Guna

A 2-minutes long tracking shot takes us through a lower-end brothel in Hyderabad and ends showing Guna on the terrace (shot from below with a 'Godly' respect), standing on one leg. It is a Pournami (full-moon day) and Guna is awaiting the arrival of Abhirami. He sees a bride going through the Jaanavasa ceremony and mistakes her for Abhirami.

So starts Gunaa, one of the best films to have come out of Tamil Cinema in the last decade. This was the first of the twin efforts (the other being the great Mahanadhi) of Kamal Haasan with his friend Santhana Bharathi wielding the megaphone. Kamal packs in a superb team (Venu for Cinematography, Balakumaran for dialogues, and of course Raaja). Yes, it is not a flawless film. But, it is a film of the kind that stays on in your mind.
The film looks at this man Guna, with unconditional sympathy; how he is doomed in this big bad world; and in that sense, it is a cynical film. Guna is a madman (an obsessional psychoneurotic) who is told, by a fellow asylum-inmate (Ananthu), that Abhirami (the Goddess) will marry him on a full moon day and will take him out of all his miseries. There is this sense of Godliness attributed to him in the movie - He can unlock anything like cars, safes etc. and helps his uncle in his thefts. He wants to be cleansed (in the famous scene Guna explaining to the doctor about how Abhirami would 'cleanse' him). He unconditionally believes that he is God, and that only Abhirami can cleanse him. He believes in uniting with Abhirami, the Goddess (an imaginatory sequence shows the formation of the Lingam). So he kidnaps her; takes her along with him to a deserted church on top of a hill and explains his love for her, and their destiny.
The screenplay of the film {written by Sabjaan, a Kamal Haasan associate who wrote Chanakyan and (according to my assumption) played the role of Narasimhan is Kuruthippunal} is of the highest standards w.r.t. Tamil Cinema. It's expertly woven, richly textured, subtle and doesn't scream for our attention. Not to forget the insightful and yet realistic dialogues by Balakumaran. Ilaiyaraaja gives a great background score (most of BGM pieces during chase sequences are liberally borrowed from Kamal Haasan's 2 earlier flicks Aboorva Sagodharagal and MMKR). Kamal Haasan comes up with a truly wonderful performance (before anyone pounces on me, I haven't seen Rain Man yet, which would not change this statement anyway), with all the rest of the cast chipping in accordingly.
What is striking is that the film doesn't melodramatize the state of Guna. It doesn't put him in fake glory. It looks at him with a detached sympathy. Guna is after all, a madman and it never bats an eyelid to put forth the fact to us. He says he is in love with Abhirami and that she can never go leaving him behind. But, he still ties her giving a new reason each time.
Apart from this, the movie also works as a traditional thriller with an (albeit heavily stereo-typed) villain, CBI in chase, and lots of money at stake. As in every other KH film, the subtle humour is unmissable.
Looking at the mythological connections of the story, the keypoint in the film is how the usual assumed gender roles are reversed here. The mythology has this story of Parvathi, the Goddess, who takes human form because of a curse and eventually re-unites with Lord Shiva. We also have other examples like Meera and Aandaal. In Gunaa, the roles are reversed. It's Guna who has taken an earthly form and yearning to unite with Abhirami.
This is apparent in many scenes like,
1. Guna tying the thaali around his neck.
2. Guna, looking reverently at his "thaali" after Abhirami walks out of the car hanging at the edge of a mountain.
3. Guna waiting for Abhirami to complete her meal.
4. Or when Abhirami kisses Guna.
The story also owes the main thread of obsession towards the Goddess to the story of Abhirama Bhattar, who wrote Abhirami Anthathi.
In a beautiful sequence, Rohini and Guna playfully pretend to be bees and buzz around in air (ending with the bees "kissing" each other), and Abhirami asks Guna to tie the Thaali, Guna says they have to wait till Pournami. But, she says "Nila aagasuthalaiya irukku? manasula irukku. Manasu thaan nila. Neranja naal!..". Apart from serving as a point for the culmination of their love (Nilu feels that this is a "must-have-sex" film and I agree; but this sequence does have the desired effect without showing them have sex), it also directly refers to the mythology itself. In the story of Abhirama Bhattar, Abhirami turns an Amavasai into a Pournami by throwing her ear-ring into the sky. Guna recollects the mythological incident and says "aamaam! Abhirami sonna Pournami thaan!".

And when the movie ends (with that divine and strangely soothing theme playing in the background), we see the deserted church in the bird's eye view and the glowing moon behind it. It is the next Pournami (thus completing the cycle) and Guna has joined hands with his Abhirami. Or has he?

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara

It's quite late in the movie one would realise (disregarding preconceived notions raised from the movie's interesting title and from what one has heard about the film) that Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara's theme comes very close to being a preachy film. It can be defended that all the talk on current "apathetic" generation is nothing but the ramblings of a senile man and not meant to be preachy. But Prof. Uttam Chaudhary (Anupam Kher), the retired Hindi professor and the protagonist of the movie, does thrust some Gandhian ideals on us and quotes recent examples ranging from bombing the twin towers to some tragic incident in Japan (which I fail to recollect). On how we forgot the Gandhian principles (and how "we all killed him and locked him up in the pictures and statues"); if ever we understood them at first place, that is. This doesn't impact us to any extent because it appears as a late offshoot. A tangential take on contemporary violence/destruction doesn't strike hard as the movie wasn't about Gandhian principles till then. This concern of the professor over the current world situation (though we see passing glimpses of the professor disturbed by newspaper headlines about various crimes) seems plain abrupt.
Apart from this quibble, the movie is well made though appearing quite stagey at times. In the beginning, we are introduced to the retired Prof. Uttam Chaudhary, whose forgetfulness is crossing the normal limits of an old man, and his three children. The movie employs quite a number of regular plot devices here - a daughter torn between her own good (professionally too) and her concern over her dad's mental state, her indifferent boyfriend and a failing love affair, a dude who has 'forgotten his roots' and is unable to connect to his father's concerns - but handles all of them with adeptness. The first half revolves around many incidents revealing the professor's increasing forgetfulness because of which the plot sometimes seems to meander pointlessly (like the sequence with a barber). It also revolves around Trisha (Urmila) and the diffculties she is going through to take care of her old father, and that's told in a compelling fashion. At the end of the first half, we get to the point of concern in Chaudhary's illness. He thinks he has murdered (accidentally) Mahatma Gandhi. From there, the movie proceeds towards how this man is cured from his illusions. In the final minutes, the professor's illness serves as metaphor to the illness of the contemporary "non-idealistic" generation and suggests that we, like the professor, are also ill and need a cure.
Anupam Kher pulls off a crackling performance as the ageing man whose mental balance is getting out of his control - especially in the scene when his daughter comes to his room and apologises to him (which he seems to be unaware of) for being cross with him, he is a class act. Urmila Matondkar gives a decent performance as the caring daughter. Rest of the cast did not have much to do.
Jahnu Barua has written and directed this venture. Overlooking Barua's accomplishments one can say he has done a commendable job. But I wish I could catch his Assamese films which, I presume, must have been much better than this effort.

Firstly, Kamal Haasan turns 51! Here's wishing him!

In Sivakaasi, the unique mind of Perarasu is not as evident as it was in the inimitable Thirupachi. I found (and vouch for that) that Thirupachi was very very different from a usual Vijay Masala film and went in for Sivakaasi hoping Perarasu will be doing it again. Not quite!
Though, my friend (with whom I watched the film with), who managed to see the similarities between Thirupachi and Sivakaasi, could not help but laud me for finding the talent in Perarasu after watching only the first of his yet-to-complete oeuvré of movies, though.

The good thing about Majaa is that it doesn't have much of the trappings of a usual tamil masala film, if you would disregard the usual round-up of things for a hero of Vikram's stature. But, the overwhelming bad thing is that it has all the trappings (everything in the book) of a usual malayalam masala film. The story skeletally looks much like a marriage of the medievel tales about petty thieves (not so unusual in malluwood, I perceive), and the good old Westerns (but the treatment is so ordinarily done that the thematic similarities might be barely visible). Pasupathy does shine in an ineptly written role. The simple humour is yet commendably done in the initial sequences. When the story goes back to the family feud business, you are better off being a chain-smoker (to use cliché from Aanandha Vikatan reviews).
I am particularly not bought off with Vikram's idea to import movies/ideas from mallu world and he seems to like it to no end.

Taking a cue from here (via George), Abhishek Bachchan starrer, Bluffmaster! (the promos of which are already on all TV channels) seems to have been sourced from Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men; Roy, the name of the protagonist, being intact.

The Man whom nobody deserved! Well, almost.

The Man whom only a very few of the whole lot actually deserved. Period.

Black Friday

Finally caught Black Friday; full thanks to vcd piracy.
And the film is path-breaking and brilliant, to say the least. We have heard, many a times, claims about a movie that looks at an event objectively in a non-judgemental way. But, in Black Friday, it's as close as it gets.
The movie, ably supported by the "voyeuristic" screenplay (the movie is based on Hussain Zaidi's eponymous book) written by the director Anurag Kashyap himself, describes the events of the 1993 bomb blasts in Bombay, its precursors and the subsequent investigations by the police, in a non-linear format. The ordering of the events is in line with how they were revealed to the police/public (again emphasizing the voyeuristic and objectival narration) rather than the chronological order. Hence, very correctly, the movie starts with the blast itself and the juggles to the past and present.
The movie itself is more like a docu-drama. Since the events involve numerous characters (mostly unrelated), there is no central character in the movie. Even, many of the significant characters in the movie, don't even share their screen presence (well.. mostly), evoking strong reminiscences of the Steven Soderbergh film "Traffic". This is one of the characteristic qualities the movie wants to maintain as new characters come into the main story (which is about the 1993 blasts and nothing else) and disappear.
But, the same cannot be said of the individual chapters. In fact, the best aspect is the way the movie seamlessly moves focus from one character to others - like the radical shift in one chapter to show what Baadshah Khan (Aditya Srivastava grabbing the top acting honours, after a good number of small roles elsewhere and the unreleased Paanch;please take a bow) one of those involved in the blasts, is going through; rather than introducing him when he is caught by the police, that is.
The film is moderately paced and doesn't try to be a thriller or anything of that sort. A remarkably done chase sequence (ending quite humourously) which was the most close-to-life chase I (perhaps, all) have ever seen stands as a testimony to this statement. There are at least a dozen sequences in the movie which a Scorsese would be proud of; like the sequence of one busy night at the police station when the policemen enquire a friend of one of those who was involved in the bomb blasts, when so many things are happenning in the station (remarkably done with tracking shots to-and-fro from one place to another within the station). Talking about the Cinematography, Nataraja Subramaniam's work is terrific and the red tone used to film the investigation sequences is very effective.
The entire cast is full of the low-key usual suspects (i.e., those who emerged with a strong theatre background and/or worked with the likes of Shekhar Kapur, RGV etc.) each of them chipping in very well; including wonderful performances from Kay Kay as Rakesh Maria, who investigates the case, and good old Pawan Malhotra as Tiger Memon who masterminds the blasts.

Last but not the least, here's doffing my hats a dozen times to Anurag Kashyap, himself.
When will the day come when I will be allowed to see his Paanch?

P.S.:-
1. My reaction after seeing the film about its release is this: The film is too real (and it will be called biased by all the sides) to have a theatrical release in India.2
2. Yesterday had something to do with unreleased films. First, it was Black Friday which I had rented the day before. Next thing I did was to grab a vcd copy of Makrand Deshpande's Hanan (from Crossword when I chanced upon it!) and watch it. So, that's coming next..

Ghajini

From the discussion I had with Suresh in the the comments section of my rant-post on the Oscar Swindlers, I decided that I will have a neat little write-up on Ghajini. I watched the movie yesterday and I should say that Murugadoss did surprise me in quite some aspects on the genre he was trying to touch upon. I was expecting him to make a 'taut thriller' (a real abused term) in which he will sit back, explain what happenned in every significant scene in the form a stand-in character for the audience, hence making the movie a real bore to watch. Boy, how wrong I was! Not only did the movie come out of the mold of an archetype thriller, it also bowls you over with it's twists.
Firstly, I feel it's quite unfair to say that this movie is ripped off from Memento considering how much of that premise is actually used in the movie. It's very difficult to remake an Indie American movie like Memento maintaining all it's primary elements and still expect the movie to work wonders at the B.O. But, the director goes completely off-track thereby serving the producer's desire (as I hear the movie is doing great business) to see the cash-regsiter ringing as Ghajini is anything but an Indie film. Now, for the actual review.

Ghajini is a film of lost opportunities. With a little care, the director could have sure made an unintentional piece of Altman-esque black comedy. Try revisiting the following sequences and you will know what this movie could have been.
1. The moment in which a Police Officer (played to hilarious effect by Riyaz Khan) desperately looking for the 2003 diary since he is not able to resist his anxiety to know what happenned to their love story on the new year day (reminiscent of Kubrick's idea to have Gen. Turgidson in the toilet when apparently a much significant thing - the bomber wings being sent to U.S.S.R. - happens). This is a recurring theme of the movie. There is also a direct nod to the Kubrick's classic when Nayanthara (again played with remarkable understanding) goes to take bath (mind you, here it doesn't serve as being funny but is a tipping-off-the-hat-act only) after reading the 2002 diary.
2. The hilariously in-your-face death of the Police Officer (Sudhish Kamath points this out in his take as well).
3. The Jyothika-esque Asin helping out handicapped children by helping them swing off the gate entrance floor without stepping on the bars. This seems to be a bold commentary on human being's pleasure (like this review) to indulge in his/her creativity in the name of charity and goodwill. I hope, in the future, this scene find a place in all those black-comedy handbooks.
4. The already much-praised sequence (finding place in every damn review like here, here) as a not-so-intelligent cop (a possible reference to the cops-gone-crazy hollywood flicks) takes his time to find out that the 10-digit tattoos in Sanjay Ramasamy's body must be cellphone numbers.
5. Much has been already said about the BGM by Harris Jeyaraj. All I would like to add is that he gives able support to the proceedings and he has put all the talk, that he could be the next best thing to have happenned to Tamil film music, to rest.

So, is this as entertaining as, say, a Narasimha? Definitely not; It would have been one only if it had completely made sense throughout its duration. But it had those little differences.
1. The stand-alone comedy track in the flashback, involving Surya and Asin as lovers in a strange setup. This would have definitely served very well in some other romantic comedy. But here it was off-track and made one wait helplessly to know what happens to the main story and Riyaz Khan's antics :p.
2. The songs. There are too many of them. These seems to have been added for commercial viability and hinder the film's proceedings in more than one way.
3. If he had completely left behind the rather oblique inspiration from the movie Memento which was rarely put to use (and the little moments when it is put to use, it serves as a spoof of the movie).
4. Surya, in his lone (but failed) crusade trying to make the movie appear like an edge-of-the-seat thriller.

P.S.:- It's too easy for self-professed critics to lampoon Ghajini. Ignore them.
P.P.S:- And for a little saner review, look elsewhere!

The much-necessitated disclaimer

Well.. with all the hullaballoo going on about the correctness in the choice of Paheli as the official nomination from India (Rediff leading from the front), I wanted to reiterate my stand on this whole Oscar-thing. I mean, this token Oscar nomination has been going on for long time with not much significance (swayed by south Indian films for years including the likes of Jeans) and nobody seemed to care as much as they are doing now!
My previous post was of the rants-kind on a token piece of parody in the name of nominees happenning year after year.
I am not reacting in anger (like the repeated rants here) about what should have been the right choice instead of 'Paheli'. But, surest thing, I would have loved had HKA got selected, though :(.

Oscar Swindlers

Well, the FFI has chosen Paheli* as the official Indian entry for this year's Oscars. Not that it's going to make some difference. But FFI is so screwed that they do this every year; only once in a blue moon, have they selected one among the worthier efforts of that year.
Otherwise it's all like some parody like this year's nominees list which include Veer-Zaara, Sachein, Anniyan and the likes. Enough said.
Even National Awards falter sometimes to mediocrity. But nowhere near to match FFI!
The grapevine has it that after Jeans, this is the closest chance we might get to clinch the oscars! ;)

* - I haven't seen Paheli myself and hence no comments on the movie itself.

Links thru India Uncut.

Thalapathi

When Surya, a low-life yet honest man gets released from the jail (convicted for murder), because a sidekick of a big law-breaker in the city claims that he committed the murder, Surya asks him "Why?". He replies, "Deva". An attempt at pithy stylized dialogues. But, it is really funny in its awkwardness nevertheless. Wait, there is more to come. As Surya comes out of the jail doors, he sees Deva standing there, all alone, waiting for Surya's arrival. He expresses his gratitude for Deva and says "En kitta irukkurathu onnu thaan. En Uyir. Adha naa unakku kodukka thayaar'aa irukkaen" [paraphrased]. Deva, in turn, asks him to be his friend, his Thalapathi (Commander-in-chief). And they hug each other heartily, only in a few seconds after their second meeting (and the first doesn't go too well)! This sequence definitely reminds me of what Jabberwock wrote here (in a 'subtle' sense, of course).
Quite obvious that the scene I have sampled is from Thalapathi, Mani Rathnam's attempt in retelling the mythological story of Karna from the epic Mahabharatha. It is worth mentioning that it also has Mani Rathnam writing the dialogues for his movie (An unusual thing; Anybody shed lights on Idhaya Kovil & Pagal Nilavu, please).
The movie could have well been one of MR's fine efforts with its interesting premise (with strong echoes of Benegal's tour-de-force Kalyug). The references to the mythological original are quite straightforward unlike, say a "Hey! Ram", but yet adapted to the contemporary scenario very effectively.
1. Surya, as a child, coming in a small piece of floating pad stuffed with chaff or something.
2. Surya doesn't say "No" to anybody coming to him for help.
3. Placing Arjun on the law's side {and he does come from a place called Pandavapuram (?)} thus placing him in a "war" against the "Kauravas", Deva and Surya.
4. The Shobhana love-angle also suggesting Karna's failed attempt at marrying Draupadi since he was not a Kshatriya. Interestingly, Benegal also suggests that "Draupadi" was once in love with "Karna" in his Kalyug (though, I don't remember any such suggestion in Sage Vyasa's masterpiece. May be, I missed it out thanks largely to the kitsch, good-wins-over-the-evil version of Mahabharatha in Doordarshan).
More higher points are IR's fantastic score and Santosh Sivan's impressive cinematography give a solid support the very bleak atmosphere maintained throughout the movie. MR's affinity to picturise songs with all the aesthetics is all too evident in this movie (and he pays his tribute to Kurosawa in the song Sundari Kannaal Oru Sethi). Inspite of these high points, the misé-en-scene throughout the movie (who are these people who rever Deva and Co. as their Saviours and which city are we in? both of these unanswered deliberately) and an impulsive leaning to go over-the-top in melodrama really pulls the movie down.
The melodrama quotient reaches strange levels when one starts wondering if it was deliberate from the Mani Rathnam's part to equate the story to Mahabharata which had come in T.V. with over-the-top melodramatic setup. So, we have Surya (the name indicating the connection with God Surya, apart from quite a number of shots of Surya standing right in between the twilight sun and the camera giving him a halo effect) crying on his mother's lap the moment he meets her; Arjun, his half-brother (played by a young Aravind Swamy, a MR constant-to-be), calling him "Anna!" and hugging him after Deva's funeral.
Rajini, in his last attempt at shedding off the heroic persona, still gets quite a share of it to appease his fans and we have MR on the other side trying to make Thalapathi as a great film. That conflict shows up in the movie too (and in the film's denouement too, with Surya joining hands with his mother safely, as "there is no evidence against him").
I always maintained (then, perhaps mainly because I was/am an ardent fan of KH) that Guna was a much better effor than Thalapathi (the comparison being for the sole reason that they were released on the same day). I still think so.

Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidhargal

That this movie got made in the 1970s will be very hard to believe for many many generations to come. This is due to the condescending way with which we look at the older movies and our nonchalant feeling that the newer generations of film-makers are making better movies in the Tamil Cinema arena (I, myself, am guilty of this). The fact, I see on second thoughts, is that such gems get made once in a while. We have gems being made now as well. But, its more like a freaky occurrence. Well, in that sense, this movie is a freaky occurrence too. Perhaps, the freakiest of them all. IMHO, Jayakanthan should have written and directed more movies. He (like Sujatha - who in his screenwriting stint wrote, more often than not, for movies of much lesser worth), is no stranger to Cinema. In the preface of the book on the screenplay of this movie (available in some Tamil bookshops), A. Bhimsingh, the director of the movie [*], beams that working with Jayakanthan was a revelatory experience and he was quite awed at knowing that Jayakanthan was a fantastic screen writer and that he understood the grammar of Cinema very well.
This is a movie about Ganga (Lakshmi in a career-best role; and National Award winning role), a Brahmin girl, who gets sexually 'assaulted' (well, there is a big question mark left here which is an audacious stroke of beauty from the writing department) by a man who gives her a lift on a rainy day, and how that day changes her whole life and how she attempts at getting her life back to normalcy. The movie works at various levels -
1. a searing criticism at the way marriage/sex/women are treated by the bourgeois society.
2. a character study of a lonely woman and loneliness itself
3. an unusual love story (heck, this description sounds terrible; but, hope you get the point)
4. and above all, a movie about relationships.
When Ganga's uncle asks for her pardon, the way the film cuts to the time when Ganga leaves with him to his home and he says "I will show them what's what!" is the clearest testimony for the reason behind the movie's title apart from the study of the lives of the two protagonists.
The movie steers clear of all clichés starting from not being yet another overtly pseudo-feminist fare (which was quite an identity for "good films" of Tamil Cinema in the 80s) with its very non-judgemental look (to such an extent that it even refuses to observe from a typical feminist standpoint, though that might be the most rightful position to take) on that fatal incident. After years, when she decides to meet the man (who is then introduced as Prabhu played by Srikanth) and she even befriends him, it is very strange from her part to catch the man who raped her and ruined her whole life. The girl going after the man who 'raped' her has been the plot of many movies [**], mostly terribly handled, and as if it was a righteous thing for the woman to go for that man. But here, it is not a mere indictment on the woman to go after him; but a willful decision from her part to do so; to prove her "smartness" to her uncle who, quite stupidly, says "she should go get that guy and marry him if she is smart enough" trying to prove she "cannot marry" unlike all other women. Her loneliness and Srikanth's helplessness and guilt plays the main factors in their progressing friendship. When Prabhu says he never forced anybody and asks Ganga if he really forced her that day, it is suggested that it was not a rape at all. In short, when Ganga finally yearns for his love, she no more feels he was the reason for her state of abandonment; rather, its the people around her who disowned her after that fatal incident years ago.
The writing involves many moments breaking many a cinematic cliché. Just to sample, Prabhu is a rich man. But still "his English is not good" (at least he thinks so; portrayed without much emphasis on it by, say, letting him speak horrible English) and admires Ganga for that. Literary references have been mostly absent in the history of Tamil cinema. But here we get references to Chekhov, Wodehouse (in a throw-away scene) etc.
Well, this is the only Jeyakanthan movie (clearly the man behind this fare) I have seen and I am still on the hunt for his other movies.
Also, Check out Baradwaj's take on this movie.

* - A. Bhimsingh collaborated again with JK and made Oru Nadigai Naadagam Paarkkiraal. His son, B. Lenin, adapted JK's "Oorukku Nooru Per" (a very serene, 'art-house' work which won him the National Award for the Best Director.

** - Sirai, a movie made by R. C. Sakthi is quite similar to this movie (and inspired by Benegal's Nishant, perhaps). Only that there we have a self-conscious director telling us that he has tried to tell the story "visually" (being apt to the cinematic medium, that is). But, something awfully goes wrong in its execution and becomes an unbearable piece for most of its running time, thanks in large proportions to the comedy track which in an approximate measurement goes for more than an hour.

Through George's post, I read Rediff's list of upcoming Hindi movies this week and had one serious question.
What's a Madhavan-style comedy?

It's high time I did something much better in this blog. I accept this, unconditionally. I should do something. Something.

The talk on the next movies of the biggies of tamil cinema is around. Kamal Haasan's Dasavatharam and Rajini's Sivaji. I am not too keen on the former and the latter is pretty much out of the scope of this blog, as of now. Not pinning much hopes on Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu either.
It's high time he goes ahead with his own next venture (a Raajkamal Production, that is).
I haven't seen any worthy tamil flicks in recent past (just some half-baked wannabe-cool movies like Arindhum Ariyaamalum and some clearcut B-flicks). The nearest ray of light I see is in the release of Bala's Naan Kadavul.

Of marriages, murders and irreversibility

Bingo! The Factory can smile! My Wife's Murder is, simply put, a worthier effort (also considering it's much lower profile compared to even the next-to-be-released James; and also for being an honest unpretentious effort) compared to the other efforts from the factory in recent times.
Thankfully and as expected, this movie is not a yet-another-whodunnit. In fact, almost everybody in the movie knows who did it. The obviousness with which the policemen track the criminal behind the murder is what I would say as the singularly striking and applaudable aspect of the movie.
Ravi Patwardhan (played with remarkable understanding and restraint by Anil Kapoor) has been nagged by his wife (Suchitra Krisnamoorthy) ever since he got married to her and after so many years he feels their marriage has not worked out. In one of those unpleasant fights, his wife dies accidentally when he slaps her in a fit of rage.
From then on, his attempts (with able support from his assistant who in an act of utter "bewakoofi" tries to save him) to cover up the murder is rivetingly told by the Jijy Philip, the director, without diluting the credibility of the proceedings (like not allowing the protagonist to be "smart" matching his wits with the cops). Some of Ravi's moves might appear stupid when looked at as a mere game of escaping from the cops (as any other lesser movie will turn out to be). The murderer-by-accident's helplessness and loss of logical reasoning is portrayed as real as it gets. For eg., the way Ravi carefully repositioning the carpet and the draw over it in his bedroom after he uses it to cover up the blood temporarily (who is going to question him on the position of the carpet, anyway?). His deadpan expressions (in an attempt to not show his fear, he does reveal thye truth that he is less upset about the loss of his wife) each time the police investigates him about his wife's death is so apt and yet so convincing that he has to be the murderer, suggesting that tracking the murderer is quite easy, after all, in domestic circumstances. And at the end, all Ravi Patwardhan does, when he hears the first gunshot from the cops is to cry back in agony - "Arreyy.. Yahaan pe bachhe hain.. Dikhaayee nahin deta hai kya?".
The way the undercurrents in the other "marital" relationships in the movie are touched upon is also commendable. Boman Irani is terrific, as always, and walks away with honours for the best performance. All the other performances are first-rate (a usual, for a factory venture). From the technical side, the cinematography by P. S. Vinod is stark, realistic and also renders the necessary claustrophobic environment in the first half of the movie.
Indeed, My Wife's Murder is a small film, but still a rare effort and first of its kind in Bollywood. Don't even read further. Go watch My Wife's Murder before it vanishes out of the theatres.
P.S.:- Add to this my egoistic bliss for having pinned my hopes on an underdog from RGV stable and having a very satisfying experience. A factory product is always awaited by me, but not always with the same inexplicable eagerness I had for this movie.

The talented Mr. Shukla

Saurabh Shukla is back into the fray, this time, with the participation of his film, Aye Dil [translated as Heart Goes Sha La La], in the Osian's-Cinefan film festival.
Annie has covered about Osian's-Cinefan here where she goes all thumbs-up for Aye Dil. The movie stars his friend Rajat Kapoor [a case of two film makers acting in each other's movies[1]; go here to see more such cases;] and is a comedy about a balding, middle-aged writer [echoing similarties with Shukla himself, as he himself admits; and for which Rajat Kapoor shaved off his hair!], who meets a Miss India finalist on the net.

He is a class apart, as his credits in the writing department of films like Satya, Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Raghu Romeo, etc. would indicate. But, his attempts at direction - namely Mudda and Chehraa - were not well-received and went without much of a response from any circles [and I haven't watched them as well :|].
Aye Dil was to be telecasted in Zee TV. Or, was it already telecasted?
In this interview [early this year], he talks about his new film The Piano, which must have been already telecasted in STAR One on May 29 at 9 pm.
Anybody has got a clue about Aye Dil's telecast?
This RAMLI thread should be watched to see if anybody can come up with more information on this telecast on Zee.

[1] - Update on 6 Aug, 06:00 p.m.: This apparently had been achieved in Mudda, and consequently in Chehraa as well, both of which starred Rajat Kapoor in supporting role/cameo. Blame it on me for being unaware of this; though I did suspect this as they are close buddies and hence this update.

This post makes no claim that I am the lone challenger to this man or something. I have expressed my admiration openly quite many times about his determination and diligence.
But, of late, I too am going bonkers.
Latest is that I managed to watch Daas [another B-entry - there are so many these days - with some sparks of unintentional satirical take on religious harmony; but the tempo wasn't maintained throughout like, say a Narasimha to enjoy the movie], first-day-night-show; and driving home all the talk that I am Andy Dufresne's alter ego [minus the "hope" factor], I didn't cry once. not once!

Update {Aug 2, 11:50 a.m.}: As an update to the last edition of masochism and its undertones in movie-watching in this blog, here's a simply hilarious interview by one Mr. Hosimin on his film, February 14. I seriously advise you to watch the movie and then read the interview. Or else, you will miss all the humour; like

The film opened well [...] and is a hit, especially in cities. The youth audiences like it and there is a positive talk about the film.

All shows are going full and it is right on top in Sun TV’s ‘Top Ten’.

That his film has been criticized for its slow narration [quite unfairly] {This is the best, isn't it?}

[He] made a honest film straight from [his] heart that can be watched with the entire family.

[the writer/director actually had a script and] finished it about three years back [and thought he could pull it off, even after pondering over it for so long].

[Last, but not the least,] February 14 is way ahead of all competition.

Taking a cue from Mahesh Manjrekar?

Caught Viruddh yesterday [knowing what it would be like, which I could sense from the promos] and should say, it was ordinary, as expected [But, Mahesh Majrekar did surprise me with those ads for oil, Nerolac paints and Western Union Bank and that unique idea of ghost narration by John Abraham ;)].

Thanks to a visit to T.N. last week, I saw Feb 14 [two words: A bad B-flick and Bharath is done for a couple of years] and Priyasakhi [A Vikraman-meets-V.Sekar-meets-a-pathetic-Visu enterprise] and there is still a debate as to which was worse. My vote goes for Feb 14, though. Hmmm... talk about masochistic tendencies.

Collective Chaos has this Makhmalbaf & family Film Festival this weekend and this a dont-miss alert.

I don't know why. I am eagerly awaiting for My Wife's Murder's release. The interesting promos and Anil Kapoor's interview here [however much I get alerts on possibilities of his desperation and the trend of calling every new movie as the actor's/director's/producer's best, nowadays; or perhaps, from time immemorial] really hooked me on to this.

And the self-advertisements continue. My blog-equivalent of Karna [elder, but abandoned] has some questions. Do answer them.

Yesterday, I was one of the blessed ones to go through the whole sort of rumours about National Awards [I guessed many of them could be bogus, then; it turned out that only one info, a fatal one at that, about the awards was actually false] as I was updating on a minute-basis. The first link I bumped upon was Rediff's (very) immediate reaction [they had only this link in the main page, then; not even the link to a bigger set of awards] to Aishwarya Rai "winning" the award, where in, a rediff journo was lamenting [of course the link is dead now] if Aishwarya really deserved the award [which I duly linked in the very first question mark in my previous post as that was the biggest joke for me; blame it on my bias]. Thankfully, it was Tara for her lead performance as Haseena in Kasaravalli's Haseena [btw, which was the Kasaravalli movie which didn't win any national award?].
Today, the main rediff page cries that "Ash deserved the award" [agreed, it was actually Rituparno Ghosh and not rediff; But, still something tells me that these guys can't live without references to Ash just as much Kamal Haasan can't make movies without references to Charlie Chaplin].

Update (at Jul 15, 05:11 p.m.):-
Check out Saif's cheeky reaction on receiving the national award! I have quite liked him as an actor since he got his RGV connection [since LKLKBK, that is; as against the general opinion that it was DCH which transformed him into what he is now, I thought it was when there was a refreshing change in his persona and acting skills; the same comic flair was evidently visible in the former too; only that it developed to a great effect in DCH]. But, I am still very much surprised ['surprised' meaning 'not convinced'] with he receiving the national award for best actor. I like all the counter-points as to why the award should not go for a light role and all that. But, the National Award for his effort in "Hum Tum"? Not that there was no such case before. Heck, Anil Kapoor won it for Pukar. Anyways, I haven't seen "Hum Tum". Nor do I remember any exceptional performance [which I've seen] that was outrageously overlooked or something [only some small commendable efforts like that of Madhavan/Abhishek in AE/Yuva; SRK's performance in Swades was sincere, not superb; Did I miss anyone? Alert readers can remind me!]. So, I should rather shut up and see Saif get his national award until then!
As to "Page 3" winning the Best Film award, I will rant on that later.

Some joke ? ? ? ?
Is it that these are the hot candidates (pointer?) or is it actually announced?
Will be right back.

a little bit of self-advertising

A small piece of self-advertisement [**]. My post on life (as I would like to put it) originally posted in this blog of mine, features on the blog mela conducted by Nilu.

** - however much I restrict myself to the fact this will always be a movie blog ONLY.