Manorama
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Manorama Man khush ho gaya
First things f**ing first, I havent seen Chinatown so all those who comment of it being a copy of Chinatown without watching the film and in short nosy people . Please watch manorama first and lemme know how different it is from Chinatown.
This aint a review just some reactions from the film.
You gotta give it to Navdeep maan. He has captured Rajasthan beautifully . I literally felt being there in the desert- city. The DOP has done an amazing job in whatever little budget the film might have had Hats off !!!
The tracking 50 ruppee Abhay speaking true rajasthani with the villager shot
The shots of abhay driving around in his bike/scooter.
The fish tank shots of him and raima .
Background score is eerie and haunting most definitely it has lifted the film up by quite a few notches !!!
Majority of the dialogues by Abhinav kashyap (WHERE THE FUCK HAVE U BEEN SIR ??? ) are tooooooooooo good capturing the Rajasthani flavour .. the husband wife tussles . the street smart cop lingo the locals the royal hum humein hamara manner of addressing of the rajputs . The goons . Most of the lines are quite good
The ones that stick into ur face are when raima sen speaks them she is as irritating or perhaps has as irritating lines as Tara sharma in Khosla ka ghosla defiantly not as bad as Nish kothari (Babu rao says nisha- ko- uthale- bhagwan) in Aag . But yeah reasonably bad she is. Also the lines in some scenes of abhay raima are not suited/fitting in an otherwise brilliantly written film.
Somehow I just dig a film much more when it uses a local lingo Ek challis Omkara Haasil . Khosla. Love em all !!!
Abhay is sincere his performance couldve been better .i dunno something is missing .. may be his voice modulation or little more expressive but something is missing he does a good job .. but I wish he does much better in his forthcoming films. Having said that its a decent effort.
Gul panag is perfect to the T.. no questions !!!
Vinay pathak is delightful so much that you wish he had a longer role.
And who is playing the neighbour ??? isnt he the same guy who played the press guy who offers abhishek bachchan a job in Yuva ??? Hes worth a mention too in fact all the small town characters are .
The goons are almost competing with each other as to decide who is better off than each other . Its fantastic to see unknown faces acting and mouthing such real to life lines.
By the way Mr or Mrs chairperson of the Censor board . Is it necessary to beep out the double meaning and suggestive dialogues/abuses in the film ??? they wouldve added so much character to it !!! I just hope the film copy is different from the premier copy that the lines/words are not beeped out. Some strange kick it gives me to see characters mouthing abuses in their local lingo . When Tarantino does it and gets away .. why not us ???
The film is a noir thriller..(whatever that means) keeps u engrossed to quite an extent but after the interval it becomes slightly dheela. Loses its grip thats the part when raima sen has come into the picture
But 15-20 mins after the interval it picks up its pace. Still somehow I felt towards the end it is slightly long despite having only half a song in the film(watch it to find out)
Thoda sa edit out ho sakti thi .
You know just like Ek chaalis for me the film ends when abhay has got the 2.5 crore rupees bag from Mangesh dons house.
Suspense pey suspense hai mamu the problem with such nice suspense films/who dunit/ why dunit is that they force you to think a lot . And unless the resolution is like a HOLY FUCK WOW !!! moment the audience might feel cheated
Here the audience may not feel cheated . Nor will they feel WOW .. it will be like .. hmmmm thats nice . Sahi they might have to think a lot and put two and two together
Some felt the film had a bit of spoon feeding I felt it was quite necessary . Otherwise I wldnt have understood it
Despite all this I just fear that the common audience may not be able to understand it. The suspense etc . The film is very good .. but is the audience good enough ????
I am desperately hoping so.
Go and watch it. Really nice film has some flaws but certainly MUCH MUCH better than some of the trash around Navdeep is here to stay .
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
hi
manorma is a good attempt. problem is as it has been already said that it is inspired by chinatown, so it is being compared with one of the greatest movie ever made in hollywood. now manorma does not stay compared to masterpiece. I thank navdeep that he shows courage by showing chinatown shot played on t.v. in the movie. what shows he is not one of them who copies from frame to frame and says that they have never seen or heard about the original. the problem with the manorma is that coming to the climax it has raised too many subplots its become difficult to deal with them. even people forget which is the central plot. but abhay is good so director. i mean its not superb but i think i should appreciate an honest attempt.
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We need more movies like Manorama, but no one seems to be understanding one point though. The exorbitant rates of movie tickets are discouraging everyone to watch movies at home. In Mumbai, during day the tickets are priced around 150 to 180 in multiplexes, in the evening shows, they are around 260 rupees!! Can you believe it? Just for one ticket??!!
So, Any person would save their 250 rupees to watch the biggest movies releasing just for the sake of experience.
Where are the single screen theaters? Even gaiety galaxy became a multiplex and anyway, you don’t get tickets there as the management sells all the tickets in black market anyway…YES, THE MANAGEMENT IS INVOLVED IN BLACK MARKET in Gaiety!
Going to other cities in India like Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc, movies like Manorama are released mostly in Multiplexes…
So why would anyone want to watch an Abhay deol movie with a strange title in a theater by spending 500 rupees for 2 tickets when they can get 3 in 1 movie DVDs for just 100 rupees?
Just due to this fact, many good movies are going unnoticed, great talent is being wasted. Reduce the rates of tickets and you will see the glory of old days coming back when you see movies running for 100 days, silver jubilees etc instead of trying to recover their money in just 4 days of release.
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corrigendum: at home should be read as at the movie halls.
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the guy who offers the job at the press to abhishek in yuva, i guess is bijendra kala…correct me if i am wrong.
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i havent seen the movie bu what i have heard of the plot it seems like chinatown , i dont have nay problem with the fim as long as what vicky sharma in his comment has mentioned is indeed true …”I thank navdeep that he shows courage by showing chinatown shot played on t.v. in the movie”
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the film is not based on chinatown..it definitely pays tribute and could serve as an inspiration.. it has elements from kiss me deadly, wild bunch, Cape fear..all done as a film buff would do.. pay tribute to all his inspiration..it vaguely reminds one of chinatown, probably to those who saw it way back.. just because the film revolves around a water problem which is a factual case in rajasthan.. most noir films have femme fatales that resembles one another.. the very premise of noir is based on deciet and lies and betrayal and infidelity and temptation and marriage.. those similarities can be seen and compared in sixty percent of them from double indemnity to kansas city confidential to the city that never sleeps.. corrupt politicians,and compromising police, sex, money are common themes in noir..
see china town after seeing manorama and vice versa and you will find that somethings do remind you of china town but it definitely is not china town ..
and i don’t think taran adarsh has seen any of those.. or is familiar with the genre.. for him it begins and ends with abbas mustan..
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I second Machchar on the issue of ticket pricing. I go ahead and watch the movies I am looking forward to irrespective of the price, but most of my friends and colleagues go out to watch a movie in multiplex only if it is hyped enough. I alone am going tonight to watch Manorama, and nobody else from my friend circle will ever watch it in a multiplex, irrespective of the praises I shower on the movie.
I can understand exorbitant ticket prices if the movie has a huge budget, but I fail to understand why the distributors/multiplexes charge the same price for all the movies. Bheja Fry was made for a platry 55 lakhs and I had to spend 190 for one show. I dont mind shelling out 200 for a good movie, but I would have regretted it had Bheja Fry turned out to be a dud.
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@ sameer and samarth: now all this makes me want to watch it reall badd…M-SFU
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hehehehehehe@ taran adarsh begins and ends with abbas mustan..hillarious
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Anurag, whether it’s inspired, copied or ripped off, none of it matters! Only success matters! Take any english movie, copy it frame to frame and if it’s a hit here, I can bet my balls that the director will have a 7 film deal with Ashtavinayak!
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Thanks KK. Will watch the film this weekend, and let you know how inspired it is from “chinatown”!
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have got myself the tickets for the evening show!
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Yes Azad, The producers and Exhibitors have become too greedy! Distributors wanted more than what the multiplexes are making (Fanaa example), but the multiplexes too did not want to loose, so you know who they made lose and pay more? The chutiya audience! Yes! We are at the low end of the food chain!
Fight these greedy distributors and multiplex owners! Encourage piracy! buy 3-in-1 DVD’s!! HAHAHA!!
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But watch Manorama at the halls, we need to encourage new talent! The above statement is only applicable to YRF, Dharma, Grandson and Grandfather productions etc
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Azad, just imagine the kind of money these people are making.
If your movie’s budget is let’s say 25 crores….
You release your movie with approx 600 prints (Recently some movies were released more than 1000 prints)
But let’s keep 600 prints. Average capacity of each hall, let’s say 200 and average ticket price is 150 rupees.
Let’s say there will be in average for shows in a day.
So, for one show, the revenue is around 2 crores and for 4 shows, it’s 8 crores.
So just in the first 3 days, the distributor makes 24 crores, if it runs for two weeks even at half the capacity, the revenues will be in hundreds of crores. This is apart from other rights, just theatrical!! whoa!! No wonder everyone is jumping into the entertainment industry now, including Ambani’s!
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Oh well. It’s brickbats/bouquets time.
Brickbat: Taran Adarsh HATES it.
http://www.indiafm.com/movies/review/13369/index.html
Bouquet: AOL loves it.
http://www.aol.in/bollywood/story/2007092102069019000001/index.html
Oh well….
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oh ya, in that case i am sure to like it! guess he didn’t find any juicy-frivilous-meat to munch on…
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its “Fish”y tale in LakhoTOWN. it may be homage, inspiration or plagiarism. but i think the starting point is chinatown for sure and lot of stuff here n there. and so lot of things hav been indianised or Lakhot-nised brillantly including the incest one. No doubt that Navdeep is competent director and is here to stay. few quick pointers….
1)Gul stands out with her natural perfomnce. she needs more good directors. Abhay is good. if he can do something more about his voice, wud be great.
2)WHY ? why is the song by Kailash Kher not used in the tv spots/radio/anywhere…the one that played in the end. its damn good song!! they played during the interval…asked smriti which song is this one ? realised later that its from d same film when they played it at d end.
3)it bit slow in bewteen…felt atleast 15-20 mins more should be chopped off.
4)if u dont loose patience, u will enjoy it more in second half. so many things..may confuse u a bit but very intersting.
5)WISH n just wish that it had nothing to do with any homage or tribute to any chinatown or anything. then would hav surely shouted from the rooftop. but felt sad and so m not cheering too much about it.
its becmong the classis case of World Economic Forum VS World Social Forum Vs Mumbai Resistance…hav told KK, Vasan n Ashish about it. will post soon.
6)N Yes,do watch it. You will not be disappointed.
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@KK…first thing f***ing first…plz do watch chinatown first. and now u understand why its so difficult to be objective….i know i know…what u must be saying after reading this comment…ha ha ha…welcome to the club then!!
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phonix – will watch chinatown first things F**ing first :-)
Meanwhile pls do me a favour .. tell me what exactly is in manorama … that is also there in chinatown …..
Not defending … but if u say its a copy … or a blatant lift .. i will happyly take my words back
“You’re a very nosy fellow, kitty cat. Huh? You know what happens to nosy fellows? Huh? No? Wanna guess? Huh? No? Okay. They lose their noses. ”
“Teri naak bahut lambi hai haraamzaadey …. Aur lambi naak waalon ki naak kaat di jaati hai ”
that is blatant IMO
Is sholay a copy of Seven samurai ??? and the sergio leone films ???
Would just like to hear ur thoughts on the same.. thats all …
There’s a difference between a sholay and a Zinda …
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I will wait till I hear Rajeev Masand. He is the only guy I trust..250 bucks is too precious these days.
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manorma needs a big and wider release.its a good film.
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@KK…watch the film n then we can discuss it in a better way. should involve Guru D as well. i never said its copy or blatant lift…plz read my comment again.
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Kartik, would definitely try to catch this movie.
and Macharji, agree with you completely.
This entire multiplex pitch by filmmakers is wrong. Cities graded as B and C centers are the best bet for movies like Manorama. There is an audience out there who are ready to watch this kind of cinema in single screen theaters but nobody seems to be interested.
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//The hallmark of any thriller is that it should build the suspense beautifully, hold the attention to the point that the viewer starts pointing the finger of suspicion on the assorted characters in the narrative and hit the viewer like a ton of bricks when the mystery is solved.//
What prophecy… And thats precisely why he liked KAAL.. In his own words.. ‘KAAL’s new age entertainment… it entertains and enlightens’…
His genesis is simple…’Grew up On subhash Ghai, Heard of Fellini, Tried watching Kurosawa and weeping incessantly over a Karan Johar movie’
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The problem is, Multiplexes declare 100% of the revenues while in the B & C centers, they are not so honest.
Again, it all depends on the kind of distribution muscle power you have, the kind of reps a distributor can keep so keep a track of revenues etc etc.
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JAS, Agree on the B & C centres theory but it’s very difficult convincing producers/distributors on that. I had tried talking to them but no one listened.
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Phoenixnu,
Personally that’s my favourite song too. Aaarghhh!! Frustrations!!
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Navdeep…plz plz get that song out. its a hit one for sure…can bet on that!!!
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One of my friend just called me and he saw the movie. He says it’s an effing good movie and 10000 times much better than all the chutiya fare coming out now!
Well…Looks like I gotta watch it now…Any single screen theaters where the ticket is 50-100 rupees? ahhh…I forgot about the travel! shucks! Okay…Multiplex…here I come…
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I read Taran Adarsh review..it was not so biased…atleast this time….
To those who like 1.40 ki local…man….wats wrong with YRF then??
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The film was not presented as a thriller (or a noir if you prefer that) film. It was more of presented as a (triangle) love story with songs like “Tere Sawaloon Ka Jawab” or that Bheege Pal.
Okay, there was a one promo in English, which sort of told the synopsis of the movie. But that is about it. You should not have had songs in the movie, in that way you probably would have come up with a few decent promos to reflect the movie and saved some money.
when will people learn? have no songs in the first place*, so no need to promote the film by promoting the film soundtrack!
i am actually glad that you guys did not spend money on a promotional video.
Johnny Gaddaar is getting promoted that way, although the theme song is good. No Smoking is likely to go that way also…
*if the film does not require songs.
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oh man this time its hard to resist not to write…oz man even if you are not going to publish this thats ok but see i just read a review of the film(got the link from navdeep’s comment)……i think the guy has not watched the entire film as he asks a para full of questions which any person would have got if he really watched the film…or if he watched it fully is that so complicated to understand…i dont know…..anyways wanted to congratulate navdeep…good movie man…liked that “natural order of things” line…….
chalo then
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Looks like Manorama has delivered. Navdeep, dont worry about Taran. The triumvirate (Mohd, Adarsh, and Jha) is a old school dishum-dishum-paisa-vasool-maa(read yash chopra & johars)-ka-doodh type reviewers (I wouldnt call them critics). There review doesnt matter even if they say 5 stars. The film will do good if it has a good word of mouth publicity.
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for Taran Adarsh a good thriller is AGGAR… so lets not even get there…. Congratulations Nav… enjoyed the film… and looking forwards to more from you… enjoy the moment of having achieved this… Box office is dependes on too many things… does not take away from the fact that its a good film … best wishes
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AGGAR team was offering money to critics around the town to write a good review. This is a fact.
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Taran Adarsh is not a critic in the truest sense. He is looking more at box office potential. Subhash Jha writes reviews in terms of currying favors from film stars. Writing a good review grants him more interviews , gossip etc.
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Mayank Shekhar too has gone potties these days…I used to enjoy his reviews but not anymore. Rajeev Masand is the only guy who knows something…Don’t miss this guy talk on movies on CNN-IBN..truly a treat!
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why is oz not putting up this simple request …that anurag got inspired by a stephen king short..methinks the entire website is dependent on anurag..but boring then
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Oz .. am I banned from PFC ? :-?
My comments keep on disappearing, after I hit submit comment ..
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Now how did this one appear ?
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Methinks (Mera detective dimaag yeh soch rahan hain :-?) Taran Adarsh is much more intelligent than he seems. The lesser-hyped-no-big-name-backing movies – he reviews them honestly, the bigger ones (like Kaal) he does not review honestly.
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- turtle, PFC runs on Akismet spam protection which has strange ways of working. sometimes even my comments get trapped in the spam filter. Unchecked your comments stuck in there…
HG removing yours and Pillai’s comment since it wasn’t relevant… but thanks for clarifying to Pillai what could be going wrong.
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Hi Navdeep- have just seen Manorama and absolutely loved it- what a sensational debut! You have done a great job and truly proved yourself. Will reserve further comments for my review which should be out tomorrow. As for Taran Adarsh’s review, the less said the better- this is the same man who raved about Anant Mahadevan’s Aggar last week- as Anurag rightly says- for him the genre begins and ends with abbas mustan. And BTW Anupama Chopra liked it, and even Raja Sen (one of my favorite critics) loved it! http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/sep/21man.htm
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Congrats Navdeep on your maiden release…
My review in The Telegraph
http://t2movies.blogspot.com/2007/09/review-manorama-six-feet-under.html
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Akismet.
Destiny .. hmmm ..
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Rather…Automattic destiny! These days even destiny is automatic!
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“Abhay is a candid, extremely credible actor. As is often with those rarely intelligent actors, he knows how to be natural without pushing for histrionics, and works the understated character perfectly.”
Raja Sen – rediff.com
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Hey, there’s no buzz here on Loins of Punjab? I read some great reviews about the money…gotta watch it tomorrow!
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I am still struck by the Rajasthan visuals..the film is a piece of quality cinema indeed..a must watch for cinema lovers!!
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:-??:-??
ykh?ykh? [KK this ykh?ykh? will be stuck to you like the tattoo on AB's forearm in Deewar...:d:d] kidding machchan
leaving aside the Chinatown and the references debate this is what I feel….It is a well crafted film…in fact a gutsy attempt to make a thriller without the slightest of histrionics in itself is a very very very commendable effort. Tell me one film in recent or past memory which even attempted to do it…or came close to such a narration….
Not shouting out of the roof tops to call it an Indian Masterpiece but this kind of a NOIR attempt is quite far and between in India
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For argument
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homage shomage kee MAAKEE …enjoy film, eat pop corn, go home and do hubba hubba with misses
thank you have a good day
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who signs up as gabriel garcia?
i’m working on bringing him to the US…was very disappointed to discover how few people in the US knew that he is a communist and was banned from entering in the US…Clinton invited him in 1996 and since then he is aloud to enter the country but i guess he does not care since he has not wanted to come…let’s see. fingers crossed we’ll be able to see him in November…
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great reviews everywhere..
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Navdeep … enjoyed the film! A great debut! Keep up the good work!
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Just a quick correction check: Dialogues are by Manoj Tapadia and Abhinav Kashyap. Both did a great job in getting the flavour.
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Navdeep, Is Abhinav Kashyap related to Anurag Kashyap?
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He’s Anurag’s brother. Anurag was supposed to do the dialogues initially but backed out (last minute!!) because of ‘No Smoking’.
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Finally watched the film..and also got my 2 of my friends along with me. I liked the movie. i do not want to analyse the movie bcz lot of ppl are already at it…i might just end up reiterating the points again.
GOOd movie. smooth pace with a good build up..n the movie was NOT slow in some parts..pace of the movie was sinusoidal in nature which peaked pyschotically in the end..(oh that sinister laugh of the old lady).My friend metioned about Chinatown while watching the movie..in the end it has nothing to do with it.
Some pointers:
Sound: there was something missing in between the movie.
Cinematography:Good stuff.
Feel: Mudanity epitomised by Abhay Deol
Abhay Deol : good acting ..was is very much into the character..nonchalance at its best..unware of its ramifications.Beautiful.
Gul panag: nice and sweet role.
Raima sen: She was nice..good character.
Vinay Pathak: his one liners and the look on his face did the trick.
The two sidekicks ( am talking of the characters) : they small but good role
Good performances..crisp dialogues..it will do well with
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why cant i post?
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Navdeep..if u are reading this..jst a couple of observations..wasn
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Chinatown on TV in Lakhot is the power of cable!!
And the bouncing LG Goldstar was the power of low budget film making!!
Glad you liked the film.
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Wow…
Christina are you dying to see LOVE IN THE TIMES OF CHOLERA? His Highness Javier Bardem plays the lead. Apart from that i’m not very excited with the British Director. Good luck with getting Garcia to US. That would be awesome. He is one of the few living gods!
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@ navdeep…hehe..ur answers were good…my observations have turned into convictions…lol..all the best.
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Well, i’m not dying to see this film…first of all it’s in english for no reason, heard that the aging of the characters is handled very badly and the casting is wrong on many levels…javier of course is always a treat…will keep you posted on gabriel which is the only reason i’m excited about this film!
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Khalid Mohammad has given great reviews for both Loins and Manaroma. Did the directors pay him to write a good review? I read on this website that he does not even watch the movies he reviews. Maybe he is scared of Anurag.
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Yes Christina….
I read an article about it 6 months back on LA Times. It didn’t feel right. Everything except for His Highness Javier Bardem in that film is a disaster.
I can’t to watch His Highness in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN the new Coen Brothers film. I heard he is really awesome in it.
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one cannot go wrong with javier…
i missed NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN in Cannes, fell short waiting at the line, and it was dropped out from AFI FEST so i guess we have to wait until it gets released here…heard it’s very good…always a treat to watch their films..
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I found the movie to be just about okay. Not bad, but not good either. What I liked most about the movie was the fear factor. Right from the start, I used to get this feeling that someone is following Abhay Deol. This effect might be due to the camera angles or because of the haunting background score.
Abhay deol was very promising in the begining, esp in scenes where he is watching saas bahu serials with his wife or when he is out for shopping sarees and TEA SET. But towards the later half of the film his expressions become monotonous.
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I disagree with the praises being showered on vinay Pathak, he looked like a caricature to me. His character had everything that an urbanite has read about a small and remote village cop. He wasn’t looking real to me.
Gul Panag looked very convincing to me as a nagging as well as a loving wife.
One question for Navdeep: Is it that easy to change gear of a scooter(and that too a old Bajaj/Lamreta) with just 2 fingers??
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Wow! It’s been a crazy week. Incessantly trawling the papers and deep recesses of the net to dig out every possible opinion on Manorama. The reviews have been generally good but there’s the bad and the ugly too. And fair enough! Diversity is what makes the world worth living in. I’m just super, super happy that the film got noticed. It’s crushing to be ignored or worse, dismissed.
Been tardy on the comments, so here’s some catching up: (Too many threads so I’m posting it all here)
First off, BIG thanks to everyone at PFC (authors, editors, commenters). You guys are half the reason this film got some buzz. Much appreciated.
For everyone who liked/loved the film; I’m happy that there’s an audience for a film like this. We need more diversity in our films and hopefully there’s an audience out there. Thanks guys. There’s hope after all.
And a hat tip to Shemaroo here with whom I’ve had my ups and downs but in the end there was no creative interference on the film making front. Thanks to Mansi & Ketan Maroo for that.
For people who sorta, kinda liked it; Cool. It’s got it’s fair share of flaws. We (the Manorama team) realise it. We’re not super experienced (or talented) and it shows. In retrospect, there’s a hundred things one would change;
Have Raima’s character introduced earlier (The dreaded post interval slack). Make the scenes work harder by combining character and plot. Tweak performances in some scenes that still make me cringe. Blah, blah and on and on. This film was a great learning experience. Hopefully, in the future, you can expect better.
For everybody we hated it: Yes, it’s got a languid pace and you either like that or not (I love slow films that keep you but recognise that not everyone has the patience) It’s not a conventional thriller and may disappoint you if you approach it like that. Hopefully you recognise that it’s a sincere and honest effort and not a complete waste of your 150 bucks.
And for everyone who complains that it’s not GREAT cinema: Of course it isn’t. It’s a movie.
And now for some specific comments:
Panini:
It’s not Felini, Bergman, Ray, Ghatak, Tarkovsky. I have no pretensions of greatness, nor am I in a position to ‘rescue’ Indian cinema. I’m just someone who tries to the best of his abilities, however limited they may be. Some people enjoy the result and for me, that’s reward enough.
Mainak:
Even I’m sorta embarrased by the ammount of attention the film has got on PFC. ‘Loins of Punjab’ needs more attention here (I find it a really good film) and the coming weeks are going to be full of potentially super interesting films (Johhny Gaddar, Dil Dosti, No smoking, etc)
Pratim D Gupta:
Thanks for the review. I’m glad you don’t (still) think it’s just a ripoff of ‘Chinatown’. The Chinatown tribute/inspiration/ripoff issue is complex as are the reactions to it. Maybe a long post on it sometime in the future.
Azad:
Good point but we actually worked on this detail. You don’t actually have to press the clutch, to change gears on a Lamby as long as it’s in motion (don’t know what it does to the gearbox, though) The starting and stopping are trickier but still not very difficult. In fact, it was easier than I’d hoped because the script actually had more of a struggle.
Finally, for all the struggling filmmakers out there, be tanacious. It’s all about hanging in there till things happen. I know, it’s easy enough for me to say, with an ad film making career to keep the home fires burning but breaking into that also took years; The first few years were rough and one was always wondering how the rent was going to be paid at the end of the month. Secondly, yes the star system sucks. Getting access to stars, as a first time film maker, is nearly impossible unless you happen to know them. Which is why I recommend doing a small film with a low budget and upcoming stars/actors (they’re way more accessible) Make your voice heard, be distinct, stand out. Hopefully, you’ll get more money and stars to play with the next time around.
It’s stupid to think of doing your first film with a Hrithik or Amir or whoever. Firstly, it won’t happen unless you’re a friend/relation. Secondly, you’ll have zero creative control; it’s a really bad power equation.
Anyhow, thanks again everyone for the overwhelming response. I’m super thrilled and more than just a little terrified.
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As Navdeep himself says talk abt “Loins of Punjab Presents” also yaar…there seems to be only M-SFU and nothing else for the past few days….i feel there should be some balance here…
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Hi navdeep,
After a long time, I went for a Friday show of a movie and definitely glad that I did. hope there are many like me who for long has been silently hoping and praying for this kind of revival of Hindi cinema. who the F*&^ cares about a taran adarsh or a khaled mohammad….they can be happy with their barjatyas and chopras ’simplistic stories’ movies…
Our expectations is simple’ please do not assume that the entire movie going population is either looking for escapist cineme or leave their brains in their refrigerators before going for a movie….
now only for two things…
1) someone to work on a “tarantino” kind of screenplay in India…anurag…hope u r listening, man?
2) RGV….please wake up…
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Taran Adarsh is an accountant not a film critic! He seems to spend more time trying to figure out the box office calculations and counting how many people are in line at the theater than trying to watch the movie. How can he review movies and then say he doesn’t understand what he just saw? Maybe because he’s reviewing the audience instead of the film.
I watched Manorama last night and then searched PFC to see opinions and ran across the link to Taran’s review. He listed everything he didn’t understand and it made me feel like a genius,because it was all perfectly clear to me…and I was watching at 3:00am! I started at 1:00am thinking I wouldn’t like it and then I couldn’t turn it off.
I didn’t realize this was Navdeep’s first film because it seemed as if made by an expert in the craft of filmmaking. The camera setups,lighting,acting,script,everything seemed like they were being directed by a seasoned pro.
My thanks to PFC for directing me towards the discovery of this film and many others….
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NAVDEEP..CONGRATS..U’VE DONE IT AT NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FEST..BEST FILM..WOW!!!
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I also saw Manorama yesterday at the MIAAC festival and am very impressed. I’m guessing Abhay went to the invitations-only closing-night party instead of our screening, yes?
Abhay’s performance is wonderfully subtle here. He was simultaneously a mensch (Yiddish for ordinary guy) and yet someone I couldn’t stop watching. Also, it’s amazing how completely different Vinay Pathak is from his Bheja Fry avatar.
There so many realistic, gritty details in the desert setting – I loved that the movie shows India without all the requisite tourist icons.
The pacing, as was noted above, was a little slow for me, too. However, I couldn’t guess what should be cut out. I like it when I’ve lived with characters long enough to feel like I might know them personally.
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