Always wanted to articulate my say on the things I
experience around me. And movies being as important part as food for most of
the Indians like me, I had a desire to make movies as the subject of such
articulation. But I always refrained myself from doing the same giving the fact
much importance that neither I am a renowned writer nor a good movie analyst. I
suffer from a common disorder of thinking what I think and write is always the
correct fact which is a deteriorating thing, in becoming a good writer and an
honest movie analyst.
But something good happened to me last Sunday, it
was the movie Kahaani that happened
to me or with me. And I thought let’s keep my hidden desires and goals of life
aside for a moment and let’s just write to give the joy a physical existence.
Wrote this write-up on Sunday itself not giving importance to the clock which
was showing 1:00 AM. Coz the present world is too volatile and happiness has a
very short life span.
Very important message for the readers: I have tried my level best not the get carried away and reveal anything
which by any chance may give you a hint about the suspense of the movie. 3 of
my friends who have seen the movie have also validated the same. BUT, it might
be possible. So read at the risk that you might be intelligent enough to figure
out the suspense after reading this. So it’s your intelligence which should be
blamed and not me.
I was confused over which movie to watch this
weekend, Kahaani or pan singh tomar (Yes, I do get confused
on this thing as movies are important for the guys like us who invest 150 odd
minutes to watch a movie and then 150 odd hours to discuss and analyze the
same). Someone from nowhere came and said “dude give Kahaani a bit more preference than the other, I know you so I know
you would like Kahaani”. First of all
“you know me” is a news, and second of all such statements always creates high
level of expectation and seeing my past bollywood movie watching endeavours, it
eventually results in a great deal of disappointment and anger.
But due to some uncontrollable events, “go for a
movie which the majority wants to see” being one of it, I had to go for Kahaani. And I am glad I did it.
Movies based on a centralized character (that to a
female) rather than a centralized theme are not exactly in
the-movies-i-love-to-see list and Kahaani
seem to be the same looking at the promos. On top of it, one of my friends, who
is my colleague in the long philosophical, non conclusive and totally unrelated
talks said “this movie is quite unexpected from bollywood”. Now this statement,
that too from a reliable source, raised the bar like anything. So I was sure
enough that it would hit the ground on its face.
But (yes there is a “but” this time) this movie, I
must say, was good. I don’t want to add any adjectives like fantabulous or mind
blowing coz I feels I might sound exaggerated and will kill the joy I want to
communicate. The things I like about the movie after seeing it once, and will
surely see the movie a couple of time more, are things which many film makers
just rule out thinking that those details might be covered up if the big
picture is interesting enough. What they miss is the fact that it’s totally
vice versa.
- I love the repetition of the dialogues in which the words are the
same but the meaning, the emotions are totally different. And in Kahaani this is depicted twice as
far as I remember. Will give one of the two as example. When Vidya balan requests inspector khan
not to smoke in her presence, he says “app
mujhe nahi janti aur main aapko, isliye mujhe kya karna chahiye ye
mujhepar chhod dijiye” now this dialogue depicts the authoritative
nature of khan with an equal mixture of frustration and to-hell-what-you-think
attitude, also with a pinch of dedication. Just after the scene Khan gives
an advice Vidya to go back and
to that Vidya says the exactly
same dialogue, but this time the dialogue delivered determination and
I-am-not-scared-of-you emotions. When such thing happens on the screen,
the parties involved in the same are people of calibre for me.
- Vidya balan’s acting is
obviously exceptional, but the scene where I was like on my knees is when
she furiously comes out of her room and bombards at the hotel manager that
there is no hot water whereas it’s clearly written that running hot water
is available. To that the manager calls for a kid and says Vidya that when she wants hot
water, she can ask this boy and he will be running to her room with hot
water. NOW, Vidya is all
frustrated from the fact that her husband is missing and she is in no mood
of PJs, but what if you get to hear one in such situation. Obviously you
won’t laugh your lungs off, and as the situation is funny you can’t be
dead faced. You will have a laugh which you will restrict to become a
smile, but your face would light up for some time. And THIS is what it was
there on Vidya’s face. I mean it
was BANG ON TARGET.
- There is a thing which I feel is always screwed up in bollywood,
actors choice for a particular character. I won’t take any names (coz deep
down within I still feel that I am a great writer/analyst and this
write-up would be read by big bulls of cinema :D ), but I have seen that a
movie has a character which would be let’s say a lower middle class guy,
but the actor chosen for the character would have glamour dripping from
his appearance and attitude. I mean try to be a bit closer to reality. I
accept that people come to watch a movie for relaxation, but you can’t
show them crap. NOW HERE, the director wanted to show a character of
contract killer who is actually undercover. Hats off to Mr. Sujoy Ghosh,
he chose to depict this character as a person who kills people and is also
a life insurance agent. And the actor he chose for the character is a
person with a full grown belly and who faints while running half a
kilometre. This says 2 things loudly about the intelligence of the person
who designed this character and decided the actor
- First and the thing I liked the most, a silently loud depiction of
Irony. I say Irony, and correct me if I am wrong, coz he depicts one
character doing 2 things, killer and an insurance agent. A guy selling a
service which will give you something after your death in one hand and
does the business of making sure that your dead on the other. Utter
brilliance!!!!
- Second thing, the guy who designed and decided the character and
actor, went against the normal. Till date whenever this is any occasion
of portraying a contract killer in bollywood, he would be 6 foot 2
inches, well built, handsome, would be running like an athlete, and with
all these great qualities, would be working in a boring job which makes
you lethargic and fat. I don’t find it real, and seeing something real
this time makes me feel hell good.
- One other thing I liked about this movie which is very rare these
days. Since many years, whenever I come home from a movie which I feel has
blown me away; I express my joy and excitement to my parents. Seeing me
excited triggers a commonly found code in parents, they too are equally
excited without witnessing the actual source of excitement. In this flow
of emotions my dad says “WOW, this sounds great, I want to see it too.
Let’s go together.” To this I just keep my mouth shut or tell him plainly
that the movie was “not his types”. Now this triggers a series of emotions
like embarrassment, sadness and guilt in me and my parents. The thing is
now a days the movies are either too boring or have some objectionable
scenes which makes the idea of seeing it with parents a bit awkward. But Kahaani gave me the freedom to come
home and straight away express my joy with a concluding statement “Dad, I
want to see this one again and you better accompany me coz this one you
don’t want to miss”. Thumbs up for this to the team of Kahaani.
Now these are the things I liked the most after
seeing the movie for the first time. Now there is nothing like perfect and the
same implies to Kahaani. But it’s
true the places where I feel the movie was not perfect are extremely less in
number compared to the places where I found it is mind blowing. So the former
being very close to zero can thus be neglected (the only thing I remember from
the mathematics I learned till date :) ). The things which I feel are no so
perfect, or I will say OK, in the movie are
- First thing, which is the only thing I feel a bit low about the
movie is the climax. By saying this I am not at all saying that it was one
of those movies which increase the excitement graph in the starts and it
declines abruptly at the end. The climax compliments with the whole movie,
but there are too many dialogues which are not necessary. Instead of
dialogues there should have been flashes of scenes and the audience should
then be left guessing. But I guess the dialogues were in place taking into
account the average intelligence of Indian bollywood movie viewers.
- The other thing, which when said will make me an example of a
person who is a narcissistic. The thing is, I could figure out the
suspense at the half way mark. Though my reasoning was over powered by the
great sequences in the movie which I chose to enjoy rather than analyzing
on my thought. But if I would have stopped enjoying the movie and would
have watched the movie just to prove that I have figured it out already, I
would have proved myself correct(which I still have :D) but I would have not
been thrilled by the movie.
- The other thing which made me sad is not at all because of any flaw
in the movie. It’s because I was lazy. I was lazy enough not to carry
myself to the theatres on the day of the release. What happened because of
this is, few of my colleagues and friends went and saw the amazing Kahaani before I did and then they
kept on shooting extravagant phrase praising the movie at me. So when I
actually saw the movie, it surpassed my expectation, which were now sky
high thanks to my friends, by a unit which would have been very huge if I
would have watched the movie without hearing anything from anyone.
There are also some things which are kept in the
ultra-exceptional-things-about-the-movie list. But sharing the same would not
be ethical knowing the fact that many of us are yet to see the movie. Will
publish the same say after sometime :) . Anybody if interested for a discussion
on this, mail me on bhavik1915.outlook@gmail.com
:)
All in all Kahaani
is definitely a movie to watch and remember for every genre of human beings and
is definitely a movie to analyze for guys like me. \m/
