Film Impressions

ESSAY: Enthiran

GOD OF ALL THINGS

By Joyojeet Pal

During the release of Sivaji in 2007, I dutifully showed up for the first day first show outside San Francisco. The tickets for the first show had been sold out within ten minutes of the day they were open for purchase. I gratefully made an underhand deal with the theatre owner for a folding chair in to be placed in front of the first row of seats for $20. At the theatre, I realized I wasn’t the only joker willing to do this, there was a long line flush with Veshtis and already screaming fans, on one side of the box office waiting for their portable chairs. Worse, I signed up my fiancée, who spoke no word of Tamil, and was clearly disconcerted by the ominous signs of what seemed likely to follow. Further, the film was late, with all of us waiting in line. The wait gave me no sense of disgust or irritation at the prospect of my likely neck-craning experience, rather increased the excitement of anticipation. 

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 3)

THE WOMAN WHO WANTS TO BE A MAN

by Joyojeet Pal

Read Part 1, Part 2

One look at the depiction of women driving car and two-wheeler drivers in Tamil cinema, and one needs little further evidence that a woman ought not to cross into a man’s domain. The office secretary is a traditionally gendered occupation and easy to depict sexually and trivialize. In fact, the secretary poses no serious threat to the supremacy of a man in the workplace, since, at least in office scenarios, the secretary reports to a man. An area of greater contestation is jobs where women replace men. Here, the focus is not only on the sexual complexity of a woman in the male domain of offices, but also on her neglect of her feminine duties through holding a job.

REVIEW: Dabangg

DA-BANG SPLIT MY PERSONALITY!

SANITY SAYS:

You've seen this before in Bachchan/Mithun/Vikram/Mahesh Babu/action movies, you've heard the music refrain in spaghetti westerns, you've seen the fight scenes in movies like The Transporter...

SalmanFanINSANITY SAYS:

Seee! It's Salman! Have you seen such style? Such attitude!

SANITY SAYS:

The plot is wafer thin. Story is not new.

SalmanfanINSANITY SAYS:

(Seetis!) Look he just put the RayBans behind his shirt collar! Look He's dancing! Doesn't he have the sexiest walk? Doesn't he have the sexiest upper thighs? Only Salman can do this! What if he looked at you like that? What if someone wooed you like that? (Melt! Melt! Melt now!)

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 2)

VAMPITUDE

by Joyojeet Pal

Read Part 1

Vampitude here is defined as the desire of a woman to undermine the rectitude of a man, usually with her sexuality as her primary weapon. The mythological nymph Menaka who helped trip over the sage Vishwamitra with her wiles is our exemplar. The classic though unwitting vamp of Tamil literature is Madhavi, the dancer who Kovalan, the husband of the virtuous Kannagi moves in with in Silappatikaram. In the epic, the dancer is herself an intellectual, and a deeply complex character who eventually gives up her life for monkhood, though RS Mani’s popular pre-independence screen adaptation (Kannagi, 1942) of Madhavi was that of a seductress, and the bête noire of Kannagi, the iconic heroine in waiting. In short, Madhavi is the starting point Kodambakkam vampitude.

ESSAY: Women Who Have Jobs And Other Troublesome Pursuits (Part 1)

By Joyojeet Pal

In 1973, K Balachander made Arangetram. In the film, the eldest daughter of a rural orthodox Brahmin family moves to the city to get a job. She is forced by circumstances to earn a living as a prostitute, but works her family out of poverty. In 2000, Rajiv Menon made Kandukondain Kandukondain. A rural Brahmin family is likewise impoverished, and the eldest daughter must negotiate life in a city to earn a living. She gets a job as a software engineer, and works her family out of poverty. 

REVIEW: We Are Family

KABHI KAJOL KABHI KAREENA

Karan Johar bought the rights to Stepmom so he wouldn't have to say, 'Eh, mujhe cheater mat kaho, okay?'

Kajol is good, in spite of the suddenlystrickenwithcancer type situations she's made to act out (which means, hero/heroine look and act normal until doctor says, 'You have cancer', then suddenly, dark circles appear, they start coughing blood, tiredness happens, fainting adds to drama. Ugh!). But it was Kareena who managed to bring a lump in the throat (when she tells Kajol at the hospital, 'You shouldn't be dying, dammit!'; when the grown up daughter tells Kareena that she misses her mom at her wedding; when Kareena takes pictures of the family). This side of Bebo is wow!

My biggest fear was Kajol materialising at Aalia's wedding waving her hand a la Tina and giving that thumbs up sign before vanishing.  

REVIEW: Antardwand

GROOM KIDNAPPING MAKES FOR AN ARRESTING MOVIE

When was the last time you saw a film, paying full attention to everything that every character was doing? I found myself watching out for minor characters reacting to dialog written in just perfect local Hindi (asal ka Bihari Hindi, samjhe ka nahee, burbak!). I found myself enjoying the feel and the texture of every frame. I loved the clothes of all the characters, down to their chappals and alta adorned feet. I even loved the furniture and the mosquito nets. I could almost smell the freshly ground masala in the kitchen, taste the food on their plates. I found myself in instant empathy with all characters good and bad. I found myself nodding my head to dialog like, 'Arre bhai aaj chai milegi ki nahee' because I knew why chai was being used so effectively as a change of subject, as a tool that turned women characters into instant slaves.

REVIEW: Aashayein

NIRASHAAYEIN IS TRULY HOPELESS

Nagesh Kukunoor who gave us Teen Deewarein, Dor, and Hyderabad Blues is dead. Aashaayein is a convoluted story which gets so painful, you wish someone from The Expendables running on the screen next door would come in and shoot all the characters in this one.

This is the story about John Abraham who leaves his girl, his friends, his life, when he discovers that he has lung cancer and less than three months to live, and goes away to die alone in a hospice. At the hospice he interacts with various people and discovers 'hope' amongst those who are terminally ill.

REVIEW: Aisha

CLUELESS IN DEF COL

'Sex. Clothes. Popularity. Is there a problem here' was the tagline to Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995) which brought Jane Austen's 1851 drawing room romance Emma up to date. Aisha attempts to bring Austen to saddi Dilli. You could tear the wiki page for Emma and tick off every plot point Austen makes when you watch Aisha. Thank goodness for that.

Beautiful Emma Kapoor lives in a perfect house, with a kindly, indulgent daddy, wears fabulous clothes and shoes, carries bags that cost a little more than the GDP of a small country. She loves to organise people's lives, matchmaking being her single ambition. But she's Clueless about the repercussions of her attempts to change the lives of people she considers 'bechara'. Friend Pinky Bose is a reluctant partner in crime, when Aisha (Emma) attempts to makeover Shefali, who happily transforms into a cool kudi from bechari behenji with a little retail therapy.  

REVIEW: Once Upon A Time In Mumbai (2)

BAK BAK BHAIS

Imagine High Noon, when the dramatic tension of the movie is created not by silences but by dialog. Or Citizen Kane where the whole story is narrated to you instead of leaving you with one word, 'Rosebud'... Well, the film Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai could have been fantastic, except for the unrestrained bak bak by the gangsters.