by Sujoy on July 1, 2010
in movies
OH MAGADHEERA! Thy canvas is so large, so bright and so beautiful. I give in to your might and surrender myself and my senses too. Painted in testosterene, and splashed with everything that is majestic, masculine, and mind-fraking, Magadheera – you blow me away. Quite literally. Every. Single. Time.
Just as I sat down to the starting credits of Magadheera, the brief teasing images over the sounds of clashing swords and the voice of a warrior screaming Bhairava, leaves me with an intense feeling of anticipation. The sense of urgency, and the curiosity to see events unfold grips you completely. And this is what exactly keeps me glued through the entire length of the movie even though, the pace isn’t as steady.
To begin with Princess Mithravinda and our warrior Kala Bhairava are injured badly and almost breathing their last. But not done yet until they some love. And then gravity strikes, but Kala Bhairava flings himself with a launch velocity. Coupled with an intelligent lift-drag air-resistance formula, Kala Bhairava cleverly defies laws of physics to get closer to Mithra. But not quite close..sigh!
Flash forward to 400 years now, and our warrior has turned into a dude who wears Ferrari shoes and races bikes for a living. Yes, this is a world where our dude is tormented by chupudhee chapadhee Mumait Khan who hides her earnings in her supposed cholee. And to retrieve it, an item number must follow with special nods to a CGI edited papa Chiranjeevi. Oh, and before that, Mumait Khan gives a boobie shockwave which turns everyone into stone. Not kidding! And this my friend is only the first 15 minutes of the movie. Phew! You just get to sense a teaser of the possibilities of the remaining parts of the movie and how this could actually be the inspiration behind Scott Pilgrim – An Epic of Epic Epicness. Yes, that pretty much sums it up quite right.
Whoa. Let’s explore the remaining 150 minutes with the infinte screencaps below. Keep up with me, and don’t get lost, but do feel free to lose yourself in the beauty of Magadheera. WARNING: Long Post.
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The year was 2001. Jhamu Sugandh and Aamir Khan Productions’ ambitious project – Lagaan, had just released its publicity material on TV. In an age of no-twitter and zero-presence of social networking sites, TV trailers and theatre publicities were the only way to go. The first trailer was indeed very intriguing. It only showed an incomplete political map of India, and a Rupee coin rolling over it. The heavy beats of the percussion filled the air, and as the short teaser concluded, the anticipation levels were soaring high. As I look back to that period of pre-Lagaan release, I feel an intense nostalgic rush filling me with smiles.
Lagaan was released and was widely loved and adored by audiences and critics alike, locally and globally. It has been 9 years since, and even then, the melody of Lagaan’s soundtrack, the drum beat and the passionate voices of the villagers of Champaner continue to linger in my head; all of them crying out – Re Bhaiyya Chhoote Lagaan!!
So, on this 9th anniversary of one of the most uplifting pieces of cinema ever, let’s celebrate the music of Lagaan – one which not just serves as a Bollywood routine element of the movie, but also a medium which translates a thousand emotions in a single line. The music of Lagaan transcends many levels and goes beyond the limits of boundaries, languages and cultural differences. A.R.Rahman scores, arguably, one of his career’s best soundtrack, and the translation to screen is equally breath-taking.
So hit the jump to experience with me, and celebrate the magic of the soundtrack of Lagaan – Once Upon A Time in India.
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by Sujoy on June 14, 2010
in Bolly
Now, Wake Up Sid and me have had a complicated relationship so far. Even though I did not like it at my first viewing, this movie has kinda grown on me, just because it sets out to achieve what it is – a non-preachy, no-story, lukewarm eye-pleaser. Lemme tell you why on the first viewing it did not appeal to me at all – because of its unreal depiction of a single unemployed lady suddenly living in a ‘lavish’ [ by Mumbai standards ] apartment and doing all sorta renovation work on it even before she has to see her first paycheck. And then it all goes gaga about Sid waking up – but what was he waking up to? Becoming more responsible and waking up to Duniyadari? Seriously? That is shown by a montage of Sid organising Aisha’s room, and then going for an intern photographer job for a Mumbai magazine – which would pay how much – 15k at best? We are talking about the son of a CEO of Flower Shower – a company which supplies showers and bathroom fittings to Birla as well as a Bhajiya-wala. Anywho!!! enough of complaining.
On my recent holiday trip home, I caught up on Wake Up Sid for the second time [ courtesy Air India's in-flight entertainment ] and I couldn’t stop noticing the huge range of awesome tee-s that Sid [ Ranbir Kapoor ] flaunts throughout the length of the movie. Now, I am no fashion guru like some of you awesome people are. But I can definitely point out what’s cool and what’s not. And Sid’s range of T-Shirts are definitely on the cool list. Here’s one for instance.
Flashin' Sid
Costume Designers Manish Malhotra and Priyanjali Lahiri have certainly struck the right cord.
Check the whole bunch after the jump. And yeah, look at what the designers decide Ranbir to wear when he “WAKES UP”. Beware: LOTSA Screenshots in this post.
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With the invasion of Audio CDs and Mp3s and Winamp et al, gone are the days of painfully rewinding a song for exactly a mentally calibrated 1.5 minutes to get to the start of your favourite song to listen to it again. “MONO” was as standard as Dolby-Digital is now and even with these technological hindrances which possibly did not unleash the composer’s brilliance to the fullest extent, there were melodies which overcame these hindrances. One such melody is SD Burman’s “Ab Ke Sajan Saawan Mein“.
From Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s cutesy, romantic simplistic 1975 comedy Chupke Chupke, this movie has lots to flaunt about. A stellar cast – Amitabh Bachhan, Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri, Om Prakash, Asrani and above all – Keshto Mukherjee 
And whenever one mentions Chupke Chupke, Ab Ke Sajan.. is definitely one of the first things that cross my mind [ apart from Dharam jee's mind-bending Hindi vocabulary and his tussle with clever Jeejaajee - Om Prakash ].
I vividly remember hearing it for the first time on Chitrahaar and quite instantly, fell in love with it.And after almost 20 odd years, I can say for sure, that it wasn’t just a mere infatuation. After all, what’s not to love about it. The teasing, naughty chedh-chaadh lyrics by Anand Bakshi written in simplistic Hindi is a perfect example of how less is more. Check out the lyrics on the second verse..
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