The Bollywood tinseltown seems to be at it's glory as it did the IIFA awards in Bangkok this weekend. I couldn't help but think about the politics within the Tinseltown. I seem to be at a loss to understand what is the definition of Bollywood and what constitutes a Bollywood movie.
SRK seemed to rule with Chak De and his home production Om Shanti Om. Of course no award ceremony is complete without the Bacchan family being there. However, what seemed amiss was the Best movie of 2008 - "Taare Zameen Par". Amir Khan has been the rebel in Bollywood who hasn't cared for the Filmfare award and I guess hasn't been to one in over a decade. He is an idealist who does not care for the fancy publicity stunts. He is now ostracized not just from the Filmfare but also from IIFA!!!
Is it fair to not consider the good movies because of the politics or is the award just another staged reality show!!!
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
History ka Mystery - Jodhaa Akbar
Definition:
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
- Ambrose Bierce
Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake.
Robert Penn Warren
Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.
- David Ben Gurion
I happened to watch Jodha Akbar this weekend inspite of all the controversies around it.
After awesome movies like Lagaan and Swadesh, I had better expectations from Ashutosh Gowrikar. The movie was worth a watch but not as thought provoking as Swadesh nor had the chutzpah of Lagaan.
The movie has been banned in Rajasthan, MP and a few other states. Historians (read politicians) claimed that history has been distorted in this case.
History definitely is not one of my strong points and I used the tool I use the most for my research.. Google :)
While Wikipedia showed Jodha as Akbar's wife and Salim's mother; other sites talked about the controversy being discussed. I could not get a real site that has documented history.
Some excerpts that I found are:
Abul Fazal wrote the Akbar Nama, Abdul Qadir Badayuni wrote the Mutakhabutawarikh and Nizamuddin Ahmed (also called Nizamuddin Bakshi) wrote the Tabqat-i-Akbari. None of them have mentioned 'Jodhabhai' in their books.
None of Akbar's 34 wives were named Jodhabai. Akbar married the former maharaja of Amer, Bharmal's elder daughter Karkbai alias Heer Kumar in Fatehpur Sikri on Feburary 6, 1562. Prince Salim was born in 1569. Jodhabai was the daughter of Moteraja Udai Singh and she would have been three years younger than Salim and hence, in no way could she have been his mother.
With all these controversies, I guess the movie should start with the disclaimer:
All roles played in this movie are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or dead is just co-incidential ;)
On the other lines, it is true that Akbar did bring in a lot of reforms for the aam admi (with the budget a week ahead aam admi and taes are in everybody's mind). He tried to bring in religious harmony. His openess for the quest of truth in religion led to his founding of Din-i-ilahi.
Was Jodha bai the woman behind the tranformation of Akbar and the thought process leading to Din-i-ilahi!!!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Alag - Zara Hatke
Casting: Akshay Kapoor, Diya Mirza, Mukesh Tiwari, Jayant Kriplani
Rating: 4, rating is high as the concept is good and not Bollywood ishtyle.
I saw this movie called Alag over the weekend. This movie hasn't seem to have done well on the box office, but I was pretty impressed with the non mainstream topic. This sci-fi had a good story line and the acting by Akshay Kapoor is awesome.
The story line is off beat, the kind i appreciate than the conventional movie themes.
The death of a retired professor and the mysterious way in which he was staying at his bungalow was a mystery to the neighbours. The police during thier investigation find a hidden basement and they find the protagonist Tejas (Akshay Kapoor). Tejas is fully bald with not a hair on his body including eye lashes. He has been down in the basement for the last 18 years of his youth.
The Police decide to move him to the rehabilitation center run by Purvi (Diya Mirza). This rehab was opened by Purvi's mother and after she went into a coma was being run over by her father.Diya extends a hand of friendship to tejas and initiates his exposure to the real world. Tejas had some kind of disease which made his eyes very sensitive to the sunlight. This and his near death experience with death due to an electric shock. Post these expeiences, his father decided to home educate him and kept him in the confimes of the home with no social life. Tejas proves to be well read as he had read books on every possible topic and had an excellent memory.
Did all this reading prepare him to face this world? As he joins the rehab, he tries to make friends. People around him start to realize that not only does he looks wierd, but that he also had extra sensory powers that made him very sensitive. This is displayed by some cool production around him being able to attract all the butterflies to him and magnetizing a spoon to attract all the spoon in the mess.
His display of these tricks and display of his knowledge kind of puts in on the wrong page with the boys and the dean (Purvi's father).Purvi becomes his saving grace and they fall in love. They go to a picnic to a park, The security guard shoots a dove . Tejas does not like this agression towards the dove and holds the hand of the guard in one hand and the dove in the other. The guard seems to go in a state of shock and he feels the electicity thr' his body and has a near death experience.
The boys try to take revenge with him and try to give him a electric shock. On the contrary, Tejas stands thr' the high voltage strike and one of thier buddy gets electrocuted in return. This becomes a turning point in the relationship with the group. In the mean time, the guard tells his experience to the dean and mentions that it was more of a spiritual journey for him as he could feel the soul of the dove when he had his experience. Tejas then proceeds to cure Purvi's mom just by spreading his hand over her head.
This miracle seems to excite the medical scientists and they wish to experiement on him. On the other side, a rpgue scientist (Tom Alter) captures him in order to finish his experiment on cloning of the human brain. Tejas survives this with the assistance of Purvi and family, but loses Purvi in the process and returns back to lead his life back in solitude in the confines of his basement.
Overall, a nice movie decently directed and produced with a good story line. There were some stuff done to conventionaliize it by adding a couple of songs and some rugby scenees and stuff. It looked too good to be an original Hindi movie. I had to google around to find that this was a copy of an english movie called Powder produced about a decade back. When will we get the originality in our art!!!
Inspite of these, a movie that's worth a watch for the un-conventional storyline and the awesome acting by the rookie Akshay Kapoor.
Rating: 4, rating is high as the concept is good and not Bollywood ishtyle.
I saw this movie called Alag over the weekend. This movie hasn't seem to have done well on the box office, but I was pretty impressed with the non mainstream topic. This sci-fi had a good story line and the acting by Akshay Kapoor is awesome.
The story line is off beat, the kind i appreciate than the conventional movie themes.
The death of a retired professor and the mysterious way in which he was staying at his bungalow was a mystery to the neighbours. The police during thier investigation find a hidden basement and they find the protagonist Tejas (Akshay Kapoor). Tejas is fully bald with not a hair on his body including eye lashes. He has been down in the basement for the last 18 years of his youth.
The Police decide to move him to the rehabilitation center run by Purvi (Diya Mirza). This rehab was opened by Purvi's mother and after she went into a coma was being run over by her father.Diya extends a hand of friendship to tejas and initiates his exposure to the real world. Tejas had some kind of disease which made his eyes very sensitive to the sunlight. This and his near death experience with death due to an electric shock. Post these expeiences, his father decided to home educate him and kept him in the confimes of the home with no social life. Tejas proves to be well read as he had read books on every possible topic and had an excellent memory.
Did all this reading prepare him to face this world? As he joins the rehab, he tries to make friends. People around him start to realize that not only does he looks wierd, but that he also had extra sensory powers that made him very sensitive. This is displayed by some cool production around him being able to attract all the butterflies to him and magnetizing a spoon to attract all the spoon in the mess.
His display of these tricks and display of his knowledge kind of puts in on the wrong page with the boys and the dean (Purvi's father).Purvi becomes his saving grace and they fall in love. They go to a picnic to a park, The security guard shoots a dove . Tejas does not like this agression towards the dove and holds the hand of the guard in one hand and the dove in the other. The guard seems to go in a state of shock and he feels the electicity thr' his body and has a near death experience.
The boys try to take revenge with him and try to give him a electric shock. On the contrary, Tejas stands thr' the high voltage strike and one of thier buddy gets electrocuted in return. This becomes a turning point in the relationship with the group. In the mean time, the guard tells his experience to the dean and mentions that it was more of a spiritual journey for him as he could feel the soul of the dove when he had his experience. Tejas then proceeds to cure Purvi's mom just by spreading his hand over her head.
This miracle seems to excite the medical scientists and they wish to experiement on him. On the other side, a rpgue scientist (Tom Alter) captures him in order to finish his experiment on cloning of the human brain. Tejas survives this with the assistance of Purvi and family, but loses Purvi in the process and returns back to lead his life back in solitude in the confines of his basement.
Overall, a nice movie decently directed and produced with a good story line. There were some stuff done to conventionaliize it by adding a couple of songs and some rugby scenees and stuff. It looked too good to be an original Hindi movie. I had to google around to find that this was a copy of an english movie called Powder produced about a decade back. When will we get the originality in our art!!!
Inspite of these, a movie that's worth a watch for the un-conventional storyline and the awesome acting by the rookie Akshay Kapoor.
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