Posts Tagged ‘Alia Bhatt’

‘Highway’ and the Art of Getting Lost

Posted: February 24, 2014 by moifightclub in bollywood, cinema, Movie Recco, movie reviews, reviews
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Editor’s Note: Imtiaz Ali’s much-awaited film ‘Highway’ released last Friday, and, over the course of just a few days, has achieved the unique feat of inviting equal amounts of love and hate. What’s even more remarkable is the vehemence with which both ‘lovers‘ and ‘haters‘ have expressed their views about the film. Barring the sedate review or two, sharp words have flown between between the two ‘camps’, especially if you’ve followed the buzz on Twitter. Or perhaps you’ve read the gloriously funny Neruda-take on the film. With this Highway it seems, there’s been no middle-road.

However, as the fires die down, it’s time to pause and reflect on this undoubtedly fascinating film that’s made some fans of Ali despair at his latest turn; some fans exult in his new achievement; and converted some Ali-sceptics into fans. For now, here’s Shivam Sharma taking stock of the film and taking you on a journey he greatly enjoyed.

Also, if you have seen the feature, click here to watch Imtiaz’s original telefilm which inspired the feature and was also titled Highway. And do participate in an interesting poll in that post.

(The following piece contains spoilers. It also contains personal whims, fancies, two languages and if the point gets lost in between somewhere then भूल-चूक, लेनी-देनी माफ़ कीजियेगा.)

“मैं हमेशा कहती थी न कि मैं भाग जाउंगी यहाँ से, मुझे शहर में नहीं रहना।
सब कहते हैं न, पर भागता कौन है?”

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१५ साल पहले इम्तियाज़ अली ने ज़ी टीवी के शो “रिश्ते” के लिए एक एपिसोड बनाया था उसके बाद उन्होंने काफी कुछ बनाया, हासिल किया और काफी हद तक बॉलीवुड में एक secure, genre-specific director बन गए. Especially after ‘Rockstar’, his biggest hit, his career graph has gone steadily upwards. ‘रॉकस्टार’ जैसी बड़ी hit देने के बाद, he had the option of going even bigger financially. Knowing how the industry works, giving a big hit generally works wonders — Nolan had a carte blanche to give his whims free rein after ‘The Dark Knight’; and so he made ‘Inception’. But the decision of not going bigger in terms of cast, budget and stars, and instead making a movie based on a story he wrote 15 years ago (or more) with a modest budget, stripped of most ‘Bollywood’ elements and with a not-so-bankable cast, tells us more about the director that Imtiaz is and the path he is on. ‘हाईवे’ की journey सिर्फ वीरा और महाबीर की नहीं है. ये इम्तियाज़ की भी उतनी ही “Finding oneself” वाली journey है. Back to his roots.
१५ साल पहले वाली.

Highway may not be Imtiaz’s best work but it’s definitely his most honest. Of all his films, this has the most scenes without crutches — minimal background music; long, apparently aimless scenes interspersed with silence as if they were unplanned; and scenes that are ‘real’, that feel raw: Veera laughing/crying without any reason sitting on a boulder by a freshwater stream; Mahabeer’s breakdown. Rough edges काफी visible हैं and some scenes seem unfinished in a sense. काफी clear है कि इम्तियाज़ खुद कुछ नया ढूंढ रहे हैं यहाँ. He relies more on his instincts and the power of raw scenes and narrative here than anything else — and he fumbles along the way quite often too. His warts are quite visible here and the screenplay isn’t entirely convincing. However, he has tried to get out of his comfort zone i.e. a strong soundtrack, typical funny side characters, likeable leads etc. The part which juts out like a sore thumb — and that I personally hated the most — was the end segment, the final 15 minutes where he tried to define everything, make sense of the proceedings and tie all the loose ends. It all felt forced and unreal. That part was the most Bollywood-like of the whole movie and I wish he had ended the film 10 minutes earlier and not necessarily provided a forced closure. (The Lunchbox followed it so beautifully. Ritesh Batra knew where to stop. पर it’s ok, कोई बात नहीं.)

The movie soars with the terrain it slowly travels — almost metaphorically. The part where Veera and Mahabeer lose themselves in the mountains, without a care in the world, is the most enchanting. These scenes soar higher than all others. सूफ़ियत कह लें या कुछ और, उस हिस्से में फ़िल्म एक अलग space में पहुँच जाती है. Imtiaz makes a great decision here to cut back on the spoken word and just let the ambient sounds and the scenery do the talking. This part is probably one of the purest cinematic experiences that I have had at a theatre ever.

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“एक गोली में आदमी ख़तम हो जाता है न?”
“दो आदमी.”

What looks like a simple ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ story gradually becomes much more as we go farther up the mountains and Imtiaz lets the story take its course beautifully towards the latter half (with the help of some great cinematography by Anil Mehta). There are many scenes without much dialogue here. These silent scenes help — they make you think; at that point, it all becomes subjective. You interpret what you want to, you become a part of the journey and maybe that’s what it all comes down to eventually.
You find stuff about yourself.

The two leads shine as does the supporting cast. Alia is brilliant in most parts, despite overdoing a few things here and there. But what a revelation she is! Randeep Hooda is restrained throughout and gradually takes over when Mahabeer finally breaks down. He is one of the best actors we currently have and this performance strengthens that position. AR Rahman’s music and background score take a backseat here and honestly he does not have that much to do. It’s just not that kind of movie maybe. ‘Patakha Guddi’ and ‘Maahi Ve’ are soulful; Sooha Saha is a lovely track as well. However, I really missed Mohit Chauhan’s vocals. The visuals reminded me a lot of especially this song of his.

Highway tries and succeds and fails and then succeeds again. It has some glorious highs and some not-quite-there moments but कुल मिला कर its highs spectacularly overshadow the lows and the movie now and again transcends into a रूहानी space which is well worth the journey — a rarity in Hindi cinema.

But I have always been a mountain person all my life so do excuse me for being a bit biased. चलिए फिर, I’ll see Highway again and try to find out more.
अपने बारे में.

– Shivam Sharma aka @GhantaGuy

(Professional procrastinator. Amateur doer. I sleep, eat, drink and live movies. And right now I am trying to learn how to make movies at FTII)

Highway Music – Nashe mein ud jaaye re haaye re

Posted: January 27, 2014 by moifightclub in cinema
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what’s the best thing about 2014 so far? Well, a new A R Rahman album is already out. Hallelujah! And over to our music man Rohwit for some musing on maestro’s music.

So the periodical excite-fest for music lovers (Also known as AR Rahman’s new album release time) blessed us early this year. Lyrics are penned by Irshad ‘dependable’ kamil and Kash-Krissy

Patakha guddi – A lot of techno and synth sound accompanies the electric duo of Sultana and Jyoti Nooran who are fierce to say the least. The arrangement is not complex. As has been his habit off late, AR Rahman keeps the ‘hook’ of the song almost non existent. The song just flows and sways you in the process. The words of Irshad Kamil are no less Patakha, mind you. If you see people forming a ‘train’ on the dance floor to a 2014 film song, this would be it.

Maahi ve* – AR Rahman on the microphone again. The song gives you a feel as if it was to be (tune wise) a part of the album ‘Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na’. No doubt this is a long drive song with a simple and ‘sticky on lips’ tune. It also gives out that feeling when (no matter how fucked up things are), you want to believe, everything is fine just because the special someone is with you.

Kahaan ho main* – is sung by Jonita Gandhi. The arrangement and the overall presentation of the song (at least when you hear it) doesn’t sound like it will fit into a film that has a truck driver and a kidnapped village girl in the lead. The extensive use of keyboard lends a very hoity-toity character to the song in context of the film. Would be interesting to see how this pans out on the screen. The song is hummable in a very ‘1990s sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy’ way. Also, the overall feel has a very ‘Meena Kumari complex’ feel to it.

Wanna mash up* –  In the days when anything ‘hep’ has to include ‘kaan-faad’ dubstep, ARR avoids the overuse of the same and gives us this vrooming piece of beauty! Kash, Krissy and Suvi Suresh have jointly penned this bombshell of a song that is guaranteed to take you back to ‘You either HATE it or LOVE it’ times of AR Rahman’s music. It teases and tempts in ways we thought were never possible with A R Rahman at the helm (Lemme dominate your body! Ahem!) . Oh the calls of ‘BOY!’ Hell with the context of the film, give me this any day! All Thumbs up on the way the song ends/climaxes! No pun intended.

Sooha Saha – Zeb and Alia Bhatt jointly present this delicate song with superlative arrangement by Rahman. Don’t worry if at times you feel someone will go ‘Kya bataaaon maa kahan hu main’ from Luka chupi. Thank God that Zeb hasn’t allowed herself to be ‘Rahat-Fateh-Ali-Khan-ised’, so you can expect something new from every song she chooses for our films. At times sounding like a doting mother, Zeb lends so much depth to the song! Alia Bhatt does a good job in adding the innocence to the song. The violins towards the end is a touch of genius. A song जो सीधा कलेजे को छूता है.

Patakha Guddi (AR Rahman) –  Many a times, I have felt that AR Rahman and Sachin Tendulkar have been put under so much pressure that they stopped having fun at work. This song is where we hear AR Rahman going bezerk! Excellent Prasanna gets mad on electric guitar towards the end in a song that is layered unlike it’s female version. Don’t get fooled by the subdued start that the song has. It is explosive by the time ends! Kudos to Rahman for attempting Punjabi and double kudos for his ‘naam rab da naam sai da’ chanting. You don’t get Goosebumps, You get Goosemountains!

Implosive Silence* – is sung by Jonita Gandhi. Kash and Krissy have penned whatever there was to ‘pen’ in the song. The arrangement remains hauntingly simple. The song appears to be sung in reverse (or treated like that). Let’s accept it, we do look forward to an ‘instrumental’ piece in A R Rahman’s album. We have been treated like royalty since ‘Bombay theme’ days and this piece here does the same and goes a step forward. Top class composition and top class atmosphere. Too much feel without words, trademark Rahman!

Tu Kuja –  a traditional song sung by Sunidhi Chauhan gives out a trance like feel from the beginning that stays throughout. An old composition in which Irshad Kamil has added Hindi words to make it relatable. Arrangement wise, the song sounds cluttered, and you are left with the feeling that it should have been sung by Rahman himself. It’s not a bad song, just that in comparison to the level of the album, it pales a bit.

Heera* –  is an old writing by Saint Kabir that has been presented by Rahman in his trademark ‘grand’ style with enough Violins to make you cry with pleasure. Shweta Pandit has sung this in an almost whisper like fashion which compliments the overall feel of the song (For a second, we thought it’s Tulsi Kumar who is singing…o the horror!)

Irshad Kamil is ‘Vishal-Gulzar’-ing with A R Rahman very fast and that’s such a delight to witness.

We have always believed that an album has to compliment the overall feel of the film. While we don’t know how the ‘hoity-toity’ numbers would compliment the feel of the film, we give a thumbs up to this album!

You see the *mark ahead of songs? Those are the songs we feel are a bit hoity-toity under the context that has been set by the teaser/trailer of the film so far.

AR Rahman saar, you remind us of the worldspace tagline…There is so much to listen (when you are at the helm!)

What we couldn’t understand – What’s with the sound quality of the album? ARR is known to be very careful around the same but this album sounds just like the old fake Jai-Mata-Di-cassettes which were a cheaper alternative to HMV cassettes. We understand T-Series owner said that he doesn’t need good musicians to sell music, but, sir, are you sure of what you are selling?

First Look : Karan Johar’s Student Of The Year (Poster)

Posted: January 6, 2011 by moifightclub in cast & crew, cast news, film, first look, pics
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Karan Johar announced his new film with full page ads in today’s newspapers. Its called Student Of The Year. Huh! The film is going to launch three new faces – Siddharth Malhotra (ahem..ahem! Hot topic these days), Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt’s daughter) and Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan’s son). The film will also star Shah Rukh Khan in a key role.