Archive for the ‘Patriotic’ Category
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).
Krantiveer (1994) – Nana Patekar all the way
On March 04, 2008 in Action, Character, Crime, Mafia, Movie, Patriotic, Politics, Song
Krantiveer was a movie released in 1994; an all and out commercial movie released by the movie-maker who has made other patriotic movies (Mehul Kumar), it was also a movie that seeked to portray the transformation in one man when faced with evil. Even though the main character has been depicted as a person who is selfish, uncaring about others (other than his immediate family), a transformation is shown based on 2 major incidents that affect his life – the murder of his adopted father, and the riot in his locality that caused normal people to transform into murderers and brings out communal feelings.
Krantiveer was a role essayed brilliantly by Nana Patekar, turning the movie into a commercial as well as critical success. He puts forth some intense emotions into the movie, so you can believe him when he is essaying the role of a normal guy in the chawl who could not care less about the efforts of the journalist, or when he he suddenly becomes violent at the cremation ground of his adopted father. He is equally at ease taking out money from his father’s safe and not caring about the repercussions, or the reaction of his mother and grandfather when they find him being delinquent and turn him out. However, it is transformation that is riveting.
Song: Rangeela Re Tere Rang Se – Prem Pujari
On February 23, 2008 in Bollywood, Classic, Melody, Military, Movie, Music, Patriotic, Song
The song Rangeela Re Tere Rang Se starring Waheeda Rehman, and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, is a great song. The song is from the movie, Prem Pujari (directed by Dev Anand for Navketan Films), released in 1970. The movie stars a whole host of characters such as Shatrughan Sinha, Prem Chopra, Madan Puri and Amrish Puri, and was popular, yet generated a fair amount of protests.
The movie is fairly complex, about the pacifism in a man that prevents him from bearing arms, and yet is able to prevent this pacifism from preventing him from doing his duty when he has to save his village and the area from Pakistani forces in the 1965 war. Dev Anand (Ramdev Bakshi) is the son of a decorated ex-armyman Retd. General Durgaprasad Bakshi (known for his valor and sacrifice (he lost a leg in a previous battle). Ramdev is in love with a girl from his village, Suman Mehra (Waheeda Rehman). He dutyfully joins the army, but his pacifism leads to his being discharged from the army and bringing some amount of disgrace to his father.
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal: Disappointing
On December 09, 2007 in Action, Bollywood, Culture, Discriminatory, Masala, Movie, Patriotic, Sports, Video, West
Quite a few of you would have seen ‘Chak De’ and been impressed with the overall tone of the movie, the way that a coach tries to overcome his history and blend a team together inspite of their individual differences, egos, and ambitions. And the result is gripping, with a good dose of patriotism possible. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal seems to suffer on this count. The movie, even though set in the United Kingdom, tries the same logic with a disparate team of people, hard up, trying to make a last ditch attempt to pull themselves up and win a championship on which their team depends. However, even though I liked the thought of the movie itself, given that there did not seem to be much of a market for movies that explored the sports theme without much of a romance, villains, and other commercial aspects. After all, how often do you get to see a movie looking at South Asians based in London, and with no reference to going back to India, or with a romance, but purely based on the life of people in that location ?
