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But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain

Showing posts with label Review Rangasamy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review Rangasamy. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Life in a metro

I donno how I missed this film. For quite some time I have been trying to see it and finally managed to get a CD from one of my colleague.

After quite some time, this was a film where adultery did not mean sleazy scenes or quarter dress wearing and boldly love making heroines. This is a dark movie with dark characters where every character is guilty of his/her acts in one way or other. And the point is that they continue to do that as they find a guilty pleasure in doing it.

This film is a fine take on the ruthless city life and how it dilutes the moral of the humans and turns them savage, demanding, fighting and mere mortals who care about nothing but themselves. It has got some of the best actors of the present generation (most of whom of course dont have the star presence of the khans, kumars and Roshans) like Kay Kay Menon, Irfan Khan, Shiney Ahuja, Konkona.

But yeah the surprise package was the performance of Shilpa Shetty and Dharam paaji. While Shilpa shetty effortlessly slips into the desperate housewife role, Dharam ji stops grunting and instead broods of his one act which changes the course of his life. Nafisa Ali is adequate as his long lost lover while Shiney Ahuja does a decent job as the frustrated and love searching theatre guy.

The characters are intertwined very well in the story and it follows the parallel story mode quite well. While we are used to Kay Kay Menon playing the bad menacing guy, its quite refreshing to play Irfan play the middle aged-bride searching average indian male. Sharman Joshi and Kangana do their job quite well.

Another nice aspect of the film is the music. Pritam's rock band appear out of nowhere and start singing (which of course can irritate you towards the end), but the songs are really good. In particular, I have been listening to the song below for quite a long time.



The only sad part is that I read somewhere that some part of the film is a direct rip-off of the english film 'The Apartment'. I hope someday our makers would buy the rights legally and credit the original story and film writers.

Overall this film is recommended to you ONLY if you prefer some different real cinema instead of the usual masala and bindaas fare.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Halla bol - Aur zor se bolo

RajKumar Santoshi is one of the few filmmakers in India who has attempted every possible genre of films (except Horror). He is very versatile and his films in particular action and drama have been iconic.

Halla Bol is again Santoshi's attempt at issue based cinema where he digs the Jessica Lal Murder case on silver screen. So how does he fare here? Well....considering his expertise I should say that he doesnt rise much. The story is based on Superstar Samir Khan (Ajay Devgan who's name here seems to be an amalgamation of the Khans) who is head strong and career driven. He witnesses a murder of a young girl and refuses to co operate. But being the hero, his conscience hurts and what happens next forms the rest of story.

Santoshi takes pot-shots at all stars regarding endorsements, dancing in marraiges, stupid and cliche roles, cast couching and so on. This is not Ajay's best role but yeah better than the listless Cash type films. Vidya Balan is totally wasted. Darshan Jhaariwaala is good but hams at times as the evil politician. Pankaj Kapur shows why he is one the best actors in Indai who can speak with minimal dialoge with maximum impact.

The problem with the film is the hurried ending and lack on conviction. You dont feel much sorry for Ajay as he loses his stardom and status. Nor you feel much anger towards the evil politician. The film has some good scenes as Ajay's monologue during Awards ceremony and Pankaj kapur's outburst against media. But barring these handful points the film dissapoints.

As you watch the movie you realize that this is something that happens without any shame and remorse. People who raise voice against injustice like Amir Khan are called REBELS and every action to intimidate them happens without restraint. How much ever we talk, the end point is that the same useless jokers are voted back to power and do the same shit in the name of god and caste.

Then what is the bloody point calling ourselves a democratic country?