Back To Back

A week after my last blog of NOJK I wanted to write something else, started it also but  wasnt really able to complete ... so I am coming back to something I have already done --a movie review but this time two movies rather, which I saw rather back to back. Infact my first one was so serious a matter that we decided to go for something which was a little on a lighter note but while making that choice I did not know that at the end of it we would be left with stomach aches due to laughter but thats how it went. Neways I would put my review in the sequence I saw them, so that readers (if any) are also leaving this page on a lighter mood.

Dhobi Ghat(DG)

Aamir Khan's movies are always overhyped one of my FB friends said. Well I couldnt agree more. His publicity stunts, promos, and obviously the past record to pull the audience do make it awaited or over awaited. But whats wrong in that who wants his/her movies to flop and if that requires that extra why not.

I am a Aamir fan, and he has rarely disappointed me, his previous movies Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots, Peepli had their own genres and were able to pull that crowd. But this time hats off to him for making a movie which is not going to be a crowd puller atleast in all over India.  And I am sure I am just reiterating what the makers and the actors already knew. Probably the urban or that global audience would like it but cant say the same for rest of the India.

The genre of this movie is art cum documentary I would say. There are no larger than life characters in this movie, all of them are one of us. None of them are special people like chulbul pandey of Dabangg or Khan of MNIK  nor it is a success story or Shruti or Bunty of Band Baja Barat. Still all of them are special in their own ways......

DG is about four different stories, of four different lives, what is worth appreciating about the DG is how their lives crisscross in this journey and how they cope with yearning, solitude, affection, friendship and loss. The storytelling is quite pragmatic in its own way and I cant help applauding that all of it has been comprehended in just 95 minutes. The DG also calls itself Mumbai Diaries but still Mumbai is just another story or character of the movie or rather is the fifth story. Mumbai has been shown in the light it has already been shown for 1000 times in 1000 different movies.. dying, decaying, living, coping, the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, its alive and it watches over you, but still its done in a very different way in DG and best part is its not loud at all.

Aamir Khan - Arun is a painter who is usually absent from his own painting exhibitions, who speaks in monosyllables and is someone who speaks sparsely. He has a one night stand with  Monica Dogra-Shai, a kid of rich parents settled abroad and an investment banker from America and an amateur photographer, who obsesses over him.

Prateik Babbar-Munna is the common Dhobi of Arun and Shai (what a coincidence), who gives his heart away to Shai, who aspires to be an actor and believes that going in the wrong path is not the right way to success.

Shai is trying to sketch the city through her camera with the help of Munna by capturing marginalized professions and thats why the movie is called Dhobi Ghat, where she does most of her shoots. 

I liked the dialogue when Munna says America is so advanced and clean that people from there actually like to see the filth of Indian cities. ( Iam just wondering was that the reason Slumdog was a hit)

The fourth and the most interesting character of the movie is Kirti-Yasmin who is there in the movie all through without being there at all. Arun discoveres few tapes in his flat of previous tenant and Yasmin comes alive through these tapes. Another thing that is worth noticing is that each character is trying to find his / her love in the other-Munna in Shai, Shai in Arun, Arun in Yasmin and probably Yasmin in Mumbai. 

Prateik in his own raw form, Kirti in her subtle and submissive voice and look, and Monica in her NRI accent and plain yet noticeable look give extremely natural performances. The only one who looked a little odd in all of them is Aamir Khan probably we have become used to watching him outshining and eclipsing his co actors but this time its different. By the end though he manages to be one of them.

The movie doesnt leave pace anywhere, it gives you those moments of little laughs through Munna, those little sympathy moments through Yasmin, those little tears through Shai and those moments of disgust through Arun. The idea of keeping the movie to 95 minutes is brilliant.  The Black and White photographs all through the movie is worth noticing. And if you have that habit of attention to details and you like them being there, DG is a complete delight.

Nothing is obvious in the movie, the old lady, the neighbour of Aamir can be interpreted as Mumbai City who is always blankly watching you and never responds back. Shai sheds tears at the end of the movie I interprete it as her realization of Munna's unsaid love for her. You either like or love Dhobi Ghat or you dont like Dhobi Ghat there is absolutely no space for O.K or average. DG isnt designed to please everyone.Its not a movie for people expecting Masala... or those who do not want to lagao that dimag. DG is more for those who can accept that the purpose of a movie is not just to make you laugh or cry, a movie can just be a storytelling that leaves you with mixed feelings. At the end DG is all about interpretations!!!! 

Little Fockers

They are back and back with a bang. The movie lives up to its prequels of Meet the parents and Meet the Fockers. If your purpose of going to the movie is clear i.e. to lighten your mood and to laugh your heart out, you should not be bothered about the ways and means to do it. The ways and means rather can be defined here as the same old turf between Jack Byrne( Robert De Niro) and Gaylord Focker ( Ben Stiller), vomits, the sex jokes and all other factors that were there in the previous versions.

Though the movie is called Little Fockers it is still not about Pam and Greg/Gaylord's Kids. Pam and Greg have two twins now, Henry and Samantha and the movie story is based on them, though I thought that the movie would be revolving around them but that is not the case, the movie just uses the kids to build the base and goes back to its old set of weapons to make you laugh. Jack's mistrust on Greg and at the end Greg winning it back, Kevin's ( Owen Wilson) affection for Pam ,misunderstandings and spyings.

If you are looking at a fresh perspective towards the whole story and is expecting something new from the story and the characters and especially from the new characters then you are going to be thoroughly disappointed.

However if you just wanted a revisit to that same old lane of laughter then you gotta love it as you did the previous two.

I loved it!