MastBaba

MOVED ON..

2009-11-30T17:34:00.001+05:30

HI,

Filum Chillum has its own NEW address now with a NEW cool template too. Click below to visit the same.

http://filumchillum.blogspot.com/

THANKS for Visiting.

Maalamaal (1988)

2009-11-16T10:44:00.000+05:30

CAST & CREW

Produced By	Bipan K. Dewan
Directed By	Kewal Sharma
Music By	Annu Malik
Starring
Naseeruddin Shah	Poonam Dhillon
Aditya Pancholi	Mandakini
Satish Shah	Amjad Khan

Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew

PLOT SUMMARY

Raj Kumar Saxena aka Raja (Naseeruddin Shah) and Govind Sakharam Godbole aka Govind (Satish Shah) are friends who somehow survive in Mumbai living by their limited means until one day Raja gets to know that he is sole heir of a property worth 300 crores. However, Raja’s eccentric grandfather had put forth a condition following which Raja must spend 30 crore rupees in 30 days to inherit the entire sum. The conditions attached forbid him to make any property or buy anything for himself. He is also not allowed divulge the secret to anyone else including his best friend Govind. How he spends the entire sum until the last minute is what the film is all about.

MY TAKE

Every time that I watch this movie I wish for one such inheritance myself. I am sure today it is much easier to spend 1 crore a day as compared to when the movie made it to the theatres. Back then there were no malls selling international brands or gizmos or gadgets that we have today and sure 30 crores then was lot more money than it is today.

The chemistry between Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah is amazing. Together they lift an otherwise ordinary script to a position where it becomes an enjoyable watch. The humor is situation oriented and is definitely lot better than the slapstick affair that was so characteristic of the movies in the 80s.

The situational comedy is able to successfully keep a smile on one’s face throughout. Personally I like the sequence where Raja had just taken up the challenge of spending 30 crores in 30 days and he hires the security guard (Praveen Kumar aka Bheem of the TV serial Mahabharat) and changes his salary from 1500/- a month to 1500/- a day and then hires Dilip Tahil at 15000/- a day (Now that is good even by today’s standards, considering that he is assigned a post of being Raja’s personal photographer).

The fun part begins when he goes on to redesign the room of the hotel he is staying in and takes along all his friends from the slums (who go on to do the laundry at the hotel’s swimming pool), spends 10 lakh rupees on getting the special ‘Bidi’ from Gangu Bai (played by Lalita Pawar), plays cricket in the hotel suite (in turn breaking a chandelier among other articles, contesting an election and yes, playing a cricket match against Sunil Gavaskar’s XI. Oh yes, our dear Raja is the strike batsman of the local team Dharavi XI and nurtures a dream of breaking Gavaskar’s record. The match with Sunil Gavaskar is the surprise package in the film and the legendary batsman plays himself in the movie.

However, Poonam Dhillon had little to do and Aditya Pancholi was more like a situational prop (like many other of his films during that time). I still do not know why was Mandakini cast at all in this story. I guess with little more slick editing this movie could have been a major money spinner at the box office.

MUSIC

Annu Malik spills out the musical score for the movie. The songs are pretty ordinary otherwise. The title track kind of grows on you as it is repeated a couple of times in bits and pieces. There is another song which goes something like “Arra ra rura raara” sung by Alisha Chinoy which I found to be just OK. (Which means that you can listen to one stanza max and then shall have to search for the remote control to forward the rest).

OVERALL

The movie portrays a canvas which is larger than life and unrealistic and yet it does so in a fairly simple way. I guess if cinema inspires a moviegoer to dream, this movie is the dream that all people nurture in one way or the other.

Watch it for its sheer fun, some golden comic timing from Satish Shah and Naseeruddin Shah and well, for the dream of being ‘Maalamaal’ some day.

Enjoy!!

Sparsh (1980)

2009-11-12T11:17:00.000+05:30

CAST & CREW

Produced By	Basu Bhattacharya
Directed By	Sai Paranjpe
Music By	Kanu Rai
Starring
Naseeruddin Shah	Shabana Azmi
Sudha Chopra	Mohan Gokhale
Om Puri

Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew

PLOT SUMMARY

Sparsh (Devnagari: स्पर्श, Touch) is a 1980 Bollywood feature film directed by Sai Paranjpye starring Naseeruddin Shah (playing Anirudh) and Shabana Azmi (playing Kavita Prasad) in the lead roles of a visually impaired principal of a blind school and a young widow who joins the school as a teacher. The film remains most memorable for its subtle but strong performances and a very realistic script revealing the emotional divide between the "Blind" and the "Sighted”.

Click HERE for a complete plot summary and storyline.

MY TAKE

I saw this movie first time on DD National Network when I was about 10 years of age. The movie made such a lasting impression on my young mind that I could never take out certain scenes and situations out of my head.

Years later I wrote my first play for a school performance loosely based around the character played by Naseeruddin Shah. The play was stalled due to some reasons but I could never completely forget the movie. Sai Paranjpe is better known for her lighter movies like 'Katha' but she teams up with Basu Bhattacharya here (who is again known for movies around mature subjects around matrimony mainly - Avishkar, Aastha and Griha Pravesh to name a few) to render a tail that touches your soul and makes you feel for people who are denied the gift of vision like no other movie ever previously did.

The fact that the movie went on to win 3 national awards (Best Hindi Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor) despite its shoe string budget is a remarkable achievement in its own right.

The movie was largely shot in a blind school in Delhi and most of the children who acted in the movie were actually visually impaired.

This not only adds to the realism of the movie but renders it that earthy and genuine feeling which makes you wanting to reach out to every single kid in the movie.

Naseeruddin Shah is an acting institute in himself. He delivers with a conviction which surpasses and sits high over his other performances till date. The beauty with which he underplays his character and strives to keep his dignity and self reliance intact and is a complex emotion to understand and depict on screen.

Personally I find the scene where he gets furious on the waiter in the restaurant when the bill is presented to Shabana Azmi to be depicted exceedingly well. While Naseeruddin Shah portrays the dignity of a visually impaired person striving to find his way in the world, Shabana Azmi plays the widow who finds her solace in working for the blind school and is struggling to adjust to their 'different' world.

There is a scene where she stands in the classroom and asks the students to introduce themselves. She begins by saying “Yahan se shuru karte hain” and points to a child forgetting that she is in a blind school and the words 'here' and 'there' have little meaning. The entire sequence is simple yet very powerful and moving.

There are other short sequences and sub-plots built into the story which bind the audience. Be it the scene where a doctor warns Naseer to be careful of his eyes after he hurts himself not realizing that he is blind, children playing cricket with trinkets made from soda bottle caps, rehearsing the lines of a play and the story of 'Paplu' wanting to be accepted and loved as other challenged children are quite moving.

I thought the shot where Shabana Azmi picks up a saree by feeling its texture than looking at the color and design is nothing but a mark of directorial genius and exceptional script writing.

Om Puri is hardly recognizable in his lean young version as compared to when you see him today. There isn’t much there in the script for him and he renders in a brief supporting role as another fellow visually impaired friend of Anirudh.

I always believed Mohan Gokhale could have gone on to play bigger meatier parts. It is sad that his talent was largely wasted in side roles in most of his movies. Probably one would remember a tele serial called 'Mr. Yogi' as one of his main works which was aired during early years of Doordarshan.

MUSIC

There are three songs in the movie all of which are sung by the actress and singer Sulakshna Pandit. The music is by veteran Kanu Rai. Additionally there is a piece by Santoor maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan who also makes a brief appearance in the film as himself.

OVERALL

This movie is particularly impressive for its simplicity and I would suggest that you watch it with your kids and in turn teach them to be thankful of the mercies and their gifts that otherwise are taken for granted.

Let’s Talk (2002)

2009-11-10T10:00:00.000+05:30

CAST & CREW

Produced By	Shift Focus
Directed By	Ram Madhvani
Music By	Ram Sampath
Starring
Boman Irani	Maia Katrak
Anahita Oberoi

Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew

PLOT SUMMARY

Radhika Sareen (played by Maia Katrak) is pregnant and the baby is not her husband's. The dilemma is that if she tells her husband, how will he react? What will he do? The film un-spools from Radhika's mind as she imagines her husband's possible reactions to her predicament. She debates on whether she should tell her husband and plays out various scenarios in her mind about how he will react to her confession.

MY TAKE

Often the greatest distance one travels in life is the distance which can exist between two people living together. This movie is probably one of the best case studies on human quandary about situations one can not run away from and the issues generally associated with communication or rather lack of communication in matrimony

It remains one of my all time favorites and incidentally is the first movie that I purchased online. The treatment to this movie is almost theatrical and it binds you till the end.

The range of emotions portrayed by Boman Irani leave you awestruck. From being suicidal in despair to being light headed about the whole situation, Boman does it all. He essays the jealous hues in a personality with as much ease as being practical or self piteous.

I believe that he beautifully portrays the egoistic shade in the character and takes it to a point where I guess anyone who watches his performance shall be able to identify a hue of this portrayal in their personality.

The shot where he tries hitting a tennis ball with the umbrella and once he gets the shot after multiple attempts and then flashes from his balcony is simply outstanding.

Very little is known about Maia Katrak outside this movie. Perhaps this is the only movie she has appeared in. The CD cover says that she has about sixteen years of experience in advertising business and runs her own creative shop 'The Republic' in Mumbai. Incidentally she is also one of the writers for the movie and I believe she has done a tremendous job acting out her role too. She plays out her character of Radhika Sareen to perfection. She looks suave and sophisticated and mesmerizes with her easy charm and makes you fall in love with her despite the difficult character she plays in the movie.

MUSIC

There is only one song in the movie and it plays as a subtle theme in the background. Nothing much to write home about on that front.

OVERALL

I have already recommended this film to many a friends and would suggest this to all you married people out there to sit back and watch this movie with your spouse in one sitting. At times, it does become a little slow and personally I did not quite understand the significance of 'Krishna' sightings mentioned in the movie, but did feel the sequence where 'Radhika' dismisses the beggar dressed as Lord Krishna is thought provoking.

Overall a good, sincere attempt at movie making considering that it was a first for most of the cast and crew. My verdict go rent out the DVD, buy it from Shemaroo's web site or borrow it from me and do watch it.

Coolie (1983)

2009-11-01T12:17:00.000+05:30

CAST & CREW

Produced By	Ketan Desai
Directed By	Manmohan Desai, Prayag Raj
Music By	Laxmikant - Pyarelal
Starring
Amitabh Bachchan	Rati Agnihotri
Rishi Kapoor	Shoma Aanand
Satyen Kappu	Waheeda Rehman
Suresh Oberoi	Kader Khan

Click HERE for a complete listing of Cast & Crew.

PLOT SUMMARY

It is extremely difficult to summarize the plot in short for the story has several sub-plots and situations that require a seasoned Hindi movie buff to decipher.

In a nutshell, it goes something like this. Zafar Khan (played by Kader Khan) is obsessed with Salma (Waheeda Rehman) and wants to marry her at any cost.

However, Salma and her father do not consent, Zafar kills the father, is arrested, and imprisoned for 10 years only to find out on his return that Salma has married Aslam Khan (Satyen Kappu) and has a son called Iqbal (Amitabh Bachchan). Zafar sabotages a dam, drowns Salma's village & abducts Salma. (Yes, a dam nothing less).

Salma however has lost her memory, doctor advises another child and Zafar arranges for one from an orphanage. Iqbal is rescued by his uncle and raised whereas Zafar's son Sunny (Rishi Kapoor) from orphanage is actually the uncle's son and Iqbal's cousin. Iqbal grows up to be a Coolie (porter) on the railway station and some sort of a local leader. Sunny is a struggling reporter with a local newspaper. The plot is further complicated by the two heroines Julie (Rati Agnihotri) who is out for revenge from Aslam (Iqbal's father) for her father's death (guest appearance Amrish Puri) and Deepa (Shoma Aanand) who is a childhood sweetheart of Sunny. Turns out that the Julie's culprit is Zafar as well. (Zafar seems to be everywhere and yet there is no sign of police)

As story unfolds, all lost and found cases are returned to their roots and Zafar is confronted by Iqbal and Sunny and punished for his wrong doings.

MY TAKE

There is one common bond between all Bachchan movies of the 80s and that is their larger than life depiction of everything and the unrealistic situations and sequences that hold the story line. However, I guess all these movies are still high on the entertainment quotient and it is largely because of the charisma that big B holds till date.

The lost and found formula has been a part of almost all Manmohan Desai flicks and it works in this piece as well. The sincerity with which all actors have acted out the most bizarre situations is amazing.

Let us begin with Kader Khan's obsession with not so young looking Waheeda Rehman. His submerging an entire village by sabotaging a dam is truly an outstanding act to win a lady's love. (I am amazed somebody even thought of such a situation). Nobody takes him to task for the massacre is a different story altogether.

The lost and found rituals and the memory loss has been a tested formula. However, I have in my life never come across anyone with a memory loss myself. (OK, I am not talking about students during examination time). The doctor's diagnosis and prescription about giving the lost Salma another child is again one small step for a doctor and one giant leap for medical science.

I bow down to Amitabh sir for essaying the role with such a conviction that nothing seems out of place. Not even his kidnapping the heroine from her house, breaking the furniture at Suresh Oberoi's place or taking in 6 bullets and surviving in the climax.

The chemistry between Rati Agnihotri and Amitabh is amazing. He abducts her, brings her to his home and chains her to a bed and still when she hears about news of his staged death, she comes weeping dressed in black and confesses "Pehli baar jab maine tumhe railway station par dekha toh mere dil mein kuch hua" (Now that I regard as some serious upbringing issue). She continues "Tum sabke saamne mujhe 'Luggage' ki tarah uthaa ke apne ghar le gaye. Dar-asal tumhari yehi ada, yehi mardaangi mujhe pasand aa gayi". So clearly if you love someone, kidnap her.

Another aspect worth mentioning about the movie is the little love story between Shoma Aanad and Rishi Kapoor. Incidentally they are childhood sweethearts and miss each other so much that Shoma Aanad becomes a junkie and Rishi Kapoor an alcoholic as they grow up. However, none of them thought of noting down each other's address or writing to each other and being in touch all the years. They did get large wall size prints of the school photo that they had and lived by it all the time though. The song follows "Mujhe Peene ka shauq nahi, peeta hoon gham bhulaane ko".

Hmmm.. I sure wish they had Orkut or Facebook in their times. It's a lot of 'gham' otherwise flowing freely in this big bad world.

The movie however has its moments and these are largely the comic scenes perfected by Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor with such ease that you double up even at the slapstick fare. Be it Rishi Kapoor eating the newspapers with Sambhar or Amitabh Bachchan cooking the omelette with the Yoga session on radio.

I wonder who does not know how to cook an egg otherwise?

I guess the greatest USP of the film produced by Ketan Desai and directed by Prayag Raj and Manmohan Desai was the injury that Mr. Bachchan sustained during a fight sequence when Puneet Issar "accidently" hit Amitabh Bachchan in his abdomen.

The film had to be shelved for several weeks before the shooting could be resumed. So much was the hype created around the movie that Manmohan Desai actually froze a frame and added the captions in the final release footage about the same.

MUSIC

On the music front, I guess Laxmikant Pyarelal have done a reasonably fair job. "Accident ho gaya Rabba Rabba" I remember was a hit and so was "Humko Ishak hua hai yaaron" sung by Shabbir Kumar.

I still sing "Saari Duniya ka bojh hum uthaate hain" every time I carry shopping bags for my wife. There is another song thrown in for haj yatris which goes like "Madeene wale ko mera salaam kehnaa".

Personally I like "Jawaani ki rail kahin chhoot naa jaaye". The song and choreography sure is naughty and suggestive. I could see similar steps in Accident ho gaya and Jawaani ki rail, looks like doing dance steps was fairly simple then.

I guess there is something about Amitabh in this movie that makes it such a special one. The opening sequence where he leaps in the air and runs towards the train is imprinted in the minds of many.

I remember Mallika Sehrawat admitted on a chat show having been smitten by that running shot. Apart from that I guess the climax where Kader Khan empties a revolver on Amitabh and he takes in all the bullets is a high energy scene as well.

All in all, this one is a great Sunday entertainer. Ideal treat for all Indian Masala lovers. Just ensure that you don't think too much during the course of the movie. Sip some cola, grab some popcorn and watch it for pure Big B Magic alone.

The First Post..

2009-10-28T00:00:00.000+05:30

About Indian Cinema, This Blog & Me

Watching movies is perhaps one of the most popular hobbies of people worldwide after eating and sleeping. Movies bring people closer to their dreams, to a life that they yearn for. It gives them an escape route from their own path.

Starting in 1913, the Indian film industry is nearly 100 years old. Not only the economics and art of film making has undergone a sea change in these last 100 years, the audience and the masses who have patronized this form of art have evolved as well. Click Here to know all about the history of Indian cinema.

I introduce myself as an avid movie watcher who has been brought up on a rich and regular diet of Hindi movies. I remember the time my family bought its first color TV way back in 1981, VCRs were making a foray into the Indian markets. I guess things were never same thereafter.

I inherited the love for Hindi movies from my dad who would gladly rent out a VCR (until we bought our own in 1985) and we would run a movie marathon on holidays watching at times 3 - 4 movies back to back. There was hardly any movie which could escape us (and I am necessarily talking the trash movies of 80s including films like 'Khatron ke khiladi', 'Daku Hasina', 'Sherni', 'Taaqatwar', 'Marte Dum Tak', 'Jungbaaz', 'Zalzala' I can go on and on.

The following years saw me follow each movie with a keen eye, looking up technical details and other aspects as well. The camera angles used, the way action sequences were synchronized and the songs were choreographed as well as the sets and costumes that were involved all formed a part of my discussions.

I would have gladly took up film making as a study (like million others I am sure) had it been a more permissible and financially viable option for average middle class Indians.

This blog is an attempt made to vent out all the movie gyan that has been accumulating over the years and a means to document my reviews and opinions on movies that I have been an audience to.

In my coming posts I shall take up various genres of Indian cinema talking about movies that most people would not even have heard of (I am certain) and others that have interested me over the years. I shall also try and not limit myself to either the commercial masala movies, the parallel cinema or the B-grade stuff alone (Oh yes, I shall be talking a lot about those. I am a huge fan of Kanti Shah and Ramsay brothers).

So, join me in this journey into the world of movies and magic and freely comment upon the movies I showcase on this blog and together let us try and bring some glorious and some lost names to the fore.

I shall look forward to hear from you.