Archive: April 2010
Lately I was watching “Pulp Fiction” by Quentin Tarantino, thinking that I could find the same quality and style in the Hindi movie such as “Don - the chase begins again“. With “Don” I became a fan of intelligent action movies and Shah Rukh Khan at its best. Like with “Pulp Fiction” nobody would describe it as a realistic movie. The stories come out of reality but reality is stylized and exaggerated in a way that it is digestible for the spectator, entertaining and captivating. Does anyone want to see the cheap misery of some gangsters and Mafioso’s, around the corner in Berlin, Naples or Kuala Lumpur? In the same time “Don” describes the corruption of our society in a shocking but well-done way by Farhan Akhtar. He is not just a talented director, who did “Dil Chata Hai”, but also the producer and founder of Excel Entertainment and actor in “Karthik calling Karthik“, an interesting, contemporary love story.
Indian cinema is and was always great in love stories. The director and storyteller Imtiaz Ali wrote in “Jab we mat” a modern version of “Breakfast at Tiffany”. It is the story of a young woman played by Kareena Kapoor, who has to face reality while being captivated in her dreams and her own world. In this case she runs after a man, whom she imagined to be her prince, but who was more of a devil. The man, who truly loves her, can’t express his love, because he is captivated in his own anger, depression and inability to cope with real life. At least he owns a lot of money and a company in his background. For sure he only represents 5% of the Indian or European population, but this aspect is not dominant in the story. Shahid Kapoor played this man in a marvelous, empathetic and truthful way, an interesting talent in the young Indian cinema, who is by the way a wonderful dancer, too.
Lately Imtiaz Ali thematized also a modern subject in his love story “Love Aaj Kal“: how easy and fast we change friends, lovers, relations… In a time where everybody has to be flexible, changing countries, cities or even continents, it is easier to quit a relation-ship than to suffer under unfulfilled desire. While this story plays in a rich, modern, Indian society, “LSD - Love Sex Aur Dhorkha” focuses more on the aspect of voyeurism and isolation in the contemporary society. This was first thematized by Atom Egoyan in his film “Speaking Parts“ and Steven Soderbergh in “Sex Lies and Videotapes“, both films from 1989.
Before I talk about modern Indian drama, you could also have a look at “Tum Milo Toh Sahi” by Kabir Sadanand, where several modern love stories play over different ages of the protagonists. People in Bombay try to save their little café against a multinational coffee chain.
Returning to action and drama “Kaminey” is a great piece of art, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. This time Shahid Kapoor plays two different twin brothers. Their lives were separated and are forced together by luck and unluck. Again criminality in our modern society is thematized such as drug trade and addiction, but the mise-en-scène and music are very inspiring. Vishal Bhardwaj tries to find a way between Bollywood movies and Arthouse movies. Besides of A.R. Rahman, one of the world finest film composers, you should have a look at Vishal Bhardwaj as a music composer, too. Also his adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, called “Maqbool” (2003) and “Omkara” (2006) give a special view on Indian society. In all these films you may meet the finest actors of India from Irfan Khan, Om Puri, Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan (also producer and actor in “Love Aaj Kal”), Kareena Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah and many more.
Three highly discussed films, I want to mention, focus on world politics, terrorism and media business. The producer Karan Johar (director from “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” as mentioned in the article below) took the risk and produced the film “Kurbaan” and “My name is Khan“. I don’t want to talk about these interesting movies, because you have to watch them. The same with “Peepli live“, a satire about rural India and modern media business, directed and written by Anusha Rizvi, produced by Aamir Khan, mentioned in the articles down the blog. This movie will come into the cinemas in Germany in October 2010. This will be one of the first movies from India, coming into German cinemas. So look out for this story!
Last but not least hopefully the film “3idiots” will come to European cinemas. This production from Vidhu Vinod Chopra, directed by the known director Rajkumar Hirani with Aamir Khan as the protagonist was the biggest box-office hit in 2009. “3idiots” expressed the problems of many people with the Indian educational system, which still seems to be authoritarian (I wasn’t in school/university in India…). It reminded me of Pink Floyds’ song “We don’t need no education”. In Western Europe we would tell the story of teachers, being annoyed or even tortured by their pupils, but in India it is the other way round. So we shall see how the public in Europe looks at this well made movie?