Random Musings

Ramesh Sippy perhaps knows that he does not know, so he refrains from directing now..

Rakesh Roshan knows that he knows, so he keeps churning out winners..

Subhash Ghai does not know that he does not know, so he keeps trying.. and failing..

Kisna is a case in point.

Made with lot of fanfare, it obviously appears to have costed a bomb, it was also promoted well. Only to disappoint ultimately…

There is a fundamental escape plot. How Kisna helps Catherine to escape to Delhi.

That being the case, the escape starts fairly early in the first half. And it is supposed to sustain till nearly the end, when the climax has to happen.

In other words, all of it is Act II, with no major sub-plots, and repetitive, trivial challenges that the hero has to face on the way. There is no strength in any of those incidents that happen right from middle of first half, to nearly the end of the movie. Everyone in the audience knows that he has to succeed, so it had to be something else that keeps them interested in their seats, and sorry to say, nothing else comes up. So the Act II drags on… almost endlessly.

Some other serious flaws of the film:

– Kisna is supposed to be the warrior poet. So says the byline of the film. Neither the poet part nor the warrior part is shown to be developing. Almost forced upon like an afterthought is shown, Vivek Oberoi scribbling away like he was writing down a grocery list, and you have to assume that its our ‘budding poet’ at work! As for the warrior part, half a scene is what is shown to convey that he is warrior too.

– There is an out of the blue scene of Amrish Puri, mama of Shankar and Kisna, taking a bribe, for inciting violence. He is shown to have personal interests and none of the patriotic ones. And yet this scene remains in isolation. You wait till the end to see if some connection to that one scene is established later on, if at all. But no.. nothing. Wonder if it was changed due to Amrish Puri’s ill health. In which case though, the earlier scene of his personal agenda, should also have been cut off. Anyway it had no other direct connection to the story, and would have not been missed at all!

– New actress Isha Shravani’s only purpose in the film it appears, is to show off the amazing flexibility of her body, as she goes into calisthenic dance sequences, although they tend to repeat after a while, and become a bit too much

– Remember the last scene in Sholay when Hema Malini and Dharmendra meet in the train? The ‘and they lived happily ever after’ scene. Most films have one, and most films have it for like 30 seconds to 2 minutes at most. Kisna has a 15 minute scene after the main story is over and done with! It was absolutely unbelievable. How can anyone do this? Why waste so much raw stock of film? Just about every person in the theatre got up and walked to the door and most disappeared out of it, and the scene kept going on and on. In case Subhashji felt that part of the story was worth telling, it should have been woven into the central portion of the story. NOT after the main story was all over and everyone knew it. If it was not possible to weave it in the central part, it should have been left OUT!

– Isha Shravani (character Laxmi in the film) is shown to be this amazing dancer with a super body, while Catherine is an average person. Both are shown to be of similar age, in their youth. And yet when the old Catherine returns from the UK to India, she is able to travel all these miles on her own,walk around alone, look a fighting fit oldie. And Laxmi, on the other hand, is shown to have aged, and needs two persons to help her move. With the kind of physical fitness that Laxmi was managing, we would have expected a fitter old lady in Laxmi!

– But yes, the voice of the 80 years old Laxmi was still like that of a 20 year old. Subhashji did not bother to change that. Here is exactly where the detailing counts, and where young dedicated directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali or Farhan Akhtar would not be caught on the wrong foot. Laxmi sounded so young at 80, that you might as well have expected her to be swinging from her favourite rope also, at that age!

Actors like Vikram Gokhale and MOhan Agashe, both of whom have so much talent, have been wasted. Vivek Oberoi might be happy to think of this as a big banner film that he is doing as a solo lead, but he has nothing much to take away from the effort.

Sorry Subhashji, but you might just be better off sticking to production now.. leave direction to the youngsters. The 2.5 stars rating that the Times gave was sheer flattery!!

I have done it a couple of times before, and I did it once again over this weekend. Saw a whole lot of movies at a trot. While earlier on couple of occasions, I have seen 3 movies in a single day, this time around, it was 5 movies spread over 3 days.

On Friday night, we saw ‘Hulchul’.

Then on Saturday night, we went for consecutive shows, at 7:30 pm and then at 10 pm, for ‘Shwaas’ and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ respectively.

And then on Sunday, we saw ‘Khamosh Pani’ at 11 am, and ‘Ocean’s Twelve’ at 8 pm.

Whew… so that’s now over and done with.

Getting ready for the coming weeks with good movies coming up, in the form on ‘Swades’, ‘Raincoat’ and ‘Kisna’, from Ashutosh Gowariker, Rituparno Ghosh and Subhash Ghai respectively.

Its fun to do such movie marathons once in a while. In the planning and execution of these itself, is a sense of passion and fun. And you are happy if the choices turn out to be good, and you end up seeing a host of good movies.

In the present case, my score was 4/5. Four of the five movies were worth watching, while one of them, I could have given a miss.

To start with, it was Hulchul on Friday night.

A typical situational comedy, with a desired sense of exaggeration, typical from Priyadarshan, the maker of the film. A long list of stars acted in the film. Akshay Khanna, the hero, is good material. Highly underrated overall, in context of Indian cinema. Has a flair for comedy, a cute smile that he inherits from his father, Vinod Khanna, can dance well. He does all of these in the movie. Arshad ‘circuit’ Warsi, at the cost of getting typecast, plays a fun character. Kareena and the host of other stars do their bit, in this film that gives you sufficient laughs to make it worth your while.

The next movie that we saw was ‘Shwaas’. Quite outstanding, the best of this lot of 5, by far. A separate posting on this film gives details of how I felt about this one.

The one after that was the exception, in that I felt it to be a waste of my time. This was Bridget Jones Diary… this is a sequel to an earlier film, and I am surprised that people actually find this to be good stuff. In fact, I had also gone for the movie based on a decent review, in one of the papers. But I was thoroughly disappointed.

Sunday morning we went for an Indo-Pak joint venture film, “Khamosh Pani”. The movie was completely in semi-Punjabi, with sub-titles. This is the second film in recent times where I see this. The earlier one was Veer Zaara, where there is a lot of spoken Punjabi. In case of Khamosh Pani, it was completely so. But it is easy to understand as it is similar to Hindi, and in fact, in many ways, it sounds good on the ears. This is a film which captures the consequence of history, the history of the Partition. It also captures the society that is Pakistan. It does show rural Pakistan, and I am not sure if rural India also has such extreme orthodox thoughts. The difference of course, is in India’s adoption of secularism, so the extent of extremist thought that one saw in this film, is unlikely to prevail even in rural India. A story of this kind is good to see, to understand how society is shaped as a result of certain historical events, and thereby it may help in understanding attitudes as well. Kiron Kher has won awards for her performance in this film, and well deserved too. It was a Sunday morning well utilised as the film was captivating, from start to finish.

To top it off, on the Sunday evening, we had “Ocean’s Twelve”. As contrasting as a film can probably be, to Shwaas and Khamosh Pani, seen earlier in the weekend. Not much to say about Ocean’s Twelve, except that it was fast paced and fun, again with many stars (like Hulchul), and well made. Not an outstanding film but good fun, all the same.

And now looking forward to Swades (have a hunch that this could be _the_ film of the year; promos and story appear to be perfect for this day and time, and Ashutosh Gowariker – Shah RUkh Khan combo should pull this off well).

I had read a lot about this Marathi movie, Shwas, which is India’s entry for the Oscars this year. Having a sketchy idea of the story, from the reviews, I felt that it would be a tear jerker, and did not wish to subject myself to such sentimental misery, and hence resisted seeing the movie for so long. However with the increasing publicity for the film, temptation overcame the resistance, and I went all the way to Regal cinema (after ages, I must add; after IMAX and other multiplexes have come to the suburbs, who wants to go all the way to town, and see movies in those old theatres!) to catch the one show a day of this film.

And I am glad that I did so.

For it was an experience to cherish. For me as for the 50 or so others, in the balcony for that show, including several foreigners, who must have come obviously out of curiosity about the Oscar entry movie. It helped, that the movie had English subtitles.

I do not much care for its Oscar prospects, and will not jump into celebrations were it to win the Oscar too, as I believe that seeing the movie and promoting it only because its India’s entry for the Oscars, is jingoistic patriotism, which has no place in this global and connected world. I mean, I may as well appreciate a Spanish or a French classic, if it were a great movie! Anyway, I digress.

Coming back to Shwas, it does make you hold your breath.. or almost take your breath away.

An obviously low budget film, made in regional language (Marathi), shot for most parts in a village and in Pune, yet its made with an amazing sensitivity, where you, as a viewer, are drawn into and absorbed completely, into the story.

There is the character of the grandfather, who so loves his grandson, and would do anything for the young child. He is from a village and seems overwhelmed by the big city. Not as much by its buildings and vehicles as by the educated and literate citizens, in front of whom, he feels almost servile. And yet, for the sake of his grandchild, he opens up many times, conveying in no uncertain terms, what he feels is right for the child. His fearful, yet strong, scared yet caring emotions are brought out very well by the director and the actor portraying the role. To me, he is as much of an acting star in the film, as is the child.

Yes, the child. Acting the part of the innocent village kid, who comes to the city. Fascinated by the city scenes, by the people, yet fearful, because he knows that he has some big problem with his eyes. His tantrums when he ‘knows’ he is headed for some trouble but does not know what, his fascination for simple city things that he has not seen in the village, his wide eyed swollen and silent face of helplessness, his embrace of his granfather, all appear so natural that its hard to believe that its a child actor who is ‘acting’ the part!

There are many moments in the film, where for as much as 2-3 minutes, there is scarcely any dialogue at all. Just scenes from the past, scenes which tell their own story and which require no words at all. Beautifully picturised, captivating. Even one period of 2-3 minutes of random shots, can test an audience’s patience, and here the director has used several of these. But rather than becoming impatient, as the audience, you are caught into the web of the story through such scenes.

During the scenes at the hospital, before the surgery is to happen on the child, the emotion certainly grips you. In the midst of the movie, I got conscious of the fact that my knees had gone weak, and my hair was standing on my arms. That is indeed proof of the fact that the director has managed to get the audience thoroughly involved with him, inside the story.

Another thought that I was left with, from the film, was this. That when we have something or get something easily, how little value we attach to it. Yes, that can certainly be said about vision or sight that we have and take for granted. But I also refer to material things. When you see the obvious fascination of the child by simple things like a car seat belt, or a Mickey Mouse toy, you realise that for a village bred child, all these are new things, and its a whole new world. And then when I think of myself, or specifically my kids, I realise that even a new toy or a new video game or a new computer does not excite them half as much. Simply because of the fact that they have seen so much, and the newness of anything is only to a certain extent. I am not sure if that is good… maybe not.

Shwas is a great film… it will stay with me, inside me, for a few days at least!

In the past 3 decades (the time that one has followed Hindi cinema), we have seen two clear superstars of our times, viz. Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bacchan. There were many other successful stars (Jeetendra, Rishi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna, and what have you) as also there were other good actors (Sanjeev Kumar, Amol Palekar, Naseerudin Shah, etc.), but if the term superstar had to be used, it would have to be for these two gentlemen only. Sure, in current stars, one may also include Shah Rukh Khan in the same genre, but he is still around, so we will restrict this discussion to Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh.

Rajesh Khanna truly ruled the screens during the 70s and had a huge fan following. He had a style and a charisma of his own. He of course, had a lot of successful films behind him.

By now, there is no real denying that Amitabh had become an even bigger superstar, a true legend of our times, and a name beyond comparison.

I would like to draw attention to an additional factor that is a difference between these two stars. And I got this, while listening to music on the radio, daily, and also at parties and at clubs, where popular music is played.

I could see that even today, some of the most popular songs continue to be the ones from the 70s, and especially from the Kishore Kumar – R D Burman combo. And in fact, a very large number of these were featured on Rajesh Khanna. That these songs continue to be popular after so many years, is an indication of their brilliance.

So the point to be made is that a LOT of the success that Rajesh Khanna got, must be owed to this musical genius of R D Burman primarily, and to Kishore Kumar, the voice behind Rajesh Khanna’s songs. How much of a success would RK have been without these songs and music? That is something we will never know.

As against this, the songs from Amitabh’s popular films are not that famous. Sure, when the films were hits, the songs were also hits, but they have not sustained their popularity to the extent that RD-Kishore songs of Rajesh Khanna’s films have done. Which would lead me to conclude that Amitabh’s films stood on Amitabh primarily, while Rajesh Khanna’s films owe a very large part of their success, also to the music.

That Amitabh on the other hand, had Salim-Javed, Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, and others writing and directing great roles and characters for him, is another matter..

Last couple of weeks were my ‘make-up’ weeks to catch up on films. Thats what happens with me usually. I don’t see any film at all, for several weeks, and then as it were, there is a sudden deluge and large number of films are seen in quick time.

So I happened to see The Terminal, Collateral, Bride and Prejudice, and F 9/11.

Here is my take on the hype vs actual feel, on these films.

The Terminal was great fun. A classic. Time and money well spent (to go and see the movie, I mean!). Tom Hanks and Spielberg combine to give a believable look, to an almost unbelievable story. Good humour, extremely good timing, fun all the way.

Collateral on the other hand, was a waste. Beyond a point, there is only so much that you can tolerate. Too repetitive, too few characters, do not quite draw you into the film. Story that is hardly having any substance. Waste..!

Bride and Prejudice, the most hyped up of the lot. Has its moments. Kohli is quite a character in it. Some nice scenes. But beyond that – falls flat. Does not measure up as a good follow up to Bend It Like Beckham, from Chadda. And Aishwarya Rai has of course, done better roles and better films before (HDDCS, Taal, etc. to name a few). View it as standard Bollywood fare, and you are okay – yes, like typical Bollywood films, there is song and dance, there are weddings and a generally festive air, and like most average Bollywood films, there is no depth in the story. If you must see, go with that mindset.. unlike me. I went expecting a great film, from a great film maker who had given us Bend It…, and I was disappointed.

F-9/11 finally released in India, and apparently without any cuts. Why on earth was India considering to make any cuts, or review this carefully at the censors, beats me. After all, the US released the film without much ado, and chances of damage were there, not here in India. Anyway, I am glad that they did release it uncensored. And like audiences in other parts of the world, I was stunned by what I saw. It is indeed a shock to see the shenanigans of the politicians, and you end up feeling all the more, about how as a common man, you know nothing. And about how, those who are in power, put up this huge pretense for you…. A great film, well made, well researched, passionately made, even if the passion is a ‘hate Bush’ passion!

Waiting for Swades, Veer Zaara, Kisna and others in Diwali now…

SO you thought that if Australia, India or Pakistan were not in the finals, it could not be much of a game, right? I thought so too. Inspite of it being a Saturday, I made no serious attempt to reach home early to catch more of the game. I reached when West Indies were struggling to stay in the game. Only Chanderpaul remained between England and victory. I was hoping for a Windies win (since then I have met so many people and found NONE to have wanted England to win!). They are a colourful lot. I like guys like Gayle, Sarawan and the Windies’ Dravid, Chanderpaul. And we all hate the Poms, for no particular reason.. perhaps, just the hangover of the East India company’s days from centuries back! So I was feeling bad that West Indies seemed like they were heading for a loss. Was also wondering if this will finally be England’s first victory in a multi-nation tournament (for being the originators of cricket, they have not won the world cup ever!). But like we always hope as long as Dravid is around, so I hoped on, as Chanderpaul seemed like hanging in there. The target was not large and if they got close, they would have a chance. Perhaps Ricardo Powell would smash out 40-50 runs, if they got that close.

But then, Powell and Chanderpaul both got out, and it was 147 for 8. I started switching channels and kept reverting to the game only to check if it was over yet or not. But then the unbelievable started happening.

Bradshaw and Brown batted so well. They middled everything (so much for the devil in the pitch). They batted with utmost composure and had absolutely no problems at all. No playing and missing, no random shots, no real ‘luck’ factor. They did not run like madmen.. they took singles and twos and these were always very well run with no risk at all. They appeared to be in command like two accomplished batsmen, in form. Slowly but surely, they kept running out the overs and did not get out. And kept making runs, to keep the target always comfortably in sight. The perfect chase of this total, as a coach would have told batsmen to do.. only these guys were nos. 9 and 10, and no great batsmen in terms of international reputation.

They saw out the part time bowlers like Trestowick and Collingwood, without much problem. With almost 70 to get since they got together, the English captain did not think of calling his only specialist spinner to bowl, as he figured that where the top batsmen have not survived the pacers and the seamers, what are these two going to do. At most, there will be a little delay, but nobody can deny us victory now, he must have figured. And so he did not think of getting Giles, the spinner, on, when WI was in the 140s to 160s. As the Windies inched closer to their target of 217, it was getting too late to give a first bowl to a slow bowler. If at that late stage, the bowler bowled like a 20 run over, it would be all over then. So he lost the opportunity to bring the spinner on. Whether it would have made any difference or not is hard to say. These guys were batting so well, and the pitch was clearly benefiting the seam bowlers, so the spinner may have made little difference. Except that we would never know now, as Vaughan did not put him on at all.

Gough had a bad day and he was easily seen through by these two guys. Desperate to get a break, Vaughan brought on his star bowler Harmisson who had 3 overs left to bowl. And Harmisson gave his all to the ball. He bowled his fastest of the game, including the fastest ball of the tournament, at around 97 mph. It was a vicious yorker to boot. And guess what.. it was aniticipated well, and it was dug out most creditably! No problem at all! Vaughan chose to bowl Harmission through.. and they saw out his 3 overs, and rejoiced a bit. Then Vaughan brought on his second big weapon Flintoff, who had also got big wickets earlier in the day. These two batters put that extra level of concentration and saw Flintoff through as well, with little problem. And at that point with about 3-4 overs to go, the batters pumped the air. They knew that they had seen off the biggest challenges.

In between, while all this action was going on, the light kept deteriorating. Ultimately the umpires had no choice but to offer the light to the batsmen, and they could have chosen to go into the pavilion at that point of time. It was about 170-180 or so, at that time. But these number 9 and 10 batsmen said NO to the offer. They chose to stay on the crease, and face Harmisson hammering away hard and fast at them, even as the light was so poor.

With those kinds of guts, they really shook the English guys out, and ultimately managed to take the team through to victory, with more than an over to spare.

Awesome victory!

For the first time, I got so involved in the game, even though India was not playing. A wicket could have put England close to victory. And it requires only one ball to get a wicket. I had goosebumps and my heart was in my mouth, as I saw these two guys battle away. And they did not lose a wicket nor did they give a chance. A thoroughly professional approach that one would expect from top class batsmen!

Found out later that Brown has been recently reinstated into the team, as WK, and that he is a very mature player and captain of Barbados. It appears that he also has a role to play in motivating the younger players of the team, in general. And he was there at the crease, guiding his team to victory. Bradshaw is also from Barbados and a good friend of Brown.

In the post match interview, Brown said that he wanted to stay with Chanderpaul first, as he had all confidence in Chanderpaul. But when Chanderpaul got out and Bradshaw came in, he said that he had confidence in Bradshaw as well, as he knows his capabilities well. And how true it turned out to be.

Bradshaw was the Man of the Match, and in his interview he said that they aimed to see off Harmisson and Flintoff, as they knew that thereafter, they had a good chance. He also mentioned that when the light was offered to them, they realised that the momentum was with them, so why go in, and lose that momentum. Moreover, the ball was still quite visible, and so they chose to stay on the wicket. What a fantastic decision, it was!

If I say that Indians have a lot to learn from these guys, it will be a question of only one game to judge from. But the performance was something that all players in the world could take inspiration from. Hats off to the Windies…

How happy they looked after the game, how much fun they were having on the ground, dancing and rolling over, and doing all kinds of stunts. The typical Caribbean free spirit of old. Good to see that again…

It was the Janmashtami day – a holiday for me. At around 11:30 pm, I got a call from AD, one of our senior employees. He was speaking from a private nursing home, where his mother had been admitted earlier that day. The doctor there had informed him that he should take his mother to Sion Hospital. That was because she had not passed urine since afternoon, and perhaps she may need to be put on dialysis, which facility was not available at that private hospital. AD and his mother have both been very wary about going to a public hospital like Sion Hospital, so it was not something that they wanted to do (will put more about AD and his hard life, later in another posting). So he called me to ask what he should do. At 11:30 pm, if a doctor in the private hospital recommends that a patient be moved to a large hospital, I presumed that it would be with good reason, and I conveyed my opinion that he must follow that advise. As he and his brother were alone, I offered to go to the hospital and see if I could help them. He was happy to have me go there, and which I did.

Thus, it was around midnight that I found myself, at the casualty department of the Sion Hospital, one of the largest public hospitals in Mumbai. And I was there from then till about 4:30 am that morning. And what I saw during this time, and what I experienced is what I intend to share here.

As mentioned earlier, it was Janmashtami day and there are these large number of groups who go out to do the pyramid structures for breaking the matki. And that causes several injuries. Either that, or perhaps there is anyway, an average large load of patients at a hospital like Sion. But the fact was that there were just so many patients who kept coming in, at the hospital.

There is this one doctor at the gate of the casualty department. He was late thirtyish in age. And over the next 2-3 hours that I kept seeing him, he did not rest for a moment. He was on his feet, running around, rushing from here and there, and trying to ensure that he kept the incoming patients moving in. He was wasting no time, and his energy levels had to be seen to be believed. He was the most surprising vision for me. He was alone at that desk there.

Inside the casualty department, there was a serious resource crunch, of many kinds. The phone there did not work too well. Had to be banged every now and then, to work. This was the phone that was being used to call interns and registrar doctors, amongst other things. It took an extra effort each time, to be used. They ran out of specific forms that they use for some purposes. They started to use ordinary plain paper instead. When doctors were given these legal sized plain papers, they (I saw more than 3 doctors follow this procedure) folded the paper in a particular way, used scissors and cut the sheets. At least 1 minute wasted each time they had to do this. I had no idea why the doctors needed to do such basic stuff. And why they took so much effort with the scissors and all! Then they needed to use a carbon paper. There was this one very used and abused carbon paper sheet that kept going around. Before using the carbon, they had to pin the sheets together. And do you think the pins were easy to find at the pin cushion?? Of course not. The pin was always hard to find, and docs had to keep searching for these. Staplers or stapler pins, of course, were just not around. It was so crazy that doctors had to waste so much time, in such dumb things.

All kinds of patients came in. Few men who had taken bit too much of illicit liquor, and whose wives had brought them in. There were others who had been injured in the janmashtami celebrations. Few small kids. Even one pregnant woman who actually delivered right outside the casualty ward. The common thread running through was one of poverty. The doctors had to keep mentioning approximate cost of the medications or the treatment (the actual medical costs are extremely subsidised here; also medicines bought at the local store are a lot cheaper than those outside), which was causing great deal of discomfort with the people who came with the patients. Many times, the numbers appeared just too large (as 2000/- CT scan cost is very subsidised, but it could well be the month’s salary for the person concerned, and it would go off, in one shot!) to be affordable! There were persons who were just neighbours, people from the same village staying together in some hutment in Mumbai, but not really relatives. And for such an accompanying person, to arrange larger amounts of cash, was asking for too much. Considering that he was also in the very struggling stage himself. There were at least two such cases.

The plight of the individuals, especially with regards to the finanical burden was unimaginable, and really shocking.

Coming back to the casualty ward, they did not have water fountains handy. A patient’s attendant had to walk a while and get water for the patient! Ward boys were few and when they went off with a patient, say to take the patient to the ICU, then the ward boy would disappear for a while and no one would be around. If a patient had to be moved from a bed to the stretcher, it had to be done by the patient’s relatives, as such. There was no “bai” at that time. So when AD’s mother attempted to pass urine, it was left to AD to pick up the pot from the corner and give it to her. No one else to help him. And the stretchers were also disappearing and hard to find. Essentially everywhere time would be wasted to arrange all these!

The casualty ward was air conditioned and quite cool, at least.

Being a big hospital, things are all over the place and take time to get done. Like the window for paying the small fees that they charge, is away, and not well labelled. Hard to find it at that time of night. The sonography unit was on first floor. The ward assigned to AD’s mother was far away from there. Just so much time was wasted in going from one place to another.

In the ward, there were large number of patients. There were also stray dogs and kittens, INSIDE the ward! It took so much time for the doctor to get to the casualy ward, even after we had got the patient in there.

At 3 am, she passed away. We waited for a while to see if they would do the formalities quickly. At 4:30 am, I realised that a post morte=m was inevitable and would take some time. I left from there at that time, then. As it turns out, with all the paper work and formality, by the time they were able to get the body, it was about 10 am the day after! Almost 31 hours after the patient expired.

All in all, it was shocking, apalling, and scary as well.. !

How was Sholay after 29 years? How does it compare to movies of today? And such questions are still left unanswered after my previous posting on the movie. The previous posting was clearly an unabashed appreciation of the film. But a week after viewing Sholay again, I can certainly afford to sit back and take a more balanced view and comment on other aspects with regards to the film.

I must say that this different view is on account of a prompting towards it, by a good friend, and I will take some ideas from the questions he posed, and comment on them.

Like for example, how does Sholay look in 2004?

Well, first of all, as soon as you enter the cinema hall and watch it come alive on screen, you can make out that its an ‘old’ film. Some of the things that make the film appear old:

a. The colours. Today’s films show nearly true colours. Same was not the case in the 70s. In relative terms, you do see weakness there. Its like how computers have gone from 16 colours to 256 colours to 16 million colours pallettes. I guess same applies for cinema too.

b. One of the worst offenders is the sound. And in that respect, I understand that technology was not the reason for the poor quality, as much as it was attitude. I quote this same friend, who is much more of an expert in this area, and he says, “They had raw material of the quality of Kishore and RD, and they created crap which was much worse that what Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong and the Beatles sounded like in the fifties and sixties. And _technology_ was obviously not a bottleneck here, because any good spool tape recorder and good mixing console in the seventies would have given RD the Frank Sinatra quality of sound. Those Hindi film bast***s just didn’t _care_. They just wanted to make their music for tinny radios playing in hair cutting saloons in Bhatinda and Jhumri Tilaiya … that was the limit of their sensibility. I’ll never forgive the Hindi film industry forthis. For a counterpoint, pick up Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, or any A R Rahman movie’s soundtrack.”

The point is very well made. Besides the songs, the general sound in the movie was too loud. There were many a scene in the film, which came out so loud that many in the audience put their hands over their ears. There are many new films that have loud sound, but I can scarcely remember any in recent times, where the audience has to cover their ears with their hands. The sound in Sholay appeared many times, to screech and scream at you, instead of just being loud.

c. Then there was a certain lack of finesse. Let me give a couple of examples. Take the song, “Holi ke din dil…”. Here is where there are a lot of extras who keep coming in and out of the dance sequence. At least on two occasions, I could sense as if the chappies were static when the camera started rolling, and THEN they started making their move. It did not seem seamless. Perhaps the fact that multiple cameras may not have been running, and the synchronisation with the music steps may not have been easy, if they were an already moving group. But if you care to notice, you could see this slightly jerky motion. Then there were a few of the fight sequences, which also had similar stop-and-move motions. Like the fight started a second AFTER the camera started rolling, and due to which there appeared to be a jerky motion.

Contrast the song and movement of extras with a particular sequence of the song “nimbuda” in HDDCS. Here the camera pans in a SINGLE SHOT, first a close up of Aishwarya as she is dancing a long single shot dance. Then the camera pans back and the shot becomes a longer shot, even as she continues the dance. And then the camera starts moving UP. And even while the shot continues to get captured, the camera has made a climb right to the top, and is now getting a top view on the dance going on downwards. And at that time, you see down, a large group of dancers (men) going in rows vertical and horizontal (criss-crossing), of course, in perfect synchronism. I am not sure if the description gives any idea of the phenomenal shot that was taken. Almost unbelievable. And if you don’t remember it, for this shot itself, it may be worth renting out the movie and seeing that song again, and watching it closely. I bet that single shot must have taken a few DAYS to get done. It demanded that much of perfect synchronism of all the elements.

**Just for brilliance in camera work and editing, you may also look at the first song in the same film, HDDCS. The song where Aishwarya plays ‘lagori’. Its an absolutely awesome piece of camera work, with focus / defocus, panning of camera, freeze shots, the slow motion capture of her hair swinging into her face, and all of it accompanied by fast paced music in the background. Amazing conception of the shot. **

d. And the special effects also had a lot of weaknesses. When Sanjeev Kumar is chasing Amjad on horseback, most of the shots were very long shots, and you could make out that some doubles are sitting on the horses. The few closeups went straight to the faces. I am sure today’s action heroes also have doubles doing the dirty work for them. But they have managed to do both, get a far better look on the double’s faces, so that they can afford to take relatively closer shots, and secondly, they have been able to superimpose the hero’s faces on the ‘in-action’ shots, to make it appear as if its the hero who is doing all of those dare-devil stunts.

There were also scenes like when Hema Malini is racing her horse carriage, as also when Dharmendra is singing and riding a bicycle next to her. It is so easy to see here, that they are moving themselves about, standing in one place, while the background view is moved on a large back screen, to make it appear as if they are racing away, and the trees and jungles are being left behind. Again there is an absence of front shots, showing Hema Malini riding her buggy herself, and coming towards the camera. The shots are right on her face or her body, but not with the full horse and carriage.

Contrast this to the song in Dil Chahata Hai, with Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta walking at a brisk pace, and the train rolling by, right next to them. Now even this shot could have easily been taken with them walking in a studio, and running the train movement, on a large background screen. It was quite likely done that way. But it is not made to appear like that. The first one or two times that I saw that song, I was actually amazed, as to how many shots they must have taken, to synchronise with the train’s time, and their own walking motion! It looked so real.

Some other questions:

– If Sholay were to be made in 2004, would I do anything different?

No, not really. I think, as pure entertainment value, it was perfect. With all its filmy dialogues, stunts and what not.. thats what made it the entertainer that it was.

– How do today’s films compare with Sholay?

Well, except for some technical issues like the ones listed above, today’s films do not come close to Sholay. For true and wholesome entertainment, I would take Sholay any day.

– So what are the really great movies according to me?

My choice is again based on entertainment value. For the 2-3 hours (sometimes slightly more) that we sit and watch the film, do we enjoy ourselves thoroughly? Whether its comedy, action, thrill, romance, or what have you, if a film captures you, keeps you glued to your seats, generates emotions and passions within you, I consider such films as good. Some of the movies that top my list of such entertainment are:

Sholay

Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (a clear number 2 in my list)

Amar Akbar Anthony (a perfect Manmohan Desai classic; leave your brains at home, and come and enjoy yourself – isme action bhi hai, drama bhi hai, emotion bhi hai, etc.. )

Deewar (a slick thriller, one of AB’s best performances)

Trishul (great dialogues, good match up of Sanjeev-AB, although several scenes of Shashi Kapoor, Poonam Dhillon, etc. were unnecessary),

Lagaan (cricket+Bollywood, what an unbeatable formula, for India),

Sarfarosh (lesser known, but slickly made),

Dil Chahata Hai (well made first film of Farhan),

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (I didn’t care for its byline, ‘its all about loving your parents’; found it absolutely corny at that time, but the movie captures emotions beautifully; I understand that in a few scenes, many a man in the audience had moist eyes!),

1942 – A Love Story (Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s best; classic photography, RD’s swansong music, etc.)

There are a whole lot of comedies that were really good – Gol Mal, Chashme Badoor, Katha, Rang Birangi, Angoor, Chupke Chupke, Choti si Baat.

And among romantic films, with good music, etc., I would pick the likes of Kabhi Kabhi, Silsila, Aradhana, Amar Prem, Dil To Paagal Hai. Yes, indeed, Yash Chopra dominates this list. He has made this his clear speciality. What I love about most of these films, is the beautiful visuals, good music, and mushy love stories!

I don’t much care for Suraj Barjatya’s films (elaborate wedding set specials). I hated Devdas (extremely overrated; if I have to pick Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s second best film, it would have to be Khamoshi, his first film, and not Devdas). And I am not a great fan of Shah Rukh’s stammering and very standard acting style.

Would love to know others’ favourite films and logic for those too.. !

After enduring “Kyun..Ho Gaya Na?” for 2.5 hours (yeah, ‘enduring’ is the word; when I saw the morning papers, and they had given 2.5 stars to it, I wondered about it. I could have understood the 0.5 star just for having Aishwarya in it, but what for they gave the other two is beyond me), when I came out of the theatre last night, the posters of Sholay stared at me. I could not resist the temptation to pick up tickets for the grand classic of Indian cinema, for today itself. And I am so glad I did that.. seeing Sholay again, today, was just fabulous.

Well, everyone has seen Sholay. Most of us have seen it several times – too many times to even keep count. So it is hardly anything new that I will tell you about Sholay that you may not know, but still having revisited the classic in the cinema today, it is irresistible, to write about it again. By the way, I have also read the book “The Making of Sholay”, so I have a little more of an insight to the behind-the-scenes happenings related to the film.

Sholay was all Ramesh Sippy. A truly inspirational film from a (then) young and brilliant director. Kind of like what Dil Chahata Hai was for Farhan Akhtar, or KKHH was for Karan Johar, etc. But none of them, of course, come anywhere close to Sholay in terms of sheer scale of brilliance. Whenever a director really ‘thinks’ hard about the film that he is making, and then he is equipped with a very good script, then a great film can emerge. That takes a lot of time and effort, and in today’s times of churning out films, few film makers give that much to a film. Sholay took a lot more time and money than was originally budgetted for it. But that was because Ramesh Sippy was clear that he did not want to cut any corners in his vision for the film. It had to be exactly the way he had conceived the film. Which required more retakes, which required waiting for the right lighting, the right season, the perfect music score, the long hours at the editing table, etc. It is when all this happens, with a phenomenal potion of passion that a once-in-a-lifetime classic like Sholay can emerge.

I can bet that the toughest part of making Sholay would have been the editing. To finally deliver what was the 3.5 hours Sholay, must have meant a rejection of another 10 hours (at least) of shots taken.

According to me, the measure of a truly great film is one where you do not find ANY scene to be unnecessary. You do not wonder, “what was the need to show THIS”. Just to give you an example in total contrast, in Kyun Ho Gaya Na, till the interval, I kept wondering, what the entire first half of the movie was all about! And in Sholay, you could not spot one scene that was ‘extra’.

To list the few remarkable points about Sholay for me (and its MY struggle to ‘edit’ this list and keep only the really outstanding virtues here!):

1. The script and dialogues of Salim-Javed: as we saw it in the theatre today, there were just so many of us in the hall who kept mumbling the dialogues, even as they came on screen. Speaks about the effect that the dialogues had on the public. Memorable – kitne aadmi the, yeh haath mujhe dede thakur, hum angrez ke zamane ke jailor hai, tumhara naam kya hai basanti, etc. etc.

2. The cameos were memorable – whether it was Jagdeep with his Surma Bhopali character, or Asrani as the jailor. Small characters like Sambha (this was obviously his most famous movie, as I can barely remember his real name – for me, that chap will always be only Sambha), A K Hangal as the Imam, Mausiji, etc. were also well structured and left a mark.

3. Of course, the main characters were masterful. Starting with Gabbar. His entry was so well picturised – the noise of his shoes hitting stone as he went back and forth in the ravines, confronting Kalia and his two cronies, who have returned empty handed, the bullets holding belt swining back and forth, until he bursts out “suvar ke bacchon..” at which time, his menacing face jumps on the screen. The role was given so much meat, and the character was written out so well by the writers, that it was bound to be noticed, inspite of the galaxy of stars. Amjad Khan of coursed, grabbed this providential opportunity (originally, the role was to be played by Danny Denzongpa, but due to an accident and delay in being able to reach the sets, Ramesh Sippy had to make an alternate choice, and Amjad got the break) with both his hands, and delivered a masterful performance. Then there was Sanjeev Kumar, one of the best actors produced by India. A solid performance, as was consistently expected from him. Very controlled at times, and aggression and anger oozing out of him, at other times. Due to restricted movements, on account of being shown without hands for most of the film, his eyes and dialogue delivery did all the acting for him.Eyes were so expressive, almost spoke out his emotions completely. Amitabh and Dharmendra made a great pair. They complemented each other perfectly. Amitabh’s dialogue delivery and voice are his strengths, and its clear now, but those were early days, and he scored with those strengths even at that time. His repartee with Mausiji, when he taked Viru’s rishta for Basanti, is one of the best scenes of the film. Especially his last two dialogues there.. “kya karu, mera to dil hi kuch aisa hai… to me rishta pakka samjhu”!! And as for Dharmendra, he was just that perfect intuitive Punjabi Jat, who acted from his heart. Just gave it all. Did not ever convey that he was too intellectual, but obviously he was full of street wisdom. And that was what came out completely in this character. Total bufoonery, sincere friendship, undignified but couldn’t-care-less type of dancing, everything. Made to order role. Hema Malini was the perfect foil for Dharmendra. She also had a beautifully written role for herself, with some outstanding dialogues, and of course, her dances. The fact that at that time, the two of them, Dharmendra and Hema, were quite an item pair, did help in the on-screen chemistry. Jaya had a small role, in a way. And while she did justice to it, I would perhaps give more credit to Ramesh Sippy in bringing out that role creditably. The lighting that he used to project the widow Jaya, the close up shots, the background music, was what made the character so impressive. What she needed to do to support Ramesh Sippy’s vision, she certainly did that part well.

4. The music – well, what can you say.. it was vintage R D Burman. You know me, my blog is names rdfan.blogspot.com. I cannot find a fault in RD, so it will not be any surprise that I liked the music in this film. Not that there are many songs in the film that have reached outstanding heights, but all in all, songs like Mehbooba Mehbooba, Yeh Dosti, Holi Ke Din, and Haa Jab Tak Hai Jaan, were all good and very relevant for the film. (** This is again, so important for a good Bollywood film, at least in my books. That a song has meaning for the film and its story. In today’s times, the way songs happen in a film, is like this. A music director has created scores and kept them ready. When a director approaches him, he pulls out his stock and shows to the director. Quite like a salesman showing his wares. And for the world of me, I cannot fathom this style. I would always feel that music has to be CREATED for a story and for its situation. Not that you get a good score and find a way to put it inside a story. When the latter happens, you can see that the song jars, and seems so out of place. For that not to happen, the director has to demand, and the music director has to deliver. Both take effort which does not happen too often these days. The last movie in recent times, where I saw this dedication was Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, a kind of period film, for it shows not a typical city story where anything can go, but rather a small Gujarat town based film, and the music was indeed created for that specific period and place, and came out perfectly **) Besides the songs, the background score that comes through the film, in Sholay, was also so haunting. When Amitabh plays the harmonica, and Jaya is turning out the lights, that music in the background, is beautiful. I am not sure if RD was responsible for the background music also, or someone else was. Whoever it was, it was good.

Beyond all these, and far above it all, is the editing and the direction. Ramesh Sippy all the way. Hats off to him. Obviously a film like Sholay happens once in a lifetime, even for a great film maker like Ramesh Sippy. So it would be harsh to say that his subsequent films did not measure up. Nothing can measure up to Sholay. And even if it was just that one great film, I would still salute Ramesh Sippy. In fact, he did more than that – he also brought us Sagar, the return of Dimple Kapadia, after Bobby. And he was also responsible for one of the earliest successful soap operas on Indian TV, Buniyaad.

I also understand that G P Sippy needs to be given a lot of credit for Sholay for having backed Ramesh and his exuberance totally and completely, including the exceeding budgets. It takes a lot of courage to do so, and also gives the youngster so much confidence. (* I understand that Yash Johar showed similar confidence in Karan when Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was being made *)

Small trivia related to Sholay.

At a recent awards function where Amitabh and Dharmendra were on the stage together, Amitabh ‘Jay’ Bachhan thanked ‘Viru’ Dharmendra for having referred his name to Ramesh Sippy, for Sholay. Remember that when Sholay was started, Zanjeer had not even been released. So Amitabh was just that young raw talent that had still to really prove himself. Of course, by the time Sholay was being made, Zanjeer had been released and the angry young man had arrived. But AB does recognise the role of Sholay in his career and was generous to publicly acknowledge Dharmendra’s role in recommending him for the role.

They don’t make them like Sholay anymore. I think Sholay deserves the suggestion to be considered as India’s third great epic, after Ramayana and Mahabharata!

Time was when there was only Bombay Telephones. Oh sure, we had problems then. When it rained heavily, phones could be down for weeks, if not months. You had to keep the lineman in good humour (well, everyone knows what that means!), if you wanted your phone to be alive.

Then Bombay Telephones became MTNL.. a lot better service, with the coporatisation. Phones actually worked more regularly, and then we started expecting them to work all the time. Talk about customer expectation! So when they went down, for the few hours or so, we panicked, we shouted, and we paid the linesman.. and then we got the phone working.

Then came the mobile phones. First we had BPL and Orange in our city. Numbers were simple – 98200 for Orange, and 98210 for BPL. Till that time, it was clear.. if someone gave you a phone number like 4123374, you know the phone was in Matunga. 4229234 was in Dadar, and 4943590 was perhaps in Worli or Prabhadevi at most. You could recognise the area, from the first three digits of the phone. You could also recognise that 98200-12345 was an Orange phone, from Mumbai, and 98210-23456 was a BPL phone from Mumbai.

But then, in the last 2-3 years, they have gone and totally messed up things.

MTNL came out with their own mobile service. Numbers were similar to their landline numbers. Only a very close observation would indicate that a number was an MTNL mobile number and not a landline. Then came Reliance, Hughes, Tata, Airtel – prepaid, postpaid, fixed wireless phones, whew! Suddenly it seemed like the dams were broken.

Now we have numbers like 98922, 33014000, 56934500, and what not. You cannot just make out, whether the phone number is a landline or a mobile or a fixed wireless phone. You cannot make out where the landline could be located in the city, you cannot make out, if an STD call is coming in, on to your cell phone. In other words, a phone number gives you almost no hint about its origins, its allegiance, its wired or wireless nature, etc.

If the phone number itself was not confusing enough, there is a provision that is available for most users – to divert phones coming on a phone number to another number. So if you feel that you are calling what is clearly a cell phone numbers, say 98200-24680, the recipient could have easily diverted the calls on that number to his landline. So in fact, you might be actually calling a landline!

Why did they mess things up thus? I miss those good old days of simplicity. Phone numbers that could tell their own history and geography. But now with the new phone numbers, it appears as if “geography is history”!!