Archive for the ‘Bollywood’ Category
Vinnaithandi Varuvaya soars.
V V is a no-nonsense love story served on a platter of common sense and, if there is one defining quality about it, it would be the fact that it successfully de-romanticises romance as depicted so far on Indian silver screen. Watch it for how it disguises the dark alleys of love under the facade of seemingly eye-candy.A good movie should have the ability to yank the carpet under you just when you thought you had it all figured out.Welcome to VV.
Road Movies-Indian Cinema.
It is funny that the only mainstream movie in the genre, worth speaking about was still the quaint Bombay to Goa (1972), (which itself was a remake of the Tamil movie Madras to Pondicherry), till Dev Benegal’s Road, Movie came along, after close to four decades! Most of our creative powerhouses of the film industry have steered clear of it, maybe due to the practical difficulties in plugging in the staple ingredients of a commercial blockbuster.
Road,Movie,Strange,Weary.
It is one thing to take you on a journey. Its a far more difficult job to keep you entertained, involved and appreciative en route. Dev Benegal’s signature references are all there – the irreverence, the subtle humor, stark beauty, and refraining from moralistic high-handedness, but somehow the experience at the end of 95 minutes seems to be a feeling of abject hollowness, inasmuch trying very hard to look for crevices and nooks in the movie to find solace.
Priyadarshan, Malaamal 2.
If media reports are to be believed, Priyadarshan’s third project in his 3-films agreement with Percept Picture Company (PPC) will be the sequel to his 2006 rip-off of Waking Ned Divine (1998) – Malamaal Weekly. Pretty soon, you will witness the second coming of Malamaal Weekly, to a theater near you, courtesy Priyadarshan.This is being written with the definitive knowledge that this expression of indignation won’t make a dime’s worth of difference to anything.
Is there anybody in charge?
The done-to-death clichéd quote from Swami Vivekananda’s Lectures,“Was there ever a sillier thing before in the world than what I saw in Malabar? What inference would you draw except that these Malabaris are all lunatics, their homes so many lunatic asylums and they are to be treated with derision by every race in India until they mend their manners and know better!”makes perfect sense if you have been an ardent fan of Malayalam movies.
Bollywood loves being Sick.
Sick is the new slick for Bollywood. There is big money to be made in being sick ,especially when the suffering is being undergone by an A-list star. The project atleast has to be endorsed by an A-list star as a minimum requirement. Anyone remembers "lymphosarcoma of the large intestine?" That was what Hrishikesh Mukherjee employed in Anand as a ‘conditional clause’ to give us one of the most brilliant movies from Bollywood, ever.
The Ghosts of Movies Past.
Suddenly,Malayalam production houses seem to have hit upon the next big wave.Its simple – take a 15 year old,or older path breaking/ popular movie and make a sequel/ remake it with the current market sensibilities. Sequels to Ennishtam Ninnishtam, Satyan's Sandesham, Naadodikkaatu IV,CID Moosa (Mollywood’s answer to Inspector Jacques Clouseau)and Raajavinte Makan have been announced in the past 3 weeks!
My Name is Canned?
MNIK was more like having popcorn served for all courses for a gourmet experience and desperately convincing yourself that ‘No, this IS the real thing, maybe I’m having a bad day!’Has anyone told you that watching Shahrukh Khan emote(as in being in the skin of a character, and NOT being Shahrukh Khan with the character’s name) is an exercise which stands very close to fingernails going monotonously up and down the blackboard ?
Gireesh Puthenchery speaks.
In what sadly ended up as his final interview to the media, this free-wheeling, intimate and open chat on Sangeetha Samaagamam, on Amrita TV with the host Siddique, probably explains best why Gireesh Puthencherry still remains the most prolific, commercially successful lyricist in the Malayalam film industry.With music director M.Jayachandran at his side, Gireesh Puthenchery opens about the rare behind-the-scene incidents.
Remade Nagavalli’s Revenge
This has to be the most bizarre event of reelity spilling over to reality! According to latest reports, Rajnikanth is in Mysore, conducting homas to exorcise the ghost of Nagavalli, the vengeful noire’ part of the lead actress, as he feels the Kannada film Aapthamithra and its soon-to-be-released sequel has some terrible negativity that has by now taken the lives of both Soundaraya and Dr.Vishnuvardhan. Funny, Mohanlal and Shobhana are still around.