100 Writeups

Rang De Basanti

Cast – Aamir Khan, Om Puri, Atul Kulkarni, Siddharth Music – A.R.Rehman Directed By - Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra Imagine two parallel stories from different ages running side by side and merging into one universal theme – revolution. The sheer audacity to compare a bunch of yuppie rebels without a cause with extremist freedom fighters and yet managing not to make this seem blasphemous! Rang De Basanti keeps you interested through the entire runtime of 157 minutes. But what could have been a great film ends up as a great idea. Sue an English filmmaker wants to make a docu-drama about a group of Indian freedom fighters. Her auditions to find the right cast miserably flop. As she befriends a circle of mostly college boys she realizes in flashes that this group could be her cast. While all seems pleasant on the outside most of the gang have different insecurities. Karan (Siddharth) for instance does not see eye to eye with his super rich father. DJ (Aamir Khan) conveys in an emotional outburst why he still hangs out with college guys. An unexpected event in the second half turns the lives of the primary characters topsy-turvy. This incident acts as a catalyst for them to take on the corrupt system .The movie starts slipping this point onwards and sort of becomes like a Shankar film (Indian, for instance). As Karan announces over the radio why the group decided to assassinate a senior politician, and urban youngsters react in national T.V. in favour of their action, one gets that sense of dejavu. While most characters are well etched out, the ones which I could relate to most were those of Siddharth and Atul Kulkarni.The screenplay is fabulous though at times the comparison of these rebels to our freedom fighters seem absurd. The music by our very own Rehman perfectly blends into the story and background. The whistle as his name flashes in the title credits is more than what even Aamir Khan gets!We are proud of you man!The promo of Rang De… reads 'a generation awakens'. They may have might as well made it ' a generation awakens to anarchy' - as that’s how the film comes across in the tragic finale at the All India Radio. - - - - - This is the 100 th writeup in my site.I would like to thank my family,friends and everyone else who has been reading what I write and encouraging me.

Humour / Waiting for Bayam

or the short film that does not exist ?!? Last summer Sridhar (he of Rebel in a Teacup fame) declared that he was shooting his 1st film along with his pal Dinesh.He was very excited about it and the to be short film was titled Bayam (Fear). He also proudly announced to me after our journalism class that they would be sending the film for short film festivals across the world. Me wannabe a filmmaker one day (if you didn’t know that already!!!) and went on a PR campaign promoting this entity. Virtually all my friends came to know about the now absconding magnum opus as I went gaga saying we must promote independent cinema in our midst. A few months passed and the director duo (ala Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) proudly announced the completion of their movie in Sridhar’s blog. Just when I was prepared to catch a pre editing screening of the film it went into a prolonged surgery on the editing table. It was stuck in cold storage for so long that I started getting my first doubts about whether there was any footage to edit in the first place (basically I started wondering if Bayam is the yeti of world cinema!). After I started pulling Sridhar’s leg about this, the master copy became just out of reach. It was rumored (by the co-director himself) to always be in his bag whenever we met, but only after we met! That is to say Sridhar would innocently say something like,'' Even today it was in my bag''. Now Dinesh and he have apparently screened it to a bunch of his friends.I am next in the hit list of prospective viewers. Sridhar has a last chance to prove that Bayam is not a myth he conjured to impress his fiancée! Amen.

Neofeminism

I don’t like gender-based bifurcation of issues. Inequality, discrinmination, abuse or any other problem needs to looked at as human maladies which need to be addressed and not divided into men’s and women’s issues. Unfortunately neofeminism ends up being no different from what it supposedly condemns – a male dominated society where women are constantly stifled. It ends up becoming just as immature and byzantine as chauvinism and neofeminists are more than glad to indulge in silly debates and conversations , which are in no way constructive. What exactly do I mean by neofeminism? I will try and define it in the context of our milieu. It is the narrow, convenient, misinterpretation of feminism, by a small section of urban Indians. It is exclusive of a large cross-section of Indian women who are in real need of empowerment. These jokers think that raising your voice against Salaman Khan beating up plastic Aishwarya Rai is being liberal and forward thinking! Wonder how many of these jerks even heard of the Imrana case. True feminism as I see it looks at empowerment of women as a whole rather than spin up pulp sentiments of the educated elite. It is an inclusive philosophy open to debate from men and women from all walks of life who are reasonable. Feminism and its ugly sister, i.e, neofeminism are as poles apart as Medha Pathkar and Shoba De.The philosophy of neo feminism is the philosophy of ‘cool’. It is a hopeless wannabe, which is more interested in wearing an attitude (remember the Weekender adds?) than highlighting any real issues. It is an insult to anyone with a genuine concern for women’s rights and human problems as a whole.

Untold Story

Ramesh * is an upcoming sports writer working in a major cricket based website as its Assistant Editor. He is an alumnus of The School- K.F.I where I studied from class 8 to 12.He passed out the year before I joined. His is a tale of hope with a fairytale ending to add the icing on the cake. Ramesh wrote poetry when he was in high school and had wanted to do his graduation in English. His parents forced him to prepare for IIT entrance exams.He was not remotely interested in any course which this institution had to offer. He flunked the entrances and won the immense displeasure of his parents. He was thrust into doing Bsc Physics at the Loyola College. He battled his way through depression and pangs of self-doubt through his years in college. He got hooked onto drugs and managed to write a few publishable poems. Somehow he also managed to get the gold medal for Bsc Physics. Thinking this would console his parents he told his father about the prize. His father merely told him not to sound as if he was an IIT gold medallist. Ramesh was shattered. He joined a new cricket portal 22yards.com* as a reporter. He covered both regional and international matches in the Indian subcontinent. Slowly he made his way up and shifted to the Bombay office of his website. About a year back he became Assitant Editor of his organization. In a recent talk show on NDTV he was one of the panalists. The underdog had arrived and I felt mighty happy for him. I don’t know Ramesh personally .He was the longhaired, pony tailed, hippie looking, ex-student whom I used to catch a glimpse of during alumni meetings. My knowledge of his life is solely from word of mouth tales I have heard from my seniors and mainly from our English teacher in school Sumitra Akka^. But I see in his story universal hope for all of us that success may not always come in the most obvious form. I wonder if there is a single person who can claim that his or her life has been a bed of roses with no disappointments. Acceptance of life comes with the acceptance that failures and disappointments are a part of it. There is a Ramesh inside all of us and as long as we remain honest and sincere in our endeavors we shall triumph in the final analysis however distant this may seem at present. * names changed ^ in the school where I studied we call our teachers akka and anna. title inspired by the name of a tamil film,solla marande kadai

Music review / Original Soundtrack of Pudupettai

Lyrics na.muthukumar Music Composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja Recorded at Bangkok orchestra a selvaraghavan film

Trend breakers must be appreciated and the OST of Pudupettai is certainly one. It is out of the box and in tune literally with the gangster/underworld milieu the movie is set in. Yange area the rap song for instance captures the scorn of a typical lower middle class person for the upwardly mobile. Nerupu Vayinil sung by Kamalhassan in his trademark base voice is another track in which Yuvan Shankar Raja has done justice in creating music capturing the violent theme of the film.

However, tracks like, Survival of the fittest, the instrumental theme song of the film, for instance comes across as pretentious and I am sure have been generously inspired (plagiarised?) from Hollywood themes. While these instrumental pieces definitely sound good the listener is left wondering about how original they are. For the uninitiated nenjodu kalandire was partially lifted from a TheCorrs song called Runaway. Walking through the rainbow the theme song of …Rainbow Colony is supposed to be copied from none other than Ilayaraaja (Yuvan's father!!!)’s BGM for the film Johny. With this kind of history one tends to become a bit sceptical.

My favourite song in the album is oru naalil, which Yuvan has sung himself. It is fresh, melodious and stands out. Full of pathos this song offers na.muthukumar, the lyricist the scope to showcase his talents as a poet. Pul pesum, poo peesum is a gana pattu types, probably set in a similar situation to the sapno me milte hai song in Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya.Fast paced and peppy the song is sure to follow the success of thi pidika, an earlier Yuvan song in the same style.

The OST concept is new here and must be embraced . There is not a single song in the soundtrack, which can deteriorate into a duet on screen. I am pretty sure that only one or two of them will appear as full-fledged songs in the film. In the past Selvaraghavan has got Yuvan to give his best and with Pudupettai the tradition continues. The music promo’s claim to bring “world music at your doorsteps”. Regarding that I am afraid I have to disagree. I thought I would finish with these provocative lyrics from the yenga area song -

Hey Padicha Naaye Kitta Varathey

Enga Area Ulla Varaathey !!

A/C Potta Bathroomil Enna Varum Ponga

Thandavaalam Kitta Othunguvom Naanga

Nethu Vecha Meenkozhambu Kaathula Pesum

Malli Poovum Inga Pootha Meen Vaasam Veesum !!

lyrics source - lazygeek.net

My Rating of the soundtrack - * * * out of * * * * *