Dabangg!

I watched Dabangg in one of these dilapidated single-screen movie halls that charged 35 rupees for a ticket. It was a weekday evening, but the hall was almost full. The film kept an otherwise noisy crowd completely hooked throughout its duration. The visuals and the locations are clearly meant to match a good old western. However, since this is no 1975 (when Sholay was released), there is absolutely no attempt at concealing the absurdity of the story; nor is there any attempt at over-sentimentalizing the love angle or the loss of central characters. This is Hindi cinema at its kitschy, over-the-top, campy best - so unintellectual that you cannot help but laugh along.

Going by the audience's reactions, I realized what a loss the average Indian crowd has had with the multiplexes and the metropolis-themed movies that are supposedly made for the young people of today. I hate watching films with those popcorn-munching, heavily perfumed rich brats who have paid hundreds of rupees only to watch the film while constantly smsing or chatting on the phone. This audience was a good contrast. I know why they flock to watch Salman Khan films. I feel a bit sorry for them, since I just don't see any actor in the next generation who can appeal to them in the way Salman does.

Peepli Live (2010) - Anusha Rizvi

Although farmer's suicides are a serious problem, I am not one of those killjoys who claim that one cannot make use of satire to depict a serious problem. My advice to those would be to go read Srilal Shukla's Hindi novel 'Rag Darbari'. Thus, I am already empathetic to the film's message and form; the same goes for its portrayal of media and politicians as ruthless - which should come as no surprise to anyone who watches television and who has an iota of intelligence. Having said that, I must confess that the film was a big let-down.

Both the script and the direction were hurried. Most scenes just seemed to finish too early, as if there were so many check-boxes to be checked before the film got over in its 100-odd minutes. On the other hand, there were not too many points to be made - once the media and the politicians enter the frey, the film has nothing more (or original) to say and it seems to get breathless just saying nothing, but making it a shouting match of saying nothing, to make things worse. Scatological jokes, swear-words relying on the infidelities of sisters and mothers, or on various parts of the anatomy are not new to me - they don't offend me, but I don't get cheap thrills just because someone on screen utters them either. So the jokes seemed just juvenile. More seriously, as a friend pointed out, the end is more or less copied from "No Man's Land", which won the foreign film Oscar when Amir's Lagaan was in the race, so this seems like a way of getting a kick out of copying your (better) adversary. 

I am sorry to say, but I don't get impressed by such things. Neither do I get fresh insights into the plights of the Indian farmers by watching such silly films. If you need to get entertained by Indian villagers while still  getting some serious insights about India and its problems, I will recommend 'Rag Darbari' any day.

Winter's Bone (2010) - Debra Granik

This is just the kind of depressing piece of Americana that I love to watch on the indie film circuit. Everything in the film - from the faces of the actors, the winter landscape, the rare but pithy dialogue, the amount of things left unsaid and the underlying horror and beauty of life - is perfect. Highly recommended to people who hate 'movies' but love cinema, who hate Hollywood but love Russell Banks's America.

Flamenco (1995) - Carlos Saura

If you like Spanish guitar, throaty songs and passionate dance, then the film will satisfy your senses. Some of the best dancers, singers and musicians come together, helped by the cinematography of Vittorio Storaro and the vision of Carlos Saura.

Here is a magnificent piece to tempt you...

Noviembre (2003) - Achero Mañas

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376800/
What happens when a group of radical theatre enthusiasts come together and vow not to do commercial theatre in the 'money-and-me' nineties? To call their theatre 'Street Theatre' does not really do justice. The challenges they face from an establishment that seems to have forgotten 1968 and its aftermath are not as bad as the challenges they face themselves when living in a world where any form of radicalism is treated as an insult, if not an outright threat. A must-watch for every theatre person and performing artist who would dare to call himself contemporary. Also, a must-watch for every person who cries 'hurt sentiments' at the drop of a hat.

Trailer from Youtube:

Mother Joan of the Angels - Jerzy Kawalerowicz

A haunting tale of passion repressed by dogma. Excellent acting (as is the norm in Polish cinema), visuals and music.

Matka Joanna od aniołów is a film against dogma. That is the universal message of the film. It is a love story about a man and a woman who wear church clothes, and whose religion does not allow them to love each other. They often talk about and teach about love—how to love God, how to love each other—and yet they cannot have the love of a man and a woman because of their religion. This dogma is itself inhuman. The devils that possess these characters are the external manifestations of their repressed love. The devils are like sins, opposite to their human nature. It is like the devils give the man and woman an excuse for their human love. Because of that excuse, they are able to love.

- Jerzy Kawalerowicz, in an interview in Kinoeye

A Bomb was Stolen (1961) - Ion Popescu-Gopo

A delightful comedy about the absurdities of war, weapons and the quest thereof. The obvious association is with the Kubrick classic 'Dr. Strangelove', Jacques Tati and of course the Marx Brothers. It's a shame that just because a film comes from Romania, it is now forgotten, despite having been nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes once. Thanks to the web, I found someone else with similar feelings: The Forgotten: The Dumb Bomb Would love to get hold of some of his animated films from the 'Homo Sapiens series'. See a sample below:

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Tim Burton

An interesting script gone askew in execution. The idea of having a grown-up Alice with an existential dilemma about - what else but the Austenian conundrum of whom to get married to - sounded like a promising start. The post-modern question 'Is this really Alice?' or 'What is the real Alice like?' seemed to go in the right direction, too - as did Alice's refusal to sleigh anyone even if her life depended on it, just because the script demanded it. I was willing to condone Alice for falling in love with the mad hatter, but the repeated maxim 'All the best people are mad' sounds kitschy in 2010, I must confess. The Bandersnatch turning out not as evil as it seems (well, at least for the heroine!) seems right out of the Harry Potter territory of plot twists just to keep the story going ahead, with a veneer of 'everyone who looks evil is not so' to keep the moralists happy, but without even the simple balancing act of a conventionally good-looking character turning out evil. At the end, when Alice takes charge of her life by refusing to marry a twit, what does she do? Go off to build an empire in China, in full colonial style. Political correctness, anyone? If this is what Tim Burton can produce (with Disney's money) in 2010, I can't help feeling sorry for the poor lad. I would prefer 'Charlie and the chocolate factory' any day. As for post-apocalyptic vision, you can't beat the 'Blade Runner', dear old chap! In short, 'You used to be much more...muchier. You've lost your muchness, Tim!'

Sideways (2004) - Alexander Payne

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/

I have a horror of Americans talking about food and wine. However, this turned out to be a delightful film. If you like Woody Allen, Paul Giamatti will probably grow on you.

Quotes: 
If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot! 


Jack: Pinot noir?
Miles: Mmm-hmm.
Jack: Then how come it's white? 

Did you drink and dial?

Avatar (2009) - James Cameron

Just when you had enough of mythological heroes of the Joseph Campbell type from the Hollywood churn, here comes another one that is apparently breaking all records not just with its faux-pacifist message, but also with its revolutionary visuals. Trivia about the film reveals that the crew spent some time in Hawaai living according to (their idea of) tribals during the day, spending the night at a posh hotel. I found this more revealing about the quality of this film than any amount of crap about CGI.

Of course, when Roger Dean is your model, it should not surprise anyone that the visuals are so kitschy. Wishing that someone in Hollywood would take Douanier Rousseau, or Klimt landscapes as their model can qualify only as wishful thinking. When it comes to Kitsch, though, I prefer the intentional, ironic campy art of Andy Warhol or Jasper Johns to this unintentional crap that people actually seem to find beautiful! Considering that it was mostly Americans who gave us pop art in the first place, one can't help lamenting that period as some sort of a golden age in American art. When I further consider that  Hollywood's B grade movies and American pop art inspired directors like Godard to make films like Pierrot le Fou, the mind just boggles at how Hollywood has devolved since then.

Just in protest, this post will have no images from Avatar, but a few pop art images...

Jasper Johns, Map, 1961. Museum of Modern Art New York City.

 

Robert Rauschenberg, Riding Bikes, Berlin, Germany, 1998.

  

Roy Lichtenstein, The Head (1992), Barcelona.

 

Jim Dine, 'Study for This Sovereign Life', 1985

And a few images from cinema's use of kitsch...

 Jean Paul Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le Fou (1965).

'Kika' - Pedro Almodóvar (1993) poster

 

The Criterion DVD cover for Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love (2000)

The Danube waves (1959) - Liviu Ciulei

IMDB Link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053404/

A typical war film, but well-executed in an old fashioned way. Romania is under Nazi occupation. A ship is carrying German ammunition through a mined Danube. A communist is on board as the captain's mate. The newly married captain's wife is also there. Knife in the Water? No, this film was made in communist Romania , probably as a propaganda film. Wages of fear? Heavy influence of. With a big difference, though - finally, the communist defeat of the Nazis must come through.

Green Water (2009) - Mariano De Rosa

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1353785/

Mid-life crisis becomes inevitable as a man cannot handle a stranger's attraction to his daughter. A psychologist wife who takes it in her stride and a son who may grow up to be gay make the problem even more acute. Not just another mid-life crisis film, but an extremely well-made one.

Ishqiya (2009) - Abhishek Chaubey

An interesting idea gone kaput in the implementation. The basic premise is nothing new - that people end up doing crazy things when bitten by the love bug. As a James Hadley Chase novel, this could still have been great stuff. Two thieves, having stolen a lot of money from a third thief, are running away; they seek shelter with a fourth thief. The thief is missing, but his wife gives them shelter. Then the money goes missing ; then the wife comes up with a foolproof scheme to earn some fast money. The two thieves fall for the girl, and hence for the scheme. However, the golden rules of James Hadley Chase say: there is never any fast money, no scheme is foolproof, and women are dangerous. This is classic stuff. The only thing you need to manage well is to make the characters and the milieu colourful, funny and crazy enough; and yet there has to be an internal logic to who they are and why they behave the way they do (which is supposed to be love in this case).  The film fails to deliver on these very premises. Some jokes are good, but the character development just isn't there. What a waste of an interesting idea!

Sankat City (2009) - Pankaj Advani

One of these crazy crime capers where everyone is trying to outdo someone. It is too camp, over-the-top and surrealist for a synopsis to give justice to its logic,. It must have been inspired by lots of other films, but was fun nevertheless. If only Kaminay had managed to be half as crazy as this.

Desaccord Parfait / Twice Upon A Time (2006) - Antoine de Caunes

Far from being a great entertainer, but it is always a delight to watch Jean Rochefort and Charlotte Rampling. Some good laughs, too (mostly at the cost of les anglais!).