tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-101026222024-03-12T17:38:31.261+05:30Calcutta ChromosomeFilms, books, food, music. Things I like to read about. And a little bit of Calcutta.Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.comBlogger600125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-90013711298385381952023-12-31T18:32:00.000+05:302023-12-31T18:32:01.949+05:302023: A Round-up of Hindi Movies<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-ec383e7a-7fff-8c78-5f7d-65113e68deca" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Disclaimer: I may have been involved in a professional capacity with at least one film in this list. But before you dismiss that as partiality, do note that the other reviews have been more effusive that my assessment.</i></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-ec383e7a-7fff-8c78-5f7d-65113e68deca" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-ec383e7a-7fff-8c78-5f7d-65113e68deca" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Honourable Mentions </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Over the years, Avinash Arun has built up a very wide range of filmography - from </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Pataal Lok </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">to </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">School of Lies </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">to </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Killa </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- that defies slotting him into any genre. As we wait for the second season of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Paatal Lok </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">in early-2024, he expanded his genre list further with </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Three of Us</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. An achingly beautiful portrait of love, longing and loss, it has three stellar performances by Shefali Shah, Jaideep Ahlawat and Swanand Kirkire. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Of the many worthies who have written paeans to Bombay, Vijay Maurya is an underrated name. And yet, his eye and ear for the Quirky Central that is Bombay comes across smoothly and hilariously in </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mast Mein Rehne Ka</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. The ensemble cast is terrific, the story is far-fetched but sweet, the locales are real, but what takes the baida roti (never cake, never pav bhaji) is the dialogue - written by Maurya himself. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">5. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Kho Gaye Hum Kahan</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Arjun Varain Singh </span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPt6dO2QxstndLiaeuSCpR9vX07x-vuRQO7xagBk0z7OqjcqM4qmARH3SUtUdlsd46BR1DNmJThJJYHF7x6vkYbt9bNjqAQoaunncNy7XKchgz2B2XrEQIR_vFkGcgwFuTV5ip-JmcESmg5t4hiEWSF1lPpQOiJPGH-Jy6j6M5qyWrfPWFRQVp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="827" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhPt6dO2QxstndLiaeuSCpR9vX07x-vuRQO7xagBk0z7OqjcqM4qmARH3SUtUdlsd46BR1DNmJThJJYHF7x6vkYbt9bNjqAQoaunncNy7XKchgz2B2XrEQIR_vFkGcgwFuTV5ip-JmcESmg5t4hiEWSF1lPpQOiJPGH-Jy6j6M5qyWrfPWFRQVp=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></span></div></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">With <span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dil Chahta Hai</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, we first realised that the rich are also nice people, who fall in and out of love, can’t decide on their careers or partners, turn away from childhood friends, and can go anywhere if there is cake. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Kho Gaye Hum Kahan </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">might just do the same for the Gen Z, making us realise the fragile, sensitive, and yet adventurous souls these much-maligned kids are. Going behind the protein shakes, Tinder swipes and Insta filters, the writers (Arjun VS, Zoya A, Reema K, Yash S and Rahul N) serve a heartwarming tale of young love and ambition, leaving aside all the judgement, but not all the jokes. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And after watching Ananya Panday, one might want to go a bit easy on the ‘nepo’ tag next time! </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">4. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bheed</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> (Anubhav Sinha) + </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Afwah</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> (Sudhir Mishra)</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVsm27cVm00uJkAxLiRbyDe-TUNoa4hHWO-vtz0_uihrAWA0r_fyrEc2VTvY7lMDf0fZLAanFZej-d_qaMNtwN9c-Tx2cN56LdUywLhQ8Yg3HVbM_VZaSWQlYPr9VBfYG23JyNjNIUFgWMUddTF99KW3PfdafsIq7FJ06pQjSkGcPx-4335XMd" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgVsm27cVm00uJkAxLiRbyDe-TUNoa4hHWO-vtz0_uihrAWA0r_fyrEc2VTvY7lMDf0fZLAanFZej-d_qaMNtwN9c-Tx2cN56LdUywLhQ8Yg3HVbM_VZaSWQlYPr9VBfYG23JyNjNIUFgWMUddTF99KW3PfdafsIq7FJ06pQjSkGcPx-4335XMd=w208-h320" width="208" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are two separate films but together, they form a sort of unified comment on the post-Covid, post-truth world we are now part of. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bheed </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">traces the lives of a bunch of migrant labourers over the first couple of days of the Covid lockdown in March 2020, while </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Afwah </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">traces the life of a rumour and the impact it has on its subject and a bystander. Both films are located in painfully accurate settings, with eminently recognisable characters, and pack in a lot more than expected in their runtimes. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bheed </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">reminded me of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Paar </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Gautam Ghose, 1984) in the sense that both films are about a group of destitutes trying to be even more desperate than they normally are. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Afwah </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">reminded me of </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Party </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Govind Nihalini, 1984) because in both films, the upper crust suddenly see their elitist theories about class and society getting dissolved by the acid of the real world seeping in. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">3. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Rocky aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Karan Johar </span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigFbYfhmruKbkLUEO7OVI3m8Pr9KGKt39fL8ofmhIjjXqNcwspdRjuBbcyoXtizGZQQTodKiiGpbltbVtdSoN5_nIiISj3y0GAV0wrz9YqVcbEQ0gzInfokL9ucuSNSqLDEAb7RX8MEuyD_bH5gMtTvi7C2Ke0715T7qGNfVvGze4jdPamu9XT" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="201" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigFbYfhmruKbkLUEO7OVI3m8Pr9KGKt39fL8ofmhIjjXqNcwspdRjuBbcyoXtizGZQQTodKiiGpbltbVtdSoN5_nIiISj3y0GAV0wrz9YqVcbEQ0gzInfokL9ucuSNSqLDEAb7RX8MEuyD_bH5gMtTvi7C2Ke0715T7qGNfVvGze4jdPamu9XT=w160-h200" width="160" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">What can I say about Rocky and Rani - and their mad families, and their crazy chemistry, and their over-the-top fashion sense, and their zany humour, and their ability to hold my daughter’s attention - that hasn’t been said already?</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Well, I can say a bit... that my 12-year-old daughter probably wants to marry Rocky Randhawa. And I will probably agree. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Kyunki uski shaadi usse nahin hogi jisse woh prem karti hai, uski shaadi usse hogi jisse main prem karta hoon!</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">2. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">All India Rank</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Varun Grover </span></b></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIYgNqfNlFHGKnpn5DiKoFOLX8M5U8Lmqi9R_zUSYJDgYL2yDewbuvMJ0LXzX7TrYEnhEAN9kd9z_zAiYIeWCmxm4fEqFU43bBVGshbMUYNRKkn0lbmY90B4rQ1Ck2ybqd_KMWJfS3nZBsQjq4xYctRYzIkq21ot6MQolVqaaGmQLfb1IVPgrS" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="549" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjIYgNqfNlFHGKnpn5DiKoFOLX8M5U8Lmqi9R_zUSYJDgYL2yDewbuvMJ0LXzX7TrYEnhEAN9kd9z_zAiYIeWCmxm4fEqFU43bBVGshbMUYNRKkn0lbmY90B4rQ1Ck2ybqd_KMWJfS3nZBsQjq4xYctRYzIkq21ot6MQolVqaaGmQLfb1IVPgrS" width="320" /></a></div>All India Rank </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">was shown in festivals this year and is awaiting a theatrical release in early 2024. I saw it at MAMI and was blown away by the fresh, innocent, almost-diaphanous feel of the film - a coming-of-age tale of an IIT aspirant banished to Kota. Despite Kota being the place where a million poetic ambitions come to die, it forms a lovely, almost-romantic backdrop to the charming story set in the late 1990s. Grover mixes intricate detailing of the ‘period’ with a sharp view of the Indian middle-class, and garnishes it with great performances from the debutant and experienced ensemble cast.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">That Grover is also a poet-lyricist of the highest calibre is brought out in the joyous lyrics of the soundtrack. </span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">1. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">12th Fail</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Vidhu Vinod Chopra</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipf47UdDZjD47yf5eD_XFF7C3kJOAuNDegvDah8qMDn6L-asCGvNXYqrKFkbxmDkBi_znA0EDypIo4e3BN0FPWmhpGwtfzj6i7y2S6CaUWh66BSRmaoyZeGFcrDFW710sZy-ow0PYgyFZdqlBznmsMQqk21BYUIHM2y3oLoM9CV3oewXp6zuhZ/s1024/IMG-20231231-WA0022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipf47UdDZjD47yf5eD_XFF7C3kJOAuNDegvDah8qMDn6L-asCGvNXYqrKFkbxmDkBi_znA0EDypIo4e3BN0FPWmhpGwtfzj6i7y2S6CaUWh66BSRmaoyZeGFcrDFW710sZy-ow0PYgyFZdqlBznmsMQqk21BYUIHM2y3oLoM9CV3oewXp6zuhZ/s320/IMG-20231231-WA0022.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">When I first heard of this film (sometime in May 2023), I couldn't believe that a director of grand spectacles had chosen this subject. Why this gritty, grimy topic? </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And o</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">n the last day of the year, it is easily the best reviewed film of the year that has left both hard-nosed critics and audiences teary eyed, not to mention inspired. And 10 weeks after its release, it has made more than 5x its budget and just started streaming while still running in the theatres.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Many critics have said this is Vidhu Vinod Chopra's most realistic film. I would argue the success of <i>12th Fail </i>is the best fairytale - not only VVC - Bollywood has come up with in 2023. </span></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-30845169889425583552023-12-31T16:32:00.002+05:302023-12-31T16:32:51.666+05:302023: A Round-up of Books<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I read an alarming low number of books this year (damn you, Reels!) but still managed to find some amazing ones, which will remain with me for a very long time. I also suffered from an advanced case of tsundoku, and I promise to finish all* the books that remain precariously balanced on my bedside shelf. Let me see if I can delete Insta from my phone as a new year resolution.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">5. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Miracle Makers</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Bharat Sundaresan with Gaurav Joshi</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEwL5C6OF5zz6XdPr-Aj3UXYdjTNIth9wpXQu69yrA5UQwiyyMs0Qyv7dqvJybqCE7hfJdUqg_0sBH5iIYW9nRbupBrccuGHUzgsLRt-tXV_CHaxK19z1cWFvF2yVqAhMz4HZ1ElPwpfL03HtlvFkLx2P1NAxOJeUqQtEGuUtUDk43qjE9YOjZ" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEwL5C6OF5zz6XdPr-Aj3UXYdjTNIth9wpXQu69yrA5UQwiyyMs0Qyv7dqvJybqCE7hfJdUqg_0sBH5iIYW9nRbupBrccuGHUzgsLRt-tXV_CHaxK19z1cWFvF2yVqAhMz4HZ1ElPwpfL03HtlvFkLx2P1NAxOJeUqQtEGuUtUDk43qjE9YOjZ" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">India’s greatest Test triumph needed a chronicle to match. Sundaresan, who covered the 2020-21 India-Australia series while being caught in the confusing maze of a strict Covid lockdown, manages to get as close to perfection as the real world allows. The book does a great job of off-field reporting, bringing perspective to the on-field miracles. What looked like a team of accidental prodigies playing beyond our - and their - wildest dreams was actually the culmination of a gruelling selection and coaching process. Sundaresan does a great job of recreating the euphoria, while showing us the nuts and bolts of the sporting action.</span><p></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">4. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Great Indian Cricket Circus</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Abhishek Mukherjee and Joy Bhattacharjya </span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7C4GDWT3q1PoBde9VYGMsjZe_Yr_1LASt9yGSXGiMLGk_dYzMyEQugeK2copTDVhEIR5yG_nNZt-3WH9mRCebCKHRymNwKNowIYFuCFukNEUZCWqa57ql6_xZn8C0delgg3N4HqKfrmHqQJPZDQ_WxBNmycujVtV9Me6ENK4DcGqMA0S7qRNu" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7C4GDWT3q1PoBde9VYGMsjZe_Yr_1LASt9yGSXGiMLGk_dYzMyEQugeK2copTDVhEIR5yG_nNZt-3WH9mRCebCKHRymNwKNowIYFuCFukNEUZCWqa57ql6_xZn8C0delgg3N4HqKfrmHqQJPZDQ_WxBNmycujVtV9Me6ENK4DcGqMA0S7qRNu" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">This book combines the skills of a data analyst with the charms of a raconteur, bringing alive forgotten chapters of Indian cricketing history and illuminating so many facets of Indian society & culture through a prism of cricket. It is that classic compendium where you can read start to finish, dip in and out, go back to, create quizzes about, and generally have a lot of fun. </span><p></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">3. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Talking Life</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Javed Akhtar with Nasreen Munni Kabir</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6RuPQGH7G7afODY-r7C6fphIHAV-1BiCKhKxyi-_L4wQEepvCLd5vxVT22MEBhtO_CJXR3MG9t7YD7vdL8mxzfEaV5JOOve4A2_EV6fbdS-lbz62LpWYRo6WC0hNfLhzjBRYlAKkhdqhpucLCjJbjdIOfTf8oXDCcKC2JwGlnfIbWWwgCcSP9" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="986" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6RuPQGH7G7afODY-r7C6fphIHAV-1BiCKhKxyi-_L4wQEepvCLd5vxVT22MEBhtO_CJXR3MG9t7YD7vdL8mxzfEaV5JOOve4A2_EV6fbdS-lbz62LpWYRo6WC0hNfLhzjBRYlAKkhdqhpucLCjJbjdIOfTf8oXDCcKC2JwGlnfIbWWwgCcSP9=w263-h400" width="263" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a sequel to Nasreen Munni Kabir’s early two conversations with Javed Akhtar (<span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Talking Films </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Talking Songs</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">) and it lives up to the billing. Javed sahab talks about his life, family, upbringing, inspirations (in that order), pausing a bit in between to take crash courses on language, literature and poetry. He is also a lot mellower in his assessment of people and clearer in assigning credits for specific aspects of his writing with Salim Khan. But he remains as articulate and sharp as ever, remembering poetry, chilhood incidents, conversations at will - making the whole enterprise a joy to experience. </span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A special word of praise is due for the expert transcription that makes you almost hear the conversation.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">2. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">When Ardh Satya met Himmatwala </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- Avijit Ghosh</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHDYTgCMJYO2QY9EOcXv3CruC4pyFldKgNeoU4qZU8Qj7wMxtvwnixs4PwqhmlLpc1XItKkiXdUxGpUO6MvATxJkBMWx4k0dAD4mNv3IuEdJVPm94cAJPymHJoLORGqBAij3BFf9a1Jt5GIfgNw3I10tpjug4PCbeU9YbyoxJg2MFmDIRHuuSD" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHDYTgCMJYO2QY9EOcXv3CruC4pyFldKgNeoU4qZU8Qj7wMxtvwnixs4PwqhmlLpc1XItKkiXdUxGpUO6MvATxJkBMWx4k0dAD4mNv3IuEdJVPm94cAJPymHJoLORGqBAij3BFf9a1Jt5GIfgNw3I10tpjug4PCbeU9YbyoxJg2MFmDIRHuuSD=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The subtitle says ‘The Many Lives of 1980s Bombay Cinema’ and that’s pretty much all you need to know about the book. The book combines voluminous research with a perspective available only when you lived in the times. E.g. it lists the biggest hits of each year as listed by the trade magazines, but also adds on a few missing notables that ruled the theatres in the author’s and other people’s memories. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The book is a socio-cultural history of the 1980s. It is also a credible appreciation of the cinema of the period. But most importantly - for me - it is a time machine. It brought alive the 1980s, when I started watching movies independently. The struggles of buying tickets, the cinema vs video decisions, the feverish reading of film mags, the violent disagreements over star supremancies… this book managed to cover all that in neat chapters (titled ‘Reels’), moving methodicaly and yet never losing the passion that made us watch - and love - both </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ardh Satya </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Himmatwala</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">1. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Shesh Mrito Pakhi</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Sakyajit Bhattacharya</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFHkPZkQkKXfVN3dCEBXJeq-tJUyFvokSF_Qob_k_5WrSnk2quuNBAOHA_wuMDo1XQVA09XMZdIkU9hp9yzvYbUiGKgPkktg2V-WzOadVOXxgE-q4y_E7DvxYcWL7bxe98BVubt5qDFtp0icgODOHCc_uEx7a0QdLxS4Lcs0O-QeqzC8DGmAoh" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="250" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiFHkPZkQkKXfVN3dCEBXJeq-tJUyFvokSF_Qob_k_5WrSnk2quuNBAOHA_wuMDo1XQVA09XMZdIkU9hp9yzvYbUiGKgPkktg2V-WzOadVOXxgE-q4y_E7DvxYcWL7bxe98BVubt5qDFtp0icgODOHCc_uEx7a0QdLxS4Lcs0O-QeqzC8DGmAoh=w400-h293" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let me get this short and straight: <span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Shesh Mrito Pakhi </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">is the best detective novel in Bengali. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;">As a single novel, it is head and shoulders above anything written by the many giants of detective fiction.</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The novel has two detective stories, one a murder in the 1970s and being covered in the present day as an unsolved crime. Along with that murder is a novel written by the victim of the first and discovered recently. Layer it with the culture of revolutionary poets and their ecosystem in the Bengal of 1970s and you have a story of both impact and intricacy that makes you go back pages to catch the nuances once the revelations have emerged.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of my most satisfying achievements this year was to get this novel read by an editor, who has now commissioned an English translation. Yayy! </span></span></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-50987061186262377302023-12-31T13:45:00.003+05:302023-12-31T13:45:55.277+05:302023: A Round-up of Non-Hindi Movies<p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-860c8eb4-7fff-a6f1-dd97-06f83c538540" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;">In one fell swoop, I have combined all languages of the world - except one - and created this list. </p><p dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-860c8eb4-7fff-a6f1-dd97-06f83c538540" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">5. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Barbie</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Greta Gerwig</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I was supposed to like the other film, right? </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Barbie</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> was supposed to be the vacuous film I would take my daughter to, wearing pink and sneering at it? But when you have such a clever takedown of patriarchy, masculinity, corporate greed, human existence - all with a superhero(ine) operating in multiple universes, what’s not to like?</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4. Decision to Leave - Park Chan Wook (Mubi)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A police officer investigating a man’s death (murder/suicide) starts to fall in love with the dead man’s wife - who is, obviously, a suspect. What started off a very interesting police procedural, soon became a love story, only to end as a fable of love and loss. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">3. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ela Veezha Poonchira</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Shahi Kabir (Prime Video)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheAVoo1_jEINbcdm93R94So7t2GW0N3zNrrYfTgEWedkU6moUtxCtyrcqGHv6jm4GVxwOxiCHyeUvZ9Sm34lXMhTudDXXVKBz6Rhp7Q58ev1KkBTeyCNqEIgFMeujj0l_151bXw_XUdARIhFCecn_pDTgX1khIahTTLUAciMuR0f3zSJkD5Tew" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheAVoo1_jEINbcdm93R94So7t2GW0N3zNrrYfTgEWedkU6moUtxCtyrcqGHv6jm4GVxwOxiCHyeUvZ9Sm34lXMhTudDXXVKBz6Rhp7Q58ev1KkBTeyCNqEIgFMeujj0l_151bXw_XUdARIhFCecn_pDTgX1khIahTTLUAciMuR0f3zSJkD5Tew=w160-h200" width="160" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two middle-aged men in a distant outpost in the hills. Mist descending and lifting on their daily lives. A slow build-up of their fears and their insecurities. And then…</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Malayalam cinema takes their own sweet time to build up the atmosphere and the characters, and then land the punch that makes you see stars. Stars they make out of actors. Soubin Shahir leads the cast where there’s not much else part from the mountain, a camera, and two actors working wonders with an already wonderful script.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">2. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Vidhuthalai Part 1</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Vetrimaran (Zee5)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0j1FdB-8xm_BsgbaNfqr5yIQCkFy3u5VNDMjgERgZTEsrFsfSXd_CEekTxr9cWWCKVwVKzfvkiGndcNx8i9KDkS8x-D98oiYX_dN-isrDbjghxDPJTkmux4rjT2MaNdZxCIo6DCyIZ0tOFMdKfAroatIuuTvuKbHEgrCkPXbUKLok1RTOU04P" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="310" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0j1FdB-8xm_BsgbaNfqr5yIQCkFy3u5VNDMjgERgZTEsrFsfSXd_CEekTxr9cWWCKVwVKzfvkiGndcNx8i9KDkS8x-D98oiYX_dN-isrDbjghxDPJTkmux4rjT2MaNdZxCIo6DCyIZ0tOFMdKfAroatIuuTvuKbHEgrCkPXbUKLok1RTOU04P=w295-h400" width="295" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Vidhuthalai </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">represents the best of Tamil cinema, where a thorny and current social issue becomes a kickass film that blends action, music and entertainment in a gripping package. Soori plays a constable in a police company looking for the leader of an extremist (quasi-Naxalite) group in the aftermath of a train bombing. As in the director’s earlier </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Visaranai</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, the lines between the good and the bad, the police and the criminal, the society and the anti-social are quickly blurred with the police wreaking havoc on the people and on their own. Vijay Sethupathi is the elusive leader of the extremist group, who remains tantalisingly in the shadows as the manhunt expands. But the show is stolen by Soori, who delivers a powerhouse performance as the good-natured misfit. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Come for Vijay Sethupathi, stay for Soori. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">1. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sapta Sagaradaache Ello Side A</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Hemanth Rao (Prime Video)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgma5YPubM5R1Px8SVugwDD1Xd2R0Rt95ylMRSswUMIfiIFaSwVT5Heo6AfB8oUV_0JwIXnPgqYped0U9J7itVMnNvQhem15SzITD7QH-_kSzcW_xp98s04o19ESaYn93vPBNdiTO2Wz_j-qv9YRI3LyIjs9ezMj7botD7jr7DlbHB2wRjayXiH" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgma5YPubM5R1Px8SVugwDD1Xd2R0Rt95ylMRSswUMIfiIFaSwVT5Heo6AfB8oUV_0JwIXnPgqYped0U9J7itVMnNvQhem15SzITD7QH-_kSzcW_xp98s04o19ESaYn93vPBNdiTO2Wz_j-qv9YRI3LyIjs9ezMj7botD7jr7DlbHB2wRjayXiH=w400-h180" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">-<b> </b>So your favourite movie is the most cliched love story plot ever? </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Yes. A star-crossed couple is separated by a wrong incarceration and an arranged marriage.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- And then? What happens after the interval? Do they get together?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- What do you mean interval? This is the full film. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Oh?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- Side A</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">, remember?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Side B</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> is coming?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Yes, the theatrical run just got over. I am checking everyday to see if it has come on OTT.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- You’re checking everyday? For a film?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Yes. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Oh? Who did you say the lead pair were?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- Rakshith Shetty looks nothing like he has ever looked before. And the heroine - Rukmini Vasanth - reminded me of Madhabi Mukherjee in </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Kapurush</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Wait. Did you just compare a Kannada masala movie heroine to…</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Yes.</span></span></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-57841935554629513102023-12-30T22:25:00.003+05:302023-12-30T22:25:40.235+05:302023: A Round-up of Streaming Shows<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">As it turns out, ranking the shows I loved this year turned out to be most difficult - and there were so many that I loved a lot. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who cares? Here's everything I loved! </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Honourable Mentions </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Raj & DK disappointed this year. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Guns & Gulaabs </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">being a complete damp squib. As for </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Farzi </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Prime Video), I am trying to remember when was the last time I enjoyed a film so much while still being a bit disappointed. The chemistry between Vijay Sethupathi and Zakir Hussain, the casual competence Kay Kay brings to any role, and the intensity of Shahid Kapur were all great assets but they were up against formidable competition.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bejoy Nambiar’s </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Kaala </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Disney HotStar) transforms the usual maverick-officer-out-to-bust-criminal-gang into classic binge by introducing an unusual Macguffin (‘reverse hawala’), an unusual setting (West Bengal-Bangladesh border) and an unusual backstory of the hero. The pacing - with lots of twists and turns - didn’t let go for the entire duration of the show, averting a critical falling of Indian shows (who get caught in the 8-episode-50-minutes trap oh-so-often). </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In the late 1990s, Kay Kay played an employee of Union Carbide who tried to avert disaster on that fateful night in December 1984. The film was </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bhopal Express </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(written by Piyush & Prasoon Pandey, directed by Mahesh Mathai). He was back in Shiv Rawail’s </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Railwaymen </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(Netflix) where a bunch of unlikely heroes (and heroine) took up arms against a multinational company and fate itself. Tightly packed in four episodes, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The Railwaymen </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">is a great example of how thrillers should be written and presented for streaming platforms. And in a cast of stalwarts, the standout performer was a ‘nepo kid’ - Babil Khan.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Zakir Khan is a standup comic by profession and a philosopher by vocation. Maybe his training (and his family’s generational involvement) in classical music has something to do with this ability to include a seemingly unconnected thread at the beginning of a show and then point out a lovely pattern created with that colour and texture by the time he is through with it. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Mann Pasand</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">and </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Tathastu </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">are two seemingly innocuous monologues that are about modern life, its silly compulsions, parental disappointments, transient romances and that elusive Goa trip with the boys - but ultimately, they take the step up from enjoyment to happiness.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">5. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dahaad</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Reema Kagti, Ruchika Oberoi (Prime Video)</span></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgb40WAnMzMEjsEALHYmFkXKntbC60Q1VNrU0TDADqbTUagBv-c2yV5uZSxlJDoV5lWwfIsXCdLIeIZvptO8r-G2paC1cOvIIfrp2Aig-L6OG-QaFwhUAgfXrZdHgW8Mpdm3bB75yckoljO7HXmWjzl95qu_IfDTwW7maGVxd712dk7214M92Rv" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1423" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgb40WAnMzMEjsEALHYmFkXKntbC60Q1VNrU0TDADqbTUagBv-c2yV5uZSxlJDoV5lWwfIsXCdLIeIZvptO8r-G2paC1cOvIIfrp2Aig-L6OG-QaFwhUAgfXrZdHgW8Mpdm3bB75yckoljO7HXmWjzl95qu_IfDTwW7maGVxd712dk7214M92Rv=w400-h225" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Tiger Baby put out a show with a ‘tiger babe’ (excuse the objectification, all for the good cause of punning), Sonakshi Sinha finally showing how utterly wasted she was in films that were called Dabangg but didn’t have her in the title role. Serial killer mysteries can become boring - since they are a streaming platform staple - but </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Dahaad </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">had a very impressive killer with a modus operandi to match, a solid ensemble cast and a kickass investigating officer who’s as much a modern young woman as she was as cop. The setting of small-town Rajasthan added a dusty, sandy layer to draw us in further.</span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">4. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Trial By Fire</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Prashant Nair, Avani Deshpande, Randeep Jha (Netflix)</span></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitu32m0rCb08vpNEoAIF7ls2ND9mAyRbxLMqABJaFYsHs7dSVXPLbJftyQPeYCT3VmvlQ-sl0TPTyu6yY4skikWx3xfoB68zi9aLtLjxAEbzB8mXghyLLGvo16pBCjsYNpYeul5iiIe4G0FGVJuOk2l19_sNfJIp0i8rN-4V69t4jL5DjPHxU_" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="1126" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEitu32m0rCb08vpNEoAIF7ls2ND9mAyRbxLMqABJaFYsHs7dSVXPLbJftyQPeYCT3VmvlQ-sl0TPTyu6yY4skikWx3xfoB68zi9aLtLjxAEbzB8mXghyLLGvo16pBCjsYNpYeul5iiIe4G0FGVJuOk2l19_sNfJIp0i8rN-4V69t4jL5DjPHxU_=w400-h248" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In a year where his cousins and uncle were part of much bigger spectacles, Abhay Deol kept plying his two-decade-old trade - of becoming the character in an offbeat setting. The unspeakable tragedy of the devastating fire in Delhi’s Uphaar theatre got a second life with Rajshri Deshpande and Deol playing two victims’ parents and leading the fight against the all-powerful owners of the theatre. We have seen the story unfold over many years, the Indian justice system moving glacially and sometimes backwards, but to see it with the steel of determination of two unlikely heroes was especially rewarding.</span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">3. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Chhotolok </span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">- Indranil Roychowdhury (Zee5)</span></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6KpfWL-aBqUzQavEYbmQplp9RoA2a-g7sb1PDwfNHLwTEdqaqA_4C9pJp9tiP-zgf4p9rDhLEdOaTID070g5xq9ovBVpEbJO09Y9BsOOzmo-0zrh_2f_JcWPDZqOvxCbksCC039HGM81y7ud3OiVWxAb3aLvW5kWLqor8qyvFKX3kBDQXXKZw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1607" data-original-width="1440" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6KpfWL-aBqUzQavEYbmQplp9RoA2a-g7sb1PDwfNHLwTEdqaqA_4C9pJp9tiP-zgf4p9rDhLEdOaTID070g5xq9ovBVpEbJO09Y9BsOOzmo-0zrh_2f_JcWPDZqOvxCbksCC039HGM81y7ud3OiVWxAb3aLvW5kWLqor8qyvFKX3kBDQXXKZw=w358-h400" width="358" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A simple police procedural - the murder of a promiscuous young woman in a middle class apartment block - got layers and layers with middle class morality, shady politics, and institutional corruption creeping in. But all this is not why you should watch </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Chhotolok</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. You should watch it because of the lead actor - Damini Basu - putting in the most stellar acting performance in this year’s OTT scene. Her bumbling sub-inspector, unable to manage home or work, is a lesson on how an actor can change gears, adopt a natural accent, and hide a scimitar under an unassuming exterior. </span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">(I have intentionally used a candid image of Damini Basu, so that the contrast between her real image and the character she plays becomes clear.)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">2. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Cinema Marte Dam Tak</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Vasan Bala and others (Prime Video)</span></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYsz5Uz9lN3G3HcESgH5yTJ8c37LlifuagFfFSlAFFCX4MbDDbIqJctY31MwYLSOakSwUZ5pVK1caFnf4b0xtLw4Of_PswV03WUSZW1A6Wiy0RdbyKGIpidzRVu6l6bXqhZCW5tSREFre2iRqXDRRqrEeUIwqwh5iZ1Q2AyRyGbD4ixAUosXJG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYsz5Uz9lN3G3HcESgH5yTJ8c37LlifuagFfFSlAFFCX4MbDDbIqJctY31MwYLSOakSwUZ5pVK1caFnf4b0xtLw4Of_PswV03WUSZW1A6Wiy0RdbyKGIpidzRVu6l6bXqhZCW5tSREFre2iRqXDRRqrEeUIwqwh5iZ1Q2AyRyGbD4ixAUosXJG=w400-h225" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The baap of all reality shows, this one took an affectionate but unflinching view of the 1990s B-grade cinema and then amped it up by getting four directors of yore to direct one more film each. What would have been just another detailing of the quirks of the shady parts of our industry became tantalisingly real because we suddenly had a ringside view of how the story was plotted, what constraints were negotiated, and how the dreams were woven. Created by true connoisseurs of the genre, this one was truly by movie buffs, about movie buffs, and for movie buffs.</span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">1. </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Jubilee</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> - Vikramaditya Motwane (Prime Video)</span></span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLM9vX2tPb9WWtiIi6sgEfBWCM5_6-NSBpKjUgHD8KTJZrIRzo3kh-8xUAPVFfy3w0iIgT3FI62bSD39I-lyDmNyMveEGdYzNSE9ZKfY43sEF5O7qIV1b7RloPHQYEq3HSfny29wIn8KtdvfYpc2h3pRSTwkUNylDYEJC8IdS_Z6_i69G_q_iC" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLM9vX2tPb9WWtiIi6sgEfBWCM5_6-NSBpKjUgHD8KTJZrIRzo3kh-8xUAPVFfy3w0iIgT3FI62bSD39I-lyDmNyMveEGdYzNSE9ZKfY43sEF5O7qIV1b7RloPHQYEq3HSfny29wIn8KtdvfYpc2h3pRSTwkUNylDYEJC8IdS_Z6_i69G_q_iC=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The film industry of Bombay takes shape in post-Independence India as characters who look tantalisingly close to real ones take centrestage. I am a sucker for ‘films about films’ and very few of the genre have managed to be as good as <span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Jubilee</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">. Apart from the writing that created so many ‘films’ that we would have loved to see and so many ‘stars’ we would have loved to become fans of, the luscious art direction and the superb cast just took our breath away. </span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0.0pt; margin-top: 0.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">2023 was the year of Wamiqa Gabbi, who played a star-on-the-rise with chutzpah and charm in this one, and followed it up with Charlie Chopra (</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">And The Mystery of the Solang Valley</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">) and Charu (in </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Khufiya</span><span style="font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">). </span></span></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-43845743298958089562022-12-31T15:12:00.091+05:302022-12-31T19:59:13.927+05:302022: A Roundup of Books<div style="text-align: left;">My hopes of reading a few more books than last year got dashed by Netflix, Instagram and Twitter. I just about managed to hit my target (but not without some underhand tricks) and I end the year with hopes of reading more... next year.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Here are my favourite five* books from the year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>5. Uttam Kumar: A Life in Cinema - Sayandeb Chowdhury<br /></i>Uttam Kumar is that star whose roles have been recreated by at least nine Hindi film superstars, and yet he never succeeded in the Hindi film industry (despite his best efforts). He is still Bengal's biggest superstar - forty years after his death - though there's no major analysis of his craft. Till now. Chowdhury does an excellent job of deconstructing Uttam's star persona and explains how his stardom was an 'idea whose time had come'. Contextualising his rise with the history of Bengal and Bangla cinema, neatly classifying his roles, highlighting some of his best work and balancing his admiration for Uttam with hard-nosed research, he produces a book that is a must-read for fans and newbies alike. (I only wish the language was a little simpler, though!) </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>4. Adi Parba - Koustuv Bhattacharya (Bangla)</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">A Mahabharat retelling set in a dystopian post-nuclear India is a story OTT platforms should kill for. This almost-unknown Bengali novel has a superb flow and plotting, balancing both action and characterisation - neither following the original epic too closely nor deviating much. He introduces interesting new elements that reference both ancient and modern India, building a layer over the original story for a fresh perspective. As the title indicates, this is just the first part. I am looking forward to the rest! </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>3. Blankets - Craig Thompson </i></div><div style="text-align: left;">I got acquainted with Craig Thompson through <i>Habibi, </i>and expectations were understandably high. That tale of magic realism had a worthy predecessor in <i>Blankets</i>, one of the best coming-of-age stories I have read. Set in near-present-day America, it is also an America we aren't familiar with. Thompson recounts his tender, unsure love story in a conservative, insular country and imparts a timelessness to it. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>2. Whole Numbers and Half Truths - Rukmini S<br /></i>This is the book you should read if you want to get a sense of modern India through hard numbers. Except, you won't get any answers. Rukmini S does a great job of explaining why India can't be pegged down to a few figures and how finding a process is more important than finding the answer. If you're in a profession that needs to understand or are just a curious Indian, this book is a must-read.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>1. Cinema Speculation - Quentin Tarantino<br /></i><div>Quentin Tarantino is that film-crazy uncle who remembers every single movie he watched, even key bits of the theatre experience. And then follows it up with bold analyses of the films, things you didn't notice, theories you didn't think of, movie pairings you couldn't imagine. Some of the movies mentioned were obscure (at least to me) but, that's a great way to start Googling, streaming and discovering new films! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oM4f8vzsxEzZFP-wpB1y8OQdSP4jf_z6ybPQxuqlq1z5QtWxWIXyuYObtxvPOJaqzQHoY0QqY_WUjjjhpzGVqpAdaQzXhcwwowR5wiBVrML250mGavWef0EaOm2HBuzq07u2NiGZPs4k3n-jEj_ZCqojAbVo81GX8-OTqig4oNT-KEO88w/s4598/Books.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1326" data-original-width="4598" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oM4f8vzsxEzZFP-wpB1y8OQdSP4jf_z6ybPQxuqlq1z5QtWxWIXyuYObtxvPOJaqzQHoY0QqY_WUjjjhpzGVqpAdaQzXhcwwowR5wiBVrML250mGavWef0EaOm2HBuzq07u2NiGZPs4k3n-jEj_ZCqojAbVo81GX8-OTqig4oNT-KEO88w/s16000/Books.png" /></a></div><br /><div>Books you read cannot hold a candle to the books you are part of. So extending the list of my favourite books for the year to two more...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>0. The Boss Dilemma - Trishna Chaudhuri</i></div></div><div style="text-align: left;">My wife became an author with this delicious rom-com set in Bangalore that made detours to Koh Samui, Dubai and Kodaikanal, tagging along with the perfect couple. Except that they don't know it yet, working in the same office and trying to avoid becoming office gossip. As I read the first draft, I was unwittingly drawn into the fairy-tale romance, a story that's as real as it is escapist. It's the perfect weekend read. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>0. The Bollywood Pocketbooks - Diptakirti Chaudhuri</i></div><div style="text-align: left;">Depending on whether you count this as four books or one, I now have ten books (or seven) under my belt. It was an exercise in both fandom and discipline to come up with 200 interesting nuggets about Bollywood and write a tight chapter on each - hopefully egging the reader to rekindle memories or discover more. [More about the books <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/p/pocketbooks.html" target="_blank">here</a>.]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13bxtHVjRVujZEjN3m5cCrQSbYE92njlx0MHCHHREB1sdM85A1ZhgXJXQoP_Vx-GvsYFx_LBjdpu2imfXoNML8LolDh_P7EbHr0MhcHwExsQfsGlPRxjqGT1FcAF2tpCcdDRFyyPsOH4f7GMr_ZoFQJnLttWqBFOjfbfLGPcx9Z83hz6zuQ/s3017/Our%20books.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="3017" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13bxtHVjRVujZEjN3m5cCrQSbYE92njlx0MHCHHREB1sdM85A1ZhgXJXQoP_Vx-GvsYFx_LBjdpu2imfXoNML8LolDh_P7EbHr0MhcHwExsQfsGlPRxjqGT1FcAF2tpCcdDRFyyPsOH4f7GMr_ZoFQJnLttWqBFOjfbfLGPcx9Z83hz6zuQ/s16000/Our%20books.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-21817758631625857842022-12-31T15:07:00.001+05:302022-12-31T15:07:00.161+05:302022: A Roundup of Regional Language Content<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;">After watching a lot of regional language content, I still seem to have missed out a truckload of them across languages. Blame it on time I wasted on Insta Reels! </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;">Here are my favourite five movies/shows in all languages other than Hindi.</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;">Tied at the fifth place are three films
that I couldn’t decide between. All of them have flaws, but they stand out nevertheless.<br /><i><span lang="EN-US">X = Prem
</span></i><span lang="EN-US">(Bengali, Hoichoi) is
a beautiful film borrowed from a Hollywood classic, but it turns the premise on
its head. And the fact that it has an unforgettable soundtrack (my absolute favourite
of 2022) is somewhat ironic, given the film's plot. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></i></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><span lang="EN-US">Thallumaala</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (Malayalam, Netflix) is like
watching a WWE match, a superhero comic book, a Tiktok video, a Whatsapp
forward, a college skit and multiple movie flashbacks. All at the same time.</span></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><i><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></i></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Garuda
Gamana Vrishabha Vahana</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (Kannada, Zee 5) is quirkily violent thriller where <i>City of God </i>comes to Mangalore and engages you with throwaway lines and gestures of the
amazingly talented lead pair. (Rishab Shetty, who acted in G2V2, went on to superstardom
with <i>Kanatara</i>.)</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span><b><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span></b><i><span lang="EN-US">4. Suzhal: The Vortex<br /> </span></i><span lang="EN-US">A shadowy crime occurs in a small town
with a unique sub-culture and a host of characters with questionable pasts. Add
a spectacular festival and a race against time to solve the crime. These are
now standard tropes of shows on streaming platforms. And yet, <i>Suzhal </i>manages
to bring a fresh thrill to all that it does, making Pushkar-Gayathri a creator team
to keep eyes and ears open for!<br /> </span><b><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span></b><i><span lang="EN-US">3. Byadh<br /></span></i><span lang="EN-US">Kolkata Police’s
Department of Unusual Cases – where problematic officers are put to pasture –
springs into action as sparrows get murdered in various villages of Bengal. This
intriguing premise gets bolstered by a promising – lovably eccentric –
detective duo, and we have the beginnings of a solid franchise.<br /> </span><b><span lang="EN-US">Honourable
Mention</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: <i>Kaiser</i>,
a Bangladeshi detective show – with a video-game-playing sleuth and clever writing
that makes fun of itself – is worth a watch and again, promises an exciting
franchise.<br /><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">2.
Minnal Murali<br /> </span></i><span lang="EN-US">Strictly speaking,
this is a 2021 release but when you have an Indian superhero origin story of
this quality, you have to ignore the year of release and cheer it on. From the
super-villain, to the Kerala atmosphere, to the stellar supporting cast, to the
iconic t-shirts (Abibas!), <i>Minnal Murali </i>is a satisfying blockbuster in
the garb of a sensitive, small film.<br /></span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US">Aparajito<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></i><span lang="EN-US">Bengalis grow up on a steady diet of
Satyajit Ray stories – his illustrious family, his prodigious talent and
initial career as a graphic artist, his struggles to make <i>Pather Panchali</i>,
and his eventual fame. Anik Dutta neatly compiles all those stories into a fantastic
celluloid encyclopedia about the making of Ray’s first film. And casts Jitu
Kamal in the title role, who’s a doppelganger of the maestro, to supplement the
excellent art direction and writing. A must-watch primer for anyone even half-interested
in Ray.</span><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5wnv65JVPjqqrVNb207r4GDKz5RCIusfQnVTlyn3qZVhUkyVnUCen-X4kf9utZ3gE_TOadsx3dUnrxd1zVKL7wUyfTOc6RhKbEs9Vc0nWMjJOtcDmvyHAYX0n3RtwgZw5J8hQiQ4cyovQoLOo5Dv7pUcbeFuRnFlWEYqquaT8XHqruIerA/s3926/2022_2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="3926" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt5wnv65JVPjqqrVNb207r4GDKz5RCIusfQnVTlyn3qZVhUkyVnUCen-X4kf9utZ3gE_TOadsx3dUnrxd1zVKL7wUyfTOc6RhKbEs9Vc0nWMjJOtcDmvyHAYX0n3RtwgZw5J8hQiQ4cyovQoLOo5Dv7pUcbeFuRnFlWEYqquaT8XHqruIerA/s16000/2022_2.png" /></a></div><br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-15471511604381721252022-12-31T15:02:00.066+05:302022-12-31T15:02:00.155+05:302022: Roundup of Hindi Content<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;">2022 was the year everyone predicted
Bollywood would die. And yet it didn’t.</div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;">The leaping tigers of <i>RRR</i>, the ear-jangling
entry scenes of Rocky in <i>KGF Chapter 2</i>, the romantic flutterings of <i>Hridayam</i>,
and the prosaic messages of Pa. Ranjith couldn’t stop Bollywood from churning
out five superhits and five critically acclaimed milestones that wiped out the
fears triggered by the five high-profile duds.<br /><span lang="EN-US">I think if
Bollywood can get Aamir Khan out of his <i>PK</i>-hangover and restrict Akshay
Kumar to social service messages, it will do fine in the coming years. Though,
since <i>The Cholas are Coming </i>(literally), it will have to find a way to
plug the gap created by the lack of remake options.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Shows</b><br /> </span><span lang="EN-US"><i>Rocket Boys</i>: An intricately recreated period piece with characters we knew, but before we knew them. The adventures of M/S Bhabha, Sarabhai, Kalam et al became the history (and science) lesson we should have got in school.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Guilty Minds</i>: Perfect binge-watch. Known settings, recognisable characters garnished with just the right amount of legalese and corporate back-stabbing. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Delhi Crime S2</i>: In a way, this season was even better than the stellar S1 because it did not have the shock value of a nationally discussed crime. But it is a triumph of the writing and acting that how well the show laid threadbare the underbelly of our national capital region. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Panchayat S2</i>: This has ceased to be a series about a random under-achiever stuck in a remote village and hoping to get out. The characters, the relationships, the settings, and the problems have become a microcosm of our insignificant selves. <i>Panchayat </i>is the 'pale blue dot' of modern India. </span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"> </div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Scenes<br /></span></b><span lang="EN-US">Looking back, I realise my favourite
‘scenes’ weren’t from my favourite films of the year.<br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">I just LOVED a kid </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1u1U_WnDVM" style="text-indent: -18pt;">Laal Singh teaching a Delhi
youngster</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> a dance step. It had all the star power that an (un)expected cameo
brings to a movie.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">I loved Alia Bhatt owning the </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoLOdkpEiAw" style="text-indent: -18pt;">election rally speech</a><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> in
</span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Gangubai Kathiawadi</i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">. It was a tour de force by a performer at the top of
her craft, saying lines that would create an avalanche of coins in the theatres
of yore.<br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The way the </span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Ghode pe sawar hain </i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">song
was slowly built up in </span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Qala </i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">to reveal the transition of an under-confident
newcomer into a singing diva, ploughing through the dirt of the film industry.<br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The murder scene in </span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Monica O My
Darling </i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">– executed to the tune of a rocking song and packing in a plethora
of hat-tips – was cinema I love! [Trivia <a href="https://twitter.com/diptakirti/status/1591658114105114624" target="_blank">here</a>!]<br /></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The wonderfully written, lovingly shot
scenes between Dulqer Salman and Shreya Dhanwanthary in </span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;">Chup: The Revenge of
the Artist </i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">would count among the best reasons why people fall in love (with
each other and with the city of Bombay).</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><div style="text-indent: -24px;"><br /></div></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Movies<br /></span></b><i><span lang="EN-US">5. Vikram
Vedha<br /> </span></i><span lang="EN-US"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">There is something
to be said about star vehicles that lay on the action and musical set pieces
thick and fast; at least, I say a lot about those. The 70s Bollywood fan inside
me just loved </span><i style="text-align: left;">Vikram Vedha</i><span style="text-align: left;">, which cleverly recreated Hrithik Roshan’s
Vedha significantly away from Vijay Sethupathi’s Vedha. The resulis a high-octane
retelling of a popular myth, layered with star charisma in every scene.</span></div></span><span lang="EN-US">Best
explained by this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOivDstCQgo">fight
scene</a> in a musical landscape.<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">4. Jalsa<br /></span></i><span lang="EN-US">A morality
tale of our times, <i>Jalsa </i>succeeds because it underplays the dilemma
faced by the successful TV anchor, something that we all dread fearing. Two
excellent performances – Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah – subtly and probingly ask
us, ‘will you be able to live up to your public persona in private’?<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">3. Kaun
Pravin Tambe<br /></span></i><span lang="EN-US">This is
the IPL behind-the-scenes video we didn’t deserve. But what a story it was!
Shreyas Talpade hit it out of Shivaji Park with his unheroic portrayal of a
cricketer who debuted in his forties and whose struggle was endorsed by Rahul
Dravid, no less. It is also a well-written film, where the minutiae of an
unsung cricketer’s daily struggle don’t degenerate into boredom.<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">2.
Gehraiyaan<br /> </span></i><span lang="EN-US">Around midnight,
after I finished watching <i>Gehraiyaan</i>, I stayed up for a couple of hours
and wrote an <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/2022/02/some-films.html">anti-review</a>.
How I felt then is still how I feel. <i>Gehraiyaan
</i>is difficult to explain, not because of a complicated plot. But because
people like you and people you know are up there... In their entire messy
glory. <i>Gehraiyaan </i>is also difficult to like. How can you like a film in
which you're holding your breath because that likeable character is suddenly
becoming unlikeable exactly like that friend of yours? Maybe exactly like you?<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US">Watch it if
you dare.<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US">Badhaai Do<br /><o:p></o:p></span></i><span lang="EN-US">So if I liked <i>Gehraiyaan </i>so
much, how come it isn’t at the top of my list?<br /> </span><span lang="EN-US">
Because I am still a sucker for filmi set-pieces (see VV above) where music and
romance play out in full glory, in slow-mo and soft focus, making us want to
fall in love all over again. <i>Badhaai Do</i> treats same-sex love stories
with the glamour Bollywood does so well. And caps it all with a rousing climax.<br /></span><span lang="EN-US">Hopefully,
it'll be a trendsetter.<br /></span><span lang="EN-US"> <br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">0.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US">Deewaar<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></i><span lang="EN-US">Released this year in a restored avatar,
an emerging superstar’s vehicle written by two of the greatest practitioners of
film writing, <i>Deewaar </i>was a sight to behold on the big screen. Every tiny
detail of every scene came alive as Vijay Verma hurtled towards his gloriously
fatalistic end. We have all seen <i>Deewaar </i>many times but being able to
hear <i>‘Main aaj bhi phneke hue paise nahin uthata’ </i>with the audience
erupting in cheers was an experience of a lifetime.</span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNV-1woq9thpQHd8nxAJWZkCtS99_BZwpf6rRuf_Fft6OPYj6FA8nVT4HNF_deyj1Tt169MUwO-RRc1jU0XGbxobAnYacU6FG1I9xN6QGdqia1AgvYI3BmHEbSOiIrDFQPWjV73biatvTCMJ03ZBnRdfSpvkzfaft9Lx1zeRyWwwrPjBjorg/s4432/Movies%201.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1142" data-original-width="4432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNV-1woq9thpQHd8nxAJWZkCtS99_BZwpf6rRuf_Fft6OPYj6FA8nVT4HNF_deyj1Tt169MUwO-RRc1jU0XGbxobAnYacU6FG1I9xN6QGdqia1AgvYI3BmHEbSOiIrDFQPWjV73biatvTCMJ03ZBnRdfSpvkzfaft9Lx1zeRyWwwrPjBjorg/s16000/Movies%201.png" /></a></div><br /></div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-51917415973252349682022-05-03T19:25:00.002+05:302022-05-03T19:27:02.258+05:30Don't Forget 2004: A Book Review and Musings on Political Campaigns<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHLKCKSPT8EhuVrm0nW_ID63z5Wj-X4VP6cTXuK5TLYJMtId6XVm5-jEPSETCxL7SqxAV-8Y5n7iNFv_-hiLIn8sl4pRHRCbEINS0m6k049OC0HHW0Vjhh4z_ZvZGdZ3wSSnuqyKEUJWmp69XGYC_luPfi7zzb9nMFrIvKJRDm1FkE3PyRmA/s1258/IMG_20220503_190710.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1258" data-original-width="803" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHLKCKSPT8EhuVrm0nW_ID63z5Wj-X4VP6cTXuK5TLYJMtId6XVm5-jEPSETCxL7SqxAV-8Y5n7iNFv_-hiLIn8sl4pRHRCbEINS0m6k049OC0HHW0Vjhh4z_ZvZGdZ3wSSnuqyKEUJWmp69XGYC_luPfi7zzb9nMFrIvKJRDm1FkE3PyRmA/w127-h200/IMG_20220503_190710.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>I finished
reading Jayshree Sundar’s <i>Don’t Forget 2004 </i>on the first anniversary of
a very unlikely electoral win of recent times. Not even its most passionate
supporters gave Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress more than 170 seats in the
(294-member) Bengal Assembly elections of 2021. TMC had won 210+ seats in the
2016 elections, and BJP threatened to – some exit polls predicted – halve that tally.
It was supposed to be a BJP juggernaut all the way. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US">Don’t
Forget 2004 </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="text-align: left;">is a smoothly
written, exciting account of advertising agency Leo Burnett’s delivery of the
2004 election campaign for the Indian National Congress. Starting from the
invitation to a pitch (that sounded like a prank call), it is a blow-by-blow
account of the events of the four hectic months that changed the Congress’
electoral fortunes and. It was a stunning come-from-behind victory that no one
expected and depended a lot on the campaign.</span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The ‘<i>Congress
ka haath, aam aadmi ka saath</i>’ campaign won several awards that year. The book
thoroughly explains how it started by looking for chinks in BJP’s <i>India
Shining</i> campaign and then came up with the insight that the middle and
lower classes hadn’t got anything in the shining country. ‘<i>Aam aadmi ko kya
mila</i>’, asked the campaign and presented Congress as the alternative. Of
course, the aam aadmi plank became even bigger later on!</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The book made
me wonder if all memorable political campaigns are essentially about the
underdog. Which is, more likely, to be the Opposition – out of power. Whenever
a political party in power has tried to tom-tom its achievements, it has been met
with ridicule and disbelief at worst or indifference and ignorance at best. The
first party – in my memory – to do so with the help of an advertising agency was
Congress itself in 1989. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Congress
appointed Rediffusion for its re-election campaign in 1989, and a reasonably
high-voltage (not to mention unique) campaign was drummed up. With a tagline <i>My
Heart Beats for India</i>, it<i> </i>presented a rather pessimistic view about
how divisive forces (presumably in the Opposition) were sabotaging Congress and
Rajiv Gandhi’s bid to shape up India through the Panchayati Raj, telecom
revolution, communal harmony and so on. As was evident from the results, the
campaign bombed spectacularly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Of course,
it made zero sense that the incumbent government was crying about things that
went wrong. You had a four-fifth majority in the Lok Sabha, for God’s sake!
While Congress spent tons of money on the campaign, the Opposition got free
publicity when the media decided to lampoon the campaign. (Yes, children, this
was a thing. The media used to criticise and mock the government!) Not only the
thought, even the execution got trolled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US">Indian
Express</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> ran cartoons
poking fun at how the village huts in the ads looked like ‘Meherauli
farmhouses’ – supposed to be the haunts of Rajiv Gandhi and his well-heeled
friends. In one meeting described in <i>Don’t Forget 2004</i>, when an ad visual
is presented, all the three Gandhi family members jumped up to point out that
the homes in the ad didn’t look like poor villagers’ homes. Clearly, they had
learnt their lesson from 1989!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The 1991 Congress
campaign had more bite. The elections were called after two governments (under VP
Singh and Chandrasekhar) folded up in less than two years, and Congress was
projecting itself as a stable alternative. One ad in the campaign showed a
little boy asking, ‘Papa, didn’t you say that elections happened once in five
years?’ Showcasing the pitfalls of smaller parties in a coalition, it drove
home the point of revolving-door governments quite well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Nearly a
decade later, BJP managed to coalesce the national sentiment against coalition
governments (including two mini-stints for himself) into a viable campaign for
their prime ministerial candidate: ‘<i>Ab ki baari, Atal Bihari!</i>’ BJP’s
momentum had started in 1992 with LK Advani’s infamous rath yatra, but Ram
Mandir couldn’t have (then) been a single-point agenda for a national party.
Hence, Vajpayee became that statesman-like face who would deliver strong
governance even with multiple coalition partners. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The
confidence of having delivered strong governance was so high that BJP called early
elections in 2004 (in May instead of October) and rolled out the (now infamous)
<i>India Shining </i>campaign. <i>Don’t Forget 2004 </i>recounts how the agency
did research with voters in the lower strata, to counter the optimistic
government narrative with a strong anti-incumbent message that eventually
segued into promoting Congress’ many achievements in the 50+ years of its rule
in post-Independence India. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Congress presided
over one of the fastest-growing periods of the Indian economy but it was also a
period of great corruption and annoyance over nepotism, which led to the
formation of at least one major political party (AAP) and the re-energising of the
BJP under Narendra Modi. It is under Modi that the political slogan <i>Achhe
Din Aanewale Hain </i>was coined. This line became a force of nature in the
runup to the 2014 elections. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">There was
also a follow-up line to project the prime ministerial candidate: <i>Ab ki
baar, Modi Sarkar,</i> and it was used to highlight individual shortcomings of
the UPA government. <i>Bahut hua mehengai ka maar / Ab ki baar…; Bandh karo
nariyon pe atyachar / Ab ki baar… </i>etc. While it didn’t have the
all-encompassing allure of <i>Achhe Din</i>, it was a very hardworking line. It
fit into every category and hit the government’s negatives hard. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">What was
different in 2014 from 2004 was that the ubiquitous presence of social media
and trolling was no longer the exclusive domain of the media. Millions of
social media users (including BJP’s much-vaunted IT Cell) started making their
own versions of the <i>Ab ki Baar </i>slogan. Many were spoofs, but it was free
propagation of the line at the end of the day. <i>Achhe Din </i>was well and
truly upon us, all around us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I tried
remembering BJP’s 2019 campaign slogan and gave up. Finally, I Googled it to
find <i>Sankalp Bharat, Sashakt Bharat </i>on the cover of its manifesto and
though there are campaign posters around <i>Saaf Niyat, Sahi Vikas</i>. Both
lines are absolutely inert and don’t tick off any boxes of what makes a good
marketing slogan. A government in power just doesn’t have the chutzpah of a
rabble-rousing opposition. BJP proved this in 2014 and 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">In 2019,
BJP had more resources than in 2014 and – their supporters would argue –
achievements too. But they could not come up with a memorable campaign line. A
government is just too satisfied in the cocoon of their lal-batti Ambassadors to
come up with a blood-boiling slogan. This was broken twice, in my humble
opinion. Once in 1971, when the Opposition asked for <i>Indira Hatao</i>, the
prime minister turned that around to say <i>Garibi Hatao</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It takes a
special kind of chutzpah to announce removing the same poverty that had
remained for 25 years of your party’s rule, but Indira Gandhi managed to
transform herself into an underdog. Even though she was the Prime Minister, a
majority of her party had broken away, and she appeared to have been left
alone. She presented herself as the lone crusader for the poor Indians’ rights
and won the election on this plank.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Which
brings me to the West Bengal elections of 2021. Mamata Banerjee was the sitting
CM with a near-three-fourth majority. How was she the underdog? Well, the BJP
made her into one. By flying in the entire Union cabinet, by getting TMC MLAs
to defect, by harping on the benefits of a ‘double engine sarkar’ (Centre and
state working in tandem). Of course, TMC also performed quite poorly in the Lok
Sabha elections of 2019.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">But instead
of backing down and accepting defeat, TMC responded with <i>Khela Hawbe</i>. It
started as a rap song by a TMC worker (Debanghsu Bhattacharya) to taunt the TMC
defectors to BJP, but became a full-blown anthem, reminding the world at large how
Mamata Banerjee wasn’t about to give up. Pretty much every TMC candidate in the
Bengal elections remixed the song with their own (and Banerjee’s) images – as
the song became a viral sensation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Poll
strategist Prashant Kishore later explained that TMC wanted to announce that it
was going eyeball to eyeball with BJP. It was critical to counter the usual
media narrative about BJP being the only choice and public opinion is strongly
in its favour. Of course, there were BJP missteps (of being too hasty in
candidate nomination and PM Modi mocking Banerjee rather distastefully) but <i>Khela
Hawbe</i>’s inspiring call to cadres and voters played a role.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p>Coming back
to <i>Don’t Forget 2004</i>, the book doesn’t go into political analysis but presents
a blow-by-blow account of a massive marketing campaign. Political leaders
appear as clients evaluating and approving campaigns. Issues of national import
become smart headlines or catchy copy. By avoiding the political, Sundar has
skirted controversies and has done a very good job of explaining how
advertising is created, and how good advertising sells products. Or gets votes.
Or changes history.</p><p><br /></p><p>[<i>And for no reason at all, or because this is the 75th year of India's Independence, every paragraph has 75 words.</i>]</p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-67451359400545747582022-04-23T08:49:00.000+05:302022-04-23T08:49:13.672+05:30Pure Evil: A Book Review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WVJ449msEl5RBhNZyjwFr-KiTj-KD5h5m1jsgJnRMf4F9f80MA8s3RG97VLcDwi3zCcvtVVUTO3hQjVtK2Y1p4vngcN1OXENF22M4EPbTnQ2e1H-w0F8DYytXvyynmCe0j5ZmQbl9OjfZUE3TyyaODzpvPmVh_sQCVs_Bc2iKDunTxuK6w/s320/mqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="320" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WVJ449msEl5RBhNZyjwFr-KiTj-KD5h5m1jsgJnRMf4F9f80MA8s3RG97VLcDwi3zCcvtVVUTO3hQjVtK2Y1p4vngcN1OXENF22M4EPbTnQ2e1H-w0F8DYytXvyynmCe0j5ZmQbl9OjfZUE3TyyaODzpvPmVh_sQCVs_Bc2iKDunTxuK6w/w640-h360/mqdefault.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>For no reason at all, a picture of Amrish Puri from a 1980s potboiler called </i>Loha.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div>Thanks to the ever-growing need for content and the insatiable interest in Bollywood, listicles (how I hate this word!) are now at a point where they are being produced (or recycled) at a velocity higher than the audience can consume. Since the authors are only a tad older than Generation Z, these lists tend to have a very heavy post-1990s bias, with just a smattering of the all-time classics and no representation of the many films that make Hindi cinema what it is today. <p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Iz0d4YUbCurV0cnlY6e0XH5eLpWnSjFkJpPbT5dO64zXmbE57njXcXtXeqjf70ZVMg6jlDpzN7euLx-sIJqPJw43fcbpbwVfheV2mfHC9DrQ6DvwjA9xrebEa3Zd3OZgxGRjcDim_NVnP480zgAvd3Dv4azEDKOy3LTN0363dMUDrcBbGw/s2521/81KcQ7B5QrL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2521" data-original-width="1643" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Iz0d4YUbCurV0cnlY6e0XH5eLpWnSjFkJpPbT5dO64zXmbE57njXcXtXeqjf70ZVMg6jlDpzN7euLx-sIJqPJw43fcbpbwVfheV2mfHC9DrQ6DvwjA9xrebEa3Zd3OZgxGRjcDim_NVnP480zgAvd3Dv4azEDKOy3LTN0363dMUDrcBbGw/w131-h200/81KcQ7B5QrL.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>A book like <i>Pure Evil</i> arrives as almost the exact antithesis of such hastily prepared lists that must appear before midday on Amrish Puri’s birthday. Nearly a decade in the making, this book is meticulously researched with interviews with writers, directors, actors, fans, historians, sociologists providing heft to the narrative. It is interesting that in some cases where the creator is not alive (V Shantaram, for example), the author has interviewed the next of kin instead and managed to glean out a few nuggets about the character/film in question. <p></p><p>The book is a ‘chronological’ story of the villains of Hindi cinema. Starting with our British rulers, it goes down the decades covering foreign powers, social and familial villains, zamindars and moneylenders, dacoits, industrialists, politicians, gangsters and mafia with two sorties into the mentally ill and the anti-heroes. Javed Akhtar had once said that the history of a country can be best understood by studying the evolution of villains in its popular culture. That way, this book is also a tangential history of post-Independence India (as is probably evident from the roll call of villains mentioned above). </p><p>Just to give a flavour, the corrupt policeman appears in the following steps:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Starts with an unknown historical perspective (the first corrupt cop appeared in 1949)</li><li>Explains the institutional reluctance to show policemen as villains or even morally weak (again, an unknown nugget about how CID officers couldn’t be shown in a certain way in the film <i>CID</i>)</li><li>Points out the continued clichés of the police appearing late and the comical presence of hawaldars </li><li>And, finally, covers the full-blown corruption and villainy of policemen that started in the early 1980s (often in conjunction with corrupt politicians) </li></ul><p></p><p>This explanation of a trend that unfolded over several decades is a great mix of research, socio-cultural understanding and smart writing. The writing is important because it strikes a fine balance between nudging the reader to remember the well-known films and explaining what happens in the obscure ones. </p><p>While reading this chapter, I remembered Ajit’s character in <i>Zanjeer</i> hinting at corruption in the police. When his henchman tells him that one of his trucks has been detained by the police, he smoothly explains to his moll, “<i>Kabir keh raha that kissi inspector ko paise ki zaroorat hai</i>”. This hint of corruption in a 1973 film became a trend in less than a decade. </p><p>The book’s biggest strength is that it is exhaustive without being dry. That the book covers every conceivable aspect of villainy is apparent from the table of contents. The real fun was that every time I thought of a particular villain within a chapter, it popped up in a subsequent paragraph or page. For a Hindi film fan, this is a very gratifying experience. </p><p>The book should have come with an index. Making searches quicker is critical because this is the kind of book you must refer to when you’re having volatile arguments with friends about the name of the guy who played Peter in <i>Deewaar</i>. (Yes, I do have such arguments. You don’t?) Some photographs would have been better, especially of the older periods which are not very well served by the internet. And who doesn’t want to see yet another photo of the Amrish Puri’s saucer-like eyes, anyway?</p><p>But these minor quibbles apart, this is a great addition to the library of books on Hindi cinema. It manages to be that wonderful balance between being authoritative and being fun!</p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-64108073831726177542022-04-02T00:07:00.004+05:302022-04-02T16:27:28.251+05:30The futility of recommendations<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAj8dkhiXh_jtk93r9mYkPjc9s7WR6doNESzp-Rk-uZgQdJJMHWHwvFeeZtAaeZ9zVsthIRtHcz6sZ8r2dA2aykzczKnIvcRdjUzRIpDRHEXwuNeQO9K1YWwfOH799kiMevG9VSrwns9RLs9saRFosvfIFN_6hEk0H1ZKSxAqjscYdZNPx4g/s1200/DS_DDLJ.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAj8dkhiXh_jtk93r9mYkPjc9s7WR6doNESzp-Rk-uZgQdJJMHWHwvFeeZtAaeZ9zVsthIRtHcz6sZ8r2dA2aykzczKnIvcRdjUzRIpDRHEXwuNeQO9K1YWwfOH799kiMevG9VSrwns9RLs9saRFosvfIFN_6hEk0H1ZKSxAqjscYdZNPx4g/s16000/DS_DDLJ.jpeg" /></a></div><p><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span> </span><span> </span>Image of fans watching DDLJ at Maratha Mandir by the legendary Danish Siddiqui </span></i></p>My daughter
has ‘discovered’ Hindi cinema with <i>83</i>. A rousing sports victory,
memorable characters and an episodic narrative are perfect ingredients for a
Gen Alpha kid to love a film and she has lapped it up. This has come after a
lot of sneering and eye-rolling at Hindi cinema (Yeah, <i>Amar Akbar Anthony </i>just
didn’t work. Sigh.) but she has now professed her desire to watch a lot of
Hindi films during her summer break.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">My wife –
who is not beyond sneering at some Hindi films herself – immediately took to social
media and asked for recommendations for what-to-make-a-11-year-old-watch-that-won’t-turn-her-away-from-Hindi-cinema-forever.
A lot of suggestions poured in immediately. Some smartass ones also (which were
all from my friends. Sigh.) The usual suspects – <i>3 Idiots</i>, <i>Taare Zameen
Par</i>, <i>DDLJ</i>, <i>Gol Maal</i>, <i>Chupke Chupke</i>, <i>Jo Jeeta Wohi
Sikandar</i>, <i>Lagaan </i>– came in.</span> Someone also said <i>Masoom</i>, which
is absolutely the LAST film you should show kids.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Of course,
all the suggested films are terrific but there is one fatal flaw… they are what
adults think kids would like. And as we all know, “Man can do what he wills. But
he can’t will what he wills.” Who falls in love with what (and why) is a
problem beyond human comprehension and no amount of orchestrated nudging can achieve
something like that. You can’t will yourself towards an emotion. You just can’t.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">One of my
earliest memories of Hindi cinema is <i>Aradhana</i>. Zero fights. Maudlin
storyline. Seven songs. No comedy. It was the exact opposite of what a six-year-old
seeks in a movie. Except that I was hooked. I didn’t even realise then how much
I loved the film and sat through it. It was – as they say – the beginning of a
beautiful friendship. And I quite liked <i>Armaan </i>too. (Bonus points if you
get the connection.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">When I think
of my early movie watching, the curated/recommended ones formed only a small
part of the total. Charlie Chaplin, <i>Hirak Rajar Deshe</i>, <i>Superman</i>, <i>ET
the Extra-Terrestrial</i> and a few others of the same genre. Otherwise, it was
a train wreck in which films came thick and fast with no parameter to filter
them. I remember my entire class going gaga over <i>Born Free </i>while I was delirious
with joy watching <i>Haathi Mere Saathi</i>.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">While some
of them were still child-friendly* but I remember watching Jeetendra in <i>Mehndi
Rang Layegi </i>(does anybody remember this film?) or Rishi Kapoor-Padmini Kolhapure
in <i>Prem Rog</i>, neither quite suitable for a sub-10-year-old audience. Forget
the suitability, they weren’t good films either. (Fans of Raj Kapoor, don’t kill
me. Please.) Thanks to reasonably cool
parents, I just lapped up whatever passed by me and – as is evident – what didn’t
kill me, made me stronger. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">My love for
Hindi cinema isn’t because of the good films but despite the bad ones. <i>Victoria
No. 203 </i>is not a classic, but it entertained me as thoroughly as <i>Anand </i>made
me cry. Somehow, Amitabh Bachchan’s <i>Toofan </i>became as memorable for me as
<i>Deewaar</i>. Anil Kapoor was as memorably cringey in <i>Benaam Badshah </i>as
he was brilliant in <i>Tezaab</i>. (Some might say <i>Woh 7 Din</i> but I don’t
want to be friends with them.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I think I won’t
give her any suggestions. Let her watch <i>Student of the Year </i>and cringe. Let
her watch <i>Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag </i>and puke. Let her watch <i>Thugs of Hindostan
</i>and rue the fall of the great Rancho! Hell, let her watch <i>Disco Dancer </i>and
not realise the divinity of Mithun. Let her completely turn away from Hindi
cinema and become a sneering globalised Gen Z brat, who makes fun of Bollywood.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Then one day,
she will see <i>Masaan </i>for some college elective. Some crazy friend will
make her watch <i>Luck by Chance</i>. Maybe a TV rerun of <i>Sholay.</i> And
she will come back to me slack-jawed. And say that she can’t believe that we
had the DVDs of those films all along while she was watching <i>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
</i>for the seventeenth time. Then I will smile. And we will watch <i>Andaz
Apna Apna </i>together. Inshallah.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-5127792297147198362022-02-13T02:23:00.001+05:302022-02-13T16:01:20.434+05:30Some films...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiQ1gqUItT_S43oHrIlO84-ExlolcRMnq2NkPSjixqjaC9LO3WNV3VJ6l80QFEIzqkcLVi3KrOgQdw7dA5MPdztNx5TVdVtUaofGR8z9CEzSUxP1SmxcraCxtnlkrE3nt1W3HBZka8KWuwpdSFd72VvmGdMIKmhd5awOYCixgIQscMq3_JvA=s1080" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjiQ1gqUItT_S43oHrIlO84-ExlolcRMnq2NkPSjixqjaC9LO3WNV3VJ6l80QFEIzqkcLVi3KrOgQdw7dA5MPdztNx5TVdVtUaofGR8z9CEzSUxP1SmxcraCxtnlkrE3nt1W3HBZka8KWuwpdSFd72VvmGdMIKmhd5awOYCixgIQscMq3_JvA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p>Some films are simple. It's easy to explain why you loved them, or hated them. Some films are simpler. You don't even have to explain... Everyone loves them. Or hates them. You just ask a friend "Dekhechhish?" And both of you can just start gushing. Hell, with a film like - say - Andhadhun, you can do that with strangers! "Arre boss, kya ending tha woh..."</p><p>Some films are difficult. Difficult to explain, not because of a complicated plot. But because people like you and people you know are up there... In their entire messy glory. </p><p>They are also difficult to like. How can you like a film in which you're holding your breath because that likeable character is suddenly becoming unlikeable exactly like that friend of yours. Maybe exactly like you.</p><p>For films like these, you have to make escape routes. Defence mechanisms. Ha ha, they said fuck 723 times. I loved the journey of the characters, especially how they went from Colaba to Alibaug in a yacht. OMG, the place they called Alibaug is actually in Goa.</p><p>Some films end with a satisfying click. Everything is neatly strapped in, the buckles just go into an embrace and you are ready to stow away the bag in a corner of your mind's attic. </p><p>But a few films end with the suitcase flying open in the middle of an airport, no, a dirty railway platform. You then remember the click that you heard was in your mind, the emotional baggage of the characters that you thought was finally packed was actually nothing like that. It was not an open suitcase. It was a gaping wound.</p><p>Some films, you can't discuss because they're too messy, too deep a wound. You can't discuss, not because you can't find anyone who loved it. But because you're scared how deep the conversation might go. </p><p>Sometimes you just lay awake two hours after the movie, wondering... "Boss, kya ending tha woh..."</p><p><br /></p><p>[Disclaimer: Nobody I know is having an affair. Nobody I know has suicidal tendencies. Nobody I know is involved in shady business practices. Some films just make you feel these very crazy things are happening to you.]</p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-14565387470038733412022-01-26T10:47:00.002+05:302022-01-26T10:47:36.774+05:30The Bollywood Pocketbooks: Now in Stores!<p> Details <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/p/pocketbooks.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>Available <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Bollywood-Pocketbook-Diptakirti-Chaudhuri/dp/9391028004/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIsXE4g4YOBp-UXbj2HMm2NnWz1DLV_zkSD5JhGfjLSYWOUYrDmGNKdi7tFmC1eL2SG24EDpNxVUGp6WpLi83goEA2DUXkdMQ8fD3DFtTg3BsZ6hhZC-hkgp3Ng6VZ3GoWD222Jwv-w5SGJm3Ps7azEInA2IhFNQThOnXtxOasjIrOfD-w6g=s2062" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1464" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIsXE4g4YOBp-UXbj2HMm2NnWz1DLV_zkSD5JhGfjLSYWOUYrDmGNKdi7tFmC1eL2SG24EDpNxVUGp6WpLi83goEA2DUXkdMQ8fD3DFtTg3BsZ6hhZC-hkgp3Ng6VZ3GoWD222Jwv-w5SGJm3Ps7azEInA2IhFNQThOnXtxOasjIrOfD-w6g=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigO_Sjod_cn2OycoJ_94YUSlJUKivTSgZUty0PwtkRu8VJCaDNTffv-_7pw1ux192mg-hdT0fPk5h5gZtj5Eqz7_E8F0tmSKcUquVRHotEoiqyePHX_rKnHatXlZsBjuy-UJE6ilx9i5VNDbwDs9JueC_paz798ZnkS6W-0kdGkEy1csFWtQ=s2062" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1464" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigO_Sjod_cn2OycoJ_94YUSlJUKivTSgZUty0PwtkRu8VJCaDNTffv-_7pw1ux192mg-hdT0fPk5h5gZtj5Eqz7_E8F0tmSKcUquVRHotEoiqyePHX_rKnHatXlZsBjuy-UJE6ilx9i5VNDbwDs9JueC_paz798ZnkS6W-0kdGkEy1csFWtQ=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxF_GWW_ljWVIJeb2h5gXeD9L1YP6IW8B6uW51lcnzZ1wzBQ_LVXr997jQCQ_VSSD9wgbdWDXQ2SXKIB01SAZ8_xXtPAeWam5SVONb6oCcOONG-RIanh1lbxhDl7bXQEOzOShdnjrY_u_Q0lLof38BMYDoWmthxNhvkeBjGO9abI_reh4NaQ=s2062" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1464" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxF_GWW_ljWVIJeb2h5gXeD9L1YP6IW8B6uW51lcnzZ1wzBQ_LVXr997jQCQ_VSSD9wgbdWDXQ2SXKIB01SAZ8_xXtPAeWam5SVONb6oCcOONG-RIanh1lbxhDl7bXQEOzOShdnjrY_u_Q0lLof38BMYDoWmthxNhvkeBjGO9abI_reh4NaQ=s16000" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6u7xWTCwIsKenxwEdUYMD2ilHjHPnwXpLOifUdBV8Qr7lS8qkqml3BnmCx0gWORIjUOM1AAJSclsVLdpcYVec-IljWHCN02Oqu0IzT0uzx0sudG7h4YrH6Xpmvc-Wgiqj5GJzEsrkGh0Z1C_KWlsA-b0_vOVPtwF8UT49FZvSzwSz1vyT8w=s2062" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1464" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6u7xWTCwIsKenxwEdUYMD2ilHjHPnwXpLOifUdBV8Qr7lS8qkqml3BnmCx0gWORIjUOM1AAJSclsVLdpcYVec-IljWHCN02Oqu0IzT0uzx0sudG7h4YrH6Xpmvc-Wgiqj5GJzEsrkGh0Z1C_KWlsA-b0_vOVPtwF8UT49FZvSzwSz1vyT8w=s16000" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-2846686369225257362021-12-31T23:51:00.001+05:302022-01-05T16:39:22.447+05:302021: A Roundup<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">During 2021 – for a couple of months
– I wondered (for the first time) if I would end the year in a position to
write about books, movies and the good things in life. It was the year where
all our privileges came in handy and we encashed all of that to live to write
another year-end writeup. Annus horribilis, it was! But the books and movies
helped… <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I read a
little less than I would have liked to. Watched more trailers and fewer movies
than I should have. I found immense solace watching Kapil Sharma and Akshay Kumar
carrying on a banter about who earns more (Spoiler alert: Akshay does.) and snippets
by comedians (Heartfelt thanks to Vipul Goyal, Abhishek Upamanyu and Abijit*
Ganguly) on Insta Reels.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">[*Pedantic
Bong curiosity: <i>Bhai Abijit, tomar naamer H-ta baad kyano?</i>]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">So, here
goes my lists of five favourites in four categories: Sports, Shows, Movies,
Books. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Feel free
to ignore. You’re welcome to disagree. Only condition for the latter is that
then you’ll have to then make your own list!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Here goes…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>SPORTS </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>5.
Indian men’s hockey at Tokyo </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The literal
crowning glory of the tournament was goalkeeper Sreejesh sitting atop the goal –
after a nailbiting bronze medal match against Germany. His wall-like saves in
the last quarter of the game was a fitting finale to India’s campaign, which led
to a medal after 41 years. [Some drought, this!] The bonus good news was the
Executive Director at my office was ecstatic enough to order samosa and jalebis
for the entire building. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4.
Neeraj Chopra <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">With his Olympic
gold medal, Neeraj Chopra hit the bigger milestone of being featured in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMpEeE0v2y8">Cred ad</a> before becoming
a yesteryear star! I watched the winning throw with a bunch of batchmates and we
raised a toast when the announcement was made, singing the national anthem with
gusto! We knew so little about javelin throwing that we weren’t sure of the medal
till it actually said so on the screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>(Yes, we figured 87.5m > 86.5m but still wasn’t sure how many backup throws
everyone had.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">3. India
W vs Britain W in Field Hockey, Tokyo <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I was walking
towards my office instead of hailing an auto or cab when Vandana Katariya (who
was abused for her caste after a previous loss) put us ahead. I stopped right
there and just willed for the 3-2 scoreline to hold, crossing my fingers and
praying fervently – not so much for the team as for myself, because I needed
the fairytale more in the middle of a depressing year. It didn’t end that way
but a team that finished last just four years back had already scripted such an
unbelievable story that I rank it higher than India’s two medal-winning
efforts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Please read
Sharda Ugra’s pieces on the team: <a href="https://www.espn.in/olympics/fieldhockey/story/_/id/31971039/tokyo-olympics-betiyaan-badasses-how-hockey-team-became-team-love-women-wanted-be">Betiyaan
to badasses</a>. <a href="https://thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/features/the-grand-furies-of-the-indian-womens-hockey-team-4786">The
Grand Furies</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">2.
India M vs England M, Second Test match, Day 5, Lord’s<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fourth
innings target is 250+ and the team is bundled out for 120 in less than 50
overs. Indian fans of the 1990s see this situation like a stinking cliché, a
recurring nightmare. It starts with early wickets, usually two gone in the
first couple of overs. Some middle order pottering to prolong the agony before wickets
fall in a heap, with fans grimacing at the inability to negotiate pace and
marveling at the assembly line of pacers the opponents are able to line up. Hell,
even that raw newbie got four wickets! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Except.
Except. Except this time, the newbie’s name was Mohammed Siraj. And he was supported
by Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma. The pace battery – oh, the
joy of saying this – was finally ours. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And whenever
I will feel sad from now on, I will open <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketingview/status/1476503619432288256?s=20">this
tweet</a> and stare at the chart. We are better than Ponting’s Australia. Hell,
we are better than Lloyd’s West Indies. *weeps uncontrollably* <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">India M vs Australia M, Fourth Test match, Day 5, Brisbane</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Gabbatoir, they said. Didn’t win in
three decades, they said. See you at Gabba, he said. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The last India-Australia
Test series started in the 1990s and ended in 2021. We started with a 36 all
out. We managed to lose half (and more of) our team in the first three Tests
and then went into the fourth with eleven scrappy kids who probably weren’t old
enough to watch cricket in the 1990s and didn’t know that Australia had to be
respected. In a Whatsapp group, we started by wondering if we can last 90 overs
but by the time Rishabh Pant had taken charge, we were a screaming, shivering
mess – cancelling office meetings and begging unlucky people not to switch on
the TV. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">We ended
the year with a win at another stadium we have never won before… but after Gabba,
it seemed almost natural. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">And you
must read what <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/cricket/australian-fury-dashed-against-indias-butterfly-effect/news-story/f2f0dd8e758ec55616a142f07badb9c8">Gideon
Haigh</a> has to say about the match! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b>SHOWS</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;">This was
the year of the shows. Or maybe, from now on, all years will be years of shows?
The amount of non-English, non-Hindi content that we now consume, discovering
new niches and unsung masterpieces, is here to stay for good. I hope.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Disclosure:
I haven’t watch <i>Succession</i>. Sue me. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Honourable
mention</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: I must
start with a standalone gem. <i>Geeli Pucchi </i>was part of an anthology (<i>Ajeeb
Daastaans</i>) whose other entries were nowhere as good. With his short, Neeraj
Ghaywan cemented his reputation as one of the sharpest filmmaker of our times, socially
aware and with an outstanding talent for visual storytelling. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">5. Ray (Netflix)
<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">I love the
source material. I loved three of the films enough to squeeze it into my list of
Favourite Five. I (kind of) fought with possessive Bengalis who thought ‘sexifying’
Ray isn’t the done thing. I even wrote about it <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/2021/06/ray-fanboys-review.html">in detail</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Only one question
remains: Where is S2? What are the stories? Who are the directors? (Okay, three
questions remain.)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4. Aranyak
(Netflix) <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Raveena
Tandon stood watching one of her masterpieces get <a href="https://twitter.com/Goddamittt/status/1142714358243323905">murdered</a>
on the altar of box-office success before she decided to join the streaming
bandwagon. She played Kasturi Dogra, a Himachal cop out to solve a murder that
might well be the return of a serial killer or a brazen politician’s son’s escapades.
Or both. Or neither. She was well-matched by Parambrata Chatterjee, who has now
made a name as the cop who’s confident enough to match female stars in their
adventures. Police procedurals with a hassled, middle-aged woman as the protagonist
is a streaming platform trope but with good performances, direction and a
strong local flavour, it is far from becoming a cliché. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Mandaar (Bengali, Hoichoi TV) </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;">Fahad Faasil’s <i>Joji </i>was the
Macbeth remake that everyone talked about (and FF’s physical transformation as
a nearly wasted youth was phenomenal) but for me, the show-stealer was the
Bengali remake of the classic. Set in a coastal town of rural Bengal
(Medinipur), <i>Mandaar </i>is visually striking and aurally arresting. The accent
(of the region) added an eccentric layer to the tussles in the fishing town
involving crooked politicians, crooked businessmen and crooked police. Debasish
Mondal in the title role and Sohini Sarkar as Laili (Lady Macbeth) gave two
legendary performances – making this one of the most inventive Shakespearean adaptations
from India.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">The Family Man S2</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This was supposed to be the crowd
pleaser and – as rare as this gets – the second season lived up to its promise.
But what’s eye-popping in something starring Manoj Bajpayee is when the antagonist
steals the show. And Samantha Ruth Prabhu did just that. As the suicide squad
soldier of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause, both her mental and physical preparation
were spot on! When she first appeared on screen, I had to move closer to the TV
to confirm it was indeed her and after that, I couldn’t take my eyes off. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Hellbound</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What was supposed to <i>Squid Game</i>’s
year turned out to be something else for me. <i>Hellbound </i>is an allegory set
in something like a fantasy world in Korea but all of us have seen this story
unfolding around us. Over millennia, we have codified crime and punishment, blessing
and damnation, sin and virtue, God and Devil into seemingly immutable codes. In
six hours, <i>Hellbound </i>recreated this process of building a random code,
that eventually becomes a religion. It’s as spellbinding as it is scary. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b>FILMS</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;">[Have
selected only 2021 releases. A Bengali film, Anik Dutta’s <i>Borun Babur Bondhu
</i>turned out to be a lovely 2019 film that I watched this year. 2020’s <i>Palm
Springs </i>was sci-fi-dark-romantic-comedy that will also stay with me for a while.]</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>Honourable mentions: Pagglait </i></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="text-indent: -18pt;">and
<i>Ramprasad ki Tehrvi</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">These two films are essentially two
sides of the same coin, but both throwing up a winner. Set in the aftermath of an
untimely death in a UP joint family, both films approach the sensitive topic
very differently and end up as very different films. Keen eye for detail,
razor-sharp writing and brilliant ensemble casts distinguish both films. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p><i>5. Shershaah</i> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p>In a country that doesn't feel patriotic till they have screamed out their love for the country and rubbed the perceived enemy's face in it, <i>Shershaah </i>reminded us how good guys do patriotism. Siddharth Malhotra was an ace Captain Vikram Batra, who secured our borders with a photo in his wallet, a smile on his lips and a slogan on his lips. The music, the warfront action, the ensemble cast, the presentation of a soldier's dilemmas were all top notch. Real, goosebumpy and not jingoistic. I'd want more war films like this. <i>Yeh dil maange more.</i></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Sarpatta Parambarai</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a Bollywood fan, Toofaan was
supposed to be the boxing film of the year but the ‘national boxing champion’
from Dongri was upstaged by a 1970s Madras dockyard labourer, whose sparring
identity is defined by his lower caste clan. Ranjith’s writing and Arya’s
performance are so good that it is impossible not to get caught up by the
boxing bouts happening in an unknown suburb, two generations back. And the
boxing action gut-spillingly real!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In a year with two Salman Khan
releases, the catchiest ‘Salman Khan’ item number (complete with a hook step!)
was in an offbeat Dibakar Banerjee film about two people on the run, two people
who couldn’t be further apart. A surly Haryana cop and a suave Gurgaon executive
go on a road trip packed with real-life parallels of the shady kind, their
journey dotted with scenes and characters with top end writing and acting. And
with not-so-gentle reminders that a bank scam is just one reckless turn away.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Jai Bhim <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">What is commercial cinema? Who is a
filmi hero? Superstar Suriya and director Gnanavel turn these questions on
their head in their take of the story of lawyer (and later High Court judge)
Chandru and his crusade of police brutality on tribespeople living on the
fringes of society. Without sacrificing drama or thrill, and without the hero
ever breaking character, <i>Jai Bhim</i> is a brilliant reminder of how even
message-driven films can be gripping. Suriya – the original <i>Singham</i> –
inspired an entire ‘cop(y) universe’ in Bollywood. But don’t hold your breath
about the Suriya-vanshis remaking this one in Hindi!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-US">83</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">This is the ultimate nostalgia trip,
the ultimate feel-good movie and the greatest superhero origin story ever made.
Those three magical weeks of 1983 gave birth to the part-industry-part-juggernaut
that is Indian cricket now. Painstakingly recreating the era, Kabir Khan delivers
a thrilling ride that is a must-watch for Marvel-happy kids. Ranveer Singh
becomes Kapil Dev with an uncanny mix of cricketing action, body language and voice
modulation as he leads his band of devils to the unlikeliest cricketing victory
of all times. After all, what else he here for? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><b>BOOKS</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><i>The choices
are clustered under topics, not in any ranking order.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Cricket
2.0 (Wigmore and Wilde) </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">is a lucid but exhaustive guide to how T20 has changed the face of
cricket as we know it. It uses statistics judiciously to make irrefutable points
about the genesis, growth and evolution of the format – covering everything from
the club-based leagues to the country-level tournaments. And tries to answer
that million-dollar question by devoting a full chapter to it: “Why RCB lose?
Why CSK win?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Honourable
mention</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: <i>Sachin
and Azhar at Cape Town</i> (Mukherjee & Sengupta) is amazing mix of
research and construction that puts together a history of India-South Africa cricket
(and much more) in the context of a single partnership. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Once Upon
A Time in Hollywood</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">
(Quentin Tarantino) is a deliciously rambling insider's account of 1960s
Hollywood, giving a feel of a vintage gossip mag crossed with present-day fan
site. The connection with the film seems almost tenuous, as the novel changes
the chronology and even the focus to tell the same tale of how cool people made
– and continue to make – Hollywood cool.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bangla</span></b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> Satyajit Ray Sakshatkar Samagra</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (edited by Somnath Roy) is the
first volume of the mammoth task of compiling the filmmaker-polymath’s
innumerable interviews on a bewildering array of subjects. Ray was accessible,
erudite and articulate – leading to both pithy takes on a topic as well as
free-flowing chats on his life, universe and everything. An invaluable addition
to the Ray library. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Honourable
mention</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: <i>3 Rays –
Stories from Satyajit Ray</i> is the perfect gift to start someone on the genius
of the Ray family. This handsome volume contains works by three generations of
Ray (everything translated by Satyajit), breathtaking in their width and
inspiring in their depth. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The Silent
Coup</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Josy Joseph) is
a sobering reminder of the failures of our so-called intelligence
infrastructure across era and geographies. Joseph's reputation as an
investigative journalist has been sealed by his many decades of stellar work,
making this something of a 'best of' compilation in terms of range but
embellished with a lot more research and analysis that gives the book wings. This
is also an exceptionally well-written book, and one of the most rewarding
aspects is the idealistic citizen peeping out from under the cover of a cynical
journalist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Unscripted:
Conversations on Life and Cinema (Vidhu Vinod Chopra with Abhijat Joshi)</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">: For me, stories trump<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>analysis and that’s what I loved this lovely
collection of anecdotes, exclamations and pronouncements framed with several unseen
photos. VVC’s reputation as a maverick shines through every page, even though
the focus is not on the cinematic thoughts behind his films but more on his attitude
towards life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><i>Honourable mentions</i>: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo10; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Yasser Usman) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo10; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Bullets over Bombay</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Uday Bhatia)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo10; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (Balaji Vittal) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Postscript<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6MviNS8bx7V9scKN76CtpvmpkEuaChH608CEE_1QZhATnsGz5u0_yhTO1QeNSnzaPj7FTM3UvsGSQoUjsMkJTsbS9e_ZcGVqPuZppOpI_hnvimspfVKYjlZKPfqYDW7Ez-fy23TyP90L77gwh-Fhc3eN7pG00OS9dbuRq3O-5AhNrJlfNSg=s4000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="4000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6MviNS8bx7V9scKN76CtpvmpkEuaChH608CEE_1QZhATnsGz5u0_yhTO1QeNSnzaPj7FTM3UvsGSQoUjsMkJTsbS9e_ZcGVqPuZppOpI_hnvimspfVKYjlZKPfqYDW7Ez-fy23TyP90L77gwh-Fhc3eN7pG00OS9dbuRq3O-5AhNrJlfNSg=s320" width="320" /></a></b></div>2021 saw
the publication of <i>BollyGeek: The Crazy Trivia Guide to Bollywood </i>– my sixth
book. And the
release of a new edition of <i>Bioscope: A Frivolous History of Bollywood in
Ten Chapters</i>.<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">They are
now/still available at an online store near you. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As I set
them out for a photo, the Christmas tree formed a nice, bright background and
reminded me once again what a gift it was to be able to write on things I love
and be able to share it with lots of people. As an introvert, this is the most
unobtrusive way of having a conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In 2022, a
new project of mine will hit the stands. As you can make out, I have made good
use of the time/energy that I saved by not commuting in Bangalore during the 2020 WFH season. Watch this space! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: 8.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Wishing
you a lovely 2022. May all your wishes come true. And then some.</span></p><p></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-41539625001198918102021-06-27T21:21:00.003+05:302021-06-27T23:37:22.823+05:30Ray: A Fanboy's Review<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtNBg7y206uHoprA4CeCysfm-6QKOJWeLBHYZxnXFL-j6HFum9Y6QUPx2pzxTCK9LMH57TsfarfnNo5K5C9zv6DBYtcunH5BoqGAHoCaJbg5Cuq-RtdbElb6Oae5-y0-WIvAo/s700/ray-1001298-1624609847.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="394" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbtNBg7y206uHoprA4CeCysfm-6QKOJWeLBHYZxnXFL-j6HFum9Y6QUPx2pzxTCK9LMH57TsfarfnNo5K5C9zv6DBYtcunH5BoqGAHoCaJbg5Cuq-RtdbElb6Oae5-y0-WIvAo/s16000/ray-1001298-1624609847.png" /></a></div><br />I cannot
remember when I read more polarizing reviews than for <i>Ray </i>on Netflix right
now. Srijit Mukherji is one of the superstar directors of Bengali cinema with a
large and passionate following. His fans have called the anthology – and especially
his episodes – a bonafide classic. While many puritan Bengalis have switched
off after 10 minutes, not able to take the ‘desecration’ of their beloved icon’s
stories.<o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In this context, one must invoke <i>Satyajit Ray Presents</i>, the 1980s
TV series directed by Sandip Ray (with screenplay and music by Satyajit Ray). One
of the challenges of filming a popular literary work – as propounded by Ray himself
– is to bring a fresh perspective for those who have read it already. In both <i>Shonar
Kella </i>and <i>Joy Baba Felunath</i>, he brought in new angles, removed some plot
points and heightened action or suspense or both. I felt the <i>SRP </i>series didn’t
do that. The episodes were faithful adaptations of the story and readers – all Bengalis
– wouldn’t have added anything to their experiences. (If anything, they got a
shock when a portly Shashi Kapoor ended up playing Feluda.) For non-Bengali audiences,
it brought a new facet of the director, but the selection of the stories and
the placid filming wouldn’t have blown minds. To my mind, <i>SRP </i>wouldn’t have
been particularly memorable for most of its pan-Indian audiences. (The fallout of
that is that Bengalis still get incredulous glances when we say Ray is one of
the best short story writers in the world. Yes, it’s true.) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">My attempt
to deconstruct (not review) the anthology comes from a cross of my love for the
stories in their original form and a desire to see Ray reach a much wider
audience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Forget Me
Not <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A new-age entrepreneur
‘who never forgets’ things is suddenly confronted with a major incident from
his life that he has no recollection of. The setting is the uppermost echelon
of upscale Mumbai, with the story flitting between plush apartment blocks,
rooftop bars and five-star hotel poolsides. The story doesn’t spoon-feed as it
moves back and forth in time, builds the narrative with snippets and screeches
to a satisfying climax. (I felt the middle is a little bloated and the ending a
bit abrupt.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
original story was about a successful bachelor in Kolkata, afflicted with a similar
lapse of memory. The plot hinges on the fact that the protagonist is a reclusive
bachelor and has very few friends to fall back on. This theme of male
loneliness is a recurring one in Ray’s stories and the adaptation veers away
from it with all the impact of a speeding Mercedes. It made the story more
complex, more contemporary and the ultimate payoff more eye-popping. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Behrupiya</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A makeup artist
uses a windfall inheritance to build a makeup studio and dresses himself as quirky
characters to go out into real spaces (instead of the stage or screen). The
setting is grimy, middle-class Kolkata, which director Mukherji has a special
affinity for. The noirish plot eventually moves into supernatural territory and
a gruesome climax. The protagonist – again a reclusive bachelor – gets a dark, sexualized
makeover and a strong revenge subplot gets added on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The
original story – intended for a family audience – was much milder in buildup
and climax. It has none of the blood, gore and bodily fluids that liberally
flow in the film. However, his motivation for his actions is not as clear as
one would have liked them to be, creating a sense of unease as to why he would do
the things he did. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">One unsettling
thing about this episode is how all Bengali characters speak within themselves
in Bengali-accented Hindi. Them speaking in Bengali with subtitles (as shown by
<i>The Family Man </i>recently) would have made it natural. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Hungama
Kyun Hai Barpa <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A singer –
prone to kleptomania – ends up pilfering an objet d’art from a co-passenger in
a train compartment. And then bumps into the same co-passenger a decade later.
The setting is primarily a first-class train compartment from the classic era, with
mehfils, hakim-khanas and pawnshops making appearances. The genteel Urdu culture
is almost like a character in this episode, bringing a smile with its felicitous
turns of phrases. This episode is closest to the original story and the best of
the lot, thanks to the sparkling performances of Manoj Bajpayee and Gajraj Rao.
Raghubir Yadav and Manoj Pahwa shine in two one-scene cameos.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The original
story – featuring, yes, yet another bachelor – was about how a regular
professional was branching out into music. This episode converts the story’s
passing mentions of music into a narrative style, which frames the kleptomaniac’s
journey. His co-passenger (a pugilist in the story) gets a wrestling subplot
that Rao sinks his teeth into and creates a hilariously tense atmosphere. Another
stray element in the story – ‘raw tea’ – gets an exotic makeover with a Chai
Noorani Basra and that gives a very strong peg for the story to develop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Spotlight</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A superstar
reaches a shooting location amidst the adulation he is accustomed to, only to be
sidelined by a godwoman. While the physical setting is an exotic uber-luxurious
hotel, the episode inhabits the familiar mental planes of Bollywood and
religion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">If this episode
was placed outside the anthology, I wouldn’t even have been able to identify it
as a Ray story. The original story was about a star reaching a small holiday town
and getting upstaged by a centenarian, the ‘world’s oldest living human’. The
story had a wonderful twist in the end (discovered in classic Bengali
intellectual style) and some droll observations about attaining stardom in popular
culture. This episode deviates almost completely from the original story and
falls flat, retaining none of the humour (or the twist). And it doesn’t add anything
on the commercialization of religion either. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Ray Tributes
<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">All the directors
doff their hats at the master storyteller with Easter eggs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the
first film, the protagonist shares his apartment block with Victor Perumal, Birendra
Karandikar, Arjun Mehrotra, Manomohan Mitra, Arindam Mukherjee and Maganlal
Meghraj (among others). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the second, <i>Ami chini go chini </i>plays in the background when a stage actress rejects a suitor. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In the third,
a pawn shop proudly displays Satyajit Ray’s short stories (in a trademark red-bound
notebook) among its treasures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The fourth
one is packed with them, though in a ham-handed manner. The star wears a <i>Gupi
Gayin Bagha Bayin </i>t-shirt, someone else wears a <i>Song of the Little Road </i>t-shirt,
the star shoots for <i>Chiriyaghar</i> and the hotel manager is called Pritish [which]
rhymes with British. (I am ignoring a cringe-inducing speech with his film titles thrown in.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">All the episodes
have made radical departures from the original text. A friend mentioned that they
have “sexified Ray”, which is true – both in the positive and negative sense. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For a bunch
of children’s stories written in the 1970s and 1980s to be transported to the
2020s, a makeover becomes essential. That a couple of the stories have an abundance
of cusswords and graphic sexuality take them further away from the original, certainly
the reason behind at least some of the angst (among Bengalis). Satyajit Ray
faced this himself when he adapted Tagore’s stories for the screen and was
hauled over coals by the cultural denizens of his time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">A review of
any adaptation often becomes a lament for what could have been instead of an
objective evaluation of what it actually is. To restrict myself to what <i>Ray </i>is,
the episodes are intriguing and quirky, but also uneven in quality. As a Ray
fanboy, I felt the best episode is the most faithful adaptation while the worst
deviates the most, losing its moorings in the process. Maybe there is a lesson
for future adaptations here? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The success
of <i>Ray </i>doesn’t lie in the hands of the Ray fanboys, though. The success would
come if an Aligarh teenager smiles a bit when he recognizes his uncle's affliction in one
story, if a Bangalore tech millionaire feels a frisson of fear that he might
also lose his mind someday, if a Czech filmmaker reaches out to the Ray family
enquiring about the rights to his stories. And of course, if Penguin’s Ray
Library sees an uptick in sales after this. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As for Ray
fanboys, we will have to ask ourselves if we have the courage to let our
stories go?</span></p><p></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-22270239773131936892021-02-09T17:21:00.001+05:302021-02-09T17:21:07.536+05:30Coming Soon!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXqqI1Begccu9HyRBrzcCvc5FAW_CDUeLeVKO8KZfGBM1GBqrK09iWHK8euSUxsHW2wxwDEhsRlt6bK-c6rq3scNQbpGj68Zus5yx8BuF9o99g-WvYtNYq1LtrutnfpD6mlek/s2048/9789389253450_+Bollygeek+cover-page-001+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1319" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXqqI1Begccu9HyRBrzcCvc5FAW_CDUeLeVKO8KZfGBM1GBqrK09iWHK8euSUxsHW2wxwDEhsRlt6bK-c6rq3scNQbpGj68Zus5yx8BuF9o99g-WvYtNYq1LtrutnfpD6mlek/s16000/9789389253450_+Bollygeek+cover-page-001+%25281%2529.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-77113112409478830912020-12-31T16:11:00.001+05:302021-01-02T00:18:19.293+05:302020: A Roundup<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9F5DxfwuAcwNxClWOpgz9rIrjkBEdIim30fVAE67zQFCkvG9pgrnHURSsCaH4xfcgQtDOTg6zHNnZIyxi_5lzpnC_xQIAVvIidtx5YKlB3YfnIclIAd-7_mEj9_jbtDKMh4LQ/s2048/IMG_20200802_110233.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9F5DxfwuAcwNxClWOpgz9rIrjkBEdIim30fVAE67zQFCkvG9pgrnHURSsCaH4xfcgQtDOTg6zHNnZIyxi_5lzpnC_xQIAVvIidtx5YKlB3YfnIclIAd-7_mEj9_jbtDKMh4LQ/s320/IMG_20200802_110233.jpg" /></a></i></div><i><br />View from my office for most part of the year. A definite perk.</i><p></p><p>Time for the roundup of the most unusual year of my life is
here.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Work from home always makes you feel that you can sack
around in your shorts, taking an occasional call here, answering a stray email
there and bingeing on shows and movies. That went out of the window faster than
the virus went out of China! I was taking calls through the day and at decibel levels
that reminded my wife of the trunk calls from her childhood. Soon, my entire family
was up to date on all my work stuff and my mother was even coaching me on my
people management skills! (Note to self: <s>Go back to office asap.</s> Don’t
get angry over work stuff.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, I didn’t end up watching as many movies and shows as
I thought I would. Neither did I come close to hitting my target of reading 40 books
in the year. While I can try to blame the missing commute, the real reason was Twitter
where too many interesting (read: pointless) battles were happening for me to
look away. (Note to self: <s>Delete Twitter and Facebook.</s> Spend less time
on social media.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anyway, here goes my Favourite Fives the year… <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">BOOKS <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honourable mention</i>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bongpen
Aro 75 </b>(by Tanmay Mukherjee) is that blender that squeezes your happy
memories, sad thoughts, flights of fantasy, fears, insecurities and
inspirations to create a wonderful elixir. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5. Habibi – Craig
Thompson <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This graphic novel is a tour-de-force in terms of both storytelling
and art. Piecing together diverse strands from Islamic art, architecture,
history, mythology, Thompson manages to create a fantasy world that’s as gripping
as it is real. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4. A Clear Blue Sky –
Jonny Bairstow (and Duncan Hamilton) <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A story of an inspiring struggle and redemption in the guise
of a sports autobiography. Bairstow’s searing honesty and (I am guessing) Hamilton’s
prose lift the story of a young cricketer trying to live up to his father’s
dreams to a different planet altogether. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3. The Body – Bill
Bryson <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The most predictably likeable book of the year, this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Guide for Occupants </i>is vintage Bryson. He
condenses difficult concepts into humourous bytes, explains complicated experiments
with blinding clarity and good-naturedly cautions us that – while a lot has
been unravelled – there is still a lot of mystery left inside the body. Sobering thought in the year of the virus.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2. Parveen Babi –
Karishma Upadhyay <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This biography of one of Bollywood’s most alluring, mesmerising,
enigmatic stars delves into the glamourous film industry of the 1970s as well
as Babi’s descent into mental diseases. Upadhyay interviewed pretty
much every major character in Babi’s life (and extracted brutal honesty from
most), creating a vivid portrait of her life and times. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even though Bollywood stars are more forthcoming about their
mental issues now, the media/society is still as (if not more) casual about it –
making this an extremely relevant book for the times. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Becoming – Michelle Obama<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A girl from a working-class background fights discrimination
on her way to an Ivy League school before joining a top law firm and then going
on to work for the government and not-for-profit sectors. That she marries a
guy with a funny surname (who’s less accomplished than her at that point) and moves
with him when he gets a great job is almost incidental in the life of Michelle
Obama. This is a book for all ages, all nationalities, all types of people –
the amazingly written story of one of the most inspiring figures of the present
day. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">SHOWS <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honourable mentions</i>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Head</b>
(Netflix) is an eerie story set in an Antarctic research station where people (among
the dozen-strong staff staying on during the winter) keep dying mysteriously. A
delicious twist on the ‘people getting killed in an island’ trope. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Simple Murder </b>(Sony Liv) has some glitches but still manages to
be a breezy watch, mostly funny and occasionally dark. And it fits in a lot of 1990s
Bollywood references. I am a sucker for these things! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">5. The Kominsky
Method (Netflix)<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas play two septuagenarian (octogenarian?)
friends living in the fringes of Hollywood, having moved there from the centre
of Hollywood. They are funny when they are sad, they exude sadness when they
are being funny. They remind you of the uncles you hate, the friends you love,
the people you wanted to become but developed cold feet later on. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dream remake casting:
Soumitra Chatterjee in the Douglas role, Amitabh Bachchan in the Arkin role.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><b>4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b>Feluda Pherot (Addatimes)<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">For the last four decades, Bengalis have been waiting for a Feluda adaptation that’s not a disappointment. Srijit Mukherjee finally delivers that and more, a six-part show based on one of the best Feluda novellas, set in a lovingly recreated period setting. The best part of the show is probably that it doesn’t follow the book down to the letter, a clear failing of the previous adaptations. It brings in modern references (including two political ones), clever wordplay (beyond what was in the text) and satisfying references/extensions to other parts of the Feluda Canon.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>3. Scam 1992: The
Harshad Mehta Story (Sony Liv)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A TV show with the swag of Bollywood, with lines that would
have made theatres erupt all over the country. The meticulous recreation of the
period, the uniformly brilliant ensemble cast, the music, the pacing and the
pop-culture references were all just brilliant. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Boys S1 and S2 (Amazon Prime)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The cleverest allegory of our times, masquerading as a
superhero story, garnished with blood, gore and eye-popping, jaw-dropping,
butt-clenching action! The show does a great job of not shoving the real-life
parallels in your face, letting things simmer for a bit and then – BAM – you realise
what the mother****** c***s just did there! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Paatal Lok (Amazon Prime)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s just that I don’t like you Left liberal behnc***s.
Trying to hide your failures with your annoying righteousness!” How can you not
like a show that has a line like this? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paatal
Lok </i>could well pass off as a hidden-cam and found-footage documentary,
something that would (nearly) get banned by whichever party is in power. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">0.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Dark (Netflix)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is somewhat demeaning for a show like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark </i>to be ranked and compared with other
shows. It is also simplistic to say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark </i>is
based on time-travel. It is a mind-bending ride that breaks every trope of time-travel
and forces you to consider a new world view, a world that probably exists but we
are not worthy enough to have made sense of it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I got on the journey a couple of years back on the insistence
of a friend, who made me persist beyond the slow start of S1. After S1E5, I was
like an addict – watching and rewatching episodes, taking notes, making family
trees, reading up on fan theories, following Reddit threads to make sense of this
bewildering, bewitching, beguiling show.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t miss <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dark</i>. Don’t
miss it for the world. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">FILMS <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i>Honourable Mentions</i>: <b>CU Soon</b>
(Amazon Prime) is a thriller shot entirely during the pandemic, using phones,
webcams and CCTV footage.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b>Gunjan Saxena </b>(Netflix) is a rousing tale of a young girl becoming
a helicopter pilot in the Kargil war, a coming-of-age story merging beautifully
with a war film. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b>AK vs AK</b> (Netflix) is a deliciously wicked meta-film, where the
premise of a kidnap drama is just an excuse to make fun of Bollywood. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b>The Platform</b> (Netflix) takes place in a futuristic world and asks
you the uncomfortable question: “How far will you go to survive?” and then
gives the answer you don’t want to hear. Not for the fainthearted. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><b>Raat Akeli Hai</b> (Netflix) is a triumph of writing, where multiple
characters and timelines merge in a detective thriller set in the Hindi
heartland. Everything from the locations to the action to the emotions are spot
on. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Gulabo Sitabo (Amazon Prime)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The first ‘big’ movie to go straight into streaming instead
of theatres seemed like a comedy about two down-and-out Lucknow wastrels. It turned
out to be a biting social satire, with Amitabh Bachchan returning to form in his
most non-heroic role ever. Srishti Srivastav as Guddu, Farrukh Jaffar as Fatima
Begum and a dilapidated mansion as Fatima Mahal turned in stellar performances
in this Juhi Chaturvedi script. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Ludo (Netflix)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anurag Basu brings in a touch of chaos and madness to the four
(Or is it five? Maybe six?) interconnected, colour-coordinated stories hurtling
towards a common end. The vibrant colours, the studied frames, the quirky
lines, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanki</i> characters are now hallmarks
of an Anurag Basu film, thanks to this, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Barfi</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jagga Jasoos </i>earlier. These films
didn’t set the box-office on fire but had enough felicitous touches to make
them cult favourites. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As they say, some films have logic. And some films have
magic.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Aamis (<a href="https://www.moviesaints.com/movie/aamis">Movie Saints</a>)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Bhaskar Hazarika’s film about the relationship of an older
woman and younger man, developing over meals of exotic food takes an unexpectedly
creepy turn but – and this is a triumph of the direction – it seems perfectly
normal. The two lead actors (Lima Das and Arghadeep Barua) perform out their
skins to make this one of the most memorable films I have watched this year. The
kind that keeps you awake at nights. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In every country, in every age, whenever someone criticises
a government for attacking freedom of expression, many smug bastards jump up
and say that if you’re able to criticise the government, then how can you say
that? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Trial </i>is a gut-wrenching,
goosebumps-inducing reminder that tells us if the government is letting you
speak, you’re probably not big enough. Yet.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I hope India will make many such films in the coming years. All
of which will run into trouble with the censor board. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -18pt;">Kaamyaab (Netflix)</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Between the time this film released and I managed to watch
it, I must have received a dozen messages from friends who were convinced that I
would love it. They were right.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Right from the very first scene in which a character actor’s
filmography is stuck at 499 to the uplifting climax where he plays his greatest
role, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kaamyaab </i>and Sanjay Mishra warm
every sinew, every muscle of your heart. The humour with which films-within-the-film
are recreated by merging footage from real actors, the care with which the
sidelines of the film industry are populated with detail, the focus with which yesteryears
actors have been assembled for the cast – it is a wonder and joy! And of
course, it also gave us the line that could well be the mantra for surviving
2020: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bas, enjoying life! Aur option hi
kya hai?</i>”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And that brings us to the end of this year’s roundup. </p><p class="MsoNormal">A year
in which I was luckier than most. I had a fulfilling job to attend to. While I lost two uncles, the immediate
family was safe and sound. While the virus caught me, I came out of it unscathed. And I had the means and mindset to enjoy many fun things. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of those fun things was to complete writing a book,
which will (hopefully) release in the first quarter of 2021. It is a return
to my favourite genre – Bollywood trivia. A geeky look at all things that make
and break Bollywood, things that are fun and exasperating in equal measure,
things that still inspire a debate or two! So that’s my thing to look forward
to in 2021.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here’s wishing everyone a very happy new year. May the year bring success and happiness in equal measure, may
all your daydreams of 2020 come true in 2021.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-80089633176730791062020-12-16T20:58:00.001+05:302020-12-16T20:58:02.453+05:30It's a Classic! 24* Years of JJWS<p><i>This post was written on 22nd October, 2016. </i><i>On an auto back from Bandra to Andheri. </i><i>It is now 28 years since JJWS released. All of it is still true for me. </i></p><p>Today I went for an event (as part of the MAMI Film
Festival) that brought together the cast and crew of <i>Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar</i>. It
was a session of great energy and fun as it was obvious the people were really
happy to be back together.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While <i>JJWS</i> was very successful commercially and even won the
Filmfare award for Best Film, I don't remember any craze or euphoria around the
film. But over the years, it has become something of a classic - a delightful
mix of college romance, sibling rivalry, great music and rushes of adrenaline
that can only come from sports. It is one of those Hindi films that you can
watch for any length of time, starting anywhere and walk away feeling happy.
Unless of course, you are in the middle of the cycle race, then there's no
walking away.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Even now, my fists clench when they shout “<i>Veer bahadur
ladke kaun…</i>”. I get goosebumps when Ratan screams “<i>Change the gear, Sanju,
change the gear!</i>” And I get a lump in my throat - lately - when the father sits
at the table while his son lies in the ICU.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The team talked of some delightful anecdotes, recounted the
massive chaos around the film's shooting and agreed that it was one film 'made
for the times’. They talked about the realism of the two characters (especially
Sanjay Lal Sharma) and how he 'connected’ despite being a 'hero’. What they
didn't talk about is how well the father's character is written.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I remember watching the movie on TV one afternoon and my
father was also in the same room. He observed Sanju’s antics with exasperation
and sighed audibly as the wastrel gifted an expensive necklace to a 'gold
digger'. Ultimately we got to the (not so remembered) scene where Ramlal asks
Sanju what he had done with the money he hadn't deposited at the bank. Sanju
responded petulantly, “<i>Yeh main aapko bata nahin sakta lekin main poore paise
waapas kar doonga.</i>” Just as Kulbhushan Kharbanda landed a resounding slap on
Aamir Khan, my father gave vent to his feelings and said “<i>Theek korechhey!</i>”
(Rightly done!)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a father, I now realise how real that response is… as a
parent, you don't expect your children not to make mistakes. You just expect
them to learn/own up. It is a fairly complex emotion but that's what snaps a
circuit in a parent's brain. Today, I went back to that day in Calcutta when my
dad and I were seemingly rooting for different characters (he for the father
and I for the son) but what both of us really wanted was for the son to win.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the end of the programme, the floor was opened for
audience questions. I wanted to ask a question to Mansoor Khan about the
father's character (as no one talked about him). But I wasn't sure that I would
be able to do it with a lump in my throat.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I guess that's what makes the film a classic.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Here is an edited version of the reunion:</i> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ROlOyNMsm0U" width="320" youtube-src-id="ROlOyNMsm0U"></iframe></div>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-57972654875807289982020-11-23T00:21:00.004+05:302020-11-23T17:30:00.195+05:30College Sweetheart<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2A6bArbLL6iDGJoYx2EAiJRmBSepa_IZZXQzAZ7UQgBBadCe2uRz8dD8B4WZLh3K80V9FG82R2_KmgIsj-3XLF3a9-bfk58o5yQtRVKPG4qo_zIIyhSJMN0X62a0mhjqTfWGB/s786/Priya_Cinema.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="663" data-original-width="786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2A6bArbLL6iDGJoYx2EAiJRmBSepa_IZZXQzAZ7UQgBBadCe2uRz8dD8B4WZLh3K80V9FG82R2_KmgIsj-3XLF3a9-bfk58o5yQtRVKPG4qo_zIIyhSJMN0X62a0mhjqTfWGB/s320/Priya_Cinema.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">On 1st September 2002, I left Calcutta for Bangalore to join a job and have remained an outsider ever since. The last film I watched in the city was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's opulent <i>Devdas</i>. If there is a symbolism in the choice of the film (something about a hopeless romantic dying outside a garishly over-imagined version of Calcutta), it surely wasn’t intended. Neither was the choice of the theatre where I watched it – with a group of colleagues and their wives – simply because it was the closest to my house and buying tickets there was a hop, skip and jump away. The theatre was Priya. </div></div><p></p><p>18 years later, as my symbolic exile from Calcutta turns adult, I woke up to the news that Priya and Menoka, among other theatres, are shutting down indefinitely, unable to take the business losses due to the pandemic. I don’t get sentimental at the shuttering of bookshops or eateries or theatres. I feel a sense of guilt. It is a collective guilt that we should all share that we didn’t patronise these places enough for them to survive. Mourning a patient’s death whose survival we could have ensured is hypocritical at best and sadistic at worst. </p><p>Coming back to Priya, it would most likely be the theatre where I have watched the most movies. (Nandan – with its government-subsidised tickets – would be the other contender.) Priya had the benefit of proximity. If you drew a rectangle with my school and my home on two ends of a diagonal, Priya would be the third corner – all three corners within the range of a brisk walk. It was close enough for me to jump out of an end-term exam early and reach the theatre by 12 noon for the first day, first show. (The film was <i>Indrajeet</i>, if you must ask.)</p><p>Some of my happiest memories from my school days are days of walking down Ritchie Road (now called Pankaj Mullick Sarani) after school with a bunch of classmates, talking rubbish and laughing our heads off. We paused for a while in front of Priya as the Tollygunge and Golf Green folks waited for their trams and buses. This was also the time to dissect the movie(s) running and about to release at Priya, often with very little to go with apart from the posters – before sighing and trudging back home.</p><p>One of the first movies I watched in Priya was on 1st February 1991. About a month before I took my Class X board exams, Amitabh Bachchan decided to fill our lives with meaning by releasing <i>Hum</i>. The hit song, <i>Jumma chumma de de</i>, had released nearly a year earlier during a Filmfare awards show and the expectations were sky-high. Some fourteen of us classmates used the good offices of a friend’s uncle (who ran Bani Chakra, a music and dance training school, right next door from Priya) to procure the tickets. In the fairly strict atmosphere of us preparing for our first Board exams (which was later revealed to be largely inconsequential), my parents agreed that 3 hours of my watching Tiger decimate the forces of Bakhtawar wouldn’t bring the world to an end. I braved a mini-lathicharge and crushing crowds to watch the most entertaining Bachchan movie of the 1990s – screaming and jumping up at every available opportunity, cheering our hero towards a satisfying climax. I still remember the collective gasps during the <i>Jumma chumma le le</i> song, when Bachchan and Kimi Katkar try to embrace but they are pushed apart by the milling crowd around them. </p><p>Continuing from <i>Hum</i>, Priya and its spiritual twin, Menoka, were the venues of an absurdly large number of films that comprised most of my movie watching during the 1990s and shaped my cinematic tastes – for better or for worse – for the rest of my life. </p><p>Immediately after completing our Class X Board exams, a friend and I went to watch <i>Jumma Chumma in London</i> at Priya. Since tickets weren’t available, we ran across to Menoka for an alternative. Google Maps insists it’s a 14-minute walk but I can assure you that for two movie-crazy teens, it’s a sub-10 minute run. We ended up watching <i>Benaam Badshah</i>, a movie we were embarrassed about watching but didn’t dislike thoroughly. (In fact, I loved the movie’s badness enough to <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/2007/07/random-movies-i-like-benaam-badshah.html" target="_blank">blog about it</a>.)</p><p><i>Agneepath</i> at Menoka. <i>Afsana Pyar Ka</i> at Priya. <i>Angaar</i> at Menoka. <i>Indrajeet</i> at Priya. <i>Akayla</i> at Menoka. <i>Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar</i> at Priya. <i>Darr</i> at Priya. In a sort of a ping-pong between these two nearly neighbouring theatres, I gobbled down film after film without a thought about quality or the quantity. The choice was between Jackie Shroff and organic chemistry, and Jaggu Dada won every single time.</p><p>Priya was the more frequent destination and the memories alarmingly vivid. I still remember tagging along with two friends (whom I didn’t know were a couple then) to watch <i>Main Khiladi Tu Anari</i>. I am not sure why they chose this film but much fan was had, ogling at Shilpa Shetty’s impossible figure and giggling at Akshay Kumar’s shaved armpits. When Shah Rukh Khan stabbed Sunny Deol in <i>Darr</i>, the entire theatre cheered – the first time for a villain in <a href="https://diptakirti.blogspot.com/2018/11/random-movies-i-like-darr.html" target="_blank">my living memory</a> – signalling the arrival of a new superstar. <i>Andaz Apna Apna</i> was watched with a Trotskyite friend, who refused to believe that I was guffawing all through the film in an unironic way. Amitabh Bachchan’s last film before he took a sabbatical – <i>Khuda Gawah</i> – was almost like a communion, a clan of fans exulting at the bouzkashi match and sighing that we just haven’t seen enough of Bachchan and Sridevi. </p><p>The adventures around <i>Saajan</i> would make one season of <i>Mismatched</i>, at least. Matches were made and broken as movie dates happened, got cancelled and happened again, with intended companions and unintended ones. A couple of friends and I were the observers in this mating game, enjoying the love polygons on screen and off it. Laughing at Salman Khan’s shenanigans (they were damn funny, okay?), sighing at Sanjay Dutt’s shaeris (they were comprehensibly flowery) and – of course – singing <i>Dimparuti Dimparuti</i> (you know if you know!) during <i>Dekha hai pehli baar</i> filled us up with giddy-headed joy. And we did all that with a community which was completely nebulous and absolutely well-defined at the same time – the Priya audience.</p><p>One of the last films I watched at Priya was <i>Aks</i>, for which I sneaked out of a matchmaking meeting and half-carried a friend on crutches to the theatre. These things sound crazy and memorable now but they were almost quotidian when they happened – just an irresistible urge to watch movies and there being a awesomely located, reasonably priced, well-maintained place to do so. </p><p>The owners of Priya are also well-known as producers of at least two Satyajit Ray classics, stills from those films adorning the lobby (which we missed in our rush to get to our seats before the trailers started). They braved a terrible phase of Bengali cinema, the video boom, the multiplex onslaught and what not to successfully run the theatre – one of the best-known in Calcutta. I remember Priya got a (sort of a) Jeep when <i>Saajan</i> completed 50 weeks there and a friend wryly commented that our gang of friends deserved at least a couple of the wheels for the number of tickets we contributed. </p><p>You know how it happens with college sweethearts. You have a great teeny-bopper romance, your friends love her and it is great while it lasts. Then you drift away and they find new admirers. You don’t miss each other and even forget about the love story after a point. It is only when you hear about that girlfriend in a debilitating disease that you think of the old times, you smile when others had praised her, you regret the times when you passed by and didn’t stop to say hello… and you promise that if she recovers, you will go out for a coffee... for old time’s sake. For me, that girlfriend is Priya.</p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-73534158402145775612020-09-05T09:27:00.002+05:302020-09-05T09:27:01.294+05:30Teachers' Day<div><i>I work for a company that values teachers quite a bit. So for Teachers' Day, many of us were asked to write a short piece on a favourite teacher. As I did it, I realised it only made sense to add a few more and make it into a 'thank you' post.</i></div><div><br /></div>When I was in school, standard essay topics used to be “A person you admire” or “How I spent my summer vacation” or the stupendously vague “The progress of science”. Whenever a topic like that came up, I promptly asked my mother (for English) or father (for Bengali) to help. They gave me pointers, quotes or – if I managed to delay it enough – pretty much the entire essay. Job done. Language hated. <br />Sometime in Class VII, a teacher’s topic for an English essay was: “The Legacy of Childhood”. I was stumped, in fact so stumped that I wasn’t even able to explain the topic to my parents. My father was convinced I had got it wrong. So, I looked up the dictionary for the meaning of ‘legacy’ and somehow wrote the essay by myself. I remember writing it very poorly but it was quite easy. I was surprised at the ease with which I wrote the essay. I started writing essays by myself from then. <br />Sometime in Class VIII, the same teacher gave a topic I couldn’t disclose at home. It was something on the lines of “How Difficult is it to Live with Parents”. It was a perilous, scandalous, blasphemous topic but I never had so much fun in a language class. I wrote a very long essay in one breathless burst. In fact, I was so pleased with it that I showed the final thing to my parents, who – to my eternal surprise – suggested some of their own quirks that I had missed including. <br />By giving crazy topics to write essays, by suggesting teenage boys read ‘adult’ books, this teacher kindled in me a love for the written word. <br />Thank you, Amit sir. <br /><br />When I was in school, there used to be a ritual. Schools run by the Ramakrishna Mission regularly conducted essay competitions. Participating schools were given topics (e.g. “Swami Vivekananda and Yoga” or “Swamiji: The True Patriot” or similar) beforehand and on a given Sunday, one teacher would take a bunch of students to the host school to write the essay. The content was prepared, memorized and regurgitated on paper. Swami V was a great guy but writing about his yogic tendencies was just not my scene. By now, my classmates knew I could write a bit and they often recommended me to participate. The teacher in charge never forced me to go. <br />Sometime in Class X, he told me “I think you should go for this one. It is a creative writing competition. There is no essay to be prepared. The topic will be given on the spot. You will have one hour to write.” I had never heard anything like this. I wondered aloud if I could churn out 1000 words in an hour. He smiled. “Who said anything about a word limit?” <br />Much to my amazement, I won the first prize at that essay competition. Delighted, I went to tell him. “I knew you would”, he said with the customary twinkle in his eye. After that, I participated in many creative writing competitions and won quite a few prizes but that was not the point. The fun I had in all of them was something I never knew to be possible outside a movie theatre. <br />By not making me do stuff I wouldn’t like, by helping me find stuff that I would enjoy, this teacher gave me a lifetime of fun. <br />Thank you, Rajat Sir. <br /><br />When I was in Class III, we used to travel from South Calcutta (where we lived) to North Calcutta (where my grandparents lived) every Sunday. During the hour-long drive, this teacher used to make me factorise car license plate numbers. The operative word was ‘made me’ because I hated it from the bottom of my heart. How can you break up a four-digit number? Yes, I know when a number is divisible by 3? How many tables do I need to know for this? Why on a Sunday? This 9017 is a prime number… no, wait. <br />Anyway, this eventually led to my mental calculation improving manifold and at some point in life, this had considerable brag value. I also believe it shaved off at least a few minutes of the time I took in competitive exams. (With my level of prep, God knows that I needed this.) <br />During my +2, he was always two chapters ahead of me in maths – actually solving problem sets after sets. But whenever I went to him with maths problems, he NEVER gave away the answer. In fact, he made me perform all sorts of mental calisthenics to arrive at the answer. What was the point of spending 30 minutes to solve one problem? So what if it took only 15 minutes to solve the next ten? <br />Many years later, I hunted down the Bangalore chapter of Mensa, took a half day off from office and sat for the entrance test. All because this teacher had done it when he was young. <br />By never giving up on me, by asking the right questions, by losing to me in mental math games, this teacher took away my fear of maths. <br />Thank you, Bapi. <br /><br />One Sunday in the early 1980s, she told me to finish off my homework in the morning itself. I was No. 82 in the list of Top Procrastinators in the World then and this seemed like a preposterous suggestion. She said, “There’s a great movie on TV this evening. Let’s watch it together.” In a city where Hindi films were ‘low culture’, this was unusual – if not unique. <br />This teacher not only watched Aradhana with me, she pointed out the high points, sang along the songs and sighed audibly when the second Rajesh Khanna appeared. For as long as I watched Chitrahaar, this teacher named the film and started singing the song before the titles could come on – thus giving me a benchmark to live up to. She got her copies of Stardust magazines (from the early 1970s) bound into volumes and didn’t let them go in many changes of homes and cities. As I wrote in one of my books, when mothers were taking their children to watch Born Free, she was taking me to Yaarana. When mothers were teaching their children Rabindrasangeet, she was teaching me Rahul Dev Burman. When I got married, my wife remained confused for days – unable to distinguish relatives from film stars in my mother’s conversations. I don’t blame her because “Sad that Abhishek’s engagement broke off. He is such a nice boy” or “This wastrel Sid is always after Deepika, does he have any work or no?” doesn’t really sound like filmi gossip. <br />By making me a pop culture junkie, by never frowning on my movie choices, by giving me my writing genes, this teacher made me an expert in the most enjoyable subject of the world. <br />Thank you, Mamoni.<div><br /></div><div><i>And for no reason at all, each of the four segments are 287 words long.</i> </div>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-90085962666294317042020-08-27T21:37:00.005+05:302020-08-28T08:52:55.535+05:3045 Years of Sholay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSbSwDhX7oLrHyshjbDUoqj0IFYBX5MJw2HfFjUx88lX-_DSoBiSzNo9Iae_9B86D0LW2YUNYwNJVcqQfdgh9B88oqTKRu8-gLDDxdA8DAaj8q5juHl3bPkrYmXbGMW1szWj/s1500/Do+Sholay.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1136" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7oSbSwDhX7oLrHyshjbDUoqj0IFYBX5MJw2HfFjUx88lX-_DSoBiSzNo9Iae_9B86D0LW2YUNYwNJVcqQfdgh9B88oqTKRu8-gLDDxdA8DAaj8q5juHl3bPkrYmXbGMW1szWj/s640/Do+Sholay.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The above visual is the poster of the Hindi-dubbed version of a Punjabi film, <i>Do Sher</i>. The Punjabi film released in 1974 but the Hindi film-world had changed by the time the Hindi version had come. So the 1977 release was called <i>Do Sholay</i>. As Shekhar Kapur had said, "Hindi film history can be divided into two eras - Sholay BC and Sholay AD." </div><div><br /></div><div>What follows is a list from <i>Sholay </i>AD. </div><div>I have tried to name at least one film from every year which had a Sholay reference. Some years have two or more. Some references are sketchy because I haven't seen them but just picked them from various sites. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Three years - post 1980 - don't have an entry yet. I would be very grateful if you can name films released in 1995, 1996 and 2017 that had a <i>Sholay </i>reference. </b></div><div>Please feel free to embellish the sketchy entries. Please add films that I have missed. Please watch <i>Sholay</i> again. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>1981: <b>Ladies Tailor</b> <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Deven Verma plays Gabbar Singh while Amjad Khan plays Thakur for a spoof of '<i>Haath humko de de</i>'.<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span>1982: <b>Khud-Daar</b></div><div>Bachchan's taxi is called Basanti.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>1982: <b>Masoom</b> </div><div>'<i>Kitnay aadmi thay</i>' scene performed by a kid at a party.</div><div><br />1983: <b>Jaani Dost</b></div><div>Dharmendra's truck is called <i>Sholay</i> (which also had <i>Jugnu</i> and <i>Shikar</i> written on it).</div><div><br /></div><div>1983: <b>Naukar Biwi Ka</b></div><div><i>Sholay </i>mentioned in a list of Dharmendra's films.<br /><br /></div><div>1984: <b>Tere Mere Beech Mein</b></div><div>Viju Khote plays Kaalia (in the same getup) and has a similar scene with Amjad Khan.<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>1984: <b>Purana Mandir</b></div><div>Jagdeep plays Machchhar Singh, spoofing the Gabbar-intro scene.</div><div>(Courtesy: Shome Sengupta)</div><div><br /></div><div>1985: <b>Saaheb</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Deven Verma plays film writer, Pareshan Mama who gave the story of Sholay to 'two young writers' on a train from Indore to Mumbai. </div><div><br />1986: <b>Patton ki Bazi</b></div><div>Refers to films like <i>Raam aur Shyam</i>, <i>Andhaa Kaanoon</i> and <i>Sholay</i> ('<i>Black mein ticket leke dekhi thi</i>') and describes how Dharmendra beats Amjad, before Liliput is thrashed.<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>1987: <b>Dilruba Tangewali</b></div><div>Villain is an exact replica of Gabbar, including a repeat of the Russian Roulette scene.<br />Production controller: Kanti Shah</div><div><br /></div><div>1988: <b>Soorma Bhopali</b></div><div>Spinoff film from legendary character<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>1989: <b>Khooni Murda</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>KLPD made references to this movie after an explosion<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>1990: <b>Jamai Raja</b></div><div>Hema Malini says '<i>Tumne abhi tak mere Sholay nahin dekhe, Sharafat dekhi hai…</i>'<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>1991: <b>100 Days</b></div><div>Hit song '<i>Gabbar Singh yeh keh kar gaya</i>'</div><div><br /></div><div>1991: <b>Ramgarh ke Sholay</b></div><div>Parody film<br /><br /></div><div>1992: <b>Angaar</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>A dwarf in the film is inspired by Viru's suicide scene (playing on video) and repeats the scene dialogue by dialogue. <span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>1993: <b>Shatranj</b></div><div>Character talking about films<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>1994: <b>Andaz Apna Apna</b> <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Coin scene (Tumne Sholay picture dekhi hai? Haan, dus baar!)<br />Kya naam hai aapka, Raveena ji?</div><div><br /></div><div>1994: <b>Hum Aapke Hain Koun</b></div><div>Anupam Kher enacts the suicide scene during the passing-the-pillow game. Basanti = Reema Lagoo.</div><div>Mausi = Alok Nath. </div><div>(Courtesy: Rukmini Sengupta)</div><div><br />1995: <b>Gabbar Singh</b> (Pakistan)</div><div><span>A full film named after the legendary villain!</span></div><div><span>(Courtesy: Anindito De)<br /></span><br /></div><div>1996: <b>Tere Mere Sapne</b> </div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">Arshad Warsi says '<i>Kya karein? Mera dil hi kuch aisa hai</i>' to explain why a 'millionaire' like him has </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">a cabbie friend.</span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">(Courtesy: <a href="https://twitter.com/Mehta_Nirav" target="_blank">Nirav Mehta</a>)<br /></span><br /></div><div>1997: <b>Daud</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Chacko says '<i>Agar kisi ne hilne ki koshish ki</i>'.<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>1998: <b>Kuch Kuch Hota Hai</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Johnny Lever says his father was an <i>Angrezon ke zamane ka tailor</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>1999: <b>Hello Brother</b></div><div>Some dialogues are mentioned<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2000: <b>Billa No. 786</b></div><div>The villains mention how Gabbar had cut off Thakur's hands.<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2001: <b>Jodi No. 1</b> </div><div>Sanjay-Govinda are called Jai and Veeru. </div><div><br /></div><div>2002: Duplicate Sholay</div><div>Spoof<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2003: Jhankaar Beats</div><div>The film is full of constant references to and quizzes around <i>Sholay</i>. <span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2004: <b>Main Hoon Na</b></div><div>Rickshaw is called Dhanno. <span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>2005: <b>Bunty aur Babli</b></div><div>Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji reprise the <i>Yeh Dosti</i> song on a bike with a carrier.</div><div><br /></div><div>2005: <b>Bluff Master</b></div><div>Riteish D refers to his partnership with AB Jr as 'Jai Veeru'. </div><div><br /></div><div>2006: <b>Taxi No. 9211</b></div><div>Dialogues which refer to the characters in <i>Sholay</i>.<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2007: <b>Dhamaal</b></div><div>Sanjay Dutt says '<i>Sholay maine bhi bahut baar dekhi hai</i>' when Arshad Warsi tries to throw dust in his eyes. He plays Russian Roulette after that.</div><div><br /></div><div>2007: <b>Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag</b><br />Full-fledged remake </div><div><br /></div><div>2007: <b>Jhoom Barabar Jhoom</b><br />Abhishek-Bobby recreated the Amitabh-Dharmendra bike scene in London. <br /><br /></div><div>2008: <b>Dostana</b></div><div>Sam mentions Gabbar Singh in one of the scenes. <span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>2009: <b>Luck by Chance</b></div><div>Macmohan repeated the '<i>Poore pachaas hazaar</i>' dialogue on popular request at an acting school.</div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span>2009: <b>Jai Veeru</b></span></div><div><span>Fardeen Khan and Kunal Khemu play the two titular friends. </span></div><div>(Courtesy: <a href="https://twitter.com/aneelababar" target="_blank">Aneela Z Babar</a>)</div><div><br /></div><div>2010: <b>Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge</b></div><div>Viju Khote plays Kaalia (in a film within the film) and is teased by Paresh Rawal with '<i>Kitnay aadmi thay</i>' and '<i>do</i>'.<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2011: <b>Mere Brother ki Dulhan</b></div><div>Katrina did a reprise of Viru's suicide scene.<span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>2012: <b>Housefull 2</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Shreyas T: '<i>Gabbar aur tunda Thakur Jai aur Viru kaise ban gaye?</i>'</div><div>Akshay/John: '<i>Jaise humare andar ke Sholay bahar aa gaye…'</i></div><div><br /></div><div>2012: <b>Gabbar Singh</b> (Telugu)<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2013: <b>Nautanki Saala</b></div><div>Title derived from Jai's dialogue, directed by Ramesh Sippy's son<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span><br /></div><div>2014: <b>Ungli</b><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><i>Dance Basanti</i> song references Basanti Tangewali. </div><div><br /></div><div>2014: <b>Main Tera Hero</b></div><div><br /></div><div>2015: <b>Gabbar (is back)</b></div><div>Exact replica of dialogues in several scenes<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2015: <b>Badlapur</b></div><div>Gabbar Singh's jail break scene plays as Nawaz watches (as he's also sentenced for 20 years).<br /><br /></div><div>2016: <b>Freaky Ali</b> </div><div>Seema Biswas (Ali's mother) says about a prize money won by Ali: '<i>Itna bada inaam toh Gabbar Singh ke liye bhi nahin rakha tha.</i>'<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2016: <b>Sardaar Gabbar Singh</b></div><div>Sequel to 2012 Telugu movie<br /><br /></div><div>2017: <b>Meri Pyaari Bindu</b></div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">Ayushmann refers to his partnership with neighbour Bindu (Parineeti Chopra) as that of Gabbar and</span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">Sambha, Munna and Circuit, Guruji and Bhola.</span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre;">(Courtesy: </span><a href="https://twitter.com/pritheevee" style="white-space: pre;" target="_blank">Prithvi Raj</a><span style="white-space: pre;">) </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2018: <b>Andhadhun</b></div><div>Tied to a chair with a silent Tabu, Ayushmann says, <i>'Itna sannata kyun hai, bhai?</i>'<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2019: <b>The Sholay Girl</b></div><div>Documentary on Reshma Pathan, Hema Malini's body double<span style="white-space: pre;"> <br /></span><br /></div><div>2020: <b>French Biriyani </b>(Kannada)</div><div>Mafia don tells his henchman to kidnap a girl or he'll cut off his hands like Thakur of <i>Sholay</i>. <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div><br /></div><div>2020: Donald Trump mentions <i>Sholay</i> as an iconic film</div>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-51032466659330952972020-08-16T22:55:00.000+05:302020-08-16T22:55:11.583+05:30My Guide to India in 28 Books<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47PvkRmAc69JdVPaHEKiNIWjYB6LoiFudD5UsR-ngVc4OThvMs8NzMFKJb4newPC2u_Ogcc1nMsekdBUrd7QXvElVudyqvZYFozfmsw_PbMsChsA1V-UUH4yszEsO5oLqmU7Q/s2048/491fb1_54956_1_mr1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1687" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh47PvkRmAc69JdVPaHEKiNIWjYB6LoiFudD5UsR-ngVc4OThvMs8NzMFKJb4newPC2u_Ogcc1nMsekdBUrd7QXvElVudyqvZYFozfmsw_PbMsChsA1V-UUH4yszEsO5oLqmU7Q/s640/491fb1_54956_1_mr1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Mint Lounge came up with a <i><a href="https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/the-guide-to-india-in-50-books-11597389813634.html" target="_blank">Guide to India in 50 Books</a></i>, selected by the journalists and
editors of the newspaper. The editor hopes that we will take offence at the
books we love but have been left out. And indeed, that’s the whole point of
lists! </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As a list aficionado myself, I think it is a bloody good list
because it achieves the near-impossible. It makes you want to sit down and
create a list of your own. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So here goes mine… <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have tried to replace some of the books with alternate
names that *I think* are better in terms of either readability or momentousness.
Or both. The replacement is either by the same author or covers a related
theme/topic. The other books are the ones I have read and feel they should remain
in the list. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Don’t kill me. Make your own list. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> In Custody
– Anita Desai</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story of a genius poet past his prime and his ardent
admirer trying to chronicle his life for posterity has an abiding charm in the
present times. Especially because our classical languages are fading away and
we are hellbent on assigning religious labels to what remains. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">A Corner of a Foreign Field – Ramachandra Guha</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">Butter Chicken in Ludhiana – Pankaj Mishra</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">
Following Fish – Samanth Subramaniam</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you’re going with a travelogue-cum-social-account of India,
you might as well go with the author who actually eats non-veg and covers a
wider swathe. Samanth S’s account of going down the peninsular coastline of
India eating fish is hot, spicy and so real that it sticks to your fingers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">The White Tiger – Arvind Adiga</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Five Point
Someone – Chetan Bhagat</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The clichéd story of a poor man trying to make it in a rich
man’s world can be replaced by the story that spawned a publishing revolution. Bhagat’s
debut is raw and funny, chronicling the IIT-obsession of the Indian middle
class surprisingly well. Much has been said about his slightly wonky writing
but you cannot NOT read Chetan Bhagat if you’re trying to get through ‘India in
50 books’. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Shadow Lines – Amitav Ghosh</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">English, August – Upamanyu Chatterjee</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Curfewed Night – Basharat Peer</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">10.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Our Moon has Blood Clots – Rahul Pandita</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Curfewed
Night</i>, you must also read the other side of the story. Rahul Pandita covers
the ordeal of the Kashmiri Pandits, their exodus and their attempts to rebuild
their lives. Read Peer and Pandita’s books back to back, and you’ll lose the
will to live in India. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">11.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Guide – R. K. Narayan</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Swami and
Friends – R. K. Narayan</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a personal choice. Probably because I read this when
I was young, the coming-of-age of a bunch of boys in a near-alien South Indian
town just hit home like nothing else Narayan had written. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">12.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">Dreamers – Snigdha Poonam</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Mother Pious
Lady – Santosh Desai</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Snigdha Poonam’s book is an excellent exploration of the new
generation of Indians charging ahead in the new millennium in entertainment,
internet and politics among other things. But Desai’s book – a collection of
his columns – goes back a decade or two, takes innocuous items from our daily
lives (the nighty, the scooter, the matrimonial ad) and draws a masterful portrait
of the India we grew up in and how they shaped us. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">13.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">14.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">So Many Cinemas – B. D. Garga</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Sholay: The
Making of a Classic – Anupama Chopra</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Much better than a collection of trivia and memorabilia (however
visually attractive it may be) is the story of the ‘greatest film ever made’. A
single story bringing out the passion, the quirks, the resilience, the stardom,
the trepidation of our dominant film industry. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">15.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Maximum City – Suketu Mehta</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">16.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Sacred Games – Vikram Chandra</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">17.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra – Ruskin Bond <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">18.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><s>Indian
Food: A Historical Companion – K. T. Acharya</s></i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Korma Kheer and Kismet – Pamela
Timms</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What good is a book on food if it doesn’t make your mouth
water? And learning about food from its history is like someone telling you how
to kiss. Timms’ book on the meats, the sweets, the ghee, the butter, the spice,
the heat, the city and the citizens is a lovely peephole into how Indians eat
to love and love to eat. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">19.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">20.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Pregnant King – Devdutt Pattanaik</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Sita
– Devdutt Pattanaik</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There are two <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mahabharata
</i>retellings in this list and Pattanaik’s illustrated version of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ramayana </i>deserves entry not only to
complement them but also because it manages to bring in the nuances despite the
simple language. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">21.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Great Indian Novel – Shashi Tharoor</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">22.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">India After Gandhi – Ramchandra Guha</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">23.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The Palace of Illusions – Chitra Banerjee
Divyakaruni</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">24.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> The
Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The NRI experience is an intrinsic part of the last 73 years
of India and Jhumpa Lahiri’s achingly beautiful account of a Bengali couple migrating and building an Indian life in America is as organic as it can get. It grew out of every household from which a son or daughter went abroad in the 1970s/80s and came back to wide-eyed surprise and an unsaid pain on both sides. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">25.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><s style="text-indent: -18pt;">Ravan and Eddie – Kiran Nagarkar</s><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> Cuckold –
Kiran Nagarkar</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story of the Rana of Mewar – fighting the Mughals outside
and the demons within – is an alluring tale of palace intrigue, domestic drama
and marital tussles. All the more so because his wife is in love with a
dark-skinned God. Historical fiction at its best. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">26.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><i style="text-indent: -18pt;"><s>When
Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics – Milan Vaishnav</s></i><span style="text-indent: -18pt;"> From
Dongri to Dubai – S. Husain Zaidi</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The story of crime in modern India is intrinsically linked
to politics and vice versa. So we might as well start from the crime and get into
politics instead of the other way round. Zaidi’s storytelling is gripping and
churns out a steady stream of stories from the Bombay/Mumbai underworld, with it
comes the complicities of the political class, the film industry and the swish
set. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">27.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh</span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 18.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">28.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Khushwant Singh’s Joke Book<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If you must read Singh’s scholarly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">History of the Sikhs</i> and the gritty <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Train to Pakistan</i>, you must also read at least one volume of his
joke book. Compiled mostly from jokes his readers used to send him, the books
are the exact antithesis of the politically correct culture, sterile test-tube
we live in nowadays. The jokes are racist, explicit, hilarious and paint as good
a picture of India as any!</p><p class="MsoNormal">Phew... that's it.</p>Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-45509215406725626782019-12-31T20:28:00.000+05:302020-01-02T18:28:39.922+05:302010s: A Roundup (Books)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i style="text-align: justify;">This post is in two parts… the
first section is for books on cinema while the next is for everything else, the
segregation necessitated by my reading habits and not the popularity of books
on cinema (sigh).</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CINEMA<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Cinema is the only genre that I
read assiduously through the decade. I didn’t lose interest and more and more
good/great books came out as the years went by. Like the earlier films list, this
decadal list of books doesn’t match exactly with my annual favourites. Several books
that I loved after finishing them didn’t give me reasons to go back to, while
others became dogeared. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honourable Mentions<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Don’t Disturb the Dead – Shamya Dasgupta</b>: A well-researched,
affectionate account of the Ramsay Brothers, India’s best-known horror merchants.
</li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sanjay Dutt: The Crazy Untold Story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy – Yasser Usman</b>:
This is the insulin shot you need to recover from sweetness of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sanju</i>. Completely
non-judgmental, meticulously researched and a smooth read.</li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sahir Ludhianvi: The People’s Poet – Akshay Manwani</b>: Only when you
read this book do you realise the true depth of Sahir’s genius, written by a connoisseur
of cinema and poetry alike because to truly understand Sahir, you have to be
both. </li>
<li><b style="text-align: justify;">And then one day… - Naseeruddin Shah</b><span style="text-align: justify;">: How brutally honest and abrasive can Naseeruddin Shah get? Read this book to find out! Rarely is a memoir so insightful and entertaining but then what else can we expect from the thespian?</span></li>
<li><b>Conversations with Mani Ratnam – Baradwaj Rangan</b>: This is the Hitchcock-Truffaut
of Indian cinema, a leading critic having a book-length conversation with a legendary
filmmaker.</li>
</ul>
<i>And my ten favourites,
in reverse chronological order are…</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai – Yasir Abbasi</b>: An amazing collection of
articles from Urdu magazines, featuring a mind-boggling array of stars who
write about themselves and contemporaries. That these articles could be sourced
(many from now-discontinued magazines) and be translated so felicitously is a
miracle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Travails with the Alien – Satyajit Ray</b>: Probably the only full-length book on a film that was never made (i.e. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Alien</i>, a film Ray was supposed to
make with Hollywood collaboration). It is a treasure trove of previously
unpublished articles, letters, photographs, news clippings along with Ray’s screenplay,
reminisces and short stories (on which the script was based). The design needs
a special mention because it is very rarely that you see such a diverse set of
visuals accompanying an even wider range of text, fitting in with each other so
beautifully.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">In a Cult of their Own – Amborish Roychoudhury</b>: An analysis of
forty ‘cult’ Hindi films, this is the kind of book that you want to read fast
because it is so interesting and want to read slow because you don't want it to
finish. It has now won a special mention at the National Awards for Best Book
on Cinema. So, it’s not only me telling you to read it! <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rekha: The Untold Story – Yasser Usman</b>: The biggest achievement of
this book was to bring alive the effort behind Rekha’s rise to stardom, a
phenomenon usually associated with her liaisons and not her talent. For the 70s
(and 80s) film fan, it is a deeply satisfying read as the book strikes the right
balance between what we knew, what we didn’t and what we imagined. “But Amitabh
Bachchan never officially commented on this.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Funky Bollywood – Todd Stadtman</b>: An amazingly compilation of the
curiosities that made 70s Hindi cinema so much fun. Loaded with posters,
screenshots and associated visual delights, the book brings alive the memories
of long-lost brothers, reincarnation, grand lairs of villains and other such
joys!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Flashback – Avijit Ghosh, Srijana Mitra Das, Sharmistha Gooptu</b>: Times of India’s voluminous archives were mined to create a collector’s edition of filmi news, held together by some insightful articles by the editors on the tricks and trends of the film industry. It is the perfect flipbook of our fondest memories.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rosebud Sleds and Horses’ Heads – Scott Jordan Harris</b>: A wonderful inventory of world cinema's 50
most evocative objects that leaves us with that dilemma – of wanting to add
your own objects but unable to drop any object from the list. Kane’s childhood
sled and Khartoum's severed head are mentioned in the title but the other 48
are just as impactful. To paraphrase a line from a classic (and this book), this
is "stuff movie dreams are made of".<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron – Jai Arjun Singh</b>: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">JBDY</i>’s cult status deserved this book, one that captured both the
method and madness meticulously well. Pieced together from memories of the
makers and the actors, this book is the script Netflix will option when they
make a film on the making of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">JBDY</i>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">10 Bad Dates with De Niro – Richard T Kelly</b>: The concept is just
unbelievably perfect. A compilation of eclectic lists on cool cigarette scenes,
unusual murder weapons, severed heads, sex scenes, drunk scenes and what not from
world cinema. By the way, the list in the title refers to the 10 films in which
Mr De Niro acted boorishly – even violently – with his on-screen women.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>RD Burman: The Man, The Music – Anirudha Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal</b>: This is the benchmark of cinematic biographies, where even the first-person accounts were verified by the authors to bring unmatched authenticity. The RD fanboy, the music aficionado and the film scholar will all find their fixes in this rocking book about India’s original rockstar.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OTHERS<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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This is a mix of fiction and
non-fiction, Bengali and English, crazy and predictable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honourable Mentions<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Penguins Stopped Play – Harry Thompson</b>: A bittersweet memoir of a member
of the English village team who went on a seemingly hair-brained mission to
play cricket on every continent of the world. </li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Longing Belonging: An Outsider at home in Calcutta – Biswanath Ghosh</b>:
The dispassionate outlook of an outsider blends with the erudition and charm of
an insider in this lovely book. The result is a beautiful mix of fact and
opinion, past and present, happiness and melancholy, human and divine, modern
and archaic, longing and belonging.</li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Peon theke Prakashak – Badal Basu (Bengali)</b>: The autobiography of
Bengali literature’s foremost publisher is a veritable history of the language,
featuring pretty much every major author in a cameo or extended part. </li>
<li><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rong Tulir Satyajit – Debasish Deb (Bengali)</b>: A valuable
encyclopedia of all the work Satyajit Ray has done as a graphic artist, with
commentary from the author (who is a renowned illustrator and artist himself),
giving it an excellent context and flow.</li>
<li><b>The Billionaire’s Apprentice – Anita Raghavan</b>: A compelling account of how an Indian icon got embroiled with one of the most successful hustlers of Wall Street. The book captured Rajat Gupta's entire life from his early life to his eventual fall from grace in intricate detail, with a remarkable mix of fact and perspective.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="text-align: left;">And my ten favourites,
in (approx.) reverse chronological order are…</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fire in the Babylon – Simon Lister</b>: An unputdownable history of how
West Indies went from being a bunch of extraordinarily talented cricketers to
the world's greatest cricket team and in the process, becoming a symbol of
excellence for people of colour everywhere. Research and storytelling come
together beautifully in this saga of cricket, a book for the ages. (I met
Vivian Richards at an event. I got him to autograph my copy of this book!) <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage – Sydney Padua</b>: The
story of two pioneers in the history of computers is recounted with wit, verve
and a whole lot of footnotes. Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage are credited
with laying down the principles behind software and hardware (respectively) of
the future computers and Sydney Padua does a stellar job of bringing these
eccentrics to life. Alice in Wonderland, the financial crisis of the 1840s,
Queen Victoria, Lord Wellington, Thomas Carlyle et al make the quirkiest guest
appearances to build a story like no other. (Did I mention this is a graphic novel?)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bongpen 75 – Tanmay Mukherjee</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(Bengali)</b>:
This is the best collection of short stories to have come out in Bengali
language. No author – living or dead – has managed such variety and consistency
in one volume. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fortunately, the Milk – Neil Gaiman</b>: The best children’s books don’t
treat children like children. Time travel, prehistoric life, bloodthirsty
pirates, forgetful parents and precocious children make appearances in this
fantastic tale that I started reading to my son during his bedtimes and ended
up looking forward to it as much as – if not more than – he did. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Hatching Twitter – Nick Bilton</b>: This documentary recreates the
heady days of Twitter’s founding like a thrilling novel, without changing the
facts. The four founders were described in such detail that you could find one
you were very similar to. And then you’d realise that you’re rooting for
another. At some point, this Business book became a Self-Improvement one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">First Person – Rituparno Ghosh (Bengali)</b>: This two-volume
compilation of Rituparno Ghosh's weekly columns satisfies the low-brow voyeur
and the serious film fan. Rituparno talks about his attending the
Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding as well as the Cannes Film Festival with the same
childlike enthusiasm that we saw in his talk shows. He talks about the
difficulties of being gay in India and recounts silly anecdotes from his
shooting, both casually and without any intellectual pretensions. He manages to
convey a sense of wonder when he narrates his encounters with stars and
displays a starry stubbornness as he holds on to some of his idiosyncrasies. The
only disheartening thing is that there will never be a sequel. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Mine – Arnab Ray</b>: A mind-slashing thriller that catches you by
the throat and doesn’t let go. Even after you finish it. In fact, especially
after you finish it. Our day-to-day fears, paranoia, insecurities are
exaggerated manifold to create a yarn that keeps coming back to you. The visceral
emotions of blood relationships (a father-daughter one, for example) are
twisted into a macabre tale that makes you to ask "what would I do in a
situation like this?" And the horror is that the truth is not the answer
you would like to hear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Would You Like Some Bread with that Book? – Veena Venugopal</b>: I love
books. I love people who love books. I love books by people who love books. I
love stories about books in books by people who love books. This was a series
of delightful anecdotes/observations about the author's reading life and has
got to be one of the least known, most underrated gems ever. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Chinaman – Shehan Karunatilaka</b>: This was touted as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>Sri Lankan novel. The quest of a
disoriented journalist to find out about a genius leg-spinner who dropped off
from the record books could well be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>cricket
novel. Yes, it’s that good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Mother Pious Lady - Santosh Desai</b>: If I had to recommend a book to anyone who wants to understand India, this is the one I'd go with. Everyday things that pass us go under an exceptionally powerful microscope in this collection of essays and suddenly, India makes sense. Or even if it doesn't, you know why it doesn't! </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Phew... that was a lot of writing on the last day of the year! </div>
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<br /></div>
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Here's wishing all of you a great year and decade ahead. May all your days be filled with good books and great memories. </div>
</div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-85332686144101656632019-12-31T20:27:00.000+05:302020-01-07T13:03:57.146+05:302010s: A Roundup (Films)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo-BIYULAM8kCZmUmRlOWCVX7W-kc-CL-EOWo8OB86KgoGR7z_befziEP1D2SCcbWIxl8K3RRLE2ryEA4rdQQaTDJR3VYlTLyOhaBOKPQ9ZfLjhE9yxQdlIR95OmqyprufhKa/s1600/2010s+Movies.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1600" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLo-BIYULAM8kCZmUmRlOWCVX7W-kc-CL-EOWo8OB86KgoGR7z_befziEP1D2SCcbWIxl8K3RRLE2ryEA4rdQQaTDJR3VYlTLyOhaBOKPQ9ZfLjhE9yxQdlIR95OmqyprufhKa/s640/2010s+Movies.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<i>A special word of
thanks to Vikram Bondal (<a href="https://twitter.com/vicramb" target="_blank">@vicramb</a> on Twitter) for reminding me that this blog has
been alive for fourteen years.</i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Read a lot of books, watched a lot of movies, listened to a
fair bit of music, (*sunglass swag emoji*) didn’t write too many blogs
(*shamefaced emoji*). But also realised that my “media consumption” (a 2010s
phrase) is so much in a defined boundary that I didn’t know who <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/lifestyle/celebrity/story/barack-obama-names-cold-mess-in-his-favourite-music-2019-list-prateek-kuhad-is-flipping-out-1632771-2019-12-31">Prateek
Kuhad</a> is. (After <a href="https://twitter.com/masalabai" target="_blank">Rituparna</a> pointed him out for me, I wished she hadn’t. Totally
messed up my YouTube algorithm.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite making brave pronouncements, I didn’t end up watching
too many regional language films and probably for the first time in my life, I haven’t
watched enough Bengali films to make a Top 10 that would be representative enough.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also didn’t end up reading a wide variety of books, but the
numbers were large enough to hazard a Top 10 in cinema books and ten more in ‘Others’.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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So here come my favourites of the decade. Favourite obviously
means what *I* liked. It’s subjective. It changes over time. Don’t @ me (another
2010s phrase).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">HINDI CINEMA </i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I usually do a top 5/10 my favourite films every year but when
I leafed through them now, I realised I liked some of the lower ranked films of
the years more. Yes, that subjectivity thing again! These are not the greatest films
of the decade. They are merely the films I would go back to most often as I
grow old. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Honourable Mentions <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Gully Boy</b>: I suspect
that I will love this film a lot more in 2029 than I do now. Zoya Akhtar’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Luck By Chance </i>is now one of my favourite
films, which I fell in love with over multiple viewings. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bareilly Ki Barfi</b>:
This is one more of those creeping likes. The father-daughter, the girl-friend,
the friend-friend, the author-reader… all are relationships we have. Or want to
have. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Lunchbox</b>: I have
a soft corner for films that play 1990s music in their soundtrack. And for
films that have great acting. And for films that have Nimrat Kaur. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bombay Talkies</b>:
The second film ever to have Satyajit Ray and Amitabh Bachchan in the credits. What’s
not to love? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do Dooni Chaar</b>: I
am a sucker for sincere maths teachers and smartass kids. I have seen too many
of them in my life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And my ten favourites,
in reverse chronological order are… <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Andhadhun</b> had that
delicious mix of Easter eggs, hat-tips, tributes that I can’t get enough of. It
had plot twists that seemed like plot holes. It had a Lady Macbeth who seemed like
Ophelia. It had a Raghavan who seemed to be looking for his Raman. You have to
be blind to not love it. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Death in the Gunj</b>:
Many years back, a debutant director explored the bygone world of Anglo Indians.
Her frames eked out the loneliness and neglect her protagonist faced, the bullying
that went unnoticed in real life hitting us in the face when a camera was
placed in front of it. Thirty years later, her daughter did the same. And probably
did it better. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kapoor & Sons</b>:
The hero of this film was the writing. Written by Ayesha Devitre (and director Shakun
Batra), this was a mesmerising screenplay as a dysfunctional family going about
plugging leaks and planning surprise birthday parties. It was a masterclass of working
with an ensemble cast (of some actors and some merely superstars). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dangal</b>: A father
and a child disagrees. He is from the old school, she has seen better. Their disagreement
becomes virulent. Eventually, the child wins. If Nitesh Tiwari had ended the
movie at this point, the father in me would have loved it a lot. But the father
was later proven right, which brought a smug smile to my face. What won it for
me totally was when the child went on to win greater things, without the father’s
help. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Masaan</b>: When I
first watched it, I wrote, “A searingly real portrayal of small-town India -
the loves, the fears, the ambitions, the insecurities, the honesty, the
corruption, the trains, the bridges, the lives, the deaths... If you haven't
watched it, I'd say you have not experienced India to the fullest, not seen
Indian cinema at its best.” I stand by every word. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dum Lagake Haisha</b>:
At a time when film albums are not sold as albums, DLKH did that incredible
thing of putting together a stunning ‘album’ while following a hero who sold ‘albums’
(though we knew them as cassettes then). Bhumi Pendnekar made a weighty debut,
Ayushmann did a role that only he seems to do nowadays, and Varun Grover
suddenly made lyrics very interesting. (Did I mention I love films with 1990s
songs?) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kai Po Che</b>: If we
thought <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kai Po Che </i>was about the
worst communal polarisation in India’s history, we hadn’t seen anything yet. But
in today’s times, how can you forget a film in which a Hindu fundamentalist has
a change of heart and eventually saves a <a href="https://sportstar.thehindu.com/cricket/ipl-auction-mumbai-indians-digvijay-deshmukh-kai-po-che-actor-sushant-singh-rajput-maharashtra/article30366623.ece">Muslim
child</a> from rioters? How can you forget a film which immortalised India’s
2001 win over Australia on celluloid? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kahaani</b>: A South
Indian woman looks for her missing husband in what I feel is the best tourism video
for Calcutta. The people, the places, the colours, the darkness, the words, the
sounds, the smells, the texture of the city just came alive in this murder mystery.
And if that was not all, Amitabh Bachchan sang for us at the end. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rockstar</b>: I love
illogical love stories. I love crazy characters doing crazy shit in the name of
crazy love, things that I would tag as #smh #irl. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rockstar </i>was all that and more. AR Rahman and Irshad Kamil’s
partnership was one made in heaven and Ranbir Kapoor belonged in the field that
Rumi told us about.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Love Sex Aur Dhokha</b>: There are so many things in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LSD</i>. But what I think of first is the taveez
visible under the sleeve of the supermarket uniform that Rashmi (protagonist of
the second story) wears. And when she tells her boyfriend of her friend’s
honour killing, he unwittingly shrinks away from her. A sharper sketch of the
modern Indian middle-class hasn’t been made yet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking up the post in two. The next one has my favourite books of the
decade.</i></div>
</div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-82999062787786866692019-12-01T19:14:00.000+05:302019-12-01T19:14:18.259+05:30Feluda: A Trivial Pursuit<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Had written <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/books/In-trivial-pursuit-of-Feluda/article16870956.ece" target="_blank">this piece</a> about Feluda for The Hindu, around the time the sleuth had turned fifty (from the time the first novel was published). Reupping this on the blog at a time when an exciting web-series remake (by Srijit Mukherjee) is in the making.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQWTydwB9bI-T32LoI_N1wemgeHjuKXQKA1ddoIQOXhbvQuznGsZ72Is2QRLYqdbRdwo5Gt0DON_88q4kZGgsKhXHqA79FkshIE7NW2HwCAZXJkCy8ESI_4zcYo-b_ZKxHkQc/s1600/Feluda.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="853" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQWTydwB9bI-T32LoI_N1wemgeHjuKXQKA1ddoIQOXhbvQuznGsZ72Is2QRLYqdbRdwo5Gt0DON_88q4kZGgsKhXHqA79FkshIE7NW2HwCAZXJkCy8ESI_4zcYo-b_ZKxHkQc/s320/Feluda.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
A ten-year old boy used to stick his hands into the burrows of foxes and pull out their little ones. This boy was Joykrishna Mitter, who became a teacher of Sanskrit and Maths at Dhaka Collegiate School. But he was not the typical schoolteacher. He had a built body and was good at all kinds of sports including wrestling and swimming. He died quite young, leaving behind a son of nine years. The son inherited his father’s physical strength, mental faculties and daredevilry in equal measure, growing up to become the most popular sleuth of Bengali fiction – Prodosh C Mitter a.k.a. Feluda. <br />
<br />
Feluda ‘turned fifty’ some time back (counting from the publication of the first story published in 1965) and is now an iconic character, known outside Bengal (thanks to several translations and films made by his creator himself).<br />
For the last five decades, he has been the archetypal Bengali superhero whose exploits finely balance the cerebral and the physical. Blessed with a photographic memory, he is ambidextrous (able to write with both hands). He represented Calcutta University in cricket, as a left arm spinner and is also a whiz at word games and puzzles. He came first in the ‘All India Rifle Competition’ though his preferred weapon is the more discreet Colt .32 (not to mention, the even more discreet grey matter). When his Colt is not available, he can match up to a Bollywood action director in Kung Fu. He has translated into Bengali two biographies of nineteenth century explorers. On the other end of the intellectual scale, he once outlined a plot for a Bollywood film (to his writer friend) that went on to become a jubilee hit. Feluda is that perfect amalgamation of traits Bengalis can’t get enough of. To paraphrase a recent Bollywood film, he has “<i>Robi ka dimaag, Subhash ka daring</i>”!<br />
All these details are part of the intricately woven Feluda Canon, at least partially inspired by the Holmesian one. Feluda had a very well-defined atmosphere – fictional and yet totally real. Even his address is located on a real road in South Calcutta (though the house number doesn’t exist), which now boasts of a ‘Feluda Café’ serving coffee and nostalgia to devoted fans.<br />
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Despite being a ‘hero’, Feluda is clearly the typical Bengali bhadralok or rather, the one everyone wants to be. The Bengali pursuits of a frugal middle class life, the little joys of music and books, the sarcastic humour, the mild-mannered xenophobia (of making the most fearsome villain a Marwari!) are all there in the Feluda stories.<br />
In fact, the Bengali penchant for travelling far and wide is legendary and Feluda exemplified this. Every major city and tourist destination in India (and a few abroad) have been the setting of crimes he has solved and Ray’s obsessive attention to detail meant that Feluda novels can easily be used as guidebooks. Train timings, distances between locations, sightseeing and eating recommendations are neatly tucked into the narrative, egging tourists on Feluda trails. Also, one can draw a near-perfect correlation between the shooting locations of Ray’s films and the settings of the Feluda novels. <i>Kanchenjungha</i> (1962) preceded the debut novel (1965) set in Darjeeling. The Varanasi of <i>Aparajito</i> became the setting for <i>Joy Baba Felunath</i>. <i>Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne</i>’s Rajasthan returned in <i>Sonar Kella</i>. So on and so forth.<br />
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In between the heroism and the travel and the crime solving, Feluda stands for something immensely valuable. He is a role model without being preachy. He is a professional detective but willing to forsake his fees for not-so-affluent clients. Good always wins over evil, good food is supplemented by yoga, scholarship and diligence are lauded and crass display of wealth is frowned upon. Even Feluda’s smoking of his trademark Charminar cigarettes is called out as a health hazard.<br />
What is missing – a common grouse among at least half his readers – is the lack of female characters in his adventures. Feluda’s backstory consists only of his father. His mother received just a single line in the entire canon, blandly stating that she had died even before her husband. Continuing this trend, there are less than ten speaking women characters among all the stories and I am including a female bookstore attendant in one scene of one novel here. In an attempt to keep these children’s stories free from any potentially romantic situations, Ray had all but scrubbed out the women from them!<br />
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A great tribute to this fifty-year old legend would probably be fan fiction about his mother – a feisty student in pre-Independence Bengal – getting embroiled into a story of intrigue and mystery and meeting her future husband as they both solve a case involving – maybe – the Kohinoor and the Chittagong Armoury Raid or both. Now that would be something!</div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10102622.post-2856811598119980132019-11-19T23:47:00.003+05:302019-11-19T23:49:01.851+05:3050 Years of Bachchan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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To commemorate the fifty years of Amitabh Bachchan (counted from the day - 7th Nov - when <i>Saat Hindustani </i>released in 1969), <i>Film Companion </i>got together five writers to choose ten favourite scenes each and come up with a definitive listing of Bachchan's fifty most memorable scenes.<br />
The contributors were Akshay Manwani, Anupama Chopra, Baradwaj Rangan, Pratim D Gupta and yours truly, giving me the worst case of Impostor Syndrome ever!<br />
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Nevertheless, I waded right in and gave in my list of ten - borrowing heavily from my childhood favourites, the films I grew up watching and whistling to. Some of my friends were scared I might put <i>Toofan </i>in and I did consider the entry scene for a bit but it got squeezed out by other worthies. The earliest film chosen was from 1975, it went all the way to 1992 before jumping two decades ahead to 2015.<br />
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So, here is my set of ten (which were edited slightly for the final inclusion).<br />
And do visit <a href="https://www.filmcompanion.in/amitabh-bachchan/50-years-of-amitabh-bachchan-50-best-scenes.html" target="_blank">the page</a> on <i>Film Companion</i>. It is a beautifully designed, wonderfully written collector's item. You'll want to keep coming back to it!<br />
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<b>Deewaar (1975)</b><br />
<i>The fight in the dockyard godown </i><br />
“<i>Peter, tum log mujhe dhoond rahe ho aur main tumhara yahan intezar kar raha tha</i>”, drawled a dockyard coolie – Vijay – as he locked the door of the villain’s den himself and took on a bunch of goons in an unequal fight. Unequal because none of those toughs had even a fraction of the searing intensity that Vijay was carrying in him since childhood. Interestingly, this was Deewaar’s only full-blown fight scene but it had a corrosive power not seen in the fifty years of Hindi cinema that preceded it. Just as Vijay had predicted, “<i>Jo pachees baras mein nahin hua, woh ab hoga. Agle hafte ek aur coolie in mawalion ko paisa dene se inkaar karne wala hai.</i>”<br />
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<b>Amar Akbar Anthony (1977)</b><br />
<i>Anthony’s fight with Inspector Amar </i><br />
Anthony Gonsalves was a petty bootlegger who had helped a criminal escape from the police. This brought him in the crosshairs of Inspector Amar, who decided to teach him a lesson. The comic exchange between them and the fight that followed had two significances. From an angry young man, Amitabh Bachchan had taken the first step to become an entertainer (an avatar later made famous by Manmohan Desai). And in an industry of fragile egos, he was willing to be beaten unconscious by another star. Though he was easily the scene-stealer here. “<i>Tum apun ko dus dus maara. Aur main sirf do. Pan solid maara ki nahin?</i>”<br />
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<b>Kaala Patthar (1978)</b><br />
<i>Pain is my destiny </i><br />
Vijay was a miner nobody had seen anything like. For starters, he seemed eager to get into life-threatening situations. He was punishing himself for some unknown crimes, hurting himself with as much fervour as helping someone else. Vijay’s brooding intensity intrigued as well as attracted the lady doctor to whom he was brought after coal particles got embedded in his skin. He refused anaesthesia when the doctor offered. “<i>Pain is my destiny and I can’t avoid it</i>” was his cry of anguish. This pithy line in English was like the mine’s siren going off. It signalled the darkness deep down.<br />
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<b>Satte Pe Satta (1982) </b><br />
<i>Babu comes out of jail </i><br />
Annette Pinto told us how RD Burman made her take a mouthful of water and gargle in tune, creating an eerie, edgy piece of music. A background score suitable for a ruthless, middle-aged assassin. When Babu came out of jail, he looked nothing like his supposed lookalike – the happy-go-lucky, healthy Ravi. He had a tired gait, a gaunt face, greying hair and eyes that looked like a bloodhound… one that had just eaten a human. At the peak of his heroic stardom, Amitabh Bachchan played an assassin and in one short scene, made us believe he was capable of spilling blood, lots of it.<br />
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<b>Shakti (1982) </b><br />
<i>Raakhee's death</i><br />
The advertising line ‘Battle of the Titans’ is usually a lie or at best, an exaggeration. Except once. When Dilip Kumar faced Amitabh Bachchan in Shakti, the line seemed woefully inadequate. And in an almost subversive move, some of Bachchan’s scenes were without dialogues – relying on his eyes and body language to do the job. DCP Ashwini Kumar’s wife was shot dead by his enemies and his son, Vijay, was brought from prison for his mother’s funeral. The son knelt in front of the father and tried to console him before failing and starting to cry. He then walked off with a determination that precipitated the climax.<br />
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<b>Coolie (1983) </b><br />
<i>Getting shot at Haji Ali</i><br />
“<i>Chala goli… Tere haath mein maut ka samaan hai, toh mere seene pe khuda ka naam hai!</i>”, challenged Iqbal the coolie just before his adversary pulled the trigger. The bullet pierced the holy chadar and the legendary baritone started reciting holy verses and advanced up the minarets of Haji Ali. Amitabh’s menace was palpable in this scene because the man with the gun was retreating and the man taking the bullets was advancing. Manmohan Desai later described how Amitabh rolled his eyeballs and you could only see the whites, giving this scene an eerie resonance. There were many chapters in Amitabh’s stardom. Coolie was the first chapter in Amitabh’s divinity.<br />
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<b>Agneepath (1990)</b><br />
<i>Maut ke saath apintment </i><br />
Everyone knows how Vijay Dinanath Chavan walked out a police station to keep an appointment with death. The scene that followed – his four adversaries waiting, his car screeching to a halt, a hail of bullets, Vijay emerging from the car unscathed and then getting shot by the quartet – was Julius Caesar, The Godfather, Scarface… all rolled into one. His slow-motion collapse as the bullets punctured him one by one was as magnificent heroism got on celluloid. And of course, Vijay came back. He liquidated his enemies and told the world, “<i>Yeh chhe feet ka body lurkane ke liye char inch ka goli kam padh gaya… maloom?</i>”<br />
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<b>Hum (1991) </b><br />
<i>Tiger returns </i><br />
With flops (<i>Jaadugar</i>), painful rehashes (<i>Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi</i>) and offbeat roles (<i>Main Azaad Hoon</i>), the thrills of a Bachchan film went missing in the late 1980s. <i>Hum</i> brought that masala back. But as we saw the older, pacifist Amitabh, we understood that the new guns – Govinda and Rajinikanth – would ‘do’ the climax and Amitabh would be in the background. And that’s when a driver at a bus-stand decided to insult his family. The familiar bugle-like war-music sounded, the sober spectacles came off and the familiar anger took centre-stage. The old lion shook his mane and tore into his prey. <i>Tiger zinda hai!</i><br />
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<b>Khuda Gawah</b> <b>(1992)</b><br />
<i>End of bouzkashi</i><br />
Shot in Afghanistan and mounted on a humongous scale, <i>Khuda Gawah</i> lived up to the hype in its very first minute with the jaw-dropping bouzkashi game. What seemed like hundreds of horses charged into each other to take control of the dead lamb aka bouz and fateh was supposed to be Badshah Khan’s. As the final two adversaries violently tugged at the bouz, one’s turban came off to reveal the peerless Sridevi as Benazir. Badshah Khan gallantly gave up control of the prize to lose the game. “<i>Badshah baazi nahin, zindagi haar gaya!</i>” What did someone say about haarke jeetne wale ko?<br />
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<b>Piku (2015)</b><br />
<i>The mumbles of a Bengali uncle </i><br />
Anand’s stern doctor Bhaskar Banerjee returned as a hypochondriac old man, with all the typical quirks and idiosyncrasies of a cantankerous Bengali uncle. Households in Calcutta and Chittaranjan Park laughed along as the old Mr Banerjee made his eccentric pronouncements, insulting people for their lack of – what he considered – education and intelligence. In a hilarious dinner conversation with Moushumi Chatterjee, Bhaskar babu mumbled “<i>Illiterate</i>” under his breath before declaring “<i>Sirf low IQ wala log hi shaadi karta hai</i>”. The scene was a delightful exposition of the character’s humour, helplessness, sensitivity and intelligence. It was emotion in motion!</div>
Diptakirti Chaudhurihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00296396674255584499noreply@blogger.com1