December 2008 Archives

I have Richard from FS poking me for a top 10 so here's a quick skim of the 'Non-Hindi' films that left a positive impact with me in 2008 .. as with before, by no means are these the most successful or the best, it's entirely based on 'my' preference.. so here goes..

Bank Job, The - The true story of a heist gone wrong... in all the right ways. Set in the early 70's this caper is about a team of Londoners who manage to (to some degree by fluke) achieve things that they never would have dreamed of. It's a well put together flick with attention given to maintaining the feel of the era its set in.

Charlie Bartlett - Popularity is a state of mind. Well, that's something that Anton Yelchin will soon be, if he isn't already. He plays Kyle Reese in the new Terminator film, & I can already picture some of the audience turning back to see what else he's done & bumping into this under-rated gem. It's the story of a bored rich kid & how he deals with his boredom when transferred to a public school.

Charlie Wilson's War - Based on a true story. You think we could make all this up? To date, the only war film that I've considered watching again. Maybe because, it seemed apologetic to me, they felt sorry that they didn't do better & sooner, as well as the mess they left behind. Considering how ignorant I can be when it comes to sbjects outside of my forte', It was quite educational for me too. Backed with seasoned actors & a sense of humour, I have to say, it came as a total surprise, impressed & stuck with me.

Cloverfield - Some thing has found us. Some Godzilla style monster that we actually never see in detail. Why?! Because, it's not a traditional hero film where Will Smith or who have we saves the world with every government agency at his leisure, it's from a more real perspective. The man on the street flee-ing, trying to save his loved one. It had a unique novelty & buzz surrounding it & it delivered.

Cottage, The - I've said it time & again, I'm not a fan of horror. Add humour to the carnage & I'm sold. This one does just that. It's your typical-fare, out in the woods, crazy in-breds hunting down the outsider type stuff, but with humour. 2 men have kidnapped a girl for ransom & headed to the cottage. It's all the bickering & pre-carnage humour that cranks this up a notch.

Dark Knight, The - Why So Serious?! It was the god-damn Batman, it was amazing & it warrants being in the Top 10 films of the year, yet it's the one I was most reluctant about. It's an excellent follow-up to Batman Begins, with Heath Ledger stealing the show as The Joker, no doubt I will end up getting it on Blu-Ray soon enough, but it's definitely over-rated in the public eye.

Gone Baby Gone - Everyone Wants The Truth... Until They Find It. This film left me thinking, what would I have done in his place?! When a film has that level of power over you, they've done something right. It follows the investigation of a missing child, but leads to answers that are morally ambiguous, though tied up logically.

In Bruges - It's in Belgium. Shoot first, Sightsee later says the tagline as these assassins hide out, in Bruges. When one is instructed to dispose of the other & doesn't, the big boss is not happy. The most quotable film of the year, no doubt. Probably also one of the funniest. It's smart, witty & will leave you wondering about what it's like to be a 'dwarf'. With the exception of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, it's the one film this year that I've seen most times. It holds repeat watching value, and time after time it doesn't get any less funny.

Iron Man - Heroes Aren't Born, They're Built. When billionaire Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is kidnapped, under bad conditions, in some cave where he is imprisoned he builds a protective suit that allows him to escape unharmed. Mark 1. Upon his return to the USA, after having a Burger King he decides that he's Batman. I mean Iron Man & goes with it. In essence it's just another comic book character origins film, but it is great fun.

Rambo - People die. A lot. Every once in a while this is the sort of entertainment you need. Switch brain off, & watch one man take out an entire country with his bare hands, well a town & with guns & stuff, but you get what I'm saying. The only complaint I had with this film is that he spent too much time on that mini-gun. More archery would have been nice, but hey I still loved it.

A couple of International films I feel I should mention: Orfanato, El (Orphanage, The) - a horror without humour that I didn't mind, liked even. There is always something refreshing about seeing things from a child perspective. I'd recommend a rental of this at the very least.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird This one when I saw it a couple of months back was set for a December release, looking it up now it seems to have shifted to February, one worth keeping your eyes open for. Visually stunning, one of the best stylised films I saw this year, without a doubt, let down only by its story. If you've seen The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, you'll see exactly where it needs to go & the way this climax is reached, seemed a little forced.

Okay then, as the end of year approaches, let's have a brief (sarcasm - I rarely keep it brief) look at what was memorable. As a disclaimer of sorts, these are in no particular order of preference, in fact to avoid just that I have ordered them alphabetically. They are the 10 Bollywood films I most enjoyed this year & suggest you watch if you haven't already, this is not to suggest the others were crap, neither to suggest these are the best, after all, personal preference is too a factor, right? We're all allowed our guilty pleasures and I have knack for announcing mine proudly.

A factor I should point out is how I compile this list. I have a list of releases that I maintain on a weekly basis. I then pick out the films that I got the chance to see & then pick out 15-20 that I enjoyed, or rather remove all the stuff that I didn't and narrow down. At this stage it's tough, some flicks get pushed out though I enjoyed them & survival of the fittest takes cause, this said if I were to do it all over again, it would probably vary a little, so if you feel I'm doing injustice to something you loved by not having it here:
a) make your own list, I'm sure Richard would gladly publish it over at Filmstalker,
b) know that it's possible that it made the top 20, but that you'll NEVER know for sure unless you ask! :-P

Well here goes, I've tried to go by World-class production value & keep it fairly diverse:

Dostana - A love story with a twist is how they advertised this. I wouldn't have quite put it like that. I'd call it a comedy that pushes the envelope. The plot is basically that this gorgeous girl Neha (Priyanka Chopra) is seeking two 'female' flat-mates in her apartment. Enter Kunal (John Abraham) and Sameer (Abhishek Bachchan) who seek a flat quite urgently, they manage to convince her to take them on, despite her being apprehensive that there wouldn't be any awkwardness. How?! The guys pretend to be a gay couple. Mischief & mayhem ensue. They both try & make their advances towards her, while maintaining the public façade of being a couple, but in the end the film isn't really about that, it's about the fun ride and the friendship that forms between the three of them. Shot entirely in Miami, it's a fantastic feel-good entertainer..

Golmaal Returns - The Diwali film this year. A laugh-a-minute slapstick comedy sequel to Golmaal (which wasn't that great to be honest). Luckily, this is not a straight sequel, it has much of the same cast playing similar characters in a whole new story arc & backdrop. This means you don't have to have seen the original to get into it. This story arc is about a jealous wife (Kareena Kapoor), and a husband (Ajay Devgan) who realises the extent of her jealousy. He tries to spare the agony & repercussions of an event, by creating a fictional alibi. This goes terribly wrong, when a fictitious friend at a fictitious address actually happens to actually exist. All rather silly, but sometimes that's just what you need. The main strength here is that it's nothing short of hilarious.

Halla Bol - In sharp contrast to the above, this has Ajay Devgan play a fictional Bollywood Superstar, reminiscing his journey to achieve his stardom and the things he lost along the way. Things take a turn for the worse when a certain event triggers his conscience into gear. He realises that though he's been selfishly giving a blind eye to so many wrongs around him, these things have knock-on follow-ups that affect him & his own, even if indirectly. Taking a turn to try & fix his life, as always, is no easy battle. This film raises awareness into the more darker side of the film industry, but centrally is an entertainer about a hero & his righteous journey.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na - To a degree, a generic-fare chick flick but there is a certain freshness in the actors & dialogue here that puts it up there as one of the most enjoyable films of the year. It's earned newcomer Imran Khan star-status practically over-night & I have to admit, though initially apprehensive, after seeing this I was pleasantly surprised to find it all the praise is well-deserved. A R Rehman's soundtrack was a definite plus too.

Jodhaa Akbar - This historical spectacle is about the Emperor Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) and his lady-love Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai). It in a nutshell, it follows how they became a married couple & how she made a better man of him, but its strength lies in its moments. Though it has been criticised for skipping out on a lot of interesting history of the emperor, I'd say this was a necessary opportunity cost for the sake of having a coherent & linear story. There's no denying that much detail & effort has been put into the sets & costumes. Visually it pays of, it looks fantastic, epic even.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - Shah Rukh Khan's only full-feature of 2008, it was bound to rake in the money, that was a given. Whether the film delivered the quality expected with such a name attached was in question. It has been getting mixed reviews, but from my point of view (SRK fan-boy bias aside), it's a well-structured film, one of the few this year that uses its songs as a narrative progress rather than promotional tool. Worth a watch if your expectations aren't sky high due to the director's prior works. Of the lot, I'd say if you're a recent Bollywood consumer, this is a traditional slice of what it's more commercial side offers.

Roadside Romeo - Disney teams up with Yashraj Films to give us this animation flick about a stray dog finding his way in the streets in true Bollywood style. It keeps the story relatively simple, almost generalising to the point it shows a lot of reflection to Hindi films of the 60's and 70's, but the main focus is the showcase of computer graphics & though it's not quite polished enough to be mistaken for Pixar, it's not far off. A healthy team-up in Productions for sure.I look forward to what they might conjure up next.

Rock On! - Perhaps a little stereo-typical here, but it's a story of a bunch of youngsters who had a Rock Band and parted ways under not-so-nice terms. Years later when fate brings them back together, they've all evolved but still have that unquenched desire to Rock On! If it wasn't for the supreme music of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy this could have sunk lower than the Titanic. Thankfully as well as an awesome soundtrack that it hinges on, the performances & direction too are convincing & te characters are difficult not get attached to, leaving us with a happy-go-lucky flick that inspires the artiste in us.

Sarkar Raj - This is a sequel to the 2005 film Sarkar, which was a re-imagination and an official tribute to The Godfather from Ram Gopal Varma. Though it almost mirrored the story, one large change was made. The Godfather lived. The sequel is no longer attached to the Godfather franchise, it simply follows on from where the first film left off & shows how the ruling of the Nagre family holds its footing and power. There are new characters in the form of allies & enemies. What will keep you engrossed is the on-going twists & turns that unravel in one of the smartest political thrillers I've seen to date.

U, Me aur Hum - This is the love story of Ajay and Pia (real life couple Ajay & Kajol Devgan), who meet on a ship. She works as a bar-maid, he gets served & he's already fallen in love. The duration of the cruise is spent with his numerous attempts to win her over. Eventually, she caves. They marry, have a family & then she falls ill. She starts forgetting things. I found this a very sensitive and emotional film, though there are similarities here with The Notebook & even 50 First dates to some point, it's in a whole different time frame. Its focusses shift away from both those inspirations and individually raise the question of whether sending patients to an institute is actually helping or is it giving up on them. I'll admit it, it's a tear-jerker, grab your tissues, lots of them.

Okay, though that wraps up the 10, I really need to mention that there are films that released this year that I didn't see and really really still want to. These definitely would have been considered for this list had I seen them. I feel very bad about this, since they didn't make it to an area where I could catch them (legally). The films are: A Wednesday!, Dasvidaniya, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Aamir, Tahaan and Fashion. It really is a shame that these more hard-hitting and non-commercial flicks don't get the exposure that they deserve.

Something to work on for sure, but how?! Ideas most welcome. My approach currently tends to be to try & raise awareness within crowds that I feel would appreciate them but otherwise never hear of them, such as a subset of the readers here, but I really hope to find a channel to do more than just that.

So, the fairy-tale story teller is back upto his tricks, directing again after an 8 year, 2 month hiatus. Let's go over the history here first for those that aren't in the know.

Diwali of 1995 came his directional debut: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. A story that expanded its audience-base by encompassing the NRI (Non-Residential Indian) within its central character base. At the time, this wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't a common occurence. It's only fair to say it was widely appreciated & accepted as the new hip approach to films. Many numerous films have followed from here. Yet, nobody had expected the epic success the film would become. If you ask me, I'll admit that though it is an amazing film to watch, the success attached to it got out of control. Way out of control. It wasn't 'that' great. The closest example I can think of in recent times is The Dark Knight. There's no denying it was pretty damned good, but should it be labelled one of the best films of all time within minutes of its release?

Now when you've made a debut that is one of the longest running films of all time in the country (India), with cinema halls dedicated to showing it 'many years' later, the people's expectations are going to weigh pretty heavily. So, what happened? 5 years later, as the DVD for DDLJ had finally released, In Diwali of 2000, he brought us Mohabbatein. To a large extent he played it safe here. As well as making a pretty good feel-good film, he had another card up his sleeve that guaranteed the success & ofcourse the moolah.

Amitabh Bachchan (or Big B as he's fondly referred to) has been the icon that labelled Bollywood since the 70's with nobody matching that level of star value, except, perhaps in the last decade or so, Shah Rukh Khan. So what's to happen if the arguably 2 most popular & publicised faces of the Bollywood film industry, were to be sharing space on-screen for the first time? Damned straight, that Diwali there were fireworks & it raked in the money just as anticipated.

Another 8 years pass. Diwali 2008 -- Nope. For some reason the film isn't ready for a Diwali release, maybe he's thinking he hasn't got a good enough film for a Diwali release, or maybe I'm reading into it too much & they simply don't want to clash with other films being released by the same distributor (Dostana & Roadside Romeo were out around Diwali). Hmm ..

So, in front of Dostana, I see this trailer for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, having only seen the 2 posters up to this point. The story here appeared to be as simple as: Middle-class geek has makeover to impress the girl in the backdrop of Punjab.

I took this away & had a real think about it, will the film really just be that? I mean sure, that can work, but what about the expectations attached to this. Then it hit me, this film in some ways is all about notching the expectation mark lower. I read somewhere the next day that the entire feature is shot in India, and it only took 4 months to shoot, & like an epiphany it all now makes sense.

To a degree having seen it now, I was right, but where I was wrong came as a surprise. I almost underestimated its content. So having banged on about everything but the film, I'll now get to it.