When people do go out to watch a movie, they do so in a group. This can be attributed to the fact that going to the movies has for long provided people a reason to go out and do something together which is not as expensive or unhealthy as dinner and kills much more time. It also gives couples an opportunity to spend time together without having to talk too much. Same goes for casual acquaintances and work friends. Nowadays, the entire process of going to the movies is usually preceded or followed by food/ drinks or as has become the norm recently, (window) shopping at the malls. It is rarely just about watching the movie and that is what necessarily makes it a social experience.

After the lights go dim though, it’s a different matter. In an ideal situation, well behaving audience are expected to engage directly with what’s happening on the screen and not with the person sitting beside them. Of course more often than not, people do talk a lot between the movie. They try to act wiser than the actors on the screen to get the approval of the people accompanying them. In a lot of cases they proclaim the makers of the movie as complete idiots just in case the person(s) sitting beside them could not process that on his/ her own.

The best form of social interaction while watching a movie is to be part of an audience and its collective reactions. Simultaneous cheers and claps during a heroic act, whistles during corny one liners or shrieks during a thrilling sequence accentuate the experience of watching a movie. This is what you miss when you watch a movie sitting at home. Of course, the big screen and dolby sound speakers are also hard to recreate. A lot of times, the theatre and by that I mean the kind of audience you watch a movie with can affect whether you enjoy a movie or hate it. An out and out crowd entertainer like a typical Salman Khan movie is more enjoyable in a single screen whereas a movie like Drive or Descendants can be enjoyed only around a serious and subdued late night multiplex audience. But then, the thing about being part of such a collective experience is that you are sharing in the reactions and experiences of complete strangers; people, whom you have never spoken to and barring some strange coincidence, never will. So then, does this qualify as a socializing experience? Can I say that I have socialized if I went and watched a movie in theatre where other people also came and watched a movie?

For some people watching a movie alone is a big taboo but personally I don’t see anything wrong with it. I mean it’s not as if you have been caught in public with a blood dripping axe. Sorry, that image transposed from American Psycho probably made things worse here. Anyways, the point that I am trying to make is that there is or at least there should be some merit in watching a movie for the sake of watching the movie itself rather than the whole social activity of going to watch a movie.

So then may be there is a difference between going to a movie and going for a movie. In the former category are people who want to go to a movie because they have to meet someone and watching a movie is a good way to go around that. If they do not get tickets to a particular movie, they’ll probably watch some other movie. If someone comes up with a more ingenious way to spend time, they would much rather go for that. If however, you are going for a movie, then everything revolves around that, including I would assume, the people that you could watch it with. In the former case, watching a movie is just a form of social interaction whereas in the latter watching a movie in the theatre in itself is the motive and the social interaction is just a byproduct of the same. It is the former kind of people who make up the majority of numbers but it’s more people of the latter kind who pre book for the first show and watch a movie many times over.

With the increasing sizes of television screens with astounding number of pixels per square inch (or something like that), it would have been expected that the number of people going to the cinema halls would fall but the recent trends indicate to the contrary. More and more people today go to watch movies in theaters. The primary reason probably not being the cinematic experience but the fact that for a lot of people going to the movies is a wonderful way to spend time with friends and family; an outdoor activity of sorts. This is certainly not a bad thing (or at least I am not judging such people). I am just wondering if watching a movie minus this socializing experience is.

1.         Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

A movie for all ages, seasons and moods. The quest of Scott Pilgrim to fight the seven super human evil exes of Ramona (“prepare to face the wrath of the league of evil exes”) to fight for her love may sound incredulous but unless you have watched the movie, you can’t imagine the visual imagery which grips you and knocks you out at the same time. There is hardly a second where the movie slows down or becomes boring and the only way you can get up to get popcorn is if you pause the movie. Although I am no authority on graphic novels, but this is the most seamless conversion of a comic book into a film that I have seen. The transitions between the shots almost feel like turning over of pages and the visual effects seem right out of a comic book. Funny, sweet and with a thumping soundtrack. Yup, this one can be watched all day long.

2.         Zombieland / Shaun of the Dead

These are two of my favourite zombie movies. It is difficult to enjoy zombie movies that take themselves too seriously. I mean come on? The concept is inherently funny although slightly scary as well. Both these movies make sure that while they are spoofs of zombie movies, the chills are still there. The acting in top notch in both of them and so are the witty lines. It doesn’t matter if you have seen the movies earlier or not. If they are coming on TV, you can start watching them from any point of time and still enjoy them. Favourite sequences? The Bill Murray cameo in Zombieland is totally out of the blue and makes it difficult to not fall off the chair. In Shaun of the Dead, after the zombie epidemic being brought under control, the news reports with footage of zombies being very efficient at menial jobs seems quite believable!

3.         Fight Club

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who love Fight Club and those who have never punched a wall in frustration. The latter will eventually come around. Describing the plot would be futile as most of us have watched Fight Club, quoted its dialogues on rooftops when drunk and in vivas when sober. Anyone who has spent more than a day behind a computer screen in a glass and concrete building can see the logic of Tyler Durden. The way you look at demo safety instructions in flights changes forever after watching this film and so does the way you look at a black eye.

4.         Devil Wears Prada

Yes, some chick flicks can be good. Okay I can’t think of too many right now but this one definitely is right up there. Firstly, there is Anne Hathway. Secondly, ah, there is Anne Hathway in those nice dresses. And yeah, there is Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt as well. Seriously though the movie strikes a chord with anyone who has felt a bit lost at a new job or wondered what goes inside the heads of ‘oohh…I just lovvee your shoes’ kind of people. Its sharp, smart and comes with a small dose of moral science.

5.         Vicky Christina Barcelona/  Midnight in Paris

These last two Woody Allen movies have been really entertaining. Although only the latter has got critical appreciation and an Oscar but both of them with an intoxicating blend of beautiful locations, attractive women, fantasy stories and soothing soundtracks make for some really delightful repeated watching. People always have interesting and witty conversations in Woody Allen’s films but these two films have been exceptionally easy on the eyes as well.

6.         Main Hoon Naa

There was something really fresh about this movie. SRK was actually playing an older guy, Sushmita Sen was looking hot, you could watch a movie with Zayed Khan without walking out of it and Suniel Shetty was really unintentionally funny. Okay, strike the last one out. Suniel Shetty has always been unintentionally funny. But the point is that even after repeated viewing this film remains entertaining for its unashamed and ridiculous ‘tribute’ to the bollywood style of filmmaking.

7.         Spy Game

There is never a bad time for a good spy thriller. This one is really slick even after ten years of its release. It does not have too much action (which gets boring on repeated viewing), has two really stylish actors in Robert Redford and Brad Pitt and a very smart script which jumps between Redford sitting in a room answering investigators and fragments of his stories scattered all over the world over a number of years. And all this while there is a tension sword hanging with Brad Pitt about to be executed in a few hours at a Chinese prison. What it lacks in terms of details and depth, it more than makes up with style and pace.

8.         The John Cusack films 

John Cusack is a genre unto himself. In a series of films like High Fidelity, Grosse Pointe Blank and Say Anything, he plays a very likable guy who is struggling amongst other things to understand women. In High Fidelity he is always making lists including that of his top ten break-ups. In Grosse Pointe Blank, he is a professional killer nearing nervous breakdown while attending his high school reunion and meeting his high school sweet heart. In Say Anything he is a guy who realizes how fortunate he is for the most beautiful girl has fallen for him and is willing to build his life around her. In all of these, he is eminently likable and sincere while being funny and genuinely confused like, well, you would be.

9.         2012/ Tron Legacy

I am going to be a bit snobbish here and include two movies which look really good if watched on HD or blue ray. Many people criticize 2012 for its crater sized plot holes and scientific inaccuracies but as far as I am concerned, a disaster movie does not have to be scientifically accurate and therefore it does not matter if it’s a little exaggeration or completely unbelievable. What 2012 delivers is on stunning visual effects. And by stunning, I mean effects which watched on HD or blue ray clarity are impossible to look away from. My only fear is that 2012 may have killed off the genre of disaster movies as there does not seem to be anything left to destroy for future movies. Tron Legacy is another really slick movie with a soundtrack to jump off the roof. The virtual world as well as the shots of the real world are quite breathtaking. So are the two actresses who play Quorra and Gem. Having Jeff Bridges doesn’t hurt the acting department even though there is very little left for the actors to do. It’s really difficult to think of any other guy who’d be taken seriously after saying. “Hey…you are messing with my zen thing man..”.

10.       The Scream series

Anyone who loves horror movies would love the Scream movie series and so would anyone who likes comedies. The series is quite innovative in the way it creates a world of slasher horror movies in which the script as well as the characters are aware of the clichés of horror movies. Every movie feels like a fanboy paying tribute to horror movies all the while keeping it extremely funny and yes, scary as well. The motives of killers seem to be satirical as well but then serial killers need motives as much as action heroes need band-aids.

Casting is one of the many areas which sets Kahaani apart from the regular bollywood stuff. Except Vidya Balan, almost the entire cast is Bengali and unknown to the Hindi cinema audience. It works well because we cannot guess the intentions of the characters or their appetite for violence or pressure. Parambrata Chatterjee who plays sub inspector Rana and is the literal and metaphorical chariot driver of Vidya does a remarkable work of being likable. It is a very desirable quality in supporting actors and you either have it or you don’t. You don’t even have to say a dialogue and still can make the audience like you and feel that they can trust you. Parambrata Chatterjee has that quality, Tushaar Kapoor doesn’t. Of course, Parambrata Chatterjee can act as well. As Rana he is naïve, sincere, careful and a perfect support for Vidya in her quest to search for her missing husband. The film treads quite gently in a couple of subtle scenes of Rana being enamoured with Vidya. Clearly, she is married and visibly pregnant and he wants her to find her husband. It is a delicate emotion and has been handled quite delicately.

The other two supporting actors with small roles are the manager of a run down guest house where Vidya stays and an overweight, overtly laid back but good intentioned police inspector. These actors are so natural and quintessential Bengalis (no offence intended and vast ignorance acknowledged) that I’d be shocked to see them in any other movie as any other characters. The weakest actor probably is the guy who plays, Khan, the second in command of the Intelligence Bureau who smokes too many cigarettes and carries too much arrogance to lend a sense of credibility to his character or acting.

I have written in detail about the supporting actors probably because already quite a bit has been written about Vidya and deservedly so. Playing her namesake, Vidya Bagchi, it is difficult to imagine any other Indian actress who could have played the role with such grace or control. It is quite rare in a Hindi movie to see a pregnant woman in a leading role and that too where the movie is not about her being pregnant although it is a critical plot device. She commands more admiration than the sympathies of the audience. The movie has to be credited for not exploiting her situation. Even when it appears that she is all on her own, and although you feel concerned for her, there is enough steel in her eyes for you to not feel sorry for her.

The movie, shot beautifully, showcases a contemporary Calcutta in its most vibrant and gritty colours. The film seems to absorb a large part of its menace from the contradictions of the city. From old crumbling houses to dark metro stations and the maddening crowds of durga pooja, every shade of the city adds to the story. The story itself is quite capable. Like all good thrillers, it works on two levels. There is a vulnerable Vidya looking for her missing husband in an alien and difficult city and there is something sinister and gravely important lurking around. And the two are somehow connected, or are they? There are some points where the story seems to have become a bit stretched specially when some things seem more coincidental than what they should have been, but it still never gets absurd or simplistic. Again, like all good thrillers, when the suspense is revealed, you realise that the clues were there all along and still you were kept guessing and the final payoff feels well earned and not a case of a rabbit being pulled out of the hat as is the case with most of the Abbas Mastan movies.

To sum up, Kahaani is a well acted, suitably cast, beautifully shot, smartly written and capably directed, suspense thriller. I cannot remember the last time all these words could have been used to describe a Hindi film. Please watch; else don’t complain that they don’t make good movies in India.

It’s been close to two years since I have shifted to Delhi and once again it’s winter time. With every passing day, it seems to be getting a couple of degrees colder and the late nights and early mornings, a shade foggier. Bombay now, feels a thing of the past and Bangalore is all but memories of an old dream. If I have to choose one reason why I prefer living in Delhi over Bombay, I would say it’s because of the Delhi winters. The other day, while re-reading Orhan Pamuk’s Snow, I could clearly recall when I read it for the first time in the heat of June 2007 in Delhi. That time the description of snow covered roads of Kars and Ka bracing against the merciless winter provided a very comforting diversion from the thrashing rendered by the sun during the day. Reading it now at the peak of Delhi winters, I could feel the chill in the bones that Ka must have felt when he walked on the deserted streets at night.

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Living in Delhi for a year is like living in two if not three different cities. The huge trees at Humayun’s tomb and Lodhi Gardens which provided much needed cover from the summer sun like an eager host welcoming one with his arms wide spread, now seem to be wrapping around themselves to survive the cold; seeking to be left in their solitude like an old man shunning one and all. A pleasant evening ride in an auto through the wide green roads of Lutyens Delhi becomes a difficult ask. Enjoyable still; but only with adequate precautions of covering one’s neck and ears. In Bombay, it was difficult to tell April from November and the only indicator of the seasons was whether the rains had just passed or were just around the corner. For some, this steady weather of Bombay provides a comfort, for me it was like being stuck in the same place for eternity. With no apparent change in surroundings, there was no way of telling the passage of time and every month felt exactly like the one before it. Not so in Delhi. It’s easy to remember what you were doing last winter and then in the subsequent summer. The oscillation between the harsh extremes of weather makes it easier to chart out the mundane occurrences of everyday life. Rum and coke get replaced with rum and warm water; blowers replace air conditioners and the hyperactivity of summers is replaced by the lethargy of winters. The last week of December with Christmas and New Year’s acquires a significance which one completely misses out on in Bombay. The plastic Christmas trees and cotton snow flakes seem quite real, so do the festivities even if they are as artificial as the pyramids in Vegas. Well, that’s the point I guess. Your imagination is the only thing holding you back. It’s a delight to duck into a quilt and enjoy Home Alone, Eternal Sunshine… and Love Actually and remembering the slight hint of winters that was felt in Bangalore when one watched these movies for the first time.

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Sunday afternoons, which at the peak of summers, were times spent hiding in one place or the other are now reclaimed with a vengeance. The festivities of Connaught Place or Lajpat Nagar market on a Sunday afternoon replace the killing of time in the air conditioned environs of the Saket malls. But if the Sunday afternoons are reclaimed, the late nights in Khan Market and Hauz Khas are sacrificed. Their narrow lanes wear a deserted look much earlier than you would expect and even the people you see are cocooned in multiple layers of clothing. Sparingly however, you would spot the adventurous and the newly young in clothes that seem to be daring the weather gods. Walking on such foggy and chilly nights does have a charm of its own and even though you long for warmer nights, you are thankful for the shimmering sensation on your face and neck which keeps you buoyant and optimistic about the rest of the evening. The first signs of winters make one take out the woolens, jackets and blazers in Delhi, all of which either do not exist in a Bombay wardrobe or even if one had acquired them in the past, are consigned to a fate of rotting away in the bottom shelves. The ‘soon to be horizontally challenged’, get a couple of months to blame the tell tale signs on the clothes rather than the consumption of copious amounts of not so healthy stuff. For those earning a living at corporate offices, the onset of winter in Delhi is a welcome change. It becomes acceptable to come in a little later than usual; after all everyone can identify with the difficulty of waking up early in the morning. With the sun setting down at six, no one can raise eyebrows if you are leaving at seven. It is pitch dark and everyone wants to get back home as soon a possible before the dense fog settles in.

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The fog itself is a big menace for those who have to drive long stretches or have the misfortune of taking flights. But if you do not fall in one of those categories, it’s not hard to appreciate the mystical beauty that comes with a setting of dense fog. The roads become surreal like the sets in one of the film studios of Bombay. Memories of all the old Sherlock Holmes stories and thrillers set in London come rushing at once to your mind. Every nook and corner becomes interesting and every stranger walking out of the fog can be a character out of some mystery story. You acquire a better taste for horror movies in winters and also for those quintessential Indian momos and tomato soup. Breakfasts extend into lunches, lunches into dinners and it’s never too early in the day to order a drink. I love the Delhi winters.

Sadly, things do not seem so optimistic for the guy who used to go by the name of Shahrukh Khan and now has renamed himself as the King. The King used to be a quite likeable guy and except for a minority of condescending sophisticated Chocolate Boy fans, he was clearly the leading star for a long time. Then he got hit by a calamity called the 40s. It hit his other contemporary Khans also but they somehow turned it to their advantage. Sadly, the King was not so lucky or perhaps he had got too much of Tiger Blood to realize what was happening to him. Instead of changing his acting style or roles he seems to have bought himself a brand new face. It’s supposed to make the King look young but anyone who has seen Don 2 can confirm that he looks more like a wax statue of Ranbir Singh. Sadly, it would seem that Ranbir Singh or his wax statute if and whenever it’s made could have done a better job here. The King’s last few films have given enough opportunities for the Aamir Khan fans to mock him and now it has even become cooler to be a fan of that Body Builder guy over a fan of the King. His fans, at least the rational ones and not the fanatic ones had more or less given up hopes when the King acted as a retard and robot/computer game thing in his last two movies and made it difficult to distinguish which was which. With Don 2, things have been complicated even further and all hopes seem to have been lost. Long live the King; the King seems to have died a while back.

(Spoiler alert. But really there is not much to spoil in the first place.)

So the thing about this thing called Don 2 is that it’s a very irritating movie but if you could just tolerate the ‘in your face stupidity’, hamming and screeching, you would be rewarded with a movie which is really and quite unintentionally hilarious. The dialogues are not only an exercise in spelling the obvious, as in saying O-B-V-I-O-U-S but almost a work of art.

Picture this, Priyanka Chopra gets some snaps of Don’s car in two places. The first one has Aly Khan and the other doesn’t. She concludes that……..(can you guess?)…. the person who was with Don must have got off somewhere in between. Her co-worker, and ‘want to be boyfriend’/ ‘they gave me thankless lines’ guy played by some ‘part time model’/ ‘want to be actor’ guy deducts…….(can you guess now?)…… that if someone got off in between, there must be some witness also and all they have to do is find that witness! And true to the letter, they find one and not more than one witness who realizing his responsibility as the sole witness gives enough details to Farhan Akhtar’s computer to generate an image of Aly Khan.

Om Puri has in the recent past done a lot of roles which should be enough to make anyone forget that he is a two times national awards winner (before Arjun Rampal single handedly destroyed their reputation by winning one). But just in case anyone still remembers, Don 2 should delete those memories for ever. In the opening sequence, when he is alone in a capsule lift with Priyanka Chopra, Om Puri tells her that of all the officers that he has worked with, he is going to miss Priyanka Chopra the most. Thankfully, I was watching the movie in a single screen, so the whistles and catcalls that followed did complete justice to the dialogue. In another one of his good dialogues, he tells Don; supposedly the undisputed mafia boss and a ruthless killer as established many times over in this movie and the previous one, to cooperate else a lot of innocents may get killed. In his best scene, towards the end, amongst all the mayhem, blasts and gun battles, Om Puri is seen to be chit chatting with a local firang police guy, presumably enquiring about the drinking holes in the place; when he sees the King, carrying an obviously wounded and bleeding Priyanka Chopra in his arms. His casual remark, and English won’t do justice here is, ‘Arre yeh Roma ko kya ho gaya?’.

The secret to Don’s success and the fall of Corleone family is that as opposed to the Corlones, Don works alone. It seems that every drug delivery he has to take, he goes there personally. No wonder his clients like him but seriously, he must have worked round the clock like this if he has actually become the undisputed head of the Asian drug mafia, as he claims to be. Yes, crime pays but hard work in crime pays much more. Don is so short of staff that most of his work seems to be done by his apparent girl friend played by Lara Dutta or maybe she being his only staff also performs the duties of his girl friend.

Another important character in the movie is played by Kunal Kapoor as the guy who has become a mandatory feature in all crime movies post Oceans’ Eleven; the laptop guy. He rides a bicycle and wears and cool hat through out the movie to underline not just his youth and hip-ness but also his innocence and gullibility. The last two qualities are supposed to be also gathered from a random shot of his pregnant firang wife who is also the wallpaper on the laptop used in the heist. Of course, just in case, the heist is not successful and the laptop gets left behind, at least they’ll know who to return it to.

But despite all these brilliant performances, each of which may have been outstanding in a lesser movie, the best acting and casting award in this movie without a doubt goes to a guy who plays a small time Bhai in Germany called JABBAR. That’s right. His name is not Jabbar but JABBAR. Practically every time in the movie his name is taken, it is shouted by everyone including himself. Not since Gabbar has a bad guy’s name been spoken with such force. But that’s where the comparisons stop. Compared to Gabbar, JABBAR is a very sweet, simple and gullible guy, not to mention a complete idiot. From the King to Boman Irani, everyone bosses over him although he is the one who owns all the men with guns and bombs and clearly appears to have the physical strength to rip apart the King and Irani with his one arm. Is it such a crime to be stupid?! In a classic scene which deserves to be preserved in memory, the King is about to crush JABBAR with a crane when the King makes him an offer to join forces. To which JABBAR replies that he has come there to kill the King! Such bravery couldn’t go unnoticed. Neither could JABBAR’s eh…assets in a body hugging t shirt that he wore through most of the film. Another observation which might have been lost had the movie been watched in a multiplex.

I am reliably informed that the true fans of the King really, like really, like this movie. I can easily understand why. He provides a kind of timelessness in his movies that was till now considered a domain of the Body Builder and Govinda. When he says, ‘I am the King’, you are reminded of the same dialogue as he says it in Om Shanti Om and probably in My Name is Khan and that robot/ video game movie as well. Clearly, for his real fans, he is beyond the constraints of time, space and acting.

So as a final word, while MI 4 may give you the cheap momentary thrills of a good action movie, a film like Don 2 will stay etched in your memory for a long, long time and provide you great comfort in those uncomfortable times spent waiting for elevators.

[With critical inputs from Mr. Harsh Parashar]

I think by now, it is accepted more or less by everyone that Vishal Bharadwaj is the most talented person in the Hindi film industry today and probably the most gifted ever. There may be people who could be said to be closer to him respectively in the disciplines of writing, music and direction and even that would be highly contested but no name comes to mind who would command such respect in all of these.

Every time Vishal announces a project, the expectations are that he is going to push the limits further in an industry where most people do not even aim for greatness let alone achieve it. In that sense, his last film, Kaminey even though a pretty good thriller and in the mode of the stuff of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie was still pretty formulaic. It was almost as if the man who made Omkara had decided to make some more money for his financiers so that they keep funding his movies, and so that he could make another Maqbool or another Blue Umbrella perhaps. With Saat Khoon Maaf (SKM), he seems to have done exactly that.

It’s a film which a filmmaker would make for himself. That doesn’t mean its not a good film to watch, it means that he has not tried to make it any funnier than it needs to be, its not meant to draw in people looking for some laughs. It is slow; not painfully slow but slow enough not to make it a thriller. It’s a film which thrives on building the mood. Most of the film is shot in dark, suffocating interiors. The few times that the camera ventures out, the weather is gloomy and the sky in the dark shades of blue. If you have seen Blue Umbrella (incidentally based on another Ruskin Bond short story), you’ll remember how upon Pankaj Kapoor being ostracised, the weather turns grey and oppressive to increase his misery. In SKM, the entire movie seems to be set in a dark, cynical world, where the inherent evil of human nature runs over the surface. The songs, the beautiful Bekaraan (shot in idyllic settings of Kashmir) or the amusing Daarling come as brief respites but the inevitable ominous shadows are always waiting around.

In his last two films, Vishal had created memorable characters out of Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor. In SKM, he has created Susanna, which may be the meatiest role that Priyanka Chopra may ever get to do in her career. She may not be brilliant but she does carry Susanna quite competently. It would probably have been easier to show Susanna as a psychotic character with insatiable blood lust but instead, she is written as almost a sensible woman who is forced to do away with husbands who became inconveniences. Susanna yearns for love and she is disappointed every time. Why doesn’t she just divorce them? Well, it is explained, because, it is not in her nature to change a path to avoid the obstructions. “In the movie, the cheater and the mistreater have no idea who they are dealing with”, Ebert wrote about Neve Campbell in When Will I be Loved, but he might as well have been writing about Susanna in SKM.

SKM is not merely a linear tale of seven (or six?) murders but is pretty much biopic in its ambitions as Susanna goes from being a pretty and upbeat 17 year old to a scary looking, cynical fifty something realising that her choices do not make much of a difference to the way things turn out in her life.

A film like this could only work if it had capable support characters and thankfully it does. All the husbands are played by actors who know their jobs and therefore even though they suffer from one vice or the other and have screen time of fifteen minutes or so, they appear to flawed individuals rather than caricatures (except maybe John Abraham!). A self assured debutant Vivaan Shah (Naseer’s son) takes care of the narration (as a stable hand who is educated by Susanna and is probably the only man in her life who is worthy of her affection). The trio of Susanna’s loyal servants who are accessories to the murders lend an eerie, at times hallucinating touch in a movie whose sense of humour is pretty wicked.

SKM is not a film which has an intricate story to tell, it’s a film which takes you in a dark world and leaves you wandering around to chase your own demons. Like Oh Mama, the rock song sung by John Abraham’s character, its probably not very sophisticated but still pretty heady and effective. Old Monk, anyone?

Post Script: According to IMDB, SKM is Vishal’s 7^th directorial venture.

There isn’t much point in giving a preface before listing out the ten best films of the year. You know what its about and how it works. So lets get on with it. The only disclaimer is that I can only make a list out of the movies that I have seen. So I may have not seen some of the best films (read Black Swan/ The Fighter) of the year because they haven’t been released in India and I couldn’t find a good enough torrent.

1. Social Network

People knew that it was going to be a good movie but few thought that a docu-drama on the life of the socially awkward creator of Facebook would go on to become one of the most successful films of the year. Extremely witty, sharp and smart. These are usually the words used to describe a person, not a film but they fit perfectly to Social Network. The Zuckerberg character, fictional though it may be is one of the most well crafted characters in recent memory. You can identify with his confusion, his motivation but even after the movie gets over, remain as clueless about his intentions as he probably is himself. Its a film not merely about a person but about a generation.

2. Scott Piligrim vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim is from the maker of inventive spoofs like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. It gets the energy and zing of a video game in a movie and loads it up with quirky comic book humour and exciting back ground score. This is without a doubt the most entertaining film of the year. Put it in loop motion and get under the quilt. Oh, and remember to get a large tub of pocpcorn before you do that.

3. Udaan

A film about growing up and conflicts between the adults and to be adults. Its been called the Indian 400 Blows and a celebration of the rebellious spirit of youth. That’s probably a bit too generous to a movie which has slightly one dimensional characters but it still deserves all the credit for being one of the most sensitive films made in India in a long time. It also has the earthy look of small town India which has rarely ever been seen in the movies since the seventies. Not to forget that it’s the first film of director Vikramaditya Motwane and also has the best soundtrack for a Hindi movie this year.

4. Leaves of Grass

The fact that this movie has one of his best performances by Edward Norton (in the role of identical looking but completely different twins) should be sufficient to carry it to the list of the year’s best. The film unfolds like a typical Coen Brothers’ crime comedy, except that it is made by Tim Blake Nelson and not Coen Brothers. So it is much more affectionate of its characters and devotes time to what they think and not just what they do. It gets you thinking about how much of our life is a result of our choices and how much simply of conditioning and events.

5. The Ghost Writer

I would much rather state that Barack Obama is black than say that Roman Polanski is a class filmmaker but what is really amazing is that at seventy seven years of age, he is still making elegant gripping thrillers like this one. This is a film which does not wander around too much. It does not distract you with action sequences or blowing up buildings. It clues you in with the plot in the first five minutes and then starts working on you slowly, tightening the screws. This is a film equivalent of having a glass of good scotch. It won’t knock you out but leave you admiring the finesse.

6. Greenberg

The protagonist of Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg is not a very likable guy. He thinks only about himself and is angry because he never made it big. People think that he has decided not to do anything with his life and he is angry with people because they can’t see how much pain he is in. He meets a beautiful, caring and sensitive girl but the film is not about the healing power of love. Its about how people can sometimes get stuck with the problems that they create for themselves in their heads. Ben Stiller plays Greenberg like someone you would know.

7. Inception

Initially I wasn’t too sure about putting this on the list because for all the hype generated by Inception, I’ll remember it as a movie which could have been better than how it turned out. That said, it was certainly one of the most influential and talked about movies of the year and it seems to be a waste that one had to watch the movie again to decipher it and not because it was entertaining.

8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

There are a number of things that this movie pulls off spectacularly not the least of which is an intriguing protagonist, the fascinating Lisbeth Salander. The credit for that of course should truly go to the writer who launched (even though he may not have lived to see it) the massively successful trilogy of books based on the character. But where the film goes beyond is in getting the perfect casting for the role and creating a brutal cold setting which would seem to incubate the kind of evil that is let loose in it. The way the suspense unfolds, specially how an investigation of long buried sins transforms into one with ominous urgency, reminded me of Agatha Christie. A thousand times better than the likes of Salt. No offence to Angelina Jolie.

All right, now I am going to cheat a bit. This is a list of this year’s best movies but I definitely have not seen all the movies released this year which deserve to be on this list and I don’t want to fill it with movies which were not good enough. So instead, I am going to slip in a couple of really good movies that I watched this year even though they had been released much earlier.

9. Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl is a film about a lonely guy who gets home a life size sex doll and treats it like his girl friend. Its not a slapstick comedy though, far from it. It’s a heart warming film about the goodness of human nature. Lars (played endearingly by Ryan Gosling) is a nice, gentle, quiet guy who avoids human contact both of the physical kind and that of the social interaction variety. He goes to work everyday and stays in a garage meters away from his brother and sister in law but keeps to himself with a firm insistence. One fine day he orders the doll off the net and introduces it to everyone as his girlfriend; Bianca. The psychologist says that the cure is to go along with his delusion. The rest of the film is about how the people around him including his family, co workers, neighbours and church members come together to play along in the delusion of treating Bianca as a real person; not in a fake sympathetical manner but with a sincerity and gentleness which comes from their care and affection for Lars, one of their own.

10. Away We Go

It seems almost cruel to end a list of the year’s best without a single romantic movie. So here’s a gem borrowed from 2009. Away We Go is about an unmarried couple in early thirties, about to have a child but clueless about where they are in life. They go hopping cities, visiting friends and family, to decide where they want to settle down, the people they want to live close to. Somewhere along the movie, they find out as we do, that they do not have much support apart from their love for each other and that they don’t really need anything more. A soothing soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch adds to the delight that this movie is.

1. Before Sunrise & Before Sunset

Richard Linklater creates what can only be described as magic along with actors Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in these two movies. Before Sunset came nine years after Before Sunrise and as the actors grew older so did their characters. Considering they also wrote their own dialogues, both of them do become quite indistinguishable from the characters that they portray. What are the movies about? Two people walking around and talking. But as far as walking and talking goes it has never been this engrossing and the dialogues have rarely been better.

2. Big Fish

A man tells fantastic and unbelievable stories all the time so much so that his son becomes sick of him and his stories. Of course, he does not believe any of them. Who would in a witch with a magical glass eye and a man eating giant? Even when the father (played earnestly by Albert Finney) is on the deathbed the son wants to know what kind of person he really was. Of course slowly he learns that his father’s stories were not entirely false and that faith is the only thing separating fantasy from reality. Big Fish is amusing to a large extent because of Tim Burton’s visual imagery and some very likable actors. It’s a story that’s funny and sad, fantastic and realistic at the same time. Ideal for ending an irritating day (unless one has access to better utilities!).

3. Americano

An American student is at the threshold of starting corporate drudgery. Before that he backpacks on a holiday across Europe with a couple of friends. The movie catches up with them in Spain. It has quite minimalist dialogues but captivating and at times stunning visuals. Of course, as it tries to answer ‘the meaning of life’ question, too many dialogues would have made it cheesy or preachy. Thankfully, it’s subtle and enigmatic. Perfect for a dead afternoon.

4. Garden State

Zach Braff who stars along with Natalie Portman in this very underrated movie is also its writer and director. He plays a small time actor, part time waiter who is leading his life sedated, drugged or otherwise zonked out of the boredom of mundane existence. He returns to his small town home to attend his mother’s funeral and encounters an array of quirky but mostly likeable characters and of course the pretty girl. It’s a love story of sorts and also a ‘coming of age’ story but avoids the clichés of both. A beautiful soundtrack and peaceful visuals make for a perfect watch in the time between a couple of drinks and being sloshed.

5. Mumford

A psychologist called Mickey Mumford (played quite endearingly by Loren Dean) comes to the quaint little town of Mumford and sets up his shop. Soon he becomes the most successful shrink in the town due to his rather different methods. His patients are an interesting lot and the doc himself has a remarkable back story. A bit like Garden State what makes Mumford a relish is an array of small town characters with their simplicity and mild eccentricities!

6. Rushmore

This Wes Anderson flick is about a 15 year old school kid who is too mature for his age and a business tycoon (played superbly by Bill Murray) who is too immature for his age. Its actually a pretty funny reminder of the child in all of us and how we never really outgrow him. Not that its something bad though!

7. Groundhog Day

This Bill Murray and Andie McDowell starer is about a guy caught in a time warp who lives over the same day again and again. It is surprisingly witty and has a kind of endearing humour which grows on you every time you watch the movie. If you watch it enough number of times you’ll probably get the subtle message also; how to live your life!

8. Keeping the Faith

Edward Norton’s directorial debut stars him as a priest who has a rabbi (played by Ben Stiller) and a suave business woman (played by Jenna Elfman) for friends. The three were childhood friends before Jenna moved away. They bond again when she returns years later as a smart and successful corporate executive and as always happens, both guys fall in love with the pretty girl. What makes this a very pleasant movie is that it doesn’t try to be a comedy. Instead it comes across as a funny yet heart warming story about friends, love, religion, faith and…life.

9. Lost in Translation

Bill Murray (once again) playing an actor in his 50s and Scarlett Johansson playing a newly married twenty something meet during their stay in Japan. Surrounded by an alien culture and customs; frustrated of the boredom of an unknown language and people, they get closer. Its quite difficult to call it a love story but more difficult to call it anything else. Its about how two almost strangers can understand and communicate with each other better than they can with the people they’ve spent their lives with. Its also about how sometimes its better to ignore the bleak big picture and enjoy the interludes while they last. That and the deadpan humour of Bill Murray make sure that Lost in Translation leaves a pleasant aftertaste.

10. Ed Wood

This Tim Burton biopic stars Johnny Depp as Edward D Wood who acquired unexpected fame posthumously when he was voted as the worst director ever for his outlandish movies about monsters and alien terrors made on shoe string budgets in the 1950s. Ed Wood is obviously funny but it never makes fun of the actor/director/writer/editor/producer who had a fetish for cross dressing. Instead it pays a loving tribute to a guy who was passionate and sincere about making movies even if he was ill equipped for it and perhaps despite being aware of it.

And a few more..

I’ve already listed 11 movies instead of 10 so how does it matter if I list a few more. Should always take advantage of economies of scale.

11. Beautiful Girls

A deceptively ordinary name for a brilliant and funny movie with an ensemble cast, vaguely about men chasing illusions of women. This is a perfect example of a movie which is not trying to say anything but is still absolutely fascinating to watch not to mention hilarious, sensible and sweet. Its definitely not a ‘date movie’ even though the poster might say so, although on second thoughts I am not very sure what exactly is a ‘date movie’. A superb soundtrack, likeable (and competent) actors and soothing visuals. Seriously, what more?

12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

One of the best films ever. There’s no point in me trying to explain what its about. Anyone who hasn’t yet, should watch it. And while you are at it check this out as well: http://www.lacunainc.com/

13. (500) Days of Summer

Its one of the most innovative romantic comedies in a long time. Make that a really long time. It’s a bright, cheerful and sparkling movie and is neither extra mushy nor a gross sex comedy. There aren’t too many movies that manage to stay out of both these extremes and still manage to be this funny and relatable.

And finally, honourable mentions: Vicky Christina Barcelona & Kicking and Screaming (not the one with Will Farrell)

Is the camera on?

One of the most noticeable and publicized things about the movie, Love Sex aur Dhoka was that it had been shot in a digital, hand held camera/ hidden camera format. This visual style made the movie very real and immediate. In fact the reason why some people were appalled by the explicitness of violence and sex in the film was because there was no background music or soothing wide angled shots to cushion the impact of the difficult scenes. They were too brutally real to be just seen and forgotten like a normal movie scene.

The film is neatly divided in three stories smartly interconnected to each other and dealing with the L, S and D respectively. The story is in equal parts a tribute/ spoof of Bollywood potboilers (there obviously isn’t much of a difference between a tribute and a spoof of Bollywood movies) and a heart wrenching realistic story. Even after the first fifteen minutes or the so, this first story remains pretty uncertain in its tone. It seems like a naive and fun film while following the falling in love of the lead couple and the silly student film which serves as the backdrop to their affair.  But there are some ominous and grave shadows in between when the girl’s family comes into picture. Eventually, however, it is the ending which redeems and gives a purpose to the story. The ending is susceptible to the attacks of being contrived. Its been said that its a deliberate set up by luring the audience into a funny, sweet and innocent love story and then banging them in the face with a brutal ending. This is at least partially true but the ending has a greater impact not only because it is quiet gruesomely explicit but also because it is so ironically sad, which is also true for life. Some of the gruesome tales of ‘honor killings’ that come out suggest that in most cases the victims are blissfully ignorant or deeply underestimate the violent reactions of their families to their amorous adventures.

The first story on the face of it does not have any direct correlation with the invasion of media into our lives apart from the fact that it is shot like a home video with digital handy cams but even if it was shot on a normal movie camera, that would not have made too much of a difference to the story per se.  Of course, reflecting a bit, it is apparent that the love story of the lead couple is not only inspired but is a reflection of the films of their generation. The candy floss romances of the 80s and 90s have been deeply embedded in the minds of the generation which grew up in during that period. So its not really a surprise that young couples in Kanpur or Ranchi have no hesitation in ‘falling in love’ without any regard to the sensibilities of their families. The problem of course is that their make believe worlds modeled closely on their favorite movies are completely out of sync with the realities of the world around them. Most of these films have happy endings with the disapproving elders being won over by the pure and sincere love of the young ones. Even the ones with sad endings make the sacrifice a glorious spectacle.

In real life, a high number of these love stories are crushed brutally by their families and the ‘society’ (the infamous orders of various ‘khap panchayats’ being  the ugliest reflections of the same) and there is hardly any glory in being killed brutally and being forgotten forever. LSD presents the problem is all it glory or rather with all its gory details. It does not attempt to be indirect or circumspect or provide a gentle suggestion to the audience about the fate of the love birds. It shows them being slaughtered and butchered as merciless(ly) as the perpetrators who commit them are.

The second story is probably the heart of the movie. Its about what has possibly emerged as the most destructive side effect of the camera age. With the all pervasive cameras of phones to security monitors and the ease and anonymity of user uploaded content on the internet has made paparazzi from a profession of a few to the hobby of an entire generation. It would be quite reasonable to expect that a number of lives must have already been destroyed if the number of ‘scandals’ that are uploaded on the relevant websites everyday are anything to go by.  In the movie, the guy is an out an out bastard who starts off flirting with the girl with the sole intention of selling a video with her in the act. The girl on the other hand is a shy and homely girl, too conscious of her dusky, simple looks and has a heart of gold. As it happens quite often in the movies and not so often in the real life, the guy actually develops sincere emotions for the girl and resists from capturing her on the camera the first time he gets the opportunity. But soon after his sinister side is reawakened and the next time when the girl is inconsolable and vulnerable for having lost her best friend, he films her in the act and sells the video. Like the first part which has a really violent scene towards the end, this story has a rather explicit sex scene which is quite uncomfortable to watch.

One reason why the damage caused by such a scandal in the age of Internet is catastrophic is because it is irreversible and proliferated. Unlike the earlier times when newspapers (and to a lesser extent the news channels) were the repository of public memory which could only keep track of a scandal for some time, now the 24/7 news channels do not have any qualms in running something over and over and over again. Even after the news channels tire of the story, it is impossible to erase the traces from the Internet and hence the scars would last through the victim’s life time and even beyond.

It is also interesting to see that while so many people would enjoy watching the video and fantasize about it, they consider themselves to be morally much superior to the poor girl who has been secretly filmed by someone she trusted in an intimate moment. This question is also posed by the much harassed Chanda in the Anurag Kashyap movie, Dev D.

The third story deals with the highly controversial aspect of media encroaching upon the privacy of individuals under the garb of newsworthiness. It follows an exploitative and vulgar music video director/ singer who goes by the name of Loki Local. Loki is habitual of taking the aspiring starlets to his bed by promising to cast them in his next ‘super hit’ music video. There is a girl who has been duped by Loki. She tries killing herself but is saved by a journalist who due to narrative coincidence happens to be a veteran of ‘sting operations’. The girl wants revenge and the reporter is desperate for a story. She approaches Loki and soon they have him on the tape ‘taking advantage’ of her in lieu of a promised music video. The reporter has however developed romantic feelings for the girl by that time and is reluctant to put the graphic video up for the news channel wolves and an interesting conclusion is reached.

The rise of ‘invasive journalism’ is intricately linked to the rise of reality television all over the world and India has not been an exception. We were probably a bit slow to take off but in the last half a decade with the explosion of satellite television and the resulting competition for TRPs assisted by the advances in the surveillance  technology have made ‘sting operations’ and ‘spy cams’ familiar words not only for the journalist community but also for the common man. High TRPs of shows like Emotional Atyachar, Sach ka Samna and Big Boss is clearly an indication that while we may not yet be the voyeur nation like the US but we are surely getting there. In view of the traditionally conservative nature of the Indian people, this trend is particularly perverted. It seems that while we are still not willing to see a couple kissing on streets, we apparently have no qualms about watching (in the privacy of our own homes) a couple indulging in far more intimate acts behind the closed doors through the aid of the technological marvels called hidden cameras.

While in countries like the United States there have been various instances where the victims of such sting operations have gone ahead and sued the news channels/ reporters for damages and have also succeeded a number of times, the idea is almost unheard in India. It is usually the other way round and the person featured in such an expose irrespective of whether it concerns his public or private life is deemed to be guilty by the camera trial and is forced to defend himself. The sense of self righteousness is so firmly entrenched in the Indian media that the questions about the ethical nature of such endeavors are contemptuously dismissed with a wave of the magical hand of ‘public interest’. LSD does not take a clear side, while it portrays Loki as a sleazy and exploitative scum-bag, it shows the news channel bosses as ruthless mercenaries whose sole concern is getting a juicy scandal for their channel. Its not just a question of ends justifying the means but the ultimate objective itself is questionable.

Anurag Kashyap often narrates the anecdote about his first movie, Paanch. Apparently, it was rejected the Censor Board certificate (and still remains unreleased) because the Board felt that there was no moral lesson in the story of the movie. Thankfully, now things have changed and LSD did release even though it is difficult to say whether the movie takes a moral stand. Does that mean that LSD is an ‘exploitation film’ which sells by showing uncomfortable ‘youtube’ like footage? I would say no. It makes you uncomfortable but because it intends to do so; because the reality it tries to depict is really quite disturbing. The couples who run away from don’t get a quiet, dignified, ‘slow music’ death, they get a brutal, unexpected, painful one; the girl in the ‘scandal in store’ video probably did not do anything even remotely ‘wrong’ or ‘stupid’ to deserve it and will probably never recover from it.

The film’s use of the digital video footage is not a gimmick but, in fact, its subject matter. By showing the reality in a much too immediate and recognizable form, it seeks to make you a part of the ‘filth’ that it ‘criticizes’ so that every time you watch a scandal  MMS/ Emotional Atyachar/ India TV/, you realize that you are creating a demand for the supply, that you become a part of the cycle of (irresponsible) media affecting people affecting media. Like many other good movies, LSD offers no answers but it makes you aware of the questions. That in itself is something.

* The author would like to acknowledge the discussions on this film with Abhishek Saluja, Harsh Parashar and Prateek Mishra which may form part of this post.

(THIS IS THE FINAL PART OF A TWO PART SERIES ON THE FILMS OF DIBAKAR BANERJEE)

(image from here)

Anupam Kher showing the golden name plate in Khosla Ka Ghosla.

Part I: Before the Shock came the Smiles

Before making Love, Sex aur Dhoka (Love, Sex and Betrayal or LSD for short), Dibakar Banerjee had made two of the most original and authentic movies of the so called new generation of Bollywood since the turn of the millennium. His first movie Khosla ka Ghosla (Khosla’s Nest or KKG for short) was and continues to be arguably the best comedy about a post liberalization middle class family. The closest resemblance that it had was to the movies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee about simple and gentle middle class families in the India of 1970s/80s, so comfortably insulated from the chaos of their political and social settings that they could indulge in their funny and often whimsical ‘problems’. Khosla ka Ghosla however, went much further than being a comic tale of a middle class family. It dealt with the hilarious consequences when two seemingly disparate worlds interact with each other as they do quite invariably in our modern India. The sophisticated have to interact with the crude and the gentle law abiders have to deal with the gun totters. In a way, it was also a subtle ‘critique’ of how the middle class likes to isolate itself from the muck around it and how frail and short lasting these attempts are.

Some of the best parts of the movie, however, were the interactions between the pre and post liberalization generations represented by a father and his son. The father played brilliantly by Anupam Kher is driven by the middle class dream of his generation: a good, self owned house. The son also seems to be driven by the middle class dream of his own generation that of getting a job in the US. Neither of them understands the value of what the other values. The new post liberalization generation is typified by a confidence of economic self sufficiency which the prior generation did not have till very late in their lives. This also means that the attempts of the older generation to exercise control over the young one can no longer gain strength from ‘zaaydaad se bedkhal’ (dis-entitlement from the family property) threats that were so common in the movies of 70s and 80s. Instead, the older generation tries to adapt by trying to appease and cajole the younger generation which results in some really funny and yet somewhere heart warming scenes in Khosla ka Ghosla. One of them being where the presumably teetotaler father gets whisky at home to drink with his son or the one where understanding that Chiraujni Lal is a particularly embarrassing name for his son, he suggests changing it to CL Khosla. “Same ka same aur different ka different”

If Khosla Ka Ghosla established his credentials as a sensible and crafted filmmaker, Banerjee’s second movie, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (OL, LO) convinced everyone how good his understanding of the urban middle class sensibilities is. The protagonist (Lucky) in OL,LO is seen in his earlier years as a very normal teenager who lusts after the same attractive things and has the same insecurities that other young people of his age and background have. Of course, he grows up to be a master thief which is not something that ‘regular’ middle class boys do for a living. However, unlike the movies of the 70s and 80s the explanation behind him becoming a thief is not rooted in some great personal tragedy or the prospect of starvation in the face of a cruel, classist world but rather in his middle class desire to be upwardly mobile.

He steals because he wants the good things in life and after a point perhaps because he just loves his work and loves the fact that he is so good at it.  There is a very interesting montage in the movie, when Lucky being frustrated and disturbed by the fraud pulled on him by Paresh Rawal’s character, goes on a spree stealing everything and anything that comes across his way, all through the night. One of the biggest reasons for the success of Lucky (and the real life character on whom he is supposedly based) seemed to be that he did not appear to be the stereotypical criminal, the uneducated, filthy and crass thug.  He would dress well, drive a flashy car (stolen, of course) and appear to be suave and cultured. In short, to the upper middle class of south Delhi, he would appear to be ‘one of them’.

Dibakar does a reversal of sorts in the relationship of the classes in KGK and OL, LO. While in Khosla Ka Ghosla, the crude, loud, uneducated Boman Irani is the exploiter and a gentle, educated, mild mannered Anupam Kher suffers him, in OL,LO, our smart, daring and super successful hero who fools the filthy rich and the helpless police with equal ease is, in fact conned by the sophisticated, educated and supposedly respectful veterinarian played by Paresh Rawal.

The father-son relationship is at the core of both KKG and OL, LO. The actions of the protagonist in both the movies are driven by their relationship with their fathers. In Khosla ka Ghosla, the son (played by Parvin Dabas) does not want to lead the embarrassing and outdated life that his father has planned for him but when he sees how helpless his father is against the corrupt and terrorizing Boman Irani, he devices a plan to get the plot back for him. In OL, LO, Lucky is continuously looking for a father figure (played every time by Paresh Rawal) and is disappointed every time. This supposedly fuels up his hunger for fame and his disregard for the authority and rules of a society which is equally disregardful of his existence.

Having made these two light hearted and yet realistic and sensible movies, everyone was looking forward to Dibakar’s new project and almost everyone expected that it would have the same nice, quiet and peaceful general tone even though it was audaciously titled Love, Sex aur Dhoka. When the movie came out a sizable number of people who went expecting a light hearted or a titillating film were disappointed to put it mildly (I had the good fortune of watching the movie with some of them who went on abusing the family of the director and how the movie was a Dhoka (fraud) upon them, the poor popcorn munching audience). The ‘critics’ and a hundred other serious film-goers were impressed to a great extent but shocked to a greater extent.

(THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF A TWO PART SERIES)