Finally watched the movie, and here are the customary thoughts:
– Too bad the director and editors didn’t trim the movie length. They should’ve made it closer to Milkha’s 400m dash rather than a marathon.
– Farhan Akhtar has sure put in some effort, and awards are guaranteed for his performance.
– A couple of anachronisms that I noticed – the modern ceiling fan in the opening scene with Nehru and the Ambassador with a plastic bumper in the Indian contingent that goes to Pakistan.
– They had to put in the “Are you relaxing?” joke into the movie.
– The world record breaking effort is sort of ambiguous as the record was apparently bettered before he got 45.8s.
– Nice songs to round off the commercial flavour.
– Last but not the least, who cares if we didn’t get an Olympic medal as long as we managed to defeat a Pakistani. That formula has served the Indian cricket team quite well in the World Cups after all.
Tag: thoughts
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Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
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Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani: Tech portrayal gets accurate
A few quick thoughts on the movie that I watched last Friday:
– Canon is really going all out in India given the number of photographers portrayed in recent movies, and all use Canon gear obviously
– Nice touch (intentional or not) with the Windows XP PC and Internet Explorer 6 being used by Deepika Padukone in the flashback, plus no smartphones either
– The present day of course has our hero Ranbir Kapoor using a MacBook, plus smartphones in the hands of the entire gang
– The MacBook did seem to be a tad outdated though with an older version of iTunes, but it did have Firefox installed
– The movie plot itself was pretty staple stuff as numerous reviews have noted, and Bollywood ladies as usual are a lot less sensitive to the cold as evident from their attire in the freezing Manali weather -
Ekushe Ain (21st Law) for the 21st Century
Given the recent events in Bengal, India and the World as a whole, the Sukumar Ray poem seems to ring truer than ever.
শিবঠাকুরের আপন দেশে ,
আইন কানুন সর্বনেশে!
কেউ যদি যায় পিছলে প’ড়ে,
প্যায়দা এসে পাক্ড়ে ধরে ,
কাজির কাছে হয় বিচার-
একুশ টাকা দন্ড তার।।
সেথায় সন্ধে ছটার আগে
হাঁচতে হলে টিকিট লাগে
হাঁচলে পরে বিন্ টিকিটে
দম্দমাদম্ লাগায় পিঠে ,
কোটাল এসে নস্যি ঝাড়ে-
একুশ দফা হাচিয়ে মারে।।
কারুর যদি দাতটি নড়ে,
চার্টি টাকা মাশুল ধরে ,
কারুর যদি গোঁফ গজায় ,
একশো আনা ট্যাক্সো চায়-
খুঁচিয়ে পিঠে গুঁজিয়ে ঘাড়,
সেলাম ঠোকায় একুশ বার।।
চলতে গিয়ে কেউ যদি চায়
এদিক্ ওদিক্ ডাইনে বাঁয়,
রাজার কাছে খবর ছোটে,
পল্টনেরা লাফিয়ে ওঠে ,
দুপুরে রোদে ঘামিয়ে তায়-
একুশ হাতা জল গেলায়।।
যে সব লোকে পদ্য লেখে,
তাদের ধরে খাঁচায় রেখে,
কানের কাছে নানান্ সুরে
নামতা শোনায় একশো উড়ে,
সামনে রেখে মুদীর খাতা-
হিসেব কষায় একুশ পাতা।।
হঠাৎ সেথায় রাত দুপুরে
নাক ডাকালে ঘুমের ঘোরে,
অম্নি তেড়ে মাথায় ঘষে,
গোবর গুলে বেলের কষে,
একুশটি পাক ঘুরিয়ে তাকে-
একুশ ঘন্টা ঝুলিয়ে রাখে।।Rough translation:
In Shiva’s homeland, the rules are quite strange, as I can truly attest,
If someone slips, and falls by err, police come by to arrest.
Your ordeal continues inside of a court room,
Where judges are ready to fine you a fortune –
21 rupees is the price you must pay,
but wait till you hear what they charge in the day –
for sneezing before six, a ticket is needed,
without this in hand, you will be ill-treated –
they beat you like drums, and snuff up your nose,
you sneeze not just once, but 21 blows!
The fine for teeth-chattering is 4 rupees flat,
for growing a mustache a bit more than that –
a hundred nickles, paid out in cash,
plus 21 prayers with both hands clasped.While walking the streets, your steps cannot wander,
a step left or right and the king is called yonder.
He summons his guards who come in with a run,
to force you to sit while you sweat in the sun.
There is some relief, as they offer some water,
unfortunately so much that its not worth the bother.But this isn’t the worst of it, by any means really,
for those who write poems, their punishment is silly,
they’re placed in a cage under strict lock and key,
with no chance of exile, or option to flee.
A hundred Orrisans are placed, so it’s fabled,
proclaiming exhaustively the multiplications table.
And then there’s more math as you tend to a store,
account for the sales – it’s a menial chore.One last offense, that’s punishable by law,
Is snoring at all – it’s seen as a flaw.
The glue from a bilva tree, the dung from a cow,
It’s all used quite viciously, here’s how:
they rub it in coarsely, the hair of an offender,
who’s tied to a tree and spun like a blender.
For 21 spins he goes round and round,
and 21 hours till his feet touch the ground. -
Chashme Baddoor past and present
I was pretty disappointed that I was not as disappointed by the Chashme Baddoor remake as I had anticipated from the promos. In fact, I had planned on skipping the movie altogether, but ended up watching it based on my parents recommendations. Also, the fact that Rajeev Masand gave it a fairly positive review helped (my tastes seem to line up with his on most Hindi movies). Also, just to make get my frame of reference right, I followed up the remake with the evening show of original classic.
So, here are my thoughts as usual:
- The remake works solely due to the performance of the support cast with the lead actor & actress being eye-candy. This was the most jarring departure from the original where Farooq Shaikh & Deepti Naval are at the forefront and their chemistry is the backbone of the movie.
- If the lead cast of the original is a cake with the support cast adding the layers of icing, then the remake is more like a kaju barfi with the hero & heroine serving as the silver foil for decoration without adding to the taste.
- In the remake, Ali Zafar seems to be a Physics student, and that seems to explain the lack of Chemistry with Taapsee Pannu.
- Watching the two movies back to back served as a good reminder of the way the story telling pace has evolved over the last 3 decades. The original has a fairly laid back pace, while the remake tries to maintain a laugh a minute pace.
- The remake has adapted quite a few of the original’s scenes starting with the balcony sighting of the heroine, leading up to the fake kidnapping.
- The money exchanging hands sequence also gives you an idea of the kind of inflation we have had – Rs 10 in the original vs Rs 500 in the new one. As a side note, this is also a basic economics lesson that we see floated on social networks where 3 people manage to settle debts without anyone getting richer.
- I preferred the songs of the original, particularly the classical ones.
- I wonder whether the “Andha Ghoda Race Mein Dauda” from the remake is a take on the “Kali ghodi dwaar khadi”. The timing in the movie is somewhat similar.
- Cigarettes feature a lot more prominently in the original, but there were no warnings during the screening in the theatre unlike the remake. Of course, Saeed Jaffrey as Lallan Miyan makes a pretty good case against smoking to Farooq Shaikh in the original.
- Omi’s shayari is a lot more sophisticated in the original.
- The posters on the wall between the 3 friends had more variety in the original, especially for Omi and Siddharth.
- They retained the names of the 3 friends, but changed it for the female lead in the remake (Seema vs Neha). Wonder whether it was only for the puns & shayaris.
- They managed to force in the Miss Chamko bit in the remake, albeit not with the same impact as the original.
- The remake definitely didn’t emphasize on employment on part of the lead characters unlike the originals where Deepti Naval works as a part time sales person to pay for her music lessons.
Bottom line is that the remake is a typical David Dhawan entertainer where you can give rest to the grey cells, while the original remains a classic and seeing it on the big screen was a unique experience.
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Reflecting on Special Chhabbis (26)
Finally watched Special Chabbis. Good work on the props & effects to get the 1987 look:
– Old currency notes
– Old vehicles including the old ambassador models and Maruti 800
– Got the number plate colours right – white on black for private & black on white for commercial
– Getting the old look of Delhi, Kolkata & Mumbai, especially of the airports and the skyline
– Old ad hoardings
– Old telephone sets
– Indian Airlines logo along with the food trolley in cabinHowever, a couple of goof ups that I noticed:
– Showing a blue coach at the railway station when they were all brown in that era
– A Maruti 1000/Esteem (launched in the 90s) parked on the road -
FB Update – March 29, 2013 at 09:43PM
USA has gun control all right – it’s called going to war with other nations to reduce the inventory at home…
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FB Update – March 28, 2013 at 12:17PM
Bill Gates: Capitalism means male baldness research gets more funding than malaria
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FB Update – March 25, 2013 at 10:48PM
A dead man tells no tales, and neither does a dead smartphone battery…
