My Name is Superman

That's how i would like to summarize my perception of My Name Is Khan. What started off with an inspiring journey of a man, a victim of racial discrimination post 9/11 in America, to tell the country that all Muslims are not terrorists, and plead the Americans to stop attacking and detesting the Muslims anywhere and everywhere, ends up being just another SRK-is-my-hero film. He suffers of Asperger's syndrome, but shows those symptoms only when he does not have anything to do, like wooing Kajol. I have not really researched on how an Autistic man behaves, but SRKs robotish mannerisms, as well as many sequences (obviously in Rizwan Khan's heroic journey) appeared artificial in a film which can boast of a realistic and significant theme.
But the film must be given its due credits where needed. Its absolutely true that Karan Johar has taken a stride from his fantasies (which were growing more lengthy and intolerable by every film), and has chosen to direct a theme, which is so true, and inspiring in today's world, where racial discrimination not only against a religion, but also against a country is growing significantly higher. Qudos for that...only if he would have restrained from projecting SRK as a superhero in every frame of his journey!!!
THE CINEMATOGRAPHY:
I felt that the cinematography of the film is an asset. Its one of the finest cinematographed films i have seen recently. Helmed by Ravi Chandran, who has cinematographed in films like Black, the camera movements and angles, and more particularly, the use of sunlight to depict both romance and loneliness is outstanding. While Black was all about using sunrays through the darkness, MNIK is all about letting the sunrays speak. For eg, the sequence (hair cutting) between SRK and Kajol in Tere naina, the song picturisation of Noor e khuda are brilliant. apart from this, the Georgia portion is also worth mentioning. Nowhere did it seem that the camera works were compromised to prioritize a star- it is one of the very few films, where the visuals speak. Iam not aware of the technicalities, but as a viewer, i felt that if the film is worth a watch, it is primarily because of how Mr. Chandran composed the visuals.
THE EDITING:
The editing in Karan's films have been getting more disastrous with each film. If K2H2 was perfect, K3G was overshot by at least 1 hour, and for KANK , it seemed as if the editor was on a holiday. MNIK is better than the last two, but that is far from saying that it has an excellent editing. there are several sequences in both the halves which could have been disposed of. However, if I look at the scenes individually, the editing is perfect. the only fault lay in the fact that many extra sequences, which only added to the length of the film, were retained.
THE STORY, SCRIPT AND SCREENPLAY:
with the seriousness of the topic being talked about, I definitely expected better. But yes, this film is better better than Karan's previous 2 ventures. Only towards the climax, it seemed that SRK was forcefully elevated to be a hero..the Georgia portion seemed illogical in a logical topic. The Parvin Dabbas track was not needed..the whole setup, it seemed, was forcefully incorporated to heroworship Rizwan Khan. Thumbs down! But Kajol's portion was awsome...some of the most sensitive portions I have seen.

THE DIRECTION:
karan johar has matured as a director, though sadly he could not totally keep his SRK-is-a-God mentality down. hence, though the film is nicely directed, the climax portions lack logic. but certain scenes in the film are worth mentioning..for eg: the whole track of the death of Sam, the Masjid track, and again, the Noor e Khuda song. But the music input of the film was optimum, again unlike KANK and K3G..qudos to that. ditto for the sequences where the Muslims are attacked at various places.but next time, I wish to see more sensitiveness in his direction,.and the plotline could be less complicated...and.....no compromising the screenplay for SRK!!

THE ACTING
thats the final aspect we are going to discuss. And the film belongs to..not SRK, but Kajol
the main reason is that Kajol had an optimum role in the film- a compact one, which she not only acted, but lived. Each time u see her in the film, you feel for her. Her histrionics after Sam's death is outstanding!! She deserves a standing ovation for this role. Not to mention, she looks awsome in every frame. I hope this years female best actor awards are swept by her!
I wont comment about SRK. primarily because i could not understand his acting. sometimes, he looks normal. sometimes he is abnormal. sometimes he enjoys with a group full of unknown people. sometimes he shrieks at it. sometimes he rattles off informations like an examinee about to take his/her exam. sometimes he is silent. Sometimes he bends his head while talking. sometimes he is straightheaded. sometimes he looks at the listener, sometimes he doesnt. sometimes he acts like SRK in KANK, sometimes like Rani Mukherjee in Black, sometimes like a true patient, sometimes god knows what. I simply did not understand what he was supposed to do. But if you leave aside these discrepancies, he was so-so, but not the best. the jail and the airport sequences are excellent. But i think the role needed more clarity.
among the others, qudos to the actor enacting Kajol's son Sam. he had an excellent screen presence.Ditto for Tanay Chheda, who enacted the young Rizwan..he was excellent. Zarina Wahab's portrayal of Rizwan's single mother, was excellent..she conveyed the emotions of a distressed mother with ease. Jimmy Shergill and Sonya Jehan almost had nothing to do, but they were decent. to cut a long story short, the film was good in the acting department.

Female Playback singing in Bollywood...RIP???

A few days back, I was going through the music review of "Tum Mile", on a site. the review said, "yet another all male singer album from Pritam, after "Life In a Metro". That comment led me to think...will there be a day in bollywood, when our leading ladies will be barred of the opportunity to lip sync those beautiful songs, which have the power of deciding a fate for a film? Will there be a day, when "duet songs" will be a myth? I think the day is not far away, with our composers ignoring females in their playlist..when our beautiful leading ladies will have no voices to sing for them, while our heroes will take away all the acclodes by the romanticism, or the sexy dance sequences in the songs, we wont have a Nargis singing "pyar hua ikrar hua", or a Madhubala singing "pyar kiya to darna kya", or a Kajol singing "Tujhe dekha to ye jana sanam". I really miss the presence of duets today...they are way far and few. If I remember, the last duets per excellence i heard were "Piyu bole" from parineeta, and "tu bin bataye" from RDB. And if I take a look at last year's albums, while each album had a leading male song as its USP, for eg, Masakkali/Arziyan/Rehna Tu from Delhi 6, Hai junoon from New York, Twist/Aj din Chhadeya from Luv aj Kal,Prem ki Naiyya from Ajab prem ki.. and many more, there were only 3 significant female songs to speak of..genda ful from Delhi 6, Iktara from Wake Up Sid, and Zubi Dubi from 3I. the year before the scenary was no better. With umpteen number of item songs where the instruments bang more than the voices, and the heroes suit more than the heroines, the hindi film industry is slowly losing its songstress. Thats bad, and thats unfortunate. though I really appreciate the return of melodies in Hindi songs in the hands of directors like Rahman,and Shankar Ehsaan Loy, I really miss good duets, or even a good female song...a "barso re" comes, but only once in 2-3 yrs. hope this improves.

Watching 3 Idiots again....

To start with, this is not a 3I review. I had to start off my new blog with something, so i decided writing about what I felt when I watched the recent Hit of Hit films, 3Idiots..again on local television. I remember telling one of my friends that I didnt like the film...the reaction was like.."Are You Mad? its a Brilliant film yaar.."..another acquaintance was of the opinion that while Rang De Basanti was a film with nothing in it, 3 Idiots is the best film ever. I respect their opinions..they felt that way. May be I am really mad...because I did not like my favourite Chetan Bhagat story utterly distorted.. I did not enjoy the innovativeness of delivering a kid by a vacuum cleaner, and the supposedly stillborn infant delivering its first kick at the chanting of "all izz well"..in a supposedly realistic story about the education system..I did not like Farhan's father agreeing to his career decision in just 2 minutes' pleading, while my father never realized so in the whole of my almost quarter of a century lifetime. I did not enjoy the bride running away, YRF style. In short, barring a few sequences, I only kept ridiculing the way the storyline has been treated..a lot of scenes were so taken for granted...for example, the very kiddish romantic track between Rancho and Pia...was it just to incorporate a romantic song ?(again, a nicely sung song like zoobi doobi shot badly)...and the whole idea of the replacement of the actual ranchordas was disgustingly absurd, and only added to the length of the film...the narrative could have been more attractive had they stuck to the original storyline of 5 point Someone.
all said and done, i did really enjoy certain parts of the film. And topping the list is Omi Vaidya's portrayal of Silencer. This debutant really stole the spotlight from the established actors like Aamir, madhavan, Sharman and Kareena. Thus, every scene with a wickedly comical chatur Ramalingam aka silencer had me in splits. And though, being a part of the system itself, I cannot totally deny the "study for exams" legend, yet the underlying message of the film appealed to me "study for knowledge..and not merely for rat races of competitions..". My heart ached for poor Joy..sacrifice of a innovative young life, just because he could not meet a deadline. I really sympathized with Farhan..a victim of parental pressure leading to choice of a wrong path of life. Or Raju, who desperately needs a degree and a job to support his family(whose depiction as a 1950s bollywood flick was really funny). But the fraction of enjoyable parts is very few..as compared to what I expected from the Director of Lage Raho Munnabhai, The actor team of RDB. but my sincere claps to Mr. Omi Vaidya, and also the cinematographer..while the Behti hawa sa song is brilliant, as is the scenary of ladakh, the camera movements throughout the film aptly justified the correct mood of the respective scene..(Raju's house, for example). only how I wish that our editor (the director himself, i guess), could have done away with a few unnecessary relevant sequences, and concentrated on the main theme instead.The culmination of the film was really boring, predictable and irritating!

Lastly, next time, Mr director, please take care that a principal of the no 1 engineering college does not type letters while is laptop is on a Windows Standby Mode.

poor Chetan Bhagat!