Sunday 3 June 2012
Fatso - Mini Review
No wonder if you haven't heard of this movie. Its a small budget movie with relatively lesser known cast and took a long time to be released at only a few screens. That's also the reason why DVD is out so close to the movie release.
That's part of the reason I think it deserves a review online. People need to know Bollywood is not just song and dance, although thats what still makes the most money.
The movie despite borrowing from a few others is fresh in its execution. Its not the kind that shouts out any messages at you but are there for you to pick up and make sense of. Free from expected cliches, at times you want it to do what it doesn't.
Naveen (Purab Kohli +/- Ranvir Shorey) returns from dead to be with his girl friend Nandini (Gul Panag) but there's a twist. He must win it all over again and with a handicap - he is in his friend's fat, boring but artistic body with its own share of dreams. The believable part here is that we are increasingly a society of people who appear friendly, interesting and lovable but shallow and looking out for their own interests. One of Naveen's friend is at that level and is leading the race to take over his girl friend. Primarily because he is more interesting and better than the fat one and knows how to appeal to a woman's sympathetic side. Nandini appears to be falling for it, being 'naive', one might say but it could easily be because she wants to do it.
That's where the film is different and needs to be treated so. There is never a big revelation of an exchange of souls. No showdown that you might be craving for. Very much like real life, Nandini falls in love a second time for what she really wants her man to be like, someone who might be similar or maybe even better than Naveen.
For me the film and its essence is very much like Amol Palekar's Paheli ( Shahrukh Khan, Rani Mukherji) in the sense that its a silly story at the face of it. Look beyond the hocus-pocus and you discover the theoretical difference between romance and love.
There are some light moments, especially in the depiction of an Indian style bureaucratic office of heavenly affairs - with files, queues, babudom and delays. It's not there just for the sake of it of course, there's some satire and some philosophy under those files, behind that red tape.
To summarize - watch if you prefer subtle meaningful cinema and care to make a statement against the success of Rowdy Rathores and bodyguards.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Agneepath(2012) is less than Agneepath(1990)
First things first - the new Agneepath is a good watch in itself in the line of movies like Dabangg, Singham etc. The visuals are great, Rishi Kapoor delivers a great performance. Personally, I didn't find Sanjay Dutt's character menacing enough but that's a subjective take. Hrithik successfully conveys the personality of a down to earth man with vendetta as the agenda of his life. He sings and dances for commercial welfare of the movie although his character isn't expected to but that's not Hrithik the actor's doing. In any case, if we are to believe in a well toned muscular hero - with a golden heart and capable of doing unbelievable stunts, I would rather root for Hrithik or John Abraham, than someone known to be morally bankrupt like Salman Khan. The movie benefits from good music, especially one song which provides much credence to the re-union scene between Hrithik and his sister.
Praise out of the way, its the well anticipated comparison to 1990 version of Agneepath that I write about. The movie is officially termed as a tribute to the old one - pretty shrewd business tactic from Karan Johar as a producer - that is how I interpret that phrase.
The movie got all the interest and hype going for it right from the word go - just by relating it to the classic that even today is mentioned as one of Big B's best performances.
This relation and inspiration from the earlier version is what makes me look more at the negatives than the good parts. In simple terms its just the fact that Karan Malhotra is no Mukul Anand, Hrithik Roshan is good but no Amitabh Bachchan and a hit film in India means masala - actions, drama and item number.
The original was not a runaway hit but was well recieved for the performances, the subtle story play and exchanges between characters. For example -
Vijay and his mom - "apne haath dho le" - is all she says to convey her disagreement with his illegal way of life.
Vijay and Gaitondey sahib's entire family - very few words exchanged but we know what each one of them thinks about him within a few minutes of mutual glares and indirect references .
Even Vijay and Kancha Cheena - Vijay makes it clear to Kancha that he aspires to have his style and power that we as audience are already in awe of and thereby appreciate the challenge that the Hero has in front of him.
The new one unfortunately takes the route of populism, too many words and way too many stunts to convey none of the above mentioned connections. To expand on that start with the fact that it takes a good 30 -40 minutes for the new movie to establish Vijay's childhood and his mission of revenge. Despite that, I as a viewer didn't have enough sympathy for a young boy to start shooting people. Moreover, the elder Viju in this version is supposed to be loved by all and sundry despite openly being part of drugs and flesh trade.
The story doesn't say much about why anyone would love him more than their lives when all he is after is personal vendetta. There is a disconnect despite all the words used by the protagonist to explain his angst and quest for power to match Kancha's power.
The original, with Master Manjunath's portrayal of young Vijay and later Big B's kohl lined eyes and baritone voice with very few words, manages to convey the pain, touching a chord with the viewer's heart. Its only towards the end that Big B mentions his pain as a child in carrying his father's corpse alone - a few broken words that convey the scale of his physical and mental effort in doing that.
Hrithik's Vijay (actually its more of Karan Malhotra the director's Vijay) is all about using his manipulations to get clout, power and backing to get to his goal - at all costs. That's exactly what he does but pays way too much cost without any impression of having a good enough plan in mind. Any average bollywood buff would know that protecting the vulnerable maa, behan and girl friend/wife in the middle of the movie goes a long way towards ensuring a quick end. This Vijay does not know that.
For all his manipulative games and cold hearted killings, we find the new Vijay just reacting to the two Villains' attacks and almost failing at that. Given all the trump cards at his disposal - 15 years to plan, a police commissioner happily hiding his details, no general knowledge about his background ( maa, behan included) , all the power from his control over Rishi Kapoor's gang etc - this Vijay is rarely seen using any of these. The rise to power is visible but the effect is not. There isn't enough confrontation or challenge posed by Vijay to make this Kancha feel threatened. Its always the other way around.
In the end he is barely able to salvage his pride , single-handedly so to speak, which theoretically makes for a good photo finish. But if you think about it, his attack was of the sort that he could have always executed once he had the limited fireworks and muscle mass that he ultimately used and if there was ever a plan, it never materialised.
To make it worse, this Kancha was never really unapproachable or unpredictable like the original. So not as big a challenge for someone who's supposed to have mumbai in his muththi.
I guess the decision to base the story in the same time-frame as the original (early 1990s) was to avoid the obvious pitfalls for the script like a mobile or internet facility coming in the way of conceived suspense between the characters. The way this Vijay works, he could have had the best technology in the world and yet have fallen prey to a village hoodlum like Kancha.
As mentioned, its a bit too much to expect an Amitabh performance from a Hrithik. The good thing is that the team for new Agneepath knew that. He doesn't try to mimic the epic scenes from original in their entirety. When he does repeat any of the original lines, he gets some assistance from director. For instance when he repeats the famous "Vijay Deenanath Chauhan , poora naam" part, it has to be in the middle of a key fight to announce himself to his opposition and thus get some impact.
When he quotes the "Ashru shwet rakt se lathpath, lathpath" lines, there is an echo- reverb sort of effect thrown in to add to the gravitas of his voice and words with lots of background grandeur to make it big. For the original however, Mukul Anand's scene setting and Amitabh's recitation skills are all that was needed to get the impact much larger than the sum of words and visuals puts together.
Here's a bit from the original, a rather wordy part, with Vijay finally doing a check-mate sort of declaration over Kancha. The scene is from the point where Vijay is looking to turn over a new leaf and mend his illegal ways, for the sake of his family ( and family ka bachcha) rather than still carrying his father's corpse. Alas, going by the earlier mentioned logic of hindi movies, this wasn't the end of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDKNMliIOQY&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Final words- Do watch the new one but old is still gold.
Praise out of the way, its the well anticipated comparison to 1990 version of Agneepath that I write about. The movie is officially termed as a tribute to the old one - pretty shrewd business tactic from Karan Johar as a producer - that is how I interpret that phrase.
The movie got all the interest and hype going for it right from the word go - just by relating it to the classic that even today is mentioned as one of Big B's best performances.
This relation and inspiration from the earlier version is what makes me look more at the negatives than the good parts. In simple terms its just the fact that Karan Malhotra is no Mukul Anand, Hrithik Roshan is good but no Amitabh Bachchan and a hit film in India means masala - actions, drama and item number.
The original was not a runaway hit but was well recieved for the performances, the subtle story play and exchanges between characters. For example -
Vijay and his mom - "apne haath dho le" - is all she says to convey her disagreement with his illegal way of life.
Vijay and Gaitondey sahib's entire family - very few words exchanged but we know what each one of them thinks about him within a few minutes of mutual glares and indirect references .
Even Vijay and Kancha Cheena - Vijay makes it clear to Kancha that he aspires to have his style and power that we as audience are already in awe of and thereby appreciate the challenge that the Hero has in front of him.
The new one unfortunately takes the route of populism, too many words and way too many stunts to convey none of the above mentioned connections. To expand on that start with the fact that it takes a good 30 -40 minutes for the new movie to establish Vijay's childhood and his mission of revenge. Despite that, I as a viewer didn't have enough sympathy for a young boy to start shooting people. Moreover, the elder Viju in this version is supposed to be loved by all and sundry despite openly being part of drugs and flesh trade.
The story doesn't say much about why anyone would love him more than their lives when all he is after is personal vendetta. There is a disconnect despite all the words used by the protagonist to explain his angst and quest for power to match Kancha's power.
The original, with Master Manjunath's portrayal of young Vijay and later Big B's kohl lined eyes and baritone voice with very few words, manages to convey the pain, touching a chord with the viewer's heart. Its only towards the end that Big B mentions his pain as a child in carrying his father's corpse alone - a few broken words that convey the scale of his physical and mental effort in doing that.
Hrithik's Vijay (actually its more of Karan Malhotra the director's Vijay) is all about using his manipulations to get clout, power and backing to get to his goal - at all costs. That's exactly what he does but pays way too much cost without any impression of having a good enough plan in mind. Any average bollywood buff would know that protecting the vulnerable maa, behan and girl friend/wife in the middle of the movie goes a long way towards ensuring a quick end. This Vijay does not know that.
For all his manipulative games and cold hearted killings, we find the new Vijay just reacting to the two Villains' attacks and almost failing at that. Given all the trump cards at his disposal - 15 years to plan, a police commissioner happily hiding his details, no general knowledge about his background ( maa, behan included) , all the power from his control over Rishi Kapoor's gang etc - this Vijay is rarely seen using any of these. The rise to power is visible but the effect is not. There isn't enough confrontation or challenge posed by Vijay to make this Kancha feel threatened. Its always the other way around.
In the end he is barely able to salvage his pride , single-handedly so to speak, which theoretically makes for a good photo finish. But if you think about it, his attack was of the sort that he could have always executed once he had the limited fireworks and muscle mass that he ultimately used and if there was ever a plan, it never materialised.
To make it worse, this Kancha was never really unapproachable or unpredictable like the original. So not as big a challenge for someone who's supposed to have mumbai in his muththi.
I guess the decision to base the story in the same time-frame as the original (early 1990s) was to avoid the obvious pitfalls for the script like a mobile or internet facility coming in the way of conceived suspense between the characters. The way this Vijay works, he could have had the best technology in the world and yet have fallen prey to a village hoodlum like Kancha.
As mentioned, its a bit too much to expect an Amitabh performance from a Hrithik. The good thing is that the team for new Agneepath knew that. He doesn't try to mimic the epic scenes from original in their entirety. When he does repeat any of the original lines, he gets some assistance from director. For instance when he repeats the famous "Vijay Deenanath Chauhan , poora naam" part, it has to be in the middle of a key fight to announce himself to his opposition and thus get some impact.
When he quotes the "Ashru shwet rakt se lathpath, lathpath" lines, there is an echo- reverb sort of effect thrown in to add to the gravitas of his voice and words with lots of background grandeur to make it big. For the original however, Mukul Anand's scene setting and Amitabh's recitation skills are all that was needed to get the impact much larger than the sum of words and visuals puts together.
Here's a bit from the original, a rather wordy part, with Vijay finally doing a check-mate sort of declaration over Kancha. The scene is from the point where Vijay is looking to turn over a new leaf and mend his illegal ways, for the sake of his family ( and family ka bachcha) rather than still carrying his father's corpse. Alas, going by the earlier mentioned logic of hindi movies, this wasn't the end of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Final words- Do watch the new one but old is still gold.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)