Agneepath : Murdering the Classic

   When the first trailer of the movie released, which had bald  Voldermort looking Sanjay Dutt taking head on with an intense Hrithik Roshan, one only hoped that it would bring an end to drought of  villain characters that were so easily producible earlier. One of the most cherishing moments in such movies were not the mustanda exchanges between  Hero and the Villian fist,punch in the stomach fight sequences but the confrontation scenes, where one could take a dig at each other . 

  
So if I ask when was the last time we saw a hard core negative character, who enjoyed playing the Evil ,*stylishly* delegated tasks to his subordinates to wipe out the Good, by keeping  a check on Hero’s lady of her whereabouts, and the one who created his own world with Wines and Women. I say None. Last couple of years saw none of these elements in any characters. Prakash Raj even with his spontaneity  could only portray hyperactive roles in Wanted, Buddha Hoga Tera Baap and  Singham. SRK’s proclamation of his negative character in Don2 is farcical to say the least. Even Sanjay Dutt got an opportunity in Aladdin, but with little screen space and meat.

Hence Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Kancha Cheena in 2012 becomes the only hope to get back to those characters.

  Karan Malhotra’s visualization of a Kancha Cheena as a sadomasochist, a self-proclamation of Ravana with an introduction line “Tum Leke Aaye ho, Tum Kya leke Jaoge” is spot on and believable. But in the bigger picture it fails to strike the chord. Here’s how. 


Karan Malhotra’s version of revenge drama is not a remake to start with. The basic idea of the movie remains the same, but then so much has been tweaked that in an attempt to make an original, it ends up spineless and heartless, with over the top drama. An absolute tripe compared to the original. Even if it’s not compared with the Mukul Anand’s version it presents us with all the clichés of Karan Johar movies that we are so familiar with. 


Mukul Anand’s version which now has got a huge following because of Amitabh’s swagger and then infamous voice (Inspired after Marlon Brando’s character in Godfather)  is not only about Vijay Dinanath Chauhan’s retribution against businessman Kancha Cheena. Its also about a boy’s rise from the alleys of Mandwa to the Godfather of Mumbai. But in Karan’s version Vijay ends up as a Godfather of a local slum called Dongri, which later is turned into a K3G’s Yash Raichand’s family function, much to the liking of Karan Johar’s audience.

  Many feel  that the performances in the original  were over-dramatic. Be it Vijay’s arrogance while flaunting his appointment with death, or his fumbling of words while conversing with officer Gaitonde  or scaring shit out of his partners in crime, Amitabh did it all effortlessly. But was it Dramatic ? Yes. But if we have liked and followed him in Hum and others, then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t  admire him here. One cannot find such instances in the newer version at all. In fact there isn’t a memorable scene which would make you stand up and shower seetis. One of the important aspects of the original version was the “action-packed” dialogues viz Kancha Cheena’s favourite “Jo daayan haath karta hain , bayein haath ko pata nahi chalna chahiye, Yeh humara usool hai” and my favourite “Jala Daala .. “. But then there isn’t a single line which provides such fun. Instead it tries to cover up by inducing 1^st level of RGV’s violence and some basic twists which we have already seen a million times in RGV’s earlier movies . And all this happens with intense looking Hrithik Roshan at the center, void with any style. Hence delivering a plain and unimpressive performance compared to Amitabh.

  If there is any kohl-eyed  moment in the  newer version , then its Rishing Kapoor as Rauf Lala. A conniving Don who plans, plots and almost pin down Vijay Dinanath Chauhan , hence making it more delightful to watch. Lala’s is a culmination(or say replacement) of all 4 local gunda characters of the original one. It's a treat to watch him play Bad and is the only silver lining in this movie. Equally painful is to watch Kancha Cheena’s character with the Sanjay Dutt‘s “Isko Bolte trigger” repetitive look from Vaastav.  Neither he is wild and funny as Amrish Puri in Mr.India and Vishwatma or Jaichand in Farishtey, nor is he absolutely serious as Dr.Dang in Karma. 

Unlike the clean , suave Danny Dengzopa the new Kancha has any logic and tries to impress audience with his constant eye-popping evil grins.

Yet again an original is ruined.


And yet again the fandom for original increases.  

Ek Main Aur Ek Tu : Good

       

        Ek Main Aur Ek Tu has all the typical ingredients of the regular RomCom and is very predictable. Rahul, an architect meets Riana, a free lance Hajaam ( Hair Dresser) in Las Vegas . Rahul has controlling parents - Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah , while Riana is “live in the moment” type of a character. They get drunk one night and get married . They decidoo to annul the marriage, that is when they realise that they get along very well. 

The movie unfolds with a few funny moments when the couple gets to know each other. There are moments where the humor falls down. Even though the movie is predictable with all the standard ingredients that go into RomCom, you will feel a connect with its characters. But the movie ends on a more mature note than the other regular RomComs , which will come as a good surprise.

Imran Khan gets into the Rahul’s character very well. Including an emotional scene where Riana takes Rahul to her school to show him around. Kareena Kapoor’s role is very much like her role in “Jab We Met” who encourages her counterpart to take life easy and have fun.She gives the movie energy with her bubbly performace. If you liked her in “Jab We Met” you will like her in this movie. Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah play their characters of a boring success minded business man and fashion obsessed woman with conviction. The music too strikes a note Amit Trivedi and Amitabh Bhattacharya having done a decent job.

Overall the movie is good . Its engaging for most part and does not drag along for too long and has a different ending.

Lifeu Ishtene - Not a review

     

        For me, Yograj Bhat’s movies have changed the industry. Not just by dishing out quality and ‘different’ taste of cinema but also creating a platform for other moviemakers to think, to act and to make movies differently.  Though there are still 100s of shit-old formulaic film makers around, it is heartening to see a bunch of directors and writers attempting something new and different, consciously.

As part of the same renaissance , a young director who dropped out of his engineering course midway to pursue his movie dreams, made a movie named ’Lifeu Ishtene’ as his directorial debut and released it in 2011. Thanks to my absence from kannada-naadu, I wasn’t able to catch the movie at a theatre and was eagerly waiting to see it pop-up online. But, I was pleasantly surprised to see it being made available online legally and in pretty decent time after its theatrical release. So, I went ahead and rented it. What follows next is my opinion about it.

This movie is a story about Vishal(DIGANTH) who hopelessly falls in love with every other girl that he comes across. The movie starts with him being in a state of dejection after coming out from a failed relationship and gives us a glimpse of his unfortunate past. He then tries to steer himself away from another relationship only to realize that he can forget his past by only getting into another liaison. The story then talks about how the events give him a déjà-vu and how he deals with all that.

Is the story new? Maybe not. Is the treatment fresh? Definitely yes. Any story that is told in an unconventional way and/or with a heart deserves attention. This movie scores at both the points. It’s a very good script that the director Pawan Kumar works with and does total justice to it. He uses simple but at the same time pretty clever lines throughout the movie. Pawan works with a great team and ensures every department adds a touch of quality to the final product. Manomurthy, Jayant Kaikini and Yograj Bhat are at their usual best and I loved the songs contrary to many people’s voice these days that they are getting repetitive. Good things and classy stuff, my friends, can never get repetitive. The camera work by Sugnana is impressive and the good work is pretty hard to miss. Smart editing and very good use of background score make the narration interesting.

Digant is brilliant in his role as the gloomy and disappointed character hoping to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Veena Sundar and Achyut Kumar playing the roles of his parents are very good and are amazingly spontaneous in their performances. The actresses, Samyuktha Horanadu and Sindhu Lokanath are impressive in their first outings and give good performaces but get overshadowed by Digant’s show. Ninsasam Satish is a treat in his role as Digant’s friend constantly showing him a mirror to make him understand what he does. The best thing about this movie is that there are no ‘why wasn’t this scene chopped at editing table’ scenes! This makes for a pretty tight story-telling but still doesn’t leave any gaping holes in the plot.

This movie is no candy-floss entertainment! It is realistic and sincere in its depiction of characters and relationships. The director succeeds to convey the message of learning from the past and letting things go. May what you do, the end can never be planned. Do everything with a heart and believe in good things that happen to you.

It’s good that this movie was made. It’s even better that it was liked. We need more and more movies like this one. We need a lot more young filmmakers to get inspired by the new wave.  The age old divide between the so-called commercial cinema and art cinema should get bridged. All good movies should get attention and must be praised instead of being classified as mainstream and art.

Watch this movie and embrace the good and honest side of kannada cinema!!

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PS : This movie is not in theatres anymore. But, for people who want to watch it again or the ones like me who couldn’t watch it in a theatre, can watch it right here on this page [Pawan Kumar was glad to let me put this up here :-)]

PPS : Feel free to embed the below video on your blogs/websites too! Spread the good word about this movie and the efforts that the team is putting in to make it reach as many people as it can.

Sherlock Holmes : A Game of Shadows - Very good !

        Sherlock Holmes was always a great character to be portrayed on the big screen. The literature associated with Holmes has a great following. One of the most intriguing characters ever, even more so in the crime genre. 

So, when Guy Ritchie got into a risky endeavour of making a movie adaptation of this popular piece literature that could have gotten a lot of Holmes fans pissed had he gone wrong with his movie. But, he did a good job and made a good movie. Not flawless but a well made movie.

This emphasized the need for his second movie in the series to succeed and surpass the quality of the first movie. So, has he been able to accomplish that? Yes, kind of!

Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) is still an arrogant and self absorbed being.  Dr.Watson (Jude Law) has now decided to get hitched and makes up the sub plot. Meanwhile, an extremist group is trying to destabilize the European continent by planning a series of bomb explosions across geography. Holmes has already decided to unravel the conspiracy and is trying to expose Prof.Moriarty (Jared Harris) who he thinks is probably the master mind behind all the unfortunate events.  It turns out that Holmes is right in his suspicions and Morirarty has an evil plan behind the explosions. During their effort to explore the matter, they meet Simza Haron (Noomi Rapace),a gypsy who is deeply entwined with the events but is unaware of it. She accompanies Holmes and Watson on their journey to get to the crux of the matter and investigate the case. They transcend geographical boundaries to go across Europe and get into dangerous and life threatening situations but eventually succeeding in their mission to stop this whole operation run by Moriarty. 

The games between Holmes and Moriarty are fun to watch and interesting all through. The actions and reactions are well written into the script and well acted out.

This movie is definitely a step ahead of the first one. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law give fascinating performances and look brilliant in their parts. Noomi Rapace does a good job in the extended cameo that she has and makes the audience feel that she should have got more screentime than what she actually did. Jared Harris is good too and stands tall in his performance. Guy Ritchie is extremely confident with his control over the narration and works with a tight script. Hanz Zimmer is in top form as always. His score adds further interesting feel to the proceedings.

The original story book loyalists may still feel a bit disgruntled with Guy Ritchie’s big screen adaptation. He does take a few creative liberties but I think Ritchie should be applauded in getting the story portrayed as real as it could have possibly been in an entertaining form. Not the best that Ritchie could do but ‘Sherlock Holmes- A Game of Dark Shadows’ is still more than being just worth a watch!

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Awesome!

        Spy thrillers are yummy to watch when they are done right. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is definitely a thriller but done very differently. It unfolds at its own sweet pace but is catchy from the word go till the last frame.

The movie starts with the killing of a Mark Strong, a spy who is in Hungary looking for information on a 'mole' in the British Intelligence agency who is passing on all the secrets to the Russians. The problem is that the ones who are under the scanner are the heavyweights and the job is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. So, Gary Oldman, a retired spy gets recalled by his former boss to help the agency in this matter.

Gary Oldman goes through tons of records and files to understand what really took place during his absence at the agency. He is surprised by what he gets to know during his investigation. He combs through all the information he has about Tinker(Toby Jones),Tailor(Colin Firth), Soldier(Ciaran Hinds), Poorman (David Dencick) . The story then is about how masterly Gary Oldman reaches to the root of the problem and unmasks the mole.

Actors are often judged on how they emote, how they can get through the scenes with finesse and style. The dialogues have to be delivered well but the real test is when there are minimal dialogues. Gary oldman is a fucking genius on that level.We see him at his best in this movie He has always been an amazing actor. But, this movie can convert last few haters left(if any).

He is ably supported by the brilliant star cast and each one has put in amazing performances. The direction is immaculate and one can see how nicely the director narrates the story going back and forth it time and giving out plot details in form a jigsaw puzzle pieces. It is this aspect of the movie that makes it an awesome watch.The movie tries its best to do justice to the John Le Carre novel that it is based on.

This movie should be shown to budding actors as a guide to acting. It never goes over the top and neither does it make the proceedings way too confusing for the audience. Entertaining, interesting and subtle, 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is a MUST watch.