Analysing films

Alankrita Shrivastava takes off from the Lipstick under the burqa tale and continues it with Chamkte Sitare... The film opens to two sisters enjoying at the local fair and seem to be content in what looks like a happy family with Dolly (Konkona) with husband and two kids. Alongside we have Kaajal (Bhumi) staying with the family who is running away from being married off in her hometown (we have heard so much about that). In the next two hour or so we are witness to an unhappy marriage that Konkona has to wade through in between her brief fling with the food delivery boy Osmaan Ansari (Amol Parashar) and battling with her son's sexual orientation. And Kaajal's ups and downs in the relationships that she goes through, and a failed one at that. What could have built up as a plot and a interesting take on the classic middle class of where small town girls get mixed up in the brouhaha of the urban metropolis and a working woman trying to find her foothold gets all horribly mixed up.

One of the things that the lock down did offer to me was revisiting classics across genres, language and cinema of the world too. This might be an opportune time to write piece by piece. I may have watched these classics at least 10-12 times earlier and every time one gets to see it; there is a new way to look at the movie. We start the week with a classic Spielberg; SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (SPR). Released in 1998,  to me it has to be one of the best war films. There are many war films that may come close and some may even dispute the claim that there is a Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now or Platoon or Deer Hunter or Pan's Labyrinth which could be ranked better. But to me SPR still has too be the definite movie on war and why so? The movie starts with the classic Normandy landing and then veers into a sequence where war becomes a backdrop. A dedicated set of 8 men will have to scourge through platoons to look for Private Ryan after orders comes right from the top about finding him c

 What I sense is that as Churchill said, every crisis has a opportunity. And the pandemic and the resultant lock down threw one down to some of us. A lot of we did spend time re-skilling ourselves with new things. But a film aficionado in me decided to make the best of this time with watching a lot of film. As the OTT platform went ballistic with a whole set of new releases but I guess it was all a problem of plenty and more importantly none of it was worth watching. Locked up at home between 24th March till about today (well in a semi-lockdown state perhaps) I can safely conclude about a film and a series which stayed on with me. But first the film; Kamyaab. Written and directed by Hardik Mehta (of Amdavad ma famous fame)it is a standout film of this year. Its a pity the film could not have a proper big screen time as the pandemic just about timed itself when the film saw a theatrical release. It soon circumvented into the OTT platform (Netflix). What stands to me; classic film making