Did he forget his better half’s name?

Christian Bale thanked them all, including his wife. But…

Was it the Oscar moment or was it Christian Bale’s memory that was responsible?

Anyway, Congratulations Mr. Bale.

Kites flew but did not soar

Some Bollywood actors take on one project at a time and give it their all. Most often these artists’ works are eagerly awaited and when they finally come to the cinema near you, they are a visual and aesthetic treat. For the hard work he puts in, Hrithik Roshan’s few and far between movies — have for a while now — been a part of this category. And now there’s Kites.

Bollywood audiences heard about Kites. Expectations ran sky high. When the time came, Kites was flown but it didn’t quite fly high enough to meet the expectations of the eager audiences. Facebook updates — of people who had seen the movie — recorded disappointment. However, I wanted to see it for myself. I finally saw it and this is what I have to say: That’s not a bad movie after all. In fact I thought there was some good art in it.

The movie starts off with a bullet injured Jay (Hrithik) who sets out to look for his lady love. We sure know that there has been violence and the path has not been smooth for Jay and Linda (Barbara Mori). We still wonder how the two met; how, having come from two different cultures got their messages across and all of that. It is not a novel thing to have a flash back unfold the tale. It takes us to crazy Vegas where the two meet, only to tell us that they had already met each other earlier. They were married to each other but each wanted to go different ways to marry into one of the richest families of the entertainment capital. Things take a turn and the two are seen running for their lives.

We know that at some point they do part and and we wonder what exactly could have wrong? An SMS on Jay’s phone reads: I am going. Forget me. Where could she have gone? The answer to this comes only at the very end of the movie. Kites fills the audiences with many a question and manages to hold the suspense, letting go of answers only one at a time and saving the biggest – yet not so big -one for the last.

In retrospect, the movie may not have had an intense plot. Nevertheless it is an intense love story; the story of two people of different races, unified by love and finally unified by what’s in the big suspense. No melodrama here. Barbara Mori seems to have done a good job. She and her hero co-star do not seem too disconnected from each other but there’s no sizzling chemistry (perhaps this was why the movie was not liked that much). There is some action here but it does not really stand out as different or even interesting. However the cinematography was undoubtedly one that deserved some appreciation. Hrithik has once again given his best. We get to see a wee little bit of that dancing he is so well known for. However the actor with the Greek-god-looks looked great with a tan. On the whole the movie might not be a great one, but it doesn’t make an Ullu ke patte of the audience.

Director: Anurag Basu
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori, Kabir Bedi, Nick Brown, Kangana Ranaut
Producer: Rakesh Roshan
Music: Rajesh Roshan

Blogger’s rating ***

Paa – Ace acting in a so-so story

When I first heard that the Bachchan men are doing another movie together, this time with Daddy Bachchan playing the son while Abhishek played the daddy, I just could not wait for the release. Having further heard that this film was the story of a boy with a genetic problem and that Amitabh was doing the role, I was expecting a coming together of an intense plot and skillful acting and another perfect film like Black.

At the end of the two-hour, 21-minute movie, this is what I have to say: It is an `ok’ one. The concept was a good; that of a child with Progeria, a genetic disorder that advances ageing in a child making a 12 year old look like an over-60 year old. There is a lesson in genetic science there, alright, but the plot could have had more depth. Titled `Paa’ the story promises to narrate a `very rare father-son, son-father story’ but ends up to be more like the story of a single mother and her genetically disabled son, who manages to bring his father and mother together again, not quite living up to the expectation of the title and tagline.

In my opinion, his movie should have been simply called `Auro.’

Auro is the name of the central character; the boy played by Amitabh Bachchan. Big B has done an excellent job here. Flaunting the superb make up with wrinkled skin and the abnormally big head, the big Bachchan did great work by transforming himself into a boy of 12 and 13. He did good with his voice, his body language and gestures with these eyes, resulting in an overall splendid performance.

Vidya Balan has one more time, done justice to her role. Playing a character of the same name, Vidya plays a a mentally strong yet protective and loving mother. She beautifully portrays the emotions of a doctor, a mother, a single one at that, and balances it with some tact that a parent needs to have to handle that-sometimes-difficult child. She has definitely put forward some great acting for the way she treats her son, considering she had before her in that role not just somebody much older to her but one of the biggest names in bollywood: `the’ Big B himself.

Abhishek Bachchan ( here MP Amol Arte) too did well as daddy, not to mention the smart, charismatic and `cool’ politician of contemporary India.

The direction and editing is neat. The music is pleasant and very Illayaraja-type. Directed by R Balki, Paa has also managed to do fairly well without all that glitz and glamour that a Bollywood flick is usually known for. However it does have a guest appearance of Jaya Bachachan, but not in a way you would imagine. She announces the credits. A novel feature for a hindi movie, huh?

My take on Paa: It is a simple movie. Go without too much expectation. Enjoy the performances; they have all acted well.

Makante Achan: Unlike father, unlike son

For over three decades, Srinivasan has been entertaining the Malayali audience in a style of his own, so much so that he became a household name long ago. When the veteran actor’s son Vineeth Srinivasan made his debut in music, his talent was instantly noticed and he got all the appreciation it deserved. All for being his father’s son. However when this father and son in real life turned into father and son in reel life, there was born a whole new perception: son’s father (Makante Achan).

Sharing the screen for the first time, this father-son duo took home a lot of accolades for what they do best; acting and singing respectively. Aptly titled Makante Achan, this Malayalam movie lets the audience perceive the present state of affairs from a different angle; somewhat on the lines of Shakespeare’s `Child is the father of man.’

Here is Viswanathan (Srinivasan) a father who has got just one thing on his mind and that is to see his son Manu (Vineeth Srinivasan)become an engineer by profession. Viswanathan gets Manu admitted to an institute that gives rigorous coaching for the Engineering entrance examination, bars him from `wasting’ his time by singing and dancing and merry-making in any form. He even tries to get his son to sit and study all the time. Much to his chagrin, his son turns to rebellion in due course. Tired of the ceaseless prodding, the son does everything contrary to what is expected of him. Apparently having the least interest in the profession that his father has chosen for him, Manu seems to make sure that he fails in the entrance examination, not once but thrice. Having a penchant for cultural activities he makes use of the first opportunity at the concentration-camp-like institute to entertain his peers with his music. And at one point he also takes to the one thing that is the last thing his father would have let him do: participate in a reality show for budding singers.

Makante Achan is the story of a clash of ambitions. The dad has an ambition for the son but the son has an ambition of his own. It is a simple story; one that almost everybody can identify with. There are a couple of other stories within this story that have been included to support the two main characters. However these are like tales that have been told and retold in Indian cinema: that of an unscrupulous godman and a childless couple. The humour too is not all that fresh, but it succeeds in lightening the mood of the plot, and proves that the junior Srinivasan too can tickle the funny bone. Makante achan ends in an ah-ha moment; a moment directed at parents who have plans for their children.

The Srinivasans have done a good job here and that is the reason you should watch it.

Jai Ho Rahman

 

The big night; the night of the Oscars has come and gone. Indeed a star-studded event it was. New stars were born and the several big names reminded us that they were still around. During the course of the awards ceremony, there was one person who made multiple appearances on stage, second only to the host, Hugh Jackman, I believe. And when he finally left the venue, took with him not one but two of those coveted golden figures. What’s more, he became the first Indian to have won two Oscar awards (leave alone winning them on the same day). Earlier this month he had become the first Indian to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score for his work in Slumdog Millionaire.  A. R. Rahman he is and he truly deserves every bit of this.

With his soft tunes, foot tappers and fusion music, Rahman has been ensuring a steady flow of fresh music into the lives of Indians, for more than a decade now. His compositions have always made it big and almost every flick that had him for a music director has had all the songs in the album turn into smash hits. Testimony to that are the names: Roja, Bombay, Jeans, Kandukondein Kandukondein, Taal, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Jodha Akbar……. and the list goes on.

He started off with tunes for Tamil movies and didn’t stop there. He went on to leaving impressions in other language movies and when he entered Bollywood the picture only got bigger. His work has even made it to Japanese and Mandarin projects. Now with the Indo-British Slumdog  Millionaire becoming the latest fad, people the world over are familiar with his award-winning work – Jai Ho.

Jai Ho has gone places: from the slums of Mumbai to the Ellen DeGeneres show and Oprah on American Television to the Oscars stage, to name just a few.  Now that it has almost become a global anthem, we can hope to see his music find its way into more foreign tongues. Way to go. Jai Ho Rahman.

 

A.R.R at Oprah’s After Oscar Party

(The name is A.R.Rahman, Oprah)

India writ large at Oscars 2009

 

From the red carpet to the spectators of the Oscar awards ceremony. From the appearances on the stage to the after-Oscar parties to the many times visual clips of the country that appeared on the screens on the dias, ` India’ was writ large at the 81^st Academy awards.

That Slumdog Millionaire was the biggest winner at the 81^st Academy Awards needs no saying. Out of the ten awards that it was nominated for, this movie bagged eight of them and each time an honour was received, there was a mention of India.

The nation came into the picture again, when Smile Pinky won the Oscar award for Best Short Documentary, in which director Megan Mylan tells the story of a village girl from India’s Uttar Pradesh.

India herself took home three golden statues from the Academy Awards functions that took place at the Kodak Theatre in LA yesterday.  A. R. Rahman won recognitions for Best Score and for Best Song and Resul Pookutty bagged an award for sound mixing. Pookutty in his acceptance speech, thanked the Academy for what was not just an award but “history” (as he put it) being handed over to him. He also dedicated the award to India.

Apart from the many times scenes from Slumdog Millionaire and Smile Pinky flashed on the giant screen on the sets of the Oscar awards, the Kodak theatre came alive with the glittering performance of dance and song with O Saaya and Jai Ho. That was a touch of Bollywood in Hollywood. India again!!

Then there was Frieda Pinto on stage. A debutant, she might be, but this young Indian actress stood on par with several stalwarts of world cinema when she presented the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards last night.

And last, but definitely not the least was the culmination of the event; the grand finale when the Oscar for the Best Picture was announced and Christian Coleson made the grand stage entry along with the prime cast and crew of Slumdog Millionaire. There was Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan, Dev Patel, ARR, Resul Pookutty and the child actors of the movie; even little Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail the kids from Dharavi who were on their first trip out of India.

Now that’s a lot of India at the Oscars in LA; writ large, I must say.

 

 

From the blog’s archives

Slumdog Millionaire n’ a million opinions

From rags to riches - A review