****
Kangana is my female Amitabh Bachchan. Never has any actor owned the screen so much. She is confidence personified, actress par excellence. She has the gritty diligence of Aamir in taking ownership of a script and also actively contributing to it. So no wonder that the script writers get jitters when there is a glamour for credits to be shared with this brilliant actress. Her screen persona is luminscent. She dazzles in a striking combination of brilliant exposition of her art and exuding natural beauty.

Simran is hoisted on her slim looking but strong shoulders with the ease of Hanuman lifting the whole mountain in search of life saving sanjeevani. She is not sure what part of the bold script of an independent woman will work . Circumstances force an ordinary housekeeping employing at the Hilton to mix up with dangerous money lenders and start stealing all in an effort to chase her dreams and at the the same avoiding possible betrothal.

There is an effort to sketch out the characters of her parents , prospective husband and friends well but with an half hearted approach . A slight elevation of that effort with more punch in the dailogues mouthed by these side props of the story could have catapulted this movie to another league .

And yet despite its obvious story drag you can never take your eyes of the screen as she shares a camaraderie with a barman, an extremely natural selfish relationship with her parents and a truly believable romance that envelopes her and her prospective husband.

The story never lets you guess correctly and you clasp your slightly bored and sometimes slapping with happiness,  hands  together till the end
A very satisfying visit to the screen where you get the pleasure of watching the evolution of what is possibly the resurrection of fresh story telling and innovative acting by one of the best exponents of the art

Kangana way to go !

Nothing Rings True !

At the end of the movie as I sighed over a lost chance, it seemed like three great creatives who seemed to bask in their individual luminescence without ever properly connecting. With Imtiaz you know that you can get ready for wit flying all around without any background music drowning out the calm esoteric exchanges. One is always ready to be pleasantly surprised as he fries culture to a light brown without ever burning it. His quest for defining love continues. However for once I found a connect between all the three missing – the director and the two actors don’t seem to thread convincingly.

A tour guide in Europe who diminishes his own self esteem while leading around groups of gawking tourists while not dithering from moving around in a Jagaur open top or was it a Bentley. And he bumps into the female tourist who is for a flimsy reason searching for a ring and that somehow is supposed to be the excuse for a road trip. I think the collapse begins with this unconvincing plot. Searching open roads wide eyed,  days after losing it somehow ridicules the purpose of the story itself. Assuming that it is just a ruse for the director to escape to his favourite cobbled stone pathways in picturesque Europe, the lost ring rings so untrue. Add to that insufficiently fleshed out references to Gujarati and Punjabi where mention of Dhokla, Fafda and Tractor somehow are sufficient to infuse strength of their native backgrounds into the characters or so the makers believe.

Their travails are nothing to write home about except to mention that it seems like a long dialogue smattered with chuckle worthy witticisms along the way but few and far. The monotony of the dialogue drags you down such that the entry of an interesting goon actually brightens things up.
The hero is clearly unconvinced that he should play out his tour guide character to the hilt so he must have impressed on the director to allow him to own a high end car and book tickets to a metropolitan city in India while for some strange reason he is unwilling to go back home. Home as punctuated by grey and white eerie clips reminding one of Love Aaj Kal Saif Ali Khan’s track.

SRKs cheeky romance which girls swooned over seems intact but lacks lustre. It is really Anushka with her high decibel performance almost risking going over the top that keeps you from rejecting it outright. She seems to have a reaction for every dialogue that her costar mouths. She breathes a lot of spunky life into her act.

The music drags the movie down while the superior photography compensates. Except for the hummable Hawayein a song where SRK seems to come into form and the song also syncs with the spirit of the film

I sense a disparity in the intended script of Imtiaz and the final execution probably imposed by the makers. Else it is difficult to find a confused Imtiaz after his brilliant JWM or a LAK or the more recent Highway or Rockstar. The characters grow on you for sure but you hardly feel for them in the lackluster climax other than to heave a sigh of relief and rush to catch your last bus home.

Stunning acting ensemble elevate MOM

Before I change my mind let me tell you my stars for the movie 3 1/2
Why would I change my mind?
Because it is a reluctant must watch.

A movie where you better not be having popcorns while Sridevi comes on the screen because you will for certain choke . She is that brilliant . And this coming from someone whose only good impression of the actor is a rare Sadma or Chaalbaaz or the more recent English Vinglish .

But here she gives you goosebumps and in case you think those spectacles are steaming up they are actually involuntary tears rolling down

A docile but friendly teacher and mother , loving younger one , a normal life with a kind husband and a rather disconnected step daughter.

When something disturbs this linear life it is upto the mother to step up and hold up  a light to justice

The story is not surprising and to an extent cliched and yet you dare not move your attention away from the excellence in acting
Ensemble that pervades the screen

And as for the sort of Justice meted it you no doubt wonder if it is the only way to treat the diseased minds in our country that is a threat to the welfare of the fairer sex

In the meantime you really wait for what's next with the protagonist . Way to go is all I a new fan  can say to Sridevi. Bravo !

Who let the starter out ? who who ?

For my countrymen. Please migrate while someone finds a starter for the Tubelight.

"Heroes" meets "Bajrangi" meets "Little Boy" meets...Oh forget it !!

It's just a game son !

Virat smiles through the luniniscent screen. With a calculated brave grin followed by a laconic smile reacting to the anchor on what has just happened " It's a game and they were good on this day.  "

Yes indeed this is just a game move on I tell myself and the family.


1:00am
Dim bed light on.
"Are you again on your emails?"Wife asks ?
"Uh oh no just looking at some statistics on what could have happened if Jadeja had run out instead of Pandya!"
"But you said it was just a game. Get over it!"

"Absolutely" I said very calm and composed pulled up the sheets  a wise smile and lights off


4:00 am
Tiptoe to the front room. Please don't mistake the whites on my knuckles for any reaction to clenching the fists for 3 hours in anger
Haha absolutely not
Completely in control
These are just games
Not feeling sleepy
Just want to sit on the sofa

Son walks in " Papa you ok ".               "Absolutely just not sleepy
Checking some numbers "

"Yeah but those numbers look like number of 6's required to close the gap !
You are still thinking about it papa?
You told me it's all a game ". Son looks startled

Weak laughter. Chortling in the throat .
"Hahahaha of course. No these numbers are just some tax numbers and worries that I have linked aadhar card yet "

Son perplexed
"Papa 180 divided by 6 does not look close to any income tax number

A stern voice
"Go to sleep will you ? "


7:00 am
The wife and son at my side
"Are you sure you are ok ?"
"What are you doing making all those scenarios " picking up my scribblingsand reading it aloud
"What if that fellow had crossed over and if the next two batsmen just stuck around and what if at least 20 sixes had been possible and convert those 1s into 2 s and 2 s into 3 s and 4 s into 6 s and son "

Wife looks up
"Are you still hung up about the match . Is that not obsession that you keep harping about"

"And what is this about starting a petition to get that guy out of the team . So what if he did not move ?"


And then I scream
"HE SHOULD HAVE SACRIFICED HIS WICKET AND RUN AND WE COULD HAVE WON THE MATCH !"

The family is startled . I calm down.

"Shucks forget it . It is all a game and the captain even smiled at the end and the opposition played a great game anyway."

"Now to historically find out under what circumstances the final can be replayed if at all "

The family sighs .

Wife looks at the clock

" Bring out your blues . It's Monday and you need to go to the office "

Spoilsport I tell you !!!!!

Boundary shot that never reaches the rope - Sachin the movie

An elderly couple ambled in and occupied the seats next to me a few minutes after the screen started flashing images of a young Sachin. The gentleman helpfully explained the context of the movie to the lady. The lady looked at the screen and fished out a large Note and decided that this was more interesting than what was happening on the screen.

I sighed, tried hard to ignore the bluish luminescence next to me and looked at the young cute Sachin giggling over a prank. I looked on with hope. I was expecting the unleashing of a dramatic real life gripping re-enactment of the most loved cricketer India has ever known. Once you see James Erskine’s name you know he has been there done that with his bio pic on Pantani the Tour De France hero who ends up a sad mess at 34. 

Unfortunately it is a huge case of a missed chance. The biopic looking severely under- budgeted serves more to be larger screen version of a news channel’s patchy job to put together a life story of the star on his retirement. The grandeur of storytelling usually associated with national heroes and more importantly the poor understanding of the game and its finer moments which can lend itself to some applause worthy cinematic moments, is sorely missing.

All James had to do was do a seamless watching of the 1984 mini-series Bodyline or the more recent Lagaan to understand how one can keep the attention of the audience mercilessly gripped with superior story telling.

If the film was supposed to serve as an inspiration to youngsters on how to achieve glory with humility riding on professional excellence and focused effort, then it ends up as a very insipid documentation that you sit through only for the man you love and for what he has done for the country.

The story of Sachin as a little boy prankster, his rigorous practices at Shivaji Park, his coach, his ideal family of a loving mother, a litterateur father, a brother who sculpts him in his earlier years, his strength his wife and his loving children all are already part of registered history. What was needed was to tease out the superman and embellish his story with realistic touches to make it more human and accessible to the common man to experience and aspire for greatness.

Instead it turns out to be lazy filmmaking with practically no effort to excavate any unknown stories, search for unseen clips,( sorry family clips easily accessible don’t account for that) and slyly move away from bumps in the story line which are uncomfortable like the fixing of matches, or the tension with other colleagues or Sachin’s own weaknesses which could made him look more human. There is no effort to even go closer to the characters surrounding him. The director seems at ease only when Sachin himself is in the studio talking peacefully, reminiscing with an angelic smile.

There are some cute moments from the family clips like the kids frolicking in bed with Sachin which looks very endearing or his wife silently admiring her husband and looking like the solid support she obviously is in real life. But these are borrowed pieces of artistry naturally .

There was a need for some dramatization, need to move away from a documentary feel of narration and make him larger than life and boldly explore his weaknesses rather than drown his failures with an apologetic loud chorus of “ Sachin Sachin” beating to A R Rahmans appropriate but frenzied drums just in case the audience thought he was being criticized.

One does feel a pang of sorrow when he retires and gives a simple speech from his heart but one has already sobbed on that one so nothing new here. But the lady next to me who had now looked up after 2.5 hours of alternating between her cellphone screen and husbands loud narration was sobbing away and I felt sad for her and for the billion Indian fans. Not for the movie or how it depicts Sachin but for realizing that we will never see our icon batting like that again. Maybe we just need to thank James for reminding us about that.

Move over Hollywood...Here we come!

One is always wary of over hyped products. Either the product is genuinely good and the surprise element is annihilated with the over sell or the makers are anxious with an inferior product created and are trying to generate noise to distract. It is with this trepidation that I approached viewing of BB2.

BB ( the first part ) was a decent experience with some rough edges in special effects but the story telling despite it’s over the top loudness was in a different stratosphere aided by some really good looking cast. BB2 in that sense does not disappoint you and actually surprises you with it’s deft & breathless storytelling and not pulling anything short on special effects. There is none of the overt focus and thrill on having cracked some delectable VFX and chest thumping to answer back to the tag of the Indian Film Industry an underdog in comparison with their smarter counterparts in the west. With this, that discussion can be laid to rest. We can make our Gladiators, Star Wars and Spiderman now and impressively. The Vfx is now only incidental to the storyline.

Fairy tales and mythical stories are always outlandish and that is why they lend themselves so well to visual artistry as the boundaries are only what the creators choose to stop at. Collaborated with intense story telling the end result can be startling. I remember Narnia as a classic and impressive example of that.

The story builds from the beginning of the first instalment tracing back the back story of Bahubali ( Prabhas) whose father also Bahubali ( Prabhas again) is one of the two children of a queen ( Ramya) and essentially battles his brother Bhalla ( Rana Dagubatti) with an evil scheming father. Bahubali with his immense strength , sense of fair justice and good looks is seen as a natural heir to the throne by his mother sidelining the natural protocol of choosing her elder son.

Bahubali is a blindly loyal son and on instructions from his queen mother sets on a journey of learning about his subjects with his loyal commander Katappa ( Sathyaraj) and comes across a beautiful princess who he wishes to marry but cannot because he is in disguise as a commoner.

What happens thereafter forms part of a breathtaking spectacle though at places tiresome storytelling relieved only when the special effects steps in and shakes you up. Note especially a thrilling encounter in a corridor with an army stylishly executed. Be it the encounters with the elephants, charging bulls, flaming livestock , the vfx has been executed with incredible hardwork and seeming perfection. At places you do feel the animation a bit out of place as some of the visuals of the palaces and kingdom, where hard structures are panned against a background of superimposed extensions of building graphics. The difference in shades perhaps look a bit awkward and distract from the otherwise massive scale of the art design.

The cast acts and over acts as is emphasized in all mythologies and stories of the evil and the good in the days of yore when all had to scream , grimace and shout to be heard and influence people around. You can barely take your eyes of Prabhas a brilliant mix of compassion, strength and grace bolstered with good looks. He even over shadows the heroine Anushka Shetty who holds her ground and an equally handsome Rana who seems let down by the story making him look like a very strong confused man.

The movie is overly long and at times feels like a never ending Chandamama story. Made me feel like the director was so much in love with what he had shot that he refused to give in to the editor. But this should not take away from a thoroughly entertaining film that is if you like mythologies and historicals with more than decent special effects. The scale is grandiose, the music very average especially in the Hindi version awkwardly retrofitted. The dubbing too tends to distract but guess they did not have much choice and re-shooting could have been too expensive. BB2 does seem tiresomely repetitive for the first 45 minutes before the director takes control and moves out from the loud palace to the more down to earth surrounding of the commoners.

Rajamouli has without doubt set a new benchmark on size and scale and buffeting it with strong special effects sheen like never before. And whether the question that was whatsApp rage joke for the last one year all one can say it is silly but smart marketing. Your jaws won’t drop for sure.

But the jaws will drop for sure with pride and surprise when cows with flaming horns charge or when Prabhas creates a lasting image as he strides lithe and agile over an elephant. Do watch it with the kids who have never read the Amar Chitra Katha or Chandamama and have been fed on a diet of superman and Spiderman movies. They will be enamoured.