FilmiBoi

Movie poster (Image source: Amazon.com ) Bombay has become Mumbai but the underworld scene still garners the fright of the teeming million denizens. Far from the elite drawing-room ideological clashes, lies a sad and I daresay, a dirty product of poverty. Radicalised poverty, helpless poverty, poverty this, poverty that.  Film and documentary makers have capitalised on this poverty since ages. Satya puts forth a mirror. A mirror which does not thrive on bankable videography of the slums, but engages the audience with the souls which inhabit the hovels. We know Satya is about Satya. Indeed in its "truest" sense. As the camera pans from a busy Bombay street to a lanky ragamuffin, it speaks to the audience in poetic cinematography. That man in tatters, that orphan vagabond, that life is our protagonist. Miscible in a mould, yet faltering at the edges due to its prismatic nature. He is truth, he is Satya, he is J. D. Chakravarthy.  Chakravarthy reminds me of Kamal Hassan: sta...

Cultures have always transcended continents: sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly. Two indispensable elements of any culture are language and art. And as one draws a global linguistic map, the average first-timer would be shocked to know that many in the Caribbeans speak Bhojpuri. Why? Thank the English. In very simple words, Bhojpuri reached the Caribbeans through indentured labour (sent by the British) from India). I don't prefer calling these people Indians, I think Indic is a better word; for their notion of India might be very different from its present social, cultural and geopolitical structure.  Coming to the second aspect: art. And with art, I am referring to music. Chutney music.  As interesting as its name sounds, Chutney music is even more riveting to the Indian ear. A mish-mash of instruments like the Bulbul Tarang, Dhantal, Dholak, Harmonium, Khartal, Manjira, Mandolin, Tabla and Tassa beats (yes, I copied that from Wiki), Chutney music sure is a delightful...

So many people are bashing the big stars for the kind of booth-capturing they have done in the industry, the most recent case being Sushant Singh Rajput's death triggering probes of involvement of big-banner folks. Sushant was an ordinary, a nobody, so to speak, in the film industry. He aimed for the moon (all puns intended) and got a few stars in his bucket. But just think about a young prince born to a Bollywood music legend. Life would be easy, a casual observer might think. But no. Pancham's life is an ironic transition from ruling turntables, churning out hit after hit, and then watching the tables turn, as a helpless, hapless soul. A man who was, at one time, offered film after film, sans daddy SD's aegis, was left to rot like a crumbling, fumbling, insecure composer–like a mutilated Mozart. And people say that the biggies gate-keep just the actors. What made me tear up watching this documentary was the fall of this heroic composer, sans hubris; his only hamartia bein...

While Rakesh Roshan has got the  Kraft  for making good  Films  (pun intended) like Kaho Naa…Pyar Hai, my vote goes for the 2003 blockbuster film  Koi…Mil Gaya. While there is a huge hue and cry over the unoriginal concept of the Hrithik Roshan starrer, the main credit goes to Satyajit Ray, who wrote  The Alien  back in the 60s-70s without which ET won't be possible. Reasons why Koi…Mil Gaya is the best film of Rakesh Roshan (according to me):- It is a  brave attempt at children's and sci-fi films.  I say this because back in 2003, kids had no greater superhero than Shaktiman and most of the children's movies that time were not up to the mark. The songs were fantastic.  Be it the tipsy Rohit dancing and jumping to the tunes of  Idhar chala main udhar chala…  or the kids singing  Jaadoo jaadoo…  in a childish but nostalgic chorus, the album was great. Not to forget  It's magic  where Hrithik Roshan does what ...

"Tujhe dekha to ye jana sanam, pyar hota hai deewana sanam." Sarson ke khet, King Khan playing the mandolin on a windy summer morn to his dame Kajol, conjuring a passionate sequence amid parental opposition; Anand Bakshi's evergreen verses; Kumar Sanu's nasal baritone and Lataji's melodic singing. Did I miss something? Sure I did. Pause for a second and ask yourselves. Did you just mechanically read the above lyric or did you read them in a sing-song manner? If your choice was the latter, read on! If it was the former - read again. You will not be able to resist the power of melody. And who's behind this melody? The dynamic and versatile duo of Jatin-Lalit, who gave us super-hit songs like  "Pehla Nasha", "Ae Kash Ke Hum", "Tujhe Dekha To", "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai",   and many more. Not to forget  "Bin Tere Sanam",  one of their earlier songs which was masterfully recreated and remixed by DJ Suketu. Noneth...

"Misogynistic!" "Loud!" "Toxic masculinity!" Slogans and statements like these abound the official Hindi remake of the successful Telugu film Arjun Reddy - Kabir Singh; and as I booked my ticket, I kept all these factors in mind. Here I am giving you all an unbiased view of the film, superseding the hype and the overwhelming response this film has got. However, there is no doubt that it is ruling the box office, giving the stalwarts of Bollywood, a competition for their forthcoming ventures.  The movie is a string of sequences running back and forth into the past and the present. One moment you see the Gabru of  Udta Punjab , the other moment you witness the Aditya Kashyap of Jab We Met .  Since the film is a saga of the seven stages of love, particularly emphasizing on the stages of extreme attachment and madness that follows, it required a rather robust and aggressive portrayal of a man falling head over heels in love with a woman, years y...

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...