Dear Godfather...

U were different. It was ur first crime but when u killed those bastards, I felt the act was justified.

U fled; u betrayed me. U married that Sicilian gal, I kept on understanding u.

U came back, took over the business, convinced me, massacred ur enemies - n again the act was justified.

U killed your bro-in-law and dared to became Godfather of Connie’s child... So I asked u the ‘Truth’ and u said its not true.

Dear Godfather Michael Corleone, I love u and I hate myself for not being able to hate u… I am ur audience, u can call me Kay.

Grindhouse… Indian POV

So how do Indian viewers see Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s experiment of Grindhouse which has two films viz. Deathproof and Planter Terror? For those Indian viewers who are not exactly aware about the Hollywood film genres and traditions, both the films are just popcorn movies.

Indian popular movies are still struggling to show in an interesting and authentic manner the gory side of the violence. There are hardly any Indian popular movies, which actually celebrate and explore the violence on screen. Recently, ‘Not a Love Story’ a film by Ram Gopal Verma had attempted to portray the gory side of human violence on screen but the whole venture was more about exploring the authentic side of emotions behind the violence. At least I don’t remember any popular Indian movie, which uninhibitedly depicts the violence on screen.

Indian viewers are really deprived of the pleasure of watching the representation of their own wilder, gory and primitive violent instincts on screen…and all Hollywood gory movies do quench that thirst. There are millions of Indian viewers of all age group, according to whom more the gory presentation, more the film is enjoyable. In this context for those violence-crazy Indian viewers Grindhouse is not one of the Hollywood B movies but the model of how the Indian movies should be.

It’s ‘Agony-path’

Big B starrer Agneepath itself is not a flawless movie but it has some beautiful moments. Besides being a revenge drama, the movie made in 1990 was also an attempt to exploit the then larger than life image of Amitabh Bachchan.

The character of Vijay Dinanath Chouhan in a way was an extension of Vijay Verma of Deewar. Through Agneepath, Mukul Anand tried to explore Vijay Verma of Deewar in isolation and in different time. Overtly Agneepath is a revenge drama but basically it’s a story of a protagonist with a noble mind, who due to unfortunate circumstances in his life leads the wrong path and till the end of his life struggles to restore his life to the right morale note.

In this context the moral conflict between Vijay’s mother and Vijay set in Deewar also is also the essence of the Big B starrer Agneepath. Revenge is the spine of the film but the soul of the film is the moral conflict of Vijay Dinanath Chouhan. You take away the moral conflict from the film and the film loses all its beautiful moments.

I think Karan Malhotra’s Agneepath commits the mistake of bypassing the moral conflict and loses its soul. In Karan Malhotra’s Agneepath, the character of Vijay’s mother, Suhasini Chouhan, is portrayed as insignificant one. After losing her husband she comes to unknown city of Mumbai and just because Vijay is leading the wrong path, she drives him away from home. As both the central characters part their ways the moral conflict automatically loses its intensity and the whole experience of watching the film turns into an ‘Agony-path’.

Moral of the Kahani is…

Moral of the Kahani is…

Kahani, directed by Sujoy Ghosh and starring the sensation of 2012 generation Vidya Balan is undoubtedly an arresting thriller. Mind boggling twists and turns, Kahani is definitely a roller coaster experience. The film was complete experience for me except three things in the film.

1: As the story of Mrs Vidya Bagchi searching for her husband unfolds, there are many instances when Mrs Bagchi remembers various kinds of incidences and moments, which she had spent with her husband, Arnab Bagchi. On screen during her flashbacks the person who appears her husband finally turns out to be Milan Damji who is actually the killer of her husband. Mrs Bagchi can stage a make-believe phenomena for others but why would she have false memory of her own husband?

2: Bob Biswas tries to kill Mrs Bagchi and becomes quite successful in petrifying and intimidating her. But in her next meet with Rana she just doesn’t share anything about this shocking incident.

3: At the end when it gets revealed that Mrs Bagchi’s intentions behind the whole drama was to give justice to her husband who was killed in Metro attack, you also realize that death of Agnes and Doctor were actually the innocent victims of this well-thought plan. Unfortunately Mrs Bagchi at the end doesn’t show any kind of regret for being the cause of the death of Agnes and Doctor.

Well moral of the Kahani is except these three elements Kahani was a wonderful experience for me.