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Minus 31: The Nagpur Files (2023)
Worth a watch
This seems to be the film first of the director. Taking that as the limitation, I would rate the film as worth a watch. The characters are real. The relationships have been developed in a manner most organic. The leading lady has done an excellent job, her steadfastness juxtaposed with and contrasted by her vulnerability. Other characters are more cardboard cutouts, and one wishes that they could have been developed better. Raghuvir Yadav as her father is believable though, but I would credit that to his superior acting skills.
On the flip side, the film suffers from a few issues. Cliched roleplays - youngsters and their ambitions being one. Most importantly, the murder angle does not find a resolution that is satisfactory. That is the major pitfall in a film that promised so much but flattered to deceive.
Anita (1967)
Avoid, avoid, avoid
Obsession can be self destructive. And Raj Khosla's third film of the Vertigo inspiration series proves that. Anita follows the template used in Woh Kaun Thi (1964). By the time he transports the formula to Mera Saya (1966), it is already stale. He desperately tries to close the gap by a climax that makes little sense.
Woh Kaun Thi and Mera Saya were bearable. If not for anything else, for the brilliant music, especially in the former. One would never tire of listening to the Lata Mangeshkar - Madan Mohan combo, especially if the theme of the film is woven around tragedy and the supernatural. And Woh Kaun Thi has brilliant songs by Asha as well. As does Mera Saya.
Anita keeps hitting you against multiple stories cut short by multiple characters who are forced into the film without any rhyme or reason. It is difficult to keep awake for the parts that have Kishen Mehta, one of the most incompetant actors ever to grace the Indian screen. Manoj Kumar seems at sea, he is happy when is supposed to be sad and sad when he should be thinking. Johar and Dhumal are wasted. And terrible. I kept on thinking - what are they doing in the film. Especially Johar. What was his role all about? No, not even Khosla was sure.
Antarmahal: Views of the Inner Chamber (2005)
Disgraceful - avoid at any cost
This is by far the worst film of the filmmaker. Probably a pivotal point in his career when he became obsessed with sex mania and the need to gratify the same on the screen. It is difficult to sit through the film. One just cannot connect with the characters, even though a lot of things happen in the film. Voyeurism, sex mania, focusing on anything that could cause titillation, you have it all. The worst part is imparting a completely different angle and shade to a nice story by Tarashankar Banerjee. He must have turned in his grave had he been buried.
You would run out of negative adjectives in defining the film. To summarize - Disgraceful. Distasteful.
Desh Premee (1982)
What a waste of time
It takes supreme confidence in one's intrinsic idiocy to make a film like Desh Premee. I tried seeing this utterly senseless jamboree party multiple times. And failed. Wonder how one could tolerate such unadulterated trash. Manmohan Desai was a bad director, but this was the pits.
Oh, I forget his 'classics' like Mard and Coolie. These were worse. What did Desai take the audience to be? Asinine? Illiterate? Apart from Aa Gale Lag Ja and Rampur Ka Lakshman, he did not make a single film that was worth a watch. And the two films mentioned were watchable courtesy of the fabulous music by R D Burman and the voice of Kishore Kumar. That's about it.
Bullet (1976)
Indianised Just Another Sucker
Bullet was a slick production from the house of Vijay Anand. Made to celebrate the silver jubilee of Navketan, this film had all ingredients for a nice, entertaining thriller. Definitely one of Dev Anands sane films, as most of his films have bordered on the juvenile.
Dharam Dev (Dharam Dev Anand) is a police office who is on the trails of conman DP, played by Kabir Bedi. DP is a sly businessman who sells company shares to public promising the sky. In reality the shares are decoys as the company is actually bankrupt and has no business to back the promises made to the public and the financiers.
Dev hires the services of DP 's secretary Sapna (Parveen Babi), who in turn falls for him , but plans to move out once she finds out that Dev is a policeman. But after getting a view of the real picture of the future of the shares, she extends help to Dev as she senses that the public is being taken for a big ride.
DP too has aces up his sleeve. He gets Dev jailed on account of a fabricated drunk on duty charge, and later, with the help of his mistress, generates a master plan to rake in millions and eliminate Dev totally by getting him framed on a murder and ransom charge.
Now it is up to Dev to try and exonerate himself and pin the actual mastermind behind all the ploys Good, catchy music by Rahul Dev Burman adds to the color of the film.
Bullet is a well made film. Pity it was ahead of its time in content and treatment.
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Overrated. Unrealistic
I got the DVD of Rebel without a cause from a shady joint near the port area of Chennai, India. Expecting that I'd laid my hands on a gold mine, both appreciated by critics and loved by the audiences, I started viewing the film with lots of expectations. No, I did not expect Dean to excel in the 'rebel' role. Having seen him in Giant, I was more or less sure about his limitations as an actor. Good looking, suave, lots of charisma to drive the young women mad, Dean sure had his own positive traits. But acting? A veritable no no.. he was just an icon, an image which might not have sustained beyond the peripheral level had we not lost him to time so early. Death made him a hero, and even today a below average film like Rebel without a cause is viewed with very high expectations Coming to the film, I found 'Rebel without a cause' juvenile in script and in execution. Characters are true to life, but have been played badly, in fact, so badly that they appear coming right out of comic books than American small towns. Natalie Wood, in a similar role in West Side Story appeared much more sensible and mature, like a character in flesh and blood, something which we do not normally associate with musicals. Was it that she wanted to do proper justice to Maria , something she had failed in portraying Lina? The biggest shocker is James Dean. His acting is comparable to C grade heroes of Indian cinema. I could have imagined Jeetendra and Salman Khan acting in this manner, but Dean? Anyway, I had the experience of watching Giant where Dean was comprehensively overshadowed by Rock Hudson , not a great actor himself, hence, had to adjust to the Americanism and halo surrounding the star.
Nicholas Ray may be a good director, I don't know. But apart from the action sequences, nothing impresses you. The family squabbles are like scenes emerging out of South Indian 'masala' films, smeared with sentimentalism and having almost no pointer at logic at all. Script and screenplay does not really help. In effect, it appears like a lolly pop / chocolate effort at creating something which could have really been a great film, a film which could have been a real poignant representative of its times.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998)
Ugh
If this is the face of good film of Bombay, then it is advisable Bombay stops producing films.
KKHH is make believe and melodramatic . Tina (Rani Mukherjee) cries and sobs in spotlessly white linen , minutes before she is supposed to die, advising Shahrukh Khan to marry Kajol. Have the producers never seen somebody die? What romantic visions of death have they embraced? This film is meant for adolescents, not even teens. Anybody with minimum maturity , interested in good cinema, would laugh at the kind of tomfoolery and immaturity exhibited by lolly pop romances like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
Kabhie Kabhie (1976)
Lousy mushy pseudo intellectual film
The summary sums it up all.
Imagine a star cast comprising Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman, Shashi Kapoor, Raakhee, Neetu Singh, Rishi Kapoor, all larger than life stars, behaving like mock puppets.
The film, made on a big big budget, is designed to be a love story !! What we see is people wearing the garb intellectualism and supposedly representing the cream of society behaving his indolent imbeciles, display neither maturity nor calm, or even pretence of intellectualism.
An example: Amitbah Bachchan loves and loses Raakhee to Shashi Kapoor, writes poetry in her memory, runs a mine (do not know how, he is never shown to work) , lives in style fit for emperors, and shouts and screams when he learns his wife Waheeda too had a broken love affair. So much for his poetic demeanor.
The only silver lining is the dulcet and placid use of raga Pahadi by Khayyam in the background. Sahir's lyrics / poetry in this film is grossly overrated.
Ghungroo Ki Awaaz (1981)
Pot Pouri .. what a waste
Remember seeing Vertigo? Remember the Woman in white? Well, mix the two in a screwed up mixer grinder, add fungus and bad breath as condiments, and presto, we have something called Ghungroo ki Awaz. Sir Alfred Hitchcock would have certainly moved in his grave if he ever saw this pathetic reproduction of his classic by the once classy filmmaker Goldie Anand. Sure somebody has said 'All the glitters is not gold. Here Goldie's gold has been sold to horror merchants the Ramsay's, and they churn out an experience which is horrible and intolerable.
We knew Goldie had a few positive traits: He could elegantly shoot songs and weave them into the fabric of a film, he could handle large scale outdoors, he could inject suspense in the manner very few Bombay filmmakers have been able to do (remember JewelThief, Johnny Mera Naam, Teesri Manzil, and who can forget Guide)..frightfully, Ghungroo ki awaz has Goldie playing nothing but the lead character, some vague thakur (landlord) , enjoying the grand opulence even today without having to do anything, falling in and out of love with the same girl (a la Vertigo), having haunting nightmares of the girl (a la Woman in white), finally discovering it's one girl after all (who does no keep souvenirs from killers, the killer played by Dr Shreeram Lagu, probably his worst role till then).
Goldie is also the producer of this film. He himself would have agreed that this is undoubtedly his worst production ever. Good script (how can something inspired by Hitch be bad?) ruined left right and center by bad screenplay, inept direction, frame less editing, pathetic acting .. the only silver lining is Rahul Dev Burman's music..,the title song "O mere humraaz" is a masterpiece, sung to perfection by Kishore Kumar.
Else.. avoid the film at all costs.. definitely not more than 1 out of 10 in my books..if you want to listen to the songs, buy them from your local CD store..
Les fous du stade (1972)
Great, great fun
This is one film I would like to see over and over again. This is one film my sons would like to see over and over again. This is one film which most of my friends wouldn't mind seeing a second time. In fact, this film was proposed by a student who went on to become the Institute topper at IIT Kharagpur, India's premier Engineering College, for a Hall Day show.
This is a film which has a single motive. To have fun. Unadulterated fun. Fun which can be shared by all. This film can be viewed with friends, kids, parents, spouse.. the entire lot.
The English subtitle, available in India is titled 'Crazy boys of the game'
Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997)
Lousy patched up film with Hollywood pumped in Bollywood Masala
Gupt is a conceptual copy of Clint Eastwood's 'Play Misty for me'. A bad , Bollywood style copy with lot of melodrama and more melodrama thrown in. Hero shuffles girls in the manner one would like to shuffle cards, and has no scruples about voicing his opinion on girls as 'Dunia haseeno ke mela.. ek dost.. blah blah blah'.. points directly at the front benchers and the chawani chaaps.
'Play Misty for me' was scary, and much more on a psychological level. Gupt is raw and palpably loud. Loud enough to make the soft hearted leave the theater. Loud enough to force the viewer to take control of the remote and change the channel (what I had to do)if you happen to see it on TV. And given the histrionic skills of Bobby Deol and Monisha Koirala, what else can you expect???
Come September (1961)
An Italian rendezvous
Come September is a unique comedy, sparkling with the touch of the Italian summer, American opulence and oriental moods. A must see for people who love cinema and want to keep smiling. This escapist saga is about two people who are in love but cannot get married due to various reasons, the principal one being the hero's unpreparedness. Paradoxically, the time he really decides to tie the knot, he faces the most bizarre week of his life which leads to another September, god knows, how many more.
The best part of the film is that it leaves a lot to the imagination, at at the same time guarantees that you go home feeling good, having spent some quality time. Icing on the cake is the beautiful Italian landscape , it evokes both a sense of grandeur and nostalgia, though Mulligan has ensured that the film does not become a tourist's guide to Portofino and Italian Riviera.
The film is a showcase for Lollos beauty and pneumatic appeal and Rock's masculinity. Assistance in the form of the comic skills of Walter Slezak makes this film a laugh riot in the climactic scenes. This is Lollobrigida's biggest hit in the US and India, and deservedly so; Rock Hudson makes a great partner for her, much as he was doing in this early 60's era with Doris Day in many films.
Childish it may be, Come September is loved even today. I have spent many afternoons viewing the film and admiring the Italian sun.. it acts as an relaxant in my otherwise busy work schedule
Do Anjaane (1976)
Drama unfolded
Do Anjaane is a classic case of a badly written short story made into an above average, watchable film. The plot is dramatic, and at the same time, taut. This film was Dulal Guha's attempt at serious cinema and he came out with flying colors thanks to the contribution of Nabebdu Ghosh who single-handedly re-wrote the story by Dr Nihar Ranjan Gupta (published in a Bengali magazine) and gave the script a generous iota of crispness.
The film tells recounts the story of a middle class couple (Amit Roy & Rekha) in Calcutta, who are forced to go different ways thanks to the intrusion of a Mr Ranit Mallick (wonder why Dulal Guha chose this name, as an actor of the same name is one of the premier stars of Bengal!), till they are united , courtesy their only son, Mithun.
It touches upon the various vignettes of a husband-wife relationship who dream of making it big. Paradoxically, the relationship turns sour and dark when the dreams are fulfilled, till the happy ending which appears forced upon to satisfy the average audience.
A must see for Amitabh fans and Hindi film lovers who see a world outside the common trash churned out in Bollywood.