Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Shwaas (Marathi) - A Breath



Sandeep sawant's shwaas was the official indian entry for oscars last year.And it was judged the Best feature film at the national awards.A low budget marathi movie which created lot of stir. It was the marathi movie to win a swarna kamal after 50 yrs.

---- story----

It tells the story of a small boy Parashuram and his grandfather Parule.Parashuram and his grandfather who come to the city from their home town konkan to get treatment for the kids eye problem. The doctor tells that Parashuram has eye cancer and that his eyes have to be removed. Parule refuses to acknowledge the fact first, rest of the movie is how parule and parashuram acknowledge and accept the reality.

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There are 4 main characters in the movie.The grand father parule(Arun Nalavade),the kid Parashuram(Ashwin Chitale), Dr shane(Sandeep Kulkarni) and Asawari(Amruta Subhash, a pretty woman) as a medical social worker.

The movie is realistic at lot of places. Mainly when depicting the plight of how people from village have to deal with the hospital bureaucracy. How the illiterates don’t have any help at these big hospitals.CT-SCAN's and declarations forms are all alien to them and for a hospital worker, that villager is one of the thousands of people he deals everyday.I wish there were separate sections in the big hospitals to help people regarding the medical procedures.Asawari comes as a medical social worker who helps the patient but iam not sure how many people like that really exist.



Good acting by everyone. Especially the kid Ashwin Chitale.He has given a wonderful performance. He has that mischievous and expressive eyes, which are always curious to see the beauty of the world.How can someone go and tell that kid that he wont be able to see the world and that he has to accept it.He won the national award for best child artist in 2003.

Sandeep sawant, courtesy hindu

Sandeep sawanth has done a good job.But there are lot of holes in the movie and he has to improve alot.parashuram and his grand dad are from konkan and the director has captured some wonderful scenery of konkan.Interestingly a serious of konkan scenes showing varying mischiefs of the boy, which are generally shown with songs,is told with just background music.Not sure whether it was intentional or because of lack of funds to make the songs. There is a shot where the boy runs around in the beach shooing hundreds of sea gulls.Blue sea,light yellow sands, whitish gulls and a small boy with a wonderful smile, a beautiful shot.When seeing all those scenes the audience can relate what the boy is going to miss later.

The movie does not do a good vs bad theme.It shows everybody's point of view and we are made to understand both the doctor and patient's perspective nicely.The movie which is told without any big cinematics gets a little bit sentimental and cinematic at the end.The narration is plain and simple and all the characters where were good.At time i kind of had a feeling that iam watching a K.Vishwanath Movie.

The music was not that great.Most of the BGM's were total lift offs from various albums and movies.

Marathi movie industry which has to fight with the big brother bollywood, was very proud of this one.And lot of people where rooting for oscars for shwaas.Shwaa's production cost was an meager 60 lakhs.There were money collection drives for promoting this movie at the oscars.

HUNDREDS of Indian devotees have been donating money to a temple charity over the past three weeks to raise funds for a low-budget movie`s Oscar publicity campaign in the US, one of the producers said.It is part of a nationwide drive to collect about Rs15m (174,888/$334,000) - more than twice what it cost to make the film - which the producers say they need to promote India`s entry for an Oscar nomination before the shortlist is announced in January. more


I think lot of marathi people got carried away on the fact that this marathi movie which won a swarna kamal for there state after 50 yrs will make them proud at the oscars also. But shwaas was a plain movie and was far away to compete against movies like "The sea inside" and "yesterday".So it didn't make it to the final 5.

The movie could have been made as a tear jerker or into an all sensitive and soul stirring movie or a very realistic movie. But shwaas fails on all front and has ended up as a mixture of all.None the less a decent movie worth watching once.

A realistic, plain and sweet movie.

links
Official website

Shwaas triggers a renaissance

Monday, July 18, 2005

Rui Ka bojh(The weight of cotton)



A nice, clean & different movie.The comedy in this movie is very unique, you dont know whether to laugh or feel sad for a situation. The story of an aging parent and his children’s have been told in so many movies. But this one is something different form all the others that i have seen.It is a mild comedy, which arises out of the realistic situations, you as a viewer can see the comedy of a serious scene played by the characters. People who know hindi can enjoy it better as comedy get's lost in the translated subtitles lot of time.

The story is based on chandra kishore jaiswal's novel "GAWAH GHAIR HAZIR".

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The movie is the story of kishunshah(pankaj kapoor),who after dividing his properties decides to stay with his youngest son Ramsharan (Raghuveer yadav).Ramsharan wants to take care of his dad well.He tells his wife(Reema Lagoo) to provide him with all that he needs.As time goes by kishunshah starts complaining like the other old men and starts making mountains out of mole hills.Things get out of hand and one day ramsharan manhandles his father.Kishunshah decides to snap all his relationship with the family and spend rest of his life in a temple.The rest is climax.
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The movie does not deal the subject with all the sadness.It deals it with humor and pin points the misunderstandings and mistakes of the older people.kishunshah's helping hand are his grandsons nunulal, chunma, munma.Mainly chunma, the kid who played that role was sweet.The scenes between him and his grandfather are funny.



Similarly the scenes involving kishunshah's and his daughter in law are also good.
The movie does not go on the route of greedy,uncaring son and duaghter in law.It tells the story realistic with lot of comedy.



Pankaj kapoor is awesome in the movie.I can't imagine anybody else doing this role like him.He has done the role to perfection, good supporting roles by raghuveer yadav and rema lagoo.The movie is Directed by subash agarwal and produced by NDFC.

Friday, July 08, 2005

36 chowringhee lane 1981



A beautiful movie.I felt only a female director like aparna sen could bring out a sensitive movie like this.A simple story told in an elegant and touching way.

The movie totally has 6 are 7 characters and only 3 are the important ones.The story is about Violet Stoneham.An old Anglo indian teacher who is leading lonely life.Being a women who was born and bought up in india.She does not want to move out of the country, fearing the uncertainty involved with it.

------------- The story -------

Violet stoneham(jeniffer kendal) leads an empty and lonely life which consists of a certain routines. Nandita(Debashree Roy) and Samresh(Dhritiman Chatarji) are lovers who meet in parks and make out in taxi's.Nandita an old student of miss violet, meets her accidentally when going around with samresh.Violet insists that they should come and visit her.Samresh thinks that miss violets house would be a perfect place for there meeting.Nanditha tells how samaresh the amateur writer is having trouble writing at his noisy house.violet offers her house for him.Nanditha and samresh use violets house for there sexcapade. For lonely violet the entry of these love birds in her life, changes her regular routines and she thinks there attention towards her as friendship and genuine concern for her.In the end violet recognizing that it is not so.

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The movie belongs to 2 people.Jeniffer kendal and aparna sen.For Aparna,her first movie, supposedly is her best.The movie got wide recognition and raised eyebrows for talking about pre marital sex in early 80's.From her own words
'It started as a short story,and then it just kept growing'.She remembers how the words formed pictures and the story quickly evolved into a screenplay. But it was an English screenplay at a time when crossover cinema was an undiscovered genre and English cinema originating from India was unusual.

She went to Satyajit Ray, described as her mentor, who told her he would read it after two months. He called her back after that period and told her to make a film. 'Really?' she remembers wondering, uncertain about the prospects of an English film. Approaching producers, she was repeatedly asked what she was trying to sell. 'Sex? Violence? What are you trying to sell, they would ask me,' she says about producers. 'And I would answer: a small human tale.'

Following advice, she sent a synopsis of the plot to Shashi Kapoor, who shared it with Jennifer Kendal and Govind Nihalani, all of whom liked it and asked her to come over to Mumbai. That was the beginning of 36, Chowringhee Lane, which went on to win many national and international awards.more





The violet character is beautifully acted by jeniffer kendal(wife of shashi kapoor).I didn't first appreciate jeniffer kendal acting.I thought she is prety much what she acts in the movie.Then i realized that she is the same woman who comes in shashi kapoor's other movie junoon(she is the mother of a british girl, whom a pathan wants to marry).That character was different than this.She uses a different accent, walk and body language in this movie.Jeniffer has created the violet character in its entirety. She expresses so much in subtle & elegant way.Distant looks, childish laughs, controlled expressions & expressionless face at time, jeniffer is just awesome in the movie. It is unfortunate that the national awards that year went to rekha for Umrao jaan.I was wondering whether jeniffer kendal was overlooked because she was a foreigner ?.

I have seen so many movies with BGM by vanaraj bhatia.If asked this is his best.There are lot of scenes where there is no music at all, to show the emptiness of jeniffer's life.But at places beautiful BGM adds so much to the movie.As the main character is an anglo indian lady,he has cleaverly avoided indian instruments and has struck with scene enhancing western scores.

Art direction by bansi chandragupta(chakra).THe movie was written and directed by Aparna sen.Aparna sen is great in the movie.She took liberty to stray away from the main story at 2 places.In a dream sequence and a song showing night in calcutta, nothing major though, those were very insignificant deviation.At least the song was adding to the already lonely feeling of violet but the dream sequence did not fit into the movie.But i have to admit that the dream sequence was interesting though.A young Violet shown in black and white is searching for davie(karan kapoor) her lover.she then sees her house and pushes the door,which opens to a view of a grave yard next to a ocean.A strange ritual is being performed. Marriage wows are told in a funeral setup and davie(who dies in a battle) gets into the coffin himself. Troops start shooting jeniffer and in fellini's style everybody in her life is there at that function.



Aparna depicts the violet character so beautifully.This is a character that is lonely inside and outside.You are made to pity at her.she is a meek character that is ignored by every one from her school principal to a shopkeeper in the fish market.Living in a old apartment all alone with a cat, she is demoted to teach the dry grammer after teaching dramatic shakesphere for decades(imagine a anglo indian woman who recites shakephere as and when she wants, teaching adverb and noun), she spends time with her retarded brother,reads mails from her granddaughter(soni razdan), visit's the family graveyard etc.All these scenes of her life depicts her loneliness.Lot of scenes or told in visuals.The visuals like her gaze outside the window from her class room,the antique objects in her house,out of order lift,the cat etc all makes us understand her solitude and take pity on her.Again the visuals in her house/apt are done with less light,which adds to the gloomy feeling.Cinemetography by Ashok Mehta.

The movie does not get too emotional anywhere.Subtle emotions and beautiful acting by jenniffer kendel makes you feel violets pain deeply, without making you cry.A breezy and sensitive movie.




This movie has the 3 generation in it.Geoffrey kendall(jeniffer's father),jeniffer and her son & daughter karan,sanjana kapoor.
(Eddie Stoneham played by Geoffrey Kendall)

young violet played by sanjana kapoor(jeniffer's daughter)

karan kapoor

Understanding the true nature of nandita and samresh's.violet the shakesphere fan, ends the movie with quotes from shakeshphere's king lear.she takes solace by reciting the words of another old person, who was lonely and foolish in believing others. King lear gives his kingdom to his 2 daughters, who publicly tell how much they love him.King lear later realizes that all those words were false.Now after being sent to jail by his 2 daughters he tells these lines to his other daughter who didn't praise him publicly(kurosawa fan's would have guessed what movie this is).
Pray, do not mock me;
I am a very foolish fond old man,
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more or less,
And, to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind. --(King Lear, Act IV, Scene VII)
And Lear's last words to Cordelia:
Come, let's away to prison;
We two alone will sing like birds in the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness; so we'll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too.
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out;
And take upon the mystery of things . . . --(King Lear, Act V, Scene III)


some other shakesphere qoutes used in the movie.
Malvolio in "The twelth night"

If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my stars I am above
thee, but be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great,
some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust
upon ’em
The film won the Grand Prix (The Golden Eagle) at the Manila International Film Festival.Jennifer Kendall won the 1983 Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress and a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress that same year.



In india it fetched aparna sen the coveted best director national award for her first film itself.But it was not represented in film fare and other awards.Maybe cause it was an english movie.




An unforgettable movie, which has made Jeniffer kendal immortal.

Links
king lear summary
36 C Lane in sujatha's list of top ten movies

Shashi kapoor and jeniffer kendal

Shashi Kapoor is well known as one of the innumerable member of the famous Kapoor family.Like any other kapoor family member he is also remembered for acting in the usual formula movies that came in the 60's and 70's.But there is a different side to this person.He is some one who became a pauper trying to make quality movies.

Shashi kapoor from mid 70's started producing parallel movies.He made some significant movies under the banner film-vala's.He produced Junoon and kalyug with shyam benegal, Vijeta with govind nihlani, Utsav with girish karnad and 36 cowingree lane with aparna sen.



what made him do this.I dont know.But surely jenifer kendal had some part to do with it.Jeniffer was his childhood sweetheart, who he married later.There love story is a sweet one.Read it here

Not only did they produce good movies.They also did a lot for the theater scene in bombay.After his father prithviraj's death in 1971.shashi kapoor built the prithvi theater as a tribute to a his father.

Somewhere in the seventies Shashi and his wife Jennifer decided to build Prithvi Theatre of their own. They were discouraged by many. The land on which they wanted to build the theatre was prime property in Juhu. They could have made crores of rupees selling it. Jennifer (whose entire family, the Kendals were madly dedicated to theatre) who was involved in English theatre) however was determined to build Prithvi Theatre and Shashi inspired her with all the help she needed to help her dream come true. Prithvi Theatre started on a small scale. It then grew and flourished and today it is one of the major landmarks of Mumbai.

At times I wonder what Hindi theatre would do without Prithvi Theatre. I wonder what so many young and talented young men and women from all over the country would do without Privhti Theatre. It is this very Prithvi Theatre which has given so much talent to theatre, films and in very very big way to television. Prithvi is a blessing to the starving for talent Mumbaiwala.

There was a time when Shashi lost interest in Prithvi, especially after he lost his wife Jennifer who was the central pillar of Prithvi Theatre, the woman who looked after Prithvi like her own child. Shashi was stopped from doing such a cruel thing by his son Kunal and daughter Sanjana. Today, both Kunal and Sanjana are taking care of Prithvi Theatre and taking every step to make it a major institution in Mumbai. They have vowed to keep Prithvi Theatre alive which means keeping so many hundreds and thousands of hopes and dreams and inspirations alive.

Thank you, Jennifer

I still remember that memorable evening at Prithvi Theatre. It had just been inaugurated. Not many people knew about it, not even all those who should have. It was Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor's gift to Mumbai, it was their house for the talented who had no place to stand in a crowded city like Mumbai and prove their talent. It was their own little way of keeping talent alive, of keeping theater alive, of keeping young artistes and directors and artistes alive. It was their way of thanking theatre for making them, Shashi and Jennifer and their families what they were.more


Seems,At the start Jennifer sent the architect of the theatre, Ved Segan, to travel around Europe and England to see different kinds of theaters. Meanwhile, the Kendalls brought in their expertise in play-acting, and some talented youngsters — Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Amol Palekar, to name a few — became a part of it.more

The first play was performed on 5 November 1978, The play was G.P. Deshpande's Uddhwasta Dharmashala, directed by Om Puri. Prithvi Theatre, the building has now become a landmark in Mumbai.

There contribution to india's theater scene is now carried out by there childrens.Shashi & Jeniffer had 3 childrens. Sanjana(she used to host shows in Star tv), Kunal(starred in vijeta) & Karan Kapoor(The bombay dyeing man).







Shashi kapoor,co-authored by Deepa Gahlot wrote prithviwallah's a book about his experiences with the prithvi theater.



Movies produced by shashi Kapoor's Film-valas

36ChowringheeLane
Junoon
Kalyug
Utsav
Vijeta

As an actor
Siddhartha
Merchant Ivory films




More Links
She didn’t really look at me
sanjana-princess of prithvi
Prithvi Theatre Festival
prithviwallah's
prithvi theater
nice article about the theater

Thursday, July 07, 2005

Bazaar 1982



Sagar Sarhadi's Bazaar is a wonderful movie which talks about the state of poor muslim women in hyderabad. The movie rips your heart, portraying the condition of poor muslim women and how everything is done within the limits of the religion.This movie came out in 1982.The sad thing is that after all these years we still hear news of people from gulf shopping for girls in hyderabad.

The movie follows 2 threads, a sweet love between Sarju(farooq sheik) and Shabnam(supriya pathek), the other story is about Najma (smitha patil) trying to settle down in life with her lover Akhtar Hussain(Bharat Kapoor).Salim (Naseeruddin Shah) comes as a well known poet who is in love with najma ,even though she is akthar's woman.

Akhtar Hussain's business depends on his boss Shakhir ali khan.shakir who returns from abroad asks him to find a girl for him.He is a old guy who has his own family ( a wife and 3 sons).Akhtar asks najma to help him find a girl in hyderabad.Najma who lives in the boss's house given to akthar says yes as the boss threatens to take the house and business from them, if they don't help him.

Najma books tickets to hyderabad, and they decide to go find a girl and fix the marriage in 10 days.So Najma,akthar.salim,boss and another friend go on a trip to the hyderabad Baazar to BUY a girl.



Shakir ali khan likes shabnam(supriya pathak) who sings in a family get together.Najma fixes the marriage without knowing that her brother (farooque sheikh) is in love with her.Whether farooq sheik marries shabnam? what happened to najma? is the rest of the story.

Like the heroines of the previous movies umrao jaan,chakra & arth all najma wants is a house and family of her own.This movie unlike the other ones is not a personal story but a social commentary.



All the characters in this movie seem to have a longing.Either for love or money.There is two one sided love affairs salim's love of najma and shabnam's friend nasreen's love for sajju.



The movie will shake you, with its realistic portrayal and the sad conditions that prevail in those area.The romance between farooq and the beautiful supriya is shown very well.shabanam after singing at the meeting tells him not to ask her to sing before unknown peoples and asks him to hide her from the society and let nobody other than him see her.This sensitivity of that pretty girl acts as a counter point to the open bride buying process of shakir ali khan and makes to think not only sarju but us also to protect her against any evil.



Salim is the only person who opposes everything.Najma realizes her mistake but carries on cause her marriage also depends on that.Salim argues that
if shakir ali khan comes and asks a dad that he wants to buy his girl, the father will kill him.But if the same shakir ali khan, takes the support of religion, custom and asks his teen age daughter for marriage, that man wont refuse.Cause that is what in the society.He will marry her daughter saying that it is her fate.
Good performance by farooq sheikh,nasrudeen smita patil & supriya pathak.

The movie is studded with deadly gazhals.

Phir Chiddi Raat by Lata Mangeshkar & Talat Aziz Lyrics : Makhdoom Mohiuddin



It is hard to choose the better song when all are good.But my pick from the movie would be this song, talat aziz's velvetty voice the beautiful supriya pathak and farooq sheik singing it in a moon lit night.just awesome.I felt that lata shouldn't have sung this song.The song would have been lot better if some body else with a softer voice would have sung the song.I felt the velvetty Talat Aziz and lata were not a good combination.

This is what Talat had to say about the song. "Phir chhidi raat baat: A song typical of Khaiyyam Sahab. Even today it is a must sing in my live concerts. The song was set in raga Bageshwari and in those days singers would sing duets together and with the orchestra. Two of my first three film songs were with Lataji and this one, from the film Bazaar, was the second of the duets. It was written by Makhdoom Moin-ud-din."


Dekhlo Aaj Hamko by jagjit kaur Lyrics : Mirza Shauq
Sajju wants to see shabnam for the last time before her marriage and they get to meet.Shabnam sings this song."Dekhlo Aaj Hamko Jee bharkhey" (See me to your heart content).

I saw the movie and liked this song.i heard it again after a couple of weeks.The slow pace of the song and jagjit kaur's haunting voice, just floods you with the pain and the sweet romance of supriya pathak & farooq sheik.In seconds,you are transported into their world.

Dikhai Diye Yun by Lata Mangeshkar Lyrics : Mir Taqi Mir
This is the song that shabnam sings at the family meeting.Beautiful melody by lata mangeshkar.The song is interpreted differenly by the different love pairs sitting there.

Karoge Yaad To
by Bhupinder Lyrics : Bashar Nawaz
This is the song that salim sings thinking about his old memories with najma.Beautiful lyrics.
yeah chandh bithey zamano ka aina hogha(This moon will become the mirror of the past)

There is one marriage song
Chale Aao Saiyan by Jagjit Kaur, Pramela Chopra Lyrics : Mirza Shauq

Liten to all the bazaar songs here

The movie was nominated for Best film,actor,actress and supporting actress roles at the 30th filmfare awards.It lost almost all the awards to movie like shakthi,prem rog etc.Only Supriya pathak got the Best Actress In A Supporting Role for her part in this movie.Smita patil lost the best actress national award to shabana azmi in Arth.I think smita deserved the award that year if not for bazaar at least for arth.


Links
TOI article

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Arth (Meaning) -1983



Arth is one of the few good movies that mahesh bhatt directed.The movie is supposedly a cinematic version of his real life affair.The movie was a bold one given the time frame in which it got released. Viewing it now, you might not realize it.But havn't seen any other movie which talks about empowering women in the early 80's.The story supported by some excellent acting from smitha patil, shabna azmi and kulbushan karbanda makes it stand aside from so many movies of that era.

if chakra's amma wanted a home for herself.Her rival in this movie pooja(shabana azmi) wants the same thing.Pooja brought up in an orphanage, dreams of a home of her own with her husband Inder malhotra(kulbushan karbanda).Inder malhotra a film director on the other hand is having a relationship with actress kavitha sanyal(smita patil).kavitha who suffers from psychotic disorders makes inder divorce her wife pooja.When Pooja starts facing life on her own,she comes across Raj(Raj Kiran) who is a singer.Raj is in love with pooja.At that same time kavitha breaks up with inder.Inder wants to get back with pooja.Pooja's choice is the climax of the movie.

The movie as the name suggests is a search for the meaning of love,marriage, relationships and life itself.The movie ends with raj saying that the courage and self confidence that pooja has at the end of the movie is the real meaning of life.A beautiful ending with a bad smile from shabana azmi.

The movie exposes the mistakes of our male dominated society and the different moral scales we use to measure men & woman,rich & poor.

The awesome Rohini Hattangadi plays a cameo as the maid servant at pooja's house.She supports her drunkard husband , who is having an extra marital relationship. It is a clash of titans with the 2 lead heroines.Shabana azmi and smita patil supposedly were competing against each other in the acting department in ARTH.Smita is a force in the movie.She plays the insecure psychotic person with erratic change of moods beautifully.She is someone who is in constant fear, fearing everything from her loneliness to inder's love.

where as for shabana the change in her character is gradual and subtle.It is the transformation of a dependent housewife into an independent & self confident woman.Pooja gets shocked when she hears about her husband's love for the other woman.Then she pleads with him and her, after that she puts up with everything with the hope that things will change, then she leaves his house still harboring hopes of his return.After starting to face life by herself she gets the confidence and even readies herself to take the responsibility for another life.At that point she is not afraid of anything and is ready to face the world all by herself.Acted well by shabana.

Personally if given a chance i would have given the award to smita(she also had another good movie, baazar that year), but the national award for best actress that year went to shabana azmi.Iam not sure whether it is because ARTH is more about pooja(shabana) rather than kavitha sanyal(smita patil).Kulbushan as usual does his part perfectly. The weakest of the characters is raj.He is that all good man character that comes in so many stories that deal with hurt women.He falls in love with shabana just like that and is very persistent about that.Gulshan grover plays the role of smitha's assistant and comes in 2,3 scenes.I was surprised to see the young gulshan gover.There is also Siddharth Kak(producer and presenter of surabhi serial) who comes as pooja's friend's husband.



The story is supposedly from mahesh bhat's own life.Mahesh Bhatt was married to Kiran (Pooja and Rahul Bhatt’s mother) and was involved with the parveen babi who had schizophrenia.Parveen babi was supposedly upset with him for portraing her as a person with schizophrenia and she broke up with him after that.But the fact is , the movie turned up good cause mahesh was true to the story.You can see that he himself is self critical in the movie.Inder is an egoistic person who takes the women for granted and is happy to do a use and throw.Also the movie shows men(inder, rohini's drunkard husband) in bad light.



The movie won the Best Actress for shabana azmi at the 31st film fare awards.But just the best actress, rest of the awards where swept off by Nihlani's ardh sathya and shekhar kapoor's masoom.Well film fare was Fare in those days.At the national level again only the best actress was awarded to ARTH.Shabana got her 2nd of her 5 national awards and first of her hat trick national awards.That year best actor national award went to kamal for his role in balu mahendra's moondram pirai.



The music director of arth was jagjith & chithra singh.It has some beautiful gazhals.Lyrics by kaifi azmi(shabana azmi's father).I loved jhuki jhuki yeh nazar , a beautiful song.

Listen to Arth songs here

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

chakra 1981



This is a movie that is right opposite to umrao jaan. If umrao was about the elite few who had a refined taste and lead an opulent life.This is about those wretches who has to bear so many things and live in the worst of the conditions. In a way this movie is also a womans search for her HOME which results in life coming a full cycle.

This is the story of a slum dweller Amma(smita patil).The movie not only captures amma's life realistically but also the environment and the people in that slum.This movie is so realistic that you might wonder whether this is a movie or a documentary. when every body was taking movie with songs in kashmir, here is a movie which goes deep into the life of people living in slums.A very unconventional movie.I still havn't seen a movie which portraits the live of slums people better than this.I dont knwo whether there is any connection between this movie and Durai's(Pasi), for which shoba got the best actress award the year before in 1979.Chakra still remains the best movie ever made about the lower strata peoples of our cities.



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The movie starts with the flashback of how amma and her husband escape the village and end up in the slums.Amma's husband dies when police shoot him for stealing something. Amma lives with her only son Benwa(ranjit chaudhary).Looka(Nasrudeen shah)is the local Dada, who is loved by all. Benwa attracted by looka, goes around carrying knifes , but amma does not want his son to get into unlawful activities and end up like his father.Amma has a Lover, a Truck Driver(kulbushan karbanda).

All amma wants is a small house for herself and her son to be out of trouble.She kind of gets her house of her own but turn of events , makes her dream turn sour. And she ends up at her starting place of the vicious circle(chakra).
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The movie shows a different world, where its inhabitants have a different set of moralities. Arrack drinking women, two timing women, prostitutes, men earning by illegal ways,kids aspiring to become a knife wielding henchmen etc.It also depicts there sorry state.People getting killed for a bowl of grains and there houses getting demolished by the government at whim.

It portraits how they have to struggle every day ,yet how they have the world with hope after every obstacles in their life.The movie does not get emotional or make us feel pity for them.But rather it makes us understand their life.A life where there is constant demolition and construction, Hope and failures, birth and death.The chakra continues.

The movie will give you 3 unforgettable characters.

Amma(smita patil) :
what an actress.I was awed after seeing her performance in bhumika,mandi & arth.With chakra iam convinced that she is a very rare talent. Smita plays the role of amma , beautifully. She has this laid back attitude of the slum woman all through out the movie.It is hard to believe that her performance was acting.she pretty much has lived the character. There is a public bathing scene which will show her conviction, in acting these types of roles.For me, she has become another testament for the proverb "The Good Die Young".

Lukka(Nasrudeen shah):
Nasrudeen shah is awesome in this movie.He comes as a colorful criminal, who later gets affected by syphilis.



Benwa(ranjit chaudhary):
What kind of an impact can you make in a movie,when you are acting with giants like nasrudeen shah and smita patil.That too if you are a new comer, who has acted only 4 movies.Ranjit chaudhary as Benwa(Amma's son) gives a stealer performance. I found his face familiar, but was not able to remember any movie that he acted.Later i realized he was the same kid who played rusie mistry(a karate practicing sportsman) in khatta meeta.But i wonder why more opportunities didn't come his way.



The movie has some good actor playing small parts.Rohini hattangadi, kulbhushan karbanda who as usual does his role to perfection. Was surprised to see many young faces sathish kaushik, Salim Ghouse etc.



Salim Ghouse who acted in subah serial, chinna kounder, vetri vizha

This is a film sponsored by the NDFC, based on the novel chakra by jayanth dalvi.It was directed by first time director dharmaraj.Un fortunately he died after shooting the movie.This remains his fist and last great work.

The movie has some interesting names in the credits.As usual script dialogue writen by shama zaidi and javed sidique.Music By hridayanth manjrekhar(brother of lata mangeshkar).There are 4 songs in the movie

1.Ubi, aankhon mein tuti -- By bhupinder singh (Title song )
2.Jeene marne ke chakkar -- By bhupinder singh
3.Raat Andheri -- By Suresh Wadkar , Ravindra Sathe
4.Kaaley kaaley -- By Lata Mangeshkar

and my pick is Kaaley Kaaley.

Great work done by the art director Bansi chandragupta. Background score by amar haldipur.The credits said "special assistant to the director" - Rajkumar santhoshi.



The film fare best actress,actor and art direction went deservingly to smita patil,nasrudeen shah and Bansi Chandragupta for chakra.At the national level smita patil got her second best actress award.The movie lost the Best film & direction o Mrinal Sen's (Akaaler Sandhane) and best actor to balan nair for his role in Oppol .

links
smita patil
smitha patil a tribute

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