Ishtyle Bhai

What do you do when the film you labored over for months turns out to be an unmitigated disaster at the box office?

Some times people blame shift and accuse the audiences’ incapacity to crack it. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is an old hand at this. Thanks to a film called Khamoshi-The Musical and its dismal performance, Mr. Bhansali is ready to fight it out with everyone and then some. Mr. Bhansali went to the extent of saying that people weren’t ready to understand the suggested nuances of whatever-the-hell-he-was-trying-to-do-in-any-case in the name of Saawariya. Others like Vinod Chopra refuse to believe that their film is bad. He still thinks that Eklavya- The Royal Guard is the long lost twin of some hidden-from-the-world David Lean masterpiece.

In the recent past I endured an interview of the Vijay Krishna Acharya, the director of the Tashan on the telly. The film in itself is an experience that words can’t capture. Many of you must be familiar with my take on the film and in case you missed out then read it here. The stupid thing about the interview was that it was too soon after the tanking of the film as the poor guy had such a confused looked plasters on his face. This futile PR exercise convinced me that Vijay Krishna Acharya still hadn’t gotten over the shock of its failure. Or maybe he was still not over the shock that he was actually greenlit by Aditya Chopra to make Tashan.

No.

Wait a minute.

I think it looked as if Acharya were still in shock that he managed to get a Grade A cast for Tashan.

No.

I think it was more to do with the fact that his film had released. He was trying to recall the faces of his buddies whose films never released.

Whatever was the exact reason he was not comfy and in such places mere mortals such as us usually end up thinking that attack is the best form of defense. So off he went and even suggested that perhaps people didn’t accept the amorality of his character. Hence some blokes in Kanpur or Katwaria Sarai couldn’t connect with them and expectantly the film tanked. The interviewer, Ms. Anupama Chopra, could have interjected that the same people happily embraced the same production houses Bunty Aur Babli with all their imperfections. Ms. Chopra didn’t ask as she was in shock that Aditya Chopra called her and asked her to interview Mr. Tashan for (a) she was grinning from ear-to-ear and (b) the interview was interspersed with promos of the film!

The big question here is how much time does a director need to get over a failure? Is there a thing called getting over failure for many of Mumbai’s finest never forget. Ram Gopal Verma rehashed Drohi and gave us Satya, repackaged Raat and made it Bhoot while Mr. Bhansali married Khamoshi and The Mircale Worker to offer Black.

Almost a month after Tashan’s release I bumped into Vijay Krishna Acharya at a café in Delhi. He was very recognizable thanks to my elephantine memory and his serpentine moustache. To be doubly sure I asked him if he were who I thought he was; he nodded in affirmation. I told him that I loved Akshay Kumar’s Ramlila-Ravan-on-a-Bajaj-Scooter entry in his film. He shook my hand and thanked me. He went out for a smoke (my guess). He had his customary confused look back. My friend told me that no one would have told him that anything good about the film and maybe he thinks I was being sarcastic. Once he came back to finally leave the café, he looked at me and flashed a smile. As he got out his look was threatening to come back.

I really liked the Akshay Kumar’s entry.

I did. I did!

Read More

Iron Man

Iron Man might be the latest comic book infused with life but it's unlike any superhero film. That's largely because it doesn't treat the protagonist as a superhero with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The film is as straight as an arrow. I never read Iron Man comic and in a way I'm glad that I missed out. For starters I don't know how different the film is from the comic and therein lies my reason for being blown over by the film.

Tony Stark is a wealthy genius, who inherits an arms manufacturing company from his father. Stark is supported by Obadiah Stane, his father's trusted lieutenant and has Jim Rhodes, an air force colonel, for his best friend. Stark is busy living it up- making the weapons that kill millions of people in an instance, winning awards, blowing money in casinos and enjoying beautiful company. Surrounded by people all the time, Stark might be hugely popular but the only person he can truly call his own is Pepper Potts, his assistant and confidant. Pepper does everything for Stark including throwing out the trash (that is what she tells one of Tony's one night stands). Things go wrong for Tony when he goes to Afghanistan to demonstrate a new missile. Abducted by the bad guys, he is forced to make a missile for the militants. A nutty scientist saves Tony's life by installing an electromagnet in his chest to keep the suspended pieces of shrapnel from reaching his heart. Tony and his sidekick use the time to invent an iron armor that would help him get out.

Tony finally escapes and returns to America. He is a changed man and wants to stop weapons production as he has realized that even the bad guys use his weapons. He wants to dedicate time to more humanitarian work. Tony’s board doesn’t appreciate this. In spite of issues with his new thought process, Stane promises Tony to convince the board. Tony soon realizes that it was Stane who moved the board against him and also ordered the hit on him. Not only that but under the aegis of Stane, the terrorists are receiving Stark weapons. Tony decides to work on the iron armor and fight the bad guys himself.

The interesting thing about Iron Man is that director Jon Favreau, has made it very believable. Unlike other superheroes, Tony Stark lives in a very real world and has to deal to with 'real' problems. Till the climax of the film, where Iron Man and Iron Monger (Stane in a bigger iron suit) fight it out on the streets, the film doesn’t have a single scene that plays like a typical superhero fare. Stark is portrayed as a rich spoilt genius, Stane comes across as a business tycoon looking to maximize his interest, Pepper Potts plays the Plain Jane to the hilt. The film does have special effects and the usual proverbial superhero moments but nothing over the top. It's all very mature, for the lack of any other word and the actors attached to the film only add to this claim. The cast of Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and Terrance Howard makes it look like some indie film. Jeff Bridges shines as the bald bad guy!

The funny thing is that I was watching Ang Lee's Hulk a couple of days later. Hulk has extended scenes where one see’s the DNA mutation, Bruce getting nightmares without an end and the seemingly never-ending build-up; it was all so predictable. Iron Man has given us a new-age superhero who would rather tell people directly that he is who he is than flying around in an red iron suit!

Image: www.toxicshock.tv

Read More

Meenaxi- Making Sense Now

Some times you watch a film and just don’t get it. Is it that difficult to understand a film? Is it really necessary to ‘get’ it? Not understanding a film can mean so many different things. I didn't understand Meenaxi- A Tale of 3 Cities and while we are at it, I didn’t decipher Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking, Saawariya and Tashan but it's not the same thing!

I’m not of the opinion that Meenaxi is the second greatest piece of filmmaking after Sholay but at least there was something in it. To call Meenaxi a celebration of life, an amalgamation of art forms would be slightly over the top but not completely incorrect. To call No Smoking a surreal exploration on the part of the filmmaker to venture into hitherto uncharted areas as far as popular Hindi cinema is concerned would be a load of crap.

The follow-up to the hugely disappointing Gajagamini, Meenaxi shows the sheer brilliance of M.F. Hussain. The film is about Nawab, a writer identified solely thanks to the biggest writers block that seems to tag along with him, bumping into the beautiful Meenaxi at his sisters wedding. Meenaxi dares Nawab to use her as a muse and finally get around writing his novel. Bustling with new ideas ever since Meenaxi stepped into his life, Nawab forges ahead. He starts writing the story and sets it in Jaisalmer. The local foul-mouthed mechanic, Kunal, too finds a place in Nawab’s book. Fed up with Meenaxi’s constant bickering when, in the book, things start getting boring in Jaiselmer; Nawab turns the story around and sets it Prague. Obsessed with Meenaxi, Nawab can’t help but enter his story. The line between reality, myth, dream and fiction blur with Nawab dying before finishing his work. But is he dead in the book or in reality? Is Meenaxi really there or is it just Nawab’s personification of the ultimate woman?

Confused, aren’t you?

To say the least the ending left me wondering as well. Under normal circumstances I should have been livid for the trick played by Hussain on me. But I wasn’t angry. Two of my friends (thanks Sudhesh and Ravinder) always talked highly of Meenaxi and I always wondered if the trials of life had finally gotten to them. I was pleasantly surprised by Meenaxi and why not.

The film is beautifully shot and by that I don’t mean just setting up the shot or shooting gorgeous locales. The composition of shots, the production design and just about everything in the film gives you an insight into the mind of M.F. Hussain. Another great thing about Meenaxi is that Mr. Hussain made it at the age of 89 (give or take a year or two) and the sheer fact that he learnt from his mistakes as a filmmaker on Gajagamini to come up with something as eclectic as Meenaxi is an achievement in itself. Apart from writing, prodcuing and directing the film, Mr. Hussain has penned the awesome Noor Un Ala, which is one the better Qawaalis from Hindi films. Hundreds of films are set in various cities of the world but only a few use them as a character. Hyderabad and Prague are almost as important as the lead players of the Meenaxi. Tabu shines as the Meenaxi and Raghubir Yadav is really used well for the first time since Massey Sahib (bet many of you won't remember the film!). Kunal Kapoor portrays Mary's lost lamb to the hilt. The film could have used better editing and a general overhauling of the script but still manages to impress. I can’t say the same about No Smoking or Saawariya!

Is the inability to ‘understand’ a film, a failure of the filmmaker?

Are we completely supposed to understand a film or is there a window that shouldn’t really open as much as promised?

The idea of a film should be to add that something extra to what you have to, perhaps, come up with something extraordinary. I mean one can’t rely on interpretation every time, now can we...Mr. Bhansali… Mr. Kashyap?

Read More

The Evil That Stays Within Us

Apt Pupil(1998) was the follow up by Bryan Singer after the highly acclaimed The Usual Suspects. He later went on to do such commercial stuff like the X-Men series and Superman Returns, but none of them have the touch of the earlier films.

When a student (Brad Renfro) discovers that an old man staying in their town was a Nazi War criminal, he confronts him and blackmails him. However he does not need money in return but just wants to listen to the man's story and understand what made him do it. Initially the old man is reluctant but then he gives in.

There is a scene where the student makes the old man wear a Nazi uniform and march around the house - both of them getting a sense of what it means to have unlimited power. Playing the old man is Ian McKellen who does a brilliant portrayal of a war criminal who starts reliving his evil past.

As the story unfolds, the student and the old man try to control each other. This is no struggle of Good vs Evil. While the boy is curious and innocent in the beginning, soon he also enjoys the power he has in different situations. Being older, the war criminal is able to manipulate the situations to his advantage and finally he gains the upper hand.

The other characters - the boy's parents, teachers and friends are shown as typical WASPs who are as innocent as Adam and Eve. They think that once Hitler was defeated we have rooted out Evil from this world. (How come there are never proper black characters in such films? The only token black appears towards the end and he is from the FBI - therefore behaves more or less like a white.)

Finally the war criminal is traced out but instead of surrendering he decides to kill himself. In any other film that would be the proper ending - the evil is now dead and forgotten. But this film is about how Evil survives and is passed on through generations. The scene of the old man dying is intercut with a sequence of the boy threatening a teacher (who is inquiring about the boy's evil deeds) using the same language the old man would use to threaten him. The boy has learnt his lesson and become the Evil.

In that sense the film contradicts the theory that the crimes committed in Germany (or other places like Cambodia) are done by people who are different. We cannot be like them. This film seems to say that big or small, evil minds are the same.

The film reminded me of Lord of the Flies - a brilliant study of a group of boys abandoned on an island after a nuclear war. Left alone, they have an opportunity to start a new community and not repeat the mistakes of their fathers. But slowly they descend into savagery and end up creating a world more horrifying. Apt Pupil reinforces the message that even children can become just as cruel as adults.

Read More