Swetha Ramakrishnan
Swetha Ramakrishnan has rated 0 movies, and has posted 8 comments.
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Swetha Ramakrishnan has rated 0 movies, and has posted 8 comments.
Click here to go to the external website of this user. Careful - this link has not been verified by wogma.
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Bollyfan: You get me wrong. For a hindi cinema audience, who have not watched Kanchivaram, Thalavottam and etc, Priyadarshan is equated with comedy films. And I am talking of a mass opinion, which does not expect realistic portrayals. His comedies have been entertaining, but in Bollywood even his attempt at a political satire was far from realistic.
And my point was, Slapstick in Khatta Meetha was stale and not funny at all. Barring the fact that it is a genuinely enjoyable form. Plus, the original had an entirely different reception and agenda altogether.
Meetu and her humourous, unique style of writing IS missed by me too :)
@ To all:
1. Above posted review is my personal view of the movie. But I must take this opportunity to mention that it's a kind of movie that could appeal to a lot of people. Maybe I am missing the larger context of the movie, and while I admitt the movie is stylish in bits, somehow the entire package did seem a bit forced. I do think the movie was entertaining and promising in the beginning but it lacked majorly in the latter half because, for me, it only deteriorated from then.
2. About the genuineness of the film, again I think the concept is bang on, but the execution of the whole film somehow lost out from the crisp beginning.
3. A critique of the dialogues have been brought out at various parts in the review, and my only point about the dialogues is that even though it IS different, it gets a bit tiring to have the same style of punch-filled dialogues spoken by every character. Maybe it would have a better impact had they restricted it to one character or just a few demanding scenes.
4. The music is decent and I personally like "Pee Loon" a lot, but on the whole, they don't seem like songs that might be remembered for a really long time. I also like the picturization and idea of the "Duniya Mein" remix. See, now that was entertaining and a "throwback at the 70s" in style :)
5. My apologies about not mentioning Prachi Desai. According to me, she looks fresh and fits the part of Shoaib's girlfriend, but even her character takes a backseat by the second half. Although that could have been the intention.
@Lost in confusion
You have it bang on, because that is exactly what Akshay might be thinking. I don't think he does movies now to prove anything. It's more about the money and the banner.
@Joydeep
Maybe for people who are Akshay Kumar fans, it could be a one time watch.
@Bollyfan
Yes, the RayBan glasses do pose a few question, but he does have common man sandals, and a reynolds pen, which the last time I checked was Rs. 6. So it does follow certain common man rules atleast!
@Ailumramu
Realism isn't expected from a Priyadarshan movie. We were expecting comedy, but even that seemed to be lacking because it was too slapstick. Although I agree the movie does have it's own followers, because the movie was packed first day, first show. And the audience was cheering and dancing along with Akshay Kumar!!
@ Bobbyfan:
Yes Bobby was there. But it just seems to me that Karishma made it cool to be that way. But yes, the trend started way earlier :)
* First line meant that Villians are actually charted out as bad only.
@Shruti:
No villians are bad for the sake of being bad, only. It's the lead characters with moral flaws which are justified. So I agree that giving a reason shows us the motivation behind the character to do a "wrong" deed, but I am trying to figure out these explanations are needed, and why it can't just be an inherent part of the character!
Maybe. Maybe there is more to white and black than we deduce. But my point is, It's been there, and for the large part (read for most people) they are representative of Good and Bad. And just that. There were good characters, and there were bad. And there was MOSTLY nothing in between that.
Then we come the Grey characters, who are a whole lot more complex than good or bad, and have overlapping characteristics. Now in Bollywood, even though we've seen some of these characters around, in mainstream cinema we still have justifications for them. Grey can still be grey without having a childhood reason behind it, you know what I mean?
So the main point of my argument was we went from watertight morals to complex moralistic overlaps wrt characters. While we still have some rigidly moral characters like Amrita Rao in Vivah, we also have a Saif in Being Cyrus. Who according to me is the perfect example of what I pointed out as Grey. Maybe these characters are more relatable to the contemporary audience because they have plausible flaws.
Having established this, all that needs to be said is that Bollywood in itself isn't doing away with extremely moralistic characters. Neither is primetime television, it's still there because there's an audience for it. There has just been a shift in the type of morals being portrayed on screen because of changing times, but the portrayal is there, whether we see it out and out or we see it with undertones, it's there someplace.
Also, these grey characters are of various types. There are some who we'll never meet, by virtue of being from our setup, and some who are closet Grey. But they all co-exist, and no-one's doing away with either. Not the Grey ones, not the B/W ones. I was only mapping their path and portrayals on screen. Because when it comes to Bollywood, the characters need to have a larger purpose. So if the main character has grey shades, it has to be justified with guilt or some past reason. Or there has to be a transformation. Very rarely do we see a Being Cyrus, and suchlike.
P.s- Agreed Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman were stylish and trendy, but with Karishma you see her wearing minimal clothes, which lead woman characters didn't do much back then. And she still did manage to become fairly famous as a lead heroine inspite of starting out the way she did, "sexy sexy mujhe log bole" and all :) I'm trying to say it wasn't so explicit with Zeenat Aman and Hema Malini and if it were I don't know what the reactions would have been like?
Well, point noted. Some of them are true to life, although I am not sure characters like Saif in Ek Hasina Thi is someone we come across in our everyday life. We appreciate the character because there is not pretense. But that does not necessarily mean we relate with them.
Some characters could just be grey.