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653 Responses to “Gangs of Wasseypur & Teri Meri Kahani, Rowdy Rathore (ongoing), the rest of the box office”
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur To Depend on Word Of Mouth
Thursday 21st June 2012 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
There are two releases this week in the form of Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs Of Wasseypur and both will be dependent on word of mouth.
There are expectations from the industry for Teri Meri Kahaani as it has some face value in the form of Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Although an advance is not expected from these type of films but whatever there was it was lower than similar films like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara released last year.
The music of the film has not seen major success which is a must for a romantic film. It will be no surprise if the film has pretty low day one and totally dependent on word of mouth for a pick up on Saturday.
Gangs of Wasseypur looks very dull and the film will have to show huge jumps of business and also huge appreciation as it also has a second part which will have no chance without huge appreciation for the first part. Despite the film being shot in the heartland these type of films have no chance in the heartland of India as far as box office is concerned. It will be dependent on those 50 odd high end multiplexes around the country.
My daughter went with three other kids and thre adults to watch FKS…….none of them really realy liked it that much ….they all said -theek thee lekin kheench dee…
Yeah I think they are, but my guess is that distributors don’t find this viable enough from a financial standpoint especially overseas to give it a staggered release.
they had part 1 at the recent Asian festival. But in any case this is a pity. Ideally I would like to see all of it in one go. Hope it shows up in a special somewhere.
Yup, a festival at some point down the line is the best bet for a full-length screening. Not sure if I have the will (or more to the point, the bladder control) for that kind of experience though!
The early Torrent files for movies do not have movie prints of good quality. it’s only later that the HD/ blue-ray like prints are available. But here at my place, i can get a dvd with a decent print within 2 weeks after the release
I don’t do torrent or any type of download because I am scared of viruses. I recently tried to download haasil and got all kinds of porn stuff also downloaded along with torrent file :-(. We used to get “original” dvd (still illegal I am sure) from stores for $2 but these days it is harder (especially if movie is a hit).
Yes, but in Anurag Kasyap’s own words, he doesn’t really mind people watching his films on torrents! In his TEDx speech, he recounted how a Supreme Court judge influenced the release of Black Friday after watching it on a pirated DVD.
I absolutely agree and I’m certainly not taking any moral high ground, but there’s a difference between Kashyap during BF and Kashyap today. I can certainly wait for a proper video release these days. Kashyap doesn’t have to face the release hurdles that some of the true arthouse filmmakers do.
GFji: BTW I absolutely loved the football in the inquiry analogy…I came up with so many diferent meanings of that scene that I wanted to get up and write it down but fell asleep instead. Nice writeup. I think on a second dekko of Shanghai, I will discover these layers.
Not sure if I’d watch it again but there’s certainly some nice details Banerjee adds. This is his best asset as a director. The whole first section of OLLO detailing Lucky’s upbringing in Delhi had some excellent slice-of-life details.
Ha! but both Telegraph and Guardian has given it 4 stars. And even otherwise it’s getting glowing reviews internationally. Garfield is being singled out for special praise
Absolutely loved TAKEN. A brilliant suspense thriller and Liam Neeson was magnificent in the role (he always is) but the second film judging by the trailer just seems unnecessary. Anyway will 100% watch this and am sure I’ll enjoy it 😀
wanted to see GoW–Checked and tried to book–instead—TMK showing near me–
and there are interested people to view tmk !!
guess will have to watch the coy eyelid-batting priyanka this weekend !
was shown bits of a nice little light film–“in good company’
Liked it
Dennis Quaid-topher grace-scarlett johanssen
good one–how did folks here find it?
Ranbir Kapoor on GoW- “Have to see”-
Anurag is a hunter and you have to see his gun! I love the music, and my favourite dialogue is ‘ yeh Wasseypur hai. Yahaan kabootar bhi ek pankh se udta hai aur doosre se apni izzat bachata hai ‘!”
Dibakar Bannerjee on GoW- “Insane party”-
“Gangs” is nonstop indulgence, like an insane party! It truly is one of the biggest guilty pleasures for life .To see Indian male sex machines in ghamchhas and chewing datun while a luscious bhabhi drools over him, to see abullet-riddled body take thirty seconds to die while the sun blinds your eyes, and the music, which contrasts so dementedly with everything… It’s like eating one-to-one rice and mutton ratio. I want to chew on it till juices run down my chin
Zoya Akhtar-
“Gangs Of Wasseypur” is a hard-core family saga set in a lawless, testosterone-driven land. I loved it. I love Anurag Kashyap and I can’t wait to see part 2-
Imtiaz Ali-
It’s very enticing. I believe it’s Anurag’s best. It’s violent, but he’s made it in a very entertaining way
just saw the gow screening bits for bollywood
Unlie the usual PR events, didnt evens ee the maker kashyap around–it was in a run-donw sort of studio, it seems and most people seemed to come out of genuine interest and to learn soemthing new unlike the ‘u scrathc mine, i scrath yours deal’
hope kashyaps brilliance rubs onto these others..
good to see zoya coming over to learn from him, imtiaz is a friend though..
I’d take all the above with a ‘big’ pinch of salt. It happens with all films where certain people namely film makers decide to lavish praise on another film and surprise surprise they return the favor.
Anyway off to watch Mausam 2 tomorrow at the 20:30 show….. my friend is a Shahid Kapoor fan 😛
The screen, at the beginning of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, is filled with the titles sequence from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and then the camera begins to pull back. The gaudy, brightly lit world of the popular soap is slowly swallowed up by the dimness of an undistinguished room. The screen of the television set keeps getting smaller, the real world larger. And then, the spatter of gunfire. And a shout, instructing these TV viewers to down their shutters. This, we realise, is no home, but a business establishment of some sort – a small shop in a row of small shops. More gunfire pierces the darkness. People are felled by bullets. A haveli is surrounded and bursts of fire from automatics illuminate the night. Who are these people with these guns? Who are those cowering in the haveli, around the man whose phone explodes with the ring tone of Nayak nahin… khalnayak hoon main? The only certainties are that we are in a violent neighbourhood, that this stretch is set post 1993, the year of Subhash Ghai’s antihero blockbuster, and that the director is not going to slow down for exposition and explanation.
In a pre-titles credit, Kashyap expresses his gratitude to the “Madurai triumvirate” of Bala, Ameer Sultan and M Sasikumar, for inspiring him to get back to his roots, but he just as well could have thanked Cervantes and Dickens. Gangs of Wasseypur is a sprawling, picaresque saga set in and around the mining community in Dhanbad (formerly of Bihar; now belonging to Jharkhand), and its raffish protagonist is a man named Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpai). But where films revolving around a hero (or an antihero, a khalnayak) usually become fixated with their every movement to the extent that this hero (or antihero) shows up in every scene, Kashyap tells the story of Sardar Khan through the people around him, the people who came before him, and those who come after him. In other words, we begin in the years just preceding Independence, where we learn who Sardar Khan’s father was, how he lived, how he died, and how the young Sardar Khan, subsequently, swore to avenge his death. We meet this story’s villain, Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), and we steel ourselves for his showdowns with Sardar Khan, and for him to meet a most well-deserved end. This is how films have trained us.
But novels, on the other hand, aren’t as bound to plot and protagonist. They can, on a whim, linger on descriptions of scenery, or on the misfortunes of a secondary character – they aren’t time-bound. There’s no pressure that they wind up in two-and-a-half hours, and that’s the philosophy that informs Gangs of Wasseypur. On a formal level, this is easily Kashyap’s most fascinating outing (and a gratifying return to form after the underwhelming That Girl In Yellow Boots). The film unfolds as a series of voiceovers, a flurry of dates and names, a cavalcade of memorable scenes – Sardar Khan canvassing for votes as a sidekick channels Mithun Chakraborty from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki; Yashpal Sharma breaking into a falsetto rendition of Salaam-e-ishq meri jaan (one of the many throwbacks to the Amitabh Bachchan era); a smitten Sardar Khan wooing Durga (Reema Sen) as she washes clothes by a hand pump; Sardar Khan’s elder son being hit by a bullet and later tended to in a hospital in the midst of a power cut; the younger son putting the moves on a girl he likes, as a goat, behind him, nibbles on leaves from a tree, oblivious to the unfolding of all this human drama.
Gangs of Wasseypur is a diffuse epic, content to coast around the revenge plot instead of making it the thrust of its narrative – and what the film loses in terms of dramatic power, it gains in texture. (Besides, do we really want Anurag Kashyap to take on a conventional revenge story?) Several scenes touch upon the hero-villain dynamic that drove a lot of the cinema of the eras this film is set in (acknowledged through delightful nods to tropes like the “prison song,” providing the background for an escape), such as the one where Ranadhir Singh attempts to poison the minds of Sardar Khan’s sons, pointing out that their father now lives with Durga, or the other one where the younger son is informed that he cannot go to school anymore because his father has stopped sending money home. Seething at the unfairness, he hurls a brick at Durga’s door, and you think (again, because of how films have trained us) that he will grow up to be like Bachchan in Shakti or Trishul (which is excerpted here), who regarded his father as the villain – but Kashyap is not interested in going there.
He isn’t even interested in showcasing Sardar Khan as a towering figure, someone capable of anchoring all this churn of activity. The man comes off, frankly, as a bit of a clown, a fool who cannot get his fill of women. He’s also unheroically selfish, chasing Durga as his first wife Naghma is harassed by cops. Bajpai is wonderful and the rest of the cast is equally fine, but it’s Richa Chaddha, as Naghma, who walks away with the movie. She has what book critics like to term an author-backed part, and she teeters exquisitely between comedy and drama. She straddles both in a superb scene where she’s about to deliver her first child, just after she has caught her husband in the house of a prostitute. The pain of delivery alternates with her rage at this man who has now crawled back home – we don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Later, she decides it’s better he strays – at least he’ll leave her alone. But she makes sure to feed him well, so he has his strength. “Baahar jaake beizzati mat karaana,” she instructs him, like a strict mother instructing a son to perform well in his exams.
For a film that spans decades, there are no flashy signposts. But for the pattern of a sweater on a scrawny kid, a film song, a movie poster, or Naghma’s graduation from broom to vacuum cleaner, we could be in the same time period. The people stay the same, as does the place, which may be the sole bit of social commentary from Kashyap here – but Gangs of Wasseypur is far too entertaining to be ghettoized as a movie about an issue. It goes after anything and everything in its quest to sweep us through its story, even tongue-in-cheek film references – there’s an homage to Sonny’s horrifically bloody assassination at the toll booth in The Godfather (right down to the giant billboard on the way), and this film’s title probably harks back to Martin Scorsese’s New York epic. The only major mistake is the end, which looks towards a sequel. I’ll be the first to admit that I may not have the stamina for a five-and-a-half hour film (which is what Wiki tells me), but not knowing it all ends is almost as frustrating. But perhaps this is only in keeping with the film’s novelistic ambitions. Just as we’d tire of a doorstop of a book and set it aside for later, Kashyap has made us dog-ear his film.
In a rarefied space where sensuality and terror co-exist, and often tenderness too, melodrama is not easily perceptible or imaginable. In Gangs of Wasseypur, it is a triumphant possibility. In characterisation, and in the immediate human story of revenge and bloodbath, the first part of Anurag Kashyap’s film is thickly textured. A ganglord is devious, comical and idiotic. A woman is servile and wily. A seemingly harmless pothead cold-kills with precision. The drama of these characters colliding is the throbbing heart of the film, and indeed the only reason to watch it.
In the way it is narrated and acted, Kashyap intends to explain what coal mining has done to generations of the labour class—how organised crime is often an obscene extension of free enterprise and government policy. The central conflict is between people separate socially, but joined in crime and bribery (in one of the film’s telling details, a Muslim butcher sits in the drawing room of a Hindu politician, joining hands against the film’s hero, when in the background, the Hindu housewife discreetly lays the table for dinner with caution, possibly separating the utensils for the Muslims). The 40-year period which the story of the first part spans (1941 to the 1990s) is an ambitious timeline to work with, and Kashyap spends enough time to contextualise the story. The first half hour is almost a quasi-documentary, where the broad strands of the beginnings of India’s coal mining mafia and its connections to Wasseypur, a real place in Dhanbad, is enunciated. In the 1950s, we are told how little things had changed for the labourer from colonial times to when “Birla-Tata” became the masters. The film’s hero, Sardar Khan, played by Manoj Bajpai, is an heir of the mining labourer’s rage, and his revenge is the revenge of the exploited against a greedy political establishment. After the hefty factual exposition however, the story’s macro canvas recedes and references to the nexus between industry and politics become perfunctory. The writers, Akhilesh Jaiswal, Zeishan Quadri, Sachin Ladia and Anurag Kashyap, casually abandon the larger realities defining the story to the intimate drama surrounding Sardar Khan, the heir who is now a flamboyant ganglord. A ripe, riveting sense of evil takes over the narrative, which Kashyap executes uncompromisingly. The director is at his pinnacle. Although much of the passage of years is unexplained and the middle somewhat slacks, Kashyap designs the film with such tenacious intelligence, that we keep taking it all in. There aren’t many close-ups in the film, which is a tool usually used to hide the lack of thoughtful visualisation. Every visual pulsates with details of surroundings. So even without the obvious context, we plunge headlong. In routine action films, I often just switch off, and miss nothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sequences here, breathlessly following one another.
The story has the arc of a classical, two-generational saga. Sardar Khan and his two henchmen, played by Piyush Mishra and Jameel Khan, are thugs and murderers, armed with bombs and guns. They steal cash, kill and openly challenge their opposition. Their fiefdom spans Wasseypur and proper Dhanbad and their goal is to topple the butcher community of Quadris, and kill local politician played by Tigmanshu Dhulia who controls money and labour, and who had killed Sardar’s father.
Sardar is married to Nagma, played by Richa Chadda, a woman without much choice but full of irascible energy, and later to Durga, a bewitching Bengali woman. Sardar’s sons from Nagma, Danish and Faizal, are disgruntled adolescents, who grow up to join Sardar’s mafia. The younger generation is seemingly a changed lot. Faizal, played by Nawaazuddin Siddiqui, an obsessive fan of the ruling matinee idol of the times, Amitabh Bachchan, has the echoes and shadings of a don in the making, unpredictable in an armour of quiet—the Michael Corleone, who likely takes centrestage in the second part.
Kashyap’s template is largely Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and even Quentin Tarantino, in the way music and visuals are combined in some scenes. The Godfather parallels are unmistakable. But the impassioned language is his own. The canvas erupts with blood, hacking, maiming and sexual lust—none of it without humour. The local tongue is deliciously written. Nothing in the film—characters, situations or conflicts—are understated. Like the Bollywood films of the 1970s and 1980s that punctuate the story in the film’s second half, Gangs of Wasseypur has blistering dialogues, written by Kashyap. Its ability to entertain intelligence surpasses some of the film’s other merits.
The production quality of Gangs of Wasseypur is top notch. Besides the ubiquitous cinematic kitsch in the middle, the period details are visible when you look for them—from the rupee notes to the particular model of television and refrigerator, the passing of time is in the details, without looking like they are planted. The cinematography by Rajeev Ravi is inextricable from the film’s narrative and tone. Bursts of colour and mayhem in Wasseypur’s alleys, grey clouds erupting from the earth against stark landscapes, crummy interiors of homes of petty gang members—the visual scheme is varied and evocative. Even sequences in sunlight have some deep, contrasting tones. The music by Sneha Khanwalkar, although often hammered in, muffling dialogues and details, is similarly attuned to the narrative and the milieu—not there just for our listening or for creating moods according to situations; but because they are of the characters’.
Part of this absynthine cocktail is the lead performance of Manoj Bajpai. He has the instinct and physical audacity of a great actor, who shifts from ruthless to idiotic. He has devoured Sardar’s bravado and follies and oozed them out of him with relish. Nawaazuddin Siddiqui is the actor of promise in the second part. His role is written with nuances—a man who sobs watching Bachchan and daydreams, can also lie to the police straight-faced and then kill. In the short span that he exists, the development is visible in every next scene. Siddiqui is restrained, as required and talks with every part of his deep face. The women of Wasseypur never pose any real danger, but they are not easily manipulated. Richa Chadda who plays Nagma is a stunningly controlled actor who makes high-pitched histrionics seem perfectly natural. There are some brilliant strokes of casting in the film. Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan, the butcher, Piyush Mishra, Jameel Khan, and Tigmanshu Dhulia as the politician, among others, play their roles with smooth conviction.
Gangs of Wasseypur is relentless in its ability to entertain, and that’s possible purely because of highly accomplished film-making. A new template for the Indian blockbuster.
Yet it is the excess that suffocates all the magic, originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples the film. There is a lot of gunfire, but like the fine actors populating its sets, Wasseypur fires too many blanks.
One Ramadheer Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia in a cracker performance) is the prominent mafia don in Wasseypur, which was once a village, but is now a populated zone within Dhanbad. You can see how the underworld in this town of collieries first took shape within trade unions of mining companies and then gradually merged with the politics of the state, when the coal industry itself got nationalised in the early ‘70s. Ramadheer is a powerful MLA now.
Quite early in his career, he had to get rid of his main “pehlwan” (chief henchman) Shahid Khan. Ramadheer had sensed a threat from Shahid. He asked for him one night, got him into his jeep, and Shahid never returned home after. His son kept waiting. He knew Ramadheer had killed his father.
This little boy Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee, wonderful comeback) grows up with revenge on his mind. He’s shaved his head, sworn that he’ll grow his hair back only when he’s finished Ramadheer off. This is the background. So you know Sardar’s the hero, Ramadheer the villain, and the film, a revenge drama. And yet the worst mistake you’re likely to make is to walk into this film thinking like that. It’ll kill your fun. In fact, it’s advisable not to even perceive this as a feature film. It’s more of a multi-part mini-series, which is how Kashyap’s Black Friday (2004) was also intended to be.
Most movies have a definite beginning (background), middle (turning point) and end (climax). There doesn’t seem to be one here, at least on the face of it. The genre it comes closest to then is an epic, like all mythologies — Mahabharat, Ramayan. You enjoy them for the parts rather than caring merely for the hero’s final goal.
Sardar Khan has two wives. One (Richa Chadha) gives him kids, he has three children from her. The other, a “Bangalan” from Asansol gives him sex, or is supposed to. He has a child from her as well. Sardar’s father, as we watch, used to be a dacoit in British India, when the name of one Sultana Daku used to cause panic in these parts. By the end of it, even Sardar’s children have grown up. One of them (Nawazuddin, the finest find in recent years), nurses ambitions of joining the gangs of Wasseypur. This film, set over three complete generations then, extends from pre-independence era right down to the ‘90s. Your patience is likely to wane after a point. And yes, it does. Yet, just as it does, the makers manage to successfully slip in an inspiring scene, an entertaining snippet or a limited twist in the plot and you go back to engaging with the picture all over again.
The story itself is merely an excuse to capture the dusty black-brown landscape and complete lawlessness of the region bordering Bengal and Jharkhand, where dialogue baazi and “rangdari” (extortion) is common preoccupation among boastful goons. The goon is the government itself. The film gets the nuances just right. This is quite rare for movies placed in provincial towns. Traditional Hindi movie audiences apparently don’t prefer cinema of this kind. Their lives are harshly too real for them to expect the same from their movies. As we see in the film, they go nuts over the melodrama of Yash Chopra’s Trishul in the ‘70s. But they would’ve loved as much, if not more, Chopra’s phenomenal Kala Patthar (1979) set again in the coal fields of Dhanbad. The setting for this mafia film in that sense is spot-on. This is the part of India where even now the name of late Surajdeo Singh, a dreaded don I’m told, sends shivers down people’s spines. Vishal Bhardwaj had intended to make the second part of his masterpiece Maqbool (2004) set in Dhanbad as well, where the script could trace the early life and rise of Don Abbaji (Pankaj Kapur). If that film had been made, it would’ve probably been very different from this.
Gangs Of Wasseypur is fictionalised, demented history soaked in blood. Movies have a gender. This one is fully male. Given how easy it is to kill off people in this picture, it’s a miracle that they’re all not dead yet! The community of Qureishis take on other Musalmans. Loud sounds of kattas (country-made pistols), rifles, revolvers, butcher’s knives, ice picks envelope your senses. If it wasn’t a film, this would’ve been a stylised graphic novel. But you would’ve missed a memorable background score and striking sound design. For a film, it’s the kind of mini-series you could possibly preserve in a boxed DVD set years from now. Yeah, this one’s for keeps.
Re: “Given how easy it is to kill off people in this picture, it’s a miracle that they’re all not dead yet!”
Juxtaposed with his paeans to how the film tells it like it really is — out there, somewhere — this line reduces Shekhar’s review to unintentional comedy.
Bleeding brilliance in almost every frame, breathing fire through every available orifice that the characters possess, and whipping up a kind of frenzied, flamboyant bloodshed that was once associated with the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, Gangs Of Wasseypur is, briefly, one huge gang-bang. No protection provided.
From its bludgeoning opening when merciless marauders ambush a powerful enemy’s fortress-like home with army-like meticulousness, “Gangs Of Wasseypur” takes us into a world where compassion is a dinosaur, forgiveness a faux pas, and kindness an unforgivable sin.
Welcome to Kashyap’s Wasseypur. This is no country for the weak-hearted. Country-made guns go off without warning, bombs are hurled from two-wheelers and abuses fly out even faster than the bullets. If you are the kind of moviegoer who doesn’t enjoying hearing and seeing the unimaginable things that can’t be done to various parts of the human anatomy, then I suggest you try something more sugary and safe.
The world of Wasseypur is soaked in blood and revenge. The mafia in one form or another rules the little town. To mainstream Hindi moviegoers, this is not an unknown territory. At least four other recent films – “Paan Singh Tomar”, “Ishaqzaade”, “Rowdy Rathore” and “Shanghai” – have hurled audiences right into the notorious anarchy of the North Indian small-town where the barrel of the gun speaks an irresistible language of mayhem.
It’s a strangely dichotomous world where music and songs (Sneha Khan walk) mock the characters’ subverted ‘herogiri’. While the characters indulge in their unmanned violence, audience become numbed participants in the rites of the wrong-doing.
The almost-ritualistic slaughter of all rules of civil conduct in “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is not redeemed by the presence of any hero.
Even the main protagonist in the blood thirsty saga is a certifiable rogue named, Sardar Khan. As played by Manoj Bajpayee in what is arguably his most feisty and filled-out performance to date, Sardar Khan is a second-generation criminal and social outcast.
In the film’s unforgettable prologue, Sardar’s father (Jaideep Ahlawat) serves as a henchman to the powerful local politician (Tigmanshu Dhulia). Politician has daddy killed by a hired assassin and Sonny-boy grows up swearing revenge.
This in a nutshell, could be the plot for a cheesy 1980s’ potboiler. In taking the grammar and language of the formulistic vendetta drama from the 1970s and 1980s and converting it into a crackling saga of compelling contemporary currency, Kashyap turns all the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema on its head. He uses the language of Manmohan Desai and Narinder Bedi’s cinema. But he applies these to characters who are as far removed from the world of escapism is Sicilyis from Wasseypur.
Oh, did we really say “Gangs Of Wasseypur” was derived from “The Godfather”? Nah. The two worlds are inter-connected only by their legacy of lineage and violence. Beyond that Kashyap’s mode of storytelling, and the way his characters loo mover the proceedings without become caricatural, are frighteningly original and as liberated of reference-points as any of the path-breaking films on gangwars that have emerged out of Hollywood in the last 25 years.
Kashyap celebrates the drama of the grotesque with the relish of a seven-‘coarse’ meal. We can count the number of thuds and stabbing sounds every time a victim is cornered and done to death. Violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before. The end of cinematic niceties is here. Take it or leave it.
Kashyap, in Wasseypur, legitimizes gore with glorious gusto. In the gang war that he portrays with such feral immediacy, victims are chopped up piece by piece, their body parts sent to the butcher’s to eliminate legal evidence. A finger floating in a cesspool of stale blood is a commonplace sight in the world of unchecked mayhem that Kashyap has constructed with such casual resplendence.
His team of technicians are unconditionally mired in the mood of violence. Rajeev Ravi’s camera mows through the imaginary world of Wasseypur with a devilish dispassion.
The film looks layered and even luminous in texture. But the tone of narration is detached. The dereliction of the damned and doomed characters is neither romanticized nor demonized.
Indeed “Gangs Of Wasseypur” invents a new language of cinematic expression. It creates a world where the characters inhabit a universe of vapid stagnant violence. And yet the narration, never short of breath even in the most breathless state of violence, exudes a kind of vibrancy that comes from neither rejection not acceptable of an undesirable situation. It comes from within the characters. As they battle each other in bitter futile feuds, they also seem to be battling the demons within themselves. The synthesis of what lies within and without is devastating.
And yet for all its outward show of ruthless machismo “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is a film with a heart. There is a rather enticing love story featuring Manoj, his screen wife(debutante Richa Chadha) and the other woman (Reema Sen) tucked away in the folds of the ferocious tale.
Manoj’s wife is a very happy happening in this sad but savagely funny tale. She is quite the discovery of the year, and that too in a film mottled with exceptional performances by Manoj, Nawazuddin as his son (more of him in “Wasseypur 2”), Tigmanshu Dhulia who is clenched, controlled and combative as the villain in chief, Pankaj Tripathi riveting as Manoj’s belligerent enemy, Piyush Mishra remarkably restrained and wise as Manoj’s mentor and guide and Huma Qureshi, another whammy performer whom we will see more of in the sequel.
In fact, every character, big or small, is cast with what looks like first-and-last options. You can’t imagine any other actor playing any of the myriad parts.
Brutal, brilliant, dark, sinister, terrifying in its violence and yet savagely funny in the way human life is disregarded “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is one helluva romp into the raw and rugged heartland. Not to be missed. I can’t wait to see the sequel. But be warned. Avoid meals half an hour before and after viewing.
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a dull start of around 10% across India at multiplexes and not much is expected from single screens.
Like Teri Meri Kahaani, this film was also not expected to open well but like that film the opening is lower than the low expectations from it. The film was promoted so it is was not one of those films where there is no awareness.
There were many shows which had audience counts of 10-15 people in 250 seat multiplexes. The morning collections were less than half of films like Shanghai and Ferrari Ki Sawaari and these films opened poorly.
The film will pick up as collections can’t go down as they are too low but whether it can pick up enough to post even respectable numbers is a different story.
Teri Meri Kahaani opened to a below the mark response at most places in India. The opening was around the 30% mark at multiplexes on average with certain pockets a bit better doing slightly better. The opening was not expected to be great but 30-35% collections are pretty low for a film of its size and for a film which has some face value. If we compare to Shahid Kapoor’s last film Mausam, the opening is much lower as that film opened to above 50% collections.
The film may improve a bit as the day goes along as opening is at low levels but it will have to show major growth at on Saturday if its to make any mark at the box office.
Teri Meri Kahaani probably has best chances in and around the Delhi area and the opening has also been best in this area.
B.O. update: ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ 35%-40% start, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ 8%-10%
By Taran Adarsh, June 22, 2012 – 15:18 IST
The Friday witnessed the release of two diametrically opposite films — TERI MERI KAHAANI and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR — and expectedly, the ‘feel good cinema’ [T.M.K.] had an edge from its first show onwards. The morning and noon shows of TERI MERI KAHAANI were in 35% to 40% range, with North India multiplexes trending better. However, its business will have to show an upward trend from Friday evening onwards, for it to have a decent run at the box-office.
On the other hand, the start of GANGS OF WASSEYPUR was very very poor, in the range of 8% to 10%. The business of this film will have to show a miraculous jump over the weekend, if it has to post decent numbers.
lol.. nothing like tta – Just disinterested to write anything about it.
In a nutshell, it carries a been there-done/seen that kinda feel that overshadows everything else.. It surprisingly doesnt stay with you once its over..
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR movie review: Don’t miss this entertaining commotion!
Superlative performances, expressive writing, matchless background score and brilliant cinematography are some of the many key elements that make Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur possibly the best dark comedy in Indian cinema
Rollicking and riotous aren’t adjectives one normally associates with a gangster film. But that is precisely what Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur is.
Right from its long opening sequence where a gang relentlessly showers bullets and bombs at the haveli of their rival gang, with inhuman intentions to terminate everyone from woman, kids to elderly, Anurag Kashyup establishes the tone, temperament and texture of his gritty gang-war drama. In terms of its story, Gangs of Wasseypur seems like a basic revenge drama. But in terms of its screenplay, there is not a single scene in the film that might give you a been-there-seen-that feeling. It’s avant-garde, offbeat and interesting narrative makes it an absolutely riveting experience.
@tezkrishna @RajaSen he is a good critic.. he just does not like my films.. he expects more may be, may be he really was bored
I wouldn’t agree with Kashyap though. I think Raja Sen is an awful critick…not because his content does not match his verbal swagger but because his voice is compromised!
yes I agree on Sen. It’s much more about attitude with him than anything else.
Must say about Kashyap though that I do find his modus operandi a bit much in these matters. he did this with Shanghai recently and now it’s with GoW where he pretty much retweets every bit of attention the film in question gets from the media to the most inconsequential fan. 99% of it is very positive or more. His way of creating buzz I suppose except that I don’t know how much this moves the needle. It seems to me that those on twitter and following him would in any case be inclined to check out his movies!
The other problem is that most Indian reviews are at Raja sen’s level of incoherence and/or incompetence. But Kashyap keeps retweeting all of this stuff.
Once again if one just reads Rangan’s Shanghai piece and then follows it up with his GoW one he’s just light years ahead of everyone else. He could easily walk into the pages of the NY Times or the LA Times or the Guardian or some such outfit in the West.
AK actually tweeted yesterday that RS wrote his review with a crowded mind..Maybe he deleted it. can you actually do that on twitter? I don’t really know how twitter works and ……
No, that particular tweet is still present. The one that I posted was a reply to someone who was abusing Raja Sen. In essence, Kashyap defended Raja Sen…nice of him and all, but I think RS doesn’t deserve to be defended.
His “initial” reaction to Sen’s review was more personal — the “crowded” mind reference and all.
Raja thinks he can match Rangan with his high brow English & bombastic metaphors…fact is he is not a patch on Rangan !!
I personally stopped giving much importance to him after his “Batman Begins” review way back in 2005…according to him the “film was too dark to be a superhero film ” !!!! Am yet to recover from that howlarious remark !!!
Ok guys, saw GoW. Since it’s not an easy film to digest, will write abt it later. now this is definitely a film one should watch-and should watch on the big-screen since it’s biggest strength r its visuals and ambience it creates. But at the end this is not a great film or anything- a very good effort which soars at various points but is never consistent and engaging enough to stay with you long after u have left the theatre.it tries to cram-in too many things into the narrative.
here’s a complete different story from what the trade has been suggesting:
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ runs houseful
Submitted by Kiran Pahwa on Fri, 06/22/2012 – 15:13
India
Mumbai
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ runs housefulMumbai, June 22 – The audiences have given the thumbs up to Anurag Kashyap’s “Gangs Of Wasseypur”. It has opened to full houses in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and is also drawing crowds in multiplexes in the Metros, distributors say.
Prashant Kumar Singh, owner of Puja Talkies in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, told IANS: “‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ has opened very well with 80 to 85 percent occupancy. Some of the shows were even houseful. The film is going great and even the advance booking is going on full swing.”
Bihar-based Brijesh Tandon of HK Tandon and Company said that “Gangs Of Wasseypur” “has opened very well in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is around 80 percent occupancy.”
Written by Zeishan Quadri, who hails from Wasseypur, known for the bloody rivalry between gangster Faheem Khan and businessman Sabir Alam over scrap business, the film is described as a cinematic offering that has hurled audiences right into the notorious anarchy of the North Indian small-town where the barrel of the gun speaks an irresistible language of mayhem by a reviewer.
Directed by Kashyap, it has too much of gore and blood and it is believed that violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before.
Despite that the audiences are thronging the cinema hall to see this blood saga.
Delhi-base distributor Sanjay Ghai said: ” ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ has opened with 70 to 80 percent opening in both single screens and multiplex in Delhi and is going great.”
In Mumbai, the response was slow but, according to distributor Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combine, “‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ opened with 20 to 25 percent in Mumbai. But it has started improving from the evening shows and would pick up in the night and at the weekend.”
Manoj Gupta of Viacom 18 said: “In Varanasi, the opening was around 70 to 80 percent but the afternoon shows went houseful in Lucknow, Gorakhpur among others. Even the multiplex shows of ‘Gangs…’ are houseful.”
Kashyap, who co-produced the film with Sunil Bohra, has said that it is his most expensive film and he reportedly had to spend Rs. 15 crore on paying the actors.
Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadha, Huma Quershi, Reema Sen and Piyush Mishra’s have stepped into thier roles convincingly and their powerful performances have made this real life-based story into a compelling cinema and it is wooing audiences in Kolkata too.
” ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ has opened with 45 to 50 percent occupancy in Kolkata and is getting better with the evening shows,” said Moni Venkatesh of Shri Venkatesh Films. (IANS)
GoW: Slow And Steady
by Rohini Nag (June 22, 2012)
Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur opened to a mediocre response at the ticket window. However, the afternoon shows showed some improvement and distributors across the country feel collections will spike during the evening and night shows. Although the film has a limited target audience, distributors expect the collections graph to rise over the next two days.
In Mumbai, Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “The film, which took an opening of 30 per cent, went up to 40 percent in the afternoon and 50 per cent in the evening. Occupancy is expected to be around 60 per cent during the night shows.”
In Delhi-UP, Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says GoW took quite an impressive opening of around 50 per cent and collections went up to 60 per cent. “It is only natural to expect better numbers from the night shows.”
In East Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies says business from GoW has improved in cities and multiplexes. “The film opened to 30 per cent and grew to 50 per cent during the afternoon shows. A 60 to 70 per cent response is expected during the night shows.”
In West Bengal, Debashish Dey of Aum Moviez adds, “GOW took a very slow start in West Bengal. Its opening was around 10 per cent and business has remained the same. The evening shows may garner a better response.”
In CI, Manoj Jain of Neha Movies says GoW took a 20-per cent opening today. The film failed to improve with the noon shows and collections haven’t changed. “Still, we expect the evening shows to generate a 40-per cent response.”
In Rajasthan, Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films says, “Gangs of Wasseypur failed to connect with the audience and took a 10-per cent opening in the morning shows. “Improvement is neither expected nor reported,” he remarks.
In Bihar, Brijesh Tondon of HK Tondon & Company concludes, “The film enjoyed a 30-per cent opening and collections are improving very slowly. The film might pick up over the weekend.”
most of the trade in india is star centric and will be ready to dismiss alternate cinema ….
pst got its due very late(infact forcefully due to its trending) and even vicky donor was produced by a commercial star and in case of kahaani it was more due to the the lady who was just coming after blockbluster and national award
I’ve noticed this recently but somehow the usual suspects in the trade went out of their way to diss Shanghai. Now I know there were greater expectations here and so on but still normally this isn’t the kind of film for which the likes of Taran and Nahta try so hard. Usually this happens when star politics comes into play. So I’ve been a bit surprised about this. Similarly with GoW giving out the lowest possible numbers is a bit odd. Wonder if Kashyap and his friends have managed to annoy these guys!
The real shamelessness here involves Taran and Nahta constantly proclaiming themselves paragons of honesty. It’s the whole ‘hey we just follow the facts’ response. When stars have argued with them occasionally they’ve again produced the usual ‘dirty’ response — ‘don’t get upset with us if your film isn’t working’! Most recently Taran had a run-in with Shahid Kapoor on Mausam. Again not a film that did well but these guys went after it from the very beginning. So a film might open decently even if it doesn’t do well eventually. These guys launch the attacks and later when the film flops there’s a the whole ‘we told you so’ deal when in fact a lot of distortions have been created in the meantime. They do this classically with Abhishek’s films in all kinds of scenarios (probably won’t do it with Bol Bachchan because they’ll say it’s only about Devgan.. unless of course it flops in which case it’s the director’s fault for giving Abhishek too much prominence!).
getting back to Shanghai the film doubled the LSD number. Did more than Dev D. The expectations were greater but these were probably unrealistic too. if a film isn’t for everyone just making it bigger in terms of stars or advertising doesn’t change that underlying reality. Not saying the film doesn’t have problems but safer genres work even with those problems. Now with GoW if a couple of those pieces are to be believed the opening looks very solid or even better than this. Yet Taran and Nahta cling to that 8-10% claim. If that’s true every one of those other distributors or theater owners must be lying! Taran has brilliantly suggested that had this film and Teri Meri Kahan released on different dates both would have done much better. So now a cross-over audience is being asserted between Gangs of Wasseypur and Teri Meri Kahani. Gimme a break!
It’s not even about the partisanship beyond a point. This is such garbage, such an insult to the intelligence that one must pity those who take these claims seriously. It’s not even about knowing stuff from elsewhere or whatever, these claims are so absurd just on grounds of internal consistency. Take BOI, they contradict their own claims with every new report!
yup shanghai is the biggest gross of dibakar banerjee(by a long way) and expectation where greater because trade shamelessly tried to project emraan hashm as big massy actor prior to dark genre release
realistically dark films never had the market and as for your comment on abhishek another dark sarkar raj is rgv’s biggest gross and pattern was same
On the surface, Gangs of Wasseypur is a revenge saga, a tableau of vengeance between generations of gangsters. Scratch that surface and you’ll discover more than just a grim portrait. Director Anurag Kashyap decides to tell this story his way, infusing it with moments of sly wit that give the blood-soaked drama irresistible color.
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ is a sprawling, exuberant, ferociously ambitious piece of film making, which hits most of its marks. It reunites Anurag Kashyap with exactly the kind of style he is most comfortable with : hyper masculine, hyper real, going for the jugular. It’s not so much about gangs, as about men who are pushed into ‘gangstergiri’ as a thing to live by ; as you go along, you see that Wasseypur is not just a place, but a state of mind, which roars and strikes after each deceptively quiet patch. I liked most of ‘Gangs’, Part One, enormously. ‘
“The second manner of differentiation I found more discomfiting. The Qureshis are descendants of a colonial-era dacoit, and now run vicious roost over Wasseypur. In some ways, the Khans are the Good Muslims and the Qureshis the Bad. I noticed any time the Qureshis were pictured, the standard tropes of Muslim representation in Bollywood were trotted out, those most alienating and worrisome to India’s majority community. You had repeated shots of Matam, the Shia practice of self-flagellation, interspliced at random in almost every montage of Qureshi violence. Whatever you may think of the practice, this film’s visual conjoin of the Qureshis’ bouts of murderous rage with a widely performed act of religious penitence seemed unnecessary. It is also worth noting that the Qureshis are butchers, another stereotype beloved of Bollywood, and that there are plenty of shots of chopped carcasses and cracking bones that accompany their varied vengeances.”
Qureshis are routinely stereotyped in North India as butchers (i.e. it is a community/biradari-based identification of them as qasaais by tradition) — something that causes South Indian Qureshis no end of distress; I’m a bit surprised about the Shia imagery as my impression had been that Qureshis are Sunnis, but I might be wrong. In any event, thanks for highlighting that Belano — Kashyap has not tended to be the most “aware” when it comes to representations of Muslims, but I’ll have more to say once I watch this…
“The community are the traditional butchers of North India and Pakistan, and get their named from the Arabic word gassab, which means to cut or slit.[3] According to their traditions, they claim descent from early Arab settlers to India, who arrived at the time of the Sultanate of Delhi. These Arabs belonged to the Quresh tribe, the tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, and as such the community is thus also known as Qureshi. They have three sub-divisions, the Chikwa who are found in the Rohilkhand and Awadh regions of Uttar Pradesh, and are connected with the slaughtering animals such as sheep and goats, and the Qureshi Qassab who slaughter cows and buffaloes. A third sub-group are the Bawarchi, a community found mainly in the city of Lucknow and in Gujarat, who are professional cooks. Each Qassab group has a different traditions as their origin and migration, for example most Qassab in the Deccan region claim to have arrived with the armies of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzebs invading armies. The community is entirely Sunni, and in North India speaks Urdu.[4]
The community belong to both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, but the majority are Sunnis.. The Chikwa speak Awadhi, while the Qureshi Qassab speak Urdu.[6]
In Bihar, the Qassab are a class of Muslim butchers, and are generally known as Qureshis. They are found throughout Bihar, and are one of the few Bihari Muslim communities that speaks Urdu. The Qassab consist of two sub-groups, the Bara Karbar who were involved in the slaughtering of cows and Chota Karbar who slaughtered goats. Closely related to the Qassab are the Chik, a caste associated with the slaughtering of goats. The Anjuman Quresh has a Bihar branch, which acts as a welfare association. They are entirely Sunni Muslims, and are fairly orthodox
anytime…anything for the handsome one.
Now before Sattu comes after me for leading you on.etc..I will run.
P.S: seems like we will have another thread with A.K. on how to market his movies effectively 🙂
In my opinion, a lot of these film critics are embarrassing themselves by referring to the violence and bloodshed in this film as “joyous”. What are these people- teenage boys spending all their time watching porn and playing video games?
yes you’re quite right.. a number of the reviewers really seem to get a high on the violence and at least two reviewers have equated it with sex (hence proving your insight!). Mihir Fadnavis for example said he wanted to have sex with the film. God help us!
By the way, Satyam, given the recent debate you had with Anurag Kashyap on what might or might not be possible given financial and social constraints I think you’ll like this piece(Helen Grace in the Lola Journal run by Adrian Martin and Girish Shambhu) : http://www.lolajournal.com/2/aesthetic_risk.html
The reviews for GoW are overwhelmingly positive. Now most of these reviews aren’t even worth the paper they get printed on, but still, it’s probably a good sign. First Shanghai and now GoW. At least no one can claim that reviewers have been paid for writing ecstatic reviews.
Serioulsy guys… anybody knows where GOW is playing in DC/Maryland area in the US? Just can’t get any screening….any info provided would be greatly appreciated…
its not playing near me either…but rest of them are (Shanghai, Ferrari, Teri-meri and other south indian movies) 😦
I guess the distributors didn’t think that bourgeosis can handle it!
Well Southern movies usually get an audience. TMK is a mainstream release. The Ferrari kind of film gets a screening too. They probably gave Shanghai a chance which didn’t quite work out and they must have felt no one would show up for GoW. But the problem here is that the release strategies are all wrong, both in India and outside. The GoW kind of film should really only be aimed at a festival audience and so on. It should play in one or two screens in a place like NY and not in the usual mainstream theaters that screen other Indian films alongside lots of commercial American ones. It should be played only in certain kinds of arthouse theaters, basically the film should be kept going with lots of review attention and play to an audience that’s part of this world. Just releasing a film in limited fashion doesn’t get the job done. Again in India the only difference between a GoW release and a RR is that the former gets fewer screens and so forth. But the entire mindset that goes toward releasing such a movie ought to be different. Even with mainstream stars this should be the case. I’ve argued this for D6. The same is true for Guzaarish. Whatever one thinks of some of these films you can’t market them in the same ways. In the US or elsewhere in the West even with major stars no one releases an offbeat movie everywhere. even with someone as ‘dependable’ as Woody Allen in terms of drawing a certain audience each and every time his current movie has opened today in NY in just three theaters in the city. It will move to the suburbs in a week or two. So even with a director who’s been around that long, even with relative stars in the movie, the film is playing in very limited theaters in possibly the most audience-friendly city (and environs) for an Allen movie! And this happens every time! Meanwhile GoW is just released as a ‘small’ movie and that’s about it.
Some of us often lament the lack of a proper film culture in Bombay at the critical end but in real terms this too is one of the consequences. It’s a sorry sight to see Kashyap having to depend on twitter to publicize his film.
So yeh USA mai release hi nahi hui hai…makes sense. Once it is a hit in india, they can get better deal from foreign distributors (but then I am novice in all these things) possibly!?
Satyam, this film has to seen on the big screen. On that note Rakta Charitra-1 (didn’t like the 2nd) was in ‘some ways’ a better film than GoW- it had a ‘sharper narrative’ and the director had a better grip on the plethora of characters (the number of important characters is huge in both films). but the setting, acting, dialogues and in some ways ‘storytelling’ is far better in GoW.more than Tarantino GoW belongs to the world of Rodriguez- historical and other issues r just a playground for pulpy fun
I liked RC a lot, both parts, but probably the first one more. More than even liking it this is one of those relatively few films over the last decade or so that I actually feel like revisiting in a compressed time frame. Many films I like a lot and even watch in the theater more than once but I don’t quite revisit them over time.
GOW just did not interest me enough.. was certainly good and detailing and shot selections were good with lot of humor but not as great as one would’ve wanted..
Agreed completely Tony though i liked it a ‘bit’ more than you. But i am quite sure the 2nd part would be better. bcos if u noticed the narrative and pace dropped after intermission- since it was earlier supposed to be a single feature, AK may have been setting us up for a very volatile story after the ‘death’- SPOILER- Bajpai’s death scene was exquisitely shot- pulp at its best
Tony, actually in Bihar and eastern UP (i have lived in Bihar-Sasaram for 2 yrs and i hail from UP), ‘chu*iya and ‘maadar- ch*t’ is more common than “Bho*di ke’- where as in Lucknow, Delhi and Dehradun the opposite is true
“if u live in small town”- IMO “bho*di ke” is used most frequently by Delhi people (less in Mumbai though)- hamare Lucknow mein bhi gaaliyan dete hai par wo bhi Lucknowi Tameez, tehzeeb aur ‘adab’ ke saath 🙂
Oh, yes! Saket, thanks for reminding me …LOL. Btw Bhopali too has its share of such slangs, isn’t it . Btw a very famous line written in Awadhi behind trucks, in central UP goes like ‘Satlaa to Gailaa beta’ (“If u touch me, u r dead’)
Did you guys see “seher” with arshad warshi. THe movie and the actor are one of my favs. You can see hints of that “nawabbi” culture in that movie/language
LOL Saket. Btw if one has to hear good Awadhi, listen to Bachchan’s rendition of the song – “Eer, Beer, Phatte”- i am sure Satyam and Saket must have heard this song
If one grows up in Delhi, or even spends a year or two in the city, one could very well open a Hindi Gaali Academy. No kidding!
It’s not the small towns that need to be chastised for using foul language. Even girls in Delhi do it better than most guys from small towns. I’m not exaggerating at all…
Glad I didn’t grow up in Delhi or haven’t gone anywhere near it. My bourgeosis sensibilities will get shocked. I wonder how the HGA final exam would be: Mr Saket, you failed. You didn’t know the proper meaning of DK Boss or various meanings of “keh K lunga”! lolz
I had told u the meaning of ‘keh ke loonga’ in great detail, remember. btw ur ‘bourgeoise’ abuses in english just like others do in Hindi- calling someone a ‘f**ker’ is no different than calling him a ‘ch**tiya’. And Saket is right abt Delhi girls, some female friends of mine (from Delhi) can give anyone a competition in this field. i have myself been abused frequently by them. btw in rural areas of UP if u give someone a ‘maa-behan ki gaali’ the other guy can get so enraged that he may murder u
saurabh..I don’t used F either. In fact not once have I used it in my life. I may throw vessels at you in anger or scream and cry but never have used bad language of that sort…I called someone donkey (gadha) recently or in childhood “kuttey” (dog) but that is about all.
BTW: You all are doing good job writing thesis on gaalis! lolz. The gaalis Vidhya Balan gave in Ishquiya were very innovative (I had never heard of them either before).
Di, the fact that u have never uttered an abuse is seriously praiseworthy (i sincerely mean it).i too had never abused(did not even know the meaning) untill the 2nd of my ragging in my boarding school when i was given a long list of hindi and english abuses (by seniors) and was told to find out their meaning. i attained ‘nirvana’ that day! but even then unless i get into a really bad fight, i don’t ‘abuse a particular person’ (and i usually refrain from ‘maa-behan ki gaalis’).don’t believe in crying ever
Tony, LOL at admitting that ‘kabhi kabhi’.(i make sure i don’t even utter the slightest of abuse at home since i have a younger sister- baahar ka to aapko pata hai- same as u ‘kabhi kabhi, once in a blue moon’ – as Ranjeet used to say in Vishwanath). btw guys, hindi phrases like ‘phatne waali hai’ r also actually having a cuss-word like meaning (i hope we wouldn’t be asked to explain their meaning LOL). incidentally ‘yaar’ used to mean a ‘pimp/lover’. ‘kamina’ actually is not an abuse- it means ‘selfish’
one of my earlier comment compared it with rc ….it got -ve reviews from critics but had great shelf life in dvd cicrcuit and one can see most critics played safe here to gow atlease with review part (lesson learnt in hard way)
Just saw one of the greatest movie ever made by an Indian…Gangs of Wasseypur.A subversive history of India from 1947 onward depicted through the story of a small town of wasseypur.The oldest and the fondest of man’s folly LUST FOR POWER… unabashedly shown dancing naked through the streets and into the minds of everyone……
Every single scene of the film is nuanced and has a link to a psychological or philosophical concept(no wonder the idiot reviewer Rajeev Masand said the movie merits a second viewing for someone to appreciate its nuances better).The movie is bristling with intelligence and introspection. A veritable tour de force of cinematic excellence….a riot of metaphors…..black humourous…..snake eating its own tail(paradoxical) drama .u can call it an allegory,a satire,hyper or magic realism or simply a work of sheer and obscene genius.
Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap.
This film is a Don quixote….a Moby dick……a Gargantua and Pangruel…a Tristam shandy…… A hamlet, an Ullysses ….a Tin drum…a Trial….a Notes from underground…..an Outsider…..a Waiting for godot….a Hundred years of solitude…a Midnights children……this movie is truly an epic!
Hmm…sachin that’s extreme praise from u
Well, Even without seeing the film, from the promos/songs can sense that this is simply one of the best films made by a recent Indian film maker…
“Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap”
🙂
I’m not one to stifly someone’s real feelings or ‘passion’
Plz tell us more and expand your thoughts
Why don’t u do a full blown review on GoW
Not showing near me (& to add to the discomfiture, will most probably have to watch TMK tomorrow due to some fans of that genre!)
Ps–how can one see GoW online –don’t usually do this not due to ethical issues mainly but since the crap sound picture quality is crap
Ie is there a more ‘respectable’ quality way of watching it–
Plz provide Any links torrent etc
Ps-in watching movies online, think the likes of Oldgold have a phd
🙂
hehe..the censor board and the scissors.man is so pathetic.har jagaah saala nautanki familywaad aur friendshipwaad.lilliputs conspiring against gulliver.hehe…when will we grow up…..”Arrogance is a jewel while Modesty has the thickest hide.”..nietzche said.Modest ants and rats!sucking up to each other and forming a group.
always remember what blake said: Great things r done when a man meets the mountain,it is not done by jostling in the streets.
stop sucking up to eachother and venture inside ur own individuality and arrogance……
Sachin : havent seen the film so can’t comment if you are going overboard in your praise 🙂
But even without seeing it, have faith that kashyap has come up with something novel, nuanced and authentic…
Let’s rise above narrow affiliations and give the man his due
And sachin: don’t get discouraged and come up with more rants and a full blown review –I like this ‘passion’ coming straight out unadulterated –keep it coming 🙂
Ps-u havent answered –how can one see GoW in reasonable picture sound quality online (if possible)
btw thanks to censor we have never seen more of kashyap…people still say paanch was much better movie than black friday and black friday would have had a serious shot at oscars( on yahoo worldwide on net it was among the top 10 movies reviewed) but still one feel he has never again managed to repeat these two…watching gow tommorrow and will put up a short review tommorrow
btw a serious question on tarantino and censor
anurag kashyap whenver acts on his friends movie even on screen is seen depicting ganja and hashish and even at dev d you remember first client of prostitute kalki was kashyap
is this not tarantino’s hangover( of being a rebel and even similar screen presence and so do excessive swearing as hangover) and what you expect censor to do when one cross the line
i saw the late nite show…..it is 2 o clock in the morning in india.i will write a detailed review tomm.but i m not a reviewer…in order to explain what anurag wants to say i will have to explain the story too.my approach towards reviewing a film is to pick out a dozen of seminal scenes from the movie..and then to train philosophical focus on them…explain them and in the process explain the vision and genius of the director.
Sachin: yes: go for a proper review
Like your spirit and uninhibited passion about this piece
And unlike what u and others allege Satyam of, wait –will ask him to make your piece into a thread
But mate-do write a mind blasting review worthy of this film…
Also ‘seminal’ scenes etc are ok -try to minimise spoilers
PS-can any goddamm piracy expert tell where to watch it in proper sound /pic quality???
Minor: they were left to watch Ferrari ki sawaaris on their own..
While Amy took a trip to bombay
Told her to stay away from these parties 😉
Will have to ‘save’ her again and make a few one calls…
Amy’s ‘silence’ proves me right 🙂
Ps-nobody has been spared from these raves
Btw nowadays ‘withdrawal of Internet abuse’ is also a form of abuse
Hope the net access of youth like Amy and Sanjana haven’t been blocked by their partners/parents 😉
On one hand are guys like anurag kashyap who inspite of coming up with something like GoW is being analysed with a microscope…
While
On the other hand —
Sajid khan: I can never make a flop film 🙂
Filmmaker Sajid Khan is sure his film Himmatwala, based on the 1983 movie of the same name, will cross Rs.100 crore within its first week itself. He says he can never make a flop film.
“I can’t say I am a great director but I am the greatest audience, since childhood I have done nothing other than watching films. Cinema is my life. I can never make a flop film because I make film for audience and not for myself,” Sajid said during the sound recording of Himmatwala.
the online version is pathetic…pls dont download…..the audio is fucked up.i guess u will have to wait for a couple of days.this was not the problem in shanghai…this time round they came up with a john doe order so it discouraged the pirates.hopefully in a couple of days a better version will be out
“u will have to wait for a couple of days”
Haha
The ‘couple of days’ will have to wait for me 🙂
After a ‘couple of days’ my attention span will be somewhere else …lol
lexy…did you see the gaali marathon (thread) above? Do participate…you can share your experience at high level only 😉
Sattu/G/F too decent to join in….
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur Struggle On Day One
Friday 22nd June 2012 23.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs of Wasseypur disappointed on day one with poor collections with wide releases. Teri Meri Kahaani hit 1500 screens across India while Gangs of Wasseypur was 1000 plus which is huge for such a film.
Teri Meri Kahaani is looking set for a 5.50 crore nett first day with Delhi city and Punjab showing the best collections. Single screens across the country are poor
Gangs of Wasseypur is expected to fetch around 2.50 crore nett going by the early figures coming in. It has done very poor in Bihar where the film is set but neighbouring state UP has done better especially the multiplexes in the state. Gangs Of Wasseypur has also performed badly at single screens.
The compulsion for cuss-words
Di-I don’t believe in ‘gaalis’ or abuses … 🙂
Am ‘pure’ in that respect haha
Feel that one shouldnt need the clutch of ‘abuses’ to make ones displeasure obvious when really angry …
Cuss words are more of an self-ego enhancer or a punching bag than any sort of ‘ammunition’ damaging the ‘receiver’..
In most cases, the ‘damage’ is more to the ‘abuser’
A few scales in the voice note or a glance is usually enuf to convey the ‘anger’ …
For this sort of a film and this maker–won’t even care for a public review …
C’mon folks -be true to yourselves…
Ps– I personally have never seen a more ‘real’ gritty portrayal of this sort of rural Indian setup
Inspite of having no personal experience of rural countryside indian settings, one can sense the characters vibe and even touch the emotions …even the promos and songs speak out !
Celluloid in its true honest form..
‘in good company’
Comtinuing from above-managed to watch most of it (an achievement–v rare to see a film totally nowadays -adult ADHD??
Have always been a ‘moments’ person
Dennis quaid –well liked him in summary
A few scenes with gopher grace and johanssen were special–only a few seconds here n there…
May write something later -but quaid is a special guy and an actor
This simple alright film has made me rate him higher now
Gangs of Wasseypur and Teri Meri Kahaani Fail to Strike the Chord at the Box Office
June 22nd, 2012 by Mukul Kumar Sharma
Two of the most awaited films of recent times hit the theaters this Friday. However, it seems highly unlikely that either of them are going to do some good business at the Indian box office. While it’s too early to predict the precise predictions, the opening day occupancy gives us a clear picture of what the coming weekend might have in store for the films.
Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur had a pretty dull start with a mere 10-15% average occupancy rate all over the country. A movie, which was much hyped about in recent times, it seems the hype was just not enough. The situation at single screen theaters was worse than that of multiplexes. Compare it to recent releases Shanghai and Ferrari Ki Sawaari and you will know it had one of the worst openings of recent times.
The other release this Friday was Shahid Kappor and Priyanka Chopra‘s Teri Meri Kahaani. Now we know Anurag Kashyap’s flick might not have been for the masses but this is one movie which was sure expected to have a better audience connect than the former. The movie had a better opening day than that of Gangs of Wasseypur but was still way below expectation. Teri Meri Kahaani opened to a low 30-35% average occupancy rate in multiplexes. Now, it seems Shahid is all set to break his last flop Mausam‘s record as even the latter had a 50% opening, which in turn was way better than Teri Meri Kahaani. I really don’t know whose’s Kahaani it is but it sure can be termed as “Shahid ke Flop Ki Kahaani”.
Both the movies will pick up on collections during the weekends but I wonder what are the figures they will be needing to recover the loss of the opening day. It seems highly unlikely that any of these will leave a mark at the Indian box office.
Man, TMKs poor collections is a surprise
Am due to watch it tomorrow/Sunday–am wondering if it may get taken out before that ? Lol
In absolute numbers, are we seeing the possibility f GoW outgrossing TMK ? Difficult bit not impossible …
Saw TMK what a pathetic movie. Point is the romantic genre is just not clicking with the masses as well as suprisingly even the classes now , even ladies in the theatre seemed bored of the movie and when I saw RR few weeks back ladies and families at large were enjoying the same. Masala genre is here to stay and it seems to have broken the mass class divide for now.
Hmm interesting observation there dino
About this breakdown of the ‘mass-class’ divide…
So is ‘romance’ out of flavour?
Let’s see what happens when the yrf-SRK-Kat film releases …
when a genre outlives it’s ‘sell by’ date it can nonetheless survive as the ‘exception’. Specially when you have the Yashraj/SRK combo you can tweak it a bit and feed off the nostalgia. In the absence of a strong product this is never enough to set the highest box office benchmarks but it can nonetheless be a moneyspinner on its own. The really ‘key’ decision here is Rahman who adds a certain coolness quotient to this otherwise stale enterprise. And who can of course get people to the theaters too. I would probably see this just for the album!
yeah alex romance just seems out of flavour and when classes the main market for such movies seem to be shunning it it is sign of things to come. I am very keen to see whether SRK/Yash combo is able to spill magic again looks difficult though.
Hi Alex would watch it for Katrina for sure. As for the stars I liked Abhishek couple of years back as of now Akshay is on my fav list alongwith Aamir ofcourse.
“I would probably see this just for the album”
🙂
Lots of people will say it for lots of different reasons
Some will also see it for katrinas overcoat or srks guitar or anushkas snooty helmet !!
Bit whatever may be the supposed reasons, lots will see it…
-I think this latest ‘masala’ craze is more a ‘southern remake’ trend than just ‘masala’
Had mentioned this after rowdy rathore…
For a person with no experience of south Indian films, tese movies TELL such a naive viewer why the south Indian actors gets temples/roads on their names
Theres a certain ‘different treatment’ that elevates the mere hero into a demigod sort of persona perhaps ..
Unsurprisingly even cigarettes shooting gimmicks acquire cult legendary mega status…
Director Shirish Kunder was on cloud nine about having Amitabh Bachchan play the lead role in one of his upcoming projects, Common Man. However, as Amitabh doesn’t seem keen to start work on any long-term project at the moment, it seems, Shirish’s “dream project” is up in the air.
disappointed Shirish tells us, “I don’t know when Common Man will happen. He (Amitabh) is not doing any major films right now. It may be because of his health.” The senior Bachchan had signed the film in December, agreeing to play the title role.
Shirish is presently busy wrapping up his ambitious project, Joker, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. The director had planned to start Common Man right after, before moving on to yet another film by the end of the year — Kick, with Salman Khan in the lead.
Shirish adds, “I had started working on the film, but now I have kept the whole thing aside. It’s not just a song or a cameo for which I would need him for four to five days. It’s a full-fledged film.” It seems he had even started casting for the film, but has put that on hold as well for now.
Now that this has thrown Shirish’s schedule out of gear, what is he doing with his free time? He says he is busy writing a suspense thriller, which will be “futuristic”, on the lines of Joker. “When I start writing a script, it’s always ahead of its time. The good thing is, I take two to three years to finish a film. Had I made Joker six years ago, no one would have understood it,” says Shirish.
Amitabh has time to work in KBC, but not movies ? This is absurd. Frankly among all proposals Amitabh had right now, this one was most promising. Amitabh not sparing time for this movie is definitely a bad move. This movie could have been “A wednesday” or “Munnabhai” moment of Amitabh. All i know its a wonderful script and if well translated on screen, could be another milestone for Amitabh.
If he would chose Natsamrat or Sarkar 3 over Common Man, this is going to be a very big mistake.
More than Kunder, such type of Scripts not written every day. Some one from my circle who have read this script was raving about it and was sure that this movie will be a big milestone in Amitabh career, if well made. Its on middle line of Munna Bhai and A wednesday .. though completely different.
Nowadays whenever a bachchan refuses a film, that film should become hot property and a sures hot success -some times even exceptional ones like Lagaan ..
Ps-here I think there are other reasons as well.
Not sure if SRK-Kunder fight is forcing many from associating with Kunder…
yes but Kunder is hardly Neeraj Pandey and he’s assuredly not Hirani! Don’t mind KBC though, it’s really been going from strength to strength every season.
Kunder has only JEM in his CV and it was good movie, at least it was quality product. And his approval of Common Man script is indication that he has senses to pick good script. And what Amitabh has done in last 2-3 years ? Teen Patti or some RGV movies ? Or substandard(Production values wise) BHTB ? As a fan i am expecting him to come in central role in well made movies. Common man could have been one such.
I am not much pleased about him doing KBC, he is not TV star. He is a big screen star, as a fan any day i would like to see him in one solid movie a year … rather than one KBC and 2 substandard movies. Instead of investing huge time for KBC, why not he invested time for choosing right movies ?
And more over, you must be aware .. he was first choice for Naseer role in A wednesday, but he refused and instead did slots to Bhootnath and Aag. This shows how much he has ability to chose good scripts. Refusing A wednesday was his Big mistake (among so many others), and refusing Common Man will be another big mistake. No wonder we will see Anupam or Naseer or Boman irani very soon doing this movie under some banner ..
“Frankly among all proposals Amitabh had right now, this one was most promising”
i disagree yakuza – kunder can murder the finest scripts – looking at his track records and tweet-histories 😉
that man hasn’t got any thing to back him.
Big B is far wiser to understand this and he is right in choosing KBC over that
But compare it with Mahesh Manjrekar’s Natsamrat, RGV’s Sarkar 3 … i will prefer Shirish any day. And you are surely going to get surprise from Joker .. more over his only movie till date JEM was good.
He is bagging new endorsement deals. He is sparing four months for KBC. He has time to do cameos in craps like Department. But he don’t have time for one basic thing for which he is meant to be .. i.e full fledged role in entertaining movie.
Don’t know what he is up to.This is kind of movie which he himself should take pain for initiation .. otherwise no one is writing such roles and script for 70 year old man every day.
The great man is beyond working for his career @ this stage..
For the last few years (& more so specially now) is having to keep himself relevant for someone else…
Kbc is something he now can do on ‘autopilot’ mode and ensures reasonably good money without any unpredictability ..
As for their ‘script sense, have said this before.
Bachchan rejected films should become hit property…
actually I think it’s good news. I have a low opinion of Kunder’s skill set unless he completely surprises me with Joker. Did like the first 15 min or so of JeM though.
It’s everyone’s dream, so it didn’t come as a surprise when Shoojit Sircar said in an interview that he wanted to direct Amitabh Bachchan. In fact, they did a film together, Shoebite, which is still in the cans. But it looks like Sircar’s dream willfinally come true. Sources close to the director tell us that he recently narrated astoryline to Big B and the latter has given him the green signal. Right now, Sircar is scripting the film along with writer Juhi Chaturvedi.
The said film, we’re told, is titled Garden House and it might also have Jaya Bachchan starring opposite the actor. Although Sircar is scripting the film, he will complete his next film Jaffna with John Abraham before he starts work on Garden House.
To get their comments, we sent Bachchan and Sircar a text message but they did not reply. But our source stands by this nugget.
A ‘reviewer, by definition should be ‘qualified’ to revives a film
Most reviewers need some basic education to be allowed into GoW Screenings
And I’m saying this knowing fully well that –
A) the box office will not be much to write home about inspite of the niche audience loving it
B) inspite of knowing that most (including myself) won’t be comfortable with sme crass graphic violence here
C) knowing fully well that the sensibilities, lingo and the perceptions of the main ‘characters’ are far removed from any sort of identification from most urbane viewers commenting in it (including myself)
But the bottomline is —
True brilliance transcends (& should transcend) all these relative trivialities.
Ps– these reviewers should go and learn a few things from GoW
A heavy duty dialogue folks–
Whatta dialogue –applause !
Courtesy google
“zindagi bhi ek nasha hai dost
Jab chadhta hai to poochho mat
Kya aalam rehna hai
Lekin jab Utarta hai….”
🙂
came across this song from guide on telly..
Sd burman in full flow ( & running circles around the comspiracy theorists kn rdburman) and dev anand inspite of lip syncing errors is fine..
So much of criticism about Indian critics here..not sure If it’s coz they are praising Anurag Kashyap’s film or Bol bachhan will be releasing soon and will be panned by these critics.
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur Struggle On Day One
Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs of Wasseypur disappointed on day one with poor collections with wide releases. Teri Meri Kahaani hit 1500 screens across India while Gangs of Wasseypur was 1000 plus which is huge for such a film.
Teri Meri Kahaani is looking set for a 5.50 crore nett first day with Delhi city and Punjab showing the best collections. Single screens across the country are poor
Gangs of Wasseypur is expected to fetch around 2.50 crore nett going by the early figures coming in. It has done very poor in Bihar where the film is set but neighbouring state UP has done better especially the multiplexes in the state. Gangs Of Wasseypur has also performed badly at single screens.
Yakuza:” I am not much pleased about him doing KBC, he is not TV star. He is a big screen star”
I don’t agree. I think today he is bigger as TV star than a film star. In fcat as a TV anchor he is awesome and untouchable. Of course he is a good film actor too. But today he really needs special projects like Paa or Khakee to bring out the actor in him. and that happens about once in ten years,
But what happened to Shahid? Think he had a wonderful chance to choose great films after his role in Kaminey but he’s shattered his goodwill by doing crap films after another.
Gangs Of Wasseypur First Day Territorial Breakdown
Saturday 23rd June 2012 13.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur collected 2.75 crore nett approx on day one. Delhi/Up was the best circuit with mass circuits having poor collection. The first day territorial breakdown is as follows.
even if taking these number into account it surely just don’t justify the bull shit 8-10% occupancy and the notion that its not working on hindi belt …number itself contradicts the commentry
gow is on 1000 screens and shanghai on 1200-1500 range
have to say like shanghai they tried to kill the movie early and one knows why because they posses serious mechanism to star centric structure
Btw am mission minor somewhat
Seems he has taken a break from the 24×7 vigil 🙂
Maybe he’s finally heard my advice and has finally started some ‘action’
Hope he hasn’t got caught under the John doe … Hahaha
GoW Finds Takers, TMK In Doldrums On Day 2
by Sagorika Dasgupta (June 23, 2012)
This week’s releases, Anurag Kahsyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur (GoW) and Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK) fared better on the day after their release than on opening day. According to distributors, Saturday was a more fruitful day for GoW, which found more takers due to word of mouth publicity.
Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “GoW has definitely improved on its second day compared to TMK. Though TMK did not have a great opening, the film has managed to collect around Rs 5.1 crore.”
GoW has sparked interest in the Delhi circuit too. Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says, “The business of Gangs… has improved quite a lot since yesterday and it is likely to do better over the weekend. As for TMK, since it’s a Saturday today, the film might attract the family audience. When you consider costs, GoW is doing better as it’s a cheaper film than TMK.”
In Kolkata, even though TMK took a better opening (20 to 17 per cent) due to its bigger cast, it did not manage to sustain itself. GoW did not open well (17 to 18 per cent) but has picked up some momentum. Debashish Dey of Aum Movies says, “The business of TMK has not been good, with the film’s collections dipping quite a bit since yesterday. On the other hand, GoW is doing well, and thanks to the positive reviews and word-of-mouth publicity, it is doing quite well.”
In Rajasthan, however, it is TMK that’s grabbing the audience. Sunil Bansal of Yash Raj Jai Pictures reveals, “TMK is a family film and the audience here has really appreciated it and this is translating into good collections here. Gangs… did not get off to a great start but business has improved quite a bit since yesterday. Both TMK and GoW are neck-and-neck, at 50 to 60 per cent collections.”
In Orissa, regional cinema rules, dampening the prospects of both Hindi releases. Jeetu Khandelwal of Movie Pioneers avers, “The collections of both Hindi films have not gone up. Since the weekend is here, we hope they will do better but business won’t be substantial as regional films always find a better audience here.”
[Gangs of Wasseypu obtains John Doe order (historically first time before Hon’ble Bombay High Court) against unknown defendants (who can use piracy) Order 1 Rule 8, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 ]
Naik managing partner Ameet Naik with senior counsele Venkatesh Dhond, won an order from Bombay high court Justice BR Gawai today, restraining local cable operator Sonali Cable Vision Pvt Ltd and internet service provider (ISP) Spectranet Limited, and Mr John Doe (Ashok Kumar) standing for unknown defendants, from pirating the movie that will be released on 22 June.
Naik associate Anushree Rauta said: “This suit was a representative action, under Order I, Rule 8 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The cable operator and ISP impleaded in the instant suit represent the group of cable operators and ISPS’s in general; There is complete identity of interest amongst these defendants and the general body of persons whom they represent and/or are said to represent.
“The common interest in question is that these persons represent a group who may violate and/or infringe the copyright of the producer in the said film by telecasting/ uploading it or dealing with it in any other way prohibited by the Copyright Act. Hence it was necessary to implead names of cable operator and ISP as representatives of their group.”
And the great AK did not even think it necessary to invite AB to screening of GOW where even dildos like ranveer singh and ranbir kapoor–sorry Saket; I copied your phrase–found seats!!!
If AB can tweet this — (if this is the genuine AB id that is) after such massive humiliations from AK, only speaks for AB’s greatness!!
Yes, it is the genuine AB id on twitter. AB has about 3 million followers on Twitter and his account is verified.
AB is gracious to everyone in contrast to many wannabe “great ones”. I have seen him praise people on twitter/blog who have been rude or unpleasant to him and his family or in my opinion totally undeserving of praise (Katrina). His only airs his grievances against the media publicly.
But note in a certain sense how Bachchan’s praise (though genuine on his part) is even more demeaning for Kashyap than Bachchan’s ignoring of the film would be let alone dislike. Because there is a certain asymmetry here. The attitude where one maintains a certain ‘class’ irrespective of how others act is commendable but when one is in a far more privileged position the ‘generosity’ invites resentment. Abhishek is an even better example here. With Amitabh Bachchan no one disputes his gifts and accomplishments and so on. But when Abhishek is generous in the same way, praising many of his peers quite effusively or always maintaining a certain poise and so forth, this is not just seen as ‘creditable’ by the others even though it is of course so in a literal sense. Because this very magnanimity is seen as the ultimate sign of his privilege. Because only someone like him could be so ‘above’ the competition because his status in terms of his very unique signature is always safe. Other stars can be bigger than him, more successful than him or whatever but they cannot quite become ‘Bachchan’ no matter what they do. In other words when he is magnanimous he is also saying ‘I am not really bothered by the fact that you guys are doing better than me’. Now part of it is true owing to simply his nature. He’s not the resentful sort. On the other hand there’s this other side of it as well which is that he probably doesn’t aspire to the same ‘kind’ of success in any case. Which is to say he’d like to be very successful but not as the guy who just does Krrish or the Guy who just does Houseful or the guy who just does Ready and so on. That is simply not his goal leaving aside what box office realities force him to do.
But also the name matters because everyone else is invested in it too. This is not just about being the potential inheritor of a great star’s name but operating on a ‘site’ that is now even greater than the star in terms of its potency. Much as the name Shakespeare isn’t simply equivalent to that of the playwright who wrote so many legendary plays. It is an event that means much more. Even if Bachchan is the star who helped launch an event the latter is now greater than the sum of his achievements. So every star since Bachchan tries to occupy that site. In other words (and with the exception of Aamir) it is not that they want to be the top stars, they want to be so in Bachchanesque ways. Which is a very different deal. and here Abhishek’s presence keeps reminding them that the path is blocked in a very literal sense even if they remain more successful than him! He is the placeholder as certainly as a crown prince even if ‘incompetent’ is nonetheless the heir! You don’t ‘earn’ this position. But where Abhishek complicates things is by being on the one hand a worthy heir (acting in the Ratnam films, getting extraordinary praise in them barring Raavan, many other directors of note celebrating him etc) and on the other hand being an unworthy one (compromising on his box office success of course but more crucially being not his father’s son in key performance choices and so forth). All of this could be a larger discussion but Abhishek is always seen as the potential heir. When others succeed it is only about them. When he succeeds it is also about the retriggering of the Bachchan archives. Not for nothing is Rohit Shetty’s film called Bol Bachchan! From RGV to Shetty very many directors intuit the connection even when they don’t actively theorize it.
And so because of this structure the whole generosity bit even when genuine can be resented. Because unless you always had the status of an exception you wouldn’t quite be as comfortable with ‘being behind’ even with different goals and aspirations. To be clear I’m not saying he’s not a nice guy but the ‘niceness’ acquires certain charged overtones when he’s also a Bachchan. This happens with the media too. They write awful stuff about him and it’s like ‘I don’t care’! It happens with the audience too, they want the gym body or at least a certain definition of fitness, they want him to follow what every other star is doing in terms of the trends of the age but he often goes militantly in the other direction! But he can’t be rejected the way a Govinda would be if he did all of this because he is still superior in terms of class to the audience! Or most of it!
Getting back to Bachchan when he does this it’s not quite the same for the reasons I’ve pointed out but still there’s a universal structure here — resenting someone for their words or acts and expressing this is far more satisfying to the hostile interlocutor than ignoring them! In every situation. Irrespective of who is in the right or not. This is what drives the right into hysteria with respect to Obama. That he simply will not lose his cool or crack in any sense! So when Bachchan says ‘I love GoW’ he is also saying ‘I love GOW, the director did a great job, as for what he says about me or my son or whatever I am too big to even deign to respond to it’! This is often the perception on the other side when there is asymmetry. It’s obviously worse with Abhishek but nonetheless part of the same structure. To respond to something is also to concede one has been wounded. To act ‘indifferently’ is to say ‘you will never have the power to wound me’!
But Kashyap should respond to this with grace on twitter. Incidentally Bachchan follows Kashyap on twitter anyway. Abhishek might too. I don’t know.
what is the problem with the NRIs?why do u guys mythologize India and bollywood?why do u…(against all the indications to the contrary)…… people it with gods and demi gods?Bachchans……and kapoors and whatnots!
it is very much like..when a man is living in a village…no electricity,no dispensary…no shopping malls…no tv…no sanitized place to shit even…. he is fucked up and wants to get out of the shit hole! But once he is out…he starts creating and convincing himself with myths about the romantic village life.taazi haava….gaanv ke geet….aur natural beauty aur maati ki khusbuu and all that joke!
the NRI fascination with bachchan and other indian stars and star kids is psuedo….very similar to that village analogy i gave.
that is one reason why kashyap’s films never get released outside india.he has zero market amongst the NRIs.y?because his films and his notions and comments about life in general and about bollywood in particular dont pander to those daydreams.
bachchan became great becoz of his talent…..fullstop……and if Abhisekh lacks that talent he is gonna disappear…bachchan kid or not is immaterial.Pls stop myth making and lets talk real and sensible.
Amitabh complimented Anurag becoz he saw great talent in his film………… and he knows that he is amitabh today becoz of his talent and the only currency which matters in the scheme of things and will always matter is talent..and he acknowledged its presence in anurag and clapped.
thanks for talking about desi and nri’s but again kashyap is revering more recognition from nri film festival and with due respect to rural set up’s this is not about modern rural india but one of 40’s that to with fiction
please watch satajit ray’s pather panchali to know about true presentation of a rural set up or mahanagar for life of trouble middle class in metro’s
first of all, and as I’ve said before, you need to RELAX!
The rest of your statement is too extraordinarily incoherent to warrant a response. In just about every sentence you frankly don’t know what you’re taking about. But then one should expect this from someone who says the following:
[Just saw one of the greatest movie ever made by an Indian…Gangs of Wasseypur.A subversive history of India from 1947 onward depicted through the story of a small town of wasseypur.The oldest and the fondest of man’s folly LUST FOR POWER… unabashedly shown dancing naked through the streets and into the minds of everyone……
Every single scene of the film is nuanced and has a link to a psychological or philosophical concept(no wonder the idiot reviewer Rajeev Masand said the movie merits a second viewing for someone to appreciate its nuances better).The movie is bristling with intelligence and introspection. A veritable tour de force of cinematic excellence….a riot of metaphors…..black humourous…..snake eating its own tail(paradoxical) drama .u can call it an allegory,a satire,hyper or magic realism or simply a work of sheer and obscene genius.
Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap.
This film is a Don quixote….a Moby dick……a Gargantua and Pangruel…a Tristam shandy…… A hamlet, an Ullysses ….a Tin drum…a Trial….a Notes from underground…..an Outsider…..a Waiting for godot….a Hundred years of solitude…a Midnights children……this movie is truly an epic!]
So again let’s take a deep breath. for someone who doesn’t like myths and gods your statements on Kashyap could have fooled me!
and ya india is not bollywood dear but even in india do you even have the audience for this rural set up ( most of the revenues comes from multiplex auduence that to being just less that fraction of real audience)
be practical and you are correct about talent…without talent no one survives for a decade that to in economics of film industry…there will be fan or hate rant always
but i do find rom com as the cheapest genre …to each his own
Note how AB’s compliment to AK inspite of being accused of nepotism and pettiness suddenly becomes a very simple, matter-of-fact statement – as though it doesn’t even warrant a discussion! Nothing great about this act, right? But, if he were to have simply ignored GOW or even mentioned a very ordinary approval of the movie, all hell would have broken loose!! (Statements like – AFTER SO LONG THERE IS ONE FILM-MAKER WHO HAS BROKEN BOUNDARIES AND HAS BROUGHT LAURELS FOR INDIA FROM ABROAD AND SUCH would be floating around on those fans (the blind and biased ones I mean) of AK). And those of us who are against such blind worshipping of this ‘rebellion’ end up being labeled ‘NRIs’ or worse – women!!
I think this should be considered a classic example of SUBVERSION!!
Saw GoW – a pretty Good film except awful Voiceover in the beginning and some good old self indulgence Soundtrack was awesome with keh ke lunga and bihar ke Lala as best tracks. Film has some of the most romantic moments i have seen onscreen. Richa Chada as Nagma was my favorite performance
More than the ‘insane’ praise for the film — twitter has gone bonkers over the film — I’m happy for Manoj Bajpai. He’s a great actor and deserves every bit of success. And so does Kashyap…his rants could be way off or on the mark, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a very very talented director.
wasnt very interested in watching GoW, but happened to see Dev.D on netflix yesterday and really enjoyed the movie. I must say I have been avoiding AK’s movies because of the things he says but got the impression he is a really good director. Unfortunately, from what I know GoW is not playing in the US.
I’ve liked most of his films if not all. But I have also felt that he needs to move on and make a truly important film. A true talent always outgrows his (or her) older self. Perhaps GoW being a more ambitious film does this. I don’t know, haven’t seen it.
Satyam, Is GoW a good film? yes it is. Is it a truly important film? Not at all. i have to say that Black Friday and to some extent Gulaal remain his only ‘important’ works. But i am sorry for you and GF that u guys would not be able to catch it in theatre (it has to be seen on the big screen. and if someone’s mother tongue is Hindi and if he/she hails from North India it’s even better bcos the dialogues are very well written). This film deserves write-ups from you, GF,Q, Abzee etc.
Also i wanted to make an important point. Kashyap, who has a condascending attitude towards ‘masala’ films of bwood, ironically uses enough tropes of revenge films of the masala genre. there are scenes which have tongue-in-cheek references Bachchan’s films. And then there are some scenes paying direct homage to Bachchan- a particular one where one character, in the theatre, is shown watching Bachchan’s kick-ass opening scene of Trishul. the shadow of AB and masala looms large over the film
I’m so glad you said that Saurabh.. it’s a shrewd point. Coincidentally earlier I got this note from someone:
[btw, how’s this for psychology — bajpai’s son in the film is a huge fan of bachchan; bajpai’s own name in the film is “Sardar” (oh, what will one letter do? 🙂 — need anyone say “abhishek”? Not to mention that Sardar is himself a son, since the whole film is his revenge drama for his own father’s death. Bete, European cinema ki kitnee bhi baaten kar lo, one cannot will influence!]
which confirms my idea that the Kashyap psychological issue when it comes to Abhishek is a rather ‘tangled web’! As Saket says it’s absurd to blame one person for all of Bollywood’s ills. Since I don’t think one is consciously that absurd what does this absurdity then mean? One’s statements always reveal more than one intends to!
Having said that Kashyap has never said anything against Bachchan himself. At least not anything I’m aware of. But (and this is important) from the blogosphere to the media Abhishek has always been a stand-in for his father, precisely because of the ‘site’ (signature). Or Abhishek is where his father becomes vulnerable in a sense. Couple this with the larger media/trade hostility towards Bachchan (even at his very peak) and you have a relatively constant thread of negativity. The question then is: what does the angry young man represent that he so disturbs the bourgeois establishment? Abhishek is in this sense the ‘return of the repressed’ much more than Bachchan’s own self for more than a decade now. The latter is now ‘normalized’ as India’s most transcendent brand-name. He doesn’t disturb anyone. Abhishek on the other hand with many of his choices on and off screen very much does so. I am not really talking about talent and so on here but the configuration of a site of meaning. But even in a box office sense from the same blogosphere to the media the most common approach toward Abhishek has always been one of a ‘denial’. So when he was doing well the numbers were often deflated and/or others were supposed to be responsible for the successes. When he failed these were his own. People don’t mind praising him for this or that performance as long as he can be denied as a structural threat! Here the important question isn’t whether one is a fan of Abhishek or not, likes him or not at any level. It;s completely fair to be on either side of this divide. But the institutional narrative is a different thing altogether.
@saurabh……kashyap does that….. much in the same way tarantino or leone made fun of the cowboy westerns in their films.kashyap is making fun of the whole romantic notion which actuates a masala movie maker.Presence in his films of those masala elements are as spoofs or caricatures of reality…something to laugh at!And if u look deeply…..all masala ..sentibaaz movies r INFACT caricatures of what is real..and MUST be laughed at!
But Tarantino and Leone aren’t making fun of the original films at all. Theirs are affectionate tributes in ‘mock’ fashion. Which is a completely different deal. And I think Saurabh’s point here is that Kashyap is doing the very same. Even without seeing the film I’m quite sure he’s right.
affectionate tributes or unaffectionate tributes doesnt matter.what matters is the mock style.and the reason why mock style has to be invariably employed is because the director knows that his audience is more enlightened(than the audiences which watched the westerns or masala movies)…..and he is through the mock style subverting the ethos and the aesthetics of the former kind of movies.for example what do you think cervantes did in don quixote?he wrote quixote at a time when europe was full of heroic novels and ballads…..example orlando furiosio by arisoto(italy).so cervates subverts it by writing a mock heroic novel…in which quixote is a mock hero.it doesnt matter whether don quixote was an affectionate or dis affectionate tribute to orlando furioso or not….the question is not relevant.what matters is that it subverts the earlier brand of fiction writing.similarly…if kashyap is influenced by masala movies….it is to subvert it….same with tarantino. whereas saurab was talking as if…anurag is influenced by masala films in a manner to imitate it(which saurabh found ironical as AK has time and again criticized masala flicks)……
I don’t agree with that reading at all. Cervantes loved those older epics. But he faced precisely the problem Leone did and Kashyap does. When one comes at the end of or ‘after’ a rich tradition there is no possibility to simply ‘imitate’ things. One has to adopt a very different tone. If the work is rich enough it stands in its own right, otherwise it fades with time. The other point that must absolutely not be missed here is that the ‘mock’ attempts are also about a certain ‘loss’ — the idea that a certain transcendence has vanished from the world. Your sense that somehow these later guys are more enlightened or the audience is more enlightened and cannot accept the more mythic or transcendent framework of the older films is a stunningly poor reading of everything and not one any of these latecomers would endorse. Leone loved all the Hollywood Westerns. He was soaked in them. Every other shot of Once upon a time in the West references a classic shot from an older iconic Western. The same with Tarantino who ranges from everything from Leone to Lady Snowblood and so on (though with him my criticism has often been that his ‘mock’ attempts are beside the point.. some of that tone is already there in the original films.. in other words you cannot out-Leone Leone!). So on and so forth. No one can do an angry young man anymore in that ‘straight’ sense. There has to be a minimal distance established and the ‘mock’ element results from this. It is exactly the opposite from what you’re suggesting. These latecomers are worried that they will be seen as simply imitative! Not interesting enough as readers. And hence a certain ironic distance has to be created (which I have politically problematic in other contexts).
Cervantes is not the best example here. He is too titanic a figure but he too moves away from the mode of medieval romance and more or less invents the novel. Note how he does not try to create the ultimate romance. Not because he thought the latter were silly but because he knew it was too late in history to do this. The idea that he’s simply making fun of these romances is bizarre. So much of his novel is about a certain nostalgia.
In general you’re completely confusing satire and irony with a more banal ‘mocking’ of something. In Jhankaar Beats there are wonderful mock references to SHolay including the extraordinarily hilarious “how did the Thakur eat?” (the guy has his hand behind his back and tries to pick up the condom packet with his teeth!). This does not at all mean that the director is making fun of Sholay or somehow trying to be ‘enlightened’ about it! Yes it is subversion but the best and richest subversion always involves a certain genuine and authentic tribute. You don’t do it by starting off with the position that the earlier work is ridiculous and needs to be mocked!
The timeline once again is important here. It is only at the end of a tradition, when it has been exhausted, when nothing new can be produced from it that the mock attempt even becomes legible. You have a profoundly incorrect sense of how these economies of influence and subversion operate. And I should add also a profoundly poor sense of how the original works operate and what they mean. If one’s criticism about a Desai film is that one guy cannot beat ten people one has not understood anything! Much as no serious scholar of Homar chides him for making Achilles so unimaginably strong! There was Pope’s mock epic (Dunciad) but no one loved the Iliad more than him!
pls note saurabh says ironically.if saurabh meant that kashyap subverts masala movie elements in his films…he wud not have found it ironical at all.it becomes ironical only when kashyap is influenced by masala films(not to subvert)…but to imitate them.only then it becomes ironical..because kashyap has often hated masala films.
or so he says! I actually don’t believe this at all. I’ve not come across such a statement from him but even if he’s said it I don’t buy it. His is a classic case of the ‘anxiety of influence’! In fact his whole ‘keep it real’ refrain has its roots precisely in the fact that he has been soaked in masala cinema. To avoid the influence he has to move in a very different direction. Not to say he doesn’t have auteurist interests but the psychological elements are important too. Of course these things can never be completely repressed and hence the clues come up in some work or the other! Not saying his stance is invalid by the way. There are many like him in the history of every art. Such projects are not invalidated by any means. But it’s not entirely about ‘choice’ either. The question then isn’t about the stance a Kashyap takes with respect to the masala tradition or whatever but whether he can as part of his project produce a film as extraordinary (and this obviously also means as ‘historically’ important) as some of those in the masala tradition. This is what the ‘agon’ comes down to. Artists struggling with older figures or models is nothing new. Art is enabled this way. But matching the model, let alone surpassing it is a far more hazardous game!
“Not because cervantes thought the latter were silly but because he knew it was too late in history to do this”
……how did he realize it was too late in history to do it?walter scott wrote excellent..best selling romances …rob roy,ivan hoe,waverly,etc….200 yrs after cervantes died.vikram seth wrote a victorian style novel “a suitable boy”…100 years after the age of victorian novel died.
who creates history?men do..and not vice versa.
when u say….” When one comes at the end of or ‘after’ a rich tradition there is no possibility to simply ‘imitate’ things. One has to adopt a very different tone”…it implies as if history determines how art changes….but my above examples have shown that it is not so.man changes history.william shakespeare in his play hamlet….talks about issues which r existential….300 yrs before notes from underground by dostoevsky announced existentialism to the world.and nietzche to sartre(in philosophy)….and kafka to camus in literature) formulated and gave it shape.
it is always about a single man rebelling against the tradition which creates something new.
“No one can do an angry young man anymore in that ‘straight’ sense”……i m sorry to say but it is always done by an angry young man in the straight sense……the rest only obfuscate the matter and find newer and subtler and more sophisticated ways to imitate.
and i never confused satire or irony with vulgar mocking.pls dont attribute motives to me to prove ur point.and i reiterate it is immaterial whether leone or cervantes loved romances and westerns or not.the fact is that their art is such a powerful indictment of the genre that it changed the whole literary and cinematic tradition and that is the reason why they became path breaking.
the historical romances of Walter Scott are very far from the medieval romances that Cervantes was referring to. In any case wasn’t Cervantes right and Walter scott wrong? History has been on the side of the former! The Vikram Seth example again proves my point. It is historically irrelevant as are many writers who write in a 19th century vein, historic or otherwise. Which is not to say that the books cannot be interesting reads. Just that it’s beside the point to write as if a whole history of the 20th century novel never happened. And here the Zizekian idea is absolutely the right one. Once the revolutionary event arrives it reconfigures the previous history. It demarcates it in very different fashion. There is then no possibility of going ‘before’ the event.
I do not believe that men create history, at least not in that simplistic and ‘naive’ formulation.
I am not at all opposing ‘history’ and ‘art’ here. It is about where these terms overlap. History isn’t something out there somewhere. The important artistic work much like the important political event or the crucial scientific one creates its history or ‘reorders’ the prior one. For example Newtonian physics defined the world in one way, Einstein then changed this model. Newton wasn’t wrong but his model seemed limited after Einstein. It wasn’t just Newton but the entire history of a scientific discipline that changed with Einstein. This happens in every field. The great example rewrites everything. So history isn’t just a set of events or about a calendrical sense of time. It is more profoundly about the narrative one uses in the name of history. There is no ‘neutral’ history out there. It all depends on one’s references and once the revolutionary event happens the entire narrative is ‘reset’. Once Rahman comes about the entire field of Tamil film music (and actually Indian film music) is ‘delimited’ which is to say everything before him seems ‘traditional’. When Ilaiyaraja first came about the same thing happened. The older figure is not reduced by the newer one but once the latter comes about there is no possibility of (in this case) doing music like IR. That history is closed. One can still imitate say IR of the early 80s or whatever but the music even though enjoyable will be hopelessly ‘archaic’ in a historic sense.
On the rest the term ‘indictment’ is precisely the wrong one to use. It is hopelessly wrong! And you are completely confused if you think Leone is indicting older Westerns or Tarantino is doing this! If you just read a basic biography of each figure you’d discover this to be the case but even the films simply cannot be read as indictments.
But getting back to Kashyap I do not see him at all so far as a figure who’s historically important in any sense. He might become that one day but he is not there yet. Not by a long stretch. In Bollywood terms he isn’t even where RGV is (in terms of influence) forget anything else. And here I think a special project for those who’ve seen both parts of GoW ought to be a comparison with RGV’s Rakta Charitra. The one thing I will give RGV (and I’ve gone into this before) is that for all his missteps there’s a certain ‘problem’ that he sees with ‘doing cinema’ either in the traditional way or in a more auteurist mode. He’s constantly struggled with this and to this degree even his failures attest to that greater truth. Kashyap belongs much more to a certain film festival bracket. I like most of his films but he hasn’t altered any equations so far. I doubt very much that GoW will do this either. Much as I adore Che but this is not a ‘historic’ film in any sense.
Thanks Saurabh — I will certainly be checking it out and hope to do a write-up.
Satyam’s comments here are insightful; while I won’t comment on Wasseypur as I haven’t seen it, I will say that any notions of “enlightenment” are rather ironic when one is speaking of Leone and Tarantino — the former only knows that his audience is late; the latter knows that decadence has been added along the way (a decadence he is party to, but how wistful Tarantino’s decadence is — in Kill Bill, the directorial eye’s need to believe in the transcendence of his muse Uma, a transcendence heightened by however bruised and battered she is along the way, is palpable). Note that this response to belatedness is, interestingly enough, the opposite of what Sachin says Kashyap’s is: in both Leone and Tarantino the response is to HEIGHTEN whatever Sachin would call “caricature” in the original. Thus, if one guy can beat up 10, in Kill Bill one woman will slaughter 167. That right there suggests to you that something other than mere mockery is going on. Or, stated differently, the real question to ask, if we must bring Leone and Tarantino into the conversation, is this: (assuming Sachin’s reading of Wasseypur is on the money), why does the form of Leone’s and Tarantino’s belatedness take the form of hyper-style, whereas Kashyap’s (but not only Kashyap’s) takes the form of DRAINING the “hyper” elements of style? i.e. Doesn’t this testify to the continuing survival of the (to me, rather sad) “parallel cinema” idea that “the realistic” is the only mode worth speaking of (although, I suspect that it is the urban reviewers’ ability to believe just about anything about places like Wasseypur that enables them to sign off on the film’s realistic credentials — a bloodbath?! why, over THERE it happens every day!)? I hope that is more Sachin than Kashyap (certainly the craziness of “No Smoking” features some of Kashyap’s best film-making): what I’ve always wished for Indian directors is the sort of liberation from (the tyranny of) “realism” defined in a desiccated way (not to mention: how realistic is realism? But that’s one for another day)…
I too find it hard to believe that Kashyap is as dismissive of masala as Sachin says he is — a purely dismissive stance is something like Om Shanti Om’s take on what “Southern films” are like. From the trailers, the very excess of Gangs of Wasseypur suggests to me that I will like this film, that it is NOT just an exercise in realism. That the urban reviewers accept it as such might instead be evidence of a prejudice: “it’s crazy out there!”
I haven’t seen the film but going by the trailers and the reviews I don’t think Kashyap is offering any kind of take on genre at all. Instead I think this film rather operates on the tension between its protagonists, weaned on grand mythic narratives and its heroes, imagining their lives to be the same and trying to will it to be like those narratives and the reality of day to day life where far from murdering some one easily it is much harder to even open a door the same way or even stab a foe as easily. (a Hitchcock movie in which the hero imagines himself to be John Wayne.)
I think it has become standard for Kashyap to have these ironic constructions in his movies where he has these protagonists who are given these unoriginal macho energies to release on screen but the movie gradually shows up the gap between their self-images and the reality of the kind of effect their behaviour is having on those around him. I’d say both No Smoking and Dev D do this.
Arturu Belano: yes, but the irony works in another way also (and that might serve to tie Kashyap’s work to a “take on genre”, even if that’s not how Kashyap sees his work): the impact of the films in both cases (in Kashyap’s case, am thinking about Dev D, No Smoking, and perhaps Gulaal) is at least in part dependent on the traces of that John Wayne trope, or old-school masala “bigtime hero” movie trope, however refracted, that the ironic film preserves* — i.e., at least one irony is at the expense of the knowing, rebel filmmaker (case in point: there’s something far more compelling about Abhimanyu Singh than anyone else in Gulaal; or Bhiku Mhatre rather than Satya in Satya). Or, seen from the other side, since no artist can control audience reception, the later director cannot control either, “straight” consumption of the film by his audience; or the fact that an audience might feel liberated by irony to indulge its John Wayne urge all the more (since no one could possibly think we’re still naive enough to fall for John Wayne, we’re all the more free to consume it, guilt-free as it were — this perhaps goes to the larger political problem of post-modern, post-ironic “stances”, the old critique that knowingness, because we now see the ironies inherent in any political project or artistic genre, frees us up to continue AS BEFORE, only slightly askew…).
*[Kashyap’s films might not be ABOUT genre, but your point is a shrewd one, and a great insight into his work: his films are populated by characters who are about genre — thereby enabling the return (through the back door) of that which L’enfant terrible thought could be banished, namely the ghost of old-school, dishoom dishoom cinema (you’ve already noted the orgasmic reviewer reactions to the violence; to think that these people routinely foam at the mouth when talking about mindless beat-’em ups…)]
black friday was important but the guy stagnated and tgyib was weak imo and this is his commercial version but again ak in urban india has fan circle among torrent and dvd junta only
for a truly important movie again lot of things have to connect and he has the timed …. wishing better luck to him
Just back from GOW. Insanely brilliant t is my word for it. Every thing that was wrong about Shnghai is right about this one. Bradwaj rangan;s review has said pretty much what I want to say about it. Have to see it again before writing my version ofa revew.
I await a longer piece from you. Regrettably it hasn’t released overseas so some of us can only wait for a proper DVD release. Ideally I’d love to see a roadshow version of it. Everything in one go!
Just back from GOW Part 1 & barely started breathing…what a film !!….gripping, hugely entertaining & absolutely superlative in every aspect…definitely planning a repeat viewing next week, there is too much in the film to savour in a single viewing, frankly.
Incidentally I was the only one at Cinemax Vashi who stayed back after the end credits & watched the killer part 2 trailer !
Sachin, just checked out your blog….and got to know that u r a DoP who has worked with Jha, S. Mishra and Kashyap- Awesome shit! Great job man- I am so glad that someone like you is commenting here. And i am even more glad that u belong to Scindia (just like u I too belong to a boarding school of Dehradun called The Doon School- so i can somewhat understand your rebellious, individualistic thoughts. incidentally i have visited Scindia twice- the campus is huge and i love the fort).
Teri meri kahaani -some random thoughts
> basically a decent one time watch if u like this genre and if u don’t relish this genre, don’t try it
> good for a date flick
Also showed me how easy it is to satisfy some young (female viewers)-including some who can’t even understand the language properly didn’t dislike it
> after the agneepath fiasco, my credentials among female company went up…basically don’t think any female can dislike it ..
> the three eras – well, the basic premise was interesting and the way they were ‘concluded’ was reasonable for films of this type and director
> ‘authenticity’ issue was quite weak.
Except the current era (!!) both older eras didn’t exactly look those and there were obvious errors …
In 1960, prachi wearing a deepika padukonesque shortish skirt and prancing around Bombay streets was a bit too much – though don’t have personal experience of that era..
Ditto for 1910-20 s era and
The depiction of these older eras was a bit amateurish and even picture postcard ish
In the pre independent scenes, most scenes seemed to have one person of each religion amongst the friends even if the total number of humans in a scene was three !!!
>predictability and cliched treatment was quite expected
The 1910-2o era was a bit too much for me though some may like it more ..
>preferred the current England era (!!) somewhat expectedly though There were issues galore and won’t even try to enlist them
>Actors
Shahid kapoor –surprisingly the FIRST shahid film I’ve seen fully and though he is not the best or a thespian etc, my assessment of him as gone up a notch.
Though he continues to suffer from a lack of gravitas and weak presence and still has a ‘side dancer’ hangover (from his past)
And a much much much bigger SRK hangover …
But he ticks all the basic requirements of a conventional bolly hero and can’t pinpoint any glaring weakness….
> Priyanka chopra is clearly the best all round commercial Bollywood actress currently all things considered!
Have said this before…
But perhaps she was a bit too much even for these three roles (!) having played multiple roles before lol
Also she has lot more things in her skillset so now has a tendency to show more than required and so there’s a need to tone down!
The number of times she acted coy and hid her face/mouth/ etc in (fake) shy coy behaviours was countless …
> but inspite of all this, both lead actors are fine by the current standards and amongst the better ones in all round ability …
If pushed, would rate shahid better than Priyanka in this film slightly (which is a surprise to me)
Though his Casanova of the 1910s was irritating beyond a point..Ps-on an unrelated note– found the England era girl quite cute -just checked her name is neha sharma…
> music was fine and par for the course and had a few hummable numbers-muktasar and alla Jane -standouts …
> would rate this slightly lower than hum tum ( have seen only bits of hum tum) and fanaa was much better ( but in fanaa , the lead actors team was more than competent plus with aamir at the helm things are different)
> basically the stage is set reasonably and even concluded well, but there’s no ‘movement’ in between and there’s a ‘ what the big deal’ here..once the multi era deal is set up, the (lack of) script, novelty and grip stares u in the face
But still- all the girls and some young guys will find it a good one time watch ..
Thanks Alex for ur views. And this is exactly what i am expecting from the film. And it’s a fine observation u made abt Prachi’s dress being implausible considering the era. And i am with on Pri Chops. But since i have heard the album, the best song easily is Sonu’s “Uff”! Some girls are forcing me to accompany them for the film (they start giggling as soon as they hear Shahid’s name) so might have to go…provided they pay for my 90 bucks ticket… 🙂
Ya minor-it’s a decent one time reasonable watch if u like the genre though…
If one dislikes the genre and still goes to watch it and then comes out making a long list of the issues (which are galore) , those sort of folks aren’t doing anyone a favor including to themselves lol
Watched it in a ‘similar setting’ multiple cocktail esque 🙂
If u go in with low /modest expectations, and don’t be a snob/auteur u will enjoy it
Needless to say that the gal(s) will like it…
(even if they don’t understand the language)
ps– my first shahid kapoor film
An overall reasonable actor with no glaring problems inspite of issues -read above
My curiosity now is -how do folks rate shahid to ranbir kapoor in an equalish good project..
Think shahid has made poorer choices in films
Ps2- wondering how shahid would have been in ‘rockstar’ instead of ranbir– what’s your views?
Also minor – so u are also being taken by some females to TMK..
I siggest that the other slight ‘tip’ here is that unless u r going as a date flick (or for other ulterior motives lol)
It’s better to go with multiplied females (atleast 2-3)
Otherwise things can get ‘tricky’ awakard in these sort of mushy films 🙂
Ps-do tell me of your (s) experiences on your return…. Lol
Gangs of wasseypur -anecdotal report!
Don’t usually give them much weightage to ‘reports’
But some folks I know-someone into film making and another French person who occasionally dabbles into films —
Usually these are the MOST difficult to please people to the point of extremism including from some Hollywood biggies…
They’ve just conveyed to me some lavish praise about GoW and anurag kashyap..
I’m not surprised at all but do hope this momentum takes anurag kashyap to bigger heights…
He deserves it!!!
The rediscovery in TMK
Well, came across this actress in TMK -incidentally find her name is neha sharma and has done a film before (and that too with hashmi!!)
Obviously she can’t act etc but liked her nonetheless 🙂
Ok she’s done this song earlier, it seems
Nice song and gal…(ignore Imran hashmi folks)
Teri Meri Kahaani showed no growth at the box office on Saturday as collections were in the same range as Friday. The film collected around 5 crore nett on Friday and collections on Saturday were also around 5 crore nett.
The film showed slight growth at in the big cities while other places fell a little. The opening itself was low so when a film is unable to grow from a low level there is not much hope for it in the long run.
The film should do better on Sunday as families may give it a go but the film has little chance of sustaining from Monday onwards.
Coming back from GOW. First I went for today morning show, but got little late when reached theater, so get back home thinking will see night show. Went again for 10:00 PM show, Multiplex where I went first was surprisingly house full. I was cursing myself for paying car parking fee without checking availability of ticket. That area has 3-4 multiplexes around and show timings for GOW everywhere was at 5-10 minutes difference, so I went immediate next multiplex, there was again long queue and when I was in middle of row, I got shocking news that GOW is houseful and only TMK is available. However I know manager of multiplex, but I didn’t want to use relations just for fucking 2 tickets. I was about to back home, someone came from behind and asked me if I need some tickets, he had few tickets and due to cancellation of his plan, he wanted to sell them. I bought two from him and it was sigh of relief.
Show began at 10:40 PM, no need to say it was Houseful. Claps and whistle started on Logo of “Phantom” and “Smoking warning” sings itself. Kashyap gave signal even before movie start that this one is going to be fun filled ride. Yes, despite violence and crude language in its core and Revenge as its theme, movie is complete fun, thoroughly engaging and exciting. Story wise there is nothing new, it’s a simple revenge drama over generations. But treatment of subject is innovative, screen play is crispy and background score and songs take the movie to another level. Without action and non sense comedy, there was throughout claps and whistles on Dialogues and wit humor. Crude and abusive language is slowly getting accepted, otherwise I strongly believe movie could have done without it with equal overall effect. I am not going on details of story, overall I can say movie is innovative and brilliant in every department and biggest plus is masses are loving it. I can see audience enthusiastic over second part already, I would not be surprise if this movie turned out one of major grosser over coming weeks. I am expecting nothing less than 40 Crore for this one, the way I saw massive crowd and audience enthusiasm in my city, I am ready to take much bigger gross. And yes, movie has tremendous appeal for second watch. I am definitely going once more.
Thanks for your review Yakuza.. going by the audience reaction, Kahyap might have a winner here.. will do more than Shanghai, though the violence/language content will keep the families away
This was incredible how decades were symbolized by bollywood movies and stars. There were constant references of respective era by posters, songs and dominant star of that time. 70’s and 80’s was represented by Amitabh through out. There is clip from Trishul, dialogues from Deewar and full fledge song “Salaam-Ishq” in movie. There were huge claps when Bachchan entry scene from Trishul shown. Movie finish on end of 80’s era and in last, poster from Maine Pyaar Kiya was shown. Promo of GOW-2 begin with Khans era .. with name of movies like HAHK, DDLJ and Karan arjun and also second promo shows the combined dominance of Shahrukh and Salman in 90’s. Incredible !!
In the years I lived in India, and now during my brief visits, I have taken one trip to Bihar – to Patna, en route to Nepal, and two short excursions to Varanasi. And that is certainly not enough travels to know what people liberally refer to as the Hindi belt, the heartland of India.
On rare occasions, Bollywood takes us to that region, for instance in the over-the-top filmi and contrived reality of Prakash Jha’s cinema, where we are made to believe that everyone from Madhuri Dxit to Saif Ali Khan, Prateik Babbar and Katrina Kaif are daughters and sons of that soil.
Believing in what is reality can be a relative experience. I got a taste of that world in Paan Singh Tomar and the nearly two decades old Bandit Queen. Some of Vishal Bhardhwaj’s works have taken us to that part of India – in Omkara and the marvelous Ishqiya (directed by Abhishek Chaubey). But those two films, strong as they are, also have a sheen of popular Hindi cinema.
But in Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1, Anurag Kashyap grabbed my hands and all my senses and threw me into a world that I could barely imagine. The people I met in Gangs, (played by some of the finest actors in Hindi cinema) — their lives, words, language, humour, songs, husbands, wives, lovers, mistresses, anger, violence, sense of revenge, justice and their audacity to define their own laws, was all simply breathtaking. This is what makes Gangs a rare, compelling film. For the most part Gangs shows us a reality that Hindi cinema does not dare to do so.
Gangs is not a perfect film. One risk that Kashyap takes in his narrative does not pay off. The film’s opening – a long, detailed history of coal mining in Bihar and the mafia that it supported, is hard to comprehend. Too many names, characters, situations are thrown at us at a breakneck speed in Piyush Mishra’s voiceover narrative. I have seen the film twice – with English subtitles, and yet that opening section seems confusing, difficult to grasp.
And then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the film changes its tone and pace. We are introduced to the main protagonist – Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee in his a career high performance) and bang, Gangs becomes a totally different, gripping and thoroughly exhilarating film. From that point, Kashyap takes his time developing his characters, letting them breath, make their presence felt and it is a very enriching experience.
I take exception with critics who found Gangs slow or perhaps boring. I was riveted and wanted more. I certainly did not want the film to end, and I had already watched over two and a half hours of drama that I had rarely experienced in a Hindi film.
The last scene in Gangs Part 1 – very Godfather inspired – is so fantastic, that the promise of Part 2 left me with such a high expectations. I have not seen the preview of Gangs Part 2, as audience in India are getting to watch in theaters, but the idea of Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Sardar’s middle son Faizal – a Freddie Corleone-like character who is already showing signs of becoming Michael Corleone) taking charge of the narrative is very exciting.
That Gangs is an ambitious project is an understatement. Kashyap has created a grand saga that has the potential to measure well in comparison to Olivier Assayas’ Carlos trilogy, The Red Riding Trilogy (directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker), or even (I know this will enrage some film fanatics here) Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900.
I wish Kashyap had taken his ambition further. At times, Gangs Part 1 still feels rushed. But I believe that Gangs could have been a terrific mini series, populated with an even larger cast of characters – a violent, complex layered story, an alternative vision to the leisurely textured narrative of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (oh, how I wish some gifted filmmaker would adapt that book).
I want six plus hours of Gangs. I am really hoping the director’s cut DVD will give us that and perhaps more!
“I certainly did not want the film to end, and I had already watched over two and a half hours of drama that I had rarely experienced in a Hindi film. ”
Exactly my thoughts !
The trailer for part 2 was just brilliant…looks like Nawaazuddin ( Faisal Khan ) is going own Part 2. Part 1 ended on such a high with a fitting tribute to one of the most iconic scenes of the”Godfather. Probably the finest ensemble acting I have seen in a Hindi film in a long time…Jaideep Ahlawat ( Shahid Khan ), Manoj Bajpai ( Sardar Khan, outstanding & his best act along with Satya & Shool ), Tigmanshu Dhulia ( stunning debut act ! ), Nawaazuddin ( easily the find of last 2 years ), Richa Chaddha ( quite superb…finest female act this year along with Vidya in “Kahaani” & Parineeti in “Ishaqzaade” ), Pankaj Tripathi ( Sultan ) & a whole lot of others who were equally engaging.
Debutante Huma Qureshi seems to have that rare combo of beauty & brains… leaves a solid impact in a small role.. though she has a substantial part in the 2nd installment. Her scene with Nawaaz by the pond is a riot…one of the most endearing romantic scenes in recent memory !
I will start my review of the film by quoting from two other reviewers, one who got right and one who got it wrong.
The first one is Bardwaj Rangan: “ We meet this story’s villain, Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), and we steel ourselves for his showdowns with Sardar Khan, and for him to meet a most well-deserved end. This is how films have trained us. But novels, on the other hand, aren’t as bound to plot and protagonist. They can, on a whim, linger on descriptions of scenery, or on the misfortunes of a secondary character.”
The second is from Sudhish Kamat in The Hindu,’ You paid to watch revenge. What you get is a guy doing everything except that. Unfortunately, most of us still consume films as stories and as far as stories go, Gangs of Wasseypur I is a non-starter, a deceitful film that delivers none of the promise of that revenge.’
‘ Unfortunate’ is right. Because films are much more than stories. Personally I have a weakness for films that are weak in story: Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rockstar, all Eric Rohmer films .. just to give some random examples.
Coming back to Gangs of Wasseypur, it is a truly a film of epic proportions and not just because of its length. Rangan has invoked the names of Cervantes and Dickens, but I was thinking more of Marquez. Wasseypur , like the town of Macondo, is a place with a history. And Shahid Khan like Colonel Aureliano Buendia has a sprawling family tree whose fortunes and misfortunes we will follow in the course of the film’s narrative. The explosions in the distant coal fields, the grey skyline, the incessant rain , and the crowded market place with motor vehicles negotiating traffic precariously set the stage for the action. As is widely known now, there no good guys in the film. Wasseypurme in sab kaminey hain. Tht by itself is an interesting premise for a Hindi film. In a Tarantino film like Pulp Fiction you can have characters that are all on the wrong side of the law , and conventional morality. But not in a Hindi film, where even a smuggler like Vijaya in Deewar is given a reason for his criminality and a sheen of nobility in his personal life outside his professional criminality. But not so Sardar Khan played by Manoj Bjapai. It is a challenge for the director and the actor to make an audience engage with and root for such a character. Bajpai in his career best performance manages to pull it off. How does Kashyap and Bajpai do it? By humanizing the character with total honesty.
Like Marquez, Kashyap gives the sexual side of his protagonists its fullest due, without being coy about it. When Nagma refuses sex to Sardar as she is pregnant with his second child, he discusses his predicament with all seriousness thus, “ Now she has swollen her tummy with the second child. So how do I live?’ It is that important to him and he is serious. The way Kashyap captures the first spark between a man and woman that leads to passionate obsession eventually is without parallel in films. And this is supposed to be a gangster film! The way Sardar catches a glimpse of Ganga’s cleavage, which has been revealed not without design by Ganga , and the subsequent scenes capturing the f gradual establishment of erotic connection between the two, culminating in the charming and funny clothes washing scene is masterly. So is the scene between Nawajuddin ( Faizal) and Huma , first when he spots her in the wedding celebration and puts on his sunglasses and she follows suit seconds later, and later when they are sitting on a culvert and he touches her hand, and she admonishes him, “ Kya socha hai tumne. Permission lena chahiye na? When you enter someone’s house you ask first or not?’ These and all the lines in the film are remarkable for their authentic language, wit and insightful thoughts. Often out audiences laugh at the mere mention of a four-letter word in Hollywood film or a swear word in a Hindi film, mainly because they haven’t heard such words being used in films before. But not the case here. The forbidden words usage is there, but there is also much thought and truly great witticism. Take the line shot at Sardar by Nagma as she is feeding him dinner, knowing thathe is going to visit the other woman, Ganga, ‘ Khana to khaake jaoo. Taakat badhega. Baahar jake beizzat na karna.” So much relational dynamics and character attribute packed into these lines ! The sexuality of not just the male characters but also the female protagonists is explored in all its nuances. Nagma neglected by her husband , increasingly, lean son Piysh Mishra for emotional sustenance, which almost leads to sexual consummation, interrupted as they are by Nagma’s younger son discovering them. We have seen Huma delivering Nawajuddin lessons in how to conduct the act of seduction , laying down the ground rules.
I have spoken about Manoj Bjapai ‘s performance. But no less admirable is the amazing Richa Chadda as Nagma. The scene when she is delivering her child, as she sees Sardar returning from his paramour’s place, her face wincing in pain one moment and flashing in anger the next is up there with the best by any actress. Just the performance s by these two are the price of a ticket. But thankfully there si more. Performance by every single member of the supporting cast , Nawajudin as Faizal, Huma as his girlfriend, Piyush Mishra and of course Tingmashu Dhulia as Ramadheer Singh are impeccable.
The filming is first arte throughout. If Shanghai was a dictionary of details, this is a whole encyclopedia! The period train, the bags of grains, the living room and the furniture, the bathing place..everything is recreated with meticulous detail. But what is masterly is the way the air of danger and lawlessness that characterizes terrain of Dhanbad is brought out in every frame. The crowded narrow lanes where a car takes a turn almost grazing the other vehicle, the viscerally revolting interior of an abattoirs with chunks of flesh displayed in all their crassness, the arch with lauki creeper behind the bathing tap call for a second viewing so that one can absorb it all. I was so taken in by the solitary gait jumping about behind the culvert as Huma and Nawajuddin carried on their courtship. It was like listening to a later-day Beatles recording with all the sly audio insertions meant for interpretations by fans.
No appreciation of the film would be complete without mentioning the music and songs. Right after Dev D I had declared that Anurag Kashyap is the most inventive user of songs in films , even surpassing Mani Ratnam, who after initiating the new age of film music, had fallen into a rut, failing to evolve. Kashyap here is in full flow. If Kah Ke Lenge sets the tone of the film and Jiya Bihar Ke wraps it up, songs like I am a Hunter and Womaniya provide the delightful interludes. Full marks to Sneha Khanwalkar. But even more charming is the way Kashayp uses Bollywood song bits like Salam e Ishq ( performed in a falsetto by Yashpal Sharma), Kasam paidha Karnewaleki and Nayak Nahin Main Khalnayak Hoon. The allusions to films like Deewar and Trishul provide the pop culture context to the moral stance of the film , underlining at the same time the departure from the aesthetics and moral stance of those films.
So finally , does the film hints at anything beyond a rollicking 150 minutes of great entertainment ? It would be a great film even if it did not. But actually the more trying part of the film, the first30minutes of prologue does hint at what the film is trying to say. Paraphrased into simple language it is this: Extraordinary wealth creation by exploiting the resources of the earth entails great criminality. I was in Dhanbad in the 80s and know that it was a place where the fight as between the bad and more bad, because the god had abdicated its responsibility. Whether it was the British, or the Tatas and Birlas or the Indian Government who was in charge of the mines, no one wanted to dirty one’s hand with black stuff and they outsourced it to the thekadars for whom greed and violence was second nature. There Will Be Blood , in such a scenario. No one can prevent it. With today’s mining scams in places like Bellary, where even electoral fights are between bad and the very bad, the moral universe of GOW is not all that reprehensible or all that removed from reality.
Welcome to Wasseypur. Tulsi and her family are asking you in. ( Incidentally, what a start to an extraordinary film!)
Satyam, it would be great if we could have a separate thread for Utkal’s review. Though i don’t completely agree with him, i found this a very well-written and entertaining read
“If Shanghai was a dictionary of details, this is a whole encyclopedia..”
Thank you for writing this writeup…it is superb as always…am gr8 fan of your writing! The feeding scene that you descibed was also in one another review I read. Can’t wait to watch this movie on big screen!
Great review Utkal. It was an exhilarating read. One may like or dislike GOW, but it wouldn’t be amiss to say a movie that inspires such poetic writings, here I’d like to add Rangan’s masterpiece, will go on to become a ‘classic’ in the annals of Hindi cinema. I very rarely venture to a multiplex to watch a Hindi movie, but after reading these two reviews I’m mad that it’s not releasing here in the US.
PS: AB profusely praising GOW and AK on twitter and his blog made me a little emotional. Knowing his history with AK, the ‘history’ created almost exclusively by AK’s frequent unseemly outburst against him and Abhishek, this act has increased AB’s stature even further. What a legend!
Thanx utkal uncle– not showing near me so had to watch TMK
Any good ideas for checking it online? Lol
Btw : how would u rate GoW compared to other kashyap films and other films of ‘progressive makers from India
I’ve heard excellent reports from some v hard to please folks …
Forget the gang violence and action
“Take the line shot at Sardar by Nagma as she is feeding him dinner, knowing thathe is going to visit the other woman, Ganga, ‘ Khana ….So much relational dynamics and character attribute packed into these lines ! The sexuality of not just the male characters but also the female protagonists is explored in all its nuances……We have seen Huma delivering Nawajuddin lessons in how to conduct the act of seduction , laying down the ground rules.” as always, u bring your indepth understanding of psychosexual contexts into this utkal uncle 🙂
Well done
Deserves a separate thread I think…
Ps-utkal uncle: haven’t seen the film but am impressed by the rich nuanced multilayered music seeped in the folk cultural rural ethos of that region–so much so that it sounds ‘folk music’ passed down generations
Excellent job by sneha khanwalkar
How do u rate the musc and the ‘songs’ …
Gangs Of Wasseypur made no headway at the box office on Saturday after a poor start on Friday. The film had very limited growth of 10-15% on Saturday.
The film collected around 2.75 crore nett on Friday on 1000 screens which gave meant it had huge potential for growth as occupancies were low but it seems the word of mouth is not too good. The collections on Saturday were in the 3-3.25 crore nett range giving it a two day total of 5.75-6 crore nett. The weekend of the film will probably stay below 10 crore nett which is poor.
The film showed growth of around 20% in the big cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi but other places were similar or down. The could not even grow in UP or Bihar from a dull start even though it has local content.
Gangs Of Wasseypur dropped on Saturday in Kanpur. It was a similar story in other centres of UP as well. Below are the Saturday collections from Kanpur with Friday in brackets for Gangs Of Wasseypur.
“‘ Unfortunate’ is right. Because films are much more than stories. Personally I have a weakness for films that are weak in story: Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rockstar, all Eric Rohmer films .. just to give some random examples.”
Utkal uncle- can’t comment u enuf for this comment
Not only I second this personally but also commend u for putting this across in such a simple and uncomplicated way …
Would rate this amongst your now legendary ‘nargis’ Nabokov diaphanous glow’ comment 🙂
Btw utkal uncle : usually find your comments interesting, amusing and entertaining
If u don’t mind telling, what do u do and what’s your age group–I suspect your experience is not less than 4-5 decades, I think ( in a good way) -only if u want to reveal…
Are u into some creative business and suspect u are from Bengal /Orissa ?
If i am not wrong Mohanti is a Bengali/Orissi surname – it instantly reminds me of former indian pace bowler of the late 90s Debashish Mohanty (who during the ’99 world cup famously won us a match against england with a 4 wicket haul) who was the 1st player from Orissa to play for India. (2nd was Shib Sundar Das- since then no one has got into the team)
Thanx utkal uncle: as usual, I was right on –
U being an uncle lol (don’t mind)
Your age..
Being from Bengal /Orissa ..
From a creative field -so u r the ‘creative head’ of an ad firm…
Anyhow keep up your lovely posts
How do u rate gow music /songs?
many big films show 10-15% growth on Sat, many big films even fall by that much on Sat. The whole ‘low end’ argument (since the film opened with a low number it should have shown a greater jump) works only for the TMK kind of film which has major stars and a ‘normal’ genre and so on. Now the film might have been released with a 1000 screens (if BOI’s info is correct) but that doesn’t change anything. All this is about silly expectations. Sure this is Kashyap’s biggest film, it’s an epic and so on but all of this on its own doesn’t change the essential fundamentals. If the film does 15 crores over week 1 or more it will more or less have touched Dev D’s lifetime business (so far Kashyap’s best) in a genre which is even less audience-friendly than that one. If the film does say 25-30 crores that is already significant all factors considered. These writeups pretend that 50 or 60 crores was on the cards here! But again on the pure numbers/percentages this is just dishonest reporting.
On the full houses people have reported this can happen with films that appeal to pockets of the audience for certain showtimes. Doesn’t necessarily indicate the larger picture. But this fact can be significant for the film sustaining. In other words this is the kind of audience that with great WOM can keep things sustained. Still not enough for a big gross but that expectation is absurd anyway. In 20 years or so I’ve not seen the market change dramatically for this kind of film (and for that matter certain genres). Satya was massive in Bombay, did very well in the South and almost zilch elsewhere. Company because of a star did better in these other parts but didn’t match Satya in Bombay. Sarkar established a Bombay record at the time, did very well in the South, was ok elsewhere again most for the star quotient here. This is though the best possible result for this genre and not one I’ve seen equaled. But again you need a perfect storm for this. Abhishek hot, Bachchan in that part and so on. SR on the other hand didn’t match the first film’s number though still because of the stars, the sequel it still had a pretty good week 1. One can keep multiplying the examples. These genres have a relatively limited audience even on their best days. GoW doesn’t even have stars. So then it just depends on WOM. But even great WOM on this genre doesn’t really expand the audience base. Again expectations have to be kept realistic. Said this for Shanghai the other day too. What’s happening though is that the trade (barring Taran for some odd reason!) is choosing to be less generous to these films. A site like BOI is actually hostile. Just not giving these films a chance in any sense. Since there aren’t the usual partisan battles over stars here (they even love Hashmi!) the hostility is surprising. Sure with a higher advertising profile and so on but one can hardly expect 7 crores on day 1 with these films or even 5 crores!
I’ve said it again and again. Beat up ABhishek all you want but show me the truly different and/or truly edgy stuff that does better than his failures or even approaches them. The Shanghai folks would have done cartwheels with the D6 or Raavan gross! Changing the scale of the film in terms of production values and/or stars and so on gives you a bigger initial but it doesn’t alter the fundamentals. You can double the Dev D gross and make it D6 but the audience for both is more or less the same. In fact the latter has to deal with greater negativity because it’s marketed as a mainstream film and people go in with different expectations whereas with Dev D only a certain kind of audience shows up.
So the trade might do so for cynical reasons but even on the blogosphere people just don’t have any sense of these very clear distinctions. How the market for a film is to be defined? What does success mean? etc. One can spend a lot of money on a film like GoW, have the 1000 screen release to justify production costs. But what about the fundamentals here? The release/advertising strategy model is all wrong for these films in Bombay.
“For those asking how to get on #TheFrontRow viewer panel, please write to bethany@cherry-tree.in, only requirement – you must love movies.”
This is for the segment where viewers get to watch the movie a week early and then discuss their opinions on the film with the director and lead actors.
Hiya Amy
How r ya–which part of the world are u roaming around
Any latest movies uve seen
Come up with some updates -check the dark knight in wasseypur above-funny 🙂
Gul voiced an opionion and is now under attack by AK fanboys on Twitter – LOL
Gul Panag@GulPanag
When will we/ & our media be able to tell the difference between films being “showcased” at Cannes or being
invited/selected to be there?
Udita Jhunjhunwala@UditaJ
@GulPanag So annoying how producers, directors etc abuse a market place event 2 posn their film as ‘went to Cannes’. Any1 can go to Cannes!
Retweeted by Gul Panag
Looks like another winner for Pixar. Madagascar 3, Prometheus and Snow White have all held up pretty well. ‘Avengers’ is now 2 mill away from 600 million domestically…epic!
Satyam, Satya, Company or Sarkar are totally different from GOW. all these films build their protagonists as noble heroes even if they are gangsters, Mush like Vijay of Deewar in a way. These are much more conventional, offering you that feel-good morality. GOW does not offer that comfort. Manoj Bajpayee character in GOW has no redeeming virtue whatever, except his raw humanity. And as far as Abhishek and films like Delhi 6 or Raavan go, it is not just the box office, no one thought much of the films and even less of Abhishek;s performance. For example, whatever maybe the gross of Shanghai or GOW, there is no one critic or viewer who is not all praise for Abhay/ Emran’s performance or Manoj / Nawazudin / Richa Chadda’s performance. Also the IMDDB ratings of GOW or Shnaghai vs Raavan or Delhi 6 will shoe how the films are perceived by its core audience.
Most of the ppl here don’t take IMDB seriously coz it doesn’t support ther argument and also IMDB doesn’t have good rating for Raavan, Delhi 6, Nishabd, Sarkaar Raaj…
and ya a gunda known for most of his double meaning dialogues and obsenity has the higest rating in imdb than many of all time classics thanks mostly to iit kgp’s alumini’s lol
Some of the guys from IIT wanted to have fun and they manipulated the ratings of Gunda…that doesn’t mean IMDB is useless…
That’s problem with most of the ppl…To dismiss a system simply find one or two faults…the same thing has been done to BOI…but at the end of the day every one goes to BOI to check the numbers…
Don’t compare movies of a past generation with a recent release in IMDB…but i can compare two movies recently…
Also the size of the voting matters…i will not consider a rating based on 10/20 or 100 ppl..it is better if the number is more..
Every system has faults…but u will have to find out which is the best among them…right now no site gives u a better idea than IMDB…
Problem lies when one dismisses IMDB but suddenly the same person brings up review gang….when BOI is dismissed for everything but ANDHRA BOX OFFICE appears from no where during BUdhha hoga (BHTB)…
when you are using it for reference automatically comparison come and its again a basic common sense
a gunda there has 3000 votes and give many example of various b graders
glad that you accept fault bur your arguments was again base on just one star instead of accusing others….i may like bachchan, khan, kumar or roshan but what is true is true
and as per imdb gow is the greatest indian movie ever made ,,
what will you call a sample of 500 of which 80% are of pre release
“what will you call a sample of 500 of which 80% are of pre release”
I will not the take the latest IMDB ratings for GOW seriously…I will wait for more votes…For your kind information GOW had a screening in Cannes.. some of the early ratings could have been by those who saw the movie in Cannes…anyway i will wait for more votes..
I am not at all concerned about western recognition. U will never find me posting something from western critics. As a bollywood fan i have always hoped our films, critics and awards will improve…
The reference of Cannes came here because I was talking about those early votes for GOW. This was just a GUESS. I am not sure…
It’s Abhishek fans who actually come up with international reviews when the same film (Raavan) is panned by indian critics. But when same west praises Anurag Kashyap we see different kind of arguments…
Not at all. who are you referring to? This is a complete straw man. First off, and speaking for myself, I don’t define things as Eastern and Western. I’ll go wherever the interesting writing comes from. I’m afraid I don’t have a nationalistic bone in my body in this or most other matters! Among Indian critics I have always placed Rangan on a pedestal as the only voice of his kind. This hasn’t changed for many years whether I’ve agreed with his reviews or not. But if one is going to call a film worthless based on an overwhelmingly negative reception in India it is certainly fair to point out other critical voices who in almost all instances are far more literate in the subject than the Indian critics. I agree completely that one cannot do so selectively. But this applies to everyone on both sides. So yes some use the reviews selectively but some also use Cannes and Venice selectively! The same for any other criterion. Even on the reviews while one can disagree with a reviewer that one usually quotes one cannot simply be dismissive when one doesn’t agree. There’s a difference between saying ‘I don’t agree with Rangan on ‘x’ film’ and ‘Rangan is completely wrong on ‘x’ film’. Because it cannot be that Rangan is a genius one day and absolutely dumb another!
This applies to everything. People quote all kinds of sources selectively. People ignore narratives that don’t suit their interests and so on. Take Bol Bachchan. Leaving aside all the points I’ve made on this from the title to the double role and so on how many people have come forward since the advertising campaign have begun to say that my points have been confirmed even more. What does the synopsis of the film suggest? Abhishek has been front and center advertising the film everywhere from media appearance to Jhalak Dikhlajaa. Devgan doesn’t say much even when he is around. These examples could be multiplied. Whether one likes Abhishek or not, whether one wishes for him to be successful or not, why is it so hard to say this — ‘even though we hold these positions, even though Devgan is in a vastly better box office position at the moment it must be admitted that Abhishek is carrying more of the load here in every sense and he’s also being put forward in most ways’?
So everyone likes to demand honesty and consistency from others but feels no special burden to do the same on one’s own! One can of course be a partisan if one likes as long as one then doesn’t issue calls for integrity and what not!
both of them have praise for Abhishek too. there were other such reviews, in the minority for sure but they weren’t quite non-existent as the hyperbolic version often suggests. The Western reviewers (Variety et al) didn’t care much for the film in many instances but like Abhishek in it.
on Raavan too I’ve quoted a number of positive reviews before including most notably this Frank Lovece one which called it Abhishek’s best performance:
Of course I am not at all arguing these were overall well-reviewed films in India. They weren’t even as well-reviewed as DMD let alone Shanghai. But that’s not my point in any case with the earlier comment. When a vast majority of say US reviewers like or dislike a film that means something to me. Because there are many important reviewers whose judgments I respect whether or not I agree with them. In India no one but Rangan is in that category for me. There are some other fair reviewers but not ones I value greatly one way or the other. So the worth of a film cannot really be settled for me by a ‘majority’ that in my view doesn’t know what it’s talking about 95% of the time. Now this majority can be an important index in other ways. You don’t see for example somewhat different films becoming successful if they’re mauled by most of the reviewers because this is the very ‘audience’ for those films. On the other hand when they do the same for an Akshay Kumar comedy it means nothing because the audience model is a different one.
Getting to my actual comment it’s about how films in certain genres don’t do that much even in the best case scenario. This is incidentally true for other places too. In the US the Italian Job kind of film never does as well as the truly big blockbusters even when it’s successful. Similarly the entire film culture here handles releases differently based on genre and so on but the numbers are usually not very significant.
Now getting to your point on GoW that might well be true relative to those other films but it doesn’t really affect my genre argument. Moreover I’d argue that in a film which doesn’t have commercial stars the ‘gray’ bits don’t quite bother the audience very much because they’re never invested in the actors ‘as’ stars. Hence they don’t expect anything specific. So I don’t really agree that the bar is higher in this sense.
actually gow didn’t great that great reviews from major reviewrs ….at review gang its at 6.5 …delhi 6 was at 7 and shanghai relatively better than other two surprisingly
guys like sudhir kamath and rangan the two best frankly don’t give stars to any review and have pleasant thing to say about all…
failed to understand how imdb rating( even there a small sample of urban audience is criteria and just checked there are only some 500 votes frankly there to even before release mostly shows all dear )
Review gang doesn’t have all the ratings…they have selected a few of them and i don’t understand what’s their logic…u can take ratings of particular reviewers and can compare…..
Delhi 6 in Reviewgang has total 3 reviews with ratings…one of them is of Bharadwaj Ranagn (a biased critic of Bachhans) has given 4 stars. The same person doesn’t give any rating for GOW…..no rating from Raja sen who gave 2.5 to GOW which is the lowest…
for Delhi 6
average rating comes to 10/3 = 3.3 which is 6.6/10.
for GOW,
average rating comes to 41.5/12 = 3.4 which is 6.8/10
GOW has 12 ratings in comparison to 3 for Delhi 6…
Anyway my question is if you take indian critics seriously or not..if no then no use of this reviewgang site…
thing is i mentioned review gang because its the only official source ….there is no site like rotten tomato who put all major reviews of hollywood together and put in proper percentage
instead of looking at every argument with fan angle one has to be more rational and reasonable
look for imdb just prior to release the promotion of this movie in one of the leading daily daily bhaskar says it won’t fail and one of the reason they say was it had a rating of 9.3 pre release while at times of shanghai imdb was busy with promotion …see most of the review with tagline go and see and all
even ra one got some good western however bad movie might it be fans of other rival star of a certain srk spammed imdb most with pre release buzz…its more easy to manipulate with fans and haters of any kind on net and you urself said its a non entity and baseless for old movies
india does not have a disciplined movie critical culture like holllywood to genuinely judge movie
somebody said today they didn’t have the morality but the story didn’t at all concentrated on their generation and dynasty politics and so is their origin
random thoughts:
a corleone even in godfather have the morality and break down compleately in godfather 3 the weakest part on whom the movie is heavily inspired from and like here the wife is used for producing children for protagonists( on shahid khan one see the shades of brando in godfather 1 the inspiration and so the modus operandi for revenge)
though kashyap again used infidelity to express protagonists just like in gulal( which was inspired from sahib biwi or ghulam mode ) and extend it further to fuel remember dynasty politics more probably in 2nd part …( a constant reminder again how the final godfather was again an illegal child)
his protagonist is ruthless but is equally shaukeen and has lighter moments…his male chauvinism come into play when he has no regrets for having 4 wife and calls his wife selfish and sefishly leach at the butt and backside of his mistress showing no morality and just refusal of sex with her during pregnancy prompts him to remarry and in opposite sequence her wife to has emotional infiedility which never transcends into physical one
liked the sequence of of salam-e-ishq(to build romance among two opposite personality)…a hip and trendy disco dancer as part of insult in a rockstar way ( a constant remainder of tarantino’s pulp fiction) or manoj tiwary’s jiyo bihar ke lala as tribute end of life main protagonists life
film’s taglike keh ke lunga is mostly referred to public swearing by macho khan to his rival declaring his death and is remainder to sequel
performancewise manoj is intense with strong dialogue delevry(ably supported by supporting cast) and ruthless while nawaz is opposite with silence and body language
editing is big drawback and so is the pace which is essential for crime thriller and would have elevated the movie
they (in first part referref to older gansters represented in cinema )
again khan is rebel and leach at others but kashyap played safe with wife whose infiedility just remain to emotional one and never trascends into pysicality
piyush mishra one of the very few who has equal command over hindi and urdu in bollywood is sutradhar but in a movie is more the silent observer
research at times is competent compared to recent bollwood standard but lingo apart from gali’s in desi tarrontinoish style is mostly in hindi( unlike the omnipresent bhojpuri in belt) and has the touch of varanasi where the movie was shot though kashyap has used the folk song pretty well much like rajasthani touch in gulal
rustic representation of chambal(by shekhar kapoor) is still the bechmark
and ya reference of movie is based more at dhanbad rather than waseypur ( infact its just the token just like italy for brando and here to it was the original place of khan’s father thats it )
(dhanbad today alone is the source of 70-80% coal electricity in india and has prestigious ism and suffers from illegal coal mines and biggest concern today is illegal coal mafia which on 1st part hardly had any nexus in a big way )
kashyap’s style of stort narration is again based on graphics novel( one clearly see a potential future novelist here )
Shanghai grossed 4.25 crore nett approx in week two. The two week distributor share is 11.25 crore approx. Below is the second week territorial breakdown of the film.
Gangs of Wasseypur had a dull weekend as it collected around 9.75-10 crore nett as per early estimates. The film collected 2.75 crore nett on Friday, 3.25 crore nett on Saturday and 3.75-4 crore nett on Sunday.
The opening day was low and the film could not show the growth it needed to come out with a half decent weekend. These type of films which are not able to open well need minimum 30% growth on Saturday and Sunday to make any mark at the box office.
The film was poor at single screens and the select premium multiplexes which were okay on Friday failed to grow over the weekend.
Gangs Of Wasseypur has collected 20% less than Shanghai over the first weekend which also had the same target audience and even trending is not as good as that film which had a 30% jump on Saturday and 20% on Sunday.
Gangs of Wasseypur has collected around 10 crore nett all India in its opening weekend as per early estimates. GOW has collected around 4 crore nett all India on Sunday. GOW showed growth over the weekend. It showed around 15% jump on Saturday and another 25% jump on Sunday. Going by the budget of GOW, makers are going to make reasonable profit from the film.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 2.8 cr nett.
Sat – 3.3 cr nett.
Sun – 4 cr nett (Estimates).
This is a fantastic piece..probably the best & most intimate one written so far by Somen Mishra ( CNN IBN journalist ) who runs this blog : moifightclub.wordpress.
Gangs Of Wasseypur – Anurag Kashyap is back! With all his indulgences
“Having seen both the parts, what i can tell you is that the first part takes time to set up as everyone is doomed and is busy sowing the seeds for their ends, either with love or hate. 2nd part is more action, more drama and more revenge. First is like wine, you can’t treat it like junk food. You need time to savour it. ”
Part 2 should be a cracker…quite evident from the trailer…one of the best trailers to have come out in recent times !!
This is for those who were a little bewildered with so many characters in Part 1….frankly I did not have any issues, things were fairly well brought out.
Gangs Of Wasseypur – Family tree of Khan, Singh & Qureshi
I highly doubt if that is the full cost of production including all the P&P considering the promotional costs overseas at various film festivals. Plus I recall Kashyap saying GOW was his most expensive movie.
agree tyler…. the same thing is being repeated now-
most expensive, then flop then the actual cost is low crap and that too within three- foyr days…..
and people thought that AK is honest and different.
he actually says he is satisfied with the BO and that it is more than he expected …really….saala Mathey par Chu..a likha hua kya ????
This article is even more priceless ! It actually claims that 26 crores were spent on marketing the film…what crap !! No wonder AK is pissed with this misinformation campaign…the box office commentary in this country has gone to the dogs !!!
“Both parts of GOW together cost just Rs 18.5 crore to make. Part 1 has already made around Rs 10 crore. If Part 2 fares well at the box office, the producers can easily recover their investment. What might be more difficult for them to recover is the additional Rs 26 crore they spent on marketing the film.”
this too is not new.. the trade often does this. Films like TZP and Paa for example were similarly overreported in the trade. On the other hand Ra One was supposedly safe even before release!
Kahsyap is insecure here. The cost of production may be 18-19 cr but what about the PnP costs involved for both the parts? These days even a medium budget movie has PnP costs of 10 cr.
If part 1 doesnt do too well then its unlikely that part 2 will do beter. Its turning out like Rakta Charitra.
Tyler: Anurag makes these super-looking films at super low cost. That is what you can do when you know film making inside out and have a bunch of talented people driven by passion for good films rather than money in your team.
kya paasion and respect hai Anurag mein aur uskey friends mein- jisko GOW pasand nahee aa rahee uskee ma behan ek karney mein lagey hu hain yeh Internet Intellectuals !! wah wah Utkal Mahodaya !!!!!
By ‘teaching’ I don’t mean that people are learning, I meant that the learnng/watching makes one accept it as commonplace and become so familiar that it fails to affect anymore.
People are already getting aroused by it instead. Something very sick here.
GF she is very consistent in this regard as can be seen in her responses regarding any thing related with Aamir, No matter what, her recalcitrant view of Aamir would remain the same, cynical!
abhigyan jha@undercoverpro tweets-
1.Anurag Kashyap did a Ray by starting the film with Kyunki Saas footage. The very first shot told us #GOW is the Saas Bahu of Artsy films!
2.Where the fuck were the gangs in Gangs of Wasseypur
3.#GOW should be renamed #COW Chtutiyapa of Waseeypur
4.Anurag Kashyap is still that incoherent wannabe I met outside Prithvi Theatre almost 20 years ago
5.To put it in the lingo of #GOW : Instead of Cannes, Gangs of Wasseypur belongs to the Gaands film festival
6.watching #GOW I suddenly realized all the good things of #Shanghai. Coherent pretension is way more preferable
7.Shooting in low light in real locations with filth, garbage & ugly looking characters without a storyline doesn’t make a film artistic
8.Anurag Kashyap & Ramu both had one good film in their lives : SATYA. Both are desperately seeking something better to do ever since.
It is a shame this movie did not find an overseas release. I am sure there would have been enough takers to make it worthwhile. Would have loved to see it on screen.
yes it’s quite odd they didn’t do a release here. They did it for Rakta Charitra. then again maybe the performance of that film guided this choice! But I think that was a mistake. I have a sense GoW would have done better.
GF, after reading Sachin’s above comment, i could not resist asking u this (it’s a genuine ques)- How do u guys (esp u and Satyam- the NRIs as Sachin says) manage to remain so thick-skinned (or patient) regarding such offensive stuff being said abt ur community?!(is this quality present in all NRIs?…LOL) I would not lie to u, had he said sumthing like this concerning me, i would have verbally thrashed him left, right and centre.
Short answer is it’s just the internet, dude! But really it’s not about being thick-skinned. It’s not as if Sachin’s in the majority with the kind of tone he uses here! This sort of nonsense commentary is actually much easier to brush off and is even amusing. It doesn’t take much to ignore a guy who probably thinks the best thing to happen since the moon landing was Dev. D!
Because, matrix, the world is such a shitty place filled with all kinds of crimes against humanity. I mean there’s war, famine, genocide, poverty, disease and, of course, unheralded Anurag Kashyap movies. It’s truly difficult to cope with all these equally horrific events.
Indeed GF, especially the last bit you said is unconscionable. How can we call ourselves civilized people when there’s still some ‘unheralding’ of Anurag Kashyap movies left in this world?
Sachin, WTF is wrong with you mate? How can u expect yourself to be taken seriously when you say such outright offensive stuff just bcos u wanna target Satyam (or maybe GF).like you i too sometimes disagree with them but after ur response i can only this too u- Trust me both Satyam and GF are far smarter and intelligent than you (and these are just 2 NRIs). That they let u go scot-free even after saying such bullshit is itself a testimony to the above fact.
Go easy on Sachin, Saurabh. I think he’s still torn up about The New York Times giving so much attention to the Egyptian president-elect, but entirely neglecting to do a cover story about the epochal release of GoW.
There is an iota of truth somewhere in Sachin’s comments that is overshadowed by the bile ,offensive language and inexcusable caricaturing. The people who patronise Bollywood are often trapped in a time -warp and tend to patronise a certain kind of films.
thing is you have every right for opinion and be rebel
a guy who has stayed away from family whole throughout( or is doped) may not regard family or parents even that is fine but why to diss others who are not following you and are not rebel
and your point on intellectual power is again a relative perception…on spell check and rubbish typo’s even i could give you a serious competition( pun intended on our intellectual poweress) but the thing is those jews which you again are producing some of the better cinemas
Saket,
You are being too charitable or defensive.
AK is a very talented film maker but IMO has zero credibility as a judge of talent/merit or as a gossip monger or a conspiracy theorist.
Rajen Sir, I wouldn’t know what’s the truth in these matters. Can’t really say one way or another. I can’t and will not defend Kashyap’s defence of Imtiaz Ali, even if I have come to appreciate Rockstar a little more.
But I do think Dibakar Banerjee is a good filmmaker. Based on his 4 films so far, he looks like he will create a great film someday. I’m actually quite fond of OLLO, irrespective of what Kashyap or anyone else thinks of the film. And since I consider Kashyap to be talented, I just assume he’s supporting another talented filmmaker. I could be completely wrong, but that would be my stance too…had I been in the same position.
Satyam – I don’t count myself as AK’s fan – have watched two of his movies Dev D and Gulal and neither of them exactly made me go gaga. I could see why many people love him and can appreciate him from a distance, but his style sort of alienates me. I’ve the same problem with Tarantino. While the hyperness, irony, quirk, cleverness, and post modernism are all very good, the inescapable truth is THOSE are the only point of these movies and I’m not satisfied with that.
Having said that, I really want to watch GOW. The stuff about it being a five hour plus ‘epic’ spanning seven decades from independence to 21st century India chronicling the (hi)story of a place, people, and family has left be very excited. I’ve no illusions about it not being indulgent or Anurag changing his style, but these things seem to be in service of something bigger, something ‘serious’ and it’s heartening. The biggest plus point for me is its ambition.
BTW Satyam have you written anything on There Will Be Blood? IMO it’s one of the best HW movies from the last 10-15 years.
I agree, I would love to watch a ‘roadshow’ version of GoW. I’ve said this many times. I have liked most of his other films though at some level or the other, maybe all. The interesting question here is: what is it about Kashyap that breeds a certain structure of fanaticism? Don’t recall this being the case with RGV even at his peak (though admittedly the internet was less of a factor then).
Qalandar once made the insightful point that the personalities and predilections of stars are reflected in their core fans. One could perhaps widen this statement. Kashyap lionizes the films he likes in similar fashion. I am not at all against his doing so for any film he likes but his mode is questionable. One of my sources of disagreement with him. So take Shanghai recently. There was no one comment from him enlightening us on why he liked it so much. But there were a number of over the top statements and beyond this a constant retweeting of any and everything positive that was expressed on the film irrespective of the source. So it was sometimes a media review in India, sometimes an American source and sometimes folks all around the globe who evidently discovered the medium with this film. He just kept retweeting everything. Now I understand he was doing it to generate buzz to an extent (even if one pities an advertising strategy reduced to this) but again nowhere was the conversation on Shanghai expanded in any sense. Throughout there was the structure of dogmatic assertion. This film and this director are extremely good and there can be no debate about this. It more or less amounted to this.
And so you notice many of his fans actually doubling down on the hyperbole, really making some truly asinine statements in the bargain. I am not saying Kashyap is personally responsible for this stuff but he could be contributing more intelligently to the conversation.
It’s rather ironic to expend so much thought and effort on a film but to then become as dogmatic and frankly pedestrian in terms of advancing the interests of such a work as every other fan(atic) or partisan would be pushing their favorite star or whatever.
I think, and I can’t be certain, but Kashyap’s defence of Shanghai probably has to do with Dibakar Banerjee’s directorial skills. I saw the film recently and I can see evidence of a director in form here. Formally speaking, it’s a very good suspense-drama. I think the whole discussion about the film’s authenticity, its aspirations not being aligned to reality, the lack of edginess in the story etc are irrelevant. This is a film that needs to be seen for appreciating Dibakar Banerjee’s craft; His use of technique and the manner in which he uses minimalism to craft a good yarn.
I would definitely like to expand on my ideas here, but just to add another thought that struck me while watching the film was that ‘acting’ in a film like Shanghai is impossible to appreciate. There are not enough layers, consciously as a choice made by the director, to approach the film by way of its actors. And those who can see layers of filmmaking (Raja Sen!) definitely suffer from double vision. Shanghai can only be appreciated as a further step in DB’s development cycle. Any other way to approach the film will result in disappointmnet.
And so, my hypothesis is that Kashyap came to DB’s defence because he saw something of similar value in his film. He stood up for a fellow director without taking the trouble to expand his thoughts…which can’t be construed as a crime.
“He stood up for a fellow director without taking the trouble to expand his thoughts…which can’t be construed as a crime.”
The problem is, if tomorrow Adoor stood up for Johar, one could use precisely this logic to let the latter off the hook!
Obviously you’re not suggesting something like this, and no one’s suggesting Kashyap committed a crime, but a director that aligns himself with a certain kind of cinema which purports to be more artful and authentic than the mainstream alternative also needs to be responsible with the tenor and focus of his/her endorsements.
Saket,
We all have had friends who promise to take us o the restaurant that makes the best food ever, period! or the store that sells the best clothes ever. As a supporter of talent ,AK has the same credibility as those friends. I dont doubt his intentions in these instances or even his sincerity. But his vehemence and the air of absolute certainty seriously undermines his credibility
I don’t think Kashyap’s defence was absolutely right. And certainly he can oscillate between being a champion of cinema to being very cynical…or even arrogant in suggesting no debate is required.
But at the same time, he’s not dealing with (or pointing fingers at) the kind of people who flock to Satyamshot after watching a film. He’s dealing with the people who probably frequent Bollywood Hungama! Even so, adopting a combative tone will assuredly be counter productive. But all said and done, he’s allowed his freedom of indulging in hyperbole, as and when he deems it fit…in service of friends or genuine artists. People are certainly wise enough to be selective and choosy about such public
proclamations .
Again, I am not questioning his right to champion anybody’s cause but it does make him less credible. Even, AB is fallible on this count. But, AB has a great sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is class and what is not. Unfortunately ,AK falters here as well.
Yeah, this is what I’m guessing is the case. Not sure if there were buyers during the Cannes fortnight screening, but this could certainly explain why it’s not playing on this side.
In the meantime, the onus is on you to watch it and share your views, Q.
After opening to rave reviews in India, director Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ is all set to be released in the Middle east and France. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweets, “GOW intl release dates – Middle East on 28 June and France on 25 July.”
“nri market is chutiyapaa true but what about indian stuff”
that word “ch” used is something I object to, but at the end of the day it is ur blog and if u think someone can get away with such use of language, which is not parliamentary, it is disappointing.
Rooney, you are a great guy but I’ll have to disagree here. If there’s anything that’s unparliamentary about language or any form of social behavior, I’d actually encourage that…keeping thoroughly in mind how our respected “parliament” behaves 🙂
Leaving semantics aside, I think one should be equally vocal about opposition to the word “fcuk” or any english obscenity, if one were to clamp down on foul language. Just my thoughts…
Utkal Mohanty – FYI ….. kashyap’s chamchas have gone berserk with the above obsevations and The great great bong is fighting for the writer’s right to have these observations-so YA!!!!
greatbong@greatbong -@vikas_inferno @GabbbarSingh So criticizing Kashyap movies is snobbish now. Funny. I thought loving them and dissing KJo was….
more tweets-
1.greatbong- Amusing to watch Kashyap fans slytweeting even when am not criticizing GoW. (I havent seen it). Seems u can only appreciate cinema their way
2.Sudhish Kamath- As a friend said, 700 people on Twitter are not the majority. 25/140 walked out during the first show in Chennai before climax.
3.greatbong- Again I havent seen the movie. But could that be because of the heavy North-Indianness of the spoken word
4.Sudhish Kamath- People here speak good Hindi, at least those who pay to watch Hindi films. More importantly, people here just LOVE movies
5.Sudhish Kamath- People here loved PST. Nobody walked out of that! Very rarely do people walk out of a film. Almost never here.
Satyam, i know there is a separate thread for Michael but since we are talking abt Kashyap and Kashyap is producing it, i thought i should put it here-it’s a very balanced review imo- “The UK Asian” review of Naseeruddin Shah and Mahi Gill starrer “MICHAEL” from London Asian Film Festival- producer is Anurag Kashyap and director is Ribhu Dasgupta-it has not released theatrically- “Michael- A beautiful tedium”- http://www.ukasiaonline.com/bollywood/790-naseeruddin-shahs-michael-beautiful-tedium.html
The evolving & now flourishing negativity on kashyap/GoW….
As usual, will express that i ill differ somewhat from the GoW discourse here…
Granted that–
a) anurag kashyap is not exactly a polite pleasant guy himself mostly
b) that he has done the ‘cardinal sin’ of apparently bad -mouthing bachchans esp the jr for the right /wrong reasons.
.
c) that kashyap himself is guilty of lots of stuff he takes potshots at others for (though i cant confirm it personally but as per the qualms here)
d) havent seen gow and know the issues with violence, expletives etc and the multiple ‘flaws’
b4 that a disclaimer–im not a blind anurag kashyap fan –some who were around when kashyap was here know about some of my questions to him (which due to the irritating probing nature were left unansered by kashyap lol)
But lets tackle these ‘concerns’ one by one–
>are we here to judge a persons behavioral or public relations only or film making also?
>How long will kashyap have to bear the cross of his bad mouthing bachchans—cmon guys–isnt there life beyond?
> if the entire discourse is dictated by someones equatuon with ones particular idol, well…
>KNow kashyap by his own utterings has set the bar quite high, but is it fair to go to extreme lengths to find every little minutia to pull him/his film down
>cmon have some grace and magnanimity
This guy is among the (if not the) v few film makers from india who are truly world class though somewhat pugnaciusly mercurial…
Its one thing being an under-perfomer, mediocre, talentless lucky guy but kashyap aint one of this…(even his worst critics will vouch for that!) So why this famous patented “crab’ mentaility?
A.K. is making his next with Bachchan!
So everyone rest easy and calm down. Way back when Bachchan was struggling, Rakesh K. tried his level best to put bachchan down including not casting him in Anand. However today, Sweta and twinkle are best of friends. These rivalry and revenge stuff are short lived. I don’t thinks ‘fans’ need to waste a lot of time discussing that.
The fact that a non-returning indian, has a thread on GoW, and giving critical appraisal to it (it is besides the point all of nri are yet to watch it on big screen), itself speaks volumes of how proud we r of A.K 😉
right folks?
Good thoughts here Di
Btw one of my weaknesses is that on seeing true brilliance, I forget everything else
Not sure of the proportion :scale but kashyap possesses some brilliance unlike the hordes of talentless mediocre amicables around…
Re.-This guy is among the (if not the) v few film makers from india who are truly world class
Bhai nahee chaiye world class, if world class means walking/talking/writing in engliss and make boring movies we are OK if we have direstors like Manmohan Desai, Ramesh Sippy, Nasir Husaain, hrishikesh Mukharjee etc…..
Sunshine-Danny Boyle
Saw bits–if one tags this to his other more famous works like slumdog, one gets to assess the capability and worth of Boyle…
Brightness is always symonymous with hope and happiness–but here the perspective is changed
A good sci fi outing–may complete it….
This is my favorite Danny Boyle film alongside Trainspotting (have a soft spot for Shallow Grave too) and probably one of my favorite sci-fi films in the past decade. It’s got flaws but it’s an extremely engaging and thematically interesting film.
Here, coal is substituted with coolth. We are so cool that in our town, we call the women, Womaniya (Hats off to music director Sneha Khanwalkar for the soundtrack that provides some respite). We are so cool that we use gorgeous-looking typeface guaranteed to make you drool even if it wears a vibe different from the rustic environs of the film. We are so cool that we would make the opening credits of ‘Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ look like a joke. We are so cool we have characters called Definite, Perpendicular and Tangent in Part 2 of Gangs of Wasseypur because honestly, we got tired of keeping count of the Khans and Qureshis in the film!
The bourgeois seem to have developed a new fad- profess to be a fan of DB or TD or AK without neccesariy patronising their films in cinema halls! For all the new fans of progressive cinema springing up from every nook,cranny and crevice their films should have sent the cash registers ringing.
agar reference nahi diya hoto toh bhi pata chal jata…we “non-returning” types are not that duh…lolz
Sau picture acchi banata hai…straight from horse’s mouth. Baki sentence is of no use..its like saying “picture acchi banata hai par woh toh gay hai”…what diff does it make what opinion does he have or whether he is “high” class or “low” class or who he is married to…yada..yada. Then if you have nothing to pick, you pick on accents in movie…hilarious…pulling the rope from the well slowly-slowly (adoor G.) is high mark of realism but fast-paced true-blu desi gangsta movie ain’t?!?
true about personal detail but see who picks them himself
and really see same guy’s black friday for research at time ….guy is just not same rebel anymore see him fighting for critical review, budget and commercial stuff and ya gow is a refined masala version nothing more
ask any gora or nri’s and one of the first better movie of the decade they will say is “a wednesday” now that is what original and innovativeness
Di jeee aapkee Company mein rah kar main Satya kee khoj mein Daud lagaya lekin Sarkar raj ney nishabd kar diya mujh jaise rangeela ko……..ab Shiva ka Bhoot rakht Chartira bahayega and James ka department Naach karega….
Now that GANGS OF WASSEYPUR has released and also won tremendous acclaim from critics and aficionados of cinema, the question on everyone’s lips is, when is GANGS OF WASSEYPUR 2 releasing? Well, like everyone knows, the two parts were screened at Cannes, but Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap decided to have a different strategy vis-a-vis the release of the two parts in India and Overseas.
While the first part has just opened in India, it hasn’t released in Overseas yet. That’s because the film will be released in phases in the international arena — not just in theatres patronized by the diaspora, but also those who’d love to watch an Indian film. It means, the film will have a mainstream release there, starting with Middle East on 28 June, followed by France on 25 July.
As for the release of its second part in India, well, Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap are expected to take a call in the next few days. In all likelihood, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR 2 will be released within three months from now. Let’s await the official announcement from the makers!
but that’s too late though.. at that point you’re certainly not going to get a very significant Indian audience that will have seen it elsewhere by then. With a non-Indian audience it’s a different matter. But in any case it was the wrong call not to have a simultaneous overseas release.
but why aren’t they?! They could have released it in a couple of theaters in the city and played more to a non-Indian audience but at the same time provided this option for someone like myself. If I get an original DVD in a few weeks I might not wait for the theatrical release because that doesn’t seem as certain.
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a low Monday of around 1.75 crore nett as per early estimates but it is steady keeping in mind its weekend business which gives it a chance to hit the average mark if weekdays show minimal drops.
More importantly steady business on the weekdays and second week will give the second part of the film a chance at the box office. Shanghai had also grossed similar on Monday but that film had a 12.50 crore nett weekend so the trending for Gangs Of Wasseypur is better than that film.
The film has grossed 12-12.25 crore nett in four days and the week may finish around the 16-16.50 crore nett mark.
The film is doing mixed business in practically every circuit, Delhi is okay but UP dull, Mumbai city is fair but Gujarat and Maharashtra dull, Gurgaon is good but rest of East Punjab is poor. The major circuits have seen decent business at some stations but poor in other stations.
Gangs of Wasseypur is steady on lower side at the box office on Monday. GOW has collected around 1.75 crore nett all India on Monday. It has shown a drop of 55% on average on Monday from Sunday. GOW total collections now stands at 12.25 crore nett all India. Trend suggest that GOW will remain steady in the weekdays and makers of the film will make profit as GOW is made on limited budget.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 3 cr nett.
Sat – 3.5 cr nett.
Sun – 4 cr nett.
Mon – 1.75 cr nett
Those who swear by meaningful cinema might yet have reason to rejoice. In spite of a modest opening for Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (GOW, part one), trade analysts predict that the film is likely to pick up at the box office. On the other hand, Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK) might have made more money so far, but weighed down by a hefty budget, it already looks “disappointing”.
Despite an A certificate, GOW seems to be doing well with urban, multiplex audiences. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, “The film fared best in Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Its business at single screens in mass-dominated (where commercial films work) circuits was weak. The film collected Rs. 10.63 cr net over the first weekend.”
The hard-hitting film has even inspired an Amul ad campaign. Vikram Malhotra, COO, Viacom18 Motion Pictures says, “It’s a huge compliment for a non-star film. It has scored because of its raw appeal.”
Refuting rumours that GOW was made on a budget of Rs. 45 crore, Malhotra says, “These reports are absurd. Both parts of the film were made within Rs. 20 crore.” Official figures state that part one, which released last weekend was made within Rs. 9 crore, with another Rs. 6 crore spent on publicity and marketing. The film also sold satellite and music rights of part one for Rs. 12 crore.
About TMK, Adarsh says, “The film did not take off on day one, and maintained similar figures over the weekend. There was no visible growth, which is disappointing. The film collected approximately Rs. 16.75 crore in its opening weekend.”
Vajir Singh, editor, Box Office India, adds, “There is no hope of TMK recovering money in the coming weeks. The film is a flop. The audience couldn’t relate to the leading pair’s romance, they didn’t ache for them to meet and get married after the first half.” The trade suggests that producer Ponty Chadha of Wave Cinemas who bought the India theatrical and music rights for Rs. 42 crore (TMK was made for Rs. 40 crore), is likely to lose money on the film.
@ the box office
Despite two major releases and less screen space; Ferrari Ki Sawaari is rock steady. The film’s 10-day collection is Rs. 26 crore. And, after four weeks, collections for Rowdy Rathore stands at Rs. 133.25 crore.
Gangs of Wasseypur Retake: ‘Under-whelmed’ by over-hype :
As much as I loved Gangs Of Wasseypur (Gangs, in short), it’s also irked me enough to write something about this cinema watching experience. A feeling like this has come to me in the past too, either when I’ve seen a good film, or when I have hoped for one. I must say I am not as much impressed with Gangs as many people around me are, and almost all film critics have been. It seems as if blindly appreciating the movie has become a political compulsion for many. Some of them have gone to the extent of comparing it to the likes of Scorsese and Tarantinos of the West, an absolutely absurdist reference. I am neither a paid nor a recognised film-critic. I am not a genre-basher either. I am just an average cinema-goer who likes to watch a good film once in a while, to sex up his otherwise mundane life!
OT-
just saw parts of “Le Quattro Volte” thanx to a film-maker buddy..
A pleasantly quiet, initially droll, but slowly intriguing, film one drifts into…
may write bout it later….
ps-not everyones cup of tea…
reminded me of the turn horse and tree of life in different ways…
While in conversation with a leading exhibitor about the audience feedback and opening trends of TERI MERI KAHAANI and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR at his theatres on Friday, he made valid remark, which I’d like to share with you: “The business is clearly divided. At places, TERI MERI KAHAANI is leading, while GANGS OF WASSEYPUR had an edge at some places.” A number of exhibitors echoed similar sentiments across the weekend. Can’t fathom why, but the films in question belonged to diverse genres and were expected to co-exist at cineplexes. In the past, on more occasions than one, two diametrically opposite movies had struck a chord with moviegoers of all age-groups.
Let’s discuss GANGS OF WASSEYPUR first! While the plexes of Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon in particular recorded healthy figures, what really came as a surprise was the uninspiring response meted out to GANGS OF WASSEYPUR in the mass belt and also at single screens of several circuits. I mean, the film was aimed at the masses, had raw action [works in these circuits], besides ample mass-appealing moments and shock value, to attract the hoi polloi in hordes. But the audience stayed away. Did the absence of a notable star go against the film in these circuits? Or did the excessive usage of expletives/cuss words keep a chunk of the audience away?
However, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR has a reasonable price tag attached to it. The Cost of Production of these two films [as shared by Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap] is approx Rs 18.4 cr [Rs 9.2 cr x 2]. Add to it approx Rs 6.5 cr as P & A expenses [of Part 1], which takes the total [of Part 1] to Rs 15.7 cr. Satellite sales and Music should contribute close to Rs 5 cr, which means Viacom18 has to recover Rs 10.7 cr from India theatrical, which shouldn’t be tough.
On the other hand, TERI MERI KAHAANI, which was extensively promoted and stars two much-in-demand actors in pivotal roles, failed to take off either. The occupancy at plexes was slightly better in North India, but the overall performance is discomforting. In fact, its performance is lower than MAUSAM in India, which says it all. TERI MERI KAHAANI has been sold for a high price to Wave and the distributor is sure to lose a chunk of his investment thanks to its non-performance.
But the business is expected to witness a boom. The next keenly-awaited release SPIDER-MAN and the biggie that opens next Friday, BOL BACHCHAN, are expected to take the nation by storm. Let’s hope that they live up to the lofty expectations!
Collections Modest But Low Budget Helps GoW
by Shabdita Shrivastav (June 25, 2012)
Last week saw the release of two films, Anurag Kayshap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (GoW) and Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK). While Teri Meri Kahaani failed to impress the audience, Gangs of Wasseypur picked up at the weekend thanks to word-of-mouth. Also, considering the budgets of these films, GoW was made on a comparatively lower budget than TMK, and has therefore fared well.
In Mumbai, Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “The all-India weekend collections of TMK are Rs 16 crore and Rs 10 crore for GoW. We were hoping that both films would do well over the weekend but collections did not match our expectations.”
According to G D Mehta of Bobby Arts International, “In Delhi-UP, the weekend collection of TMK was Rs 4.1 crore and of Gow Rs 3 crore. Shows of GoW were house full on Saturday and Sunday. On the other hand, collections of TMK were low vis-à-vis the film’s budget although it is a good movie.”
In Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies remarks, “The weekend collection of TMK is Rs 1.8 crore and that of GoW Rs 92 lakh. Collections of both films have dropped since the weekend.”
Neither release intrigued the audience in Rajasthan. Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films avers, “The weekend collection of both TMK and GoW were poor. While both films were neckand-neck on Saturday, there has been a significant drop in the collections of both films.”
In Gujarat, Ajay Bagbai of Rajvi Trade Links concludes, “The weekend collection of TMK is below-average, at 14 to 15 per cent. This quite low considering the budget it was made on. The collection of GoW is 9 to 10 per cent, which is not bad considering its budget.”
Gangs of Wasseypur is slowly but steadily finding its foothold at the box office. GOW has collected around 1.75 crore nett all India on Tuesday and collections are steady. GOW total collection stands at 14.3 crore nett all India and first week is heading for 17+ crore nett all India. GOW is made on limited budget and will make profits for the makers. Collections of GOW is going to be better than Teri Meri Kahaani in coming days, going by the present trend.
Gangs of wasseypur can be summarized by the last scene done in slow motion.The bullet riddled body of Sardar khan as it emerges out of the car and the Bihar ke lala song blaring in the background.Sardar khan’s mock heroic death curiously reflects his life and the philosophy of the man and the film.The film makes fun of the whole heroic notion of taking revenge as a vocation or justification of living.In short, characters like sardar khan r mahachutiyaas who lives and dies like a dog.
The problem with the film is that it never translates this idea adequately into screen.It starts as a docu drama chronicling the rise of mafia in Wasseypur with a lot of actual footage in black friday style.Then it abandons it( thankfully) as the character of Sardar khan is introduced.From then on the film takes the Gulaal route and comes up with outrageous characters doing outrageous things with dollops of black humour.Its ok..but there r so many scenes in the film! The film has triple the number of scenes a normal film has.One scene never ends adequately and the audience is not given the time to breathe and savour its drama when another begins.The effect is a bullet speed movie but the plethora of scenes as they bombard the audience leaves one with a dizzy feeling.Tt robs the audience from forming a perspective about the film as the director wants to say everything at one go.Incoherence seeps into the plot and the brilliance leaves us confused as we cant relate one scene with the other.Ideally the scenes must be connected together in an organic way to give the feeling that one scene emerges out of the other.Here we have a parade of scenes in quick succession that leaves us befuddled and clueless.There is no connect with the audience…… as the director is lost in displaying his indulgent craft and conveniently loses touch with the audience…… he must say everything at one go as this is the epic.Characters after characters emerge…caricature…kill and spill blood….mouth gaalis…. and we have a faint idea that they r all a part of the general narrative but we cant empathize with them anymore.He shud have edited the film more meticulously and stuck with the central characters and the themes,but sadly his indulgence is all important and the director is everything.The storyteller is bigger than the story and as a result the story suffers.Its a hotchpotch of brillinatly executed and acted scenes which cud have been made coherent if the director had been more patient,restrained and stuck to a vision that was narrower.But anurag wants to juggle with a thousand balls at the same time.In the effort of making this a fast paced epic the director loses his vision and gets lost in the details and so does the audience.The film ends up being a cacophony and a caricature of what it aims to be…very much like NO smoking but in a different way.It is impossible to pull off a movie that aims to be an angry epic of subversion where gangster r not glorified but r portrayed as the true,brainless lafangaas which they are without connecting with the audience.The movie is wieldly and cluttered……. it has its moments of brilliance but never moves yu.The director is to be blamed.
When the director.. with his penchant for the subverse,his idiosyncracies and indulgences becomes more important than the subject.. u get a Gangs of Wasseypur.I give it a 2.5 out of 5
Wow why a comment anjali
If that’s your first comment here-welcome ..
I haven’t seen the film bit part of your aversion to it may also have to do with you being a female …
Not in any derogatory way –most males have issues with this one as well
This particular connotation is a more female pov…
What did U feel about no smoking, Dev d -liked both a lot…
@alex
i dont understand what connection my being a female can have with my liking or disliking a particular work of art.
the reason why i did not like GOW…is becoz it was unable to translate its theme into the screen in a masterly manner.anurag kashyap overdid himself.the movie is not an effortless watch.
i have liked black friday gulaal and devd of anurag.those movies delivered what they aimed for.they r not weidly and cluttered and indulgent fares.
i did not like no smoking precisely becoz it was over ambitious and cudnt deliver its abstract existential theme with perfection on the screen.but no smoking is a better movie than gangs of wasseypur becoz in no smoking anurag has not committed the fundamental mistake which he did in this movie…which is…..the amount of scenes.every movie has a limited number of scenes and if u triple that number then it becomes impossible to watch the movie which happened in the case of gangs of wasseypur.
in an interview anurag confessed that he is playing a big gamble as in the span of 2 hr 40 minutes no other filmmaker in the whole world has attempted so many scenes as he did in gow.sadly the gamble didnt pay off.the movie is almost unwatchable in a conventional way.u almost get a feeling that the movie is fleeting…it runs so fast.
its like u r watching the movie from a train window and outside there r big screens on poles.the screens r countless in number and the line the railway track…and u watch the film from the window…..it fleets.one scene fleets away and before u gain perspective another fleets away…..without that organic connection which holds the film together and gives it dramatic impact.
Hmm
Well your comment makes sense and must say u have articulated it quite well.
Gow hasn’t released outside India do couldn’t watch it but was keen to watch it–ended up watching Teri meri kahaani since was in a mood for Bollywood …
Btw don’t know many females who would have liked the blood few and expletives…
The ‘point’ here is not the ‘story’ or what happens really…
These sort of films are moving kaliedoscopic images of a certain contextual realm which had to be taken in a certain mindset wherein one shouldnt really clamour fr facts, substance and script movement only ..
Anyhow cant disagree with your view that seems quite reasonable (since I haven’t seen the film)
What did u think of Dev d -I haven’t seen Gullal
If u don’t already write in other names 🙂 -looking forward for more comments from u
U write well
Who are your favorite actors and films ..
Read the comment now-hasn’t read this properly
“its like u r watching the movie from a train window and outside there r big screens on poles.the screens r countless in number and the line the railway track…and u watch the film from the window…..it fleets.one scene fleets away and before u gain perspective another fleets away…..without that organic connection which holds the film together and gives it dramatic impact.”
Well described anjeli!
mam: surprised by maturity of comment: outrageous character do outrageous things in gulal:
here is the conversation from some other forum at different betweem me and q on that:
Great review….the movie is also full of Mahabharat references, chief among them Anurag’s disturbing but apt inversion of Karan (Aditya Srivastava). In that epic, Karan always sacrifices his happiness and accepts his fate but this new Karan is out to prove he is ‘legitimate’ by way of gaining absolute power.)
I would perhaps cast the issue a bit differently: i.e. not so much about the purpose of the ardhnari character but about what the DEATH of this character shows. The ardhnari is an androgynous form (i.e. a combo of the male Shiva and the female Shakti), and given Kashyap’s concern with the gender implications of a certain sort of politics and violence, I saw Duki’s killing of that character as symbolizing the slaying of the “female aspectâ€, i.e. its sacrifice at the altar of the patriarchy; and I felt that from that point on nothing would stop the self-destructive spiral of the film’s male characters (indeed Duki, who has killed the ardhnari character, is himself killed due to male competition over a woman
Nice review. Can anyone tell me what exactly the significance of that ardhnari character was, and why he was accompanying Piyush Mishra all thew time? Did did that imply anything specific for the Piyush character? He was the older brother and unmarried…..
“The ardhnari is an androgynous form (i.e. a combo of the male Shiva and the female Shakti), and given Kashyap’s concern with the gender implications of a certain sort of politics and violence, I saw Duki’s killing of that character as symbolizing the slaying of the “female aspectâ€, i.e. its sacrifice at the altar of the patriarchy; and I felt that from that point on nothing would stop the self-destructive spiral of the film’s male characters (indeed Duki, who has killed the ardhnari character, is himself killed due to male competition over a woman).”
ardhnareshwar in gulaal is a metaphor for the philosophical outlook of piyush mishra in the film.that is y he is always seen accompanying piyush mishra.ardhnareshwar is both ying and yang..male and female in one.it means someone which encompasses both the points of view…..someone who sees the real picture and cannot take a partisan point of view…..someone…. because(he sees the reality and the circular nature of it)..is absolutely useless.because the history of the world is a testimony to the fact that history is created by men who see only one side of the picture..and who fights with the others to assert their side.history is the story of partisanship…story of men fighting with others to assert their point of view.someone who sees the circular nature of truth…someone who sees both the sides…..cannot be a man of action.he will become a wisecrack like piyush mishra in the film.he will become like john lenon.u remeber in the film piyush mishra says..(when ransa points to the locket he is wearing which has the pic of john lenon in it)..yeh hain his highness imagine singh ji………in sabke chasme gol the….john lenon..mahatma gandhi….tabhi toh yeh sab ahinsa ki behki behki baatein karte the…at that point ransaa says…par masterji aapka chasma bhi to gol(circular hai)…mishra says…tabhi toh koi hamari nahi sunta!
so arshnareshwar is a metaphor for that circular..ying yang philosophy which piyush mishra stands for.his murder by duki bana was inevitable ..as in duki’s lust for power…such a philosophy(which ardhnareshwar symbolized will always be sacrificed).
piyush mishra says an interesting verse by ghalib after ardhnareshwar dies n bhati asks him y u infuriate duki bana:
naa khuda ko gardishe toofan se darna chahiye
mera kya main naa khuda ki naak mein ghuus jaunga
this is another example of the role of piyush mishra in the film…naak mein ghus jaunga means…someone who like john lenon will irritate and infuriate by spelling out the circular nature of truth…ppl like duki bana who r men of action and who live a partisan life…and who fight and create history to assert their pov.
Anjali Ma’am, ur views on GoW and Gulaal have impressed me a great deal. in you, SS has found another truly top-notch writer after Ami. Do keep commenting and it’s great to have u here
Brilliant piece there anjali-wow
I’m feeling bad I’ve not seen this film-hmmm…how elegantly uve explained this ‘complicated’ stuff
Want to watch gulal now
Btw just saw this song playing…enjoy-totally random and anurag kashyap unrelated 🙂
Anjali- why don’t u please write something like a review on GoW and/or dev d/gulal
Sure it will be worth putting up as a separate thread -quite worthy points here…
@alex….i hope u r nt being sarcastic.i nt an active blogger.i just like satyams reasoned arguments.and i like ur jokes too.but pls dont embarrass me..and make me a target of ur jokes
No Ma’am, alex is not being sarcastic. i too believe that u should definitely do a piece on Gulaal and GoW, esp on GoW since no one has written anything abt it over here
Anjali: as minor said, I’m not being sarcastic
U write v well and moreover your thoughts are quite original and importantly uninfluenced by the spin around
Suggest u write a proper piece -keep it up 🙂
Hmm well had forgotten but thanx for reminding me minor-u do have a good mammary… Oops memory-no doubt u passed your ‘exams’ lol
Ya maybe arthi got married etc and is now busy in other pursuits hahaha
one flew over the cuckoos nest is my all time favourite film….followed by through the glass darkly by bergman.my all time best dialogue is from the latter film….where the mad girl raves….as her father…lover and brother try to console her…..”.All my life…all my life i waited for the door to open and god to come out.finally the door did open and out came a spider!”…..what angst!
my fav actor is jack nicholson and to an extent marlon brando….they r any day better than al pacino..robert de niro and dustin hoffman
Not a fan of the Nicholson film but I am happy to agree with you on the Bergman, probably the one I like most within that trilogy. Having said that I increasingly find Bergman hard to take unless it’s from the earlier much more lyrical period.
It’s a very, very loose remake. Consider it a parody of the Forman film, because that’s how embarrassingly poor it is. Technically it’s a remake by Priyadarshan of his own Malayalam film with Mohanlal, Thalavattam, which is pretty much saved by the performances there.
“where the mad girl raves….as her father…lover and brother try to console her…..”.All my life…all my life i waited for the door to open and god to come out.finally the door did open and out came a spider!”…..what angst!”
What a point !!! Spot on…
Do u like anyone from Bollywood / any films …
Btw wanted to see GoW -ended up with TMK-lol- hav u seen it…
Bergman is one artist who is good , when young as well as when old. In fact one of his best is ‘ Fanny and Alexander’ made at the very end of his career. This is unlike his generally gloomy oeuvre, and has droll humour and bright passages a plenty. Even a film like Saraband is wonderful to watch. Then there the brilliant early works : Wild Strawberries and Seventh seal as well as the middle period with Through the Glass Darkly and Persona . A filmmaker with a truly singular vision and a great body of work.
Huma Qureshi, who has made her acting debut with the recently released mafia drama Gangs of Wasseypur, says she gets due attention in the film despite there being a bevy of characters.
The actress says she was initially apprehensive about going unnoticed in the Anurag Kashyap film as it also stars names like Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jaideep Ahlawat, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Reemma Sen, Richa Chadda among others.
“I was apprehensive about taking on the role in such a big multistarrer film with a bunch of good actors. There was this feeling that I would go unnoticed. But the credit goes to Anurag. He gave me confidence. He knows what he is doing. Despite a dozen of characters sharing screen space, none of them is forgetful. Each one of them connects with the audience in a beautiful way. Each character has a story to tell, a significant role and does not overcrowd the film,” Huma told reporters.
Born and brought up in the Delhi, Huma comes from a complete non-film background. But that did not stop her from following her acting dreams. While shooting for a mobile phone advertisement with Aamir Khan, she bagged her dream debut.
“I had done an ad for a mobile company with Aamir Khan which was directed by Anurag. During the ad shoot itself, Anurag told me that he will cast me in one of his films. At that point, I didn`t really take him seriously but was happy when he actually kept his word and called me to be a part of Gangs… I never auditioned for the part,” she said.
The actress also said that the director did not give her the script beforehand as he didn`t want her to superficially act out the scene.
“I was one of the many actors who was not allowed to read the script of the film because Anurag wanted all of us to be as natural as possible. Some of the scenes in the film would have been completely ruined had it been acted out of the script,” she added.
Huma`s character Mohsina is introduced towards the end of the first part of the film. The actress says her character fleshes out in the second part alongwith her love interest played by Nawazuddin.
“My character alongwith Nawaz`s and few others are only introduced towards the end of the film. So you see very little of us in Part 1. But we are there pre-dominantly in the second part,” she said.
Gangs of Wasseypur was screened in the Directors` Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival this year and the actress says the international exposure has helped the film.
“The reception that the film got at Cannes was unbelievable. The film belongs to the popular Bollywood genre with dance, drama, action but still we got a standing ovation after the screening. That shows that as long as there is a story to tell, connect with the audience and good acting, language does not matter. Emotions are universal.
“Cannes has generated a buzz about the film and definitely created an interest. So I am hoping it will help the film,” she said.
This year Huma will also be seen in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana opposite Kunal Kapoor, which has been co-produced by Anurag. The film is being pitched as India`s first food film.
“In the film I play a Punjabi girl. It`s a mad Indian film about food and family. It is set in a small town called Lalton near Ludhiana. Although I am from Delhi, I have never been to Punjab,” she said.
The actress is also currently shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj`s production Ek Thi Daayan. Huma has also signed Kal Ho Na Ho director Nikhil Advani`s next action film.
“For Nikhil Advani`s film, which is an out and out action flick, I will be undergoing combative training. I feel happy that he thinks that I can pull it off.
“Being an actress is not a 9 to 5 job that I will keep on doing the same kind of roles in every film. I want to do challenging roles. I don`t want to do the same stuff again and again because the audience will get bored of me and my films,” she added.
Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article for a leading news magazine on ‘The New Bollywood Brigade.’ It started with an anecdote about Anurag Kashyap telling Amitabh Bachchan off. Kashyap was only 26 years old then. Satya, which he had co-written, had established him as a hotshot talent. The story
went like this: Impressed with Satya, Bachchan had called Kashyap and said, “Let’s do something different.” Kashyap clearly told the superstar that he wanted to do it his way. “Don’t set any limits because I’m writing for Amitabh Bachchan.” Kashyap wrote the script, which had Bachchan playing a grey character. Everyone liked it but, as Kashyap told it back then, “Bachchan developed cold feet… He wanted a justification for the character. I said no. I said, let’s respect the audience. Let’s give them something to think about.” After that conversation, Kashyap said, he never went back.
Last week, Bachchan saw Kashyap’s latest film Gangs of Wasseypur and raved about it on Twitter. “What a film,” he tweeted, “Anurag Kashyap’s direction amazing… Indian cinema taking path breaking strides… pride and extreme gratification.” In the years since their first encounter, Kashyap has gone from being Bollywood’s problem child to the poster boy of ‘Hindie,’ that is Hindi independent cinema. It’s been a journey fraught with struggle, depression, divorce and incessant battling with the powers that be in Bollywood — studios, producers, stars, trade pundits, even the Censor Board (Kashyap’s first film Paanch never released because the Censor Board deemed it too dark for the Indian public). But Kashyap has endured.
Gangs of Wasseypur is, by turns, absorbing and frustrating. It features terrific performances and scenes of powerful, explosive violence. But it is also indulgent and much too long. The film started slow at the box office, but picked up by the evening shows and is likely to make around R11 crore net on the first weekend. Clearly, Kashyap’s brand of cinema is no threat to a masala entertainer like Rowdy Rathore, which has made over R130 crore in three weeks and is the biggest hit of the year so far. But the fact that Kashyap could get a major studio — Viacom 18 — to put down R18 crore plus for a two-part, five-hour-20-minute, star-less saga about the coal mining mafia in Bihar is a victory. It means that viewers have choices at the multiplex. Yes, the box office Goliath is probably going to be a full-blow, star-laden comedy or drama — this year’s biggest include Agneepath and Housefull 2. But there is also likely to be something smaller, edgier, ‘hatke’ running at the next screen.
Because Kashyap is no longer a one-man movement. Over the years, he has mentored dozens of directors and an astonishing pool of talent. In between his own projects, he has found time to produce films like Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan — the first Indian film to make the official selection at the Cannes International Film Festival in seven years; Bejoy Nambiar’s Shaitan, Vasan Bala’s Peddlers and co-produce Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. Dev.D pushed the astounding composer Amit Trivedi into the spotlight and Gulaal made us recognise the many talents of Piyush Mishra. Gangs of Wasseypur features an array of dazzling actors — from Manoj Vajpai to Richa Chadda to Tigmanshu Dhulia. There isn’t one false note among them.
These films and filmmakers are slowly expanding the definition of Indian cinema abroad. Bollywood is still the mother brand but there is an increasing recognition that an alternative cinema is emerging. At Cannes, the India conversation is usually dominated by which stars walked the red carpet. This year, for the first time, the chatter was about Indian films — Gangs of Wasseypur and Peddlers screened in the festival sidebars. At the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, the City to City section will showcase 10 Mumbai films; Gangs of Wasseypur is a strong contender.
Film scholar Ashish Rajyadaksha once said that it is “vitally important to maintain an experimental cinema for both the mainstream and the larger cultural context,” because the experimental cinema becomes “a research and development centre for cinema in the country.” What’s exciting is that Hindie and mainstream filmmakers are feeding off each other. So Motwane’s next is a period film with mainstream stars, Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha. Kashyap is a co-producer. His next directorial project is also a period film — Bombay Velvet, set in the 1960s Jazz Age, starring Ranbir Kapoor.
The creative churning is yielding sparkling cinema. Which is why Anurag Kashyap matters.
i admire kashyap and his oeuvre.but gangs of wasseypur is not great cinema,even by kashyap standards…it is his worst.merely becoz the film has great acting performances and a raw edgy feel to it,does not mean it qualifies as great.a film should have a central theme and coherence.GOW is an array of finely executed scenes done in a realistic noir style…..but disconnected…done almost in a graphic novel format…without a soul to hook the audience.
kashyap must have a narrow canvas if he wants to translate his basic inspiration into the semblance of an engaging plot.
one film by kashyap,whose story i liked but kashyap was never able to make it was allwyn kalicharan.the film was about a teenaged boy who is infatuated by reading a lot of superhero comics and thinks himself to be a superhero.but his problem is that he is not able to find a superpower.he can neither fly like a superman,nor can he crawl up buildings like a spiderman.
once while playing football…a boy kicks him hard and in anger and rage he starts vibrating…..it is then that he discovers his latent superpower…which is to vibrate in the face of injustice.from then on…. whenever he sees an injustice committed…like a thief running away with a woman’s purse…he immediately becomes the superhero and starts vibrating ….
the movie is a satire and subversion of superheroism that claims to fight against the injustice in society.it is set in a dystopic delhi of 2040.the film has a lot of queer inventions.the boy thinks he is someone special…and his frustration is that no one recognizes his talent.his talent include…holding up his breath for 2 minutes continuous….counting the stars in the sky and a lot of other bizzarre and weird things.he is lost in himself….and is angry with the world….becoz the world has no time or interest in exploring and celebrating his weird talents.
now this is a film which cud have been really path breaking…..but kashyap cannot make an epic like gangs of wasseypur…he can only come up with brilliantly subversive movies on a smaller canvas.
Interesting! but how do u know the entire story of this Alvin Kallicharan (there was a very famous Carribean batsman of the same name though)? is the script available on the net?
Is this one of the prime reasons why AK is miffed with AB sr? AB’s refusal to break out of the mould (it must have been 1999 when AK and AB got together)? It is ironical in one way since AB was going through a horrible patch at that time (kBC was still not on) , he had no decent film offers on hand. If he could go and knock on the doors of YASH CHOPRA for a role, why the hell couldn’t he partner with AK?
This, clearly, is AB’s loss and not at all AK’s…
Sad, the opportunities this wonderful actor has kicked out of the park…it would be a very long and sorry list…
I don’t really think Kashyap has any problems as such with Bachchan. I actually, and contrary to everything he’s said (and based on some other stuff), don’t think his problem with Abhishek is all that personal. It’s framed in personal ways but Abhishek for him is a kind of fetishistic obsession, his key to theorizing about everything that’s wrong with Bollywood. And like all such obsessions one tries to establish a logic for them. So he does have ‘reasons’ for why he doesn’t like Abhishek (those he gets into and those he chooses not to) but the problem here is that these reasons are entirely ‘banal’ given this or any other industry. So for example let’s say everything he thinks about Abhishek is actually true — that he isn’t really devoted to good cinema, that he extracts huge amounts even for different films, that he did this or that, that he’s undeserving and so on. The problem is all these things don’t really make Kashyap’s case even if literally true. Because these would only mean something if everyone else in a comparable position were different or if Abhishek were behaving in completely unusual ways but that clearly isn’t the case. There would still have to be an explanation for why Abhishek somehow ‘controls’ the entire Bollywood system with his decisions and therefore this would then be a reason why his decisions were that important. Obviously there’s no such explanation. Nor is there one for anyone else behaving very differently. They’re hardly in it for charity! Of course it must be said that Kashyap’s testimony on the ‘person’ of Abhishek (leaving aside professional decisions) is not one that is confirmed by anyone else in Bollywood in any capacity including the frankly many of the people he works with. And he ought to know this! There is other stuff still that I can’t talk about.
i think the apparent discord between amitabh bachchan and anurag kashyap is a very curious one.if u see gangs of wasseypur yu will realize the obvious presence amitabh bachchan has in that film.the angry young man character of nawazuddin is modeled on the phenomenon called amitabh bachchan of the 70s and early 80s….and he is certainly not a caricature.and that aspect of the film is a welcome respite.one scene which is sheer cinematic brilliance is when nawazuddin finds himself sitting directly opposite another amitabh bachchan look alike(on a train journey)…and is comparing himself with him….”who is more bachchanesque?”….he almost goes through a mock existential crisis..and leaves the train with an expression of “what the fuck” pasted on his face.
anurag…if u take aside his arty farty…liberal..intellectual….renaissance man of indie cinema pretensions…is deep down smitten and fascinated by the phenomenon that was amitabh bachchan in the 70s.
i think satyam can shed more light on the semantics of this discord.it is true anurag identifies everything that is wrong with bollywood with the star parivaar ….but y single out bachchan?
stayam says there r other stuffs still which he cant talk about.i wud hope he comes up with some explanation as to what the whole jhagda between them….deep down..is about.and y it cant b resolved.anurag appears to be a very spontaneous…impressionable kind of person who cannot keep a grouse against someone for long.but at the same time he is very obstinate and headstrong and will never compromise with his core principles…which i find a good thing.amitabh bachchan on the other hand doesnt appears to be miffed or in any way angry with anurag at all.his tweets and blogs about gow suggests he likes anurag.then what is the jhagda about?
Another ace comment anjali
Well, u seem to be right
It seems more like a subconscious deep influence and a forced reaction against that extreme adulation in terms of anurag against amitabh
Come to think of it his ‘outbursts’ against abhishrek e dn have shades of ‘sibling rivalry’ though mired with ideation of angst and deprivation caused due to his independent struggle vis a vis abhishreks ‘privileged’ upbringing and entry to films (& apparent privileged continuation)
Anyhow-I will love to see a film directed by kashyap with amitabh as the main lead-don’t care if anyone other than kashyap likes it -I will love it !!!!
Had read somewhere that Abhishek refused to do “No Smoking”, isn’t this story true Satyam? Thought this must be the reason he has been whining around here.
I do believe he did not agree to do No Smoking. or there was at least some talk about this. Let me put it this way — it is not the case that Kashyap has never ever thought of working with Abhishek!
ya they called him phycho , depessive , charsi and what and not but atleast he is getting some recognition now
paanch was not released but he made last train to mahakaali on the same theme( a teleserial) with the same lead
still his strength lies on smaller canvas and ya he producing better movies than what he is making
as for developing cold feet its quite easy for someone like vajpayee who was in oblivion for close to decade( because here recognition is important) but when a guy of that stature does boom( a remarkable performance in outrageously bad movie) or nishabd moral police are forever there to haunt
as for mentor one should also give credit to ram gopal verma( who mentored him during satya) and a certain maniratnam who mentored him during yuva and now the connection with danny boyle which is expanding connection on western front
Gangs of Wasseypur is rock steady at the box office. GOW has collected around 1.7 crore nett all India on Wednesday, taking its six day total to 16 crore nett all India. GOW is sustaining well and it augurs well in for the film in long run. GOW first week is heading for 17.5-18 crore nett, which is pretty decent if we consider the opening of GOW.
Anjali-just like a usually see only some scenes Of most films, don’t read all tw lines of most posts lol
But just read this bit now.
Will rank this simply as one of the best thoughts written on this blog. Superb!!
Also I congratulate satyam for fostering (won’t call breeding lol)
Such a space …
Can’t but not appreciate brilliance 🙂
The way u have toggled all round thinking with inaction and narrow minded one-sided discourse with inaction and correlated this with the character is praiseworthy …
“ardhnareshwar in gulaal is a metaphor for the philosophical outlook of piyush mishra in the film.that is y he is always seen accompanying piyush mishra.ardhnareshwar is both ying and yang..male and female in one.it means someone which encompasses both the points of view…..someone who sees the real picture and cannot take a partisan point of view…..someone…. because(he sees the reality and the circular nature of it)..is absolutely useless.because the history of the world is a testimony to the fact that history is created by men who see only one side of the picture..and who fights with the others to assert their side.history is the story of partisanship…story of men fighting with others to assert their point of view.someone who sees the circular nature of truth…someone who sees both the sides…..cannot be a man of action.he will become a wisecrack like piyush mishra in the film.”
“thnx alex have u seen the movie gulaal?”
Anjali-nope i havent seen gulal but want to see it after reading your comments-sounds an interesting multilayered film..
Ps -amongst recent Bollywood, if uve seen them -what did u think of rockstar or znmd?
Hashmi was never a part of the Jism franchise. also is it not a fact that much more nudity is shown in hollywood?- we had stuff like ‘basic instinct’ and ‘eyes wide shut’ even more than a decade back? And when one says that there is too much usage of foul language in films like GoW, again aren’t we forgetting abt the West were every 3rd is replete with all kinds of abuses (which are not required at all).even as early as in the late 80s Pacino’s Scarface had the lead guy abusing left,right and centre
Hmm that’s a very good point minor!!
Actually in this era of Internet wherein kids access all sorts of porn on their mobiles apparently, shouldnt Bollywood follow suit?
Everyone has a choice to see or not to see, I guess…
Is it time for full frontal nudity in Bollywood (but obviously with the correct rating 18+)?
What are yor views minor…
Alex, all i am saying is that we should be fair while judging any film. If Jism 2 is soft-porn, Eyes Wide Shut was ‘hardcore stuff’- do not care whether it is Kubrick at helm or Pooja Bhatt or whether it is Sunny Leone or Nicole Kidman- that ‘does not’ matter. And thanks that u reminded me of frontal nudity- till now bollywood has never shown frontal nudity compared to hollywood where it is rampant even in films without any sexual undertone.
You have ‘raised’ a pertinent point here minor..
Yes, have also sensed a certain ‘double standards’ in this.
But since I’m not aware of what the scene is WITHIN India @ ground level, I stay quiet..
As u mentioned, indian folks seem to watch much more explicit stuff from hollywood –
(btw eyes wide shut is a personal favourite and much more than porn-infact is a psychopsychic interplay drama first lol)
But when it comes to Bollywood,there is this sudden ‘prude’ sensibility.
Example- the initial reaction to jism2 photo here just now -even scared me of the reactions in the cinema halls in India lol….
Guess younger folks like u in India are more ‘open’ to this… 🙂
Alex, i am not debating on the quality of Eyes. All i am saying is that if the topic is nudity etc, it had much more of it than any bwood film. And i am no one to judge if frontal nudity should be allowed in bwood but yes i do believe there should be a right to ‘expression of art’ in any form. i mean how is showing sex worse than showing violence (not that i am against violence in movies per se, i am a hardcore fan of gore and bloodletting on screen)
Seems bhatt has gone for it here unabashedly…
In a way, bhatt can argue that he didn’t go all the way and employed a porn star and ‘trained’ her ‘acting’ NOT for seeing religious hymns
But I think this poster has gone a bit too far for a mainstream Indian film release-though have o issues with it personally
Satyam: take a call if this deserves a separate post-let’s see 🙂
Oh man.. Ramindeep (to paraphrase Russell Peters) Hooda is having the time of his life..first with Nandana Sen and now with ‘conservative’ actress Sunny Leone..What I would pay to be in his pants.. I mean, out of his pants!!!
Satyam, one of the big films this yr. trailer of Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Anupam Kher starrer “THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK”- directed by David O. Russell (The Fighter, 3 Kings, I heart Huckabees)- cast- De Niro, bradley cooper, jennifer lawrence, anupam kher, jackie weaver, chris tucker, Julia Stiles- releases Nov 21, 2012
Dev D through the gender prism
IN A WORLD ORDERED by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle” … “she holds the look, and plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combines spectacle and narrative.
Although a bit simplistic, it would not be untrue to say that the most dominating genre in the Bombay mainstream commercial cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, is song and dance woven around a common thematic undercurrent in the story: romance between the hero and ‘his woman’, culminating in marriage, a happily-ever-after conclusion. To this structure, Anurag Kashyap’s most famous film, Dev.D complies broadly. But it causes too many dents, and too deep, to go unnoticed.
Dev.D is an interesting film to review because of the strength of its women characters, their departure from the patriarchal constructs of a traditional Indian woman in Indian films; the viewer can identify and sympathise with these ‘flawed’ women. Does this depiction make Dev.D a liberating film from the gender perspective? Is it legitimisation, or at least acceptance of a woman with sexual agency – the ‘slut’? Are dominant patriarchal structures seen dissolving in the film? Is the film a shift from the ‘male gaze’? Do the ‘decisions’ in the script flow from the women characters? While these questions will run through this critique, the short answer to all these questions is no. This, however, should not take away from the (arguably) empowering nature of certain aspects of the movie, most notably, sexual agency and its aesthetics enhanced by excellent cinematography and editing.
Dev.D is depicted as the “slut”. He is arrogant, self-centred, mean and negative. Yet he is the object of every female character’s affection. His mother, Paro, Chanda, Rasika – all dote over him. That makes this film not a women’s film but a man’s film. However, the complex overlap of liberation and captivation of the woman is multi-layered and should be evaluated on its own merits. Dev.D, in that sense, is not a typical movie. It is a movie of contradictions and should be taken as such.
Satyam don’t know if this has been posted yet -if it has feel free to delete it-
The story went like this: Impressed with Satya, Bachchan had called Kashyap and said, “Let’s do something different.” Kashyap clearly told the superstar that he wanted to do it his way. “Don’t set any limits because I’m writing for Amitabh Bachchan.” Kashyap wrote the script, which had Bachchan playing a grey character. Everyone liked it but, as Kashyap told it back then, “Bachchan developed cold feet… He wanted a justification for the character. I said no. I said, let’s respect the audience. Let’s give them something to think about.” After that conversation, Kashyap said, he never went back http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/Poster-boy-of-Hindie/Article1-879811.aspx
Thank you- but I’m not jealous of Anjali at all- I can appreciate good comments regardless of the writer’s gender. 🙂
Her thoughts on Gulaal make me think about the movie and the ardanareeshwar character in a different light- I always thought that there was an element of the ‘Shakespearan fool’ to Prithvi Bana’s character- the man who it is easy to dismiss as a clown but who often makes the most astute observations in the film.
And Anjali’s very intelligent interpretation really adds to this- he has the most complete, non-partisan view of the situation- and through his crazy antics makes some of the most intelligent statements in the film.
But because he lives in a world where every aspect of every other male character’s life- be it personal identity, motivation or relationship equations- are derived from deep commitment to some idea of being the superior ‘other’ (be it caste-based, national separatism or gender-based patriarchy) he comes across as the ‘fool’- while in reality he is the only sane, well-balanced individual of the lot.
And the fact that he lives in a world so dysfunctional that his lack of commitment to any form of cruel hierarchy is perceived as something hideous and unnatural adds a delicious sense of macabre that brings out the perversity of the power dynamic in this mileau.
@ ami….And the fact that he lives in a world so dysfunctional that his lack of commitment to any form of cruel hierarchy is perceived as something hideous and unnatural adds a delicious sense of macabre that brings out the perversity of the power dynamic in this mileau.
wow….only u can express the whole gist of my insight in such powerful and well rounded prose.
after this i have nothing to add.
it is an honor to be complimented by yu…as i have been fascinated by ur comments on this blog.
@ saurabh…jealousy ka toh sawaal hi nahi hai…..ami is someone i always look up to and learn from.
Anjali-just about to wrap up work..
Where can I see gulaal online with reasonable sound /picture…any suggestions?
Ps-One more thing besides the anurag kashyap films.
I’m NOT at all being sarcastic/ funny but am quite impressed with u for putting up your pic here (which is nice lol)
Takes guts and good nature/ intent and others should learn from u.
Your pic does resemble a Bollywood actress but can’t exactly place which one right now–can u suggest….
Ps-unlike some other comments, this has no ‘joke’ or ‘catch’ 🙂
And is well intentioned..
the reason y i have a pic here is becoz i m connected to this blog through my account in facebook,and my facebook pro has that pic.i was too lazy to explore other options.so there is no issue of guts,good nature involved here.its plain laziness on my part.
i dont know which bollywood actress i resemble…..
Many thanks anjali -will watch gulaal soon -but then folks will have to bear with some ‘different’ theories lol
About the pic, it was a sincerely innocent comment
And to be taken as nothing but a compliment 🙂
And yes-do stay ‘ lazy’ and don’t explore other options-let it stay there 😉
Good nite
i like abhimanyu singh….the guy who plays ransaa in the movie gulaal.he was also in rakt charitra as bukka reddy.ram gopal verma complimented him by saying that even the real bukka reddy was not as fearsome as he was on screen.nikhal kazmi complimented him by saying that he is the heath ledger of bollywood.he is not only a great actor but also one of the most masculine looking man i have come across on screen in bollywood of late.he has something of a royalty and at the same time something of a loafer(lafanga) in his demeanor which i curiously find very attractive.he is any day better looking than the chocolaty faced imran khan or ranbir kapoor.just like unattractive women r called behenjis for me guys like imran khan or ranbir kapoor are bhaiijiis…..
madhuri dikhshit is my fav actress
“he is any day better looking than the chocolaty faced imran khan or ranbir kapoor.just like unattractive women r called behenjis for me guys like imran khan or ranbir kapoor are bhaiijiis….”
Anjali-your comment forced me to laugh
Hahaha-agree
U have the good taste I was expecting u Would have (in men) 🙂
Haven’t seen any film of abhimanyu Singh but got the sake vibe in jism2 trailer the way his eyes ‘scan’ sunny leone..Do get your point.
Besides madhuri-which heroines amongst the current lot dya like ..
Will catch up later -cheers…
Ami, while u weren’t here for the past few days a certain ‘class’ and ‘elegance’ was missing from the blog- i am talking abt super Amiesque stuff like this- “But because he lives in a world where every aspect of every other male character’s life- be itpersonal identity, motivation or relationship equations- are derived from deep commitment to some idea of being the superior ‘other’ (be it caste-based, national separatism or gender-based patriarchy) he comes across as the ‘fool’
Ami- the least people like me, who are not aware of Almovodar and the likes, can do is be ‘kind’ to the ones like you (who are well informed of such people and their works) so that we can attempt to learn abt them from u guys.
Teri Meri Kahaani collected a poor 23 crore nett in the first week. Mausam which was a similar film last year collected around 27.75 crore nett in week one. The film has a lot of screen space in week two and the lifetime business of Teri Meri Kahaani will be similar to the first week of Mausam. A comparison of the first week business of Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani is as follows.
Gangs of Wasseypur has collected very decent 17.2 crore nett all India in its first week. GOW remained steady in lower side on weekdays. GOW collected around 10.65 crore nett all India on its opening weekend and further collected around 6.5 crore nett all India on weekdays. GOW is made on limited budget and makers will make profit with this film. Going by the early trends GOW should sustain in second weekend also.
LOL, check out how every time Abhishek looks to be in a winner Nahta (among others) goes out of his way to ‘erase’ him from the equation! And he keeps doing it throughout the talk!
Devd to me is a very simple fable.it is a fable about the transformation of paaro into chanda inside the mind of dev.paaro stands for the romantic foolishness with which dev is struck…..and chanda stands for the cold and harsh business side of life.dev is not ready to grow…..he is not ready to accept chanda(a woman who is a commodity…is a slut)..and is hell bent on paaro……and is going through phases of self inflicted emotional atyachaar…and all that nautanki….very much like a don quixote.
u will see in the film…all around dev…everyone is busy doing their business…the whole world is a big shop of give and take..and dev is cutoff…lost in his romantic fascination for an impossible..poetic paaro.
the initial scenes of the movie where dev interacts with chanda r very important.chanda asks him to open his clothes and start…
but he says…nahi mera mood off ho gaya.
she asks..kyu….
dev says…tumhari shakl dekh kar
chanda says(pay attention here..)agar main badsuurat hoon toh woh jo khoobsurat hai…woh kaha hai?…implication being….the reality is badsurat….the khobsurat(the paaro)..is only in ur mind…a figment of ur imagination
maturity is all about growing up from our obsession for paaro and accepting the reality of chanda….accepting the reality of give and take….accepting the reality that this life is a slut.and in the process of this acceptance dev grows…..as does everyone.
dev is arrogant, self-centered, mean and negative. ….yes…but so is everyone else and the only way this arrogant n self centered world can be organized and given a semblance of civilization is by ordering it in accordance with the principles of give and take …u satisfy my selfishness and I satisfy urs…that is what the slut chanda is a symbol of…that is the meaning of practicality which dev never wants to accept is……..that is what the world has ordained(in which a paaro has to become a chanda).paaro is an escape from this version of reality….an escape into the dream world of an ideal beauty…….dream world of true love and all that nonsense which is simply not possible.the selfish dev cannot fool himself and others by talking about paaro….by talking about an ideal state of genuine love.he has and by implication all men have …long ago murdered that innocence…and made paaro into a chanda becoz of their perverted,selfish nature. Infact the only way of overcoming this self centeredness and arrogance to a degree is by accepting that he is arrogant,self centered and mean……this acceptance….will automatically make him less arrogant…less self centered and less mean.as long as he will keep hankering for paaro…he will remain in the escape mode…..becoz paaro is nothing but a figment of dev’s imagination.
in real life there r no paaros…reality is all about chandaas.the innocence has been robbed….but in the name of innocence characters like dev can continue being arrogant,self centred and mean without taking the responsibility for it and without accepting these qualities inside them and growing in the process.
if u r afraid of something….the only way to overcome that fear is by accepting that yess….u r afraid.and the understanding will automatically make u fearless to a degree…the understanding is fearlessness.u will remain afraid…but u will manage ur fear better.dev will remain selfish,arrogant and mean…but he will manage these qualities better by accepting them(in the shape of chanda)….and not dreaming about a perfect world…where dev wins paaro.
the one scene where anurag hints…that devd is about this transformation of paaro into chanda…is in the train scene where they meet.the camera first dwells on paaro..and then rests on chanda.if u need to grow…u have to make that choice…or ur life will remain fucked.in the past devdas films…if was shown that dev never grows…he lives in the escape world…keeps fantasizing about paaro…..never gets her..and hopelessly dies.here anurag shows that the character dev matures and makes the right choice.
towards the end…. how did dev meet paaro again?only when he consents to be a parcel boy for the street momo stall….the implication being..only when he consents to accept the business side of life.
Anjali-
Well, very interesting thoughts there on Dev d.
Much more elaborate and better analysed than the ones I posted above
I feel they deserve a separate thread..
Or can be compiled into a thought provoking post on Dev d-thanx for posting it…
“towards the end…. how did dev meet paaro again?only when he consents to be a parcel boy for the street momo stall….the implication being..only when he consents to accept the business side of life.”
Well thought I had ‘understood ‘ most of devdas and Dev d–but anjali :u seem to have opened new aspects of it
Certainly deserving of a separate thread boss imo ESP of compiled together into one piece…
After five years of marriage, Tom Cruise, 49, and Katie Holmes, 33, are getting a divorce, People reports. “This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Holmes’s attorney Jonathan Wolfe told People. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”
The couple have a daughter, Suri, 6. Cruise has two older children from his relationship with Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Holmes married in 2006.
in devd,everyone is in tune with the practical,business side of life except dev.paaro had a fling with sunil…they had sex…but when dev returns she rejects sunil.she tells him…aukaat dekh apni.
her mind is set on gaining the rich and lucrative catch which dev is.
all through the movie the director is showing dev that this world is a business…grow up from ur dream world.the sardar cheats him,the bar owner punches him on the stomach when he hasnt got the money,the lawyer,his brother,chunnilal…. who thinks hez a prize catch for his business…..everyone has their mind in the right place…how to get the best deal…how to earn profit….except dev.he is almost an isolated poetic figure….impractical to the bones.one of the most important scene in the movie is during the wedding of paaro.when the broken skulled sunil is begging paaro’s father not to be thrown out of the job.dev looks at this scene with strange incomprehensibility.the director is showing him the reality.the reality is not whether sunil slept with paaro or not….it doesnt matter.what matters is the job which sunil is losing.but dev(the rich kid)….has no notion what it means.uska dimaag hawa hawaii hai.he wakes up only…when he escapes death narrowly…while collecting loose coins(another sign of the importance of money….of business sense in our life)
he realizes…fuck paaro…and fuck all this dramabaazi abourt my love for paaro.my whole life is at stake here…wat the fuck am i doing?am i bonkers?
Hahaha anjali : u r on a roll 🙂
One four followed by a sixer
In tennis terms-one ace followed by another ace.
An ‘ace’ is also something that can’t be answered!
Btw have always liked and admired Dev d and secretly thought that I had seen ‘layers’ and minutiae that nobody else will have.
But am glad to admit that I’m receiving education here 🙂
Keep it up..
Ps-have thought of Dev d as nothing less than a cult classic ..
“he realizes…fuck paaro…and fuck all this dramabaazi abourt my love for paaro.my whole life is at stake here…wat the fuck am i doing?am i bonkers?”
ROFL 🙂
Btw Dev d was much more than just modern ‘ remake’ of an old classic
There were subtle changes which were not only crucial but they also contemporised the whole situation in the current context in a cunning unobtrusive way.
A leitmotif it does seem initially but turns out to be more..
Example unlike the old devdas who perished to alcoholism etc, this version ‘learns’ and changes to survive
A point I always noted but wondered why nobody ever mentioned -glad u did.
A special mention also needs to be made of the invocative music by Amit trivedi wilhich had the right mix of quirky edgy stuff along with the needed soul stirring elements…
Ps-anjali: I’m even more impressed by sneha khanwalkars music in GOW wherein she transplants the real ethos of folk ‘downmaerket’ sensibility into the centre garnished with some ‘new world music’ random sounds
Hunter, Bihar ke lala, womaniya belong to a particular style that I never dreamt I will listen to forget enjoy-but GOW archieves a rare feat of pulling this off…
Sunshine -danny Boyle has surprised me by his sci-fi take..wherein
Sci>fi…along with his other works, if one adds slumdong and now this …also intertwined subtle elements of spirituality …
The compulsion & insistence of ‘plot driven cinema’ !
Is cinema or art forms in general primarily about ‘plots’, scripts, direction , a start and a culmination/climax? I feel ‘no’.
While this is a common (accessible) view, this is incomplete.
Most strong art forms are merely borne out of a personal interaction between a viewer and a series of interesting sights nd sounds and the emotional influence…
I’m not a fan of deliberately and painstakingly ‘slow’ laboured art films..but it somewhat changed with attending an auteur screening of bela tarrs ‘turin horse’..
A somewhat similar experience as le Quattro volte…
Such films insist of maintain their own sense of space, time and rhythm – its upto the viewer to enter it or not…
In another frame of mind- will feel that this is fit only for a ‘caveman’ cut off from civilisation
Each n every viewing is irreplaceable though tedious but amply rewarded at the end…
The two line brief that intially led me to view this one –
Inspired by Pythagoras’s belief in four-fold transmigration — by which the soul is passed from human to animal to vegetable to mineral — Michelangelo Frammartino’s wondrous docu-essay traces the cycle of life through the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria
The tree of life connection-Le quattro volte !
Well, again this is my own quirk but couldn’t resist a comparison .
What can be similar between mallicks larger than life vision which is grand ( in capitals!)
But something inspired me similarly though it is exquisitely smaller miscrocosm and focused (to irritating detail in the beginning!)
We talk bout lack of script and flow
Well, here are films with no dialogue!
Btw there is a goat one follows throughout from it’s birth literally.. When it becomes separated from its pack, trying to get back ‘home’ finally giving up at night amidst the contast of the thick white snow…one knows he has watched something….
Ps- as companion viewings , good are ‘tree of life’
‘the tree of wooden clogs?’– let’s not be hardcore 🙂
not sure if anyone has seen this commercial but i just saw it on ESPN while watching Sportscenter. i think it’s pretty cool to see a indian cricketer(even though im a pakistani) in a commercial on a american sports channel. maybe im making too much of it but i thought this was way cool to see. also the commercial itself is hilarious.
Forecast: ‘Mike,’ ‘Ted’ Try to Unseat Merida
by Ray Subers
June 28, 2012
Forecast (June 29-July 1)
1. Brave – $35.2 million (-47%)
2. Magic Mike – $31.5 million
3. Ted – $28.3 million
4. Madea’s Witness Protection – $23.1 million
-. People Like Us – $4.8 million
Bar for Success
Magic Mike, Ted and Madea’s Witness Protection are all in good shape at around $25 million, while People Like Us is off to a great start if it can get close to $10 million.
i’ll be watching ‘Ted’ tomorrow night most probably. it looks like crazy fun. so far its at 67% at RT.
also, seems like channing tatum is the ’emran hashmi’ of hollywood. lol. one of my friends(a female) wanted me to go with her and see Magic Mike and i kindly declined her offer. no freakin way!
“one of my friends(a female) wanted me to go with her and see Magic Mike and i kindly declined her offer. no freakin way!” so sensible of u
Aamirsfan-u can be her ‘magic mike’ in real life Lol
Btw soderberghs name itself Is giving some dignity to this film..
Maybe not many know that Tatum was a male stripper in real life as well briefly!!
Ps-good to see something for the gals..
Seems the likes of anjali and Oldgold have hit the theatres for magic mik
naw shes just a friend lol. ill keep my magic mike with my fiancee! lol. but yeah the movie is rating at 79% on RT. channing tatum has come a long way from doing crap fest films to actually decent flicks(loved 21 jump street). which is another reason he is reminding me of emran.
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a low first week despite holding up pretty well on the weekdays. The first week collections were around 17 crore nett. The collections on the weekdays were steady but on the lower side. The film has managed to hold shows at the premium multiplexes. Below is a comparison of the first week figures of Gangs Of Wasseypur and Shanghai
that’s a completely biased report but they’ve maintained this tone throughout. It is an excellent number for such a film. That a film with no stars would do more than this given the genre is simply not imaginable. This was Dev D’s total run a few years ago and even that subject (plus the soundtrack) was still a lot more audience-friendly than this. The film has been rock solid on weekdays which means it has been successful with its audience which by definition is very small.
Teri Meri Kahaani collected a poor 23 crore nett in the first week. Mausam which was a similar film last year collected around 27.75 crore nett in week one. The film has a lot of screen space in week two and the lifetime business of Teri Meri Kahaani will be similar to the first week of Mausam. A comparison of the first week business of Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani is as follows.
The Amazing Spiderman gives a feel of watching a tv series that you had seen a while back. It did have some laugh out loud moments especially with Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker handling his spidey abilities. Director Marc Webb seems to have added some character to the webbing this time around. But this is a Spidey movie lacking in ambition.
As things rolled on the mind wandered .. would the “Spider Daddy” angle be explored,did Curt Connor consider cutting off his newly found hand instead of hiding it under a jacket when he meets his buddies, can Jeff Goldblum from Cronenberg’s The Fly(1986) pop in here to make things interesting, how can they possibly outdo Willem Defoe’s Norman Osborn ..and so on.
Irfan Khan got the desi crowd in the theater going when he came on screen and it looks like he is going to be back in the sequels. A kid in the theater actually screamed “Not Again” when Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy made out again. Denis Leary.Martin Sheen.Sally Fields. Mostly a little spider-meh.
Gangs Of Wasseypur 2 In August
by Box Office India (June 30, 2012)
We had mentioned that Viacom18 would take a call on when they would release Part 2 of Gangs Of Wasseypur, depending on the response to Part 1. Thanks to their aggressive marketing and promotion, and of course good content, the film has done well at the ticket counter. Now, Viacom18 doesn’t want to waste any time and wants to release the film as early as possible. In all probability, that will be August 10.
The Amazing Spiderman Shatters All Records For Hollywood Films
Saturday 30th June 2012 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The Amazing Spiderman shattered all Hollywood film box office records in India by a distance. The film has put up huge numbers in all its versions be it English, Hindi, Tamil or Telugu.
The first day collections were 8.50 crore nett approx and the previous record for Hollywood films in India stood at just over 5 crore nett. The film has smashed the previous record by a massive 70%.
The film may not show huge growth as opening is so strong and Hollywood films tend to grow less over the weekend but still a 25 crore nett weekend is almost a certainty.
Tha Amazing Spiderman has aslo beaten the opening of all Hindi releases of 2012 apart from Agneepath, Rowdy Rathore, Housefull 2 and Agent Vinod.
Satyam, u often speak abt mainstream directors who try to do different things within the given framework. So i wanted to know what do u think of Mahesh Bhatt? the guy did make some very good films- Arth, Naam, Janam, Kaash, Daddy, Tamanna, Zakhm,Sir, Kabzaa, Thikaana to name a few- Even Sadak had something to say.
I like a number of Mahesh Bhatt films from the 80s. Sadak was the last worthwhile film he did. The first half here was especially gripping. But many others are important too. Naam is the only worthwhile Deewar ‘remake’ to my mind (always though Vaastav was terribly overrated.. though fine on its own). I have a very great weakness for Janam though it seems impossible hard to locate on VCD/DVD (I was told by someone that it’s never been released in this format). Kabzaa is one of Dutt’s (and the decade’s) best, and to my mind still Paresh Rawal’s best outing. Thikana is one of those grossly neglected films. You know if you set it alongside Shanghai you get in some ways a much more sharper ‘definition’ of many of the points Shanghai is trying to make. Obviously films like Arth or Saaransh need no introduction. I am not a fan of Kaash and Daddy. Zakhm was decent but too much of a rehash of a lot of stuff he’d already said in the 80s and with much greater edge. don’t like Sir either. Actually Gunaah was probably his last worthwhile commercial film. Among the 80s films the somewhat messy Awaargi shouldn’t be missed. Bhatt’s greatest strength was always ‘mood’ even when he could clearly have done with better production budgets. Even when he became a lot more commercial there was still some worthwhile stuff (including Gumraah). But eventually his production house became responsible for the whole sleazy Hashmi kind of soft-porn deal and I must say this was an unpardonable sin for such a director. In fact Bhatt used to rail against the excesses of commercial cinema for a long time and peddle himself as a rebel even when his best days were behind him and then he became part of this garbage. By the way his debut film, Manzilein aur Bhi Hain (with Kabir Bedi), is an excellent work.
Agreed completely.Will try to see Manzilein. I remember seeing Janam on DD as a kid (with my mom).Bhatt also gave Vinod Khanna 2 very important films- ‘lahu ke do rang’ (which i really liked) and ‘jurm’- and u r right that it’s sad that he started producing sleazy films (and started doing rip-offs of hwood-‘criminal’ etc). u know i saw an interview of bhatt (with rajat sharma) where he said that he makes these soft-porn bcos his ‘art’ films never made money.
The reason I like mainstream directors who do interesting things is because of their greater reach. I am obviously all for auteurist attempts or all kinds of middle cinema and so on. But the truest subversion often comes about in the more mainstream film because it speaks to a much larger audience pool and many who are not prepared to absorb just any kind of message. This is a point that non-mainstream filmmakers in Bollywood often fail to understand. the Kashyap problem if you will. It is fantastic to make the kinds of films he does but a)structurally his films are not possible without the ‘presupposition’ (read: viability) of a mainstream industry (in other words you cannot have an industry dependent only on arthouse or autuerist films) b)his kind of subversion operates in a box where only those audiences already open to a certain kind of cinema show up and hence no larger audience is destabilized in any sense. In other words it is better to risk Raavan than GoW, the choice can be presented quite so crudely.
But here my argument is also against Aamir. I agree with him completely when he says that in a mass medium (cinema or TV) you have to paint in broad strokes. However he moves to a certain easy conclusion rather too quickly. Because even allowing for those ‘broad strokes’ a lot of nuance can be provided if it’s done the right way. The Salim-Javed scripts are the best examples of this. So too is a film like J P Dutta’s Ghulami. In each case you have a somewhat epic/mythic canvas but then you also have very intimate human moments that are as crucial as those larger than life elements. So it can be done.
And again I have nothing against the film festival film on this score or anyone attempting the same in India. But the efficacy of such moves along an index of subversion is fairly limited.
You have made a telling comment here. especially ur point (a) is very important- i remember, in ur debate with Kashyap, u said the same thing so effectively yet Kashyap failed to see ur point (dunno why). And ur point (b) reminds me of what Sachin was cribbing abt the other day that GoW and Kashyap films are not getting ‘deserved’ acclaim-he should read this comment of urs which gets to the heart of the arguement. agree with u on Aamir, i especially thought he could have played it less safe with Peepli
Wasn’t thinking of Peepli but some comments he made with respect to his show.
Another way to think about it is in ‘novelistic’ terms. Mainstream cinema in any industry of the world is more often than not, and unfortunately, about filmed scripts. But this can be used to a certain advantage. You can have the broader strokes of a ‘traditional’ novel and then incorporate either those more intimate moments I was referring to or alternatively like Desai a picaresque strain.
This is why ever since I’ve heard the plot I’ve really wished that someone other than Rohit Shetty had been in charge of Bol Bachchan. Ideally Hirani but if not then Shaad Ali or a few others. Because you have this very potent symbol that sets things in motion — the locked temple, unlocked for whatever reason by a Muslim, who then pretends to be Hindu, and of course the bachchan signature laces all of this (“Abbas Ali ka bhai Abhishek Bachchan”?!). But even leaving aside this last angle the basic trope here is a very suggestive one. With Rohit Shetty it will be lowbrow comedy for the most part irrespective of this framing and he’ll probably get to it again in the end with as he says something different but you really needed a director to keep this angle much more in focus. But at any rate this is where a very potent symbol can be used in a film that is otherwise totally mainstream. And with a smarter director you could even through all the comedy offer a degree of commentary on all of this. Take the original Golmaal or moreso Chupke Chupke where there is a constant lampooning of tradition understood in very narrow ways. In Khubsoorat you have the same done for a matriarchal authoritarian figure (Indira Gandhi anyone?!). So even though these films are very situational comedies you can make them sparkle a bit more at every turn with these deft touches. It doesn’t have to be heavy-handed at all. It’s not mean to be political commentary. Just an extra layer that an ostensible ‘comedy only’ can have.
In Ghulami you have all the epic struggles, the extraordinarily charged caste politics and so forth but you also have those wonderful little moments, specially the ones involving Smita Patil with Naseer or even Dharam. Mithun has a few of those too. In this sense too cinema has been infinitely poorer in contemporary times because there is no space for ‘pause’ and the fleshing out of a larger narrative with ‘finer’ detail. aamir again is right about the broad strokes but where he is wrong is that he might see the opposition in very stark terms. Either a big commercial film or TZP. There can be a lot in between. Some of his own films this past decade are examples of this. Also he might not comprehend the extent to which much of what he loves in the older masala and/or commercial tradition is already very politically charged. sometimes it also requires understanding certain realities that one might not otherwise have any experience of.
Oh agreed completely on films of Mukherjee. Never thought of Khoobsurat as a commentary on Indira Gandhi- interesting observation (i believe Gulzar gave Rekha her most charming performance)- and as u said even in Chupke Chupke, Hrishida gently takes a dig on the ‘genteel’ class and its fascination with english. You know, seeing the plot of Bol Bachchan, 2 diectors i believe can do a good job of it are Kundan Shah and to some extent Aziz Mirza-he did attempt to say something in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman
SATYAMSHOT 
June 21, 2012 at 7:28 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur To Depend on Word Of Mouth
Thursday 21st June 2012 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
There are two releases this week in the form of Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs Of Wasseypur and both will be dependent on word of mouth.
There are expectations from the industry for Teri Meri Kahaani as it has some face value in the form of Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Although an advance is not expected from these type of films but whatever there was it was lower than similar films like Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara released last year.
The music of the film has not seen major success which is a must for a romantic film. It will be no surprise if the film has pretty low day one and totally dependent on word of mouth for a pick up on Saturday.
Gangs of Wasseypur looks very dull and the film will have to show huge jumps of business and also huge appreciation as it also has a second part which will have no chance without huge appreciation for the first part. Despite the film being shot in the heartland these type of films have no chance in the heartland of India as far as box office is concerned. It will be dependent on those 50 odd high end multiplexes around the country.
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June 21, 2012 at 7:30 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#Shanghai [Week 2]: Fri 75 lacs, Sat 1 cr, Sun 1.25 cr, Mon 35 lacs, Tue 25 lacs, Wed 25 lacs. Total: 21.35 cr nett. Disappointing!
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#FerrariKiSawaari [Week 1]: Fri 3.04 cr, Sat 4.50 cr, Sun 6.37 cr, Mon 1.75 cr, Tue 1.60 cr, Wed 1.30 cr. Total: 18.56 cr nett. Steady.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#RowdyRathore [Week 3]: Fri 2.25 cr, Sat 2.90 cr, Sun 4.50 cr, Mon 1.75 cr, Tue 1.70 cr, Wed 1.35 cr. Total: 129 cr nett. Blockbuster.
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June 21, 2012 at 7:35 AM
holy crap…FKS is going to have 18-20cr first week…loved how the film was written off the first day.
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June 21, 2012 at 7:35 AM
My daughter went with three other kids and thre adults to watch FKS…….none of them really realy liked it that much ….they all said -theek thee lekin kheench dee…
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June 21, 2012 at 9:56 AM
How much has RR grossed till now?
What is the budget of FKS, TMK & GOS?
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June 21, 2012 at 11:47 AM
GOW is unfortunately not playing anywhere near me. And Teri Meri Kahaani is unfortunately playing in two theaters.
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June 21, 2012 at 11:51 AM
that’s very disappointing! Nowhere in the city?!
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June 21, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Nowhere. I’m sure it’s the prohibitive length that’s keeping it from screening here. Hopefully the DVD comes out sooner rather than later.
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June 21, 2012 at 12:17 PM
But I thought they were releasing just part 1 at this point..
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June 21, 2012 at 12:22 PM
Yeah I think they are, but my guess is that distributors don’t find this viable enough from a financial standpoint especially overseas to give it a staggered release.
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June 21, 2012 at 12:25 PM
they had part 1 at the recent Asian festival. But in any case this is a pity. Ideally I would like to see all of it in one go. Hope it shows up in a special somewhere.
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June 21, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Yup, a festival at some point down the line is the best bet for a full-length screening. Not sure if I have the will (or more to the point, the bladder control) for that kind of experience though!
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June 21, 2012 at 12:32 PM
LOL!
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June 21, 2012 at 12:40 PM
You can download it on Torrent 😦
I think Bliss knows something about it 🙂
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June 21, 2012 at 12:44 PM
The early Torrent files for movies do not have movie prints of good quality. it’s only later that the HD/ blue-ray like prints are available. But here at my place, i can get a dvd with a decent print within 2 weeks after the release
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June 21, 2012 at 1:39 PM
I don’t do torrent or any type of download because I am scared of viruses. I recently tried to download haasil and got all kinds of porn stuff also downloaded along with torrent file :-(. We used to get “original” dvd (still illegal I am sure) from stores for $2 but these days it is harder (especially if movie is a hit).
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June 21, 2012 at 2:57 PM
LOL.. Wonder how the word ‘Haasil’ is related to dirty porn!Unless Alex can shed some light
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June 21, 2012 at 12:48 PM
I don’t really do that unless it’s a last ditch option. Doesn’t seem right for movies that aren’t going to make a boatload of money anyway.
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June 21, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Yes, but in Anurag Kasyap’s own words, he doesn’t really mind people watching his films on torrents! In his TEDx speech, he recounted how a Supreme Court judge influenced the release of Black Friday after watching it on a pirated DVD.
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June 21, 2012 at 1:10 PM
Not supporting piracy at all…I just realize that certain filmmakers stand a better chance of gaining approval through the internet.
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June 21, 2012 at 1:25 PM
I absolutely agree and I’m certainly not taking any moral high ground, but there’s a difference between Kashyap during BF and Kashyap today. I can certainly wait for a proper video release these days. Kashyap doesn’t have to face the release hurdles that some of the true arthouse filmmakers do.
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June 21, 2012 at 1:36 PM
GFji: did you watch Shanghai….Divaker made it specially for people like you and Satyam…so don’t tell me that you didn’t watch it.
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June 21, 2012 at 1:43 PM
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June 21, 2012 at 2:28 PM
OK..thanks..good read…did you have to use “coda” so many times!
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June 22, 2012 at 3:14 PM
GFji: BTW I absolutely loved the football in the inquiry analogy…I came up with so many diferent meanings of that scene that I wanted to get up and write it down but fell asleep instead. Nice writeup. I think on a second dekko of Shanghai, I will discover these layers.
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June 22, 2012 at 4:54 PM
Not sure if I’d watch it again but there’s certainly some nice details Banerjee adds. This is his best asset as a director. The whole first section of OLLO detailing Lucky’s upbringing in Delhi had some excellent slice-of-life details.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:06 PM
GFji: I would love to read the OLLO write up of yours. I will go search for it now on SS. Thx.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:10 PM
Never really wrote anything on OLLO…
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June 21, 2012 at 12:11 PM
BTW spider-man is releasing in India before U.S. – i love it when this happens. just like they released Tintin a month before
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June 21, 2012 at 12:21 PM
you can take this Spiderman first!
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June 21, 2012 at 12:24 PM
Amen!
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June 21, 2012 at 12:26 PM
Ha! but both Telegraph and Guardian has given it 4 stars. And even otherwise it’s getting glowing reviews internationally. Garfield is being singled out for special praise
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June 21, 2012 at 2:24 PM
finally! trailer of ‘sequel’ to 2008 Liam Neeson blockbuster ‘Taken’- “TAKEN 2”- releases this October- http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DvFZ2eQ0PpW4&sa=U&ei=nWPjT-37AufB2QXy9fnaCw&ved=0CCgQtwIwAg&usg=AFQjCNEJYIYRjEKUfq5G4i-8xsizPXZbRg Poster- http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/taken-2-poster.jpg
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June 21, 2012 at 6:49 PM
Absolutely loved TAKEN. A brilliant suspense thriller and Liam Neeson was magnificent in the role (he always is) but the second film judging by the trailer just seems unnecessary. Anyway will 100% watch this and am sure I’ll enjoy it 😀
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June 21, 2012 at 3:48 PM
TOI review GoW- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/hindi/Gangs-of-Wasseypur/movie-review/14316491.cms
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June 21, 2012 at 5:21 PM
wanted to see GoW–Checked and tried to book–instead—TMK showing near me–
and there are interested people to view tmk !!
guess will have to watch the coy eyelid-batting priyanka this weekend !
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June 21, 2012 at 5:25 PM
was shown bits of a nice little light film–“in good company’
Liked it
Dennis Quaid-topher grace-scarlett johanssen
good one–how did folks here find it?
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June 21, 2012 at 5:30 PM
Ranbir Kapoor on GoW- “Have to see”-
Anurag is a hunter and you have to see his gun! I love the music, and my favourite dialogue is ‘ yeh Wasseypur hai. Yahaan kabootar bhi ek pankh se udta hai aur doosre se apni izzat bachata hai ‘!”
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June 21, 2012 at 5:32 PM
Dibakar Bannerjee on GoW- “Insane party”-
“Gangs” is nonstop indulgence, like an insane party! It truly is one of the biggest guilty pleasures for life .To see Indian male sex machines in ghamchhas and chewing datun while a luscious bhabhi drools over him, to see abullet-riddled body take thirty seconds to die while the sun blinds your eyes, and the music, which contrasts so dementedly with everything… It’s like eating one-to-one rice and mutton ratio. I want to chew on it till juices run down my chin
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June 21, 2012 at 5:34 PM
topher actually does reasonably with quaid…
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June 21, 2012 at 5:36 PM
Zoya Akhtar-
“Gangs Of Wasseypur” is a hard-core family saga set in a lawless, testosterone-driven land. I loved it. I love Anurag Kashyap and I can’t wait to see part 2-
Imtiaz Ali-
It’s very enticing. I believe it’s Anurag’s best. It’s violent, but he’s made it in a very entertaining way
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June 21, 2012 at 5:46 PM
just saw the gow screening bits for bollywood
Unlie the usual PR events, didnt evens ee the maker kashyap around–it was in a run-donw sort of studio, it seems and most people seemed to come out of genuine interest and to learn soemthing new unlike the ‘u scrathc mine, i scrath yours deal’
hope kashyaps brilliance rubs onto these others..
good to see zoya coming over to learn from him, imtiaz is a friend though..
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June 21, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Zoya is also a friend
I’d take all the above with a ‘big’ pinch of salt. It happens with all films where certain people namely film makers decide to lavish praise on another film and surprise surprise they return the favor.
Anyway off to watch Mausam 2 tomorrow at the 20:30 show….. my friend is a Shahid Kapoor fan 😛
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June 22, 2012 at 1:58 AM
“Gangs of Wasseypur”… Text appeal
The screen, at the beginning of Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, is filled with the titles sequence from Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, and then the camera begins to pull back. The gaudy, brightly lit world of the popular soap is slowly swallowed up by the dimness of an undistinguished room. The screen of the television set keeps getting smaller, the real world larger. And then, the spatter of gunfire. And a shout, instructing these TV viewers to down their shutters. This, we realise, is no home, but a business establishment of some sort – a small shop in a row of small shops. More gunfire pierces the darkness. People are felled by bullets. A haveli is surrounded and bursts of fire from automatics illuminate the night. Who are these people with these guns? Who are those cowering in the haveli, around the man whose phone explodes with the ring tone of Nayak nahin… khalnayak hoon main? The only certainties are that we are in a violent neighbourhood, that this stretch is set post 1993, the year of Subhash Ghai’s antihero blockbuster, and that the director is not going to slow down for exposition and explanation.
In a pre-titles credit, Kashyap expresses his gratitude to the “Madurai triumvirate” of Bala, Ameer Sultan and M Sasikumar, for inspiring him to get back to his roots, but he just as well could have thanked Cervantes and Dickens. Gangs of Wasseypur is a sprawling, picaresque saga set in and around the mining community in Dhanbad (formerly of Bihar; now belonging to Jharkhand), and its raffish protagonist is a man named Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpai). But where films revolving around a hero (or an antihero, a khalnayak) usually become fixated with their every movement to the extent that this hero (or antihero) shows up in every scene, Kashyap tells the story of Sardar Khan through the people around him, the people who came before him, and those who come after him. In other words, we begin in the years just preceding Independence, where we learn who Sardar Khan’s father was, how he lived, how he died, and how the young Sardar Khan, subsequently, swore to avenge his death. We meet this story’s villain, Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), and we steel ourselves for his showdowns with Sardar Khan, and for him to meet a most well-deserved end. This is how films have trained us.
But novels, on the other hand, aren’t as bound to plot and protagonist. They can, on a whim, linger on descriptions of scenery, or on the misfortunes of a secondary character – they aren’t time-bound. There’s no pressure that they wind up in two-and-a-half hours, and that’s the philosophy that informs Gangs of Wasseypur. On a formal level, this is easily Kashyap’s most fascinating outing (and a gratifying return to form after the underwhelming That Girl In Yellow Boots). The film unfolds as a series of voiceovers, a flurry of dates and names, a cavalcade of memorable scenes – Sardar Khan canvassing for votes as a sidekick channels Mithun Chakraborty from Kasam Paida Karne Wale Ki; Yashpal Sharma breaking into a falsetto rendition of Salaam-e-ishq meri jaan (one of the many throwbacks to the Amitabh Bachchan era); a smitten Sardar Khan wooing Durga (Reema Sen) as she washes clothes by a hand pump; Sardar Khan’s elder son being hit by a bullet and later tended to in a hospital in the midst of a power cut; the younger son putting the moves on a girl he likes, as a goat, behind him, nibbles on leaves from a tree, oblivious to the unfolding of all this human drama.
Gangs of Wasseypur is a diffuse epic, content to coast around the revenge plot instead of making it the thrust of its narrative – and what the film loses in terms of dramatic power, it gains in texture. (Besides, do we really want Anurag Kashyap to take on a conventional revenge story?) Several scenes touch upon the hero-villain dynamic that drove a lot of the cinema of the eras this film is set in (acknowledged through delightful nods to tropes like the “prison song,” providing the background for an escape), such as the one where Ranadhir Singh attempts to poison the minds of Sardar Khan’s sons, pointing out that their father now lives with Durga, or the other one where the younger son is informed that he cannot go to school anymore because his father has stopped sending money home. Seething at the unfairness, he hurls a brick at Durga’s door, and you think (again, because of how films have trained us) that he will grow up to be like Bachchan in Shakti or Trishul (which is excerpted here), who regarded his father as the villain – but Kashyap is not interested in going there.
He isn’t even interested in showcasing Sardar Khan as a towering figure, someone capable of anchoring all this churn of activity. The man comes off, frankly, as a bit of a clown, a fool who cannot get his fill of women. He’s also unheroically selfish, chasing Durga as his first wife Naghma is harassed by cops. Bajpai is wonderful and the rest of the cast is equally fine, but it’s Richa Chaddha, as Naghma, who walks away with the movie. She has what book critics like to term an author-backed part, and she teeters exquisitely between comedy and drama. She straddles both in a superb scene where she’s about to deliver her first child, just after she has caught her husband in the house of a prostitute. The pain of delivery alternates with her rage at this man who has now crawled back home – we don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Later, she decides it’s better he strays – at least he’ll leave her alone. But she makes sure to feed him well, so he has his strength. “Baahar jaake beizzati mat karaana,” she instructs him, like a strict mother instructing a son to perform well in his exams.
For a film that spans decades, there are no flashy signposts. But for the pattern of a sweater on a scrawny kid, a film song, a movie poster, or Naghma’s graduation from broom to vacuum cleaner, we could be in the same time period. The people stay the same, as does the place, which may be the sole bit of social commentary from Kashyap here – but Gangs of Wasseypur is far too entertaining to be ghettoized as a movie about an issue. It goes after anything and everything in its quest to sweep us through its story, even tongue-in-cheek film references – there’s an homage to Sonny’s horrifically bloody assassination at the toll booth in The Godfather (right down to the giant billboard on the way), and this film’s title probably harks back to Martin Scorsese’s New York epic. The only major mistake is the end, which looks towards a sequel. I’ll be the first to admit that I may not have the stamina for a five-and-a-half hour film (which is what Wiki tells me), but not knowing it all ends is almost as frustrating. But perhaps this is only in keeping with the film’s novelistic ambitions. Just as we’d tire of a doorstop of a book and set it aside for later, Kashyap has made us dog-ear his film.
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June 22, 2012 at 7:56 AM
characteristically interesting piece… Rangan is so far ahead of the competition it’s an insult to him to even compare him with anyone else.
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June 22, 2012 at 11:51 AM
So true. It really is a bit amusing to see the amateurism at play everywhere else.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:30 PM
Just read his review…to be honest…he is copying you Sattu!
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June 22, 2012 at 7:10 PM
Naah…!
What sane reason would he have to do this anyway given his own gifts?
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June 22, 2012 at 2:03 AM
Film Review | Gangs of Wasseypur
http://www.livemint.com/2012/06/21205623/Film-Review–Gangs-of-Wasseyp.html?h=A3
An explosive treat
In a rarefied space where sensuality and terror co-exist, and often tenderness too, melodrama is not easily perceptible or imaginable. In Gangs of Wasseypur, it is a triumphant possibility. In characterisation, and in the immediate human story of revenge and bloodbath, the first part of Anurag Kashyap’s film is thickly textured. A ganglord is devious, comical and idiotic. A woman is servile and wily. A seemingly harmless pothead cold-kills with precision. The drama of these characters colliding is the throbbing heart of the film, and indeed the only reason to watch it.
In the way it is narrated and acted, Kashyap intends to explain what coal mining has done to generations of the labour class—how organised crime is often an obscene extension of free enterprise and government policy. The central conflict is between people separate socially, but joined in crime and bribery (in one of the film’s telling details, a Muslim butcher sits in the drawing room of a Hindu politician, joining hands against the film’s hero, when in the background, the Hindu housewife discreetly lays the table for dinner with caution, possibly separating the utensils for the Muslims). The 40-year period which the story of the first part spans (1941 to the 1990s) is an ambitious timeline to work with, and Kashyap spends enough time to contextualise the story. The first half hour is almost a quasi-documentary, where the broad strands of the beginnings of India’s coal mining mafia and its connections to Wasseypur, a real place in Dhanbad, is enunciated. In the 1950s, we are told how little things had changed for the labourer from colonial times to when “Birla-Tata” became the masters. The film’s hero, Sardar Khan, played by Manoj Bajpai, is an heir of the mining labourer’s rage, and his revenge is the revenge of the exploited against a greedy political establishment. After the hefty factual exposition however, the story’s macro canvas recedes and references to the nexus between industry and politics become perfunctory. The writers, Akhilesh Jaiswal, Zeishan Quadri, Sachin Ladia and Anurag Kashyap, casually abandon the larger realities defining the story to the intimate drama surrounding Sardar Khan, the heir who is now a flamboyant ganglord. A ripe, riveting sense of evil takes over the narrative, which Kashyap executes uncompromisingly. The director is at his pinnacle. Although much of the passage of years is unexplained and the middle somewhat slacks, Kashyap designs the film with such tenacious intelligence, that we keep taking it all in. There aren’t many close-ups in the film, which is a tool usually used to hide the lack of thoughtful visualisation. Every visual pulsates with details of surroundings. So even without the obvious context, we plunge headlong. In routine action films, I often just switch off, and miss nothing. I couldn’t take my eyes off the sequences here, breathlessly following one another.
The story has the arc of a classical, two-generational saga. Sardar Khan and his two henchmen, played by Piyush Mishra and Jameel Khan, are thugs and murderers, armed with bombs and guns. They steal cash, kill and openly challenge their opposition. Their fiefdom spans Wasseypur and proper Dhanbad and their goal is to topple the butcher community of Quadris, and kill local politician played by Tigmanshu Dhulia who controls money and labour, and who had killed Sardar’s father.
Sardar is married to Nagma, played by Richa Chadda, a woman without much choice but full of irascible energy, and later to Durga, a bewitching Bengali woman. Sardar’s sons from Nagma, Danish and Faizal, are disgruntled adolescents, who grow up to join Sardar’s mafia. The younger generation is seemingly a changed lot. Faizal, played by Nawaazuddin Siddiqui, an obsessive fan of the ruling matinee idol of the times, Amitabh Bachchan, has the echoes and shadings of a don in the making, unpredictable in an armour of quiet—the Michael Corleone, who likely takes centrestage in the second part.
Kashyap’s template is largely Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and even Quentin Tarantino, in the way music and visuals are combined in some scenes. The Godfather parallels are unmistakable. But the impassioned language is his own. The canvas erupts with blood, hacking, maiming and sexual lust—none of it without humour. The local tongue is deliciously written. Nothing in the film—characters, situations or conflicts—are understated. Like the Bollywood films of the 1970s and 1980s that punctuate the story in the film’s second half, Gangs of Wasseypur has blistering dialogues, written by Kashyap. Its ability to entertain intelligence surpasses some of the film’s other merits.
The production quality of Gangs of Wasseypur is top notch. Besides the ubiquitous cinematic kitsch in the middle, the period details are visible when you look for them—from the rupee notes to the particular model of television and refrigerator, the passing of time is in the details, without looking like they are planted. The cinematography by Rajeev Ravi is inextricable from the film’s narrative and tone. Bursts of colour and mayhem in Wasseypur’s alleys, grey clouds erupting from the earth against stark landscapes, crummy interiors of homes of petty gang members—the visual scheme is varied and evocative. Even sequences in sunlight have some deep, contrasting tones. The music by Sneha Khanwalkar, although often hammered in, muffling dialogues and details, is similarly attuned to the narrative and the milieu—not there just for our listening or for creating moods according to situations; but because they are of the characters’.
Part of this absynthine cocktail is the lead performance of Manoj Bajpai. He has the instinct and physical audacity of a great actor, who shifts from ruthless to idiotic. He has devoured Sardar’s bravado and follies and oozed them out of him with relish. Nawaazuddin Siddiqui is the actor of promise in the second part. His role is written with nuances—a man who sobs watching Bachchan and daydreams, can also lie to the police straight-faced and then kill. In the short span that he exists, the development is visible in every next scene. Siddiqui is restrained, as required and talks with every part of his deep face. The women of Wasseypur never pose any real danger, but they are not easily manipulated. Richa Chadda who plays Nagma is a stunningly controlled actor who makes high-pitched histrionics seem perfectly natural. There are some brilliant strokes of casting in the film. Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan, the butcher, Piyush Mishra, Jameel Khan, and Tigmanshu Dhulia as the politician, among others, play their roles with smooth conviction.
Gangs of Wasseypur is relentless in its ability to entertain, and that’s possible purely because of highly accomplished film-making. A new template for the Indian blockbuster.
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June 22, 2012 at 3:29 AM
OT,
A wife speaks: My husband, Vishal Bhardwaj
http://www.firstpost.com/living/a-wife-speaks-my-husband-vishal-bhardwaj-353499.html
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June 22, 2012 at 3:35 AM
Raja Sen isnt too generous on the film:
Yet it is the excess that suffocates all the magic, originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples the film. There is a lot of gunfire, but like the fine actors populating its sets, Wasseypur fires too many blanks.
Rating: 2.5 stars
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-the-boring-gangs-of-wasseypur/20120622.htm
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June 22, 2012 at 12:02 PM
rediff has gone to……..rajas and sukanyas 🙂
read this – http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-teri-meri-kahaani/20120622.htm
see the title of the review and the rating!!!
totally nuts
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June 22, 2012 at 3:36 AM
i have a suspicion Anurag might’ve been a little too self-indulgent
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June 22, 2012 at 3:47 AM
Think Raja Sen is the most overrated critic currently in the country !
So won’t read too much into his take…will rather go by what Rangan & others have to say.
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June 22, 2012 at 3:49 AM
Review: Gangs of Wasseypur demands 100% attention
http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/review_review-gangs-of-wasseypur-demands-100pct-attention_1705189
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June 22, 2012 at 4:33 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur
Reviewed By: Mayank Shekhar
http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/ENT-review-gangs-of-wasseypur-3443468.html?HFB=
One Ramadheer Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia in a cracker performance) is the prominent mafia don in Wasseypur, which was once a village, but is now a populated zone within Dhanbad. You can see how the underworld in this town of collieries first took shape within trade unions of mining companies and then gradually merged with the politics of the state, when the coal industry itself got nationalised in the early ‘70s. Ramadheer is a powerful MLA now.
Quite early in his career, he had to get rid of his main “pehlwan” (chief henchman) Shahid Khan. Ramadheer had sensed a threat from Shahid. He asked for him one night, got him into his jeep, and Shahid never returned home after. His son kept waiting. He knew Ramadheer had killed his father.
This little boy Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee, wonderful comeback) grows up with revenge on his mind. He’s shaved his head, sworn that he’ll grow his hair back only when he’s finished Ramadheer off. This is the background. So you know Sardar’s the hero, Ramadheer the villain, and the film, a revenge drama. And yet the worst mistake you’re likely to make is to walk into this film thinking like that. It’ll kill your fun. In fact, it’s advisable not to even perceive this as a feature film. It’s more of a multi-part mini-series, which is how Kashyap’s Black Friday (2004) was also intended to be.
Most movies have a definite beginning (background), middle (turning point) and end (climax). There doesn’t seem to be one here, at least on the face of it. The genre it comes closest to then is an epic, like all mythologies — Mahabharat, Ramayan. You enjoy them for the parts rather than caring merely for the hero’s final goal.
Sardar Khan has two wives. One (Richa Chadha) gives him kids, he has three children from her. The other, a “Bangalan” from Asansol gives him sex, or is supposed to. He has a child from her as well. Sardar’s father, as we watch, used to be a dacoit in British India, when the name of one Sultana Daku used to cause panic in these parts. By the end of it, even Sardar’s children have grown up. One of them (Nawazuddin, the finest find in recent years), nurses ambitions of joining the gangs of Wasseypur. This film, set over three complete generations then, extends from pre-independence era right down to the ‘90s. Your patience is likely to wane after a point. And yes, it does. Yet, just as it does, the makers manage to successfully slip in an inspiring scene, an entertaining snippet or a limited twist in the plot and you go back to engaging with the picture all over again.
The story itself is merely an excuse to capture the dusty black-brown landscape and complete lawlessness of the region bordering Bengal and Jharkhand, where dialogue baazi and “rangdari” (extortion) is common preoccupation among boastful goons. The goon is the government itself. The film gets the nuances just right. This is quite rare for movies placed in provincial towns. Traditional Hindi movie audiences apparently don’t prefer cinema of this kind. Their lives are harshly too real for them to expect the same from their movies. As we see in the film, they go nuts over the melodrama of Yash Chopra’s Trishul in the ‘70s. But they would’ve loved as much, if not more, Chopra’s phenomenal Kala Patthar (1979) set again in the coal fields of Dhanbad. The setting for this mafia film in that sense is spot-on. This is the part of India where even now the name of late Surajdeo Singh, a dreaded don I’m told, sends shivers down people’s spines. Vishal Bhardwaj had intended to make the second part of his masterpiece Maqbool (2004) set in Dhanbad as well, where the script could trace the early life and rise of Don Abbaji (Pankaj Kapur). If that film had been made, it would’ve probably been very different from this.
Gangs Of Wasseypur is fictionalised, demented history soaked in blood. Movies have a gender. This one is fully male. Given how easy it is to kill off people in this picture, it’s a miracle that they’re all not dead yet! The community of Qureishis take on other Musalmans. Loud sounds of kattas (country-made pistols), rifles, revolvers, butcher’s knives, ice picks envelope your senses. If it wasn’t a film, this would’ve been a stylised graphic novel. But you would’ve missed a memorable background score and striking sound design. For a film, it’s the kind of mini-series you could possibly preserve in a boxed DVD set years from now. Yeah, this one’s for keeps.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:48 AM
Re: “Given how easy it is to kill off people in this picture, it’s a miracle that they’re all not dead yet!”
Juxtaposed with his paeans to how the film tells it like it really is — out there, somewhere — this line reduces Shekhar’s review to unintentional comedy.
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June 22, 2012 at 7:11 AM
kashyap has tried to be commercial here with lot of over the top stuff and fiction but still one feel it will go rakht charita
story treatment and narration looks same ( and so do the continuation of 2 parts for revenge ala godfather generation change revenge style )
only difference rc being real and gow being fictional and more over the top …. can see it having life in dvd circuit like rc
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June 22, 2012 at 7:12 AM
I’ll be watching it this weekend. Keh ke l(ikh)oonga.
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June 22, 2012 at 7:19 AM
*it will go rakht charita way*
one see from where inspiration is coming :
rc series by ram gopal verma and subramaniapuram
commercially documentry style narrative with such long duration will never work though i would loved to be proved wrong
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June 22, 2012 at 5:58 AM
Not to forget…there is another release today and the spunky new Chopra girl’s related message on Twitter :
“@ParineetiChopra All the bestttt mimi didi for TMK! “
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June 22, 2012 at 7:02 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur: A romp into raw, rugged heartland
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gangs-of-wasseypur-review/1/201887.html
Bleeding brilliance in almost every frame, breathing fire through every available orifice that the characters possess, and whipping up a kind of frenzied, flamboyant bloodshed that was once associated with the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, Gangs Of Wasseypur is, briefly, one huge gang-bang. No protection provided.
From its bludgeoning opening when merciless marauders ambush a powerful enemy’s fortress-like home with army-like meticulousness, “Gangs Of Wasseypur” takes us into a world where compassion is a dinosaur, forgiveness a faux pas, and kindness an unforgivable sin.
Welcome to Kashyap’s Wasseypur. This is no country for the weak-hearted. Country-made guns go off without warning, bombs are hurled from two-wheelers and abuses fly out even faster than the bullets. If you are the kind of moviegoer who doesn’t enjoying hearing and seeing the unimaginable things that can’t be done to various parts of the human anatomy, then I suggest you try something more sugary and safe.
The world of Wasseypur is soaked in blood and revenge. The mafia in one form or another rules the little town. To mainstream Hindi moviegoers, this is not an unknown territory. At least four other recent films – “Paan Singh Tomar”, “Ishaqzaade”, “Rowdy Rathore” and “Shanghai” – have hurled audiences right into the notorious anarchy of the North Indian small-town where the barrel of the gun speaks an irresistible language of mayhem.
It’s a strangely dichotomous world where music and songs (Sneha Khan walk) mock the characters’ subverted ‘herogiri’. While the characters indulge in their unmanned violence, audience become numbed participants in the rites of the wrong-doing.
The almost-ritualistic slaughter of all rules of civil conduct in “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is not redeemed by the presence of any hero.
Even the main protagonist in the blood thirsty saga is a certifiable rogue named, Sardar Khan. As played by Manoj Bajpayee in what is arguably his most feisty and filled-out performance to date, Sardar Khan is a second-generation criminal and social outcast.
In the film’s unforgettable prologue, Sardar’s father (Jaideep Ahlawat) serves as a henchman to the powerful local politician (Tigmanshu Dhulia). Politician has daddy killed by a hired assassin and Sonny-boy grows up swearing revenge.
This in a nutshell, could be the plot for a cheesy 1980s’ potboiler. In taking the grammar and language of the formulistic vendetta drama from the 1970s and 1980s and converting it into a crackling saga of compelling contemporary currency, Kashyap turns all the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema on its head. He uses the language of Manmohan Desai and Narinder Bedi’s cinema. But he applies these to characters who are as far removed from the world of escapism is Sicilyis from Wasseypur.
Oh, did we really say “Gangs Of Wasseypur” was derived from “The Godfather”? Nah. The two worlds are inter-connected only by their legacy of lineage and violence. Beyond that Kashyap’s mode of storytelling, and the way his characters loo mover the proceedings without become caricatural, are frighteningly original and as liberated of reference-points as any of the path-breaking films on gangwars that have emerged out of Hollywood in the last 25 years.
Kashyap celebrates the drama of the grotesque with the relish of a seven-‘coarse’ meal. We can count the number of thuds and stabbing sounds every time a victim is cornered and done to death. Violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before. The end of cinematic niceties is here. Take it or leave it.
Kashyap, in Wasseypur, legitimizes gore with glorious gusto. In the gang war that he portrays with such feral immediacy, victims are chopped up piece by piece, their body parts sent to the butcher’s to eliminate legal evidence. A finger floating in a cesspool of stale blood is a commonplace sight in the world of unchecked mayhem that Kashyap has constructed with such casual resplendence.
His team of technicians are unconditionally mired in the mood of violence. Rajeev Ravi’s camera mows through the imaginary world of Wasseypur with a devilish dispassion.
The film looks layered and even luminous in texture. But the tone of narration is detached. The dereliction of the damned and doomed characters is neither romanticized nor demonized.
Indeed “Gangs Of Wasseypur” invents a new language of cinematic expression. It creates a world where the characters inhabit a universe of vapid stagnant violence. And yet the narration, never short of breath even in the most breathless state of violence, exudes a kind of vibrancy that comes from neither rejection not acceptable of an undesirable situation. It comes from within the characters. As they battle each other in bitter futile feuds, they also seem to be battling the demons within themselves. The synthesis of what lies within and without is devastating.
And yet for all its outward show of ruthless machismo “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is a film with a heart. There is a rather enticing love story featuring Manoj, his screen wife(debutante Richa Chadha) and the other woman (Reema Sen) tucked away in the folds of the ferocious tale.
Manoj’s wife is a very happy happening in this sad but savagely funny tale. She is quite the discovery of the year, and that too in a film mottled with exceptional performances by Manoj, Nawazuddin as his son (more of him in “Wasseypur 2”), Tigmanshu Dhulia who is clenched, controlled and combative as the villain in chief, Pankaj Tripathi riveting as Manoj’s belligerent enemy, Piyush Mishra remarkably restrained and wise as Manoj’s mentor and guide and Huma Qureshi, another whammy performer whom we will see more of in the sequel.
In fact, every character, big or small, is cast with what looks like first-and-last options. You can’t imagine any other actor playing any of the myriad parts.
Brutal, brilliant, dark, sinister, terrifying in its violence and yet savagely funny in the way human life is disregarded “Gangs Of Wasseypur” is one helluva romp into the raw and rugged heartland. Not to be missed. I can’t wait to see the sequel. But be warned. Avoid meals half an hour before and after viewing.
Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gangs-of-wasseypur-review/1/201887.html
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June 22, 2012 at 7:59 AM
Shubh, going forward if you’re posting a lot of pieces put up the link and an extract as opposed to the entire thing.
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June 22, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Satyam: Are you going to watch GoW this wkend?
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June 22, 2012 at 8:45 AM
not playing at my end…
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June 22, 2012 at 8:06 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur Has Dull Start
Friday 22nd June 2012 12.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a dull start of around 10% across India at multiplexes and not much is expected from single screens.
Like Teri Meri Kahaani, this film was also not expected to open well but like that film the opening is lower than the low expectations from it. The film was promoted so it is was not one of those films where there is no awareness.
There were many shows which had audience counts of 10-15 people in 250 seat multiplexes. The morning collections were less than half of films like Shanghai and Ferrari Ki Sawaari and these films opened poorly.
The film will pick up as collections can’t go down as they are too low but whether it can pick up enough to post even respectable numbers is a different story.
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June 22, 2012 at 8:07 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani Opens Below the Mark
Friday 22nd June 2012 12.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani opened to a below the mark response at most places in India. The opening was around the 30% mark at multiplexes on average with certain pockets a bit better doing slightly better. The opening was not expected to be great but 30-35% collections are pretty low for a film of its size and for a film which has some face value. If we compare to Shahid Kapoor’s last film Mausam, the opening is much lower as that film opened to above 50% collections.
The film may improve a bit as the day goes along as opening is at low levels but it will have to show major growth at on Saturday if its to make any mark at the box office.
Teri Meri Kahaani probably has best chances in and around the Delhi area and the opening has also been best in this area.
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June 22, 2012 at 8:14 AM
Top 5: ‘Ferrari Ki Sawaari’ decent, ‘Rowdy Rathore’ unstoppable
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June 22, 2012 at 8:15 AM
B.O. update: ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ 35%-40% start, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ 8%-10%
By Taran Adarsh, June 22, 2012 – 15:18 IST
The Friday witnessed the release of two diametrically opposite films — TERI MERI KAHAANI and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR — and expectedly, the ‘feel good cinema’ [T.M.K.] had an edge from its first show onwards. The morning and noon shows of TERI MERI KAHAANI were in 35% to 40% range, with North India multiplexes trending better. However, its business will have to show an upward trend from Friday evening onwards, for it to have a decent run at the box-office.
On the other hand, the start of GANGS OF WASSEYPUR was very very poor, in the range of 8% to 10%. The business of this film will have to show a miraculous jump over the weekend, if it has to post decent numbers.
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June 22, 2012 at 10:47 AM
My view:
Good movie; well made but something is missing
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June 22, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Re : but something is missing
Yes, Your review ( if not complete but few lines, it seems you have dismissed the movie in your mind already) is missing 🙂
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June 22, 2012 at 11:02 AM
lol.. nothing like tta – Just disinterested to write anything about it.
In a nutshell, it carries a been there-done/seen that kinda feel that overshadows everything else.. It surprisingly doesnt stay with you once its over..
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June 22, 2012 at 11:21 AM
You talking about GOW or TMK?????
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June 22, 2012 at 11:31 AM
GOW.. Good movie, not great!
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June 22, 2012 at 11:32 AM
btw liked Shanghai more than GOW
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June 22, 2012 at 10:59 AM
‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ Review: Sheer cinematic pleasure
http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/movies/gangs-of-wasseypur-review-sheer-cinematic-pleasure_113890.htm
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June 22, 2012 at 11:01 AM
http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/gangs-of-wasseypur-movie-review-dont-miss-this-entertaining-commotion/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=bollywood
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR movie review: Don’t miss this entertaining commotion!
Superlative performances, expressive writing, matchless background score and brilliant cinematography are some of the many key elements that make Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur possibly the best dark comedy in Indian cinema
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June 22, 2012 at 11:02 AM
http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_Review.aspx?id=719
Rollicking and riotous aren’t adjectives one normally associates with a gangster film. But that is precisely what Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur is.
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June 22, 2012 at 11:08 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Gangs-of-Wasseypur-Movie-Review/articleshow/14321538.cms
Right from its long opening sequence where a gang relentlessly showers bullets and bombs at the haveli of their rival gang, with inhuman intentions to terminate everyone from woman, kids to elderly, Anurag Kashyup establishes the tone, temperament and texture of his gritty gang-war drama. In terms of its story, Gangs of Wasseypur seems like a basic revenge drama. But in terms of its screenplay, there is not a single scene in the film that might give you a been-there-seen-that feeling. It’s avant-garde, offbeat and interesting narrative makes it an absolutely riveting experience.
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June 22, 2012 at 11:24 AM
This is howlarious!!!
Raja Sen lifted Dibakr Banerjee on one shoulder in his review on Shanghai just 2 weeks back and throws Anurag Kashyap off his shoulder this week!!!
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-the-boring-gangs-of-wasseypur/20120622.htm
And Mr. Kashyap says that Raja saw the film with a ‘crowded’ mind!! One displeasing review and Mr. AK seems to be flexing his tweet-muscles!!
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June 22, 2012 at 11:48 AM
No, not really. Kashyap tweeted this as well:
@tezkrishna @RajaSen he is a good critic.. he just does not like my films.. he expects more may be, may be he really was bored
I wouldn’t agree with Kashyap though. I think Raja Sen is an awful critick…not because his content does not match his verbal swagger but because his voice is compromised!
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June 22, 2012 at 12:08 PM
yes I agree on Sen. It’s much more about attitude with him than anything else.
Must say about Kashyap though that I do find his modus operandi a bit much in these matters. he did this with Shanghai recently and now it’s with GoW where he pretty much retweets every bit of attention the film in question gets from the media to the most inconsequential fan. 99% of it is very positive or more. His way of creating buzz I suppose except that I don’t know how much this moves the needle. It seems to me that those on twitter and following him would in any case be inclined to check out his movies!
The other problem is that most Indian reviews are at Raja sen’s level of incoherence and/or incompetence. But Kashyap keeps retweeting all of this stuff.
Once again if one just reads Rangan’s Shanghai piece and then follows it up with his GoW one he’s just light years ahead of everyone else. He could easily walk into the pages of the NY Times or the LA Times or the Guardian or some such outfit in the West.
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June 22, 2012 at 2:06 PM
Agreed on Rangan. I would add that you and GF could easily replace most of the Indian film critics from their paid positions.
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June 22, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Now that is too kind at least as far as I’m concerned Saket! Thanks.. but I’m too unruly and chaotic in whatever I say!
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June 22, 2012 at 1:59 PM
AK actually tweeted yesterday that RS wrote his review with a crowded mind..Maybe he deleted it. can you actually do that on twitter? I don’t really know how twitter works and ……
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June 22, 2012 at 2:04 PM
No, that particular tweet is still present. The one that I posted was a reply to someone who was abusing Raja Sen. In essence, Kashyap defended Raja Sen…nice of him and all, but I think RS doesn’t deserve to be defended.
His “initial” reaction to Sen’s review was more personal — the “crowded” mind reference and all.
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June 22, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Raja thinks he can match Rangan with his high brow English & bombastic metaphors…fact is he is not a patch on Rangan !!
I personally stopped giving much importance to him after his “Batman Begins” review way back in 2005…according to him the “film was too dark to be a superhero film ” !!!! Am yet to recover from that howlarious remark !!!
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June 22, 2012 at 12:21 PM
Ok guys, saw GoW. Since it’s not an easy film to digest, will write abt it later. now this is definitely a film one should watch-and should watch on the big-screen since it’s biggest strength r its visuals and ambience it creates. But at the end this is not a great film or anything- a very good effort which soars at various points but is never consistent and engaging enough to stay with you long after u have left the theatre.it tries to cram-in too many things into the narrative.
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June 22, 2012 at 12:42 PM
here’s a complete different story from what the trade has been suggesting:
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ runs houseful
Submitted by Kiran Pahwa on Fri, 06/22/2012 – 15:13
India
Mumbai
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ runs housefulMumbai, June 22 – The audiences have given the thumbs up to Anurag Kashyap’s “Gangs Of Wasseypur”. It has opened to full houses in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and is also drawing crowds in multiplexes in the Metros, distributors say.
Prashant Kumar Singh, owner of Puja Talkies in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, told IANS: “‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ has opened very well with 80 to 85 percent occupancy. Some of the shows were even houseful. The film is going great and even the advance booking is going on full swing.”
Bihar-based Brijesh Tandon of HK Tandon and Company said that “Gangs Of Wasseypur” “has opened very well in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It is around 80 percent occupancy.”
Written by Zeishan Quadri, who hails from Wasseypur, known for the bloody rivalry between gangster Faheem Khan and businessman Sabir Alam over scrap business, the film is described as a cinematic offering that has hurled audiences right into the notorious anarchy of the North Indian small-town where the barrel of the gun speaks an irresistible language of mayhem by a reviewer.
Directed by Kashyap, it has too much of gore and blood and it is believed that violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before.
Despite that the audiences are thronging the cinema hall to see this blood saga.
Delhi-base distributor Sanjay Ghai said: ” ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ has opened with 70 to 80 percent opening in both single screens and multiplex in Delhi and is going great.”
In Mumbai, the response was slow but, according to distributor Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combine, “‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ opened with 20 to 25 percent in Mumbai. But it has started improving from the evening shows and would pick up in the night and at the weekend.”
Manoj Gupta of Viacom 18 said: “In Varanasi, the opening was around 70 to 80 percent but the afternoon shows went houseful in Lucknow, Gorakhpur among others. Even the multiplex shows of ‘Gangs…’ are houseful.”
Kashyap, who co-produced the film with Sunil Bohra, has said that it is his most expensive film and he reportedly had to spend Rs. 15 crore on paying the actors.
Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadha, Huma Quershi, Reema Sen and Piyush Mishra’s have stepped into thier roles convincingly and their powerful performances have made this real life-based story into a compelling cinema and it is wooing audiences in Kolkata too.
” ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ has opened with 45 to 50 percent occupancy in Kolkata and is getting better with the evening shows,” said Moni Venkatesh of Shri Venkatesh Films. (IANS)
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June 22, 2012 at 12:44 PM
GoW: Slow And Steady
by Rohini Nag (June 22, 2012)
Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur opened to a mediocre response at the ticket window. However, the afternoon shows showed some improvement and distributors across the country feel collections will spike during the evening and night shows. Although the film has a limited target audience, distributors expect the collections graph to rise over the next two days.
In Mumbai, Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “The film, which took an opening of 30 per cent, went up to 40 percent in the afternoon and 50 per cent in the evening. Occupancy is expected to be around 60 per cent during the night shows.”
In Delhi-UP, Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says GoW took quite an impressive opening of around 50 per cent and collections went up to 60 per cent. “It is only natural to expect better numbers from the night shows.”
In East Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies says business from GoW has improved in cities and multiplexes. “The film opened to 30 per cent and grew to 50 per cent during the afternoon shows. A 60 to 70 per cent response is expected during the night shows.”
In West Bengal, Debashish Dey of Aum Moviez adds, “GOW took a very slow start in West Bengal. Its opening was around 10 per cent and business has remained the same. The evening shows may garner a better response.”
In CI, Manoj Jain of Neha Movies says GoW took a 20-per cent opening today. The film failed to improve with the noon shows and collections haven’t changed. “Still, we expect the evening shows to generate a 40-per cent response.”
In Rajasthan, Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films says, “Gangs of Wasseypur failed to connect with the audience and took a 10-per cent opening in the morning shows. “Improvement is neither expected nor reported,” he remarks.
In Bihar, Brijesh Tondon of HK Tondon & Company concludes, “The film enjoyed a 30-per cent opening and collections are improving very slowly. The film might pick up over the weekend.”
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June 22, 2012 at 12:46 PM
note how one can produce any claims depending on the kind of piece one wants to write! Here Sanjah Ghai makes somewhat different claims in each case!
Will say though that if these two pieces are taken together the response seems much better than the one suggested by Taran and BOI and so on.
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June 22, 2012 at 2:24 PM
most of the trade in india is star centric and will be ready to dismiss alternate cinema ….
pst got its due very late(infact forcefully due to its trending) and even vicky donor was produced by a commercial star and in case of kahaani it was more due to the the lady who was just coming after blockbluster and national award
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June 22, 2012 at 2:27 PM
and ya that figure of 8-10% or whatever (considering hindi belt) looks bullshit
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June 22, 2012 at 2:41 PM
I’ve noticed this recently but somehow the usual suspects in the trade went out of their way to diss Shanghai. Now I know there were greater expectations here and so on but still normally this isn’t the kind of film for which the likes of Taran and Nahta try so hard. Usually this happens when star politics comes into play. So I’ve been a bit surprised about this. Similarly with GoW giving out the lowest possible numbers is a bit odd. Wonder if Kashyap and his friends have managed to annoy these guys!
The real shamelessness here involves Taran and Nahta constantly proclaiming themselves paragons of honesty. It’s the whole ‘hey we just follow the facts’ response. When stars have argued with them occasionally they’ve again produced the usual ‘dirty’ response — ‘don’t get upset with us if your film isn’t working’! Most recently Taran had a run-in with Shahid Kapoor on Mausam. Again not a film that did well but these guys went after it from the very beginning. So a film might open decently even if it doesn’t do well eventually. These guys launch the attacks and later when the film flops there’s a the whole ‘we told you so’ deal when in fact a lot of distortions have been created in the meantime. They do this classically with Abhishek’s films in all kinds of scenarios (probably won’t do it with Bol Bachchan because they’ll say it’s only about Devgan.. unless of course it flops in which case it’s the director’s fault for giving Abhishek too much prominence!).
getting back to Shanghai the film doubled the LSD number. Did more than Dev D. The expectations were greater but these were probably unrealistic too. if a film isn’t for everyone just making it bigger in terms of stars or advertising doesn’t change that underlying reality. Not saying the film doesn’t have problems but safer genres work even with those problems. Now with GoW if a couple of those pieces are to be believed the opening looks very solid or even better than this. Yet Taran and Nahta cling to that 8-10% claim. If that’s true every one of those other distributors or theater owners must be lying! Taran has brilliantly suggested that had this film and Teri Meri Kahan released on different dates both would have done much better. So now a cross-over audience is being asserted between Gangs of Wasseypur and Teri Meri Kahani. Gimme a break!
It’s not even about the partisanship beyond a point. This is such garbage, such an insult to the intelligence that one must pity those who take these claims seriously. It’s not even about knowing stuff from elsewhere or whatever, these claims are so absurd just on grounds of internal consistency. Take BOI, they contradict their own claims with every new report!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:56 PM
yup shanghai is the biggest gross of dibakar banerjee(by a long way) and expectation where greater because trade shamelessly tried to project emraan hashm as big massy actor prior to dark genre release
realistically dark films never had the market and as for your comment on abhishek another dark sarkar raj is rgv’s biggest gross and pattern was same
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June 22, 2012 at 1:37 PM
Badlands : Rajeev Masand
http://www.rajeevmasand.com/reviews/our-films/badlands/
On the surface, Gangs of Wasseypur is a revenge saga, a tableau of vengeance between generations of gangsters. Scratch that surface and you’ll discover more than just a grim portrait. Director Anurag Kashyap decides to tell this story his way, infusing it with moments of sly wit that give the blood-soaked drama irresistible color.
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June 22, 2012 at 1:45 PM
Shubhra Gupta
‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ is a sprawling, exuberant, ferociously ambitious piece of film making, which hits most of its marks. It reunites Anurag Kashyap with exactly the kind of style he is most comfortable with : hyper masculine, hyper real, going for the jugular. It’s not so much about gangs, as about men who are pushed into ‘gangstergiri’ as a thing to live by ; as you go along, you see that Wasseypur is not just a place, but a state of mind, which roars and strikes after each deceptively quiet patch. I liked most of ‘Gangs’, Part One, enormously. ‘
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gangs-of-wasseypur-part-i/965477/
Cast: Manoj Bajpai, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Richa Chaddha, Reema Sen, Piyush Mishra, Jameel Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Vineet Singh, Nawazudin Siddique, Humra Quraishi, Anurita Jha, Jaideep Ahlwat
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Indian Express Ratings:****
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June 22, 2012 at 1:46 PM
Watching it tomorrow evening…will post my views.
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June 22, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Some of you might find this of interest:
“The second manner of differentiation I found more discomfiting. The Qureshis are descendants of a colonial-era dacoit, and now run vicious roost over Wasseypur. In some ways, the Khans are the Good Muslims and the Qureshis the Bad. I noticed any time the Qureshis were pictured, the standard tropes of Muslim representation in Bollywood were trotted out, those most alienating and worrisome to India’s majority community. You had repeated shots of Matam, the Shia practice of self-flagellation, interspliced at random in almost every montage of Qureshi violence. Whatever you may think of the practice, this film’s visual conjoin of the Qureshis’ bouts of murderous rage with a widely performed act of religious penitence seemed unnecessary. It is also worth noting that the Qureshis are butchers, another stereotype beloved of Bollywood, and that there are plenty of shots of chopped carcasses and cracking bones that accompany their varied vengeances.”
from this otherwise standard-issue review: http://mumbaiboss.com/2012/06/22/film-review-gangs-of-wasseypur-part-i/
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June 22, 2012 at 1:52 PM
Thanks for highlighting that passage though I must say I find your ID of even greater interest!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:11 PM
Qureshis are routinely stereotyped in North India as butchers (i.e. it is a community/biradari-based identification of them as qasaais by tradition) — something that causes South Indian Qureshis no end of distress; I’m a bit surprised about the Shia imagery as my impression had been that Qureshis are Sunnis, but I might be wrong. In any event, thanks for highlighting that Belano — Kashyap has not tended to be the most “aware” when it comes to representations of Muslims, but I’ll have more to say once I watch this…
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June 22, 2012 at 2:33 PM
“The community are the traditional butchers of North India and Pakistan, and get their named from the Arabic word gassab, which means to cut or slit.[3] According to their traditions, they claim descent from early Arab settlers to India, who arrived at the time of the Sultanate of Delhi. These Arabs belonged to the Quresh tribe, the tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, and as such the community is thus also known as Qureshi. They have three sub-divisions, the Chikwa who are found in the Rohilkhand and Awadh regions of Uttar Pradesh, and are connected with the slaughtering animals such as sheep and goats, and the Qureshi Qassab who slaughter cows and buffaloes. A third sub-group are the Bawarchi, a community found mainly in the city of Lucknow and in Gujarat, who are professional cooks. Each Qassab group has a different traditions as their origin and migration, for example most Qassab in the Deccan region claim to have arrived with the armies of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzebs invading armies. The community is entirely Sunni, and in North India speaks Urdu.[4]
The community belong to both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, but the majority are Sunnis.. The Chikwa speak Awadhi, while the Qureshi Qassab speak Urdu.[6]
In Bihar, the Qassab are a class of Muslim butchers, and are generally known as Qureshis. They are found throughout Bihar, and are one of the few Bihari Muslim communities that speaks Urdu. The Qassab consist of two sub-groups, the Bara Karbar who were involved in the slaughtering of cows and Chota Karbar who slaughtered goats. Closely related to the Qassab are the Chik, a caste associated with the slaughtering of goats. The Anjuman Quresh has a Bihar branch, which acts as a welfare association. They are entirely Sunni Muslims, and are fairly orthodox
From pedia.
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June 22, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Very interesting, thanks Di
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June 22, 2012 at 3:43 PM
anytime…anything for the handsome one.
Now before Sattu comes after me for leading you on.etc..I will run.
P.S: seems like we will have another thread with A.K. on how to market his movies effectively 🙂
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June 22, 2012 at 1:53 PM
In my opinion, a lot of these film critics are embarrassing themselves by referring to the violence and bloodshed in this film as “joyous”. What are these people- teenage boys spending all their time watching porn and playing video games?
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June 22, 2012 at 1:55 PM
yes you’re quite right.. a number of the reviewers really seem to get a high on the violence and at least two reviewers have equated it with sex (hence proving your insight!). Mihir Fadnavis for example said he wanted to have sex with the film. God help us!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:05 PM
By the way, Satyam, given the recent debate you had with Anurag Kashyap on what might or might not be possible given financial and social constraints I think you’ll like this piece(Helen Grace in the Lola Journal run by Adrian Martin and Girish Shambhu) : http://www.lolajournal.com/2/aesthetic_risk.html
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June 22, 2012 at 2:29 PM
very interesting piece, that Godard story is worth its weight in gold! but fascinating read even otherwise. thanks..
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June 22, 2012 at 2:16 PM
Fadnavis wants to have sex with GOW but AK makes NO SMOKING and TGIYB to have sex with himself!!!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:07 PM
*I meant to say on what might and might not be possible in his cinema and that of the peers he praises for minor achievements
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June 22, 2012 at 2:15 PM
The reviews for GoW are overwhelmingly positive. Now most of these reviews aren’t even worth the paper they get printed on, but still, it’s probably a good sign. First Shanghai and now GoW. At least no one can claim that reviewers have been paid for writing ecstatic reviews.
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June 22, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Serioulsy guys… anybody knows where GOW is playing in DC/Maryland area in the US? Just can’t get any screening….any info provided would be greatly appreciated…
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June 22, 2012 at 2:21 PM
It’s not playing anywhere in NY so I’d be surprised if it’s playing in DC/Maryland.
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June 22, 2012 at 2:38 PM
its not playing near me either…but rest of them are (Shanghai, Ferrari, Teri-meri and other south indian movies) 😦
I guess the distributors didn’t think that bourgeosis can handle it!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:43 PM
which part of world u stay in?
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June 22, 2012 at 2:48 PM
No Country for Bourgeois
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June 22, 2012 at 2:50 PM
Well Southern movies usually get an audience. TMK is a mainstream release. The Ferrari kind of film gets a screening too. They probably gave Shanghai a chance which didn’t quite work out and they must have felt no one would show up for GoW. But the problem here is that the release strategies are all wrong, both in India and outside. The GoW kind of film should really only be aimed at a festival audience and so on. It should play in one or two screens in a place like NY and not in the usual mainstream theaters that screen other Indian films alongside lots of commercial American ones. It should be played only in certain kinds of arthouse theaters, basically the film should be kept going with lots of review attention and play to an audience that’s part of this world. Just releasing a film in limited fashion doesn’t get the job done. Again in India the only difference between a GoW release and a RR is that the former gets fewer screens and so forth. But the entire mindset that goes toward releasing such a movie ought to be different. Even with mainstream stars this should be the case. I’ve argued this for D6. The same is true for Guzaarish. Whatever one thinks of some of these films you can’t market them in the same ways. In the US or elsewhere in the West even with major stars no one releases an offbeat movie everywhere. even with someone as ‘dependable’ as Woody Allen in terms of drawing a certain audience each and every time his current movie has opened today in NY in just three theaters in the city. It will move to the suburbs in a week or two. So even with a director who’s been around that long, even with relative stars in the movie, the film is playing in very limited theaters in possibly the most audience-friendly city (and environs) for an Allen movie! And this happens every time! Meanwhile GoW is just released as a ‘small’ movie and that’s about it.
Some of us often lament the lack of a proper film culture in Bombay at the critical end but in real terms this too is one of the consequences. It’s a sorry sight to see Kashyap having to depend on twitter to publicize his film.
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June 22, 2012 at 3:13 PM
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June 22, 2012 at 2:42 PM
It’s not playing here in NJ and matter of fact in entire USA (http://www.nowrunning.com/gangs-of-wasseypur/8887/movie-showtimes.htm). Isn’t AK going to blame AB for that?? His theory would be AB called AA and asked Big Cinemas to stay away from it!!
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June 22, 2012 at 2:52 PM
pretty shocking..
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June 22, 2012 at 2:59 PM
So yeh USA mai release hi nahi hui hai…makes sense. Once it is a hit in india, they can get better deal from foreign distributors (but then I am novice in all these things) possibly!?
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June 22, 2012 at 3:02 PM
Satyam, this film has to seen on the big screen. On that note Rakta Charitra-1 (didn’t like the 2nd) was in ‘some ways’ a better film than GoW- it had a ‘sharper narrative’ and the director had a better grip on the plethora of characters (the number of important characters is huge in both films). but the setting, acting, dialogues and in some ways ‘storytelling’ is far better in GoW.more than Tarantino GoW belongs to the world of Rodriguez- historical and other issues r just a playground for pulpy fun
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June 22, 2012 at 3:15 PM
I liked RC a lot, both parts, but probably the first one more. More than even liking it this is one of those relatively few films over the last decade or so that I actually feel like revisiting in a compressed time frame. Many films I like a lot and even watch in the theater more than once but I don’t quite revisit them over time.
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June 22, 2012 at 3:05 PM
GOW just did not interest me enough.. was certainly good and detailing and shot selections were good with lot of humor but not as great as one would’ve wanted..
btw DK bose is still ringing in my ears
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June 22, 2012 at 3:12 PM
Agreed completely Tony though i liked it a ‘bit’ more than you. But i am quite sure the 2nd part would be better. bcos if u noticed the narrative and pace dropped after intermission- since it was earlier supposed to be a single feature, AK may have been setting us up for a very volatile story after the ‘death’- SPOILER- Bajpai’s death scene was exquisitely shot- pulp at its best
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June 22, 2012 at 3:18 PM
Tony, actually in Bihar and eastern UP (i have lived in Bihar-Sasaram for 2 yrs and i hail from UP), ‘chu*iya and ‘maadar- ch*t’ is more common than “Bho*di ke’- where as in Lucknow, Delhi and Dehradun the opposite is true
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June 22, 2012 at 3:12 PM
If you grow up in small town, d k boss is used a lot..on the streets…though I don’t know the meaning till date…will ask someone tonight!
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June 22, 2012 at 3:16 PM
invert it and spell it together in one breathe and it is one of the most common abuse in india bh******e
http://www.coolslang.com/in/hindi/index.php?OL=hin&TL=eng&Letter=B
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June 22, 2012 at 3:25 PM
“if u live in small town”- IMO “bho*di ke” is used most frequently by Delhi people (less in Mumbai though)- hamare Lucknow mein bhi gaaliyan dete hai par wo bhi Lucknowi Tameez, tehzeeb aur ‘adab’ ke saath 🙂
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June 22, 2012 at 3:30 PM
One mythical “Lakhnawi” sledge that I heard growing up went like this: “Miyan tum mein itni goliyan maarenge ki subah uth kar peetal hagoge”
Priceless!
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June 22, 2012 at 3:41 PM
Oh, yes! Saket, thanks for reminding me …LOL. Btw Bhopali too has its share of such slangs, isn’t it . Btw a very famous line written in Awadhi behind trucks, in central UP goes like ‘Satlaa to Gailaa beta’ (“If u touch me, u r dead’)
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June 22, 2012 at 3:36 PM
Did you guys see “seher” with arshad warshi. THe movie and the actor are one of my favs. You can see hints of that “nawabbi” culture in that movie/language
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June 22, 2012 at 3:52 PM
LOL Saket. Btw if one has to hear good Awadhi, listen to Bachchan’s rendition of the song – “Eer, Beer, Phatte”- i am sure Satyam and Saket must have heard this song
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June 22, 2012 at 4:00 PM
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June 22, 2012 at 3:40 PM
If one grows up in Delhi, or even spends a year or two in the city, one could very well open a Hindi Gaali Academy. No kidding!
It’s not the small towns that need to be chastised for using foul language. Even girls in Delhi do it better than most guys from small towns. I’m not exaggerating at all…
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June 22, 2012 at 4:03 PM
Glad I didn’t grow up in Delhi or haven’t gone anywhere near it. My bourgeosis sensibilities will get shocked. I wonder how the HGA final exam would be: Mr Saket, you failed. You didn’t know the proper meaning of DK Boss or various meanings of “keh K lunga”! lolz
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June 22, 2012 at 4:14 PM
I had told u the meaning of ‘keh ke loonga’ in great detail, remember. btw ur ‘bourgeoise’ abuses in english just like others do in Hindi- calling someone a ‘f**ker’ is no different than calling him a ‘ch**tiya’. And Saket is right abt Delhi girls, some female friends of mine (from Delhi) can give anyone a competition in this field. i have myself been abused frequently by them. btw in rural areas of UP if u give someone a ‘maa-behan ki gaali’ the other guy can get so enraged that he may murder u
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June 22, 2012 at 4:21 PM
saurabh..I don’t used F either. In fact not once have I used it in my life. I may throw vessels at you in anger or scream and cry but never have used bad language of that sort…I called someone donkey (gadha) recently or in childhood “kuttey” (dog) but that is about all.
BTW: You all are doing good job writing thesis on gaalis! lolz. The gaalis Vidhya Balan gave in Ishquiya were very innovative (I had never heard of them either before).
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June 22, 2012 at 4:34 PM
Di, the fact that u have never uttered an abuse is seriously praiseworthy (i sincerely mean it).i too had never abused(did not even know the meaning) untill the 2nd of my ragging in my boarding school when i was given a long list of hindi and english abuses (by seniors) and was told to find out their meaning. i attained ‘nirvana’ that day! but even then unless i get into a really bad fight, i don’t ‘abuse a particular person’ (and i usually refrain from ‘maa-behan ki gaalis’).don’t believe in crying ever
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June 22, 2012 at 4:08 PM
ive stayed in Delhi all my life and dont find apeaking gaalis or listening to them comforting at all. kabhi kabhi nikal jaati hai mooh se lekin
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June 22, 2012 at 4:24 PM
Tony, LOL at admitting that ‘kabhi kabhi’.(i make sure i don’t even utter the slightest of abuse at home since i have a younger sister- baahar ka to aapko pata hai- same as u ‘kabhi kabhi, once in a blue moon’ – as Ranjeet used to say in Vishwanath). btw guys, hindi phrases like ‘phatne waali hai’ r also actually having a cuss-word like meaning (i hope we wouldn’t be asked to explain their meaning LOL). incidentally ‘yaar’ used to mean a ‘pimp/lover’. ‘kamina’ actually is not an abuse- it means ‘selfish’
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June 22, 2012 at 4:46 PM
yaar in gujarat still has same meaning (pimp or lover).
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June 22, 2012 at 3:07 PM
one of my earlier comment compared it with rc ….it got -ve reviews from critics but had great shelf life in dvd cicrcuit and one can see most critics played safe here to gow atlease with review part (lesson learnt in hard way)
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June 22, 2012 at 3:29 PM
GOW not running anywhere in (Socal) Southern California either. Pretty disappointed!
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June 22, 2012 at 3:35 PM
Just saw one of the greatest movie ever made by an Indian…Gangs of Wasseypur.A subversive history of India from 1947 onward depicted through the story of a small town of wasseypur.The oldest and the fondest of man’s folly LUST FOR POWER… unabashedly shown dancing naked through the streets and into the minds of everyone……
Every single scene of the film is nuanced and has a link to a psychological or philosophical concept(no wonder the idiot reviewer Rajeev Masand said the movie merits a second viewing for someone to appreciate its nuances better).The movie is bristling with intelligence and introspection. A veritable tour de force of cinematic excellence….a riot of metaphors…..black humourous…..snake eating its own tail(paradoxical) drama .u can call it an allegory,a satire,hyper or magic realism or simply a work of sheer and obscene genius.
Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap.
This film is a Don quixote….a Moby dick……a Gargantua and Pangruel…a Tristam shandy…… A hamlet, an Ullysses ….a Tin drum…a Trial….a Notes from underground…..an Outsider…..a Waiting for godot….a Hundred years of solitude…a Midnights children……this movie is truly an epic!
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June 22, 2012 at 3:40 PM
In other words muslim mahabharat. lolz
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June 22, 2012 at 3:42 PM
Yes, we get it. Daaru peene se liver aur dimaag donon kharaab ho jaate hain…
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June 22, 2012 at 4:12 PM
Don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel..
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June 22, 2012 at 4:26 PM
Can I have some of what you’re smoking?
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June 22, 2012 at 5:08 PM
grow your own weed man! lolz
bsmt;bkyd; many options.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:12 PM
Smoking Tweetomania
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June 22, 2012 at 4:26 PM
Hmm…sachin that’s extreme praise from u
Well, Even without seeing the film, from the promos/songs can sense that this is simply one of the best films made by a recent Indian film maker…
“Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap”
🙂
I’m not one to stifly someone’s real feelings or ‘passion’
Plz tell us more and expand your thoughts
Why don’t u do a full blown review on GoW
Not showing near me (& to add to the discomfiture, will most probably have to watch TMK tomorrow due to some fans of that genre!)
Ps–how can one see GoW online –don’t usually do this not due to ethical issues mainly but since the crap sound picture quality is crap
Ie is there a more ‘respectable’ quality way of watching it–
Plz provide Any links torrent etc
Ps-in watching movies online, think the likes of Oldgold have a phd
🙂
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June 22, 2012 at 4:29 PM
hehe..the censor board and the scissors.man is so pathetic.har jagaah saala nautanki familywaad aur friendshipwaad.lilliputs conspiring against gulliver.hehe…when will we grow up…..”Arrogance is a jewel while Modesty has the thickest hide.”..nietzche said.Modest ants and rats!sucking up to each other and forming a group.
always remember what blake said: Great things r done when a man meets the mountain,it is not done by jostling in the streets.
stop sucking up to eachother and venture inside ur own individuality and arrogance……
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June 22, 2012 at 4:35 PM
Sachin : havent seen the film so can’t comment if you are going overboard in your praise 🙂
But even without seeing it, have faith that kashyap has come up with something novel, nuanced and authentic…
Let’s rise above narrow affiliations and give the man his due
And sachin: don’t get discouraged and come up with more rants and a full blown review –I like this ‘passion’ coming straight out unadulterated –keep it coming 🙂
Ps-u havent answered –how can one see GoW in reasonable picture sound quality online (if possible)
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June 23, 2012 at 1:33 PM
loved the analogy
btw thanks to censor we have never seen more of kashyap…people still say paanch was much better movie than black friday and black friday would have had a serious shot at oscars( on yahoo worldwide on net it was among the top 10 movies reviewed) but still one feel he has never again managed to repeat these two…watching gow tommorrow and will put up a short review tommorrow
btw a serious question on tarantino and censor
anurag kashyap whenver acts on his friends movie even on screen is seen depicting ganja and hashish and even at dev d you remember first client of prostitute kalki was kashyap
is this not tarantino’s hangover( of being a rebel and even similar screen presence and so do excessive swearing as hangover) and what you expect censor to do when one cross the line
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June 22, 2012 at 4:32 PM
From India: this news is becoming v common
This time from bombay
Rave party busted : 34 detained !!
Hope none of the members here have been detained!
Btw Sanjana and Amy were also around Bombay somewhere -hide they will given us more updates (if they are around)
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mumbai-rave-party-44-detained-test-positive-for-drugs/articleshow/14344574.cms
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June 22, 2012 at 4:38 PM
i saw the late nite show…..it is 2 o clock in the morning in india.i will write a detailed review tomm.but i m not a reviewer…in order to explain what anurag wants to say i will have to explain the story too.my approach towards reviewing a film is to pick out a dozen of seminal scenes from the movie..and then to train philosophical focus on them…explain them and in the process explain the vision and genius of the director.
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June 22, 2012 at 4:44 PM
Sachin: yes: go for a proper review
Like your spirit and uninhibited passion about this piece
And unlike what u and others allege Satyam of, wait –will ask him to make your piece into a thread
But mate-do write a mind blasting review worthy of this film…
Also ‘seminal’ scenes etc are ok -try to minimise spoilers
PS-can any goddamm piracy expert tell where to watch it in proper sound /pic quality???
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June 22, 2012 at 4:39 PM
Ami is playing with her 2 little nephews (she took them for Ferrari ki Sawari). she is too ‘seedhi-saadhi’ to be ‘ecstatic’ 🙂
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June 22, 2012 at 4:41 PM
Minor: they were left to watch Ferrari ki sawaaris on their own..
While Amy took a trip to bombay
Told her to stay away from these parties 😉
Will have to ‘save’ her again and make a few one calls…
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June 22, 2012 at 5:14 PM
Amy’s ‘silence’ proves me right 🙂
Ps-nobody has been spared from these raves
Btw nowadays ‘withdrawal of Internet abuse’ is also a form of abuse
Hope the net access of youth like Amy and Sanjana haven’t been blocked by their partners/parents 😉
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June 22, 2012 at 4:39 PM
On one hand are guys like anurag kashyap who inspite of coming up with something like GoW is being analysed with a microscope…
While
On the other hand —
Sajid khan: I can never make a flop film 🙂
Filmmaker Sajid Khan is sure his film Himmatwala, based on the 1983 movie of the same name, will cross Rs.100 crore within its first week itself. He says he can never make a flop film.
“I can’t say I am a great director but I am the greatest audience, since childhood I have done nothing other than watching films. Cinema is my life. I can never make a flop film because I make film for audience and not for myself,” Sajid said during the sound recording of Himmatwala.
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June 22, 2012 at 4:42 PM
the online version is pathetic…pls dont download…..the audio is fucked up.i guess u will have to wait for a couple of days.this was not the problem in shanghai…this time round they came up with a john doe order so it discouraged the pirates.hopefully in a couple of days a better version will be out
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June 22, 2012 at 4:45 PM
“u will have to wait for a couple of days”
Haha
The ‘couple of days’ will have to wait for me 🙂
After a ‘couple of days’ my attention span will be somewhere else …lol
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June 22, 2012 at 4:48 PM
lexy…did you see the gaali marathon (thread) above? Do participate…you can share your experience at high level only 😉
Sattu/G/F too decent to join in….
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June 22, 2012 at 4:55 PM
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur Struggle On Day One
Friday 22nd June 2012 23.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs of Wasseypur disappointed on day one with poor collections with wide releases. Teri Meri Kahaani hit 1500 screens across India while Gangs of Wasseypur was 1000 plus which is huge for such a film.
Teri Meri Kahaani is looking set for a 5.50 crore nett first day with Delhi city and Punjab showing the best collections. Single screens across the country are poor
Gangs of Wasseypur is expected to fetch around 2.50 crore nett going by the early figures coming in. It has done very poor in Bihar where the film is set but neighbouring state UP has done better especially the multiplexes in the state. Gangs Of Wasseypur has also performed badly at single screens.
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June 22, 2012 at 4:58 PM
The compulsion for cuss-words
Di-I don’t believe in ‘gaalis’ or abuses … 🙂
Am ‘pure’ in that respect haha
Feel that one shouldnt need the clutch of ‘abuses’ to make ones displeasure obvious when really angry …
Cuss words are more of an self-ego enhancer or a punching bag than any sort of ‘ammunition’ damaging the ‘receiver’..
In most cases, the ‘damage’ is more to the ‘abuser’
A few scales in the voice note or a glance is usually enuf to convey the ‘anger’ …
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June 22, 2012 at 4:59 PM
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June 22, 2012 at 5:05 PM
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June 22, 2012 at 5:11 PM
For this sort of a film and this maker–won’t even care for a public review …
C’mon folks -be true to yourselves…
Ps– I personally have never seen a more ‘real’ gritty portrayal of this sort of rural Indian setup
Inspite of having no personal experience of rural countryside indian settings, one can sense the characters vibe and even touch the emotions …even the promos and songs speak out !
Celluloid in its true honest form..
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June 22, 2012 at 5:06 PM
‘in good company’
Comtinuing from above-managed to watch most of it (an achievement–v rare to see a film totally nowadays -adult ADHD??
Have always been a ‘moments’ person
Dennis quaid –well liked him in summary
A few scenes with gopher grace and johanssen were special–only a few seconds here n there…
May write something later -but quaid is a special guy and an actor
This simple alright film has made me rate him higher now
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June 22, 2012 at 5:10 PM
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June 22, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Gangs of Wasseypur and Teri Meri Kahaani Fail to Strike the Chord at the Box Office
June 22nd, 2012 by Mukul Kumar Sharma
Two of the most awaited films of recent times hit the theaters this Friday. However, it seems highly unlikely that either of them are going to do some good business at the Indian box office. While it’s too early to predict the precise predictions, the opening day occupancy gives us a clear picture of what the coming weekend might have in store for the films.
Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur had a pretty dull start with a mere 10-15% average occupancy rate all over the country. A movie, which was much hyped about in recent times, it seems the hype was just not enough. The situation at single screen theaters was worse than that of multiplexes. Compare it to recent releases Shanghai and Ferrari Ki Sawaari and you will know it had one of the worst openings of recent times.
The other release this Friday was Shahid Kappor and Priyanka Chopra‘s Teri Meri Kahaani. Now we know Anurag Kashyap’s flick might not have been for the masses but this is one movie which was sure expected to have a better audience connect than the former. The movie had a better opening day than that of Gangs of Wasseypur but was still way below expectation. Teri Meri Kahaani opened to a low 30-35% average occupancy rate in multiplexes. Now, it seems Shahid is all set to break his last flop Mausam‘s record as even the latter had a 50% opening, which in turn was way better than Teri Meri Kahaani. I really don’t know whose’s Kahaani it is but it sure can be termed as “Shahid ke Flop Ki Kahaani”.
Both the movies will pick up on collections during the weekends but I wonder what are the figures they will be needing to recover the loss of the opening day. It seems highly unlikely that any of these will leave a mark at the Indian box office.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Man, TMKs poor collections is a surprise
Am due to watch it tomorrow/Sunday–am wondering if it may get taken out before that ? Lol
In absolute numbers, are we seeing the possibility f GoW outgrossing TMK ? Difficult bit not impossible …
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June 22, 2012 at 5:27 PM
Saw TMK what a pathetic movie. Point is the romantic genre is just not clicking with the masses as well as suprisingly even the classes now , even ladies in the theatre seemed bored of the movie and when I saw RR few weeks back ladies and families at large were enjoying the same. Masala genre is here to stay and it seems to have broken the mass class divide for now.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:33 PM
Hmm interesting observation there dino
About this breakdown of the ‘mass-class’ divide…
So is ‘romance’ out of flavour?
Let’s see what happens when the yrf-SRK-Kat film releases …
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June 22, 2012 at 5:39 PM
when a genre outlives it’s ‘sell by’ date it can nonetheless survive as the ‘exception’. Specially when you have the Yashraj/SRK combo you can tweak it a bit and feed off the nostalgia. In the absence of a strong product this is never enough to set the highest box office benchmarks but it can nonetheless be a moneyspinner on its own. The really ‘key’ decision here is Rahman who adds a certain coolness quotient to this otherwise stale enterprise. And who can of course get people to the theaters too. I would probably see this just for the album!
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June 23, 2012 at 3:55 AM
yeah alex romance just seems out of flavour and when classes the main market for such movies seem to be shunning it it is sign of things to come. I am very keen to see whether SRK/Yash combo is able to spill magic again looks difficult though.
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June 23, 2012 at 4:57 AM
Ha dino- btw will you be seeing the SRK-yrf film and if so, due to which ‘reason’
Which are your favourite stars btw …
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June 23, 2012 at 9:07 AM
Hi Alex would watch it for Katrina for sure. As for the stars I liked Abhishek couple of years back as of now Akshay is on my fav list alongwith Aamir ofcourse.
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June 22, 2012 at 5:45 PM
“I would probably see this just for the album”
🙂
Lots of people will say it for lots of different reasons
Some will also see it for katrinas overcoat or srks guitar or anushkas snooty helmet !!
Bit whatever may be the supposed reasons, lots will see it…
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June 22, 2012 at 5:47 PM
-I think this latest ‘masala’ craze is more a ‘southern remake’ trend than just ‘masala’
Had mentioned this after rowdy rathore…
For a person with no experience of south Indian films, tese movies TELL such a naive viewer why the south Indian actors gets temples/roads on their names
Theres a certain ‘different treatment’ that elevates the mere hero into a demigod sort of persona perhaps ..
Unsurprisingly even cigarettes shooting gimmicks acquire cult legendary mega status…
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June 22, 2012 at 5:53 PM
Talkin of the SRK Kat film
Some,latest pics
SRK costing upto Kat …
http://photogallery.indiatimes.com/celebs/indian-stars/shah-rukh-khan/on-the-sets/articleshow/14335488.cms
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June 22, 2012 at 6:03 PM
Now this is very disappointing news …
Big B has no time for Shirish Kunder’s next
Director Shirish Kunder was on cloud nine about having Amitabh Bachchan play the lead role in one of his upcoming projects, Common Man. However, as Amitabh doesn’t seem keen to start work on any long-term project at the moment, it seems, Shirish’s “dream project” is up in the air.
disappointed Shirish tells us, “I don’t know when Common Man will happen. He (Amitabh) is not doing any major films right now. It may be because of his health.” The senior Bachchan had signed the film in December, agreeing to play the title role.
Shirish is presently busy wrapping up his ambitious project, Joker, starring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. The director had planned to start Common Man right after, before moving on to yet another film by the end of the year — Kick, with Salman Khan in the lead.
Shirish adds, “I had started working on the film, but now I have kept the whole thing aside. It’s not just a song or a cameo for which I would need him for four to five days. It’s a full-fledged film.” It seems he had even started casting for the film, but has put that on hold as well for now.
Now that this has thrown Shirish’s schedule out of gear, what is he doing with his free time? He says he is busy writing a suspense thriller, which will be “futuristic”, on the lines of Joker. “When I start writing a script, it’s always ahead of its time. The good thing is, I take two to three years to finish a film. Had I made Joker six years ago, no one would have understood it,” says Shirish.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Big-B-has-no-time-for-Shirish-Kunder-s-next/Article1-876660.aspx
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June 22, 2012 at 6:09 PM
Amitabh has time to work in KBC, but not movies ? This is absurd. Frankly among all proposals Amitabh had right now, this one was most promising. Amitabh not sparing time for this movie is definitely a bad move. This movie could have been “A wednesday” or “Munnabhai” moment of Amitabh. All i know its a wonderful script and if well translated on screen, could be another milestone for Amitabh.
If he would chose Natsamrat or Sarkar 3 over Common Man, this is going to be a very big mistake.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:11 PM
Im nowadays not surprised by anything from bachchans lately …
Though I’m not sure if Kunder can come up with anything coherent
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June 22, 2012 at 6:23 PM
More than Kunder, such type of Scripts not written every day. Some one from my circle who have read this script was raving about it and was sure that this movie will be a big milestone in Amitabh career, if well made. Its on middle line of Munna Bhai and A wednesday .. though completely different.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:27 PM
Nowadays whenever a bachchan refuses a film, that film should become hot property and a sures hot success -some times even exceptional ones like Lagaan ..
Ps-here I think there are other reasons as well.
Not sure if SRK-Kunder fight is forcing many from associating with Kunder…
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June 22, 2012 at 7:03 PM
yes but Kunder is hardly Neeraj Pandey and he’s assuredly not Hirani! Don’t mind KBC though, it’s really been going from strength to strength every season.
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June 23, 2012 at 12:04 AM
Kunder has only JEM in his CV and it was good movie, at least it was quality product. And his approval of Common Man script is indication that he has senses to pick good script. And what Amitabh has done in last 2-3 years ? Teen Patti or some RGV movies ? Or substandard(Production values wise) BHTB ? As a fan i am expecting him to come in central role in well made movies. Common man could have been one such.
I am not much pleased about him doing KBC, he is not TV star. He is a big screen star, as a fan any day i would like to see him in one solid movie a year … rather than one KBC and 2 substandard movies. Instead of investing huge time for KBC, why not he invested time for choosing right movies ?
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June 23, 2012 at 12:11 AM
And more over, you must be aware .. he was first choice for Naseer role in A wednesday, but he refused and instead did slots to Bhootnath and Aag. This shows how much he has ability to chose good scripts. Refusing A wednesday was his Big mistake (among so many others), and refusing Common Man will be another big mistake. No wonder we will see Anupam or Naseer or Boman irani very soon doing this movie under some banner ..
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June 23, 2012 at 12:15 AM
“And more over, you must be aware .. he was first choice for Naseer role in A wednesday, but he refused and instead did slots to Bhootnath and Aag.”
Where did you get this info?? Wiki says
“After finishing the script, Pandey sent it to Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, who were his only choice for the two principal characters.”
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June 23, 2012 at 12:40 AM
“although film ‘A Wednesday’ that was initially offered to Amitabh proved beneficial for Naseeruddin”
http://movies.dcealumni.com/archives/naseeruddin-shah-says-he-gets-movies-rejected-by-bachchan/
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June 23, 2012 at 12:42 AM
Not only this .. He also rejected Shankar’s ROBOT ..
http://reviews.in.88db.com/index.php/movie/celebrity-gossips/3405-amitabh-rejected-shankars-offer
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June 23, 2012 at 2:58 AM
“Frankly among all proposals Amitabh had right now, this one was most promising”
i disagree yakuza – kunder can murder the finest scripts – looking at his track records and tweet-histories 😉
that man hasn’t got any thing to back him.
Big B is far wiser to understand this and he is right in choosing KBC over that
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June 23, 2012 at 6:13 AM
But compare it with Mahesh Manjrekar’s Natsamrat, RGV’s Sarkar 3 … i will prefer Shirish any day. And you are surely going to get surprise from Joker .. more over his only movie till date JEM was good.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:18 PM
He is bagging new endorsement deals. He is sparing four months for KBC. He has time to do cameos in craps like Department. But he don’t have time for one basic thing for which he is meant to be .. i.e full fledged role in entertaining movie.
Don’t know what he is up to.This is kind of movie which he himself should take pain for initiation .. otherwise no one is writing such roles and script for 70 year old man every day.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:46 PM
The great man is beyond working for his career @ this stage..
For the last few years (& more so specially now) is having to keep himself relevant for someone else…
Kbc is something he now can do on ‘autopilot’ mode and ensures reasonably good money without any unpredictability ..
As for their ‘script sense, have said this before.
Bachchan rejected films should become hit property…
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June 22, 2012 at 7:02 PM
actually I think it’s good news. I have a low opinion of Kunder’s skill set unless he completely surprises me with Joker. Did like the first 15 min or so of JeM though.
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June 23, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Shoojit Sircar To Direct Big B Again
by Soumita Sengupta (June 23, 2012)
It’s everyone’s dream, so it didn’t come as a surprise when Shoojit Sircar said in an interview that he wanted to direct Amitabh Bachchan. In fact, they did a film together, Shoebite, which is still in the cans. But it looks like Sircar’s dream willfinally come true. Sources close to the director tell us that he recently narrated astoryline to Big B and the latter has given him the green signal. Right now, Sircar is scripting the film along with writer Juhi Chaturvedi.
The said film, we’re told, is titled Garden House and it might also have Jaya Bachchan starring opposite the actor. Although Sircar is scripting the film, he will complete his next film Jaffna with John Abraham before he starts work on Garden House.
To get their comments, we sent Bachchan and Sircar a text message but they did not reply. But our source stands by this nugget.
http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/shoojit-sircar-to-direct-big-b-again/
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June 22, 2012 at 6:08 PM
Unrelated -for anyone interested..
Najat vallaud-belkacem: the new face of France
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/22/najat-vallaud-belkacem-france
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June 23, 2012 at 11:19 AM
agree with her trying to ban prostitution…..
I know its really hard/near impossible to stop it, but have to applaud her bravery.
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June 22, 2012 at 6:16 PM
TMK Reviews – Critics’ – 4/10
http://www.reviewgang.com/movies/306-Teri-Meri-Kahaani-movie-review
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June 22, 2012 at 6:16 PM
GOW – Critics – 6.5/10
http://www.reviewgang.com/movies/226-Gangs-Of-Wasseypur-movie-review
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June 22, 2012 at 6:32 PM
A ‘reviewer, by definition should be ‘qualified’ to revives a film
Most reviewers need some basic education to be allowed into GoW Screenings
And I’m saying this knowing fully well that –
A) the box office will not be much to write home about inspite of the niche audience loving it
B) inspite of knowing that most (including myself) won’t be comfortable with sme crass graphic violence here
C) knowing fully well that the sensibilities, lingo and the perceptions of the main ‘characters’ are far removed from any sort of identification from most urbane viewers commenting in it (including myself)
But the bottomline is —
True brilliance transcends (& should transcend) all these relative trivialities.
Ps– these reviewers should go and learn a few things from GoW
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June 22, 2012 at 7:04 PM
A heavy duty dialogue folks–
Whatta dialogue –applause !
Courtesy google
“zindagi bhi ek nasha hai dost
Jab chadhta hai to poochho mat
Kya aalam rehna hai
Lekin jab Utarta hai….”
🙂
came across this song from guide on telly..
Sd burman in full flow ( & running circles around the comspiracy theorists kn rdburman) and dev anand inspite of lip syncing errors is fine..
A gem of a song and moment …
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June 22, 2012 at 9:02 PM
So much of criticism about Indian critics here..not sure If it’s coz they are praising Anurag Kashyap’s film or Bol bachhan will be releasing soon and will be panned by these critics.
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June 23, 2012 at 12:23 AM
Ramu liked it..
Ram Gopal Varma
@RGVzoomin
Just saw Gangs of Wasaipur..Billiantly directed by Anurag..Manoj is simply superb and the film is visually arresting
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June 23, 2012 at 12:26 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani And Gangs Of Wasseypur Struggle On Day One
Teri Meri Kahaani and Gangs of Wasseypur disappointed on day one with poor collections with wide releases. Teri Meri Kahaani hit 1500 screens across India while Gangs of Wasseypur was 1000 plus which is huge for such a film.
Teri Meri Kahaani is looking set for a 5.50 crore nett first day with Delhi city and Punjab showing the best collections. Single screens across the country are poor
Gangs of Wasseypur is expected to fetch around 2.50 crore nett going by the early figures coming in. It has done very poor in Bihar where the film is set but neighbouring state UP has done better especially the multiplexes in the state. Gangs Of Wasseypur has also performed badly at single screens.
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4586&nCat=
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June 23, 2012 at 12:26 AM
Taran
“After a slow start, #GOW picked up dramatically in evening and nite shows. The jump in biz at several screens was phenomenal. @ankash1009 “
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June 23, 2012 at 12:28 AM
This is GREAT news….The reactions in FB and Twitter are superb and it confirms Taran’s information…
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June 23, 2012 at 2:01 AM
Pratim D Gupta
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120623/jsp/entertainment/story_15647097.jsp
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June 23, 2012 at 2:36 AM
Yakuza:” I am not much pleased about him doing KBC, he is not TV star. He is a big screen star”
I don’t agree. I think today he is bigger as TV star than a film star. In fcat as a TV anchor he is awesome and untouchable. Of course he is a good film actor too. But today he really needs special projects like Paa or Khakee to bring out the actor in him. and that happens about once in ten years,
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June 23, 2012 at 3:37 AM
But what happened to Shahid? Think he had a wonderful chance to choose great films after his role in Kaminey but he’s shattered his goodwill by doing crap films after another.
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June 23, 2012 at 5:02 AM
OT
Enjoy this musical piece from the earlier anna karenina
Tchaikovsky and Tolstoy – the giants in action
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June 23, 2012 at 7:16 AM
Gow going houseful !!!
http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/movies/gangs-of-wasseypur-runs-houseful-on-first-day_113926.htm
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June 23, 2012 at 7:18 AM
OT –
Depp and Vanessa paradis spilt ‘amicably’
http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/celebrity/depp-and-paradis-14-year-itch-1.1038032
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June 23, 2012 at 7:22 AM
Besides some nice tracks, liked paradis in
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June 23, 2012 at 7:28 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur First Day Territorial Breakdown
Saturday 23rd June 2012 13.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur collected 2.75 crore nett approx on day one. Delhi/Up was the best circuit with mass circuits having poor collection. The first day territorial breakdown is as follows.
Mumbai – 1.05 crore
Delhi/UP – 70 lakhs
East Punjab – 28 lakhs
West Bengal – 10 lakhs
Bihar – 5 lakhs
CP Berar – 11 lakhs
CI – 11 lakhs
Rajasthan – 13 lakhs
Nizam – 8 lakhs
Mysore – 13 lakhs
Others – 4 lakhs
TOTAL – 2.78 crore
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June 23, 2012 at 7:29 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani First Day Territorial Breakdown
Saturday 23rd June 2012 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani collected 5 crore nett approx on day one. The first day territorial breakdown is as follows.
Mumbai – 1.82 crore
Delhi/UP – 1.07 crore
East Punjab – 49 lakhs
West Bengal – 22 lakhs
Bihar – 10 lakhs
CP Berar – 24 lakhs
CI – 18 lakhs
Rajasthan – 31 lakhs
Nizam – 23 lakhs
Mysore – 27 lakhs
Others – 10 lakhs
TOTAL – 5.03 crore
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June 23, 2012 at 7:34 AM
Rock on director making the adaptation of Cretan bhagats ‘3 mistakes if my life’
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Leading-actors-refused-to-star-in-Kai-Po-Che/articleshow/14336395.cms
Ps_- has anyone read this bhagat book? Stay away from such stuff but this sounds interesting.aNy reviews?
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June 23, 2012 at 7:38 AM
The weakest CB book IMO
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June 23, 2012 at 7:36 AM
even if taking these number into account it surely just don’t justify the bull shit 8-10% occupancy and the notion that its not working on hindi belt …number itself contradicts the commentry
gow is on 1000 screens and shanghai on 1200-1500 range
have to say like shanghai they tried to kill the movie early and one knows why because they posses serious mechanism to star centric structure
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June 23, 2012 at 7:45 AM
Btw kashyap has got a John doe order for wasseypur
Is this the first Indian film getting it?
Anyone seeing it online?what does it entail?
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June 23, 2012 at 7:46 AM
Btw am mission minor somewhat
Seems he has taken a break from the 24×7 vigil 🙂
Maybe he’s finally heard my advice and has finally started some ‘action’
Hope he hasn’t got caught under the John doe … Hahaha
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June 23, 2012 at 8:27 AM
Typo -missing ^
Btw a cool interview with sneha khanwalkar-watch it folks
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June 23, 2012 at 8:39 AM
ROFL hilarious 🙂
Anurag kashyap meets Chris Nolan !!
The dark knight rises
In wasseypur !!
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June 23, 2012 at 8:52 AM
Gow not playing anywhere near…
Am being forced to watch TMK !!!
Keep on with your GoW reviews and support this good cinema..
Off to TMK 🙂
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June 23, 2012 at 9:37 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
Those asking, #GOW hasn’t released in Overseas. Hence, no Overseas data of the film.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#GOW *early trends* Fri figure should be 3 cr + nett.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
After a slow start, #GOW picked up dramatically in evening and nite shows. The jump in biz at several screens was phenomenal.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#GOW Saturday trends: Has picked up majorly at leading plexes.
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June 23, 2012 at 9:39 AM
GoW Finds Takers, TMK In Doldrums On Day 2
by Sagorika Dasgupta (June 23, 2012)
This week’s releases, Anurag Kahsyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur (GoW) and Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK) fared better on the day after their release than on opening day. According to distributors, Saturday was a more fruitful day for GoW, which found more takers due to word of mouth publicity.
Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “GoW has definitely improved on its second day compared to TMK. Though TMK did not have a great opening, the film has managed to collect around Rs 5.1 crore.”
GoW has sparked interest in the Delhi circuit too. Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says, “The business of Gangs… has improved quite a lot since yesterday and it is likely to do better over the weekend. As for TMK, since it’s a Saturday today, the film might attract the family audience. When you consider costs, GoW is doing better as it’s a cheaper film than TMK.”
In Kolkata, even though TMK took a better opening (20 to 17 per cent) due to its bigger cast, it did not manage to sustain itself. GoW did not open well (17 to 18 per cent) but has picked up some momentum. Debashish Dey of Aum Movies says, “The business of TMK has not been good, with the film’s collections dipping quite a bit since yesterday. On the other hand, GoW is doing well, and thanks to the positive reviews and word-of-mouth publicity, it is doing quite well.”
In Rajasthan, however, it is TMK that’s grabbing the audience. Sunil Bansal of Yash Raj Jai Pictures reveals, “TMK is a family film and the audience here has really appreciated it and this is translating into good collections here. Gangs… did not get off to a great start but business has improved quite a bit since yesterday. Both TMK and GoW are neck-and-neck, at 50 to 60 per cent collections.”
In Orissa, regional cinema rules, dampening the prospects of both Hindi releases. Jeetu Khandelwal of Movie Pioneers avers, “The collections of both Hindi films have not gone up. Since the weekend is here, we hope they will do better but business won’t be substantial as regional films always find a better audience here.”
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June 23, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Contains Many spoilers
[post created]
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June 23, 2012 at 11:22 AM
Looking forward to Cocktease and ETT myself
😉
Btw How much has Rowdy Rathore grossed till date?
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June 23, 2012 at 11:30 AM
I think RR has done 123 till now. Should finish around 130 but seeing as both new releases have not made many inroads at SS it could do even more.
Let’s see…
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June 23, 2012 at 11:34 AM
[Gangs of Wasseypu obtains John Doe order (historically first time before Hon’ble Bombay High Court) against unknown defendants (who can use piracy) Order 1 Rule 8, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 ]
Naik managing partner Ameet Naik with senior counsele Venkatesh Dhond, won an order from Bombay high court Justice BR Gawai today, restraining local cable operator Sonali Cable Vision Pvt Ltd and internet service provider (ISP) Spectranet Limited, and Mr John Doe (Ashok Kumar) standing for unknown defendants, from pirating the movie that will be released on 22 June.
Naik associate Anushree Rauta said: “This suit was a representative action, under Order I, Rule 8 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The cable operator and ISP impleaded in the instant suit represent the group of cable operators and ISPS’s in general; There is complete identity of interest amongst these defendants and the general body of persons whom they represent and/or are said to represent.
“The common interest in question is that these persons represent a group who may violate and/or infringe the copyright of the producer in the said film by telecasting/ uploading it or dealing with it in any other way prohibited by the Copyright Act. Hence it was necessary to implead names of cable operator and ISP as representatives of their group.”
http://www.legallyindia.com/201206152894/Litigation/bombay-hc-passes-first-anti-piracy-john-doe-order-as-law-firms-commoditise-the-new-vertical
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June 23, 2012 at 11:51 AM
Rangan on the meaning of Ghajini’s 100 crore benchmark:
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June 23, 2012 at 1:07 PM
amitabh bachchan blown over by Gangs of wasseypur…and went gaga over it …https://twitter.com/srbachchan/status/216574170333593601
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June 23, 2012 at 1:19 PM
Great to see Bachchan praising GOW & Kashyap! I wonder if Kashyap could be less petty from now on…
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June 23, 2012 at 1:27 PM
The great one has also praised Vicky Donor, Paan Singh Tomar and Kahaani. He’s got terrific taste, which is not surprising at all…
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June 23, 2012 at 1:42 PM
And the great AK did not even think it necessary to invite AB to screening of GOW where even dildos like ranveer singh and ranbir kapoor–sorry Saket; I copied your phrase–found seats!!!
If AB can tweet this — (if this is the genuine AB id that is) after such massive humiliations from AK, only speaks for AB’s greatness!!
And AK accusses of pettiness on this blog!!
Wah ri duniya – Oh ri duniya
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June 23, 2012 at 1:51 PM
Yes, it is the genuine AB id on twitter. AB has about 3 million followers on Twitter and his account is verified.
AB is gracious to everyone in contrast to many wannabe “great ones”. I have seen him praise people on twitter/blog who have been rude or unpleasant to him and his family or in my opinion totally undeserving of praise (Katrina). His only airs his grievances against the media publicly.
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June 23, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Ann jo pls dont assume things.how do u know ak didnt invite the bachchans?
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June 24, 2012 at 12:13 AM
I think I have less repect for AK if he invites AB after having such a low opinion. I think in most likely case AB doesn’t know about AK’s opinion.
If I have a low opinion of AK doesn’t mean AK is a bad guy. It is just my opinion.
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June 23, 2012 at 2:12 PM
But note in a certain sense how Bachchan’s praise (though genuine on his part) is even more demeaning for Kashyap than Bachchan’s ignoring of the film would be let alone dislike. Because there is a certain asymmetry here. The attitude where one maintains a certain ‘class’ irrespective of how others act is commendable but when one is in a far more privileged position the ‘generosity’ invites resentment. Abhishek is an even better example here. With Amitabh Bachchan no one disputes his gifts and accomplishments and so on. But when Abhishek is generous in the same way, praising many of his peers quite effusively or always maintaining a certain poise and so forth, this is not just seen as ‘creditable’ by the others even though it is of course so in a literal sense. Because this very magnanimity is seen as the ultimate sign of his privilege. Because only someone like him could be so ‘above’ the competition because his status in terms of his very unique signature is always safe. Other stars can be bigger than him, more successful than him or whatever but they cannot quite become ‘Bachchan’ no matter what they do. In other words when he is magnanimous he is also saying ‘I am not really bothered by the fact that you guys are doing better than me’. Now part of it is true owing to simply his nature. He’s not the resentful sort. On the other hand there’s this other side of it as well which is that he probably doesn’t aspire to the same ‘kind’ of success in any case. Which is to say he’d like to be very successful but not as the guy who just does Krrish or the Guy who just does Houseful or the guy who just does Ready and so on. That is simply not his goal leaving aside what box office realities force him to do.
But also the name matters because everyone else is invested in it too. This is not just about being the potential inheritor of a great star’s name but operating on a ‘site’ that is now even greater than the star in terms of its potency. Much as the name Shakespeare isn’t simply equivalent to that of the playwright who wrote so many legendary plays. It is an event that means much more. Even if Bachchan is the star who helped launch an event the latter is now greater than the sum of his achievements. So every star since Bachchan tries to occupy that site. In other words (and with the exception of Aamir) it is not that they want to be the top stars, they want to be so in Bachchanesque ways. Which is a very different deal. and here Abhishek’s presence keeps reminding them that the path is blocked in a very literal sense even if they remain more successful than him! He is the placeholder as certainly as a crown prince even if ‘incompetent’ is nonetheless the heir! You don’t ‘earn’ this position. But where Abhishek complicates things is by being on the one hand a worthy heir (acting in the Ratnam films, getting extraordinary praise in them barring Raavan, many other directors of note celebrating him etc) and on the other hand being an unworthy one (compromising on his box office success of course but more crucially being not his father’s son in key performance choices and so forth). All of this could be a larger discussion but Abhishek is always seen as the potential heir. When others succeed it is only about them. When he succeeds it is also about the retriggering of the Bachchan archives. Not for nothing is Rohit Shetty’s film called Bol Bachchan! From RGV to Shetty very many directors intuit the connection even when they don’t actively theorize it.
And so because of this structure the whole generosity bit even when genuine can be resented. Because unless you always had the status of an exception you wouldn’t quite be as comfortable with ‘being behind’ even with different goals and aspirations. To be clear I’m not saying he’s not a nice guy but the ‘niceness’ acquires certain charged overtones when he’s also a Bachchan. This happens with the media too. They write awful stuff about him and it’s like ‘I don’t care’! It happens with the audience too, they want the gym body or at least a certain definition of fitness, they want him to follow what every other star is doing in terms of the trends of the age but he often goes militantly in the other direction! But he can’t be rejected the way a Govinda would be if he did all of this because he is still superior in terms of class to the audience! Or most of it!
Getting back to Bachchan when he does this it’s not quite the same for the reasons I’ve pointed out but still there’s a universal structure here — resenting someone for their words or acts and expressing this is far more satisfying to the hostile interlocutor than ignoring them! In every situation. Irrespective of who is in the right or not. This is what drives the right into hysteria with respect to Obama. That he simply will not lose his cool or crack in any sense! So when Bachchan says ‘I love GoW’ he is also saying ‘I love GOW, the director did a great job, as for what he says about me or my son or whatever I am too big to even deign to respond to it’! This is often the perception on the other side when there is asymmetry. It’s obviously worse with Abhishek but nonetheless part of the same structure. To respond to something is also to concede one has been wounded. To act ‘indifferently’ is to say ‘you will never have the power to wound me’!
But Kashyap should respond to this with grace on twitter. Incidentally Bachchan follows Kashyap on twitter anyway. Abhishek might too. I don’t know.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:03 PM
what is the problem with the NRIs?why do u guys mythologize India and bollywood?why do u…(against all the indications to the contrary)…… people it with gods and demi gods?Bachchans……and kapoors and whatnots!
it is very much like..when a man is living in a village…no electricity,no dispensary…no shopping malls…no tv…no sanitized place to shit even…. he is fucked up and wants to get out of the shit hole! But once he is out…he starts creating and convincing himself with myths about the romantic village life.taazi haava….gaanv ke geet….aur natural beauty aur maati ki khusbuu and all that joke!
the NRI fascination with bachchan and other indian stars and star kids is psuedo….very similar to that village analogy i gave.
that is one reason why kashyap’s films never get released outside india.he has zero market amongst the NRIs.y?because his films and his notions and comments about life in general and about bollywood in particular dont pander to those daydreams.
bachchan became great becoz of his talent…..fullstop……and if Abhisekh lacks that talent he is gonna disappear…bachchan kid or not is immaterial.Pls stop myth making and lets talk real and sensible.
Amitabh complimented Anurag becoz he saw great talent in his film………… and he knows that he is amitabh today becoz of his talent and the only currency which matters in the scheme of things and will always matter is talent..and he acknowledged its presence in anurag and clapped.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:09 PM
thanks for talking about desi and nri’s but again kashyap is revering more recognition from nri film festival and with due respect to rural set up’s this is not about modern rural india but one of 40’s that to with fiction
please watch satajit ray’s pather panchali to know about true presentation of a rural set up or mahanagar for life of trouble middle class in metro’s
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June 23, 2012 at 3:16 PM
first of all, and as I’ve said before, you need to RELAX!
The rest of your statement is too extraordinarily incoherent to warrant a response. In just about every sentence you frankly don’t know what you’re taking about. But then one should expect this from someone who says the following:
[Just saw one of the greatest movie ever made by an Indian…Gangs of Wasseypur.A subversive history of India from 1947 onward depicted through the story of a small town of wasseypur.The oldest and the fondest of man’s folly LUST FOR POWER… unabashedly shown dancing naked through the streets and into the minds of everyone……
Every single scene of the film is nuanced and has a link to a psychological or philosophical concept(no wonder the idiot reviewer Rajeev Masand said the movie merits a second viewing for someone to appreciate its nuances better).The movie is bristling with intelligence and introspection. A veritable tour de force of cinematic excellence….a riot of metaphors…..black humourous…..snake eating its own tail(paradoxical) drama .u can call it an allegory,a satire,hyper or magic realism or simply a work of sheer and obscene genius.
Tarantino appears like a candle before the blazing sun of kashyap.
This film is a Don quixote….a Moby dick……a Gargantua and Pangruel…a Tristam shandy…… A hamlet, an Ullysses ….a Tin drum…a Trial….a Notes from underground…..an Outsider…..a Waiting for godot….a Hundred years of solitude…a Midnights children……this movie is truly an epic!]
So again let’s take a deep breath. for someone who doesn’t like myths and gods your statements on Kashyap could have fooled me!
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June 23, 2012 at 3:17 PM
and ya india is not bollywood dear but even in india do you even have the audience for this rural set up ( most of the revenues comes from multiplex auduence that to being just less that fraction of real audience)
be practical and you are correct about talent…without talent no one survives for a decade that to in economics of film industry…there will be fan or hate rant always
but i do find rom com as the cheapest genre …to each his own
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June 23, 2012 at 8:43 PM
Note how AB’s compliment to AK inspite of being accused of nepotism and pettiness suddenly becomes a very simple, matter-of-fact statement – as though it doesn’t even warrant a discussion! Nothing great about this act, right? But, if he were to have simply ignored GOW or even mentioned a very ordinary approval of the movie, all hell would have broken loose!! (Statements like – AFTER SO LONG THERE IS ONE FILM-MAKER WHO HAS BROKEN BOUNDARIES AND HAS BROUGHT LAURELS FOR INDIA FROM ABROAD AND SUCH would be floating around on those fans (the blind and biased ones I mean) of AK). And those of us who are against such blind worshipping of this ‘rebellion’ end up being labeled ‘NRIs’ or worse – women!!
I think this should be considered a classic example of SUBVERSION!!
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June 23, 2012 at 1:15 PM
Saw GoW – a pretty Good film except awful Voiceover in the beginning and some good old self indulgence Soundtrack was awesome with keh ke lunga and bihar ke Lala as best tracks. Film has some of the most romantic moments i have seen onscreen. Richa Chada as Nagma was my favorite performance
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June 23, 2012 at 1:22 PM
More than the ‘insane’ praise for the film — twitter has gone bonkers over the film — I’m happy for Manoj Bajpai. He’s a great actor and deserves every bit of success. And so does Kashyap…his rants could be way off or on the mark, it doesn’t change the fact that he’s a very very talented director.
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June 23, 2012 at 1:30 PM
Talent is something so obscene….[edited]
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June 23, 2012 at 1:48 PM
Sachin, don’t get out of control when you’re putting up comments.
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June 23, 2012 at 1:51 PM
sorry….
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June 23, 2012 at 1:36 PM
You think Amitabh Bachchan is any less talented, you moron?
Normally, I wouldn’t get this offended with someone’s lunacy, but you Sir, are obnoxious as hell!
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June 23, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Man, satyam edited the comment just as I was responding 🙂 ha ha ha
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June 24, 2012 at 12:57 AM
lol
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June 23, 2012 at 2:14 PM
wasnt very interested in watching GoW, but happened to see Dev.D on netflix yesterday and really enjoyed the movie. I must say I have been avoiding AK’s movies because of the things he says but got the impression he is a really good director. Unfortunately, from what I know GoW is not playing in the US.
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June 23, 2012 at 2:47 PM
I’ve liked most of his films if not all. But I have also felt that he needs to move on and make a truly important film. A true talent always outgrows his (or her) older self. Perhaps GoW being a more ambitious film does this. I don’t know, haven’t seen it.
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June 23, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Satyam, Is GoW a good film? yes it is. Is it a truly important film? Not at all. i have to say that Black Friday and to some extent Gulaal remain his only ‘important’ works. But i am sorry for you and GF that u guys would not be able to catch it in theatre (it has to be seen on the big screen. and if someone’s mother tongue is Hindi and if he/she hails from North India it’s even better bcos the dialogues are very well written). This film deserves write-ups from you, GF,Q, Abzee etc.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:01 PM
yeah certain kinds of films should only be seen on the big screen. A DVD isn’t a good enough substitute.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:11 PM
Also i wanted to make an important point. Kashyap, who has a condascending attitude towards ‘masala’ films of bwood, ironically uses enough tropes of revenge films of the masala genre. there are scenes which have tongue-in-cheek references Bachchan’s films. And then there are some scenes paying direct homage to Bachchan- a particular one where one character, in the theatre, is shown watching Bachchan’s kick-ass opening scene of Trishul. the shadow of AB and masala looms large over the film
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June 23, 2012 at 3:17 PM
I’m so glad you said that Saurabh.. it’s a shrewd point. Coincidentally earlier I got this note from someone:
[btw, how’s this for psychology — bajpai’s son in the film is a huge fan of bachchan; bajpai’s own name in the film is “Sardar” (oh, what will one letter do? 🙂 — need anyone say “abhishek”? Not to mention that Sardar is himself a son, since the whole film is his revenge drama for his own father’s death. Bete, European cinema ki kitnee bhi baaten kar lo, one cannot will influence!]
which confirms my idea that the Kashyap psychological issue when it comes to Abhishek is a rather ‘tangled web’! As Saket says it’s absurd to blame one person for all of Bollywood’s ills. Since I don’t think one is consciously that absurd what does this absurdity then mean? One’s statements always reveal more than one intends to!
Having said that Kashyap has never said anything against Bachchan himself. At least not anything I’m aware of. But (and this is important) from the blogosphere to the media Abhishek has always been a stand-in for his father, precisely because of the ‘site’ (signature). Or Abhishek is where his father becomes vulnerable in a sense. Couple this with the larger media/trade hostility towards Bachchan (even at his very peak) and you have a relatively constant thread of negativity. The question then is: what does the angry young man represent that he so disturbs the bourgeois establishment? Abhishek is in this sense the ‘return of the repressed’ much more than Bachchan’s own self for more than a decade now. The latter is now ‘normalized’ as India’s most transcendent brand-name. He doesn’t disturb anyone. Abhishek on the other hand with many of his choices on and off screen very much does so. I am not really talking about talent and so on here but the configuration of a site of meaning. But even in a box office sense from the same blogosphere to the media the most common approach toward Abhishek has always been one of a ‘denial’. So when he was doing well the numbers were often deflated and/or others were supposed to be responsible for the successes. When he failed these were his own. People don’t mind praising him for this or that performance as long as he can be denied as a structural threat! Here the important question isn’t whether one is a fan of Abhishek or not, likes him or not at any level. It;s completely fair to be on either side of this divide. But the institutional narrative is a different thing altogether.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:20 PM
and godfather never had the generation change revenge style lol…
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June 23, 2012 at 3:21 PM
@saurabh……kashyap does that….. much in the same way tarantino or leone made fun of the cowboy westerns in their films.kashyap is making fun of the whole romantic notion which actuates a masala movie maker.Presence in his films of those masala elements are as spoofs or caricatures of reality…something to laugh at!And if u look deeply…..all masala ..sentibaaz movies r INFACT caricatures of what is real..and MUST be laughed at!
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June 23, 2012 at 3:26 PM
But Tarantino and Leone aren’t making fun of the original films at all. Theirs are affectionate tributes in ‘mock’ fashion. Which is a completely different deal. And I think Saurabh’s point here is that Kashyap is doing the very same. Even without seeing the film I’m quite sure he’s right.
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June 23, 2012 at 3:56 PM
affectionate tributes or unaffectionate tributes doesnt matter.what matters is the mock style.and the reason why mock style has to be invariably employed is because the director knows that his audience is more enlightened(than the audiences which watched the westerns or masala movies)…..and he is through the mock style subverting the ethos and the aesthetics of the former kind of movies.for example what do you think cervantes did in don quixote?he wrote quixote at a time when europe was full of heroic novels and ballads…..example orlando furiosio by arisoto(italy).so cervates subverts it by writing a mock heroic novel…in which quixote is a mock hero.it doesnt matter whether don quixote was an affectionate or dis affectionate tribute to orlando furioso or not….the question is not relevant.what matters is that it subverts the earlier brand of fiction writing.similarly…if kashyap is influenced by masala movies….it is to subvert it….same with tarantino. whereas saurab was talking as if…anurag is influenced by masala films in a manner to imitate it(which saurabh found ironical as AK has time and again criticized masala flicks)……
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June 23, 2012 at 4:18 PM
I don’t agree with that reading at all. Cervantes loved those older epics. But he faced precisely the problem Leone did and Kashyap does. When one comes at the end of or ‘after’ a rich tradition there is no possibility to simply ‘imitate’ things. One has to adopt a very different tone. If the work is rich enough it stands in its own right, otherwise it fades with time. The other point that must absolutely not be missed here is that the ‘mock’ attempts are also about a certain ‘loss’ — the idea that a certain transcendence has vanished from the world. Your sense that somehow these later guys are more enlightened or the audience is more enlightened and cannot accept the more mythic or transcendent framework of the older films is a stunningly poor reading of everything and not one any of these latecomers would endorse. Leone loved all the Hollywood Westerns. He was soaked in them. Every other shot of Once upon a time in the West references a classic shot from an older iconic Western. The same with Tarantino who ranges from everything from Leone to Lady Snowblood and so on (though with him my criticism has often been that his ‘mock’ attempts are beside the point.. some of that tone is already there in the original films.. in other words you cannot out-Leone Leone!). So on and so forth. No one can do an angry young man anymore in that ‘straight’ sense. There has to be a minimal distance established and the ‘mock’ element results from this. It is exactly the opposite from what you’re suggesting. These latecomers are worried that they will be seen as simply imitative! Not interesting enough as readers. And hence a certain ironic distance has to be created (which I have politically problematic in other contexts).
Cervantes is not the best example here. He is too titanic a figure but he too moves away from the mode of medieval romance and more or less invents the novel. Note how he does not try to create the ultimate romance. Not because he thought the latter were silly but because he knew it was too late in history to do this. The idea that he’s simply making fun of these romances is bizarre. So much of his novel is about a certain nostalgia.
In general you’re completely confusing satire and irony with a more banal ‘mocking’ of something. In Jhankaar Beats there are wonderful mock references to SHolay including the extraordinarily hilarious “how did the Thakur eat?” (the guy has his hand behind his back and tries to pick up the condom packet with his teeth!). This does not at all mean that the director is making fun of Sholay or somehow trying to be ‘enlightened’ about it! Yes it is subversion but the best and richest subversion always involves a certain genuine and authentic tribute. You don’t do it by starting off with the position that the earlier work is ridiculous and needs to be mocked!
The timeline once again is important here. It is only at the end of a tradition, when it has been exhausted, when nothing new can be produced from it that the mock attempt even becomes legible. You have a profoundly incorrect sense of how these economies of influence and subversion operate. And I should add also a profoundly poor sense of how the original works operate and what they mean. If one’s criticism about a Desai film is that one guy cannot beat ten people one has not understood anything! Much as no serious scholar of Homar chides him for making Achilles so unimaginably strong! There was Pope’s mock epic (Dunciad) but no one loved the Iliad more than him!
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June 23, 2012 at 4:04 PM
pls note saurabh says ironically.if saurabh meant that kashyap subverts masala movie elements in his films…he wud not have found it ironical at all.it becomes ironical only when kashyap is influenced by masala films(not to subvert)…but to imitate them.only then it becomes ironical..because kashyap has often hated masala films.
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June 23, 2012 at 4:23 PM
“because kashyap has often hated masala films”
or so he says! I actually don’t believe this at all. I’ve not come across such a statement from him but even if he’s said it I don’t buy it. His is a classic case of the ‘anxiety of influence’! In fact his whole ‘keep it real’ refrain has its roots precisely in the fact that he has been soaked in masala cinema. To avoid the influence he has to move in a very different direction. Not to say he doesn’t have auteurist interests but the psychological elements are important too. Of course these things can never be completely repressed and hence the clues come up in some work or the other! Not saying his stance is invalid by the way. There are many like him in the history of every art. Such projects are not invalidated by any means. But it’s not entirely about ‘choice’ either. The question then isn’t about the stance a Kashyap takes with respect to the masala tradition or whatever but whether he can as part of his project produce a film as extraordinary (and this obviously also means as ‘historically’ important) as some of those in the masala tradition. This is what the ‘agon’ comes down to. Artists struggling with older figures or models is nothing new. Art is enabled this way. But matching the model, let alone surpassing it is a far more hazardous game!
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June 23, 2012 at 5:09 PM
“Not because cervantes thought the latter were silly but because he knew it was too late in history to do this”
……how did he realize it was too late in history to do it?walter scott wrote excellent..best selling romances …rob roy,ivan hoe,waverly,etc….200 yrs after cervantes died.vikram seth wrote a victorian style novel “a suitable boy”…100 years after the age of victorian novel died.
who creates history?men do..and not vice versa.
when u say….” When one comes at the end of or ‘after’ a rich tradition there is no possibility to simply ‘imitate’ things. One has to adopt a very different tone”…it implies as if history determines how art changes….but my above examples have shown that it is not so.man changes history.william shakespeare in his play hamlet….talks about issues which r existential….300 yrs before notes from underground by dostoevsky announced existentialism to the world.and nietzche to sartre(in philosophy)….and kafka to camus in literature) formulated and gave it shape.
it is always about a single man rebelling against the tradition which creates something new.
“No one can do an angry young man anymore in that ‘straight’ sense”……i m sorry to say but it is always done by an angry young man in the straight sense……the rest only obfuscate the matter and find newer and subtler and more sophisticated ways to imitate.
and i never confused satire or irony with vulgar mocking.pls dont attribute motives to me to prove ur point.and i reiterate it is immaterial whether leone or cervantes loved romances and westerns or not.the fact is that their art is such a powerful indictment of the genre that it changed the whole literary and cinematic tradition and that is the reason why they became path breaking.
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June 23, 2012 at 7:42 PM
the historical romances of Walter Scott are very far from the medieval romances that Cervantes was referring to. In any case wasn’t Cervantes right and Walter scott wrong? History has been on the side of the former! The Vikram Seth example again proves my point. It is historically irrelevant as are many writers who write in a 19th century vein, historic or otherwise. Which is not to say that the books cannot be interesting reads. Just that it’s beside the point to write as if a whole history of the 20th century novel never happened. And here the Zizekian idea is absolutely the right one. Once the revolutionary event arrives it reconfigures the previous history. It demarcates it in very different fashion. There is then no possibility of going ‘before’ the event.
I do not believe that men create history, at least not in that simplistic and ‘naive’ formulation.
I am not at all opposing ‘history’ and ‘art’ here. It is about where these terms overlap. History isn’t something out there somewhere. The important artistic work much like the important political event or the crucial scientific one creates its history or ‘reorders’ the prior one. For example Newtonian physics defined the world in one way, Einstein then changed this model. Newton wasn’t wrong but his model seemed limited after Einstein. It wasn’t just Newton but the entire history of a scientific discipline that changed with Einstein. This happens in every field. The great example rewrites everything. So history isn’t just a set of events or about a calendrical sense of time. It is more profoundly about the narrative one uses in the name of history. There is no ‘neutral’ history out there. It all depends on one’s references and once the revolutionary event happens the entire narrative is ‘reset’. Once Rahman comes about the entire field of Tamil film music (and actually Indian film music) is ‘delimited’ which is to say everything before him seems ‘traditional’. When Ilaiyaraja first came about the same thing happened. The older figure is not reduced by the newer one but once the latter comes about there is no possibility of (in this case) doing music like IR. That history is closed. One can still imitate say IR of the early 80s or whatever but the music even though enjoyable will be hopelessly ‘archaic’ in a historic sense.
On the rest the term ‘indictment’ is precisely the wrong one to use. It is hopelessly wrong! And you are completely confused if you think Leone is indicting older Westerns or Tarantino is doing this! If you just read a basic biography of each figure you’d discover this to be the case but even the films simply cannot be read as indictments.
But getting back to Kashyap I do not see him at all so far as a figure who’s historically important in any sense. He might become that one day but he is not there yet. Not by a long stretch. In Bollywood terms he isn’t even where RGV is (in terms of influence) forget anything else. And here I think a special project for those who’ve seen both parts of GoW ought to be a comparison with RGV’s Rakta Charitra. The one thing I will give RGV (and I’ve gone into this before) is that for all his missteps there’s a certain ‘problem’ that he sees with ‘doing cinema’ either in the traditional way or in a more auteurist mode. He’s constantly struggled with this and to this degree even his failures attest to that greater truth. Kashyap belongs much more to a certain film festival bracket. I like most of his films but he hasn’t altered any equations so far. I doubt very much that GoW will do this either. Much as I adore Che but this is not a ‘historic’ film in any sense.
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June 23, 2012 at 8:00 PM
Incidentally Bachchan has a whole post now on GoW..
Must say again this is a truly classy gesture..
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June 26, 2012 at 8:37 PM
Satyam, u were so right- Here is Kashyap himself announcing that GoW is a ‘masala’ film- “The film reaches out the most, of all the films that I have done. It’s like a bullet train of entertainment with all the important ingredients that makes a film a perfect Indian masala hit.”- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Anurag-of-Wasseypur-basking-in-the-glory-of-GOW/articleshow/14411757.cms
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June 23, 2012 at 5:02 PM
Thanks Saurabh — I will certainly be checking it out and hope to do a write-up.
Satyam’s comments here are insightful; while I won’t comment on Wasseypur as I haven’t seen it, I will say that any notions of “enlightenment” are rather ironic when one is speaking of Leone and Tarantino — the former only knows that his audience is late; the latter knows that decadence has been added along the way (a decadence he is party to, but how wistful Tarantino’s decadence is — in Kill Bill, the directorial eye’s need to believe in the transcendence of his muse Uma, a transcendence heightened by however bruised and battered she is along the way, is palpable). Note that this response to belatedness is, interestingly enough, the opposite of what Sachin says Kashyap’s is: in both Leone and Tarantino the response is to HEIGHTEN whatever Sachin would call “caricature” in the original. Thus, if one guy can beat up 10, in Kill Bill one woman will slaughter 167. That right there suggests to you that something other than mere mockery is going on. Or, stated differently, the real question to ask, if we must bring Leone and Tarantino into the conversation, is this: (assuming Sachin’s reading of Wasseypur is on the money), why does the form of Leone’s and Tarantino’s belatedness take the form of hyper-style, whereas Kashyap’s (but not only Kashyap’s) takes the form of DRAINING the “hyper” elements of style? i.e. Doesn’t this testify to the continuing survival of the (to me, rather sad) “parallel cinema” idea that “the realistic” is the only mode worth speaking of (although, I suspect that it is the urban reviewers’ ability to believe just about anything about places like Wasseypur that enables them to sign off on the film’s realistic credentials — a bloodbath?! why, over THERE it happens every day!)? I hope that is more Sachin than Kashyap (certainly the craziness of “No Smoking” features some of Kashyap’s best film-making): what I’ve always wished for Indian directors is the sort of liberation from (the tyranny of) “realism” defined in a desiccated way (not to mention: how realistic is realism? But that’s one for another day)…
I too find it hard to believe that Kashyap is as dismissive of masala as Sachin says he is — a purely dismissive stance is something like Om Shanti Om’s take on what “Southern films” are like. From the trailers, the very excess of Gangs of Wasseypur suggests to me that I will like this film, that it is NOT just an exercise in realism. That the urban reviewers accept it as such might instead be evidence of a prejudice: “it’s crazy out there!”
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June 23, 2012 at 7:24 PM
this is an excellent comment Qalandar..
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June 24, 2012 at 2:30 AM
I haven’t seen the film but going by the trailers and the reviews I don’t think Kashyap is offering any kind of take on genre at all. Instead I think this film rather operates on the tension between its protagonists, weaned on grand mythic narratives and its heroes, imagining their lives to be the same and trying to will it to be like those narratives and the reality of day to day life where far from murdering some one easily it is much harder to even open a door the same way or even stab a foe as easily. (a Hitchcock movie in which the hero imagines himself to be John Wayne.)
I think it has become standard for Kashyap to have these ironic constructions in his movies where he has these protagonists who are given these unoriginal macho energies to release on screen but the movie gradually shows up the gap between their self-images and the reality of the kind of effect their behaviour is having on those around him. I’d say both No Smoking and Dev D do this.
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June 24, 2012 at 6:09 AM
Arturu Belano: yes, but the irony works in another way also (and that might serve to tie Kashyap’s work to a “take on genre”, even if that’s not how Kashyap sees his work): the impact of the films in both cases (in Kashyap’s case, am thinking about Dev D, No Smoking, and perhaps Gulaal) is at least in part dependent on the traces of that John Wayne trope, or old-school masala “bigtime hero” movie trope, however refracted, that the ironic film preserves* — i.e., at least one irony is at the expense of the knowing, rebel filmmaker (case in point: there’s something far more compelling about Abhimanyu Singh than anyone else in Gulaal; or Bhiku Mhatre rather than Satya in Satya). Or, seen from the other side, since no artist can control audience reception, the later director cannot control either, “straight” consumption of the film by his audience; or the fact that an audience might feel liberated by irony to indulge its John Wayne urge all the more (since no one could possibly think we’re still naive enough to fall for John Wayne, we’re all the more free to consume it, guilt-free as it were — this perhaps goes to the larger political problem of post-modern, post-ironic “stances”, the old critique that knowingness, because we now see the ironies inherent in any political project or artistic genre, frees us up to continue AS BEFORE, only slightly askew…).
*[Kashyap’s films might not be ABOUT genre, but your point is a shrewd one, and a great insight into his work: his films are populated by characters who are about genre — thereby enabling the return (through the back door) of that which L’enfant terrible thought could be banished, namely the ghost of old-school, dishoom dishoom cinema (you’ve already noted the orgasmic reviewer reactions to the violence; to think that these people routinely foam at the mouth when talking about mindless beat-’em ups…)]
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June 23, 2012 at 3:00 PM
black friday was important but the guy stagnated and tgyib was weak imo and this is his commercial version but again ak in urban india has fan circle among torrent and dvd junta only
for a truly important movie again lot of things have to connect and he has the timed …. wishing better luck to him
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June 23, 2012 at 4:38 PM
Dev.D soundtrack was one of the best. It was appalling that it was not even not nominated by some of our popular award shows. It won National award.
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June 23, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Agree munna. I initially didn’t think much of it, but I have now heard it more than almost anything else over the last few years…
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June 23, 2012 at 2:32 PM
Just back from GOW. Insanely brilliant t is my word for it. Every thing that was wrong about Shnghai is right about this one. Bradwaj rangan;s review has said pretty much what I want to say about it. Have to see it again before writing my version ofa revew.
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June 23, 2012 at 2:45 PM
I await a longer piece from you. Regrettably it hasn’t released overseas so some of us can only wait for a proper DVD release. Ideally I’d love to see a roadshow version of it. Everything in one go!
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June 23, 2012 at 2:48 PM
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/trending-this-week/sex-and-violence-in-bollywood-coming-of-age-or-gratuitous/237008
watch from 5:50
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/mixed-reactions-for-i-gangs-of-wasseypur-i/237018
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June 23, 2012 at 3:59 PM
Just back from GOW Part 1 & barely started breathing…what a film !!….gripping, hugely entertaining & absolutely superlative in every aspect…definitely planning a repeat viewing next week, there is too much in the film to savour in a single viewing, frankly.
Incidentally I was the only one at Cinemax Vashi who stayed back after the end credits & watched the killer part 2 trailer !
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June 23, 2012 at 4:05 PM
Shubh, those Bachchan tweets have already been posted here.
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June 23, 2012 at 4:01 PM
This is for Alex! Was watching Jhalak…
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June 23, 2012 at 5:42 PM
here is a beautiful piece on anurag kashyap which brought tears into his eyes when he read them
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June 23, 2012 at 6:12 PM
Sachin, just checked out your blog….and got to know that u r a DoP who has worked with Jha, S. Mishra and Kashyap- Awesome shit! Great job man- I am so glad that someone like you is commenting here. And i am even more glad that u belong to Scindia (just like u I too belong to a boarding school of Dehradun called The Doon School- so i can somewhat understand your rebellious, individualistic thoughts. incidentally i have visited Scindia twice- the campus is huge and i love the fort).
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June 23, 2012 at 5:45 PM
Yo sachin: where’s your piece on GoW that u were talking about posting today?
Just back from TMK …
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June 23, 2012 at 6:38 PM
Teri meri kahaani -some random thoughts
> basically a decent one time watch if u like this genre and if u don’t relish this genre, don’t try it
> good for a date flick
Also showed me how easy it is to satisfy some young (female viewers)-including some who can’t even understand the language properly didn’t dislike it
> after the agneepath fiasco, my credentials among female company went up…basically don’t think any female can dislike it ..
> the three eras – well, the basic premise was interesting and the way they were ‘concluded’ was reasonable for films of this type and director
> ‘authenticity’ issue was quite weak.
Except the current era (!!) both older eras didn’t exactly look those and there were obvious errors …
In 1960, prachi wearing a deepika padukonesque shortish skirt and prancing around Bombay streets was a bit too much – though don’t have personal experience of that era..
Ditto for 1910-20 s era and
The depiction of these older eras was a bit amateurish and even picture postcard ish
In the pre independent scenes, most scenes seemed to have one person of each religion amongst the friends even if the total number of humans in a scene was three !!!
>predictability and cliched treatment was quite expected
The 1910-2o era was a bit too much for me though some may like it more ..
>preferred the current England era (!!) somewhat expectedly though There were issues galore and won’t even try to enlist them
>Actors
Shahid kapoor –surprisingly the FIRST shahid film I’ve seen fully and though he is not the best or a thespian etc, my assessment of him as gone up a notch.
Though he continues to suffer from a lack of gravitas and weak presence and still has a ‘side dancer’ hangover (from his past)
And a much much much bigger SRK hangover …
But he ticks all the basic requirements of a conventional bolly hero and can’t pinpoint any glaring weakness….
> Priyanka chopra is clearly the best all round commercial Bollywood actress currently all things considered!
Have said this before…
But perhaps she was a bit too much even for these three roles (!) having played multiple roles before lol
Also she has lot more things in her skillset so now has a tendency to show more than required and so there’s a need to tone down!
The number of times she acted coy and hid her face/mouth/ etc in (fake) shy coy behaviours was countless …
> but inspite of all this, both lead actors are fine by the current standards and amongst the better ones in all round ability …
If pushed, would rate shahid better than Priyanka in this film slightly (which is a surprise to me)
Though his Casanova of the 1910s was irritating beyond a point..Ps-on an unrelated note– found the England era girl quite cute -just checked her name is neha sharma…
> music was fine and par for the course and had a few hummable numbers-muktasar and alla Jane -standouts …
> would rate this slightly lower than hum tum ( have seen only bits of hum tum) and fanaa was much better ( but in fanaa , the lead actors team was more than competent plus with aamir at the helm things are different)
> basically the stage is set reasonably and even concluded well, but there’s no ‘movement’ in between and there’s a ‘ what the big deal’ here..once the multi era deal is set up, the (lack of) script, novelty and grip stares u in the face
But still- all the girls and some young guys will find it a good one time watch ..
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June 23, 2012 at 6:50 PM
Thanks Alex for ur views. And this is exactly what i am expecting from the film. And it’s a fine observation u made abt Prachi’s dress being implausible considering the era. And i am with on Pri Chops. But since i have heard the album, the best song easily is Sonu’s “Uff”! Some girls are forcing me to accompany them for the film (they start giggling as soon as they hear Shahid’s name) so might have to go…provided they pay for my 90 bucks ticket… 🙂
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June 23, 2012 at 6:59 PM
Ya minor-it’s a decent one time reasonable watch if u like the genre though…
If one dislikes the genre and still goes to watch it and then comes out making a long list of the issues (which are galore) , those sort of folks aren’t doing anyone a favor including to themselves lol
Watched it in a ‘similar setting’ multiple cocktail esque 🙂
If u go in with low /modest expectations, and don’t be a snob/auteur u will enjoy it
Needless to say that the gal(s) will like it…
(even if they don’t understand the language)
ps– my first shahid kapoor film
An overall reasonable actor with no glaring problems inspite of issues -read above
My curiosity now is -how do folks rate shahid to ranbir kapoor in an equalish good project..
Think shahid has made poorer choices in films
Ps2- wondering how shahid would have been in ‘rockstar’ instead of ranbir– what’s your views?
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June 23, 2012 at 7:19 PM
Also minor – so u are also being taken by some females to TMK..
I siggest that the other slight ‘tip’ here is that unless u r going as a date flick (or for other ulterior motives lol)
It’s better to go with multiplied females (atleast 2-3)
Otherwise things can get ‘tricky’ awakard in these sort of mushy films 🙂
Ps-do tell me of your (s) experiences on your return…. Lol
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June 24, 2012 at 12:50 AM
PC is a fine actress.. but i think she’s being criticized more than Shahid for her performance..
thanks for the well-articulated set of thoughts alex
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June 23, 2012 at 6:47 PM
Gangs of wasseypur -anecdotal report!
Don’t usually give them much weightage to ‘reports’
But some folks I know-someone into film making and another French person who occasionally dabbles into films —
Usually these are the MOST difficult to please people to the point of extremism including from some Hollywood biggies…
They’ve just conveyed to me some lavish praise about GoW and anurag kashyap..
I’m not surprised at all but do hope this momentum takes anurag kashyap to bigger heights…
He deserves it!!!
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June 23, 2012 at 7:10 PM
The rediscovery in TMK
Well, came across this actress in TMK -incidentally find her name is neha sharma and has done a film before (and that too with hashmi!!)
Obviously she can’t act etc but liked her nonetheless 🙂
Ok she’s done this song earlier, it seems
Nice song and gal…(ignore Imran hashmi folks)
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June 24, 2012 at 12:03 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani Has No Growth On Saturday
Sunday 24th June 2012 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani showed no growth at the box office on Saturday as collections were in the same range as Friday. The film collected around 5 crore nett on Friday and collections on Saturday were also around 5 crore nett.
The film showed slight growth at in the big cities while other places fell a little. The opening itself was low so when a film is unable to grow from a low level there is not much hope for it in the long run.
The film should do better on Sunday as families may give it a go but the film has little chance of sustaining from Monday onwards.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4592&nCat=
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June 24, 2012 at 12:28 AM
Coming back from GOW. First I went for today morning show, but got little late when reached theater, so get back home thinking will see night show. Went again for 10:00 PM show, Multiplex where I went first was surprisingly house full. I was cursing myself for paying car parking fee without checking availability of ticket. That area has 3-4 multiplexes around and show timings for GOW everywhere was at 5-10 minutes difference, so I went immediate next multiplex, there was again long queue and when I was in middle of row, I got shocking news that GOW is houseful and only TMK is available. However I know manager of multiplex, but I didn’t want to use relations just for fucking 2 tickets. I was about to back home, someone came from behind and asked me if I need some tickets, he had few tickets and due to cancellation of his plan, he wanted to sell them. I bought two from him and it was sigh of relief.
Show began at 10:40 PM, no need to say it was Houseful. Claps and whistle started on Logo of “Phantom” and “Smoking warning” sings itself. Kashyap gave signal even before movie start that this one is going to be fun filled ride. Yes, despite violence and crude language in its core and Revenge as its theme, movie is complete fun, thoroughly engaging and exciting. Story wise there is nothing new, it’s a simple revenge drama over generations. But treatment of subject is innovative, screen play is crispy and background score and songs take the movie to another level. Without action and non sense comedy, there was throughout claps and whistles on Dialogues and wit humor. Crude and abusive language is slowly getting accepted, otherwise I strongly believe movie could have done without it with equal overall effect. I am not going on details of story, overall I can say movie is innovative and brilliant in every department and biggest plus is masses are loving it. I can see audience enthusiastic over second part already, I would not be surprise if this movie turned out one of major grosser over coming weeks. I am expecting nothing less than 40 Crore for this one, the way I saw massive crowd and audience enthusiasm in my city, I am ready to take much bigger gross. And yes, movie has tremendous appeal for second watch. I am definitely going once more.
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June 24, 2012 at 12:57 AM
Thanks for your review Yakuza.. going by the audience reaction, Kahyap might have a winner here.. will do more than Shanghai, though the violence/language content will keep the families away
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June 24, 2012 at 12:59 AM
This was incredible how decades were symbolized by bollywood movies and stars. There were constant references of respective era by posters, songs and dominant star of that time. 70’s and 80’s was represented by Amitabh through out. There is clip from Trishul, dialogues from Deewar and full fledge song “Salaam-Ishq” in movie. There were huge claps when Bachchan entry scene from Trishul shown. Movie finish on end of 80’s era and in last, poster from Maine Pyaar Kiya was shown. Promo of GOW-2 begin with Khans era .. with name of movies like HAHK, DDLJ and Karan arjun and also second promo shows the combined dominance of Shahrukh and Salman in 90’s. Incredible !!
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June 24, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Actually one of the reasons it’s sad not to be able to see this one overseas is that one misses out on seeing that Trishul moment on the big screen!
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June 24, 2012 at 1:17 AM
Gripping gangster saga
The film Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 shows us a reality that Hindi cinema does not dare to
Aseem Chhabra
http://bangaloremirror.com/article/36/20120623201206232047449873f4904b7/Gripping-gangster-saga–.html
In the years I lived in India, and now during my brief visits, I have taken one trip to Bihar – to Patna, en route to Nepal, and two short excursions to Varanasi. And that is certainly not enough travels to know what people liberally refer to as the Hindi belt, the heartland of India.
On rare occasions, Bollywood takes us to that region, for instance in the over-the-top filmi and contrived reality of Prakash Jha’s cinema, where we are made to believe that everyone from Madhuri Dxit to Saif Ali Khan, Prateik Babbar and Katrina Kaif are daughters and sons of that soil.
Believing in what is reality can be a relative experience. I got a taste of that world in Paan Singh Tomar and the nearly two decades old Bandit Queen. Some of Vishal Bhardhwaj’s works have taken us to that part of India – in Omkara and the marvelous Ishqiya (directed by Abhishek Chaubey). But those two films, strong as they are, also have a sheen of popular Hindi cinema.
But in Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1, Anurag Kashyap grabbed my hands and all my senses and threw me into a world that I could barely imagine. The people I met in Gangs, (played by some of the finest actors in Hindi cinema) — their lives, words, language, humour, songs, husbands, wives, lovers, mistresses, anger, violence, sense of revenge, justice and their audacity to define their own laws, was all simply breathtaking. This is what makes Gangs a rare, compelling film. For the most part Gangs shows us a reality that Hindi cinema does not dare to do so.
Gangs is not a perfect film. One risk that Kashyap takes in his narrative does not pay off. The film’s opening – a long, detailed history of coal mining in Bihar and the mafia that it supported, is hard to comprehend. Too many names, characters, situations are thrown at us at a breakneck speed in Piyush Mishra’s voiceover narrative. I have seen the film twice – with English subtitles, and yet that opening section seems confusing, difficult to grasp.
And then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the film changes its tone and pace. We are introduced to the main protagonist – Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee in his a career high performance) and bang, Gangs becomes a totally different, gripping and thoroughly exhilarating film. From that point, Kashyap takes his time developing his characters, letting them breath, make their presence felt and it is a very enriching experience.
I take exception with critics who found Gangs slow or perhaps boring. I was riveted and wanted more. I certainly did not want the film to end, and I had already watched over two and a half hours of drama that I had rarely experienced in a Hindi film.
The last scene in Gangs Part 1 – very Godfather inspired – is so fantastic, that the promise of Part 2 left me with such a high expectations. I have not seen the preview of Gangs Part 2, as audience in India are getting to watch in theaters, but the idea of Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Sardar’s middle son Faizal – a Freddie Corleone-like character who is already showing signs of becoming Michael Corleone) taking charge of the narrative is very exciting.
That Gangs is an ambitious project is an understatement. Kashyap has created a grand saga that has the potential to measure well in comparison to Olivier Assayas’ Carlos trilogy, The Red Riding Trilogy (directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker), or even (I know this will enrage some film fanatics here) Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900.
I wish Kashyap had taken his ambition further. At times, Gangs Part 1 still feels rushed. But I believe that Gangs could have been a terrific mini series, populated with an even larger cast of characters – a violent, complex layered story, an alternative vision to the leisurely textured narrative of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (oh, how I wish some gifted filmmaker would adapt that book).
I want six plus hours of Gangs. I am really hoping the director’s cut DVD will give us that and perhaps more!
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June 24, 2012 at 1:50 AM
“I certainly did not want the film to end, and I had already watched over two and a half hours of drama that I had rarely experienced in a Hindi film. ”
Exactly my thoughts !
The trailer for part 2 was just brilliant…looks like Nawaazuddin ( Faisal Khan ) is going own Part 2. Part 1 ended on such a high with a fitting tribute to one of the most iconic scenes of the”Godfather. Probably the finest ensemble acting I have seen in a Hindi film in a long time…Jaideep Ahlawat ( Shahid Khan ), Manoj Bajpai ( Sardar Khan, outstanding & his best act along with Satya & Shool ), Tigmanshu Dhulia ( stunning debut act ! ), Nawaazuddin ( easily the find of last 2 years ), Richa Chaddha ( quite superb…finest female act this year along with Vidya in “Kahaani” & Parineeti in “Ishaqzaade” ), Pankaj Tripathi ( Sultan ) & a whole lot of others who were equally engaging.
Debutante Huma Qureshi seems to have that rare combo of beauty & brains… leaves a solid impact in a small role.. though she has a substantial part in the 2nd installment. Her scene with Nawaaz by the pond is a riot…one of the most endearing romantic scenes in recent memory !
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June 24, 2012 at 3:58 AM
Amitabh on GOW
This is sign of legend. Despite so many ill comments against AB, AB never bad mouth him and now today dedicated his blog post on his movie.
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June 24, 2012 at 7:11 AM
OT –
Anna Karenina: can it beat Les Miserables in the Oscars race?
Keira Knightley sucks in her cheeks and looks teary in this classics face-off against Anne Hathaway’s raw power…..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/21/anna-karenina-keira-knightley
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June 24, 2012 at 7:19 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur
I will start my review of the film by quoting from two other reviewers, one who got right and one who got it wrong.
The first one is Bardwaj Rangan: “ We meet this story’s villain, Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), and we steel ourselves for his showdowns with Sardar Khan, and for him to meet a most well-deserved end. This is how films have trained us. But novels, on the other hand, aren’t as bound to plot and protagonist. They can, on a whim, linger on descriptions of scenery, or on the misfortunes of a secondary character.”
The second is from Sudhish Kamat in The Hindu,’ You paid to watch revenge. What you get is a guy doing everything except that. Unfortunately, most of us still consume films as stories and as far as stories go, Gangs of Wasseypur I is a non-starter, a deceitful film that delivers none of the promise of that revenge.’
‘ Unfortunate’ is right. Because films are much more than stories. Personally I have a weakness for films that are weak in story: Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rockstar, all Eric Rohmer films .. just to give some random examples.
Coming back to Gangs of Wasseypur, it is a truly a film of epic proportions and not just because of its length. Rangan has invoked the names of Cervantes and Dickens, but I was thinking more of Marquez. Wasseypur , like the town of Macondo, is a place with a history. And Shahid Khan like Colonel Aureliano Buendia has a sprawling family tree whose fortunes and misfortunes we will follow in the course of the film’s narrative. The explosions in the distant coal fields, the grey skyline, the incessant rain , and the crowded market place with motor vehicles negotiating traffic precariously set the stage for the action. As is widely known now, there no good guys in the film. Wasseypurme in sab kaminey hain. Tht by itself is an interesting premise for a Hindi film. In a Tarantino film like Pulp Fiction you can have characters that are all on the wrong side of the law , and conventional morality. But not in a Hindi film, where even a smuggler like Vijaya in Deewar is given a reason for his criminality and a sheen of nobility in his personal life outside his professional criminality. But not so Sardar Khan played by Manoj Bjapai. It is a challenge for the director and the actor to make an audience engage with and root for such a character. Bajpai in his career best performance manages to pull it off. How does Kashyap and Bajpai do it? By humanizing the character with total honesty.
Like Marquez, Kashyap gives the sexual side of his protagonists its fullest due, without being coy about it. When Nagma refuses sex to Sardar as she is pregnant with his second child, he discusses his predicament with all seriousness thus, “ Now she has swollen her tummy with the second child. So how do I live?’ It is that important to him and he is serious. The way Kashyap captures the first spark between a man and woman that leads to passionate obsession eventually is without parallel in films. And this is supposed to be a gangster film! The way Sardar catches a glimpse of Ganga’s cleavage, which has been revealed not without design by Ganga , and the subsequent scenes capturing the f gradual establishment of erotic connection between the two, culminating in the charming and funny clothes washing scene is masterly. So is the scene between Nawajuddin ( Faizal) and Huma , first when he spots her in the wedding celebration and puts on his sunglasses and she follows suit seconds later, and later when they are sitting on a culvert and he touches her hand, and she admonishes him, “ Kya socha hai tumne. Permission lena chahiye na? When you enter someone’s house you ask first or not?’ These and all the lines in the film are remarkable for their authentic language, wit and insightful thoughts. Often out audiences laugh at the mere mention of a four-letter word in Hollywood film or a swear word in a Hindi film, mainly because they haven’t heard such words being used in films before. But not the case here. The forbidden words usage is there, but there is also much thought and truly great witticism. Take the line shot at Sardar by Nagma as she is feeding him dinner, knowing thathe is going to visit the other woman, Ganga, ‘ Khana to khaake jaoo. Taakat badhega. Baahar jake beizzat na karna.” So much relational dynamics and character attribute packed into these lines ! The sexuality of not just the male characters but also the female protagonists is explored in all its nuances. Nagma neglected by her husband , increasingly, lean son Piysh Mishra for emotional sustenance, which almost leads to sexual consummation, interrupted as they are by Nagma’s younger son discovering them. We have seen Huma delivering Nawajuddin lessons in how to conduct the act of seduction , laying down the ground rules.
I have spoken about Manoj Bjapai ‘s performance. But no less admirable is the amazing Richa Chadda as Nagma. The scene when she is delivering her child, as she sees Sardar returning from his paramour’s place, her face wincing in pain one moment and flashing in anger the next is up there with the best by any actress. Just the performance s by these two are the price of a ticket. But thankfully there si more. Performance by every single member of the supporting cast , Nawajudin as Faizal, Huma as his girlfriend, Piyush Mishra and of course Tingmashu Dhulia as Ramadheer Singh are impeccable.
The filming is first arte throughout. If Shanghai was a dictionary of details, this is a whole encyclopedia! The period train, the bags of grains, the living room and the furniture, the bathing place..everything is recreated with meticulous detail. But what is masterly is the way the air of danger and lawlessness that characterizes terrain of Dhanbad is brought out in every frame. The crowded narrow lanes where a car takes a turn almost grazing the other vehicle, the viscerally revolting interior of an abattoirs with chunks of flesh displayed in all their crassness, the arch with lauki creeper behind the bathing tap call for a second viewing so that one can absorb it all. I was so taken in by the solitary gait jumping about behind the culvert as Huma and Nawajuddin carried on their courtship. It was like listening to a later-day Beatles recording with all the sly audio insertions meant for interpretations by fans.
No appreciation of the film would be complete without mentioning the music and songs. Right after Dev D I had declared that Anurag Kashyap is the most inventive user of songs in films , even surpassing Mani Ratnam, who after initiating the new age of film music, had fallen into a rut, failing to evolve. Kashyap here is in full flow. If Kah Ke Lenge sets the tone of the film and Jiya Bihar Ke wraps it up, songs like I am a Hunter and Womaniya provide the delightful interludes. Full marks to Sneha Khanwalkar. But even more charming is the way Kashayp uses Bollywood song bits like Salam e Ishq ( performed in a falsetto by Yashpal Sharma), Kasam paidha Karnewaleki and Nayak Nahin Main Khalnayak Hoon. The allusions to films like Deewar and Trishul provide the pop culture context to the moral stance of the film , underlining at the same time the departure from the aesthetics and moral stance of those films.
So finally , does the film hints at anything beyond a rollicking 150 minutes of great entertainment ? It would be a great film even if it did not. But actually the more trying part of the film, the first30minutes of prologue does hint at what the film is trying to say. Paraphrased into simple language it is this: Extraordinary wealth creation by exploiting the resources of the earth entails great criminality. I was in Dhanbad in the 80s and know that it was a place where the fight as between the bad and more bad, because the god had abdicated its responsibility. Whether it was the British, or the Tatas and Birlas or the Indian Government who was in charge of the mines, no one wanted to dirty one’s hand with black stuff and they outsourced it to the thekadars for whom greed and violence was second nature. There Will Be Blood , in such a scenario. No one can prevent it. With today’s mining scams in places like Bellary, where even electoral fights are between bad and the very bad, the moral universe of GOW is not all that reprehensible or all that removed from reality.
Welcome to Wasseypur. Tulsi and her family are asking you in. ( Incidentally, what a start to an extraordinary film!)
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June 24, 2012 at 7:25 AM
thanks Utkal.. interesting read..
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June 24, 2012 at 7:38 AM
Satyam, it would be great if we could have a separate thread for Utkal’s review. Though i don’t completely agree with him, i found this a very well-written and entertaining read
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June 24, 2012 at 11:56 AM
“If Shanghai was a dictionary of details, this is a whole encyclopedia..”
Thank you for writing this writeup…it is superb as always…am gr8 fan of your writing! The feeding scene that you descibed was also in one another review I read. Can’t wait to watch this movie on big screen!
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June 24, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Great review Utkal. It was an exhilarating read. One may like or dislike GOW, but it wouldn’t be amiss to say a movie that inspires such poetic writings, here I’d like to add Rangan’s masterpiece, will go on to become a ‘classic’ in the annals of Hindi cinema. I very rarely venture to a multiplex to watch a Hindi movie, but after reading these two reviews I’m mad that it’s not releasing here in the US.
PS: AB profusely praising GOW and AK on twitter and his blog made me a little emotional. Knowing his history with AK, the ‘history’ created almost exclusively by AK’s frequent unseemly outburst against him and Abhishek, this act has increased AB’s stature even further. What a legend!
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June 24, 2012 at 7:27 AM
Thanx utkal uncle– not showing near me so had to watch TMK
Any good ideas for checking it online? Lol
Btw : how would u rate GoW compared to other kashyap films and other films of ‘progressive makers from India
I’ve heard excellent reports from some v hard to please folks …
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June 24, 2012 at 7:32 AM
Forget the gang violence and action
“Take the line shot at Sardar by Nagma as she is feeding him dinner, knowing thathe is going to visit the other woman, Ganga, ‘ Khana ….So much relational dynamics and character attribute packed into these lines ! The sexuality of not just the male characters but also the female protagonists is explored in all its nuances……We have seen Huma delivering Nawajuddin lessons in how to conduct the act of seduction , laying down the ground rules.” as always, u bring your indepth understanding of psychosexual contexts into this utkal uncle 🙂
Well done
Deserves a separate thread I think…
Ps-utkal uncle: haven’t seen the film but am impressed by the rich nuanced multilayered music seeped in the folk cultural rural ethos of that region–so much so that it sounds ‘folk music’ passed down generations
Excellent job by sneha khanwalkar
How do u rate the musc and the ‘songs’ …
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June 24, 2012 at 7:37 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur Makes No Headway On Saturday
Sunday 24th June 2012 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur made no headway at the box office on Saturday after a poor start on Friday. The film had very limited growth of 10-15% on Saturday.
The film collected around 2.75 crore nett on Friday on 1000 screens which gave meant it had huge potential for growth as occupancies were low but it seems the word of mouth is not too good. The collections on Saturday were in the 3-3.25 crore nett range giving it a two day total of 5.75-6 crore nett. The weekend of the film will probably stay below 10 crore nett which is poor.
The film showed growth of around 20% in the big cities like Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi but other places were similar or down. The could not even grow in UP or Bihar from a dull start even though it has local content.
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June 24, 2012 at 7:37 AM
Kanpur: Gangs Of Wasseypur Friday v Saturday
Sunday 24th June 2012 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur dropped on Saturday in Kanpur. It was a similar story in other centres of UP as well. Below are the Saturday collections from Kanpur with Friday in brackets for Gangs Of Wasseypur.
Big Rave – 64,544 (59,060)
Rave Moti – 99,814 (99,195)
Cinemax – 57,330 (73,690)
Inox – 67,338 (79,284)
Delite – 7,076 (10,920)
Gunjan – 8,200 (8,270)
TOTAL – 3,04,302 (3,30,419) -7.90%
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June 24, 2012 at 7:38 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#GOW *estimates* Fri 3.03 cr, Sat approx 3.5 cr to 3.7 cr. Data still being compiled.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#TeriMeriKahaani *estimates* Fri 5.35 cr, Sat approx 6 cr. Data still being compiled.
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June 24, 2012 at 7:39 AM
“‘ Unfortunate’ is right. Because films are much more than stories. Personally I have a weakness for films that are weak in story: Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, Rockstar, all Eric Rohmer films .. just to give some random examples.”
Utkal uncle- can’t comment u enuf for this comment
Not only I second this personally but also commend u for putting this across in such a simple and uncomplicated way …
Would rate this amongst your now legendary ‘nargis’ Nabokov diaphanous glow’ comment 🙂
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June 24, 2012 at 7:39 AM
Sorry for the hurriedly written review with a lot of typos ” a solitary gait jmping’ should be ‘ a solitary goat jumping’, for example.
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June 24, 2012 at 7:42 AM
Don’t worry utkal uncle
Can reassure u that the ‘goat” won’t mind that typo…
Though try not to be ‘hurried’ in these things lol
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June 24, 2012 at 7:44 AM
Btw utkal uncle : usually find your comments interesting, amusing and entertaining
If u don’t mind telling, what do u do and what’s your age group–I suspect your experience is not less than 4-5 decades, I think ( in a good way) -only if u want to reveal…
Are u into some creative business and suspect u are from Bengal /Orissa ?
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June 24, 2012 at 7:53 AM
If i am not wrong Mohanti is a Bengali/Orissi surname – it instantly reminds me of former indian pace bowler of the late 90s Debashish Mohanty (who during the ’99 world cup famously won us a match against england with a 4 wicket haul) who was the 1st player from Orissa to play for India. (2nd was Shib Sundar Das- since then no one has got into the team)
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June 24, 2012 at 7:57 AM
Saurabh: Mohanty is an exclusively Odia surnmae. Maiti is Bengali and Mohanta is Asaamiya, perhaps from the same stock.
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June 24, 2012 at 8:00 AM
Alex adams: I am 56 and a Creative Head of an ad agency. From Odisha of course.
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June 24, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Thanx utkal uncle: as usual, I was right on –
U being an uncle lol (don’t mind)
Your age..
Being from Bengal /Orissa ..
From a creative field -so u r the ‘creative head’ of an ad firm…
Anyhow keep up your lovely posts
How do u rate gow music /songs?
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June 24, 2012 at 9:22 AM
Many people who’ve reviewed GOW have reported a full house .. How can it be the film hasnt shown growth?
I think its a good film and deserves to do well
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June 24, 2012 at 9:41 AM
many big films show 10-15% growth on Sat, many big films even fall by that much on Sat. The whole ‘low end’ argument (since the film opened with a low number it should have shown a greater jump) works only for the TMK kind of film which has major stars and a ‘normal’ genre and so on. Now the film might have been released with a 1000 screens (if BOI’s info is correct) but that doesn’t change anything. All this is about silly expectations. Sure this is Kashyap’s biggest film, it’s an epic and so on but all of this on its own doesn’t change the essential fundamentals. If the film does 15 crores over week 1 or more it will more or less have touched Dev D’s lifetime business (so far Kashyap’s best) in a genre which is even less audience-friendly than that one. If the film does say 25-30 crores that is already significant all factors considered. These writeups pretend that 50 or 60 crores was on the cards here! But again on the pure numbers/percentages this is just dishonest reporting.
On the full houses people have reported this can happen with films that appeal to pockets of the audience for certain showtimes. Doesn’t necessarily indicate the larger picture. But this fact can be significant for the film sustaining. In other words this is the kind of audience that with great WOM can keep things sustained. Still not enough for a big gross but that expectation is absurd anyway. In 20 years or so I’ve not seen the market change dramatically for this kind of film (and for that matter certain genres). Satya was massive in Bombay, did very well in the South and almost zilch elsewhere. Company because of a star did better in these other parts but didn’t match Satya in Bombay. Sarkar established a Bombay record at the time, did very well in the South, was ok elsewhere again most for the star quotient here. This is though the best possible result for this genre and not one I’ve seen equaled. But again you need a perfect storm for this. Abhishek hot, Bachchan in that part and so on. SR on the other hand didn’t match the first film’s number though still because of the stars, the sequel it still had a pretty good week 1. One can keep multiplying the examples. These genres have a relatively limited audience even on their best days. GoW doesn’t even have stars. So then it just depends on WOM. But even great WOM on this genre doesn’t really expand the audience base. Again expectations have to be kept realistic. Said this for Shanghai the other day too. What’s happening though is that the trade (barring Taran for some odd reason!) is choosing to be less generous to these films. A site like BOI is actually hostile. Just not giving these films a chance in any sense. Since there aren’t the usual partisan battles over stars here (they even love Hashmi!) the hostility is surprising. Sure with a higher advertising profile and so on but one can hardly expect 7 crores on day 1 with these films or even 5 crores!
I’ve said it again and again. Beat up ABhishek all you want but show me the truly different and/or truly edgy stuff that does better than his failures or even approaches them. The Shanghai folks would have done cartwheels with the D6 or Raavan gross! Changing the scale of the film in terms of production values and/or stars and so on gives you a bigger initial but it doesn’t alter the fundamentals. You can double the Dev D gross and make it D6 but the audience for both is more or less the same. In fact the latter has to deal with greater negativity because it’s marketed as a mainstream film and people go in with different expectations whereas with Dev D only a certain kind of audience shows up.
So the trade might do so for cynical reasons but even on the blogosphere people just don’t have any sense of these very clear distinctions. How the market for a film is to be defined? What does success mean? etc. One can spend a lot of money on a film like GoW, have the 1000 screen release to justify production costs. But what about the fundamentals here? The release/advertising strategy model is all wrong for these films in Bombay.
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June 24, 2012 at 9:44 AM
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June 24, 2012 at 9:45 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh
#GOW *actuals* Fri 3.03 cr, Sat 3.60 cr.
note by the way how Taran was saying there were big jumps Sat and so on but his own numbers don’t reflect this.
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June 24, 2012 at 10:52 AM
really happy with the declining numbers and realy not happy with Big B going out of his way to praise the big mouth.
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June 24, 2012 at 9:51 AM
For those who,issued ya the first time round
On popular demand
The dark knight rises
In wasseypur though…
Nolan meets kashyap 🙂 enjoy
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June 24, 2012 at 10:09 AM
From Anupama Chopra’s twitter:
“For those asking how to get on #TheFrontRow viewer panel, please write to bethany@cherry-tree.in, only requirement – you must love movies.”
This is for the segment where viewers get to watch the movie a week early and then discuss their opinions on the film with the director and lead actors.
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June 24, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Hiya Amy
How r ya–which part of the world are u roaming around
Any latest movies uve seen
Come up with some updates -check the dark knight in wasseypur above-funny 🙂
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June 24, 2012 at 10:54 AM
Btw a french friend who occasionally dabbles in films has gone bonkers over GOW–ultra gaga lol
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June 24, 2012 at 12:35 PM
entertaining site……
http://twitter.com/#!/Polkhol
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June 24, 2012 at 1:32 PM
Gul voiced an opionion and is now under attack by AK fanboys on Twitter – LOL
Gul Panag@GulPanag
When will we/ & our media be able to tell the difference between films being “showcased” at Cannes or being
invited/selected to be there?
Udita Jhunjhunwala@UditaJ
@GulPanag So annoying how producers, directors etc abuse a market place event 2 posn their film as ‘went to Cannes’. Any1 can go to Cannes!
Retweeted by Gul Panag
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June 24, 2012 at 1:39 PM
‘Brave’ fights to win weekend box office with $66.7 million, knocks ‘Madagascar 3’ to second spot
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/brave-fights-win-weekend-box-office-66-7-million-knocks-madagascar-3-spot-article-1.1101508
1. Brave- 66.7 mill
2. M 3- 20.2 mill
3. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter- 16.5 mill
4. Prometheus- 10 mill
5. Rock Of Ages- 8 mill
http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/
Looks like another winner for Pixar. Madagascar 3, Prometheus and Snow White have all held up pretty well. ‘Avengers’ is now 2 mill away from 600 million domestically…epic!
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June 24, 2012 at 2:15 PM
Satyam, Satya, Company or Sarkar are totally different from GOW. all these films build their protagonists as noble heroes even if they are gangsters, Mush like Vijay of Deewar in a way. These are much more conventional, offering you that feel-good morality. GOW does not offer that comfort. Manoj Bajpayee character in GOW has no redeeming virtue whatever, except his raw humanity. And as far as Abhishek and films like Delhi 6 or Raavan go, it is not just the box office, no one thought much of the films and even less of Abhishek;s performance. For example, whatever maybe the gross of Shanghai or GOW, there is no one critic or viewer who is not all praise for Abhay/ Emran’s performance or Manoj / Nawazudin / Richa Chadda’s performance. Also the IMDDB ratings of GOW or Shnaghai vs Raavan or Delhi 6 will shoe how the films are perceived by its core audience.
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June 24, 2012 at 2:44 PM
http://www.reviewgang.com/movies/226-Gangs-Of-Wasseypur-movie-review
http://www.reviewgang.com/movies/6-Delhi-6-movie-review
http://www.reviewgang.com/movies/207-Shanghai-movie-review
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June 24, 2012 at 3:05 PM
@Utkal..
Most of the ppl here don’t take IMDB seriously coz it doesn’t support ther argument and also IMDB doesn’t have good rating for Raavan, Delhi 6, Nishabd, Sarkaar Raaj…
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June 24, 2012 at 3:13 PM
its not all about star
what is the imdb rating of ray’s movies or mother india
a delhi belly or shanghai has practically same rating in imdb
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June 24, 2012 at 3:21 PM
for logic :
and ya a gunda known for most of his double meaning dialogues and obsenity has the higest rating in imdb than many of all time classics thanks mostly to iit kgp’s alumini’s lol
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497915/
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June 24, 2012 at 3:33 PM
Some of the guys from IIT wanted to have fun and they manipulated the ratings of Gunda…that doesn’t mean IMDB is useless…
That’s problem with most of the ppl…To dismiss a system simply find one or two faults…the same thing has been done to BOI…but at the end of the day every one goes to BOI to check the numbers…
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June 24, 2012 at 3:29 PM
here comes the trick to use IMDB…
Don’t compare movies of a past generation with a recent release in IMDB…but i can compare two movies recently…
Also the size of the voting matters…i will not consider a rating based on 10/20 or 100 ppl..it is better if the number is more..
Every system has faults…but u will have to find out which is the best among them…right now no site gives u a better idea than IMDB…
Problem lies when one dismisses IMDB but suddenly the same person brings up review gang….when BOI is dismissed for everything but ANDHRA BOX OFFICE appears from no where during BUdhha hoga (BHTB)…
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June 24, 2012 at 3:35 PM
when you are using it for reference automatically comparison come and its again a basic common sense
a gunda there has 3000 votes and give many example of various b graders
glad that you accept fault bur your arguments was again base on just one star instead of accusing others….i may like bachchan, khan, kumar or roshan but what is true is true
and as per imdb gow is the greatest indian movie ever made ,,
what will you call a sample of 500 of which 80% are of pre release
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June 24, 2012 at 3:40 PM
“what will you call a sample of 500 of which 80% are of pre release”
I will not the take the latest IMDB ratings for GOW seriously…I will wait for more votes…For your kind information GOW had a screening in Cannes.. some of the early ratings could have been by those who saw the movie in Cannes…anyway i will wait for more votes..
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June 24, 2012 at 3:46 PM
thats better ….cannes under which category can you name it
the movie ravan which you are using it for refrence was screened there to and was commercial disaster in india
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June 24, 2012 at 3:48 PM
you will be surprised to know cannes website still has neither the name ravan or gow ( was it under main category)
such is indian desperation for western recognition
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June 24, 2012 at 3:59 PM
I am not at all concerned about western recognition. U will never find me posting something from western critics. As a bollywood fan i have always hoped our films, critics and awards will improve…
The reference of Cannes came here because I was talking about those early votes for GOW. This was just a GUESS. I am not sure…
It’s Abhishek fans who actually come up with international reviews when the same film (Raavan) is panned by indian critics. But when same west praises Anurag Kashyap we see different kind of arguments…
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June 24, 2012 at 4:15 PM
Not at all. who are you referring to? This is a complete straw man. First off, and speaking for myself, I don’t define things as Eastern and Western. I’ll go wherever the interesting writing comes from. I’m afraid I don’t have a nationalistic bone in my body in this or most other matters! Among Indian critics I have always placed Rangan on a pedestal as the only voice of his kind. This hasn’t changed for many years whether I’ve agreed with his reviews or not. But if one is going to call a film worthless based on an overwhelmingly negative reception in India it is certainly fair to point out other critical voices who in almost all instances are far more literate in the subject than the Indian critics. I agree completely that one cannot do so selectively. But this applies to everyone on both sides. So yes some use the reviews selectively but some also use Cannes and Venice selectively! The same for any other criterion. Even on the reviews while one can disagree with a reviewer that one usually quotes one cannot simply be dismissive when one doesn’t agree. There’s a difference between saying ‘I don’t agree with Rangan on ‘x’ film’ and ‘Rangan is completely wrong on ‘x’ film’. Because it cannot be that Rangan is a genius one day and absolutely dumb another!
This applies to everything. People quote all kinds of sources selectively. People ignore narratives that don’t suit their interests and so on. Take Bol Bachchan. Leaving aside all the points I’ve made on this from the title to the double role and so on how many people have come forward since the advertising campaign have begun to say that my points have been confirmed even more. What does the synopsis of the film suggest? Abhishek has been front and center advertising the film everywhere from media appearance to Jhalak Dikhlajaa. Devgan doesn’t say much even when he is around. These examples could be multiplied. Whether one likes Abhishek or not, whether one wishes for him to be successful or not, why is it so hard to say this — ‘even though we hold these positions, even though Devgan is in a vastly better box office position at the moment it must be admitted that Abhishek is carrying more of the load here in every sense and he’s also being put forward in most ways’?
So everyone likes to demand honesty and consistency from others but feels no special burden to do the same on one’s own! One can of course be a partisan if one likes as long as one then doesn’t issue calls for integrity and what not!
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June 24, 2012 at 4:09 PM
from imdb to critics to cannes and what not and finally i have not done but its abhishek fans(your way of generalising ) who done it
when you regularly brings up things and accuse others its a sign of fallacy
ethical debate don’t go like that
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June 24, 2012 at 3:14 PM
here’s Rangan with a very interesting piece on D6:
Nikhat Kazmi:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/hindi/Delhi-6/movie-review/4154202.cms
both of them have praise for Abhishek too. there were other such reviews, in the minority for sure but they weren’t quite non-existent as the hyperbolic version often suggests. The Western reviewers (Variety et al) didn’t care much for the film in many instances but like Abhishek in it.
on Raavan too I’ve quoted a number of positive reviews before including most notably this Frank Lovece one which called it Abhishek’s best performance:
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/reviews/specialty-releases/e3ic0c203644bbc3d5f8511bf80bafc5a40
Of course I am not at all arguing these were overall well-reviewed films in India. They weren’t even as well-reviewed as DMD let alone Shanghai. But that’s not my point in any case with the earlier comment. When a vast majority of say US reviewers like or dislike a film that means something to me. Because there are many important reviewers whose judgments I respect whether or not I agree with them. In India no one but Rangan is in that category for me. There are some other fair reviewers but not ones I value greatly one way or the other. So the worth of a film cannot really be settled for me by a ‘majority’ that in my view doesn’t know what it’s talking about 95% of the time. Now this majority can be an important index in other ways. You don’t see for example somewhat different films becoming successful if they’re mauled by most of the reviewers because this is the very ‘audience’ for those films. On the other hand when they do the same for an Akshay Kumar comedy it means nothing because the audience model is a different one.
Getting to my actual comment it’s about how films in certain genres don’t do that much even in the best case scenario. This is incidentally true for other places too. In the US the Italian Job kind of film never does as well as the truly big blockbusters even when it’s successful. Similarly the entire film culture here handles releases differently based on genre and so on but the numbers are usually not very significant.
Now getting to your point on GoW that might well be true relative to those other films but it doesn’t really affect my genre argument. Moreover I’d argue that in a film which doesn’t have commercial stars the ‘gray’ bits don’t quite bother the audience very much because they’re never invested in the actors ‘as’ stars. Hence they don’t expect anything specific. So I don’t really agree that the bar is higher in this sense.
[for the rest go here..]
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June 24, 2012 at 3:28 PM
make a separate post..
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June 24, 2012 at 2:53 PM
actually gow didn’t great that great reviews from major reviewrs ….at review gang its at 6.5 …delhi 6 was at 7 and shanghai relatively better than other two surprisingly
guys like sudhir kamath and rangan the two best frankly don’t give stars to any review and have pleasant thing to say about all…
failed to understand how imdb rating( even there a small sample of urban audience is criteria and just checked there are only some 500 votes frankly there to even before release mostly shows all dear )
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June 24, 2012 at 3:02 PM
“at review gang its at 6.5”
Review gang doesn’t have all the ratings…they have selected a few of them and i don’t understand what’s their logic…u can take ratings of particular reviewers and can compare…..
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June 24, 2012 at 3:20 PM
Now see the comedy…
Delhi 6 in Reviewgang has total 3 reviews with ratings…one of them is of Bharadwaj Ranagn (a biased critic of Bachhans) has given 4 stars. The same person doesn’t give any rating for GOW…..no rating from Raja sen who gave 2.5 to GOW which is the lowest…
for Delhi 6
average rating comes to 10/3 = 3.3 which is 6.6/10.
for GOW,
average rating comes to 41.5/12 = 3.4 which is 6.8/10
GOW has 12 ratings in comparison to 3 for Delhi 6…
Anyway my question is if you take indian critics seriously or not..if no then no use of this reviewgang site…
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June 25, 2012 at 12:20 AM
thing is i mentioned review gang because its the only official source ….there is no site like rotten tomato who put all major reviews of hollywood together and put in proper percentage
instead of looking at every argument with fan angle one has to be more rational and reasonable
look for imdb just prior to release the promotion of this movie in one of the leading daily daily bhaskar says it won’t fail and one of the reason they say was it had a rating of 9.3 pre release while at times of shanghai imdb was busy with promotion …see most of the review with tagline go and see and all
even ra one got some good western however bad movie might it be fans of other rival star of a certain srk spammed imdb most with pre release buzz…its more easy to manipulate with fans and haters of any kind on net and you urself said its a non entity and baseless for old movies
india does not have a disciplined movie critical culture like holllywood to genuinely judge movie
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June 24, 2012 at 3:05 PM
selected important mainstream reviwers ominipresent in print media…
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June 24, 2012 at 3:06 PM
but not in Reviewgang for GOW…
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June 24, 2012 at 5:25 PM
somebody said today they didn’t have the morality but the story didn’t at all concentrated on their generation and dynasty politics and so is their origin
random thoughts:
a corleone even in godfather have the morality and break down compleately in godfather 3 the weakest part on whom the movie is heavily inspired from and like here the wife is used for producing children for protagonists( on shahid khan one see the shades of brando in godfather 1 the inspiration and so the modus operandi for revenge)
though kashyap again used infidelity to express protagonists just like in gulal( which was inspired from sahib biwi or ghulam mode ) and extend it further to fuel remember dynasty politics more probably in 2nd part …( a constant reminder again how the final godfather was again an illegal child)
his protagonist is ruthless but is equally shaukeen and has lighter moments…his male chauvinism come into play when he has no regrets for having 4 wife and calls his wife selfish and sefishly leach at the butt and backside of his mistress showing no morality and just refusal of sex with her during pregnancy prompts him to remarry and in opposite sequence her wife to has emotional infiedility which never transcends into physical one
liked the sequence of of salam-e-ishq(to build romance among two opposite personality)…a hip and trendy disco dancer as part of insult in a rockstar way ( a constant remainder of tarantino’s pulp fiction) or manoj tiwary’s jiyo bihar ke lala as tribute end of life main protagonists life
film’s taglike keh ke lunga is mostly referred to public swearing by macho khan to his rival declaring his death and is remainder to sequel
performancewise manoj is intense with strong dialogue delevry(ably supported by supporting cast) and ruthless while nawaz is opposite with silence and body language
editing is big drawback and so is the pace which is essential for crime thriller and would have elevated the movie
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June 24, 2012 at 5:37 PM
they (in first part referref to older gansters represented in cinema )
again khan is rebel and leach at others but kashyap played safe with wife whose infiedility just remain to emotional one and never trascends into pysicality
piyush mishra one of the very few who has equal command over hindi and urdu in bollywood is sutradhar but in a movie is more the silent observer
research at times is competent compared to recent bollwood standard but lingo apart from gali’s in desi tarrontinoish style is mostly in hindi( unlike the omnipresent bhojpuri in belt) and has the touch of varanasi where the movie was shot though kashyap has used the folk song pretty well much like rajasthani touch in gulal
rustic representation of chambal(by shekhar kapoor) is still the bechmark
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June 24, 2012 at 5:49 PM
and ya reference of movie is based more at dhanbad rather than waseypur ( infact its just the token just like italy for brando and here to it was the original place of khan’s father thats it )
(dhanbad today alone is the source of 70-80% coal electricity in india and has prestigious ism and suffers from illegal coal mines and biggest concern today is illegal coal mafia which on 1st part hardly had any nexus in a big way )
kashyap’s style of stort narration is again based on graphics novel( one clearly see a potential future novelist here )
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June 24, 2012 at 9:42 PM
Anupma Chopra’s Extended version Conversation with Anurag Kashyap –
http://thefrontrow.starworld.in/web57.html
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June 24, 2012 at 9:44 PM
Anurag expans a bit on various accents here…
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June 25, 2012 at 12:38 AM
Shanghai Week Two Territorial Breakdown
Monday 25th June 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Shanghai grossed 4.25 crore nett approx in week two. The two week distributor share is 11.25 crore approx. Below is the second week territorial breakdown of the film.
Mumbai Circuit – 1.52 crore
Delhi/UP – 1.06 crore
East Punjab – 42 lakhs
West Bengal – 33 lakhs
Bihar – 3 lakhs
CP Berar – 8 lakhs
CI – 7 lakhs
Rajasthan – 14 lakhs
Nizam/Andhra – 16 lakhs
Mysore – 33 lakhs
Others – 10 lakhs
TOTAL – 4.24 crore
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June 25, 2012 at 12:39 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur Has Dull Weekend
Monday 25th June 2012 10.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs of Wasseypur had a dull weekend as it collected around 9.75-10 crore nett as per early estimates. The film collected 2.75 crore nett on Friday, 3.25 crore nett on Saturday and 3.75-4 crore nett on Sunday.
The opening day was low and the film could not show the growth it needed to come out with a half decent weekend. These type of films which are not able to open well need minimum 30% growth on Saturday and Sunday to make any mark at the box office.
The film was poor at single screens and the select premium multiplexes which were okay on Friday failed to grow over the weekend.
Gangs Of Wasseypur has collected 20% less than Shanghai over the first weekend which also had the same target audience and even trending is not as good as that film which had a 30% jump on Saturday and 20% on Sunday.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:24 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur Opening Weekend Collection 10.1 cr nett. Decent.
http://www.addatoday.com/2012/06/gangs-of-wasseypur-opening-weekend.html
Gangs of Wasseypur has collected around 10 crore nett all India in its opening weekend as per early estimates. GOW has collected around 4 crore nett all India on Sunday. GOW showed growth over the weekend. It showed around 15% jump on Saturday and another 25% jump on Sunday. Going by the budget of GOW, makers are going to make reasonable profit from the film.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 2.8 cr nett.
Sat – 3.3 cr nett.
Sun – 4 cr nett (Estimates).
Total – 10.1 cr nett.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:27 AM
With no major Hindi release in coming week, if GOW 1 manages to touch 25 crore, it would be great !
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June 25, 2012 at 3:03 AM
This is a fantastic piece..probably the best & most intimate one written so far by Somen Mishra ( CNN IBN journalist ) who runs this blog : moifightclub.wordpress.
Gangs Of Wasseypur – Anurag Kashyap is back! With all his indulgences
http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/gangs-of-wasseypur-anurag-kashyap-is-back-with-all-his-indulgences/
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June 25, 2012 at 3:06 AM
“Having seen both the parts, what i can tell you is that the first part takes time to set up as everyone is doomed and is busy sowing the seeds for their ends, either with love or hate. 2nd part is more action, more drama and more revenge. First is like wine, you can’t treat it like junk food. You need time to savour it. ”
Part 2 should be a cracker…quite evident from the trailer…one of the best trailers to have come out in recent times !!
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June 25, 2012 at 3:10 AM
This is for those who were a little bewildered with so many characters in Part 1….frankly I did not have any issues, things were fairly well brought out.
Gangs Of Wasseypur – Family tree of Khan, Singh & Qureshi
http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/gangs-of-wasseypur-family-tree-of-khan-singh-qureshi/
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June 25, 2012 at 9:24 PM
haha…Interesting….
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June 25, 2012 at 7:43 AM
Anurag of वासेपुर @ankash1009
To Clear all misconceptions about the budget of Gangs of Wasseypr.The cost of the 2parts together is 18.40 CR which makes one film at 9.20Cr
Anurag of वासेपुर @ankash1009
45 Cr as reported in the media is false.
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June 25, 2012 at 7:56 AM
I highly doubt if that is the full cost of production including all the P&P considering the promotional costs overseas at various film festivals. Plus I recall Kashyap saying GOW was his most expensive movie.
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June 25, 2012 at 10:46 AM
agree tyler…. the same thing is being repeated now-
most expensive, then flop then the actual cost is low crap and that too within three- foyr days…..
and people thought that AK is honest and different.
he actually says he is satisfied with the BO and that it is more than he expected …really….saala Mathey par Chu..a likha hua kya ????
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June 25, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Its only COP(Budget) : 18.5 cr.
Rest each movie will entail around 7-8 cr for P/P (for 1000+ prints release).
So, Total cost will come around 33-34 cr mark…
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June 25, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Satyam,
This article is even more priceless ! It actually claims that 26 crores were spent on marketing the film…what crap !! No wonder AK is pissed with this misinformation campaign…the box office commentary in this country has gone to the dogs !!!
http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip/gangs-of-wasseypur-and-teri-meri-kahaani-box-office-report-below-expectations/
“Both parts of GOW together cost just Rs 18.5 crore to make. Part 1 has already made around Rs 10 crore. If Part 2 fares well at the box office, the producers can easily recover their investment. What might be more difficult for them to recover is the additional Rs 26 crore they spent on marketing the film.”
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June 25, 2012 at 10:59 AM
this too is not new.. the trade often does this. Films like TZP and Paa for example were similarly overreported in the trade. On the other hand Ra One was supposedly safe even before release!
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June 25, 2012 at 11:17 AM
AK has just confirmed in follow-up tweets that the final P & A figure for GOW will be arrived at after Part 2 releases.
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June 25, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Kahsyap is insecure here. The cost of production may be 18-19 cr but what about the PnP costs involved for both the parts? These days even a medium budget movie has PnP costs of 10 cr.
If part 1 doesnt do too well then its unlikely that part 2 will do beter. Its turning out like Rakta Charitra.
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June 25, 2012 at 7:45 AM
Midweek: ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ dull, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ below expectations
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June 25, 2012 at 8:13 AM
Tyler: Anurag makes these super-looking films at super low cost. That is what you can do when you know film making inside out and have a bunch of talented people driven by passion for good films rather than money in your team.
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June 25, 2012 at 10:48 AM
Sure…… l
Ek wohee budhimaan hai yahan par, baake sab nadaaan !!
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June 25, 2012 at 11:33 AM
LOL Rocky at this firecracker!
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June 25, 2012 at 2:21 PM
Rocky, you really seem to dislike Anurag. Is he a communist?….LOL
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June 25, 2012 at 3:11 PM
haha..
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June 25, 2012 at 4:41 PM
LOL Matrix..na I don’t like him coz. he went after the Bachchans w/o any reason…..
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June 25, 2012 at 4:47 PM
kya paasion and respect hai Anurag mein aur uskey friends mein- jisko GOW pasand nahee aa rahee uskee ma behan ek karney mein lagey hu hain yeh Internet Intellectuals !! wah wah Utkal Mahodaya !!!!!
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June 25, 2012 at 10:10 AM
eeeesh! It seems there’s a lot of gruesome violence in this film – and “people are lovin it”, like they do their Mac Donald burgers. LOL!
Violence is violence whether it is on the screen or at home. After all don’t they say that visuals are the best way of teaching?
People can go gaga over all this violence and over the satyamev preachings all in one breath. How very flexible of them!!
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June 25, 2012 at 10:17 AM
By ‘teaching’ I don’t mean that people are learning, I meant that the learnng/watching makes one accept it as commonplace and become so familiar that it fails to affect anymore.
People are already getting aroused by it instead. Something very sick here.
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June 25, 2012 at 10:37 AM
“People can go gaga over all this violence and over the satyamev preachings all in one breath. How very flexible of them!! ”
Flexibility is one thing, but the sort of contortion you’ve displayed with this comment should be rewarded with a spot in the Olympics.
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June 25, 2012 at 12:18 PM
GF she is very consistent in this regard as can be seen in her responses regarding any thing related with Aamir, No matter what, her recalcitrant view of Aamir would remain the same, cynical!
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June 25, 2012 at 3:39 PM
>but the sort of contortion you’ve displayed with this comment should be rewarded with a spot in the Olympics.
LOL! Good one.
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June 25, 2012 at 10:32 AM
For sneha fans here on SS:
http://mumbaiboss.com/2012/06/25/the-woman-soundtracking-indie-bollywood/
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June 25, 2012 at 12:08 PM
abhigyan jha@undercoverpro tweets-
1.Anurag Kashyap did a Ray by starting the film with Kyunki Saas footage. The very first shot told us #GOW is the Saas Bahu of Artsy films!
2.Where the fuck were the gangs in Gangs of Wasseypur
3.#GOW should be renamed #COW Chtutiyapa of Waseeypur
4.Anurag Kashyap is still that incoherent wannabe I met outside Prithvi Theatre almost 20 years ago
5.To put it in the lingo of #GOW : Instead of Cannes, Gangs of Wasseypur belongs to the Gaands film festival
6.watching #GOW I suddenly realized all the good things of #Shanghai. Coherent pretension is way more preferable
7.Shooting in low light in real locations with filth, garbage & ugly looking characters without a storyline doesn’t make a film artistic
8.Anurag Kashyap & Ramu both had one good film in their lives : SATYA. Both are desperately seeking something better to do ever since.
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June 25, 2012 at 12:17 PM
The problem with these ‘observations’ is that if I just switched the name ‘Kashyap’ with the writer’s everything he says would really be true!
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June 25, 2012 at 12:34 PM
do not know about the writer much..
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June 25, 2012 at 12:44 PM
It is a shame this movie did not find an overseas release. I am sure there would have been enough takers to make it worthwhile. Would have loved to see it on screen.
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June 25, 2012 at 1:02 PM
yes it’s quite odd they didn’t do a release here. They did it for Rakta Charitra. then again maybe the performance of that film guided this choice! But I think that was a mistake. I have a sense GoW would have done better.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:10 PM
[deleted]
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June 25, 2012 at 2:18 PM
You have to admit, we’re better spellers though.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:52 PM
GF, after reading Sachin’s above comment, i could not resist asking u this (it’s a genuine ques)- How do u guys (esp u and Satyam- the NRIs as Sachin says) manage to remain so thick-skinned (or patient) regarding such offensive stuff being said abt ur community?!(is this quality present in all NRIs?…LOL) I would not lie to u, had he said sumthing like this concerning me, i would have verbally thrashed him left, right and centre.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:58 PM
Short answer is it’s just the internet, dude! But really it’s not about being thick-skinned. It’s not as if Sachin’s in the majority with the kind of tone he uses here! This sort of nonsense commentary is actually much easier to brush off and is even amusing. It doesn’t take much to ignore a guy who probably thinks the best thing to happen since the moon landing was Dev. D!
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June 25, 2012 at 3:05 PM
Saurabh, I’ve deleted that comment but to answer your question one shouldn’t give just anyone or anything the power to wound one.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:18 PM
Why so much bile, hatred and negativity dude?
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June 25, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Because, matrix, the world is such a shitty place filled with all kinds of crimes against humanity. I mean there’s war, famine, genocide, poverty, disease and, of course, unheralded Anurag Kashyap movies. It’s truly difficult to cope with all these equally horrific events.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Indeed GF, especially the last bit you said is unconscionable. How can we call ourselves civilized people when there’s still some ‘unheralding’ of Anurag Kashyap movies left in this world?
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June 25, 2012 at 3:06 PM
GF.. LOL!!!!
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June 25, 2012 at 2:29 PM
Sachin, WTF is wrong with you mate? How can u expect yourself to be taken seriously when you say such outright offensive stuff just bcos u wanna target Satyam (or maybe GF).like you i too sometimes disagree with them but after ur response i can only this too u- Trust me both Satyam and GF are far smarter and intelligent than you (and these are just 2 NRIs). That they let u go scot-free even after saying such bullshit is itself a testimony to the above fact.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:40 PM
Go easy on Sachin, Saurabh. I think he’s still torn up about The New York Times giving so much attention to the Egyptian president-elect, but entirely neglecting to do a cover story about the epochal release of GoW.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:55 PM
GFji…didn’t know you had funny bone…ROFLOL…(I better start using spellchecker pronto now)….
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June 25, 2012 at 3:07 PM
LOL, GF’s in form today!
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June 25, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Regrettably certain folks cannot be let go scot-free permanently because it becomes a clean-up headache for the rest of us!
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June 25, 2012 at 2:37 PM
There is an iota of truth somewhere in Sachin’s comments that is overshadowed by the bile ,offensive language and inexcusable caricaturing. The people who patronise Bollywood are often trapped in a time -warp and tend to patronise a certain kind of films.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:49 PM
OMG…don’t tell me that maa devi nahi hoti hai….
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June 25, 2012 at 2:50 PM
LOL!
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June 25, 2012 at 2:57 PM
nri market is chutiyapaa true but what about indian stuff
according to mr anurag kashyap indians don’t like good cinema so what is the solution ….
making film for aliens or in hollywood
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June 25, 2012 at 3:02 PM
and ya those womaniya males can be no substitute for guddu rangeela type of audience…
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June 25, 2012 at 3:15 PM
thing is you have every right for opinion and be rebel
a guy who has stayed away from family whole throughout( or is doped) may not regard family or parents even that is fine but why to diss others who are not following you and are not rebel
and your point on intellectual power is again a relative perception…on spell check and rubbish typo’s even i could give you a serious competition( pun intended on our intellectual poweress) but the thing is those jews which you again are producing some of the better cinemas
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June 25, 2012 at 8:45 PM
Saket,
You are being too charitable or defensive.
AK is a very talented film maker but IMO has zero credibility as a judge of talent/merit or as a gossip monger or a conspiracy theorist.
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June 25, 2012 at 8:54 PM
Rajen Sir, I wouldn’t know what’s the truth in these matters. Can’t really say one way or another. I can’t and will not defend Kashyap’s defence of Imtiaz Ali, even if I have come to appreciate Rockstar a little more.
But I do think Dibakar Banerjee is a good filmmaker. Based on his 4 films so far, he looks like he will create a great film someday. I’m actually quite fond of OLLO, irrespective of what Kashyap or anyone else thinks of the film. And since I consider Kashyap to be talented, I just assume he’s supporting another talented filmmaker. I could be completely wrong, but that would be my stance too…had I been in the same position.
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June 25, 2012 at 2:16 PM
Satyam – I don’t count myself as AK’s fan – have watched two of his movies Dev D and Gulal and neither of them exactly made me go gaga. I could see why many people love him and can appreciate him from a distance, but his style sort of alienates me. I’ve the same problem with Tarantino. While the hyperness, irony, quirk, cleverness, and post modernism are all very good, the inescapable truth is THOSE are the only point of these movies and I’m not satisfied with that.
Having said that, I really want to watch GOW. The stuff about it being a five hour plus ‘epic’ spanning seven decades from independence to 21st century India chronicling the (hi)story of a place, people, and family has left be very excited. I’ve no illusions about it not being indulgent or Anurag changing his style, but these things seem to be in service of something bigger, something ‘serious’ and it’s heartening. The biggest plus point for me is its ambition.
BTW Satyam have you written anything on There Will Be Blood? IMO it’s one of the best HW movies from the last 10-15 years.
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June 25, 2012 at 3:18 PM
I agree, I would love to watch a ‘roadshow’ version of GoW. I’ve said this many times. I have liked most of his other films though at some level or the other, maybe all. The interesting question here is: what is it about Kashyap that breeds a certain structure of fanaticism? Don’t recall this being the case with RGV even at his peak (though admittedly the internet was less of a factor then).
Qalandar once made the insightful point that the personalities and predilections of stars are reflected in their core fans. One could perhaps widen this statement. Kashyap lionizes the films he likes in similar fashion. I am not at all against his doing so for any film he likes but his mode is questionable. One of my sources of disagreement with him. So take Shanghai recently. There was no one comment from him enlightening us on why he liked it so much. But there were a number of over the top statements and beyond this a constant retweeting of any and everything positive that was expressed on the film irrespective of the source. So it was sometimes a media review in India, sometimes an American source and sometimes folks all around the globe who evidently discovered the medium with this film. He just kept retweeting everything. Now I understand he was doing it to generate buzz to an extent (even if one pities an advertising strategy reduced to this) but again nowhere was the conversation on Shanghai expanded in any sense. Throughout there was the structure of dogmatic assertion. This film and this director are extremely good and there can be no debate about this. It more or less amounted to this.
And so you notice many of his fans actually doubling down on the hyperbole, really making some truly asinine statements in the bargain. I am not saying Kashyap is personally responsible for this stuff but he could be contributing more intelligently to the conversation.
It’s rather ironic to expend so much thought and effort on a film but to then become as dogmatic and frankly pedestrian in terms of advancing the interests of such a work as every other fan(atic) or partisan would be pushing their favorite star or whatever.
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June 25, 2012 at 8:12 PM
I think, and I can’t be certain, but Kashyap’s defence of Shanghai probably has to do with Dibakar Banerjee’s directorial skills. I saw the film recently and I can see evidence of a director in form here. Formally speaking, it’s a very good suspense-drama. I think the whole discussion about the film’s authenticity, its aspirations not being aligned to reality, the lack of edginess in the story etc are irrelevant. This is a film that needs to be seen for appreciating Dibakar Banerjee’s craft; His use of technique and the manner in which he uses minimalism to craft a good yarn.
I would definitely like to expand on my ideas here, but just to add another thought that struck me while watching the film was that ‘acting’ in a film like Shanghai is impossible to appreciate. There are not enough layers, consciously as a choice made by the director, to approach the film by way of its actors. And those who can see layers of filmmaking (Raja Sen!) definitely suffer from double vision. Shanghai can only be appreciated as a further step in DB’s development cycle. Any other way to approach the film will result in disappointmnet.
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June 25, 2012 at 8:19 PM
And so, my hypothesis is that Kashyap came to DB’s defence because he saw something of similar value in his film. He stood up for a fellow director without taking the trouble to expand his thoughts…which can’t be construed as a crime.
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June 25, 2012 at 9:01 PM
“He stood up for a fellow director without taking the trouble to expand his thoughts…which can’t be construed as a crime.”
The problem is, if tomorrow Adoor stood up for Johar, one could use precisely this logic to let the latter off the hook!
Obviously you’re not suggesting something like this, and no one’s suggesting Kashyap committed a crime, but a director that aligns himself with a certain kind of cinema which purports to be more artful and authentic than the mainstream alternative also needs to be responsible with the tenor and focus of his/her endorsements.
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June 25, 2012 at 9:03 PM
Saket,
We all have had friends who promise to take us o the restaurant that makes the best food ever, period! or the store that sells the best clothes ever. As a supporter of talent ,AK has the same credibility as those friends. I dont doubt his intentions in these instances or even his sincerity. But his vehemence and the air of absolute certainty seriously undermines his credibility
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June 25, 2012 at 9:20 PM
Rajen Sir/GF
I don’t think Kashyap’s defence was absolutely right. And certainly he can oscillate between being a champion of cinema to being very cynical…or even arrogant in suggesting no debate is required.
But at the same time, he’s not dealing with (or pointing fingers at) the kind of people who flock to Satyamshot after watching a film. He’s dealing with the people who probably frequent Bollywood Hungama! Even so, adopting a combative tone will assuredly be counter productive. But all said and done, he’s allowed his freedom of indulging in hyperbole, as and when he deems it fit…in service of friends or genuine artists. People are certainly wise enough to be selective and choosy about such public
proclamations .
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June 25, 2012 at 9:30 PM
Again, I am not questioning his right to champion anybody’s cause but it does make him less credible. Even, AB is fallible on this count. But, AB has a great sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is class and what is not. Unfortunately ,AK falters here as well.
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June 25, 2012 at 1:21 PM
I’m wondering if the rights are with some American or European company that is planning on a separate release later.
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June 25, 2012 at 1:37 PM
Yeah, this is what I’m guessing is the case. Not sure if there were buyers during the Cannes fortnight screening, but this could certainly explain why it’s not playing on this side.
In the meantime, the onus is on you to watch it and share your views, Q.
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June 26, 2012 at 4:52 AM
Definitely! No later than this weekend…
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June 25, 2012 at 2:26 PM
‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ to be released in Middle East, France
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/wasseypur-to-be-released-in-middle-east-france/267762-8-66.html
After opening to rave reviews in India, director Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ is all set to be released in the Middle east and France. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweets, “GOW intl release dates – Middle East on 28 June and France on 25 July.”
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June 25, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Indian audiences don’t endorse good cinema: Anurag Kashyap
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/audiences-dont-endorse-good-films-anurag-kashyap/267820-8.html
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June 25, 2012 at 1:51 PM
For oldgold:
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-special-20-things-we-love-about-shah-rukh-khan/20120625.htm
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June 25, 2012 at 3:55 PM
Hehehe 😀
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June 25, 2012 at 2:05 PM
Satyam: With respect to observations by Rocky, I am surprised you are giving it the respect of a response, however dismissive.
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June 25, 2012 at 3:23 PM
what comment are you referring to? The tweets he put up? Those were by someone else.
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June 26, 2012 at 5:20 AM
“nri market is chutiyapaa true but what about indian stuff”
that word “ch” used is something I object to, but at the end of the day it is ur blog and if u think someone can get away with such use of language, which is not parliamentary, it is disappointing.
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June 26, 2012 at 8:05 AM
Rooney, you are a great guy but I’ll have to disagree here. If there’s anything that’s unparliamentary about language or any form of social behavior, I’d actually encourage that…keeping thoroughly in mind how our respected “parliament” behaves 🙂
Leaving semantics aside, I think one should be equally vocal about opposition to the word “fcuk” or any english obscenity, if one were to clamp down on foul language. Just my thoughts…
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June 26, 2012 at 1:04 PM
my apology is there if someone feel offended
btw it was done intentionally(used without asterisk) to an above comment which was deleted
on the lighter side the name of one of villains in ak movie tgyib was c**t’*ya( innovative indeed)
to lawyers on forum and ak and fans(someone pointed me that) :
piracy order he took was for few site and they still are uploading … movie is in youtube as well with different random names
(won’t give link as its not ethical and do promote privacy but you guys should act)
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June 25, 2012 at 4:36 PM
Utkal Mohanty – FYI ….. kashyap’s chamchas have gone berserk with the above obsevations and The great great bong is fighting for the writer’s right to have these observations-so YA!!!!
greatbong@greatbong -@vikas_inferno @GabbbarSingh So criticizing Kashyap movies is snobbish now. Funny. I thought loving them and dissing KJo was….
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June 25, 2012 at 4:39 PM
UTkal Mohanty- now the same brigade is going after The great Bong-
वासेपुर के JSB@jahanbakshi
He wants to hebb our attention. But can’t see logic if it danced naked in front of him.
Jaao pehley inn respectful chamcho ko chup karaoe phir respect or deserve kee baat karna……..
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June 25, 2012 at 5:54 PM
more tweets-
1.greatbong- Amusing to watch Kashyap fans slytweeting even when am not criticizing GoW. (I havent seen it). Seems u can only appreciate cinema their way
2.Sudhish Kamath- As a friend said, 700 people on Twitter are not the majority. 25/140 walked out during the first show in Chennai before climax.
3.greatbong- Again I havent seen the movie. But could that be because of the heavy North-Indianness of the spoken word
4.Sudhish Kamath- People here speak good Hindi, at least those who pay to watch Hindi films. More importantly, people here just LOVE movies
5.Sudhish Kamath- People here loved PST. Nobody walked out of that! Very rarely do people walk out of a film. Almost never here.
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June 25, 2012 at 3:17 PM
OT
What channel is JDK showing on in US?
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June 25, 2012 at 3:22 PM
It’s moved to Colors this season. It was on Sony until last year.
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June 25, 2012 at 3:32 PM
Satyam, i know there is a separate thread for Michael but since we are talking abt Kashyap and Kashyap is producing it, i thought i should put it here-it’s a very balanced review imo- “The UK Asian” review of Naseeruddin Shah and Mahi Gill starrer “MICHAEL” from London Asian Film Festival- producer is Anurag Kashyap and director is Ribhu Dasgupta-it has not released theatrically- “Michael- A beautiful tedium”- http://www.ukasiaonline.com/bollywood/790-naseeruddin-shahs-michael-beautiful-tedium.html
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June 25, 2012 at 3:41 PM
thanks, I’ve used the shot here for the sidebar..
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June 25, 2012 at 5:38 PM
Than minor
Like that Naseer pic with the mirror
A good one
This film seems interesting -not sure what the premise is?
Has this released ?
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June 25, 2012 at 6:11 PM
Alex, the premise is written in the review itself LOL. here is the trailer- https://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/michael-trailer/
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June 25, 2012 at 3:43 PM
kashyap is producing better movies than what he is making
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June 25, 2012 at 3:47 PM
So It seems Kashyap and his clique is no different..
Tp Preach is so easy but to ‘act’ is too difficult 😦
Sudhish Kamath @SudhishKamath
Come on Kashyap Gang, show us you are NOT like the Khan Clan picking a fight with anyone who disses the film… Oops! Too late? 😉
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June 25, 2012 at 5:14 PM
The evolving & now flourishing negativity on kashyap/GoW….
As usual, will express that i ill differ somewhat from the GoW discourse here…
Granted that–
a) anurag kashyap is not exactly a polite pleasant guy himself mostly
b) that he has done the ‘cardinal sin’ of apparently bad -mouthing bachchans esp the jr for the right /wrong reasons.
.
c) that kashyap himself is guilty of lots of stuff he takes potshots at others for (though i cant confirm it personally but as per the qualms here)
d) havent seen gow and know the issues with violence, expletives etc and the multiple ‘flaws’
b4 that a disclaimer–im not a blind anurag kashyap fan –some who were around when kashyap was here know about some of my questions to him (which due to the irritating probing nature were left unansered by kashyap lol)
But lets tackle these ‘concerns’ one by one–
>are we here to judge a persons behavioral or public relations only or film making also?
>How long will kashyap have to bear the cross of his bad mouthing bachchans—cmon guys–isnt there life beyond?
> if the entire discourse is dictated by someones equatuon with ones particular idol, well…
>KNow kashyap by his own utterings has set the bar quite high, but is it fair to go to extreme lengths to find every little minutia to pull him/his film down
>cmon have some grace and magnanimity
This guy is among the (if not the) v few film makers from india who are truly world class though somewhat pugnaciusly mercurial…
Its one thing being an under-perfomer, mediocre, talentless lucky guy but kashyap aint one of this…(even his worst critics will vouch for that!) So why this famous patented “crab’ mentaility?
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June 25, 2012 at 5:20 PM
A.K. is making his next with Bachchan!
So everyone rest easy and calm down. Way back when Bachchan was struggling, Rakesh K. tried his level best to put bachchan down including not casting him in Anand. However today, Sweta and twinkle are best of friends. These rivalry and revenge stuff are short lived. I don’t thinks ‘fans’ need to waste a lot of time discussing that.
The fact that a non-returning indian, has a thread on GoW, and giving critical appraisal to it (it is besides the point all of nri are yet to watch it on big screen), itself speaks volumes of how proud we r of A.K 😉
right folks?
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June 25, 2012 at 5:24 PM
Hell NO !!!!!!
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June 25, 2012 at 5:41 PM
Good thoughts here Di
Btw one of my weaknesses is that on seeing true brilliance, I forget everything else
Not sure of the proportion :scale but kashyap possesses some brilliance unlike the hordes of talentless mediocre amicables around…
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June 25, 2012 at 6:52 PM
“one of my weaknesses is that on seeing true brilliance, I forget everything else…”
Thank you {*blushing*
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June 25, 2012 at 7:00 PM
Haha Di : meant kashyaps films
But u can blush as well 🙂
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June 25, 2012 at 7:09 PM
Btw Di -since we r on the topic of ‘crush’
Suspect u have one on … 🙂
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June 25, 2012 at 9:45 PM
Utkalji…naahhh….it is someone else 😉
Keep guessing. I will make it part of my script. I have a character very similar to yours in my script too 🙂
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June 25, 2012 at 5:22 PM
Re.-This guy is among the (if not the) v few film makers from india who are truly world class
Bhai nahee chaiye world class, if world class means walking/talking/writing in engliss and make boring movies we are OK if we have direstors like Manmohan Desai, Ramesh Sippy, Nasir Husaain, hrishikesh Mukharjee etc…..
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June 25, 2012 at 5:24 PM
Sunshine-Danny Boyle
Saw bits–if one tags this to his other more famous works like slumdog, one gets to assess the capability and worth of Boyle…
Brightness is always symonymous with hope and happiness–but here the perspective is changed
A good sci fi outing–may complete it….
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June 25, 2012 at 5:45 PM
This is my favorite Danny Boyle film alongside Trainspotting (have a soft spot for Shallow Grave too) and probably one of my favorite sci-fi films in the past decade. It’s got flaws but it’s an extremely engaging and thematically interesting film.
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June 25, 2012 at 6:09 PM
Agree
Liked how th sci>Di in this sci fi …
Some ‘mind entering’ imagery
Frankly didn’t know Boyle was capable of this …
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June 25, 2012 at 5:46 PM
had no idea abt this! trailer of Sharman Joshi’s long delayed comedy film “3 Bachelors”- releases- 29th June, 2012- cast- Sharman, Raima Sen, Riya Sen, Manoj Pahwa- http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D3qssXZO4MdU&sa=U&ei=QNfoT53cJ4K02gXvouiECw&ved=0CCsQtwIwBA&usg=AFQjCNG2Pqe8FsyYwfEjgNYtVIaNZEcOrg and a song from the film- http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DdJUubLbhYac&sa=U&ei=3tvoT7XvNKGO2AXemLzDDQ&ved=0CCIQtwIwAQ&usg=AFQjCNEcuLgH-30WMlXwNzANOfpzOifuhg
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June 25, 2012 at 6:00 PM
Here, coal is substituted with coolth. We are so cool that in our town, we call the women, Womaniya (Hats off to music director Sneha Khanwalkar for the soundtrack that provides some respite). We are so cool that we use gorgeous-looking typeface guaranteed to make you drool even if it wears a vibe different from the rustic environs of the film. We are so cool that we would make the opening credits of ‘Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ look like a joke. We are so cool we have characters called Definite, Perpendicular and Tangent in Part 2 of Gangs of Wasseypur because honestly, we got tired of keeping count of the Khans and Qureshis in the film!
http://sudhishkamath.com/2012/06/24/gangs-of-wasseypur-part-time-avenger/
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June 25, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Did not know who is Sudhir Kamath..i had to google and came to know that he is a film critic…..
I was checking his blog and found this interesting article..
http://sudhishkamath.com/2012/01/02/guilty-pleasures-2011-hindi/
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June 25, 2012 at 8:51 PM
The bourgeois seem to have developed a new fad- profess to be a fan of DB or TD or AK without neccesariy patronising their films in cinema halls! For all the new fans of progressive cinema springing up from every nook,cranny and crevice their films should have sent the cash registers ringing.
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June 25, 2012 at 9:46 PM
You mean to say bourgeosis are penny pinchers among other things…!!!
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June 25, 2012 at 10:02 PM
What makes one a bourgeois: lifestyle, occupation, thinking or action?
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June 25, 2012 at 10:12 PM
Mujhe Befizool kee baat karney kee aadat toh hai nahee..Picture achchi banata hai, lekinn bahut Hosseyaaree Marta hai saaala…………….
Source- Basanti from Sholay !!!
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June 25, 2012 at 10:20 PM
agar reference nahi diya hoto toh bhi pata chal jata…we “non-returning” types are not that duh…lolz
Sau picture acchi banata hai…straight from horse’s mouth. Baki sentence is of no use..its like saying “picture acchi banata hai par woh toh gay hai”…what diff does it make what opinion does he have or whether he is “high” class or “low” class or who he is married to…yada..yada. Then if you have nothing to pick, you pick on accents in movie…hilarious…pulling the rope from the well slowly-slowly (adoor G.) is high mark of realism but fast-paced true-blu desi gangsta movie ain’t?!?
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June 26, 2012 at 2:44 AM
accent is a pretty important thing otherwise why anurag is so defensive and explaining that in media set up and so is whole atmosphere
itni acchi picture bhi nahi hai …short main 10 min script ko puri picture main ghumata raha hai
true brilliance is created originally not by remaking vintage stuff like godfather and z
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June 26, 2012 at 2:51 AM
true about personal detail but see who picks them himself
and really see same guy’s black friday for research at time ….guy is just not same rebel anymore see him fighting for critical review, budget and commercial stuff and ya gow is a refined masala version nothing more
ask any gora or nri’s and one of the first better movie of the decade they will say is “a wednesday” now that is what original and innovativeness
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June 26, 2012 at 4:59 AM
Re: “…same guy’s black friday for research at time…”
Somewhat off-topic, but “Black Friday” was based on the journalist Hasan Zaidi’s book, so much of the research was already done…
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June 26, 2012 at 11:21 AM
LOL Di..waisey I was talking about RGV…..LOL!!
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June 26, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Me 2. RGV makes gangsta movie…..wasssup….gangs of SS…..
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June 26, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Di jeee aapkee Company mein rah kar main Satya kee khoj mein Daud lagaya lekin Sarkar raj ney nishabd kar diya mujh jaise rangeela ko……..ab Shiva ka Bhoot rakht Chartira bahayega and James ka department Naach karega….
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June 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM
Di, somewhere you’d talked about having kids, I’ve to say you must be a really cool mom!
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June 26, 2012 at 1:11 PM
🙂 अब न कहना की माँ देवी नहीं होती हैं
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June 26, 2012 at 1:39 PM
ha ha ….Bliss..
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June 26, 2012 at 1:41 PM
Divi- do you buy organic milk/food for your kids ??
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June 26, 2012 at 2:04 PM
lol bliss
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June 26, 2012 at 8:32 PM
Awwww Matrix….hugs and muahs to you.
Lol Bliss and lukh-nawab poet sahib.
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June 26, 2012 at 12:52 AM
Vital info on ‘GOW 2’
By Taran Adarsh
Now that GANGS OF WASSEYPUR has released and also won tremendous acclaim from critics and aficionados of cinema, the question on everyone’s lips is, when is GANGS OF WASSEYPUR 2 releasing? Well, like everyone knows, the two parts were screened at Cannes, but Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap decided to have a different strategy vis-a-vis the release of the two parts in India and Overseas.
While the first part has just opened in India, it hasn’t released in Overseas yet. That’s because the film will be released in phases in the international arena — not just in theatres patronized by the diaspora, but also those who’d love to watch an Indian film. It means, the film will have a mainstream release there, starting with Middle East on 28 June, followed by France on 25 July.
As for the release of its second part in India, well, Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap are expected to take a call in the next few days. In all likelihood, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR 2 will be released within three months from now. Let’s await the official announcement from the makers!
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June 26, 2012 at 8:24 AM
but that’s too late though.. at that point you’re certainly not going to get a very significant Indian audience that will have seen it elsewhere by then. With a non-Indian audience it’s a different matter. But in any case it was the wrong call not to have a simultaneous overseas release.
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June 26, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Satyam,
Looks like they are not exactly targeting the Indian audience overseas, as AK’s latest exchange of tweets :
@ankash1009 when it is releasing in US? Producers on one hand complain about piracy and then do not release the film everywhere.
@parikhm can’t help it.. Indians in US have only made success out of big star films, which is why no diaspora release for non star films.
@parikhm so the idea is to target the non diaspora and through US distributors..
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June 26, 2012 at 10:48 AM
but why aren’t they?! They could have released it in a couple of theaters in the city and played more to a non-Indian audience but at the same time provided this option for someone like myself. If I get an original DVD in a few weeks I might not wait for the theatrical release because that doesn’t seem as certain.
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June 26, 2012 at 12:55 AM
Had a feeling that overseas release strategy for GOW was in place…phased release in countries not a bad idea.
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June 26, 2012 at 1:02 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur Monday Business Gives It A Chance
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4604&nCat=
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a low Monday of around 1.75 crore nett as per early estimates but it is steady keeping in mind its weekend business which gives it a chance to hit the average mark if weekdays show minimal drops.
More importantly steady business on the weekdays and second week will give the second part of the film a chance at the box office. Shanghai had also grossed similar on Monday but that film had a 12.50 crore nett weekend so the trending for Gangs Of Wasseypur is better than that film.
The film has grossed 12-12.25 crore nett in four days and the week may finish around the 16-16.50 crore nett mark.
The film is doing mixed business in practically every circuit, Delhi is okay but UP dull, Mumbai city is fair but Gujarat and Maharashtra dull, Gurgaon is good but rest of East Punjab is poor. The major circuits have seen decent business at some stations but poor in other stations.
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June 26, 2012 at 1:09 AM
“More importantly steady business on the weekdays and second week will give the second part of the film a chance at the box office.”
BOI commentary getting more hilarious with each passing day !!!
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June 26, 2012 at 2:42 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur Monday Collection Update. Total – 12.25 cr nett. Steady.
http://www.addatoday.com/2012/06/gangs-of-wasseypur-monday-collection.html
Gangs of Wasseypur is steady on lower side at the box office on Monday. GOW has collected around 1.75 crore nett all India on Monday. It has shown a drop of 55% on average on Monday from Sunday. GOW total collections now stands at 12.25 crore nett all India. Trend suggest that GOW will remain steady in the weekdays and makers of the film will make profit as GOW is made on limited budget.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 3 cr nett.
Sat – 3.5 cr nett.
Sun – 4 cr nett.
Mon – 1.75 cr nett
Total – 12.25 cr nett.
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June 26, 2012 at 5:01 AM
taran_adarsh
#GOW *actuals* Fri 3.03 cr, Sat 3.60 cr, Sun 4.37 cr, Mon 1.95 cr. Total: Rs 12.95 cr nett. Rock-steady!
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June 26, 2012 at 5:24 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani plummets, Gangs of Wasseypur soars
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Teri-Meri-Kahaani-plummets-Gangs-of-Wasseypur-soars/Article1-878758.aspx
Those who swear by meaningful cinema might yet have reason to rejoice. In spite of a modest opening for Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (GOW, part one), trade analysts predict that the film is likely to pick up at the box office. On the other hand, Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK) might have made more money so far, but weighed down by a hefty budget, it already looks “disappointing”.
Despite an A certificate, GOW seems to be doing well with urban, multiplex audiences. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, “The film fared best in Mumbai, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Its business at single screens in mass-dominated (where commercial films work) circuits was weak. The film collected Rs. 10.63 cr net over the first weekend.”
The hard-hitting film has even inspired an Amul ad campaign. Vikram Malhotra, COO, Viacom18 Motion Pictures says, “It’s a huge compliment for a non-star film. It has scored because of its raw appeal.”
Refuting rumours that GOW was made on a budget of Rs. 45 crore, Malhotra says, “These reports are absurd. Both parts of the film were made within Rs. 20 crore.” Official figures state that part one, which released last weekend was made within Rs. 9 crore, with another Rs. 6 crore spent on publicity and marketing. The film also sold satellite and music rights of part one for Rs. 12 crore.
About TMK, Adarsh says, “The film did not take off on day one, and maintained similar figures over the weekend. There was no visible growth, which is disappointing. The film collected approximately Rs. 16.75 crore in its opening weekend.”
Vajir Singh, editor, Box Office India, adds, “There is no hope of TMK recovering money in the coming weeks. The film is a flop. The audience couldn’t relate to the leading pair’s romance, they didn’t ache for them to meet and get married after the first half.” The trade suggests that producer Ponty Chadha of Wave Cinemas who bought the India theatrical and music rights for Rs. 42 crore (TMK was made for Rs. 40 crore), is likely to lose money on the film.
@ the box office
Despite two major releases and less screen space; Ferrari Ki Sawaari is rock steady. The film’s 10-day collection is Rs. 26 crore. And, after four weeks, collections for Rowdy Rathore stands at Rs. 133.25 crore.
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June 26, 2012 at 5:26 AM
GOW well on its way to be a winner ! Will most likely cross 20 crore by 2nd weekend with the current trending.
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June 26, 2012 at 8:12 AM
Lets hope GOW 1 and 2 success brings solace and closure to Kashyap’s POVs and he can move on and keep making interesting movies…
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June 26, 2012 at 9:48 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur Retake: ‘Under-whelmed’ by over-hype :
As much as I loved Gangs Of Wasseypur (Gangs, in short), it’s also irked me enough to write something about this cinema watching experience. A feeling like this has come to me in the past too, either when I’ve seen a good film, or when I have hoped for one. I must say I am not as much impressed with Gangs as many people around me are, and almost all film critics have been. It seems as if blindly appreciating the movie has become a political compulsion for many. Some of them have gone to the extent of comparing it to the likes of Scorsese and Tarantinos of the West, an absolutely absurdist reference. I am neither a paid nor a recognised film-critic. I am not a genre-basher either. I am just an average cinema-goer who likes to watch a good film once in a while, to sex up his otherwise mundane life!
http://thew14.com/2012/06/25/gangs-of-wasseypur-retake-under-whelmed-by-over-hype/
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June 26, 2012 at 8:10 PM
OT-
just saw parts of “Le Quattro Volte” thanx to a film-maker buddy..
A pleasantly quiet, initially droll, but slowly intriguing, film one drifts into…
may write bout it later….
ps-not everyones cup of tea…
reminded me of the turn horse and tree of life in different ways…
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June 27, 2012 at 2:55 AM
ETT Trailer
[added to post]
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June 27, 2012 at 3:32 AM
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/businesstalk/id/538/date/2012-06-27
While in conversation with a leading exhibitor about the audience feedback and opening trends of TERI MERI KAHAANI and GANGS OF WASSEYPUR at his theatres on Friday, he made valid remark, which I’d like to share with you: “The business is clearly divided. At places, TERI MERI KAHAANI is leading, while GANGS OF WASSEYPUR had an edge at some places.” A number of exhibitors echoed similar sentiments across the weekend. Can’t fathom why, but the films in question belonged to diverse genres and were expected to co-exist at cineplexes. In the past, on more occasions than one, two diametrically opposite movies had struck a chord with moviegoers of all age-groups.
Let’s discuss GANGS OF WASSEYPUR first! While the plexes of Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon in particular recorded healthy figures, what really came as a surprise was the uninspiring response meted out to GANGS OF WASSEYPUR in the mass belt and also at single screens of several circuits. I mean, the film was aimed at the masses, had raw action [works in these circuits], besides ample mass-appealing moments and shock value, to attract the hoi polloi in hordes. But the audience stayed away. Did the absence of a notable star go against the film in these circuits? Or did the excessive usage of expletives/cuss words keep a chunk of the audience away?
However, GANGS OF WASSEYPUR has a reasonable price tag attached to it. The Cost of Production of these two films [as shared by Viacom18 and Anurag Kashyap] is approx Rs 18.4 cr [Rs 9.2 cr x 2]. Add to it approx Rs 6.5 cr as P & A expenses [of Part 1], which takes the total [of Part 1] to Rs 15.7 cr. Satellite sales and Music should contribute close to Rs 5 cr, which means Viacom18 has to recover Rs 10.7 cr from India theatrical, which shouldn’t be tough.
On the other hand, TERI MERI KAHAANI, which was extensively promoted and stars two much-in-demand actors in pivotal roles, failed to take off either. The occupancy at plexes was slightly better in North India, but the overall performance is discomforting. In fact, its performance is lower than MAUSAM in India, which says it all. TERI MERI KAHAANI has been sold for a high price to Wave and the distributor is sure to lose a chunk of his investment thanks to its non-performance.
But the business is expected to witness a boom. The next keenly-awaited release SPIDER-MAN and the biggie that opens next Friday, BOL BACHCHAN, are expected to take the nation by storm. Let’s hope that they live up to the lofty expectations!
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June 27, 2012 at 5:54 AM
Taran Adarsh
#GOW *actuals* Fri 3.03 cr, Sat 3.60 cr, Sun 4.37 cr, Mon 1.95 cr, Tue 1.80 cr. Total: Rs 14.75 cr nett. Excellent on weekdays!
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June 27, 2012 at 8:35 AM
Collections Modest But Low Budget Helps GoW
by Shabdita Shrivastav (June 25, 2012)
Last week saw the release of two films, Anurag Kayshap’s Gangs of Wasseypur (GoW) and Kunal Kohli’s Teri Meri Kahaani (TMK). While Teri Meri Kahaani failed to impress the audience, Gangs of Wasseypur picked up at the weekend thanks to word-of-mouth. Also, considering the budgets of these films, GoW was made on a comparatively lower budget than TMK, and has therefore fared well.
In Mumbai, Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines says, “The all-India weekend collections of TMK are Rs 16 crore and Rs 10 crore for GoW. We were hoping that both films would do well over the weekend but collections did not match our expectations.”
According to G D Mehta of Bobby Arts International, “In Delhi-UP, the weekend collection of TMK was Rs 4.1 crore and of Gow Rs 3 crore. Shows of GoW were house full on Saturday and Sunday. On the other hand, collections of TMK were low vis-à-vis the film’s budget although it is a good movie.”
In Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies remarks, “The weekend collection of TMK is Rs 1.8 crore and that of GoW Rs 92 lakh. Collections of both films have dropped since the weekend.”
Neither release intrigued the audience in Rajasthan. Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films avers, “The weekend collection of both TMK and GoW were poor. While both films were neckand-neck on Saturday, there has been a significant drop in the collections of both films.”
In Gujarat, Ajay Bagbai of Rajvi Trade Links concludes, “The weekend collection of TMK is below-average, at 14 to 15 per cent. This quite low considering the budget it was made on. The collection of GoW is 9 to 10 per cent, which is not bad considering its budget.”
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June 27, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur Tuesday Collection Update. Total – 14.3 cr nett. Rock Steady.
http://www.addatoday.com/2012/06/gangs-of-wasseypur-tuesday-collection.html
Gangs of Wasseypur is slowly but steadily finding its foothold at the box office. GOW has collected around 1.75 crore nett all India on Tuesday and collections are steady. GOW total collection stands at 14.3 crore nett all India and first week is heading for 17+ crore nett all India. GOW is made on limited budget and will make profits for the makers. Collections of GOW is going to be better than Teri Meri Kahaani in coming days, going by the present trend.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 3 cr nett.
Sat – 3.5 cr nett.
Sun – 4.15 cr nett.
Mon – 1.9 cr nett.
Tue – 1.75 cr nett.
Total – 14.3 cr nett.
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June 27, 2012 at 2:45 PM
Gangs of wasseypur can be summarized by the last scene done in slow motion.The bullet riddled body of Sardar khan as it emerges out of the car and the Bihar ke lala song blaring in the background.Sardar khan’s mock heroic death curiously reflects his life and the philosophy of the man and the film.The film makes fun of the whole heroic notion of taking revenge as a vocation or justification of living.In short, characters like sardar khan r mahachutiyaas who lives and dies like a dog.
The problem with the film is that it never translates this idea adequately into screen.It starts as a docu drama chronicling the rise of mafia in Wasseypur with a lot of actual footage in black friday style.Then it abandons it( thankfully) as the character of Sardar khan is introduced.From then on the film takes the Gulaal route and comes up with outrageous characters doing outrageous things with dollops of black humour.Its ok..but there r so many scenes in the film! The film has triple the number of scenes a normal film has.One scene never ends adequately and the audience is not given the time to breathe and savour its drama when another begins.The effect is a bullet speed movie but the plethora of scenes as they bombard the audience leaves one with a dizzy feeling.Tt robs the audience from forming a perspective about the film as the director wants to say everything at one go.Incoherence seeps into the plot and the brilliance leaves us confused as we cant relate one scene with the other.Ideally the scenes must be connected together in an organic way to give the feeling that one scene emerges out of the other.Here we have a parade of scenes in quick succession that leaves us befuddled and clueless.There is no connect with the audience…… as the director is lost in displaying his indulgent craft and conveniently loses touch with the audience…… he must say everything at one go as this is the epic.Characters after characters emerge…caricature…kill and spill blood….mouth gaalis…. and we have a faint idea that they r all a part of the general narrative but we cant empathize with them anymore.He shud have edited the film more meticulously and stuck with the central characters and the themes,but sadly his indulgence is all important and the director is everything.The storyteller is bigger than the story and as a result the story suffers.Its a hotchpotch of brillinatly executed and acted scenes which cud have been made coherent if the director had been more patient,restrained and stuck to a vision that was narrower.But anurag wants to juggle with a thousand balls at the same time.In the effort of making this a fast paced epic the director loses his vision and gets lost in the details and so does the audience.The film ends up being a cacophony and a caricature of what it aims to be…very much like NO smoking but in a different way.It is impossible to pull off a movie that aims to be an angry epic of subversion where gangster r not glorified but r portrayed as the true,brainless lafangaas which they are without connecting with the audience.The movie is wieldly and cluttered……. it has its moments of brilliance but never moves yu.The director is to be blamed.
When the director.. with his penchant for the subverse,his idiosyncracies and indulgences becomes more important than the subject.. u get a Gangs of Wasseypur.I give it a 2.5 out of 5
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June 27, 2012 at 4:00 PM
awesome you have picked all shortcoming together in one go ferociously and agree with most
though there are positives to:
1)packing out 5 decades in a movie that to in just 5and half duration is pretty tough…things where bound to go messy
2) how sardar was scared of his wife was again pretty difficult to explain but was funny at times
3) raw rustic representation where still better than most
as for critics their difination of cult has been changed and that these days means things which where never shown on screen before
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June 27, 2012 at 3:16 PM
Wow why a comment anjali
If that’s your first comment here-welcome ..
I haven’t seen the film bit part of your aversion to it may also have to do with you being a female …
Not in any derogatory way –most males have issues with this one as well
This particular connotation is a more female pov…
What did U feel about no smoking, Dev d -liked both a lot…
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June 27, 2012 at 3:44 PM
@alex
i dont understand what connection my being a female can have with my liking or disliking a particular work of art.
the reason why i did not like GOW…is becoz it was unable to translate its theme into the screen in a masterly manner.anurag kashyap overdid himself.the movie is not an effortless watch.
i have liked black friday gulaal and devd of anurag.those movies delivered what they aimed for.they r not weidly and cluttered and indulgent fares.
i did not like no smoking precisely becoz it was over ambitious and cudnt deliver its abstract existential theme with perfection on the screen.but no smoking is a better movie than gangs of wasseypur becoz in no smoking anurag has not committed the fundamental mistake which he did in this movie…which is…..the amount of scenes.every movie has a limited number of scenes and if u triple that number then it becomes impossible to watch the movie which happened in the case of gangs of wasseypur.
in an interview anurag confessed that he is playing a big gamble as in the span of 2 hr 40 minutes no other filmmaker in the whole world has attempted so many scenes as he did in gow.sadly the gamble didnt pay off.the movie is almost unwatchable in a conventional way.u almost get a feeling that the movie is fleeting…it runs so fast.
its like u r watching the movie from a train window and outside there r big screens on poles.the screens r countless in number and the line the railway track…and u watch the film from the window…..it fleets.one scene fleets away and before u gain perspective another fleets away…..without that organic connection which holds the film together and gives it dramatic impact.
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June 27, 2012 at 3:50 PM
Alex finds it quite impossible to move away from gender in most matters!
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June 27, 2012 at 4:13 PM
and ya gulal was a real subversion where a caracter called karan who was illegal comes out victorious in end
( no need to say it was subversion of mahabharata)
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June 27, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Hmm
Well your comment makes sense and must say u have articulated it quite well.
Gow hasn’t released outside India do couldn’t watch it but was keen to watch it–ended up watching Teri meri kahaani since was in a mood for Bollywood …
Btw don’t know many females who would have liked the blood few and expletives…
The ‘point’ here is not the ‘story’ or what happens really…
These sort of films are moving kaliedoscopic images of a certain contextual realm which had to be taken in a certain mindset wherein one shouldnt really clamour fr facts, substance and script movement only ..
Anyhow cant disagree with your view that seems quite reasonable (since I haven’t seen the film)
What did u think of Dev d -I haven’t seen Gullal
If u don’t already write in other names 🙂 -looking forward for more comments from u
U write well
Who are your favorite actors and films ..
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June 27, 2012 at 4:49 PM
Read the comment now-hasn’t read this properly
“its like u r watching the movie from a train window and outside there r big screens on poles.the screens r countless in number and the line the railway track…and u watch the film from the window…..it fleets.one scene fleets away and before u gain perspective another fleets away…..without that organic connection which holds the film together and gives it dramatic impact.”
Well described anjeli!
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June 27, 2012 at 5:53 PM
mam: surprised by maturity of comment: outrageous character do outrageous things in gulal:
here is the conversation from some other forum at different betweem me and q on that:
Great review….the movie is also full of Mahabharat references, chief among them Anurag’s disturbing but apt inversion of Karan (Aditya Srivastava). In that epic, Karan always sacrifices his happiness and accepts his fate but this new Karan is out to prove he is ‘legitimate’ by way of gaining absolute power.)
I would perhaps cast the issue a bit differently: i.e. not so much about the purpose of the ardhnari character but about what the DEATH of this character shows. The ardhnari is an androgynous form (i.e. a combo of the male Shiva and the female Shakti), and given Kashyap’s concern with the gender implications of a certain sort of politics and violence, I saw Duki’s killing of that character as symbolizing the slaying of the “female aspectâ€, i.e. its sacrifice at the altar of the patriarchy; and I felt that from that point on nothing would stop the self-destructive spiral of the film’s male characters (indeed Duki, who has killed the ardhnari character, is himself killed due to male competition over a woman
Nice review. Can anyone tell me what exactly the significance of that ardhnari character was, and why he was accompanying Piyush Mishra all thew time? Did did that imply anything specific for the Piyush character? He was the older brother and unmarried…..
“The ardhnari is an androgynous form (i.e. a combo of the male Shiva and the female Shakti), and given Kashyap’s concern with the gender implications of a certain sort of politics and violence, I saw Duki’s killing of that character as symbolizing the slaying of the “female aspectâ€, i.e. its sacrifice at the altar of the patriarchy; and I felt that from that point on nothing would stop the self-destructive spiral of the film’s male characters (indeed Duki, who has killed the ardhnari character, is himself killed due to male competition over a woman).”
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June 27, 2012 at 6:07 PM
interesting obervations
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June 27, 2012 at 6:16 PM
Anjali -not sure if u intended to show me your pic but it is showing on your icon at my end…
Ps-your pic is nice 🙂
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June 27, 2012 at 6:28 PM
ardhnareshwar in gulaal is a metaphor for the philosophical outlook of piyush mishra in the film.that is y he is always seen accompanying piyush mishra.ardhnareshwar is both ying and yang..male and female in one.it means someone which encompasses both the points of view…..someone who sees the real picture and cannot take a partisan point of view…..someone…. because(he sees the reality and the circular nature of it)..is absolutely useless.because the history of the world is a testimony to the fact that history is created by men who see only one side of the picture..and who fights with the others to assert their side.history is the story of partisanship…story of men fighting with others to assert their point of view.someone who sees the circular nature of truth…someone who sees both the sides…..cannot be a man of action.he will become a wisecrack like piyush mishra in the film.he will become like john lenon.u remeber in the film piyush mishra says..(when ransa points to the locket he is wearing which has the pic of john lenon in it)..yeh hain his highness imagine singh ji………in sabke chasme gol the….john lenon..mahatma gandhi….tabhi toh yeh sab ahinsa ki behki behki baatein karte the…at that point ransaa says…par masterji aapka chasma bhi to gol(circular hai)…mishra says…tabhi toh koi hamari nahi sunta!
so arshnareshwar is a metaphor for that circular..ying yang philosophy which piyush mishra stands for.his murder by duki bana was inevitable ..as in duki’s lust for power…such a philosophy(which ardhnareshwar symbolized will always be sacrificed).
piyush mishra says an interesting verse by ghalib after ardhnareshwar dies n bhati asks him y u infuriate duki bana:
naa khuda ko gardishe toofan se darna chahiye
mera kya main naa khuda ki naak mein ghuus jaunga
this is another example of the role of piyush mishra in the film…naak mein ghus jaunga means…someone who like john lenon will irritate and infuriate by spelling out the circular nature of truth…ppl like duki bana who r men of action and who live a partisan life…and who fight and create history to assert their pov.
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June 27, 2012 at 6:39 PM
Anjali Ma’am, ur views on GoW and Gulaal have impressed me a great deal. in you, SS has found another truly top-notch writer after Ami. Do keep commenting and it’s great to have u here
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June 27, 2012 at 6:32 PM
Brilliant piece there anjali-wow
I’m feeling bad I’ve not seen this film-hmmm…how elegantly uve explained this ‘complicated’ stuff
Want to watch gulal now
Btw just saw this song playing…enjoy-totally random and anurag kashyap unrelated 🙂
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June 27, 2012 at 6:36 PM
Anjali- why don’t u please write something like a review on GoW and/or dev d/gulal
Sure it will be worth putting up as a separate thread -quite worthy points here…
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June 27, 2012 at 6:39 PM
@alex….i hope u r nt being sarcastic.i nt an active blogger.i just like satyams reasoned arguments.and i like ur jokes too.but pls dont embarrass me..and make me a target of ur jokes
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June 27, 2012 at 6:44 PM
No Ma’am, alex is not being sarcastic. i too believe that u should definitely do a piece on Gulaal and GoW, esp on GoW since no one has written anything abt it over here
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June 27, 2012 at 6:48 PM
Anjali: as minor said, I’m not being sarcastic
U write v well and moreover your thoughts are quite original and importantly uninfluenced by the spin around
Suggest u write a proper piece -keep it up 🙂
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June 27, 2012 at 6:49 PM
@alex and saurabh..thnx a lot
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June 27, 2012 at 6:52 PM
Alex, that reminds of another excellent blogger Arthi. She was also brilliant. I wonder why she hardly comments here
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June 27, 2012 at 6:58 PM
Hmm well had forgotten but thanx for reminding me minor-u do have a good mammary… Oops memory-no doubt u passed your ‘exams’ lol
Ya maybe arthi got married etc and is now busy in other pursuits hahaha
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June 27, 2012 at 6:53 PM
No need to thank etc anjali..
Btw who are your favourite actors and films-Bollywood Hollywood…
Will await your piece on GoW , also dev d…
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June 27, 2012 at 7:05 PM
one flew over the cuckoos nest is my all time favourite film….followed by through the glass darkly by bergman.my all time best dialogue is from the latter film….where the mad girl raves….as her father…lover and brother try to console her…..”.All my life…all my life i waited for the door to open and god to come out.finally the door did open and out came a spider!”…..what angst!
my fav actor is jack nicholson and to an extent marlon brando….they r any day better than al pacino..robert de niro and dustin hoffman
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June 27, 2012 at 8:29 PM
Not a fan of the Nicholson film but I am happy to agree with you on the Bergman, probably the one I like most within that trilogy. Having said that I increasingly find Bergman hard to take unless it’s from the earlier much more lyrical period.
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June 27, 2012 at 9:19 PM
“one flew over the cuckoos nest is my all time favourite film”
i liked the title song of Kyun ki…..the copy of this english film
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June 27, 2012 at 9:24 PM
another version
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June 27, 2012 at 9:31 PM
..my god never heard of this film.is it based on one flew over the cuckoos nest?its a shame.
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June 27, 2012 at 9:50 PM
It’s a very, very loose remake. Consider it a parody of the Forman film, because that’s how embarrassingly poor it is. Technically it’s a remake by Priyadarshan of his own Malayalam film with Mohanlal, Thalavattam, which is pretty much saved by the performances there.
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June 27, 2012 at 7:08 PM
“where the mad girl raves….as her father…lover and brother try to console her…..”.All my life…all my life i waited for the door to open and god to come out.finally the door did open and out came a spider!”…..what angst!”
What a point !!! Spot on…
Do u like anyone from Bollywood / any films …
Btw wanted to see GoW -ended up with TMK-lol- hav u seen it…
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June 27, 2012 at 10:22 PM
Bergman is one artist who is good , when young as well as when old. In fact one of his best is ‘ Fanny and Alexander’ made at the very end of his career. This is unlike his generally gloomy oeuvre, and has droll humour and bright passages a plenty. Even a film like Saraband is wonderful to watch. Then there the brilliant early works : Wild Strawberries and Seventh seal as well as the middle period with Through the Glass Darkly and Persona . A filmmaker with a truly singular vision and a great body of work.
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June 28, 2012 at 1:55 AM
Just for info for folks : GOW 1 releases in the Middle East & Dubai today…please spread the word !
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June 28, 2012 at 1:57 AM
Every character in Gangs of Wasseypur eye-catching: Huma Qureshi
http://zeenews.india.com/entertainment/movies/every-character-in-gangs-of-wasseypur-eye-catching-huma-qureshi_114156.htm
Huma Qureshi, who has made her acting debut with the recently released mafia drama Gangs of Wasseypur, says she gets due attention in the film despite there being a bevy of characters.
The actress says she was initially apprehensive about going unnoticed in the Anurag Kashyap film as it also stars names like Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jaideep Ahlawat, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Reemma Sen, Richa Chadda among others.
“I was apprehensive about taking on the role in such a big multistarrer film with a bunch of good actors. There was this feeling that I would go unnoticed. But the credit goes to Anurag. He gave me confidence. He knows what he is doing. Despite a dozen of characters sharing screen space, none of them is forgetful. Each one of them connects with the audience in a beautiful way. Each character has a story to tell, a significant role and does not overcrowd the film,” Huma told reporters.
Born and brought up in the Delhi, Huma comes from a complete non-film background. But that did not stop her from following her acting dreams. While shooting for a mobile phone advertisement with Aamir Khan, she bagged her dream debut.
“I had done an ad for a mobile company with Aamir Khan which was directed by Anurag. During the ad shoot itself, Anurag told me that he will cast me in one of his films. At that point, I didn`t really take him seriously but was happy when he actually kept his word and called me to be a part of Gangs… I never auditioned for the part,” she said.
The actress also said that the director did not give her the script beforehand as he didn`t want her to superficially act out the scene.
“I was one of the many actors who was not allowed to read the script of the film because Anurag wanted all of us to be as natural as possible. Some of the scenes in the film would have been completely ruined had it been acted out of the script,” she added.
Huma`s character Mohsina is introduced towards the end of the first part of the film. The actress says her character fleshes out in the second part alongwith her love interest played by Nawazuddin.
“My character alongwith Nawaz`s and few others are only introduced towards the end of the film. So you see very little of us in Part 1. But we are there pre-dominantly in the second part,” she said.
Gangs of Wasseypur was screened in the Directors` Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival this year and the actress says the international exposure has helped the film.
“The reception that the film got at Cannes was unbelievable. The film belongs to the popular Bollywood genre with dance, drama, action but still we got a standing ovation after the screening. That shows that as long as there is a story to tell, connect with the audience and good acting, language does not matter. Emotions are universal.
“Cannes has generated a buzz about the film and definitely created an interest. So I am hoping it will help the film,” she said.
This year Huma will also be seen in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana opposite Kunal Kapoor, which has been co-produced by Anurag. The film is being pitched as India`s first food film.
“In the film I play a Punjabi girl. It`s a mad Indian film about food and family. It is set in a small town called Lalton near Ludhiana. Although I am from Delhi, I have never been to Punjab,” she said.
The actress is also currently shooting for Vishal Bhardwaj`s production Ek Thi Daayan. Huma has also signed Kal Ho Na Ho director Nikhil Advani`s next action film.
“For Nikhil Advani`s film, which is an out and out action flick, I will be undergoing combative training. I feel happy that he thinks that I can pull it off.
“Being an actress is not a 9 to 5 job that I will keep on doing the same kind of roles in every film. I want to do challenging roles. I don`t want to do the same stuff again and again because the audience will get bored of me and my films,” she added.
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June 28, 2012 at 1:59 AM
Looking forward to see more of Huma ( Mohsina ) in Part 2 ! The girl is indeed promising !!
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June 28, 2012 at 2:00 AM
Meet the BRILLIANT cast of Gangs Of Wasseypur
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-meet-the-brilliant-cast-of-gangs-of-wasseypur/20120627.htm
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June 28, 2012 at 2:00 AM
OT- Trailer of SPIKE LEE’s upcoming film “RED HOOK SUMMER” -stars Clarke Peters, Jules Brown, Toni Lysaith, Nate Parker, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, James Ransone- http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D9CX9xKczh4w&sa=U&ei=TfLrT9GhJYmK2wW8xpDBAw&ved=0CDMQtwIwBA&usg=AFQjCNHQK8GnfeGZGjE7nsQVY4ajvVpHrA
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June 28, 2012 at 2:42 AM
Poster boy of Hindie
Anupama Chopra, Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/Poster-boy-of-Hindie/Article1-879811.aspx
Fourteen years ago, I wrote an article for a leading news magazine on ‘The New Bollywood Brigade.’ It started with an anecdote about Anurag Kashyap telling Amitabh Bachchan off. Kashyap was only 26 years old then. Satya, which he had co-written, had established him as a hotshot talent. The story
went like this: Impressed with Satya, Bachchan had called Kashyap and said, “Let’s do something different.” Kashyap clearly told the superstar that he wanted to do it his way. “Don’t set any limits because I’m writing for Amitabh Bachchan.” Kashyap wrote the script, which had Bachchan playing a grey character. Everyone liked it but, as Kashyap told it back then, “Bachchan developed cold feet… He wanted a justification for the character. I said no. I said, let’s respect the audience. Let’s give them something to think about.” After that conversation, Kashyap said, he never went back.
Last week, Bachchan saw Kashyap’s latest film Gangs of Wasseypur and raved about it on Twitter. “What a film,” he tweeted, “Anurag Kashyap’s direction amazing… Indian cinema taking path breaking strides… pride and extreme gratification.” In the years since their first encounter, Kashyap has gone from being Bollywood’s problem child to the poster boy of ‘Hindie,’ that is Hindi independent cinema. It’s been a journey fraught with struggle, depression, divorce and incessant battling with the powers that be in Bollywood — studios, producers, stars, trade pundits, even the Censor Board (Kashyap’s first film Paanch never released because the Censor Board deemed it too dark for the Indian public). But Kashyap has endured.
Gangs of Wasseypur is, by turns, absorbing and frustrating. It features terrific performances and scenes of powerful, explosive violence. But it is also indulgent and much too long. The film started slow at the box office, but picked up by the evening shows and is likely to make around R11 crore net on the first weekend. Clearly, Kashyap’s brand of cinema is no threat to a masala entertainer like Rowdy Rathore, which has made over R130 crore in three weeks and is the biggest hit of the year so far. But the fact that Kashyap could get a major studio — Viacom 18 — to put down R18 crore plus for a two-part, five-hour-20-minute, star-less saga about the coal mining mafia in Bihar is a victory. It means that viewers have choices at the multiplex. Yes, the box office Goliath is probably going to be a full-blow, star-laden comedy or drama — this year’s biggest include Agneepath and Housefull 2. But there is also likely to be something smaller, edgier, ‘hatke’ running at the next screen.
Because Kashyap is no longer a one-man movement. Over the years, he has mentored dozens of directors and an astonishing pool of talent. In between his own projects, he has found time to produce films like Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan — the first Indian film to make the official selection at the Cannes International Film Festival in seven years; Bejoy Nambiar’s Shaitan, Vasan Bala’s Peddlers and co-produce Michael Winterbottom’s Trishna. Dev.D pushed the astounding composer Amit Trivedi into the spotlight and Gulaal made us recognise the many talents of Piyush Mishra. Gangs of Wasseypur features an array of dazzling actors — from Manoj Vajpai to Richa Chadda to Tigmanshu Dhulia. There isn’t one false note among them.
These films and filmmakers are slowly expanding the definition of Indian cinema abroad. Bollywood is still the mother brand but there is an increasing recognition that an alternative cinema is emerging. At Cannes, the India conversation is usually dominated by which stars walked the red carpet. This year, for the first time, the chatter was about Indian films — Gangs of Wasseypur and Peddlers screened in the festival sidebars. At the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, the City to City section will showcase 10 Mumbai films; Gangs of Wasseypur is a strong contender.
Film scholar Ashish Rajyadaksha once said that it is “vitally important to maintain an experimental cinema for both the mainstream and the larger cultural context,” because the experimental cinema becomes “a research and development centre for cinema in the country.” What’s exciting is that Hindie and mainstream filmmakers are feeding off each other. So Motwane’s next is a period film with mainstream stars, Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha. Kashyap is a co-producer. His next directorial project is also a period film — Bombay Velvet, set in the 1960s Jazz Age, starring Ranbir Kapoor.
The creative churning is yielding sparkling cinema. Which is why Anurag Kashyap matters.
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June 28, 2012 at 6:40 AM
i admire kashyap and his oeuvre.but gangs of wasseypur is not great cinema,even by kashyap standards…it is his worst.merely becoz the film has great acting performances and a raw edgy feel to it,does not mean it qualifies as great.a film should have a central theme and coherence.GOW is an array of finely executed scenes done in a realistic noir style…..but disconnected…done almost in a graphic novel format…without a soul to hook the audience.
kashyap must have a narrow canvas if he wants to translate his basic inspiration into the semblance of an engaging plot.
one film by kashyap,whose story i liked but kashyap was never able to make it was allwyn kalicharan.the film was about a teenaged boy who is infatuated by reading a lot of superhero comics and thinks himself to be a superhero.but his problem is that he is not able to find a superpower.he can neither fly like a superman,nor can he crawl up buildings like a spiderman.
once while playing football…a boy kicks him hard and in anger and rage he starts vibrating…..it is then that he discovers his latent superpower…which is to vibrate in the face of injustice.from then on…. whenever he sees an injustice committed…like a thief running away with a woman’s purse…he immediately becomes the superhero and starts vibrating ….
the movie is a satire and subversion of superheroism that claims to fight against the injustice in society.it is set in a dystopic delhi of 2040.the film has a lot of queer inventions.the boy thinks he is someone special…and his frustration is that no one recognizes his talent.his talent include…holding up his breath for 2 minutes continuous….counting the stars in the sky and a lot of other bizzarre and weird things.he is lost in himself….and is angry with the world….becoz the world has no time or interest in exploring and celebrating his weird talents.
now this is a film which cud have been really path breaking…..but kashyap cannot make an epic like gangs of wasseypur…he can only come up with brilliantly subversive movies on a smaller canvas.
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June 28, 2012 at 6:49 AM
Interesting! but how do u know the entire story of this Alvin Kallicharan (there was a very famous Carribean batsman of the same name though)? is the script available on the net?
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June 28, 2012 at 7:10 AM
this is the video where anurag talks about his film which he cudnt make….the audio is bad lsiten carefully
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June 28, 2012 at 7:13 AM
here is another video with a better audio.pls dont listen to the earlier one…the audio is bad…listen to this
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June 28, 2012 at 7:19 AM
Thanks much Ma’am.
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June 28, 2012 at 10:33 AM
Kashyap was supposed to make Alvin Kallicharan with Anil Kapoor playing the lead…the film did not take off.
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June 28, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Satyam and all:
Is this one of the prime reasons why AK is miffed with AB sr? AB’s refusal to break out of the mould (it must have been 1999 when AK and AB got together)? It is ironical in one way since AB was going through a horrible patch at that time (kBC was still not on) , he had no decent film offers on hand. If he could go and knock on the doors of YASH CHOPRA for a role, why the hell couldn’t he partner with AK?
This, clearly, is AB’s loss and not at all AK’s…
Sad, the opportunities this wonderful actor has kicked out of the park…it would be a very long and sorry list…
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June 28, 2012 at 2:21 PM
I don’t really think Kashyap has any problems as such with Bachchan. I actually, and contrary to everything he’s said (and based on some other stuff), don’t think his problem with Abhishek is all that personal. It’s framed in personal ways but Abhishek for him is a kind of fetishistic obsession, his key to theorizing about everything that’s wrong with Bollywood. And like all such obsessions one tries to establish a logic for them. So he does have ‘reasons’ for why he doesn’t like Abhishek (those he gets into and those he chooses not to) but the problem here is that these reasons are entirely ‘banal’ given this or any other industry. So for example let’s say everything he thinks about Abhishek is actually true — that he isn’t really devoted to good cinema, that he extracts huge amounts even for different films, that he did this or that, that he’s undeserving and so on. The problem is all these things don’t really make Kashyap’s case even if literally true. Because these would only mean something if everyone else in a comparable position were different or if Abhishek were behaving in completely unusual ways but that clearly isn’t the case. There would still have to be an explanation for why Abhishek somehow ‘controls’ the entire Bollywood system with his decisions and therefore this would then be a reason why his decisions were that important. Obviously there’s no such explanation. Nor is there one for anyone else behaving very differently. They’re hardly in it for charity! Of course it must be said that Kashyap’s testimony on the ‘person’ of Abhishek (leaving aside professional decisions) is not one that is confirmed by anyone else in Bollywood in any capacity including the frankly many of the people he works with. And he ought to know this! There is other stuff still that I can’t talk about.
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June 28, 2012 at 4:33 PM
i think the apparent discord between amitabh bachchan and anurag kashyap is a very curious one.if u see gangs of wasseypur yu will realize the obvious presence amitabh bachchan has in that film.the angry young man character of nawazuddin is modeled on the phenomenon called amitabh bachchan of the 70s and early 80s….and he is certainly not a caricature.and that aspect of the film is a welcome respite.one scene which is sheer cinematic brilliance is when nawazuddin finds himself sitting directly opposite another amitabh bachchan look alike(on a train journey)…and is comparing himself with him….”who is more bachchanesque?”….he almost goes through a mock existential crisis..and leaves the train with an expression of “what the fuck” pasted on his face.
anurag…if u take aside his arty farty…liberal..intellectual….renaissance man of indie cinema pretensions…is deep down smitten and fascinated by the phenomenon that was amitabh bachchan in the 70s.
i think satyam can shed more light on the semantics of this discord.it is true anurag identifies everything that is wrong with bollywood with the star parivaar ….but y single out bachchan?
stayam says there r other stuffs still which he cant talk about.i wud hope he comes up with some explanation as to what the whole jhagda between them….deep down..is about.and y it cant b resolved.anurag appears to be a very spontaneous…impressionable kind of person who cannot keep a grouse against someone for long.but at the same time he is very obstinate and headstrong and will never compromise with his core principles…which i find a good thing.amitabh bachchan on the other hand doesnt appears to be miffed or in any way angry with anurag at all.his tweets and blogs about gow suggests he likes anurag.then what is the jhagda about?
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June 28, 2012 at 4:43 PM
Another ace comment anjali
Well, u seem to be right
It seems more like a subconscious deep influence and a forced reaction against that extreme adulation in terms of anurag against amitabh
Come to think of it his ‘outbursts’ against abhishrek e dn have shades of ‘sibling rivalry’ though mired with ideation of angst and deprivation caused due to his independent struggle vis a vis abhishreks ‘privileged’ upbringing and entry to films (& apparent privileged continuation)
Anyhow-I will love to see a film directed by kashyap with amitabh as the main lead-don’t care if anyone other than kashyap likes it -I will love it !!!!
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June 29, 2012 at 12:12 AM
Had read somewhere that Abhishek refused to do “No Smoking”, isn’t this story true Satyam? Thought this must be the reason he has been whining around here.
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June 29, 2012 at 12:34 AM
I do believe he did not agree to do No Smoking. or there was at least some talk about this. Let me put it this way — it is not the case that Kashyap has never ever thought of working with Abhishek!
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June 28, 2012 at 2:24 PM
ya they called him phycho , depessive , charsi and what and not but atleast he is getting some recognition now
paanch was not released but he made last train to mahakaali on the same theme( a teleserial) with the same lead
still his strength lies on smaller canvas and ya he producing better movies than what he is making
as for developing cold feet its quite easy for someone like vajpayee who was in oblivion for close to decade( because here recognition is important) but when a guy of that stature does boom( a remarkable performance in outrageously bad movie) or nishabd moral police are forever there to haunt
as for mentor one should also give credit to ram gopal verma( who mentored him during satya) and a certain maniratnam who mentored him during yuva and now the connection with danny boyle which is expanding connection on western front
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June 28, 2012 at 2:44 AM
Agree with Ms. Chopra on most counts.
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June 28, 2012 at 3:23 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur Wednesday Collection Update. Total – 16 cr nett.
http://www.addatoday.com/2012/06/gangs-of-wasseypur-wednesday-collection.html
Gangs of Wasseypur is rock steady at the box office. GOW has collected around 1.7 crore nett all India on Wednesday, taking its six day total to 16 crore nett all India. GOW is sustaining well and it augurs well in for the film in long run. GOW first week is heading for 17.5-18 crore nett, which is pretty decent if we consider the opening of GOW.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 3 cr nett.
Sat – 3.5 cr nett.
Sun – 4.15 cr nett.
Mon – 1.9 cr nett.
Tue – 1.75 cr nett.
Wed – 1.7 cr nett.
Total – 16 cr nett.
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June 28, 2012 at 5:15 AM
OT,
Satyam
Bhawana Somaaya is coming up with new Trade journal “Blockbuster”, 1st issue to be released on 7th july …
One more monkey to mess with BO numbers 🙂
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June 28, 2012 at 5:54 AM
Ha!
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June 28, 2012 at 12:39 PM
On positive side, She definitely had richer experience than likes of BOI guys.
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June 28, 2012 at 7:29 AM
Anjali-just like a usually see only some scenes Of most films, don’t read all tw lines of most posts lol
But just read this bit now.
Will rank this simply as one of the best thoughts written on this blog. Superb!!
Also I congratulate satyam for fostering (won’t call breeding lol)
Such a space …
Can’t but not appreciate brilliance 🙂
The way u have toggled all round thinking with inaction and narrow minded one-sided discourse with inaction and correlated this with the character is praiseworthy …
“ardhnareshwar in gulaal is a metaphor for the philosophical outlook of piyush mishra in the film.that is y he is always seen accompanying piyush mishra.ardhnareshwar is both ying and yang..male and female in one.it means someone which encompasses both the points of view…..someone who sees the real picture and cannot take a partisan point of view…..someone…. because(he sees the reality and the circular nature of it)..is absolutely useless.because the history of the world is a testimony to the fact that history is created by men who see only one side of the picture..and who fights with the others to assert their side.history is the story of partisanship…story of men fighting with others to assert their point of view.someone who sees the circular nature of truth…someone who sees both the sides…..cannot be a man of action.he will become a wisecrack like piyush mishra in the film.”
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June 28, 2012 at 7:48 AM
thnx alex have u seen the movie gulaal?has satyam seen it?can u provide me with a link to the thread of this blog where u guys discussed gulaal?
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June 28, 2012 at 8:11 AM
Qalandar’s piece:
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June 28, 2012 at 1:02 PM
“thnx alex have u seen the movie gulaal?”
Anjali-nope i havent seen gulal but want to see it after reading your comments-sounds an interesting multilayered film..
Ps -amongst recent Bollywood, if uve seen them -what did u think of rockstar or znmd?
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June 28, 2012 at 12:24 PM
1st Look of Jism 2 😛
Satyam, see if its appropriate to post else delete this
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June 28, 2012 at 12:39 PM
Looks like a transition from soft porn to hard core for the Bhatts.
Too bad for Hashmi, he is not on this gravy train any more!
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June 28, 2012 at 12:54 PM
LOL, he’s probably reconsidering his Shanghai decision!
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June 28, 2012 at 1:14 PM
Hashmi was never a part of the Jism franchise. also is it not a fact that much more nudity is shown in hollywood?- we had stuff like ‘basic instinct’ and ‘eyes wide shut’ even more than a decade back? And when one says that there is too much usage of foul language in films like GoW, again aren’t we forgetting abt the West were every 3rd is replete with all kinds of abuses (which are not required at all).even as early as in the late 80s Pacino’s Scarface had the lead guy abusing left,right and centre
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June 28, 2012 at 1:19 PM
Hmm that’s a very good point minor!!
Actually in this era of Internet wherein kids access all sorts of porn on their mobiles apparently, shouldnt Bollywood follow suit?
Everyone has a choice to see or not to see, I guess…
Is it time for full frontal nudity in Bollywood (but obviously with the correct rating 18+)?
What are yor views minor…
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June 28, 2012 at 1:30 PM
Alex, all i am saying is that we should be fair while judging any film. If Jism 2 is soft-porn, Eyes Wide Shut was ‘hardcore stuff’- do not care whether it is Kubrick at helm or Pooja Bhatt or whether it is Sunny Leone or Nicole Kidman- that ‘does not’ matter. And thanks that u reminded me of frontal nudity- till now bollywood has never shown frontal nudity compared to hollywood where it is rampant even in films without any sexual undertone.
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June 28, 2012 at 1:37 PM
You have ‘raised’ a pertinent point here minor..
Yes, have also sensed a certain ‘double standards’ in this.
But since I’m not aware of what the scene is WITHIN India @ ground level, I stay quiet..
As u mentioned, indian folks seem to watch much more explicit stuff from hollywood –
(btw eyes wide shut is a personal favourite and much more than porn-infact is a psychopsychic interplay drama first lol)
But when it comes to Bollywood,there is this sudden ‘prude’ sensibility.
Example- the initial reaction to jism2 photo here just now -even scared me of the reactions in the cinema halls in India lol….
Guess younger folks like u in India are more ‘open’ to this… 🙂
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June 28, 2012 at 2:10 PM
Alex, i am not debating on the quality of Eyes. All i am saying is that if the topic is nudity etc, it had much more of it than any bwood film. And i am no one to judge if frontal nudity should be allowed in bwood but yes i do believe there should be a right to ‘expression of art’ in any form. i mean how is showing sex worse than showing violence (not that i am against violence in movies per se, i am a hardcore fan of gore and bloodletting on screen)
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June 28, 2012 at 12:54 PM
The smut can stand as a link!
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June 28, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Agree : it seems a bit too much…
May have a ‘bad influence’ on some…lol
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June 28, 2012 at 12:56 PM
Seems bhatt has gone for it here unabashedly…
In a way, bhatt can argue that he didn’t go all the way and employed a porn star and ‘trained’ her ‘acting’ NOT for seeing religious hymns
But I think this poster has gone a bit too far for a mainstream Indian film release-though have o issues with it personally
Satyam: take a call if this deserves a separate post-let’s see 🙂
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June 28, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Oh man.. Ramindeep (to paraphrase Russell Peters) Hooda is having the time of his life..first with Nandana Sen and now with ‘conservative’ actress Sunny Leone..What I would pay to be in his pants.. I mean, out of his pants!!!
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June 28, 2012 at 1:05 PM
ETT latest theatrical promo-
YouTube link in this
indiatoday.intoday.in/story/salman-khan-ek-tha-tiger-trailer-roaring-response/1/202787.html
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June 28, 2012 at 2:07 PM
GANGS OF WASSEYPUR Part @ trailer ( Bad quality)
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June 28, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Part 2 I meant !! This is one of best trailers in recent times
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June 28, 2012 at 2:14 PM
not going through this, prefer to start off with a proper one.
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June 28, 2012 at 2:31 PM
Satyam, one of the big films this yr. trailer of Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper and Anupam Kher starrer “THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK”- directed by David O. Russell (The Fighter, 3 Kings, I heart Huckabees)- cast- De Niro, bradley cooper, jennifer lawrence, anupam kher, jackie weaver, chris tucker, Julia Stiles- releases Nov 21, 2012
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June 28, 2012 at 2:40 PM
ya this surely be much better than first part and i guess it will have more drama, masala attached to it even commercially
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June 28, 2012 at 2:51 PM
Satyam This now deserves new post 😛
Title song of Jism 2
[post created]
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June 28, 2012 at 3:00 PM
have they replaced hashmi with hooda or what
this guy got better reviews than him in jannat 2 agree but blood is not thicket than water lol
aside in recent time this got better reviews at times in ouatim(than both lead) and jannat 2 and look what he is onto now
the intensity which was visible when ramu launched him in d is reduced to this
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June 28, 2012 at 5:10 PM
Dev D through the gender prism
IN A WORLD ORDERED by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leitmotif of erotic spectacle” … “she holds the look, and plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combines spectacle and narrative.
Although a bit simplistic, it would not be untrue to say that the most dominating genre in the Bombay mainstream commercial cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, is song and dance woven around a common thematic undercurrent in the story: romance between the hero and ‘his woman’, culminating in marriage, a happily-ever-after conclusion. To this structure, Anurag Kashyap’s most famous film, Dev.D complies broadly. But it causes too many dents, and too deep, to go unnoticed.
Dev.D is an interesting film to review because of the strength of its women characters, their departure from the patriarchal constructs of a traditional Indian woman in Indian films; the viewer can identify and sympathise with these ‘flawed’ women. Does this depiction make Dev.D a liberating film from the gender perspective? Is it legitimisation, or at least acceptance of a woman with sexual agency – the ‘slut’? Are dominant patriarchal structures seen dissolving in the film? Is the film a shift from the ‘male gaze’? Do the ‘decisions’ in the script flow from the women characters? While these questions will run through this critique, the short answer to all these questions is no. This, however, should not take away from the (arguably) empowering nature of certain aspects of the movie, most notably, sexual agency and its aesthetics enhanced by excellent cinematography and editing.
Dev.D is depicted as the “slut”. He is arrogant, self-centred, mean and negative. Yet he is the object of every female character’s affection. His mother, Paro, Chanda, Rasika – all dote over him. That makes this film not a women’s film but a man’s film. However, the complex overlap of liberation and captivation of the woman is multi-layered and should be evaluated on its own merits. Dev.D, in that sense, is not a typical movie. It is a movie of contradictions and should be taken as such.
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June 28, 2012 at 6:08 PM
nice
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June 28, 2012 at 5:16 PM
Satyam don’t know if this has been posted yet -if it has feel free to delete it-
The story went like this: Impressed with Satya, Bachchan had called Kashyap and said, “Let’s do something different.” Kashyap clearly told the superstar that he wanted to do it his way. “Don’t set any limits because I’m writing for Amitabh Bachchan.” Kashyap wrote the script, which had Bachchan playing a grey character. Everyone liked it but, as Kashyap told it back then, “Bachchan developed cold feet… He wanted a justification for the character. I said no. I said, let’s respect the audience. Let’s give them something to think about.” After that conversation, Kashyap said, he never went back
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/Poster-boy-of-Hindie/Article1-879811.aspx
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June 28, 2012 at 6:53 PM
While Kashyap was shouting abt his films from the rooftops at Cannes, one non-Kashyap film which has been getting the splendid reviews is “PATANG” (I know there is a separate thread but thought people should read it so putting it here)- Roger Ebert has given it a 4 star rating- http://www.rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120613/REVIEWS/120619991/1023 – Variety- http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117944620?refCatId=31&ref=related
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June 28, 2012 at 7:16 PM
Wow- very interesting thoughts Anjali- really enjoyed reading them. Who are your favourite Hindi films/ filmmakers?
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June 28, 2012 at 7:24 PM
And i thought women were jealous of each other (unlike men) 🙂 Don’t worry Ami, Anjali writes very well but you are no less 🙂
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June 28, 2012 at 7:48 PM
Thank you- but I’m not jealous of Anjali at all- I can appreciate good comments regardless of the writer’s gender. 🙂
Her thoughts on Gulaal make me think about the movie and the ardanareeshwar character in a different light- I always thought that there was an element of the ‘Shakespearan fool’ to Prithvi Bana’s character- the man who it is easy to dismiss as a clown but who often makes the most astute observations in the film.
And Anjali’s very intelligent interpretation really adds to this- he has the most complete, non-partisan view of the situation- and through his crazy antics makes some of the most intelligent statements in the film.
But because he lives in a world where every aspect of every other male character’s life- be it personal identity, motivation or relationship equations- are derived from deep commitment to some idea of being the superior ‘other’ (be it caste-based, national separatism or gender-based patriarchy) he comes across as the ‘fool’- while in reality he is the only sane, well-balanced individual of the lot.
And the fact that he lives in a world so dysfunctional that his lack of commitment to any form of cruel hierarchy is perceived as something hideous and unnatural adds a delicious sense of macabre that brings out the perversity of the power dynamic in this mileau.
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June 28, 2012 at 8:14 PM
@ ami….And the fact that he lives in a world so dysfunctional that his lack of commitment to any form of cruel hierarchy is perceived as something hideous and unnatural adds a delicious sense of macabre that brings out the perversity of the power dynamic in this mileau.
wow….only u can express the whole gist of my insight in such powerful and well rounded prose.
after this i have nothing to add.
it is an honor to be complimented by yu…as i have been fascinated by ur comments on this blog.
@ saurabh…jealousy ka toh sawaal hi nahi hai…..ami is someone i always look up to and learn from.
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June 28, 2012 at 8:30 PM
Anjali-just about to wrap up work..
Where can I see gulaal online with reasonable sound /picture…any suggestions?
Ps-One more thing besides the anurag kashyap films.
I’m NOT at all being sarcastic/ funny but am quite impressed with u for putting up your pic here (which is nice lol)
Takes guts and good nature/ intent and others should learn from u.
Your pic does resemble a Bollywood actress but can’t exactly place which one right now–can u suggest….
Ps-unlike some other comments, this has no ‘joke’ or ‘catch’ 🙂
And is well intentioned..
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June 28, 2012 at 8:42 PM
u can watch gulaal here:http://www.video247.tv/5342/gulaal-2009-hindi-movie-watch-onlinedownload/
the reason y i have a pic here is becoz i m connected to this blog through my account in facebook,and my facebook pro has that pic.i was too lazy to explore other options.so there is no issue of guts,good nature involved here.its plain laziness on my part.
i dont know which bollywood actress i resemble…..
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June 28, 2012 at 8:45 PM
Many thanks anjali -will watch gulaal soon -but then folks will have to bear with some ‘different’ theories lol
About the pic, it was a sincerely innocent comment
And to be taken as nothing but a compliment 🙂
And yes-do stay ‘ lazy’ and don’t explore other options-let it stay there 😉
Good nite
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June 28, 2012 at 8:49 PM
“i dont know which bollywood actress i resemble…..”
Btw who are your favourite actors /actresses from Bollywood ..
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June 28, 2012 at 9:03 PM
i like abhimanyu singh….the guy who plays ransaa in the movie gulaal.he was also in rakt charitra as bukka reddy.ram gopal verma complimented him by saying that even the real bukka reddy was not as fearsome as he was on screen.nikhal kazmi complimented him by saying that he is the heath ledger of bollywood.he is not only a great actor but also one of the most masculine looking man i have come across on screen in bollywood of late.he has something of a royalty and at the same time something of a loafer(lafanga) in his demeanor which i curiously find very attractive.he is any day better looking than the chocolaty faced imran khan or ranbir kapoor.just like unattractive women r called behenjis for me guys like imran khan or ranbir kapoor are bhaiijiis…..
madhuri dikhshit is my fav actress
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June 28, 2012 at 9:13 PM
“he is any day better looking than the chocolaty faced imran khan or ranbir kapoor.just like unattractive women r called behenjis for me guys like imran khan or ranbir kapoor are bhaiijiis….”
Anjali-your comment forced me to laugh
Hahaha-agree
U have the good taste I was expecting u Would have (in men) 🙂
Haven’t seen any film of abhimanyu Singh but got the sake vibe in jism2 trailer the way his eyes ‘scan’ sunny leone..Do get your point.
Besides madhuri-which heroines amongst the current lot dya like ..
Will catch up later -cheers…
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June 28, 2012 at 8:24 PM
Ami, while u weren’t here for the past few days a certain ‘class’ and ‘elegance’ was missing from the blog- i am talking abt super Amiesque stuff like this- “But because he lives in a world where every aspect of every other male character’s life- be itpersonal identity, motivation or relationship equations- are derived from deep commitment to some idea of being the superior ‘other’ (be it caste-based, national separatism or gender-based patriarchy) he comes across as the ‘fool’
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June 28, 2012 at 8:36 PM
Anjali/ Saurabh- thanks much- but you’re both FAR too kind!
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June 28, 2012 at 8:51 PM
Ami- the least people like me, who are not aware of Almovodar and the likes, can do is be ‘kind’ to the ones like you (who are well informed of such people and their works) so that we can attempt to learn abt them from u guys.
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June 29, 2012 at 1:01 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani Has Dull First Week
Friday 29th June 2012 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani collected a poor 23 crore nett in the first week. Mausam which was a similar film last year collected around 27.75 crore nett in week one. The film has a lot of screen space in week two and the lifetime business of Teri Meri Kahaani will be similar to the first week of Mausam. A comparison of the first week business of Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani is as follows.
East Punjab
Teri Meri Kahaani – 2.34 crore
Mausam – 3.23 crore
CI
Teri Meri Kahaani – 82 lakhs
Mausam – 99 lakhs
Rajasthan
Teri Meri Kahaani – 1.39 crore
Mausam – 1.67 crore
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June 29, 2012 at 1:03 AM
another flop for Shahid. Priyanka is pretty much nothing without SRK and Hrithik.
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June 29, 2012 at 8:51 AM
I saw this film. Extraordinarily poor. Literally nothing to see here.
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June 29, 2012 at 3:18 AM
Kashyap’s latest tweets on GOW’s overseas release plans :
“Okay Germany, Singapore, Switzerland distribution locked.. release date to be announced soon.. ”
” @RinconBollywood if Peru is included in Latin America.. it’s sold there.. “
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June 29, 2012 at 3:23 AM
Gangs of Wasseypur First Week Collection 17.2 cr nett.
http://www.addatoday.com/2012/06/gangs-of-wasseypur-first-week.html
Gangs of Wasseypur has collected very decent 17.2 crore nett all India in its first week. GOW remained steady in lower side on weekdays. GOW collected around 10.65 crore nett all India on its opening weekend and further collected around 6.5 crore nett all India on weekdays. GOW is made on limited budget and makers will make profit with this film. Going by the early trends GOW should sustain in second weekend also.
Collection Breakup –
Fri – 3 cr nett.
Sat – 3.5 cr nett.
Sun – 4.15 cr nett.
Mon – 1.9 cr nett.
Tue – 1.75 cr nett.
Wed – 1.6 cr nett.
Thurs – 1.3 cr nett.
Total – 17.2 cr nett.
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June 29, 2012 at 3:26 AM
Going by the trending, GOW 1 should cross 25 crore by week 2 & liletime business close to 30 crores…terrific !
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June 29, 2012 at 8:47 AM
amazingly consistent here over the weekdays. Hope it stays this way over the next week.
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June 29, 2012 at 9:04 AM
LOL, check out how every time Abhishek looks to be in a winner Nahta (among others) goes out of his way to ‘erase’ him from the equation! And he keeps doing it throughout the talk!
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June 29, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Devd to me is a very simple fable.it is a fable about the transformation of paaro into chanda inside the mind of dev.paaro stands for the romantic foolishness with which dev is struck…..and chanda stands for the cold and harsh business side of life.dev is not ready to grow…..he is not ready to accept chanda(a woman who is a commodity…is a slut)..and is hell bent on paaro……and is going through phases of self inflicted emotional atyachaar…and all that nautanki….very much like a don quixote.
u will see in the film…all around dev…everyone is busy doing their business…the whole world is a big shop of give and take..and dev is cutoff…lost in his romantic fascination for an impossible..poetic paaro.
the initial scenes of the movie where dev interacts with chanda r very important.chanda asks him to open his clothes and start…
but he says…nahi mera mood off ho gaya.
she asks..kyu….
dev says…tumhari shakl dekh kar
chanda says(pay attention here..)agar main badsuurat hoon toh woh jo khoobsurat hai…woh kaha hai?…implication being….the reality is badsurat….the khobsurat(the paaro)..is only in ur mind…a figment of ur imagination
maturity is all about growing up from our obsession for paaro and accepting the reality of chanda….accepting the reality of give and take….accepting the reality that this life is a slut.and in the process of this acceptance dev grows…..as does everyone.
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June 29, 2012 at 10:32 AM
dev is arrogant, self-centered, mean and negative. ….yes…but so is everyone else and the only way this arrogant n self centered world can be organized and given a semblance of civilization is by ordering it in accordance with the principles of give and take …u satisfy my selfishness and I satisfy urs…that is what the slut chanda is a symbol of…that is the meaning of practicality which dev never wants to accept is……..that is what the world has ordained(in which a paaro has to become a chanda).paaro is an escape from this version of reality….an escape into the dream world of an ideal beauty…….dream world of true love and all that nonsense which is simply not possible.the selfish dev cannot fool himself and others by talking about paaro….by talking about an ideal state of genuine love.he has and by implication all men have …long ago murdered that innocence…and made paaro into a chanda becoz of their perverted,selfish nature. Infact the only way of overcoming this self centeredness and arrogance to a degree is by accepting that he is arrogant,self centered and mean……this acceptance….will automatically make him less arrogant…less self centered and less mean.as long as he will keep hankering for paaro…he will remain in the escape mode…..becoz paaro is nothing but a figment of dev’s imagination.
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June 29, 2012 at 10:34 AM
in real life there r no paaros…reality is all about chandaas.the innocence has been robbed….but in the name of innocence characters like dev can continue being arrogant,self centred and mean without taking the responsibility for it and without accepting these qualities inside them and growing in the process.
if u r afraid of something….the only way to overcome that fear is by accepting that yess….u r afraid.and the understanding will automatically make u fearless to a degree…the understanding is fearlessness.u will remain afraid…but u will manage ur fear better.dev will remain selfish,arrogant and mean…but he will manage these qualities better by accepting them(in the shape of chanda)….and not dreaming about a perfect world…where dev wins paaro.
the one scene where anurag hints…that devd is about this transformation of paaro into chanda…is in the train scene where they meet.the camera first dwells on paaro..and then rests on chanda.if u need to grow…u have to make that choice…or ur life will remain fucked.in the past devdas films…if was shown that dev never grows…he lives in the escape world…keeps fantasizing about paaro…..never gets her..and hopelessly dies.here anurag shows that the character dev matures and makes the right choice.
towards the end…. how did dev meet paaro again?only when he consents to be a parcel boy for the street momo stall….the implication being..only when he consents to accept the business side of life.
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June 29, 2012 at 12:55 PM
Anjali-
Well, very interesting thoughts there on Dev d.
Much more elaborate and better analysed than the ones I posted above
I feel they deserve a separate thread..
Or can be compiled into a thought provoking post on Dev d-thanx for posting it…
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June 29, 2012 at 1:05 PM
Interesting read..
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June 29, 2012 at 1:27 PM
“towards the end…. how did dev meet paaro again?only when he consents to be a parcel boy for the street momo stall….the implication being..only when he consents to accept the business side of life.”
Well thought I had ‘understood ‘ most of devdas and Dev d–but anjali :u seem to have opened new aspects of it
Certainly deserving of a separate thread boss imo ESP of compiled together into one piece…
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June 29, 2012 at 1:49 PM
not paaro….chanda.towards the end how did dev meets chanda again
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June 29, 2012 at 12:07 PM
OT,
CAMERON BAILEY ( TIFF) Q&A FOR MUMBAI-THEMED TIFF 2012
http://mumbaiboss.com/2012/06/29/tiff-love-for-mumbai-cinema/
Ps : The full interview will be published on The Huffington Post next week.
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June 29, 2012 at 12:08 PM
Satyam, Galti se mistake ho gaya aur do links paste hoo gaye aur comment moderation main chala gaya 😛
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June 29, 2012 at 12:11 PM
What’s wrong with Indian entertainment and why Rs 100 Cr Bollywood club is not cool?
http://blog.idubba.com/2012/06/28/whats-wrong-with-indian-entertainment-and-why-rs-100-cr-bollywood-club-is-not-cool/
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June 29, 2012 at 12:42 PM
Anybody watching this… seems interesting… to uncover Hemingway’s idiosyncracies at least..
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/ad/set-design/2012/hemingway-and-gellhorn-set-design-article
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June 29, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Another fake marriage hits the rock ..
After five years of marriage, Tom Cruise, 49, and Katie Holmes, 33, are getting a divorce, People reports. “This is a personal and private matter for Katie and her family,” Holmes’s attorney Jonathan Wolfe told People. “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it always has been, her daughter’s best interest.”
The couple have a daughter, Suri, 6. Cruise has two older children from his relationship with Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Holmes married in 2006.
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June 29, 2012 at 1:38 PM
in devd,everyone is in tune with the practical,business side of life except dev.paaro had a fling with sunil…they had sex…but when dev returns she rejects sunil.she tells him…aukaat dekh apni.
her mind is set on gaining the rich and lucrative catch which dev is.
all through the movie the director is showing dev that this world is a business…grow up from ur dream world.the sardar cheats him,the bar owner punches him on the stomach when he hasnt got the money,the lawyer,his brother,chunnilal…. who thinks hez a prize catch for his business…..everyone has their mind in the right place…how to get the best deal…how to earn profit….except dev.he is almost an isolated poetic figure….impractical to the bones.one of the most important scene in the movie is during the wedding of paaro.when the broken skulled sunil is begging paaro’s father not to be thrown out of the job.dev looks at this scene with strange incomprehensibility.the director is showing him the reality.the reality is not whether sunil slept with paaro or not….it doesnt matter.what matters is the job which sunil is losing.but dev(the rich kid)….has no notion what it means.uska dimaag hawa hawaii hai.he wakes up only…when he escapes death narrowly…while collecting loose coins(another sign of the importance of money….of business sense in our life)
he realizes…fuck paaro…and fuck all this dramabaazi abourt my love for paaro.my whole life is at stake here…wat the fuck am i doing?am i bonkers?
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June 29, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Hahaha anjali : u r on a roll 🙂
One four followed by a sixer
In tennis terms-one ace followed by another ace.
An ‘ace’ is also something that can’t be answered!
Btw have always liked and admired Dev d and secretly thought that I had seen ‘layers’ and minutiae that nobody else will have.
But am glad to admit that I’m receiving education here 🙂
Keep it up..
Ps-have thought of Dev d as nothing less than a cult classic ..
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June 29, 2012 at 2:30 PM
“he realizes…fuck paaro…and fuck all this dramabaazi abourt my love for paaro.my whole life is at stake here…wat the fuck am i doing?am i bonkers?”
ROFL 🙂
Btw Dev d was much more than just modern ‘ remake’ of an old classic
There were subtle changes which were not only crucial but they also contemporised the whole situation in the current context in a cunning unobtrusive way.
A leitmotif it does seem initially but turns out to be more..
Example unlike the old devdas who perished to alcoholism etc, this version ‘learns’ and changes to survive
A point I always noted but wondered why nobody ever mentioned -glad u did.
A special mention also needs to be made of the invocative music by Amit trivedi wilhich had the right mix of quirky edgy stuff along with the needed soul stirring elements…
Ps-anjali: I’m even more impressed by sneha khanwalkars music in GOW wherein she transplants the real ethos of folk ‘downmaerket’ sensibility into the centre garnished with some ‘new world music’ random sounds
Hunter, Bihar ke lala, womaniya belong to a particular style that I never dreamt I will listen to forget enjoy-but GOW archieves a rare feat of pulling this off…
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June 29, 2012 at 3:54 PM
Part 1
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June 29, 2012 at 4:45 PM
Naseer interviews are always entertaining (more than his films for me)
Kashyap on dev d
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June 29, 2012 at 4:51 PM
Came across this interesting
On the couch with Koel-in ten parts on YouTube!!
Part 10
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June 29, 2012 at 5:06 PM
Sunshine -danny Boyle has surprised me by his sci-fi take..wherein
Sci>fi…along with his other works, if one adds slumdong and now this …also intertwined subtle elements of spirituality …
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June 29, 2012 at 5:10 PM
have a weakness for this.. not as enamored of Slumdog.
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June 29, 2012 at 5:30 PM
The compulsion & insistence of ‘plot driven cinema’ !
Is cinema or art forms in general primarily about ‘plots’, scripts, direction , a start and a culmination/climax? I feel ‘no’.
While this is a common (accessible) view, this is incomplete.
Most strong art forms are merely borne out of a personal interaction between a viewer and a series of interesting sights nd sounds and the emotional influence…
I’m not a fan of deliberately and painstakingly ‘slow’ laboured art films..but it somewhat changed with attending an auteur screening of bela tarrs ‘turin horse’..
A somewhat similar experience as le Quattro volte…
Such films insist of maintain their own sense of space, time and rhythm – its upto the viewer to enter it or not…
In another frame of mind- will feel that this is fit only for a ‘caveman’ cut off from civilisation
Each n every viewing is irreplaceable though tedious but amply rewarded at the end…
The two line brief that intially led me to view this one –
Inspired by Pythagoras’s belief in four-fold transmigration — by which the soul is passed from human to animal to vegetable to mineral — Michelangelo Frammartino’s wondrous docu-essay traces the cycle of life through the daily rituals of life in the southern Italian region of Calabria
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June 29, 2012 at 5:53 PM
The tree of life connection-Le quattro volte !
Well, again this is my own quirk but couldn’t resist a comparison .
What can be similar between mallicks larger than life vision which is grand ( in capitals!)
But something inspired me similarly though it is exquisitely smaller miscrocosm and focused (to irritating detail in the beginning!)
We talk bout lack of script and flow
Well, here are films with no dialogue!
Btw there is a goat one follows throughout from it’s birth literally.. When it becomes separated from its pack, trying to get back ‘home’ finally giving up at night amidst the contast of the thick white snow…one knows he has watched something….
Ps- as companion viewings , good are ‘tree of life’
‘the tree of wooden clogs?’– let’s not be hardcore 🙂
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June 29, 2012 at 5:58 PM
very OT:
not sure if anyone has seen this commercial but i just saw it on ESPN while watching Sportscenter. i think it’s pretty cool to see a indian cricketer(even though im a pakistani) in a commercial on a american sports channel. maybe im making too much of it but i thought this was way cool to see. also the commercial itself is hilarious.
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June 29, 2012 at 6:35 PM
thanks for posting.. cool stuff indeed. glad it’s Yuvraj here given his recent health struggles.
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June 29, 2012 at 6:50 PM
yes very good to see him considering his health. encouraging and inspiring.
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June 29, 2012 at 6:03 PM
Thanx aamir that’s a lovely ad-liked it
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June 29, 2012 at 6:25 PM
Forecast: ‘Mike,’ ‘Ted’ Try to Unseat Merida
by Ray Subers
June 28, 2012
Forecast (June 29-July 1)
1. Brave – $35.2 million (-47%)
2. Magic Mike – $31.5 million
3. Ted – $28.3 million
4. Madea’s Witness Protection – $23.1 million
-. People Like Us – $4.8 million
Bar for Success
Magic Mike, Ted and Madea’s Witness Protection are all in good shape at around $25 million, while People Like Us is off to a great start if it can get close to $10 million.
full analysis:
http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3471&p=.htm
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June 29, 2012 at 6:33 PM
i’ll be watching ‘Ted’ tomorrow night most probably. it looks like crazy fun. so far its at 67% at RT.
also, seems like channing tatum is the ’emran hashmi’ of hollywood. lol. one of my friends(a female) wanted me to go with her and see Magic Mike and i kindly declined her offer. no freakin way!
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June 29, 2012 at 6:41 PM
“one of my friends(a female) wanted me to go with her and see Magic Mike and i kindly declined her offer. no freakin way!” so sensible of u
Aamirsfan-u can be her ‘magic mike’ in real life Lol
Btw soderberghs name itself Is giving some dignity to this film..
Maybe not many know that Tatum was a male stripper in real life as well briefly!!
Ps-good to see something for the gals..
Seems the likes of anjali and Oldgold have hit the theatres for magic mik
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June 29, 2012 at 6:48 PM
naw shes just a friend lol. ill keep my magic mike with my fiancee! lol. but yeah the movie is rating at 79% on RT. channing tatum has come a long way from doing crap fest films to actually decent flicks(loved 21 jump street). which is another reason he is reminding me of emran.
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June 29, 2012 at 6:58 PM
‘just a friend ‘
Find those more dangerous lol
Ok won’t pull your leg anymore ha
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June 30, 2012 at 12:53 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur Has Low First Week
Friday 29th June 2012 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Gangs Of Wasseypur had a low first week despite holding up pretty well on the weekdays. The first week collections were around 17 crore nett. The collections on the weekdays were steady but on the lower side. The film has managed to hold shows at the premium multiplexes. Below is a comparison of the first week figures of Gangs Of Wasseypur and Shanghai
East Punjab
Gangs Of Wasseypur – 1.54 crore
Shanghai – 1.71 crore
CI
Gangs Of Wasseypur – 62 lakhs
Shanghai – 50 lakhs
Rajasthan
Gangs Of Wasseypur – 70 lakhs
Shanghai – 71 lakhs
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June 30, 2012 at 12:54 AM
Top 5: ‘Teri Meri Kahaani’ fails, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ works!
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June 30, 2012 at 1:32 AM
I don’t think 17 crores for this kind of film can be considered “low” without qualification or analysis.
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June 30, 2012 at 2:00 AM
that’s a completely biased report but they’ve maintained this tone throughout. It is an excellent number for such a film. That a film with no stars would do more than this given the genre is simply not imaginable. This was Dev D’s total run a few years ago and even that subject (plus the soundtrack) was still a lot more audience-friendly than this. The film has been rock solid on weekdays which means it has been successful with its audience which by definition is very small.
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June 30, 2012 at 2:09 AM
i think outside of rajneeti and arakshaan…this would be bajpai’s biggest opener…especially with him being the lead?
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June 30, 2012 at 12:53 AM
Teri Meri Kahaani Has Dull First Week
Friday 29th June 2012 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Teri Meri Kahaani collected a poor 23 crore nett in the first week. Mausam which was a similar film last year collected around 27.75 crore nett in week one. The film has a lot of screen space in week two and the lifetime business of Teri Meri Kahaani will be similar to the first week of Mausam. A comparison of the first week business of Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani is as follows.
East Punjab
Teri Meri Kahaani – 2.34 crore
Mausam – 3.23 crore
CI
Teri Meri Kahaani – 82 lakhs
Mausam – 99 lakhs
Rajasthan
Teri Meri Kahaani – 1.39 crore
Mausam – 1.67 crore
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June 30, 2012 at 5:27 AM
Saw Spidey:
The Amazing Spiderman gives a feel of watching a tv series that you had seen a while back. It did have some laugh out loud moments especially with Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker handling his spidey abilities. Director Marc Webb seems to have added some character to the webbing this time around. But this is a Spidey movie lacking in ambition.
As things rolled on the mind wandered .. would the “Spider Daddy” angle be explored,did Curt Connor consider cutting off his newly found hand instead of hiding it under a jacket when he meets his buddies, can Jeff Goldblum from Cronenberg’s The Fly(1986) pop in here to make things interesting, how can they possibly outdo Willem Defoe’s Norman Osborn ..and so on.
Irfan Khan got the desi crowd in the theater going when he came on screen and it looks like he is going to be back in the sequels. A kid in the theater actually screamed “Not Again” when Peter Parker and Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy made out again. Denis Leary.Martin Sheen.Sally Fields. Mostly a little spider-meh.
Also at http://www.desidvd.com/2012/06/amazing-spiderman2012-review.html with images
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June 30, 2012 at 9:40 AM
Gangs Of Wasseypur 2 In August
by Box Office India (June 30, 2012)
We had mentioned that Viacom18 would take a call on when they would release Part 2 of Gangs Of Wasseypur, depending on the response to Part 1. Thanks to their aggressive marketing and promotion, and of course good content, the film has done well at the ticket counter. Now, Viacom18 doesn’t want to waste any time and wants to release the film as early as possible. In all probability, that will be August 10.
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June 30, 2012 at 9:42 AM
The Amazing Spiderman Shatters All Records For Hollywood Films
Saturday 30th June 2012 13.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The Amazing Spiderman shattered all Hollywood film box office records in India by a distance. The film has put up huge numbers in all its versions be it English, Hindi, Tamil or Telugu.
The first day collections were 8.50 crore nett approx and the previous record for Hollywood films in India stood at just over 5 crore nett. The film has smashed the previous record by a massive 70%.
The film may not show huge growth as opening is so strong and Hollywood films tend to grow less over the weekend but still a 25 crore nett weekend is almost a certainty.
Tha Amazing Spiderman has aslo beaten the opening of all Hindi releases of 2012 apart from Agneepath, Rowdy Rathore, Housefull 2 and Agent Vinod.
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June 30, 2012 at 10:06 AM
Satyam, u often speak abt mainstream directors who try to do different things within the given framework. So i wanted to know what do u think of Mahesh Bhatt? the guy did make some very good films- Arth, Naam, Janam, Kaash, Daddy, Tamanna, Zakhm,Sir, Kabzaa, Thikaana to name a few- Even Sadak had something to say.
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June 30, 2012 at 10:18 AM
I like a number of Mahesh Bhatt films from the 80s. Sadak was the last worthwhile film he did. The first half here was especially gripping. But many others are important too. Naam is the only worthwhile Deewar ‘remake’ to my mind (always though Vaastav was terribly overrated.. though fine on its own). I have a very great weakness for Janam though it seems impossible hard to locate on VCD/DVD (I was told by someone that it’s never been released in this format). Kabzaa is one of Dutt’s (and the decade’s) best, and to my mind still Paresh Rawal’s best outing. Thikana is one of those grossly neglected films. You know if you set it alongside Shanghai you get in some ways a much more sharper ‘definition’ of many of the points Shanghai is trying to make. Obviously films like Arth or Saaransh need no introduction. I am not a fan of Kaash and Daddy. Zakhm was decent but too much of a rehash of a lot of stuff he’d already said in the 80s and with much greater edge. don’t like Sir either. Actually Gunaah was probably his last worthwhile commercial film. Among the 80s films the somewhat messy Awaargi shouldn’t be missed. Bhatt’s greatest strength was always ‘mood’ even when he could clearly have done with better production budgets. Even when he became a lot more commercial there was still some worthwhile stuff (including Gumraah). But eventually his production house became responsible for the whole sleazy Hashmi kind of soft-porn deal and I must say this was an unpardonable sin for such a director. In fact Bhatt used to rail against the excesses of commercial cinema for a long time and peddle himself as a rebel even when his best days were behind him and then he became part of this garbage. By the way his debut film, Manzilein aur Bhi Hain (with Kabir Bedi), is an excellent work.
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June 30, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Agreed completely.Will try to see Manzilein. I remember seeing Janam on DD as a kid (with my mom).Bhatt also gave Vinod Khanna 2 very important films- ‘lahu ke do rang’ (which i really liked) and ‘jurm’- and u r right that it’s sad that he started producing sleazy films (and started doing rip-offs of hwood-‘criminal’ etc). u know i saw an interview of bhatt (with rajat sharma) where he said that he makes these soft-porn bcos his ‘art’ films never made money.
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June 30, 2012 at 10:26 AM
The reason I like mainstream directors who do interesting things is because of their greater reach. I am obviously all for auteurist attempts or all kinds of middle cinema and so on. But the truest subversion often comes about in the more mainstream film because it speaks to a much larger audience pool and many who are not prepared to absorb just any kind of message. This is a point that non-mainstream filmmakers in Bollywood often fail to understand. the Kashyap problem if you will. It is fantastic to make the kinds of films he does but a)structurally his films are not possible without the ‘presupposition’ (read: viability) of a mainstream industry (in other words you cannot have an industry dependent only on arthouse or autuerist films) b)his kind of subversion operates in a box where only those audiences already open to a certain kind of cinema show up and hence no larger audience is destabilized in any sense. In other words it is better to risk Raavan than GoW, the choice can be presented quite so crudely.
But here my argument is also against Aamir. I agree with him completely when he says that in a mass medium (cinema or TV) you have to paint in broad strokes. However he moves to a certain easy conclusion rather too quickly. Because even allowing for those ‘broad strokes’ a lot of nuance can be provided if it’s done the right way. The Salim-Javed scripts are the best examples of this. So too is a film like J P Dutta’s Ghulami. In each case you have a somewhat epic/mythic canvas but then you also have very intimate human moments that are as crucial as those larger than life elements. So it can be done.
And again I have nothing against the film festival film on this score or anyone attempting the same in India. But the efficacy of such moves along an index of subversion is fairly limited.
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June 30, 2012 at 10:59 AM
You have made a telling comment here. especially ur point (a) is very important- i remember, in ur debate with Kashyap, u said the same thing so effectively yet Kashyap failed to see ur point (dunno why). And ur point (b) reminds me of what Sachin was cribbing abt the other day that GoW and Kashyap films are not getting ‘deserved’ acclaim-he should read this comment of urs which gets to the heart of the arguement. agree with u on Aamir, i especially thought he could have played it less safe with Peepli
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June 30, 2012 at 11:19 AM
Wasn’t thinking of Peepli but some comments he made with respect to his show.
Another way to think about it is in ‘novelistic’ terms. Mainstream cinema in any industry of the world is more often than not, and unfortunately, about filmed scripts. But this can be used to a certain advantage. You can have the broader strokes of a ‘traditional’ novel and then incorporate either those more intimate moments I was referring to or alternatively like Desai a picaresque strain.
This is why ever since I’ve heard the plot I’ve really wished that someone other than Rohit Shetty had been in charge of Bol Bachchan. Ideally Hirani but if not then Shaad Ali or a few others. Because you have this very potent symbol that sets things in motion — the locked temple, unlocked for whatever reason by a Muslim, who then pretends to be Hindu, and of course the bachchan signature laces all of this (“Abbas Ali ka bhai Abhishek Bachchan”?!). But even leaving aside this last angle the basic trope here is a very suggestive one. With Rohit Shetty it will be lowbrow comedy for the most part irrespective of this framing and he’ll probably get to it again in the end with as he says something different but you really needed a director to keep this angle much more in focus. But at any rate this is where a very potent symbol can be used in a film that is otherwise totally mainstream. And with a smarter director you could even through all the comedy offer a degree of commentary on all of this. Take the original Golmaal or moreso Chupke Chupke where there is a constant lampooning of tradition understood in very narrow ways. In Khubsoorat you have the same done for a matriarchal authoritarian figure (Indira Gandhi anyone?!). So even though these films are very situational comedies you can make them sparkle a bit more at every turn with these deft touches. It doesn’t have to be heavy-handed at all. It’s not mean to be political commentary. Just an extra layer that an ostensible ‘comedy only’ can have.
In Ghulami you have all the epic struggles, the extraordinarily charged caste politics and so forth but you also have those wonderful little moments, specially the ones involving Smita Patil with Naseer or even Dharam. Mithun has a few of those too. In this sense too cinema has been infinitely poorer in contemporary times because there is no space for ‘pause’ and the fleshing out of a larger narrative with ‘finer’ detail. aamir again is right about the broad strokes but where he is wrong is that he might see the opposition in very stark terms. Either a big commercial film or TZP. There can be a lot in between. Some of his own films this past decade are examples of this. Also he might not comprehend the extent to which much of what he loves in the older masala and/or commercial tradition is already very politically charged. sometimes it also requires understanding certain realities that one might not otherwise have any experience of.
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June 30, 2012 at 11:40 AM
Oh agreed completely on films of Mukherjee. Never thought of Khoobsurat as a commentary on Indira Gandhi- interesting observation (i believe Gulzar gave Rekha her most charming performance)- and as u said even in Chupke Chupke, Hrishida gently takes a dig on the ‘genteel’ class and its fascination with english. You know, seeing the plot of Bol Bachchan, 2 diectors i believe can do a good job of it are Kundan Shah and to some extent Aziz Mirza-he did attempt to say something in Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman
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June 30, 2012 at 12:01 PM
For Heaven’s sake, start a new thread!
Glad for all the ladies -something in theatres here for them this weekend!
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June 30, 2012 at 12:51 PM
I’ve been lazy, will do!
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