Habib Tanwir

I remember reading his play "Charandas Chor" in college library, though I never got a chance to see enactment of his plays , as surprisingly in our college people will play dramas written by Shakespeare to modern Indian communist authors but no one bothered to look at him or his work, may be because he was so unglamorous or chose to work with tribal artists rather than cigarette smoking , jholwala type self proclaimed theater artists.

Accounts by various tribal artists of him makes one wonder at the tenacity of man and his unflinching faith in his chosen medium and style. Apart from teejanbai of Pandwani fame he can be considered biggest brand ambassador of chhattisgarh.


Last time I saw him in quite underrated movie by Subhash Ghai titled "Black & White" his role as elderly poet and his fine rendering of couplets made movie a visual treat

RIP

Michael Jackson RIP

Well first an admission , I felt an unknown and spontaneous feeling of hatred towards him at one point of time. No not because of molestation charges ( well i do not know enough about all case facts and context to form an opinion) , but when he came with his album thriller in 1997.
I went to , one might say, most prestigious quiz in city for school going kids and after successfully navigating through general rounds , we were stumped in audio visual round as all questions were based on English music or movies and only movies in English I had seen till that point of time were Jurassic park or superman and those too in Hindi dubbed version. As far as music was concerned I had no clue at all and they played this song thriller from his new album and asked to identify artist and but naturally i was stumped.

It was only after some years when case against him was in full swing and i had discovered quite a pantheon of English movies and music , that i realized how important his work was. Then i also realised that all those break dancing moves which we saw people doing on school stage or weddings or bdday parties and in movies of mithun da or govinda or prbhau deva were inspired from his work.

we even had a dance class named on him near our home with poster of man with hat in dance move ( it showed only back of the man) obviously modeled on him. Well we never had copyrights in India enforced and at that time I don't think anyone gave a damn about it and but he was like many foreign influences on our daily lives which were there whether you realised it or not, felt it or not. Hate it or love it he was there.

RIP

Movie Review : Sardar

First bad points editing leaves a lot to be desired. cinematography is good in patches. Annu kapur is not impressive as Gandhi. Many crucial details of sardar's life are left out as how he organised congress ? his relationship with Bose. his early struggle to become lawyer.

gud points. A different take from NEhru-Gandhi view on Indian freedom struggle. Brings out grayness of various characters not always black or white. shows Nehru's communist leaning which kept India poor for last 50 yrs. doesn't blame partition on British but shows that Muslims never wanted to live with Hindus. Shows how honest sardar was as he refuses his brother in law business favor while Nehru got everyone in his family appointed to constitutional posts. overall a must watch & should have got Paresh rawal a national award.

Movie Review : Mirch masala

I first saw this movie bits & pieces when I was five yrs old , recently I saw full movie when it was being shown on Doordarshan parliament channel. The story is superb .Characters are developed properly.you get the feeling of a Gujarati village ( someone wrote rajputana /MP) very authentically.

Metaphor of Mirch is very powerful. Apart from Smita Patil ( Most of time she expresses her disgust & indignation through her eyes) other characters also play their role well. Om Puri as good old chowkidar. Dina PAthak As old lady with horrible memories of past which keeps on repeating it again & again. Sudesh Oberai as corrupt Mukhi. But words of Praise for Dipti NAval .She represents Gandhi's ideal of passive resistance & an awakened woman perfectly. Specially the scene where she gets the women to thump plates against cowardice of village males is superb. Mohan GOkhale represents typical lover of those days who could not stand against families. Overall a must watch for everyone & specially students of history & sociology to understand how revenue system worked in India.

Movie review : Khuda ke Liye

Good movie. I happened to find this movie on our college intra net and the person who was sharing the movie was an exchange student from Pakistan to India. Revelation for me :

1. Pakistanis call fundamentalists "fundoo" in a derisive tone. By seeing bearded Pakistani cricket team after long been seeing Imran khan as symbol of Pakistan cricket I used to think that Pakistanis actually appreciate this over religiousness but not now. I think they are rather afraid. 2. It was interesting to contrast outlook of women in Afghan village who never ventured out to outlook of the father living in england. 3. I think actual problem is people like the father of girl who are most hypocrite and harm the moderates as well as bring bad name to religious people. Extremists ca Be fought if there are no hypocrite people like the bride's father in movie. 4. Another surprise was ending.I thought heroine will go back to his cousin in line with subcontinent tradition but opening of school was great.

Only sore point I found was an effort to be political correct in script. It appeared as if extremism was being justified by torture of suspected people by American police which I think are two separate issues and deserve to be dealt so. I don't understand why can't we call a spade a spade and more importantly eve n if we assume American policy as cause for extremism in Muslim societies ( which is not true) one fails to understand how can this kind of response be justified?

In fact I found performance of USA going brother quite overbearing and his style too patronizing specially end sequence.

but music wise movie was goo but hey could have explored cinematographic potential of NWFP more.

Movie review : Khamosh Pani

Well all the editing and technical job done by western people has really helped this movie in making it a treat to watch. Though the end is sad but movie leaves various questions open: 1.When Kiron Kher who was forcibly stripped of her identity once finds that she is once again social pariah due to no fault of hers ,anguish and bewilderment at her face are really powerful. 2.The girl cycling outside the Jehadi meeting shows how oblivious world remains when dangers like breed in our surroundings. 3.There is marked similarity in the speech of Leader in the conference and interview of Amir on the TV in the end.Same vague things about identity of nation. 4.Encounter of ayesha with her brother where she asks her that after killing girls to save their HONOUR what was he seeking now?.This scene is superb. 5.Scen at marriage party gives a good glimpse of social interactions in Punjab also how feudal elements still hold sway. Overall I would like to see more movies by this director.In fact world wars' horror are kept alive by superb movies based on that period.Partition of India, an equally momentous event which left behind a trail of human suffering should be depicted in more films of this type so that young people and people outside Indain subcontinent are sensitized that violence and religion never mix well.

Movie review : Junoon

Terrific. The best part which i like about Shyam Benegal movies that they are not melodramatic & all emotions are shown in moderate doses mostly though scenes which appear like pictures.Everyone is free to interpret them.Another striking quality is even while making historical or period movie he shies from creating grand scenes but rather takes viewer through background to event & aftermaths of event.Sometimes viewer may find it disappointing but it has its own merits. Coming back to movie it sticks to original narration faithfully & develops some character like the aunt in a better way than story. Scene in the mango garden of swinging and women from both cultures expressing happiness in their own way is superb.Also nightmare of Ruth that shashi kapoor is going to rape her captures her mental trauma very well & in fact builds up viewer for the eventuality when she falls in love with him.

Movie Review : Gulaal

What I like most about this movie is like typical Hindi movies there is no central protagonist and everyone's story is important in its own way. So there is an eventual winner illegitimate son fighting for his place, a rebel prince ( KK despite being from kerala looked every bit rajput) who dies on his own terms, abhimnayu singh in Ransa's role is terrific specially when he says 'my dad makes tea for old white women and wants me to do same" and obviously dileep singh.

Separatist movement is just a background and nothing else and futility of it is brought out of elder prince when he lampoons whole gulaal thing.

music was good, jodhpur ( i guess) was captured authentically but that bahroopia so called ardhnarishwar with elder prince seemed more like a prop than serving any useful purpose and somehow the thought of the girl sleeping with everyone for her ends and everyone getting hoodwinked by her easily was strange.

Movie review: Dil Se

A movie about two lover who have another object i.e. their country to love and hate simultaneously and how it folds out. cinematography is great and Santosh Sivan outshines this movie only in Ashoka. More importantly this is the only mainstream Hindi movie to best of my knowledge which has north east and laddakh as background. Old Delhi is also captured beautifully in terrorist hideout and old haveli in which shahrukh is living. Movie shows glimpses of loud Punjabi culture and Malayalam as well via beautiful wedding song. This was first movie to use stunning visuals of Kerala which can be easily an advertisement for kerala tourism. Discovery of movie was surely preity Zinta specially her looks after she comes to know about Manisha's relationship with Shahrukh. CBI officer fails to impress but terrorist ring leader is impressive and I imagine in real life it is how they are. ANother interesting character was AIR director of guwahati pretty close to working women who are lonely and are at top positions. Best part of movie as against other Hindi movies is both protagonists are confused and are constantly fighting a self conflict. MAnsiha tries to suppress her love while shahrukh does not want to doubt manisha even though he knows something is fishy. a great watch.

Movie Review : Sardari Begum

Great Movie. Indian CInema got a wonderful actress in Kiron Kher after this movie. Though she had done few films before but this was the first time she was noticed.Specially her next door aunt face gave the character a realistic appeal. This movie shows how someone rising from middle class background in a short age profession or one which requires patron may face. Retracing Sardari BEgum's story from different view points was interesting .But I expected her daughter to be bitter towards her which was not the case . Only negative point was the journalist trying to find the real story ,she overacted a bit. Other characters of AMrish Puri , Rajat KApoor, the director of radio station or the lover of Rajeshwari were well scripted & decently performed.

Kamla Das

I remember reading her in my first year in college.
I would say in many senses she was female Nissim Ezekeil of India.

Some lines from her

Wipe out the paints
unmould the clay
Let nothing remain
of that yesterday.
Kamla das


No, not for me the beguiling promise of
domestic bliss, the goodnight kiss, the weekly
letter that begins with the word dearest,
Not for me the hollowness of marital vows and
the loneliness of a double bed, where someone
lies dreaming of another mate, a woman perhaps
lustier than his own....
— Annamalai Poems, Kamala Das


And life is colour and warmth and light
And a striving evermore for these;
And he is dead who will not fight;
And who dies fighting has increase.