India Masala
Bollywood and culture in an emerging India
Aakrosh: Not really about honour killing
Use a ruler to draw a straight line. Then try to draw another straight line freehand. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it all wrong.
“Aakrosh” which has been ‘filmed’ by Priyadarshan gets it absolutely right, Bollywood style.
The straight line is the Hollywood movie “Mississippi Burning” which has been around for two decades.
The characters and some of the plot devices are the same.
If you have seen the Gene Hackman (Ajay Devgan) and Willem Dafoe (Akshaye Khanna) starrer you would know what happens next and who’s who.
My only issue is that the movie begins with some references to the spate of honour killings reported in the media.
Khatta Meetha: This is no gourmet feast
“Khatta Meetha” raises a few laughs and also manages pointed homilies on the state of the nation.
It is about municipal officers and builders but is no “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro” — either in subtlety, sarcasm or slapstick.
The actors and their characters are funny but too one-dimensional and obvious like the digitally-created elephant in this movie.
But it’s still a Priyadarshan film all the way — incredible as usual with even a few deaths thrown in.
In small town Satara lives a loser with his old, parents and his evil “win-laws”.
Loser wants to be a winner so he takes the highway to success. (Literally! He is a corrupt road contractor)
In between this simple story comes the comedy troupe — tiresome Rajpal Yadav, the usual Johnny Lever and the vintage Asrani.
De Dana Dan: Entertainment of the lowest level
Watching a movie like “De Dana Dan” in a single screen theatre where people are hooting and clapping at crass humour on screen may give you an insight into Indian audiences.
This audience doesn’t really mind that Archana Puran Singh uses foul language or that people randomly slap their husbands and wives or that there is really no logic to speak of. They found all of the above hilarious.
I am not judging that audience. After all, we all have our own tastes. I guess this is what they mean about Hindi movies that you have to “leave your brain behind and then watch”.
Akshay Kumar plays Nitin, a down and out young man who works as a servant with a rich woman in order to pay off his father’s debt to her. He is in love with Anjali (Katrina Kaif) but doesn’t have the money to marry her. He meets Ram (Suniel Shetty), a courier deliveryman who also needs money to marry his rich girlfriend (Sameera Reddy).
They decide to kidnap Nitin’s mistress’s dog, which she holds very dear. However, the plan goes awry and that is the start of the “confusion” in the film. One mistaken identity leads to the other and yet another, until the plot becomes so convoluted that you lose track.
I am writing this an hour after watching the film and if you ask me for the rest of the plot, I will be unable to tell you. It baffles me as to how the scriptwriter remembered all the twists and turns.
For all the confusion however, the end is so lame you feel the entire team was so tired of the film they just put their hands up at one point and said, “That’s it, this is where we end it”.
i hated the movie.. u were very right. did not make any sense at all. An high budget flop!
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.”
That is why, when I saw “Billu”, I could see the film for what it is. Don’t expect technical brilliance or a tight script. But there is heart and soul to keep this film going, in spite of its many flaws.
It’s the story of Billu, a subdued, meek barber who struggles to make ends meet while running his saloon in Dubduba village. Life changes when the country’s biggest filmstar, Sahir Khan, comes to Dubduba to shoot his film.
Word gets around that Billu and Sahir used to be childhood friends and all of a sudden, Billu’s standing in the village goes up tenfold. The village miser buys him expensive hair styling equipment, neighbours drop off biryani for dinner and his kids’ school even offers to pay for their education — all on one condition — that he introduce them to Sahir Khan.
His wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) also begins to enjoy the attention, confessing to her husband that she has no qualms advertising his “friendship” if it means more respect from the villagers.
To save his reputation, Billu tries desperately to meet Sahir, but to no avail. When the shoot is about to end and the starstruck villagers realise Billu will not be able to guarantee any access to the big star, they turn hostile.
u r typing and typing …..wt r u trying to say PN….? ? ?
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The Wall
To anyone who can stop this honor killing please act now. (2nd Feb, 2011)
My cook’s(Lalit Kamti) younger brother Rupak Kamti(16 years), and his friend, Kaushal Dhobi(18-or 19 years old) study at Samastipur zilla College, and go for tuitions at Darbhanga in Bihar, IN. They are from a village Vishnupur Diha in Samastipur zilla, Bihar, IN.
Two girls (sisters, not twins, one older and one younger (16 and 17 years) from the village, young teenagers decided to get to Darbhnaga which is like a big city for them. The girls are called Preeti and Chanda Rai. Since they’re all from the same village, once the girls reached Darbhanga, they called the two boys and within a span of a few hours the village started a hue and cry about how the girls have run away. Now, the girls were scared, so they refused to come back to the village. The boys come back in the weekend anyways since they have no tuition.
The village immediately sort of zeroed in on them when they visited this weekend cause Chanda used to hang around near Kaushal at times. The villagers kept harassing them so they ran back to Darbhnaga. Now the problem is, the village has ascertained that the boys have run away with the girls, and there’s a honor killing order on them from the sarpanch. They’re looking for the teenagers to kill them.
In fear, they even married. Both are obviously underage weddings and can’t be legalized but that’s what they did in fear and to deal with immediate consequences.
If anyone can save them please call/email, I’ll give you my cook’s number, and he has his brothers number. All 4 kids are hiding in Darbhanga.