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270 Responses to “Himmatwala, the rest of the box office!”
Friday 29th March 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala opened well in the range of 50-55% on average with collections being best in UP, Bihar and Rajasthan while West bengal and Mysore were low. The collections in metros like Delhi and Kolkata were below the mark. Mumbai city was also low but that is the case with most films as films are released on too many screens but Maharashtra was much better.
The film has a very wide release especially in terms of single screens which should help the film to collect. If the multiplexes in big cities improve over the day the film will put up a good first day number.
The way the film has started it is certain that business in single screens will be much better than multiplexes with the growth on Saturday at multiplexes being a must for long term multiplex business.
Himmatwala Good At Single Screens Average At Multiplexes
Friday 29th March 2013 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala has opened well at single screens with UP, Bihar and Rajasthan being very good but not so good at multiplexes especially the ones in metros. If the film can pick up at multiplexes it is sure to emerge the biggest opening of Ajay Devgn. Even without an upturn at multiplexes it may still emerge the biggest Ajay Devgn opener on strength of single screens. The approx top Ajay Devgn openings are as follows.
B.O. update: ‘Himmatwala’ opening below expectations
By Taran Adarsh, March 29, 2013 – 13:11 IST
HIMMATWALA, the much-awaited biggie, was expected to open to a fantabulous response for varied reasons, including Sajid Khan’s enviable track record of three back-to-back hits, the hype surrounding the film and of course, its solo release status coinciding with a holiday. But the opening response, except for a few centres, was not up to the mark. The opening was better in some mass-dominated circuits, but not as expected overall.
Touted as yet another Rs 100 cr film, HIMMATWALA will have to collect magical numbers not just in its opening weekend, but also during the course of the week if it has to achieve the target. Let’s wait and watch!
I’m extremely surprised. These are guys who liked Houseful. They’re just mauling this one. The opening also seems weak in multiplexes. This film might be in some trouble. The question though is whether a strong single screen performance can save this one. SOS got close to a 100 even with the JTHJ competition though it trended well and beyond a point better than the latter.
SOS gained from sympathy factor. It had some stars other than Ajay. HW has a tiger as a star and Tamanna is still an unknown face. Maybe BOI can make it a success story by their spins just the way they made Special 26 a semi hit.
This shows Ajay and akshay are no match to the current superstar Salman Khan in making a film audience friendly.
In a way I will be happy if this flops since its failure might just instil a thought in Devgn’s mind to return to meaningful stuff. He has Satyagraha, a Prabhu Deva film and probably Singham 2.
The other person who continues to annoy me with his choices is Suriya. The guy just keeps doing masala (I enjoyed Maattrraan though)- a Singam 2 followed by a Linguswamy film. OTOH the guy who has impressed me the most with his choices is Jiiva- I recently saw Kattradhu Thamizh and loved it. Really looking forward to the Ravi. K. Chandran’s directorial debut Yaan starring him and the Kadal girl. And waiting for the subs version of Menon’s NEP. But really with Raam, Kattradhu Thamizh, David, Ko, Nanban, Keerthi Chakra, Dishyum (yet to see this though) and E this guy is doing just the right films
Generally don’t like kicking a film that’s down but if any filmmaker has earned a resounding failure it’s Sajid Khan. I’d be happy to see this swiftly flushed away.
In fairness he doesn’t have too many other choices. I agree he should have stayed away from Sajid Khan. He doesn’t need to take things quite that far either. But these films have all worked for him. On the other hand the meaningful stuff hardly ever works. To be honest I’d be surprised if Satyagraha worked either. It sounds to me like an Aarakshan deal, which was fine as a film despite some of my objections, but not something that gets the box office racing unless some of the contemporary resonances here give it a bigger than expected initial. I just don’t think it will be another Rajneeti (which ironically was a film where Devgan felt he’d been sidelined and was for a while upset with Jha.. with some justification I think). But on the larger issue this is a point I’ve been making for ages. It’s just very hard to succeed doing the meaningful. You can do so once in a while but not with any regularity unless of course you do the cynical ‘different’ (films that only pretend to be different). Abhishek was blamed for years for not succeeding and of course he could have planned the mix better and he certainly has some responsibility but there’s simply no contemporary model of any star prospering by doing the different. The exception of course is Aamir but with him and even accounting for his uncanny instinct and script sense there is a very special circumstance which is that he just does one film at a time, sometimes he does one in a few years. So he really gives it his total attention. Even then MP and Talaash are the two films that didn’t live upto his usual standards and these are also the films that weren’t really aligned with his multiplex audiences. You can do the sort of mix where you have very commercial projects balanced out with middle cinema (films that are nonetheless acceptable to everyone.. for instance a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film made a fraction of what a Desai film did when both were hits but the former was still acceptable to everyone even though not everyone showed up for these films..) and here you can be successful at both. But it’s hard figuring out the latter even at that safer level. The other problem though is that if you are too identified with very masala films the audience just doesn’t show up when you do something meaningful. Your initial in these instances can then be even lower than the same film’s with a different star. It’s problematic either way. which is why navigating these waters is always hard but especially so with the current audience.
On Surya I too have been disappointed with the fact that he’s reduced his talents to this but I think he learned from the Madhavan example. In other words if you try too much of a balance without first establishing a core audience you are often left with nothing. The problem with Tamil cinema on this score is that the new wave films often don’t require the Surya kind of star while elsewhere it’s often the most rampant kind of commercialism. Even so Surya did take the easy way out. Because there is still enough in his industry that’s interesting and he certainly could have tried more than he did. Kaakka Kaakka could have been more of a norm for him than much of what he’s been doing.
On Sajid Khan, at some point these people start drinking their own Kool Aid: if you delude yourself that masala was all the same whether it is the 1970s or the 1980s, indeed that masala is simply another word for camp, or for films that can only be enjoyed as camp, then you don’t really see any difference between remaking Don or remaking Himmatwala — but of course one is a film with enduring resonance, and the second is a film with hardly any afterglow (and with good reason). In fact only the Bachchan remakes seemed to have pulled in any sort of crowd in (there haven’t been very many non-Bachchan remakes, and himmatwala might explain why — ie the Don and Agneepath remakes had big stars, but that’s circular: they have big stars because these films have resonance; remaking Himmatwala you might as well remake any number of films that happened to be big hits in their year).
Second, Devgan is just wrong for Jeetendra role. And Tamannah just doesn’t suggest the sleazy badness and cheapness that Sridevi did back in the day. It’s almost as if Sajid discovered the casting directors list of people NOT to cast!
i agree that ‘meaningful’ may not work but prakash jha hasn’t done a worthy film in a while, his films can hardly be held up as paragons of meaningful cinema. i can’t think of any meaningful film made in mainstream bw in a long time. but you can do films which walk the line of being commercial and not entirely stupid. aamir’s script sense does come in handy here, but saying ajay doesn’t have a choice is facetious. may be he doesn’t have the nose or the patience for it, now that he has tasted easy success, but as a star your choices are a part of your legacy. ajay is hardly a phenomenal actor, he is good at a certain kind of acting with attendant gestures, he can’t much pull off anything else. to let him off easy as a great actor just doing bad films because there is no choice, is hypocritical.
you always have a choice. the big stars have more choices, their own insecurities preventing them from making the correct ones is a whole other matter. aamir is just more secure in that sense i think. to think race 2 is labelled a success and talaash a failure with same collections, but he doesn’t even flinch. he seems unconcerned that other actors are doing easy 100 cr films 3 times a year, he just does his own thing. you need to have that attitude to be a more enduring star. which is why his legacy will be bigger than devgan’s, despite how rajneeti may be seen as a ‘meaningful’ film. i’ll take rdb, dch and even 3 idiots with all their problems and faults over jha’s badly written half-baked ‘look how my film is so meaningful and topical’ efforts. ajay can just as well hire a good writer and do a more middle of the road film with a somewhat lesser gross but he chooses sajid and gives idiotic interviews about how critics are the bad guys. he is a hypocritical sellout.
Antya, I think you’re arguing a number of different things here. It’s true that Devgan says some really Philistine stuff. On the other hand he’s done a lot of meaningful stuff in the past, a lot of stuff even that simply had no market for it (Raincoat for instance). Now one could argue that he did this when his commercial options had more or less run out by the end of the 90s. But this motivations are not as relevant here in the sense that had he found more success doing the meaningful he would have stuck to it or at least had it as part of his larger menu. However none of those films did anything. Either these were disasters or just regular failures. And he tried everything from Zakhm to LOBS to Yuva to Raincoat to Thakshak and so on. Very different directors, a lot of them prestige names, some very different parts. He did the mix. He even got the right critical attention for some of these parts. But ultimately these didn’t lead anywhere. And it’s not just him. Abhishek had far more devotion to this paradigm from a position of strength (after 2004-05) and he too faced some very rough weather. Now he seems to be going commercial with a vengeance. The problem is that it’s just not easy to forge such a path and just having convictions doesn’t get it done because you eventually hit a box office wall where you either change your ways or face extinction. I too cringe a bit every time Bol Bachchan is celebrated and when even to this day Abhishek is congratulated for appearing in that film when infinitely more worthy films got him nothing but for the star the choices are limited. You have to be successful doing the mix or taking those risks at least to some degree. Otherwise box office reality catches up with you.
Bigger stars in some ways do not have more choices. They are much more imprisoned in certain ways. This is precisely why I have often been nervous about some of Abhishek’s current choices because I fear success will imprison him and if then the most he can do by way of the different is Umesh Shukla well that isn’t good enough for me. Because it’s fine to say that he might be stabilizing his position at this point but the more he does the BB-like deal the more the entire system around him (the industry, the trade and so forth) will want him to repeat these moves. You don’t just walk away from great success. But even as a pragmatic matter the more a star becomes great by playing to a certain image or set of genres the more he is less likely to prosper doing different because audiences have expectations that get set in stone.
Finally I’d say about the meaningful that one needn’t go to extremes defining this term. We all have our definitions of what constitutes the meaningful but Jha on most days, even weak ones does attempt more meaningful subjects than not. I’d obviously take many directors over him but the exceptions cannot be the norm. One’s definition of the meaningful cannot be the exceptionally meaningful film! And to now bring it back full circle Gangajal and Apharan were worthwhile attempts, specially the former. Devgan has really done all of this. Now I do agree he needn’t have stooped as low as Himmatwala. He probably shouldn’t even do another Golmaal. But again when you’ve been around the block a few times, or seen the business as much as he has for that many years, you tend to get very cynical about just everything. With good reason I might add.
Antya, agreed with what you are saying. But there is another side to the coin as well- were you commending Devgn when he was doing a Zakhm, Lajja, Takshak, Gangaajal, TLOBS, Halla Bol or an Aakrosh? No, right. Wasn’t Aakrosh better than 99% of commercial Hindi films which are made these days. What abt Apaharan. Or Zakhm. So Devgn probably was forced to do this. Even a superb ‘middle of the road’ film like Udaan earns what? Zilch. Leave aside all of this an OUTAIM, which is much better than every recent masala film other than Ghajini, was not even in the same ball park as something like an SOS or Housefull.
Also I hated that interview of Devgn but don’t you think you are being too harsh with your last line
Brilliant comment anya
–will read it properly in a mo…
As mentioned earlier-blogging IMO is about making your point-not for sparing words or finding politically correct tools…
We have to be polite n politically correct all day long anyways 🙂
Oops need to wrap something ..
Antya, that is brilliant argument. Here I dont think Aamir has to be dragged into the argument. Or Abhishek for that matter. Or to make Talaash look like a big failure.
Ajay Devgn has definitely choices and he is just greedy to make those 100 crore everytime. The fact of the matter is Ajay wants to prove that he is better than the Khans and Akshay for masala versions too. He lacks the charisma and he is lost in the middle somewhere. Even in arty type films, he is not as good as Irrfan.
oh wow! the comments here are are running the gamut. and i am the one being accused of arguing many things. i didn’t think i was. i only used the meaningful term because it was being argued that those don’t do business, i was only pointing out that most films being mentioned are hardly meaningful and that being so may not be the reason for their failure, they are not very good either. so i am hardly crying over their failure. i liked gangajal, apharan was an obvious (and poorer) attempt to do a retake of gangajal as that film was very talked about. and jha hasn’t done a decent film since. and out of the films you and saurabh mentioned, i didn’t care for halla bol, lajja, thakshak. i do like tlobs but always felt devgan was too old and cynical for that role even though he tried hard, not great casting. i have a soft spot for raincoat, the only film where aish was mildly tolerable. didn’t watch ouatim and didn’t feel the need to, especially after reading rangan’s piece on it.
on the other, i think you have already made the argument i was going to make satyam. devgan did take on some good roles back in the day but he hardly had big commercial success breaking down his door when he did. it wasn’t some mold breaking exercise or sacrifice on his part. after his debut, he was hardly a front running superstar, he had plenty of failures in the mainstream commercial fare too. and was pretty much relegated to a also-has-been along with kumars and shettys of the world until zakhm came along. the films you talk about were opportunities with big name directors that got him a lot of exposure along with credibility, even though no immediate box office success. but i believe he survived that rough phase exactly due to those roles. how many of his commercial successes does anyone remember from the 90’s? he hardly had blockbusters, some success with films like hddcs and pthht. to say that the meaningful films did nothing for him is a narrow minded view of things. i personally think he would have vanished like sunil shetty if he hadn’t done those films. every time he was about to sink, a zakhm, or a gangajal, or an omkara came along and gave him a new lease of life. or he wouldn’t have gone on long enough to do terrible sajid khan/rohit shetty blockbusters. i would actually argue the same for abhishek.
and that’s why i dragged aamir into the argument sanjana, which satyam had already done btw. to say that stars have to be insecure, or have no choice, or can’t walk away from success, makes them out to be victims when they are part of the problem, isn’t exactly honest. aamir did 1947 earth and sarfarosh much before zakhm came along (he started off with raakh which was released later). he had already become a superstar when he decided to do one film at a time so something was at stake here. and he had been balancing things with very commercial films like raja hindustani much before dhoom 3, besides working with the then rebel rgv. he walked away for 4 years after the most success and adulation he had had in his career and came back to brickbats with mangal pandey. you need to be made of sterner stuff and have the ability to see long term in order to stick to your convictions. of course luck plays a part too. but not doing golmaal #14 does not mean you have to do only raincoat. you are the one arguing for extremes, while saying ajay doesn’t have to stoop to sajid khan. but the point is, he has stooped. and doing faux meaningful films with jha is not going to help. he could just do commercial films that don’t suck so bad. and he is not a salman or an akshay, who really don’t have many choices because of their limitations. he has the potential to do more unlike them, which makes his disinterest even more cynical. these days, i’ll take an akshay film over his any day (not that i have watched any of either one in a while)
man, it’s very late and that was a long comment. but to answer your question saurabh, i did always like ajay quite a bit (for all those films that did ‘nothing’ for him). and no, i don’t think i am being too harsh. i am being exactly the right amount of harsh. it’s funny how much hate sajid khan gets here, but people are defending the poor little star for actually working in the shitty films that the maker is being hated for. without akshay or ajay, sajid khan and rohit shetty wouldn’t exist. he could hardly get the same numbers with ayushman khurana as the lead. and why does srk always get slammed for doing the stuff he does if they are all just helpless prisoners of their success? nobody has had more of it than him, hasn’t he earned his cynicism and insecurities then? the stars are as, if not more, culpable. especially in this star dominated system.
Watched SOTY on Sony. Not a bad movie. Timepass and entertaining. Both Siddharth and Varun were good. Somehow more realistic than KKHH. But traces of other movies were quite evident.
Hahaha anyone a ‘carry on’ fan–
Saw a few minutes of it just now–
@ shirt skirts–
If they get any shorter, the gals will hav to powder two more cheeks!!
The reasons I tolerated Soty . The friendship and love hate relationship between the boys. And there are a bunch of tv actors whom I know through soaps.Remove all the candyfloss and those type of stories do happen in colleges. I did not like Rishi’s act though. He looked bad and his role was not suitable for him. Even the girls are so so. Such superficial acting! And the film did not drag that much. Just compare it to JJWS and see what Karan Johar is capable of making a simple story into an advertisement for brands and high living!
Yeah read bout it -but internets fine here .. Infact faster than usual 🙂
For some their internet seems to be totally blocked –that’s y told em not to go to dodgy sites and open suspect stuff hoho
Yes; since past two days I’ve been having trouble accessing many popular sites like fb — and even my gmail account. Even a while back gmail shut down mid way through a hangout chat with family.
The concerned minister said the problem is more pronounced in south India and also with BSNL connections. For the last few days even my computer slowed down considerably and there were frequent server problems.
Descendants: the pussillanimity & recession of manhood-
Aka man-cession!!
Following a common thread predating (but chronologically postdating) ‘about Schmidt’ this is another Alexander Payne film I checked out. Not quite matching the brilliance of the former perhaps. Nicholsons face is a marvel and clooney tried earnestly though and did a good job.
The ‘heroic’ clooney is more than a symbolic choice to portray this increasingly new ‘man identity’. The ‘resolution’ of certain anxieties seem to be ‘resignation’ to certain modern truths.
But a common theme
Amongst all the bravura and chest thumping euphoria of manhood and machismo, there is a lingering sense of the ‘beaten man’ in this next by Payne.
This is not to say that this is necessarily a negative development! Being empathetic and sensitive are always welcome additions to a mans repertoire. Theres also some good interestig interaction between clooney and his daughters bf who is ‘miles from smartville’– but is content With just being ‘hygienic’, a reasonAble cook and weed consumer. Clooneys wife’s adulterous lover too is a cowardly creature and so is his henpecked friend!
In other words, its an ’emasculation festival’ wherein everyone is supposed to be applauding this. But when so many of the traditional ‘macho tendencies’ are being attacked from all sides (except in escapist masala films of rowdy rathores and singhams!) one does feel-
How long/far will this sissyfication and Pussification of men last?? Lol
And this is not a misogynist rant… Please do not misread as that.
Finally the naughty kid within me did have a thought when julia (clooneys wife’s lovers wife –oops that’s getting complicated) came to meet him–that was an important moment–how about clooney taking the ‘revenge’? (He did kiss her on the mouth to her surprise earlier!) But alas this wasn’t to be! Hehe
Jokes apart -a creditable look at the fickle family/psychobehavioral dynamics that abound. Good performances all around inclusion the younger cast. The guy playing Sid and clooneys daughters were competent. Not the Oscar contender it was pretending to be though.
Finally-didnt help but feel for poor clooney when he says here –” nowadays women are never wrong”! 🙂
now now – the movie is bringing out the finest in the critics to the fore: Masand ends the review with “I’m going with one out of five for director Sajid Khan’s ‘Himmatwala’. The movie opens with a disco song featuring Sonakshi Sinha that goes: “Thank God, it’s Friday!”
Not this Friday, believe me.”
ha ha ha – i don’t know when was the last time i had so much fun reading movie reviews. Thanks Sajid for this film 🙂 i am never gonna watch it but you have awaken the film critics from their self-imposed slumber….
Sajjad Khan once said he doesn’t care about what critics say. I think it was at the time of the release of his last film.
I guess they are all getting back at him. This kind of consistency among reviewers is rare. LOL!!
haha apparently sajid had bragged on the film announcement that this will be the biggest hits in the careers of all involved including devgun…& that he wanted reviewers to give zero rating!
Shockingly hw has found a release nearby.
ps hey oldgold–a cd of ‘sense and sensibility’lying around for a while –kate winslet & hugh grant version—have u seen it–worht checking? dont remember the book anyways…
But let’s not make too much fun of Sajid Khan. While he’s an incredibly crude, offensive guy who makes his sister seem refined in comparison, his vulgar logic is precisely what has been peddled for years by very many in all kinds of film discussions.
thanx -will check it out soon properly…
btw isnt it surprising, even incredible for a taiwanese Ang lee making this very british period drama & doing a good job..
btw like kate winslet, she is always a competent performer, dont u think. I prefer her to the anorexic kiera lol (not only due to acting) 🙂
HimmatWala is not remake .. it is simply carbon copy of original. Sajid just changed the faces of actors .. and rest is same. If Audience have appetite of this one .. surely they can enjoy original more if release in parallel. One thing is sure .. Himmatwala was forgotten kind of movie, though successful at that time. Sajid did a bravo job to realize today’s audience how crap it was even at that time.
“Sajid just changed the faces of actors”
this is a sea-change DAF.
just changing the faces does not mean a small change at all – Jitu/Sri can’t be replaced by AD/Tammmanah (yeah that is how they spell it 🙂 ) – if Ranbir/Dip or Hritik/Kat were in this film – outcome wud have been different for sure despite saajid’s fooling around – the BO result wud have been 20 cr on higher side
Saturday 30th March 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala did well at single screens and collected around 10.50-11 crore nett as per early estimates. The multiplex business was low and Delhi city and East Punjab multiplexes had dull collections while multiplexes in other areas were average.
The film has done very good business in UP as Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Allahabad etc all put up strong numbers. The divide in the Delhi/UP circuit is so huge as it so rare for a film to be at such low levels in Delhi city but such high levels in UP. Even Singham which did not do well in Delhi city did not have such a gap.
Although these mass type of films tend not to show growth on Saturday there is a chance for Himmatwala as multiplexes especially in Delhi/Punjab are at low levels.
The business on Saturday at multiplexes will be key and growth at multiplexes is a must if the film is to have any chance at multiplexes over the long run.
Saturday 30th March 2012 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala had the second biggest opening day of 2013. The first quarter has seen just two films Race 2 and Himmatwala take an initial. The top opening days of 2013 are as follows.
BOI have been eager to support Himmatwala but as usual their lack of intelligence gets the better of them. There’s only one other release this year that could have been ahead of this film and that’s Race 2 and it is ahead significantly! It’s not as if there’s great competition for that # 2 spot either. But here once again one is reminded of just how low Special 26 opened. This film still got very kind commentary from the likes of Taran and others (whose numbers were higher but they were so for the other films here as well) but even accounting for genre and so on it wasn’t unreasonable to expect at least a Rockstar kind of star here around 8-9 crores or something. That the film opened lower than Matru is pretty remarkable.
J. P. Dutta to make Border 2, Border 3 and Border 4
By Subhash K. Jha, March 30, 2013 – 10:59 hrs IST
Movie Moghul J. P. Dutta whose last film Umrao Jaan was released 2006, is all set direct 3 back-to-back war films, all biopics on Paramvir Chakra winning war heroes…
– The first war epic Border 2 will be located in the 1962 Indo-China war and would tell the story of Subedar Joginder Singh Sahnan who led a platoon against the Chinese aggressors.
– Border 3 would be located in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and would focus on the valorous efforts of Abdul Hamid who went down fighting the enemy soldiers.
– Border 4 would focus on second-lieutenant Arun Khetarpal who died fighting during the 1971 Bangladesh war.
J. P. Dutta who has just returned from an extensive recce of the border areas where the three films would be shot, says he was deeply moved and impressed by the courage shown by the three soldier. Says JP, “I wanted to make war films on the three major battles that India fought in 1962, 1965 and 1971. But I wanted to root these wars in specific heroes’ lives. I chose the three Paramvir Chakra winners each from the three wars.”
The casting of the three heroes is now on. Says the director, “During my recce I was amazed at how well Border is remembered to this day even though it came 16 years ago. I met soldiers and civilians who had seen it over and over again. They all wanted to know if I had more to say on the war front.”
J.P. has been writing the three war sagas for the last 6 years. “It’s not easy to get details on the lives of these soldiers. We know how bravely they fought and that they won the Paramvir Chakras. But beyond that, all the biographical details had to be obtained from scratch. Permissions from the relevant departments of the Defense Ministry also took time. But now everything is in place.”
J.P. is now zeroing in on the 3 actors who would play the war heroes in the 3 Border sequels. “I’ve been away from the camera for long. Now it’s time to shoot three back-to-back films,” says the director.
Catch the whole video on you tube..am confident this guy will be murdered as soon as he steps foot on Pak soil..truth is not tolerable in current state..never was in that country I guess..
L.O.C. was one film on huge canvas but completely ruined by J.P. Dutta’s lack of ability to narrate the story properly. Characters kept appearing and would then die in the next 10 minutes. Sequences were repetitive and the narration was too poor to keep anyone engrossed. Compared to it, Border is a real classic and that was the last time that Dutta managed to come up with good cinema.
Ghulami, Yateem, Hathyar and Border were Dutta’s best efforts. Kshatriya wasn’t too bad. Neither was Batwara.
Refugee’s first half was amongst Dutta’s best works but the second half was a complete let-down. Umrao Jaan wasn’t good enough as well.
It’s all a question whether J.P. Dutta can get back to the level of film making he was coming up with 15 years back.
honestly speaking, I liked Sajid Khan during his Kehne mei kya harj hai days. I appreciated his vast knowledge of Hindi cinema and every film out there.This guy did have a good sense of humor. Pity to see him dishing out films like these
Ok guys surprisingly himmatwala released near me..after all this while of NO bollywood release!!–
some blokes goin there & cajoling me along–am goin ONLY to create ruckus & ‘seetis’!!
Hav always wanted a single screen experience 4 a change –will CREATE it there (courtesy beer) 🙂
I quite liked him back then too, he used to be quite good; knowledgeable, irreverent and funny. It’s ironic how he made fun of bad films and filmi people back then but has become the biggest bw insider blowhard now
@Satyam : Sorry, this is OT, but I just wanted to ask you this. I’ve finally watched Sholay just now. Could you please tell me why this is considered the greatest Indian film? I can see much to make it a huge commercial hit at the time it released, so I can understand that (I have a memory of reading that it was India’s first 70mm film — was it?). But, if I compare it to other renowned classics from the past, I don’t think it stands up to films like Mughal E Azam or Mother India. Moreover, since you are always talking about how Bachchan’s masala films had meaning beyond mere entertainment, and since Sholay is considered the greatest masala film (am I wrong on that?), what “greater meaning” is there in this film? I saw none, and nothing to distinguish it from any of the hit masala films of the current day. So could you please explain the difference?
Also, a minor question, but one that I am very curious about. Jaya B. is billed as Jaya Bhaduri in this film, but my understanding is that she was pregnant with Abhishek while she was filming — is that right? That would mean that she had been married for a few years by that time. So did she continue to act under the name of Jaya Bhaduri after marriage, and if so, for how long? Till she took her break from acting? When she returned in the 2000’s, she was known as Jaya Bachchan. I’m just curious when the professional name change took place.
More curiosity — how did Amjad Khan’s career pan out after this? Did he always play villains, or did he get a chance to play other kinds of characters, too? I must say I did find his acting very impressive.
India’s first 70 mm curry Western Sholay ran for five consecutive years at Mumbai’s Minerva theatre. It has gone on to become an ineluctable part of the collective cinema consciousness of 1970s audiences and a must-see film experience for the generations thereafter.
===============
At first, the movie may seem an odd mix of genres to American audiences, blending brutal violence and colorful musical interludes into a spaghetti Western dotted with dance numbers that would make Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, 2001) envious. But underneath its “Once Upon a Time in the West meets Grease” exterior, Sholay’s plot contains universal themes of revenge, love and friendship that are easily accessible to all audiences.
Let me take these questions in reverse order not least because your first one presents a perverse challenge of sorts!
Gabbar Singh is simply the most legendary villain of Indian cinema. It is certainly Amjad Khan’s career high though he did tons of films after this, several with Bachchan among them, and he is one of the great villains of the industry.
I believe the first time Jaya used her married name was for Silsila in 1981. No idea why she didn’t do so before this. Nauker from 1979 also has her listed as Bhaduri.
On the rest I’m afraid I won’t be able to ‘defend’ Sholay! What if you then asked me to defend Hamlet? Or Sachin Tendulkar? Or Lata Mangeshkar? This risk is too great! What if you also asked me to explain why Jawaharlal Nehru was any better than Deve Gowda? I sense a trap here and I must do everything to avoid it!
Too bad you and Rajen resort to ridicule instead of reason to explain your position. There’s no lack of provable facts to explain (“defend” is your word, born out of an overactive imagination) the greatness of either Hamlet or Tendulkar — the quality of writing or characterization for the former, and the accumulated statistics of a career for the latter. Anything that is truly great does not have the causes of its greatness hidden. As an example, you might have said that Sholay doesn’t look any different from today’s masala films because it was the film the set the template for such films (though I don’t know if that’s true). Any kind of factual information or personal insight would have been fine. But it seems you prefer to dwell in the rarefied environs of the chosen who know of Sholay’s greatness, rather than descend from those heights to explain or instruct those who ask you a genuine question. So be it. I am not surprised at Rajen’s reaction, as it is what I expected from him, but I am surprised at yours, and disappointed, too. I shall not trouble you again in this way. Thank you for the information regarding Amjad Khan and Jaya B.
sm – in a way it is true if we watch Sholay today – it offers nothing much esp. after we have seen all kind of masala films. But it is more of a “time zone” iconic film than some of the timelss classics like Mughl-E-Azam / Guide and very few others.
I loved sholay when it released and continued loving till the era of excessive channels and multiplex took over – today i won’t go past first 20 minutes if I start watching it again. So u r not the only one here to think abt sholay like that. But full marks to the film which did phenomenally well in its time and the way it came up after being declared a flop.
Amzad’s career was pillared on the strong foundation sholay gave him. Sholay was his debut film.
SM, I formulated the response that way precisely because I knew you’d react this way. Your question sounded to me exactly like those those other analogies I drew! Indeed there is as much that can be said about Sholay. One could perhaps quote Shekhar Kapur who said Indian cinema could be divided into BC and AD using Sholay, one could talk about Ray who was a great fan of the film, one could mention an important Western voice like Richard Pena, with a lot of research one could get into all of this, or else one could talk about the formalist triumphs of the film or its extraordinary subtexts or its political subversions or its web of allusions, so on and so forth, but even at the very basic storytelling level this film’s achievements ought to be obvious. So yes as much can be said about Sholay. For one it is an entire culture unto itself and not simply an influential film. Forget audiences there is no film figure of note of any kind whether in the North or in the South who doesn’t revere the film. Much as there is no Indian commercial cinema not informed by the Bachchan event since his advent. In Shakespeare terms I suppose if you asked me the question I could start by explaining rhyme schemes to you and then talking about the achievements of the Bard’s blank verse or else the way his plays are structured or his characters, on and on, but the point precisely is that you wouldn’t ask such a question in this case. Not because you would have analyzed for yourself all of these things but because you would have (rightly) taken the tradition at face value. Something that becomes an event, becomes so enflaming is justly respected. One can hold all kinds of views on such a body of work but to wonder whether it is even valuable would be pretty bizarre. Much as it would be to wonder what really separated Romeo and Juliet from a number of contemporary Hollywood romantic comedies. This sounds ridiculous but so does you claim that you cannot in essence separate Sholay from Ready or something. Again one doesn’t have to consider all the deeper levels of meaning in Sholay. This ought to be obvious. Actually Sholay has never been my very favorite film the way Deewar and some others from that period are but this doesn’t mean I don’t recognize its seminal stature. Once again when you talk about Shakespeare or Sachin you don’t say stuff like ‘since you [myself] claim that Romeo and Juliet is a great play perhaps you could explain to me why this is so since I haven’t been able to figure out what’s sets it apart from many rom-coms’!
I am very far from having a view whereby great works of any tradition cannot be questioned. Absolutely not. But these questions must come about frankly with some good faith. There are times when I have accessed important films for the first time and haven’t quite been able to see why they are so highly praised. Over time I have learned more about them and changed my views even when the films haven’t necessarily become my favorite ones. But even at the very outset my attitude has always been that I need to learn more not that a long venerable tradition is simply wrong. Even leaving aside the comparison someone familiar with just some of the good masala films out of Tamil cinema over the last decade or two ought to understand most contemporary Bollywood attempts in the same vein for the absolute junk that they are. It wouldn’t take a Shakespeare comedy to persuade me of the vacuousness of many contemporary Hollywood rom-coms.
Now you might feel offended that I am questioning your good faith here. But actually I am giving you more credit than you think. I find it impossible to believe that one could not tell the difference between Sholay and Singham or Sholay and Wanted or whatever! There is no ridicule implied. It is simply the way your question sounds when analogized with other examples. The provable (though this would not have been my word in this context) exists as much for Sholay as it does for Shakespeare or Sachin. The question is: are you unaware of even this factual history? Because by your own terms you might not then have asked the question.
The reductio ad absurdum that you think I am initiating by way of these counter-examples is completely a result of your own question and originates with you. Not for the first time I might add because you have a tendency of offering such in very many situations. And which I could itemize if I were challenged on this. So in this case I don’t find it odd that Sholay didn’t suddenly become your favorite film, I just find the rest of it strange. If I am brutally candid I’d say it’s a bit strange to find someone who has no problems with any of Salman’s contemporary masala films but who then wonders what’s so special about seminal Bachchan films of the 70s. There is lots of serious critical literature I could direct you to in this regard but my point is that you don’t need all of this for a certain kind of work. At least not initially.
I am not offended or annoyed by your question. But you must understand that I am being completely sincere when I quote those other examples. Your question sounds exactly like those.
“Sippy had come to Kolkata on a business trip. He decided to visit Ray, the biggest and most respected figure in the entire Indian film fraternity. Sippy was tentative and nervous about meeting Ray but he was truly surprised to find the man comfortably approachable. They talked for some time about many things. Finally with some effort, Sippy managed to ask Ray the question he wanted to aak. He said, “Sir, I have just made a movie named Sholay. ave you seen it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you like it Sir? I would definitely like to know what you think of it.”
“You have made a good movie Mr Sippy but there is a problem with your film.”
Sippy was taken aback. There was a problem with Sholay? No one had told him that. The whole country was watching the movie. “What Sir?”
“This is a film in present day India about a village in Central India infested by bandits and dacoits, right Mr Sippy?”
“Yes Sir. Absolutely.”
“Do you think there is electricity in those parts? I don’t believe you do. You have yourself shown Radha the daughter-in-law of the Thakur lighting oil lamps in the evening. Haven’t you?”
“Yes Sir. I have.”
“Then, Mr Sippy, how do you think water is pumped into the huge water tank at such a height where you showed Veeru jumping around trying to commit suicide?
Sippy was awed by the observation power and the minuteness with which Ray noticed avery single detail of a film. He said, “I am flattered by the fact that my film is lucky enough that you have seen it with so much interest.” Thank you Sir for your feedback.”
Others have commented on this and I myself used this reference in some of the Raavan discussions but the ethnic status of Gabbar is not the least of the film’s ambiguities. He could be a tribal, he could be a Maoist guerrilla of sorts (consider his ‘uniform’), or both. He could be seen as a lowr caste character rebelling against Thakurs (the cutting of hands is a gesture with a long North Indian history). Beera can certainly be seen as his descendant in more ways than one including the ‘psychotic’ element in both characters. I just bring this up as an example. Sholay offers something remarkable at most points. In some ways Gabbar is the truest ‘hero-villain’ of the story. In a way the central figure or to be more theoretical its central signifier. All other kinds of meaning in the film’s world emanate from him. He is the ‘demon-god’ of this universe. Even a part of its folklore.
I also think that the Bachchan character forms a kind of symmetric pair with him. I’ve said something about this elsewhere and will spare everyone here! But again I get into this example somewhat randomly. SM brought up that question the other day and though I found her framing bizarre this is not an easy film to unravel given the range of its references. It can be done but it would take an encyclopedic response. To put it in even starker terms and with a useful contemporary example Lagaan is a film that I like a lot and admire even more. But it is a pale shadow of the film Sholay is in most respects (not all). And Sholay isn’t even among my personal favorites the way say Deewar or Kaala Pathar are (though the same is true for Lagaan). I continue to believe that the last Hindi film that is as capacious in the 70s sense of the term is Ghulami. Nothing in Hindi cinema since is quite this film’s equal to my mind.
Here we get Bachchan’s charisma at its best. The silent friend. When every character went OTT, he underplayed his role quite effectively.
The prison scenes were hilarious and the present day masala movie makers can learn a thing or two from those scenes.
The film had fairytale ambiance.
@ SM:
I did give you a couple of links to indicate the greatness barometer of Sholay; from east to west – especially the west – where they grudgingly accepted that thought it is a mish-mash of genres, it is a terrific film..
Let me try to put some words to talk about Sholay though I don’t think I can do justice to it..firstly because I cannot enunciate the way Satyam does..secondly because it is difficult to explain something as rare and astounding as Haley’s comet..
SHOLAY is not as much a triumph in the ‘idealism’ of cinema as it is in the craft of film-making. Each and every millimeter of its 22 reel is dripping entertainment. Firstly, the characterization – can you name me a SINGLE Indian film that, after 38 years of its birth, has a simple line – ITNA SANNATA KYON HAIN BHAI – being ricocheted all around in spoofs/television shows? And this, by an actor who is above 50 and who, in today’s vulgar 100 crore cinema set-up, would pass off as that fatso side-kick in Bodyguard? Did you, ever, for a couple of minutes, feel restless or bored in the 3+ hours of Sholay playtime? Was there any character/characterization that you, in 2013, felt was under-written/over-written/unnecessary? Did you feel ANY scene that was shoved in just so that a certain section of society/film-viewing public would feel exhilarated? Did you, at ANY instance in the film, feel that one character was over-shadowing the other? Gabbar was the epitome of villainy, but did you feel Jai or Veeru or even Ramu Kaka’s role any less important to the overall landscape of Sholay as that of Gabbar’s?
After almost 40 years of its inception, can you name me, one, just one, film that is a COMPLETE entertainer? There are so many films that have tried to imitate the landscape and range of Sholay? Can you name me one that comes close to it? One screenplay? Not even one!! With all the technological advancements and the greater ‘exposure’ to the west and with the likes of Kashyap et al. going ballistic at film-festivals and talking ‘influences’, could you name just one film that these ‘neo-indie’ film-makers can crow about? That you can vouch now will stand the test of time. In terms of such a mammoth ‘advancement’ technologically and exposure-wise, can you name me one film from post-liberalized India that can qualify as an ALL-TIME great?
There are some films that simply turn out to be great – they were never INTENDED to be classics. I am sure Bogart never thought CASABLANCA would be considered one of the greatest screenplays 60 years after its release – but it is. I saw CASABLANCA for the first time in 2005 and was FLOORED beyond disbelief; the movie was made in 1942 but was FAR, FAR, FAR ahead in terms of writing/characterization than ANY other product I had come across. SHOLAY has the same kind of effect on many, many, people.
SHOLAY is just an event; an event nobody ascribed for, nobody thought possible, nobody predicted. You talk of MOTHER INDIA and MUGHAL-E-AZAM; these are great films but NOT time-less. As a test, let us see what the current ‘hip’ generation makes of these 3 movies; let us see what it identifies to most – not because of the topic, but because of the craft; there were many things ‘naturalistic’ in SHOLAY even thought it was a mish-mash of genres and a complete ‘ masala.’
I am assuming you follow the TELUGU film industry. If so, you yourself can see how pathetic that industry is. In the past 30 years, can you name a single TELUGU film that has floored you? I mean, I am not being a chauvinistic here, but the fact is, the TELUGU film industry is the worst in South India in terms of the kind of mindless ‘herogiri’ infested films it churns out month after month. I have YET to see a single, ‘normal’ hero from the industry. The last I saw was SAGAR SANGAMAM and SHANKARA BHARANAM – and they sound like they were light years ago!! This is the quality of films we are making now.
But if you see SHOLAY – even though it is a perfectly ONLY a masala film, it is a brilliant success with regards to the efforts of film-making; of technical brilliance; and more importantly, of cinema as a ‘cohesive’ product.
In ‘ LUCK BY CHANCE’, Mc Mohan (Samba) is asked to speak a few words in a film institute, but when he begins, ALL that the film students—today’s iphone ‘app’ generation— request him is to repeat the line from SHOLAY that made him immortal – ‘ POORE PACHAAS HAZAAR.’ His disappointment, at the duality that the very film/line that made him IMMORTAL is the line that will restrict his personality growth as an actor is the perfect embodiment of the SHOLAY effect after a bloody long 35 years’ time-frame.
Please pardon me if I appeared rude; the blame is not on me – but on Chivas Regal and Def Leppard..
One cant compare regional films with bollywood. Most of the telugu films for the past so many years are banal. But here and there, there are good films too.
Telugu films have rich genres like mythologicals, folktales, fantasy and the usual stuff. Telugu people have a rich history of great literature, great thinkers. It is sad that the rich culture has degenerated into these present day filmi culture. Nonetheless, there are still good movies coming out of tollywood, maybe their numbers are few and far between.
If we compare Bollywood, has no great cultural history to speak of. It is so generic. It is like comparing USA to European countries.
Cheers annjo& Thanx 4 trying to summarise sholays appeal.
Actually can get what sm is saying. If it helps, even I’ve not seen sholay completely ever–seen bits n bobs and key dialogues/songs obviously.
As unique idea says, sometimes it’s difficult for audiences to replicate the exact reactions retrospectively (& many decades later!)
Also some films are more amenable to guys & vice versa.
Ps: someone (i think oldgold) mentioned the absence of ‘adaayein’ nowadays –sm in her innocence & eventual ‘anger’ has given one such demonstration 😉
Lyricist Anvita Dutt won the award for Most Atrocious Lyrics for Ishq Wala Love from Student of the Year.
A special award titled Super Hit of 2012 went to Shah Rukh Khan for hitting Kunder last year. “Why Are You Still Trying” award went to actor Jackky Bhagnani who has worked in films like Kal Kissne Dekha and Ajab Gazabb Love.
The award ceremony concluded with “Bas Kijiye Bahut Ho Gaya” Award which went to the Bhatt family.
bhatt family is the shroudest in bw. Their budget for any film hardly crosses 10 cr and most of them do 60-70 cr theatrical bus + satelite + music + dvd + overseas……they care a damn for this kela or bhindi awards i guess 🙂 It is “paise wala money” for them which matters the most and that they are literally printing with every film…..
Ajay Devgn won Worst Actor (male) for Ashwni Dhir’s Son of Sardaar and Rohit Shetty’s Bol Bachchan. Sonakshi Sinha got Worst Female award for everything she has done so far including hits like Dabangg, Dabangg 2 and Rowdy Rathore.
The Worst Sequel award went to Dabangg 2 whereas viewers gave “Bawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke” Award to the Indian moviegoers.
The award for most irritating song went to Chinta Ta Chita Chita from Rowdy Rathore.
he Golen Kela Awards 2013, which hails Bollywood’s worst performances, have announced the winners list. Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha were named the Worst Actor and Actress at the Fifth Edition of Golden Kela Awards here Saturday, while Shirish Kunder’s Joker was adjudged the worst film of the year.
Kunder was also named for the worst director for Joker, winning the award titled “Beta Tumse Na Ho Payega”.
On a ‘shameful’ nite, a few blokes (including myself) decided to have some fun and create ruckus whilst payin a ‘homage’ to sajid khans 80s are back deal. The idea was to create a ‘single screen’ deal in unconventional ‘modern multiplex’ setting!
But even we had not imagined the levels sajid can plunge into!!! Haha
Have NOT seen the original ‘iconic’ film -For a moment, it seemed like sajid khans take on ‘LiFe of PI’!!
-Is a ‘review’ of this one needed!? Nope
Nonsense & mindless buffoonery& there was no attempt to create any ‘novelty’.
There were some ‘original’ ones like
-a ‘water pipe’ being twisted into a ‘U’ & mentioned as ‘YOUTUBE’!
Someone mentioned ‘swine flu’–what’s that!? Reply-don’t worry, it will come later in a few decades!’
One however –has to say–sajid khan IS the true himmatwala! I can’t believe he didn’t know this was pure unadulterated trash –bu his ‘love of 80s’ overpowered him to put his money and everything into this pathetic enterprise!
Needless to say we got our own perverse humour AT the film not due to the film & we took numerous ‘breaks’–
Something in film making died!
But sajid khans passion won!
And in one final sweep of insane gutter buffoonery –reminiscent of the iconic ‘reechha’ (satuams and mine fave reechha!)
Check this out folks—
Paresh raawal & mahesh manjrrkar slipped in a live crab into the front of each others trousers -leading to some ‘vibrations’-the rest as they say was–
Pure unadulterated gutter garbage sajid khan !!!! 🙂
Some telugu films over the years which made a mark.
Maya Bazar was produced both in tamil and telugu and it is such a lovely and funny musical even for today’s audience. It is about Kichaka who sets his eyes on Draupadi, only to be murdered by the enraged Bhima. There is Subhadra Kalyanam also and the starcast was the who and who of telugu and tamil industry at that period. B.Nagireddy got Phalke award for that movie, I think. It has phenomenal music.
And there was that sentimental love story Mooga Manasulu which was made into Milan starring Sunil dutt and Nutan.
Shiva, Raat, Kshanakshanam created a history of sorts.
Besides much acclaimed Sankarabharanam, there were films like Swati Mutyam.
And there was Miss Mary which was Missamma.
Recently there were reasonably good movies like NVNV, Varsham, Athadu etc.
Saturday 30th March 2013 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala has shown big falls on day two and it could be a fall in the 25% range when final collections come in. The best performing areas like UP and Rajasthan have fallen 30% and 20% respectively.
The first day in Delhi/UP was around 2.20 crore and day two is looking to come in at 1.5-1.6 crore while Rajasthan collected 76 lakhs on day one and day two is 60 lakhs approx.
The film started well enough especially at single screens but could not consolidate after the morning and showed big drops on day two. With the two day business being 19-20 crore the film has an impossible task at the box office.
Saturday 30th March 2013 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala had a heavy fall on Saturday as collections fell 30% all over on average. The two day business is 18 crore nett with 10.50 crore nett on Friday and 7.50 crore nett on Saturday. The figures from some circuits are as follows with Saturday figures in brackets.
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 9h
#Himmatwala falls in several circuits on Day 2 [Sat]. At several centres, the decline is substantial. Numbers being compiled.
True. But check this report out (not sure about Bachchan but Saif and Riteish are confirmed)-
Big B, Saif, Riteish in Sajid Khan’s next
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, April 01, 2013 – 15:07 hrs IST
#
Sajid Khan’s Himmatwala may have come in for some flak from most quarters but that hasn’t deterred the spirit of the filmmaker.
Sajid is already looking ahead to his next film which will be an out and out comedy. While Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh had been already finalized for this film, Sajid has managed a huge feat by roping in none other than Amitabh Bachchan. It may be recalled that Sajid had travelled all the way to Bhopal where Big B was shooting for Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha to meet the legendary actor and narrate his script. Looks like his effort has yielded the desired result with Big B giving his nod to the film. There are also reports that Jacqueline Fernandez has been signed to play the female lead though it’s yet to be confirmed.
The film will be produced by Vashu Bhagnani and goes on floors in July this year.
Ha signing sajids next after himmatwalla is not surprising for bachchan and confirms/ vindicates the point anya made earlier (vis a vis bachchan rgv!)
My hunch is that sajid khan is eyeing something like ‘angoor’.
“Jacqueline Fernandez has been signed to play the female lead though it’s yet to be confirmed”— I didn’t care at all for jacky but after ‘lat lag gayi’–like her somewhat.
Worried (knowing sajid) what the poor girl will be going through to get ‘confirmed’ as the main heroine here
Well, what can I say? It’s more difficult to comment on stuff one has liked -like gow1 & even ‘stoker’ recently! May opine in detail when I’m more objective on them.
Ok, will try to give a rating–that maybe easier!
I wanted to give it 4.5 out of 5 due to length issues and after a point one loses track of the member of characters that pop up & there’s a bit of repetitive discourse.
BUT even that seems less to me.–Wanted to give it more
And so will rest at 4.75/5!!
A Standing ovation to all involved—
The complete support cast, technical team sneha khanwalkar
And above all
Manoj Bajpai
& finally Anurag kashyap!!!
It’s just SHAMEFUL that with this film and even paan Singh Tomar around, people continue to send barfis to oscar(!!) -not that I wanna give too much imo to the foreign films Oscar category!.
This IS the real thing folks–
I will discount girls/women audience due to the violence factor
As for the guys– have a simple formula–
Only three type of guys dont/won’t like GoW–
Those who are not into cinema / occasional viewer
Those who are biased /agenda ridden
Or those who are actually not guys !!
🙂
Can’t resist to add–
Blistering pulsating film richly textured replete with tarantinoesque touches albeit with indianised references
Manoj Bajpai delivers a tour-de-force performance. Mind blowing!
After the “man-cession” emasculation enterprise ‘descendants’, was relieved to see this testosterone adrenaline upsurge film
I still can’t believe that the music here is by a female composer.
Love Sneha khanwalkars work here!
The film ends on a high note–One of the best dying sequences in recent times
Manoj Bajpai in GoW—(& note the opening strains of this— wow)
I smiled and laughed with all the subversive/violent scenes which flowed naturally with the ambience and setting –the ending though was poignant & machismo laden (as intended)
Loved it… Don’t think the actual video footage of this song is available online….
Satyam–this film deserves a proper piece from u—one of the best indian films in the new millenium!! Plz rise above the bachchan-kashyap equations etc & embrace true authentic world class cinema
🙂
Man, I think this is the first time I’m enjoying rustic/ village/ folk music style– the way sneha has incorporated it in the film is awesome
Btw don’t mind sneha getting some film roles as well infront of the camera lol
“Sneha is HOT….period”
haha wont comment on that–but do like the fact that she loves her music and is simple, unassuming. Not into ‘promotions’ etc & other forms of ‘networking’. INfact unsure if shes signed another film after gow.
A talent to look out for –if she doesnt get ‘distracted’ by those like masterpraz sending tweets/mails etc hahaha
ps–must admit, even i have a weakness for her ‘simple, natural, nerdy’ look 🙂
guys do check out this entertaining interview of the girls^
At 5:00 onwards–sneha not getting any film offers but marriage proposals & that too on twitter !!!
Now I know what Satyams upto on twitter with all those (lengthy text) apps 🙂
“I admit I proposed to Sneha once on Twitter lol “–haha masterpraz. Thanx for your honesty lol
thats y i stay away from fb, twitter nowadayz
did u tweet ‘her’ to a verified account? lol
btw ‘sneha’ reminds me of ‘neha’ (not sure but thats what the name was)–who posted here but within a few days was found to have the same ip address as another guy here saurabh minor.
He was apparently another guy posting from his same computer!
Didnt wanna rake it up–just ‘s(neha)’reminded me of that guy.
Perhaps ‘he’ now has his own computer–unsure 🙂
anyhow these are thingz one has to take in the stride on internet…no worries
Remaking doesn’t guarantee a hit again: Abhishek Bachchan
Afsana Ahmed, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, March 31, 2013
The end of March is always a busy time for everybody. As one financial year ends and another begins, it’s time to both look back and look ahead. And actor Abhishek Bachchan has been doing just that. He’s been chalking out his new calendar, which includes reading scripts and travelling to shoot for Dhoom:3. And he’s been reflecting on the year gone by, including his role as the host of an awards show and the honour he received from the Hindustan Times at the recent Star Guild Awards, for his outstanding contribution to society.
“It was too touching,” says the actor who has now been in the film industry for 12 years. I’ve known him since he began his career, and he hasn’t changed much since he started. Abhishek is still the epitome of charm, spirit and mettle, and his sense of humour still rocks.
Last year, he made an impact with Bol Bachchan. This year we’ll see him in Dhoom:3, Karan Johar’s Dostana 2 and Bhushan Kumar’s as-yet-untitled film to be directed by Umesh Shukla.
That’s all we know; Abhishek won’t talk about other movies he may be working on.
“In my experience, jumping the gun derails a project,” he says. “Projects should be announced only when you’re good to go. I wouldn’t want to talk about movies that are in the discussion stage, and I wouldn’t want the filmmakers I am in discussions with, to talk about them either.”
So we talk about other things.
Why is there always such a long gap between your film releases? Have you become selective?
My colleagues do one film a year and they are not grilled about it. Nobody says they are selective. So why ask me this always? Please try and understand that no actor accepts all the films offered to them. You do the film that inspires you. It’s about taking up the work you think you will enjoy. Dhoom:3 was an old commitment. I started shooting for it last year. And I am eagerly looking forward to shooting for Dostana 2. I am just doing the films I want to do.
You’ve been in the industry for 12 years now. Where do you think you stand?
I don’t stand, I keep moving forward. That’s probably why I have no complaints. It’s been such a huge learning experience, professionally and personally. I have enjoyed it here and that’s the most important thing for me.
Does the fact that you’re Amitabh Bachchan’s son weigh on you?
Nothing bogs me down. I am what I am because of my father and my family. I never thought that I could be somebody else’s son. It’s a matter of huge pride for me that I am my father’s son.
Everyone is remaking Amitabh Bachchan films. When do we get to hear that you are in one of your dad’s remakes?
I am open to a remake provided we get it right. I thought about remaking one of dad’s films, but it’s a mammoth task. I would personally put the pressure on myself to deliver and make sure that it would be huge hit. I would not be able to be relaxed about the fact that the film I’d be remaking was a hit film with a hit formula, so that I could hit the bull’s eye.
If I were to do one of my dad’s films, I’d know there would be that much pressure and that much effort and expectation. Even if I applied myself fully, it would not guarantee success. You cannot pick up one of dad’s hits and say, ‘Chalo, it has a super-hit formula, and now if we apply the same, we’ll get the same result’. You can’t have that attitude. Remaking doesn’t guarantee you a hit again. I’d only do a remake if I were convinced that I could make it into a huge success.
People say your daughter Aaradhya looks a lot like you, even in terms of height.
She’s got tall parents and tall grandfathers! As for the resemblance bit, I think Aaradhya looks more like Aishwarya. She looks similar to how Aishwarya looked at that age. It’s so lovely to hear her call me Pa.
Aren’t you over-analysing the concept of success when we talk of remakes? Isn’t that making you under-confident and starting you off on the wrong foot?
I am not saying that. It’s a huge responsibility. A lot of hard work and scripting goes behind a remake. Why only dad’s films? Every film that is remade or every role that is reprised, is the result of tremendous hard work, because years have passed and times have changed, and the audience’s requirements have changed.
Do you worry that people would expect more from you because you are Amitabh Bachchan’s son?
Absolutely! The fact would remain that I am his son. A son who is remaking his dad’s film. So I would not be able to miss a step. The pressure would undoubtedly be double.
Which of your dad’s films would you want to remake and why?
I hate answering this question. When you are dealing with the kind of work dad has done, you want to do everything. He has done great work and so it’s difficult to choose.
Would you say you have had more downs in your career than ups, or vice versa?
I don’t attribute success or failure to anything. I do not sit and over-analyse things. I just work hard and believe that the rest will take care of itself.
Dhoom seem to have become synonymous with your name!
I am very excited about Dhoom. It’s a huge franchise that’s synonymous with me now, and I am doing the third instalment. Getting the chance to work with Aamir Khan is another incentive for me. Watching him is a learning experience in itself. I am very excited to work with him. He’s truly a perfectionist!
At the same time, I am very thrilled to revisit Dostana, especially with a co-star (John Abraham) who I am very fond of.
After your successful series of ad films for a mobile service provider, director Amit Sharma and you apparently planned to do a feature film together. What’s the status?
Considering our success with the ad, both Amit and I are very conscious of the fact that when we do our first film together, it should be very special. We have been working on the script. We are done with our third draft and are working very hard to wrap up the final script, put the project together and hopefully announce it soon.
What are your thoughts on turning producer and carrying forward your father’s dream through AB Corp?
The compulsion in AB Corp is creative, not financial. Luckily for us it’s a matter of choice. Here you make films because you believe in them, not because you have to run your studio. We don’t have compulsions to make five films a year, which I think is a great liberty. Our strategy is not to get stuck in a situation where, in order to cover the overheads, we have to make so many films every year. Other studios and corporate houses are committed to making a certain number of movies a year because that’s a commitment to their share holders. We don’t have such pressures. We make films which we believe in and which inspire us.
Who are your chaddi-buddies in the film industry?
I am an industry kid, born and brought up in Juhu. Half the industry lives within a kilometre of each other. Uday Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and Goldie Behl are the guys I’ve known since I was in kindergarten. When you grow up together, you’re in and out of each other’s homes every day. When we want to have coffee or breakfast together, we just go across to each other’s house.
We have heard about your paternal grandmother, Teji Bachchan, but never about your maternal grandmother, Indira Bhaduri.
She lives in Bhopal and I am close to her. I know it makes her upset that I do not speak Bengali, but I would love to learn it someday for her. It’s such a wonderful thing to be pampered by grandmoms.
I thank God every day that these are the ladies who made me the person I am today.
If there’s one piece of advice you wish to give women, what would that be?
Obviously they need to be more empowered through education. The events that have come to light in the past one year have highlighted the creepy mindset against women in our country. What kind of society is it where fear rules the minds of our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters when they step out? I have been brought up and taught to believe in gender equality, I have grown up surrounded by women, so I appreciate them.
Can you throw some light on your association with Magic Bus, the NGO for underprivileged kids?
Aishwarya introduced me to it. A college friend of hers works there. What I like about their programme is that it makes people responsible. Every child who goes through the programme must later become a mentor too.
Is it true that the name of your family firm, ABCL, was changed to AB Corp due to astrology-related issues?
ABCL went through a huge financial setback in the late ’90s and my father worked single-handedly to rectify it. At that point, he wanted to change things around. He wanted to rechristen the company. That’s why it is AB Corp today. No, there’s no astrology involved. It was our thought and decision. When you are dealing with the kind of work dad has done, you want to do everything. He has done great work and so it’s difficult to choose.
How close are you to your mother’s Bengali culture?
As close as I can be. But I never tried speaking Bengali, which is ma’s mother tongue. I was sent abroad to study when I was very young. And at home, we speak Hindi and English. So I haven’t got an opportunity to learn it. I also love Bengali cuisine. There are so many wonderful dishes. I love fish and all of the maacher dishes are delicious.
What has been the role of the women in your life?
I am lucky to be enjoying time with both my grandmothers. My father’s mother and mother’s mother are still alive. Then I have my mother, my sister (Shweta), wife (Aishwarya) and now I have a daughter (Aaradhya). I am lucky to have got the opportunity to learn from, absorb from and spend time with all of them. The contribution of a woman in a man’s life is something you can never quantify. It’s a huge contribution!
You are perceived as one of the few actors who do not belong to a coterie. Do you consciously stay away from this kind of thing?
I don’t believe that it exists, so there is nothing to stay away from. At the end of the day, people choose their friends based on what they want to do at that point of time. Name one actor who has particularly worked with only one director. We are actors and want to work with everyone. The same applies to filmmakers as well.
So you mean coteries do not exist?
I don’t like the word coterie. Just because people are friendly doesn’t make them part of a camp. You mean two actors cannot go out for dinner together? That’s so unfair. Everyone has their own life and the industry is not a corporate house, but a big family. Everyone knows everyone, and they hang out with everyone. If Shah Rukh Khan is having a celebration at his house and he invites me, how does it make me part of his camp? And if he comes to my house on Diwali, does it make him part of my camp? I don’t believe in this at all.
Coteries exist in Bollywood, right? There are the Shah Rukh Khan-Karan Johar-Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn-Rohit Shetty-Salman Khan families for instance. That’s a creative choice. That’s got nothing to do with the fact that they are friends. When Karan writes his films, he knows that so-and-so is ideal for the film, and accordingly approaches him. It’s about the script and its demand. Nobody writes movies for friends. People write a film because they want to make a film, and they cast actors based on who they feel is the best choice for that character.
“I am very excited about Dhoom. It’s a huge franchise that’s synonymous with me now, and I am doing the third instalment. Getting the chance to work with Aamir Khan is another incentive for me. Watching him is a learning experience in itself. I am very excited to work with him. He’s truly a perfectionist!”
MARCH 31, 2013, 12:27 PM
‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Has a Strong Start
By BROOKS BARNES
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” was a burly No. 1 at North American theaters over the Easter weekend, validating an unusual decision by Paramount Pictures to delay its release so that it could rework parts of the plot. “Retaliation,” which cost at least $130 million to make, took in about $41.2 million over the weekend, for a total since opening on Thursday of $51.7 million. Overseas, the movie — originally planned for release last summer — generated an additional $80.3 million in ticket sales.
“The Croods” (20th Century Fox) was second, selling about $26.5 million in tickets, for a two-week total of $88.6 million, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data. Tyler Perry’s “Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” (Lionsgate) finished in third place, with a sturdy $22.3 million. In fourth was “Olympus Has Fallen” (FilmDistrict), which produced sales of about $14 million, for a two-week total of $54.7 million. “Oz the Great and Powerful” (Disney) chugged away in fifth place, selling an estimated $11.6 million in tickets, for a four-week total of $198.3 million.
The weekend brought one major flop: “The Host” (Open Road), a producing effort by the “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, took in just $11 million despite a lengthy promotional campaign; the movie cost about $40 million to make and received deadly reviews.
Following reviews were published by filmfare and shows their prejudice and anti AB attitude prevalent at that time.Later in 90’s filmfare made up with AB and rewrote reviews of original classics. interestingly t was openly accepted in October 2010 filmfare edition.
ZANJEER -1973
Prakash Mehra veers uncertainly between the mental conflict and a compulsive need for action and all too soon shelves the characterisation totally.
SHOLAY-1975
A major trouble with the film is the unsuccessful transplantation it attempts-grafting a western on to the indian milieu.The integration between plot-innocent,terrorised villagers versus rampaging dacoits and locale is never quite achieved and the film remains imitation Western neither here nor there.
DEEWAR-1975
The trouble is that Yash Chopra has stretched out a 90 minute film into three tiresome hours.Despite all the artificial narration ,yash chopra’s direction has some good touches.
MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR-1978
Movie looks like rehash of films like DEEWAR,SANGAM and PAKEEZAH.Twists and turns have been added but the plot screeches and whines with every effort.
LAAWARIS-1981
The film finds Amitabh agreeing to participate in an old and distasteful gimmick-the dance number where he dresses as a woman and makes crude gestures at the audience.
SHARAABI-1984
Films like SHARAABI and booze should be taken moderately preferably in half measure and then you should call it quits.
Ha! these are fun to read! It makes my point once again that there was always an ideological problem that (and quite naturally) the existing bourgeois apparatus had with respect to Bachchan’s films. This is specially important in light of the fact that then as now there isn’t really a class of professional film critics in India in the sense that this term has in many other countries.
A classic example of this ideological reaction is the rather common one on the part of many women for the longest time with respect to violence in cinema. Now it’s one thing to not be able to watch realistic, gruesome violence on screen and quite another to object even to Mamohan Desai’s cartoonish variety! For the longest time it was taken as a given that women just don’t like violence, almost as if this were a response particular to gender. However in the present no such reception really exists among women, i.e. those belonging to a more contemporary generation. In other words the response to Bachchan’s cinema in this sense was part and parcel of this larger ideological resistance. And the clue here was the fact that women didn’t just object to the violence but also defined the very same as ‘senseless’. As if all that happens in those great scripts from the 70s is the Indian equivalent of the WWF! Ideological choices most often work in unconscious ways. The women in question weren’t questioning their own preferences. Much as the same bourgeois apparatus wasn’t doing so in the larger sense.
So when people equate ‘nice films’ with works that I would define as ‘comforting’ it is because over a variety of genres there are certain ideological choices in place. The impression is that once you move to a totally different genre everything changes. Not at all! In Hollywood’s classic cinema (and even beyond in some ways) the production of the couple (as a critic put it) is really the transcendental feature that governs all these genres. No matter what else happens in the film the ideal romantic couple has to be defined one way or the other. This is one example but the larger point is that if you watch Hindi films from the 50s or the 60s there is obviously great variety but there are certain key ideological positions that are not often questioned. With Bachchan’s and some of the trends that became dominant with him the entire framework is shifted. The bourgeois apparatus is totally destabilized. All the ‘pieties’ of bourgeois thinking are questioned in every way imaginable. Which is why with the SR films of the 90s the counter-reaction was so fierce! But the Bachchan signature provokes great unease even today (I’ve argued for this elsewhere).
That is why he is called a game changer for bollywood, while rajni is for Kollywood.But the present day violence and gore in films has more to do with violence for violence sake Hollywood films. GOW is as much glorified as was Satya. As films are watched with such interest, the violence also becomes accepted. Violence is almost equated with manliness.
> Now it’s one thing to not be able to watch realistic, gruesome violence on screen and quite another to object even to Mamohan Desai’s cartoonish variety!
I remeber making this same point here about why I love ABs films inspite of the ‘violence’ which was just background noise mostly. One joked that after all the bashing the characters remained uninjured – but it was a decision (of sensitive minds) to make it so.
Dabaang had the same style of fights and I respected it for that.
>However in the present no such reception really exists among women, i.e. those belonging to a more contemporary generation.
How do you know that, satyam? I have three reasons to disagree;
-I know many who don’t like it
-if the success of such films makes you come to this conclusion then the success is due to the majority (males) who outnumber women
-that some young women don’t mind cannot be excluded (then or now). These can be of two kinds;
a)those who genuinely like it/don’t mind it
b)those who pretend to follow the dictum ‘women are equal to men in all respects and like them we too love violence’. This forms the majority of young women in this group, who are struggling to appear ‘cool’ etc – one of the innumerable ‘wannabe’ examples one can see around.
I hope these women have changed their minds after the brutal gangrape in Delhi.
PS: There’s one more point;
-this includes those women who don’t want to give up a film that they feel is a ‘must watch’ for other reasons.
So here we see a strategy where violence is present in addition to things which would appeal to minds against watching violence. When the choice becomes narrower then this type would have to give up watching most films, which she doesn’t want to do.
In India, it is mostly the mother in law and sisters in law who set brides on fire if demands for dowry are not met, if a woman fails to conceive, if a woman gives birth to a girl etc. etc.
Thanx for those views OG & sanju-u confirm the impression I had. Infact nowadays whist watching violent films I try to avoid female company to avoid discomfort (except if I’m watching it with anya lol). As satyam &u rightly mentioned, the point is not only the ‘violence’, but the context & ‘gaze’ of the camera that makes it perverted.
But hey, all girls are also adult individuals & have the right to view what they wish to. i admittedly sometimes do have uninvited concern and empathy for some though lol.
“This forms the majority of young women in this group, who are struggling to appear ‘cool’ etc – one of the innumerable ‘wannabe’ examples one can see around”— oops haha naughty!
Well, I respect view points of both buddies and will let that person answer & will stay mum 🙂
“April 1, 2013 at 8:43 AM
These belong to category;
>a)those who genuinely like it/don’t mind it”
Haha Roflol Oldgold– u hit that full toss hit to the boundary ..
Anyas daughter in law seems to be in trouble ( pardon just a joke-not o be taken seriously !)
Himmatwala collected 26.50 crore nett over its first weekend as collections came down heavily on Saturday and showed limited improvement on Sunday. The film has fared better at B and C centres but collections at multiplexes in major centres are dull.
Sometimes a major film does have a better all India distributor share from single screens over the first weekend but it is rare for the nett collections from single screens to be more than multiplexes but that is the case with Himmatwala as the multiplex contribution is so low.
The film has fared best in UP, Bihar and Central India markets. Gujarat held up best over the weekend but the start was not that good in Gujarat. Mumbai city, Delhi city, East Punjab, Kolkata and Bangalore were all very poor.
Haha sanju– so kjo has now moved down– from aalia to minor kids –13 year olds!!
After getting spurned by srk, hope he doesn’t get pedophilia !!
Haha
Ps: the kid in the pic looks an irritating brat like Kareena
2013- 1st Quarter Report in Kollywood
Source : SIFY
Last Updated: Mon, Apr 01, 2013 13:21 hrs
2013 first quarter report for Tamil cinema is hugely disappointing. There were a record 44 releases out of which only three will make profit for the producers. Theatrical collections are at an all time low, due to various reasons.
Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam which was censored with an UA certificate was banned by the state government initially for two weeks, as they felt it would hurt the sentiments of a particular community. After the offending scenes were removed the film was cleared and released two weeks later.
The controversies helped the film to become a hit. Kamal Haasan who had pledged everything on the movie was able to pay back his creditors. Vishwaroopam is clearly the number one hit of the year so far.
Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya (KLTA) is the other big winner which released for Pongal. The crass comedy, starpower of Santhanam and the marketing of Red Giants enabled it to get an opening. Powerstar Sreenivasan became a much in demand star with the film.
Pandiraj’s Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga (KBKR), released last Friday has taken a decent opening. Escape Motion Pictures and Pasanga Films had sold the film to Studio Green who in turn sold all areas and made a handsome profit. KBKR a family entertainer looks to be a safe bet for all concerned.
However the biggest disappointment of the year is the failure of some movies which were sold at a high price and bombed miserably at the box-office. Karthi’s Alex Pandian touted as the Pongal biggie bombed after the first show and is a write off.
Similarly Mani Ratnam’s highly anticipated Kadal turned out to be an epic disaster. Mani Ratnam had sold it to Gemini Film Circuit, who in turn had sold it to various distributors in Tamil Nadu. Everybody who brought the film lost money and Mannan Films demanded money back from Mani, which led to ugly scenes and a court order to provide protection to the director.
Ameerin Adhibhagavan was another biggie, a controversial film that failed to take off at the box-office. Vikram-Jiiva bilingual Bejoy Nambiar directed David was another colossal flop, which many single screens removed after three days!
Bala ‘s dark and depressing critically acclaimed Paradesi took a decent opening in multiplexes but could not sustain. It may break even from all rights put together. The other film which was critically acclaimed was Haridas, which did not get a proper release.
On the whole 2013 has started badly for Tamil film industry, which is plagued by various factors not related to movie making. .
IPL will add to the woes. Ordinary people want magical movies with great songs, good story and the works. They are not ready to watch experimental movies. They may watch one or two such movies but they wont patronise gluts.
“I am making my next film with Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Amitabh Bachchan. It will start in July. The film is untitled and it is an out and out comedy. It will be a big success at the box-office,” Sajid told PTI.
Well bliss agree, I also hope it is an April fools joke but knowing bachchan, it may not be so!!
Even sajid is at his low rite now after the ultracrap himmatwala! And the film will hae a bigger role for saif, it seems.
Why for gods sake, is bachchan signing this one!!
All those who attacked / questioned anyas comment on rgv/bachchan !!!– we want answers ! 🙂
(& before annjo gets unnecessarily excited, it’s not bout u lol)
leave Big B out of criticism pl. Even I’ve stopped doing that (ha ha do i sound like Sajid Khan? 😉 ) = but honestly let big b enjoy working with whoever he wants. At this stage – he is above criticism and not answerable to any BO failures.
alphabetically? Jokes apart, we were discussing how actors age. The only star who aged gracefully and still looks good is Bachchan. Hope he maintains that throughout. The other day I was watching dev annad’s old songs. He looked so handsome and none can beat him in looks during those days. Even now no one comes near him in the looks department. If Madhubala is the eternal beauty, dev Anand of those days is the eternal handsome.
Take lite annjo (in the words of jiah khan of nishabd!!)
Theres nothing hitchockian or secret/personal bout it and ‘those names’ seem to have got this point ‘maturely’.
Also bachchan himself has strengthened the point by signing sajid. Since it was not addressed to u in the first place and if u are still curios, u are welcome to dig up that thread & comments!! all the best…
Ten years after “Gangs of New York” hit theaters, director Martin Scorsese is teaming with Miramax and GK Films to develop the movie into a TV series.
The planned project would follow the story of the movie and draw on events surrounding organized gangs at the turn of the 20th century and shortly thereafter, not only in New York but in such cities as Chicago (which would arguably make it a de facto prequel to “Boardwalk Empire.”)
“This time and era of America’s history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two-hour film,” Scorsese said in a statement. “A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life.”
Said Miramax chairman Richard Nanula: “No one better exemplifies what the new Miramax is and will be better than Martin Scorsese. His dedication to quality and the art of storytelling continues to excite everyone that works with him and watches his films and television programs. We could not think of a better partner for this project than the creator of the wonderful film on which it is based.”
“Gangs of New York” was released in December 2002 and grossed $77.8 million domestically and an additional $116 million worldwide. The film received 10 Oscar nominations, though it won none.
Wanted to see this but haven’t had the chance yet. It didn’t get raves or anything but like many BBC shows it’s pretty visually arresting, and I’m very interested in this time period and in both New York and American history, so at the very least this will be a nice world to explore.
Always thought Gangs deserved a longer running time, though. And a more complicated story than what the film offered at its core…no doubt Scorsese feels similarly. Really hope this pans out.
GONY on telly
well, i will again politely disagree. Theres nothing ‘wrong’ about remaking it on telly and there are advantages due to more length and leeway/freedom.
BUT think Scorcese has already made the film to near perfection!
U cant get better than the pusating performance of DDL & even Leo. Yes there were some excesses, but dont think theres anything to add!
Scorcese may have other compulsions to remake it (due to the iconic element of the film and moreso DDL performance)
Talking of complusions, wiht due respect, I have no such compulsion (either to view it or to commend this telly remake)!!
Talking of gangs of new york, im reminded of Gangs of Wasseypur1!
Just bcos the latter happens to be by an indian filmmaker, wont make me biased either ways(as happens a lot)
Purely from merit perspective, this was perhaps one of the best recent indian films ive seen.As someone here mentioned, it is 100% on rottentomatoes but thats incidental!
Cant comment on it much
, but the audience reactions —
Watched it with some blokes—none of them knew the language and all of them are very cinema literate!!
Nobody moved during the entire film (except me) and after the end credit roles, there was silence for a while.
Then i looked at them and felt proud!!
ps:Satyam-its high time, u break your silence on gow1. And i dont wanna ‘encourage’ anya (she doesnt need it) with these violent films, but will invite his/her views on this–its authentic cinema at its best besides capturing the up/bihar hinterland from where he/she comes from 🙂
I will be absolutely frank here- The kind of milieu and world GoW-1 creates has NEVER been seen before in Hindi cinema. The fact that ‘each and every’ foreign reviewer has commended the film means something. And hate to be blunt abt this but as much as I like DMD it does not even come anywhere near GoW.
And not since Ghulami (Lagaan was another such attempt) have I seen a film with such a wide canvass and create such diverse characters. So while it might not be as flawless as say a Khaki/Udaan/TZP or as courageous as Dev/RDB it is IMO even more ambitious than all of these. And this is a film one should try and defend everywhere.
good point-Will go even further!
I dont wanna put guys like rohan sippys dmd with this. Dmd may infact be a good film on its own.(or even the other films mentioned above)
This comparison is unfair to both.
Films like GoW are simply a different ball-game!!
note how i simply cant/dont put my (dodgy) reviews on films that i really like—for eg some recent ones- cocktail, rockstar, ETT, tree of life, stoker, hobbitt or now gow.
I simply get a ‘paralysis’ of articulation(not that its gr8 otherwise)
theres this myth that certain genres are better/more superior than others–dont agree & I can appreciate all.
—but i dont favour/restrict to some genre(s)–its not deliberate but somehow I can appreciate the COMPLETE spectrum !!!
ps-Pardon the unintentional lack of humility
Since I have not seen more than bits of the film I can’t argue about it. Will say as a general matter that there is sometimes a critical bias towards ‘epic’ works. This is so in Hollywood before all else. In the same sense people tend to be partial to films that wear their points on their sleeves. Which does not mean I am arguing against epics. I am in fact greatly partial to them myself. Nor am I suggesting that the smaller work is automatically better. To the extent that I tend to voice some skepticism about GoW it is so for the very same reasons that I tend to part company with those who worship Agneepath (the original). Or those who love Sarkar or Scarface or whatever. Not that all of these films exist at the same level. There are of course distinctions but the reception of gangster life if you will seems to be rather generous in contemporary India. Or I should be more precise. It is so among males of this current generation and a half. In other words one has forever been waiting for the great gangster film out of India. It is not that I don’t appreciate some or all of these films. But I know that Agneepath speaks more to many folks than Trishul for reasons that are not directly connected to the strengths and/or weaknesses of each film. And this entire equation operates along gender lines. In all these years on the blogoshphere or in conversations elsewhere I have never seen young women being as big on most or all of these films.
With respect to GoW though I might sometimes seem uncharitable but it’s partly because I don’t find it to be a sign of automatic progress for Hindi cinema to attempt a genre or capture a small town milieu or adopt a tone that is not commonly associated with Hindi cinema (though I would argue that GoW represents perhaps the pinnacle of a ‘mix’ that has been ascendant in Bollywood for quite some time). In other words the question shouldn’t be whether GoW is a great film or not relative to what Bombay otherwise makes. It might well be this. But is it also one relative to so many gangster tales that have followed in so many other parts of the world or even if not gangster tales precisely films that use the very same mix of elements? So there might be a GoW set in Latin America somewhere, another set in East Asia, so on and so forth. In each case the local setting adds something. But it is not necessarily enough to make the film great just for that reason. And this comparison is entirely fair for a film that is also being marketed as an international one. Along the same lines I didn’t much care for the otherwise acclaimed Mesrine at all. Felt it was too much of a Hollywood film. There just wasn’t enough ‘difference’ here. Liked Carlos a lot more than this but liked Che even more. Not to suggest that Che is the same as Carlos (!) but there is a loose symmetry in certain ways. In any case it’s not just about GoW. My own hunch based on whatever I know of the film, the little bits I’ve seen (and I do hope to finally see the whole thing!), and also a great deal of opinion I’ve read on it is that I will probably end up preferring RGV’s Rakta Charitra double to it. But I could be wrong.
So there isn’t at least on my part some irrational stinginess that forces me not to give GoW its due. Leaving this aside it’s also about personal taste. So for instance I might personally prefer Mausam to Sholay. This will sound bizarre to most people but I’m quite serious. I’m not saying the latter is the greater film (though it’s greater than people think), just that I like it more. It’s a question of what’s being discussed. Leaving aside some great Bachchan works I’d rather watch the small Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Basu Chatterjee film (or something similar) than just about anything else in the cinema’s history. Similarly with the exception of Ratnam and probably some iconic commercial favorites from Tamil cinema (mostly over the last 30 years) I’d rather watch those small Malayalam films from their golden period in the 80s over anything from this [Tamil] industry. Or for that matter the Hindi one. What happens is that often the discussions are about contemporary stars and then it seems like one is playing favorites but if you expand the conversation there are equally ‘eccentric’ (if one wishes to see them this way) choices elsewhere too!
“So there might be a GoW set in Latin America somewhere, another set in East Asia, so on and so forth. In each case the local setting adds something. But it is not necessarily enough to make the film great just for that reason. And this comparison is entirely fair for a film that is also being marketed as an international one. ”
Says it all really. I’ve only seen GOW-1 and on the terms you rightly frame above it’s not nearly as interesting or memorable as, say, Audiard’s A Prophet, Meirelles’ City of God or even Garrone’s Gomorrah, three films from three different cinemas that attempt to push the genre farther (as Kashyap also does) but, in my opinion, far more successfully, with flat out better results.
I’ll add here as I’ve said elsewhere that I don’t dislike GOW-1 and having seen it I find it tough (downright foolhardy in some cases, as evidenced here) to opine on it without seeing both parts. Just because it does seem to end only as a chapter to something larger and it’s hard to accurately assess Kashyap’s successes without seeing the big picture. But on the merit of the first one I have to say my own ignorance of the milieu aside, I don’t think there’s anything that’s particularly new or memorable aside from a few effective performances (non more than the actor who plays Shahid Khan, whose disappearance from the story robs it of a good deal of its energy) and a generally likable mood.
GF, my point about GoW-1 was not that it pushes the boundaries of commercial cinema but that it tries to create a very singular kind of world which IMO has never been depicted earlier in Bollywood. To put things in context if deconstruction of Masala was the bone of contention here I thought Ketan Mehta’s Hero Hiralal did that much earlier and with far better results. But here GoW does something else- it takes those Masala characters and shapes them into something else. And in my mind its greatest strength is that it plays out like a fable
Also why don’t we compare BM and DMD to their international. The former, while an engrossing enough work, is plainly derivative of so many foreign films
Will get to your comment later but I have always felt that Ketan Mehta always had a feel for epic registers present in a small-scale art film format. And I am not just talking abt MP here but also the criminally underrated Mirch Masala (a film which could act as a companion piece to Ghulami) and Holi.
“Also why don’t we compare BM and DMD to their international…”
Well that’s easy. Because despite their influences these aren’t films that were ever aggressively marketed as festival films or were otherwise geared towards an international audience. But leaving this aside, the contention with GOW as laid out here isn’t that it fails because it’s derivative of foreign films but because it plainly aims for comparison with the kind of company I’ve listed above, and when one stacks those films against Kashyap’s, you really see that his movie isn’t A) as revolutionary as it might otherwise seem and B) in my opinion, not nearly as formally accomplished or memorable from a script standpoint.
This isn’t about defending one’s favorites btw. So trying to take jabs at DMD in a discussion about GOW (not saying you’re doing this) is a little useless…
yeah there’s always something gratuitous about the DMD comparison cropping up in multiple contexts. No one has to agree with one’s opinion on the film. People are free to like any number of movies more than it!
I agree with Saurabh here. I read the story and its quite compelling. The story traces so many things like traditional rivalry, predominantly muslim characters whom we consider as some monolith but the truth is otherwise. The female characteristics are also realistic and there is coal mafia and trade union manipulation. So many things put together is itself a herculanean effort. Where do we get to see so many grey characters who are neither heroes nor villains?
The question though is whether we ‘need’ grey characters? In fact the greatest cliche in cinema for very many years is the ‘grey’ character! Perhaps we need more black and white characters today! I am not criticizing GoW but the idea that grey characters are an end in themselves. There are very many great films that don’t feature great characters. And here too it’s a cliche to think that there haven’t been grey characters before in Hindi cinema. The 70s had very much of this in very many ways. Even before this Dev Anand did a number of characters that were grey. Raj Kapoor has some very interesting parts on this score even in some of his most iconic films. A similar case could be made for Dilip Kumar. It’s true that not every decade is like the 50s or 70s in this regard (or in most other ways!). In 1951 a lead character picked up a knife against his father (awara) and this wasn’t the limit of his ‘greyness’. Once again this gets to my larger point (which is not necessarily a criticism of GoW) that it is only a certain kind of package that is often celebrated and Kashyap is a master at playing to this audience base. He’s obviously a gifted filmmaker and would be more gifted still if he’d relax a bit! But hand-in-hand with his gifts goes a certain skill set which he has in terms of really pushing the right buttons for his key supporters (audience). He’s been excellent at a certain kind of marketing. Recently in an interview Kalki said that even as Kashyap gets more successful and therefore very busy he’s constantly wondering if he’s prostituting himself or whatever. I don’t think there’s any such deep dilemma here because Kashyap is willingly becoming part of this game. No one is as active a self-promoter of himself or herself, at least this side of Sajid Khan, than Anurag Kashyap! It’s true. He has every right to do so but I am less convinced by all this angst that Kalki refers to. And yes I do believe the bar is higher when you pretend to be a crusader against big bad Bollywood but then instantly sign on to the same discourse the moment you can. In any case my point is that he plays very well to a certain crowd and is very successful at providing a pre-determined frame for his films (pun intended!). He’s very successful at a certain kind of manipulation (when his self-bred coterie doesn’t do it for him) where those who like GoW or whatever feel it is a moral duty to do so. Or that there has never been a film like this. And so on. The claims about the film might or might not be true. It’s debatable either way. But the ‘lie’ if you will lies in the way the debate is framed with active help from Kashyap. And again I bring this all up not to criticize him but to illuminate what is (from my perspective) the larger structure here.
This is a fascinating read Satyam but I don’t think GoW-1 necessarily has grey characters- in fact almost all of them are twisted bad men (and women) and this is what makes them interesting- they are not overwritten so as to make them sympathetic (though they are not as repulsive as the ones in Raktha Charithra ones). The only exception here is Shahid Khan played fantastically by Jaideep Ahlawat
And you are right that Kashyap is a master at self-promotion but he also backs films which deserve to be baked (just recently he did that for Paradesi. There are no selfish reasons involved). The kind of films Phantom is producing is commendable to say the least. Also one of the reasons why I think Kashyap deserves the accolades for GoW is because it was his first foray into mainstream cinema and he chose that moment to make it his most ambitious project- it requires a lot of guts to do that
Aside saw my first Kasaravalli film Mane (Ek Ghar) last night and this was a fascinating film with a great Hitchcockian mood to it. And thanks for mentioning Misaal the other day- must admit I had never heard of the film before but thankfully it’s there on youtube
I didn’t mean he was being ‘selfish’ or anything. I find this kind of vocabulary too easy and not very useful. He has every right to foster his career the way he sees fit. I am only arguing that he knows how to very successfully create a ‘reading’ for his work that sticks. For instance if RGV had made the very same double (GoW) he wouldn’t have got half the positive attention that Kashyap did. Much as if Kashyap had made the RC double we would have heard a lot more on this. RGV was always engaged in his industry polemics but he also never valorized his own work or formulate it in inflated terms. He was clearly a man on a mission but he wasn’t playing ball with either side. Kashyap though projects himself as this revolutionary figure for alternative cinema and the ultimate protector of all worthwhile films and so on. Commercial failure doesn’t hurt him either. When the films work at any level he keeps publicizing this. When they fail it confirms the value of his films in a different way! As I’ve argued before Kashyap precisely needs the Bollywood structure to keep arguing against it. Beyond this he tends to be very inconsistent in terms of the films he starts championing. This isn’t the Scorsese deal where he literally supports a very wide range of works from all across the world. He doesn’t play favorites on this score. But also note how in recent years he’s also become ‘tamer’ as he’s got more success. When LBC released he was praising Hrithik on a show along with some others, recently he praised Ranbir, now he’s made peace with Bachchan and said explicitly on twitter that he made the first move, now he’s doing something with the latter too. This after suggesting for years that he had the mother of all grudges with him. So it all becomes rather convenient. The more successful he gets the more he becomes normalized. And there’s other stuff too by the way! The reason I bring up all of this is that all of it is part and parcel of the reception of his works. He actively co-produces it! And so with GoW the idea that it is some absolute masterpiece that is revolutionary for Indian cinema and so forth is frankly something that I find very hard to swallow. But this is the way the film is talked about among its adherents. Because the groundwork for such a reception has already been laid down in various ways.
This is not just about going international on Kashyap (though he happily does it all the time). There are very many films from the Tamil new wave that would be crazily celebrated were they available in Hindi. Of course you will often here Tamil or Southern audiences themselves going crazy over GoW and not thinking as much about their ‘native’ films. Because there is a colonization structure here as well. Just as many Hindi viewers are able to support all kinds of questionable Hollywood choices as legitimate the same holds for Southern viewers with respect to Hindi cinema. So I don’t see even the relative framework within which such exaggerated claims about GoW makes sense. Which doesn’t mean that it’s not a good or worthwhile film.
Finally ‘foreign critics’ isn’t a self-evident term for me. It all depends on who the critic is and what is being said. While there is a film culture in place or more precisely a critical culture in many or all Western countries that means something this doesn’t automatically make every critical utterance legitimate or beyond debate. The same holds for festivals and so on. Obvious Cannes and Venice are not the same as Doha! But here too nothing is beyond reproach. For instance the last couple of Almodovar movies weren’t even considered at Cannes. They have their own politics. One should of course give due weight to all these things but ultimately examine the work itself. I have great respect for some of these institutions and/or some of these critical voices but I don’t regard either as ‘self-evident’. There are for instance certain varieties of important cinema that are never rewarded at even the most prestigious festivals (even though they are praised by important critics). There are histories implicated either way. A film is never celebrated or lionized (or vice versa) without the mediation of powerful institutional forces that then shape the majority opinion at least for a long time till critical trends start pointing a different way.
I did not see the movie so I cant comment how the movie turned out to be. There is a difference when a story is told in the movie format. I generally avoid certain types of movies of blood and gore. Fortunately the story cant depict graphic violence! About grey characters. When directors make heroes out of villains, they try to tell the story from their point of view and thus those characters gain some sympathy.
To add–
someone ( i think sanju) above mentioned ‘manliness’ about Gow.
Yeah–it IS a ‘manly’ film & im proud of it!!
Im a bit fed up of this ‘pussification’ of guys all around( this word is my patent btw)
ps–recently watched Clooneys “descendants” and though i loved that film (&clooneys perfomrance) quite a lot, something made me uncomfortable about it.
GoW corrected that. Any guys reading this(and who have seen both films), will know what im talking bout 🙂
This makes sense ONLY after watching the complete film(& if u are a guy)
Manoj Bajpais character at the last scene goes out alone. Theres a lingering sense of ‘something about to happen’. None of his usual cronies/accompaniments happen to be around.
He goes out in his jeep and starts to get petrol.
Suddenly his own ‘mistress’ (who he had gone to meet) ironically tips off some ‘enemies’ who surround him and spray bullets on his jeep!
Theres silence for ten seconds
And then bajpai ’emerges’ gun still in hand
The next minute of so with Snehas title song playing in the background is what I call one of the “power of cinema’ moment!
One of the best homages to this bullcrap ‘masala’ we keep hearing about and yes, a humble tribute to AMitabh of deewaar!!
Glad you enjoyed the final scene of GOW1…a perfect tribute to everyone from Sergio Leone to Sam Peckingpah! The lighting, sounding and camerawork is just fantastic. The mixing of “jiya ho bihar ke lala” as Bajpai emerges from the car wounded and confused is well done. Arguably, in my top 5 favorite scenes in the last 13 years….
yeah agree–that final scene was indeed remarkable!
btw my above rant is just personal and i do not expect others to agree or even read it…
Read a few comments above —
a) Agree with satyam that ‘epics’ usually are assessed differently.
b) Theres mention of part 1 being ‘insufficient’ to assess it
Well, the length of part1 is more than the entire length of more than one entire englsh feature film.s
Infact one doesnt even have to see an entire film to get an (approx) idea of the tone/calibre of a film
c) some exotic obscure names have been mentioned by some knowledgable folks
Now ‘a prophet’ has been mentioned that happens to be a prison drama from france and deals with issue of islamic identity of arab immigrants! Perhaps some can use that to judge GoWs calibre (inspite of the different setting and milieu and also theme) but i find it difficult
d) Finally
I find it complicating trying to pigeon-hole films into ‘prestige’ ‘masala’, ‘festival’, ‘escapist’, ‘spaggheti western’ ‘masala southern/northern’, ‘remake homage’, ‘not mainstream’ ‘ catering to international audiences’ & so on..
Perhaps im not intelligent enug—
For me– the criteria is simple–
was the film
Good or bad
Engrossing or not
Enjoyable or not
🙂
Good or bad
ps–this is not a reflection on any of the knowledgable commentator(s) here but just my random views..
A year back, Aamir seemed to give the impression that PK would be his last acting assignment. Looks like it may not be so. I think he may continue acting for a year or two before hanging up his acting boots at 50 plus or therabouts. He has just turned 48, so I wish he’d do a solid role fast, something like Sarfarosh, in a significant main role . He was good in Talaash, but his story with Rani-Kareena got almost sidelined by the Nawaaz track!
Watched Talaash second time, couple of days back on Sony HD channel, no breaks — terrific experience. Loved the film despite the unbelievable bits. Loved the fact that all characters big and small, all were given due importance. The Nawaazuddin story climaxed so beautifully. Aamir too is finally shown accepting his wife’s obsession with other-worldly contact attempts. I suppose there are various ways of coming to terms with grief. The late RK Narayan actually used planchette sessions to come to terms with his grief over young wife’s sudden demise.
So Talaash may not be such a fanciful unrealistic story, after all.
Aamir in Bombay Talkies–looks like a small cameo in a commemorative film about 100 years of cinema. Looking forward to the film.
oh dear LS! I thought that bombay talkies news is an april-fool story (published on 1st – mind it) but your statement “I think he may continue acting for a year or two before hanging up his acting boots at 50 plus or therabouts” takes the cake 🙂
next 10 years – 10 films at-least from aamir – yeah! age will catch up fast maybe after 4-5 yrs but he is very disciplined and passionate abt his physique unlike smoking srk or drinking sallubhai – so i doubt he will hang up his boots so soon – we have another Big B in making here who will be acting at 70 also ……
Umm –Bombay Talkies an April fool story. perhaps ..? Let’s see!
Aamir is fit but his face shows his years; and I will be happier if he ages gracefully without resorting to cosmetic tricks. He last looked his real self in Fanaa–and in spite of being overweight still manged to charm me and a few other Fanaa fans. He has admitted to dyeing his hair since mid twenties and I guess he is also ok about appearing in public with as much hair as he still lucky to sport.
Here he is caught on waiting camera, a couple of months back.
@ideaunique –thanks for the Fanna videos. Meanwhile, here is a news item dated April 2, about the Bombay Talkies film and Aamir’s last minute add-on role. Hope it is true; the film sounds interesting.
@oldgold –I feel that the pinkvilla-recent aamir pics are fine. I mean the man looks his age–and that isn’t a crime. Movies and showbiz are all about making the unreal real — and it applies to any star, Aamir, SRK whoever. It’s more important that these chaps play their parts sincerely; while watching the film they should slide into the role, that’s all.
A few years back, Salman was visibly losing hair, a bald spot visible. Of late it isn’t visible. Obviously some work has gone in–and that’s ok by me. While watching Ek tha Tiger, I thought about the character, not the actor. Though Salman did look ‘tired’, he managed to carry off the role.
Playing one’s part sincerely, putting the necessary effort–http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Aamir-Khan-is-taking-Bhojpuri-lessons/articleshow/19339911.cms
“I promise I won’t say a word about the pinkvilla pictures”–haha oldgold–dont worry u can break your promise–cmon
@ idea -thankx for those fanaa songs–like em
@ LS–How did u find ETT? btw revisited bits on telly–thought the stunts pulled by katrina were really good–u remember the one where she jumps from one building
to another on a sort of a falling column–& good fitness levels shown by katrina… & some parts were actually done without a body -double…apparently
Good to hear LS-finally a woman praising Katrina & giving her her ‘due’..
Btw LS–any good books uve been reading lately. I’m a screen addict and don’t read books anymore–but I told a few of your earlier book reccos to some chicks & they were impressed..
Any more plz..
Well, some of these books are really good. I’ve reviewed them for a paper, through past few months.
Farishta, a novel by Patricia Mcardle.
Around India in Eighty Trains by Monisha Rajesh.
Land of the Seven Rivers, by Sanjeev Sanyal.
The last mentioned is an amazing book ; will be loved by history-geography buffs. The first book is a fictionalized version of an american diplomat’s experience in war-torn Afghanistan, post 9/11. The second book is an British Indian’s take on India, attempting to do a real-life 80 trains-3 month version of Jules Vernes classic,Around the world in 80 days. It’s great fun to read.
Wow that’s brilliant Thanx LS
“an British Indian’s take on India, attempting to do a real-life 80 trains-3 month version of Jules Vernes classic,Around the world in 80 days. “–
Will try to catch this one-jules Verne take on India!
“I’ve reviewed them for a paper, “–
Impressive LS
Which paper –can we have links
She sucks rear-side. Blank expressions. Even in jthj, I thought her performance would come off as a constrained type but it was just crap. :O
And ETT required the opposite of a constrained performance. I found her horrible.
“Ek Ek Kaa Kaat Doongi”—
Roflol hahahaha
My god–what’s that !!
Ps: folks to tell u the truth– In that poster, i somehow saw mr anya/anya aunty running towards me with a knife in hand to …
Need to run!!! 🙂
^^Not for kids/minors –*
My ‘nightmare’!
Haaww Omg i got busy in LS brilliant books& anya has finally ‘grabbed’ me!
-Og, sanju, LS– plz save me from anya !!
She’s about to cut…
Ok i ‘surrender’ to the four of u-I’m willin to do anything u want–plz spare me… 🙂
To return to the original topic –Himmatwala — I almost never rejoice at a film’s failure -t’s not right, considering so much of time effort and money has gone into a team work project like a film. But Sajid Khan-Ajay Devgan’s pre-Himmatwala release pronouncements have manged to put off many people including self. Sajid Khan has always been a brash loudmouth, but sadly Ajay seems to have gone down a similar path . This article says it all.
Devgn, on the other hand has been quoted in many media outlets as saying that “Critics are like eunuchs, they know how to do it but they can’t do it themselves.” Classy.
Especially funny coming from Devgan considering that critical acclaim (even if it’s very hollow in this industry) is one of the key reasons he’s had much of a career to speak of. His relevance doesn’t come from the completely disposable box office hits he’s enjoyed in recent years. Or at least not this alone, and certainly not over the past decade or so. In general, it’s hard to argue for critics in Hindi cinema because so many of them are just bad writers, but this kind of commentary, besides being in plain bad taste, is hardly helpful in changing that.
Wow LS– must say I’ve got a talent to detect brilliant talent haha
Jokes apart–they are great
I will suggest they are made into a separate post –not exactly films but relevant and very well written –cheers
That’s great stuff LS. Really going to get to the books you have mentioned and would read your reviews as well. Aside have you read Mumbai Fables- superb stuff
@Saurabh –Did a google-check on Mumbai Fables . Found a DNA review dated Oct 2010; indicates that it’s a sort of ode to Mumbai’s past and present. Sounds interesting. Haven’t seen it in stores; I guess flipkart may have it. Thanks for info.
Actually so many good books appear and soon disappear from spotlight, rather like small and good films. It is the usual bestsellers that linger on in public space. Must do an article on books and films that appear and vanish into oblivion. So much of effort gone to waste.
I have heard that many good books literally get pulped into cardboard puree–all for want of proper marketing, publicity and sales. At least films manage to reach people thru’ satellite. So an ‘Atithi tum kab jaoge’–so watchable, ironic and quite realistic and funny– it is shown repeatedly on channels and manages to get its viewers. Some consolation for the film’s prodn team.
Hey LS– these are the right ‘length’ for me( to read!)
Love your ‘rediscovery by rail’ piece-passed this onto some1 -who wants to read this before an India trip!
Lol @ ‘holy cow view’ of india
‘fellow fraudsters’
Bombay -‘ india in its most concentrated form’
‘side berth’
Oslo ashram ‘robes’
Btw who was the passé part out?
This ‘lifeline express’ sounds interesting…
@aa95 — You may be aware that Passepartout is the name of the fictional companion to the fictional Phineas Fogg from the Jules Verne classic ‘Around the World in eighty days’. Monisha was accompanied by a prickly Norwegian friend who also doubled as her travelmate-photographer. His name is not revealed in the book; he is just referred to as Passepartout. In a travel-blog that preceded the book’s release, Monisha mentioned the Norwegian’s name. Some short videos are also available vide the blog..The Deccan Herald people have hyphenated the name unnecassarily.
And you should also if possible, get your hands on Australian journo Sarah Macdonald’s Holy Cow, about a year in India (200-2001). Hilarious and empathetic; she met Bollywood people too. There is a bizarre encounter with Amitabh in his dressing room; and she travelled with Preity and Aamir in a cab , to a spl screening of Dil chahta hai, plus spoke to the stars.
If Satyam can start a special thread about books with/without some connection to films, I will be happy to quote from these books.
@ LS-many thanks for that info.
“If Satyam can start a special thread about books with/without some connection to films, I will be happy to quote from these books.”–yes I also suggested this earlier.
IMO its better to write what one really feels.
Either ways-IMO it doesn’t matter-people do read what they have to, irrespective of it being a separate thread or not ..
Atleast I will read your mini book reviews –smile
@ LS– btw thanx for introducing me to the concept of book reviews.Actually i dont have the pateince to read a complete book (unless forced professionally).
BUt by reading these mini-reviews, one can get a reasoanble scent of whats in the book, provided the book mini review is done well (as in the case of your ‘rediscovery by rail’ review). It has enough ‘meat’ in it without the bones, so as to say!
ps-LS –do u know /recommend any good audio-books—good for listening whilst driving –now dont call me ‘demanding’ lol
btw hope u dont mind my ‘jokes’ above–they are (more than) wierd. Regulars here are used to them. just checking (not that i will change) haha
kidding 😛
But, Tarantino movies are something that just can’t be comprehended by critics (even people who judge the Oscars). They look through a “rule book” that “in good movies there are these kinda shots, this kinda music” etc … and Tarantino breaks every one of them. So, I never go to critics for Tarantino movies.
Find the trailer decent enough- I find this kind of designer Masala (Mankatha also belongs to the same club) much better than say a Himmatwala or Ready. The only issue is Arjun Kaoor who is channeling too much of his uncle’s hyper-active persona.
Btw apart from the doppelganger trope can I smell a hint of Parvarish here (i.e. the gangster Arjun actually being Rishi’s long-lost son and/or the cop Arjun being Jackie’s son)
I remember when Dabangg 2 exausted at 158.5 crores I had said now the Masala pot boilers will find it even difficult to reach 120 cr mark. I still stand on that opinion. None of masala south remakes not even Salman’s flicks are going to surpass Dabang 2 now. Because unlike single screen audience , the Multiplex audience needs change every 5 years. And without massive support of multiplexes films can’t cross 150 crores.
SRK charters two different flights to keep Kat and Deepika happy
Shah Rukh Khan really knows how to keep his heroines happy. He had both his heroines — Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone — flown by different chartered flights for the opening ceremony of IPL last night.
A source said, “Deepika is shooting for Ram Leela and only left for Kolkata late in the evening.” Katrina could have taken the same flight, but SRK booked a separate charter for the actress who is not shooting for any film currently. Our source said, “SRK makes his heroines feel special and does not like any kind of discrimination, so another chartered flight was booked for Katrina around 10 pm.”
Since Deepika and Katrina don’t really like each other’s company, Khan made sure that the rehearsals of the two heroines also didn’t clash. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/SRK-charters-two-flights-to-keep-Kat-and-Deepika-happy/articleshow/19342406.cms
Tuesday 2nd April 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala collected around 4 crore nett on Monday taking its four day total to 30.50 crore nett. The film fell heavily at multiplexes all over while single screens showed the normal Monday drops. The first week is likely to end in the 39 crore nett range.
The collections were down 65-70% at multiplexes as compared to Friday while single screens were down around 50%. Monday totals from some circuits are as follows with Friday figures in brackets
First quarter ends on a disheartening note!
By Taran Adarsh, April 3, 2013 – 08:30 IST
The first quarter of 2013 has concluded and to be brutally honest, it has ended on a disheartening note. Sajid Khan’s keenly anticipated biggie HIMMATWALA was mauled by reputed critics and to add to Sajid’s woes, the word of mouth is extremely negative. Even the numbers in mass-dominated circuits — which gave some hope to the film on Day 1 — are on a declining spree, while the biz at plexes is way below the mark.
Having grown up on masala films — besides reviewing the original HIMMATWALA three decades ago — I was aghast when I watched Sajid’s adaptation of that hugely entertaining movie. The fact is, Sajid has made a complete mess of that entertainer and its BO outcome, therefore, doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, now that HIMMATWALA has failed to get the desired numbers, Mumbai-based film-makers, studios and actors will think twice before remaking a yesteryear hit. That’s a fact!
In terms of economics, HIMMATWALA is an expensive proposition and at the speed its business is sinking, UTV is sure to lose a substantial chunk of investment on this one. After three back-to-back hits, Sajid Khan has delivered a flop that’s not only a financial failure, but has also failed to live up to the mammoth expectations of the moviegoer. Now let’s hope the second quarter yields fantastic results. Fingers crossed!
Lol. Original Himmatwala was a hugely entertaining movie?? well, maybe.. for people like adarsh and sajid khan.
though himmatwala’s BO outcome makes me wonder whether it marks the end (of the beginning of the end) of this entire hero-worship kitsch. Glad if tha’s true, but also sad the likes of Sajid Khan and Rohit Shetty have earned enough to last them a lifetime even if they stop making films
btw did anyone check this out? Looks fresh, but m unsure whether it’s not offensive to show a 14-year old having hormonal changes in a commercial, “coming-of-age” Karan Johar production?
Chennai Box-Office – Mar 29 to 31
Wednesday, 03 April , 2013, 14:34
The Easter weekend brought back the audiences to theaters. The comedy entertainer Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga, opened very well for a Pandiraj film with Vimal and Sivakarthikeyan. It grossed 1.32 Cr from 22 odd screens in city and suburbs and is the number one.
At the number two position is Chennaiyil Oru Naal which has taken a decent opening in multiplexes and is at number two. In the third position is Paradesi, doing ok in multiplexes.
GI Joe Retaliation has taken an opening and is at number four and in fifth position Vathikuchi..
There is no huge hit in the first quarter with only Jolly LLB becoming a hit and that was also due to low costs coupled with good business in Mumbai city, Delhi NCR and East Punjab only while rest of India had average to poor results.
The other films to do well were Race 2, Special 26, Ka Poi Che and ABCD – Any Body Can Dance. There was no film that could find even decent appreciation all over. The results for the first quarter of 2013 were as follows.
In its first scene, set at the Funkytown Disco in Bombay — year: 1983 — “Himmatwala” loads on the period markers, with quick nods to Michael Jackson, Madonna and, of course, the reign of disco in a song-and-dance number (called “Thank God It’s Friday,” no less) full of flashing lights and silver-clad hoofers.
But the 1983 that really interests the director, Sajid Khan, is the Bollywood one. Remaking a B-movie hit from that year, he embraces broad comedy, broad melodrama and broad strokes of good and evil. To that he adds a halfhearted wink and the occasional 2013 touch (360-degree pans!) but not much more. (Farah Khan got it right with the 2007 “Om Shanti Om,” her smart, loving spoof of that period and the film business.)
“Himmatwala” has plenty of story of course. Post-discotheque, the action takes place in one of those Bollywood villages held captive by a superrich villain. Enter a redeemer (Ajay Devgn), equipped with mother love, morals and muscles. (Mr. Devgn played a similar, better role in the 2011 “Singham,” another old-fashioned yarn.)
This movie has a few interesting things: a deus ex machina tiger, an intermittent concern for the vulnerability of women. And a few enjoyable ones: the outfits of Rekha (Tamannah), the villain’s daughter, who undergoes a split-second conversion from awful — “I hate the poor,” she declares early and often — to heroine. (Sons here replicate their fathers’ morals, but daughters can break free.)
Mostly, though, “Himmatwala” feels timid and overeager. Except when it’s terrible. What’s worse than dropping a crab down a villain’s pajama pants? Doing it again, to his simpering pal.
SATYAMSHOT 
March 29, 2013 at 4:28 AM
Ideaunique:
taran gives just 1.5 to HW – and others also are slamming it – sajid himself wants (less than half a star pun is obvious) – well well well…… http://www.bollymoviereviewz.com/2013/03/himmatwala-review.html?showComment=1364526309338
ha ha ha – this review was funny http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood/reviews/2013/himmatwala-movie-review-106423.html
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March 29, 2013 at 8:16 AM
the other reviews are as expected but surprised to see such a low rating from Taran.
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March 29, 2013 at 6:26 AM
Posted it earlier, but seems lost.
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March 29, 2013 at 7:40 AM
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March 29, 2013 at 9:21 AM
Thanks.
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March 29, 2013 at 7:48 AM
Himmatwala Opens Well
Friday 29th March 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala opened well in the range of 50-55% on average with collections being best in UP, Bihar and Rajasthan while West bengal and Mysore were low. The collections in metros like Delhi and Kolkata were below the mark. Mumbai city was also low but that is the case with most films as films are released on too many screens but Maharashtra was much better.
The film has a very wide release especially in terms of single screens which should help the film to collect. If the multiplexes in big cities improve over the day the film will put up a good first day number.
The way the film has started it is certain that business in single screens will be much better than multiplexes with the growth on Saturday at multiplexes being a must for long term multiplex business.
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March 29, 2013 at 7:48 AM
Himmatwala Good At Single Screens Average At Multiplexes
Friday 29th March 2013 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala has opened well at single screens with UP, Bihar and Rajasthan being very good but not so good at multiplexes especially the ones in metros. If the film can pick up at multiplexes it is sure to emerge the biggest opening of Ajay Devgn. Even without an upturn at multiplexes it may still emerge the biggest Ajay Devgn opener on strength of single screens. The approx top Ajay Devgn openings are as follows.
1. Bol Bachachan – 11.25 crore nett
2. Raajneeti – 10.25 crore nett
3. Son Of Sardaar – 9.25 crore nett
4. Singham – 8.75 crore nett
5. Golmaal 3 – 8.25 crore nett
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March 29, 2013 at 7:50 AM
B.O. update: ‘Himmatwala’ opening below expectations
By Taran Adarsh, March 29, 2013 – 13:11 IST
HIMMATWALA, the much-awaited biggie, was expected to open to a fantabulous response for varied reasons, including Sajid Khan’s enviable track record of three back-to-back hits, the hype surrounding the film and of course, its solo release status coinciding with a holiday. But the opening response, except for a few centres, was not up to the mark. The opening was better in some mass-dominated circuits, but not as expected overall.
Touted as yet another Rs 100 cr film, HIMMATWALA will have to collect magical numbers not just in its opening weekend, but also during the course of the week if it has to achieve the target. Let’s wait and watch!
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March 29, 2013 at 7:51 AM
Top 5: ‘Jolly L.L.B.’ continues to dominate!
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March 29, 2013 at 10:53 AM
The Wom is quite good for this movie. These successes of small movies are quite heartening.
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March 29, 2013 at 10:35 AM
Komal Nahta Review http://komalsreviews.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/himmatwala-review/
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March 29, 2013 at 11:31 AM
I’m extremely surprised. These are guys who liked Houseful. They’re just mauling this one. The opening also seems weak in multiplexes. This film might be in some trouble. The question though is whether a strong single screen performance can save this one. SOS got close to a 100 even with the JTHJ competition though it trended well and beyond a point better than the latter.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:42 AM
SOS gained from sympathy factor. It had some stars other than Ajay. HW has a tiger as a star and Tamanna is still an unknown face. Maybe BOI can make it a success story by their spins just the way they made Special 26 a semi hit.
This shows Ajay and akshay are no match to the current superstar Salman Khan in making a film audience friendly.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:44 AM
In a way I will be happy if this flops since its failure might just instil a thought in Devgn’s mind to return to meaningful stuff. He has Satyagraha, a Prabhu Deva film and probably Singham 2.
The other person who continues to annoy me with his choices is Suriya. The guy just keeps doing masala (I enjoyed Maattrraan though)- a Singam 2 followed by a Linguswamy film. OTOH the guy who has impressed me the most with his choices is Jiiva- I recently saw Kattradhu Thamizh and loved it. Really looking forward to the Ravi. K. Chandran’s directorial debut Yaan starring him and the Kadal girl. And waiting for the subs version of Menon’s NEP. But really with Raam, Kattradhu Thamizh, David, Ko, Nanban, Keerthi Chakra, Dishyum (yet to see this though) and E this guy is doing just the right films
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March 29, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Generally don’t like kicking a film that’s down but if any filmmaker has earned a resounding failure it’s Sajid Khan. I’d be happy to see this swiftly flushed away.
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March 29, 2013 at 1:25 PM
In fairness he doesn’t have too many other choices. I agree he should have stayed away from Sajid Khan. He doesn’t need to take things quite that far either. But these films have all worked for him. On the other hand the meaningful stuff hardly ever works. To be honest I’d be surprised if Satyagraha worked either. It sounds to me like an Aarakshan deal, which was fine as a film despite some of my objections, but not something that gets the box office racing unless some of the contemporary resonances here give it a bigger than expected initial. I just don’t think it will be another Rajneeti (which ironically was a film where Devgan felt he’d been sidelined and was for a while upset with Jha.. with some justification I think). But on the larger issue this is a point I’ve been making for ages. It’s just very hard to succeed doing the meaningful. You can do so once in a while but not with any regularity unless of course you do the cynical ‘different’ (films that only pretend to be different). Abhishek was blamed for years for not succeeding and of course he could have planned the mix better and he certainly has some responsibility but there’s simply no contemporary model of any star prospering by doing the different. The exception of course is Aamir but with him and even accounting for his uncanny instinct and script sense there is a very special circumstance which is that he just does one film at a time, sometimes he does one in a few years. So he really gives it his total attention. Even then MP and Talaash are the two films that didn’t live upto his usual standards and these are also the films that weren’t really aligned with his multiplex audiences. You can do the sort of mix where you have very commercial projects balanced out with middle cinema (films that are nonetheless acceptable to everyone.. for instance a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film made a fraction of what a Desai film did when both were hits but the former was still acceptable to everyone even though not everyone showed up for these films..) and here you can be successful at both. But it’s hard figuring out the latter even at that safer level. The other problem though is that if you are too identified with very masala films the audience just doesn’t show up when you do something meaningful. Your initial in these instances can then be even lower than the same film’s with a different star. It’s problematic either way. which is why navigating these waters is always hard but especially so with the current audience.
On Surya I too have been disappointed with the fact that he’s reduced his talents to this but I think he learned from the Madhavan example. In other words if you try too much of a balance without first establishing a core audience you are often left with nothing. The problem with Tamil cinema on this score is that the new wave films often don’t require the Surya kind of star while elsewhere it’s often the most rampant kind of commercialism. Even so Surya did take the easy way out. Because there is still enough in his industry that’s interesting and he certainly could have tried more than he did. Kaakka Kaakka could have been more of a norm for him than much of what he’s been doing.
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March 29, 2013 at 1:45 PM
On Sajid Khan, at some point these people start drinking their own Kool Aid: if you delude yourself that masala was all the same whether it is the 1970s or the 1980s, indeed that masala is simply another word for camp, or for films that can only be enjoyed as camp, then you don’t really see any difference between remaking Don or remaking Himmatwala — but of course one is a film with enduring resonance, and the second is a film with hardly any afterglow (and with good reason). In fact only the Bachchan remakes seemed to have pulled in any sort of crowd in (there haven’t been very many non-Bachchan remakes, and himmatwala might explain why — ie the Don and Agneepath remakes had big stars, but that’s circular: they have big stars because these films have resonance; remaking Himmatwala you might as well remake any number of films that happened to be big hits in their year).
Second, Devgan is just wrong for Jeetendra role. And Tamannah just doesn’t suggest the sleazy badness and cheapness that Sridevi did back in the day. It’s almost as if Sajid discovered the casting directors list of people NOT to cast!
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March 29, 2013 at 2:13 PM
i agree that ‘meaningful’ may not work but prakash jha hasn’t done a worthy film in a while, his films can hardly be held up as paragons of meaningful cinema. i can’t think of any meaningful film made in mainstream bw in a long time. but you can do films which walk the line of being commercial and not entirely stupid. aamir’s script sense does come in handy here, but saying ajay doesn’t have a choice is facetious. may be he doesn’t have the nose or the patience for it, now that he has tasted easy success, but as a star your choices are a part of your legacy. ajay is hardly a phenomenal actor, he is good at a certain kind of acting with attendant gestures, he can’t much pull off anything else. to let him off easy as a great actor just doing bad films because there is no choice, is hypocritical.
you always have a choice. the big stars have more choices, their own insecurities preventing them from making the correct ones is a whole other matter. aamir is just more secure in that sense i think. to think race 2 is labelled a success and talaash a failure with same collections, but he doesn’t even flinch. he seems unconcerned that other actors are doing easy 100 cr films 3 times a year, he just does his own thing. you need to have that attitude to be a more enduring star. which is why his legacy will be bigger than devgan’s, despite how rajneeti may be seen as a ‘meaningful’ film. i’ll take rdb, dch and even 3 idiots with all their problems and faults over jha’s badly written half-baked ‘look how my film is so meaningful and topical’ efforts. ajay can just as well hire a good writer and do a more middle of the road film with a somewhat lesser gross but he chooses sajid and gives idiotic interviews about how critics are the bad guys. he is a hypocritical sellout.
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March 29, 2013 at 5:54 PM
Antya, I think you’re arguing a number of different things here. It’s true that Devgan says some really Philistine stuff. On the other hand he’s done a lot of meaningful stuff in the past, a lot of stuff even that simply had no market for it (Raincoat for instance). Now one could argue that he did this when his commercial options had more or less run out by the end of the 90s. But this motivations are not as relevant here in the sense that had he found more success doing the meaningful he would have stuck to it or at least had it as part of his larger menu. However none of those films did anything. Either these were disasters or just regular failures. And he tried everything from Zakhm to LOBS to Yuva to Raincoat to Thakshak and so on. Very different directors, a lot of them prestige names, some very different parts. He did the mix. He even got the right critical attention for some of these parts. But ultimately these didn’t lead anywhere. And it’s not just him. Abhishek had far more devotion to this paradigm from a position of strength (after 2004-05) and he too faced some very rough weather. Now he seems to be going commercial with a vengeance. The problem is that it’s just not easy to forge such a path and just having convictions doesn’t get it done because you eventually hit a box office wall where you either change your ways or face extinction. I too cringe a bit every time Bol Bachchan is celebrated and when even to this day Abhishek is congratulated for appearing in that film when infinitely more worthy films got him nothing but for the star the choices are limited. You have to be successful doing the mix or taking those risks at least to some degree. Otherwise box office reality catches up with you.
Bigger stars in some ways do not have more choices. They are much more imprisoned in certain ways. This is precisely why I have often been nervous about some of Abhishek’s current choices because I fear success will imprison him and if then the most he can do by way of the different is Umesh Shukla well that isn’t good enough for me. Because it’s fine to say that he might be stabilizing his position at this point but the more he does the BB-like deal the more the entire system around him (the industry, the trade and so forth) will want him to repeat these moves. You don’t just walk away from great success. But even as a pragmatic matter the more a star becomes great by playing to a certain image or set of genres the more he is less likely to prosper doing different because audiences have expectations that get set in stone.
Finally I’d say about the meaningful that one needn’t go to extremes defining this term. We all have our definitions of what constitutes the meaningful but Jha on most days, even weak ones does attempt more meaningful subjects than not. I’d obviously take many directors over him but the exceptions cannot be the norm. One’s definition of the meaningful cannot be the exceptionally meaningful film! And to now bring it back full circle Gangajal and Apharan were worthwhile attempts, specially the former. Devgan has really done all of this. Now I do agree he needn’t have stooped as low as Himmatwala. He probably shouldn’t even do another Golmaal. But again when you’ve been around the block a few times, or seen the business as much as he has for that many years, you tend to get very cynical about just everything. With good reason I might add.
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March 29, 2013 at 2:25 PM
Antya, agreed with what you are saying. But there is another side to the coin as well- were you commending Devgn when he was doing a Zakhm, Lajja, Takshak, Gangaajal, TLOBS, Halla Bol or an Aakrosh? No, right. Wasn’t Aakrosh better than 99% of commercial Hindi films which are made these days. What abt Apaharan. Or Zakhm. So Devgn probably was forced to do this. Even a superb ‘middle of the road’ film like Udaan earns what? Zilch. Leave aside all of this an OUTAIM, which is much better than every recent masala film other than Ghajini, was not even in the same ball park as something like an SOS or Housefull.
Also I hated that interview of Devgn but don’t you think you are being too harsh with your last line
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March 29, 2013 at 3:49 PM
Brilliant comment anya
–will read it properly in a mo…
As mentioned earlier-blogging IMO is about making your point-not for sparing words or finding politically correct tools…
We have to be polite n politically correct all day long anyways 🙂
Oops need to wrap something ..
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March 29, 2013 at 8:50 PM
Antya, that is brilliant argument. Here I dont think Aamir has to be dragged into the argument. Or Abhishek for that matter. Or to make Talaash look like a big failure.
Ajay Devgn has definitely choices and he is just greedy to make those 100 crore everytime. The fact of the matter is Ajay wants to prove that he is better than the Khans and Akshay for masala versions too. He lacks the charisma and he is lost in the middle somewhere. Even in arty type films, he is not as good as Irrfan.
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March 29, 2013 at 9:03 PM
Talaash is not a failure by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m not going to revisit arguments I’ve made in detail in the past.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:52 PM
oh wow! the comments here are are running the gamut. and i am the one being accused of arguing many things. i didn’t think i was. i only used the meaningful term because it was being argued that those don’t do business, i was only pointing out that most films being mentioned are hardly meaningful and that being so may not be the reason for their failure, they are not very good either. so i am hardly crying over their failure. i liked gangajal, apharan was an obvious (and poorer) attempt to do a retake of gangajal as that film was very talked about. and jha hasn’t done a decent film since. and out of the films you and saurabh mentioned, i didn’t care for halla bol, lajja, thakshak. i do like tlobs but always felt devgan was too old and cynical for that role even though he tried hard, not great casting. i have a soft spot for raincoat, the only film where aish was mildly tolerable. didn’t watch ouatim and didn’t feel the need to, especially after reading rangan’s piece on it.
on the other, i think you have already made the argument i was going to make satyam. devgan did take on some good roles back in the day but he hardly had big commercial success breaking down his door when he did. it wasn’t some mold breaking exercise or sacrifice on his part. after his debut, he was hardly a front running superstar, he had plenty of failures in the mainstream commercial fare too. and was pretty much relegated to a also-has-been along with kumars and shettys of the world until zakhm came along. the films you talk about were opportunities with big name directors that got him a lot of exposure along with credibility, even though no immediate box office success. but i believe he survived that rough phase exactly due to those roles. how many of his commercial successes does anyone remember from the 90’s? he hardly had blockbusters, some success with films like hddcs and pthht. to say that the meaningful films did nothing for him is a narrow minded view of things. i personally think he would have vanished like sunil shetty if he hadn’t done those films. every time he was about to sink, a zakhm, or a gangajal, or an omkara came along and gave him a new lease of life. or he wouldn’t have gone on long enough to do terrible sajid khan/rohit shetty blockbusters. i would actually argue the same for abhishek.
and that’s why i dragged aamir into the argument sanjana, which satyam had already done btw. to say that stars have to be insecure, or have no choice, or can’t walk away from success, makes them out to be victims when they are part of the problem, isn’t exactly honest. aamir did 1947 earth and sarfarosh much before zakhm came along (he started off with raakh which was released later). he had already become a superstar when he decided to do one film at a time so something was at stake here. and he had been balancing things with very commercial films like raja hindustani much before dhoom 3, besides working with the then rebel rgv. he walked away for 4 years after the most success and adulation he had had in his career and came back to brickbats with mangal pandey. you need to be made of sterner stuff and have the ability to see long term in order to stick to your convictions. of course luck plays a part too. but not doing golmaal #14 does not mean you have to do only raincoat. you are the one arguing for extremes, while saying ajay doesn’t have to stoop to sajid khan. but the point is, he has stooped. and doing faux meaningful films with jha is not going to help. he could just do commercial films that don’t suck so bad. and he is not a salman or an akshay, who really don’t have many choices because of their limitations. he has the potential to do more unlike them, which makes his disinterest even more cynical. these days, i’ll take an akshay film over his any day (not that i have watched any of either one in a while)
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March 30, 2013 at 12:03 AM
man, it’s very late and that was a long comment. but to answer your question saurabh, i did always like ajay quite a bit (for all those films that did ‘nothing’ for him). and no, i don’t think i am being too harsh. i am being exactly the right amount of harsh. it’s funny how much hate sajid khan gets here, but people are defending the poor little star for actually working in the shitty films that the maker is being hated for. without akshay or ajay, sajid khan and rohit shetty wouldn’t exist. he could hardly get the same numbers with ayushman khurana as the lead. and why does srk always get slammed for doing the stuff he does if they are all just helpless prisoners of their success? nobody has had more of it than him, hasn’t he earned his cynicism and insecurities then? the stars are as, if not more, culpable. especially in this star dominated system.
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March 30, 2013 at 1:16 AM
Yes, first satyam made many points about ajay, aamir, abhishek and you took it from that point.
As it is, we cant write off HW as of now and we have to wait atleast for a week.
Ajay pre empted criticism by parroting Sajid’s defence.
About SRK, I agree with you. That he too has become a prisoner of his success and so he should also get some benefit of doubt like ajay.
Sometime back, even Naseeruddin shah started defending his commercial choices.
I think it is all about money and instant success.
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March 29, 2013 at 10:52 AM
Watched SOTY on Sony. Not a bad movie. Timepass and entertaining. Both Siddharth and Varun were good. Somehow more realistic than KKHH. But traces of other movies were quite evident.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:00 AM
“Somehow more realistic than KKHH.”
This doesn’t quite seem like an insurmountable task…
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March 29, 2013 at 12:58 PM
Haha sanju– soty ‘more realistic’ than kkhh!
Lol
Hahaha anyone a ‘carry on’ fan–
Saw a few minutes of it just now–
@ shirt skirts–
If they get any shorter, the gals will hav to powder two more cheeks!!
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March 29, 2013 at 1:08 PM
U mean KJO wala realistic? 😉
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March 29, 2013 at 1:11 PM
Haha I think sanju liked ‘ishq wala love’ lol
Btw sanju-u r from Bombay–how popular/common are short skirts there -just curious ..
And Oldgold –stop wearing those …
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March 29, 2013 at 1:18 PM
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March 29, 2013 at 1:36 PM
The reasons I tolerated Soty . The friendship and love hate relationship between the boys. And there are a bunch of tv actors whom I know through soaps.Remove all the candyfloss and those type of stories do happen in colleges. I did not like Rishi’s act though. He looked bad and his role was not suitable for him. Even the girls are so so. Such superficial acting! And the film did not drag that much. Just compare it to JJWS and see what Karan Johar is capable of making a simple story into an advertisement for brands and high living!
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March 29, 2013 at 1:44 PM
very true – the film was lavishly produced and not a dull moment except that rish-gay plot………kjo has a thing for gay stuff
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March 29, 2013 at 10:55 AM
Has global slowdown of internet affected any of you seriouslty?
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March 29, 2013 at 11:42 AM
>global slowdown of internet
???
Wasn’t aware of this. The net here is OK.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:44 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/security/Biggest-cyberattack-slows-down-internet/articleshow/19266463.cms
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March 29, 2013 at 12:31 PM
Yeah read bout it -but internets fine here .. Infact faster than usual 🙂
For some their internet seems to be totally blocked –that’s y told em not to go to dodgy sites and open suspect stuff hoho
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March 29, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Yes; since past two days I’ve been having trouble accessing many popular sites like fb — and even my gmail account. Even a while back gmail shut down mid way through a hangout chat with family.
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March 29, 2013 at 2:04 PM
The concerned minister said the problem is more pronounced in south India and also with BSNL connections. For the last few days even my computer slowed down considerably and there were frequent server problems.
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March 29, 2013 at 11:19 AM
About HW. There is an interesting sarcastic article in IBN live. And vigil idiot surely will have to draw a linear tiger too.
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March 29, 2013 at 12:23 PM
ha ha ha – i m having a blast in reading reviews of HW
http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/movie-review-himmatwala-798?pfrom=home-topstories
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March 29, 2013 at 12:45 PM
Haha it seems finally sajid khan and even devgun will be brought down to their actual level(s)- they both needed it esp sajid khan!
@ Annjo- u mentioned this
It wasn’t about u so don’t get over-excited hehe btw your nishabd piece was good..
So agrees with your concept about rgv/bachxhan …
As for anya–stop ‘sulking’
There will always be people who don’t like ones comments –be a ‘man’!!
Ps: or is your ‘sulking’ due to ‘other reasons’
😉
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March 29, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Weekend gossip:
Pathan gets hitched; goes Afreen Afreen..
http://www.mid-day.com/photos/sports/yusuf-pathan-ties-the-knot/yusuf-pathan-marriage3/
Zoya Akhtar in a GIRLS GONE WILD mode; right in the presence of her parents!! Gotta love liberalism..
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2013/mar/090313-zoya-akhtar-indulges-in-some-holi-revelry.htm
30 years of world cup victory on March 30 2013 for India..
http://www.mid-day.com/sports/2013/mar/290313-1983-world-cup-triumph-india-west-indies.htm
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March 29, 2013 at 5:53 PM
Something for pride n Prejudice fans–
Oldgold & anya –enjoy this nice piece 🙂
Finally sum rest–lemme check out ‘descendents’..on telly
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March 29, 2013 at 10:19 PM
Descendants: the pussillanimity & recession of manhood-
Aka man-cession!!
Following a common thread predating (but chronologically postdating) ‘about Schmidt’ this is another Alexander Payne film I checked out. Not quite matching the brilliance of the former perhaps. Nicholsons face is a marvel and clooney tried earnestly though and did a good job.
The ‘heroic’ clooney is more than a symbolic choice to portray this increasingly new ‘man identity’. The ‘resolution’ of certain anxieties seem to be ‘resignation’ to certain modern truths.
But a common theme
Amongst all the bravura and chest thumping euphoria of manhood and machismo, there is a lingering sense of the ‘beaten man’ in this next by Payne.
This is not to say that this is necessarily a negative development! Being empathetic and sensitive are always welcome additions to a mans repertoire. Theres also some good interestig interaction between clooney and his daughters bf who is ‘miles from smartville’– but is content With just being ‘hygienic’, a reasonAble cook and weed consumer. Clooneys wife’s adulterous lover too is a cowardly creature and so is his henpecked friend!
In other words, its an ’emasculation festival’ wherein everyone is supposed to be applauding this. But when so many of the traditional ‘macho tendencies’ are being attacked from all sides (except in escapist masala films of rowdy rathores and singhams!) one does feel-
How long/far will this sissyfication and Pussification of men last?? Lol
And this is not a misogynist rant… Please do not misread as that.
Finally the naughty kid within me did have a thought when julia (clooneys wife’s lovers wife –oops that’s getting complicated) came to meet him–that was an important moment–how about clooney taking the ‘revenge’? (He did kiss her on the mouth to her surprise earlier!) But alas this wasn’t to be! Hehe
Jokes apart -a creditable look at the fickle family/psychobehavioral dynamics that abound. Good performances all around inclusion the younger cast. The guy playing Sid and clooneys daughters were competent. Not the Oscar contender it was pretending to be though.
Finally-didnt help but feel for poor clooney when he says here –” nowadays women are never wrong”! 🙂
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March 29, 2013 at 10:43 PM
the critics have gathered all the “Himmat” and are pouncing on HW – ROFL 🙂
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/30/2013033020130330025609406b9c97f6c/Takes-Himmat-to-endure-this.html
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March 29, 2013 at 10:56 PM
Khalid and anupama also maul HW:
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130330/entertainment-movie-reviews/article/himmatwala-review-ouch-it%E2%80%99s-quite-brain-dead
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Reviews/Anupama-Chopra-s-review-Himmatwala/Article1-1034414.aspx
both give 1/5
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March 29, 2013 at 10:59 PM
now now – the movie is bringing out the finest in the critics to the fore: Masand ends the review with “I’m going with one out of five for director Sajid Khan’s ‘Himmatwala’. The movie opens with a disco song featuring Sonakshi Sinha that goes: “Thank God, it’s Friday!”
Not this Friday, believe me.”
ha ha ha – i don’t know when was the last time i had so much fun reading movie reviews. Thanks Sajid for this film 🙂 i am never gonna watch it but you have awaken the film critics from their self-imposed slumber….
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March 29, 2013 at 11:00 PM
http://m.ibnlive.com/news/movies/himmatwala-review-its-deathly-dull-with-puerile-humour/381952-8.html
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March 30, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Sajjad Khan once said he doesn’t care about what critics say. I think it was at the time of the release of his last film.
I guess they are all getting back at him. This kind of consistency among reviewers is rare. LOL!!
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March 30, 2013 at 8:12 AM
ha ha true OG – bring on more reviews friends!!!
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March 30, 2013 at 10:03 AM
haha apparently sajid had bragged on the film announcement that this will be the biggest hits in the careers of all involved including devgun…& that he wanted reviewers to give zero rating!
Shockingly hw has found a release nearby.
ps hey oldgold–a cd of ‘sense and sensibility’lying around for a while –kate winslet & hugh grant version—have u seen it–worht checking? dont remember the book anyways…
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March 30, 2013 at 10:22 AM
But let’s not make too much fun of Sajid Khan. While he’s an incredibly crude, offensive guy who makes his sister seem refined in comparison, his vulgar logic is precisely what has been peddled for years by very many in all kinds of film discussions.
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March 30, 2013 at 11:22 AM
Don’t know about og but really like lee’s version of s&s, definitely worth watching
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March 30, 2013 at 11:57 AM
thanx -will check it out soon properly…
btw isnt it surprising, even incredible for a taiwanese Ang lee making this very british period drama & doing a good job..
btw like kate winslet, she is always a competent performer, dont u think. I prefer her to the anorexic kiera lol (not only due to acting) 🙂
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March 30, 2013 at 2:03 AM
OT, B Rangan’s review of Kai Po Che
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March 30, 2013 at 8:02 AM
yes posted this earlier in my Kai Po Che thread.
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March 30, 2013 at 3:06 AM
HimmatWala is not remake .. it is simply carbon copy of original. Sajid just changed the faces of actors .. and rest is same. If Audience have appetite of this one .. surely they can enjoy original more if release in parallel. One thing is sure .. Himmatwala was forgotten kind of movie, though successful at that time. Sajid did a bravo job to realize today’s audience how crap it was even at that time.
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March 30, 2013 at 3:49 AM
“Sajid just changed the faces of actors”
this is a sea-change DAF.
just changing the faces does not mean a small change at all – Jitu/Sri can’t be replaced by AD/Tammmanah (yeah that is how they spell it 🙂 ) – if Ranbir/Dip or Hritik/Kat were in this film – outcome wud have been different for sure despite saajid’s fooling around – the BO result wud have been 20 cr on higher side
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March 30, 2013 at 8:14 AM
Himmatwala First Day Business
Saturday 30th March 2013 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala did well at single screens and collected around 10.50-11 crore nett as per early estimates. The multiplex business was low and Delhi city and East Punjab multiplexes had dull collections while multiplexes in other areas were average.
The film has done very good business in UP as Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Allahabad etc all put up strong numbers. The divide in the Delhi/UP circuit is so huge as it so rare for a film to be at such low levels in Delhi city but such high levels in UP. Even Singham which did not do well in Delhi city did not have such a gap.
Although these mass type of films tend not to show growth on Saturday there is a chance for Himmatwala as multiplexes especially in Delhi/Punjab are at low levels.
The business on Saturday at multiplexes will be key and growth at multiplexes is a must if the film is to have any chance at multiplexes over the long run.
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March 30, 2013 at 8:14 AM
Top Opening Days 2013: HIMMATWALA 2nd
Saturday 30th March 2012 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala had the second biggest opening day of 2013. The first quarter has seen just two films Race 2 and Himmatwala take an initial. The top opening days of 2013 are as follows.
1. Race 2 – 14.38 crore
2. Himmatwala – 11 crore approx
3. Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola – 6.35 crore
4. Special 26 – 5.87 crore
5. ABCD – Any Body Can Dance – 4.51 crore
6. Murder 3 – 3.80 crore
7. Kai Po Che – 3.68 crore
8. Zilla Ghaziabad – 3.22 crore
9. Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns – 3.22 crore
10. Jolly LLB – 3 crore
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March 30, 2013 at 8:17 AM
BOI have been eager to support Himmatwala but as usual their lack of intelligence gets the better of them. There’s only one other release this year that could have been ahead of this film and that’s Race 2 and it is ahead significantly! It’s not as if there’s great competition for that # 2 spot either. But here once again one is reminded of just how low Special 26 opened. This film still got very kind commentary from the likes of Taran and others (whose numbers were higher but they were so for the other films here as well) but even accounting for genre and so on it wasn’t unreasonable to expect at least a Rockstar kind of star here around 8-9 crores or something. That the film opened lower than Matru is pretty remarkable.
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March 30, 2013 at 8:19 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 6h
#Himmatwala Fri 12 cr. Very good at single screens, low at plexes.
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March 30, 2013 at 8:20 AM
Ranbir’s new Pepsi ad look:
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March 30, 2013 at 8:34 AM
J. P. Dutta to make Border 2, Border 3 and Border 4
By Subhash K. Jha, March 30, 2013 – 10:59 hrs IST
Movie Moghul J. P. Dutta whose last film Umrao Jaan was released 2006, is all set direct 3 back-to-back war films, all biopics on Paramvir Chakra winning war heroes…
– The first war epic Border 2 will be located in the 1962 Indo-China war and would tell the story of Subedar Joginder Singh Sahnan who led a platoon against the Chinese aggressors.
– Border 3 would be located in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and would focus on the valorous efforts of Abdul Hamid who went down fighting the enemy soldiers.
– Border 4 would focus on second-lieutenant Arun Khetarpal who died fighting during the 1971 Bangladesh war.
J. P. Dutta who has just returned from an extensive recce of the border areas where the three films would be shot, says he was deeply moved and impressed by the courage shown by the three soldier. Says JP, “I wanted to make war films on the three major battles that India fought in 1962, 1965 and 1971. But I wanted to root these wars in specific heroes’ lives. I chose the three Paramvir Chakra winners each from the three wars.”
The casting of the three heroes is now on. Says the director, “During my recce I was amazed at how well Border is remembered to this day even though it came 16 years ago. I met soldiers and civilians who had seen it over and over again. They all wanted to know if I had more to say on the war front.”
J.P. has been writing the three war sagas for the last 6 years. “It’s not easy to get details on the lives of these soldiers. We know how bravely they fought and that they won the Paramvir Chakras. But beyond that, all the biographical details had to be obtained from scratch. Permissions from the relevant departments of the Defense Ministry also took time. But now everything is in place.”
J.P. is now zeroing in on the 3 actors who would play the war heroes in the 3 Border sequels. “I’ve been away from the camera for long. Now it’s time to shoot three back-to-back films,” says the director.
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March 30, 2013 at 10:01 AM
better to make 1 film with detailed research than 3
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March 30, 2013 at 5:26 PM
Bliss/Rocky/Di and all”
Catch the whole video on you tube..am confident this guy will be murdered as soon as he steps foot on Pak soil..truth is not tolerable in current state..never was in that country I guess..
http://viewrz.com/video/pakistan-army-s-crimes-in-balochistan-desperately-trying-its-utmost-to-thwart-pakistan-s-peace-efforts-with-india
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March 30, 2013 at 2:44 PM
L.O.C. was one film on huge canvas but completely ruined by J.P. Dutta’s lack of ability to narrate the story properly. Characters kept appearing and would then die in the next 10 minutes. Sequences were repetitive and the narration was too poor to keep anyone engrossed. Compared to it, Border is a real classic and that was the last time that Dutta managed to come up with good cinema.
Ghulami, Yateem, Hathyar and Border were Dutta’s best efforts. Kshatriya wasn’t too bad. Neither was Batwara.
Refugee’s first half was amongst Dutta’s best works but the second half was a complete let-down. Umrao Jaan wasn’t good enough as well.
It’s all a question whether J.P. Dutta can get back to the level of film making he was coming up with 15 years back.
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March 30, 2013 at 2:47 PM
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March 30, 2013 at 4:24 PM
honestly speaking, I liked Sajid Khan during his Kehne mei kya harj hai days. I appreciated his vast knowledge of Hindi cinema and every film out there.This guy did have a good sense of humor. Pity to see him dishing out films like these
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March 30, 2013 at 4:52 PM
Ok guys surprisingly himmatwala released near me..after all this while of NO bollywood release!!–
some blokes goin there & cajoling me along–am goin ONLY to create ruckus & ‘seetis’!!
Hav always wanted a single screen experience 4 a change –will CREATE it there (courtesy beer) 🙂
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March 30, 2013 at 5:21 PM
I quite liked him back then too, he used to be quite good; knowledgeable, irreverent and funny. It’s ironic how he made fun of bad films and filmi people back then but has become the biggest bw insider blowhard now
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March 30, 2013 at 5:40 PM
Masterpraz:
http://filmystan.com/bollywood-reviews/himmatwala-review-surprisingly-entertaining/
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March 30, 2013 at 6:02 PM
Walk The Talk with Gulzar (Part 1)
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/walk-the-talk/walk-the-talk-with-gulzar-part-1/270016?hp&livevideo-featured
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March 30, 2013 at 8:31 PM
@Satyam : Sorry, this is OT, but I just wanted to ask you this. I’ve finally watched Sholay just now. Could you please tell me why this is considered the greatest Indian film? I can see much to make it a huge commercial hit at the time it released, so I can understand that (I have a memory of reading that it was India’s first 70mm film — was it?). But, if I compare it to other renowned classics from the past, I don’t think it stands up to films like Mughal E Azam or Mother India. Moreover, since you are always talking about how Bachchan’s masala films had meaning beyond mere entertainment, and since Sholay is considered the greatest masala film (am I wrong on that?), what “greater meaning” is there in this film? I saw none, and nothing to distinguish it from any of the hit masala films of the current day. So could you please explain the difference?
Also, a minor question, but one that I am very curious about. Jaya B. is billed as Jaya Bhaduri in this film, but my understanding is that she was pregnant with Abhishek while she was filming — is that right? That would mean that she had been married for a few years by that time. So did she continue to act under the name of Jaya Bhaduri after marriage, and if so, for how long? Till she took her break from acting? When she returned in the 2000’s, she was known as Jaya Bachchan. I’m just curious when the professional name change took place.
More curiosity — how did Amjad Khan’s career pan out after this? Did he always play villains, or did he get a chance to play other kinds of characters, too? I must say I did find his acting very impressive.
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March 30, 2013 at 9:09 PM
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2002/aug/09dinesh.htm
India’s first 70 mm curry Western Sholay ran for five consecutive years at Mumbai’s Minerva theatre. It has gone on to become an ineluctable part of the collective cinema consciousness of 1970s audiences and a must-see film experience for the generations thereafter.
===============
http://www.uiowa.edu/~incinema/sholay.html
===============
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES..
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/27947|0/Sholay.html
At first, the movie may seem an odd mix of genres to American audiences, blending brutal violence and colorful musical interludes into a spaghetti Western dotted with dance numbers that would make Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, 2001) envious. But underneath its “Once Upon a Time in the West meets Grease” exterior, Sholay’s plot contains universal themes of revenge, love and friendship that are easily accessible to all audiences.
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March 30, 2013 at 10:40 PM
Lol!
Did you warch Sholay or did you warch Bodyguard? I dont know whether to laugh or cry!!
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March 31, 2013 at 12:32 AM
Let me take these questions in reverse order not least because your first one presents a perverse challenge of sorts!
Gabbar Singh is simply the most legendary villain of Indian cinema. It is certainly Amjad Khan’s career high though he did tons of films after this, several with Bachchan among them, and he is one of the great villains of the industry.
I believe the first time Jaya used her married name was for Silsila in 1981. No idea why she didn’t do so before this. Nauker from 1979 also has her listed as Bhaduri.
On the rest I’m afraid I won’t be able to ‘defend’ Sholay! What if you then asked me to defend Hamlet? Or Sachin Tendulkar? Or Lata Mangeshkar? This risk is too great! What if you also asked me to explain why Jawaharlal Nehru was any better than Deve Gowda? I sense a trap here and I must do everything to avoid it!
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March 31, 2013 at 1:20 AM
Too bad you and Rajen resort to ridicule instead of reason to explain your position. There’s no lack of provable facts to explain (“defend” is your word, born out of an overactive imagination) the greatness of either Hamlet or Tendulkar — the quality of writing or characterization for the former, and the accumulated statistics of a career for the latter. Anything that is truly great does not have the causes of its greatness hidden. As an example, you might have said that Sholay doesn’t look any different from today’s masala films because it was the film the set the template for such films (though I don’t know if that’s true). Any kind of factual information or personal insight would have been fine. But it seems you prefer to dwell in the rarefied environs of the chosen who know of Sholay’s greatness, rather than descend from those heights to explain or instruct those who ask you a genuine question. So be it. I am not surprised at Rajen’s reaction, as it is what I expected from him, but I am surprised at yours, and disappointed, too. I shall not trouble you again in this way. Thank you for the information regarding Amjad Khan and Jaya B.
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March 31, 2013 at 2:15 AM
sm – in a way it is true if we watch Sholay today – it offers nothing much esp. after we have seen all kind of masala films. But it is more of a “time zone” iconic film than some of the timelss classics like Mughl-E-Azam / Guide and very few others.
I loved sholay when it released and continued loving till the era of excessive channels and multiplex took over – today i won’t go past first 20 minutes if I start watching it again. So u r not the only one here to think abt sholay like that. But full marks to the film which did phenomenally well in its time and the way it came up after being declared a flop.
Amzad’s career was pillared on the strong foundation sholay gave him. Sholay was his debut film.
Here is a nice read: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/amitabh-bachchan-relives-sholay/128403-8-66.html
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March 31, 2013 at 8:48 AM
SM, I formulated the response that way precisely because I knew you’d react this way. Your question sounded to me exactly like those those other analogies I drew! Indeed there is as much that can be said about Sholay. One could perhaps quote Shekhar Kapur who said Indian cinema could be divided into BC and AD using Sholay, one could talk about Ray who was a great fan of the film, one could mention an important Western voice like Richard Pena, with a lot of research one could get into all of this, or else one could talk about the formalist triumphs of the film or its extraordinary subtexts or its political subversions or its web of allusions, so on and so forth, but even at the very basic storytelling level this film’s achievements ought to be obvious. So yes as much can be said about Sholay. For one it is an entire culture unto itself and not simply an influential film. Forget audiences there is no film figure of note of any kind whether in the North or in the South who doesn’t revere the film. Much as there is no Indian commercial cinema not informed by the Bachchan event since his advent. In Shakespeare terms I suppose if you asked me the question I could start by explaining rhyme schemes to you and then talking about the achievements of the Bard’s blank verse or else the way his plays are structured or his characters, on and on, but the point precisely is that you wouldn’t ask such a question in this case. Not because you would have analyzed for yourself all of these things but because you would have (rightly) taken the tradition at face value. Something that becomes an event, becomes so enflaming is justly respected. One can hold all kinds of views on such a body of work but to wonder whether it is even valuable would be pretty bizarre. Much as it would be to wonder what really separated Romeo and Juliet from a number of contemporary Hollywood romantic comedies. This sounds ridiculous but so does you claim that you cannot in essence separate Sholay from Ready or something. Again one doesn’t have to consider all the deeper levels of meaning in Sholay. This ought to be obvious. Actually Sholay has never been my very favorite film the way Deewar and some others from that period are but this doesn’t mean I don’t recognize its seminal stature. Once again when you talk about Shakespeare or Sachin you don’t say stuff like ‘since you [myself] claim that Romeo and Juliet is a great play perhaps you could explain to me why this is so since I haven’t been able to figure out what’s sets it apart from many rom-coms’!
I am very far from having a view whereby great works of any tradition cannot be questioned. Absolutely not. But these questions must come about frankly with some good faith. There are times when I have accessed important films for the first time and haven’t quite been able to see why they are so highly praised. Over time I have learned more about them and changed my views even when the films haven’t necessarily become my favorite ones. But even at the very outset my attitude has always been that I need to learn more not that a long venerable tradition is simply wrong. Even leaving aside the comparison someone familiar with just some of the good masala films out of Tamil cinema over the last decade or two ought to understand most contemporary Bollywood attempts in the same vein for the absolute junk that they are. It wouldn’t take a Shakespeare comedy to persuade me of the vacuousness of many contemporary Hollywood rom-coms.
Now you might feel offended that I am questioning your good faith here. But actually I am giving you more credit than you think. I find it impossible to believe that one could not tell the difference between Sholay and Singham or Sholay and Wanted or whatever! There is no ridicule implied. It is simply the way your question sounds when analogized with other examples. The provable (though this would not have been my word in this context) exists as much for Sholay as it does for Shakespeare or Sachin. The question is: are you unaware of even this factual history? Because by your own terms you might not then have asked the question.
The reductio ad absurdum that you think I am initiating by way of these counter-examples is completely a result of your own question and originates with you. Not for the first time I might add because you have a tendency of offering such in very many situations. And which I could itemize if I were challenged on this. So in this case I don’t find it odd that Sholay didn’t suddenly become your favorite film, I just find the rest of it strange. If I am brutally candid I’d say it’s a bit strange to find someone who has no problems with any of Salman’s contemporary masala films but who then wonders what’s so special about seminal Bachchan films of the 70s. There is lots of serious critical literature I could direct you to in this regard but my point is that you don’t need all of this for a certain kind of work. At least not initially.
I am not offended or annoyed by your question. But you must understand that I am being completely sincere when I quote those other examples. Your question sounds exactly like those.
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April 2, 2013 at 11:02 AM
This is very interesting.
Ray on Sholay-
“Sippy had come to Kolkata on a business trip. He decided to visit Ray, the biggest and most respected figure in the entire Indian film fraternity. Sippy was tentative and nervous about meeting Ray but he was truly surprised to find the man comfortably approachable. They talked for some time about many things. Finally with some effort, Sippy managed to ask Ray the question he wanted to aak. He said, “Sir, I have just made a movie named Sholay. ave you seen it?”
“Yes.”
“Did you like it Sir? I would definitely like to know what you think of it.”
“You have made a good movie Mr Sippy but there is a problem with your film.”
Sippy was taken aback. There was a problem with Sholay? No one had told him that. The whole country was watching the movie. “What Sir?”
“This is a film in present day India about a village in Central India infested by bandits and dacoits, right Mr Sippy?”
“Yes Sir. Absolutely.”
“Do you think there is electricity in those parts? I don’t believe you do. You have yourself shown Radha the daughter-in-law of the Thakur lighting oil lamps in the evening. Haven’t you?”
“Yes Sir. I have.”
“Then, Mr Sippy, how do you think water is pumped into the huge water tank at such a height where you showed Veeru jumping around trying to commit suicide?
Sippy was awed by the observation power and the minuteness with which Ray noticed avery single detail of a film. He said, “I am flattered by the fact that my film is lucky enough that you have seen it with so much interest.” Thank you Sir for your feedback.”
http://thebongland.blogspot.in/2009/09/story-of-satyajit-ray-and-ramesh-sippy.html?m=1
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April 2, 2013 at 1:02 PM
Others have commented on this and I myself used this reference in some of the Raavan discussions but the ethnic status of Gabbar is not the least of the film’s ambiguities. He could be a tribal, he could be a Maoist guerrilla of sorts (consider his ‘uniform’), or both. He could be seen as a lowr caste character rebelling against Thakurs (the cutting of hands is a gesture with a long North Indian history). Beera can certainly be seen as his descendant in more ways than one including the ‘psychotic’ element in both characters. I just bring this up as an example. Sholay offers something remarkable at most points. In some ways Gabbar is the truest ‘hero-villain’ of the story. In a way the central figure or to be more theoretical its central signifier. All other kinds of meaning in the film’s world emanate from him. He is the ‘demon-god’ of this universe. Even a part of its folklore.
I also think that the Bachchan character forms a kind of symmetric pair with him. I’ve said something about this elsewhere and will spare everyone here! But again I get into this example somewhat randomly. SM brought up that question the other day and though I found her framing bizarre this is not an easy film to unravel given the range of its references. It can be done but it would take an encyclopedic response. To put it in even starker terms and with a useful contemporary example Lagaan is a film that I like a lot and admire even more. But it is a pale shadow of the film Sholay is in most respects (not all). And Sholay isn’t even among my personal favorites the way say Deewar or Kaala Pathar are (though the same is true for Lagaan). I continue to believe that the last Hindi film that is as capacious in the 70s sense of the term is Ghulami. Nothing in Hindi cinema since is quite this film’s equal to my mind.
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March 31, 2013 at 2:02 AM
Here we get Bachchan’s charisma at its best. The silent friend. When every character went OTT, he underplayed his role quite effectively.
The prison scenes were hilarious and the present day masala movie makers can learn a thing or two from those scenes.
The film had fairytale ambiance.
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March 31, 2013 at 2:43 AM
@ SM:
I did give you a couple of links to indicate the greatness barometer of Sholay; from east to west – especially the west – where they grudgingly accepted that thought it is a mish-mash of genres, it is a terrific film..
Let me try to put some words to talk about Sholay though I don’t think I can do justice to it..firstly because I cannot enunciate the way Satyam does..secondly because it is difficult to explain something as rare and astounding as Haley’s comet..
SHOLAY is not as much a triumph in the ‘idealism’ of cinema as it is in the craft of film-making. Each and every millimeter of its 22 reel is dripping entertainment. Firstly, the characterization – can you name me a SINGLE Indian film that, after 38 years of its birth, has a simple line – ITNA SANNATA KYON HAIN BHAI – being ricocheted all around in spoofs/television shows? And this, by an actor who is above 50 and who, in today’s vulgar 100 crore cinema set-up, would pass off as that fatso side-kick in Bodyguard? Did you, ever, for a couple of minutes, feel restless or bored in the 3+ hours of Sholay playtime? Was there any character/characterization that you, in 2013, felt was under-written/over-written/unnecessary? Did you feel ANY scene that was shoved in just so that a certain section of society/film-viewing public would feel exhilarated? Did you, at ANY instance in the film, feel that one character was over-shadowing the other? Gabbar was the epitome of villainy, but did you feel Jai or Veeru or even Ramu Kaka’s role any less important to the overall landscape of Sholay as that of Gabbar’s?
After almost 40 years of its inception, can you name me, one, just one, film that is a COMPLETE entertainer? There are so many films that have tried to imitate the landscape and range of Sholay? Can you name me one that comes close to it? One screenplay? Not even one!! With all the technological advancements and the greater ‘exposure’ to the west and with the likes of Kashyap et al. going ballistic at film-festivals and talking ‘influences’, could you name just one film that these ‘neo-indie’ film-makers can crow about? That you can vouch now will stand the test of time. In terms of such a mammoth ‘advancement’ technologically and exposure-wise, can you name me one film from post-liberalized India that can qualify as an ALL-TIME great?
There are some films that simply turn out to be great – they were never INTENDED to be classics. I am sure Bogart never thought CASABLANCA would be considered one of the greatest screenplays 60 years after its release – but it is. I saw CASABLANCA for the first time in 2005 and was FLOORED beyond disbelief; the movie was made in 1942 but was FAR, FAR, FAR ahead in terms of writing/characterization than ANY other product I had come across. SHOLAY has the same kind of effect on many, many, people.
SHOLAY is just an event; an event nobody ascribed for, nobody thought possible, nobody predicted. You talk of MOTHER INDIA and MUGHAL-E-AZAM; these are great films but NOT time-less. As a test, let us see what the current ‘hip’ generation makes of these 3 movies; let us see what it identifies to most – not because of the topic, but because of the craft; there were many things ‘naturalistic’ in SHOLAY even thought it was a mish-mash of genres and a complete ‘ masala.’
I am assuming you follow the TELUGU film industry. If so, you yourself can see how pathetic that industry is. In the past 30 years, can you name a single TELUGU film that has floored you? I mean, I am not being a chauvinistic here, but the fact is, the TELUGU film industry is the worst in South India in terms of the kind of mindless ‘herogiri’ infested films it churns out month after month. I have YET to see a single, ‘normal’ hero from the industry. The last I saw was SAGAR SANGAMAM and SHANKARA BHARANAM – and they sound like they were light years ago!! This is the quality of films we are making now.
But if you see SHOLAY – even though it is a perfectly ONLY a masala film, it is a brilliant success with regards to the efforts of film-making; of technical brilliance; and more importantly, of cinema as a ‘cohesive’ product.
In ‘ LUCK BY CHANCE’, Mc Mohan (Samba) is asked to speak a few words in a film institute, but when he begins, ALL that the film students—today’s iphone ‘app’ generation— request him is to repeat the line from SHOLAY that made him immortal – ‘ POORE PACHAAS HAZAAR.’ His disappointment, at the duality that the very film/line that made him IMMORTAL is the line that will restrict his personality growth as an actor is the perfect embodiment of the SHOLAY effect after a bloody long 35 years’ time-frame.
Please pardon me if I appeared rude; the blame is not on me – but on Chivas Regal and Def Leppard..
Cheers!!
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March 31, 2013 at 7:13 AM
One cant compare regional films with bollywood. Most of the telugu films for the past so many years are banal. But here and there, there are good films too.
Telugu films have rich genres like mythologicals, folktales, fantasy and the usual stuff. Telugu people have a rich history of great literature, great thinkers. It is sad that the rich culture has degenerated into these present day filmi culture. Nonetheless, there are still good movies coming out of tollywood, maybe their numbers are few and far between.
If we compare Bollywood, has no great cultural history to speak of. It is so generic. It is like comparing USA to European countries.
For those who are interested
http://www.raagalahari.com/articles/1228/retrospection-on-80-years-of-telugu-cinema.aspx
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March 31, 2013 at 7:16 AM
If we compare, bollywood has no great cultural history to speak of.
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March 31, 2013 at 6:29 AM
SM with respect, i may doubt tendulkar, or mangeskar! but to explain sholay, i will feel we mortals are least competent to do so!!
There are somethings in life which are beyond question to answer, for everything else there is satyam 😉
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March 31, 2013 at 6:50 AM
Cheers annjo& Thanx 4 trying to summarise sholays appeal.
Actually can get what sm is saying. If it helps, even I’ve not seen sholay completely ever–seen bits n bobs and key dialogues/songs obviously.
As unique idea says, sometimes it’s difficult for audiences to replicate the exact reactions retrospectively (& many decades later!)
Also some films are more amenable to guys & vice versa.
Ps: someone (i think oldgold) mentioned the absence of ‘adaayein’ nowadays –sm in her innocence & eventual ‘anger’ has given one such demonstration 😉
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March 31, 2013 at 2:19 AM
Golden Kela Awards 2013: Winners List
Lyricist Anvita Dutt won the award for Most Atrocious Lyrics for Ishq Wala Love from Student of the Year.
A special award titled Super Hit of 2012 went to Shah Rukh Khan for hitting Kunder last year. “Why Are You Still Trying” award went to actor Jackky Bhagnani who has worked in films like Kal Kissne Dekha and Ajab Gazabb Love.
The award ceremony concluded with “Bas Kijiye Bahut Ho Gaya” Award which went to the Bhatt family.
Koimoi
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March 31, 2013 at 2:31 AM
bhatt family is the shroudest in bw. Their budget for any film hardly crosses 10 cr and most of them do 60-70 cr theatrical bus + satelite + music + dvd + overseas……they care a damn for this kela or bhindi awards i guess 🙂 It is “paise wala money” for them which matters the most and that they are literally printing with every film…..
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March 31, 2013 at 2:22 AM
Ajay Devgn won Worst Actor (male) for Ashwni Dhir’s Son of Sardaar and Rohit Shetty’s Bol Bachchan. Sonakshi Sinha got Worst Female award for everything she has done so far including hits like Dabangg, Dabangg 2 and Rowdy Rathore.
The Worst Sequel award went to Dabangg 2 whereas viewers gave “Bawra Ho Gaya Hai Ke” Award to the Indian moviegoers.
The award for most irritating song went to Chinta Ta Chita Chita from Rowdy Rathore.
he Golen Kela Awards 2013, which hails Bollywood’s worst performances, have announced the winners list. Ajay Devgn and Sonakshi Sinha were named the Worst Actor and Actress at the Fifth Edition of Golden Kela Awards here Saturday, while Shirish Kunder’s Joker was adjudged the worst film of the year.
Kunder was also named for the worst director for Joker, winning the award titled “Beta Tumse Na Ho Payega”.
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March 31, 2013 at 7:06 AM
‘himmatwaala’ saajid khan!!
On a ‘shameful’ nite, a few blokes (including myself) decided to have some fun and create ruckus whilst payin a ‘homage’ to sajid khans 80s are back deal. The idea was to create a ‘single screen’ deal in unconventional ‘modern multiplex’ setting!
But even we had not imagined the levels sajid can plunge into!!! Haha
Have NOT seen the original ‘iconic’ film -For a moment, it seemed like sajid khans take on ‘LiFe of PI’!!
-Is a ‘review’ of this one needed!? Nope
Nonsense & mindless buffoonery& there was no attempt to create any ‘novelty’.
There were some ‘original’ ones like
-a ‘water pipe’ being twisted into a ‘U’ & mentioned as ‘YOUTUBE’!
Someone mentioned ‘swine flu’–what’s that!? Reply-don’t worry, it will come later in a few decades!’
One however –has to say–sajid khan IS the true himmatwala! I can’t believe he didn’t know this was pure unadulterated trash –bu his ‘love of 80s’ overpowered him to put his money and everything into this pathetic enterprise!
Needless to say we got our own perverse humour AT the film not due to the film & we took numerous ‘breaks’–
Something in film making died!
But sajid khans passion won!
And in one final sweep of insane gutter buffoonery –reminiscent of the iconic ‘reechha’ (satuams and mine fave reechha!)
Check this out folks—
Paresh raawal & mahesh manjrrkar slipped in a live crab into the front of each others trousers -leading to some ‘vibrations’-the rest as they say was–
Pure unadulterated gutter garbage sajid khan !!!! 🙂
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March 31, 2013 at 7:19 AM
Original is also not a great film. It became famous for all the wrong reasons. Youtube. Haha.
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March 31, 2013 at 7:39 AM
Some telugu films over the years which made a mark.
Maya Bazar was produced both in tamil and telugu and it is such a lovely and funny musical even for today’s audience. It is about Kichaka who sets his eyes on Draupadi, only to be murdered by the enraged Bhima. There is Subhadra Kalyanam also and the starcast was the who and who of telugu and tamil industry at that period. B.Nagireddy got Phalke award for that movie, I think. It has phenomenal music.
And there was that sentimental love story Mooga Manasulu which was made into Milan starring Sunil dutt and Nutan.
Shiva, Raat, Kshanakshanam created a history of sorts.
Besides much acclaimed Sankarabharanam, there were films like Swati Mutyam.
And there was Miss Mary which was Missamma.
Recently there were reasonably good movies like NVNV, Varsham, Athadu etc.
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March 31, 2013 at 8:50 AM
Himmatwala Falls All Over On Day Two
Saturday 30th March 2013 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala has shown big falls on day two and it could be a fall in the 25% range when final collections come in. The best performing areas like UP and Rajasthan have fallen 30% and 20% respectively.
The first day in Delhi/UP was around 2.20 crore and day two is looking to come in at 1.5-1.6 crore while Rajasthan collected 76 lakhs on day one and day two is 60 lakhs approx.
The film started well enough especially at single screens but could not consolidate after the morning and showed big drops on day two. With the two day business being 19-20 crore the film has an impossible task at the box office.
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March 31, 2013 at 8:51 AM
the falls must really be very significant for bOI to give up so quickly!
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March 31, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Himmatwala Day Two Business
Saturday 30th March 2013 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala had a heavy fall on Saturday as collections fell 30% all over on average. The two day business is 18 crore nett with 10.50 crore nett on Friday and 7.50 crore nett on Saturday. The figures from some circuits are as follows with Saturday figures in brackets.
Delhi/UP – 150 (220)
CI – 32 (48)
Rajasthan – 60 (76)
Mysore – 23 (33)
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March 31, 2013 at 8:52 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 9h
#Himmatwala falls in several circuits on Day 2 [Sat]. At several centres, the decline is substantial. Numbers being compiled.
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March 31, 2013 at 8:52 AM
as GF says Sajid Khan richly deserves this. It’s a pity Devgan became part of this.
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March 31, 2013 at 9:04 AM
What happens when few hot-blooded guys assemble–(initiated by a french buddy!)
GOW happens!!
🙂
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March 31, 2013 at 9:31 AM
How much crap public can take?
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April 1, 2013 at 7:08 AM
True. But check this report out (not sure about Bachchan but Saif and Riteish are confirmed)-
Big B, Saif, Riteish in Sajid Khan’s next
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, April 01, 2013 – 15:07 hrs IST
#
Sajid Khan’s Himmatwala may have come in for some flak from most quarters but that hasn’t deterred the spirit of the filmmaker.
Sajid is already looking ahead to his next film which will be an out and out comedy. While Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh had been already finalized for this film, Sajid has managed a huge feat by roping in none other than Amitabh Bachchan. It may be recalled that Sajid had travelled all the way to Bhopal where Big B was shooting for Prakash Jha’s Satyagraha to meet the legendary actor and narrate his script. Looks like his effort has yielded the desired result with Big B giving his nod to the film. There are also reports that Jacqueline Fernandez has been signed to play the female lead though it’s yet to be confirmed.
The film will be produced by Vashu Bhagnani and goes on floors in July this year.
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April 1, 2013 at 7:53 AM
Hoping this is an April Fools thing!
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April 1, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Ha signing sajids next after himmatwalla is not surprising for bachchan and confirms/ vindicates the point anya made earlier (vis a vis bachchan rgv!)
My hunch is that sajid khan is eyeing something like ‘angoor’.
“Jacqueline Fernandez has been signed to play the female lead though it’s yet to be confirmed”— I didn’t care at all for jacky but after ‘lat lag gayi’–like her somewhat.
Worried (knowing sajid) what the poor girl will be going through to get ‘confirmed’ as the main heroine here
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March 31, 2013 at 9:16 AM
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Brunch/Brunch-Stories/Cover-story-Life-of-Irrfan/Article1-1034186.aspx
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March 31, 2013 at 11:21 AM
The collections of Himmatwala, Race 2 etc makes one respect the collections of Talaash in better light.
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March 31, 2013 at 11:37 AM
yes and this was my point at the time.. the comparison with Special 26 and its rather low gross is especially instructive.
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March 31, 2013 at 1:38 PM
true that!
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March 31, 2013 at 12:47 PM
Gangs of Wasseypur 1
Well, what can I say? It’s more difficult to comment on stuff one has liked -like gow1 & even ‘stoker’ recently! May opine in detail when I’m more objective on them.
Ok, will try to give a rating–that maybe easier!
I wanted to give it 4.5 out of 5 due to length issues and after a point one loses track of the member of characters that pop up & there’s a bit of repetitive discourse.
BUT even that seems less to me.–Wanted to give it more
And so will rest at 4.75/5!!
A Standing ovation to all involved—
The complete support cast, technical team sneha khanwalkar
And above all
Manoj Bajpai
& finally Anurag kashyap!!!
It’s just SHAMEFUL that with this film and even paan Singh Tomar around, people continue to send barfis to oscar(!!) -not that I wanna give too much imo to the foreign films Oscar category!.
This IS the real thing folks–
I will discount girls/women audience due to the violence factor
As for the guys– have a simple formula–
Only three type of guys dont/won’t like GoW–
Those who are not into cinema / occasional viewer
Those who are biased /agenda ridden
Or those who are actually not guys !!
🙂
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March 31, 2013 at 1:58 PM
Can’t resist to add–
Blistering pulsating film richly textured replete with tarantinoesque touches albeit with indianised references
Manoj Bajpai delivers a tour-de-force performance. Mind blowing!
After the “man-cession” emasculation enterprise ‘descendants’, was relieved to see this testosterone adrenaline upsurge film
I still can’t believe that the music here is by a female composer.
Love Sneha khanwalkars work here!
The film ends on a high note–One of the best dying sequences in recent times
Manoj Bajpai in GoW—(& note the opening strains of this— wow)
I smiled and laughed with all the subversive/violent scenes which flowed naturally with the ambience and setting –the ending though was poignant & machismo laden (as intended)
Loved it… Don’t think the actual video footage of this song is available online….
Satyam–this film deserves a proper piece from u—one of the best indian films in the new millenium!! Plz rise above the bachchan-kashyap equations etc & embrace true authentic world class cinema
🙂
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March 31, 2013 at 2:04 PM
Something for anya 🙂
Man, I think this is the first time I’m enjoying rustic/ village/ folk music style– the way sneha has incorporated it in the film is awesome
Btw don’t mind sneha getting some film roles as well infront of the camera lol
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April 1, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Sneha is HOT….period!
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April 1, 2013 at 8:42 PM
“Sneha is HOT….period”
haha wont comment on that–but do like the fact that she loves her music and is simple, unassuming. Not into ‘promotions’ etc & other forms of ‘networking’. INfact unsure if shes signed another film after gow.
A talent to look out for –if she doesnt get ‘distracted’ by those like masterpraz sending tweets/mails etc hahaha
ps–must admit, even i have a weakness for her ‘simple, natural, nerdy’ look 🙂
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March 31, 2013 at 2:14 PM
guys do check out this entertaining interview of the girls^
At 5:00 onwards–sneha not getting any film offers but marriage proposals & that too on twitter !!!
Now I know what Satyams upto on twitter with all those (lengthy text) apps 🙂
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April 1, 2013 at 4:32 PM
I admit I proposed to Sneha once on Twitter lol 😉
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April 1, 2013 at 8:25 PM
“I admit I proposed to Sneha once on Twitter lol “–haha masterpraz. Thanx for your honesty lol
thats y i stay away from fb, twitter nowadayz
did u tweet ‘her’ to a verified account? lol
btw ‘sneha’ reminds me of ‘neha’ (not sure but thats what the name was)–who posted here but within a few days was found to have the same ip address as another guy here saurabh minor.
He was apparently another guy posting from his same computer!
Didnt wanna rake it up–just ‘s(neha)’reminded me of that guy.
Perhaps ‘he’ now has his own computer–unsure 🙂
anyhow these are thingz one has to take in the stride on internet…no worries
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March 31, 2013 at 2:27 PM
Remaking doesn’t guarantee a hit again: Abhishek Bachchan
Afsana Ahmed, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, March 31, 2013
The end of March is always a busy time for everybody. As one financial year ends and another begins, it’s time to both look back and look ahead. And actor Abhishek Bachchan has been doing just that. He’s been chalking out his new calendar, which includes reading scripts and travelling to shoot for Dhoom:3. And he’s been reflecting on the year gone by, including his role as the host of an awards show and the honour he received from the Hindustan Times at the recent Star Guild Awards, for his outstanding contribution to society.
“It was too touching,” says the actor who has now been in the film industry for 12 years. I’ve known him since he began his career, and he hasn’t changed much since he started. Abhishek is still the epitome of charm, spirit and mettle, and his sense of humour still rocks.
Last year, he made an impact with Bol Bachchan. This year we’ll see him in Dhoom:3, Karan Johar’s Dostana 2 and Bhushan Kumar’s as-yet-untitled film to be directed by Umesh Shukla.
That’s all we know; Abhishek won’t talk about other movies he may be working on.
“In my experience, jumping the gun derails a project,” he says. “Projects should be announced only when you’re good to go. I wouldn’t want to talk about movies that are in the discussion stage, and I wouldn’t want the filmmakers I am in discussions with, to talk about them either.”
So we talk about other things.
Why is there always such a long gap between your film releases? Have you become selective?
My colleagues do one film a year and they are not grilled about it. Nobody says they are selective. So why ask me this always? Please try and understand that no actor accepts all the films offered to them. You do the film that inspires you. It’s about taking up the work you think you will enjoy. Dhoom:3 was an old commitment. I started shooting for it last year. And I am eagerly looking forward to shooting for Dostana 2. I am just doing the films I want to do.
You’ve been in the industry for 12 years now. Where do you think you stand?
I don’t stand, I keep moving forward. That’s probably why I have no complaints. It’s been such a huge learning experience, professionally and personally. I have enjoyed it here and that’s the most important thing for me.
Does the fact that you’re Amitabh Bachchan’s son weigh on you?
Nothing bogs me down. I am what I am because of my father and my family. I never thought that I could be somebody else’s son. It’s a matter of huge pride for me that I am my father’s son.
Everyone is remaking Amitabh Bachchan films. When do we get to hear that you are in one of your dad’s remakes?
I am open to a remake provided we get it right. I thought about remaking one of dad’s films, but it’s a mammoth task. I would personally put the pressure on myself to deliver and make sure that it would be huge hit. I would not be able to be relaxed about the fact that the film I’d be remaking was a hit film with a hit formula, so that I could hit the bull’s eye.
If I were to do one of my dad’s films, I’d know there would be that much pressure and that much effort and expectation. Even if I applied myself fully, it would not guarantee success. You cannot pick up one of dad’s hits and say, ‘Chalo, it has a super-hit formula, and now if we apply the same, we’ll get the same result’. You can’t have that attitude. Remaking doesn’t guarantee you a hit again. I’d only do a remake if I were convinced that I could make it into a huge success.
People say your daughter Aaradhya looks a lot like you, even in terms of height.
She’s got tall parents and tall grandfathers! As for the resemblance bit, I think Aaradhya looks more like Aishwarya. She looks similar to how Aishwarya looked at that age. It’s so lovely to hear her call me Pa.
Aren’t you over-analysing the concept of success when we talk of remakes? Isn’t that making you under-confident and starting you off on the wrong foot?
I am not saying that. It’s a huge responsibility. A lot of hard work and scripting goes behind a remake. Why only dad’s films? Every film that is remade or every role that is reprised, is the result of tremendous hard work, because years have passed and times have changed, and the audience’s requirements have changed.
Do you worry that people would expect more from you because you are Amitabh Bachchan’s son?
Absolutely! The fact would remain that I am his son. A son who is remaking his dad’s film. So I would not be able to miss a step. The pressure would undoubtedly be double.
Which of your dad’s films would you want to remake and why?
I hate answering this question. When you are dealing with the kind of work dad has done, you want to do everything. He has done great work and so it’s difficult to choose.
Would you say you have had more downs in your career than ups, or vice versa?
I don’t attribute success or failure to anything. I do not sit and over-analyse things. I just work hard and believe that the rest will take care of itself.
Dhoom seem to have become synonymous with your name!
I am very excited about Dhoom. It’s a huge franchise that’s synonymous with me now, and I am doing the third instalment. Getting the chance to work with Aamir Khan is another incentive for me. Watching him is a learning experience in itself. I am very excited to work with him. He’s truly a perfectionist!
At the same time, I am very thrilled to revisit Dostana, especially with a co-star (John Abraham) who I am very fond of.
After your successful series of ad films for a mobile service provider, director Amit Sharma and you apparently planned to do a feature film together. What’s the status?
Considering our success with the ad, both Amit and I are very conscious of the fact that when we do our first film together, it should be very special. We have been working on the script. We are done with our third draft and are working very hard to wrap up the final script, put the project together and hopefully announce it soon.
What are your thoughts on turning producer and carrying forward your father’s dream through AB Corp?
The compulsion in AB Corp is creative, not financial. Luckily for us it’s a matter of choice. Here you make films because you believe in them, not because you have to run your studio. We don’t have compulsions to make five films a year, which I think is a great liberty. Our strategy is not to get stuck in a situation where, in order to cover the overheads, we have to make so many films every year. Other studios and corporate houses are committed to making a certain number of movies a year because that’s a commitment to their share holders. We don’t have such pressures. We make films which we believe in and which inspire us.
Who are your chaddi-buddies in the film industry?
I am an industry kid, born and brought up in Juhu. Half the industry lives within a kilometre of each other. Uday Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and Goldie Behl are the guys I’ve known since I was in kindergarten. When you grow up together, you’re in and out of each other’s homes every day. When we want to have coffee or breakfast together, we just go across to each other’s house.
We have heard about your paternal grandmother, Teji Bachchan, but never about your maternal grandmother, Indira Bhaduri.
She lives in Bhopal and I am close to her. I know it makes her upset that I do not speak Bengali, but I would love to learn it someday for her. It’s such a wonderful thing to be pampered by grandmoms.
I thank God every day that these are the ladies who made me the person I am today.
If there’s one piece of advice you wish to give women, what would that be?
Obviously they need to be more empowered through education. The events that have come to light in the past one year have highlighted the creepy mindset against women in our country. What kind of society is it where fear rules the minds of our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters when they step out? I have been brought up and taught to believe in gender equality, I have grown up surrounded by women, so I appreciate them.
Can you throw some light on your association with Magic Bus, the NGO for underprivileged kids?
Aishwarya introduced me to it. A college friend of hers works there. What I like about their programme is that it makes people responsible. Every child who goes through the programme must later become a mentor too.
Is it true that the name of your family firm, ABCL, was changed to AB Corp due to astrology-related issues?
ABCL went through a huge financial setback in the late ’90s and my father worked single-handedly to rectify it. At that point, he wanted to change things around. He wanted to rechristen the company. That’s why it is AB Corp today. No, there’s no astrology involved. It was our thought and decision. When you are dealing with the kind of work dad has done, you want to do everything. He has done great work and so it’s difficult to choose.
How close are you to your mother’s Bengali culture?
As close as I can be. But I never tried speaking Bengali, which is ma’s mother tongue. I was sent abroad to study when I was very young. And at home, we speak Hindi and English. So I haven’t got an opportunity to learn it. I also love Bengali cuisine. There are so many wonderful dishes. I love fish and all of the maacher dishes are delicious.
What has been the role of the women in your life?
I am lucky to be enjoying time with both my grandmothers. My father’s mother and mother’s mother are still alive. Then I have my mother, my sister (Shweta), wife (Aishwarya) and now I have a daughter (Aaradhya). I am lucky to have got the opportunity to learn from, absorb from and spend time with all of them. The contribution of a woman in a man’s life is something you can never quantify. It’s a huge contribution!
You are perceived as one of the few actors who do not belong to a coterie. Do you consciously stay away from this kind of thing?
I don’t believe that it exists, so there is nothing to stay away from. At the end of the day, people choose their friends based on what they want to do at that point of time. Name one actor who has particularly worked with only one director. We are actors and want to work with everyone. The same applies to filmmakers as well.
So you mean coteries do not exist?
I don’t like the word coterie. Just because people are friendly doesn’t make them part of a camp. You mean two actors cannot go out for dinner together? That’s so unfair. Everyone has their own life and the industry is not a corporate house, but a big family. Everyone knows everyone, and they hang out with everyone. If Shah Rukh Khan is having a celebration at his house and he invites me, how does it make me part of his camp? And if he comes to my house on Diwali, does it make him part of my camp? I don’t believe in this at all.
Coteries exist in Bollywood, right? There are the Shah Rukh Khan-Karan Johar-Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn-Rohit Shetty-Salman Khan families for instance. That’s a creative choice. That’s got nothing to do with the fact that they are friends. When Karan writes his films, he knows that so-and-so is ideal for the film, and accordingly approaches him. It’s about the script and its demand. Nobody writes movies for friends. People write a film because they want to make a film, and they cast actors based on who they feel is the best choice for that character.
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March 31, 2013 at 7:13 PM
“I am very excited about Dhoom. It’s a huge franchise that’s synonymous with me now, and I am doing the third instalment. Getting the chance to work with Aamir Khan is another incentive for me. Watching him is a learning experience in itself. I am very excited to work with him. He’s truly a perfectionist!”
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March 31, 2013 at 2:32 PM
MARCH 31, 2013, 12:27 PM
‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Has a Strong Start
By BROOKS BARNES
“G.I. Joe: Retaliation” was a burly No. 1 at North American theaters over the Easter weekend, validating an unusual decision by Paramount Pictures to delay its release so that it could rework parts of the plot. “Retaliation,” which cost at least $130 million to make, took in about $41.2 million over the weekend, for a total since opening on Thursday of $51.7 million. Overseas, the movie — originally planned for release last summer — generated an additional $80.3 million in ticket sales.
“The Croods” (20th Century Fox) was second, selling about $26.5 million in tickets, for a two-week total of $88.6 million, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data. Tyler Perry’s “Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” (Lionsgate) finished in third place, with a sturdy $22.3 million. In fourth was “Olympus Has Fallen” (FilmDistrict), which produced sales of about $14 million, for a two-week total of $54.7 million. “Oz the Great and Powerful” (Disney) chugged away in fifth place, selling an estimated $11.6 million in tickets, for a four-week total of $198.3 million.
The weekend brought one major flop: “The Host” (Open Road), a producing effort by the “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer, took in just $11 million despite a lengthy promotional campaign; the movie cost about $40 million to make and received deadly reviews.
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March 31, 2013 at 3:53 PM
Following reviews were published by filmfare and shows their prejudice and anti AB attitude prevalent at that time.Later in 90’s filmfare made up with AB and rewrote reviews of original classics. interestingly t was openly accepted in October 2010 filmfare edition.
ZANJEER -1973
Prakash Mehra veers uncertainly between the mental conflict and a compulsive need for action and all too soon shelves the characterisation totally.
SHOLAY-1975
A major trouble with the film is the unsuccessful transplantation it attempts-grafting a western on to the indian milieu.The integration between plot-innocent,terrorised villagers versus rampaging dacoits and locale is never quite achieved and the film remains imitation Western neither here nor there.
DEEWAR-1975
The trouble is that Yash Chopra has stretched out a 90 minute film into three tiresome hours.Despite all the artificial narration ,yash chopra’s direction has some good touches.
MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR-1978
Movie looks like rehash of films like DEEWAR,SANGAM and PAKEEZAH.Twists and turns have been added but the plot screeches and whines with every effort.
LAAWARIS-1981
The film finds Amitabh agreeing to participate in an old and distasteful gimmick-the dance number where he dresses as a woman and makes crude gestures at the audience.
SHARAABI-1984
Films like SHARAABI and booze should be taken moderately preferably in half measure and then you should call it quits.
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March 31, 2013 at 4:30 PM
Ha! these are fun to read! It makes my point once again that there was always an ideological problem that (and quite naturally) the existing bourgeois apparatus had with respect to Bachchan’s films. This is specially important in light of the fact that then as now there isn’t really a class of professional film critics in India in the sense that this term has in many other countries.
A classic example of this ideological reaction is the rather common one on the part of many women for the longest time with respect to violence in cinema. Now it’s one thing to not be able to watch realistic, gruesome violence on screen and quite another to object even to Mamohan Desai’s cartoonish variety! For the longest time it was taken as a given that women just don’t like violence, almost as if this were a response particular to gender. However in the present no such reception really exists among women, i.e. those belonging to a more contemporary generation. In other words the response to Bachchan’s cinema in this sense was part and parcel of this larger ideological resistance. And the clue here was the fact that women didn’t just object to the violence but also defined the very same as ‘senseless’. As if all that happens in those great scripts from the 70s is the Indian equivalent of the WWF! Ideological choices most often work in unconscious ways. The women in question weren’t questioning their own preferences. Much as the same bourgeois apparatus wasn’t doing so in the larger sense.
So when people equate ‘nice films’ with works that I would define as ‘comforting’ it is because over a variety of genres there are certain ideological choices in place. The impression is that once you move to a totally different genre everything changes. Not at all! In Hollywood’s classic cinema (and even beyond in some ways) the production of the couple (as a critic put it) is really the transcendental feature that governs all these genres. No matter what else happens in the film the ideal romantic couple has to be defined one way or the other. This is one example but the larger point is that if you watch Hindi films from the 50s or the 60s there is obviously great variety but there are certain key ideological positions that are not often questioned. With Bachchan’s and some of the trends that became dominant with him the entire framework is shifted. The bourgeois apparatus is totally destabilized. All the ‘pieties’ of bourgeois thinking are questioned in every way imaginable. Which is why with the SR films of the 90s the counter-reaction was so fierce! But the Bachchan signature provokes great unease even today (I’ve argued for this elsewhere).
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March 31, 2013 at 11:17 PM
That is why he is called a game changer for bollywood, while rajni is for Kollywood.But the present day violence and gore in films has more to do with violence for violence sake Hollywood films. GOW is as much glorified as was Satya. As films are watched with such interest, the violence also becomes accepted. Violence is almost equated with manliness.
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April 1, 2013 at 6:01 AM
> Now it’s one thing to not be able to watch realistic, gruesome violence on screen and quite another to object even to Mamohan Desai’s cartoonish variety!
I remeber making this same point here about why I love ABs films inspite of the ‘violence’ which was just background noise mostly. One joked that after all the bashing the characters remained uninjured – but it was a decision (of sensitive minds) to make it so.
Dabaang had the same style of fights and I respected it for that.
>However in the present no such reception really exists among women, i.e. those belonging to a more contemporary generation.
How do you know that, satyam? I have three reasons to disagree;
-I know many who don’t like it
-if the success of such films makes you come to this conclusion then the success is due to the majority (males) who outnumber women
-that some young women don’t mind cannot be excluded (then or now). These can be of two kinds;
a)those who genuinely like it/don’t mind it
b)those who pretend to follow the dictum ‘women are equal to men in all respects and like them we too love violence’. This forms the majority of young women in this group, who are struggling to appear ‘cool’ etc – one of the innumerable ‘wannabe’ examples one can see around.
I hope these women have changed their minds after the brutal gangrape in Delhi.
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April 1, 2013 at 6:40 AM
PS: There’s one more point;
-this includes those women who don’t want to give up a film that they feel is a ‘must watch’ for other reasons.
So here we see a strategy where violence is present in addition to things which would appeal to minds against watching violence. When the choice becomes narrower then this type would have to give up watching most films, which she doesn’t want to do.
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April 1, 2013 at 8:29 AM
In India, it is mostly the mother in law and sisters in law who set brides on fire if demands for dowry are not met, if a woman fails to conceive, if a woman gives birth to a girl etc. etc.
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April 1, 2013 at 8:42 AM
Thanx for those views OG & sanju-u confirm the impression I had. Infact nowadays whist watching violent films I try to avoid female company to avoid discomfort (except if I’m watching it with anya lol). As satyam &u rightly mentioned, the point is not only the ‘violence’, but the context & ‘gaze’ of the camera that makes it perverted.
But hey, all girls are also adult individuals & have the right to view what they wish to. i admittedly sometimes do have uninvited concern and empathy for some though lol.
“This forms the majority of young women in this group, who are struggling to appear ‘cool’ etc – one of the innumerable ‘wannabe’ examples one can see around”— oops haha naughty!
Well, I respect view points of both buddies and will let that person answer & will stay mum 🙂
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April 1, 2013 at 8:43 AM
These belong to category;
>a)those who genuinely like it/don’t mind it
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April 1, 2013 at 8:52 AM
“April 1, 2013 at 8:43 AM
These belong to category;
>a)those who genuinely like it/don’t mind it”
Haha Roflol Oldgold– u hit that full toss hit to the boundary ..
Anyas daughter in law seems to be in trouble ( pardon just a joke-not o be taken seriously !)
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March 31, 2013 at 11:04 PM
Who wrote those reviews?
A film can be thrashed even if it is good. Raja sen does it to Aamir’s films and Khalid also had done it to the same star.
As for Filmfare, it can either stand by its reviews or give a public apology. Now who will take them seriously? Or their awards?
No doubt, Bachchan sounds bitter and angry about media. They have also intruded into his private space.
Media is like a 2 edged sword. One can use it carefully to One’s advantage and one can get injured also. Cant avoid it, especially if one is famous.
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April 1, 2013 at 1:41 AM
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April 1, 2013 at 1:57 AM
Himmatwala Has Low Weekend
Saturday 30th March 2013 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala collected 26.50 crore nett over its first weekend as collections came down heavily on Saturday and showed limited improvement on Sunday. The film has fared better at B and C centres but collections at multiplexes in major centres are dull.
Sometimes a major film does have a better all India distributor share from single screens over the first weekend but it is rare for the nett collections from single screens to be more than multiplexes but that is the case with Himmatwala as the multiplex contribution is so low.
The film has fared best in UP, Bihar and Central India markets. Gujarat held up best over the weekend but the start was not that good in Gujarat. Mumbai city, Delhi city, East Punjab, Kolkata and Bangalore were all very poor.
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April 1, 2013 at 7:57 AM
Midweek: ‘Himmatwala’ is below the mark!
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April 1, 2013 at 8:34 AM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 8h
In view of the fact that UTV has given #Himmatwala a wide release, the weekend numbers are shockingly low.
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April 1, 2013 at 1:58 AM
Looking at the numbers crossing 50 cr would be a challenge !
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April 1, 2013 at 8:08 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gippi-first-look-karan-johars-new-heroine-is-only-13-years-old/382399-8-161.html
‘Gippi’ First Look: Karan Johar’s new heroine is only 13 years old!
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April 1, 2013 at 8:48 AM
Haha sanju– so kjo has now moved down– from aalia to minor kids –13 year olds!!
After getting spurned by srk, hope he doesn’t get pedophilia !!
Haha
Ps: the kid in the pic looks an irritating brat like Kareena
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April 1, 2013 at 8:52 AM
I thought she looks like Kajol with that unibrow.
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April 1, 2013 at 8:54 AM
U know sanju — u stole words from my lips— how come!
Was about to the the same thing
The unibrow is the same–& she looks v ‘bubbly'( like Kajol)
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April 1, 2013 at 10:10 AM
“Curious case of KJO – oldwala young 🙂 “
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April 1, 2013 at 8:09 AM
2013- 1st Quarter Report in Kollywood
Source : SIFY
Last Updated: Mon, Apr 01, 2013 13:21 hrs
2013 first quarter report for Tamil cinema is hugely disappointing. There were a record 44 releases out of which only three will make profit for the producers. Theatrical collections are at an all time low, due to various reasons.
Kamal Haasan’s Vishwaroopam which was censored with an UA certificate was banned by the state government initially for two weeks, as they felt it would hurt the sentiments of a particular community. After the offending scenes were removed the film was cleared and released two weeks later.
The controversies helped the film to become a hit. Kamal Haasan who had pledged everything on the movie was able to pay back his creditors. Vishwaroopam is clearly the number one hit of the year so far.
Kanna Laddu Thinna Aasaiya (KLTA) is the other big winner which released for Pongal. The crass comedy, starpower of Santhanam and the marketing of Red Giants enabled it to get an opening. Powerstar Sreenivasan became a much in demand star with the film.
Pandiraj’s Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga (KBKR), released last Friday has taken a decent opening. Escape Motion Pictures and Pasanga Films had sold the film to Studio Green who in turn sold all areas and made a handsome profit. KBKR a family entertainer looks to be a safe bet for all concerned.
However the biggest disappointment of the year is the failure of some movies which were sold at a high price and bombed miserably at the box-office. Karthi’s Alex Pandian touted as the Pongal biggie bombed after the first show and is a write off.
Similarly Mani Ratnam’s highly anticipated Kadal turned out to be an epic disaster. Mani Ratnam had sold it to Gemini Film Circuit, who in turn had sold it to various distributors in Tamil Nadu. Everybody who brought the film lost money and Mannan Films demanded money back from Mani, which led to ugly scenes and a court order to provide protection to the director.
Ameerin Adhibhagavan was another biggie, a controversial film that failed to take off at the box-office. Vikram-Jiiva bilingual Bejoy Nambiar directed David was another colossal flop, which many single screens removed after three days!
Bala ‘s dark and depressing critically acclaimed Paradesi took a decent opening in multiplexes but could not sustain. It may break even from all rights put together. The other film which was critically acclaimed was Haridas, which did not get a proper release.
On the whole 2013 has started badly for Tamil film industry, which is plagued by various factors not related to movie making. .
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April 1, 2013 at 8:24 AM
IPL will add to the woes. Ordinary people want magical movies with great songs, good story and the works. They are not ready to watch experimental movies. They may watch one or two such movies but they wont patronise gluts.
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April 1, 2013 at 8:54 AM
KJo’s new Presentation :
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April 1, 2013 at 8:58 AM
Handle this 🙂
“I am making my next film with Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Amitabh Bachchan. It will start in July. The film is untitled and it is an out and out comedy. It will be a big success at the box-office,” Sajid told PTI.
http://movies.ndtv.com/bollywood/amitabh-bachchan-to-star-in-sajid-khan-s-next-348763?pfrom=home-movies
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April 1, 2013 at 8:58 AM
Hope Its fool’s day Joke 😛
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April 1, 2013 at 9:07 AM
Well bliss agree, I also hope it is an April fools joke but knowing bachchan, it may not be so!!
Even sajid is at his low rite now after the ultracrap himmatwala! And the film will hae a bigger role for saif, it seems.
Why for gods sake, is bachchan signing this one!!
All those who attacked / questioned anyas comment on rgv/bachchan !!!– we want answers ! 🙂
(& before annjo gets unnecessarily excited, it’s not bout u lol)
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April 1, 2013 at 10:07 AM
leave Big B out of criticism pl. Even I’ve stopped doing that (ha ha do i sound like Sajid Khan? 😉 ) = but honestly let big b enjoy working with whoever he wants. At this stage – he is above criticism and not answerable to any BO failures.
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April 1, 2013 at 10:11 AM
I thought only Aamir was above criticism 😉
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April 1, 2013 at 10:30 AM
i always thought it’s big b on this forum. but if he works with sajid, all bets are off
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April 1, 2013 at 1:22 PM
saurabh – aamir is above big b 😉
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April 1, 2013 at 1:26 PM
Aamir led the Bulls in their glory years..
I’m joking. You’re not!
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April 1, 2013 at 1:30 PM
Aamir is the Warren Buffet of today’s BW – investing steadily for a long time – he is a bull with 300cr horns 🙂
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April 1, 2013 at 1:41 PM
alphabetically? Jokes apart, we were discussing how actors age. The only star who aged gracefully and still looks good is Bachchan. Hope he maintains that throughout. The other day I was watching dev annad’s old songs. He looked so handsome and none can beat him in looks during those days. Even now no one comes near him in the looks department. If Madhubala is the eternal beauty, dev Anand of those days is the eternal handsome.
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April 1, 2013 at 10:58 AM
**Alex:
(& before annjo gets unnecessarily excited, it’s not bout u lol)**
Ya well, you better stop playing Alfred Hitchcock and start taking names then..
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April 1, 2013 at 2:01 PM
Take lite annjo (in the words of jiah khan of nishabd!!)
Theres nothing hitchockian or secret/personal bout it and ‘those names’ seem to have got this point ‘maturely’.
Also bachchan himself has strengthened the point by signing sajid. Since it was not addressed to u in the first place and if u are still curios, u are welcome to dig up that thread & comments!! all the best…
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April 1, 2013 at 9:02 AM
http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/scorsese-miramax-developing-gangs-tv-series-1200330567/c
Ten years after “Gangs of New York” hit theaters, director Martin Scorsese is teaming with Miramax and GK Films to develop the movie into a TV series.
The planned project would follow the story of the movie and draw on events surrounding organized gangs at the turn of the 20th century and shortly thereafter, not only in New York but in such cities as Chicago (which would arguably make it a de facto prequel to “Boardwalk Empire.”)
“This time and era of America’s history and heritage is rich with characters and stories that we could not fully explore in a two-hour film,” Scorsese said in a statement. “A television series allows us the time and creative freedom to bring this colorful world, and all the implications it had and still does on our society, to life.”
Said Miramax chairman Richard Nanula: “No one better exemplifies what the new Miramax is and will be better than Martin Scorsese. His dedication to quality and the art of storytelling continues to excite everyone that works with him and watches his films and television programs. We could not think of a better partner for this project than the creator of the wonderful film on which it is based.”
“Gangs of New York” was released in December 2002 and grossed $77.8 million domestically and an additional $116 million worldwide. The film received 10 Oscar nominations, though it won none.
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April 1, 2013 at 9:33 AM
this subject is in many ways even more suited for a TV series.
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April 1, 2013 at 11:02 AM
Don’t know if you’ve seen Copper, but Scorsese was actually beaten to the punch here by the BBC here:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/copper/
Wanted to see this but haven’t had the chance yet. It didn’t get raves or anything but like many BBC shows it’s pretty visually arresting, and I’m very interested in this time period and in both New York and American history, so at the very least this will be a nice world to explore.
Always thought Gangs deserved a longer running time, though. And a more complicated story than what the film offered at its core…no doubt Scorsese feels similarly. Really hope this pans out.
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April 1, 2013 at 11:25 AM
had heard about it but hadn’t checked it out. Wasn’t sure how good it was. Will do so now.
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April 1, 2013 at 1:05 PM
http://movies.ndtv.com/bollywood/amitabh-bachchan-to-star-in-sajid-khan-s-next-348763
hope this to be a April fool joke!!! 😦
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April 1, 2013 at 1:07 PM
my thoughts exactly!
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April 1, 2013 at 1:07 PM
Also..
http://rajakeeyachitralu.blogspot.com/2012/02/amitabh-bachchan-real-superstar-of.html
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April 1, 2013 at 1:10 PM
yes.. though given that this is Hyderabad it’s not really surprising.
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April 1, 2013 at 2:06 PM
GONY on telly
well, i will again politely disagree. Theres nothing ‘wrong’ about remaking it on telly and there are advantages due to more length and leeway/freedom.
BUT think Scorcese has already made the film to near perfection!
U cant get better than the pusating performance of DDL & even Leo. Yes there were some excesses, but dont think theres anything to add!
Scorcese may have other compulsions to remake it (due to the iconic element of the film and moreso DDL performance)
Talking of complusions, wiht due respect, I have no such compulsion (either to view it or to commend this telly remake)!!
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April 1, 2013 at 2:16 PM
public announcement—-GoW( from GoNY)
Talking of gangs of new york, im reminded of Gangs of Wasseypur1!
Just bcos the latter happens to be by an indian filmmaker, wont make me biased either ways(as happens a lot)
Purely from merit perspective, this was perhaps one of the best recent indian films ive seen.As someone here mentioned, it is 100% on rottentomatoes but thats incidental!
Cant comment on it much
, but the audience reactions —
Watched it with some blokes—none of them knew the language and all of them are very cinema literate!!
Nobody moved during the entire film (except me) and after the end credit roles, there was silence for a while.
Then i looked at them and felt proud!!
ps:Satyam-its high time, u break your silence on gow1. And i dont wanna ‘encourage’ anya (she doesnt need it) with these violent films, but will invite his/her views on this–its authentic cinema at its best besides capturing the up/bihar hinterland from where he/she comes from 🙂
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April 1, 2013 at 2:39 PM
I will be absolutely frank here- The kind of milieu and world GoW-1 creates has NEVER been seen before in Hindi cinema. The fact that ‘each and every’ foreign reviewer has commended the film means something. And hate to be blunt abt this but as much as I like DMD it does not even come anywhere near GoW.
And not since Ghulami (Lagaan was another such attempt) have I seen a film with such a wide canvass and create such diverse characters. So while it might not be as flawless as say a Khaki/Udaan/TZP or as courageous as Dev/RDB it is IMO even more ambitious than all of these. And this is a film one should try and defend everywhere.
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April 1, 2013 at 3:04 PM
e-mailed you
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April 1, 2013 at 3:04 PM
good point-Will go even further!
I dont wanna put guys like rohan sippys dmd with this. Dmd may infact be a good film on its own.(or even the other films mentioned above)
This comparison is unfair to both.
Films like GoW are simply a different ball-game!!
note how i simply cant/dont put my (dodgy) reviews on films that i really like—for eg some recent ones- cocktail, rockstar, ETT, tree of life, stoker, hobbitt or now gow.
I simply get a ‘paralysis’ of articulation(not that its gr8 otherwise)
theres this myth that certain genres are better/more superior than others–dont agree & I can appreciate all.
—but i dont favour/restrict to some genre(s)–its not deliberate but somehow I can appreciate the COMPLETE spectrum !!!
ps-Pardon the unintentional lack of humility
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April 1, 2013 at 3:43 PM
Since I have not seen more than bits of the film I can’t argue about it. Will say as a general matter that there is sometimes a critical bias towards ‘epic’ works. This is so in Hollywood before all else. In the same sense people tend to be partial to films that wear their points on their sleeves. Which does not mean I am arguing against epics. I am in fact greatly partial to them myself. Nor am I suggesting that the smaller work is automatically better. To the extent that I tend to voice some skepticism about GoW it is so for the very same reasons that I tend to part company with those who worship Agneepath (the original). Or those who love Sarkar or Scarface or whatever. Not that all of these films exist at the same level. There are of course distinctions but the reception of gangster life if you will seems to be rather generous in contemporary India. Or I should be more precise. It is so among males of this current generation and a half. In other words one has forever been waiting for the great gangster film out of India. It is not that I don’t appreciate some or all of these films. But I know that Agneepath speaks more to many folks than Trishul for reasons that are not directly connected to the strengths and/or weaknesses of each film. And this entire equation operates along gender lines. In all these years on the blogoshphere or in conversations elsewhere I have never seen young women being as big on most or all of these films.
With respect to GoW though I might sometimes seem uncharitable but it’s partly because I don’t find it to be a sign of automatic progress for Hindi cinema to attempt a genre or capture a small town milieu or adopt a tone that is not commonly associated with Hindi cinema (though I would argue that GoW represents perhaps the pinnacle of a ‘mix’ that has been ascendant in Bollywood for quite some time). In other words the question shouldn’t be whether GoW is a great film or not relative to what Bombay otherwise makes. It might well be this. But is it also one relative to so many gangster tales that have followed in so many other parts of the world or even if not gangster tales precisely films that use the very same mix of elements? So there might be a GoW set in Latin America somewhere, another set in East Asia, so on and so forth. In each case the local setting adds something. But it is not necessarily enough to make the film great just for that reason. And this comparison is entirely fair for a film that is also being marketed as an international one. Along the same lines I didn’t much care for the otherwise acclaimed Mesrine at all. Felt it was too much of a Hollywood film. There just wasn’t enough ‘difference’ here. Liked Carlos a lot more than this but liked Che even more. Not to suggest that Che is the same as Carlos (!) but there is a loose symmetry in certain ways. In any case it’s not just about GoW. My own hunch based on whatever I know of the film, the little bits I’ve seen (and I do hope to finally see the whole thing!), and also a great deal of opinion I’ve read on it is that I will probably end up preferring RGV’s Rakta Charitra double to it. But I could be wrong.
So there isn’t at least on my part some irrational stinginess that forces me not to give GoW its due. Leaving this aside it’s also about personal taste. So for instance I might personally prefer Mausam to Sholay. This will sound bizarre to most people but I’m quite serious. I’m not saying the latter is the greater film (though it’s greater than people think), just that I like it more. It’s a question of what’s being discussed. Leaving aside some great Bachchan works I’d rather watch the small Hrishikesh Mukherjee or Basu Chatterjee film (or something similar) than just about anything else in the cinema’s history. Similarly with the exception of Ratnam and probably some iconic commercial favorites from Tamil cinema (mostly over the last 30 years) I’d rather watch those small Malayalam films from their golden period in the 80s over anything from this [Tamil] industry. Or for that matter the Hindi one. What happens is that often the discussions are about contemporary stars and then it seems like one is playing favorites but if you expand the conversation there are equally ‘eccentric’ (if one wishes to see them this way) choices elsewhere too!
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April 1, 2013 at 4:00 PM
Did u read Amitji’s latest blog?
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April 1, 2013 at 4:42 PM
just checked. what happened here?!
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April 1, 2013 at 4:46 PM
It’s probably an April fools thing..
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April 1, 2013 at 4:01 PM
“So there might be a GoW set in Latin America somewhere, another set in East Asia, so on and so forth. In each case the local setting adds something. But it is not necessarily enough to make the film great just for that reason. And this comparison is entirely fair for a film that is also being marketed as an international one. ”
Says it all really. I’ve only seen GOW-1 and on the terms you rightly frame above it’s not nearly as interesting or memorable as, say, Audiard’s A Prophet, Meirelles’ City of God or even Garrone’s Gomorrah, three films from three different cinemas that attempt to push the genre farther (as Kashyap also does) but, in my opinion, far more successfully, with flat out better results.
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April 1, 2013 at 4:15 PM
I’ll add here as I’ve said elsewhere that I don’t dislike GOW-1 and having seen it I find it tough (downright foolhardy in some cases, as evidenced here) to opine on it without seeing both parts. Just because it does seem to end only as a chapter to something larger and it’s hard to accurately assess Kashyap’s successes without seeing the big picture. But on the merit of the first one I have to say my own ignorance of the milieu aside, I don’t think there’s anything that’s particularly new or memorable aside from a few effective performances (non more than the actor who plays Shahid Khan, whose disappearance from the story robs it of a good deal of its energy) and a generally likable mood.
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April 1, 2013 at 4:27 PM
GF, my point about GoW-1 was not that it pushes the boundaries of commercial cinema but that it tries to create a very singular kind of world which IMO has never been depicted earlier in Bollywood. To put things in context if deconstruction of Masala was the bone of contention here I thought Ketan Mehta’s Hero Hiralal did that much earlier and with far better results. But here GoW does something else- it takes those Masala characters and shapes them into something else. And in my mind its greatest strength is that it plays out like a fable
Also why don’t we compare BM and DMD to their international. The former, while an engrossing enough work, is plainly derivative of so many foreign films
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April 1, 2013 at 4:35 PM
Will get to your comment later but I have always felt that Ketan Mehta always had a feel for epic registers present in a small-scale art film format. And I am not just talking abt MP here but also the criminally underrated Mirch Masala (a film which could act as a companion piece to Ghulami) and Holi.
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April 1, 2013 at 5:15 PM
“Also why don’t we compare BM and DMD to their international…”
Well that’s easy. Because despite their influences these aren’t films that were ever aggressively marketed as festival films or were otherwise geared towards an international audience. But leaving this aside, the contention with GOW as laid out here isn’t that it fails because it’s derivative of foreign films but because it plainly aims for comparison with the kind of company I’ve listed above, and when one stacks those films against Kashyap’s, you really see that his movie isn’t A) as revolutionary as it might otherwise seem and B) in my opinion, not nearly as formally accomplished or memorable from a script standpoint.
This isn’t about defending one’s favorites btw. So trying to take jabs at DMD in a discussion about GOW (not saying you’re doing this) is a little useless…
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April 1, 2013 at 7:36 PM
yeah there’s always something gratuitous about the DMD comparison cropping up in multiple contexts. No one has to agree with one’s opinion on the film. People are free to like any number of movies more than it!
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April 2, 2013 at 12:05 AM
I agree with Saurabh here. I read the story and its quite compelling. The story traces so many things like traditional rivalry, predominantly muslim characters whom we consider as some monolith but the truth is otherwise. The female characteristics are also realistic and there is coal mafia and trade union manipulation. So many things put together is itself a herculanean effort. Where do we get to see so many grey characters who are neither heroes nor villains?
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April 2, 2013 at 8:41 AM
The question though is whether we ‘need’ grey characters? In fact the greatest cliche in cinema for very many years is the ‘grey’ character! Perhaps we need more black and white characters today! I am not criticizing GoW but the idea that grey characters are an end in themselves. There are very many great films that don’t feature great characters. And here too it’s a cliche to think that there haven’t been grey characters before in Hindi cinema. The 70s had very much of this in very many ways. Even before this Dev Anand did a number of characters that were grey. Raj Kapoor has some very interesting parts on this score even in some of his most iconic films. A similar case could be made for Dilip Kumar. It’s true that not every decade is like the 50s or 70s in this regard (or in most other ways!). In 1951 a lead character picked up a knife against his father (awara) and this wasn’t the limit of his ‘greyness’. Once again this gets to my larger point (which is not necessarily a criticism of GoW) that it is only a certain kind of package that is often celebrated and Kashyap is a master at playing to this audience base. He’s obviously a gifted filmmaker and would be more gifted still if he’d relax a bit! But hand-in-hand with his gifts goes a certain skill set which he has in terms of really pushing the right buttons for his key supporters (audience). He’s been excellent at a certain kind of marketing. Recently in an interview Kalki said that even as Kashyap gets more successful and therefore very busy he’s constantly wondering if he’s prostituting himself or whatever. I don’t think there’s any such deep dilemma here because Kashyap is willingly becoming part of this game. No one is as active a self-promoter of himself or herself, at least this side of Sajid Khan, than Anurag Kashyap! It’s true. He has every right to do so but I am less convinced by all this angst that Kalki refers to. And yes I do believe the bar is higher when you pretend to be a crusader against big bad Bollywood but then instantly sign on to the same discourse the moment you can. In any case my point is that he plays very well to a certain crowd and is very successful at providing a pre-determined frame for his films (pun intended!). He’s very successful at a certain kind of manipulation (when his self-bred coterie doesn’t do it for him) where those who like GoW or whatever feel it is a moral duty to do so. Or that there has never been a film like this. And so on. The claims about the film might or might not be true. It’s debatable either way. But the ‘lie’ if you will lies in the way the debate is framed with active help from Kashyap. And again I bring this all up not to criticize him but to illuminate what is (from my perspective) the larger structure here.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:49 AM
This is a fascinating read Satyam but I don’t think GoW-1 necessarily has grey characters- in fact almost all of them are twisted bad men (and women) and this is what makes them interesting- they are not overwritten so as to make them sympathetic (though they are not as repulsive as the ones in Raktha Charithra ones). The only exception here is Shahid Khan played fantastically by Jaideep Ahlawat
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April 2, 2013 at 9:13 AM
I was just responding to Sanjana’s comment..
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April 2, 2013 at 8:57 AM
And you are right that Kashyap is a master at self-promotion but he also backs films which deserve to be baked (just recently he did that for Paradesi. There are no selfish reasons involved). The kind of films Phantom is producing is commendable to say the least. Also one of the reasons why I think Kashyap deserves the accolades for GoW is because it was his first foray into mainstream cinema and he chose that moment to make it his most ambitious project- it requires a lot of guts to do that
Aside saw my first Kasaravalli film Mane (Ek Ghar) last night and this was a fascinating film with a great Hitchcockian mood to it. And thanks for mentioning Misaal the other day- must admit I had never heard of the film before but thankfully it’s there on youtube
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April 2, 2013 at 9:36 AM
I didn’t mean he was being ‘selfish’ or anything. I find this kind of vocabulary too easy and not very useful. He has every right to foster his career the way he sees fit. I am only arguing that he knows how to very successfully create a ‘reading’ for his work that sticks. For instance if RGV had made the very same double (GoW) he wouldn’t have got half the positive attention that Kashyap did. Much as if Kashyap had made the RC double we would have heard a lot more on this. RGV was always engaged in his industry polemics but he also never valorized his own work or formulate it in inflated terms. He was clearly a man on a mission but he wasn’t playing ball with either side. Kashyap though projects himself as this revolutionary figure for alternative cinema and the ultimate protector of all worthwhile films and so on. Commercial failure doesn’t hurt him either. When the films work at any level he keeps publicizing this. When they fail it confirms the value of his films in a different way! As I’ve argued before Kashyap precisely needs the Bollywood structure to keep arguing against it. Beyond this he tends to be very inconsistent in terms of the films he starts championing. This isn’t the Scorsese deal where he literally supports a very wide range of works from all across the world. He doesn’t play favorites on this score. But also note how in recent years he’s also become ‘tamer’ as he’s got more success. When LBC released he was praising Hrithik on a show along with some others, recently he praised Ranbir, now he’s made peace with Bachchan and said explicitly on twitter that he made the first move, now he’s doing something with the latter too. This after suggesting for years that he had the mother of all grudges with him. So it all becomes rather convenient. The more successful he gets the more he becomes normalized. And there’s other stuff too by the way! The reason I bring up all of this is that all of it is part and parcel of the reception of his works. He actively co-produces it! And so with GoW the idea that it is some absolute masterpiece that is revolutionary for Indian cinema and so forth is frankly something that I find very hard to swallow. But this is the way the film is talked about among its adherents. Because the groundwork for such a reception has already been laid down in various ways.
This is not just about going international on Kashyap (though he happily does it all the time). There are very many films from the Tamil new wave that would be crazily celebrated were they available in Hindi. Of course you will often here Tamil or Southern audiences themselves going crazy over GoW and not thinking as much about their ‘native’ films. Because there is a colonization structure here as well. Just as many Hindi viewers are able to support all kinds of questionable Hollywood choices as legitimate the same holds for Southern viewers with respect to Hindi cinema. So I don’t see even the relative framework within which such exaggerated claims about GoW makes sense. Which doesn’t mean that it’s not a good or worthwhile film.
Finally ‘foreign critics’ isn’t a self-evident term for me. It all depends on who the critic is and what is being said. While there is a film culture in place or more precisely a critical culture in many or all Western countries that means something this doesn’t automatically make every critical utterance legitimate or beyond debate. The same holds for festivals and so on. Obvious Cannes and Venice are not the same as Doha! But here too nothing is beyond reproach. For instance the last couple of Almodovar movies weren’t even considered at Cannes. They have their own politics. One should of course give due weight to all these things but ultimately examine the work itself. I have great respect for some of these institutions and/or some of these critical voices but I don’t regard either as ‘self-evident’. There are for instance certain varieties of important cinema that are never rewarded at even the most prestigious festivals (even though they are praised by important critics). There are histories implicated either way. A film is never celebrated or lionized (or vice versa) without the mediation of powerful institutional forces that then shape the majority opinion at least for a long time till critical trends start pointing a different way.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:58 AM
I did not see the movie so I cant comment how the movie turned out to be. There is a difference when a story is told in the movie format. I generally avoid certain types of movies of blood and gore. Fortunately the story cant depict graphic violence! About grey characters. When directors make heroes out of villains, they try to tell the story from their point of view and thus those characters gain some sympathy.
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April 2, 2013 at 9:06 AM
Even our epics, especially, Mahabharata, has lots of violence and intrigue. That was made palatable by bringing gods into the picture!
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April 2, 2013 at 9:14 AM
I am afraid if RGV and AKashyap have their way, they may make gangs of Kurukshetra or gangs of Indraprstha. Not the sanitised version like Kalyug.
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April 2, 2013 at 7:17 AM
+1
I second you Sourabh What you said on GOW 1 & II.
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April 1, 2013 at 2:28 PM
To add–
someone ( i think sanju) above mentioned ‘manliness’ about Gow.
Yeah–it IS a ‘manly’ film & im proud of it!!
Im a bit fed up of this ‘pussification’ of guys all around( this word is my patent btw)
ps–recently watched Clooneys “descendants” and though i loved that film (&clooneys perfomrance) quite a lot, something made me uncomfortable about it.
GoW corrected that. Any guys reading this(and who have seen both films), will know what im talking bout 🙂
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April 1, 2013 at 3:14 PM
A ‘power of Cinema” moment!==GoW1 (Manoj Bajpai)
Finally a guys thing—The end scene
This makes sense ONLY after watching the complete film(& if u are a guy)
Manoj Bajpais character at the last scene goes out alone. Theres a lingering sense of ‘something about to happen’. None of his usual cronies/accompaniments happen to be around.
He goes out in his jeep and starts to get petrol.
Suddenly his own ‘mistress’ (who he had gone to meet) ironically tips off some ‘enemies’ who surround him and spray bullets on his jeep!
Theres silence for ten seconds
And then bajpai ’emerges’ gun still in hand
The next minute of so with Snehas title song playing in the background is what I call one of the “power of cinema’ moment!
One of the best homages to this bullcrap ‘masala’ we keep hearing about and yes, a humble tribute to AMitabh of deewaar!!
Hats off Manoj Bajpai & Anurag Kashyap!
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April 1, 2013 at 4:25 PM
Glad you enjoyed the final scene of GOW1…a perfect tribute to everyone from Sergio Leone to Sam Peckingpah! The lighting, sounding and camerawork is just fantastic. The mixing of “jiya ho bihar ke lala” as Bajpai emerges from the car wounded and confused is well done. Arguably, in my top 5 favorite scenes in the last 13 years….
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April 1, 2013 at 8:35 PM
yeah agree–that final scene was indeed remarkable!
btw my above rant is just personal and i do not expect others to agree or even read it…
Read a few comments above —
a) Agree with satyam that ‘epics’ usually are assessed differently.
b) Theres mention of part 1 being ‘insufficient’ to assess it
Well, the length of part1 is more than the entire length of more than one entire englsh feature film.s
Infact one doesnt even have to see an entire film to get an (approx) idea of the tone/calibre of a film
c) some exotic obscure names have been mentioned by some knowledgable folks
Now ‘a prophet’ has been mentioned that happens to be a prison drama from france and deals with issue of islamic identity of arab immigrants! Perhaps some can use that to judge GoWs calibre (inspite of the different setting and milieu and also theme) but i find it difficult
d) Finally
I find it complicating trying to pigeon-hole films into ‘prestige’ ‘masala’, ‘festival’, ‘escapist’, ‘spaggheti western’ ‘masala southern/northern’, ‘remake homage’, ‘not mainstream’ ‘ catering to international audiences’ & so on..
Perhaps im not intelligent enug—
For me– the criteria is simple–
was the film
Good or bad
Engrossing or not
Enjoyable or not
🙂
Good or bad
ps–this is not a reflection on any of the knowledgable commentator(s) here but just my random views..
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April 2, 2013 at 12:26 AM
Aamir Khan finally signs ‘Bombay Talkies
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2013/apr/020413-aamir-khan-finally-signs-bombay-talkies.htm
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April 2, 2013 at 1:23 AM
A year back, Aamir seemed to give the impression that PK would be his last acting assignment. Looks like it may not be so. I think he may continue acting for a year or two before hanging up his acting boots at 50 plus or therabouts. He has just turned 48, so I wish he’d do a solid role fast, something like Sarfarosh, in a significant main role . He was good in Talaash, but his story with Rani-Kareena got almost sidelined by the Nawaaz track!
Watched Talaash second time, couple of days back on Sony HD channel, no breaks — terrific experience. Loved the film despite the unbelievable bits. Loved the fact that all characters big and small, all were given due importance. The Nawaazuddin story climaxed so beautifully. Aamir too is finally shown accepting his wife’s obsession with other-worldly contact attempts. I suppose there are various ways of coming to terms with grief. The late RK Narayan actually used planchette sessions to come to terms with his grief over young wife’s sudden demise.
So Talaash may not be such a fanciful unrealistic story, after all.
Aamir in Bombay Talkies–looks like a small cameo in a commemorative film about 100 years of cinema. Looking forward to the film.
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April 2, 2013 at 1:57 AM
oh dear LS! I thought that bombay talkies news is an april-fool story (published on 1st – mind it) but your statement “I think he may continue acting for a year or two before hanging up his acting boots at 50 plus or therabouts” takes the cake 🙂
next 10 years – 10 films at-least from aamir – yeah! age will catch up fast maybe after 4-5 yrs but he is very disciplined and passionate abt his physique unlike smoking srk or drinking sallubhai – so i doubt he will hang up his boots so soon – we have another Big B in making here who will be acting at 70 also ……
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April 2, 2013 at 2:02 AM
I agree. It is too early to retire. Hope he changes his mind.
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April 2, 2013 at 3:01 AM
it is LS who has to change her mind 🙂 she is the biggest fan of aamir i’ve known alongwith satyam 😉
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April 2, 2013 at 3:03 AM
its been a long time satyam wrote abt aamir – i mean a long write-up – so lets all drag him into all aamir-related talks until he relents 🙂
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April 2, 2013 at 3:16 AM
Umm –Bombay Talkies an April fool story. perhaps ..? Let’s see!
Aamir is fit but his face shows his years; and I will be happier if he ages gracefully without resorting to cosmetic tricks. He last looked his real self in Fanaa–and in spite of being overweight still manged to charm me and a few other Fanaa fans. He has admitted to dyeing his hair since mid twenties and I guess he is also ok about appearing in public with as much hair as he still lucky to sport.
Here he is caught on waiting camera, a couple of months back.
http://www.pinkvilla.com/entertainmenttags/aamir-khan/aamir-khan-spotted
I wish he’d play age-appropriate characters. Like the Talaash role.
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April 2, 2013 at 3:35 AM
meanwhile SRK/FK are playing their “appropriate” roles in real life 😉
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Ill-take-serious-action-this-time-Manoj-Kumar/articleshow/19339460.cms
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April 2, 2013 at 3:46 AM
ok LS – Fanaa – aamir and here u go 🙂
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April 2, 2013 at 3:50 AM
aamir-kajol / aamir-tabu – these 2 pairs are not being cast – why???
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April 2, 2013 at 3:56 AM
this one also i like a lot:
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April 2, 2013 at 5:36 AM
I promise I won’t say a word about the pinkvilla pictures 😀
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April 2, 2013 at 5:46 AM
>meanwhile SRK/FK are playing their “appropriate” roles in real life
Hmmm Don’t tempt me into a rant about ‘appropriate’ real life roles of the ‘pinkvilla picture star’.
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April 2, 2013 at 4:28 AM
@ideaunique –thanks for the Fanna videos. Meanwhile, here is a news item dated April 2, about the Bombay Talkies film and Aamir’s last minute add-on role. Hope it is true; the film sounds interesting.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Aamir-Khan-to-shoot-a-special-segment-for-Bombay-Talkies/articleshow/19337552.cms
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April 2, 2013 at 7:43 AM
@oldgold –I feel that the pinkvilla-recent aamir pics are fine. I mean the man looks his age–and that isn’t a crime. Movies and showbiz are all about making the unreal real — and it applies to any star, Aamir, SRK whoever. It’s more important that these chaps play their parts sincerely; while watching the film they should slide into the role, that’s all.
A few years back, Salman was visibly losing hair, a bald spot visible. Of late it isn’t visible. Obviously some work has gone in–and that’s ok by me. While watching Ek tha Tiger, I thought about the character, not the actor. Though Salman did look ‘tired’, he managed to carry off the role.
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April 2, 2013 at 7:49 AM
Playing one’s part sincerely, putting the necessary effort–http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Aamir-Khan-is-taking-Bhojpuri-lessons/articleshow/19339911.cms
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April 2, 2013 at 8:23 AM
“I promise I won’t say a word about the pinkvilla pictures”–haha oldgold–dont worry u can break your promise–cmon
@ idea -thankx for those fanaa songs–like em
@ LS–How did u find ETT? btw revisited bits on telly–thought the stunts pulled by katrina were really good–u remember the one where she jumps from one building
to another on a sort of a falling column–& good fitness levels shown by katrina… & some parts were actually done without a body -double…apparently
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April 2, 2013 at 8:31 AM
I liked Katrina in ETT. She was good with her stunts and even performance otherwise–pretty fair.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:40 AM
Good to hear LS-finally a woman praising Katrina & giving her her ‘due’..
Btw LS–any good books uve been reading lately. I’m a screen addict and don’t read books anymore–but I told a few of your earlier book reccos to some chicks & they were impressed..
Any more plz..
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April 2, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Well, some of these books are really good. I’ve reviewed them for a paper, through past few months.
Farishta, a novel by Patricia Mcardle.
Around India in Eighty Trains by Monisha Rajesh.
Land of the Seven Rivers, by Sanjeev Sanyal.
The last mentioned is an amazing book ; will be loved by history-geography buffs. The first book is a fictionalized version of an american diplomat’s experience in war-torn Afghanistan, post 9/11. The second book is an British Indian’s take on India, attempting to do a real-life 80 trains-3 month version of Jules Vernes classic,Around the world in 80 days. It’s great fun to read.
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April 2, 2013 at 9:24 AM
Wow that’s brilliant Thanx LS
“an British Indian’s take on India, attempting to do a real-life 80 trains-3 month version of Jules Vernes classic,Around the world in 80 days. “–
Will try to catch this one-jules Verne take on India!
“I’ve reviewed them for a paper, “–
Impressive LS
Which paper –can we have links
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April 2, 2013 at 9:26 AM
I really liked Katrina in ETT, and those stunts were well done. I liked the film for these two reasons plus the Turkes scenes were great too.
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April 2, 2013 at 7:25 PM
“I really liked Katrina..”– that’s nice Oldgold -btw did u end up seeing jthj ..
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April 3, 2013 at 2:27 AM
She sucks rear-side. Blank expressions. Even in jthj, I thought her performance would come off as a constrained type but it was just crap. :O
And ETT required the opposite of a constrained performance. I found her horrible.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:28 AM
Not sure whether I am supposed to cringe or have a good laugh over this-
Kanti Shah’s new film against rapists- “Ek Ek Kaa Kaat Doongi”-
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April 2, 2013 at 8:35 AM
“Ek Ek Kaa Kaat Doongi”—
Roflol hahahaha
My god–what’s that !!
Ps: folks to tell u the truth– In that poster, i somehow saw mr anya/anya aunty running towards me with a knife in hand to …
Need to run!!! 🙂
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April 2, 2013 at 10:11 AM
^^Not for kids/minors –*
My ‘nightmare’!
Haaww Omg i got busy in LS brilliant books& anya has finally ‘grabbed’ me!
-Og, sanju, LS– plz save me from anya !!
She’s about to cut…
Ok i ‘surrender’ to the four of u-I’m willin to do anything u want–plz spare me… 🙂
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April 2, 2013 at 11:44 AM
Finally I’ve been released but after what ‘price’??
& by four!! Shhhh– you four!!
Im scared & suspect it may happen again soon–I’m tired!!
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April 3, 2013 at 9:56 AM
‘Main lut Gaya’ 4 times !! 🙂
And to top it –OG and anya are perverted
(Must say sanju & LS were ‘gentle’) hehe
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April 2, 2013 at 8:29 AM
To return to the original topic –Himmatwala — I almost never rejoice at a film’s failure -t’s not right, considering so much of time effort and money has gone into a team work project like a film. But Sajid Khan-Ajay Devgan’s pre-Himmatwala release pronouncements have manged to put off many people including self. Sajid Khan has always been a brash loudmouth, but sadly Ajay seems to have gone down a similar path . This article says it all.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/himmatwala-does-sajid-khan-really-claim-to-know-what-public-wants/382672-8-66.html
From the article–
Devgn, on the other hand has been quoted in many media outlets as saying that “Critics are like eunuchs, they know how to do it but they can’t do it themselves.” Classy.
Even the pic accompanying the article–yuck.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:34 AM
If it’s true then this is extremely shameful stuff from Devgn. No two ways about it. Success has started to get to his head.
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April 2, 2013 at 8:44 AM
Especially funny coming from Devgan considering that critical acclaim (even if it’s very hollow in this industry) is one of the key reasons he’s had much of a career to speak of. His relevance doesn’t come from the completely disposable box office hits he’s enjoyed in recent years. Or at least not this alone, and certainly not over the past decade or so. In general, it’s hard to argue for critics in Hindi cinema because so many of them are just bad writers, but this kind of commentary, besides being in plain bad taste, is hardly helpful in changing that.
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April 2, 2013 at 9:23 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Talent-is-about-being-in-the-right-place-Naseeruddin-Shah/articleshow/19338440.cms
Talent is about being in the right place: Naseeruddin Shah
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April 4, 2013 at 1:42 PM
just like he was in the latest flick “sona spa”? 😉
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April 2, 2013 at 9:41 AM
@aa95–well, I can give links to reviews–
1. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/289895/afghan-awakening.html
2. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/298751/rediscovery-rail.html
The link above is for the trains book. Here is a link to its ebook version–
http://www.flipkart.com/around-india-80-trains/p/itmd9zmgpmhdp42q
The review for the history-geography book in India–
3. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/314430/sapta-sindhu-saga.html
A link to the third book —
http://www.flipkart.com/land-seven-rivers-brief-history-india-s-geography/p/itmdem2b6pfv4f4a
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April 2, 2013 at 9:55 AM
Wow LS– must say I’ve got a talent to detect brilliant talent haha
Jokes apart–they are great
I will suggest they are made into a separate post –not exactly films but relevant and very well written –cheers
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April 2, 2013 at 10:20 AM
Congrats LS.
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April 2, 2013 at 10:24 PM
That’s great stuff LS. Really going to get to the books you have mentioned and would read your reviews as well. Aside have you read Mumbai Fables- superb stuff
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April 3, 2013 at 2:56 PM
@Saurabh –Did a google-check on Mumbai Fables . Found a DNA review dated Oct 2010; indicates that it’s a sort of ode to Mumbai’s past and present. Sounds interesting. Haven’t seen it in stores; I guess flipkart may have it. Thanks for info.
Actually so many good books appear and soon disappear from spotlight, rather like small and good films. It is the usual bestsellers that linger on in public space. Must do an article on books and films that appear and vanish into oblivion. So much of effort gone to waste.
I have heard that many good books literally get pulped into cardboard puree–all for want of proper marketing, publicity and sales. At least films manage to reach people thru’ satellite. So an ‘Atithi tum kab jaoge’–so watchable, ironic and quite realistic and funny– it is shown repeatedly on channels and manages to get its viewers. Some consolation for the film’s prodn team.
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April 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Thanks to aa and Sanjana.
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April 2, 2013 at 11:30 AM
Hey LS– these are the right ‘length’ for me( to read!)
Love your ‘rediscovery by rail’ piece-passed this onto some1 -who wants to read this before an India trip!
Lol @ ‘holy cow view’ of india
‘fellow fraudsters’
Bombay -‘ india in its most concentrated form’
‘side berth’
Oslo ashram ‘robes’
Btw who was the passé part out?
This ‘lifeline express’ sounds interesting…
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April 2, 2013 at 1:32 PM
@aa95 — You may be aware that Passepartout is the name of the fictional companion to the fictional Phineas Fogg from the Jules Verne classic ‘Around the World in eighty days’. Monisha was accompanied by a prickly Norwegian friend who also doubled as her travelmate-photographer. His name is not revealed in the book; he is just referred to as Passepartout. In a travel-blog that preceded the book’s release, Monisha mentioned the Norwegian’s name. Some short videos are also available vide the blog..The Deccan Herald people have hyphenated the name unnecassarily.
And you should also if possible, get your hands on Australian journo Sarah Macdonald’s Holy Cow, about a year in India (200-2001). Hilarious and empathetic; she met Bollywood people too. There is a bizarre encounter with Amitabh in his dressing room; and she travelled with Preity and Aamir in a cab , to a spl screening of Dil chahta hai, plus spoke to the stars.
If Satyam can start a special thread about books with/without some connection to films, I will be happy to quote from these books.
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April 2, 2013 at 7:31 PM
@ LS-many thanks for that info.
“If Satyam can start a special thread about books with/without some connection to films, I will be happy to quote from these books.”–yes I also suggested this earlier.
IMO its better to write what one really feels.
Either ways-IMO it doesn’t matter-people do read what they have to, irrespective of it being a separate thread or not ..
Atleast I will read your mini book reviews –smile
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April 2, 2013 at 1:34 PM
Edit–What I meant to say was that the newspaper had unnecessarily hyphenated the name Passepartout.
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April 3, 2013 at 7:07 PM
@ LS– btw thanx for introducing me to the concept of book reviews.Actually i dont have the pateince to read a complete book (unless forced professionally).
BUt by reading these mini-reviews, one can get a reasoanble scent of whats in the book, provided the book mini review is done well (as in the case of your ‘rediscovery by rail’ review). It has enough ‘meat’ in it without the bones, so as to say!
ps-LS –do u know /recommend any good audio-books—good for listening whilst driving –now dont call me ‘demanding’ lol
btw hope u dont mind my ‘jokes’ above–they are (more than) wierd. Regulars here are used to them. just checking (not that i will change) haha
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April 2, 2013 at 2:22 PM
HI GUYS!!! :O
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2344678/
just wanted to leave this over here 😛
You really gotta be a Himmatwala to watch Himmatwala!
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April 2, 2013 at 10:30 PM
Rangan on django unchained :
baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/lights-camera-conversation-8r536-265807/
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April 3, 2013 at 2:33 AM
😐 I … wasn’t … talking … about … django. 😦
kidding 😛
But, Tarantino movies are something that just can’t be comprehended by critics (even people who judge the Oscars). They look through a “rule book” that “in good movies there are these kinda shots, this kinda music” etc … and Tarantino breaks every one of them. So, I never go to critics for Tarantino movies.
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April 2, 2013 at 10:38 PM
Aurungzeb!! Kick Ass Trailer!
[post created]
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April 2, 2013 at 10:56 PM
Everything looks good except the hero. He simply is not hero material.
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April 3, 2013 at 12:07 AM
Find the trailer decent enough- I find this kind of designer Masala (Mankatha also belongs to the same club) much better than say a Himmatwala or Ready. The only issue is Arjun Kaoor who is channeling too much of his uncle’s hyper-active persona.
Btw apart from the doppelganger trope can I smell a hint of Parvarish here (i.e. the gangster Arjun actually being Rishi’s long-lost son and/or the cop Arjun being Jackie’s son)
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April 3, 2013 at 3:01 AM
Big Yawn ….
That fellow, boney’ son can’t Act and he is doing movies.
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April 2, 2013 at 11:09 PM
In family row, HC refuses relief to Ramesh Sippy on Sholay 3D release
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/in-family-row-hc-refuses-relief-to-ramesh-sippy-on-sholay-3d-release/382720-8-66.html
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April 3, 2013 at 2:24 AM
Trailer of Steven Soderbergh’s Matt Damon and Michael Douglas starrer “Behind the Candelabra”
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April 3, 2013 at 2:28 AM
Trailer of Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg starrer “2 Guns” (directed by Baltasar Kormaskur of Contraband fame)-
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April 3, 2013 at 3:07 AM
So Aurangzeb = 1/2 Departed + Devil’s double 😀
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April 3, 2013 at 3:21 AM
First set of images from Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming film ‘Highway’ starring Randeep Hooda and Alia Bhatt-
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April 3, 2013 at 4:35 AM
I remember when Dabangg 2 exausted at 158.5 crores I had said now the Masala pot boilers will find it even difficult to reach 120 cr mark. I still stand on that opinion. None of masala south remakes not even Salman’s flicks are going to surpass Dabang 2 now. Because unlike single screen audience , the Multiplex audience needs change every 5 years. And without massive support of multiplexes films can’t cross 150 crores.
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April 3, 2013 at 6:54 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Shrivallabh-Vyas-Paralysed-and-penurious/articleshow/19356055.cms
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April 3, 2013 at 7:25 AM
OT,
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-14-168950-All-I-wanted-was-a-moment-alone-to-sit-and-weep
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April 3, 2013 at 3:09 PM
One of my favs…RIP
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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April 3, 2013 at 6:33 PM
RIP
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April 3, 2013 at 7:46 PM
Haha the interesting tale of dips & kats … 🙂
SRK charters two different flights to keep Kat and Deepika happy
Shah Rukh Khan really knows how to keep his heroines happy. He had both his heroines — Katrina Kaif and Deepika Padukone — flown by different chartered flights for the opening ceremony of IPL last night.
A source said, “Deepika is shooting for Ram Leela and only left for Kolkata late in the evening.” Katrina could have taken the same flight, but SRK booked a separate charter for the actress who is not shooting for any film currently. Our source said, “SRK makes his heroines feel special and does not like any kind of discrimination, so another chartered flight was booked for Katrina around 10 pm.”
Since Deepika and Katrina don’t really like each other’s company, Khan made sure that the rehearsals of the two heroines also didn’t clash.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/SRK-charters-two-flights-to-keep-Kat-and-Deepika-happy/articleshow/19342406.cms
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April 3, 2013 at 9:12 PM
Himmatwala Monday Business
Tuesday 2nd April 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Himmatwala collected around 4 crore nett on Monday taking its four day total to 30.50 crore nett. The film fell heavily at multiplexes all over while single screens showed the normal Monday drops. The first week is likely to end in the 39 crore nett range.
The collections were down 65-70% at multiplexes as compared to Friday while single screens were down around 50%. Monday totals from some circuits are as follows with Friday figures in brackets
Delhi/UP – 80 (220)
East Punjab 24 (60)
CP Berar 33 (73)
CI – 22 (48)
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April 3, 2013 at 9:14 PM
First quarter ends on a disheartening note!
By Taran Adarsh, April 3, 2013 – 08:30 IST
The first quarter of 2013 has concluded and to be brutally honest, it has ended on a disheartening note. Sajid Khan’s keenly anticipated biggie HIMMATWALA was mauled by reputed critics and to add to Sajid’s woes, the word of mouth is extremely negative. Even the numbers in mass-dominated circuits — which gave some hope to the film on Day 1 — are on a declining spree, while the biz at plexes is way below the mark.
Having grown up on masala films — besides reviewing the original HIMMATWALA three decades ago — I was aghast when I watched Sajid’s adaptation of that hugely entertaining movie. The fact is, Sajid has made a complete mess of that entertainer and its BO outcome, therefore, doesn’t come as a surprise. In fact, now that HIMMATWALA has failed to get the desired numbers, Mumbai-based film-makers, studios and actors will think twice before remaking a yesteryear hit. That’s a fact!
In terms of economics, HIMMATWALA is an expensive proposition and at the speed its business is sinking, UTV is sure to lose a substantial chunk of investment on this one. After three back-to-back hits, Sajid Khan has delivered a flop that’s not only a financial failure, but has also failed to live up to the mammoth expectations of the moviegoer. Now let’s hope the second quarter yields fantastic results. Fingers crossed!
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April 3, 2013 at 9:59 PM
Lol. Original Himmatwala was a hugely entertaining movie?? well, maybe.. for people like adarsh and sajid khan.
though himmatwala’s BO outcome makes me wonder whether it marks the end (of the beginning of the end) of this entire hero-worship kitsch. Glad if tha’s true, but also sad the likes of Sajid Khan and Rohit Shetty have earned enough to last them a lifetime even if they stop making films
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April 3, 2013 at 9:15 PM
taran adarsh @taran_adarsh 19h
#JollyLLB [3rd Week]: Wknd 1.60 cr, Mon 30 lacs. Grand total: 30.51 cr… Shows increased this week. Excellent!
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April 3, 2013 at 10:02 PM
btw did anyone check this out? Looks fresh, but m unsure whether it’s not offensive to show a 14-year old having hormonal changes in a commercial, “coming-of-age” Karan Johar production?
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April 3, 2013 at 11:35 PM
Looks really good-
Trailer of Ryan Gosling starrer and Nicolas Winding Refn directed ‘Only God Forgives’
[post created]
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April 3, 2013 at 11:48 PM
Chennai Box-Office – Mar 29 to 31
Wednesday, 03 April , 2013, 14:34
The Easter weekend brought back the audiences to theaters. The comedy entertainer Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga, opened very well for a Pandiraj film with Vimal and Sivakarthikeyan. It grossed 1.32 Cr from 22 odd screens in city and suburbs and is the number one.
At the number two position is Chennaiyil Oru Naal which has taken a decent opening in multiplexes and is at number two. In the third position is Paradesi, doing ok in multiplexes.
GI Joe Retaliation has taken an opening and is at number four and in fifth position Vathikuchi..
http://www.sify.com/movies/boxoffice.php?id=15025056&cid=13525926
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April 4, 2013 at 12:42 AM
This is the new film by the director of Pasanga I believe… he’s made a bigger budget film this time around…
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April 4, 2013 at 2:57 AM
There is no huge hit in the first quarter with only Jolly LLB becoming a hit and that was also due to low costs coupled with good business in Mumbai city, Delhi NCR and East Punjab only while rest of India had average to poor results.
The other films to do well were Race 2, Special 26, Ka Poi Che and ABCD – Any Body Can Dance. There was no film that could find even decent appreciation all over. The results for the first quarter of 2013 were as follows.
ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTER
–
BLOCKBUSTER
–
SUPER HIT
–
HIT
Jolly LLB – 31 crore (expected)
SEMI HIT
Race – 93.50 crore
Special 26 – 65.50 crore
Kai Po Che – 43.50 crore
ABCD – Any Body Can Dance – 39.50 crore
ABOVE AVERAGE
–
AVERAGE
–
BELOW AVERAGE
Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns – 21.25 crore
Murder 3 – 18.50 crore
Mere Dad Ki Maruti – 10.50 crore (expected)
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5549&nCat=
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April 4, 2013 at 8:05 AM
Hilarious Saltz review of Himmatwala –
http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/movies/himmatwala-a-bollywood-disco-remake.html?smid=pl-share
By RACHEL SALTZ
In its first scene, set at the Funkytown Disco in Bombay — year: 1983 — “Himmatwala” loads on the period markers, with quick nods to Michael Jackson, Madonna and, of course, the reign of disco in a song-and-dance number (called “Thank God It’s Friday,” no less) full of flashing lights and silver-clad hoofers.
But the 1983 that really interests the director, Sajid Khan, is the Bollywood one. Remaking a B-movie hit from that year, he embraces broad comedy, broad melodrama and broad strokes of good and evil. To that he adds a halfhearted wink and the occasional 2013 touch (360-degree pans!) but not much more. (Farah Khan got it right with the 2007 “Om Shanti Om,” her smart, loving spoof of that period and the film business.)
“Himmatwala” has plenty of story of course. Post-discotheque, the action takes place in one of those Bollywood villages held captive by a superrich villain. Enter a redeemer (Ajay Devgn), equipped with mother love, morals and muscles. (Mr. Devgn played a similar, better role in the 2011 “Singham,” another old-fashioned yarn.)
This movie has a few interesting things: a deus ex machina tiger, an intermittent concern for the vulnerability of women. And a few enjoyable ones: the outfits of Rekha (Tamannah), the villain’s daughter, who undergoes a split-second conversion from awful — “I hate the poor,” she declares early and often — to heroine. (Sons here replicate their fathers’ morals, but daughters can break free.)
Mostly, though, “Himmatwala” feels timid and overeager. Except when it’s terrible. What’s worse than dropping a crab down a villain’s pajama pants? Doing it again, to his simpering pal.
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April 4, 2013 at 10:44 AM
Some rare images of Parveen Babi..
http://www.mid-day.com/photos/b-town-specials/remembering-parveen-babi/parveen_babi_1/
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April 5, 2013 at 6:52 AM
New trailer of Star Trek: Into Darkness
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April 5, 2013 at 6:54 AM
Trailer of ‘Fast and Furious 6’
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April 5, 2013 at 7:20 AM
Xhobdo:
Here’s the first look poster of ‘World War Z’. Stars Brad Pitt.
Thanks
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