Once I was asked - "What is Cinema?" and I could not think of anything intelligent. Anything quotable or anything someone could reply with a "WOW!" So I didn't reply. But I had to tell something to myself. One can run from questions of others, but where can one run when the question is from their own heart. I told myself - "Cinema is something you love. Or anything you love is Cinema"
Recently I watched this film starring Irrfan. It's called Goal. Set up in the city of old Kolkata, "Goal" is a story of a backward class boy, who in the eyes of his coach(Irrfan) can become a center forward football player. The last frame of this film, I don't know how and why left an impact on me and made me come up with another answer to that question someone asked me long back - "What is Cinema." My answer to this, is a question to you - "What isn't?"
I have always admired films which are built around the genre of magical realism. It all started with Tim Burton’s “Charlie and the chocolate factory” which according to me should not be considered as a film merely made for children. It’s a treat to watch for every film freak when it comes to its engaging and enchanting screenwriting, brilliant camera work, adorable animation and clever CGI (Yes, I am talking about the Oompa Loompas)
Starring Owen Wilson, Woody Allen’s masterpiece of magical realism “Midnight in Paris” is a story of a famous and established Hollywood screenwriter Gil Pender who is working on his debut novel and has come to Paris for a vacation with his fiancée Inez and her pseudo intellectual, rich parents. The story takes us on a ride of fantasy, nostalgia, comedy and history of art. It’s a tale of Gil discovering himself and his actual dream while roaming around on the streets of Paris. His relationship with Inez is materialistic and we realize it in the scene where the protagonist Gill says to Inez that Paris is most beautiful in the rains and they should walk on the streets instead of taking taxis. Inez denies this request of him and calls him a delusional dreamer.
And Gill was a dreamer of course. And so is the director of this film. Woody Allen establishes his protagonist as someone who is in awe of literature and art. He is someone who always thinks about veteran writers and great artists. He sees everything as a piece of art and thus his relationship with Inez, for who the world is nothing but a market-place to buy things and show them off, gets weaker and weaker.
On a midnight this delusional dreamer of Woody Allen enters into the Paris of 1920s and meets the greatest artists, writers, painters and other notable personalities of that time.(there legacy is timeless though) First he meets Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald who take him to meet Ernest Hemingway and Juan Belmonte. Later he meets Gertrude Stein (who’s casting is so on point, Pablo Picasso and his lover Adriana. From the first shot of Gill and Adriana together the actors and director shows us that they are both attracted to each other.
This was the point according to me where Gill actually detached himself from the real world and got attached to the world of his own imagination and nostalgia. Just like his own novel where his protagonist works in a “Nostalgia shop”
Midnight in Paris was a joy ride for me right from its poster to its last scene, where Gill walks on the street of Paris in rains with a character of his own imagination. The writer and director Woody Allen actually marked completion of his protagonist’s search for his own identity here in this last scene. Because we saw how he was denied for a walk in the rains by his fiancée Inez and then in the end we saw that his wish of doing so is accepted by someone who doesn’t even exist. The story has an open ending which leaves audience to think about “What’s next?” according to their own perspectives, which is beautiful, Even more than “Paris in rains.”
Recently watched this film and can say with absolute confidence that this according to me is an Actor’s film. Dan Gilroy would have been super happy to see his character coming out of page with such conviction and beauty. Jack Gyllenhaal not only induced life into the character of Louis bloom but has added a lot into it. I mean that’s how I feel.
Keeping you hooked and engaged right from the beginning this is story of a petty thief turning into a cruel and heartless stringer. There is a fine character sketch which blooms as the film proceeds.
At first glance we think that this a common story of someone doing unethical and cruel things just to earn more and more money and to fulfill the human greed. But as the film moves ahead we realize that there is a lot going on inside the head of our protagonist Louis Bloom. He is in awe of and is attracted to this work of recording accidents and crimes and then selling it to the media houses.
Right from the scene where he first sees an accident and two stringers recording it to every scene where he himself records an incidence as a stringer, we see this weird delight in Louis’s eyes which tells us that he is doing this for other purposes. We realize that he wants to get more perfect in what he is doing and thus he keeps on getting new equipments, new techniques, he buys a new faster car, hires an assistant even and at certain point when he does not get something amazing to shoot, he starts creating them.
One of the incentives of Louis’s such behavior is Nina, a news producer in a News channel. Who anyhow wants higher ratings for her channel and she does not care how she gets them. The film here highlights the cruel, tragic and inhuman behavior of News Media, who can go to any extent in order to get higher TRPs. (well! we in India are well aware of this acronym already)
Though this is an American thriller, the character of Louis represents the behavior of almost every reporter in our country today and Nina is the flag bearer of every News producer/Anchor.
Night Crawler actually points out the irresistible behavior and habit of our media to crawl into the life of people and make it sensational. But when I think about this I also am struck by the thought of Consumer demands, as in what people want? And the answer is I get is - Sensation. Rightly said by Louis bloom, when he addresses to his dream team of interns “I would not have you do anything I would not do myself.”
Hardik Mehta’s “Kaamyaab” is a deep dive into the real bollywood world. I don’t know when Zoya Akhtar directed her debut film “Luck by chance” with her brother Farhan Akhtar in the lead role. The film highlighted the hard work of technicians and back stage workers of our industry who tirelessly works for making our films better without caring about credits. This film’s title track highlighted such people and marked itself as a tribute to them. Hardik Mehta however made a complete film to pay tribute to the character artists or the so called side actors of the Hindi Film Industry. Sudheer, the protagonist has acted in 99 films and now is in pursuit of his 100th film. Unfortunately he fails again and again in this pursuit of his and ultimately ends this search at a Stage.(The Karma-Bhoomi of every actor)
“Isko hi jeena kehte hain to yun hi jee lenge, Kuch na kahenge lab see lenge aansoo pee lenge”
While watching this film I found myself a bit restless. As in my mind was travelling back and forth in the timelines of various other films as they had too much of similarity with the content of “Kaamyaab”
Like the opening scene of “Kaghaz ke phool” where an old Suresh Sinha is walking inside of his broken Film studio. Or the climax of “Pyaasa” where Vijay’s entry into the people packed auditorium leaves everyone in silence. I wonder why Dilip Kumar is called Tragedy king and not Gurudutt. Would we call A. K. Hungle or Omprakash tragedy kings ever? Or maybe tragedy soldiers?
Sudheer, played by talented Sanjay Mishra is someone who has played iconic roles in his long career of 99 films but still does not get the respect he deserves and that’s the harsh reality of our industry, Hardik Mehta highlighted. This is something which comes out beautifully in the climax stage scene of this film.
Scam 1992 by Hansal Mehta established Prateek Gandhi as an amazing actor. He as “Harshad shantilal Mehta” says – “Bharat mein sabse zyada do cheezein manufacture hoti hain – Hero aur bhagwan.” I hear this dialogue and play it in my mind. And then I along with Natsamrat’s Ganpat belwalkar, Pyaasa’s Vijay, Kaghaz ke phool’s Suresh Sinha and others laugh out loud.
No comments:
Post a Comment