Street dancers Diversity won this year’s Britain’s Got Talent. IMO, they deserved to win after that scintillating dance act in the finals. 48-year old Hairy Angel Susan Boyle for the finals sang “I Dreamed A Dream”, same song which made her an instant star after the first round. Initially ridiculed for her appearance and later for Everything-is-planned ploy which also included the planned shock reaction of audiences and judges alike, she decided to quit the show mid-way. However, she stayed on and came second in the third season of Britain’s Got Talent. I loved her singing but I guess she was hyped way too much. That apart, she has got impressive voice.

My personal favorites Shaheen Jafargholi and Stavros Flatley did enter final but could not reach the final three. In particular twelve year old Shaheen was an absolute delight to hear. Like Susan, he too chose the song he sang in the first round; Michael Jackson’s “Who’s Loving You” and boy was he good? He was enormously attention-grabbing. Greek Irish father-son duo of Stavros Flatley completely entertained with their uncanny dance manner.

Other findings which I enjoyed were: 10-year old Natalie Okri and 11-year old Aidan Davis. Natalie rocked with Jamelia’s Superstar song and Aidan wowed everyone with his delightful dance.

Thanks to talent.itv.com and live commentary by Sujoy on his blog, I was able to watch all these great acts on internet. There were many more amazing performances; I have listed only my favorites.

In my last post, many people asked me the source of those movies. Pirated? Downloaded? Well, nopes. I do not download them from net. I am way too impatient for that. And forget finding those movies in your local dvd library. I am member of DVD rental sites Seventymm and Bigflix. And that’s where I get the movies from. This doesn’t work out cheaper but ultimately I it’s worth it. I had been member of 70mm for over two years now. I am not too demanding, in the sense I do not look out for latest blockbusters or famous ones. I look out for movies which are hard to get otherwise and which we hardly get to hear of. There are so many movies being made all over the world and we get to hear of just 15-20%. Where else could I have seen Iranian/Korean/Mandarin/French/German/Persian/Spanish/Japanese et al language movies? In the name of foreign language films, all that gets released in India are the blockbusters of Hollywood, half of which I found absolute crap. Yes, I am talking of Superman/Spiderman, ye-man, wo-man, Harry Potter and many such. They might be having huge followings but I do not like such movies. Of late, the scene has changed and we do get to see some lesser known good ones releasing in India too, ‘The Revolutionary Road’ for example. Yet, the scene is pathetic when it comes to the release of Non-English movies in India.

Am I happy with them? I have heard from few friends from north that 70mm service sucks. Well, I haven’t found any reasons whatsoever so far to discontinue my membership. And definition of suck varies from one to another. My look-outs are usually the Non-English foreign language films and 70mm comes with a good collection of them. For English, I am trying to watch as many old classics as possible. I am going by the decade and I am still on 50s/60s/70s. I half-way through watching the movies of Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, Montgomery Clift, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor et al. I do not see any other way to watch their movies as I yet cannot afford to buy DVDs of all these movies.

Serviceability too is an important factor, and my experience says these providers have improved a lot in last couple of years. Initially I did face few hiccups but I was patient. Bigflix I joined recently because I wasn’t getting few movies on 70mm. Though, 70mm remains my primary provider. Cinema Paradiso is another DVD rental site, but I haven’t checked out them. My queue in the former 2 is more than 100+ which will take some time to get exhausted. However, Cinema Paradiso is another good one if words of few of my friends are anything to go by.

I do not go by the fact which site provides maximum number of titles. What is the point if you have more number of titles but what you want to see is not there? These are web based, you can check out the kind of movies you wish to watch and decide whether you want to take the membership or not. Makes sense?

Btw, did I tell how Bangalore is progressing backwards? The deadline for pubs/clubs to remain open is 11.30 PM, killing the nightlife. And, not many know that dancing here in pubs/clubs is banned. This wasn't enough that the show timings of the movies have been revised and the last show of the day will be screened at 8 PM. Can anyone beat that? The last show here till now started by 10 PM and in order to reduce the crime (words of Shankar Bidari, Bangalore Police Commissioner), they have decided to end the show at the most by 11 PM for which the show must be at 8. Now, is that rational? I do not even wish to get into the pros and cons of this as I feel there are many people (working ones usually) who would prefer to go for late night show after day’s work. And if not just that, there could be hazaar other reasons. And why any reasons? Do not we have any say in anything? Ending up show 2 hours early than usual will reduce crime. Mashallah.

Facebook and Blogging took backseat, thanks to work. Phone calls and SMSes reduced but Books and Movies never lost their priority. Surprisingly, the number of movies I watched in last one month is almost double of what I watched in 2 months before that. And same goes for the books. I finished 4 books and started the 5th one 4 days back. IPL too was something which kept me away from the world. My favorites since the first edition of IPL (Delhi Daredevils) lost in semi-final, so I wasn't actually rooting for any particular team in finals. No, I am not amongst those who decide their favs based on the place they belong to or feel closer to. Bangalore played good cricket (in the later half of IPL-2) but they were(are) never in my top 3 list. However, I appreciate their game and the rise from nowhere to runner-ups and same goes for Deccans for showing the best of cricket and clinching the IPL-2 trophy.

Anyways, here goes short reviews of the movies I saw in last one month.

World Cinema: (English title in bracket)

Kurdish/Persian:

Niwemang (Half Moon) - *** - Mamo, a musician after seven months of hard labor to get approval to perform in Iraqi Kurdistan leaves for the final concert of his life along with his sons (9 or 10 they were). Along the way, he picks up a female singer Hesho. As women are not allowed to sing in public, they all get in to trouble with the police. Niwemang (Half-Moon), a girl who is a huge fan of Mamo suddenly appears out of nowhere and helps them in reaching the concert place on time.

Portuguese:

Cidade de Deus (City of God) - ****1/2 - If you run you're dead...if you stay, you're dead again. Period. That’s the tag line of the movie. It sums up the movie. One of the finest movies based on Mafia/Crime/Thriller, Cidade de Deus tells the story of a boy (Rocket from his point of view) as he gets entangled in the drugs, crime, and an ultimate rush to get away from it. A true story based in 60s and 70s of Brazil is a real cinema that would leave you with a lump in your throat.

German:

Gegen die Wand (Head-On) - ***1/2 – Part German and part Turkish movie Gegen die Wand is a romantic drama. Cahit is not so happy with his life and after getting drunk at a club, rams his car purportedly into the wall. He survives but has a support around neck. At the hospital he sees a girl (Sibel) staring at her. As soon as he walks out, the girl approaches him and asks him to marry her. He is shocked at the proposal. Sibel explains her reasoning and they get married. Quite strange eh? Watch the movie to realize how amazingly psychedelic it gets. Directed by celebrated director Fatih Akin, Head-On or Gegen die Wand is a fresh story.

Im Juli (In July) - ****1/2 – After Gegen die Wand I wanted to watch other movies of Fatih Akin and got hold of Im Juli. The story is spanned across the first 8 days of the month of July.

Daniel is a school teacher in Hamburg. He is not planning to go out of city for summer vacation. Juli (a vendor) has crush on him but she is too shy to tell him that. She finds a way out. She sells him a ring with a Sun on it. She tells him that he soon will meet a girl who will carry a sun too and that girl will understand him the most. Daniel sees a girl (Melek) wearing a t-shirt with sun imprinted on it. He befriends her. Melek, its soon revealed is from Turkey and is heading to Istanbul to meet her boyfriend. Juli sees them both and is dejected and decides to leave city for vacation. Coincidentally Daniel who by now has decided to follow Melek to the Istanbul gives her a ride when he sees Juli at the road which goes out of city. A marvelous and unexpected journey filled with unusual circumstances begin and things go out of hand. They get separated only to meet at Istanbul by when Daniel has already met Melek and in a surprising way her boyfriend before meeting her. It is a lovely story and was released in 2000. The emphasis on year is because after watching this, I have no doubts that Imtiaz Ali was totally inspired by it to make his ‘Jab We Met’. I was of a mind that JWM was an original story but I do not think so now. Our makers, mashallah.

Vals Im Bashir (Waltz with Bashir) - **** - Nominated this year for Oscars in the Best Foreign Film category, Vals Im Bashir is the first animated movie to achieve that honor. Ari, a director once is reminded by his friend about the Lebanon War they both were part of. Ari has long forgotten the war and do not have a single memory of that war. He is not suffering from Amnesia, he knows. Yet, there is no memory of that war. He starts looking for friends who were with him then and gives a picture to what he is told. The movie is a poignant drain. An absolute moving film.

French:

Les Quatre Cents Coups (400 Blows) - **** - Spoilt boy Antoine is a trouble maker and pain in ass for his parents and school teachers. Majorly misunderstood boy soon gets into minor crimes in the neighborhood. He spreads his wings of trivial crimes to the city (Paris). Paris is captured magnificently through the eyes of Antoine in this passionate drama.

Spanish:

Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) - ****1/2 – Three stories. Interconnected through a ghastly car accident. Motorcycle star Gael Garcia is in love with his brother’s wife and persuades her to run away with him. He gets his pet dog in a dog-fighting competition to make money so that he can run away with his beloved. A middle aged publisher abandons his family for the love of Spanish Supermodel. The model gets injured in the car accident which is caused by Gael Garcia. A homeless-moneyless ex-teacher who has a junk cart carrying stray dogs is the witness of this accident. There is much more to all this than said. I was absolutely overwhelmed with the great direction and brilliant performances by all.

Korean:

Bin-Jip (3-Iron) - ***1/2 – The protagonist has a peculiar way of living. He looks out for the houses which are empty (probably on vacation et al) and gets into the house secretly to live till the family is back. While staying, he takes care of the house like his own, washing clothes etc. Once, he gets into house absolutely unaware of the fact that the abused and assaulted wife is still there. He goes on living and she secretly watches him. Once he realizes that their life changes. The movie has minimal dialogues and is majorly conveyed through actions and emotions.

Hollywood:

Judgment at Nuremberg - **** - 3 years after World War – II, an American Court puts 4 Nazi Judges on trial for ill-doings during the Hitler’s regime. Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift come once again after ‘From Here To Eternity’ in this highly powerful movie. Clift has a cameo; however he goes onto win Nominations for the Best Supporting Actor at Oscars that year. The best part of the movie was the Actor Maximilian Schell (Won Best Actor-Oscar). A movie loaded with dominant performances and emotion.

In Bruges - *** - Nominated for the Best Motion Picture (Comedy or Musical) at Golden Globes, In Bruges is a story of two hit men (Colin and Brendan) hired by Ralph to go to Bruges. Colin has a disturbing past of killing a young boy. The story thereafter follows their time spent in Bruges. Colin who got nominated for Best Actor at GG and ultimately won has moved from his eye-candy image and grown as an actor a la Di Caprio.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - **1/2 - Woody Allen, The Moghul of sex-inclined movies comes with another tale of sexually-driven story of two female friends (Scarlett and Rebecca) who are on tour to Spain and their encounter with artiste couple (Penelope and Javier). Javier propositions Scarlett-Rebecca to accompany him for weekend to a distant city. Rebecca hesitates but Scarlett is totally smitten by him. They both eventually accompany and the trip and the return thereafter change everyone’s life including Javier’s wife Penelope.

Dot the I - ***1/2 - Another Gael Garcia’s movie. Natalia is engaged to James and on her Hen’s night (similar to Bachelor’s party), she is asked to participate in a tradition wherein she has to kiss a complete stranger. She kisses Gael who is sitting at the same restaurant. Soon, they fall in love and what ensues thereafter is an absolute treat for people who like thrillers with a pinch of drama and romance added.

Milk - **** - Everyone knows about Milk. Oscar winning movie about America’s first openly gay activist Harvey Milk (played by Sean Penn who got Best Actor Oscar for this role) who gets elected to California office and his fight for gay rights is an intense and emotional film. The film captures Milk’s life from the day he turned 40 till the time he was killed by his colleague Dan White, who was a conservative.

All The King’s Men - ***1/2 – Sean Penn plays smart and cunning Willie Stark, elected governor who is up against the riches and upper classes. When upper classes (including an influential judge) get together to impeach him, he gets one of his subordinates, Jude Law (who is related to judge but rebelled to support Willie) to trace the life of the judge. Things get ugly during the course and it ends with a dreadful finale.

Left Luggage - ***1/2 – There have been umpteen movies based on Holocaust. Left Luggage is one of them. It tells the story of a holocaust survivor who had hidden the suitcases during WW-II and after the war is over he starts looking for his suitcases (luggage). His daughter Chaya is a party time baby-sitter-cum-nanny at a Jewish family. The head of the family is a conservative Jewish while Chaya is a free-spirited and liberal Jewish. Chaya is well accepted by the other family members (wife and 4 children) especially the youngest boy. The boy cannot speak though he is four years old. Chaya often takes him to the park near the lake and teaches him to speak. Everybody’s life turns upside down one fine morning. A heart-touching drama.

Platoon - **** - The infamous NAM war has been the favorites of many American directors. Platoon, the first in trilogy (followed by Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth) covering the Vietnam War by JFK director Oliver Stone is not just about men fighting the war. It is an emotional portrayal of a young recruit (Charlie Sheen) who is caught between the fight with enemies and the fight within his regiment.

Henry and June - *** - A true story. Acclaimed authors Henry Miller and Anais Nin had more than just mutual admiration for each other. June (Uma Thurman) who was married to Henry and supposedly had same-sex relation with Anais was an inspiration to both Henry and Anais. Henry and June literally lived off Anais and her husband Hugo’s money when in Paris. Anais gets into sexual relation with Henry while he is working on his novel (Tropic of Cancer; title suggested by Anais). Anais is intimated by June and shares a moment or two of intimacy with her.

Movies of Audrey Hepburn:

When it comes to Audrey, the only word that comes to my mind is enchanting. She is an absolute delight to watch. The first movie of hers that I saw was Breakfast at Tiffany’s and I was blown. Roman Holiday confirmed my confidence in her and I realized there can never be anyone like Audrey. That was last year. I wasn’t able to get hold of her other movies as my search continued. And this month I got to see three of her finest works.

Wait Until Dark - ***1/2 has her playing a blind girl who is left alone at apartment by her husband who has some work to attend to. Three men take advantage of the situation and enter the apartment in search of a doll who they believe her husband has hidden. Only these three men know that the doll has heroine stuffed inside it which her husband was given at the airport by a young woman who wanted to avoid giving it to one of these men present then at the airport. Woman puts it in Audrey’s husband’s hand and vanishes amongst the crowd. A crime thriller well directed.

Charade - ***1/2 – A startling chemistry between legends Cary Grant and Audrey in Charade will be remembered for ever. Audrey while in Paris discovers that her husband (never shown) is killed and has left a fortune which is missing. Many men enter her life suddenly to lay claim to the missing cash, including Cary Grant. She trusts only Cary but later finds out even he is fake and is behind the cash. The movie is full with some very interesting and witty dialogues between Cary and Audrey.

My Fair Lady - ***** - The best of the lot (these 3). Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) is an upper class snob, who thinks that he can make a flower girl (Audrey) who is crude, tom-boyish and unrefined into a proper lady and can pass her as one from roal family with hew teachings on phonetics, language and mannerisms. The musical has many fine moments. This is how a musical should be made I feel. Watch it for a totally different pleasure.

It’s in the blood. That ‘creative bug’ with which we are often arranged a meeting in all promising ways gives the impression to belong only to the Akhtars and just them. Father kept us amused all these years; Son led the way with his ingenious intelligence and now daughter rounding it off ‘The Three Musketeers’ with her brave, brutally honest and matter-of-fact cinema. Zoya Akhtar, who was being cast as 'Extra' in few movies before including Kama Sutra (cuz she chose that), writer of 'Migration', a 20-Minutes movie based on AIDS awareness produced and directed by Mira Nair, and elder sister of producer-director-actor-singer-anchor Farhan Akhtar captures the quintessence and obscurity of Hindi Film Industry (HFI) like never before. There were many pieces which imprisoned the good old HFI and there will be many more (Inshallah); nonetheless Zoya’s mental picture will be the one to surmise for. The two recent illustrations ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Fashion’ gave the broad feel of industry to the lay viewer whilst ‘Luck By Chance’ (LBC) not only gives the imminent sense to it but also portrays it in the most unapologetic mode.

The beginning credits of ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’ with yesteryears ‘Pyaar Pyaar Pyaar, Chahiye Thoda Pyaar’ giving out the details of people involved with the film was my current favorite till I saw LBC’s ‘Ye Zindagi Bhi’ doing the same. Oh, I fell in love with the movie that very moment. Seeing the straight, dismal faces of all those unnamed and unaccredited people; chai-wala, khaana-wala, security guys, spots, extras, poster-wala et al along with getting notified with the cast and crew was just the right element to set the temper up for close to three hours of beautiful cinema awaiting ahead. Farah Khan did something like that in the end credits of ‘Main Hoon Na’ but I was so disappointed by the end already that I did not care.

But of course the story was already few minutes in presenting struggling female protagonist Sona (Konkona Sensharma) sucking up to Chaudhary, producer of Pinki Productions (Alyy Khan; ex of Pooja Bhatt in real life for the uninitiated) when the beginning credits started to sway me. Credits end and you see Aamir Khan in first frame and some 20-odd other biggies (playing themselves) of industry all the way till the end when same struggling female protagonist now fairly better off and unambiguous of the goings around sums up one of the elating endings ever.

Another struggling actor Vikram Jai Singh (Farhan Akhtar) befriends Sona, sleeps with her, and gets ‘lucky’ by chance to get the lead role opposite Niki Walia (Isha Sharvani), daughter of former time’s superstar Neena Walia (Dimple Kapadia) in Romy’s (Rishi Kapoor) home production ‘Dil Ki Aag’ directed by younger brother Ranjit (Sanjay Kapoor). The said lead role refused by the iconic Zaffar Khan (Hrithik Roshan) lands up in Vikram’s lap after Zaffar gets ‘lucky’ by chance to bag the two-hero role in Karan Johar’s movie despite having shot song (Baawre) and few scenes for ‘Dil Ki Aag’. And not to forget the altercation between Sona and Chaudhary which inadvertently turns blessed for Vikram.

Vikram’s egocentricity, Zaffar’s bashfulness, Sona’s fate of ‘being deprived of’, Neena’s manipulations, Nikki’s murkiness confrontations with mother, Romy’s overriding craze, Ranjit’s inane filmmaking and equally cynical approach of many others form the basis of this star-studded film. Be it the opportunist attitude of Maasi or struggling friends of Vikram, or the writer friend of Sona, everyone is doing whatever they are doing for a price. ‘Nothing comes free’ is conveyed or rather shouted from the rooftop.

Each and every character here can be put on pedestal and dissected. Zoya’s story and screenplay is of top class and hardly is she seen making a gaffe of the status the characters are in. On one side you have Saurabh Shukla’s ramblings on how to act complimented with visiting actor Mac Mohan’s deliverance of his famous ‘poore pachchas hazaar’ dialogue from Sholay and Vikram’s shaking the hips on ‘Bachna aae Haseeno’ that keeps your mood radiant about all that coming ahead, and on the other you see Karan Johar’s proverbial observation on ‘how-an-outsider-becomes-a-star’, SRK’s profound advice on ‘not-to-forget-those-who-remembered-you-when-you-were-no-one’ to Vikram after latter embracing stardom, Neena comparing her initial days to that of her daughter’s & subsequent outburst to the editor flooded with colorful language will smack you on your face.

But the one who steals the show on screen (outside of it, it’s Zoya) is the man who should be seen more and more as long as he can be. That’s Rishi Kapoor. The only word I can think of for his performance is ‘divine’. The man is in complete control of what he is delivering. Forget his ‘Hum Tum’ and ‘Fanaa’. LBC is the one he will be remembered for years to come. I somewhat felt uncomfortable seeing Farhan in emotional scenes. I mean the guy has an image (more so after his ‘Oye, It’s Friday’) of someone who is naughty, cool and at-ease. And seeing him act out gloomy ones makes me sore. It’s futile to say how Konkona was as she has gone beyond scrutiny of her performance long time back. Her close-up shot of walk on the busy street with hair flowing before catching a taxi in the end reminded me that of Natalie’s in ‘Closer’ though a lot superior closing. Yet, Rishi Kapoor was the best thing that could happen to LBC by god.

A lot of people will try to pull you down once you attain the ultimate triumph. There will surely be detractors along with the appreciators. That’s exactly is something happening to Slumdog Millionaire. Not surprisingly the most of those detractors are our fellow-countrymen/women whereas West has embraced Danny Boyle’s version of India like never before. Even Mira Nair could not create the hysteria with her Salaam Bombay back in late 80s what Slumdog Millionaire has done in last couple of months since it’s release in select theaters of Northern America.

I remember getting in argument with a friend on Facebook when he commented robustly on my status message (‘Speechless after watching Slumdog Millionaire’) stating Slumdog Millionaire is bad remake of Mira’s cult classic ‘Salaam Bombay’. I leave it to the people who have seen both the movies to make their own opinion. For me the similarity ends with the fact that both are set in Mumbai and slums of Mumbai have been captured quite viciously by both the directors. Mira’s movie was and will be one of the best to come out from Indian Film Industry. But show some maturity by not comparing it to Slumdog Millionaire.

Amitabh Bachchan cannot fathom what the fuss all about Slumdog Millionaire is and mentions in his blog that Mumbai was shown in disgraceful manner. Few of our own makers here have shown their anger by saying that Slumdog Millionaire is a "generic western movie about India". I say what the fuck? First of all treat a movie as a movie. If Danny decides to make a movie based on a book written by an Indian (Q & A by Vikas Swarup; who himself says that he has his approval stamp) then I do not see any reason to malign him and the hard work of those associated with the movie. If it’s badly scripted/directed, if editing and actors suck then open your big mouth and rant as much as you can. But no way demean any movie based on how real/unreal it is. Is that the basis to judge a fictional piece anyways?

Mr. Bachchan played a character (Sexy Sam) well in his mid-fifties or something romancing and shaking his booty with girls half his age. K-Jo and Ekta promote infidelity at the drop of the hat and RGV doesn’t go beyond underworld stories where murder and rapes are child’s play? So, all that is acceptable and slums of Mumbai aren’t. A film-maker has all the liberty to make what he wants to and how does he/she wants to.

Bhandarkar made Page 3, Corporate, Traffic Signal and we acknowledged him by giving National Award every time. I am not saying adorn Danny with National Award, but give him and his movie a fair chance. Some of the French/Iranian/Korean movies which I see are upsetting to the core you feel disgusted later; not because they are badly written or shot but because they fucking tell the story in such a moving way you cannot but be in awe. No one complains. Most of them go to win the awards. So, why is there so much of fuss in India? Is it because a foreigner made it? Oh come on, I know we have few makers here who are better than Danny by leaps and bounds. Nonetheless Danny has made this movie and we better accept it the way it is. After all, it’s just a movie.

Everyone is saying that it is a rags-to-riches story of a slum boy from Mumbai. I would not say that. Rags-to-riches stories are those where the sheer hard work or the plain luck (by chance) get you the moolah. No doubt Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is playing ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ but he is not playing to win the money. He is playing hoping his beloved Latika (Freida Pinto) would be watching the show. And indeed she was. The movie in actuality is a love story than a rags-to-riches story by participating in a reality game show.



Youngest Jamal (Ayush Khedekar) and youngest Salim (Azharuddin Ismail) are brothers who pull off petty mischief every now and then. Always late for the school duo or musketeers take the youngest Latika (Rubiana Ali) as their third musketeer after their mother gets killed in the riots. Orphanage doesn’t go well and they all run away in the middle of the night only to be chased by the owner Maman (Ankur Vikal) and Co. Salim and Jamal manage to get on to the moving train while Latika is running along with the train whilst holding Salim’s hand. Despite the desperate cries of Jamal to pull Latika in, Salim intentionally leaves her hand.

The fate takes the brothers to Agra and back to Mumbai (it was Bombay when they had left). It had been seven or eight years since the last time Jamal had last seen Latika. They finally trace her. She is being taught classical dance to be later sold of course when Jamal sees her through a key-hole. Salim exclaims she is hot and opens the door. All three are united but life changes for all of them thereafter. Salim ditches his own brother at gun-point after throwing him out of house only to be left alone with Latika. Latika too agrees to sleep with the brother for the sake of Jamal’s life.

Few years down the line Jamal working as a chaiwalla in a call center chances upon Salim’s contact number and meets him. In one of the most poignant scene I have seen in recent times, the meeting of the two brothers is well executed (technically, watch the scene where Jamal imagines he jumped off the building with Salim) and well acted upon; Jamal’s continuous outburst of “There was no message” shows 18-year old Dev Patel is a name to reckon in years to come. He is simply brilliant in that scene and the one after when he looks wrathfully in Salim’s eyes and says, “I will never forgive you.”



Jamal inquires about Latika. Salim chooses to ignore the question. Only when he follows Salim one day that he realizes that Latika is now a mistress (or wife probably) of gangster Javed (Mahesh Manjrekar) for whom Salim in fact works. He enters the well guarded house on the pretext of being a dishwasher. He requests Latika to run off with him which she refuses while putting forth question “what for?” “Love” Jamal says. It never happens as Javed is home then and Jamal loses Latika for third time now. The next is climax which I would not reveal.

I never felt so elated even when Bhuvan in Lagaan hit the last ball six in the climax. I still remember the whole theater just erupted with a feat (one experiences when one achieves that himself) when Bhuvan hit that six. I found myself hugging a complete stranger standing on left to me in the theater that summer morning of 2001 when Lagaan was released. Slumdog Millionaire, almost same experience but more euphoria than what Aamir & Co provided me with then in the climax; nothing taking away from the glorious climax of Lagaan though.

Coming to the performances, all three Jamal will steal your heart. The second Jamal (Tanay Chheda) who was also seen in TZP (Ishaan’s crippled friend) is convincing as a guide of Taj Mahal when he tells the Firang couple that Mumtaz died in a road accident while giving birth to child and Taj Mahal was actually built up by Emperor Khurram. Haha. Hilarious. Dev Patel is a fine actor and he will go places. He says it all through his eyes and that is what I guess Danny and other technicians would have felt to concentrate mostly on his close ups. His boyish innocent face with popped-out-bear eyes said more than the words could ever. But it’s Ayush as youngest Jamal who is the soul of this movie. That five or six something boy is absolutely incredible and the fact that he in reality is a slum boy makes it even more unbelievable. Where the fuck he learnt to act? All the three versions of Salim and Latika could not be better and special mention should go to youngest Salim and Latika along with the Villain Ankur Vikal. Frieda has been hogging all the limelight at the moment at all the right places and she deserves it. She is breath-taking in climax.



Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, and Saurabh Shukla in their miniscule roles are apt. It was quite surprising and implausible to see such a host of a reality based game show. But as rightly justified later by Anil that it’s his game show and he can do whatever he wants puts all cases to rest.

Coming to technicalities, everything from editing to screenplay, cinematography to background will mesmerize you. Within few minutes into movie and you get to feel the A.R. Rahman’s magic when cops chase the slum boys in the dirty lanes and pipes. The background score adds to the narrative and is evenly played depending on the situation with an utmost ease along with the songs ‘Ringa Ringa, ‘Paper Plane’, ‘O..Saaya’. However it’s ‘Jai Ho’ (comes with the end credits) which will make you shake your hip too along with Dev’s and Freida’s. Shot at CST, Jai Ho is a lively number by Sukhwinder Singh, Tanvi Shah and Mahalaxmi Iyer. Loveleen Tandan who co-directed the movie with Danny is also the Casting Director. What an ensemble cast she chose. Bravo!!! She played a very crucial part in the making of this movie. She has been previously associated with Monsoon Wedding, Earth and The Namesake to name a few.

It has its own flaws. Manjrekar changes the channel and the music comes on TV. The song is ‘Aaj ki Raat’ from Don but TV shows ‘Fanna’ song from movie ‘Yuva’ (Kareena moving his hands). As the movie progresses, all the leads speak English (I accepted that though many haven’t) but it’s the accent of Dev Patel which seems quite unrealistic. It is not tough to pick English but it is quite tough for somewhat literate boy to pick accented English. Was that because he worked as guide to foreigners at Taj? Or just because Dev happens to be British in real life, the angle of call center chaiwalla was added to give a leeway that he might have picked up the accent at call center? Whatever, I call it cinematic liberty which according to me if done in a lenient way shouldn’t harm the flow. And it did not.

Slumdog Millionaire is an excellent cinema in all terms. Three people who deserve all the applause are Danny Boyle (Director), A.R. Rahman (Music and Background Score) and Simon Beaufoy (Screenplay). These very three people won the Golden Globe along with Best Movie-Drama. The movie has got 11 BAFTA nominations along with the very gripping “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Oh, another masterpiece; Brad Pitt is marvelous and Cate Blanchett is alluring) and hopefully Slumdog will continue its success rate at Oscars nominations as well and eventual win thereafter. Hopefully.



A friend who has watched the movie and appreciated the direction and music cannot seem to digest all the adulation the movie is receiving. His complain is ‘Oh, you glorify the poverty of India and you win the awards’. I sneered at him and said almost what I wrote in the beginning while adding that ‘Why are you so negative about it. A film-maker made a nice movie and he is getting appreciated for it. Why the fuck we need to nit-pick in this very case and ignore many such incidences just because he happens to be a firang?’ I hope people start appreciating/ridiculing cinema the way cinema should be.

The movie is having it's theatrical release on Jan 23rd in both English and Hindi (Slumdog Crorepati). Go ahead, book your tickets and enjoy. Each to his own, though its better you watch the English version.

I knew it and many like me knew it too that Taare Zameen Par was too feeble an entry for Oscars like Paheli (miserable), Eklavya (hopeless), RDB (many like that already made; we made it late), Devdas (Hazam nahi hua) in last few years. TZP was too long like Lagaan and very foreseeable like Lagaan; yet Lagaan was prevailing but TZP from beginning was no match to Majidi’s The Song of Sparrows (Iranian), Takita’s Departures (Japanese), Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew; Israel) and Garrone’s Gomorra (Italian); these which I have seen amongst the 67 entries and surprisingly Majidi’s movie is out of the nine selected so far for the third round and unsurprisingly Aamir’s TZP too doesn’t feature in top nine. Majidi who made 1998’s Best Foreign Language Film Children of Heaven about which I have talked in my earlier post might be disappointed as his was one of the best entries amongst the 67 this year for 81st Academy Awards.

I am not sad for Aamir, I am not. His was not enough to be recognized globally as a good cinema so it did not make. Fair enough. I am sad for Majidi though.


Slumdog Millionaire has left me speechless. It’s a mind-boggling movie for which I hope Boyle, Beaufoy, Mantle and our own ARR win Oscars on 22nd Feb. I am yet fostering the aftereffects of watching a mind fucking movie which is Slumdog Millionaire currently for me. I feel like crying.

With all due respect to makers of Lagaan; I feel Jamal’s last question worth 2 Million Rupees overshadows Bhuvan’s last ball six. (A Premise to my review later; COPYRIGHTED)

Excerpts from review which I hope to write soon:

I wish Slumdog Millionaire had never ended. I felt 120 minutes passed too soon; I hoped for it to run forever. I never felt so elated even when Bhuvan in Lagaan hit the last ball six in the climax. I still remember the whole theater just erupted with a feat (one experiences when one achieves something akin himself) when Bhuvan hit that six. I found myself hugging a complete stranger standing on left to me that morning in theater. That was 2001…. 2009; Slumdog Millionaire; almost similar climax (penultimate?) but more euphoria than what Aamir & Co provided me with then.

P.S. Slumdog Millionaire is extremely different to Lagaan. The reference was only to the climax.

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The Tag
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I was tagged by Vicky. And I went for this without two thoughts as this was on movies. A pretty easy and neat.

1. Name five of your all time favorite movies.

Hindi Ones:
Arth
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
Masoom (old)
Maqbool
Black Friday


English Ones:
Casablanca
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Motorcycle Diaries
Scent of a Woman
Schindler’s List

2. Name one movie which you recommend as a "must see".
Life Is Beautiful

3. One and only one movie that you have seen many times. [Watching on TV won’t count]
Rock On (The movie which I have seen more than 2 times in theater; for various reasons though)

4. Which movie comes to your mind when I say funniest?
Shoot the Piano Player (French)

5. Which movie(s) made you really emotional?
The Lives of Others (German) and How Green Was My Valley (English)

6. Which movie series was as interesting as the first part?
Godfather Series (Without any doubt)

7. Which movie didn’t, according to you, live up to your expectations?
The Da Vinci Code.

8. Which movie surprised you?
13 Tzameti (French)


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The Rant
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A quick look at the movies I saw over the weekend.

The Wizard of Oz: (1939)
Supposedly second in the list of Top 5 Hollywood Movies (Classic) of all time, the movie is a musical and fantasy film. The story is about an Orphan Dorothy (Judy Garland). Her dog Toto once bit a certain Miss Gulch who gets an order from court to take the dog away. The dog any how runs back to Dorothy upon which she decides to run away from the village. And there starts a fun journey wherein a coward lion, a scarecrow, a tin man join her. I find the movie just about ok. I wanted to watch this as now only 1 movie is left to be seen out of that list. That it is in top 5 of all time classic is actually attributed to the fact that the movie was hugely loved when shown as TV series as it was not very commercially hit when released.

Rating – 3 n half

Gentleman’s Agreement: (1947)
Gregory Peck stars in this drama as a Journalist who wishes to unravel the Anti-Semitism (resentment against Jews) outlook by posing himself as a Jew. What he unearths upsets him a great deal. As a Jew, he realizes to what extent people actually go and the hostility doesn’t stop at the work. His fiancée too is in tight spot concerning all this hara-kiri.

Rating – 3 n half

Roman Holiday: (1953)
I have always ranted (whenever given prospect) of my love for Audrey Hepburn so much so that I started digging for all her movies after I watched Breakfast At Tiffany’s, but her debut movie (Roman Holiday) always eluded me. And the fact that it had my other favorite Gregory Peck made me restless beyond control. I got it through a friend finally. Audrey went on to win Academy Award in her debut film where she portrayed a role of Royal Princess. Rome is the last destination on her tour of European cities. Upon reaching there, she runs away from her palace and roams around the street of Rome as a commoner. She meets a Journalist (Gregory as a Journalist yet again) and falls in love. But beware; the climax is not what our Bollywood guys would have made out of such story.

Rating – 4

Chariots of Fire: (1981)
The story based in year 1924 talks of 5 athletes preparing for upcoming Olympics. Zero down and you have two protagonists who are aiming for the 100 meter Gold. One of them is Jewish who would go to any extent to prove his detractors wrong and other is Christian who would not run on Sunday as running on Sabbath (religious day of rest) is sacrilege.

Rating – 4

From Hollywood:

Rain Man: (1988)

Protagonists: Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Tom Cruise is self-centered man dealing with automobiles and is at loggerheads with his father. When his father dies, he gets just a car in will whereas 3 Million Dollars goes to some guy called Raymond. Tom gets into this matter only to realize that this Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) is his own brother. Raymond is autistic who lives in his own world and has no idea what money means? Tom is not willing to let go 3 Million Dollars to some autistic person (so what if the guy is his brother) and kidnaps him. They start a road trip and the rest of the movie is how Tom has change of heart. This Oscar winner (4 in total) movie is a light watch. Watch it on a lazy afternoon.

Rating – 4

From Here To Eternity: (1953)

Protagonists: Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Donna Reed and Deborah Kerr. Director of movies like ‘The Day Of The Jackal’ and ‘Julia’, Fred Zinnemann who has personally won many Oscars hit the maximum with FHTE (8 Oscars). The movie is about Army man ‘Prewitt’ who is been transferred to Hawaii. An ex-boxing champion refuses to Box anymore (citing the reason he injured his friend badly in eye when last he boxed). However, his Captain makes no stone unturned in convincing him and in turns makes his life living hell. Meanwhile, Sergeant Warden is seeing Captain’s lonely wife and Prewitt’s friend Maggio (Frank Sinatra) gets into trouble with another sergeant. The movie has some interesting dialogues and cinematography.

Rating – 4

The Seven Year Itch: (1955)

Protagonists: Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. Tom after sending his wife and son for vacation gets into conversing/flirting with his upstairs neighbor Marilyn. He is a professional proof reader and is currently reading a book which talks of ‘The Seven Year Itch’ (that most married men get into extra-marital affair after seven years of marriage). He is highly imaginative and sometimes over imagines things. It’s funny and it’s refreshing. Watch out for famous skirt raising sequence of Marilyn’s.

Rating – 3

From Bollywood:

Love Story 2050: (2008)

Protagonists: Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra. My brain was r@ped brutally. The movie is utter trash since ‘Hindustan Ki Kasam’ in late 90s. There were many that came and went but HKK stood its ground. Watch it if you want to have the best laugh. And now shaking the ground firmly held till now by HKK is LS 2050. I have nothing to say about the movie. Please do not watch.

Rating – ZERO

My Predictions:

3 Hindi movies are releasing tomorrow simultaneously.

Mission Istanbul – Flop to Average

Money Hai Toh Honey Hai – Flop, no doubt about that

Ugly Aur Pagli – A sleeper hit.

A Quickie is a Quickie is a Quickie.

Last ten days and I watched some of the best movies. Here's some Quickie Recommendations in Movies you should definitely watch: My list is in order of my recommendations (from highly recommended to somewhat highly recommended, there is nothing in this list which is least recommended).

From Hollywood:

1)Breakfast at Tiffany's: (1961)
Protagonists: Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Based on the novel of same name written by Truman Capote (Oh, he is so good), the movie also was written by him (Oh, he is so good). Audrey as Holly Golightly is now my all time fav character (amongst actresses) on screen. The story revolves around her and her histrionics in this 1961 Drama movie which won an Oscar for Audrey (undoubtedly) and another for the beautiful song 'Moon River'.
Rating – 5 Stars

2)How Green was My Valley: (1941)
Protagonists: Roddy McDowall and Maureen O'Hara. Based on the novel of same name written by Richard Llewellyn, the movie is about the Morgan family: the story narrated by Huw Morgan, youngest of all amongst six brothers and one sister. Huw is the black sheep of the family (possessing academic inclination in the family of miners). However, he too becomes a miner like them and narrates this story when he is leaving the city he grew up in.
Rating – 4 Stars

3)JFK: (1991)
Protagonists: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman and Tommy Lee Jones. This controversial movie directed by Oliver Stone is not about JF Kennedy but the follow-up to the murder of President. Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison re-opens the JFK’s assassination case, trying to prove that The President was not killed by Lee Oswald but was a victim of conspiracy plotted by the secret services, FBI, CIA, Vice-President and a Businessman Clay Shaw.
Rating – 31/2 Stars

4)A Streetcar named Desire: (1951)
Protagonists: Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh. Blanche (Vivien) takes refuge at her sister’s place. Her brother-in-law Stanley (Marlon) labels her as a melodramatic and tortures her (both mentally and eventually physically) in hope that she speaks the truth about her past. The major highlight of this flick is the dialogues.
Rating – 31/2 Stars

From Across the Globe:

5)The Lives of Others: German (2006)
Protagonists: Ulrich Muhe, Ulrich Tukur, Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck. Winner of Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, movie is of time when Germany was divided into East and West. Before the fall of Berlin Wall, East Germany secret police Stasi bugged the homes of all those whom they suspected are with the west part of Germany. And in this film, famous playwright and his actress lover became the victim. How this political drama and thriller unfolds is something to watch out for. A superb storyline with an awesome climax makes this film a classic in times to come.
Rating – 5 Stars

6)Lust, Caution: Chinese (2007)
Protagonists: Tony Wai and Wei Tang. Remember Ang Lee, famous director of Crouching Tiger and Brokeback Mountain. Ang comes with a spying thriller set during World War-II. A young woman (Wei) befriends a political figure (Tony) on behest of her revolutionary friends. The movie has multi-layer themes running parallel to the plot of assassinating the political figure. There is love, lust, sex, romance, drama, and suspense. This can be related closely to our own RDB including the climax where the revolutionaries die but unlike RDB, here they fail in their attempt to kill the politician and are shot and thrown from the cliff. A gut-wrenching film.
Rating – 4 Stars

7)Caramel: Lebanese (2007)
Protagonists: Nadine Labaki (also, the director of this film). Layale (Nadine) runs a beauty parlor and is supposedly seeing a very much married, a high profile figure. The story revolves around her and four other women (3 of them work with her) and one who visits their parlor. The basic plot is that of romantic comedy. All ladies are going to love this as they would be able to relate to the parlor talks. They share their married life, sex life, mid-life crisis and in turn support each other. All men would love seeing this film where each one of the girl is more gorgeous than the other. A light-hearted film which will make you realize the importance of being content with less.
Rating – 31/2 Stars

Please do share your opinion, If you have seen any of these?