Kim Ki Duk

Cinefan screened one of Korean director Kim Ki Duk's initial films Bird Cage Inn. The auditorium was packed considering the man behind the film that was about to be screened. Kim Ki Duk has had a phenomenal rise in the world of cinema and is often considered to be one of the most interesting filmmaker operating out of Asia today. To say that his films have a very strong impact on your mind would be stating the obvious; his films have a strange haunting quality that lingers on your mind long after you have finished the film. He has a knack for picking up very basic ideas and adding layers to them; he once saiud that most of his ideas originate from 'hatered'.

Kim Ki Duk's breakthrough film, The Isle, was also the first film of the director that I saw. The film had a very simple premise- a mute girl works as a helper in a fishing resort way out in the Korean wilderness. She sells food, bait and some times herself to the tourists. In the course of the film she falls in love with a man after saving him with a fishing hook when he tries to commit suicide. The stark images, the rare dialogue and great production design were a few of the things that set The Isle apart.

The style of The Isle would became the directors trademark- little dialogue, striking images, interesting sequences and most importantly high original concepts. The other important films in his repertoire are Bad Guy, Address Unknown, Samaritan Girl but the two films that really stand out Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring and 3-Iron. The former is about the various stages in a humans life as well as the basic emotions that we live through. It deals with solitude, love, innocence, corruption and most importantly redemption. Kim Ki Duk uses a Buddhist monk's life as a metaphor; this monk lives on a floating house and it's through his eyes that we see the journey of a human life. The film has some stunning cinematography and lots of metaphors, the staple of any Kim Ki Duk film.

3-Iron has a young drifter who breaks into strangers' houses - and lives - while owners are away. He spends time by living it up and repaying their unknown hospitality by doing laundry or small repairs. The man bumps into a beautiful woman who's suffers at the hands of an abusive husband and a loveless marriage. The man is caught and jailed but when he comes back the women couldn't be happier. The film has a very metaphysical quality about it and meanders between the brilliant and the bizarre but is still beautiful.

Coming back to Bird Cage Inn, the running time seems too long and the long silences somehow don't convince. The film is about a family that takes in a prostitute and how her being there threatens to destroy the family. But more often than not things that break us are the very things that bind us as well but somehow the basic message is played for too long. There are almost 8 major characters and each has their moment so you can imagine the effect on the story. One can see many future Kim Ki Duk references and characters taking shape in Bird Cage Inn but that's not enough to enjoy the film. For some one who has seen better fare from Kim Ki Duk, Bird Cage Inn is only important for anthropological reasons.

Image Courtsey: www.horosheekino.ru

Tender Is The Wolf

It's Cinefan time again and I kicked off my film watching spree with an accidental choice. I reached two hours before the time for the film that I wanted to see and ended up viewing a Tunisian film called Tender Is The Wolf. What unfolded in the first few minutes of the film showed great promise but somehow failed to deliver. The story is set in some nameless city and shows the harsh realism of modern Tunisian life. There’s this woman who is getting ready for an evening on the town in a red dress. It fits like a dream.

That evening we see three young men fight for some dudes take off with the stuff one of them sold on the street. They are pissed and one of them is an albino who keeps dancing for no reason and when he has a reason, he dances then as well. One more guy, in his 30’s stays with his over protective mother and over bearing father, joins the three.

As the four dudes sit and drink and smoke up, the woman in the red dress comes from her flat to hitch the cab that has been sent by her date for the evening. One of them men makes fun of her and the fiery woman in that figure hugging fiery dress retorts. The men are pissed, the albino decides to teach her a lesson and the three gang rape her. The fourth dude, actually an over grown kid, tries stopping but fails. The woman is pissed at them for they have spoilt her dress. It’s a nightmare.

The girl asks her brother to get even and he bashes up the only guy who didn't do anything. The girl doesn't stop her brother and enjoys it. He is left to die butt naked on the streets but somehow manages to get home and get dressed to go out, find his friends and search the girl to teach her a lesson. The girl and the guy hook up, end up making love and discovering true love. The man proposes and the woman accepts even though she is sure that he'll walk out on her; the man assures her that he'll not for he's learnt a lot in the course of that one night.

Come morning and the woman walks out on the man and he is left licking his wounds. The build up of these two lead characters- Abdelmoumen Chouiette as the over grown kid and a beautiful looking Anissa Daoud as the woman in red- as two sides of the same coin worked for the few minutes but just looses it in between. The setting of the film is very realistic and gritty but it doesn't really take off. There are few shots which are in black and white, can’t figure out why? Barring a few sequences that stay in the mind for some time, it’s the lead wolves (didn’t know who was the real ‘wolf’ in the title) that stand out in the film. At 83 minutes director Jilani Saadi's vision felt a little long or have I gotten so used to non-sense that perhaps I'm not being able to see the good in it? That's my problem with these slice of life kind of films- there has to be a little something more that just a juicy looking chunk of meat.

Image Courtsey: Philadelphia Film Fest

Aap Ka Surroor- the Moviee

I survived Aap Ka Surroor!

In case you wondering why the hell did I leave everything else to catch the first day first show of Himesh Reshamiya’s debut film, let me tell you that I’ve lost my head…not yet at least. I was to review the film for rediff.com

I was pleasantly surprised to see 80% attendance for a 10:30am show. Three people in the audience had Himesh songs as ring tones; there was a young man who came all alone to catch the real ‘luv’ story; people behind me knew details about HR’s personal life that I had no clue about. What does this tell you? That Himesh’s PR is good and should be congratulated.

The film is a prime example of how to cash on a success wave; it’s been two years since Himesh has been belting out hit pe hit pe hit. People have gotten so used to his nasal singing that everyone else sounds besur. Even though you might not think highly of Himesh but his tunes are catchy; some time ago I just couldn't get myself to stop whistling the title track of 36 China Town. People who have met him say that he comes across as a very straight forward kind of guy to deal with. Though Himesh must be definitely happy at the success that his hard work has bestowed upon him, it seems to be that perhaps he’s not enjoying it. Maybe he’s aware that this success comes with an expiry date and if he starts smiling and enjoying it maybe it will wear out. Maybe he’s dealing with great pains and he doesn’t know how to smile…what non-sense! This is exactly the success of his PR agency which is making us seemingly normal people think like loonies.

Aap Ka Surroor- the Moviee guaranteed to answer all these questions and doubts for it claimed to be the real ‘luv’ story. Well mostly it’s a load of crap with some real bad acting. Not that I was expecting the sky from Himesh when it came to acting but considering that he showed all his acting prowess in the music videos so there was hardly anything left. So what were they thinking? Could the film have been like Eminem's film 8 Mile? Well if Himesh's life was half as colorful as Eminem's or at least his baseball cap collection then perhaps yes!

Unlike most recent films at least the promos don’t reveal the entire story so there is more non-sense than what the producers proudly display in the trailers! If you have nothing else to do…my suggestion is sleep…don’t even go near the poster of Aap Ka Surroor…actually enjoy the poster!

Image Courtesy: Now Running

Dilli O Dilli!

A few days ago Sudhesh's blog spoke about films that were shot in Delhi. The blog took me back a few years when I was working on Amavas. Many of you who don’t know, Amavas was a feature film that I was working on in the capacity of an associate director. The film had a really interesting premise and was set in Delhi. The director had ensured that the film had all the essential elements that would help to bring out the dilliness of the film. The movie was shot in Delhi over a period of thirty days but funnily enough it didn’t feature anything ‘Delhi’ so to speak of. The locations could have been Delhi or anywhere else. And that’s exactly the problem the producer had when he saw the first cut of the film. He insisted that there has to be something ‘Delhi’ about a film that is supposed to be set in Delhi- references to power cuts weren’t Delhi enough. If nothing else they wanted the opening sequence to show India Gate, Rajpath, Qutub Minar!

The deal with shooting in Delhi as opposed to Mumbai is that it adds a certain kind of exotic appeal to the most regular of the stories. And that is wherein the problem lies. To make people believe that you are witnessing a story set in the capital the film makers end up showing the oft done to death visuals of Delhi. That or they get Delhi so wrong that it's not even funny. No matter where the story is set or what the character is doing, if the film is based in Delhi they’ll be driving past India Gate or zooming down Rajpath. Lakshya had Hrithik taking the road most traveled by any Delhite if you were to believe our filmmakers. Moreover the dialogues of the film like, “I’m leaving for a meeting then lunch at IIC…” in addition to Hrithik and Preity romancing in Tughlaqabad ruins are some cinematic liberties gone grossly wrong. In the case of Rang De Basanti, Mehra tried to pass off the India Habitat Center as a hostel in Delhi University!

Some of the classics over the years did manage to portray Delhi in a manner more befitting than the recent crop. Vijay Anand’s Tere Ghar Ke Saame was about an architect and his love interest. The film had features perhaps the only song to shot inside the Qutub Minar. Even Nau Do Gyarah features Delhi but the character is passing therough Delhi and the landmarks are just used to show the journey. Also films like Waqt, Trishul, Chasme Badoor, Monsoon Wedding, Masoom managed to capture various features of Delhi. A lot of international films have also been shot in Delhi- Holy Smoke, Guru but the issue with them is that some how they still manage to show as if Delhi was still stuck in the early days of the Raj. I agree with my friend when he says that in the recent past only Khosla Ka Ghosla managed to get the pulse of the city correct.

Many more films are slated to feature Delhi- Chak De India, Mere Bharat Mahan, Sunday and the most prominent of them, Rakeysh Mehra’s Delhi 6 (hope he knows what area falls in pincode Delhi- 100006!) but it’s going to be difficult to look beyond Rajpath and India Gate when it comes Delhi on celluloid.

Holy Smoke

I finally saw Jane Champion’s Holy Smoke. I had been intending to view Holy Smoke for a long time now but never really got around. Holy Smoke features Kate Winslet as Ruth, an Australian who on a visit to India gets hooked on to a Baba. She feels that she’s the chosen one and decides to stay back in India much to the anger of her parents. Her mother comes down to India to cajole her back telling that her father is on this deathbed. Ruth considers it but finally decides that maybe it was meant to this way and tells her mother that maybe next time should be better. The mother gets pissed off and runs off; while being chased in the gullies she runs out of breath and finally gets her way when Ruth decided to accompany her mother back. Her family is surprised to see the rebel Ruth in a sari now and can’t make up their mind if this is one of her latest fads or if she really means to become a Sanyasin.

The family snoops around and calls in PJ Waters (Harvey Keital), an exit counselor. He treats women who are infatuated with baba’s, god men and cult gurus. He has a three-day program and things get messy once he lands up in Oz with Neil Diamond playing in the background. A fast-talking, one liner cracking American that PJ is pisses Ruth to no end but she agrees to be a part of his three exoneration program. They shack up in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. The first day they talk as PJ isolates her, the second day he ties her sari to a tree and forces her to roam around in almost nothing and by the third day PJ is madly attracted to Ruth. Ruth manages to confuse PJ and by the end of it you don’t know who is doing what except that both actors are exploring their characters deepest fantasies. PJ’s girlfriend lands up to check on him but is shocked to see Ruth naked on the couch and PJ asking her for some more time. In a bizarre twist of fate the hunter becomes hunted with PJ dressed in Ruth’s flaming red one piece party dress and chasing Ruth across the Australian outback proclaiming his love for her. Holy Smoke finally ends with Ruth and her mother working in India and PJ back with girlfriend. They exchange letters; Ruth tells him that she loves him and PJ informs her that he’s honored and that he is writing his second book about a man who finds his angel.

One of the biggest reasons to see Holy Smoke was Kate Winslet; I love her work and consider her to be one of the finer actors around. She never shies away from doing anything and often ends up picking interesting characters. Right from Heavenly Creatures to Sense and Sensibility to the recent Little Children, Kate Winslet is a treat to watch. She is what the critics call a ‘brave’ actor. Any actor who does anything half way decent is a brave person if you ask me for it’s not easy to stupid things in front of a 100 people and make it look as serious as signing the Kyoto agreement. Holy Smoke has an entire full frontal sequence and Kate Winslet is so confident that one forgets she’s not wearing anything! The film might have it's share of problems but kate Winslet make it watchable.

These days it’s rare to come across a film that features Keitel in a longish role. He does walk on parts in many big films but that’s just about it. No more Holy Smoke, Piano, Reservoir Dogs or Bad Lieutenant for him and sadly for us as well. An article once described Harvey Keitel as “Robert De Niro’s contemporary but only darker…”, the article further noted that had De Niro not become as famous as he is, he’d have been doing what Keitel does. Well I can’t say much about the second statement but the first one holds a lot of water. Being the non-leading man types has allowed people like Gene Hackman and Harvey Keitel do a great deal of experimentation.

The best story about Keitel that read was that his wife was teaching acting and one of her students came up with a script that he wanted her to read and comment on. The student’s friend wanted to make a quickie in Black and White and had asked him to play one of the roles. Keitel’s wife read it and freaked out; she showed it to Keitel and he freaked out. A few weeks later Keitel was producing the student’s friend independent feature which went on to become Reservoir Dogs and no prizes for guessing the name for student’s friend!

Gone South!

The biggest problems the electronic news media faces these days is the lack of ‘real’ news breaking events to fill up the 24 hours. No wonder then at times a kid falling into an open manhole or people who stitched Abhishek Bachchan’s Jodhpuri coat make it to the headlines. So it’s no surprise that the national media is going berserk over Rajnikath’s new film. The desire to add more news worthiness to this event is making them conduct surveys and asking people if south Indian actors are the real superstars or if Rajni can beat Mr. Bachchan’s when it comes to popularity? Well, the only things that emerges from this is the realization that is finally dawning upon most of us- Indian cinema is not just Hindi films even though the guys at IIFA wouldn’t agree!

The fact that Hindi film industry and the southern cousin have been scratching each other’s backs for some time shouldn’t be new to people. Many Hindi films were remade into Tamil hits and vice versa. But perhaps the realization that Southern films were cooler didn’t go down well with the Hindi filmwallahs. Pick up any big Tamil, Telegu or Malyalam hit and you’d see the point I’m trying to make here. Even in the realm of commercial films the south films are way ahead than anyone else in terms of script, packaging and execution. This is what perhaps made the Hindi guys come up with the stupid line that ‘southern films are technically better...’ People use the same darn equipment and mostly the same crew so how can something be different or better on the basis of the tools? The statement is perhaps the only way the Hindi film industry will acknowledge someone else’s superiority.

In the recent past I’ve been brushing up on my Tamil films and boy am I impressed of what? Most Tamil directors write their own scripts, which according to me is a characteristic that really speaks volumes about a person’s talent. Vishnuvardhan, Bala, Shankar and Gautham Menon seem to be in perfect control of their craft. Most of the Tamil films, commercial or halfway ‘different’, are prime examples of great packaging. Everyone knows that the publicity and packaging is what deciphers how big a hit a film would eventually be. The recent Tamil film that made me sit up was Shankar’s Anniyan. It was as commercial as it gets feature liberal dosages of great songs, fights and what have you but even though it was ‘commercial’ film the theme and the story made me realize that Hindi films are really lacking in many departments. What makes the film more enjoyable is the ease with which Vikram switches between the three characters he portrays. In addition there was Pithamagan (a masterpiece if you ask me) Parttiyal (kicks ass!) Kaakha Kaakha and Ghajini (being remade in Hindi by Aamir Khan) are way better than any recent Hindi hit. One has to watch films like Virumandi and Mahanadi to know what commercial cinema can really achieve.

I saw Sivaji yesterday. The fact that I managed to watch a first day first show of a Rajnikanth film is some thing that I never thought I’d be able to do and that too in Delhi out of all the places. People were flocking to the malls at 9 in the am! The mass hysteria for the film is there to be seen- the cinema halls down south are booked for the next one-month, people are flocking to Delhi to catch the film, the film is running to packed houses in Malaysia as well, the first day earned 3 crores in Chennai...

Though Sivaji may not be the best film ever made and how it manages to hold the viewer for 3 hours even though the plot is thinner than a wafer is a testimony of Rajnikanth’s popularity. Watch it and enjoy the experience- you may not follow some lines, you may not understand why sensible people go crazy when Rajni comes on the screen, you not accept that Rajni's God here and a cult in Japan but the experience is something else.

Ocean's Thirteen

I was a little confused and a lot surprised when I first saw Ocean’s Eleven. Confused for I couldn’t understand why many didn’t like the film and surprised when it did too well. A lot of people thought that the Ocean’s Eleven was a stupid film. It looked decent enough to me- 11 misfits in society who are unwilling to let go of the prankster in them. The surprise success of the film must have made the studio realize that they had stuck gold and this cow could be milked more. Some time later they came up with Ocean’s Twelve. The boys went to Europe this time around to make a quick buck in order to repay the casino boss they had robbed in the previous part. That was a lousy film but if memory serves me right made more money than the first one. So they then decided to make a third one. The underlying reason for everyone to return was that the script was too good to pass.

OK.

Considering that Ocean’s series will never be remembered for it’s script or cinematic genius, I was almost fooled into believing that they must really have a very decent script to come back.

I was wrong.

The only time 13 is going to be lucky for the Ocean franchise would be the opening weekend at the box office. Too much of the same thing can be a let down in addition to making you realize that you have been endorsing stupidity all this while and Ocean’s Thirteen superbly manages to do the needful. The camera movements, the stylized cutting, the music and one liners now look so jaded that even the actors seem to be doing everyone a favor. Every time Danny Ocean or Rusty or Linus or anyone cracks a joke it’s the music that tells us that the joke’s over and we should perhaps laugh. Julia Roberts is conspicuously absent from this one for I don’t she will ever forgive Steven Soderbergh for making her look like an extra in part 2. There is only one woman in the cast is Ellen Barkin who plays Al Pacino’s side kick. She looks like a 50-year-old Cameron Diaz but more importantly Barkin looks lost. Al Pacino, who seems to be forever waiting for instructions from the director, portrays Ocean’s nemesis. What could have been a walk in the park for an actor of Pacino’s caliber turns out to be an exercise in hamming. Brad Pitt looks does a great job following his brief- stand there and look good. Matt Damon is angry for it seems like he wants to grow up but isn’t allowed to.

The usual suspects are all there but few of them like Elliot Gould hardly has anything to do; Don Cheadle spends most of the time drilling underground so you never see him in good light; Bernie Mac does his black man bit and looks happy, the Chinese guy now looks like an overgrown kid and about the others the less said, the better. These boys look like they had a tough time fitting in their old shoes for they all look like bored husbands now.

All the recent films that have raked in millions at the box office have one common feature- they all look manufactured byu bored officials on some run down assembly line. Spiderman-3, Ocean’s Thirteen, Pirates-3 all seem to be made for one sole reason- continued run of the successful brand name. With everything looking the same the audiences will soon loose interest but the sadder truth is that once you see the sequels and think back, you realize that the first part was stupid too. And trust me, you don’t want to look stupid whenever an installment comes out!

Image Courtesy: www.movieblog.com

Bheja Fry

A very deftly made film, Bheja Fry lured me back to the darkness of the cinema hall. I endured and managed to survive Eklavya- The Royal Bore. I had decided not to go to the movies for some time for anyone who's seen the film would agree that it's not an easy task! In case you haven't seen it already, Bheja Fry is about a bunch of rich folks who meet every Friday and bring along a ‘talent' to entertain them. This talent is the dumbest and the most idiotic guy with a gift; the film starts with a talented guy who can spit almost 10 feet or something like that. Rajat Kapoor's rich man is all set to win the wager this Friday when he lays his hands on Vinay Pathak's Bharat Bhushan. The man fancies himself to be a genius like his namesake but is blessed with arguably the most pathetic singing voice. In addition he's the idiot that all the villages in this district reported missing. What transpires thereon is a series of misadventures on the fateful Friday night when life comes a full circle for all the players.

Bheja Fry is short, sweet and laced with some great performances by Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor. The script plays along perfectly thanks to the great timing that ensure that the one-liners are delivered with much aplomb.

The good thing about Bheja Fry is that it’s the second film in recent times that has proved the ‘old-as-hills’ theory of the script being of paramount importance. Mixed Doubles, Rajat Kapoor’s film about a husband and wife deciding to indulge in swapping, and now Bheja Fry both were made under a crore and share the same producer. Both had relatively non-starry actors and both worked just great. Anurag Kashyap, one the most talented scriptwriter seen by Hindi cinema in recent years, has boldly announced the second coming on the Hindi New Wave with Bheja Fry. I won’t that far but I definitely liked the film and believe that if director Sagar Bellary manages to have a decent follow up, we could be looking at a talent who could be the second Nagesh Kukunoor. I found Bheja Fry to be almost as effervescent as Hyderabad Blues.

Now the bad part. Bheja Fry seems to be a ‘remake’ of a French comedy called Le Diner de Cons (The Dinner Game) so much so that when you read the original's plot outline you'd see even situations as the rich guy's back getting hurt have been 'adapted' in the Indianized version.

When it comes to films, why is that we feel it’s our prerogative to just pick up whatever the hell we like- plot, scene or the whole damn film- and unabashedly indulge in plagiarism? I have no issues with copies, inspirations or remakes; giving a new take on old things can be fun but why not pay some credit where it’s due? One saves so much of time and money by choosing not to invest in originality, might as well pay a little amount and do it officially. But that’s a different issue. No wonder no one takes Hindia cinema seriously anywhere in the international market. Thank God we have a Mahesh Bhatt. Bhatt saab can convince us that 'who the F@#% needs Hollywood's approval...we are a nation of a billion people and we are a very important stage in our artistic evolution just like man needs pornography.....blah blah blah"

You’d probably think that on one hand I applaud the film while on the other hand I’m of the opinion that copying is bad so where do I stand? I still like the film and would happily recommend it to everyone. Have you seen the other shit that’s around- Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana, Mr. Hot Mr. Cool, Kya Love Story Ha, Raqeeb, Namastey London, Hat Trick, Nishabd, Salaam-E-Ishq, Delhii Heights and not to forget the one to pip Ta Ra Rum Pum in the best title category, Shakalaka Boom Boom including a double i’d Delhii Heights!