Actresses Rani Mukerji (l) and Vidya Balan, seen promoting “No One Killed Jessica” last year in Mumbai, both achieved career bests with their onscreen work in 2011. (AFP/Getty Images)
Technical Razzmatazz
Starting with the packaging, in a fabulous year that saw Hindi
cinema technologically and technically keeping pace with the best of
Hollywood, given due considerations to budgets and potential returns.
In a year that saw spectacular VFX (note especially “Haunted 3D,”
“Don 2” and “RA.One”), we also saw truly great action in films like “Don
2” again, “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” “Singham,” “Bodyguard,” “Bbuddah Hoga
Terra Baap” and so on. Art directors excelled too, both indoors and
outdoors as production designer, while the background scores were not as
below-par as in the past.
The editing, on the other hand, mostly depended on what the filmmakers wanted.
3D was first attempted in Hindi films with “Haunted” in
Stereoscopic 3D, which meant that the film was actually shot with a 3D
camera, whereas “Don 2” and “RA.One” were 2D films converted into 3D in
some prints.
Technically, “Haunted 2” was leagues ahead of the rest. Similarly,
though the trend is unlikely to pick up, the colorized “Hum Dono” was by
leagues the best work seen in this genre.
In a year that saw some of the best cinematography ever seen in
Hindi cinema, the finest work by leagues was probably Jason West’s “Don
2,” truly breathtaking in its frames and angles apart from the sheer
magnificence of the sheen.
The creme-de-la-creme included Carlos Catalan’s “Zindagi Na Milegi
Dobara,” N. Natarajan Subramaniam’s “Desi Boyz,” Nikos Andritsakis’s
“Chalo Dilli,” Christo Bakalov’s “Tere Mere Phere,” Mohana Krishna’s “I
Am Kalam,” Praveen Bhatt’s “Haunted,” Amit Roy’s “Dum Maaro Dum,” Aseem
Bajaj’s “Double Dhamaal” and Ravi Walia’s “Murder 2,” never mind if a
lot of the work was done by foreigners!
The writing front also saw some terrific work — led by Nitesh
Tewari and Vikas Behl (screenplay, dialogues and story for “Chillar
Party”), Arshad Syed (“Chalo Dilli”), Rajat Aroraa (“The Dirty Picture”)
and Jasvidner Bath (“Yamla Pagla Deewana”). The true hero of “The Dirty
Picture” was dialogues writer Aroraa, followed by Syed (“Chalo Dilli”),
Farhan Akhtar (“Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara”) and Farhad-Sajid
(“Singham”).
The Raspberries
Hits and flops may have to do a lot with pricing, marketing, face
value and themes, but bad films across genres are simply bad films.
Before we go to the cream of the cinema content in the year gone by,
here’s checking out the qualitative disasters vis-a-vis expectations and
cast and crew.
Among the biggies, it is indeed a tough choice between “RA.One,”
“Rockstar,” “Mausam” and “Rascals,” but we would settle for the last
only because it had so much scope to entertain us and frittered it away
with sleaze so disgusting and humor so puerile that this writer saw an
exodus of viewers from the theaters halfway through the film, for the
first time since the 2007 “Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.”
“Mausam” ranked next in the sheer ennui of its length and the
absurdity of its premise and plot: lovers meeting and parting endlessly
and always having natural and man-made disasters playing an important
role.
“RA.One” was an ingenious idea lost in taking the audience in every
sense for granted and was another sleep-inducing fare. However, it was
“Rockstar” that proved to be the completely negative story of the year.
Little that the hero did made sense from beginning to end. Here we were,
celebrating cinematic mediocrity in script and direction and terrible
and directionless negativity in the character and motivation of a
chronic and almost contemptible loser. This is where Ranbir Kapoor’s
acting, one of the finest performances this year, was that much more
creditable. But it once again highlighted his penchant for doing the
wrong films!
Other execrable fare was the utterly mindless “Teen Thay Bhai,” the
dark and unnecessarily deviant “Shaitan” and Vishal Bhardwaj’s wannabe
global “7 Khoon Maaf.” And then there were films so terrible that we did
not dare to even watch them, like “Chatur Singh Two Star,” “My Friend
Pinto” and “I Am Singh.”
Memorable Celluloid Moments
The best film of the year sees a toss-up between Nitesh Tewari and
Vikas Behl’s “Chillar Party,” a children’s film in the true sense of the
term that appealed to kids of all ages; and Milan Luthria’s “The Dirty
Picture,” a film as adult as can be in content, visuals, dialogues and
story. “Chillar Party” wins simply because it was much more difficult to
make as a film and also it had not a single loose moment.
The third position is again almost a tie between the masala
entertainer that was Samir Karnik’s “Yamla Pagla Deewana” and Lara
Dutta’s home production “Chalo Dilli” directed by Shashant Shah, with
its original concept and brilliant execution; but “Yamla...” triumphs by
a slender margin because of its sheer entertainment and emotional
quotient.
Here was a film loved even by the many Deol detractors, and the
high point of the script (Jaswinder Singh Bath) was its frequent
turning-on-the-head of the done-to-death situations of Hindi cinema.
“Chalo Dilli,” fresh, intelligent, entertaining and finally deeply
moving, will in the future rank among classics from this decade.
The fifth place goes easily to one of Hindi cinema’s most positive
stories ever told, “I Am Kalam,” directed by Nila Madhab Panda. With a
solid message and a bright matrix of Rajasthani culture, it was a
never-before experience, though not mass-friendly in terms of face
value. Whoever did come in to watch it went back exhilarated and willing
to watch it again.
Next ranked Tigmanshu Dhulia’s gritty and twisted thriller “Saheb
Biwi Aur Gangster” and Aamir Khan’s Abhinay Deo-directed insane and dark
comedy in Hinglish, “Delhi Belly.” Mohit Suri’s “Murder 2,” as taut as a
stretched steel rod, the riveting Prawaal Raman’s “404” formed the rest
of the cream.
Rockers on Screen
Besides Ranbir Kapoor, those who stood out among actors were
Dharmendra in “Yamla Pagla Deewana,” Ajay Devgn in “Singham,” Farhan
Akhtar in “Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara,” “Emraan Hashmi in “The Dirty
Picture” and Jimmy Sheirgill in “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster.”
The female side was a clear win for Vidya Balan in “The Dirty
Picture,” followed by Lara Dutta in her propah-madam-in-improper-company
in “Chalo Dilli,” Mahie Gill in “Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam” as well as “Not
A Love Story,” Katrina Kaif, who shouldered “Mere Brother Ki Dulhan,”
Rani Mukerji in “No One Killed Jessica” and Kangna Ranaut in “Tanu Weds
Manu,” though she also did a good job of “Miley Na Miley Hum” and even
“Rascals.”
There was no really worthwhile new talent, and little by way of
good support, the exceptions being Vir Das and above all Kunal Roy
Kapoor in “Delhi Belly” and Gulshan Grover in “I Am Kalam.” From the
children, the entire “Chillar Party” stole the show even from the
redoubtable Harsh Mayer of “I Am Kalam.”
No comments:
Post a Comment