[Originally published in passionforcinema.com- http://passionforcinema.com/chak-de-india-jaideep-sahni-disappoints-this-time/]
I saw Chak De! India on the first Sunday of its release. After the show ended I remember walking out of the theatre with no remarkable feelings. For me the film was as lifeless as the promos (which were withdrawn) promised. I did not think about Kabir Khan, nor did I think about the state of the national game, Hockey, in India, vis-à-vis cricket. Not at all about the Vidya Malvade character (I don’t even remember the name.) I did not have any leftover feelings of being riveted to the screen, reveling in well-executed sports sequences. I remember having fleeting thoughts of Balbir and Komal because they played such endearing characters and they did it so well. I thought about Preety because she was quite pretty, but is that an achievement? But all this was before the Chak De! India or should I say the Yash Raj Films marketing juggernaut rolled on.
Over the next few weeks I was literally taken aback. Newspapers headlines screamed Chak De! at the drop of hat. TV presenters did the same. It was their on various websites. The Indian vocabulary seemed to have shrunk to two Punjabi words. It was dumbfounding, the movie was being presented as some kind of extraordinarily brave attempt at making good cinema, and somehow we were supposed to believe that it had contributed to everything, from women’s lib to the state of our national game hockey. I was at a loss! Didn’t we have 'Iqbal' recently, or 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' or 'Naya Daur' in the past? And that’s only mentioning some Hindi films revolving around a game. Are only ‘apparently’ noble intentions, a huge star & production house, a handful of eager to please journalists/ film commentators enough to put a film on a pedestal? What happened to the good old parameters of substantial characters, a reasonably gripping and challenging, yet believingly executed story with some memorable set-pieces? A film that lingers in your mind for days afterwards, not because its all around you on newspapers, television channels and hoardings. Not because a bunch of the protagonists are being bundled to every city worth its salt, and being treated as if they actually achieved something as important as winning the world cup, for a country, which is starved of more substantial achievements.
And what is so noble about showing a bunch of losers, who play like novices and couldn’t care less for the game, because they were so lost in themselves, actually going on to win the world cup! 'Shaolin Soccer' was more convincing! Iqbal the deaf and dumb boy, who ate, drunk and slept cricket had me clapping when he got his chance in the Indian team. I felt like celebrating when Shankar (Dilip Kumar) pulled a breathless win with his tonga against an imported bus in 'Naya Daur'. And it was so very inspiring to see the ‘never do well’ Sanjay Lal (Aamir Khan) grow up and embrace his responsibilities by way of the central metaphor of the cycle race in 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'. I rooted and cheered for the rag-tag group of gritty villagers to achieve the fantastical goal of winning against the cruel Englishmen in 'Lagaan'. Win they did and what a victory that was!!! Achievements, not big enough, when compared to what team India in Chak De! managed to do, but more convincing and satisfying with a lot more substance. 'Chak De! India' simply had the team somehow winning the games against apparently much better teams because the filmmakers wanted it that way, in the first place,but did not want to take the pain of conceiving it well. So the Chak De! team just sailed past after that first loss!!! No sweat. No grit. Hell! even Rocky Balboa had to lose in the first film!
Coming to the basics. It was a sports film, so the least one could expect were some riveting sequences of the game. No such memories. I just remember Ms. Malvade falling down on her knees in the same irritating manner for umpteen numbers of times, letting the ball into the post and the team, just going on to win every game after one loss from the reigning champs who they ultimately beat. Don’t ask me how. Contrast this with the racing sequences in ‘Naya Daur’ or ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’. Littered with overwhelming challenges, which the protagonists face and overcome with a grit that’s palpable. They never fail to set the pulses racing and consider the fact that the former was made about 50 years back and the latter more than 15 years.
There were so many characters in the film; so much scope to come up with a rich piece of filmmaking but most of them were just given cursory glances. Think 'Lagaan' and it’s huge cast where everyone came alive and most of them contributed in some way or other. 'Kachra' was much more than his freaky 'firkee' (spinning ball). Quite unlike the tribal girl in 'Chak De!' who was not allowed to go beyond saying ho!!! Or the north easterners who were limited to one scene were they are eve teased and a fight ensues. Bindiya Naik’s character/ Shilpa Shukla's talent was criminally underutilised. And pray on what ground the coach picked up Vidya Malvade as the captain, when he had got better players? Perhaps they didn’t suit his ego. The relationship between Vidya and Shahrukh seems to be just thrust in the script because it serves a sports film cliché. Same goes for the air-headed cricketer sub-plot. Am not against clichés, but the least one could expect from them is to have some logic/ believability and provide resonance to the story. There were clichés galore in Lagaan but they gave the story so much more depth because the writers had worked hard. Even the highly improbable love story of Rachel and Bhuvan in Lagaan was quite touching.
Coming to Lagaan, its been quite a few years since I saw it on its release. But I still fondly remember Bhuvan, Rachel, Kachra, Guran, Bhura, Lakha among others…Its been only a few weeks since I saw Chak De! and I only recognize a couple of the girls who hogged the screen time and because there faces are plastered everywhere. Shahrukh comes to my mind because he is always out there. Contrast his Kabir Khan with Naseer’s character Mohit in Iqbal, both are patent sports films clichés- washed out, disgraced individuals who come back for their dues. Mohit is a darker character than Kabir Khan- he is the reluctant embittered coach, a drunkard and a complete loser. But he grows with the film. On the other hand Kabir Khan is a lifeless card board cut with an air of self importance. He quotes so much about India [IN-DEE-YAAH ;-)] that if he really existed I would have serious doubts on his feelings for the country as well as his sanity.
I am a big fan of Jaideep Sahni; ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ is a movie which is in my personal list of all time great movies. But Mr. Sahni disappointed me big time with Chak De! He may have his reasons. But at the end of the day Chak De! India is an assembly line product at heart, an example of passionless by-the-numbers filmmaking. And celeberating Chak De! Is celebrating mediocrity.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Thinking KANK Ver 2.0
[Originally published in Passion for Cinema in a modified form- http://passionforcinema.com/iview-—-kank-ver-20/#comment-43731]
First things. I am not a fan of Karan Johar films. They are entertaining; Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was fun, but not memorable. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was strictly ok. However, I vouch for the man’s craft. He delivers. He gives his fans what he promises. It’s probably his mastery over the craft that gets me to the theatre to see his movies and keeps me seated till the end. And I really like his writings on cinema. His articles, the few I have read show an intelligent and aware person and filmmaker.
Branded for his candy floss romances and rose tinted cinema, he did try to come out of his comfort zone by making 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna'. Unfortunately, he failed to deliver. I saw the film. It bored me. But at the end of the show I felt sad rather than cheated or angry. I felt as if I had just seen a great opportunity being thrown away. ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ could have been a milestone in Hindi cinema. Karan had tried to push the envelope. He had chosen to tell a challenging story with an even more challenging set of characters.
Think about it. Here we have a movie where a principal character is thoroughly unlikable. He bullies his angelic son, is jealous of his loving wife who is also his childhood sweetheart. Then he goes ahead and falls in love with a married woman, pursues her till she gives in. This woman incidentally is a bird of similar feather. She has a handsome, loving, and well to do husband and a caring father in law, in short, a comfortable life. Yet she can’t help cribbing. Because she does not love her husband, not the way wives are supposed to love their husbands. This feeling is like a thorn in her life. And she doesn’t take much time betraying her husband’s love. Karan Johar should be commended for not explaining away and cushioning the negativity of his characters. Shahrukh’s character Dev Saran has an unfortunate back story. He could have been super successful but has been reduced to a being a nobody through no fault of his, this has made him a very bitter man. To make matters worse his wife’s career is going from strength to strength. Which fuels his feelings of inadequacy. Though Karan Johar supplies all this information to his audience, he never tries to justify the rotten behavior of Dev. Ditto for Rani who has known Abhishek from childhood and just got married for the sake of it. They are similar to real life people. Their decisions and motivations cannot be justified by simple cause and effect. A tip of the hat to Rani and Shahrukh for taking up such roles.
These are characters arising out of an intelligent observation of life. Characters which have the potential to give birth to great cinema as well as literature, yet, the movie didn’t work. I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all. But probably it had to do with Karan Johar not going the whole hog. He took a step forward towards a new kind of subject. But was still looking backwards when it came to the storytelling. Perhaps the movie needed a smaller scale. It did not require the typical Karan Johar treatment. It did not require so much color and grandeur. It did not require all the principal characters to dance together. It should have been a more intimate character study. Fewer songs, less of Sexy Sam. Less of those grand sets and on your face Manish Malhotra costumes. All that took the focus away from what could have been a very thought provoking study of relationships. The bleak, cold and gray landscape of New York could have been utilized better to reflect the mindscape of the characters. Unfortunately it was used to make the already good looking stars appear more stunning. This was not the purpose of the story. The grand and beautiful treatment took the attention away from the warts which were what the story was about in the first place. These 'warts' were the unpredicatability of emotions. Their ability to overwhelm us and make us act against our better judgements.
The ending which was heavily criticized was actually quite profound. The lovers get each other but they are broken down. They got what they desired but they have had to pay a heavy price for their choices, their indiscretions. They played with fire and got burnt, along with their innocent partners. Both are weighed down with guilt. Johar does not indulge in moralizing; no one is categorized as right or wrong. Unlike the classic, ‘Arth’, which vilified the cheating husband and the other women. He does not come up with pat solutions either. Its life, some people can make the best of it, some don’t, and most languish in the dark grey space between less misery and more misery. Johar does not make his characters saints or sinners. It’s not an ‘everybody lived happily thereafter’ kind of ending. It’s real. It’s tough.
Karan Johar frequently mentions that he has always been a great fan of Yash Chopra’s ‘Silsila’ & ‘Kabhi Kabhi’. Perhaps therein lies the root of the problem, as ‘Silsila’ and ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ were themselves 'potentially great' films that were crushed beneath the weight of their stars, songs and treatment. But history has been kind to them. Let’s see how posterity will treat Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.
We need stories like KANK because they address essential issues of our lives. Issues which every other individual is trying to grapple with. In this age of undeserved and pathetic remakes. I would really like to see a KANK Version 2.0 where the story dictates the form and style. And who better to do it than Mr. Karan Johar himself, this time going the whole way. Perhaps we will have an ‘Arth’ or something superior for the present and coming generations.
[Published in Passion for Cinema in a modified form- http://passionforcinema.com/iview-—-kank-ver-20/#comment-43731]
First things. I am not a fan of Karan Johar films. They are entertaining; Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was fun, but not memorable. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was strictly ok. However, I vouch for the man’s craft. He delivers. He gives his fans what he promises. It’s probably his mastery over the craft that gets me to the theatre to see his movies and keeps me seated till the end. And I really like his writings on cinema. His articles, the few I have read show an intelligent and aware person and filmmaker.
Branded for his candy floss romances and rose tinted cinema, he did try to come out of his comfort zone by making 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna'. Unfortunately, he failed to deliver. I saw the film. It bored me. But at the end of the show I felt sad rather than cheated or angry. I felt as if I had just seen a great opportunity being thrown away. ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ could have been a milestone in Hindi cinema. Karan had tried to push the envelope. He had chosen to tell a challenging story with an even more challenging set of characters.
Think about it. Here we have a movie where a principal character is thoroughly unlikable. He bullies his angelic son, is jealous of his loving wife who is also his childhood sweetheart. Then he goes ahead and falls in love with a married woman, pursues her till she gives in. This woman incidentally is a bird of similar feather. She has a handsome, loving, and well to do husband and a caring father in law, in short, a comfortable life. Yet she can’t help cribbing. Because she does not love her husband, not the way wives are supposed to love their husbands. This feeling is like a thorn in her life. And she doesn’t take much time betraying her husband’s love. Karan Johar should be commended for not explaining away and cushioning the negativity of his characters. Shahrukh’s character Dev Saran has an unfortunate back story. He could have been super successful but has been reduced to a being a nobody through no fault of his, this has made him a very bitter man. To make matters worse his wife’s career is going from strength to strength. Which fuels his feelings of inadequacy. Though Karan Johar supplies all this information to his audience, he never tries to justify the rotten behavior of Dev. Ditto for Rani who has known Abhishek from childhood and just got married for the sake of it. They are similar to real life people. Their decisions and motivations cannot be justified by simple cause and effect. A tip of the hat to Rani and Shahrukh for taking up such roles.
These are characters arising out of an intelligent observation of life. Characters which have the potential to give birth to great cinema as well as literature, yet, the movie didn’t work. I don’t want to sound like a know-it-all. But probably it had to do with Karan Johar not going the whole hog. He took a step forward towards a new kind of subject. But was still looking backwards when it came to the storytelling. Perhaps the movie needed a smaller scale. It did not require the typical Karan Johar treatment. It did not require so much color and grandeur. It did not require all the principal characters to dance together. It should have been a more intimate character study. Fewer songs, less of Sexy Sam. Less of those grand sets and on your face Manish Malhotra costumes. All that took the focus away from what could have been a very thought provoking study of relationships. The bleak, cold and gray landscape of New York could have been utilized better to reflect the mindscape of the characters. Unfortunately it was used to make the already good looking stars appear more stunning. This was not the purpose of the story. The grand and beautiful treatment took the attention away from the warts which were what the story was about in the first place. These 'warts' were the unpredicatability of emotions. Their ability to overwhelm us and make us act against our better judgements.
The ending which was heavily criticized was actually quite profound. The lovers get each other but they are broken down. They got what they desired but they have had to pay a heavy price for their choices, their indiscretions. They played with fire and got burnt, along with their innocent partners. Both are weighed down with guilt. Johar does not indulge in moralizing; no one is categorized as right or wrong. Unlike the classic, ‘Arth’, which vilified the cheating husband and the other women. He does not come up with pat solutions either. Its life, some people can make the best of it, some don’t, and most languish in the dark grey space between less misery and more misery. Johar does not make his characters saints or sinners. It’s not an ‘everybody lived happily thereafter’ kind of ending. It’s real. It’s tough.
Karan Johar frequently mentions that he has always been a great fan of Yash Chopra’s ‘Silsila’ & ‘Kabhi Kabhi’. Perhaps therein lies the root of the problem, as ‘Silsila’ and ‘Kabhi Kabhi’ were themselves 'potentially great' films that were crushed beneath the weight of their stars, songs and treatment. But history has been kind to them. Let’s see how posterity will treat Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.
We need stories like KANK because they address essential issues of our lives. Issues which every other individual is trying to grapple with. In this age of undeserved and pathetic remakes. I would really like to see a KANK Version 2.0 where the story dictates the form and style. And who better to do it than Mr. Karan Johar himself, this time going the whole way. Perhaps we will have an ‘Arth’ or something superior for the present and coming generations.
[Published in Passion for Cinema in a modified form- http://passionforcinema.com/iview-—-kank-ver-20/#comment-43731]
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