February 2nd, 2010

Movie: Harishchandrachi Factory

Director: Paresh Mokashi

Cast: Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande, Mohit Gokhale, Atharva Karve, Dilip Joglekar, Ketan Karande, Dhiresh Joshi

In the Mumbai chawl where Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (pronounced Phadke) resides, he’s considered a bit of an oddity. His actions constantly mystify his neighbours, who then come by dutifully to sympathise with his wife Saraswati.

Which is why, after several start-and-stop ventures like a printing press and a still photo business (whose failure he attributes to rumours that a camera robs the soul), the neighbourhood has come to pay condolences to Saraswati, as Phalke has just sold off their cupboard. The reason for the cupboard and many more things disappearing from the house is Phalke’s recent obsession with the motion picture.

As we all know Phalke made India’s first feature film Raja Harishchandra in 1913, and Harishchandrachi Factory trails this triumphant journey.

So Phalke happens to witness the screening of a film Life of Christ with his son, and so mesmerised is he, he buys the ticket to the next show. On returning home late, he lies that the son had had a fall, and then tells Saraswati the truth. She smiles, asks him more about the film. Evidently such nerves of steel were necessary in being Phalke’s wife.

Once Phalke decides to make a motion picture himself, his passion is undiluted. He befriends the local projectionist, watches films till he suffers temporary blindness. He travels to London to learn filmmaking, and hires his crew off the roads, literally.

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Endhiran is a forthcoming science-fiction Tamil language film being directed by S. Shankar, who with Endhiran, directs his tenth feature film. Despite several rumours regarding the lead actors, Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai have been formally announced to portray the lead roles. The film is expected to cost 165 crores, one of the highest ever film budgets of the Indian film industry.

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: Goa

Director: Venkat Prabhu

Producer: Soundarya Rajinikanth

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cast: Premji, Jai, Vaibhav, Melanie, Pia, Sneha

The laugh is on us. Venkat Prabhu operates on the belief that having funny people on screen is enough to get laughs. He simply has no story to tell, just some funny village bumpkins on a trip to Goa and their misadventures.

First and foremost it’s an excruciatingly predictable fare with no story and at 2 hours and 45 minutes, it’s a laboriously long, and truly a test of your patience. The humour is ordinary and frankly, there is not even a single scene that makes you smile. Confusion piles up as the proceedings meanders to a climax inside a ship cum casino which is downright silly.

Saamikannu (Premji), Vinayagam (Jai) and Ramraj ( Vaibhav ) three friends who have never seen the world beyond their small village near Theni. They loot the local temple of its jewellery and set off initially to Madurai where they encounter a long lost friend who got married to a foreigner he met in Goa and is leaving for London!

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: Jaggubhai

Director: KS Ravikumar

Cast: Sarathkumar, Shriya, Goundamani

KS Ravikumar directed Jaggubhai has been hogging the headlines for its leak online. There was a sympathy wave for its hero Sarath Kumar and the entire industry turned up for the premiere of the film to give him a morale boost.

However the film which had all ingredients that make a commercial masala, throws it away, due to lack of a good script. It is a tale of dad-daughter bonding and is largely based on the French thriller Wasabi featuring Jean Reno.

Jaganathan (Sarath Kumar) is a ‘Dirty Harry’ style cop, who using unconventional methods is able to keep Chennai city free of criminals. One day he comes to know his ex-wife Ilavarasi (Srisha) has died in a car accident in Australia.

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: Tamil Padam

Director: CS Amudhan

Producer: Dayanidhi Azhagiri

Music: Kannan

Cast: Shiva, Disha Pandey

CS Amudhan’s Tamil Padam is a hilarious spoof on Kollywood. Making a spoof on Tamil films is a sensitive issue, as our heroes and industry people are not willing to be criticized. Amudhan’s satirical look at Tamil cinema is a welcome change.

The film works to a large extent because Tamil cinema has more clichés than any other cinema in the world. The director hits out at our larger than life heroes who specialize in mass masala and their cardboard “heroism”. ‘Mirchi’ Shiva as the “ultimate Kollywood super hero” carries the film to its winning post, ably assisted by Nirav Shah’s camera.

Every cliché and formula that makes mass movies has been lampooned in a funny manner that tickles the funny bone. Our hero Shiva (Mirchi Shiva) is born on a rainy day in a village and the new born speaks to his grandmother (Parvai Muniamma) that his dream is to go to Chennai to become a man for all seasons like a typical Tamil film hero. In Chennai, the boy pedals on a cycle and as years pass become a larger than life hero who takes on the scum of the earth and turns into the “friendly neighbourhood guy who gets things done.”

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: Rann

Director: Ram Gopal Varma

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Paresh Rawal, Mohnish Behl, Suchitra Krishnamurthy, Rajat Kapoor, Gul Panag, Neetu Chandra, Rajpal Yadav Anand Prakash Trivedi and Sudeep

After the politician, if one were to pick a profession that was as scorned, it would have to be that of the TV journalist. It is distressing that we no longer have any expectation from the news. We no longer expect (though we continue hoping) it to be entirely truthful, accurate or justice-oriented. We are happy when the media takes up for Jessica Lal and such cases and we give our full support; but by and large, we know we are helpless when we watch empty stories being paraded as news.

I must digress and inform of my experience watching the award-winning 2008 political thriller Frost/Nixon. In the film, a frivolous TV presenter David Frost, to prepare for an interview with defamed American ex-President Richard Nixon, hires an entire team of researchers. They research for three months straight; keep their files in safes. That was exhilarating to watch in a world where journalists are given impossible deadlines. That interview would never be possible today. The Frost/Nixon interviews were recorded in 1977; today with news travelling at the speed of light, that kind of thought, focus and resources given to a single story is extinct.

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: Ishqiya

Director: Abhishek Chaubhey

Cast: Naseruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan

Get ready for tangy, pungent, sizzling and spicy stuff. Be forewarned, Ishqiya isn’t the fluffy, candyfloss, saccharine sweet story of lovers breaking into songs in mustard fields. In Ishqiya, you just don’t know what turn the story may take next. Not just the story, even the characters here are so impulsive and unpredictable.

You need to have a strong stomach to absorb Ishqiya. It’s high on drama, it’s wild, it’s real. But it’s not dark, it’s not sleazy, it’s not crass. Frankly, you don’t expect debutante director Abhishek Chaubey to make a stereotypical fare thanks to the tutelage by his guru Vishal Bhardwaj, who loves to swim against the tide and undertake risks in film after film.

You could call Ishqiya a distant cousin of Omkara. Set in Gorakhpur in North India, the film has a rustic feel, depicts characters that may make you uncomfortable and is laced with saucy lingo. Yet, it’s different than Ishqiya.

Final word? You can’t help but fall in ishq with Ishqiya. Tired of sherbat? Try this spicy jaljeera for a change!

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: Road to Sangam

Director: Amit Rai

Cast: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Pawan Malhotra

When a film truly believes in its message, it’s that much more effective. Road to Sangam begins on a nondescript note, making you fear its one of those festival films, that are more hype than substance. This film’s hardly-there promos too describe it to be a hit at film fests, not revealing a thing about the film’s subject.

So despite the slow start, the film picks up involving you completely. You’re drawn into the life of Hasmat Bhai (Paresh Rawal), general secretary to the local Mosque Committee in Allahabad (UP seems to be the flavour of the week at the movies). He’s a mechanical engineer, also called a `mistry’ in Hindi, as he informs someone. Passionate about his work, Hasmat is thrilled to receive an old Ford car engine to be repaired. The machine has been sent by the government; the city museum to be precise. The work is near impossible given the state of the machine, but Hasmat is all the more thrilled for it. The deadline too is demanding, and he gears up his small team to get cracking.

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Movie: Adhurs

Director: VV Vinayak

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Cast: NTR, Nayantara, Sheela, MS Narayana, Brahmanandam

This NTR starrer, which caught itself in the thick of the Telangana-Samaikhya Andhra controversy, released as a Sankranthi gift amidst tight police security at the theatres, with crowds reluctant to reach the theatres in Telangana region, while the moviegoers were thin at the theatres elsewhere in the Seema Andhra region, thanks their preoccupation with the festive mood. The film more or less generated an above average talk, more so due to somewhat interesting comedy and spellbound performance by NTR. Continue

Movie: Namo Venkatesha

Director: Sreenu Vytla

Music: Devi Sri Prasad

Cast: Venkatesh, Trisha, Brahmanandam, Akash, Mukesh Rishi, Jayaprakash Reddy

It is a regular Sreenu Vytla’s brand of movie with a bit of comedy, romance and action. More emphasis is on Venky – Brahmanandam’s comedy. That is the best part and the rest of the film is ordinary.

Venkata Ramana (Venkatesh), a ventriloquist by profession, postpones his marriage waiting for his ‘dream girl’. Despite age catching on, he purses his dream. On a trip to Paris to perform his art for a Telugu association, he meets the event organizer Paris Prasad (Brahmanandam) and falls in love at first sight with Prasad’s relative Pooja (Trisha). Continue

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