The Village/King Of Bollywood

azazel | 04 October, 2004 08:36

aaah.. Le faithfuls who never read my blog, here's another update. why? o why do i even bother! anyway, there's not Net at home n ive got some free time on hand so here goes: This is about the 5 movies i watched in the past week, a sort-of mini-review of each plus a lil' gyaan me wants to share[but, with whom?]. Anywayzzzz:

The first movie was Manoj Shyamalan's "The Village". Some ppl get better at their craft as they go along and some ppl regress, unable to fully comprehend the expectation that their earlier work has generated. MS belongs to the latter as almost everyone who's seen his 4 movies will tell you. The Sixth Sense n Unbreakable with all their cheesy moments/pace/flaws were ok movies 'til the surprise endings redeemed them from being an unworthy affair. Signs with all its hype and interesting enough concept was a KLPD with the ending which left people laffing instead of quivering. So, the expectations from Village were rather mixed esp. for me who'd gotten both positive/negative reviews from ppl who'd seen it. The movie is all MS as far as the sylistic element goes with eerie look with beautiful cinematography, good acting chiefly by Adrian Brody[awesome!], Phoenix n newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, interesting concept-wise again BUT the director falters big time. the biggest flaw was the usual twist in the end which becomes blindingly clear much before it happens; many of the big names were under-used esp. Sigourney Weaver, the score was a let-down and the script had a few loose-ends besides any real scary moments. better luck next time Mr.Shyamalan!

Second on my list was the expected-to-be-laffriot King Of Bollywood. The story of an ageing ex-screen icon who wants to make one last comeback rather than fade away with grace and the firang woman who wants to make a documentary on this legendary persona. Something vaguley similar was tried by Nagesh Kukunoor with limited success as Bollywood Calling. This one neither has the charm nor the humour to go further. An attempt to take pot-shots at everything filmy or related to it, even the press, ultimately leads to a dragging bore of a movie saved only in places by a decked-up, completely in character Om Puri. But, even the man cannot save this disaster, neither can Sophie Dahl with a radiance and school-girl like fascination with the land of Bollywood. Most of the characters are caricatures of someone or the other. The pot-shots start getting ridiculous and by the end, the movie ends up being a joke of itself. Expected better than this from Deepa Gahlot, the reviewer who shreds up every movie in DC/Rediff.com; she is the co-writer of the movie.

the next 2 movies made my day in ways i cannot tell you. they got me thinking, about the kind of cinema that we're being fed. rather, the quality that makes B-movies a better bet than most of the commercial stuff out there. wait for the next posts.. who am i telling this to anyway?? baaaaah.. Just W A I T !