That film on steroids

Main Hoon Na released sometime before my ninth standard summer vacation. Since ninth was not tenth, my conscience did not object to me watching the film practically every morning of the holidays, courtesy the obliging colony cable wallah. But turns out even those multiple viewings more than a decade ago did not help me appreciate just how well made the film was. The most underappreciated part being, that somehow the frenetic pacing does not lend the film a jerkiness or discontinuity, for at least two-thirds of the film.

The scene transitions are smooth, with some snappy use of old Hindi music. Jaane ja dhoond ta phir raha plays during Ram's efforts to trace his estranged younger half brother, Laxman on campus (yes, haha, Ram-Laxman in the 21st Century)-taking the story forward in a minute, something reams of dialogue wouldn't have managed as effectively. At one point the director wants to hint at us that Lucky, the college idiot, is in fact Laxman (like we never saw that coming). We are at Ram's balcony, which overlooks Lucky's house and we see the latter scoot in and out while his mother (inside) badgers him about finding a tenant. All this plays out against the voiceover of Ram resolving to find Laxman and his mother. It's simultaneously very filmy and very efficient. I think it's because of some solid editing, though I would have to be more film-literate to be sure of this.

What also helps this quick, smooth pacing is that the characters are unapologetically unidimensional. There is no character development required. We know Ram is the template ideal son, elder brother, colleague, we know Sanjana is the tom-boy in love with her friend who is going to get a makeover and that Ms Chandni is the hot Chemistry teacher. And none of this simplicity or non-'layeredness' grates.

Farah Khan is lucky that she had Shah Rukh Khan at his prime, to manage this for her. He is funny, he is charming, and he reminds you of the time when an SRK movie was an event in the family. Never an action hero, he still manages to sell some crazy fight sequences. At one point he chases an SUV on a cycle rickshaw (then again, if you Main Hoon Na is your kind of film, I am sure you don't go looking for realism). There are other heroes of course, who can do action better-Salman Khan, Ajay Devgan, Akshay Kumar being successful examples. Yet none of them ever do it with such dimpled sweetness the way SRK does in this film. When he tells Lucky, 'Haath chhodo Laxman, Daro mat, main hoon na' (in the neater of the action. scenes), this is not just a (filmy) badass army man, he is also the caring elder brother who has your back.

And that's why it is such a waste to now have  Shah Rukh and Farah Khan collaborate on something as utterly stupid as Happy New Year. I found it tolerable enough when I saw it in the theatre, in part because Deepika Padukone is dazzling in everything, but also because I had gone with such low expectations. Quite forgetting, what these two Khans,were once capable of delivering.

PS: if there was ever a need for an award for song picturisations (not choreography), it was when this film released.

While we talk

One of my all time favourite songs is Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan's 'Mora Saiyyan Moh se bole na' (My lover does not confess he loves me). It has some beautiful lyrics, and the music has not dated since it first released in the nineties. What you can't ignore is the incessant whining of the point of view person in the song, about the lover who... well...does not confess his love. Compare this to the joyous 'Na bole tum na maine kuch kaha' (Neither of us have said anything) in 1979's release Baaton Baaton Mein. The newly dating couple in the film, played by Amol Palekar and Tina Munim, sing that even without explicit declarations of love, they feel in love (much less prosaically worded in the Hindi song). And this joyousness pervades much of the rest of the film, and papers over all its faults.

The songs are of course all standout. Most films of that decade don't stand scrutiny when compared to modern standards of what counts as creepy. And I am not talking of mainstream Bollywood where Jeetendra routinely molested Sridevi into accepting him as her boyfriend. Even a middle of the road film like Chhoti si Baat saw (the ubiquitous) Amol Palekar stalk (albeit very very non-threateningly) his heroine, Vidya Sinha. There is some of that in Baaton Baaton Mein as well. Who wouldn't feel threatened today if a man with a French beard suddenly starts sketching you while using public transport? But as the title song pains to underline, love, that follows the initial at-first-sight infatuation, must be on the basis of a lot of baatein.

Another strength of Baaton Baaton Mein (which has contributed to its endurance) are the loving characterisations of regular, middle class people we have seen around us. The meddling but well intentioned uncle, the boy's mother who doesn't want her son to be married, the girl's mother whose happiness is derived from her daughter being married, the lascivious friend, the relative who refuses to leave, and the mildly irritating younger brother with an artistic bent of mind (was Jaane tu ya Jaane Na's brother inspired from Saby in Baaton Baaton Mein?). They are also played by some very competent actors, especially the female lead's mother who is priceless when worried that the prospective groom earns less than her daughter but perks up when she realises that he will earn more once his probation is over (so what if he is only a cartoonist). Amol Palekar as the said cartoonist is his usual dependable self as mild mannered, and eager to please Tony Braganza. It is sad that we will probably never have a hero like him who fits in so well in this familiar middle class milieu (because let's face it, all the gym toned men we meet in real life are creeps). Tina Munim on the other hand is that generation's Katrina Kaif. Yet because the rest of the cast, and the script and the dialogue and the music are so winsome, it is possible to oversee this defect.

Overall, Baaton Baaton Mein remains a favourite (even after the 11th watch).

FENDER CAFE: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

Restaurant: Fender Cafe, Shahpur Jat 

Meal for two: Very comfortably UNDER Rs. 500

Fender Cafe has quickly emerged as one of my favourate places to eat in Delhi. Located in Shahpur Jat this place is an absolute delight for a variety of reasons. Delicious burgers (veg and non veg, and non veg is not just chicken) would be the foremost. Then there is the 'chicken meat ball wai wai', which puts any other type of experimental maggi to shame. However, there are plenty of other options, including veg. ad non veg. 'Thalis' which very much taste as good as home- made food. The veg 'Thali' includes 'daal', 'sabzi', 'raajma', curd and mint chuttney. I haven't tried the non veg Thali yet. The cafe used to be a music academy and still has a recording studio upstairs so you will find a lot of musicians going in and out. Also along with serving delicious white sauce pasta the place is also easy on the pocket. Don't be surprised if some of the items on the menu are not available but rest assured there won't be anything disappointed in anything you end up ordering. 

Those of you who love music will fall in love with the decor. Actually it is great even if you don't care about music. The walls are lined with creatively appropriated guitars and posters of all kinds. The salt and pepper caddies are made of music cassettes. I think I spotted one of 'Ajnabee' but I had to settle for a photo of 'Dirty Dancing' because good manners dictate not barging in on people eating their food to click photos of the novelty items on their table. The back f the chairs carry quotes from various artists so you are assured that there is enough fodder for small talk (in case you are looking for some). You can easily sprawl in the place for sometime without any judgment form the staff. It is refreshingly comfortable and it is far from pretentious. I would highly recommend it.

Yes, the one on the lower left is a quote by Freddie Mercury: "I won't be a Rockstar, I will be a Legend". 

Disclaimer: Don't let my poor photography skills deter you from going to the place. Also I didn't click any photos of the food because I was really hungry and it didn't occur to me. 

Enjoy eating!

INTERSTELLAR: REVIEW

The following review contains spoilers so "tread lightly". 

Interstellar: It is everything you expect from Nolan. It is grand with a thick plot and moments that bring you to the edge of our seat and twists that hit you out of nowhere (or at least hit me out of nowhere). Zimmer is the true star though. His music breathes life into the experience and draws you into the film. It is music  that gives any film an edge and Nolan uses the musical arrangement mush too wisely. For all the times you hear "the book was better" and it probably was, good music and wisely used music is where a film can make up for lost emotion or grandeur or whatever it is that you want to convey. From the deafening silence in space to the enormity of the music accompanying the most thrilling scenes, it was treat for the ears as much as it was a treat for the eyes. 

Apart from all the scientific drama that is unfolding, the plot is just complicated enough to force you keep your eyes glued on to the screen and keep striving to look past the scientific jargon. Once you look past it and understand what is going on you can go ahead, pat yourself on the back and feel superior to the rest of the mortals in the theater, who didn't gasp as much as you did. Honestly though, (AND SPOILER ALERT) the film, in terms of it's concept is uncomfortably close to Doctor Who (*cue lightning for dramatic effect*). I, for one, would trade the big space ship in for the TARDIS and the scientific jargon in for "wibbly wobbly timey wimey... stuff"... it goes down much smoother. Then there is TARS, a robot that has a human  setting, who reminded me of Marvin: the paranoid android from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So you shouldn't be going into this film expecting real conceptual novelty.     

At the center of it all are bigger philosophical questions about life and objectivity and what it means to make choices when you stand as a proxy for a community. The idea of love locks in imperfectly for me but does not feel completely out of place. (a pun you might enjoy if you have seen the film). I respect the intention and the idea of entertaining the possibility that we can never be truly objective and that emotion is not something we need to divorce ourselves from when it comes to science. However, these ideas seem like after thoughts, superimposed on the story later on.

The film does manage to make you want to stand right besides the characters in the film as they make the hard decisions they have to and the climax is like a wave slaps you and then knocks you into the sand. Never mind (AND SPOILER ALERT) that I was more shocked by the blatant parallels between it and Doctor Who. I suppose it is praise worthy when you can find manage that when a film contains what otherwise could be dismissed as (for the lack of a better work) gimmicks. However, even though it is set in the outer space do not expect the sun and the moon from the film as many reviews would promise you. If you get caught in what people are saying about the film there is an 80 per cent chance you might not enjoy it. And yes that figure fairly arbitrary.

Film Review: Bombay Talkies

You know you love movies when over a freakishly early morning flight, having had two hours of sleep the night before, you still choose on flight entertainment over catching up on much needed rest*. And so how fitting is it that the movie in question was Bombay Talkies, Bollywood's tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema.

When the film released over a year ago, I remember reading laudatory reviews of Karan Johar's short about a couple in a loveless marriage and the upheaval caused when a young man arrives on the scene. Johar of course deserves credit for veering into untested waters, but inspite of the mostly solid acting (Randeep Hooda as Dev is fantastic) I lost interest about halfway through-unforgivable in a 20 minute film. I think the issue was a tonal shift from understated** to weirdly melodramatic where people are slapping each other, then kissing, then slapping around again.  Which would have been fine if we could believe the dry straitjacketed Dev to be capable of that kind of emotion. It begins well though, and the unfolding of the events in the movie while framed by the street kid's rendition of 'Ajeeb Dastaan Hain' was great.  Another neat sequence was when Saleem drags Hooda to listen to the child sing. It's the sort of scene we have seen in more conventional love stories before, but here it works because an unconventional courtship is treated so lightly.

That said, I would have liked Johar's short much more had it not been followed up by Dibakar Banerjee's odd little film. Because that's a man who understands tonality. And the importance of lived-in, real characters. In one introductory scene a lower middle class couple is cleaning their tiny Mumbai apartment in perfect harmony. The wife is hanging out clothes in the balcony while standing, feet apart on the railings, and the husband while sweeping the floor passes nonchalantly from underneath her spread legs. But such a realistic backdrop doesn't stop Banerjee from introducing heavy doses of whimsy. After all, when was the last time that a Hindi film introduced an emu as someone's 'bigdi hui laadli'? I could talk a lot more about the film, but then the review would veer towards gushing.

The third film was Zoya Akhtar's story about a young kid (played adorably by a child with the most innocent smile) who wants to be a dancer. The point of view character is the child, so the treatment of the subject-simple-works rather well. Katrina Kaif makes a special appearance and stinks at even playing herself.  She (her character) gets the best dialogue in the film though- 'Sometimes you have to keep your dreams a secret'.

The last short in Bombay Talkies is Anurag Kashyap's rather uncharacteristic feature about a man's (Vijay's) quest to meet Amitabh Bachchan. Uncharacteristic so far as the trailers of his films are concerned-my vociferously mainstream tastes have always prevented me from actually watching the full length feature. To my surprise there were no dark undertones and morally debauched characters-the short's U ratedness would have made Hrishikesh Mukherjee proud. Some moments were laugh out loud funny, when Vijay assures the guard at Bachchan's home that the actor would welcome him since he was from Allahabad as well, and the guard, from Kanpur wouldn't understand. Kashyap's biggest victory though is that he makes us care for Vijay and remain invested in his journey. I couldn't bear to look at the screen when the jerk on the train drops the murabba container on the floor (I was hoping he would eat it though-that would fit into the tribute to Bollywood theme).

Overall, Bombay Talkies makes for a fun viewing experience. I have one issue though-a celebration of Bollywood should have incorporated some decent songs. All we get however is an insipidly picturized mish-mash of movies through the decades as end-credits. Disappointing.



*And then spend all the time in the waiting lounger blogging about it.
**It is Johar we are talking about, so not that understated.  

FINDING FANNY: FILM REVIEW

My contribution to this blog comes in the form of a movie review, which the title of our blog may not necessarily convey. Anyway, the first movie I shall review is ‘Finding Fanny’, and my authority on the same is not final so feel free explore it for yourself. 

The plot of the film rests on a group of unlikely people taking a road trip together with varying motivations I never came to care for.The film comes with a studded star cast and most of them do not disappoint. Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapoor light up the screen and bring their respective characters to life. I was equally delighted to see how far Deepika Padukone has come as an actor (with specific reference to 'Cocktail'). Arjun Kapoor seems to have transported the essence of his enraged character from ‘Gundey’ (which was sold to me under false pretence of being an intentional comedy) to the quaint Goan village of ‘Pokoli’. Dimple Kapadia disappointed in the crucial scenes that could have inspired a connection with her character. My favourate one, however, was Ranveer Singh’s guest appearance as 'Gabo', for precisely 30 seconds, where he chokes on cake and dies on his own wedding day.

Of course, there is not much of a story but it is sprinkled with a few good dialogues, Don Pedro's (Pankaj Kapoor) addressing Ferdie (Naseeruddin Shah) as the ‘Cassanova of the Konkan’ was funny because of so many reasons, one of being the irony because Ferdie was a'one woman man with no woman'. Some of the more reflective dialogues, however, felt forced in the attempt to in-organically forge a connection with the journey of the characters in the film. 

Sadly there wasn't enough in the movie to salvage it. The fact that you never buy into the universe of any of these characters makes the film quite boring to watch. The second half was dragged out and the ending made as much sense as any of Salman Khan’n interviews. The music of the movie was good, at least I thought it was, and some of the scenes were beautifully shot but none of it was enough to stop me from looking at my phone.

You could probably watch the film once and come out contemplating how could have spent your Sunday morning more productively, for instance by going to MKT and enjoying some pancakes and iced tea. 

Do you want to come over and kill some time?

The Coffee House, Majnu ka Tila

How to get there: Take the Metro to Vidhan Sabha. The market is one marauding e-rick ride away.

The Coffee House is a cozy little place, seating 10-12 groups at a time. Though it’s primarily for breakfast (served between 10 and 12 am), the fact that it’s tucked away in the basement of a building means that it is quite dark and must resort to…well..electric lighting. It’s nicely decorated, with a large display for the food. The waiter will offer you a menu and a tiny notepad to scribble your order in. The only other place I have seen this is Bhutan (yes, I am quite well-travelled that way).

Incidentally, Bhutan’s where I had tasted my first pancake. That however had made me question the foundation of my love for American television programming (You get points for guessing which show I am talking about).

All that changed with one bite of the Coffee House’s hot pancake covered with the classic maple syrup-it was like biting into a piece of cloud*. We also ordered a pancake with chocolate sauce, which was equally good, but if you are going alone or with only one other person, you might want to finish the first one before you order seconds.  Those things are filling. Though that might also have something to do with the two rounds of ice-tea we ordered. Because, oh my god, what ice tea!

Meal for three: Don’t remember for sure, but it was less than 500 rupees. Tips have to be deposited separately in a jar kept by the cash counter.

USP: The bliss you feel after that first bite of the pancake.

Cafe Lota, National Crafts Museum

How to get there: It’s a longish walk from the Pragati Maidan Metro station. Either choose a pleasant day or over-pay for an auto ride.

We reached there at peak lunch time, when we were famished, and going by how full the place was, so was much of upper class Delhi. We were made to wait for at least half an hour, but we couldn’t leave after seeing just how beautiful the cafe was. It’s well lit (naturally), the furniture is easy on the eye and there are big potted plants as decoration.  We first ordered aam panna and mint nimbu pani (I am not sure actually-it was green and in a tall glass-brilliant food reviewer I am turning out to be). The latter drink was nicer of the two, though both were refreshing. The Konkan Fish Curry with red rice was in dire need of some seasoning. The Goan Chicken was served with spinach paav (which tasted like normal paav but was a revolting shade of green-props for the novelty though) and channa (chick-peas). Eaten together, as insisted by Masterchef, it was quite nice. The servings are really small though.

Meal for three: 1500 rupees (inclusive of taxes and tip).

USP: The ambience. Plus if you go towards the end of lunch time, they let you sit for as long as you want. The waiters don’t even hover about your table.

Triveni Tea Terrace, Triveni Kala Sangam

How to get there: Get off at the Mandi House metro station. It’s a three minute walk from there

It’s not a restaurant really, more a canteen for the institute’s students, but most likely the prettiest canteen in any of Delhi’s colleges. There’s indoor as well as outdoor seating. However, if it’s raining, no matter how nice it looks, choose to sit inside-the tarp that serves as the ceiling for the terrace is torn in places. The menu’s fixed on a day basis. I went on a Saturday, when they serve Kadhi or Chicken curry. I had the latter with roti. It’s unpretentious, home style cooking. Plus the place actually caters to art students (and craftspeople?), rather than the poseurs who frequent Cafe Lota. No that’s not ill-founded stereotyping.

Meal for one and a one-fourth person (who only drank nimbu-pani): 180 rupees. Who tips at a canteen?

USP: The very efficient staff.

*Sorry Lakshita, that description was too good to not appropriate.