Khosla Ka Ghosla

When you have amazingly gifted actors like Anupam Kher,Boman Irani,Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey donning super realisitic roles, that definitely leads to a great comic entertainment. Yes thats true that no one probably had heard of Diwakar Banerjy before this 2006 flick of his, but this made him an interesting story teller grabbing some national awards as well.
 The movie starts with a pre-dawn Nightmare which Mr.Khosla usually gets, follows with his funny gargling which irritates other members of his family. The Laugh riot starts right there, which would remain through out the movie, still making sure they dont deviate from the main stroy.  With no parallel comic lines, no slap sticks, no unwanted characters,  the story just unfolds into a great feel good experience.

 Kher beautifully portrays the regular Indian middle class gentle man, closing to his retirement from the government service, who is trapped in the web of middle class worries and strict morality.  Boman Irani, was just perfect in the role of Land Mafia lord Mr. Khurana, with an apt body language.After all he has got this mastery of dwelling into such moulds as we have already seen in movies like, '3 Idiots', 'Darna Mana hai' and 'Munnabhai MBBS'.

Tara Sharma probably had the worst voice a female lead can probably have in a regular bollywood setup, but this time, it just sounded perfect.  Every single character, especially the entire Khurana coccus were a feast to watch.

    Khosla Ka Ghosla is definitely a good movie experience especially for all those who dealt with land brockers and dealers atleast once in their life.

Ore Kadal

'Ore Kadal' was not just any other Malayalam movie to miss. This DVD was on my shelf for more than a year before I decided to watch it. Thanks to my trip to Andhra as I got some fine free time to watch what ever it pleased. This could be the boldest attempt in the history of Malayalam cinema to show an adulterous relationship and the bitter consequences of it , in a serious manner. Story or the way of telling it, never try to glorify the relationship. Remember the way our esteemed director Mani compromised on the script, on showing the relationship between Anandan (a loose portrayal of the real life tamil icon MGR) and Kalpana ( the real life muse of MGR and another big name in the history of tamil nadu , Jayalalitha) in arguably the best movie he ever made, 'IRUVAR'. He had to come up with a foolish idea to glorify the relationship. The idea was, Anandan (who plays an actor) realizes that his new heroine looked exactly the way his passed-away wife Pushpa looked ,and develops an affection towards her. In one scene, you can even see, that Anandan urges his wife Ramani, (played by Gouthami) not to cast kalpana in his new film, despite her proven acting(dancing) skills. On the Contrary 'Ore Kadal' shows how a non-intellectual, moderately educated woman of lower middle class being seduced by the rogue charm of a socially isolated, pure intellectual who is much elder to her. This male chauvinistic protagonist has got a bad habit of denying the existence of anything except him and his ego unless it's academically or physically interesting to him. The Character Nathan or its portrayal by Mammotty never seemed to be convincing though. Even Ramya's character had nothing much to do but her character holds good, being just a female body to relive Nathan of the pressures of his carnal desires. Entire movie is driven by Meera Jasmin's performance, who played the role of the female lead. Meera could easily and successfully emote the moments of unbalanced mental equilibrium in a fine subtle way , shying away from all those stereo typical schizophrenic characters . This change was nice to watch. Another Character which looked realistic was her husbands' role played by Naren. Despite all these mediocre performances and depthless characters, Movie was a still a good experience, probably because of the strong theme and an experienced cast. The way the movie ends deserves a special remark. When the little girl (who happens to be a byproduct of the adulterous relationship)takes the stairs to her biological fathers' home, with that innocent dubious looks and tiny unsure steps, that conveys them all. The Name Ore Kadal, or ’The Same Sea' gets its real meaning there. Was It an imagery showing a small innocent girl child growing up into the abyss of endless suffering of a middle class Indian women Or was it something else, to say, ‘Searching for her Mother’ keeping the psychological meaning of the phrase in tact.

Poverty Sells!

It rained Oscars for Slum Dog. Eight Awards from the apostile of International but predominantly American, commercial Cinema. A Great feeling indeed for indians, as its a long time after Bhanu Athaia bagged hers for the 1982 Attenborough classic Gandhi's brillant costumes, two other indians bagged Oscars. No complaints about Rahman's or Kutty's for their prowess in the music and sound,and at the least, I am no authority to talk about music. it was said, that Music is pure Mathematics.It's a magic what a specific propotion of notes produces.As I said in my previous post about the movie, Music was so much inside the movie and may be that definitely qualifies. I am no good in mathematics as well. So No talk about Maths and Music. Just one doubt. Did it deserve the award for the best film? Or is it just that the depiction of indian poverty still sells abroad, as it did at the time of Raj Kapoor's 1955 Cannes Nominee 'Boot Polish'(Directed by Prakash Arora) and Meera Nayir's 1988 Cannes Winner and Oscar Nominated 'Salaam Bombay'? I honestly feel, Slum dog wont stand a chance at Cannes. Lets wait and see. Would like to watch Salaam Bombay one more time, but I still remember, it was definitely a class apart from our very own slum dog. What about 'City of Joy'? The Om Puri flick in the background of a poor Kolkotha, based on Dominique Laperre's book with the same name ? Dont you think, its time to watch these movies once again at the time of Slum dogs?