Paka Maat
Paka Maat means don’t eat my head. There are few questions and a couple of frivolous things, which have been bothering me for quite some time now. I had tried everything to solve whatever was bothering me. I went to the temple – and blurted out a few filmy dialogues from movie Nastik. I did a bit of googling but found finding a god via google easy than finding my answers. So I am here….
1. What is a creative director? What does he do? How does he help out the director? What is a difference between a director and a creative director? What do you need apart from a creative mind to be a creative director? Would it be fair to say Aamir Khan has been a creative director in all of his films which he has not directed, so how many films are like that? Also would it be fair to include DVDwallahs name as a creative director in the films which have been copied from DVDs?
2. You know, in some scenes where the camera zooms in – focuses on one particular, say, an object and then the second object in the scene goes a bit blur. Why does that – blur happen? What is the reason behind that? Is it the cinematographer’s fault? Do you get what I mean? You mostly find this in Indian movies and always in Indian dramas. I had tried to find a particular scene in youTube, but could not find it. And I don’t know any of the technical terms, so you will guys have to re-read this and try to understand it, or, I will have to find an example. Let me think….
3. Anupam Kher is still acting, for how many years? Is he one of the actor who has always been playing senior roles (w.r.t. age) from his debut films or the bad/comedian guy in the films? It is only now that he is more sort of playing role of his age, but what about before? I have never seen his earlier films in which his character’s age reflected his real age. You know.. he is still the same and he hasn’t grown old, like other actors of his era did/have.
4. Dekho Do Baatein Hojayge
Yaah aap film mein kaam karoge
Yaah aap film mein kaam nahi jaroge
Agar film mein kaam kiya, toh koi baat nahi
Magar film mein kaam nahi kiya, toh do baatein hojage
Yaah aap theater mein kaam karoge
Yaah aap TV mein kaam karoge..
Agar theater mein kaam kiya, toh kuch paise milege aur kuch tarifey
Magar TV mein kaam kiya, toh bahut paise milege aur Patelsaab aur Gattu….
It is not as funny as Patelsaab’s ‘Do Baatien Hojayge’. Anyway, how-come he has been in only a few hindi films? Jo Jeeta Woh Sikander comes to my mind, but can’t think of other of his films. He is ought to have done a lot of films or should be doing a lot of films. He is very talented, in fact, Pankaj Kapur holds him in very high regard. I just cannot think a reason behind him not getting film offers or if he is getting film offers, then why has he rejected those offers? Also, in ‘Office Office’, are we told of the first name of Patel, Shukla, Pandeyji and Bhattia?
5. Will majority of future Indians Films be without songs? I cannot see that happening, because we cannot live without songs. Would it be fair to say that in Hindi Films, it is the script which supplements the songs in the movie? The songs are the core of Hindi films even though there is no whatsoever relation with the story or script? But why? What is it about songs and Indian? There is some kind of konnection. Are we Indians obsessed with songs more than any other…? Also, in the western world people hardly appreciate lyrics or latest poets, in general – where as we appreciate lyrics and lyricists a lot…. is that true?
And is it impossible to find a fine looking woman who can sing Ghazal?
6. In Fruit & Veg shops, why do they have a 42″ flat screen TV playing latest Hindi Film songs? What is the konnection? A Radio playing in the shops sounds reasonable but a TV in a Saagbhaaji shop? If they were selling CDs and DVDs with tomatoes, potatoes, apples, then I would have understand.. but no, it’s just there, for some inexplainable reasons.
7. The extra female dancers in music video are mostly non-Indians. I don’t mind that, but it seems quite odd. Don’t you find that odd?! Don’t they (non-Indian extra dancers) find it odd to be involved in hindi music videos?! I am surprised that women in India or the saffron people do not have a problem with that – Just imagine if one of the top heroine wore that sort of clothes and did a bit of jiggy in a music video.. the whole country would be burning effigies of the actress. This could only happen in India and in Hindi music videos. Where did this trend started? Was it from South Indian films? I find it so funny – they lip synching a hindi song. It is like you having Indian guys doing ‘I’m a Disco Dancer’ kind of dance with Beyonce.
That’s about it. I wanted to include a few more…, but were in bad taste or rude, so I will leave out those..
Anyway, whilst I was writing this post, I was having a conversation with my fellow authors and I happen to mention that, I saw Pyaasa and came across the sublime ghazal “Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To”, for the first time! And they were gob-smacked, in fact, in their own words, “shock of decade”. And I have only seen three black and white movies. So are any people out there who has seen fewer black-white moves than me and had never heard of the song “Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To” before.
I am not looking for any more questions. I am looking for answers only. Thank you and God Bless You.
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
HG,
Ans 4) Patel sahab’s actual name is Deven Bhojani …He is a talented guy with good comic timing …Hers is his imdb :
http://imdb.com/name/nm0080409/
@H.G,
if it helps
(3) Please watch Anupam Kher in Akhiri Raasta, Lamhe and Darr where he played younger characters than his actual age or equal to his age.
RK and HG and others,
does anyone remembers Anupam Kher’s movie called Dil ka Doctor ..he played a womaniser…
just finished (saw apporximately 65% of this movie, think that’s enough to make an opinion, thank god, it was not in cinema hall )
memento
my god :((
i don’t like puzzles. i am not bored.
———
on goonda’s 7th point
i enjoy music videos, never thought deeply about this point. thanx for pointing it out.
although i will still won’t think about it and will continue with enjoying videos
)
Anand, I know his name is Deven Bhojani, what I meant was do we know Patel’s or Shukla’s or Pandeyji’s or Bhattia’s first name in “Office Office”? The character’s first name.. not the real name.
However, I should have mentioned his real name in the article.
RK, really, I have seen all of those films, but still in those films he is playing older/senior roles. I thought otherwise. And he still playing those sort of roles..
@H.G,
How Anupam Kher is playing older role in Akhiri Rasta, when he is childhood friend of Amitabh Senior and Amitabh is shown young man?
In Darr also Anupam Kher is not father of Juhi Chawla but elder brother. what do you think was real age of Mr Kher when he did Darr?
and in Lamhe also he is shown as friend of Anil Kapoor who is somewhere between 35-40.
If becasue of his baldness or mature looks he never looked much younger then waht films and filmwala can do?
BTW, this good actor when appeared in a very good tele film/play Wapsi then also he played role fitting to his age.
and please add Parinda also to this list where he played younger characters. Now it was impossible for him to play college student right from the very begining of his acting career :d
Is Amitabh Playing double role in Aakhri Raaste? And in later half Anupam gets a bit older.. I will have to see the film again.
I just think there are some actors who look older but still keep playing a role of 20-26 year old character, for example: SRK, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Govinda, etc. And ANupam Kher is at the other extreme end.. who always played senior roles.. from his first film.. that is what I have an impression of him. A brilliant actor, though.
1. creative director is a title aamir made up out of pity for amole gupte. it was basically a nice way of saying “you don’t know what you’re doing, so i’ll do it.”
2. the “rack focus”, as it’s called, is a technique, not a fault, that the DP employs to bring an object into focus to give it more emphasis. for ex, two characters facing screen, one closer to it, and the other in the background. the rack focus can be used to focus in on the person further away while they’re saying their lines and similarly focus on the person closer in when they say theirs.
3. check RK’s comment.
4. don’t watch TV serials anymore, so dunno.
5. not gonna happen, and shouldn’t happen. india has prided itself on its vibrant culture for so many years, and a big part of it is our songs and dances. can you imagine indian weddings, events, and cultural shows without any of our trademark hindi songs? as asinine as some of the movies may be, the songs can sometimes be a saving grace and provide good timepass, and it’s a part of the history of indian cinema. newer-age films can come and stay too. there should be room for co-existence.
6. no “k”onnection. the shopkeepers need something to watch during the day when business is slow. it’s more for them.
7. in the age of music videos and MTV, the only thing that could possibly be odd is clothed women. plus if you start watching more B&W movies, you’d be surprised to spot many non-indians in party atmosphere songs too. check out “hai hai hai yeh nigahen” from “paying guest”
you just discovered “yeh duniya agar…” god bless you too.
H.G,
yes Amitabh played double role and when senior AB is shown old then naturally his friend Anupam Kher will also be shown old, but he started as younger man.
SRK, Salman, Akshay, Govinda etc started as Hero in hindi films and they created market for them as hero and they may have liberty to play younger roles till public deny their presence in such roles. As public had denied Dilip saab’s younger incarnations in Bairag or AB’s in Lal Badshah and Mritudata etc.
Every actor sees this phase when people dont like him to play younger roles. Rajini Kant may be an exception who did wonder at BO with Shivaji.
Sanjeev Kumar also played elderly roles since begining of his career but he managed to get lead roles also.
Jaideep Sahani was credited as Creative director for Khosla Ka Ghosla. So what would he had to do? Would it be fair to say Dibanker had nothing to do with Khosla Ka Ghosla?
2 – I don’t get it. Why would you do that? it spoils the picture. you end up focusing on the blur picture rather than on the object you’re supposed to be focusing on..
In Black Whites movies.. I cannot tell a difference between any of the actresses, so finding a non-Indian in a black & white movie is impossible, for me. ’sides, those films were pre1947 or around that period, so it would have a few britishers.. but in today’s music video we have eastern European in the videos, no? who bought them and why them?
RK, I get it.. so who is Sanjeev Kumar of this era? Can Boman Irani get away with it? Or we only have Heroes?
Guess AK Hangal must have played an old character in his all films…atleast the ones I have seen….
@ Goonda Bhai ! Sabsey pehle,…jadu ki jhappi ! Dil chhu liya yaar !
@1 – A question which has preplexed me for long. Saw the “creative director” tag in both Taare Zameen Par & Return of Hanuman … weird profile !!! — does it mean the actual director WASNT creative ? …and if he was,…what exactly was the “creative director” doing ?
Pssst…will tell u a secret,…most directors in Bollywood are mere managers,…so from that perspective u can say Aamir was a creative director for want of a better man or better term (SAD) ! About the DVD credits,…I agree !
@2 — I think you are talking about “depth of field” and “focal planes”. Its universal,…not unique to India.
@3 — I remember Anupam Kher entered the limelight with a movie called “Saranksh” ( hope I got that right ) where he acted well above his age –> very faulty performance ( if you think otherwise, …thats fine,…dont reach for my neck )– yet to see him in anything of merit.
@4 — “Do Baatien Hojayge
H.G,
May be its biased but its difficult to become a Sanjeev Kumar, though it can be said (considering his lead roles also) that Rajit Kapoor (held), and KK, Irfan Khan hold some branch of a tree named Sanjeev Kumar.
Sk was successfully casted in usual romantic format based hindi films also and did all songs and dance routine things which may not suit these actors.
hey Anupam Kher in Mohabbatein ..he didn’t play older character ….:)
*perplexed* — sorry for the typo !
No-3 Anupan Kher in Karma, looks as younger as any of the other heroes in that film.
lol, Playback, I was expecting that you would complain about this post or would question what is PFC… :w;
Anyway, I did not know about the Bhanu Banarjee angle, but still rate the writers of ‘Office Office’.
In Animation films, I understand why you need a creative director – it could be that the director is not from the animation background or you need someone’s help to create a sketch of the scene, erm. But do not see the purpose of them in Films.
“Depth of Fields” or “Focal Planes” – they should never use that. What is the point of using that? Isn’t any other way to focus on an object without blurring anything?
Blurring appear due to the limitation of the optics (i.e. the lens). It irritates me every time I see it on screen. Classic case of limitation made to look like a special effect. You can circumvent by careful selection lens. But it requires lots of efforts. There are a few solutions to this. In fact it is one of the hot problem in the field of computer vision and Imaging systems. One of the most researched alternative is to use phase mask and digital processing (we call it wavefront coding in case you want to google it) to enhance the depth of field so that both near and far placed object appear equally sharp. I am not sure if cinematic cameras have already started using it or not. There are cellphone cameras that uses it. It has been used in iris recognition systems and some defense related imaging applications.
you can get more info on a recently released cellphone camera with wavefront coding at the website of Omnivision. The product name is True focus. I tried pasting the link but its not allowed and understandably so. In case any one is wondering, No I don’t work for this company. I doubt if I work at all (in a traditional sense, I mean). Being a grad student has its perk.
@Striker(9)
Totally agree on point 5. We have had a very rich tradition of music in India. Music blends with life in India.
@HG
a fine looking woman who can sing Ghazal.
kya karoge? apne Harem mein rakhna hai? :P
Isn’t Asha Bhosle fine looking? or did you mean young fine looking female?
@ques7
firangs in music videos…hmmmn good question….I was also wondering about it. by the way, how much do you think, they get for one song?
HG,
#2- the CGI guys take helluva an effort to get the DOF right. its difficult to accomplish what a camera can achieve.
plus why do you have an issue with it? (apart from the fact that ‘U’ dont like it!)
directors/cinematographers/photographers use it to say different things/ create different moods etc etc…
hope u r going with the ‘i hate it’ tag cuz u saw something shoddily done…. where and what u saw would be a good point to raise here
@2 – surprised that depth of field is not understood or appreciated by you HG! I first thought it was a sarcastic comment… the most recent effective usage of DOF that i saw in an indian movie was Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s ‘Naalu Pennungal’, the Nandita Das episode is brilliantly shot to convey the insignificance of her character to others’ lives in the particular context/story.
@3 – Anupam Kher in Vijaya Mehta’s ‘Pestonjee’ is pretty good and for a part of the movie plays his age. still his career is full of over-played buffoonery
@6 – “A Radio playing in the shops sounds reasonable..” why? are they selling audio cassettes? why playing tv is inexplicable? personal interest, customers are entertained…
“a fine looking woman who can sing Ghazal???”…
I think Penaz Masani is good looking.:):)
How about Mitali Singh (Bhupinder-Mitali) and Sonali [Jalota] Rathore…
I am a bit ignorant about DOF and cinematography. I do not even own a camera!
DPac, I could not find an example – when I do find it, I will post it here and let you know. Then you guys can explain me the importance of the blur. Till then, let me think it is a bit of shoddy camera work. :-D
Neeraja, of course, I need a chammiya who can sing ghazals (albeit I do not know of many ghazals or understand it). Sometimes a change from item songs. Life mein thoda change hona mangta hain, nahi?
Who is Penaz Masani or Mitali Singh? Never heard of them or their songs. Any recommends?
And btw, where is Jr. Mehmood? Did he ever do any films when he grew up?
@HG
yaar, tumhe aadhi baatein pata hi nahi hain..
@HG, Jr Mehmood was in Judaai (a little help from google/imdb
) as Johnny Lever’s friend
of course YOU would have imdbed him, but still…
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0576455/
Btw, came to this link thinking more about the song from Paanch (Paka Mat) than anything else…
Also, I dont know, I always felt that everyone’s eye sight works like that (like the camera with its property of blurred stuff which is out of focus and a sharp image of the ‘in focus’ thing). Though scientifically not sure if its true…
Nevertheless, always liked, or atleast never disliked, that camera effect, especially in bhavuk (emotional) scenes where the hero is drunk/drinking, with the camera focusing somewhere around his hand, and then suddenly heroine comes and we see her through the ‘jaam ka glass’(glass of wine) in focus (if thats what you are talking about).
Anupam Kher,btw, was about the same age as Anil Kapoor (approximately) in Jamai Raja and Khel, if i am not mistaken… But more than Anupam Kher, probably A.K. Hungal is famous for never having been young (as already mentioned)…
In Judaai? really?i cannot seem to remember. Will have to check that when one of the channel shows the movie. Is he still alive? If so, what is he upto these days?
How come we do not have Jr. Johnny Lever yet?
i love the paka maat song but write an entire post on the song… what would I write?!
arrei ghinnn aarahi hain pakaaa mat….aeeey aeeey aeey beisure. tu gaaaa.mat…awesome song
abbey ghin aati hai KHUJA MAT…
…
Love the lyrics of the song… Wonder when Abbas Tyrewala does some good work again… Hope ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’ be the 1…
Some nice lines from the song:
Abbey kyun sulagta rehta hai hamesha
Ghud Ghud ubalta rehta hai hamesha…
———–
Aye Joy, Kya sochta hai Boy
Kuch khaas nahi Luke
Toh soch soch, ghutne kahi akad na jaye
———-
Bol chikni pakaa ke degi
Haan degi par bahut pakaa ke degi
——–
And machchis being lit from ‘dil’ before the ‘Beedi’
(Ae, Machis hai kya machis,
nahi yaar
Toh aa aa aa dil se laga ke jala leee)
——
Its not that I have a good memory… its just that it is being played in the background
Hope you remember Johnny Lever wanted to be an actor in Judai… Now, try to recall the director, who used to say ‘cut’ etc. That was him(Jr Mehmood)… I think he still is alive, and in fact wrote a small ‘remembering Mehmood’ type article
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/jul/26jm.htm
He is also looking for an early 2007(?) release of his directorial venture:
http://musicmazaa.com/hindi/news/fullstory/1310/Jr.+Mehmood+directs+a+movie.html
Yeah rbehemoth…kidhar hain tu aaj kal…not to be seen man? Both bhai’s gayab….
From i also love the song ” Akhiyaan chipki jaaye rei haain ahiyaan chipki jaaye”
not to mention Mein Khuda, which is the peak…but tell you what…all the songs from Paanch grew on me..i mean first couple of times..i was like…damn how amateurish…but once you start listening to them…well we know the story…
rbehmoth, I do remeber JL’s character in Judai – especially that scene in which he is faking his dad’s death. And also remember Paresh’s Rawal’s character. But do not remember the director’s character…
arre Om Bhai, its just that I come like once a week or like fortnightly or something and that too for a limited period of time, and I just end up reading the posts during this period instead of participating in a lively discussion going on then… Besides, commenting usually means that I’ll have to comeback and check for any replies or something, hence I try to avoid commenting
.
.
About bro… Dont know as to why he has been inactive, but yeah, even I have noticed he doesnt participate much in the comments or writes posts these days…
about Paanch, its actually difficult to imagine a person as rooted as Vishal Bharadwaj would compose music for a film like Paanch, and then come out with such wow music… Yes, ‘Main Khuda’ is actually the peak of the album (for the lyrics and the music)…
Initially hated ‘Ankhiyan Chipki’ with that voice of Ustad Sultan Khan and his pronounciation… his pronounciation is almost like that of a stereotypical south indian guy… but then it grew over me
These days, for a lot of my friends coming to my comp/place ‘Paka Mat’ and ‘Paanch Theme’ are like mandatory hearings.