Rang De Basanti disappoints
Considering the movie is one of the most wildely talked about and discussed one, i really didnt want to get into mould of a me too review. Again considering that the plot and story of the movie has been discussed thread bare, i dont think there is any sense in again discussing on story. But overall i must say the movie disappointed a lot for me.
Now before i go into why the movie disappointed, let me dwell on the positive points of the movie.
Technically the movie is outstanding like Mehra's previous work
Aks.
Great cinematography, the jump between the sepia tones and normal color, the background music by
A.R.Rehman.
Again the characterization is good, making the protagonists normal characters, some one with whom you can identify.
Rakesh Mehra needs to be commended for picking up a story that is a cut above the usual Bollywood candy floss love stories and NRI romances.
Some good scenes like the ones where Sue tries to pick out her characters, the banter between friends, the jokes.
Excellent performances from
Atul Kulkarni as the fundamentalist. He pulled off a similar role in Hey Ram and i believe he is one of the most under rated actors. So also
Kunal Kapoor impresses as the Muslim friend. He is a very good talent to watch out.
So what prevents this movie from achieving classic status?
Not all movies are perfect, in fact even movies rated as classics have had many flaws in them. But
RDB has some very serious flaws, which prevent it from becomming a classic. Mind you i am not trying to nit pick, but these flaws are unpardonable in my view.
Totally wobbly second half: Mehra starts off brilliantly in the first half, establishing the relationships between the characters, their rivalry with Laxman, their gradual realization as they play the freedom fighter roles. But in a case of split personality, to me it seemed that the second half was either directed by Mehra's evil twin or maybe the director got into one of his bouts of self indulgence.
The movie's main aim is to show the characters transition from a carefree youth to a more responsible citizen. And this is where the movie lost it completely.
Let me give you the example of Ghulam. Now none can accuse Vikram Bhatt of being Francis Ford Coppola. And the movie itself is a rip off of On The Waterfront. But even in such a totally masaledar movie, the transformation of Sidhu the character, played by Aamir Khan, was depicted in a realistic way. His friend's murder, and his lady love's walking out on him, were depicted in a logical manner.
Or in another movie Lakshya, the hero, Karan's transformation was again depicted in a convincing manner.
But what you have here, is a totally illogical sequence of events. Their friend Madhavan, dies in an aircraft crash, and all of a sudden our heroes are transformed into gun toting vigilantes, they assasinate the Defence Minister, they hold a radio station to hostage, and voila they become heroes.
Seems straight out of the plot of a B Grade Bollywood potboiler. Such flights of fancy and illogical stuff, are acceptable in a movie whose sole aim is to entertain. But when you are trying to make a movie that is supposed to arouse the conscience of the youth, what you are sending out is a totally mis leading message.
System is bad-so pick up a Gun-go around shooting off every one-take a radio station hostage - become a hero.
No different at all from the numerous vigilante Bollywood movies we have seen in the 80's and 90's where the one man army hero went about bumping one off an all. I remember seeing a movie Inquilaab way back in the 80's when Amitabh Bachan gunned down an entire cabinet of ministers. Back then the movie, was criticized for it's escapist tone. RDB is no different on this score. So if this is what Rakesh Mehra means by a different movie, then hell i am Quentin Tarantino.
Ridiculous Climax: How many times have we seen some really good movies floundering badly at the climax? I for one cannot understand we keep boasting about so many years of film making and how we are the largest industry, blah, blah. So why is it that all our years of movie making, we can never come up with a proper climax. Here a bunch of college kids, and one 40 plus hero, trying to be a college student, take over a radio station, broadcast their intentions and are finally killed by Black Cat commandos. Black Cat commandos are meant to kill terrorists only, and not some kids, who are willing to surrender. If the movie wobbles around in the second half, like a plane hit by an air pocket, it crashlands badly in the climax.
Editing: Either there was no editor in this movie, or he was sleeping when the movie was being made. Editing is not just bad, its practically non existent in this movie. The first half goes on and on, about the characters, till you want to scream out, ''Come on get on with the movie, we know about these blokes''.
Aamir Khan: I know many Aamir Khan's fans would be angry with me over this. I myself am an Aamir Khan admirer too, but this is certainly not one of his best performance. Having watched far better performances from him in Sarfarosh, Ghulam, Akele Hum Akele Tum,Rangeela, Lagaan and yes even the disatrous The Rising, i must say this was a very disappointing performance. What he has done is simply a repeat extension of his role in Dil Chahta Hai. And when i watch an Aamir Khan movie, the thing i expect from his movie, is not a repeat of what he has done in earlier movies.
Honestly RDB is no better than the numerous one man army vigilante movies we have seen in the 80's and 90's. Only its technically more slicker, but we expected a far superior product.
India Getting Bangalored again?
Bangalore,1987- India bowls out Pakistan for a low score around 171. Pakistan hits back and India manages a slender lead of 40 runs. Pakistan wipes out deficit and manages to set India a victory target of 200+. Inspite of Gavaskar's lone wolf stand of 93, India lose.
Bangalore,2005-India chasing a score of 300 plus to win the match. Sehwag gives a good start to India, but is out.India goes into a strangely defensive mode and Pakistan romp home victors.
Karachi,2006- Same story again. India restricts Pakistan to 245, Pakistan strikes back and restricts India to 238. Lead of 7 runs, but every run is important here. Is it going to be repeat of Bangalore 1987 and 2005 all over again?Ur guess is as good as mine. Well there might be a mistake in the statistics of the above 2 matches. But what is unmistakable is the fact, India for the umpteenth time snatching victory from jaws of defeat.
For heavens sake, why cant we guys be ruthless?
I mean you have a team down at 37/6, a start which any captain can only dream of, and its the time when you should go for the kill and decimate the opponent. But we are very generous, we let the Pakistanis off hook again, allow Kamran Akmal and Razzaq to score a century stand against us. And then even Shoaib Akhtar manages to score 45 plus runs against us.
Yawn this is just getting tiresome. Come on Team India, please, we are getting fed up of this tendency to throw away matches from winning positions. We thought we had seen some spunk during Sri Lanka series, but then i guess its a familiar tale of what we have seen of Indian cricket
ONE STEP FORWARD TWO STEPS BACKWARD.Tango is a nice dance, but for heavens sake, dont do it in cricket. Its getting boring to watch..Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for best.When Pathan and Zaheer are able to put up a 50 run partnership on this wicket, what is wrong with our champion top order batsmen.Why are they doing a cat on hot tin roof act, which we keep on witnessing again and again.
Et Tu Kumaraswamy
Well what yours truly was expecting has finally happened. The
rag tag bunch of opportunists which went by the name of a coalition Govt in
Karnataka has finally fallen.
And the man responsible for this is ironically
Mr. Deve "my-heart-beats-for-the-poor" Gowda's own son
Mr.H.D.Kumaraswamy.
So
Mr.H.D.Kumaraswamy has been the
Aurangzeb to Deve Gowda's
Shahjahan.Sniff, Sniff, speak of son stroke here.
DG must be saying "Et Tu Kumar".
Well any sensible person knew that this hotch potch alliance which was formed in 2004 ostensibly to keep the
communal forces of BJP out, would not last for long. The only guesses were how long it would last.
DG himself knew that it was a matter of time. Only instead of Congress pulling the rug from under his feet, it was his dear beta H.D.Kumaraswamy doing the trick.
And that too with the help of his arch rivals, the BJP holy smokes.
Well it was good that this Govt had fallen sooner or later, as during the last 20 months, there was no semblance of governance in Karnataka.
Bangalore went from the IT capital of India to the pot holes capital of India.
The rest of Karnataka was devastated by floods.
Deve Gowda went hammer and tongs at every one from NarayanaMurthy to S.M.Krishna to the communal BJP.
Dharam Singh was too far the worst CM, reminiscent of Bahadur Shah Zafar. Having no clue about administration, he spent half the time running along with the hares( Congress) and hunting with the hounds ( JDS).
A couple of years more and Karnataka would have joined the ranks of the BIMARU states for sure.
But will the change be for any better, the son is as bad as the father and what he will do is any ones guess.
As for the BJP i really dont understand what they will get out of associating with a rogue like Kumaraswamy.
The best option would have been to sit it out alone, as i am sure if mid term polls were held the BJP would have come back.
All it has done is given Dharam Singh the option to play martyr and the Congress another chance to rule the state, as i dont see this coalition surviving for long either.
Till then watch this space.
St Narayanamurthy Gimme a Break
The resident Saint of Indian IT industry,
St. Narayanamurthy seems to be at it again. Taking on the role of a self confessed crusader for the good of
geek kind. And he has got the media on his side. So lets go into
St.Narayanamurthy's recent announcements and see whats behind the lines.
Most of the engineers passing out from Indian colleges are not fitYes sir, but what are you doing about it. Please take a look westwards to your beloved country of USA. Harvard, John Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Stanford all universities built and financed by millionaires who felt this was a way of giving back to society. Back home Tata Inst of Social Sciences, BITS,Pilani, BIT, Ranchi, Bajaj Inst of Mgt, again by wealthy industrialists who gave back to set up some world class institutions. Sir, with the amount of money that your company has, why dont you endeavour to set up similiar educational institues. I am an IT professional myself, but i find it appalling, that our record of giving back to society borders on abysmal. If you are so concerned with standards, why dont you co ordinate with engineering colleges and see how the standards can improve.
About his recent threats to move out from
Bangalore. Well i am a Bangalorean myself and can vouch for the quality of infrastructure is down right pathetic. But what accounts for the fact that only the usual suspects like Infy, Wipro, TCS are the ones making the noises. The IT sector in Bangalore is not just these 3 firms, you have Yahoo, Google, Microsoft,Intel,GE,HP,Dell,Satyam,IBM,Oracle to name a few. You have some great work being done by new start up firms. St. Narayanamurthy should realize that IT is not Infy, nor Infy is IT. There are many other firms out there too. SO if Infy moves out from Bangalore, the city wont collapse. By the way,
Microsfot recently announced it's intention to set up it's R&D center here, as also
Adobe which is setting up shop here.
The real reason for Infy,Wipro & Co, to come out with their periodic threats of moving out from Bangalore and making noises has more to it than meets the eye. Its no secret that Infy has been losing talent steadily to Yahoo, Google, Accenture which are poaching candidates left, right and center with absolutely high salaries. And the main reason is the very basic structure of our IT industry. Come on guys how long will we keep on being service providers. The Indian IT industry is more than 2 decades old, and yet we are simply content to provide services. Well the fact was that Infy,Wipro & TCS were happy with the model as long as the money was comming in, but with the advent of Accenture, Cap Gemini, and a host of other MNC consulting firms, these companies can no longer depend on just plain vanilla consulting.
With the amount of cash at their disposal,surely these companies can pump in money towards R&D. But never seems to be happening. These companies are more interested in acquring land at cheap throw away prices and building fancy buildings, where they can recruit more and more people for writing lines and lines of code. The fact is they have got away with this because they are the media's blue eyed boys who can do no wrong. And of course St.Narayanamurthy is the holiest of the lot. He can never do wrong and never be questioned. But i guess its high time we start, and if in this process i get brickbats, thats great.
Another thing about St.Narayanamurthy, is his absolute intolerance to criticism. He should understand that he lives in a democracy where he has to face criticism. Compared to the sort of hate articles which Bill Gates regularly faces in US media, i must say what
Deve Gowda commented against him was mild. And regarding his recent threat to quit India, if things were not improving, it was a classic case of arrogance. Let St.Narayanamurthy understand that India is his country as any one's else, and he should try to co operate with the Govt. Yes the politicians may be stupid, but he needs to engage them, not go on a shooting spree like a Lone wolf cowboy.
