How "Bahubali" made the World look to South for films

Has Bahubali made the world change its outlook towards South Film-Industry?

My analysis:

http://www.telugu360.com/move-over-bollywood-let-south-lead-the-way/

"Bahubali" (Telugu Movie Review)

My Review of "Bahubali" (Telugu) can be accessed in the following link:

http://www.telugu360.com/bahubali-review-modern-visual-extravaganza-of-an-old-tale/

"The Lunch Box" (Hindi Film Review)

Some films are born great, some films have greatness thrust on them and some films attain greatness, to borrow a bard's phrase. "The Lunch Box" is a film that is earmarked for greatness because of a mesmerising story, bewitching script, almost flawless execution and a starcast that comes tailor-made. It has already been premierred on most film festivals from Toronto to Cannes and has won rave reviews before being showcased in India.  Director Ritesh Batra has given one of India's finest film in years with a story that is as improbable as a six sigma error in the delivery system of the famed "Dabbawallahs". 

The six sigma error is  what changes life for a middle-aged wife Ila (Nimrat Kaur) when the lunch box that she packs with utmost affection and consummate culinary skills gets swapped by the Dabbawallahs with a box that reaches one Mr Fernandez (Irrfan Khan) who is on the verge of retiring as a Senior Accountant in an Insurance Company. He has a new under-study Nawazudding Siddiqui who is deputed by the owner to learn the ropes quickly. A subtle romantic track develops between the exchange of the "Dabba" between Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur every day, appendixed with handwritten letters inserted in the box. "The food was tasty but salty" and other inane messages soon develop into gut-level communication between two adults caught in their own worlds of loneliness and desperation; Nimrat has a happy home with a school-going girl and a workaholic husband who is insensitive to her, her sole refuge is an elderly neighbour Aunty who stays one floor above her flat but helps her with all the recipes and the sage counsel she needs. Irrfan, on the other hand, is a loner (lost his wife) who is good at work but unfriendly coach to over-enthusiastic Nawaz. His zest for life and empathy for others including kids who ball around in his home environs were inscrutable, until  both Nimrat through her tasty cooking and Nawaz through his simplicity and cheerleading enthusiasm  mend Irrfan's mental makeup for better. 

The film builds up in 110 minutes of pacy narrative with sharp characterisations. Ritesh Batra has earlier made a documentary on "Daabwallahs"; now he creates a story of a lunch box mistakenly delivered by them. That could be a reason to fuss and file defamation charges from the gangs of dedicated workers who were invited for Prince Charles's wedding and etched into a Harvard case study. But the film stands out for transmitting the DNA of the times, for telling a story with a freshly different pair of Director's eyes, without pretensions, different values and uninhibited by the compulsions of cinema. Entirely shot in Mumbai's local trains and the nerve-center of Mumbai's concrete jungles of Malad and Dongri, there must be around 350 picture shots that make you live in the office and residential spaces of a society that thrives on chaos, packed with people like swarms of bees yet friendly and humane. Soundtrack of the film is by some foreigner, makes a point with regular musical instruments at just three to four instances in the film but by and large relies on the natural sounds of the deafening dins of moving locals, orchestral nature of an office canteen bustle. Occasionally, the kids on the moving locals break into a hit Kumar Sanu song and that becomes a lead sound track for the next few scenes. 

Personally, I felt a cute connect between visual and verbal literacy in this film. At a time when the biases of the film-makers are mostly towards song-and-dance and surrealistic and loud entertainment, Ritesh Batra re-creates a story that gives out as much from the imagery as from the words spoken by the three main characters - Irrfan Khan gives his best messages to Ila only in English and he gives almost a Thoreau-like commentary on issues of happiness and misery, Nimrat Kaur (that Cadbury girl caught in traffic jam with a mouthful of Five Star) is innocent, adventurous and vulnerable at the same time. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is at his entertaining best rubbing shoulders with an elegant Irrfan but has occasionally stolen the thunder; all three characters speak as much with words spoken as with their body language. In that sense, the verbal literacy is probably taken to newer highs than the visual literacy of the film. References to the 80s TV classic, "Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi" and old victorian values of diligence and restraint are messages the director wants the audience to take home despite an ending that is not so poetic. There are references to Bhutan's Gross National Happiness as opposed to our own GDP fixation.

When a film's reputation darts faster than the buying interest in India, you have to expect the Goliaths of the industry to rally behind it. No wonder, "The Lunch Box" is now a collaboration of Indo-German-French productions and the two Goliaths here are Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwala. That must give all the push needed to qualify this as India's sole entry to the Oscars. Because of the screenplay and the pacy narrative, you wouldn't feel bored even for a second. But there are flaws in this notable experiment, mostly loose ends the director forgot to tie in his stickiness to the main storyline. When Ila's husband tells her why she is making Aloo Gob every day for lunch, we don't get that. When the Dabbawallah refuses to accept the mistake of  swapping of boxes, he doesn't give a credible answer but a Harvard student might know what the director concealed. Again, not once does it occur to the two characters corresponding over lunch box to connect with the new modes of mobiles and emails. One more, Ila discovers she is trapped in a sex-less marriage because her husband is having an affair, but that is left unconfronted till the end. Obviously, there are quite a few gaffes in a film that seeks to break new ground in story-telling. But as the line in the film goes, sometimes, " A wrong train also can take you to the right destination." Ritesh Batra and team deserve a thumping watch for "The Lunch Box". My rating is 4.75 out of 5. 

"Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani" Film Review (Hindi)

There's something about Ranbir Kapoor from the first time he appeared on screen. And there's something magical about this film YJHD, which is a phrase from one of Ranadhir Kapoor (his uncle) films. By the time I saw, the film is already crossed Rs.100 crores and is counting to the next hundred crores in BO collections. Ayaan Mukherjee, director, has given a winning script of a contemporary love story starring Deepika Padukone, Kalki K and Ranbir. YJHD is a breeze and a worthy addition to the catalogue of films like "3 Idiots", "Zindagi Naa Milegi Dubaara", "Dil Chahta Hai", "Jab We Met". 

Story is not anew. Karan (Ranbir) is flirtatious and a go-get-her Donjuan. Naina (Deepika) is a medico who takes herself and life too seriously. Karan and his gang of friends - a guy and a gal are taking off to the mountains in North for a trek adventure. Naina bumps into one of the gals (Kalki) at a grocery and she learns that the girl Kalki is her batchmate, she learns who are all going for the expedition and eventually, jumps onto the bandwagon. Sparks fly and love blossoms between two opposites. Then the twist at the interval and the fun 2.0 post-interval as the foursome get back for Kalki's wedding in a familiar finale that ends like a fairy tale. What has worked for the film are solid performances by the starcast led by Ranbir and Deepika. Deepika has shown again why she is the youth Diva  - her looks, style, gait and oomph make her a sweltering watch as she plays the two shades before and after the interval as the shy girl first and as the girl who gets her mojo and her man later. Kalki has done the exact opposite role of what she did earlier in "Zindagi Naa milegi Dubara" and she pulls it off with ease as the ebullient funster. The other guy who plays Ranbir's thick friend and room-mate also sticks out with his performance. Ranbir Kapoor is the go-to guy in the film, especially in the second half with an uproarious performance that will finally seal his place as the upcoming Superstar who will call the shots. After experimental roles like "Rocket Singh", "Barfi", "Rockstar" and "Rajneeti", Ranbir Kapoor gets a script that lets him show his repertoire  - lover boy looks, unassuming demeanour, impeccable sense of comedy timing, broody and playful swing of moods, command over language that few Hindi youthful stars have - when he says "Raftaar", you will vibrate with the meaning. I have this comfortable feeling that Ranbir Kapoor is on his way to become the most iconic Superstar of this generation because he has the best package of vulnerability, intelligence, romanticism and credibility that marked those who preceded him generations ago. It appears also that the genes of acting that he inherited on all sides and in degrees of separation from his parents and grand-arens are going to play out on many more scripts that are yet to be written out with him in mind, this is my humble conviction. 

Pritam's music is another highlight. His instrumentation is more understated than his characteristic music with its haunting emphases and lilting notes  and crescendos that surcharge the mood of the song. 'Badtameez Dil" is one helluva song that is composed way out of Pritam's comfort zone. It also has a verisimillitude to that of "Gili Gili Akka" song of Randhir Kapoor's hit song. But nine songs are too many and unjustified. The song with Madhuri Dixit is over-rated and boring - don't mistake, She is old and unbearable even if she is able to move her hip-bone. Farook Sheikh as Ranbir's father sparkles even in a brief role. Dialogues by Hameed Dalal are a stand-out. ("Dil ki dhadkaan ki awaaz kaano tak sun na chahta hoon"). Be prepared for misty eyes atleast on three occasions in the film. What undermines the film is the weakest comedy seen in Ranbir's films and pathetic attempts by director Ayaan to evoke slapstick comedy, almost a leaf out of "Barfi" stunts in the first half. The redemption of the film is in its plot, its performances,  music and the overall feel of positivity of the pangs of coming of age. The screenplay could have been better and the first half could have been shorter; there is no reference to what the hero and the heroine did for eight years when they didn't meet each other despite choosing good professions. The characterisation of Ranbir's friend who is a serial gambler and an alcoholic could have elevated Ranbir's magnanimity as a helper but it was lost in brief shots and passing references to reform him. Small blemishes in a film that rarifies your soul and makes you reach for the stars of Bollywood, and root for the next big thing  - the next Rockstar Ranbir. 4.5 out of 5 despite a weak first half. Karan Johar and Ronnie Screwala must be elated they bet on the right horse that is raking it all in. 

"Bombay Talkies" Hindi Film Review

"Bombay Talkies" is the name of the latest film co-produced by India's youthful new-age directors: Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar and Zoya Akhtar. As the name suggests, it is meant to be an eulogy on Bollywood's century-old idioms. With the exception of Karan Johar, and to some extent, Zoya Akhtar, the other two are one of the two brilliant filmmakers who have sought new ground in bringing in realistic and hard-hitting story-telling with a rare irreverence to old norms while trying to achieve youthful yet compelling emotional connect with the audiences. The producers have selected the most apt title for a film which has four different tales rendered by these four directors - Karan, Dibanker, Zoya and Anurag with half-hour slots each in a total running time of 127 minutes (which includes the four-minute tobacco ad pre-and post interval and a gaudy "Om Shanti Om" style medley of Bollywood boys and girls - from Aamir to SRK to Ranbir and Kareena and Vidya Balan). Originally, Bombay Talkies was founded in 1934 by the First Lady of Indian Cinema - Devika Rani and her first husband Himanshu Rai. They went on to make many films which had an impact on the development of early Indian Cinema. Bombay Talkies became an icon for the arrival of Indian Cinema and subsequently, we all know how Mani Ratnam started his own Madras Talkies as a motif for South Indian Cinema.

Back to "Bombay Talkies" the movie. The four films are directed individually by the four talents above, with their respective name splashed on the screen when their film starts with a 15 second blackout separating one from another to indicate the end of one film and the beginning of the other. That way, the format is a little different from "Darna Mana Hai" where the stories lead upto the climactic story ending. That makes this a winning collaboration with a must-watch tag. What makes the four stories watchable is the bench-strength use of promising technicians like Amit Trivedi who scored thrilling music for all the four stories, inter-mixing the need to elevate the many moods essayed in each director's short story with impressive repertoire of folk music, playback, instrumentation from everyday rhythms and purcussions. Anyone who has long spotted Amit Trivedi from the time he debuted on MTV Unplugged till "DevD" OST got released will vouch that Amit Trivedi is the most-dazzling find amongst the current crop of Bollywood music composers. His music is rich, varied and culturally resonating with the heartbeats of Hindi heartland music, no wonder he still hasn't got the call from masala-oriented South film producers. 

How are the four stories? Are they real? Yes. Credible? Yes. Evocative? Yes, again. 

First story is an explicit take on Indian Male homosexuality directed by Karan Johar (what else where you expecting?). Randeep Hooda and Rani Mukherjee live their own lives in different cubicle nations within the media industry. They are almost sex-less and live a boring civil life until their frustrations surface with the entry of an intern at Rani's office. This young lad is a self-confessed Gay and he gets cosy with Rani in a platonic way only to get cosier with her husband in a plutonic way. Karan seems deft in handling the emerging theme of homosexuality and its repurcussions in conservative Indian families. The gay abandon with which Karan revels in re-creating the sexual preferences of an emerging male order makes it a subtle watch with some hummable music remixed of the old sixties by Amit Trivedi. That room, that music room of old LP records and audios owned by Randeep Hooda in the film must be any music lover's delight - it must belong to one of them - Anurag Kashyap, Producer Viacom's Raghav Behl or Farhan Akhtar, Zoya's sibling.

The second story is the most brilliant of the short films, directed by Dibaker Banerjee. It shows an in-form Nawazuddin Siddiqui as a go-nowhere dweller of a certain chawl in Mumbai, with a bed-ridden daughter who is tired of dad's old stories and a wife who juggles many jobs in three shifts. As if to make a statement on Ponzi schemes, Dibaker introduces EMU farming which has caught on with India's aspiring middle-class. One day, our Mumbai householder goes for the job of a Security Guard, misses it by a whisker and lands himself in a crowd watching Ranbir Kapoor's latest shoot. He gets a rare call from the film's Assistant Directors to enact a two-second scene - to bump into Ranbir from the other end, engrossed holding a newspaper. He exults at the opportunity and gets ten minutes to rehearse in a solitary set away from the din where he works himself up to do the role. In that interlude, he imagines having  an intense conversation with his theatre-obsessed father - brilliantly played by Sadashiv Amrapurkar - who was always pushing him to get to the basics of life. Then the shot readied, improvisations done, Nawaz goes home in a trance forgetting the small change, and the bottle of water earned as a perk for the brief role. He goes home, re-enacts the day's exciting proceedings to his daughter and wife, in a majestic  narrative without words and only flute music in background. This is the best story and my research tells that this is based on one of Satyajit Ray's famous short stories. 

The last two stories are more effusive of the magic spell of Bollywood on India's youth and children. Zoya's story is about a young boy whose father drives him to football but the boy loves the dances of Bollywood. He eulogies Katrina Kaif and becomes her in dreams and in daylight as he pursues dancing to the point of raising money for his sister. The end is filmy with sibling love and dream coming true but this is the only story which has an item song, if you can call that of Katrina's onscreen and off-screen presence in the film. The last story by the nonchalant Anurag Kashyapa is about a father (Sudheer Pandey) and son (Vineet Singh). The father's wish is to send the son with an heirloom bottle of "Murabba" (a kind of a ladoo made of sweet pumpkin) to Bollywood's Badshah's house - Prateeksha - the home of Amitabh Bachchan for a bite by the legendary actor so he can die in peace, something his father did with Yousuf Khan a.k.a Dilip Kumar. The saga is all about the days of wait and exasperation by the youth from Allahabad as he encounters many others who live on a pail of water in order to shake hands with Bollywood's glitterati. It is a pithy take by Anurag to capture the timeless appeal of Bollywood's icons. There's a sweet ending with a twist in the tale but Anurag handles it well with  raunchy wit.

On the whole, all the four stories have their signature styles of their creators who are in between their swinging and cutting-edge form. Undoubtedly, my take is that the honors go the four in this pecking order: Dibaker, Anurag, Zoya and Karan. What spoils the party in the end as we are about to applaud a rare ensemble of a talented foursome is a loud reprise to the ruling Divas of Bollywood in their audacious dream costumes - as I said from Kapoors to Khans. This must have been some producer's silly idea to endear an otherwise charming junction of upmarket, mofussil and fairy tales to the front-benchers who whistle at sighting each of the two generations of glitterati including Sridevi, Juhi and Madhuri. A great, watchable experiment and hopefully, Viacom should make it viable for more coming in this direction of sterotype-smashing cinema. 4 out of 5 for "Bombay Talkies". But I wonder why, U/A for a film that starts off the first story with hair-raising homosexuality. Maybe India will be the 15th nation in the world to endorse same-sex marriage now that the Censors have no objection to it.

"My Name is Khan" movie (Hindi)

"My Name is Khan" after all the controversies is surprisingly good film - with powered performances by Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. Karan Johar scores new high with a better story and crisp screenplay (Syed Field helped?). Its just a bit longer with low mass appeal. The movie may resonate more than recent movies on 9/11. Good music apart, you get to see San Francisco closer in multiplex. And its a movie which may bond with American audiences than here.