Saturday, March 29, 2014
O Teri
Dumb As Can Be
They did it again—messed with a
classic. Kundan Shah’s Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron has
grown into a cult comedy, and any filmmaker with half a brain should know
better than to attempt to copy it.
And copy he does, this Umesh Bist, without
even giving credit to the original, and because he doesn’t have the ability to
tell the difference between satire and farce, he turns the gold of JBDY into O
Teri dross.
A film that has a song with lyrics going You’ve
Got Me Going Crazy With Your Butt Patlo, in which scantily clad dancers
shake their derrieres into the camera; a film in which one of the
protagonists ogles and almost gropes his female boss gets past the censors.
Two idiot TV reporters called PP (Pulkit
Samrat) and AIDS (Bilal Amrohi) are told by their boss Monsoon (Sarah Jane
Dias) to get a real scoop, so they run about trying to uncover a scam, while
two corrupt politicians (Anupam Kher, Vijay Raaz) try to trump each other to
get a lucrative contract for their cohort. A PR lady (Mandira Bedi, obviously
inspired by the real life character involved in the telecom scam) “manages the
media” as a foot bridge falls and a CD with evidence goes missing.
An inspector gets killed, and like in the
original, the two reporters keep finding and losing the corpse, not realising
that Monsoon is in cahoots with the corrupt politicians.
Wit and pace makes way for loud slapstick and
vulgarity, plus too many needless and tuneless songs. Not one actor
can match up to line-up of talent in JBDY --like Naseeruddin Shah,
Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Bhakti Barve and Satish Shah (who played
the corpse).
As elections draw closer and the political
arena is ripe for satire, what the audience gets is this limp rag of a
movie. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is still fresh, relevant and very,
very funny. Go buy a DVD.
Labels: Cinemaah
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Gang Of Ghosts
Spooked Out!
The Bengali film Bhooter Bhabhishyat by Anik Dutta (it was released in
Mumbai) was a huge hit in Bengal and won awards too. It was
undoubtedly one of the best films made in recent times. How could
Satish Kaushik make such a mess of the Hindi version?
The plot is the same, the characters are the same, but this is a
completely different film--crude lines, indifferent performances, too
many badly picturised songs and an overall tacky look. The director of
the original has understandably protested against this ghastly remake,
but it has been inflicted on the public anyway.
A ghost tale that is not scary, but funny and topical, Gang Of Ghosts
talks about how rapid urbanization and the destruction of old
bungalows to make way for towers and malls, has left the city's ghosts
with no shelter.
Gendamal (Anupam Kher-- annoying) a rich man has opened up his mansion
for ghosts of his selection - an Englishman, a former actress, a cook,
an army man and so on. They live in peace and enjoy their 'afterlife'
with feasts, parties and picnics, when a builder called Bhutoria
(Rajesh Khattar) plans to tear it down.
A filmmaker (Parambrata Chatterjee, reprising his role from the
Bengali film) is on a recce in that mansion when he is accosted by
Raju Writer (Sharman Joshi--irritatingly over-the-top) who tells him
the story of the ghosts, in a series of flashbacks as the director
gets excited by the idea of filming it.
The Bengali movie had a magnificent production design, discreet use of
special effects and several culture specific scenes and lines, little
cinema tributes scattered throughout (only in a Bengali would an
Eskimo called Nanook stroll in), which nobody has bothered to work on
in the Hindi remake. What there is in plenty are fart jokes, vulgarity
and more song-and-dance than necessary. The part of the actress
(Mahie Gill) has been extended so that the male ghosts can fight for
her affections.
Perhaps film students should see the original and then the remake,
just to see how bad writing and unimaginative direction can ruin a
film.
Labels: Cinemaah
