Barfi - This movie is indeed different

 

 

 

This is an unusual movie for the Indian audience. After viewing it, it seems to me as a movie made for the passion of making a movie rather than for hitting rupees on the box office. Barfi is unadulterated cinema. It is a colorful orgasm of visual imagery and smartly wrapped allegory. Even though Ranbeer's comic acts seem to be a cross of Charlie Chaplin and Kishore Kumar, the intensity of his performance is uncomparable and he delivers the heady mix of influences with gusto.

 

The story is set in 1970's Darjeeling and Kolkata. It is an endearing account of a differentially abled person who feels the pinch of love and bears the brunt of discompassion when the girl he loves marries a "normal" person. Ileana plays the sauve, simple and sexy bengali girl really well. Priyanka plays the autistic cute girl who balances Ranbeer after Ileana leaves him and what evolves towards the end is a beautiful love tiangle sans the emotional baggage. I would say that Priyanka is so much in the character she plays that she doesnt look like Priyanka at all.

In this nearly well crafted script, there is not even one instance where in I felt that the movie tries to touch my sympathy vein (even in the most intense scenes). It does sensitize us but on a different level alltogether.

 

I would say that as all good things come with a pinch of salt, this movie has just one thing that could be "margially" improved upon. Somehow I felt that the story is loosely tied at places. There are chunks that could have been cemented well. But nevertheless a very good watch.

A 5/5 on sheer brilliance be it cinematography or acting or costumes or sets. It does justice to every aspect.

 

 

Book Review : Dongri to Dubai, Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia

Dongri to Dubai presents a feature expose of Dawood Hasan Ibrahim Kaskar, the charismatic and suave boss of the dreaded D Company. In this masterpiece, with Dawood as protagonist, the author has re-created sixty years of Indian underworld right from it's inception. And that too in gripping detail.

The book starts with stories of genuinly good people turning into small time crooks in turn metamorphising into some of the most feared and powerful mafia lords in Mumbai. From small central Mumbai neighbourhoods to far flung suburban satellite areas like Bhandup, Ghatkopar, Virar, Thane, etc the mafia loops in everyone and everything that reeks of money or power. The meticulously researched book provides a comprehensive account of the mafia's dark games of supremacy and fratricidal warfare. It successfully exposes the underbelly of the Indian and South Asian politico criminal conglomerate. These sixty years seem like the dark ages from Lord of the Rings when the world is engulfed by the evil's darkness.  The details on misuse of the system and government machinary along with the intermingling of the black economy with the white in developing countries is nauseating.

But most importantly, the book gives a first rate description of Dawood's rise from a minion to a global power icon (he was ranked 57th in Forbes list of powerful people in November 2011). It is intriguing to read how a smalltime fake watch peddler turned into the fearsome Bhai due to his sheer daring and a scheming brain. He survives in the gruesome landscape pockmarked by gangs led by stalwarts such as Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, and Pathan don Ahmed Khan aka Baashu Dada. He outsmarts all of them with his wit and guts, deccimates and amalgamates their empires, and they fade away into the far recesses of popular memory while he assumes mythic proportions.

Zaidi portrays that it was the police who created this David to boot out the Goliath (pathan mafia) from mumbai. Little would they have known, not even in their wildest dreams, that their protege would later become their worst nemesis.

In this book, Dawood is shown to be as unforgiving as Michael Corleone, as ruthless as the Solntsevskaya Bratva and as sly as Vito Corleone.

The book also showcases the might of the Indian Intelligence agencies which force Dawood to flee to Dubai. His linkages with the ISI, subsequent role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, fallout with Chota Rajan, final shift of base to Pakistan and globalization of operations have been described in sordid details.

The research seems exhaustive and thorough, the narration is dramatic and the pace is fast which makes the book unputdownable. Just make sure that when you read it, be open for surprises.

I would rate this book a 4/5. A good read.

      Philips launches a Homophobic Advertisement to sell male grooming kits

In its latest advertisement, Philips features an effiminate John Abraham dressed in a pink Tshirt surrounded by macho, scruffy and supposedly tough and supposedly "Straight" John Abrahams. The advertisement starts with the effiminate John asking the macho Johns, why do they get to go on dates and not him. The scruffy one snubs him and replies "Kyunki ladki se Dosti Karni hai, Dostana Nahin" suggesting that "We want to do friendship with the girl, not enter into a Gay relationship as shown in the movie Dostana". The next sentence spells it out more clearly when the scruffy one says "Girls like to have Friendship with Real Men". 

My thoughts on viewing this ad for the first time was that has the creative quotient gone down so low that the marketers have to take pot shots at one community to sell off their product to another. The message this ad seems to convey is "If you want to be a real man (not a fag), use Philips Grooming Kit". So do they want to say that "Gays are not Real Men" and that "Girls dont like to do friendship with Gays" or that "Gays dont/cannot use Grooming Kits because they are not manly enough"? 

What do we expect next ? An anti black advertisement to sell a fairness cream to "brown" Indians ?

Technically, Tarun Mansukhani has directed this ad pretty well with static shots bringing all five Johns in a single frame and dialogues tying up the storyline. But let us not forget that he is also the director of "Dostana" which is a big, colorful, delightfully dumb Bollywood 'gateway' movie. The movie trades in stereotypes about swishy queers, shallow horndogs, frustrated career girls, guilt-wielding (s)mothers and overbearing aunties who need to chill out and get laid. And you know what? It's pretty damned funny and oddly subversive.

But that is besides the point here. The point here is that while in the movie, everyone learns a lesson or two about tolerance, this ad just acts discriminatory and is downright insulting.