MY FAVOURITE FIVE


 BEN-HUR – English
(William Wyler)

Ben Hur the 1959 epic masterpiece historical drama was set in ancient Rome stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite Jew who takes on the Roman Empire during the time of Christ.   

With largest sets ever built for a movie, the film was the most expensive ever made at that time. The movies contains the most famous and breathe taking action sequence of all times, the nine minutes chariot race which could not ever be recreated and has no match even in this digital age.       Apart from this the forts under construction, the battle ships, their rowing and ultimately destruction all were picturised in a grand manner.   

It won a record breaking 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, art direction, special effects, which record it held upto 38 years when it was equaled by Titanic in 1997.    Even after six decades, one could enjoy this movie and awe struck by the magnitude and grandeur of the movie

MUGHAL-E-AZAM – Hindi
(K. Asif)

Mughal-e-Azam, the all the time super hit epic, directed by K. Asif, which was in the making for decades and ran into huge financial crisis while under production, was ultimately released 1960.   It featured Prithviraj Kapoor as Akbar, Dilip Kumar as Salim and Madhubala as Anarkali,  all of whom put up their best act together to make it memorable and all time great Hindi/Indian movie.     The confrontation scenes and dialogues between Prithviraj and Dilip Kumar were a treat to watch and cassettes and CD of the dialogues are still in great demand.   The story revolves around the love of Salim for Anarkali, which is disapproved by Akbar leading to the war of words and actual war.      No effort was spared in making this masterpiece and despite mounting budget, to such an extent that the sets built for the famous song sequence ‘Pyaar kiya to darna kya’ has costed as much as making a movie at that time.    

But the labour of love has not disappointed the producer and director, as the movie broke all records and was the highest grosser for many years to come and ranks in top 10 Hindi/Indian movies of any person.  

  

DAANA VEERA SOORA KARNA – Telugu

(N.T. Rama Rao)

DVS Karna, the 1977 Telugu mythological movie was produced, directed and acted by the legendary Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR).    Taking few episodes from Mahabharat, this story of DVS karna was woven which was an experimental effort of NTR to depict the character of Durvodhan in a non-negative manner.       It was first and probably the only movie in which Duryodhan was shown as intelligent, logical, shrewd, good strategist, administrator and Ruler.     In the confrontations with Krishna, he logically explains why he doesn’t want to give any land to Pandavas and justifies all his acts and deeds.   Many felt that the movie should have been named after Duryodhan rather than Karna.    

NTR, the multi talented legendary star of Telugu film industry, who mastered in essaying mythological characters, has made a great experiment and took great risk of essaying three different mythological roles of Krishn, Karn and Duryovhan in this movie and it is a tribute to his talent that he has pulled off brilliant performance specially in the role of Durvodhan.    The Dialogue penned by Kodaveeti Venkatakavi have been delivered by NTR in his typical `pure chaste Telugu (gradhikam) style which floored one and all and till date remain as bench mark.    For the first time dialogues of a Telugu movie were released in audio cassettes and till date they are in great demand.   Besides the three roles he produced and directed the movie as well.    

With a running time of 4 hours and 17 minutes it is the longest Indian movie and out of this NTR is there for 4 hours length of the movie which too is a world record and to hold the interest and attention of audience for such long time is no less an achievement

Though made at a shoe string budget of Rs. 10 lakhs in record 43 days to beat Krishna who making Kurukhestra with almost similar theme, it was a massive commercial hit collecting Rs, 2 cores.   It remains a jewel in the crowded crown of NTR.

SHOLAY – Hindi

(Ramesh Sippy)

Sholay – the 1975 all time record breaking blockbuster was produced by GP Sippy and Directed by his son Ramesh Sippy.   The  simple story of retired police officer hiring two petty thieves to catch the dreaded dacoit Gabbar Singh has heavily barrowed from many western movies and Hindi movie `Mera Gaon Mera Desh’.      But the biggest congregation of stars, well defined roles to each and every character, best performances put in by all actors, whatever may be the length of their characters, highest production values, never seen technical fineness, elaborately mounted action scenes with the help of Hollywood technicians, great music by RD Burman all worked in making it as biggest blockbuster of all times.     

It was the first Indiann film presented in 70 mm and six track stereophonic soundtracks.    The Hollywood technicians engaged did a great job in mounting action scenes in a grand scale specially the train chase scene which could not be re-created till date even by movie with bigger budgets.    

Though there were so many stories of various alternative stars considered for various characters including Danny for Gabbar Singh, the stars ultimately selected suited the roles to the T, specially Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh.

Sholay broke all records with Golden Jubilees in 60 centers, Silver Jubilee in 100 centers and an unbelievable 5 years run in a Mumbai Theater.   By many counts, Sholay still remains as the most successful movie of all times in India

ENTER THE DRAGON – English

(Robert Clouse)

Enter the Dragon, 1973, Bruce Lee starrer directed by Robert Clouse, is Hong Kong martial arts action film produced by Hollywood’s Warner Brothers in association with Golden Harvest (which later made many martial art movies with Jakie Chan)

Enter the Dragon is probably the first Hollywood movie, which is purely based on martial arts, which catapulted Bruce Lee to a cult figure, but alas he died a week before the release of the movie and could not live to see what a blazing trial he left behind.  

   

The never-before-seen elaborately mounted action scenes using slow motion and Chinese martial arts and the immortalization by legendary Brucee Lee have been lapped up by audience all over the world and not only Enter the Dragon was a huge success all over the world but also made the way to hundreds of Chinese/Hong kong/Hollywood martial arts movies to follow even till date.     Jakie Chan, who was one of the stuntmen who worked in this movie, went on to become another cult figure after Burce Lee in martial arts action movies

A movie which tops the list of action movies of any person, is still popular with Seattleite channels, which show this movie very often.

Those that almost made

• Gone with the Wind – Victor Fleming
• Guns of Navarone – J. Lee Thomson, Alexander Mackndrick
• Gundamma katha – Telugu – Kamalakara Kameswara Rao
• Pushpak – Silent movie – Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
• Mera Naam Jokar – Raj kapoor

S. PRABHAKAR

JAKIE CHAN - 
THE MARVELOUS MARTIAL ARTS STAR  AND AN INCREDIBLE ENTERTAINER

Today I saw the latest Jackie Chan action flick `CZ12’  which is a released after a long gap from his earlier movie.  It was widely reported and publicized as the last major action movie of Jackie Chan as he has decided to hang his boots and take care of body, which has been subject to torturous stunts for a very long time.   The type of action scenes he conceives and executes on his own without using doubles, with such agility even at the age of 58 years is absolutely amazing.     Undoubtedly though at this ripe age for action movies, he has slowed down compared to the high standards he set which we all are used, but still he is far better than any our bollywood/tollywood/kollywood action stars almost half of his age.     Thankfully he has not lost even a bit of his comic touch and timing and keep creating funny situations even in action scenes which is unique to Jackie Chan only. 

CZ12 which was tipped as Armour of God Part III is not a patch on Armour of God I or II.    Both the earlier versions specially Armour of God II (Operation Condor) was a roller coaster ride with lavishly mounted and death defying stunts and chasing scenes with rip roaring comedy (including the climax scenes) sprinkled in.    There were hardly any significant action scenes except the opening action sequence using a unique skates.    All of a sudden post interval he realized that the movie doesn’t have enough action scenes and from there it picks up and the last 40 minutes has some interesting Jackie Chan trade mark stuns.    Age definitely is showing on his face and moments and good that he took a decision to bow out from out and out action movies.  

Jackie Chan started his career as a child artist at the age of 8 years and in the initial part of his life he worked as a stunt-man in many listless Chinese kungfu movies.   He had `you-blink-you-miss’ half a minute role in Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.    It is because of a posting with caption `Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan stunt scene’ in the youtube that one could make out that one of the 50 odd guys who jump on Bruce Lee and get thrashed in the villain’s den in the Enter the Dragon was Jackie Chan.     The untimely death of Bruce Lee has thrown the arena wide open to countless number of Bruce Lee clown with martial arts movies getting released in dozens in late 1970s and 1980s.   But most of the martial art stars could not last beyond few movies.   

Around the same time Jackie Chan too was peeking with Chinese/Hong kong action movies which were poor in their production values but high on skillfully mounted stunts.    I took notice of Jackie Chan, out of many action stars of 1980s, for the first time in very popular movie `Young Master’ which was a run away hit in India, followed by Rumble in the Bronx.    Then came the very successful franchise of Police Story series (under which 5 movies were made) and by that time Jackie Chan has established himself as undisputed action star in Asian countries and I became a die hard fan of Jackie Chan.   

What made Jackie Chan to extend his career without getting saturated is the uniqueness of staging of the very long drawn action scenes, almost using everything around, (chairs, tables, sofas, fridge, carpets, dishes in the kitchen – and the list goes on)  as a weapon and the unbelievable flexibility, agility – jumping, dropping, rolling, sliding from unconceivable heights.   Another secret of his longevity is his impeachable comic timing and his ability to create humour while executing toughest stunts which helped him to develop a huge base of children as his fans.     Jackie Chan was smart enough to realize that children form a big fan base, he consciously ensured that his movie, though out and out action movies, will not have blood spitting gory scenes or sex.  

Having been stuntman himself in his early days, he and his stunt team (with which he worked for over 25 years) created some of the most interesting and elaborate stunt scenes, which could not be matched even by Hollywood movies which are made at much bigger project cost,  and his doing all his stunts himself has lent lot of credibility.     The high voltage stunts of Youngmaster, Police Story 1 and 2, Dragon Forever, Armor of God 1 and 2, Who am I, Project-A stand out.   


Having established himself as undisputed action-king, he set his eyes in Hollywood.    Though he could not succeed much in his earlier attempts, he stormed Hollywood by pairing with Chris Tucker in Rush Hour followed by Rush House-2 and 3 all of which were huge hits.      This established him as the most popular and highest paid Asian star.    He also featured in Shangai series with moderate success.   After dabbling with Hollywood movies for some time, he fell back upon his roots and started concentrating on his HongKong based movies.     Right from Star Movie to Movie Now, HBO, WB, Sony Pix you name any English movie channel  they all started with a series of action movie and more than 80% of them were Jackie Chan, which is a true reflection of his universal popularity 

Besides me, everyone in my family, specially my second daughter,  are die-hard fans of Jackie Chan, and we never miss an opportunity to see a Jackie Chan on TV/theater any number of times.   I might have seen his movies like Project-A, Police Story, Armour of God, Medallion, Rush Hour, Who Am I, atleast 20 to 25 times without suffering `diminishing marginal utility’.      He, like Kamal Hassan, are my very long standing favourites and I hardly find them putting a foot wrong and always look forward for their movies and never missed any of their movies.  

Though Jackie Chan has decided to go slow on his stunts, we can still expect him to entertain us he has more to offer than his stunts being a producer, director, screenplay writer, action choreographer and singer.   Thanks Jackie Chan for entertaining millions fans like us for such long time, I will always enjoy repeat viewing of all your stunning action movies.  

S. Prabhakar

5.1.2013

DABANGG - 2 - banking too much on formula

I took my daughter Pallavi to Dabang-2, the sequel to Dabang, (though she doesn’t like Salman Khan) as welcome party to Delhi for a month break.  

I too did not expect much from Dabang-2, except a time pass mass masala movie, but it failed to be the same too.     May be because of change of Director to Arbaaz Khan, it lost its sharp and sleekness as the first in the franchise, though to be reasonable to AK, he didn’t do all that bad job.

All the characters of Chulbul pandey’s family have been carried forward, united and close-knit this time (Dimple Kapaida photo hanging on the wall).   The stage was shifted to Kanpur and the hunch man changing to the vastly (but hugely wasted) talent Prakash Raj.      First of all the menace of crime has not been properly built up except one kidnap incident to enable Chulbul pandey to make a typical grand entry which is no different from any of his movies from Wanted.  

Dabang-2 suffers hugely due to lack of storyline, it has too many action-scenes and songs (with as many as 3 item numbers) in the small 2:10 hours movies.   The saving grace being the light hearted comedy specially by the sidekicks of Chulbul pandey  viz., chobeji, sharmaji and importantly the Commissioner – the guy who acts in Yatra.com advt with Salmaan and Vinod Khanna (probably for the first time in his career).   

Salmaan, looks-wise looks smashing, slim, trim and not looking like uncle of Sonakshi who must be more than 20 years younger to him (like the way Sharukh was looking in JBHJ) and conveniently banked heavily on the Dabang brand and the purple patch which he is enjoying for the last 3-4 years.      But alas, the same cannot be said about his mobility, which is looking crippled for quite some time.    Whether it is lavishly mounted action-scenes or gyrating with item-numbers the maximum movement is restricted                    max to a radius of 3-4 feet – that shows that our heros just stand and pump in muscles rather than doing cross-country to improve mobility.    In dialogue delivery he fell back on his time tested Big Boss/Dus ka dum style.      But one need to give it to him that he still commands huge fan base with all the theaters (some good 300 plus shows per day in Delhi) completely sold out.      Sonakshi, who resemble Hema Malini in many angles, need to be appreciated for looking sober and graceful in saris and long hand blouses, in these days where heroins are giving vamps a run for their money in their dress sense or otherwise.

Prakash Raj, for whom I went to see the movie to monitor his progress in Hindi movies, has been a disappointment, not because of lack of efforts from his side, but because his character has not been properly developed and given the power punch dialogues, like in Singham, in which he excels.     Moreover I could not really make out whether he dubbed himself (which he normally does in all languages including in Hindi) or changed his modeling to suit a UP based character (though no specific dialect was used) which taken sheen of his dialogue delivery.     He just sleep walked through the character, such role having been done by him hundreds of times in Telugu and Tamil movies.     I wish he chooses his roles carefully in Hindi (though you cannot blame him for not resisting the temptation of working in Salmaan’s home production).    Having seen hundreds of his Telugu movies where he assayed wide variety of roles, I have no doubt in my mind that he has all the potential to become the next big thing in essaying villan and charcter actor roles and steps into the large shoes of Pran and Amrish Puri.     

The cable supported action-scenes are becoming very stereo-typed and getting on nerves.  For me who has seen all the top Telugu/Tamil stars doing it for the last 8 years or so which later on imported in the Hindi movies from `Wanted’ onwards  and religiously followed by all stars (who all of a sudden want to become action-stars).   The good news is that off-late the action-scenes of some of the second rung  stars of Telugu/Tamil movies are showing some change and hope it will prevail.    We have enough of stunt man flying all over, breaking all and sundry and their bones in the bargain (and our mecho hero just waving his hand) and their bouncing back when banged on floor like a spring ball.   

The strange phenomena I observed in Delhi was that whereas the Hindi producers are jostling with each other to remake top South Indian block-buster, the viewers too are going the South Indian audience way, with deafening clapping and whistling right through the movie, the opening shots of Salmaan, items numbers and for all songs.     

You will not miss anything if you give a `miss’ to Dabang-2, but if you cannot resist the temptation to go to a masala-sprinkled movie go and get head-ache the way I got.  

S. Prabhakar

23.12.2012

It has been a long wait for Talash, with even the finish product being put in canes for more than six months for Satyameva Jayeta to complete its first round.     I also delayed the review by a week so that I do not disclose the non-existing suspense.  

With Aamir Khan’s movie not hitting the theaters for quite a while this wait created a positive vibe which might have helped  in initial collection but the over the top expectations it created has lead to a bit of disappoint after seeing the final product.    In any such movie based on crime investigation, one expects the central character (Aamir Khan in this movie) to have razor sharp mind and brilliant investigation instincts and the script to be absolutely water tight.   But unfortunately none of these are present in this insipid Talaash.    It will be an insult to compare this movie with the likes of Sherlock Homes and Agatha Christine but it could not even measure up to our own desi version investigator like  Byomkesh Bakshi, or KD pathak in Adaalat.

There is hardly any thing to speak about the story.    When a built up is given that why accidents are taking place at one spot and that is what is the central investigating point, I expected some modern and unique way of triggering the event and more exiting revelation through findings by the hero, but just to fall back on bhoot/rooh/atma being the reason for the accident and ultimately that the bhoot itself has to descend to help our lousy sleep walking inspector is as old a formula as the Indian Cinema is.  

Even for the sake of experiment, it is hard to imagine why Aamir khan accepted this role, there is lot of footage eaten away to express his guilty feeling on his son’s death.   He could have seen face off how Nicalous cage express his guilty on shooting down John Trovalta son by accident which forms the central theme of the movie.    As far as acting is concerned it is a forgettable performance by Aamir (may be some marks could be given to accept such unconventional role), Rani did a very good job in a tiny role she got, Kareena did a competent job specially in looking bitchy.  

Anyone who has been lucky to have not seen the movie till now, my advice is to see any of the episodes (or all the episodes) of  Byomkesh Bakshi in youtube for its brilliant story and screen play and fantastic performance by Rajit Kapoor, who portrayed a very simple but intellectually stimulating role (though I saw these episodes more than decade back I still vividly remember how interesting they used to be) or follow Aadalat, though Ronit Roy goes over the top many time, the script and unfolding of investigation and its presentation in the court is very interesting.    Even the episode televised yesterday and today about murder taking place in a hospital and a patient in an immobile state being accused with so many twists and turns made an interesting viewing.      By the way the next week episode on Saturday and Sunday will be on black magic and you better watch out that episodes rather than Talaash with high expectations.  

Amongst so many disappointing movies released over the last 2 months of high profile heros, I watched a very interesting movie while travelling between Bangalore and Delhi in Air India’s newly acquired Dreamliner the 2008 release `The Body of Lies’.  I found the movie to be so griping and interesting – I will review separately – don’t miss to see the movie.

S. Prabhakar

9.12.12   

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

PREVIEW OF `MAKHI'

(P)REVIEW OF MAKHI (EEGA)

The much awaited Hindi dubbed version of Raja Mauli’s Telugu movie Eega (which was simultaneously released in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam about 4 months back) is releasing next week as `Makhi’.   

Lot of movies were made where actual or animated version of animals/birds/reptiles  (like elephant, cow, goat, Dog, Pig. rat, rabbit, snake, falcon  etc.) as the central character, but to imagine that someone could conceive and make a full length movie on an Eeega/Makhi (a House fly) is hard to believe.    But the highly talented and bold director Raja Mauli (backed by Suresh naidu – son of legendary and Guinness record holder for highest number of films produced Rama Naudi)  not only thought and took a bold step and pulled a fantastic and thoroughly entertaining movie which has all the ingredients of a commercial pot boiler viz., romance, rebirth/reincarnation, sentiments, emotions, actions/chases  and lastly but most importantly `revenge’ all centered around Makhi.    Being simple and down-to-earth, Raja Mouli in one of his recently interviews reveled that he got the idea of the movie while thinking of the irritation/inconvenience he used to face in his childhood on daily basis in the hands of Makhis while going out on to the fields/open areas in the morning to attend natural call.     As the saying goes `great ideas come on the shit pot only'.

Makhi has a very simple love story of an ordinary and non-flamboyant hero (cutely played by Nani) falling in love with heroine (Samantha), enter the villain (Sudeep) and without wasting much of footage the villain kills the hero for coming between him and the heroin and no one knows about it.   In a typical filmy fashion the hero incarnates to take revenge but here is the twist in the story - he reincarnates not as a human being but as a `Makhi’ .   From here starts the creativity of Raja Mauli.      The reincarnated Makhi makes a grand entry like a typical south india star (ala Rajni kant or Chiranjeevi), with a ground level Camera angle and huge sound effect.   From there the roller coaster starts.   He incorporated all important ingredients of humor (by the Makhi irritating first and then terrorizing  the villain), romance between Heroine and the Makhi, actions/stunts with Makhi involving in a highway bond-type car chases, dances (taking off dance moment of Jr. NTR Allu Arjun etc. – I don’t know in the Hindi version take off from which popular Hindi movies will be used) sentiments and emotions when Makhi get caught and ultimately make supreme sacrifice of its life (like an Amitabh in Sholay) but not before killing the villain.

Apart from the concept and direction of Raja Mauli, the special effects team  (Makuta Fx) is the real hero of this movie.   Make an out and out Animation movie may not be that difficult but to have real life characters and animated characters simultaneously is a big challenge.    First they made a very cute Makhi character so nicely and colourfully which helped in showing various shades of emotions with crystal clarity.    

Coming to acting department, Sudeep (Kannada actor, who also plays very good cricket in Celebrity Cricket League) did a fantastic job, whether it is cruelty or humour on being traumatized by the Makhi, his body language and acting was superb and his expression have enhanced and magnified the role and character of Makhi and helped in Makhi becoming the hero of the movie.    Again credit should go to Raja Mouli to conceive this idea of highlighting the character of a Makhi (with all the limitations) through the reactions of the villain.   Considering that at the time of shooting there is no Makhi character around (which has been put by animation experts later on ) and Sudeep has to imagine that the Makhi character is around and emote, his acting is  really praise worthy.    Right from the first encounter of Sudeep and Makhi when he locks himself in a steam box to road accident to the climax his acting was of highest order.   Samanta is gorgeous and her encounter with the hero first and Makhi later are pleasure to watch and Nani is very cute in his short and sweet role.     It has a very pleasing music scored by Keeravani (a top Telugu music director who scored music for `Criminal’ and many other Mahesh Bhatt hindi movies) Senthil Kumar should bag few awards for his excellent cinamatography

Coming back to Raja mouli, after a string of big budget and mega successful movies with all the leading and top Telugu heros (including the original of Rowdy Rathore), and the then highest Telugu recording breaking grosser MAGADHEERA, everyone might have thought that he will come up with another big budget movie with another leading hero (every top Telugu star queue up to be casted by him), he did make a big budget `Makhi’ (reported to be at a cost of Rs. 30 crores – more than 80% going into the special effects), but not with any big stars but with animated character of Makhi.   It  really requires great amount of courage and conviction.    One should also give big pat to the producer Suresh Naidu to pump in such huge amounts in such risky venture.    The entire Telugu film industry has rallied around Raja Mouli by participating in film promotional programmes and the South Indian audiences have not disappointed them with movie becoming a huge hit in all the 3 languages and raking big mullah for the producers.     In Hindi version Raja Mouli has already roped in Ajay Devgan and Kajol (also making the Makhi do  the Ajay Devgan stunt of standing on two horses from his yet to be released Son of Sardar).  

Like Rajnikant’s Rabot, this will be liked immensely by not only the kids but by all age-groups.   So go with your children and revisit your childhood.   You will be surprised to see such a neat, clean family entertainer after a very long time.   I can put this experimental movie in the same league as Pushpaka Vimanam/Pushpak (a full length movie without dialogues), Appu Raja (for its special effects and very special acting by Kamal Hassan as ordinary hero and a dwarf), Chachi 420 (kamal Hassain doing a full length female role), Dasavataram (Kamal essaying 10 diagonally different characters including a Chinese  American and a grand old lady) and the recently released Rabot (for its huge special effects)   

S. Prabhakar

7^th October, 2012