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Showing posts from January, 2021

JAWAAN (2023) : review

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And finally the much hyped, much awaited Jawaan saw light of the day ! Big stars, big budget( humongous budget actually), big music composer, everything super large. But does it meet the expectations of the average viewer? No it goes not. Read on.  A decorated jawan locks horns with a criminal called Kaali, this is in 1986 ( the year movies like Aakhri Raasta released, just for reference). Kaali gets him eliminated and send the pregnant wife to jail. The baby born in jail grows up to become the hero (look alike of the father) and decides to avenge the misdeeds done to his innocent patriotic parents. Well, isn’t it a masaaledaar full on Bollywood- Tollywood drama subject ?  And then the director Atlee also borrows ideas and references from various retro movies, some idea from Sholay (1975) as the hero assembled a gang of jailed Qaidis in order to form a team to nab the villain, then there’s an entire episode borrowed from Dhartiputra (1993), and the basic theme is copy pasted from Kaml
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DIRTY SEX, LIES & BOLLYWOOD: Much before MeToo

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Clean clean Bollywood? Or dirty dirty Bollywood? Nobody is squeaky clean as long as you are human, you wrestle with a pig and you get dirtier. Bollywood woke up to Tanushree Dutta’s MeToo allegations against Nana Patekar in 2018, she opened a Pandora’s box though it did raise awareness and many victims found a voice to expose their tormentors and speak up about their horror stories, rewind to times from 1970s to 1990s when women found very little support for MeToo allegations.  Sixteen year old Rekha who had just debuted with a sleeper hit Sawan Bhadon(1970) was flabbergasted when co star the much senior Biswajeet dragged and smooched her, an act that wasn’t part of Rekha’s screenplay. The kissing went on for five whole minutes with the studio audience playing mute spectators to an unsuspecting young Rekha. It was later alleged that Rekha had played along but she has always maintained that the act was not a part of her consent.  Bubbly Bindiya Goswami all of 15 accused her Jeevan Jyot
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ONE HIT WONDERS # 4

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In the fourth segment on artists in Bollywood who started their careers with ambitious goals but turned into one hit or one film wonders.  Deepak Parashar With the Mr India title earned in mid 70s tall yet lanky Parashar is best remembered for playing the adab arz hai Nawab in the blockbuster Nikaah(1982), he had some hits like Sharaabi(1984) where he was in a minor role, it was a joke that he had a better chemistry with Raj Babbar than the leading ladies as they starred in a spate of multiple movies in the 80s. Parasher wasn’t able to repeat his Nawaabi Andaaz ever again.  Suneil Anand  Son of debonair evergreen Dev Anand, Suneil was launched by daddy with the musical Anand Aur Anand(1984) or was it Anand hi Anand? Whatever the title, there was no Anand for the Anand’s considering beta Suneil failed to impress the viewers. Not a chip of the old block he appeared in disastrous relaunches like Car Thief(1987) and soon vanished into oblivion.  Harish   He debuted as a leading hero oppos
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Missed the Bus with BIG B ?

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Who’s the greatest superstar of them all? Though the answer is debatable there are a millions who swear by their loyal dedication to Amitabh Bachchan, a mega star of the millennium. Whatever his greatness maybe but one can’t deny he had his preferred camps be it directors, production houses, playback singers or his leading ladies. It was a dream for any female actor during Bachchan’s peak (1973-1992) to be cast opposite him, so here’s a wish-list of prominent leading ladies during that peak period who were never romantically paired with him, wonder why?  Shabana Azmi  I know I know they did a movie called Main Azaad Hoon(1989) but not too sure if there was a romantic angle between their roles in that movie. Basically the supremely talented Shabana wasn’t cast as Bachchan’s love interest though they worked in blockbusters like Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), wouldn’t it have been a really intellectual pair had they played a romantic couple in a movie?  Reena Roy  A big mystery as to why thi
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The Curious Case of 70s Saira Bano

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Today, yesteryear’s diva Saira Bano is a symbol of commitment, ideal wife and someone her admirers look upto and adore  for attending to her ailing husband. But one has been curious about her unbelievable transformation in the 70s, just a curious rewind to that phase.  Saira returned from London and joined Bollywood at 16 and became a top list star with Junglee(1961), throughout the 60s she was typecast as the chirpy, bubbly, innocent little barbie doll mostly clad in countryside frocks or slacks. She was the stereotyped Bollywood girl next door, sexy? Nah never. Even an underwater swimming sequence and the bathtub songs didn’t drag her into the sex symbol category, the sweet little chulbuli effervescent girl image stuck.  Come 1970 and everything changed. Now she was already mrs Dilip Kumar, had just battled a mysteriously guarded illness and emerged survivor, a brief ten month sabbatical over she came back with Purab Aur Paschim(1970) shedding inhibitions and clothes. She defended t
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ARANYER DIN RATRI(1970): Classic revisited

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Directed by: Satyajit Ray  Cast: Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal, Soumitra Chatterjee, Rabi Ghosh,  Subhendu Chatterjee,  Shamit Bhanja, Pahadi Sanyal, Premashish Sen, Dibyendu Chatterjee, Samar Nag and Aparna Sen. If I’m asked to name just one movie directed by THE Ray as my personal favorite then the title keeps changing depending on my mood, it varies from Nayak(1965) to Ganashatru(1989), sometimes it’s Mahanagar(1963) and most of the times I name Charulata(1964), but such is Ray’s cinematic appeal that it’s difficult to select just one! Right now depending on my mood it’s his classic tale Aranyer Din Ratri(1970), a timeless classic that somehow never fades or gets old.  Four young men in the ir late 20s and 30s from Calcutta set out on a weekend Escapade out in the wilderness, they bribe the housekeeper at a Dak Bangla to get rooms and embark on exploring the woods and a virgin village. Here each of these men is different from the other, though bonded with friendship a
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Second innings: successful Bollywood comebacks

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Ideally in our movie industry it’s a straight case of out of sight out of mind, we’ve had several big and not so big stars who took a break (sometimes on their own or otherwise due to some unavoidable circumstance) and couldn’t comeback successfully, they were outright rejected by the audience. Times change, the audience taste differs and sometimes it’s just sheer luck. Looking at some stars who were on a sabbatical and made successful comebacks.  VINOD KHANNA: a major star of the 70s who quit Bollywood at his peak period in 1979, when he was pitted against the reigning superstar Amitabh. Khanna gave it all up for sanyas. Highly influenced by the teachings of spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh, Khanna sacrificed his family and acting career to follow the sambhog se sanyas tak path at Osho ashram. Six years later spiritually uplifted and full of ambition Khanna quit the ashram and made a bombastic comeback to Bollywood at 41 with the box office hit Insaaf(1987), followed by Satyamev Jayate(19
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ONCE UPON A WITCH HUNT:1990 a tragic story

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October 1990, an auspicious month for super star Rekha as it’s her birthday month, it couldn’t have got more inauspicious when her husband hanged himself to death using her dupatta at his farmhouse. This was in October and the media launched a nationwide witch hunt for Rekha labelling her the National Vamp. Btw that obscene title was given by national award winning actor Anupam Kher.  Rekha, a reigning evergreen star of Bollywood was still churning out box office hits at 35+ and going strong notwithstanding strong competitors like Dimple Kapadia, while Sridevi was confidently perched on the numero uno position. Come 1990 and Rekha was awarded the Filmfare best actress trophy for Khoon Bhari Maang(1988), the awards ceremony for 1988 films was held in 1990. Nursing a broken heart for years after a breakup with a mega star, Rekha quite accidentally got introduced to an upcoming Delhi based entrepreneur Mukesh Aggarwal, their common friend socialite Bina Ramani did the honours of uniting
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THE WHITE TIGER (2021): review

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Directed by: Ramin Bahrani  Cast: Adarsh Gaurav, Priyanka Chopra, Rajkumar Rao,  Nalneesh Neel, Mahesh Manjrekar, Swaroop Sampath, Kamlesh Gill, Vijay Maurya, Master Vedant, Ram Diwakar and others  Incredible India ! That’s what you want to show to the world and what do you end up showing ? The filth, the grossly disgusted dirty slums, scavengers and slum dwellers? That’s the Indian bioscope that can earn you brownie points when displayed at international level, exactly what you see in this Netflix original film.  Balram is a jolly villager from the remotest village (dirtiest) in some corner of India, he’s ambitious and a viciously smooth operator. He makes his way into the household of a wealthy corrupt man and procures the job of his America returned son’s driver. Everything goes smoothly until a tragic incident that changes the entire discourse of his life!  If you’ve read the novella you’ll realise that some positive elements have been scrapped out in the movie, why? Maybe creative
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TANDAV [2021]: review

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Directed by: Ali Abbas Zafar  Cast: Mohammad Z Ayub, Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Kumud Kumar Mishra, Sunil Grover, Kritika Kamra, Hiten Tejwani, Dino Morea, Anup Soni, Sandhya Mridul, Gauahar Khan, Sarah Jane Dias, Amyra Dastur, Shonali Nagrani, Paresh Pahuja and others.  Makes one wonder why a film maker like Prakash Jha shifted gears from his realistic hard hitting cinema to a web-series like Aashram(2020), wish he had helmed a project like Tandav(2021) instead of Ali Abbas Zafar who has messed up a brilliant script with an hackneyed direction. Jha specialises in such socio political thriller based concepts, you just wish only wish!  Set in Delhi, the heart of Indian politics this web-series is entirely based on dirty political system of the nation along with an alternate linked storyline of university student politics. The main focus is on the fight between a political heir and his father’s mistress for the prime ministerial throne. They play dirty games, try t
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