The Bollywood Elephant

I would like to open with the lines, "Wahi kahani phir ek baar, majnu ne liye kapde phaad macha tamasha beech bazaar." This line holds true for the clichéd romances everywhere. In Bollywood, the romantic genre has gone out of hand. There is a "formula" which seems to be followed by every Bollywood director who is into making romance.                                                           To make a romantic Bollywood "drama" follow the following steps: Step 1: Girl meets Guy. Step 2: Sparks happens and songs are required for emoting love. Step 3: There has to be a "tragedy" or a "bad guy" who shall not allow our lovebirds to be at peace. Step 4: The Guy and the tragedy come face t...

Before watching 'Begum Jaan', I watched the movie that inspired this remake-'Rajkahini', a Bengali movie so there are going to be mentions of it in this review too. Rajkahini and Begum Jaan, both are lead by the same director, Srijit Mukherjee. It is suprising to see that the presentation of both movies differs drastically. Rakahini was led by the bengali actor, Rituparna Sengupta, Begum Jaan is lead by the super-talented Vidya Balan.                                                         Begum Jaan is superiorly backed by the ample of power packed performances. Vidya Balan playing the titular role can just be described in one word- Phenomenal. Though at times she goes a little 'too loud' but majorly she hol...

It has been 8 months since I came to Dublin. Since then, I seem to have grown some 'extra' fondness towards Bollywood. Over my period from September 2016 until March 2017, I have watched a lot of Bollywood movies at the theatres. The first movie that I watched after coming to Dublin was Karan Johar's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'. Initially, I went to buy the tickets from the box office believing that the seats I might have got could be flexible (as in to change it).                                                   Upon entering the theatre, I was dumbstruck because the movie was housefull and I believed about KJo's ability and Aishwarya's star struck presence could bring audience to the theatres even abroad. The next movie that I ...

The Indian Premier League commenced today. A question on the minds of most of the trade analyst throughout the seasons of IPL has been "Will the bat and ball Dent the ticket windows?" The answer to  this question lies on both- the 'type' of cricket played and the movies released during this  period.                                                                                               On a lighter note, we can also say that IPL/any cricket league decides who is the real boss of the house- the husband or th...

Naam Shabana is the prequel to the much acclaimed thriller, 'Baby' which had Akshay Kumar in a lead role.'Baby' was written and directed by Neeraj Pandey who has written and directed movies like 'A Wednesday' and 'Special 26' and so one can imagine how high the pedestal was set for Naam Shabana. Though Neeraj Pandey has only written this prequel, there is no meat to the script. It is infact a crash course on "How to become a spy." When the writing is poor, it all boils down to the actors and thee director to carry the  movie. Director Shivam Nair makes Naam Shabana an even "traumatizing experience". The abrupt switches from scene to scene, the connectivity between pre and post interval sequences seem to be missing and terribly hamper the viewing.                                       ...

"I was ‘rumoured’ to bring bad luck to films. Mind you, all of these films had huge male co-stars and directors, but the failure of movies was blamed upon my bad luck. Thereafter, I’ve been asked to reduce my pay, I’ve been thrown out of films because the producer was having financial issues." was said by an actor who brought both name and fame to a movie which was solely her outstanding performance. An off-beat content driven and a women centric movie that managed to make it big on financial returns.                                           Such incidences raise questions about the pay disparity that is on going in Bollywood. A fact not hidden from anyone, males are paid more than females for their films.  Pay Disparity occurs because when it comes to revenue an...

2017 seems to have had a revolutionary start. Some good content backed by strong performances have been the agenda. Like last week's Rajkummar Rao starrer "Trapped", Bollywood has delivered "Anaarkali of Aarah" this week. "Anaarkali of Aarah" is a movie made up of actors (and not stars). Writer and debutant director Avinash Das has been successfully able to handle the concept of consent of a woman and made it interesting (and entertaining) by adding some typical masala elements. The story of the movie is an out and out winner but it is the sincere and earnest performances that steal the show and back a strong script.                                          Swara Bhaskar's portrayal as a singer who hails from Aarah in Bihar and does "programs" for people is par excellence. ...