Stanley Ka Dabba - WOW!

There is a scene in the movie when the teacher gives Stanley a chocolate as a mark of her appreciation towards his beautifully written essay. With a sheepish smile, Stanley takes it amidst generous applause from his friends. He then tries to put that chocolate into his shirt pocket only to find to his dismay that the pocket is torn and is no good to hold his chocolate. This is one amongst the many bits in the movie that fall into place at the end.

Stanley ka dabba is a story of a kid who is special in his own ways. On the exterior he comes across like any other kid who narrates stories to his friends, sings songs during class breaks, and doesn’t miss a chance to have fun. But, the only shortcoming here is that Stanley doesn’t get a lunch box to school. It’s a problem only according to his hindi teacher Khadoos Verma but Stanley’s friends like all kids have no qualms about sharing their dabbas with him. But, Verma who himself doesn’t get a dabba is always preying on others’ dabbas gives Stanley a piece of his mind and asks him to get lost till he doesn’t get a dabba of his own to school everyday. This point in story leads to the big climax of the movie which I must confess is one of the most overwhelming and extremely touching ending to have seen in recent past.

This movie is all about the magical moments held together by threads of simplicity and honesty. Amole doesn’t employ any overtly comical, emotional scene to score brownie points. The movie just floats in a good pace giving enough depth for the characters to evolve and get identified by the audience. He sets up the proceedings so brilliantly that the viewer can’t really help but feel like he is in the same class as Stanley’s and is actually looking at everything happening right there. And of course, all this culminates into one fantastic climax that’ll remain etched in the viewers’ memories for long time.

Amole Gupte was last seen in ‘Phas Gaya Re Obama’ and ‘Kaminey’ donning the actor’s hat. Before that, he was credited as writer and creative director for the beautiful ‘Taare Zameen Par’. He comes back with this movie, now managing all the major departments and delivering a movie that’s just sheer genius of art.

Amol Gole, the cinematographer of this movie shot it in a handheld Canon 7D camera because they didn’t want to scare the kids away or make them nervous as the kids didn’t know at that point in time that they were shooting for a movie !! Yes, the kids were told that these were regular acting workshops and only in the end were they informed about it. These are the things that make this movie look life like and come across as a simple story with an honest intention.

Hitesh Sonik’s music and Amole Gupte’s lyrics gel so well with the scenes that they seem like dialogues between characters but with a difference.

The kids Abhishek Reddy, Saisharan Shetty, Aman Mehra, Walter D’souza and others have all done a brilliant job considering that they are the real supporting cast of the movie. Divya Dutta as the charming English teacher who Stanley admires a lot is brilliantly casted. Divya Jagdale and Raj Zutshi are good as well. Amole Gupte as the khadoos teacher just carries on the great work he has been doing lately. But, if this movie has to be remembered for one person then it has to be Partho Gupte(Amole gupte’s son) who plays the central character of Stanley and seems so natural in every dialogue and action of his as the lovable kid.

What stands out in the movie is the amazing control that Amole Gupte has on the narration of the story. Never does he let the rhythm drop and displays great control on his direction. For me, the dabba was a metaphor for what Amole wanted to convey through this story. It was a medium for him to give out the message in the end.

Its not everyday that I quote Karan Johar but here I go. On the day of the music release, he said, ‘There is no mainstream or alternative cinema. There is good cinema and bad cinema, Stanley Ka Dabba is very good cinema’.

Yeah, Stanley Ka Dabba is one of those movies that’ll try to give out a message without trying to be preachy or dumping that thought heavily on the viewers’ minds.

As an avid movie-watcher , I get disappointed when I watch tons of mindless and stupid movies churned out by the movie industry but still hope that every now and then on a friday there is a movie like Stanley releasing!

Stanley Ka Dabba - Not a review!

You wake up to some noise.Popping of sesame seeds.U avoid and go back to sleep.Daily routine they are.

 Lethargically you start preparing by stuffing the books, separating them as either 100/200 pages or text books and placing them in different compartments, only to retrieve it easily. Packing Done .

Its late.You start rushing with your heavy bagpack.Empty handed.R u missing something?
A loud scream from  back..

DABBA … Food for lunch it is ..

After some mundane morning  sessions  and some short naps, you desperately wait for lunch break. With less time on hand, you along with the your Gang start finding a place to have packed food peacefully(Hang out is what we call now..).

Open the Dabba.There is something.Yeah something.U dont give a damn whats packed inside.Seated in a circle you start passing it in round robin fashion to make sure each and everyone has tasted it. A curious friend X asks Y if he has brought chutney along with curd rice that so much suits the taste.X enjoys a spoon of that and passes on a smile. All they want is to just to hang out. They hardly keep track of the individual’s contribution/share. It’s a crime.

You go back to attend more classes,some mundane ,some interesting and some deserving a nap. End of the Day. You go back to home and start the next day afresh.

Memories . Million Memories those school moments were . They were brought to life again and refreshed after watching the most endearing and heartwarming children movie that lights up those childhood days when we were at our purest state.

Stanley Ka Dabba

Stanley is 4^th Grade(‘F’ section to be precise) student who keeps his class entertained by his impromptu parallel world stories. The stories he narrates to teachers to bail himself and his gang members out of a situation. In free time(or recesses) he makes the whole class *head bang* to his tune of Dan Tan Tan.  

Lunch Period is the time that he hates the most. That’s because he doesn’t get the Dabba like others. Unlike others he kills his hunger by having copious amount of water  to sustain the afternoon sessions. Often shares it with his generous friends, but hesitantly though.

Mr. Verma(Amole Gupte) , a Hindi teacher  faces a similar sort of a problem.In this case he gets his colleagues share their food by pestering them. Shamelessly though.  He is better known as Khadus among kids for hijacking  sharing their food, albeit alone.

Thinking that Stanley is robbing his share of food from gang members, Verma vents out his anger and passes disparaging comments on Stanley by asking him not to come to school until he gets his own Dabba.

At the end , Stanley gets out of this awkward predicament by getting a Dabba of his own. How? Anything beyond this would be a spoiler J

Though Stanley and Verma are facing the same problem,empathy for Stanley grows. In actual they both are representation of same character. But still we end up empathizing with Stanley and not Verma.Why? If observed carefully it would reveal that Verma was once Stanley, hence his behavior (opinions may differ).Verma just didn’t wanted to see that side of life. May be.

Lets discuss the Gang. Yes the Friends, that we cherish the most. Reminds us of those bench fights that we picked up for crossing an undrawn borderline, the extra classes that we bunked to watch the fag end of a Test match, times when we deliberately punctured girl’s bicycle for fun, moments when we  were either caught playing radio in the extra classes or passing our answer sheets to our friends.

It was all unadulterated.

If God tells me that I have only 3 hrs to go, I would request for couple more so that I could watch Satya , Lagaan and maybe end with full stomach  after watching Stanley Ka Dabba.

Ragini MMS - Movie Review



Image Source: Wiki



It was only a matter of time before someone in Bollywood pulled off a "Paranormal Activity". While Paranormal Activity shattered box-office collection records all over, Paranormal Activity-2 did a decent enough job to live up to the expectations that viewers had, especially after watching the first edition. And so, we have Ragini MMS, our own desi version of a film that encompasses the strange sequence of events around a couple, triggered by a supernatural force.

If you have watched Paranormal Activity, you will immediately notice the similarities between it and Ragini MMS. Both claim to be based on true events. Most parts in both the movies are shown and shot through a handheld video camera and cameras setup throughout the house for one purpose or the other. Then comes the limited number of people in the cast. And then there is the couple who are tormented by the demon. Both movies are relatively low budget movies and shot in a very short duration. Fortunately or unfortunately, that's where the similarities end. While Paranormal Activity was the work of a relatively unknown Oren Peli, Ragini MMS comes from the production house of Balaji Telefilms headed by Ekta Kapoor, who is riding on tons of success attributing to her SOAPs that have driven Indian TV channels into submission and have garnered massive viewership. Further, while the motive remains relatively unknown to the viewer (atleast in PA-1), Ragini MMS somewhat puts a few pieces together by the end of the movie just to put the average movie-goer at ease. And then, the release date Friday the 13th was something that made quite a bit of news for Ragini MMS, while Paranormal Activity was one of those movies that gained popularity just by word of mouth. So, its not actually fair to do a head-to-head comparison of the two.Instead, let's give credit to either of them where its due, be it the acting, the screenplay or the storyline.

What its all about:
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Uday Jhala (played by Raj Kumar Yadav) and his girlfriend Ragini (played by Kainaz Motivala) head to a bungalow located in the middle of the woods outside the city to have some "private fun-time" over the weekend. On reaching the bungalow, it however becomes evident that Uday has his own hidden agenda of making an MMS sex video of Ragini and has all the arrangements already in place, with cameras setup all around the house. Strange things start to happen as the couple try to get intimate, with a few sightings of the ghostly figure before the movie is half-way through. The spooky mood established in the initial part of the movie is thrown away to a little extent with the intervention of Ragini's friend Piya and her boyfriend who add nothing but a few more minutes to the movie. Other than rile the ghost with their unnecessary presence, the only value that they add to the movie is drop a hint that confirms the haunted nature of the house. Its however after their exit that the movie gets interesting. Starting from a possessed Uday hissing "Main chudail nahi hoon" (in marathi) while getting naughty with Ragini (who was intentionally handcuffed to the cot by Uday to shoot the sex video), to Uday being pulled out of the bed by his hair to an extent that it rips his scalp to bleed, the ghost makes its presence felt within the house every second. Having become fully aware of a supernatural presence within the house, the rest of the movie revolves around the attempts of a helpless Uday and a handcuffed Ragini to get out of the forsaken place and how the ghost seeks them out.

Hits and Misses:
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The standout performance in the movie comes from Uday, who is brilliant with his abuses as he is with his acting. Be it the sex-hungry boyfriend or the petrified human being, Uday does great justice to both the roles. He is shameless when it comes to getting things done his way, and gives the exact cheap image of a man ready to go to any extent for it. Ragini on the other hand, is good enough to complement Uday with her acting, both in fright and in frustration. The one thing of Ragini follows you out of the theatre is her scream for help, hollowed by frustation and helplessness.

Ragini MMS has its moments, with a few instances that will make you jump in your seat (not necessarily the sighting of the ghost). But what it lacks is the finesse with which a horror story needs to be told. The background score is unnecessarily used, consistently throughout the movie, trying to spook the viewer. But most of the time, all it did was alert the viewer that something is about to happen, thus stealing the surprise factor out of the scene. Next come the ghost sightings. The movie was not even half way through and the viewer had already seen the ghost half a dozen times. To quote a line from "The Usual Suspects",

-- The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

The essence of a horror movie is to keep the surprise factor intact throughout, and that includes the appearances of the ghost to a good extent. As someone rightly said, if a viewer sees the ghost enough number of times in the movie, he/she is not far from assuming that the ghost is just another role in the movie and not THE key role. Ragini MMS falters on this front as well. Frequent portrayal of a creaking staircase, doors opening and closing by themselves was yet another thing that could've been avoided. The last 20-25 minutes of the movie was a wee bit boring, as the end was pretty much what one can guess and does not add any value as far as the story of the movie is concerned. And yet another but not so significant shortcoming in the end, its the ghost itself. A white saree clad, flowing haired Noori styled ghost is a world renowned stereotype. But then, a ghostly figure of a woman dressed in traditional marathi "kachchi" saree attire was a little too much to handle in a horror movie, atleast for the rational viewer in me. Pawan Kripalani has put together a decent piece of story, but there is something about it that is missing, something that I cant put a finger on  for certain and if you were me, you would feel the same 9 out of 10 times.

All in all, Ragini MMS is a great watch if you haven't watched Paranormal Activity solely for the fact that you then don't have a scale for comparison. But if you have already seen Paranormal Activity, Ragini MMS is a good one time watch, more so for the brilliance pulled off by Raj Kumar Yadav, well supported by Kainaz Motivala and not to forget, a decent enough storyline moderately influenced by the Hollywood flick.



FALTU - Movie Review

I feel that one thing is very important when you enter a movie hall to spend the following few hours in a big dark room staring the big screen. Do not go in with huge expectations every time. Better if there are no expectations at all. More often than not it’s difficult to get into that mindset but if you do then be sure of not cribbing a hell lot about the movie later.

All that prelude was to tell about this movie that I watched, FALTU. Its now an old joke  that the movie was named based on the quality of its content and the seriousness of its appeal to the audience.

The first time I saw FALTU’s trailer , I was reminded of the movie ‘Accepted’(Trailer) starring Justin Long. The theme seemed similar and so did all the histrionics. But then, I was waiting for the movie to be released so that I could see if my doubts were true. Meanwhile, this happened .Well, it is one thing to get inspired and act as if one wasn’t even aware of the original. But, it’s an unashamed act to argue that the movies are totally different! Duh!

Anyways, let me now tell you how good was this movie that according to its makers is totally different from a certain Hollywood project. FALTU adds to ‘Accepted’ all the Indian flavour necessary and though it doesn’t come out with flying colours, it doesn’t totally let you down either.

The story revolves around a group of friends who get rejected by all colleges due to their low marks and then a series of events make them run a university of their own. Story then moves on to all the problems they face before culminating into a happy happy ending.

The movie has a fair share of good and bad things about it. So, what are the few things that go in favour ? Good music, fresh cast and a new story(though not original[I know it’s the 100th time I touched that aspect]). Couple of songs had already caught up well among audience and may just bring in the herds for the same but expecting more stuff around these songs. The songs are indeed impressive , especially ‘Char baj gaye’ and ’Fully Faltu’.

Jacky Bhagnani gives a decent performance in the lead role but can still brush up his acting skills as he could go a long way in this business. Puja Gupta(gorgeous!!) and Angad Bedi mark their debut and do a fair job in whatever little they get to do. But, the best of the lot has to be Chandan Roy Sanyal(he played Mikhail in Kaminey) who is here to stay. His dialogue delivery and acting is top notch. We would be more than waiting to see his future work. The supporting cast of Arshad Warsi and Riteish Deshmukh are at normal best and no complaints there. Darshan Jariwala is first rate and rest of the cast does a good job too.

The movie could have done away with 15-20 minutes of stuff that gives the narration a saggy feel. Humour is good only in patches and more effort could have been put into dialogues that seem jaded for a majority of post interval portion. Many people may find the whole concept of the movie unconvincing but then the movie doesn’t go over the top trying to be ‘preachy’.

Post Interval, I was wondering as to where was Remo’s master choreographer contribution in this movie. There had to be stuff that tells the audience why he is regarded as one of the best choreographers in hindi movie industry. And then came the best bit in the movie at the very end. It’s a UV light dance performance that really catches your attention. I last saw this dance form on India’s got talent and was totally smitten by it. This sequence in the movie is a clever replacement of what could have been a long boring speech by the lead actor and Remo scores points for this.

Remo makes a confident debut as a director and hits neither of the extremities in quality. Undernourished script doesn’t help his cause. He should next choose a better script and the audience will be more than willing to testify.

All in all, FALTU is worth a watch if you have no great expectations!

Bandit Queen - From the hindi film diaries

Roles for women in 90’s were as simple as calculating the perimeter of an equilateral triangle.Following are an array of examples in which girls of 90’s were often seen doing

1. Girls playing roles wherein they importuned men using her choking technique
2. Used her cuteness to get him do whatever it takes to marry her, be it breaking off with his parampara, that would consist of 100 members that he/she have hardly met or often making a gentle request to hum some lines, even if he doesn’t know the tricks of guitar
3. Or merely act as a pendulum, who then had to oscillate between 2 or more (then) hot looking men based on a formula of who would make love to me in a better way, thereby putting the audience through a no-confidence motion.
4. Or some jhinchak things wherein they would feature in atleast 2 hot numbers, an eye candy for the audiences(like me), who would leave the theatre with wet memories of the songs than the engrossing story itself.

At the end of it all audiences felt a genuine connect with all those females/girls portraying the roles , so much so that they started naming their daughters after the character names.

If any “Women centric“ roles/stories  were attempted by then directors/writers,they were either trashed by audiences as art movie or ignored by many, unless it is portrayed by an actress who had already made it to masala movie list. If that was not enough we had Indian Censor board suffering from fear of “castigation of Indian culture” which suggested “few” cuts in the movie, thereby skewing the intentions of the movie consequently the emotions, vision of the “makers”.

One such movie was “Bandit Queen” by Shekhar Kapur. Based on the dictated diary entries titled “Goddess of Flowers”, Kapur narrates the journey of a woman from an aborted childhood, to making of a dacoit, to experiencing Love, carnal abuse, series of retributions and finally ending up as a politician.

It addresses the social issues that existed in the 1960’s when women were never given the respect and were given an unfairly treatment, which Kapur appropriately quotes at the start with “Animals, Drums, Illiterates, low castes and women are worthy of being beaten”. Also highlights the casteism where, the Thakurs were the Unch Jaatiwaale and all other at the bottom end of the pyramid.

Young Phoolan is married off forcibly to a Thakur, twice her age to act as a housemaid. She rebels and flees from his home when she is forced into sexual acts, followed by abuse. 

In dusty lands of UP operated many dacoits, off which Babu Gujjar is the the most notorious upper caste dacoit . By now Phoolan is already considered as a centerfold in that village.Gujjar decides to lay his hands and abducts Phoolan,subjecting her to carnal abuses. Vikram Mallah, a dalit and deputy of Gujjar rescues Phoolan by killing Babu Gujjar, thereby proclaiming the leadership of the group.  Vikram teaches Phoolan howto’s of dacoit viz shooting and rock climbing stuffs.

Meanwhile The head of the group, a Thakur is out of Jail, refuses to accept the the idea of the gang to be operated by the lower caste Mallahs. Things get worse when he makes indecent advances to Phoolan, thereby leading to an altercation,shoot-out between the Thankur and Mallahs. Phoolan along with Vikram and his gang escape to a remote city for hiding. By this time the relationship between the two has grown more than love. 

Knowing nothing else to do apart from dacoity, they come back to the UP to carry on their business. On one fine day during a casual conversation between the two, Vikram is killed, leaving behind Phoolan again,Helpless.

What follows is the most disturbing part. Thankurs take advantage of her helplessness. She is gang-raped , dishonoured and affronted in the upper cast community. In the most helpless of times, she is helped by an old friend of her who gives her some shelter to recover from.

Outraged at all this, Phoolan plans for vengeance by joining a gang headed by a Muslim leader. In a ghastly act of retaliation and misjudgment she ends up killing all the innocent upper caste people in the community. This massacre makes her the most wanted and notorious bandit that the governments are looking for. Faced by a series of attacks on her gang, she finally gives up the dacoity and surrenders to the government and joins politics, promising to help for the welfare of the people. 

As mentioned initially, it is just the kind of role one would not want to do but was pulled off by then theater artist Seema Biswas.  A poignant and disturbing role ever written, that sketches the life cycle of a girl from a teenager to bandit to politicians, admiringly is one of the best by any Hindi actress ever seen. 

And final word goes to the Mala Sen(Writer) and Shekhar Kapur , who unfortunately had the guts to make such a brave movie at a time when the masala movies was at its entertaining best. Unfortunate because, hurdles faced pre and post release forced Mr.Kapur to move to West and make movies that he could relate to. 

No matter how many biographies you read, articles you refer to make a movie, the absoluteness of “true story” from one’s perspective can never be achieved and shall always be debatable.
 A disturbing movie in most parts, but engaging throughout. This is highly recommended.