JAB TAK HAI JAAN .........SWAN SONG OF YASH CHOPRA

Normally Yash chopra movies are a bit complicated love triangle stories or love stories between odd couple and/or under odd situations , but I found his last movie (as it turned out to be) Jab Tak Hai jaan extremely complicated and there is hardly any strong reason for all the central characters behaving the way they were. 

 

There was no strong reason for a rich girl willingly settling down in life with the choice of her father to getting interested in not-so-young  Sharukh Khan singing Punjabi songs on London streets and requesting him to  teach her a Punjabi song (had she cared  to go to Southhall she would have got better choice of Punjabi gurus) and falling in love with Sharukh Khan immediately after his taking her to a sort of night club-cum disco-joint and dancing with her (where too she did far better job than the aging superstar).    Strange that going to night club/disco-joint is liberation to a London born and bred girl and going in line with Sharakh’s anticipation doesn’t resist or slap him when he dared to kiss her (quite possible because Sharukh has dared to do so after spending 20 long years in film industry resisting it even with gorgeous heroins like Priyanka and Aishwarya Rai  (and I must say that he was so ill-at-ease and definitely need a lesson or two from Emraan Hashmi or Aamir khan).      When she is caught in two minds she meets her mother and it is almost bizarre for her to pardon her mother who left her husband the child to run away with her new found love, and justifying to herself that the lover boy (the eternal Rishi kapoor) waited for her for 8 years (what a solid reason to desert husband and kid?).     Her style of belief in God and God’s way of punishing are kiddish and make a very weak reason for abandoning Sharukh and equally silly is not to get married with the Britisher with whom she gets engaged on the wishes of her father (there was no mention what happened to the poor father – might have died of heart-break with what his crazy daughter has done)

Come the third character the bindaas Anushka Sharma (who has attained a minus Zero figure so crafitily displayed while standing on the cliff before jumping into ice cold water), whose affairs, by her own admission, does not stay beyond 3 months and who openly admits to her looking for experimental inter-continental love affairs.   With this ultra-modern outlook falling for pita-hua ashiq like Sharak Khan and losing all her zing in life is quit out of sorts.       It sounds very funny when she repeatedly says the `true love’ in your times (which was just 10 years back ) as if she is talking to Bharat Bushan of Baiju Bawara fame or like Saif saying to Rishi Kapoor in Love Aaj Kal.   One can understand such a modern and trendy young chick like her doing masti with middle aged man (and other friends) till she gets her discovery channel assignment done, but falling in so called true love for such brooding Sharukh can only happen in the script of a Yash Chopra film.      If one doesn’t go in the technical goof up it is better – like Army allowing its major going and trying to defuse so many bombs without wearing the bomb-suits (absolutely against SOPs) and the London police who doesn’t allow Katrina going near to the accident victim (Sharukh) but letting the murmuring Sharukh to defuse the bomb (sure London cannot boast of naked bomb defusing expert?) 

But with all loopholes also the film holds interest for major part of the very long close to 3 hours love saga( would have been nice has it been trimmed by about 30 minutes)  primarily because all the 3 central Characters Sharukh, Katrina and Anushka have suited to their respective roles to the T and did great job.    May be for the first time Sharukh has not dominated the proceedings with other two ladies also hogging equal footage and doing their best acts in their career.    Apart from these three there is hardly anything worth mentioning about any other characters.   Good that Yash Chopra has taken leave out of Swizerland shooting and opted for stunning locales of Leh, Ladhak and Pehalgaon and the cinematographer captured the serene locales beautifully.    The biggest let down is the music by A R Rehman, songs are too pedestrians considering ARR’s colossal image and Yash chopra is famous for extracting fantastic music from un-known/less popular and unconventional film music directors, Like Shiv Hari (Pundit Shiv Sharma and Hari Prasad Chaurasia) in Chandni and Lamhe and Uttam Singh in Dil to Pagaal Hai (we hardly heard of him after that movie).    

Honestly the last work of Yash Chopra may not be his best (if one compares with his Kabhi Kabhi, Darr, DDLJ, or Mohabattein)  but his passing away just before the release of the movie, after leaving such a blazing trial of movies (specially romantic), will definitely help the cause of the movie.    Many people like me will see it as a mark of respect to the departed soul.     It was a good idea that along with end credits, the working shots of the movie, Yash Chopra directing people and showing his jovial side of him were incorporated with the movie ending by saying …..he lives on (no doubt he will).  

During my visit to Trivandrum, as I finished my work early in the morning and had to catch an evening flight and with cars/autos on strike and off the road, I best utilized the time to see the movie.     After almost three decades I saw a movie in a typical south Indian non-AC, non-carpet, non-doly sound system theater.   Thankfully the electric fans were very affective and we could not make out that it was a Non-ac Theater (the weather not being hot also helped).   First time I realized the reach of Hindi cinema all across India, with poster of Sharukh khan being hanged all around the theater by Fan Associations (unique to South India), one poster strangely claims Salman Khan your movie from 1988-2009 were FLOP FLOP FLOP, 2010 onwards Wanted, Dabang, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger Hits, every Dog has its day, but the real Tiger comes now.    In Theater when Shrukh makes his first appearance, young boys climbed up on the stage and threw pieces of coloured papers on the screen and there was deafening whistles for 3 to 5 minutes, the same honours were bestowed on Katrina and  Anushka.     The best part is thunderous clapping and whitening was given for Yash Chopra when he was shown along with end credit.        The frenzy is definitely not matched to the near riotous frenzy which I used to see in a NTR, MGR, RajniKanth or Chiranjeevi movies in Andhra and Tamil nadu (flower, garlands, coins thrown on the stage, aartis given to the images on the silver screen and guards and police had to be summoned to pull the crazy fans back).  But such things happening in Kerala will make even Sharukh Khan happier.   For me it was like re-visiting movie-going experience of my childhood days.   

s. prabhakar

15.11.2012

SKYFALL – WHAT A FALL TO INCREDIBLE LOWS

Waiting to see the movie with my spouse I delayed to go to this movie for almost a week and after seeing I wished why not I gave it a miss.     The long wait for about 3 years and a wait of a week after its release in India is not worth and it turned out to be a huge disappointment.    I don’t remember having seen such a boring Bond movie or any Hollywood action flick.   

Bond movies are synonymous with gravity and death defying and edge of the seat; thrill a minute action scenes and gorgeous bond girls, both of which used to serve as bench marks for others to try to copy.    For close to half a century the Bond franchise followed the time tested and most liked pattern, raising the bar with each bond movie and the die-hard bond patrons like me always asked for and looked forward for more and more – and they definitely got.    Skyfall and the new Bond has been a huge disappointment with hardly any action scene worth being in a Bond movie, no gadgets, no car chases, no menacing villain, no equally menacing side-kick to the villain, no exotic locales and above all no bond girls.     

 Last week, I saw on TV, Jakie Chan’s Armor of the God 1 and 2, both of which have urban setting and locales (not being the pony tail  martial arts teaching teacher-student Chinese kung-fu movies) and the action scenes and chase scenes were top class considering that they were released some two decades back.     On today’s count, one will be better served to go to any Surya’s Tamil movie or any Tamil movie directed by Shankar, Muragadass or Allu Arjun’s Telugu movie or any movie directed by Raja Mouli, VV Vinayak or their remakes in Hindi, and you will find fantastically mounted action scenes.    To get clarified of  any doubts one can see the 2 minutes teaser of Kamal Hassan’s most ambitious and eagerly awaited Vishwaroopam released yesterday on his birthday.     Coming to the famous Bond girls and the chemistry between Bond and them, the less said  the better and I am sure our own Emraan Hasmi, at his current form, can beat the hell out of the Bond.   

After a disappointing debut in `Casino Royale’, Creig has picked up considerably in Quantum of Solace especially in the action scenes as the one at the construction site on the crane in a high rise building.  He is considered to be a more rugged Bond who believes more in hand combat rather than falling back on high-tech gadgets.     With this perception in mind, one would expect more bone breaking stunts from him.     Quite disappointingly he gets shot in the opening scenes itself and takes long to heal till interval (a forced one in Delhi theaters) to come back to normalcy and almost till that time the villain was also not introduced.       For most part of the movie, he is acting as if he is acting in a Indian family drama and emotional pot boiler.     The story line is so confusing focusing more on M and trying to show as if she is making more sacrifices in putting Bonds into life-threatening situations than the Bonds themselves, and like an Indian politician clinging to her seat even when he is forced to go on voluntary retirement and quite unpredictably for a Hollywood, in a typical Indian filmy style dies in the end trying to walk away with a sympathies.    So like the old Gadget-guru who was retired few movies back, the M character has also thankfully come to an end – we have seen lot of her.      No strong justification is given why a one-time secret service agent has turned villain and what he wants to achieve.    As again the lavishly mounted climax scenes of any bond movie, the climax was set up in a small fort-like old ancestral house of the bond and what our super-hero like bond was doing was simply take leaf out of Home-alone (that too being a poor take-off) – what a let down?

As far as Indian audience are concerned, like any bollywood movie of Salman Khan, the reviewers have gone gaga about the new bond and jostled with each other in giving 4 and 4 plus ratings and the production house also adopted the same trick of bombarding the market with huge number of prints and many of which are dubbed versions in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.   The only thing to rejoice about this Bond flick is that on eve of release of this movie, Movie Now is showing Bond-movie a day for the last 10 days and it appears they will show most of the 23 movies and that is a huge treat.    Incidentally day before I saw Roger Moore’s A View to a Kill and thoroughly enjoyed the movie specially action scenes in icy mountains, the polished villain and menacing black lady as his side kick.   

Crieg is signed up for a total 5 movies, which means 2 more Bond movies are going to come with him playing the Bond, one only hopes he becomes more action-oriented than emotional-oriented.    Till then we have to fall back on Mission Impossible, Transporter, Fast and Fury or even settle for Ombak (Tony Jha – the Thai martial arts star) franchises.

The review is a week late and most of you might have seen this movie like me – if not avoid it or go if you have some sleep-disorder.

S. Prabhakar

8^th Nov., 2012