A few good ones

I have been away from cyberspace for a while now…primarily because of the fact that the Internet connection at my place had collapsed leaving me with no option but to keep myself away from writing. Now, the Internet connection has been restored and so has my love for writing on something that is as part of my being as anything else—movies, cinema, films, the works! Not that I lost my love for the movies, or for writing for that matter, in this period of staying away from the Internet especially at home. What afflicted my inherent fondness for putting my thoughts on cyberspace was the lack of opportunity and, given the hectic work schedules, time. With Internet up at home, the going will be easier now…hopefully!

Meanwhile, a number of films have come…and some have gone…for good. Some stayed on, in memory. One such film that needs a mention here is A Wednesday, directed by debutant director and former ad-film maker, Neeraj Pandey. At a time when bombs had ripped the capital city apart and the secular edifice of India was coming apart with finders being pointed at communities and creeds, A Wednesday brought in sanity…to an extent. Though my perennial complaint remains the fact that the aggressors and terrorists in all Bollywood films are Muslim characters, the film takes an interesting detour in concealing the religious identity of the principal antagonist, The Common Man played effectively by the charismatic Naseeruddin Shah. A Wednesday displays great ingenuity in its depiction of a day in the life of Mumbai’s police commissioner, a day when the world came tumbling down for the man…well, nearly. A series of phone calls from a phantom bomber drives the police department into a tizzy while the man himself perches on top of a half-constructed building and plots what can be termed some of the best chase-find the bomb-diffuse it sequences in recent times. The film came very close to perfection in narrative, a must watch for the sheer guts of the plot. Gripping affair it was!

Another film, belonging to a completely different genre, took everyone by surprise around this time. Apart from launching Imran Khan, Aamir’s nephew on the silver screen, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na did much more. It taught a thing or two to the star-crossed industry about casting the right people for the right roles. Completely unknown faces aided by a whacky, wild plot and a cute musical score became national icons as everyone wanted to know why Pappu cannot dance! The film was a runaway success…made on a modest budget, it made everyone smile.

A little more recent is the success of Farhan Akhtar’s acting debut—Rock On. But the film works, at least for me, because of Arjun Rampal. He has finally proved the fact that models CAN act. Rampal delivers a powerhouse performance as Joe Mascarenhas, the brooding lead guitarist of a rock band that comes apart owing to clashing egos. The coming-of-age of the band proves to be what the members were looking for, caught in their dreary everyday lives. Akhtar plays the lead vocalist who quits a budding singing career to go through life as an ice-cold investment banker. Aditya Shroff lives in a designer apartment with his pretty wife while Joe strums his guitar at lowly parties and bars as his fiery wife manages the family’s fledgling fish business to make both ends meet. Other band members, Rob (Luke Kenny) and KD (Purb Kohli) have resigned to their fate as a small-time music director and the manger of a jewellery firm respectively. It is by chance that they come together once again to recreate the magic of Magik—that’s what the band’s called before Rob succumbs to advanced brain tumor. A touching tale of friendship, Rock On left everyone with tears in their eyes.

The last film that touched a chord…actually was Aamir. Played efficiently by Rajeev Khandelwal, TV’s favourite poster boy, Aamir was a searing take on terrorism. It gave new meaning to the word different. It truly was…different. It tells the story of a young Muslim doctor who returns to India only to get caught in a never-ending web of deceit, mind-games, and mass murder. The narrative does not meander, the plot is taut and takes the story to its logical end. The climax, mind you, is intelligent and at the same time diffident. It compels the viewer to think. Aamir, another small budget stunner, therefore, was the cause of a few firsts on the Bollywood scene apart from being director Ram Kumar Gupta’s cinematic debut.