_Billu Barber(2009)_

One of my favorite film of the year and truly a masterpiece have seen in a long time in Indian Film Industry, created by Priyadarshan. Do want to mention the fact that it was a copy of one of the Malayalam Film called "Katha Parayumbhol". Generally am totally against the thought of watching any uncredited copied work, but this one can slip by.
Didn't have the slightest idea of a director who creates comedies like Hera Pheri and Hulchul could make a film with not just intelligent comedy but a compete package deal in one.
His earlier films showed the same plot synopsis as repeated over and over. Right after the success of her pheri the same formula kept repeating over and over. While Billu barber is a whole new experience. A true movie that belongs to India and Filmistan itself.
Of course the most of the credit goes to the cast itself. Two of the great actors such as Shahrukh Khan And Irrfan Khan places a strong hold over the characters. Let alone the fact they are great actors. No matter I haven't met them but am sure they are true humans themselves to have portrayed the roles so efficiently.
The small instances of jokes made on the other actors with the dialogue even by khan himself that states the film industry in India to be one whole family clearly withholds the fact in life that, we always have a reason to fight with the ones we are close with than the ones we don't now at all, since there's nothing to fight for.
Perfect justice has been done to bot the characters. Neither sharukh khan has been too glamorized nor has Irrfan Khan been taken off with talent. A perfect balance has been achieved.

To be very honest unlike other typical filmistan films like where there is just love and romance and there is villain and the hero wins her with cheesy dialogues( also most sharukh khan films as well), this one offers a film based on true acting, a strong script and an efficient director into a movie worth the Oscar of life.
The movie was perfect as a whole. And to Priyadarshan if someday I have an pportunity to work with him or for him, This is one film India should truly be proud of and to call its own.

_Delhi6 (2009)_

On Film:
Great concept over all. One of my favourite director in Indian Cinema. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra. His films are quite a mixture of modern concepts and contemporary Film making. The characters are quite theatrical and his cinematography is quite artsy in itself. A true artist in cinema.
Being that good not always has the same effect on public reaction. A movie has to work not just for onself but for all . And thats where it fails to portray. Unless the audience reaches the second half after interval there is no clue of what the story implies. Acting point the whole film works real well except that the fact that Abhishek Bachan talks too much Angrezi.
He could have done a better job.
Great Film over all. BUt to be honest, our Indian Audience isnt yet matured enough to fully relate every artistic shots a good director implies. Sometimes we gotta think from te point of the viewer or atleast our target audience.


On Life:

Jis din yeh 10 ka note liyaa uss din yeh 2 sikke milne bhi band ho jaayenge

Hum process ko padhne ke bajaye nateeje pe pohoch jate hain. Was watching a speech on the Power of Now with my buddy the other day. This movie makes my belief in this philosophy real strong.

The situations that occurs at present or a situation presented to us all at the moment are the ones that affect us the most and that we react to it, no matter how much it might affect the future.

A brilliant film even though it didn't work well with the Indian audience. The more I think of the movie the more perfect and clear it becomes.
The fact of how true it is that people are so adamant in their beliefs or not to be specific but their religious beliefs that they forget that they are all humans.

Wonder, if someday terrorism destroys the whole world, will we all people of religious beliefs still try think that its all just the Muslims that are doing it, or try work out who the kaala bandar is, by working together. We might end up finding our own mistakes.

Religious Fanatism.

_Slumdog Millionaire (2008)_

A debate that happened over Facebook:

Anonymous:

Hail Slumdog Millionaire... but...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009 at 8:57pm

All hail this - another directional masterpiece by Boyle (after Trainspotting). It is a perfect movie for the eye looking for brilliant cinematography, screenplay and art direction - direction in a whole - and it is amazing how such factors can totally change an "otherwise-corny-story-line" into a "wow-movie-that-bags-a-whole-lot-of-awards." Don't mind me, and although my tone might be slightly sarcastic, I can assure you that I loved the movie as much as you did.

I perceived this movie as an "honest portrayal of poverty" but that's because my skin is a shade of brown and what bothers me is when people (usually of a different color) wow Slumdog for being such an "honest portrayal of India." For the Nth time, I'd politely like to tell them that IT IS NOT AN HONEST PORTRAYAL OF INDIA. The backstreets of a city like New York are probably just as pathetic. But which Brit director cares about that? New York is New York = Glamorous. No wonder I have a few friends here thinking Buffalo is not in New York... because of the obvious...

Not like I am trying to be overly patriotic here, but hey-all-who-think-India-is-a-Third-World-Country, here's some news - India is actually not all that Economically backward (and I say this from a proper Economic knowledge) and is one of the rapidly developing nations. Yes, there's a poverty problem in India and yes it is an agrarian economy. Heck yes, Danny boy, it looks great on Camera but if you did have to show the slums, why not give us a picture of the city? And audience, even if Danny Boyle did give us a whole graphic picture on the slums and backstreets of India, how and why does that constitute India as a whole for you?

Anyway, Congrats Boyle, on all those awards. They were truly deserved. But maybe you should check out some of the Independent films by Indian directors (I promise they are not about women running around, hiding behind trees and singing frolicky songs). You should check out Traffic Signal By Bhandarkar.. quite similar to yours actually and personally I think it deserves to bag a few of your awards and half the hype you got but you did not deserve.

Signing off
-bitter
-love Boyle
-love Slumdog Millionaire
-lived in India
-speak English (without sounding like Appu from the Simpsons)
-write English, probably better and more correct than you do or ever will.


My Take:

Ayan Sengupta at 4:26am January 15

Guess Wont try change anyone's opinion.....You should check out the director's interviews and check the background technical stuff that has been used in the movie....

-first he got local regular kids from street to act in the movie which generally Indian directors don't.....
-Not a big star cast been used.....
-about the streets of India...the issues shown have exactly been well portrayed ....and as said by the director himself....he didn't mean to show India at all in the whole movie.....he was pointing at the fact that the life people lead is not forced on them but that they choose to live like that even when they have enough money to get a nice flat back in mumbai.
-the end clearly portrayed that..

and just in case if traffic signal was as good as that....then why doesn't someone write a deep article as such on..

"Why India sends lame movies like Ashoka and Paheli for Oscars instead of traffic signal or iqbal"....guess that's not Danny Boyle's fault Indian Films don't win awards.

the true India is more about the destiny thing we believe in which the rest of the world has forgotten..and that you can still see that in the rural India which has gone off the city streets with the amount of westernization. And making a movie as such is a bigger risk for an outsider than an Indian director....with child actor rights to showing such violence in a film involving kids.....censor and stuff....
Well Indian directors had a lot of opportunities to make movies involving this.....
regarding hype ....slumdog even lost its producers warner brothers and distribution rights in america midway.....the film has been made with a lot of risks and problems and all the success it has got recently has been just quite recent.....especially right after its globe nominations.....
It had been failing the american audience prior to the awards...and had only been able to impress the british audience.
....Dont mean to defend the movie entirely but it has been a most cherished films of all times.

It has been pretty close to perfection and all incidents that have been portrayed are true to India....I have seen them and faced them myself in the last 20 years of my life back in India.....of course bits and pieces have been commercialized....because a film is not always entirely at the directors hand but also the producers as well.

Anonymous at 9:20am January 15

Ayan, hey. Not that I m booing the film here. I am not. It is a technical, directional masterpiece and I fully give that it. But what bothers me is when people perceive the film as a true vision/portrayal of India and all I'm saying is it is a valid portrayal of poverty in India...it isn't India as a whole. It's the audience's ignorance that ticks me off about the movie, I guess.

Anyway, it's not about India to send their films to film festivals.. Even the best Indian films that I have watched barely get chosen for any International Film Festivals. And that upsets me a tiny bit because these films really do deserve international critical acclaim.

I think you read me wrong, but I have completely stated and restated in my note that I love Boyle and I loved Slumdog .. and I hold nothing against him or his movie except for a tiny bit of sarcasm.

Ayan Sengupta at 5:55am January 16

Uhm....poverty....guess danny boyle is a pretty shitty director not to get the true point across well enough....
The movie wasnt made to show poverty in India and neither that how backward the country is.....Most audiences understand anything when an idea has been coveyed in the exact direct words to them...
The point wasnt that Indian poverty is something negative and is to be disgusted, but t is rather to be embraced because it is not poverty in compulsion but rather a decision made by choice...
As I mentioned earlier ....even if they have enuf they wud still live the same...because they r satisfied in the situation they survive in...
This is what I have understood from what danny boyle has been trying to say in all his interviews and his film itself...And I quite agree to this fact as have faced them with this Indian poverty we talk about, myself.
Let alone the technical masterpiece but there is this true feeling as well presented in the film.

This hasn't been understood by most audiences...and is a serious lack in danny boyle's part....that he couldn't convey the premise of slumdog clearly enough....
anyways that was the whole point...It wasn't a love story neither was a tragic gangster movie but a movie that shows life in whole....a part of India which is hard to find anywhere else in the world or the rest parts of India.....By rest of the part of India I mean is the rich and the corporate sector or even the It or whatever means progress or developed India we call it to be....
Once again am not talking about the story or either th technical stuff....but the whole premise of the story here..

And moves arent made for the point of winning awards ...its mad eto get a point across....as long as that is fulfilled the audience's positive reaction is well enough to be an award....

Like Anonymous's positive reaction to Madhur Bhandarkar films.

_Blindness 2008_

On Film:
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Great acting by Gael Garcia Bernal (Y tu mama tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) and Julian Moore (Hannibal Lector). Amazing cinematography and direction. Strong compositions in boarding and focus on relations between various shots. Really like the way all the effects and camera tricks were selectively chosen according to the requirement of the premise. The shot of the car taking the japanese to his home at start of the movie clearly states it. The continous change in reflection over the car window clearly created the mood of the disease.
The shot with the 2 oranges on the plate made me quite curious of what might be the importance of the shot. But later the revelation of the time elapsed within the orange being fresh and being rotten was a great thought put up for teh mmotivation of the story.
The shot with the engagement ring on Mark Ruffalo's finger portrays a well thought out charector creation. The relationships they are involved in and how important they are.
Also the dogs feeding on the human and teh other pet dog stil trying to find a loyal food was well important.

On Life:
This does take me back to the conversation I had the other night wih my friend about the way things work and how my mind aproaches regular thoughts of people. The fact that people are so patriotic about their natin and they are ready to go to war anytime when need be to stop a political power or defend their own so called people is quite rrelevantly miniscule when the world is on a crisis of its own. A crisis that is created by nature itself.
A blind wouldnt care if the only one who can see is of an enemy race.