When I met Sally

Sometime back, one of my friends had asked me, “Who is your favourite actor and actress?” Not a very strange and difficult question. Every movie-buff is supposed to have one.

So, I quickly replied, “Aamir Khan in Bollywood and Tom Hanks in Hollywood.”

“Great choice, but what about heroines?”

“Aaa …”, I stammered a bit, but then said disaffectedly,” It was Juhi Chawla earlier, but now-a-days it is …. Actually there are lots of … some sexy ones, some great cuties, some others. In Hollywood, it is Meg Ryan”. My reply was too formal.

He had guessed it by then. Guys don’t have favourite actresses??? Well, don’t get the un-obvious here 

I am actually smitten by some great beauties of cinema. As I told earlier, my childhood fascination was Juhi Chawla. When QSQT had arrived, Aamir and Juhi were the instant heart-throbs of every young suitor. Juhi, in particular, was such a veracious beauty. And even though I was a child, my enchantment with her was sown. It continued till she parted with Aamir, and also faded out of cinema.

As and when I started watching Hollywood movies about 10 years back, I had to decide on my favourite ones there. Tom Hanks was a very natural and obvious candidate. So, one slot ticked. I was watching ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ during one of those days. Poor Hanks, the widower- was narrating his tale of woes and singleness on a radio, and then… there she arrived- Meg Ryan, driving the car, listening to him. I knew it, I knew it. It was proverbial, ‘Love at First Sight’, or ‘Hopelessly in Love’ or the movie’s own ‘Magic Itself’. I had found her. I had found an analogous pair in Hollywood too ….

The whole above story was flashed to me, when I had declaimed my choices before my friend. But somehow it flustered me more. My favourite actress, Meg Ryan? And I have watched only ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, and the famous clippings of her in ‘In the Cut’. Not ideal…

So, I decided to celebrate a ‘Ryan Month’ where I had to watch most of her movies. I started with the easiest pick-‘You’ve Got Mail’. A lovely Hanks and Meg love-drama. She looked quite a part as a small BookShop Owner. Then I moved on to In The Cut, City of Angels, When a Man Loves a Woman, French Kiss. I couldn’t go beyond that, because of lack of time, and also because of overdose of ‘Romance’ and ‘Her’. “She is a doll, but too cheesy and monotonous doll”- I started feeling like that. Anyhow, the most famous one of hers was left- ‘When Harry Met Sally’. Gosh! She was so young then, but utterly toned-down too. It seemed she did the movie without make-up. Her chequered half-pants seemed such an anachronism. By luck or choice, the co-actor was another no-no Billy Crystal. The famous orgasm-screaming scene of hers too looked so fake. It was appalling. Oh my God! I am speaking sacrilege here. The legions of fan of the movie and her will kill me.

But that is how it panned out for me. I know it was surfeit that brought this repulsion or revulsion. But it was also the catharsis of new times. I gave her another chance, but just watching the cleavage-popping poster of her latest movie, “My Mom’s New Boyfriend”, I was estranged for ever. So, I am single again now. But thanks Meg for all those days of blissful fascination with you. Alas! You too went Juhi’s way.

Gulaal's colours unmatched

Kay Kay Menon kicks ass maan, that is how my friend had described the movie ‘Gulaal’. After watching it, I should say he not only kicks, but delivers the knock-out punch. He is a marvelous actor; let me repeat the obvious here, for words can’t suffice how strong his performance in the movie is. He is feisty by nature, as exemplified in his other movies, Sarkaar, Shaurya, Life in a Metro etc, but here his intensity is seeped gradually, drip by drip, on the whole canvas.

Imagine a guy who is roguish but also zealot. He himself is a goon but deep in his heart, also espouses the cause of freedom of the state of Rajputana from the country of India, a seditious act but for him vindictive about the injustice meted out to his forefathers by the founders of this country. He has no qualms though about sleeping with other woman, or killing his brother in a fit of petulance. He advances his motives through other guys but also respects their innocence and purity. You can imagine by now how diverse the characterization of this man should be. Menon matches excellence here.

His work should get double mention because he is the only so-called star in the movie. In keeping with his favour of the unknowns, Anurag Basu has again picked up an almost non-descript cast. The two skinny girls are sexy, but hardly coquettish enough, as depicted in the movie. Abhimanyu Singh as Ransa delivers a brilliant performance and we should be seeing more of him in future. But I don’t want to see that guy, Raja Chaudhary (I had to look for his name), enacting the role of Duleep in the movie, again. The character demanded a feeble character, but he is so wimp that you always feel irritated and angered. May be that is what the director wanted to incite J Two cents for Anurag Basu too. With an intense Black Friday, he had captured our imagination. He has not ventured into mainstream since then, and I don’t think he needs to. If he continues making these solid flicks, he will create an enviable niche of his own. Such varied has become Bollywood.

Not true? May be not for you yet, but for me, now I have the option of watching a slapstick Aloo Chaat, or a soul-stirring Firaaq, or a horrifying ’13 B’ tomorrow. Really I can’t wait.

Billu Barber and Delhi-6 - What is common?

It is tough to give your own perspective when the whole world has already passed its judgement. But it can also be an education. After watching Billu Barber and Delhi-6, I feel they are my case-studies. I don’t want to serenade or shrill on them, but they are so reminiscent of this movie-creativity ethos in Bollywood that they warrant some commenting.

I still remember reading Taran Adarsh’s review on Dil Chahta Hai, when the movie had just landed on the silver screen. Even if I am not literatim in sync, he had said something like this, “These young film-makers think they can uproot the basics of Bollywood by putting a creative, but abstruse, genius into their films, and expecting the average movie-goer to not only appreciate but also lap it up in its entirety. The film has risen only to meet its doom.” Aah, an apocryphal promulgation, it turned out to be! The film was certainly embraced, if not lapped, by the erudite or non-erudite. So, fast forward nine years now. There is a deluge of these films, high on so-deemed cinematic brilliance, and low in so-despised masala content.

I consider Billu Barber and Delhi-6 the apotheosis of this concept, but blinkered in its opinion and misguided in their execution. Why do I say that? Take Billu Barber first. Priyadarshan is a master in narrating and depicting the bucolic aura of mellow rural areas; just watch his Virasat or Malamal Weekly. Here too, he brings out great scenes of rural orderliness or messiness, but fails to let them rule. I think he is not to blame for this though. The blame has to go to SRK, the producer and the (supporting) actor. He must understand that putting irrelevant item songs of his, supposedly meant to attract people, instead attacks and attenuates the main story. Famous clippings from his previous films would have suited the wallpapers in Billu’s saloon, but not in the songs. For a moment, please stop being Shahrukh or even Shahir Khan. Continuing this, did SRK want to take a dig at his political rivals by including those tasteless jibes with school-manager, Dubey? I hope he was not doing so, but you can’t escape the despicable attempt to leverage the medium of movies. Moving away from this SRK influenza, another area where the film fell short was the never-exhibited friendship of Shahir and Billu. The ending could have been more stretched, and simultaneously attached to let their bonding come out naturally. It felt too abrupt when Shahir narrates his story and by quirk of fate, he meets his childhood friend. This should have been a Sudama and Krishna story with some common strands of interaction. These trivial cribs and carps apart, the movie was a joy. It always feels good to be back into the rustic aura of barber shop, gossiping men outside, primary school environs etc. The acting front too was good, with Irfan, SRK and even Larra Dutta carrying their roles with aplomb. But at the end of it, you felt, it could have been a classic, had not the whims taken over. You get this feeling, watching movies like TZP.

These feelings get extended when you watch yet-another-near classic, Delhi-6, the next day. Rakyesh OmPrakash Mehra has been different in both his earlier movies, Aks and RDB. So, it is natural for him to be different in Delhi-6 too. But so different? If the movie would have been named Kala Bander, no noise would have been made. The references-simile or metaphor- need to be depicted in movies too, but one has to decide where and when. What was more important in the movie-the protagonists’ long-lost Delhi’s Indianness or the Delhittes’ fickle goodness and badness, exhibited through Kala Bander? Perhaps both, and that is what the director wanted to show. But he never intertwined them. In one moment, it was the slapped Abhishek Bachchan, and then in the next reel, he was an endeared person. His love-story never appeared to exhibit any love. The Hindu-Muslim unity and fight were too sudden and artificial to like and loathe. In short, it was too esoteric for me sometimes. But at the rest of the places, it was so likable. It brought memories of the narrow alleys, and the ever-teeming life of Delhi. Music, as praised before, had an add-on alluring effect. Acting too, especially of the hot-headed Vijay Raaz, was top-notch. If only, the movie too could have been?

My views are more cynical, when I consider the fact that I liked the movies more than I disliked. But those wisps of wistfulness colour them black; and here lies the catch too. Hope nobody stops attempting these movies, for they are far more a promise than a failure, and if and when we, both the makers and viewers, get it right, it is truly a creativity paragon.