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Ganpati dance

It is Ganpati time. It is the time of big Ganesh idols being magically balanced on juxtaposed thelaas (hand carts) and squeezed through narrow by-lanes of by-lanes.

Every year a new pandaal sprouts up. Every year a new team of youth assembles and decides to have their very own Ganpati pandaal. Every year is promised to be bigger than the last year.

To be fair, it even is.

Fireworks are passe. They now hold a matchstick against a big red can of HIT cockroach repellent or any other inflammable spray. Gulaal is old world. They now have party poppers in glittering colours. Head bands and blue coloured glasses are no longer in. Honey Singh was so last year. Nashik band and dhol was ubiquitous a couple of years back. The vehicle that accommodates the idol is led by another one which holds only huge speakers. The bulbul tarang and the banjo has made way for the music CD operator (aka DJ) who makes himself comfy somewhere behind the tall speakers.

What hasn't changed much is the trickling stream of faithful crowds that join the processions at regular intervals of a few metres.

What has not definitely changed at all is the Ganpati procession dance.

What is Ganpati procession dance, you ask? Now that is a difficult one. How can one even start to explain in words something that is inimitable? Once someone performs a step in the this style, it is difficult for even that person to repeat it.

This dance form has only one motto - "dance like no one is watching". Ironically, there are hordes gathered just to watch the adrenaline junkies make their killer moves.

Random Trailers I like - Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!

A good trailer should be like a mini skirt, they say, reveal just enough and keep everyone interested. Does the trailer for 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!' do that? You bet, it does. It clearly has traces of the Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes and the recreated Victorian era.

Before we proceed, here is a list of things that we already know about the characters from the version that Basu Chaterjee directed for Doordarshan:

• Byomkesh Bakshi (note that this spelling does not have a 'Y' at the end. Neither does it have the exclamation. The former is for typographical balance, but the latter cannot be justified.) - A detective and introduces himself as Satyanveshi.
• Ajit - BB's assistant, sidekick and friend
• Satyabati - BB's wife with whom he bounces off his thoughts
• Puntiram - BB's servant

Lets take a look at what it reveals and try to connect some dots about the much closely guarded movie story line.

Item songs

Wiki even has a definition of an item number! Is it a phrase in the Oxford dictionary yet? I would not be surprised by the answer to that one.

Heck some talented dudes out there have even compiled a list of Item Numbers in Indian cinema. On WikiPedia! No, really! It is a quite an exhaustive one. Detailed even. The criteria might be a bit vague there. But this argument is not what the blog is about. So what is it about, you might ask. Bataataa hu, bataataa hu, bhai.

The blog is about 3 item numbers that are not featured, yet, in the above Wiki list. They are on my repeat-view worthy list of Item numbers.

Fake tha Tiger

Ek tha Tiger

Loved the following 2 takes on the movie :)



*ing: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Girish Karnad

Director: Kabir Khan
Music: Sohail Sen, Sajid-Wajid

The film is the story of a RAW agent (Salman) who falls in love with a girl (Katrina) during one of his missions and then decides to quit espionage to be with her. The RAW agency considers it a risk to their agency's functions and the rest of the film is how they escape the agencies attempts to capture them.

A Gent We Know

Agent Vinod

*ing: Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor

Vinod is a super spy on a mission to find out what '242' means to an international group of terrorists. This involves guns, chases, globe trot and lots of action.

Director: Sriram Raghavan
Music: Pritam

Pros:
- The pace of the film in the first half is twice that in the second half.
- An eye-for-detail is exhibited in every scene (e.g. the seekh with half-eaten kababs in the opening sequence in the middle of an Afghan desert.)
- The background score brilliantly translates the on-screen actions to sound (e.g. the background music stops as soon as Kareena turns off the faucet and fills her glass)
- The action is super fast and does not rely on super-slow-mo to create an impact
- Retro, stylish and slick
- New foreign locales
- Hardly any logical loose ends

Cons:
- The narration slows in the second half and becomes predictable in bits
- 'Muft ka' song was easily avoidable

Things I remember:
- 'Raabta' filmed in a single continuous shot (earlier done by Farah Khan in 'Main hoon Na'). All songs except 'Muft ka' are in the background and yet complete.
- The viewer is taken through a quick touristy tour of Delhi - Red Fort, India Gate, Chandni Chowk, Karol Bagh and Ring roads.
- If 'BBuddah hoga tera baap' was done by Sriram Raghavan, it would have made an even better Agent Vinod (of Agent Vijay)

You would like this if:
- you liked 'Johhny Gaddar'

Trivia:
- It has become a norm for Sriram Raghavan to pay homage to bollywood of 70/80s. He does it by using 2 Nasir Husain songs this time.
- More homage to the 70s is offered generously:

1. "Kaun hai?"
   "Mahendar Sandhu." << Name of the hero who played the original Agent Vinod in the 70s
2. "Yeh jheel si neeli aankhen, koi raaz hai inmain gehra" << Lyrics of the hit song from Kashmir ki Kali debuting Saif's mom, Sharmila Tagore.
3. "Naam kya hai?"
   "Vinod. Vinod Khanna. Rishi Kapoor, Akbar. Amitabh, Anthony. My name is Anthony Gonsalves."
4. Persis Khambatta (model of the 80s and starred in Star Trek) and Freddie Mercury (of Queen) - both with Parsi roots - are used as a character named 'Freddie Khambatta'
5. Boney M's Rasputin

- 242 is the BEST bus number that ferries to the offices of some popular TV production houses.

Hagneepath 2012

Agneepath (2012)

*ing: Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra

The movie is about Vijay (Hrithik) who, as a child, witnesses the murder of his father in his native town - Mandwa. Kancha bhau (Sanjay Dutt), a heroin businessman, is the schemer and the main stakeholder for the murder. Vijay and his mother abandon Mandwa and settle in Mumbai. He grows up being part of the Mumbai underworld (?). His aim is to become as powerful as Kancha in order to avenge his father's murder.

Director: Karan Malhotra

Music: Ajay-Atul (the beauty of the marathi version of Chikni Chameli was the rustic male voice which is sorely missed)

KBC for the filmy keedas

While watching an Amitabh movie on Sony Set Max channel, my mom reminded me that I have watched this movie a million times already. She was, of course, exaggerating. The actual number might be in 2-digits, though. So, when there is an ad break, she rushes to switch to her daily soap on some other channel. This is where I need to be quick and agile in putting my hand between the remote and the sensor on the TV. 

"Mom, this is the most interesting part."

"What? The ads?!"

"No, maa, the Extra Shots."

And then a nugget of trivia related to the movie unfolds on the screen. 

How else would I have known that Alisha Chinoy debuted as a playback singer in Tarzan at the insistence of B Subhash who heard her sing in Dalip Tahil's play named Evita?

Or that the role played by Zeenat Aman in Yaadon Ki Baaraat was first offered to Asha Parekh, who turned it down because she was scheduled for dance shows in a world tour.

Or that Amitabh Bachan had the switch to the lights in his hands for the "Saaraa Zamana" song in Yaarana.

All of this came back to me because today I am looking forward to the first episode of the quiz show based on all such trivia... Extra Shots Challenge.

[This post was inspired by Dipta Kirti's awesome blog promoting the show with 18 filmy questions.]

Deewana banaa de.

Gaudy-Bard

Bodyguard

Starring:
Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Raj Babbar, Asrani, Aditya Pancholi, Mahesh Manjrekar

Lovely Singh (Salman) is a professional bodyguard assigned with the job of protecting Divya (Kareena). She is a MBA student under threat of being killed by the villains. However, her college life seems to be disturbed because of the bodyguard that trails her all the way to her classroom. In an attempt to keep him busy elsewhere, she keeps calling him (as Chhaya) from an undisclosed private mobile number and serenades him to fall in love with Chhaya.  He is not aware that Divya and Chhaya are actually the same girl till the very end of the movie. He performs his duty of protecting her from the villains.

Pros:
- Salman and Kareena put in decent performances
- A typical bollywood pot boiler masala film - action hai, masti hai, dance hai, music hai, drama hai, suspense hai

Cons:
- The comic track featuring Sunami Singh is too loud and most times unbearable

Music:
Himesh (yes, he is back!) and Pritam

You will like this if (and only if):
- You are a Salman fan
- You do not mind a mindless time pass popcorn movie

Trivia:
- Check the spellings of the names in the titles and the poster above (numerology seems to have caught with everyone)
- Salman's real life bodyguard - Shera - appears dancing in the entry song; along with Katrina Kaif
- Himesh ended his if-I-give-music-I-act-too condition for Salman Khan
- Eventually, there is a going to be an article which lists the different ways that Salman has unbottoned his shirt. In this movie, his shirt tears open by a blast of water from a broken pipe.

Hawa Hawai

Imagine
Laaka chik laaka chik
Chiki laaka chiki choom.

Imagine that in reggae.

Now replace Kavita Krishnamurthy with the unmelodious scratchy voice of Suman Shridhar without any of the sound engineer's polishings.

Doesn't seem good, no?

But then listen to the remastered version of Hawa Hawai from the OST Shaitan. I am not sure if it is available on the music CD. I first heard the song playing in a promo for the movie and got an mp3 from Cooltoad and have been stuck with the song since then. The scratchiness of the voice adds to the fun. How it makes the song feel like anyone can sing it!

The vocal twang in the lines -
Soorat hi maine aisi paayee
Kehte hai mujhkooooo
- is fun.

The rest of the album itself is a DJs playground. It has a variety of places for those who can play with the tempo and can get the dance floor moving. I liked the Nasha number a lot. It reminds me of Naach from Karthik Calling Karthik.

Repeat view-worthy: Khakee

Toofaan ab karegaa roshni ka faislaa,

Diyaa woh jalegaa jis mein dam ho.

Only Amitabh could say these lines with the charisma with which he does.

Rajkumar Santoshi directs this fast paced thriller with his usual touch of comedy and songs. His intention was to bring together all actors with names starting from the latter 'A'. However, Akshaye Khanna turned down the role which eventually went to Tushar Kapoor.

The movie caught my attention when I first saw the poster at New Excelsior theatre in South Bombay. During those days Amitabh was sporting a french beard and it was a refreshing change to see him in this avatar. Check out the similarities with the Deewar poster... signifying the arrival of a Big B movie. (wasn't Amitabh supposed to be in blue shirt, instead of red?)

Ikes

Kites

Starring: Hrithik, Barbara, Kangana
Director: Anurag Basu
Music: Rajesh Roshan

Plot:
This is a love story of Linda and J. Linda speaks only Spanish and the 2 do not understand each other's languages. They manage to win the wrath of a powerful and rich casino owner. Guns and chases follow.

Pros:

• Stunning cinematography
• Hrithik Roshan
• Unseen locales
• A truly international look due to the expansive processing and re-processing

Cons:

• Jarring background music
• Too many scenes seem to have been edited out (e.g. Robin warning J that some day he would fall in love and face the consequences)
• Minor continuity jerks (e.g. Linda throwing away her shoes in the rain and is seen wearing them again in the next scene)

Things I remember:

• Nothing really happens through out the film. There is not a genuine wow-moment. Not even where one normally expects it; i.e. during Hrithik's dance. Perhaps, there was this one visually stunning bit of choreography for Fire, where Kangana jumps up in the air in a perfect arc from behind Hrithik... together with audio track, this was as close as it get to the wow-moment for me.
• Hrithik crooning the title track of the movie; the track sounded very similar to Enrique's Hero.
• Unlike the hindi films, the hero heroine do not break into an abrupt song-dance routines, rather, the songs are played in the background.
  

Trivia:
The song 'Tum bhi ho wahi' and 'Humko aajkal hai intezaar' (Sailaab) have one thing in common that the main singer repeats the few lines while the chorus get to sing rest of the song. Really, check them out.

Conversations

There was an unnatural calm in the cubicle as RK, KB and me were punching through the keyboard. And like little red riding hood, a girl jaunted past us in red track-suit-like garb. Needless to mention here that the big bad wolves in the cubicle got distracted from their work.

Me: lagtaa hai gym se aayi hai seedha.
KB: Gym, hmm. (sigh!)
Me: Hey RK, tu gym gaya tha aaj?
RK: Nahi. 1 week se nahi gaya.
Me: Gym join karke 10 din hi toh huay hai!
RK: (with an unconvincing smirk) Kal jaaunga.
Me: and you, KB?
KB: (amidst roaring laughter) méré toh chaar hazaar hee barbaad huay hai, iské toh gyaarah hazaar doob gayé.

The process

I have been a couch potato today. My TV remote has been praying for a break from the constant punching and the plastic crunching. (Yes, like a true Indian, my remote has not come out of the plastic bag it was packed in.) I watched cartoons, reality shows, movies, news, music videos, cricket highlights and lots of advertisements.

I watched Amar Akbar Anthony and Taken for the I-don't-know-how-many-th time. I have always known what their ends would be. I mean, a family who separates at the beginning of the film has to re-unite before the film ends. The point to be noted my lord is that it is more about the process of reaching the end. In the same vein, I don't care if cricket matches are fixed or not. I am going to still keep watching the game and enjoy the process.

So, COME ONNN SAACHINNNN ... COME ON DHONIiiiii... lights, camera, roll sound, ACTION.

Vaanar sena

... and then there is a group of jokers who add on to the proofs that they have nothing better to do than go on causing destruction because some movie calls their city Bombay instead of Mumbai. Where were they and where was their love for the city when it was attacked by terrorists or when it was flooded with water. The hooliganism shows even in their annual Ganesh festival mandaps where they block roads in the evenings for putting up a stage where crowd assemble waiting for the speech to finish and the cacophonous musical orchestra to start. I have not heard of even one constructive activity that the Shiv Sena has done in the past 5 years.

Mumbai calling

Ahh Mumbai. My place. My people.

The people in Mumbai are an emotional lot. Bollywood and TV ads plays a vital role in everyone's life in Mumbai. There has not been one day when I have not heard someone quote a Bollywood hero/ heroine or an advert slogan.

An uncle pulling out a chocolate from his pocket for a kid would inadvertently back it up with a dhan-ta-dhan (a la Kameeney) while handing it over.

Occassionally at a lunch table in the office, someone would come up with 'tere paas burger hai, tere paas lunch thaali hai. Mere paas kya hai? Mere paas maa hai.' and then opens his home made lunch box.

Of birthdays

It is was the sister's birthday. Every year, I tell her that she shares birthday with Michael Jackson and Dhyanchand. The latter being the great hockey player and captain of the Indian team, who brought gold medal and pride to the nation. While even Google paid homage to the pop star today, I wonder there was any mention of the hockey player on the 24 hour news channels in India. But that is a different debate left to the purists.

Radio (2009)

Himesh music is back after a long time.

His new movie Radio does not appear on imdb.com! The music has just released at Lalbagcha Ganpati pandaal. The album is very unlike the usual Himesh... maybe because it misses the nasal twangs. Rumour is that Himesh has undergone a surgery of the vocal chords. The result is that all the tracks are softer and very light... and on a couple of occassions - uncomfortable. 'Shaam ho chali hai' even has a very audible amateurish jump in the voice. There are glimpses and traces of the old Himesh in the remix version of 'Zindagi jaise ek Radio'.

All tracks, except Kailash Kher's 'Damadji' are catchy tunes. But, the Mumbai rickshaws are going to be disappointed as this is definitely not a 'Tere Naam' or 'Aksar'. Perhaps, the usual T-series ploy of hammering the songs on all music channels might help this one get on the humming-of-the-day lists.

Comin' Age

Kaminey

The critics had been all ga-ga over this new movie from the maker of Maqbool, Makdi, Omkara - Vishal Bhardwaj - the one man movie machine. He features in all the major departments for this film (strictly in order of recollection only) - music, direction, story, screenplay, dialogues, singing.

Starring:
Shahid Kapoor, Priyanka Chopora, Amole Gupte

This is a gangster movie highlighting a day in the life of twin brothers (Shahid Kapoor) - Charlie and Guddu. The former is a gangster who wants to earn money to become a horse race bookie and the latter is a student working for an NGO. Sweety (Priyanka) is Guddu's love interest and the sister of a crook, Bhau Bhope (Amol Gupte) aspiring to be politician. Charlie stumbles upon drugs worth 10 crore. Expectedly, there is a case of mistaken identity and more gang fights. Everything culminates into a happy ending.

Pros:
- Filmed in Mumbai (and Gujarat, probably)
- A fresh style of story telling. Reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie.
- A fair importance given to all the characters. Strong characterisations.
- This film has dialogues in bengali, marathi, english, african and yet, no subtitles. No time is spent in romance between the Guddu and Sweety. The audience is not expected to be dumb.

Cons:
- Cannot think of any!
- Did not understand the NGO angle to the Guddu character. Did I miss something?

I had earlier read somewhere that the story has been borrowed from a short story based in Kenyan slums. That story was by Cajetan Boy, who has been given due credit at the start of the movie. The Rs.44 crore spent on the movie includes his 2 lakhs fee. Vishal Bhardwaj met him at the Mira Nair's workshop (MAISHA) and so, the movie starts with credit to the workshop, as well. Additionally, the Kenyan diamond/ drug smuggler has been named 'Cajetan', too.

Amol Gupte was last time associated with the screenplay for 'Taare Zameen Par'. He debuts as an actor this time. Coincidentally, the lead characters in both these hits have had a medical condition.

I found a scene very funny. 'Tashi' enters Bhope Bhau's ilaaka with all the style of a king. He has a hat on his head and walks chest high, chin high along with his 3 side kicks. Suddenly, they hear a bullet shot and all of them meekly disperse away.

'Do lafzon ki' (The Great Gambler) and 'Duniya mein logon ko' (Apna Desh) are 2 old songs that play in the background. The latter is only for an exhibition of Shahid's oiled physique. Check the 'Making of...' for details on that one. But this should be enough to revive the songs in the remix club houses. Bhau Bhope's mobile ring tone is a hit a marathi film song - Kombdi. Watch out for a remixed video.

Dawn

The credit/ blame for my tryst with movies goes to my dad and my uncle.  They introduced me to the magic, masti, manoranjan and escapist world of movies. After the introductions, however, it was Amitabh who made me want to revisit the realm. When I was still about 3 years old, I brought the whole house down because my uncle watched 'Don' without me. I was only quitened by saying that he had actually gone to see 'Dawn' baniyaan (vests)!

Don was one of the wholesome entertainers. This was possibly Big B's first attempt at comedy. It was just that Amar Akbar Anthony was released earlier than Don because the latter almost got shelved after its producer, Nariman Irani (NI), died on the sets during the shooting. It is a pity that Mr NI never got to see the success achieved by his product. It did enough business to take care of the loan of 12 lakhs that had stressed him out and even kept his production house alive. NI was a photographer and cameraman by profession, who was under huge debt following the debacle of Zindagi zindagi, was pursuaded by the big B, Zeenat Aman and Chandra Barot to make another movie to settle the financial mess. Amitabh and Zeenat agreed to work for the film at nominal rates. Factually, Pran was paid 5 lakhs and Amitabh agreed for half of it. Salim-Javed's payment was the distribution rights of the film for the Indore and Bhopal territories.

The hit duo of Salim-Javed had approached Jeetendra, Dev Anand and Prakash Mehra with an untitled script based on 'House of secrets'. With no takers, the script was left collecting dust with Salim. When NI requested him for a script, he said- 'Humare paas ek breakfast script padi hai jo koi nahi le raha hai.' NI gleefully accepted - 'chalega'.

In Farhan Akhtar's version the 'Khaike paan banaraswala' song starts with the words: 

Arre tumka ka bataai bhaiyya, hamraa haal kaa hai? 

(chorus: arree bataai do, bataai do)

Nikle the halwa khaane, muh hi jal gaya hai!

Ironically, this is exactly what had happened to Amitabh because he was made to chew 40 paans to get the red-spew-effect. Anandji had suggested this, but he forgot to mention that for the red one need not apply chunaa  (lime) to the paan. Amitabh suffered from burnt lips for days after the shoot. On the other hand, to grant authenticity to the song, Kishore Kumar ate paan and spat on a plastic sheet during the recording. The song was not part of the original screenplay and was added after the interval following Manoj Kumar's suggestion to bring down the pace a bit. The song, eventually, played a big hand in the popularity of the film. Another late addition to the screenplay was Pran's broken story which was a result of an accident he had met. 

Inspite of the success, Hindi screen did not get any more films directed by Chandra Barot. In 1996 'Nariman Pictures' produced 'Shastra'. A remixed version of 'Don' was presented by Farhan Akhtar which scored over the original in the technical department, but, it could not make an impression as the version by late Mr. Nariman Irani.