30 Days of Film - Day 2.

2. The most underrated movie

Tightly plotted and cleverly written comedy filled with old favourites (who doesn't like Boman Irani?) and new likable faces (Kunal Khemu is awesome, Soha Ali Khan is always solid). So explain to me why it sometimes feel like it's just me and Filmi Girl who watched 99? The directors went on to do Shor in the City, which was a pretty popular little-film-that-could that seemed to make a lot of people's "underrated 2011 films" list, so everybody of you reading who enjoyed that film, please seek out 99. It's a good time, I promise you. For more persuasion, please see previously linked reviews from yours truly and FG. 

It's even got Vinod Khanna! Like, come on now.

PS. It looks the directors of this film are re-uniting with Kunal Khemu and Saif Ali Khan in their next one! I'm too psyched.

30 Days of Film Meme - Day 1.

This is a meme I saw circling around in a couple of places and decided to make it cover all days of June. Since it's all for films in general and this is a blog about Indian films, I'm going to alter certain days.

These are going to smaller posts, not very lengthy, but then, there is 30 of them coming your way.. Hope you enjoy! (And feel free to do this meme in your own blog, should you so wish.)

1. The best movie you saw during the last year

If I'll be completely honest, it was a toss-up between this and Deiva Thirumagal. Kahaani also rated higher in my books, but because Deiva Thirumagal had a couple of things that kind of bothered me, and as intriguing and well-written as Kahaani was, I'm unsure whether I'll rewatch it, so for that, I think The Dirty Picture takes the cake. It's fun, it's heroine-driven, filled with good songs and great performances, and on top of all that, it's surprisingly thought-provoking for a masala film.

And it's as good an excuse as any to post this smoking hot picture of Emraan and Vidya.

Nayagan, and a treatise on the Maniratnam biopic.

Nayagan (alternative spelling Nayakan, Hindi dubbed version titled Velu Nayakan) is often called one of the greatest Maniratnam and indeed one of the greatest Indian films of all time (it even earned a mention on TIME magazine's 100 Best Films of All Time), so it's rather odd that I get to this film so late in my film-watching career. It's even lauded as India's answer to Hollywood legendary The Godfather. Nayagan, in short, is an epic tale of criminal glory throughout generations, a story of an orphan boy, who ends up a hero for the poor community Tamil-speakers in Mumbai, regularly discriminated by various people in power. It's a tale of good and evil, and the hopelessness that drives people to cheat the system, and the contradictions of this criminality.

I suppose it makes sense that I only got around to watching this film now, because I've recently realised how strange my relationship is to Maniratnam (or Mani Ratnam, if you prefer). I began watching his films, thoroughly impressed with every aspect - the wild visuality that usually accompanies gorgeous A.R. Rahman songs, the strong, performance-driven stories, and the popular tackling of certain, heavier subjects. I was shocked by Dil Se, moved to tears by Bombay, and adored Alaipayuthe madly. Then something happened. I liked Guru, but did not love it; I was certainly impressed by Iruvar, but again, it didn't make it into my favourites; Kannathil Muthamittal was pretty good, I suppose, but I was just kind of lukewarm about it.

It's as if I moved from feeling Maniratnam's stories on a purely emotional, raw level to just appreciating the competent film-making from him. There are good performances in the films that did not make it into my favourites - I love Aishwarya in Guru and Iruvar, Madhavan was great in Kannathil Muthamittal, Prakash Raaj in Iruvar blew my mind - but overall I would rate none of these as favourites. Out of all these films, I think I like Raavanan the best, and even so, I think what I appreciate most about it are the performances, and the way its cast play off one another. The story is good, but could be better, and somehow ends up secondary.

So where does Nayagan fit in, then? While watching, I suddenly realised that this was where Maniratnam's real life inspired biopic career began, and also understood what binds all the male protagonist-centric biopics that he's done so far: the hero who breaks the law, but wins people over. There is a scene in Nayagan, where a police officer is eager to nail the main character, Velu, who's risen up the underworld rank to be a don of sorts, so he interviews those ordinary people closest to Velu. The common people won't betray Velu, however; he is their hero. Contrast this to the scene in Raavan/an where the exasperated Dev  hears from villagers how amazing Veera/Beera is in their eyes - the similarity is crystal clear. In Guru, Abhishek's character may be corrupt, but this corruption helps him succeed, so it is not condemned by the film's narrative.

Maniratnam's heroes are folk heroes, not revered by the institutions of the state, but by the people - there's an almost naive populism to them, but at the same time you can't fault him. The characters are all based on real people, who are also held up as heroes despite their crimes. Perhaps, instead of thinking about any kind of moral message woven into these stories, one should instead admire the lack of moralism - for better or worse, the films all present both sides of the story.

So I didn't fall in love with Nayagan, but was instead fascinated by this common thread that the film started in Maniratnam's career. There are other interesting things, too, though. Kamal Hassan, who I've always found charming and a good actor, does excellent in the role of the steadfast criminal, torn at times by his understanding that what he does is against the law. I've never been the biggest fan of Kamal, but in here he is at his very best: commanding the screen with such a presence that it's impossible not to pay close attention. The portrayal of the Tamil community is interesting as well - the sense of being outsiders in Bombay, despite being in their homeland, and the discrimination that comes from this, as well as their poorness, helps explain why Velu does become such a revered hero to them.

The songs are gentle and lovely Ilayaraja compositions and P.C. Sriram's cinematography showcases Bombay beautifully. Karthika, the Malayalam actress playing Velu's daughter Charumani, was a definite stand-out, so I was surprised to see the actress having a film career shorter than five years, retiring at a time when her career was reaching its peak. Sigh, the choices actresses have to make between a marriage and a career..

Another interesting performance was by a very young Nasser, as the police officer doing his damnest to catch Velu in the later parts of the film. Every bit as intense as Nasser's later performances!

Nayagan is a classic, but it is another one of those films I'd be forced to recommend purely on the strength of the performances. This film just didn't quite move me, didn't quite speak to me - I understand it might have a different appeal to different people, for different reasons. As such, I merely liked it, and would rate it among Maniratnam's best films - however, I'd still prefer the gut-wrenching Bombay, or the beautiful, equally well-made biopic Raavanan over it. These are purely personal picks, admittedly. 

Kadhalan: how about no?

Shankar, one of my favourite Indian directors, began his career in the early 1990's with Gentleman, which I haven't seen but I hear is not all that good. His next film, the Prabhudeva-Nagma starrer Kadhalan (1994), was a commercial hit with a popular A.R. Rahman soundtrack, but his film career really hit a stride when he made Mudhalvan (which he later remade in Hindi, and titled Nayak: The Real Hero, starring Anil Kapoor), a story of an everyman who gets to be Chief Minister for 24 hours, does a lot of good in the role and therefore creates a scandal for the political establishment.

Considering this background, Kadhalan (which, as the title suggests, centers entirely on a love story between the leads) is sort of Shankar before Shankar himself knew the kinds of films he was best at making. The lack of a social message is partly what makes this film so uninteresting in my eyes. The love story isn't believable, original or striking enough to make for a good story, and the villain isn't even bad enough. Coupled with some very questionable scenes (like the torture of Prabhudeva's character by a female police officer), and in terms of plot this film just doesn't feel very worth watching.

The positives come from a couple of comical scenes (not provided by the film's comedian Vadivelu, who's so unbearably unfunny it hurts) and the indeed memorable soundtrack. The song visuals include excellent dancing by Prabhudeva, and there's even a couple of scenes where he does some awesome classical dancing. (The blogosphere's resident expert on classical dancing films, MinaiMinai, posted her thoughts on the movie here.) A fun piece of trivia is that my favourite actor Vikram actually dubbed for Prabhudeva in this film. (Don't ask me why, I honestly couldn't tell you..)

I don't want to rag on the film too much. It does have some good bits and pieces that remind me of my favourite Shankar films, and it was obviously a very popular film in its time. But overall, it simply didn't win me over like his others have, and I'm only holding onto the DVD for the fun songs.

Speaking of which, here's one of them - enjoy!



Take it easy!

Are wah! Old Hema Malini pictures, part one.

I'm pretty sure this might be from Meera..


No idea where this might originate from, but adore the shot nonetheless.


I just love old black & white photography in general.


(Truth be told, I wouldn't have found any of these if it wasn't for Tumblr's "hema malini" tag, so credit to all those who find&post wonderful pictures there.)

Why Kanthasamy is over-the-top, out there and exactly as it should be.

This post is a recommendation, though it might not appear it.

After Kanthasamy you may find yourself in a delirious stupor, wondering whether you dreamt it all. Did you just witness a film where Vikram delivers justice while making chicken noises, and Shriya Saran wants to jump his bones so desperately (and who could blame her?) that she imitates a cat? Was this thing the result of a costume designer and a director of photography on a acid trip, or just something you imagined?

I'm here to convince you it was all real, because I witnessed it, too. And if it really was all a mass hallucination, well ... mass hallucinations do not get much better than this. Which is why, if you haven't seen Kanthasamy, you really need to.


Yeah, so, Vikram plays a cop who takes care of bad guys on his spare time using a costume and amazing special effects and has his own theme song (of course!). That is literally the plot. And Shriya is the daughter of one of these bad guys, who plays some mind games with the cop Kanthasamy. Also, she really wants to jump his bones. I don't think I've seen a heroine this sexually assertive in a Tamil film, ever. Is it just to make her sexy or genuinely empowering? Who knows?


Vikram's never met a heroine like this either, clearly.

The reason I love this film is because it's like somebody watched Anniyan and thought, "That wasn't quite strange enough for me," and then they filmed it and somebody else went absolute berserk with the editing software and filters.

And that? Is glorious. It's also got way too many subplots and strings of plot that don't maybe quite all add up but who cares, Vikram kicking ass whilst being the most badass chicken god that ever lived.
You still with me?



Well, come back to me. Allow Vikram's contact-lens-blue eyes hypnotise you back to this world. And by this world, I mean the alternate universe portrayed in this film.


Yeah. That world. Because trust me, the real world with its laws of nature and logic are not worth it.
But Kanthasamy completely is.

All izz still well - Nanban.

Is watching Nanban (English: Friend), the Shankar-directed Tamil remake of Hirani's Hindi all-time blockbuster 3 Idiots, a bit like just rewatching the original? Yes.

Does it really matter? To me, it didn't.

It all comes down to the age-old question of cinema: what (if anything) should you remake, and how should you remake it? I think regional language remakes are universally accepted in Indian cinema. What about when the original is pitch-perfect film making? I get the sense the makers of Nanban did not want to mess with a good story that hits all the right notes, so what they did instead is go a little too faithful - every last little comedic detail is copied from the original, and only on occasion is a little local flare added.

The principals are all very good and true to their Hindi counterparts. Vijay especially manages to evoke with his acting precisely the same kind of character that Aamir made Rancho into. The same playfulness, optimism and good nature is present in Vijay's Pari. Some might say he's just aping Aamir, but in my mind more thought has to have gone into his process than merely taking cues from Aamir's original performance. The character of Raju is now Senthil, but almost eerily similar and played by a guy called Jeeva, who looks so much like Sharman Joshi it's a bit bizarre. Madhavan could've reprised his role as Farhan, I guess, but this Tamil counterpart is now called Venkat and played by Srikanth.

Kareena's spunky Pia has become Ileana's equally spunky Pia. The chemistry between her and Vijay never quite reaches the level that Aamir and Kareena achieved in the original, but they are helped along considerably by the two awesome songs they are given to perform together. But more on that later.

The two principals that weren't up to the task, in my mind, were the Tamil versions of Boman Irani's Virus and Omi Vaidya's already-legendary Silencer character. Both comedic villains come off as hopelessly cartoonish, which I suppose was a problem with Boman's character in the original, but not to this extent. They are just rather annoying.


As the plot is literally scene-for-scene recreated from 3 Idiots, let us focus on what's different. Shankar (pictured here with Ileana) has obviously wanted to honour the original - or was too lazy to think of ways to change things in his own version, I like to think it's the latter. However, the man (who is of course one of my favourite Indian directors) knows what people expect from him, and in not changing the original story or its execution, he does leave a mark on the film with the song sequences.

For those who are new to the magic that is Shankar, well, he really likes computer graphics. And I mean he really likes them. Can't get enough of them. This can be witnessed in nearly all of his films, be they mid-90's flicks where all that CGI thing was new or 2010 spectaculars. He also loves lavish song sequences. I'm pretty sure at least a third of Enthiran's budget was used on songs. Here, he takes the original Harris Jeyaraj soundtrack and spins it into a couple of very Shankar-like picturizations. So much so that "Asku laska", which takes place in the film where "Zoobi doobi" was in the original, is actually a brilliant navel-gazing exercise for Shankar, where he downright playfully parodies his own song picturisations from various films of his.

Suffice to say: it is brilliant.

I think Nanban does well in achieving a perfectly passable remake, that does shed some of the original's brilliance, but is nevertheless a fun viewing experience, filled with good performances (particularly Vijay and Jeeva). Some will harp on this film because it didn't change much, but the same folks would have hated it, had Shankar taken a more original route with his remake. It does feel like a rewatch of the original - but a supremely fun rewatch, and one that I certainly enjoyed.