Black Friday- Revisiting the “selfish me”
Just got to watch Black Friday after months of intense efforts, constant pestering by close friends and incurring some taste of Media Piracy.
I have been recommending the movie to everybody I see since then, hoping they would be able to share my fascination for the movie. But, as I stood before the mirror yesterday, I asked myself a question,”‘So, Mr. Recommender, the question remains… would you recommend the movie to yourself? Would you like to have a second helping of the creative work you have been vouching for”… And the image replied, somewhat disturbed but in a resounding fashion …NO..
I went back to the image and argued. The image told me so…
Black Friday, with all its greatness doesnt truly become a film. Like Kurosawa once said, “The emotions in a film are sometimes too indescribable. I can tell right at the editing table, about which parts of a film have truly become a film and which parts have not. What i want to say, cant always be put in words. It doesnt work that way. When a person reacts to a scene in my film, i ask myself why was it so? It is because it was a part that had truly became a film. Hence it encompasses so many truths that cant be just put in words”.
Black Friday in its pursuit of covering the larger truth, at times seemed to miss out on the smaller truths that really push a film towards eternal greatness. Mind you, i am not talking abt the Documentary-like structure of the film or its pace here. I am not.
If the plot of the film is like a circle, the approach to the plot should be tangential, touching the plot at just one point and staying there while constantly accessing sub-plots that bring out various key aspects of human psyche and exposing a very pertinent philosophy.
Black friday, the plot and the approach all become a part of that circle and hence coincide.
And when that happens, I know that i wont be able to take back anything from a film while watching it for the second time.
Kurosawa’s own “Kagemusha”, i thought had that problem.
Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” i thought suffered from that deficiency.
These movies with all its greatness in place didnt go any forward with each viewing
And all that while i enjoyed both these movies tremendously, the first time..
But a Rashomon, a Yojimbo, a Taxi-Driver or a Raging Bull still bring out aspects of it, i realise I had missed out the last time I watched it.
I know most of those who have read this piece up untill this point would feel a constant suspicion ruling their minds..”Ís this guy too enclosed in his own world to be saying something like this, or is there some truth in what he is trying to prescribe here?”.
A movie has to be just like that.
There should be something in the movie that prompts you to believe it was saying something that is there and yet not.
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
Sreehari: Very well put. Inspite of all the awe I have for the movie, at a certain level, the movie never became a film for me too. For most of the time I argued to myself that I was not able to take from it what I guessed it intrinsically offered but I could never find any.
A movie like BF becomes one of those you should love it-love it kinda thing but would I actually go out for more viewings, probably not. Not because its bad, its just that I am done with it. And that does not diminish its power as a awesome one time viewing experience.
Bhai, even though your posts are rare – love every one of them. Cheers!
Sreehari – i remember asking a friend about BF. He said ” the film is good .. but i did not remember anything when i came out of the hall.”
And rightly said … Goodfellas is a pretty decent film too .. but i honestly do not take away anything from it after the first viewing.
sree.. write more.. little more detailed analysis of what excited you the first time and you didn’t feel it the second time.. i guess the first time it was the euphoria.. second time you actually saw it..
i stopped watching it much before it was released..
Ravptor,
hmm.. thank you your honour..
Karthik,
Goodfellas is a great film.. not just decent.. but you almost see everything the director wants you to see the first time around in that film’’s case…
Anurag,
I didnt see the film a second time. I guess you could call it an instinct or simply put a first timer’s arrogance, but you just get this feel that a movie even with all its virtues aint gonna offer anything new to you the next time you see it…
Its just an inkling. And the truth about such inklings is that it might as well sometimes come back and bite u in the ass making a mockery of your pre-judgement..i guess i should be giving BF a chance then
But, as of now, there wasnt an incentive enough for me to go back to BF.
I know it all sounds a bit tooo muddled.. but……
muddled is good..
it all comes from with in.. what you feel is what is.. so don’t dismiss it.. it’s not so important for you probably but for me it is.. i don’t know anyone who is not muddled.. i really enjoy your posts.. but this one is really not enough.. i have been wanting people to talk about what’s missing in black friday than what is in it..
it’s important..
Hey Sreehari,
Pardon my ignorance yaar, but i dunno wut made me watch BF 3 shows back2back. I was thoroughly infotained each time and yes, a lil more than the previous time. I guess BF worked for me at all levels – be it unfolding the true story behind wut happened, the stress that people on both sides of the fence – cops n da bad guys go through… everything. So can you please enlighten me as to where did I miss the bus…
And finally before the curtain came down, the rendition of Bande actually told me to behave myself (socially speaking). And hey, I wud watch the movie again n again, if life permits.
Well Anurag,
Lemme put it this way.. i wouldnt have talked about it if it was just an ordinary film. But, this isnt. and its difficult to point out what was missing in the film, because i thought the perfectness of the film in the end was a deterrent to it achieving its full potential..
I donno how it was made. So i donno if I am being right here.. but there was a definite method to certain sequences you see.. Films of this altitude, sometimes need to give you this feeling that the scenes are shot keeping a hidden camera with actors being given the license to grow in an ambience and turn into characters.. I hope i am conveying what i wanna convey here.
In BF though, there was this feeling of certain scenes being totally staged to perfection. The degree of polish that came with the film ultimately made me wish the film had some rough edges..
not every scene suffers from this shortcoming. Just some scenes. Like i said, there were scenes which didnt really let the actors grow out of the ambience they were set in and become the characters they were playing..
Like the scene where Tiger unfurls before these set of people and convinces them that bombing Mumbai would be the ideal revenge.
There wasnt that “hidden camera” catching that scene effect to it, there were no overlapping dialogues.. whereas that scene could have been so much more..
Magik,
Hey dont be apologetic yaar. I guess you are on the correct side of the bridge while I am on the wrong side. There are reasons galore to call BF a film with l
Thanks man, wudever u meant, i’ll sleep a happy man tonite. long live cinema & yeah long live PFC. Dis place rox.
= Anurag, (sorry Sreehari to take the convo tangent)…
this is with you wanting the audience to raise questions about the issue (bomb blasts) and the missings (sic) in the movie… you’ve been asking of this since the day it was released… and there has been few to none…
let me begin with saying last evening I along with Om went to see “Sicko”… and even though I’m no Michael Moore fan… the documentary was engrossing and for hours after the movie there was this intense discussion on the health care system in the US.
Why didn’t this intense discussion happen in Black Friday? For someone to raise those questions to you, the discussion or debates (”on the issue”) have to first start among those who went to see the movie. Discussions did take place but about scenes, quality of story flow etc, etc. None about the issue/past the movie is about.
Why? Why did we talk at length about issues raised by Sicko and not on Black Friday…
I may be completely and way off here but here’s what I think.
Black Friday was a sandwich. The movie starts with the blast, tells the story, ends with the blast. There were no open ended-ness to it which we the viewer could clasp and walk out of the theater – the questions, the emotions, the intensity of it all. Had the movie faded out with the close up on Pavan’s face during the meeting on what the team could do to get back at India… that incompleteness… would probably have left the audience hungry to come out of the theater and raise questions… but you closed it up because from a story teller’s point of view… there is nothing better than a complete sandwich.
Black Friday was told as a tightly packaged story and it left no room for the viewer to stop, pause and neither does the movie needle the viewer… for example : if you wanted us to raise questions about Pakistan supporting terrorism, there was none of the fuel in the movie to ignite in the viewer… hell, Dawood ended up looking like a demi-god… the training in Pakistan was told with a tight grip… Black Friday turned out to be a fast paced thriller than a docu drama… where did it leave any room for the viewer to digest and react.
And then there were portions not even told in the movie which had the potential to raise questions, back to you. The political angle was completely ignored… the Sanjay Dutt angle (for reasons mentioned earlier by you) were thrown out of the window… the case of the custom officials involved or not involved was not given any second look… Thapa – is he or isn’t he involved in the blasts? The scenes were cut out…
These and other sharp needles that could prick the viewer were not there in the movie, instead you and the team played it safe (inspite of the largely controversial topic)… how then could the viewer be put in a position to react?
Instead it turned out to be a decent thriller of a movie and not a docu drama that you may have intended it to be… where the balance between documentary and a story could be well maintained… Black Friday isn’t that… It’s a reality based pulp fiction… you read, you enjoy… and sadly, you forget.
So, in the end… stop asking the viewer to raise questions on the issues raised in the movie… because you haven’t, yet made one, that would do that.
Sreehari,
I actually feel the same after viewing 2 3 times. Somehow i feel that the way movie is made is of thriller kinda. Thriller running on incidents …. not on the psychic. It explores many (facts)incidents .. but not much of the psychic of those involved guys. Redemption part was quite ok.
@oz
Exactly. you really nailed it.
Oz: film raises questions but different kind of questions to different people.
for example
Aamir Khan has question why film does not take names of Hindu leaders responsible or involved in riots while it clearly takes names of those who were involved in blasts.
——-
if we consider Shoot out at Lokhandwala then few important threads are united with story of BF. was not ACP of SAL incharge till late February or say first week of March when all the weapons and armaments was sent to Bombay?
So many things are missing and perhaps they are missing in the book also.
—–
I remember someone had commented on my post on BF, perhaps Vasan bala that shooting was done for some 4 hours so perhaps many things are edited out in final version.
—–
But major weakness of the film lies somewhere in way of presentation and it could have been handled atleast in DVD version because they have so much more footage which was not used in Theatre version.
——-
Like there was a discussion. here also in some parts technique was major part than the simple flow of story.
When watched film, and listened the song, Ruk ja re bande, I wanted to ask lyrics writer, why Nature should laugh on the matters on which it should cry? Till today I suffer from this line.
——-
Subject was mamooth because film was based on a big book and perhaps Anurag was dependent on the book hence loose structure affected the film.
—–
Somewhere you feel Anurag may be a Vikas Pande in the whole process??
——
Moreover was Anurag free to make it his ways only. It was almost his first film.
If film stops raising questions then differnt kind of questions raise their head
political atmospehere of that time affected the film?
Moreover, given the budget of 5 Cror, and guessing the fact that may be they did not intend to make a compact and great film and idea was just to make cinematic version of the events then it was fine attempt, because earlier serial was conceptualised and serials dont demand much quality.
Because Anurag’s name is connected with the film so expectations are more as film and he got more attention and fame after film was stopped for some 2 years. I doubt that producers wished to make a great film out of the material. Anurag invested his cinematic knowledge and it became talk of the town.
Film certainly did one thing that made infamous Don’s name matter of street discussion and this impact can be seen in Shoot out at lokhandwala. Its highly influenced by BF.
well oz i agree with you.. the film was closed.. not open ended.. yes a lot of hindu names were not taken.. a sequence that showed bal thackrey admitting yes it were his people that demolished the babri masjid was taken out.. an actual interview of a shiv sainik who talked about how they were trained in chambal to demolish the masjid was taken out..
first in order to release the film.. then the BJP government was in power.. then a lot of other elements were taken out because the international festival circuit couldn’t show an almost three hour long movie.. only it’s premiere at locarno showed the complete version and audiences walked out of it, due it’s length and the film trying to address everything..
choices we made at that time but which i have often regretted.. but it was someone else’s money at stake.. i had to tell myself to be happy with the fact that such a film was made in the first place.. but what really pisses me off was the attitude of ADLABS and my producer’s towards the film when they brought it out on DVD.. that’s where they could have put it all back together.. that’s where they could have discussed it further but not one person asked me when they put the DVD together.. i was made to believe the DVD would come out after it’s UK release which never happened.. and guess what i wasn’t sent a single CD or DVD from either ADLABS or my producer.. we couldn’t even put the commentary on it, various interviews of samra we took, the other material, a lot of actors who spent sweat and blood playing roles which were completely chopped off, never made it even to the DVD.. that’s how much ADLABS valued the film.. which is why i swore off ADLABS, and i say SUNIR KHETRAPAL is a chutia one should stay away from..
well , not wanting to go on.. i agree with you OZ and AP and SREEHARI and hope all concerned with the film are reading this..
a film could be a film for everyone who is making it, it could be more than that.. but for everybody else it’s just business.. you don’t have hrithik they don’t care..
anurag: as you are still present!
Such stories are better told by some major player involed in the story.
Do you think now that it could have been better:
If Film was started with Rakesh Maria, because he investigated the case and if film was shown through his VO and then Gullu’s and Badshah Khan’s version could have been part of this.
Film talks about those things which are known to the people, like who was involved in the blasts.People already had an impressions though newspapers etc.
So that thriller point is not there. Thriller could have been there if Rakesh Maria was interviewed why he did not investigate the matter – that Gullu knew and told to policemen abt the blasts. But film justifies Rakesh Maria’s character by showing him dipping his head in the water.
Film wandered here and there, it became a big tree which has several branches, Badshah Khan’s story is stretched too much and it became almost a sperate mini film.
in the end film justifies everybody from policemen to those who conspired bomb blasts.
again: do you feel you were involved seriously while producers just wanted a cinematic version of events? ala New Delhi Times Vikas Pande?
and you were so open to everybody’s idea and hence “Kudrat hans parhegee? though it could have been Kudrat Ro parhegee?
Including producers other concerned people did not guess initially that you would insert so much cinematic knowledge in the making.
Just few guesses.
well making it was incredible.. we shot everything.. its only at the later stage that changes came in..
rakesh maria wouldn’t have known of gullu’s confession.. he was the ACP traffic and there are more than forty police stations in bombay.. gullu and rakesh maria probably never met..
those are the silly questions rk..
and everybody is justified in there own shoes.. when you are in not one person shoe and are objective it’s like being in everyone’s shoes..
Anurag :
Thanks for fruitful discussion.
you are very right
“and everybody is justified in there own shoes.. ”
as a captain of a project you know inside out of that act and hence know more than anybodyelse.
all others can see things in objective manner which may not do justice with the facts related with that happening.
Hope someone comes up with new points to keep discussion alive.
RK
BF didn’t have suspense element, i agree, but it was certainly a thriller for me. Almost every “new” shot reveals new incident … the incident you might know
before .. but the treatment was such that it generates curiosity … what next?. And i was totally glued to the screen for complete 3 hours. For the first 2 viewing it was damn good movie .. but in the final 3rd viewing i wished it would have dealt psychic of the main characters. And then i figured it out as a thriller.
AP:
There is no doubt abt any quality associated with the film. Thrill is there thats why we the audience are discussiung it after so many months.
Points were made in discussion because Director of film had shown interest in inviting questions and its again a thrill to ask questions directly from a director of the film.
Somebody found something in first viewing, somebody in second and somebody in third.
BF remains most talked about film on PFC and its not a less achievement.
This is a good part of PFC that if Directors themselves are ready to face questions then people can raise questions. Now its up to directors how they take this whole process.
This is both sides advantage and not one sided only. Directors will not get such questions anywhereelse and audience/readers will not such direct answers anywhereelse.
I really liked the sweep of BF’s canvas..One could make out the kind of effort that had gone into enhancing the authenticity by capturing real locales..Yes it has that lacuna of not shaking you, your psyche,your cynicism post viewing..And with some scenes one got the feel that they were staged too much for an effect than emotional impact..Like long scene in the police station where owner of stomach restaurant is made to realise the consequences of his not cooperating…Then the entire chase through the never- to- become- Shanghai location of myriad, bhool-bhulaiya jhopad-pattis loses its fun and humor element after a while…Still its worth a dekko and a brave effort against many odds..For that AK deserves kudos.
RK,
Truly said ab’t the platform called PFC.
i remember trying to analyze black friday (pl stop calling it BF folks!), anyways, yeah I wrote about what I felt the very night I saw it…here’s a copy of it from my blog. I apologise in advance if it seems a little mental and selfish…i dont know…anyways…
so here goes;
for anurag,
dated; Monday, February 12, 2007
2nd show:
some films must never be judged. you see, films have a more important reason other than mere entertainment, that reason is “to set the record straight”.a testament to the times, almost like a news story, its just that, sometimes you simply have to know, you are the better having known it, there cannot be any questions like artistic merit, entertainment value, box office value etc etc.
surprised i’m saying that? i’ve actually never understood the business angle of films. did shakespeare write his plays keeping the audience in mind. or did the audience just become his mind?
look, i agree that when you put your money into something, especially something which means a lot to you and could, to millions around you,be careful, but then dont get too expectant about rolling in the cash, if your’e smart, you might just make whatever you’ve invested. thats enough isn’t it?
did
da vinci,michaelangelo,rembrandt,mozart,beethoven create their art keeping the potential money they’d make in mind? well maybe they did later on, but not when they started out…
because when they started out, all they wanted to do, was to experience the joy of creation. i think since men will never have the pleasure of bearing a child, you will find them more obsessed about building blocks,bridges and movies. instinctively a man knows he’s not blessed with the fortune of a woman…the fortune that she has of being a creator….
anyways, i think i am digressing or maybe i’m not…anurag kashyaps ‘black friday’ is not worthy of a review. and by not worthy i mean…it simply shouldnt be reviewed.
how can you review a piece of film-making which is simply about putting the record straight…you cannot and should not judge it…because its not a film that wants to either entertain you nor enligthen you…it simply wants to put the record striaght with you…period.
and that it does with supreme success. the genre of films that ‘black friday’ belongs to is fast fading, actually its extinct…his effort will create a revival of sorts. for me personally, i saw bits and pieces of my own film in anurag’s. ofcourse it has none of its strengths, technically or otherwise…but it reflects very closely with the soul of my film….
i take a lot of strength, confidence and motivation from that…if your’e reading anurag, thanks…
and, please i’m not being boastful…
i’m simply setting the record straight…
http://confessionsofafilmmaker.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
For me Black friday though a brilliant movie…didnt make me raise any questions..for the simple fact as stated by oz…funny thing..we were just talking about it yesterday….it is sad..but, Black Friday..though it wasnt meant to be so..was an entertaining movie….i came out of cinema..praising the actors, director, cinematographer, musicians and all..but..never did i think..why this..why that….but one movie in recent times which made me question…raise issues..apart from Sicko yesterday was Matrubhoomi…though Matrubhoomi again didnt have any open-ended ending..for some weird reason..i had to ask questions….
Anurag…when you joined the project of BF…when you decided you wanted to make BF…what sort of questions were raised in you?..from an audience point of view?
Well,
i just ran over some of the comments above… hmmmm… to be very honest i have no issues with the topical aspects of this film… cos, taking into consideration how sensitive the various peripheral issues underlining the film were i think the film did achieve a great deal of authenticity…
all i felt was(in sync with what AP and OZ have said before), topical involvement aside, the film doesnt really get you to react instinctively. U see thats the beauty of film-making… sometimes putting an emotion in words or conveying it to a person verbally becomes a daunting task.. hence we have films.. and films can go onto acheive gr8ness only if with realism it can combine A SENSE OF TRUTH.. REALISM AINT ENOUGH…
Thats why i have said in my post above that, BF in pursuit of the larger truth often misses out in capturing the smaller truths…
When i saw the DVD of BLACK FRIDAY in planet m i turned it and looked at the back of the dvd cover. what do find.Nothing.Anurag i felt at that very moment that you were not part of this dvd.i didn’t buy it. i am still waiting for the dvd which has everything what you mentioned. should i wait? or should i buy this one?
It takes balls to make Black Friday. I have seen it 4 times and no I didnt see it for the want of any socio political questions….I probably knew most of it. But the questions that were raised in my mind after the movie were….How difficult is it to tell a story like this here with so many shackles ….? Frankly I dont care whether this movie asks me some questions at the end…because like Anish said, I am too happy that such genre of filmmaking is getting used. It would have been great to have had the complete truth unfold in front of us ….but then that would have had to be in Utopia not here.
Black Friday …for me was a celebration. But yes I agree that it could have been given that out and out rough edge treatment (like those Al Jazeera videos), to make it look more in the moment !!!
Kudos Anurag…awaiting more of that …..!!!
it is sad that adlabs released the DVD without even consulting Anurag….personally i wud have loved to see all the scenes…the ones which AK has mentioned above along with commentary n other stuff…it is difficult to watch a 4hr movie but on a DVD u can sure see it..but nwayz i;m gonna buy the DVD