Hum toh bhai jaise hain...(Veer Zaara - Movie Review)

'Times change, people don't', quoted one naive philosopher who didn't know that the King of Romance, Yash Chopra, is going to take his comment a bit too seriuosly and end up making a fun of his earlier productions in his self-styled magnum opus 'Veer Zaara'. The latest 'Love Story' replete with trademark Shaadi and Punjabi festival sequences starts on an interesting premise - that of an Indian National rotting in a Pakistani Jail for last 22 years and a Pakistani lawyer attempting to break his silence to help him let free - but as soon as the tale moves to the illogical (Squadron leader flying a chopper and rescuing accident victims, Showing Himalayas and rope-bridges in Punjab!) and oft seen locales of a Punjab village, the asses start moving in the cinema-hall chair and not for the good.

Then suddenly, as if being directed by some deja-vu-esque instructions, the movie starts looking like a sad-spoof of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, with Zaara's Rain drenched opening song ('Hum Toh Bhai Jaise Hain, waise rahenge'/'Mere Khwaabon mein jo aaye'), an accidental meet with Veer (remember SRK pulling Kajol inside the train at London station!), a trip down the countryside with both falling in love (snow-capped Punjab/snowcapped Europe), entry of Zaara's fiance (a saturnine Manoj Bajpai!), Zara's tears in front of her Mom, and so on.....! In the middle of all this, we have a super-cameo by omnipresent Amitabh Bacchhan and still-young Hema Malini, and frankly speaking - this is the only part of the film where one sees that 'magical' Yash Chopra touch. But alas, this doesn't connect with the main story at all and nobody except Zaara Hayaat Khan thinks of visiting the stereo-typical Punjab village again...!

The court-room portion is also blurted out of proportion with a useless conflict set-up between Anupam Kher and Rani Mukherjee's characters. The only saving grace in the film is Shahrukh's performance which is amazingly controlled, especially in his older version, and will work wonders for his critics (who will be tightlipped after a long time!). Madan-Mohan's music absolutely befits his reputation and songs like 'Do Pal Ruka', and 'Tere Liye' bear a stamp of genius. Interestingly, this is the first time Yash Chopra has worked with Madan-Mohan tunes! (Earlier it was N.Dutta in 'Dhool Ka Phool', Ravi in 'Waqt', L-P in 'Daag', Shiv-Hari from 'Silsila' to 'Chandni', Jatin-Lalit in 'Darr' and Uttam Singh in 'Dil to pagal hai'). Another interesting co-incidence is the releasing of Madan-Mohan and Naushad films on the same day in the year 2004, almost 40 years after they were in their prime. (Mughal-E-Azam re-released along with Veer-Zaara!)

Strange, unpredictable, enjoyable and as we saw in Veer-Zaara, sometimes painful, is our film industry. Hope Yash Jee's next film would be a more balanced and 'with-the-times' effort and self-indulgence will take a more constructive meaning...! Till then, we can do with the re-runs of Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai and Chandni...

Moochh Ado ABout Nothing (Film Reviw: Mangal Pandey)

Frankly speaking, if this is the story of our first battle of Independence, we are better off without getting into the details. But frankly speaking, we know this is not. What it is, is the story of Ketan Mehta’s personal battle against his ‘flop’ past by employing the ‘hit’ Amir Khan in the role of a little-known Sepoy of the mutiny of 1857. But past catches up with Ketan once again, and what was expected to be the most ‘pride-filling’ experience of the year turns out to be an aimless tale full of ‘Mirch Masala’.
But before we start, let’s get one thing clear. The film fails, not because of the ‘burden of expectations’ (as many critics would like you to believe) but solely because of it’s horrible script and misdirection. Had one expected nothing great from this team, the disappointment would still have been the same.
The film opens with Mangal Pandey (Amir Khan, brilliant and wasted) being taken to the gallows and his British Officer friend William Gordon (Toby Stephens) feeling the pain on his behalf. As the news comes in that no hangman is ready to do the job, the hanging is postponed till William Gordon narrates the whole of the story in flashback. And the perversion starts.
The next hour and a half are spent in ‘developing’ the relation between Mangal and William, as an assorted set of characters (and their breasts!) heave for attention. Mangal’s concern for the poor Indian waiter, whom the wily British officer treats like a ‘kaala kutta’ seems misplaced. Mangal’s subsequent questioning to William about the concept of East India Company Raaj is juvenile at best. The street-selling of ‘Nautch girl’ Heera (Rani Mukherjee, dressed like Mallika Sherawat for the most part), her buying by some kothe-waali Baai (Kirron Kher, vulgar, gross, loud, horrible), the intended Sati burning of Jwala (Amisha Patel, thankfully silent), the love and dejection of William Gordon, and the massacre of a whole village for refusing to grow opium (a gross exaggeration of historical facts) are some of the events that jostle for space while the first rumors of ‘animal-fat cartridges’ hit the Indian village (which village, which state, ask Ketan Mehta!) where Mangal is staying.
The second half is devoted to how Mangal and some other equally disgusted soldiers plan a mutiny and how an Indian maid to a British lady spoils the latter’s orgasm only to reveal the Indian plans. So, in the end, it’s only Mangal versus the Raaj as the poor man fires a few bullets, takes a few blows, and is hospitalized before being tried and hanged in front of a huge audience. (And you can actually spot some smiling faces in the crowd running like India has just won another Cricket World Cup.)
But that’s not all. A wayward storyline is just one flaw, the other, and even bigger, is the characterization. We never come to know ‘who is Mangal Pandey’, why was he more sensitive towards the events which were there for everybody to see, and why oh why, did he shoot himself. William Gordon, on the other hand, comes across as the principal character with a better flushed out back-story and a clear stand on most of the issues. But then, the film was titled ‘Mangal Pandey’ and not ‘William Gordon’. The failure of script could be gauged from the fact that not even once, you feel for the cause of Mangal (or Indians in general), and the only tears rolling out of your eyes will be of the frustration of seeing a patriotic film full of dipping necklines, ham acts and clichéd dialogues. And that much-touted ‘Period’ feel is just a sham, as the sets look just like, well, sets.
Farukh Dhondy, who had earlier written Kisna, has proved that you just need the will power to write a bad script, and he seems to have a lot of it. A.R. Rehman’s music is rocking but who needed the songs? Everything else, including Ketan Mehta’s direction reminds one of the B-Grade cinema Subhash Ghai has mastered over the years.
Performance wise, Amir and Toby Stephens are exceptional and their revelry in some of the scenes is the best part of the film. But in the lack of better lines and character, Amir too looks a lean figure as opposed to a strong-willed poster-boy of 1857. Toby as William Gordon is the only bright light in this badly-researched epic, with a proper justification of all his actions. Rani is a complete waste and Amisha manages to irritate even in that blink-and-miss role. Others, including a huge cast of British actors hams its way through the film and almost all the Indian villagers seem to have an Awadhi-accent although film is supposed to set in Barrackpore in Bengal.
In the end, you come out with a red-face because this could have been the story (if you can call it one) of any confused Sepoy set in a time and society when cleavage was a part of our culture and British officers were a greedy bunch of caricatures. But the story of Mangal Pandey, the mutineer of the folklore, this is not.

Saahir - The man who didn't want the world

Here is an article i found over net, about the life-and-times of legendary Sahir. After the intense discussions over his style and works(involving ryzers Jaya, Madhavan, Richa, Ghizala...), I thought it would be nice to share some more about what went into making his voice the most revolutionary and anti-establishment at a time when everybody was singing the happy tunes of New-Found-Freedom. Thanks to Asha Ahuja for writing this article and letting it float over the Net-Sea for petty fishermen like me to net and display it for everybody's net-gain..!! Here it goes:

Ludhiana, October 24

Though his body lies buried in a graveyard in Bombay, he lives in the hearts of lovers of poetry, music and arts. His poetry is identified with truth, beauty and goodness!These lines eulogise one of the greatest poets of India, who by linking his name with Ludhiana has immortalised this city.

He is Sahir Ludhianvi whose 21st death anniversary falls tomorrow.Sahir’s relevance in today’s world is greater as he had advocated world peace and championed the cause of the downtrodden and the have nots. The progressive movement fired his imagination and he longed for peace, justice and universal love. Sahir appeared on the scene of Urdu poetry when giants like Firaq, Faiz and Majaz were at the height of their popularity. With such stalwarts around, he could not escape their influence but his own sensibilities and his powerful imagination soon weaned him from their influence and he came to his own.

He was born in an atmosphere of tyranny. The Bengal famine, and the atrocities of the British on Indians induced him to write against the British. The British, scared of the power of his poetry banned his work.Born in a feudal family of Ludhiana , Abdul Hayee ‘Sahir’ had a childhood draped in affluence but soon the hedonistic orgies of his father, made him leave the house and he chose to stay with his dejected mother in penury. His father tried to get him liquidated but his mother protected him fiercely. This incident sowed in him the seeds of hatred and revulsion for the feudalistic order, and that shaped the course of much of the future events of his life.

Left alone to earn his living, Sahir had a chequered career. His education was cut short when he was asked to leave Government College for Boys at Ludhiana as a penalty for an amorous adventure and his unorthodox views. His first anthology ‘Talkhiyan’, projected Sahir as a poet who echoes the sentiments of the younger generation. Talkhiyan has remained the most popular of his anthologies. Principal Azad Gulati says of “Talkhiyan”: “Sahir’s intensity of perception, subtle power of observation, soundness and solidity of thematic content coupled with meterical musicality, his knack of choosing appropriate words and the sensuous freshness of his imagery make the poems in this anthology a thing of real beauty.” “Parchhaiyan” is Sahir’s unique achievement as a long anti-war poem. This poem is a veritable paean of human soul hungering for a life free from the harrowing shadows of war.

His other anthology ‘Aao Key Koi Khwab Bunien” raises a voice against political tyranny.Sahir found the cinema to be a potent vehicle for conveying his ideas and urges to the masses. He raised film songs to new heights, and through them depicted the aches and thrills of life.In one of his couplets Sahir has said, “I return back to the world whatever it has bestowed on me in the form of experiences and tragedies.”Sahir’s poems have crossed national limits. The list of his rewards is endless. He was given the Padmashri. His books have been translated into English, French, Arabic, Persian and Russian.

The Ludhianvis hold mushairas on his death anniversary.Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, paying a tribute to Sahir has written. “A revolutionary in his thoughts, He was a mortal by birth He is still remembered by all specially by the fair sex Unmarried, he died But pretty girls still Put roses on his grave on his Birthdays As at the statue of Pushkin in Moscow."

Apni Kahaani Chhorh Ja (Movie Review: Do Beegha Zameen)

The 'Haath Gaadis' of Calcutta were haunting me much before I could see one in real...!! The intricacies of a relationship, flagging and still strong, familial and still strange, painful and still pleasurable, were troubling me even before I could cross the proverbial age of understanding them..!! The words and tune of 'Mausam Beetaa jaaye..' followed me into my youth and I am sure, will follow me into my next birth, if I successfully complete this one.

'Do Bigha Zameen' was more of a fascination and less of a film for me and I still can't place what I liked the most when I first watched it at the age of 10. The successive attempts though made the answer a bit easy for me. It would have been the honesty of the theme and poignancy of the story, never to forget,done with the magical touch of Bimal Roy, that made its way through a heart as crude as the small town of UP I lived in. The story of Shambhu Mahto (Balraj Sahni), who comes to the Big City 'Calcutta' in his pursuit to earn money and save his 'Do Bigha Zameen' (10 feet of land) from Zamindar's ill intentions was a take on the contemporary problem of Serfs in Bengal. A socio-economic issue weaved into a story of a struggling father-son duo in the big bad city, while the lady-of-the-house struggles back in the village had some memorable performances by Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy, Master Ratan and Nana Palsikar (as the grief-stricken old man of the family).

The last scene of the movie, where the Mahto family stands across a mesh-wire with the horror, of losing their land to the Industry being built at the same place, writ large and wide in their eyes is one of the most frightfully piercing shots in the Hindi film History. The old man's (Nana Palsikar) lunatic laugh as his hut is being bullzdozed by the landlord brings instant tears to the heart and says a loadful about the plight Industrial revolution brought for the common gullible farmer in less developed parts of the nation. Salil Da's music and Shailendra's lyrics added beautifully to the pain and perfection of this 1953 classic. Though people say, 'It's the tale and not who tells it', but in this case, it mattered a lot that Bimal Da was at the helm of affairs and the tale would never fade...