India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Delhi 6: Mehra’s mirror has many faces
At the end of the first half of “Delhi 6″, a friend messaged me to ask what I thought of the film.
“I like it so far,” I told him, “but I don’t see where this is going.”
I am so happy that Rakeysh Mehra did show me where he was going in the second half.
He weaves a cohesive story from a million plots, tells us a modern parable for our times and extracts some great performances from an ensemble cast — and he did it all in the best place possible — Delhi.
Billu: Watch it for Irrfan Khan
When I met Priyadarshan earlier this week, I asked him why he didn’t make films like “Kanchivaram” (a Malayalam film) or “Kala Pani” any more.
He gave me a refreshingly honest answer – “I am here to be a successful commercial film maker, and those are not the kind of films I will make. I want to play it safe for now.”
Dev D: A different take on an age-old hero
I have to admit, first off, that I have no sympathy for Devdas. I think he is a spoilt, whining fool who pretty much deserved what he got.
Obviously watching him every five years or so on screen, as yet another filmmaker tries to “interpret” him, really tries my patience.
Luck By Chance: An insider’s look at Bollywood
My favourite scenes in Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance” are when Rishi Kapoor is on screen as the over the top, aging Bollywood producer Romy Rolly.
And that’s not just because he is brilliant in the part — he is. But the scenes capture perfectly the subtle performances and nuanced characters this film is bursting with.
Chandni Chowk to China: Sticking to the formula
If you are looking for intellectual stimulation at the movies, watch Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” or wait for “Slumdog Millionaire” — “Chandni Chowk to China” is definitely not what you are looking for.
It’s the first big release of the year, is produced by a big Hollywood studio looking to enter the Indian market and has one of India’s most bankable stars. But it also has a lot of Bollywood “formula”.
Is an Oscar next, Mr Rahman?
His voice is soft over the phone, almost inaudible. He has just done a lot of interviews, and the tiredness in his voice is clear.
There are no niceties, no formal hello; instead he plunges straight into the agenda of the day — that’s a typical A. R. Rahman interview for you. The 43-year-old music composer is as humble as he is talented, as unaffected by success as he is successful.
A not-so-good year for Bollywood
If you are looking for a word to describe Bollywood’s output in 2008, “ordinary” would be high up on the list. The world’s most prolific film industry churned out over 200 films this year and trade analysts say a staggering 90 per cent of these ventures didn’t make any money.
“This has been a trend for the last four to five years,” said analyst Taran Adarsh.
Ghajini: Aamir’s most commercial film yet
This is a first. Aamir Khan has gone the Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar way — the actor in him has given way to the star. He’s finally starred in a film that totally rides on his star power and as you discover once you’ve watched “Ghajini”, it’s not such a bad thing after all.
Khan plays Sanjay Singhania, a telecom tycoon, who we are told suffers from short-term memory loss. Singhania’s memory is wiped clean after every 15 minutes and to keep himself updated with his life, he has to continuously take pictures of his surroundings, write notes to himself and tattoo important facts on his torso.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: Average, disappointing fare
He’s a face in the crowd — an ordinary government clerk. She’s a young, bubbly girl. They get married because of a twist of fate. The girl says she can never love him. But, he’s madly in love with her and sets out on a mission to woo her. That, in a nutshell, is the story of Aditya Chopra’s “Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi”.
The problem is he takes all of three hours to tell you this, when the end is blatantly obvious in the first ten minutes. Along the way, the audience is subjected to meaningless songs, fight sequences with sumo wrestlers, lots of corny dialogue and references to past Yash Raj films.
Meerabai Not Out: You’ll love it if you like cricket
To be honest, I didn’t watch “Meerabai Not Out” with a lot of expectations. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the film so much at the end of two-and-a-half hours.
Or maybe it was because it took me back to my teenage years, when many afternoons were spent cutting out pictures of my favourite cricketers and pasting them in a scrapbook.
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The Wall
