Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Bhootnath – a mis-mash of different emotions
On June 21, 2008 in Child, Culture, Drama, Movie, Society, Song, Values, Video
I watched Bhootnath just the day after having watched Jannat just the previous day, and given that my impression of Jannat was not good, any movie would have been good. But Bhootnath was a movie that impressed in parts. The Director, Vivek Sharma, tried to take many human emotions into the movie; thus taking the movie into 3 separate parts – the first part where the ghost appears to be evil and a danger to whoever tries to enter the property; the second part where the child makes friend with the ghost and turns him into a proper civilized person-like character with human emotions; and the third part where there is an attempt to throw in a lot of tear-jerkering emotional scene so that the ghost can disappear and everything can turn out normal. In the end, these attempts to make the movie cater to many interests put a lot of strain on the overall movie, and my feeling is that it did not turn out as well as could be. The movie takes on a heavy social issue of how children go abroad, and become of that land.
The movie is geared towards kids, and that was clear when I saw the songs. They were all songs designed to appeal to children, and it did seem a bit different to see songs that had a lot of kids in them; but most of the audience was adults, so was wondering whether there was a mismatch in terms of the advertising of the movie versus the intended effect of the advertising. The movie has a cast that is capable of some great things – Amitabh Bachchan, Aman Siddiqui, Juhi Chawla, Rajpal Yadav, Satish Shah, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Shahrukh Khan. Amitabh Bachchan gives a good role, but one feels that in the middle of the movie, he gets overshadowed by the kid, and then in the latter half of the movie, Shahrukh Khan seems to get most of the attention (Shahrukh Khan had a role that was more than a guest appearance, but less than a full role). Rajpal Yadav was very thoroughly under-used in the movie, getting 2 very brief scenes (almost like a cameo).
Swades: An eminently watchable movie
On March 22, 2008 in Bollywood, Classic, Culture, Despair, Movie, Patriotic, Society, Values, Video
Swades, released in 2004, was a much awaited movie. Ever since Lagaan was released in 2001 and its theme of a rural village uniting to fight a foreign oppressor became a hit, there was always the expectation of another movie on a rural theme making it big. And thus when the same director, Ashutosh announced another movie, this one too on a rural theme, there was a great amount of hope that the presence of Shahrukh Khan would make this movie a super-hit as well. However, this was not to be. The movie came, got some good press, got some criticism over its length and the fact the movie seemed to many people too unrealistic, too much like a documentary. Come on, a successful NASA scientist chucking it all away, and then going off to generate electricity almost single-handedly for a rural village. Fiction indeed.
The fact remains, Swades is a great movie. The movie has a legend of ‘We, the people’, and seems to be a labor of love (with the movie having been written, produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker). It shows a fair amount of the ills such as lack of knowledge, illiteracy and discrimination that plague our villages. At the same time, it does not present these as obstacles that cannot be overcome (as many other movies do, which try to show conflict as the only way to resolve the problems). The movie has a great romance theme, heavily under-stated with a great new comer performance by Gayatri Joshi. The movie has great music, seemingly very appropriate for the movie theme (Music is by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Javed Akhtar).
Omkara (2006) – A great interpretation of Othello
On March 04, 2008 in Action, Bollywood, Character, Crime, Culture, Mafia, Movie, Politics, Revenge, Romance, Song, Video
Omkara (release in 2006) was a much awaited movie. Director Vishal Bhardwaj had earlier made a name for himself with Makdee and Maqbool (starring an incredible performance by Irfan Khan), and his Hindi interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello had already lead to much anticipation, with the prospect of Saif Ali Khan playing a baddie’s role being much awaited.
The movie delivered, but not too much as Vishal would have thought. It won a great amount of critical acclaim, and extreme kudos for the 2 best performances of Saif Ali Khan and Konkona Sen. Vivek Oberoi and Kareina Kapoor won praise, while the performance of Ajay Devgun could have been better – much more is expected out of an actor who has given a performance like Gangajal.
Basant Bahar (1956) – Some incredible songs
On March 04, 2008 in Bollywood, Classic, Competition, Culture, Devotional, Melody, Movie, Singing, Song, Talent, Video
Basant Bahar was a movie released in 1956, more than 50 years back. It has some great songs, and hence has never been forgotten. The movie starred Bharat Bhushan, Nimmi, Leela Chitnis, Kumkum, Om Prakash, and many others. The movie was directed by Raja Nawathe, and had some excellent music by Shanker Jaikishan. Lyrics are by Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri, and the singers for the movie are Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi.
The story is about a son not following in the footsteps of his father. Gopal (Bharat Bhushan) is the son of the Raj Jyotshi of a kingdom (Chitaldurg State), and his father had always sought to have his son follow in his footsteps. Instead, Gopal begins to become a vocalist, and is fairly gifted. He also falls in love with Gopi (Nimmi), the daughter of famous singer Neela Sani; both of these facts do not go down well with his father. However, Gopal continues on his path, until one day a rival tampers with his voice. Further, there is a turn of events that estranges him from Gopi; will Gopal be ever be able to be the greatest vocalist of his generation and what will happen to his love story ?
Videos of songs from the movie Basant Bahar:
DUNIYA NA BHAYE MOHE (Sung by Mohammed Rafi)
