2008: A lengthy year-end roundup of the films that were
It has been a crazy year at the movies. While Bollywood has mostly found it tough to spring any surprise, in the real sense, and there are hardly any films which impressed me out of the league (when compared to the last year – examples are aplenty, it had films either so good which made one shout from the rooftop or films that made you cringe and rethink about spending your money on a multiplex ticket), Hollywood was not much different.
The only few films that I thought did create a dent somewhere were Tashan, Sarkar Raj, Aamir, Jodha Akbar, Rock On, Dasvidaniya, Jaane tu ya jaane na, Mithya and probably, Welcome to Sajjanpur. I won’t bring in my guilty pleasure/antisocial-exercise films to ruin the post (in other words I won’t be talking about Contract & Phoonk). And then there were the disappointments – commercial and parallel. Commercial disasters like Drona, Kidnap, Love Story 2050, Hello, Hulla Bol etc. I still haven’t seen Drona so would still postpone the opinion but parallel disappointments were Mumbai Meri Jaan and ….I will hold on to that for a little longer.
The same disappointment could be applied to Hollywood as well, except for a few glaring exceptions – though to talk about the films and their quantity and quality would take few pages, there was always the occasional downer film – Hancock, The Incredible Hulk, and I am sure there are a few more but I am yet to see them. The Dark Knight, Wall – E , Kung Fu Panda were the bright spots and The Fall was exceptional. The comedy brigade was a little more productive/active and there were many examples of that – Step Brothers(I am highly biased towards Reilly-Farell-Carrell-Apatow-Rogen so excuse my misgivings), Get Smart(an otherwise fine film screwed up by the overdrive of action and drama/twists towards the end), Walk Hard(this might be 2007, but a personal favorite for its brilliant conviction and tone), Tropic Thunder(another roller-coaster that pushed the boundaries), Pineapple Express(a smartly made stoner comedy coming surprisingly from David Gordon Greene), Zack & Mirri make a porno(Kevin Smith!), Harold & Kumar Part 2(yet to watch them) etc.
But both east and west haven’t given up as yet, the biggest surprises (or duds) are yet to come. While we have Ghajini and RNBDJ here, in Hollywood the list is endless- Oscar contenders, musicals, biographies, semi-fictions, and what not – Doubt, Australia,The curious case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, The Wrestler, Revolution Road, Bolt, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Cadillac Records, Hunger, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Angels & Demons, Desperaux, Seven Pounds… Like I said, it’s endless. Many a films will get drowned in this crowd for reasons good and bad – Choke, RocknRolla, The Onion Movie, Iron Man, Quantum of Solace, Indy 4 etc.
So here is what the situation looks like. I am no expert but relying on memory and Rotten Tomatoes, I tried giving an overview as we approach the year end.
Now coming to the three recent watches, let’s start with Lucky.
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye – Oye Lucky tainu ki hoya?
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is an important film for all its associations and rather revolutionary ideas it brings to the board – a daringly nuanced comedy, a protagonist who doesn’t talk much, a ground-breaking score, an over-used actor in three important roles, and a nostalgic often personal semi-fictional treatment. It took me a good two days to reflect back at the film and get some thoughts together.
There have been many good analyses of the film so I won’t repeat them. Even I am in awe of the little details done so well, the first half, the darker threads of relationships , society, what goes inside and outside of a crook’s head, etc .I was particularly impressed by the canvas Dibakar mounted the film on – it clearly was apparent from the way its shot – the whole grand entry of the crooked hero, the background music flourishes, the retro Bollywood masala sounds and truck-art(pyaar pyaar pyaar- chahiye thoda pyaar), the well-laid out structure/plot tracing the protagonist from a cause and effect and aftereffect perspective and the innovative use of unknown faces for important roles. When I look back at all this, I wonder why should there be anything in the way of the film being one of the best this year. But that is where the reasons end sadly and the film, given all this, does not really roar loudly at that.
I know we often discount a film’s review and paint it black and white for reasons best known to us, I do this shamelessly for the ‘upar waale ka haath’ syndrome, there are films and film-makers which due to some supernatural trigger free them from this ‘acha-bura-picture’ kashmakash. For me, few examples would be RGV, Shaad Ali, Anurag Kashyap. All the other films, sadly, need to go through the grueling bullshit of satisfying one on all the grounds. This can be called as harsh criticism or blatant injustice but it’s a sad truth.
OLLO is a film for me which can’t decide its tone, its genre. There is no problem with that if the director ‘has fun’ while he plays the film out but that didn’t happen here either. You take it as a mellow, introspective inquiry in the past, a bygone city and its offsprings – crooks, industrialists, businessmen, aspirers, the hopefuls and the depressed, but the trip is fractured by slapstick of a in-your-face news anchor. It would work wonders and possibly bring the only laughter in a Rohit Shetty film, but is really not needed here. Whatever happened to the mellow and completely fresh comic timing of Khosla, what you end up with are many disjointed threads – a clueless Abhay Deol(no motivation, no intrigue, no ‘spice’, and this doesn’t even work here, the cluelessness, like it did in Manorama), a criminally wasted score(I was jumping and screaming from my rooftop about the music of this film ever since I heard it, and had formed some images and expectations as it happens, but wonder why Dibakar opted to literally kill the score, no wonder one critic called it bad, you really don’t give him any reasons to think otherwise. The songs start and immediately stop to give way to some other thread; then the music reappears for a totally different reason altogether and you go wtf. Check out Tu Raja ki. The intro music begins some million times and it totally dilutes the effect and the brilliant potential it had for some great sequences. Ditto for Jugni, Superchor(this one was a little better – O Lucky kuch to laike aa, Hooriyan.
If you have bad music and omit it out, it’s ok. If you have good music and omit it out selectively and have reasons for it, it’s ok. But if you have a brilliant score and you omit it out ruthlessly showing no regard for all that has gone into it for sake of ‘keepin it real’, its not. I wish Dev D offers some clues as to how to take this forward in the films coming up, as it seriously is an issue with the contemporary films, they don’t know what to do with songs-keep them safely in the album or blow them up in huge sets and item songs and eventually, killing the film. I still maintain Shaad Ali respects his music and his stories).
Coming to a great effort from Paresh Rawal turning out to be a literal film-spoiler, on one hand, you have a bevy of non-stars play out all the supporting characters so nicely(Manu Rishi ‘Bangali’, Dolly, Neetu Chandra, her mom, a young Deol etc.), and on the other, you cast one of most overseen faces in films and cast him in 3 prime roles?! You might call it happenstance and agit-prop and an innovative genius but for me, it just killed all the things I expected from the film. And then there are so many other things that work against the film despite some good hopes at first – the gangster/small-time crook track, the family angle(one trip to snow-clad mountains and one nostalgic Punjabi folk track), Gogi Arora(who is he? A comic character/ a don/ a punching board for Lucky?), a wasted throwback to Goodfellas(reminded me of another wasted throwback in Ek Chaalis), so many ‘devices’ that it spoils the fun – the absolute lack of background music(its jingle bells for a robbery), the oddly sticking out dialogs at times followed by absolute silence for you to gulp them down with a sigh, a million still photographs depicting the evolution of the story and the characters, you really don’t need SO MANY of them, Dibakar. Wish you had been less intelligent a craftsman for a change. The final blow is the climax, after what the film shows all this while, you feel OK now is the time for the final stroke of the master, it will all come into a circle and make sense and you will walk out happily. Does not happen. You are left with a very un-OLLO ending, it just leaves you on a tragic-comic note and all the more confused. I wonder when I will go back to the songs because I seriously want to but can’t get the film out of my head for the same feeling of ‘left-a-lot-more-desired’.
I seriously wanted to leave all these analogies and hyper-analysis aside for OLLO and like it and call it the best film of the year, but I truly can’t. Yet with all its problems, it still remains one of the better products of the year.
Yuvraaj – Teen Bhaaiyon ki Amar Daastan
A case of bad taste, and worse, a self-convinced bad taste. It is no breaking news that Mr. Ghai lost it few years ago, and the man even agrees to that, albeit indirectly(‘I know everyone will say this film is not as great as my great films – Karz, Taal..’). And this time it was worse – an absolute lack of inspiration, a bad job with the fonts, a total lack of any buzz whatsoever. It was a perfect case of rehearsed underplay. ‘The film will speak for itself’. Will it? Oh, really?!
I saw Yuvraj will all this tossed out of my head and as it happens with a Ghai film, I enjoyed it in parts, not to mention my weakness for his uniformly flawed films with clich'©s and motifs on auto-repeat mode- loud sidekicks with jazzy clothes and hair-dos, a lunatic obsession with hats and scarves and guitars and flutes and violins and keyboards, characters looking at the mirror or breaking glasses or breaking into a musical sonata more than half the time, some weirdly justified scientific theories of how relationships work universally, dialogs repeated by characters at opposite ends of the spectrum and different climactic points in time, the camera peeping out of so-long-it-could-as-well-have-Lord Krishna-at-the-other-end curtains, pointlessly lavish sets, and each and every character with an inborn talent of music, call it Genius Disorder if you will.
So if you understand all this and want to write it off as ‘S&M guilty pleasures’, do that. But if you are cursed like me and will watch a film for testing your P.Q.(Prediction Quotient), join the ride.
Here you see a Salman Khan straight out of his countless embarrassing appearances on television actually working for the film! A wry, dry character, who calls a spade a spade, calls himself a crook, a ‘bad man’, and so on, Salman is actually a joy to watch, no mincing of words and no puns intended.
Even with all the bakwaas, one thing a Ghai film has is at least a decent stock of well-shot music videos. Yuvraj is bad on that account too. The only nicely shot songs that do some justice to the brilliant score are Zindagi, Dil ka rishta(full-on climax melodrama, inhaler mein zahar mila doongi et al) and Manmohini for Anil Kapoor’s deliriously self-convinced act. And so much so for the film’s best song, Tu Muskura has no situation for it! Ha ha!
Casting Joker Khan is yet another testament to the director having lost it. Whatwith all the shouting and bhaiyya-I-can-act routines.
Another thing that a Ghai film has is a good looking and well dressed heroine. Here, its Katrina Kaif caught and shot in a series of bad hair days. Wonder what the inspiration for that oily hairdo was.
The few bright spots are the scenes between Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan and how they have used their off-screen personas to effect in this madly structured film. Sorry I could come up with only one. No. I can think of another. The hilarious phoreners and their shudhh hindi uchchaaran. No. another. The quintessential wheel-chaired villain. No. another. The grand painting or artifact which makes its magical appearance in almost all the frames. No. another. The now-extinct use of huge extras all sur-se-sur-milaaing-with our cute and loving flawed-in-character hero with a hat stuck to his head like, well, bad taste.
The Last Lear – Intellectual Feast
A ‘pseudo film contender of the year’, I found The Last Lear a rewarding watch, in the way the narrative is structured – a slowly evolving conversation through the Diwali night brings about different shades of the involved characters, all women. And in their conversations, we see flashbacks of a story that affects all their lives, a style quite reminiscent of Raincoat. The story is of a theater thespian, Harry, played with just the right mix of lunacy, pathos, cynicism and an overpowering eccentricity which is repulsive yet appealing for it is human and very relatable. Harry meets Sidhharth for a film that Sidharth wants him to do, and they spend some time together in closed walls with a ‘window’ that looks voyeuristically at the bland street scene outside. It is through this phase that we unravel the different layers of Harry’s character – his theater memories, his mostly cynical views on cinema, and his undying love for Shakespeare.
The story moves on at a languorous pace following all the characters in a very believable air and we further witness the two main characters come out in the open for shooting their film. The story is not of prime importance here but the way Rituparno executes it is truly a signature style and quite engaging at that.
Amitabh Bachchan pitches in a brilliant portrayal as mentioned in many forums before, how he blurs the line between fact and fiction, theater and cinema has to be seen to be believed. And if you get annoyed by his loudness, that’s the intention.
Pratim Da wrote a beautiful review of the film and covered this aspect of ‘blurring lines’ quite well when the film came out. In fact his review was one reason I had kept this film on my pending list, and as it has happened on all the previous occasions, his recommendation worked this time also.
My only problem with the film was the climax, but that wasn’t that big an issue as the director already says what he has to much before that. Quite a standout film for its atmospherics, its fine performances, its mellowed-down tone, and its lingering quality.
Have yourself a Bong treat of the year. Watch Last Lear. Wow, it rhymes.
Cheers and here is hoping a better year for everyone in 2009.
Tags: 2008, Hancock, Hollywood, Kungfu Panda, OLLO, Oscar, rgv, subhash ghai, The Fall, the last lear, Wall-E, Yuvraj
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
@Tushar, exactly the same thoughts as mine on OLLO. I went to watch OLLO with my friends in Houston, who’re not big fans of such movies. I’d huge expectations from OLLO and love it music. It was not a bad movie at all. But, as you said “left-a-lot-more-desired”.. I missed so many tiny details. I wanna watch it again for those..
@ Vick, even I will catch the film again in few weeks.
@Amanda, your muffins are on their way :-)
Hey Tushar bhai.
I saw ‘Oye Lucky’ in the worst frame of mind.
Yet, it managed to evoke a smile and a tear from me.
It’s strange that the things u didn’t like, are the very things I did!
I hadn’t really played the soundtrack much beforehand, but i’m loving it now!
Abhay, IMO, was superb in it!
Absolutely loved his performance yaar.
I enjoyed all those stills and the BGM too.
I’m definitely going to see it again.
Are u going to give it another chance??
@Tushar: :D
Tushar, this much I will say.
Subhash Ghai’s the best song murderer EVER!
He has great soundtracks, but just kills ‘em in the films!
Having said that, the black lady in ‘Shanno Shanno’ was fantastic!
She was hilarious!
Her head looked like it was about to drop off, what with all that screaming and jumping around!
Actually, she’s the reason why I now love that song! :-)
Steve, hello how are you. I wouldn’t go as far as calling him a song murderer man, the man is behind some of the most beautiful songs ever done in hindi films. But ya, I too remember that Toni Braxton look-alike quite distinctly. :-)
Pyaala pyaala….maye ka pyaalaa…
Tushar- I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. The only thing you have convince d me about is to take a better hear at the songs of OLLO. I am not a big fan of Punjabi/Bhangra type music but thought the soundtrack of Lucky was superb. Not sure if I’ll enjoy the music without the visuals though.
And frankly, I cannot have enough of actors like Paresh Rawal…
Sure man, after all(as my Botany prof used to say), We are aaall matuure indeeveeduaalls. :-)
Not every film inspires such discussions, I have been following the ones on your post, quite interesting observations there.
I have no issues with Paresh Rawal, I just thought it would bring more variety to have 3 actors play those 3 roles. Anyways Dibakar is a master, he cleverly employs some classic comic devices(Strangelove), I thought of few more cool sequences from the film that I forgot mentioning – the Superchor rap and the way it is shot, simply brilliant, Lucky does those morning walk routines and so coolly climbs those multi-storied houses. Ditto for his impromptu handling of the situation when questioned. Then the wait at the bus stand in suit-boot.
pyaar…pyaar pyaar pyaar!
Tushar, with all due respect, you just don’t get it.
The retro masala-truck art is there not because it is cool and ironically kitschy, but because that’s what it is and it needs to be there. Gogi bhai is no buffoon, he may make you laugh and cringe, but he is the way he is because in his universe it’s the epitome of cool.
Growing up, did you not know anyone who idolized Mithun and Govinda and danced to Ek Do Teen? Or loved the Akshay Kumar of Khiladi? Uff, you public school boys
All the other reviews of OLLO seem to have figured out the obvious – that the Gogibhai character is a father figure to Lucky, however this is a father who’s cynical, manipulative, has a sliver of affection for Lucky and yet would always put his own interests first.
The jingle bells during the robbery scenes is a brilliant trope! It smoothly aligns with all the other key pieces in the film – the greeting cards, the family photos, the teddy bear and they are such subtle markers of craving for affection, attention, aspiration.
I’ll grant you your crib about the music. Dibakar could have done better things with it – especially the title song.
Aur Tushar, tumne kya kabhi Suhaib Ilyasi ka show nahin dekha? Melodrama and theatrics are the norm in Hindi television. This isn’t slapstick, it is exactly what’s dished out on TV.
Hmm. Interesting thoughts- agree to some points on OLLO, but I think I need to rewatch the film. As for Salman in the cinematic migraine called Yuvvraaj, I thought he was insufferable- a totally vain, pompous and ‘look-I-am-a-bad-boy-and-I’ll-do-whatever-the-fuck-I-feel-like-in-the-film’ performance. (I think I just created the longest adjective ever
tushar, have to disagree with you…i thought OLLO was one of the films this year which made me sit up and take notice…the last time this year some film made me seriously do that was Mithya (which was released in February!!!)…
Oh Tushar, I cant compel you to watch OLLO again, but no, the film is not like the way you’ve put it down. But thats the way you feel, so…
The story is real so doesnt fall into a ‘genre’; cannot be…life isnt like that…The rest, Dewi has put it down already…
Thanks for the education guys.
yeah man.. what we need now is a Shaad Ali film.. i’ve keeping my eyes and mind open for anything else that lives up.. but yeah.. tashan came close.. but it was just not it.. i’m having a few good feelings (strangely)lately about maharathi.. haven’t seen the trailers but the poster is just kooky enough to………………………………..
have to disagree on some points. First of all,why a film should decide its genre? what genre is pulp fiction? noir-drama-comedy-thriller? Or A clockwork Orange? MullHolland Drive? Pointless to argue on this. Let the film choose its own genre. A new one maybe?
Among the other reasons, the shortcomings actually worked for me. I liked the TV anchor approach, I liked Paresh Rawal’s awesome threesome, I liked the freezeshots(pretty well used IMO). The use of the music is definitely not spectacular , but calling it bad is a bit too far. It was just okay I guess.
I could not understand your problem with the ending. if it ends with “…tragic-comic note and all the more confused.”, then it is exactly the kind of ending this film deserved. The last thing we need in these type of films is a “full-circle” ending, where all the characters are given a neat funeral for the sake of a happy audience. I am glad DB did not go that way. I cant find a better hindi film coming out this year, with Mithya a close second.
Hey Tushar, well-written but that was no roundup..! You just listed a few films and then went on to talk only abt OLLO, Yuvvraj and Last Lear..!
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BTW it was gratifying to read you find good things abt Tashan. I saw the films long after reading all its hostile reviews. In fact I thought, ‘If Taran Adarsh didnt like it, it must be really bad’. But when I saw it, I was pleasantly surprised and wrote this to a pal:-
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I don’t quite agree with the hostile reviews TASHAN has got. It has delicious gray characters, decent performances, good songs and some smart writing. Its sociological connotations, especially since it is a Yash Raj production, are interesting. Akshay Kumar is magnetic. He brings the house down whenever he is on screen. This is not to say the film is free of flaws. Its content is overwhelmed by its star power and grandeur. Its action irritatingly shifts from Ladakh to Rajasthan to Kerala solely in search of visual appeal and it begins to drag in the second half like most Bollywood films. But still, TASHAN is watchable and nowhere as bad as the malicious reviews say. It is a film that has gone wrong in scale and publicity pitch rather than making.
@Roodrow, I never talked about Pulp Fiction or Clockwork Orange or Mullholland Drive. I know its cool to mention them in any film discussion and all, but give it a break. I am talking about this film and I have listed enough reasons for what I say and why I say. I never panned the film, I merely discussed the things I liked and the things that didn’t work for me. Agree with you on Mithya.
@Sanjeev, if you wish to read some 20 pages with 200 films’ mention, I will send a roundup to you.:-) You should also wait for the month’s end for all them roundups. As for Tashan, you can read a review of mine titled, ‘The end of masala, as we know it’, you will find all the reasons why I stand for that film. It was truly one of the new things coming up this year.
BTW, who is Taran Adarsh?
“who is Taran Adarsh?” Ha Ha Ha!!!! LOL!! After watching Tashan, I am asking that question too, with ‘the f**k’ added in the middle!
Taran Adarsh: A Symptom where the Brain tends to get stuck in a narrow grove of thinking, and is unable to see the larger picture. Persons suffering from this Symptom, imagine they are God, and their word is the final word.
@Tushar,
I could not clarify myself enough I guess. I meant it is not a drawback for a filmmaker in any way if he/she doesnt “choose’ the genre. I mentioned those cliche films just to exemplify how the genres can be successfully broken.
Hi Tushar,
Just thought I would add in a vote for OLLO. Loved everything you loved about the movie AND everything you hated about it as well. Abhay Deols performance, use of music, 3 paresh rawals, use of stills, and the jingle bells in the score was inspirational. Maybe the ending left me wanting more, but that speaks well of the movie.