Yeh jo De$$$$h hai tera....
The title pretty much sums up wat the point of this rant is all abt...Swades,the much- hyped, mucho-criticized,and sadly, very-unfairly-and-unceremoniously-deserted-at-the-box-office movie...
wat on earth prompted an Oscar-nominated, path-breaking truly brilliant director...who had the indian film-world literally falling all over his feet...to choose such an unconventional,yet so socially-relevant theme and make India's most saleable Superstar really act in perhaps his best performance to date??...only god knows,but i am thankful for that....and if i were to run into Ashutosh somewhere someday,I have no doubt I would thank him personally for giving such a masterpiece...
i am not a film-critic...i hav no acumen in predicting the 3rd day collections of a movie in the UP or Andhra region,and forecasting the percentage improvement in collections if the 4th song in the second half of a movie is deleted,or if the heroine strips in her bathroom to protect the country from its impending perils and disaster..but i know a good film when i see one..and i enjoy it...so,i hav no regrets in the 10$ my friend spent on the ticket for me..which i dont think i'll repay him..i'll give him the satisfaction of havin treated me to the best friday nite ever spent in the Eastern Hills Mall Cinema.......
.......however,wat utterly mystifies me is how a pathetic-crappy movie like Veer-Zaara was sold out in its only show on a snowy-chilly-typical buffalo-nite there,whereas a true genius like Swades found empty seats even on a relatively warm nite...as i ponder over tat,i fail to conjure up any unimaginable theories...swades did not have any talented south-indian in it...ARR has long since transcended borders and regional barriers..and his music is nothing short of a masterpiece in this movie..are we truly incapable of accepting a realistic movie..do we still wish to be fed wih meaningless crap like VZ,where either everyone is rich,or everyone is dead-drop gorgeous.....or every scene has to have atleast 20 people in the frame with nobody acting...
there seriously are questions i still havent found answers for...
comin bak to the main point,...wat did strike me as a plausible causes for the disheartening welcome this movie received..was that it did not quite sell the celluloid dream tat we,the people hav become so used to....the on-screen narration,though starkingly real..was a tad too bland to the masala-world tat bollywood is accustomed to serving....
...the movie had many great things working in its favor...........
...........the theme was very touching..especially to those hundreds of thousands Non-returning Indians...who miss their motherland so dearly pretty much like Mohan Bhargava...yet are helplessly tied down by other commitments both here and in india..havin to give up the warmth,comfort and laid-back life back home...for materialistic yet meaningless comforts and a better standard of living abroad....such people,like me,are truly more passionate towards their motherland than those living there....they know wat they have missed...they realize wat they gave up..in order to fulfill a dream..tat quite often is a forced decision taken by thr family for them....all in order to improve thr quality of living..which doesnt necessarily translate into a better life...
...........the performances were top-notch...nobody went overboard,though the female lead could hav avoided those little oh-am-a-model-doll-and-i-gotta-look-like-one thoughts tat must hav crept into her head once in a while..which translates into her stickin out like a sore-thumb every now and then.........and Kaveriamma was such a delight.......Mela Ram truly gave a natural performance...i guess NRIs' here wud be disappointed tat his Mohan Bhargava's Mela Ram Dhaba did not materialize out finally.....knowin wat taste-less food their taste-buds hav been accustomed to...
............and the music,oh the music....i am a self-confessed ARR-fanatic...but even a die-hard arr-hater wud think twice after Swades,before voicing his baseless and unfair opinion.be it the bgm..tat plays durin the title credits and when Mohan generates electricity using his hydel plant...or the Dhaba rap...or the poignant Yeh jo Desh hai tera..at the very end....ARR is da God...no further comments!!!!!!!
...but yet,as people walked bak to thr honda accords and toyota camarys.......i couldnt help but wonder.....were there thoughts in their mind abt Mohan's decision to go bak to india,and any introspection......or were they pondering over how to meet the next project-deadline or how to make the next mortage on their big house where the only occupant for the major part of the day is vast and eerie emptiness ???
Yeh jo De$$$h hai tera,
Jai Hind...
wat on earth prompted an Oscar-nominated, path-breaking truly brilliant director...who had the indian film-world literally falling all over his feet...to choose such an unconventional,yet so socially-relevant theme and make India's most saleable Superstar really act in perhaps his best performance to date??...only god knows,but i am thankful for that....and if i were to run into Ashutosh somewhere someday,I have no doubt I would thank him personally for giving such a masterpiece...
i am not a film-critic...i hav no acumen in predicting the 3rd day collections of a movie in the UP or Andhra region,and forecasting the percentage improvement in collections if the 4th song in the second half of a movie is deleted,or if the heroine strips in her bathroom to protect the country from its impending perils and disaster..but i know a good film when i see one..and i enjoy it...so,i hav no regrets in the 10$ my friend spent on the ticket for me..which i dont think i'll repay him..i'll give him the satisfaction of havin treated me to the best friday nite ever spent in the Eastern Hills Mall Cinema.......
.......however,wat utterly mystifies me is how a pathetic-crappy movie like Veer-Zaara was sold out in its only show on a snowy-chilly-typical buffalo-nite there,whereas a true genius like Swades found empty seats even on a relatively warm nite...as i ponder over tat,i fail to conjure up any unimaginable theories...swades did not have any talented south-indian in it...ARR has long since transcended borders and regional barriers..and his music is nothing short of a masterpiece in this movie..are we truly incapable of accepting a realistic movie..do we still wish to be fed wih meaningless crap like VZ,where either everyone is rich,or everyone is dead-drop gorgeous.....or every scene has to have atleast 20 people in the frame with nobody acting...
there seriously are questions i still havent found answers for...
comin bak to the main point,...wat did strike me as a plausible causes for the disheartening welcome this movie received..was that it did not quite sell the celluloid dream tat we,the people hav become so used to....the on-screen narration,though starkingly real..was a tad too bland to the masala-world tat bollywood is accustomed to serving....
...the movie had many great things working in its favor...........
...........the theme was very touching..especially to those hundreds of thousands Non-returning Indians...who miss their motherland so dearly pretty much like Mohan Bhargava...yet are helplessly tied down by other commitments both here and in india..havin to give up the warmth,comfort and laid-back life back home...for materialistic yet meaningless comforts and a better standard of living abroad....such people,like me,are truly more passionate towards their motherland than those living there....they know wat they have missed...they realize wat they gave up..in order to fulfill a dream..tat quite often is a forced decision taken by thr family for them....all in order to improve thr quality of living..which doesnt necessarily translate into a better life...
...........the performances were top-notch...nobody went overboard,though the female lead could hav avoided those little oh-am-a-model-doll-and-i-gotta-look-like-one thoughts tat must hav crept into her head once in a while..which translates into her stickin out like a sore-thumb every now and then.........and Kaveriamma was such a delight.......Mela Ram truly gave a natural performance...i guess NRIs' here wud be disappointed tat his Mohan Bhargava's Mela Ram Dhaba did not materialize out finally.....knowin wat taste-less food their taste-buds hav been accustomed to...
............and the music,oh the music....i am a self-confessed ARR-fanatic...but even a die-hard arr-hater wud think twice after Swades,before voicing his baseless and unfair opinion.be it the bgm..tat plays durin the title credits and when Mohan generates electricity using his hydel plant...or the Dhaba rap...or the poignant Yeh jo Desh hai tera..at the very end....ARR is da God...no further comments!!!!!!!
...but yet,as people walked bak to thr honda accords and toyota camarys.......i couldnt help but wonder.....were there thoughts in their mind abt Mohan's decision to go bak to india,and any introspection......or were they pondering over how to meet the next project-deadline or how to make the next mortage on their big house where the only occupant for the major part of the day is vast and eerie emptiness ???
Yeh jo De$$$h hai tera,
Jai Hind...
posted by deesarus at 8:51 PM
0 comments
