Summer 2007 - 2 yays, 7 nays, 5 okays

Summer 2007 reviews at Blogbharti:

[...] Meetu strongly recommends Summer 2007. Sure, we can choose to close our eyes once again to the farmer suicide issue because seems so distant. But, just like we read about it in the newspapers, write about it on our blogs, we should watch this movie because someone dared to make it. Linked by BA. Join Blogbharti facebook group. [...]

harry:

Interesting issue touched by the film makers there for sure...Thanks for the lovely review! I'll catch this flick for sure!

meetu:

Hello all,

As you see in "Articles linking here", Ash of DesiPundit has been kind enough to link to this post.

Atul Pandey, the producer of the movie happened to read the post there and left a comment. We have been interacting on the comment space there. I have copy-pasted the exchange here, in case you are interested.

!!! spoiler warning !!!

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Hi, this is atul - i produced this film. i did so as i was mad to make a film and it could not have been frivilous. I am not too sure if the film would be ringing bells at the box office-though i would love to get my money back to make more such film, but it is an honest effort. Most of us involved in producing this film are better human beings compared to what we were when we started studying the content of/for the film. I really appreciate and am truly overwhelmed when people laud our effort - irrespective of the success of the film. I may not entirely agree when ASH says that the film does not offer any solution to the rural poverty, agrarian crisis, lop sided development issue but i salute her for mentioning that we have to prick our minds to search for solutions. We have not told a very complicated story - its just a real/realistic story. If you wish to know what solution i have for all this mess, well, for starters lets look beyond our AC car windows, realise there is a problem and probably develop compassion for our co-humans in India and elsewhere. Once we do that, i am sure newer ideas would make way to help the childrens of lesser gods. D’caprio said a wonderful line in Blood Diamond, “i think gods left this place long time back’. Lets put an effort to get the gods back to the homes of those who need it more than us.

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My reply -

!!! spoilers in this comment !!!

Hey Atul, thanks for putting your heart and money in bring this issue to us.

I was actually referring to Shankya’s dialogue in which he alluded to the fact that the micro credit system is an idea conceived by a common criminal like him. But, educated people could have better ideas if they set their mind to it.

And I was sharing the same sentiment with the readers that we should think of solutions instead of expecting the movie to come up with a 100% practical solution.

Thanks, once again!

* * *

Atul's reply -

Hi meetu, Please dont thank me. I am actually touched by your support to the cause of (if i may say) poor of the world. I absolutely agree with you when you say “we are intelligent people out here. Why don’t we do something?”. We have been majorly affected by Bhagat Singh and we have very subtly tried to adopt it in the last scene. Rahul had an option of not surrendering to the cops and remain free once he was out of the village (he was an escapist, he did it to sudents who were going to vote for him at college) but he decides to get arrested, put his point of view in the court and use his fathers influence to get the media to report the issue. He knows that when a big guy goes to jail everyone wants to know the reason. The solution will start from a point when we as a nation and a generation would acknowledge that there is a problem which needs to be addressed.

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My reply -

!!! Spoilers in this comment !!!

Yeah Atul, I liked what Rahul did in the end. In the strangest way, it was sad and yet, inspirational.

Also, from the writing part of view it was nice because the transformation was to the other extreme of what his character was, but, it didn’t look unbelievable. The events that happened in between made him change gradually.

No social reform can happen overnight, so yes a baby step is to realize that there is a problem. And it need not be only in this particular area, right? So much around us needs to change. It will be great to try and make whatever little change in whatever way we can.

Do let me know if you get a chance to read the whole article.

Thanks!

Will keep you guys posted if there is any more interaction.

Thanks for stopping by and keep coming!

Atul:

Hi Meetu

Must confess, will rate your review among top 5 reviews of our film. Its honest and intelligent. Now on i will try and read your reviews before deciding on seeing movies.

Ridhima:

Lolz:D i dont mean THAT Meetu. Somehow i dont like name of a movie being taken as a timeline...dont u think it wud have been better if the name of the movie said something about what happened rather than when.

Shishir Jaiswal:

This is a great movie after a while in Bollywood, a must watch in theater for people from all generations..good work, nice story, no super hero stuff all looks real, no exaggerations, I guess Gul signs nice movies like this, its awesome..

Harshad:

Hi Meetu,

I have been referring to your site before selecting the movies to watch. Thanks for the great work.

About this movie, well, I would definitely agree with you about the fact that the issue needs to be publicized and thoughts must be provoked. Because of that reason alone, I might agree with your rating of "watch for sure".
But I would rather say that the movie has its heart in right place, put the execution lacked.. There were several things in the story line that were there just to make a point, but did not link to one another very fluently. I can almost sense there was so much earnestness in telling the farmer suicide story that the thought that should have been given to etch it out completely was compromised.

Well... cinema for me is all about story telling, and hence the rant.. but I do commend the courage of the makers.

Atul:

Hi Guys

been a while i visited here. its exciting you people are still talking about S7. Recently, about 500 farmers saw the film in Allahabad, UP. Young and Old and some women as well. An organisation named SANCHETNA had organised the show for them. I could not have missed an opportunity to get the first hand view of how they would react to the film. I reached around interval. The theatre was probably showing one of its last films before making way for a plex. It was real bad condition - smell, rats, seats that threatened to sink. I am sure poor farmers were not thinking what i was about the state of the theatre. There was pin drop silence in the theatre-just some bit of excitement during the tamasha song. Women had tears during Shankya's speech, some older men too. when the show got over and the media converged onto these people, i could hear some rebellious comments like "hum soodkhor se mukti paana chahte hain" etc. 3-4 of them somehow realised that i dont look normal, they asked what had i got to do with the film. They hugged me hard and told me "bhaiya ye filam nahin hai .... aandolan hai".

Last few days have been extremely harsh on us, we have lost a lot of money on S7 but those words have travelled back with me and i have a glint of smile as i recall the incidence and write this mail.

My driver's words (who is from Samastipur, Bihar) echo "Sahab Bilkul aise hi hota hai". We told the story of someone in Vidarbha - it is true for every poor farmer everywhere in India.

crumbtrail:

a refreshing movie that can in the least take you by surprise.to expect a movie happy being underhyped for what it carries by wearing the commercial cloak, sans employing art fraternity actors or distributors,to hold a lot more innocencently driven power than most other exaggeratedly self aware cinema,is a small joy.
the storyline is strong, the intent seems original and thought provoking.dialogues come much closer to being real and interesting than u walk in expecting having learnt from the pretentious nothingness of our pseudo art house bag- the rajat sharma rahul bose kind.
what incompletes the experiecne with as much force for me is the choice of not all but most central actors, the oh so curved and clearly over their screen age students,the naked sleeves in a rural internship, the sleek sultry well chiselled police waali.the movie leaves enough room for criticism, but that isnt my intention at all.
i would just like to emphasise its difference, it is,if not a complete or well volumed, but a small step from insignificant to singificant cinema, and that pleasures me more for its understated stance.
there are points when the plot seems to just about dip into melodrama,but u can always put it behind you- for it is fiction, that intends to make you aware of a very distant and i wouldnt discredit, small, atrocity. but just because you do not see representations in cinema of the still bigger framework of things around you, does not mean the small must not be illustrated.it is the coming together of a light background (sometimes refreshingly surprising, other times pretentious- which might be due to the choice of actors also) a less explored background of the medical students, with the dark and intense drama within the micro levels of a village that is interesting and keeps the pace pulsating.
i personally liked the camera work, particularly the camera fades between shots, making the choice of told and untold as well as play with timing interesting.the opening shot in the car is my favourite,the weed joint, the intelligent yet lihgt dialoguing,and the its striking subsequence after a siucide in the feild shot.
i appriciated the acting of the lead actor of the lot, rahul(in the film), his silent and appropriately balanced delivery. i still feel the actors look way over their ages for medical students which is as bad for the film as its story might be above the average.
nothelessless, worth a watch.
it might make you want to hop parts for it runs the risk of not having the regular elements to hold you to the screen once you simply get the point,for i do belive thats all there is to it- a small easily dissolvable point, but its delightful to see it attempted, and youre continousl taken by surprise for the grotesqueness of human experience - for we do know,the most unromantic things happen only when u least expect or deserve them.

Atul:

hi Meetu

we have made it to the Indian Panorama. congratulate me soon. cheers...