Pluto and IPL

I had just got home and settled down to watch an IPL match, when Pluto quietly snuggled under my leg and started to lick my feet. I gave a loud sigh for I knew what was coming. Sure enough a minute later, he got up, plonked his paws on my knees, and said ‘ What about teaching me IPL Cricket?’.

I was relieved. This was easy. ‘It’s called 20—20 cricket. Each team has 20 overs….’.

Pluto barked, irritated.’I know that. I watch more of IPL cricket than you do’ ‘I meant the practice and training.’ ‘Well you have to forget classical cricket. The main shot is the swipe. Anything and everything, you swipe. Just for variety you hit straight and occasionally loft with all you have.’ Pluto barked again.’’You are missing the real thing. Teach me how to edge and mishit. After all , most runs are scored of those shots’.

‘Pluto, you can’t be taught those shots. They just happen!!!’, I screamed.

‘It just happens?’. Pluto looked at me incredulously.’Then why do the batsmen brandish their bats, knock gloves with their partners and smile at the TV camera as if they’ve played a great shot ?’. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘ That’s just to rub salt in the bowler’s wounds.’

Pluto digested that after a lot of chewing on a chicken stick.’ Why are the bowlers all crap—being hit for 4s and 6s?’, he asked. ‘The batsmen just sees the ball and swings the bat.That is why bowlers rely on variations of pace so much. Some of the batsmen are exceptional sighters of the ball and are strong and time the ball.’

Pluto was persistent.’Why do they miss so many catches?’ .I sighed. Most of the catches missed are high ones. The ball swerves in the air and is lost in the background’. ‘I would have caught them,’ Pluto boasted,’ Would they have given Rs 25000 to The Pug Welfare Fund?’. ‘Probably,’ I said, ‘But you needed to talk to Lalit Modi first.’

Pluto’s eyes gleamed. I was now getting the direction of his thinking and was getting apprehensive. Explaining cricket to a pug was okay. But explaining Lalit Modi?? Sure enough, Pluto started firing.

‘Why does Modi speak so fast?’, he queried.

‘Well, he has a lot to say,’I said weakly. Pluto gave me a knowing smile and said,’ He has to finish speaking between his tweets!!!’. I conceded that with a silence, hoping he would shut up now.Pluto wandered away, but sure enough, he wandered back, his puggy brain working furiously. I braced myself.

‘Why does Lalit Modi love spas?’, he asked, shaking himself. ‘He has a high tension job. He has to relax, you know’, I said. Pluto grinned. ‘Keep his eyes focussed, you mean,’ and he dragged out the following photograph!!!

‘What is sweat equity?’, he asked,twitching his puggy nose. I knew that I was done for.’Well, actually, that is when persons employ someone whom they cannot pay now. That person works, and gets a share of the profit later.’ Pluto was ecstatic.’That’s exactly the way I work’, he said.’You know Jacqueline of the next house. She is my girl friend. I give her the choicest tit bits, and she reciprocates.  It’s actually –HIS sweat—Her equity !!!’

 

Having explained everything puglogically, Pluto dozed off. Before sleeping, he kept on muttering, ‘Lalit Modi—I want to know about the haveli and the spa….’.

Lalit Modi—beware!!!!

 

The Japanese Wife

Based on an improbable story by Kunal Basu, Aparna Sen directs a landmark film “The Japanese Wife”, produced by SaReGaMa Films of which she is the Chief Creative Director.

The film from the beginning is different and lyrical. The curiosity created by the big box arriving from Japan and the acceptability of such happenings in a small traditional Bengali village leads us on to a love story based on letters which has developed between Snehomoy (Rahul Bose) a school teacher in a remote village of the Sunderbans and a Japanese girl Miyagi(Chigusa) running a grocery shop near Yokohama in Japan.This sequence is tightly and brilliantly edited.Many letters later, they decide to marry with an exchange of a wedding ring and a pair of bangles by post. They behave like a devoted married couple without meeting each other for seventeen years!!!Their reality is based on photographs, gifts (like kites and champak flowers),rare phone calls and of course the letters!!!! Communicating in English which is a foreign language to both and therefore full of hesitation and mistakes—they still build a world like a devoted couple without being in physical proximity.

According to the writer Kunal Basu, who also plays a cameo in the film after his decades-ago debut as a child actor---“It is a relationship of great intimacy but no domesticity.”

 

Snehomoy’s guardian is his Mashi SoiMa (Moushumi Chatterjee)who has brought him up and who after an initial fretting accepts the situation, though she complains that her dream of grandchildren can never come through via letters!!!!

Enter a widow Sandhya(Raima Sen) and her son Paltu who come to live with them. Sandhya was once shown to Snehomoy for marriage, but he had shown no interest. Sandhya’s presence is disturbing for Snehomoy as she raises desires in him. Moreover, she cleans up his cluttered room and brings the peace of domesticity into his vision. They suddenly caress each other in an emotionally upsetting situation. Snehomoy immediately wants to write to  Miyagi, his confidant and wife, but cannot.

Meanwhile  Miyagi falls ill and Snehomoy takes leave without pay to get assistance from local Ayurvedic and Unani and Homeopathic physicians, before he knows that she has cancer. A local doctor guides him to an oncologist who thinks that her lifespan is limited. Coming back, he gets caught in inclement weather, develops pneumonia, and cannot get the requisite medicines as the area is flooded. He dies, Getting the news, Miyagi   shaves off the hair on her head(?Due to chemotherapy), adorns the white sari of a widow, and comes back to Snehomoy’s village. A monochrome last scene shows the dead Snehomoy floating in a boat onto an eternal destination. This scene is reminiscent of many Japanese and Korean films.

The direction is sensible and sensitive.The scenes have been crafted with great care and precision.The camera movements are beautifully controlled and expressive and seems so rightly balanced, Emotional highs are  counterpointed with the mundane and the humourous. Yet the thread of tragedy is omnipresent. There is not an iota of crudity. even the scenes of masturbation integrate thoroughly.It is like a slap in the face for films like 3 Idiots which made up for a dearth of creativity by their vulgar manoevures. Truly creative people do not need such brittle props.

Anoy Goswami’s camera captures the Matla river in all its moods. The river dominates as a medium of communication and beauty and tragedy.The cinematograpghy is outstanding and will surely win awards for the magnificent frames, movements and colour balance. The mood of the film is greatly enhanced by Goutam Basu’s Art direction.

Sagar Desai’s  use of Japanese music  is  superb. There is no song as such nor is one required. Clever mixes of local and effects sounds enhance the viewing pleasure.

The acting is controlled and mostly apt. Rahul Bose impresses with his hesitation and intensity, his care for others and his devotion to his wife. He is obsessed by the relationship yet hesitant and unable to call the shots. He can handle a polaroid, but cannot make a STD call.Though one wonders whether that led to the character being one dimensional. Even in the lively kite flying scenes, his energy level was a bit low. Moushumi Chatterjee acted with restraint but somehow was a misfit into the role. Having seen Chaya Debi or Molina Debi or even Shobha Sen or Sabitri Chatterjee in such roles, it is difficult to accept plucked eyebrows, her nose twitching, and her essential glamour in this role.  Being a character actor is to sacrifice your self and Moushumi just could not do it.

Raima Sen acted expressively, but again was too glamorous for her role. The contrast with the other village women in the boat and mela was too much. A girl brought up in the village would unhesitatingly pull up her sari to avoid the mud and would not walk so gingerly on the stone steps at the river bank.

Chigusa was outstanding in the last scenes. Her vulnerability and her strength brought great moments to the film.

The high point of this film was the kite competition. Superbly compiled and scripted , the transformation of a kite contest into a  jingoistic issue was amusing. A kite with a broken thread suddenly became a symbol of loss and sorrow. The kites in the sky returned in the closing credit scenes to round off the film.

However there were some weak areas.

Assuming the story is of modern Bengal, considering the mobile phone, fax, STD booths, specialised Oncologists, Beedi jalai by Bips on a TV screen, and shots of Kolkata, it is somewhat difficult to believe the simplicity and naivety  of the main protagonist Snehomoy and the village inhabitants. How can a modern schoolteacher be unaware of emails and fax? How can the villagers accept Snehomoy’s postal wedding? Everything here seemed a trifle too sweet.  The massive storm sequence should have affected all the village people but that is not shown. Probably Aparna discarded that thought as she was painting on a smaller canvas.

     

The dresses were too new and modern. Poor schoolteachers and their families do not wear sparkling whites, nor do they wear such sophisticated shoes. The contrast with the other characters was an eyesore.

The makeup of Moushumi was in certain scenes , too obvious. Do these villagers, specially widows, smear so much of cream and powder on their faces?

Sparkling whites and cream and powder and plucked eyebrows!!!!

One reaction was pithy.”This is a great film if it had been made by a debutant. For an experienced and established filmmaker like Aparna , this was a bit of a fairy story”.

Overall this film is an exceptional one, of great human moments and emotions which leave you affected at the end. It is a film of taste and fine beauty, of grace and wonder, of seriousness and great imagery. It is in many ways  like a glorious Haiku.

It emphasizes the great differences between the good Bengali and the good Hindi film.

In my book highly recommendable and a Must—see.

Subho Nababarsha

 

In spite of the growing years and the paunch and the increasing cynicism, Poila Baisakh has a cathartic effect. Inexplicable, but the world looks a little rosier, indiscipline and uncleanliness looks a little out of focus, and the cold wind which flows in from the Hooghly river and flutters my hair seems that little bit more tangy. Memories stream in and go like flitting traces of sunshine. Childhood seems palpable still. Father’s call from the room below, mother’s blowing of the conch shell, my sister’s secret call to share some hidden goodies—and books and the favourite stair landing spot besides a window---was only yesterday.

I spent the evening listening to Byatikromi singing songs of Salil Choudhury. Byatikromi is a group of doctors—all leaders in their specialised fields, who sing because they like to, and who sing well enough to perform shows and record CDs with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa---all for charity .

Listen to the three songs below, which transported  me to a different land, and era, where there was no TV or Internet, only these songs percolating from the radio or disc record players, transcending the grime and the smoke and streetsounds, making the world just that extra colourful, just like Nababarsha now and today!!!!

Click on the links below….

http://www.box.net/shared/m7v0ug3b33

http://www.box.net/shared/7h2tpdb7mn

http://www.box.net/shared/o8x1vcf65a

Chains

Friends are everywhere—childhood, school, college, workplace, colleagues, relatives….

Sometimes they are nowhere—specially in the depths of night, when the dark , menacing clouds close in on you, and only lone stars flicker and are immediately covered by clouds driven by an impatient wind.

And they are also in chains—bound by their own lives and responsibilities, sometimes willing but unable to come in your hour of  need, or talk to you when you need it most.

And yet you need your friends because they and only they can give a dispassionate opinion or tell you that you are not positioning yourself correctly.

And of course, we are all in chains, visible and invisible, commitments and responsibilities, external and internal, prisoner of our own fears and ambitions.

So the key word is positioning. Where do you think you should be? And where you are….Here is the ultimate call—brutally honest and factual. After all, why do we lie to ourselves ? And why do we live in dichotomy—one face to the world and one in the inner mirror—because salvation if there is anything like it , means the ultimate coming together of those two faces blending into one.

It means breaking the chains—and it can be done sometimes slowly, sometimes with a dramatic heave…

And then you can fly and fly…..

Where is the change?

Recently a young patient of mine requested me to have a look at his film. He is a first year student of Mass Communication and Videography and his first semester film was called “Voice”. The film had to be shot in a photo montage style. The website is of the Xavier Film Academy—www.sxcfilmstudies.com. This is a remarkable site not only because of its clean, no frill,functional design, but because it truly showcases what young people in the 18—22 year category are really thinking about. Through the site , one can access their activity and skill level, and their take on contemporary society.

Voice is a sincere film. Tightly edited, telling imagery, use of song, and dialogue—all contributing in getting the director’s message across. For a first semester project, it is remarkable and emphasizes the skill level that youngsters are achieving. I do not mean “youngsters” as a condescending description, but as a positive statement –that if they can achieve this much at this level, then their peak production with age and experience should be something to look forward to.

However there are many grey areas—not only in conception but in execution. The executions are correctable as they are technicalities, but proper attention need to be paid to it.

The narration is very amateurish and heavily accented. The play shots are mostly from one angle. The lighting should have been better and  highlighting the correct areas and the sound recording was uneven in parts. This might be due to equipments that were used, but should be looked into. As they develop more, all these problems will disappear.

But my main grouse is the content. Though film makers need to be committed, they must not sacrifice their credibility. They should not be committed to any political line , even if they sympathetic to one. Their role should be of the observer, if they want to retain their neutral image. They should be able to comment dispassionately on any shortcomings in society,  and of any religion. Overtly committed filmmakers are taken with a pinch of salt, because they cannot be taken at face value of giving the audience a truthful picture. The incidents depicted are undoubtedly, true, despicable and ghastly. But this truth is full of omissions—as in this film.

Why was there no comment on Marichjhapi massacre where the armed state calculatingly killed refugees eking out a pitiable existence in the uninhabited Sunderban Islands?

Massacre at Wandhama

Why was there not a mention of the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, driven and banished from their homes in Jammu and Kashmir?

Why is there no mention of Taslima Nusreen and her travails of writing her version of the truth?

Why is there no mention of the siege at Esplanade for four days in front of Statesman House for reprinting an article? This was blacked out of almost all Newspapers and TV channels.

Why is there no mention of the beheading of police officers and killing of ordinary people by Maoist terrorists?

Why is there no mention of the killing of innocent people by the Muslim terrorist organisations or the militants like ULFA and the Mizo terrorists? While Army atrocities are hyped about by intent-faced hyperventilating activists, there is a strange and curious lack of intensity in condemning the separationists violence.

  Why is there no mention of the Kar Sevaks being burnt alive, purportedly due to an accidental fire or deliberate sabotage? Two commissions (Nanavati and Banerjee) have given conflicting reports because commissions and many film makers are actually biased while professing to be neutral and a part of “liberal society”.

Even the bold, uncompromising, fearless film makers are actually lambs inside, unwilling and unable to focus on the TRUE picture.

Nothing has changed. The same slogans , the same dialogues, the same Naked Raja that we saw and heard in our childhood  and student days . The establishment  may change colours and yet will remain the same exploitative power. The ideals, the commitment to ideals have become a commitment to hold on to power even with slipping fingertips. A change of government means more and more clashes and unnecessary ,useless deaths. No one will take voluntary responsibility and go gracefully. They will go kicking and screaming like an unruly child and will be replaced by people who will probably be the same.

And film after film, play after play will be made in the same format, same mime and songs and dance, with the same committed viewpoint, as they were decades back.

When will this incredibly talented young generation chart out their own independent pathways lined by the flaming torches of information and reality?

When will they tell the whole truth, the uncompromising truth, and all the truth?

If there is any song playing already, go down to the previous post and pause the music player. Then listen to this song by Helen Soo. Click on the play button below.

changes.mp3

 

Love, Sex and Dhoka—the Dhoka is final

To all those celebrating LSD as the cult film of the decade, as the great pathbreaker in Indian Cinema, as a member of the Least Common Denominator—the paying public, I differ and differ vehemently.  Duped by a National award winning label on Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, and the  hullabaloo made by National TV Channels and the big shot newspapers who were falling over themselves to eulogise the movie and more ,its director---I went to see the movie at a noonshow in a well known Central Kolkata Hall.

I was dampened by the sight of only 4 occupants in the Dress circle at Rs.80/ticket and hardly a hundred people in the hall.The hall was something like the above. From the beginning I was informed that we are all basically in front of various types of cameras and a participant in a reality show by Dee Bee enterprises. After a few minutes ,I was rubbing my eyes ,not in disbelief but in real pain as the story( more evident in its absence) evolved with jerkiness, deliberate hand held shakes and unfocussed. That , I was assured, was the New Age filmmaking—more real than skilled. Cinema , or the Cult Film Zamana is a director’s viewpoint and only that—the poor audience could always have a splitting headache—but that does not matter at all. Ekta Kapoor, the producer, screamed when she saw the preview. For once, I agreed with her. However she settled down as she realised that the 3 crores had already been spent. She refused however to show it to her parents.

The film  evolved in three parts—Love—Sex and Dhoka. The Love part was a traditional spoof on a rich girl-poor boy love story, with an eager father getting a role in the film by a budding director making his diploma film. The poor director falls in love with the rich heroine and finally brother with his goons kill and bury them . An ad nauseum plot, made cleverly by juxtaposing film with reality, and moving front and back in style. However, the old DDLJ prevails(Simran and all that) and there is the tragic end of this part.

Sex then takes over and a manager of the firm is bent on taking a store attendant to bed as a challenge and then selling the clip for Rupees seventy thousand to a reality TV show!!!!

The great pataoing goes on and finally the girl agrees to a rendezvous  in the store room!!!!The camera is framed to catch the VITAL moment. It turns out that the previous section “Love” protagonists are this girl’s friend. On learning of their death, the girl in a moment of emotional turmoil, clutches onto the male.The Moment arrives and the male protagonist is allowed to  do his act which he does staring at the camera.   Thank God, the censors pixellated the scene as this alone might just have made this film popular (that of course was the director’s intent…)The clip is sold, rages as a superhit, and invades the mobile denizens. The girl wants to commit suicide.  The thread continues in the third part as a girl attempting suicide is saved by a  person who has already failed in an attempt to do the same.

 

The third part is called DHOKA. Here the rescued girl and this  cameraman run a sting operation for the Reality TV company. They trap the victim, an aging pop star, on camera talking about sex for work. They are finally re instructed to film the victim giving them money. After a confused rigmarole, all the three couples are seen in a stylised finale of  being Reality TV participants.

Unfortunately, we felt that the Dhoka is all that we were left with as we lurched out of the hall.

The film goes forward and back and laterally as the main characters twine and intertwine between the three sections. “Inspired” by the real life incidences like the Delhi MMS scandal, the intercaste/inter status marriages and their violent sequelae to retain honour and the sting operation phenomenon that sweeps the country now and then—the film is cleverly constructed. DB cocks a snook at the establishment and with racy editing, pushes the film to an ending.

However as a member of the paying public, there were too many inconsistencies which could not be glazed over by the glossiness and pace.

Was there a story of any merit anywhere? No, not at all. The  plot is hackneyed and predictable and seen before in Dev D and the bad “Reconstructions” in TV channels. Was the concept of the camera playing all the time, unique ? No, it was irritating, never allowed the viewer to watch the film with any degree of ease and seen before in Paranormal. Maybe DB wanted the film to make his audience feel disturbed? This disturbance is not of any social value. We have felt disturbed by Pather Panchali on one side or Satya or Rang De Basanti or Paa or My Name is Khan on the other. But those were positive disturbances which made us think and react. Here the effect is trying to forget it as fast as possible!!! Here the film is irritating and obnoxious, the feeling of being taken for a ride and duped of our hard earned money by a director who wants to snigger at the Industry and the traditional methods of films. It is really unfair that we have to finance DB’s personal quirks and also have a splitting headache and eyeache in the bargain.

 

The critics will love the movie as it provides a break from tradition. Unfortunately, the ordinary viewer goes to see a film with certain expectations. Not all the time do we go for Time Pass entertainment. We go to be stirred, emotionally and creatively, willing and wanting to appreciate art and creativity, not only for gloss and glamour. We do unfortunately have our own views derived from our own intelligence (surprise for our all knowing directors—we can actually think!!!). So when a director thinks that we can be walked over by oversmartness and mis experimentation—he is in for a surprise. If he disregards our sentiments, he will find acclaim from select interested groups, but not at the box office and hopefully not from any producer who values his money.

Wikipedia informs us thus. The film has been critically acclaimed by the movie reviewers for its unique filming style, acting, realistic story and superb editing.

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama reviewed positively saying, "On the whole, Love Sex aur Dhokha is original, innovative and ground-breaking cinema, which will shock and provoke you. The film is definitely not for the faint-hearted or those who swear by stereotypical fares, but for those who yearn for a change." and rated it 4 out of 5 stars..

Rajeev Masand of CNN IBN rated it 4 out of 5, stating "Dibakar Banerjee's Love, Sex aur Dhoka is the most riveting Hindi film in recent memory. [...] You will be shocked, you will be startled, but walking out of the theatre, you know you have just seen what is possibly the most important Hindi film since Satya and Dil Chahta Hai. Not only does it redefine the concept of "realistic cinema", it opens a world of possibilities in terms of how you can shoot films now."

Subhash Jha of Bollywood Hungama critically criticised the film stating, "The film never belittles or sentimentalizes the characters' lack of choices. While inventing a unique format of cinematic expression Dibakar Banerjee has not emotionally emasculated the characters. [...] In terms of technique this film gets as rough and jolting as any film can. The actors look like reality-show rejects making a last-bid attempt to prove their worth." .

Martin D'Souza of film portal glamsham.com rated it 4 out of 5 and verdict, "What is very smart is the way Banerjee weaves the lives of all three couples to make it one smart movie. At first, it appears as three separate issues but the end surprises. Intelligent cinema. It real and it's scary."

Sarita Tanwar of Mid Day, gives it a 4 and a half out of 5 and stated, " LSD has all the makings of a contemporary cult classic this season's best film. It's a must-watch.

Gaurav Malani of India Times gives it a four out of five, and stated, "At several levels, Love Sex aur Dhokha is at par with some of the best titles in world cinema in terms of its treatment."

 Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India gave a three and a half to the film, and stated, "Don't expect time-pass entertainment. Think beyond run-of-the-mill and see how Ekta Kapoor re-invents herself as the producer of contemporary Indian cinema's first full-blown experimental film.

Raja Sen, of web portal Rediff.com, gives it a perfect five, and stated "It's bleak, bittersweet, funny and markedly unglamorous, and yet you come out humming the theme tune, your head blown clear off your shoulders.

Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times gives it a three and half, and stated, it as " truly an experiment" in Bollywood.

^{The final comment however is reserved for us –the audience.}

“The film has done below average performance at the box office, with it's targeted multiplex audience not reaching to the expectation.”  ( www.boxofficeindia.com).

And rightly so. Forgettable music, oft repeated theme, reality show acting as bad as it can get, boring, gimmicky, tiring and repeatedly irritating, portraying a small aberrant portion of society with a prominence it did not deserve, descending to cheap titillation from the title, dialogue and lyrics in an attempt to cover up for creative deficiencies, promoting voyeurism as a way of life, and disregarding audience likings for a critics review bonanza—this film will of course crash resoundingly at the Box Office.

But does DB care? Watch this movie only if you feel like sponsoring this tiresome DB snigger at Bollywood!!!