Well, I succeeded yesterday in making what would have been one of the most boring days of my existence into something somewhat passable. Exciting even.
The colleague I live with has taken off to Singapore on business, and that leaves me to ruminate on the weekend alone.
In the morning I set off to Panjakutta, to check out two movies at Hyderabad Central. Bought myself tickets for back to back shows of 'Taxi No. 9211' and 'Maalamaal Weekly'.
Happy to say that none of the movies dissapointed.
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Taxi number 9211 (nau do gyarah) recounts the tale of two absolute bastards who come into contact with each other for one day.
Raghu Shastri (Nana Patekar) is a taxi driver, who lies to his wife, making her believe that he is an insurance agent. He is, well as mentioned before, an absolute bastard. Touchy, arrogant, lacking ambition and a drunkard to boot, he hates himself and everyone and everything around him.
Jai Mittal (John Abraham) is the only son of a multi millionaire business tycoon, who, a la Tom Cruise in Rain Man, finds himself disinherited from his late father's will. He needs to get to a vault where he keeps, what he believs to be his father's last will and testament. He crashes his car, and needs to take a taxi, which is when the two protagonists of our story meet.
What follows is an interesting clash of personalities, where both Raghu and Jai are in the grey. The movie takes some pretty seriouos turns, and explores some interesting areas, especially the relationship between Raghu and his wife.
Though I felt Sonali Kulkarni looked to polished for her role as a woman living in a chawl, she does put in a decent performance.
What I liked best about the film is that it does not wrap up in a hurry. I liked Bluffmaster too, but felt that the ending was too sudden. The script here is handled in a far better way, and I felt good about the ending.
Another thumbs up for the fact that the way the Samira Reddy's character is handled at the end of the film. We have seen too many sugary sweet Hindi movie endings. I hope this will be the first of many films where we see women in films being treated as something different from the ideal coochie cooing chicks.
Of course, Nana is superlative as always. He is becoming to Bombay what De Niro or Woody Allen is to New York.
John Abraham seems to be on a roll these days, what with Zinda and now this.
Way to go - Ramesh Sippy !
What confused me was that the trailers of Taxi no. 9211 made me think of it as quite a comic caper, which it certainly is not. Wonder why the guys in charge did that.
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About 'Malamaal Weekly'.
A typical Priyadarshan film. I got exactly what I expected, and was happier due to the fact that this film did not have te rushed and overtly confusing endings of Awara Pagal Deewana and Humgama.
This is vintage Priyadarshan.
The basic plot is similar to that of
'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'.The story revolves around the villagers in a north Indian village, where nearly everyone are looking for ways to pocket the money won from a lottery won by a man who died soon after his lucky break.
The story is complex and the twist and turns are handled well. The end sequences again had shades of the ending of 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World', but it sure drew the laughs out of the audience.
A nice and refreshing story.
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Since I was getting so bored sitting at home, I bought myself a cassette player (those items which people born after 1997 are slow to recognise) and some tapes to pass the time at home. Listened to some great Billy Joel after long. Goodnight Saigon is my current favorite.
We met as soul mates
On Parris Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives
We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight
We had no home front
We had no soft soap
The sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might
We had no cameras
To shoot the landscapes
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother
We promised our mothers we'd write
And we would all go down together
Yes we would all go down together
Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight
We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night
And the night
Seemed to last as long as
Six weeks
On Parris Island
We held the coastline
They held the highlands
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive
And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together
The song is the best I've listened to in a long time and I'm disspointed that I never got a chance to hear it earlier.
Well. Life goes on.
