Inshallah Kashmir - Why this needed was to be banned and why you need to see this…

Banned in India by the ever faithful Big Brother of a censor board, the director took the unprecedented step of releasing this online (apparently there is no law against releasing something online…yet). Ashvin actually opened it up for download for one day – on 26th January, the Republic Day. That’s quite a symbolic gesture!!

And once you see this you know why…

Which is why you need to see it

It has been the practice of all governments to try and dictate what we must see and hear and there us always an effort by all governments to make the public buy into their version of current and historical events.

And there has been an increasing virulence of intolerance by self-appointed patriots whose sense of injustice bleed too easily. Look at what happened to Symbiosis university’s Kashmir seminar “Voices of Kashmir”, which was cancelled due to the ‘fatwa’ by the right wing fringe.

And Kashmir is one topic which will always invoke strong reactions. And this is one topic which will always see an effort to give the ‘official’ version of the story

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The flag waving popcorn slayer…

I have been meaning to write on this subject for some time now, ever since I left Bombay…

The subject is of the practice of having the national anthem played before the start of a movie…

Of course, mob mentality and pre-consciousness societal teaching being what it is, we all stand up and sing along with our gazes upturned to a digital flag waving a few feet from our faces…

We feel patriotic and dutiful and yes comfortably conventional…even if we sit down to watch ‘Striptease’ after that…

So what is it that gets my goat?

Is it the faux patriotism? or is it the truism of the Churchill statement that patriotism is the last refuge of the fool? A bit of both, i admit…I sat resolutely at the last movie I saw, to the staring eyes from those around me…but here are the reasons why I had had enough…

Its a godamn trap…I felt like i was a part of the novel 1984, where you are watched and you have to show patriotism and obedience or else! You are boxed in and everyone stands up because, well, your mom taught you to…I don't like being forced into situations which demand a certain behaviour from me without asking my choice…If I don't have a choice, I would rather be a stubborn child than a lawful coward

What is the whole freaking point anyway? To make fine upstanding gentry of us (or the unknown citizen, as Auden would have put it)? To ensure that we don't become terrorists? To trust the government and believe them to be the good guys because they put the flag on the screen? so that we don't forget the words of the anthem?

I may not go literally with Lennons utopian – imagine there's no country. But I believe in the essence…we draw borders and imagine the enclosure to be home…in essence, we are just glorified mobile wielding primitives dancing to the chieftains tune, which is the national anthem…(plus I am a little comfortable with the fact that the anthem was written in all probability as a commemoration for the King of England, but that is besides the point)

So, no, I don't believe in patriotism. I know this is something very controversial that I am putting out, but I believe that it is an over-rated concept. Its an opportunistic feeling that we cultivate – to be brought out when its convenient and bottled up when personal needs are paramount. Bring it out during times of collective danger like Kargil war and bottle up when the neighbouring state needs water…

Put Satyendra Dubey and Manjunath’s photo there (remember them?) and appeal to us not to forget them – that would be patriotic, something tangible, something actionable. Flag waving is easy when you can sit down to popcorn after a few minutes…

Anyway, the whole point of the above rant is that its a damn silly concept and its time the people who defied the Sena to watch an atrociously bad movie give a thumbs down to this tyranny as well, a tyranny, which when compared to the Sena is much more subtle and hence much more dangerous…

del.icio.us Tags: patriotism,india,national anthem,mumbai,bombay,movies,rant,political,social

Public Enemies – an instant review

A movie that had so much potential, so much scope for not only exploring an era and the wildly interesting characters that inhabited it but also for making a fast paced action movie. And it had the people to do it – Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, America’s most wanted, Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the man who pursued Dillinger. Their pairing could and should have been explosive. Sadly, nothing worked – on occasions, there were only the hint of what could have been…

Dillinger was a fascinating character. The movie failed to bring it out though there were faint echoes at times. He was a charmer, a guy who did his work with style and was one of the last romantic gangsters…the movie failed to bring it out. Even his almost fairy tale romance with Billie fails to bring any energy to the screen. His growing desperation and death also seemed devoid of sentiments that the audience could have felt. His relationship with his comrades never really came off the screen. So much so, I had difficulty in recognizing at times who his men were!!! but inspite of all that, Depp rises above the loose storyline at times by the sheer power of his acting depth. Not enough to salvage the movie, however

Christian Bale is wasted. Now there are two movies in a row that I watched where this hugely talented actor as been under-utilized (the other being terminator). Here, his combat with Dillinger could have been more intense. Here you have two highly intelligent, resourceful men on opposite side of the law – perfect recipe for a mammoth showdown. It ended in a whimper, however. We don't get to know anything about the agent as a man. Remember, this was the time that FBI got formed and it was mainly due to this conflict between Dillinger and Purvis. We don't see much evidence of birth out of conflict, neither in the story, nor in the character of Purvis

All, in all, it was a movie that held so much promise and of which it gave slight glimmers at times but it ended with being just a linear cat-mouse chase story without any flesh being put on the characters. We don't get to know them. This was a movie about characters who were in  grey. The ‘bad’ guys were simply a product of their times. So were the ‘good’ guys. That borderline treatment never really came out. The characters on the screen remained strangers to us.

Watching it made me compare this movie to the ‘The Untouchables’. And that made this movie come out even poorly…

So much promise, so little delivered

del.icio.us Tags: Gangster,America,depression,movie review,johnny depp,christian Bale

A few lines that are haunting me

Stay by my side as my light grows dim /

    as my blood slows down and my nerves shatter with stabbing pain /

    as my heart grows weak /

    and the wheels of my being turn slowly /

Stay by my side as my fragile body is racked by pain /

    which verges on truth /

    and manic time continues scattering dust /

    and furious life bursts out in flames.

Stay by my side /

    as I fade /

    so you can point to the end of my struggle /

    and the twilight of eternal days /

    at the low, dark edge of life.

 

These lines are from the movie – Devils’ Backbone, that I saw a few days back and these lines occur at near end of a shattering climax…These lines are something I cant get out of my head..the lines are beautiful in their poignancy…

Technorati Tags: Devil's backbone,Poem,Dr Casares,Spanish civil war

The case for alternative movie theatres…

As the standoff between Bollywood and multiplex cinema owners continue, and as we are relegated to having no choice at all in way of viewing new movies, a pertinent question to be asked is – isn't there a third way out, one that will not only give us more choice but choices that are different and in most cases much more enriching?

I am putting forward the idea that there should be an alternative movie theatre that will not showcase the usual movie fare that can be watched everywhere (and all cinema halls have begun to look the same anyway). While Bollywood and select Hollywood movies get good exposure due to default (they are always considered to be crowd pullers), the independent movies (both Indian and foreign) are left with a select audience and never get the popularity they deserve (In India that is). And why only independent movies (or Indi movies as they are popularly known), the best of world cinemas are available only at certain film festivals (and there also, many show old classics – we know Kurosawa was good, we don't need to be reminded) and not otherwise.

Why isn't there a chain of theatres showing these movies? True, there will be a select audience at first but once awareness grows and with proper nurturing, I do not foresee that more people wont throng to these halls (Little Miss Sunshine is an Indi movie – but with the marketing effort, it has a cult following in India). And keep the basics intact and take away the frills. We don't want popcorn served at the seats. If necessary people can bring food from outside. Appeal to their good senses to keep the premises clean. Its a wonder how many times that works, when communicated well. Delhi Metro is a case in point. Bring down the cost of the movie going experience. Give them the margin to experiment. People like value for money.

I am sure that like me, many people are sick of the daylight robbery that the PVRs and the INOXs commit in the name of providing entertainment. This model can provide good cinema at the rates possible to see more than one movie in a day. This model works in western countries (an example) and there is no reason it wont work here.

The popular wisdom is that people don't like serious (which just means non-Bollywood style) cinema. As with so many popular understandings, this too is wrong. Any film festival is a testimony to that. The enthusiasm is there among people who want something different than the usual fare. It needs to be captured and channelled and word of mouth will take care of the rest. That's how the best models grow. The discontent with being ransomed with poor quality stuff is untapped but high.

And when you showcase the gems from the world around (and its incredible the amount of good cinema being made around the world, in countries you wont even give a second thought to), people would start giving second thoughts to watching hollow, poorly scripted escapades for 180/-. And they will also realize that the movie is the experience, not the popcorn.

As for me, for now, I would just pick up my laptop and watch from the collection I have on my hard drive…Someday I hope watch it on the big screen.

Technorati Tags: PVR,Movies,Cinema,alternative cinema,india,multiplex,indi movies,foreign movies

Rags to Riches strategy – sell your Oscar child

After  the storm – the debris…

Slumdog Millionaire was one such storm to hit the Indian storm…we will be picking its debris for some time to come…

An example of this is the sordid drama being played out with Child star Rubina’s father allegedly trying to sell her off…

Denials and counter-denials are going to be thrown back and forth for some time to come till the media attention drifts…but one thing is for sure…there does appear to be more than a kernel of truth in the sting operation by the ‘News of the World’…Rubina’s father taking her daughter to a sheikh and discussing her ‘future’ smacks of something rotten, especially with previous cases involving sheikhs in the country…

So, for a moment let us consider that Rubina’s father did try to sell her off…then, let us try to look at the situation…

That Rafiq Qureshi (Rubina’s father) should be condemned and should be prosecuted is beyond doubt. Selling your children off is an act that is heinous beyond words…

But then, it is easy to condemn a man like him from where we sit…its easy being armchair judges…let us try and put ourselves in his shoes for just sometime and try to think like him before condemning him as the devil…

It is human nature to extract the maximum benefit from an advantageous situation. There is nothing immoral per se from such an attitude…its a fact of how we have evolved…we are capitalists by nature, not socialists…

Look at the one other star from the stable of the successful film – Frieda Pinto. Almost overnight she has been transported from a struggling also-ran to becoming the face of many a brand to even getting a chance to work in a Woody Allen movie. She does not let go of any chance to promote herself, her abilities and her new found connections and nor does the media tire of telling us her changed glamorous lifestyle – even telling us which shoes she now prefers…

Why the difference, we may ask. Boyle and co might be opening up funds to take care of Rubina and her future but nothing has happened as of yet and it may not. Remember ‘Salaam Bombay’, ‘Little Buddha’? There too, promises were made and broken…there are no happy precedences.

Pinto and Rubina. The same film…possibly the same amount of effort (when comparing a child and a trained actor) and the after the flashlights, the future seems absolutely different. One has been put in the stratosphere and the other one given sympathetic glances and told to get on with her life…

Too bad, we may say…life isnt fair, In any  case, Rubina got more than her ‘peers’ will ever get…she should be happy with it. Which is exactly the point…who decides?

Rafiq is smart – in a devious way or otherwise. He does not want to depend on transient sympathy and dubious promises. He just wants to make hay while the spotlight still shines. He knows very well that Rubina’s face will not be chose as the selling point of any brand. He also knows that she does not have a career in films except for some sympathy roles for some time. He cannot be faulted for thinking like that; in fact the way this world works, he has full justification for reasoning like that. Where the problem arises is in the manner he wants to make the hay.

In any case, he will not be the first parent (and not the last for sure)to want to make money out of their child’s success. Some flog their children to death with work and some just siphon off the money. Rafiq just went one step further. He crossed the line so to say.

The fault lies more with the way we and the media treats people caught in the spotlight. As long as they satisfy our needs – glamour, sympathy, success, we raise them on a pedestal and adulate them. The minute something else catches our attention, we simply run off leaving the old heroes cold and feeling abandoned. And this kind of behaviour is increasing in frequency with our nano-second attention span.

It would lead to a host of psychological problems not only for the one directly in the spotlight (especially for someone like Rubina who would feel totally out of depth in this new world that she has been thrust in) but also those on the edges of the light’s arcs. Its not something that people who have not been in that situation can grasp easily.

Which is why it is easy to simplify and condemn.

So condemn Rafiq’s act by all means. He deserves all of it and more. But let us also try to see the other forces at play that are not so easily obvious and then perhaps the inhuman act will start to make some sense.

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Technorati Tags: Slumdog Millionanaire,oscar child,scandal,critique,social,opinion,India

The Nationalism of the Movie screen..

A couple of days back, I went to see a movie at E-square. The minute I entered the hall, I saw people rushing to get up and stand up. That's when I saw it - the Indian Tricolour emblazoned on the movie screen and the national anthem playing on the Dolby surround sound.

Made me feel quite dizzy. It made me feel as if I was in an Orwellian world suddenly.

Now what do I have against this show of nationalism, you might ask.

Well. First of all, its phony nationalism. Even if I dont completely agree with the notion that nationalism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, this sort of in-your-face show of patriotism makes a mockery of the feelings of the true believer/patriot. Just playing an anthem and showing a flag on the screen is supposed to do what? Make me donate to the prime minister's relief fund?

Secondly, why the movie theatre? When I come to a movie theatre, I have a movie in my mind no matter how patriotic I felt in the morning. Imagine a scenario of us lining up and saluting the flag and then settling down to salivate at Sharon Stone's legs. It can get completely incongruous to the point of ludicrous. Maybe they choose the movie theatre because the people have no choice but to look at the screen. If so, its the nationalist's crassest way of getting attention.

Thirdly, its makes a complete mockery of the feelings of nationalism that people have. If you believe in the principles of nationalism and patriotism, you would like to have the anthem and the flag being used sparingly, used on occasions that really give respect to the nation and its people. Since when has the occasion of the nation paying respect to fallen soldiers become the same as going out to watch a late night movie? When would we respect the symbols of the nation more?

This was a common practice some 30 years back when it was discontinued in the country when it dawned upon the powers that be that the whole exercise is having the opposite of the intended effect

So, I am completely befuddled at the whole idea and amazed at the stupidity, the vulgarity and the short-sightedness of the person (ie the political party) which could pass an order like this.

If I am feeling patriotic, I would hang a flag from my roof. If I am patriotic, I would not approve of the commercialisation of my values.

And for god's sake, let me enjoy the movie...

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Ghajini - anatomy of a success with only fluff

Its official - one of the worst movies of the year has become an all time grosser (see the article here), proving once again that more often than not, intelligent, innovative and intense marketing leads to huge profits even though the movie content and quality can be atrociously poor.

Watching Ghajini was one of the most traumatically boring experiences of my movie-going existence. It literally came to a point where you could predict the next frame. The underlying concept was of course that of the cult movie - Memento and is a fascinating one. The storyline built on that concept in the Bollywood avatar, though, was wafer thin and full of holes that a child fed on cartoons can spot; not to mention that the film dragged on for atleast 90 minutes more than it should have. The action was implausible and laughable at times. The narrative was weak and there was no thread binding the pieces of the past and present. There were unnecessary characters throughout the movie, who, in retrospect were superfluous.

The funny thing about it was that I knew all of this even before I went to see the movie. The question then is - why did I go on a cold January morning when I could have been sleeping peacefully in my quilt? The answer is this - Marketing, both of the movie and of the actor - Aamir Khan. So even though reliable sources tell you not to waste your money, you still want to go and see what all the fuss is all about.

Perversely, you also want to see how bad can it really get, considering that this was the famed "one movie a year" actor's movie and the next venture after "Taare Zameen Par", probably one of the best movies to come out of Bollywood.

So, what marketing books simply call 'personality branding' was acting itself out in real life and people flocked to see the movie all over, thus pushing up the cash register. Many people simply wanted to see the new all muscle look of Aamir with the gangster hairstyle, deuce with the story, which was turned simply into a revenge drama with lots of outlandish fight sequences.

 

The profit conscious producers got it straight on the bull eye of  course. If the hindi version had tried to replicate the memento's complex pyschological environment (which takes very close viewing to get an idea of what exactly might be transpiring) and especially the disorienting reverse chronological sequencing, the movie would have been deemed complex and would have taken the focus away from Aamir and on to the story, not something that would have made long queues.

It would have been hailed as a new bold style of film-making in Bollywood and would have become a cult classic but not much else. The movie going population love a good story but apparently not enough to make the movie a top - grosser. Otherwise, "Taare Zameen Par" or "A Wednesday" would have taken that slot.

So, in ending, the only positive that I can glean from all of this is that in times of recession, one more avenue has opened up for marketing MBAs - the movie industry; the trickle moving there can change into a torrent!!!

Since content is usually not the strongest point of an MBA education but imagery is, we would be suited for such roles. Maybe we should call them next on campus.

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Movie channels ki maut. But a Requiem for them? Nah...

I remember the time, not very long ago (a few years at the most), when my first task of the morning was to scan the newspaper supplement to check the various movie listings for the day, map the times in a mental timetable and religiously sit during the allotted time in front of the TV, with snacks in tow. Some of my memorable moments with cinema have happened this way.

But something has changed. The change seems very evident to me in the last month. This is a time when I have been at home for quite some time, thanks to my summer project being in Delhi. This is at a time when I can sit at home at leisure and watch movies on TV (the number of movie channels have gone up too in the last one year).

Except, I don't.

Maybe its the laptop effect coupled with my ever increasing movie collection. But I think that there are deeper reasons.

The main thing is time. Why would I want to take 3 hours to watch a 2 hours movie? When you have acquired the taste of watching a movie uninterrupted, why would you want a break in the narrative and needless to say, a break in the flow of the movie every 20 mins or so? I get enough ads to last me a lifetime when I watch a cricket match anyway. I don't think I need to be more informed in order to exercise an informed choice. And more and more people are getting exposed to this taste of watching movies without breaks.

And its not just me. The pace at which we are working, the pace at which we need to work, is increasing for everyone and this pace is filtering down to the teenagers as well. Between juggling an information overload from which we need to filter out meaningful knowledge and relaxing to get our mind de-stressed, why would we let ourselves be a captive tool for advertisers and have our time wasted in addition?

This is a reality that advertisers and Movie channels need to wake up to (especially the Zee movie channels who easily double the viewing time of a film - I wonder if anyone, even bored housewives, watches them anymore).

The reality is not only of laptop toting young and not so young consumers who have separate hard drives for movies (a exponentially growing tribe). DVD libraries like 70mm and DVD Express are gaining popularity with their excellent collection of movies (especially foreign movies - something that is not easily seen on regular channels). There are various models in the pipeline for the DVD rental business, but its a dynamic, constantly changing business. The only thing sure about this business is that they are going to topple the conventional movie channels in the time to come (atleast the current format)

The main turn of tide will occur because of a deeper reason. That of choice. The movie channels had a merry run because of the ever increasing hunger for entertainment and few alternative outlets. With movie halls becoming more of an outing rather than a regular feature due to the ever-rising ticket prices, they filled a vacuum recently vacated by VCRs and magnetic videos and not yet filled by DVDs. They dished it out and we took it.

Not any more.

The movie channels in their current formats would be on their way out soon. I have good memories of its early years. But now, they just eat up my time and deny variety.

Off with their heads, I say.

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