Real Fakes

Apparently Sanjay Dutt was ‘raring to go’ the moment Mani Shankar narrated Knock Out’s script to him. One can understand his excitement for how often does an actor get a chance to play the exact same role that he saw on DVD a few moons ago! To say that Mani Shankar copied Joel Schumacher’s 2002 thriller Phone Booth would be stating the obvious; not only was the heart of the film transplanted but it’s soul of Colin Farrell-Kiefer Sutherland thriller that has been callously plagiarized. (Read my review of Knock Out here)

Plagiarism in popular Hindi cinema ha been as common as the sunlight since forever. A few years ago when the Internet and cable television made the world a global village the industry started called it ‘remake’ or ‘inspiration’. Mani Shankar went to town claiming that there is nothing common between his Knock Out and Phone Booth but truth be told everyone in Mumbai knows that sending across DVDs to adapt as ‘reference’ is a common practice. For years now people in the industry are asked to cite a reference so as to enable the actor to better understand his or role in a short span of time, to make the producer understand what the script is all about and to force creativity on the rest of the crew.

There is nothing wrong in acknowledging the source and officially adapting a work of art. In fact, saying please and thanking finally got Martin Scorsese, perhaps the greatest living American director, the long deserved Academy nod. The Departed is a remake of the cult Hong Kong action flick Infernal Affairs but to say that The Departed is just a remake would be a gross understatement. For some years now the Hindi film industry has started paying licensing fee for a song or a story but it’s still a murky business.

Besides the loss of face and credibility, deliberate and unsolicited lifting of story tracks and in some case compete film including shots copied to the last frame speak volumes about the lack of not only originality and sincerity amongst the majority of Hindi filmmakers. We shouldn’t get fooled by the onslaught of media reports announcing the arrival of ‘Bollywood’ on the global scene with any seriousness for internationally a very few even take our cinema seriously. There has been a great increase in production qualities and producers don’t mind spending crores of rupees on a single song so why can’t they spend a few lakhs more and acquire the rights to legally remake a film?

Years ago I saw this wonderful film about police procedure called Inkaar, featuring Vinod Khanna and Amjad Khan. The moment I saw it I realized that it was too smart to be an ‘original’ film and thought it was based on some James Hadley Chase thriller. It still remains one of my favorite Hindi films (remember the famous Helen song ‘Mungda’) but now when I know it was ‘lifted’ from Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low it always leaves behind a bad taste in my mouth.

If India has to really become the so called super power of a nation that everyone believes it’s on its way to then respecting originality has to be one of the pillars. Bapppi Lahri who made a career of ripping songs actually sued and won a case against Dr. Dre for using his song Kaliyon Ka Chaman without his permission! But don’t try to expect the same justice in India for our Indian copyright laws are so archaic that people actually get away with blue murder.

Judge Roshan Dalvi watched both Knock Out and Phone Booth and not only ruled in favor of 20th Century Fox but stayed the release of Knock Out. The producers then approached a division bench and appealed against the ruling. The two member bench then stayed the previous ruling and allowed the film to be released once a fine of Rs. 1.5 crore was paid. Now instead of feeling bad or ashamed about what had happened the producer readily complied with the directive and also commented that the judgment was a ‘huge relief as it was literally a touch and go’ with the release just 12 hours away! One wonders if Sohail Maklai, the producer of Knock Out, would have had the same reaction had the bench sternly warned the producer in writing or in spirit that such flagrant claims of originality are actually criminal for they ‘mislead’ the people and that it won’t be pardoned in the future.

The problem isn’t how the industry seems to get together and turn a blind eye towards such shameless acts. The real problem is that somewhere such actions suggest that no one respects originality anymore. Even Aamir Khan, a sudden custodian of the morality of copyright issues when it came to Chetan Bhagat’s problem with 3 Idiots, had no apprehensiveness when he stated that Ghajini (both Tamil and Hindi versions) were true ‘inspirations’ and not mere ‘lifts’ of Christopher Nolan’s Memento. If one were to start making a list of Hindi films that were adaptations, remakes, copies, lifts, inspiration of some foreign film, the list wouldn’t end!

This article was originally written for Buzz in Town

Image: Bollywood Hungama

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Sequels are made for two reasons- to take the story (in most cases franchise) forward or curiosity to find out whatever really happened once the dust settled. Oliver Stone wanted to see how Gordon Gekko, “a quintessentially American story, manages to survive in a new shark tank 22 years later”. Stone also believes that the world and Gekko have changed but this belief is only limited to the fringes for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is almost like a shamelessly rehash of its predecessor.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps would have worked better has this been a straight tale of how Gekko got back at the world. After all if you thaw someone as iconic as Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) shouldn’t he be given more to do than sign books and give the looks? Gekko’s daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) blames him for everything wrong in the world and loathes his mere presence but even then it’s just one teary scene with loads of reference laden dialogue that sets the record straight between the two. Once Gekko is forgiven and enters Winnie’s world we really don’t see them make up for lost time; instead Gekko’s only interested in getting her signature on a piece of paper that will give him access to 100 million dollars he put aside before going to jail. Jacob (Shia LaBeouf), part Gekko-part Bud Fox up and coming investment banker and Winnie’s lover, on the other is one naïve fool who simply refuses to learn the ways of the world. He’s always lending money to his real estate agent mom (Susan Sarandon), speaking on the phone to Dr. Masters (Austin Pendleton), a scientist in sunny California, who keeps asking for money for his sustained efforts to create clean energy, buying rings for Winnie even though she keeps asking him to return the rocks every time the stock market acts up, working for Bretton James (Josh Brolin), the devil incarnate or Gekko reprised depending on the way you look, fully aware that James is a spineless broker and yet acting surprised whenever he does something nasty- ever after all this Jacob has the same sullen expression on his face no matter what how different the emotion might be!

Stone made a career of making films on subjects where popular opinion was as varied as chalk and cheese. He had a knack for picking up subjects that allowed him to spin his web in such a manner that our version of truth was challenged and often defeated by his version but those days are long gone. Stone refuses to get a simple point that in this day and age when nothing can be hidden from the masses giving his version of a current event can be a difficult task. Like World Trade Center where he couldn’t really ‘tinker’ around with the facts of what transpired, showing the so called ‘insider’ look at the recent stock market crash isn’t as exciting as it might have sounded on paper. Rather it comes across as several slackly tied scenes where bankers sitting around a large table and ask for bailouts. Stone tries hard as he talks the talk and walks the walks. He even resorts to complete PowerPoint presentations and animation videos to show what the characters are doing. Stupidly enough his camera ravenously looms over jewelry in a scene where he shows the New York glitterati. The hopeless ploy to string the return of Gordon Gekko and the world’s latest economic crisis with the same string makes Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps a highly uninteresting film.

The biggest problem with the film is that it seems to take the adage of the more things change the more they remain the same a tad too seriously. As a result the little ambiguity that defined Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox in Wall Street is traded for rather simplistic shades of gray that often end up categorizing everyone as good or bad. Stone pitches Gekko as a wounded anti-hero as opposed to the villain that the first part made him to be. But the truth be told Gordon ‘Greed is Good’ Gekko wasn’t really the villain; he took some liberties that weren’t illegal and just made money. In the sequel all the bad guys are Gordon Gekko wannabes and all the good guys are Bud Fox look-alikes. Worse still all good guys are rehashed Gekkos without committing the crime or serving time!

Barring Michael Douglas, who looks devilishly devious as Gekko two decades on, there is nothing to write home about Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. To comprehend how limited an actor Shia LaBeouf really is one just needs to see the scene where he mouths his signature ‘this is the end of the world’ Transformers kind of line as the stock market plummets. Josh Brolin as the new and improved Gordon Gekko is made to look very villain like kind courtesy Rodrigo Prieto’s Godfather like lighting but that is the extent of his scariness. Susan Sarandon gets a handful of scenes where she gets to exercise her southern accent and Carey Mulligan’s wounded butterfly like Winner Gekko is tedious.

This is a film where everything happens almost the way you expect and some times it takes too long to happen. The set up isn’t as exciting as the manner in which Stone revealed this world twenty years ago. No longer are we interested in his conspiracy theories and we really don’t care about the fact that once upon a time he saw things that we really bother noticing. We know how this ugly world works and Oliver Stone needs to know that as well!

Rating: 2/5

This review first appeared in Buzz in Town

Image: IMPA Awards

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We Are Family

*This review might contain spoilers.

A fashion photographer, Aman’s (Arjun Rampal) been divorced for three years now and decides it’s time for him to introduce his girlfriend Shreya (Kareena Kapoor) to his kids and divorced wife Maya (Kajol). Nothing goes as planned and the kids- Aleya, Ankush and Anjali- hate Shreya right from the word go. She calls them monsters and they think of her as a wicked witch. A few weeks later Aman gets caught up because of work and when Maya isn’t reachable on the phone Shreya is forced to spend some time with the kids. As expected they start fighting but a few syrupy moments later Anjali warms up to Shreya and Ankush follows suit. Anajli even helps Shreya at her fashion show but Aleya accuses her of replacing Maya with Shreya. Anjali takes off and finally when Maya finds the little one she and Aman forbid Shreya from even coming close to the kids. Things take a turn when Aman returns to Maya when he gets to know she is terminally ill. Shreya comes to meet the kids and Maya realizes that perhaps she was wrong in judging Shreya. She decides to welcome her into the family.

We Are Family should make it amply clear that buying the rights, saying please and thank you to remake isn’t going to make things any better! There are seven writers who have been credited with the screenplay of the film and even if each had one decent half-baked scene to off, this would have been a passable flick instead of the most boring two hours ever spent on a film!

The producers of the film went to town saying that they have Indianized the tale to suit our cultural palette but the only thing Indian about the whole film is that both the mothers are dying to tell the daughter on her wedding day that she’s the world’s most beautiful bride! The other Indian agenda of the film is to convince unmarried career driven woman that there’s a mother lurking inside her and given, rather thrust upon, an opportunity she’d do a fantastic job of rearing kids.

To Indianize also means base the tale in a foreign country for how else would we ‘justify’ the first wife initiating the second one into familial duties? Had this been in India the loving and more importantly spinster mausi (think Karan Johar regulars like Kirron Kher or Farida Jalal) would have taken over! Based in Australia the six main characters don’t have any friends and their entire existence is based around each other. They go about their lives with such amazing regularity- Aman keeps saying things like ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I didn’t mean to’, ‘I’ll make it up’; Shreya makes boring sandwiches at the drop of the hat, Maya is only concerned about getting her children ready for school- that the thought of even an earth shattering event like cancer breaking the pattern seems sacrilegious.

We Are Family’s writing is insipid and perfunctory to the extent of boredom. Why are we even worried about western world influencing and corrupting our culture when people living in Australia speak better Hindi than south Mumbai crowd! For a character who is four years old and born in Australia Anjali speaks fluent and cinematic Hindi! Even Iravati Harshe, the Indian origin doctor (why can’t, for the sake of cinematic resonance, a Hindi film protagonist find be entertained by a Firang doctor?) comes in every now and then and mouths stupid English to Hindi translated lines like ‘Tumhe apne pati ko bata dena chahiye’ and a few minutes later ‘Maya, ab bacho ko bata do!’

Once we get to know that Maya has only a few days more to live the film more episodic than any soap on Colors. The ‘transfer of power’ scene in the hospital where Maya bestows upon Shreya the responsibility of her three children is so forced that the only thing that outdoes it is Maya’s thrice over talk with her kids where she gives them instructions for living it up.

How does one live an entire life in a matter of days is a theme that has plagued Hindi films for a long time. In the recent past Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein tried dealing with the same thought and the only thing it showed in the name of living it up was a lung cancer patient running everyday! Hrishkesh Mukherjee’s Anand too showed a slice of life but his Anand just went about everyday as if nothing sinister awaits him in the darkness around the corner.

We Are Family is highly insensitive when it comes to dealing with terminally ill patients and the doctor’s insensitivity is almost appalling. When Maya asks how to carry on, the oncologist simply suggests get used to living years in days and almost looks around for the bell to ring in the next patient waiting outside. The lack of sensitivity in dealing with a mother’s heart wrenching last moments are then further trivialized by having huge photos of Maya’s short lived life is slide-shown with everyone dressing up to confer some thing like a lifetime achievement award on Maya for living it up. Raju Singh’s harrowing background score, that makes Maya look like a covert commando for most of the film, also adds to the misery.

The three kids are cute bordering annoying and Arjun Rampal is bored to the extent of functioning in slow motion while the leading ladies are passable. Kareena Kapoor never bothers to put in any effort lest people think she tried too hard to match up to Kajol, who it seems just showed up and doesn’t exert herself at all. There is shot just before the interval where Kajol displays why she is leagues ahead of her co-stars. As opposed to her break-down scene in the kitchen here in the blink of an eye she changes the entire mood when it dawn upon her that she’s dying.

Stepmom fans don’t be fooled by the ‘official’ remake of the films for We Are Family is as regular as Bollywood can ever get. Think Kal Ho Na Ho on a worse day replete with the obligatory jeeven darshan se barpoor standing and looking lost kind of desolate song, Rehmo Karam, that is repeated twice to ensure you heard it and to round-off there is a flash forward to Aleya’s marriage with a grizzly bear bearded Aman, who alarmingly still fits into his decade old trousers and hardly surprising haven’t-aged-a-single-day Shreya at Aleya’s wedding like the gray haired Preity and Saif Ali Khan! Thankfully this film wasn’t based in Rajasthan or else Maya would have married her teen-aged Aleya before popping it just to see her daughter in her world’s most beautiful bride avatar!

Rating: 1 ½ out of 5

Cast: Kajol, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Iravati Harshe, Aachal Munjal, Nominath Ginsberg and Diya Sonecha

Written By: Gigi Levangie Grazer and Venita Coelho

Directed by: Sidharth P. Malhotra

Image: www.wearefamilythefilm.com

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Aashayein

*This review might contain spoilers

Rahul Sharma (John Abraham) is a compulsive gambler who hopes to strike it big some day. Following his mantra of ‘all or nothing’ he puts everything at stake and ends up winning more money that he could ever dream of. Rahul loves his life and hopes to settle down with lady love Nafisa (Sonal Sehgal) but life ends up playing the same game of all or nothing on him. When he gets to know that he just has 3 months more to live Rahul believes that he can be his cool self and go with a smile but the when the realization dawns upon him he loses his bearings. Unable to express himself to the people near him he decides to live at hospice. He meets Padma (Anaitha Nair), a fellow terminally ill patient who not only understand his fears but also the zeal to live a complete life in some months.

In the making for many years Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein aims at being the Anand of this generation and even uses iconic moments from the evergreen film as an ode. A film about imminent death can be sad, painful, endearing, bitter, and sweet but it also runs the risk of being boring and sadly a huge portion of Aashayein falls in this category.

A certain film called Bombay to Bangkok notwithstanding, Nagesh Kukunoor has carved an exclusive place for himself in Hindi films but off late he seems to be in a transitory phase. Aashayein shows a certain state of flux the filmmaker’s mind might be in for the film never really gets a grip on itself. The film starts off with a very strange and solemn feel perhaps to depict Rahul’s gambler state of mind and he seems restrained even when he is celebrating his win. We never really get to witness his ‘compulsive gambler’ full of beans side so to expect us to feel his pain is asking for too much.

Kukunoor has been known to extract engaging performances from his actors in almost every film and John Abraham joins the list. Never really considered an ‘actor’ Abraham manages to surprise with a pretty decent show especially in the scenes with Anaitha Nair, who is a real treat! Nair infuses life into proceedings and shares a fantastic camaraderie with Abraham, who greatly benefits.

While Aashayein tries to be ‘real’ it falls prey to the trappings of films about the indomitable fighting spirit usually posses. There is a great deal of theatrics that such a subject can’t seem to escape and Aashayein has oodles of sad tales- an HIV Positive middle aged prostitute (Farida Jalal) whom no one wants to talk to, a successful businessman (Girish Karnad) abandoned by his family amongst others. Kukunoor’s unsure screenplay is largely responsible for keeping the film at a distance for even with some sweet moments Aashayein never really manages to strike any chord.

Rating: 2/5

Cast: John Abraham, Anaitha Nair, Sonal Sehgal, Farida Jalal and Girish Karnard

Written and Directed by: Nagesh Kukunoor

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Madholal Keep Walking

Madholal Dubey (Subrat Dutta) is one of millions living in Mumbai who go about life with a spring in their step no matter what. Working as a security guard in the city, the only ‘friends’ Madholal has made are the ones who meet him everyday in the local train he takes to work. In between the friendly banter of the train friends, his loving wife Kamla (Neela Gokhle), the obligatory tension of getting his daughter, Sudha (Swara Bhaskar) married, Madholal’s life comprises of hanging out with Anwar (Pranay Narayan), the friendly neighbor whom Sudha secretly loves and dreaming of a better life. Things change forever when Madholal becomes a victim of the heinous Mumabi train attacks and his happy existence is washed away like a sand castle. Physically crippled and mentally scared for life, Madholal starts becomes a ghost amongst others and finds it difficult to accept things. Just when Madho starts to get along with life he gets to know that Anwar might be the mastermind behind the blasts.

Madholal Keep Walking starts off with a long and expounding dialogue laden scene, very reminiscent of Nishikant Kamat’s Dombivli Fast, which not only establishes the main players but also sets up the tone of the film. While the friendly repartee amongst Madholal and his fellow passengers in the local train has some light moments, Madholal Keep Walking is fraught with dialogue that might be very real but comes across as highly forced.

Director Jai Tank’s Madholal Keep Walking depicts a personal tragedy of a faceless man who could be anyone in the millions compelled to play their part and carry on irrespective of what happened. While this ode to humanity has its heart in the right place some where the film seems to lack the conviction in its own belief. Madholal’s pain of his life falling like a deck of cards seems to be visibly noticed by everyone around him but for some strange reason no one seems to feel it. There seems to be a great disconnect between the Madholal and everyone else; while he is reticent and contemplative his family and friends seem to be a tearing hurry for him to get back in the groove. The post tragedy scenes have too much talk where everyone’s stating the obvious besides a song (Naina Lage) that has three versions and yet fails to rouse any emotion.

Jai Tank, who has co-written the film with Sachin Darekar, uses Mumbai’s fabled local train as motif of life and employs it as a device to convey that life, no matter what, has to carry on. While using the train as microcosm of a multicultural existence is an interesting tool, Tank never really explores the power it has on people’s lives. Having set up the train as an integral part of Madholal’s very existence, the film works towards the climax where Madholal would have to fight the weight of the memories of his last ride that changed the course of his life. But the manner in which Madholal overcomes his fears rather brazenly mocks the very human spirit this film pays a tribute to. To say that the trains started just three hours after the blasts and Madholal was a coward to stay away for such a long time might represent the spirit of Mumabi is conveying the message in a very simplistic and insensitively escapist manner.

In spite of scenes that seem to strangely strung, the actors chip in decent performances. Subrat Dutta as the protagonist looks a little young to play a college student’s father but is compelling; well poised and blessed with a great voice, Swara Bhaskar switches between playing a loving elder sister to a daughter who grows overnight into the breadwinner for the family with ease. In spite of the manner in which it ends Madholal Keep Walking is rather an honest film that could have been a very different film if it weren’t besieged by songs and a confused screenplay.

Rating: 2/5

Cast: Subrat Dutta, Neela Gokhale, Swara Bhaskar, Pranay Narayan

Written by: Jai Tank and Sachin Darekar

Directed by: Jai Tank

Image- www.madholalkeepwalking.com

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Men Who Do Not Stare At The Normal Things

With The Men Who Stare At Goats we are in the land where fantasy and reality roam hand in hand. This is a film based on a book by a journalist who stumbled upon a secret project funded by the US Army to create soldiers with Superpowers. Like walking through walls, becoming invisible and also killing goats by staring at them – therefore the title.

So far so good. We have seen such sci-fi or fantasy stuff. But the director does not treat it like that. This is a spoof, a satire – a commentary on how men go mad in the search for a silly fantasy.

The story is told through the eyes of the journalist on whose book the film is based. Initially he is fascinated by the project but soon he realizes that the soldiers who were part of the project have lost their marbles by abuse of drugs or other experiments.

The film shifts between present day Iraq and the history of the project starting from the late seventies. Most of the stuff is told normally but the characters who are part of the project have a certain edge to their behaviour. They make outlandish claims and are not able to demonstrate their super human skills. Instead of walking through walls, they stare at clouds and make them scatter. Something I remember I used to do a child. And I did not even need any training for it.

At one point Lynn Cassidy (George Clooney) and Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) are traveling through Iraq and reach a fork in the road. They do not understand which sign to follow. Lynn keeps staring at it for a long time. He claims that he will soon know the right answer through his psychic powers. When he finally chooses a road, their car is immediately blown up by a land mine. And when such disasters happen Lynn continues as if it was destined to happen.

In the end, the story converges on a similar facility in Iraq where the army is still carrying experiments. Eventually the narrator joins up with the founder of the original project and they are able to free the prisoners on whom new experiments are being conducted.

Somewhere in the middle, one comes across a rare moment in the film that surprises you by its poignancy. Lynn and Bob have escaped a kidnapping and gunfight and are eating at the house of an Iraqi whom they had saved from another kidnapping (I told you it is weird). Lynn apologizes for the gunfight that had been started by private American security forces. The Iraqi apologizes for his countrymen who did the kidnapping. And they continue to eat in the house that has been ransacked when the man was taken away.

Yes this is that kind of a film.

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The Expendables

Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) leads The Expendables who might be a pack of highly trained mercenaries but all of them are in the twilight of their professional job. Contacted by a man called Mr. Church (Bruce Willis), the Expendables are asked to overthrow a ruthless South American dictator, General Garza (David Zayas). While on a reconnaissance mission Ross and Christmas (Jason Statham) learn that things aren’t as straight as they had expected and decide to pass the job. They escape but Ross can’t get Sandra (Gisele Itie), the dictator’s daughter and their local help, out of his mind. When Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), a former Expendable kicked out by Ross, tries to kill him on the behest of James Monroe (Eric Roberts), the rouge CIA agent behind Garza, Ross decides to go back for Sandra alone as there is no money involved but his team- Yin Yang (Jet Li), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture) and Christmas won’t let him go alone.

Made on a lavish budget of $82 million The Expendables is a throwback to the old style of action flicks with crazy one-liners every now and then, an explosion here, a chase there and some emotion interludes thrown in for good measure. Written and directed by Sylvester Stallone the film is meant for largely the true fans and even then it’s a little difficult to like this film.

Stallone who has the Rocky series to his credit isn’t the writer that he used to be or perhaps the world isn’t the same anymore. The writing is insipid to say the least and you find it difficult to laugh at the jokes or to emote in a poignant moment. Of course, the film has its moments when everything seems to fit in but suddenly you are reminded of the harsh reality that The Expendables is more like retirement plan for washed out action stars than a film!

The cast of The Expendables looks like a who’s who of the 1980’s. Barring Jason Statham, Stallone gets just about every cult action film regular right from Dolph Lundgren (Universal Soldier), Eric Roberts (Runaway Train), Mickey Rourke and Jet Li besides himself to act in this action film. He even manages to rope in old pals and business partners in Planet Hollywood Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis for blink and you miss cameos.

The never ending stag dance that now seems routine and highly boring, The Expendables shows that there’s still some gas in tanks of relics in the form of 3 good lines (one of them being Monroe’s comparison to Gazra’s situation as ‘bad Shakespeare’), 2 good action sequences (especially the one where Christmas and Ross blow up the pier) and 1 really innovative shot even by Stallone standards! The Expendables is tough even if you are a trooper!

Rating: 2 out of 5

Image: Sound on Sight

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