{mosimage}No matter people hurl accusations and allegations that Bollywood conveniently overshadows the regional cinema and presents itself as the face of 'Indian Cinema', I am glad that it represents the Indian Cinema. It deserves every worth of the "praise", I mean "every worth". Critics might keep cribbing that the movies are (f)re(e)makes of Hollywood hits, but atleast a layman cinegoer like me need not worry about the 'source' or 'inspiration' as long as it offers me something 'hatke'. Once in a while when I go home for weekends, I stop at Pondicherry to buy 'economy' DVDs of backlogs of Hindi movies. These days it had almost become a habit. Sometimes I do think of buying some Tamil DVDs, but all I end up buying is the evergreen classics. No recent Tamil release is worth buying or given a chance even if given for free.
Coming to my Bollywood fixation, atleast an element called 'script' exists there, whether it is 'faltu' or 'wonderful'. This weekend & previous one I saw movies like 'Nishabd', 'Cheeni Kum', 'Corporate', 'Shootout at Lokhandwala', 'Eklavya' and have a huge list of backlogs including 'Honeymoon Travels', 'Woh Lamhe', 'Life in a Metro', 'Just married' and so on. Despite regular complaints like that all Hindi film characters live in London or NY, atleast the stars remain as actors in the script. No 'bakwas' in the name of 'mass element'.
The way Amitabh Bachchan gets better with age is simply jaw dropping. He chooses the roles that suit his age graciously without getting rut in the image circle. If he lusts his daughter's friend in 'Nishabd', his on-screen chemistry with Tabu is mind boggling in "Cheeni Kum". His subtle by baritone accented portrayal of a Royal Guard in "Eklavya" just sends shivers in the spine of audiences. None of the movie is overshadowed by the towering Bachchan's personality or 'tantarums' of mass elements, but Sr. AB conveniently slips into the roles like a glove.
The way Amitabh Bachchan gets better with age is simply jaw dropping. He chooses the roles that suit his age graciously without getting rut in the image circle. If he lusts his daughter's friend in 'Nishabd', his on-screen chemistry with Tabu is mind boggling in "Cheeni Kum". His subtle by baritone accented portrayal of a Royal Guard in "Eklavya" just sends shivers in the spine of audiences. None of the movie is overshadowed by the towering Bachchan's personality or 'tantarums' of mass elements, but Sr. AB conveniently slips into the roles like a glove.
{mosimage}Nishabd: The lead chemistry between 64 yr old Amitabh Bachchan and 18 year old Jia Khan is sultry. 'Attitude' is almost the second skin of Jia and the girl was a revelation to watch on screen. Throw in the lovely locales of Munnar, seduce it with bluish hues, support with talents like Nasser & Revathy, Varma scores a big time with this unconventional love story. AB faithfully cries and confesses on screen about the young girl who made his weaker heart flutter, my respect for Amitabh as actor just loomed larger.
Corporate: What happens in the board rooms of 'Corporates'? Do sleeping around for promotions matter in the vicious circle of corporates? This typical middle class biased perspective of 'Corporate' just strips the boardroom politics and the ethics pawned for the survival and 'bottom-line' profit. Madhur Bandarkar's script just unravels the mysteries behind the attractive food products and the amount of betrayal and loyalty that goes behind them. Bipasha Basu steals the show with her restrained yet conspicuous talent. She moves to the league of 'dependable' actress who had come a long way since sexy lingerie model.
On the other hand movies like "Corporate" which brings the boardroom politics to the silver screen just made me wonder why such attempts are not made in Tamil? Are the Tamil directors under the impression that the audience doesn't like such movies or they are too dumb to make such movies? Else are the 'fu***ng' heroes curtailing the creativity in the dream of becoming future CMs? Whatever the reason might be, it is a shame to the largest regional movie hub which churns out craps and sh*ts in the name of entertainment.
{mosimage}'Mozhi' and 'Paruthiveeran' could have been refreshing at this juncture, but a 'Black' had already been made in Hindi a couple of years ago. South makes good technicians, not directors. Else good directors are made to migrate to Hindi market as the scenario is conucive in terms of story telling as well as lucrative. Creative geniuses like Maniratnam from Tamil, Priyadarshan from Malayalam and Ram Gopal Varma from Telugu are now synonymous with Bollywood. Not only they make good money there, they have actors who doesn't demand an 'introduction sequence' or 'formulaic scenes to satiate their fans'.
As a lover of movies, all I expect is good scripts and ample support from the technical team, not the narcisstic scraps dished by the so called top stars in the name "my-fan-needs-these". Everybody can see through the intentions - titilating the crowd to follow them in the name of fans and using the same base for their political dreams. So Bollywood is my hot choice, not Kollywood or Tollywood or even Malluwood.
