fatal for a thriller if the viewer’s attention wanders, and in this film it happens a lot—Kailash’s romance (with Raima Sen) is half-baked, the songs are excruciating, and the interlude in Hyderabad full of needless characters and episodes.
Still, some scenes are really powerful—his last minute rescue from the Naxal massacre, his coming face to face with his mentor being tortured by his gang, and the nail-biting (though not quite believable) climax.
The story would actually make for a very good TV series, but the film required drastic editing to make it work. Sammir Dattani has worked hard and given it all he’s got, pity he does not have the charisma to carry off a film where he’s in every frame.
However, if as the filmmaker claims, every bit of his story is true, it is frightening to contemplate what our law enforcers are up to!
C Kkompany
Never mind the kinky spelling, with a bit more effort, C Kkompany could have been another Lage Raho Munnabhai.
Sachin Yardi’s film is about three friends in need of money who pretend to be a gang and extort money, but the consequences are beyond their control. Akshay (Tusshar), Joshi (Anupam Kher) and Lamodar (Rajpal Yadav) live in the same building and are friends despite the age differences. They are all in need of money—one to be able to marry his girlfriend, the second to stop his son from ill-treating him and the third to escape a humiliating job.
They decide to make an extortion call to Joshi’s nasty son, naming themselves C Company. But a fake video makes national news and the non-existent gang becomes big. The cops, as well as TV-soap addict Don Dattubhai (Mithun Chakraborty) expend all efforts to trace this mysterious new gang.
But when the three realize that just a phone can scare off greedy builders from taking over a chawl, they become urban Robin Hoods, using the power of threatening phone call to do good.
C Kkompany could have been a satire on the media’s glamorization of gangsters, but it turns out to be a self-conscious tribute to the producers Balaji instead, with head honcho Ekta Kapoor making an appearance as herself. This kind of ego massage has not been seen in any other film, except perhaps Bachna Ae Haseeno and its many references to Yash Raj Films.
Besides, after establishing the idea of a ghost gang, Yardi runs out of ideas, songs are forced in, the gags gets progressively sillier, as the film ends up in a messy heap in a chaotic climax set at a fairground.
Except for Mithun Chakraborty hamming like crazy, the actors are all okay.. the film, despite its clever idea does not amount to a satisfying watch.
Labels: Cinemaah
