Bollywood Films and Me

Ever wondered why Mumbai doesn’t sleep? - Because it embraces a thousand thoughts, million dreams and gazillion ideas in its stride; these can’t be wasted and burnt off in nocturnal dormancy. And while many flock to the mayanagri (city of illusions), not all attain the superstardom and glamour which (supposedly) comes complementary with one’s success in one industry – Bollywood.

Such is the charisma of this industry that it lures everyone; of any gender, class, caste, creed, economic status, et al. Ceteris paribus, everyone notices Bollywood – love and hate is a different question altogether, there are numerous ‘Kennedy-Khrushchev’s to fight out that war.

Anyhow, I being a Bollywood fan have opened up this blog to critique and analyse some of my favourite movies which are by-products of the wherewithal of this great industry.

I might look crazy for Bollywood. Diagnose for yourself and read below.

Following the norms of various families here in India, we too spent hours of Sunday mornings and Saturday evenings listening to and watching songs on the television. But this was no mere leisure activity; there used to be a competition. All one had to do was to guess the actor or actress in the video, the film/album of the song, or the music director. Fastest finger first – the quickest to answer got the silent admiration of others while they nodded their heads in accord. There is a reason why I am more conversant with the lives of the old Bollywood megastars than the life stories of some of my elder relatives; and I put the blame on that game.

Curious about everything associated with the Mumbai-based industry, I started off my journey of exploring the lives of the 3Ks of Bollywood (the Kapoors, Khans and Kumars.) I pored over the Filmfare Award winners and nominees, I gorged the balance thirst for Bollywood by reading non-fiction biographical works like “Written by Salim-Javed” by Diptakirti Chaudhuri – the summary of which I narrated to my confused classmates. After all, few 21st century kids (I may be super-duper wrong) care about Bollywood, now that the Avengers have dominated the entertainment scene.

Ever since then, I have got a reputation of a Bollywood know-it-all among my parents and peers. I even create comics based off a Bollywood-powered superhero – BollyMan (just middle-school things.) If this isn't testimony enough, I can also mimic the voice of many famous Bollywood actors.

This is me. Karan Dhall. Your FilmiBoi. Hope you enjoy the content of this blog!

Kabhi alvida na kehna!
                 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

30 Years of Baazigar

Image
Be loyal, and then make a dog's life out of your master's : Cunning Madan Chopra whisks away boss Vishwanath Sharma's property through a lucrative power of attorney, leaving Sharma penniless. On the streets, Sharma loses his riches to Chopra, his daughter to the flu, and his family to poverty. He dies as well and leaves Ajay to fend for himself and his traumatised mother. Ajay seeks revenge, and how! Directed by Abbas-Mustan, produced by Venus, and inspired by  A Kiss Before Dying  (1991), United Seven Pictures presents  Baazigar! As Baazigar begins, our hero Ajay hitches a taxi to Bombay. Why does he want to go there? He's looking for something. "Who?" his schoolmate Vicky smilingly asks. Adjusting his fat, black spectacles, Ajay clears his throat and says,  "Kaamyaabi"  (success). An animated coin flips on a freeze-frame, revealing the title credits:  Baazigar . Ajay was the Baazigar, and Shah Rukh Khan was Ajay.  Prophetic as he always has been (s
Read more

Movie Review: Sarfarosh (1999)

The scorching heat, a windy desert, a deep-voiced narrative and the bright sunlit sandy terrain of Bahid complements the dark overtones which the film explores in the reels that follow. SARFAROSH - the title unravels. For a directorial debut, John Mathew Matthan put up a great show, bringing to us a taut storyline, impressive dialogues, a star cast full of undervalued gems and scintillating music, all wrapped in a cinematic treat. The strength of this movie is its diversity and non-aligned behaviour. Diverse, because it focussed on a variety of sub-genres under the umbrella of an action film - be it the innocent romance between the college sweethearts Ajay (Aamir Khan) and Seema (Sonali Bendre) or the grey natured Gulfam Hassan (Naseeruddin Shah) whose character was scarred for life with the ravages of the Partition - the film covers all extremes while keeping the pace of the film just perfect. The film is non-aligned as neither does it supplicate itself to the genre of a full blown
Read more

Movie Review: Sadak (1991)

Image
The autobiographical Mahesh Bhatt did a Scorsese, but the music made up for it. Source: IMDb Sadak is the story of a suicidal and insomniac taxi driver Ravi (Sanjay Dutt) who hustles all night long to sleep and escape his nightmares. On one night shift, he meets Pooja (Pooja Bhatt) and it is typical love at first sight. He later comes to know that Pooja has become a reluctant prostitute at the brothel of the evil eunuch Maharani (Sadashiv Amrapurkar). What happens next? Watch on YouTube. No points for guessing that the film's plot blatantly lifts that of Martin Scorsese's 1976-film  Taxi Driver , albeit it shows the hero in a more positive light than the grey psychology of Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). Unlike Bickle, Ravi does not frequent red light theatres; but like him, he is a jobless vigilante, a rebel with a cause. Sadak also plays on the pluralistic pallette of religions in India. While the "good Muslim" character of Salim bhai (Avtar Gill), the taxi owner w
Read more