Book Review - The sense of an Ending

This goes right to the top of my favorites list. 150 pages of pure genius. This is the 2nd Booker award winner I've attempted to read, the1st being The White Tiger which I put down after a 100 pages, this one was a total contrast, unputdownable !!
Having been in the habit of reading mostly American Literature, contemporary British literature came as a welcome change. With no offence to the Americans, there is a beauty in the British writing that can only be felt, can't really be explained. The slightly long and convoluted sentence formation, the use of certain words which you rarely find in books by the Americans, and a cheeky humor of the kind of the famous BBC TV series Yes Prime Minister. I just enjoyed this book thoroughly.
Coming to the subject of the book, largely it dwelt upon the volatile and mutable nature of memory, and what effect it has on our lives. A man in his sixties, married and divorced, a proud father and a grandfather, recounts his past, his friends in school - 1 friend in particular whom he liked most, his 1st love and breakup; when something happens which forces him to question his memories from the past, and recount everything again in order to know the truth.
Julian Barnes has shown how a simple and largely uneventful storyline can be woven into a gripping tale. The book is full of philosophical deliberations which I enjoyed rereading and thinking myself, the author carries all this hand in hand with a steadily progressing story with consummate ease. Actually the book would have been nothing without the questions that the author manages to raise with his interpretations of simple facts and happenings.
A must read.

Vicky Donor Review

This is going to be tough. It's been more than 2 weeks I have seen this movie, but while watching it for the 3rd time tonight I decided I should write something about it. I say it's tough, because I find it easier to criticize something that I dislike than to appreciate something that I liked. Maybe that is due to my limited vocabulary, I just fall short of words, or maybe because sometimes its difficult to express happiness in words.

Happy, yes that is what I felt after watching Vicky Donor, and that's the primary reason I am watching it for a 3rd time. Vicky Donor is a happy movie, but not in a superficial or cosmetic way. I feel the subject or the theme of the movie was such that it needed to be handled in a light-hearted and cheerful manner. As everyone knows already this movie deals with the subject of sperm donation. When I first heard of this, I thought this must be yet another slapstick comedy movie, maybe a bad hindi imitation of some hollywood sex comedy. Well, it's anything but that.

The story is simple - there's a doctor who runs a sperm bank, he is in need of good quality sperm, he finds a guy convinces him to donate sperm with some difficulty. His sperm turns out to be of very good quality, the doctor's business starts to boom. Vicky (the sperm donor) gets rich without doing anything, everything's hunky dory until people come to know of this. Most importantly Vicky's wife and his mom. His world breaks down as people start seeing him in bad light, thinking of sperm donation being equivalent to prostitution. But ultimately the doctor helps Vicky regain everybody's love and respect by showing them how Vicky had helped numerous couples who would have gone childless if not for him. The end.

Vicky Donor's central message is this - broaden your perspective. If you open the windows of your mind, there's nothing you can't understand or adjust too (of course within the realms of reason). The movie passes on this message very deftly in  very minute details that could get easily overlooked. The obvious instrument for this task was the subject of sperm donation - there is so little awareness and knowledge of it in our country that for no reason a simple act of philanthropy is seen as taboo. No wonder, when there are still people who condemn adoption, sperm donation would seem like a totally new level of heresy altogether for them. But apart from this central instrument there are various other passing references that echo this idea -

• Inter-caste marriage - accepting each other's culture and habits. No matter how different Punjabis maybe from Bengalis at the end its the heart that matters.
• Re-marriage (of a divorcee girl) 
• Drinking - in the movie Vicky's mom and grandmother both like to have a drink every evening and forget their worries. In the movie this has been portrayed in a comic manner, but the intention was to extract more than a few laughs from the audience. It may seem unconventional and unorthodox, even obscene to some that the ladies of the house drink, but what's the big deal. Vicky explains to his wife that after his father's death his mom felt very lonely, and from there her drinking started. But its okay since it keeps her happy. 
• Doctor Chadhha packs "chhole-kulchhe" every now then for someone at home and quarrels with her on the phone. Anybody's first guess would be that the person on the other side of the phone is his wife, but she turns out to be his maid for 30 years, who has started living/behaving like his wife. That again is unconventional, definitely not something people would declare openly, but that is what the movie is asking you to do - shed you prejudices, why judge a person badly just because he lives with his maid.
• And last but not the least - for a woman who cannot become a mother herself, coming to terms with and accepting the fact that her husband can reproduce and has in fact been a surrogate father to some children. Oops !! I gave away some of the story for you there :)

Vicky Donor has superb acting by all the leads. Ayushman Khurana looked very much at ease with the role, debutant Yami Gautam looked sublime, and did complete justice to her character. I was amply impressed by the fact that being a punjabi in real life, she portrayed the character of a bengali girl so convincingly. Some of her pronunciations of english words especially of the alphabet "R" I found very impressive (generally there is a marked difference in the way punjabis and bengalis would speak english, and Yami Gautam seemed to mimic the bengali style very well). But the star of the show was the veteran Annu Kapoor. He was just amazing, always funny but never frivolous. Some of his dialogues were very well written - especially his strange categorization of people into types of sperm - greedy sperm, confused sperm, complicated sperm etc. Vicky's mother and Beeji were again very good in their roles, there characters were also very well written - the practical and concerned mother and the contrasting jolly and modern grandmother.

All in all Vicky Donor is one movie that will remain in your memory for some time, a beautifully written script with perfect actors. Director Shoojit Sircar has done a good job, choosing a sensitive issue and making it look effortlessly simple, is a remarkable feat. If you haven't seen it yet please do watch it.

P.S - The movie had some nice songs and a beautiful piece of music by Niladri Kumar as the background score. Check out - Pani da rang, Mar Jaiyaan and Beyond Time from the album Sitar gaze by Niladri Kumar.

Why Ishaqzaade denigrates women and why can't bollywood give us a Beatrix Kiddo

Caution 1 - The following review is highly opinionated and contains spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie and are planning to watch it, then you may not want to read it. 

Caution 2 - As the movie itself was raw & crude, its only natural that my review should follow in the same foot steps. Hence there is use of foul language here & there which you may or may not find offensive.

Part 1 - Why Ishaqzaade denigrates women 

The movie Ishaqzaade has done to its female lead, what our country has been doing for ages to its women - disparage and belittle them, It doesn't do this with scenes of brutal torture or atrocities committed by men towards women, the disparagement is more subtle here. Do I sound like a feminist at this moment? Well for the sake of this review I will become one although in real life I do not think I am. Ishaqzaade claims to be a different take on the good old Romeo & Juliet's love story a more raw and brutal take, also upholding a social issue that plagues our country. I will come to the social issue later, first let me tell you a bit about the love story.

The movie is set in a small town, (fictitious probably) Almore which is the stage for 2 families' age old rivalry - The Chauhans & the Qureshis. Our hero, a complete misnomer in this case, Mr Son-of-Boney-Kapoor named Parma is a 3rd generation Chauhan and his grandfather is contesting the assembly elections. The heroine, Zoya played by Parineeti Chopra is daughter of Mr Qureshi who is the acting MLA from the constitunecy. In the first 20 mins of the movie it becomes clear to the audience that there is only one character worth liking, worth looking forward to, and that is Zoya. A bubbly cheerful girl with a bit of a temper and unflinching courage. Or in other words the only one with the balls despite the abundance of men all around. Parma on the other hand is a fucking degenerate, who drinks beer all day and pisses on the posters of his grandfather's rival. There is nothing in this character to inspire love or even hatred. Basically if Parma would have been the villain of the movie, it wouldn't have made much difference to anyone, because he simply lacked the chutzpah. Zoya and Parma start off fighting with each other, like their cousins from respective families, over various petty things, hurling abuses and firing bullets, until suddenly for no apparent reason Zoya falls in love with this guy. It took me some time to realize that this was actually happening - I was distracted by the beautiful Mai Pareshaan song, by the end of the song both of them had decided to get married. If scientists had invented a machine to read the collective thoughts of people gathered in a closed space, like the movie theatre and say it out loud, at this point the machine would have a yelled a loud WTF !!. Frankly if these 2 could fall in love, then the world could end in Dec 2012, beware !!  

Leading to the intermission the 2 got married, which was actually just an excuse to fuck, which they did, soon after the marriage, and after the groom was done with his business, he declared that this was all staged. He had exploited the girl for political gains, he would now circulate the photos of their marriage (which was a hindu-muslim marrg, big bawaal), he never actually loved her, and ohh by the way, I forgot, he was also avenging the slap she had once put on his face for pissing on her dad's campaign poster. At this point the audience goes for a break. Wonder what was going on in people's minds then, some might surely have been dissappointed to see the fake love story reveal itself, most people would have felt bad for the girl, I felt - this is what happens when one suddenly loses one's wits. But more than that I hoped that the movie would somehow redeem her actress in the second half, maybe she will seek revenge on everyone, she will go on a killing spree however unrealistic that might look, simply because till then there was only one hero in the movie - Zoya.

Sadly the second half turns out nothing like that - sure Zoya tries to kill Parma but it was nothing like a well planned cold blooded revenge. One would expect, atleast I did, that after suffering such a fierce blow she would regain some sense, instead she goes about the revenge business in the same hot-headed and casual manner which had led to the situation in the first place. Naturally she is unsuccessful, she is stopped by Parma's mother (who by the way is the only woman in Chauhan family which is otherwise a "mardo ki haveli"), coaxed and cajoled into not killing her son, in a return for a promise that her son would keep his marital vows and right the wrong he had done. Parma's mother was pretty diplomatic & convincing, she actually convinces Zoya that she is screwed, not just in reality but metaphorically, she couldn't return home, her family would kill her for dishonouring them, and she couldn't live there (at the mardo-ki-haveli) as they would also kill her. So the only wise thing to do is to run away with her son. What a neat solution !! In the meanwhile there is some raucous in the haveli and Parma's mother gets killed for no reason by Parma's grandfather. Before dying Mommy asks son to take care of her bahu (filmi ishtyle) and right the wrong. A lot of shit happens after this which I dont want to narrate, but the noteworthy change that happens is that the director abruptly changes his leading man from a scumbag to a HERO, a sudden change of heart for good, and in the process makes a chicken out of her leading lady. At this point I felt like pissing ... no not on the movie poster, in the loo ... I had drunk a large Pepsi !!  

Director Habib Faisal reduced the one strong character in his story to the role of a "pativrata nari". In a world where no misdeed was forgiven he made the monumental sin of asking an exploited girl to forget and forgive, to fall in love again with the same man who had wronged her, because he had had a sudden transformation from evil to good, and because this was her only option - fall in love or get lynched by the chauvinstic male world. What a shame !! Nothing much happens in the movie after this except for the goons chasing the leads, and an outrageous and non sensical ending.

Part 2 - Why can't bollywood give us a Beatrix Kiddo 

The world depicted in the movie Ishaqzaade is one where women are treated at best as housekeepers and worst as bed warmers. A world where a girl's father and brothers love her adore her, resolve to protect her from all evils as long as she adheres to their wishes, and upholds what they consider their family name. If she fails to do so, her own kin will turn against her, and if needed join hands with their arch enemies to eliminate her. A world where love and rationality have no meaning. This is not a utopian world, a world like this exists. Even close to home, there are places in India that make the news headlines just for their honour killing cases. The filmmakers weren't shy of grabbing this opportunity to highlight this social cause with a message at the end of the movie. 

But here's my question to them, what relevance does your movie have in this context. This was not a documentary, nor was it made in any way to mirror real events, to raise awareness. It was a badly scripted love story, which just happened to end in a way that made it convenient to advertise a social message. And even then I couldn't find a HERO in the movie, an essential ingredient of the movie-going experience, and inspiring character, a character you could root for, feel bad for or feel happy for. Nor did I see any hope or any solution in the end. I can think of 2 movies made on social issues which were low budget ventures and hardly managed to catch the attention of mainstream movie goers - Matribhoomi and Antardwand. Both movies were deliberately made in a way to highlight a social problem. But interestingly each movie ended with a hope for a better tomorrow. Sadly Ishaqzaade didn't.

Then what else could the filmmakers have done? Well they could have a given us a Beatrix Kiddo? Realistic or unrealistic, they could have given us a hero in the character of Zoya. A girl fights the world for her rightful place, she may have lost the battle but she would have remained in our hearts after we left the theatre. I tried recollecting bollywood movies where the female leads have sought revenge, I could come up with only 2 - Rekha's Khoon bhari maang or something like that, and Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen, the latter being more factual in nature. It seems bollywood is still giving its actresses secondary treatment. Its time we had a Beatrix Kiddo of our own, and this movie would have been a good opportunity to create one, but sadly the makers of the movie missed it. But I hope, Anurag Kashyap or Dibakar Bannerjee will do the honors sometime in the near future. I am looking forward to it.

The Dirty Picture review

When you are flying high, don't look down ... lest you start thinking how you got there !!

This was kind of the essence of the biopic released this weekend which was (not) based on any real person, especially if that person is a certain Silk Smitha. The resemblance is just coincidental.

Now to the movie. Nice attempt, with a few concessions and allowances made for the director considering the production house (Ekta Kapoor's) and the fact that he had to fit the producer's imbecile brother (or face castration) in an ordinary role which he could make look less than ordinary, it was worth a watch. And the USP of the movie is unquestionably Vidya Balan. It feels good to see a bollywood actress, actually take up a role where she is expected to look uncouth, in fact ugly (from a traditional north indian mindset, with no offence towards the south indian mindset). Bollywood in the past 5 years or so has broken a lot of boundaries, this is one.

I won't tell much of the story, it is the same old "rise and fall of a star" kind of story. All those means she thought will be justified when she reaches the end, slowly and surely bring her down, to her end, not the metaphorical end, the real one !! The movie kept a good pace for the most part, except towards the end, when there was a hint of a love affair brewing between Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan, which I felt was a touch unncessary, especially when they were creating a truly original screenplay not based on anyone's life (pun intended). I guess the producer or hashmi wanted a sufiyana love song to be done on him - hence they stitched up a handkerchief of a love story, as there was not enough time to stitch a whole dhoti. Emraan Hashmi's character, I think, would have looked more sober had he stayed a secret admirer, a person who turns from critic to admirer, and stays there ... not fall head over heels.

Another thing that I did not like about the movie, was that it had a 1 too many punches, and a lot of dialogues in general. I guess commercial mainstream cinema still does not value the importance of the absence of dialogues. Bollywood directors fill their movie with punches when they don't have confidence on their script and actors, because its easier for the public to remember a few peppy lines rather than whole characters. But here I felt Milan Luthria didn't do justice to her extremely talented actress' abilities, and the script which was decent enough. With all those punches, my fear is people would remember those more than the character Silk herself, or Vidya Balan's fine portrayal of her.

Naseerudin Shah did well within the constraints of his role, didn't exactly light up the screen, Emraan Hashmi was bearable, in fact he is getting better, and the less said about Tushar Kapoor the better ...

All in all I think this movie is a good watch, better than the director's last venture.