RAMCHANDRA :: MOVIES, EVENTS, PHILUMS, ETC

My Name is Khan

2010-02-11T23:40:41Z

Let's begin with the title, rumoured originally to be called 'Khan' to fit in with the previous set of Karan Johar films that all started with the letter 'K'. From Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna he has maintained this for over a decade. So, when the title was announced as 'My Name is Khan', it was fair to say that something had changed. Karan was leaving superstitions behind him and focussing efforts on making something that spoke for itself.

Synopsis
Rizvan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) is a Muslim man from India who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, he moves to San Francisco and lives with his brother and sister-in-law. He falls in love with a Hindu girl Mandira (Kajol) and despite protests from his family marries her, starting a small business together. They are happy until the events of September 11, 2001 when attitudes towards Muslims undergo a sea-change. As unfortunate events unfold, Mandira has an outburst of guilt, sorrow & desperation where she decides to split with Rizvan. Unable to understand her reasoning, Rizvan, confused & very upset that the love of his life has left him, embarks on this inspiring journey across America to win her back. The film begins with him already on this journey, feeding us the history behind it through narration and flashback sequences, so when I say he is on a mission to regain his love, we get to learn of how this love came about, how this journey began, beginning from the beginning with his own childhood.

It is fair to say Khan is a common enough surname in the Islamic community as a Smith or Jones in the Western world. So when our protagonist sets on his mission to meet the President of the United States to pass the message "My Name is Khan, and I am not a terrorist", there's no need to spell it out, it symbolises a bold message. From the released trailers and footage it would be rather easy to draw the conclusion that it's a story of an average Joe, labeled a terrorist because of his name, out to prove his innocence, but in truth it's not. It's about an unconventional hero overcoming obstacles to regain the love of his life.

Some thoughts:
Firstly, I'd like to say my heart goes out to all the people of Mumbai who are having problems getting to see this stress-free in theatres. If I was out there I would still be going to see it bindaas. I stand by SRK, he has no reason to apologise for anything & should not be bullied this way by the 'supposed' government.

]]> As the character in the film emphasises on numerous occasions, the pronunciation of the name 'Khan' requires the use of your Epiglottis and amusingly I've heard many mispronounce it even when asking for the tickets. Living in a country dominated by westerners, we often give into compromising our identities. Whether it be the pronunciation of our names, our appearance, being open about our belief systems, etc. Where should the line be drawn? This is the question that I felt this film raises.

It suggests a very straightforward and simple solution. People should only be grouped into two types, those who do good & those who do otherwise. Should people not be perceived for their actions rather than their upbringing? I mean, sure, the events of 9/11 certainly scarred the fragile fibre of the cross-culture environment that we had formed over many decades, but I'd say it's every average Joe's responsibility to try to 'Repair Almost Anything'. It is a strong and clear message, for if we all collectively don't try, what hope do we have?

The film uses an example of Rizvan to show that even someone with a disabling condition can achieve a lot, so the average people have no excuse at all. It's an inspiring tale. Some might say it's a little late to be making such propaganda / statements, but is it ever? I think the very same applies to Mumbai this very day, just on a different background, same issue.

Review
This is the best Karan Johar film to date. He's certainly matured over the years. With the aid of Shibani Bathija's bold screenplay we have ourselves here a pretty epic film. It only helps that such a film is being backed up & distributed by 20th Century Fox. Does it live up to the expectations and hype? In a nutshell, Yea' m0stly it does. m0stly.

The only main disappointment here is that it's so close to being perfect that the parts that rough up the edges really do sting. It's difficult to spell them out without getting spoiler-ridden, so I'll avoid detail, but I definitely think it could have been shorter & some events could have been better handled, for there are parts that could have packed a better punch with lesser detail & the exact opposite problem holds of a certain pre-climax event which could have been handled more realistically & sensitively. The event was arguably unnecessary, and if considered necessary, it could have been built up to better.

Another example of handling things sensitively is SRK's appearance, he only seems to be dressed in traditional garments with his hat ad such in the scenes where it is required for some drama, he doesn't normally dress this way (even when he was in India). Having some integrity here would have enhanced the point, but they did manage to get this point across with his bhabhi (brother's wife).

Intermission I found a little oddly placed. Usually I tend to see Hindi flicks designed in 2 halves. In this instance at Interval point I was wondering why they stopped, which is rare, there's generally always a good stopping point, in fact I thought 2 scenes later would have been ideal, but okay this isn't really that large an issue.

Then there are the theatre pieces. Some scenes played out as though they were independent to the film, such as the 'Funny Hair Joel and Mama Jenny' episode. The scenes work, but it felt like it was missing some gelling to the rest of the film. Having that happen seemed 'too' co-incidental. Some little justification of how he lands up in a small place like Wilhelmina would have been tidier.

It's quite likely the things I'm mentioning here won't concern you at all, but they bothered me enough to consider mentioning. As I've said above, the film is almost perfect, so don't let these comments deter you, the positive factors are far far higher than these little nuisances.

Ooh .. one final pet peeve I've always had & I'm not even sure it's the film-makers fault is 'english subtitles', do them or leave them but don't half do them. The songs lacked subtitles, and for those who need the subs, they're losing out on a whole dimension here.

I'll mention a few of the things that were good about the film now. :)
It doesn't waste time getting it's point made. The crowd wolf-whistled in the first 5 minutes as the line was delivered.. 'My Name is Khan & I am not a terrorist'. From this point it gets straight to telling us about the character, his history and the pace moves swiftly. You get to Intermission before you even know it. In this time you have learned enough about the characters and situation for you to care how the man's journey progresses.

In the latter half when the focus shifts to the actual journey, you are moved by each hurdle he encounters. Binding your viewer this way is the magic of great writing here.

The Music is entirely situational and suited for the theme of the film, only 3 songs have been integrated into the narrative, Tere Naina and Sajda in the first half bringing our beloved pair together and getting their married life kicked off respectively. Noor-e-Khuda in the latter half progressing the road trip journey of Khan. All three integrate seamlessly. I was a little disappointed to see Rang De omitted from the film, but keeping my eyes open on the deleted scenes on the video release. It's to be noted that unlike traditional Bollywood there's no lip-sync song and dance here, it's all background music, which has worked well. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy who have done the music also do the background score, which is equally impressive. I could not help but re-play the Khan Theme (Instrumental) when I reached my car.

Performances
The film belongs to Shah Rukh Khan, his portayal of Rizvan is nothing short of spectacular. I myself don't know much about Autism, but there's no denying that he has made a very conscious and effective effort to be different in this film. I noted that he doesn't make eye contact with anyone in the whole film. It's almost hard to digest that this 'is' the SRK that we have seen before. Known for his conventional hero roles in recent years, this couldn't have been any more different. In recent times the only comparison I can make to this sort of departure is Mr. Bachchan in Paa (who was equally impressive). I guess this won't affect those seeing him for the first time but it takes a while adjusting to SRK in this role. Though it is hands down one of his finest performances to date, it felt odd that he wasn't playing a superstar traditional hero.

Kajol is one of the few actresses that can hold her own in front of personalities like Shah Rukh who tend to command attention chewing up the screen whenever present & I imagine this is precisely why they are seen as one of the best pairs in Hindi film history. The pair work very well, but she does get pushed into the background a little in the latter half. There were times where she seemed to go overboard in the trailer, in the film I felt it was justified though. The supporting cast all-round were ace, from Jimmy Shergill to Vinak Pathak, I have to mention, it was also good to see for once that the American actors seemed to be decent. Even in Karan's last installment I felt I was seeing a bunch of extras that were clueless what was going on, we've surpassed that hurdle this time.

Overall Impressions
This is a large stride in the right direction for Indian cinema. It's not flawless but it's certainly well worth the watch. 3.75 out of 5.

Film Flashback of 2009

2010-01-19T19:02:24Z

This article is triggered by Film Stalker .. I do it for them each year & cross-post it here ..
You should check it out if you're not already subscribed .. Bar Bollywood (for which you come here, or speak to me on twitter, all your other film news needs will be covered at Film Stalker.

Okay then, as the new year settles in & shows us it's colours, let's have a brief look at what was memorable shall we? As my usual disclaimer, these are in no particular order, (I lie, they are alphabetical). They are the 10 films I most enjoyed this year & suggest you watch if you haven't already, this is not to suggest the others were crap (just crapp-er or I didn't see them), neither is it to suggest these are the best, after all, personal preference is too a factor, right?

Well here goes:

(500) Days of Summer
Bundling this in as another romcom / chick flick would be a major injustice to it. I mean for starters it's from the guy perspective, plus this is most certainly one of the best written films I've seen in quite a while. Written as a journey through a relationship, it moves back & forth in time to fill yu in on the details, just as you need them. Definitely a tough balance to find, so Kudos for that, but beyond this treatment, it felt novel too.

I think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is definitely an actor to look out for, This is the 2nd time that one of his films has made my Top 10 of the year, a couple of years ago there was The Lookout, both of whic were surprise films, hadn't heard anything about them until a week or so before their release. I'm not going to suggest the guy is the best actor since sliced bread, but he's certainly making some wise career choices that I think may be worth following.

District 9
Getting yourself a novel concept isn't enough. The other day I saw Daybreakers which I thought was a novel concept, and a lot of thought was given to a lot of the details, but large things had been ignored, making it average overall. This one on the other hand was not only a novel concept, but novel execution too. Aliens come to Earth and don't stop by at the US Embassy and say hi to the president, novel in itself, but adding to this there are many aspects to this film that were unexplored previously. From the anti-hero hero, the setting & ofcourse the actual story-line. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already & I promise you the word prawns will never be the same. ;)

Drag Me To Hell
Sam Raimi helms another Evil Dead style horror flick I was told. I gave a toothy grin & fobbed the guy off. I didn't want to admit I haven't seen the Evil Dead films. Now having seen this I understand what the big craze is all about. The story is simple, this is all about the execution, skipping comfortably between hilarious & shocking you out of your skin with less than a second in-between. It settles you down to shock you even more. It's been no secret that I'm not a fan of horror, but if they were all this effective, I would be. It doesn't depend on cheap jumps or extremely gruesome violence to gross you out, yet manages to do both. Bravo Mr. Raimi, if you stuck to this & gave up the Spider-man films I'd respect you even more, but we all need a franchise & that's a whole different story.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
Wes Anderson films are always a bit special. Take that as you will. So when I hear that he's now working on a children's story originally written by Roald Dahl who was an exceptional writer & a bit of a nutter in his own right, I'm certainly intrigued. The result is almost perfect. The quirkiness Anderson provides is only one of the assets. The stop motion animation was novel and works well too. Adding to this the voice actors really really get into their roles. I totally got lost in this world. With Pixar and Dreamworks both churning out animation that seems to be losing the spark to pull me in, this was just what was needed to renew my faith.

Gran Torino
While many action heroes are renewing their franchises, some enjoyable, some less so, Clint Eastwood brings us a film that is a little more grounded in reality. Only a little though. :) In recent years we've seen him direct more than act, which I always thought was a shame. I used to love the Dirty Harry films and teh others that followed under the Malpaso banner. So, I was extremely happy to see him on the big screen again & trust me he's stil a bad-ass. You would not mess with this guy. So, is there anything here for non Eastwood fans? Well yea'. A simple enough story, but the way it pans out and takes you in is magic in itself.

Hurt Locker, The
Forming a bit of a trend here, but much like 'modern-day' horrors, I don't like war films. War is bad, people die, families cry & above all America rules. It bores me. Unless the 'setting' is war and there is an interesting story within it, normally I don't care for them. I saw the trailer for this & was intrigued by it. It's about a bomb squad. Those guys that get called when there is a threat, to assess and diffuse where possible. This interested me. After watching it, what amazed me is how involved it made me. Specialised jobs in war or otherwise always have an aspect that an outsioder wouldn't even think about. When this requires immediate action and means instant life or death, you get real tension, which in turn makes good film-watching.

International, The
Many run-of-the-mill thrillers about government conspiracies, revenge & the such come & go, month after month, some are good fun, some are less so, but only some every once in a while leave you with more than that. This was one of those few. Now the way I phrase this may make it sound like the whole film hinges on it's end. It doesn't. It is a pretty good thriller throughout, but the more that I learned about the characters & as the plot unravelled, I found myself not only rooting for the heroes but also wondering if anything was won in the end of it all. Was there satisfaction in unravelling the mystery, was there redemption or wasn't there. & it's this part that makes it fit into a highly respectable film to me.

Julie and Julia
This one turned out to not only be a sweet film about struggles & places where people find a space to artistically vent but also turned out to be a very personal film. There were aspects of this film that I felt very closely mirrored where I am in my life, professionally and emotionally. I mean sure, putting yourself in people's shoes is what film-watching is about on some level, but these shoes fit curiously too well, to t he point where it kinda got me a bit paranoid about flies on the wall. So, of the 10 ths one is probably the most personal one, but that said I'm sure people out there are loving it for more reasons than it reminding them of me. ;)

Star Trek
I actually have very little to say about this one. I've watched 2 or 3 Star Trek episodes in my entire life, maybe 2 of the films, didn't think much to any of it. This however is fantastic. It caters for the outsider. I'm told it also caters for the fans. I think simply the opening scene should be enough to grip you, if not, I have no idea what will. I saw a webcomic somewhere tha even Jesus Christ liked Star Trek & I can believe it. Superb in every way.

Terminator: Salvation
Now this is the film that's a little controversial. I know a lot of people that'll huff & puff seeing this in my Top 10 list, but frankly, I'd find it wrong if it wasn't. Despite it's flaws, this for me was one of the most anticipated films of the year & for me, it delivered. Everything that I wanted from the film was right there. Christian Bale as Connor was not at all 'distracting', but I think he had the show stolen from under his feet by relatively recent starter Sam Worthington. The CGI Arnie obviously took it to a whole new level & was worth the admission price in itself, but all in all I enjoyed this a lot. If you missed it I'd certainly recommend it a a rental.

Well there you have it, my Top 10. There's a couple of World Cinema films I'd like to mention as a must-watch before I sign-off & that's Fermat's Room - I'd describe it as Saw with less brutality meets Mathematics geeks & then there's Let The Right One In - A film about a little girl vampire & her fraandship with her next door neighbour. Both pretty engaging films that I think could have done with a little more promoting & wider spread releases.

Well, as the kids from Looney Tunes'd say .. That's All Folks ..

Mumbai: Day Two

2009-11-02T01:51:45Z

Considering the four hours of sleep at best, I was apprehensive about this day. I figured perhaps I hadn't yet adjusted to the time difference (IST = GMT + 5:30), jet lag, all that jazz, but anyway, as planned I made my way by auto to Bandra having spoken to Mr. A from M's phone (as mine still wasn't working).

He said he's pick me up from the National College Gate. The driver had no real clue where he was going & kept stopping to ask other autos where this college was, most of them just pointed straight ahead. Obviously I had no clue at this stage, an hour or so later eventually I gave up on the guy & told him to drop me next to a payphone & that I'd work it out. I did.

Mr. A (joined by Mrs. A too) then took me to a Thali place. Thali just means plate if you take the literal translation, but when you see thali restaurants, what they mean is an assortment of foods (in a plate), this place had 4 curries, 2 starters (dhokala & samosa), dal, rice, papadoms, dessert, 2 types of bread, a lassi & a bottle of mineral water. Ample to feed on. Approximately double the variety I'd expect from a Thali in the UK. In addition, and as though this wasn't foodie heaven already, they come & top-up anything that you want at no extra charge. It goes without saying that I topped up on starters & dessert, repeatedly. The bill came to 175Rs [about £2.50]

The place was called Aram & I'll re-visit it at some point during my stay for sure. I don't think it was intended by Mr. A, but it was quite symbolic that we began here. Aram means to rest, as does Vishram, which is the name of my film banner. It was a name that conveniently came from merging part of my own first name with that of my business partner Vishal. The intent of this whole trip (which I may blog separately at some point - is in aid of developing this company), so it was a sign.

Moving on, we then went to the Mr. A residence by car & hung out there for a while. I might point out I hadn't yet got over the heat factor, any opportunity to hang indoors under a fan was welcome. It was comforting that they felt the same way about the afternoon heat in particular. He had wi-fi, so there was tweetage. I'd moaned earlier about my Sim not working yet & had some helpful suggestions to try (none of which worked, but they were sensible & appreciated), one suggestion was to pick up an alternative sim with Tata Docomo, for they would activate the Sim then & there.

So later, when it got cooler (read tolerable heat), we went for a stroll, I felt the need to get some more cash out of the SRK Bank ATM. In hindsight, I didn't need to, but better to have cash than not is what I'd figured from the previous day. Quite near the ATM I had my first of many fresh coconut waters. From my previous trip to India when I was 12, this was one of the memories I recall well. We used to have 2 or 3 a day. It doesn't seem as common these days, or perhaps it's a regional thing. *shrug*

On the way back we stumbled into a place that did the Tata Sims. In India, they seem to require a lot of documentation to even get a pay-as-you-go sim, so we got the information on what was needed, picked up relevant stuff from his place & returned to this stall. Note: it's useful to keep a few spare passport-size photos with you all the while on your travels, it was required for the sim & it was a fluke that I just had a couple in my wallet, coz I do fancy myself like that. ;)

As the myth suggested, it was active in seconds, i started texting all the tweople I'd yet to reach out to.. Data wasn't working, but simply needed APN settings, then I'd be tweeting away on the move, free, like the wind, or some such.

It was evening by this point & Mr. A was going to a Malwadi (regional Maharashtrian) event relatively close to where I was staying, so I hiked a lift & since I wasn't feeling tired, I thought I'd tag along. Upon enquiring what the event was in aid of nobody seemed to have much of a clue, much like the Belgrave Mela in Leicester each year. We Indians don't need a reason to celebrate, we just do. :D

Okay I'll admit, I didn't care for the event. I was looking forward to meeting Ms. P who was also planning on attending. In fact we organised to pick her up on the highway, so, pretty much as expected, the event didn't really interest me, it was overly crowded & was in no way film-related. I was bored & by the time we got there, I was getting tired too, I think there might be a picture of me & Ms. P somewhere where I don't look too pleased. I assured her it wasn't her, I think she believed me. :) *fingers-crossed*

The journey back was the most excitement I had all day. Despite Mr. A being a local, he got lost & in the process we managed to scout locations just as I had visualised them. Seedy allies, with occassional cows, rams & numerous dead ends. We had a vague sense of direction (I think), but many of the allies we were driving through looked like they'd reach nowhere, despite the drivers frustration, I was loving it! This is precisely what I wanted to see! It made my day.

After getting back, I pretty much passed out after having a quick shower. It had been a good day & I knew that this was only the beginning.

Mumbai: Day One

2009-11-01T12:33:28Z

The early hours:
Despite having slept at stupid o'clock, I was up at about half nine. This is when the heat had become a hindrance to my movement. I found myself wide awake mentally, but unable to move away from under the fan. That's when I wrote-up my first blog entry & caught up with e-mails, facebook messages, tweets & suchlike. Okay, I'll admit, I'm just trying to make myself sound supremely organised, truth is I probably let quite a few messages slip between the cracks without even realising. ;) When you manage your inboxes by practically having an iPhone embedded in your hand 24x7, shifting to checking once every few hours when in a wi-fi zone is a tad overwhelming.

Anyway, shifting from under the fan for over a few minutes was like walking into a sauna. Quite the predicament. As I sat around, a number of thoughts were running through my head.. I'll share 'some' ;)
- is what the rest of my trip would be like? spending my days racing between fans & air conditioned places until dawn & then coming out to play at night like The Batman?!
- still kicking myself for booking a flight on a Friday. I'd seen London Dreams on Thursday in London. That's 1 of the 2 releases. Aladin had been out for at least 36 hours & I hadn't seen it yet. Shameful. This said, to my surprise, I have yet to meet somebody who has that sense of duty towards releases.
- Aaaargh, need cash, so many people I need to get back to, meets to organise, so many things to do.. go-go-go-go gadget!

The afternoon:
Like one of those kids who keep testing the water temperature of a swimming pool immersing themselves a little more with each test, I eventually shifted out to non-fan territory. The temperature was tolerable. Okay, maybe I got pushed into the pool somwhat. It was past noon & my babysitter, whose place I'm staying at was headed to the dentist in Navi Mumbai (which is a couple of hours drive away), so I figured I'd get on with what I had to do too.

My agenda for the day was clear:
1st priority, acquire funds via an SRK Bank ATM,
2. acquire local sim card (ideally with data),
3. go see Aladin,
4. do that socialising thing .. provided time allows.

My babysitter was kind enough to organise an Airtel Prepaid simcard on the way to the cinema, a spare key to the flat & some Dhokla for brunch. So we got a Rickshaw to Inorbit Mall (near Malad) via these pit stops & then parted ways.

It was a relatively smooth ride, with the exception of one small collision. Our driver smashed the back lights off another rickshaw when trying to maneuver. The incident was quite amusing. Both drivers stepped out of their vehicles, had a bit of a stare-off for a minutes, hand gesturing away & then just decided to carry on.

I'd been informed by the seller that the sim card should be active within the hour, so by the time I was done with the movie, I could get hold of the people I wanted to meet & so on.. wait hold up, I forgot to acquire funds from the SRK Bank ATM.

Luckily I'm at a mall, so they do have ATM machines, but they didn't have an SRK Bank one in particular. At this point I was unaware if much like in the UK, you can use any cashpoint to withdraw money. So I withdrew a small amount of cash from my NRE account. I didn't want to use the UK account in case I did get charged then it's possible I'd get charged twice as much sue to currency conversion too. I've yet to know whether I was changed but at that point in time, it was a necessity, if I didn't acquire funds I wouldn't even have money for a cab anywhere, the film, etc, etc..

I saw Aladin at the 15:15 show. During Intermission I got me a fruit juice smoothie, I was dubious that it was blended with ice & that the ice would be from water that wasn't filtered, but I caved. It looked good, so I thought I'd risk it. The juice wasn't as good as it looked. Mweh. Wasn't expecting much from the film yet was disappointed, but still, at least I had seen it now.

The evening:
3 of the 4 things were checked off my list & it was only around 18:00, time to get hold of some people I thought. So, I tried calling Mr. A. The call failed. Well that's rubbish. Tried calling C*, same message, tried calling their customer services, eventually got info from them that it can take upto 24 hours to activate. Baah .. This sucked.

I had a coffee at Barista, got some change & then figured out how to use the local payphones. I called Mr. A who was quite enthusiastic, tried arranging to meet, but I was rather unsure about where I was, what I was doing, etc, etc so it wasn't quite happening. I decided to go for the safer option & waited for my babysitter to return & share her plans, there were a number of people coming round to the flat in the evening & it'd be a fun & frolics driven evening. I rescheduled meeting Mr. A to Saturday lunchtime, with an easy going evening ahead. In good time, the tweople arrived staggered in numbers, 6 or so by about 3am. We ordered in take-away. Much merry-making & conversation was had overnight, the conversations were quite random, reminded me a little of my lunches with Adam at work, one of the girls pointed out that I have good looking feet. :) At around 05:30, a few of us went to see the sunrise on the terrace of the building. I took my camera along too. Most my snaps turned out crap, too blurred. Eventually, I slept at around 7am (for 3-4 hours).

Mumbai: Arrival - Ground Zero

2009-10-31T05:17:06Z

As I'd been told a gazillion times, the first thing that hit me was the heat. It's those first few seconds after you leave the airport where there is a sudden punch of WTF, that's not right, who's been playing with the thermostat?

Merely a few minutes later, I got over it, it wasn't so bad. It was hot, but there was a nice breeze too. I met with M who had come to receive me & we got declined an auto-rickshaw by the first driver we approached. Another agreed & took us on board. As we hit the roads, the abundance of stray dogs was notable, we scooted over to Smokin' Joe's pizza place where I had my first meal.

Pizza. Quite ironic, I know, but it was late at night and only a handful of options were going to be available really. Ah, I didn't mention the time before did I? Yep. It was 1am at least, oh, and that thing about getting over the heat. Yea' .. now that it's daytime, I take that back.

Anyway, back to the narrative: We'd put my luggage inside the pizza place & were waiting outside for the arrival of K. Once he arrived, he did suggest an alternative place to eat but with luggage already sitting in this place we decided to stay put. The pizza wasn't half bad. The cheese here seems quite different, not bad, not good, just different. If you'd offered it to me in the UK I would just think it's one of those cheeses people buy for their wine-tastings, not cheddar, not mozerella.

So, after fighting a mustard bottle to its death, discussing the philosophical integrity of whether mustard really even is mustard once it merges with other things, in time we left & got another Auto back to M's flat where I'm staying currently.

I was amused that halfway through the trip, the driver skidded to a halt & asked another fellow driver on the side of the road to give him a paan. The other guy shuffled about a bit. Our driver demanded that he was given a paan pronto, he was, upon receipt, he did the side-nod shoulder to shoulder thing & off we went again at 40 odd miles an hour. It was so random, yet cool.

During the journey I found myself smiling away as I took in the unique smell, that very smell I find in every official letter I've received from India. I can't describe it any other way but the smell of India. :)

Silent Salutes,
_ram-jaane'

Notes on the Auto front:
- Some will flat out refuse you any service
- Stray Dogs
- Paan
- 1.5x rate after 1am

Kaminey (Scoundrels)

2009-08-16T16:23:06Z

Kaminey (Scoundrels)'

Runtime: 134 min 54 secs
Tagline: Dhan Te Nan
Language: Hindi (with English subtitles)
Written & Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj

As I did with Love Aaj Kal, I'll say a little about inspirations & plagiarism. Vishal Bhardwaj is a name people associate with Maqbool (an Indian representation of Shakespeare's Macbeth) and more recently Omkara (this time he chose Othello), in neither case would people accuse of plaigarism a) considering it's Shakspeare, b) because openly admitted and c) because these were both exceptional films that he really made his own.

This time no films were named as being the 'inspiration' for this film & with good reason I would say. Why? Because Vishal Bhardwaj tells us openly in an interview about it. When I read that he'd basically bought the idea from a film student, I was pretty impressed. There was only 1 thing missing, the name of this inspiration. I'll add here that the film opens with: "Based on an idea by Cajetan Boy". Full credit given where it should be. All-respect & thumbs up from me!

So the film.. the trailers just hadn't given us much to go on. We knew that it was a crime caper & the fact that it would be focused on a number of colourful yet shady characters, beyond this all we knew was that the background score would rock. They were either very smart not to reveal much about the story, or it was intentional. I must admit I took this quite apprehensively. I tweeted on Wednesday that: "considering the trailer gives us nothing beyond a feel of theme & Dhan Te Naa.. I'm irrationally excited to see it." but I had concerns that perhaps it didn't have a decent story, or it hadn't turned out too well so they were covering it up, thankfully I was wrong.

]]> Plot Outline:
Kaminey is about a pair of twin brothers, Charlie & Guddu (Shahid Kapoor & Shahid Kapoor, respectively). Charlie lisps fumbling his 's' pronounfing them with an 'f' while Guddu has a stut-tu-tu-tering problem. They are as different as chalk and cheese and they can't stand the sight of each other. In fact, they haven't seen each other in over 3 years.

As Charlie gets mixed up in a deathly get-rich-quick fcheme, Guddu incidentally finds himself realising that the love of his life, Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) has kept a thing or two about herself from him. Such as, being the sister of an over-protective gangster politician. When the brothers have it grim, this fateful night, their lives cross again.

As the brothers are sucked into a world of drugs, guns and money, their lives collide head on with the lives of gangsters, rebel soldiers, rogue politicians and crooked cops. The brothers have to run to protect their dreams, their love and most importantly, realize that all they have is each other, themselves & their scoundrel ways.

Review:
Going back to my spiel about 'inspiration', though the story is novel & new, I think it can safely be said that there were some inspirations here from Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez & Guy Ritchie: Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (Precious objects & the colourful parties after said objects), Desperado (The Guitar Case), Pulp Fiction (Dhan Te Nan) & to a degree even Revolver (The "Charlie's Dream" sequences) do seem to form some part of the ingredients to this daal, but much like home-cooking, the taste here in the end is lavish & totally Desi.

I mean I can't imagine any of these inspirations doing a double-role flick .. It's a very Desi thing to do: It's our specialty. If you don't believe me, look these up & tell me how many Western films you can find doing it: Ram aur Shyam, Seeta aur Geeta, Angoor, Muqabla, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Don, Kishen-Kanhaiya, Jai-Kishan, Paheli, Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai, Gopi-Kishan, Aflatoon, Judwaa, Satte Pe Satta, Duplicate, Om Shanti Om, Chandni Chowk to China, even the recent Love Aaj Kal, amongst many many others .. we do them often & we do them best & coming to the point this one is no exception.

So, what works for it? Well, above everything else, it has to be the writing, whether it be the sense of humour that all this mayhem carries within it, or the well fleshed out characters beyond just the principal cast. They are all Kaminey. They all have an angle that is their primary motivation & they're all pretty focussed on their goals, whether they be money, revenge, winning over their loved one, all of them. Even the brothers are seeing to themselves first & that was novel.

Even the use of the speech impediments is used wisely. I thought it would just be a gimmick to make the brothers more distinguishable, but if you look at the scene where Guddu talks about his days in the 6th grade, you can't help but empathise with him.

Often you expect scenes to pan out a certain way, but it takes a different tangent entirely, again referring to the 6th grade scene which he begins saying the both of us used to sit together, you assume he'll be talking of his brother, but he's not. All pretty smart writing, the editing matches this too.

Something in the editing in particular that stood out to me was how there were a lot of scenes that set up what is going to happen & then swiftly cut to another scene, allowing you to fill in the gaps in your head. I had read a few reviews that mentioned there was very little spoon-feeding in this film & though I wouldn't actually say that, I can see what they meant.

The attention to detail is noticeable. From the battered empty train coach in the today that in the flashback is one of many pristine coaches, to them ripping off Priyanka Chopra's face from a film poster in the background of Aap Ki Khatir. The devil's in the details. It all counts.

As said prior, we expect a fantastic background score & that we get. Quite like Robert Rodriguez, Vishal Bhardwaj just doesn't count on other people to music for his films, he does it all himself. It makes sense, after all its the background he comes from too. How this helps? Well, in particular what stood out to me was the amount of tension that is built. There are a number of scenes in which very little is actually happening beyond simple dialogue, but the music makes you on-edge, you know that something can happen here at any moment.

So, it's flawless? Of course not. Dhan Te Nan!
They've used this Dhan Te Nan factor wisely in the promotion of the film, but in the film, perhaps slightly less so. Taking away from the actual song which I'll talk about below, the Go Charlie Go theme that plays frequently in the 1st half gets the adrenaline pumping & you cheering Charlie to run, but sometimes it's a little forced. Now perhaps they realised this & decided to stop, ut my next complaint is, once the song is played (just before interval), you don't hear it 'at all' in the second half & this was a little disappointing.

Another slight issue I had was the backstory. Somethings aren't explained in here which is fine, but it's some of the things that are explained badly that stood out to me, such as why these brothers haven't seen each other in 3 years. There are things that don't add up here. I won't go into spoiler territory, but it could have either been explained better or omitted, either of which would have been more excusable.

My largest issue with the film is that the climax, though pretty large & amazing felt like a bit of a cop-out to me. I found myself disappointed a little (the 1st viewing anyway). In hindsight I can see that it's intentionally that way, but the lead-up seems so perfect that the expectations of what can happen in the climax are almost 'too' high.

Music:
The music is used as a device for the plot, just as I like to see, they have even shortened the tracks & practically blended them into a score rather than place them as 5 minute breaks as we often see. The only exception is the pre-interval song, had they shortened that one, people would have cried.

So, the opening after Charlie's dark introduction, required a sharp contrast. Fatak was precisely that. It actually reminded me in it's picturisation a little bit of Maurya from Don but appropriately on a smaller scale. As the credits are done, if you're following the meaning of the song, the 1st line uttered by Priyanka will show you that even this contrast song was a lead-up.

Raat ke Dhai Baje is a situational number, if the shehnai in the song doesn't give it away, it's a wedding song, it's so real though. It's probably the most de-glamoured wedding I've seen on-screen ever. I was impressed. Again, the song is cut short to ensure the situation gets priority.

Dhan Te Nan being the most Pulp Fiction / James Bond inspired song you could possibly get is totally catchy & the lead-up pieces used in the score in the 1st half (also on the soundtrack as "Go Charlie Go" is much like a character of it's own in the film. This said the picturisation of the song is extremely disappointing. At intermission I tweeted: "Pretty pleased with it so far.. funnily enough the only disappointment was the epileptic fit that was Dhan Te Nan!"

The title song sung by writer/director/composer is a pre-climax life-turning event for one of the brothers & goes well with his background & the themes built around him.

There is a fantastic song clearly written just for the climax of this film that isn't on the soundtrack. I can understand it, it would perhaps give away too much & take away from the impact if heard before. This said: I want it!! Anybody that has it please get in touch.

Lastly, the end credits shows us Pehli Baar Mohabbat Ki Hai, it's a mellow number & though perhaps unnecessary, it works better than the MTV style remixes that are forced uponn us often these day in the end-credits of flicks.

Performances:
I think it would be unfair to give anyone more credit than the next, even all the smaller characters were flawless in their roles, but to me hands down the principal cast nailed it. The pair work very well together.

Whether it be the lifp or the stammer, Shahid pulled it off to the tee. Both his characters are genuinely like chalk & cheese, you never see one of them on-screen & have a moment to process which character you are watching, you just know, they are genuinely 'that' different.

Priyanka Chopra has never had such little make-up but still looks absolutely gorgeous. As well as this, she plays her part so perfectly it's hard to say this is the same woman as the Dostana Desi girl. Her cute yet conniving ways will certainly win you over here.

Defpite minor flaws, and definite over-hype, it's without a doubt, one of the best films I've seen this year. A definite must-watch. It will certainly also make my DVD collection. (I've only bought 2 Hindi flicks this year, this will be the 3rd)

Love Aaj Kal

2009-08-01T17:32:12Z

Love Aaj Kal'

Runtime: 128 min 0 secs
Tagline: Pick your choice: Black Coffee or Kali Chai?
Language: Hindi (with English subtitles)
Written & Directed by: Imtiaz Ali

Our easily misled people often without even collecting the facts, spot similarities between films & jump to the conclusion that this is a simple case of plagiarism. They can't be blamed entirely, as there are many such cases of almost scene by scene rips out there.

SInce watching Love Aaj Kal last night, this morning before writing it up I decided to watch Zui hao de shi guang (Three Times). This is the Taiwanese film that people connected to Love Aaj Kal as a possible re-make, inspiration, rip, whatever you want to call it. This way I could confirm / deny the given accusation.

Having seen both now, I'll share my thoughts: Three Times contains 3 stories set in three times 1966, 1911 and 2005 respectively. The two actors who play the main characters who fall in love in each story are kept consistent in all three segments, beyond this the stories themselves are pretty independent in their content, though certain themes, communications in particular are kept in focus.

Love Aaj Kal contains 2 stories set in 2 eras (1965 - the year of birth of King Khan I might add) and (2009), but it connects them both quite methodically. It's an old man (Rishi Kapoor) advising a young man (Saif Ali Khan) by telling his story with the flashbacks of the old man also played by (Saif Ali Khan) the same actor as the young man. Similarities end there really. Comparing the films is almost like saying all films of a genre are the same. If inspired by it at all I could only say the concepts have some common ground.

Around this concept there's one large factor in common, but again it's so general that I can't really pin it as theft & that is how communication between couples seems to have receded even though we are actually more 'free' to communicate in the current age. I think this is the poignant message that both films try to convey.

Brief thoughts on Three Times:
Segment (1966) - A Time for Love - This one held most charm, a simple story, executed to perfection. A man who has to fulfil his civic duty and enrol with the military. He meets a girl at a pool hall and decides to stay in touch through letters and beyond.
Segment (1911) - A Time for Freedom - Done like a film of the silent era, with music & inter-title captions. I can see what they were trying to do, but it just didn't connect with me. It's the relationship of a courtesan singer seeking an escape and a regular client at the brothel.
Segment (2005) - A Time for Youth - This didn't work for me either. A girl struggling with epilepsy tries to find love as she is conflicted between her girlfriend and a photographer that she's having an affair with.

Frankly, though it works well in showing contrasts in times, overall Three Times just didn't click with me beyond the 1st segment, which I thought was a sweet little story. I think the film has it's audience, but those like myself checking it out with Love Aaj Kal being the film that led them here will probably be disappointed. It's a whole different flavour of film.

Okay, over to the main event that brought you here ... #LoveAajKal

]]> Plot Outline:
Love Aaj (Today) London, San Francisco, Delhi - 2009.
Jai (Saif Ali Khan) and Meera (Deepika Padukone are a modern-day couple in London. They are very happy together in that they enjoy each others company a lot without the pending question of tying each other down. So, ultimately when life pulls them in different directions, they decide to go with the flow.

Love Kal (Yesterday) Delhi, Calcutta - 1965.
Veer Singh (Saif Ali Khan) is struck by a thunderbolt when he sees Harleen for the first time. [We, the audience too are dying to know who this girl is, but she hasn't been credited for some reason.] Soon after this, he stands under a tree and makes a pledge to the heaven above that in this life or the next, only this girl should become his wife. When her parents & her move to another town, he travels a thousand kilometers by train simply to stand under her balcony and catch a glimpse of her face, yet not speaking a word with her.

Love Aaj Kal
Veer of today (Rishi Kapoor) does not understand how Jai can treat matters of the heart without passion, like some financial transaction. Jai does not understand how Veer Singh could have been so naive and silly about Harleen in the days of his youth, but as both stories unfold, we realize that the process of a relationship might be different in different eras, but the experience of being in love remains precisely the same.

Review:
The first few minutes of the film, we practically fast foward through the initial years of a relationship that Meera and Jai have. From the meeting, to the 1st kiss, to being a practically married couple to the cordial parting. The pace is almost too fast.

It's at this stage when Meera has to move to India & they decide to part ways that things begin to get interesting. They agree based on practicality to break-up before things turn sour between them, (though it does seem like it was his decision, rather than hers). They even have a Break-Up party.

Saying good-bye is never easy. Ask an emotional sucker like me, I know! Meera decides to avoid this too by making her own way to the airport the next day. Conveniently, this is where Love Aaj & Love Kal begin their merging magic. An old Veer Singh convinces young Jai that he should give her a surprise at the airport & see her off properly, even offering to drive him there.

A little skeptical, Jai asks the old man why. In response, he gets told that he reminds the old man of his youth, followed by some strong advice that he doesn't really understand. Here-on, the parallel stories begin. As the youngsters meet & part a fair few times, the old-timers show us how it's done. Sounds like the perfect chick flick, right? Well, yes & no!

The idea is great. Hats-off to Imtiaz Ali the writer. I must admit I didn't walk into this show knowing this was the plot. The trailer doesn't give this away. Veer Singh's pledge almost gives off the vibe of another re-incarnation flick. I was pleasantly surprised with the novelty of the narrative. The story itself though, not-so-much. It's quite same-same. Not that it would be a spoiler I won't divulge details, but the story of both generations has nothing refreshing to offer.

This alone, would not be a downer provided it's executed well. I mean how many revenge films are out there that have no novel story, it's passable as long as the execution grips you. Here however, it grips only in part. Don't get me wrong, the film still is one of the best I've seen this year, but it felt like they took the easy route in completing this project. There was clear scope for more that was avoided intentionally & that annoyed me. There's the re-used scenes & sets, the untrained people in the background, why not use extras? Such notable things that divert your attention from what's going on I find harder to forgive only when I notice it & I only notice it when I'm not fully gripped.

What struck my inner-writer is backing right up to the beginning of this write-up. What was the writer trying to achieve in this dual time-line narrative. If it's the passing of a torch, then where's the resolution to that? If it's simply to show the parallels between generations, then again, where was the scene that blends the time-lines & merges them?

As it stands, there is no resolution to that novel idea that the whole film hinges on.
There is a lot of use of props & dialogue throughout that is rinsed & repeated a a pay-off. The black coffees, the 'must discuss further' dialogue. The writer obviously knows how to use these things, then why oh why not with the actual narrative? but hey, that might just be me, maybe audiences are satisfied by the happy ending simply because it is happy. I'm not sure, I wanted neat & tidy closure.

I can't help but think this is that Yashraj film that was stolen by Eros, only to be made the quick & easy way, rather than the professional way. A totally baseless accusation, I might add, but just the after-taste it leaves you with.

Music:
The Nagin theme has been Modernised for the hep and modern & Bhangratized for the old-skool couple in "We Twist", which is probably the track you'll go back to for a repeat view / listen. Saif has definitely notched up his dance skills for this one. I was very impressed.

"Dooriyaan" was the most suited and haunting song of the enterprise, but perhaps not so greatly picturised. "Ahun Ahun Aahun" is relegated to the end credits & in my honest opinion terribly picturised & the remainder of songs were mostly forgettable in the film, though it's a good CD to listen to.

Performances:
Despite what I have read widely, I was not disappointed with any of the cast. Deepika is hot & makes me melt on the inside when she smiles, but frankly I think that was all really that her role demanded. She delivers her dialogues well, no complaints. Rishi Kapoor is a dependable old-timer. Luck by Chance & now this, he'll be taking the awards next year if the other actors don't watch their back.

You'd think Saif has come a long way since his Anari days, but he still does it so well. I liked him very much as Veer Singh, a typical sucker for love. I can't really hold it against him, but he didn't impress too much as Jai, not because he was bad, but because his modern avtar was simply an extension of his other Yashraj brand of boys (Hum Tum / Salaam Namaste come to mind).

The anonymous girl playing young Harleen was exceptional. Why the mystery, time will tell!

Overall Impressions:
It's got all the right ingredients to have been fantastic. Yet it's not & that is disappointing considering the names behind it. This said it's still pretty good, which is why it's still worth your bucks considering half the crap we've been putting up with this year.

Despite flaws, it's by far going to make it to the list of best films this year. Definitely one to see, but I'd suggest toning down on the hype and good reviews surrounding it. It's not the best film since sliced bread. Ugh.. you know what I mean. Go & twist!

Comic: Junebug is Dead

2009-07-02T08:59:59Z

I won't make any promises of weekly comics just yet (though at some point i hope to, but it seems I 'may' finally be in a position to publish comic strips every so often. Myself and an old colleague have collaborated on this one. Our style is obviously in it's early stages, but I hope you enjoy what you see.

It's been brought to my attention that it's not obvious here that you need to click the above picture for the 'full' comic. So yea .. 'Click it' ;)

_test from iPhone

2009-06-27T15:19:29Z

well like most tests should be, short & sweet is the way.

Alvin had DP problems too.

2009-06-08T19:01:07Z

People might recall from earlier in the year how Christian Bale set that stupid DP Shane straight by ranting at him with ample profanities & giving intense looks on the sets of the recently release Terminator: Salvation (which wasn't T2, but was still pretty impressive).

Well, as it happens, recently it's been reported that this DP got a job on the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel aptly titled Alvinator 2: Munchin' Day on which the same events seem to have unfolded. A frustrated Chipmunk recording was leaked by some guy on set that signed the envelope 'Theo'.

That's all we've got I'm afraid.. & ofcourse the recording itself.
http://ramchandra.me.uk/technicolor/alvin_flips.mp3

Tic Tac Strategy?!

2009-04-13T16:08:56Z

So, Tic Tac Mints.

You want one & you usually get one. Great.
You rarely want one though, you want two don't you? and there-in lies the pinch.

If you try & remove two from the given container, the likeliness is that you'll end up with just one or three.If you get one, you persist, but if you get three .. now, do you put the one extra one back, or do you think, well whatever & take all three? I'm guessing the latter & this is probably how they make their money.

The question that's haunted me though, is if this was intended or a fluke?
I was going to tweet about it, but as a colleague pointed out, it's not really a 140 character discussion, this is BIGGER than that. A lot bigger. So what do you think?!

While we discuss, I'm going to write to them & ask too.
I'm not expecting a serious response,but it'll be interesting to see what they say, if anything. :)

I begin here: http://www.tictacusa.com/. The answer isn't in the FAQ and I also find that the contact page has a postal address. No e-mail address, so I think I'll send them a postcard with my question. Will let you know how I get on.

Silent Salutes'

]]>
14th April - Below Postcard Sent:

@shahrukh_khan on Twitter is an IMPOSTER!

2009-03-12T22:52:38Z

"Really? What evidence do you have?" you might ask. HERE is your answer.

On January 29th this account @shahrukh_khan became quite a trending topic on twitter. I know many bundles of people joined just out of curiosity. Had the King of Bollywood joing the micro-blogging forum?

On January 31st when supposedly reputable news provider DNA confirmed this with the following tweet, many rejoiced.

With some hestitation, I too was hopeful. I asked a few people I trusted & that were able to enquire & investigate, especially since nobody else was confirming the news. My friends over at Bollywood Mantra even wrote a letter to SRK's company Red Chillies to which the account linked itself.

In a few days, things had calmed down. The odd tweet here & there were still emerging from teh account, but the imposter had slipped up. Any avid fan of the King Khan would know he would not be making banana bread. He's stated in interviews in the past that he hates cooking. The big fans understood & stepped back. I thought this would pretty much be the end of it.

Alas, this was not the case. It breaks my heart to 'still' see so many people genuinely believe this account is SRK himself. I am subscribed to the RSS feed showing the replies that this imposter gets. With a few of them I have responded, telling them, but now with concrete evidence, I just had to blog this for everyone to share. Many many thanks to Shak Siyya from Club Asia for asking on behalf of the Twitterville community & for allowing me to share this snippet with you of his interview with SRK confirming that he is NOT on twitter.

Right Click & 'Save As' to Download if you wish.
If you want to hear my rambles on twitter, feel free to follow; i am @jun6lee

January & February in Hindi FIlm:

2009-03-01T15:15:51Z

Films that I saw:
Chandni Chowk to China
- Quite a large production where the Sippy's (who brought us Sholay, Seeta aur Geeta & Shaan) joined hands with a Hollywood production house. Though amusing and entertaining, the overall consensus was that it was a let-down. I'm in agreement. It was an updated version that blended aspects of the 3 mentioned hits of the 70's, which is fine, but the way they handled the content of the story fell apart in it's drama quotient.

I must admit, despite it's flaws, I personally enjoyed it & am glad I saw it, but I could see that when the story took a dark turn at intermission point, what followed could have been an excellent revenge plot. Much like director Nikhil Advani's excellent Kal Ho Naa Ho, they could have taken the 2nd half in a very different direction, almost forcing shock upon the viewer. However they maintained the slapstick humour of the first half which no longer suited the story, thus making the last half hour far too silly for us to feel the satisfaction of the revenge being attained.

Luck by Chance
- This film was by far the most brilliant & accurate portrayal of the Hindi film industry that I've seen to date. It deserves a post of it's own. I'll see what I can do, if time permits. For now I'll say this is by far the 'must watch' film so far this year.

Billu Barber
- Shah Rukh Khan producing always means there's no way you can miss the marketing of the film. What initially concerned me was the content of the marketing. I'd seen the theatrical trailer and knew that the story was supposed to parallel the traditional story of good friends Krishna and Sudaama which I've hear many a time as a child. The marketing on the other hand were pumping heavily these 'item songs' with Shah Rukh Khan on-screen throughout them & very little of Irrfan who I knew was supposed to be the protagonist. Was it going to become a film that centered around someone who wasn't by default supposed to be the protagonist?

Talk on the grapevine, from friends in the industry was that these songs were added to make up for the content of the film not being enough to 'sell'. Upon my first viewing of the film, I was relieved more than anything else. All of the above was justified and a perfect balance had been found. The songs which I feared would feel out of place, were just fine. In fact, upon my second viewing were the highlights of the film, just as marketed. Irrfan still is the centre of the story and the film & isn't at all over-shadowed by SRK. This said, the story is 'too simple' for a feature duration. Even with the tweaks made to modernise the story, something feels missing in the narrative for it to hold up. It was a risk to produce, but I'm pretty sure it'll have made it's money back by now already. So, though it's far from his best production, I'm still proud of this film.

Delhi-6
The marketing didn't show much at all when it came to what the story of this film might be, but we had Sonam Kapoor who has an instant on-screen presence, Abhishek Bachchan who has earned his respect as a dependable actor, the feel of the streets & the people of Delhi and of course the music of the recent Oscar Winner A.R. Rahman going for it. Enough to pique my interest & motivate me to see it on opening night. I kid you not, the music is so much more of a selling-point with Hindi flicks that English films that I can't stress it enough.

Having seen it I was sorely disappointed. Yet again, quite like CC2C above, the first half is all hunky-dorey. The very essence of the Delhi city is felt through what you see & this part could not have been better. However by intermission point I had already realised that this can't really have a satisfying resolution & it really bothered me.

The problem I could see was that we had spent a lot of time focussing on so many little story threads that it was like a house of cards, it lacked the backbone structure. There wasn't a linear & clear one story line that you were involved in from the initial scenes to the very end & numerous subplots suffered because of it. Let me stress that I'm not saying it was all-bad. As mentioned before, the music was wonderful & watching Masakali on-screen was enough for me to consider the admission worth it, but I did find even the music was quite misplaced at times. I'm a big fan of music integrated into the narrative, provided it doesn't 'feel' out of place. The Ram-Leela scenes & a number of the songs in this film did.

Films I didn't catch:
Raaz - The Mystery Continues
- A limited UK release that was on late shows on week of release. I didn't get a chance to see this. Admittedly I wasn't overly motivated to either. I haven't even see the first in the series, though I've heard it's a decent film & did enjoy the songs. Not being a fan of horror, not having a soundtrack that hooked me, not having marketing forced in my face, it didn't really stand a chance to impress me.

Victory
- A sports film, about cricket, with cricketers 'acting'. I'm not a big sports fan. I like the love and enthusiasm that surrounds cricket, but the game doesn't interest me enough to make me want to see this. So, why even go see Lagaan or Chak De India you might ask? Well, the answer is simple, Star Power. Aamir and Shahrukh both simply by being attached to a project, make it worth watching, here though I've heard Harman Baweja has done a great job, it wasn't enough for me to be motivated to go see. Yet again, if a soundtrack, or even 1 song was on the radio that made me think, I want to see how this has been picturised, it could be enough to sway me. There wasn't.

Other Hindi flicks that released but didn't make it as far as the UK:
Jan: Bad Luck Govind, Kaashh... Mere Hote, President is Coming, The, Aasma - The Sky is the Limit, Chal Chala Chal
Feb: Dev D, Mere Khwabon Mein Jo Aaye, Jugaad, Kisse Pyaar Karoon, Siddharth - The Prisoner

Admittedly most of them I probably wouldn't have ended up watching anyway, but the surprise one here is Dev D. I'm very surprised this didn't get a wide release. Dev D is supposed to be a modern day interpretation of the much critically acclaimed novel Devdas . A tragedy comparable to Romeo & Juliet that has been made into films a number of times over the last century. The most famous ones featured Dilip Kumar (1955) and Shah Rukh Khan (2001) in the lead role. This time with the story being handled by Anurag Kashyap who made Black Friday and No Smoking, I expected this to be not only getting a wide release, but being advertised very heavily. It's a film that was guaranteed a bit of a cult following even before it's release. The soundtrack is refreshing & demands attention, whether you like it or not. Alas, I've yet to get my chance to see it.

2009 - The Year Begins Again [Part I]

2009-01-11T18:02:10Z

So in the previous 2 years I've done a new year's post: 2008 and 2007 .. Maintaining this tradition I thought I'd do one in this new year too .. I missed publishing this on the 1st, 2nd 3rd, even 10th, ah well like it really matters as long as I do ..

With the end of 2007 I put out some of my goals for the year with the pretext that when I did 'this' post I could "share the progression rather than just me gloating to myself." .. as I egoistically put it. So let's have a quick look back at these before enforcing some new ones. Did I meet these goals? In dribbles ...

The film reviews and articles: I promised a rating system which I provided (with no explanation, but in essence I labeled films green, amber & red, based on whether I considered them 'must-see', 'well, it depends' and 'seriously don't bother' & mentioned in passing that I would try & improve the quality of my writing. I think I've achieved this, as always there is yet much room for improvement, so this shall remain on-going, after all you can always be 'slimmer' as Patrick Bateman once said. ;-)

I said I'll focus on the realistic goals, that way I'd be a total idiot if I failed: [let the demoralisation & entertainment ensue]

Online Screenplay:
I know that I haven't got a problem with doing the work required but have a problem getting my act together and to 'keep' doing it. The lack of motivation is the barrier that I hoped to overcome. To achieve this I suggested that I build a screenplay here in front of you all. 3 pages each week and I quote myself again: "At the end of year -- if you don't find a complete screenplay, with a beginning, middle and end (length: approximately 150 pages) than I have failed." -- and here I 'have' indeed failed!
What happened?!
Firstly, this is no excuse for failing, it is merely a real logical justification as to what happened. I started depending on a readership & feedback from friends & readers. Initially this worked well, but soon I found people just wanted a 'read', every month or so they'd catchup & I wasn't getting anything back from it. Since the story didn't engage me too much, I let it go & started work on other things. Nobody seemed to miss it or quizzed me about it so that was that. 2 and a half months & the project was pretty much dead.

What I learn?
The obvious. Only to work on something for myself, not to expect feedback/support et al, to remain as independent as possible?! Not quite, I need to make a point of infiltrating like-minded crowds. Expecting the average audience to critique, is all fair & well, but primarily they're just going to have a positive or negative feel, not a full-on structural analysis. Expecting more was perhaps a little unrealistic of me. As well as this, had I picked a story that I liked a lot, I probably would have continued. [but on the flip-side I'm not sure I would have been comfortable sharing it then.]

Vocabulary:
Considering my aspirations to sell what I write, I think it only makes sense that I should constantly be improving my vocabulary. As a bare minimum I said I"d go for learning 1 word a week (& sharing it). This means at the end of the year, provided I stored it all in my RAM then I'd have a larger bank of words to use than I did then. -- Part-Fail
What happened?!
Well, I did quite a few such posts. For more than half of the year, each Wednesday, I posted about the word I learnt over the last week & how I learned it. The logic behind it being, that a story attached to a word makes it easier to remember. It worked, however I sort of lost steam when my reading of Books came to a halt [I'm still less than half way through Haunted, which i have been for many months now]. At this stage the only new words I was encountering would be from films & people, (mostly on Twitter, I might add). So, with a recorded conversation there I didn't feel I needed to double post here, considering that half the audience here has exposure to my twittering anyway.

What I learn?
Well, new words, obviously. :-P In addition, recently I've learned that Twitter might be deleting older posts, in my archives I can only see about 800 tweets, which may sound like a lot, but considering the frequency of my twittering that is around a couple of weeks worth. Basically these recorded conversations potentially may be lost in the mist in no time. Taking this into consideration, I'll resume posting these 'here' shortly.

Other listed objectives to work towards:

The "Koffee with Ram" section is still rather empty. - I had a rather adventurous plan for this but was unsure if I had the time or scope to pull it off. The idea being having coffee with random people, to develop personal communication & social skill, as well as an appreciation for different social groups & networks. It was quite a large time-hungry project and though things are potentially still feasible & in the works, I'm not certain of its long-term outcome. It's closer to fruition than last year, but I'm tempted to just latch on to something simpler. We'll see.

The "About Me" section: I know that if somebody wants a simple snapshot over-view of what I'm all about, the only thing they would pick up from an initial browse is that I'm quite full of myself, and I seem to have a certain love for films, the Bollywood ones in particular. So a clear and concise page would be a good addition to show what the Ramchandra brand if you can call it that is really all about. - Still practically non-existent. Need to fix that.

More photos -- I'm not very clear as to what I want to get out of this, but firstly I need to work out an optimal way of displaying pictures an a reader-friendly format. I've tried a couple of Photo album style add-ons to the Movable Type package but nothing I've been satisfied with. I may just port this project to Flickr. Primarily I need to take more pictures. Of the 100's a handful may be worth sharing. If I only take a handful, you do the maths.

The "comic" that I've been promising for ages will still happen but is on the backburner somewhat. It links in slightly with the above, but that's just an excuse to a degree. I have a lot of ideas, characters and even complete strips on paper, but my drawing is terrible and I'm not entirely comfortable with the rough drafts that I've been doing as to be able to share them. - A friend has volunteered & putting together some character art, which seems potentially like it might go somewhere.

There is also the building of a database-driven look at my film collection, that I'm hoping to progress. The hindrance here is the rumoured API for imdb has yet to be released. I may look into alternative ways of doing this, but I think I have got a fair chunk on my plate considering I have a full-time job doing something else entirely.

Well, there you have it, how I fared with my aspirations set in 2008.
Obviously that's not 'all' that I did, given time I'll do a follow up post for things achieived in '08 .. & things to do in '09.

Roundup of the other films of 2008

2008-12-31T23:58:49Z

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.