One of my favorite passions is watching movies, I have a great threshold for pain, I can watch any B grade hindi potboiler or a dubbed southern movie for kicks. On a serious note, there have been some great movies which audiences never appreciated. Also some movies I seriously wished the directors had done a better job of since I watched them with so many expectations only to be led down.
Luck by Chance (Director Zoya Akhtar)
One of the most layered and character driven script written and executed in recent Hindi cinema, it is tale of 3 struggling actors and how each one makes individual choices with varying degrees of success in the film industry. The fickle relationships and ease with which star kids get a privileged entry into cinema is well treated. With a number of stars playing cameos Luck by Chance drives home a subtle message, success is not easy, one has to work for it and even if one is hard working, the ability to create visibility and networking is crucial only then does Luck favor you. Farhan Akhtar is aggressive attends film parties, builds contacts with producers and charms the star-kid co-star while his friend believes in honing his art and doing theater. It’s any one guess who succeeds in the end.
Mumbai Meri Jaan (Director Nishikant Kamat)
An ensemble cast of how people reacted to the July train blast in Mumbai, how an unemployed Hindu youth Kay Kay becomes a bigot, why a true blue Mumbaikar Madhavan cannot take a local train again, why a poor man Irfan Khan who is denied entry into malls makes fake phone calls to spread panic and fear. How Soha Ali Khan a journalist who loses her fiancé in the blast is exploited by own channel by asking the most obvious and vulgar question “Aap ko kaise lag raha hai ?”. The best performance belong to Paresh Rawal a police havaldar who has seen the old Mumbai where there was no fear and how he could go inside the airport with his wife to see the planes take off. That one line conveys how India and world were once at peace when terror and fear was not part of our daily lexicon.
Iruvar -the Duo (Director Mani Ratnam)
Fantastic biography of Tamil Nadu’s two popular chief ministers Karunanidhi and MGR, the tale of 2 friends who rose from obscurity in cinema and then made the leap to politics and finally ambition got the better of their friendship. The movie also highlighted the multiple affairs the men had and was not an air dashed eulogy. Predictably it was opposed by supporters of both political parties and it bombed at the box office. Ashwiarya Rai played the young Jayalalitha in the movie and years later when Simi Grewal interviewed Jayalalitha, she admitted she did like Ash to play her role in a biopic.
Anbe Sivam (Director C Sundar)
The tale of 2 men an atheist communist Kamal Hassan and a god fearing ad-man Madhavan and how they come to understand each other’s point of view over a course of journey from Bhubaneswar to Chennai. Instead of seeking God externally; one should realize that love and selflessness of a fellow human being is the true manifestation of God. In the climax when the henchman realizes his folly and does not kill Kamal as instructed, Kamal said he is no longer an atheist he just saw God in him.
Rocket Singh – Salesman of the Year (Shimit Amin)
Very few Indian movies focus on an office story and very few explore the life of a salesman. Rocket Singh was a take on why companies resort to corruption and fake promise instead of delivering genuine products and building lasting relationships. Towards the end of the movie, Ranbir Kapoor tells his nemesis and former boss, “You cannot run a company on numbers alone, you need the people to come along”. Although the movie is bit indulgent and has dialogues repetitive the authentic depiction of typical characters in an office and cynical bosses was very good.
Movies which didn’t work
There are some movies which I am sure when the director and script writers began with the concept it must have seemed fantastic on the story board but somewhere in execution the movie went for a toss. I feel with a bit more of control and focus on character development these movies could have been classics.
Raavan
When there is enough of blogs on the internet panning this movie, but the relationship between Beera (Abhishek) and Ragini (Ash) could have handled more maturely. It seems Mani Ratnam copped out from presenting a bold love story. Also there was no back story for either Ram and Ravaan characters or justification for the choices they make. Visually the movie was stunting but undone by the weak screen play.
London Dreams
The plot is about two best friends Ajay Devgan who is ambitious and hardworking whilst Salman is talented and easy going. The jealousy which Ajay experiences when faced with his own best friend Salman effortless success in his chosen field and his subsequent treachery was a nice premise which was squandered.
Tashan
The original B-Movie with outrageous heroes and villains set in lawless land. The movie was meant to be kitschy movie which of the 80’s &90’s like Tridev and Main Khiladi Tu Anari . Instead of been a parody or high octane action comedy instead it stuck to a very predictable plot franking boring. However action movies are back with hits like Ghanjini and Wanted doing well these days.
Salaam-e- Ishq
Remake of the extremely popular English movie Love-Actually, but it was led down terribly by weak subplots and predictable performances. Clearly Nikhil Advani proved to be one movie wonder after making a decent movie like Kal ho Na Ho, he delivered 2 flops back to back like Salaam-e-Ishq and Chandini Chowk to China.
