Y2K, The Decade that was… Part 1
The last year, 2010 of this decade is about to take flight. And while we all at PFC and numerous other sites, blogs and boards dedicated towards the passion for cinema, are talking, discussing, trashing, uplifting, ditching, or fucking up movies and movie professionals and anything related to cinema, very few have had the chance to take a pause, a breather and look at what’s about to close…
10 years of cinema. The first ten of the 21st century. Another milestone gets added to the pages of history. An impression, a permanent etching of memories of one’s life collaborated with what movie released during a particular bad phase or a good phase or an unforgettable moment of their life in these past ten years. A few years from now, someone will pick up the keyboard, or perhaps a mic to talk into, that a software will translate, into print on a blog to publish the blogger’s memory of his or her life in these ten years and the cinema. Perhaps there will be a new Torture series that people will be reading 10, 15 years from now. Who knows?
For me 80s created a permanent impression. Cause each second of my life was measured by what movie I saw and how I saw it. 90s just flew by before I could even blink and then just when there was a comfort zone settling in, 10 years have flown by post Y2K.
The flight to San Francisco, in early ’99, was to land me in a shit pool of hell for the 18 months, I had no idea, it was the worst phase of my professional career, and yet in all that, those depressing San Francisco foggy evenings, after another day of no interviews, no calls, no projects, no source of livelihood, in that cramped apartment shared with 5 others, I saw Vaastav – stunned by Sanjay Dutt performance, specially the scene about the first peace talks in the restaurant; Kaun – hit me, I thought it did except the amateurish way I thought it moved towards the end; I could not understand what the hell was this Nimbuda Nimbuda;
18 months later things improved, I found Orange County, fell in love with the place, moved to a small coastal town, a surfing community, enrolled in Taekwondo gave up on Goju-Ru, dislocated the shoulder as I ran first base with the bat in my hand, surfing lessons till I scraped off the flesh off my thighs, bought my first Dell, now all I needed was to connect back to Indian movies. Found a site that would put movies online. Saw Jungle, made a note of the name Jaideep Sahni, bought my first car, drove 48 miles to watch Rajkumar Santoshi’s Khaki, my first Indian film in a desi theater in USA, rented my first pirated DVD on the same day of it’s theatrical release in India – took half the day off from work on the pretext of “not feeling well” as I could barely manage to hold myself back from watching the pirated DVD I had in my hands on Friday of Company.
Ten years later, I realize, as I write this, not much has changed in how I remember moments of my life. They are always, mostly, tied to some movie.
So here it is, a collection of 5 movie related items listed in each part of this series, that come from my music collection on my laptop, a DVD in the living room, a movie I constantly go back to, scenes or songs that hit me hard and have stayed with me since, or memories that keep constantly floating back through those cracks in the door closed on the past. Generally the list will cover years from ’99 onwards… so put on your favorite music, open a beer can, light your poison, dim the lights and float into some real good times these last 10 years have given us… after all it wasn’t as bad as you thought… It never is and never shall be!
Number One in this part, starts with one my favorites, Sheryl Crow, singing – Everyday is a winding road, from the soundtrack of Erin Brokovich.
What hooked me?
The lyrics… especially, the first lines of the song. To me it encapsulates our urban city lives… just perfectly… and so true of the people we come across on the internet.
I hitched a ride with a vending machine repair man
He says he’s been down this road more than twice
He was high on intellectualism
I’ve never been there but the brochure looks nice
Jump in, let’s go
Lay back, enjoy the show
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low,
These are the days when anything goes
Trying listening to this, as you drive on Pacific Coast Highway with the ocean on your left, clear blue skies, bright sunshine, and a gentle breeze hitting the deck of your car. Bliss and a complete surrender to the moment… I kid you not.
Sab Ganda Hain, Par Dhanda Hai Yeh from Company
For week’s before Company released, I was practically eating, drinking and sleeping with this song on non stop loop. And blame it on this song that I excused myself from work that day so I could get to watch Company. I haven’t seen any other song in this genre create so much impact on me. I’m surprised the music director simply vanished from the scene, only to be seen recently in a music video. And tragically, this was the last time, for me, that Ram Gopal Varma did something good. The loss is not only Varma’s, but ours as well.
Sanjay Dutt in Vaastav
Everyone has a unique manner of watching a movie, listening to a song or reading a book. For me, being a chronic ADD, just few seconds, a flicker of the eye, or a few words in the dialogue can hit me, bind me and hook me in. I can’t sit through 90 minutes cause of my condition; I need to take frequent 20 – 30 minute breaks if the movie isn’t going anywhere. As per Dibakar’s excellent analysis of our present day moviegoers – I’m the poster boy for the shag a scene style of story telling. Yet, for me, those tiny played out fraction of a second – moments are enough to hook me in.
The scene that made me pause the video as we were watching Vaastav, unfolds in 3 seconds. Sanjay Dutt’s body language and facial expressions in those 3 – 5 seconds. It was magic. He had got the arithmetic fantastically right. A few years later he would hit it hard again with Munnabhai. But this fraction of a scene (and the climax) turned him, in my books, from a okey dokey actor to Oh Boy he was amazing!
Keep an eye of Sanjay Dutt’s facial expressions from 9:03 onwards. For the first time he was not acting. He so transparently displays his vulnerability…
And from 0:03 onwards, the moment he folds his hands nervously to acknowledge the two guys in front of him as he sits… BANG… that did it for me… Sanjay Dutt had finally turned into an amazing actor (of course besides his lovely performances in Naam and a couple others)
Vaastav is never complete without the amazing heart ripping climax… I was like, is this really Sanjay Dutt? Yes it was!
Dido – Resting here with me from Love Actually
Recently in an interview to Time Out Mumbai, I was asked to name one movie I have in my DVD collection, that’s sort of an embarrassing guilty pleasure.
It wasn’t hard to answer. Love Actually is my favorite and it has left a few jaws open of some visitors at PFC HQ as they see it resting in my DVD collection.
But what makes Love Actually absolutely delightful is the background song tracks of Dido.
There is one scene which leaves me teary eyed each time I watch it. Superbly executed by the actor on screen (Andrew Lincoln), this is a scene where Kiera Knightley realizes that her husband’s best friend (Lincoln) was secretly in love with her.
Watch the scene from 0:05 to about 0:50, unfortunately another 10 seconds of the actual footage is not in this video (a fan boy edit), but it has Lincoln finally breaking down and screaming out at the pain he’s feeling in that foggy London day. Mind-blowing execution.
That 30 – 40 seconds where the camera just follows Lincoln on the streets wrapped in cold winter fog, as Dido’s song reaches a pitch – right at the stroke of Lincoln’s screaming, is potent enough to stab any heart that has experienced pain and depression in love.
My first movie Review
It was just meant to be. I had already started writing standup acts on my blog and cinema was sooner or later bound to be poured in that mix. And that’s what I emailed Magik recently. How I blogged, when I used to. The focus was always a standup comic act. Could I be at the Improv and play this blog out in front of an eating drinking wild audience… and the words would thence flow, the thoughts would now follow a path that had a goal. It was never about trashing or abusing movies, but squeezing the comedy out of watching a bad movie. My standup comic influences remain Lewis Black and Robert Schimmel, both of whom I got to meet and watch their shows in person, many times this decade (another plus to these 10 years). At times you will see a touching influence in later reviews of the late Iqbal Masud and Khalid Mohamed both who’s reviews I religiously read each Sunday while growing up in the seventies and eighties.
Many friends and readers ask me why I’d stopped writing. Cause as the years went by it looked like every blogger had turned into a movie reviewer. Whatever I had to say would be said by a dozen other bloggers and writers. There was nothing new I had to add.
And looking back some of the blogs I wrote look so amateurish to me today. Damn! Did I really write that!
And then there is life, I still haven’t learnt to crack a joke in rough seas… someday perhaps I’ll learn that art and it would be a good time to start the engines again.
Here’s my first review I ever wrote… and then it just snowballed into bigger and bigger things… today we have had to create two separate sections for Reviews on PFC… boy O boy!!! What a decade this has been!
January 31, 2005
Ab Tumhare Hawale “D A N D A” Saathiyon
I swear I’m completely normal, sane and in a chirpy, jovial mood discussing current events with my roommates over the dining table. I finish the brunch, and move to the living room to watch Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon (ATHWS), directed by Anil Sharma.
Saturday, 2:30pm:
I knock on my first roommate’s door, and ask him to come to the living room. I then knock on my second roommate’s door and ask him to come down to the living room. With both of them in the room, I give each of them my tennis racquets. I kneel down and put my head on the floor. I then ask them to whack my head with the racquets till I cry out and agree that there is not a single drop of hope in my body, hope that Bollywood will give me a good movie, at least one in a year.
My roommates refused to do that… they thought this was a cunning ploy on my part to kick them out of my house where they have not paid me rent for the last… I have lost count of the months… In fact another month like this and I’m ready to scratch the word rent out of my dictionary. I already have moments where I have to think real hard to understand what rent really means.
After my roommates’ refusal, I sat down and thought. I thought hard. In fact I thought very very hard. And I still am, while writing this blog, thinking whether Mr. Sharma thinks we are human beings who have FUCKING MELTED BRAINS IN THEIR FUCKING SKULL. WE WERE SITTING THERE CRYING OUT “GIVE US A FUCKING MOVIE WHICH WILL TELL US HOW FUCKING STUPID WE ARE” …and Mr. Sharma listened to our prayers, and did give us one.
What’s the story?…aaa my dear blog reader. Please don’t make this mistake again of asking someone this question: What’s the story of ATHWS?
Please don’t ask, if you care for your head not being smashed over and over by the person you asked the question to. But due to the protective barriers of the Internet, I will tell you the answer while I smash my computer monitor with the racquet. Hopefully I would have told you the complete story before my computer monitor starts looking like a 12th century piece of shitty art.
…bear with me for second …another second …another second please …I …the story …WHAT THE FUCK, THE STORY IS SO SCREWED UP, I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO FUCKING START. Ok… Amitabh’s son Bobby Deol is killed in war. Amitabh raises his grandson Bobby (again) along with Nagma, Amitabh’s daughter-in-law. So she is Bobby’s mother. No no not the Bobby I mentioned earlier, but the later one. She is Bobby’s wife and the uhhh Bobby’s mother uhh HELL WHO THE FUCK IS SHE? BOBBYS MOTHER? BOBBYS WIFE? WHAT?
…calm down.
She’s the wife of Bobby Amitabh’s son who is killed in war. She has Bobby (again) as her son. This new Bobby is Amitabh’s grandson. Now Bobby is in the army cause he wants to make grandpa and momma happy, but really he wants to fly to America and start his own business. Really? True. Bobby is one of those people who does every thing in the book and outside the book to enter America legally, look for work, look for nice place to stay and end up staying WITH ME AND FUCKING PAY ME NO RENT FOR YEARS. I’M PISSED I NEED MY RENT!!!
And someone please explain to me on why does Nagma look more as Bobby’s younger sister or daughter INSTEAD OF HIS MOTHER. WHAT DOES SHARMA THINK – THAT NOT ONLY HAVE OUR BRAINS MELTED BUT ALSO WE HAVE TURNED FUCKING BLIND????
Calm down…
Moving on, Bobby falls in love with girl. Girl was married to Akshay Kumar who had to attend the call of duty on his suhaag raat. He gets captured by the enemy and the girl thinks he is dead. Just when things are heating up between our dear old Bobby and Girl, Akshay comes back, having escaped from enemy. Bobby’s heart breaks. Some funky stuff and more freaky stuff happen and we reach the climax (of the movie NOT the suhaag raat) and good wins and bad loses.
I have always loved shero shayari and was a regular at Kavi Sammelans (Poets gatherings). But I would never in my living life start reciting poetry when MY FUCKING ASS IS GETTING KICKED BY THE ENEMY. Watching Akshay break into singing poetry when the enemy is torturing him wants me to rush and do two things. Give him a Superman’s cap and paint a big S on his shirt. Yes. He is superman. He doesn’t feel pain; he doesn’t feel the iron rods hitting his body. The enemy is always intelligent enough not to beat him on his face, because they would then have to report to human rights groups who would demand an explanation for beating an enemy on the face. MY FOOT!!!!
More than half of the movie was watched in fast forward note. What would happen if there were no fast forward science, no fast forward buttons? What would happen? What happened to those who watched this movie in the theaters? Maybe the viewers in theaters jump on their seats or run around in the hall, aping the fast forward action.
But I want to know is this: Did Sharma and his crew read the script or story they created before actually moving on to make it. And since they did make and release this movie I can only imagine they raising their glasses all excited on what an exciting story they had in their hands. Well here’s my quandary. Since Sharma and his team already think we are brainless morons, why even bother to make the movie. All they have to do, is go door to door, and tell this: We created an exciting story last night over scotch and beer. We are very excited reading this story; hence we demand money for being excited. Take the money from each home and that’s the end.
They then move on to creating a new story and get excited and take money from each house they knock on. At least that would save MY FUCKING BRAINS FROM GETTING FRIED WHILE WATCHING THE FUCKING STORY AND THINKING I AM A FUCKING IDIOT FOR WATCHING THIS MOVIE FROM START TO END!!!
Minus Z Grade. Avoid at all costs.
Tags: Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo, Audio, Company, Dhanda Hai, Everyday is a winding road, Love Actually, Memories, Music, Resting Here With Me, Sanjay Dutt, Sheryl Crow, Vaastav, Video, Y2K The Decade That Was : Series
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
Great post Oz, was planning something on these lines, thanks for starting it up.
Some memorable memories i have of the “Noughties”.
* You Tube- Able to watch my favorite movie scenes, music videos online. Also was able to see some lovely old Hindi songs, which otherwise wud not get on the TV.
* Maqbool- Brilliant taking, fab performances by Pankaj Kapoor, Irfaan Khan, Tabu. And a scintillating musical socre by Vishal Bharadwaj. I was a fan of VB, the music director, and after Maqbool became a fan of VB, the director.
* Daniel Day Lewis ( There Will Be Blood), Forrest Whittaker( Last King of Scotland)- Two of this decades best performances IMO.
I wish you had posted how we watch the most horrible movies sitting there in the US, just to satiate our nostalgia of Des. I once watched Dulhan Banoo Main Teri as a guilty pleasure. Now beat that!
Oh there were a couple of Des nostalgia flicks in Y2k, i recall, Dil Pardesi Ho Gaya, Des Mein Nikla Chand, watched them in bits n pieces.
Yeah one of the sleeper hits of this decade i recall is Tum Bin(2001), came from nowhere, and went on to be a surprise hit.
Of all those Des nostalgia flicks Tum Bin stood out for couple of reasons-
good music and decent concept.The entire movie I remember was shot in a watertight budget around the 1 crore mark making it all the more easier to make money on it.Of the star cast Sandali Sinha,Rakesh Bapat and Himanshu are hardly seen these days and its only Priyanshu who is still seen floating around.
Not related to the last decade of last century, which is the period discussed here, but it is related with Sanjay Dutt so considering him, writing it.
As I saw his films since his debut Rocky, it seemed to me that apart from Naam the film which really helped Sanjay Dutt to a great extent in becoming a fine actor was Mahesh Bhatt’s Kabzaa.
This is interesting that Ghulam made on the same subject became a big hit in the Y2k decade while Kabzaa had not got this much success in 1987 or 88.
Saajan’s role of a romantic poet again helped him in bringing in variety in his acting range.
If he had not gone to jail in 1993 after Khalnayak his acting career would have been quite different and much more glorious than the present one.
Problem was after Vaastav, Sunju got typecast, every role, requiring him to play a nasty, foul mouthed gangster. It was not until Munnabhai MBBS, that he got a good role. But again after LRMB, its been down hill. His last couple of roles in Kidnap, Blue have seen him at his worst.
Sanjay Dutt has got lot of chances of reengineering his career and the type of roles he is getting. He has been typecast, and he seems to do nothing about it. If’s and but’s are good from a fanboyish point of view, but they do not represent the reality when the person in question has had so many opportunities.
Though Rocky,Naam,Saajan & Sadak were popular and projected Sanjay Dutt fairly well I feel it was Khalnayak which gave him the mass appeal.He was just out of jail and there was some kind of sympathy wave and co-inciding with it was a relatively good performance from him.Not too often would the audience root for the khalnayak instead of the nayak in a movie.But yes after Vaastav and the Munnabhai series he seems to be lost these days.
As far as I can remember he was arrested right after the release of Khalnayak. He was enjoying a stardom after super successes of Sadak and Saajan from 1991 onwards. His posters (showing his newly formed muscular body, bare chested, long hair) had started decorating the walls of the rooms of young people. Yalgaar in 1992 was counting on his satrdom only.
With Amitabh going for self chosen retirement for few years Sanjay Dutt was seen as the biggest super star of hindi films.
Khalnayak was not liked initially. It was a hyped film so masses saw it but Sanjay Dutt did not get praise for it initially. Many people could not like his comic villain. They expected a hard core villain in it and here he was doing sort of comedy. Story was tacky and it was difficult to digest the angle of Roshiba and Sanjay Dutt becoming a terrorist. SD’s changing into a terrorist was handled so carelessly. People had many problems with the film.
His arrest albeit might have helped film in long run. Music certainly helped the film.
RK Saab- Sanjay Dutt was arrested on April 19th 1993 while Khalnayak released on August 6th 1993.So while he wasnt released while the movie came out, he was very much in jail and I can vouch for the fact that the sympathy factor along with the music worked majorly in favour of the movie.I disagree with what you say about people not liking Sanju in Khalnayak.Even today people only talk about Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri from the movie, no one even bothers to remember the nayak- Jackie Shroff
what were the problems people had with the movie apart from the choli ke peeche controversy?It was a typical Subash Ghai larger than life kind of movie.
I had responded to your following lines in your previous comment (I feel it was Khalnayak which gave him the mass appeal.He was just out of jail and there was some kind of sympathy wave and co-inciding with it was a relatively good performance from him).
…
6 dec. 1992 Ayodhya! Riots in Bombay after Januray 1993! Rise of extremist political powers and movements run by their sister social concerns! and you say that in this kind of general atmosphere Sanjay Dutt had got mass appeal and sympathy?
Did you see it during its first release in the theatre and you are quoting the opinion of people who saw it in first or second week? I dont deny that there could be people who liked his performance. But I doubt general scenario was in the favour of the characterization and to some extent performance is dependent on the characterization. Subhash Ghai handled his journey of becoming a terrorist in such a awkward manner.To become a Gunda it is fine. Cinema oriented audience had this problem with the whole characterization of Sanjay Dutt.
What you are opining now is looking to me the opinion made some time later or may be some years later, sometime around 1995.
Contemporary reviews and film magazines and newspapers of those days may give some clue to you.
I tried to say in previous comment that film might have got some help from the arrest of Sanjay Dutt as people got some additional curiosity as he was playing a villain and it was not other way round. Khalnayak and his arrest dented his rising reputation among people.
Kind of sympathy for Sanjay came later and it came via fame of his father.
Ah! Commotion inside the country and Khalnayak. This was the time when I was discovering the world of hindi music. Schools were closed for a month due to erupting tension and I used to listen Khalnayak, Balmaa, Dil Tera Aashiq’s songs everyday. Listening to them still reminds me of that time.
OZ, I F*****ng enjoyed that review of yours. I like the irreverence and give an damn to political correctness attitude, which is what comes naturally when you don’t give a damn about consequences and shoot it straight from the heart. However, when KM writes a scathing review of a film, people are jumping all over him, attributing motives and accusing him of spoiling the prospects of the movie. Everybody has this funny opinion about how a review should be written and what the purpose of this should be i…e should be balanced, highlight good aspects, point out flaws, respectful to directors/actors blah blah… Is this an essay writing competition or what? A “review” like any other piece of literature is an expression of personal opinion and for it to make an interesting reading should be allowed to push the boundaries of acceptability. I have digressed enough. I would like to see more reviews like this and more irreverence for one and all!
Oz getting nostalgic here.
You reminded me that we are going to enter the last year of the first decade of the 21st century. In coming years, the movies of this era will be termed collectively. Waiting for second part.
First decade of this new century has been fruitful for commercial hindi cinema. It took more than 15 years to remove the clouds which had covered the majority of hindi commercial films in 80s. Resurrection had started in the late 90s itself.
The quality has definitely improved with improvement in technology and professionalism but it is still nowhere close to what it was in 50s, 60s and 70s as well. A large portion of the commercial films still dont appeal much.
The biggest success story of this decade would be that of Big B. After his obituaries were written in the 90’s, with his movies flopping left, right and center, and ABCL having to fold up, he came back with a bang, first with KBC, and then some wonderful movies, in 2005 alone he had 4 successes at the BO- Sarkar, Black, Bunty Aur Babli, Waqt, plus a fabulous performance in Viruddh.
Among his contemporaries, Rajesh Khanna has been reduced to doing sleaze flicks, Vinod Khanna had a dalliance with politics, but still not too great roles either, Shotgun Sinha more busy with politics.
Dharam Paaji, however came back with some good performances in Johnny Gaddar, Metro, Apne. Rishi Kapoor reinventing himself, giving some wonderful performances.
But it was AB who stood heads and shoulders above all.
Oz, the last decade has definitely memorable. Just like you I was another guy from India who came to US and discovered among many things with time on my hand TONS of movies, the long drives to crappy cinema halls playing desi movies, the trips to obscure places, cold weather, beer, clubs.. Among all the these, I used to turn to desitrain not for the movie reviews but for the gyan; a virtual treasure trove. And it all helped and how.. right from picking room mate, approaching strangers (ahem) in clubs, being introduced to Ms.Jameson… Your wonderful lists.. songs, 1 hit directors, scenes and part philosophical and part current affairs. There might be quite a few blogs for movie reviews but hardly any come close to opening the doors of this wonderful world of possibilities for a new kid like DT. And for that, after a decade, Thank You.
I am very touched. Thank you… thank you so much for your kind words and appreciation. I never knew, for one bit, writing a blog from an almost dead Dell somewhere in a small surfing town in Southern California would touch so so so many lives. Thank you. It has been an honor and my privilege to have readers like you… every single comment from you all laid the seeds of the dream to start PFC. It is only now after shutting down DT, that so so many readers are coming forward via these comments and emails to let me know how they used to follow DT like religion! Overwhelming… loss of words! Thank you.
woohoo! what a decade it is turning out to be… another high-point for PFC is also that so many ex & current authors have made their way into hindi cinema, thanks to guru.d, navdeep, shivajee & many others. have been in love with your posts eversince I first stumbled upon DT, after reading about it in Mid Day. Since then I have been hooked & how!
.
Waiting for y2k part II. this one was awesome, especially the vaastav bits… totally my thoughts, only put in much better words. and hell, now i have to see ab tumhare hawale danda. priceless review. dil bole hadippa.
Good things, great things await your talent… all you need to do is tap it… PFC was a minor bridge. And yes I’ll be waiting on the other side ready with my punch-in-the-nose review if you make a bad movie. PFC ka naam dooba mat dena!
haha. for once fcuk humility oz bhai… “minor bridge”? WTF? thats the only bridge all us filmi aspirants ever had, straight into the sanctum sanctorum of hindi cinema. which other forum allows such privileges to lesser mortals alike moi? none. mundu! i got to hear sujoy speak on my jhankaar beats post. that was like ‘holy fucking shit’ moment for me, that i will take to my grave.
.
attended sankat city premiere, got clicked with guru.d! if it wasn’t for pfc, i wud have been cooling my heels at my cousin sister’s place, eating home-made curd-rice. PFC has been the single-largest contributor of filmi-keedas to wherever they rightly belong and that dear oz bhai, is a HUGE accomplishment.
.
and how can i fogget the PFC meet up with guru.d where incidentally vishal.bard turned up! woo hoo! now thats another experience i will narrate to my grandkids.”minor bridge”??? babaji ka ghanta oz bhai… PFC has made so many zindagis rock! and the best part is that here the door swings both ways… even the film-makers are getting their share of eyeballs & bums on seat. it’s a win-win situation for all at PFC.
.
you may choose to underplay it for wudeva odd reasons, but the PFC-indian cinema tryst will go a looooooong way and insha allah outlast us all. and CineMaa Kasam, if i make a bad movie, i will myself come to orange county, & get my head whacked with the bloody tennis racquets till there is not a single drop of chutiyagiri left in my filmi skull.
.
As a parting shot, I leave you with a gem from our very own favourite Dilnawaz, in his very own benign words “Iam thankful to editors..PFC is a dedicated workplace..PFC is surely one of “the best” place to learn and update urself.”
Agree with Ratnakar. The decade belonged to resurgence of Amitabh Bachchan. Mohabbatein, K3G, KBC, An acknowledgement, a reward of sorts for his acting prowess and his contribution. And to Aamir Khan, post Lagaan, Raju Hirani, Sanjay Gadhvi, Dibakar Banerjee…
I tried something but nothing could articulate the feelings I went through reading your post. For me it was not about the decade thats going by, this post was more about way before that, even though you didnt write it here. I could read it. We zip past our lives and never take a pause to sit back and just wonder, what just happened? I am glad you could have that moment. I cant write further because I dont know how to express my resonance and so I’d leave you with the lyrics of one my favourite song: High Hopes by Pink Floyd. Try watching the video, I promise you’d be blown away to pieces. Here goes:
.
Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begun
Along the long road and on down to the causeway
Do they still LIVE there by the cut
There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay
.
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder
.
Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide
At a higher altitude with flag unfurled
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed up world
****
Encumbered forever by desire and ambition
There’s a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we’ve been so many times
.
The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river
Forever and ever
Thank you. it was wonderful seeing the video with the music playing ever so pelican like.
Excellent write-up .. direct dil se ..
I encore ur sentiments at couple of places ..
1.the soundtrack of Company along with Ganda Dhandha .. was like caffeine to me too ..
2.Also .. Sanju Baba .. for the first time I found the actor in him .. (Yes .. i did not follow him from the Naam n Rocky days ) after vastaav .. still sad … could not watch vastaav in a theatre :(
btw . .did u get a param veer chakra or something for watching ATHWS .. lolz .. that was one heck of a parody. . . an even bigger one was ‘Hindustan Ki Kasam’ . .a dream by Veeru Devgan ..
critics said … veeru stopped dreaming after that … ;)
Oz Sir, reading yours article is like going through history of Indian cinema. 80’s mindless commercial movies with parallel cinema , 90’s emergence of Khan trio and other fresh actors and then Y2k decade change with infusion of new talent in film making.. Long lasting fight against sycophants, incestous and nepotistic bollywood. When people like Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Rajat Kapoor, Ashutosh Gowatrikar, Jaideep Sahini, Shimit Amin and Prasoon Joshi bursting on the scene ,its delight to watch their work. Inside People like Amir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Joya Akhtar, Abhay Deol emerging as new sensibilities from inside. And the biggest reform in multiplex cinema and rise of indie film makers. The dependance on rare institutes like FTII or NSD for talent is too demanding. Still it will take years to inclculate habit of film appreciation in film crazy nation. Y2k decade brings a positive change in it.. When u read words from these auteurs in pre film making or making awareness about their work by indie film makers, its pure joy. To know and discuss about Gulaal, Dev D, Manorama Six feet under or Frozen gives me lot of happiness, that people who are passionate about cinema are now changing it in more inclusive way. Oz Sir, great write up about changing times and rent issue !!!
Yes it has… but lets not create borders around this decade by dropping names of people whose work we saw, liked and limit ourselves to it. there will be many who’s work you and I didn’t see and they shall pass away unnoticed through these 10 years. This series is for all those too, who did great work but didn’t make it… rather than those who did… and please no Sir.
Ok SIR, no sir from now on Oz. Personally I don’t like damn american way of taking name of person so big in knowledge, age, experience and everything..It hurts my sensibilities or my tradition showing my respect to someone. :(
Great review! And I’m with you on Dido’s Here With Me in Love Actually. One of the best uses of popular music
Motion third’ed..but again, Dido is not your average pop singer.
Wow!Oz certainly a nice start to an interesting series and I’m already looking forward to the next installment.The last decade has seen so much- probably tough to mention it all through some comments or a post.But certainly this series will enable us to kind of chronicle whatever we felt made a difference.
As for the Ab Tumhare…… ( ATHWS ) torture, I do envy you Oz.You had the pleasure of having the fast forward option.I’m one of the unfortunate souls who saw it on theatre.But well I’ve managed to survive it somehow.While watching the movie I was wondering why did Anil Sharma had to get inspired from Peal Harbour and make this bore fest?
Great work OZ bhai and thanks for providing PFC where after hectic schedule of work, we can share & discuss our passion i.e. cinema… For me it is a big reprise after day of going through legal problems, judgements etc… You are right Sanjay Dutt does’nt seems that he was acting in Vastav, he was outstanding… and Ganda hai per dhandha hai yeh is quite close to me bcoz everytime situation forces me to do something which did’nt want to do then this song comes in the picture….beta Akash dhandha hai karna to padega…
Nice one oz… funny all Indians in US start the same way, do the same things … m still relatively new, but can totally chuckle at all you have mentioned, links for Hindi movies, bus-trains-cabs catch a ‘rock on’ ….
……………………..
Vaastav I beleive was 1999, so yes technically a decade back from this year .. though while talking of perfromances, check out Sanjay Narvekar next to Sanjay Dutt in all those seconds that you have mentioned check that guy’s expressions he actually raises the secne’s motive of depicting the ‘heat of the moment’ to another platform…. that guy has been royally under utilised….
…………………….
AB Tumhare Vatan saathiyon… funnily is still played around in the Indian channels shown in US … even the other day I was trying to catch some dinner before ‘Wake Up Sid’ to be royally disturbed by “bekaraaar bekaraaar bekraaaar” .. funnily my friends with me that day are from small districts in AP and TN can speak in broken english and no hindi(oh yeah looking at them you can make out confidence is all that is needed to reach anywhere in this world)… and I had tough time making them understand what “bekaraar” means, the word Impatience was not striking me then, but now they know this word very well … thanks to ATHVS…
……………………
I think (and I guess you would anyways be mentioning this in the sequal) the beginning of this decade in hindi cinema would be the surging of Hrithik Roshan … the phenomena that went on for a full year… never before was the supremacy of SRK ever challenged before that … the ‘3 Khan’ forumla was suddenly up for a toss.. HR or no HR for the first time people started looking at new heros with some confidence… even Aftab made a career out of the movement… of course the entire phase worked well as a transit towards movies like Lagaan and DCH denting into the “star” concept further….
……………………
I guess the last decade has its fair share of Indian cinema and actors going global with a lot more spotlight including all the “news from Cannes” and kinds … and of course we had our share of ‘intentional brilliant film making’ … trying to create geniuses and giving all possible media highlights…
…………………..
lots more man… i have no clue how you plan to fit it all in 2 sequals… though eagerly awating the next one…
Oz, I came here for the first time in 2007 Feb and since then have been a regular but silent visitor.This website is one of those discoveries which I love and hate but will keep coming back.
Thanks to You and Your Team for creating PFC
Oz, you certainly have a talent for evoking nostalgia…I havent read DT but I’m sure it must have been interesting. Keep ‘em coming !
When you say that you ‘fell in love with OC’…I’m a little mystified.. Was it the staunch right wing, Republican presence that attracted you, the identical cookie-cutter layout of residential and commercial areas, or the absence of ethnic minorities (barring mexican barrios)..??
I’ve been a resident of southern Cali for a couple of decades now, yet was never quite drawn to OC. It seems like the kind of place where Obama and his ilk would be booed out of town..
Man, desitrain was awesome…you were an absolute star…been following you since then.
I initially came to PFC and continue to do so in the hope that I will one day get to read one of your classic pieces again. It just does not happen…but one can hope.
I also believe I was one of the first people to tell you how pretentious PFC was becoming, way back when it started…then it became fashionable to say so
Anyway, love you yaar. All the best.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120129726
Neo-Nazis in Orange County..
Oz: Good one. I am trying to list the milestones in Indian Films in this decade (as per me and purely subjective!!)
1. Lagaan – Oscar Nomination
2. Dil Chahta Hai – First multiplex film?
3. Multiplexes
4. Friday evening reviews on TV ripping films apart
5. Rise and fall of RGV
6. Rise and Fall of Yash Raj
7. Fall and Fall of 90’s super directors – Subhash Ghai, Dharmesh Darshan etc.
8. UTV and UTV Spotboy
9. PFC and Anurag Kashyap’s frank blogging
10. Gays coming out of the closet in KHNH and later in Dostana
11. DTH
12. AR Rahman’s Oscars.
For me, PFC has been the discovery of the decade. Till then (2007) I was a film lover, seeking to know more, understand more about this unique media.
PFC pitchforked me into the hurly burly of films and sharpened my understanding of films, its making and its business to a far greater extent than what I ever thought possible. For this, Oz, you deserve all the credit. All of it.
As a medium, films had always captivated me. But, the multiplexes arrived and we began to see films in better halls and therefore better products. Our expectations zoomed up. So, the makers changed track. The actors took more care. The writers tried to write better (they have not succeeded as yet). The reviewers needed to shape up. Suddenly, movie going was a fad again. DCH, Bunty and Babli, No Entry, Krissh, Jab we Met, Koi Mil Gaya, Jodha Akbar, Munnabhai, all of these had serpentine queues. I did not get tickets easily. No worry. The movies were a pleasure again.
Somewhere now, I was bitten by the world cinema keeda. Again PFC was responsible. OZ, thanks. Today, I can no longer stand even a half decent Ajab Gazab Kahani. Don’t know why. Have I evolved? No. Same guy. Same wife. Same bed. Possibly the matter between the two ears had evolved.
I met guys here in Mumbai from the tinsel town. Many of the PFCites as we call them. So, we are a community. Great. Oz, Thanks. I meet and even discuss film projects. Thats a high. Definitely. I see the passion. All around. Many moons to go. Many choices to make. A decade just flew by.
Thanks, Oz!
@Oz
A truly heartfelt post buddy…
For me the one movie …the one movie that signified this decade was Dil Chahta Hai, it’s the movie that changed everything, it set the tone of all coming of age/friendship movies and set the fashion trends in the coming years. Heck it was the barometer/thermometer against which all such movies would be compared.
I wish someone wrote a post on that.
Oz bhai, apart from the matter on the decade in the post, this post is reminiscent of the ‘desitrain’ and ‘torture series on PFC(07-08)’ you wrote. I had a great time reading those. Absolutely hilarious!
PFC has encapsulated not just Indian cinema, but also World Cinema over the years. Its an ode for the film fanatics of the world. The optimism is high and it will get bigger.
Miles to go before you sleep Oz bhai….