King of Spades

As the classical Bollywood number goes ,” Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke zara bach ke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan!” While it is still the city of aspiration and dreams, majorly due to Bollywood , once you land up the problems of this metropolis hit you. Bad roads, Noise, Water/Electricity problems, Neighbours who behave like strangers etc are just a few ones that the hustle bustle of the city hides behind its glowing lights. Whether you own a house or are a tenant, the experience or rather exposure to the crumbling infrastructure of the city sucks you in. Yet ask any true blue Mumbaikar and the response will be” Mumbai jaisi koi jagah nahi hai Boss!. Mein toh yahi settle hoga. Iss city   mein kuch toh baat hai!” This is exactly the Dna of Balwinder Siddhu aka Bubbles( Rajit Kapur).  A financial executive who has poured out his life’s savings into an upper rise in Mumbai. Giving him company is his parsi wife Behruz (Shernaz Patel). In spite of living in a fa...

Had heard quite a lot about this play Massage. Besides being in the running for quite a few years now, what intrigued me was the concept of one guy playing plays 24 characters. The main protagonist was essayed by Rakesh Bedi, who is more known for his comic roles in Bollywood, but has more to him that just comedy. This play is a testimonial to that.  A seasoned actor in a play written by a seasoned playwright Vijay Tendulkar is a double whammy for any theatre lover. Had missed watching it on a couple of occasions earlier, hence this Sunday when I got to know that Massage was to be staged in Matunga, booked it at the first go. The play essentially is about the struggle that lakhs of Indians face when they come to the dream city of Mumbai, lured by the prospect of becoming a Bollywood star. Happy Singh as the name suggests is a happy go lucky guy who comes to Mumbai to chase his dreams of becoming an actor. Starts his struggle with an internship as the 4 th  assistant dire...

Behind every successful man there is a woman goes the conventional saying. Well what if we rephrased it to say, behind every successful woman there is a man! That's exactly what this movie Dangal is all about. Redefining the conventional norms associated with gender. The setting is Haryana, a state with one of the worst sex ratios in India today. Where khap panchayat is stronger than most courts or governments. Patriarchal to an extent that most villages do not have brides for their gabru jawans (young men), since most girls get killed in their mother’s wombs.  And to think that in such a society, a guy dreamt of making his daughters sporting heroes is somewhat surreal. Add to that the traditionally male dominated sport of wrestling and one might say in Haryanvi “Bawla hai key!” But then that is what defines a true wrestler. Not the daav or the wrestling move that he throws in the ring but the fights that he withstands in real life. And Mahavir Phogat is one such persona. P...

After Cheeni kam, Shamitabh yet again in Ki&Ka we have a unique concept from the director R Balki . His ideas are unique for sure and quite quirky. This time around the quirk is on the preconceived gender roles that we as a society have decided for our ladKAs(Boys) and ladKIs(Girls) . While the ladkas have to be the breadwinners , ladkis have to take care of domestic duties, be at home and play the supporting role to their men. This is what has been a traditional norm in the Indian society. While this has definitely changed  in the last 10 years or so, we have still a long way to go in being a gender equal society, especially where the mindset is concerned. Kia(Kareena Kapoor Khan) plays a strong headed, ambitious corporate woman who is all about to challenge this mindset. Single, successful and unmarried she is completely career driven and does not believe in just being a pillar of support to a building, when she can be the whole building herself. Success driven she has her ...

There are movies and then there are stories. The first one impresses you. The later impacts! Mr.Rajkumar Hirani, always does the later. And he does it with so much of simplicity and earnestness that only few can. Have been a fan of his craft, ever since the Munnabhai series ,which was followed by the evergreen movie 3 idiots. But what he does with Pk is something, which probably no other director would have dared to explore or even delivered. Imagine the plot- An alien lands into a country and then teaches his inhabitants a thing or two about god and religion, just as he discovers their culture.  About how one is real and the other probably man-made. Sounds crazy.Well go ahead, watch the movie to see how efficiently the master executes his craft. Right from scene one, Aamir Khan (Pk) gets into the character of the lovable alien. Absolutely harmless, he has no clue what to do, when the only one thing (a locket) that can get him back to his planet, is flicked by a human. How he...

Macbeth-Maqbool Othello-Omkara Hamlet-Haider 3 indianised  takes by Vishal Bharadwaj  on the respective legendary works of William Shakespeare. The first time he attempted , the second time he re-created .But this time around, he not only does the above two but also succeeds in perfectly indianising miya Shaik peer. It’s ironical that the co-writer of Haider ( along with Vishal Bharadwaj) is a certain Mr. Basharat Peer! Reincarnation anybody? Seems unlikely given his credentials.Well we’ll leave that to some other blog. Set in tumultuous Kashmir, the state of India where god created heaven and man hell, Haider grips your attention right from the start.  Dr. Hilal Meer (Haider’s father) is taken away by the army for treating and sheltering a militant inspite of the prevailing insurgency.  Ghazala (Tabu) ,his wife takes refuge in the arms of his brother Khurram Meer (Kay Kay Menon) and that’s when the boy suspects a rat. Enter Roohdaar (Irrfan khan ) and the ...

Finally got a weekend after quite some time from my busy work schedule recently. The only thing that i wanted to do was to relax and not go out much on those two days. Usually on such lazy holidays prefer either to read or watch movies. Had just finished reading a book so thought will catch up on some film releases. This time around even the options looked interesting . There was Mary Kom which had released recently and Finding Fanny which had hit theaters a day before. While people were going gung-ho about Mary Kom and Priyanka Chopra’s role in it, Finding fanny had Deepika Padukone, a reason enough for most guys in this country to watch a film!  And from the trailers one could make out that, not only was she looking gorgeous, even the story had a nice feel to it. A letter posted by a young guy never reaches his sweetheart and comes back to his life during his twilight years. Add to that a good cast of talented actors set against the lovely Goa landscape and your expectations on...

“Main tumhare baache ki maa banne wali hun.   Mujhe chhodke mat jao ” she used to scream in the 80’s. “Yeh shaadi mat todo Ramesh, main barbaad ho jaungi. Babuji mar jaenge” ran another teary-eyed dialogue. Call it a reflection of the times back then or the safe ‘Tried & Tested’ formula method of filmmaking, the bollywood heroine never really got the spotlight she deserved. Oppressed, cast away and being taken for granted was often mistaken with the holier than thou -Bhartiya Nari image.   Time and again we saw many movies , where the heroine sometime raised illegitimate children suffering innumerable hardships, only to get solace once reunited with her lost lover. She committed suicide after giving birth , because the society just could not accept a Lawaris. A Failed marriage or engagement was reason enough   for the hero’s sister to drink poison or put the ceiling fan in the house to good use.   Sometimes wonder whether these scenes were on purpose, so ...

“Gujju Porn hai yeh …ekdum GUJUU PORN”!  “kaun dekhega, chod yaar. Boring picture che . Let’s do something else". Came the usual set of replies when I asked people about the most anticipated bollywood movie release this season- RamLeela. Well there was definitely something amiss admist all this. After all the movie looked to have all the perfect ingredients:-   Script adaptation of the evergreen tragedy Romeo-Juliet. Usually one’s first read.  And bollywood’s tried& tested success formula-Love tragedy. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a filmmaker known for treating every frame like a canvas. And this time after making black and blue experiments he was back in multicolour!   The songs, sets, their beautiful picturisation and… Actress of the year -Deepika Padukone. well she seems to redefine beauty in every movie she acts these days. So with all these and especially the last point in particular, i made up my mind to give it a shot. It was anyways a lazy Sunday af...

Opposites attract. Well that’s why they also gel. Yeh Jawaani hai Deewani just re-emphasises this old adage of love but does so beautifully.Right from the first time when Bunny (Ranbir Kapoor) meets Naina ( Deepika Padukone), you can sense an underlying chemistry waiting to explode.    He is the extrovert, chilled out ,self-centered guy who wants to explore the world. She on the other hand is the reserved, nerdy girl who is responsible but bored of her life. The common thing that unites them is his zeal to enjoy life and her underlying desire to break the monotonous ritual that she calls… her life!. They kick off instantaneously on the trek, where they meet and soon love blossoms gradually. The fact that they understand and compliment each other just makes it real. The beautiful Manali landscapes obviously add their own charm to the chemistry. Just as she is about to speak her heart out to him, comes the twist of fate that drives them apart. They do reunite 8 yea...

Life of Pi released in theatres a couple of days back. It is based on a book of the same name by Yann Martel. The experience of reading a book can never be compared to watching a movie. Personally feel one must not compare but enjoy both experiences. Know many book lovers who never watch on –screen adaptations since they feel movies hardly justify the books they are based on, case in point- The Da Vinci code. However even though i am an avid reader myself, guess whenever a movie is based on a book, it just makes me more curious to see how it has been interpreted on-screen. How the director has bought to life the different scenes that we usually imagine while reading a book. It is not easy to match everyone’s imagination and portray it alive on-screen. Which is why making a story come alive on –screen when most people have read it, is all the more challenging i believe. And this is where Life of Pi scores. I had not read the book, so just went without any background or inhibition...

7 Khoon Maaf----This was one of the most awaited films of the year and why not! Priyanka Chopra is among the leading actresses today in Bollywood and the director Vishal Bharadwaj has his own reputation of making unconventional subjects into a commercial success. Add to that the peepy soundtrack and the intriguing trailors and people were all geared up to watch this movie. The release date was also ironical – around Valentines---Daaarling! I too wanted to catch the film during the opening weekend but then couldn’t do so, due to other commitments. Just saw it the other day a well one month after release, but then guess by then 8th (aathva) khoon ho chukka tha! What reviews man and what negative publicity for the film. People just went overboard. FaceBook status messages, word of mouth ,Tweets all came heavy on this one. From messages like “7 khoon bilkul maaf nahi” ….to “Mera khoon ho gaya!!!” , the criticism of this film was everywhere on social media. This actuall...