bollywood

Tu Hai Mera Sunday

Friends & Football – Tu Hai Mera Sunday

March 10, 2018 Movies

I spent my Saturday afternoon watching ‘Tu Hai Mera Sunday’ which turned out to be a nostalgic ride! Despite Bollywood breathing and thriving in the embrace of ‘Amchi Mumbai’ there are only a handful of films that have captured the ethos and the charm of this metropolis on celluloid, not just with their urbane settings but also by showcasing the common citizens entwined in their everyday wanderings. Where the characters are uncomplicated, not vying for attention or fighting for screen space, yet leaving audiences enthralled with their storyline alone. A few weeks prior I came across such a film, Netflix’s ‘Love Per Square Foot’, and today it was time to catch up with another ‘Made in Mumbai’ movie with ‘Tu Hai Mera Sunday’. Released last year, it was critically acclaimed and well-received, but as usual, it was buried deep within the debris of its box-office performance.

‘Tu Hai Mera Sunday’ revolves around an ensemble cast of 5 fun-loving buddies who reckon Sunday isn’t about getting comfy within their homes. So they routinely engage in a game of football at Juhu Beach, one of Mumbai’s characteristic destinations where locals assemble to escape the drudgery. However, on one such fateful trip, the group is joined by an ‘Appa’ who boots the ball harder to whack on the head of a local dignitary decisively ending their sporting sojourns on the beach. Would it bring an end to their passion? I believe not. Because football defines their urge to chug along, it’s their only chance at redeeming their spirits be it from an unruly boss, abject solitude, a cacophonous family, or mundane life in general. So alongside Appa, the group begins scrambling for a new playground, and from within that emotional journey, they discover their true personalities. I wouldn’t miss this fun-filled outing, even if it’s a Sunday!

Mumbai Delhi Mumbai (2014)

February 8, 2018 Movies

Mumbai Delhi MumbaiI had cherished the Marathi original Mumbai Pune Mumbai (MPM) a tale of two distinct personalities representing major cities of Maharashtra, a reluctant lady from Mumbai visiting a Pune guy whom she hopes to marry. Pune is a short train ride and hence the title of the movie from the Indian Railways’ name panel. Shot entirely in Pune the highlight about MPM was its cast of 2 seasoned actors Mukta Barve and Swapnil Joshi, with Joshi’s flawless enactment of the Puneri accent and his explanation of the steadfast Puneri Baana to a suave metro girl Barve who’s just as proud about her liberal Bombay antecedents as the man could have ever imagined resulting in a mind-blowing account of repartees. Importantly, the simple script through the eyes of the protagonists acquaints you to Pune’s Maharashtrian middle-class culture & sunny locales on a day’s trip. This film checked all my boxes for a good entertaining romantic comedy including its well-deserving sequel Mumbai Pune Mumbai 2. Then, Bollywood got into the mix and engaged the original writer/director Satish Rajwade to make an urbane Hindi adventure which unfortunately lost its way and failed miserably to do justice to the original.

So instead of a train, Pia takes a flight to Delhi and literally lands in an argument with a local upsetting her. From there onwards she becomes cacophonic, that seething rage of displeasure with Dilliwaalahs displayed with incessant shouting & heckling of her helpful partner. The character’s persona is so amateurish that she gets needlessly offended by ‘Goli’ her Delhi mate and vice versa much to my exasperation. But, it was her constant rebuttals & conversations starting with “Boss…Boss” that made me wonder if the swank Pia is indeed the correct personification of the city’s elegant diaspora. To make matters worse, the mellifluous Marathi song of ‘Kadhi Tu’ returned in an uninspiring avatar called ‘Tham Sa Gaya’. Skip this one by all means, but you don’t want to skip the original.

Rating: ⭐

Padmaavat And A String of Coincidences

January 28, 2018 Happenings

With Padmaavat Sanjay Leela Bhansali has once again courted controversy and his track record over the past few years points to a scary phenomenon. Beginning with Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ramleela in which the Rajput and Rabari communities raised strong objections on the portrayal of their culture, as well as some religious groups who opposed the title of the movie proclaiming that the movie had nothing in common with the Ramlila festival and it hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus. Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone portrayed Ram and Leela as lovers belonging to opposing factions. Amidst the uproar to ban the film in some states, the title was subsequently changed to Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ramleela at the behest of the courts and released in 2013.

In 2015, Bhansali made Bajirao Mastani and the ‘Pinga’ song in which the historical character of Kashibai played by Priyanka Chopra danced skillfully with the famed courtesan Mastani (Deepika Padukone). To the descendants of the Queen Peshwa this amounted to an insult and distortion of historical facts on the grounds that Kashibai was afflicted with arthritis since childhood and may not have ambled well let alone perform those wearisome dance moves, and the dubious costume in the music video apart, the duo had formally met only once. Furthermore, an intimate sequence of Kashibai with Peshwa Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) was also deemed as “disgusting” for depicting a private moment between revered personalities on the screen.

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Baahubali’s Fantasy Adventure Is Amazing!

January 13, 2018 Movies

BaahubaliAfter brooding over my choice to watch the Baahubali films (BB) for years I finally garnered the motivation to catch up on the series yesterday, both flicks back-to-back. Frankly, I have become sceptical to watch mythological/historical period films with the current spate of drab historical Bollywood offerings not providing any entertainment value per se. And then BB fell into the category of ‘dubbed’ Hindi cinema, the ones made in the South but rarely given its due production importance for its Northern masses. It does remind me of the LOTR series but being made in India on such a grand scale (the CGI, et al) made this series that much more compelling to watch. Here’s the funny part – back then I couldn’t wrap my head around the whimsical Internet memes on “Katappa Ne Baahubali Ko Kyun Maara?” (Why did Katappa kill Baahubali?), but after watching ‘The Beginning’ that question came to haunt me too as it did millions of fans in 2015. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait for a year for the sequel (‘The Conclusion’) to get my answer.

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Pondering Over The Lyrics Of ‘Ghar’

December 21, 2017 Movies

Like most verses of my time, I pondered over the use of a ‘home’ (Ghar) in a romantic song like ‘Ghar’ because, in isolation, the lyrics seemed detached from a plain break-up scenario. This melancholic song penned in Hindi by Irshad Kamil is a melodious composition by Pritam from the movie  ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, and the lyrics go something like this:

[perfectpullquote align=”left” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]खाली है जो तेरे बिना में वो घर हूँ तेरा,
घूमे फिरे तू चाहे सब शहर तू है मेरा |[/perfectpullquote]

I am that home you own which lies desolate without you,
You may roam cities far and wide, but you are only mine.

Home Is Where The Heart Is.

I had seen the movie and thought to connect with the lyrics of this particular (awesome) song, and I did. The protagonist “Harry” (Shah Rukh Khan) is a tour guide perpetually on the road, and (perhaps) yearning to return to his home. The pain of this separation and deep love is likened to the emotions felt by Sejal (Anushka Sharma) for Harry as they are breaking up, and Kamil symbolically combines their despair using the metaphor of ‘home’. It’s a wonderful instance of how lyrics could be subtlely & creatively intertwined with a movie script.

Link to the YouTube Video of ‘Ghar’