Still Waiting for the Slumdog Millionaire

If there’s one thing that I like about western cinema, its the way they adapt stories in print to the screen. For instance, the adaptations of the legal thrillers of John Grisham, the Harry Potter series (or any other fantasy story), James Bond, the Dan Brown stories, Jurassic Park… and the list goes on and on. The concept of using a story that is already successful, sitting right in front of you in hardback is very common in western cinema.  Another story to join these ranks is Slumdog Millionaire.

Based on the novel ‘Q & A’ by Vikas Swarup, Slumdog Millionaire has everything that Indian cinema does not in terms of quality. Or so I am told. You see, this story is based in India, about one of the most watched game shows in India, and on top of that is also a love story. And still it has not been released in India. Ever since AR Rahman, won the Golden Globe, I have downloaded the soundtrack, read the reviews, and done everything short of attempting to watch the movie. All this because I want to give the movie the proper respect it deserves by shelling out a hundred bucks to watch it on the big screen. I have been anticipating this movie so much that I fear it will fall below my expectations once I watch it.

Well, about the movie. It is about a very young man, who despite his extremely poor and disturbed childhood, is able to answer all the questions in the game show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ to, well, become a millionaire. But after the game, he is picked up by the police, who charge him for cheating. How could a ’slumdog’ answer all the questions? He then goes on to explain how the answers lay in the events through his life in the slum with his brother, and their adventures.

Coming back to the Indian connection, lets start with Anil Kapoor. It seemed queer to me why Anil Kapoor had been chosen for the role when there already were Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, people who had already proved their mettle by hosting the actual game show. But why director Danny Boyle chose Anil Kapoor is still quite a mystery. The only thing that matters is that he did his job well. Next, Irrfan Khan. I cannot remember the last English film with the least bit of an Indian connection that did not have Irrfan Khan in it. In 2007 he starred alongside Angelina Jolie, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody in A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited. And now for the latest sensation (again) in Indian music… AR Rahman. His song ‘Jai Ho’ is being played on TV screens across the world. Personally, I also like another song titled ‘O Saya’.

There are also other Indian actors like Saurabh Shukla and Mahesh Manjrekar in the movie. The main actors, Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto, however are based in the UK.

I feel its unfair that a movie that is so close to the spirit and soul of India is being released so late. Just cant wait!

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! : Review

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

The first thing that came to my mind while I watched this movie is that Abhay Deol is the best of all Deols, even if he is not from the original family. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is in simple words is Dibakar Banerjee’s style, i.e. it is based in Delhi, is extremely funny and realistic. And I say this even though it is Banerjee’s second film after Khosla Ka Ghosla.

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! is a movie about Lucky Singh, the ‘matric pass’ genius born in the lower-middle class streets of Dilli whose charisma and cunning helped him to simply walk into people’s homes, pick stuff up and take it out, with not so much as a bead of sweat. He was a cat burglar, a car booster and a con man. His fascination with the living style of the rich and association with ‘bigde hue’ friends who would call him from the window shouting “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” soon transformed him into a handsome, soft spoken, risk taking thief.

The film follows his life as he moves from his home to escape the chaos in his family, as his father (Paresh Rawal) started living with an Auntyji. He moves to the streets so the police cant track him, and starts working for Gogi Bhai (again, Paresh Rawal). Soon his fame spreads across the Delhi underworld and he starts working for himself, once even targeting a journalist just to see his name in a newsaper. Soon, he meets Dr Handa (and again, Paresh Rawal), an honest doctor who soon recognises what Lucky really is and uses him to raise capital for a restaurant. In between all this he pursues Sonal (Neetu Chandra),  sister of colleague and dancer Dolly. Sonal is a normal Delhi chick doing BCom from DU. She resists him at first but his charm comes in handy again.

Abhay Deol carries his character satisfactorily, but the person who really has outdone himself is Paresh Rawal. Three different characters and three different personalities. You would not recognise one role from the other, from Lucky’s father (honest, loud, ashamed of his son), Gogi Bhai (Underworld gangster who later becomes a politician) to Dr Handa (educated, dignified and family man). Archana Puran Singh also is perfect as Mrs Handa.

This movie is worth watching by all, as it contains a funny moment in every nook and cranny of the film, albeit that sometimes you have to look for it. But when you do find it, it sure is rewarding. Another reason I liked it was that I could connect to it having lived in Delhi for quite some time. The way a Delhi policeman talks, the way a goonda boy acts, all minute details about Delhi have been accurately reproduced here. Some people do have problems with the morality it portarys, but what the heck, I dont care. This film entertains, and is worth keeping in a DVD.

The Ghajini Connection

Aamir's Look in Ghajini

Most of you may have heard about the new Aamir Khan movie, the one in which he sports a weird haircut? Yeah, the short cropped hair with bald lines shaved through. The movie is called Ghajini. And you know what, this movie is a remake of a Tamil/Telugu film from 2005, which was called (guess…?).. Ghajini.

I say this because the writer and director of this 2008 Hindi movie is the same as that of the 2005 Tamil movie. Mr A R Murugadoss doesn’t mind making the same movie all over again. BUT, the connection doesnt end here. Murugadoss got the idea of this movie from a 2000 English movie called Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan, the same guy who co-directed The Dark Knight. Memento also features Carrie-Anne Moss, who also played Trinity in the Matrix series.

Have I told you about the plot? Well, the story in all three movies is basically about a man who is suffering from a unique memory condition, because of which he has short-term memory loss. So, with the help of tattoos he makes on his body and photographs that he takes using a polaroid camera, he reminds himself time and againof his mission- to hunt down and kill the man who murdered his girlfriend.

Fascinating, isn’t it? And for a moment I thought that Murugadoss thought up this idea on his own. Nah…

Confessions of a Couch Potato: Poem

Hey… Since I am not getting much time to sit at WordPress and write, I am putting up a poem of mine which I wrote a few days ago.  An initial disclaimer: This Poem is NOT based on my life.

Well, maybe just a little.

Please do comment.

Confessions of a Couch Potato
By Akash Gupta

He sat there, watching TV
‘Cause he liked it, you see.
It made him feel full and free
It was like a constant dream.

He was there as always,
Sitting and staring at the screen.
Watching the prime minister say
How his foreign trip had been.

He sat there in the day,
Looking at the pope pray.
He sat there through the night
Watching the boxers fight.

But sometimes, during a boring infomercial
He would wonder with a sigh,
Why don’t I live in a world that’s real
And see the earth with my own eyes?

And then quickly came the answer to his mind,
An answer he did not even have to find.
Why around the world should I go
When I can do the same while watching a TV show?

And then one day did tragedy strike
While he watched a movie for the fourth time in a row,
(A movie that he evidently did like)
The TV set had to blow!

He was back on the couch the very next day
At his new computer he sat, clicking away.
Forgotten was his beloved colour TV,
Which had already become a distant memory.

So, as he rode through virtual lands
Or watched a video clip,
He knew he had the world in his hand
Not under his thumb, but his fingertips.

Rock On!: Review

Rock On!

When I first heard about this movie, or rather when I heard its songs, I knew it was going to be good. It is now official… Indian Cinema is changing, baby. For the good.

Four friends Aditya (Farhan Akhtar), Joe (Arjun Rampal), KD (Purab Kohli) and Rob (Luke Kenny) are part of a Rock band called Magik, and these four are ready to leave everything behind to follow their dream of becoming big. And they see their oppurtunity, in a competition held by Channel V, the prize of which is an Album Contract. They win the competition, and this is when things start going sour. The band splits, right in the middle of shooting a music video because of a fight between Aditya and Joe. Ten years later, with the main efforts of Aditya’s wife, Sakshi (Prachi Desai) the band members come together again, though Aditya had to be convinced quite a bit.

In the end, this movie is about friendship and music, mixed together in such a beautiful way that you feel the warmth seep in through you and take you away from your troubles, lift you into the sunlight and charge back the fun into you. Farhan Akhtar’s first singing stint has left all wanting for more. This guy has proved himself as an all-rounder. Though this movie reminds everybody of Dil Chahta Hai, Farhan’s directorial debut, you may be surprised to find that this film was not directed by him. This is only the second film by Abhishek Kapoor, but this is enough to look forward to more work by him. Arjun Rampal’s look and personality already put him as perfect for his role, and Kohli and Kenny also made us feel their characters. I think that using Prachi Desai was most convenient, as she has had a couple of years training in laughing and crying, which is all she does in the film, in acting in a Soap.

I would recommend this to anybody with the least interest in music, because this is the new anthem, right in the top shelf along with Chak De!, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, and of course, Dil Chahta Hai.

PLEASE…. Help!

Hey guys, I just wanted to apologise for not putting up any new posts for almost three weeks now. You see, my computer has decided to take a break. And I am trying (hard) to get it up and working. I can describe to you the symptoms, but if anyone out there has a solution except for reloading the damn thing, please (please) do tell me.

Here’s the thing. Whenever I switch on my computer and log on, nothing loads at all. Instead, the fan starts going haywire, as my system has Pentium 4 with hyper-threading tech, which enables it to have variable fan speeds, according to the temperature. So the increased fan speed tells me that something is eating up the memory of the computer, and so I press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Task Manager. Upon selecting the Processes tab, I see that a program called svchost.exe is using 50% of RAM because of which nothing else is being able to load. Hence I stop this particular process, after which the whole desktop suddenly loads. But then, suddenly pops up a self-shutdown window, telling me that some error has occured and the comp will have to shut down. There’s even a small timer, counting down the seconds so that I am able to save any necessary work. Then I just open the command prompt and type in ’shutdown -a’, which aborts the whole thing. My computer does not shutdown. BUT, I then find that neither the internet is working, nor are WM Player and Internet Explorer. Also unable to work are various other programs and functions.

If you understood the whole thing, then it means that you might know what to do. If not, then you just got to know how good (but not enough!) I am with these things. Again, please do tell me what to do.

The Dark Knight: Review

Batman

Today, I watched The Dark Knight. A movie that exceeded the expectations of all critics and took the world by storm. As always, I checked it out on IMDb. An average rating of 9.5/10 by over 100 thousand users has already taken the movie to the top of the TOP 250 list. But before we go further into stats, lets first remember Heath Ledger, whose role as The Joker is said to be awaiting a posthumous Oscar.

The Joker

Okay. About the movie. As you might have heard before, it is simply amazing. Brilliant writing and direction by the Nolan brothers. The story is about how Batman continues to fight crime in Gotham city, accompanied by Lt. Gordon and Harvey Dent, the new District Attorney. The Joker enters, a psychotic madman with a scar that makes his face look like its smiling. He starts playing a game with the three mentioned above, putting the whole of Gotham city into chaos. The story makes you believe that humanity is worth dying for, that just a figure in a mask is enough to keep hopes alive.

Each and every actor in this movie is at their best, foremost of them being Heath Ledger, whose acting of The Joker is extremely disturbing, and makes you writhe inside with fear. Christian Bale, for his portrayal of Batman as the determined crime fighter under the face of the millionaire playboy who is too tired to keep awake in the office. Aaron Eckhart’s role as Harvey Dent is well done, and his short part as Two-Face was even better, his burnt half shown as extremely scary. Maggie Gyllenhaal is even better than Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes. Nothing needs to be said about Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, the most experienced actors on the lineup.

In all, the movie also deals with the relation of Batman with the citizens of Gotham city. It also shows the spirit of human beings, and their willingness to sacrifice themselves for others in the most tense of moments. And the action simply blows you away. The sequences till the first half of the movie leave you wondering, what more action can you get?

Another thing that is simply awesome, is Batman’s gear. First of all is the Batcycle. The way it appears in the movie, is what makes you jump out of that seat. Then is his new suit, which gives him more flexibility, and in which Lucius Fox (Freeman) packs more punches. Also is Batsonar, which enables him to watch everything going around him, even through concrete.

The Batcycle

There are some scenes that tend to get a little boring, but the ending of this movie makes you forget it all. The movie ends in a sad note, yet is satisfactory, and leaves you wanting for more.

Another Day in the Life of the Movie Maniac

Want some excitement in your life? Take a lesson from the guy above…

Movie Mania and Me…

Come May and come the Summer Holidays. One year passes at Delhi University and you find yourself gaping at totally empty days without holiday homework(which, for the first time, you miss), which you spend doing… nothing. You crawl over the internet faster than the Google spiders and, hopefully, discover something that gets you hooked. I discovered imdb.com. And hooked is an understatement.

The Internet Movie Database is a vast database(duh) of movies around the world. You can find something about each movie months before it gets released into the entertainment hungry public, who then rip it apart and review it, again on imdb. You can find detailed profiles of actors around the world which also lists all the movies that they have ever done. I found out that the guy who acted as Harry’s dark godfather in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and movies following it was the same guy who acted as the good, honest cop Lt. Gordon in Batman Begins. His name, by the way, is Gary Oldman(This guy? I have read about him somewhere…). I also found out that James McAvoy, who played the charming Mr Tumnus, the Faun in The Chronicles of Narnia also played Dr Garrigan, Idi Amin’s doctor in The Last King of Scotland. Forest Whitaker, who played the dictator Idi Amin, won an Oscar for this movie. McAvoy is also opposite Angelina Jolie in the new action flick, Wanted. mmm….

Linking the dots. I liked playing this game of connect, who did that, also did this. And imdb.com became a hobby. Whenever I am about to watch a movie, I first look up who acted in it, what is the storyline. And the film’s rating that thousands of imdb users have given it, little gold stars counting to a maximum of 10, on top of the screen can also help a bit.

imdb only helped my liking for movies turn into a mania. Top ten lists recommended by other movie enthusiasts had to be watched, movies of your favorite actor that you didn’t know about had to be crossed off in the checklist. In all, in a period of under 50 days I must have watched around 100 movies, from The City Of God (wow) to No Country For Old Men (yuck). From Donnie Darko to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. From Black Hawk Down to August Rush. And I loved every second of it.

Do you want more connections? More trivia? I shall be connecting some names in a story from now on…

Cocky, but not quite there : Hancock

Will Smith as Hancock

My sole incentive to go and watch Hancock was Will Smith, specially after i found out that the character he plays is that of a booze-guzzling, dirt-streaked super hero, who causes the State more damage than what a successful bank robbery might manage to. Interesting, you’d think. And rightly so. Only, beyond the conceptualisation and characterisation, something goes off the mark. Something that may have to do with two other extremely important aspects of film-making : Cinematography and Direction.

The movie is about a badass superhero, who goes from being lonely, vindictive and publicity-phobic, to finding love, a purpose to his life and the truth about his past. And all this is made possible by Ray Embrey, a PR executive out to save the world, and his wife Mary, who turns out to be a closet superhero herself. Embroiled in some enigmatic history, and fantastical theories of existence, the trio, and little Erin fight great odds in order to maintain his status as a ‘likeable’ superhero.

And now, the bad news first. It may seem like cinematographer Tobias A Schliessler was attempting to give us a feel of the real, but the end product was disappointingly…shaken. it makes you want to yell- stop moving the camera so much man! The pace of the movie is unnecessarily hurried-feels like there are parts which need more elaboration, but Peter Berg just couldn’t be bothered. And then, the story-line : it is so disappointingly Bollywood-ish. The melodramatic end-sweet and soppy, literally, with the ‘all heart’ sign painted on the moon, and the scenes right before that, when every heart wrenching effort that Hancock makes brings Mary back to life, heartbeat by heartbeat, make the audience groan collectively.

But then, Will Smith manages to pull it off. He stinks, vandalises, doesn’t give a shit, and yet, he charms the birds out of their cushioned seats. He brings to the movie what Charlize Theron was supposed, but didn’t quite manage, with exposure that was restricted to extreme close-ups of furtive glances at Hancock. There’s another waste of talent. Jason Bateman does a good job too, but the limitations of his character, then again, do not fully utilise his talent.

That way, the movie essentially belongs to Smith, from the time he threatens South Asian criminals of having their heads going upcertain other parts of other people’s anatomies, to when he saves a policewoman in trouble, but not before telling her that she’s doing a good job and that if he’s gonna touch her, it is not ’sexual’. The comedy is good, the only thing really worth the effort, but at times is stretched to a point of no-return from vulgar-land.
All in all, its worth a watch. But don’t let the slapstick humour escape you. It’s what defines the crux of the movie, and the character, Hancock.