No One Killed Jessica : No One Can Match Amit

Its unlike the good old days of music when the music directors were able to slip in their signature style in the variety of music they produced. The race to be excellent has made sure that each music director is able to churn out different music for every film. If you go through the hits of 2010, the music directors have not been able to have the “Punjabi theka” or “Heer” of Lakshmikant Pyarelal, the “flanger” on guitar and the break rhythm patterns of RD Burman, the violin and clarinet of OP Nayyar. Yet, there is one music director who has been able to slip in his signature in almost all his songs, right from the beginning. Toutejavascript:void(0)d as the new Rahman – Amit Trivedi.

Amit is a 31 year old music composer with some amazing scores to his credit – the small budget “Aamir” directed by Rajkumar Gupta where “Haan Reham” and “Chakkar Ghumyo” are two songs which got everybody’s attention. His big break came in the form of super-excellent cinema called Dev.D. In fact Anurag Kashyap is so impressed with Amit’s understanding of music that he introduced Amit to Rajkumar and got him to compose the music. Dev. D was a milestone, as the signature style of Amit Trivedi was formed in this film and for that he also won the national award for best music in a feature film. Another cult hit of Amit was a song called ‘Ektaara” from Wake Up Sid. This song in both female and male version was the essence of the film and hence, the song won him many more accolades. His last film Aisha was a super-uber version of Jane Austin’s Emma set in the rich contours of Delhi with a farm house and weekend to Kasauli culture oozing along with shopping for top of the line phoren brand of clothes in stylish malls. Amit’s music of a foot thumping title track and a uber-Punjabi hit “Gal Mithi Mithi Bol” became the sound of the nation. The film didn’t do well for different reasons but the song continues to appear on charts.

Amit’s latest offering and again with Rajkumar Gupta is the super controversial film called “No One Killed Jessica” which is more in the news because of alleged cold war between the lead actresses Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan than the storyline. In almost all the songs, you hear Amit’s signature style so prominent at display that after the first two tracks you seem to lose yourself in the album and each track plays independently on your mind.

It starts with a stylish uptempo track “Dilli”. Only Amit can pull off a track which starts with a heavy guitar riff and then the vocals doing D…D….D….D….Dilli…Dilli. Amit’s genius comes in to play where the words penned by an old associate of Amit’s Amitabh Bhattacharya bring the life and times of Delhi. The folkish lyrics which say “Kaad kaleja Dilli” and Amit’s Rock influence on the song gives that “Akkhad” flavor of Dilliwala. Clear distinction in the sound also comes from off beat voices of Tochi Raina, Aditi Sharma. The song not only impresses in the first hearing but it gradually grows on you so much that the only thing that you end up humming is D….D….D….Dilli….Dilli. The headbangers ball should be rocking with this track soon. It is so distinct than the Dilli of Rahman’s Dilli -6 that you wonder if the younger prodigy has looked at Delhi in a different light than Rahman.

The next track is used for Rani Mukherjee who plays a brave journalist in the film. This is her signature track and boy, what a track this one is. Truly earthy, truly simple and truly amazing and fantastic lyrics which define the character in words like “Chal hatt”/ Munh tod de/ halkat/ munhfat/ saali re/ gaali re/ mawali re and such interest arousing lyrics which goes to the extent of Patloon mein junoon hai. The song has a unique rhythm pattern to it and thus while it is very interesting to listen to, it is difficult to sing along. In the movie, Rani Mukherjee’s entry is where the song is used hence, it works with visual. In isolation, the track is interesting because of the weird lyrics rahu ya phir ketu ki hai aadhi gharwali/ temper hai bhayankar etc. In my opinion this is more Amitabh Bhattacharya’s song than Amit’s song.

Track 3 – Aitbaar by sung by Vishal Dadlani is so rockfish that it sounds cacophonic. May be the thread of the film is what is defining this song. While Vishal himself is a great rock singer, this song clearly is not one of his best songs. Nor Amit has been able to do justice to this song.

One of my two favorites from this album is Dua sung by Indian Idol contestant Meenal Jain and a host of other singers like Raman Mahadevan (no relation to Shankar except for that he has sung a couple of songs for Shankar), Joi Baruah and the lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya himself. This song gives me goose bumps. The chord progression and the haunting chorus accentuate the feeling of the song. My personal thinking is that this song is used to show the candle march at Indian Gate. Use of guitars has somehow done more damage to the song than adding to it. It is a short coming with most of the rock songs in the world. Rock music is an expression of self for the musicians and it inherently it is an extends to issues pertaining to the society. Rock exudes pain but at times the instrumentation puts the lyrics on the back seat. This is exactly what happens to this song towards the end.

Second favorite is sung by none other Shilpa Rao. For those who know her or have had the chance to meet her. She is sweet little pretty looking girl but I think something that recording room and the mic does to her where that little girl transforms in to a power house of sorts. The range of her voice is amazing and once again the chords that Amit uses are an apt fit for the song. The song with amazing lyrics is a solitary cry of a woman fighting in the unfair world of men. Amit uses Cello and violin with so much affinity that as a listener I can feel the soul of the song, I can feel the soul of the character on my skin.

Honestly, none of the songs are hum along songs and will find it difficult to get in to the most popular and mass category but the compositions are world class, arrangement is mind blowing and both lyrics and the singing complement each other. This album has the potential to turn in to a collector’s item only if the film works. If the film is able to do 100% justice to the original incident, which I am sure it will, the music will go places with the film. In isolation, on the other hand, the album may not find traction with its listeners. Fans of Amit like me will follow the album all the while and in fact “Dilli” is one of the drive time favorites, how much an average listener will lap it up is a thing that needs to be seen.

Music Review : Yamla Pagla Deewana

Finally the Apne arrive in their own elements. The Deol trio of Daddy Dharmendra, a man we have loved for over 50 years, the original macho man of India silver screen with his two puttars; the simplest and one of the kindest souls, our desi he-man Sunny and the most flamboyant of them all, Bobby. And this time, the Yamla Pagla Deewana is in full action promising a funny crime-caper with Dharamji and Bobby playing the con-artists and apna Sunny paji as the brawny cop.

The music of the film was recently released in a five star hotel where Amitabh Bachchan released the music of the film, and it was such an heartwarming moment to see Jai-Veeru Jodi on stage sharing funny anecdotes and a hearty laugh. So, the music of Yamla Pagla Deewana is finally out and let’s see what does this album has to offer to us.

As expected and planned by all 3 Deols (I am sure the director Samir Karnik must have bulldozed his way here), the title track of the film is the ever-so-popular cult song composed by Lakshmikant-Pyarelal for Dharamji. The song not only became Dharamji’s signature song but also defined the persona behind the super-strong on screen image of Dharamji. The song is aptly re-created/ re-mixed/ re-done with Sonu Niigaam’s voice paying tribute to his idol Mohammad Rafi. The effervescence and joy in his voice in unmistakably present and while this song brings the image of Dharamji’s “now ready to be registered” dance moves, on screen the three “Jatts” are in their element. RDB the band, who have belted out many hit Punjabi songs for Akshay Kumar’s films in the past, have helped re-create the song, a fairly justified attempt. May be, I am being biased for the earthy feeling that the original offered in 1975 watching Dharamji trying to woo his lady love Hemaji.

Next song on the album is a revelation of sorts. Composed by young talented Pakistani singer Nouman Javaid (who incidentally co-write the lyrics of the songs with Rahul Seth). Nouman has had his share of controversies for one of his earlier tracks “O Meri Jaan” in Emran Hashmi – Soha Ali Khan starrer Tum Mile. He was found by the Bhatts in a musical called Jashn – the film that failed to launch the career of Adhyayn Suman. He composed and sung two songs in that film and then him releasing his track O Meri Jaan on youtube before the release of the film got him in to trouble with Pritam and Bhatts. With this beautiful track Charha De Rang, he hopes to get back. The singers are an accomplished singer Ali Pervez Mehdi from Lahore along with Shweta Pandit. The raw flavor of the voice makes the melody a really hum along track. Next in line is the item number with a strange mix of earthy Punjabi and Bhojpuri flavor Tinku Jiya, composed by Anu Malik and belted out by Mamta “Munni Badnam” Sharma and Javed “Kajrare” Ali. Anu Malik once again tries his hand at lyric writing but the song except for the catchy and racy tune has nothing to rave about. However, the picturisation of the song will see it through.

Not many people know this singer called Omer Nadeem but those who are heavily in to Pakistani pop music will remember him as one of the key members of the band “Jal” before the infamous split of Atif Aslam from the band. Omer also collaborated with Mustafa Zahid for his band Sifar where they produced some very good numbers including the cult hit “Toh Phir Aao” (used by the Bhatts again). Omer has always been on the fence waiting for the jackpot. The song Sau Baar is a perfect song for someone like him and Shreya Ghosal’s melifluos voice compliments. A song that will stay for long. Chamki Jawani is a strange tune from Bhojpur and has Mamta Sharma, Daler Mehndi and super talented Master Salim singing a done to death treatment to a traditional tune by Anu Malik. This song sticks out as a sore thumb in the entire album. Anu Malik, we know is a far superior composer to even think of such a run of the mill composition.

Nouman Javaid comes again with an equally strange tune called Son Titariya which has Bhojpuri lyrics meeting a Punjabi dance number and in turn getting confused as to which route to follow. Even the singer Krishna Beura (Chak De India and Raaz fame) could help the song. Though it sounds like a fun song, the heavy instrumentation leaves a lot to be desired. Last official song on the album is written by none other than Dharam paji, and the subject of the song is, no surprise here – The whiskey bottle.

Other songs of the album are different dub versions of Charha De Rang – One of which is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan with Shweta Pandit & Mahalakshmi Iyer. Two more adlib versions of this song are really killing the beauty of the song and can be done away with. No need for listeners to go through the pain of listening to rehearsals. Like a true Punjabi film, the album ends with a Gurbaani sung by Shahid Mallya.

Over all the album is an interesting listen but the songs will work only if they are accompanied by interesting visuals and what better can be than the 3 Deols in their elements.

Awaiting Friend Confirmation : The Social Network

To love or not to love, that is the question. And that is the pivot, on which the entire story of “The Social Network” revolves.

Love makes people do strange things. From committing suicide to taking the world in its stride, the history is full of such losers and heroes. This is what happened with Mark Zuckerberg when this young chap suffering from inferiority complex gave birth to world’s most successful social network – Facebook.

Officially “The Social Network” has not released in India and its first screening happened in MAMI Festival, Mumbai. Why not give Mark “Facebook” Zukerberg a taste of his own medicine and find if I can find a copy online, was the only thought that came to my mind. Little did people realize that Mark has been a first class hacker when I was at the university. He hacked in to the student databases of all other universities to download the student picture on to his computer to set up “Facemash” – Hot or Not avtar of Facebook, and for doing this, he was asked to leave the university.

For the film aficionados, David Fincher is a name to be taken with greatest of reverence. Now, I wouldn’t mind googling a bit for dope on David but his taut screenplays and superbly crafted cult classics have been a part of Hollywood folklore. This time David takes detour to make “The Social Network” based on a book called “The accidental billionaires”. Not too sure about the love life David has had but the portrayal of Mark by Jesse Eisenberg shows his deep understanding of the genius Mark is.

The Social Network called Facebook was born out of rejection. History is full of people who changed the world but little is known about heroes who went out with vengeance, took the world in their stride and made a mark on the history of this world; all due to a failed relationship.

David has made some really amazing yet dark thrillers and they are considered as textbooks and have massive fan following across the globe – Be it “Seven” where Brad Pitt is on a wild chase for a strange killer who picks up on people accused of committing one of the seven deadly sins. Or be it “The Game” where Michael Douglas becomes a part of virtual game at the insistence of his brother Sean Penn and goes on a ride in the dark, murky world of crime. Or “Fight Club” which catapulted Brad Pitt to the world of most desirable men. Not to forget “The panic Room” or the “Zodiac’. One thing that David does very well is that he outclasses himself in each one of his movies. His last offering was a movie that I cherish the most for two different reasons – One, because it is based on a secret desire nurtured by mankind “Rewind to Relive” and two, because I saw it with someone who is really close to my heart.

And just when you think David has produced a master-piece, he outclasses again by offering an intense and brooding cinema wrapped in an glitzy way. The story of a man who has 500 million friends (and counting) and a few enemies – Mark Zuckerberg. Born on May 14th, 1984, Mark launched Facebook in Feb, 2004 and within 6 years, it has over 500 million users registered on what is now being touted as the game changer in the world of internet.

While the film is based on the book called “The accidental Billionaires” and the film is not a biopic but is in a superb story-telling form of Mark’s marginally fictionized life, the cinema is an incredible watch. It shows Mark in a very human light. His character is quite grey as opposed to what he would like to be portrayed as. The movie is intense, tight and though not a thriller, moves with a pace which is unbelievable.

The casting of the film is mind-blowing. Jesse Eisenberg is not a top of the league name but his portrayal of the geeky, under-confident and arrogant Mark deserves a standing ovation. He plays is cool with restrained anger. Trying to find out a logical, larger than life achievement just to prove a point to the girl who rejected her because he was not a part of the elite group but just an ordinary geek who could not hold a conversation without getting agitated. It’s my way or highway or rather its Mark-way or highway. Jesse does justice to the role of an always seek, always shy, almost whimsical. He has the eyes of a hurt and shy guy who can not handle people looking at him. He wants to be on the higher pedestal so that people can look up to him. The wicked twitch on his lips, the smile that says “Fuck you morons, I am Mark Zuckerberg and you all will suck up to me for that”.

Just to throw a lesser known fact, Facebook’s blue will never change as Mark is partially color blind to reds and greens. I remember, when I joined Facebook at some one’s insistence, I was primarily hooked to the zillions of applications and tests and which XYZ are you and what is your favorite sexual position etc. Eventually, I grew out of it and kept on accepting and rejecting friend requests. While orkut was a poor man’s social network, Facebook was classy and had a snooty appeal to it (kinda lost the sheen though). I have been on Facebook from 2006 and I think I spend time on it practically every single day, now just to update my status and read reactions from people and play “Mafia Wars”. There have been days where I have not only enjoyed the quizzes to comparing myself and my friends to write elaborate notes on the state of my mind so movie reviews to upload pictures and be as social as I could be. Facebook, in my opinion, works for the hidden geek in all of us who harbor the ambition to be a person with crazy fan following, a higher pedestal for our extreme amount of useless knowledge, to seek comment on the almost prophetic status messages and an outlet for our mental diarrhea. But what makes Facebook special is that it all started as an exclusive club. The exclusive club for Harvardians and now we all are a part of it. Remember the days when gmail account was available only via invite.

Coming back to the cinema, the movie has its moments, ups and downs, some scenes which could have been inserted and some scenes which could have been shot differently to make a grander impact. Yet, no one’s complaining. During its debut weekend in the United States, the film opened at #1 grossing an estimated $23 million in 2,771 theaters.[51] In its second weekend it was #1 again, dropping only 31.2%, breaking Inception's 32.0% record as the smallest second weekend drop for any #1 movie of 2010, and being the third smallest overall behind Secretariat's 25.1% drop and Tooth Fairy's 28.6% drop. As of October 31, 2010 the film has grossed $79.7 million in the United States and $32.2 million overseas for a worldwide total of $111.9 million.

It is just a superb, tight and taut thriller story of a social network. Story of a dorm room where in a drunken state after the rejection by a girl, Mark created Facebook. It’s a story of hurt, rejected in love boy who was all of 20 when he built the biggest internet revolution since google and today Facebook has more pictures uploaded on it than “Picasa” and more videos uploaded on it than “youtube”. Facebook has converged it all. Today, when every single person on the face of this earth would want to be a friend of Mark Zuckerberg, he is watching all this unfolding in front of his own eyes. With a few friends he hurt on his way up, with a few people whom he rubbed the wrong way, he watches his life being unveiled and appreciated by another 500 million people across the globe and he is staring at his computer screen on the Facebook profile page of Erica Albright where “Awaiting Friend Confirmation” status has not changed to “Mark Zuckerberg and Erica Albright are now friends”.

I dedicate this to the girl who made my Facebook account and asked for a promise to never delete it, come what may! So, I keep my promise – Awaiting Friend Confirmation.

Paanch Ka Punch : Watch It For Kay Kay And Tejaswini

So, finally watched the infamous and controversial “Paanch” by Anurag Kashyap. It was a preview copy released by Anurag on torrent sites and I think was reduced in length by cutting the maha-controversial scenes.

Sunday 13th June, 4 am to 6.30 am. What a time to watch any movie but my insomnia never allows me to sleep for long so after crashing at 12, I peacefully woke up at 3.30 and then got hooked to watching “Paanch”.

Seriously, it was a fairly interesting movie but nowhere close to Black Friday, No Smoiking or my all time favorite Anurag Kashyap film Dev. D. Two things in the film stood out clearly. First, Kay Kay Menon. Grossly under-rated as an actor. He is more violent than most of the macho heroes and villains that we ever produced in Hindi film industry. He is cruel, brutal and has a raw power that can scare the shit out of anyone. He is not mean, he is just raw power. He is just animal. He is raw. Second actor which bowled me over was Tejaswini Kolhapure. She is convincing as a quite honestly conniving woman. The moment she entered the scene, each of the frames the equation between actors on the scene changed Her face has traces of Padmini Kolhapure yet, she is a gazillion times better than her. And to be honest, I hate Padmini for the dumb and helpless woman that she must have portrayed in one of her films that I had the misfortune of watching.

What is unique about Paanch? I am told that it borrows heavily from the life of Channel V VJ Luke Kenny and his friends. I have met Luke once in my life when he had come to our studios promoting Rock On. I doubt that he has any trace of the character that Kay Kay played. He is too simple, well spoken and humble a person as opposed to the animal Luke Morrison. I think this is one of the earliest films for Aditya Shrivastav (more prominently known as Inspector Abhijeet in one of the longest running TV series CID) , Vijay Maurya ( another favorite actor of mine – the honest cop struggling to understand the nuances of life in Mumbai Meri Jaan). The film also had Pankaj Saraswat as an actor but for the lesser informed, Pankaj Saraswat is the brain behind all Laughter Challenge shows in India and is a terrific human being. I was in for a pleasant surprise because though small, he had a powerful role and he acted really well. So that makes two people involved in the film who are known to me – Anurag himself and Pankaj.

Paanch is not cinematic excellence, or an example of how coming of age the Hindi cinema is but it is a tight and good film. Since it was Anurag’s first film, critics have been quite vociferous about shortcomings and some continuity breaks but to give it to the brave film maker, he made this film with so much of passion and even more struggle that if it was anybody else in his place, he would have bent his back and allowed Censor to edit his way through but he did not relent. Hats off to the producer Pradeep “Tutu” Sharma (Padmini Kolhapure married him and Tejaswini is his sister in law) who for some strange reason put in money on this project fully aware of the fact that the film may never see the light of the day. He also plays a cameo in the film as the honcho at music company.

The strangest part of the film, is the haunting music done by none other than Vishal Bhardwaj. Him and Anurag go a long way back that means. Sar Jhuka Khuda Hoon Main is Abbas Tyrewalla’s acidic expression on screen and makes him rise several notches above as a lyrics writer. Superb song and an equally superb composition. My favorite is “Kya Din Kya Raat” the club song shot on oomph queen Tejaswini setting the screen on fire. Ek Din sung by KK (singer KK) will haunt you to grave. The music is outstanding, but unfortunately the movie never released and hence the music despite of getting released well in advance found very little takers.

For fans of Anurag, Paanch may come across as a let down because it doesn’t have the realism of Black Friday nor has the existentialism of No Smoking or the work of art like Dev. D nor as acerbic as Gulal. But it is an honest first attempt at film making by him. Though he has come of age and grown as a professional and is making Bombay Velvet and Girl in Yellow Boots and other films as producer/ director; Paanch will be close to him. Just as a mark of respect and love we all have for Anurag for giving us the classics after classics and becoming the harbinger of change in the language of Hindi cinema, lets give him a round of applause for creating Paanch and giving us actors like Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Shrivastav, Vijay Maurya, cinematorgrapher like Nataraja Subramaniyam and yes, super talented Tejaswini Kolhapure. Oh, and by the way, I totally doted on her when she did Raja Bundela’s TV series “Mujhe Chaand Chahiye” as Varsha Vashishth – one of the rarest confident and bold women protagonists in Hindi literature. The novel was awesome and so was she.

Stop press : Tejaswini Kolhapure is married to Pankaj Saraswat! Awesome Pankaj da!

Who the fuck is Wayne Sharp and Not so petite Katrina Kaif

We are strange people in India. A couple of weeks back we just refused to accept a film which was made on huge budgets and had some really good cast and suddenly this week, we are going ballistic praising a well used and abused story which is interlaced with scenes from another international classic. What’s more, we event went ahead and compared the female protagonist of the movie to female protagonist of Indian politics. Hackneyed, aren’t we?

Saw Rajneeti finally on Sunday morning. Sherlock Homes was the last movie that I saw in theater. The promotion and cast n crew of the film were compelling enough for me to go and spend 3 hours in the theater and not doze off. Well I can’t write anything more what others haven’t written. Yes it is a semi-clever adaptation of Mahabharat and The Godfather. I say semi-clever because while some the scenes were blatant lifts, some of the scenes were under the hangover of Prakash Jha’s earlier films (the thick Bihari accent in Bhopal was unbearable to be honest) and some scenes were cleverly written, out rightly impressive.

Some of the characters of the movie were played by exceptionally brilliant actors. Manoj Vajpayee is suffering from awe-some-osis. He stands out in the smallest of roles (in Daud) to Shool (his first lead role) to Bhikhu Mhatre and now Virender Pratap Singh. Arjun Rampal was a revelation in Rock On but from the deadpan expression, to his fascinating display of Sonny Corleone in Rajneeti is like a walk of thousand miles. For Ajay Devgn (you are reading it right, he has changed his surname) this was an almost repeat role. He did look the part but not so convincing. I don’t think that he got a raw deal because the way role was defined it was superbly crafted. Nana Patekar was effortless and he played the role of ‘Brij Gopal The Advisor” perfectly. I didn’t see any seen where Prakash Jha might have had a fall out with him. He was omnipresent. The worst actor in the movie was the lady who played the role of Arjun and Ranbeer’s mother.

I don’t want to write about Ranbeer who was an amalgam of Arjun and Michael Corleone and in the post-interval scenes he stole the show. The film did justice to his acting caliber and he somehow perfectly suited the role. In years to come, he will displace Aamir Khan is what I would like to predict. Provided Aamir stops to do roles of college students.

Rajneeti brought back my original philosophy and that’s why I fell in love with Katrina in the movie. She has a strange accent in the first half of the movie and a lip surgery gone wrong (or maybe that is some reaction to the injection). Her transformation is amazing, the way she changes gears was astonishing. Her perfect Hindi speech was a revelation too. However that is not the reason why I liked her. I liked her because she was plump and had a fuller figure in the movie. This also made me realize that I may have gotten distracted with petite women in between but I am an Indian guy and prefer a girl with fuller figure. The slimmer the better doesnot work for me. Move over Deepika, I am now officially in love with Katrina Kaif. She is scorching hot. I don’t know if I will be able to survive the second screening of the movie but if I do, it will be for Katrina “not at all petite” Kaif.

Though the film was designed by writers Anjum Rajaballi and Prakash Jha by uncomplicating the complex web of a screenplay, the film belongs to a virtually unknown man called Wayne Sharp who is the music director of the film and has also done the background score. The theme music of the movie is haunting and so is the background piece which he played when Katrina’s transformation is being shown from a crying widow to a political leader who is delivery fiery speeches. I don’t know anything about this Wayne Sharp fellow. But who so ever he is..he is just brilliant. Watch the movie again for the background score….definitely not the songs…but only the background score.

Rajneeti is a delight. For the back ground score and yummy, delicious, delectable and not at all petite Katrina…Ramu…get me a tissue…I am drooling again.

Are you twisting, turning and cursing Guy Richie, Mr. Doyle?

He was born in 1887 In Beenton’s Christmas Annual in the form of a short story titled “ A Study in Scarlet”. His creator was a Scottish author and physician call Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I think he modeled Sherlock on himself because both of them were extra ordinarily brilliant, sharp, quick witted, observant and had forensic skills to add to their eye for details. However, Arthur said that he had apprenticed with a certain Dr. Joseph Bell on whose mannerisms and working styles, the character of Homes was based. Homes lived through 4 novels and about 50+ stories and most of them are written through the perspective of his friend Dr. John H. Watson. Not only Watson is his confidant, but is also shown as a brave man with a lot of Brit sense of humor and Homes cares about him more than blood brother.

Sherlock Homes is a product that is a Guy Richie product and yet not so. For the lesser mortals, Guy Richie is now the estranged husband of pop icon and diva Madonna. For some sane ones, one of his earlier films Snatch was shamelessly and incorrectly made in to super duper flop “Fool & Final” by choreographer Ahmed Khan. I don’t know what he was thinking when he was plagiarizing Snatch. Any Indian film director doesn’t have enough dope in his head to even coming close to make the eccentric snatch. For the informed ones, this is the 4th cult classic by Guy Richie after Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and Rock N Rolla. Let me add to the fact that Rock N Rolla is a pure trip. For those who have never done dope, can never understand the layers of the film. The film was sheer brilliance. I haven’t been able to find the right adjectives for it till date.

Coming Back to Sherlock Homes. It is a James Bondish affair. In other words, an American detective story set in early British world. For those who love Guy Richie, this film will take their love to another level. He deftly handles the settings, and he cleverly deals with the idiosyncratic characters. For someone who has got an academy award nomination for playing the role of the biggest comic in the world Charlie Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr. effortless slips in to the role of a reverse-suave Sherlock Homes. The icy and dry Brit humor which stings like a diluted Hydrochloric acid falling on the back of your hand when you are fooling around with the preparation of colored concoctions in the Chemistry lab on the pretext of identification of an Element. In the movie, Robert is in his true elements.

Sir Doyle had given quirks to Sherlock while writing it. He was also a known drug addict and yet not so. Occasionally he would humor himself by injecting himself with a special concoction that he made. In the movie, he is lazy and his mind is shown to find solace in chaos of the scattered and littered room that he lives in. He also shares his room and life with his friend Dr. John “Jude Law” Watson. For the much publicized role of Jude Law, we were all wondering what is he doing in the film but from the frame he enters the film, he begins to steal the show and stands as tall as Downey. The camaraderie is evident, the bond goes beyond the ordinary. The two of them live like hand in glove and the quick ones thrown at each other, the dry repartee, the first one to give it back wins the race and Jude Law’s affection for Downey was just out of the world. Rarely you will find this kind of equation between two actors. Finally, Hollywood finds its equivalent of Jai and Veeru. Though, I must admit I was kind of intrigued with the connection between Brad Pitt and George Clooney in Ocean series.

Sherlock Homes is a must watch for the acute observations, the beautiful British alleys and some heartwarming action which doesn’t blow your mind but keeps you on the edge. The film also promises something which I personally always endorse. There is no God, there is no spirit, there is no magic or paranormal shit, its all science. If there is God, it better be called as Science or else, I don’t subscribe to anything. The ease with which Sherlock proves that everything is just an experiment was partially convincing too. His experiment on the dog were not only hilarious but also quite simply put. We must not forget that the film was set in late 19th century/ early 20th century and most of the things like chloroform, cyanide gases, remote control, sonic triggers were almost unknown. That makes the film believable.

The one on one fight sequences in the arena with the heavily built fighter showcased Guy’s brilliance. How unique can you make an ordinary display of power and Guy is adept at doing so yet surprising everyone. Things which I need not mention are other characters, the supreme sound track, out of the world cinematography and yes, outstanding story and screenplay. However, I would be a fool to not pay my respect to the British humor thrown in at regular intervals in the dialogues. Jude and Downey’s scene when Jude introduces his girlfriend to Downey who had turned in to an almost a-social after getting dumped twice by a hottie, decides to try his detective charm on the girl. Man, what a scene? Downey and Jude steal the scene with their expressions, when the girl breaks in to tears and announces that the white mark of the ring that she wore on the finger was because she was married to someone who did not dump her but died. Awesome thought in itself. A very subtle nuance and not wasted at all.

It opened on no. 2 in US, right after Avataar which is all set to become the biggest English film released in India by doing Rs. 10 million in next 2 weeks. Sherlock may not be as big as Avataar but it surely is a worthy film where every frame says more than it hides. It is a film makers delight. I am wondering if Sir Doyle is tossing, turning and cursing Guy Richie in the grave for making a haggard and disheveled James Bond of his otherwise suave, stylish and extremely courteous Homes. Are you listening Mr. Bhagat?

Five Point Someone Vs. 3 Idiots

It looks like a Pandora’s box has been opened which in turn resembled a can of worms. Who gets the credit? Chetan : It is based on his book and so many of the scenes have been used as it is. Raj Kumar Hirani & Abhijat Joshi : They have hardly spoken against anything in their entire life and the outburst, probably taking a cue from Vidhu, was something that shocked everyone.

I am one of those who few millions who have read the book and seen the film both so let me put my point across. What Chetan missed in bringing in his book were a couple of things which I am trying to put across. Some of them may sound trivial and frivolous but for some reason I believe that they are integral to the whole controversy.

My observations :-

Characters
1. IIT became a regular engineering college not something where students across nation battle it out for admission. Five Point Someone was about GPAs of the student studying there but 3 Idiots had no such mention of GPAs.
2. Hari, Alok and Ryan became Farhan, Raju and Rancho.
3. Neha became Pia.
4. Instead of falling for Hari, Pia falls for Rancho.
5. Professor Cherian became Viru Sahastrabuddhe aka virus.
6. Chhotu, Ranchhoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad (the poser and the original) are not there in the book and Mona doesnt exist anywhere in Viru's family.
7. Pia's supposed fiancé Suhas appears mysteriously in the film.
8. There are other characters in the film which take the movie forward like the boy in the hostel, and not to mention Chatur aka silencer was such a full blown character in the film that he not only stole the lime-light but also assumed the role of narrator.
9. While Hari urf Farhan is supposed to be the narrator in the book, here everyone helps story move forward.
10. Professor Veera finds no place in the film and hence Rancho aka Ryan’s fluid mechanics machine made with Kinetic scooter also finds no mention, instead it is replaced with the idea of Virus generator.

Now the scenes

1. The ragging scene is gross in the book, as the students are supposed to sit butt naked with the cold drink bottles going up their arse. Just when some of them are doing, Ryan appears and breaks one bottle and threatens these seniors to sod off, which they do and thus saves two of his friends. The ragging scene in the film is sadly hilarious with james bond…alampanah tohfa kubool ho etc.
2. The indigenous idea of the spoon connected with electrical wires for the senior to piss on is only in the film the book somehow seem to have missed it.
3. Story of Rancho’s disappearance and then the journey of Farhan and Raju to find him was hidden in the book I presume.
4. The original Ranchhod das angle to the whole story was classy and was making fun of the education system where someone else takes the exam for you and the degree at the convocation and the photograph can all be yours.
5. The story did not have any mention of the special pen that Virus treasures and yet awards it to Rancho in the end.
6. In the book, they steal the exam papers for themselves and not for Raju.
7. Raju’s jump from the building is kept ass it is but his selection in the interview has been a journey of self realization, which has been acutely underplayed in the book.
8. Neither Mona’s marriage and her pregnancy was in the book nor was Pia’s angle of Suhas and then her becoming a runaway bride.
9. The delivery scene has been conceived originally and finds no space in the book.
10. Pia’s brother has couple of elaborate chapter in the book while in the film he finds only a couple of mentions.
11. The love making scene between Hari and Neha, and Prof. Cherian coming back, Neha’s cigarettes etc. are living in the book but not in the film.
12. Chatur’s character has been really built upon and his histrionics including the “Balatkar” scene was not in the book.
13. The 50’s setting of Raju’s house and the his mom using the same handle for scratching his father were two things which were not in the book.
14. The idea used for Farhan’s stroke just when the flight is taking off and his running away, picking up Raju, running in only Kurta etc. were not in the film.
15. Phunsuk Wangdu, the entire sub-plot is not in the book. Including the climax scene where Pia is blabbering about her surname changing to Wangdu is also not in the film.
16. Pissing on Virus’ name plate was an idea which was purely original and has no mention in the book.

Now please read the whole thing again, and think of the most hilarious scenes in the film. You will find that they were never in the book but created by Abhijat and Raju to add to the meat of the film. Cinema is a willing suspension of disbelief while book is like a mirror to life. The book had a lot of believable things while the film took to a more dramatic level with funny scenes and dialogues.

In my opinion, the film is based on the novel. The film has not been shot exactly the way novel is written. It has the writer and director’s imagination built in to it. I had posted the contract between Vidhu’s company and Chetan a couple of days back which also says that the credit will be given in a certain way as agreed and the payments will be made to Chetan as agreed. The producer went by the contract and paid him the money, giving him the credit. Why cry over the spilled milk now?

I am yet not clear about Chetan’s intention on this whole controversy. Also, he is an investment banker by profession so I am sure he understands the importance of legal agreements and sticking to the deliverables. If he had any doubt about the film not doing well, he should have put his foot down and asked for the final draft of the script before it went for filming. Another case in point is that we have read “One night at a call center” and have seen the adaptation in hello (Salman/ Katrina/ Sohail/ Arbaaz/ Amrita Arora/ Isha Koppikar/ Sharman/ Gul Panag, directed by Atul Agnihotri) and co-written (story/ screenplay) by none other than Chetan Bhagat himself. Now the fate of “Hello” is almost like a call transmission in terribly stormy weather conditions, only garbled sounds are heard.

We all are intelligent enough to realize what has made the film worth watching. The story as claimed by Chetan or Abhijat and Raju’s working on it. Leave it to you Five Point Someones and Idiots. You guys can take a call.