Analysing films

If you can spare some time do listen to the podcast of Samdhish Bhatia with Anurag Basu (the link is here so you don’t need to work hard, searching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkeUWYeDweA) you read through the mind of a gemmologist like Anurag Basu who gave us further gems like Life in a Metro, Jagga Jasoos (one of his most underrated work but stands head and shoulder), Barfi, Ludo to name a few. Also, Anurag has had a long stint on Television too which is what makes him versatile and resplendent in his work profile. His latest, मेट्रो ... इन दिनों , somewhere fails to connect and takes a tad long time to build itself. In the pre interval stage it nearly takes about 30-40 minutes to build the plot around four main characters much like his previous anthology (Life in a Metro). Aditya Roy Kapoor- Soha Ali Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma - Pankaj Tripathi, Fatima Sana Shaikh - Ali Fazal and Anupam Kher with Neena Gupta. Post interval too, the plot disintegrates and is unable to conne...

If you remember Season 1 of the supremely popular web series, and in the opening sequence of episode 1, there were a few petha (a variety of sweet meat from Agra) placed and a glass of water welcoming the new appointee in the gram panchayat, Sachiv Ji (the popular avatar from the TVF factory, Jitendra Kumar). The scene was worth remembering for primarily few reasons. One it captured the rustic essence of part of India which is often left to entertaining guests with petha and water. Second, Petha is a very dry and drab looking sweet meat with no inherent character (Unlike a ladoo or rasgulla) of its own. Third, it looks dry and rugged from outside and a bite into it, helps gets ushered in extreme sweet and syrupy taste, very unlike the perception one makes from the outside. The series starts off on a dry note and as you bite more of the petha (read watch more episodes and season) an unseen world and unseen character with a different dialect got gradually unfolded in front of our e...

  The first thing about Sitaare Zameen Par (SZP) that draws your attention, it does not carry any baggage from Taare Zameen Par (TZP). The creators decided to paint on a fresh drawing board with no reclamation from the past. And which is why SZP catches its audience by surprise and does not disappoint you. While TZP was dealing with a problem which most of us as a community were getting exposed first hand. But SZP deals with a scenario were some of us have some inkling of it. Also, the beauty or if I may say the strength of SZP was more in the fact that it does not sound preachy and it takes us through imperfections in life. Including the protagonist, Gulshan (Aamir Khan) who does not wear the badge as seriously as he did in TZP as Ram Shankar Nikumbh. Gulshan is a mess at home (Dolly Ahluwalia and Bijendra Kala in a hilarious chemistry as Gulshan's parents), an even bigger mess at his workplace, an alcoholic prone to doing dangerous acts with DUI. In all Gulshan (the name is metap...