Category: cinema: hindi

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cinema cinema: hindi

The Romantics (2023)

So I watched the new @Netflix documentary #TheRomantics. I am very eager to see cradle-to-grave documentaries on key filmmakers, it gives us a sense of their work and the times they worked in. But #TheRomantics is just a four part corporate video by YRF.

It began quite innocently; in fact E1 is titled The Boy From Jalandhar traces quite quickly the journey from Punjab to Mumbai. Yash Chopra’s first film was in 1959 and his last was in 2012- so yeah that’s a long career. Maybe they are going to go movie by movie, I thought.

Alas! Minutes later we were in Daag-Deewar territory, pauses only mention about Dharmaputra- apparently a film which was a takedown on Hindu fundamentalism (yikes), set during the partition. Brave Yash ji is Brave! That’s when I woke up. Really. Wake up call 1️⃣ ⏰

All well and good but the doc fails to mention that Dharmaputra was a flop and Yashji did not wade into overt political themes for the rest of his career. A sign of people being yawned by filmmakers trying to push head-in- the-clouds secularism? Maybe?

Bhai! Wait, let’s just pause to talk about how he made the films right? Atleast Amitji must have something to add about Deewar right? Hmm Amitji says Yashji was a romantic (roll credits) on D sets too as he found ways to shoot roses even in intense scenes 🤷

Doc also puts Yash ji as one of the main shapers of the angry young man persona along with Salim- Javed. This needs to explained more, but Salim Khan who is in the doc barely gets any time to talk.

Wake up call number 2️⃣

This documentary is not about the filmmakers and the films but more about establishing how YRF is Bollywood and how Bollywood is YRF. Yes, India is Indira and vice versa types.

Why else would they rush from Deewar (73) to Darr (93) within half an hour of the first episode in 4 part documentary? This phase would cover Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni & Lamhe- if this was a serious doc then there would be special episodes for each of these ‘classics’.

But doc is not interested in all that and doc is only interested in showing us an empty chair and hyping about how Adi Chopra has not given an interview in his lifetime. Much like a mob boss? No I mean…

So yeah! In 20 mins you will not be able to cover the nuances of any film, KJo drops in to say how Chandni is among his top five and how he preferred Yash ji over Bimal Roy, Dutt etc But doc doesn’t go beyond that, if at all there is some talk about his films -its about beauty

“Beautiful” “Yash ji heroines were beautiful” “So beautiful” The sarees- just beautiful” Guess someone on the internet can do a supercut of the number of times beautiful is used. Abbey yaar, what is this beautiful?

Wake up call number 3️⃣ was a very sad one. So like even in a four part netflix documentary Bollywood will not take the effort to tell us why a filmmaker is important or in the least tease us about his films to make us watch it?

If this is a feeling that I get, as someone who is familiar with Bollywood how is this going to be make those outside India take Yash ji seriously. That brings me to song and dance.

#TheRomantics as documentary reemphasizes on how the world should view India- land of Bollywood- land of love, song and dance. This is akin to how the west saw India as elephant, cow and snake charmers.

In fact Rishi Kapoor ji brings back these stereotypes about India, as to how we were seen as land of snake charmers and now seen as Bollywood song charmers. Atleast do they go into the effort of making songs? Not even one music director was interviewed for #TheRomantics

I used to think that Bollywood is deliberately surface level in its themes as to cater to a large section of the audience, but now realized these are not deliberate decisions, but the makers themselves are surface level & critics a bunch of yes people

No critic had the question as to why YRFs ‘eternal love’ stories always had an extramarital angle to it? Or why was it about two girls falling for the one man fantasy? Why is it that India’s culture reduced to color, marriage, song and dance and nothing spiritual?

Of course such questions are not possible in in-house productions like #TheRomantics , the credits of which include Uday Chopra. Which was wake up call number 5️⃣ – corporate video indeed.

A big part of the documentary also veers into Uday Chopra territory about how he himself is a standing testimony to how nepotism does not work in Bolly and people have to accept you. Guess this was something Bolly wanted to address , koi baat nahi

From E2 onwards its the Adi Chopra show and a big part of it is about DDLJ and its making. Here they go a little deeper- how everybody had fun on set while Adi worked, clash of the father and son and how DDLJ became the cash cow for YRF

Post creation of YRF it is just feature- benefit type of video we made Dhoom we introduced Ranveer Singh yeh-woh to borrow a common north Indian expression #yehwoh

Shockingly there was angle about how YRF saved India from the onslaught of foreign corporate movie houses – but luckily as with most things they don’t go deep enough.

Maybe that’s all there is to say about YRF and Bollywood, I shouldnt have expected much of a critical or cinematic analysis. should have just been happy with all the actors should have just been happy with the song and dance should have just been happy with Sridevi in chifon

should have been base level satisfied with the ever reticent Adi Chopra talking about how became more desi by throwing away all his rock music cassettes in order to ‘understand India’ Bhai maybe I should just check my expectations

But Bhai please don’t such things like redefined cinema and all and don’t substantiate your claims please 🙏 Thank you for reading. All screenshots are from the trailer of #TheRomantics which is now streaming on Netflix.

Categories
cinema: hindi FRS

FRS: Pathaan (2023) 

So you all know what an FRS is right? Right? 

Welcome to the YRF Spy Universe – which only means that YRF will make the same film with different heroes and tease you with winks, cameos and post credit sequence madness for the next 25 years.

Time for you to start an SIP under YRF Spy Universe and keep investing 100 rs every month considering inflation and all that. 

<Giving platform for long faced Bollywood fanboy -LFBF, because we encourage diverse opinions, but we don’t think you can follow Bollywood and have deep opinions, but nevertheless or as they say Koi Baat Nahi>

LFBF: Yeh review bhais, for Marvel movies you spent hazaar and hazaar rupaiyya, but if Bollywood does you will make fun na? 

Koi Baat Nahi, but Bollywood is back. 

-101: For everyone who uses any variation of Bollywood is back, SRk is back, once a king always a king, king for a reason, king who unified the earth – wait, that was King Solomon right? SRK is King Solomon? 

No viewer will get even one paisa if Bollywood is back or not back, this is like buying one Mango and telling the whole Salem Mango Industry is back!

But Mangoes are good, they mostly taste well, they are also called the King of fruits..

LFBF: Abbey, only SRK is King.

Isn’t he a Pathaan? 

Nevermind, the point is that he is back. 

121: Not surprising for a Bollywood film, Pathaan begins in Islamabad. 

In fact it begins in an oncologist’s office in Islamabad where a General is getting his diagnosis. 

How many years does he have to live, he asks.

Three, the doctor says. 

Just when you thought that this is going to be a touching portrayal of a Pakistani General coming to terms with his own morality, the TV blares out that Article 370 has been revoked. 

Yes Oncologist in Islamabad take their news seriously and have 24*7 always on, even while consulting. 

56: That brings us to the introduction of the main baddie of Pathaan who is simply named Jim, so that you know that absolutely no writing went into his creation.

Jim is just John Abraham. His smile is the same as in a Garnier Men advertisement. 

<FRS not sponsored by Garnier Men>

This by itself is not bad, in fact it is one the saving graces of the film – that the film lets John Abraham be himself. 

We can even imply that for the moments he is away in this movie, we are probably thinking Jim … we mean John would be working out and preparing for his attack (or working for Garnier Men) 

Also how did he escape from Somali pirates to start OutfitX? Did captain Philips save him? Is Captain Philips part of the YRFSU? 

-20: Low effort in naming.

 the shadow terrorist outfit employed by the said Pakistani General is called…Outfit X 

-97: movie asks to us to take it seriously when the counter terrorist outfit is name JOCR (Joker oh so so funny)

JOCR is Joint Operations and Covert Research.

Even basic nomenclature enthusiasts would know that it sounds right when it is called Covert Research and Joint Operations (CRJO) and anyone who has seen the film knows that there is nothing covert about their operations.

Joint…let’s come to that in a bit. 

Brace for a small diversion on Japanese philosophy 

Someone said, speaking at the Cancer Institute in 2013

“This place offers hope, and hope brings about healing. When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage, by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that, when something has suffered damage, and has a history, it becomes more beautiful. This indeed is true, for the millions of cancer survivors, who have come out stronger, and more beautiful than before.”

This is indeed Kintsugi , a beautiful philosophy of looking at breakage in an object as part of the life of the object itself and a good allegory for organization which finds a place for agents who have been put out to pasture. 

And when Pathaan was explaining Kintsugi to his boss, the only thing I could think of was this quote. 

If you know who this someone is, let us know in the comments below. 

#EngagementTactics 

-37: Movie takes a good allegory and goes nowhere with it. 

This was supposed to be a film about broken agents finding their place and we barely know anything about Pathaan’s colleague, except that one guy is called Rishi and another guy is called Raza and a girl once or twice uses the phrase “dark web” 

+80: Darkweb as the source of all intelligence info, this is going to be a recurring theme. 

As for JOCR, we don’t know what they exactly do and how they facilitate joint operations. 

For most part JOCR seems like a travel desk for Pathaan to go from one country to another and Dimple Kapadia maam seems likely to join the long list of film intelligence heads who could not contain her over enthusiastic agents. 

-300: Intelligence Failure MAX (iMAX)

Middle Eastern countries are not going to like this film as a major attack on their country happens in broad daylight and there is absolutely no one there to stop it or take action later. 

+200: Villain will explain his entire purpose, mission statement, how he aims to achieve it and all specifics to hero, because of course people forgot how to write character motivation anymore 

But this is positive because , audience is now clear what is going to happen for the next 2 hours or so

FacePalm to folks who said that playing Ae Watan as Jim’s signature whistle is part of character development.

-96: Time saved in naming key aspects and characters in the film could have been used in creating better graphics. 

At least some of Pathaan would have been admissible if the graphics had been more relatable to a large section of the audience. 

Here it was relatable to 8 bit video game players who are of course a small section of any audience

-120: Movie thinks we will take it seriously because it has helicopters. 

Whenever the movie unit feels that there is a dip in viewer interest, they introduce a helicopter. 

In the dubai sequence they introduce two, that should tell you a lot about that sequence. 

For a moment, we thought that they would bring a helicopter into the theater hall, considering Pathaan loves flying one in enclosed spaces. 

+85: Jim treats helicopters like how Kamal treats vellai the cow in Singaravelan

Yes, oddly for a film named Pathaan, the most registered character is Jim- it is in no way a well written character but by the end of the movie we know nothing about Pathaan, don’t know his skills, his pain, his fear, his signature moves- maybe that is what they will explore in the universe. 

-701: Pussyfooting screenwriting: I kind of get what the writers are going for, something like Star Trek: Into Darkness or Skyfall or even SRK’s own Main Hoon Na

Where the antagonist is created because of the attitude of the state implying that the all is not well with the state and its machinery- but does not beyond that.

Much like how the allegory to Japanese Kintsugi is introduced, this is introduced and not at all taken forward. 

Which made feel like if you do want to say something, say it openly and I agree saying that takes real courage but at least more admirable than writing 20 rupees dialogues like ‘Give your Mother India my last goodbye’ etc 

Also why is Jim’s signature BGM an old creaking door? (It’s even in the trailer) 

But we will give them some leeway as this being a commercial filmmakers have to appeal to everyone and hence ultimately no one, not even ISI agents. 

-27: ISI Agents are not going to like this movie.

-33.33: Empowered spy heroine template 

The ChatGPT inspired writing of Pathaan comes out more clearly in the way how the character of Rubina Mohsin is written. 

Atleast she gets a good name- Rubina Mohsin. 

First we are of course introduced to the glamor element where she has to entice our hero into doing things and then as an afterthought, the action.

When the final battle becomes clearly Jim vs Pathaan (what else?) , Rubina is given a gatling gun type sequence. 

It’s so lazy that even Jim makes fun of the repetitive RAW hero falling for the ISI heroine trope within the Yash Raj Spy Universe. 

So much for self-awareness. 

+97: Speaking of self awareness, we can see that the Yash Raj Spy Universe has already taken to the quippyness of the MCU, in fact the closest character that Pathaan resembles is Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal of Iron Man (there is also a scene with the touch screen etc) 

Which like in MCU was refreshing when they did it but they themselves effectively killed it later down the line. 

Good luck Yash Raj. 

-102: Expected twist during Interval is expected 

Pathaan literally suspect that one character who just moments before sang a song which says like “world has not seen my true colors”

Bhai, how is he employed in intelligence? 

-78: The intelligence community is not going to like this movie 

For a movie about spies, espionage and missions there is very little thinking and more throwing of terms like Raktabeej. 

Basically the most interesting stuff are the most boring in Pathaan and they think that slow motion action with shotgun sequence will make us believe it is otherwise. 

-58: Neat segue into action

As expected there is an ice planet fight, there is cityscape fight, there is a jetpack vs jet pack fight – but it is not audacious or inventive. 

Some even don’t register and are made with the “We’ll do everything that South ka films do” attitude.

But South ka films have marinated in this genre for decades and what they do come from a place of love. 

They also swing for the fences, involve inventive action sequences and tell an epic story. 

There is no shame in being inspired by other films (previously mentioned) , it is not even wrong to use the same devices, twists and turns – but what differentiates one film from its derived class is what it adds new to the genre and to the movies it freely borrows from. 

LFBF: All that is fine, but Pathaan is 700 crores + bhai! Not even counting the number of times people will come to theaters to see THAT cameo- we have done what South Ka movies have done and SRK will reach 1000 crores. 

Bolly is back!

That’s true, slightly quoting the film

don’t ask what an SRK movie can do to you, ask what you can do to make an SRK movie reach 1000 crores? 

Jai Hind

Vanakkam

Team FRS

Categories
cinema cinema: hindi genres oddments reviews Uncategorized

The Man Who Became His Mother

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Railways.

Yes let us begin with railways.Last week when the Gatiman Express was launched and proved to be only ten minutes faster than the quickest of trains we already had, I groaned. That’s it?

MORE FASTER!!!!!

Kabir from Ki and Ka would have been amidst those who would have complained about the ever reducing experience of the rail road or how forms of transportation seem to be converging based on just one parameter: speed.

Ki and Ka is one of the most well written films in recent history, it pays to notice that their back stories don’t seem like one liners scribbled in the corners of a script; but that which actually lends character.

A standing testimony to “two good characters and it’s a movie!”

Since we have already begun with railways, let us stick with Kabir; the one who is seen crying for his dead mother in transit, no he is not the spoilt-Singhania (Bansal actually) heir but a deeply sensitive man who misses his mother whom he feels has been thoroughly under recognized for the work she has done.

So we have a mama’s boy, trying to tell the world(and his father, no mainly his father; world comes later) that home making is an under appreciated art and that women almost daily have been denied of this credit while their men work away to corporate glory which has historically been called ‘work’. If women are truly the pillars to a man’s success, then in real time they are rusting only.

Kabir also likes trains, ‘likes’ here is a severely subtle description.

Son thinks he is continuing mother’s good work (also the story of Psycho, oops!) and combines his mother’s passion with his own (art meets art) and what we get is a dinner table served by a locomotive and a bed room that resembles an 80s waiting room (wow), see layers. A really fleshy character, i mean fleshed out character.

An act of God, in Bollywood land.

It would also help to notice that Kabir also thinks, his actions are driven by thinking.

arjun-kapoor-kareena-kapoor-ki-and-ka-train-still1

Pillars (stambh)

Kia doesn’t want to be a pillar, she wants to be a CEO; at first she does seem like the one who would do anything to get ahead, and her back story is not as detailed as that of her better half and depends entirely on how Kareena(brilliant) plays it, she is genuinely curious and visibly tired of meeting the same old men who are seeking pillars, so meeting Kabir on an aircraft was indeed godsend.

Good movies are about two people talking and they become better when what they are talking about is more interesting than who is speaking those lines, the first set up in Ki and Ka is genuinely engaging. The characters need not be yugapurush-es( I dont know the stri-ling equivalent of yugapurush) when they are created and any sort of character development that happens during the course of a movie is like the well mixed flavored popcorn that one encounters when one reaches the very end of the basket.

Ki and Ka is a modern film for a truly modern audience, does it play around with stereotypes? Yes, but only to get to the point, I could not see this as a regular gender/role reversal film, I felt the film had risen above these problems; because it would have become a Ramany vs Ramany* episode otherwise.

To further strengthen my point, the problems that Ki and Ka puts forward are solved without much issue or drama.  This film is not about career driven women trying to not have a baby without guilt because this problem gets solved within minutes.

Films are a reflection of what our society is or what society is moving towards, there could be people like Kabir out there who needs a Kia to function and there could be many Kias running away from becoming pillars and yearning to be architectural structures of beauty by themselves. (Kia ends up becoming the CEO of a construction company, nice touch there)

Ki and Ka is not about role reversal and it is definitely not a broad comment on man and woman, but an intimate look at two individuals post marriage. This is not about who gives up what or which profession is better; this Ki and Ka is actually Yin and Yang.

A well made modern film for the modern Indian, hopefully should inspire more Kis and Kas in real life as well.

Also officially now Arjun Kapoor is my favourite Bolly hero, the kind of restraint he brings to a character that would have become a caricature is absolutely magical.

Hey! Yes, they take the train back home, so finishing with railways as well.

The End.

PS

*Ramany vs Ramany a tamil sitcom on recently married couples.

 

 

Categories
cinema cinema: hindi Music

What’s Music Doc? Tere Bin

I have been fence sitter when it comes to the song or no song debate, I jump sides often (ya it’s me) . My reasons for this are grounded in the hours and hours of political news coverage by national and regional channels. “Issue based support” being the correct phrase, if you please.

This song from Wazir definitely deserves a WMD post.

tere-bin-story_647_120415045355

I do not know if anything else from Wazir deserves writing about, ok that was quite rude.

You can’t get always what you want, so my dream of ‘seeing’ the songs ONLY along with the film is more than always killed. Technically the songs should ONLY work in the boundaries of the film, yeah the song might be great, composed with a mind that has been aided by the hands of the divine or verses that have been taken right from the surface of a calm lake.

All that is ok, but what is the song doing in the movie, yaar?

Wazir has this genius level intro song, there is no prelude to this introduction(prelude to the introduction a? ennada solre), you have no idea who the characters are and there is no associated speak or visual cues for us to identify with; in other words Bejoy Nambiar was on a ‘wing and a prayer’ (we like to use phrases, kid writers we be) when he begins his film on loss of kids masquerading as a thriller with the absolutely wonderful ‘Tere Bin’

Shot in enjoyable slow motion, which although seems forced at the very beginning comes to its own being towards the end of the song; ever since I heard the song I had wanted to see it and ever since I have seen it, I can now never forget it. Which is success in a way.

But I’ll tell you what real success is, these flash backs are one irksome lot in movies, but the thing is most dramatic films can’t do without them, they lend character to the characters, essentially these are parcels of emotions which make us realize the motivations and why a certain character is behaving in a certain way at present. And this takes up a lot of screen time and when done badly makes you wish you were never born.

In 3 minutes Wazir establishes what most movies take a good part of the ‘first quarter of the post interval’ phase (hehe not that technically, buddy), there are no scenes as to how Daanish (Farhan Akhtar, a disoriented ATS officer) and Ruhana (a very oriented Kathak-ist? played by Aditi Rao Hydari) meet, there are no scenes of their courtship period (this being a Delhi film would have been shot in Humayun’s Tomb etc),there are no scenes to show each doting on the other, how their firstborn was cherished like little Simba and how love was so much part of their family like most Bollywood families tend to be; but all this is there in the song ya. ( director laughs like Blofeld who has plans to take over the world but doesn’t know Bond is lurking somewhere in the shadows)

And all this is very necessary for the audience to feel the weight of child loss when the kid is killed a few minutes later in a rather umm ‘This-is-not-supposed-to-happen-now’ moment (OK I spoiled that for you), so now you see that this is a genius move to open with a song that adds something to your movie and more importantly, doesn’t eat up time. Do not know if it will work every time, but here it did!

While Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam take you through the lives of the protagonist and family, couldn’t help wondering if these moments are like those carefully selected photos that are seen on facebook, highlighting the happy moments, even more stressing to the general populace that happiness is abound. ALWAYS.

But is it?

That’s for another post. but if only Wazir had been quite as amazing as the song and used judiciously the time created by this number.

 

Yeah, here is the song. 

 

 

Categories
cinema cinema: hindi cinema:tamil Essay genres

THE AGE OF EMPIRES

baahubali-teaser-copy

There is an anecdote of how Queen Elizabeth went up a tree as a girl and came down a Queen, to put the story of Baahubali in a single line will be on similar lines, like say, the boy who went up the waterfalls and became a prince.

But stories are best told in their entirety with flourish and detail and the stories of kings and queen require something else, magnificence.

Magnificent as they may be in text, the trouble lies in the realisation of these visuals from the mind and this is where we come to the ‘is technology taking over our movies’ part of the discussion, in a film like Baahubali yes, a computer really does aid your/the director’s imagination.

From a country that routinely decries its films for not making movies with better graphics, we are very much left behind in the technology debate as well, especially in a time when StoryBrain came up with what he calls the Weta Effect last month; which is in other words that movies with better graphics do not really resonate well with the audiences.

Personally, the inability to make graphics seem seamless in only a temporary worry and can be overcome with training and investment and Baahubali is definitely a step in the right direction, the best graphics film is a film that you can sit and not worry about the graphics (remember Kochadaiiyan), also miraculous that we have moved so far away from Kochadaiiyan in a span of two years. And that is all I have to say about Baahubali’s graphics which went from non-troubling to quite spectacular, but let us first attack the mind/heart(don’t know which does which job, not a doc) of Raajamouli which I guess is filled with fascinations for the epics and long forgotten stories from Chandamama back issues.

Fifty and a half years back, we were making such movies, often large studio productions involving the matinee idols from the states below the Vindhyas, swashbuckling stories of slaves who become kings, banished princes, scheming uncles and whispering corridors, occult magicians, tender princesses and giggling harem girls and not to forget the scenes of war.

With the advent of the so-called realism and the Dravidian movement, these movies dwindled, but the spirit of the classic fantasy lived on but not quite so rightly on the shoulders of mega stars, the characterisations would only fit a mythical time: the masala film.

Somehow a hero jumping between cliffs sits well within a royal story rather than a modern entertainer. Rajamouli’s Baahubali is set in the mythical nation of Mahismathi covering diverse geographies (waterfalls, mountain avalanches, vast dry lands and imposing palaces) and populations ( tribes of different types, assassins, barbarians and royals of course) deserves mention because most of the time the mind limits, and these are how epic stories are built, it is never about one person, it is about all those who live and die in the space that you create and this is where the modern formulaic films go wrong.

Testimony to this is one scene which can also be called “the moment of realisation” , the ground is covered by all those who have shaped the hero’s life, direct and indirect, friend and foe.

While the effect of visuals has considerably increased since the times of Paathala Bhairavi, Mandirikumari and Uttama Puthiran, the excitement in telling these stories has been thankfully retained, which I think is the next greatest triumph of Baahubali (the first being the director’s bold imagination).

mk1 best-films-set-in-ancient-rome-spartacus-cover

Palaces made of sandstone or software are nothing without the people, here Mahismathi which resembles Minas Tirith from The Lord of the Rings is populated by a league of able actors  who mouth refreshingly well written lines.

“The empty throne of Mahismati resembles a widow’s forehead” a minor character says, enough to make me sit up, the fact really was that I was wide eyed straight from the beginning, even the initial dragging set up seems justified for what is to follow.

Patience in actors like Satyaraj is truly rewarding, one of the finest Indian actors alive, catching your eye even when bowing down to someone in deference; but the film truly belongs to Ramyakrishnan, the God Mother who breast feeds both the scions of her clan, it is said that Romulus and Remus; the founders of the Roman empire were nourished by the same wild wolf and that comparison here only seems right. A performance to savour.

Ramya-krishna-in-Baahubali

Baahubali is in no means a perfect film, making a film this scale is in a sense like building an empire, but is a start, a beginning as the title loudly says. Post Gladiator, there was an active public interest in the Roman classics and the sword and sandal genre itself, if only Baahubali could do the same; then we could have a cinematic age of empires ahead of us.

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Jai Mahismati!!