Bhansali boo hoo - Guzaarish

I know, it might sound unduly parochial and unaccommodating of minorities perhaps, but why is Sanjay Leela Bhansali stuck on European sensibility? I am not questioning his choice of Goan catholic community as the backdrop for his stories (But even then there aren’t as many white people in Goa who dance the flamingo and wear jackets all the time or wear the Spanish gypsy dresses. In the movie most of the actors are very fair. Hmmm, perhaps it’s the Indian movies prerogative.), but his artistic liberty that is very narrowly defined by a certain romance with European visual culture and obscene opulence. What really bothers is, we don’t have many poetic visionaries creating beautiful cinemas, and the one we have is hopelessly afflicted with myopic obsession with a certain style that robs much from his story telling.

Guzaarish is beautiful at times, but then it was actually supposed to be about life’s wonder and an individual’s choice. The beauty should come out of this wonder, not through tropes of settings and plot. The film has juxtaposed the notion of life’s beauty and a person’s freedom to end one with humongous sufferings, without ever connecting the two. A film that should have had a strong existential motif ends up being just a mixture of protagonist’s nostalgia to life’s beauty and his desire to end it.

Well, the film may make you cry in instances; however it could have been much more. Bhansali’s ‘Khamoshi’ perhaps still remains one of his best movies where the film achieves what it set out to do.

I saw ‘Guzaarish’ at a talkies and I could see people poking fun at the film at many instances. Perhaps, Bhansali needs to work on who is he making films for. I understand that a director too needs space for his creative expression, which might not be yet appreciated by audience. But the audience was only feeling incredulous at the lapses of story. Indian movie goers are a passionate lot, but they won’t prefer a visual spectacle over a weakly developed narrative.

front row seats

chandan cinema. what charm! breath the warm smells of pop corn and whistle along the geysers of whistles blowing from all around. even amol palekar mentions it in 'golmaal'. lovely movie it was, god bless Hrishikesh Mukherjee. he perhaps has been responsible for billions of minutes of hearty laughs, content smiles and happiness throughout India.

anyways.. (unlike my other blog, here i am going to let myself drift away in the thoughts and the language they come in as i write.. 'anyways' would represent getting back to what i wanted to say in the first place :P)

and top it with front row seats. a sure fire combination for a great 3 hour ride.
i remember watching 'bheja fry' in fun cinemas in ahmedabad. we were some 14-15 of us. all front seaters. after a few minutes from start, all came down and made themselves comfortable on the carpet beneath. people were sleeping, rolling around, sitting at the front while watching the movie.. what an experience it was.

anyways.. :P
yesterday we saw kaminey in chandan cinema.. front row seats. the screen towered over us.. the images looks curiously distorted with lower half ballooned and the upper half narrowed... its like movie of moving potatoes or sacks or something.
we had to pan from edge to edge lest we miss some thing in the movie.
nevertheless, what a wonderful experience. first time in last 4-5 years i saw someone selling the tickets in black.. wonderful! it brought old memories back, to watch those action english movies in 'circle cinema' in nasik. people hooting and cheering during the movie.. never a dull moment.

but watching Kaminey (which is a kickass movie btw.. it strangely reminded me of amores perres for some reason :P) made me realise something. there is a certain cinema best viewed from front row seats, and certain others which are best viewed on your laptop and then some to be seen from the last row gallery.
I have seen 'Beta' from front seat.. 'Hum aapke hain kaun' from front row seat twice.. once from left end and the other time from the right end and then once from the last row of the gallery.. i can visualise the movie in 3D!
Kaminey is not a front row movie.. extreme closeups, stylized cinematography, saturated colors.. it puts quite a bit of an effort on the viewers to make sense of the scene. it made me dizzy at times.
masala movies in which you would rather break out in dance with the hero are best viewed from front seats. also, the steady non-exceptional cinematography doesnt strain you. instead, it helps feast on the vision of your screen idols.
i saw 'godzilla' in vishal theatre (which now has been broken down into multiscreen muliplex.. what a shame.. to replace such huumongous screen with 3 puny ones.)in Nasik... the screen of that theatre was huge..even sitting at the last row, one at times had to pan from end to end. the grandeur of godzilla was supposed to be seen in such screens only. or the madness and grandeur of 'fitzcarraldo' would have been so much more with big screen.
and then ... there are laptop movies. movies not necessarily social.. by that i mean, u watch masala flicks with ur friends and they are fun for that social experience. as against 'Khadosh'(bloody scary movie.. one of the most violent movies i have ever seen. made me go numb for a while)... these kind of movies are not supposed to be enjoyed at all. they are introspective and thought provoking. these. are. laptop movies. (or small hall movies)
hm.. need to buy kaminey dvd.

mad genius

the craziest man i have ever seen has to be Klaus Kinski. just the image of him. god! god is one kickass artist, to chisel out such amazing creatures.
those scavenging eyes. the unkempt hair. the mad un-contained energy. its bloody infectious. wish, i had known him, met him. it would have been something.
was watching his film fitzcarraldo yesterday. what a movie! and more so due to klaus. the mad plague of an idea starts from klaus and grips you. the sheer magnanimity of thought. its such an inspiration.
god/s, please make more people like him and werner herzog.. we need them.