Byomkesh bombed!!!

It is encouraging to find such a long queue infront of the movie halls to watch a bengali flick. Two Directors in recent times have tried their hands at Byomkesh Bakshi. The first one went away unnoticed despite the sleazy posters. The film was so quickly forgotten that I cannot even remember the name of the movie or its Director! This is the second one- 'Adeem Ripu' - a screen adaptation of Sharadindu Bandopadhyay's Byomkesh series.

Anjan Dutt, having established his credentials with films like 'Bong Connection' and 'Chalo lets go', made the audience expect something really exceptional and the encouraging box office collection of the first week stands proof to it.

All shows at Nandan being housefull, I watched it at the Star theatre.

Any film adaptation of a literary work faces comparison with the actual story. The image of the characters are so deeply eked out in the readers' mind, that whenever a film is made, there is an obvious comparison with the book.

Anjan Dutt's Byomkesh Bakshi disappointed me because of its several anomalies and incongruous treatment of the script by the film-maker!

Anadi babu is murdered! The Director shows that life is as usual at Anadi's house even after his murder! With Anadi's dead body lying unattended, Anadi's friend Kalibabu is asking for tea, and even though Nanibala denies, Byomkesh insists, that its okay to have tea even if there is no milk! Death, for all its worth, deserves some grace, irrespective of who it befriends!

The costume designer has not done a good job either. Ajit's watch is a old one that needs keying in. However, Byomkesh is found wearing a quartz- ( A Fast Track I guess!) in the 1960? Naninbala Devi always wears designer Tant sareer with no sign of crease on them, no matter which time of the day she gives an appearance! The policemen are all wearing white Kolkata Police outfit, and if I am not mistaken, those days, the cops wore Khaki- wardis. White terricotton were not so much in vogue then!

Byomkesh visits Prabhat's (the adopted son of Anadi) book shop, and finds him unwell. He takes him to a Dr. and then accompanies Prabhat to his house. After that, why does he go inside Prabhat's room, what does he do? What clue did he find there, nothing is known to the audience even after the film ends.

Byomkesh knows who is the killer, however, he decides to play the surprise game with the audience and thereby distances the audience from the film to a great extent! He is the Sabjanta type with no explanation given to the audience!

How did Byomkesh even know that Nanibala witnessed the murder of Anadi? Nanibala did not tell him for sure! Byomkesh or Ajit, no one was present at the site of the murder! None of the characters give any details or clue to suggest that Nanibala had seen the murder! Did Byomkesh get a divine blessing of a third eye? Well, the audience does not get to see that!

One fails to understand what is Swastika doing in the movie and especially the climax scene? Why so much of screen space has been allotted to her remains a question till the end. Her character rightly says "I cannot understand why even I am here?" Well, she had no roles to play in the murder and yet was made a part of the last scene hearing by Byomkesh..no one knows for what! The audience was not interested to know her love story! And thats all she tells the audience and leaves. The fact that Nanibala had an out of marriage relationship, that she was a fallen woman, has already been told by Kalibabu during his inebriated conversation with Byomkesh and therefore Shiuli 's (screen name of Swastika)verbal tirade against Nanibala was unnecessary!

The riot scenes are extremely ill conceived, overdone and strikes a discordent note. Throughout the movie people run from and to every possible direction for safety from communal riots. However, Ajitesh, Byomkesh and Nripen move about the riot stricken Calcutta streets in such a manner as if nothing has happened despite a growing inferno around them! Amidst the recurring scenes of communal violence, an attempt by the film-maker to portray the contemporary social set up, the utter reluctance and indifference of the characters to the surroundings is extremely unnatural and funny at times. In real life, imagine you are walking down Park Street, and God forbid there is an all devouring fire. Is it natural to walk slowly chatting and whiling away, as if nothing has happened in the world? Is it not normal to run away for safety? It was very surprising how a seasoned filmaker like Anjan Dutt could make such an unrealistic portrayal of the locale! The same Anjan Dutt, who exploited the locale with such greatness in films like "Chalo lets go", has failed miserably in this film on this count.

All conversation of Byomkesh with Ajit , intense, or otherwise, is lit up by a cigarette! The smoking is so overdone that at times I felt, Charminar was the key funding agency of the movie!

A big plus in this film is Rudraneil. The dark, short and overweight actor is getting better with each of his movies. His performance is absolutely fantastic and lends complete credence to his character. Abir Chattopadhyaya- aka Byomkesh Bakshi has done reasonably well, and Saswata Chatterjee looks good. Nanibala Roy looks more like a woman of nineties than sixties except for her glasses.....and is pathetic in her sobbing attempts! Maybe she should take a few acting tips from Rundraneil..who manages to get the audience by his side despite being the murderer by merit of his acting acumen.

Anjan Dutt's Byomkesh Bakshi, does not live up to its expectation! It fails to create the lasting impact in the audience's mind...the urge to see it more than once! That is a rare distinction achieved by all the Feluda movies made by Satyajit Ray. A 'Sonar Kella', or a 'Joybaba Felunath' creates interest in our mind even today...even though we have by-hearted the dialogues and scenes!

Had I not had the intention to write this blog, I too, would have cleaned up the hard disk of my brain off this movie soon after I came out the theatre hall!

Change....

The other day I was at the Gariahat market with a friend to buy a few clothes. We were discussing how fashion revisits itself some 20-30 years. The baggy style has given way to slim fits now. The 'Anarkali style' churidaar, printed hairband has invaded the market today in an emphatic way.....bringing back what we we used to wear some 20 years back. They say change is inevitable and I agree. It is very interesting to note though, how change repeats itself in pattern or style as time passes by.

On a completely different note though I revisited a part of my childhood this morning.

There was this maid ( domestic help) called Savitri- di who used to work at our place when I was very young. She had a daughter named ' Pushpa' who would help my mom with all the household chores. For the knowledge of all my non- Indian friends and blog followers, a domestic help, coming from a socially, economically deprived and never developed strata of society is a very common thing in Indian middle and upper class families.They are human labourers who would do the dish washing, room cleaning for many socially and economically better off households for a better living. Pushpa, was one. When she came to our house, she herself was probabaly 9-10 years old. I wrote 'probably' because neither she nor her mother could tell me the actual age. They had no birthdays, forget about the thought of celebration, they had no record of date, time or month when they were born so that the Astrologers could map their progression of future. I had spent many Sunday afternoons questioning her about her life, when does she start for work, what does she eat, why does she not go to school like me, and at times during the course of conversation I would find her fast asleep.

Pushpa and her mother came from Laxmikantapur , a village down southern West Bengal. They would report to work around 7' o clock in the morning at our place for which they would start at 3:30 in the morning even before the Sun rose. Pushpa's dad did not go to work, and I do not remember the reason, and she and her mother would work in many household like ours to arrange for a square meals for themselves, the father and the young brother. One day, when I was still in school, I heard Pushpa got married. Her mother continued to work in our house till the time I was in college first grade.

Years went by...... One day I asked Savitri di about Pushpa. She happily replied that Pushpa was then a mother of two children. I asked about Pushpa's young brother. She happily said that he was studying a major in Sanskrit at a college near our place. Just as I was moving up the ladder of academics, Savitri-di's son was also stepping ahead , scaling one after another, the unsurmountable peaks of his life. From school, to high school to college.....what a journey it was, he only knew.

Years went by..we moved away from a domestic - helped household to a self helped one where I clean my own clothes, wash my own dishes and mom does hers.

This morning while I was busy doing something at my PC, there was a knock at the gate and my mom uttered a sigh of disbelief at the ushering of the guest. Pushpa! it was. After 20-25 years she was back, with the only noticeable change being that she was a saree clad lady from a red frock clad ( that was her uniform to work) girl. Her complexion has not changed. Unlike me she has not put on weight and was well built with no sign of obesity or necessity to visit the gym. She was smiling with her white teeth and her hair still dark and oily. I asked her what were her children doing. Pushpa's son was studying at a college under the guidence of Pushpa's brother and her daughter already got married at the age of fifteen. Pushpa is back in her family business of offering domestic help because in a bid to get her daughter married off they incurred a few loans and she needed to work to pay that money. I heard that Pushpa's brother did not attend the marriage of his neice because he did not approve a child getting married. Pushpa's youngest son (kid number three) was at the sixth grade. She said, she starts off for work early morning, but ensures that she gets home by 4'o clock in the afternoon because the youngest son would come home from school and his food should be ready. Pushpa did not work therefore 'Fulltime.'

My mother asked, now that there were so much emphasis laid by the government on restructuring the social sector, so many crores of money spent on rural employment generation and rural education, could Pushpa not get some help from those? She said, at their village, they did not get any of those. For that matter, the text books for schools, which were supposed to be had from the school were not given and she has to spent a considereble amount of her income in buying books for her youngest son.

Pushpa left after a few minutes of revisiting the past, leaving me write this blog after a lull of two months.

Change is the most unchangeable happening in our life, however, the pattern of change brings back the bygone.

Here was the dress materials, the style of the seventies that made a comeback in the fashion arena, and there was Savitri and her daughter Pushpa working as domestic helps so that their sons could study in colleges and yet another little girl getting married even before she knew what marriage was!

Did you see 'Paa'?

This time I decided to defy norms.  I am one who would allow the Newspaper movie critic bend my thoughts  to see a movie based on their graphical representation of a good or a bad film on every friday release.  Sometimes this has helped, sometimes it has still burnt my slender pocket by some 300 odd money spent on a movie thats not worth it.  But this time, I decided not to look at the Friday Review and to go and hit the theatre hall to see ' Paa'. 

Much talks were around pre and post production of this film.  Starting from the fact that this one is ABCL s comeback trail, that it took Big B five hours without water or food to put on the make up of the Progerian child and two more to take it off, the fact that the son Abhishek Bachchan plays the Dad, the fact that 'Paa' s much publicised premiere was attended by the biggest who's who of bollywood including Baadshah  Shahrukh Khan, and not to forget the amazing posters which will make anyone curious about how a 6ft 2 inches tall, 67 years old man can look like a 12 year progerian child , Paa had all the ingredients already to invoke curiosity in the mind of a movie goer.

The film starts with a very unconventional method of introducing the crew .  ABCLs Jaya Bachchan reads out one by one all the names of the cast and the crew. The significance was thought to be on two counts by my sceptical mind. 

A.  Jaya reads the names for those who cannot read it.
B.  Jaya introduces all to acknowledge the contribution of everybody of the shooting unit which , if not so pronounced usually never gets registered in the audience' mind.  Director R.Balakrishnan leaves his first impression with real mastery. 

I am like those million movie goers who know nothing about the theory of good cinema.  To me, good photography means great scenery, capturing of the locale, good acting means the actors' ability to make me laugh and cry with them. I understand nothing more than being able to hear crystal clear sound when it comes to sound editing and mixing  and to me great make-up means, convincing look.

The make up artists of Amitabh Bachhchan has certainly created magic with their expertise.  Except for a few close shots with Vidya Balan, ( Auro's on screen Mother ) when one cannot make mistake about the deep eyes of Mr Bachchan,  it is absolutely impossible to decipher Big B  as what he is from the garb.  Use of top angle shots most of the time by  the cinematographer has helped reduce the tall Amitabh to a frail Progerian child with all credulence.  The baritone voice has given way to a nasal tone, the occasional lisps to pronounce words like ' 'gynaecologist' lends all the more reality to the deliverence of the character. 

I remember Amitabha Bachchan's one page praise showered on his son Abhishek after ' Guru' was released on every leading national daily . Abhishek, indeed has marched a long way since his debut.  One after another his performance has mesmerized the audience.  There is this filmy ' last scene ' in ' Paa' when Amitabh ( Auro) utters the word ' Paa' for the first time and then breathes his last.  Abhishek's transformation of facial expression from the delight  of attaining momentary fatherhood to the agony of helplessness of losing a genetically disordered child  who he never parented,  most certainly proves that even though the onscreen character of Amitabh has genetic disorder, off screen Abhishek has got the correct genetic code when it comes to inheriting the acting prowess from his dad. 
Instead of turning out the film to a morbid documentary of a no cure Progeria disease, Director Balakrishnan  has successfully turned it to an enjoyable weekend 'relief'.  The occasional comic relief has been lend by a very strong performance from the inimitable Paresh Rawal and Amitabh himself.  How can you forget Auro's witty comments peppered all throughout the movie in his several interactions with 'Bum' ( Arundhati Nag, Auro's Grandmom) and the hilarious  account of Paresh Rawal and Amitabh in the hospital when the latter says there is not much time left and Paresh Rawal starts consoling him how Auro has to get well soon to play with his Grandad, to which Auro replies, " Mein sirf Visiting hours ka baat kar raha tha."  A masterstoke I must say. 

Vidya Balan will keep this one in her kitty as a mind blowing performance all throughout her life.  A perfect working mom look delivered by Sabyasachi, Aki Narula et al,  Vidya has given a very very strong performance as Auro's unmarried mother- who in Auro's parlance never took the ' round and round' ( saat phera) with his dad.  Hardened by the reality of parenting a child whose father wanted to abort the foetus because he had political dreams to follow, Vidya's is supremely composed, measured and clinical in her execution of the role.

Before the screening of Paa, I read about a certain family in Chhapra Zilla, Bihar where two children were prey to this rare disease. Ikramulla , one of the progerian child said that the disease does not allow one to roam and jump around so freely as has been shown in the film.  I bet it does not and therefore expected an otherwise fabulous Balakrishnan to have bolstered his research a bit more.  He indeed lost a few counts on this part of the screenplay because, other than a few ' hichkis' ( hiccups) followed by an ICU admission, Auro seems to be unpurturbed by the disease.  The real picture may not be so easy for those who are prey to this ailment. 

One cannot sign off without writing about Arundhati Nag. Had she not complemented the role of a doting grandmom so well, Auro's performance could have lost some sheen off it.

'Paa', Tare Zameen Par' are few films bollywood would be proud of.  I did not see any full page projection of Amitabh Bachchan's salutation for his son's performance on any of the newspaper this time , but ' Paa' is worth all the 'paisa' that one spends on it. A path breaking performance by all the cast it sure is a  fantastic watch that leaves an indelible mark in your mind.

Why a blog?

I must admit that for the past few days I have been giving it some thought. The thought to start writing regularly. In our childhood all of us must have written at least for once the famous essay: " What is your aim in life?" Like many kids of my age I started off my dream of becoming a pilot, forsook it sooner than I dreamt about it, since it requires one to study Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.....Not my cup of tea I thought. Then one day I saw Barkha Dutt with short hair and cut my hair short to look like a T.V Newsanchor, and to be one. It is then,around the age of 12-13, I wanted to become a newspaper reporter. I grew up, kept writing a few pieces in the Letters To The Editor column, few got published, few never saw the light of  the Newspaper world. I even studied Journalism to become a scribe and then got a job in Delhi to become a Call centre agent collecting money from broke Americans. Dreams die faster than they shape up. By this time I had became faster on keyboards than  pen and paper. Years passed by. I became an Assistant Manager at a Call centre, this time catching credit card fraud for Americans. Emails were the only things that I wrote then, which were more a mean of being instructed to do something and to pass the buck on, rather having any creative edge to it! I quit that job too. After all staying awake all through the night and going to work on Christmas, New Year, and most importantly on Durgapuja, to check if any crooked American was spending another fellow Americans'credit card on a vacation or not started to disgust me too much. This time, I became, a Teacher. The job has less money but a bonus . Bonus, that does not make the bank accout look healthier, but definitely strengthens ones creative faculty because I got TIME now. Much like Amitabh Bachhan and Sashi Kappor starrer 'Deewar' when my old colleagues of the call centre would say , " Mere paas Disco hain, Inox hai, five star restaurents aur branded Jeans hai, tumhare paas kya hai?" I pump up my chest and say, " Mere paas samay hai!." I got Time.....Time, that I so miserably ran short of all these past six years,  is at my disposal now. And oh! how can I forget the bonus .......teachers do not go to colleges during Durga Puja or Christmas this part of the world. Then the other day my ex -colleague of the call centre, the then Communicatioin Manager told me about this blogging thing. After all if Amitabh Bachhchan, Amir Khan blogs, can I be far behind? - I thought. So here met the past with the future. Besides, with blogs being created in just three mouse clicks, one no longer has to balance oneself on the thin rope of hope that can get cut by the newspaper editor at one snap. I am the king of this world. I write and I choose to edit. So here I am blogging to glory more to please myself than my esteemed readers.