Official Website: Johnny Gaddar
Running Time: 150 minutes
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Director, Story: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Neil Nitin Mukesh, Dharmendra, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain
Ashwini Kalsekar, Rimi Sen, Shiva
Music Director: Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, Loy Mendonca
Lyrics: Nilesh Mishra, Hardkaur, Jaideep Sahni
Johnny Gaddar is essentially a tribute to some movies that were way ahead of time. Director Sriram Raghavan has paid homage to those movies he has copied the main plot of the movie. A smart way to counter copycat boos!! The tributes have been interwoven with the narratives and quite indigenously. The title of the film is inspired by Vijay Anand while the script is a mix of James Hadley Chase novels and the Big B starrer Parwana. What a better way to prove, copying is an art. The director even shows characters read Jams Hadley Chase!
Sriram chooses to be different by unveiling the killer at the very beginning of the money chase. That does not get you disappointed but yearning for more as you keep guessing the end of the story till the last 5 minutes of the movie. The director allows the audience to don the thinking hat which is refreshing in a bollywood suspense thriller after a spate of poorly copied remakes by Ramu Verma!
Johnny Gaddaar deals with shades of character and delves upon the original sins of greed, betrayal, corruption, love, desperation and murder. Every turn in the movie allows to you come up with several options to choose and proved wrong to the simplest of turns. And Raghavan continues to surprise but the last frame where you get the plot. A story of five different characters who just want to make fast money. Love turns to greed and to murders. And you tend to empathize with the killer as all the murders are accidental barring one!
Neil Mukesh is one of the best finds of this year for Bollywood. His resemblance with Hrithik Roshan not withstanding, he is sure to be one ‘lambi race ka ghoda’ in the industry. Dharamendra plays his short role with aplomb though you feel you could have seen more of him. Vinay Pathak is a stealer as usual and it is a revelation that we have ab actor of his caliber in the industry. The multiplex movie types have been a boon for actos like Vinay. Rimi Sen does not get much scope though she has improved!
The movie is a little long with three short songs, and the pace thus unable to do complete justice as a suspense thriller. Shankar Ehsaan Loy gives another good performance with the background voice of Dharmendra’s wife playing a perfect foil to his murder!
Ek Haseena Thi, starring Saif Ali Khan and Urmila Matondkar was Raghavan’s debut at the box office. An average movie that won good critical acclaim. He has been a product of Ramu’s factory and the guru could well take a leaf or two from the shishya’s book considering his remakes are not making any moolah!
This year witnessed some below average murder movies that we force fitted as suspense thrillers like Red, Aggar, Raqeeb. More of B-grade sexual titillations that challenging you cerebrally. Johhny Gaddar and Manorama Six Feet Under chose to be different in the treatment and the plot. Probably the reason that these two stand out.
Watch out this space for Manorama!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
'Bourne' to be a spy
Was bit by virus, so did not really care to open the laptop. Meanwhile, watched the three Bourne movies back to back. Though I had seen them earlier but never at a stretch. This time got a chance to do that and it was a different experience. I am a huge fan of Ludlum and the movies for a change match the books (mmmm… to a certain extent). The reviews would also come in a stretch thus creating the complete story in a single shot.
An intro to the IDENTITY of the series,creating theSUPREMACY and ultimately the ULTIMATUM
Identity - Part I
Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron
Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length: 118 minutes
Cinema: 6 September 2002
Country: USA
Is it the first ever movie from Robert Ludlum? No. His labyrinthine thrillers have already attracted the attention of such film makers as John Frankenheimer ("The Holcroft Covenant") and Sam Peckinpah ("The Osterman Weekend"). But Liman takes the cake with this. Narrating the story with ease but not without some hiccups.
"The Bourne Identity" is a fast-paced, unpredictable and edgy yarn that breathes new life into the espionage thriller genre. Liman's secret weapon is Matt Damon who, despite being ten years younger than Ludlum's Jason Bourne, offers an interesting variation on classic spies like Harry Palmer and George Smiley. When we first meet Bourne, he is a half-dead amnesiac (the first such case of the Treadstone program) rescued at sea with no identifying marks beside the bullets in his back and a Swiss bank account number embedded in his hip. Travelling from Marseilles to Zurich to Paris, Jason must work out who he is before the assassins sent by his former employers catch up with him.
The story begins in the water, as our unnamed hero (Matt Damon) lies lifeless in the ocean. He is spotted by a fishing boat and brought aboard. The man looks nearly dead, as the crew doctor removes two bullets from his back, and also something that looks like a miniaturized laser pointer from his hip. Only instead of a little red light, it shoots out the address of a bank in Switzerland. The man, who remembers almost everything except for who he is(one of the very few hiccups of the movie), takes this as his only clue. The boat drops him off, and the doctor even gives him a little money to get to Switzerland.
This is not about trying to stop a nuclear terrorist attack or aliens from taking over the world, but rather a film about a character trying to rebuild. This movie would and have challenged anyone to find better action, better characters, or better acting in a film of the spy genre during the summer of 2002. There he realizes that he is very skilled in the martial arts. When threatened by two Swiss cops, he makes short work of them with a few quick reflexes. The next day he walks into the Swiss bank and gets another surprise. The contents of his cash box are a gun, a stack of passports, and money in US and foreign currency. The most authentic passport there identifies him as Jason Bourne, a man who lives in Paris. The events in Switzerland prompt Bourne to want to know more, but before he can leave, the Swiss cops are all over him. And when he reaches the US embassy for help, even they try to arrest him. So, fleeing with no idea what is going on, Jason meets a woman named Marie (Franka Potente), who agrees to take him to Paris for $20,000.
What Jason doesn't know is that this goes higher than just Swiss cops wanting to arrest him. Back in America, the CIA's Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper) is a man looking to clean up a past hush-hush mission that went awry, and it is obvious that Jason played an essential part in it. Conklin dispatches assassins, he gets Satellite photos of everything Jason and Marie do, he goes into Marie's past life to pinpoint locations where they might hide out, and it soon becomes apparent to Jason that whoever he comes in contact with is in serious jeopardy.
One of the best surprises though comes from the performance by Matt Damon. Not only does he do the stunts at ease, but he also has the tormented hero look that makes the character very compelling. The seriousness and intelligence he shows here makes him a great choice to play Bourne, playing him as a knowledgeable and skilled killer trying not only to stay alive and figure out who he is, but also to regain the humanity that the job made him lose.
It's an original that culminates in a thrilling "Italian Job"-style chase through the streets of Paris in a beaten-up old Mini. By the time it ends you are tired... this particular sequence could be remade in desi as well. Unfortunately there's still an hour to go, and the subsequent diversion into the French countryside conspicuously lacks the energy and pace of what precedes it.
Franka Potente of "Run Lola Run" fame is wasted as Damon's love interest(she hardly does anything apart from rolling her eyes), and it would have been nice to see more of Clive Owen as one of the ruthless killers on Jason's trail. But this is still a sharply written and slickly edited above average blockbuster affair.
An intro to the IDENTITY of the series,creating theSUPREMACY and ultimately the ULTIMATUM
Identity - Part I
Director: Doug Liman
Writer: Tony Gilroy, William Blake Herron
Stars: Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length: 118 minutes
Cinema: 6 September 2002
Country: USA
Is it the first ever movie from Robert Ludlum? No. His labyrinthine thrillers have already attracted the attention of such film makers as John Frankenheimer ("The Holcroft Covenant") and Sam Peckinpah ("The Osterman Weekend"). But Liman takes the cake with this. Narrating the story with ease but not without some hiccups.
"The Bourne Identity" is a fast-paced, unpredictable and edgy yarn that breathes new life into the espionage thriller genre. Liman's secret weapon is Matt Damon who, despite being ten years younger than Ludlum's Jason Bourne, offers an interesting variation on classic spies like Harry Palmer and George Smiley. When we first meet Bourne, he is a half-dead amnesiac (the first such case of the Treadstone program) rescued at sea with no identifying marks beside the bullets in his back and a Swiss bank account number embedded in his hip. Travelling from Marseilles to Zurich to Paris, Jason must work out who he is before the assassins sent by his former employers catch up with him.
The story begins in the water, as our unnamed hero (Matt Damon) lies lifeless in the ocean. He is spotted by a fishing boat and brought aboard. The man looks nearly dead, as the crew doctor removes two bullets from his back, and also something that looks like a miniaturized laser pointer from his hip. Only instead of a little red light, it shoots out the address of a bank in Switzerland. The man, who remembers almost everything except for who he is(one of the very few hiccups of the movie), takes this as his only clue. The boat drops him off, and the doctor even gives him a little money to get to Switzerland.
This is not about trying to stop a nuclear terrorist attack or aliens from taking over the world, but rather a film about a character trying to rebuild. This movie would and have challenged anyone to find better action, better characters, or better acting in a film of the spy genre during the summer of 2002. There he realizes that he is very skilled in the martial arts. When threatened by two Swiss cops, he makes short work of them with a few quick reflexes. The next day he walks into the Swiss bank and gets another surprise. The contents of his cash box are a gun, a stack of passports, and money in US and foreign currency. The most authentic passport there identifies him as Jason Bourne, a man who lives in Paris. The events in Switzerland prompt Bourne to want to know more, but before he can leave, the Swiss cops are all over him. And when he reaches the US embassy for help, even they try to arrest him. So, fleeing with no idea what is going on, Jason meets a woman named Marie (Franka Potente), who agrees to take him to Paris for $20,000.
What Jason doesn't know is that this goes higher than just Swiss cops wanting to arrest him. Back in America, the CIA's Ted Conklin (Chris Cooper) is a man looking to clean up a past hush-hush mission that went awry, and it is obvious that Jason played an essential part in it. Conklin dispatches assassins, he gets Satellite photos of everything Jason and Marie do, he goes into Marie's past life to pinpoint locations where they might hide out, and it soon becomes apparent to Jason that whoever he comes in contact with is in serious jeopardy.
One of the best surprises though comes from the performance by Matt Damon. Not only does he do the stunts at ease, but he also has the tormented hero look that makes the character very compelling. The seriousness and intelligence he shows here makes him a great choice to play Bourne, playing him as a knowledgeable and skilled killer trying not only to stay alive and figure out who he is, but also to regain the humanity that the job made him lose.
It's an original that culminates in a thrilling "Italian Job"-style chase through the streets of Paris in a beaten-up old Mini. By the time it ends you are tired... this particular sequence could be remade in desi as well. Unfortunately there's still an hour to go, and the subsequent diversion into the French countryside conspicuously lacks the energy and pace of what precedes it.
Franka Potente of "Run Lola Run" fame is wasted as Damon's love interest(she hardly does anything apart from rolling her eyes), and it would have been nice to see more of Clive Owen as one of the ruthless killers on Jason's trail. But this is still a sharply written and slickly edited above average blockbuster affair.
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Supremacy- Part II
Director: Paul Greengrass
Amnesia was central to the plotting of the first film, 'The Bourne Identity', and sure enough, while it raced along at a cracking pace, its events proved instantly forgettable, so you can only sympathise with Bourne in this sequel as you and he together struggle to remember his past. Thankfully the screenplay (again by Tony Gilroy) provides enough backstory to remind you of what was significant in the original.
This may come as a disappointment to those anticipating something on the same level as the surprise hit 2002 movie, The Bourne Identity. There's nothing wrong with any of the performances in this movie; it's just that the actors aren't as important as they were two years ago. Action has moved to the fore, shouldering aside plot and character development in order to maintain the frantic pace to hold audience attention.
Bourne, a former assassin for a now disbanded group within the CIA known as Treadstone, now lives on the run with Marie (Franka Potente), but is drawn back into the operative's world of cross and double-cross after being attacked by a no-nonsense assassin (Karl Urban) and framed for the murder of two men who were under the surveillance of the CIA in Berlin. Playing cat-and-mouse with agents from both the pre- and post-Glasnost era, Bourne races to work out what connects him to a long-dead Russian reformist politician named Neski. As he crosses paths with sly old Treadstone colleague Ward Abbott (the always impeccable Brian Cox) and the younger Agent Pamela Landy (Joan Allen), Bourne must decide whether his nightmare past should be avenged or expiated.
After the initial 15 minutes of exposition, The Bourne Supremacy unfolds as a series of long chase and fight sequences. The final chase, in particular, is involving. Coming as late in the movie as it does, there's a sense that it will lead to a resolution (rather than the usual "oops, I lost him"). The director of The Bourne Identity, Doug Liman, was able to present the fight scenes in a clear, no-frills fashion. In The Bourne Supremacy, there are so many cuts and edits that the fights devolve into an incoherent mess.
The culmination of Bourne's revenge spree against the agency, while it accomplishes the task, doesn't offer a good sense of closure. In the title role, Damon again proves that he has the makeup to be a decent action hero. Brian Cox is suitably oily as the bad CIA guy, whose role has been expanded from the first film. Joan Allen brushes up on her ice queen image to give Bourne a more formidable agency adversary than Abbott. There are also brief appearances from familiar faces Potente and Julia Stiles, as well as a small-but-important part for Oksana Akinshina as a Russian girl.
Some viewers may be uncomfortable with the self-serving act of confession with which 'The Bourne Supremacy' ends, reminiscent of a similar, and similarly uncomfortable, scene in 'Born on the Fourth of July', but of course America's secret services are currently having to face their own Vietnam, as their past incompetence, petty rivalries and lack of accountability have come back to haunt them.
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Ultimatum - The last one, or is it?
Ultimatum is the most relentlessly-paced entry in the frenetic series, starting off in mid-action just weeks after The Bourne Supremacy left off. An injured Jason Bourne, a.k.a. David Webb (Damon), escapes from Russia and is making his way through Europe when he reads an article about himself in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.Seeking out the article's author, reporter Simon Ross (Paddy Considine), Bourne knows Ross' source had to be a high-ranking CIA official.
He wants to meet Ross' source not to kill him, but to find out more about his true identity and who made him what he is today. Ross' article threatens to expose the super-secret Blackbriar operation, that makes the previous films' Treadstone ameuterish. The CIA, obviously, doesn't want the bloody truth about what Blackbriar is doing exposed, so they send a team to snatch Ross. The reporter's surprise savior turns out to be Bourne, whom the CIA mistakenly believe is aiding Ross and wants to expose Blackbriar. This leaves Blackbriar boss Noah Vosen (David Strathairn) one option: kill Bourne and anyone else in order to protect the agency. Ross dies.
Once again on the run from the CIA and their "assets," Bourne receives aid from two unlikely sources: CIA personnel Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) and Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles), both of whom have their own reasons for helping Bourne.
The Bourne Ultimatum is the simplest of the three films which is refreshing. The premise is tries and tested: The good guy wants to know information the bad guys have, and the bad guys simply want to kill the hero before he can expose them. That clarity is especially helpful since this sequel also utilizes numerous flashbacks to the first two films in order to bring viewers up to speed.
Damon who by now has developed an alter ego named David Webb a.k.a Jason Bourne once again masterfully underplays the character, with intensity that is a coiled spring. Unleashed at an energy that makes you duck.
Breathtaking action scenes and some of the best foot and car chases I have ever seen. Bourne's prolonged bout with CIA asset Desh (Joey Ansah) in Madrid is arguably the most brutal hand-to-hand fight yet in the series, while the car chase between Bourne and another asset, Paz (Edgar Ramirez), is high on steroids. Bourne's superhuman-like ability to shake off almost any injury, blow or crash is utterly ridiculous, although it proves to be a key source of sly humor.
The fact that it's such a well-made film and wraps up the trilogy's loose ends with such style and fun is a fresh and good dessert after heavy eight course dinner.
This is homecoming for Jason Bourne and how! A slam-bang conclusion to one of the most unique and adult action series ever produced by a major studio, and leaves the audience hoping that Matt Damon will reconsider his statement that this is the final Bourne film.
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Thursday, October 25, 2007
Really Scarred
Movie:Scarface
Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: Oliver Stone
Stars: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia
Genre: Crime
Length: 169 minutes
Cinema: 1983
DVD: 22 January 2001
VHS: 12 July 1999
Country: USA
When anyone decides to make a list of the great gangster films, it's always predictable who will top the list. More than likely it'll be one of the first two 'Godfathers', followed by 'Once Upon A Time In America' and then perhaps propped up by 'The Untouchables'. Brian De Palma's 'Scarface' is one that never threatens to hit the top spot, it’s just not classy enough.
Typical to De Palma subtlety is not a virtue that the film would hold for you. And that too from an era that was more known for being probably the least subtle decade ever. Everything is brightly-lit and glistens like a supermarket, the suits are nylon, the drinks are right purple and the Hawaiian shirts can make a colour blind pop up his eyeballs.
The movie pursues the rise and fall of a gangster, but it's really an allegory of the getting and losing of an erection(and at a suicidal slow tempo). The film is so Freudian, for it's literally only when Tony is stimulated by a pernicious combination of sex and violence that he is able to stand upright again for the picture's climax. The fatal vision of Gina Montana (the staggeringly beautiful Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Tony's sister, pointing a pistol in her Skivvies instigates nothing less than an ejaculation of bullets.
Montana is a punk from Cuba. The opening scene of the movie informs us that when Cuban refugees were allowed to come to America in 1981, Fidel Castro had his own little private rub-a dub -- and cleaned out his prison cells, sending criminals along with his weary and huddled masses. We see Montana trying to bluff his way through an interrogation by US federal agents, and that's basically what he'll do for the whole movie: bluff. He has no real character and no real courage, although for a short time cocaine gives him the illusion of both.
That's because it sees its criminal so clearly as a person with a popular product to sell, working in a society that wants to buy. In the old days it was booze. For the Corleones, it was gambling and prostitution. Now it's cocaine.
As Montana works his way into the south Florida illegal drug trade, the movie observes him with almost anthropological detachment. This isn't one of those movies where the characters all come with labels attached ("boss," "lieutenant," "hit man") and behave exactly as we expect them to.
Al Pacino does not make Montana into a sympathetic character, but he does make him into somebody we can identify with, in a horrified way, if only because of his perfectly understandable motivations. Montana gets it all and he loses it all. That's predictable. What is original about this movie is the attention it gives to how little Montana enjoys it while he has it. Two scenes are truly pathetic; in one of them, he sits in a nightclub with his blond mistress and his faithful sidekick, and he's so wiped out on cocaine that the only emotions he can really feel are impatience and boredom. In the other one, trying for a desperate transfusion of energy, he plunges his face into a pile of cocaine and inhales as if he were a drowning man.
Unlike the "Godfather" movies(and pardon me for drawing inferences from THE CLASSIC), it's a gallery of wonderful yet pathetic supporting performances: Steven Bauer as a sidekick, Michelle Pfeiffer as a woman whose need for drugs leads her from one wrong lover to another, Robert Loggia as a mob boss who isn't quite vicious enough, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Pacino's kid sister who wants the right to self-destruct in the manner of her own choosing. Don’t’ forget the underlying incest between Tony and Gina running through Tony's stares at which only appears blatant in the climax.
However, the only good thing is Pacino, with the eyes of a dead shark. It's a wild, pumped-up, manic, excessive performance in a manic, excessive film. And nothing exceeds like Pacino here. Chewing on his words before spitting them out like tobacco in a Cuban drawl, it's a bulging, bristling, seething full-on Pacino. Even when he's not doing anything, you can feel the fury coursing through his still body.
A boring and tacky film it may be, but when you make a film about a monotonous drug lord and tacky man, what do you think you're going to get?
It's like Elvira says at one point, nothing exceeds like excess.
Director: Brian De Palma
Writer: Oliver Stone
Stars: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia
Genre: Crime
Length: 169 minutes
Cinema: 1983
DVD: 22 January 2001
VHS: 12 July 1999
Country: USA
When anyone decides to make a list of the great gangster films, it's always predictable who will top the list. More than likely it'll be one of the first two 'Godfathers', followed by 'Once Upon A Time In America' and then perhaps propped up by 'The Untouchables'. Brian De Palma's 'Scarface' is one that never threatens to hit the top spot, it’s just not classy enough.
Typical to De Palma subtlety is not a virtue that the film would hold for you. And that too from an era that was more known for being probably the least subtle decade ever. Everything is brightly-lit and glistens like a supermarket, the suits are nylon, the drinks are right purple and the Hawaiian shirts can make a colour blind pop up his eyeballs.
The movie pursues the rise and fall of a gangster, but it's really an allegory of the getting and losing of an erection(and at a suicidal slow tempo). The film is so Freudian, for it's literally only when Tony is stimulated by a pernicious combination of sex and violence that he is able to stand upright again for the picture's climax. The fatal vision of Gina Montana (the staggeringly beautiful Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), Tony's sister, pointing a pistol in her Skivvies instigates nothing less than an ejaculation of bullets.
Montana is a punk from Cuba. The opening scene of the movie informs us that when Cuban refugees were allowed to come to America in 1981, Fidel Castro had his own little private rub-a dub -- and cleaned out his prison cells, sending criminals along with his weary and huddled masses. We see Montana trying to bluff his way through an interrogation by US federal agents, and that's basically what he'll do for the whole movie: bluff. He has no real character and no real courage, although for a short time cocaine gives him the illusion of both.
That's because it sees its criminal so clearly as a person with a popular product to sell, working in a society that wants to buy. In the old days it was booze. For the Corleones, it was gambling and prostitution. Now it's cocaine.
As Montana works his way into the south Florida illegal drug trade, the movie observes him with almost anthropological detachment. This isn't one of those movies where the characters all come with labels attached ("boss," "lieutenant," "hit man") and behave exactly as we expect them to.
Al Pacino does not make Montana into a sympathetic character, but he does make him into somebody we can identify with, in a horrified way, if only because of his perfectly understandable motivations. Montana gets it all and he loses it all. That's predictable. What is original about this movie is the attention it gives to how little Montana enjoys it while he has it. Two scenes are truly pathetic; in one of them, he sits in a nightclub with his blond mistress and his faithful sidekick, and he's so wiped out on cocaine that the only emotions he can really feel are impatience and boredom. In the other one, trying for a desperate transfusion of energy, he plunges his face into a pile of cocaine and inhales as if he were a drowning man.
Unlike the "Godfather" movies(and pardon me for drawing inferences from THE CLASSIC), it's a gallery of wonderful yet pathetic supporting performances: Steven Bauer as a sidekick, Michelle Pfeiffer as a woman whose need for drugs leads her from one wrong lover to another, Robert Loggia as a mob boss who isn't quite vicious enough, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Pacino's kid sister who wants the right to self-destruct in the manner of her own choosing. Don’t’ forget the underlying incest between Tony and Gina running through Tony's stares at which only appears blatant in the climax.
However, the only good thing is Pacino, with the eyes of a dead shark. It's a wild, pumped-up, manic, excessive performance in a manic, excessive film. And nothing exceeds like Pacino here. Chewing on his words before spitting them out like tobacco in a Cuban drawl, it's a bulging, bristling, seething full-on Pacino. Even when he's not doing anything, you can feel the fury coursing through his still body.
A boring and tacky film it may be, but when you make a film about a monotonous drug lord and tacky man, what do you think you're going to get?
It's like Elvira says at one point, nothing exceeds like excess.
Fulfilling Wishes
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne(GooGa Ba Ba)” was produced following an aborted attempt by Ray to launch an ambitious Hollywood project called “The Alien.” In 1967, he wrote a screenplay about a friendly extra-terrestrial that is stranded on Earth. The screenplay was optioned by Columbia Pictures, though exactly what happened next has been a matter of debate. One source claims Columbia copyrighted the screenplay without Ray’s permission, which seems very peculiar (misappropriation of intellectual property would easily open the studio to a lawsuit). There was also a question of whether Marlon Brando, a Ray fan who was interested in the project, was going to appear in “The Alien” (Ray supposedly did not want James Coburn, Columbia’s choice of a replacement, in the Brando role). Years later, Ray would later claim that Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” bore a more-than-coincidental resemblance to his screenplay of “The Alien” (Spielberg denied ever seeing or even knowing about the Ray screenplay).
Adapting a classic story written by his grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray, he also created the musical score, costumes and choreography for this production, which promised to be of a grander scale than his previous work. But the proposed budget for this film always on the rise larger that inflation rate, forcing Ray to cut costs by shooting the film in black-and-white (color was reserved for the surprise final shot. I often thought color was introduced to depict the color that came into Googa Baba’s life after their dream of acquiring princesses was fulfilled. Blame it on my overworking pituitary gland.
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” follows the unlikely friendship of two severely untalented young musicians. Goopy is a grinning bumpkin who yearns to be a great singer. However, his attempt to serenade the local maharajah with a morning raga(with an unlucky Tanpura) results in his being banished from his homeland. Wandering through the woods, he finds a soulmate with a similar problem: a would-be drummer who also got banished. Goopy nicknames his new friend Bagha Byne (tiger-like drummer) following their chance encounter with a tiger. The shot where the freeze frame technique has been used has been one of the many firsts introduced by Manikda(Ray's pet name) in Bengali movies.
If the living are unimpressed with Goopy and Bagha’s music, the dead love it. In what may be one of the most creatve musical sequences put on film, the ghosts of the forest perform a six-and-half-minute dance for Goopy and Bagha. The dance sequence is actually four separate numbers intertwined into a story of styles and moods (a traditional Bengali dance laced with satirical choreography mocking class pretensions and wars). The sequence concludes with the arrival of the blue-skinned, gold-toothed King of the Ghosts, who grants Goopy and Bagha three wishes. Many claim Ray lend his voice for the Ghost King, though veracity of the same is debatable. They wish for the ability to have instant access to food, to travel anywhere they desire, and the ability to perform their music so everyone will love what they create. Point to be noted on the third wish - they want to make people happy with their performances. Another PR coup where your interests are branded as wishes of others.
Their wishes are granted and they are each given magical slippers that helps fuel their wishful desires.
The duo land up in the Kingdom of Shundi, where the local monarch is holding a contest for new court musicians. Shundi is interesting– an epidemic ensures no one outside of the king have the ability to speak. Goopy and Bagha sweep the competition and become both court magicians and royal confidants.
The King of Shundi tells the pair about his twin brother, who is the King of Halla, a neighboring kingdom. Halla is actually controlled by an evil prime minister and a malevolent wizard (who wears diamond-shaped sunglasses!), and they are preparing a war against Shundi. Halla’s king is kept drugged and used strictly as a puppet. I sometimes wonder about the supply of this drug which evokes battle cry in a docile personality. Goopy and Bagha, using their music and magic, infiltrate Halla and manage to stop the war just as the Halla troops are about to charge into battle – on camelback, no less. They even find the potion to restore speech to the people of Shundi. For their bravery, Goopy and Bagha get to marry the daughters of each king (one daughter per man, of course – after all, only kings can have harems!). Irony, daughters are treated as commodities! Rajkanya ki kom poritechhe??(is there a dearth of princesses?) is a classic example of how women were treated since time immemorial.
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” gets a lot of its energy from its stars: Tapen Chatterji as the tall, somewhat dim but good-natured Goopy (his singing is dubbed in by Anup Kumar Ghosal) and Robi Ghosh as the short, squat, scowling Bagha. Bagha is more practical and has a better sense of the life.
The real attraction, though, are the supporting players:
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” was the master's most commercially successful film. The web site SatyajitRay.org quotes a letter that the filmmaker wrote six months after its release: “It is extraordinary how quickly it has become part of popular culture. Really, there isn’t a single child in the city who doesn’t know and sing the songs (from the film).”
The magic of the movie comes from the simplicity it exudes. Though you know things are fantasized you love to believe in them. Ray brings out the whole theme of 'Wish fulfillment' which perhaps we all store preciously in secret cabinets of our heart.You really do not hate the negative characters, there is nothing that makes them cruel.
The little 'Bagha' mannerisms of needing to wash hand even in the prison, the love for food all around(Ray himself liked good food), the way a handful of actors have etched various characters all along the journey leaves marks that make you want to watch the movie repeatedly.
A non bengali friend of mine once opined after seeing this movie -"It is difficult not to envy Bagha and Goopy. Probably there is one in each of us and that is why the story is such a hit".
Adapting a classic story written by his grandfather, Upendrakishore Ray, he also created the musical score, costumes and choreography for this production, which promised to be of a grander scale than his previous work. But the proposed budget for this film always on the rise larger that inflation rate, forcing Ray to cut costs by shooting the film in black-and-white (color was reserved for the surprise final shot. I often thought color was introduced to depict the color that came into Googa Baba’s life after their dream of acquiring princesses was fulfilled. Blame it on my overworking pituitary gland.
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” follows the unlikely friendship of two severely untalented young musicians. Goopy is a grinning bumpkin who yearns to be a great singer. However, his attempt to serenade the local maharajah with a morning raga(with an unlucky Tanpura) results in his being banished from his homeland. Wandering through the woods, he finds a soulmate with a similar problem: a would-be drummer who also got banished. Goopy nicknames his new friend Bagha Byne (tiger-like drummer) following their chance encounter with a tiger. The shot where the freeze frame technique has been used has been one of the many firsts introduced by Manikda(Ray's pet name) in Bengali movies.
If the living are unimpressed with Goopy and Bagha’s music, the dead love it. In what may be one of the most creatve musical sequences put on film, the ghosts of the forest perform a six-and-half-minute dance for Goopy and Bagha. The dance sequence is actually four separate numbers intertwined into a story of styles and moods (a traditional Bengali dance laced with satirical choreography mocking class pretensions and wars). The sequence concludes with the arrival of the blue-skinned, gold-toothed King of the Ghosts, who grants Goopy and Bagha three wishes. Many claim Ray lend his voice for the Ghost King, though veracity of the same is debatable. They wish for the ability to have instant access to food, to travel anywhere they desire, and the ability to perform their music so everyone will love what they create. Point to be noted on the third wish - they want to make people happy with their performances. Another PR coup where your interests are branded as wishes of others.
Their wishes are granted and they are each given magical slippers that helps fuel their wishful desires.
The duo land up in the Kingdom of Shundi, where the local monarch is holding a contest for new court musicians. Shundi is interesting– an epidemic ensures no one outside of the king have the ability to speak. Goopy and Bagha sweep the competition and become both court magicians and royal confidants.
The King of Shundi tells the pair about his twin brother, who is the King of Halla, a neighboring kingdom. Halla is actually controlled by an evil prime minister and a malevolent wizard (who wears diamond-shaped sunglasses!), and they are preparing a war against Shundi. Halla’s king is kept drugged and used strictly as a puppet. I sometimes wonder about the supply of this drug which evokes battle cry in a docile personality. Goopy and Bagha, using their music and magic, infiltrate Halla and manage to stop the war just as the Halla troops are about to charge into battle – on camelback, no less. They even find the potion to restore speech to the people of Shundi. For their bravery, Goopy and Bagha get to marry the daughters of each king (one daughter per man, of course – after all, only kings can have harems!). Irony, daughters are treated as commodities! Rajkanya ki kom poritechhe??(is there a dearth of princesses?) is a classic example of how women were treated since time immemorial.
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” gets a lot of its energy from its stars: Tapen Chatterji as the tall, somewhat dim but good-natured Goopy (his singing is dubbed in by Anup Kumar Ghosal) and Robi Ghosh as the short, squat, scowling Bagha. Bagha is more practical and has a better sense of the life.
The real attraction, though, are the supporting players:
- Santosh Dutta in a dual role as the twin monarchs(an actor as versatile as one can be. Those have seen Jana Aranya, Hirok Rajar Deshe and Sonar Kella, all by Ray would know what I am referring to)
- Jahar Ray as the eye-rolling evil prime minister(probably the only evil character played by him in his lifetime, he was more famous as a trend setter comedian alongwith Bhanu)
Prasad Mukherjee as the lovable, cute King of the Ghosts(Ray gave a new dimension to ghosts who are often evil) - Harindranath Chatterji as the wildly wicked magician Borfi(note the word... borfi is a much well loved sweet)
The actors overplay their roles with the exaggerated fun and fury of a Christmas pantomime – and the effect works within the context of the film’s fantasy-adventure settings. Ray’s songs are also beguiling, moving the story along with a cheerful pep.
“Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne” was the master's most commercially successful film. The web site SatyajitRay.org quotes a letter that the filmmaker wrote six months after its release: “It is extraordinary how quickly it has become part of popular culture. Really, there isn’t a single child in the city who doesn’t know and sing the songs (from the film).”
The magic of the movie comes from the simplicity it exudes. Though you know things are fantasized you love to believe in them. Ray brings out the whole theme of 'Wish fulfillment' which perhaps we all store preciously in secret cabinets of our heart.You really do not hate the negative characters, there is nothing that makes them cruel.
The little 'Bagha' mannerisms of needing to wash hand even in the prison, the love for food all around(Ray himself liked good food), the way a handful of actors have etched various characters all along the journey leaves marks that make you want to watch the movie repeatedly.
A non bengali friend of mine once opined after seeing this movie -"It is difficult not to envy Bagha and Goopy. Probably there is one in each of us and that is why the story is such a hit".
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Certificate
We all tend to ignore the censor certificate that comes up at the beginning of each movie. On the contrary, that is one shot of information that says a lot about the movie, technically. Forget about the ratings, in present scenario it hardly matters whether it is A or U or even A/U. Its a perception of a group of people.
However, a whole lot of story is narrated by that screen. Duration, production dates, distribution etc etc. Things which are equally important to make a movie its worth. A perfect introduction to the world of cinema.
This blog would also try the same. Introduction to movies. Reviews, stories behind the same, snapshots on making. Random thoughts, personal opinions of any movie of any era.
Being high on movie dose everyday, this is the vent I am utilising to put down thoughts that impact me. I watch every movies from nonsense to alternative. Languages which I do not understand, but comprehend through moving pictures, any era, any time, any place.
Things that go unnoticed... might be trifle yet for me substantial.
Synchresis is such an effort - to join the real characters of life like us and harp on those dreams that we love to call Cinema.
However, a whole lot of story is narrated by that screen. Duration, production dates, distribution etc etc. Things which are equally important to make a movie its worth. A perfect introduction to the world of cinema.
This blog would also try the same. Introduction to movies. Reviews, stories behind the same, snapshots on making. Random thoughts, personal opinions of any movie of any era.
Being high on movie dose everyday, this is the vent I am utilising to put down thoughts that impact me. I watch every movies from nonsense to alternative. Languages which I do not understand, but comprehend through moving pictures, any era, any time, any place.
Things that go unnoticed... might be trifle yet for me substantial.
Synchresis is such an effort - to join the real characters of life like us and harp on those dreams that we love to call Cinema.
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