Dearth of Cinema...

Yes, thats exactly what I am feeling currently... There's a damned 'famine' in the world of 'good' cinema releasing in India... I live in a suburb of Mumbai called 'Navi Mumbai' (or New Bombay, if u like...) and we are fortunate to have 3 'multiplexes' in our close vicinity... Oops, did I say 'fortunate'... I'm sure our friends of the Producers Guild wouldn't agree on that statement... They have conveniently withdrawn any forthcoming films from releasing in multiplexes... And they want the public, through the media of course, to think that they are 'missing out' on something...

But wait, has anyone checked the Release schedules for April ? Conspicuously, there aren't too many big releases scheduled in April anyhow... I had noticed this even before the entire hullaballoo over 'profit-sharing' had begun... The reason... IPL2...

Yes, the big Bollywood producers were smart enough not to schedule any major releases during the IPL2 season, especially after the solid beating films had gotten last summer over the debut IPL season... Seriously, the only films slated to release in April'09 (as per bollywoodhungama.com) are Nagesh Kukunoor's '8x10 Tasveer' & some movie called 'Meri Padosan' (??)... Tasveer is produced by Percept Picture Company, which is not routinely associated with too many 'main-stream' films... And as usual, the big producers will steam roll them in this fight over 'revenue shares'.... However, the producers' plans must've been dented somewhat by the delay in IPL2... But its not really a big issue for them... A delay of 8 days will not dent thier bottom lines... And the multiplex owners have already started tying up & making plans of screening IPL on the big screens....

So who are the losers here ? One is clearly the smaller producers like Percept, which rake in a huge chunk of their revenues from the mutliplex junta... The other, is clearly the avid cinema-goer who prefers the comfort & flexibility offered by mutliplexes over the monotony of the single-screens... I think it'll be a pity if Nagesh Kukunoor's Tasveer loses out in case it is not released at multiplexes... Poor Nagesh has already suffered at the hands of BIG entertainment which apparently backed out half-way from his Aashayein, sayin it wasn't bankable enough... Percept had stepped in there too & will now be releasing the film... I seriously hope that Percept decides to stay out of the battle & release Tasveer in multiplexes too... From their point of view, the film would get an unimpeded run at the box office with no others films slated for release, provided of course, that the film is any good... But going by Nagesh's track record, it should be something to watch out for...

I am a fan of cricket as well as movies, but my appetite usually needs a healthy mix of both, to avoid an upset... :P ... I can only hope that there are some good angrezi movies releasing in April, which make up for the lack in Hindi entertainment...

I will try & keep the blog updated with my experiences, if any... until then.. good bye...

Of Emosunal Attyachar & the 'Monkey in Me'...

Well, to start off, I must apologise for not being regular (again)... I keep having these phases where I just procrastinate about things that I know I wouldn't have to put too much effort in... Things like, writing... Writing is a gift, I guess, that I have... I have always been better in communication with the 'written' word than the 'spoken' word.... In fact, most people (possibly, all people) who know me would concur that I'm a very quiet person... Some might use the word 'Reserved'..... I guess it is true to some extent, since I take quite some time to open up to people when I'm in the speaking mode... Switch to the writing mode, however, & I think people would see a completely different side of me.... Many persons have even admitted this to me.... A case in point is that I have much better & more meaningful conversations with people with whom I'm not that close when I'm on text chat with them....

Getting back to the point, I was trying to say that I put off 'writing' on my blog because I know it really wont take too much effort.... yet, whenever I do get down to writing, it does give me a sort of pleasure that very few other things give me in life... one of those few 'other things' is watching movies....

Which leads me to the update of my cinematic experiences in the past few months (yes, I just realised that I've not blogged since mid-November'08)... I'de mentioned that I was looking forward to Dasvidanya (a masterpiece, if I may say so), RNBDJ (a simple but effective film) & Ghajini (left me a little disappointed since I thought the excellent performances were let down by a weak screenplay, especially in comparison to the original Memento)... I also saw OL!LO! which was really a revelation.... My brother watched the first 20 mins of this movie every day for more than a month, and though I cannot boast of similar records, I did love the performance of Manjyot Singh (who played the young Lucky) & I became an even bigger fan of Abhay Deol.... which brings me to Dev D....

Dev D is our answer to Hollywood greats like Trainspotting (which I've yet to watch) & Requiem to a Dream.... It's a modern day take on Devdas (duh) & relates the story to real life incidents from Delhi (the infamous MMS scandal & the BMW 'kaand')........ The performances are mind-blowing.... the characterisations are extremely good & I'm kinda running out of words to praise the movie further.... I was discussing with someone that Chandramukhi's character is the best portrayed though Dev is the obvious gray-shaded hero.... hats off to Anurag, Abhay, Mahi & Kalki... I'm looking forward to Mahi in Anurag's next, Gulaal, which releases in 10 days....

Now, on to Delhi 6... This is actually the movie which brought me to write this post... since I just got back from watching it... I'd thought I'll watch it in Delhi itself (I was there the weekend it released) but could not get the chance to do so.... Back in Mumbai, I couldn't find anyone to go with me during the week since most people had not heard the best things about it.... Even today, I'd orginally planned on watching Benjamin Button, but I got late & watched Delhi 6... alone, by the way.... Coming back to the point, I don't regret watching it.... the film uses many parallels to point out some of the many hypocrisies which exist in our society today... the usage of parallels is the only similarity with RDB, though, and the comparison with RDB is what, I think, has led to people not liking the film... if one appreciates the film on its own, I think it is an excellent effort which would open the eyes of anyone who understands its true meaning... on the performances front, I think the character actors took the cake here, away from Abhishek, who also plays his part perfectly, but he's the outsider, so his character is pretty straightforward in that respect.... Waheeda Rahman, Rishi Kapoor, Om Puri, Supriya Pathak, Pawan Malhotra, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Vijay Raaz, Deppak Dobriyal, Prem Chopra & the rest deliver excellent performances that showcase the amount of talent we have in our industry.... I also liked the performance of debutante Aditi Rao Hydari, who plays Rama, the unmarried 'bhua' to Sonam Kapoor.... I hadn't watched Saawariya, so this was my first experience of Sonam ... I've pointed out to many people that I like expressive faces in actresses since they can say so much 'more than words'.... (I can't help but hum the song in the mind now) .... Sonam is a prime example of that.... she has beautiful eyes that can pretty muich have a conversation on their own.... I should mention that another recent debutante whom I liked in this respect was Anoushka Sharma, of RNBDJ fame....

Wow... this is already such a long post.... I think that's enough for now... I'm looking forward to Benjamin Button this week & then Gulaal next week.... until then... Good Night, & God Bless !