WHAT'S THE BIG HUE AND CRY ABOUT?

A leading newspaper recently carried a story that left me amazed. It was a postmortem of how a white director brought the vision of an indian author on global celluloid.Sanjay Gupta (maker of films like Shootout and Kaante), who read Vikas Swarup's book Q&A as soon as it was written in 2005, liked it and decided to make a film based on it. Unfortunately the rights by then had already been sold to the makers of Slumdog.I agreed with Gupta when he stated that this was one of the "biggest losses" of his Bollywood career . But then he went overboard with his victemisque avtaar... "Making the film is one thing and marketing it is another. In Bollywood, we don't have a 20th Century Fox supporting our films, neither do we have the kind of finances they have". I beg to differ on this and I base this on the evolving maturity that Bollywood has witnessed in recent times. We see Indian production houses forging tie ups with global media and entertainment powers corps. Roadside Romeo was backed by Disney, Chandni Chowk to China was made and financed by Warner Bros. (the fact that it was not appreciated is besides the point. Even with 450 galis it made 45 crores in first week).It takes more than the backing of international production houses to make a global success story. Lagaan , TZP. Have proved this maximum. The fact that Boyle's production house Film 4 had "optioned the book" one year before it was even published was the clincher. It shows a finer ear to the ground for opportunities than just financial muscle. Or it could be the 'at the right place at the right time' factor that swung Slumdog into the Boyle kitty.Either ways, its not the end of the world, I hope bollywood becomes more alert in spotting good works of literature rather than crying on spilt milk.

KALUWA AND DALE

Once upon a time there was a village called Rampur. The village was facing a famine; it was dry as there was scarcity of water since months. There was no water to grow crops; there was no water for people to live. Thus, everyone left the village and shifted to nearby villages. Otherwise Rampur was once known as the most beautiful village. A village of dreams, it had strong brown hills, beautiful river flowing across it and greenery all over. It was a place like heaven but due to the famine it had become like hell.

But be it heaven or hell there are always couples everywhere. Even here there was a couple, a male crow Kaluwa and a female crow named dale. Kaluwa had got her to Rampur as when he had come here months back he was astonished looking at the place and had decided that he would get his first date to Rampur and so he brought her here. But then when he reached here he was shocked to see the place it didn’t look the same it was totally deserted and was wondering what to do. He couldn’t even tell Dale lets go to another place. He was sad for a while but then took a positive approach to it. He thought that this was a good place for their date as there was no one to disturb them and they could be together.

Things were going well it was a sunny day and it was extremely hot. Kaluwa and Dale were enjoying the date when Dale said that she was extremely thirsty and needed water to drink. She said it was the matter of life and death. Kaluwa didn’t know what to do as there was no water around in Rampur and he couldn’t even say no to Dale as it was their first date and she was asking only for water.
Kaluwa searched the whole of Rampur but he couldn’t find water anywhere. Just then when he was getting upset and coming back to Dale he saw a small jar which was half filled with water. He tried tasting the water to see if it is pure and fit to give dale to drink but he couldn’t. He was all upset and thinking what to do to get the water up to the brim for Dale to drink. Then he got an idea of throwing something in the water so that the water level rises.

He saw pebbles all around but he wanted to put something in the jar that was as pure as his love. When he was searching around the place he saw a pearl necklace and he thought why not break the necklace and put the pearls in the jar and what can be more pure than pearls. He put all of them in the jar and then the water came up to the brim that they could drink it.
Then Kaluwa and Dale drank the water and Dale fell all the more in love with him.

BEAUTY KICKS THE BEAST

Beauty Kicks the Beast Flexing muscles, swinging a sword or jumping from one building to another is no longer the strong suit for heroes. They are facing a tough challenge from the Bollywood actresses who are increasingly embracing action-oriented roles. And what an aesthetic sight it is to watch the beauties take on the beasts Heroines are no longer satisfied with just dancing around trees or singing in the rain. Be it Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu, or Katrina Kaif , all are in a bid to compete with action heroes on their turf. "The trend of more heroines taking up action roles itself shows that with the progression of the Hindi film industry, women are wanting to go beyond being a beautiful furniture in the frame" Seema Biswas wielded revolvers in "Bandit Queen", a film-based on dacoit Phoolan Devi, Sushmita Sen gave an action packed performance in "Samay" and Esha Deol's and Aishwarya's racy acts proved a crowd puller for "Dhoom" and "Dhoom 2" respectively. Similarly Priyanka had some action scenes in "Krrish" kicked some real butt in "Drona" and when on to display some macho martial arts in the Don remake; Soha Ali Khan had some action packed scenes in "Khoya Khoya Chand", and kareena added the swowd to the oomph in the Shah Rukh- Kareena starrer Asoka. The list goes on, the theme remains the same. Life always comes in full circle. And so do trends. If you think Bollywood babes' daring deeds are only a recent development, think again! Way back in the 30s when Hindi cinema was just still in its nascent stages, the Australian born actress Nadia graduated from a circus girl to being Bollywood's first actress who could fight the baddies all by herself and convincingly so. She was best known for portraying the masked, cloaked adventuress Hunterwali in 1935. Her movie titles itself gives a clear indication of what her films were like - Hurricane Hansa, Pahadi Kanya, Lady Robinhood, Toofani Tirandaz, Stunt Queen and Tigress to name a few. Looks like the Hunterwali days are back. Our current crop of actresses could give the Fearless Nadia some lessons in bringing feminine grace to cinematic action. These women need no hunky heroes to protect them, they can do it themselves, in style!

MORAL OF THE STORY

WHERE IT HEADS: - Has Adam Sandler been defanged? "Bedtime Stories" is his first family-friendly comedy, not to mention his first for the Disney banner. But if Sandler can startle us in a dark, obsessive role like "Punch-Drunk Love," he can surprise us here, too. In a modern-day fairy tale about hopes, aspirations and family. The story line is Disney to the core: Skeeter is an underappreciated figure that - like Cinderella - has been misjudged by close relations, then gets a big chance to ascend the social and economic ladder. The stage is then set for a series of wild, mildly amusing and utterly implausible events - including, of course, love. Sandler is playing his usual underachiever, though a tad less angry and a bit more wistful than his raunchier characters. His dad once ran a motel in Hollywood. Alas, he was forced to sell to a germ phobic hotelier. His son now works as a handyman at the high-rise luxury hotel that occupies the spot.When his sister loses her job as a school principal, she pages her brother to share baby-sitting chores with a friend while she goes on a job interview out of state. Having been strangely estranged from his niece and nephew, his only child-minding skill resides in an ability to spin bedtime stories.These are particularly memorable since Sandler channels his career angst into these tales. They range from a medieval castle to the Old West and outer space, but the theme of the peasant who would be a prince is ever present. The hero strives to get a better job and win over a maiden, always besting an opponent that looks suspiciously like the hotel's obsequious manger.Soon the children are contributing to and even editing his stories. (They prefer happy endings.) Then, weirdly, the stories start coming true in real life. Or at least parts of them do. Now if Sandler could just figure out how this happens.
THE RIGHT: - There is one great Sandler moment, when he makes a desperate bid to evoke laughs from the unamused kids, by eating a toothpaste sandwich that comes with the automatic added bonus of not having to brush your teeth afterward. And a trained guinea pig, who plays the children's pet, is the go-to guy for all kinds of silly laughs.
THE WRONG: - But I'll pass on the Cinderella part, where in place of those magical shoes, Skeeter seems to be promising to keep lovingly sticking around 'like the stink on your feet.' Nose clips, please this line could be put in an emotional way.
WHERE SHOULD YOU HEAD: - The overall feeling engendered by "Bedtime Stories" is exactly that -- a story long on imagination and short on logic that brings on smiles and dreams of sugar plums dancing in the head. It winks nicely at parents and smiles broadly to children.

VICTORY - NO CHANCE

WHERE IT HEADS: - 'Victory' is the story of a father, Ram Shekhawat (Anupam Kher), who saw such an impossible dream for his son! This is also the heroic story of his son Vijay Shekhawat (Harman Baweja) from the small town of Jaisalmer, Vijay Shekhawat becomes India's latest world-class batting sensation and is catapulted to superstardom!
Vijay Shekhawat manages to make it to the team after seven years of struggling. But with these 'good times' comes a sour apple in the form of team manager Andy Singh (Gulshan Grover), under whose influence Vijay goes off track. Name and fame goes to his head, Shekhawat is no longer the simple guy he used to be. Now described as overconfident and immodest, even his father Ram (Anupam Kher), friend Nandini (Amrita Rao) don't think highly of him...
By the time Vijay realizes the error of his ways, it is too late and he finds himself thrown out of the Indian cricket team because of disciplinary reasons. Suddenly the hero of the cricket crazy India becomes a villain in everyone's eyes. His father Ram Shekhawat's dreams are shattered and suffer a paralytic stroke.
Though there are zillion people who love cricket and movies based on cricket as a main theme; there's little doubt that the 'stadium' of masses won't be too impressed with this bat-n-ball fare.
THE RIGHT: - Amrita Rao helps in enhancing the commercial factor... with her ishq vishq pyar-vyar, and among the superfluity of great cricketers, Brett Lee, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ajantha Mendes have screen presence... A flawless performance by Anupam Kher and Gulshan Grover though.
THE WRONG: - Harman Baweja looks amateurish performing as a cricketer on the grounds. Perhaps, watching at least couple of real matches could've got him the psychological feel of emotions displayed on the grounds. Though predictable, one would think that Mr. Director would handle a subject such as this one differently, in order to give it an edge and a unique presentation. Unfortunately, he does nothing conjure, and fails in his deliverance. If compared to the likes of other cricket films like 'Lagaan' or 'Iqbal', Victory falls short of anything as outstanding and lacks gleam.
WHERE TO HEAD: - With the resources at Victory's disposal, the movie had great potential, but the makers lost a match on a winning wicket and it is advised that in case you have bought a ticket for the movie then you should too loose it!