Watch These If You Can

A good book and a great movie never fail to make a deadly combination for me. Over the last month, I happened to catch up on a couple of movies which made me think long after i finished watching them.. and that, I believe, is the hallmark of good cinema. The Memoirs of a Geisha, the first in the series of movies, I approached with some skepticism since I had been warned by friends a couple of years ago - " Not as good as the book, the big screen has failed to bring life to the author s imagination adequately." But as the movie unfolded on my TV screen, I had every reason to differ from the opinion given to me. Adeptly reproduced on celluloid, the progatonist geisha, Sayoli s life and angst in pre-war Japan was brought out very well. Besides, enough attention was paid to milieu, casting and the canvas, though international, was still very local.
Hmmmm.... who can one equate a geisha with...? I guess, our devadasis and the mujra dancers, would be an apt comparison. Early societies respected these women of high accomplishment, but in later centuries, the status of these women degenerated to that of mistresses of wealthy patrons and that of women of easy virtue.A geisha too invariably had to choose a rich 'danna' or patron master to see her through her years in the profession. In what was and what is still a man s world, a woman, whoever she may be, has very few choices to make on her own.

The next day, I decided upon watching Karthik Calling Karthik or KCK, which is our very own HiFi offering with the talented Farhan Akhtar attempting a subtle psycho thriller. Since the time Farhan has discovered his love for being in front of the camera, he s given us Rock On, Luck By Chance and KCK. What sets KCK apart is a never-before attempted exploration of schizophrenia, and a small likeness to European cinema of the '90s, in terms of narrative, ligting, background music and camera angles. Karthik (played by Farhan)is a loser who lurks in our midst, but a highly competitive and consumerist society often tends to overlook people like him. How the climx unravels itself is neat cinematic story telling and full marks to Farhan Akhtar for this experiment. He has managed to extract a decent performance from glam babe Deepika Padukone, and that, I must say, is no mean achievement. All in all, KCK is a clear indication of the extent to which our cinema is now looking at places other than stale Hollywood for fresh ideas. What with offerings such as Being Cyrus, Bheja Fry, Dev D, Road the Movie and LSD making news, Noir is indeed here to stay.

Which brings me to The Road to Sangam. Simple fare, honest and will take you through a low-profile, god -fearing Muslim mechanic s conscientious journey to winning rigid hearts. Paresh Rawal's Hasmatullah is so endearing in his gentle non violent but persistent ways, so like the man (Mahatma Gandhi) who is the focus of the story without actually being there. Set in Allahabad, the movie s docu-cinema narrative style ambles along effortlessly. The surprise is in the supporting cast, with stalwart Om Puri, character actor Pawan Malhotra in an virtually unrecognizable get up as the Maulvi, besides a host of localites who have lent their presence, giving the movie an authentic touch. A must watch for all Indians alike, for the Hindus to shed their skepticism and to understand the likes of Hashmatullah and for the Muslims to understand the spirit of the man, and the philosophy he stood for - conscience, peace, harmony and co-existence, which transcends beyond all religious bigotry.

Like it is the law of the land, I reserved the most sensational for the last:). Jokes apart, stepped upon this pretty accidentally, after reading reviews, and saw it only yesterday.. Love, Sex Aur Dhokha or LSD as its now come to be known is going under the cover of being a full blown 'experiment', and one of this year s most talked about movies (if it can be called one)... an experiment that s perhaps never been attempted in Indian cinema where there s no hero other than the peeping tom camera :) What the intentions of producer Ekta Kapoor (yes, its indeed her) and her director, Dibakar Bannerjee, may have been while while conceptualizing the tri-episodic offering is anyone's guess. Yes, there is enough to make one wonder what the whole movie s all about but at the same time, there s enough to hold one s attention especially the second story.Set in a departmental store, it explores how a young salesgirl is duped into an affair which was nothing but a bait to record her making love, the footage of which is sold as porn. Though Kapoor and Bannerjee have gone all out to defend their baby to the media, this one s got the 'A' from the censors, and rightfully so... no, wait, not that it s got hot 'scenes' but because there s something very voyeuristic in the way the camera in each of the three stories goes about prying into the lives and loves of the people it captures. One of the so called different movies of this season. Watch it for what it is worth - an experiment. I would not want to take away anything from Banerjee for his effort. Hmmmmmm... however, am wondering what the high ratings were all about.Do reviewers collectively condemn and eulogise? Ahem.. is this some kind of a pact? Then, how else would you explain the 31/2 and 4 and perfect 5s for this Dhokha...:)