Rise and Shine!

( pic courtesy: http://www.nowrunning.com )

Just finished watching "Gangster" by Anurag Basu, starring Shiney Ahuja, Kangna Ranaut and Emraan Hashmi. The only reason I watched this movie was for Shiney. He has a first name of which I'd normally be mocking by now. Except that I am sold to his acting skills - have been since Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. And that really means that I don't really care what he calls himself. He acts and acts well. And that's all we should really care about.

Of course, I was hardly expecting another Hazaaron... All I was hoping out of Gangster was - perhaps a decent performance by Shiney, some good music, and that would be it. Not offensively bad. Not crazy good either.

Instead, I got to see a very good debut by newcomer Kangna Ranaut, and solid direction by Basu that paid attention to detail while ensuring the the movie itself worked as a whole. All that was a surprise, and a very pleasant one I might add, to me. Hashmi's presence was also not a major irritant (although his entire angle appeared the weakest link in the relatively tight script). Gangster, unlike several of those sleazy, un-original, "inspired" flicks recently churned out by the Bhatt camp (and Bollywood in general), pays a whole lot of attention to studying and exploring the relationships between its principal characters in some depth, particularly the one between the gangster Shiney and his moll Kangna. It was more than a pleasant surprise that the movie turned out to be well-crafted, even with the cursory skin show and a Hashmi lip-locking scene.

How totally unlike recent movies from the Bhatt camp! Which begs the question - which movie was it inspired by? It couldn't actually be an original story, could it? Abhishek Bandekar at efilmcritic raises the same question in this review of the movie.

And finally, how good was Shiney in this movie you ask? Well - he was good. Very, very good. And what's more, Gangster was well-worth it. Surprised? So was I. So was I.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2)

This is a continuation of my earlier piece on Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi.

It's good to know that this movie has a legion of followers. In case you haven't seen the movie, then take both Venky's and Sibin's advice (and of course, mine too) - do try and see this one.

Venky has put up some really good pictures/posters of the movie on his webpage. And Sibin has a wonderfully informative dedication to the movie on his blog, a piece that's a perfect read once you've seen the movie, that will make you reminisce (and provide insight) on the pivotal and subtle scenes in the movie, as well as, the socio-political context which provides the setting for the movie.

And really if you still want an additional incentive to see this movie, then do I have to tell you that Chitrangda Singh is truly HOT?! Check her out in what could well be one of her very few appearances on the silver screen.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

(Picture courtesy: Eros Entertainment)

"Hazaaron khwaishein aisi
ki har khwaish pe dum nikle
Bahut nikle mere armaan
lekin phir bhi kam nikle"

- Mirza Ghalib

In an earlier post about Amitabh Bachchan, who is perhaps an institution in Indian cinema, I had complained about his penchant to star in remakes of popular Hollywood movies, despite his apparent distaste for the label Bollywood widely used to refer to commercial Hindi cinema.

While it's true that "Bollywood" largely churns out remakes, and it is also true that essentially producers, directors and scriptwriters generally spend time browsing DVD's of old classics and new hits from around the world (mostly Hollywood) to be "inspired" from, there is also this trend in Indian Cinema to increasingly move away from the norm and come up with unique products. The last few years, I have seen a fairly good amount of "experimental" and non-formulaic cinema from India that leads me to believe that there's a lot of great talent out there. In particular, "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" directed by Sudhir Mishra ("Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin") and starring: Kay Kay Menon, Chitrangda Singh and Shiney Ahuja, made a significant impact on me because of its sheer quality and execution.

The movie setting is the time period from the late 60's and through the early and mid-70's, which was a time of great turbulence in India, not just politically but also socially and culturally. Three individuals, played by the three leads, emerge from their college lives with differing ambitions and hopes and aspirations. The story traces their paths, sometimes intertwining through the mileu of their troubled times and their youth. It's a story that matches up idealism against opportunism, a story of all-consuming passion and unrequited love, a story of cynicism, and of broadsides against politics and political idealogies, with no prisoners taken. It is also unnervingly tragi-comic in some of the most heartrending situations. And in the end, the movie shows us that life at its core is just uncertainty and that anything can happen for no rhyme or reason.

The movie is highly multi-layered. At its core is the simple story of the three characters and what's basically a love-triangle that exists between them. At another level, it is about three different friends and the value systems they represent: a man who's rich, spoilt and perhaps fashionably idealistic and anti-establishment; a woman who's blindly in love with the the idealist perhaps attracted to the sheer magnetism of his pseudo-idealism; and
the third, a man in love with the woman, and also who's conflicted between idealism and reality, and decides to live life as a pragmatist and opportunist, ultimately cynical of mass movements and pseudo-idealism. At yet another level, is the commentary through these characters on the socio-political situation; in particular, the sarcasm through which the actions of Indira Gandhi before and during the Emergency is potrayed.

It's also very tough to pin down any moral lessons or a message that the movie is trying to promote. And I guess each person would probably extract something different out of the movie. But this engrossing, complex tale of the three main protagonists is, to me, by far the best Hindi movie I have seen in recent times. Perhaps ever.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is by no means the only quality Indian cinema I have seen off late. There have been several other movies that have come out recently from India that I have found to be very entertaining and fulfilling. (No, I am not talking about the moodily shot but ultimately pretentious and melodramatic "Black"!) If it weren't for them, and good Independent English language movies, I'd be lost in my search for good cinema. Fortunately, good cinema does co-exist along with the crap regularly churned out by Bollywood, and even more so by the biggest crap-producer of them all - Hollywood.

For "Bollywood" (sorry Mr. Bachchan - very few of your recent movies belong to Indian Cinema category!), the lesson to remember before blindly aping Hollywood crapart is: Garbage In, Garbage Out!