Bheja Kum
Why?
Why Cant You?
Idiot
Why Cant You?
Kya Hai Problem?
Kyun Tera Bheja Kum?
Kya Hai Problem?
Kyun Tera Bheja Kum?
Kyun SubtleFilm Mein Ho Anda?
Kyun Roz Khate Danda?
Grammar Pathetic And Spelling All Wrong! (True)
Apparently, I don’t get subtle films. And apparently, subtle films is the IN thing in Bollywood. Quite few subtle films have released this year. The year is only two months old and yet people are professing this year we won’t see a better film than so and so. We do like making statements, don’t we? I have made some in past and every-time I read it – I cringe. I wish I can delete it.
I didn’t like Luck By Chance. That was first subtle film of the year, apparently. I didn’t even bother to watch the rest of it.. What was so great about the film? No, sorry I asked, I don’t want to understand it. I don’t want to write kinetics about the film. Cos I cannot. I don’t get it. The film was ahead of time? It is best that is left to astrologers. Luck By Chance was smart by getting entire Bollywood in the film to poke fun at themselves and the industry? A self-parody? Nah. Never in a million the film is a compete parody of Bollywood. The film is somewhere in the middle of Om Shanti Om and Khoya Khoya Chand. By the way, am not a fan of either of those two movies.
Poor aam junta were blamed for not getting subtleness failure of the film. It is our ol’ habit to blame aam junta. Only good thing about the film was Saurabh Shukla. He can act.
Hrishikesh Mukherji made some subtle films, didn’t he?
Delhi 6. I liked this film. A lot. But again, this film was classified as a subtle film. Beats me! It is an urbane masala film. A bit of black comedy. A bit of patriotic. A bit of romantic. A bit of action. Like Rang De Basanti was. There is nothing subtlety about this film. Or I don’t get it again?! Maybe I am a Ghandi’s monkey. That is better than a Kala Bandar, I suppose. The film tried to be over-smart, when it should have kept it simple. Perhaps that confused aam junta – and they got lost – somewhere in nowhere. The film could have done without Rishi Kapoor’s character – t’was a bit stretched. Promos were confusing – it didn’t paint the real picture of the film. Sync sound was awful. The ending was sentimental; it could have had a sad/dark end to it, but I suppose, the writer wanted to keep or give some hope. I wasn’t disappointed by Sonam Kapoor; I got what I wanted. But overall, I found the film entertaining.
Dev D. I liked this film as well. The music – especially – the underground version of Emosinal Atyachar made me feel like this film could be very cocky but was disappointed that the film wasn’t brash or extreme as much as I expected.
I didn’t find the film to be a bold. I didn’t find the female characters to be bold. Perhaps that is because I have been living in a phoren land for a decade now.
Some of the scenes were so lame and unintentionally I found it funny, for example, first part of Yahi Meri Zindagi song scene – where Lenni is shouting at his father. I didn’t feel anything – it just made me laugh. The dialogues in English were just filmsy. Indian actors swearing ‘Fuck You’ just cracks me up; I don’t know why. Perhaps it is because me and mates used to take piss at our peers who liked swearing in English. “You baaaaasteeerd!!” Showing fingers scenes – that was childish/amateurish. Swear in Hindi for fuck sake!
Mahi Gill didn’t remind me of Tabu. She reminded me of Gauri from Seema in the first half and Neela from Safar in the second part. Some of the sexually frustrated scenes didn’t do it for me – I found it unconvincing.
What I liked about the film was that it was a long music video – it felt like a quality 180 minutes long song. Again, this film had its fair bit of subtlety; I might not have got it all. Using songs to describe the emotions. Rand on the Billboard. Canada on the bus. Rustic Punjab. Chunni. The car scene – Lenni and Dev talking about Paro. One – Liners. I always have enjoyed Anurag’s hindi one-liners – they are hilarious. Wish the film was a bit tight and was more about Dev’s journey rather than journey of all three characters. Wanted to see the angst, dopeyness, pessimisticness, up yours kind of attitude in the film….but it was too laid back for my liking.
Gulaal. Another film that had a fair bit of subtlety in the shape of two Sadhus, songs, the hippie and his side-kick. I like watching Indian political films. But, I hate it when Love and Politicsis mixed. It just makes me cringe. Although, I did like Hazaron Khwaisie Aisi, but didn’t like Dil Se, Haasil and Omakra – basterized version of Maqbool . The film was hyped as most “aggressive film of anurag kashyap”, so I thought it would be gory or something like Satya or Shool.
There is a saying, which all you know, “Action Speaks Louder than words”. The film needed some action. If it was a black comedy, then all those antics of Piyush Mishra would have been perfect and well targeted. The film didn’t have a no-nonsense approach. It lost the plot with all that manipulation and love triangle act. I would have liked a Satya approach in Gulaal. In a sense Dileep comes from a small town to study politics – aspiring to become a politic journalists – but ends up joining a political party – he was made believe it would be good for college – but in the end he finds he was manipulated by the leader – so he gets peeved and destroys everything – cue – raat ke musafir song. Simple. I suppose, that is why am not a director…
Gulaal and Delhi 6 – both film should have been a Black Comedy. Then, that would have been something.
Also, I don’t like when the hero is projected as chutiya; it makes me feel like the director is indirectly trying to say we are chutiyas. Why make a chutiya character?!! I know there are chutiyas in the world – but please – don’t make them one of your main character!! Cos I don’t like it.
Anyway.. all those films got me thinking… erm, I always used to think/believe, that if you wanna tell a story (verbally/orally) – you just tell it – don’t bother about creating an environment for it. If the story is interesting people will find it interesting…. but all the above films created a perfect environment for their story. That was good for smart people. But not for aam junta. I believe Aam Junta just like to be told a good story or cheap thrills will do. Dev D had cheap thrills, so it worked. Luck By Chance, Gulaal, and Delhi 6 lacked a good narration, so it failed to connect with majority of the audience. So there needs to be a balance… I would have enjoyed Gulaal and Luck By Chance if the film just told the damm story and didn’t have all other unnecessary scenes.
Looking forward to see Barah Anna, Firaaq, and Aloo Chaat. It will take me a couple of months to see all those films, though.
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
The first few lines of this post and I thought this was going to be a fun post but you did the exact opposite of what you are trying to convey……you did too much analysis yourself about the movies ,Dil ki baat hamesha short hoti hai……
@ Honhaar Bhai,
Even though our choices or opinions regarding few films you have mentioned are not same, I admired your post. Excellent & Honest! I feel this is truly “non-pseudo” & by heart post I have read on PFC in recent time! Thanks & Regards,
Disagree regarding your point on ‘chutiya characters’.
Why should cinema be limited to some sort of panegyric? If you don’t like such characters, you have the liberty to avoid such movies. But then the film-makers should have their own liberty.
As an audience I should have my own liberty to say whatever I want to say about the film – before watching the film or after watching the filmn, no? I don’t like Chutiya kind of characters – I normally stay away from those films. And I didn’t expect Gulaal to have a chutiya character.
Can’t really agree with this post…
If you noticed Rand on the Billboard & other stuff yourself than you need not complain about subtlity or attention to details…about the indians saying fuck you….perhaps you have left this country decades ago…it has become staple diet for urban youth…Anyway you have gangajals, omkaras & gulaals to satisy your craving for desi gaalis…
Anyway that’s not the point…the point is the overall tone of this post…you are cribbing to the filmmakers…please don’t do this, please don’t do that…whay?…they’ll do whatever they want…
At times I feel like shouting at “mainstream” directors…please don’t do the same thing again…but then it’s their freedom…& they have their audiences…
I dunno if you were trying to be sarcastic…your writing din’t convey it…
Subtlelty doesn’t work for all film. Dev D tried to be a bold – by spelling out sex or something like that to audience, so didn’t see a reason why there had to be some subtle refrences in this film. Again, I don’t know, if subtlelty works for a political oriented film. Cunningness and brute force would have been much better…. in Gulaal.
I don’t mind Indians swearing in English as long as it doesn’t come out fake and ameturish. I had no problem of English cuss words used Hazaron. That film was compelling; it was about an era that i wasn’t aware of it, so enjoyed quite a lot. Gulaal could/should have been like that.
@HG
No there is no problem when you say “I don’t like it”…
but there is a problem when you say “please don’t do so because I don’t like it…”…because others might crave for that very thing…
I, for instance would love films to be abstract & sublime…I might not get it at one go…but I like to spend time thinking about them like solving a puzzle…But that doesn’t mean that I oppose simpler films…
Loved every bit of your writing.I didn’t write a whole blog but in one of my comments on another post I tried to say something very close..
I agree with only one thing, that the main charecter in a story should not be potrayed as a chutiya in the first place, and if there is a pressing need to make him a chutiya then boss there has to be a get out clause for the viewer, cos depression seldom helps and as movie is a strong medium, what you see can actually get abosorbed and subconciously play in the viewer’s mind.
Either way my 2 paise
Uh oh, in that case, hope ‘Aloo Chaat’ doesn’t leave a bad taste in ur mouth! :-)
I was dissapointed by that and by Aaftab’s choices!
How did it make it’s way to U.K cinema’s?
Not unbearable, but definitely a weak film.
‘Firaaq’ is one i can’t wait for.
I need to see ‘Dev.D’ properly, if u know what i mean?!
‘Delhi 6′ was wonderful!
But it took me 2 viewings to realise.
Definitely a cinema movie though.
Glad i saw it on a big screen man!
‘Gulal’ abhi nahi dekhi :-(
K.k looks amazing!
agree with most of the points made by you.. except for Luck By chance being a parody or mockery. In fact, for me its about movie appreciation instead of criticism. For me, It stands in the same league as Guddi and Rangeela.
Btw, i completely get that whole ‘rave bout a film then cringe later’ feeling!
I’m forever doing it.
U might not like romance with politics, but have u seen ‘Hu Tu Tu’?
That did a wonderful job of both!
Well, it wasn’t romance as such.
Curiousity more like.
Have seen some bits of Hu Tu Tu, but haven’t seen it completely yet.
The most subliminal and subtle scene in the history of Indian films was when in Kal Ho Na Ho, the guy who bumped Preity Zinta’s coffee turns out to be Shah Rukh Khan and we don’t see this till later. Rest is all showing trash in the name of subtlety. I rest my case. :P
Agree with the heart of what your saying HG. I’m also not one for extremes, whether it’s very subtle or very loud, either way it tends to lose its grip. Its important to set the right tone, one that the audience can follow along with.
*
On a side note I really enjoyed “Luck By Chance”. Yes it was subtle but not too subtle. A lot of it was quite straight-forward. Hero gets a chance to bangy-bang heroine, so he ignores the fact that he has a girlfriend. Later on he feels guilty about selling her out for his success, so he goes back to her. In fact, to tell a story like “Luck By Chance” you can’t have too much masala or else you’ll lose that whole “this must be how it really happens behind the scenes” type feel…
[ Editor Note: Ranjeet, please refrain from attacking anybody on personal basis. Your comment has been partially deleted as it did not follow the comment policy of PFC]
honhaar gunda,
……… Omkara wasn’t a basterdized version of Maqbool. It was an indian adaptation of Shakespeare’s OTHELLO. Just like
Maqbool was an adaptation of Macbeth.
Vishal Bhardwaj even took the trouble to cast a dark Ajay Devgun-keeping in mind the Moorish origins of the original protaganist.
i am aware of that. i do read, i mean, news on Bollywood. In a sense.. genre of both film was same. Both Tragedy. Also there is a lot of similarities between Macbeth and Othello, i mean, Maqbool and Omkara….