Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Review of "Supermen of Malegaon"



Supermen of Malegaon is a 2012 Hindi documentary film, written and Directed by Faiza Ahmad Khan. Superman of Malegaon was intended to be released for a Singapore TV Channel.

Malegaon is a small town in Maharashtra, surviving on power looms and is fraught with poverty, communal tensions and hardships. This movie traces the existence of the parallel film industry thriving in this small town, which we are not even aware about.

It follows the story of a certain “director” who is making a spoof of the Hollywood series of Superman and captures the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs in his ambitious project. “Ambitious” is the key word here because the most striking aspect about the story is how he succeeds in following his dream in spite of limited resources.

The theme and the plot of film is simple, but what is striking is the fact that these are real people, with real dreams and aspirations of making it big that we are made to experience during the course of the movie. The film is not sermonizing yet strikes a chord somewhere. There’s a part in the movie which has a beautiful, tragic poem about the poverty and strife in Malegaon, with striking images of a child smoking bidi, however, it immediately snaps out of it to the project at hand- the making  of “Supermen of Malegaon”.


What stayed with me after watching the film besides the fact that it was downright hilarious, is the sheer zest and love for movies which the characters display and one cannot undermine the small but significant contribution to the entertainment industry which “Mollywood” has been making. 

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Its difficult being Gyppie


Yesterday 7th June 2013- Gyppie passed away after suffering for almost a week of Juandice. It all happened so fast and so all of a sudden. When I saw him 3 days back, I sort of had the feeling that he will not make it, but yesterday, he was doing much better! We fed him some dog food suggested by the doctor which he ate willingly and also did not throw up. We were so happy that he’s showing signs of recovery and was even responding to us, like he always used to. But at the doctor’s clinic; he suddenly collapsed…

Gyppie came into our lives out of the blue. This nagging thought remains at the back of my head and seems to be unanswered every time- What are the odds that a pet enters the family without anyone’s will and makes a place in the hearts of not just the owners but so many more lives. Such was our Gyppie! The maids of our house, dad’s work colleagues, neighbours, friends and every single person connected with us has some story to tell about our Gyppie.

Well Gyppie passing away is an incident, a major incident, in our lives and over time, we will come to terms with it. But I do not want to get over it, I don’t want to get over what he meant to us, what he stood for. I want to remember Gyppie, not just as a pet who won our hearts and entertained us. Gyppie stood for so much more and there are so many lessons to be learnt from him-

All dogs are loyal, but our baby was something else. If all of us are even 30 % as loyal as him, we can lead such great lives. Gyppie did not even eat if one person is not in the house! He loved everyone around him and everyone loved him, but he knew who his masters were and no one was more important to him than them.

Gyppie owned property. His leash and his bowls, that’s it. He was proud of his belongings, flaunting them and took care of them too. Such modest needs and so happy they made him. He was the epitome of simple living, we gave him toys, he shunned them, we gave him a bed, he hated it and slept in all other possible places but the bed, we gave him expensive dog food, he ate that only in dire times, mostly eating his boiled chicken and roti with pleasure. He did not like his leash being thrown around and would pick it up and place it gently and appropriately. And that’s the key, being materialist is good and when you have lesser things, you value them more and really take care of them too. Such a simple lesson, yet so important.

Gyppie greeted everyone with the same enthusiasm and vigour every single day. Even if he saw it happening every day. Couples go to work every day and come home at a fixed time every day. What would happen if spouses and children greet each other, hug each other and are enthusiastic about this event of homecoming and express this so openly every day? Just imagine!

Gyppie did his work of guarding the house diligently every minute. He enjoyed no weekends, no lunch hours, no coffee breaks, his duty continued even in his sleep. So many times he has woken up in the middle of the night, barking, hearing the sound of someone entering the gates of our house.


He was expressive, he brought joy in our lives, he was funny, oh! really funny, he was clean, he was understanding and he was smart. Indeed its difficult being Gyppie! People who knew him will know what I mean, also most will dismiss this as being over sentimental. But the fact of the matter is that although we will miss his presence, it’s these thoughts that I don’t want to let go of since this is what keeps him alive within us.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

A Movie Named "Amu"


Watched a movie titled Amu. It stars Konkona Sen Sharma and Brinda Karat. The movie was released in 2005 and was a critically acclaimed art house cinema.

In the movie Konkona is a shown as being raised in America with a strong sense of belonging to her roots and a longing to discover her past.  
The best part that I liked about this movie is the way in which the director took one character, who was linked to a gory event in Indian history to bring out all the many facets of that event, the causes and the outcomes of a man-made destruction and its impact on the lives of many. The possibility of many people and families been afflicted by such incidents cannot be overlooked, so many untold stories of sadness, separation, death and longing that makes you question the motive behind all that happens around us. What could be the driving force behind making people suffer so much and knowingly so? What happens when tens and thousands of people in a mob, collectively lose all sense of judgment with a single motive of killing, looting, destroying? What force is so strong that everyone loses their conscience to not even spare children and women?


As we see today relationships getting more virtual than real, only time will tell if this is for better or for worse. Will this weakening of bonds lead to complete disinterest in the ‘other’? Will it weaken enmity as it has weakened friendships too? If it is so, I would rather opt all interactions being confined to the distant, the virtual. One can voice ones feelings and views but not hurt someone physically, so brutally.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Lucky Women!


Recently watched a Malayalam flick called 22 Female Kottayam or 22FK. No, this is not a review of the movie. This movie stirred something in me. It was a hard-hitting flick on a Woman’s Vengeance.

We exalt women on being strong- willed, for their endurance, for their ability to hold their ground and their families during the most trying times. Of course, women are all that and more, but I often wonder why do women need to go through something bad to realize this? This whole concept of the ‘caregiver’, the one who adjusts, the ‘Mother –India- figure’ is skewed! Can’t a woman be strong and happy at the same time, and why is she made to feel guilty if she is. I don’t say that all women and all families are the same, but women need to stop putting others before themselves all too often.

Naina Lal Kidwai, GM and India Head- HSBC, in an interview said that while choosing a profession, women can be more creative and do the things which they ‘like’, since they mostly do not have to carry the economic burden of their families which the poor guys usually have to. These have exactly been my thoughts always! The poor men hardly have the luxury to follow their hearts, to do stuff even if it doesn’t pay the bills, whereas women, mostly, can afford to do that. And that needs to be appreciated and celebrated by us women. Let’s stop pretending to be martyrs and concentrate on being more selfish!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Review of Ek Thi Dayan.


It takes a lot of gumption to make a movie about the unknown, the dark and sinister world of the supernatural. It is one thing to make a movie which portrays a world comprising solely of Vampires or Zombies or Werewolves (like the Twilight series) but to be able to create a world where the supernatural is as real as reality itself, to blur the edges, is something else. Ek Thi Dayan is about this milieu.

The movie centers around Emraan Hashmi playing the role of ‘Bobo’, a world renowned magician. His girlfriend and him who have been together for almost a year are planning to settle down and adopt a child of their own, but his childhood memories get the better of him and he is convinced that a certain ‘dayan’ is back to haunt him.

I really appreciate Emraan Hashmi here because for once he played the role of the victim J ! On a serious note, the plot builds up wonderfully with its portrayal of the relationship between the young Bobo and his sister Misha. Bobo is interested in all things quirky and magical and his most loved audience is an old paralyzed man in his building whom he loves showing off his magic tricks to. Bobo as a child is shown as reading old manuscripts about dayans under the sheets with a torch, his sister in tow and strongly believing that every building has a hell which can be reached by pressing 666 on the lift! This amazingly detailed and wholesome character – building of the young Bobo leaves viewers thinking if Bobo’s beliefs about Dayans and the like is real or just a figment of his overworked imagination.

Konkona is amazing in her character and there are some really spine – chilling scenes which literally made me jump off my seat. It is horror when you least expect it and it works!

This is the first part of the movie. And then comes the real disappointment- the second half of the movie. The second half lacked the finesse and the detailing which was created in the first part of the movie. The presence of characters like Dr. Ranjan Palit, Bobo’s psychiatrist with his heavy Bengali accent, is barely noticeable and if you expect that Kalki Koechlin has done some major breakthrough acting, you’ll be saddened to learn the opposite.
A magician with a name like ‘Bobo- the Baffler’ was baffling enough to baffle me. However, there was still hope whilst Konkona was on the screen. Midway through the movie, I yawned twice and was more interested in the food we ordered, still anticipating some major revelation. And then before you know it, the movie comes to an end! It felt like the makers of this film themselves were in a hurry to pack up and leave.

For anything its worth, I’d give credit to Ek Thi Dayan for unleashing extreme emotions within me – ranging from extreme fright to extreme boredom. And if you like the feeling of being left insatiated, wanting for more, you must go watch this movie.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Commando Review- Dabang meets Rambo!


Watched Commando- The One Man Army. The movie is about an Army officer (Captain Karanvir Dogra), trained to be a Commando who ends up across the border in the Chinese territory during a training regime and is captured by them as being an Indian spy. When this is brought to the notice of the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian government does not stand by him and decides to sweep matters under the carpet. As it turns out, the Commando escapes from the hands of the Chinese and is left to avenge himself by fighting the system singlehandedly.

The movie starts off on an interesting note where you feel that this might just be a revelation into the blinding nexus between Politics and the Armed/ Police forces in our country. However, this merely fades away into a ridiculous show of chivalry by the commando trying to save a girl (Simrit) from Himachal from a local goon (Amrit Kanwal Singh)!

I think that if one has to go watch this movie it has to be for Vidyut Jamwal playing the role of Capt. Karanvir. His entire demeanor spelled COMMANDO in capitals. And although I’m not a huge fan of heart racing, blood pumping action scenes, this one caught my fancy and of course was a welcome break from all the Rohit Shetty action that’s thrown at us these days.

Pooja Chopra who plays the role of Simrit goes way overboard with the concept of the damsel- in- distress. She emerges in pretty frocks and shorts in every gripping scene. Capt Karanvir, in an attempt to save her from the villain makes her jump off tall bridges with him, climb tall trees, gives her ayurvedic tips on surviving mosquito bites in the jungle and strategic tips on how not to leave shoe marks on the ground. Inspite of all this it does not strike her to ask him even once as to how he knows all this. And way towards the end of the movie she gets all doe- eyed and asks him “Tum ho kaun?”  Duh!! She was just ridiculously trying to emulate ‘Geet’ from ‘Jab We Met’, which is suicidal.

Oh! And here comes the most hilarious part about the movie- the Villain. Yes you read this right. Amrit Kanwal Singh calls himself AK47 for some strange reason. He plays Angry Birds on his cellphone , reads silly Santa- Banta jokes before killing someone, which is a desperate attempt at inducing comedy into the script. And there is too much unnecessary flashing of his eyeball- less eyes after every ten, no, five minutes.

Commando to me was okay as a one -time watch. The background scores were sloppy with some chasing scenes given comic scores and Dabang style cowboy music for the hero. Not Again !

But personally this will remain a landmark movie for me; reason being, in the midst of the movie the sound went mute due to a technical glitch and for the first time, I saw a movie being rewound in a Movie theater and played again. It sort of reminded me of the childhood VCR days when someone goes to get a snack from the kitchen and then makes a Rewind request to watch the scenes being missed!

The Guest and More!


A new member came to join our family about 2 years back. He came in as a guest and now he rules the house. At the outset when he came to our place he was totally shattered, heartbroken and scared. With nowhere to go and without any belongings, he looked disillusioned and hopeless. “Only for a week… 2 weeks tops”, I warned my husband. But that kept extending and I finally came around, started to have a soft corner for him. As he recuperated so did he gain his self esteem back and we started to share a rapport which moved from me being the caregiver to a more equal footing and started spending considerable amount of time together. I thought this might create rifts between my husband and me, with me getting so close to someone else and all, but the effect was the opposite. It was amazing just having him around, sometimes we just looked at each other and both knew what the other wanted. He became best buddies with my husband too. Going for walks, watching movies while he lazed around on the sofa, two guys hanging around. Sometimes when my husband was not around, he would get all protective about me and fussed every time I was away from the house for too long. He made me feel guilty about staying out too late, I felt like the kid who was dreading to be grounded. And as it turned out, we had become dependent on him.
Then came a time when we had to move, we had almost decided to sit him down and give him our reasons for leaving him stranded again. I couldn’t get myself to do that and was banking on my husband to break the news to him. Ofcourse, we knew the inevitable outcome- initially he would not react, just stare at us, then he would try to accuse us, throw tantrums and eventually beg us not to go. Just thinking of all these possible reactions and situations made me guilty.
One day I was just sharing my apprehensions with my Mom and the lifesaver that she is, she said “Why, he can come and stay with us! That way he won’t feel bad and you both can also keep meeting him when you drop in.” I jumped with joy at the thought, but it was short-lived as another disturbing thought came to my head. “What about dad, he will hate it. You know how he detests ‘those kinds’?” “Yes but we can’t leave him in the lurch again, and he’s so nice, I was not sure too initially but he’s such a charmer and keeps the mood alive, I would love to have him around, he’s just who we need to have around at this stage. I’ll handle the task of convincing dad”.
It’s been over a year that he moved in with my parents. He’s much older now and his relationship with my parents is even better than us and he’s even more comfortable at their place. He literally rules the house! His protective nature is still intact when it comes to my Mom. As for Dad, the unbelievable has occurred. The Man who hated them and was so rude and shouty each time ‘his kind’ came even into our bungalow, now cannot live without him. Infact the house- helps keep joking among themselves that ‘Sir is hardly bothered about his own food but there has to be enough food for this new guy’.
And that’s how Gyppie, the dog (whose original name’s Gypsie, true to his name, has changed many houses but Mom decided to change it to Gyppie as she doesn’t want him to go anywhere now) has swept the Som household off their feet. He’s my father’s lifeline and they literally feed on each other’s love. When dad goes out on an errand, Gyppie doesn’t budge from the window awaiting his arrival.
Just utter the word ‘pussycat’  and you’ll see a black line of fur just zipping past you. He is so black that it’s difficult to distinguish his feature in photographs. When he sleeps next to me, his breath makes me aware about my own breathing. He’s our baby and like every parent we feel that he’s the best in the world!!
We feel grateful and blessed that Gyppie came into our lives and chose our family to live with. 

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Needs


Life can really throw surprises at you when you least expect them. One such surprise, rather a jolt, was when Siddharth, my husband told me that he was considering a job in Orissa! Well, it took a while for me to digest the fact that we might have to move to a city like Bhubaneswar in the far Eastern side of the country. Just as the information was sinking in, came another boom- ‘Not Bhubaneswar, it’s a tiny mining town called Barbil’. Following which I went blank, probably lost consciousness or something. After that there was just a buzz in my ears interspersed by words like ‘remote’, ‘naxalite’, ‘tribals’, ‘far away’ , buzzzzzz….
“I’m not coming, why do you always have to choose places like these, isn’t there anything here, is the job offer really worth it, I’m not coming, don’t go…” I rambled on as my initial reaction. “Relax” said Sid, “It’s just the initial discussions right now, it might not even happen”. Of course, heart of heart he really wanted it to happen. And as it turned out, it did happen.
Luckily Sid understood my hesitation to move, moreover, I feel he was scared to take me there as it was an unknown territory even for him. Eventually we decided that he goes there first, sees whether he himself likes the place, the job in the first place and then after a few months, I go there just to see the place and ’ if and only if’ I feel comfortable do I also shift there.
Things worked out as planned and here I am now living in a tiny, remote, mining town. Well it’s not such a bad place after all, the people are down to earth and hardworking, they are all here for their own reasons and to make a decent living. Of course it helped that my company retained me by offering a work from home option, which is a blessing really.
The one thing that I’m definitely going to take away from this place, is that we  actually need so little in order to survive. I’ve also realized that we humans are such good adaptors! This is my question to you city brats- Can you live without multiplexes? Without the KFCs and the Mc Donald’s of the world? You plan for a dinner outing, everyone starts raking their brains or surfing the internet for new places to go. Apparently ‘zomato.com’ receives 1,420,370 hits per day! But what if the place you stay has only 2 restaurants, 1 movie theater and no Pubs. What do you do then, you adjust. You made do with whatever’s available. I mean who needs cherry tomatoes, lettuce and bell peppers everyday. I remember these things weren’t even available when we were kids, yet the cucumber -onion –gajar salad gives you all that you need.
I can say I’ve come to realize the value of things we take for granted; that there is a world other than ours which is so different yet so lovely; that life can be interesting when you move from the known to the unknown. In short, I thank Sid for getting me to experience this world…

Monday, April 8, 2013

My review of Bhooter Bhabishyat


I finally managed to lay my hands on Bhooter Bhabishyat, the Bengali film and watched it over the weekend. Bhooter Bhabishyat which literally means “the future of the ghosts” or the “future of the past” is a social satire revolving around old,  heritage buildings being pulled down to build shopping malls, multiplexes and high rises and its related implications on the ‘ghosts’ who inhabited those buildings. The storyline builds around an ad- film director (played by Parambrata Chatterjee better known as Satyaki/Rana from Kahani) who is aspiring for his major breakthrough into films. He is looking for a catchy story line based on which he can make his debut and is narrated this story in one of the old mansions called the Chowdhury palace, where he is trying to shoot his ad film. The narrator of the story is obviously not happy with the rapid consumerism which ad films imply and definitely not happy with this old mansion being used to that end. In his story, the mansion is eyed by an infamous developer called Ganesh Bhutoria (played by Mir Afsar Ali) to build a 5 storied mall which is his definite cash cow.

This simple story line if given thrust with its comic, lyrical dialogues and funny characters who are ghosts from various eras. To give you an idea of the bizarre characterization, there is an assassinated Englishman, another one is a refugee from Bangladesh, then there is a cook from Siraj –ud- daula’s kitchen, an Army officer who died in the Kargil war, a heroine from the black and white days who had committed suicide, the daughter of a rich industrialist who also killed herself for love and a musician into ‘rockbaji’ who died of drug abuse. Add to this chaos a brilliant use of wordplay which again is comic because of its simplicity. For eg, the erstwhile actress who committed suicide is named ‘Kadalibala’. Now in Bengali ‘kadali’ means Banana. It sounds funnier in the script of the movie as the characters themselves question the validity of such a name. Speaking of Kadalibala reminds me of another scene where she is wooed by her lover. The dialogues in this scene and many others are so lyrical that I’m sure if I watch the movie 3 more times, I’l be able to say it by rote. Another character is this local goon who is trying to extract some money from Bhutoria if he wants things to go smoothly. His name is Pod Prodhan, which roughly translated means King of Butts! Said in a straight faced manner will definitely make anyone laugh. Of course the English subtitles help for someone like me who does not catch these innuendos quite fast.

This movie reminded me of another lesser known hindi movie called ‘Mirch’ which uses the same aspect of an aspiring film maker trying to make it big. He is then told by his producer “Sex nahi toh nahi bikega” and hence he resorts to our old tales with Sexual overtones and tweeks it to address modern relationships. Well, I just want to say- “Take that Mr- Whoever-Made-Mirch, Bhooter Bhabishyat definitely won without sex” The most amount of sex there is to this movie is a scene where the rich industrialist’s daughter tries to flirt with the rockstar ghost and an Item song in the end. However, the item song builds up to the climax which justifies it being there.

Bhoother Bhabishyat made me nostalgic because it’s made up of stuff similar to grandma’s stories- winning of good over evil, using wit to get what one wants etc. Every Bengali child is initiated to the concept of ‘ghost’ through Satyajit Ray’s Goopi Gain Bagha Bain and director Anik Dutta unabashedly uses aspects of that movie including the main character’s ringtone being “Bhooter Raja” from the Ray film.

Although, there were some aspects of the film which didn’t quite catch my fancy, like juxtaposing a skeleton face over the ghosts face to communicate that they were ghosts. The Item song, although required, was too lengthy especially when you are waiting for the climax.

Nonetheless, its credible that this is Anik Dutta’s directoral debut. This movie can be enjoyed by all age groups and the concept of commercialization and ghosts will both be timeless. I reckon Bhooter Bhabishyat is the Goopi Gain Bagha Bain for the newage kids !