Category Archives: 1-By Laksh

All these articles are from Laksh’s desk

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire…

No matter how good a screen adaptation or a how brilliant the director, it is the actors who have to deliver.  ‘Catching Fire’ is one such example. Jennifer lawrence (as Katniss), Woody Harrelson (Haymitch Abernathy), Donald Sutherland (President Snow), Stanley Tucci (Caesar Flickerman) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Plutarch Heavensbee), hold sway on the audience. It’s amazing to watch how little and how much they do, to bring their characters to life.

Catching Fire, the second installment in the trilogy, is more of a battle between the President and Katniss, against the backdrop of the rebellion gathering strength and Katniss emerging as a symbol for the people in subjugation.  Katniss is once gain hurled into the arena, to fight it out with winners of the previous editions of Hunger Games. The movie works on all levels and sets up nicely for the third part, the finale (?).

‘Hunger games’ as a book is an  interesting projection of present on to future, thus making it real enough for a wide range of readers’ connect.  It’s bit of an oxymoron to call a science fiction book contemporary and real, but books like ‘Hunger Games’ achieve this rare feat. The trilogy also manages to give a higher purpose to the 12-18 year olds (that’s the age required to participate in the games and also the target audience) thus making their violence ‘holy’ enough for the readers to grasp the larger themes.

Violence is visceral and liberation ethereal. It is their combination and the measure of them, that decide if the film would emerge as an ‘Ong-Bak’ or The Gladiator’.

‘Amadeus’: Oscar worthy…

Mozart composed at the age of  five and was engaged as a court musician at the age of 17.  He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. (Source: Wikipedia) Such accomplishments would have made Gods seethe with envy, and Saliere was just a human and a music fanatic! It’s this point on which the movie ‘Amadeus’ takes-off.

Adapted from a stage play, based on a Viennese ‘urban’ legend, the movie delivers a ‘wow’ cinematic experience.

The movie is told from the eyes of Salieri, a contemporary of Mozart, who is a devout and music fanatic, and struggling to rise above his mediocre musical talent even when he is appreciated in the royal court.  His life is turned upside down the moment Mozart re-enters his life, and in that fateful moment he realizes instantly that Mozart is all that he could never be. That feeling unearths all that is bad in him and throws him in a cauldron of jealousy and hatred, bringing damnation to himself and Mozart. It is this point view of story telling that gives a unique pleasure in watching the movie, with each scene turning into a duel between the hero and the villain(?) and culminate in the way they are meant to be, each leaving to new new abodes that befit them.

Murray Abraham as Salieri, gives a brilliant portrayal of the torment and ambivalence that the character undergoes, all the while making us believe that his biggest tribute to Mozart was his hatred for him. Tom Hulce as Mozart complements Abraham’s performance and makes their combination scenes near perfect.

‘Amadeus’  won eight Academy Awards in 1985 , including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor for Murray Abraham. The movie is worth every bit of its fame and critical acclaim.

Director Milos Forman and Writer Peter Shaffer, use Mozart’s music and combine pieces from his operas and symphonies, to create a new form of musical storytelling that even Mozart might have been proud of .

Related works

K.Vishwanath’s ‘Swathikiranam’

Bhatt’s ‘Sur’

Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Abhimaan’

Ram-Leela: Bizarre n’ Brazen…

Ram-Leela Poster
Ram-Leela Poster: Courtesy photo

Some movies have to be seen, period. You cannot make up your mind to watch them by reading a review or hearing a plot synopsis or by the presence of stellar cast and crew.  After you watch them, you can love them or hate  them (or be ambivalent about them). But you cannot ignore them. ‘Ram-Leela’ is one such movie.

I think the first time I ever felt compelled to say this to myself or anybody, was when I watched Mani Ratnam’s ‘Geethanjali’.  When my friend asked me what the movies was all about I struggled a bit, because I did not want to say anything that would discourage him to watch the movie. So I chose not to dwell much about the morose theme or praise the excellent cinematography or the quirky dialogues or the terrific music of Ilayaraja. Instead I said you should watch it on the big screen. He did and we discussed in detail about the plot etc anyway 🙂

Ram-Leela such a kind of movie. One has to see and experience it on the big screen and take it from there. I did, so here is my blabber 🙂

Sanjay Leela Bhanshali once told in an interview (with Burkha Dutt of NDTV, I think) that he felt Chandramukhi’s love for Devdas was like that of Meera for Lord Krishna. In Ram-Leela he explores the carnal and less mystical love of Radha and Krishna and to portray their element of unfulfilled love, he uses Shakespeare’s Romeo-Juliet.

The lead pair of Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, live up to Bhanshali’s vision and sizzle on screen, as two lost souls, who are lost to begin with in their alien worlds,  find their love, struggle to save it and sacrifice it at the altar of reality. To a large extent, ‘Ram-Leela’ is about these two talented actors who keep you interested in the movie, even when it loses steam in the second half. Supriya Pathak stands out as another performer who plays a ‘Telengana Sakunthala’ kind of role, but chose to downplay it and she bowls you over with her subtle histrionics specially in the second-half of the movie.

Bhanshali’s story telling is incongruous and ambiguous at its best. He takes a zillion of liberties with the story telling and characterization (reminds you of the TV serials like ‘Pratigya’ ), remixing the milieu (camera enabled mobile phones and old cars; adult parlor business in this age of internet porn?; Murals instead of idols for worship?) and geography (where do these clans live, what are the conflict areas, how are they separated?; Yester-year ‘Thevar Magan’ did this splendidly).

As  a music director, Bhanshali does a decent job (minus ‘Ishqyaun Dhiskyaun’ the song that reminds you of ‘Kissi disco mein jaaye’  from ‘Bade miya, chota miya’; Is the actor in the background mural supposed to be ‘Akshay Kumar’?’) and background score is pretty good in the scenes where Ram comes to meet with Leela in her house.

In the end, ‘Ram-Leela’ is a product of Bhanshali’s vision, and if you are sucked into it, the movie will hold your interest in the first half and parts of second half.  Special mention for Eros Marketing team that packaged this movie pretty well (with no mention of ‘Romeo-Juliet’ in the campaign) and generated the right kind of interest around the lead-pair.