Bang Bang! (2014)

When the movie title was first announced, I thought it was a silly name – even if it rightly gave the impression of several gunshots. I knew that it was a remake of Knight and Day, and the original movie hadn’t been a great watch, even though it starred Tom Cruise.

Then I saw this song, and got excited. I wanted to watch the song on the large screen.




The movie was released on October 2, 2014 – just at the start of the long weekend. I watched Hrithik Roshan, the lead actor, tweet about the #bangbangdare and I experienced a surreal moment when he was online past 2 a.m., at the same time as me. I am waiting for the day when one of these huge celebrities notice my tweet.

The movie was released and the reviews weren’t flattering, especially with reference to the storyline and the heroine Katrina Kaif. It left me disappointed. Nevertheless, I was happy that the movie started off strongly at the box office - it has now crossed over Rs. 300 crores overall.

This weekend, I wanted to take my parents out to watch a movie. I had already watched Haider (highly recommended) and Bang Bang! was the only other Hindi movie playing at the Chennai theatre we wanted to go to. Chennai has a ceiling on theatre ticket prices since 2007, and I knew that even if the movie was terrible, it would still not be a prohibitive watch.

As it turns out, the movie has not too much in common with Knight and Day. As for the flaws in the storyline, if I get into talking about them, the points that I wish to highlight would get lost.

Hrithik Roshan has the ability to play superhero, much like stars from Hollywood, and that’s no easy feat. His stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania has done wonders with his look for this movie too – she had earlier styled him in Dhoom 2. He carries off aviators extremely well (a silent nod to Tom Cruise and Top Gun?), his body is to die for and I welcome the sex appeal. If I go by his waist, he must be a lean man in real life, despite his muscles.

The scenes involving the flyboard have been shot extremely well. I was mesmerized when I watched them, and I later got to know that it is for the first time that scenes with a flyboard have been shot in a Hollywood or Bollywood movie. Hrithik injured himself while shooting these scenes, and had to undergo a brain surgery.

Siddharth Anand, the director, seems to like cars. Stock car racing found its way into Ta Ra Rum Pum (yes, I have watched this too) and here F1 makes an appearance. The F1 car scenes were shot in Abu Dhabi, and Hrithik has driven the car himself! Perhaps it was a car from Marussia. I’d like to check with Army officers if they are indeed given unlimited expense accounts, and taught all these skills.

Danny Denzongpa, Kanwaljit Singh and Deepti Naval are nice to watch in their limited roles. I wish Katrina Kaif had picked up something from them. As for Jaaved Jaffrey, he is cast in a role different from his role in Salaam Namaste made by the same director.

Online / internet dating is made fun of, and the way the lead pair gets together involves a case of mistaken identity. What’s not funny is the way the heroine asks the hero why he is with her when she (in her words) is clearly so boring, and he clearly so exciting. The hero, being a superhero, gently reassures her and reminds her of how great she really is. In reality, these 'scenes' would look quite different and self esteem issues might get discussed.

Finally, watch this song. Is there anything Hrithik Roshan cannot do?

Here!! Some more bangbang before Thursday! title track http://t.co/Dc4BjuU8Ji poora gaana!
— Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) September 29, 2014

Hum Aapke Hain Kaun..! (1994)

HAHK, as it was popularly known, was released on August 5, 1994 and it became the first Bollywood movie to make over Rs. 1 billion. I recently saw some articles that celebrated the 20th anniversary of its release, and it reminded me of the time when the sibling and I had gone with our mother to book tickets in advance. If I recollect right, this was among the few movies that my paternal grandmother watched along with us at the theatre.

The movie was long even by Hindi movie standards, and the 14 songs added to the length of the movie. They removed 2 songs from the movie, and retained them in the soundtrack. I was a fan of Madhuri Dixit, and the success of the movie made me happy. I have watched several movies multiple times, and it used to surprise me that HAHK did not find favour in my repeat-viewing list.

Back then, I remember reading in some film magazine that Madhuri Dixit (15-05-1967) is elder to Renuka Shahane (07-10-1966) in real life and yet played her younger sister, and now Wikipedia tells me that Renuka is elder by 7 months.

“Didi tera devar” was #1 on music countdown shows, including Superhit Muqabla, for a long time. The sight of a swinging Salman Khan singing “Kudiyon ka hai zamaana” had made me think that this is favourable to women, and I somehow had faith that Madhuri Dixit would not portray characters that allowed men to take advantage of her and treat her badly.



Posters and other promotional material also covered the backless choli and the embroidered purple saree.

I remember discussing the yellow (or was it orange?) salwar kameez that Madhuri wears in this song with some friends at school.



Years later, I realized that Nisha (the character played by Madhuri Dixit) didn’t have it easy. She had flowers aimed at her butt, and didn’t speak up when her marriage was fixed with her dead sister’s husband instead of Prem, the dead sister’s husband’s brother. Prem doesn’t admit to his love either, and stays quiet. "Saali to adhi gharwali hoti hai” – the wife’s sister is half-a-wife – HAHK made use of this theme.

It took a Pomeranian (apparently, the correct term is the Indian Spitz) to rescue the lovers and unite them.

11 years after HAHK, the movie Bewafaa was based on the same theme of “Saali to adhi gharwali hoti hai” and the dutiful younger sister is labelled unfaithful. Would a man’s younger brother ever be forced to marry the wife of his dead brother? In 1981, Silsila explored that theme briefly and it bombed at the box office.

Gender stereotypes exist for several reasons, and movies have a role in perpetuating them. This is a speech by Sharmila Tagore in 2013 and she says, “Traditionally, we as a nation have tended to view a woman either as devi (goddess) or as property of man but never as an equal.” HAHK also found mention in her speech. Post the release of Kick in 2014, this article questions whether the hero is a molester or a real hero.

HAHK inspired a generation to indulge in lavish weddings – in Hindi movies and outside of them. It also cemented Madhuri’s position as the undisputed #1 leading lady, and 20 years later, she continues to receive offers to act. I am happy for her, and am hoping to see lavish weddings lose their lustre.

Hera Pheri (2000)

This movie is the adaptation of a Malayalam movie, and is sure to make you laugh. Wiki tells me that the movie has become a cult classic, and rightly so.

While I always remembered that Tabu’s character is called Anuradha, I was suddenly reminded of a scene from this movie last week. It features a telephone, Baby bhaiya and several callers.

:-)

Guzaarish (2010)

When I first saw the trailer of “Guzaarish”, I made up my mind not to watch the movie. The colours used in the movie were putting me off, for they spread a sense of unnecessary gloom. I remarked to the sibling that Sanjay Leela Bhansali must start making use of lighter shades in his movies – “Black”, “Saawariya” and “Guzaarish” are all dripping in black, dark blue, grey and to some extent in maroon and red.

The sibling arrived in Delhi in the middle of the month, and insisted that we watch the movie. Given the way things were, we had one weekend with us when movie-watching looked a possibility.

I was in no mood to shed tears on my birthday, and with the sole exception of “Saawariya”, I have shed copious tears while watching all of Bhansali’s films. The sibling’s insistence made me watch this movie on my birthday in the theatre. Did I cry? Of course I did. I also experienced a sense of lightness I haven’t felt in a long, long time.

The movie is reportedly based on The Sea Inside starring Javier Bardem, the lead actor of Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I am curious to watch this movie now – the lead character in this movie battled his condition for 28 years, and Bardem is shown to age significantly.

Clearly, making the expressive and handsome Hrithik age so significantly would not have worked, so his character fights his battle for 14 years instead of 28. Hrithik plays Ethan Mascarenhas, a magician based in Goa who becomes a quadriplegic after an accident during his magic show. After undergoing multiple surgeries and battling his largely immobile body for 14 years, he decides that he has had enough and wants to be granted euthanasia. Euthanasia becomes “Ethanasia” – his own battle to die with dignity.

Aishwarya plays Sofia D’Souza, his nurse of 12 years. She is married to an abusive man, and receives her divorce towards the end of the movie. She loves Ethan silently.

Aditya Roy Kapur (brother of Siddharth Roy Kapur, UTV) plays Omar Siddiqui, a young magician who comes to Ethan to learn the tricks of the trade. He introduces a light-heartedness that Ethan’s home has forgotten.

There are flaws in the story-telling. Ash Chandler didn’t fit the character he played – he didn’t look the part of the father of a grown-up son. Bhansali also introduces an unreal world – women in Goa who dress as though they belong to Spain (or a place I don’t quite know), courtroom scenes where lawyers make utterly unconvincing and extremely emotional arguments, and a radio programme that first acts as a lifeline to others and is then used to campaign for “Ethanasia”.

Why am I still writing about this movie then?

My legs can move and I can run if I want to. I can move away from dripping rain water. I can turn the pages of a book while reading. I can give a warm hug to people. Gifts that I have taken for granted, repeatedly.

I liked the interpretation of love in this movie. There is sensitivity and maturity. Sofia’s silent love is selfish to the extent that she wants Ethan to live – when he wishes to end his suffering and die. She forgets what it is like to have a life without taking care of Ethan (a gem of a scene is when she finds herself thinking over Omar’s suggestion of taking half-a-day off – he tells her to spend time with her family, go to a play etc). She enjoys breaking into an unexpected dance (Ethan and Omar are left in raptures after seeing her move oh so gracefully), she tries hard to smoke to give him company and ends up coughing, she plays along and makes sexual sounds when he suggests that he is aroused by her rubbing of his (immobile, sensation-less) legs.

The dance is etched in my mind too.



Her silent love is selfless because she is able to put Ethan before herself, take care of him for 12 years without expecting anything in return. It is also selfless because she is able to take the extreme step of putting an end to his suffering herself – she is a trained nurse.

Spoiler alert: a moment of magic is when Ethan proposes marriage to her. Sofia didn’t expect it. Neither did I.

English was liberally used in this movie, and a wry sense of humour is evident.

Omar: “Can I give you a hug?”
Ethan: “I already have enough attachments.” He is surrounded by machines that take care of his bodily functions.

There is magic if you keep your eyes open.

For a tongue-in-cheek review, visit this link. For a well-written review, visit this link. For more photographs, go here.

Aitraaz (2004) / Disclosure (1994)

In a recent study conducted by ET-Synovate, every fifth worker in India is subjected to sexual harassment, with Bengaluru emerging as the leader with 51% respondents saying ‘yes’ to the question, “Have you personally faced any kind of sexual harassment at the workplace?” The other cities included Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune.

The study made it to the front page of ET on 22 August 2010. Did you read it?

I have just one point to make. In each city, the survey was administered to 75 respondents. Isn't it too small a number for a survey of this nature?

When I was in Bengaluru in 2004, I had gone to watch the Hindi remake of Disclosure (1994) with couple of friends from school. The remake was called Aitraaz. I enjoyed Priyanka Chopra’s performance, liked the casting of Askhay Kumar as the victim of sexual harassment, and found Paresh Rawal’s lawyer act annoying.

I also found the ending too convenient - the character played by Priyanka Chopra commits suicide post the ruling (the case is fought by none other than the victim’s lawyer wife, played by Kareena Kapoor). Someone obsessed with power would give up on life so easily?

Last weekend, I watched the original starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. This well-written movie is based on the novel by Michael Crichton. The victim gets further victimized at the workplace (for instance, his access to data is revoked), his wife gets upset and she expresses her hurt privately while standing by him throughout, he receives unexpected help from an anonymous person, and he engages a lady lawyer who fights harassment cases for male victims.

Douglas’s character came across as too cocksure despite being the victim – this is probably the only weakness in the movie.

Michael Crichton passed away in 2008 from throat cancer, and now Michael Douglas has been diagnosed with the same disease. Douglas, I hope you take to chemotherapy well. Prayers are being sent from here.

And you gentle reader, link the following – Rain Man, Disclosure, and Wag the Dog?