India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Robin Hood: This Robin is more Gandhian
Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood and Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood are looking over the shoulder of Ridley Scott’s Robin Longstride.
So rather cleverly, the movie is a sort of prequel to these and may justly be titled “The making of Robin Hood”. It ends at the beginning.
This is the twenty-first century Robin Hood — an older, cynical, born-again-democrat Robin, who robs the rich to give to the poor, and sleeps on the couch while Marion takes the bed.
Russell Crowe is here in his “Gladiator” avatar — fighting and winning. Every time.
But not so much and as violently as you would probably like him to. The violence here doesn’t even come close to what we have come to expect from say India’s own outlaws — the Maoist rebels.
This film’s Robin is more “Gandhian” than “Gandhian with a gun”.
The fight sequences are what you have come to expect of Hollywood’s period films — longbows and swordplay and horse riding — pretty standard and good-while-it-lasts but nothing you will take back home from the theatre.
A year at the movies
At the beginning of the last week of every year I head to my neighbourhood DVD store to follow a long-standing tradition of mine. I review my favourite films of the year and then buy DVD’s of those films.
This year my shopping list had only two names – Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck by Chance” and Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Kaminey”.
That, to me, is a sign of the “draught” that Bollywood faced this year.
Good films were few and far between, hardly any movies hit the box-office bulls-eye.
To make matters worse, there were three months of no movies at all due to a stand-off between producers and multiplex owners on revenue sharing.
But to me, the biggest blip in Bollywood’s chart this year was the sheer number of “bad” films. Whether it was “Chandni Chowk to China” or “Blue” or “Main Aur Mrs Khanna”, there were too many films which were mediocre.
There were just too many film-makers who concentrated on peripherals like the lead actors’ wardrobe or a flashy item song and forgot to insert some heart into their films. We forgot that movies are all about the heart.
“Three of the biggest films of the year, “Love Aaj Kal”, “Wanted” and “3 Idiots” were movies that repeated past themes”
Sorry I must have missed something, but which “past” themes has “3 Idiots” followed?
‘Short Kut’ takes the long, boring route
Somewhere in Bollywood, there has to be a movie-making machine.
All you do is insert a reel, change a few specifications (perhaps the hero’s name and occupation or the reason for a romantic obstacle with his leading lady) and wait for a “masala” movie to pop up, fresh and ready to hit unsuspecting audiences.
How else do you explain a movie like “Short Kut: The Con is On“?
This one is supposed to be a sometimes funny, sometimes emotional comedy about a struggling filmmaker and his double-crosser friend. It turns out to be neither.
Akshaye Khanna plays Shekhar, an aspiring filmmaker who believes in taking no shortcuts to success and is in love with actress Mansi (Amrita Rao).
Arshad Warsi plays Raju, a down-and-out actor desperately looking for a break. A producer promises to make a movie for him if he brings him a brilliant script. Raju steals the script written by Shekhar and the resulting film is a hit at the box-office.
Shekhar’s life pretty much collapses around him but he is determined to get back to cinema, which remains his passion. How he does so and gets his own against Raju forms the rest of the plot.
Wow – bull’s eye! Thanks for this post. I bookmarked it.
Is “New York” a balanced film?
By international standards, Kabir Khan’s “New York” is an extraordinarily ordinary film. It hasn’t impressed critics abroad and reviews in international media haven’t been very charitable.
But even if you were to ignore the mediocre performances and shallow characterisation, “New York” does raise several issues about life for South Asian Americans after 9/11.
Khan says that while researching the film he discovered “a huge volume of prejudice” and at least 1,200 people from different nationalities who were detained on the “basis of suspicion alone”.
“New York” puts the spotlight on that prejudice through the story of Samir, an American of Indian origin who turns to terrorism after he is picked up by the FBI and brutally tortured for months only because he took some photographs of the twin towers for a school project.
The movie already looks set to be a monster hit in India, with massive collections in the first weekend after its release.
It’s got all the ingredients of a blockbuster: a star cast, an emotive story line and a viewpoint very sympathetic to Indians.
Khan is emphatic that unlike most Indian films on terrorism that are often jingoistic “New York” provides “a balanced view“.
“New York” about time we had more movie like these made in india. We need varity. Not everything can be like love aaj kal or kambakata ishq. Why is it other movies which have no subject what so ever impress where as something like new york which is educating to some extent doesn’t get appreciation from critics. Well looked into, well put together, good music, acting, direction, written etc
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The Wall
