"If you GOT to shoot, shoot don't talk," famous and well spoken lines by Eli Wallach, as the ugly in the film directed by Sergio Leone, in the year 1966.
A 40 year old film but briliantly, shot directed, enacted, edited,backed by great makeup and music. Its at par with the recently made A grade films, underworld, films.
The three main characters in the film are on the look out for a treasure located on the grave yard of a man Bill Careson, but what pervades is the mutual hatred they have for each other, and how they try to out do each other to reach the treasure. aTLTHOUGH ALL THREE, tHE GOOD[CLINT EAST WOOD], THE BAD ,[lEE vAN cLIFF, the ugly[ eli wallach] are negatives, they kill, they cheat they shoot without battling an eye lid, the good amongst them still has an atom of good ness left in his heart. The scene where Clint is very near to the treasure, but seeing a dying soldier he does offer him his jacket and last few puffs of cigarette to enjoy. With the the back drop of a civil war the film is throughtly enjoyable due to its fast paced, dramatic and thrilling screenplay. The musical score by Ennino Morricone adds to the fast paced aditing of the film and keeps the audience hooked. Specially notable is the climax scene where all three are facing each other, an unspoken powerfully shot and enacted sequence couldn't be done better.
One of the higly recommended film for cinema buffs. But its not for the fait hearted, and romance lovers.
ENJOY!!
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Dhoom Machale
After Krissh and now Dhoom Hrithik Roshan is going to be the next superhero, the next superstar and the next big thing we could witness in the coming years.
Let me share with you my experience while watching the film. In india they say that the moment you hear the whistles with the entry of an actor, it shows he has arrived. Whistles are generally the term used with men,in this case I would beg to differ and say women;. The whistles were prominent, elongated and repetitive with appearance of actor on the screen especially in his cool original avatar of Aryan [the look being similar to the jonny player commercial he has done]
Well, you all must be wondering by now why am I not writing about any other thing in the film besides Mr. A [Junior Roshan], because rest everything looks insubstantial and inconsequential.
The film begins with a over the top of the train action sequence where Mr A has managed to rob the necklace by disguising as the owner of the necklace. The news of the same reaches the police trying to decode the case and trap the theif.
The two main police officials continue with Uday and Abhishek. Well I must mention here that Uday is great at lending the breather to the film through his amazing comic deliveries, not to mention the hilarious one liners written by the writer.
And then the two along with Bipasha basu figure out that the next theft is going to be in mumbai, and then begins the cat and mouse sequence to catch the theif, Mr A.
Aishwarya Rai too plays a thief in the film who has been trying to struggle through her thefts by using mr A name, and finally becomes his partner, and the two decide the do the next theft together.
well, the film is a superhit, we all know that with the packaging and everything, but its not a landmark film. Its not a film which will go down the history of films as one of the best action thriller writen directed [given the budget, the best stars, the best everything they had with them, THAT IS A SAD THING]. It will not even figure as the best film coming out of the yash raj camp, they have made better films with better scripts in a lesser budget than Dhoom 2. Infact dhoom 1 will be the choice of most of the cinemagoers, because it was a better screenplay, with more twists and turns,the adrenaline rush was sadly missing in this one, the songs were misplaced, some scenes are completely irrational[ like the action sequence where a black toy car is being used to steal the diamond, are the cops protecting the diamond so stupid that they can't see a big car passing through their legs in a big empty, clean room, also hrithik getups where he has a long hair and fairly the same face, the reasoning for aishwarya to get so surprised when she first time sees the origina hrithik near the beach was not very convincing. Infact they ignored the smaller details while looking at the bigger picture, or they got lost somewhere.
Which makes me think, why do most indian filmmakers get lost somewhere while making a big film? where they loose the basic thing called a screenplay and the script where as give us the best action and the best techniques to watch, latest gadgets, styling, grading and the rest of the things. But then when the engine is missing even the best and most expensive cars in the world can't run!!
Sadly that, engine missing case has been with lost of latest best looking cars, i mean films. Take a look at the latest big movies with big casts and big directors- DON[ 35 CRORES, A COMPLTELE 3 HOUR PLUS TRASH, WITH A WEAK NARRATIVE BUT LOT OF ATTENTION BEING GIVEN TO ACTION, STYLING, GRADING ETC, BUT THAT WOULDN'T REALLY HELP THE FILM, SADLY ITS ONE OF THE HIGHEST GROSSERS OF THE YEAR, WHICH SHOWS US THE STAR AND OVER HYPE SYSTEM WE HAVE SURROUNDEDE OURSELVES WITH, UMRAOJAAN, EVEN KRISSH HAD A LOOSE SCRIPT]
Which again makes me think that is just the commercial success important or the individual filmmakers are also responsible for making a great film, which they can look back at and feel great about.
Hollywood films, mission impossible, broken arrow, face off, charles angles, could be some examples of action,thrill oriented films which have managed to rake in the moolah and being great films to watch at the same time. why do we fail to do the same?
Let me share with you my experience while watching the film. In india they say that the moment you hear the whistles with the entry of an actor, it shows he has arrived. Whistles are generally the term used with men,in this case I would beg to differ and say women;. The whistles were prominent, elongated and repetitive with appearance of actor on the screen especially in his cool original avatar of Aryan [the look being similar to the jonny player commercial he has done]
Well, you all must be wondering by now why am I not writing about any other thing in the film besides Mr. A [Junior Roshan], because rest everything looks insubstantial and inconsequential.
The film begins with a over the top of the train action sequence where Mr A has managed to rob the necklace by disguising as the owner of the necklace. The news of the same reaches the police trying to decode the case and trap the theif.
The two main police officials continue with Uday and Abhishek. Well I must mention here that Uday is great at lending the breather to the film through his amazing comic deliveries, not to mention the hilarious one liners written by the writer.
And then the two along with Bipasha basu figure out that the next theft is going to be in mumbai, and then begins the cat and mouse sequence to catch the theif, Mr A.
Aishwarya Rai too plays a thief in the film who has been trying to struggle through her thefts by using mr A name, and finally becomes his partner, and the two decide the do the next theft together.
well, the film is a superhit, we all know that with the packaging and everything, but its not a landmark film. Its not a film which will go down the history of films as one of the best action thriller writen directed [given the budget, the best stars, the best everything they had with them, THAT IS A SAD THING]. It will not even figure as the best film coming out of the yash raj camp, they have made better films with better scripts in a lesser budget than Dhoom 2. Infact dhoom 1 will be the choice of most of the cinemagoers, because it was a better screenplay, with more twists and turns,the adrenaline rush was sadly missing in this one, the songs were misplaced, some scenes are completely irrational[ like the action sequence where a black toy car is being used to steal the diamond, are the cops protecting the diamond so stupid that they can't see a big car passing through their legs in a big empty, clean room, also hrithik getups where he has a long hair and fairly the same face, the reasoning for aishwarya to get so surprised when she first time sees the origina hrithik near the beach was not very convincing. Infact they ignored the smaller details while looking at the bigger picture, or they got lost somewhere.
Which makes me think, why do most indian filmmakers get lost somewhere while making a big film? where they loose the basic thing called a screenplay and the script where as give us the best action and the best techniques to watch, latest gadgets, styling, grading and the rest of the things. But then when the engine is missing even the best and most expensive cars in the world can't run!!
Sadly that, engine missing case has been with lost of latest best looking cars, i mean films. Take a look at the latest big movies with big casts and big directors- DON[ 35 CRORES, A COMPLTELE 3 HOUR PLUS TRASH, WITH A WEAK NARRATIVE BUT LOT OF ATTENTION BEING GIVEN TO ACTION, STYLING, GRADING ETC, BUT THAT WOULDN'T REALLY HELP THE FILM, SADLY ITS ONE OF THE HIGHEST GROSSERS OF THE YEAR, WHICH SHOWS US THE STAR AND OVER HYPE SYSTEM WE HAVE SURROUNDEDE OURSELVES WITH, UMRAOJAAN, EVEN KRISSH HAD A LOOSE SCRIPT]
Which again makes me think that is just the commercial success important or the individual filmmakers are also responsible for making a great film, which they can look back at and feel great about.
Hollywood films, mission impossible, broken arrow, face off, charles angles, could be some examples of action,thrill oriented films which have managed to rake in the moolah and being great films to watch at the same time. why do we fail to do the same?
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
UMRAOJAAN -BE-ADA
After watching this three hour plus whatever, yawn, I have come to the conclusion that biographical blood doesn't run in the Indian directors vein. How come the Hollywood directors succeed in making such great biographical movies- Ray, Capote, catch me if you can, Gandhi, the aviator, and the list goes on and on, and we never attempt, such films and the moment we attempt it it bounces back. Are the Indian audience not interested in biographies or we don't know how to make them. [biography read as film made on a person existing or a fictional character like umraojaan written so convincingly]
Blaming the audience would be like a loosers statement so lets try to be a winner somewhere and blame the industry guys, the us, involved in filmmaking. I am not going to bore you by telling you the synopsis of the story, coz if you don't know that please don't read the blog, go spend some money and watch this film, and please share with me your views.
Now coming to the point,whats wrong with umraojaan:
Its first and major problem is that its the remake of a classic film Umraojaan played by the eternal Rekha and brilliantly directed by Mr. Muzzafar Ali, so the comparisons with the big sister are always there.
Its second and other big problem is that its directed by Mr JP Dutta the veteran director and has a brilliant line of cast from Shabana Azmi, to Abhishek to Aishwarya, so obviously the expectations are high, and so people are ready to pay the high ticket costs to watch it.
So for audience the disaapointment happens when there is no paisa vasool and for the film fraternity the disappointment happens when such a huge budget film, with so many talented people and so much time and effort turns out to be a dud.
other problems:
1] Direction of JP dutta is very disappointing, since he is the veteran and we the upcoming stoytellers have grown up watching his movies, so has the audience
2] Screenplay doesn't hold, you don't feel for the characters, especially Ash, when you should be crying for her sad story all you want to do is wait for the film to get over. [some of the people even walked out in the middle of the film, which is a disgrace to everyone associated with the business of filmmaking]
3] Scenes between Ash and AB just don't work. like when he comes to see her at the kotha and is lying on her lap, there is just Ash's wide shot [for a considerable amount of time, obviously the director wanted it in one shot], and AB is looking at her, the director hasn't cut the shot for us to see AB reaction, similarly there is the scene when AB mcu is there, Ash is leaning on his shoulder and we don't see her reaction to what AB is saying, well as a audience I would def want that. Besides they are extremely long scenes and start to get boring.
3] Too many songs, especially when they are very average, bore the audience.
4] And since mostly the basics are going wrong, 3 hour plus movie is a very big drawback. It requires serious trimming!
other minor problems:
suniel shetty is completely miscast as faiz ali, he looks like the man about to sing dus bahane kar ke le gaya dil...
whats good with umraojaan:
you can sit 3 hours in the ac theatre and sleep peacefully and save your electricity bill to some extent,
But on a serious note the scene when shabana azmi tells theses women to leave the kotha, but she herself was not willing to leave, did touch somewhere.
scene where the young aish gets up in the night, in the kotha looking for her father was not bad
some of the dialogues were very good, like when AB tells Shabana that i am still a nawab and you are a tabayaf and quite a few more memorable ones.
but that is not going to make us happy, when we know that JP dutta can give us much much more and better narrative!!
Blaming the audience would be like a loosers statement so lets try to be a winner somewhere and blame the industry guys, the us, involved in filmmaking. I am not going to bore you by telling you the synopsis of the story, coz if you don't know that please don't read the blog, go spend some money and watch this film, and please share with me your views.
Now coming to the point,whats wrong with umraojaan:
Its first and major problem is that its the remake of a classic film Umraojaan played by the eternal Rekha and brilliantly directed by Mr. Muzzafar Ali, so the comparisons with the big sister are always there.
Its second and other big problem is that its directed by Mr JP Dutta the veteran director and has a brilliant line of cast from Shabana Azmi, to Abhishek to Aishwarya, so obviously the expectations are high, and so people are ready to pay the high ticket costs to watch it.
So for audience the disaapointment happens when there is no paisa vasool and for the film fraternity the disappointment happens when such a huge budget film, with so many talented people and so much time and effort turns out to be a dud.
other problems:
1] Direction of JP dutta is very disappointing, since he is the veteran and we the upcoming stoytellers have grown up watching his movies, so has the audience
2] Screenplay doesn't hold, you don't feel for the characters, especially Ash, when you should be crying for her sad story all you want to do is wait for the film to get over. [some of the people even walked out in the middle of the film, which is a disgrace to everyone associated with the business of filmmaking]
3] Scenes between Ash and AB just don't work. like when he comes to see her at the kotha and is lying on her lap, there is just Ash's wide shot [for a considerable amount of time, obviously the director wanted it in one shot], and AB is looking at her, the director hasn't cut the shot for us to see AB reaction, similarly there is the scene when AB mcu is there, Ash is leaning on his shoulder and we don't see her reaction to what AB is saying, well as a audience I would def want that. Besides they are extremely long scenes and start to get boring.
3] Too many songs, especially when they are very average, bore the audience.
4] And since mostly the basics are going wrong, 3 hour plus movie is a very big drawback. It requires serious trimming!
other minor problems:
suniel shetty is completely miscast as faiz ali, he looks like the man about to sing dus bahane kar ke le gaya dil...
whats good with umraojaan:
you can sit 3 hours in the ac theatre and sleep peacefully and save your electricity bill to some extent,
But on a serious note the scene when shabana azmi tells theses women to leave the kotha, but she herself was not willing to leave, did touch somewhere.
scene where the young aish gets up in the night, in the kotha looking for her father was not bad
some of the dialogues were very good, like when AB tells Shabana that i am still a nawab and you are a tabayaf and quite a few more memorable ones.
but that is not going to make us happy, when we know that JP dutta can give us much much more and better narrative!!
Friday, June 23, 2006
BOLLYWOOD THE WORLD OVER
Although Hollywood still hasn't recognised our cinema, and we are still trying to win an oscar, bollywood films are widely popular amongst the people all over the world [not just the nri's].
on my recent visit to africa, i was shocked at the amount of knowlege the locals had about indian films. they spoke about lagaan, ddlj, devdas, eat etc. they knew the story, the costumes the scenes by heart. especially the women are in love with the indian romantic songs and the romantic hero shahrukh. because of such films, i must say the demand for indian men amongst theses women is very high. All they want is to get married to an indian man thinking he would be just out of one of theses flashy romantic indian films![only i wish they would] Not just the films they are so much into the gossip magazines. they knew intricate details about the actors personal life's which even i wasn't aware of.
so although the new brand of filmmakers in india would want to ape hollywood and try and make movies which are more appealing to them[thats what they think] the fact remains that bollywood movies are nothing without their trademark, which is songs and at times over dramatized scenes, which is what makes them appealing to the people all over the world.
on my recent visit to africa, i was shocked at the amount of knowlege the locals had about indian films. they spoke about lagaan, ddlj, devdas, eat etc. they knew the story, the costumes the scenes by heart. especially the women are in love with the indian romantic songs and the romantic hero shahrukh. because of such films, i must say the demand for indian men amongst theses women is very high. All they want is to get married to an indian man thinking he would be just out of one of theses flashy romantic indian films![only i wish they would] Not just the films they are so much into the gossip magazines. they knew intricate details about the actors personal life's which even i wasn't aware of.
so although the new brand of filmmakers in india would want to ape hollywood and try and make movies which are more appealing to them[thats what they think] the fact remains that bollywood movies are nothing without their trademark, which is songs and at times over dramatized scenes, which is what makes them appealing to the people all over the world.
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