Baabarr: A violent tale of a don of Kanpur
Film starts with a good promise. Narration, first by Om Puri and later by a boy, sets the nature of the film very well for the audience. Boy’s narration sounds raw but interesting. Initial twenty minutes or so maintain the impression that rest of the film may present similar good material.
A good beginning gets strength from a realistic (but/yet impressive) touch in the overall presentation. If the shooting was not done on the actual places and a set was erected to show Amanganj then art director performed a work worth praises.
Film shows the nexus between criminals and politicians and organized crime of extortion.
Film has got some good performances. Om Puri remains on the top and not only story wise but by his good performance also he has stolen the film from other actors. Mithun Chakravorty, Shakti Kapoor, Sushant Singh and Tinnu Anand are quite good. Urvashi Sharma gives an average performance.
Mukesh Tiwari is good but he has become seriously typed in such a role and if financial constraints are not strongly guiding his acting career he must pay attention to this factor.
Cinematography is good, though not all close up shots look good.
Sudden killing of a tannery owner in his own plant looks chilling and impressive and such technical competency has been maintained in many of the scenes in the film.
Baabarr the film achieves one additional thing for sure. Film clearly suggests, and it is a meritorious suggestion, that audiences don’t have to watch gangster films set in Mumbai only where one is forced to listen dialogues written/delivered in a typical filmi tapori style.
Gangster films set in Mumbai need to present something new now. Cities like Kanpur, Gorakhpur and Gajipur can provide far novel plots to hindi cinema in the area of gangster films. Other areas of India may also produce far more convincing and powerful stories than the Mumbai based gangster films which hindi film industry has been presenting, rather recycling, since past many years.
Kanpur, which was famous as Manchester of the east in 20th century, is a strange city. This city has many different colors. Business, politics and crime, all the three elements make Kanpur a very interesting city.
Shad Ali had used only famous brand name of Thaggu ke laddoo in his Bunty aur babli but Kanpur is not about sweetness only. This sensitive city gives birth to hundreds of stories on a daily basis because of its heterogeneous culture.
Anyone who has got a chance to have a feel of Kanpur at sometime in his life will be able to support the thought that film has tried to depict truth about A PLace (rechristened as Amanganj in the film) of Kanpur which has been (in)famous as Mini Pakistan. Police force used to fear to enter this area.
Film tries to show how crime is flourished there. How it is so easy for a volatile mind to become a criminal there because atmosphere is just so vulnerable there and all the facilities and infrastructure to achieve this goal of becoming a criminal is available in abundance. Lack of literacy and vote bank politics provide enough fertilizer to convert such a place into a fertile land where the crops of crime can easily be flourished.
Considering the initial portions of the film which are based in 1993, just after the period of December 1992, and names like Kalu and Sarfaraaz, It seems Writer Ikram Akhtar has mixed some inside stories of criminal world of Kanpur with his script, rather he has created fiction around few true events.
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Timing of birth of any object is important. Birth takes place before or after an appropriate time and it may change the fate of the object.
Certain films can earn a better recognition if they are made and released at a proper time when their subjects may look novel. Considering the subject Baabarr touches it could be the predecessor of the films like Satya, Company and Sehar but somehow it has been made in 2009 and this single factor goes strongly against the film’s fate and evaluation. Few years ago this film could have created more discussion among audiences just because of its subject that deals with the nexus between politicians and mafia powers in UP and audiences could have recommended the film to many of their friends. But now people have already seen the films which have shown similar premises. Filmmaker of Baabarr still had a chance if his film was made in such a way where it could have looked like overshadowing all the previously made films on similar subjects par ye ho na saka aur ab ye alam hai ki, film, inspite of having many good moments and some good performances by some actors, may not get the kind of response (and recognition) from the audiences which it could have got if it was made and released few years ago.
Even if timing factor is kept aside film has got few other weaknesses also.
Film swings between the efforts to make it both, realistic and yet fictitious. At some places film takes the route of a docu-drama but at other places and especially in the end film tries to take a resort in the fiction also. Realistic approach in the beginning but fictitious twists in the end makes it a confusing film. Somewhere this effort reduces the impact of the film.
Pratima Kazmi imitates very successfully a lady CM of UP and Govind Namdeo very convincingly imitates an infamous mafia type politician of UP, who used to run a parallel government in his area where his ancestors used to rule before India opted democratic ways to govern the country. Surnames of the characters of CM and his younger brother don’t leave any doubt in where Ikram Akhtar’s writing is heading at?
People have been reading about these things in newspapers. People may not exactly know the real names/persons behind the characters of Baabarr , Sarfaraz and Tabrej etc because things could be taken from various sources and characteristics of many criminals could be taken to create these characters. This ambiguity about main criminal characters and direct portrayals of politicians split the film in to two different sides.
In a fictitious thriller, imitation of contemporary politicians don’t work in favour of the film. Baabarr is not a docu-drama like Black Friday and its genre matches more with films like Sehar .
A film is not simply the visual documentation of the events and there is always a need of something more which converts visual presentation into an interesting film. Baabarr gives an impression that attention has been kept on making a visual documentation of certain events and thus story factor remains with the audience but things run on surface only and no where scenes are created where one can feel a bit deeper effect of any event or happening.
Inspite of few weaknesses many films work and few of them get the iconic status also in a few years time. Certain films work big time inspite of somewhat weak portrayal by the lead actor because many other aspects of the film overshadow this weakness but often this has been seen that such films are almost first in their respective categories.
Good acting by the actors playing main characters is one very important area and it feels very bad to judge the efforts of a debutant actor but Soham , who has played the title role of the Baabarr, is the weakest link in the film. His character had so much potential that any good actor could have just jumped on it to make it his powerful entry into the films.
Young boy who has played the young Baabarr gets success in displaying the dynamics of such a volatile character through the 3-4 scenes he has got in the film. Sadly Soham could not do the same through 100s of scenes. Focus is always on Baabarr and even in the talks of other characters Baabarr is the topic of discussion. As per the story, a lot of things are happening in the life of Baabarr but this dynamics is absent from the performance of the actor.
Such a character who is an angry don and who can not control his emotions whenever it’s a matter related with people of his family or people, he loves, there was a great scope for an actor to display a great collection of emotions but Soham remains mainly monotonous in most of the scenes.
It may look sheer speculation but considering the past record of few actors, (Leaving aside actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Pankaj Kapoor), if actors like Pavan Malhotra, Irfan Khan , Manoj Bajpai, Nirmal Pande and Ashutosh Rana, who all can easily display characteristics of a character living in a hindi belt, had got role of Baabarr in their debut or second or third film then they could have shaken the film world, but here in Baabarr a weak portrayal by Soham has made it possible that Baabarr has become a film belonging to Om Puri and it may not be counted even among Om Puri ’s top 14-15 performances.
A powerful performance by the central character raises up the standard of the film because then combined and/or confrontational scenes with other actors become more lively, energetic and impressive and more sense starts flowing in an under current manner and emotions of the characters touch more deeply the audiences.
Film just runs through the events happening in the life of Baabarr as if there was a hurry to recite/show the story of Baabarr. In this hurry a proper attention has not been given to the logical detailing. A rival gangster fires in the side of the head of Baabarr at point blank range but not only Baabarr survives but his revival shows no physical after effect on his head/face. Baabarr is surrounded by policemen but shooter easily escapes from the scene. Firing from a distance could have saved the spirit of all these scenes.
Film delivers few thrilling encounters between different gangs of criminals and between police and gangsters, though execution of such encounters, where bullets are fired from all the directions, remains debatable because central characters don’t get even a scratch without even wearing a protection. They simply bow down their heads and escape from the bullets.
Film presents at least two quite attractive chase sequences.
Baabarr does not surpass the films made earlier in similar category and this factor goes against its establishment in the present time. In one scene film pays the tribute to Ram Gopal Verma’s film Satya, and perhaps team of writer and director too was happy keeping their film under the shadow of Satya.
Tags: Aashu Trikha, Ashutosh Rana, Baabarr, Black Friday, Bunti aur Babli, Company, Govind Namdeo, Ikram Akhtar, Irfan Khan, Kanpur, Mithun Chakravorty, Mukesh Tiwari, naseeruddin shah, Nirmal Pande, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Pavan Malhotra, Pratmia Kazmi, Ram Gopal Verma, satya, Sehar, Shaad Ali, Shakti Kapoor, Soham, Sushant Singh, Thaggu ke laddoo, urvashi sharma
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
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Blog: Baabarr: A violent tale of a don of Kanpur http://bit.ly/16MVVu (via ) @Priyendra watched it yesterday since it had Mithun da
Nice review and agree with it. Having stayed in Kanpur for four years, I liked the movie immensely.
@rks,
Being resident of Kanpur for 4 years you must have felt some thrilling association. Those who have visited the Concerned Gali, may pass through a bigger thrilling experience. Not always famous and infamous places of a city are covered in a film.
Too lengthy and puts reader down. you coud hv trimmed it. my 2 cents.
@Yaatri ji,
Trim….
Please do.
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Have you seen the film? If yes, do you have time and desire etc to discuss any aspect of the film? Good bad whatever?
@Rk..good to see a review about baabarr..and a very good analysis..
@girish,
Thanks.
Tinnu Anand is such an underrated actor!!! The torture scene and then his death scene are evidence of his great acting mettle.
The main problem of the film was the lead actor Soham Shah. He was so ineffective!! I was all the time cheering for Sushant singh to kick his ass!! Which unfortunately doesn’t happen often!! And how come Sushant singh missed his aim from a point blank range???
Agreed the film started well, but to give an excuse like “Considering the subject Baabarr touches it could be the predecessor of the films like Satya, Company and Sehar but somehow it has been made in 2009 and this single factor goes strongly against the film’s fate and evaluation” is like snatching away all the credit from Satya and Sehar (Dragging Company in the discussion is a blasphemy). Satya and Sehar were good film making, while Babbarr was incompetent, inconsistent and ridiculous film making at times. It was filled with 1-d characters. Only the great actors like Mithun Om Puri Sushant Singh and Tinnu Anand rise above the film. Even a competant actor like Mukesh Tiwari comes across as a 1-d mad blood thirsty gangster.
Very few of you must have seen a obscure film called Avgat. That too wasn’t anything great, but it still made you feel for the characters on screen.
The only credibility Baabarr has is its setting, that it is not set in Mumbai, but in UP. Is that the reason enough to celeberate it??
@Gaurang,
I have written most of what I want to say about Baabarr ( unless you bring out some new point, some new perspective). Reading your comment I am not sure if you have got analogy among genres of Baabarr, Satya, Sehar and Company in right context as it was mentioned. There are many lines devoted to this analogy and even last paragraph is concluded with Satya and Baabarr.
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BTW, Satya too had weaknesses. Perhaps it was your first film in its genre and hence this chaste impression. But these weaknesses were overcomed by its big merits. Which is not the case with Babbarr. But inspite of weaknesses, Baabarr may have its strengths and strengths and weaknesses of a film can be discussed. That is the way in which an internet forum can be used as an open school.
For me existence of such forums can be exploited this way. You may have different understanding about such a place.
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Nothing is celebrated. which celebration you are talking about?
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You have counted 4-5 actors/characters out of 6-7 main characters and still you dont find any ground to search some strengths in the film?
Shakti Kapoor is missing from your list. Who produced a very good characterization right from his first scene where he is eating silently at his home.
This discussion about Baabarr was very different from normal reviews. And that is because Rk himself is a film maker. Minute details that he observed makes this discussion absolutely thrilling.
Realistic in the beginning and fiction in the end. Well… directors need to try out different methods to see what works and to what degree.
Which film has he made?
@Vinay,
When real politicians are imitated in such a thriller then audiences come under the impression, especially in this era of investigative journalism, that filmmaker is going to reveal something earth shattering mystery.
What is reported in newspaper many a times, does not help the film/s if matter remains just on the surface.
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If first 20 minutes of the film were killer, Last 20 minutes kill or atleast reduce the chances of the film. Twists should look genuine.
@RK
Sorry for the barrage. I hate my comment after your reply.
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The thing that triggered me was the line where you try to justify Baabar’s weaknesses by stating that Satya and Sehar had the advantage of releasing before Baabar.
How can you say that man!!! Satya and Sehar were such raw realistic products. I could actually smell the gangsters in Satya. The whole police operation in Sehar was so intricately plotted. These 2 films before being genre films, were flawlessly scripted and succeeds at the most basic level, makes the viewer feel for the characters. Before everything else it succeeds at the most basic level, it affects the viewer.
You say Satya too has weaknesses. I would really like to debate on that.
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The other thing that irks me, is your complete dispassionate view point of the movie, which I’m sure is not necessarily a bad thing. You state all the negative things in the movie so friggin straight faced, that it looks like, those things didn’t mean a great deal to you. Didn’t you go in the theatre with a ray of hope, that this might be a good gangster flick?
@Gaurang,
First your last para…,
> One watches a film by accepting that it’s an integrated product.
> While writing/discussing, a film is disintegrated into various parts otherwise study and discussion etc can not be done.
In absence of disintegration of the film, only two kinds of OPINION exist.
:- One liked the film.
:- One did not like the film.
This hardly helps anyone. Then people act as a consumer only or an admirer only or a critic only.
Analysis and study both need disintegration of a product.
Nobody minds studying merits and demerits of a subject/object in a class room then why we should start shaking when we do the same with the films?
For students of cinema films are also subjects/objects and their various departments can come under scanner.
Neither films nor their makers are harmed this way. rather an open minded filmmaker may get honest opinion from audience’s side.
Watching and discussing are two different activities and I never find any conflict in both of them.
Disintegration does not affect even the re-watching. It enhances the observation power. Next time audience may observe many things which he was unable to see in first viewing (and it’s true for both, merits and demrits)
You are spot on about Disintegration. Criticism is indeed about disintegration, but what I was trying to point out in my last para is your totally distant/dispassionate approach to Disintegration. You list down the negative aspects like facts. You take a very cold mathematical approach to disintegration, which again I’m clarifying that it isn’t necesarily a bad thing. While reading you posts I always visualise you straight faced. Now please dont be offended. This may sound a personal attack, but believe me, that this so much reflects in your writings, that I can’t overcome it while reading. This is of course my own problem. Please take this comment as ‘Thinking loud’. When I read your posts on old songs, movies I so much look upto you for the detailed writing, which I’m so incapable of. You must have read my shallow posts, which are so bloddy subjective and running hot with emotions, which I’m very well aware isn’t suitable for actual film criticism.
Gaurang,
visualisation- this power is an important step in the making of a director or a good script writer
Hehehe!!!
Thanks for taking the comment the right way. To be frank I was a bit scared of how will you react to the comment.
Cheers!!
@Gaurang,
You write (where you try to justify Baabar’s weaknesses by stating that Satya and Sehar had the advantage of releasing before Baabar.)
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No I did not write it.
I had written, ” Baabarr could have benefitted if it was made and released before Satya and Sehar etc were made because then novelty of subject might have covered up its weaknesses. as it happens many a times. Having watched Satya and Sehar, people will pay more attention to its weaknesses and it will not get a chance to get a proper response and recognition. If it was able to surpass Satya etc in overall terms then it had a chance.”
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If opinions and not the study of the films are the concern then It will be interesting to see the remarks of teenagers who are allowed and able to watch Baabarr, who have not seen Satya and Sehar etc, and any other film in gangster genre, what they think about Baabarr? Or people who have seen such settings in which film has been built.
If study is the concern then one has to leave reverence while studying a film. If filmmakers follow this blind admiration toward older films then they can not make better films than older films. They like certain films but at the same time they dissect them thoroughly and this dissection is done for the advancement.
“Satya was a good film. But it had its own weaknesses.”
There is no conflict in it, if people are studying it.
As a starting point if cinematography is studied, recall the scene where Satya is taken to police station in a Jeep. Watch the camera work there.
Compare it with camera work in Sushant Singh’s scene where he is terrorising that Sonkar guy in an open ground.
or the top angle shot in Kolkata, where Zia/Ziya (Urvashi Sharma) is shown approaching the building.
At some places cinematography of Baabarr could be better than Satya and vice versa is also true.
Not only filmmaker but his camera team also were influenced by Satya. Technically That candle light scene (Baabarr and Ziya scene) was just replica of Satya’s scene but Satya’s scene was inspired by a scene of Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi, which influenced similar scene in Parineeta also.
If we are searching some common connection or some analogy among different films, then does it harm those films?
Though the story was set in Kanpur, still the generic feel of the places and the things about the city was missing from the various scenes of the movie as was there in the films like Sehar etc. We only get to see some shots of few places and the railway station.
And there was no point of the initial voice over of Om Puri, talking about honesty who himself is a corrupt policeman.
Jahanpanah,
Om Puri narrates as Om Puri, an actor only and not as his character Daroga Dwivedi.
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Film is introduced via the narration of Jhandu or Zandu, the boy who in the end escaped to Portugal via Dubai.
(Dont know how a 12-13 years old boy could have managed it
)
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It is possible that they did not shoot in Kanpur except Railway station scene. Through names, Amanganj, Jajmau, Govindnagar etc, one gets a feeling about the city.
I saw today those who have missed names of these places, have taken impression that film was set in Lucknow perhaps becuase of the presence of characters of political leaders.
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Was It really Benaras in Sehar where Arshad Warsi team goes to capture Sushant Singh and local DSP alerts him?
or Scenes which are supposed to show Delhi Rly station? was it really Delhi Railway station?
Or Gajipur etc?
I cant recall these details properly.
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Omkara was not shot in Western UP but on a set.
I dont think it to be a very good idea that an actor who is playing a role in the movie is doing the voice over.
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Throughout the movie it didn’t occur to me often that the movie was happening in Kanpur. At least in Sehar they had various shots of the Kotwalis of Hazratganj, Kesarbaag etc. and also various panoramic views of the city. Characters were also bringing the various references to the places while talking. Is Amanganj an area in Kanpur? (I’m not sure). The film suffers because it tried to walk on the fine line of both fact and fiction.
Characters were not Kanpuriya. Om Puri was speaking Hindi mixed Awadhi, so he looked like an UPian.
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I don’t think that the scenes in Benaras or Ghajipur were taking place in the real city but they had some shots of roads with the informatory signs in which distance to various places was written in kms. so at least it looked like some part of Eastern UP.
2 corrections sirjee.
In your comment- Dwivedi was Mithun’s character and not Om Puri’s
In my comment- Om Puri speaks Khadi Boli mixed with Awadhi.
Yes,
Om Puri is Chaturvedi and Mithun is Dwivedi.
D of Daroga goes smoothly with D of Dwivedi. Lukily nobody was Chaube.:)
Sorry for mixing them.
Jahanpanah,
Good or bad idea, It may definitely be hard for any filmmaker to resist the allurement of using such a rich voice of Om Puri. One natural thing where he easily beats his friend Naseeruddin Shah.
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You dont know Amanganj in Kanpur? Perhaps you missed the dialogue, Amanganj, 12 lakh ka vote bank, jise koi bhee party haath nahin lagana chahti.
Fear that film may face the protest might have forced writer and director to make a slight change in the name of the place.
I am not sure how true is the news and how genuine is the person and his desire to file a case against the film. he complains that film depicts wrongly an entire community and few characters can be identified easily.
Soon concerned political parties may jump into arena against the film.
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what is Kanpuria?
Do you consider the migration factor associated with Kanpur as this has been an industrial city for a century now?
people migrate from other places of UP and people go there from other states also.
due to this heavy migration all kinds of dialects can be heard there.
There can be a bit difference in dialect but on an average people belonging to any place of Bundelkhand region understand each other’s spoken language.
This is not necessary that Dwivedis and Chaturvedis should be Kanpurias by birth. They may come rom Benaras or Allahabad or Lucknow or any other nearby places.
Films have to take an average in terms of language.
This is happening since few years only that majority of hindi films have started using a language which has been given the name Mumbaiya.
Considering the heavy migration to Bombay/Mumbai, it is not possible that majority of people actually speak in that kind of slang. It is filmi.
Sarre log waat nahin laga rahe hain wahan. This is filmi generalization.
Migration may be there for the working class people like Dwivedi and Chaturvedi but the family members of Baabarr and Mamu etc. would have been living in that area for generations so some caring in the accent would have been good, though I’m ready to accept that it is possible due to migration and the people of various communities and regions that the dialects and accents may have merged and an average language has been used in the movie.
Though use of “Kantav”, “Rangbazi” and “Baiketi” type of words could have brought more local touch to the film but still “Abe” and “Harami” (which are used excessively by many people there), are parts of dialogues of most of the characters.
Abuses used as expletives can be seen with many People in Kanpur.
But in films it can do good if extremely abusive words are not used in the dialogues.
For commercial films, an average language standard and not very specific dialect and accent should be favourable.
Thanks for writing review for this movie. I would have not considered watching this movie, had you not written the review. The word “Kanpur” captures my attention and takes me to my home town.
Abhishek,
home town nostalgia.
(If have not watched yet, Pls. take care of a fact that it may not be suitable for a watch with minors and family members. It is too violent in every aspect.)
Perhaps people don’t care about the certificate of the movie. I remember in Kaminey, there were people with their 5 year olds. People are not so aware of the things it seems and traditionally movie is still consider to be a family affair.
Very sad but true. It happens only in India
(and alike developing countries)
Watched this movie today. Horrible movie to say the least. Couldn’t sit for even 1 hour. The narration at the beginning by the boy is just off-putting. The voice, choice of words etc aren’t doing any good either. They should have opted for a mature voice here, like the voice of Pankaj Kapoor in Sehar. But, then it wouldn’t have been a Baabarr (with 2 r’s). Silly direction, glorification of violence, immature script, choice of actors, filthy dialogues – there are so many reasons for avoiding this crap movie.
@Galaxian,
Like Pankaj Kapoor was a character there in Sehar, boy, whose narration has been used in the film, is also a character. You could not complete the film hence you missed this thing. Using the narration of such a character was a different idea, it may sound good or bad to people depending on their choices.
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Glorification of violence: Same opinion was showered on Sholay, Satya and Haasil etc in their times.
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Silly direction, immature script, choice of actors, filthy dialogues…
You got all these things in first hour of the film? Is it possible for you to support any or all of these opionated verdicts by a proper reasoning and examples?
Actors were good except the leads. Was just reading the review by TA and was surprised that he commended the performance of Soham.
Jahanpanah,
Who is TA?
Tinnu Anand?
He has wriiten on this film?
He is talking about Taran Adarsh.
These abbreviations!
Slipped completely my mind.
Thanks for correction.
Heh! I like your humor.
No Humor Jahanpanah.
I thought as actors also promote their films so may be Tinnu Anand also has written something for this purpose. Due to this thinking Taran Adarsh’s name did not strike my mind.
I agree with RK, when I read TA first, I was reminded of TSA folks in airport… anyways I read the TA review for WANTED, and it looks like its the same “word to word” review across all publications….
Well. May be it wasn’t a humor here but I’ve noticed this type of hidden humor in some of your comments. It was a general comment covering all of them.
Overall I would say a decent movie but I’m little biased because of its setting in Kanpur-The city which started my journey as a cine fanatic. I had watched my first movie in the theatre (Pammi) there in 2002 (pretty late) but no looking back since then.
Hey, I may be wrong but is not it the same cinema hall which screens the films, made by filmmakers (?) for all the wrong reasons.
Sometimes regular films should be screened there.
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Almost every city has atleast one such theatre where Visuals defy and defeat the purpose and even existence of dialogues.
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Dub, shub everything works there. Language is no bar there.
What greatest films can not achieve these films seem to achieve with their own audiences. A completely illiterate person will happily watch a russian film there. He may complain about the visuals but will never complain about story, dialogues and any other aspect of the film/s.
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On a side note, your marriage with cinema is completing its 7th year. How Seven year itch is affecting you?
Any occasional disillusionment?
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Got to know that a recent film Shadow is made by a blind tannery owner of Kanpur?
And he has acted also in it.
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If that is true that you srarted the journey from there, it again proves that it does not matter where seed of the journey was sown, a good and curious traveller soon finds its path.
Gurdev was definitely in better condition (dont know the scenario now) but Pammi was also not bad. I don’t know what was the situation of that theatre prior to 2002-2003 but the theatre was in pretty decent condition. I had watched movie ‘Mujhse Dosti Karoge’ and acoustics etc. were good then. Not Dolby but still good. Last I went to Kanpur in 2007 and at that time some construction work was going on there to improve it.
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I had stayed in Kanpur for a year only and that time if I remember correctly the only controversial film that was screened there was ‘Ek Chhoti si Love Story’. They were screening regular films there.
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I have watched my first hindi movie in theatre (Mujhse Dosti Karoge) first hindi dubbed movie in theatre (Men in Black 2) and also first English movie in theatre (xXx) there in Pammi theatre only. So yea they offerred a good variety of movies.
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I watched movie in cinema hall first time in Pammi. prior to that I had watched films on TV only but yea my real journey started from there.
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Heard about the movie Shadow but didn’t know that it was made by someone from Kanpur.
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I’ve felt that loving movies is kind of collective process. It’s difficult for a loner to be a cinema zealot for a long time. Also movies are enjoyed best with carefree mind. The most favourable time for this was college time. There was a genuine passion for it when I was in college and everyone was watching movies. I sometimes used to go to nearby city Dehradun alone to catch the latest flick. At that time I used to watch every English movie good or bad but that zeal has subsided and now I make choices in selection. Different phases were also there. There was a time when I used to like only English movies discarding Hindi movies but that phase was short one and now I have genuine liking for Hindi movies. Changes do occur in cyclic way.
True. different phases come while performing this journey of watching the films and geographical, personal and social situations etc affect the desire and liking etc. One does not give any care to some films while he is surrounded by many films and some day he is alone and start watching any such film and he can see the merits in the film.
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You will find a change (for good) in film watching again once you start writing about them.
You must write. If I remember correctly you like Vampire genre a lot.
If you have seen Nosferatu. Write on that.
Personal blog or whereever, but start writing.
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Doon to Kanpur – a long distance link!
Nosferatu is good and available for free viewing on Jaman.
I had a discussion on Vampire movies on PFC but they are not my favourite.
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It is much longer distance link than that, goes to Akbarpur in UP. The name Jahanpanah also comes from there (my pet name in college given by colleagues)
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yet to see Nosferatu
I recalled wrongly it as your favourite genre. Whatever is your favourite genre, write on that!
Ok So link should be Akbarpur to Doon Via Kanpur.
Perhaps first time I had heard this name at the time of solar eclipse around mid 90s.
Late Habeeb Tanvir has written a poem on that occasion and Akbarpur is mentioned in that poem also.
Will try to write after sometime.
Was in Haridwar district actually. Doon was for movies only.
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Don’t know about the poem but perhaps the most notable things about the place is that it was the birth place of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia and also considered to be the birth place of Shravan Kumar (who was killed by Raja Dashrath).
Folks,
Just finished Baabar and actually liked it. Though it offers nothing new but its kindda one time watch. It has flaws but I fell in love with the character of Om Puri. he again excels as a corrupt kanpuria polic officer, a treat to watch. Soham works in just one tone and lacks the screen presence. Shakti kapoor and Tinu anand lived upto the expectation.