Vihir : The Review

11 PM... 
one of those days when you want to watch a movie that just flows like a river... you ask her half-heartedly if she has any suggestions... she comes up with a weird name "Vihir"... you have heard the name... "no.." you say... not in that mood... and you go back to your minesweeper... nothing comes up in your mind... except Sooraj Ka Saatvan Ghoda... which you have already seen 10s of times .... and which happily provides you a refuge when no other films you think would .... "Lets see.... Vihir"... she repeats as if it is a new suggestion... it is getting on your nerves now... "forget it" you say and get back to your game....  and then suddenly there's this sound, as if it is coming from a river flowing nearby, reaches you.... it's not the river.... but is equally pleasing .... you feel as if you are hearing Ananda Shankar's Tanusree... but its not.... you look at the movie that she has already started....

4 AM... 
she has gone to sleep.... you are still watching the movie... you have played and replayed the scenes... again and again... your eyes are moist.... you want to cry.... the film ends.... and all you want to do is to cry !!!

Directed by Umesh Kulkarni, Vihir is a film about two teenagers who are cousins-cum-friends... it is a film about their journey to seek the meaning of death... and it is about their search to find the hidden answers of life... it is this hide and seek of life and death that the film has portrayed outstandingly well. And what an astonishing way to portray this thru the game itself...

The film starts with Nachiket, Sameer(Samya) and the exchange of letters between the two... Nachiket, the elder of the two, has finished his 10th and is puzzled by the way the world works with it's idiosyncrasies... he seeks the answers of things which are somewhere between the layers of physics and spirituality.... he wants to find the universe's center of energy... he wants to feel the moment when the energy changes it's form... Sameer, on the other hand, has no interest in physics or for that matter studies. His interest lies in swimming... for him the highs of the life lie in doing a care-free backstroke under the cloudy sky... The common thing that brings a shine in their eyes is the chance to meet and spend time together during their aunt's upcoming marriage...


All the sisters have reached their parents house with their children weeks prior to the wedding to help the family prepare for the wedding.... the children use this time to play the game of hide-and-seek.... while all the children are trying to hide: Nachiket, instead of hiding in some dark corner, sits right in the veranda quietly, when asked by the aunt he explains... he cannot be seen as he is invisible. Later on, when the game ends he is asked by Sameer the reason for not hiding.... he explains that the one who is seeking tries to find in all the dark corners but is oblivious to the things that are visible to his eyes... and hence if you don't try to hide... the seeker will not be able to find you as no one looks at the things that are visible to eyes. He tries to explain to Sameer that being invisible is not being not there but ... being invisible is looking at things but not perceiving them to be there.... It is at this point that Sameer sees a spark of the struggle that is going inside Nachiket.... neither the ability to grasp such a theory nor the wish to understand it further Sameer gives up the topic calling it complex physics.

while the family is engrossed in the preparation, financial and other difficulties of the sisters and the bride's reluctance to marry, Nachiket and Samya see the things from their newly found perspective which is the first tragedy of their adolescence... they are at a weird cross-roads of life where in they understand that the life is not as simple as the game of hide and seek or a bedtime story....  they also don't have the maturity to understand the worldly ways and the logic behind it.... it is this mid-way between two worlds that intrigues them, especially Nachiket. Although quiet on the outside, there is a battle that has started within him.... it is even worse for him as he feels away from the family and the worldly things that he does not agree with...

Meanwhile in-between the continuous bustling at the home... Nachiket and Samya visit the village well to swim and keep visiting it. During one such visit, Nachiket talks about running away with the wind... Samya, crazy about his elder brother, quips that he would catch up with him wherever Nachiket would go.... Nachiket tells him how disturbed and suffocated he feels in the world and how he would like to run away from everyone and everything and be free like the wind... Samya is angry towards his brother and the best friend, as he can not imagine his life without Nachiket.... he also can not understand the things on life, death and being invisible... for him it is just the complex physics which is on the verge of taking his best friend away from him....

Samya leaves the village for a short visit to his city for the swimming competition.... he returns back only to find his cousin, mentor and best friend Nachiket leaving everybody behind... but he has not run away.... he has drowned in the same well that they used to visit and talk in.... its here that samya's long journey starts.... he can not understand the fact that Nachiket is no longer with him to talk to or to write to.... it even disturbs him more that he could not understand what Nachiket meant when he perceived it to be complex physics.... the only clue he has is that Nachiket was disturbed and felt suffocated by the world around him... and he wanted to run away like wind being invisible...

... and thus begins Samya's quest to find the answers that his big brother took away with him. It is an incredible mourning and pain inside Samya that keeps questioning the reason behind the death and life... the movie reaches its climax when samya runs away from the home to seek nachiket not in some dark corner of his gloomy existence but in the most visible places his eyes could never see....  the second half of the movie has another actor to it in form of silence... have never seen silence being used so well in a film before... it is a deafening silence of the struggle within Samya... and at the same time it is an extremely quiet residual of the world that Samya is left with, after Nachiket's departure.... it is this journey that he has to make alone.... in the end this film is not about the eternal spark Nachiket had... but it becomes Samya' journey from darkness to brightness

I will leave it to the readers (if at all there are any) to find  whether Samya catches up with Nachiket or not.

The film is a visual treat... the angles that Sudhir Palsane has used not only makes you a part of the film but also brings emotions by making the audience a member of the vast maternal family... there are countless scene which will take your breath away.... the initial one where in you are taken into the house is fascinating.... it is the first scene that actually sets the tone of the entire movie.... you will feel as if you have been whisked into the game of hide-and-seek.... one of the high point in cinematography is Sudhir's ability to capture the distant scenes... the camera is deliberately away even in some of the scenes which show Sameer and Nachiket's emotions... I am sure the crew would have known that the viewer would be flowing in the emotions that they want to bring out.. the usage of the distant angles for characters using the well, the family yard, the trees, the vast barren lands makes the invisible character of the rustic village to life...

The music by Mangesh Dhakade is exceptional. The silence within the film and the music has been used as the master stroke... they have just melted with the script....  I guess the credit of it goes to the writers Satee Bhave, Girish Kulkarni(who also plays the uncle in the film splendidly) and the director.


The film has Mohan Agashe, Sulabha Deshpande and other actors... however, it is the chemistry between Madan Deodhar and Aalok Rajwade playing Nachadada and Samya that brings the film to life.... in fact it has been shot so well you will feel the director has put cameras on actual locations with actual people...


One of the best films I have ever seen... Simply superb... wish I could be invisible and go back to the streets of my childhood again... hope the wind carries me with it... and hope it hides me well.

.... and yes I was an ass to ignore this gem.... I saw this more than a year after it released.... would have been decades had "A" not pestered me.....

Thanks Sudhish Kamath and Amrita for sharing such a treat !!!

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Hindi Cinema : 10 Years... 10 Films

Before I start another of my countdown, Let me clarify, this certainly is not the list of 10 best films of the decade. I would rather tag it as "10 Hindi Films of the decade I would like my grandchildren to watch". The list is of 10 films which attracted me the most from 2000 to 2009. I wish I had also seen films like Amu, 15th Park Avenue, Firaaq, Paanch, The Namesake and many others before writing this blog... (disclaimer : loooong post)

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10 : Pinjar (2003) : Blame me for being extremely nostalgic, but I am a sucker for period dramas especially on partition. May be it's my Sindhi blood and may be I worship Gulzar too much. Pinjar is a heart-wrenching tale of a girl who gets entagled in the worst disaster of our history, the partition.


When you compare it with M S Sathyu's Garm Hawa, Pinjar might not stand anywhere, still every time, I watch this movie, it gives me goosebumps. It's a fantastic movie with brilliant performances from Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai & Priyanshu Chatterjee. After Maachis, this was one movie with a lot of brilliant scenes. Take the scene where Rashid(Manoj Bahpai) tells Puro(Urmila) how his heart has somehow found solace by the loss of his burnt down farms by her brother. However, my favorite remains the last one in which Puro runs to find Rashid, Initially her tormentor and then her soul-mate.


Expectedly, the film didn't do well and Chandra Prakash Dwivedi hasn't made any films since. But I hope he does, as I know just like me, many others have adored Pinjar.

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9 : The Blue Umbrella (2005) : Back in my school days, we used to have a week of celebration as Children's week every year. A cinema hall in the city used to show-case children's films for all 7 days in the morning show, and we, as children, used to get free passes for these films. Strangely, many of the films that we saw were not "children's" films, rather they were movies with child actors. I am not sure whether I need to put The Blue Umbrella as children's film. My problem is with the new films. We either come up with animation movies or movies with tons of special effects. To be sell-able the movie must have something extra-ordinary. I don't sincerely have a problem with these things. However, it doesn't leave any space for a simple story. 


I am glad Vishal did come up with one. The Blue Umbrella  is a story of a small village in Himachal where Binya is the apple of the eyes for the villagers because of a marvelous umbrella she possesses. The film revolves around a shopkeeper, the richest person in the town, and his scheming ways to have the umbrella.


The film excels due to a simple and endearing story (by Ruskin Bond) and brilliant performances by Pankaj Kapoor & Shreya Sharma. There is a scene in the film where Nandu  is dealing with his injuries and the dilapidated shop after being outcast from the village. The girl visits him to buy some toffees. It brings an expression on his face which nobody else but Pankaj Kapoor could have produced. It's a shame nobody else (but Vishal) has used his skills to this extent lately. It's a gem, not to be missed.

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8 : Sehar (2005) : Directed by Kabeer Kaushik, Sehar is a film about the police force and the way it tackles organized crime. The movie, instead of following a usual action-thriller-emotion genre, deals with it's subject purely on the technicalities. This was one of the reasons, the film failed and to my utter disgust didn't even have a show in some of the big cities. The distributers/theatre owners just refused the film before even we could decide it's fate. None-the-less, this has been one of the bravest films ever to be produced. My sincere salute to the producer/director of the movie for coming up with such an honest film. 


Sehar follows SSP Ajay Kumar(played by Arshad Warsi)'s Special Task Force which has been assigned to deal with Gajraj Singh and in general the organized crime in UP. The film is set in the 90's when mobile phones were new and the entire force was unaware of the technicalities. Ajay Kumar enlists the help of a Physics lecturer, Prof. Tiwari (played brilliantly by Pankaj Kapoor). The entire story has been told as a flashback from the professor's perspective. It would be wrong for me to compare Sehar with Ardh Satya, but I can not help myself, and believe me, this movie does justify the comparison. To this date, It has been the best performance by Arshad Warsi, in my opinion. Sadly, Kabeer Kaushik hasn't repeated the spark that he showed in his first film.

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7 : Black Friday (2004) : Before I even start writing about this one, let me lament again(as in my earlier blogs) that this movie could certainly have brought an Oscar nomination, if not the award itself.
Every time, I dream about making a film, Anurag Kashyap's struggles pull me back. His fault, he came up with two wonderful movies which didn't go well with our government. Yes, in the name of religion & region our leaders are supposed to kill innocents, but in the name of Cinema, you can not portray the same on celluloid. 
So, even before my capabilities as a movie-freak are considered, I concede the defeat. I simply do not have guts to struggle. Better be a blogger.
Black Friday depicts the real-life events of the Mumbai Bomb Blast of 1993 which claimed over a thousand lives. The film is based on the book by Hussain Zaidi. The script is tightly bound with the book (and yes, it is strange in Hindi Film Industry). The movie has endearing performances by almost everybody (& it does have a lot of actors) topped by Aditya Shrivastava. It's a miracle, Anurag pulled it off in the industry. A lot of cinephiles actually started understanding all the aspects of Cinema after knowing about Kashyap's plight. 

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6 : Munnabhai MBBS (2003) : If filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap & Dibakar Banerjee introduced us to new genres & styles of film-making, Rajkumar Hirani did the other way round. He took us back to the golden old days of film-making when we had clean and endearing stories by Hrishida. 


Munnabhai series is, in true sense, a first of it's kind series of films in India similar to Shrek & Ice-age. Munna & Circuit are the stooges we had always missed in our cinema. Both the movies in the series are enjoyable to the hilt because of the endearing acts from Sanjay Dutt & Arshad Warsi. These movies are like Pani-Puris.... you are always ready for the next as soon as you finish the one in your hand. So keep serving...

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5 : Gulaal (2009) : Well I know, one would not agree with my selection for Gulaal ahead of DevD and Black Friday. However, this being my list (for my grandchildren), I have the right of my own guilt-pleasure, and this being one of them.


Although questionable in a lot of selection criterias, this certainly is a movie which has remained my favorite of all Anurag Kashyap movies (I am yet to watch Paanch). Unlike the tightly bound script of Black Friday, Gulaal gave Kashyap a vast ground to play with and to build the characters. And boy-o-boy, he does have a knack to build them... I am sure, it is easier to do so when you are also a good scriptwriter and a wonderful casting director. 


Gulaal is the story of college politics in a fictional city of Rajasthan. Two gangs are at loggerheads to gain the control of the university. Both of which are being controlled by two warring scions. The story revolves around a commoner who gets involved in the mud and how he is used by each of the gangs. The movie is a class in itself. It is a must for every dreamer like me who adores cinema. It is amazing to see how Kashyap has come up with such wonderful cast & crew.  Characters like Prithvi Bana, played by Piyush Mishra who also happens to be the Music Director of the movie, and Bahrupiya are the actual masterstrokes which provide the dark undertone of the movie. The music is outstanding. 


The film is about politics. More so, It's about self-indulgence of a film-maker. And who am I to complain, as long as it gives my dose of cinema.... Kashyap... Take a Bow.

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4 : Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (2005) : (excerpts taken from one of my earlier blogs). Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is a film about youth and what defines it: Ambition, Love & Dreams. The film is about three friends who study in the era of the beginning of the naxal movements. Siddharth - An energetic student who dreams of a marxist revolution & equality in India. Geeta- A girl for whom life is nothing but love, towards Siddhartha and his morals, and finally Vikram- an ambitious go-getter who lusts for power and money and loves Geeta. Their persona is a reflection of their upbringing. Siddharth being from an upper class hasn't ever worried about his own bread n butter so he does about others. Geeta, from a middle-class family, thinks about a peaceful life and a husband in Siddharth. Vikram, on the other hand has suffered because of his father's Gandhian philosophy and hence is always after money. They all go their separate ways after their dreams and how they turn out to be. Film has a wonderful cast of Kay Kay Menon, Chitrangada Singh & Shiney Ahuja.


This is a wonderful film by Sudhir Mishra and is mildly similar to his earlier film, Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin, which is impossible to be found. 

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3 : Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) : Khosla Ka Ghosla did in Hindi Film Industry what Fargo did in Hollywood. This small budget film came and conquered the industry just the way Fargo did. Khosla Ka Ghosla is a brilliant example of how a film should be made. The first and foremost of it is the script. For this, I think both Jaideep Sahni & Dibakar should be commended. The film has a wonderful script, nice characters, actors that fit the characters(and not only SRKs, AKs, HRs & Akkis for every lead role) and the use of locales & sets that fit the entire story line. 


The film is about a middle class family in Delhi. KK Khosla, the patriarch of the family, has bought a piece of land in Delhi investing all his savings. However the land-sharks usurp the land. The film shows the family's struggle to get their own land back and their own individual struggles. Every scene from the movie is tragic but hilarious. Notice the performance of Boman Irani and you'll notice our own Al Pacino. Some time back, I had reviewed "It's a wonderful Life" and had written that the characters of Bert & Ernie actually gives a better understanding of George's character. The same way, It's the character of Munjal that is so brilliantly written, it makes you understand Khurana.


Dibakar, in one of his interviews, said that the film's heart is in the character of the land-shark Khurana. For me, it lies in the characterization of Kamal Kishor Khosla and his pal Mr. Sahni. Anyway, I think I'll go by Dibakar's view because as Mr. Sahni put it "Bhenchod, Yeh Zamana Hi Compromise Ka Hai" !

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2 : Maqbool (2003) : I read somewhere Maqbool is Macbeth meets Godfather. In fact, Vishal Bhardwaj himself also acknowledged that the film is his adaption of Macbeth. It has taken the inspiration from the bard's play however it is the most "original" adapted screenplay that comes to my mind. 


The film starts with the mafia don Abbaji and his adopted muse Maqbool. The film shows Maqbool  & Nimmi's betrayal of Abbaji and it's final outcome. Vishal's script has converted the three witches in the corrupt police officers who play the comic officers cum astrologers. Again, Pankaj Kapoor stills the show by his powerful portrayal of Abbaji. Such a wonderful actor he is. He is present in around 10 scenes only but you will feel it during the entire movie. 


I wish Omkara would have been of the same class. Ajay Devgan messed up the character of Othello. Every time he needed to show emotion, he looked constipated. But I believe, one can't help it. I myself mess it up every time I try to cook Poha at home.

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Coming back to Maqbool, this is truly a marvel to be cherished by connoisseurs.

1 : Mithya (2008) : Again an act of pure self-indulgence from my end. However, if I have to choose one movie from the entire decade (2000 - 2009), It would certainly be Mithya. 


Directed by Rajat Kapoor, Mithya is a story of a struggling actor VK, played by Ranvir Shorey, who has the same face as of a mafia don. All VK wants to do is to act and fails. So what if an actor loses his memory and is told that he is a Don. Just like the characters of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind where the perennial lovers end up finding each other in their lost memories, an actor in VK does play the role of a Don which he is not. 
The film is a masterpiece with a wonderful cast & extremely haunting background music. 


This is one film, I am not sure how to categorize it. However, just like Raghu Romeo, it is another of Rajat Kapoor's mystery which I might find an answer to in coming years...
... as for Ranvir, this has been his best performance till date... same for Neha & Brijendra Kala.

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... There are other movies too which I just loved in the past decade like Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II, Raghu Romeo... but I think If I have to give 10 to my children and then theirs, It would certainly be the ones I mentioned above...


(Courtesy : All the photographs are taken from Google and digitally modified by me. Kindly let me know for any violation I may be doing)

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of Asses, Idiots, movies .... and Mr. Masand

Ever heard the famous line from Sholay ???

गब्बर तुम एक मारोगे तो हम चार मारेंगे 

Well... If not... Mr. Masand... has an even better line....

 गधे, तुम एक लाओगे तो मैं दो लाऊंगा 

.... well, obviously the reference as an ASS here is me.... So what if (as per Mr. Masand) there are only a handful of people who haven't liked Kites... while most of the "movie-geek"s are ravishing the gem which is not only brave but also ambitious...


The entire twittersation....

so being an ass... an idiot... I will follow Mr. Masand's advice.... I will suit myself in an Armani suit... 
but wait....who the hell will lend an Armani to a Thavrani.... Hey... Mr. Johar... Are you listening? I will write something good about your soon-to-be-released original "stepmom" :)

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It's a Wonderful Life : Review

I know... I am 64 years late in reviewing the film. After being pestered by Amrita for almost 6 months, I did watch it finally. I am glad, I did.  And I am glad I can't stop myself writing about it... after all, it's not every day that you watch such a simple gem.

Directed by Frank Capra, It's a wonderul life is the story of George Bailey (played by James Stewart), a do-gooder on the verge of committing suicide. After hearing the prayers of his family and friends, the god sends an angel to save him. 




Now we all know, how the story will end. But believe me, it's not about the simple story or the simpleton protagonist. The movie is about us, about our struggles, about our frustrations, about the hard life and about everything the wonderful life brings. It's about the most basic principle of the life, humanity.

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The film starts with an Angel Second Class who is waiting since last 200 years to get his wings. The only way to get his wings is to stop George from committing suicide. Before sending him to the earth, we are shown the glimpses of George's earlier life in which he saves his kid brother from drowning, saves the local chemist from prescribing poison to a kid. George's father runs the Bailey Building and Loan association which is vital to the residents of Bedford Falls, a small town. The reasons for running Building and Loan are not financial ones but to save the town from going in the hands of Mr. Potter, a shrewd and scheming businessman who aims to control and own every visible property of Bedford Falls. 


George dreams of conquering the world, becoming an adventurer, building skyscrapers and long bridges. He discusses his plans with Mary Hatch, the girl who secretly loves him since he was a boy. However, he has to wait till his brother is ready to take his place at Building and Loans. On the graduation night of his brother, his father dies of a stroke. Mr. potter, who is now a shareholder in the company convinces the board to stop providing the home loans to poor people. George fights to save the company but the board agrees to him only on one condition, George running the company. This shatters all his dreams. He sends his brother to the college while continuing with his father's dream. From here, starts his long struggle to save the town from going in potter's hands. Every time, he has a chance to leave the town, a tragedy takes place and he is forced to stay back. He becomes the prisoner of his father's dreams and his goodwill. When his brother returns from the college with a bride and doesn't show interest in staying in town, George accepts that he will never be able to leave the town. Every dream that he saw of himself is being lived by his younger brother Harry. Harry goes on to get the congressional medal while George struggles to stay afloat during the depression and world war. Finally, the loss of eight thousand dollars (which was to save the company from bankruptcy) by an uncle snaps him. He breaks down. 


Clerance, the angel, stops him and shows him the life that would have been in Bedford without George. He sees the town(now Pottersville) and is shocked to see what life could have been without him. He then understands that although the life is not as beautiful and adventurous as he had dreamt, it still is wonderful. And the best part is, although he could not do what he had always wanted, he still had made a difference to the lives of hundreds in the town. 

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The film's beauty lies in it's simplistic and wonderful message which was also seen in Capra's other movies It happened one night, Mr Deeds goes to town and Mr. smith goes to Washington. You can relate him to Hrishikesh Mukherjee (although Capra came a lot earlier than Hrishida) and now when I think of the Hrishida films, I sense they might have been influenced by Capra's films.


It was a shame that this movie didn't do well when it was released.... and it's still a shame that the movie has been typecast as a Christmas movie... 

... and as I said... what makes the film great is it's simplicity. The town of Bedford Falls is so believable, it almost becomes a character of the movie. It is difficult to create a character like George.... but it is the even more difficult to create affable characters like Bert and Ernie (who play George's friends in the movie) which Capra does with ease.

... there are a lot of scenes in the movie which will leave a lasting impression on you and for days you will talk about it... like the one in which George goes to Mary's house to talk to her ... and ends up fighting with her... and finally kissing her... it shows everything his life is.... George's attraction towards Mary... his frustration of not becoming what he dreamt of... his desire of leaving the town.... and his love towards Mary, town, his family and everybody he has ever known.... watch this movie for this scene... watch it for the scene when George and Mary hit the old house with stones... and yes watch it for scene that involves their daughter Zuzu's petals.


and just like Zuzu's petals.... life, really, is wonderful !!!

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Hindi Films : The Top 10... who brought the change

Change is inevitable... and it has taken place in Hindi Film Industry... at a slow rate... still the last decade has been amazing... with new directors coming in... struggling to make films.... and struggling to get them released...

... so here is my Top 10... people who did bring the change.... 
(PS : This is not a list of Top 10 ... but the top 10 who changed the way the films were made)

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10 : Ram Gopal Varma : The man who started it all
Well... take it or not... he was the one who started making "different" films... starting with Satya in the late 90s... he continued making anti-love-thy-family films thru out the 00s. The only sad thing : he could have been much higher in the rankings... 10th rank justifies his factory that has given us at least 10 directors which in fact changed the way films are made these days... His life though seems as if we are seeing a fast-forward a la- Dev Anand

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9 : Imtiaz Ali / Raj Kumar Hirani : Makers of Clean & Lovely Cinema
Well... there is a reason for having them both in the 9th place... because they make adorable films... films that are fun to watch... films that are clean... they don't make different films... and to an extent they haven't changed the industry greatly..
 
However they have proved comedy need not be vulgar... and love stories can also feature people who may normal people like us...
Raj Kumar is rightly compared with Hrishida.... Every time I see somebody watching Munnabhai (1 or 2)... I see a smile which goes on and on.... 3 idiots was a bit of a "clean" disappointment though... !!!
I remember watching Socha Na Tha on a CD... by the time the movie ended.... I knew I liked it... I didn't know why... 
... I talked to a friend of mine... and he said... "I didn't like it... what's the point in making a love story where the hero/heroine just act as if they are commoners".... well... I had got my answer....

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8 : Rajat Kapoor : Independent film maker
This one's my favorite... and all he wants to do is to make films... A film-maker since 16 years but came to prominence after the affable Raghu Romeo which did rounds to a lot of film festivals... it won some awards too...  I was stunned to see the movie... after Mixed Doubles... he came again with Mithya.... which in my opinion is among the top 5 films of the last decade.... Another reason for having him in this list is his ability to bring talent to films.... Ranvir Shourey... Vinay Pathak... Saagar Bellary .... all of them made their mark because of Rajat.
PS : I have a dream to meet this person... Rajat... are you listening?

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7 : Farhan Akhtar : Filmy... very filmy...
I know a lot of my friends would want to kill me for this one... well... I am not a great fan of his... but I have to say... he did to the Indian Cinema what Tarantino did with Hollywood... Dil Chahta Hai was not only a good film but a film which spawned an entirely new genre of movies... It's been 9 years since DCH... the amazing part is you still see movies in which the storyline is a deviation of DCH.... He doesn't make great films.... but all is films are fun.... Don too was a mediocre film.... but when did he brag it being a "Do Bigha Zameen"... make no mistake... he is here for the commercial movies... and has been good at it...
... I surely would have put Zoya Akhtar in this... however she is just one film old...

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6 : Jaideep Sahni : The script-writer....
Jaideep reintroduced a lot of directors with the most basic part of the film... the Script. When most of out film-jokers kept relying on on-the-set-scene-writers... he came up with a water-tight script. Jaideep has been a blessing to the Industry. I can't understand how RGV lost him... I am waiting for him to direct a movie in the coming years... and I hope he does... unless Yashraj are keen on using him for more "Aaja Nachley"s

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5 : Ranvir Shourey / Vinay Pathak / Kay Kay Menon / Boman Irani / Abhay Deol / Konkona Sen Sharma : Actors par excellence
This place goes to the new breed of actors.... and I know I am missing a lot of them... what they have done is outstanding.... These people look like us.... they feel the way we do... and whenever you see them... it feels as if you are watching a part of yourself on the celluloid... 

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4 : Dibakar Banerjee : The magician
If you want to watch a movie... and then forget about it... make sure it's not from Dibakar. The guy has made 3 movies... 3 totally different movies.... and all of them masterpieces.... His journey started with Khosla Ka Ghosla... and every time I saw Anupam Kher... he reminded me of my dad... and every time I saw Boman Irani... he reminded me of a relative of mine I can't write about in the blog... All his movies talk about people... who are like us... I have a suggestion for him though....
"Man... don't put.... "All the characters in the films are fictious" in your movies... they never look that way"

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3 : Vishal Bhardwaj : The Shakespeare of the films
Like his mentor Gulzar, Vishal is a man with extreme talent.... a fantastic composer, a terrific writer, and in my opinion, the best director in the Hindi Film Industry today (and if he has his ways... he sings too). All of his movies have been absolute gems... 
Again... the best thing about him is that he doesn't limit himself to any genres in film-making... he made his directorial debut with Makdee.... a children's film.... Maqbool and Omkara were based on shakespearean plays with the mafioso background.... Blue Umbrella was again a fantastic film (although for me it was never a children film)... He proved in Kaminey that he too could make a commercial one... and that too better than the rest.

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2 : Anurag Kashyap : Arrogant, Indulgent, Narcissist
What RGV started with.... Anurag has reached that height... I am one of those who people who have always believed that India lost out on an Oscar by not letting his Black Friday release... This man has fought a lone battle for years... and it has been our loss all the time... 
This man is the Stanley Kubrick of our industry.... if he makes a movie... it surely will have a lot of shit in that... If there is one person who knows about cinema more than anybody... it has to be Anurag. Probably one of the best script-writer in India. Has an amazing sense of music.... finally he is catching up on whatever he has lost out on. Will always be remembered as a man who changed Hindi Film Industry forever.... still the first place doesn't go to him....

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1 : Ronnie Screwvala : The Sky where all of them can fly
All the 9 entries above are film-makers or actors... However, the top slot goes to this man... who doesn't direct, act or do anything within the film... but he makes sure... that anybody and everybody who knows films should be in films... He is the one who has introduced our audience to films that nobody wanted to produce... he not only produced them but also made sure they were commercially viable. He gave a platform where people like you and me can make films. and no He is not here to loose money... he is here to change the way Hindi Films were produced... it has taken time for UTV Motion Pictures and UTV Spotboy to be where they are... but the revolution has begun.... and now other major names have joined in... but he is the one who is at the top... and should remain so....

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I could have gone on length mentioning much more about these great people... however... let me stop here....  and as I said... this list is about the people who did make a change... not about the greatest... hence names like Shekhar Kapoor, A R Rehman, Sudhir Mishra are missing.... since change mostly starts with filmmakers... most of the people mentioned here are directors....

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Kalpi's Hindi Film Awards - 2005

The year 2006 has started and with that starts the various hindi film awards ceremonies. I have stopped watching them, because they dont consider good movies. Usually its only those shitty movies which do well on Box Office or which has SRK, or both.

So why not have my own awards... !!! ;)

There are in all 43 movies considered for the 13 categories and they are :

7 1/2 Phere
Aashiq Banaya Aapne
Amu
Apaharan
Bhagmati
Black
Bunty Aur Babli
Chai Pani etc.
Chocolate
D
Dus
Ek Ajnabee
Hanuman
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Iqbal
Kaal
Kalyug
Karam
Kisna
Kya Kool Hai Hum
Lucky - No Time For Love
Main Meri Patni Aur Woh
Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya
Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara
Mangal Pandey
Matrubhoomi
My Brother Nikhil
My Wife's Murder
Naina
Neal n Nikki
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose - The Forgotten Hero
Page 3
Paheli
Parineeta
Rog
Salaam Namaste
Sarkar
Sau Jhooth Ek Sach
Sehar
Taj Mahal - An Eternal Love Story
Viruddh
Yahaan
Zeher

The movies which get the nominations are

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi - 11
Black - 10
Sehar - 7
Matrubhoomi - 6
My Wife's Murder - 5
Parineeta - 5
Yahaan - 3
Paheli - 3
Main Meri Patni Aur Woh - 2
Page 3 - 2
Bunty Aur Babli - 2
Taj Mahal - The Eternal Love Story - 2
Amu - 2
Sarkar - 1
Bose - The forgotten Hero - 1
Mangal Pandey - 1
7 1/2 Phere - 1
Karam - 1



Best Film

Black
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Matrubhoomi
Main Meri Patni Aur Woh
Sehar
- and The winner is Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi


Best Director

Kabeer Kaushik - Sehar
Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Black
Sudhir Mishra - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Madhur Bhandarkar - Page 3
Manish Jha - Matrubhoomi
- and The winner is again Sudhir Mishra for Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi


Best Actor in a Leading Role

Arshad Warsi - Sehar
Amitabh Bachchan - Black
Kay Kay Menon - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Rajpal Yadav - Main Meri Patni Aur Woh
Anil Kapoor - My Wife's Murder
- and the winner is Kay Kay Menon for Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Arshad Warsi is unlucky to miss out on this.


Best Actress in a Leading Role

Konkona Sen Sharma - Amu
Rani Mukherjee - Black
Chitrangada Singh - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Vidya Balan - Parineeta
Tulip Joshi - Matrubhoomi
- and the winner is Chitrangada Singh for Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. Rani Mukherjee loses out...


Best Supporting Actor

Pankaj Kapoor - Sehar
Shiny Ahuja - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Naseeruddin Shah - Iqbal
Boman Irani - My Wife's Murder
Kay Kay Menon - Sarkar
- Shiny Ahuja beats Pankar Kapoor in his potrayal of Vikram in Hazaaron...


Best Supporting Actress

7 1/2 Phere - Juhi Chawla
Ayesha Kapoor - Black
Nandana Sen - Black
Nandana Sen - My Wife's Murder
Sandhya Mridul - Page 3
- Finally, an award for Black. Its Ayesha Kapoor


Best Cinematography

Ravi K Chandran - Black
Jacob Ihre - Yahaan
Jacques Bouquin - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Narender Khanna - Karam
Natarajan Subramaniam - Parineeta
- again its Black, goes to Ravi K Chandran


Best Music

Bunty Aur Babli - Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi - Shantanu Moitra
Parineeta - Shantanu Moitra
Taj Mahal - an Eternal Love Story - Naushad
Yahaan - Shantanu Moitra
- and the award goes to Naushad for Taj Mahal


Best Lyrics

Kajra Re - Gulzar Bunty Aur Babli
Bavra Mann - Swanand Kirkire Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Dheere Jalna - Gulzar Paheli
Apni Zulfein - Naqsh Lyallpuri - Taj Mahal
Naam Ada Likhna - Gulzar - Yahaan
- and the award goes to Gulzar for Yahaan


Best Screenplay

Sanjay Leela Bhansali - Black
Sudhir Mishra - Ruchi Narain - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Atul Sabharwal - My Wife's Murder
Kabeer Kaushik - Sehar
Shonali Bose - Amu
- and the award goes to Kabeer Kaushik for Sehar


Best art-direction

Omung Kumar - Black
??? - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
??? - Matrubhoomi
Muneesh Sappel - Paheli
Keshto Mandal - Parineeta
- and the award goes to Omung Kumar for Black


Best costume design

Subarna Ray Choudhury - Parineeta
Paheli
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
Mangal Pandey
Matrubhoomi
- the award goes to Paheli... donno who's the costume designer


best editing

Amitabh Shukla - Sehar
Bela Segal - Black
Catherine Dhoir - Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Matrubhoomi - Ashmith Kunder, Shirish Kunder
??? - My Wife's Murder
- The award goes to Amitabh Shukla for Sehar.


To hell with people who dont agree with the nominations... the suggestions/comments are welcome if you dont agree with the winner out of the given nominations or if I have missed out on some notable contributions in terms of acting or films.

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Sideways.... the vineyards, the relations

MAYA
Can I ask you a personal question?

MILES
Sure.

MAYA
Why are you so into Pinot? It's like a thing with you.

MILES
I don't know. It's a hard grape to grow. As you know. It's thin-skinned, temperamental, ripens early. It's not a survivor like Cabernet that can grow anywhere and thrive even when neglected. Pinot needs constant care and attention and in fact can only grow in specific little tucked-away corners of the world. And only the most patient and nurturing growers can do it really, can tap into Pinot's most fragile, delicate qualities. Only when someone has taken the time to truly understand its potential can Pinot be coaxed into its fullest expression. And when that happens, its flavors are the most haunting and brilliant and subtle and thrilling and ancient on the planet.

MILES
I mean, Cabernets can be powerful and exalting, but they seem prosaic to me for some reason. By comparison. How about you?

MAYA
What about me?

MILES
I don't know. Why are you into wine?

MAYA
I suppose I got really into wine originally through my ex-husband. He had a big, kind of show-off cellar. But then I found out that I have a really sharp palate, and the more I drank, the more I liked what it made me think about.

MILES
Yeah? Like what?

MAYA
Like what a fraud he was.

Miles laughs.

MAYA
No, but I do like to think about the life of wine, how it's a living thing. I like to think about what was going on the year the grapes were growing, how the sun was shining that summer or if it rained... what the weather was like. I think about all those people who tended and picked the grapes, and if it's an old wine, how many of them must be dead by now. I love how wine continues to evolve, how every time I open a bottle it's going to taste different than if I had opened it on any other day. Because a bottle of wine is actually alive -- it's constantly evolving and gaining complexity. That is, until it peaks -- like your '61 -- and begins its steady, inevitable decline. And it tastes so fucking good.

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Well... what has a bottle of wine to do with the human relationships... !!! Probably nothing.... wait.....until you watch the movie "Sideways...", in a way, even the movie doesnt try to signify the similarites... !!! Its a small budget movie with probably one of the least known hollywood starcast. The movie doesnt try to teach you a lesson. This is a story of two friends, their perspective. This is a movie about life, How it is.. and not how it should be.

Miles(Paul Giamatti), a failed writer, a divorce, who teaches at a Junior high school takes his old pal Jack(Thomas Haden Church) for a week-long road-trip through California's wine country. Miles and Paul both are good friends but exact opposite in nature. For Miles, the trip is about giving Jack a nice send-off before his marriage, as for Jack, It is just one of the escapades and flings. Miles wants to taste different wines and Jack wants to get laid as many times as possible during the trip. The two explore the beautiful vineyards while end up searching their own identities.

Miles meets his soulmate Maya(Virnigia Madsen) and thats when they discuss about wine, about life and about themselves.

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