Bollywood's Fab 4 in Three Takes

Take 1: Johnny & Manorama -- Partners in Crime

"Bol kya naam hai tera" (Tell me your name)
"Johnny"
"Johnny Johnny.....telling lies...open your mouth."

When I first saw the trailer of Johnny Gaddaar, I was intrigued. Then I heard the music and I was hooked. I couldn't wait for the film but considering that this was not a big budget Bollywood movie, I knew it would be a long wait before I would get my hands on this film. In the meantime, I marveled at the film's simple yet perfect title. "Gaddaar" can be roughly translated as Traitor. But traitor can't fully express the emotion involved -- Gaddaar is not just a traitor but a sinister person who has gone over and beyond the limits of decency; the emotion contained in the word 'Gaddaar' reflects both the anger and disgust over such a person's action. Johnny Gaddaar's trailer shows 5 men sitting at a card table, cut to images of piles of cash, cut to fast paced action, a speeding train & a beautiful woman. Who is the Gaddaar? Johnny, ofcourse! But which of the 5 men is Johnny?





While I was waiting to learn about Johnny, I came across Manorama from the film Manorama Six Feet Under. The trailer indicated a murder mystery/darkish film cut in the mould of 2006's Being Cyrus. Now, I also wanted to track down Manorama.... But just like Johnny.., it would be a long wait. And thankfully, in both cases, the wait was worth it.

Johnny Gaddaar (2007, Director Sriram Raghavan): Rating 9/10

Usually when one has high expectations from a movie, they tend to be disappointed. But any such fears were dispelled within a few minutes of the film. Johnny Gaddaar's opening credits are probably the best I have seen in a long while and are modeled on 70's Bollywood movies where melodramatic music accompanied large bold text and images of the film's key moments.



In that regard, it is clear that Johnny Gaddaar gives a nod to those Bollywood movies from an era long gone.

The film is a delightful look at the 5 con men's lives and the women who live with these men (either physically with them or in their mind).

The movie's opening minutes give us a short but relevant look at the 5 men going about their regular life. From those few shots we can gather enough about their personalities and the weakness that exist in these men's lives. None of the characters are good men but are people who walk the gray line between good and bad. Shardul (played by Zakir Hussain) is the only person who appears to swim regularly in the pool of evil


while the leader of the pack, Sheshadri "It's not the age, it's the mile-age" (Dharmendra)
is someone who has gotten out of that same pool long ago and now simply arranges under the table deals.

Very early on the film we know who Johnny is.

But the true fun is watching how the other characters react -- no one knows who this Gaddaar is, so they all try to guess the culprit by analyzing the people around them. This is where we truly get a glimpse of the evil that lurks in these men's hearts. Sriram Raghavan has done an amazing job in allowing the film to continue long after when other movies would have ended. With a body count of 2, many other directors might have let the film end. But Johnny Gaddaar continues and throws in one final wicked twist with a subtle deceit.

It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a Bollywood film as much as this. Plus, the film contains many great one-liners, something that was present in all those 70's Bollywood movies. On top of that, there are plenty of references to old Bollywood movies and the sinister plot in the movie is inspired from Amitabh Bachchan's Parwana.

Manorama Six Feet Under (2007, Director Navdeep Singh): Rating 8.5/10

Ah Rajasthan! sultry, colorful and exotic Rajasthan.


Errr, this is not that Rajasthan!

This is a hot, dry and dull Rajasthan. A small village where nothing happens. Nope. Nothing. It is a place where a writer Satyaveer (Abhay Deol) lives with his wife and his child.



His first novel (a pulp mystery) was a flop and sold only 200 copies. Satyaveer is ashamed of his novel so much that he doesn't even keep a copy at home. But everything changes in his life when one night a mysterious woman visits him. As it turns out, this woman's name is Manorama (played by a very graceful Sarika), same as the character in Satyaveer's novel. Coincidence? Manorama wants Satyaveer to investigate the local politician P.P Rathore and take pictures of Rathore's possible affair. Even though Satyaveer has no experience in spying on people, Manorama encourages him because she is a big fan of his book and thinks that if he can write such an interesting detective story, he can surely catch P.P Rathore in the act.

But Satyaveer finds nothing out of the ordinary in Rathore's life. And just like that, Manorama disappears. He tries to find her but only runs into a dead end. Did she even exist? Just when he has given hope of finding her, he runs into a scared Manorama one more time where she blurts out that her life is in danger and if something happens to her, he should remember two facts -- her name is Manorama and her age is 32.

This is where the story could have ended had Satyaveer chosen to do nothing. But his curiosity gets the better of him and he tries to dig up more about her life.


Each door that he opens leads him into more trouble -- he is beaten up by thugs, has his motorcycle stolen, his wife leaves him, he falls for another woman

and is constantly threatened & under watch. Alone and helpless, he has nothing to turn to except two facts -- the name Manorama and age of 32. Only then, does the bright sun-light finally make his mind tick.

Although the film's pace is leisurely and tends to dip in parts, this is still a finely crafted film. The most impressive aspect is how much attention Navdeep Singh has paid to tiny details like getting the locales and feel of a small Rajasthani town right. There is one scene in the movie which is genius if Singh intended it to be. P. P Rathore (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) is giving a speech at a school function. Then Rathore does something which appears to be harmless but certainly catches the eye. I must admit this scene forced me to think of the mystery in a different light. When we finally learn the truth in the end, this scene takes on more importance because it fits in with Rathore's personality. But can any director intend such tiny detail? Or was Kharbanda diving too much into character? Or was that simple scene just a coincidence? Whatever the case maybe, Manorama Six Feet Under is certainly a film that deserves to seen and not buried under the massive pile of Bollywood movies.

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Take 2: Lights, Camera, Action...arrey Cue music.

Om Shanti Om (2007, Director Farah Khan): Rating 8.5/10

Song, Dance, Melodrama, Action, Tears, Emotion! That is Bollywood in a nut-shell. I grew up watching these fascinating talkies. When I was a child, I too was in awe of the stars -- I spoke the famous Amitabh one-liners from his films and listened to all the songs. Only when I grew up and looked back on these movies did I realize that these movies were quite bad. Most of those 70's and 80's Bollywood films had choppy editing, songs which popped out of nowhere and featured over the top acting. Even though Bollywood has improved since then, some of those old problems of recycled stories still exist. Farah Khan's enjoyable Om Shanti Om is a celebration of not only those horribly cheesy Bollywood films from 3 decades ago but even the bad Bollywood trends that exist today.



The first 30 minutes are a hilarious poke at elements which plagued Bollywood movies from the 70's -- melodramatic acting (if a son arrived home late at night, the mother almost had a heart-attack), bad costumes, cartoonish dance stops (only Bollywood can turn a badminton court into a song prop) and egoistic actors. Then just before the interval, the humour is put on hold when a darkish element creeps into the story. But even this dark tragedy is in keeping with the movie's overall theme of poking fun at Bollywood as the story is an updated version of Subhash Ghai's Karz. And keeping with the theme of modern Bollywood, Om Shanti Om takes the essence of 1980's Karz and spices it up with a twist element now found in many Bollywood films.



The acting and story are top-notch. As are the special effects of the film, especially the ones which inject a modern day Bollywood heroine into songs from 3 decades ago. If there is a let down with the film, it is with the music and some of the videos. Considering that Farah Khan has been one of Bollywood's leading choreographers and her first film Main Hoon Na featured lively videos, the average subdued videos in Om Shanti Om are disappointing. Also, the music is too low key. Now that could have been an intended choice but if a movie is poking fun at films, it should atleast have better music than the movies it is making fun of. Although, the finale song is a perfect update of the climatic song from Karz. I grew up loving Karz -- the reincarnation story really was something that has stayed with me over the years. And watching Om Shanti Om made me realize why one loves Bollywood in the first place -- that oh so Happy Ending!

Kudos also goes to Farah Khan for rolling out the red carpet for the film's cast and crew in the final credits. Just like in her first film, Farah turns the camera on all the people who worked on the film right from the producers to the spot boys.

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Take 3: No Lights but just smoke

No Smoking (2007, Director Anurag Kashyap): Rating 10/10

The best Bollywood film of the year has finally arrived. Everyone step back and mind the smoke.

A nightmare that gives way to a grey reality which leads towards a dark path into hell, which switches back to reality before finally diving down the hole into a hellish climax. And then after the flames die out, a soul-less body exists!

Huh? What does it all mean? Does it really matter what it means? Even if one tries to analyze cinema objectively, a person still reacts with a dose of subjectivity to what one sees in a movie -- one can't help reacting by instinct. Watching this movie, I remembered such films as The Game (1997), Fight Club, Alejandro Amenábar's Open Your Eyes (remade as Vanilla Sky) and the The Devil's Advocate. Call me crazy but one scene reminded of David Lynch's Inland Empire. There is a scene in No Smoking where the main character's memory is portrayed as a soap-opera with canned laughter. I thought of those soap-opera rabbits from Inland Empire.



And then there is the reference to Kafka. The main character is simply named K, a person (John Abraham) who can't stop smoking. He is beyond addiction. His wife Anjali (Ayesha Takia) wants to leave him because she can't stand his smoking. Finally, K decides he will try to quit. He is referred to a guru who can help him but his search leads him into the lower depths, literally. What follows is only a horrific nightmare.



There are plenty of clues in this non-linear film which give an idea as to the film's meaning but I still need to see the movie a second time to exactly draw lines at the moments of dream-reality sequences. Although, there is one scene, only one, which might give us a glimpse into the true reality of this movie. But at the end of the day, despite the questions, I can't help respond to this film instinctively. A fascinating mind bending roller coaster nighmarish ride of a person's soul through the darkest paths of hell. Wow!

Note: Updated comments added here

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The versatility of Vinay Pathak:

One of the best characters of 2006's Khosla Ka Ghosla was Vinay Pathak's Asif who teaches the film's characters on how to get revenge with a land shark. Vinay Pathak also played the idiot in Bheja Fry, an Indian remake of the delightful French comedy The Dinner Game. Now he has turned in two more colorful performances in Johnny Gaddaar and Manorama Six Feet Under. In Johnny he plays a gambler who can't avoid the cards


whereas in Manorama he plays a well meaning cop who is Satyaveer's only real friend in the movie.


Vinay has a few more interesting films coming up and one of them is Sudhir Mishra's slick looking Khoya Khoya Chand. I can't wait to see more of him on screen!

Francesco Rosi

The Political Cinema of Francesco Rosi

It is always exciting to discover the films of a talented director. But I do feel that the timing of such a discovery makes a big difference -- If a person discovers a director's films too early in one's personal cinematic journey, then one might not appreciate the works as much. Such is the case with my discovery of the Italian director Francesco Rosi. About three weeks ago I had not heard of him even though he started directing films back in the 1950's. But if I had discovered Rosi's films about two years ago, I would not have fully grasped their significance. And now I can truly add Rosi's film Le Mani sulla città (Hands over the City) on my list of all time favourite movies.

Corruption, City Planning, Land Development and Urban Sprawl:
The opening shots of 1963's Le Mani sulla città begins with a few aerial shots of Naples. We can already see that the city is a maze of buildings.



And after the opening few minutes, we learn it will get even worse. That is because we are shown an informal meeting between a few businessmen who all want to profit from fast land development. The city council is about to propose expanding along the city's core, which makes sense from an urban development point of view. But these businessmen and land developers want to build outside the city because the land is cheap and they can earn more profits in the future. How can such a plan happen? Simple. One of the leading land developers is also on the city's board and he has a lot of friends on the council. The promise of fast money is enough to swing the votes in his direction.

If a city expands outside the core, there is more investment needed to provide necessary infrastructure as water, electricity, parks, etc. But it so happens that all the business men involved in such organizations have friends on the city council. Handshakes and promises -- these are the two things that decide a city's future. Land permits and architectural plans are passed in a matter of days as opposed to the normal waiting time of 6 months. One of the consequences of this quick developments results in an apartment wall crashing down resulting in a few deaths.



This incident kick-starts the film's story. An investigation is conducted as to the real reasons for this building's collapse. But there is lack of interest in the city council to determine why the building wall collapsed. Only one councilman bravely stands up and accuses his fellow colleagues of having "dirty hands" regarding the land dealings. This results in one of the film's most lasting images.



All the councilmen shout "our hands are clean" and wave their 'clean' hands at the honest councilman. As the investigation continues, it is apparent that the truth won't ever come out. Because behind each lie is a handshake and a promise. Watching this film, one can truly appreciate the complicated series of lies and promises that make up each political party. In the film, everyone speaks the same language yet they have trouble reaching a conclusion. One can imagine if in a room, there are people who speak 10 different languages (with an additional language translator for each person), how difficult it would be to reach a decision. What is fascinating about the film is how the audience is made to feel like a fly on the wall listening in on discussions that one won't have access to.

The issue of urban sprawl is not only relevant to North America but to plenty of other Asian, African and South American cities. In that regards, even though Hands over the City was made more than 4 decades ago, it is one of the most relevant films in today's times. The dynamics of how each city chooses to spread in one direction as opposed to another may vary but it is clear that plenty of the decisions made for new land development are driven by money. We can only guess on a few such discussions but Rosi's film depicts some such situations to ponder upon.

Personal Significance: Over the last few years, I have begun to appreciate the richness of a verité style cinema where more effort is placed on allowing the audience to learn about the characters from their expressions and actions. Hands over the City may not be a typical verité film but at no point does it seem like scripted cinema either. As per the production notes, Rosi got some of the city councilmen to play themselves in the movie. That certainly adds a bit more to the originality of the heated council scenes.

A city after 3 decades: Rosi returned to Naples in 1992 to film a documentary (Diario napoletano) and see how the city developed as per his 1963 film Hands over the City. The first part of the documentary takes place in a university class where Rosi is presenting the movie to students, some city planners, professors and architects. It is amazing to see how things actually unfolded in Naples as per the movie's fictional situations and in fact, the sprawl got worse. Some of the professors offered some solutions as to how to improve things but it was clear that there is no over-night solution. When a city grows outward, traffic congestion is one of the worst problems. Driving through the city, Rosi was able to truly get a feel for how bad the situation is. But Naples is not alone in this problem.
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After watching Hands over the City, I made an effort to track down more films by Rosi and I was lucky in finding 3 more.

An outlaw or a political pawn?:

The 1962 film Salvatore Giuliano focuses on the separation struggle of Sicily from the Italian mainland The film shows how the mafia played a part in allowing the Allies to land in Sicily during WWII and helped in the toppling of the Fascist regime. The new Sicilian government wanted autonomy from Italy, so they followed the example of Garibaldi in enlisting thugs and outlaws to fight for their cause. One such popular outlaw was Salvatore Giuliano, whose men were needed to launch a separatist movement.

What is interesting about this film is that we never really see Salvatore Giuliano. We basically see his gang and the movie focuses on his right-hand man. This approach works quite well as Giuliano's absence shows the true power of his legend -- Powerful men want to meet him, the locals worship him and the police want him dead. Just like the building collapse in Hands over the City, one incident kick-starts the entire film's crucial events. In this case, it is the assassination attempt of Italian policemen.

Giuliano's men are patiently waiting for the policemen to appear.



The gun is aimed at the door.


Once the door opens, a whistle is the cue for all the street lights to go off, followed by a succession of gun-fire.



Then the war between cops and outlaws truly starts.

The camera shows us a view-point from the outlaws guns on a few occasions.


The camera only focuses on a police gun in one scene and even then, their weapon is not active.


This approach of showing the gun fired from the outlaws perspective highlights an important aspect of the story. We see the outlaws firing the shots, but who ordered those shots to be fired? The court trials in the film attempt to answer these questions.

Thugs for hire: In the film, the Sicilian government hires thugs to win a war for them. But the officials fail to consider that once they get their freedom, what will they they do with the outlaws? Do they assimilate them or simply kill them off? Salvatore Giuliano shows one such approach taken by the. Interestingly, this tactic seems all too familiar given current international governments (recruit thugs to overthrow a government and then persecute the thugs). Also, using a model of hiring thugs to win elections is a fundamental problem in most democracies as well.

A mellow, subtle political touch:

The next two Rosi film I tackled were 1979's Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli) and 1981's Tre fratelli (Three Brothers). I could not find any films in between 1963's Hands over the City and his 1979 effort. The passage of time appears to have changed Rosi's outlook & approach as both ..Eboli.. and Three Brothers have a more softer and relaxed touch. Both films are intelligent musings of a man looking at Italian society and pondering about the mistakes of the past political regimes.

Cristo si è fermato a Eboli is based on writer Carlo Levi's memoir about his exile in Eboli, a town in Southern Italy.



Levi was exiled during WWII because of his political beliefs and served time in the isolated town until the war was over. The movie features plenty of intelligent discussions regarding northern-southern political issues along with questions about the problems of peasants and the war. One of the fundamental problems that Levi sees is regarding Italy's imperialistic adventures in Africa. In the film, Levi only sees struggling farmers around him. The farmers can't earn a living so they are forced to immigrate to America. So Levi questions how Italy's African war will help the local population? A war costs money and will only increase taxes of the local population.

There are plenty of memorable quotes in the film but these few highlight the frustrations of Southern Italy during the war.
"Naples is our city because it's the capital of misery."
"Now we go to Naples, only to leave for America."
"Rome is the capital of the rich, nothing good comes out of there."
"New York would be our capital...if we could have one."

There is a sequence which illustrates the tranquil beauty of the film. In the following shots, a policeman is walking towards the town one early morning. Initially, we only see fog. But in a matter of a few seconds, the fog slowly lifts to reveal the buildings. Simple yet beautiful!




Three Brothers is a tender film that looks at the relationship of three brothers with their father against the backdrop of a changing Italian political landscape. Each brother has completely different views of the world -- Rocco wants a peaceful world where all of humanity lives in harmony; the youngest brother (Nicola) is tired of the existing regime and believes in revolution and violence to cause a change whereas the eldest brother (Raffaelle) is a respected judge who believes in using the law to bring justice. Even though Raffaelle (closet to the camera in the following shot) is the eldest, his views are in between his two brothers.



Raffaelle is able to recoincile Rocco's peaceful views and Nicola's need for violence along with his own desire to use the law to cause a change. The film's best moments are when the characters express their true feelings about Italy's political problems. Most of these conservations take place in quiet and tender settings -- bedroom or a dinner table. While outside on the streets, Italy is buzzing with revolution.
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Ratings of all films (out of 10):

Le Mani sulla città (1963): 10

Salvatore Giuliano (1962): 9

Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979): 8.5

Tre fratelli (1981): 8.5

Diario napoletano: 7.5
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The North-South divide:

I was truly mesmerized by Hands over the City. But I could not help wonder why I had never heard of Francesco Rosi before? In fact, it was pure luck that my eyes feel on this DVD. In the 60's, the world appeared to focus on only three Italian directors -- Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni & Roberto Rossellini. I have been trying to think of reasons why Rosi was not as popular. One of the reasons that come to mind is that Fellini, Antonioni and Rossellini all came from Northern Italy whereas Rosi was from Naples. In all of the four Rosi films that I saw, questions about the North vs South always came up. Example, this quote from Christ Stopped at Eboli: "Rome is the capital of the rich, nothing good comes out of there." One frequent discussion in the films was that people in the North were not aware of the situations in the south and made decisions without factoring the south. As a result, the south struggled in poverty and plenty of people were forced to leave for America.

Personally, I first learned about this North-South issue through Italian soccer. I fell in love with Italian soccer at the same time as Napoli (soccer team from Naples) won the Italian league title for the second time in their history (1990), with their first title coming back in 1987. Both wins were thanks to Diego Maradona, the beloved Argentinian soccer player. These wins shook up the monopoly of the league title held by the Northern teams. Now, this north-south divide was really put to the test when Italy hosted Argentina in the 1990 World Cup semi-final in Naples. Italy eventually lost a hard-fought match on penalties but the Italian players complained afterwards that if the match was played in any Italian city other than Naples, they would have won. It was rumoured that a majority of the Italian fans in the stadium that night were cheering for Maradona, hero for their local Napoli team, as opposed to giving Italy their full support. Truth or fiction? This memory stayed with me. Now, coupled with Rosi's films, I am forced to give this issue more thought.
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Political relevance today:
If I had to pick two movies which accurately depict current world problems, I would have to go with Rosi's Hands over the City & Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers (1966). Even though these movies were made in the 60's, the issues shown in the movie have repeated themselves countless times over the last few decades.

Early morning drama

I am afraid no film can ever come close to matching the emotional drama that surrounds an Arsenal vs Manchester United game. Most movies, no matter how good the intention, attempt to follow a script and an actor's performance is monitored by a director. Sure there are magical cinematic moments when the unexpected is captured on film. But for the most part, a film captures a director's vision. On the other hand, these Arsenal-ManU games follow no script and no one has any idea what will unfold or what emotion will come out.

For example, the following picture is an example of the unexpected emotional outburst that occurs in these games.


pic from: Daily Mail

It appears that Martin Keown is doing an impression of a vampire. But he is not. He is simply celebrating justice being done. The problems started when Ruud van Nistelrooy did his best impression of a swan dive and won a penalty. But justice was done when Nistelrooy missed his penalty. So Keown jumped up and down to let Ruud boy know what he thought of him. But as per the picture, Keown's raw emotion looks far more sinister. The game ended 0-0 and at the final whistle, more emotions spilled over resulting in a few Arsenal players getting banned for a few games. Despite that ban, Arsenal went onto remain undefeated that year and won the league.

More drama followed the next season when ManU kicked Arsenal off the ball to win 2-0 and stop Arsenal's unbeaten league game record at 49 games. It was truly a robbery in how Manchester cheated (another dive won them a penalty) and fouled their way to a win. Arsenal didn't recover from that defeat for almost 3 years. Things finally seemed to be getting normal last season when Arsenal beat Manchester on both league meetings. But the cost of that second win came at a heavy price. Robin Van Persie injured himself after celebrating his equalizing goal and Henry's last minute winner was the last time he would ever score a winning goal for Arsenal as he too spent the next few months on the injury list. Manchester won the league title and when Henry was sold in the summer, all looked dark for Arsenal at the start of this year's campaign.

But Arsenal's amazing start to the season has surprized everyone. And ahead of today's game against Manchester, Arsenal were unbeaten and top of the league ahead of Manchester on goal difference. A mouth-watering match lay in store.

Sat, Nov 3: 6 am. It was not difficult to wake up early for this game as I hardly seem to get any sleep when these two meet.

6:46 am: I reached the pub for the game but even though the game was only one minute old, I was late as the place was packed. A nervous 45 minutes ended in pure agony as Manchester took the lead.

7:48 am: Three minutes into the second half, Cesc Fabregas, the genius maestro, tied the game up. After every Cesc goal these days, the commentators have to remind the viewers that Cesc is only 20 years old and already he is one of the best players in the world in a position (central midfield) that requires experience and maturity.

pics from: Arsenal, BBC

But with 8 minutes to go, Ronaldo put Manchester in the lead and once again Arsenal were on the ropes. However, just like they did against Manchester last season, Arsenal scored a goal in injury time. The captain William Gallas tied the match at 2-2 and gave both teams a share of the spoils.


pic from: Getty Images, Soccernet

Overall, it was a fair result. The game contained plenty of drama and there were enough moments of quality football. Arsenal were the better team for most of the second half but could not convert their chances into goals. But that is how the game goes.

As the legendary German coach Sepp Herberger said "The ball is round" (the quote was used in Run Lola Run). Dribble. Pass. Shoot. Simple really. So what's all the fuss about?