AMPHA's Act

My views on state of movies and music

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Lyricists for the future

I have always written about new and promising music-directors and singers but never about lyricists. Partly because apart from the veteran beacons of creativity, intelligence and innovation - Javed Akhtar and Gulzar there was no one else in sight. But now the situation has changed. Hope has prevailed. I'll be profiling three promising lyricists as I gather enough information and supporting articles about them.

Introducing with aplomb! : Prasoon Joshi (Hum Tum, Fanaa, Rang De Basanti) , Swanand Kirkire (Parineeta, Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi, Lage Raho Munnabhai) & Jaideep Sahni (Company, Salaam Namaste).

Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Bachchan Interview

Read this nice interview of Amitabh Bachchan. An excerpt:

"..The detailing is flawless. The screen-play and dialogue have panache and finesse. The performances from all his artists are without error and the way Karan has put all this together is a marvel..."

You must have realized what AB is talking about. If you are so cinematically-challenged as to not understand the context then I'll tell you :) Its about the nice film everyone is taking personally these days - KANK!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Jagade Jagade Ja

Remember Shiva? Ram Gopal Varma's arrival on the Bollywood scene which was then infested with rotten stuff. Shiva was a breath of fresh air! Well RGV is now remaking it and has roped in the music director of the former version Illayaraja to do the music of the new one. The famous song "Jagade Jagade, Jagade Jagade Jaa" from the former (Raj Zutshi, Amla etc dancing in the college corridors) is being kept in the new one albeit with different lyrics and setting.


Illayraja gives the album is tradermark stamp with complicated tunes extracting the most out of Shreya Ghosal, Roop Kumar Rathod, Sadhana Sargam et al along with some good music mixing. Nice to see him back!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

KUDOS to Karan

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna finally released and I saw it within the first 7 days! I can't recall the last movie I have seen that quickly. And considering my current schedule I don't recall the last movie I've seen at first thoughts! Of course, I have had luck trusting my instinct avoidng some big banner films (Fanaa) for unimpressive direction and I've been right. Krrish is still left to be seen though. Anyway this post is for KANK and KANK only. For me KANK is an absolute classic - an impressive take on the cliched topic of infidelity in marriage. Karan Johar has proved again what a master writer he is - in developing his characters, his situations and the overall story. KANK provides wholesome entertainment with some amazingly developed unusual (Amitabh Bachchan) and stero-type breaking roles (Shah Rukh Khan). Along with the serious theme the film has, dollops of finely written comedy also make their presence felt in the first half.

In all the marriage infidelity movies (MIMs) seen till date, KANK goes way past most of them in terms of maturity in handling the subject. By maturity I mean this: Most of earlier MIMs have happy marriages followed by entry of the outsider ( "woh" ) creating the infidelity followed by utterly predictable/illogical scenes. Not here though. Here the infidelity develops out of non-working marriages. Those involved in dying relationships try their best to infuse life in them. Elders try in their own ways to save the relationships. So someone doesn't just stand up and walk out of some marriage for no reason and others don't just keep on watching or sympathising! Yes infidelity happens nonetheless but innovative and out-of-the-box solutions are sought. People move on and don't keep making matters worse for themselves and others.

Hypocrites are reacting over the "inappropriate" happenings in the movie terming them as "bold". That real life happenings are much more complicated that what is shown in the movie is conveniently ignored. That is the tendency though! Like every man will consider it his dream to be in Amitabh Bachchan's shoes living the life he lives in KANK but still it will be "inappropriate". Anyway, let all such people go home and do some healthy introspection.

Karan Johar receives 10/10 from me for putting so much effort and money into making such a big movie. That it also has great songs has been discussed in detail here. I hope and pray that the film does good business so that KJ recovers all his money and can make even better movies. If the skyrocketing opening collections are anything to to by, KANK is on its way to achieve a mega hit status.

(Here is Khalid Mohamed's review for KANK)