ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED AT PASSIONFORCINEMA.COM

Ok, I am a hard-core fan of Krishnavamsi. Ever since the day he made Ninne Pelladutha in ‘96 (That’s the time when I turned 12 & started understanding films and another of the first amazing film’s I remember released – Prema Desam) I have remained an ardent fan. I started taking a fancy ever since he made this movie about Seenu and Mahalakshmi. Ever since he decided to cast Tabu in saris and make her shout in her coarse voice – SEEENUUU… Dyamm, pure pure bliss. Even today his movies transport me to a dreamland and makes me remember all those times when I dreamt of walking on the streets of villages in Andhra and hoping to see beautiful girl in half sari calling out my name… burp, ok my real name is just not romantic, its will be like Brooke calling Ridge but … KV (alrite, not as great as K.Vishwath) is one director is I can go watch without absolutely caring who the actors or what the story is.

See, Krishnavamsi makes movies for people like me. He makes telugu films which are well, for telugu middle class every day audience. His music and treatment is very down to earth and ordinary which makes it a joy to sit and watch his story telling time after time. His movies have a magic to them. Think Murrari – Hum Aapke Hain Kuon of Telugu but so so different. So real, so absolutely dreamy. The guy speaks like some of his characters. He names them so matter of factly, no brainstorming needed, no angles… just, Radha Krishna, Sai… so easy.

So I saw this banner today of his latest in a desi restaurant and digging a little more on it made me sit up and actually decide to wait for the release and watch the film on the d-day. I just got sold with the name. Sasirekha – another classical name! The title comes from the theme of the eternal great Telugu film – Maya Bazar which deals with the very theme of the title – the marriage of Arjuna’s son Abhimanyu (ANR) to Sasirekha(Savitri – aaah!). Who can forget ANR rowing those paddles to that great Laahiri Laahiri laahiri Lo! So Tarun (hero of the new film) is no ANR and Genelia is no Savitri and this film is no Maya Bazar but somewhere in the posters and the promos and the stills, somewhere there is a hope that maybe, maybe after long long time, here could be a film that will reignite the magic of old days, of days when telugu movies used to be about illogical parallel comedy tracks and innocent love. Before factions and cellphones overtook simple brazen love stories where boy would invade girl’s exclusive celebrations (think Na Mogudu Rampyaare) and when running in paddy fields along coconut trees used to be so real cute (think Seetharamayya gari manavaralu!!!)

The rumors about the movie is that it a remake of Jab We Met and instead of saying there you go… I am, WAY TO GO! I was puzzled watching Jab We Met. Wrong casting, Illogical ending, bad bad actress! But see, the casting here makes total sense. Tarun has only one expression, of a drunk serious dude. Genelia has a natural flair to be a tomboy. The story is how a successful actress tries to find the balance in her life. And you have a film shot in Andhra and you have Krishna Vamsi peppering it with regular fare of dishum dishums and atta pinni jokes. What else do you need to spend 10 bucks and 3hrs?

On a serious note, Krishna Vamsi is one of the few telugu directors apart from Ramu and Trivikram Srinivas who have(had – you idiot ramu) the flair to capture the mood of the target audience when its needed. Going back to Ninne Pelladutha, 12yrs later, the movie is still a benchmark for quality family fare. Modern, hell Mazda Miata’s pop-up lights never looked so good again on the screen, sauve – Tabu in her classical shyness, and delicate – “kannuloni Roopameeee”, K.Vamsi has a knack of telling a story while leaving a feeling of having the audience want to dream about their fantasy’s, not not just for the front bencher’s. Ramu on the other had the craft and technique – Action Shoes and Purani Haveli roads and boom – the chase is on. Trivikram is younger and he has a tact to combine story telling with swift cuts of dexterity. All in all these guys made my world of watching Telugu films in the last 10yrs.

So the songs of Sasirekha Parinayam are out and on the ride to work today, a particular song “Bejawada” caught my fancy. Slick guitar strings with modern/classical tones mixed, the songs going places. The soundtrack is decent but I will leave it to Tushar, our PFC resident music critic to judge the virtues but all in all a great package.

Yes, I am selling it for Krishnavamsi but I will never forget his method of handling the concept of GOD appearing before a devote in Sri Anjeneyam. For a writer, its extremely tough to dissect that thinking onto a screen and Vamsi was just a genius for those few shots. So you never know, maybe he found some talent in Tarun. Maybe he finally channeled Genelia’s exuberance into a powerful performance. But this one for sure raises my hope for a fun watch!

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED AT PASSIONFORCINEMA.COM

People are boring. 

You, are boring. You get up with a foul smell in your mouth. You do stuff when people are not watching. You are confused in public and act macho in private. You are always thinking how it would be to be the guy with the girl. You sing the opera in the confines of your car. You steal glances at the price-tags and buy the unnecessary out-of-budget excess because you want to impress someone pretty who you in all mathematical probability will never ever see again.  That you escape from the ‘now’ and the ‘then’ conveniently to sing the chorus and and never the song is anything but the ultimate victory of banal surrealism that is as chronic as the ability of a man to “think” itself. Yet, inspite of all this knowing, the one constant feeling that a man cannot rid himself off , inspite of thinking this a hunderd or more times in a life time – why do I see what I see as me. Why is the “me” seeing this and not the ‘he/she’ beside me. How would it feel to see the world from his/her eyes? 

The daily clichés, the very food for everyday existence, are tailor made in this film to play out what it means to watch yourself being played by charecters who over a period of time become – well, you! The film is one huge drama, one huge set that Caden, played to expected perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman, dreamt, designed and put life into where for years on end, the quest to perfect charecters takes place. There are roles assigned to each person who follow their “real” charecters and the director expects these charecters, over a period of time, behave the way their real conterparts behave so much so that after a while, the “charecters” do the thinking for the real people. Confusing? Aah well, you have to watch it to see what I mean. And un-surprisingly, there are very few reviews of this film for that very reason.

As expected from any Charlie Kauffman film, the movie has tons of layers, tons of subtle reflections on the parody of life. Whether you choose to see it or ignore it is totally upto you and very conveniently, it does not impact your take away from the film. In my book that is very compelling screen-writing and when it’s Kauffman, so you can’t expect anything less. But to be fair to the average viewer, the film is tad too long and very very boring in most parts. For an avid writer or a serious movie enthusist who wants to explore every frame, there is probebly more meat than the whole of the star-wars episodes but for most, one sitting is way too taxing.

Some of the most brilliant episodes in the film happen very early when the roles of Caden and his family are defined. The mediocre lives they lead is sketched in a way that is least pretentious as most movies about average families do. The bottomline when watching this is – the movie is Charlie’s most laborious work. It’s his offering to the art that he is born for. A screen-writing that comes along once in a while! It’s his temple to films like Roark’s for Human Spirit. It’s his ultimate creation of a soul to take form on a film screen. It’s his attempt to make bare the self of a human in the ways that can be put in terms of words and images. They say writers are some of the most complicated people in the world. They are because they have all these thoughts that go cross out each other all the time and to define all this in the form of a film take a lot of effort. This film is made from a litmus test of conflicting thoughts and the effort shows and speaks for itself.

Charlie Kauffman, all through the 130 mins, makes his charecters dance to what tunes play in his mind. The tornado of thoughts spiral out on to the huge set in front of him and permeates into Caden and into Hazel and into Sammy and into the guy who practices how to walk natuarally. The set-men do what they should, the light comes from where it should because inside Charlie’s mind, like my mind, like your mind my dear reader, the reality of things that we so comfortably choose to dismiss – exists, shrouded with peels of imaginative bliss that over time becomes the external us in the company of an audience that is inturn full of the same synthetic exterior that it becomes part of your, mine & charlie’s huge set – a play of constant moments of loudness that the rest of the silent actors take notice and then forget. Such is the vanity of the fame, fortune and social brightness – it all is but a moment of anticipated glory bred by years and years of longing.

Synecdoche, New York. Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Watever! That’s my way for accounting for the title.

Note: The review was written in bits and drabs as the film is not easily digestable. So the commentry is random and incongruent mirroring the film.

… Forget David Lynch!

A dear friends debut film. He wrote and directed this. 15 days of sweat and blood for 3mins.

In his words – “Its my first effort and there are loads of mistakes and improvements to be done.
There are parts which are real tacky in between. But the entire point was to get to know the difficulties here. Well atleast i can now confidently say that i am more aware of them.
donot ask abt the plot and meaning the mov is supposed to convey, coz there is none.”

WRITTEN ORIGINALLY FOR AND POSTED AT PASSIONFORCINEMA.COM

To what lengths would you go to get an autograph from a superstar actor? What all would you be willing to jump to get close, very close – in you face close – to a star that has sold you dream after dream after dream all your life? Jump from a chopper! Fly your family from Bay Area to Chicago and pay tons of money? Swim through a sewer??? Nah… the mentioned tasks are too easy if the superstar in question is Amitabh Bachchan. And Ladies and gentleman, of all the directors who have in some form or the other paid tribute to the Greatest Star of the Millennium – let me declare – Danny Boyle topped all of them and beat them with none even close! And that’s just one shot in Slumdog Millionaire.

Danny Boyle’s (Train spotting) latest is a story around how a boy born in the slums of Bombay win’s his love riding on the back on his experiences from his growing-up days to answer 15 questions and convince an overworked cop that he is not cheating on the show. Nothing more to it! If you let go of the initial adrenaline of being the fortunate few to watch the film in one of the most liberal places in the world where for large diasporas, India signifies freedom and a place to find solace and happiness, then you will walk out feeling very full at the treat dished out to you.    

The movie is cinematic, right from the word go, and that in itself is an achievement worth bowing to for a director born in a different land. Mumbai does not exist in the film – it’s all Bombay. And a Bombay that you would have probably never seen before. The amazing interweave of colorful and lively people and the corresponding contrast of the slums makes you believe that that characters and as a natural extension, the people, are oblivious to the inhuman conditions that surround them. A mix and match of rugged goons, docile orphans, street smart kids and IndYEAH eyed foreign tourists makes Slumdog a movie full of surprises at every turn of the plot, a plot that covers every aspect of what this great city offers – religious wars, cosmetic ill-treatments, power-struggles, showmanship’s, dream-sellers, rag’s to riches poster boys, mafia don’s, super-model prostitutes, trigger-happy teens and fearless humanists. And to point out very strongly here – Boyle does not fall into the trap of Indian Sentimentality even though he does get into the mind of an avg Indian Raju very well.

There is just too much of good work in the movie to talk about film – AR Rahman’s back-ground score, just the way he makes you tap your feet to the unfolding visuals and not be conscious about it al all, Irrfan Khan with his characteristic non-acting acting expressions, Saurabh Shukla as the overweight short-circuited hawaldar, Mahesh Manjrekar as the Mumbai ka Don, Dev Patel as the Lover-boy and Anil Kapoor as the evil & condescending host of “Who want’s to be a Millionaire” – that they gel so well with the characters that the viewer is just mesmerized all through to notice flaws if any. And for an Indian watching a film based on India and be very comfortable is the highest grade you can give to any alien director. Especially the guts and the ease to show the bitter truths of real India without making a mockery. And especially to show how horrible Taj-Mahal actually looks in broad daylight and how horrendously dirty its surroundings are.

To review a movie like this, you need lofty words, words that justify the effort and the pains labored into making a film like this – touted as the costliest film made in India – a one man’s vision. The setting and the breaking-news type of screenplay make it a riveting watch with no moments to pause. Yes the lead pair looks a little dull in spots and the English dialogues don’t sound too plausible at some special weighted scenes but considering that the movie was primarily packages to cater to the west’s sensibilities of how to view India – Danny Boyle has set a bar that will be very difficult to beat. 

But if there is one winner to drive this movie to the very brink of Oscar’s – that’s BOMBAY! Slumdog is a movie where you will see the city like you have NEVER EVER seen before. It’s like prose from Lin Baba’s eyes from Shantaram turning to Poetry and Rangoli all at the same time. The sadness, the apathy of the residents, the acrimonious nature of the harsh truth’s of life, the relentless mockery of life towards the under-privileged and the gifted alike, just blown to insignificant particles before the power that the city is – and the way it was all captured by Anthony Dod through his camerawork or more rightly cameras work – is nothing short of pure chilling genius.  Bombay never looked so right before… all the reams of paper eulogizing it have found the right visuals now, hence allowed to settle in comfort of obscurity. Slumdog Millionaire will carry the baton for a significant time from now.