Mumbai by the decibel… a piece on SHOR IN THE CITY

Shor In The City, like the city it takes place in and which is a character in the narrative, is an anachronism. It attempts at tackling the chaotic dimensions of the Mumbai way of life by using the now-common multiple stories approach, and in the process ends up offering splintered vignettes of it. Perhaps there is a subtext in the haphazardness… a method to the madness of this bursting-at-seams city where back-stories are done away with in favour of a relentless adrenaline rush. But just when you think that the film will offer an image of the city devoid of the cinema-trope handicaps where every prostitute has a heart of gold, Mumbai’s shown to have an innocence underlying all its ugliness. Enough of the Mumbai ‘spirit’ already.

Superman gives up US citizenship!

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For much of his career, Superman has fought for truth, justice and the American way. In the landmark Action Comics No. 900, which was released on Wednesday, Superman decides he has to stand for something bigger and he renounces his United States citizenship. Superman declares that “the world is too small. Too connected.” The Man of Steel’s declaration, “I’m tired of having my actions construed as instruments of U.S. policy,” follows accusations that he caused an international incident in Tehran. Superman flew to the country during a huge protest, where he stood silent for one day, to show his support for the demonstrators. The 24 hours pass with a mix of appreciation (flowers and flags) and fear (hurled Molotov cocktails). But the government of Iran sees Superman as an agent of the United States and feels his action is an act of war. “Truth, justice and the American way – it’s not enough anymore,” Superman tells the president’s national security adviser. “The world’s too small. Too connected.” He then makes the decision to go before the United Nations and renounce his American citizenship.

Specters of Dum Maaro Dum

[this piece deals with many of the spoilers in considerable detail and therefore those who haven't seen the film shouldn't touch it with a bargepole!]

At least on the evidence of Bluffmaster and the current film it is never a bad idea to begin at the end with a Rohan Sippy film. These very deceptive films recoil on themselves by way of their resolutions and in fact Dum Maaro Dum announces this ‘serpentine’ route at the very beginning. It is not however just the fact that the ‘ending’ in each instance gives what has preceded an entirely different twist but also that the subjective position implied in the narrative is also suddenly altered. In Bluffmaster Abhishek’s character is the narrative’s principal subject but also a kind of ‘author’ inasmuch he orchestrates many of the film’s scams. But by the time the film ends we realize that most of the film has actually been a vast ‘meta-scam’ authored by Priyanka’s character. The lead male here has all along been ‘acting’ in something scripted by the woman. At the same time this shift coincides with one that offers a different kind of commentary on the essence of the cinematic and the idea of film illusion. By introducing the not uncommonly used documentary device at the end the film as it were offers ‘meta-commentary’ on itself. Suddenly one is not in the world of the film and with the lead character but actually outside it and occupying Priyanka Chopra’s position though she is also in the film she scripts. But things gets complicated here. She is a bit like the director who acts in her own film but there is also clearly an initial portion in Bluffmaster that is not ‘controlled’ by her signature. This segment then connects with the end credits with the footage of the film’s shoot and so on. The actual ghost here is the director himself who even as he creates all these different modes of fiction (to which following the suggestion of certain theorists the documentary passage must also be added) shifting the subject position in each instance is ultimately really calling the shots (!) at every point. This is also the very meaning of the Hitchockian specter, the mysterious figure who wanders through all the director’s important works, who is and is not the director. Bluffmaster in any case is a superb tale of cinematic illusion but it is also one where the director writes himself into the text of the film in a very surreptitious way not only by ‘upsetting’ expectations of a stable narrative but also by de-stabilzing questions of subjectivity. And though this is not the right point to expand on all of this there are also additional specters in this world which range from a ‘city of silence’ (Bombay) which is the heir to a post-masala universe much as Abhishek himself as a somewhat ghostly operator in this world already seems to be at the ‘end’ of a Bachchan-inflected universe. The insight that Rohan Sippy rightly intuits is that Abhishek Bachchan can be ‘greatest’ by writing a supreme coda to his father’s career much as the director’s own cinema can most faithfully offer a museum of Bombay film memory by concealing it beneath an auteur’s signature. An even wider observation might be risked here which is that global cinema itself today, and for a time now, has in fact been a desperate auteurist struggle to wrestle with the ghosts of past tradition. These ghosts that can be wrestled with fruitfully but that cannot ultimately be laid to rest. For if graves signify that bodies rest within them they also equally indicate that ghosts always escape. Dum Maaro Dum makes tracking down some of these ghosts part of its cinematic project.

Tarantino to take on Django for his next!

thanks to TonyMontana..
LINK

Quentin Tarantino is moving ahead with his plans to make a Western, entitled ‘Django Unchained’. Deadline.com reports that Tarantino finished the script late last week. The website’s Mike Fleming said: “While Tarantino has spoken about doing a variation of the Western genre he called a ‘Southern’, I’m told he has actually written a spaghetti Western, that stylised and violent brand of films popularised by Sergio Leone and a few other directors in the 1960s.

Image from Rana

Abhishek and Rohan Sippy together once more

thanks to Tata..
LINK

The party poopers can say what they like. Abhishek Bachchan and Rohan Sippy are going to be working together again! The proposed project is again an edgy out-of-the-box experiment with truth extending the language that this actor-director invented in Bluffmaster and Dum Maaro Dum (DMD).

Ragini MMS trailers

Drugstore Cowboy… a quick-fix note on Dum Maaro Dum

There are many differences between Dum Maaro Dum and the last film that Rohan Sippy directed back in 2005, most noticeably being mirth… or the lack of it. Let not the promos kid you… Dum Maaro Dum is an angry beast of a film. Bluffmaster! had many moments of sheer cinematic ecstasy and a narrative that defined the word speed. Even in its quieter moments, and most of these were in the dopamine world of the romantic track that involved the lead pair, the film still had a trippy essence to it. The cinematic illusion, and allusion, both within the film and within the film in that film… had an euphoric flourish. The ‘trope’ was cinematic, but the ‘trip’ was beyond just cinematic.

Bachchan 1093 & 1094 & 1095 & 1096 & 1097 & 1098 & 1099 & 1100 & 1101 & 1102 & 1103 & 1104 & 1105 & 1106 & 1107 & 1108 & 1109 & 1110 & 1111 & 1112 & 1113 & 1114 & 1115 & 1116 & 1117 & 1118 & 1119 & 1120 & 1121 & 1122 & 1123 & 1124 & 1125 & 1126 & 1127 & 1128 & 1129 & 1130 & 1131 & 1132 & 1133 & 1134 & 1134(i) & 1135 & 1136 & 1137 & 1138 & 1139 & 1140 & 1141 & 1142 & 1143 & 1144 & 1145 & 1146 & 1147 & 1148 & 1149 & 1150 & 1151 & 1152 & 1153

1093
“Prayer then is perhaps the only abstract line, which, parabolic in nature, may or may not reach its desired path. The elliptical curve, may form the height of heightened passion. But beyond … does it show you where it falls and ends.”
1094
“I need to be cautious when I write. Words written in a moment of introspection go out to millions and sometimes create anxiety to the EF. This is not correct. My own condition, if it can be called that, is not meant for distribution and exhibition. “

If Not an Oscar, the Oscar Library Will Do (Open Magazine)

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Soon after Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj met its fate, he said the Oscar Library requested him to send the script along as a contribution to their collection. A news report had a ‘smiling Subhash Ghai’ quoted as saying, “Of course, the selection of the script of Yuvvraaj came as a surprise to me… surely, [it is] an honour that no one can deny. Let’s say it is my consolation prize for my hard work.”

Open Magazine piece on Bob Christo

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When Bob Christo visited Brio for coffeeand a brownie one morning, he triggered a reaction reserved for a certain kind of fame. This celebrity is neither a superstar nor entirely forgotten. He hovers on the edge of memory, forever linked to a particular time, like a yellowing love letter rediscovered. So, when Christo strolled in, a young man put down his screenplay, and squinted as if to trace a distant thought, and customers turned to look and slowly smile. At the height of Christo’s powers, film-makers asked mostly two things of him—being evil, and laughing evilly. This he did in nearly a hundred movies.

Prabhudeva’s Bhansali production with Akshay called Rowdy Rathod (earlier post updated)

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The project, which director Prabhu Deva, producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Akshay Kumar had come together to create, has finally been christened Rowdy Rathod. When asked about the title, Bhansali humourously said, “It sounds like those action films from the South in the 1970s like Rowdy Ramu.”

Dum Maaro Dum, the rest of the box office

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Image from Gangs of Wasseypur

Shor in the City, Chalo Dilli, I Am, Dum Maaro Dum (ongoing), the rest of the box office

last week’s thread

Dharti trailers

thanks to Iamthat…

Dum Maaro Dum trailers (updated)

Abhishek’s hip-hop album with Vishal-Shekhar to finally release this year

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It’s finally happening. Abhishek Bachchan’s hip-hop album to be titled Side B (as a homage to those vinyl discs in the past which had two sides) composed by Vishal-Shekhar is finally moving into a gorgeous groove. Two years in the pipeline, the 6 tracks rendered by Abhishek for the album have been composed by Vishal-Shekhar.

Sakaal Times interview with Abhishek

thanks to Sandy..
Abhishek Bachchan opens up about the current state of his career, the reason why his character in Raavan didn’t click and why he cannot work with someone he doesn’t know

Abhishek Bachchan is possibly in the most fragile phase of his career, with a dismal 2010, and 2011 also starting on a bad note with Game. Not that the actor has been unacquainted with failure. He did struggle for years, before finding terrific form with Dhoom, Dus, Bunty Aur Babli and Sarkar. Just when it looked like he was peaking as a performer with Mani Ratnam’s Guru, his career once again starting slipping. And with ambitious films like Raavan, Drona, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se biting the dust, the actor hit rock-bottom again. Of late, one has seen him turning slightly defensive and bitter with the media, and it was no different when he came to Pune, ahead of the realease of Dum Maro Dum – possibly his best bet to bounce back. Standing with his feet on the window sil of the hotel room, like a pose straight out of one of his father Amitabh Bachchan’s films, he greets you and then sits down for a tete-a -tete. His answers are forthright, genuine and there’s no doubt he deeply cares about his work. For once, he lets his guard down and pours his heart out about all the things that’s bothering him.

Koffee with Karan Season 3 awards