Haider

After a long time, you come across a movie which unnerves you. Set amid-st the landscape of beautiful and serene Kashmir Valley, the film starts in the background of insurgency times in the valley. 

A doctor who lives with his wife in a small town/village and his son (Haider=Shahid Kapoor) staying away in Aligarh doing a research (PhD) on the topic of Revolutionary Poets of Modern India. The Doctor favors the insurgents and justifies that by saying that He is doing his duty of a doctor. When his wife (Ghazala=Tabassum Hashmi aka Tabbu) asks him which side he is and he says on the side of LIFE. 

Scenes of roll call in the village with people running with their identity proofs is chilling. The doctor who is operating a terrorist/insurgent gets caught by the military and his house is bombed by the Army in the cross fire. 

Here comes the adaptation from Hamlet where Ghazala moves to the house of Haider's Uncle (Khurram= Kay Kay Menon). Haider on his way back to his hometown was interrogfated by the army commander by inviting it saying that he is going to Islamabad (Anantnag is also known as Islamabad by locals, which heroine (Arshie=Shradhha Kapoor) explains). The Army Commander says that there is only one Islamabad they know and that is across the Border. 

In a short role, (Irfan Khan=Roohdar) is impressive as an ISI agent who meets the doctor in one of the camps administered by the Army. The song or ghazal  "gulon me rang bhare baad e naubahar chale / chale bhi aao ki gulshan ka karobaar chale" has been beutifully used as a connecting tune between the father and the son and Irfan Khan. The verse in the dungeon beautifully portrays the agony of the prisoners. Again written by a stalwart Faiz Ahmed Faiz because he felt what it is being in jail where he was for the Rawalpindi Conspiracy. 

Qafas udaas hai yaaro saba se kuchh to kaho

Kahin to bahr-e-Khuda aaj zikar-e-yaar chale

Qafas-Jail पिंजड़ा

You can't come to terms with Arshie or shardhha pronouncing loved as lovud despite her being a journalist for a English daily.  The quest of Haider to trace his father is superbly pictured and the one monologue he delivers at Chowk is brilliant with the content. (Chutzpah=AFSPA) 

हम हैं या हम नहीं हैं , The other two fellows who add some comedy are Two Salmans who are photographers cum informers are good add on. Haider stays with them as he choses not to live in his Uncles house seeing the closeness of his uncle and mother. 

The kashmiri song "Rosh wala miyane dilbaro" used in the backdrop is another superb scene when Haider reaches his uncle's home after returning from Aligarh and finds his mother and uncle in a happy mode breaks his heart. Tabbu and Kay Kay are awesome in this scene.

Post interval the movie is focused more on adapting it to Hamlet. The Bismil (Bismil=Sacrificed) song which is actually a Bhand Pather (kashmiri folk theater form) is superb w.r.t lyrics (because written by gulzar) and portrayal. 

Bismil bismil bulbul-e-bismil 
Mat mil mat mil gul se mat mil 

(bulbul e bismil denotes Tabbu , bismil is the doctor)..So, words become alive and explain the story-line and are not added just like that. 

The climax is a little over the top with more gunfire and blood. What makes it interesting is the Graveyard song and the grave diggers. Never seen a song based on grave diggers. This was the most interesting takeaway from the movie.  

The red muffler which was woven by Arshie and the way she unwove  it singing again a kashmiri song is terrific and later she commits suicide as she could not bear the pain that her father was killed by her own lover. 

All in all you will remember the movie for its beautiful portrayal of Kashmir valley's landscape, the insurgency horror (although it misses the Kashmiri Pandits part and only shows the missing people during those times), some good songs with lyrics, some kashmiri folk theater and music, and acting of Shahid Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon, Shradha Kapoor and others who were equally good. 

The walk of tabbu with shahid in the garden with long leaves of Chinaar lying on the ground is just awesome and similarly the snow in the deserted land. 

The film ends with the nazm of Faiz which was called Intisaab which means dedication is the real dedication for people for whom the movie has been made, the people who were reported missing, for wives who did not know whether they are widows or not (half widows), for mothers who looked for their children to return. 

Aaj ke naam aur

Aaj ke gham ke naam

Un dukhi maaon ke naam
Raat mein jin ke bachche bilakhte hain aur
Neend ki maar khaaye hue baazuon se sambhalte nahi
Dukh bataate nahi
Minnaton zaariyon se behelte nahi

The message is इंतकाम से इंतकाम मिलता है, आज़ादी नहीं मिलती। Kulbhushan Kharbanda as the grand father of Haider aptly replies to one of the separatists that हिंदुस्तान को आज़ादी भी एक लाठी वाले ने दिलाई थी , बन्दूक वाले ने नहीं।

A little bit of Hamlet , with a little bit of Kashmir this is one good movie one must watch.

Ramleela

Rating: **/*****

An average film which disappoints a viewer who regards Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Director) as someone who has got some sense of cinema.

The good part is the acting of Supriya Pathak who along with Deepika Padukone's (Heroine, Leela) looks and beautiful cinematography along with some nicely choreographed songs.

Ranbir Singh (Ram) has to learn that he is not Salman Khan who can woo the audience with bare chest. He is good is some scenes but when it comes to intensity in tough scenes , he shows his limits.

Abhimanyu Singh and Sharad Kelkar both as brothers of Ram and Leela respectively play their part in the movie effectively.

Supriya Pathak as the mother of Deepika and being the lady don of a clan terrifies with her looks.Her character seems loosely inspired by the famous Lady Don of Porbandar , Santokben Jadeja. what does not convince the audience is that she wants to marry off her daughter with a joker. The film could have been better if the past linkage of her making of the Don could have been portrayed.

But when the story is so loose she could hardly make way for cheers for the audience. Richa Chadhha in her role of sister in law of Deepika is good and she impresses with her acting in few scenes that have come to her way.

The story is the same old stereotyped movies where Hero is from one clan and Heroine is from another and their love story suffers due to rivalry between the clans.

First half is totally obssesed with the carnal passions that make way to love as if the intensity of love is directly proportional to kisses on screen. Bhansali has now cowed down under the so called demand of public which at the back of the mind of the film makers.

In second half Bhansali tries to portray the cassanova as a saviour of women which looks actually funny for a guy who makes his living selling porn DVDs and whose Mardangi can be checked by asking the girls of the village.

In the end , the village headman Raza Murad tries to pacify the situation and rivalry with a peace accord which was the wish of Ram and Leela and they die together to make it look more like Ishqzaade. An actor of Raza Murad stature got little role to play in the movie which hurts.

Bhansali does not know how to use guns and bullets in his movies and he should watch gangs of wasseypur to lean a few tricks which he loosely tries to follow.

The movie people can watch for the looks of Deepika , Ranbeer and some good songs to watch on screen with beautiful scenes with nicely decorated background without giving your mind a sense of cinematic reasoning.

A strictly no for those who want to watch some good stuff cinema with a tight script and story and of course some good acting.

Gravity (2013)

The movie could have been much better with more twists and turns but nevertheless it was a visual experience.

The silence of space was spell-bounding. George Clooney was at his best as always.

As I remember the dialogue from the movie Gladiator "Death always smiles at you, the best you can do is smile back it". This summarizes the way Clooney smiles at the tough situations in space.

The film starts with a little screw driving at one of the space stations where clooney , and sandra bullock( I am not a big fan of her , they could have got someone else but choose her because she fits in action sequences) chit chatting with each other.

The message comes that Chinese (the lunatics) have exploded their satellite and the particles will come to hit them. As always the lady does not listen to the commands of the clooney mission commander to abort the task.

What happens next is their another partner jumping in the space get shot by the particles and both the Hero-Heroine are into space drifting.

The hero tries to contact her through radio and tells her the plan to reach safely at earth. She abides and tries to reach at the international space station.  Again she gets the chance to save clooney but the titanic movement comes where hero chooses to die and save the heroine with a promise to survive.

The lady after a little drama and space action of particles and some fire reaches on earth safely.

The movie could have been a masterpiece had the focus would have been on story telling. But if you want to see how beautiful earth looks from space. A little discovery channel type program of life in space you may watch the movie.

Those who hate sci-fi may please avoid.

Grand Masti

Why these kind of movies get successful and generate the amount of revenue that they don't deserve.

 A sensible cinema critic asks the same question again and again. But hey, not all movies are made for everyone and when it gets an A certificate from Censer Board, the target audience is fixed.

But for feminism this will definitely be a debate issue so as to why the women are shown as an object in the mainstream cinema which is so Male Dominant.

But when you sit in the theater and people laugh so whole heartedly with the titillating dialogues their purpose gets solved.

So the thumb-line is cinema is divided into genres and this one is a sex comedy , and those who like it may have a little fun.

No story , no brain but only one liner to tease your brain.

P.S: The start is supposed to be good for a purpose but it started with this so it will get better.