Movies Galore!
Well, it's actually not that many movies but nevertheless a significant no. for someone who prefers watching them in his room than on the big screen. So, in the past 2 months I have managed to watch 7 which surprisingly includes 2 gult and 2 hindi films. Surprising because the last gult movie I saw in a theater was a decade back and I do not tend to like mainstream Hindi ones. I also went back to Sangeet theater after almost a decade having seen "Titanic" the last time there.
The gult movies are the typical formula based ones: 4-5 songs (including one item no.), a few action scenes, a couple of sentimental scenes and some comic ones thrown in as fillers. Thus you get a masala flick which caters to all the audience because of the variety, their mutual incongruity being a non-issue. One can expect a song to pop-up any instant. All it requires is the heroine(mostly)/hero dreaming a romantic duet after a chance encounter for the first song, one family bonding song, one song involving the hero and his gang (basically we will rock you level song), one song on tragedy/sadness on account of someone's death or estrangement of the leading pair. The item no. will happen somewhere in between, but always at the villain's adda. The comedy is very loud and forced. But the action scenes are quite good, given the brilliant camera work and cinematography. Standards have definitely improved by leaps and bounds. Overall, general time pass fare which you tend to forget as soon as you are out of the theater.
The Hindi ones are a mixed crop. You get amazingly realistic films like 'Omkara' or pure comedies like 'Munnabhai' and at the same time some really atrocious ones like 'Honeymoon Travels ltd.', which I happened to watch unfortunately. Man! I was pulling my hair after watching that film. I had higher expectations from Vinod Chopra and went with Baada when he was in town to watch 'Eklavya'. Another disappointment but the movie seems to have been made with the motive of converting some black money into white more than anything else. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the need for wasting such stellar star cast. Amitabh, Saif, Boman Irani and Jackie Shroff to an extent would have been enough. But then again I liked the cinematography. The images of the desert, the black silhouettes of camels against the orange of the dusk , the brilliantly lit havelis at night, are very captivating. I promise myself a Rajasthan trip again this year and an over-night stay on the desert.
The scene for English movies in Hyderabad is very dismal. I guess they are not much in demand. That explains why theaters like Sangeet are now playing mostly Hindi films. 'Rocky Balboa' was for killing some time on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon. Was O.K. Had planned to watch 'Blood Diamond' with a friend but ended up watching it alone. Now that is also a milestone for me. This is the first non-fantasy film that I have watched alone, the earlier ones being from the Harry Potter and Star Wars series (Junta think those are for kids, give up only!). Again, not very great. It was more of an action flick than a poignant portrayal of the dark side of the civil war. The last film I saw was 'The pursuit of happiness'. Will Smith's performance was just too good. One could see the pain and desperation in his eyes to give a better life for his son. His versatility is also worth noting after seeing him in films like MIB.
So, it has been movies for weekends so far. Will break the trend this weekend as I head off to Bangalore for a drive and trek with Baada and Bond. Would have loved to have more people on board but still I am looking forward to a good trip to Kemmanagudi.
The gult movies are the typical formula based ones: 4-5 songs (including one item no.), a few action scenes, a couple of sentimental scenes and some comic ones thrown in as fillers. Thus you get a masala flick which caters to all the audience because of the variety, their mutual incongruity being a non-issue. One can expect a song to pop-up any instant. All it requires is the heroine(mostly)/hero dreaming a romantic duet after a chance encounter for the first song, one family bonding song, one song involving the hero and his gang (basically we will rock you level song), one song on tragedy/sadness on account of someone's death or estrangement of the leading pair. The item no. will happen somewhere in between, but always at the villain's adda. The comedy is very loud and forced. But the action scenes are quite good, given the brilliant camera work and cinematography. Standards have definitely improved by leaps and bounds. Overall, general time pass fare which you tend to forget as soon as you are out of the theater.
The Hindi ones are a mixed crop. You get amazingly realistic films like 'Omkara' or pure comedies like 'Munnabhai' and at the same time some really atrocious ones like 'Honeymoon Travels ltd.', which I happened to watch unfortunately. Man! I was pulling my hair after watching that film. I had higher expectations from Vinod Chopra and went with Baada when he was in town to watch 'Eklavya'. Another disappointment but the movie seems to have been made with the motive of converting some black money into white more than anything else. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the need for wasting such stellar star cast. Amitabh, Saif, Boman Irani and Jackie Shroff to an extent would have been enough. But then again I liked the cinematography. The images of the desert, the black silhouettes of camels against the orange of the dusk , the brilliantly lit havelis at night, are very captivating. I promise myself a Rajasthan trip again this year and an over-night stay on the desert.
The scene for English movies in Hyderabad is very dismal. I guess they are not much in demand. That explains why theaters like Sangeet are now playing mostly Hindi films. 'Rocky Balboa' was for killing some time on an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon. Was O.K. Had planned to watch 'Blood Diamond' with a friend but ended up watching it alone. Now that is also a milestone for me. This is the first non-fantasy film that I have watched alone, the earlier ones being from the Harry Potter and Star Wars series (Junta think those are for kids, give up only!). Again, not very great. It was more of an action flick than a poignant portrayal of the dark side of the civil war. The last film I saw was 'The pursuit of happiness'. Will Smith's performance was just too good. One could see the pain and desperation in his eyes to give a better life for his son. His versatility is also worth noting after seeing him in films like MIB.
So, it has been movies for weekends so far. Will break the trend this weekend as I head off to Bangalore for a drive and trek with Baada and Bond. Would have loved to have more people on board but still I am looking forward to a good trip to Kemmanagudi.
posted by VK @ 12:42 PM
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