{mosimage}When I initiated the download of the movie 'Ijaazat' from veoh, I did it for only one name - Gulzar, its director. Later, just before the viewing, I looked for its details in Wikipedia and found that it was based on a bengali novel 'Jatugriha' by Subhodh Ghosh, which was earlier made as movie in Bengali. Also this movie's "Mera Kuch Saaman" had won Asha Bhonsle's second National Award for her and also that 'Ijaazat' was the debut of beautiful Anuradha Patel. I could say that the movie is a poetry - in every frame, every shot. When I started watching it finally, I was just blown away by its sheer poetry. Ijaazat scans the concept of love after the marriage, whether the past can eclipse the future and when I masticated what I saw, I realised the complexity of the movie. Sudha and Mahinder accidentally meet in a railway station on a rainy night and sharing what had happened after they had seperated from their marriage. In a series of flashbacks, their 'marriage' life was discussed on. Gulzar takes us through the journey of Mahinder, Sudha and Maya with the scenes that revolved around these just 3 characters ONLY but still gripping and irresisting to sit through. The movie had best written female characters. Towards the end of the movie only you'll realise what Mahinder was upto and with the sweet cameo by Shashi Kapoor you come to know where Mahinder & Sudha went wrong. The more I talk about the movie, it may turn out to be a spoiler, so let me stop here. 'Ijaazat's even though reverred by the discerning Bollywood audiences, didn't get its due when it was released. Apart from the National Award for Asha Bhonsle, the movie was sidelined in the popular awards for the 'blockbusters'. Anil Kapoor & Madhuri Dixit were honoured the "Best Actors" over Naseeruddin Shah & Rekha, Sonu Walia, the vamp from 'Khoon Bhari Mang' was preferred over poetic Anuradha Patel in the supporting actress category, Anand Milind & Alka Yagnik were thought to be superior with "QSQT" & "Tezaab". That's the pathetic story between every awards these days. - {oshits} reads
’பசங்க’ படத்துக்கப்புறம் நான் சமீபத்தில் மிகவும் ரசித்து பார்த்த தமிழ் படம் இந்த “தமிழ் படம்”. ஆங்கிலத்தில் பிரபலமாக உள்ள Spoof என்கிற ‘நக்கலடிக்கும்’ genre-ஐ தமிழுக்கு கொண்டு வந்துள்ள புதுமையான முயற்சி. இவ்வளவு காலமாக மக்களை ‘பொழுதுபோக்கு’ என்கிற பெயரில் எப்படியெல்லாம் ஏமாற்றி மூளையை மழுங்கடித்துக் கொண்டிருந்தது இந்த தமிழ் திரையுலகம் என்று நினைக்கும் போது மெலிதாக ஒரு கோபம் வருவதை தவிர்க்க முடியவில்லை. இவர், அவர் என்று பாரபட்சமில்லாமல் மானாவாரிக்கு எல்லோரையும் ஓட்டி வாரியிருப்பது உண்மையிலேயே சுவாரசியம். இந்த படத்தை பார்த்துவிட்டு தமிழ் திரையுலகத்தினர் கோபத்தில் இருப்பதாகவும், அதை தயாரித்தது ‘பெரிய இடம்’ என்பதால் பொத்திக்கொண்டு இருப்பதாக படித்தபோது சிரிப்பு தான் வந்தது. தவறை சுட்டிக்காட்டினால் கோபம் வருவது இயற்கை தானே? இந்த படத்தில் வரும் காட்சிகளின் மூலப் படத்தை பார்த்த / அறிந்தவர்களுக்கு மட்டுமே இதை அனுபவிக்க முடியும் என்பதால் இந்த படத்தை என்னுடைய மற்ற மொழி நண்பர்களுக்கு காண்பிப்பதில் சிக்கல். Spoof-ஆக வரும் காட்சிகளை தமிழ் இயக்குநர்கள் சீரியஸாக எடுத்துக்கொண்டு அடுத்த படங்களில் ஹீரோயிஸ காட்சிகளாக புகுத்தி கழுத்தறுப்பார்களோ என்ற பயமும் வருகிறது.
This weekend I watched all these movies back to back on a Saturday night, which had been overdue for a long time - Dostana, Love Aaj Kal and Achamundu Achamundu. Why I wanted to watch these movies now, that too after an year? Each had its own reasons - while 'Dostana' had the very strong Johan Abraham factor, 'Love Aaj Kal' was mainly for Imtiaz Ali's sensitive and refreshing script, "Achamundu Achamundu" was for its offbeat theme - paedeophiles. These movies reinforced the faith that still there are people who are there to attempt different kind of movies within the commercial format. Among the last batch of movies seen, Ishqiya appealed better to me. So rather than wasting four individual posts, I just thought I can pile up everything in one post.
I am keeping tab of Blessy's movies ever since he had debuted with 'Kaazhcha' as director. Quite marred by a blemish of his career named 'Calcutta News', I expected a lot from his last venture - "Bhramaram". Bhramaram opens well with Mohanlal landing in the doorsteps of Suresh Menon's residence at Coimbatore and the intention of his visit is shrouded with mystery, told superbly without giving out the suspense. When his real identity is revealed towards the intermission we expect the movie to be a road movie as promoted in pre-release phase. But Blessy lets down his fans completely with a script ladened with potholes as the movie meanders meaninglessly and even the climax, even though stunning, is cliched. What saves the movie is the visual sheen lended by the superb frames / composition by cinematographer Ajayan Vincent and to the best he is the only soul to be benefitted from this movie. Mohanlal as a destiny battered individual is endearing and makes sure that his role - Shivan Kutty is in safe hands. The 'Bhramaram' (buzz of the bee) is used as the metaphor for Shivan Kutty's inner turmoil / violent streak and is shown unsettled towards the closing credits, which is fairly a normal ending. Barring Mohanlal, the only actor from the cast who catches your attention is VG Muralikrishnan as Dr. Alex. Bhumika Chawla & the child artiste fails to make the required impact in the flashback scenes. Talented Lakshmi Gopalswamy has nothing to do. Sadly I could see the quality of the director following a downward curve since his maiden venture. - {oshits} readers for this review!!!
Why the f**k the movie had been called as 'Paa' while 'Maa' or even 'Auro' would have been a better title. R. Balki needs just one scene to establish the warm relationship between the son and the mother. AB Corp's latest production 'Paa (2009)' which predominantly has South Indian contribution - 'Adman' R. Balki, 'Lens guru' PC Sriram, 'Maestro' Illayaraja, Vidya Balan, Kannada theatre artiste Arundhathi Nag, Malayalam Child Star Baby Taruni, is warm and endearing, taking us through the world of innocence and the complications of a 13 year old. One of the (rare) recent worthy releases in the Bollywood, 'Paa' is compelling in more than one way.
It is indeed a commendable effort on the part of renowned malayalam scriptwriter Ranjith's 'Capitol Cinemas' to come up with such a nice movie to salvage the falling reputation of malayalam cinema in the recent times. An intresting trivia about Kayyoppu (signature) is that many of those who are the part of this movie like Khushboo, Vidyasagar and others had worked without remuneration but just a token of their respect towards the malayalam cinema which once was so high in quality and literature content. In a way the circumstances 'Kayyoppu' was made surprisingly resembles the plot of the movie. 'Kayyoppu' is about an immensely talented upcoming writer Balachandran (Mamooty), who suffers from creative block so having his best work unfinished. To motivate him, his publisher friend Sivadasan (Mukesh) gets him in touch with his old flame Padma (Khushboo) and with Fathima (Nilamboor Ayisha), a fan who hadn't met him still again is suffering from ailment.