red srk blue srk.
I couldn't stop myself.
indian popular cinema
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Lencho of the Apes
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Re: indian popular cinema
The opposite of 'reify' is... ?
the short answer for srk's decline is that it's hard to play romantic lead in a straight romance when you're advancing through your '50s.
longer answer i think has to do with how the major hindi studios turned their backs on most of their audience in the mid 90s towards the more lucrative urban multiplex audience and the diaspora (so films could earn more even as they lost audience), and the degree to which srk became the face of that moment, so much so that mani ratnam was already weaponizing the association in 1998! which is a double edged sword, since having that kind of cultural baggage means casting in om shanti om, rab ne bana di jodi, fan, duplicate (all double role films!), ae dil hai mushkil or zero has an actual weight, but also means that weight will push against audience accepting him in something like raees.
like...fan flopped horribly in 2016, at least based on expectations (though it's hard to imagine this film being adopted by massive audience in any situation!), but the two most successful films of the year (sultan and dangal, starring the two rival khans) are genre he won't be accepted in, and third (ae dil hae mushkil) is a film where he would have played lead 15 years ago.
longer answer i think has to do with how the major hindi studios turned their backs on most of their audience in the mid 90s towards the more lucrative urban multiplex audience and the diaspora (so films could earn more even as they lost audience), and the degree to which srk became the face of that moment, so much so that mani ratnam was already weaponizing the association in 1998! which is a double edged sword, since having that kind of cultural baggage means casting in om shanti om, rab ne bana di jodi, fan, duplicate (all double role films!), ae dil hai mushkil or zero has an actual weight, but also means that weight will push against audience accepting him in something like raees.
like...fan flopped horribly in 2016, at least based on expectations (though it's hard to imagine this film being adopted by massive audience in any situation!), but the two most successful films of the year (sultan and dangal, starring the two rival khans) are genre he won't be accepted in, and third (ae dil hae mushkil) is a film where he would have played lead 15 years ago.
Here's my midterm report as I work through my Indian film recommendations:
Khubsoorat - Utterly predictable, but who can complain? We know in advance which man and which woman will fall in love, who will stand in their way, and what the man will have to do to marry the woman. But an unfailing current of good humor carries it along, supplemented by Rekha's energetic acting and some fun songs. Solid studio filmmaking, not trying to be anything else.
Rajnigandha - Another Filmfare Best Picture winner, and I liked this one too. Production values surprisingly low - apartments with bare walls, songs just played over shots of people sitting or riding taxis. The movie opens with a nightmare that reflects the story ahead (nothing to rival Bergman, but that's okay). Like a Eugene O'Neill play the action frequently stops to tell us Deepa's thoughts as her heart veers between her ex in Mumbai and her fiancé in Delhi. For a moment it looked like the film would end on an ambiguous freeze frame of two hands like Charulata.
Visaaranai - It feels mean-spirited not to rate this higher than 7/10; after all the movie (based on a true story) was instrumental in exposing police corruption in southern India. As a movie though it's not much more than a well told tale of migrant workers railroaded and tortured for a robbery they didn't commit, and then, after their liberation and transport home, subjected to even worse injustice.
Eeda - The characters in this modern-day Romeo and Juliet are annoying at first, but their story is somewhat touching, with a couple of beautiful songs. It's more memorable however as a snapshot of Kerala political life - who knew the Communist Party was still so strong in SW India? More smartphone screens than I've ever seen in a movie.
Merku Thodarchi Malai - This one took some patience, but it paid off at the very end. Dedicated to the landless working class worldwide, it's a decidedly leftist film about farmers and political activists in India's Western Ghats. Until the last minutes it never gels into a narrative. The cinematography is stunning throughout - not just the scenery but the way it's shot - and the final shot is astonishing.
Anaarkali of Aarah - Anaarkali is something like a belly dancer in Bihar, a popular performer but disrespected in a deeply sexist society. One evening the local big shot gets drunk and gropes her onstage in front of everybody, and no one dares to stop him. The movie turns into a #MeToo manifesto; it's clever and watchable, but basically a standard revenge plot.
Ghayal - (not from the list of recommendations) This was a big hit, winning Filmfare Best Picture, but essentially a cheap story of vigilante justice peppered with corny jokes. A boxer goes to ridiculous lengths to right the wrong after a druglord tortures and kills his brother. There's one nice song ("Don't Say No") and a pretty amazing dance at the gangster's dock, but not much else to merit watching this.
Andhadhun - I can see why this is so popular. It's full of dramatic irony and exciting surprises - but it doesn't even try to justify its endless plot twists. People meet by crazy chance; they behave unbelievably; and the movie keeps raising the stakes of the drama. The main character escapes from a killer, and he's picked up in the street by organ harvesters... really? Not only does it strain credibility, it also fails to find a satisfying conclusion. It wouldn't have to be a happy ending, but please just let things make sense.
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa - Shah Rukh Khan does everything he can to carry this, and he's good, but it just isn't a strong film. SRK's character is shamelessly in love with his friend's betrothed, putting the audience in a dilemma: We know he shouldn't come between the lovers, but how can Shah Rukh not win the woman? At least the movie finds its appropriate ending. Rapid cutting and incessant dialogue distract from poor execution, but they also distract from the generally good singing and dancing. The supporting characters are wooden, the opening dream sequence isn't very good, and the cinematography is mediocre.
Highway - Liked this, but the ending brought it down a bit. A young woman from a rich family, who looks like an Indian version of Juliette Binoche, falls in love with her kidnapper, but it's not just a pathetic case of Stockholm Syndrome - her natural innocence turns the tables on her captor, bringing out his most sympathetic side. It would be too easy to scoff at her stupidity, or his, or at the story's unlikelihood, but I found myself willing to accept it. However the ending betrays the trust placed in the audience - we already know that she feels imprisoned at home and free with her kidnapper, and we don't need to be told so directly.
Angamaly Diaries - My least favorite so far. A total chaos of gang fights, thuggery, and survival in a corrupt and violent Kerala city. The cutting is like a music video, presumably to distract from the lack of purpose. Many of the characters are pig farmers and butchers, and while it's fortunate that no extreme violence to animals is shown, there's still some rough handling.
Gol Maal - A classical comedy of deception, double identities, and dramatic irony, made by the same director as Khubsoorat (Hrishikesh Mukherjee). Nothing inventive, but similar to Khubsoorat in its consistent high spirits and excellent acting. It's a kind of ego-less, audience-focused filmmaking that we could use more of, in place of rampant auteurism. We'd probably get better films if more directors settled for this kind of old-fashioned moviemaking rather than trying to make "art".
Yuva - Didn't enjoy this much, but I was willing to go with it until the end, which destroyed it for me. Following a shoot-out on a Kolkata road bridge, the first half traces the back stories of 3 young men whose paths converge there: a thug working for a politician, a student leader fighting political corruption, and a romantic and courageous bystander. Their stories meld In the second half, but in the end it's reduced to triumphalism, a rallying cry against a corruption so vague that anyone will see what they want to see in it. The song over the closing credits is obnoxious, celebrating youth and telling old people to get out of the way.
Super Deluxe - What a crazy movie. It starts out conventionally enough, with three interwoven threads about real enough characters at particularly dramatic moments of their lives. But it gradually goes off the rails with a space alien and numerous absurd coincidences. It's certainly enough to hold interest, but it's also cheap drama with philosophizing to match. At the end there's nothing to be learned. I thought a few times of Paul Haggis's film Crash. The cinematography is terrific though, with a gorgeous blue, red, and green palette.
Khubsoorat - Utterly predictable, but who can complain? We know in advance which man and which woman will fall in love, who will stand in their way, and what the man will have to do to marry the woman. But an unfailing current of good humor carries it along, supplemented by Rekha's energetic acting and some fun songs. Solid studio filmmaking, not trying to be anything else.
Rajnigandha - Another Filmfare Best Picture winner, and I liked this one too. Production values surprisingly low - apartments with bare walls, songs just played over shots of people sitting or riding taxis. The movie opens with a nightmare that reflects the story ahead (nothing to rival Bergman, but that's okay). Like a Eugene O'Neill play the action frequently stops to tell us Deepa's thoughts as her heart veers between her ex in Mumbai and her fiancé in Delhi. For a moment it looked like the film would end on an ambiguous freeze frame of two hands like Charulata.
Visaaranai - It feels mean-spirited not to rate this higher than 7/10; after all the movie (based on a true story) was instrumental in exposing police corruption in southern India. As a movie though it's not much more than a well told tale of migrant workers railroaded and tortured for a robbery they didn't commit, and then, after their liberation and transport home, subjected to even worse injustice.
Eeda - The characters in this modern-day Romeo and Juliet are annoying at first, but their story is somewhat touching, with a couple of beautiful songs. It's more memorable however as a snapshot of Kerala political life - who knew the Communist Party was still so strong in SW India? More smartphone screens than I've ever seen in a movie.
Merku Thodarchi Malai - This one took some patience, but it paid off at the very end. Dedicated to the landless working class worldwide, it's a decidedly leftist film about farmers and political activists in India's Western Ghats. Until the last minutes it never gels into a narrative. The cinematography is stunning throughout - not just the scenery but the way it's shot - and the final shot is astonishing.
Anaarkali of Aarah - Anaarkali is something like a belly dancer in Bihar, a popular performer but disrespected in a deeply sexist society. One evening the local big shot gets drunk and gropes her onstage in front of everybody, and no one dares to stop him. The movie turns into a #MeToo manifesto; it's clever and watchable, but basically a standard revenge plot.
Ghayal - (not from the list of recommendations) This was a big hit, winning Filmfare Best Picture, but essentially a cheap story of vigilante justice peppered with corny jokes. A boxer goes to ridiculous lengths to right the wrong after a druglord tortures and kills his brother. There's one nice song ("Don't Say No") and a pretty amazing dance at the gangster's dock, but not much else to merit watching this.
Andhadhun - I can see why this is so popular. It's full of dramatic irony and exciting surprises - but it doesn't even try to justify its endless plot twists. People meet by crazy chance; they behave unbelievably; and the movie keeps raising the stakes of the drama. The main character escapes from a killer, and he's picked up in the street by organ harvesters... really? Not only does it strain credibility, it also fails to find a satisfying conclusion. It wouldn't have to be a happy ending, but please just let things make sense.
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa - Shah Rukh Khan does everything he can to carry this, and he's good, but it just isn't a strong film. SRK's character is shamelessly in love with his friend's betrothed, putting the audience in a dilemma: We know he shouldn't come between the lovers, but how can Shah Rukh not win the woman? At least the movie finds its appropriate ending. Rapid cutting and incessant dialogue distract from poor execution, but they also distract from the generally good singing and dancing. The supporting characters are wooden, the opening dream sequence isn't very good, and the cinematography is mediocre.
Highway - Liked this, but the ending brought it down a bit. A young woman from a rich family, who looks like an Indian version of Juliette Binoche, falls in love with her kidnapper, but it's not just a pathetic case of Stockholm Syndrome - her natural innocence turns the tables on her captor, bringing out his most sympathetic side. It would be too easy to scoff at her stupidity, or his, or at the story's unlikelihood, but I found myself willing to accept it. However the ending betrays the trust placed in the audience - we already know that she feels imprisoned at home and free with her kidnapper, and we don't need to be told so directly.
Angamaly Diaries - My least favorite so far. A total chaos of gang fights, thuggery, and survival in a corrupt and violent Kerala city. The cutting is like a music video, presumably to distract from the lack of purpose. Many of the characters are pig farmers and butchers, and while it's fortunate that no extreme violence to animals is shown, there's still some rough handling.
Gol Maal - A classical comedy of deception, double identities, and dramatic irony, made by the same director as Khubsoorat (Hrishikesh Mukherjee). Nothing inventive, but similar to Khubsoorat in its consistent high spirits and excellent acting. It's a kind of ego-less, audience-focused filmmaking that we could use more of, in place of rampant auteurism. We'd probably get better films if more directors settled for this kind of old-fashioned moviemaking rather than trying to make "art".
Yuva - Didn't enjoy this much, but I was willing to go with it until the end, which destroyed it for me. Following a shoot-out on a Kolkata road bridge, the first half traces the back stories of 3 young men whose paths converge there: a thug working for a politician, a student leader fighting political corruption, and a romantic and courageous bystander. Their stories meld In the second half, but in the end it's reduced to triumphalism, a rallying cry against a corruption so vague that anyone will see what they want to see in it. The song over the closing credits is obnoxious, celebrating youth and telling old people to get out of the way.
Super Deluxe - What a crazy movie. It starts out conventionally enough, with three interwoven threads about real enough characters at particularly dramatic moments of their lives. But it gradually goes off the rails with a space alien and numerous absurd coincidences. It's certainly enough to hold interest, but it's also cheap drama with philosophizing to match. At the end there's nothing to be learned. I thought a few times of Paul Haggis's film Crash. The cinematography is terrific though, with a gorgeous blue, red, and green palette.
tbh i've been creepin on your boxd ratings, since you said you'd be watching lots of indian films, so i knew about quite a few of these reactions before you posted. here's my lil mini rundown:
visaaranai - agree! solid 3.5 (or 7, depending on your rating scale) feels accurate. not sold that political/societal importance of a film equates to an automatic cinematic masterpiece. did really enjoy the structure of this one tho, the relentlessness of it, like the dardennes bros if they discovered the concept of a more stationary camera
eeda - read this as 'eega' at first, so i was confused af when i read your thoughts, and thought to myself, 'wow i really misread the meaning behind eega, and need to revisit it asap'
anaarkali of aarah - i'd have to go back through my boxd diary, but i think this was like the first realdeal indian pic i watched (that wasn't satyajit ray) thx to our boy nrh, so my sentimentality toward it might be skewed, but i enjoyed this one oh so much. didn't think about its metoo gravitas (see above comment on poli/soci whatnot) cuz it would've been difficult for the flick to jump on that bandwagon given its release date and the metoo timeline, i.e., seemed like it was metooing before metooing was kool. i guess, for me, it was just a great intro to indian cinema. it held true to certain staples, like the musical sequences, while still telling a more social realist fable, and all within a reasonable runtime for a n00b like me. idk. this is the indian movie i'd show to peeps who had never watched an indian film before. seems transcontinental in that way
andhadhun - it's a genre pic! it's like brian de palma made an indian flick! sometimes things are so well done that i don't need subtle and underlying meanings to make them more than what they are. a million hollywood producers would give their right arm (or left, depending on which hand they write with) to make something this solid
kabhi haan kabhi naa - srk5lyf
yuva - awww. this is one of the few i watched without outside recs (of course, it's directed by my man mani ratnam, so i naturally gradually found my way to it after being rec'd dil se.. by certain folks... ahem), so i was hoping you'd like it. i remember the preachiness to a certain extent, but mostly recall the grittiness (it was my first encounter with abhishek bachchan, and his nasty dirty sleazeball portrayal impressed me greatly), a sort of romanticized underbelly that seemed interesting. also, admittedly, i might just be a huge sucker for kareena kapoor
super deluxe - yeah. idk. but fuxk crash. few films are as bad as crash
now i know why kanafani's stats said we had the least in common
That's hilarious
...especially because I also keep reading it as "Eega" which I've never seen but know about.Sorry to spoil on Andhadhun and Yuva, but it looks like we agreed more often than not, Kanafani's stats notwithstanding. I'd forgotten we were supposed to be so far apart. Let's see how the next round goes - I've saved the Shyam Benegals and a couple of SRK's biggest hits (Main Hoon Na, Swades).
Anyone's welcome to stalk
Still, the numeric ratings don't capture the ambivalence of some of my reactions. For example, I genuinely liked most of Highway but dropped it to 6/10 because of its ending. Anaarkali and Yuva also looked better until their last scenes. On the other hand I would have rated Merku Thodarchi Malai two or three points lower if its ending hadn't justified the rest. A medium rating can look like a big "ho-hum" but it's often more nuanced.
mysskin is kind of incapable of making a dull movie at this point but thought that psycho was one of his only recent films where the whole is just far less than sum of its parts (even yudham sai the friction between elements works to the movie's benefit, at least to some extent).
serial killer is kidnapping women and chopping off their heads. blind musician stalks radio dj who gets kidnapped before his eyes (as it were) and has to save her when the police fail. it's kind of great set-piece after great set-piece, and there's something wonderful about the way mysskin can make the whole narrative world of the film move on its own very peculiar terms, a logic that's somewhere between late lang and...late shyamalan or someone? to in ptu mode?
would have to see it again to think about why it really doesn't work for me on the level of his best...
trikal (shyam benegal) benegal by way of raul ruiz, with a dash of victor erice thrown in for good measure. a film about foreignness as a sense of time (hence, past, present, and future), as well as place. narratively floating along like an apparition, not necessarily without momentum or purpose, but without notice. things always happening that you never see coming, and all set to mesmerizing by-candlelight cinematography. the spiritual sister to mandi, with its chamber piece-esque unfolding, ensemble cast, female focal point, but a very different beast at the same time. way less grounded. damn near a horror film during certain sequences. a mystery even. once again, wholly impressed with benegal's direction. a shotmaker of the highest order. didn't quite reach the heights of mandi for me, but no less impressive in its layered immersion. another flick you can get lost in
Yeah, that reminded me of Ruiz too. I just upped my rating by another star because it's sat so well in my memory the last few weeks. I thought it was a lot stronger on atmosphere than on narrative, but what it does, it does well.
I'm still working through the Indian film watchlist you guys gave me, but I've been sidetracked in a few other directions - one of which is the fortuitous appearance of Marguerite Duras' India Song on Mubi this month in my current country. India Song is my favorite movie not available on subtitled dvd, so I'm rushing to watch it again and again this month. Not actually filmed in India, as I'm sure you all know, but it does conjure the place through Duras' own magic.
finally got to fareeda mehta's kali salwaar, beautiful and very odd film, bombay haunted by manto and his people. can't believe she only made this one feature to date.
Looks like a decent copy of Mouna Ragam is streaming on prime. Essential for anyone into Mani Ratnam
after a long spell of just not feeling interested in watching movies at all we saw two very exciting films from young directors, both would've been premiering in theaters this year -
nasir, arun karthik -
a day in the life of a muslim clothing store clerk in the city of coimbatore. very beautiful, very textured just in the way it unfolds - this is a movie that lasts less than 80 minutes in which the first 30 minutes are taken up by the hero waking up at 6:30 am to him dropping his wife off at a bus at 8:30 am. its also a horrifying bleak film, the impossibility of "assimilation" as a goal in a fully right wing radicalized culture. even before the end it's the feel of being part of a city and somehow not allowed to be of it.
eeb allay oo!, prateek vas
young migrant moves to delhi and gets a contract job as a monkey repeller - basically asked to scream at the monkeys that have come to infest the city, but can't be harmed because of their holy status. some wild street shooting in this, where it becomes hard to tell what is staged/scripted and what is spontaneous reaction by crowds.
for all the detailed city realism there is a fable like feel that reminds me of the best late 80s/early 90s buddhadev dasgupta (esp. bagh bahadur and charachar), even as the form is quite dissimilar. if nasir is more or less perfectly formed this one is weird and knotted, and i think all the more exciting for it. the monkeys themselves are truly amazing.
both up soon in the usual place if anyone is interested.
nasir, arun karthik -
a day in the life of a muslim clothing store clerk in the city of coimbatore. very beautiful, very textured just in the way it unfolds - this is a movie that lasts less than 80 minutes in which the first 30 minutes are taken up by the hero waking up at 6:30 am to him dropping his wife off at a bus at 8:30 am. its also a horrifying bleak film, the impossibility of "assimilation" as a goal in a fully right wing radicalized culture. even before the end it's the feel of being part of a city and somehow not allowed to be of it.
eeb allay oo!, prateek vas
young migrant moves to delhi and gets a contract job as a monkey repeller - basically asked to scream at the monkeys that have come to infest the city, but can't be harmed because of their holy status. some wild street shooting in this, where it becomes hard to tell what is staged/scripted and what is spontaneous reaction by crowds.
for all the detailed city realism there is a fable like feel that reminds me of the best late 80s/early 90s buddhadev dasgupta (esp. bagh bahadur and charachar), even as the form is quite dissimilar. if nasir is more or less perfectly formed this one is weird and knotted, and i think all the more exciting for it. the monkeys themselves are truly amazing.
both up soon in the usual place if anyone is interested.
Very glad to hear that! I thought you might enjoy it... hope a few others will check it out.
By the way, I'm in the middle of preparing the second installment of my Indian popular cinema reviews. I've been watching a bunch lately, thanks to you and NRH who gave me the impetus a few months ago.
By the way, I'm in the middle of preparing the second installment of my Indian popular cinema reviews. I've been watching a bunch lately, thanks to you and NRH who gave me the impetus a few months ago.
Three months ago I posted my midterm report on NRH's & Thoxans' recommendations. I thought I'd be done by now, but my Indian watchlist keeps growing, so I'll do three parts instead of two. My next report will include the two remaining recommendations (Sairat and Nathicharami), a Hrishikesh Mukherjee marathon that I just finished, and a few classic Bollywood movies recently released in the Mubi Library.
Mandi - First of three Shyam Benegal films in a row. What's most impressive is the skillful interlacing of diverse character types and little plot threads around a brothel that's being pushed to the far edge of town. With so little shared plot this could have been a mess, but everything fits right. It could work as a microcosm of almost any society, with similar stresses and similar possible solutions... in other words, a nice way to remind people of our togetherness.
Trikal - Atmospheric evocation of historical Goa, as Naseeruddin Shah's character revisits and recalls his life and love there in the weeks before Portugal returned it to India. The film feels a lot like a Raul Ruiz: the antique Portuguese setting, the time travel, the ghost story - but it lacks Ruiz's fascination with storytelling.
Welcome to Sajjanpur - This makes up for Trikal's narrative shortcomings. If only the beauty and atmosphere of Trikal were combined with this level of storytelling, Benegal would have his 9-star film. The ending justifies everything else - maybe not quite as neatly as C/o Kancharapalem, but still pretty satisfying.
Bazaar - A portrait of how wealth tends to abuse its power. The humanity of the argument, especially on behalf of women, helps to overcome the low production values. But until its last act the film seems to lack direction. The boy who's supposed to be sympathetic at the end is inexcusably selfish earlier, but the girl he throws over forgives him so I suppose we're supposed to too.
Bulbul Can Sing - A sensitive portrayal of the hardships of teenage life in rural Assam, universal enough to be relatable anywhere. I'm not so fond though of the extreme realism and leaden seriousness, and the movie is more a collection of incidents than a real narrative.
Sudani from Nigeria - A Nigerian soccer player finds himself stranded in Kerala when he injures his leg and can't afford to go home. The first half seems to go nowhere, but it lays the groundwork for an emotionally moving second half. The acting is fine, and the ending is suitably touching.
Dev.D - Ultra-contemporary retelling of Bollywood classic Devdas with drugs, prostitution, and overt allusions to sex. The first two parts seem disconnected, but the third stitches them together. As Dev plunges into the Delhi underworld, the movie turns into a lite version of Enter the Void. There's an amazing trio of male nightclub dancers in 1940s suits who are not given enough screen time.
Haider - Shakespeare in Kashmir, with an admirable political relevance. A young man's loyalty to his missing father turns him against his mother and his uncle (her new lover). It's well acted (especially Haider and his mother), but it lacks the little touches of inspiration in setting, musical numbers, staging, gestures, or editing that could have made it great.
Thithi - A 101-year-old man sits in a Karnataka town insulting everyone who passes by, then he squats behind a store and dies. The rest of the movie shows how his funeral complicates the lives of three generations of male descendants under him: the free-spirited grandfather who just wants to roam around enjoying life; his son who schemes to claim the land his father doesn't care about; and the grandson who pursues a shepherd's daughter. In short, the youth is motivated by love, the adult by economics, and the old man by the wonders of life. It's a nice way of describing universal variations in motivation, sort of like Dorothy's three companions in Oz who embody three elements of being human (mind, heart, and courage).
Om Dar-B-Dar - Magical realist story of a young man named Om growing up in Rajasthan, with numerous allusions to religion, politics, and frogs. Sort of like an Indian version of Putney Swope, or maybe another French New Wave derivative like William Klein. It's hard to make much sense of this, but it overflows with clever absurdities. Shot on cheap low-definition color stock; it must have had an extremely low budget.
PK - Aamir Khan plays an interplanetary alien who gets stuck on Earth when a man steals his signalling device. The movie admirably attacks the ways people use religion to play God, but it's weakened by its use of an absurd straw man in the person of a popular Hindu guru. Anushka Sharma's performance is the only credible thing in the movie; Aamir Khan never should have let the studio make him look so goofy.
Happy New Year - Spectacular aerial shots of Dubai lead into an unbearable opening flurry of cheap action, bad jokes, and exaggerated masculinity. It becomes slightly more tolerable once the dancing and heist get underway. There's a vertiginous fight scene on a helipad, and the big safe they rob is a good set-piece, but the rivalry with a North Korean dance team (how conveniently evil!) is a cheap shot, and the whole plot feels forced. For a movie revolving around a dance competition we don't get to see much dancing.
Party - A bunch of artists, intellectuals, and big shots converge in a dramatic house party. Not too bad, though it's too obviously based on a play, and the characters veer too close to stereotypes. Still there's enough serious thought to make it worthwhile, and the ending has the right idea, letting reality crash against everyone's theory.
Swades - A rousing story guided by the best kind of patriotism, the kind that lifts up a country starting with its poorest. Unfortunately it's not quite as well written as it deserves to be. Each inserted conflict feels cooked up to suit the plot, and making Shah Rukh Khan too heroic isn't the right approach. Letting him win the wrestling match at the end is overkill, even if it's supposed to be a light touch.
Main Hoon Na - The story of an Indian army major assigned to pose as a college student in Darjeeling is even more ridiculous than it sounds, and the whole movie is irritatingly goofy. Its heart is in the right place though, promoting friendship between India and Pakistan over militant extremism. The acting is uneven, but the villain is quite good.
Petta - Thrilling enough as an action movie, with a charismatic lead, an attractive setting, and outstanding color cinematography. The idea of a staff member encouraging romance at a boarding school is reminiscent of Mohabbatein, but this pales in comparison. At heart it's simply a story of exaggerated heroism and score settling.
Donkey in a Brahmin Village - A moderately impressive moral fable. Like many silent films the moving camera adds a lot to the film's voice, punctuating the drama with quick zooms and unexpected pans. The film begins and ends with an ode to fire, probably alluding to the cult of Shiva but also ironic because the humans' destructive behavior is so tragic. Saw this in a terrible print on YouTube.
Paar - A man and his wife are driven by desperate circumstances from their Bihar village to Calcutta. Haven't both Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray made movies with the same plot? The last scene makes a strong impression, but the rest feels like a rehash of neorealist poverty drama.
Most enjoyable: Welcome to Sajjanpur
Most memorable: Trikal
Most thoughtful: Thithi
Mandi - First of three Shyam Benegal films in a row. What's most impressive is the skillful interlacing of diverse character types and little plot threads around a brothel that's being pushed to the far edge of town. With so little shared plot this could have been a mess, but everything fits right. It could work as a microcosm of almost any society, with similar stresses and similar possible solutions... in other words, a nice way to remind people of our togetherness.
Trikal - Atmospheric evocation of historical Goa, as Naseeruddin Shah's character revisits and recalls his life and love there in the weeks before Portugal returned it to India. The film feels a lot like a Raul Ruiz: the antique Portuguese setting, the time travel, the ghost story - but it lacks Ruiz's fascination with storytelling.
Welcome to Sajjanpur - This makes up for Trikal's narrative shortcomings. If only the beauty and atmosphere of Trikal were combined with this level of storytelling, Benegal would have his 9-star film. The ending justifies everything else - maybe not quite as neatly as C/o Kancharapalem, but still pretty satisfying.
Bazaar - A portrait of how wealth tends to abuse its power. The humanity of the argument, especially on behalf of women, helps to overcome the low production values. But until its last act the film seems to lack direction. The boy who's supposed to be sympathetic at the end is inexcusably selfish earlier, but the girl he throws over forgives him so I suppose we're supposed to too.
Bulbul Can Sing - A sensitive portrayal of the hardships of teenage life in rural Assam, universal enough to be relatable anywhere. I'm not so fond though of the extreme realism and leaden seriousness, and the movie is more a collection of incidents than a real narrative.
Sudani from Nigeria - A Nigerian soccer player finds himself stranded in Kerala when he injures his leg and can't afford to go home. The first half seems to go nowhere, but it lays the groundwork for an emotionally moving second half. The acting is fine, and the ending is suitably touching.
Dev.D - Ultra-contemporary retelling of Bollywood classic Devdas with drugs, prostitution, and overt allusions to sex. The first two parts seem disconnected, but the third stitches them together. As Dev plunges into the Delhi underworld, the movie turns into a lite version of Enter the Void. There's an amazing trio of male nightclub dancers in 1940s suits who are not given enough screen time.
Haider - Shakespeare in Kashmir, with an admirable political relevance. A young man's loyalty to his missing father turns him against his mother and his uncle (her new lover). It's well acted (especially Haider and his mother), but it lacks the little touches of inspiration in setting, musical numbers, staging, gestures, or editing that could have made it great.
Thithi - A 101-year-old man sits in a Karnataka town insulting everyone who passes by, then he squats behind a store and dies. The rest of the movie shows how his funeral complicates the lives of three generations of male descendants under him: the free-spirited grandfather who just wants to roam around enjoying life; his son who schemes to claim the land his father doesn't care about; and the grandson who pursues a shepherd's daughter. In short, the youth is motivated by love, the adult by economics, and the old man by the wonders of life. It's a nice way of describing universal variations in motivation, sort of like Dorothy's three companions in Oz who embody three elements of being human (mind, heart, and courage).
Om Dar-B-Dar - Magical realist story of a young man named Om growing up in Rajasthan, with numerous allusions to religion, politics, and frogs. Sort of like an Indian version of Putney Swope, or maybe another French New Wave derivative like William Klein. It's hard to make much sense of this, but it overflows with clever absurdities. Shot on cheap low-definition color stock; it must have had an extremely low budget.
PK - Aamir Khan plays an interplanetary alien who gets stuck on Earth when a man steals his signalling device. The movie admirably attacks the ways people use religion to play God, but it's weakened by its use of an absurd straw man in the person of a popular Hindu guru. Anushka Sharma's performance is the only credible thing in the movie; Aamir Khan never should have let the studio make him look so goofy.
Happy New Year - Spectacular aerial shots of Dubai lead into an unbearable opening flurry of cheap action, bad jokes, and exaggerated masculinity. It becomes slightly more tolerable once the dancing and heist get underway. There's a vertiginous fight scene on a helipad, and the big safe they rob is a good set-piece, but the rivalry with a North Korean dance team (how conveniently evil!) is a cheap shot, and the whole plot feels forced. For a movie revolving around a dance competition we don't get to see much dancing.
Party - A bunch of artists, intellectuals, and big shots converge in a dramatic house party. Not too bad, though it's too obviously based on a play, and the characters veer too close to stereotypes. Still there's enough serious thought to make it worthwhile, and the ending has the right idea, letting reality crash against everyone's theory.
Swades - A rousing story guided by the best kind of patriotism, the kind that lifts up a country starting with its poorest. Unfortunately it's not quite as well written as it deserves to be. Each inserted conflict feels cooked up to suit the plot, and making Shah Rukh Khan too heroic isn't the right approach. Letting him win the wrestling match at the end is overkill, even if it's supposed to be a light touch.
Main Hoon Na - The story of an Indian army major assigned to pose as a college student in Darjeeling is even more ridiculous than it sounds, and the whole movie is irritatingly goofy. Its heart is in the right place though, promoting friendship between India and Pakistan over militant extremism. The acting is uneven, but the villain is quite good.
Petta - Thrilling enough as an action movie, with a charismatic lead, an attractive setting, and outstanding color cinematography. The idea of a staff member encouraging romance at a boarding school is reminiscent of Mohabbatein, but this pales in comparison. At heart it's simply a story of exaggerated heroism and score settling.
Donkey in a Brahmin Village - A moderately impressive moral fable. Like many silent films the moving camera adds a lot to the film's voice, punctuating the drama with quick zooms and unexpected pans. The film begins and ends with an ode to fire, probably alluding to the cult of Shiva but also ironic because the humans' destructive behavior is so tragic. Saw this in a terrible print on YouTube.
Paar - A man and his wife are driven by desperate circumstances from their Bihar village to Calcutta. Haven't both Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray made movies with the same plot? The last scene makes a strong impression, but the rest feels like a rehash of neorealist poverty drama.
Most enjoyable: Welcome to Sajjanpur
Most memorable: Trikal
Most thoughtful: Thithi
criterion is talking about a ten film bollywood set??
once again we are the trendsetters
once again we are the trendsetters
Ankur and Paar are one of the most favorite discoveries of this year. never heard it before cause had a little interest about Indian cinema..
gonna explore more of Indian movie this year(thanks to Mubi)
gonna explore more of Indian movie this year(thanks to Mubi)
i mean...forced migration is pretty much *the* story of bengal (and bangladesh) in the last century. it's kind of shitty to think they'd want to make like two movies about it in the last century and then politely abstain.Umbugbene wrote: ↑Tue Jun 09, 2020 12:12 pm Paar - A man and his wife are driven by desperate circumstances from their Bihar village to Calcutta. Haven't both Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray made movies with the same plot? The last scene makes a strong impression, but the rest feels like a rehash of neorealist poverty drama.
Maybe not in the particulars, but I believe there are limits to the effectiveness of rubbing viewers' noses in the hardships of poverty and oppression. You could make movies like that endlessly, but will it open people's eyes any further? Or change society? It's an easy way to approach a critical subject, but I don't think it's the most thoughtful approach. Doesn't it wind up as a form of sentimentality?
the particulars?Umbugbene wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:14 amMaybe not in the particulars, but I believe there are limits to the effectiveness of rubbing viewers' noses in the hardships of poverty and oppression. You could make movies like that endlessly, but will it open people's eyes any further? Or change society? It's an easy way to approach a critical subject, but I don't think it's the most thoughtful approach. Doesn't it wind up as a form of sentimentality?
I'm willing to consider that I might have missed something special about Paar. The ending made an impression; the rest of it felt to me like an extremely familiar story without adding anything new. I don't think it's a bad movie; I like it, but within limits.
i'm being a little mean but i don't think you're saying anything about the movie that could't be gotten from watching it on fast forward. gose was a photojournalist and documentarian (as well as being involved in a bunch of important leftist theater organizations) before being a director, and the film is probably over-stuffed as a kind of documentation of prominent social issues of the time, but i don't know, that kind of aggressive sense of anger is maybe not fashionable (something like raju murugan's gypsy got widely insulted for that just this year) but i think is valuable.Umbugbene wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 6:38 am I'm willing to consider that I might have missed something special about Paar. The ending made an impression; the rest of it felt to me like an extremely familiar story without adding anything new. I don't think it's a bad movie; I like it, but within limits.
more importantly gose is a great photographer - to appreciate this movie i think you have to step outside the sometimes busy narrative, really look at what he's shooting and how he's shooting it. i could raise similar objections for pretty much every line you wrote in your indian film watching update but i think your objection to this one, that a bengali filmmaker making a film about forced migration in the '80s was somehow just treading over familiar territory, really stuck like a fishbone in the throat.
And what's irritating to me is that you keep telling me I'm wrong without telling me WHY I'm wrong. As I said, I'm willing to change my mind, but you haven't begun to make a case for the film. I read your Letterboxd review, which is well enough written, but like so much film criticism it puts all the weight on adjectives, which no one can argue with either way. Pointing to the great photography doesn't cut it as a defense of a film. What exactly is it saying, and how does it communicate that?
Admittedly my own brief lines above are not proper film criticism either. They're only my impressions... which is why I don't post them on LB. I think I took a nuanced view of each film and tried to see the good in each, but if my opinions bother you so much I'll skip the next installment.
Admittedly my own brief lines above are not proper film criticism either. They're only my impressions... which is why I don't post them on LB. I think I took a nuanced view of each film and tried to see the good in each, but if my opinions bother you so much I'll skip the next installment.
sir if i didn't want you to post your opinions i'd just pretend to ignore them instead of harassing you openly like thisUmbugbene wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:40 pm Admittedly my own brief lines above are not proper film criticism either. They're only my impressions... which is why I don't post them on LB. I think I took a nuanced view of each film and tried to see the good in each, but if my opinions bother you so much I'll skip the next installment.
i picked paar out of all the films to argue about because it's precisely one i don't particularly love, but also a film that i thought you were somewhat dismissing. and dismissing in terms that seemed loaded in certain ways.
to boil paar down to a film that just another forced migration bengali movie, as if there can only be two or something, is genuinely frustrating. and why should it have to say anything? a film is an object that is, that breathes and lives and moves, not a statement or a message to be decoded. photogenie is a dumb idea but idk this movie has it.
anyway looking forward to your next round, based on the hrishikesh ratings i've seen from you on letterboxd i know i'll be frustrated
If you don't think a movie can express ideas then you're missing a large part of what movies are capable of. I don't like the words "statement" or "message" because, to me at least, they have a reductive connotation. I prefer "purpose" or "argument". If a movie "says something" that doesn't mean you can distill it to words, but good criticism can help readers see how a film intensifies or alters the way we can view the world or view a particular subject like forced migration.
I hope you didn't get the impression that I wasn't sympathetic to the characters in Paar. That should go without saying for any decent person, and as far as I can tell I agree with Ghose's politics. I don't think running characters through a gauntlet of miseries is an especially good strategy for illuminating anything, but if you could tell me what I missed - maybe describe the logic of the photography instead of your impressions of it - I think I'd be likely to improve my rating. I've been wrong about films countless times... movies are so complex that it's rare for any one person to catch everything that's going on, especially in one viewing.
As for Mukherjee, I genuinely like most of his films, and I found at least one of them to be brilliant. Or maybe you thought I was overrating them?
I hope you didn't get the impression that I wasn't sympathetic to the characters in Paar. That should go without saying for any decent person, and as far as I can tell I agree with Ghose's politics. I don't think running characters through a gauntlet of miseries is an especially good strategy for illuminating anything, but if you could tell me what I missed - maybe describe the logic of the photography instead of your impressions of it - I think I'd be likely to improve my rating. I've been wrong about films countless times... movies are so complex that it's rare for any one person to catch everything that's going on, especially in one viewing.
As for Mukherjee, I genuinely like most of his films, and I found at least one of them to be brilliant. Or maybe you thought I was overrating them?
c/o kancharapalem (maha venkatesh) haven't written anything in so long that i feel at a loss for words, which is a shame cuz this one deserves more. alas, i keep typing sentences, then deleting them. in vain, just a handful of thoughts: probs the best film i've seen so far this year, and certainly one of the best indian films i've ever seen; first hour is sublime romanticism of the highest order, never false or forced, just a natural, gradual blossoming of loving feelings (think about what it's like to go on a really awesome first date with someone you like like; that's how the first hour of this feels); the direction is superb throughout, done with a great deal of understated precision, and a very sparing use of overt stylization (there's some slow motion here and there, but even that's handled delicately, utilized only when it's absolutely called for); karthik rathnam immediately gets inducted into the pantheon of all-time great heads of hair, not to mention mustaches (except that that honor might go to co-star mohan bhagath; but sally's a better judge of staches than i, so i'll leave the final word to her on this heated subject); dat ending doe, had me straight up catching my breath, while tears welled up in my eyes
So good to read your reaction! I'll let the mustache experts decide whose facial hair gets immortalized, but I agree with everything you said. Just afraid to say too much, because it needs to be seen. This reminds me to up the pressure on some family members I recommended this to.
i've def rec'd it to multiple irl people already. it's just flatout welldone. gave it a four on boxd just cuz i don't currently do half-stars, and i use the lencho scale when it comes to my fives, but this was at least a four-and-a-half tbh. also tried not to write too much about it. will just say the confluence of its sectionality was divine. highly rec'd for fellow super champs. nrh has gotta see it just cuz. rischka should heart it. brian d would be on board. curtis could get down. greg's probs already seen it, along with the director's other films (even tho the director has directed only this one film so far). roscoe would begrudgingly find himself enjoying it in the end. joks might give it a seven (maybe a six point five). wba watches only unseen silent films with the sound turned off...