Shelving the Head

Glancing at a few blogs, I see that almost everyone seems to have resorted to either escaping totally from the Diwali hungama or if not, wangled to pull out of certain festival duties. What is it about festivals that brings people down rather than uplifting spirits like they are supposed to? I’m glad to see that others undergo this syndrome as well – all you ever see in the papers, every festival, is models and actors saying how much they looove Diwali/Holi/Eid/Valentine’s Day/Christmas and all the fun things they are going to do.
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Naach

Saw Naach on Saturday! Another product of the RGV factory! Other than the actual naach, I loved it! Antara Mali has a great body, I love watching fit people, but she can’t dance for toffee – she’s so stiff. Considering the soul of the film is supposed to be dance, they should have cast an excellent dancer. In fact, the only part that dragged in the film were the naach sequences. RGV seems to be a bit obsessed with the female form. Which is fine, but at moments in the film I felt that he just wanted to put a hot woman in various leotards and skimpy costumes and so came up with a concept to fit that. And it didn’t work. The geeky guy next to me was busy messaging on his cell whenever the supposedly ‘hot’ numbers came on. And her vision of dance? Badly done yogic/ballet postures and ‘the look’. ‘The look’ being a sudden turn of the head and a glare, the eyes wide and the mouth straight as a line. Very putting off.

Started the last paragraph saying I loved it and then proceeded to trash it! Just angry cos it could have been so much better if he hadn’t tried so hard to make it sexy.

Okay, so what I did like – the crafting of the relationship between Mali and Bachchan – beautifully done. Very rare in Hindi films where the hero and heroine fall in superficial love during the duration of a song. Other Hindi films which did this well – Gaddar, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, maybe even Lamhe. The argument in the car – well scripted, well shot, well acted, well directed – one of the best scenes in the film.

The second thing – the balance between fantasy and reality. The glamour of cinema that enthralls and the grittiness that grounds. The opening song sequence – Mali dreaming in the rain vs. the reality of the Bombay streets and sea.

The third – the wonderful juxtaposition between the reality depicted in the film or the ‘choreographic vision’ that Mali sees with typical Bollywood songs/dialogue. Done so well, the difference comes out so stark.

The fourth – the effort towards realism. Have spoken about the balance between fantasy and reality above. Because I enjoy the fantasy that cinema affords and the ‘visual treat’ that it can give us. But I love most RGV films for the effort towards reality – unlike most Bollywood films – the décor in Mali’s small flat, the everyday clothes, Bachchan sleeping over at her place as a matter of fact – reflecting society as it is.

The fifth – the rejected lover, Hrishikesh Deshmukh (?), just cos he was so cute :)
After a long time, I saw a film (other than those at festivals), where the audience clapped at the end!

Grrrr….why couldn’t he have had some great dance in it?????????????
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The Birth of a Nation

Finally got to see this classic epic!

Blatantly racist, depicting the Ku Klux Klan as the saviours of the South after the Civil War. But what storytelling! All the ingredients of a spell-binding drama – love, tragedy, action – grounded in history. And of course all the technical firsts for that time – night shots, amazing crowd and war sequences.

Seems silly to write about it when so much has been said.
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Though it may not seem like it from this post, today was one of the bad days. B attempted to ‘talk’ to me which only made it worse.

Took a long walk in IIT and then went to a café within the campus and read the screenplay of The Hours in one sitting. Drank coffee and ate greasy chowmien which I like to have occasionally since it reminds me of college.

Browsed in a bookshop for a while.

Am now attempting to put the head/heart on the shelf as per the suggestion of two friendly voices in the void :)