Challenge-d to the hilt!

Why should I go buy a ticket to a Bengali film if it cannot even command 15 minutes of attentiveness from its audience?

Well, I don't have any rational answer to that after I laboured through the screening of the film which was being touted as the next-big-budget-crowd-puller from the Tollywood stables and yes, it was none other than the much publicized/marketed (courtesy-t2, The Telegraph) - Challenge.....nibi na sala.

People with even a feeble grasp of Bengali would be hard to convince regarding the "respectability quotient" of a film with such ruffian leanings in its nomenclature itself. Still, I ventured an audience in hope of "some mindless entertainment" if not a "memorable love story" told "differently" as is always promised. Needless to say the company of friends who would give any film a chance in their idle weekends made it sort of inevitable for me. One of them travelling half the city to watch the opening show of "Don Mutthuswami" is a case in point.

A detailed review would be a waste of cyber-space so let me put the slush succinctly, if ever there was such a phrase i.e. Shipping tycoon dad's (Rajatava Dutta) overprotectiveness about pretty daughter(Subhashree) meets fierce, fun-loving, goon-bashing brawn of college boy (Dev) and the "challenge" is born. The inanity of the proceedings is exemplified by the fact that the only dialogue evoking ceetis and taalis in the entire film belonged to the Mithun-starrer "Mohaguru" (explains why the last Bengali film I watched in a theater was "Tiger" by Mithun). The newcomer pair does little except pose prettily or murderously as and when required by the invisible script, if any. The saving grace of the film is some definitive moments when Biswajit Chakrabarty ( hero's father) helps us to some laughs in his encounters with the caricature that Rajatava Dutta has come to make of himself with every passing film.

In short :

People who went to see gravity/logic/physics/biology-defying action sequences came back disappointed.
People who went to see a cute/cuddly/teddy-bearish love-story with fresh faces came back empty handed.
People who went to check the "promised land" of micro-minis, hot-pants and tank-tops (as in the film posters) came back frothing at their mouths - demure salwar-kameezes being the chief culprit of them all. Traitors! Frauds! Thieves!


So, next time any director promises a "different" film make sure you send in your friends ahead of you to get the right review and not the ones doctored by newspapers to give trash any semblance of respectability. After all, hard-earned money is not best-spent in buying boredom of a darkened auditorium, that too empty.

Did I mention that my ticket was paid for by a friend.
Yes, the same one who went for "Don Mutthuswami"'s premiere.

Not a Sob-Jantaa Flick!

My first real outing after a sabbatical forced by an injured leg came after I was cajoled into watching 'Jaane Tu ...Ya Jaane Na' by my friends.

The film is custom-made to suit the tastes of the college-goers and owing to a simple narrative and good, clean renditions of the characters the audience is kept engaged. Same cannot be said about the second half as at places it becomes a tad too monotonous and predictable. The new-comers in Imran Khan and Genelia give off their best and it shows. Imran as Jay Singh Rathore looks fresh and promising as he keeps it straight and simple. Going by the look of things it seems he might well be the new poster-boy of Bollywood. Genelia looks disarmingly naive and innocent in her comeback vehicle into Mumbai filmdom. But for me it was Ratna Pathak Shah, as the mother of Jay ( Imran) who really stole the show. With some very intelligent timing of dialogues she sinks into her role with grace.

It will be better if I say nothing about the music at all. A.R Rahaman or Bappi Lahiri I just cannot digest lyrics as inane as 'Pappu can't Dance'. Spare me.

My take is the film will be a hit going by the swarm of people I was forced to avoid stepping on my healing foot in front of New Empire. And it was lucky that it didn't rain.

Thank God for small mercies.

'Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix'

Got to see ‘Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix’ today. Though I am not a Harry Potter follower by any means (have still to read a book on him), I found the film ......hmmmm.......quite ‘enjoyable’. The story starts with the interference of the Minister of Magic in the affairs at Hogwarts, and a sort of cold wave of suspicion runs through every character of eminence. Minister Cornelius Fudge believes Dumbledore is set to overtake him and for this he is secretly organizing his own army of wizards. So he sends his trusted lieutenant, the detestable Dolores Umbridge who promptly introduces a reign of draconian laws and suffocating regulations in Hogwarts. She gives one the creeps with her eerie smiles and Elizabethan frowns. In one word she is instantly ‘hate-able’. Full marks to her.

Then the expected turn of events is initiated as conspiracies are unearthed. He-who-should-not-be-named is named with gay abandon. Talking letters, Centaurs, giants, broomsticks, secret chambers and fireworks brighten up one’s mood for a while. The first-half drags a little. The second part is no respite as a sort of detailed narrative is attempted by the director, perhaps driven by a sudden realization to stick to the story. Almost in a military-camp manner.

Yes, Harry gets his first kiss (God knows what’s so sensational about it?).

And as a gross mutilation/diversion of/from the story Cho Chang is nothing close to beautiful. Leave alone being the most glamorous girl in the world as given in the story.

Then like a teenage fling it all subsides midst the gathering clouds of war.

And here approaches the moment I was eagerly looking forward to.

The Showdown.

But naahhhh, nothing like that.

Dumbledore steals all the thunder from Harry. He wards off Voldemort and saves the day.

Sirius Black vanishes into oblivion (he dies in the wand-skirmish) and Harry loses his only family left, his beloved godfather. The story ends with happy faces and an enlightened Fudge who dismisses Umbridge. Dumbledore is re-instated and ‘The Prophecy’ discussed.

THE END.

I actually came out of the theatre trying to convince myself that I had liked the movie. But I hadn’t.

No qualms about that.

But who cares?

I would have thumped my forehead in mock-disdain if I would have had to pay the astronomical150 Rupees (considering non-multiplex rates in my city are much cheaper) for a second day show of the film.

God be thanked that it was a dear friend of mine who arranged for the free-passes.