what we are reading – EightandHalf
Here’s the half page ad that was published in today’s HT Cafe of Mumbai edition.
Are they done with the business of the film? No wonder it has done a great business so far and the claim in the advertisement is true too. And they are still making money. So why spoil the party for those who still haven’t seen? This is a rare thing.
For its latest box office numbers, check BOI here.
S-P-O-I-L-E-R—-A-L-E-R-T
i finally saw the film that i have been reading and hearing about for a long time. A Tamil film called Pizza which became a surprise hit and its remake right has been sold in many other languages including Hindi. That made me more curious. I knew that it’s a horror film. If you are told otherwise, it will be a spoiler. And that’s sad in a way because then you wonder if the film is so weak that if you tell the real genre to which it belongs, it wont work? Imagine if you always knew that it’s a thriller, and not a horror film. Would the film still work? Am not so sure now. Take Talaash, i think it works best when you know the spoiler. (Post here) And as a friend said it here – A movie is never about its twist, and if it is, it’s not worth it. Pizza is badly handicapped on that front.
Directed by Karthik Subbaraj, the film starts on quite a thrilling note. Almost like one of those found footage films. A bunch of guys trying to trace ghosts in an old building and everything is recorded on a handy cam. As it gets more exciting, as the so called ghosts are about to appear, you realise that this is not the real film. It’s a film inside the film which is playing on tv and the lead characters are watching it. You can brand this as cheating, or, you might overlook it because of the thrill that it provides. I guess the director set the tone of his film with this sequence. The way you react to it, my guess is you are going to react to the film in a similar way once it ends.
I was thoroughly enjoying the film till the interval. And i kept wondering how are they going to close it because it looked like a difficult task. Well, it turned out to be KLPD. Because the director cheats us not once, but twice actually. First time when we are hearing the ghost story. It’s in one flashback. Almost the first half. And second time when the lead character is trying to act scared, pretending to be spooked – breathing problem, blood on his back, someone in the loo. Even if you are willing to take the first instance as film making tool, what about the second one? The second one makes you completely believe in the first story and kills all your doubts.
So you enjoy the thrill so much that you don’t call it cheating, or maybe you even call it so but overlook the fact once you know the reality. Why? Because it was worth it. Or you brand it as pure KLPD, cheating and childish. There’s nothing right or wrong, it’s just the way you react. And so the question in the post because i felt it was cheating. You might be completely fine with it. Do let us know in the comments section.
I am guessing you are still with me and are reading this post because you have seen the film already. Otherwise it won’t make sense as am not explaining everything in detail. And remember Kahaani? Lot of us criticised Sujoy Ghosh for that one scene where Vidya is talks about her husband and we get to see her “fake” story in flashback. Unlike others Sujoy was honest enough to participate in a discussion with us after its release and gave us his version. You can check the entire discussion here.
I still believe that the character might be talking about his/her story but it’s the filmmakers choice how he is showing it to us. We are not peeping into the character’s head like Being John Malkovich. Now, if we criticised Sujoy for that one scene, imagine an entire film based on such a scenario. Pizza is exactly that.
Once you are inside the theatre, one completely trusts the filmmaker. Saying and showing things with the help of a character and making us believe in it is the simplest thing inside that dark room. And then you turn around and say that it was all false, well, those were my favourite games in kindergarten. Not anymore.
Interestingly, when i asked people on twitter to rate the film on a scale of 1 to 5, most people rated it between 2.5 to 5. So clearly am in minority. Or, maybe am growing old. I prefer human stories more than thrill pills now.
Or i can try a better one. Since i was talking about his closing lines in the last post, and most probably someone will soon say “The Usual Suspects” while discussing this post, so here’s a quote from his review of the same film – I prefer to be amazed by motivation, not manipulation.
If you have been a regular follower of this blog, you surely know about Subrat. If not, you can read some of his old posts here, here, here and here. So as we all discussed Kahaani, we realised there’s more to it. And who better than our favourite Prof. Saab to do the dissection. Was it just “if you can’t convince them, confuse them”? Or was there more?
Read on, scratch your head and do put your comments. And read only if you have seen the film. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. SPOILER ALERT – DON’T GO AHEAD if you haven’t seen it yet. Go and watch the film and do come back. It will be fun!
It is a rare film that receives both critical acclaim and box office success. Kahaani seems to have managed that. The central cast and the editing have earned well deserved praise. Kolkata has been lovingly shot and, as many reviews have noted, is almost a character in the film. A lot of people have called it a taut thriller. This is where our paths diverge. For me, Kahaani is as much a taut thriller as Golmaal – 2 is a cerebral comedy. I admit it was nicely paced but a taut thriller has to satisfy a more fundamental criteria – the plot should make sense. It didn’t make the cut for me. I have watched it only once and I am ready to admit I might be wrong on this. I guess the best course of action is to put my reservations on the plot here and seek your responses. I have left out a couple of issues that have been discussed on other blogs which bothered me as well; namely, Vidya’s recollections of her husband had Milan Damji and the fact that Vidya was introduced as Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi at the start of the film. I can live with these as I did with such chicanery in that other ‘taut thriller’ A Wednesday.
1. Please help me explain the motive of Bhaskaran (Dhritimaan), the IB Chief. He was complicit with Milan Damji or may have even been the kingpin. Why did he then send Khan (Nawaz) immediately to Kolkata the moment he heard someone enquiring about Milan Damji? Nawaz is portrayed as a competent officer and wasn’t complicit. So, why was he digging his own grave by sending him over there? Instead, he should have been trying to provide as little help to anyone trying to enquire about Milan Damji.
2. Why did Bhaskaran approach Darshan Zariwala (the retired IB officer who had trained Milan) and ask him to come back to IB to nab Milan? Not satisfied with #1, he wants another of his good officers back to get hold of Milan Damji. Don’t tell me he was keeping up the appearances so that no one suspects him. This man seems to be suicidal.
3. What kind of investigation had Nawaz done the first time around? He hadn’t even spoken to Agnes (the HR lady of National Data Centre). Had he done so, he would have found the dusty file of Milan in that old, abandoned office and his address long ago. Didn’t Darshan Zariwala know anything about Milan while training him to help Nawaz in his investigations? I mean before Milan turned against the system, the IB should have had a good idea of where in Kolkata was he staying etc. Also, why was Milan Damji working in National Data Centre under his real name?
4. After hacking Shridhar’s computer and copying all the files, the only file that seemed odd was the file that Bhaskaran’s number stored (ha ha) cryptically. This file had Bhaskaran’s number in an alphabet code. Shridhar could have stored Bhaskaran’s number in his own phone and named it ‘chimpu’ for all I care. And, what’s wrong with Shridhar having Bhaskaran’s number. After all, the IB seemed to have been sending their officers to NDC quite frequently and it’s normal for Shridhar to have known Bhaskaran. So, how did Nawaz conclude only the basis of that stupid cryptic code that his boss is the brains behind it all? And, that moment when Nawaz dials that number and find ‘Bhaskaran Old’ flashing on the mobile screen was classic. It was that ‘Sirjee’ moment of Kaho Na Pyaar Hai (another ‘taut thriller’?)
5. Didn’t Nawaz keep his boss in the loop during his stay in Kolkata? Then, Bhaskaran would have known that Nawaz is now using a pregnant woman to get to Milan Damji and eventually to him.
6. Why was that HR lady who replaced Agnes so happy to help Vidya and Rana in sneaking into Shridhar’s cabin? She knew the previous incumbent (Agnes) was shot dead after trying to help Vidya. Another suicidal character? And, what kind of a IB haunt is the NDC where there is a lone guard at the entrance while there’s a rear exit unguarded?
7. Why did Vidya kill Shridhar? It was made to appear she did it deliberately so that he wouldn’t be interrogated by the IB directly. But, Vidya and Rana were originally planning to hack into the computer, steal the data and scoot. In which case Shridhar would have lived and Rana (who was working for Nawaz) who would have asked Nawaz to pick him up for interrogation. It was Shridhar who had made sure he would get a message in case someone hacked into his system. This led him back to his office and then to chase Vidya and Rana. It was a convenient thing to show that Vidya planned on killing him when she had no control on Shridhar chasing them after they had hacked into the system.
8. How was Bhaskaran convinced that Vidya had gotten some files from Shridhar’s computer that would lead her to Milan and eventually to him? Why would then Milan come for collecting those files?
9. Why did Bob Biswas kill Agnes? She knew nothing and all she would have gotten is an old file of Milan Damji that would have shown to Vidya that Milan looked like Arnab Bagchi (which she knew) or Milan’s address in Kolkata. In any case, if Bhaskaran was the one ordering the hit (through Shridhar) they should have known there’s hardly anything more Agnes would know about Milan (after all, Shridhar worked in NDC) so what was the point in shooting her. Also, didn’t Shridhar know that there were old employee records that might have Milan’s document in them? It seemed silly not to get hold of it when they were covering Milan’s tracks
I can go on with a few more. May be you have the answers. May be we should all make leaps of imagination to bring credibility to the plot. May be I should watch Kahaani again. May be, one day, we will make a genuine taut thriller.
Dhan TeDan! Its here. The much awaited film of the year, Raj Kumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots is all set to release this friday. The film stars Aamir Khan, Kareena Kpoor, R Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and Omi Vaidya. The screenings have started and two of our good friends (CA & MP) who have already seen the film wrote a mini-review for us.
In short, whatever you are expecting from Raj Kumar Hirani, he delivers and delivers it well. It will make only one man will be unhappy – Shah Rukh Khan. Here it is, first from CA…
Film has Munnabhai feel and Raju Hirani’s touch, which is simplistic yet very profound. Like the usage of day to day nuances is beautiful, including ‘all is well’. Good performances by the entire cast, and every charcter has been etched out well. Film takes few liberties and seems like any other regular masala hindi film, but it goes damn well with the film’s tone. The emotional graph of the film is really very well maintained, good mix of emotional scenes and really funny situations. Overall a great entertainer – CA
And here is the mini-review by MP….
Living up to the hype of 3 Idiots, Raju Hirani does manage to dish out a complete entertainer for this year end. This edition of his movies takes a leaf out form the lives of students at the Imperial College of Engineering which epitomizes the mechanical competitive race that we have be become, leaving no scope for wisdom, thought and education. Having said that, the movie is a riot of humour and emotions. After the Munnabhai series, 3 Idiots does carve out Raju Hirani’s figure of a social commentator. The movies scores in all its departments. Performance of the ensemble cast, nuances of the jokes, cinematography, dialogues are all very well done. The pace of the movie is not marred by the songs and they do carry the story forward. All in all a movie not to be missed.The dialogues and the situations in the movie are to watch out for. Ramlingam’s (verify character name) speech on teacher’s day is hilarious and so is his performance. All the characters are belivable and I feel like I have met such people. Cranky professors, pranks, discussions, and the way students do “jugaad” is quite reminiscent of my own college days – MP
Time for SPOILER! Go ahead at your own risk. Should we do it ? or Shouldn’t we ? We love being nasty, but only to those whom we hate. And Hirani doesnt feature in that list. But see if we can crack it. Test Your CQ.
We are sure that you already know the synopsis of 3 Idiots. If you dont, click here. The surprise element in the film is Rancho’s story. So, the big question is who is Rancho (Aamir Khan) and why does he vanishes ?
1. He is on a mission. A secret mission, much like what Shah Rukh Khan was doing in Main Hoon Na.
2. He gets completely disillusioned with the education system and charts out a new way where talent is given prefernce over merit.
3. He is posing as someone else and so cant reveal his identity to anyone. He returns back to his place because he has miles to go and promises to keep. Just another good soul doing good deeds!
4. Its a big set up to run away with the girl he falls for, Kareena Kapoor who is Boman Irani’s daughter, but unintentionally ends up teaching few lessons to everyone.
5. He ends up commiting a BIG BIG mistake (remember Ketan Mehta’s Holi) and with no option in hand he runs away from everyone. But truth is something else and he finally redeems himself.
Take a guess, test you Cinema Quotient and put it in the comment section. And here are few more general observations by those who saw it and mailed us….
1.Boman Irani delivers it again. In spirit, he is much like Dr Asthana but in a new character.
2. Kareena Kapoor doesnt have much to do.
3.The film belongs to Aamir Khan. It takes some time to settle down with his character and mannerism but once it happens, there is no looking back.
4. What doesnt work ? Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Few cinematic liberties, thats it!
5.The story starts with Madhavan narrating the story of Rancho, their college life and as expected, ends on a happy note.
6.Who is that fourth guy ? After the film, lot of people will ask this question and google his name. Yes, a new actor! Omi Vaidya is Los Angeles based actor who makes his debut in bollywood with 3 Idiots.
BTW, if you still havent read Trash Adarsh’s review, click here. And go book your tickets.
F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b 