The year in a recap: 2015 did not give hopes to cinema...

-
Baahubali poster.jpg
I am coming back after a very long time and this is more out an exasperation of not being able to write home anything good about cinema in general. There have been a series of trash that seems to be singularly being belted out from Hindi Film Industry and Hollywood does not seem to be giving any much hopes either. 2015 can be a watershed year to that extent where there is nothing much in there to be written about.

Deep diving into Bombay and the industry, I saw only a few clear winners. Masaan, Dum Laga Ke Haissha, Talvar, NH10 (in a limited way) and Badlaapur. There were some that seemed over hyped, over discussed and most of all over the top. Baby, Piku, Byomkesh, Tanu Weds Manu 2, Dil Dhadkne Do and Drishyam fell in this category. And there were many other whom I would safely like to forget. Though I missed, Titli and Kajariya and it would be wrong to write them off, since I have heard good things about them. A quick word on Masaan. It works for its simplicity and under rated performance that never goes over the top. Second, the narration is well placed and the city (Varanasi) works to the film's languid pace. Dum Laga Ke was a big surprise and the simplicity of the plot, superb performance by the support cast, and eye for detailing worked for the film. Talvar worked for it's topicality and the way a most talked about topic of Indian Journalism was handled. The film never opinionated and that's why it worked. There were no heroes or villains and it left it all for the audience to decide and judge. NH10 and Badlapur worked on the same genre of revenge but NH10 works better than Badlapur for its tempo and the right pace it picks up at the right time, even though the end was tame. But, both films held on to its own and commercial actors like Anushka and Varun Dhawan did a fine job.

Baahubali does not feature in here, since it is rated to me as a finest contribution to cinema in the last two decades and the coming two decades of Indian cinema. Hence, it would be futile to slot it as a one off movie in 2015. The movie deserves all the praise and more than that perhaps the man behind it all and his vision. S.S. Rajamouli. There are no words to mention the grandeur and the scale in which the movie was planned for. The first hour of this mammoth production can be forgiven for what was in store in the next two hours of the film. And it was a scale never achieved before by any one in India. I think, Karan Johar and his sharp business (film related) acumen saw an opportunity and decided to take up the distribution rights. I wait for 2016 and Bahubali 2-The End.

But what seemed to work in all for 2015 were three things; simplicity of the plot, how does the plot work through the narration and the treatment to the plot. A movie like Piku which seemed to be hyped, had a great plot but it failed in its narration and treatment. An over the top Amitabh and the lost Deepika could only find the ever bankable Irrfan Khan to bail them out, literally. I think a road movie like Nebraska (2013) on the similar lines works far better and stays grounded. See it for Bruce Dern, if not for anything else.

I am not sure how the roadmap works out for future, but one thing is sure. There is a serious catharsis of idea in Bombay and guys at the helm are all playing safe and by the book. It is the Khans and the Roshan and the Kapoors here and there. Pity, with so much riding on them and with such a strong grounding, none of the stakeholders are willing to take the risk.

There are some better films showcasing in the cinema of the world section and I am trying my best to lay my hands on them. But till then it seems safer to get your hands off hindi cinema for some time...     

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dhoom 3: Overrated, Over-hyped, and an over the top Aamir Khan

-
Image
Coming back to writing a piece after a very long time. I think about 3 months. Unfortunately, there was not a single film worth mention that released between now and September that is worth a shot. For that matter there is nothing in 2013 that is actually worth a mention. There were so MANY films and so much of hype and so much of marketing built around these films, but each one was a disappointment and perhaps a bigger one preceding the other. We come to that in a recap of 2013, probably as a next piece. But for now, it is Dhoom 3. What to write? What to say? Frame after frame it is Aamir Khan and not one but two, did I give out the suspense? Well nothing much in giving it away, as there is nothing at stake in the movie to give it away. YRF, Vijay Krishna Acharya, and everybody involved in the process of making the movie seems more enamored than anything else with the lead star. Makes you feel bad for Jai Dikshit and Ali. And as luck would have it, the only parts of the movie wh
Read more

Ramu Kaka, the family Physician, Kheer, Silk Gown et al...

-
Image
  Cinema is a medium to convey a message; message which are verbal or visual based. It has the power to alter narrative or perhaps the discourse too. In the 50's 60's and even more pronounced in the 70's and 80's film stars commanded a huge influence on the audience. Hair style, clothes and accessories were copied by audience blindly. The Sadhana Cut became a famous hairstyle or the bouffant of Asha Parekh or the Sharmila Tagore style eye liners; even the men folk were not left behind. The ear hiding hairstyle of Amitabh Bachchan or the bell bottom or the unbuttoned shirt (only the first 2-3 buttons) went on to be cult classics. But, this rage was/is actually a global phenomena. It happened across the world and it still continues to create a sense of dystopian world which audience are more than happy to lap up.  In more recent times, two Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai and later Zindagi Na Mile Dobara went on to change the way how youth looked at lifestyle and travel. Infac
Read more

Buno Haansh: If you have read the story, don't go

-
Image
Like I said in the title, if you have the read the original, which I think came out in the last or last to last year, Sharodiya Shonkha, do not watch the film as it is a complete let down. But if you have not read the original by Samaresh Majumdar, the movie is worth a dekko. The way different characters starting from the protagonist Amal to the characters, Shohag, Rijula and even all sundry characters develop are no where close to the original. What further adds to the agony, the climax scene which has been altered keeping Dev's image into account, which is unfortunate. The film to put it simply lacks the desired drama and the suspense, which if one has read the book will understand. It looks like a narration currently and there are moments where the film falls in a trap of trying to do justice to the book and the creative license it wants to use. Perhaps, this trap always remain when one tries to adapt a story or a classic novel into a cinema format. Some of the classic n
Read more