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Paa… The incredible journey!!!

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Paa

I have decided not to write any review for this film. I don’t think any review will be needed or suffice to say the least.

I would surely had done this for any other film or a different situation but today I choose not to. I choose not to because I want to share some experiences with you.

I had already established my anticipations with this movie through my earlier post and after experiencing this film I must say that it had been worth every moment!

Paa is an experience, a journey which you have to watch without any strings attached, without any expectations.

The movie opens with credits which are in a narration mode by Jaya Bachchan. You can see the pride in her face, the twinkle in her eye when she says “Introducing Amitabh Bachchan”. I have seen so many movies but none so far where you have a person speak out the names of the cast and the crew. First step… I was sold!

The next scene moves into a situation where there is a school competition and Abhishek (Amol Arte the MP) gives out the trophy to Amitabh (Auro the kid). Auro’s entry is just too good. Step 2… Bowled!

There are many such scenes which are so unique and written in a novel like manner…

  • Auro telling his mom why he needs pickle
  • Auro’s class mate talking about his relation with his dad
  • Auro calling his mother “MUM” and Grandmom as “BUM” (When asked why… he says she has a big bum!)
  • Auro telling his friend why there is X and Y
  • Auro telling Amol why it is okay to do potty in public
  • The last scene where Auro’s classmate comes and give him the gift and the reason why she’s sorry
  • Auro’s just one scene with his grandfather (Hospital scene)

There are too many to list down but I could just randomly place these ones quickly in print.

A journey as incredible as this has to be watched with your kid. I mean I had tightly gripped my son sitting on my lap and hugging him as much as I could with all my arms enjoying every moment that it could offer. (I must admit my son was busy toying with my iPhone and that was okay to me!)

Paa is a well written film. A well researched film. You never feel at any time that the characters are out of place or the situations that they are in!

R. Balki the writer, director of this film must have put enough efforts to make a film of this level. Balki is an Adman by profession. He makes TV commercials. Imagine telling a story in 30 seconds. Then imagine telling a story in a two and a half hour time frame. For sure a person of his stature would understand the importance of time and above all the telling the story without wasting much of our time.

The dialogues are very crisp and essayed beautifully by all the characters and you feel that they fitted the role perfectly to the T.

They say language has no barriers. So do emotions. The cinema hall was filled with Kuwaiti local people who were keen to watch this movie (With Arabic subtitles) and I couldn’t believe that they all were crying while watching the movie. The family sitting next to us were in complete awe of this movie and cried uncontrollably. Such is the power of cinema.

Special mention must be given to Balki

  • For putting the novel idea that a real life father play a son’s role to his own son
  • Making a 60 year old veteran play a 13 year old kid

The power of Big B’s performance just rises with each passing film, setting new benchmarks in cinema today. Kudos to him for playing such an incredible kid. You just feel like giving him all your love…

At no point in the film you feel that this kid is faking the emotions. It is reported that Big B found it difficult to even drink, eat and even breathe after putting the make. He used to take almost 1-2 days off for each and every shot.

Kudos to the team who did Big B’s make up… simply awesome!

The supporting cast Vidya Balan, Arundhati Naag, the kids in the school all have done praiseworthy performances. Paresh rawal’s role was reduced to few minutes in the film hence didn’t have much to do in the film.

Illaiyaraja’s songs and the background score takes the movie to a different level. Lyrics by Swanand Kirkire (Of Parineeta fame) blend very well with the movie’s story telling!

I would highly recommend you to go and watch this movie.

Paa is a positive film.

Watch it and enjoy the incredible journey…

Pa
Director: R. Balki
Actors: Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Arundhati Naag, Paresh Rawal
Music: Illaiyaraja
My rating: ****1/2 out of 5

(The missing 1/2 star is for those few and passable political scenes which slows the films pace)

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Just waiting for “Paa”…

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The last time I ever enjoyed an AB movie was “Cheeni Kum”

This movie broke all norms. A perfect treat for the ultimate movie buff!

Cheeni Kum had the perfect ingredients of a sure fire hit!

  • It had Amitabh Bachchan
  • A unique love story
  • Some amazing moments
    • Mother/ son angle
    • A mature love story
    • Son-in-law older than father-in-law
    • Amitabh playing a hep chef
    • Amitabh his 6 year old neighbour friendship
  • Illaiyaraja’s comeback in Hindi

All the scenes were extremely well handled and sensitively portrayed.

“Paa” will surely be that different!

Let’s review what “Paa” has in store for us:

  • For the first time AB plays the role of a 13-year old kid (The make up is fabulous!)
  • For the first time in cinema a real life son plays a father to his real life father (Abishek playing father to Amitabh!)
  • Balki’s second venture after Cheeni Kum
  • Illaiyaraja does the music score for this film
  • Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan
  • “The director opines that Politics is cool” (I think, if that’s done well, it could work out just like the Gandhigiri concept from Lage raho! Let’s see…)

Infact the expectations are soaring with this film.

Story line
Auro (Amitabh Bachchan) is an intelligent, witty 13 yr old boy with an extremely rare genetic defect that causes accelerated ageing.
He suffers from a progeria like syndrome.
Mentally he is 13, very normal, but physically he looks 5 times older. In spite of his condition, Auro is a very happy boy. He lives with his mother Vidya (Vidya Balan), who is a gynaecologist.
Amol Arte (Abhishek Bachchan), is young, progressive and a full of ideals, politician. He is out to prove to the world that ‘politics’ is not a bad word. He is a man with a mission. Auro is Amol’s son.

paa12paa19paa1paa2paa8

I know lot of people would rubbish off the story as something lifted from “Benjamin Button”.
I don’t think so. The situation where it is shown the kid with accelerated ageing is what kind of leads us to thinking into it. Otherwise, the story, premise is all original.

Besides the make-up of AB, there is so much room for performances both for Amitabh and Abhishek. Let’s just hope those moments are captured sensitively in this film. Like Black, this movie too could bring in all the kudos, awards and cheers to AB. Amitabh has tried his hand at all sorts of characters and this could be the ultimate one! That to at an age where he’s a grand father!

Abhishek’s finest act was last seen in Yuva, an average performance in Guru. Paa could be his turning point besides Mani Rathnam’s forthcoming Raavan.

As for Vidya Balan, Parineeta is her best film to date and in all her following films she proved to be a dud. Let’s hope this movie brings out her true acting sensibilities.

I think the original thought of this film is Amitabh playing a son to Abhishek Bachchan. A very, very original idea! I mean no one could have ever thought about such a thing and the director has made it possible. People will just flock to the theatres to watch and witness that.

Let’s just hope that this movie is as good, light, sensitive, less preachy and low sugar as Cheeni Kum!

Paa is a ‘rare’ story about a father-son, son-father relationship. And we all are just eagerly waiting for this “paa”

Watch the theatrical

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Happy Halloween!!! And my top 5 horror films…

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Dear Readers, wish you all a very happy Halloween!

Halloween (also spelled Hallowe’en) is a holiday celebrated on October 31.

pumpkin_carving

It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints’ Day. It is largely a secular celebration, but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America during Ireland’s Great Famine of 1846.

The day is often associated with orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols like the jack-o’-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, pranking people, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.

The pumpkins represent a very big thing. They are in importance to halloween. They have mad, sad, or happy faces to scare the bad “spirits” away from everybody’s houses. People that don’t celebrate it think it’s a really bad holiday just because people did bad things like witchcraft and sorcery on that day but that was back then. There’s nothing wrong with little kids going out and getting candy. Halloween is really just a holiday like every other. The pumpkin is to keep the demons, bad spirits, and vampires away from the house (even if they’re not real… it’s just to make the holiday more special)

Talking about horror movies, my favorite genre, here’s what I do while watching any horror movie…

  • Watch the movie only during midnight
  • Make sure you have enough quantities of coke/ pop-corn (For desi audiences, masala papad is recommended)
  • Keep the volume on your TV/ Home theatre to the maximum (Atleast to a limit where your neighbors don’t come knocking to your door!)
  • Make sure your family is fast asleep. Their bedroom doors all locked!
  • Watch it all alone!

Now this is my way of watching horror movies and it’s the best way to watch this genre!

Here are my top 5 scary movies for this Halloween or any of your solitude weekends!

The Omen Trilogy

the-omen-horror-movie-poster

I have read all the 3 parts of this book and saw the movies too. I think Omen is one of the few movies where the movie adaptation is as good as the book. Although there is no gore, bloodshed, screams etc compared to a typical horror film, the whole premise kind of give you creeps… Awesome franchise!

A must watch for all horror fans!

It’s a story of America’s most famous couple (President and his first wife) who are childless and during a routine pregnancy in the delivery room, their baby is replaced with the son of Satan! What follows there after is what the whole movie is all about. The story spans various generations and is in three parts. There is also a fourth and fifth installment but that was probably added only to keep the fans yearning for more and nothing much…

Exorcism of Emily Rose

exorcism-of-emily-rose-poster-1

I saw this movie and it actually scared the shit out of me! One of the best scary movies in recent times and this is already my all time favorite movie! The story is based on true incidents and kind of makes you feel…could this be for real? Well, it is apparently…

The other great thing about this film is that there is lot of courtroom scenes (Another favorite genre of mine) which kind of makes the story more interesting and carries the movie on a different level.

It’s a story about a girl called Emily possessed by demons and about a parish priest who tries exorcism on her in spite of the church advising against it leading to her death. The whole story is told in flashbacks…

Ring – 1

the ring

This movie became a phenomenon. A cult favorite for all Horror fans.

Weird plot, eerie background score, amazing use of black, white and blue colors throughout the film depicting coldness and above all Naomi Watts!!!

There is a tape you aren’t supposed to watch. If you watch it, in the coming few days you will die. How and why all this happen forms the crux of the story. Very very weird. This paved way for all Japanese horror stuff so much so that they were labeled as J-Horror. Some prominent films of this genre are The Grudge, Black water etc

The shining

shining
The movie worked for me in many ways than one.
To begin with, it has got Jack Nicholson. The vast empty spaces used throughout the film lend a constant solitude, sense of loneliness throughout the film.
There are basically 4-5 characters in this film and minimal use of additional characters lend enough depth to each of these protagonists. Jack Nicholson, His wife, His son and one or two more characters keep you engrossed till the end.
Jack Torrance gets a job as the custodian of the Overlook Hotel, in the mountains of Colorado. The place is closed down during winter, Torrance and his family will be the only occupants of the hotel for a long while. When the snow storms block the Torrance family in the hotel, Jack’s son Danny, who has some clairvoyance and telepathy powers, discovers that the hotel is haunted and that the spirits are slowly driving Jack crazy. When Jack meets the ghost of Mr. Grady, the former custodian of the hotel who murdered his wife and his two daughters, things begin to get really nasty.
A typical Stephen King story brilliantly directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Fallen

fallen
When I first saw this movie, I couldn’t believe that such a concept ever existed. Add Denzel Washington to this movie and you got a killer of a movie.
Det. John Hobbes is convinced that when killer Edgar Reese is executed, all of his troubles are over. But when people he knows and people on the street start to sing the same tune that Reese sang in the gas chamber, and those same people taunt him, he is told that maybe the cursed fallen angel Azazel is behind it all. Azazel is cursed to roam the Earth without a form, and he can switch bodies by any contact, making him hard to track. When Hobbes is forced to kill a man possessed by Azazel, he must clear his name while protecting his family and others from the evil, vengeful Azazel.
The story was ripped to the desi version by Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra with Aks Starring Amitabh Bachchan reprising the role of Denzel Washington but failed to make any waves. Manoj Bajpai plays the negative role without any significance.

The ones who almost made it to the list…
Exorcist
Grudge – 1
Cabin Fever
The Blair Witch Project
Event Horizon

Hope you all have a great time this Halloween!

This post appeared on my fave site Big Oye!

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10 things South Indian films have taught me…

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Age ain’t nothing but a number!
This is so true in the South Indian films. All our super stars be it MGR, Sivaji Ganesan, NTR and the super Star Rajnikant have time and again proven that no matter even if you cross 50, you can still look young and look youthful and have girlfriends who are your grand daughter’s age. You can do all those things the current gen X does. What’s more you can even go to college and look like a student!!!!

You don’t have to look good, just be over confident!
See looks are only skin deep. They are here today and gone tomorrow.
What’s so great about looks. So many of our stars have enlightened lesser mortals like us that if you are over confident you will surely look good!
Just pass off some heavy dialogues and people will fall at your feet… Who knows they might even build temples and start a fan club on your name!

Newton was so wrong about gravity
Naah! Newton was a crazy fellow!
Who told him that when you throw an apple in the sky it has to fall down?
That’s not possible!
When our Rajnikant jumps in the air, he stays there! He’s heavier than an apple… but does he fall?
No, na…. that’s what I meant!

 

There’s nothing called as the great story!
See when people come to watch cinema, all they need is good songs, lots of fight and a good item song. There has to be one dancer from Bollywood who can shake her booty… She can be Mumaith khan, Rakhi sawant, Malaika Arora Khan or their other peers!
There has to be some face punching and ear pinching dialogues!
(Stuff like Ithu eppadi irukku… How is it?, Naa oru tharava sonna, nooru tharava sonna maari… If I say once, it’s like saying 100 times and so on!)
The heroine has to be from the north please or even from Kerala will do! To that add in some hot and steamy scene and bingo! The movie is ready for the masses!

 

Even the weak have got very strong powers
Never underestimate our heroes who are wafer thin and bony structured. Even they have the guts to wipe off the entire rowdy gang of the city. They are so strong!
He can give one kick and a group of 10 people will go flying in all the directions!

 

Style matters!!!
Always be stylish! And that’s what our screen Gods keep telling us.
Every person is unique and has an identity of his own. You need to create that style statement wherever you go!
Here are a few examples…

 

Just Wigg it baby!
ntrrajkumarrajnikanthsivmgr

Wigging is sooo cool!
When you know you are ageing gracefully and you also need to look young so that you can do all those things the gen X does, just go to your nearest parlor and get a custom made WIG!
There is no star in South India who has an original hairdo and one who hasn’t worn a wig!
Just wigg it baby!… but make sure it sits on your head… will be embarrasing naa when people find out that you are bald!

 

Get your self a title, Mister!
Take any name in south cinema today, they all have been given a status and a some fan following! They are forever listed in the walk of fame lines given various tags, names as you may call it.

  • “Makkal Thilakam” MGR
  • “Nadigar Thilakam” Sivaji Ganesan
  • “Super Star” Rajnikant
  • “Little star” Chimpu
  • “Ultimate star” Ajith
  • “Puratchi Dalapathi” Vijay

And so many more…

And mind you, you can get these without even working hard towards it. There are so many stars in the making… let’s see how many twists/ adaptations these names take.

 

The child is the father of the man!
This is so true for South Indian cinema. I thought this line was good only in poems. Mr. Wordsworth, hats off to you for coming out with such an awesome line and our south Indian stars have already embraced this. Look at all recent Rajnikanth’s movies, most of the motherly roles essayed by his co-stars are younger than him. In fact this credit should be given to yesteryear stars like Sivaji Ganeshan, MGR, NTR, Rajkumar and their likes… had screen moms who were much younger than them!
Talk about which came first… chicken or the egg!

 

When it’s time to wind up, join politics!
This is one of the last but definitely not the least lessons learnt from the screen icons!
Before you put one foot in the grave, try putting the other into politics! Here’s your last chance to make quick money before you are tired and forgotten! These stars did so much for people on screen. Fed them, gave them clothes, house, education and now they are doing the same thing off screen! (You still think so???)
It was MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha who started the trend and now the mantle is held by stalwarts* like Vijaykanth, Mansoor Ali Khan, Vijaya T. Rajendherr to the more recent Vijay have all joined politics and serving the nation… atleast they believe so!
* Stalwarts – A huge term I used just like that…chumma… as we say in Tamil!

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The great Bollywood Stereotypes!

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This post appeared in Big Oye!

We as Indians eat, drink, breathe and live the Bollywood moment!

Come Friday and everyone is guessing who will rule the BO this week. Whether it’s a Diwali, New year, Independence day… people just wait for the big picture!

So much bucks are at stake! So many hours have been put to conceive a story (Er! Ill come to that later), songs, shoot, costumes etc etc…

But still, how far have we come in terms of being the same or doing things differently?

Let’s see…

Here’s my top Bollywood stereotypes!

The most common thread in a film:

  • There is a hero
  • There is a heroine
  • Man, they have to fall in love please!
  • There is a villain
  • They have to be united please!
  • Or they simply die in the end! (Holding hands… most of the times!)

Going by this common thread (Which is so used, abused and overrated!)

Whatever the case, all others just add to the overall stereotyping in Bollywood!

Read along…

The typical Bollywood Hero!

He’s every woman’s dream and everyone’s ultimate hero.

If he’s a rich man, he’s a spoilt brat. There are usually girls skimply clad and prancing around him getting their minutes of fame!

If he’s a Gaon ka gora (village boy) he has a heart of gold! He’s always dressed in the best of clothes. All styled by Manish malhotra or Neeta Lulla! His friends may look very poor but even his dhoti’s are well ironed and hairdo is done to be in tune with the times!

He’s the mummy’s boy! The eternal savior of the village.

Only our hero has special powers which he uses as charms while dancing/ singing to attract his girl and in other cases uses in the last frame of the film while being trapped at the villain’s den!

When he gets shot, he doesn’t die so easily. You need a sad song to kill him further…

The typical Bollywood Heroine!

She’s the ultimate fantasy of today’s generation.

If she’s rich, she flaunts her curves in absolute stunning clothes (minis, tight jeans et all!)

She still has the best designer clothes if she’s from the village. Her clothes are just right and absolutely tight (Where needed) but she is still those kunwari kanya (Untouched flower!) for the un-initiated! She has lots of friends. It’s ensured that the friends of our heroine look ugly and have bad costumes to bring out the beauty from her!

She may be a poor village girl but her jewellery are all designed by Tanishq!

Our heroine is having a bath and the hero spots her for the first time… eyes collide, heartbeats stop, music happens and love happens too!

Our heroine is having a bath and the villain spots her for the first time… she yells… Bachao! Bachao!

Hero’s friend/ Heroine’s friend

They have been friends since birth. Grown up with each other’s family. Did all things together. Had great fun. Our hero/ heroine’s friend have done lots of sacrifices for them but how come the hero is shown as a good guy? Imagine what Raj Kiran, Shatrughan Sinha, Chunky Pandey to the more recent Jugal Hansraj, Jimmy Shergill, Sanjay Suri, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh had to endure to do all this! Amongst the opposite sex Mumtaz, Aruna Irani, Shashikala… to the more recent Shamita Shetty, Kim Sharma, Aarti Chabria and the lesser mortals like them…

There is always a spying aunt/ uncle

Ya! This is so typical. When the story is very simple… a character like a chachi/ chacha (Aunt/ Uncle) are introduced who are always spying, scheming and what not to drag the story for the next 3 hours… The list is endless here The all time baddie Lalita Pawar, Manorama, Shahsikala, Bindu, Pran, Jeevan, Gufi Paintal to the more recent… Shakti Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Kunika, Himani Shivpuri etc

We can bore you to death for a minimum of 3 hours or more…

This one can get longer guys! Beware…

Really… can you imagine a plot line as thin as wafer or let’s say water but running till eternity!

Raj Kapoor’s Johnny Mera Naam ran for a good 4 hours. Had two intervals!!!

Similar examples include Ashutosh Gowariker’s Lagaan, Jodhaa Akbar all running at almost or more than 3 hours 45 minutes! Phew!!!! (We had to wait for some song to actually take a leak!)

What can keep a story so loooooong…

Talking about long stories… Obviously this has to do with something right?

Can you imagine our movies without songs?

Yeah, that’s what binds the movie together. I was talking about the common thread the songs keep these threads together.

Wanna know how???

There is a hero

…His entry has to have a solo song…in a car, in a bullock cart…

There is a heroine

…Same her too!

They have to fall in love

…In a picnic, Mountains, Foreign country

There is a villain

…Even they get songs… Err… All Item queens

They have to be united

…A song usually following the title tracks

Or they simply die

…A sad version of what they have already sung!

The great bollwood song…

Songs can come up anytime in a Bolly film… and beware in the most weirdest of situations!

Dream sequences are the most common and widely explored themes! And mind you our hero/ heroine will dream anytime so please don’t blame them. They are busy chased by the villain’s boys in the jungle. Our hero/ heroine take off in a different path and have time off from these baddies… they dream and pop… comes a song…

Usually in a dream sequence I fail to understand why they have so many boys and girls dancing around with them? Looks like they hate privacy!

The hero/ heroine has promised their parents or to each other that they will be someone/ someday! All it takes is one song to accomplish whatever they have promised! Talk about time management!

The hero/ heroine is busted and taken off to the villains den! Our poor villain cannot afford this expensive heroine, he has to do with a hot/ sexy item queen… Up comes Helen, Bindu, Aruna Irani from those days to Rakhi sawant, Mumaid Khan and more regularly Malaika Arora Khan these days!

Mother sentiments…

The Bollywood mother epitomizes ultimate sacrifice!

She is a widow, and earning few here and there stitching few clothes for nearby houses to raise her three kids. She sings a song to make them sleep at night and by the time the song is over her kids are grown up and our mom has grey hair… All in 1 song!

Now her kids are Doctor, Lawyer and an IAS officer. She has take great pains to raise her kids, duniya se ladthi hai (Fighting with the world) and finally her kids are some people today!

Maa… Main aa gaya hoon maa (I am home mom!)

Maa… Maine tumhara doodh piya hai! (Mom, I’ve had your milk… eeks sounds so crude!)

Maa.. Maaa… (Just like that)

Bollywood Baddies

Baddies in Bollywood usually get the best look and best dialogues so much so if done well it would follow a series of rip-offs or stereotypes. Some very prominent ones being Gabbar from Sholay, Mogambo-Mr. India. They usually have powerful one-liners, heavy and bold tones to add to their characters.

They are presented very crude, rude, raw and un-forgiving!

But how come when it comes to last few scenes they always give up to the hero?

How come they never get to touch the heroine although she is under their custody?

When the villain gets shot they die almost immediately!

Baddies in Bollywood most of the time have their careers spanning the police, political or a dacoit way of life (In reel life, I mean!)

The cops in bollywood…

Sad they always come late (I mean to the rescue!!!)

And I have nothing more to say about them…

When the lovers meet…

When the lovers in Bollywood meet, its celebration time. It’s usually a dog, horse, parrot or any such unimaginable animal or why all these, even God sometimes comes down to lets these lovers united for ever. It’s a time to rejoice, time to party for our lovers to enjoy the bliss of their holy matrimony!

And when all this is seen and done and forgotten we still yearn for that extra something this new film has to offer!

I don’t know what it offers really?

And we still think that we are a creative lot!

So typical…

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